Album Reviews
Album Review: Body/Head – No Waves
I remember being pretty floored by Coming Apart, the first record by the Kim Gordon/Bill Nace avante noise band Body/Head. In fact, I can remember thinking how on the edge that album was. Piercing, jagged guitar squalls mixed with Kim Gordon’s improvised vocal belting made for a compelling listen back in 2013. The record felt …
Album Review: Dr. Dog – Abandoned Mansion
Like a friend wanting to console you after a great disappointment, Dr. Dog have emerged from the wilderness of the post-election shock and awe to give us something to ease our worried minds and pained hearts. It seems the Philly folk/soul/rock philistines entered their studio and for two weeks belted out a song a day …
Say Psych: Album Review, Junkyard Liberty – Chains
Appearing from the French undergrowth, Junkyard Liberty are a a psychedelic folk rock six-piece who draw deeply from the likes of Jefferson Airplane, The Velvet Underground, Bob Dylan and Buddy Holly and are the fifth band thrust forth from Wrong Way Records. With a politically loaded name which will resonate in these times we are …
Album Review: Battery Operated Orchestra – Radiation
Initially out in September, we hang our heads in shame that it took us until now to discover and write about Battery Operated Orchestras second album, Radiation. Much as you’d be right to be wary of well-turned-out folk touting synths these days (by now Half Man Half Biscuit’s Adam Boyle will have further ditched the …
Say Psych: Album Review, Made in the Machine by Sun Dial
It now seems a very long time ago since I last wrote a Sun Dial review, back at the beginning of January this year. To say that a lot of water, together with all sorts of flotsam and jetsam, has flown since then would be an absolute understatement. Amidst this great uncertainty I think many …
Album Review: One Eyed Wayne – Attack of the Luxury Flats
There’s various touchstones that appear to have influences Londoners One Eyed Wayne over the course of their debut album Attack of the Luxury Flats, which is out tomorrow (November 28th) on limited CD and download. There’s Faces and a general sense of Mod about it, there’s the gritty real life poetry of Ian Dury, but …
Album Review: Modern Studies – Swell To Great
It’s not that we ignored it – Its just that we completely missed September’s release of Modern Studies album Swell to Great, and as Matt H muses – more’s the pity. Even in this day and age, with bands increasingly self-releasing their stuff online and at gigs, there’s still a place for a record labels. …
Album Review: Janet Devlin – Little Lights
X-Factor contestants are not generally known for long-lasting and credible careers. But every now and then one slips through the net. Rebecca Ferguson is still doing the business. Little Mix are topping charts all over the place, and of course One Direction took over the world. 2011 contestant Janet Devlin didn’t win the show. In …
See Psych: Album Review, Complekt by Landing
It hardly seems any time at all since the last Landing album came out, back in the summer. ‘Third Sight’ was such an immediate hit with me when I heard it, as it obviously was with my fellow writer J Hubner, who reviewed it at the time (click here) and wrote: “Third Sight is a beautiful escape from reality. …
Say Psych: Album Review, Strange Pleasures by Dreamtime
OK here goes, I’m a little nervous. Here’s the thing. I have written around 75 album reviews this year, yet I’ve still got a few butterflies. Why? Well every so often an album comes along that you really really want to do justice to. An album that you want to be able to describe to …