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Review
Recapturing youth’s emotionally intricate pleasures is never easy, but this duo from Kolkata, India, revel in it. Their second album sounds so superficially innocent one might mistake it for wimpish,…
Review: Maps – Colours. Reflect. Time. Loss.
Remember when James Chapman, nominated for a Mercury Prize with 2007’s We Can Create, was considered a bedroom artist? Well, the first thing one notices about his fourth studio album…
Review: Morrissey – California Son
In making his 12th studio album a covers record, you’d think Morrissey might be looking to avoid controversy. It would, after all, be a relief not to separate art from…
Review: The Waterboys – Where The Action Is
When you’ve made your living from music for almost four decades, you can feel reasonably confident your audience will follow you wherever you roam. So it is with Mike Scott,…
Review: Lamb – The Secret Of Letting Go
Andy Barlow and Lou Rhodes have made little secret of how completing their seventh album nearly roasted Lamb alive. Quite apart from the regular stresses of their complex working relationship,…
Review: The Cranberries – In The End
It’s impossible to listen to The Cranberries’ final album and not feel a little uncomfortable. Dolores O’Riordan was never famed for her lyrics, but when she begins with the…
Review: Suzi Quatro – No Control
Since quoting people out of context is all the rage, let’s take a line from Suzi Quatro’s 17th album and wilfully misinterpret it. “I’m a rolling stone,” she claims on…
Review: Edwyn Collins – Badbea
If you’ve seen 2014’s deeply moving documentary, The Possibilities Are Endless, you’ll understand the struggles Edwyn Collins faced following his two 2005 cerebral haemorrhages. If you’ve looked at his discography,…
Reissue: Ian Brown – Unfinished Monkey Business
It’s possible rock history has witnessed a more precipitous decline than the drop-off in quality between The Stone Roses’ zeitgeist-setting self-titled 1989 debut and their dreadful 1994 follow-up, Second Coming.…
Reissue: Buzzcocks – A Different Kind Of Tension/Singles Going Steady
Buzzcocks’ simplicity was their genius that became their straitjacket. By their third album, 1979’s A Different Kind Of Tension, Pete Shelley was chafing against the restrictions of the punk-pop formula…