This week’s recommended lovelies start with Billy F Gibbons. Billy is of course best-known as one-third of ZZ Top, and The Big Bad Blues sees him return to his first love, the blues. The album follows on from his Afro-Cuban-flavoured 2015 solo debut Perfectamundo and is a superb collection of down and dirty, raw rock…
Suspiria contains 25 original compositions written by Thom Yorke specifically for Luca Guadagnino’s reimagining of the 1977 Dario Argento giallo horror classic. Instrumental score work is mixed with interstitial pieces and interludes and more traditional song structures featuring Thom’s vocals, such as ‘Unmade’, ‘Has Ended’ and ‘Suspirium’, which introduces the melodic theme that recurs throughout…
It’s a vintage week, and our smashers start with Paul Weller’s fourteenth solo album, True Meanings, a record unlike any he has ever made before. It’s characterised by grandiose yet delicate, lush orchestration: an aesthetic to which Paul’s better-than-ever voice, singing some of his most nakedly honest words, is perfectly suited. Turning 60 this year…
Muse have announced their eighth studio album, Simulation Theory, their first since 2015’s Drones. The eleven-track record was produced by the band along with several award-winning producers, including Rich Costey, Mike Elizondo, Shellback and Timbaland. Each of the album’s songs will be accompanied by a video. This is classic Muse, featuring Matt Bellamy’s unmistakable soaring…
This week’s sublime six kicks off with Teleman’s new 11-track album, Family Of Aliens, a fluid collection of glorious pop songs with a new electronic texture but retaining the sharp lyricism, buoyant guitars and instantaneous melodies for which Teleman are rightly famous. Maryland rockers Clutch deliver their 12th studio album, Book Of Bad Decisions, which…
“Each record I make is more of an amalgamation of who I truly am,” says John Grant. “The more I do this, the more I trust in myself, and the further along I go.” Even on his debut solo album Queen Of Denmark in 2010, the Michigan-born man released laced sumptuous soft-rock ballads with an…
Here we go again, with six smashers due out in the next two weeks. Performance is the new album from White Denim, a band who have long pulled hard at the parameters of rock & roll, admitting garage punk, soul, psychedelia, prog, jazz and blues while holding onto its vital good-time core. There simply is…
Elvis Costello And The Imposters have made a sensational new album that ranks alongside the best work this singular artist has ever produced. Look Now is beautiful in its simplicity, reflective in its lyrical vision, surrounded by melodies and orchestrations that are nothing short of heavenly. It’s the first album Costello has made with The…
Our 6 summer sizzlers for 3 & 10 August start with James, who are releasing their 15th(!) studio album, Living In Extraordinary Times. As Tim Booth puts it: “We knew something was up when Leicester City won the league then Brexit, then Trump. It’s as if we’d slipped into an alternate reality, a Philip K Dick…
Put simply, True Meanings, the fourteenth solo album from Paul Weller and the twenty-sixth studio album of his career, is a record unlike any he has ever made before. This is an album characterised by grandiose yet lush, delicate orchestration: an aesthetic to which Paul’s voice, never sounding better and singing some of his most…