Music and Records

Ultravox - Brilliant

Dull and pompous record from the no-longer-relevant Ure and co

22 May 2012

Does the world really need another album, the first in 26 years, from the ‘classic’ Midge Ure-era Ultravox – a group of negligible lasting impact on music even at their mid-80s arena synth-pop zenith? The Trade Descriptions Act-violating Brilliant is…

Dexys - One Day I’m Going To Soar

Full of wit, panache, brutal self-examination and abundant tunefulness

21 May 2012

The title alone gives you a tingling feeling that something glorious and redemptive lies within: and so it proves on Dexys’ – formerly Dexys Midnight Runners – first new album in 27 years. Following the young soul rebels’ disastrous plunge in fortunes…

Hot Chip - In Our Heads

The elctro-pop masters' fifth album is their most smartly accessible effort to date

21 May 2012

Every self-appointed creative with a WTF haircut and a MacBook thinks they’re an ‘electronic artist’ these days. But there’s more to it than bedroom-recording cry wank vocals over presets and dropping them to Tuesday night cheek-chewers. Hot Chip’s…

Patti Smith - Banga

Unique album of punk poetry populated by rocky arias, improvised psalms and lyrical reveries

22 May 2012

You may have heard that Patti Smith dedicates a song to Amy Winehouse on her 11th studio album, Banga. This takes the form of a syrupy ballad, ‘This is the Girl’, and its intentions are honourable, but look beyond it: there are greater, more defiant…

Melvins Lite – Freak Puke

Experimental craziness from the long-running grungers' reduced incarnation

24 May 2012

You can never really expect every album by these insanely experimental men to sound the same. Even after 29 years of performing and recording together, The Melvins (or Melvins Lite, in this case) somehow manage to remain enthusiastic and creative in an…

Miaoux Miaoux - Light of the North

Gloriously melodic dance-pop in the vein of Daft Punk, Basement Jaxx and the Avalanches

22 May 2012

This is a perfect example of how good pop music can be if it’s driven by a restless intelligence. Miaoux Miaoux, aka Julian Corrie, has been turning heads with his distinctive electro-pop sound for a while, but this first album for Chemikal Underground…

Bobby Womack - The Bravest Man in the Universe

A wise yet not world-weary record from the soul legend

22 May 2012

‘As a singer grows older, his conception goes a little deeper, because he lives life and he understands what he’s trying to say a little more...’ So said Sam Cooke back in the day, and so opens electro-soul hymn ‘Dayglo Reflection’, the fourth track…

Speech Debelle: Speech Therapy

28 May 2009

Sister label Ninja Tunes has recently diversified out beyond the stoner electronica it’s been famed for with quality acts like Yppah and Fink, and now hip hop heavyweights Big Dada are proving they’re no slouches either. First came the post-Basement…

The xx - xx

10 Aug 2009

How many times have we heard the maxim ‘less is more’ rolled out for someone new just because they resist knocking everything up to 11? Too often, perhaps, but this bewitching debut starts barely there, and doesn’t get much more full on than that. A…

Friends - Manifest!

An insidiously hooky album that's sometimes brilliant, sometimes bloomin’ annoying

22 May 2012

There are songs you can’t get out of your head, and then there are songs you wish you could get out of your head. In the latter category: ‘Hey Baby’ by DJ Otzi. In the former: Friends’ ‘Friend Crush’ and ‘I’m His Girl’. The Brooklyn band’s well-blogged…

Florence and the Machine: Lungs

9 Jul 2009

Worth bagging for the staggering drive-pop grandeur of ‘Rabbit Heart (Raise it Up)’ alone, this surprisingly compelling debut from skewed London chorister Florence Welch largely justifies, and even outshines, the hype. Abounding with curious musical…

Storm Thorgerson

30 Apr 2009

Born in 1944, Storm Thorgerson’s childhood would not have been thought unusual were it not that he went to school with Roger Waters and Syd Barrett. ‘Roger and I had two connections, one of which was through our mothers, who happened to be pals, and…

