A cat in infra-red imagery. Basement's Wired album artwork

Basement – ‘Wired’ album review


Basement return with ‘Wired’, the Ipswich five-piece’s first new album in over eight years. Released via their original label, Run For Cover Records, the record is the result of all the band members collaborating during the songwriting process and working with producer John Congleton (Sharon Van Etten, Death Cab for Cutie, St. Vincent). The atmospheric…

Beck – ‘Ride Lonesome’


Beck has returned with ‘Ride Lonesome’, a gentle break-up ballad that evokes the spirit of his more restrained and refined albums ‘Morning Phase’ and ‘Sea Change’. He laments how ‘She is gone’ and reflects on turning memories into worst enemies over sparse acoustic and electric hooks before reassuring himself – or the subject – ‘You’ve…

Jesca Hoop – ‘Long Wave Home’ album review


Drawing on the political landscape and her personal experiences, Jesca Hoop’s seventh album ‘Long Wave Home’ finds the California-born. Manchester-based songwriter examining the value of relationships, community and the strength of solidarity. Album opener ‘Adam’ is a restrained affair with Jesca pleasing to stay together with the subject of the song (‘Only the wrong clothes,…

Ben Auld – ‘Loserdom’ album review


Ben Auld’s second album ‘Loserdom’ is named after a term said by Walter Becker in a Steely Dan documentary and finds the Norwich-based singer-songwriter celebrating the relief that comes when you accept your losses and start to move on in life. The appropriately titled ‘Opening’ starts the record with gentle guitar strums and then later…

Civil Villains – ‘Punching Down’


Civil Villains have shared ‘Punching Down’ ahead of the release of their second album ‘A Sleeper, Underneath’ via Thundersnuff Records on 8 May, 2026. Opening with woozy, mathy riffs the band offer ruminations on power, corruption and collective complicity and how it’s not too late for all of us with a conscience and compassion to…

Truthpaste – ‘Friendship is the Truth’


Truthpaste have shared ‘Friendship is the Truth’ ahead of the release of debut EP ‘I Don’t Know Either’ on 28 April, 2026 via Dirty Hit and Memorials of Distinction. Reminding us of Slow Club and the anti-folk classics of the early 2000s but combined with the complex chamber pop melodies of contemporaries like Black Country,…

Life – ‘Turning In’


Life have shared ‘Turning In’ ahead of the release of upcoming fourth album ‘ABSTRACT/NATURAL’ via Launchpad+ and EMI North on 19 June, 2026. Showcasing a more restrained and reflective side to the Hull band, the song finds vocalist Mez Sanders-Green sharing his thoughts on fatherhood and how the most surprising comment from a child can…

The 113 – ‘When I Leave’


The 113 have shared the video for ‘When I Leave’, a song that features on their recently released EP ‘The Hedonist’. Produced by Dom Richmond and mixed by Daniel Fox of Gilla Band, the song is an unsettlingly atmospheric slice of post-punk with aggressive riffs, powerful drums, hissing bass and pondering lyrics filled with observations:…