Lissie – Cuckoo
Bouncy, accessible country-pop about driving around in a truck in small-town America, being totally wild, rebellious and free. “Let’s go driving, ‘cause there’s nowhere to go!” Yeah! It all sounds really fun, and really bad for the environment, but this is an ode to the joys of monster trucks and youthful...
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Heidi Spencer and the Rare Birds latest, Under Streetlight Glow, was deliberately and lovingly constructed. Throughout the album Spencer carefully chooses when and how fill the listeners ears; often deciding that silence is the best way to mark a point of emphasis, aid a transition, or allow time for an idea to sink in. ...
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The Green Man promised magic and he didn’t disappoint.
Once again the organisers pulled off the spectacular trick of attracting the friendliest festival crowd to the most laid-back festival there is, while enticing some of the weirdest and most wonderful bands out there to perform.
Manchester krautrockers Plank get the party started in fine style over...
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This brilliantly entertaining EP from Laura Marling, Mumford & Sons and the Dharohar Project is made up of live recordings from their combined set at the iTunes Festival in Camden Roundhouse on the 9th July.
The EP opens with two Mumford & Sons songs, ‘The Cave’ and ‘Roll Away Your Stone’. Despite not sounding that...
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‘Supergroup’ is one of those terms that gets thrown out there all the time. Two or three folks get together from different bands for a side project, and suddenly its a supergroup.
Except usually it’s not. Usually it’s not nearly as good as what they do in their day jobs (we’re looking at your James...
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All Delighted People is a collection of songs as bound to disappoint some as it is to enthuse others, and though it is perhaps mismatched as an album, it is not formed to be one.
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Clinic – I’m Aware
Clinic’s I’m Aware is evenly spread across its three minutes of running time. The band hints at its affinity for minor, slightly uncomfortable chords throw a wrench into the natural sense of how a song should develop. On I’m Aware, Clinic offers just enough discomfort to ensure the listener does not...
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It was a windy night and the sun had begun to sink into the horizon, when a crowd of folk-loving youths sat their bottoms onto the deck of the Tamesis Dock, a boat moored along the south side of the Thames.
Tristram and his band began – their lulling melodies hushing the crowd, as though...
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What a sweet prospect this double EP from Twin Sister is. The sleeve of Color Your Life features a dollhouse furnished by lead singer Andrea Estella, fuzzily nostalgic, like an old Polaroid, and the sounds within are appropriately dreamy and intimate without ever becoming too twee, a string of hazy, deeply textured songs like...
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I so wanted to get through this review without using the words ‘mini Glastonbury of the north’, but there it is. I’ve gone and bloody done it in the first sentence.
The truth is, though, that’s exactly what Moor Music Festival is. It’s limited to 3,000 people so perhaps micro would be more apt, but,...
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