Review: Applying what we're all thinking in February 2021 to a kind of Netflix & Chill parody, Fickle Friends are definitely the most thematically fitting band of the month. The Brighton outfit join a long and esteemed list of British pop groups that manage to marry scathing, sarcasm, and bare-boned honesty with sweetness, beauty and universality. Providing you like those keyboards with a No.1-style glitter coating, of course.
Opening on biggest of the lot, 'What A Time', the troupe opt to get the most inescapably positive out of the way first before rolling out real variety. '92' is an icy cool, emotionally scarred (or scarring?) ballad, 'Million' is a stepping, rave-rock workout, with 'IRL' apparently made for sunnier times than the current UK winter, and finale 'Finish Line' closing out on a calming and uplifting tone that's not a million miles away from what some would describe as Balearic chill.
Review: Hot on the heels of his acclaimed sophomore album A Lover Was Born, Kelly Finnigan makes a quick return with this soul-packed 7". The A-side, 'Get A Hold Of Yourself,' is a Northern soul-inspired stomper that channels the raw emotion of Memphis soul with heavy drums, syncopated guitars, bold horns and Finnigan's impassioned vocals. It tells the story of a rocky relationship where emotional strain disrupts physical connection then the B-side is a fresh bonus cut from the A Lover Was Born sessions inspired by Barbara & The Browns' Stax classic 'Hurts Me So Much'. It's a moody groove with gospel-infused vocals.
Review: We're pretty sure our catalogue is full of albums by The Fall which we describe in gushing terms. More fool us for using all the words before this re-issue of the band's seminal live record arrived, because it really is that good. Laid down at shows in Chicago, New York, San Francisco, Houston, and Memphis, to put things in no uncertain terms it bangs in the best possible way, offering the kind of unashamed gutter punk we find ourselves sorely lacking in most rock 'n' roll today.
Of course, back in 1982, when this first landed, critics were torn as to whether they wanted to demand more from Mark E. Smith, et al. And back then perhaps that was a valid point. Speaking in today's terms, though, A Part of America Therein 1981 represents a moment in time when authenticity was far more commonplace, and the impact of hearing that is nothing short of profound.
Review: By the time Shift-Work came along, The Fall had put out 13 studio albums and been going for 15 years. Apparently ready to switch things up, Mark E Smith sacked guitarist Martin Bramah and keyboardist Marcia Schofield after the Australian leg of the tour for Extricate, cutting the lineup to four, for the first time in the band's history. Then he set to work finishing a record that had been started while on the road. Few would fail to pick up on the difference between here and before. While there's still plenty of those mesmerising, experimental, punk-not-punk goth moments, Shift-Work also embraces more pop sensibilities and seems to take more time to pay respect to rock & roll, or a gritty interpretation of it. Meanwhile, tracks like 'Edinburgh Man' and 'A Lot of Wind' feel introspective than ever.
Review: After turning his hand to big band jazz on his previous album, Father John Misty (John Tilman to friends and family) returns to more familiar sonic territory on this sixth set. The Sanskrit title apparently translates to "great cremation ground", offering a hint to the weighty and philosophical themes behind some of the singer-songwriter's lyrics this time around. In many ways, it is a classic Father John Misty album: all sweeping strings, Americana-tinged folk-rock, grandiose 1970s pop-rock productions, funky-as-hell nods to Rare Earth ('She Cleans Up') effortlessly emotive vocals and White Album-era Beatles excellence.
Review: You need real confidence to take on a back catalogue of The Velvet Underground's caliber. Of course, it definitely helps if your band were contemporaries of sorts, knocked about in similar circles in the heady New York City scenes of the early-mid-1970s, and subscribed to Village Voice (and impressed their editorial team even before you got signed). All this means you don't redo tracks with borrowed nostalgia or vibes, but instead have first hand experience of what helped make them what they were at the time. So here we are then, Big Apple alt rock & rollers The Feelies turning their hands to the work of Lou Reed et al, paying homage to an outfit that had a huge influence on them in the first place. And they do a fine job, straddling the delicate line between reworking and completely rethinking anthems from 'Venus in Furs' to 'Sunday Morning', carefully managing to make each their own without forgetting what made these songs so incredible in the first place.
