Mark Stewart: The Politics of Envy – review
Buy it from Buy the CD Download as MP3 Mark Stewart The Politics Of Envy Future Noise 2012 Mark Stewart's eighth solo record is not an easy listen, and I'm almost certain he would take that as a...
View ArticleEsperanza Spalding: Radio Music Society – review
Buy it from Buy the CD Download as MP3 Esperanza Spalding Radio Music Society Decca 2012 Tell us what you think: Rate and review this album At first it sounds like someone idly spinning a radio dial –...
View ArticleThe Child of Lov: The Child of Lov – review
Buy it from Buy the CD Child of Love The Child Of Lov Domino 2013 A composite of Gnarls Barkley, the Weeknd and, physically, footballer Zlatan Ibrahimovic, the Child of Lov is Cole Williams, a...
View ArticleKodaline: In a Perfect World – review
Buy it from Buy the CD Download as MP3 Kodaline In A Perfect World B-UNIQUE/RCA 2013 Tell us what you think: Rate and review this album With the titans of OOs sob-rock on sabbatical or drifting into...
View ArticleBeatles for celluloid: unseen photos of Fab Four up for auction
The Beatles on the closed set filming A Hard Days Night. Photograph: Dave Thompson/PA Unseen photos of The Beatles are to go on sale after lying in a family album for nearly 50 years. The 20...
View ArticleMilagres: Glowing Mouth – review
Buy it from Buy the CD Download as MP3 Milagres Glowing Mouth Memphis Industries 2012 Tell us what you think: Rate and review this album The adage "no pain, no gain" could have been coined for Kyle...
View ArticleRutherford Chang: can't get enough of the White Album
Rutherford Chang, photographed with one of his beloved collection at his show, We Buy White Albums. Photograph: Eilon Paz for Dust & Grooves Imagine a vinyl collection consisting of 693 first...
View ArticleMikal Cronin: MCII – review
Buy it from Buy the CD Mikal Cronin mcii Merge 2013 Tell us what you think: Rate and review this album Residence in the US garage-pop underground is usually predicated on a certain level of refusenik...
View ArticleThe Great Wee Band: Light Blue – review
Buy it from Buy the CD Henry Lowther, Jim Mullen, Dave Green, Stu Butterfield, Stan Sulzmann, The Great Wee Band Light Blue Trio Records 2011 Never was a band more aptly named. These four – Henry...
View ArticleM Ward: A Wasteland Companion – review
Buy it from Buy the CD Download as MP3 M Ward A Wasteland Companion BELLA UNION 2012 Tell us what you think: Rate and review this album He might be best known for his work with Zooey Deschanel (as She...
View ArticlePoly Styrene remembered by Boy George
'Ironic and iconic': Poly Styrene in 1991 Photograph: Ian Dickson /Rex Features For the punk generation, Poly Styrene, the late punk songstress and poet, was a true legend, her style ironic and...
View ArticleMatias Aguayo: The Visitor – review
Buy it from Buy the CD Download as MP3 Matias Aguayo The Visitor Cómeme 2013 Tell us what you think: Rate and review this album He is 40 now, but Chilean-born, German-raised guerrilla rave instigator...
View ArticleMemory Tapes: Grace/Confusion – review
Buy it from Buy the CD Download as MP3 Memory Tapes Grace/Confusion Carpark 2012 Tell us what you think: Rate and review this album Memory Tapes made his name – or his various names (he's also...
View ArticleSix. By Seven: Love and Peace and Sympathy – review
Buy it from Buy the CD Download as MP3 Six By Seven Love And Peace And Sympathy Borrowed Tune Motion Pictures 2013 Predicted for great things in the late 90s/early 00s, Nottingham-based Six. By...
View ArticleSeth Lakeman: Tales From the Barrel House – review
Buy it from Buy the CD Seth Lakeman Tales From The Barrel House (CD + DVD) Honour Oak Records 2012 Over recent albums Lakeman has stretched the crossover potential of his fiddle-based folk to snapping...
View ArticleMystery Jets: Radlands – review
Buy it from Buy the CD Download as MP3 Mystery Jets Radlands Rough Trade 2012 Mystery Jets singer Blaine Harrison has talked of how the band decided their fourth album should be made in "the furthest...
