Latest Reviews

From the howling vocal ad-libs to the intricate piano interludes with weaving musical arpeggios, this Avant-garde, from the howling vocal ad-libs to the intricate piano interludes with weaving musical arpeggios, this Avant-garde, freak folk style new release is organized chaos in audible form.

Indie pop foursome Fickle Friends emerged from the Brighton music scene in the mid-2010s with an undeniably impressive work ethic. In a bid to land a record deal, the group played 53 festivals in two years before being signed by Polydor Records, who recorded the band’s debut album, 2018’s You Are Someone Else, in Los Angeles with Brit Award-winning producer Mike Crossey. It reached number nine in the UK Album’s Chart and received some excellent reviews.

Welsh electronic musician and producer Kelly Lee Owens took an unusual step with the release of Inner Song, her second album and the follow up to 2017’s self-titled debut album which received widespread critical acclaim. With the Coronavirus pandemic looming large over us all, she chose to delay the release of her new album as a gesture of solidarity with record stores that had been forced to shut their doors.

If nothing else, Rudimental’s ‘Come Over’ presents one of the most inspiring tempos of 2020. As a master producer band, Rudimental know all too well about mixing up the beats and rhythms to develop pieces that are exhilarating, dynamic, and impassioned at the same time. This time around, they’ve listed the talents of fellow British artists Anne Marie and Tion Wayne to help take this feature onto the next level. 

Sasha Sloan’s ‘House With No Mirrors’ exemplifies the beauty of a simple, straightforward melody. At a time when the preferred style for most female artists seems to lean on the side of loud, showy, and explosive, it’s genuinely refreshing to see an artist touch upon her own vulnerabilities.

When two of the biggest names in pop music come together for a collaboration, you know it’s going to be worth a listen. The Weeknd and Calvin Harris’s ‘Over Now’ is a velvety-smooth drive through the nostalgic years of R&B and retro.

This is an easy review to write. With Lie Out Loud London-based four-piece BLOXX have composed an album that is stuffed full of smart, insanely catchy and well crafted indie-pop goodness. And if that’s your cup of tea, and even if it isn’t, you should go and give it a listen right now.

It’s a little bit of a paradox that Conor Oberst has arguably never been more well known than he is right now thanks to a string of solo albums that have made him, if not quite a household name then at least not far from it, but his most well-known moniker – that of Bright Eyes – haven’t released an album in almost a decade.

If you haven’t heard of Jerry Joseph, don’t worry, I’m sure you’re not alone. He’s had the kind of life and career in music that reads like a novel. From incarceration and being sent to boarding school in New Zealand as a child, to founding non-profit the Nomad Music Organization, and touring the world as a solo artist and with his succession of bands, from 1980s rock-reggae outfit Little Women to supergroup Stockholm Syndrome, and plenty more in-between, he’s amassed an enormous back catalogue and plenty of stories along the way.

Now into their fifth decade together, electro synth-pop duo Erasure have seen it all in their glittering career. As one of the pioneering acts of the UK electronica scene, they crossed over into enormous commercial success and became one of the biggest bands of the 1980s and 1990s. Incredibly, between 1986 and 2007, they achieved 24 consecutive Top 40 hits in the UK, and to date, they’ve sold over 25 million records.