Dirty Hit Schallplatten & CDs

Review: The 1975's last two albums were, by their standards, quite experimental, with the band taking the opportunity that fame and success afforded has afforded them to try their hand at all manner of styles - many of them a bit more overtly dancefloor-centric than diehard fans were expected. There's no such widescreen vision on 'Being Funny in A Foreign Language'; instead, they've gone back to basics and turned in a set of strong, addictive, singalong songs that sounds like radio anthems in the making. For proof, check the glossy AOR synth-pop cheeriness of 'Happiness', the fragile, eyes-closed Americana of 'Part of the Band', the indie power-pop bounce of 'I'm In Love With You' and the sparse, slo-mo, lo-fi fuzz of 'All I Need To Hear'.

Review: Jack Antonoff's Bleachers project - official stage name for him and accompanying players - made a big impact with 2014's debut single, 'I Wanna Get Better', and continued to pull in followers across three albums, offering equal parts contemporaneity and nostalgia on record(s). Inspired by alternative, light, and pop rock of the late-1980s and early-1990s, there's more than a sense of reflecting on life's great moments about the band, and their fourth LP is exemplary of this. Rousing choruses on big hitters like 'Isimo', 'I Am Right On Time', and 'Tiny Moves' invoke a sense of real togetherness, while saxophones on several songs are deliberate reminders of John Hughes movie scores, and specifically Rob Lowe's downtrodden character in St Elmo's Fire, a prototype for the perpetually adolescent adults that now dominate the millennial generation. Other moments take things down to a more focused and intimate level, 'Hey Joe' and 'Woke Up Today', for example.

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: The brand new record from Pale Waves is a high speed pop record laced with punk influences and rock energy that heads into bold new territory. It has proven a big hit with the rock press and fans alike and finds the band expanding their sonic palette as they explore new ways to connect with their die-hard followers. The Manchester group do so with big nods to 2000's punk-pop and lots of power chords, radio-friendly grooves and big choruses for festival sing-alongs. It might not be new to a certain age of music lover but for the younger generation this is sure to be a liberating listen.

Review: RECOMMENDED
There's absolutely no doubt in our mind Blue Weekend is a record Wolf Alice feel a sense of enormous personal satisfaction from. Of course time will tell if it can bag them another Top 5 position, or even a Mercury Prize nomination, but for all intents and purposes there's a real feeling of catharsis here. And it goes well beyond famously reserved singer Ellie Rowsell telling listeners she doesn't give a fuck if they like her.

The band's latest punches, bangs and has absolutely no time for dishonestly. In many ways, this is where they are fully realising influences that have always been present - grunge, punk, some of that 1990s British indie-garage-with-bite crossover stuff. But it's also a record that sees them realising just where they've got to, and now reaching for a louder and more prominent position on the main stage.