Review: Death Is Nothing To Us has been a long time coming, and in many ways represents pinnacle moment in the Fiddlehead story. In 2010, Pat Flynn, who some knew though Have Heart, lost a father who left behind his grief-stricken mother. Faced with the profound impact death can have on those forced to pick up the pieces, and feeling incapable of helping, this emotional period directly informed Fiddlehead's 2018 debut, Springtime & The Blind. A little later, Flynn's first child came into the world, and the sadness that comes with having a kid but no father to introduce them to was distilled into 2021's follow up, Between The Richness. Now, two years on, Death Is Nothing To Us rounds off the fatalistic trilogy, a rousing journey from bleak depression to strength, which touches on ideas from sleeping off trauma to leaning on friends. The result is every bit the right way to conclude this odyssey - leaving us under no illusions as to how difficult life can be, but how important it is to acknowledge when it's there, all delivered through equally vital hardcore anthems.
Review: Field Music unveils 'Binding Time' for this year's Record Store Day and it is a poignant suite of songs inspired by the Durham Miners' Association's formation, all performed alongside members of the NASUWT Riverside band. The album was first commissioned for the Durham Brass Festival and slated for Redhills' DMA performance in July 2021, but sadly Covid restrictions postponed the event until its debut at Durham's Gala Theatre in 2022. Peter and David, the duo behind Field Music, meticulously researched the region's mining history and weave in personal narratives with historical facts. The album delves into miners' struggles, blacklisting, and societal impacts, completing a trilogy of socio-historical albums following 2015's Music for Drifters and 2021's Making a New World.
Review: Film De Geurre aka Fred Laser, Max Whiteshoe, Victor Chon and Xenia dropped their self titled dark wave, post punk and minimal synth masterpiece back in 1981. It has become a cult classic ever since and is their one and only ever album. It now comes reissued with a 24"x24" poster & original insert with lyrics courtesy of Mental Groove. The rhythms throughout are stark but compelling, with jangling guitars layered up over the chilly synths and dark, deadpan vocals delivered up top in a matter of fact style. It has a steady pulse that keeps you locked in as the guitar strings ping about and the mood changes from curious and beguiling to more moody and direct
Review: It's always pleasurable to watch a band grow into themselves, realise early promises and fulfil potential. It wouldn't be over-egging it to say that Palomino, the fifth album from Klara Soderberg and sister, represents that moment for First Aid Kit. The Swedish indie-pop siblings have been courting praise and attention for years now, but there's always been a sense of not quite being ready for the big time, until now.
LP five is an altogether freer record, to say the least, and as such represents the pair growing into their own skin and finally having the confidence to step out of it. Laid bare, we're given meditations on mid-road trip break ups, self-acceptance, emotional doubts and redemption. Familiar themes, yes, nevertheless everything here is dealt a refreshing original hand.
Review: FKA Twigs' latest LP 'Caprisongs', widely known as her poptimist opus (contrasting to her earlier experiments) now gets a luminous vinyl pressing via Young. It does well to justify her reinvention after breaking up with a disgraced actor whose name we shan't name: the album is a colossal collaborative affair, and even come with a carnivalesque duet with pop king The Weeknd ('Tears In The Club'). The melodic abandon that follows is just as apt.
I Know I've Got To Make That Dream The Real Thing (demo) (1:09)
Do You Realize?? (instrumental) (3:29)
Review: As is the modern way with all major album birthday milestones, this one now gets a special 20th Anniversary Deluxe Edition which means it comes on limited edition pink vinyl. It is a record that collects together four fab fan favourites. The major one is the 24-minute epic 'Psychedelic Hypnotist Daydream (demo)' which takes up all of the a-side and is a truly immerse and heady sonic trip. It is one of the group's most epic ever tunes and also included are 'Duck Dodgers Theme (Duck Dodgers Demo: With Wayne Scratch Vocal),' 'I Know I've Got To Make That Dream The Real Thing (Demo),' and last but not least the lovely melancholy of 'Do You Realize?? (Instrumental).'
