Reviews / Album

Drug abuse, troubled musical relationships, pneumonia, liver disease; what doesn’t kill Jason Pierce – aka J Spaceman – only makes Spiritualized more of a single-minded anomaly it seems.

Bemis is still an intriguing figure, yet Anarchy, My Dear proves a glaring reminder that intrigue means nothing without focused talent.

She’s spent years mastering this idea – refining her songs into their simplest form, with her subtle vocals gently working around the edges.

In fact, Secular sounds like a band emancipated from the restraints that a genre can inadvertently provide, and by shirking those tropes have creatively broken through the glass ceiling. A brave move that has more than paid off

If Locked Down makes him hip again, the world will be a better place for it.

...those who give him a chance to spin his magic are in for a soothing and affirming journey indeed.

While Electronic Earth offers up some almost experimental production ideas, it doesn’t have more than a couple of tracks to really justify Labrinth’s regular assertions that he’s gonna change the world.

Who else could get away with dressing up like a mourning widow for their album cover and still look universally doable?

They all sip on their coffees for a few moments, lost in thought about the enigma that is Chet Faker. “He’s a little bit of a modern lover too,” offers George, “songs about lust, sex and the ladies, but he does do it with style. I’ll give him that.“

The Used are a band that learn and grow from previous mistakes and experiences. While they had a bit of a dry spell, as far as quality goes, Vulnerable feeds off preceding works and is all the stronger for it.

Composer and pianist Robert Glasper would have been just 12 years old when Guru and Premier dropped Jazz Thing back in 1990. Jazz, hip hop and soul have always intertwined, now so to a point where the genres are such easy bedfellows that jazz label Blue Note releasing an album heavy in hip hop and soul is no longer unusual.

At times it feels as though the song might snap in two as it’s carried only by Felice’s delicate and vulnerable breathy voice.