Category: Records
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Rival Sons attempt to distinguish classic rock in 2011 from nostaligia acts with their label début Pressure and Time.
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With a perfect example of lazy, second-rate song writing, Caned & Able arrive to abuse our ears with ‘Monkey Song’, the new single from their upcoming debut album. Offering only its meaty synth bassline as any hope of musical appeal, the track aims to please those simple minded people who eagerly nod their heads at…
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PJ Harvey has come a long way from the sexual politics of earlier releases like Rid Of Me. No longer singing about the licking of various bodily appendages (legs, you pervert) new single, ‘The Glorious Land’, plays rather like some late proletarian anthem commissioned by an especially sadistic farmer (it’s actually very deep and about…
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Darren Hayman is the former singer and main brain behind indie rock group Hefner. He’s a solo artist now, and the music he makes has a more stripped-down folky quality, but with the same feeling and the same themes. Darren’s songs are melodic, tender, and the lyrics are almost invariably acerbically witty. They have a…
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As the title of the album, itself something of a contradiction, might imply, this is a fusion of two areas that you may not expect Metronomy to follow after the indie-disco sounds of Nights Out in 2008. The English Riviera breaks out into something more expansive, and overall successfully merges the ‘80s inspired dance with…
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In my admittedly rather hackneyed opinion, there are few things better in this world than a really good 3-minute pop song. Trendy indie floorfillers might make you tap you feet, but could they lift your spirits? Luckily, Allo Darlin‘ are here to fill that pop-shaped hole in your lives with the fourth single from their (quite lovely)…
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The problem with making a second album is your first album. Should an artist keep the same style or revolutionise completely? Often either choice results in a backlash of mediocre review responses. However, we find ourselves sat on the verge of the summer, about to roll joyously down the hill into festival season; the timing…
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Encouraged by the success of their Lord of the Rings-inspired second album, prog-rockers Camel decided to again write an album as an interpretation of another novel in 1975, this time choosing Paul Gallico’s 1941 The Snow Goose. The story tells the tale of Rhayader, a lighthouse-inhabiting recluse who befriends a young girl called Fritha. Their…
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Unlike anything in the charts at the moment, the Alabama-born Pierce sisters (Allison and Catherine) have managed to recast a ‘70s hippy/country vibe for a mainstream market, with help from Coldplay bassist Guy Berryman: producer of their forthcoming album and apparent saviour of their previously failing music careers. However a far cry from Coldplay’s recent…
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On the afternoon of Easter Sunday, Radio 4 went through a nervous breakdown. Or maybe, inspired by the many kids unwrapping chocolate eggs the across the country, they fancied a bit of child-like naivety, similar to that of a 4-year-old boy thinking Horrid Henry is a real living person. How did this disturbing radio event…
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The King Blues are fighting back, and they’re f**king angry; at least that’s the claim on their third full length album, Punk & Poetry. The band return with a line up change and a more mainstream sound as the acoustic feel of previous albums is replaced by electric guitars and keyboards. The opening track ‘Last…
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A rich, Cambridge graduate releasing a blues album called Let Them Talk; it doesn’t seem right, does it? A genre of music based on having nothing or losing everything isn’t supposed to be played by someone who is the highest paid actor in US TV drama. Yet Hugh Laurie pulls it off. And if you…
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After the disappointment of Panic! at the Disco’s previous album Pretty.Odd and two members departing from the band, the rock pop duo had to return with a new and exciting sound, and they certainly don’t disappoint with their new album Vices and Virtues. Since their last album, lyricist and guitar player Ryan Ross and bass…
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‘Wonderman’ is the fifth single from Tinie Tempah’s debut album Disc-Overy, featuring a vocal contribution from Ellie Goulding. With a catchy melody, punchy lyrics and a sing-along chorus, this track is pretty much everything we’ve come to expect from Tinie. Not that this is any bad thing – with three top-five hits since the huge…