Jake Bugg 'All I Need' - Single Review

Jake Bugg sticks two fingers up to yesterday with new single sound, but is it all HE needs?

It feels as though barely a day has gone by since Jake Bugg burst onto the scene with his brilliant self-titled debut, captivating the minds of so many working-class teens and distinguishing himself from the sea of bland acoustic singer-songwriters saturating the market at the time. 

Tipped to be the Bob Dylan of the 21^st Century, it was no surprise that Bugg quickly became a household name, cementing himself as one of Britain’s brightest talents with anthems ‘Lightning Bolt’ and ‘Two Fingers’ quickly becoming Indie Rock mainstays for the years to come. His follow up ‘Shangri La’ also impressed; however, such lofty heights bring equally lofty expectations, a curse I believe Bugg would feel in the years to come. 

Exit Kid 'Bleary Eyed' Review

London duo Exit Kid, made up of Years & Years  Emre Türkmen and drummer Dylan Bell, dropped a new track entitled ‘Bleary Eyed’. A stark confrontation of the inadequacy of the British government with regards to the lockdown period. 

Frontman Emre dramatically states that he “wrote Bleary Eyed in the middle of the Great British Lockdown, having consumed a daily-dose of Boris Johnson’s Covid briefings, and watched in horror as Trump found a hidden sixth-gear of madness across the pond”. The song clearly has two main comedic targets, bolstered by the meme-driven music video satirizing the whole situation. 

Johnny Lloyd 'Suze' Review

Johnny Lloyd has just released his new single ‘Suze’ which is taken from his new album ‘Cheap Medication’

Lloyd’s new song has a certain charm and simplistic elegance to it with its acoustic overtones interspersed with a panpipe solo and the sound of joyous and uplifting bird song. 

The single is taken from Lloyd’s new album ‘Cheap Medication’ which feels fitting given the single. The album title itself could be taken as a pseudonym for music as a whole because for so many people music is a cure and a getaway from pain or other emotions and it’s a medication not only for the artists but also for the listeners and in this case, ‘Suze’ feels very much like a cheap medication as it possesses a theraputic sound and quality which is there for the listeners. 

MEET... White Lies

Remember waaay back when jumping, clapping, and dancing to the beat of the music in an overcrowded room was still allowed? White Lies performances across the UK, Europe and North America have certainly provided plenty of opportunities for punk music enthusiasts to do exactly that over the last decade.

White Lies gig at The Vega, Copenhagen - 6th November 2009.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MLcAXWGDsM&feature=youtu.be

While ‘White Lies’ officially debuted in 2009, they had already performed as a band for years prior under the name ‘Fear of Flying’ and had attended gigs across the UK as a supporting act. The band felt that their songs held no meaning to them, there was no emotional attachment on their part to the lyrics they were writing. From this dissatisfaction; White Lies was born.

JWestern EP Review

2020 has been JWestern’s year. Releasing his debut single ‘Call You Right Now’ back in August - a song that perfectly captured the introspective funky vibes of this past summer - singer songwriter John Gooding invited us into the world of JWestern. Since then, he has steadily dropped new music, and now finally unveils his first EP to eagerly awaiting ears.

Still a notable high point on the EP, the tracklist kicks off with ‘Call You Right Now’, which balances breezy guitar playing, with a cool, rhythmic vocal delivery. It’s impressive to hear a debut single this focused and confident, and it acts as a perfect all round indicator of what is to come.

Red Rum Club: Album Review

With the current climate leaving us all feeling deflated, Red Rum Club’s new album ‘The hollow of humdrum’ offers us a shot of excitement to brighten our days. On the back of their debut release ‘Matador’, a fantastic album that showcased their Scouse Americana perfectly, The Hollow of Humdrum has managed to exceed all expectations. For all the record touches on subjects like relationships and memories, it never loses its excitement, which I believe is one of the elements that makes it so unique. It almost seems too easy, when using the topic of relationships as inspiration, to explore themes of sadness and longing. Their take on the subject just makes it seem so fresh, it’s like the feeling of falling in love with someone or something all over again. 

