What does it sound like?:

A look at two RSD releases, both double vinyl albums. If memory serves, this Crimson set was originally part of the huge Road To Red box set that appeared around ten years ago, but this marks its first standalone release. It captures the band on top form on their 1974 US tour, with highlights being a fiery take on Larks Tongues, a nice Exiles, and best of all the closing quite magnificent pairing of Fracture and Starless. Appended as a bonus is a fine performance of 21st Century Schizoid Man captured a couple of days later at a show in Central Park. Further good news for fans is that July will see the release of a 2LP/cd set capturing the highlights of the band’s four night run in New York in September 2014. This marks the start of a new series of releases for the ‘seven headed beast’ line up that existed from 2014-2021, and will be followed later this year by a two bluray set that comprises all 19 shows from that 2014 US tour. The XTC set is the first in a proposed series of live recordings. This one captures the band » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

To this seventeen year old at the time, 1975 was the year music grew up. Bob Marley Live, Blood On The Tracks, The Last Record Album, Another Green World, Young Americans, The Original Soundtrack, Katy Lied, Mothership Connection and There’s No Place Like America Today were all mature, detailed, complex works on heavy rotation in my house. The simple chords of Glam Rock lingered but lost its glitter for Down By Jetty and Rock ‘N’ Roll. Sadly, to my shame, there was no room for female voices, not even Joni nor Emmylou. One Of These Nights did not feature on my turntable either. It’s not that it wasn’t grown up music. Grown ups clearly loved it but my teenage self saw it as dull cotton wool for the ears. It wasn’t just middle-of-the-road, it was buried in the soft centre, sub CSN/Y slop. I didn’t think much of CSN/Y. The charms of Laurel Canyon passed me by in 1975. One Of These Nights is the fourth album by Eagles, each increasingly popular, as they progressed from Linda Ronstadt’s backing band to megastars. It was their first number one and sold 4 million copies in » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

Sofia Kourtesis has been a fast-rising star of the last few years as a producer and DJ. Her album Madres was high on my top albums list for 2023, with its mix of beats and hazy warm melodies creating something elusive and fragile as well as rhythmically hypnotic.

Now, after a series of mixtapes for platforms like Resident Advisor comes her first big-series DJ mix release on – gasp – physical format. Overall it cleaves to the general mix arc – we start with a beatless intro track, here temple bells from Jon Hopkins, and gradually warm up with some relaxed and downtempo tracks from Aphex Twin and Daphi (aka Caribou). Kourtesis has, as is customary with DJ Kicks, a few self-penned tracks scattered throughout – first up is It’s You is in the relaxed warm-up section, leading to some house-flavoured tracks from Myd, Axel Bowman etc (no me neither). Her next self-penned track, Texas Changing, takes things up another gear. This is what I love about her work – rhythmic while never losing sight of a melody. Joy look Up Now introduces a seventies disco sample-based track with a wicked mid-track stuttery » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

It sounds like what it is: Yes soundboard recordings transferred to vinyl. Let’s get that out of the way first, this is no audiophile release. But, it surprised me.

The energy is, at times, beyond anything I’ve heard from this version of the band. We’ve all heard the stories about Wakeman hating this album and tour, but in real life he plays like a man possessed, inserting new parts into the material from Topo and, the best I can think of saying it, playing seriously – no comedy car chase piano! Moogs and Mellotrons dominate. He inserts a whole new section into The Remembering.

Steve Howe is, as with Yessongs, flying forward at a million miles an hour, sometimes stumbling, but often adding flair and expressive, bluesy (or countryish) licks into some of the material that seemed a bit flat on the original album.

Chris Squire is Chris Squire.

Alan White is a powerhouse here, on the Ritual he raises the tempo and the band go flying, improvising sections and turning the worst track into a beast, Howe responds with some amazing steel guitar. It’s like a different song at times. Off the scale.

Jon » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

Speaking with a similar nerdy friend, we hit upon discussion of UFO: “Strangers In The Night is indeed one of the best Live albums out there, but did they ever have such a complete studio album?” “Umm … maybe Phenomenon?”

