• Randy Newman – Dark Matter

    August 11, 2017 - By 

    For over fifty years now, Randy Newman has been a mainstay of the American music industry, as a songwriter, a performer and a film composer. His songs have been covered by dozens of famous artists, several of his albums have met with critical acclaim, and he has made a comfortable living as the composer of choice for the likes of Pixar (to date he has composed the soundtracks of seven Pixar films). So he is that rare beast, both critically rated and ridiculously successful. Dark Matter, Newman’s 12th album proper, covers a lot of ground in its nine songs, using…

  • Loner Deluxe – Songs I Taped Off The Radio

    August 8, 2017 - By 

    The only way to discover something truly new in music is to experience it without any preconceptions as to what it could encompass. Remove all your expectations, clear your mind of any niggling biases, shut yourself off from any stimuli that could interfere and truly immerse yourself. It’s advice we could all do well to follow, but when the occasional press release promises the birthplace of a brand new genre it’s near impossible to stop your mind spinning with all possibilities of what’s about to happen. Songs I Taped Off The Radio, the second album by Galway-based Loner Deluxe does…

  • Caroline Says – 50,000,000 Elvis Fans Can’t be Wrong

    August 7, 2017 - By 

    Growing up in Alabama, Caroline Sallee (aka Caroline Says) wasn’t within reaching distance of the formidable west coast. After college, she became a waitress in Yellowstone as an exercise in solitude and isolation, saving up to complete a journey of transfiguration along the aforementioned path. She returned to Alabama to record 50,000,000 Elvis Fans Can’t be Wrong in her parents basement, a debut album that captures the melancholic loneliness of such a journey within its nine tracks, just shy of 30 minutes. The thoughts that Caroline Says convey in this initial release are all felt in a passing manner. It’s…

  • Chirpy – Real Life

    August 7, 2017 - By 

    Rebecca Shannon, AKA Chirpy, is long due her time in the sun. Having been involved in various outfits and guises for much of the last decade, the Dublin native is owed acclaim. Her understanding of music is evident with her latest EP, Real Life. The release, which she wrote, recorded and produced, demonstrates her control over how she wants her work to be put forth. It’s delicate and raw with some truly gorgeous arrangements to boot. While it won’t set the world ablaze, it’s an extremely convincing attempt. At six tracks and a remix, it’s a tidy a little package which…

  • Arcade Fire – Everything Now

    August 4, 2017 - By 

    The most troubling time in anyone’s life is adolescence. And often, insecurities born during this time are masked by either acts of defiance or retreat as a way of coming to terms with the transitional phase. It is important then to note that Arcade Fire released their debut, Funeral, 13 years ago. Prior to the release of Everything Now, the fifth studio album from the Canadian band, they engaged in several viral marketing campaigns, each news story or act as incredulous as the last, all garnering substantial media coverage. It began with a fake Twitter profile presented under the guise of…

  • Childhood – Universal High

    July 31, 2017 - By 

    It’s important to recognise and give credit to any artist who is willing to pivot into the realms of complete “what the fuckery”. It’s all too easy to reiterate, recycle and remain trapped in a perfectly serviceable rut. These voyages into unknown have created the likes of Tilt, Homogenic and Velvet Underground. On the other hand, it’s also allowed turds like Metal Machine Music to worm their way into existence. But even a malformation as fiendish as MMM is preferable to something like VU’s Squeeze. Lou Reed and a not insignificant amount of heroin tried and failed where Doug Yule…

  • Lana Del Rey – Lust For Life

    July 31, 2017 - By 

    Change is considered an almost essential feature now but it’s not long ago that it was considered undesirable, maybe even impure. Bob Dylan picking up an electric guitar or The Beatles moving into psychedelia are seen as pivotal innovations now but were utterly derided from certain quarters at the time. It’s worth keeping in mind that Keith Richards only recently called Sgt. Pepper’s… “rubbish” (a fact which illustrates, your own feelings about Mr. Richards aside, he’s one of the all-time bad guys in music. It’s not hard to imagine him living with Mike Love in a dormant volcano in the shape…

  • The Fall – New Facts Emerge

    July 28, 2017 - By 

    Constant line-up changes are part and parcel of The Fall, to the point where Guardian journalist Dave Simpson almost drove himself mad trying to track down every ex-member for his book The Fallen. And yet, in the last decade they’ve been strangely stable, releasing an unprecedented four albums with an entirely unchanged line-up, and a fifth that merely added a second percussionist. Now, though, not only are they back to a single drummer, but they’ve also lost Elena Poulou, who’d been manning the keyboards since as far back as 2002, making her one of the band’s longest serving members ever,…

  • Tyler, The Creator – Flower Boy

    July 27, 2017 - By 

    Any artist that enjoys strong commercial success in their teens will, to a degree, grow up in public, and this is especially true for Tyler, the Creator. As the de-facto leader of the anarchic rap collective turned media empire Odd Future, he’s been baiting, and duly receiving worldwide media attention for the best part of a decade, both positively for his growing sophistication as a rapper and producer, and negatively for, well, just about everything. Odd Future were truly an exercise in controversy, and while their punk-inspired, stage-diving live shows may have had them banned from New Zealand, it was…

  • Avey Tare – Eucalyptus

    July 26, 2017 - By 

    Collaboration has typified Avey Tare’s output since the turn of the century – those proto-Animal Collective recordings of Spirit They’re Gone, Spirit They’ve Vanished and Danse Manatee, which saw the beginnings of that band’s gradual amalgamation; Pullhair Rubeye with múm’s Kría Brekkan; the more garage-tinged Avey Tare’s Slasher Flicks project. Even Animal Collective, active now for the guts of two decades in some form or other, has always been a mutating thing from album to album, with various permutations of its members dipping in and out indiscriminately. Avey Tare – David Portner to his nearest and dearest – has been…