Album Reviews
Album Review: Craig Finn – I Need a New War
Craig Finn’s solo career has been running parallel to the Hold Steady quite nicely over the last few years, with him being able to take a more introspective musical approach as opposed to the amped up bar band rock and roll of his band. Lyrically it’s much more difficult to find the line between what …
Album Review: Marvin Gaye – You’re the Man
In case you were wondering, You’re the Man is a double album’s worth of prime period Marvin Gaye, one of the few Tamla Motown artists that could remotely hold a candle to his label mate Stevie Wonder over the course of an album in the early 70s. From crooner, to both solo star and duet …
Say Psych: Album Review: The Underground Youth – Montage Images of Lust & Fear
On 29 March, Berlin via Manchester outfit The Underground Youth will be releasing their ninth album, Montage Images of Lust & Fear, on Fuzz Club Records and has been deemed as their most sincere work in an extensive, decade-long discography from which they’ve picked up a cult following across the globe – made evident in …
Album Review: Ex Hex – It’s Real
Ex Hex defeat the curse of second album disappointment by bringing us more ripping power pop on It’s Real. I’m not going to lie: I’m a few days late to the review party for Ex Hex’s new album It’s Real (out now on Merge). So, following my initial write-up, I read some other reviews from …
Say Psych: Album Review: Los Mundos – Calor Central
Los Mundos slithers out of Monterrey, Mexico like a psychedelic serpent ready to draw blood. Undulating along riff-heavy guitar lines and fuzzed-out bass, Luis Angel Martinez and Alejandro Elizondo cut a path through psychedelia that pulls from sources as diverse as the Beach Boys, the Jesus and Mary Chain, and horror legend H.P. Lovecraft, creator of …
Say Psych: Album Review: Juleah – Desert Skies
Juleah is the musical project of Austrian songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Julia Hummer. Having adopted the name in 2011 when she began posting covers online, Juleah has quickly progressed into something much more than a solo cover project. Following the self-release of Juleah’s self-titled EP on SoundCloud in 2012, she released her debut album, Shimmering Road, …
Album Review: Flight of the Conchords – Live in London
As a music fan there are few disappointments more acute than realising that an act you thought you would never get to see in a live environment are touring, but there’s no way you can attend the gig due to matters beyond your control. When me and my partner heard that Flight of the Conchords …
Album Review: Delicate Steve – Till I Burn Up
Over the past ten years Delicate Steve has been establishing a reputation as being a musicians musician. With a unique instrumental style Delicate Steve sounds as equally at home as a guest performing next to the likes of Built to Spill or Tune-Yards, or collaborating with Paul Simon. In addition to this he has been …
Say Psych: Album Review: The 39 Clocks – Next Dimension Transfer
The 39 Clocks are one of the most magnificent bands ever to have emerged from Germany being considered one of the nation’s best bands of the 1980s by German pop boffin Diedrich Diederichsen. The legendary duo from Hanover broke every rule in the music business, without exception and above all, with attitude. The very appearance of The Clocks …
Say Psych: Album Review: Fumaça Preta – Pepas
Fumaça Preta are back with their long awaited third album, Pepas which has been released on Bristol’s Stolen Body Records. They bring together elements of tropicalia, psychedelics, fuzz funk, musique concrete, acid house, radiophonic electronics and numerous African, Brazilian and Latin rhythms. The band started as a studio experiment when Alex Figueira, a Portuguese-Venezuelan producer …