indie albums
Album Review: Purling Hiss – High Bias
Purling Hiss are a band that can’t really be labeled. As soon as you think you know who they are the sound changes. Mike Polizze and his Purling Hiss project began as an experimental outlet for him to record his white noise and fuzz-drenched solo songs, but it turned into more than that. Comparisons to …
Wilco : Schmilco
I can only imagine that at some point in an artist’s life taking yourself and your art so seriously can get pretty heavy. Eventually real life will start to outdo you in the drama department and what you once took so serious doesn’t seem all that important anymore. Health crisis, getting older, losing loved ones …
Album Review: Bastille – Wild World
Bastille took the country by storm with the resounding “Pompeii” way back in 2013 after a slowly slowly catchy monkey approach of releasing a series of limited edition singles and EPs from the band’s formation in 2010 and then a whopping YouTube assaulting campaign where the track seemingly played before any video you tried to …
Album Review: Drugdealer – The End of Comedy
I really didn’t know what to expect when I was asked to review the new album by Mike Collins, the man who is Drugdealer, all I knew was that Collins had been on the LA music scene for a number of years and that he had a reputation for his Carole King-esque piano playing. I …
Album Review: Morgan Delt – Phase Zero
The first thing that hits you on Morgan Delt’s excellent Sub Pop debut Phase Zero is the breezy, island sway of “I Don’t Wanna See What’s Happening Outside”. Vocals just shy of a whisper cascade along a mellow, shuffling rhythm with wobbling guitars, synths, and a prominent proper meaty bass line holding it all together. …
Album Review: The Divine Comedy – Foreverland
Now a dozen albums into their career, The Divine Comedy have steadily carved their own unique niche into the musical landscape over the last twenty seven years. While Foreverland breaks little in the way of new ground for Neil Hannon and his bandmates, it continues to steadily build on what has already proved to be …
Album Review: Ed Harcourt – Furnaces
In a music scene still crammed full of post-Jeff Buckley singer songwriters, Ed Harcourt has been criminally overlooked down the years, especially when you consider that he’s only released one album and one single which have hit the top 40 charts here in the UK. Having released a critically lauded debut in Here Be Monsters, …
Album Review: Ezra Furman – Big Fugitive Life
It was the eighties that made androgyny so popular. Huge stars like Prince, Boy George and Adam Ant showed that it was just as cool for a man to rock lipstick and eyeliner as it was the girls. That flamboyancy has gone hand in hand with the music world ever since. Ezra Furman arrived on …
Album Review: Viola Beach – Viola Beach
Valentine’s weekend this year. I was on my way home from British seaside town Scarborough, where Backseat Mafia had just finished a triumphant weekend hosting a stage at the town’s Coastival festival; a fantastic weekend for live music. Or so I thought. It was then that I heard the sad news that Cheshire born indie …
Album Review: Ryan Young & Electric Sunrise – Heat Seeker
Us Sheffield folk have always been a proud bunch. And why shouldn’t we be? From our great bands such as Pulp and Arctic Monkeys to our heritage as makers of the world’s greatest knives and forks. Anyone from the area who follows the local music scene may already be familiar with singer-songwriter Ryan Young. For …