Blending guitar fuzz and pop synth, Sophie Powers’ Red in Revenge is a very nearly album-length hyperpop record with seven insanely catchy tracks. If you haven’t come across hyperpop, it is a spin-out from the genre-bending trend that merged metal with sweet-pop to create high-contrast tracks that were visceral and candy-coated all at once. In […]
With folk and rock and roll elements, ‘Play it Again, Archie’ comes with a sing-along chorus, a classic solo, and a playful video. This track has a definite Chuck Berry element, combined with a touch of Greenday’s Warning-era songwriting style. Meanwhile, Matt Pless has drawn on folk storytelling chops in the lyrics department to deliver […]
Cassyette takes on Harry Styles’ ‘As It Was’, slowing things down and deploying a great emotive rock vocal to transform the song from its original bouncy pop form into a real heart-wrenching ballad. Accompanied by a crunchy guitar, this is a stripped-back performance that lets Cassyette’s vocal really shine. As the song approaches the end […]
Pushed along with The Four Season’s ‘Beggin’ piano chord progression and drum beat, Yeah Yeah Yeahs new single ‘Burning’ has orchestral overtones. Even the vocal has a big band room feel on this track. Lyrically, things are abstract (though the song was inspired by Karen O setting fire to her New York home with an […]
The latest single from Willow, and the second to be released from forthcoming LP <COPINGMECHANISM> after ‘<maybe> it’s my fault’, we have a sexually charged love-at-first-sight song in ‘hover like a GODDESS’. The basic theme is spotting someone, being instantly in love, and wanting to quickly get into the nearest bathroom or bedroom to get […]
With a saxophone-heavy introduction, the sway of ‘Happiness’ will be more familiar to early fans than much of the more recent material, with distant echoes of ‘Heart Out’. It still participates in the onwards march of The 1975’s sound. The song is beat-driven and features bass runs and intricate guitars, with the saxophone (supplied by […]
With a loose beat and lo-fi fuzz, ‘Human Condition’ gives Pretty Sick the odd accolade of joining Chris de Burgh in rhyming dance with romance. This is the only trait this song shares with the famous ballad. After a string-sliding introduction, the bass plots a course with the guitars scuzzing over the top. The vocal […]
The digital release of Live and Rare comes some decades after the original 1998 release of this record. It was only available in Japan, so fans elsewhere had to get it as an import. The track listing is a series of official bootleg recordings and two tracks from the American Composite demo album. With such […]
We recently had a taste of Blind Channel’s new long-player when they released ‘Don’t Fix Me’. Now we have the whole record. Strap yourselves in and let’s unleash the slamming mix of rock, emo, rap, and punk. Though the title tips a nod to Good Charlotte, there is minimal reference to The Young and the […]
King Tut’s stage is where all the action is at this year’s TRNSMT festival in Glasgow. After hosting Beabadoobee, it’s now the scene for an epic Jimmy Eat World live performance. The last time I had this feeling, it was watching Supergrass play live. It’s a mixture of “my goodness look at all these amazing […]
With the King Tut’s stage shining black with surface water, a general moist haze, and the band opting for sweaters, Beabadoobee still brought the sunshine to TRNSMT. Always one to look on the positive side of the grey clouds, the summer daylight was suppressed to make the stage and lighting pop dramatically. The setlist started […]
If ever there was a single that rolls together a lot of content, it’s ‘Part of the Band’ from The 1975. There really is a great deal to unpack and re-assemble, so we’d better just get started. It all begins with cello and Matty Healy’s voice. Layers of strings join the ensemble of what has […]
Bitters‘ latest single, ‘Loving Me’, provides a gentler take on their sound. Lighter and more plaintive than ‘Stole Your Car’, but still a worthy and shimmering heatwave of a release. The guitar provides a tuneful hook to lead us in, with Mills’ vocal providing a rich and warm tone. The verse is almost acoustic, the […]
If you’ve seen Pale Waves live this year, the opening riff of ‘Jealousy’ is going to be enough to trigger those hairs on the back of your arms. This is a song that bumps along in the verse and unleashes a big smooth feel in the chorus. Yes, this is a good single. The single […]
Skunk Anansie are one of those bands that surprise you every time you hear them live. Yes, they really can knock it out of the park, even in the open air, on a big stage, and in front of a massive crowd. It’s hard to think of a better opener to a blistering performance in […]
Get ready for some indie-pop sparkle for Rachel Chinouriri’s excellent summer-haze song ‘All I Ever Asked’. A sweet ‘woo-hoo-hoo’ vocal, a straight beat, a muted bass, and a reverb-tinged guitar line are all that’s needed to get things going as the song develops an emotional lyrical theme. The verse keeps things simple, just getting a […]
It seems like only 21 minutes ago that the tap was dripping, drip, drip, drip, drip, drip, drip, drip… though this assumes that Beabadoobee is snuggling up on the same Saturday night referred to by Smith, Tolhurst, and Dempsey¹. Though, thinking about it, that was in 1979, a full 21 years before Beabadoobee was born. […]
Arriving like the most tingly surprise – a brown package with something delightful inside – ‘Something Loud’ is one of the best songs from Jimmy Eat World and I’m now stoked up and burning in preparation for what might be about to happen! With the band hitting the three-decade mark next year, it’s fair to […]
What a slick and driven song Blind Channel have dropped with ‘Don’t Fix Me’! Their signature sound is firing on all cylinders, with neat flips between the distinctive sections of the song. The vocal-cram verse collides with a melodic pre-chorus before punching through with the huge ‘Don’t Fix Me’ cry. There are smart moments in […]
If there was a resurgence of the werewolf genre in the movie theatres – another wave of Underworld or, perhaps, a new city ripe for exploration by a lycanthrope of American origin – Pixies would certainly be joining The Waterboys on the soundtrack with ‘There’s a Moon On’. The song starts with a howling guitar […]
As Pale Waves get ready for the release of their third album, Unwanted, on 12th August, ‘Reasons to Live’ arrives to give us our second taste after recent single, ‘Lies’. The song gets its first public play in about two hours’ time, but here’s what to expect… Similar to ‘Lies’, this is a stomping rock […]
There are lots of smiles in the music industry. Brian May and Roger Taylor were in a band called Smile before adjusting their lineup in 1970 to become Queen. Seeing a gap in the market for a band named Smile, 1992 saw the band Smile form straight out of Woodbridge High School, with a grunge/psychedelic […]
Quick and quirky, Lauran Hibberd’s ‘Step Mum’ is a comic-book caricature song with alt-pop bounce with a chorus break that references The Colour and the Shape, which we file under “unexpected influence”. The song is playful, though cutting, and barely steps across the two-minute mark. It’s the kind of irreverent material that Lauran does so […]
Experts in the art of massive sound, Brigade’s new album, Dissonance, has all the hallmarks of a masterpiece; an album that is worth listening to in full. It’s thick and rich throughout, with sparkle at the edges and powerful melodic vocals, so let’s look at just some of the tracks on offer. In a break […]