Fans Also Like #5 Music for the impending/Current Apocolapse

Oh hey! It’s another editorial on how 2020 is terrible. Another piece that details how mumble rap is a reflection of this generation's increasing lethargy. An article warning that we’re now in the ‘post-post ironic’ phase of listening to bad music so 645AR is actually a genius, and the squeaky voice he does is a metaphorical horseman for the sound apocalypse that will slowly render every song in existence part of a four hour ambient youtube mix played off a phone in the background of an OnlyFans video. 

Am I guilty of writing these articles? Absolutely yes, but when it comes to this desperately shit year, I find it hard to search for a pattern or trend in modern music that fully embodies our collective grief. 

The Slow Readers Club – 91 Days in Isolation album review

Manchester’s hardest working band, The Slow Readers Club have released their second album of 2020: 91 Days in Isolation, released through their own SRC Records. These 91 days were filled with nothing but graft by The Readers as they worked tirelessly in the search of new and creative ways to interact with their incredibly loyal fan base during the challenging conditions of our on-going pandemic. Despite having just released their previous album The Joy Of The Return, Aaron, Kurtis, James, and David went straight back to it and began remotely writing their now 5^th studio recorded album.

Palace – Someday, Somewhere: Review

London-based trio Palace have shared a new EP; “Someday, Somewhere” as a follow-up to their full-length sophomore album “Life After” from 2019. Staying true to their melancholy indie roots, the band find space to refine the sound fans have come to expect, but don’t progress much beyond that.

The record consists of just three tracks, with the eponymous opener and second track “I’ll Be Fine” having been released as a single back in September, the former being the B-Side. The opening track is a soft, acoustic driven number with the now-customary clean lead guitar chops creating a dreamy, ethereal feel as frontman Leo Wyndham croons about memories of a past lover. The bass plods along with on-the-beat root notes keeping everything in check, featuring plenty of rumbling low-end giving a great weight to the track, as the vocals and lead guitar float around the high-mid. 

Harry Styles 'Golden' Review

Just when we all thought 2020 was a goner, Harry Styles managed to pull another stellar music video out of the bag in the shape of ‘Fine Line’ opener, ‘Golden’. With his previous video to ‘Watermelon Sugar’ arguably being the soundtrack and visual inspo to our lockdown summer, you best believe ‘Golden’ is the much-needed pick-me-up for the dreary winter months.

Released after multiple teasers from HSHQ online, the video to uplifting track ‘Golden’ was set on the Amalfi Coast in Italy – a location I think we’d all like to be in right now. As for a storyline? It seems to be just having fun and loving life as it comes, which synchronises perfectly with the song’s theme being the point in a relationship where you say ‘I like you, you like me, let’s go with the flow and see what happens’...

HAIM - Man from the Magazine video review

Earlier this year, the famed sibling trio band HAIM released their newest album Women in Music Pt. III which debuted at Number 1 in the UK charts. The album is the most emotionally charged album we’ve had from the trio with a seemingly much more personal connection to the band and their experiences. 

The band released their music video for the song Man from the Magazine on 7/10/20 and from the get go we can see it’s connection to the overall album theme with the videos setting being the same one used for the album cover artwork which features the 3 sisters in a delicatessen. The song itself is based around the misogyny and sexism within the music industry and the music video was designed to reflect this and has been a resounding success because the video is able to convey the message of the song whilst also keeping an element of subtlety and decorum in putting the point across.

Watch the video at https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=NqIiYJX1Xw8

MEET... Maggie Rogers

Some musicians will spend their entire music career patiently waiting for the moment when someone, whether a personal idol or just a prominent name in the industry, outspokenly acknowledges and praises their work. For Maggie Rogers, it was the complete opposite. Her “big break” came in 2016 when Pharrell Williams arrived at the Clive Davis Institute of Rock Music at NYU for a songwriting masterclass (unbeknownst to the students) and was left nearly speechless, claiming he’d never heard anyone like her before, by Rogers’s homework: a layered folk-pop track with breezy vocals called ‘Alaska.’ The interaction, which almost immediately went viral, ultimately launched Rogers into the spotlight - and rightly so.

Rogers, now a 26 year-old NYU Graduate and Grammy-nominated artist, had always been comfortable in her music, but the newfound attention that sparked from her interaction with Pharrell was of a different magnitude than what she was used to. Originally from a small town in Maryland, Rogers was raised by her working class parents who had continuously encouraged her to pursue her music interests. 

