It’s fair to say that Seán McGowan has been ‘grafting’ since day one. Since 2009, the Southampton born singer has toured over 20 countries and performed at numerous festivals, all while juggling reality with jobs such as barman, cleaner, kitchen porter, tour manager and, most recently, barber. Unafraid of getting stuck in, McGowan is still…
Alison Goldfrapp has set a towering bar for British synth-pop in the 21st century and she’s only just getting started. The magnetic London-born singer, songwriter and producer’s seven albums with Goldfrapp were fuelled by an unfailing modernity and a sixth sense for sounds that were more timeless than any trend. With the release of her…
NO THANK YOU is yet another delicious left-field turn for 29-year old Simbiatu Ajikawo. Sleek, succinct and utterly propulsive, it’s Little Simz’ defiantly punk-rock, two-fingered salute to conformity and fame, and all the expectations and restrictions that come with. Recorded with her regular collaborator Inflo, this is Simz at her most free, daring and spontaneous.…
Nearly five years on from their acclaimed debut, Bennett Wilson Poole reveal the follow-up, I Saw A Star Behind Your Eyes, Don’t Let It Die Away. It’s been a long time coming, but… That eponymous first album was a serendipitous series of events which began with a late-evening session where the trio wrote a response…
Wait ’Til I Get Over is a memoir and a love letter. It is the story of Durand Jones’s life, his growth and revelations, the wisdom of his hometown and the wisdom he could only gain once he left. In it, he writes through Hillaryville’s contradictions: the pristine beauty and the ragged roads; his teenage…
Weathervanes, the new album from Jason Isbell And The 400 Unit, tackles issues such as gun violence, the opioid crisis and women’s rights all through Isbell’s signature songwriting lens. This is a collection of grown-up songs: songs about adult love, about change, about the danger of nostalgia and the interrogation of myths, about cruelty and…
Teeming with melodic epiphanies and layered sounds, Squid’s second album, O Monolith, is a musical evocation of environment, domesticity and self-made folklore. Like its predecessor, 2021’s critically acclaimed, UK number 4 album Bright Green Field, it is dense and tricksy – but also more warm and characterful, with a meandering, questioning nature. Expansive, evocative and…
Josh Ritter’s 11th album, Spectral Lines, finds shared experiences in songs that push beyond the bounds of his previous work. Recorded with longtime collaborator Sam Kassirer producing, it’s an album full of wonder and light as Ritter considers the ideas of love, devotion and what it means to be connected, to each other and to…
The Orb’s pulsating discography grows ever more huge with their 18th album, Prism – the third helmed by core duo Alex Paterson and Michael Rendall. Despite the connotations of its title, here they continue to rollick freely without inhibition across ambient, house and dub, but also tangent into poetry, pop, full-blown drum ’n’ bass and…
UK Grim is the most dancefloor friendly release from Nottingham duo Sleaford Mods to date: an urgent and sage-like look at life, living and the gritty reality of our era. This is truly the sound of now, not only in terms of the ideas and issues Jason Williamson’s strong words invoke, but also thanks to…