“Gone is any notion of J Mascis as a writer lacking emotional bandwidth.”

It’s always felt a little weird that, as the frontman of a band who live are so ear-bleedingly loud in Dinosaur Jr., J Mascis would write solo material which has been set largely in the acoustic realm.…

Whilst Jamie Webster might not be admitting it, this third time street politicking comes with questions of him too.

You started out playing gigs in pubs. You wanted to go where few others would, talking about the long-forgotten working class and their rights and wrongs through their own lens, doing…

Prelude To Ecstasy has our attention, an obvious chance for The Last Dinner Party to tell stories and leave future debate to the chattering classes.

You shouldn’t pay them any attention, but recently there was a survey highlighting the supposed gap in attitudes between men and women; the latter, it…

In Gruff Rhys’ solo canon progress is nearly always by degree, a truth underlined again here.

The last time we encountered the much-loved Welsh singer Gruff Rhys he was somewhere up a 4,000-year-old Korean volcano on his previous album Seeking New Gods; a study in melancholic pop of the highest…

Chemtrails’ triumph lies in not being just the final product of somebody else’s jigsaw.

Not everyone is as open as Chemtrails are about sharing their inspirations, no matter what the source. Talking about Detritus Andronicus, the single which preceded this, their third album The Joy Of Sects, the band…

Ducks Ltd. have the soundtrack to modern life’s struggles.

When faced with writer’s block there are many worse go-to reference points than, ‘What would Orange Juice do?, but Ducks Ltd. – English singer/lyricist Tom McGreevy and Australian Evan Lewis (guitar, bass, drum programming) – are now confident enough to no…

Frank Carter settles in a place all of his own.

If punk rock has always been looked at by those in the straight world as a place for outsiders, what happens when one of its icons chooses to become the outsider themselves? A musical force of nature, as the lead…

A long road of tragedy, grief and catharsis leads to a career high for Bill Ryder-Jones.

Almost buried at the end of 2015’s West Kirby County Primary, Bill Ryder-Jones offered a clue to where he was with it all on Even Good Things Break My Heart, the album’s undersold peak.…

Future Islands bring the past alive on their latest studio record.

Whenever you see anything about Future Islands it can seem like the writer is somehow contractually obliged to mention that Letterman performance and the subsequent bridgehead it gave them into the mainstream. That was ten years ago however, and…

The Redskins look back on a time when first appearances meant nothing.

If you want to know how hard it is to be a musician with a conscience these days, just ask Sleaford Mods singer Jason Williamson. When confronted during a gig in Madrid recently with a Palestinian scarf being…

Car Seat Headrest make sense of the Trait era.

The longer it goes, the harder it gets to cast your mind back to the early days of the pandemic. As an art form, music overnight for many was revitalised, a means of both escapism and connection to an outside now…

There’s still fuel in the tank of Spector’s Chevy.

Longevity in music, what’s the secret? The answer is probably in a combination of shrugging off all the bad stuff and having some fun with it; for most artists their day in the sun is brief. Spector were formed by Ox.Eagle.Lion.Man…

Water From Your Eyes share their real world re-work.

Sometimes life comes at you pretty fast. Speaking around the time of the release of their fifth album Everyone’s Crushed earlier this year, one half of Water From Your Eyes – Nate Amos – admitted that the change in pace and…

Honesty’s bags are packed.

For the cynics keen on applying lazy stereotypes, Eagulls were an easy enough soak. From Leeds, the quintet played angst ridden post punk with more in its raking guitars and barked vocals than a hint of goth, that being the other supposed sole musical byproduct of…

Hi-tech hip hop from H31R.

There’s a lot to be said for more brevity in hip hop; whilst a few premier high-end talents can get away with an 80-minute odyssey – and plenty more try – the sometimes relentless nature of it can feel like a listening battle of wills.…

King Creosote transforms in familiar surroundings.

Up there on Dove Street, nothing much changes. In a corner of rural, seaside Fife the locals call the East Neuk, although you can’t reach out and touch the reasons why, life is slower. The cobbles still receive the downpours stoutly whilst the gulls…