Stevie Nicks Review

If you were wondering what Weird Al Yankovic was doing with all his free time during 2020, look no further than this track. It seems he’s made a looney tunes style mask of Stevie Nicks to wear and record this song with. Okay, maybe that’s a bit far but for her first solo in 6 years this track is disappointing and a far cry from the genius that wrote songs like “Edge of Seventeen”. 

In a world where just this year a bunch of famous faces received massive public backlash when they released their cringe-worthy rendition of “Imagine” in the midst of a global pandemic, releasing this song seems like an incredibly tone-deaf move on behalf of Nicks’ team.

I understand the argument that music and politics should be separate to an extent, but this is at its core a politically charged song and so in order to review it properly you have to consider the intention and the context in which it was released. 

Creation Day Festival - Meet The Acts

Creation day is brand new two-day festival summer 2021 (29-30 May), with a whopper of a line up, exclusively curated by Alan McGee.

The extensive line-up the likes of Echo and The Bunnymen, Happy Mondays and ever-rising newcomers such as The Clockworks and Shambolics, this amalgamation of some of the countries brightest alternative and rock talents is set to be one epic party.

McGee formed creation records in the early 80's and has worked with music legends such as Oasis, Primal Scream and The Jesus and Mary Chain.

Speaking about the inaugural Creation Day festival, the legend behind it, McGee says:

"I’m looking forward to this one, some of the best old bands with some of the best new bands. I can’t wait to come and bring it all to Wolverhampton. Creation Day is the first time we have done anything like this since doing it for the kids. Hopefully we can do this every year.”

Get To Know: Sunship Balloon

Formed in 2019 psychedelic pop duo Sunship Balloon, side project of Tord Øverland Knudsen and Dan Haggis of the Wombats fame, have made waves with their debut album ‘Everywhen’.  For fans of Tame Impala, Pynch, FLOWVERS and The Covasettes their album was described by the VLM as a “unequivocally one of the most celestial albums you are likely to hear in 2020”. See what they had to say about it below. 

1. Who would you say are your musical influences?

There are way too many to start listing here, between us we’ve listened to so much different stuff over the years it would be a long boring list!

Charli Adams - Didn't Make It - Single Review

If you’ve sat on a ledge wondering how your first love went wrong, you’ve probably heard her. 

If you’ve compared yourself to Ross and Rachel and wondered what song would be your soundtrack, you’ve heard her, but on a much deeper level not usually accredited to shallow sitcoms. 

Indie newcomer Charli Adams delivers a spiritual evolution, born from regret, in her first single “Didn’t make it”. 

The song is driven by a soft rock vibe, exploring the acceptance that the person you wanted had stopped wanting you, no matter how much drink you need to forget it. 

Future Islands - ‘As Long As You Are’ ALBUM REVIEW

Samuel T. Herring is an advocate for pure and unadulterated passion, a passion laced with fiercely introspective lyrics and astonishingly powerful vocals. His band, Future Islands – made up of Gerrit Welmers, William Cashion and Michael Lowry – are advocates for warbling keyboard synths, simple but delicious basslines and crashing cymbal crescendos. Each of these are hallmark traits of every one of their albums, and their sixth ‘As Long as You Are,’ is no different.

But maybe that’s the issue? It all seems just a little too familiar.

 

On first look, Future Islands’ brand of synthpop is hard to expand upon, and each of their albums seems as if they’re reusing the same tried and tested formula again and again. With only a three piece band they are renowned for those swirling and sparkling synths, and rely on the lead singer to provide a much-needed intensity to their atmospheric melodies. 

Without Herring, one has to question if Future Islands would be anywhere near as respected as they are?

Tomberlin 'Projections': EP Review

Through her music, Sarah Beth Tomberlin has always found ways to transfer worries and doubt into soulful, and sometimes even humorous, lamentations. Having spent the last year isolating with Busy Phillips and her family, she devoted her time to writing new music and exploring her own sound. The result is ‘Projections’, a short EP that gives listeners a glimpse into her world, and the progression of her sound. Produced by Alex G., Tomberlin flexes her songwriting muscles and reveals more of intricate sound than first heard on ‘At Weddings’.

The EP begins tenderly with ‘Hours’, a yearning song set against an ambling beat and beautifully finger-plucked string melody.

