Indie pop
Track: Even As We Speak – Blue Suburban Skies plus Tour News
Even As We Speak are a Sydney band that formed in the mid-eighties and, after gaining a following in the Australian indie scene, eventually gained the attention of the legendary John Peel on BBC Radio 1 and airplay for their single ‘Goes So Slow’. This resulted in their signing by the iconic UK Sarah Records …
Track: Nada Surf – So Much Love
Nada Surf are a bit of an indie institution and are on the brink of releasing their ninth album, ‘Never Not Together’ on 7 February 2020. ‘So Much Love’ is the third single released in anticipation of the album and it encapsulates the Nada Surf sound and philosophy: bright sparkling joyous music that is infused …
Album Review: White Lies – Five (Reissue)
Emerging in a crowded field with fellow indie nouveau goth bands like Interpol and Editors, White Lies have been, in my view very underrated over the years. Their 2019 album ‘Five’ has been just re-released with the addition of two new songs, ‘Falling Out Without Me’ and ‘Hurt My Heart’, recorded with US producer Andrew …
Album Review: Youth Group – Australian Halloween
Originating from the inner west of Sydney, Youth Group achieved a modicum of global attention for their exquisite cover of Alphaville’s ‘Forever Young’, a song so steeped in rosy-tinted nostalgia and yearning it made even to most hardened cynic tear up. Yes, I did. But as is often the case, Youth Group are much more …
Track: Bland – Steel Park (The Path)
I’ve been meaning to write about Sydney band Bland for ages and time keeps slipping by. Their new release ‘Steel Park’ is so good that I’m not going to let this one pass by without a mention. Think of the archetypal Australian indie band of yore – The Go-Betweens, Died Pretty and The Triffids and …
Album Review: TC&I – Naked Flames – Live at Swindon Arts Centre
Well this is a delightful surprise. After the release of TC&I‘s welcome ‘Great Aspirations’ EP last year there were murmurings that the project was finished for the moment following some well received gigs last year. It now seems these gigs were recorded, and ‘Naked Flames’ is the result. TC&I is, on record, the legendary Colin …
EP: Remington Super 60 – Indie pop for kids vol. 1
Like a Norwegian happy pill, Remington Super 60 are back with a new release titled Indie pop for kids vol.1. Its joyful, bouncy and almost childish in the way that only Europeans can be. With titles like Robo learned to whistle and Plastic Duck, it’s not music to take seriously, but has a lovely DIY …
Track: Bubblegum Lemonade – Heaven With You
Bubblegum Lemonade – Heaven With You EP ‘Heaven With You’ is the second single from Bubblegum Lemonade’s smash new album ‘Desperately Seeking Sunshine’. It is a radio hit featuring a chiming Byrds-like guitar intro, an infectious hi hat, glockenspiel, and backing vocals from Sandra of fellow Scottish band Strawberry Whiplash (another great band worth checking …
Album Review: The Raft – Abloom
Backseat Mafia has been following with great delight the prolific releases of The Raft for the last few years – a series of brilliant EPs that somehow capture an unique Liverpudlian pop sensibility. The Raft have released a full album, containing the previously released single ‘Xanadu’, and it represents a glorious evolution and development of …
Track: Imperial Daze – People are Animals
Following a brilliant debut last year with one of my favourite singles of last year, ‘Always Settling’, Peckham’s Imperial Daze are back with another fantastic single ‘People are Animals’. Of the release, the band says it “hints at the glaring contradiction that, although we are ever more digitally connected, these digital connections can ultimately be …