A God-awful Small Affair

Being from a shitty little part of the country where your only chance of spotting a live act is either a bunch of amateurs or the Wurzels (if they fall into a separate category), the opportunity to catch Katy B towards the end of my time at university was a godsend... until she cancelled. I haven't quite recovered. The release of Little Red , Brien's second full LP, has done well to drown those sorrows. On our first glimpses way back in 2013, (I'm aware I'm now half a year between albums being released and me reviewing them. Sorry.) the signs were promising; first single 5AM revived the fantastic party that Katy on a Mission and Witches Brew had thrown, whilst follow-up Crying for no Reason introduced a startlingly vulnerable new side to her sound that should - if there's any justice - cement Katy B as one of those go-to names for outstanding examples of British talent. I'm not holding out for an Adele-style takeover but you get my gist. Production-wi...

The career of Lily Allen has been regarded by many as proof of the current state of the music industry being in dire circumstances. Critics of the newly(ish?)wed have never quite gotten over her having famous parents, and even her most ardent fans must admit she could fill several years' worth of gossip magazines with her feuds. Whilst that particular trait's killed off many careers before they could even begin - isn't that right, Miss Banks? - Allen's has survived and continues to blossom for one good reason: her brand of pop music is excellent. Previous albums Alright, Still and It's Not Me, It's You have been packed with so much humour, fine songwriting and heart-on-her-sleeve honesty that they've rightly both rocketed to #1 and remain strong arguments for her lineage in inheriting the UK's all-important Queen of Pop crown. On Sheezus , she - seriously or otherwise - seeks to reaffirm that: "Second best will never cut it for the divas/ Gi...

I really must motivate myself to do these little things more frequently. Around 150 records from 2011 covered, and barely 5 of 2014 so far. Sorry to anyone that hasn't jumped ship, yet. Londoners Bombay Bicycle Club surprised a few of us earlier this year by managing to seize their first ever #1 album. Their fourth effort in almost as many years, So Long, See You Tomorrow sees the former channel 4 competition winners rightfully make them "big time" and after a much simpler, but equally charming indie approach in their early material (charming in the same sense that Noah and the Whale would be, were they not flung so vehemently into your ears by Nick Grimshaw's Radio 1), they now embrace all sorts of strange and wonderful samples and instruments into their sound. It wasn't until I heard Shuffle , from their last record, popping up on the soundtrack to the magnificent Sleeping Dogs game that I realised how totally unique it was; finding that one, stand-out h...

I'll keep this brief because I'm just sulking over the absence of any Catch You or Get Over You pop majesty. This is the most tolerable bit of mediocrity one can expect from any popstar. I can't remember any of the songs but I think I recall them being 'quite nice'. Oh and don't think using Cyrillic fonts because your last album charted well in Russia has gone unnoticed, either, Sophie. Very canny. Rating: 5.5/10 Highlights: Young Blood; Birth of an Empire; Wrong Side of the Sun; Until the Stars Collide Avoid: The Deer and the Wolf; Interlude; 13 Little Dolls Artwork Watch: Is that a chalet? Up next: Bombay Bicycle Club

The last time I took a crack at reviewing someone whose debut LP was but the folky, quiet preamble to a stunning, electronica-infused sophomore it went and got my second ever 10/10 rating (and also contained a stand-out track called Glacier ), so it's looking at least a little tough for Mr. McMorrow to compare. His 2011 effort Early in the Morning was a real slow-burner with British fans, but he managed to make an impression on the singles chart with a charming cover of Steve Winwood's Higher Love (possibly because it was doing the rounds on The Voice at the time). Chunks of tracks have also been popping up on BBC trailers out of nowhere, so despite that #68 album chart slot he's not really been forgotten. Hopping up forty places three years later only proves that. It's an unnerving challenge though, going up against the likes of Passenger, Ed Sheeran, Bon Iver and James Arthur and all of those other chart-dominating gentlemen. What, exactly, raises him above th...

I'm sure that, had I started this whole album-reviewing malarkey in 2010 instead of 2011, I'd have gotten around to listening to Warpaint's The Fool because there seemed to be quite a bit of fuss built up about them over here in the UK (oddly, a bigger fuss than that they generated in their home country). Of course, post-HAIM, the idea of an all-female L.A. rock band might carry more weight but these four are distinctly less poppy than the Haim sisters. It may have subconsciously helped though: this self-titled sophomore slotted rather sweetly into the top ten right here. It may have only been four years but the formative years of Warpaint led towards a very different debut than this; latecomer and drummer Stella Mozgawa had the task of picking up already-written songs for The Fool , but here she's cowriter. It shows.   Intros that segue seamlessly into track two may well be one of my secret passions but the one with which Warpaint kicks off is so restraine...

For a few brief moments in 2012 the whole idea of an Azealia Banks/Angel Haze feud seemed exciting and worth watching. Then came the diss tracks, which seemed to just focus on each other's hairlines and who came first. Basically, it's been a long time since either of them put out an EP, mixtape or single that was remotely interesting, let alone good, and I'm now in the position where anything released by either of them is about as exciting as the prospect of an Ashanti album. Her stubbornness and steely grit has definitely made her an exciting prospect though, and while half of that attention will filter into the whole "leaking her own album" aura of petulance about her, some of it trickled into her music and the devastatingly personal cover of Cleaning Out My Closet - in which she details her sexual abuse at the age of seven - made listening to her an uncomfortable mixture of awe and awful. On Dirty Gold , unfortunately, the latter rings truer. The pr...