• Matt Berninger – Serpentine Prison

    Solo albums, for the most part, present artists with the opportunity to  indulge in experiments their bandmates would reject. Take Thom Yorke going fully electronic on The Eraser, or Sigur Ros’ Jónsi’s journey into  glitch-pop on his new album Shiver: Neither proved to be too much of a deviation from their main projects’ sound, but provided them with a detour that musicians often need to get out of their system between “proper” albums. The lowered expectations that can come with a solo album free up an artist to make whatever they want without restriction, and can sometimes lead to something…

  • The National – Trouble Will Find Me

    There’s a famous Edward Hopper painting, simply entitled ‘Gas’, in which a solitary, dapper figure stands in the centre of the canvas, almost obscured by a cherry red petrol pump. On first glance its meaning is immediately apparent: it’s either a character study or an elegy to those charming locations found off the beaten track. However, this simplicity is deceptive – as simplicity often is. Look to the right of the frame, where a particularly vicious darkness is bleeding from an obscured road into the forest. One wonders where this path leads and what is to be found there. The…