Polly and the Billets Doux are on dangerous ground. The sort of jazzy blues-rock that is pulled off by the likes of Grace Potter & The Nocturnals and Erin McKeown is hard to do without falling into the twee trap.…
Category: Reviews
Album: Paul Heaton – Acid Country
You know where you stand with a Paul Heaton album. There will be bitter boy-girl duets, radio-friendly hum-along tunes, references to drinking and a song name checking lots of places. While at times the return the themes can seem a…
Singles round-up: Lissie, Avi Buffalo, Dreamend
Lissie – Cuckoo Bouncy, accessible country-pop about driving around in a truck in small-town America, being totally wild, rebellious and free. “Let’s go driving, ‘cause there’s nowhere to go!” Yeah! It all sounds really fun, and really bad for the…
Album: Heidi Spencer & the Rare Birds – Under Streetlight Glow
Heidi Spencer and the Rare Birds latest, Under Streetlight Glow, was deliberately and lovingly constructed. Throughout the album Spencer carefully chooses when and how fill the listeners ears; often deciding that silence is the best way to mark a point…
Festival: Green Man
The Green Man promised magic and he didn’t disappoint. Once again the organisers pulled off the spectacular trick of attracting the friendliest festival crowd to the most laid-back festival there is, while enticing some of the weirdest and most wonderful…
EP: Dharohar Project, Laura Marling & Mumford & Sons – iTunes Live
This brilliantly entertaining EP from Laura Marling, Mumford & Sons and the Dharohar Project is made up of live recordings from their combined set at the iTunes Festival in Camden Roundhouse on the 9th July. The EP opens with two…
Album: The Burns Unit – Side Show
‘Supergroup’ is one of those terms that gets thrown out there all the time. Two or three folks get together from different bands for a side project, and suddenly its a supergroup. Except usually it’s not. Usually it’s not nearly…
EP: Sufjan Stevens – All Delighted People
All Delighted People is a collection of songs as bound to disappoint some as it is to enthuse others, and though it is perhaps mismatched as an album, it is not formed to be one.
Singles round-up: Clinic, Harper Simon, Sleepy Sun
Clinic – I’m Aware Clinic’s I’m Aware is evenly spread across its three minutes of running time. The band hints at its affinity for minor, slightly uncomfortable chords throw a wrench into the natural sense of how a song should…
Live: Mariner’s Children and Tristram
It was a windy night and the sun had begun to sink into the horizon, when a crowd of folk-loving youths sat their bottoms onto the deck of the Tamesis Dock, a boat moored along the south side of the…