• The Dismemberment Plan – Uncanney Valley

    October 24, 2013 - By 

    It’s strange meeting an old friend after an extended absence. Will they be the same person that you remember?  I first listened to the Dismemberment Plan during a hospital stay and it was during this time that Emergency & I and the band who created that album became very close to my heart. So when the band announced their new album – their first in 12 years –  I was genuinely afraid to hear it. I didn’t know if I could stand listening to this band and knowing that what mattered so much to me was just a passing thing.…

  • Sky Larkin – Motto

    October 1, 2013 - By 

    So, let’s talk about Sky Larkin‘s new album, Motto. Fans of the band have been waiting three years for this album and with such a long gestation period between albums, you’d hope that the songs would be the most finely crafted in the band’s repertoire. I’m sure that anyone who is a fan of the band who is reading this is probably praying that the release is worth the wait. I wish I could say it was, but I just can’t. I’m not going to say that I didn’t like this album. I did. It’s a collection of enjoyable, fuzzy pop songs that fit…

  • Manic Street Preachers – Rewind The Film

    September 20, 2013 - By 

    This must be said as a precursor to this whole review. I love the Manic Street Preachers. I love almost everything that they have done; I’m the type of fan who thinks that Lifeblood isn’t a catastrophic  failure and who has literally spent 11 straight hours listening to their entire discography. Needless to say that I am somewhat bias toward the Welsh trio. But even with this level bias in favour of the band, I say with the utmost integrity and honest that their eleventh and latest release, Rewind The Film, is undeniably one of the best albums the band has ever produced and ranks as…

  • Julianna Barwick – Nepenthe

    September 19, 2013 - By 

    Early morning. Almost dawn. A ghostly figure emerges from an old country house. She passes across the landscape humming to herself. Rivers. Mountains. Forests. She seems to glide above them all, integrating their songs and sounds into her own. Broken branches. Animal cries. The whispering wind. At points, the early light of dawn can be seen crashing through the trees with tremendous force. The light casts shadows upon her face. It is during these moments that the beauty of her song radiates the most. But all things move towards their end and she ceases progressing before eventually turning silent. The…

  • The Way Way Back

    September 8, 2013 - By 

    I shouldn’t like The Way Way Back as much as I do. On the surface, it seems like such a typical Sundance movie. It’s a coming of age story based around an awkward adolescent male who goes on a slightly quirky trip with his dysfunctional family. Along the way, the family will undergo stress that might break them up, the boy will meet a “too cool for school” mentor figure who brings this young boy out of his shell and eventually the boy shall become a man and the film will end on an optimistic, if somewhat bittersweet, note. Wash,…

  • Rush

    September 6, 2013 - By 

    Everyone needs a nemesis. It’s undeniable; a nemesis inspires, keeps one’s internal momentum constant and forces a person to think of new and interesting ways to screw over their rival. The importance of nemeses and the depths to which we sink to spoil our adversaries is the central conflict that exists at the heart of Ron Howard’s latest film, Rush. The film focuses on the rivalry between two Formula 1 drivers during the 1976 season: the English James Hunt (Chris Hemsworth) and Austrian Nikki Lauda (Daniel Brühl). Beginning in the Formula 3 division in 1970, the film follows their rise…

  • White Lies – Big TV

    September 2, 2013 - By 

    “All this eighties indie/it sounds like shit to me/because I don’t like Joy Division/I don’t like Morrissey” – ‘Crushed Under The Weight of The Enormous Bullshit’, Reuben For several years, that line summed up my feelings towards contemporary music. In recent years though, my views have mellowed. While I still hold Morrissey with the same contempt that G. G. Allin held for showers and human decency, Joy Division eventually clicked with me, due in no small part to Anton Corbijn’s Control. With this thawing of my icy relationship, I was able to listen to bands like Interpol and Editors with new ears. I still hate them, but now it’s because I think…

  • Superchunk – I Hate Music

    August 29, 2013 - By 

    This makes absolutely no sense to me. I have no idea why a label would release an album like Superchunk‘s I Hate Music at the tail end of the Summer. This is a record that was perfectly designed for golden hour driving sessions and mid-day drinks in the park. It’s an album that brings a near-insurmountable level of joy and energy with every song. It’s hard not to listen to this sweet little treat of a record without having a stupidly big, ear to ear grin plastered to your face. What’s even more impressive about this whole situation is that…

  • Mogwai – Les Revenants EP

    August 19, 2013 - By 

    Zombies. Fucking zombies. There are few things that have assimilated as many cultural touchstones as the zombie phenomenon. They’ve taken movies, classic novels, video games, music and now they’ve taken beloved Scottish instrumentalists Mogwai with the group’s Les Revenants EP (As an aside, if anyone wishes to create a Gremlins zombie mash-up, I won’t complain). The EP, the group’s first release since 2009’s fantastic Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will, probably won’t win any new fans for the group but is a neat little treat for longtime fans. For a bit of context,  Les Revenants is a collection of…

  • David Bowie: The Night Before

    August 15, 2013 - By 

    So, David Bowie came back this year with his finest album in about two decades. There is a pretty solid consensus as to when Bowie went awful, but the jury is still out on exactly when he recovered. Some would say it was the overbearing misery and darkness that rekindled Bowie’s fire on Heathen, others think it was Outside and Earthling‘s manic dance energy that threw Bowie back into shape and a lot of people believe that it wasn’t until The Next Day that he managed to overcome the slump. Your writer fall into the Heathen camp but, looking at his…