by Ed Biggs No amount of hypnotherapy will make anyone who heard it forget how poor Richard Ashcroft’s last album United Nations Of Sound was back in 2010. To hear this totemic figure of Britpop, who defined the zeitgeist in 1997 with The Verve’s multi-million selling masterpiece Urban Hymns, stoop to such depths in a flawed attempt to re-brand himself would have been hilarious if Ashcroft hadn’t been responsible for such
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by Ollie Rankine Historically speaking, Australia has never fully been able to keep hold of its reputation of being a regular breeding ground for quality popular music. Recently going to spectacularly impressive lengths to prove us wrong, it seems the Aussies have finally got their act together by giving birth to Tame Impala, Courtney Barnett, Pond and Jagwar Ma to name just a few.
by John Tindale During ‘All We Got’, the first track on Coloring Book (thanks for the spelling America…) the follow-up to 2013’s vibrant Acid Rap exudes joy, Chance The Rapper boasts “Man I swear my life is perfect, I could merch it” and it’s easy to understand why. The past three years have seen Chicagoan Chancelor Bennett rise into the upper echelons of hip-hop’s stars and over the course of his
by Ollie Rankine It’s taken six years and 14 home-recorded albums for Car Seat Headrest’s Will Toledo, a bedroom artist par extraordinaire, to finally step into a recording studio. Previously managing to turn a handful of heads with 2011’s Twin Fantasy, fans waiting patiently for Toledo’s studio scepticism to subside finally have something to cheer about with Teens Of Denial, the release of his first ever professionally produced studio album.
by Ollie Rankine It appears Twin Peaks are in the process of parting with their adolescence. In typical high school band style, the Chicago quintet released their lo-fi, angst-propelled debut mini-album Sunken in 2013 in an attempt to stimulate interest from America’s petulant and apathetic youth. Since then, much has changed. Having embarked on their quest in the search for musical maturity via 2014’s Wild Onion, Twin Peaks’ new record Down In Heaven
by Ollie Rankine We can all remember Alex Turner’s triumphant, mic-drop acceptance speech following AM’s Album of the Year victory at the 2014 BRIT Awards. “Rock ‘n’ roll will never die” was his ego-encased message to the watching world. Two years later, it seems fitting that his choice of support act to accompany The Last Shadow Puppets’ latest venture reinforces his statement’s sincerity accordingly.
by Ed Biggs Released a little over two years ago, Eagulls’ self-titled debut was one of the rare post-punk revival records over the last decade that has truly understood the dynamics of the genre and also revitalised it with something quintessentially now. Few have channelled the ghost of Ian Curtis as successfully as lead singer George Mitchell, but the sound behind Eagulls was aggressive and urgent, driven by existential panic and
by John Tindale Philadelphia quartet Modern Baseball have built a reputation for playful songs about love and the internet – all standard stuff for a pop-rock-meets-emo band. But on the back of a cancelled tour of Australia and news of co-frontman Brendan Lukens’ time in rehab for manic depression, Holy Ghost stands as a moment of triumph in a dying genre. Splitting the record into two sides (the first written by
by Ollie Rankine White Lung frontwoman Mish Way is fast becoming the driving force behind girl power in modern punk rock. Having been greatly influenced by ‘90s punk icon Courtney Love, Way is practically her purified artistic reincarnation, retaining Love’s wit and articulation but ditching the drama and controversy. Churning out four studio albums since White Lung’s formation in 2006, Way’s fondness for fast-paced fury has been obviously apparent from the
by Ed Biggs Throughout his short but dazzling career thusfar, James Blake has always come across as somebody determined to re-cast electronic music into something deep, innovative and distinctively modern. Anyone who heard his chilling, minimalist deconstruction of Feist’s ‘Limit To Your Love’ half a decade ago, a demonstration of his ability to say so much with so little, to utilise the silence in and around his skeletal music to his
