This meld of prog rock and classical is as interesting an album as you’d want; entertaining if you like your prog broken down and your classical with bass solos and lots of 4/4 time. Mike Oldfield managed it on Tubular Bells. Adventurous brass band fans might also find much to like. Porra, (40), is an […]
The Stranglers: The Classic Collection
The Stranglers were without doubt the best band to emerge from the punk era. The Damned were largely rubbish, the Sex Pistols as manufactured as The Spice Girls and The Clash lacked any quality control; their longevity is down to all their fans later becoming music journalists and banging on about what a seminal band […]
Wille and The Bandits: Living Free
Like a pint of hand-pulled beer and a log fire after a long day’s walk in the hills, this double live CD is instantly comforting and familiar. Wille and The Bandits are predominantly a live band and we’ve never heard of them before, but frontman Wille Edwards is a consummate guitarist, playing lap steel and […]
Field Music: Open Here
We guess you can either write tunes to make money or write what you feel you need to, sod the market and keep your self-respect. Field Music are in the latter camp; from what we can gather brothers David and Peter Brewis make minimal money from their music but have accumulated a back catalogue to […]
The Xcerts: Hold On To Your Heart
The Xcerts have been going for years, formed by 13-year-olds Murray Macleod and Jordan Smith in 2001, and have toured with Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly, Fightstar and Taking Back Sunday. They were meant to support Guns N’ Roses but for “logistical reasons” all the support bands were forced to drop off of the tour. […]
Fleetwood Mac: Fleetwood Mac
This was their breakthrough album, released in 1975, and a big hit, reaching No1 in the States; Say You Love Me and Rhiannon are both on here. The band’s complicated lives were already unravelling and that turmoil led to Rumours, a much better album; admittedly one of the best albums ever. This one is good, […]
DeStijl: Debut
DeStijl love a joke: they formed before White Stripes released their album De Stijl in 2000 and so released an album White Stripes in 2011. This album is not their debut. As you all know, De Stijl is Dutch for “The Style”, aka Neoplasticism, a Dutch artistic movement founded in 1917 in Leiden by artists […]
The Limiñanas: Shadow People
The last Limiñanas album we had to review was cool but a little dull, the highlight a song with Hooky on bass. This new album from the hip French duo is much better, so much so that the apparently statutory Hooky song is something of a jarring oddity on an otherwise fine album. (We assume […]
Weaves: Wide Open
Weaves mix genres as readily as Heston Blumenthal blends snails and porridge: New Order, the B-52s, a dash of glam rock; just when you’ve got a comparison they switch direction. At heart it’s raucous indie with swagger and ideas aplenty. Opener #53 is inspired by Springsteen but it’s more for the moshpit than lyrical analysis; […]
To Kill a King: The Spiritual Dark Age
The cover art and the lyrics (“poetry about serotonin and dopamine”) shout “Arcade Fire!” and To Kill A King attempt the same trick: Deep and Meaningful lyrics coupled with danceable music. But they’re just an indie band with high ambitions and, in the Arcade Fire stakes, fall short. But it’s solid, albeit overly polished in […]
