Stylistically, Moon Healer shares common ground and sounds like the logical continuation of the conceptual and musical groundwork laid by its well-received predecessor, ticking a number of boxes for enthusiasts of modern, rugged prog-death. The intervening years have failed to dull Job for a Cowboy’s free-spirited willingness to contort and challenge their formula, consolidating their commitment to double down on the prog, without neutering the death component. Line-up-wise things have ... read more

And, while the occasional guitar seems a little edgier and Max Martin himself doesn’t appear to have directly worked on these versions (trusted lieutenant and original co-producer Shellback does the honours, alongside others, on those songs “for MXM Productions”), ‘Red’’s astoundingly deep original tracklist is flawlessly recreated. It may be hard to imagine Swift coming up with something as frothy as ‘Stay Stay Stay’ in 2021, but to hear her sing ... read more

It’s hard to believe it now, but Kanye West used to be one of the most experimental and talented figures in modern hip-hop. From the fierce ambition of his game-altering debut The College Drop-Out twenty years ago, to 2010’s mangled and grandiose rap masterpiece My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, he’s been responsible for some truly trailblazing work, but more recently, he’s struggled to match his past heights. Back in 2015, he declared himself “the greatest living ... read more

It’s not that there’s anything especially bad here, as it’s an inoffensive listen, with good musicianship and decent lyricism, but there’s just nothing too remarkable here. In trying to be more accessible to the radio listener, Real Estate appears to have blunted its own creative edge. I never hated listening to the album, but as it wore on, each song became indistinguishable from the next, with one notable exception, the 60s-inspired “Victoria”, which was ... read more

“I’m not saying I’m not a careerist,” Bill Ryder-Jones told NME in 2019. “Where I am now is good; a little more success would be great but any more than that would be too much.”

At that time, the Wirral singer-songwriter (and co-founder of his former band the Coral) was talking up ‘Yawny Yawn’, a skeletal, piano-led reworking of ‘Yawn’, the grunge-inspired collection he’d released the previous year. For Ryder-Jones, ... read more

Opening the album is Downside which sets the tone for what is to come and almost feels like the opening to a musical piece. There’s no denying that it does feel like a PANIC! tune; the theatricality is all there with all the bells and whistles that creates a huge sounding anthem. Weekes croons his way through the song with his ever impressive vocals, backed by a fun piano and drum beats before the enormous guitar-infused chorus. Up next is Gloomtown Rats, which is easily one of the best ... read more

Opening track “Alibi” is one of Segarra’s catchiest earworms; their voice resonates as cosmopolitan yet vintage, empathic yet indicative of someone who has learned the hard way about setting boundaries. Segarra zooms in on a memory (“marching towards East River Park / you told me your big secret by the FDR”) while considering whether a relationship has a future (“maybe I got something left that is worth a try / but I’m not gonna be your alibi / this ... read more

On her first two albums, 2019’s Essentials and 2021’s Sensational, Danish R&B singer Erika de Casier displayed a preternatural sense of creative and personal self-assurance. Her lyrical modus operandi fell somewhere between sly defiance and cool detachment as she flexed her career ambitions while shrugging off bad dates. Perhaps it’s fitting, then, that de Casier was launched into international recognition in 2023 by co-writing K-pop group NewJeans’s “Super ... read more

For a band who once confessed they were fated to pretend, MGMT sound pretty darn sincere on Loss of Life, their first album since 2018’s Little Dark Age. Following the band’s recent TikTok success with that album’s title track reaching viral status, the easy thing would be for MGMT to cash in on what we all know they do exceedingly well—endlessly catchy anthems that smirk at the seriousness of life with a bit of synthesized impishness and hooky euphoria that toes the ... read more

Indeed, for fans of Allie X it can sometimes seem surprising that she’s not better known. Her early music was tipped by Katy Perry, of all people; mixed commercial success seems to have driven her increasingly towards the darker, more bizarre end of her sound spectrum. Girl with No Face is like listening to someone who’s given up on success completely – and the results are electrifying. When Hughes addresses the issue of her success directly on “You Slept on Me,” ... read more