Richard Hawley STANDING AT THE SKY’S EDGE. Parlophone
The word ‘masterpiece’ has been flung around like confetti when the music media talk about Hawley, and sure enough it’s happening again with his latest album. I have never been impressed with Hawley’s work and believe his song lyrics to be nothing more than painting-by-numbers/Mills & Boon. Hawley’s [...]

Mutemath ODD SOUL. Warner
I saw this USA band perform couple of years ago in Manchester and was impressed. ODD SOUL is the band’s third full-length release and as the album title implies it majors on soul sounds, but with a powerful rock twist. Arguably the most indicative tracks are the epic ‘Blood Pressure’and the highly [...]

The Band Explains…
We are, or were, AMPLIFIER.
We’ve had enough of all that now.
Now we are just us.
We spent a long time trying to fit in being a band in the music industry, but it just didn’t work out. Looking back, basically we were more interested in playing music together than anything else. That kind of [...]

NICKELBACK: HERE & NOW
Having staked my claim reasonably close to the front of the queue here and established up front the expectation, it qualifies me more than the fools to comment on Here & Now. It’s easy to take pot-shots at a band that have set themselves up for target practice. Go ahead and ask [...]

David Motion NEVER LET IT END. Crystal Groove Records
Composer, producer, sound engineer, wine merchant David Motion (whose past work includes sountracks for Orlando, To Live And Die In L.A., TV series Trial & Retribution, and contemporary classical album Neo Classic) has created one of the most fascinating releases of 2011 with Never Let It End.  
Having [...]

Johnny Daukes A FALSE PARADE. Mumbo
It’s criminal that artists like Johnny Daukes can’t get arrested on radio here in the UK whereas a lucky (very) few less-talented get played to death. There’s no justice with the end result that millions of real music fans never get to know some really incredible music from some of [...]

Lisa Hannigan PASSENGER. Pias
Lisa Hannigan is an Irish singer, songwriter, and musician. For several years she was a member of Damien Rice’s band before beginning her solo career in 2008. She has been the recipient of various award nominations and critical praise both in Ireland and the USA. Hannigan has performed and been associated with [...]

Tracer. SPACES IN BETWEEN. Cool Green Recordings
Fine heavy rock recordings have been thin on the ground in 2011, so this album is very welcome. Adelaide, Australian based band Tracer is made up of Michael Brown (guitar and vocals), Leigh Brown (bass, keyboards and vocals), and Andre Wise (drums and percussion).
If Robert Plant and Jimi Hendrix [...]

Beth Hart & Joe Bonamassa DON’T EXPLAIN. Provogue
Some albums register their quality on first listen while some take a few listens to fully appreciate what’s in those grooves. This is one of the latter but has rapidly become one of my favourite albums of 2011. Joining Beth Hart is blues rock maestro Joe Bonamassa who [...]

Tori Amos NIGHT OF HUNTERS. Deutsche Grammophon 
“Tori Amos is a conceptual artist disguised as a pop star. For nearly two decades, this mistress of multiple personae has been doing sleight-of-hand with song forms, enfolding whole sagas — about religion and myth, gender and sexuality, cosmic conflicts and her own internal evolution — within the intricate crystal [...]