Morrissey - I Am Not a Dog on a Chain Review

2020 will no doubt become one of the strangest years of Morrissey's time. His gigs over the past weekend in the UK saw what could end up being the last major social gatherings for some before we all succumb to Covid-19's isolation.

The music press lapped up it's favourite outspoken uncle being unable to sell out seats, they sniggered that he's still spouting mad things like it's 1985 and daring to say "Meat is Murder" whilst blind zealots like myself wait for table scraps like eager dogs at the dinner table.

Segue out of the way, Morrissey's thirteenth album is I Am Not a Dog on a Chain, an album which sees Morrissey's most radical changes in sound for quite some time or possibly forever.

Morrissey - California Son Review

So, how do you follow up a decent album in 2017 where your controversy continues to follow you like a dog without a lead?

Morrissey - Low in High School Review

When people ask me about my opinions on Morrissey, I normally joke and and reply where do they want me to start? For a career forever courting, embedded or shrouded in controversy, I find the modern day trope of cancellation of him quite amusing, doubly so that if anyone was genuine in wanting rid of him, then surely paying no attention to him would do more damage (although recent tour stats for tickets indicate this is already the case).

A Few Words on...Billie Eilish – WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO?

Here we go folks, grab your popcorn, grab a piece of stromboli, get ready for a hot take, here we go.

I don’t get it.

A Few Words on...Biffy Clyro - Balance, Not Symmetry

Back in 2015, Biffy Clyro released Ellipsis, an album utterly forgettable at times and easily their worst release in a decade. Whilst commendable for experimenting with their sound of time signature changes, obtuse lyrics and complex chords, Ellipsis incorporated a more mainstream sound which, nonsurprisingly made the album far too generic.

A Few Words on...Ariana Grandé - thank u, next

Confession time, I have never listened to an Ariana Grandé album prior to this one, quelle surprise, blahblahblah.

A Few Words on...American Football - American Football LP3

American Football’s 3rd album (and 2nd since their comeback a few years ago) showcases a much more expansive and creatively more varied sound, even more so than their long overdue comeback.

Gorillaz - Humanz Review

To say the world, let alone just the music industry has changed dramatically since 2010 is an understatement.

Disney was earning megabucks with films, only it wasn't superheroes and Star Wars, Robbie Williams rejoined Take That to starve off the midlife crisis on mum's everywhere, Suede and Pulp got their bands back together in the fall of Oasis dying the previous year and, linking us back to why you're here in the first place, it was the last time virtual band Gorillaz released not one, not three, but two albums.

In the gap between The Fall and now, Albarn has kept busy, reuniting his original moneymaking band Blur to a surprisingly good return with The Magic Whip, he brought out a sombre solo album which again, was pretty good and, for Gorillaz fans, he got into an argument with Gorillaz' other half Jamie Hewlett and subsequently put the band on hiatus, possibly for keeps.

Album Rankings for 2016

Another year, another list because everyone loves lists.

A Few Words on... Feeder - All Bright Electric

Back in 2014, Grant Nicholas released an uninspired and dull solo album that only fanned the flames for a return of Feeder, even album after album of meddling returns.

The band's ninth studio album All Bright Electric again asks whether Feeder can return to their glory days of the decades prior or simply settle with pleasing their rabid fanbase.

Lady Gaga - Joanne Review

One of my favourite reviews I've ever written was on Lady Gaga's last album ARTPOP. Whilst at the time I was besieged with a bad album (along with a few interruptions from telephone scammers), it appears I wasn't the only one who thought the album was pretty dire.

But with every cloud, the silver lining was ARTPOP inspired me to do something different and, because of how bad it was, I had ample material to draw upon, even as I hammered away with the album still making it's first play.

A Few Words on... King of Leon - WALLS

Whilst Kings of Leon have been nothing short of a major success story (with five consecutive number one's in the UK anyway), whether it's their more mainstream sound or the fact that their last two albums have been progressively decreasing in quality has rubbed people up the wrong way.

Pixies - Head Carrier Review

Back in 2014, Pixies released their first album in over two decades without their original bassist to middling reception. Not me however, I really liked Indie Cindy and still listen to it from begining to end when I need a forty-five minute burst to the ear drums.

Later that year, the band released an additional track for Record Store Day called Women of War which I absolutely adored and, whilst a hold over from Indie Cindy, it gave me hope that there was more to come from the band and, just over two years later, my prayers were answered.

Wild Beasts - Boy King Review

Despite being the band behind two of my album's of the year, I never found the time to review the past two Wild Beasts albums, even though, no surprises, they're one of my absolute favourite bands, ever.

Best described as Kate Bush's eccentricities with David Bowie at his most flamboyant and moulded into indie-rock, the Kendal four-piece have come far from their baroque-pop debut but still retain all the gratuitous amount of clever wordplay and vocal performances that craft them as a strange but unique band amongst their more generic compadres.

A Few Words on... Aphex Twin - Cheetah EP

Named after a synth released in the eighties that was as cumbersome to use as it was unusual, Cheetah is the latest release by Richard D. James since his decade long hiatus ended with the release of Syro, one of my favourite albums of 2014.

Biffy Clyro - Ellipsis Review

When listening to Ellipsis for the first time, I felt something might be wrong the moment Friends and Enemies finished. I knew Biffy Clyro's direction into a more mainstream sound had put off people (although I loved Only Revolutions and Opposites) but this song in particular, sounded too generic and familiar, in that it was like every-other soft pop-rock song of the last thirty years.

Blood Orange - Freetown Sound Review

I'd like to think that Dev Hynes' personal revelation that he's actually black was something like Richard Pryor's discovery in See No Evil, Hear No Evil. Of course it was probably never that funny. For years, Hynes' old project of Lightspeed Champion literally championed ode's of nerdom and lovelorn lust...and occasionally complaining at why his best friends were listening to crunk.

A Few Words on... The Boxer Rebellion - Ocean by Ocean

The Boxer Rebellion have been another band who I've desperately wanted to review but when life, the universe and everything gets in the way and there then new releases are no longer new.

But no more I say!

Jake Bugg - On My One Review

Whilst there was nothing particularly wrong with Jake Bugg's previous releases, it seemed hypocritical of him to headline bait on how manufactured mainstream pop is when, he himself, uses co-writers and composers for his previous releases.

Whilst nowhere near as heartbroken as Noel Gallagher (although I do agree that he could have been in a band instead to help writing duties), Bugg is always marketed as Diet-Gallagher; headline grabbing, giving zero fucks and simply trying to make a name for himself against the same five people who write the majority of songs in the top forty (seriously folks, Google it).

A Few Words on... Revere - Man of Atom EP

In their ever evolving change of sound, Man of Atom is Revere's jump away from gypsy carnival fanfare and indie-rock into the mostly unknown territory of more electronica and dance influences (I say mostly as their cover of Depeche Mode's Enjoy the Silence serves as a nice precursor to their sound here).