UFO on stage and UFO in the studio were 2 different beasts, and I’m not convinced they ever managed a truly great studio album. But (other than Phenomenon mentioned above), this one comes very close. Buoyed by the critical and commercial response to Strangers In The Night, Chrysalis spotted an opportunity and paired UFO with George Martin for No Place To Run. Even with the Chrysalis marketing machine at full chat (including various coloured vinyl singles, alternative album covers), and George Martin’s AIR Studios at their disposal, the album felt a bit flat, and the rougher edges cleaned up. Coming into The Wild, The Willing and the Innocent, UFO dispensed with a producer and took the job on themselves. A blessing because they now had the freedom to create the sounds they wanted, and a curse (as Paul Chapman noted) as the quality control went out of the window, and they ended up with » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

To The 5 Boroughs is The Beastie Boys sixth studio album, released in 2004. Ad-Rock, MCA and Mike D were all pushing forty years old. Two of them were responsible fathers, the other a peace-loving Buddhist. They were positively ancient in the world of Hip Hop, so, naturally, they go Old Skool in an attempt to get back to the party vibe of their debut. They go so far back, Triple Trouble doffs its cap to The Sugarhill Gang. However, financial constraints resulted in the closure of their record label, 9/11 had destroyed the Twin Towers and decimated their beloved New York City, and George Bush had begun the War On Terror. A gloom hangs over the album like the dust from the towers’ collapse. Nevertheless, it followed the previous two albums by debuting at number one in the Billboard chart and selling over a million copies in the States.

To The 5 Boroughs is self produced and the only credited additional musician is Mix Master Mike on turntables. The backing tracks are simplified, building strong, muscular beats, and eschewing frivolous samples. It is their most coherent album. With no real skits and » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

Well, it’s Kris Drever. It’s tuneful, with a hiunt of melancholic, and thoughtful lyrics.

It’s not a long reviuew. I’m writing tjis though a vitreal hemaorrage which is kind m,essing with what I can see.

This is the latest Drever, and it’s….

Well, it’s a typical Kris Drever. Which means, to my ears, that it’s great. The musicianship, the lyrics, the overall sound is just wonderful. I’ve had it on repeat the whole day, alongside the Broken Chanter release.

He’s not breaking new ground. But he doesn’t need to.

What does it all *mean*?

Good music will out.

Goes well with…

Smoky whisky

Release Date:

April 10

Might suit people who like…

Lau. Kris Drever. Good music.

What does it sound like?:

It’s not as if I need reminding that I’m getting old (I sent off my bus pass application last Friday in anticipation of unlimited free use of the park and ride) but just in case I’d forgotten, here’s the 50th anniversary release of the first Trower album I ever purchased and played so often it started to skip.

This is the 4th Trower album to get a 50th buff up, and more a restoration than an enhanced re-release. Richard Whittaker has once again overseen a remix but the main event here is the resequencing of the tracks back to the order they were originally played and inclusion of the songs edited out of the original.

This bumps the track list from 7 to 12. “Gonna Be More Suspicious”, “Fine Day” and “Confessin’ Midnight” are added back, all played on the night ahead of their release on the “For Eart Below” album and (most likely) removed to give a bit more exposure to the older back catalogue. “Day Of The Eagle” is restored as the opener followed by “Bridge of Sighs” giving the album a totally new first half and returning “Rock Me Baby” » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

