All Entries in the "Album Reviews" Category
Arctic Monkeys – Suck it and See
Arctic Monkeys were defiant, teenaged oiks when they blasted out of Sheffield and obscurity six years ago. “You’re not from New York City, you’re from Rotherham,” acne-splattered front man Alex Turner jeered at the poseurs by whom he felt himself surrounded.
Album Review: Jonny – Jonny
That indulgent track can be forgiven, though, because all those that surround it are so full of fun and tenderness that one might be mistaken into believing that the sun shines out of Jonny’s arse
Album Review: PJ Harvey – Let England Shake
There are examples elsewhere of Polly Jean shoving her perviness into listeners’ ears, but none pop up on Let England Shake
The Decemberists – The King is Dead
There’s no fey, ‘hey nonny nonny’ tut on this, their sixth album; there’s a muscularity, a blue collar element in the spirit of Springsteen
Best Albums of 2010
Don’t know what to do with the iTunes vouchers you got for Chrimbal? Why not buy the best albums of 2010.
Album Review: Kings of Leon – Come Around Sundown
When the Kings of Leon tore outta Franklin, Tennessee, seven years ago they were hairier than Brian Blessed’s arse-crack.
Album Review: Klaxons – Surfing the Void
The opener, Echoes, is typical of the band’s quiet-then-loud approach that includes lots of melody and double-tracked vocals, while The Same Space is a thunderous archetype of the album’s thrashing energy.
Album Review: Skream – Outside the Box
To regular punters, he’s the geezer who last year brilliantly remixed La Roux’s In for the Kill into a five-minute slow-burner with a tooth-loosening bass line and a final explosion like a giant party popper filled with needles of ice made from the sweat of a million insane ravers.
Album review: Scissor Sisters – Night Work
Thankfully, the Scissor Sisters got back into the studio to create something they insist is “super-sexual and sleazy”.
B.o.B – B.oB Presents: The Adventures of Bobby Ray
It’s a remarkably assured, feel-good performance in the main, with hooks aplenty.
Weller Weller Weller Ooof
The Modfather and his muso cronies charge in, chuck around feedback, organ riffs, reverse-looped guitars, wobbly strings and epileptic drumming, and then they leg it.
Album Review: Plan B – The Defamation of Strickland Banks
We’re not yet half way through the year, but it’s probably safe to say this is the best blue-eyed northern soul concept album of 2010.
Album Review: Big Star – #1 Record
Big Star were effing ace, and in the 1970s they released three effing ace albums. Of them, #1 Record is arguably the most bar-friendly.
Yeasayer – Odd Blood
The highlight is O.N.E. It sounds like the ‘80s if the decade had been a more carefree time for music and people. It’s a tune that’s likely to get customers who are a little worse for wear claiming they haven’t heard this for years.
Ellie Goulding – Lights
Last year’s magnificent Jakob Remix of Starry Eyed and the deserved success of the single’s unfettered version raised expectations of Goulding’s debut album to nigh-on vertigo-inducing levels in some quarters. The critics’ choice gong at last month’s Brits only added to the ballyhoo
