Have you ever been unfortunate enough to break the elastic on your party hat, mid-party? If you have, you’ll remember that the sensation is both physically and emotionally mortifying: you can no longer wear the same hat as everyone else,…
Category: Reviews
Album | The Staves – Dead & Born & Grown
There’s been a lot of hype surrounding The Staves since they debuted their talents behind Tom Jones on his gravelly gospel album Praise and Blame. They made a name for themselves on the back of that performance with the Welsh…
New Bands Panel | Light Falls Forward – Songs and Shadows EP
This week three of our writers have eyed up London-based two-piece Light Falls Forward, who met at a house party and immediately bonded over Derren Brown and biscuits. They moved in with each other, decided to write music together and…
Live | The Civil Wars at The Roundhouse, London
The Civil Wars: never was a band name more apt. Reviewing the duo, who have just cancelled the rest of their tour and gone on hiatus citing ‘differences in ambition’, is a tricky one. Leaving The Roundhouse last Tuesday I was…
EP | Oh Stockholm! – All This Will Go
The latest EP from Oh Stockholm! should be proof enough, were it still needed, that their journey from electro-pop to folky loveliness is complete. The last time FFS covered them back in 2011, one of our New Bands Panel members…
Album | ahab – Live In London
While I’m sure it’s not impossible to write a review of ahab’s debut album without debating the merits of opting to put it out as a live record, I can only imagine it would sit there the proverbial elephant in…
Live | Moulettes announce competition and Tabernacle gig on 24th November
May we cordially recommend a gig to you? It’s in one of the very most beautiful venues in London, there are prizes for the first 50 people to buy tickets from the Communion Music, and the line up is stonking. The…
Album | Beth Orton – Sugaring Season
Having spent the turn of the century in the company of Beth Orton’s 1999 Brit Award-winning album Central Reservation – and it’s chronological neighbours Trailer Park and Daybreaker – Orton’s music is part of the maturing folk fan’s genetic make-up. Now…
Album | Neil Halstead – Palindrome Hunches
The sometime Slowdive and Mojave 3 frontman’s prolific career continues with a simply beautiful third solo album. Recorded over one weekend in a primary school, after Halstead bribed the caretaker to let him and his band into the music room,…
Album | Martha Tilston – Machines of Love and Grace
Political music cannot, as Billy Bragg says, change the world, “but it can change the way you think about the world.” Martha Tilston’s new record Machines of Love and Grace finds its raison d’être – and severe limitations – in…