Slipknot - All Hope is Gone

4 Sep 2008

Slipknot - All Hope is Gone (Roadrunner) Slipknot could so easily have been a gimmick. Nine masked men in boiler suits battering out heavy metal. But from first single (‘Wait and Bleed’ back in 1999) they have constantly proved their musical…

Single of the month: Poliça - ‘Dark Star'

Other releases by Liars, Tribes, Childish Gambino and Hot Chip also reviewed

22 May 2012

The pile of pre-summer releases on The List’s doorstep this month was rather intimidating, but here is a round-up of the best (and rest). Liars new track, ‘No 1 Against The Rush’ (Mute Song ●●●), is three-and-a-half minutes of slithering synths and…

Metronomy - Pip Paine (Pay The £5000 You Owe)

4 Dec 2009

Because Music Re-releases are a little pointless, aren’t they? If we didn’t give a monkeys about your album the first time around, why should we now? Well, quite frankly when it comes to Joseph Mount aka Metronomy, you should always give a monkeys.

La Roux

9 Jul 2009

Good pop music is instant, but great pop music lasts forever. Elly ‘La Roux’ Jackson, with hair like a winsome gingerbread Mr Whippy, a voice like spun sugar and on the receiving end of more hyperbole than Cristiano Ronaldo, Kanye West and Susan Boyle…

Newton Faulkner

Hand Built by Robots

16 Aug 2007

POP Until you’ve actually seen young Faulkner attack an acoustic guitar in a whirl of spider-like fingers and dreadlocks transforming it into a three-piece band in the process, it’s hard to properly appreciate this album. There’s loads of…

Biffy Clyro - Only Revolution

And evolution too chaps?

16 Oct 2009

It’s all making sense now with Biffy Clyro, since Muse showed that you didn’t need to follow the entirely conventional path and attain rock band enormodome status. And it’s not like with the demise of Oasis there will be a flood of rock geeks filling up…

Oumou Sangare - Seya

5 Mar 2009

WORLD Oumou Sangare shows why she is one of the most significant African female musicians alive in this stunning set in which she marries gutsy lyrics about arranged marriage and polygamy to her seductively zippy Wassoulou music. Sangare’s…

Sigur Rós - Valtari

A typically dazzling record from the Icelandic cosmic folk-pop outfit

22 May 2012

The rumours of an ‘indefinite hiatus’ might have left us thinking that was it for Sigur Rós, but the four years since their previous album have amounted to little more than a bit of creative refreshment time. Valtari (the infinitely less satisfying to…

Scotland The Great - Franz Ferdinand

22 Jan 2009

You’ve basically built an entire studio complex in the bowels of this beautiful old building in Govan? Bob Hardy, bass Yeah, its a great place. Nick [McCarthy, guitars and keyboards] found it. David MacKenzie the filmmaker has his office down here.

Various Artists - Cumbia Cumbia 1 & 2

Two-album reissue of classic compilations from 1989 and 1993

18 Apr 2012

(World Circuit) The sinuous dance rhythms of the Colombian music known as Cumbia are captured in this nicely packaged and documented two-album reissue of two compilations regarded as the classics of the genre, which first brought Cumbia to wider…

Pulp - It/Freaks/Separations

Reissue of first three albums from 1980s originally released on Fire

27 Jan 2012

(Fire) Testament to the 80s’capacity to incubate provincial bands until they’re ready for megastardom, Pulp’s first three albums on Fire were a career’s worth in themselves, although hardly anyone remembers. Containing, as all three of these reissues…

Chipmunk - I Am Chipmunk

2 Oct 2009

The British grime scene is defined by its fury and bravado and Chipmunk rolls out a debut album that suggests there’s scope for having some heart too. After demolishing the charts with the simpering proto-Kanye ‘Diamond Rings’ (which features Glasgow…

Siouxsie and the Banshees - At the BBC

11 Jun 2009

This magnificent three-CD set doesn’t really unearth anything brand new but gathers together huge hunks of the quartet’s varied career via radio sessions and live sets, starting with their John Peel debut in November 1977, filled with the poisoned…

