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Albums
To change or not to change: it’s a question musicians regularly confront, with the answer usually ‘damned if you do, damned if you don’t’. After nailing a style down so…
Prince – Purple Rain Deluxe Expanded Edition review
Three-disc funkgasmagoria from Prince’s Purple peak – including disc of single edits and B-sides, a live DVD and a CD of tracks from the legendary vaults. Rhino 5/5 Prince was…
Nasher – 432-1: Open The Vein album review
Babylon Pink Recordings 4/5 On his fourth solo album, Brian ‘Nasher’ Nash defies those who still think of him as one of ‘the lads’ who helped bulk out Frankie Goes…
Arcade Fire – Everything Now album review
Sony/Columbia 3/5 It’s tough to reconcile the Arcade Fire of now with the Montreal band that first emerged in 2004 touting the breathless, romantic Funeral. Back then, the idea they’d…
Ghostpoet – Dark Days + Canapes album review
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…