New Albums 2024

KAISER CHIEFS – British Tune Machine Launched Their Easy Eighth Album

Posted on by JL

6 March 2024

The British veteran tune machine KAISER CHIEFS started their successful
career back in 1997 named as Runston Parva, from 2000 as Parva, and finally
in 2003 they decided to operate as Kaiser Chiefs.

Last Friday they supplied their 8th LP titled,
daftly, KAISER’S CHIEF EASY EIGHT ALBUM
to their diehard fans.


Press photo

Mojo magazine: “ While Kaiser Chiefs aren’t starting many riots
these days, these shiny tunes will keep the body bouncing and the
spirits high.”

TUTV: Over the years I lost interest in the once-upon-a-time hip Leeds rockers. But when
I come across them at a festival I’m always in for some sing-along with the crowd to their past great hits such as I Predict A Riot (more than 264 million streams on Spotify), Ruby (more than 126 million), Oh My God ( more than 26 million) and a couple more oldies.

This new LP is again stuffed with several lets-dance-sway-around-scream-and-shout tunes, but none as good as the old ones, but still worth a dance. And, yep, when I bump into the Chiefs once again on a green field, this summer, I’ll have my pipes oiled first.

Top single.

ALBUM


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KS: Instagram

MANNEQUIN PUSSY – Philly Pop-Punk Burners Unroll A Series Of Maddening Mood Swings On New Album ‘I GOT HEAVEN’

Posted on by JL

5 March 2024


Press photo

Red-hot-blooded Philly pop-punk burners MANNEQUIN PUSSY
just unleashed shared their 4th LP, titled I GOT HEAVEN.

Press info: Mannequin Pussy‘s music feels like a resilient and galvanizing shout that demands to be heard. Their new album, I Got Heaven, which will be released via Epitaph Records , is the band’s most fully realised recording yet. Over ten ambitious tracks which abruptly turn from searing punk to inviting alternative pop, the album is deeply concerned with desire, the power in being alone, and how to live in an unfeeling and unkind world. It’s a document of a band doubling down on their unshakable bond to make something furious, thrilling, and wholly alive.

Pitchfork: “The Philadelphia rock band meets the moment with an essential, wide-
ranging record that’s mouthy, messy, and self-assured… It operates by a pop album’s rules;
it’s unashamed of its ambition and unselfconscious of its artifice, and in that way it’s a perfect reflection of its own thematic commitment to self-definition. The vulnerability that’s always made Mannequin Pussy’s music feel personal and urgent has now given them the freedom to expand in unexpected ways and discover what else they might be able to contain. It never feels like pure product; it’s too moist, too clammy, far too impolite.” Score: 8.8/10.


Impressive album artwork

TUTV: From spiked pop turbulence (Nothing Like / Sometimes) to brutal punk-exorcism
(I Got Heaven / OK? OK? OK? OK? / Of Her / Aching) and some barbed lullabies (I Got Heaven
/ I Don’t Know You / Split Me Open). Be ready for a series of maddening mood swings that does your ears, your mind and your speakers in with its vociferous and fulminating primal screams and its high-strung rollercoaster disturbance. They got heaven but they sure know a lot about hell too. Amen to that.

Singles/clips: Sometimes / I Don’t Know You / I Got Heaven

– I GOT HEAVEN –
Vicious punk blast

– SOMETIMES –
Pithy pop fuss

– I DON’T KNOW YOU –
Amplified reverie

ALBUM


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Mannequin Pussy: Instagram – Linktree

SHEER MAG – Philly’s Garage Rockers Deliver Familiar Sounding New Album With ‘PLAYING FAVORITES’

Posted on by JL

New longplayers

4 March 2024

Philly‘s garage indie rockers SHEER MAG fronted by spicy voice
Tina Halladay have their 3th LP, baptized PLAYING FAVORITES
out now.

Press info:”Playing Favorites is Sheer Mag’s third full-length and first with Third Man Records, the band capitalize on a decade’s worth of devotion to their own collective spirit, a spirit refined in both the sweaty trenches of punk warehouses and the larger-than-life glamour of concert halls—emerging with a dense work of gripping emotions, massive hooks, and masterfully constructed power-pop anthems. This is the record the Philadelphian rock and roll four-piece has always been destined to make.”


Album artwork

UNCUT magazine: “At times Sheer Mag are miraculous pop hustlers, still pulling off the most absurd trick shots on the scuffed three yards of stained green baize. Which isn’t to say that they’re not above a little experiment.”

TUTV: SM rock (Playing Favorites / Eat It And Beat / Paper Time / I Gotta Go), groove (All Lined Up / Moonstruck / Golden Hour / Tea On The Kettle) and go smooth here and there. From breakneck garage agitation to 60s pop-inspired firecrackers and a couple of soft ones in between, with Tina Halladay‘s sinewy voice omnipresent. All together, a solid rock record, but a bit too much Sheer Mag by numbers.