James Blast, ex of this parish, believed Bongo Fury to be a Captain Beefheart album interrupted by Frank Zappa. The two mavericks knew each other from high school. Zappa produced and wrote some of Trout Mask Replica. In return, the Captain contributed his gnarly vocals to Willie The Pimp on Hot Rats. Their relationship was feisty. They were both innovators and autocratic band leaders but Zappa liked his music to be nerdy, clean and sleek, whereas Beefheart preferred it messy, wild and chaotic. Lyrically, Zappa relied upon cleverness and a peurile sense of humour, while Beefheart specialised in the unhinged ravings of a peculiar mind. Zappa surprised listeners with frequent time changes. Beefheart had a “problem with rhythm”. But, despite their differences, they were inextricably drawn to each other, both finding inspiration in the other’s love of nonconformity and improvisation. By 1975, Zappa was on a roll. 1974’s Apostrophe (*) was a top ten Billboard hit, followed by the virtuosity of Roxy And Elsewhere and One Size Fits All, wherein screwball satire rubs shoulders with disciplined jazz fusion. Beefheart, on the other hand, had lost his Magic Band, disillusioned with his attempt to make » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

Aerosmith are an enormously successful business. They have achieved 25 gold, 18 platinum, and 12 multi-platinum album certifications, in addition to one diamond album, four gold singles, and one platinum digital single. Having sold more than 69.5 million albums in the United States and 150 million worldwide, they are the best-selling American rock band. They have a nice little side line in video games. Guitar Hero: Aerosmith is considered to be the best-selling band-centric video game across both the Guitar Hero and Rock Band platforms. They formed in 1970, broke through with their third album, Toys In The Attic, but temporarily lost their twin guitarists to drugs and rehab during a fallow ten years until a mid-eighties resurgence turbocharged by teaming up with Run-DMC on Walk With This Way. Since then, alongside the cash registers ringing, they have enjoyed critical acclaim and multiple awards. They were inducted to The Rock And Roll Of Fame in 2001.

This debut album was released in 1973. It wasn’t well received at the time and the staunchest of Aerosmith fan is unlikely to rate it as one of their best. It is meat and and potatoes, Stones cos-play, minus the swing and » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

Rush’s tenth album, originally released back in 1984, reappears as a 4 cd plus bluray deluxe set. As the band sought new ground, they ditched long term producer Terry Brown who had worked on every album since 1975’s Fly By Night set, although here he is finally reinstated to remix the album on the second cd of this set, the first being a remaster of the original 1984 mix. It’s a bit of a mixed bag of an album really, not bad by any means but not up there with their classic albums like Moving Pictures either. The strongest tracks are the opening salvo of Distant Early Warning and Red Sector A, together with the closing Between The Wheels. In between are a few good but not that memorable efforts like Afterimage, Kid Gloves and The Body Electric, and a couple that rather miss the mark for me such as Red Lenses and The Enemy Within. Terry Brown’s new mix gives more prominence to the guitar, and overall gives a better balance with the keyboards which had dominated its predecessor Signals, and the sound in general is smoother and warmer than on the original » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

At the risk of sounding like an ABSOLUTE RACIALIST, The Just Joans are one of those Scottish bands. You know the ones – you’ve seen them down the (chip) shops. Whatever it is they put in the Irn Bru, the country has produced a procession of acts – Camera Obscura, Secret Goldfish, Pastels, Ballboy etc – who know their way around a sweet melody while writing songs that are a wee bit romantic but with prominent, frequently self deprecating humour which can occasionally wander into self loathing.

Those who recall the days of picking up unfamiliar LPs and being drawn in by striking song names will note among the JJs catalogue witty, eager to impress titles such as ”Hey Ho, Let’s Not Go”, “Johnny, Have You Come Lately?” and “You’re The One I Loathe The Least”. So often in such cases the jokey title was the best bit or else the songs were entirely daft. While not slow to raise the occasional chuckle, the JJs humour is usually enveloped in real emotional warmth. One of their very best songs, “Who Does Susan Think She Is?” manages to be a razor sharp snarky takedown of a » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

A new solo album from Tony Poole, you say? Fuck, yeah!

The 12-string Rickenbacker God from the much-missed 70’s band, Starry Eyed and Laughing has had some health challenges in recent times but you’d never know it from this vibrant, pulsating collection of songs on this, his first solo album.

