indie albums
Album Review: Purple – Bodacious
Texas three piece Purple have released their latest album Bodacious, through PIAS. If you’re unfamiliar with their work, think noisey, frayed at the edges power-pop, with a heap of punk attitude and some wonky arty chord progressions thrown in for good measure. It’s this mixture of the quirky and the catchy and the sour that …
Album Review: Bat for Lashes – The Bride
It’s been 10 years since Natasha Khan, aka Bat For Lashes released her first album Fur and Gold (2006) and introduced her whimisical storytelling on the world. She honed her craft on Two Suns (2009), she dealt with dicotomies and alter egos, in the shape of ‘Pearl’ whose personality is strong and full of herself, …
Album Review: Cool Sounds – Dance Moves
Melbourne’s Cool Sounds live up to their namesake. Imagine an alternate universe where Mac Demarco, My Morning Jacket, and a less Beach Boys-centric Dent May formed an indie rock Voltron and put out an album that while never truly rocked it floated along nicely on a cloud of jangly melancholy. That’s what Cool Sounds does …
Album Review: Peter Björn & John — Breakin’ Point
During the recording of Swedish pop wizards Peter Morén, Björn Yttling, and John Eriksson’s latest album Breakin’ Point, after a five-year hiatus, they actually did contemplate splitting up. Instead they brought in a few gifted outside producers for the first time, listened to a lot of ABBA, and created an exquisite collection of some …
Album Review: Mourn – ‘Ha, Ha, He.’
Catalonian four-piece Mourn make a welcome return with 26 minutes of youthful exuberance. ‘Ha, Ha, He.’ (out now via Captured Tracks) is the second album released by Mourn in the past two years. It would have been released even sooner, if it hadn’t been for label issues, and everything about this album adds to the …
Album Review: Minor Victories – Minor Victories
Minor Victories, if you haven’t read our review of debut single “A Hundred Ropes”, are Rachel Goswell (Slowdive), Stuart Braithwaite (Mogwai), Justin Lockey (Editors) and his brother James (Hand Held Cine Club, responsible for the exquisite videos that accompany some of these tracks). Originally conceived as part of Justin’s intention to make a ‘noise record …
Album Review: Fatherson – Open Book
Scottish trio Fatherson are on the cusp of releasing their sophomore album Open Book, following the critically acclaimed debut I Am An Island released in 2014. The new record will be available on 3rd June 2016, celebrated with a short tour of the Highlands and album launches in both London and Glasgow. ‘Just Past The Point …
Album Review: Cate Le Bon – Crab Day
Cate Le Bon makes music that is happy and sad at the same time. It’s a mix of 60s euro pop and 70s lower east side New York post-punk. The guitars never get too loud, but they’re played with an attitude by Le Bon that brings the Tom Verlaine/Richard Lloyd guitar interplay to mind. 2013s …
Album Review: Nothing – Tired Of Tomorrow
Nothing seem to float in this very unique musical cloud of both inescapable beauty and sharp ugliness. The sounds are both pastoral and urban. Domenic Palermo’s sometimes gritty upbringing in the streets of North Philly comes through in the sounds that come through the speakers. A youth soundtracked by both hardcore and shoegaze comes through …
Album Review: Radiohead – A Moon Shaped Pool
Five years. Five long years. That’s how long us Radiohead fans have been sat waiting for this. 2011’s The King Of Limbs left many fans dissatisfied, especially after the wonderful In Rainbows. There were theories; follow up albums and the like. Hell, with Radiohead, anything could drop at any time. But no; we got Atoms …