Author: Jim Pusey Page 3
Sleater-Kinney - No Cities To Love Album review
2015 is starting with a bang. January sees the release of the first new Sleater-Kinney material in a decade. Album number eight, 'No Cities To Love', brings a certain level of anxiety and anticipation. Can...
Review posted on 19th January 2015
Franz Nicolay - To Us, The Beautiful Album Review
Franz Nicolay may well be one of the most under-appreciated multi-instrumentalists out there. He made an indelible mark with his contribution to The Hold Steady, and has continued to produce interesting music since leaving the...
Review posted on 16th January 2015
Dan Mangan And Blacksmith - Club Meds Album Review
Dan Mangan's fourth album seems to mark a new chapter in his career. It's the first time he's formalised his backing band under the moniker Blacksmith, and by doing so he's broadened his sound to...
Review posted on 9th January 2015
Frank Turner - The Third Three Years Album Review
Frank Turner values his loyal fan base. For that he must be applauded. 'The Third Three Years', as the title suggests, is the third such release mopping up demos, covers and unreleased material. By its...
Review posted on 25th November 2014
TV On The Radio - Seeds Album Review
Album number five from Brooklyn's TV on the Radio finds the band in a surprisingly upbeat mood. On the surface, it's a more consistent and polished set of songs than I was expecting. While it...
Review posted on 24th November 2014
Restorations - LP3 Album Review
There seems to be something brewing in Philadelphia. Restorations' third full-length album, handily titled 'LP3', stands alongside The War On Drugs' 'Lost In The Dream' as a highlight of 2014. That both records are respectively...
Review posted on 18th November 2014
The Jam - Setting Sons (Super Deluxe Edition) Album Review
35 years to the day after The Jam's fourth studio album was released, Universal is re-issuing 'Setting Sons' with a host of extras. Despite its commercial success, it's never been The Jam album I've gravitated...
Review posted on 10th November 2014
The Staves - Blood I Bled EP Review
After two years on the road, the Staveley-Taylor sisters return in October with their first studio offering since their well received debut, 'Dead & Born & Grown'. The 'Blood I Bled' EP is a tantalising...
Review posted on 27th October 2014
The Flaming Lips - With A Little Help From My Fwends Album Review
The Flaming Lips latest project makes sense in a slightly perverse way. Following the acid tinged trip of their last full-length album, 2013's The Terror, Wayne Coyne and his merry band have now chosen to...
Review posted on 15th October 2014
Manchester Orchestra - Hope Album Review
Album number five from Atlanta's Manchester Orchestra finds Andy Hull re-treading familiar territory. But rather than feeling like deja vu, this acoustic track-by-track interpretation of their previous release 'Cope' is, in my mind, a more...
Review posted on 6th October 2014
Julian Casablancas + The Voidz - Tyranny Album Review
Julian Casablancas is an angry man, or so it would appear, thanks to his latest project away from The Strokes. His second solo outing, and his first with newly formed band The Voidz, is an...
Review posted on 25th September 2014
Counting Crows - Somewhere Under Wonderland Album Review
Counting Crows' seventh studio album 'Somewhere Under Wonderland' is a welcome return for Adam Duritz's band. While it's certainly not a record that's taken six years to write ('Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings', the Crows'...
Review posted on 18th September 2014
J Mascis - Tied To A Star Album Review
If there's one word that I didn't ever think I'd use to describe a J Mascis album, it's beautiful. But, in essence, that's what his new solo outing, 'Tied To A Star', is. That may...
Review posted on 12th September 2014
Martin Aston - Turning The Other Way: The Story Of 4AD Book Review
Martin Aston's 'Turning The Other Way: The Story Of 4AD' makes its paperback debut this month, and if you missed it the first-time around, this weighty tome is well worth your time if you have...
Review posted on 1st September 2014
Various Artists - Bob Dylan In The Eighties: Volume One Album Review
Producers Jesse Lauter and Sean O'Brien's pet project for ATO Records, 'Bob Dylan In The Eighties: Volume One', is a curious proposition. A cut above the usual covers compilation, it's an ambitious attempt to reclaim...
Review posted on 13th August 2014
Isle of Wight Festival 2014 Review
If there's something to take away from this year's Isle of Wight Festival, it's probably sunburn. Unlike the mud bath of two years ago, 2014 will be remembered for serving up one of the hottest...
Review posted on 17th June 2014
Isle of Wight Festival 2014 Preview
With just hours until thousands of people flock to Portsmouth and Southampton for their annual ferry trip to the Isle of Wight Festival, it's time to look ahead to the first big event in the...
Review posted on 11th June 2014
Jack Savoretti - Sweet Hurt EP Review
Jack Savoretti's new EP 'Sweet Hurt' is significant for a number of reasons. It's his first extended release between albums (I suspect that you can expect his fourth full-length effort shortly), it's helped to promote...
Review posted on 13th May 2014
Pixies - Indie Cindy Album Review
"No Kim, no Deal" was my initial assessment of the new Pixies material that started to emerge in 2013. Indeed, Kim Deal was such an integral part of the outfit that had been on a...
Review posted on 30th April 2014
Noah Gundersen - Ledges Album Review
To say that Noah Gundersen's debut full-length album was eagerly awaited in this household would be an understatement. It's been three years since his last EP 'Family' which brought him to the attention of a...
