Matador Vinyl & CDs

Review: Scottish indie-pop darlings Belle and Sebastian are back with a second album in a year. Late Developers is their 10th overall and came as rather a surprise out of the leftfield when it was first announced at short notice. The first single 'I Don't Know What You See In Me' is a big, rousing, infectious pop tune that reminded us that this band is far from done yet. It is a creative powerhouse that comes some 25 years after their first release and is full of the magical hooks this band is so well known and loved for. From big and energetic cut to dance-ready jams via a co-write with young pop composer Pete Ferguson, this is a real doozy.

Review: Rolling Stone declared Bettie Serveert's debut album Palomine as "untamed and free as pop gets" back when it was originally released in 1993. It sure did become a classic and so now gets a 30th anniversary reissue, the first it's ever had. The Dutch band's Carol van Dyk and Peter Visser admit that they were "green as it comes" when they record it but that didn't stop them cooking up plenty of infectious hooks and jangling grooves run through with elements of prog, pop and folk. It's a nostalgic trip to tune into this one three decades on, but one that is well worth making.

Review: Even if you've no idea who Boygenius are the subtitle of this reissue alone should warrant investigation. Originally released in 2018, five years on the American indie group are looking to revisit and relive their wildly successful debut EP, which at the time of its initial release had critics fawning over the quality of its content. NME, for example, awarded it a perfect score, while the normalised rating on Metacritic, which aggregates all reviews and works out the average, gives it 84 out of 100. So what was so good about the record? Well, for one thing, each of the artists involved brings their own personality to the equation, resulting in a wonderful stylistic marriage that sounds like minimalistic and melancholic rock and poetic folk pop. And thematically, this is emotionally very highly charged stuff, destined to grab you by the heartstrings and never let go.

Review: Originally released in 1984 by Touch & Go Records, Psychic was the startling debut album by a then largely unknown Butthole Surfers. And it laid out their stall pretty convincingly, with elements that nodded to the psychedelia implied in the title, but the record largely rooted in more 'traditional' punk sounds, the emerging surf-skate scene, and, to a lesser extent, country rock. Listening back now, and the collection has lost little of its original impact. From the moment you hit play, you know this is going to be an uncompromising and unstoppable assault on the senses, throwing weird effects, cunning tape edits, samples of Spanish radio stations, spit and (probably) blood into the mix. A reminder of a much more visceral and unleashed time in the history of music, to revisit is both joy and lamentation.

Review: Interpol's seventh album sees the long-standing NYC indie rock giants teaming up with the legendary production team of Flood and Alan Moulder for a trip into sadness, darkness and introspection. For devoted fans of the band, those themes should ring true and spell out another record to be cherished for those downcast days. Daniel Kessler's serpentine guitar work cuts an imposing, but ultimately graceful figure on 'Into The Night', while Samuel Fograino's propulsive drumming continues to explore meters beyond linear motorik drive and Paul Bank once more speaks from the deepest reaches of his soul.

Review: Perfume Genius aka Mike Hadreas wrote this music choreographer Kate Wallich's immersive dance piece The Sun Still Burns Here at the request of the Seattle Theatre Group. The show was performed across America and captures the euphoria of the dance floor in elegant fashion. Now the full suite of sounds from the show make it on to this record with GRAMMY-winning producer and long-time collaborator Blake Mills co-producing with Hadreas. It's a world of dramatic synths, delicate percussion and swirling rhythms.

Review: If anybody thought QOTSA's previous offering '...Like Clockwork' indicated a band trying out new ideas, they're making far greater leaps this time around. Die-hard fans might be a little confused by the enlistment of Mark Ronson as the album's producer, perhaps even more so by the strong influence on Josh Homme of Ronson's ubiquitous 2014 hit 'Uptown Funk'. The outcome of this surprising collaboration proves to be a heady blend of the band's usual desert-rock sleaze and a crisp, infectious and floor-filling sound. This is an album to move to, and this new direction of dancefloor focus makes the blistering fuzzbox riffs and contortion-inducing solos sound even more cool and confident than ever.

Review: It's been a rough old ride leading up to In Times New Roman for Queens of the Stone Age frontman Joshua Homme. Private life very much splashed across the front pages (of the music press, at least) amid custodial battles with ex-wives, cancer diagnoses and surgery, the loss of several close friends, including former Queens and latterly solo legend Mark Lanegan. As such we can understand why this latest album is an unforgiving and at times surprisingly edgy place to be.
It's been a while since the Seattle, Washington hard rockers allowed themselves to go this hard, and reveal so much about themselves. For the most part, In Times is their heaviest sounding outing in more than 15 years, essentially since Era Vulgaris dropped. Even in the sonically softer moments, for example 'Straight Jacket Fitting', there's a brooding moodiness recalling the heyday of unplugged grunge. Simply put, they clearly had a lot that needed to be let out, and that's exactly what they've done.

Review: It's Lindsey Jordan's second album under the Snail Mail guise. And, just like the namesake service, it's not rushed, at times feels a little unpredictable, and has an air of familiarity that's bound to put listeners at ease. Not that the immediately inviting, often-sweet soft rock instrumentation should be taken at face value. Valentine is an ode to love in a multitude of definitions, but the vast majority of them are in dire need of a little TLC. Not broken, just unkept and taken for granted.

Well, OK, in some instances things are beyond repair - at least one song here is concerned with the horrific feeling of finding out your former-love is now with a current love, which isn't you. On the whole, though, there's a theme of redemption running through the music on this record. That, and the realities of coming of age in the lens of the music and lifestyle press after debut LP Hush exploded before you turned 20.

Review: Adorning his long hair on the cover, Kurt Vile returns with his seventh solo album Bottle It In which has the charm of a rare, golden find inside of a dusty Seattle record store. At 13 tracks long, interestingly enough three clock in at an epic 10 minutes long. It's an album that graces various themes of dark psyche within dreamy soundscapes of crackles and feedback underneath an ensemble of roomy drums, finger-picking guitars and other folky sentimentalities. There's mellifluous flow to the record, with the hip lyrical content of "Cold Was The Wind" a highlight and stand out alongside the washed out beach blues of "Skinny Mini" and unique album closer "(Bottle Back)".