Music Reviews

Sam Fender has put Newcastle back on the music map with his high-energy indie-rock style, paving the way for many other up and coming artists from the city.  Andrew Cushin is a great example of this, who has just released his second album 'Love Is For Everyone' following on from 2023 debut 'Waiting For The Rain'.

2024 turned out to be the biggest year yet for Galway, Ireland band NewDad, with the release of their debut album MADRA at the beginning of the year followed by a tour and numerous festival dates. Earlier this year the band saw the departure of bassist Cara Joshi and now, down to three official members in Julie Dawson (vocals & guitar), Sean O’Dowd (lead guitar) and Fiachra Parslow (drums), they release their brand new EP 'Safe'. 

Even in its weakest moments, Sleep Theory’s debut album, 'Afterglow', is nothing less than stellar. If these guys keep delivering material of this quality, there'll be nowhere to go but upwards.

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.

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.

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'.

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'.

'Skeletá' continues off the sounds established by past albums while also revisiting some past eras, with this new effort once again proving that, in spite of the haters, Ghost are here to stay, and will only get bigger.

After the polarising brightness of their last project, Deafheaven’s sixth album sees the California post-metal collective return to the volatile, skyward force that first defined them – yet this is no simple reversion. ‘Lonely People with Power’ reclaims their foundational sound with ferocity, while hinting at sonic futures still ahead.