Back catalogue: Indie/Alternative

Review: One of Britain's best-loved and most accomplished pop-rock bands are back with another highly anticipated album. The Car is epic on every level with its adventurously designed tunes, lots of grand orchestration and plenty of easy-to-enjoy and enigmatic songs of love but also doubt. The Sheffield outfit's seventh long player was written by frontman Turner at his home in LA and mixes indie and psychedelic rock, baroque, glam and orchestral rock with production largely taken care of by frequent collaborator James Ford. The title is a nod to the fact that there are many references to cars throughout the lyrics.

Review: One of Britain's best-loved and most accomplished pop-rock bands are back with another highly anticipated album. The Car is epic on every level with its adventurously designed tunes, lots of grand orchestration and plenty of easy-to-enjoy and enigmatic songs of love but also doubt. The Sheffield outfit's seventh long player was written by frontman Turner at his home in LA and mixes indie and psychedelic rock, baroque, glam and orchestral rock with production largely taken care of by frequent collaborator James Ford of Simian Mobile Disco fame. The title is a nod to the fact that - guess what - there are many references to cars throughout the lyrics.

Review: Domino Records embark on an ambitious reissues double-bill of John Cale's earliest solo records. Here - third to his debut record after his self-excision from the Velvet Underground, Vintage Violence (1970) (to which Cale was infamously disparaging in his later years, deriding his performance on the work as "masked" behind a disingenuous imperative to prove he could still write songs) and second to his Academy In Peril (1972) - comes his third and much better loved LP, Paris 1919. Released in 1973, Cale has regained ground here, still flexing a wonderful talent for songcraft, yet also an entirely new orchestral chamber pop direction, easily foiling the unflappable cool cat persona depicted on the front cover, and eschewing the dark experimentalism of his preceding album. Where it's not plush with string movements, Paris 1919 brims with softly-strung guitar arpeggiations and electric piano hooks, its placid easy listening approach much befitting of the Paris Peace Conference, and other related postwar drives to armistice, that bestruck the public imagination during the earliest post-war 20th Century.

Review: It's hard to feel 'meh' about John Cale. In fact, it's impossible. The Welsh musician, Velvet Underground alumni and composer has given us 18 studio albums, including June 2024's Poptical Illusion, and there's nary a misstep in the lot. His latest plays out like a warm bath full of dreamy optimism, a follow up to the highly collaborative affair, Mercy, here we see the super-talent adjust his focus and fly out alone to prove the point. And prove it he does. Across 12 weird and unarguably wonderful tracks, Cale manages to defy genres, flitting between chamber punk and beach pop, theatrical croon-dom and syrupy downtempo. While there are dark-er moods, 'Funkball The Brewster', for example, on the whole this is smile-inducing, if bat-shit crazy stuff, from start to finish.

Review: Franz Ferdinand round up 20 of their greatest ever hits on Hits To The Head, presented on gold vinyl and with a 16 page booklet featuring liner notes by JD Beauvallet plus lyrics and new and exclusive photos. 18 of the tunes you will be well familiar with , but two of them are brand new cuts just for this project. They are 'Billy Goodbye' and 'Curious' which has been co-produced by Alex Kapranos, Julian Corrie and Stuart Price. Elsewhere the big riffing, festival pleasing joys of 'Do You Want To' and 'Take Me Out' still hit the right spot.

Review: Beth Gibbons releases her debut solo album Lives Outgrown. Notably containing ten songs that were in total written over the course of ten years, the overarching mood is one of saying farewell and musing on the bittersweetness of loss. The English singer and notable Portishead member's solo efforts often operate with this affect, but Gibbons' latest is of special import, given the length of time over which these songs were crafted and occasionally performed over the years. As demonstrated by lead track 'Floating On A Moment', the palette is soft and reflective, hitting only the softest dynamic notes, as Gibbons sings of unique lifetime journeys and a dealt-with sense of friends suffering being left behind.

Review: Joe Goddard's superb album Harmonics receives the deluxe treatment here on lovely double pink vinyl. Expanding upon the original release, this edition delves deeper into Goddard's musical universe. From infectious grooves to ethereal melodies, each track showcases his prowess as a producer and musician. The deluxe edition adds layers of complexity and richness, providing listeners with an even more immersive experience so whether you're drawn to the pulsating beats or the intricate harmonies, Harmonics in its deluxe form promises to please.

Review: More than merely an awaybreak for its members Alex Turner and Miles Kane, The Last Shadow Puppets proved themselves on their debut 'Age Of The Understatement' to be masters of a distinctly '60s-styled world of glamour and arresting artifice, their clever wordplay and swooning harmonies combining with ornate arrangements to create a sound as redolent of black-and-white kitchen sink dramas as the trials and tribulations of the twenty-first century everyday. This long-awaited sequel, meanwhile - reuniting them with string arranger Owen Pallett - displays that whereas their careers may have moved in markedly different directions in the interim, their wry and wordily ditties when united display an enviable chemistry and magnetic charm.

Review: As part of a new looking back on German art rocker Nico's esteemed career by the indie label Domino, Desertshore chronologically follows The Marble Index, and is her third album, following the prior project's establishing her as an avant-garde artist with one foot in the mainstream, in stark defiance of the the prejudiced poo-poohs that followed her first (baroque pop) album, Chelsea Girl. Desertshore is more of a reconciliation of her prior two projects, bringing back the initial western pop sensibility while now firmly basking in a newfound weirdness-and-she-knows-it. From the opening dark waves of 'Janitor Of Lunacy' to the piano-balladic injection of sadness that is 'Afraid', this is another avant-garde masterpiece by the musician, never justifiably passed over.

Review: Conversation-starters to say the least, London troupe Sorry have made a name for themselves for both the right and wrong reasons. Though far from a parody, their work is informed - and in no small part - by a number of esteemed acts and artists who have earned a place for themselves in the pantheons of music. They also have an air of unarguable affectation about them, causing friction with the press, and a reputation for approaching live shows with lackadaisical spirit. Nevertheless, while channeling everyone from Oasis to Tears For Fears on this debut album, the five piece have managed to deliver something truly original, remarkable and infinitely repeatable. Melding indie, electronic pop, jazz and the avant-garde, the result is as cool as cool could be but that doesn't ever overshadow the obvious quality. And for that we need to pay some real respect.

Review: Hailing from the Isle of Wight and steadily building in momentum via a run of stunning singles, Wet Leg are making their much anticipated breakthrough with their debut album on Domino. The duo hit a note between the brooding post punk and new wave romanticism and a spikier pop streak which should find them winning hearts and minds all over festival season. 'Chaise Longue', 'Wet Dream' and 'Too Late Now' have been doing the rounds since the girls signed to Domino in 2021, and it only takes one listen to know they're going to be huge. Razor sharp hooks, singalong choruses and a droll sense of humour are all conspiring to make Wet Leg your new favourite band.