Latest Reviews

Mamas Gun didn’t let a global pandemic stop them from getting into their groove in their dashing online concert ‘The Tin Pan Sessions.’ The lockdown had forced all musicians to go into “hiding” in a sense; they couldn’t perform in concerts, they couldn’t shoot music videos, they couldn’t go to venues and give the people some live jams. But in crisis emerges resilience, as this British soul band partnered up with Tin Pan Studio to produce a live concert with each of the band members performing from their respective homes. 

Gabrielle Aplin navigates trust and infatuation in her new single ‘When The Lights Go Out.’ The English singer-songwriter is only twenty-eight and has already carved her a niche for herself. She thrives in low-key, subdued musical spaces, where she can freely express her vulnerabilities through melancholic sounds and stripped-back vocals.

London-based singer-songwriter AJ Wander made plenty of people sit up and take notice when he dropped his powerful single Time Out back in November, and he’s not taking his foot off the gas. Just a few weeks later, and the talented young performer has followed up with his latest effort Way We Walk.

American indie-pop outfit Foster The People are the brainchild of singer, songwriter and multiinstrumentalist Mark Foster, and have been through a few lineup changes over the years since they founded in Los Angeles in 2009. They’ve been through a few different sounds too, regularly mixing elements of dance, pop, indie, rock and psychedelia on their three albums to date (Torches in 2011, 2014’s Supermodel, and Sacred Hearts Club, released three years ago).

Australian electro duo The Avalanches dropped their second album Wildflower in 2016, and so, by most yardsticks, the four-year wait for their newly released third album We Will Always Love You would be quite a long one. But when you consider that the group took sixteen years to release the follow up to their widely lauded debut Since I Left You, it becomes clear that they’re now positively motoring along, by their own standards.

London-based singer-songwriter Sody has been impressing with her sublimely rich vocals and ability to craft raw, honest pop songs since she dropped her debut release Wasted Youth back in 2016. Still a teenager, Sody (otherwise known as Sophie Dyson) is already clocking up almost two and a half million monthly listens on Spotify and has collaborated with the likes of Cavetown on her work to date.

Burrows, the long-awaited debut for Leeds-based trio Caro, is a beguiling beast. They’re a gloriously diverse band, skipping merrily from psychedelic electro to introspective folk and back again with a seemingly reckless abandon, and that makes Burrows a fantastically rewarding listen. For the uninitiated though, it’s a record that might take a while to settle into. But when you do, it’s an absolute delight, like passing through the wardrobe door into a musical Narnia, albeit a very troubled one.

Singer, songwriter, producer, multi-instrumentalist, global superstar – there’s plenty of labels you could attach to James Blake. But throughout his glittering career, which has so far featured a Mercury Prize win (and a further nomination), a Grammy Award (and five further nominations) and three Brit Award nominations, as well as projects working with everyone from Bon Iver to Beyonce, he’s never shied away from changing things up.

One Cure for Man has just dropped another gorgeous new single, following on from his May 2020 release, “Haunted.” Also known as James Parkinson, One Cure for Man is once again showing his amazing ability to take inspiration from the most heartbreaking losses, to teach and encourage us, through his apt and eloquent lyrics and catchy musical style.

After founding as a four-piece in 2009, indie hip-hop outfit Twenty One Pilots were reduced to the duo of vocalist Tyler Joseph and drummer Josh Dun when fellow founding members Nick Thomas and Chris Salih departed in 2011. That might have derailed lesser bands, but Twenty One Pilots refocused, and have enjoyed a huge amount of success over the last decade or so in this guise.