Review posted on 11th March 2014
Paul Thomas Saunders - Beautiful Desolation Album Review
The last thing that I thought Paul Thomas Saunders' debut album 'Beautiful Desolation' would bring to mind is a movie soundtrack; namely reminiscent of the synth-soaked score to Nicolas Winding Refn's 'Drive'. After all, Saunders...
Review posted on 11th March 2014
Bruce Springsteen - High Hopes Album Review
It seems fitting that Bruce Springsteen has chosen to bookend his worldwide Wrecking Ball tour with another studio album. His eighteenth record 'High Hopes' picks up on many of the same themes of triumph over...
Review posted on 9th January 2014
Alan McGee - Creation Stories; Riots, Raves, and Running a Label Book Review
Alan McGee is a divisive and notoriously outspoken character. Indeed Alan McGee the writer tells us as much in his new memoir Creation Stories McGee admits that the public persona the music press helped to...
Review posted on 5th December 2013
John Mayer - Wembley Arena, 26th October 2013 Live Review
There are very few artists who can fill an arena but make every audience member feel like they're at a small intimate venue; John Mayer is one of them. Playing his last European show in...
Review posted on 28th October 2013
Placebo - Loud Like Love Album Review
Placebo's seventh studio album, and their first full-length effort to be released by Universal, is a significantly less daunting proposition than much of their back catalogue. On first inspection, 'Loud Like Love' boasts a more...
Review posted on 7th October 2013
Portugal The Man - Evil Friends Album Review
Portugal, The Man's seventh album 'Evil Friends' seems to be the moment where the band has struck a perfect balance between their pop and psychedelic tendencies. Much has changed since their major label debut in...
Review posted on 23rd September 2013
Nirvana - In Utero: 20th Anniversary Edition Album Review
In a recent NPR interview, Dave Grohl described the different methods used to record 'Nevermind' and 'In Utero'. Butch Vig had laboured over multiple takes for the former to produce an album that would define...
Review posted on 23rd September 2013
John Mayer - Paradise Valley Album Review
John Mayer's second studio album in fifteen months, as the title Paradise Valley suggests, is a more contented affair than much of his previous work. Picking up the baton from 2012's Born and Raised,...
Review posted on 16th September 2013
Emily Barker & The Red Clay Halo - Dear River Album Review
Fresh from her stint on the Revival Tour last autumn, Emily Barker returns with her fourth Red Clay Halo accompanied album. Indeed, it's her sixth record in the last decade, and that can only be...
Review posted on 5th August 2013
Editors - The Weight Of Your Love Album Review
Editors' fourth record has taken quite some time to emerge amid a period of change for the band. Yet it finds them revisiting largely familiar territory, albeit in a triumphant and skilful way. Originally slated...
Review posted on 2nd July 2013
Suggested
Leisure Festival - Dreamland in Margate
On the same day that Glastonbury welcomed back Margate's adopted sons, The Libertines, Margate itself put on it's very own Leisure Festival as it...
Pretty Fierce talk to us about collaborating with Doja Cat, emetophobia, arena tours and staying "true to yourself" [EXCLUSIVE]
Sheffield's very own all girl group Pretty Fierce are still on a high after the recent release of their debut single - 'Ready For Me'.
Will Varley & Jack Valero - The Astor Theatre Deal Live Review
Three nights before the end of his current tour Will Varley returned to his home town of Deal to delight a sold out crowd in The Astor Theatre.
WYSE talks to us about her "form of synaesthesia", collaborating with Radiohead's Thom York and the prospect of touring with a band [EXCLUSIVE]
With only a few days to go before Portsmouth based songstress and producer WYSE releases her new single, 'Belladonna', we caught up with her to find...
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Bay Bryan talks to us about being a "wee queer ginger", singing with Laura Marling and being inspired by Matilda [EXCLUSIVE]
Colorado raised, Glasgow educated and Manchester based Bay Bryan is nothing if not a multi-talented, multi-faceted artist performing as both...
Keelan X talks to us about staying true to "your creative vision", collaborating with Giorgio Moroder and being "a yoga nut" [EXCLUSIVE]
Former Marigolds band member Keelan Cunningham has rediscovered his love of music with his new solo project Keelan X.
![Luke De-Sciscio talks to us about having the courage to be yourself, forgiving that which is outside of one's control and following whims [EXCLUSIVE]](https://images.contactmusic.com/images/home/homepage/luke-de-sciscio-abof-a.jpg "Luke De-Sciscio talks to us about having the courage to be yourself, forgiving that which is outside of one's control and following whims [EXCLUSIVE]")
Luke De-Sciscio talks to us about having the courage to be yourself, forgiving that which is outside of one's control and following whims [EXCLUSIVE]
Wiltshire singer-songwriter Luke De Sciscio, formally known as Folk Boy, is set to release is latest album - 'The Banquet' via AntiFragile Music on...
Annie Elise talks to us about the challenges a female producer has to face and "going through a year of grief and sickness" [EXCLUSIVE]
Electronic music pioneer and producer Annie Elise says that the release of her first EP - 'Breathe In, Breathe Out' feels "both vulnerable and...
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