Review Corner

Category: Pop rock

  • , ,

    The Membranes: Inner Space/Outer Space

    We were going to say we’d never heard The Membranes but looking on Wikipedia we have — they are a post-punk band formed in Blackpool in 1977, and their first release was the Flexible Membrane flexi-disc in 1980, which we bought and still have somewhere. The band included John Robb, who we always think of…

  • , ,

    Two Door Cinema Club: Gameshow

    We bought Two Door Cinema Club’s debut album and saw them live supporting someone or other when they first started; they were a decent indie band. Next thing we know our pet teenager is a big fan and Two Door are selling out tour dates. So we were pleased to get this new one, and…

  • Busted: Night Driver

      The surprise is not that this is pretty good but the fact that they’re still going — a pop band whose debut came out in 2002. Charlie Simpson has gone into metal and acoustic pop and is now in the band Once Upon A Dead Man while Matt Willis released a decent solo album…

  • , ,

    Columbo: We Know Who You Are

    At first listen, we though this band was either eccentrically brilliant or just eccentric. Anything that includes the hook from the Good The Bad And The Ugly and the classic theme from Rhubarb And Custard has got to be something to do with inspired. Maybe not actually inspired, but at least living next door. The…

  • ,

    Saint Leonard’s Horses: Good Luck Everybody

    This album will be a classic. You read it here first, so remember. Kieran Leonard (who is Saint Leonard’s Horses) has a cv to make you feel totally inadequate — he’s spent much his life travelling and the people he comes across recognise a unique talent: Ryan Adams let him use his studio, Stanley Kubrick’s…

  • ,

    Jeremy Loops: Trading Change

    Mr Loops is somewhere between Ed Sheeran, as in acoustic-based pop, and he uses loops a lot (as one would expect), and the dreaded Mumfords — it’s the kiss of death to use the M word in a review now — but it’s banjo-centric and has the bouncy feel of the Mumfords at their best.…

  • ,

    Stevie Nicks: Bella Donna / The Wild Heart

    Stevie Nicks is the bonkers but brilliant singer with Fleetwood Mac, whose ethereal, scratchy voice is famous. You know the sound, so you know what these two remastered CDs contain. Bella Donna was her first solo release and is the better of these two, presumably because she had a batch of songs written over the…

  • This Wild Life: Low Tides

    We occasionally compare an album of sumptuous pop/rock to Manchester band Longview. Their debut (and only) album Mercury was released in 2003 and it was great. They wrote soaring pop tunes about lurrrve, and had some success on television soundtracks, but never did as well as they should, and split. With song titles such as…

  • ,

    The Courteeners: Mapping The Rendezvous

    We caught The Courteeners on an early tour at the Sugarmill and thought they were going places, but while they’re making a good living, they’ve never taken off as we thought they might. “Lad rock” is too harsh but they never matched the sound they had in singer Liam Fray’s head. You can see the…

  • ,

    My Chemical Romance: The Black Parade/Living with Ghosts

    You should all know the story of the Black Parade — all about dying of cancer (the black parade is what the dead patient sees in the afterlife), a young man reflects on life, the band all die at the end. It sold a gazillion copies. This is the 10th anniversary re-release. There’s not much…