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Review: Already on their seventh studio album, synth-pop kings Everything Everything return to the fore with Mountainhead, a concept album critiquing modern-day zealotry, economic warfare, and narcissism, centring on the idea of mirrors at the top and snakes at the bottom. A primeval analogy for the modern psychic climate in fourteen-track form, the topic at hand certainly sounds ominous; but the music is nonetheless always as enjoyable as EE's music usually permits. In contrast to prior albums Man Alive and Raw Data Feel, both of which made rigorous use of Artificial Intelligence to generate and effect sound, Mountainhead is deliberately processing-shy, with the band publicly avowing their not using any plugins and effects. Whether this represents an appeal by the band for their audience to downshift and embrace a less future-obsessive life, you be the judge. A powerful metaphor for the economic warfare of everyday life, Mountainhead is an urgent message wrapped in a chart-topper.

Review: ***B-STOCK: Sleeve damaged but otherwise in excellent condition***


English alternative rock band Supergrass dropped their third album back in 1999, following on the wave of Britpop, their hugely successful debut I Should Coco and its successorIn It For The Money. It was another commercial hit, reaching number three in the UK charts and fondly being known as the 'x-ray album' because of the picture on the artwork. Mixing up the prevalent Brit-pop and indie sounds of the era, listening back to it now immediately takes you back to those days, although brothers Gaz and Rob Coombes, Mick Quinn and Danny Goffey also flaunted some of their 70s influences on these tunes, with many of them becoming classics in their own right (see Moving, Pumping On Your Stereo).