Arcade Fire - Pink Elephant
Arcade Fire’s seventh studio album arrives laden with both expectation and unease.
The band’s first full-length release since a very public reckoning with frontman Win Butler’s controversies, it’s an album that tries to process pain, redemption and reinvention.
At times it succeeds, but too often it stumbles under the weight of its own contradictions, both musically and morally.
Opening track ‘Open Your Heart Or Die Trying’ sets the scene for an inward-looking, cautious album.
An expansive sci-fi instrumental, it builds like a spaceship ascending, its eerie synth sirens rising and falling with epic tension. Immersive and evocative, it’s all dry ice and dread in musical form.
https://www.live4ever.uk.com/arcade-fire-pink-elephant-review/
Blur - The Magic Whip at 10
When Blur reunited in 2008 for headline performances at Glastonbury and Hyde Park the following summer, it felt like a triumphant victory lap. Then, coerced to participate in the 2012 London Olympic celebrations, they put on another huge show at Hyde Park but throughout were coy about releasing a new album. While they did pepper the comebacks with a few standalone releases (‘Fool’s Day’ in 2010 and ‘Under the Westway’ with B-side ‘The Puritan’), both seemed to suggest that a full-blown return to studio albums was unlikely.
However, circumstances changed their minds after a headline slot at Tokyo Rocks Music Festival was cancelled for reasons unknown in 2013. Stranded in Hong Kong for five extra days, the band made use of the time by entering Avon Studios to record new material, forming the foundation for what would become The Magic Whip, though – at the time – Damon Albarn expressed uncertainty about its future. That sense of hesitation and fragmentation ultimately shaped the character of the album itself.
https://www.clashmusic.com/features/blurs-the-magic-whip-at-10/
Yaang - Live at The Lanes, Bristol, 9th April 2025
Building up a head of steam, Mancunians Yaang are following up their excellent EP ‘No’ with their first full UK tour (a handful of dates a few years ago notwithstanding), and Bristol is one of the cities lucky enough to be touched by their unique fusion of rock, electro and most things in between.
First up, however, are the more traditional Hot Face. With an already-impressive pedigree (produced by Speedy Wunderground’s Dan Carey and released on the label), the London trio tear through their 35-minute set, packing in as much as possible. Indeed, said debut ‘Dura Dura’ is about ten songs for the price of one, with a hook that blasts through the room, while ‘17 Day Migraine’ swings, all breathless chords and intent. Like the headliners, they are difficult to define but at certain points, their wired punk thrash recalls early Kings of Leon (i.e., when they were good). Taut chords, snotty delivery and high hopes. Big things can be expected.
https://louderthanwar.com/yaang-the-lanes-bristol-live-review/
Pulp - Spike Island
Now we’re talking.
Reunion shows are all well and good (and in the case of Pulp’s 2023 comeback, very good) but nothing can surpass the feeling of hearing new music. Human beings always want More, and Jarvis Cocker, Candida Doyle, Mark Webber and Nick Banks have been listening.
It starts with a high-pitched whistle, a cymbal count-in, then erupts into glorious, technicolour Pulp. Accompanied by a bassline that’s just begging for a remix (no doubt on its way), the guitar lick is brand new yet instantly familiar. Jarvis, ever the master of human observation, is one step ahead as always with the opening line: ‘Something had stopped me dead in my tracks’. Yes, yes it has.
https://www.clashmusic.com/reviews/pulps-spike-island-is-a-pitch-perfect-return/
Primal Scream - Live at The Beacon, Bristol, 31st March 2025
Defined by their ongoing reinvention, last year’s fine twelfth studio album Come Ahead was another step in Primal Screams’ 40-year journey, and this corresponding tour finds a band still brimming with vitality and purpose.
An impressive bill features Mozart Estate – Laurence’s new venture – and Baxter Dury. The latter’s debonair delivery and offbeat storytelling on record is replaced by a slinkier style, full of dramatic poses and barked delivery.
It perhaps lacks some subtlety on the juddering electro of ;I’m Not Your Dog’, less so on ‘Baxter (These Are My Friends)’, his recent collaboration with Fred Again…, presented here as a full on-raver. Regardless, Dury is a beguiling performer.
True believers in glamour, Primal Scream take to the stage looking appropriately divine; Bobby Gillespie wears a magnificent white jacket, the sort only a true rock star can pull off, while Simone Butler occupies her side of the stage with confidence and majesty.
https://www.live4ever.uk.com/primal-scream-live-bristol-review/
Goes The Dynamite - Goes The Dynamite
Think of your favourite 1980s film.
