Kurt Vile: Bottle It In review – leisurely, skew-whiff melodies

On Kurt Vile’s seventh solo album, he covers Charlie Rich’s Rollin With the Flow. As song titles go, it’s as good a description as any of this Philadelphia native’s modus operandi. Without fail, the songs on Bottle It In unfurl … Continue reading →

John Grant: Love Is Magic review – electro-amped tragedy and eyebrow-waggling

Grant is never less than erudite, but there’s an occasional touch of teen angst on his fourth solo album

Kurt Vile: Bottle It in review – pin-sharp insights through a slacker haze

Some well-chosen new flavours including jazzy improv enhance Vile’s facility with melody, underneath the stoner elements

Cat Power: Wanderer, in-depth review – staying true to her own weird way

After her record label rejected her album, singer-songwriter Chan Marshall found a new home for her singular sound

Phosphorescent: C’est La Vie review – an alt-rock original in full command

Houck’s seventh album confidently filters heartland rock through psychedelic indie and it’s delicious

Cat Power: Wanderer review – the beautiful sound of the road to nowhere

Chan Marshall’s latest album adds Auto-Tune, Lana Del Rey and a Rihanna cover version to her folk, blues and American roots music. It’s the work of a woman going her own way

Mitski review – an emotional Tough Mudder of indie rock

The Japanese-American singer-songwriter gives a conceptual art performance and full body workout along with her compelling laments of lust, loneliness and death

Amber Arcades: European Heartbreak review – wistful, glowing dream pop

Amber Arcades’ second album takes a sophisticated look at endings, from Brexit to relationships, but it has a lovely human optimism

Spiritualized review – drone-rock’s dark magus orchestrates a transcendent wig-out

By turns poignant and defiant, the soulful rock’n’roll wastrel Jason Pierce turns up the feedback and faces down his mortality – flanked by a horn section and a gospel choir

Suede: The Blue Hour review – the seamier side of Somerset

After marking their comeback from an 11-year hiatus with 2013’s perfectly good but unsurprising Bloodsports, Suede were rather more adventurous with 2016’s cinematic Night Thoughts. The Blue Hour, their eighth album, takes that approach a step further. Intended to be … Continue reading →

Sports Team review – bright buzz band continue indie revival

The impressive six-piece bring middle England’s romance and ennui to life, and are a reminder of why guitar bands work

Whyte Horses review – engaging, eccentric extravaganza of faux-French pop

Dom Thomas’s shifting musical collective weave nuanced spells behind guests including Mélanie Pain, La Roux and a children’s choir in one of the year’s most endearing gigs

Low: Double Negative review – the sound of the world unravelling

Shuddering blooms of static and an incantatory tone make this document of social collapse one of 2018’s most important albums

Festival No 6 review – au revoir to an eccentric, magical gem

The last Festival No 6 ‘for now’ has awkward cultural copyists, but is saved by Franz Ferdinand, The The and Anna Calvi

Spiritualized: And Nothing Hurt review – a glorious sonic daydream

An eighth album from Jason Pierce’s dependably blissed-out and hazy psych rock outfit