CDs/DVDs
Tim Cumming
Silken ambience is the name of the game on this set from Icelandic composer-producer Olafur Arnalds and dreampop singer Talos, aka Eoin French, who tragically died in August last year, aged 36. Arnalds completed the album after his death.Talos' high, otherworldly voice is the dominant signature, from the opening title track with its heavy swell of strings at the high points, through to the spare piano and voice passages of “Bedrock”, a slow, melancholy piano ballad bathed in shimmering reverb and a chorus of voices. Talos’ delicate lone voice over Arnalds’ spare piano lines draws you in Read more ...
Kathryn Reilly
Despite being Mercury nominated, Bazza’s hardly a household name. Nevertheless, his debut album When Will We Land was highly praised by those in the know. I am definitely not in the know and am more or less a stranger to electro stuff – it can often leave me cold (Guetta can get off, quite frankly). But I know a good tune when I hear it.His career has been short and rather stratospheric and he’s the first to admit his head’s reeling. He played his first live show at Glastonbury two years ago, then sold out three nights at Brixton Academy and will be headlining at All Points East in Read more ...
Thomas H. Green
“I’m, like, pop star when I have to pop star, and then I’m, like, naked hippy when I can naked hippy.” So Kesha explained recently on the Jennifer Hudson Show, going on to say she spent most of her time romping in the woods and chasing butterflies. A far cry, then, from the trailer trash Gaga guise she adopted when she exploded in 2009 with global chart-topper “Tik Tok” (“Brush my teeth with a bottle of Jack”!). Her sixth album sees a sometimes vital, sometimes awkward collision between the above personas.Kesha has rarely been predictable – remember when she did a song with Flaming Lips – and Read more ...
Thomas H. Green
German singer Claudia Brücken has had a long and busy career, initially defined by her role in Propaganda. They were a cult 1980s band on ZTT Records who laced their opulent synth pop with an appealingly morbid Teutonic sensibility. Decades later, it seemed they’d been forgotten until Brücken and fellow Propaganda singer Susanne Freytag released an album in 2022 as xPropaganda. It scooted up the UK charts. Her latest solo outing follows elegantly in its footsteps and contains good things.It's far from her first non-Propaganda material. As well as once being in long-defunct duos Act and OneTwo Read more ...
joe.muggs
Dominic “Mocky” Salole has had a long career in which the tension between authenticity and pastiche has been a constant. Toronto-born, of English and Yemeni heritage, he came of musical age in the Bohemian hotbed of 1990s Berlin with a close-knit bunch of other Canadian ex-pats, including Peaches, Chilly Gonzales and Feist.In the early days, this mini-scene was about a delirious collision of huge musical ambition and the urge to goof off at every turn. Puppet shows, silly rap personae, punk provocation and cabaret razzle-dazzle meshed with musical virtuosity, electronic experimentation, with Read more ...
Kieron Tyler
The first five-and-a-half minutes of Sunwise’s opening track “Dùsgadh / Waking" are taken up by a drone. Played on the Scottish small pipes – a form of bagpipes – this is in due course supplemented by a series of individual notes played in clusters. What’s heard symbolises the arrival of winter and the activities of Cailleach Bheurr who, in Celtic folklore, wanders moors and summons the elements to conceal any greenery, so winter’s blanket is absolute.“Dùsgadh / Waking" is intense. It also confirms that Sunwise exists at the nexus of traditional music and the experimental. Rather than Read more ...
Thomas H. Green
Around eight years ago, London singer-songwriter Lail Arad started releasing one-off tracks with Canadian singer JF Robitaille, once of Montreal indie outfit The Social Register (Arad’s own 2016 album The Onion is an undiscovered diamond that should be sought out).The pair now finally release a debut album which contains a few of these singles (although not “The Photograph” and “We Got It Coming”– Spotify those two). Their literate indie guitar-pop, touched with alt-folk sensibilities, is a sprightly listen spotted with a few true jewels.It's music built for these times. The chirpily doomed, Read more ...
James Mellen
Lorde’s trajectory is continually fascinating. From the minimalist, sparse electropop of Pure Heroine to the similar but more grandiose production of Melodrama was a linear progression, but then came the acoustic guitars and organic percussion of Solar Power.Though, like Melodrama it was produced by pop powerhouse Jack Antonoff, it had the laid back vibe of an artist who’d ditched her mobile phone and got back to nature – and divided fans. Now, the DIY aesthetics and pop-up warehouse events to promote Virgin suggested it might be a Read more ...
Liz Thomson
It’s somewhat surprising to read that The Boss wasn’t happy with Born in the USA. After all, it was – remains – his most iconic album, the LP (for that’s what it was originally) that jet-propelled Bruce Springsteen into the mainstream. A cultural phenomenon whose anthemic title track was, wilfully and otherwise, often misinterpreted and frequently misappropriated.It sold 30m copies and spawned seven hit singles. Turns out it was just “a record I put out. It became the record I made, not necessarily the record that I was interested in making.” He was much more interested in Read more ...
Kieron Tyler
A Sober Conversation is the work of a master songwriter, one who knows how to achieve their goals. As the album’s nine tracks pour from the speakers, comparisons come to mind: 20/20 and Smiley Smile-era Beach Boys, Lindsey Buckingham, the early solo years of Todd Rundgren.But nothing sounds quite like any of these – spikiness is never far. The initially dreamy opening track “The Tent” is punctuated by squalls of noise. Next, on the sumptuous “Two Legged Dog,” dense, overstated keyboards contrast with the jaunty melody. Part of the point seems to be undermining anything which might lean into Read more ...
mark.kidel
Neo-soul devotees Durand Jones and the Indications mine a vein of sensuous sounds, at the soft end of a genre that's partly defined by the raw passion of gospel. Their roots draw from vintage Curtis Mayfield and the smooth vocal harmonies of the Impressions, the delicate heartbreak evoked by Smokey Robinson, and a host of groups, many of them identified with the Philly Sound. Their latest album, following solo outings by members of the band, not least golden-voiced Aaron Frazer (Into the Blue - 2024), goes wholeheartedly for songs of romance and seduction, perfect for late-night Read more ...
Guy Oddy
Yungblud has declared his fourth album, Idols, to be a “a project with no limitations”. This is quite a claim.So, what musical wonders has Dominic Harrison created in collaboration with his team of producer Matt Schwartz, composer Bob Bradley and guitarist Adam Warrington? Perhaps a reggae infused mix of hardcore punk, techno and folk rock? Or maybe a delirious fusion of heavy metal, grime, be-bop and desert blues?Unfortunately, not. Idols comes on like a full-on celebration of soulless second wave Britpop, with maximalist production that leans heavily into the “loudness wars” style of the Read more ...