Indie/Alternative charts

Review: Icelandic classical, experimental and soundtrack composer Olafur Arnalds steps away from the loops and Broadchurch OSTs to conjure yet another sublime LNT saga. Carefully balancing between contemporary odysseys ("Jomsvikingarimur"), dense futuristic electronic weaves ("Last Remnants"), fuzzy 22nd century pop ("A Noise") sludgy cosmic funk ("Jasmine") and introspective soul ("Our Love Comes Back"), Olafur blows wave after woozy wave of soft sonic conjurations in a way that's broad, detailed and cleverly considered. Good night.

Review: For those of a certain age, the sound of The Cranberries is the sound of their youth. They were big when radio was limited to whatever you could get by twisting your FM dial, and they often featured on whatever station you ended up at. Their well writing alternative rock songs have sweeping arrangements, lush orchestration and of course the slightly winy main vocals that were so easy to sing back with grungy riffs perfect for aping in mid air. This bumper collection of their best bits will take you right back to the 90s with 'Dreams', 'Linger' and more still sounding great.

Review: Surprisingly, Arthur Russell's first posthumous collection of music, 1993's Another Thought, has never before been released on vinyl. With this gatefold double-album, Be With Records has finally set the record straight. It's well worth picking up, not least because the set, which was initially put together after raiding the legendary cellist-turned-producer's archive of unreleased recordings, is little less than superb. Full of hard-to-pigeonhole songs in Russell's unique style - effects-laden blends of cello, acoustic guitar, emotive vocals, twangy double bass and so on - Another Thought contains some of Russell's most refined and emotional recordings, including such classics as 'How We Walk on the Moon' and 'In The Light of a Miracle'.

Review: Over three LPs, this impressive compilation covers album tracks, singles and B-sides across 30 years of Nick Cave's nigh-on flawless work with The Bad Seeds. Following the progression of the band through these 45 lushly remastered tracks, we hear Cave mature as writer, composer and singer, from the early post-Birthday Party morbid obsessions, through tender ballads, the grand theatrical 'Dig, Lazarus, Dig' era work, to the intense and widescreen masterpiece of 2014's 'Push The Sky Away'. In its assembly, 'Lovely Creatures' is far more than a mere compilation, it's a broad and exhaustive journey through Cave's mythological folklore universe of murder, sex, drugs, love, light and dark.

Review: This special 25th Anniversary edition of REM's New Adventures in HIFi album comes on limited heavyweight vinyl in a replica of the original gatefold LP. The Grammy wining and Rock And Roll Hall of fame inductees are one of the most revered American bands of their era thanks to their singular mix of brash tunes, poetic lyrics and very singable choruses and never was that more obvious than on this album. First released in 1996 when the band were on a near-constant tour of the world, it experiments with various sonic textures, haunting effects and dissonant notes with singles like 'E-Bow' and 'Electrolite' all featuring.

Review: Unsurprisingly, Aromanticism - meaning to have little or no romantic attraction to others - is exactly the idea Moses Sumney explores on this stunning debut. Having written the majority of this album's lyrics in the solitude of remote north American cabins, Sumney's songs about loneliness and distance feel natural and sincere. Throughout 'Aromanticism' Sumney shows off his affinity with vocal acrobatics, leaping from his rasping lower register to achingly dulcet falsetto. Both in his instrumentation and as a vocalist, Sumney strikes a pitch-perfect balance between acoustic and digital, exhibiting his ability to blend the two. Sumney blends passages of spoken word, neo-soul, broken-beat, and the vocal harmonies and movements, cascading with gospel precision, that shone on his 2016 EP 'Lamentations'. 'Aromanticism' is a powerful and heartfelt opening statement from an artist well worth keeping an eye on in the future.

Review: For people of a certain age, their teenage years were defined by the edgy grunge, alt and punk rock sounds of bands like Alice in Chains. Three decades later their seminal sophomore effort, Dirt sounds as good as it ever did and gets an anniversary reissue to mark the occasion. It comes with plenty of powerful drums and big-ass basslines as well as yelping vocals and fuzzy textures that take in a range of emotions and even bigger riffs. This issue features a special insert and comes across four sides of vinyl so it's nice and loud, just as intended.

Review: "NINE INCH NAILS' GROUNDBREAKING DEBUT ALBUM
REMASTERED AND RE-RELEASED

Fans can now revisit the conception of Nine Inch Nails. Trent Reznor's Null Corporation has teamed with UMe/The Bicycle Music Company to release Pretty Hate Machine: 2010 Remaster on November 22, 2010. After completing the score for David Fincher's The Social Network, Reznor oversaw the digital remastering of Pretty Hate Machine from the newly unearthed original tapes with engineer Tom Baker (whose NIN credits include The Downward Spiral, Broken, The Fragile, With Teeth and Ghosts). This remastered version includes an eleventh track, a cover of Queen's ''Get Down Make Love,'' originally the B-side to the ''Sin'' single and produced by Al Jourgensen. Rob Sheridan, NIN's longtime art director, has also re-imagined the packaging of Pretty Hate Machine under Reznor's supervision.

