The Student Playlist

Showcasing the Best New Music, Curating the Classics

Posts by Ed Biggs

REVIEW: Kurt Vile – ‘b’lieve i’m goin’ down’ (Matador)

by Matthew Langham Former member of The War On Drugs and multi-instrumentalist Kurt Vile has become one of the kings of the indie underground, a mainstay on year-end charts since his 2013 commercial hit album Wakin On A Pretty Daze – his fifth record since his 2008 debut Constant Hitmaker. That album saw a change in style towards a use of sun-kissed electric guitar riffs mixed with his distinctive mellow vocals.

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CULT ’90s: The La’s – ‘The La’s’

by Ed Biggs The long rise to fame, the fleeting brilliance, and the mysterious demise of Liverpool’s The La’s remains one of British pop music’s intriguing stories. There can’t be many people in the Western world that aren’t familiar with their signature song ‘There She Goes’, one of the purest pop records to ever fit into the indie genre, but their one and only album is not as appreciated or widely

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REVIEW: Disclosure – ‘Caracal’ (Island / Universal)

by Ed Biggs From the quirkiest corners of the blogosphere to the listening habits of teens and clubbers throughout the nation, it quickly became a cast-iron given that Settle, Guy and Howard Lawrence’s 2013 debut album as Disclosure, was a modern classic. Channelling their wide range of influences, ranging from house and techno to dubstep and garage, through a kaleidoscopic template and offering an alternative for electronic music (crucially free of

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REVIEW: Chvrches – ‘Every Open Eye’ (Virgin / Glassnote)

by Ed Biggs Scottish trio Chvrches deservedly spent most of last year on a triumphant tour soaking up the adulation directed at their scintillating 2013 debut album The Bones Of What You Believe. Highly melodic and sharply produced, it was poised perfectly between genres – too pop to be indie, too indie to be pop – but that didn’t stop the band from reaching a wide audience ranging from the blogosphere to

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REVIEW: New Order – ‘Music Complete’ (Mute)

by Ed Biggs Okay, cards on the table time – I absolutely adore New Order. Having been introduced to their legendary former incarnation Joy Division as a moody, sniffy teenager, I discovered the music they made during their second life at around the same time as under-age drinking and clubbing. Suffice to say, with the help of their seminal compilation Substance, New Order changed my life and broadened my horizons. But

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REVIEW: Angel Haze – ‘Back To The Woods’ (mixtape)

by Ed Biggs Having unexpectedly mis-stepped with 2013’s major label debut Dirty Gold, Angel Haze has decided to go back to the format of the mixtape for their next statement. Real name Raee’n Roes Wilson, Haze came out as agender earlier this year and prefers to be referred to by the singular, gender-neutral pronouns ‘they’ and ‘them’, which this review will respect.

REVIEW: Lana Del Rey – ‘Honeymoon’ (Polydor)

by Ed Biggs Faded Hollywood glamour, tales of doomed runaways, naivety and shattered dreams… pretty much everything you need to know about Lana Del Rey’s third album Honeymoon is communicated to you by its bleached-out, garish cover art. It comes barely a year after her quite wonderful second effort Ultraviolence, which smoothed over the shortcomings of her 2012 debut Born To Die. Where her first made her seem like a dilettante,

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REVIEW: Metric – ‘Pagans In Vegas’ (Universal)

by Matthew Langham Long gone are the days of indie rock hits from Toronto’s Metric. With old tracks including ‘Monster Hospital’ and ‘Gold Gun Girls’ they became a recognised name nearly ten years ago, if only as minor hangers-on to the indie scene throughout the mid-noughties, and were a reasonably consistent indie rock band capable of an enjoyably throwaway sets for early afternoon slots at festivals. Now onto their sixth record

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REVIEW: Battles – ‘La Di Da Di’ (Warp)

by Ed Biggs Four years ago, New York’s Battles dealt with the departure of their former lead singer Tyondai Braxton by hiring a number of guest vocalists for their thrilling second album Gloss Drop, giving it the feeling of a compilation or mixtape rather than a studio album. It soft, pliable sound, missing the sharp, angular edges of the group’s 2007 debut Mirrored, but was terrific, bizarre fun nonetheless. For their

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CLASSIC ’80s: Kate Bush – ‘Hounds Of Love’

by Ed Biggs If you were to compile and average out all of those articles that you see from time to time that profess to list the greatest records ever, it’s quite possible that Kate Bush’s fifth album Hounds Of Love would end up as the highest-ranking record by a British female solo artist. As well as containing some of Bush’s most memorable and highest-charting singles, it very quickly came to

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