Yes – you read that right, the full title of the new Smashing Pumpkins album, in all caps. Maybe we can just call it Shiny & Bright Vol.1 for ease – but officially Billy insists it must be referred to at all times as SHINY AND OH SO BRIGHT, VOL.1: NO PAST. NO FUTURE. NO…
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…
As the frontman of epic British drone-pop band The Verve, Richard Ashcroft proved himself the spiritual descendant of rock & roll icons like Mick Jagger and Jim Morrison – rivetingly charismatic, menacingly serpentine, and possessed of an almost shamanic intensity, he embraced and articulated the anthemic fervour of rock music with a power and eloquence…
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…