Little Boots: Hands

28 May 2009

Much touted at the turn of the year, Little Boots has rather had her electro-pop fembot pixie thunder stolen by Lady Gaga, and this debut album doesn’t do anything to turn that around. Suitably retro of feel, with shadows of Yazoo, New Order and the…

O’Death

Head Home

9 Aug 2007

ALT.COUNTRY O’Death are five guys with barely a shirt between them, who, despite hailing from New York, evoke the deep south in their punk country songs: toothless yokels and moonshine-fuelled barn dances. Greg Jamie’s weathered vocals swings from…

Steve Kuhn Trio - Wisteria

Accomplished, crisp and cool recordings by Kuhn, Steve Swallow and Joey Baron

22 May 2012

Pianist Steve Kuhn has worked with both bassist Steve Swallow and drummer Joey Baron in many contexts over several decades, but they had never played together in a trio setting prior to recording this last year. You would never guess that, though – they…

Graham Coxon - A+E

Latest lo-fi gem from Blur guitarist delivers arch and ugly meditations

26 Mar 2012

(Parlophone) What need for Blur these days? While their will-they-won’t-they recorded reunion is a brand of comeback cock-teasery perfectly suited to the age of stone-bleeding revivalism, what will their eventual decision to just get on with it offer…

N-Dubz - Against All Odds

13 Nov 2009

(Universal) Despite musically approximating a holiday fling between Cascada and East 17, London’s cuddly rap anarchists N-Dubz have become the UK’s best-loved chart stars. Little wonder in light of Against All Odds: every chord progression and…

Idlewild - Post Electric Blues

16 Sep 2009

(Cooking Vinyl) With a bulky back catalogue soaked in boisterous, if melancholic, guitar rock the expectation for Idlewild was always for them to make their Automatic for the People: a weighty album which crystallised all their most extreme emotions.

Monsters of Folk - Monsters Of Folk

3 Sep 2009

With a band made up of such indie big guns as Conor Oberst, Mike Mogis (Bright Eyes), Jim James of My Morning Jacket and singer-songwriter M Ward, you’d imagine there would be an almighty scrap over who took frontman duties. Not with Monsters Of…

Gwilym Simcock - Perception

4 Jan 2008

JAZZ Perception (Basho Records) Simcock’s flowing pianism and fertile musical imagination are constantly to the fore in a selection of his own impressive compositions on this much-anticipated and highly accomplished debut album, rounded out by…

Sigur Rós - Hvarf-Heim

13 Dec 2007

ROCK (EMI) Released to loosely accompany the Icelandic outfit’s superb recent film, Heima, this two-CD album is a revelation. The Hvarf half contains outtakes and rarities from 12 years of full-band studio sessions and is full of the sumptuous epic…

Jose Gonzalez

20 Sep 2007

FOLK In Our Nature (Peacefrog) For most people, Swedish-Argentine troubadour Gonzalez will always be known for his song ‘Heartbeats’ soundtracking that Sony Bravia ad with the bouncy balls in San Francisco, and that’s his main problem. What makes…

Neneh Cherry & The Thing - Cherry Thing

Inventive and charismatic return from Cherry in this free jazz/post-punk collaboration

22 May 2012

Neneh Cherry’s first album in 16 years is perhaps closer in spirit to the jazzoid post-punk of Rip Rig & Panic than the glorious hip-pop of Raw Like Sushi, but hot damn, it’s good. The Thing are renowned for their wild takes on cult rock and free-jazz…

SAY Award shortlist announced

Bill Wells & Aidan Moffat, Mogwai and Rustie nominated for inaugural Scottish Album of the Year

17 May 2012

The Scottish Album of the Year (SAY) shortlist has been announced today. After some toothcomb sifting and careful deliberation, the judging panel have whittled down the nominations from a beefy 20 to a lean top 10. Through some hi-tech gadgetry, savvy…

Zulu Winter - Language

The indie rockers' debut is disappointingly unadventurous

23 Apr 2012

(Play It Again Sam) With their unabashed love of Czech new wave cinema, Steve Reich, TS Eliot, Ayn Rand and modern dance troupes The List won’t even pretend to have heard of, we expected something a little more adventurous from Zulu Winter’s debut…

