Album Review: Billie Eilish – Happier Than Ever
Happier Than Ever is the second studio album by American singer and songwriter Billie Eilish. Released on July 30, 2021 by Darkroom and Interscope Records, Eilish co-wrote the album with Finneas O’Connell, her brother, co-producer and overall musical wizard.
Graeme James – Field Notes on an Endless Day (Nettwerk)
On Field Notes on an Endless Day, multi-instrumentalist Graeme James uses a wide variety of folk instruments to create soundscapes that accentuate his stories set in summer.
Album Review: The Go! Team Get Up Sequences Part One
Musical obsessive Ian Parton has spent nine years bringing this album to fruition. His passion project The Go! Team originally started with taking multitudes of brief samples to fashion a tapestry of Pop. Or more correctly, Pop Art. Album Review: The Go! Team Get Up Sequences Part One (Memphis Industries)
Album Review: LoneLady – Former Things (Warp)
Julie Campbell started work on the third LoneLady album, Former Things, when she took up a residency at Somerset House’s studio in London in 2016.
EP Review: Freya – Wildest Creatures I’ve Dreamed
North Shore teen Freya serves up her Wildest Creatures I’ve Dreamed.
Bobby Gillespie and Jehnny Beth – Utopian Ashes (Third Man)
Forty one years ago Joy Division charted the emotions of the failing end of a relationship in their classic song Love Will Tear Us Apart and that same sad territory is mapped in Utopian Ashes by Bobby Gillespie and Jehnny Beth. On their first album together Gillespie and Beth use country and chamber pop to […]
Album Review: Hiss Golden Messenger Quietly Blowing It
With a Grammy nomination in his back pocket, M.C. Taylor (aka Hiss Golden Messenger) is on a roll and Quietly Blowing It looks to be one of the year’s finest Americana records.
Album Review: Squirrel Flower – Planet (i)
The album Planet (i) is titled for a new world that Ella Williams, who is Squirrel Flower, imagines people settle and destroy after leaving earth and for her internal world of thoughts and feelings.
Album Review: Marc Ribot’s Ceramic Dog – Hope
This is the third album for the three piece Marc Ribot’s Ceramic Dog which is Ribot, plus two members of the Secret Chiefs 3 avant-rock band. The band has Shahzad Ismaily, on bass and synth and Ches Smith on drum, percussion and electronics. To enjoy their work it probably helps if you tastes run to […]
Album Review: Wolf Alice – Blue Weekend (Liberator)
After the steady progress of their first two albums Wolf Alice have taken a bold step forward with their new album Blue Weekend. The album combines soaring well crafted dynamics, subtle playing and stunning vocals with lyrics that fearlessly tackle a range of human emotions.
13th Floor Album Review: Thomas Isbister – #5
The first impression listening to Thomas Isbister’s brand-new album is Beatles. Specifically, 1966 and the switch to studio artists. Revolver to Strawberry Fields and Penny Lane. Pop music as myriad and quietly subversive. Psychedelic and hallucinogenic. Unsettling but what a nice trip, and at the end you find yourself in a changed world.
Album Review: Chris Thile – Laysongs (Nonesuch)
American bluegrass musician Chris Thile has just released his new album, Laysongs…a truly solo effort. The 13th Floor checks it out.
Album Review: The Datsuns – Eye To Eye (Hellsound Records)
The new Datsuns album Eye To Eye is first and foremost great fun from start to finish. Seven years in the making, but it sounds seamless and fresh and it touches on many classic periods of Rock (& Roll).
Album Review: Flamingo Pier – Flamingo Pier (Soundway)
Since 2015 Flamingo Pier have been running dance parties in London and, more recently, an annual boutique event on Waiheke Island. To coincide with the 2019 Waiheke Island event they released their self titled debut EP and this was followed a year later by a second EP, Indigo. These eight tracks showed that they could […]
Album Review: Natalie Bergman – Mercy (Third Man Records)
The heavenly voice of Natalie Bergman emanates into the light with her solo debut album Mercy. The uplifting gospel is steeped in Christianity yet alludes to a universal soul-searching for spiritual answers with contemporary transcendent sonics.
Reissue Review: John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band – The Ultimate Mixes (Apple)
John Lennon’s stark, startling solo album gets the once-over 50 years after its initial release with newly-heard outtakes.
EP Review: Keeley Shade Give Me Time
New artist Keeley Shade has released her debut EP. It’s a small gem of Folk Pop meditative music which also dances softly with the deeper influences of Country. All five tracks shimmer and radiate out, from slow and quiet to rise in dramatic tension.
Album Review: Tom Jones – Surrounded By Time (EMI)
One thing to be said about Surrounded By Time…this is not your mother’s (or grandmother’s) Tom Jones album.
Album Review: Swallow The Rat / Clone – Split (Headbump)
In February 2020 the Auckland based Swallow The Rat and the Brooklyn based Clone were both on the east coast of the USA. The bands were touring and going to share the stage at the SXSW festival but the pandemic meant all their plans were abruptly halted. Despite this setback the bands established a strong […]
Album Review: The Chills – Scatterbrain (Fire)
2015’s album Silver Bullets was a good start for The Chills second career and 2018’s Snowbound was very well received. We are now at the difficult third album stage for a band whose first career was all about making things difficult for themselves.