Songs Lost And Stolen is a coming of age album for Derbyshire’s Bella Hardy. Her previous two records stuck to folk standards but here she finds the confidence to give us 12 self-written works. And backed by Scottish-Canadian ‘supergroup’ the…
Category: Reviews
Album: The Leisure Society – Into the Murky Water
Let’s make things clear from the outset: the Leisure Society’s second album is a work of wonder. Like its predecessor, The Sleeper, Into The Murky Water is a collection of beautiful songs, masterfully orchestrated, with smart, wry lyrics. Opening with…
Album: Toy Horses – Toy Horses
Bands come together in many different ways, but the idea of a stepson (Adam Franklin) and a stepfather (Tom Williams) is a new one on me. If this is backstory for the modern age, long may it continue because they…
Album: Fleet Foxes – Helplessness Blues
In 2008 Fleet Foxes came out of nowhere with an album that was adored by those who initially discovered it. The waves of critical acclaim combined with word-of-mouth growth has made Helplessness Blues one of the year’s most anticipated releases.…
Album: tUnE yArDs – w h o k i l l
Perpetual messers-with word cases tUnE yArDs keep their incessant meddling up with this, their second studio album. The powerhouse driving the tUnE yArDs project, Merrill Garbus, has succeeded in giving us an innovative, playful, and staggeringly adept follow-up to the…
Album: The Feelies – Here Before
Time is an elastic concept for the Feelies. Their latest, Here Before, syncs naturally with their previous recorded work despite being separated by two decades. Songs like ‘Again Today’, ‘ Nobody Knows’, and ‘Should Be Gone’ will make fans feel…
Album: The Wilderness of Manitoba – When You Left The Fire
A strange thing this – an album which is simultaneously enchanting and a little bit dull. You know those records you get completely lost in, then you realise it’s finished and you don’t know where the time went? Well, this…
Album: Three Blind Wolves – The Sound of the Storm
Three Blind Wolves signed to Communion Records after making a serious impression at the label’s Christmas party at the Notting Hill Arts Club in 2010. The Sound of the Storm had previously had an extremely limited release on the band’s…
Album: Explosions In The Sky – Take Care, Take Care, Take Care
Take Care, Take Care, Take Care is standard Explosions in the Sky fare: thoughtful, aurally and melodically indulgent, it’s an exuberant pleasure. Opening track ‘Last Known Surroundings’, typically loud, sweeps through epic guitar arrangements and definitely signals that the band…
Album: Admiral Fallow – Boots Met My Face
From time to time an album comes along that you know you will fall in love with even before the first song has come to an end – Boots Met My Face, the debut from Glaswegian quintet, Admiral Fallow is,…