As a young musician in Cleveland, Ohio, Reznor took a job at a local recording studio and employed unused studio time to develop his own material. The nascent album was later recorded with his favorite producers including Flood/Mark Ellis (U2, Depeche Mode, PJ Harvey), John Fryer (Cocteau Twins, This Mortal Coil), Adrian Sherwood (Ministry, Cabaret Voltaire) and Keith LeBlanc (Tackhead). The result was the first Nine Inch Nails album, 1989's Pretty Hate Machine. All songs were written, arranged, programmed and performed by Reznor. The album featured the breakthrough singles ''Sin,'' ''Down In It'' and ''Head Like A Hole,'' and ultimately sold over 3 million copies, reaching Triple Platinum sales status. In the wake of the album's initial underground success, NIN soon developed a reputation as one of the best live acts in rock and joined the inaugural Lollapalooza tour in 1991. NIN have since sold more than 18 million albums, collected Grammy® Awards and headlined arenas, amphitheaters and festivals worldwide.

The Bicycle Music Company acquired the rights to Pretty Hate Machine from a division of Prudential Securities in the spring of 2010. It was Bicycle's intention from the onset to enable Reznor to regain some control of this lost piece of NIN's legacy, resulting in this artist approved 2010 reissue of one of music's most groundbreaking and influential albums.

Reznor is currently working on new music as a member of the group How To Destroy Angels, continuing his Nine Inch Nails efforts and composing for future film score projects.

TRACK LISTING:
1. Head Like A Hole
2. Terrible Lie
3. Down In It
4. Sanctified
5. Something I Can Never Have
6. Kinda I Want To
7. Sin
8. That's What I Get
9. The Only Time
10. Ringfinger
11. Get Down Make Love"

Review: Warner has worked on a run of Joy Division reissues this month and after their most famous "Love Will Tear Us Apart" comes "Transmission" which is not far behind. A 2020 Digital Remaster reboots the sounds but retains the grit and urgency of the original, which is a surging post-punk anthem filled with angst but also a sense of vulnerability and melancholy that makes it so much more enduring. "Novelty" on the flip has a broken beat line, gauzy guitar riffs and is underpinned by an excellent insistent baseline that never lets up.

Review: Treading an eclectic path through a twenty year career that's taken in everything from Detroit techno to vintage French ye-ye, from breakbeat-driven floor-fillers to krautrock epiphanies, David Holmes has made his name predominantly as an exemplary crate-digger and aesthete, whether soundtracking Steven Soderbergh movies or dishing our albums of his own. Thus, it comes as no surprise that this compilation - marking something of a personal journey for Holmes - is reflective of his status as an exemplary man of taste. Whether dispensing classics by the likes of David Crosby or Buddy Holly, unreleased original solo material or killer obscurities from everyone from modular synthesis cultist Keith Fullerton Whitman to Hollywood legend Jeff Bridges, this stylish nocturnal travelogue puts the listener resolutely in safe hands.

Review: Everything But The Girl have transposed themselves from fragile indie pioneers to cross-fertilising their unique songwriting with drum & bass and house in the 90s, with the likes of 'Walking Wounded' becoming unexpected dancefloor anthems. True experimenters, the duo of Tracey Thorn and Ben Watt now continue to tap into today's zeitgeist - making their comeback in 2023, and arriving without prior announcement, this time they turned their tender production choices to styles such as future house and UK garage. Echoes of Bicep and Overmono teem on this record, as heartfelt retellings of personal strife and brushes with death make up its lyrical subjects.

Review: Future Islands newest album As Long As You Are is a work that readdresses some of their past while also looking to the future and a new sound. This process of redemption comes as drummer Mike Lowry officially joins the band as a songwriter to add to the foundational trio of William Cashion, Samuel T Herring and Gerrit Whelmers. The synth wave sound the band is famous for remains and is as bright and joyous as it has been in their nearly 15 year history. Heavenly choruses also make it last long in the memory and sure to win new fans as well as retain the old.

Review: It's Lindsey Jordan's second album under the Snail Mail guise. And, just like the namesake service, it's not rushed, at times feels a little unpredictable, and has an air of familiarity that's bound to put listeners at ease. Not that the immediately inviting, often-sweet soft rock instrumentation should be taken at face value. Valentine is an ode to love in a multitude of definitions, but the vast majority of them are in dire need of a little TLC. Not broken, just unkept and taken for granted.

Well, OK, in some instances things are beyond repair - at least one song here is concerned with the horrific feeling of finding out your former-love is now with a current love, which isn't you. On the whole, though, there's a theme of redemption running through the music on this record. That, and the realities of coming of age in the lens of the music and lifestyle press after debut LP Hush exploded before you turned 20.

