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Review: Where's My Utopia? is the highly anticipated follow up to Leeds post-punk darlings Yard Act's Mercury Prize-nominated debut LP The Overload, and continues their eccentric, whimsical and sobering assessment of life in modern day Britain with a cheeky smile plastered over decades of embittered rage. Following on from last year's bizarre Black Mirror-inspired eight-minute single 'The Trench Coat Museum', this sophomore effort succeeds at every turn a second album should. Linking up with Gorillaz' Remi Kabaka Jr to handle production, the move has led to a curious wading into influences that might have seemed obvious to outside ears, with a newfound embracing of new wave synth pop whilst tapping into the psychedelic sonic world and political ethos of Fela Kuti. Lyrically, taking the UK to further task for its endless shopping list of fuck ups, whilst also touching on their seemingly overnight ascension, and the irony that comes with being signed to a subsidiary of another monolithic, faceless corporation endorsing the myriad of issues completely at odds with the morals embedded into the Yard Act DNA, Where's My Utopia? sees the band beating everyone to the punch, both musically and topically.

Review: A long awaited comeback from one of New York's greatly missed rock bands, Karen O returns after over 9 years with a full length LP after single 'Spitting off the Edge of the World' released in June, featuring the one and only Perfume Genius. In what can only be a reference to O's beer-spitting stunt circa 2002 (yes, it's been 20 years), the single preceded what's to come from 'Cool it Down' as O wavered between sorrowful rumination on the fate of the climate to valiant calls to action. Let's be honest, Karen O is just as cool now as she was back then, she makes it look so effortless. Expect a blast from the past from this release, don't think for even a second that they have lost their touch, but also expect something more mature than releases of the past. 'Cool It Down' is set to be one of the biggest releases of the year.

Review: Slowcore and dream pop collide on this latest LP from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs - 'Cool It Down' is their fifth studio album and a surprise return almost 10 years on from 2013's 'Mosquito'. Uniquely teased by the whispery lead single 'Spitting Off The Edge Of The World' - a hopeless anthem for those left behind, laying somewhere between the slowcore of Deathcrash and the indie dream dreamt by Band Of Horses - this one is a focused eight-tracker of enormously mournful proportions. It also contains a guest appearance by Perfume Genius.

Review: Is it rock? Is it metal? Is it synth pop? How about art noise? Someone, somewhere, is trying to pen a thesis on how you define the mighty and mysterious Yves Tumor. Best leave it to them, then. Wonder aside, the Knoxville, Tennessee outsider has finally delivered the follow up to Heaven To A Tortured Mind and it's every bit another masterpiece that grabs listeners by the jugular and challenges them, while delivering exactly what they didn't realise they wanted to hear.
While it's difficult to find much genuinely surprising in music today, the sheer breadth of Praise A Lord Who Chews But Which Does Not Consume (Or Simply Hot Between Worlds) is in itself a shock. Over the course of 12 tracks, we hit grinding electroclash ('God Is A Circle'), seductive operatic pop ('Lovely Sewer'), main stage heavy rock ('Parody'), distorted and pained metal ('Meteora Blues'), and high-paced, rousing indie ('In Spite of War'), among other styles, all realised via a unique musical identity some would kill to possess.