In some ways reviewing this album feels a bit superfluous; fraudulent, even. If the point of a review is to convey what an album sounds like, I can sum it up in a five-word sentence: it sounds like Teenage Fanclub.…
Category: Reviews
Live: Johnny Flynn & The Sussex Wit: Manchester Academy 3, 29th June
I first saw Johnny Flynn & The Sussex Wit in Liverpool on their club tour just before ‘Been Listening’ was released. They played a tiny club, Zanzibar, I was stool on a chair about 15 feet from the band. I’d…
Album: James Apollo – Hide Your Heart in a Hive
James Apollo’s third album Hide Your Heart in a Hive is one that will define his career as a musician. Apollo drifted across America like a young Bad Blake. He slept in his car and played a new town every…
Live: Divine Comedy / Alela Diane Duo: Salle Pleyel Webcast, Paris
I don’t know if this really counts as a live review, even though I watched it live. I suppose that is the only dilemma with the webcast, as everything else about it seems to be brilliant. They’ve become something of…
Singles round-up: the Pains of Being Pure at Heart, the National, First Aid Kit, Crocodiles
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart – Say No To Love The Pains of Being Pure at Heart may be telling us to ‘Say No To Love’ in their latest single, but it will be hard to keep away…
Live: Allo Darlin’ @ The Lexington, London
It might be something of an understatement to say that currently the Lexington is going through a personality crisis. Whilst couples around England struggle with the onslaught of the World Cup on their relationships, so too do many of the…
Live: tUnE-yArDs @ The Scala, Wednesday 23rd June
Merill Garbus aka tUnE-yArDs, opened her set with a primal, African influenced sound blasting out of her mouth and seemingly, going on forever. Was that her real voice? No laptops, no effects, no nothing? As she loops her own voice…
Live: Johnny Flynn & The Sussex Wit @ Electric Ballroom
It’s no secret that FFS has more than a little love for “the next poster boy of the nu-folk [vom – Ed] scene” (we can thank the Times for that one), and his marvellous new album Been Listening has only…
Album: Johnny Flynn – Been Listening
It’s two weeks after Johnny Flynn‘s second album Been Listening was released, and the British music scene is an altogether different beast from the one to whom he handed debut, A Larum, in May 2008. Then, the new folk movement…
Album: The Drums – The Drums
Over the past twelve months The Drums have made the journey from formation to the hottest indie act on the planet. All that was needed to see their hype explode was a début album. Well it’s finally here! The most…