Key Singles: Eat It And Beat It / All Lined Up

– EAT IT AND BEAT IT –

– ALL LINED UP –

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SM: Instagram – Linktree

CAN – New Album ‘LIVE IN PARIS 1973’ Featuring The Late DAMO SUZUKI On Vocals Out Now

Posted on by JL

28 February 2024

Mute and Spoon Records present the next instalment of the curated CAN live concert series, with LIVE IN PARIS 1973 , the first in the series to feature vocals by Damo Suzuki, who was the band’s vocalist between 1970-1973. He passed away on February 9, aged 1974.

R.I.P.

The series was overseen by founding member Irmin Schmidt and producer/engineer
René Tinner, who delicately worked on restoring the archival recordings to the best quality for current modern technology. This record captures the band’s 1973 show in Paris and features Irmin Schmidt on keyboard and synths, Jaki Liebezeit on drums, Michael Karoli on guitars, Holger Czukay on bass, and Damo Suzuki on vocals for one of his final concerts with the band.

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CAN: Bio – Discography

DYR FASER – Boston’s Wayward Noise Duo Bedazzle On Repeat With New Album ‘IMPRESSIONS’

Posted on by JL

New exciting longplayers for your greedy ears

25 February 2024

Band: DYR FASER
Who: Underground noise
rock duo from Boston

New album: IMPRESSIONS

Press info: Arguably their most accomplished release. On the 12-track LP their signature psych and post-punk concoctions are intact but this time around they’ve sharpened, if you will, almost every aspect of their vibe, vocals, arrangements, and production.

TUTV: Dyr Faser is another side project of musical centipede Ty Segall. Well it’s actually
not, but it could have been. Why? The echoing and waywardly glam garage rock sonority, the fuzz and buzz guitar electricity à la the early days of The Jesus And Mary Chain, and the 60s chaotic The Velvet Underground jangliness in Warhol‘s hedonistic club The Factory, are gloomy ingredients you find on several Segall albums too.

Expect repetitive layers of jagged riffs (on Bronze, Two Headed Monster, Reductive Silence, and Connection, just to name a few). The Boston duo Eric Bøømhower and Amelia May alternate vocals, both sounding as if they were recorded in The Cramps 70s psychobilly
bat cave. Spooky at times, ghostly at times. Once you start up Impressions you’ll stay with
it for the full 12 tracks. It’s a record that works as a sonic magnet, accentuating again the bedazzling power of repetition.

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Dyr Faser: Facebook – Instagram

MGMT – Psych-Pop Duo Went Back To The Past To Shine In The Present With Their New Warm-Hearted Album ‘LOSS OF LIFE’

Posted on by JL

New LongPlayerS

24 February 2024


Album artwork

Psych-pop darlings MGMT from Connecticut have their 5th LP, baptized LOSS OF LIFE out.

NME: “A career highlight ‘Loss of Life’ is imbued with just enough sweetness that by the time it reaches its overarching message – “nothing prepares you for loss of life” – it doesn’t just make you want to prepare yourself, it makes you excited to do so.” Score: 4/5.

TUTV: MGMT’s new record is stuffed with 60s/70s psych-pop vibes and its era’s layered harmonies. Echoes of The Byrds, Beach Boys, The Beatles, and other related vocal-driven bands from those great decades are everywhere on ‘Loss Of Life‘.

Lead singer Andrew VanWyngarden’s alluring voice wouldn’t be out of place in one
of the aforementioned bands and is instrumental in MGMT’s sonic universe.

For the duo writing easygoing, infectious,
mainstream hit tunes isn’t a priority anymore.

It’s now more about song-writing than about tune-writing. Mind you, easy-listening melodiousness is still key in their work but less dominant. They described the new
album as “a group of songs about love and change, first and foremost.” The tone is introspective, warm-hearted and melancholic, with several yearning musings that
slowly but surely win over your aural attention, and will stay with you for a long time.

My fav tracks: Dancing In Babylon, Bubblegum Dog, Nothing Changes, and Phradie’s Song.

KEY SINGLE

ALBUM


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MGMT: Instagram – Facebook

IDLES Leave Punk Days Behind Them On Their Love Album ‘TANGK’

Posted on by JL

17 February 2024


Press photo by Tom Ham

Bristol punks IDLES have worked their
way up since 2018 with 4 splendid LPs.

And they have their brand-new number 5 out now. It’s baptized TANGK.

Joe Talbot (frontman): “I needed love. So I made it. I gave love out to the world and
it feels like magic. This is our album of gratitude and power. All love songs. All is love.”

Pitchfork: On their fifth album, the UK band enlist Nigel Godrich and Kenny Beats for a smoother, softer rock record that still fires its love songs from a cannon. There’s a subtlety
to writing about love that Talbot misses on this record—it’s a topic that’s often best gestured
at, rather than bossed around. Press materials note that the word “love” appears 29 times throughout the record, and yet the songs that speak to the feelings undergirding that powerful emotion—the exhilaration of romantic attraction, the fear of abandonment—don’t mention the topic directly at all. On TANGK, Idles seem poised to let down their ironclad armor and reveal a far more interesting and nuanced band, just as soon as Talbot is ready to relinquish his stubborn and self-defeating grasp.” Score: 6.7/10.

