Articles
PatrickSmith has written the following articles:
Errors - New Relics
New Relics doesn't match the shifts in evolution that gave previous Errors works such a feeling of excitement. This is easy to like but hard to love.»
James Blackshaw - Love Is The Plan, The Plan Is Death
While this isn't a mainstream record, it's perhaps James Blackshaw at his most accessible. He’s done better work, but this is a continuation in the career of one of the most compelling British musicians. What he does next will be worth looking out for.»
Arbouretum, Hush Arbors - Aureola
A game of two halves, with enough excitement from Arbouretum to keep it interesting.»
Meshuggah - Koloss
Koloss is a real triumph of its genre: inventive, surprising, pleasingly punchy, unashamedly aggressive with just enough shade, tone and melody to balance the raucous but impressive production.»
Lambchop - Mr. M
Some good musicianship and some heartful songs don’t make this an easy journey. Mr. M is an honest but tough old ride.»
Mastodon - The Hunter
The Hunter is a pitch for the mainstream - but it doesn’t compromise on Mastodon’s core ambition.»
Opeth - Heritage
Opeth have lost their bite but not the talent.»
Queen - Reissues
These re-issues act as testament to the unassailable fact that behind the naked ambition and the striving for big-time pop acceptance, this was a dangerously gifted, eccentric and very English talent at work. Worth a second look..»
Joan As Police Woman - The Deep Field
In this post-Winehouse era, with the industry’s appetite for brassy soulful singers, Joan As Police Woman is in no danger of being lumped in with saccharine, unit-shifting, identikit pop moppets, and with The Deep Field she has made an authentic, brave piece of work that should reach the wider audience it deserves.»
Sufjan Stevens - All Delighted People
Five years after he seduced listeners with the haunting images of Civil War soldiers rising from their graves and the poets hovering outside windows, Sufjan has come unstuck. »
Ganglians - Monster Head Room
To quote the band's own bio on MySpace: 'None of this should work but it does'.»
Double Dagger - Masks
Masks is an all-night drunken party in your best friend's basement that you really don't want to miss.»
Thomas White - The Maximalist
It may be callous to castigate a songwriter for forgetting to inject any melody into his songs. But the overall product here doesn't nearly match the vaulted ambition or the doubtless musical talents of their author.»
The Kissaway Trail - Sleep Mountain
Innovation is a funny old word. While all music borrows from past invention, some artists borrow rather more than others. Take The»