Reviews archive
July 2024
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50 articles
- July 30
- July 29
- July 28
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- "The songs don't sound sad until you start paying attention to the lyrics. And that may be the key to the album's success": Bruce Springsteen: Born In The USA
- “A bar for live rock music that is surely impossible to match.” Bruce Springsteen bosses it at England's national stadium
- "This brilliant avant-rock band embracing mainstream pop success with wit, style, and groove-heavy swagger can still floor you": Talking Heads' seminal concert film soundtrack expanded and repackaged
- "The beauty here is how far he strays from The Who": Pete Townshend finds new ways to play old songs on Live In Concert 1985-2001
- July 26
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- “There are choruses Kurt Cobain would have been proud to write, vocal harmonies that could be Teenage Fanclub at their most sublime.” Dublin's next break-out band, Thumper, preview their killer new album at thrilling London show
- "Let’s hope this supergroup is one that sticks around for a while." Current and former members of Anthrax, Machine Head, Exodus, Shadows Fall and more unite for ripping first Category 7 album
- “Joyous, energetic, and with the sensation of exciting things to come.” Ghost’s Rite Here Rite Now soundtrack is “that Friday feeling” in musical form
- "A superbly crafted album": Jack Bruce's debut solo long-player Songs For A Tailor, revisited
- "Includes superior versions of weaker tracks that made the final cut": The deluxe edition of The Police's Synchronicity improves on the original
- "Cheap, rushed and ill-conceived": Bernie Tormé sounds inessential on second archive collection
- July 22
- July 19
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- "There's not a note out of place here, the album crafted to perfection, every breath, every drum beat, every howling guitar line": Orange Goblin attain nation treasure status on Science, Not Fiction
- "Harking back to their early-70s pomp and the early-80s MKII rebirth": Deep Purple rediscover their purpose on the invigorating =1
- July 18
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- "Flogging dead donkeys on an album that could have put him back in the saddle": Paul Di'Anno's Warhorse come up lame on occasionally triumphant debut
- "An ambitious blend of groove, death and nu metal elements, with frenzied Afrobeat polyrhythms." Dzikkuh proves Togo's Arka'n Asrafokor are the band every metalhead should know in 2024
- July 17
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- "Placebo might play something from each of their eight albums, but it’s not a pure nostalgia-fest." Brian Molko's crew roll back the years but keep their feet firmly planted in the present at celebratory London show
- "In a country with a nearly 80% Christian population, you can see the genuine social rebellion of metal in full force." Botswana death metallers Overthrust unleash another solid slab of noise with Slaves Of Myth
- July 15
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- “Music's most animated character is a 24/7 party animal and this sizzling soundtrack to unapologetic living is her definitive work.” This is Peppa Pig's world, we're just living in it
- Stevie Nicks' BST Hyde Park performance is "pure magic" and a "monumental outpouring of love" for one of rock's most influential icons
- "Science, Not Fiction is a formidable show of strength from one of the greatest bands ever to do it." Almost 30 years in, Orange Goblin have made one of their very best records - and one of the best metal albums of 2024
- "The first time I heard Fish singing, I felt him connecting with me. The first time I heard Steve Hogarth singing, I felt he was connecting with my girlfriend": Marillion ring the changes on Seasons End
- July 12
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- "Splicing together the old and new in a way that is heavy, honest, infectious and just the right mix of chaotic and creepy." Graphic Nature turn Korn, Deftones and Slipknot influences into something fresh on Who Are You When No One Is Watching?
- "Eminem remains unable to resist humouring his darkest lyrical impulses. He just doesn't know how to properly address them." The Death Of Slim Shady (Coup De Grâce) is a disappointing missed opportunity
- "Stars in every sense of the word." The Killers bring glitz, glam and wall-to-wall big-hitters as they sign off their Las Vegas-style residency in London
- “Steeped in 60s folk and psychedelia, exponents of Latin American, African and Indian elements – rare for European prog artists”: Jade Warrior’s Borne On The Solar Wind – The Vertigo Albums
- "There's still plenty of gas left in the tank": Mr. Big might be worn around the edges, but their energetic tenth album is as tight as ever
- "Too many tracks are more perspiration than inspiration": Van Halen's combative For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge, expanded
- July 11
- July 9
- July 8
- July 6
- July 5
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- "Memorable hooks abound and no opportunity for an anthemic chorus is ignored": Kissin' Dynamite light the fuse on Back With A Bang
- "It's difficult to tell which one of the tracks on this album was improvised spontaneously": Focus veer from grandiose to sombre on expansive 12th album
- Graham Gouldman's I Have Notes: the 10cc songwriter-in-chief gets his pals in
- L.A. Edwards embrace heartland rock on Pie Town, but sometimes it's just too slick
- July 4
- July 3
- July 2
- July 1
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- "If it’s energy you’re after, there’s only one place to be." Justice close out Glastonbury's West Holts stage with a thunderously heavy, effortlessly cool set for the ages
- "Syncopated lightweight pop, as if selected by algorithms for mass consumption": Imagine Dragons resolutely fail to rock on Loom
- "Tony Iommi should have dropped the name and called the band something else": Black Sabbath's least-loved album re-examined, four decades on
- "Everything here has a distinctly box-office feel": The Warning sound bound for the big time on Keep Me Fed
- "This collective of musicians breaths new life into established formats": Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats' lineage stretches out on South Of Here
- "It's something of a miracle that they're still plugging away in 2024": Five decades in, the metal is still good for Anvil
- "The album plays like a cohesive lost gem": Johnny Cash's buried treasure shines on eloquent Songwriter album
- "18 tracks bristling with ideas and imagination": Redd Kross come full circle on melody-stuffed eighth album
