Amanda Shires: Take It Like A Man

August 2, 2022 Peter Kimpton

New album: Stirring, potent folk-country-power-pop by the Texan singer-songwriter and violinist and Highwomen founder, who on this 10th solo album extends her stylistic repertoire with orchestral and almost Radiohead-like guitar atmospherics alongside her expressive, emotive voice

New albums: Bat For Lashes, Chrissie Hynde, Iggy Pop, Tinariwen, The Highwomen, Octa Octa, Frankie Cosmos, Various from Madagascar

September 10, 2019 Peter Kimpton

Cutting edge? Bat For Lashes’ Natasha Kahn

This latest roundup includes Natasha Kahn’s return with vampiric battiness, Chrissie Hynde’s alternative American Songbook, Iggy Pop intoning poetry, and beautiful work from Mali’s Tinawiren and a Madagascar compilation

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DRINK OF THE WEEK
milk

SNACK OF THE WEEK
red peppers

New Albums …

Featured

Jeffrey Lewis - The Even More Freewheelin.jpeg

Mar 26, 2025

Jeffrey Lewis: The EVEN MORE Freewheelin' Jeffrey Lewis

Mar 26, 2025

New album: One of the great independent singer-songwriters around, the prolific New Yorker and cartoonist returns with his clever, witty, alternative indie-folk, here with an amusing visual play on that famous Bob Dylan album for this brand new LP recorded with his band in just four days at Haptown Studios, Nashville

Mar 26, 2025

Mar 25, 2025

Hamilton Leithauser: This Side Of The Island

Mar 25, 2025

New album: Having experimented with different styles his solo albums The Walkman frontman rekindles passionate, raw intensity and pent-up energy alongside introspection in latest LP in part produced by The National’s Aaron Dessner.

Mar 25, 2025

Benefits: Constant Noise

Mar 25, 2025

New album: Super-sharp, angry and articulate, this is striking, vivid, social and political spoken word and hip-hop on a backdrop of cinematic electronica, dance and punk by the Middlesbrough duo of Kingsley Hall and Robbie Major – a scything sonic and verbal attack on western ills at home and abroad

Mar 25, 2025

Mar 23, 2025

YHWH Nailgun: 45 Pounds

Mar 23, 2025

New album: A rite of passage to the senses, this short, sharp, experimental debut noise rock LP by the New York quartet feels like being dropped into a growling, stop-start pinball machine, but the experience is weirdly rewarding

Mar 23, 2025

Annie & The Caldwells: Can't Lose My (Soul)

Mar 23, 2025

New album: A fabulously uplifting soul, gospel and funk release the the family band who release their first LP four decades into their career, fronted by the supreme voice of West Point, Mississippi’s Annie Caldwell, alongside her daughters, husband and god-daughter

Mar 23, 2025

Brian D'Addario: Till The Morning

Mar 23, 2025

New album: A solo album by one half of the Long Island brothers band The Lemon Twigs, here channelling his many 60s and 70s influences, from The Beatles to The Hollies, Beach Boys to Byrds to Dave Clark Five, bringing balladic beauty and melancholy, and old-school vocal harmony pop

Mar 23, 2025

Greentea Peng: Tell Dem It's Sunny

Mar 23, 2025

New album: South-east London’s Aria Wells returns her second album after 2021’s Man Made with a stylish, dark, smoky fusion of trip-hop, hip-hop, reggae, neo-soul, R’n’B, and indie rock, with a variety of timbres and themes, but overall one of self-renewal and change

Mar 23, 2025

Japanese Breakfast - For Melancholy Brunettes.jpeg

Mar 22, 2025

Japanese Breakfast: For Melancholy Brunettes (& sad women)

Mar 22, 2025

New album: Rapturously crafted, literary, smart, dream pop by the Philadelphia band fronted by singer-songwriter Michelle Zauner, this fourth LP also has a darker, more melancholic, introverted hue than her previous Jubilee, here inspired by myths, poetry and fiction on thematic cycles of temptation, transgression and retribution

Mar 22, 2025

Mar 19, 2025

Courting: Lust For Life, Or ‘How To Thread The Needle And Come Out The Other Side To Tell The Story'

Mar 19, 2025

New album: A lengthy title for a short, snappy, cleverly interwoven eclectic indie-dancefloor-postpunk experimental third LP by the Liverpool band with a theme of duality, a cyclical intro and outro, and each song paired with a balanced counterpart, sharing specific sonic elements.

