Author: Hayley Avron Page 52
Conor Maynard - Contrast
You've got to feel sorry for Conor Maynard; fighting tooth and nail to get to the top of the music business, struggling to bump 'n' grind his way out of Justin Bieber's shadow. He'll be...
Review posted on 9th August 2012
Chris Brown - Fortune
The problem with Chris Brown - and we all know that there is a problem with Chris Brown - is not simply that we know he has a penchant for violence and was sentenced for...
Review posted on 2nd August 2012
Plan B - ill Manors
The first voice that you hear on ill Manors is that of John Cooper Clarke, one of Britain's most astute social commentators. With this latest album, Plan B continues his quest to take that particular...
Review posted on 31st July 2012
Twin Shadow - Confess
Perhaps more than any other recent album release on 4AD in recent months (save possibly for Grimes, if we're going to get particular), Twin Shadow has got the music world in something of a spin....
Review posted on 17th July 2012
Frank Ocean - Channel Orange
Frank Ocean must be breathing a pretty big sigh of relief right now. Since he posted his "my first love was man" confession on his Tumblr page last week, the internet chatter on the matter...
Review posted on 10th July 2012
Smashing Pumpkins - Oceania
Billy Corgan was always the antagonist of the mainstream 'grunge' scene. None of the other players really seemed to like him very much or at best - like Courtney Love - developed a troubled love/hate...
Review posted on 20th June 2012
Paul Simon - Graceland 25th Anniversary Edition
"It was the perfect storm." Whoopi Goldberg's description of Paul Simon's 'Graceland' may be a fondly remembered and heartfelt one but the history of Simon's seminal album was so much more complex than this suggests....
Review posted on 29th May 2012
Paloma Faith - Fall To Grace
Having deservedly battled her way into the limelight after serving her time as a backing singer, Paloma Faith seemed to revel in the attention that she gained upon the release of 'Stone Cold Sober' and...
Review posted on 28th May 2012
The Temper Trap - The Temper Trap
If it wasn't for the fact that they are actually signed to an independent label, the fact that anyone, anywhere, is describing The Temper Trap as an "indie" band would feel faintly ridiculous. The band's...
Review posted on 21st May 2012
Gossip - A Joyful Noise
Think of the ultimate female pop icon. Who are you thinking of? Madonna? Right. Well, so is everyone else, apparently. Lady Gaga has been emulating her to the point that she's brushing shoulders with a...
Review posted on 2nd May 2012
Damon Albarn - Dr Dee
Damon Albarn has enjoyed a productive relationship with the Manchester International Festival since Gorillaz performed Demon Days Live there in 2006. The following year, he took Monkey: Journey to the West to the festival and...
Review posted on 1st May 2012
Jack White - Blunderbuss
Ploughing several shades of 'woman as the devil' imagery, 'Blunderbuss' is, essentially, Jack White 2.0, the artist in hyper-colour, extending several dimensions beyond the Jack White that we have seen before. As White's career has...
Review posted on 25th April 2012
Katy Perry - Teenage Dream: The Complete Confection
It's fairly apparent that Katy Perry writes the majority of her material with her tongue in her cheek, and one eyebrow archly raised (little finger raised to pursed-lips = optional). So it's only fair that...
Review posted on 3rd April 2012
Nicki Minaj - Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded
Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded represents Nicki Minaj's definitive foot-plant in the mainstream. Thus far, she's treated the music industry like a platform game, skipping up ladders, skittering around & lashing out at her enemies, shape-shifting...
Review posted on 2nd April 2012
Madonna - MDNA
Evidence, if it were needed, that pop will indeed eat itself, Madonna's latest album MDNA (her first studio album since 2008) is self-referential mix of her own material, in its various stages. It plays out...
Review posted on 27th March 2012
Sir Paul McCartney - Kisses on the Bottom
The bizarrely-titled Kisses on the Bottom is the first solo album from Paul McCartney since 2007's Memory Almost Full and for someone that has - quite publicly - experienced a great deal of turmoil and...
Review posted on 30th January 2012
Band of Skulls - Sweet Sour
Laughing in the face of the concept of the 'difficult' second album, Southampton's Band of Skulls seem to have rattled off Sweet Sour with ease as the album possesses the kind of cocky grandeur that...
Review posted on 17th January 2012
Lou Rhodes - One Good Thing
When Lou Rhodes sings, she convincingly takes the mantle of Authority of Life, Love, the Universe and Everything. If she were to write a song about the benefits of blindfolded cliff-top strolls, we would almost...
Review posted on 6th April 2010
Pavement - Quarantine The Past: The Best Of Pavement
Do Pavement need an introduction? It's hard to say. If you grew up the '90s, with your canvas bag slung down by your knees, trudging to school with a wide-open copy of Melody Maker blocking...
Review posted on 8th March 2010
Jay Reatard - Watch Me Fall
Review of Jay Reatard's album Watch Me Fall released through Matador.Jay Reatard is something of an underground legend. And a prolific one, at that. At 29 years old, he has the kind of discography that...
Review posted on 10th August 2009
The XX - XX
Review of The XX's album XX released through Young Turks.If all else fails for The XX, they could probably find themselves a job in a laboratory somewhere. Xx is heavy with chemistry. From the sullen...
Review posted on 10th August 2009
Broken Records - Until The Earth Begins To Part
Review of Broken Records album Until The Earth Begins To Part released through 4AD.Broken Records, tattered heart strings: If you are looking for heartache, searching for emotion, longing for meaning, then look no further than...
Review posted on 15th June 2009
Wavves - Wavvves
Review of Wavves album Wavvves released through Bella Union. Sounding, gloriously, as though it was recorded on a temperamental 4-track, with a toilet roll tube as a microphone (and we're talking Happy Shopper, not Andrex,...
Review posted on 8th June 2009
Kasms - Spayed
Review of Kasms album Spayed released through Trouble Records.Whilst Kasms are undoubtedly swaying about under the weight of their own influences, journalists, bloggers and general gobshites up and down the M1 are swaying under the...
Review posted on 27th May 2009
Carolina Liar - Coming To Terms
Review of Carolina Liars album Coming To Terms.I have a dream. The dream goes thus: This album, by Carolina Liar - a group of Swedish & American men - will go down in history. In...
Review posted on 26th May 2009
Kleerup - Self-titled
Review of Kleerup's self-titled album. In much the same way that I only ever really eat a slice of cake because I like the freakin' icing, (a cake without icing is simply not a cake)...
Review posted on 15th May 2009
Marmaduke Duke - Duke Pandemonium
Review of Marmaduke Duke's album 'Duke Pandemonium' released through 14th Floor. It isn't until the third track on this album, 'Silhouettes' that you will decide whether or not you are going to take this band...
Review posted on 6th April 2009
Broken Records - Brudenell Social Club, Leeds
Review of Broken Records live at Brudenell Social Club, Leeds.Broken Records are currently being marketed as Scotland's answer to Arcade Fire. Those of you who weren't aware that Scotland had been asked a question by...
Review posted on 6th April 2009
BM Linx - Kids On Fire
Review of BM Linx The jury's out. I made a mistake. A schoolgirl error. I KNOW! I should know better. But I read the press release first. Yes. before I'd started writing. And then I...
Review posted on 25th March 2009
Bat For Lashes - Two Suns
Review of Bat For Lashes album 'Two Suns' released through The Echo Label.Bridging the gap between Mother Earth and Outer Space, Natasha Khan returns under her Bat For Lashes moniker with Two Suns, a vaguely...
Review posted on 25th March 2009
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