Back catalogue: All genres

Review: The upcoming collaborative studio album between Liam Gallagher and guitarist John Squire is set to shine a refreshed light on the current state of Britpop. Consisting almost entirely of round-bellied rock, leading the charge is the arresting 'Just Another Rainbow' - here the pair are heard in neat unison, painting a picture of unfazed Gallagher-esque nonchalance in the face of a promised utopia - and 'Mars To Liverpool' - concerning the experience of realising a relationship is over before it's too late. Squire and Gallagher make for an exciting pairing, their synergy fleshed out by the album's stellar, full-bodied mix.

Review: There's almost no point writing about this one - an album that already has legions of disciples waiting to embrace it, with pretty much everyone who knows the names Liam Gallagher and John Squire guaranteed to be interested in what their self-titled LP is about. More so, without even hitting play we all kind of know what it's about, with two of the biggest names to come out of Manchester's 1990s indie rock breeding ground coming together for a record that sounds every bit the sum of its parts. Squire's incredible guitar playing - a centrepiece of The Stone Roses' sound - is incredible as ever, sending riffs soaring over the dilapidated rooftops of North West England and out into the stratosphere. Meanwhile, Gallagher's elongated but gruff vocal style remains steadfast across ten anthems-in-the-making. Powerhouse stuff, but like we said, nobody expected less.

Review: Australian singer hailing from the Blue Mountains of New South Wales, Julia Jacklin, resurfaces with a third album following Don't Let The Kids Win (2016) and Eastwick / Cold Caller (2017). Opening with arguably the album's most afflicting number, "Body", Jacklin's voice almost inhibits an Edith Piaf-like quality, somewhat shaky but resolute. It's far from a forlorn listen though, and while "Pressure To Party" may lament such things as fun, it adds an upbeat rhythm to the album's more down beat numbers, be they "Don't Know How To Keep Loving You", to the lowly piano and voice solo of "When The Family Flies In". Touching on the hallmarks of a true romantic, Jacklin's music is melancholic as ever, but with her vocals only adding to the warm embrace of the instrumentation, "Crushing" should melt a few hearts yet.

Review: Melbourne-via-Blue Mountains singer/songwriter Julia Jacklin's new album Pre Pleasure was recorded in Montreal with co-producer Marcus Paquin, who has worked with the likes of The Weather Station and The National. Her reputation as a fine - and direct - lyricist is cemented now and together with bassist Ben Whiteley and guitarist Will Kidman, she's made an album that further enhances it. Having been penned after getting back from her latest giant tour, it perhaps understandably addresses relationships and work-life balance. both featureing. Plenty of new terrain is explored making this another fine record.

Review: This Australian and now London-dwelling three-piece made their name by balancing out their psychedelic explorations with a somewhat Madchester-derived pop sensibility, and this second album sees them throwing this delicate balance into orbit by effectively offering more of everything - the sonic textures here are more adventurous, the hallucinogenic swirls of sound more lustrous, yet the choruses are as indelible and infectious as ever. A party album with a 'Screamadelica'-esque experimental edge, 'Every Now And Then' makes these three space cadets sound like genuine contenders.

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Review: Jay Wobble is the former bassist with Public Image Ltd of course, but is also a visionary in his own right. This new album finds him revisiting some old ground: it takes him back to influential PiL 1979 album Metal Box, which he wholly reinvents with a load of new and sophisticated dub takes with all new and mind expanding production. Alongside the original tunes are two bonus cuts which are new versions of originals from the first ever PiL album. It adds up to a timelsss fusion of new and old indie and dub from this masterful guitarist.

Review: The 18th album from James, whose career spans over four decades, emerging in the C86 era of indie, coming to prominence as part of the Madchester movement but establishing and holding onto a loyal fan base and critical acclaim with their unique blend of alternative rock and dream pop. The band work in unique ways to keep things fresh and this is no exception, bringing us "the tracks that didn't make it to the next stage" before now. A significant milestone in their musical journey, showcasing the band's continued evolution and creative prowess, it encapsulates a wide range of emotions and themes, exploring personal experiences, societal issues and the human condition. James' distinct songwriting style is evident throughout, with thoughtful lyrics and introspective reflections, while musically, the album features the band's signature atmospheric soundscapes, ethereal melodies and intricate guitar work.

Review: Studio album number three from mighty Manchester icons James could not come soon enough back in 1990. In the run up to the grand unveiling, we'd had outright anthem 'Sit Down' released as a single during summer 1989, a rousing bombshell of a track that still kicks today, and at the time suggested something very special was waiting in the wings for fans, and legions of new recruits the band were garnering.

When Gold Mother finally landed the reception was understandable - not least when we look back at the group's storied career to date. As a record, this might be the highest concentration of James' best songs you'll find anywhere, with tracks like 'Come Home' and 'How Was It For You' helping secure a place among the finest long players of the 1990s.

