Review: Scottish indie stalwarts Franz Ferdinand thrust onto the scene back in 2004 seeking to antidote the then bad-boy aesthetic of groups like The Libertines with smart, suave 'music to dance to'. Fourteen years on and following a slight lineup change, their objective doesn't appear to have changed with their fifth album 'Always Ascending'. Produced by Philippe Zdar of famed Parisian duo Cassius - it's a slick, tight record that's doused in their trademark off-kilter panache. Over forty energetic minutes, there's a lot to dig into; the ballad 'The Academy Award' and art-pop oddball 'Huck & Jim' let Alex Kapranos' dry wit come to the fore, the infectious funk-channeling chorus on 'Finally' sounds like a dip into 60's pop, while 'Feel The Love Go' is vintage Franz Ferdinand. 'Always Ascending' sees Franz Ferdinand full of charm, reinvigorated, and perfectly comfortable in no longer needing to prove anything.
Review: Franz Ferdinand round up 20 of their greatest ever hits on Hits To The Head, presented on gold vinyl and with a 16 page booklet featuring liner notes by JD Beauvallet plus lyrics and new and exclusive photos. 18 of the tunes you will be well familiar with , but two of them are brand new cuts just for this project. They are 'Billy Goodbye' and 'Curious' which has been co-produced by Alex Kapranos, Julian Corrie and Stuart Price. Elsewhere the big riffing, festival pleasing joys of 'Do You Want To' and 'Take Me Out' still hit the right spot.
Review: "I think we all have fears within us and fears that we confront in our life at different times ... and how we react to those fears is how we earn who we really are," Franz Ferdinand frontman Alex Kapranos told Apple Music's Hanuman Welch in an interview about The Humans of Fear, its catalysts and sources of inspiration. Sonically, this is typically bombastic and almost relentlessly upbeat, following in the footsteps of the Glasgow group's established sound. Which has, of course, changed over the years. So while we once had a thoroughbred indie rock band named after a racehorse and Archduke Ferdinand, over the last decade or two they have evolved into a far more electronic and synth-heavy outfit. On The Humans, Ferdinand seem to have measured the distance betwixt the two with more accuracy than ever, sticking their flag in the surface of a perfectly realised middle ground.
Review: 2006 was a very different time in rock 'n' roll. We'd cast off the Britpop and nu metal of the previous century's finale and millennium turn, and things had moved onto sounds that were far more sentimental, sometimes self-pitying and always hyper-emotional. This was true both of the rise of emo and hardcore resurgence, and the more chart (and advert)-friendly stuff coming from the likes of Keane and Coldplay. Over in the US, The Fray were looking to secure membership to that Closer-soundtrack worthy club and on their debut LP made a strong case for it. How To Save A Life features a number of powerful tracks, from the titular lead single to the piano-vocal showstopper, 'Hundred'. Moving enough to become the best selling digital album of all time, at the time (only trumped by Eminem's Recovery in 2010), here it is in physical form.
Review: Like a cross between Jimothy Lacoste, Lily Allen, Mac De Marco and The Breeders, Freak Slug is a fine addition to the esteemed Future Classic record label. Freak Slug appears to gravitate towards food-themed song titles and on single 'Piece of Cake' she makes her craft seem effortless with witty wordplay and melodies flowing out of her. 'Liquorice' is a bigger sounding tune, with a bit of Weezer kick, while 'Ya Ready' leans into a post-grunge territory with more serious, affecting somber tones and 'Sexy Lemon' has shades of Superorganism. A solid effort from a fast-rising star.
Review: We would normally frame Ty Segall as a garage rock musician. For years he's been putting out some of the best garage psych thrills in the business and that's what he's best known for. But he's broadened his palette in recent times and it sounds like a completely natural reinvention towards this sort of sun-kissed psychedelia met with early Radiohead-esque drawl. The harmonic world that he's creating with Corey Madden, the singer and guitarist of the Los Angeles band Color Green, under the moniker Freckle is just divine. The project has been first introduced to the world through the single 'Taraval' and it's keeping the old time-y spirit of 60s handmade rock n' roll alive. All the collectors who say that songwriting had its hey day best listen to this record of life-affirming brilliance where you can imagine Paul McCartney begging for a guest spot.
Review: Like many of us, Fred Again keeps a diary. But rather than writing in a journal, pager or Notes app, his diary takes the unusual form of an intensely personal album series, 'Actual Life'. The second instillment in the series hears him once again weave through Londonized R&B, future garage and pop-electronic, charting an 8-month period looking into an intensely difficult period of his life, in which the artist was confronted with a complex case of grief.
Slam With The Best Or Jam Like The Rest (Lavender Town) (2:04)
Now Kith (3:01)
Lavender Town (1:53)
Pennsylvania Dutch (4:45)
Review: Hailing from Nashville, Tennessee, Free Throw are one of the finest examples of midwestern fourth wave emo revival (or simply modern emo), known for their cathartic blend of angst-riddled heart-on-sleeve punk and earworm indie-rock sensibilities, providing soundtracks to alcohol dependency, traumatic break ups and familial discord for well over a decade now. Pre-dating their 2014 debut full-length and modern classic within the scene Those Days Are Gone; this 12" compilation houses both the band's self-titled debut 2012 EP and 2014's follow up Lavender Town onto one definitive LP experience.
Review: Gavin Friday's Ecce Homo marks his return with a bold, sonorous expression after a 13-year hiatus. The album, produced by Dave Ball (Soft Cell), Michael Heffernan, and Riccardo Mulhall, showcases Friday's evolution as an artist, blending rebellion, anger, and introspection into a deeply personal exploration of identity and societal disillusionment. Known as the former frontman of the Irish post-punk band Virgin Prunes, Friday crafts Ecce Homo with a striking mix of emotional vulnerability and defiance, tackling themes like religion, power, and self-liberation. The title track's haunting yet euphoric sound, paired with an AI-generated video, sets the tone for an album that breaks genre conventions while maintaining a sense of triumph. Ecce Homo is a work of fearless self-expression, building on the reflective grief of 2011's Catholic while celebrating the strength found in independence. This album affirms Gavin Friday's enduring artistic presence.
Late March, Death March (alternate version) (3:54)
Review: Pedestrian Verse is a critically acclaimed album by Frightened Rabbit, whose rapidly blooming career was cut short by the death of singer Scott Hutchison in May 2018. It has now been a full decade since the band dropped the mini-masterpiece and so it gets remastered at half speed and reissued by Atlantic with the full and original 12-track album on LP next to a bonus 12" with 11 extra tracks. This was the band's fourth studio album and the only one to feature guitarist and keyboardist Gordon Skene. The record is inspired in part by a break up and finds each of the members of the band stepping up their contribution to the songwriting. It's a great piece of modern indie history.
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