Album Reviews

“Good evening, Wrigley Field,” Eddie Vedder welcomes as the opening guitar to 1998’s “Low Light” begins behind him. The live album was recorded over two nights in August 2016 in Vedder’s hometown of Chicago before the Chicago Cubs and Cleveland Indians World Series and accompanies a documentary directed by Danny Clinch who previously worked with the band…

Ever since they released their break out single “Bros”, Wolf Alice has been a band who’ve been able to create tracks that are earnest, heartfelt and easily relatable, whilst simultaneously being as aggressive and downright brilliant as you could expect from a band in their genre. Where their debut album, 2015’s fantastic My Love Is…

It can’t be easy when you’ve been around as long as the Foo Fighters, both collectively and as the myriad of musical permutations of the individuals within the band, to come up with an album that sounds fresh and exciting but Concrete and Gold, the latest offering by the Foos, is just that. From the moment…

Far from the days of Lauryn Hill, women are more represented in rap than ever. In some ways that’s a good thing, but unfortunately there’s a lot of undeserved stigma surrounding a large portion of the female artists of the genre. If there was going to be an artist who can break past the stigma…

Tyler the Creator’s near decade long rap career has been sprinkled with controversy, if the term “sprinkled” really meant “completely survived by”. Tyler’s aggressive, controversial style and lyricism garnered a cult following for the Odd Future member. Tyler’s tracks involved rape, misogyny, abuse, homophobia and many other controversial topics, all of which incited riots and…

The Belligerents’ debut album Science Fiction has landed. And you will want to get on board. The long-awaited full-length release from this Brisbane band, who have had the industry buzzing for some time, is out now through Sony. The record is full of all the grand splendour you’d hope for: driving guitars, spaced out keys,…

It’s been seven years since Ted Leo released The Brutalist Bricks, his last solo album. For someone who released five albums in the first decade of this century, that’s a notable drop-off. It’s not like he hasn’t been busy, he released an album as The Both in 2014 with Aimee Mann and seems to spend more…

The War on Drugs‘ Adam Granduciel has a lot to live up to with latest album, A Deeper Understanding. 2014’s Lost in the Dream received high, widespread acclaim – our review even called it a masterpiece – which means this album is given the unlucky task of upholding or exceeding the hype. A Deeper Understanding…

The Preatures‘ second album Girlhood, follow up to their 2014 debut Blue Planet Eyes, explores matters that affect us as girls in a fun, pop-driven way. Opening track “Girlhood” blasts in without an intro, and makes me want to jump around my bedroom while singing into a hairbrush. If they were intending to make female…

In the months following the release of Yeo‘s Ganbaru record last year, I felt the Melbourne producer remained criminally slept on; what we had been given was a nigh on flawless collection of songs that put his talent as alt-pop producer and purveyor well on display, as well as giving us an insight into one of the…

When I was younger, after Saturday sport, if I’d played well and scored a goal, my Dad would give me dollar to buy something from the canteen. Without failure, I’d buy a bag of mixed lollies. Mainly because it was great value, but also because you never knew what you were going to get until…

Straight off the bat, Go Farther In Lightness is a victory album. It’s a victory of love and loss; a triumph for hope and life. It’s an album with many peaks and just as many moments that make you ponder and appreciate your existence. It’s a compass for those lacking direction. It’s the ‘I may…

The self-titled debut album from British pop DJ Alex Crossan AKA Mura Masa, while producing some quality bangers and funky house tracks, fails to come across as a much of a Mura Masa project. The quality of the tracks, the production and the diversity of sounds on the album all contribute to the positive sides of…

Change, for the lack of a better word, is good. And while they may have moved even further away from the soul and horns that made me fall in love with them in the first place, Saskwatch continually prove they know how to make devastatingly beautiful indie-pop. This is no different here on their fourth…

How can a song be anthemic if no one’s ever heard it before? The Creases answer that question in their stunning debut album Tremolow. While there’s been a lot of hype around this beloved Brisbane band since they formed four years ago, they waited until now to release their LP. One of the reasons was…

