Back catalogue: Rock (All)

Review: Beach House gets in on this year's Record Store Day hype with The Become EP, which is a collection of five songs from the Once Twice Melody sessions. Say the band, "We didn't think they fit in the world of OTM, but later realized they all fit in a little world of their own.' As such they are presented here with their own scuzzy and spacious sound and special capturing of live playing spirit. The tunes are outliers for where the band is generally headed right now but still offer plenty of fans old and new to enjoy.

Review: .

Review: · Hot on the heels of acclaim from Pitchfork,
Stereogum and various other dot-com entities,
Toronto two-piece Memoryhouse make their Sub
Pop debut with ‘The Years’, a mini album
containing their 2010 digital-only, self-released EP
fully re-recorded, remixed and remastered, plus
the new tracks ‘Modern, Normal’ and ‘Quiet
America’. The five tracks form a cohesive set of
gorgeous, ethereal synth-pop songs, all of which
are seeing their first release on CD or LP.
· ‘The Years’ was re-recorded and mixed by Evan
Abeele with the help of Daniel Gray in Toronto.
· Memoryhouse will also be releasing a new fulllength
in 2012.
Tracklisting
Sleep Patterns
Lately
Modern, Normal
To The Lighthouse
Quiet America

Review: There's no rock frontman quite like Greg Dulli, and even in middle age his melancholy and morally ambiguous loverman persona appears to be maturing like the proverbial fine wine. Moreover, the blend of soulful heart-on-sleeve balldeering and gritty rock-outs finds new vistas and moments of intensity on 'In Spades' - lurking somewhere between the testosterone bluster of Springsteen and the slinky grooves of Motown, yet with the addition of noisy electronic grooves, as on the opener 'Birdland,' only bolstering their arsenal. It's a treat to have this louche rogue back.

Review: Band of Horses' debut "Everything All The Time" was one of ten finalists for the Shortlist Music Prize (equivalent to the UK's Mercury prize) and received rave reviews in NME, Uncut, and a slew of other music mags. Their new LP, "Cease To Begin", is a strikingly beautiful record. It has honesty, sincerity and passion and proves to be truly inspiring.

Review: Hip-hop's been a juxtaposition for quite some time. On the one hand, you have some of the most innovative work imaginable coming out of the farthest reaches. The other side is dominated by chancers and fakers. It's safe to say Clipping exist in the former. And we really do mean former. "There Existed An Addiction To Blood" is not just an album that is trying to extend the boundaries of a crew's sound, but the boundaries of the very genre itself. Horrorcore it may be, an establish sub-canon within the gamut, but this takes us to new, visceral extremes. Daveed Diggs' lyricism shines, cuts and satisfies, in particular on opener "Nothing Is Safe", which draws on influences such as John Carpenter's iconic theme to his equally iconic slasher flick, "Halloween". Bloodlust indeed, a theme that continues throughout a collection of work sitting just the right side of thrillingly scary, and just the right side of not.

Review: Prepare to be confounded and confused, but more importantly hugely entertained. If this is your first encounter with The Homesick let's put it like this - the Dutch guitar-driven eccentrics baffled plenty with their debut long form, 2017's "Youth Hunt", and are back on similarly leftfield form here.

In many ways "The Big Exercise" is a more logical record, and it's just as musically accomplished. Calling on elements of post punk and epic wall-of-sound fare, while still managing to include folksy nuances (or even full tracks, such as opener "What's In Store"), it's the fact the band set these instrumentations to such bizarre themes that makes the whole thing so unexpected. But on this second album subject matters are more coherent and contextualised, from struggling with sleep paralysis to that eternal sense of longing. It's an enormously inventive work by an outfit that don't seem to care about boundaries or genre rules.

Review: Light Verse is the seventh studio album by the American singer and songwriter Iron & Wine. The album was announced on February seventh 2024, simultaneously with the release of the lead single 'You Never Know' which showcases Sam Ervin Beam's great songwriting and arrangement skill, with his blend of folk and pop music has been compared to greats like Simon & Garfunkel, Nick Drake and Neil Young. Sam has been loyal to the Sub Pop label since first being signed there over 20 years ago. This (Loser Edition) comes on transparent yellow vinyl and will hit stores in late April.

