Tom Doyle
Ultimately, A Sober Conversation amounts to a brilliant and bold record that is all the more powerful for its deployment of life-affirming groves and melodies.
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11mo
It sounds so authentically mid-to-late 1960s that Dear Patti - a song about missing an opportunity to play on the same festival bill as Smith - could almost be a lightly warped vinyl pressing from the era.
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11mo
While its parent album's themes of grief, ageing and mortality don't naturally transfer themselves to the dancefloor, it's often that juxtaposition that makes these reworkings so effective.
1y
Whether or not it proves to be a one-off or ongoing Jungle side-project, taken altogether, it's a beautiful, hazy, unashamedly loved-up album.
1y
The National singer's second solo album takes another emotional deep dive.
1y
All in all, it underlines that These New Puritans remains a band apart.
1y
Altogether, with added depth and melody, it’s Maries’ best yet.
1y
Steven Wilson brings new life to Floyd soundtrack.
1y
It's a more straightforward offering than their previously tangential records, though no less compelling for it.
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11mo
The Blind Boys Of Alabama and Norah Jones pops up in Sweet Things Just For You, but no guest can overshadow June's sweet and salty tones.
1y
Picking up the thread of his more recent records, with less obfuscation of his singing voice but all of the contorted vocal snippets that have come to characterise his sound, Vernon continues to deal in emotionally heavy music operating on the cutting edge of tech.
1y
The hit rate is high, and Mike Scott is clearly having fun cutting himself free from The Waterboys' past, and playing fast and loose - much like the mercurial subject of this album.
1y
As intriguing as it is, it's of course lacking the focus of Neilson's brilliant songwriting and characterful voice, while likely offering him vital creative inspiration for his next record proper.
1y
Over its 11 tracks, Glory draws the listener fully into its dreamworld.
1y
The result successfully veers from radio-friendly gems Everyday Magic and Time Waited (built around a tumbling piano sample from pedal steel player Buddy Emmons’ 1969 LP Emmons Guitar Inc) to Free-styled riffer Squid Ink and bluesy closer River Road.
1y
Sonically ambitious fourth from South Korean singer/author.
1y
While some of its more indulgent elements may not be to all tastes, his scale of ambition and dazzling audacity should be applauded.
1y
To call it a mature album would be to take away some of the perennially youthful spirit of Mogwai, but it certainly achieves a crafted, discerning grace. However hellish it may have been, a baptism in The Bad Fire has clearly proved to be a renewing experience.
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1y
Josh Tillman’s latest grand orchestral apocalyptic vision is bleak but joyfully delivered.
1y
As personal as all of these songs sound, there’s a universality to Small Changes that, as with all Kiwanuka’s records, will emotionally connect with others. Everybody hurts, it seems to say, but this might help.
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1y
