This Week's Releases

This week's latest and greatest…

The War On Drugs - A Deeper Understanding (Atlantic/Warner)

Adam Granduciel has called this album A Deeper Understanding but it could've quite easily been called A Clearer Understanding given the clarity he's applied to his songs this time around. He approaches them with direct and confessional lyrics that sound unquestionably autobiographical, but he's also pared back some of the hazy, gauze-like qualities of the dreamy approach he's taken to music in the past.

"If 'meditative rock' is a genre (it is now), they are the torchbearers." Chris Familton - Album Of The Week. Four and a half stars. Read more… 

Gordi - Reservoir (Liberation)

Belying the tender, washed-out sound that immerses Reservoir is a quiet confidence; a rogue individualism that lays the emotions of Sophie Payten - aka Gordi - bare. The 24-year-old's debut record is a brooding, complicated piece of work that places Payten closer to music's avant-garde than many of her contemporaries (think Aldous Harding, Airling or Amy Shark and that's just the tip of the alphabet). Reservoir is, as a production, sometimes challenging, but ultimately rewarding and diverse enough to keep you entertained and utterly engrossed.

"A powerful debut from a driven young artist." Dylan Stewart. Four stars. Read more… 

Queens Of The Stone Age - Villains (Matador/Remote Control)

Villains comes at the point where Queens Of The Stone Age have a fanbase who have grown with them, and accept and delight in Josh Homme's darker, moodier excursions equally as much as they pine for the heavy, stoner fuzz-rock. With Mark Ronson producing, they've clearly focused on rhythm and groove, pulling in funk elements and colouring them with effect-laden guitars and hand claps - Homme less in crooner mode and more embracing his inner pop strut. But that isn't to say it doesn't rock. 

"'Villains' eschews the slow and shadowy songs, instead going straight for the hips." Chris Familton. Three and a half stars. Read more…