You know the ones, those that captured the reckless optimism of youth, first love, and summer nights you hoped would never end. Now imagine that feeling in album form.
That’s exactly what Goes The Dynamite are successfully offering with this self-titled debut; a gleaming, nostalgia-tinged, joy-fuelled ride through synth-pop, indie, funk and pure, unfiltered fun.
Based in Cincinnati, this pop trio – Josh Purnell (guitar/vocals), Aaron Scott (bass/vocals) and Shawn Scott (lead vocals/guitar) – have crafted a sound that is instantly familiar but never derivative, mixing modern pop sensibilities with glittering 80’s influences in a clever, hook-heavy and unapologetically catchy way.
https://www.live4ever.uk.com/goes-the-dynamite-future-review/
Benefits - Constant Noise
Stylistic reinventions are getting rarer and rarer. If something has worked, artists are either encouraged to continue to give the people what (they think) they want or, more likely, do so at their label’s request (insistence).
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Especially if it makes money.
Thankfully, Benefits purposefully operate outside the mainstream music industry.
Not only that, from the outset their guiding principles have demonstrably been about integrity, honesty and purity, and for that we should be grateful.
Where debut album Nails was a vital, powerful but unrelenting body of rock work full of visceral aggression, for Constant Noise, Kingsley Hall and Robbie Major have recalibrated their sonic approach, creating an album that retains its uncompromising energy while expanding into immersive, electronic landscapes.
From the outset, Constant Noise establishes itself as something new; the title-track opens with Hall’s spoken-word lament, ‘I’m looking up in awe at a mountain of shit’, setting the scene while replacing sheer sonic fury with a creeping dread, blending ambient textures and industrial rhythms to amplify its social and political commentary.
https://www.live4ever.uk.com/benefits-constant-noise-review/
The Horrors - Interview
Image by Sarah Piantadosi
After nearly two decades in music, few bands have built a catalogue as consistently innovative and critically acclaimed as The Horrors.
They burst onto the scene in 2007 with their garage-goth debut Strange House before taking a bold turn with their Mercury-nominated follow-up Primary Colours.
From the start, they have moved freely between genres, reinventing their sound with each release. Their sixth album, Night Life, once again sees The Horrors transform, embracing a fresh musical direction and a new lineup centred around vocalist Faris Badwan and bassist Rhys Webb.
It marks The Horrors’ first album without all five original members; after their 2017 album V the band found themselves at a crossroads, a feeling intensified by lockdown.
Drummer Joe Spurgeon departed early in the demo process to focus on his family, while keyboardist Tom Furse stepped back from touring and eventually left.
Guitarist Josh Hayward contributes to the album but has been in and out of the sessions, making this a new chapter for the band in many ways.
“It was quite a gradual and natural thing, especially with COVID happening in that time,” Badwan explains while speaking to Live4ever.
https://www.live4ever.uk.com/the-horrors-live4ever-interview/
Peter Doherty - The Trinity Centre, Bristol - 16th March 2025
Who would have thought that Peter Doherty would become a national treasure?
It’s been a long and troubled road, but midway through his set in Bristol on March 16th, he brings out his wife Katia de Vidas as a member of his live band to (briefly) accompany him.
Doherty now lives what we understand to be a life of peace and tranquility in France with his family, his prolific work rate undimmed but his addiction problems (hopefully) behind him.
It’s a heartwarming sight that proves, against all the odds, his love for music won out. Not only that, but at little cost to his performances which are – as ever – intimate, unpredictable and deeply engaging.
Eschewing any grand entrance or elaborate introduction, he takes to the stage (early!) in darkness, his voice just about cutting through as he opens with ‘She Is Far’.
https://www.live4ever.uk.com/peter-doherty-live-bristol-review/
Interview - Bernard MacMahon and Allison McGourty - Becoming Led Zeppelin
Becoming Led Zeppelin, the first official documentary sanctioned and approved by the legendary band, has surpassed all expectations. The film includes never-seen-before footage and new interviews with Jimmy Page, Robert Plant and John Paul Jones. Best of all, it includes unearthed interviews from the late, great drummer John Bonham, and it’s a wonderful, loving tribute to one of the greatest bands of all time. And the box office agrees.
“The first week was mad in IMAX in America,” the film’s director Bernard MacMahon tells CLASH. “It was completely sold out. It was made for IMAX, and that run sold out and by the end of the first week it was IMAX’s biggest music film of all time. Now it’s broken Sony Classics biggest music film of all time.”
