jrdixon147

The 2010s were a decade of sombre rumination for Nick Cave, with the muted and sparse ‘Push The Sky Away’ leading into ‘Skeleton Tree’ and ‘Ghosteen’ - a bleak and sorrowful double-header that saw the writer, singer and some-time agony uncle excavating the darkest and most despairing corners of his grief-ridden soul following the deaths of his sons Arthur and Jethro. This period of art-as-catharsis also spawned a Covid album – ‘Idiot Prayer, Nick ... read more

On ‘Romance’, Fontaines D.C. sharpen their gloomy, introspective indie with a harder, more abrasive manifestation of modern angst. Resolutely maudlin they remain, but the approaching-post-rock murk of grungey forerunners ‘A Hero’s Death’ and ‘Skinty Fia’ is revitalised with a caustic fury and a bratty punk edge that feels distinctly in tune with a generation. Snotty bangers ‘Here’s The Thing’ and ‘Death Kink’ spit and fizz ... read more

As PR campaigns go, they couldn't have pitched it any better. Brat is mainstream, yet antagonistic. It's commercial, yet disruptive. It's grounded, yet aspirational. And everyone wants a piece of it.

Alongside the parade of manicured pop princesses, Charli XCX is abrasive, dirty and jumbled. But in Brat world, it's OK to be a mess. To be uncertain and conflicted. You're invited to embrace your complexity, not deny it. To engage with challenging emotions authentically. ... read more

I can remember exactly where I was when I experienced Cassandra Jenkins’ music for the very first time. I was alone in a hotel room at a corporate conference, dazed in the surreal aftershock of a devastating recent event in my personal life. Under grey skies, in a grey building, beside a grey car park, it was an out-of-town escape – and its pure tedium, its beige banality, its utter lack of meaning, was helping to numb the pain of what in contrast felt to me an irreversible cosmic ... read more