• Weezer – The White Album

    April 4, 2016 - By 

    Weezer has had a rough time over the last decade. Things had been on a downward trajectory since 2003’s Make Believe and watching what at one time was the most shining example of contemporary pop rock flail about to awkward disco tracks and Lil’ Wayne collaborations was both embarrassing and heartbreaking in equal measure. However with their last effort, Everything Will Be Alright In The End, the group seemed to recapture some of their early “Brian Wilson and Steve Smith fronting a Cheap Trick cover band” magic. Reassuring as it was nerve-wracking, the album suggested the dark days were gone…

  • Yeasayer – Amen & Goodbye

    April 4, 2016 - By 

    Judging by their interviews Yeasayer are duly concerned with keeping things fresh. Since they broke onto the scene almost ten years ago they’ve conjured up tracks from pop, rock, dance, folk, psychedelia and most things in between. They’ve been called ‘desert-rock’, ‘art-pop’ and the self- made label ‘Middle Eastern-psych-snap-gospel’. Yet the careful listener will spot sonic threads running from one album to another, connecting even some of the most disparate elements. Whether it’s the iPod-hippie of Odd Blood or the noticeably bare focus of 2013’s Fragrant World Yeasayer have always focused on the more expansive and melodic elements of song writing. Each album so far has been…

  • Future of the Left – The Peace and Truce of Future of the Left

    April 4, 2016 - By 

    It’s been almost three years since the last Future of the Left album, though we haven’t exactly been left wanting, with frontman Andrew Falkous delivering two solid albums under his new Christian Fitness moniker in the interim. Nevertheless, it’s undeniably exciting to have the full band back in action, as demonstrated by the PledgeMusic campaign for fifth album The Peace and Truce of Future of the Left reaching its goal in a mere three hours. Their second pledge-funded album, they’re evidently one of model’s success stories, partly due to loyal fans that have been following Falkous since his Mclusky days, but also because they’re a band that…

  • Tacocat – Lost Time

    March 30, 2016 - By 

    On first impression, Tacocat is a very unfortunate group. With their vaguely cutesy palindromic name and a clear sense of irreverence, they appear to be disciples of the worst kind of “lol, random” sensibility; the sort of Youtube videos and Tumblr posts that make you want to peel your skin off. On their most recent LP, Lost Time, the haphazard references to X-Files and REM don’t really do much to quell these concerns and, on initial examination, there is a sense that all they are is a flashy bit of fluff. While there is definite merit to that primary reading,…

  • Primal Scream – Chaosmosis

    March 28, 2016 - By 

    Primal Scream are the definition of British indie-rock royalty: former Jesus and Mary Chain drummer Bobby Gillespie’s genre hopping crew – which has welcomed contributors as diverse as Kevin Shields, the Stone Roses’ Mani, Robert Plant and Kate Moss – have constantly evolved their sound, from the jangle of early singles such C86 standout ‘Velocity Girl’ to the generation defining acid house crossover smash Screamadelica. After refusing to cash in on its success with following records, the band have embraced Stonesy boogie – Give Up But Don’t Give Out, Riot City Blues -, pulsating Krautrock – XTRMNTR -, B-movie soundtrack – Vanishing Point–  and everything in…

  • Sheer Mag – III

    March 28, 2016 - By 

    Sheer Mag are essentially the Jackson Lo-Five; that’s not meant as a term of derision, rather one of the endearment. They’ve taken the best parts of the Jackson Five, which would be Michael’s vocal melodies, wrapped it up with early 1970s classic rock and punk music and filtered it through early 1990s lo-fi recording a la Pavement or Beat Happening. While there’s no denying that it is a great deal of fun, the group’s previous singles are a testament to that fact, with their most recent 7 Inch release, III, it’s becoming apparent that are signs of strain in their…

  • Underworld – Barbara, Barbara, We Face a Shining Future

    March 21, 2016 - By 

    “Barbara, Barbara, we face a shining future”; these were some of the final words spoken by Underworld frontman Karl Hyde’s father to his anguished wife on his deathbed. It’s a simple, yet beautiful phrase brimming with melancholic hope. Underworld’s decision use this as the title of their ninth studio LP, their first in sixth years, makes a great deal of sense as it not only works as a tribute to Hyde’s father but also as the rosetta stone to understanding the whole disc. Every song on the record has this genuine sense of foreboding and menace, manifested in the form…

  • Lust for Youth – Compassion

    March 15, 2016 - By 

    On Lust For Youth’s breakthrough LPs, 2012’s Growing Seeds and 2013’s Perfect View, the band made music that sounded like a normal dance record left to warp and decay for a few years inside a nuclear reactor for a few years. There were beats and melodies, but they were pushed deep beneath fog and murk and cloaked in nausea and sick tension, with only a few ghostly hints at the music as we normally hear it appearing from time to time. It was concrete cold and frontman/ mastermind Hannes Norrvide’s ability to make something that sounded so alien to the…

  • Dead Stars – Bright Colors

    March 14, 2016 - By 

    A four note, staccato bass opening can’t help but throw you head first into Pixies territory. That niche was so intricately carved that even gesturing towards its opens up the floodgates to a whole host of connotations and comparisons that the majority of bands who do so buckle under. But Dead Stars opt to do so on the inaugural track of their second LP, Bright Colors, and you can see why. It’s a fitting place to begin, the group’s sound is entirely indebted to Frank Black as well as Evan Dando, Rivers Cuomo and Fountains of Wayne. There are shifting…

  • The Bonnevilles – Arrow Pierce My Heart

    March 13, 2016 - By 

    One word that is regularly attributed to bands that fall under the rock ’n’ roll, blues or garage-punk monikers is ‘raw’. By that I mean there is more often than not a pure and unadulterated rawness or dirtiness, as it were, related to an artist’s playing style that it can be classified as such. When it comes to Lurgan duo The Bonnevilles’ latest album Arrow Pierce My Heart, it is clear as day this term can be used when pinpointing their homage to these genres. Andrew McGibbon Jnr. and Chris McMullan have come out swinging on what is their third…