Good Lovelies B-Sides Fontana North The Good Lovelies are Caroline Brooks, Kerri Ough & Susan Passmore, and they have been making music since 2007. B-Sides is their first E.P. of new music since their Christmas album, Evergreen (2019). B-Sides showcases everything that is great about the Good Lovelies; [...]
Lisa Gerrard & Jules Maxwell Burn Atlantic Curve Dead Can Dance members Lisa Gerrard and Jules Maxwell have teamed up with producer James Chapman (MAPS) for a new album to be released this spring. Burn is a new project with London-based label Atlantic Curve and is a long-form album of seven unique tracks [...]
Sumo Cyco Initiation Napalm Records Canadian alternative-metal cult favourites Sumo Cyco have returned with not only their third album, but also, their label debut. Initiation follows 2017’s Opus Mar and builds on the distinctive sound of the band’s unique dancehall and pop-infused metal to deliver a very strong [...]
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Sufjan Stevens Convocations Asthmatic Kitty Sufjan Stevens never does the expected, never has, and no doubt never will. Following the success of his 2020 release The Ascension, he has followed it up with a five-album box set titled Convocations. Although Convocations is also an instrumental album, like previous [...]
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Tetrarch Unstable Napalm Records You better sit up and take notice of the Atlanta-turned-LA-based band, Tetrarch, as they have only begun to make themselves known. The highly anticipated, and well worth the wait sophomore album came out swinging, pummeling its way through the airwaves. Lead single “I’m Not Right” [...]
Nick Hudson Font Of Human Fractures Independent Modern music genres can really be strange constructs. They can be proclaimed on the basis of musical structures, lyrics or just simply the mood they create. Very often though, they overlap, and you can actually lump a certain album or a release into two or even more [...]
Telex This Is Telex Mute Records The partnership of Belgian synth-pop pioneers Telex with Mute Records to re-issue the band’s back catalogue is a logical fit, and it launches with career retrospective This Is Telex. Rather than assimilating them into some larger narrative, the chronological tracklisting of singles [...]
Heavy Petter/Lightmares Heavy Petter/Lightmares Tarantula Tapes Teaming up for a split release is Barrie’s Heavy Petter and Sudbury’s Lightmares. The four-track cassette release – via Tarantula Tapes – is spilt between the two bands like a pair of double singles and serves as a good sampler for both bands. Split [...]
Royal Blood Typhoons Warner Music If neon had a sound, it would be the sleek grit of Royal Blood’s third album, Typhoons. Following the release of 2017’s How Did We Get So Dark?, the duo has seemingly traded in their rough and raw rock tone for a modern alternative aesthetic in tone with Queens Of The Stone Age [...]
Guided By Voices Earth Man Blues Rockathon Records “A collage of rejected songs” is how Guided by Voices’ Robert Pollard describes Earth Man Blues which sounds, y’know… not great, Bob. This humble, tongue-in-cheek sentiment runs the risk of being a freebie for his detractors or people who assume that the band [...]
Murray Acton Covid-19 Nervous Breakdown Independent On the subject of COVID-19, Murray “The Cretin” Acton has a lot to say on his debut solo album. For a guy who has been touring with Canadian punk legends Dayglo Abortions since 1979, it’s easy to imagine going a bit stir-crazy during the pandemic. But with times [...]
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Beartaker Virtuous Signal Independent Canadian two-piece pandemic collaborators Jeremy Widerman (Monster Truck) and Theo McKibbon have reunited following the release of their debut EP, Total Disgrace, in April 2020. Their latest release, Virtuous Signal is a three-track EP that builds off their debut with a heavy [...]
Peter Frampton Frampton Forgets The Words UMe/Universal Music Canada When a new album from an aging rock star is released, the fact is often received with a bit of an eye-roll. “Who do they think they are? Their best years are behind them…” – that sort of thing. It would be easy to write off such an album, unless [...]
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John Lennon John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band – The Ultimate Collection (Super Deluxe Box Set) Apple/Universal Music Reviewing a reissue or rerelease is never really easy. For me, there are a few considerations. Does the album deserve to find a new audience? If so, is the extra material really necessary? In this [...]
Steve Cropper Fire It Up Provogue/Mascot Label Group Stax Records was one of the most revered labels of the 60s and 70s – at least where gritty, funky soul music is concerned. Steve Cropper was one of its leading architects; originally guitarist with the groovy Booker T & The MGs, where he refined his classy, [...]
Motörhead Louder Than Noise… Live In Berlin Silver Lining Music Despite passing away in 2015, the legacies of Lemmy Kilmister and Motörhead have remained among rock and metal’s most revered of titans. Since his passing, Motörhead have released a live album, a collection of covers, and a pair of box sets. Now, the [...]
Dirty Honey Dirty Honey LP Independent Among the most promising of the current u- and-coming rock bands to emerge from America is Dirty Honey. Returning with their first full-length album, and their follow-up to their debut studio EP that garnered comparisons to the likes of Aerosmith and Guns N’ Roses, Dirty [...]
Gilby Clarke The Gospel Truth Golden Robot Records While best known as the rhythm guitarist for Guns N’ Roses on the Use Your Illusion tour, Gilby Clarke has enjoyed a small solo career through the ‘90s into the early 2000s. The guitarist has returned, however, with his first album since 2002’s Swag, with his [...]
The Offspring Let The Bad Times Roll Concord Records/Universal Music Canada As one of the greatest selling punk band of all time, The Offspring have released their first album in nearly a decade. Let The Bad Times Roll, a record adorned with what is easily their greatest artwork, fails to make the waves that [...]
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Paul McCartney McCartney III Imagined MPL/Capitol Say what you will about Paul McCartney, but he never does what is expected of him. Following the success of 2020’s McCartney III, McCartney has invited some very interesting artists to interpret the songs from that album. This is not a remix album, but a completely [...]
Deine Lakaien Dual Prophecy Productions Germany’s avant-garde darkwave duo Deine Lakaien has released its 10th full-length studio album, Dual. The double-length collection consists of one disc of cover versions the pair, made up of singer Alexander Veljanov and composer Ernst Horn, reveres as inspirational and [...]
Greta Van Fleet The Battle At Garden’s Gate Lava Records There’s no denying it — Greta Van Fleet have taken a lot of flack. Whichever side of the fence you sit on, The Battle At Garden’s Gate, might just change your mind. The intro of “The Heat Above” is the perfect opening that sets the tone for the [...]
Wax Moon Hello Morning Independent There is always a musical element that presses exactly the right button with every listener. It could be a good guitar lick, a synth line or, say, a string arrangement. For quite a few listeners, it is a set of excellent vocal harmonies. Of course, if it is multi-vocal harmonies, [...]
The Reds, Pinks and Purples Uncommon Weather Slumberland Records For the third year in a row, The Reds, Pinks, and Purples have released another album of gentle, hazy, DIY pop music that is mostly self-recorded and self-produced by Glenn Donaldson. Following on the heels of 2020’s You Might Be Happy Someday is the [...]
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