Reviews
- Selfish Bass - Diarmaid O Meara Single Review
- I just don’t understand dance tracks like this one. I can wholly understand when in a club with a few drinks inside you (or a few of whatever makes those clubbers so happy) then this could well be the sort of high tempo, sound effects generated noise that may well lead ...
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Sista! - The Dirty Disco Single Review- A fantastically loopy, theatrical and infectious song is hard to come by, so if you like that potent mix then I heartily recommend Sista!, the new track from ’The Dirty Disco.’ The song is wrapped in a warped land that encompasses New Order, The Cure, Cher; Electro-Pop ...
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Automatik - Livvi Franc Single Review- With her self titled debut album and the success of her ‘Now I’m That Bitch’ single coupled with writing duties for Jordin Sparks and Cheryl Cole 2010 looks like it's all for the taking for Harrogate/Barbados beauty Livvi Franc. It seems like the bullet train will conti...
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- Eyes Aflame/ Warm Wreckage - Alight [UK] Single Review
- To release a double A-Side single you either have to be very famous (eg. The Beatles Strawberry Fields Forever/Penny Lane) or very sure of yourself/cocky (eg. Manic Street Preachers pre fame release of Loves Sweet Exile/Repeat) so it is with some trepidation with which ...
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Loud And Clear - Archangel Single Review- This is the new single from the multi talented musician Nick Webber aka Archangel. If you have heard any tracks from his debut album, ‘How To Lose Your Best Friend’ then you need not be told of the man’s obsessive DIY approach to recording, an approach that on the base ...
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Runaway Now - Straight Lines Single Review- Straight Lines are a very decent band, in fact they have or are currently supporting bands InMe and The Automatic, both of whom they are better than so the release of this new single shall do their growing name no harm at all.‘Runaway Now’ is a well charged, very tight ...
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The State vs Radric Davis - Gucci Mane Album Review- Despite currently being in prison for various offences, the latest being a parole violation after being released for attempted murder Gucci Mane’s record label is remaining strangely loyal to their artist. So is it going to be worth it?Album opener ‘Classical’ is great,...
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Screamworks - Love In Theory & Practice - HIM Album Review- I recently reviewed the single ‘Heartkiller’ and was pleasantly surprised by the song, they showed much more maturity than the pomp goth outfit they have been for years. Although I knew they would never make an album without their trademark sound it was a good single, w...
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The Movie Songbook - Sharleen Spiteri Album Review- Not many covers albums work that well, except the late Johnny Cash’s of course but Sharleen Spiteri has struck a nerve with this one, an album of songs lifted from movies. It guarantees interest and even if it ends up being a disaster, it will prove to be an original on...
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Songs of Love - Simply Red Album Review- Simply Red’s final hoorah? Who knows?Songs Of Love, Love Songs, they’re all the same to this reviewer.
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The Fine Line Between Choice / Decay - Broken Links EP Review- Broken seems to be the ‘in word’ at the moment. I’ve just finished listening to the excellent debut by Broken Bells, we live in Broken Britain and now this slab of electro-rock is up for judgement.Thankfully the 6-track EP, which has more material on than some albums I’...
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Ballads and Barnburners - The Manhattan Valley Ramblers Album Review- I’ve never really been exposed to much in the way of Bluegrass music, well except for the quite incredible ‘O Brother Where Art Thou’ soundtrack (but I fear saying this is true Bluegrass would be like saying McFly are a little bit Rock). The Manhattan Valley Ramblers (...
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- Erland and the Carnival @ Old Blue Last - 18/2/2010 - Live Review
- The Old Blue Last in London’s now exceptionally trendy East End (well Old Street to be precise) is a great pub, surrounded by relatively pretentious drinking holes and gastro pubs. It stands out, literally, on the fork of two roads and looking like something out of Dic...
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- Nick Harper @ The Hare & Hounds - Kings Heath - 06/03/2010 - Live Review
- Standing at the back of Birmingham’s Hare & Hounds venue earlier in the evening talking to the night’s opening artist Vijay Kishore, singer-songwriter and acoustic guitarist Nick Harper may well have passed unnoticed. But when he bounced onto the stage shortly afterwar...
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- Zombie - Breed 77 Single Review
- A Barbary rocking take on the hanging, yet up-and-at-‘em Cranberries classic ‘Zombie’. It sees Gibraltar’s Breed 77 putting their four albums worth of experience into re-hashing, quirking up and tossing moods around in this well chosen cover. Paul Isola gives his vocals...
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Heaven Can Wait - We the Kings Single Review- ‘Heaven Can Wait’ is the first single to be released in the UK from We the Kings’ second album ‘Smile Kid’. The single and album are to be released alongside a sold out tour from the band with You Me at Six.Formed in 2003, We The Kings are one of the most exciting and o...
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Alcatraz - Sound of Guns Single Review- Driving fuzzed up old style rock that coasts along courtesy of versatile vocalist Andy Metcalfe, is oozed out by this live-wire Liverpudlian troupe. Who seek to continue to leap and bound off from the momentum given by their Zane Lowe endorsed debut EP, ‘Elementary of Y...
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Dead Waves - Kyte Album Review- A coasting and, at times, relaxingly cruising hybrid of Snow Patrol and Zero 7 with a few genetically implanted musical genes of Sigur Ros hurled in for good measure. Is the lasting impression left by Kyte after the first few listens to this earnest twelve track debut f...
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Valleys Of Neptune - Jimi Hendrix Album Review- Hello, my friend, so happy to see you again – this wonderful postcard from the past sounds like it was recorded yesterday – class like this don’t age. Every time I hear Jimi, it’s like coming home, my wonderment, my smile that says, forty years on, “yep, you’re the man,...
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- More Than Dawn - Kah Album Review
- Released on March 22nd, More Than Dawn is the debut album from Kah. Part of Manilla PR and Joy lane Music, Kah is something of an…individual. Now I know what springs to mind at the mention of an ‘individual’: wannabes. The sorts of people that wear glasses WITH NO LENSE...
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Popfest Festival 2010 - The Wake @ The Lexington - 28/02/2010 - Live Review- This was only the second time that The Wake have played a gig since the late 80s and their first in the UK for 20 years. Considering their legacy (2 albums on Factory, 2 on Sarah and a pile of wonderful singles), it feels overdue somehow but I guess they have had a life...
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Lost Trails - Butterfly Explosion Album Review- Dream-pop and shoe-gazing – who thinks these terms up? Actually, they both describe the efforts of The Butterfly Explosions very well, probably better than their own name in fact. Spangly guitars, woozy keyboards, breathy-vocals and a bit of sonic feedback to boot – I m...
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Outbursts - Turin Brakes Album Review- There is always something re-assuring about the Brakes – warm sunny mornings, fresh ‘proper coffee’, a wander down to the river/beach and then home in time for a nice Sunday meal and a TV drama. And that is possibly the problem with their perceived audience, well the on...
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Nintendo - Chris T-T Single Review- Chris T-T is a Brighton born singer/songwriter, critically acclaimed for his lyrical genius and poetic ability.Following a fantastic acoustic set supporting Frank Turner at the end of 2009, Chris T-T is set to release ‘Nintendo’, the first single to be taken from his se...
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Know The Joy Of Good Living - Dead Like Harry Album Review- I was drawn to reviewing this album by the band’s name Dead Like Harry? Harry who? Secombe? Worth? Dean Stanton (can’t be he’s not dead). No clues on their website so I guess it will have to remain a mystery.Anyway, the music’s the thing so what of that?
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