It’s far from an unfamiliar story: art-house indie band makes a huge breakthrough album, and then wrestles with the right way to follow it up for years. Veckatimest catapulted Grizzly Bear out of the experimental backwaters and firmly into the…
Category: Records
EP | Josienne Clarke & Ben Walker – Homemade Heartache
It’s been a good year for Josienne Clarke and Ben Walker. Following on from their 2011 sophomore album Seas Are Deep, the duo found themselves in Bristol, picking up the Isambard Folk Award. It’s an interesting development then that, after…
EP | The Paper Shades – Where You Lay
First and foremost, what grabs you when a Paper Shades song strikes up is the beauty of the harmonies between Sarah Dollar and Jon Rixon. It’s not a sound that’s going to get old in a hurry, and as soon…
Album | Bob Dylan – Tempest
Bob Dylan, now 71 years old, has explored plenty in his long and winding career. But an album that sees him encounter pimps, junkie whores and engage in the act of motorboating probably aren’t what most expected from this most…
Album | David Byrne & St Vincent – Love This Giant
Collaborations between yesterday’s innovators and today’s eclectics can sometimes be a recipe for disaster – two extreme styles battling to be the best, or the loudest heard. Not here. St Vincent and David Byrne are a match made in heaven.…
Album | Get Well Soon – The Scarlet Beast O’Seven Heads
Get Well Soon is (essentially) Konstantin Gropper, a 29 year-old German composer, multi-instrumentalist and man of very vivid imagination. The fact that his new album is called The Scarlet Beast O’Seven Heads – with its sub-title translation of La Bestia…
Album | Jens Lekman – I Know What Love Isn’t
Following last year’s excellent An Argument With Myself EP, Jens Lekman is back with a new album proper, I Know What Love Isn’t. His third LP is a much more reflective and sombre affair than his playful release of last…
EP | House of Hats – Rivers Will Run
Brighton-based quartet House of Hats have already impressed many with their self-titled debut EP. With their second release, Rivers Will Run, they seem certain to gain even more acclaim. Being dubbed as “Fleetwood Mac meets Crosby, Stills and Nash”, listeners…
EP | King Creosote – To Deal With Things
For a three-track EP, there is a fair bit going on here as the prolific Fifer pops his head above the fence once more. It is instantly recognisable as the work of the good King, distinctive voice and all, but…
Album | Poor Moon – Poor Moon
After the delights of former-Fleet-Fox Father John Misty, here’s another intriguing offshoot: Poor Moon was founded by Fleet Fox members Christian Wargo and Casey Westcott, with the help of brothers Ian and Peter Murray. The band developed out of Wargo’s…