Andy Sheppard, Michel Benita, Sebastian Rochford - Trio Libero

Highly compatible trio make album of lyrical material

22 Feb 2012

(ECM Records) Saxophonist Andy Sheppard seemed a good match-up with ECM long before he actually made his debut with the label a couple of years ago. He now follows that release with this excellent trio project featuring Algerian bassist Michel Benita…

Singles of the Month: Withered Hand and King Creosote & Jon Hopkins

Django Django, The Twilight Sad and more also reviewed

3 Feb 2012

Come hither and let us imagine a world, a perfect world – a realm in which Kim Wilde is engaged in a goth-disco tryst with The Sisters of Mercy. Think about it. Harder. Got it? Congratulations, you are now playing ‘Lafaye’ (●●●●, Full Time Hobby), the…

Susana Baca - Afrodiaspora

20 May 2011

(Luaka Bop) Grammy award winning Afro-Peruvian singer Susana Baca was an early signing to Talking Head David Byrne’s Luaka Bop label and her latest, long-awaited album sees her explore rhythms of the African-Latin diaspora. Her attractive, clear…

Moon Duo - Mazes

Psych-rock romance from Sanae Yamada and Wooden Shjipper Ripley Johnson

21 Mar 2011

(Souterrain Transmissions) It transpires that psychedelic rock and romance make for intoxicating bedfellows. This mesmeric debut full-length album from Wooden Shjips axe-master Ripley Johnson and his inamorata, Sanae Yamada, is heady with cosmic…

Souad Massi - Ô Houria (Liberty)

1 Nov 2010

(Wrasse Records) If people were not so hung up on language Souad Massi, who sings in Arabic, French and English would be a superstar. From ‘Everything Remains To Be Done’, a stunning duo with Francis Cabrel with Speed Caravan’s Mehdi Habbad cracking…

Bruce Haack - Farad (The Electric Voice)

15 Sep 2010

(Stones Throw) Listening to the bizarre, bewitching and above all unique work of ‘lost’ electronic music pioneer Bruce Haack, it’s tempting to trace his influence through Cabaret Voltaire, Brian Eno, Kraftwerk and any number of psychedelic…

Oasis - Time Flies

10 Jun 2010

(Big Brother) A roughly chronological greatest hits, with the earlier and latter days of Oasis’ career divided across two CDs. Throw away forgettable CD two and you can add another star.

Admiral Fallow - Boots Met My Face

14 Apr 2010

(Lo-Five) Let’s celebrate it from the rooftops: the Deacon Blue revival is finally upon us. If The Last Battle (and of course Frightened Rabbit) herald a renaissance in melodic Scottish rock, then leading the charge are Glasgow pop heartbreakers…

You Me At Six - Hold Me Down

7 Jan 2010

(Virgin) Chances are, if you liked YMA6’s first effort Take Off Your Colours, you’ll find plenty to like here. Spiky pop-punk riffs, catchy choruses and guest vocalists from The Blackout and Kids in Glass Houses ensure there’s nothing to disappoint…

Tricky - Tricky Meets South Rakkas Crew

4 Dec 2009

(Domino) Hip-hop Bristolian Tricky re-invents himself once again with the help of this musical collision with Florida-via-Jamaica-via-Toronto outfit, South Rakkas Crew – producers of Beenie Man, Bounty Killer and Sizzla. With that mercurial ‘Straight…

Ian Brown - My Way

16 Sep 2009

(Fiction) To complain about Ian Brown’s production-bandaged voice or swaggering Manc intonation is to not really get it, quite frankly. Predictable, dullard technical proficiency is cooed over on X-Factor every week, if that’s what you want, but the…

Brendan Benson - My Old, Familiar Friend

16 Aug 2009

(Echo) After a four-year sojourn as right-hand man to pal Jack White in The Raconteurs, Detroit singer-songwriter Brendan Benson here returns to the day job, creating pristine and boisterous guitar pop influenced by The Cars and The Kinks. This fourth…