Ben Howard – The Wolves The Wolves have been kicking around for well over a year now, but they must be getting hungry (or rather Howard’s fat cat record label Island were) as the mellow summer beach ditty with its…
Category: Reviews
Live | Ed Sheeran @ Guildford Boileroom, 19 July
Seriously deft on the loop pedal, with the voice of a choirboy-turned-rockstar and a guitar that hasn’t left his side in years, it’s not hard to see why Ed Sheeran’s show at the Boileroom sold out in less than twenty-five…
Album | Benjamin Francis Leftwich – Last Smoke Before the Snow Storm
In the wake of two EPs, a lovely cover of Arcade Fire’s Rebellion (lies) and a good bit of exposure on Radio One and Six Music it’s true to say that there has been a fair bit of anticipation surrounding…
Live | Arcade Fire, Mumford & Sons, Beirut, The Vaccines, Owen Pallett @ Hyde Park, London, 30 June
Arcade Fire played a pleasing smattering of hits, the best for me being ‘Roccoco’ (lots of good ooh-ing from the crowd), ‘Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)’, which made me a bit teary, ‘Haiti’, ‘Intervention’, ‘We Used To Wait’, ‘Keep The Car Running’ and ‘Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)’. The band have written so many good songs, and seem to nail a half-disillusioned idealism that’s very definitive of music now, agreeing with Fleet Foxes in wanting to escape ‘the sprawl’ but not being sure if that’s possible. They’re also slightly in love with the dead shopping malls, the emptiness of the suburbs; their protesting edge is questioning, searching.
Album | BOBBY – Bobby
From the moment FFS first laid ears on the opening bars, something of an obsession not only with the song but with all things BOBBY has developed.
The loose musical collective was strung together by Vermont musicial Tom Greenberg – and features Molly Sarle and Amelia Meath from the delicious Mountain Man
Album | She Keeps Bees – Dig On
The highlights of the album were the moments that allow singer Jessica Larrabee to her vocals and her lyrics stand-alone and be appreciated. A brilliant example of this is present in the short, closing number, Burn. At first singing accapella before being accompanied by the sparsest of beats from musical partner Andy LaPlant, Larrabee almost challenges you to try and forget her warm, secure vocals and her well-spun tales…
EP: The Dufflefolks – Keep Safe Your Keepsakes
Last year The Dufflefolks opened The Greenman Festival after winning 2010’s Greenpoll; reaching the final as one of the fans’ choices before a judge’s panel comprising, among others, Bella Union head Simon Raymonde, Mojo editor Phil Alexander, and Stephen Bass,…
Album: Driver Drive Faster – Open House
Open House is the debut album from Manchester band Driver Drive Faster, one of the first bands confirmed for this year’s Green Man -when the group’s true inauguration into the endlessly interwoven folk circuit will undoubtedly take place. They open…
Live: Yo La Tengo @ O2 Academy, Oxford
“SPIN THE WHEEL!” No, we’re not in the audience for Wheel of Fortune, but the wheel is the key decision maker onstage with Yo La Tengo tonight. Needless to say, this tour is unlike any other, and even though the…
Album: Zervas & Peppers – Somewhere In The City
Does anyone fancy a trip through their parents record collection? Zervas & Peppers wear their influences on their sleeve, so it won’t take you long listening to this to realise that said influences are Fleetwood Mac, CSN&Y, Joni Mitchell and…