Friend of Hit The North and all -round legend Anna Secret Poet is back with arguably her most epic album to date. There’s some introspection wrapped in a piledriving anthem (‘Aimless’) a soupcon of cheeky country grunge with ricocheting guitars (‘ Old Unfaithful ‘) and the typical eccentricity we’ve come to associate with her songContinue reading “Album Review: Anna Secret Poet- I Saw This And Thought Of You”
Category Archives: Album
Album Review: Debby Friday- The Starrr Of The Queen Of Life
All the best pop bangers have a yearning undercurrent: think Madonna’s ‘What It Feels Like For A Girl ‘, Robyn’s ‘Dancing On My Own’, St Etienne and ‘He’s On The Phone’. This is also true with R & B- any number of artists, from The Supremes to Solange, mine dark corners of the dancefloor toContinue reading “Album Review: Debby Friday- The Starrr Of The Queen Of Life”
Album Review: Allo Darlin’ -Bright Nights
Photo: Jorgen Nordby There’s something sweetly disarming about the new Allo Darlin’ album. It’s the way the organ comes in halfway through the bittersweet country grunge of ‘Tricky Questions’ like a warm embrace. These songs aren’t large or all-consuming, nothing elbows its way in: they take up little space. But they’re slices of life, vignettesContinue reading “Album Review: Allo Darlin’ -Bright Nights”
Album Review: All The Young Droids: Junkshop Synth Pop
Philip King’s compilation of late-seventies – mid-eighties synth pop has a similar, if less political, approach as Adam Curtis: find leftfield, obscure tracks and highlight them, creating a sideways look at pop culture. As the title suggests, there is a DIY, deliberately un-glossy attitude to much of the music on offer. Frankie Goes To HollywoodContinue reading “Album Review: All The Young Droids: Junkshop Synth Pop”
Album Review: Rival Consoles- Landscape From Memory
What a beauty. The gorgeous, endlessly inventive new album, from Rival Consoles, aka Ryan Lee West, invokes a kind of synaesthesia: you can almost hear colours. It’s textured, layer upon layer, like a kind of complex tromp l’oeil painting in sound. Tracks like ‘Catherine’, ‘Known Shapes’ and the stunning, shimmering ‘Soft Gradient Beckons’ appear likeContinue reading “Album Review: Rival Consoles- Landscape From Memory”
Overlooked Classics: Amiina- Puzzle (2011)
Puzzle from 2011 saw the genre blurring Icelandic band Amiina experiment and expand even more, having started out as an all -female string quartet in Reykjavik. They looked like some kind of mad fin de siecle inventors catapulted into the twenty first century on the front cover, which seems entirely apposite: vintage and contemporary coexisting.Continue reading “Overlooked Classics: Amiina- Puzzle (2011)”
Album Review: Frankie Cosmos- Different Talking
For over a decade, Greta Kline with her band Frankie Cosmos has been making her own brand of sweetly introspective indie pop, full of wry observations and a melancholic undertow. There’s more of this on her sixth studio album, but with some nice experimentation thrown in. Call it ‘Sad Girl Summer’ if you like. IContinue reading “Album Review: Frankie Cosmos- Different Talking”
Sometimes, More Is Less
Pulp’s reunion has been all over the press here, and understandably so- they’ve not made a studio album in twenty four years. I was so excited to hear the latest fruits of their labour, as Jarvis Cocker is one of the UK’s most astute frontmen and waspish wits. I love the outsiders; the oddballs, theContinue reading “Sometimes, More Is Less”
Archive Review: Julia Holter- Aviary
Julia HolterAviary Uneasy listening from LA multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter In a sea of twee folksy singer songwriters, it’s reassuring that we are blessed with some genuinely unique and gifted artists who occupy their own sonic territory: singular women like Annie Clark, aka St Vincent; Kathryn Joseph, Solange, Jane Weaver, FKA Twigs, and Mary Epworth. Los Angeles based multi instrumentalist and singer-songwriter JuliaContinue reading “Archive Review: Julia Holter- Aviary”
Album Review: CLAMM- Serious Acts
Melbourne trio CLAMM have been bubbling up over the last few years, creating an enjoyable and disarming racket. The band, who consist of Jack Summers, Stella Rennex and Miles Harding, mine the best parts of punk, post -punk and noise music, but they’ve got a lot to say about contemporary society too, reflected in theirContinue reading “Album Review: CLAMM- Serious Acts”
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