indie albums
Album Review: Saltland – I Thought It Was Us But It Was All Of Us
There are some record labels, and Seattle’s Sub Pop comes immediately to mind, where you know that whatever they release is going to be at the very least interesting. Others have the sort of design style where you only have to look at the artwork to know what label is behind it, such as Germany’s …
Not Forgotten: John Grant – Queen of Denmark
It took three years but I finally found the proper follow-up to Midlake’s The Trials of Van Occupanther in John Grant’s Queen of Denmark. Man, I can’t believe I’d never listened to this album. It’s filled with Midlake’s penchant for creating these wooded landscapes and D&D-lite atmosphere, but since it’s NOT their album the melancholy …
Album Review: Altadore – Golden Hills
Wow. I haven’t been this excited about a new artist for a very long time. Wow. I’m not claiming that this band is doing something that is going to break the world wide open. This isn’t the birth of rock and roll or hip-hop. And that’s not what they are trying to do. But it …
Album Review: The Flaming Lips – The Terror, track by track
30 years ago the world was a very different place. The brinks matt robbery took place at Heathrow Airport, wearing a seat-belt became law, cabbage patch dolls were all the rage, and Ronald Reagan was President of the United States. The charts were filled with Phil Collins, The Police and Michael Jackson. Somewhere in Oklahoma, …
Album Review: Mudhoney – Vanishing Point Track by Track
I always had to be cooler than my brother, musically speaking. At just 18 months younger than me there was always this sort of competitive edge to everything we did. I felt in this respect I was always on the front foot. Having comitted several crimes against music in his record buying (slippery when wet/europe …
Album Review: British Sea Power – Machineries of Joy track by track
Have British Sea Power really been around a decade? It doesn’t seem that since, shortly after the release of their second album, Open Season I saw them in London, as support for the much missed (in my house anyway) Electric Soft Parade. They wore odd costumes, paraded around the stage on each-others shoulders, made a …
Album Review: The Laurels – Plains
I seem to have been to Australia on a few occasions. Its lovely, and my favourite place has always been Sydney. The capital city always seems to have more things going on, feels more bohemian, seems so much prettier. I walked up to the top of the Sydney Harbour Bridge one (a difficult task since …
Album Review: Atoms for Peace – Amok
Given its slightly dark imagery, and menacing title, it’s rather a surprise that Thom Yorke and (new) friends have made an album that, while having its moments of doubt and even sadness, is largely an upbeat listen. With a line-up that includes flea of the chili peppers amongst other, suspicions that he would make (I say he because this definitely …
New Music: Northern Portrait – Pretty Decent Swimmers EP
It started with The Smiths. When I first heard them, I began to doubt whether I would ever love a band any more than that. After that, I started to buy these bands who had records that came out in plastic sleeves, and made flexi-disc and things, and were on labels like Sarah, and Subway …
Album Review: Johnny Marr – The Messenger
Jim F finds that despite spending years in the background, there’s always been a frontman in Johnny Marr that’s been fighting to get out. Rather like the end of one of those Rom-Com films when the perennial Bridesmaid suddenly steps forward and becomes the blushing bride, so Johnny Marr, at the ripe old age of …