Album Reviews
AMONGST LIARS
MAY ALBUM OF THE MONTH – ‘AMONGST LIARS’ Gravity defying. The self-managed band from the sleepy south coast town that is re-writing the rock’n’roll play book for a new age. As the sunrise of modern rock supersedes the slow sunset of the classic era, here is a band writing some …
Matt Pearce & The Mutiny- ‘The Soul Food Store’
APRIL ALBUM OF THE MONTH Imagine Joe Cocker, Santana, Prince, Stevie Wonder and The Beatles having an impromptu late-night jam. The result might sound like the music on ‘The Soul Food Store’ – the emphatic and super self-confident second album from Matt Pearce & The Mutiny. After last month’s Album …
MARILLION – “AN HOUR BEFORE IT’S DARK”
MARCH ALBUM OF THE MONTH “No one knows how much time they’ve got left.” One of many lines from this album about time, the ticking clock. The climate crisis is a race against time. The horrors of Covid brought us all face-to-face with our own mortality. And for a band …
CLOVERHILL – ‘JUST NORTH OF HELL’
FEBRUARY ALBUM OF THE MONTH The strength of the new rock scene today is its scale. A few bands get the cut-through but never overlook the underdogs. Cloverhill is a band that has grown with us through the length of a two-year Covid era – and absolutely on merit. At …
BLACK LAKES – ‘FOR ALL WE’VE LEFT BEHIND’
JANUARY ALBUM OF THE MONTH Immersive, intelligent and dramatic – Black Lakes unleash a masterful universe of sound that well and truly gets 2022 underway in the most emphatic fashion. For any rocker more comfortable with a slice of Chris Rea or some Twisting by the Pool action, the move …
SCARLET REBELS – ‘SEE THROUGH BLUE’
DECEMBER ALBUM OF THE MONTH Perfect symmetry, the year closes at it began. In thinking about our final album review of the year, I’m drawn back to the first new music I heard in 2021. In the early days of January, Scarlet Rebels sent me a top-secret link, to listen …
WAYWARD SONS – EVEN UP THE SCORE
NOVEMBER ALBUM OF THE MONTH Confidence. We all need it at this moment in time – and this is the autumn album release that brings it. Having been through a seismic time of suffering and loss, there is a time and place for music that captures the dark days but, …
THE AUTUMN KILLERS – ‘DARKSIDE’
OCTOBER ALBUM OF THE MONTH Something different for October. The last few months have seen a run of really fine albums released and, when things get busy, the releases that grab the headlines are often the ones backed by label muscle or big fan clubs. For this month, I’ve resolved …
Badflower – ‘This is how the World Ends’
SEPTEMBER ALBUM OF THE MONTH The most urgently needed music of 2021, Badflower return with the defining album of 2021. No ‘difficult second album’ syndrome here; ‘OK I’m Sick’ disappears in the rear-view mirror as Badflower hold a mirror up the world with a new body of work that is …
TROY REDFERN – ‘THE FIRE COSMIC’
AUGUST ALBUM OF THE MONTH Nightfall. Imagine Marshal Jed Cooper and Captn Jack Sparrow racing to Rockfield late at night in the Batmobile – and you have the essence of ‘Scorpio,’ the opening track of this benchmark new album from Troy Redfern. The swagger and grit of a spaghetti western, …
THE ELLIS MANO BAND – ‘AMBEDO’
JULY ALBUM OF THE MONTH OK folks, it’s time to take the black T shirts off and get those chinos on for summer. Here’s an album that reminds us that guitar rock music today extends far beyond heavy rock riffs, mosh pits, devil horns and those sometimes tired-looking black T …
SPIKE – ‘LATE NIGHT SONG BOOK’
JUNE ALBUM OF THE MONTH As the dark era of Covid and repeated waves of home lockdown finally draw to an end, here we have an album that, in substance and spirit, speaks for the difficult times we have lived through. Once upon a time, album reviews were all about …