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Showing posts from May, 2019

Amyl and The Sniffers, Self-titled, Album Review

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Amyl and The Sniffers Self-titled Album Review Listen on Spotify Listen on Apple Music The first and fittingly self-titled full length album from Melbourne punk quartet Amyl and The Sniffers was released last Friday, and I'm really not sure how my hype towards it managed to build up so quick. But after listening to the album for the first time, this hype most definitely wasn't in vain. From what I can remember, I think my excitement was instigated by this albums teaser track "Got You", which I discovered while it was being promoted on social media. I wasn't quite sure what to expect until I listened to the track in full, and only then did I completely understand what they were about. In short, Amyl and the Sniffers are a band that longs for the past. With the modern day arguably being a lot more competitive, oversaturated and mentally challenging, it comes as a very relatable characteristic of the band in my opinion. This longing f

Flying Lotus, Flamagra, Album Review

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Flying Lotus Flamagra Album Review Listen on Spotify Listen on Apple Music The sixth and latest studio album from experimental producer Steven Ellison (known in this context as his stage name, Flying Lotus), Flamagra is also the first album of his that I've fully listened to. Before 2019, I knew a little about FlyLo and the music he created. I also heard a lot of praised aimed at his previous album, 2014's You're Dead! . Around half a decade later, this newest record was teased with a video which showcased the first segment of one of the soon-to-be tracks on Flamagra,  "Fire Is Coming". This track featured an eerie spoken word piece from David Lynch of all people and given the title of the track, it seemed to be a promotional representation of the album in full. I wasn't completely sold on the album at this point, as "Fire Is Coming" wasn't an awful lot to go off on in terms of how the album would sound musically. Wh

Rammstein, Self-titled, Album Review

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Rammstein Self-titled Album Review Listen on Spotify Listen on Apple Music Before 2019, the last Rammstein album we had (aside from greatest hits and live albums) was released way, way back in 2009. This would mean its been roughly a decade since Rammstein blessed us with a full LP of original material. With this in mind, I was both extremely excited and extremely nervous; big bands making a "comeback" after so many years mostly prove to be underwhelming a lot of the time. This is obviously because of the limitless amount of hype one could generate for a big band comeback. Nevertheless, 2019 is the year that marks the return of the ingenious industrial metal band from Germany. This latest album (simply title RAMMSTEIN ) was heralded with the first teaser track "DEUTCHLAND". I must honestly say that this song is fan service incarnate! Because of this, while I try my best not to build my hopes up too much for an album like this one, "

Tyler, the Creator, IGOR, Album Review

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Tyler, the Creator IGOR Album Review Listen on Spotify Listen on Apple Music It is finally here! Tyler, the Creators fifth studio album IGOR is arguably garnering more attention that any other 2019 album, with many reviews and reactions as well as his surprise London gig (which would've been his first UK show in 5 years but unfortunately got shut down by police). If the question was is his album deserving of all this hype? My answer would be absolutely! After being announced quite suddenly, with me only knowing IGOR was coming at the beginning of the month, I was very excited to listen to this one. My excitement stemmed from this album being the successor to the 2017 masterpiece Flower Boy , as well as how good the tracks sounded when Tyler gave us very brief snippets of songs in the form of his teaser videos. Tyler has never ceased to be ahead of the game when it comes to his musical curveballs and the sheer amount of innovation that is poured into hi

slowthai, Nothing Great About Britain, Album Review

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slowthai Nothing Great About Britain Album Review Listen on Spotify Listen on Apple Music Last Friday presented us with some of the best music I've heard so far this year. I had a bunch of new singles as well as a total of three albums to listen to. The first of these three albums being the debut full-length effort from slowthai. Nothing Great About Britain is the debut album from the Northampton raised rap artist. After making a few waves last year with a selection of single, a full-length album seemed to be under way with the start of 2019. The beginning of the current year was also my full-fledged start of really getting into slowthai and his music. This was almost completely thanks to his first single of the year "Doorman" which features the talent of DJ Diplo. Since then, I enjoyed the rest of the teaser tracks to come. These included "Peace of Mind", "Gorgeous" and the albums title track. These teaser tracks showed a ton

THEORY: Theresa May is the inspiration behind Tyler the Creator's newest album

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How Tyler the Creators latest album "IGOR" could be inspired by Theresa May As some of you may know, American rap artist Tyler the Creator is set to release his latest album tomorrow on the 17th May. Like any other fan would be, I am very excited. I would honestly go as far to say that to this point, he hasn't released a bad album. Not to mention the incredible work he dis on his previous 2017 album Flower Boy . And while his creativity and innovative mindset is conveyed on pretty much every project he has worked on, this new album, titled IGOR may have a subtle layer of lore behind it. A story of revenge, against the current UK prime minister; Theresa May. It's arguably easy to understand why Theresa May is loathed by many. Very little needs to be said about the Brexit shambles, fields of wheat hate her, but for us Tyler fans here in the UK, theres a far more personal grudge we hold against the Conservative leader. The Backstory The y

Vampire Weekend, Father of the Bride, Album Review

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Vampire Weekend Father of the Bride Album Review Listen on Spotify Listen on Apple Music Up until now, Vampire Weekend were a band that I definitely knew of but may not have known too well. Of course I knew of their classic hits such as "A-Punk" and "Step". However, this fourth studio album by the band, titled Father of the Bride stood as my first real stab at exploring their musical approach. After listening to this album, I believe that this may have been a very good time indeed to start getting into Vampire Weekend and their music as this album offers just under an hours worth of music with a generous total of 18 songs. As well as this, the band seems to be taking a more experimental approach on this album, with a wide variety in terms of instrumentation. This all comes together to create an album which I could best describe as Vampire Weekends attempt to create a world music album (I mean look at the album cover). Given that the &quo

Why in-store tours could be the saving grace for record shops (Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes at Resident)

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Why in-store tours could be the saving grace of record shops (Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes at Resident) Despite record shops being one of only three types of high-street markets to see a financial increase over the last year, I would still argue that there are dozens of record shops still in need of recognition. There are many people who don't see the point in records anymore. With the power and convenience of streaming services such as Spotify, Apple Music and many more. People no longer need to buy music to listen to it and that furthermore gives people the freedom to only chose a selection of songs that they like or simply delete an album or song if they don't enjoy it. And while this seems like a an ideal scenario for music lovers, it stems into a greater problem. With people having so much freedom in music, their tolerance towards  listening to albums in their entirety especially seems ever-decreasing. There is an unrivalled thrill of recognising the

Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes, End of Suffering, Album Review

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Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes End of Suffering Album Review Listen on Spotify Listen on Apple Music I first discovered Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes at Reading festival back in 2015 with their mind-blowing main stage set. This was around the same time that their second album Modern Ruin was being heralded by its first teaser track. Since then, I have seen the band play live a number of other times and thoroughly enjoyed listening to Modern Ruin upon its release. So when that albums follow-up was announced at the very beginning of 2019, you bet that I was one of many people to regard End of Suffering as one of the most highly anticipated albums of the year. This is the third full-length record to come to us from ex Gallows vocalist Frank Carter and his pit of Rattlesnakes, following the previously mentioned Modern Ruin and the defining debut album Blossom . And while I could describe either previous album as an absolute masterpiece, I feel that this al