Do you hear that? Yup, we think that’s the sound of sunbeams breaking through the clouds. The rainclouds that have been tipping out their paddling pools upon us all winter are finally taking a break to refill them and make…
There’s something inherently paradoxical about the ubiquity of Elbow’s mammoth hit ‘One day like this’ – a song about a single, brief moment of life-changing beauty that ended up being, well, everywhere. In fact, I’ve often doubted whether a body…
“I’m not here to be the sufferer, for the fears of all humankind. I’m here to sing and get up in your everything.” So goes the chorus of ‘Shame’, though it could well function as a manifesto for Joan Wasser’s…
Any regular listener of Guy Garvey’s Sunday afternoon slot will be familiar with his relentless gushing over Jesca Hoop – a California born songstress who, having married Elbow’s tour manager, is now based in Garvey’s native Manchester. Just last week…
Fragments is a fitting title for this debut EP from Manchester-based Glass Ankle. A mixed and contemplative bag, it doesn’t always hit the mark, but it’s definitely got an assortment of shiny treats to entice you. A blending of some…
Milwaukee alt-rock trio, Twin Brother, draw together chiming electric guitar chord work and cascading drum patterns to form a distinctive sound that is both sincere and a little rough around the edges. Their eponymous debut album features a selection of their Milwaukee friends, and the band…
Brighton four-piece House of Hats draw in the folky flavours of the likes of early Fleetwood Mac and Wishbone Ash, melding a chorus of vocal harmonies and picked acoustic guitars in their debut album, This Love. While the songs are…
I am by no means an important person; but I don’t like to be kept waiting. I have long since reconciled myself to the fact that coolness is beyond my grasp – but it has always eluded me, from a…
Perhaps appropriately for someone who’s just landed in the UK, the first thing Simone Felice does when I ask how he’s doing is mention the weather. “I’m just generally glad to be alive and glad it’s spring at last,” the…
Listening to Broken Records Toska, the Edinburgh based bands first release in four years, it strikes me that there are two defined (though not necessarily mutually exclusive) routes available when putting together an EP. The first option is to release…