VINYL OF THE MONTHWest Virginia Snake Handler Revival They Shall Take Up the Serpents (Sublime Frequencies) Image Californian producer Ian Brennan walks, loosely speaking, in the footsteps of groundbreaking (and controversial) father and son song collectors, John and Alan Lomax, who, between them, gathered an essential storehouse of American folk music in the early-to-mid-20th Century. Like them, he’s interested in the cultural context of roots music and he’s ranged across the world, from Rwanda to Azerbaijan. His recent 2023 Parchman Prison Read more ...

When the debut album by ex-Little Mix star Leigh-Anne Pinnock starts, the omens are good. The opener, “Look into My Eyes”, is an electro-pop stonker with a roots reggae break at its close. So far, so tasty. Cast eyes down the track-listing and the majority of songs come in at under three minutes. Often a good sign, indicating a willingness to cut flab, keep things snappy. Such positivity lasts for a few songs, but then the album, unfortunately, settles to a bland amalgam of reggaeton and R&B that’s less persuasive.The consistent nod towards Pinnock’s Caribbean heritage is the most Read more ...

Although the Beaches may hail from Toronto, they evidently have more Scottish connections than many bands that come this way. Drummer Eliza Enman-McDaniel announced early on that she got her very first tattoo on a visit to Oban around a decade ago, but this was trumped by guitarist Leandra Earl recalling she lost her virginity in Dundee.The chap in question was not only apparently in the audience for this show, but also the only man Earl ever enjoyed sleeping with. This declaration was made before the group played one of the night’s few slow songs, the keyboard led “Lesbian of the Year”, Read more ...

There are always a few drawbacks to being a support act. For Allie X, the biggest issue was simply finding space to stand onstage, with so much ground already filled with covered up props for the night’s headliners. Still, she made a good effort with what she had, working the crowd well, and the clattering electro-pop of “Super Duper Party People” and a wickedly noisy “Off With Her Tits” carried enough verve by themselves that no stage craft was needed.Magdalena Bay had plenty of those songs too, but accompanied them with a stage décor that appeared to be aiming for the stars, or the moons. Read more ...

For Richard Hawley, a “little banger” is a top-notch single, one condensing everything about the performance and performer into what can he held on one side of a seven-incher. A flab-free, power-packed record. And it’s a mark of his discrimination that anything fitting the bill is a grade-A killer.Little Bangers From Richard Hawley's Jukebox Volume Two follows-up a correspondingly styled comp issued in 2023. As before, 28 tracks are selected: indeed, the first collection was titled 28 Little Bangers From Richard Hawley's Jukebox. For a second time, Link Wray crops up. This time, well-known Read more ...

Another interesting thing about the endless flux of the streaming era is that, for all that it’s supposed to homogenise and flatten things out, sometimes it ends up allowing more interesting things to belatedly get their due. Look at the way once-obscure musicians like Julius Eastman, Alice Coltrane or Arthur Russell have snuck into the vocabulary of alternative and even mainstream music. But also, acts who weren’t short of success or acclaim but were nonetheless perhaps considered a bit cultish, nerdy or niche have gradually achieved a sort of cross-generational depth and universality of Read more ...

It’s no coincidence that synth heavy 1980s AOR is one of the first genres to generate significant online hits. Not just because its structures are formulaic – every genre is to one degree or another – but because its textures are so slick, even down to the multitracked vocals, that sounding synthetic is a feature not a bug. One has to wonder if this means that it is a threat to some of the biggest stars: after all, in the post-Taylor Swift world, that tidily arranged soft rock vibe is very much the chassis of so much. Indeed, when I first put this album on, flicking through opening tracks “ Read more ...

2025 was another year of flaunting for the ever impressive beast that is female-led pop domination. The now iconic line up of legends and future greats, and their growing class of inspired apprentices, have punctuated the year with defiance and celebration in the form of fantastic pop songs. The prevalence across festival stages, TikTok trends, and radio are telling of the power that this entity basks in but doesn’t take away from the deserved success of most of it. Lady Gaga’s Mayhem took the crown for me this year, it’s an all round well planned and polished album with a perfectly Read more ...

“This is our last concert, ever. And we’d love to do you for now on our last concert ever…” After the words peter out, a ragged, yet blistering, five-minute version of “(I Can’t Get no) Satisfaction” explodes from the stage. Show over, The Rolling Stones leave Hawaii’s Honolulu International Center to…what?It’s not as noteworthy a stitch in rock’s rich tapestry as David Bowie’s 3 July 1973 announcement at the Hammersmith Odeon that “not only is it the last show of the tour, but it's the last show that we'll ever do.” Or even George Harrison’s “that's it, then. I'm not a Beatle anymore” Read more ...

A foreign-language release steeped in Catholicism isn’t exactly what you’d expect to top virtually every end-of-year album list. But Rosalía is famed for her uncompromising attitude to both genre and delivery. There’s the smallest soupçon of flamenco in here (see "La Rumba Del Perdón") but, largely, this is pop gone to the opera. If that sounds like hard work, fear not. For many artists, stating that the new album is an “emotional arc of feminine mystique, transformation and transcendence”, might be the kiss of pretentious death. But she strikes the right balance – she trusts in her Read more ...

The stylish gentlemen pictured above are Crimson Earth, a band active from 1970 to 1976. Regardless of their longevity, the Dorset-based outfit failed to attract national attention and didn’t release any records. There was an audition for EMI, local media support and a deal with a Bristol booking agency but cigars were not forthcoming.Even so, a 1972 tape of the band has been disinterred and one track from it – the explosive, irresistible “Heathen Woman” – was included earlier this year on the agenda-setting Yeah Man, It's Bloody Heavy!!, an extraordinary, wild-ride compilation of never- Read more ...

Yes, I know. Maybe everything bitched about them is true; an eye-watering marketing push, cynically calculated, monied, etc. Maybe it is not. I’ve no real idea.But, but, but, the second album by this London five-piece is my most listened-to of 2025 – and it only came out in October. In the end, all that will be left is the music, the rest history. Just think of The Monkees. The cool kids loathed this manufactured TV group in the 1960s, but who listens to “Daydream Believer” today and froths with the same indignation?From the Pyre is a gem, start-to-finish, a perfect balance of Sparks-like pop Read more ...