Released last Friday, Model Citizen is a five-dollar EP from Meet Me @ The Altar that is worth it’s weight in gold. There are six songs here and each one could be a single. Fans of Stand Atlantic, All Time Low, or Hot Milk are going to love it. Starting with an eighties videogame vibe, […]
Lifted from their forthcoming album, The Million Masks of God, ‘Bed Head’ is the first single from the new long player to hit the speakers. They’ve got a full five albums in the bag, so what can we expect this spring? ‘Bed Head’ is a relatively gentle song, but wonderfully assembled. The beat drives the […]
The Ramones meet Franz Ferdinand in this angular track with punk roots. A lyrically gritty social commentary with a hooky riff and retro reverb on the vocal makes a neat track and my ears have pricked up. The chanted ‘This is my modern England’ chorus is cast over the same riff that loops through the […]
Landing with minimal fuss today (no announcement on their website, or via social channels), All American Rejects have assembled six tracks, from all four long players, to delight us with. With a playing order of ‘Stab My Back’, ‘One More Sad Song’, ‘I’m Waiting’, ‘Gives You Hell’, ‘Out the Door’, and ‘It Ends Tonight’ – […]
Returning to life after a quarter-century hiatus, Engines Made From Soup have embraced digital music platforms to re-unite and remotely record a new album from several different corners of the United Kingdom. Their self-produced record landed on our virtual doorstep, so here’s a taste of what you can expect when you give it a spin. […]
The new Pale Waves album, ‘Who Am I’, is one of our most eagerly anticipated releases of 2021. ‘Easy’ is the first single from the band this year, following ‘Change’ and ‘She’s My Religeon’ in building up to the LP release. For those who played ‘My Mind Makes Noises’ non-stop for months, there’s a lot […]
In the bleary early hours of 2021, many of us will be working on our pivot while feeling heavy from the overnight observation of the completion of another rotation around the sun. We need a good start to the year and we know just where to start. Pittsburgh’s Old Neon deliver a slick chunk of emo […]
Manchester’s Hot Milk are a dual-fronted “emo power-pop” band who blend all-out rock tracks with neat electronic flickers. ‘Glass Spiders’ fits the band ethos of writing sad songs with happy melodies, neatly slipping desolate lyrics into a pleasing three and a half minute track. The vocal duelling works well for this band, who compare well […]
A tough year was improved beyond measure by some great writing and some awesome music. Here’s a quick dash through the parts that really got us through the panic buying, lockdowns, and meltdowns. There were some records that really stood out this year. Therapy? delivered their Abbey Road greatest hits album, which delivers a set […]
This second offering from Australian pop/punk band Stand Atlantic tears up the playbook with a collection of surprising variety and maturity. There are a few classic set-ups for the construction of an album. Commonly, you front-load the record with three big numbers and accept it may tail off afterwards. This seems to be the order […]
Dolly Parton fans need no introduction to ‘Little Sparrow’, which kicked off Dolly’s 38th album back in 2001 and also gave it its title. What does an old punk know about Country legends, you might ask? Well, the album featured a rather brilliant cover of Collective Soul’s ‘Shine’ that gained nothing but respect from my […]
After twenty years gathering dust, Little 10 have released their work in a digital format. Just as we did when we found an old Macromedia Flash file containing some Brussel Spaceship tracks, we unleashed Haski-Coast on our speakers to see how well it has weathered two decades. Simply put, it’s done rather well. Storm clouds […]
Sparkling with crisp turn-of-the-nineties splendour, ‘Give Up the Hoax’ is spartan, precise, and clean like an early Deacon Blue number. The mix is perfect and the mood is poignant. To put this record in context, you have to go back to previous releases ‘Dorothy’, which summons a cool doom pop like Just Mustard, and ‘Adore’, […]
Buzzing into life with the morose chorus line of “save yourself; fall out of love”, it’s not long before Salem’s ultra-pink EP has won me over with it’s pacey anthemic sound. ‘Fall Out of Love’ is a dark All American Rejects, or a brighter My Chemical Romance – ultimately a great emo-mantra with impressive vocal […]
Sounding like a Broadway hit song, John Paciga’s ‘Big Hit Song’ is a pastiche that is part Axis of Awesome with a hint of The Horne Section in the accompanying music video. It’s cheesy, awkward, and enjoyable. Musically, the song hits the same zone as many of Paciga’s other tunes. We have a piano in […]
Sometimes a song is so hauntingly beautiful it make your tear-ducts go allergic. ‘When I Look at You’ is just such a song; a gentle but deep whisper that goes straight to your soul. The style harks back to the seventies, folksy and swirling like a leaf on the breeze. The music is sparse. Twinkling. […]
‘Do You Dare’ takes us on a journey, harking back to Feline’s atmospheric moments before smashing us into a booming heavy chorus that smoulders with October Rust. The verse slides the lyrics across the slippery synth and sparse drums. The guitar preludes the chorus with souring notes before that aforementioned massive sound fills your ears. […]
Led by a great smoky vocal, Dylan-esque social commentary, and a persistent bassline, Secondhand Ltd is an example of what happens on Garageband when everything is done right. ‘Pandemic’ is dark and grainy like an old photograph, but there’s also lightness in the folky bounce of ‘Lockdown’. Yes, this brace of songs is a snapshot […]
Dionysus is re-born in a city which is never named, but which can only be Rome. He doesn’t understand how or why he’s there again – a pagan god in a city where he has no believers. Weak and disorientated, he’s sleeping rough when he meets fifteen year old Grace; a chance encounter in the […]
A Brief Crack Of Light is a surprisingly melodic, but nonetheless heavy, album from one of the most awesome bands of our generation, Therapy? ‘Living In The Shadow Of A Terrible Thing’ is the first single from this record and it’s a good choice – a statement of intent that kicks off the album with […]
Sunday Morning Service have released a demo that precedes a proper release sometime in spring 2012 of a track named ‘(Won’t Let This) Tear Us Apart’. There are, of course, some rough edges – this is a demo after all. However, there is something in the guitars and in the melody that really draws me […]
Kunk keep it loose and scuzzy on their venomous, quirky and, ultimately, hooky single. ‘We Are Not Who You Think We Are’ is a simplistic glam-punk-rocker with a great chorus amongst a shouty track, which might be classed as grrrl-punk had it not been penned by blokes. The contrast between the jagged verse and squelching […]
As a preview to their debut studio album which has been chalked up for January 2007, Rip It Up popped through a copy of their double a-side for us to have a listen. The first track, ‘She’s Out of Control’, is a wiry rocker with fuzzed up guitar chords and growling vocals. I would personally […]
How can I describe this record? That’s a rhetorical question, in case you were one of the cynical people who deigned to think that I was stuck for words! What I mean is, how do I convey this strange feeling I’m getting from listening to it. The artwork takes on a fairly dark theme, the […]