Ones To Watch: Mountain Bloom

The music industry is super saturated I find. And I’m not saying that’s a bad thing, it’s just that sometimes the sheer volume of music available at my fingertips is a little overwhelming, which is why I’m so glad that Mountain Bloom reached out and shared their music with me because I think these guys are going places.

Mountain Bloom is a three piece pop band based in South East London; band members include Niall Coffey, Nick Ellis and Aaron Scott. After ten years of playing in various bands independently, the boys banded together in 2019 based on the desire to make music whenever and wherever they chose. Years of writing and tinkering away at music has given us three tunes and an upcoming debut album in early 2021, with sights set on one more single out this year. So I thought, hey, let’s all jump on this band wagon together, and I’ll give you my insights on the three songs already out in the music stratosphere.

Romy - 'Lifetime' Single Review

After a three-year hiatus from her band's - The xx - I See You Tour (which I attended Manchester Apollo on March 6 2017; photos arriving soon!), Romy Madley-Croft has returned to the music scene after many teasers of her newfound solo work.

Furthermore returning with 90's-inspired Lifetime, this is a certified club-style bop. Not that I even go clubbing, but this is the song which references that era; Let Me Be Your Fantasy springs to mind whenever I listen to this.

However, there are also influences from The xx, particularly in terms of production by fellow band member Jamie xx, a collaborative force in Romy's previous solo works such as his classic Loud Places.

MEET... Feet

Handlebar moustaches, post-punk guitar bashes, party hats, pink brollies and fun time music folly… you need to MEET FEET. Avoid awkward google search results or risking sounding slightly perverse trying to covertly ask your pal “what do you think of feet?”. Get to know the Coventry quintet who bring bags of amusement and lager-downed delight wherever they go, even to the retirement home…

FEET’s thirst for a good time is reflected in their genre spanning output and entertaining performative approach, but the Coventry jokers are certainly not to be overlooked. An 18 show UK headline tour in October last year, with sell-out shows in London and Manchester, supported their Debut album ‘What’s Inside Is More Than Just Ham’ (released October 4 th 2019). Moving into 2020, despite obvious barriers on the music industry performance circuit due to a certain health pandemic, FEET supported Dublin four-piece Inhaler across their UK tour in February.

Lana Del Rey 'Let Me Love You Like A Woman' Single Review

Lana Del Rey has a real knack for making all aspects of relationships sound really good. She writes songs about dependency, desire, the ugly truths mixed with the sweet moments. Her discography is easy to get lost in. I don’t know if it’s the vocals that sit somewhere between power and delicacy, the well-rounded instrumentation, the production… something distracts and soothes the occasionally almost jarring lyricism. 

However, I digress, her newest single ‘Let Me Love You Like a Woman’ has fans thrilled.

A songwriter’s guide to formative albums

It feels convoluted to say so, but I am a songwriter. I don’t say this because I think I’m particularly good at it, I don’t proclaim to be a font of talent, but I like to think I know good lyricism when I hear it. And I also don’t want to dismiss the creation of melody and composition. But since that is something I can’t claim to know much about, I won’t insult anyone by trying to write about it. Now I was in English class, I know there are people who dismiss the lyrics as just trimming or frills on the song and don’t want to dive into deciphering the meaning. People’s disdain for poetry was not lost on me and still isn’t. I feel like everyone subconsciously ties analysis of lyrics back to English classes so there’s an assumption you can’t have fun listening to the lyrics. 

Let’s free ourselves of that for the time being shall we?

Ruined Your Sons by Circe - Review

“Ruined Your Sons” by Circe is a gloomy and melodic eye opening to the world of male masculinity and its counterbalance of emotions and sensitivity. In her latest single off of her upcoming EP She’s Made of Saints set to drop November 25, Circe laments on how society has ruined their “sons” by enforcing unto the male population this onus of masculinity that they feel they must live up to. This masculinity comes at the expense of their sentimental side, which they’re forced to bury as a natural instinct because, again, society teaches them that the two can’t live in cohesion.

Warmduscher: Khaki Tears - Review

With the release of this epic album on an all new exclusive vinyl, it is time to step back 5 years and enjoy it with fresh eyes again. Khaki Tears is Warmduscher’s debut album as an amalgamation of members of Fat White Family and Paranoid London.

It is in your face. It is intense. It is deliciously deranged.

