You can trust Louder Our experienced team has worked for some of the biggest brands in music. From testing headphones to reviewing albums, our experts aim to create reviews you can trust. Find out more about how we review.

A swirling mass of sludge, grunge and psychedelia makes up White Orange’s self-titled debut. Think Queens Of The Stone Age meets Mudhoney with a sprinkling of Monster Magnet style spaciness.

White Orange’s thick, swampy sounds are erratic and thumping, while their stoner rock riffs are punchy and toe-tapping, particularly on standout track Dinosaur Bones, but too often they get slightly lost in the sheer density of the heavily layered songs.

The vocals are gruff and grungy, and are distorted to give trippy, fuzzy echoes, particularly in closing track Sigourney Weaver, and you can’t help but think that if they’d stripped back a bit on production their debut would be more accessible – although it’s safe to assume that that isn’t White Orange’s musical aim.

This album is bold, it’s experimental and it’s creative, but unfortunately its density may be too thick for many to wade through.

Hannah May Kilroy has been writing about music professionally for over a decade, covering everything from extreme metal to country. She was deputy editor at Prog magazine for over five years, and previously worked on the editorial teams at Terrorizer and Kerrang!. She currently works as the production editor for The Art Newspaper, and also writes for the Guardian, Classic Rock and Metal Hammer.