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1 week ago | 
theweereview.com | Lorna Irvine
Enigmatic Pennsylvanian multi-instrumentalist Thom Wasluck has been carving his own musical niche for the last twenty years, yet has always kept a relatively low profile. Much like Richard D James or near-namesake Burial, he’s all about the music. Forever termed “gloomgaze” by the tastemakers, his oeuvre is a reminder that genres are increasingly reductive in the 2020s.
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3 weeks ago | 
theweereview.com | Lorna Irvine
Parenthood, it seems, has not diluted the wayward spirit of avant-pop duo and real life partners, Merrill Garbus and Nate Brenner, aka Tune-Yards. This sixth studio album sees a return to the rawness of breakout album (the second), W H O K I L L. It’s a winning choice to strip things back a little and let Garbus’ incredible contralto soar, leaping octaves.
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1 month ago | 
theweereview.com | Lorna Irvine
Andy Bell, former singer of synth pop duo Erasure, only gets more wonderful with time. This new solo album follows hot on the tottering heels of his glorious Torsten project, which was both a triumphant theatrical performance and soulful soundtrack. The opening track ‘Breaking Thru the Interstellar’ may wrongfoot the listener into thinking it will be pure pop throughout, with its hands in the air, easy-breezy house vibes.
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1 month ago | 
theweereview.com | Lorna Irvine
Safe mainstream pop, a la Chappell Roan, would have been an easy route for Rebecca Lucy Taylor, aka Self Esteem, to take at this stage of her career. After all, she’s done the acting bit; Cabaret in the West End with Jake Shears, a dabble in teatime television. But she’s not an obvious pop star, she’s far more subversive, inventive and smart. Tough messages of our fragmented Britain are served with a velvet glove.
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1 month ago | 
theweereview.com | Lorna Irvine
Divide and Dissolve are not your average doom metal band. Formed by the powerhouse composer and multi-instrumentalist Takiaya Reed, they have classical chops as well as face melting solos. Better yet, despite playing instrumentals, they also have something to say about the state of the world, railing against the neo-Nazi orange clown and his toxic toadies.
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2 months ago | 
theweereview.com | Lorna Irvine
Produced by guitarist Sam Grant, Pigs x 7’s follow-up to 2023’s Land Of Sleeper isn’t much of a sonic departure from the Newcastle behemoths, but still has some crispy little winners. From the early ’80s Motorhead-inspired ‘Blockage’ to the psychedelic, frazzled ‘Collider’ it is of course all underpinned by Matthew Baty’s relentless, snarling vocals and sardonic humour.
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2 months ago | 
theweereview.com | Lorna Irvine
It seems extremely apposite watching the pink blossom falling from trees whilst listening to the new album from Glasgow/London duo Sacred Paws: this album’s songs are all about transition, from the end of relationships, to the start of new life changes. So it feels apt that it’s getting an early spring release. This is not a wild jump into the unknown, more a measured, tentative one, before finding a safe place to land.
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2 months ago | 
theweereview.com | Lorna Irvine
Sometimes, a singer-songwriter is only as good as their famous fans. The likes of Ezra Furman and Marc Riley both adore scrappy U.S. folk indie hero and comic book guy Jeffrey Lewis, though Lewis has never quite scaled the heights of the former for me (or plumbed the ridiculous depths of The Creepers for the latter). Rather, his deadpan, man-out-of-time schtick recalls, variously, an American Art Brut, a lo-fi Lou Reed, and mid-era Jonathan Richman.
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2 months ago | 
theweereview.com | Lorna Irvine
The timeless goth band have come a long way from 2007 and the release of their spiky debut album, Strange House, which was a feral, garage-punk nightmare. Night Life, their fifth studio album, sees them refine the sound more, but still feels as crepuscular as the title would imply. Contrasts are why it works so well. It sets out its stall early with ‘Ariel’, a twinkly synth-pop song which mines the best parts of the eighties.
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Oct 15, 2024 | 
theweereview.com | Lorna Irvine
There are few finer things in life than watching Pom Poko frontwoman Ragnhild Fankel unleash her inner Nigel Tufnel, conducting a squall of feedback with a manic grin. It’s this playfulness and lack of vanity that makes the Oslo band so endearing, and musically, they’re no slouches, either. Playing tracks from their glorious new third album, Champion, along with old favourites, they’re an infectious lot to witness. Breakout hit ‘My Blood’ from debut Birthday, is key to their sound.
