There’s a strange level of satisfaction reviewing a new album for such a universally loved band like Ball Park Music. It’s like listening to the news that your best friends are getting married, that you’re going to become a parent for the first time or that the coronavirus has been eradicated. It’s pure, unadulterated excitement,…
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For many people, their music tastes come about in one of two ways: through friends and lived experiences or through their parents and siblings. More recently you could even add the internet to that list. For me, the majority of my musical taste came directly from my dad and brother, while being part of the…
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In a time and place like 2020, I’m sure I’m not the only person who not only craves for things to go back to some semblance of normality and homogeneity, but also tries to simultaneously avoid the monotonous nature and constant groundhog days we’ve collectively experienced for the past six months. There’s a fine line…
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When I first put on the pre-stream of Midnight Manor, the second album from The Nude Party, I’d just got home from a long day back in the office after seemingly having never left my house for the last six months. Just as I wondered what I was going to cook for dinner having forgotten…
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Ever seen a band post about current affairs on their socials, and then read comments where morons say something to the effect of “stick to music”? There’s a very good chance you have. IDLES are the type of band that this would occur to regularly. They’ve built a platform on their anti-establishment themes, lyrics, persona and…
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Brash, energetic and full of their own confidence, A. Swayze & the Ghosts are ready to take the guitar rock world by storm – one three minute song at a time. Straight out of the Apple Isle, the four piece debut here with the blistering Paid Salvation and aim to mark their place on the music landscape….
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Everything Everything has always been a band that treads the fine line between grandiose displays of eccentric rock ready for heaving festival crowds, and smart, reclusive, ballad inspired classics fit for a small sweaty room filled with wine and scotch drinks. Being able to seamlessly meander across this spectrum of sound has enabled the Manchester…
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After more than a decade together, San Cisco (Jordi Davieson on vocals and guitar, Scarlett Stevens on drums, and Josh Biondillo on guitar) are now at a point where they know what they are capable of making and very comfortable in doing so. After albums two and three (Gracetown and The Water) left things a…
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It’s been a few years between drinks for Washington. After absolutely smashing it in 2010 with her debut album, I Believe You Liar, Washington took a few years to put together the follow up, 2014’s There, There. Across those two albums, Washington proved just how good she is at what she does. With her jazz…
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Who said science and the arts can’t go hand-in-hand? At a time where everyone is being told that STEM is more important than the arts, it’s the Venn diagrams like Alex The Astronaut that help put everything into perspective. Equal parts scientist and musician, Alex The Astronaut has taken a few years to put to…
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It’s hard to place Johnny Hunter, the four piece from Sydney’s Inner West. With a slew of singles already released, their sound changes from dirty and heavy, to anthemic and poetic; from unruly and messy to clean cut and hopeful. One thing that is easier to work out is that Johnny Hunter are a band…
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After teaching us how to be a human being in 2016, Glass Animals have been forced to adapt to a world in 2020 they definitely wouldn’t have even considered four years ago. Following the life-altering injuries sustained to drummer Joe Seaward, the band put plans for album number three on the back burner allowing Seaward…
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If you told me back in 2014 when E^ST released her first single that it would be another six years before we heard a full album from her, I’d have definitely tried to call your bluff. It feels like E^ST has been around much longer than someone who’s only now releasing their debut album. After…
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I have a vivid memory of a friend messaging me one day asking if I knew who Lime Cordiale were. This was in about 2014 when we were both getting into using Twitter. I was using it on the back of a Uni assignment, and he was using it to follow the NBA. Anyway, my…
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When The Beths released their debut album Future Me Hates Me in 2018, I thought they were one of the more refreshing and interesting bands of the past couple years. With harmonies aplenty, soaring guitars and ever-so-wordy and clever lyrics, the New Zealand four piece were seemingly bound to become everyone’s second favourite band…
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More than two years after their dance tinged second album, DMA’S return in 2020 with another mixed bag of treats and hits as they embrace all things old and new on THE GLOW. Much like their progression from their Hills End to For Now albums, THE GLOW has elements of what you’ve come to expect from…
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I’m sure someone famous and philosophical once said that your 20’s are a time for self discovery, growth and acceptance. Irrespective of your own self confidence, you spend a lot of this period working out who you are and what you want to be. It’s a time for learning, love, adventure and discovery. For Gordi,…
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It’s been four years since Jack Garratt released his debut album to mass love and the weight of expectation that could well ruin the best of artists. And, almost unsurprisingly, this is exactly what happened to him. Touted as the one-stop shop set to change the face of alternative pop, Garratt toured relentlessly for his…
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There’s an immediate punch to Sports Team‘s sound that intrigues you from their opening notes. A certain level of brashness, and a fast-and-loose approach to their debut album Deep Down Happy that sets you in step to instantly love the release. The English six-piece have built a loyal and passionate following on UK shores. That has allowed them…
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English band Sports Team are on the verge of releasing their debut album, Deep Down Happy, in June. Having postponed its release and all tours on the back of COVID-19, we asked lead singer Alex Rice a few questions about the album, what growing up in England was like, how his lockdown experience has been,…
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Will Toledo, frontman of Car Seat Headrest, is surely one of the most prodigiously busy artists in music. While slowing down from his rate of releasing more than two albums a year, the American artist continually pumps out new music and reinvents his sound with every release. Returning in 2020 with Making a Door Less…
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In such strange times, there are certain things in life that are bound to bring some kind of familiarity to what, at times, feels completely foreign. One of these things is Laura Marling, her songwriting, and the re-assuring nature of her stories. Returning with her seventh studio album, Song For Our Daughter is Laura Marling…
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Returning to our ears after a few near traumatic years, Grouplove are back in 2020 with a revitalised sound and lust for music. Always capable of writing a bonafide pop song in the past, the Californian five-piece are back with Healer, an album as up and down as a pushup. Since forming in 2009, there’s…
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Touring in a country you’ve had a unique connection to will always be different to other shows and tours. Coming back to the country you lived in and married into, will always give you reason to perform at a level that goes beyond what could be expected from a touring act. For Ben Folds, playing…
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Northeast Party House have awoken. While their first two albums (Any Given Weekend and DARE) were both great releases in their own right, it felt like both were building to something bigger. And now, four years on from DARE, the band has fully metamorphosed into what they’ve always shown signs of becoming. Shelf Life is…
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Throughout the many incarnations of his career, Ben Folds has continuously proven to be a class musician. From his Ben Folds Five era, to his solo records and collaborative releases furthermore, the North Carolina native is a songwriter and artist that his peers have for time after time wanted to always work with. Not afraid…
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The evolution of an artist is imperative to their continued success. Sure, you could release a really great debut album and have everyone love it across the musical spectrum, and then proceed to release the same ten songs every two years for the next decade before you seemingly grow out of your target audience, or…
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It’s not uncommon for artists to try re-invent themselves. Whether it’s as solo artists or within the band they’re in, quite often it’s done to try and break the mould that they’ve become to be known for. Some do it well; others not so much. As for Hayley Mary, her debut EP is distinct and…
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It’s a pretty amazing thing to see an artist who’s been around for 35 years continually reinvent themselves while managing to engage both the newest and oldest of fans. Returning for the third year of his Making Gravy tour, Paul Kelly brought along a heap of musical friends to well and truly welcome in the…
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There’s a strange level of community in country and blues music. It’s not the genre of music I’d listen to the most. But, every time I head along to a gig by a band playing this type of music, I’m bound to walk away after ninety minutes with a big dumb smile on my face…
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