• Villagers – The Art Of Pretending To Swim

    September 20, 2018 - By 

      Not to put too fine a point on it, the latest full-length release from Villagers is a lovely thing. At times so fragile it appears as though the music itself might break, at others dense and swirling with otherworldly sounds, the album never fails to intrigue and surprise whoever takes some much-needed time out from the day’s push and pull. Opener ‘Again’ immediately sets both the tone and style of the entire work: delicate fingerpicking is counterbalanced by a strange, robotic voice repeating the title while Conor O’Brien, sounding as sweet and forlorn as ever, sings of dejection and searching for…

  • Death Cab for Cutie – Thank You For Today

    September 15, 2018 - By 

    In the midst of a tumultuous period in the revered band’s development, Death Cab for Cutie have stripped back to basics for ninth album, their most accomplished of the past eight years, Thank you For Today. Thank you for Today is without a doubt Death Cab’s most retrospective album in over a decade, and is in many ways a celebration of the past. As the past four albums have been burdened by darker and more personal tones, Thank you for Today comes as a welcome relief in many ways but never risking flipancy. The buoyant and Beck-reminiscent single, ‘Gold Rush’…

  • Hozier – Nina Cried Power

    September 13, 2018 - By 

    There was a while where the world wasn’t sure if it had seen the last of Hozier. Quiet bar the odd tweet, after the thunderous success of his debut album in 2014, the Wicklow native retreated back to the studio, appearing only to tease his return or offer social commentary, aware of the gnawing fans clambering for more tracks as devastating and ethereal as that of his self-titled debut. With Nina Cried Power, his first release since that album, it feels as though Hozier is testing the waters of reaction and criticism to see what listeners want and expect from…

  • Spiritualized – And Nothing Hurt

    September 13, 2018 - By 

    Everything was beautiful and nothing hurt – Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse Five Spiritualized’s Jason Pierce should not be with us. After nearly 30 years in the music industry, the man has gone through so many trials and tribulations that it really is a surprise for him to be alive, nevermind kicking. Heroin addiction, suicidal despair and and cancer are tough to manage on their own, but encountering all three in such a short space is dumbfounding. Yet through all this, he’s still managed to produce some truly staggeringly good work. With Spaceman 3, you’ve got The Perfect Prescription and Playing With…

  • Elaine Malone – Land

    September 12, 2018 - By 

    On first listen, Elaine Malone’s debut EP Land seems to have arrived in timely fashion. Built upon a homespun foundation of spartan guitar picking and Malone’s darkly burnished vocals, the release seems to encapsulate the end of summer with its rain storms, dimming evenings and the creaking resurgence of central heating systems country wide. This autumnal cosiness proves to be something of a red herring though, acting as sumptuous camouflage for a release at least partially strewn with dark themes and blood chilling turns of phrase. On ‘Vonnegut’ Malone wastes little time grabbing the listener’s attention, intoning the arresting opening…

  • Ólafur Arnalds – Re:member

    September 4, 2018 - By 

    Despite an exhaustive back catalog brimming with collections, mixtapes, EPs and scores, it is worth noting that Re:member is only BAFTA award winning Icelandic composer and pianist Ólafur Arnalds’ fourth full length studio album. Since debuting in the late ’00s, the now 31 year-old artist has carved an identity as a serial collaborator, and has worked extensively with Erased Tapes labelmate Nils Frahm, German classical pianist Alice Sara Ott and Haukur Heiðar Hauksson, not forgetting Janus Rasmussen for his melodic techno side-project, Kiasmos. Usually synonymous with crafting spacious and contemplative melancholic soundscapes – check out his chilling soundtrack to Broadchurch – Arnalds has turned to technology…

  • Idles – Joy As An Act Of Resistance

    September 3, 2018 - By 

    Urgent. Vital. Important. Essential. Interchangeable words that are denoted to music or artists that are deemed to be definite of the mood of the times. Albums and previously unseen and untold stories that break boundaries down, songs that transcend their form, artists whose messages become immortalised. Punk music and its offshoots have their fair share of such acts, but these words’ meanings have become denatured over time. Now, anything even vaguely resembling depth or that is tangentially outspoken is commonly misconstrued as politically charged or timely (sorry, not sorry, Macklemore, Justin Timberlake). Idles, a five-piece Bristol band who navigate the furious simplicity…

  • Oh Sees – Smote Reverser

    September 1, 2018 - By 

      Oh Sees (aka Thee Oh Sees, OCS and too many other variations to mention), are not only one of the most prolific bands active today – seemingly locked in an endless battle of releases against protégés Ty Segall and King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard – but they’re also a rare example of a band that has by and large only gotten better as their career has progressed, even as their album tally has gone well into double figures. Though many long term fans miss the ‘classic’ lineup that disbanded after 2013’s excellent Floating Coffin, when Dwyer relocated from…

  • Interpol – Marauder

    August 28, 2018 - By 

    Last year Interpol embarked on a worldwide tour in celebration of the 15th anniversary of Turn On The Bright Lights. It’s impossible to deny just how important that album was to both fans and to music in general. In the wake of 9/11, it placed the band at the centre of a slew of era defining artists coming out of New York. Covered in a shroud of mystery, the band managed to tug at the heart-strings of indie lovers with the likes of ‘NYC’ and ‘The New’. They replicated this emotional prowess on 2004s Antics cementing Interpol as one of the…

  • Blood Orange – Negro Swan

    August 23, 2018 - By 

    Looking at the decade and a half long career that Dev Hynes AKA Blood Orange, has carved out for himself, there is one word that rings above all others: chameleonic. In that time, the London-born, New York-based polymath has transitioned from noisy, DFA-influenced dance punk to baroque indie pop and then onto masterful R&B with a seemingly effortless pace, adopting each genre and its trappings with such a deft hand that it’s hard to envision him doing anything else. His Lightspeed Champion persona was so convincing that hearing that same mind compose a song like 2016’s ‘Hand’s Up’, a searing…