Staff Picks 2022

Kelley Stoltz - The Stylist

Released 10th June 2022. 'The Stylist', Kelley Stoltz's 17th album finds him following up the Thi...

Released 10th June 2022. 'The Stylist', Kelley Stoltz's 17th album finds him following up the Third Man Recordsreissue of his 2001'Antique Glow' with a collection of 10 new songs. The album wasrecorded early in 2021, and has been languishing in the vinyl pressing log jam ever since - but luckily Stoltz writes timeless songs, the kind that might've appeared on the fringes of the late 60's or mid 80's. Acoustic guitars, synthesizers, drum machines and strong melodies abound. As with his other c...

Band Of Horses - Things Are Great

Released 4th March 2022. Band of Horses’ sixth studio album and first record in more than five ye...

Released 4th March 2022. Band of Horses’ sixth studio album and first record in more than five years.  Sonically, the album is a return to their earlier work and the kind of raw ethos that lies at the heart of Band of Horses. Emotionally intense, both on a personal and elemental level, on Things Are Great we find band founder Ben Bridwell more autobiographical than he’s ever been on record detailing the nebulous frustrations and quiet indignities of relationship changes and what a person will...

Arctic Monkeys - The Car

Released 21st October 2022. SK says: "'The Car' builds on the loungey sea change that was 2018's ...

Released 21st October 2022. SK says: "'The Car' builds on the loungey sea change that was 2018's acclaimed 'Tranquility Base Hotel + Casino' with sweeping strings, wah-wah guitar and a slippery and nuanced vocal performance from Alex Turner which matches the elliptical imagery of his lyrics, calling to mind Scott Walker's forays into chansons, Richard Hawley's lovesick croon and Turner's own soundtracky side projects." The Car is the seventh studio album from Arctic Monkeys. Featuring ten new...

Destroyer - LABYRINTHITIS

Released 10th June 2022. Destroyer’s latest album, LABYRINTHITIS, brims with mystic and intoxicat...

Released 10th June 2022. Destroyer’s latest album, LABYRINTHITIS, brims with mystic and intoxicating terrain, the threads of Dan Bejar’s notes woven through by a trove of allusions at once eerily familiar and intimately perplexing. The record circuitously draws ever inward, each turn offering giddy surprise, anxious esoterica, and thumping emotionality at equal odds

Marci - Marci

Released 5th August 2022. A great pop record is like a great friend: an intimate confidante, a sh...

Released 5th August 2022. A great pop record is like a great friend: an intimate confidante, a shoulder to cry on, and a partner in crime when you’re ready to get dolled up and dance the pain away under the disco ball (or in front of your bedroom mirror.) That’s what you’ll find on MARCI, the solo debut from Marta Cikojevic of Montreal soft-rock group TOPS, who steps out on her own with a collection of self-assured synth pop songs brimming with sincerity.

Weyes Blood - And In The Darkness, Hearts Aglow

Released 18th November 2022. Technological agitation. Narcissism fatigue. A galaxy of isolation. ...

Released 18th November 2022. Technological agitation. Narcissism fatigue. A galaxy of isolation. These are the new norms keeping Weyes Blood (aka Natalie Mering) up at night and the themes at the heart of her latest release, And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow.  The celestial-influenced folk album is her follow-up to the acclaimed Titanic Rising. (Pitchfork, NPR, and The Guardian admiringly named it one of 2019’s best.) While Titanic Rising was an observation of doom to come, And in the Darknes...

Kiwi Jr. - Chopper

Released 12th August 2022. Smash cut to Kiwi Jr.’s third album, Chopper, overseen by trusted pilo...

Released 12th August 2022. Smash cut to Kiwi Jr.’s third album, Chopper, overseen by trusted pilot Dan Boeckner (Wolf Parade, Handsome Furs) on storied Sub Pop Records. Turning nocturnal with necks mock turtle, our Local Kiwi Jr. takes neon flight off the digital cliff - like The Monkees starring in Blade Runner; like Michael Mann directs Encino Man. Ten songs with synth shimmer, zen gongs with yard strimmer. The signs along the highway read “LESS BAR, MORE NOIR AHEAD.” Ah, those late summer,...

Everything Everything - Raw Data Feel

Released 20th May 2022. Twice Mercury Prize nominated, 5 time Ivor Novello nominated and critical...

Released 20th May 2022. Twice Mercury Prize nominated, 5 time Ivor Novello nominated and critically acclaimed, Everything Everything launch their new forthcoming studio album 'Raw Data Feel'. On Raw Data Feel, Everything Everything set about revolutionising modern pop music, with Higgs abandoning his own brain and letting technology do at least some of the thinking: feeding LinkedIn T&Cs, Beowulf, 4Chan forum text and the teachings of Confucius into A.I. automation processes and using its...