Christopher Browder has demolished Mansions. After spending more than a decade building his one-man project into a proper rock’n’roll band that tours with Taking Back Sunday and The Get Up Kids, he’s had enough. ‘Big Bad’, his first album in seven years, forgoes loud guitars and louder drums for soft synths, bubbling bass, and restraint. The band’s record label calls […]
Read moreThis, the debut record from Sour Widows, is a trojan horse. At first it seems polite, pretty, a handful of petals, as if its slow, folksy tones might blow away in a weak breeze. You might be tempted to stick it on as background music when concentrating on something else entirely. But that’s when Sour Widows will emerge. That’s when […]
Read moreThat sound you hear? It might just be the synchronised thunk of ten thousand jaws hitting the floor. ‘Inlet’ is the first Hum album in more than two decades you see. And it has come out of absolutely nowhere. This doesn’t even fit the modern definition of a ‘surprise release’. There was zero build-up here- no teases, no winks, no nods. […]
Read moreTough to Google but easy to listen to, Lakes make sincere, sparkling emo that’s well worth diving into. The Watford outfit’s debut album, ‘The Constance’, was a tidy effort that employed complex but clean arrangements and unique instrumentation (hello, glockenspiel) to draw rave reviews at home and far outside the UK scene. The two tracks here, however, might be the […]
Read moreA warm blanket of an album, this. Oh, I’m sure Shiner, newly back in business after a lifetime away, want to inspire a more transcendental reaction, but ‘Schadenfreude’ finds the space rock pioneers slotting everything in its right place with no alarms and few surprises. An old friend record. I don’t even think you need to be all that familiar […]
Read moreJohn Boles talks a good game. He recommends ‘On a Spiral’, only his second album as Align In Time in the last decade, for fans of Maybeshewill, Caspian and Tides of Man. Unfortunately, he talks himself into a hole. There’s little of the rare, vivid qualities so easily associated with any of those acts here. Instead, from the careful beginning […]
Read moreThis, the debut effort from Ultimate Overshare, starts in the way most other indie rock records end- a big, raucous riff, wailing lead guitar, and arms-in-the-air exuberance. It’s big, ballsy, and beautiful. And it’s not a one-off. Over the subsequent 20-something minutes, the Virginia quintet prove to have a knack for the unexpected. ‘Rumble Pak’ features shimmering reverb swirling around […]
Read moreVanlock aren’t really newcomers- the French outfit feature former members of Tölva in their ranks- but this is still a strikingly accomplished debut. ‘Tiny Squares’ is, in fact, huge. It starts with what sounds like a synth swell or maybe a bowed guitar (or maybe both) but really what it brings to mind is storm clouds, empty stretches of black […]
Read moreListen, this whole thing has been horrible. There really are no bright sides to a global pandemic. But maybe, just maybe, we’ll get to hear some music that might not otherwise have been made. Châtelet is one such example. This solo electronic project from erstwhile Maybeshewill member John Helps was actually conceived a decade ago but has lain largely dormant until […]
Read moreThundercat’s last album was his masterwork. The man otherwise known as Stephen Bruner had hit high notes before of course, he’s been one to watch since his honeydew debut, but 2017’s ‘Drunk’ was a fizzy, dizzy collection of sugar-rush funk, electric soul, and killer slow jams that felt like the greatest mixtape ever made. It somehow scratched Bruner’s itch for […]
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