The Student Playlist

Showcasing the Best New Music, Curating the Classics

Category Best New Music

REVIEW: Dr. Dre – ‘Compton’ (Aftermath / Interscope)

by Ed Biggs When his former colleague Ice Cube dropped the news at the end of July that Dr. Dre was imminently going to release a new album, the internet promptly lost its shit. Having done so much to sculpt the sound of hip-hop as we know it today – through N.W.A.’s Straight Outta Compton in 1989, which provided the genre’s Sex Pistols moment, his solo debut The Chronic in 1992,

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REVIEW: Health – ‘Death Magic’ (Loma Vista)

by Ed Biggs Los Angeles’ electronic noise-pop outfit Health have experienced commercial success that they almost certainly couldn’t have anticipated over the last few years. Though they haven’t released a proper studio album since 2009’s Get Color, their 2012 soundtrack for Rockstar Games’ blockbuster shooter Max Payne 3 has sold in excess of four million copies.

REVIEW: Titus Andronicus – ‘The Most Lamentable Tragedy’ (Merge)

by Ed Biggs New Jersey punk rock four-piece Titus Andronicus made one of the most celebrated underground albums of the decade so far with their second effort, 2010’s The Monitor, an audacious concept album about the American Civil War that scraped the depths of the national psyche and came up with treasures aplenty. Their troubled lead singer, Patrick Stickles, won plenty of fans for his cuttingly incisive lyrics and his songs’

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REVIEW: Tame Impala – ‘Currents’ (Modular / Fiction)

by Lauren James & Ed Biggs As the auteur behind Tame Impala, arguably the most celebrated new guitar band of the 2010s, Kevin Parker is nothing but an experimentalist. As soon as the world had begun to demand more of his retro brand of ’60s-inspired nu-psychedelia after the critical and commercial triumph of 2012’s Lonerism, he announced that he was jumping lilypads to a sound that is more synth than fuzz; more hipster,

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REVIEW: Four Tet – Morning/Evening (Text Records)

by Ed Biggs Operating as Four Tet for over fifteen years, Kieran Hebden has been one of the most consistent forces in the kaleidoscopic collection of sub-genres that constitutes British electronic music, with his 2003 album Rounds universally considered to be a classic. However, his last album, 2013’s Beautiful Rewind, had all the elements that traditionally make up Four Tet records – gentle beats, downtempo rhythms and field recordings making up

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REVIEW: Ezra Furman – ‘Perpetual Motion People’ (Bella Union)

by Matthew Langham Chicago-based troubadour Ezra Furman returns with his third solo album, a highly charged record which springs from OCD, sexuality, religion and alienation. Perpetual Motion People has everything a solid rock ‘n’ roll album should have, full of the pent-up frustrations of lonely youth, one that Furman calls ‘an album for misfits’. Having received praise from BBC6 Music’s Marc Riley (as well as many other music critics) for his

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REVIEW: The Orb – ‘Moonbuilding 2703 AD’ (Kompakt)

by Ed Biggs Those of you with very sharp musical memories might recall the early ‘90s heyday of The Orb, a cult favourite for those ravers whose favourite part of the night was the 5am chillout room. A dub-influenced ambient duo now currently in its sixth incarnation – German electronic composer Thomas Fehlmann has been working with the ever-present Orb founder Alex Paterson since the late ‘00s – they enjoyed a

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REVIEW: Wolf Alice – ‘My Love Is Cool’ (Dirty Hit)

by Ed Biggs We’ve been waiting nearly two and a half years for this moment, an absolute eternity in our rapidly churning social media age of hype and backlash. Wolf Alice appeared on radar back in February 2013 with their first single ‘Fluffy’, but their origins go way back to 2010 and their embryonic self-titled EP. Releasing only a couple of singles and EPs since then, the London quartet have been

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REVIEW: Gengahr – ‘A Dream Outside’ (Transgressive)

by Matthew Langham Shelved alongside the likes of Tame Impala and Unknown Mortal Orchestra, London-based Gengahr have been one of the main critic’s choices for bands to watch in 2015. Following on from their brilliant set at Live At Leeds, their full-length debut A Dream Outside is a melting pot of summery, psychedelic pop hooks. On first listen it might float by without any immediate impact – after all, the air

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REVIEW: Donnie Trumpet & The Social Experiment – ‘Surf’ (self-released)

by Ed Biggs Franz Ferdinand & Sparks may have recently sung about how collaborations don’t work – oh yes, they do! Surf, a weird and wonderful record surprise-released at the end of May as a free download, sees a very unlikely (and probably one-off) combination of hip-hop upstart Chance The Rapper, young jazz musician Donnie Trumpet (the stage name of 21 year old Nico Segal), his backing band and a stellar

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