Review: The arrival of this first solo album from the My Morning Jacket frontman may have come as a surprise to some, given the fact that the band appears to be created so much in his image - what other sides of his personality exactly does he have to express? Quite a few as it turns out, as 'Eternally Even' crafts a seductive tapestry from narcotic mix of soul, funk and psychedelia, somewhere in spheres of consciousness between Isaac Hayes and The Flaming Lips, whilst offering his most explicitly political lyrics to date. The Trump victory may have rendered some of the sentiments herein a tad bittersweet, yet the hazy soundscapes and honeyed vocals have lost none of their lustre.

Review: Jamie T brings folk compositions with punk, reggae and hip-hop influences on "Panic Prevention".

Review: You have to hand it to Japan - the English new wave band, not the country. Despite only having released two (admittedly very successful) albums before 1979's Quiet Life, the group really knew what they wanted by this point. So much so they enlisted the legendary disco creator Giorgio Moroder to produce standalone single 'Life In Toyko', setting out a new stylistic blueprint moving from glam rock to synth, only to drop the revered producer before hitting the studio to make this record.

In the end that duty fell on Paul Hunter (Roxy Music, Slade) and Simon Robert Napier-Bell (Ultravox, Marc Bolan), and the result was a Gold record selling well over 100,000 copies upon release. Now forming the centrepiece for this epic special edition box set, which boasts a host of remixes, live versions and Moroder's take on 'Life In Tokyo', you'd be crazy to miss out.

Review: South London formed band Japan first came together in 1974, led by David Sylvian on vocals, guitar and keyboards with Steve Jansen and Mick Karn also forming the core trio that went on to be joined by Richard Barbieri and Rob Dean. It was in 1982 that Japan headed to, well, Japan, to play the last leg of their tour having achieved plenty of chart success including nine Top 40 UK hits. The recordings here capture their last ever live shows from December of that year and they were broadcast across the country on radio. They have never been on vinyl before now as the entire show is presented in two essential volumes.

Review: Critically acclaimed artist The Japanese House has finally dropped a long-awaited second album, In the End It Always Does. Fans will already know it for lead single 'Boyhood', and might know that the record is all about contradictions - beginnings and endings, falling in and out of love, the mundane and the obsessive. It is four years since the hugely venerated debut and finds Bain not only one in more on her signature sound but also heading into more of a pop realm away from the indie and rock she emerged playing. This exclusive version comes on limited yellow vinyl.

Review: Baby Buddha is the experimental new wave duo of Charles Hornaday (vocals, guitar, electronics, drums) and David Javelosa (vocals, electronics, clarinet). Born from late night improvisations of San Francisco synth-punks Los Microwaves with a rotating cast of musicians. Live shows would include music, projections, dance and performance art in both clubs and gallery spaces. In 1980, Howie Klein's 415 Records released their first single of Tammy Wynette's "Stand By Your Man". In 1981, 'Music For Teenage Sex' was their first full length album released via Poshboy Records. It featured Los Microwaves' Meg Brazill, Poshboy boss Robbie Fields, and Kathy Peck as "Tammy Why-not", who later went on to found H.E.A.R (Hearing Education and Awareness for Rockers). In January 1983 Kathy, Charles and David went into the studio with a couple of Kathy's original "country" songs and began working on a sophomore album. They also incorporated songs from a live multi-track recording of a concert at the Graffiti Club on June 6th 1984. The album titled 'Everyone Is My Age' sat unreleased until 1987 due to relocation to Los Angeles and eventually found a home on David's Hyperspace Communications, the original label for the first Los Microwaves singles. For this first time reissue we've added a previously unreleased bonus song "What's Going On," a Kathy Peck original. All songs have been remastered by George Horn at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley. The vinyl comes housed in the original jacket featuring a collage by David Javelosa and includes an insert with lyrics, photos and liner notes.

Review: The Task Has Overwhelmed Us is the fourth and final volume in The Jeffrey Lee Pierce Sessions Project series, a tribute to the late singer and guitarist of The Gun Club. The project was initiated by Pierce's friend and collaborator Cypress Grove, who invited various artists to reinterpret or complete Pierce's songs, using his original demos, lyrics, and notes. The project features a stellar cast of musicians, including Nick Cave, Debbie Harry, Mark Lanegan, Lydia Lunch, Warren Ellis, Hugo Race, and many more. The Task Has Overwhelmed Us contains 20 tracks, some of which are covers of Gun Club classics - such as 'Mother of Earth' by Dave Gahan and 'Fire Spirit' by Mark Stewart. Some are new compositions based on Pierce's unfinished ideas, such as 'On the Other Side' by Nick Cave and Debbie Harry, 'Lucky Jim' by Chris Eckman and Chantal Acda.

