This is the section of FFS dedicated to new music, where the New Bands Panel judge the merits of an up and coming band. See it as a kind of parent’s evening for emerging talent. Hopefully, just like a stranger…
Category: Reviews
EP | Daniel Rossen – Silent Hour/Golden Mile
It’s easy to see Daniel Rossen’s career output as a series of fractions – a quarter of him lies in Grizzly Bear’s work, a half in Department of Eagles – so it seems fitting that his ever-increasing influence has led…
Live | The Civil Wars @ Leeds Metropolitan University Student Union
“I haven’t smiled this much all week,” says John Paul White as another huge cheer goes up from the cowd. “That might sound pretty sad, but…well, thanks.” White and Joy Williams, the other half of the Civil Wars, have had…
Album | Soap&Skin – Narrow
It’s hard to believe that Anja Plaschg, aka Soap&Skin, is only 21. With second full-length album, Narrow, the Viennese Plaschg tackles such weighty issues as loss and grief in a classical-goth style that takes a certain level of courageousness. Nor…
Album | Gretchen Peters – Hello Cruel World
This is Gretchen Peters’ first appearance on FFS, and she’s most decidedly at the country end of our folk spectrum (if you remember Faith Hill, she wrote a song for her in the 90s). She’s lived in Nashville since the…
Album: We Are Augustines – Rise Ye Sunken Ships
All the brawn of We Are Augustines’ instrumentation could easily mask the emotional clout that Rise Ye Sunken Ships contains. The opening gambit of a four-to-the-floor drum beat and the ensuing anthemic guitar chord progression in ‘Chapel Song’ immediately defines…
Album | Bowerbirds – The Clearing
On their charming new album The Clearing, the Bowerbirds stick to the formula that gained them acclaim on their previous records, Upper Air and Hymns for a Dark Horse. On first listen it appears to be a tribute to their…
Album | Andrew Bird – Break It Yourself
Andrew Bird has always flirted with the idea of making pop music. His often sprawling, always impressively constructed compositions have toyed with the boundaries between experimentation and melodic straightforwardness for years now, but his strength has always lain in being…
Singles Round-up | Kyla La Grange, Wild Nothing, Dog Is Dead, Simone Felice, Athena
When Kyla La Grange last appeared in a singles round-up, she was compared – positively, it should be noted – with the likes of Bon Jovi of Bryan Adams for the grandstanding sound of ‘Heavy Stone’. Now she returns with…
Live | King Creosote & Jon Hopkins @ Shepherds Bush Empire
There are a lot of different reasons for going to see some lovely music. You might want to see a band live because they’re perky enough that you can sing along without being ashamed. You might go in the hope…