Reviews
Album, EP and single reviews from The Skinny. Find reviews of the biggest new releases, as well as new records from up-and-coming new artists from across Scotland, the UK and beyond.
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AlbumsPersonal Best – Arnos Vale
Positivity’s a risky business. Even 20 years on from the angst-drenched 90s – when not only pop but also irony has eaten and regurgitated itself,... Read more »| 19 Mar 2015 -
AlbumsThe Lucid Dream – The Lucid Dream
The name is, of course, deliberate. The Lucid Dream is the band, album title and state of consciousness the music is reaching for. The Carlisle group have re... Read more »| 18 Mar 2015 -
AlbumsBuena Vista Social Club – Lost and Found
"We want our music to endure" are the words of singer Omara Portuondo that are unlikely to stop echoing in the critic-sphere. Now the hype surrounding the fi... Read more »| 18 Mar 2015 -
AlbumsDeath Cab For Cutie – Kintsugi
“You’ve haunted me all my life,” runs Ben Gibbard’s refrain near the midpoint of Death Cab For Cutie’s latest; given the ubiqui... Read more »| 18 Mar 2015 -
AlbumsPolar Bear – Same As You
The oft-Mercury-nominated avant-jazz experimentalists Polar Bear return with a shimmeringly beautiful 55 minutes of measured breathing and humanity. Same As ... Read more »| 17 Mar 2015 -
AlbumsBlueflint – Stories From Home
From Mogwai to King Creosote to Edinburgh Leithers, Blueflint – producer Paul Savage is trading his cards for the increasingly niche. Yet this band did... Read more »| 17 Mar 2015
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AlbumsBenoît Pioulard – Sonnet
Submerging into a white-wash of distilled ambience from the outset, yes, we’ve still got the same Benoît Pioulard. But this time we’re offe... Read more »| 17 Mar 2015 -
AlbumsLoneLady – Hinterland
Writing his Manifesto of Futurism in 1909, Fillipo Tomasso Marinetti stated his desire to sing the virtues of railway stations, factories, bridges, and an un... Read more »| 10 Mar 2015 -
AlbumsLightning Bolt – Fantasy Empire
Noise rock cognoscenti of a volatile disposition might want to cover their eyes and ears: the unthinkable has happened. Yes, Lightning Bolt – that... Read more »| 09 Mar 2015 -
AlbumsNoel Gallagher's High Flying Birds – Chasing Yesterday
The promise of Noel Gallagher's Amorphous Androgynous collaboration seems like the product of a weird drug-infused dream these days. The combination of a sol... Read more »| 04 Mar 2015 -
AlbumsLiturgy – The Ark Work
Liturgy faced both praise and ridicule back in 2011 with the publicity surrounding Aesthetica, an LP that strengthened the quartet's hyper-intense fusion of ... Read more »| 04 Mar 2015 -
AlbumsCourtney Barnett – Sometimes I Sit And Think, And Sometimes I Just Sit
She’s a smart one, Courtney Barnett. Like all the best observational lyricists, she can summon – or at least suggest – profundity in t... Read more »| 04 Mar 2015 -
AlbumsModest Mouse – Strangers To Ourselves
Eight years, eh? Modest Mouse finally return, unscathed – indeed, unMarred – by lineup changes and relocations, and the inclusion of some electro... Read more »| 04 Mar 2015 -
EpSacred Paws – Six Songs EP
Guitar, drums and two vocals; the Sacred Paws line-up couldn't be more straightforward. But their first proper release after being signed by Mogwai's Rock Ac... Read more »| 04 Mar 2015 -
AlbumsThe Go! Team – The Scene Between
Ian Parton began The Go! Team as a home studio project – he recorded 2004 debut Thunder, Lightning, Strike in his parent's kitchen – an... Read more »| 04 Mar 2015