indie albums
Album Review: MONEY – Suicide Songs
With Christmas just around the corner, the music on our radios is about joy, happiness and having a good time. But come January we are all fed up of the bells and the sparkle. The festive season behind us and the nights are dark and long. Nights out and Christmas parties turn to cheap nights …
Album Review: Parquet Courts – Monastic Living EP
Parquet Courts, the Indie Rock band hailing from New York City, have been trolling the musical community for about a year now since releasing their last album under the moniker ‘Parkay Quarts’. Before that, the band released two excellent albums, Light Up Gold and Sunbathing Animal, and one exciting EP, Tally All The Things That …
Album Review: The Telescopes – Splashdown The Complete Creation Recordings 1990-92
I remember seeing the Telescopes on the main stage in 1990 at Reading Festival on the bill with Loop, the Pixies and the Fall, such was their quick rise following the release of early singles Kick the Wall and 7th Disaster on Cheree Records. The band were signed by Alan McGees Creation records soon after …
Album Review: Martin Courtney : Many Moons
There’s something about Martin Courtney’s voice that just gets me. He has one of those voices that no matter what he’s singing he always just sounds like him. There’s no grandiose accenting or histrionics when he sings songs like “It’s Real” or “Talking Backwards” with his main gig Real Estate. You get the impression when …
Album Review: They Might Be Giants – Why?
Music for children is often an awkward art to master. Obviously you want something tuneful and memorable, but you also want to avoid adult themes. Another thing you want to avoid is the music itself being ‘childish’, otherwise it will inevitably grate on the nerves of the parents and therefore only get played under duress. …
Album Review: Car Seat Headrest – Teens Of Style
I recently read a rather poignant article over at Pitchfork about Sparklehorse’s Mark Linkous. In it they talked about when he’d write a song that was deemed to “poppy” by his inner critic he’d add sonic grime over top to dirty it up. He’d also use $20 junk yard mics to record his vocals with …
Album Review: Deerhunter – Fading Frontier
Since 2005, Bradford Cox and the Deerhunter boys have consistently released interesting and unique music. Whilst essentially they would fit into the indie/rock department of your local record store (if such a thing still exists) they have constantly shifted through genres like new outfits. Throughout their career they have moved through rock, phsyc, ambient, and …
Album Review: Father John Misty – I Love You, Honeybear
Bella Union have been on a massive – and I mean massive – roll this year. In 2015 they’ve released the long overdue return albums by B.C. Camplight, Mercury Rev and John Grant and Ezra Furman’s breakthrough album. In among all these was Father John Misty’s second album, I Love You, Honeybear, which saw J. …
Album Review: Beach House – Thank Your Lucky Stars
While I consider Beach House to be a special sort of band, I’d never consider then to be particularly prolific. This is a band that takes a good couple years in between albums in order to cultivate and organically grow a Beach House record. That sort of melancholy and malaise doesn’t just grow on trees(unless …
Album review: Various Artists: Creation Artifact: The Dawn of Creation Records 1983-85 (Cherry Red)
It’s a shame Creation Records is now known as the home of bloated rock gods Oasis when in reality it was the ground-breaking label that created DIY indie pop. It helps Creation was started by one of music’s genuine mavericks Glaswegian Alan McGee and his genius is celebrated in this lavish 5 CD compilation of …