Review archive
Our review archive contains almost 5,000 album, single, book and live reviews written from 2003 up to May 2012.
Mothlite - Dark Ages Album Review- A four year break between your debut and second album is usually more than enough for the often fickle music industry to forget who you are and what you sound like. However, this is not the case when you spend this time collaborating with the likes of Ulver and Grumblin...
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Keane - Silenced by the Night Single Review- Silenced by the Night is the first single from the forthcoming album 'Strangeland', the second to feature the band as a four-piece, with bass added as of 2008. Every time I see the title, I can't help but think of Springsteen's 'Blinded by the Light' - similar name and ...
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The Cast of Cheers - Animals Single Review- An atmospheric, tapping percussion led intro’ decorates the restrained, but demonstratively stammered vocals of Conor Adams, ‘Animals’. Roving keys adds instrumental adventure to contrast with the primal lyrics and overall vibe of the rest of the song.Joker card synths ...
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Singles round-up featuring The Ghosts, Theme Park, The Mars Volta, Ane brun, The Milk and more... Singles Review- Release schedules have gone a bit crazy of late, so let’s dive into what promises to be the ‘greatest selection of singles I have ever been presented with’. Except that straight from the ‘off’, I’m faced with lumpen swampy psychedelic noodling in the form of The Mars Vo...
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Maz Totterdell - Sweep Album Review- Released through Series 8 on 28th May ‘Sweep’ is the debut album from upcoming teenage starlet Maz Totterdell, and with nods towards Nerina Pallot, Kate Nash and Laura Marling it’s a record made for the summer. With pop hooks sweeter than sugar and a song writing abilit...
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Miss Quincy - Like The Devil Does Album Review- Following on from last year’s debut ‘Your Mama Don’t Like Me’ Miss Quincy returns not only with new album ‘Like The Devil Does’ but also a new all female band The Showdown. Recorded in a live format this collection of dirty Blues songs shows a darker side to the banjo s...
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Rachel Harrington - Rachel Harrington & The Knock Outs Album Review- At first glance the new Nashville sound currently taking shape in various basements across from the Cumberland River bears precious little resemblance to Rachel Harrington’s fourth studio album. The former draws upon pop, punk and psychedelia as its primary sources, th...
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The Ghosts - The End Album Review- Not to be confused with the BBC Sound of 2007 nominees of almost the same name, THE Ghosts were formed a few years later by Ou Est Le Swimming Pool’s occasional contributor Alex Starling, at a time when depression sank in after the suicide of Charlie Haddon at Pukkelpop...
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Ozric Tentacles - Paper Monkeys Album Review- Some quarter of a century ago, the swirling psychedelia-electro rock of Ozric Tentacles appeared courtesy of a series of home-produced cassettes, before being slightly fine-tuned for a debut-album release on the space-rock label Demi-Monde. That full-length set, “Pungen...
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The Mars Volta - Noctourniquet Album Review- A decade after rising out of the ashes of At The Drive-In, like an outlandish phoenix – The Mars Volta are back with their sixth album where the bizarre and the absurd still play a huge part in proceedings. Gone though are the self-indulgent, free-flowing fifteen-minute...
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