Photo Credit: Brian Ziff Nicholas Miller creates under the name Illenium. If you look the word up in the dictionary, you will find no entries as the word, technically speaking, does not exist. It is a creation of Mr. Miller himself. But the sound of the word, Illenium, is quite evocative and suggests to those… Read more
Photo Credit: Dan Cunniff Eight minutes into Boston Manor’s new EP called DESPERATE TIMES DESPERATE PLEASURES and it starts to feel like it’s dragging on. Like if it would have been going on for maybe twenty minutes. When this phenomenon occurs in music it usually comes down to the same issue: the songs are too similar to… Read more
Photo Credit: Grant Spanier If you have ever heard of this Ohio-based indie pop band before, it is likely thanks to their 2014 smash hit single “Shut Up and Dance” from their Talking Is Hard album. Their following release What If Nothing lacked a new irresistible hit single to boost their sales and went largely unnoticed by both critics… Read more
Photo Credit: Nwaka Okparaeke When soul dominated the airwaves like in the days of Marvin Gaye and Smokey Robinson, and when hip-hop intersected the genre is where we find Little Simz: A British-Nigerian born rapper with an ear for old soul, and the tongue of an experienced MC. She takes hip-hop to the heights of… Read more
Photo Credit: Harper Smith After Silk Sonic (the super-duo of Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak) released their debut album earlier this month, a Tweet went viral saying “Marvin Gaye’s family [are] listening to this silk sonic album looking for just one chord [to sue the duo for] ”. The tweet spoke, yes, to the infamous… Read more
Photo Credit: Tom Ham Ever since Bristol’s IDLES rushed to widespread acclaim with their second album Joy as an Act of Resistance back in 2018, they have arguably remained the most important band within the so-called post-punk revival. Like so many other groups, they are returning from the pandemic as a more reflective and wiser band, which… Read more
Photo Credit: Shawn Brackbill Philadelphia’s The War on Drugs return with I Don’t Live Here Anymore, their first new studio album in four years. With their last offering, they already set the bar pretty high for themselves simply by titling it A Deeper Understanding. The album became their first Top 10 release in the US, meaning that… Read more
Photo Credit: F Scott Schafer There have been rock songs inspired by horror movies going at least back to “Monster Mash”, Bobby “Boris” Pickett’s 1962 classic, while horror imagery and themes have always played a major role in heavy metal, going back to Black Sabbath’s early days (and obviously through artists like Alice Cooper). However,… Read more
Photo Credit: Simon Emmett For her comeback single – which was preceded by a half-a-decade absence – Adele Adkins chose “Easy On Me”; by all accounts, a fairly conventional ballad. It’s buoyed by little more than an understated piano arrangement and Adele’s commanding voice; whose powerhouse capabilities are unleashed in the chorus, as she cries… Read more
Photo Credit: Beth Garrabrant Given half the chance, most of us would probably like to completely erase the memory of 2020; a year of illness, upheaval, and isolation. For Taylor Swift, however, the year could hardly have gone better (at least from an artistic perspective). Her indie-folk lockdown albums Folklore and Evermore earned her the critical acclaim that had… Read more