indie albums
Album Review: They Might Be Giants – Phone Power
The third album to be compiled from tracks that They Might Be Giants released on their rebooted Dial-A-Song service on YouTube during 2015, Phone Power has been released as a pay-what-you-want download, and will be released in more traditional formats in the future. So far, so Radiohead. TMBG fans knew that a third album of …
Album Review: Jack Garratt – Phase
Jack Garratt at first sight and listen is a swirling mass of contradictions. Aged just 24, he’s the latest recipient of both the BRIT award Critics’ Choice (previously won by Sam Smith, Tom Odell, Emeli Sande, Jessie J, Ellie Goulding, Florence + the Machine, Adele) and the BBC Sound of… (previously won by (Years & …
Album Review: Ben Abraham – Sirens
There have been several moments in reviewing this album where I have wanted to give it a ‘6’. ‘Sirens’ has a warm, lush sound, and the straightforwardness of his delivery and songs suggest a singer-songwriter that believes in his material. You feel like this guy’s alright. Surely he’s better than a ‘5’ ? But that’s not …
Album Review: Various Artists: Roadkill Records Vol.1
Somewhere in the frozen wastelands of the North country. Our correspondent sits by an open fire. Down, but not quite broken, he tries to make sense of his current situation… “For some time, rumour’s and whispering’s had been coming out of the South of a happenings going on in the big city. Out here in …
Album Review: The 1975 – I Like It When You Sleep, For You Are So Beautiful Yet So Unaware Of It
The 1975 have returned, following a brief disappearance from social media (causing ripples of panic to their fans), with their mammoth 17-track sophomore album I Like It When You Sleep, For You Are So Beautiful Yet So Unaware Of It. The record was released worldwide on 26th February 2016, swiftly followed by a tour across the …
Album Review: Wild Nothing – Life of Pause
I’ve been smitten with Jack Tatum ever since I heard “Nocture” back in 2012. Such beauty and bittersweet melodies in that song. I knew right then that this Tatum fellow knew how to turn emotional dials with the magic that is music. He was also tapping into my childhood growing up in the early 80s. …
Album Review: Sunflower Bean – Human Ceremony
By Ryan Jameson Weaver Our music industry moves so fast that a band can come out with something so unique and amazing that it is relevant for a week and then bounces into waves anonymity right after. Take for example, the last My Bloody Valentine album, MBV, an album 20 years in the making, from …
Album Review: The Callas – Half Kiss Half Pain
Brothers Lakis and Aris lonas started The Callas in Athens, Greece back in 2005. Both filmmakers and musicians, the brothers lonas took a more dissonant and theatrical approach to their music by taking inspiration from both Sonic Youth and The Fall. The Callas, who also feature Chrysanthi Tsoukala (guitar, vocals) and Marilena Petridou (Drums) have recently …
Album Review: Field Music – Commontime
Sometime in the gloriously messed up late 80s I remember a friend playing me the ’25 ‘O Clock’ mini-album by ‘The Dukes of Stratosphear’, a blast of fabulous neo-psychedelia, that even in our stoned state, a few tracks in, we collectively began to realise was XTC getting their rocks off under an alter-ego. Their follow-up …
Album Review: Diiv – Is The Is Are
Diiv tapped into that wandering soul we all have buried deep down(some deeper than others) back in 2012 when they gave us their big and dreamy debut Oshin. Guitars swelled in waves of reverb, as did pretty much everything else, as Zachary Cole Smith sang songs like he was lost in thought while emoting into the …