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…
Category: Reviews
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…
Live | Michael Kiwanuka @ Brudenell Social Club, Leeds
There is a very real sense of expectation as queues snake away from the front of the Brudenell Social Club. Expectation not only that inside will be considerably warmer than the freezing winter temperatures of the car park, but that…
Album | Mary Lorson & The Soubrettes – BurnBabyBurn
Mary Lorson and the Soubrettes’ BurnBabyBurn constitutes a balancing act between its gentle, spacious, and warm sounds and its stark, honest lyrics. This balance is even obliquely referenced in the lyrics of ‘Only One Number Two’. “You walk the roof…
Album | The Twilight Sad – No One Can Ever Know
There has never been a worse time for an ‘80s synth-pop album to come out than now. Even the ‘80s. As Simon Reynolds’ derisive term (and book) “Retromania” gets bandied about more and more, so too does the popularity of…
Album | First Aid Kit – The Lion’s Roar
“There’s nothing new under the sun / All that will happen has already begun” Sometimes you don’t need to say a lot to get a point across. In this simple couplet from the dark, tidal ‘Dance To Another Tune’, First…
Live | Hannah Peel @ Holy Trinity Church, Leeds
With mulled wines in hand, the people of Leeds have packed into the pews of the Holy Trinity Church to hear one of their own deliver the annual Christmas service from the local Gaslight Club. Well, nearly. Hannah introduces herself…
Live | Josh T. Pearson @ The Barbican + a free Christmas download
Josh T. Pearson’s Last of the Country Gentlemen was released this year to widespread acclaim, with this very website describing it as a ‘sparse, delicate and unrelenting trawl through the darker recesses of the soul’. It has found itself in…