Review: RECOMMENDED
Dean Blunt is nothing short of an enigma. Whether you're reading one of his interviews of few words, listening to the records that seem to both celebrate the avant-garde and obsess over it, or watching him descend into strange, otherworldly cacophonies on stage, usually shrouded in smoke, he's never really been an easy guy to pin down. And that's exactly what he's always been going for.

It's something of a surprise, then, to learn that Black Metal 2, the long-awaited, seven years in the making sequel to his critically acclaimed Black Metal, is actually pretty straight forward. In a Dean Blunt kind of way. Opening on the compressed strings and near-spoken word of 'Vigil', the record takes us into the deep dark depths of strange, hook-fuelled guitar poetry, and we never want to find our way back.

Review: 'Mordechai is another blissed-out record from Texan party-chill-psyche trio Khruangbin. It's also among the outfit's most defined and driven, a smooth, sticky hot funk odyssey made for hazy afternoon soirees. Leader Laura Lee is, as ever, unfathomably siren-like on vocals, her bass grooves aiding the process of seduction no end. Even at the most upbeat and anthemic, 'Time (You and I)', it's hard not to feel woozy and intoxicated by the pared-back breaks and guitar lick combination. Dance floor ammo for sure, as is Pelota. Overall, though, it's an album best savoured slowly, allowing you to fully appreciate every lackadaisical moment of opiate goodness, with tracks such as 'Father Bird, Mother Bird', 'One To Remember' and 'Shida' summoning stunning sticky, heavy, deep atmospheres.

Review: Hot on the heels of their exceptional new third full-length, 'Cave World', Stockholm's post-punk prodigies, Viagra Boys, have unveiled a deluxe edition of last year's fence swinging sophomore triumph, 'Welfare Jazz'. With big name production help from the likes of Matt Sweeney (whose helmed releases from the likes of Iggy Pop and Queens of the Stone Age), as well as Yves Tumor/Charli XCX collaborator Justin Raisen, the band manage the seemingly impossible feat of combining their jagged edged anthems with a lush, serene approach that has bolstered their profile in the scene immensely. The final full-length to feature guitarist Benjamin Valle before his untimely passing, this expanded edition features seven new tracks, brimming with the unhinged sultry dynamics that continues to make their punk moniker more commonplace with each mention.

Review: Melanie Martinez has achieved a lot since breaking through in 2015 with her debut album CRY BABY. 2019's K-12 was a landmark project for the then-24-year-old singer-songwriter, and now she returns with her bold, highly anticipated follow-up, PORTALS. With a savvy handle on teasing her projects through her socials, Martinez has drawn her fans into the world of this new album around themes of rebirth, growing embryos and eggs incubating in forests. Ambitious and rigorous in its 360 presentation, this is another step on for one of the most intriguing artists of her generation - the huge impact of the release is absolutely guaranteed.

Review: A musical polymath like no other, the late Arthur Russell turned his hand to a bewildering variety of different musical styles, from avant-garde torch songs to pounding disco, yet all imbued with his otherworldly songwriting skill and richly emotional voice. This posthumous compilation, however, collects together the more oddly accessible material that he created, in largely acoustic and country styles. The cowboy hat on the sleeve may be strangely appropriate here, but more than this, the blend of plaintive melancholy and freewheeling charm can only leave the listener wondering how Arthur Russell managed to avoid mainstream success in his all-too-brief career. A strange and beguiling transmission from a unique talent.

Review: Who would have thought that'll these years later the cartoon band that is Gorillaz would still be going, still be popular, and still turning out great music? Well, they are. They have kept details of this new album under tight guard for a while but what we do know about Cracker Island is that it features a truly all-star lineup of heavyweight guests such as Thundercat, Stevie Nicks, Tame Impala, Bootie Brown, Adeleye Omotayo, Bad Bunny, and Beck. As always the sound is alternative indie and electronic with a playful sense of character.

Review: American indie rock band the National rach their ninth studio album with First Two Pages of Frankenstein. It makes the start of a new chapter for the hugely popular outfit as they anchor their sounds in evocative melodies and lyrical narratives that are complex and enthralling throughout. The band produced the record at Long Pond Studios in New York with some high-level guests including Taylor Swift, Phoebe Bridgers and Sufjan Stevens. It comes after busy touring years, two back-to-back albums and a period of creative block but suggests that was very much gotten over as it brings plenty of invention and originality.

Review: Post-punk pioneers and drivers of the earthy gothic scene, The Cure is one of the UK's most seminal bands. They have a wealth of ever-green and classic hits which have a bittersweet sense of uplifting melancholy to them and never do they sound better than when live. Between the years of 1979 and 1981 they played no fewer than nine times for the BBC and this is a collection of some of the best of it. There are several highlights from various albums during that time and this marks the first vinyl release for some of these versions after various bootlegged CDs in the past.