indie albums
Album Review: McCarthy – I am a Wallet (reissue)
Trust me, there was a time before you’re average indie band shied away from politics, because it might affect their ‘careers’. Today it seems that more bands are worried about saying the wrong thing, than maybe saying the right thing. It seems rather just, that at a time where Jeremy Corbyn, the almost antithesis of …
Album Review: New Order – Music Complete
Deep breath. “Music Complete” is a FABULOUS album but it should have been the second Bad Lieutenant album rather than the tenth New Order album. There, I’ve said it. Shit. Please don’t hate me, New Order. The group are without bass monster Peter Hook, of course, more of which I’ll come to later. Latterly, they …
Album Review: Kurt Vile – b’lieve i’m goin down
Kurt Vile comes off as a bit of a mystery at first. You listen to the guy as he mumbles and shrugs his way through a song, surrounded by some really great music. You wonder is this guy for real? You listen some more and little details, shaded nuances, and sly phrases begin to make …
Album Review: Low — Ones and Sixes
Twenty-one years is a long time to be in a band. It’s quite a long time to be married. It’s a really, unbelievably long time to be married to someone in your band. Such is the case with Low’s Alan Sparkhawk and Mimi Parker, whose eleventh album, Ones and Sixes, is out today. Alan’s and …
Album Review: Beirut – No No No
At its best ‘No No No’ is cheerful, breezy, spirit-lifting. But that same lightness is also what holds it back from being anything more than a solid, ultimately not-very-remarkable listen. There’s plenty here that is nice, and pleasant, and I can imagine looking out of a bay window onto autumnal parkland enjoying this record as …
Album Review: Foals – What Went Down
The pressure is on for Oxford-based art rockers Foals. With such a flawless back catalogue of albums, can their forth and latest effort stick to the same high standards of its predecessors? When their debut ‘Antidotes’ was released in 2008, it was a completely new sound to anything around at the time. It inspired a …
Album Review: Mammoth Penguins – Hide and Seek
Cards on the table before we even start this review. I love Emma Kupa. Well, her songwriting at least. It was lucky that her six song mini album Home Cinema lifted me from my depressive slumber following the split of Standard Fare, one of,if not the first, group ever to appear on Backseat Mafia. A …
Album Review: The Train Set – Never California
In my day,that day being back in the late 80s and early 90s, the home made compilation cassette was the calling card of the young man about town. From subtle messages contained within for potential partners, to an assert action to a new acquaintance that your musical taste marked you out as a person it …
Album Review: Beach House – Depression Cherry
Did you ever hear an album that feels like an emotional punch in the gut? Something that squeezes your innards until you want to collapse into a puddle of overwrought, bawling mess on the floor? Sure you have. Nick Drake, Elliot Smith, Jeff Buckley, and The Zombies have all done it to me in the …
Album Review: Yo La Tengo – Stuff Like That There
In the scheme of things, I have to be honest and say I’d prefer a new Yo La Tengo album filled with original songs. That’s just how I feel. Sorry Ira, James, and Georgia. I’d much rather hear newly-penned, original tunes coming out of the YLT camp any day of the week over covers. But …