Suchergebnisse: Dance Music

Review: Depeche Mode's latest album Memento Mori is something of a post-COVID gestator, but that's had little to no effect on its rabid fan anticipation. Centring on the mood of grief after the passing of the band's founding member Andrew "Fletch" Fletcher, this is the first LP by a Depeche Mode made up of only two remaining members: Dave Gahan and Martin Gore. The band's progression in their latest years have heard them move into darker, peakier, sadder and more industrial themes, as they make do with a future-present that wasn't promised to them in the 80s, while drawing on deathly topoi and nodding to Ingmar Bergman.

Review: Depeche Mode's latest album Memento Mori is one that has been madly anticipated by fans. The record - which comes on wax and in a lovely embossed sleeve here - centres on the mood of grief after the passing of the band's founding member Andrew "Fletch" Fletcher, this is the first LP by a Depeche Mode made up of only two remaining members: Dave Gahan and Martin Gore. The band's progression in their latest years have heard them move into darker, peakier, sadder and more industrial themes, as they make do with a future-present that wasn't promised to them in the 80s, while drawing on deathly topoi and nodding to Ingmar Bergman.

Review: An intense exercise in duality, 'Know Your Enemy' was actually born as a mission by Manic Street Preachers to record two albums in quick succession. 'Solidarity' and 'Door To The River' were simultaneous early-noughties left and right brains, channelling completely different ideas in some ways, and the same ideas in others. Now, the compiled album gets a full restoration, and includes two previously unreleased tracks 'Rosebud' and 'Studies In Paralysis'.

Review: Like owning a little piece of history with a bonus memoir, The Clash's Combat Rock was - is - the band's best selling album of all time and highest charting in both the US and UK. This was also the last time Joe Strummer, Mick Jones, Paul Simonon and Topper Headon would record together before the lineup changed, and the track list contains at least two of the outfit's most recognised songs - namely 'Should I Stay Or Should I Go' and 'Rock the Casbah'.

The original version of the LP was less expansive than this special edition released to mark 40 years since the long-player went on sale. The addition of The People's Hall offers fans a chance to relish in no less than 12 extra tracks, including collaborations with the legendary Ranking Roger - 'Rock the Casbah' and 'Red Angel Dragnet' - the iconic late-frontman of The Beat more than ideally suited to the crew's sound.

Review: Album number five from legendary British post-punk and New Wavers The Clash was first unveiled on 14th May 1982. 40 years on it finds itself the centre of attention once more, re-released both in this original version and an extended edition with bonus record The People's Hall. Sticking to this outing, fans will likely already know that the record as it was first intended remains the band's most successful of all time, outselling all that came before or after and charting higher than any other in the US and UK alike.

Respectively hitting number seven and number two in the charts of the day, and spending 23 weeks in the top 40 albums in Britain and a mammoth 61 weeks in the LP league tables Stateside, today it's a double-platinum testament to just how potent the combination of Joe Strummer, Mick Jones, Paul Simonon and Topper Headon was. The last record to feature that iteration of the outfit, tracks like 'Rock the Casbah' and 'Should I Stay Or Should I Go' remain utterly timeless.

Review: This sixth studio album by Arcade Fire is as anticipated as any in the seminal indie band's long career. It was produced by esteemed Radiohead associate Nigel Godrich in many different locations around the world from El Paso to New Orleans. The band say it was the longest they have ever spent writing together and is focused on the forces that threaten to pull the world apart and how we must resist. WE has a big narrative arc that makes for a real rollercoaster of seven tunes that go from light to dark and back and with plenty of joy expressed amongst the tensions.

Review: RECOMMENDED
Let's face it, White Blood Cells is the moment when The White Stripes really broke the mould. It's a continuation of Jack and Meg's garage rock aesthetic as fine-tuned over two previous albums, and wholeheartedly a straight up rock 'n' roll album. But the elements are so perfectly primed it's impossible not to rank this as one of the greatest long form outings of this century, so far. And we're not alone - Rolling Stone even reckons it's among the best LPs of all time. Pity the fool who disagrees.

