…The deluxe edition extends the original record with three brand-new remixes and an array of live tracks recorded using high-end vintage gear at Crystal Ship in Sheffield.
As AI becomes an increasing threat to humans trying to make a living from creative activities, Nubiyan Twist’s latest album is a defiant riposte. It is a celebration of the joyful energy and chaos that comes from musicians getting together in a room to play. While that could imply a scrappy sound, it would be a wildly inaccurate description of the ensemble. Chasing Shadows represents a skilful interception of jazz, afrobeat, R&B and electronics, fused with a mastery that reflects the nine-piece band’s background having formed in 2011 while studying at the Leeds College of Music.
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There aren’t many three-time platinum selling albums that credit Captain Beefheart as a co-songwriter. But that’s not the only unusual aspect about Joan Osborne’s major label debut Relish.
The singer/songwriter’s 1995 multi- GRAMMY nominated disc also included Bob Dylan and Sonny Boy Williamson covers and, in “One of Us,” a left field, still controversial hit single she did not write (Relish producer/arranger and Hooters frontman Eric Bazilian did). That’s a lot of uniqueness for any artist, let alone one on her first studio recording. Relish put Joan Osborne on the pop music map, a place she has visited intermittently for the following thirty years. There have been plenty more titles since; she has delivered a clutch of covers albums (Dylan and soul classics), done…
With his second solo album Snakewards, Chicago musician Joe Glass builds a private world of top-shelf power pop. In addition to the composition, arrangement, and singing, Glass plays almost all of the instruments on the album and recorded these songs himself over a three-year period. While there’s a lo-fi kinship with Sharp Pins (the band Glass plays bass in), these tracks are more versatile, going in multiple directions from one moment to the next like a compact and home-brewed version of The White Album.
Moments like the bounding opener “Dust on Your Halo” and “Man Who Lost His Diamond” have the revved-up jangle and melodic brightness of the post-Big Star power pop cannon, while “Buck Wild” shifts gears wildly into…
Twenty years on from his debut The Last Resort, Anders Trentemøller has firmly nailed his colours to the mast, proclaiming his musical identity with a self-titled album. In it he shows all the qualities from the past two decades but with an added assurance to his writing. Helping mark the occasion are fellow Danes Jonas Bjerre (Mew), Sune Rose Wagner (The Raveonettes) and vocal guests Sakura, Anika, Midwife, Tan Cologne and Emma Acs. Each bring a unique quality to help add the icing on the cake, but in spite of the multiple personalities it is Trentemoller’s ear for production that shines through time and again.
His penchant for widescreen epics is akin to that of a Nordic M83. Few ears could be fully prepared for the sheer explosion of sound…
One of the most interesting aspects about Cherry Soda is what it’s not. The album that would eventually become Nathan Williams’ tenth as Wavves was first announced this past summer, in the form of a collaborative project with Max Bemis of 2000s pop-punk relics Say Anything. On paper, the pairing made sense. Both artists’ respective sounds are inextricably tied to past eras of rock music, with Williams’ aesthetic most commonly associated with the weeded-out indie gold rush of the early 2010s. The project imploded after allegations emerged that Bemis had engaged in inappropriate communication with underage fans. In a series of statements, Williams claimed that Bemis was barely involved in Cherry Soda’s writing process and promised that it…
It’s been four years since the Live Archive series revisited the 1992-93 tour in support of Human Touch and Lucky Town. Historically, this era has been marked with an asterisk, often viewed as a deviation from the norm given the new, not E Street band. Yet as time passes, 1992-93 simply feels like one interesting chapter in a long, musical journey. One major component of that band, gospel-influenced background singers, has become a fixture on recent tours. Tom Morello isn’t Nils Lofgren or Stevie Van Zandt, just as Shane Fontanye wasn’t. Someone other than Clarence Clemons playing saxophone on “Born to Run”? We’re used to that too.