The album opens with the title track which sets TP’s stall out from minute-one as that beautiful Ricky evokes his beloved Byrds and the harmony vocals ring out, courtesy of his old pal from SE&L, bassist Iain Whitmore. It’s a terrific opener.

Next up is Chelsea Girls (1965), a lovely look back at Tony’s younger days around Sloane Square and the King’s Road.

The album is packed with good songs, songs that will remain in your head, with hooky choruses and thoughtful lyrics. The production is spot on and the sound is terrific. Tony is a one-man recording-machine and many of the tracks are just him playing drums, bass, keyboards, vocals and, of course, guitars. However, he gets to call on some wonderful friends, including Robin Bennett, Nick Holland, Chris Baylis and Glenn Phillips who delivers some killer guitar solos on the album’s epic » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

There is a good chance that many reviews of this, Big Big Train’s 16th album, will use words like ‘epic’, ‘grand’ and ‘sweeping’, when describing Woodcut and, musically, that would be justified. Yet somehow, this band of master musicians has created an album so personal, so intimate and so intense that it almost beggars belief.

Prog concept albums are usually huge statements, with majestic vistas and complex plots, aren’t they? Woodcut is about a craftsman cutting wood so, how can they turn that into sixty-six minutes of stunning storytelling?

If you doubt that it is possible then you don’t know Big Big Train.

The troubled path that Gregory Spawton and his talented band has had to walk in the past few years has not only given them strength together but has hardened their resolve. Losing singer and writer, David Longdon might have crushed some bands. How on earth do you carry on after losing that ocean of talent, that quiet but dominating presence?

Gregory found Alberto Bravin, the former member of PFM, the Italian who loved David’s writing and, most importantly, loved David’s voice, in every way that the term, ‘voice’ can be used. » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

The Paper Kites have been together, with the same five members, since 2009. They are Australian and have all known each other since high school. They paid their dues, in the old fashioned way, endlessly performing live, honing their sound, working on their technique, and building a following. Their early single, Bloom, gradually gathered momentum, crossed the Pacific and sold a million in America. If You Go There, I Hope You Find It is their seventh studio album.

If The Eagles were soft rock, The Paper Kites are soft folk: largely acoustic instruments, including banjo and lap steel, gentle melodies and smooth caramel harmonies. They occasionally plug in an electric guitar to rough things up but you won’t find much gore or gothic horror. After all these years together, they are in danger of slipping into cosy domesticity. To spice things up their last album, At The Roadhouse, was recorded live with an expanded band, and the one before, Roses, is a collection of duets with guest female vocalists. This time, they return home, almost literally, back to Melbourne, back to their roots and the Sing Sing Studio, stripped down to the five » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

It won’t have escaped the attention of any Floyd fan that 2025 marks the 50th anniversary of this seminal album, one of their top three records for me. The album was rereleased as a deluxe Immersion set back in 2011, coming with a handful of outtakes and a live cd of the ‘Wish You Were Here’ part of the band’s performance at the Empire Pool, Wembley in 1974. (the DSOTM section of the same show was included in the reissue of that album, while the encore, Echoes, appeared in the Early Years box, so you could if you were so inclined recreate the entire concert.) This new edition gives us the same selection of outtakes, but adds a couple of demos of Welcome To The Machine, a pair of alternate takes of the title track, and a rough instrumental mix of Shine On. The Wembley show is dropped and replaced by a much bootlegged performance at the LA Sports Arena from April 1975, which has been restored and remastered by who else but Steven Wilson. The full show with encore is presented on the bluray disc, with the set list being as at Wembley » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

London Records celebrate forty of years of these bands with matching two disc sets, either vinyl or CD. The first disc consists of remastered singles and the second DJ remixes.

