Author: Mike Rea Page 5
Dean Owens - Whisky Hearts
Dean Owens Whisky Hearts Vermillion Road Album Review It is not hard to remember that the roots of country music are in celtic folk when listening to a Scot singing rock like Steve Earle. This...
Review posted on 3rd January 2008
Two Gallants - Self Titled
Two Gallants Two Gallants Saddle Creek Album Review Singer-guitarist Adam Stephens and drummer Tyson Vogel make the kind of music people think the Pogues made - melodic, angry folk-punk with a Celtic country tinge. While...
Review posted on 18th December 2007
Chris Bathgate - A Cork Tale Wake
Chris Bathgate A Cork Tale Wake Quite Scientific Album Review If only this album had maintained the standard of its opener, Serpentine, it would have been a shoo-in for one of the most perfect discs...
Review posted on 18th December 2007
Chikinki - Brace Brace
Chikinki Brace Brace Urban Cow Album Review There are few sadder moments in music than realising that a band who made an astonishingly unique sound have succumbed to the lack of success and released a...
Review posted on 18th December 2007
The Smithereens - Christmas With The Smithereens
The Smithereens Christmas With The Smithereens Koch Album Review Let's face it - no-one really needs to hear Slade's Christmas anthem again. You'll be wanting a new set of Christmas music, preferably done by one...
Review posted on 3rd December 2007
Kevin McDermott - Wise To The Fade
Kevin McDermott Wise To The Fade Nostrings Album Review Kevin McDermott is, simply, Glasgow's finest singer-songwriter. Which, when you think about the competition from that fair city, makes him something special - like Bob Dylan...
Review posted on 3rd December 2007
Powderfinger - Dream Days At The Hotel Existence
Powderfinger Dream Days At The Hotel Existence Remote Control Album Review Powderfinger may be one of the biggest bands you've not heard of - huge in their native Australia, they suffer from the rather narrow...
Review posted on 3rd December 2007
The Raveonettes - Lust Lust Lust
The Raveonettes Lust Lust Lust Fierce Panda Album Review The Raveonettes are a two-piece band from Copenhagen, Denmark, and they make music as dark, fuzzed-up and shimmering as the Velvet Underground, Jesus and Mary Chain...
Review posted on 26th November 2007
Delta Spirit - Ode To Sunshine
Delta Spirit Ode To Sunshine Self-released Album Review A five piece band from Southern California, Delta Spirit have made the album you'll wish The Cold War Kids had made - it's CWK meet the Beatles,...
Review posted on 26th November 2007
Cowboy Junkies - Trinity Revisited
Cowboy Junkies Trinity Revisited Pinnacle Album Review 1988's Trinity Sessions revealed the Cowboy Junkies to the world, and remains one of the most beautiful albums of the past 20 years. Somewhere between that second album,...
Review posted on 26th November 2007
Friska Viljor - Bravo
Friska Viljor Bravo Album Review How do you think a band would sound if it decided that it would only write songs when drunk? Well, you can now find out. When two friends broke up...
Review posted on 19th November 2007
Cake - B-sides and rarities
Cake B-sides and rarities Album Review Cake are a US indie band whose style has varied over the years since 1994's Motorcade of Generosity. The 'red thread' has been their invention and intelligence - they're...
Review posted on 19th November 2007
Neil Young - Chrome Dreams II
Neil Young Chrome Dreams II Album Review If you've never heard an 18-minute song seem not a moment too long, have a listen to this follow-up to 1977's unreleased Chrome Dreams. Ordinary People is classic...
Review posted on 19th November 2007
Ian Ball - Who Goes There
Ian BallWho Goes ThereAlbum ReviewGomez is a band whose trajectory has been somewhat downwards since they exploded onto the scene with Bring It On in 1998. Although the music has been reliably great since then,...
Review posted on 12th November 2007
Bob Dylan - Various Artists, I'm Not There: Original Soundtrack
Various ArtistsI'm Not There: Original SoundtrackAlbum ReviewBob Dylan has always been covered - The Byrds, Jimi Hendrix, for example - and this soundtrack to the Dylan biopic sees him being covered afresh by a wide...
Review posted on 12th November 2007
Josh Ritter - The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter
Josh RitterThe Historical Conquests of Josh RitterAlbum ReviewSome singer-songwriters just keep getting better, and Josh Ritter is at the head of that class. American, but sounding particularly Irish, Ritter is a classic in the tradition...
Review posted on 12th November 2007
The Octopus Project - Hello Avalanche
The Octopus ProjectHello AvalancheAlbum ReviewThe Octopus Project is a four-piece band from Austin, Texas who play a style known as 'indietronica' - a sound that relies heavily on thrashing guitars and a cacophony of instruments...
Review posted on 5th November 2007
Nicolai Dunger - Rosten & Herren
Nicolai DungerRösten & HerrenAlbum ReviewNicolai Dunger is one Swede who saw (moderate) international success singing in English. And then decided to start releasing records in his own language. Dunger's Soul Rush would be the best...
Review posted on 5th November 2007
Sharon Jones and The Dap-Kings - 100 Days, 100 Nights
Sharon Jones and The Dap-Kings100 Days, 100 NightsAlbum ReviewThere is a real, abiding problem when trying to capture the soul of a great singer and band in the studio, when that band eats up live...
Review posted on 5th November 2007
Crash My Model Car - Ghosts and Heights
Crash My Model Car Ghosts and Heights Album Review Crash My Model Car are a four-piece band from Glasgow, although lead singer Iain Morrison hails from the Isle of Lewis, an island off the north...
