avron has written the following articles:
Sun is the most rounded and accomplished album of Cat Power’s career.»
The sound of a woman refusing to kowtow to the pressures of the in-crowd and making the music that she hears in her heart.»
There are no templates. There’s a sense that Micachu’s songs aren’t written, but birthed; thrown at the wall like a Jackson Pollock painting; a collage of sound and ideas. Not as careless as that may sound, but rather: created with abandon and an utter disregard for your rules, Sir.»
Pitched somewhere between physical pleasure and mental torture, is Oshin, dream-weaving, benevolent, sadistic puppet masters Diiv playing havoc with your sense of contentedness.»
Piñata is an album of steady evolution, unveiling layers of sound and personality on each new pass. »
Each track encapsulates a mood, tells a story and does so thoughtfully, deftly, with an artistry that is equal parts considered, eloquent and inspired.»
Outfit are not desperate for your attention, though they are thoroughly deserving of it.»
Stay+ don’t plunder any genre hard enough or deep enough to pin their colours to the wall; nor do they make enough inroads into defining a new sound of their own.»
Memoryhouse’s songs are necessarily painted in watercolour; softened round the edges, bound and blurred by effect. Without that, they appear untethered and pithy.»
It’s pretty bog standard relationship fodder, but Oberhofer have a way of making each song sound like the world premiere of a new emotion.»
Disgracefully brief, awE naturalE comes on like a fierce, warm wave and ebbs away before you can even figure out how which way round the surfboard goes.»
Acousmatic Sorcery displays all the signs of an artist trying to pull in too many directions at once.»
You’ll need to leave your inhibitions at the door with this one, because beyond the stench of testosterone, just past the upturned tables, sticky with whiskey and blood, there’s a pretty fine album lurking here.»
The compilation serves as a pretty neat assessment of its own particular ilk of underground music.»
Hard work, but ultimately rewarding. »
Blouse have emerged into a world in which the minutiae of life is blogged, micro-blogged and tweeted and re-tweeted to within an inch of its very existence. We’re one step away from a standard recording contract clause stating that band members must be fi»
The guy that was searching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus is no longer with us, though his soul remains.»
The best thing about Freedom of Speech is that Speech Debelle isn’t trying to be anything or anyone other than Speech Debelle, making the music she wants to make, acknowledging her faults and limitations but never apologising for them. »
BurnBabyBurn is comfort; it’s reliable, it’s exquisite, it’s kinda vital.»
Although even the most studious of listener’s attention will wane momentarily throughout, Clay Class is nonetheless a class act. Understated, sloth-like and quick-witted all at once. An exercise in excellence, with one hand tied behind its back.»
Tough Love is an addictive beast; 11 brutal songs that you could work your way through on the most meagre of lunch breaks.»
Essentially though – it all comes back to Coldplay.»
Whilst cassette tapes rattle about in decrepit motors and vinyl platters suffer motion sickness from repeated spins, one can only hope the band are working on a lengthier release, before hypnosis slowly grinds the nation to a halt.»
Something of anomaly: indulging Patrick Wolf in his desire to release the closest thing such an ambitious artist will ever get to a Christmas album.»
For her debut release, it’s for the best that Lianne La Havas has keep it brief, until she finds her own identity and starts to carve her own path.»
There are no ups and downs with Blouse; it plays out like one slow slide from confusion to depression.»
As a collection of songs, Welcome to Condale has a strong identity and is easy to love; Elizabeth’s voice is enticing and the melodies are endearing. As individual tracks, though, they get a little lost amongst each other; overwhelmed by their own perkiness.»
Essentially, if you like the sound of men that sound like they drink a lot and make a lot of bad decisions in life, have people die around them and then like to sing about it, set to a raucous soundtrack of guitars, drums and piano… then Strange Boys are pretty adept at all of those things.»
All Things Will Unwind constitutes a parade of beautifully choreographed emotions.»
So, listen up and here’s the sketch: Bright Eyes is dead, long live The Mystic Valley Band. I mean, no announcement has been made or anything. But that’s the way it would seem. For now, at least. And frankly, it doesn’t actually matter, does it? Really? It’s still Conor Oberst and that’s all that anyone gives a flying hoot about.»