TUTV: It’s an album about love. Joe Talbot: “I find love fascinating and empowering” .
The weird thing is that Talbot doesn’t sound happy, or in love. On half of the songs,
his voice has a moody crooner resonance. Yes, half of the tracks are mixed-emotions lullabies.

Yes, their punk days, sonically and lyrically, are behind them. Surely, copying themselves over and over again, and pretending they’re the very same people as 6 years ago, would get boring. But I miss the fury, the moshpit haymakers and the slam dunks. Tangk is a good record with some rad highlights (Dancer, Grace, Hall & Oates and Jungle) but nothing more, nothing less.

Singles/clips: Dancer / Grace / Gift Horse

– DANCER –

– GRACE –

– GIFT HORSE –

ALBUM


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TOUR DATES 2024
More shows TBA

IDLES: Instagram – Linktree

New Albums Coming Up – Scottish Lauded Indie Pop Team CAMERA OBSCURA With ‘LOOK TO THE EAST, LOOK TO THE WEST’ In May

Posted on by JL

14 February 2024


Artwork new album

Scottish indie pop team CAMERA OBSCURA, fronted by songstress Tracyanne Campbell (the only original member left) started their successful journey back in 1996. After 5 highly lauded albums they took a break in 2015. Three years later they reunited and they have bagged a new longplayer now. It’s named LOOK TO THE EAST, LOOK TO THE WEST and shows up on May 3rd. Pre-order info here.

Merge Records: “Camera Obscura’s first album in more than 10 years, Look to the East,
Look to the West is the sound of a band that has grown more confident in its sound and purpose than ever. It is Camera Obscura at their best and most evocative, an album that completely rearranges the listener’s emotional core, leaving them sad and exhilarated at the same time. The Tracyanne Campbell–led outfit, reuniting with producer Jari Haapalainen (Let’s Get Out of This Country, My Maudlin Career), have crafted an album that simultaneously recalls why longtime fans have ferociously loved them for decades while also being their most sophisticated effort to date.”

The first single BIG LOVE is a crystalline pop diamond.

WATCH/LISTEN

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Camera Obscura: Instagram – Website

DANIEL ISAIAH – Canadian Singer-Songwriter Enchants With Melancholic Musings On ‘TO LIVE A WILD LIFE’

Posted on by JL

11 February 2024


Artwork by Emily Gan

Artist: DANIEL ISAIAH
Who: Songsmith from
Montreal, Canada

Album: TO LIVE A WILD LIFE

“A documentation of my life and times. These songs create a compelling conversation,
grappling with chaos and death, but ultimately affirming life in all its unpredictable
twists and turns.”

Focus track: Brock Avenue.

Isaiah: “Last autumn, I went walking through my old neighbourhood. It looked just as I’d remembered it, except I didn’t recognize a single person – whereas I could have told you the name of every adult and child on my block when I lived there. Finally, I did recognize someone: a neighbour, tending to her garden. I hadn’t seen her in twenty years. I called out her name, and she came over. She said, “I’m sorry about your mom,” who had passed away, and we hugged. It was a powerful moment that later unlocked the lyrics to a tune I’d been humming for many years. “Brock Avenue” is the street where I grew up. This song seems to embrace all of my childhood. All of my love and loss. I’m grateful for the place I come from and the people who raised me.”

TUTV about the album: Expect smooth balladry, starry-eyed lullabies, and looking
back reflections. Music for day-and-night dreamers. Enchanting songwriting, and
hussed musicality are the keys to this record. Overall To Live A Wild Life is a thoughtful,
intimate, tender and personal collection of melancholic musings.

A great companion for relaxing moments. Isaiah‘ sensitive voice fits his moody melodies perfectly well. It feels like he went to the past, to breath in and enjoy the romanticism of the good old days, came back, sat at his piano and started composing emotive songs about it. Heartwarming.

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Daniel Isaiah: Facebook – Instagram

Supreme Voice BRITTANY HOWARD Fuses Funk, Soul And Gospel On New Striking Solo LP ‘WHAT NOW’

Posted on by JL

10 February 2024

Supreme soul voice BRITTANY HOWARD, former Alabama Shakes
frontwoman, has her 2nd solo LP, baptized WHAT NOW out.

NME: “Her second solo record embraces any and all sonic possibilities and challenges with
glee. It’s the type of intent that’s been simmering in Howard’s work previously and now steps into space with confidence to be heard: everything from psych-jazz, electro-funk, soulful house and the occasional rocker gets a look in here. In lesser hands it’s a right old mess, but not in Howard’s.” Score: 4/5.

TUTV: Howard fuses soul, funk and gospel with striking effect with her supreme voice as the star in the middle, most prominent on highlights What Now, Another Day, Prove It To You, Power To Undo and Every Color In Blue. Different moods, different tunes. 21st Century Motown feel.

Singles/clips: Red Flags / What Now / Prove It To You

– RED FLAGS –

– WHAT NOW –

– PROVE IT TO YOU –

ALBUM


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BH: Instagram – Facebook