Review: The Jesus & Mary Chain - Peel Sessions 84/86 offers a riveting glimpse into the evolution of the iconic noise pop band across four recording sessions for John Peel's BBC show. These sessions capture the band at various stages of their early sonic development, showcasing their signature blend of classic pop, noise, punk, psychedelia and garage rock. Each track serves as a testament to the band's innovative and influential sound, presenting a raw and unfiltered expression of their musical vision. With its combination of infectious melodies and gritty noise textures, this collection stands as a perfect document of The Jesus & Mary Chain's essential contribution to the alternative music landscape of the 1980s.

Review: When Jesus & Mary Chain reunited in 2007 there were tons of questions about what this would mean for their music, music in general, and the planet. Well, OK, maybe more their music. The notorious 1998 on-stage implosion between brothers William and Jim Reid was a culmination of tension between the siblings that afforded the band their inimitable conflict of sound, but also seemed to call definite time. It would be another decade before they attempted to work together again, with a show at Coachella, then another ten years passed while they figured out where from there. In the end, Damage & Joy was the answer, 2017's album, co-produced by Youth in a bid to bring in a potential mediator should things go sour. They didn't, and the record was well received - somewhere between old JAMC and a new era. Now we have Glasgow Eyes, an extension of that. Rather than born of conflict, tracks feel united in a common goal, synths rising to the fore above guitars, combative tones receding in favour of comfortable juxtapositions and contrasts.

Review: Jim (James Baron) is a UK producer making his brand of Balearic, folk and rock music. Generally, pushing the boundaries of Balearic, this double pack compilation houses remixes of tracks from his most debut album 'Love Makes Magic'. The lineup of producers lending their talents to this double pack is quite impressive. Uk house music legends X-press and Chris Coco just to mention two. This release encompasses a wide array of styles including downtempo, dub as well as house music all keeping the folk and Balearic soul of the originals. A true remix packet that brings these originals to different heights.

Review: London-based duo Jockstrap have fully remixed their album I Love You Jennifer B from 2002. It was shortlisted for a Mercury Prize that year and was written by the band's Taylor Skye, who also had the idea for this remixed version while making different versions of the album's tracklisting. Several guests feature including Ersatz and Ian Starr and the inspiration for these new takes was texture and sound rather than the musical material itself. "It's an experiment! I'm still learning" says Syke of a wildly eclectic album that fuses club, noise, pop and indie into a thrilling contemporary record.

Review: Joe Strummer's solo catalogue gets pillaged for this carefully curated selection of 16 fan favs, singles and rarities from the archives. There are three previously unreleased versions of classic Clash tracks such as an acoustic version of 'Junco Partner' that has never before been heard, as well as live performances of both 'Rudie Can't Fail' and 'I Fought The Law,' which were recorded at London's Brixton Academy in 2001. This is the first new album on the newly revived Dark Horse Records label once ran by George Harrison.

Review: Dark Horse Records unveils Joe Strummer & the Mescaleros' legendary Live at Acton Town Hall concert, meticulously remastered by Grammy Award Winner Paul Hicks. Available here on double vinyl, the November 15, 2002, performance, a benefit for striking firefighters, stands as one of Strummer's final shows before his passing. A poignant highlight includes a three-song reunion with Clash bandmate Mick Jones, their first in two decades. The gatefold sleeve showcases unseen concert photos, accompanied by liner notes from Fire Brigade Union Secretary Andy Gilchrist. This release marks the first comprehensive vinyl and CD availability of this historic concert.

Review: There's multi-talented, and then multi-talented. John Foxx is credited as singer, musician, artist, photographer, graphic designer, writer, teacher and lecturer, first making a name for himself up front of the new wave pioneers Ultravox (eventually handing the reigns over to Midge Ure), he presided over a period in the band's history that was less commercially successful, but incredibly forward thinking musically. This desire to keep pushing boundaries has rung true across Foxx's entire - and extensive - oeuvre, as Annexe, one of his solo efforts, goes to show. A pervading sense of darkness carries many of the tracks 'Dance With Me' being just one example, which contrasts the polished, highly synthesised productions, veering from the complex percussive patterns of 'Wings & A Wind' to the sparse, ghostly, near-spoken word operatics of 'A Woman On A Stairway'. Coldwave, some might call it, others would just say John Foxx.

Review: Among that coterie of visionary artists who left their bands to fly solo on the cusp of abundant riches and fame, John Foxx flew from Ultravox in 1980 to pursue his own creative vision. He quickly cemented his own style with albums like Metamatic and The Garden, but arguably delivered the fullest iteration of his sound on this 1983 album. The Golden Section straddles synth-pop and pop rock with ease, and it stands shoulder to shoulder with the greatest of the era. From his former band to Duran Duran and even moire niche concerns like Freur, this is the sound of the new dawn for pop music in the UK as the vast possibilities of synthesis were finally being understood.

