Review: My Morning Jacket return with self-titled new album

by Joe Sharratt
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For a while there, it seemed like Kentucky rockers My Morning Jacket might well have called it quits, so focused were all their respective components on their own side projects and other pursuits. Even when new My Morning Jacket material appeared, as with last year’s The Waterfall II (the followup to 2015’s The Waterfall), it was composed of recordings from sessions made in 2013 that also yielded its predecessor. 

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Review: Elbow drop dreamy and wistful new album Flying Dream 1

by Joe Sharratt
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Bury’s finest four-piece are the latest outfit to drop the lockdown album; a record constructed remotely over the course of the pandemic, backdropped by the sizable tilt of unreality it brought with it. It’s no surprise then that, straight away, what hits you about ‘Flying Dream 1’ is its haunting quality, a gentle otherworldliness that is rich and compelling.

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Review: Nu metal veterans Limp Bizkit turn back the clock with new album Still Sucks

by Joe Sharratt
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Step forward Fred Durst, the now 51-year-old(!) who as the frontman of Limp Bizkit spearheaded the nu metal charge of the late 1990s, and receive your award for most on -brand lyric of the year. Because, on the perfectly named Dad Vibes, Durst raps that “Hot dad ridin' in on a rhino / Got the roll-under-rap with the dad vibes / Now everybody bounce with the franchise, come on”. Limp Bizkit are back. Close your eyes, turn your baseball cap around, and it’s like we’ve gone back in time twenty years. And my word, it’s fun.

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Review: Richard Ashcroft revisits classic Verve tracks on Acoustic Hymns Volume One

by Joe Sharratt
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Nineties BritPop troubadour Richard Ashcroft has been in the news of late for his stance on Covid-19, pulling out of the Tramlines festival in Sheffield back in the summer after announcing on a now-deleted Instagram post: “Apologies to my fans for any disappointment but the festival was informed over 10 days ago that I wouldn’t be playing once it had become part of a government testing programme.”

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Review: Jarvis Cocker crosses the channel with new album Chansons d'Ennui Tip-Top

by Joe Sharratt
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Born in Sheffield, figurehead of the 90’s Britpop movement, longtime BBC radio presenter: Jarvis Cocker, were you to not know any more than this about him, wouldn’t seem the most obvious candidate for releasing a covers album of classic French pop songs. But Jarvis Cocker, the sartorially beguiling, Michael Jackson protesting, lyrically inspired flaneur: yes, actually a dozen French songs reworked by that Jarvis Cocker suddenly makes a lot more sense.

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