View ArticleBahamas: Barchords – review
Buy it from Buy the CD Download as MP3 Bahamas Barchords Universal / Island 2012 Tell us what you think: Rate and review this album Afie "Bahamas" Jurvanen is acclaimed in his native Canada but won't...
View ArticleAndrew Bird: Break It Yourself – review
Buy it from Buy the CD Download as MP3 Andrew Bird Break It Yourself Bella Union 2012 Tell us what you think: Rate and review this album Drifting pleasantly through the US charts and branches of...
View ArticleTy Segall: Twins – review
Quite often San Franciscan longhair Ty Segall can sound like a fledgling Nirvana playing a Beatles song in a nearby toilet. At other times he sounds like Iggy and the Stooges, but high on sunshine....
View ArticleTribes: Baby – review
Buy it from Buy the CD Download as MP3 Tribes Baby Island 2012 Tell us what you think: Rate and review this album There might be some justification to Tribes' billing as grunge revivalists if their...
View ArticleSleigh Bells: Reign of Terror – review
Buy it from Buy the CD Sleigh Bells Reign of Terror Columbia 2012 Tell us what you think: Rate and review this album Brooklyn duo Sleigh Bells caused a joyful ruckus in 2010 with Treats, a startling...
View ArticleField Music: Plumb – review
Buy it from Buy the CD Download as MP3 Field Music Plumb Memphis Industries 2012 Tell us what you think: Rate and review this album Sunderland's Field Music exist out on a limb, their distance from...
View ArticleIn praise of … The End
It's a day for drawing lines under things, or trying to. So recall the fabulous way that the Fab Four called time on their own proceedings. There are of course less-than-lively debates about final...
View ArticleRachmaninov: Romances – review
Buy it from Buy the CD Sergei Rachmaninov Rachmaninov: Romances (Ondine: ODE 1207-2) None Ondine 2012 This recording should come with the warning "too hot to handle", such is the combustible...
View ArticleAmadou & Mariam: Folila – review
Buy it from Buy the CD Download as MP3 Amadou & Mariam Folila Because 2012 Tell us what you think: Rate and review this album The husband-and-wife team have blazed a charmed trail out of Mali to...
View ArticleLily and Madeleine: Lily and Madeleine – review
Buy it from Buy the CD Download as MP3 Lily and Madeleine Lily and Madeleine Asthmatic Kitty Records 2013 Lily and Madeleine are precocious teenage sisters from Indianapolis with voices as blameless...
View ArticleReal Estate: Days – review
Buy it from Buy the CD Download as MP3 Real Estate Days Domino 2011 What with all the hoopla around the Drums a couple of years ago, New Jersey's Real Estate have rather played the wallflowers at the...
View ArticleThe Mars Volta: Noctourniquet – review
Buy it from Buy the CD Download as MP3 The Mars Volta Noctourniquet WARNER BROS 2012 Tell us what you think: Rate and review this album The year's most feverishly anticipated musical event – at least...
View ArticleVillagers: {Awayland} – review
Buy it from Buy the CD Download as MP3 Villagers Awayland Domino Records 2013 Tell us what you think: Rate and review this album For all the charm of Conor O'Brien's first album, 2010's Becoming a...
View ArticleIceage: You're Nothing – review
Buy it from Buy the CD Download as MP3 Iceage You're Nothing Matador 2013 Tell us what you think: Rate and review this album The post-punk-meets-hardcore stylings of Danish teenagers Iceage made 2011...
View ArticleJim Moray: Skulk – review
Buy it from Buy the CD Download as MP3 Jim Moray Skulk Niag 2012 Tell us what you think: Rate and review this album Experimenting with rock, beats, strings and rap, Moray's updates of folk tradition...
View ArticleThe Juan MacLean: Everybody Get Close – review
Buy it from Buy the CD MP3 Download Before LCD Soundsystem's esteemed James Murphy reinvented punk-funk in the 00s, he was the sound guy for a fine post-hardcore band called Six Finger Satellite,...
View ArticleChick Corea & Gary Burton: Hot House – review
Buy it from Buy the CD Download as MP3 Chick Corea, Gary Burton Hot House Decca (UMO) 2012 Tell us what you think: Rate and review this album "I used to think that someday we would run out of ideas,"...
View ArticleThe Shins: Port of Morrow – review
Buy it from Buy the CD The Shins Port Of Morrow Columbia 2012 The sacking of two long-standing members and chief Shin James Mercer's 2010 collaboration with producer Danger Mouse may have sounded...
