indie albums
Album Review: They Might Be Giants – I Like Fun
With their Dial-A-Song service returning, and a European Tour lined up towards the end of the year, it looks like 2018 is going to be a busy one for They Might Be Giants. Highlight of the year for many will no doubt be their new album, I Like Fun, a long player which on the …
Album Review: Hockey Dad – Blend Inn
The town of Windang in New South Wales, Australia is just south of the somewhat gritty industrial port of Port Kembla in the city of Wollongong, and paradoxically the gateway to the extraordinarily beautiful South Coast of NSW. This is also the home of one of the most exciting new bands coming out of Australia: …
Album Review: Typhoon – Offerings
There are times an act naturally moves away from the sound that had originally beguiled their fanbase. Sometimes it’s all part of following the muse, sometimes it’s just down to line up changes, and sometimes it’s simply down to the fact that the sound that had made them successful is no longer doing so well …
Album Review: The Magnetic Fields – 50 Song Memoir
How the hell do you even review an album like 50 Song Memoir? At 5 CDs, it’s a huge undertaking just to listen to the whole thing. Or at least it seems that way until you realise that the whole thing could have sat snugly on two CDs, then it just seems like it’s a …
Album Review: Pale Bird – Ten Things Which Aren’t Love
Pale Bird, aka Martin Austwick, or the artist formerly known as the Sound of the Ladies possesses an instantly identifiable folkish indie sound. Part of this is down to Austwick’s oddly soothing voice, his guitar work, or the feeling of space his production techniques provide between each instrument. It acts as an audible thread connecting …
Mammoth Penguins and Friends – John Doe
This is a bit unexpected. Mammoth Penguins’ first album, while with its own style, picked up not a million miles away from where Emma Kupa’s first band, Standard Fare, left off – quality indieish guitar pop soundtracking vignettes from day-to day life. So when the needle drops on some background noise, stately strings, mandolin and …
Album Review : The War on Drugs’ ‘A Deeper Understanding’
I don’t think a songwriter has excited me more about the future of music in the last few years more than The War on Drugs’ Adam Granduciel. It’s ironic, too, given that his music feels more like looking back into the past than forward into some unknown future. I guess I’ve been known to wallow …
Album Review: Sparks – Hippopotamus
When Sparks roared back to relevance with 2002‘s Lil’ Beethoven, it was treated as a glorious return to form. How long that form would last was another matter. Was it a one off, or the start of a more sustained period of creative success? 2006’s Hello Young Lovers very much confirmed that the previous album’s …
New Music: Wild Ones, Mirror Touch
Wild Ones are an indie pop band from Portland, Oregon – as always, a petrie dish of artistic creativity. With an EP already under their belt, Wild Ones are about to release their debut album, “Mirror Touch”, and in a crowded bus of indie pop/rock brilliance, they stand out with their effervescent, shining, intelligent pop. …
New Music: Mogwai, Every Country’s Sun
Scotland’s Mogwai are one of those bands that have been on the periphery of my vision (or hearing?) for many years, receiving strong critical acclaim and amassing a huge and dedicated following. I just haven’t had room on my brimming musical plate to encompass them, and to be honest the idea of a (mostly) instrumental …