Bounding onto the ornate stage like some extra feature from a Baz Lurhmann DVD, Gabby Young and Other Animals grabbed this Bush Hall audience by its collective furry lapels and made them spill Red Stripe all over each other. Launching…
Category: Reviews
Album | Jo Mango – Murmuration
Given that it’s six years since Jo Mango released her debut album Paperclips and Sand, we can imagine a fair few listeners will be discovering this Scottish songbird for the first time with sophomore release Murmuration. It’s not like she’s…
Album | The Unthanks – Diversions Volume III: Songs from the Shipyards
If there’s one thing The Unthanks can do really well, it’s evoke images of a northern yesteryear. In this latest offering from the sisters and their band, they rework folk songs by the likes of Graeme Miles, Alex Glasgow and…
EP | Marcus Foster – The Last House
The Last House is the latest offering from 24 year old London based singer-songwriter Marcus Foster. Interestingly, though this is not entirely relevant, he has an MA in sculpture and I have seen his work exhibited in the Saatchi Gallery.…
EP | The Murder Barn – Gotta Good Man
After a year holed up in the mysterious self-constructed studio from which they take their name, The Murder Barn emerge blinking into the light. The band cite Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds and Ennio Morricone among their list of…
Album | The Avett Brothers – The Carpenter
What more do you expect from two banjo and guitar playing brothers from North Carolina than utter charm? This is exactly the sentiment that the Avett Brothers have created with their latest album The Carpenter. The lilting country harmonies, charming…
Album | Darren Hayman and the Long Parliament – The Violence
Do you sing about yanking on the ankles of the hanging and half dead in the shower much? No, nor do we. Or at least we didn’t until really quite recently; listening to The Violence a few times will have…
Compilation | Sandy Denny – The Notes & The Words
Sandy Denny fans have been able to feast of late. There have been deluxe resissues of Rendezvous and Like An Old Fashioned Waltz, Thea Gilmore’s Don’t Stop Singing which put music to her unreleased lyrics, and this year’s The Lady:…
Live | The Divine Comedy @ The Royal Festival Hall, 8th November 2012
Have you ever been unfortunate enough to break the elastic on your party hat, mid-party? If you have, you’ll remember that the sensation is both physically and emotionally mortifying: you can no longer wear the same hat as everyone else,…
Album | The Staves – Dead & Born & Grown
There’s been a lot of hype surrounding The Staves since they debuted their talents behind Tom Jones on his gravelly gospel album Praise and Blame. They made a name for themselves on the back of that performance with the Welsh…