‘Sunlit Youth’ is a celebration of hooks and nuances with a developing sound which suggests Local Natives are more than ready to truly break out into the minds of the masses.
‘Trick’ reconciles the soulful street poetry of his first two records with his new-found sense of maturity, and it’s Jamie T’s most consistently enjoyable album so far.
by Ed Biggs Since their dense and detailed 2014 debut album ZABA, Oxford’s folktronica four-piece Glass Animals have made impressive commercial strides into key markets across the world. America seems to be falling in love with them, and Britain isn’t far behind, with recent single ‘Life Itself’ getting serious radio rotation.
This year we’ve had records from Beyoncé, Radiohead, Kanye West etc. but in the midst of the global icons, a superstar introvert has released the most important album of the year and his second masterpiece in a row.
by John Tindale Thee Oh Sees are an oddity in a music industry which trudges along with the same formula of an album every two years and songs fitting the mould of verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus etc. Thee Oh Sees, now on their 11th album in eight years, are the band that tears up the rulebook to create their own cosmic landscape and in A Weird Exits, it works wonderfully.
Blossoms have been busy blooming this year, with numerous sold out shows across the country as well as making it onto BBC’s Sound of New Music list at the start of 2016. The release of their self-titled debut album Blossoms earlier this week, at the peak of summer and festival season, is just the icing on the cake for the Stockport quintet, sending them into the mainstream headlights in their
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by Ed Biggs Five albums and nearly ten years into their career without making a single mis-step in artistic terms, Wild Beasts are one of the most trusted musical brand in Britain today. Having dazzled critics and won over new fans with their second and third albums, Two Dancers (2009) and Smother (2011), characterised by sensual, ambient guitar pop and smutty, self-effacing vocals and lyrics. 2014’s Present Tense pitched their sound
by Ollie Rankine After an unusual four year hiatus riddled by much squabbling among artists hoping for a collaboration, (most notably, Kanye West) Michael Kiwanuka has finally, once again, found himself standing beneath the limelight with the release of his recent album, Love & Hate. Following up his Mercury-nominated, soul-folk debut Home Again, Kiwanuka returns armed with a far more accomplished production team than usual with British producer Inflo and Brian
by John Tindale It has been a tough time for Top Dawg Entertainment in recent years. Yes, there has been the unrivalled success of Kendrick Lamar and his classic To Pimp A Butterfly, but on the whole, the label’s reputation and visibility has certainly dropped from its peak buzz back in 2012. Jay Rock’s 2015 album 90059 remains painfully underrated and Ab-Soul’s These Days was passable at best, but in ScHoolboy
by John Tindale “I always believed I had the potential to be a pop star,” Roisin Murphy quipped on her return to music after eight years away with the excellent Hairless Toys, the follow-up to possibly the most underrated album of the noughties in Overpowered. But, as is the case with many stars, Murphy never seemed to transcend popular culture, in just the same way as her similarly underrated group Moloko
