The first of this week’s bangers is Euro-Country, the new album by CMAT. This Brits/Mercury/Ivors-nominated star feels like she’s been part of the culture forever, and what has endeared fans to her heart-sore tunes and humour is her ability to combine contradictory themes and moods: wide-eye drama with self-deprecation. Country music has always been a…
Hail to the Thief Live Recordings 2003-2009 re-evaluates Radiohead’s relationship with their 6th studio album, comprising performances of songs in London, Amsterdam, Buenos Aires, and Dublin. The album was mixed by Ben Baptie and mastered by Matt Colton. Thom Yorke says: “I heard some archive live recordings of the songs. I was shocked by the…
The coming week sees a whole plethora of new releases and reissues. Here’s our choice. First out of the blocks are Deftones, who have carved out an unmistakable sonic identity – ferocious yet dreamlike – while making space for constant refinement and surprise. Now, following a long line of masterpieces including their era-defining debut, Adrenaline,…
Sanguivore II: Mistress of Death is larger-than-life, darker-than-death, and the best album Creeper have ever recorded. It is a thematic sequel rather than a direct continuation of the original Sanguivore story. Like a classic horror anthology, it spins a new tale from the same bloodline as the original, this time using its bloodied vampiric…
The first of our hot picks for this week is So Long Little Miss Sunshine, a hybrid of pop, country, rock and flat-picking, plus one murder ballad, on which Molly Tuttle goes to a whole new place. Her virtuoso guitar work takes centre stage more than ever on this album; and, for the first time,…
The Luck and Strange Concerts features live perfoormances from the acclaimed tour for David Gilmour’s most recent album. The CD and LP versions feature 23 live tracks, and include a 24-page booklet, featuring photographs from the tour. The Blu-ray features a film of the concert at the Circus Maximus in Rome, plus audio concert…
The next gathering of the Hundred will take place next Friday, 8th August, from 6 o’clock. The theme this time is cover versions that are better than the original. It would appear a few of you already have ideas to bring along. Excellent work! We will chat, discuss the potential terrible choices of cover songs,…
Led Zeppelin celebrate the 50th anniversary of their iconic sixth album, Physical Graffiti, with the release of their new Live EP. The EP features live recordings of ‘In My Time Of Dying’ and ‘Trampled Under Foot’ from Earl’s Court 1975, alongside ‘Sick Again’ and ‘Kashmir’ from Knebworth 1979. These live performances were originally released…
This week’s six scorchers start with Special Powers, the fifth studio album from North Sea Radio Orchestra (NSRO), which features a mix of songs and instrumentals both large and small from the psych/chamber/folk/pop world that bandleader Craig Fortnam has lived in for a while now. There is a strong emphasis on melody and chord combined…
The Last Dinner Party’s new album, From the Pyre, is a collection of stories, and the concept of album-as-mythos binds them. ‘The Pyre’ itself is an allegorical place in which these tales originate, a place of violence and destruction but also regeneration, passion and light. The songs are character driven but still deeply personal, a…