Strictly for the curious and the obsessive. Anyone who feels the need hear another take on a Talk Talk track – especially their later material – clearly just hasn’t been listening properly.
Various Artists – Spirit of Talk Talk
Alex Wisgard
Roxy Music – The Complete Studio Recordings 1972-1982
As a testament to the brilliance of Roxy Music all in one handy place, The Complete Studio Recordings is a wonderful and necessary artifact and, as the lyric says, that’s the main thing.
Sugar – Copper Blue, Beaster, File Under: Easy Listening (deluxe remasters)
We reassess the early ’90s output of Bob Mould: hardcore pioneer, control freak and pop genius.
Silver Jews – Early Times
Silver Jews’ uber-lo-fi Early Times sounds like what it is: three bookish guys with trendy record collections dicking around. This, by the way, is a good thing.
“We’re not actually that scary” : The Line of Best Fit meets Liars
Liars’ Angus Andrews talks intensity, getting to grips with electronics and matching tattoos.
Hot Chip – In Our Heads
“Lend me your ideas,” sing Hot Chip wryly, “but not too fully formed”. On their fifth album, Alex Wisgard hears an encyclopaedic grab-bag of classic electropop.
Japandroids – Celebration Rock
Celebration Rock is cigarette butts, spilt beer, hoarse voices and the smell of stale dope smoke. THE KIND OF RECORD THAT CAPS LOCK WAS INVENTED FOR.
My Bloody Valentine – Isn’t Anything, Loveless, EPs and Rarities 1988-1991 (Remastered)
Noise, violence, ecstasy and…fellatio? Alex Wisgard deafens himself sifting through the long-awaited My Bloody Valentine remasters.
Richard Hawley – Standing at the Sky’s Edge
On his last album, Richard Hawley was in the gutter. Now he’s gone to the heavens. With one hell of a bang.
Rufus Wainwright – Out of the Game
So the no-whistles-and-bells approach suits Rufus Wainwright pretty well after all, on this album – a record of the type many people have been wanting him to make of the last decade. For an artist so unpredictable and restless, such normalcy may just be one of the biggest surprises that he could have delivered.
Spiritualized – Sweet Heart Sweet Light
Sweet Heart Sweet Light may be an attempt to return to the Spiritualized of yore, but is it the band you remember them being?
“I’m just a simple man cursed with an honest heart”: The Line of Best Fit meets The Shins’ James Mercer
With their most accessible album to date, it’s a struggle to think of The Shins as operating outside of what James Mercer calls “the fabric of popular culture.”