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…
From the immediate start of his debut album, Trevor Sensor’s husky-voiced howl will resonate with you for sometime. Recorded at Steve Albini‘s Electrical Audio studio in Chicago, the LP features production work from Brandon Darner (Imagine Dragons), Foxygen’s Jonathan Rado and Richard Swift (The Shins). Sensor’s voice is especially reminiscent of a late 1980/1990’s Bob…
The first time I heard “Rooting For You” I burst into tears. I was going through a break up at the time see, and I’m a pretty vulnerable person to begin with, so the added mental weight, backed by the beauty of London Grammar was all too much to bare. There was something about that…
The sophomore album from Brit-rockers Royal Blood is a punchy follow-up to their self-titled debut. Unfortunately, How Did We Get So Dark? lacks in many areas that made Royal Blood the captivating album that it was. The debut album from Royal Blood was rife with catchy riffs, gritty guitars and convincing vocals. How Did We…
We’ve had a week now to sink our teeth into the eighth album from American group Portugal. The Man, an outfit I’ve been listening to now for almost a decade. Their evolution from 2009’s The Satanic Satanist to 2013’s Evil Friends is a remarkable one – seeing the group catapulted from unknowns to one of…
This month, well known Aussie rockers Grinspoon are releasing a deluxe edition of their first studio album Guide to Better Living. Celebrating the 20 years it’s been around by adding a load of live tracks to the album list. Grinspoon formed in 1995 and released Guide to Better Living two years later in September. The…
After eighteen months in the studio, Perth trio Crooked Colours have just released their debut album Vera. This is a well-crafted and enjoyable release for those that love their music laid-back yet still up-tempo. The opening track “Flow” is a likable and catchy tune that has those summer vibes threading through. It begins with that…
On their most recent album, Precious Art, Rozwell Kid commit to this very 90s, Get Up Kids-esque, early Weezer kind of fuzzy pop punk. There’s nothing that would sound out of place in the background of a scene in a Buffy episode from 1998. Here’s the main question you need to answer before heading into…
Phoenix is a seemingly cool band. They just ooze confidence in their music and live sets. Here on their sixth album Ti Amo, the Parisian four-piece seemingly rest on these cool laurels that has made them favourites worldwide, while not really progressing all that much as a band. While the band are notable and proud…
When “Liability” came out, it sucker punched me right in the face. You start listening to it and you’re like, ‘Oooo this is nice’, and then the lyrics sink in and your face turns red and the tears start welling and then BAM! Emotions! Lorde has a way of doing that. She knows how to…
There’s always something impressive about melancholic music. While it’s definitely not the most upbeat and joyous moods and genres to be in, the modesty, honesty and heart-wrenching nature of the music is what makes it so relatable to so many people; irrespective of their demographic. And here on the debut EP of nyck you’re more…
What can I say about Ceres that hasn’t already been said – often by me? Ceres is my favourite Australian band, hands down. Their first album, I Don’t Want To Be Anywhere But Here, is one of my favourite albums of all time. Their second album, Drag It Down On You, is a melodious, cathartic,…
Angst manifests in many different forms, and deny it all you want, it’s a necessary outlet for the frustrations of the mundane. It’s just a part of life and thankfully, we have music to get us through. More specifically however, we have Girlpool. Self titled as an anti-debut, the Californian duo recently dropped their latest record…
UK indie-rockers alt-J first sent shock waves through the music world back in 2012, following the release of their debut album An Awesome Wave. Pocketing a Mercury Music Prize, an Ivor Novello ‘Album Award’ for songwriting and three BRIT award nominations, the band quickly rose to international acclaim, hooking listeners far and wide with their…
You know those days where you’re just kind of annoyed at the world and its patriarchal bullshit? You’re so irritated that it makes you want to laugh-cry. If only there was a Garage Punk album that would allow you to yell AND have a good chuckle, thus releasing all that pent up frustration. Enter Groundbreaking…
When I first sat down to Benjamin Booker’s new album Witness, I entirely expected to hear much the same of what made me love his self-titled debut album: blues guitar being shredded like Marty McFly does in the first Back To The Future. And while there are still aspects of this on the new album,…
For those expecting an album that completely revolutionises music, akin to Mozart, Bach, The Beatles, Rolling Stones, etc., please look elsewhere. For those expecting a fun, innovative rap album that provides a new style to an arguably often stale genre, look no further than the new Lil Yachty album, Teenage Emotions. The follow-up to impressive…
Hachiku’s upcoming self-titled EP is dreamy. That sounds like a disingenuous, relatively vague description of the fuzzy beats and twinkly melodies, but Hachiku – otherwise known as Anika Ostendorf – has these deft, light vocals, sung in a clipped, wide-eyed accent are just that – dreamy. It’s an early summer, soft-lights-and-cool-water kind of sound, and…
Zander Hawley is an American songwriter truly coming into his own with this, his debut album, When I Get Blue. Having first come across his music a few years ago (he is one half of LA’s Honeywater with Amandla Stenberg), I’ve been keeping track on Hawley’s solo releases out of Nashville since. There’s a poignancy that permeates throughout Hawley’s…
