Back in stock: Indie/Alternative

Review: ***B-STOCK: Creasing to corner of outer sleeve but otherwise in excellent condition***


Grunge was already dominating the world by July 1993, when Chicago's Smashing Pumpkins released their second album, but Siamese Dream would point the way forward for the sound, and, racking up six million sales, it would also prove to be one of its most successful landmarks after Nirvana's Nevermind. It was that album's producer - Butch Vig - who took the helm on this album, and his trademark crunchy and compressed take on the loud/quiet light and shade of 'Today' and the gloriously sludgy 'Mayonnaise' had a lot to do with its success. That and, of course, Bill Corgan's distinctive and vulnerable vocal performances, which make this the missing evolutionary step between the Pixies and the next generation of emo kings like My Chemical Romance.

Review: Slowcore and dream pop collide on this latest LP from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs - 'Cool It Down' is their fifth studio album and a surprise return almost 10 years on from 2013's 'Mosquito'. Uniquely teased by the whispery lead single 'Spitting Off The Edge Of The World' - a hopeless anthem for those left behind, laying somewhere between the slowcore of Deathcrash and the indie dream dreamt by Band Of Horses - this one is a focused eight-tracker of enormously mournful proportions. It also contains a guest appearance by Perfume Genius.