Review Corner

Category: Pop rock

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    Gorillaz:Humanz / Paul Weller: A Kind Revolution / Paramore: After Laughter

    We’re lumping these albums together under the heading “stadium bands” because all we need to do is tell you they’re out. Oddly enough, we’ve never been fans of any: we never got Gorillaz, thought The Jam/Weller humourless (good singles, admittedly) and Paramore are the band we let the children like (they’ve got to have something…

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    Mélanie Pain: Parachute

    We’ve not come across Pain before but the Press notes say she has “left her pop-folk influences far behind”. Well, not all that far. This is a piano-based album that aims to be slightly arty and dreamy, with a minimalist sound. She sings in French throughout, the soft vocals part of the texture as much…

  • Anteros: Drunk EP

    Anteros (we assume it’s pronounced Ant-air-ross) are a London-based quartet playing indie pop/rock that channels the 80s. While nothing new, it’s fun and full of bounce, and plenty of hooks. The title track opens, about being drunk and in love, and doing crazy things. Drunk and happy or drunk and wearing beer goggles is never…

  • Ophelia: Ophelia EP

    Rebecca Van Cleave and Sam Taylor are singer songwriters in their own right and formed as a duo on the road, travelling along Florida’s Emerald Coast, as you do. (Van Cleave has been a body double in Game of Thrones, for that naked walk, we think). Van Cleave and Taylor claim musical influences from 60s…

  • Plaitum: Constraint

    Plaitum do one thing. They do it really well but it’s their one trick: if you’re in the mood for cavernous, grandiose electronic pop it’s really good. If you’re not, it’s a band doing the same thing for 40 minutes. As a debut album, it’s pretty impressive, though. The Press release talks about more modern…

  • Johnny Lloyd: Eden EP

    This is a few weeks old but still getting played daily in the Review Corner: it’s well worth checking out if you like quality pop. Lloyd was in Tribes, a band that existed from 2010-13 (they supported the Stones at Hyde Park), so he’s been around the block and learned his stuff. Opener Running Wild…

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    The Jesus And Mary Chain: Damage and Joy

    We were never ones to worship bands; we never raved about The Jesus and Mary Chain — they’re just a band, all said and done — so this new album, the first new one in 19 years, seems pretty good. Maybe diehard fans will feel differently. The main problem for the band’s Reid brothers is…

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    Ben Marwood: Get Found

      There’s a raft of bands rotating around the daddy of this genre, Frank Turner: we most recently reviewed Beans On Toast, but there’s any number of singer-songwriters playing folk-based tunes with sincere and/or entertaining intelligent lyrics, and with links to Turner. Marwood is another. After the first couple of plays, we’d have said his…

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    Mark Nevin: My Unfashionable Opinion

    If you’re a fan of grown-up pop music, this is about as good as it gets. Nevin is best-known for his work with Fairground Attraction and Morrissey, and his last album, Beautiful Guitars was excellent. My Unfashionable Opinion, his fifth solo album, kicks off strongly with the title track, a song that features sterling organ…

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    Scouting For Girls: Scouting For Girls

    We’ve had many a pop gem land on the Review Corner desk over the years, usually to disappear without trace, from the folky Crash My Model Car and Martin John Henry to pop bands such as Allo Darlin’ and Portugal The Man, or the genius of Sparkadia. Scouting For Girls aren’t one of these lost…