The Mercury First Listen Review: Arctic Monkeys
Benjamin Bland on Arctic Monkeys' Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino»
Articles
benfyffemusic has written the following articles:
Stephen Malkmus - Groove Denied
It would be a shame for anyone to miss out on Groove Denied»
Teeth of the Sea - Wraith
Teeth of the Sea’s best, but also subtlest, album to date»
Sharon van Etten - Remind Me Tomorrow
A delightful return»
Lubomyr Melnyk - Fallen Trees
Like the other excellent records he has given us since his belated emergence into the global limelight, Fallen Trees is a work of quiet beauty»
Soap&Skin - From Gas to Solid / You Are My Friend
An unremarkable – and frankly forgettable – third album from a notably gifted songwriter»
Mi Mye - The Mountain Forces the Future and the Force Causes the Rain
Subtly contemplative, emotive music that grows in stature with each listen»
Tim Hecker - Konoyo
Simultaneously quintessential Hecker and yet something completely different from his previous work»
Sarah Davachi - Gave in Rest
Gave in Rest is a work of disarmingly simple, yet often extremely profound, beauty»
Szun Waves - New Hymn to Freedom
Ultimately it is very much the beauty of New Hymn to Freedom that really makes it stand out»
Årabrot - Who Do You Love
An unforgettable demonstration of Årabrot’s endless capacity to shock and amaze»
Thou - Magus
A successful affirmation of Thou’s place as being amongst the greatest heavy bands on the planet»
The Necks - Body
One of the highlights of a long and storied career»
Oneohtrix Point Never - Age Of
A wonderfully baffling album»
Ivar Bjørnson and Einar Selvik - Hugsjá
Hugsjá is a startlingly atmospheric journey»
Grouper - Grid of Points
It’s astonishingly beautiful and astonishingly, painfully real»
Yo La Tengo - There's a Riot Going On
It’s nearly impossible to imagine an indie landscape without them»
Anna von Hausswolff - Dead Magic
This is an album that could hardly be accused of not being good at what it does»
Richard Youngs - Belief
Belief is something of a sequel to Beyond the Valley of Ultrahits»
Dedekind Cut - Tahoe
In its serene tenderness it’s a reminder of the fragility of all that surrounds us»
“Never felt better in my life”: Reflecting on the Sanity-Inducing Insanity of The Fall
Their music was an unhinged series of contradictions that reflected the messiness of life»
Articulate Silences, Ambient Sounds #31: 2017 End-of-Year Edition
Celebrating the quieter side of music»
Tom Rogerson with Brian Eno - Finding Shore
A record straight out of the early Eno ambient series playbook»
Destroyer - ken
ken’s a grower»
Wolves in the Throne Room - Thrice Woven
One of those glorious black metal records that creates a world around it»
Neurosis - The Word as Law (2017 remastered edition)
An album of purpose, featuring Neurosis beefing up their early crust punk sound to the point of overload»
Alvvays - Antisocialites
A characterless, maybe even completely anonymous, collection of tracks from a band clearly suffering badly from the infamous 'second album syndrome'»
Steven Wilson - To the Bone
Steven Wilson is capable of producing a great pop album, but this sure as hell isn’t it»
Laurel Halo - Dust
Throughout all its twists and turns, it remains a compellingly refreshing listen»
Post War Glamour Girls - Swan Song
Few bands get three albums in with barely a dud track to be found in their discography»