Review: Kyle Thomas is the name of the singer-songwriter who records and performs as King Tuff. During the pandemic lockdowns he had something of a realisation about who he was and what he wanted to be and then "set out to write a love letter to those cherished moments of inspiration and to the small town that formed him," namely Brattleboro, Vermont. This is that love letter and it is an album of musical magic with uplifting and spiritual joy found in every hook and verse. There are gorgeous orchestral tones, tender moments of violin and cello and plenty of thoughtful sax lines on a gem of a record.

Review: Minnesota couple Low have been around the block, lets say roughly 25 times, and it's been the Seattle-based Sub Pop label that's really become home to their music after several drops for the ambient-laced Kranky. I mean, hey, some have even called their music 'dinner party epochal'. Static and noise and other more experimental techniques in production provide a livid colour to this album, take in "Dancing in Blood" for example, with its industrial and subdued goth influences, or the pumping white noise and distortion of album opener "Quorum". Further down the tracklist is "Fly", a naturally melancholic number but far from depressive, with this track in particular hitting a sweet spot in the same way Massive Attack's "Teardrop" does. Very cool LP.

Review: Summer is drawing to a close, so what better time to avail ourselves of the eleventh record by these masters of melancholia. Low's back catalogue has proven them to be a band possessed of a consistency to match their emotional heft, and Ones & Sixes is no exception quality-wise - the band dispenses indelible and satisfyingly chilly ditties which balance out exquisite harmonies, fetching songcraft and understated charm, whilst also offering curveballs redolent of a band whose less-is-more aesthetic doesn't preclude an experimental slant - the electronic textures around the album's edge and the surprisingly poppy 'What Part Of Me' being cases in point.

Review: What Do We Do Now is the fifth solo studio LP recorded by J Mascis since 1996. This is obviously not a very aggressive release schedule, but when you figure in the live albums, guest spots and records done with his various other bands (primarily Dinosaur Jr. but also The Fog, Heavy Blanket, Witch, Sweet Apple, and so on), then, to paraphrase Lou Reed, "J's week beats your year." What Do We Do Now began to come together during the waning days of the Pandemic. Utilizing his own Bisquiteen Studio, J started working on writing a series of tunes on acoustic with a different dynamic than the stuff he creates for Dino. The finest set of solo tunes J has yet penned, this is a playful and soft compendium of indie songs revelling in disbelief, uncertainty and community.

Review: Canadian noise-rock trio Metz deliver their fifth full-length LP for their home label Sub Pop. Expressing an exponential graph of maturity, that has grown over their decade or so of recording and releasing, Metz' sound on Up On Gravity Hill veers more towards an almost black-metallic atmosphere, to counterpoise their originally stark, rageful sound. Conceptually, the album's change in sound matches its thematic content, with the band having found more peace in contrast, and the life-promising realisation that one can only experience its most joyful moments on the sole condition that one has also suffered its worst vagaries - there is no paradise without the fall. On the likes of '99' and 'Entwined', we're met with a driving, repetitious howl set against a sludgy axe-y backdrop, as vocalist Alex Edkins performatively laments and celebrates the ways of the world at the same time.

Review: Mudhoney's 'Plastic Eternity' hears a dejectedly fitting 'Loser Edition' fly into our faces, once more hammering home the band's fervent commitment to battling climate change through grunge. The irony of this statement is immense - the band say it themselves; 'the world is filling up with (grunge), humanity remains addicted to pollution despite the planet getting hotter by the minute'. But that's the entire point. This band has been around for over 30 years and their distinctive West Coast grunge sound might be new to some, but we're sure newcomers will be sold on it - it's got raucous clangers, anti-fash love songs, and even dog-friendly protest tunes all in the mix.