However, the 1992 musical formula was intended to be roots-rock meets gospel, not unlike…
Twenty years after forming Howlin Rain, frontman and founder Ethan Miller has once again reshaped the lineup and added guest appearances to deliver Watermelon, a new album that celebrates the music that has shaped the band’s journey.
Miller comments on the record: “Rather than curate a record like this with universally favorite hit songs, we wanted to try and still please the ears in that way but draw on more esoteric songs and sometimes obscure artists that were meaningful to us, both of which would tempt further investigation into their strange stories and secret worlds.” Howlin Rain & Friends delivers on that approach more than. By taking on lesser-known songs or bands, the album is as much a continuing journey into Howlin Rain’s sound as it is a look at…
At this point in their career, Land of Talk are a CanCon institution. They’ve released six albums, toured the country tirelessly and worked with pretty much every Canadian act you like. It’s been a slow growth, but one that has resulted in a great body of work and a solid coast-to-coast fanbase.
Or, as frontperson Elizabeth Powell told Exclaim! in their 2010 cover story, “Some bands have a bit more of a meteoric rise, and some are slow burners. I like to think we’re a slow burner. It’s totally true to who I am and how I approach my own life. Very slow and very unsure, but curious. And it all works out.”
With their latest album, LASTS, they’re now fully ablaze.
Across its eight songs, it showcases all…
From Pixies and The Breeders to The Amps, and now a slowly growing solo discography, bassist/singer/songwriter Kim Deal has experienced the full spectrum of a long-lasting, fruitful career in music. Accomplishing by herself what most bands seek to do as a collective, Deal is one of the brightest and most influential figures in indie rock, and a resurgence is beginning to form around the veteran musician. In 2024, Deal released Nobody Loves You More, her celebrated debut solo album that showcased a creative maturity that was both spellbindingly alien yet warmly familiar, an 11-song collection that saw a touch of soul reach her wiry vocals. The album was released to wide critical acclaim and open arms from both those who have followed Deal for…
Unavailable for many years, this classic Fairport album released in 1986 marking the solid beginnings of the now legendary Cropredy Festival. Features two bonus live tracks.
Though their most famous albums were over a decade past by the late ’80s, Fairport Convention was still releasing albums that were good enough to convert new listeners. Red & Gold is a case in point, an assured and enjoyable album of the band’s trademark mix of English folk and rock. Simon Nicol’s vocal on the title cut is worth the price of the album by itself; it’s as sure and passionate a track as he’s ever cut, a sorrowful account of a great battle as seen by a peasant farmer who doesn’t understand why it’s all happening. In fact, the songs…
Fantasy & Reveries, Brad Mehldau’s recording of his solo compositions Fantasy for Piano and Fourteen Reveries, out on Nonesuch Records. Fantasy for Piano was written in the same period as Mehldau’s Three Pieces After Bach. Fourteen Reveries, similarly to the composer’s Suite: April 2020, comprises a collection of shorter pieces. Reveries 1 and 2 are available today, along with videos featuring their scrolling scores.
“Fantasy for Piano … shares similar obsessions with Three Pieces After Bach: long, extended pedal-points, sharp juxtapositions between triadic consonance and extreme dissonance, and a freely subdivided 7/4 meter,” Mehldau says in his liner note. “It is written very densely, and the challenge is often to convey the melodic…
Arriving in celebration of the 10th anniversary of the band’s October 29, 2016 performance at London’s O2 Arena, the previously unreleased album captures a remarkable night in the band’s history and stands as a tribute to founding guitarist Mick Ralphs, whose appearance that evening would be his final live performance with Bad Company.
There’s a poignant moment at the end of Live In London when Paul Rodgers tells the crowd: “Take care of each other, and we’ll see you again.”