‘Johnny’s Blue Khaki’ opens the album in a heavily bass driven manner. Panic stricken guitars open the themes of Vietnam discussed throughout this album, echoing the khaki in question. ‘The Salamander’ and ‘Uncle Sleepover’ progress the album into incomprehensible motions of heavy electronica and post-punk feels.

Lucy Gaffney - 'Send Me Away' REVIEW

Picture this: you’re in a car, it’s late at night, you’re completely unaware of yourself and entirely intoxicated with the idea of someone else. There’s an element of the unknown but there’s electricity and that’s all that really matters. Lucy Gaffney’s new single ‘Send Me Away’ is the soundtrack to this moment.

Belfast-born and Liverpool living, this woman has been catching the eye of notable musicians such as Liam Gallagher who called her music ‘celestial’, and with good reason. The entire composition of this song plays to her strengths, from the tonal synths, to the rougher guitar, to the timeless quality of the melody and sentiment itself. 

Fleet Foxes REVIEW

Fleet Foxes is a band so intrinsically tied to their own sound that variation and experimentation might seem to contradict their own appeal. I must confess that I have not kept up with their career since 2011's Helplessness Blues. I remember first hearing that album in a long car journey with my dad, a memory that has stayed with me, their sweeping orchestral acoustic flourishes mixing with Robin Pecknold';s tender vocals, providing a great soundtrack for journeys through mountainous landscapes.

Their signature sound, a breezy, harmonic indie folk that often soars and glimmers, is at once modern and memorable as well as being reminiscent of older folk music. While Helplessness Blues contained beautiful harmonies, its core sound was one of melancholy. 

MEET... Twin Peaks

Twin Peaks throw you into an American teenage dream...

The five-piece indie-rock band take you back to your fond teen memories and favourite coming-of-age movies with their bluesy riffs, “slow jams” and whimsical vocals. The band began with childhood friends, Cadien Lake James (guitar and vocals), Jack Dolan (bass guitar and vocals) and Connor Brodner (drums and percussion). Once in high school, Brodner met Clay Frankel and convinced him to leave his current band to join Twin Peaks. James said in an interview “We ended up stealing him from his other band.” A few years later, Colin Croom joined the band as their keyboardist, additional guitarist, and vocalist.

NZCA LINES album review - Pure Luxury

NZCA LINES' opulent new album Pure Luxury is a fantastically written and aesthetically engaging blend of tracks that provides compelling political perspectives underneath lighthearted stereo pans and synths.

 NZCA LINES’ Michael Lovett is no stranger to using 80’s style synthesisers, which can be heard in all 3 of his albums, having made “synth sounds and generally helping out” on Christine and the Queens 2014 album Chaleur Humaine. 

Released with Memphis Industries, Pure Luxury is an amalgamation of experimentation and frustration; track topics range from love to politics, with the backing instrumentals of each song giving no clue to its thematic content. The Pure Luxury album features a mix of upbeat indie disco tracks interspersed with some slower tempo pieces such as ‘Primp & Shine’, ‘Take this Apart’, and ‘For your Love’ which prevent the album from becoming too repetitive amongst the distorted vocals and swift bass lines. 

An Interview with Luna Pines

She Can’t See Me is a track which lends itself to endless remixes - it’s smooth, deliciously layered, with barely there vocals lamenting a broken love. It’s the track you’d listen to as the dancefloor is about to close; The 1975 esque love-sick nostalgia with a tightly orchestrated production and a solid beat perfect for that half-sad last dance.

Luna Pines are fairly new onto the Leeds music scene, with their niche fusing pop and alternative dance music in an inedible way clearly apparent on this single, with She Can’t See Me standing out from the onslaught of creative work the duo has recently released due to it’s subtle depth, working to merge dream pop synth with an electronic house sound in a way that really shouldn’t work... but weirdly does...

Theodor Black - Indigo Review

Up and coming producer, lyricist and all-round artist Theodor Black returns with contemplative single Indigo, anticipating his new EP ‘GARÇON’ landing on November 5th.  

Indigo is an outpour of realness and emotion; Black’s pensive vocals lean against a melancholic guitar loop, capturing a feeling of peaceful surrender to whatever life has in store. The beat is a masterpiece of taste and minimalism, leaving space for the listener to develop a real connection to the lyrics. With its cross-genre and hybrid sonorities spacing from indie to lo-fi hip-hop, Indigo becomes a confirmation of authenticity and talent, shining a light on the South London artist as one of the most promising acts of 2020.  

