Album Reviews
Say Psych: Album Review, Live in Berlin by Dead Skeletons
I’ve only managed to see the Dead Skeletons live on one occasion, an amazing double-header with Follakzoid (see here) at the now sadly closed Kazimier Club in Liverpool. It was my first time for both bands, a great night in which the Liverpool PsychFest team had pulled out all the stops to make that small …
Album Review: LNZNDRF – LNZNDRF
Once in a great while a record comes out and completely catches me off guard. Sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse. With the debut record of LNZNDRF it’s definitely for the better. It’s one of those debuts that comes out of the gate and grabs you instantly. Part euro pop, part Krautrock …
Album Review: They Might Be Giants – Phone Power
The third album to be compiled from tracks that They Might Be Giants released on their rebooted Dial-A-Song service on YouTube during 2015, Phone Power has been released as a pay-what-you-want download, and will be released in more traditional formats in the future. So far, so Radiohead. TMBG fans knew that a third album of …
Album Review: Låpsley – Long Way Home
Holly Lapsley Fletcher (aka Låpsley) is from Merseyside, but it’s easy to imagine she’s from Scandinavia based on the icy electronica melting under the warmth of her soulful vocals on debut album ‘Long Way Home’. This contrast of hot and cold is an interesting juxtaposition on album opener ‘Heartless’ and it’s a theme that continues …
Say Psych: Menimals by Menimals
OK so here’s a new album from Riot Season records, so be prepared to be sonically blasted sphincter first into the next universe. Right? Well actually, wrong because this is a Riot Season release like none other that I can remember. Instead of the usual rush of blood to the fret there’s an easy avant …
Album Review: Raleigh Ritchie – You’re a Man Now, Boy
Jacob Anderson is without doubt a talented young man. As an actor, he is known to many as the second most famous (but definitely the most fearsome and endearing) eunuch in “Game of Thrones” where he plays loyal warrior Grey Worm, leader of the Unsullied army and servant to Daenerys Targaryen, the show’s Queen of …
Album Review: Jack Garratt – Phase
Jack Garratt at first sight and listen is a swirling mass of contradictions. Aged just 24, he’s the latest recipient of both the BRIT award Critics’ Choice (previously won by Sam Smith, Tom Odell, Emeli Sande, Jessie J, Ellie Goulding, Florence + the Machine, Adele) and the BBC Sound of… (previously won by (Years & …
Album Review: Ben Abraham – Sirens
There have been several moments in reviewing this album where I have wanted to give it a ‘6’. ‘Sirens’ has a warm, lush sound, and the straightforwardness of his delivery and songs suggest a singer-songwriter that believes in his material. You feel like this guy’s alright. Surely he’s better than a ‘5’ ? But that’s not …
Album Review: Various Artists: Roadkill Records Vol.1
Somewhere in the frozen wastelands of the North country. Our correspondent sits by an open fire. Down, but not quite broken, he tries to make sense of his current situation… “For some time, rumour’s and whispering’s had been coming out of the South of a happenings going on in the big city. Out here in …
Album Review: Kanye West – The Life of Pablo
With every album expected to be released in 2016, few have had the same amount of hype as Kanye West’s seventh solo record, So Help Me God, SWISH, Waves, The Life of Pablo. Much like Rihanna’s Anti, the release of this record has been a messy, rushed, and ineffective affair on behalf of that god …