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”
Tag Archives: Album review
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: 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”
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”
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”
Album Review: Ezra Furman- Goodbye Small Head
As the culture wars rage on, Ms Ezra Furman plays in the rubble, seeking diamonds. This is a return to form after the slightly disappointing previous album, All Of Us Flames, which seemed at times like she was coasting through a more commercial sound. There are no such problems here. As the transphobic laws wereContinue reading “Album Review: Ezra Furman- Goodbye Small Head”
Album Review: Model/Actriz- Pirouette
This simply has to be one of the best albums of the year. A mash up of so many exciting elements: the dancefloor burn of mid-noughties American artists like LCD Soundsystem; wild experimentation of no wave and sheer filth of glam at its sleaziest. It’s night time music for seduction or moving under neon lights.Continue reading “Album Review: Model/Actriz- Pirouette”
Album Review: Mamalarkey- Hex Key
It seems that wonky pop, which emerged in the mid-noughties, is alive and thriving after all. Atlanta band Mamalarkey deal in this often underrated genre. It’s all of the unexpected sonic U -turns that make this new album such a delight. From the euphoric folk bounce of ‘#1 Best Of All Time’ to the sunny,Continue reading “Album Review: Mamalarkey- Hex Key”
Album Review: MIEN- MIIEN
Austin band MIEN invoke the psychedelic sixties with this new album, which feels more like a homage than pushing the genre forward. It’s not clear why it exists really, but what it does, it does well. There’s a slice of Silver Apples in opener ‘Evil People’ and ‘Mirror’, but it’s more interesting when it goesContinue reading “Album Review: MIEN- MIIEN”
Hit The North 