Reviews

Three years removed from Wood’s departure, Black Country, New Road offers the studio debut of their second life. ‘Forever Howlong’ is an ambitious, folky, and pastoral affair – replete with recorders, mandolins, and winding prog-folk odysseys. Yet despite its grandeur, it hums with warmth and communal resilience, the same force that carried the Cambridge six-piece through turbulent reinvention. This is music unabashed in its twee heart, lavished with baroque melodies.

Down at Ayr beach, we were treated to a great evening of live music.

Ten years in, and Manchester Punk Festival hasn’t lost an ounce of its spirit which led to another great April weekend in the city.

Good Friday really lived up to the name, as Frank Turner and Amigo The Devil descended on Southampton.

On her fifth album as SPELLLING, Bay Area artist Chrystia Cabral holds up a mirror to her own emotions. ‘Portrait of My Heart’ abandons the allegorical distance of her earlier avant pop for lyrics that confront love, intimacy, anxiety, and alienation head on. Musically, the arrangements follow suit – this is SPELLLING at its most incisive and immediate.

Brit-pop is on the rise once again and this was a brilliant showcase from two of the best.

We've been following Stereophonics since the early days (did they really form in 1992!) and they always seem to come up with a fresh approach to their music. Here's what we thought of their new album, 'Make ‘em Laugh, Make ‘em Cry, Make ‘em Wait'.

This was a triple whammy of hardcore in Manchester as Heriot closed off their UK tour.

Averse to the stereotypical tropes of progressive music, Istanbul-hailed Siyah Tavsan delivers instead a succinct and fresh outlook of how they visualise progressive music to be. While fans of Western post-punk and progressive rock will find familiar elements, ‘Metropolites’ offers a distinct lens of where Turkish underground music is headed – globally aware, genre-fluid, and emotionally fearless, this is a voice speaking from the overlooked alleys of Istanbul, but resonating far beyond.

Following the broad cultural nostalgia for all things 90s, it isn’t surprising that grungy, showgazy alt-rock is making a comeback. One of the earliest pioneers of this niche is Superheaven. Reuniting after a six-year hiatus in 2022, they’re releasing their first full-length in a decade – 'Superheaven'.