ALBUMS REVIEWS
Lana Del Rey - 'Born To Die'
It speaks volumes about the fuss surrounding Lana Del Rey’s recent Saturday Night Live performance that, after the show, even Harry Potter’s fabled magic wand could do nothing to stem the flow of unkind words directed her way. In the same...
Pulled Apart By Horses - 'Tough Love'
A few disquieting signs have been emanating from the Pulled Apart By Horses camp in the lead-up to their second album. There’s been talk of enhanced “musicianship”, polished “songcraft”, and greater “ambition”, while a glance at...
Django Django - 'Django Django'
Django Django are four men who, among many other things, play guitars, drums, bass, and sing. This is pretty much the only thing they’ve got in common with any other emerging British band right now. We say ‘emerging’, but the Edinburgh...
The 2 Bears - 'Be Strong'
As you will know, a bear is a kind of animal. But a ‘bear’, of course, is a slang term for a certain breed of portly, bearded homosexual gentleman given to dancing under railway arches in Vauxhall, south London. To complicate matters further,...
Errors - 'Have Some Faith In Magic'
Errors ’ 2010 album ‘Come Down With Me’ proved even the boldest of bands aren’t immune from coming unstuck the second time round. They gamely pushed on with their electro-exploration, but failed to recapture the wondrous essence of their...
Leonard Cohen - 'Old Ideas'
You might not be able to teach an old dog new tricks, but when the hound in question is a lyricist and songwriter of such magnitude as the one and only Leonard Cohen , it’s perfectly acceptable for them to attack your soul with the same sweet...
Flash Fiktion - 'Flash Fiktion'
Not that we’re ones to jump to conclusions or anything, but taking a listen to Flash Fiktion ’s sparkling mash-up of Yeasayer -like shamanic psychtronica, machine-engineered guitars and surrealist lyrical visions, it’s hard to shake the...
Charlotte Gainsbourg - 'Stage Whisper'
Why, when she freely admits to having little faith in her onstage ability, has Charlotte Gainsbourg gone and made a live record? The second half of this double album is made up of unthrilling live recordings, Gainsbourg giving the impression...
Dan Sartain - 'Too Tough To Live'
Thing is about Dan Sartain is, it’s all so focused on being ‘cool’. He looks cool in the most orthodox Rebel Without A Cause way possible; obviously, it’s all stripped down bubblegum-garage-punk, which is the default music of people...
Phenomenal Handclap Band - 'Form & Control'
The New York funkateers’ second album has its influences stacked up just so: Labelle, LCD Soundsystem, Scissor Sisters, a touch of Funkadelic and a lick of Prince. So how come so much of ‘Form & Control’ struggles to get to its feet, let...