Beabadoobee - 'Fake It Flowers' REVIEW

On Beabadoobee’s long awaited debut album, she straddles the two stand out styles of her career thus far, acoustic-y bedroom pop, and ‘bubble-grunge’ a phrase coined to describe her soft but still grungey, early 2000’s reminiscent sound. 

She manages to use both sides of her songwriting excellently, with ‘Care’, ‘Worth It’ and ‘Yoshimi, Forest, Magdalene’ showcasing her heavier tendencies well, with Pavement influences clear across these songs, along with Beach Fossils and The Pains of Being Pure at Heart. 

Opening Of Future Yard: She Drew The Gun

 Live music is back and we couldn’t be happier about it! 

Saturday the 19 th of September, saw the opening of Future Yards, an all-new music venue in Birkenhead, Wirral.

The converted nightclub boasts amazing acoustics and a contemporary vibe unlike any other venue. However, this is not just a venue for gigs. ‘Sound Check’ is a programme ran by the team, offering practice spaces and training programmes for aspiring musicians.

Future Yards is the epitome of the ideal independent venue and an absolute asset to the Merseyside music community !

What is a socially distanced gig like ?

Touché Amore - Reminders Single Review

Surprisingly, “reminders” by Touché Amore was significant enough for me that it appeared in my dream, the video was not like the actual video at all, and the song was much slower but it was the same song. My memory of this dream made me wake up in a confusion because it’s not how I perceived the song earlier. I had to double check by going back on youtube to see if it’s pets or devils with melting flesh. It’s not even that I dislike devils with melting flesh but the confusion was unpleasant. I don't know if it's fair to make a conclusive opinion on a song after weaving the song through a dream experience.

However, it’ll be hard for me to separate the observations of the song in my dream and try not to see what it is of the actual song that lucidified into this alternative. 

TRAAMS' 'Intercontinental Radio Waves' review

It is difficult to deny TRAAMS’ exemplary capacity to have a signature sound that is not afraid to mingle with the formal qualities of pop music – even if it doesn’t explicitly sound like they take inspiration from it. ‘Intercontinental Radio Wave’, which is a sharp three minutes long, as opposed to the previous single which was a ten minute odyssey, in no way seems more like a pop song than what can be called ‘a TRAAMS song’ so to speak. 

The track opens with a quintessentially TRAAMS hypnotic bass line that intermingles with a drum track that clears into overlayed guitars and backing vocals that accompany Hopkins’ vocals.

Fans Also Like #4: Wet and Gushy

I watch this clip of Lil Wayne playing guitar terribly about once every other day:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8g762REJWcg. Perhaps because it brings me back to a simpler time, or maybe just because of the way he puts his head down at the end as if he’s just blown so many minds he can’t grace the crowd with his vision, I can honestly say that this video fascinates me to the point of now having a large part of my brain filled with this scrawny reptile man listlessly playing a guitar as if he’s tuning it, while forgetting he’s in front of a crowd of paying fans.

MEET... Phoebe Bridgers

Everyone likes a good sad song, and my fellow songwriters will know that it’s sad songs that people start with, it’s the most accessible range of emotion to write about. But getting a sad song right is a nuanced thing: it involves vulnerable, relatable lyricism, an ability to carry emotion in their voice, not to mention the craft that goes into actually creating the tone musically. Enter Phoebe Bridgers who seemingly effortlessly carries all of these components and graces us with beautiful music. She is not a sad person, she says, and you can see it in interviews and on social media where her content alternates between self-deprecating humour and little tirades about, well, anything really. That being said, I’d call her the contemporary queen of the sad song.

Aaron Everything ‘Silence’ Review

Aaron Everything describes himself as “drawing a lot of his influence from artists such as Lil Peep and Blackbear” and nowhere is this more apparent than in his track ‘Silence’. Initially this single came across as a half-hearted impression of Lil Peep complete with all the angsty lyricism of a 00’s rock band that comes along with that.

There is a sense that he models himself so strongly after others that there are times when the track feels like an affectation he has put on. Aaron Everything has been open about struggling with his identity and self-worth during lockdown and re-listening to the track with that context helps shed light on his artistic intentions. If this is a song about the futility of trying to create during lockdown I suppose then, it is fitting that Aaron Everything’s voice gets slightly lost in the raw sound of emo- rap.

