Freaky Party

Music Reviews and more

Main menu

Skip to primary content
Skip to secondary content
  • Pop/Rock
  • Metal
  • Indie
  • Electronic
  • Folk
  • Jazz
  • Classical

Post navigation

← Older posts

Beabadoobee: Pylon review – voice of a generation’s surprisingly relatable rampage through rock star rage

The Filipino-British songwriter’s fourth album sprinkles 90s alt fuzz with disarmingly sweet melodies and an impressive host of guests including Paramore’s Hayley Williams and Turnstile’s Brendan Yates

The Tubs: Hard Life review – indie’s Larry David spins self-loathing into glorious jangle-rock

Britain’s best indie-rockers hold fast to their defiantly old-school sound, slipping wry sideways looks at despair in among hooky melodies that always sound like a good time

End of the Road festival review – Pulp and CMAT lead indie landmark’s joyous birthday party

Hitting 20, this festival has grown into a warm, genre-hopping powerhouse where fringe experimental acts are greeted as warmly as the star headliners

Green Man review – Wolf Alice, Shame and secret sets keep the Welsh festival’s flame burning

The traditional fire might be banned this year, but festivalgoers are treated by energetic performances by Wolf Alice, Tamikrest and Westside Cowboy

Lambchop: Punching the Clown review – spectral, spellbindingly ambiguous stirring of US history

Sounding weathered but undimmed, Kurt Wagner feels as if he’s standing right in front of you as he sings these superb, choir-swathed songs that invite and unsettle

Phoebe Bridgers review – high priestess of ambiguity turns grief Technicolor in intimate church show

Ahead of playing arenas this winter, Bridgers gives her third album, Lost Weekend, a stripped-back UK debut that makes its bewitching songs sound even more astounding

Phoebe Bridgers: Lost Weekend review – long-awaited return is a thrilling, daring study in dislocation

After sweeping the Grammys and being scrutinised by the press, Bridgers deploys electronics and unsettling sound design to brilliantly evoke emotional turmoil

The Strokes: Reality Awaits review – a perfect marriage of mayhem and melody on their best album in years

Allying the crackpot strangeness of Julian Casablancas’ side projects with his band’s gift for pop minimalism, the New Yorkers are on playful, joyous form

Phoebe Bridgers: Lost Boys review – ghosts, guns and guileless youth on generational songwriter’s return

The US singer took years away from public life after her silvery balladry reshaped pop. Her return is an ornate reinvention

Iceage: For Love of Grace & the Hereafter review – Danish punks ace sixth stellar album on the trot

The quintet add shoegaze, country and 50s rock’n’roll to their core indie-punk sound, resulting in songs that offset lyrical bleakness with gleeful, uplifting music

Sugar review – Bob Mould’s reunited band still in a sweet spot between noise and melody

After three unlikely Top 10 albums in the 90s, the trio are back – and on the basis of this rapid-fire set, you hope they’ll stick around

Kurt Vile: Philadelphia’s Been Good to Me review – indie rock’s most easygoing dude gets existential

Sounding characteristically virtuosic but unbothered, Vile is more forward-thinking than ever on a record that surveys the bliss and bumps of life in his mid-40s

Genesis Owusu: Redstar Wu & the Worldwide Scourge review – political fury and propulsive fun

Seething with righteous anger and moshpit-ready tracks, the Australian artist’s genre-hopping but cohesive LP makes a case for the durability of the form

Super Furry Animals review – stirring reunion showcases immaculate songcraft

The Welsh band with a weird edge mostly let their formidable music speak for itself, lent a transcendent power by frontman Gruff Rhys’s rich voice

Aldous Harding: Train on the Island review – even whimsy-resistant listeners will love these lucid, luminous songs

Lyrics about naked owls and eating rocks might be irksome to some – but there’s no denying that the alt-rocker’s fifth album is beguiling, tightly written and richly melodic

Post navigation

← Older posts
  • LPO/Edward Gardner review – Britten’s pacifist War Requiem lands with a bitterness and snarling irony
  • Hallé/Wong review – MacMillan’s new symphony centres a great concert hall’s birthday celebrations
  • Taylor Swift: The Life of a Showgirl: The Encore review – flashes of humanity and bafflingly vindictive love songs
  • Norma Tanega and Aida Pavletich: Saturday Dancer review – cult pop songwriter’s wonky collaborations
  • Jae Stephens: Audacity review – a thrilling lesson in why more debut albums should go for broke
  • Honegger: Jeanne d’Arc au Bûcher album review – faultless recording of an eclectic masterpiece
  • The rise of Dom Dolla: what the DJ’s record-breaking stadium show for 60,000 fans tells us about music today
  • Himari: Debut album review – teenage prodigy’s playing has depth and feeling
  • Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at 80 review – birthday celebration champions bold creativity
  • Gilla Band: Pugnello review – furious originality fuelled by cathartic aggression and absurdist confessions
  • Roomful of Teeth/Kahane review – twisty and tuneful songs with a darkly comic edge
  • Fire in My Mouth review – Wolfe’s multimedia oratorio tells its tragic story with focus and power
  • Bluebeard’s Castle/Oedipus Rex review – gory, gruesome and gripping double bill
  • Karol G review – Colombian chart-topper brings pan-Latin camp and fireworks to New Jersey
  • CBSO/Yamada review – apocalyptic and soul-shaking Mahler opens the season
  • Phaedra Ensemble: The Music of Meredith Monk review – fleeting rough edges amid polished beauty
  • Baka Beyond: Sing the World Awake review – powerful Cameroonian vocals burst through fussy arrangements
  • Empress Of: Dream House review – a tender and openhearted rebirth after wildfires razed her house
  • Exaudi: Pocket Universe album review – virtuoso vocals with a joyfully bonkers bent
  • Opus13: Mendelssohn and Grieg album review – an assured and distinctive debut
  • Beabadoobee: Pylon review – voice of a generation’s surprisingly relatable rampage through rock star rage
  • Charli xcx Music, Fashion, Film tour review – an electrifying and deafening pop evolution
  • Alcina review – Handel’s opera of sex and sorcery comes alive in vivid staging
  • Mishka Rushdie Momen review – unforced elegance and plenty of fireworks
  • David Bowie: The Shel Talmy Recordings review – these unheard 60s tunes are actually pretty flimsy
  • Beck: Ride Lonesome review – stunning end to the heartache trilogy of Sea Change and Morning Phase
  • Mahler Academy Orchestra/Steinaecker review – trailblazing performance that pushes work to the limits
  • Spiritbox review – Canadian metal ranges from gothic and guttural to Auto-Tune pop
  • Last Night of the Proms review – musical chaos ensues in near four-hour finale
  • Céline Dion review – singer’s first live show in years marks a triumphant, emotional return

Contact www.freakyparty.net   Terms of Use