Review: On his fourth album as Fleet Foxes, Shore, Robin Pecknold has decided to celebrate life and death - a theme that no doubt was inspired in part by the ongoing global pandemic. The New York based artist sets his stall out immediately via lusciously orchestrated, choir-sporting opener 'Wading in Waist-High Water' and the similarly gorgeous 'Sunblind' - where he namechecks many of his dead musical heroes - before continuing on a similarly warm, jangling and opaque musical theme. That means soaring chord progressions, emotion-rich vocals, fluid piano lines and plenty of melancholic musical flourishes. It's soft-touch Americana for hard times; confirmed fans and newcomers alike should find plenty to savour.
Review: Flunk's third album, 'Personal Stereo,' released in 2007, has never been available on vinyl before now. It continued their signature blend of Anja's ethereal vocals, Ulf's electronica, and Jo's intricate guitar work while maintaining their trademark uplifting melancholy. The album explores darker themes compared to its predecessors, For Sleepyheads Only (2002) and Morning Star (2004) and revisits their debut's eclectic approach, sampling from decades of popular music as evidenced in tracks like 'Personal Stereo' and 'Change My Ways.' Cult favourite Daniel Johnston features on 'Haldi' adding a unique touch to an album recorded entirely in Oslo apartments. In all, this is a perfect example of Flunk's distinctive "budget pop" style.
Review: Next up on Dusseldorf's Themes For Great Cities is the debut LP from local trio Folie 2, comprised of vocalist Marlene Kollender, Gregor Darman (aka Rasputin) and Sebastian Welicki (LSW/Trashlagoon). Anyone who caught their great podcast on LYL Radio full of slow, trancey music knows what to expect on this one. There's a strong nod to '80s pop for the most part, but also taking in chugging dark disco slow burners ('Confrontation') neon-lit boogie down numbers ('Night Times') and taking influence from sounds of their homeland circa the '70s ('Fullness Of My Heart').
Savior Of Time (LP 2: On The Road 2003-2005) (4:25)
1968 (3:18)
Hallway (4:48)
Allison Johnson (2:46)
Contrails (4:21)
Montgomery Park (3:28)
Black Road (3:22)
City Of Trembling Leaves (5:12)
Willamette (3:15)
I Hope I Don't End Up On Skid Row (5:49)
Review: Richmond Fontaine's Post to Wire celebrates its 20th anniversary with a deluxe 2LP edition, featuring a bonus live disc on Curacao transparent color vinyl housed in a gatefold sleeve. Recognised by Uncut Magazine as one of the top ten albums of the year, this release is adorned with a hype sticker. Described as a blend between Gram Parsons' slide guitar majesty and Lou Reed's narrated New York, Post to Wire offers a collection of narrated snapshots of life, crafted by frontman Willy Vlautin. Vlautin's songwriting delves into the depths of human desperation and resilience, weaving tales of downtrodden characters with incisive lyricism reminiscent of Raymond Carver. The album's epic centerpiece, 'Broken Hearts,' stands out as a testament to Vlautin's storytelling prowess, binding together characters in a shared journey of struggle and hope. With tunes that evoke familiarity and characters that feel like neighbors, Post to Wire emerges as a great addition to the canon of passionate, literary rock 'n' roll.
Review: Recorded in the wake of drummer Taylor Hawkins death, Foo Fighters 11th studio album has been trailed as their "most personal yet". That's understandable, and lyrically Hawkins' tragic demise looms large - at times, the songs sound like the band going through the grieving process in public. It's a bold statement, with music - produced by long-time collaborator Greg Kunstin and featuring Dave Grohl on drums - that self-consciously references the raw energy, fuzzy riffs, and sweat-soaked energy of the band's 1995 debut album. Only time will tell where it sits in their catalogue - in terms of greatest moments, at least - but on first listen it's a raw, raging, melancholic alt-rock masterpiece.
Review: Remarkably, the last Foo Fighters retrospective dropped way back in 2009, so this career-spanning 'best of' is undoubtedly well overdue. As a starting point for exploring their catalogue - or, for confirmed fans, having all the band's best bits in one place - The Essential Foo Fighters does an excellent job. There are naturally plenty of grungy, high-energy, guitar-laden alternative rock smashers present - 'Rope', 'Monkey Wrench' and so on - but also nods towards the more classic rock-orientated end of their work ('Cold Day In The Sun', the Beatles-esque 'Big Me'), punky and funky indie club anthems ('All My Life') and a smattering of acoustic and semi-acoustic gems ('Waiting On a War' and a wonderfully sparse, folksy take on 'Everlong'). Like Ronseal products, it does exactly what it says on the tin.