From the racing 'Fell in Love With A Girl', to the beguiling mystery of 'The Union Forever', 'I Think I Smell A Rat''s meld of mariachi riffs and mosh stomp and the emotional piano closer 'This Protector', to the innocent acoustic joy of 'We're Going To Be Friends', this is a masterclass of songwriting and arrangement, tracks that evolve, perplex, surprise, and - most importantly - entertain.

Review: This cutely entitled Demodelica double album brings together a load of different versions of classic cuts from Primal Schemas Screamadelica album, which itself has been the subject of a big anniversary reissue this year. All of the 16 tracks here are previously unreleased demo versions that offer a real insight into how the final album came together. The works in progress versions are just as interesting and the whole thing comes with some new notes from Jon Savage. Whether it's the rawness of 'I'm Comin' Down' (Isle Of Dogs Home Studio) or the intensity of 'Movin' On Up' (Hackney Studio demo), fans will be keen to hear this one.

Review: In 1991 the UK is in a very different place to the one it occupies today. One thing that hasn't changed in the 30 years between then and now, though, is how incredibly, unbelievably good Primal Scream's Screamadelica was. And still is.

It might have been the studio mastery brought to the mix by the late, great Andrew Weatherall. Perhaps it hit the nail on the head of a year when the country's rock and dance scenes finally met somewhere on the outskirts of Blackburn, or along the M25. Maybe, just maybe, it's because the tracks themselves are just great. Whatever your personal take, this album should be on everyone's shelves. From the hedonism of 'Loaded' to the pseudo-rave euphoria of 'Come Together', and the self love of 'Movin' On Up' always inspires, the record is of its time but resonates through the ages.

Review: Much loved Welsh rockers Manic Street Preachers serve up a record of lament and reflection on The Ultra Vivid Lament, which is their 14th full length record. The band has said the record is inspired by the music of their earlier years such as ABBA, post-Eno Roxy, the Bunnymen and more. James Dean Bradfield, Nicky Wire and Sean Moore of course all added their own distinctive take on those sounds and the result has you gazing into the distance, lost in the riffs, surfing drums and losing vocals. This version features a bonus 7" with the 'Orwellian' original and a Gwenno remix.

Review: RECOMMENDED
It almost (almost) pains us to recommend this one - The White Stripes aren't really a band that should be releasing Greatest Hits albums. We'd much rather them give us a surprise record of typically groundbreaking, brand new theatric and infectious blues-tinged rock 'n' roll. But we are where we are, and after more than a decade without much activity from the siblings beggars can't be choosers.

One of our objections is exactly how you choose what to include on an LP like this. What defines a 'hit' from an outfit that are renowned for packing albums with nothing but stone cold gems, even if they failed to make it onto radio playlists or single format. In this case, though, the challenge has been met - with chart topping fare like Seven Nation Army notably absent, while more wildcard tracks such as 'I Think I Smell A Rat' and 'Dead Leaves On the Dirty Ground' given their deserving dues.

Review: Just when you thought all hope was lost along come The Strokes to fulfil the promises they made way, way back with their startling debut 'Is This It'. That was 17 years ago, and while the outfit have made plenty worthy of note in the years between then and now, we'd be surprised if we're the only ones thinking this latest is their best effort since that inaugural outing. Confident but also hungry, rather than bloated and lazy, there's plenty here that you won't be able to get away from in a hurry. 'Brooklyn Bridge To Chorus' might define the package best, delivering some powerful pop energy in an all-round homage to and critique of the 1980s, an era revisited again on 'Bad Decisions', which owes plenty to Billy Idol's Generation X classic, 'Dancing With Myself', with tracks like 'Why Are Sundays So Depressing' diverting to a synthdom route and 'Not The Same Anymore' throwing crooner styles into the mix. Exceptional stuff.