View ArticlePaul McCartney: Kisses on the Bottom – review
Paul McCartney (pictured at the O2 Arena last year) has released solo album No 15: ‘Nothing here is ghastly, exactly; merely anodyne.’ Photograph: Jim Dyson/Redferns Even the most distracted student...
View ArticlePulled Apart By Horses: Tough Love – review
Buy it from Buy the CD Download as MP3 Pulled Apart By Horses Tough Love Transgressive 2012 Leeds quartet Pulled Apart By Horses's self-titled debut was one of 2010's more enjoyable albums: exuberant...
View ArticleFidlar: Fidlar – review
Buy it from Buy the CD Download as MP3 FIDLAR FIDLAR Wichita Recordings 2013 Tell us what you think: Rate and review this album Their name derives from a skater acronym – fuck it dog, life's a risk....
View ArticleTune thy Musicke to thy Hart: Tudor and Jacobean Music for Private Devotion...
Buy it from Buy the CD Tomkins Tune thy Musicke to thy Hart: Tudor & Jacobean music for private devotion N/a Harmonia Mundi Usa 2012 We are, perhaps, in a wood-panelled Elizabethan hall, where in...
View ArticleHowler: America Give Up – review
Rockists love the idea of a saviour. Music is a tribal business and you suspect dedicated followers of chord play are currently lurking out the Adele years, holding their hands over their ears in...
View ArticleGrant Hart: The Argument – review
Buy it from Buy the CD Grant Hart The Argument Domino Recording Co 2013 As one third of Minneapolis hardcore evolutionists Hüsker Dü, Grant Hart was partly responsible for some of the best albums of...
View ArticleThreeway: Looking Forward, Looking Back – review
Buy it from Buy the CD Threeway, Jim Hart Looking Forward, Looking Back Jazz Cat 2013 This is a band that gives the term "chamber jazz" a good name. All three are virtuoso players who know each other...
View ArticleAngel: About Time – review
Buy it from Buy the CD Download as MP3 Angel About Time Island 2013 Despite the title, Angel's debut album isn't exactly about the time this up 'n' coming UK R&B singer spent on remand before...
View ArticleDamien Jurado: Brothers and Sisters of the Eternal Son – review
Buy it from Buy the CD Damien Jurado Brothers and Sisters of the Eternal Son Secretly Canadian 2014 Tell us what you think: Rate and review this album After eight pleasant, if unremarkable, albums,...
View ArticleBill Ryder-Jones: If… – review
Buy it from Buy the CD Bill Ryder-jones If... Domino Records 2011 No one could have guessed that the Coral's ex-guitarist, Bill Ryder-Jones, would make his solo debut with a score inspired by an Italo...
View ArticleJames Morrison: The Awakening – review
Buy it from Buy the CD Download as MP3 James Morrison The Awakening Island 2011 Tell us what you think: Rate and review this album Bar the success of his 2008 single "Broken Strings", - featuring Nelly...
View ArticleBonnie 'Prince' Billy: Wolfroy Goes to Town – review
Buy it from Buy the CD Download as MP3 Bonnie Prince Billy Wolfroy Goes To Town Domino Records 2011 Tell us what you think: Rate and review this album Those who like their Will Oldham albums...
View ArticleFlorence and the Machine: Ceremonials – review
'She's playing with the big girls now': Florence Welch. One day a critically acclaimed, commercially successful pop artist will aspire to make a record that sounds small. In a room with perfect...
View ArticleAgainst Me!: Transgender Dysphoria Blues – review
Buy it from Buy the CD Against Me Transgender Dysphoria Blues Total Treble Music 2014 Far from being a haven for outsiders, American punk has become a highly normative genre, where difference is easily...
View ArticleKenny Wheeler Big Band: The Long Waiting – review
Buy it from Buy the CD Kenny Wheeler The Long Waiting Cam Jazz 2012 There's a kind of magic about Kenny Wheeler, both his playing and his composition. Everything he invents, even the most abstract...
View ArticleA room of my own: Mervyn Conn
"Irrepressibly energtic" music promoter Mervyn Conn at his home in Wimbledon. Photograph: Richard Saker for the Observer The irrepressibly energetic Mervyn Conn gave retirement a go, and then thought:...
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