Lana Del Rey - Violet Bent Backwards Over the Grass - Review

Lana Del Rey’s first foray into the poetic world, Violet Bent Backwards Over the Grass, was released on audiobook this summer, and, this September, published in hardcover. The audiobook features backing music from Jack Antonoff, co-producer of Del Rey’s sixth studio album, and NME’s 2020 album of the year, Norman Fucking Rockwell!.

Violet, whilst being a hit with Del Rey’s fanbase, has received mixed reviews in the media, with three stars from the Telegraph. Critics have oft-cited Del Rey’s tendency for clichés as the collection’s main shortcoming, as she draws from generic binaries for some lines, like the ‘broken record’ in ‘SportCruiser’ and the misspelled ‘ying to my yang’ in ‘Land of 1000 Fires.’ 

Phoebe Bridgers ‘I Know the End’ on Late night with Seth Meyers - Review

Since the release of her second solo studio album in June, Phoebe Bridgers has been performing singles all over the internet in innovative, off-beat ways, ranging from playing ‘Kyoto’ in her bathtub with a fake microphone to covering Radiohead’s ‘Fake Plastic Trees’ in a church with Arlo Parks.

The performance of ‘I Know The End’ which aired on Late Night with Seth Meyers begins with Bridgers in a Victoriana style dress, enmeshed in a warm red light. Opening with a piano accompaniment in a room illuminated with candles, Bridgers looks angelic. The song choice immediately strikes as deliberate, though.

First Aid Kit “Come Give Me Love” Single Review

I meant to write down my first impressions of the single so that I had an honest first impression for you. Alas, I failed. I just sat there and let the music overwhelm me.

This is First Aid Kit’s version of Ted Gärdestad’s “Come give me love”. For those who don’t know Ted’s music, he was a Swedish artist mostly active in the 1970s and then up until his tragic suicide in 1997. It shocked Sweden, but his music lives on in their hearts.

School choirs and weddings; his music is heard everywhere, and it’s loving, poetic and nostalgic. Just like the two sisters in First Aid Kit, Johanna and Klara, Ted’s brother Kenneth Gärdestad worked together, writing lyrics to most of Ted’s songs.

Bad Suns: Baby Blue Shades single review

Ever since Bad Suns broke into the spotlight in 2014 with their catchy rock-pop single Cardiac Arrest, the Californian group has been releasing quality singles and albums that encompass what made us fall in love with the band in the first place -- think the Beach

Boys meet Eagles meet Asbury Park-era Springsteen: a modern take reminiscent of sunny pop rock n roll but with a bit of an edge and good old millennial cynicism. Their newest single, Baby Blue Shades, is no different.

Kelly Lee Owens ‘Corner Of My Sky’ – Video Review

After recent tracks ‘Oh’, ‘Night’ and ‘Melt!’ from Kelly Lee Owens’ critically acclaimed second album ‘Inner Song’ released on Smalltown Supersound, comes her next magical video - ‘Corner Of My Sky’ official video was released on 23.09.20. The track features the legendary pre and post-punk

producer John Cale whose spoken word beautifully accompanies a bouncing score, narrating an impending scene of weather and nature – thanking god for the rain through his signature accented
baritone vocals breaking out through welsh language.

Sufjan Stevens - Ascension REVIEW

Sufjan Stevens has been a favourite of mine since 2015. His album, Carrie & Lowell, was an exploration into emotions we all undoubtedly never wish to feel; Stevens' ability to musically explain his feeling of loss is crafted so elegantly in this album. His latest album, The Ascension, is the first album in five years, since the release of Carrie & Lowell, where Stevens is the sole credited artist. Through those interim years, his musical style has been restructured and redefined; his new style is almost unrecognisable from his 2015 instalment.

Stevens wrote the March 2020 instrumental album, Aporia, with his business-partner/step-father, Lowell Brams. With influences from films like Blade Runner and Hereditary, Aporia was a significant step away from the sound of Sufjan Stevens established in Carrie & Lowell. Similar to the sound of 2020's first album, Aporia, The Ascension offers us an album of soundtrack-isms with overlayed lyrics, a seemingly obvious next-step into the world of electropop for Stevens...