Album Review: Xylaroo – Sweetooth
Harmony pop is a difficult art to master, but in Xylaroo we have an act who have seemingly leapt to the top of this difficult to ascend tree in a single bound. Fronted by sisters Holly and Coco Chant, Xylaroo have already toured widely and paid no small amount of dues, so perhaps it is …
Classic Album: Bob Dylan – Highway 61 Revisited
Imagine the shock of hearing Highway 61 Revisited the first time in the mid 60s. You’re a Bob Dylan fan, you like his politicised songwriting as it fit in neatly with your ideals and opinions. Sure his material has become slightly less political over recent albums, but he’s still a great songwriter. You can even …
Album Review: Big Top Heartbreak – Deadbeat Ballads
Opening with a brief stacked choral and minimal piano number like “Dogs Can’t Play Cards” displays a certain amount of confidence. Do Big Top Heartbreak deserve this level of self-asurdness on a debut album? Is this even a debut album? To be honest I don’t know, because sometimes it’s just fun to plunge yourself into …
Not Forgotten: Rick Wakeman – Journey to the Centre of the Earth
It can’t be easy having been the interesting member of Yes. While the rest of that most hilariously pompous prog-rock act had their heads firmly jammed up their own derrieres, keyboard twiddling cape fancier Rick Wakeman alone was responsible for ‘keeping it real’. Or as real as things can be when your vocalist sounds like …
Not Forgotten: The Hold Steady – Boys and Girls in America
By September 2006 The Hold Steady had already released Almost Killed Me and Separation Sunday, two of the finest rock and roll records of the millennium, and were poised to release Boys and Girls in America, just at the very point that the wider world was starting to take notice of them. Having already established …
Classic Album: Electric Light Orchestra – A New World Record
By October 1976 Electric Light Orchestra had managed to morph themselves into a slick prog-pop group, scoring hit singles the world over and releasing a string of increasingly impressive albums. Not only that, but band leader Jeff Lynne was merrily picking up influences from progressive rock, Beatlesque pop and even elements of disco, all of …
Not Forgotten: Little Feat – The Last Record Album
With a career that had already seen them perfect a spicy blend of southern rock, blues, country and soulful funk elements, by 1975’s The Last Record Album, Little Feat were well established as one of the most interesting American rock acts of the 70s. However, band leader Lowell George had already started to surrender a …
A buyers’ guide to The Sensational Alex Harvey Band
The Sensational Alex Harvey Band cut a unique dash through the mid to late 70s rock scene. A little bit hard rock, a little bit glam, a little bit blues, a little bit theatrical, a little bit prog, a little bit pub rock, they were simultaneously all of these, yet none of these, and though …
Classic Albums: Considering the status of Nirvana’s Nevermind 25 years later
It should go without saying, but sometimes it’s okay not to like something as much as people tell you that you should do. This applies many multiple times over for music. So why am I pointing out the obvious? Because since the widespread use of the internet, there are more and more opinion pieces …
Classic Album: AC/DC – Back in Black
There are some rock albums that grow to be bigger than the band that recorded it, so much so that it eclipses their whole career, becomes somewhat of an albatross around their necks and they spend the rest of their careers trying to downplay the album as they struggle to match its commercial success. Then …