Feeder - Generation Freakshow Review

Ask a Feeder fan if they can pinpoint the moment the band went from one of the UK's most prosperous and consistently entertaining bands to another casualty the old age foe called Father Time and you're liable to get one of three answers. Joe public will ask you not ask them about the fetish over combining their partner's spiralling diabetes and obsession with combining gorging hot dogs and doggy style. You then give them several "famous" songs and immediately, they wonder "What ever did happen to the band that did Buck Rogers?"

The logical fan will say they blame the midpoint of Pushing the Senses; when the band's attempt at capturing Coldplay, Snow Patrol and Xenu forbid Take That's audience with melodic and harmless pop-rock from their previously well established NME Rock/early nineties grunge routes didn't simply not work, but demonstrated every shortcoming the band managed to patch over with their previous four very good/excellent albums.

Then there's the cult follower who can't believe you would insinuate the band is anything other than the bestest, most greatest thing in the whole world and that you must be a total microscopic flaccid dick for thinking anything other, before they and the surprisingly quick mob appear with pitchforks and torches to vivisect you with immediate intent.

The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists - Review

Sometimes, I wonder with the success of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, why pirates haven't become a sub-genre of their own? Then of course, you have to think back to the days of where pirates were on the hollywood list of things to avoid at all costs (as Roman Polanski, Disney prior to PotC and Renly Harlin have discovered the hard way).

The Ting Tings - Sounds from Nowheresville Review

There's no easy way of saying this...ok that's a flat out lie, because for a good while now, I've been tempted to summarise The Ting Tings follow-up album with something short and sweet to prevent me from having to keep playing it.

Sleigh Bells - Reign of Terror Review

When people ask me what album's I'm looking forward to for 2012, one of the first answers that comes up is the next Sleigh Bells album. See, two years prior, the duo figuratively exploded on the music scene with a debut album that was so fresh, so new and so different, it stood-out from it's peers.

Lana Del Rey - Born to Die Review

I tried dammit. I tried going into this review without mentioning hype. It’s becoming a byword on this blog and I really didn’t want to do it for fear of repetition. But forgive me general public, for I have sinned and with this particular review, it is an inevitability so hear me out.

Enter Shikari - A Flash Flood of Colour Review

Contrary to your perceptions; Post-Hardcore does not equate to pornstars in berets standing around talking about their feelings. It’s actually a musical genre that people, like me, can lump together that would normally be titled as Emo, Screamo, Goth-Pop and sound completely pretentious doing so.

Fortunately, for Post-Hardcore band Enter Shikari, whose first album had all the stereotypes that made the album a samey, if consistently decent debut, their follow-up Common Dreads decided to incorporate elements from Dubstep to create an album that delivered neat ideas but overall, sounded muddled and confused.

Three years later, the North London outfit have entered the difficult realms of album three and I have to admit, the only reason I keep coming back to Enter Shikari like a battered housewife is the odd glimmer of something better amongst the filler. I liked Anything Can Happen in the Next Half Hour which gave way to buying Take to the Skies for three pounds in a sale. When Common Dreads came about; it was stand-alone single We Can Breathe in Space… which peaked my curiosity.

For A Flash Flood of Colour; it was Destabilise. With its big beats and bombastic feel, it was a song that did what Common Dreads couldn’t do consistently or as epically. So naturally, I gave their latest album a listen, not really knowing what to expect but some what optimistic.

The Maccabees - Given to the Wild Review

Whilst 2011’s major theme was hype, 2012 looks set to continue the trend. We have Lady Gaga already in the middle of writing a no-doubt major selling follow-up to the long, tiresome Born This Way. Muse have again promised a radical change for their sixth album and with The Killers, Bloc Party and Animal Collective marking the year their returns; it looks set to be another year of huge, heavily hyped releases and the usual batch of mediocre rubbish.

So, where does 2012’s really start? It already has kids and it’s a somewhat surprising source.