Back catalogue: All genres

Review: Given that they warmed up for the Rolling Stones in Hyde Park two years ago and won the 'Rising Stars' award at the 2023 BRITS, it would be fair to say that The Last Dinner Party are one of UK indie-music's most hyped bands. As a result, interest in Prelude to Ecstasy, their debut album, is sky-high. It was produced by James Ford - arguably one of the most in-demand studio knob-twiddlers of recent times - and has a concept of sorts: a musical exploration of the extremes of human emotions, with confessional lyrics written after band-members dug out and re-read their old diaries. They've certainly delivered on that project, creating immersive sound worlds (in part via the use of strings and trippy electronics as well as their usual instruments) that variously draw influence from mid-70s Fleetwood Mac, Kate Bush, funky post-punk rock, art-rock and vintage West Coast AOR.

Review: It's been seven years since the tragic passing of Chester Bennington and the abrupt end of nu-metal legends Linkin Park, while their legacy remains praised and intact by avid fans. Papercuts offers up a career-spanning greatest hits collection, yet rather than sequencing each bundle of tracks chronologically in terms of specific album release, the cuts are mixed with the design of flowing as naturally as possible, with the anthemic 'Faint' from 2003's Meteora rubbing shoulders with their iconic Jay-Z Collision Course collab 'Numb/Encore'. Elsewhere, 'One Step Closer'; the breakout single from 2000's genre-defining debut LP Hybrid Theory is followed directly by 'New Divide', which served as the lead single from the Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen soundtrack. From their rap-metal beginnings to their signature style of nu/alt-metal to the their calmer accessible later era, this compilation delivers a succinct yet sprawling distillation of Linkin Park's most vital contributions to the several dynamic scenes they helped to elevate.

Review: Two years on from the release of their debut mini-album, Scar, Lush headed into the studio to record their first full-length proper, the critically acclaimed Spooky. One of the all-time great shoegaze-meets-dream-pop sets, it was notable not only for the immersive nature of the sound and the meditative effect of its hazy, layered guitars and vocals, but also the fact that it was produced by Robin Guthrie of the Cocteau Twins. This reissue, which forms part of a series inaugurated by the band and remastering engineer Kevin Vanberger, offers a neat reminder of the album's timeless qualities, alongside a freshly cleaned and spruced-up sound that allows every single sonic element to shine.

Review: Lush's reissue series continues via a painstakingly remastered and sonically spruced-up edition of the band's second studio album, 1994's 'Split'. A very different album to its loose, immersive and shoegaze-fuelled predecessor, it saw the band join forces with producer Mike Hedges (celebrated for his work with The Cure and Siouxsie and the Banshees) and opt for a more - in their words - "direct" sound. Of course, it was still Lush, so the layered guitars and vocals remained, albeit amongst a lightly expanded sound palette, more hooky riffs and an early Britpop vibe that delivered a subtle evolution from the band's more wide-eyed, sonically loved-up roots.