Category: Album Reviews

Album Covers, Album Reviews, Indie Rock, Stream

ALBUM REVIEW: Jen Cloher – Jen Cloher

This is album number four for Jen Cloher and in keeping with the title and stark artwork, featuring her naked and with guitar, it is her most honest, clear-cut and autobiographical release to date. So many songwriters cloud their ideas and experiences in metaphors and diversionary tactics but Cloher goes straight for the literal and personal, detailing the trials and tribulations of extended periods apart … Continue reading ALBUM REVIEW: Jen Cloher – Jen Cloher

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Album Covers, Album Reviews, Electronica, Indie Rock, Psych, Video

ALBUM REVIEW: Underground Lovers – Staring at You Staring At Me

Still one of the leading lights of the Australian strand of guitar strummed, literate indie pop/rock songs, Underground Lovers have influenced the sound of many a local band over the years from The Sleepy Jackson to Blank Realm and on to Shining Bird. They’ll no doubt continue to hold that sphere of influence with their latest and one of their best albums. Staring At You … Continue reading ALBUM REVIEW: Underground Lovers – Staring at You Staring At Me

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Album Covers, Album Reviews, Audio Stream, Experimental, Guitar Rock, Metal/Hard Rock, Post-Rock / Instrumental, Psych, Stream

ALBUM REVIEW: Boris – Dear

Boris are now 25 years into a career that has stretched from the barren expanse of doom to hazy dream pop renderings and onto avant garde soundscapes and blistering, psychedelic punk rock. They hone in on a style and explore it to its logical extreme. On Dear they again hit the heavy button but this time they go deep into the detail, exploring both heaviosity … Continue reading ALBUM REVIEW: Boris – Dear

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Album Covers, Album Reviews, Indie Pop, Indie Rock, News, Pop, Psych, Stream

ALBUM REVIEW: Hollow Everdaze – Cartoons

Artistically speaking, pop art is an apt description of the style and approach that Hollow Everdaze have near-perfected on Cartoons. A decade into their career they’re still uncovering lush, sun-kissed pop nuggets that swoon, sway and deftly swagger through 60s eccentricity, 80s/90s British indie and right up to the modernism of a band such as Spoon. There’s a wistful quality to the songs yet they … Continue reading ALBUM REVIEW: Hollow Everdaze – Cartoons

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Album Covers, Album Reviews, Guitar Rock, Indie Rock, Post-Punk, Psych, Stream

ALBUM REVIEW: The Terminals – Antiseptic

New Zealand rock unit The Terminals have been operating under various iterations for 30 years and at the band’s core, Stephen Cogle and Peter Stapleton (with Mick El Borado) have kept the ship on course and sailing a straight line into dark and swirling post punk and psych-laden garage rock. Antiseptic finds the band on top of their game once more. If anything their music … Continue reading ALBUM REVIEW: The Terminals – Antiseptic

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Album Covers, Album Reviews, Electronica, Experimental, News

ALBUM REVIEW: Forest Swords – Engravings

This is Matthew Barnes’ first album on Ninja Tunes and if anyone thought that might mean a softening of his more caustic edges then they are mistaken. Primarily instrumental electronic music, the vocals that do appear are generally spliced and twisted into choirs, like machines speaking in tongues. These are digital compositions but he still retains a primitive, organic percussive base to his sound. Less … Continue reading ALBUM REVIEW: Forest Swords – Engravings

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Album Covers, Album Reviews, Folk, Indie Rock, Post-Rock / Instrumental, Stream

ALBUM REVIEW: The Tall Grass – Down The Unmarked Road

Jamie Hutchings (Bluebottle Kiss, Infinity Broke) and Peter Fenton (Crow) have come together as The Tall Grass, which began as a live acoustic duo project before being expanded upon and sonically coloured in the studio with a wide-ranging band sound. It’s still on the laid-back vibe though – wistful, poetic, and melancholic. The sound of their other bands is still evident, particularly Hutchings with his more … Continue reading ALBUM REVIEW: The Tall Grass – Down The Unmarked Road

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Album Covers, Album Reviews, Funk, Garage Rock, Stream

ALBUM REVIEW: Chain & The Gang – Best Of Crime Rock

With bands such as Nation Of Ulysses, Weird War and The Make-Up, Ian Sevonious has been a underground garage rock provocateur for nearly 30 years. As Chain And The Gang, he’s distilled the essence of what does, right down to it’s bare rhythmic essentials – drums, bass, guitar and vocals. They’re a highly economical and effective combo, stripped to simple gang chants, sparse riffs and grooves … Continue reading ALBUM REVIEW: Chain & The Gang – Best Of Crime Rock

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Album Covers, Album Reviews, Post-Punk

ALBUM REVIEW: Mere Women – Big Skies

Album number three for this Sydney quartet (previously a trio). The addition of bass guitar adds another layer of rhythm and movement to their sound as they tackle the experiences of women over different generations via their dark and swirling post punk. It can be a claustrophobic listen at times, the guitar acting like mesh and gauze with its washes of distortion and clanging reverb, … Continue reading ALBUM REVIEW: Mere Women – Big Skies

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Album Covers, Album Reviews, Guitar Rock, Indie Rock, Soul, Stream

ALBUM REVIEW: The Afghan Whigs – In Spades

Greg Dulli and band return with their second album since reconvening in 2012. That first resurrection was very good but it still felt like they were feeling their way back. This time they’ve found a stronger creative line into the dark heart and soul of what made their music so compelling the first time around. In Spades is a heady concoction that takes repeat listens … Continue reading ALBUM REVIEW: The Afghan Whigs – In Spades

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Album Covers, Album Reviews, Guitar Rock, Indie Rock, Post-Punk, Post-Rock / Instrumental, Psych, Stream

ALBUM REVIEW: Thurston Moore – Rock N Roll Consciousness

The Sonic Youth guitar slinger and solo artist returns with a new album, his second with his current group which includes My Bloody Valentine’s Debbie Googe, Sonic Youth drummer Steve Shelley and guitarist James Sedwards. Familiarity with those players on-stage and in-studio pays off in spades with this confident, relaxed and expansive new record. Moore has always vacillated between skewed punk/art-pop and experimental soundscapes and … Continue reading ALBUM REVIEW: Thurston Moore – Rock N Roll Consciousness

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Album Covers, Album Reviews, Indie Rock, Post-Punk, Video

ALBUM REVIEW: British Sea Power – Let The Dancers Inherit The Party

Mercurial art-pop and post-punk auteurs British Sea Power return after a four year break (excluding soundtrack work) and they sound wholly refreshed and focused on their sixth album. There’s a cohesive sound to the rousing guitars and propulsive drumming as they take stock of the world around them and the role of the individual in it all. It’s steeped in their trademark melancholy, yet framed … Continue reading ALBUM REVIEW: British Sea Power – Let The Dancers Inherit The Party

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