Go backstage with The Music and receive FREE:

  • Exclusive members-only editorial, charts
  • Our subscriber-only newsletter
  • Members only competitions to win tickets, experiences and more
  • Access to our street press archives
  • First access to our exclusive limited edition vinyl variants

Thank you for being a part of our community! Enter your email address as verification and you'll be taken backstage right away.

Please ensure that you provide a valid email address.

Album Review: Darlia - Petals

Mac McNaughton
StarStarStar

"Could this be the start of shoegazing with a smile?"

Blackpool trio Darlia pack quite a lot of seaside rock into this brisk eight-song, 27-minute mini album. While Nathan Day’s vocals frequently sound like a Green Day audition (especially on the acoustic Pandemonium), Stars Are Aligned and I’ve Never Been To Ohio marry balls-to-the-wall fury with intellectual pensiveness. Petals’ strengths are in its under-complication. Multi-layered guitars provide briefly hypnotic drone-rock elements without dominating or robbing the likes of Candyman their melody or pop sensibility. Could this be the start of shoegazing with a smile?