Mike Scott and The Waterboys created Life, Death and Dennis Hopper as tribute to one of American popular culture’s most compelling public figures. Deeply conceptual, this expansive album of original songs was inspired entirely by the life and mythos of the actor, and brings together high-profile featured artists such as Bruce Springsteen, Fiona Apple and…
The first of this week’s six crackers is Polari – a pop album for the ages, looking back on history as a means to learn more about ourselves. Olly Alexander’s first album under his own name takes as its primary inspiration the (almost) lost art of speaking polari. After a decade releasing music as Years…
Self Esteem returns with her third studio album, A Complicated Woman. It’s a big, bold and poptastic statement. A Complicated Woman is her first album since the Brit and Mercury-nominated Prioritise Pleasure – crowned The Guardian and Sunday Times Culture’s Album of the Year. Note: The LP is initially available on red vinyl with a…
Steven Wilson’s eighth studio album, The Overview, is his most audacious to date, inspired by the “overview effect” experienced by astronauts looking back at the Earth from space. The two track, forty-two-minute album sees Wilson return to expansive, progressive music, a genre he helped redefine and repopularise with both his solo and Porcupine Tree releases.…
The new releases are starting to come thick and fast now. Here are our picks for next week. First out of the bag is Larkin Poe’s new album, Bloom, which sees the dynamic sister duo venturing further along on their evolving musical journey with a collection of songs that resonate with introspection, authenticity and a…
Oceanside Countryside is the latest of the great ‘lost’ albums to be released as part of Neil Young’s Analog Original Series (AOS). The album was recorded from May to December 1977, preceding the release of Comes a Time in 1978, and shares the same country/folk sound. The LP of Oceanside Countryside includes, for the first…
The Bad Fire was recorded at Chem19 studios in Scotland with Grammy Award-winning producer John Congleton (St Vincent, Angel Olsen, John Grant) joining Mogwai in the studio for their eleventh album. A Scottish colloquialism for Hell, The Bad Fire draws inspiration from a series of tough personal moments that the band found themselves in following…
As The Rolling Stones were preparing to play two nights at Wembley Stadium in June 1999, their first London shows in 4 years, they announced a surprise show at London’s Shepherd’s Bush Empire for 8 June. An intimate crowd of 1800 lucky fans were treated to a number of rarely heard gems over the course…
Opening this week’s slammers are Amyl & The Sniffers, who have seen their horizons broaden exponentially in every way since the release of Comfort to Me. And it’s this attitude – bigger, brighter, smarter, sharper – that’s fuelling their third album, Cartoon Darkness. Recorded with producer Nick Launay at Foo Fighters’ 606 Studios in Los…
Enter Now Brightness feels different for Nadia Reid. It is an album, she says, of departure and questioning, that has reminded her how songwriting can be “the most useful thing to do with pain and joy and thoughts and feelings and anger.” That through music we can find great change. “I’m so much better off…