Back together with their first new songs since 2001, The Rembrandts don’t sound a day older, probably because their brand of American college rock is essentially timeless. Opener How Far…
Review: Fever Ray – Live At The Troxy
Musically speaking, Karin Dreijer’s Far Eastern proclivities often dominate this Fever Ray 2018 show, much as they did David Sylvian’s Japan recordings. Part Of Us is full of Oriental melodic…
Review: Body Of Light – Time To Kill
It’s perhaps symptomatic of our cultural divide that in America, where brothers Alex and Andrew Jarson grew up, Body Of Light receive specialist tags like EBM, darkwave and industrial. In…
Review: Mabel – High Expectations
“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: The Bluetones – Science & Nature/The Singles
By 2000, The Bluetones were commercially sliding. Adrift in the post-Britpop/pre-Strokes wilderness, nobody was much bothered. Although Science & Nature was only their third album, they were already deemed passé.…
Review: Various Artists – Now That’s What I Call Music 3
Let’s party like it’s 1984. A first-time release on cd for the greatest now… Series comp of them all… Arriving on CD for the first time to mark its 35th…
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: The Lightning Seeds – Jollification
A rare classic pop album from Britpop shows why, 25 years on, we need Ian Broudie more than ever… Considering its name, there weren’t exactly that many great pop acts…