Perth based sextet Make Them Suffer are back with their glorious third studio album, Worlds Apart. I will be honest, heavy deathcore is not my norm. But, as an angsty teen growing up in a depleting economy where a Thrasher T-shirt is more than my rent, I still find myself turning towards the choleric, emotion dripping genre…

The brief, yet captivating career retrospective of the life and career of Shawn Carter has a complete sense of poise, elegance and humbled acceptance. 36 minutes is all veteran emcee Jay Z needs on 4:44 to play host to a series of introspective thoughts on his life. The negative press surrounding Jay after Beyoncé’s Lemonade…

Following on from 2014’s Supermodel and their earlier 2017 release III EP, Foster The People have returned with Sacred Hearts Club. Hip-hop, alternative, funk, and indie-pop influences are all evident and well balanced on this release, demonstrating a clear evolution from the group who first burst into the international music scene with their controversial, but…

It’s been a while since we’ve heard an album from Melbourne three piece Husky. In saying that, however, the three year wait has been completely worth it. They’ve strayed from their comfort zone in their latest LP, Punchbuzz, putting the folk vibes on the back burner to experiment with some unfamiliar tempos and rhythms. This…

In 2013, Reflektor cemented Arcade Fire as a band to watch. Headlining festivals around the world, their groovy-techno-logic sound, crossed with spacey love stories and anarchic idealism, heightened their already bubbling commercial success. Four years later, with studio album number five rearing its head (titled Everything Now, due July 28th), two questions arise: has the popularity…

21 Savage’s presence in the rap battle royal after debut extended play Savage Mode became a dreary, dark figure shrouded in mysterious production and grimy lyricism. Through the swanky production of Metro Boomin and Southside, Savage Mode became a renowned debut for the Atlanta born rapper. Although many claimed that Savage’s album was rather stoic…

More than four years in the making, Haim have returned from the world of playing festivals and obsessive touring to create Something To Tell You. On Something To Tell You they haven’t recreated the wheel, but have more than ably changed the manual on how use said wheel, or in this case, album. Haim have spoken…

Alison Moyet has always been front of mind for me when it comes to female vocalists. Her voice has woven itself steadily through my life ever since I heard “Where Hides Sleep” years ago. Now, with the release of her ninth solo album, Other, I sit in awe still of her extraordinary voice and remarkable…

Have you ever moved in with fifteen of your friends to start a rap group and inadvertently created one of the best and most unique rap albums of all time? Have you ever written and produced said album in a matter of weeks? Have you ever taken the rap world by storm, gathering comparisons to…

Those who say folk is a dying or dead genre are those who are uninitiated with Fleet Foxes. Critically acclaimed indie-folk band Fleet Foxes return after losing band member Josh Tillman, who currently performs under the guise of Father John Misty. Helplessness Blues is still highly regarded as one of the best albums of 2011,…

LA Clippers fan Vince Staples set the rap game alight with his debut album Summertime ’06. The captivating conscious hip-hop album left fans satisfied, yet hungry for a new project. Enter Prima Donna; the more experimental album which was rather divisive for Vince Staples fans. However, the experimentalist in Vince wouldn’t stop there, as fans…

I saw Kacy Hill live at Splendour In The Grass 2016 on the back of knowing two songs of hers. Going into the set thinking her sound was maybe a cross between James Blake and Montaigne, I quickly realised I was doing her an injustice in comparing her to any other artist (irrespective of the…

It’s been four years since Washed Out‘s (Ernest Greene), last album; and boy has a lot changed. 2013’s Paracosm was a tuneful record of utter warmth and bliss whereas new album, Mister Mellow, is a 13-track thickly woven psychedelic tapestry of samples and arrangements with a full length visual counterpart. Whilst this is keeping with…

Easy to grasp, unrelenting in its palatableness – the Brit-rock indie quintet has served up a safe sixth album. Delivering on their typically loud choruses and drum breaks once more – For Crying Out Loud is what we expect from Kasabian. It’s music you could either jump a skipping rope to or down a lager…

Brisbane-based singer-songwriter Clea recorded her debut EP Fairweather between a mix of coastal, rural and inner city studios and that transient nature has injected itself into her dreamy debut. A mix of urban-esque yet freeing electronic beats lie on a wave beneath Clea’s folk-like, airy vocals as the EP progresses between primary use of synths to…