by Ed Biggs Emerging from the hotbed that was the Bristol scene nearly a quarter of a century ago, Massive Attack were responsible for at least two of the greatest British albums of the ‘90s, maybe even three depending on how favourably you view Protection. 1991’s sublime Blue Lines, celebrating its 25th anniversary later this year, belongs among the all-time greats, filtering jazz, dub, reggae and rap into quintessentially British mixture
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by Matthew Langham Recorded in their hometown of Sunderland, Field Music, consisting Peter and David Brewis, return with their sixth studio album looking to capitalise on the Mercury-nominated Plumb, and is considered to be one of their most accessible records to date. The duo have previously been compared to the likes of XTC, Talking Heads and Hot Chip – and Commontime perfectly highlights how Field Music are as far removed from
by John Tindale Adele, Beyonce, Shakira and Rihanna: what do they all have in common? They all rejected tracks from Austalian writer-for-hire Sia that eventually made it on her sixth album This Is Acting. Sia Furler has long prided herself on being able to adopt the persona of any given pop-star and write a hit in an instant; Rihanna’s ‘Diamonds’ was written in 15 minutes, while Sia’s David Guetta collaboration ‘Titanium’
by Ed Biggs Although they’re one of the most iconic and important guitar bands of all time, Ramones sold way more shirts than they ever did records. As Stereogum pointed out in 2015, if everyone who owns a Ramones T-shirt had instead bought one of their albums, they’d be one of the biggest bands in history.
by Matthew Langham Savages’ focussed, demonic Silence Yourself was amongst one of the most critically acclaimed albums of 2013 with its confrontational approach to experimental rock and punk. With a Mercury Prize nomination in their back pocket, the all-female foursome return with the follow-up to their debut record, Adore Life. Aesthetically the band borrowed liberally from their post-punk influences, including Joy Division and Siouxsie & The Banshees, and they ran away
by John Tindale After fading into obscurity, Chairlift are back, following up from hit-and-miss 2012 album Something, they took their time about releasing follow-up record Moth. One can’t help but feel sorry for the Brooklyn duo, with incredible songs like ‘Bruises’ being drowned out by the Mumford-induced folk epidemic and then mistiming their wonderful blend of ‘80s revivalism long before it began to gain success on both sides of the Atlantic,
by Ed Biggs Behind the production desk, Steve Albini is one of the most celebrated creative forces in alternative music, with a reputation for helping craft music as harsh and uncompromising as his own attitudes towards what he regards as bullshit, or too mainstream. As a man who has repeatedly turned down major labels and artists unless he shares some kind of artistic simpatico with them, Nirvana’s In Utero and PJ
by John Tindale Upon the release of Emotional Mugger, Ty Segall described the album as: “the over-communication relayed in cell based technology and content driven media further detaches passengers of our modern society from deep emotional understanding”, thus Emotional Mugger is debatably a concept album discussing the perils of the modern age and its relationship with the internet and it comes at a crossroads in the career of Segall.
by Ed Biggs As one of the many artists that made 2013 such an unusually strong year for good comeback records, Suede’s first album in 11 years, Bloodsports, at last provided the appropriate full stop to their legacy that their output in the ‘90s deserved, and which 2002’s dire A New Morning singularly failed to provide. Having cleansed our palates from that sour aftertaste, Brett Anderson and his gang must now
by Ed Biggs The vast majority of albums need a sort of cooling-off period before being considered as a classic, but for Arctic Monkeys’ debut that status was conferred instantly, and with good justification. Not since Definitely Maybe had so many breathless superlatives been uttered about a British guitar debut album, and neither had such massive sales figures been delivered on the back of such hype. This was a band that
