• Kesha – Rainbow

    August 21, 2017 - By 

    We’ve still got another five months to go until the year’s end, there is a certainly a clear frontrunner for the most pleasant surprise of the last 12 months. Do you remember a nearly a decade ago when the phrase “wake up in the morning feeling like P Diddy” entered our cultural milieu? Ke$ha managed to represent an alternative side to female empowerment while also being completely unbearable. Honestly, it’s been eight years and I still can’t understand the actual appeal of songs such as ‘Blah Blah Blah’ or ‘Your Love Is My Drug’. After the initial spark and a…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • Waxahatchee – Out In The Storm

    July 25, 2017 - By 

    The buzz surrounding Waxahatchee is something else. Ever since 2015’s Ivy Tripp, the project has been generating a ludicrous level of hype. Now, two years later, they deliver Out In The Storm, an album which promises to be a fairly emotionally raw exploration of the dissolution of band leader Katie Crutchfield’s last relationship. On the surface there is a huge amount going for this album. It’s their first release on Superchunk’s Merge Records, a supportive, decently sized label which has given them room to breathe and explore. They’ve got John Agnello behind the desk. He’s a man who recorded and…

  • Boris – Dear

    July 21, 2017 - By 

    There is a delightful uncertainty associated with a new Boris album. The Japanese three piece have spent twenty-five years keep metal fans on their toes with aplomb. Every new release brings with it a myriad of questions of style, tone and content that makes the pre-release period surprisingly fun. This extends to the first few runs through the record. Each iteration uncovers unexpected turns, subtle slivers of sound folded deeply into the mix and new tapestries of noise that you somehow missed. The only real guarantee that the group offers is that things are going to get exceeding heavy at…

  • Nickelback – Feed The Machine

    June 30, 2017 - By 

    This review is the most recent entry in Will Murphy’s 12000 word thesis on Nickelback. He speaks from a place of knowledge, understanding and a begrudged appreciation due to stockholm syndrome. Feed The Machine is Nickelback’s ninth album. Let that sink in. Nine albums. This band has released a full-length LP as many times as 50 Cent has been shot. Given the notoriety surrounding them, it’s hard to fathom how they’ve kept on trucking all these years. The group has become more meme than band at this point. Every joke has been mined and we are all comfortable with the…

  • King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard – Murder of the Universe

    June 23, 2017 - By 

    To describe King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard as prolific would be an understatement. They’re the sort of band who write, record and release 6 EPs, 2 double LPs and 36 singles in the time it takes you to read this sentence. Having already released one full-length in February of this year, they’re evidently proponents of a more is more philosophy. That belief permeates to every part of the outfit. From their roster of members to the songs themselves which oscillate between folk, free form jazz, psychedelia and good old fashioned 1970s prog rock epics. So how does their second…

  • Kevin Morby – City Music

    June 20, 2017 - By 

    If one thing about Kevin Morby’s latest LP, City Music, immediately leaps out, it’s the sense of playfulness. The album is not light and fluffy by any means, but there is this unflappable feeling of spontaneity and glee that instantly grabs your attention. This is the fourth solo outing from The Babies’ frontman. Like his 2016 effort, Singing Saw, the album is a mixture of folk quiet intensity and some rollicking good rock music. While it never becomes a great collection, it is one of the more thoroughly and consistently pleasant and enjoyable releases of the year. As mentioned before,…

  • Fleet Foxes – Crack Up

    June 16, 2017 - By 

    A six-year break is a fairly large gulf for album releases. Fleet Foxes released their last LP, Helplessness Blues, on May 3rd, 2011. At that point in time, Spotify had barely eked its way into the American market, Mitt Romney was a viable presidential opponent and Osama Bin Laden was dead for less than 24 hours. To say certain seismic shifts have occurred since the group’s previous outing is an understatement. The world in which Helplessness Blues and the self-titled record is long gone, so how does their latest, Crack-Up, fare in this new musical landscape? Not well. This a…

  • Inbound: Silverbacks

    June 13, 2017 - By 

    Having just released one of our favourite Irish EPs of the year so far, Sink The Fat Moon, Dublin indie rock five-piece Silverbacks chat to Will Murphy about lo-fi aesthetic, the imprint of the 90s on their sound and their plans for the rest of the year. Your sound picks up where the likes of Pavement, The Pixies and other fuzzier 90s groups left off. What about that era appeals to you so much? Everyone in the band is drawn to guitar bands and I quite like when that’s paired with lyrics of a humorous nature. You find bands like…