This was the final show of Bad Company’s 2016 UK tour, recorded at London’s O2 Arena on 29th October. Four days later, Mick Ralphs suffered a stroke. This would be his final live performance with the band. Listening ten years on, those words carry a weight nobody…
The World According To Clash was originally put together by the band’s US label, Epic, back in 1982 and distributed to radio stations across the States just prior to the release of Combat Rock. Over time, the set – an all killer, no filler compilation featuring 11 of the band’s most enduring songs – has become sought-after among Clash completists.
But puzzlingly, rather than a straight reissue of the original promo, which would at least have felt like a charming curio – Sony have rejigged the title, the tracklisting and changed the artwork. So ‘Magnificent Dance’, ‘This Is Radio Clash’ and ‘Police On My Back’ have been excised from the running order and replaced by ‘The Magnificent Seven’, ‘The Guns Of Brixton’ and ‘Spanish Bombs’ – perhaps an improvement…
Stephan Micus is an extraordinary musical traveller, collecting instruments around the world and then making his unique musical compositions from them. This album features a dozen instruments from Borneo, Japan, India, Armenia, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Mozambique, Botswana, Morocco, Ireland, Switzerland and Bavaria.
Celebrating the richness of the sea, it’s his 27th solo album for ECM.
Micus has always been influenced by the natural world and his music has been inspired by deserts, forests, thunder and more. Traces in the Sand doesn’t attempt to depict the sea, but reflects on the feelings its continually changing state evokes. “To focus totally on a composition necessarily narrows down your perception,”…
Remember when Wes Anderson stuffed all those old Kinks songs into Rushmore even though there was no obvious reason to? The music did not match the film’s contemporary setting, nor did it directly reflect the actions or thoughts of its protagonist. Yet the songs worked brilliantly, capturing the confusion and angst of adolescence without adding melodrama or sentimentality.
Jake Bugg’s new album Alamo works in an analogous way. The 32-year-old singer-songwriter’s seventh full-length record sounds like the work of an adolescent just starting. It is confessional and deliberately naïve. The songs are built largely around Bugg and an acoustic guitar, evoking the sort of bedroom confessions one sings to oneself about friends, lovers, and…
…features the full original album remastered for the first time, as well as 19 previously unreleased demo tracks, 14 previously unreleased studio recordings, and a further 42 non-album cuts. The audio recordings of 2007 live film ‘U.F.O.s at The Zoo’ and a concert at The Hollywood Bowl will also be included.
Since 1999’s The Soft Bulletin, the Flaming Lips have issued an album once every three or four years — roughly once per presidential term, making At War with the Mystics the second album they’ve made during George W. Bush’s presidency. While Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots‘ themes of seizing the moment and accepting mortality could easily be read as a reaction to 9/11, At War with the Mystics is a more overtly timely album…
…include the newly remastered album, a selection of previously released studio rarities, and two full concerts (one of which generously contributed to the band’s live double album ‘The Name of This Band is Talking Heads’).
…Continuing their alliance with avant-garde producer Brian Eno (formerly of Roxy Music and co-producer of Buildings and Food), Fear of Music blended rhythmic dance-rock with unique electronic treatment, creating a sonic melange that galvanized critics. Primarily recorded at a Long Island City loft maintained by the rhythm section of bassist Tina Weymouth and drummer Chris Frantz, the album featured some of their most dazzling songs, including the groove-based opener “I Zimbra,” moving tracks “Heaven”…
In the 1988 documentary Rattle & Hum, B.B. King chats with Bono, then 27. The bluesman reflects on his station in life: “[People] say, ‘There he is, a 62-year-old — and what is he trying to do?’” It’s a question that U2‘s members may have asked themselves as they worked on Carnaval de Luz, their 16th full-length and first album of original music in nearly a decade. They were teens when the group formed in Dublin half a century ago, in their thirties when their art-damaged rock started to “fuck up the mainstream,” middle-aged when they reinvented themselves with “Beautiful Day,” and old enough to know better when they brute-forced Songs of Innocence onto your iPhone. Their resume boasts multiplatinum Number One hits, instant sellout tours, and…