187 posts
New albums
Play It Again Sam 4/5 Twice the Mercury Prize bridesmaid and never the bride (he was nominated for his 2011 debut Peanut Butter Blues & Melancholy Jam and 2015’s Shedding…
Bronski Beat – The Age of Reason album review
Cherry Red 2/5 For many of us who grew up in the Classic Pop era, the sound of Bronski Beat’s Smalltown Boy was a revelation. Jimmy Somerville’s poignant, high-pitched wail,…
Paul Heaton & Jacqui Abbott: Crooked Calypso album review
Virgin/EMI 4/5 Many a true word is spoken in jest, and never was that more accurate than with Paul Heaton. This, though, is why he’s so undervalued by the muso…
Nick Heyward – Woodland Echoes album review
Nick Heyward – Woodland Echoes Gladsome Hawk 4/5 Former haircut 100 man Nick Heyward returns with remarkable new record ‘Woodland Echoes’ that stands toe-to-toe with past glories. A contender for…
Sparks – Hippopotamus album review
BMG 4/5 Songs about sex and about Scandinavian design. Songs about The Macbeths and about Edith Piaf. Yep, the Mael brothers are back, and as delightfully oddball as ever. If…
OMD – The Punishment of Luxury album review
White Noise 4/5 Halfway through OMD’s 13th album, there’s a brief piece – part song, part collage – entitled Precision & Decay, a requiem for Detroit’s industrial decline. A ghostly…
LCD Soundsystem – American Dream album review
DFA Records/Columbia 5/5 When LCD Soundsystem announced they were disbanding in 2011, a considerable song and dance was made about the news: a four-hour show at New York’s 20,000-capacity Madison…
Liam Gallagher – As You Were album review
Warner Bros Records 4/5 The unfairly maligned Beady Eye may not have set the world alight but the younger Gallagher brother’s solo debut is everything you could reasonably hope for.…
Alison Moyet – Other album review
Picking up where her last record left off, Alison Moyet pairs up with producer Guy Sigsworth for her ninth album, an intensely thrilling tour de force Cooking Vinyl 5/5 “Suddenly…
London Grammar – Truth is a Beautiful Thing album review
London Grammar – Truth is a Beautiful Thing Album Review Metal & Dust / Ministry of Sound 4/5 With their debut EP described in The Guardian by Classic Pop’s own…