Album Review: Cats on Fire – Our Temperance Movement

In their second album Cats on Fire display their finely honed good taste with a selection of songlets which evoke the likes of The Smiths, Belle and Sebastian and Kings of Convenience. They’ve been criticised for this elsewhere, but it’s hard to question the combination of influences that are woven into the silken fabric of this album. Listening to it is like coming home to find that your beloved record collection’s had a bonkfest and produced a beautiful baby in your absence.

Album Review: Flare – Cut

Members from the likes of Beirut, The Arcade Fire and Belle & Sebastian have played a role in creating Flare’s (aka Flare Acoustic Arts League) diverse and brilliantly produced third album Cut. They lead on from the likes of The New Pornographers and The Hidden Cameras in showing that good pop music does not have to be formulaic. In fact, each of the songs on Cut manages to stand out as unique. This diversity accounts for a lot of its charm but equally accounts for its few flaws.

Mechanical Bride

They Say: Haunting folk, maybe with some electronic/rock/blues….make what you will.. We Say: Surrey-born, Brighton-based Lauren Dross is the driving force behind the beautiful, eerie pop music of Mechanical Bride. They have notably managed to turn Rihanna’s “Umbrella” into a…