Category: Pop rock
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Johnny Lloyd: Next Episode Starts In 15 Seconds
Lloyd is the former Tribes frontman: Tribes were an indie band, formed in 2010 and splitting in 2013. They might not have bothered your pop radar much, but it’s all part of a learning curve for a musician. Lloyd next appeared (to us anyway) with the Eden EP in 2017, which was a flawless pop EP, showing…
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Weezer: Weezer (Teal Album)
Covers albums are a weird concept, especially for a big band like Weezer, though the backstory is amusing. Weezer have always played covers, including War Pigs by Black Sabbath (also covered by Flaming Lips for a spell), and fans pressured them to do a cover of Toto’s Africa. After trolling fans with a cover of…
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Sparkling: Felonious
We thought this lot to be a US hip hop group — that’s what the title puts us in mind of — but it’s not: it’s vintage 80s synth pop delivered to a high standard. We’ve been playing the new Foals album a lot, and it’s a bit Foals, 80s style. Sparkling are Danish —…
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Sleeper: The Modern Age
Sleeper were (to us, you might disagree) a middle-ranking Britpop band, formed in 1993, notching up eight top 40 hit singles and featuring in the soundtrack of Trainspotting. They split in 1998 but reunited in 2017, and this new album is the first in 21 years. We’d forgotten they existed and can’t hum any of…
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Foals: Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost Part 1
Foals are one of the best bands in Britain. They’ve improved and matured on every album and each release has a different sound. For this they’ve lost a bass player but replaced him with a synth, the backbone that supplies giving the music more of a groove; a lot, in fact. In some ways it’s…
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Still Corners: Slow Air
This new album marks a change in direction for Still Corners. The last album of theirs we had was rooted in England in the 80s, mixing the gloomy beats of Bronski Beat with the more commercial sound of Bananarama (in places anyway). It was too slow to be dance or have you spinning right round…
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Cellar Doors: Cellar Doors
If you’ve ever wondered what a Kasabian — Doors mash up made by a someone who loves his kick drum might sound like, look no further. Throw in some My Bloody Valentine, Stone Roses and Joy Division and you’re close to the sound of Cellar Doors. They sound English but they’re actually from California. They’re…
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Matt Corby: Rainbow Valley
He’s a hard one to describe is Corby. Superficially he’s a singer- songwriter and writes nice piano-led tunes. But they’re too clever to be called pop and not heavy enough to be called rock; not quite cool enough to be cool but too cool to be bland. His last album, Telluric, had a similar quality.…
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Busted: Half Way There
For the first couple of tracks we thought Busted were trying to reinvent themselves as a British Blink 182 — the opener has echoes of songs such as Blink’s I Miss You, and Busted sing over the riff in the same way as Blink. But this cutting edge doesn’t last long and it soon calms…
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Skinny Lister: The Story Is…
Skinny Lister are one of those good-time live bands, all punky folk catchiness and entertainment; we saw them live at Rode Hall’s Just So and they’ve recorded at Newcastle-under-Lyme, although they’re not local. It’s three tracks in before Skinny Lister hit the sound we were expecting, the first three songs all showing a new pop…
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