album review
ALBUM REVIEW: THUNDERCAT – IT IS WHAT IT IS.
Is there anyone since the turn of the new millennium as influential as Stephen Lee Bruner, a.k.a Thundercat? Proudly toted as a corner of the Brainfeeder family, Thundercat’s influence can be heard throughout some of the more soulful releases of 21st-century hip-hop and R&B, from Frank Ocean and Tyler The Creator to Childish Gambino and …
ALBUM REVIEW: M. Ward – Migration Stories
‘Migration Stories’ is the latest album from prolific writer, producer and performer M. Ward. It is out on Anti Records on 3rd April. The world is currently living through an unprecedented period of travel restrictions with many countries in lockdown and ‘Migration Stories’ feels like a meditation on the exact opposite of that reality. It’s …
ALBUM REVIEW: MAGIC SWORD – ENDLESS
Any Hotline Miami 2 fans kicking around the website? What about fans of Thor: Ragnarok? I thought the second title might have a bit more mass appeal. Both had tracks from Boise, Idaho’s rather enigmatic synthwave trio Magic Sword, who return to the forefront today with the release of Endless – a sprawling 11 song …
ALBUM: Pavey Ark – Close Your Eyes and Think of Nothing
You might not have heard of Pavey Ark, an alternative-folk band from Hull, but on the basis of their gorgeous and delightfully soothing debut album, “Close Your Eyes and Think of Nothing”, that will soon be changing. The band formed in 2016 and are fronted by singer and songwriter Neil Thomas and accompanied by a …
Album Review: Disq – Collector
There is definitely something in the water in Madison, Wisconsin. Personal anecdote: I have a good friend from the area who has introduced me to a few bands in that scene. The Hussy, Dharma Dogs, Coordinated Suicides. He didn’t mention to me, however, Disq and yet, I seem already familiar with the acerbic power-pop the …
ALBUM REVIEW: of Montreal – UR FUN
In ‘San Junipero‘, the exquisite (and greatest, in my view) Black Mirror episode about love, life and death, the main characters, Yorkie and Kelly, walk through a world peppered with non-stop party music from different eras, in search of truth and redemption. Sometimes they visit a club on the margins called the Quagmire where freaks …
Album Review: Little Scream – Speed Queen
There’s a certain sun-burnt quality that informed “Dear Leader”, the first single released by Little Scream from her third album Speed Queen. It’s not quite in the realms of Americana, but it comes close. For Laurel Sprengelmeyer (the Little Scream in question, for the uninitiated), that warmth the lead single provided listeners acts not as …
Album Review: DZ Deathrays – Positive Rising: Part 1
It would appear some of my fondest memories of Auckland (New Zealand, Aotearoa) have managed to follow me to Backseat Mafia. I recall there was a buzz about a band from over the ditch (Australia. Just Australia) about a noisy three-piece who were of the Blood Brothers ilk. A little bit dance-punk, a touch of …
Album Review: Pixies – Beneath The Eyrie
How many subsequent releases after hiatus subjugate the lineage of a band? Is it one? Two? Three? Should they even reform and create new material anyway? What if it’s bad? Does it then dim the historical importance of a back catalogue? These are questions some Pixies fans, including myself, have asked since the release of …
Album Review: Cassels – The Perfect Ending
Cassels are woke. That’s at least what the media surrounding their new album, The Perfect Ending, centres on. Climate change, victim-blaming, the far-right, millenial liberalism, sexual assault. These are all lightning-rod topics in today’s climate and can either be addressed with a certain nuance, an unbridled rage or, more worryingly, a clumsy heavy-handedness. Thankfully, it’s …