Category: Rock
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Native Harrow: Happier Now
This is a really good album. It’s greater than the sum of its parts: the tunes are ok, her voice (Native Harrow is Devin Tuel — nearly Devon Tool, of which a harrow could be an example, though we doubt that’s why she picked the alter ego) is ok and the general air is of…
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Yonaka: Don’t Wait ‘Til Tomorrow
The sleeve of this asks the right question: Y? Why would you buy this over the slew of more interesting albums out there? On the plus side, Yonaka are British (Brighton) and have produced a stadium-sounding album of workmanlike slick tunes somewhere between power pop and pop punk. They make a lot of noise, work…
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Neil Young and Stray Gators: Tuscaloosa
It’s unlikely to win any new fans but it’s a good Young album for old ones. Tuscaloosa features The Stray Gators, Young’s band between 1971-73, playing five songs from Harvest, not long released. His self-titled debut and After The Goldrush also supply tracks. Young is on top form, the band knows his moves and he…
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Allusinlove: It’s Okay to Talk
Allusinlove is a weird name and the first part remarkably easy to misread as a bottom-related synonym, but they’re from Yorkshire, where they allus talk like that. They used to be called Allusondrugs, which after a misread would suggest imminent arrest at Bangkok airport. (This anus punnery was maybe funnier when we first wrote it).…
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Rival Sons: Feral Roots
This is our first taste of Rival Sons, though they have charted in the UK. They formed in 2009, and this is their sixth album. They’re a big band. They supported Deep Purple on their 2016 European tour and toured as main supporting act for all of Black Sabbath’s The End tour, which marked the…
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Body Type: EP2
Body Type are from Australia and play scuzzy rock somewhere between the stark indie of Kleenex and the pop of Kim Wilde. The songs are solid rather than sparkling but we have to say we’d cross a festival field to see them live, they’re probably entertaining. There seems to be a lot of bass and…
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Frank Carter and The Rattlesnakes: End Of Suffering
Carter rose to prominence with Gallows, a punk band famed for their high energy music and even higher energy shows, where Carter would regularly end up covered in blood. He has mental health issues — not so long ago he blamed his “fighting demons” for pulling out of a tour with Papa Roach — and…
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Holy Moly and The Crackers: Take A Bite
This lot are one of those bands that are fundamentally a live band, playing raucous (but tight) gypsy / dance rock. Imagine Mumfords with a brass section and disco high-hats. And personality. Regulars at Rode Hall’s Just So festival will have seen many such a band — indeed, Holy Moly and The Crackers were on…
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Blood Youth: Starve
Metal outfit Blood Youth — they hail from the land of cream teas and muffins, Harrogate — are a visceral lot, their music loud and uncompromising. The album is marked by three elements: the frontman’s voice, which gets screamed hoarse over the album’s course — he sounds very annoyed about something, probably the queue for…
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Boogie Beasts: Deep
This is one of those rare records — ones we actually buy. In this case via a tweet from bluesman Son Of Dave, whose single we recently reviewed. Boogie Beasts play a style of blues that seems to be particularly European. When the Rolling Stones played Hyde Park a few years back we were far…
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