NEWS: ANIMAL COLLECTIVE ANNOUNCE NEW ALBUM

Animal Collective will release their new studio album ‘Isn’t It Now?’ on September 29th via Domino. Their structure has long been that of a playground, an open space for exercising and indulging new notions and influences, for saying “Why not?” from way up on the high beams. Maybe that means allowing Panda Bear to focus on his drumming more or […]
Opening with strong, powerful electric guitar, Uzumaki’s debut EP ‘Square One’ strikes every emotion within only four tracks. On the first track ‘Hey There’ you can tell that there are multiple guitars used in the song. Different guitar riffs pile together to create a striking and passionate effect. An intense and long intro opens the […]

EP REVIEW – UZUMAKI: SQUARE ONE

ALBUM REVIEW – THE CLIENTELE: I AM NOT THERE ANYMORE

The Clientele has been described as a band who rather than merely creating their own individual sound have gone a step further to create their own world during their 32-year career. It is characterised by a hazy, shimmering, understated guitar pop married to an evocative lyricism. Their first release since 2017’s ‘Music for the Age […]
There is a healthy selection of new releases this week, including a few covered in greater depth elsewhere on this section. Here is our brief roundup. Dexys    The Feminine Desire      Their first album in over a decade sees Kevin Rowland reevaluating the whole concept of masculinity that he grew up with. Dot Allison         Consciousology Former […]

ALBUM ROUNDUP WEEK ENDING 28 JULY 2023

ALBUM REVIEW – DOT ALLISON: CONSCIOUSOLOGY

Concept albums were scorned and derided for a long time. Recently, the pendulum has flipped and significant numbers of long players, if not advertising themselves as concept albums, have an underlying theme that links the songs. This could be a response to streaming and the need to make long-playing records relevant as entities rather than […]
Blur are back with their ninth album, a whole 20 years since 2003’s ‘Think Tank’ and eight years since 2015’s ‘The Magic Whip’. At this point, you’re probably questioning what is happening. Is there finally a resurrection of our classic, beloved Britpop? Or have we just harped on enough to get another album? Either way, […]

ALBUM REVIEW – BLUR: THE BALLAD OF DARREN

PREVIEW: BELLE AND SEBASTIAN – MANCHESTER ACADEMY 21/07/2023

The effervescent Scots band return to our city following the release of their recent couple of astounding albums, 2022’s ‘A Bit Of Previous’ and this year’s ‘Late Developers’. This hugely anticipated re-scheduled gig will undoubtedly see the band drawing on not only the recent songs but utilising their brilliant back catalogue of work from 1996’s […]
A busy week of releases with plenty to grab the attention. Here is our weekly roundup. Wren Hinds        Don’t Die in the Bundu  A gleaming set of gently dappled and poetic songs about fatherhood and fortitude from Cape Town based singer-songwriter. Mull Historical Society   In My Mind There’s A Room        A concept album in which […]

ALBUM ROUNDUP WEEK ENDING 21 JULY 2023

ALBUM REVIEW – DEXYS: THE FEMININE DIVINE

Few bands can compete with the legacy Dexys Midnight Runners created in the early 1980s. Both the donkey jacketed, amphetamine surge soul gang of ‘Searching For The Young Soul Rebels’ and the dungaree clad Celtic soul barrage of ‘Too Rye Aye’ burst with incomparable euphoric energy and intensity. Unlike the records of many of their […]
The first sign of the summer lull with a comparatively quiet week but still a few releases to contemplate. Current Affairs                  Off The Tongue Current Affairs’ music straddles new-wave pop and gothic post-punk in the way that you should expect a Glasgow-Berlin band to do so: with grit and panache. Peace Flag Ensemble     Astral […]

ALBUM ROUNDUP WEEK ENDING 14 JULY 2023