Dirty Hit Vinyl & CDs

Review: Beabadoobee third studio album follows her 2022 effort Beatopia and her 2020 debut Fake It Flowers, delving deeper into lyrical vulnerability, navigating the complexities of young adulthood. Produced by Rick Rubin and longtime collaborator Jacob Bugden, the album was recorded at Rubin's Shangri-La studio in Malibu. To mark the announcement, Bea released the lead single, 'Take A Bite.' Reflecting on the track, she describes it as an introspective look at her thoughts and unhealthy lifestyle, finding comfort in chaos. The song features melodic guitars and Bea's delicate vocals, capturing her journey through familiar yet turbulent emotions. This Is How Tomorrow Moves promises to be a poignant exploration of self-acceptance and growth.

Review: Been Stellar's debut album, Scream From New York, NY, is as a thrilling, assured indie rock release, with ten tracks that blend visceral melody with raw power and showcase the band's live strength and studio control. The album's songwriting is highlighted, with tracks like 'Start Again' delivering waves of distortion and feedback, while 'Pumpkin' explores the space of shoegaze. 'Can't Look Away' and 'All In One' offer noise rock assaults, contrasting with the pop-infused 'Sweet,' which adds a different flavour to the mix. The mix of different styles and sounds must make for an engaging listen. Overall, it is a searing and magnetic debut that captures the essence of New York.

Review: Jack Antonoff's Bleachers project - official stage name for him and accompanying players - made a big impact with 2014's debut single, 'I Wanna Get Better', and continued to pull in followers across three albums, offering equal parts contemporaneity and nostalgia on record(s). Inspired by alternative, light, and pop rock of the late-1980s and early-1990s, there's more than a sense of reflecting on life's great moments about the band, and their fourth LP is exemplary of this. Rousing choruses on big hitters like 'Isimo', 'I Am Right On Time', and 'Tiny Moves' invoke a sense of real togetherness, while saxophones on several songs are deliberate reminders of John Hughes movie scores, and specifically Rob Lowe's downtrodden character in St Elmo's Fire, a prototype for the perpetually adolescent adults that now dominate the millennial generation. Other moments take things down to a more focused and intimate level, 'Hey Joe' and 'Woke Up Today', for example.

Review: Brooklyn-based Model/Actriz, a four-piece rock band formed in 2016, return with an electrifying new chapter in their career. Frontman Cole Haden, guitarist Jack Wetmore, bassist Aaron Shapiro, and drummer Ruben Radlauer have forged a sound that merges post-punk aggression with noise rock's raw energy. Their latest release is a visceral, direct exploration of both the visceral chaos of their live shows and the darker, more introspective side of their sound. After their debut album Dogsbody earned critical acclaim in 2023, they've recalibrated their approach, opting for a more stripped-down and immediate experience. Tracks like 'Cinderella' and 'Acid Rain' charge forward with the kind of club-ready energy that makes their performances unforgettable, while 'Doves' and 'Audience' offer hauntingly introspective moments. Model/Actriz's commitment to blending queer themes with explosive music continues, pushing boundaries in both their lyrics and sound.

Review: Rina Sawayama follows up her whirlwind debut album 'Sawayama' with a new one for Dirty Hit, leaning further into gargantuan weirdo pop music for a more up-to-date take on the sound she established several years ago. Featuring collaborations with producers Clarence Clarity, Stuart Price and Lauren Aquilina, 'Hold The Girl' hears Sawayama reckon with her own past so as to move forward, in what might be best described as maximalist pop therapy.

Review: Testament to Rina Sawayama's showstopping success in the alternative pop market over the past few years, her most recent album Hold The Girl has already seen a reissue via its original label Dirty Hit, just one year after its release in 2022. While Sawayama's earliest releases channelled a more elusive pop sound, Hold The Girl opted for a much less abashed genre tour, working in every influennce from Kelly Clarkson to Clarence Clarity, amounting to an ultimately hugely-maximal pop record which veritably penetrated the dance-pop landscape, despite the absurd and senseless fan backlash about its original album cover. This new reissue follows up not one, but two concert tours in promotion of the album, evidencing its universal acclaim in the mainstream critical sphere.

Review: ***B-STOCK: Record slightly warped***


RECOMMENDED
There's absolutely no doubt in our mind Blue Weekend is a record Wolf Alice feel a sense of enormous personal satisfaction from. Of course time will tell if it can bag them another Top 5 position, or even a Mercury Prize nomination, but for all intents and purposes there's a real feeling of catharsis here. And it goes well beyond famously reserved singer Ellie Rowsell telling listeners she doesn't give a fuck if they like her.

The band's latest punches, bangs and has absolutely no time for dishonestly. In many ways, this is where they are fully realising influences that have always been present - grunge, punk, some of that 1990s British indie-garage-with-bite crossover stuff. But it's also a record that sees them realising just where they've got to, and now reaching for a louder and more prominent position on the main stage.

Review: RECOMMENDED
There's absolutely no doubt in our mind Blue Weekend is a record Wolf Alice feel a sense of enormous personal satisfaction from. Of course time will tell if it can bag them another Top 5 position, or even a Mercury Prize nomination, but for all intents and purposes there's a real feeling of catharsis here. And it goes well beyond famously reserved singer Ellie Rowsell telling listeners she doesn't give a fuck if they like her.

The band's latest punches, bangs and has absolutely no time for dishonestly. In many ways, this is where they are fully realising influences that have always been present - grunge, punk, some of that 1990s British indie-garage-with-bite crossover stuff. But it's also a record that sees them realising just where they've got to, and now reaching for a louder and more prominent position on the main stage.