Back catalogue: All genres

Review: On his latest LP, Will Oldham aka. Bonnie "Prince" Billy dares to work with a producer for the second time: David "Ferg" Ferguson of Johnny Cash and Sturgill Simpson fame, whose attentive hand guides each of these idling songs through to their sinister, diminished conclusions. Led by the ingenious 'London May' - a lolloping Americana concept piece, illustrating the ostensibly lonely, isolated, suicidally ideating (but ultimately not) persona that is BPB - this sombre record ends up a difficult-to-pin one, touching on themes of self-loss, death and devilish deals. Unlike many other records by Oldham, this lilac lilter hears the convalescence of several composers' and vocalists' voices, reflecting a newfound collaborative opening for the artist, perhaps breaking from a common interpretation of his music as solipsistic.

Review: ***B-STOCK: Creasing to corner of outer sleeve but otherwise in excellent condition***


In November 2022, Cat Power took the stage at London’s Royal Albert Hall and delivered a song-for-song recreation of one of the most fabled and transformative live sets of all time. Held at the Manchester Free Trade Hall in May 1966 - but long known as the “Royal Albert Hall Concert” due to a mislabeled bootleg - the original performance saw Bob Dylan switching from acoustic to electric midway through the show, drawing ire from an audience of folk purists and forever altering the course of rock n' roll. In her own rendition of that historic night, the artist otherwise known as Chan Marshall inhabited each song with equal parts conviction and grace and a palpable sense of protectiveness, ultimately transposing the anarchic tension of Dylan’s set with a warm and luminous joy. Now captured on the live album Cat Power Sings Dylan: The 1966 Royal Albert Hall Concert, Marshall’s spellbinding performance both lovingly honors her hero’s imprint on history and brings a stunning new vitality to many of his most revered songs.

Review: Franz Ferdinand made a perfect debut album. The Glasgow indie rockers could have called it a day way back then and we'd still be listening to them now. But somehow they've retained their magic and are now onto their sixth studio album and 20th year as a band. Alex Kapranos and co. teamed up with the same producer as they had for their fourth album, Right Words, Right Action (Mark Ralph) and that spawned some absolute bangers, so expectations are high for this. Despite having to adjust to new members in the group - it's the first album to feature drummer Audrey Tait and guitarist Dino Bardot - they've come up with the goods on the singles. 'Night Or Day' has the contagious Franz Ferdinand groove that gets crowds bouncing at festivals. And 'Audacious' is perfect for the holiday season - majestic, lush and full of galvanising lyrical sentiments that can't help but unite people. Surely, this album will go to number one.

Review: "I think we all have fears within us and fears that we confront in our life at different times ... and how we react to those fears is how we earn who we really are," Franz Ferdinand frontman Alex Kapranos told Apple Music's Hanuman Welch in an interview about The Humans of Fear, its catalysts and sources of inspiration. Sonically, this is typically bombastic and almost relentlessly upbeat, following in the footsteps of the Glasgow group's established sound. Which has, of course, changed over the years. So while we once had a thoroughbred indie rock band named after a racehorse and Archduke Ferdinand, over the last decade or two they have evolved into a far more electronic and synth-heavy outfit. On The Humans, Ferdinand seem to have measured the distance betwixt the two with more accuracy than ever, sticking their flag in the surface of a perfectly realised middle ground.

Review: Colombian producer and singer Ela Minus expands her sound on this new album, which is a bold follow-up to her 2020 debut Acts of Rebellion. While her first long player felt like an intimate late-night club reverie, this sophomore effort is introspective yet vast while revealing more of Ela as both an artist and person. It's an album about becoming and exploring self-discovery, resilience and the path forward after breaking. Across ten terrific tracks that have been mixed by Marta Salogni and mastered by Heba Kadry, Ela blends pop accessibility with experimental finesse while weaving radiant choruses into imaginative, intricate sonics. A great work that shows evolution while not abandoning her signature sounds.

Review: Released in the first year of the pandemic, Ela Minus' first major breakthrough came in 2020, when Domino put out her debut record, Acts of Rebellion. Evidently the label was happy with the results, which saw the young Colombian electronic star carve out a corner of the global scene for herself. Five years on and we're back with the follow up. Reassuringly, everything and nothing has changed. Improvised jazz meets techno meets schoolyard Brat pop, trance, EDM and synth. Citing Kraftwerk as one of her key influences, you can also hear plenty of Daft Punk in here, and a little Charli XCX to boot. All of which might sound a little opportunistic, if she didn't radiate authenticity and already have a decade-long history of putting out futuristic and fun beats.

Review: A reissue of material that Pete Shelley originally released in 1981, not long after the Buzzcocks' first split. It may be his second solo album, but with his first album - Sky Yen - being an arty experimental record, it's this album that spawned his first ever solo single. Giving a glimpse into the ridiculous censorship at the time, the single, 'Homosapien', was banned by the BBC, who interpreted a line in the track to be a sexually explicit reference to gay sex. Sonically, the album marks a humungous shift from the punk sound that Shelley gatecrashed the mainstream with in the Buzzcocks in the mid-70s. This is a highly electro-pop record and had producer Martin Rushent, who was also working with The Human League on the epoch-defining Dare album at the time, help shape the forward-thinking sound it became.

Review: Given the sharp left-turn that Shelley took with his solo career after leaving The Buzzcocks, it's sort of irrelevant if you're a fan of his seminal punk band or not. This second solo album - now reissued - is an entirely different kettle of fish. Whilst the 80s is famed for a lot of innocuous releases, due to the industry flush with cash, this stellar electro pop album - originally released in 1983 - stands the test of time: it's more experimental and artful than the run-of-the-mill chart-botherers of the time. This is a record that conveys Shelley's ability to write timeless, direct, hard-hitting singles ('Telephone Operator') and veer into more sprawling and adventurous arrangements ('What Was Heaven?') with the fluency of a true auteur. Producer Martin Rushent is due his flowers here, too, as it was his and Shelley's evolved embrace of innovative studio techniques during these sessions that set the bar for The Human League and other classic acts around the scene at the time.

Review: If Inside the Rose, the fourth album from These New Puritans, was a long-winded production process - spanning six years of work - but saw the Essex outfit return with immediate force, the follow up is much more of a slow-burner at the consumption end. It's a stranger, more experimental and, arguably, visionary example of what these guys do best. And it couldn't feel more engrossing. Deep, immersive, almost ceremonial, powerfully uplifting ('Bells' is particularly life-affirming stuff), it saturates you in gorgeous emotional indie-choral-chimes, and sucks you into these gripping narratives that fall somewhere between swooning electronic, drummy alternative rock and a place which is really only These New Puritans.