Reviews

Clicking through channels on a website to find our new favourite bands might not be half as fun as running around Austin, frozen margs and tacos in hand, but at least SXSW Online offered us some fraction of the...
The release of Lana Del Rey’s seventh album ‘Chemtrails Over The Country Club’ came amid relatively little fanfare considering it was a follow-up to the biggest record of 2019: ‘Norman Fucking Rockwell!’ There were reasons for this, outside of...
ARXX – ‘Deep’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NB8NKe_PUyQ&ab_channel=VariousArtists-Topic ‘Deep’ is the kind of gritty alt-pop anthem that has you aching to hear it over a massive festival PA system, drenched in beer and sunlight. Buzzing with vivacity and brash confidence, it showcases the absolute best...
Justin Bieber is pop’s Goldilocks. Too ubiquitous, too reluctant; too messed-up, too devout; too mainstream, too R&B – his 2015 album ‘Purpose’ rode the EDM wave to huge success, but Bieber’s voice sounded more at home on 2014's R&B...
Loretta Lynn didn’t even know what the country music chart was until her debut single ‘Honky Tonk Girl’ hit number 14 in the summer of 1960. She and her husband famously drove from radio station to radio station, demanding...
After a year in which our collective musical experiences have largely involved listening to sad songs walking aimlessly around a park, keeping things at a sensible volume so as not to annoy the neighbours and trying to kid ourselves...
Demi Lovato has always been an incredibly honest pop star. She’s shared over and over her struggles with mental health, her addictions, her relationship with her body image. So when she says at the start of her new documentary...
Lucy Dacus - 'Thumbs' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S19BYUvnKjk There are some stories only Lucy Dacus can tell. ‘Thumbs’ is one of them: not simply a murder fantasy but a brutally beautiful depiction of blind rage and the desire to protect someone you love. Her...
“Let it hurt some, let it hurt some,” commands Catherine Anne Davies at the start of ‘The Art Of Losing’, her second album as The Anchoress. Better to suffer it than to live under it, the record seems to...
St Vincent – ‘Pay Your Way In Pain’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUTu65AXrJw Picture the scene. It's midday, 70s downtown New York, glass of bourbon in hand. You’re hiding out from some unsavoury associates, ready to skip town at any moment. This is the world...