Happy Mondays have enjoyed the longer career and are still touring. London own the rights to their Factory recordings, which cover the first four studio albums and fourteen singles, all presented in chronological order. Disc one effectively tracks their development over seven years when a gang of urchins from the back streets of Little Hulton, Salford, somehow managed to conquer the music world and produce two national treasures. Built around two brothers, Shaun and Paul Ryder, and their best mate, Bez, the chaos co-ordinator, they were unruly, immoral, hedonistic, and never worried about consequences. They delivered one of Factory Records best selling albums and bankrupted the company with the follow up. Happy Mondays spearheaded the genre Baggy, a perfect adjective for their music and their dress sense. Perhaps through a lack of ability to keep time, especially when Bez was involved, their main rhythm was a loose, muddy groove, layered with lots of percussion and led by Mark Day’s sinewy jangle guitar. It was » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

Four singles, thats all they had. Four singles. Complete Epic Recordings, Pah!

Leisure Process were a duo, Ross Middleton formerly of Positive Noise and Saxophonist about town Gary Barnacle and our pocket emptying friends at Cherry Red have compiled all their stuff. So what do you get?. The four singles….and B Sides… and Extended Mixes…. and rough mixes of their unreleased debut album.

They probably did`nt make it big due to the schizophrenic nature of their singles. Love Cascade comes on like Blancmange v Erasure. A Way You`ll Never Be has DNA from Level 42`s Hot Water (Mark King does play bass on it!) and Cashflow has the jauntyness of Interferons Steamhammer Sam but with suitably downbeat lyrics.

So, is it any good?. Well yes, its …. epic. Produced mainly by Martin Rushent the extended mixes are a special delight. Non of this, drop the vocals out and extend the outro. The mixes of Anxiety and Company B are things of great beauty, where the songs are mixed up and rebuilt on an,,, er ,, epic level.

The rough mixes of the unreleased debut album show great songs waiting to be polished as » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

In 2023 the Leps co-headlined a global with Mötley Crüe, which stopped off in their hometown of Sheffield. A warm up gig at the 900 capacity Leadmill was staged 3 days before the full monty with Crüe at Sheffield United’s Bramhall Lane ground and approximately 39,100 more punters. The Leadmill gig was given a multi format release a year ago, and now DL return for another nibble with the stadium set.

DL gave the full 40 year anniversary box set treatment to Pyromania and there’s Las Vegas residency at Cesare’s Palace for the whole of February 2026 (it was Dean Martin the last time I went…) and a European and UK tour following a little later which seems likely to platform a new studio release – the last was “Diamond Star Halos” back in 2022.

Back to back live sets albeit a year apart is a little unusual and suggests this release is a stop gap. A few side by side listens suggest it’s the in many ways same but here and there different. The Leadmill set is shorter and has a little more rough edges, but even busking DL would be still » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

You’ve got to hand it to the Cheap Trick lads. Three out of the four original members are still banging out Rock albums, full of new original material, in their mid seventies. Robin Zander’s scream hasn’t lost a single decibel, Tom Petersson’s bass continues to pulsate with virility, and Rick Nielsson’s lead guitar scorches with the exuberance of a teenager. Only the drummer has been replaced, by Nielsson’s son and he’s now fifty-five. Zander’s son also helps out on guitar. All Washed Up is their twenty-first studio album, the title referencing their fifth, All Shook Up released in 1980, and it’s as good as anything they’ve done.

Cheap Trick have a happy knack of blending melody with raw aggression, old fashioned rock ‘n’ roll showmanship with the menace, and brain-melting metal with the youthful degeneracy. There is good reason they were revered by nineties grunge acts such as Nirvana. They are a little less irresponsible these days and pace themselves a little more, leaning towards the power-pop end of their sound and away from hard-rock. However, they have never taken themselves very seriously and have always had a charming line in self deprecation. » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

Black And Blue was a minor detour for The Rolling Stones on their quest to find out what Rock sounded like when it grew up, a quest they’d embarked upon in 1973. Mick Taylor quit in December 1974. They toured America in 1975 and released Made In The Shade, a rather limp Best Of, as a stop gap. Black And Blue was recorded with their touring band, which included Ron Wood, and they used the opportunity to audition a number of auspicious lead guitarists for Taylor’s role.

