Marianne Faithfull – Broken English
Marianne Faithfull celebrates her 70th birthday on the 29th of December. John Scott takes a listen to her 1979 album Broken English.
Album Reviews
LACK – Anthem and a Sneaky Peek Of Their New Album
LACK are a Bedfordshire based British Punk trio, consisting of Rob, Jay and Steve. After 9 months, LACK were off to Wallington to record their first album, Anthem, and are soon to release their second album, which I was lucky enough to gain early access to.
Weyes Blood – Front Row Seat To Earth (Mexican Summer)
Twenty Eight year old, Californian singer songwriter Natalie Mering throws back to a psychy-folk feel of the sixties, with a Gallic touch thrown in there for good measure…but then she doesn’t at the same time.
Hawkwind – The Charisma Years 1976 – 1979 (Atomhenge)
I’ve sat on this for a while and it’s now out there for you to get your hands on but it’s very difficult to write a balanced review of what represents four of your favourite albums of all time by your favourite band of all time. Yes it’s a boxset re-release from the late 70’s […]
Whyte Horses – Pop Or Not (CRC Music)
Whyte Horses are from Manchester and this album came out earlier this year, but only just landed on my desk a few days ago. The band is the brainchild of one Dom Thomas who runs the Finders Keepers record label that re-releases obscure records from around the world – check it out, there’s some crazy […]
John Paul White – Beulah (Single Lock Records)
John Paul White was one half of The Civil Wars, the other half being Joy Williams, but that all went horribly wrong and the breakup of the alt-country duo, despite the mega-stardom, not to mention the soon to be released second album that lay before them, was a magnificent demonstration of how to spectacularly implode […]
Honeyblood – Babes Never Die (Fat Cat Records)
Let’s get one thing straight from the off about Honeyblood, and this, their second album on Fat Cat Records… I am clearly not the target audience for this record, but that didn’t stop me from absolutely adoring this terrifically entertaining slab of indie-punky-poppy wonderfulness!!!
Allah-Lahs – Calico Review (Mexican Summer)
The Allah-Las latest CD “Calico Review” promo landed on my desk yesterday (it was released on Sept 9th) and despite this band having been formed in 2008 and having a couple of albums out previously (Allah-Las (2012) and Worship The Sun (2014)) I must confess they are wholly new to me.
Bob Dylan – Blood On The Tracks
Earlier this month, Bob Dylan became the first musician to be awarded a Nobel prize for literature. John Scott celebrates by having a listen to Dylan’s 1975 album Blood On The Tracks.
José Feliciano – El Fantastico & Sombras…Una Voz, Una Guitarra (él)
José Feliciano, no me neither, and so here’s a bit of background. Feliciano is Puerto Rican and was born blind as a consequence of congenital glaucoma but never the less he is regarded by some as the world’s greatest living guitarist.
Jah Wobble – In Dub (30Hertz)
You’ll know the name of course and since his days with Public Image Ltd, Mr Wobble has put out over forty albums and taken part in a huge number of collaborations. Last year he released a six CD box set called Redux, but In Dub allows fans or those new to his music, an affordable […]
Julia Jacklin – Don’t Let The Kids Win (Transgressive Records)
Everything these days is ‘post-something’, don’t you think? Post-rock, Post-punk, post-everything. That being the case, Julia Jacklin’s debut album ‘Don’t Let The Kids Win’ should possibly take the mantle of ‘post-alt-country’, whatever that means. The album’s a lively mix of laid-back guitar-driven songs which lie somewhere between Laura Marling, Faith Over Reason, Eileen Rose and […]
Luke Haines – Smash The System (Cherry Red)
I’ve had this for a good few weeks now and it was released to the public on the 7th October…and, despite the bumph that came with the CD declaring it a “none concept album”, I’ve been frantically analysing and trying to work out what the concept is or what the hell Mr Haines is on. […]
Elvis Costello And The Attractions – This Year’s Model
This month John Scott turns his attention to the UK singer songwriter Elvis Costello who rose to stardom in the first wave of punk rock and here looks at his album This Year’s Model recorded with his band The Attractions.
Leaving Blues: The Story of Taste
2016 marks the fiftieth year since Taste, the blues-rock trio, was formed by legendary guitarist Rory Gallagher. Taste’s story almost reads like a Ziggy-ish rock n’ roll film script: a youthful band that promised much, only to split after a short period in a rather dramatic and personalised fashion, when they were right on the […]
Various – And This Is Me: Britain’s Finest Thespians Sing (London Municipal)
I thought it was a joke when this landed on my desk earlier but as with all the albums that arrive here at Hifi Pig Towers I gave it a fair trial and popped it on in the car whilst we drove to our destination for lunch.