Review
by James Skinner
There are 14 songs here; 14 finer you’ll seldom hear.»
In Depth by James Skinner
It is 9am Eastern Standard Time when DiS calls Sufjan Stevens at home in Brooklyn and he is wide-awake and affable, even as a temperamental connection threatens to derail proceedings. The last-minute, primitive nature of The Age of Adz, outsider art, personal dysfunction, psychobabble, experimenting with the long form, Woody Allen films - and what’s wrong with civilisation - are some of the things touched on within. Like the new LP: it’s a long one.»
In Depth by Steve_Dunne
They don't make 'em like they used to, do they? Cars, films, local beat bobbies - certainly not singer-songwriters. That was my initial thought when I began to look back upon some of the genre's chief exponents over the past ten years. And it troubles me. subbed and ready to roll...»
In Depth by Alexander Tudor
It’s 1978. Tom Waits is still a Nighthawk at the Diner, yet to embark on his game-changing Frank’s Wild Years Trilogy. Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen are about to trade one-take / lo-fi folk for synth-gospel. Bruce Springsteen dominates the airwaves with»
In Depth by James Skinner
As part of our week dedicated to solo artists, I corralled DiS writers past and present into sending me some words on one album by a singer-songwriter that has stood out for them over the last ten years. From Bill Callahan to Simon Joyner, Martin Grech to Neko Case, here lie their choices, each accompanied by some means of listening to the artist in question.»
In Depth by Sean Adams
I didn't have the attention span to stick to one genre, so in my headphones and on this playlist, there's some lazer-guided missles of misery and really-silly raps and utterly ridiculous bits of yoddelling (O HAI GWEN STEFANI!). This is my voyage through these dizzy digital days and the "solo" artists who pixellated my heart... »
In Depth by Sean Adams
We've tried to have a conversation with Mr Gold Panda on numerous occasions but he's always had his headphones on, staring at his GameBoy. Little did we know he was composing his next opus whilst waiting for the train. We now know what he was doing, so decided it best to ask him about how that little green-screen of joy fits in with his his laptop and loop pedals...»
In Depth by Rory Gibb
As part of our 10-week “DiS is 10!” celebration, we’ve asked 50 of our favourite people to tell us about one of their favourite albums of the past 10 years. This is not a best or "top" anything list, merely a list of individuals sharing one of their personal highlights. Here, DiS contributor and editor of our recent week of content dedicated to Dubstep (compiled here) Rory Gibb shares his choice...»
In Depth by Sean Adams
Putting this playlist together I was reminded that the poignancy of many of these songs comes from that single-mindedness that only an individual with something to say or a deep well of emotion to share, is capable of. Love, hate and the precarious life vs. death battle looms large. For some of the artists on this playlist, life was too much and they didn't make it to 2010 but don't let that put you off because there's a human spirit in all of these songs (save for the few that are that little bit alien or divorced from any known reality). It's a spirit that will lift you on your best days and cradle you on your worst. »
In Depth by James Skinner
By way of Desaparecidos some years earlier, I was already a big Bright Eyes fan by the time I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning arrived in January 2005. In fact I was counting the days until it and Digital Ash in a Digital Urn received their twin release, and upon finally acquiring the pair I played the former so much that my friends and flatmates were frankly astonished.»
In Depth by James Skinner
Kicking off a week dedicated "solo" artists, is James Skinner's look at the most traditional of "solo" musician, that easily defined beast that is the singer-songwriter... He says: It’s a term that will send many music fans scarpering; one that a lot of singer-songwriters are seemingly tired of hearing themselves. But whenever people ask me that dastardliest of questions it is generally what I tell them.»
In Depth by Aaron Lavery
The remarkable return of Edwyn Collins is marked this month with the release of Losing Sleep, his first album to be written and recorded since returning to health. »
In Depth by Lauren Strain
From the outside, Chicago singer-songwriter Joe Pug looks pretty much like your traditional man-and-a-guitar: beat-up acoustic, check; gruffly vitriolic voice, check; jeans and shirt, check. But having already clocked up shows with Josh Ritter, Steve Earl»
In Depth by James Skinner
DiS meets Kristian Matsson (a.k.a. The Tallest Man on Earth) in Barcelona.»
In Depth by Cate Blanche
Emily Haines wrote us a few words on her friend Mark Linkous...»
In Depth by James Skinner
DiS loves Emmy The Great. We really do. Last week we even celebrated wondrous debut album First Love's arrival by letting her take over the site. Turning the tables, then, here's the first of a two-part interview from earlier this month...»
In Depth by James Skinner
On August 4 Conor Oberst will release his new self-titled solo album, and as something of a preview DiS has dived into the man's Bright Eyes catalogue.»
In Depth by Alex Denney
Every inch the archetypal grizzly North American man in lumberjack shirt and hat, Bon Iver is anything but the gloomy figure his backstory would suggest. He's also, as it turns out, a bit obsessed with toothpaste»
Review
by Mike Diver
Re-issued in deluxe packaging and featuring a second disc of b-sides and remixes, Beck's 1996 classic Odelay stands up brilliantly when compared to other critical hits of its era, as well as today's indie eccentrics»
Review
by Mike Diver
Highlights are expectedly numerous – a boisterous take on ‘Novocaine For The Soul’ is welcomed, as is a cover of ‘Good Times, Bad Times’, but it’s Eels' moments of intense introspection that leave emotions truly scorched»
In Depth by Sean Adams
With her seventh long-player, the piano-orientated White Chalk, out now, DiS's Sean Adams catches up with PJ Harvey to discuss countryside roots, beautiful cityscapes, and the confusion aroused by one artist's mixing of influences from the two. "Yes I am a songwriter," she's recently realised; instruments are merely there for bed-making...»
In Depth by Sean Adams
With her seventh long-player, the piano-orientated White Chalk, out now, DiS's Sean Adams catches up with PJ Harvey to discuss countryside roots, beautiful cityscapes, and the confusion aroused by one artist's mixing of influences from the two. "Yes I am a songwriter," she's recently realised; instruments are merely there for bed-making...»
In Depth by Rob Webb
DiS meets Richard Hawley in a cafe hidden in deepest darkest Sheffield to talk about his new record Lady's Bridge, but finds the man is more in the mood for putting the world to rights in his seventeenth interview of the day...»
In Depth by Sean Adams
As the curtain rises seductively on the new album from Bright Eyes, a women's voice informs you that you got the death card but - she says like a science teacher talking about evolution - that can just mean change... Welcome to Cassadaga.
DiS's Sean Adams meets Conor Oberst to talk about the new record and its makers' calming of his formerly wild ways...»
In Depth by Mike Diver
DiS has stumbled across a fair few talents over the past eleven months, but few have made an impact upon these particular ears in the manner of Adam Gnade’s Run, Hide, Retreat, Surrender. Here, the singer - the talker - explains the stories behind his record, and discusses his literal and metaphysical travels...»
Drowned in Bristol #12
DiS Does Singles 13.05.13: Swim Deep, These New Puritans, The National
Darkstar, Ed Harcourt, Halls, Wall +more for 3 DiS-curated nights at Great Escape 2013
Interview: Frank Turner on The Olympics, The Backlash, Thatcher and Black Flag
Drowned in Nottingham #14
DiS Does Singles 6.05.13: Vampire Weekend - Ya Hey (XL)
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