Review: They're a Marmite band no doubt, especially among those who followed the altogether more deviant and dengerous Nirvana that brought FF frontman Dave Grohl to the world's attention initially. But there's no denying the fact that the Foo Fighters' anthemic, surging power chord pileup of a sound has turned them into a prospect that - whether live or record - now massively eclipses their predecessor in popularity. This is the definitive double-LP compiliation of all of the Foo Fighters' most essential cuts, including 'Everlong', 'Monkey Wrench' and 'Rope' and many more.
Review: Following a pair of well-received albums on Juicebox Recordings (not to be confused with A Guy Called Gerald's 1990s label of the same name), self-styled "nu-funk" duo Franc Moody have transferred to Night Time Stories for the release of new album Chewing The Fat. Like its predecessors, it blends a left-of-centre, Hot Chip style sensibility with colourful and nostalgic synth sounds, disco strings, good grooves and nods aplenty to both 21st century electronica and the Halcyon days of synth-funk in the 1980s. The results are frequently superb, with highlights including the throbbing-but-sparse 'Square Pegs In Round Holes', jaunty opener 'Driving On The Wrong Side of the Road' and the blissful, tactile and string-laden nu-disco bounce of 'Bloodlines'.
Review: "A revelatory blast of soul, R&B and off-the-rails piano jams". Rolling Stone magazine could not have been much clearer in its recommendation of Plain Sight. Neal Francis' second album, released in 2021, nodded to everyone from George Clinton to Sly and the Family Stone, Curtis Mayfield to Prince. It was pop songwriting in the truest sense - free and experimental yet somehow universally enjoyable and captivating. The third, Francis Comes Alive, offered, not more of the same, but equally generous helpings of funk-infused, r&b topped soul-groove with a lashings of overbite. Now Return To Zero proves those were no flukes. That familiarly unpredictable yet soothing Francis sound is more refined and elegant than ever, but still seems to want to take you towards the hazy neon glow of a backstreet dancefloor long after dark.
Review: InFine has always been an enigmatic label. It started life when co-founder Alexandre Cazac attended a Francesco Tristano concert in Paris, during which the legendary pianist covered Derrick May's Detroit techno track 'Strings Of Life', compelling the attendee to team up with Yannick Matray and Agoria to create a platform for electronic-classical noodling. And, even if the latter French electronic tour de force has since left the team, the imprint has continued to push these kinds of boundaries since. Francois & the Atlas Mountains have some big shoes to fill with their debut for the label, then. And they do this with aplomb, albeit the kind of aplomb that's softly spoken, and sounds like you're gazing out across an endless view which is at once unknown and comforting. Electronic folk, chill-disco, whispered downtempo synth pop and patient plugged-in symphonies.
Review: "I think we all have fears within us and fears that we confront in our life at different times ... and how we react to those fears is how we earn who we really are," Franz Ferdinand frontman Alex Kapranos told Apple Music's Hanuman Welch in an interview about The Humans of Fear, its catalysts and sources of inspiration. Sonically, this is typically bombastic and almost relentlessly upbeat, following in the footsteps of the Glasgow group's established sound. Which has, of course, changed over the years. So while we once had a thoroughbred indie rock band named after a racehorse and Archduke Ferdinand, over the last decade or two they have evolved into a far more electronic and synth-heavy outfit. On The Humans, Ferdinand seem to have measured the distance betwixt the two with more accuracy than ever, sticking their flag in the surface of a perfectly realised middle ground.
Review: Astonishingly, seven years have now passed since the release of Franz Ferdinand's most recent studio album, the dancefloor-fired colour of Always Ascending. Reuniting the Glaswegian post-punk rockers with former mixer/engineer Mark Ralph (who this time steps up to produce), The Human Fear has been trailed as a kind of extended lyrical meditation on prejudice and fear. It's a notably grown up and musically varied affair, with opener 'Audacity' joining the dots between the jagged guitars and energy of the band's earliest recordings and the inventive, try-different-things arrangements made famous by the Beatles in their golden 1966-67 period. Compare and contrast this with Night Or Day', where fuzzy 70s synths and jangling piano riffs squabble for sonic space with metronomic drums and bass, and the fizzing nu-rave/indie dance revivalism of 'Hooked'.
