Photo Credit: Zackery Michael On their seventh studio album The Car, the Arctic Monkeys continue the musical road trip that they set out on with their previous release, Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino (2018). The Sheffield, England quartet which became known (and renowned) for their brand of fast, kinetic, mile-a-minute Britpop delivered with a punk… Read more
Sure, one could argue that being a household name within the music industry in any way should disqualify you from complaining. Still, there are plenty of groups out there that deserve way more appreciation than they get. Here is a list of ten groups – new and old – that we think should be talked… Read more
To have something important to say and to know how to say it – that’s the art of succeeding with your debut album. Some debut albums have such an important message that they change the world forever. Some of them are just incredibly well executed, burning with the energy of a new artist who finally… Read more
Photo Credit: Tom Oxley I rarely had so little to say about an album as Oxford band Foals’ seventh album Life Is Yours, so let’s hear what the band has to say about it. “We wanted to write music that would be a forcefield against the darkness, rather than try to proselytize people,” singer Yannis… Read more
Photo Credit: Chuck Berry via Universal Attractions (artist management) “Hail, hail rock and roll // Deliver me from the days of old.” – Charles Edward Anderson Berry Rock and roll always had a problem orienting itself from the beginning. It is the musical product of a dozen styles of American music blended through time and… Read more
Photo Credit: Michael Marcelle The husband-and-wife fronted Canadian indie rock band Arcade Fire recently celebrated 20 years as a band. Already with their debut album – 2004’s Funeral – they managed to make an impression on pop culture, and their legacy grew even bigger as they continued to release an impressive three-streak album run with 2007’s Neon Bible and… Read more
Photo Credit: Autumn de Wilde “I am no mother, I am no bride, I am king,” chants Florence Welch on Dance Fever opener “King”; a mission statement for an album that sees the 35-year-old English musician unshackle herself from societal expectations and the malaise of lockdown living. “Florence and The Machine do dance music” is a sentence that,… Read more
Photo Credit: Oliver Halfin Few bands have mastered the art of still being exciting after 30 years together as a band without beginning to tread water. While there might be flashier, more original, and more forward-thinking groups, Spoon has remained a reliable source of swaggering, Southern-influenced blues-rock. 2007’s Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, featuring the hit… Read more
Mark Josephson, Executive Director of the New Music Seminar said back in 1988 that “alternative music has real strength, real quality, real excitement, and it has to be socially significant, as opposed to Whitney Houston, which is pablum.” That’s a great explanation of what started during the late-‘70s to early-‘80s as college radio features like Dead Kennedys… Read more
Photo Credit: Rosie Foster No other group today makes music quite like Black Country, New Road. Their aptly titled 2021 debut For the First Time is one of the most ambitious debuts ever released; a freewheeling, ferocious record that incorporated klezmer music and jazz fusion alongside post-punk and art-rock. Isaac Wood’s frenzied deliveries and weird poetry soon… Read more