Ren Harvieu’s debut LP, Through The Night, lays its cards on the table almost straight away as you press play: it’s a album about romance and it’s not going to be a subtle ride. The melodrama factor is cranked up…
Category: Records
EP | Paul Thomas Saunders – Descartes Highlands
The latest EP from 20-year-old singer-songwriter Paul Thomas Saunders is a shimmering kaleidoscope of eerie nostalgia and twinkling pianos, which, despite its melancholy air, manages to evoke optimism and euphoria in its hypnotic beats. Named after the area on the…
Album | Crybaby – Crybaby
Crybaby, real-name Danny Coughlan, seems very keen to be the new poster-boy for heartbroken storytelling. And with his self-titled debut, he may just achieve that status. This compact collection of poignant ballads will no doubt project Bristol-born Crybaby into the…
EP | The Son(s) – Leviathan
The Son(s) latest EP, Leviathan, is as atmospheric as they come. From beginning to end, it is quite apparent that this follow-up to their debut album was recorded in an old, empty flat during Edinburgh’s coldest winter in 50 years.…
Album | Father John Misty – Fear Fun
Joshua Tillman has left the milk-and-honey kindness of the Fleet Foxes to craft a more rebellious guise for himself as Father John Misty, a kind of lone cowboy in black. The sound will be familiar to Fleet Foxes fans, with…
Album | Lee Hazelwood – The LHI Years: Singles, Nudes and Backsides 1968-71
Lee Hazelwood has always had a sense of humour – his last album before he died was called Cake or Death after an Eddie Izzard sketch. It’s no surprise then that this reissue of some of his greatest songs is…
Album | Richard Hawley – Standing At The Sky’s Edge
Standing At The Sky’s Edge takes about a minute to annonce itself as a Richard Hawley album like no other you’ve ever heard before. In the 12 years since the former Longpig went solo he’s carved out a career making…
Album | Jeb Loy Nichols – The Jeb Loy Nichols Special
Jeb Loy Nichols’ name first registered in my head about a decade ago as the man behind the virtually indispensible Country Got Soul compilations, which collected the best of that special brand of music that combines deep grooves with Southern…
Album | Allo Darlin’ – Europe
If Belle & Sebastian are indeed, as they are often described, the “acceptable face of twee”, then bands like Allo Darlin’ are very much the unacceptable depth of the iceberg below the water – intimidating in their lightness, in their…
Album| Ty Segall & White Hair – Fence
Enfant terrible: the favoured term of writers who seek to envelope youths, of immense promise and questionable mental lucidity, in a cloud of castigation. Or, alternatively, just a stick used by bitter elders, to beat against the reputations of youngsters…