ALBUM REVIEW – THE LOFT: BADGES

It would be hard to imagine a topsy-turvier career path than that forged by The Loft. In the mid-80s, they were the first Creation Records band to top the indie charts with the classic ‘Up the Hill and Down the Slope’, appear on TV, record a Radio One session and be invited onto a major […]
As the Premier League football season gets underway, it is fitting that the new album from Bobby Conn is as extreme an example of a record of two halves as is imaginable. While each side exists as an independent conception and could be played in either order, I will channel my inner Gary Neville and […]

ALBUM REVIEW – BOBBY CONN: BOBBY’S PLACE

ALBUM REVIEW – PROLAPSE: I WONDER WHEN THEY’RE GOING TO DESTROY YOUR FACE

The 1990s was a halcyon time for adventurous guitar led music. Beyond the obvious American candidates such as Slint, Polvo and Trumans Water, there was a host of UK bands who were pushing the format to its limits. It was easy to overlook Prolapse in this category as the first thing that leaps out when […]
As Robert Forster’s solo songwriting usually proceeds at a methodical pace, it is an unexpected delight to be welcoming a new album a mere two years after ‘The Candle and the Flame.’ This latest record, ‘Strawberries’, is out of the ordinary compared to Forster’s recent output. It was recorded in Stockholm and produced by Peter […]

ALBUM REVIEW – ROBERT FORSTER: STRAWBERRIES

ALBUM REVIEW – TRUST FUND: HAS IT BEEN A WHILE?

The answer to the album’s title is ‘yes’. It has been six years since their previous album, ‘Bringing The Backline’. In the intervening period, Trust Fund has shrunk from being a group into primarily Ellis Jones’ project. From a full band indie rock sound, they have made a welcome diversion into classical guitar and string […]
The Monochrome Set are an indie band who seem to have swallowed the rule book of pop music, spat it out and produced two albums which, while on the surface exude the flippant, light attitude of pop, for example most songs are three minutes or under, below the shiny surface, they display brilliant musicianship and […]

ALBUM REVIEW: THE MONOCHROME SET – LOVE ZOMBIES & STRANGE BOUTIQUE

EP Review: The Lilac Time – Prussian Blue

In my review of its parent album, No Sad Songs, I referred to ‘Prussian Blue’ as a “blissful summer lullaby”. A single release in July is therefore not wholly wrong. However, whether it is the kind of song to grab the attention of distracted radio listeners is another matter. The bouncier ‘Babylon Revisited’ would arguably have […]
“Listen to it once, you’ll get it.” This was the closing line of the press release to Salim Nourallah’s latest release, Hit Parade. With such an outlandish comment I was intrigued to listen to what musical delight the American singer-song writer had produced. Sadly, I didn’t get it. Not the first time anyway. But after […]

ALBUM: SALIM NOURALLAH – HIT PARADE