New Music Reviews
Album: Saint Etienne - InternationalWednesday, 03 September 2025
International is Saint Etienne’s 13th album. It is their last. According to the promotional material, it was written while recording their last album, 2021’s I’ve Been Trying To Tell You. The trio – Sarah Cracknell, Bob Stanley, Pete Wiggs – must have known back then they were planning to bow out. Read more... |
Music Reissues Weekly: The Outer Limits - Just One More ChanceSunday, 31 August 2025
The Outer Limits were from Leeds. Active over 1965 to 1968, the soul-tinged mod-poppers didn’t chart, but their two regular singles are now pricey collector’s items. There was also, before the orthodox 45s, a track on a Leeds University charity fund-raising single. Read more... |
Album: Benedicte Maurseth - MirraWednesday, 27 August 2025
During the opening seconds of Mirra, an unusual sound leaps out – a grunting. It’s integral to a shifting aural pallete which also features a bowed violin and chiming percussion along with a recurring grind like that of a rotating waterwheel. The mood is chilly, suggesting an environment where unalloyed nature has the upper hand, a place where the seasons define what comes to pass. Read more... |
Music Reissues Weekly: The Beatles - What's The New, Mary JaneSunday, 24 August 2025
“What's the New Mary Jane” is a nursery rhyme-like song, one of John Lennon’s most peculiar offerings. It was recorded for late 1968’s double album The Beatles (i.e. the White Album) but, literally, did not make the cut. Nonetheless, John Lennon would not let it go. Read more... |
The Maccabees, Barrowland, Glasgow review - indie band return with both emotion and qualitySaturday, 23 August 2025
You wait years for a guitar group with brothers to reunite and then two come along at once. The Maccabees return might have attracted far less attention compared to the Gallaghers hitting the road again as Oasis, but as they strolled onstage on a humid Glasgow night the ecstatic reaction from fans suggested it was a sight many had not expected to see again. Read more... |
Houghton / We Out Here festivals review - an ultra-marathon of community vibesFriday, 22 August 2025
The long, hot summer of 2025 has been something else, right? Hate rallies, creeping authoritarianism, a weird reluctance to discuss the extremity of the weather even as everyone scrambles to buy air conditioners... Read more... |
Album: Eve Adams - American DustWednesday, 20 August 2025
A sticker on the cover of American Dust is says it’s “an ode to the beauty of the American Southwest,” specifically the High Desert area within the wider setting of California's Mojave Desert. North-East of Los Angeles, this region contrasts with the city’s urban and suburban sprawl by incorporating scattered settlements. Read more... |
Gibby Haynes, O2 Academy 2, Birmingham review - ex-Butthole Surfer goes School of RockMonday, 18 August 2025
Gibby Haynes is the wild-eyed crazy man who used to front the Butthole Surfers back in the 1980s and 1990s. At the time, there was none weirder or more out there than the Texan psychedelic punks – and even Ice-T was then prepared to step back and acknowledge their place in the pantheon of musical barbarians. Read more... |
Music Reissues Weekly: The Residents - American Composer's SeriesSunday, 17 August 2025
George & James was originally released in March 1984. Stars & Hank Forever! emerged in October 1986. The two LPs were parts of – and, as it turned out, the only entrants in – a series of albums their creators, San Francisco’s Residents, designated the American Composer’s Series. Read more... |
BBC Proms: Anoushka Shankar 'Chapters' review - somehow, it workedWednesday, 13 August 2025
You can't explain stage presence like Anoushka Shankar’s. It just "is". When she steps out in front of a completely packed Royal Albert Hall, and utters a welcoming, exploratory, London-ish “Hi... welcome to my Prom… Oh, my God!”, a friendly connection with audience is made. Instantly and with disarming ease. Read more... |
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