‘The debut album from 21 year old Claire Sproule is a mesmerising and disarmingly honest record that lets the songs speak for themselves. It’s the last clichéd few words from this PR blurb that has me worried. You see, the problem is that songs can’t speak for themselves, someone has to communicate them, unless of [...]

I admire artists that record on their own labels and work hard to generate a loyal following. I admire them even more if they can write and perform great music. Stephanie Kirkham writes beautiful lyrics, records on her own label, and has built a fan base out of nothing. Now for me that’s a great [...]

Next month I’m travelling down to the big smoke to cover a live Alec Parks performance. I pulled down her debut album, INTRODUCTION, from my very dusty bachelor pad shelves to remind me of why this young artist caught the nation’s imagination back in 2003. I seem to remember that it received mixed critical reviews, [...]

I don’t know you, so I don’t know where you stand or sit on The Darkness. They bubbled under for so long, then suddenly they were everyone’s fave new rock band, or everyone’s fave new joke rock band. Many people around me at the time sounded like John McEnroe ‘You cannot be serious!’ with their [...]

Jennifer Terran FULL MOON IN 3. Griselda

Oh dear, oh dear! This is yet another album that puts Coldplay’s newest in the dim, dark shade. But it’s not altogether surprising since Elbow has proved to be one of the UK’s top bands through tremendous live performances, and two other very strong albums. This is a band that moves on and up, and [...]