Mar 19, 2025

Jason Isbell: Foxes In The Snow

Mar 19, 2025

New album: Following four straight albums with his band the 400 Unit, the Nashville-based Grammy-winning Alabama singer-songwriter’s latest LP is a stripped back, heartfelt, candid, beautiful set of new Americana folk with just him and his 1940 Martin acoustic guitar

Mar 19, 2025

The Tubs: Cotton Crown

Mar 19, 2025

New album: With a Sonic Youth-referencing title, the London-based Welsh indie quartet’s second LP, following 2023’s Dead Meat, is a short, sharp, punchy release of nine jangly, Johnny Marr-influenced guitar tracks, reflecting on love but also with a gut-wrenching, tragic finale

Mar 19, 2025

Throwing Muses - Midnight Concessions.jpeg

Mar 18, 2025

Throwing Muses: Moonlight Concessions

Mar 18, 2025

New album: The veteran Rhode Island alternative rock and post-punk band fronted by Kristin Hersh return with an 11th studio album with a strikingly different sound - a stripped back, almost-unplugged acoustic release of restrained but haunting powe

Mar 18, 2025

Mar 17, 2025

Edwyn Collins: Nation Shall Speak Unto Nation

Mar 17, 2025

New album: A beautifully tender, reflective 10th indie pop solo album by the acclaimed Scottish singer-songwriter and former Orange Juice frontman, with strong, resonant indie numbers on life’s circularity, love, home, health and belonging

Mar 17, 2025

Mar 15, 2025

Circuit des Yeux: Halo On The Inside

Mar 15, 2025

New album: Dark, vivid, pagan, hedonistic, carnal goth-dancefloor experimental electronica and more by the Chicago-based multi-disciplinary superbly alternative artist Haley Fohr and her otherworldly, mesmerically rich, four-octave voice

Mar 15, 2025

new songs …

Featured

Mar 27, 2025

Song of the Day: CMAT - Running/Planning

Mar 27, 2025

Song of the Day: Fabulously stylish, passionate, humorous, fantasy-scenario country-pop pours out in this new single by the charismatic Irish singer-songwriter Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson, heralding her upcoming third album, EURO-COUNTRY, out on 29 August via AWAL Recordings

Mar 27, 2025

Mar 26, 2025

Song of the Day: TOKiMONSTA - Enjoy Your Life

Mar 26, 2025

Song of the Day: Taken from the Los Angeles DJ and producer Jennifer Lee’s very recent album Eternal Reverie which explores a variety of pop and dance styles, this joyous 70s disco funk number rekindling a 1981 hit single by Nigeria’s Oby Onyioha brings a spring to any step, released on Young Art Records.

Mar 26, 2025

Mar 25, 2025

Song of the Day: Lucius - Impressions (featuring Madison Cunningham)

Mar 25, 2025

Song of the Day: Striking, stylish, with rich vocals, intricate alternative indie-pop by the LA quartet fronted by vocalists and co-songwriters Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig in a number about false identity, featuring guest Madison Cunningham, the latest single from their upcoming fourth and self-titled album, out on 2 May via Fantasy Records

Mar 25, 2025

Mar 24, 2025

Song of the Day: Feeble Little Horse - This Is Real

Mar 24, 2025

Song of the Day: Leaping unexpectedly between sweet, gentle indie and raucous, explosive noise rock, this striking, otherworldly post-punk release by the Pittsburgh quaret is a weird and wonderful challenge to the senses

Mar 24, 2025

Mar 23, 2025

Song of the Day: Billie Marten - Feeling

Mar 23, 2025

Song of the Day: A bright and sunny love song with a twist by the London-based British folk-pop singer-songwriter aka Isabella Sophie Tweddle, from Ripon North Yorkshire, heralding her forthcoming fifth studio album, Dog Eared, out on 18 July via Fiction Records

