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Reviews
As a shy wallflower parsing the meaning of every gesture around him, Morrissey’s charm was always his mixture of shrewdness and insecurity. Lately, however, his conviction he’s always right has…
Bjork – Utopia review
All is full of love, apparently, on Bjork’s ninth album; but for whom it’s never quite clear. What they’ll make of it, too, is anyone’s guess. Björk’s work has become…
U2 – Songs of Experience review
“If you like Songs of Innocence,” Bono wrote on U2’s website within hours of the announcement of their 2014 album, “stay with us for Songs Of Experience. It should be…
Beck – Colours review
To change or not to change: it’s a question musicians regularly confront, with the answer usually ‘damned if you do, damned if you don’t’. After nailing a style down so…
Various Artists – To The Outside of Everything: A Story of UK Post-Punk 1977-1981 compilation review
From the team that brought us the Manchester North of England and Silhouettes & Statues: A Goth Revolution boxsets comes this 111-track post-punk behemoth… Post-punk has been a venerated historical…
Nasher – 432-1: Open The Vein album review
Babylon Pink Recordings 4/5 On his fourth solo album, Brian ‘Nasher’ Nash defies those who still think of him as one of ‘the lads’ who helped bulk out Frankie Goes…
Arcade Fire – Everything Now album review
Sony/Columbia 3/5 It’s tough to reconcile the Arcade Fire of now with the Montreal band that first emerged in 2004 touting the breathless, romantic Funeral. Back then, the idea they’d…
Ghostpoet – Dark Days + Canapes album review
Play It Again Sam 4/5 Twice the Mercury Prize bridesmaid and never the bride (he was nominated for his 2011 debut Peanut Butter Blues & Melancholy Jam and 2015’s Shedding…
Bronski Beat – The Age of Reason album review
Cherry Red 2/5 For many of us who grew up in the Classic Pop era, the sound of Bronski Beat’s Smalltown Boy was a revelation. Jimmy Somerville’s poignant, high-pitched wail,…
Paul Heaton & Jacqui Abbott: Crooked Calypso album review
Virgin/EMI 4/5 Many a true word is spoken in jest, and never was that more accurate than with Paul Heaton. This, though, is why he’s so undervalued by the muso…