Upchuck – I’m Nice Now (Domino) (13th Floor Album Review)
Upchuck’s third album, I’m Nice Now, is less an actual truce than a strategic, calculated feint. Frontwoman Kaila “KT” Thompson and the band haven’t shed their rage; they’re simply channeling it with greater focus.
ROCKET – R Is For Rocket (Transgressive Records) (13th Floor Album Review)
Rocket’s debut album R Is For Rocket illustrates how raw talent, hard work, clear ideas and not being scared to rework old ideas can come together to make a truly remarkable recording.
Vernon Reid – Hoodoo Telemetry (Artone/The Players Club Records) (13th Floor Album Review)
Living Colour’s Vernon Reid is about to release a 14-track opus called Hoodoo Telemetry. Reid says it isn’t a linear piece, but a thrillingly tangled tapestry of genres, collaborators and material from different time periods. Its energy and chaos seems to reflect and challenge what Reid considers the “tumultuous”. The 13th Floor’s Jeff Neems gives […]
Bright Eyes – Kids Table (Dead Oceans) (13th Floor EP Review)
Bright Eyes’ playful companion to 2024’s Five Dice, All Threes is further evidence of Conor Oberst finding rejuvenation through collaboration. Kids Table, seven songs and a minor soundscape that are mostly leftovers from the last album, is a spirited EP punctuated by some stirring team-ups.
The Living End – I Only Trust Rock n Roll (BMG) (13th Floor Album Review)
The Living End have dropped their latest release I Only Trust Rock N Roll after an eight year gap. Inspired by being on the ground near the turbulent LA George Floyd riots, The Australian punk trio have aimed to recapture the sound and attitude heard on their debut.
Cowboy Up – Kaylee Bell (13th Floor Album Review)
Kaylee Bell has just released Cowboy Up and the 13th Floor’s Robin Kearns gives it a spin (or two).
Black Lips – Season of the Peach (Fire) (13th Floor Album Review)
Season of the Peach, the latest album from Black Lips, kicks the doors down from the first warped note. What follows is a relentless 14-track, 40 minute, loud, high-speed ride through death wishes, celebrity name-drops, and glorious chaos.
Jeff Tweedy – Twilight Override (dBpm) (13th Floor Album Review)
Jeff Tweedy doesn’t need another write-up to “drum up listenership.” Throngs of devoted Wilco fans will simply lap up his latest solo triple album Twilight Override—a genuine fucking gem of a record, I should add—by word of its existence alone.
Nick Drake – The Making Of Five Leaves Left (Island/UME) 4-CD Box Set
The Making Of Five Leaves Left, a project nine years in gestation, was released on July 25th via UMR/Island Records. This Nick Drake Estate authorised edition comprises over 30 previously unheard outtakes from the sessions which gradually became Five Leaves Left (1969) and is available as 4 CD and 4 LP boxed sets. The 13th Floor’s Faith Hamblyn has a […]
Something They Call Myth – Too: Matheson Bay Sessions (13th Floor EP Review)
From the first hush of finger-picked guitar, Too: Matheson Bay Sessions by Something They Call Myth feels like a night around the fire with friends, music as an invitation and memory all at once. Across four songs it moves from the fading glow of Embers to the slow-burn intimacy of House of Friends, weaving stories of camaraderie, risk, and […]
Neko Case – Neon Grey Midnight Green (Anti-) (13th Floor Album Review)
After a seven-year hiatus, the fearless Neko Case returns with Neon Grey Midnight Green, perhaps her most fully realized and ambitious album yet.
Underwire – State Between (13th Floor Album Review)
It’s been incubating for nearly 15 years, now at last Underwire deliver their debut album State Between.
Amanda Shires – Nobody’s Girl (ATO) (13th Floor Album Review)
Amanda Shires’ Nobody’s Girl is a luminous, defiant chronicle of life after the end of both a marriage and a musical partnership with fellow songwriter Jason Isbell.
Robert Plant – Saving Grace (Nonesuch) (13th Floor Album Review)
Robert Plant continues his exploration of the “remote corners of recorded music” with this collection of covers and trad blues recorded in his own corner of the world…along the Welsh borders.
Ben Chavasse – Boxing (13th Floor Album Review)
Tamaki-Makarau-based indie-folk artist Ben Chavasse is no stranger to honing his craft. Having won Smokefree Rockquest at age 16, he’s been slowly refining it ever since – and now, he’s stepped triumphantly into the open with his debut album, Boxing, an impressive 10-track compilation. The album is produced by Ben and Michael Luke Howell, who […]
The Third Mind – Right Now! (Yep Roc) (13th Floor Album Review)
From the opening notes of Right Now! it’s clear that The Third Mind have once again captured the thrill of discovery in real time. Their third studio album is a dynamic dialogue between musicians, eras, and every earlier version of these songs that these fearless improvisers now claim them as their own.
Joan Shelley – Real Warmth (No Quarter) (13th Floor Album Review)
Joan Shelley writes songs that feel like places you can step inside: quiet rooms, wooded trails, a friend’s porch at dusk. With Real Warmth she invites us into the most welcoming space she’s built yet. It’s an album of home, connection, and slow-burning growth, recorded live in the dead of a cold Toronto winter yet filled with […]
Carson McHone – Pentimento (Merge) (13th Floor Album Review)
Carson McHone’s fourth album Pentimento arrives like a living manuscript, its pages alive with shifting landscapes, salt air, and the grain of skin.
Scarlet Rae – No Heavy Goodbyes (Bayonet) (13th Floor EP Review)
Every so often an artist emerges who feels both familiar and utterly distinct. Scarlet Rae, born in Los Angeles and now based in New York, is one of those.
Dead Famous People – Wild Young Ways (Tiny Global) (13th Floor Album Review)
Dead Famous People… their story is a pop parable. Formed in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland in the mid-1980s by the singularly gifted Dons Savage, they quickly shone with two Flying Nun EPs and Savage’s backing vocals graced The Chills’ Heavenly Pop Hit.