Mar 23, 2025

Mar 22, 2025

Song of the Day: Matt Berninger - Bonnet Of Pins

Mar 22, 2025

Song of the Day: The frontman of The National’s new solo single has his distinctive rich vocal tones, a warm, swelling indie sound and here some gently caustic, vivid lyrics about a tricky reunion. It heralds his second solo album Get Sunk out 30 May, on Concord Records

Mar 22, 2025

Mar 21, 2025

Song of the Day: Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs – Glib Tongued (Feat: El-P)

Mar 21, 2025

Song of the Day: Turn it up to seven! The likeable Newcastle-upon-Tyne heavy rockers return with their elemental, meaty, thunderous sound fronted by raucous voice of Matthew Baty, also joined by one half of American hip-hop outfit Run The Jewels, aka rapper

Mar 21, 2025

Mar 20, 2025

Song of the Day: Deradoorian - Any Other World

Mar 20, 2025

Song of the Day: Enthralling, inspiring, imaginative electronica and and analogue percussion by the New York singer, composer and multi-instrumentalist Angel Deradoorian, with this latest single heralding the forthcoming album, Ready For Heaven, out on Fire Records on 9 May

Mar 20, 2025

Mar 19, 2025

Song of the Day: Kae Tempest - Statue In The Square

Mar 19, 2025

Song of the Day: Striking and articulate as ever, this first single since 2022 by the south London rapper, lyricist, poet, playwright and author is a defiant, empowering shout-out to non-binary identity with an arresting video

Mar 19, 2025

Mar 18, 2025

Song of the Day: Billy Nomates - The Test

Mar 18, 2025

Song of the Day: Dealing with a turbulent 18 months including the death of her father, the innovative British artist Tor Maries returns with a powerful new track heralding her forthcoming third album Metalhorse, out on 16 May via Invada Records

Mar 18, 2025

Barry Can't Swim - The Person You'd Like to Be.jpeg

Mar 17, 2025

Song of the Day: Barry Can't Swim - The Person You'd Like To Be

Mar 17, 2025

Song of the Day: Following 2023’s popular and Mercury Prize-nominated LP When Will We Land?, Edinburgh DJ and producer Joshua Mainnie’s new single, co-written with Jamie Livingstone, is a dark, menacing, spoken-word number heralding his forthcoming second album Loner, out on 30 May on Ninja Tune

Mar 17, 2025

Mar 16, 2025

Song of the Day: Léa Sen - Video Games

Mar 16, 2025

Song of the Day: Deliciously fluid, smooth, relaxed, gentle, melancholy indie-pop by the Paris-born, French-Martiniquan London-based multi-instrumentalist and singer, heralding her forthcoming debut album, Levels, out on 30 May via Partisan Records

Mar 16, 2025

Word of the week

Featured

three banded armadillo apar tolypeutine.jpeg

Mar 26, 2025

Word of the week: tolypeutine

Mar 26, 2025

Word of the week: A noun related to the term Tolypeutinae, this is a subfamily of Chlamyphoridae of the armadillo family, consisting of the giant, naked-tailed and particularly the three-banded species

Mar 26, 2025

Mar 12, 2025

Word of the week: ulotrichous

Mar 12, 2025

Word of the week: While it’s entirely natural in animals such as sheep as well as some humans, depending on an individual’s point of view it’s either a blessing or a curse. From Greek words oûlos (crisp, curly) and -trikhos (haired), this adjective means having curly or woolly hair

Mar 12, 2025

Feb 26, 2025

Word of the week: varsovienne

Feb 26, 2025

Word of the week: Our latest etymological move into obscurity originates in around 1850 in Warsaw, Poland, and also known as the varsouvienne or varsoviana – a slow, graceful dance in 3/4 waltz time, which also combines elements of the mazurka and polka

Feb 26, 2025

Feb 11, 2025

Word of the week: withershins / widdershins

Feb 11, 2025

Word of the week: Also variously spelled widershins and widderschynnes, this Lowland Scots dialect word term derived from German means counter-clockwise, literally “against the way”, not only on a clock face, but originally against the perceived motion of the sun in the northern hemisphere

Feb 11, 2025

Jan 29, 2025

Word of the week: xenodocheionology

Jan 29, 2025

Word of the week: It’s something in which many of us may indulge during the thick of winter, planning for holidays via booking websites, this noun meaning the study of hotels, extending also to researching their lore and history

Jan 29, 2025