Nick Mitchell
With Odd Blood, Yeasayer earn their stripes as indie-pop innovators, but they would surely benefit from exercising just a tad more control over their wild, conflicting urges.
12y
Despite the fact that John Leckie at Abbey Road produced it, this is jazz first and foremost, and there are segments of wild improv sure to turn off fearful jazzophobes. For less sensitive ears, though, this is a rich, rewarding, thought-provoking listen.
12y
Built on a stark piano line and meaty drums, its glorious chamber pop falls somewhere along the road between Brian Wilson and The Shins.
8y
It may well become the soundtrack to many a summer party, but it would be a critical disservice to ignore the fact that Manners is an inconsistent, superficial work.
12y
The Horrors may still look like a noxious gang of Camden attention-seekers, but the thrilling bombast of Primary Colours will ensure we listen as well.
12y
In less able hands such divergent ambitions would clash horribly; in Khan’s they gel to form another measured, consistently excellent album.
12y
Songs in A&E maintains a natural development in the band's career: quieter, yes, but as thunderously emotive as ever.
12y
Whatever the Arctic Monkeys fans make of it, Turner should be applauded for taking the risk of veering off in such an anachronistic direction.
12y
The Airing is a shattering breakthrough: more than mere Arcade Fire sound-a-likes, Titus Andronicus are the latest and best band to take the existentialist who-gives-a-fuck baton and run with it.
12y
The Midnight Organ Fight will be the catalyst for a wider appreciation of yet another great Scottish band. It's an album that invokes a range of emotions but generally leaves you exhilarated; enough, in Frightened Rabbit's unique idiom, to make the fast blood hurricane through you.
12y
This allegedly platonic couple have lost none of their carnal musical chemistry.
12y
Cassius is another bristling groove to ramp up anticipation around debut album Antidotes.
9y
Made In The Dark only ups the idiosyncratic ante, while adding a deeper thrust to their made-in-the-shed aesthetic.
12y
An assured collection of dreamy, melody-driven songs reveals Lennon as the major talent he always threatened to be.
5y
Singer Aaron Weiss is their greatest asset with his remarkably versatile voice, capable of rabid shouting, grungy growling or delicate spoken-word on the quieter 'Spider' songs. This deserves a listen, whether you're a fan of Him or not.
12y
T.I.'s ego-driven musings on wealth and the trappings thereof will not receive such widespread acceptance among his British audience.
5y
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