There are eight tracks, four each side. Three are experimental, one is a cover left over from It’s Only Rock And Roll, two are ballads and only two are proper Stones-y tracks. The style of Blues Rock that defined their imperial phase was petering out. The presence of Billy Preston and Ollie Brown gave them the confidence to try dance, funk, latin and a bit of jazz. Wood’s enthusiasm for reggae added to the mix. Jagger dominates proceedings, clearly having a ball. Richards sits back, contributing little to the writing and leaving plenty of room for the guest guitarists. He was swimming in a fog of » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

Crimson’s second and third albums, which both originally appeared in 1970, are reissued as single cd plus bluray sets featuring new Atmos mixes by, you guessed it, Steven Wilson, plus Elemental mixes by long time manager and collaborator David Singleton, and as if that wasn’t enough, you also get the complete recording sessions for each album. Looking at Poseidon first, Wilson has prepared a new stereo mix, 5.1 mix and of course an Atmos mix of the album plus the single B side Groon, while Singleton adds four elemental mixes. I won’t go through all the tracks as fans, who this package is squarely aimed at, will obviously be familiar with the music already, but if I had to pick out a couple of highlights, it would be the title track and Pictures of a City. In a way the cd is a bit superfluous as all the material plus lots more content besides is to be found on the bluray disc, which also houses the full recording sessions plus the 30th anniversary mix of the album now presented in hi res stereo. Lizard follows a similar format in its layout, although this time » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

The story of the Nebraska album is pretty well known. Springsteen had reached a new level of popularity with The River album and it’s subsequent tour including a first visit to Europe since 1975. After the tour wound up he began work early 1982 on his next project recording demos at home in New Jersey. He was going through a period of depression which was not generally known at the time. Looking back this can clearly be heard in the music he was working on. He took the resulting demos to the E Street band and an attempt was made to record them as potentially the next band album. Bruce was not satisfied with the results and together with manager Jon Landau a decision was made to release most of the solo recordings as the follow up album instead.

The album that came out was something of a commercial success but sales were not at the level of the previous album. There were no hit singles, no tour and songs about serial killers and his childhood clearly held less commercial appeal than Humgry Heart. Astute Bruce watchers would however have noticed the seeds of » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

I would never claim to be an expert on Pentangle, at least from the point of view of their sound. Sure, I know all about them and always have, largely through a lifetime of reading any and every musical press of the day. But, to my shame, at the time they were active, I was put off by the J word that always figured large in their reviews. And stand up bass, FFS, smacking of an era of which, callow youth as I was, I wished no part. Now, yes, now, of course, I can appreciate how blinkered my ears and opinions then were. Over the more recent, I have tried to remedy this, to the extent of investing in various best ofs and the like, if somehow neither ever getting much around to listen them, at least in any great depth. (Nothing new there; at any one time I can have upward of a 100 discs in my pile for listening to, which is, frankly, ridiculous.)

So, when Bargepole presented me with this opportunity, or challenge, perhaps, I dived in at once. This was, of course, weeks ago, the tendency to procrastinate another constant » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

The Cherry Red website describes this as an ‘Extensive seven-CD box set following the career of English singer-songwriter Thea Gilmore.’ Well, up to a point Lord Copper. It’s actually a collection of 7 of Thea’s albums covering the years 2008 to 2015, presented in full, with a handful of extras on some of the discs. It’s not a career retrospective, but it’s a fascinating slice of one.

It also shows how eclectic that career has been. The seven discs cover three studio albums of original songs, a live album, a Christmas album of originals and covers, a track by track take on Dylan’s John Wesley Harding, and a best-of / new songs mash-up including several re-recordings of her own songs with guest artists. In the middle of all this she also recorded Don’t Stop Singing, an album of recently discovered Sandy Denny lyrics set to her own tunes, which is not included here.

Even for me, a fan of a couple of decades standing, it’s a lot to take in, over 100 tracks. Given the scale of the project, I’m sure you’ll forgive me for restricting myself to thoughts and memories on each album » Continue Reading.