The Student Playlist

Showcasing the Best New Music, Curating the Classics

Tag Ollie Rankine

REVIEW: Pond – ‘Tasmania’ (Marathon)

Musically speaking, not much is new on Pond’s eighth album ‘Tasmania’, except for Nick Allbrook’s weighty cynicism about the future of humanity.

REVIEW: Frank Turner – ‘Be More Kind’ (Polydor)

On his seventh album ‘Be More Kind’, a collection of highly polished pop-rock anthems, Frank Turner’s idealistic political venting finally becomes tiresome and grating.

REVIEW: Hinds – ‘I Don’t Run’ (Lucky Number)

Trading in hooks for warmer pop textures but retaining the lo-fi feel of their debut, Hinds’ second album ‘I Don’t Run’ is another understated success.

REVIEW: Hot Snakes – ‘Jericho Sirens’ (Sub Pop)

The first Hot Snakes album in 14 years, ‘Jericho Sirens’, does a magnificent job in living up to the cult reputation that their first three records built up in their absence.

REVIEW: David Byrne – ‘American Utopia’ (Nonesuch / Todo Mundo)

Too much of ‘American Utopia’, the first solo album from David Byrne in 14 years, sounds hopelessly outdated for it to pass as anything other than okay.

REVIEW: Franz Ferdinand – ‘Always Ascending’ (Domino)

With limited but highly enjoyable successes on their fifth album ‘Always Ascending’, Franz Ferdinand can still claim to have relevance in 2018.

CULT ’60s: The Velvet Underground – ‘White Light/White Heat’

‘White Light/White Heat’ may have been made without Andy Warhol and Nico, but contains six tracks of raw, ugly but compelling garage-rock. Sadly, it would be the last album by the classic Velvet Underground line-up.

REVIEW: OCS – ‘Memory Of A Cut Off Head’ (Castle Face)

Psychedelic garage rock veteran John Dwyer continues his prodigious output rate by returning to his OCS moniker on ‘Memory Of A Cut Off Head’.

REVIEW: Teen Daze – ‘Themes For A New Earth’ (Flora)

Jamison Isaak delivers the second of two Teen Daze albums of 2017, both focussed on ecological and environmental issues, but ‘Themes For A New Earth’ is notably more optimistic.

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