Latest Reviews

Twenty-two-year-old singer songwriter Claire Cottrill – known better as Clairo – began posting her music online around six years ago, quickly winning fans with her unflinchingly honest and real stories. 2017’s lo-fi track Pretty Girl, and it’s accompanying homemade video, proved to be something of a breakthrough, wracking up close to 80 million views on YouTube to date, and leading to her penning a deal with Fader Label, who dropped her debut album Infinity in 2019 to widespread critical acclaim.

If you were looking for a measure of quite how successful The Killers have been in the UK, how completely we’ve taken the Las Vegas outfit to our hearts, then the fact that Mr Brightside, their defining, signature hit, recently passed 280 weeks in the UK top 100 is it. By that metric, it is the most successful song ever released here, and it’s not even close – Chasing Cars by Snow Patrol, itself a chart behemoth, is it’s nearest rival with a paltry (by comparison) 166 weeks in the top 100.

For now, Jake Bugg arguably remains Nottingham’s biggest recent star, but he should be wary because hot on his heels in Chloe Rodgers, the latest breakthrough act to emerge from the city’s burgeoning underground scene.

Northumberland-born singer Jade Bird’s self-titled debut album was chock full of gorgeous acoustic guitar and Americana-influenced vocals and songwriting. It reached the top ten of the UK albums chart, and topped the UK Americana chart, making Bird a rising star in the field of contemporary country music. And so, when she decamped to New York and Nashville to work on a followup, it seemed likely that Bird would continue in a similar vein. After all, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. 

Finneas’ newest single, The 90s, is a harmonious lament with plenty of production tricks and polish expected in a Finneas track.

When the then seventeen-year-old Jake Bugg burst out of the Nottingham suburb of Clifton and onto the Glastonbury stage a decade ago, with his tales of teenage life told in his distinctive and entrancing drawl, he was an almost instant sensation. As the hype built and his songs filled the airwaves, he seemed to be on the verge of becoming the UK’s defining indie star of the decade, a new Gallagher brother for the Snapchat generation. 

In one of the most ambitious and unexpected collaborations of all time, Earth Wind & Fire, Lucky Daye, and Babyface put their talents together to rework and modernize the first’s classic song “Can’t Hide Love” under the new name “You Want My Love”.

RINI’s newest single, Red Lights, not only serves as a wonderful neo-soul song, but might be one of the artist’s greatest song.

The progressive rock gods are back with their first single, “The Alien”, from their upcoming album “A View from the Top of the World”, with a new heavier edge and clear progression from their latest effort “Distance Over Time”. 

In a new fun twist to pop punk, We Are Scientists did a wonderful job bringing new life to the genre in their newest single, “Handshake Agreement”.