Album Reviews

San Cisco

Album of the Week: San Cisco – Between You and Me (2020 LP)

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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Album of the Week: Batflowers is Washington at her best and most evocative

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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needtobreathe

Album Review: NEEDTOBREATHE – Out of Body (2020 LP)

As per usual, the new offering from NEEDTOBREATHE is firmly rooted in gospel sensibilities. The music on Out of Body is unmistakably spiritual by design. Yet, agnostic as I am, I can’t be mad about it. If anyone was ever going to convince me to re-enter a church, it would be this band. And this…

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Album Review: Cut Copy – Freeze, Melt (2020 LP)

It makes you feel old when you consider that Melbourne synth-pop rockers Cut Copy have been around more than 15 years now, but here they are with their sixth studio album Freeze, Melt. Between 2017 album Haiku From Zero and this release, the band went their separate ways, with likeable lead singer Dan Whitford moving…

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Album of the Week: Alex The Astronaut – The Theory of Absolutely Nothing (2020 LP)

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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Johnny Hunter

Album of the Week: Johnny Hunter – Early Trauma (2020 EP)

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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Ten Years On: The Naked and Famous’s debut LP Passive Me, Aggressive You

Ten years ago, New Zealand’s The Naked and Famous were getting ready to release their debut album, Passive Me, Aggressive You. It had no less than four singles, “All of This”, “Young Blood”, “Punching in a Dream” and “Girls Like You”, with “Young Blood” hitting number one on the New Zealand charts. It achieved critical…

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Album of the Week: Glass Animals – Dreamland (2020 LP)

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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folklore

Album of the Week: Taylor Swift’s folklore could well be a game changer for popular music

Seemingly one of the first, if only, acts to make it from full blown country act to full blown pop star, Taylor Swift has always been on the leading edge of popular music. Returning a year after her Lover album, Swift is back with the entirely surprising folklore, an album as similar and different to…

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Album Review: Protomartyr return with sinister Ultimate Success Today (2020 LP)

Post-punk Protomartyr return with their anticipated fifth album, Ultimate Success Today. Whilst the band wrote and recorded their album last year, the Detroit band eerily foreshadowed the ongoing battles the world is currently facing. Gracing our ears with a flair for enigmatic and avant-garde chords, their new album doesn’t disappoint with important philanthropic messages. Their…

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Album of the Week: E^ST takes us through the highs and lows of life on I’m Doing It (2020 LP)

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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Album of the Week: Lime Cordiale teach us a thing or two on 14 Steps to a Better You (2020 LP)

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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Album of the Week: The Beths take the plunge on Jump Rope Gazers (2020 LP)

  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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Album of the Week: DMA’S shine bright on THE GLOW (2020 LP)

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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Ten Years On: Sleigh Bells’ blistering debut Treats

Ten years ago this month, Sleigh Bells released their debut LP Treats – an album which I gave a perfect 10 out of 10 score. In a period where it felt like so many albums were feeling like carbon copies of things that had come before, Treats was a breath of fresh air. It was unapologetic fun,…

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Album of the Week: Gordi is comfortable in Our Two Skins (2020 LP)

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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Ten Years On: When The Preatures’ debut self-titled EP made them Sydney’s band to watch

It’s hard to believe, but ten years ago The Preatures released their debut, self-titled EP – then under their former name of The Preachers. Obviously far more difficult to Google, with a number of bands who had or were already using that name. In fact, if you want to find this EP on Spotify, it…

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Album of the Week: Jack Garratt brings tenderness and acceptance to Love, Death & Dancing (2020 LP)

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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Deep Down Happy

Album of the Week: Sports Team deliver on the hype on their debut Deep Down Happy (2020 LP)

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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modern anxiety

Album Review: On modern anxiety (2020 LP) Josef Salvat strikes a balance between style and substance

Josef Salvat’s sophomore album modern anxiety is one that rewards repeat listens. I write this as someone who initially didn’t really rate it highly. Sure, several of the singles really hit their mark, but on first listen the album as a whole didn’t work for me. Yet, further listens, and closer listens, reveal an album…

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Album of the Week: The 1975’s Notes on a Conditional Form is the gift to ground you this weekend

It’s been almost two years since The 1975’s most iconic album, A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships, was released. Whilst writing, the band realised instantly that this project was bigger than they had initially predicted. We were promised a Part Two follow-up album to finish what they started. Life for everybody has changed dramatically since…

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Album Review: The Dandy Warhol’s Tafelmuzik Means More When You’re Alone is a four-hour oddity

Indie icons, The Dandy Warhol’s have released an unprecedented four-hour album titled Tafelmuzik Means More When You’re Alone, paying homage to the type of soundtrack that would typically score a mid-16th century banquet. On it, the stalwart band experiments with all kinds of instruments, presenting one of their most ambitious – and strangest – concept…

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Album Review: Car Seat Headrest – Making a Door Less Open (2020 LP)

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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Album Review: Trivium present their ninth studio album What the Dead Men Say

  In historical measures Trivium means an introductory course at a medieval university involving the study of grammar, rhetoric and logic. In today’s age Trivium is an American heavy metal band that formed in 1999 and since then the band has released nine studio albums with over twenty singles. What the Dead Men Say is…

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Album of the Week: Laura Marling delivers comfort and hope with Song For Our Daughter (2020 LP)

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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The Roseline

Album of the Week: The Roseline offer up sophisticated alt country on Good/Grief (2020 LP)

Alt-Country has been enjoying something of a renaissance in recent years. You need only look at the recent success of Jason Isbell and more, to see this. But, for all those award winning artists, there are so many plugging away, creating quality music, often ‘under the radar’. In that vein, let us introduce you to…

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Album Review: A Choir of Ghosts mesmerises with folk debut An Ounce of Gold

Based in Sweden, singer-songwriter James Augur fronts folk outfit A Choir of Ghosts. Debut album, An Ounce of Gold was three years in the making, bringing together a series of talented musicians to help form his choir. The end result is stunning, an eleven strong offering of melancholy alt-folk that transports the listener worlds away….

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All Time Low

Album Review: All Time Low return with the cathartic Wake Up, Sunshine

After tugging our emotions by re-recording their nostalgic Still Nothing Personal: A Ten Year Tribute, acclaimed pop-punk band All Time Low are back with their latest album: Wake Up, Sunshine. The Baltimore band were formed in 2003, and have had eight successful studio albums and counting. For this new album, lead vocalist Alex Gaskarth describes their…

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Violent Soho

Album Review: Violent Soho’s Everything Is A-OK is a welcome accompaniment to any Sunday Sesh on the deck

This album could not be more aptly titled with everything that is happening around Australia right now. One of Brisbane’s biggest alt-rock bands Violent Soho are releasing their fifth studio album, Everything Is A-OK today. However, in light of current circumstances, things are going to be played out a little differently this time. A national album…

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Brian Fallon Local Honey

Album of the Week: On Local Honey, Brian Fallon mines the present and the personal

Brian Fallon has traded in the punk rock of The Gaslight Anthem and his youth for the countrified folk of Local Honey. Though followers of his career, will know he’s no stranger to the acoustic guitar.  Local Honey is Fallon’s third solo album, and his first in two years, following 2018’s acclaimed Sleepwalkers. It’s also…

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