The View - Same Jeans (1965 Records) January 15th, 2007 3.5/6.0 This year’s first indie band to take advantage of the slowest month of the year and gain themselves a bigger hit and more exposure than they would at other times. The View’s previous songs have both stalled at number 15 in the charts (check [...]
Just Jack - Starz In Their Eyes (Mercury Records) January 15th, 2007 5.5/6.0 Quite an apt time for this one to be released, seeing as X Factor winner Leona’s finally been dethroned from the top spot in the charts. This slating of television reality shows such as Big Brother and The X Factor crosses Mike [...]
Maxïmo Park - Our Earthly Pleasures (Warp Records) April 2nd, 2007 5.0/6.0 Stepping back in time to 2005, it’s difficult to believe that I used to loathe Maxïmo Park - the angular, energetic songs on their debut offering Apply Some Pressure sounded like a band who were just trying too hard. However, one single and [...]
Arcade Fire Apollo Theatre, Manchester Thursday March 8th, 2007 For those of us who aren’t Chris Martin, or who simply couldn’t afford to sell our souls, the end of January remained a depressing affair. The trip to see Arcade Fire at one of their über-exclusive London church shows simply was never going to be on [...]
Esiotrot and My Side Of The Mountain Star and Garter, Manchester Tuesday March 13th, 2007 You have to be pretty brave to accept the challenge of putting on a band with less than a week’s notice; especially when whilst you know that the band are really rather fantastic. However, you are also aware that the [...]
Los Campesinos! and Sky Larkin The Late Room, Manchester Sunday, March 4th 2007 There’s something very special indeed about Los Campesinos! They’re not even out of university yet, but their beguiling, quaint indie-pop strains and powerful live performances mean they’ve already developed a bit of a reputation (and, on the whole, it’s been a good [...]
I’m From Barcelona & Sonic Anaphones Academy 3, Manchester Thursday January 25th, 2007 I’m From Barcelona seem to live to surprise. For starters, they are most certainly not from Barcelona, as their moniker quite clearly suggests. The eighteen-strong Swedish troupe, led by one Emanuel Lundgren, also endear themselves by making a local unsigned act a [...]
The Enemy Night and Day Café, Manchester Wednesday January 24th, 2007 Being able to count Kasabian, The Prodigy, Oasis and Zane Lowe among your celebrity fans isn’t too bad for a trio of 18 year-olds from Coventry. Particularly a band that weren't even formed this time last year. Add into this being tipped for the [...]
Ash and V//Formation Academy 3, Manchester Thursday February 22nd, 2007 If you’re one of the people who thought that Ash would suffer without Charlotte Hatherley, then you were most likely proven wrong if you were at Academy 3 tonight. Naturally, it’d be foolish to underestimate Hatherley’s contribution over nearly a decade, but tonight’s performance shows that [...]
Regina Spektor - Begin To Hope (Sire Records)
July 10th, 2006
5.4/6.0
Whilst she’s renowned for her prowess at the piano, Spektor’s voice is perhaps the greatest instrument on this record.
