Back catalogue: Rock (All)

Review: First released on streaming platforms last summer, Wilco's 'Hot Sun Cool Shroud' EP was uniformly praised by critics. Much more than a stop gap between albums (it arrived roughly 12 months after the outfit's lauded 13th studio full-length, Cousin), the six-track set bristles with inventiveness while flitting between styles and tempos. So, opener 'Hot Sun', a sticky slab of Americana-tinged jangly indie brilliance, is followed by the reverb and solo-laden alt-rock squall of 'Livid' and the gentle, string-laden swoon of 'Ice Cream'. And so it continues, with the fuzzy positivity and weary vocals of 'Annihilation' being joined by the pleasant, impossible-to-pigeonhole experimentalism of 'Inside The Bell Bones' and the twinkling, heartfelt melancholia of 'Say You Love Me'.

Review: BBE Records have unearthed an overlooked gem with the 'Baton Rouge' EP by Will & James Ragar. The Texan brothers decamped to the home of swamp blues, Baton Rouge, to record these four tracks and brought with them the most affecting vocals. Their way with harmony and strength of their timbre makes you wonder how on earth they are not a staple in most people's collections.AIt also makes sense of how an original copy of this EP is reported to have recently fetched close to $1000 second hand. They had the vocals - up there with the likes of New Orleans legend James Booker's - to become pop stars, but stuck to their guns by rejecting the modern sounds that were becoming fashionable at the onset of the 80s and embraced something more handmade and intimate sounds you hear - soulful Americana injected southern swagger. A top find by the ever-reliable BBE Records.A

Review: Sydney-based friends MP Hopkins and Mary MacDougall bring a haunting edge to folk music here. 'Weeds' is like lo-fi horror film music with tape-recorded radio static giving a foreboding atmosphere. 'Clay Graffiti' sounds like a post-apocalyptic ghost story with the spoken word conjuring images of landscapes tormented by wind and life dissolved. The group clearly have a knack for sequencing and the finer details of what makes a great album. After the intense end-of-the-world feel of the track that closes side A, Side B opens with 'Yellow Rose', which feels like spring; lyrically, in the bright piano, guitar and through the vocal timbre. It gives a sense of renewal that wouldn't have the same impact if it wasn't for the harsh winter feel of the track before it. But don't mistake this for anything twee - experimental folk is taking over the underground cultural zeitgeist and Warm Currency are an important part of that. This is the band's third release on the Horn of Plenty label and it's a solid follow-up to Returns (2022) and Live at the Petersham Bowling Club (2023).

Review: Brit folk rock troubadours The Waterboys have put together an evocative exploration of life's complexities with this, their 16th album, all while being inspired by actor Dennis Hopper's defiant spirit. The album blends folk-rock, Americana and poetic lyrics into an introspective look at mortality, legacy and transformation. With Mike Scott's distinctive voice and emotive songwriting, the tracks balance philosophical musings with gritty realism and so embody Hopper's famously raw and rebellious energy, the sort that made him such a star of the silver screen and movies like Easy Rider. The album's atmospheric instrumentation includes sweeping strings and soaring guitars that enhance its reflective nature. Life Death & Dennis Hopper is an ambitious record but one that resonates with depth.

Review: Originally released in 2004, A Ghost Is Born - Wilco's fifth studio album - doubled down on a stylistic rethink for the band that began a little earlier, with 2002's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. This is also the moment lead singer Jeff Tweedy assumed even more creative control as guitarist Jay Bennett said goodbye, and the first time the outfit claimed a top 10 album in their American homeland. 12 months later, they walked away with the Grammy for Best Alternative Music Album, and now here we are, 20 years on, wondering how the hell things got to this point but still under no doubt just how good this collection of songs is. A new anniversary double LP edition (with more expansive 9xLP+4CD and 9CD formats also available), complete with hardcover book, it's a must for dedicated disciples and a genuinely beautiful package for pretty much anyone who appreciates the art of the reissue.

Review: Compared by some to the likes of Crosby, Stills and Nash or Richie Havens, brothers Will and James Ragar present rich, calming and subtly seductive folk-soul that could almost belong in a bygone era. If it didn't sound so utterly timeless - a great example of why unplugged sounds seem to have such a long half-life. As a record, this is a great accompaniment to Will & James Ragar's startling, stop-you-dead-with-serenity debut album, One, which first landed in 1980. But The Acoustic Album takes that tried and true blueprint and then delves deeper into the soothing-yet-aching, sublimely heartbreaking and life affirming formula. 16 tracks written between the late-1970s and early-1990s, recorded in 2016 in one seamless session, each sounds as beautiful, poignant and essential as the next.

Review: Warning - the title of this album is flagrant false advertising. Brooklyn based Cameron Winter (of indie art-punk darlings Geese) has opted to go solo with his debut full-length Heavy Metal and while it's an eclectic, sporadic affair, it is devoid of essentially any sonics that could in any way be referred to as "heavy metal". It's a move based around the fact that, according to the 22-year-old himself - "barely anybody knows who my band is, I'm young and not afraid of living with my parents and I'm free to chase whatever ideas I want." Apparently drawing on a Craigslist-sourced who's who of guerilla backing band members including a disinherited cousin of John Lennon ("he was a real good sport"), a five-year-old bassist ("these kids, you know, they get raised on their iPads but they're far more precocious than any generation"), and a Boston steel worker-cum-cellist ("Honestly, it's crazy, the talent that can be found on Craigslist. We got a couch, too"), while supposedly being recorded in piecemeal fashion from locations such as hotel room closets to multiple Guitar Centres where he has now received a lifetime ban, there's an undeniable sense of absurdity and line-blurring between fact and fiction that goes hand-in-hand with his low-drawled, too much life experience and awareness in a young body malaise that underpins this razor sharp, insightful, ludicrous jaunt through young New Yorker life.