Album Reviews
Album review: The Long Ryders – Final Wild Songs
If the Flying Burritos invented country rock then the Long Ryders pretty much created Americana so it was always bizarre there was no decent retrospective of their impressive back catalogue. Now they have courtesy of Cherry Red who have pulled together a four CD box set with tracks selected by singer/guitarist Sid Griffin and bassist …
Album Review : NZCA Lines : Infinite Summer
It is the far future, a dying sun pushes the planet ever closer to extinction. In the mega-city of Cairo-Athens, earth embraces the coming destruction with a non-stop party in the ever-increasing warmth. It’s not a new Young Adult sci-fi trilogy, it’s the concept behind the Infinite Summer album, from NZCA Lines. Opening with a …
Album Review: Promise and The Monster – Feed the Fire
As someone that written album reviews for over a decade, I’ve learned to accept that there are some reviews which just don’t come easy. Sometimes because it’s difficult to put into words just how mind-fryingly amazing some music is. Or sometimes it’s the flip of that, where there are no words strong enough for you …
Album Review: Panic! At The Disco – Death Of A Bachelor
Panic! At The Disco have never shied away from the weird and the wonderful, every album has an electrifying creative spark and a wonderfully eclectic musical image. Ten years on from their delightfully emo debut A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out, now virtually a solo band as the CD booklet says “Panic! At The Disco …
Album Review: Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy – Pond Scum
We’ve a lot to thank John Peel for. When he died I remember feeling the shock as if he were a family member almost, rather than a radio host I had never met. But the legacy he left, especially in terms of the mountains of sessions recorded as part of his show, remains a resource …
Album Review: Suede — Night Thoughts
Suede* is the band that many forget actually kickstarted (or possibly hotwired) Britpop. Night Thoughts is Suede’s seventh album and only the second since their welcomed reunion in 2010, a bit close on the heels of 2013’s Bloodsports. For fans who started to lose interest after Coming Up, this may well be the album to …
Say Psych: Album Review, Temporary Infinity by Haikai No Ku
If you were to do a word cloud of my album reviews so far this year the words ‘dark’, ‘dense’, ‘intense’ and ‘dystopian’ would surely be writ large across it. With releases by such as Henge, Cavalier Song. The Oscillation and Pop. 1280 I am not sure whether there is a something in the air that is triggering such …
Say Psych: Album Review, Monographic by The Oscillation
A favourite album of mine is one that you may not have heard of, Stranglers bassist JJ Burnel’s 1979 solo project ‘Euroman Cometh’. I originally bought it way back when because I was a big fan of the band and wanted to own everything that Burnel and the other band members put out. At the time …
Album Review: Ty Segall – Emotional Mugger
Surprise, a new Ty Segall album. I bet you weren’t expecting that, were you? The fuzz rock wunderkind has kept a pretty steady habit of putting out two or three albums a year, whether under his own name or with some pals in another band. Last year’s quite excellent Manipulator showed that if Segall takes a little …
Album Review: Tuff Love – Resort
If you’ve already been seduced by Tuff Love’s fuzzy indie pop, you probably own the three EPs they released between 2012 and the end of 2015. If so, you can stop reading this review. Go and listen to those EPs back to back and congratulate yourself on having great musical taste. Everyone else please read …