Latest Reviews
The War On Drugs
A Deeper Understanding
It keeps the solid black tarmac-strip of radio-friendly rock under its wheels. Print edition only
Q
Iron & Wine
Beast Epic
The latest in a line of albums whose beguiling melodies, guitar picking and murmurous vocals conceal lyrics whose mysteries take months to unpick
The Independent
Iron & Wine
Beast Epic
This is music as a kind of comfort food, rescuing the lost from self-destruction, inducing a form of spiritual longing, just the right side of saccharine
The Arts Desk
Iron & Wine
Beast Epic
Drifts by like a pleasant but fleeting summer breeze
Slant Magazine
Iron & Wine
Beast Epic
These songs may be modest – none break the four-minute mark – and undemanding, but their sure-footed craft creates profound, 12-tog comfort
The Guardian
Everything Everything
A Fever Dream
Of their four albums to date, ‘A Fever Dream’ is by far the most focused
NME
The War On Drugs
A Deeper Understanding
Give it the time it deserves because this is their best and most complete album to date
The Music
Everything Everything
A Fever Dream
An album that unflinchingly surveys the personal and societal tolls that the year’s seismic shifts in national and global politics have taken, all whilst continuing to push at the borders of what a pop song can be
The 405
Steven Wilson
To The Bone
The record may not achieve the same graceful apogee as Wilson’s previous album, but his songcraft remains stronger than ever
Spectrum Culture
UNKLE
The Road Part 1
Really does sound like a part 1, a somewhat confused album that is more a missing piece in a grander puzzle than a complete whole unto itself
Spectrum Culture
Grizzly Bear
Painted Ruins
While the music industry has changed and evolved since Shields, on Painted Ruins Grizzly Bear prove that there is still a space and a sound that only they can occupy
The Line Of Best Fit
The Cribs
24-7 Rock Star Shit
Time machines may not exist, but The Cribs’ 24-7 Rock Star Shit sure feels like a trip back to the bone-crushing rock of the 1990s
The Line Of Best Fit
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