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 with a clear rhythmic sense, a mixed palette of guitars, strings, wind, various keyboard instruments and percussion.
On The Party Is Over, the follow-up to 2024’s acclaimed Obsessed, Morgan Wade continues the intense exploration of her psyche’s recesses. As ever, the results are thrilling. The album’s title track is a crashing anthem about attraction that lingers long after the intoxicants wear off, while lead single ‘East Coast’ takes those fixations to an extreme in its depiction of a relationship that pushes someone to the edge.
Richard Hawley’s widely revered 2005 album, Coles Corner, gets a special half-speed master edition for its 20th anniversary. Coles Corner was Hawley’s third studio album and his first for Mute Records. After five years of garnering praise for his songwriting talents and heart-melting baritone voice, and steadily building a solid fan base through his outstanding live performances, hard work paid off on an album regarded by many as his best.
Renée Rapp’s latest album, Bite Me, encourages listeners to embrace every facet of their personality, the chaotic and the confident, and to be authentically, unapologetically themselves. It’s a raw, unfiltered, vulnerable album about self-acceptance in its truest form, and – like Rapp herself – it creates a community for unfiltered self-expression.
At 24, Texas songwriter Travis Roberts has already battled addiction, buried friends and been homeless. It should be no surprise, then, that he comes out swinging on his blistering debut, Rebel Rose, which blurs the lines between roots, punk, folk and power pop. The writing is visceral and the performances are nothing short of explosive, propelled by a relentless rhythm section, searing guitars and infectious melodic hooks.
Our release of the week is the 25th anniversary pressing of Glastonbury 2000, which documents the full 21-song set of David Bowie’s legendary Sunday-night headline performance at the most famous festival on Earth, including many of his greatest hits. The sleeve features a photo of Bowie dressed in a frock coat designed by Alexander McQueen with a pattern echoing the famous ‘bipperty-bopperty hat’ worn by David at his Glastonbury Fayre debut in 1971.
There are also reissues from Sabres of Paradise, Shaboozey, Elvis Presley, Buddy Guy and Anathema, plus a live 4-LP, 2-CD and Blu-ray from sometime Romsey boy Roger Waters!
Click on an image to order your copy.