100 words music reviews
‘Janela Escancarada’ is a gorgeous opener. It captures and bottles the dreamlike state of mind Ana Moura has slipped into. Despite her melancholia, Moura is careful not to detach. Her music anchors itself to the port of tradition while embracing new world musical goods: the vocal “yee-hees” above an accordion on ‘Andorinhas’ are indelible. In […]
Tom Greenhouse sounds like the coworker you never know beyond the timesheet; or the man who takes your details while setting up a council tax account; or the guy who accidentally drops his satchel on your feet on a crowded bus. This is an account of a soul-sucked eyeline and it’s hope for spiritual revival. […]
Quadeca is a YouTube rapper who made his name through clickbaity disstracks at fellow streamers. That should tell you everything you need to know about the quality of this record, but “I Didn’t Mean to Haunt You” defies all expectations. The grandiose, genre-spanning concept-album is written from Quadeca’s own purgatory, where a lifetime’s worth of […]
It’s tempting to draw on some familiar names to help convey this record, but I’ll resist. That might validate the fact that Parallelograms went practically unheard until its 2003 reissue. It is a unique album, from a unique composer. The wistfulness is in tune with a woodland Aesop fable, but Perhacs’ folk isn’t a sun-glazed frolic […]
Glam-punk tends to reference characters who fight, fuck, self-destruct, and at some level, love. The various dichotomies across Endure inevitably become codependent: the glam doesn’t pour glitter over the punk and the punk doesn’t take a shit on the glam. They unite, and it works in a special way. The externally questioning half of this […]
If you were worried that Westside Gunn’s winning formula was at risk of treading water in the final instalment of the ‘Hitler Wears Hermes’ series, you’d be wrong. A puzzling album scattered with incredible performances, esoteric moments (the Montell Jordan sample springs to mind) and a superlative feature list, ‘10’ possesses all of Gunn’s best […]
Sound is like Water is so low-resolution it almost seems provocatively weak. It chuffs along at the level of a first draft that has rested in a downtempo dabbler’s private soundcloud account since 2015. There’s a presumption of humour in dreamcastmoe’s lackadaisical style, but it never once clicks. Imagine talking to someone who is constantly […]
Despite its loving title, ‘Big Love Blanket’ will be unlikeable to some: it’s a cocky, liberty-taking piece of indie-rock that covers a little too much ground. It’s also very enjoyable for those same reasons. Personal Trainer sail across the busy seas of post-punk and art pop, with Travis Morrison forming part of the cabin crew […]
I wondered when I saw this title if Daniel Avery might attempt to transmit something superhuman, insinuating that he knows something unknowable. Ultra Truth is nothing like that. It’s a swirling, pounding album of immense proportions, but Avery holds a deep cordiality with the listener. The structure is neither forced nor feigned, developing lightly with […]
100 words music reviews 