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New albums
“Fuck my life,” Mabel McVey insists on this debut, but, in truth, that seems a trifle melodramatic. After all, 2017 gave her two Platinum awards, and there were more Gold…
Review: Ride – This Is Not A Safe Place
“This was your 15 minutes,” sings Mark Gardener on 15 Minutes, “Hope you had fun now/ Have a nice life, yeah/ You’re basically done”. A few years ago, these words…
Review: Friendly Fires – Inflorescent
Just how long will Friendly Fires take to update their Wikipedia page following this third album? A full eight years after 2011’s Pala, the band are still referred to as…
Review: Shura – Forevher
Alexandra Denton’s second album, Forevher, centres around her relationship with someone she began dating after the release of her 2016 debut, Nothing’s Real. Her intent’s perfectly captured by its opener,…
Review: Thom Yorke – Anima
“Goddamned machinery,” Thom Yorke fulminates on The Axe, after nearly two minutes of synths so dizzying they’re almost nauseating, “Why don’t you speak to me? One day I’m gonna take…
Review: Andrew Poppy – Hoarse Songs
It’s perhaps unfair after all these years to continue to associate composer Andrew Poppy with ZTT, a label with whom he only worked in the mid-80s. Somehow, however, that air…
Review: Gary Daly – Gone From Here
The China Crisis singer’s solo debut is an unexpected, understated gem that also serves to remind us how neglected his band’s been in some quarters… It’s the quiet ones you’ve…
Review: UNKLE – The Road Part II: Lost Highway
Mo’Wax founder James Lavelle’s back again with a cameo-laden sequel to 2017’s similarly cameo-laden fifth studio album, except this time it’s double the length, leading one to wonder, since it’s…
Review Round-Up: New Releases & Reissues – Issue 53
New Albums Collard – Unholy While Collard isn’t the new Prince, Prince would have likely applauded him. The 24-year-old’s debut is laced with strikingly atmospheric soul and hip-hop, with the…
Review Round-Up: New Releases & Reissues – Issue 52
New Albums George Benson – Walking To New Orleans Long before George Benson enjoyed hits like 1983’s In Your Eyes, he’d earned a reputation as a jazz and soul maestro,…