Music legend Carlos Santana has amassed an iconic body of work by pioneering a unique fusion of rock, Latin and jazz genres. On his upcoming album, Africa Speaks, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame guitarist goes deeper and further than ever before to create one of his most groundbreaking albums yet. Enlisting producer Rick…
Even with Record Store Day dominating the week, we still have 6 smashers for you from 19th April’s releases. We start with Serfs Up!, the third album from Fat White Family, which marks the most gratifying and unexpected creative volte-face in recent musical history. Having released Songs For Our Mothers, core members Lias and Nathan…
The Waterboys release their new album, Where The Action Is, which follows the acclaimed Out Of All This Blue. With a title inspired by Robert Parker’s 1960s mod / northern soul classic, this 10-song, genre-defying album is a testament to the enduring talents of the band’s founder and frontman, Mike Scott. One of the finest…
This week our recommended releases kick off with Fontaines D.C., whose evolution, like all the best bands, seems to have happened fast with a steep, seemingly preordained, trajectory since they discovered a shared love of poetry and a common zeal for authentic self-expression at college in Dublin a mere three years ago. It is to…
U.F.O.F., with F standing for ‘Friend’, is the name of the highly anticipated third record by Big Thief. It was recorded in rural western Washington at Bear Creek Studios with engineer Dom Monks, and producer Andrew Sarlo, who was also behind their previous albums. The New York-based band, featuring Adrianne Lenker (guitar, vocals), Buck Meek…
The first of this week’s recommended releases comes from Weyes Blood, a.k.a. Natalie Mering, who has designed her own universe to soulfully navigate life’s mysteries. Manoeuvring through a space-time continuum, she plays the role of melodic, sometimes melancholic, anthropologist. Tellingly, Mering classifies Titanic Rising – which was written and recorded during the first half of…
Please note: the release date of this album has been brought forward to 31 May. Further is the eighth studio album from Sheffield-born singer-songwriter Richard Hawley, who has said of the album: “I really wanted to challenge myself to try to keep things relatively up-tempo and keep the songs to about three minutes long. I…
This week’s smashers start off with Hundred Records favourites Son Volt, whose new album, Union, showcases more of the pain of division, while still taking time to spotlight music’s ability to heal and offer respite from troubling sociopolitical times. “There are so many forces driving our country apart,” says founding member Jay Farrar. “What can…
Sit back and strap yourself in as seven-headed Aussie rock beast King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard return with Fishing For Fishies, perhaps their most perfectly realised album to date. Here is a world where the organic meets the automated; where the rustic meets the robotic; where the past and future collide in the beautiful…
Leading off our top picks for this week is an album that wasn’t meant to happen – in fact, the band promised each other it wouldn’t! In spite of that, Sleeper release their first album in 21 years, so they clearly didn’t listen to each other. The Modern Age is the outward-facing sound of a…