REVIEWS

Independent opinion, informed criticism

ALBUM REVIEW

All is Love and Pain in the Mouse Parade

After their electro-pop LP Fever Dream, OMAM explore cinematic folk rock, but struggle to find consistent inspiration.

by David Rea

11 October 2025

ALBUM OF THE MONTH

Emerge, Return

The Bookshop Band

When Pete Townsend got in touch with the Ivor Novello-nominated duo, it seemed certain something special was about to happen.

Words: David Rea

4 October 2025

STANDOUT NEW ALBUM

The Resurrection Game

Emma Swift

Emma Swift’s stunning first album of original material is as immersive as an IMAX movie, and full of beguiling emotional complexity.

Words: David Rea

3 September 2025

Robyn Hitchcock: Blissful transcendence in East London

LIVE REVIEW

Suffused with its inter-war ghosts from its days as a Savoy cinema, the EartH theatre turned out to be the perfect setting for Hitchcock’s transcendent performance

Words: David Rea

14 September 2024

STANDOUT NEW ALBUM

Ticking Haze

Shapes Like People

EXTRACT: The crystalline jangle pop guitar mines rich seams of bittersweetness on ‘Never Cut Asunder’ and ‘Ambition is your Friend’, and ‘Server of the Mind’ and ‘Fireworks’ float in hazy dream pop gauze.

Words: David Rea

1 September 2024

ALBUM REVIEW

Liam Gallagher John Squire

This is very much in one of Britpop's key registers: cocksure optimism. Almost front to back it is tuneful, guitar-driven pop-rock, which wouldn't have sounded out of place in 1995.

Words: David Rea

2 March 2024

30th ANNIVERARY REVIEW

Definitely Maybe

Oasis

Listening to the band's rudimentary and derivative moving parts thirty years later then, it is easy to conclude that the tumult surrounding the band lent the music something which simply isn't there on the master tape.

Words: David Rea

30 August 2024

REVIEWS

All is Love and Pain in the Mouse Parade

Emerge, Return

The Resurrection Game

Robyn Hitchcock: Blissful transcendence in East London

Ticking Haze

Liam Gallagher John Squire

Definitely Maybe

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