Review posted on 29th October 2007
Eric Clapton - Complete Clapton
Eric Clapton Complete Clapton Album Review Heading into this disc expecting a 40 year career to fit into two discs will only lead to disappointment. The 'Complete' Clapton omits anything from the period when his...
Review posted on 29th October 2007
Santana - Ultimate Santana
Santana Ultimate Santana Album Review There have been 'Best of' Santana discs before, mostly collected from the early instrumental discs. Here, however, 'ultimate' may just literally mean 'the latest' disc, as there are mandatory new...
Review posted on 29th October 2007
Beach House - Self Titled
Beach House Self Titled Album Review The deep, reverberating layered expanse of sound that characterises Beach Houses' self-titled debut is huge in both scope and stature. On first listen, you assume that this is surely...
Review posted on 25th October 2007
The Hives - The Black and White Album
The HivesThe Black and White AlbumAlbum ReviewA cocky Swedish punk garage rock band, The Hives enjoyed massive success with their hit single Hate To Say I Told You So from their 'greatest hits' collection Your...
Review posted on 22nd October 2007
Jens Lekman - Night Falls Over Kortedala
Jens LekmanNight Falls Over KortedalaAlbum ReviewJens Lekman's first album Oh You're So Silent Jens was a real Marmite album. It's a style of music that has drawn comparisons to artists as diverse as Morrissey, Scott...
Review posted on 22nd October 2007
Southeast Engine - A Wheel Within A Wheel
Southeast EngineA Wheel Within A WheelAlbum ReviewSoutheast Engine are a 6-piece band from Athens, Ohio, fronted by a redundant ex-middle school teacher who make music like a kinder, gentler Wilco. On this third album, the...
Review posted on 22nd October 2007
Band of Horses - Cease To Begin
Band of Horses Cease To Begin Album Review Some second albums just seem rushed. Band of Horses' 2005 debut, Everything All The Time, was a stunner - all Built To Spill/ My Morning Jacket melodic...
Review posted on 15th October 2007
Beirut - The Flying Club Cup
Beirut The Flying Club Cup Album Review Beirut's Gulag Orkestar was one of 2006's best albums - a debut full of promise and mould-breaking folk rock that drew from hundreds of years of Balkan folk,...
Review posted on 15th October 2007
Radiohead - In Rainbows
Radiohead In Rainbows Album Review Since the end of their ties with Parlophone, Radiohead have been following their own path, to the extent of releasing their new album only via their own website. And allowing...
Review posted on 15th October 2007
Shocking Pinks - Shocking Pinks
Shocking PinksShocking PinksAlbum ReviewShocking Pinks is the work on one-man-band Nick Harte, ex-drummer of New Zealand band The Brunettes. It is a disco-punk album as Jesus and Mary Chain or My Bloody Valentine might interpret...
Review posted on 8th October 2007
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Pretty Fierce talk to us about collaborating with Doja Cat, emetophobia, arena tours and staying "true to yourself" [EXCLUSIVE]
Sheffield's very own all girl group Pretty Fierce are still on a high after the recent release of their debut single - 'Ready For Me'.
Will Varley & Jack Valero - The Astor Theatre Deal Live Review
Three nights before the end of his current tour Will Varley returned to his home town of Deal to delight a sold out crowd in The Astor Theatre.
WYSE talks to us about her "form of synaesthesia", collaborating with Radiohead's Thom York and the prospect of touring with a band [EXCLUSIVE]
With only a few days to go before Portsmouth based songstress and producer WYSE releases her new single, 'Belladonna', we caught up with her to find...
Bay Bryan talks to us about being a "wee queer ginger", singing with Laura Marling and being inspired by Matilda [EXCLUSIVE]
Colorado raised, Glasgow educated and Manchester based Bay Bryan is nothing if not a multi-talented, multi-faceted artist performing as both...
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Keelan X talks to us about staying true to "your creative vision", collaborating with Giorgio Moroder and being "a yoga nut" [EXCLUSIVE]
Former Marigolds band member Keelan Cunningham has rediscovered his love of music with his new solo project Keelan X.
![Luke De-Sciscio talks to us about having the courage to be yourself, forgiving that which is outside of one's control and following whims [EXCLUSIVE]](/images/home/homepage/luke-de-sciscio-abof-a.jpg "Luke De-Sciscio talks to us about having the courage to be yourself, forgiving that which is outside of one's control and following whims [EXCLUSIVE]")
Luke De-Sciscio talks to us about having the courage to be yourself, forgiving that which is outside of one's control and following whims [EXCLUSIVE]
Wiltshire singer-songwriter Luke De Sciscio, formally known as Folk Boy, is set to release is latest album - 'The Banquet' via AntiFragile Music on...
Annie Elise talks to us about the challenges a female producer has to face and "going through a year of grief and sickness" [EXCLUSIVE]
Electronic music pioneer and producer Annie Elise says that the release of her first EP - 'Breathe In, Breathe Out' feels "both vulnerable and...
![Dekker talks to us about writing with Jose Gonzales, making headway in the U.S and the difficulties associated with wearing a hat! [EXCLUSIVE]](/images/home/homepage/dekker-abof-a.jpg "Dekker talks to us about writing with Jose Gonzales, making headway in the U.S and the difficulties associated with wearing a hat! [EXCLUSIVE]")
Dekker talks to us about writing with Jose Gonzales, making headway in the U.S and the difficulties associated with wearing a hat! [EXCLUSIVE]
Ahead of the imminent release of his second solo album - Dekker, aka Brookln Dekker, took time out to let us know about the musical project he...
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