• Lawrence English – Cruel Optimism

    March 21, 2017 - By 

    I find it difficult to listen to Lawrence English‘s new album, Cruel Optimism. On first play, I thought it was “suitably bleak”. Further attempts sent me into a mini spiral of despair, thoroughly ruining whole days with its depressive claws. I left it for a while, returning to it tentatively in the hope of gaining more understanding. The album’s title comes from a work by Lauren Berlant, in which she posits that modern desires stand in the way of true growth. Whatever my inferences, English writes that the album is a “meditation” on the challenges we face in today’s world,…

  • HAWK – She Knows

    March 20, 2017 - By 

    HAWK are a Berlin-based, grunge-infused indie rock band who, since their formation in 2013 have had a tendency to address social and political issues through their music, all the while blending dark tones with sometimes delicate and sometimes ferocious arrangements and ethereal vocals. The band’s latest release, She Knows, builds upon the foundations laid by last year’s HAWK EP.  ‘Introduction’ starts the EP on the right footing, a largely atmospheric piece that builds into crashing drums, crunching distortion, and powerful vocals.‘Take it Away’ then, the EP’s second track shows the band embracing a newer, heavier sound. Starting delicately and quickly building into…

  • Sorority Noise – You’re Not As ___ As You Think

    March 20, 2017 - By 

    Like it or not, emo music has been revived. Acts like Julien Baker, American Football and Modern Baseball have gained enough scope to evolve and define what emo music is and what it aims to achieve, and while defining what is classed as emo music is an entirely different kettle of fish, it’s fair to say that associating it with long black fringes and pubescent frustrations is something of the past. On You’re not as ____as you think, their third album , Sorority Noise dive into the depths of depression and death and the ways of coping with them, firmly planting…

  • Julien Baker – Sprained Ankle

    March 17, 2017 - By 

    Julien Baker’s debut album Sprained Ankle lures us in with a curiously intimate complexion; it almost feels too intimate to be listened to casually, as if we’re flicking through the most private parts of Baker’s life, gazing in empathetic awe without even introducing ourselves. It’s a one way conversation with stark, personal subject matters such as relationship anxiety, depression, religion and death, and all we can do is listen. Sprained Ankle was originally released in 2015, but is now being reissued on Matador. It’s hard to comprehend that the album is a year and a half old given that nothing…

  • Laura Marling – Semper Femina

    March 15, 2017 - By 

    There’s a criticism that’s hard to make of Semper Femina; despite tracks that are ostensibly about the breadth of human emotion, chronicling love lost, found and thrown away across platonic and romantic partners there’s a flatness of feeling that permeates the majority of its forty-two minute running time. That may be surprising for any fan of Laura Marling, known especially for her sensitive heart and sage like maturity and wisdom, but here on her sixth album it seems she’s almost sleepwalking through a terrain she’s carefully cultivated over the last decade. Let’s be clear, the record doesn’t come across as…

  • Hurray For The Riff Raff – The Navigator

    March 14, 2017 - By 

    On paper, what about a blues folk concept album dealing with a young Puerto Rican’s perspective of her city and homogenisation of her culture should work? On genre level, it’s far too grand an idea. This almost operatic scope isn’t suited to the gritty sensibilities of folk or blues music. Their key hitters are typically the minor, metaphorical pieces which possess a great deal of power and heft, but which diluted at scale. Even on the thematic level, it shouldn’t work. The loss of and longing for some kind “home” is well-trodden ground, but the metropolitan Hispanic immigrant version doesn’t…

  • Field Trip – Evening’s Over EP

    March 10, 2017 - By 

    There’s something so interminably pleasant about Evening’s Over, the latest EP from pop rockers Field Trip. An undeniable ennui and melancholy run throughout. Yet they’re wrapped up in an infectious brand of pop goodness that’s hard not to get lost in. Yet these aren’t throwaway nuggets. The band understands how to introduce scope and scale into what could otherwise be inconsequential mush.   Take the opener ‘Wait’, for example. It starts off as a twitchy, yet straightforward indie pop track with a great big meaty fuzzed out chorus. But by the midpoint of the song, we transitioned to shredding solos…

  • Grandaddy – Last Place

    March 9, 2017 - By 

    There are very few bands that can take a song and transform its tapestry multiple times within a four minute period. There are even fewer bands that execute this boldness in experimentation successfully. This impulsion to deviate from compositional convention is oft cited as self-indulgent or messy. Grandaddy, a band that have thrived on the lo-fi and literal homemade music have mastered the art of rogue arrangements. They have become known for creating a musical landscape populated by straightforward analogue instruments that co-exist with newer devices and effects to pave a route of meandering melodies. On paper, Last Place – Grandaddy’s…

  • Sleaford Mods – English Tapas

    March 6, 2017 - By 

    Sleaford Mods are some of the last punks standing. Their songs are slim, no muss, no fuss affairs. Like ESG before them, the pair rely on a basic setup of bass and drums to carry hip hop infused vitriol to the listener. They are lyrically snotty and upfront with tales of frustration and degradation at the hands of a society which has bred and demeaned them. What their words offer is an insight into the world of the marginalised; people feeling the impact of austerity politics, Brexit and the complacency of the South to the suffering of the North. Yet it…

  • Ibibio Sound Machine – Uyai

    March 3, 2017 - By 

    Ibibio Sound Machine are back with their second album, Uyai. The scintillating record which lands today via Merge shows the group on top form with a sound that is bigger, bolder and funkier than ever. The London-based collective, led by front woman Eno Williams, have returned with an assured mastery of their sound. Inspired by the golden era of ‘70s and ‘80s disco and funk, the overall tone is a colourful fusion of West-African grooves, brassy electronics, modern pop tempos and powerful synths. There’s an air of fearlessness about this release. Focusing on themes of empowerment, freedom, courage and the…