Review: 2006 was a very different time in rock 'n' roll. We'd cast off the Britpop and nu metal of the previous century's finale and millennium turn, and things had moved onto sounds that were far more sentimental, sometimes self-pitying and always hyper-emotional. This was true both of the rise of emo and hardcore resurgence, and the more chart (and advert)-friendly stuff coming from the likes of Keane and Coldplay. Over in the US, The Fray were looking to secure membership to that Closer-soundtrack worthy club and on their debut LP made a strong case for it. How To Save A Life features a number of powerful tracks, from the titular lead single to the piano-vocal showstopper, 'Hundred'. Moving enough to become the best selling digital album of all time, at the time (only trumped by Eminem's Recovery in 2010), here it is in physical form.
Review: Like a cross between Jimothy Lacoste, Lily Allen, Mac De Marco and The Breeders, Freak Slug is a fine addition to the esteemed Future Classic record label. Freak Slug appears to gravitate towards food-themed song titles and on single 'Piece of Cake' she makes her craft seem effortless with witty wordplay and melodies flowing out of her. 'Liquorice' is a bigger sounding tune, with a bit of Weezer kick, while 'Ya Ready' leans into a post-grunge territory with more serious, affecting somber tones and 'Sexy Lemon' has shades of Superorganism. A solid effort from a fast-rising star.
Review: Like many of us, Fred Again keeps a diary. But rather than writing in a journal, pager or Notes app, his diary takes the unusual form of an intensely personal album series, 'Actual Life'. The second instillment in the series hears him once again weave through Londonized R&B, future garage and pop-electronic, charting an 8-month period looking into an intensely difficult period of his life, in which the artist was confronted with a complex case of grief.
Late March, Death March (alternate version) (3:54)
Review: Pedestrian Verse is a critically acclaimed album by Frightened Rabbit, whose rapidly blooming career was cut short by the death of singer Scott Hutchison in May 2018. It has now been a full decade since the band dropped the mini-masterpiece and so it gets remastered at half speed and reissued by Atlantic with the full and original 12-track album on LP next to a bonus 12" with 11 extra tracks. This was the band's fourth studio album and the only one to feature guitarist and keyboardist Gordon Skene. The record is inspired in part by a break up and finds each of the members of the band stepping up their contribution to the songwriting. It's a great piece of modern indie history.
Review: The long-awaited new album of psychedelia-tinged country from US singer-songwriter Edith Frost. It's her first album from the Texas native since 2005 and continues her long-standing partnership with the esteemed Drag City label, who she started her solo career with in 1996, after brief stints in bands The Holler Sisters and The Marfa Lights. Despite her lengthy absence, sonically she sounds on the form of her life: 'Nothing Comes Around' is as cool as anything Cate Le Bon or Aldous Harding have released recently. And 'Hold On' reflects Frost's taste for atypical vocal arrangements, which adds a striking touch to the otherwise more orthodox Americana feel.
Review: A work that surely needs little to no introduction, 'Repeater', was the seminal debut full-length from post-hardcore visionaries, Fugazi. From the demise of emo pioneers, Rites Of Spring, and hardcore punk godfathers, Minor Threat, came the enigmatic pairing of Guy Picciotto and Ian MacKaye, with the latter's burgeoning artistry left fully untethered to conjure a work transcendent of post-hardcore or alternative rock. Mapping out the blueprint for punk and alternative music throughout the nineties, even predating the likes of Nirvana's 'Nevermind', or Pearl Jam's 'Ten'; few projects have stood the test of time or been cited as such an integral influence by a dynamic range of artists from Rage Against The Machine to The Dillinger Escape Plan to American Football. Aggressive, expansive and highly critical of issues still plaguing our world today, from drug abuse to greed and privatisation, the ethos of, 'Repeater', (quietly referencing The Beatles' 'Revolver') has only swollen with time.
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