Review: Bright new Gen-Z pop star Jordana makes a noter bold statement of intent here on her Face The Wall LP. Her third album is all about "overcoming being overcome with emotion and anxiety" and the 10 tracks were produced by Cameron Hale and mixed by Miro Mackie. Stylistically it take sin plenty such as indie rock, pop punk jams, and some cool balladry. In it, the singer confronts all manner of issues from pandemic isolation and depression to breakups and veganism, as well as some personal relationship issues.

Review: Kathryn Jospeh has been on a super run of album form that started with her Scottish Album of the Year award winning debut in 2014 and carried on through 2018 follow up From When I Wake The Want Is. She now completes the hattrick with For You Who Are Wronged. It is a record about fighting to keep hold of love and was recorded at The Lengths Studio in Fort William with producer Lomond Campbell. Anyone who enjoys Lana Del Ray, Kate Bush or Erland Cooper is sure to lap this one up, not least for its fantastically long and evocative track titles.

Review: What is left to be written about the debut Joy Division album that hasn't been written already? Well, not much except to say if you've never heard it, you must. This is the more raw of the two studio albums, powered mainly by the foundations laid down by bassist Peter Hook and drummer Stephen Morris. But although the rudimentary electronic experimentalism of its successor Closer are missing - with the possible exception of 'She's Lost Control' - Martin Hannett's production job creates an uneasy world of magical reverbs and echoes that lure in the listener. From its iconic, Peter Saville sleeve to classic songs like 'Shadowplay' and 'Interzone' - which started life as a cover of Nolan Porter's Northern Soul cult hit 'Keep On Keeping On' - this is the template that effectively launched a thousand bands, from indie and post punk to goth and beyond.

Review: A fascinating collection of radio sessions throwing up expertly recorded alternate versions of songs from the end of the band's brief career, which was cruelly curtailed by the death of singer Ian Curtis in May 1980. Lovers of the band will recognise the tracklisting as mainly consisting of tracks from album number two Closer, where the experiments with electronics that would eventually change the world through New Order ultimately began, and the two versions of 'She's Lost Control' and an electronic drum-peppered 'Insight' for instance, show this process in progress. That said, the renditions of standalone singles 'Transmission' and 'Love Will Tear Us Apart', not to mention the funky but savage 'Sound of Music', show them simply in more straight forward guitar mode, but vastly sharpened up by constant touring compared to the band in evidence on their debut Unknown Pleasures.

Review: Everyone's favourite Mancunian miserablists Joy Division were masters of murky melancholy and this bootleg record proves it alongside their more well known studio long players. Let The Movie Begin was originally released in 2005 and features 26 tracks in all including tunes lifted from The Ideal bootleg, as well as some live and alternative versions later on and no fewer than 12 interviews with Ian Curtis, the late great lead singer of the band. It's raw and mired in lo-fi grit and grime as a bootleg, but deffo worth having for fans.

Review: Pop duo Josh Lloyd-Watson & Tom McFarland, or simply J & T as they are known, realise their second album for pioneering independent label, XL. Since the pair's debut self-titled release back in 2013 the group has expanded to something around seven members and following a slew of singles and EPs (inclusive of a Soulwax remix) the band are now bursting with fresh life and colour. Take "Heavy, California" for example, a sing-a-long pop number that's bright and cheery enough to make you want to skip through the streets with a dandelion in your hair regardless of the season. "Cherry", the other track thrown around online, sees Jungle live up to their Neo Soul genre tag, and with 11 more tracks to explore, maybe they'll even find hit that second Mercury Prize nomination.

Review: If you've ever fallen for the mythical Lewis album L'Amour, you'll probably get off on this. First thing's first, the two are very, very different records - Lewis' work is so soft and quiet at times it comes close to no longer existing, but the whole thing has this romantic, skin-on-skin by candlelight, whisper-in-ear quality to it that seems to go straight for the heart and make itself a home right there.

Junior Boys' Waiting Game isn't anything like L'Amour in terms of sounds, but that same sense of getting very close and very personal with what you're listening to, a record that's soon to be your lover, pervades everything here. Certainly more in the opening tracks, 'Night Walk''s warm, spring evening in Miami vibe, 'It Never Occurred To Me' and its strange, staccato use of vocoder'd lyrics and gliding refrains. Electro synth for the bedroom, no less.

Review: Just Mustard's second album is her first for Partisan Records. It is a coherent but widescreen exploration across 10 tracks that all add up to a great whole. Her magic vocals, scything guitars and brooding rock drums all make for intense and scintillant listening. Tracks like 'Seed' roll up and down on lumpy drums with gauzy guitar textures, while there is a more ethereal sound to 'Early' which floats up amongst the stars. 'In Shade' has a catchy post punk rhythm and 'Sore' is dense and caustic shoegaze style rock that drags you with it into a world of questions.