Back catalogue: All genres

Review: The 1985 boxset is a comprehensive collection of The Waterboys' musical endeavors during that year. It features a diverse range of materials, including unreleased tracks, demos, outtakes, and live recordings. The set also includes a remastered version of their acclaimed album This Is The Sea. The boxset offers a glimpse into the band's creative process, with numerous alternate versions, song sketches, and covers. It also showcases the band's eclectic musical influences, ranging from traditional Irish folk to experimental rock. Despite its length, the boxset is a cohesive and engaging listen. The remastered This Is The Sea is a highlight, with Tom Verlaine's guitar playing adding a new dimension to the classic album. Other standout tracks include the previously unreleased instrumental 'Meridian West' and a cover of Bob Dylan's 'Sweetheart Like You.' Overall, the 1985 boxset is a valuable addition to the collection of any Waterboys fan. It provides a comprehensive overview of the band's creative output during a particularly fertile period. The boxset also offers insights into the band's musical influences and their commitment to their craft.

Review: Following on from her latest Fenella project The Metallic Index, genreless folktronica oddity Jane Weaver, returns from the land of muted synth lines and hypnagogic instrumentals to deliver the first full-length baring her name since 2021's exceptional Flock. Her 12th album overall, Love In Constant Spectacle offers up Weaver's most succinct, direct and straightforward compositions in well over a decade, with the the beauty of these cuts lying in their simplicity. Motorik synth patterns, fuzzed out neo-psychedelic guitar lines and lush bubbles of digital fizz bounce around Weaver's melancholic musings on the trials and tribulations, big and small, of everyday life and love.

Review: 
Jane Weaver's Love In Constant Spectacle stands as a pivotal moment as it presents the artist's most heartfelt, direct, and personal collection yet. Bursting with vivid imagery, the album captures the very essence of the artist, pushing her distinct sound and poetic vision to unprecedented heights. While evoking the nostalgia of her early work, it boldly explores new realms, weaving intricate tales with vibrant hues, shapes, and languages. Teaming up with acclaimed producer John Parish, renowned for collaborations with PJ Harvey and Aldous Harding, the album strikes a delicate balance between familiarity and innovation. It's a surreal odyssey through the human experience that showcases the artist's ceaseless evolution.

Review: Jane Weaver describes her 11th solo album, Love In Constant Spectacle, as her most 'open hearted, direct and intimate' exploration of 'the British musical landscape'. It's certainly an impressive album, with the former Laura Kills vocalist fusing a wide range of nostalgic, pastoral, and analogue rich sounds, from Stereolab-esque krautrock revivalism, ;ate '60s dream pop, turn-of-the-90s indie-pop and crackly, organ-sporting folk-rock. Highlights include the deep and drowsy 'The Axis and the Seed', the fuzzy 'Is Metal', the head-in-the-clouds dreaminess of 'Romantic Worlds' and the hazy but picturesque headiness of 'Family Of The Sun'.

Review: Short-lived So Cal band Wheezing Maniac will bring back many nostalgic memories for those old enough to have been wooed by seminal skateboarding video H-Street's Hokus Pokus. Two of its most iconic tunes were by this outfit - 'Dollar on a Platter' and 'Don't Come Close' and both showcase their off-kilter invention and high-energy sound perfectly. The band only recorded 17 tunes in all and each one makes it onto this Shade Through the Night Door reissue on Putojefe Records. A fine remastering job brings them up to scratch and makes this an essential one for the collection for fans old and new.