Review: Seven long years on from the Lydia Lunch/Arthur Rizk produced, genre-mangling opus that was 2017's Why Love Now, Pennsylvania hardcore noise-rock auteurs Pissed Jeans make their filthy return on the fuzzy, feral and vehemently pissed off Half Divorced. Aged, seasoned, and peppered with hate, this 30 minute concoction of bruising riffs, anthemic hooks and positive nihilism hits like an old friend who still greets with a gut-punch, while frontman Matt Korvette succinctly presents the project's mission statement as "Half Divorced has an aggression within it, in terms of saying, 'I don't want this reality'. There's a power in being able to say, 'I realize you want me to pay attention to these things, but I'm telling you that they don't matter.' I'm already looking elsewhere." Well, in that case, the elusive elsewhere appears to be wherever we find our means of peace in an ever-unpeaceful world, and this grinding soundtrack to scoffing at the end times couldn't land a minute sooner.

Review: The Postal Service is made up of Ben Gibbard, who is of course the singer and guitarist from Death Cab for Cutie and Jimmy Tamborello, who also records as Dntel. They work over long distances and in 2003 dropped their classic album Give Up, which was then reissued and remastered for a 10th-anniversary edition and now comes on special blue and silver vinyl as a 20th-anniversary looms. The album is sweet and charming and mostly electronic with real warmth and some additional vocals from Jen Wood and Rilo Kiley's Jenny Lewis.

Review: The Postal Service are one of those anomalies of indie-pop which left an impression far bigger than their actual output. Formed as a sort of side-project for Death Cab For Cutie's Ben Gibbard, Rilo Kiley's Jenny Lewis and Dntel, their sole album Give Up was a widely hailed masterpiece of modernist synth-pop. The slow release success of the 2002 album moved the band to embark on a tour 10 years later, which was then captured on this live album as a gift to the fans who never made the shows. As treasured by their fans as the studio recordings, Everything Will Change now receives a ceremonious double-vinyl repress on pink and blue vinyl cutely titled the 'Loser Edition'.

Review: 'The Essential Radio Birdman' compiles the most integral, anthemic and hard hitting of the Sydney proto-punk n' roll heroes' definitive first three albums (long out of print and costly to accumulate), and delivers them on newly pressed wax.

Underrated and ahead of their time, the writing partnership of Michigan born guitarist Deniz Tek and vocalist Rob Younger, led to a spree of surf rock leaning cynical, witty barrages that not only still stand the test of time, but deserve a major reappraisal with regards to the extent of their influence.

Review: It's only been three years since TV Priest formed in London, a city well-known the world over for nurturing incredibly forward thinking, groundbreaking acts. In many ways, TV Priest fit that model perfectly. Having played just one gig, they managed to get signed to the cult and rightly revered label, Sub Pop, and delivered their startling debut album, Uppers, in the height of Britain's Covid-19 nightmare, landing in February 2021.

Here we are, just over one year later and in a different world, albeit one that's arguably just as uncertain. Not least in music, with skyrocketing overheads, sluggish ticket sales, and competition in the form of other events including three years of delayed weddings and family reunions all conspiring to put the only real remaining income source for artists at risk. My Other People is a raucous and unapologetic album for our times, then, throwing guitar cacophonies, surreal theatrical moments, gritty chug, and hyper-emotional overtures into a rock 'n' roll powerhouse that feels at once dejected but determined.

Review: Natalie Mering's Weyes Blood project is 12 years deep now, and she follows up on 2019's Titanic Rising with this, her fourth studio album. Her sound evolves in kind over this time from the DIY roots of her appearances on Not Not Fun et al, and now she strikes the figure of an eternal songstress joining the dots from classic 70s composition and production through to the aching, head-fogged reflection of the modern condition. Lead single 'It's Not Just Me, It's Everybody' nails the mood of malaise, but the beauty of her songwriting leads and saves us from slipping into despair. Why not commit to the concept and cop this, the limited Loser Edition of And In The Darkness, Hearts Aglow.