indie albums
Album Review: Dr. Dog – The Psychedelic Swamp
Over the last couple years or so every time Dr. Dog have released a new album I’ve worried it would be the last album of theirs I’d like. While every record they’ve put out has had three or four real gems, there seems to have been a good number of songs that seem to just …
Album Review: The Crookes – Lucky Ones
Sheffield band The Crookes have returned with their fourth studio album, titled Lucky Ones, accompanied with a full UK tour this February and European and USA excursions not long after. Lucky Ones is a 10-track wonder which lets go of all the bitter anger of Soapbox and the blind hope of Hold Fast; it lands somewhere in …
Album Review: Bloc Party – Hymns
Bloc Party burst on to the scene way back in 2005 with the superb album Silent Alarm and since then it’s fair to say the band has been through some…. changes. A Weekend in the City didn’t do as critically well as its predecessor, while Intimacy took the band in some frankly weird directions. Their …
Album Review: Promise and The Monster – Feed the Fire
As someone that written album reviews for over a decade, I’ve learned to accept that there are some reviews which just don’t come easy. Sometimes because it’s difficult to put into words just how mind-fryingly amazing some music is. Or sometimes it’s the flip of that, where there are no words strong enough for you …
Album Review: Suede — Night Thoughts
Suede* is the band that many forget actually kickstarted (or possibly hotwired) Britpop. Night Thoughts is Suede’s seventh album and only the second since their welcomed reunion in 2010, a bit close on the heels of 2013’s Bloodsports. For fans who started to lose interest after Coming Up, this may well be the album to …
Album Review: Tuff Love – Resort
If you’ve already been seduced by Tuff Love’s fuzzy indie pop, you probably own the three EPs they released between 2012 and the end of 2015. If so, you can stop reading this review. Go and listen to those EPs back to back and congratulate yourself on having great musical taste. Everyone else please read …
Album Review: Eleanor Friedberger – New View
“Oh Eleanor, it’s going to be alright. Things may seem down right now, but I promise things will get better. People come and people go out of our lives, but we will always have the memories of those people to put a smile on our face. Or, bring a tear to the eye. Regardless, you …
Album Review: The Besnard Lakes – A Coliseum Complex Museum
The Besnard Lakes sound like a cloudburst in the middle of an emotional breakdown. Absolute beauty in the midst of some psychic turmoil. Towering melody and cavernous harmonies ride on psychedelic riffs and proper rock and roll drum bashing. Ever since the very beginning back in 2003 the Montreal-based husband and wife team of Jace …
Album Review: King Charles – Gamble For A Rose
Things are changing for singer-songwriter Charles Costa AKA King Charles. His 2012 album ‘LoveBlood’ was a bouncy and quirky collection of pop gems. But January sees the release of its follow-up, and it couldn’t be further removed. Those big pop hooks have been replaced with something else; something more honest, and raw. After his collaboration …
Album Review: Hinds – Leave Me Alone
With the release of their highly anticipated debut album, ‘Leave Me Alone’, Hinds melt away the January blues with twelve songs full of attitude, charm and Spanish warmth. The Madrid quartet started out as a duo called Deers in 2011 before Carlotta Cosials and Ana García Perrote were joined by Ade Martín and Amber Grimbergen …