“It’s absolutely incredible,” agrees producer and co-writer Allison McGourty. “I’m blown away and absolutely honoured. I’ve met people who have seen it, two, three, four, even five times. We worked really hard on this film but it’s just surpassed all our dreams and expectations. It’s mind-blowing.”
“The feeling of connection with all these people we’ve never met is extraordinary. By them going again and again, it tells us we were right to put all this work on. You have all these people who look at the world the same as you do,” Macmahon adds.
https://www.clashmusic.com/features/becoming-led-zeppelin-is-the-years-must-see-music-documentary/
Courting Interview
Barely allowing the dust to settle on their second album, Liverpudlians Courting are back with a third effort fourteen months later. (Deep breath) Lust for Life, Or How To Thread The Needle And Come Out The Other Side To Tell A Story is a culmination of the band’s fusion of indie, experimental rock and electro pop, formed across their seven-year career.
CLASH spoke with lead vocalist Sean Murphy-O’Neill to discuss how the new album came about, his songwriting process and what’s next.
Andy Bell - Pinball Wanderer
This is getting silly now.
For fans of Andy Bell’s work, the past few years have been a thrilling ride, marked by a steady stream of releases across his various projects. In just the last 18 months, he has delivered two GLOK albums (one live, the other a collaboration with Timothy Clerkin), the excellent Interplay with Ride, and now his third solo album, all alongside the ongoing Mantra of the Cosmos project.
While The View From Halfway Down was something of a smorgasbord of finger-plucked folk and psyche-pop, Flicker added floods of reverb, but on both albums, Bell’s vocals were discernible at the usual volume in the mix. However, on this third offering, the former(?) Oasis man is happy to let the music do the talking, with his voice more of an additional instrument which adds to the timbre of the song, rather than the focal point.
https://www.clashmusic.com/reviews/andy-bell-pinball-wanderer/
Kele Okereke - Live at Thekla, Bristol - 20th February 2025
Kele Okereke’s solo output now eclipses his work with Bloc Party. As such, and given his prolificity, a show by the Bloc Party frontman can draw on a hefty back catalogue.
However, the three most recent albums (The Waves, The Flames and The Singing Winds, otherwise known as The Elements) all fall under one banner and form the core of tonight’s gig.
It’s a show (and indeed a tour) in which Okereke exemplifies ‘solo’, with no band and no traditional instruments aside from two guitars (one of which is barely used).
Instead, he plays a stoic rhythm on the guitar, appropriate for the songs, and utilises an array of looping devices.
Although the setlist is obviously pre-planned, it adds a spontaneous feel, as if the audience is watching the creative process unfold.
https://www.live4ever.uk.com/kele-okereke-live-at-thekla-bristol-review/
bdrmm - Microtonic
Things are undeniably grim.
As 2025 unfolds the state of the world looks as precarious as it has done for some time. The temptation to uninstall all the apps on your phone and turn away from it all has never been stronger.
Dance your troubles away or face the depressing state of things head on. Those seem to be the choices.
There is, however, a third way, which bdrmm have excavated on this fine third effort: bury the despair as deeply as possible in club euphoria, but refuse to hide from it, looking outwards to acknowledge the bleakness of reality.
Interview - Doves
For a quarter of a century, Doves have been masterfully balancing euphoria and darkness, weaving rich soundscapes across five well-received albums. Now they’re back but – as has been well reported – in altered form. Lead singer Jimi Goodwin will not be accompanying brothers Jez and Andy Williams on the forthcoming tour in support of sixth album Constellations for the Lonely, just as he was unable to engage in the campaign for previous album The Universal Want in 2021.
“It was a massive blow, the tour,” Andy explains to CLASH. “We had two tours which we really looking forward to doing, our first tours in – then – ten years. It’s fifteen years now! It getting cancelled, firstly due to COVID, then second time Jimi not being well enough, was a real blow for both of us. We were desperate to play live. The future was so uncertain.”
https://www.clashmusic.com/features/the-future-was-so-uncertain-doves-interviewed/
Interview - Andy Bell
Andy Bell’s hot streak continues, with his third album in twelve months arriving at the end of February. Marking another new creative direction, Pinball Wanderer features eight brand new songs, differing from previous solo works The View From Halfway Down (2020) and Flicker (2022), which featured songs compiled over several years.
The album blends psychedelic melodies and hypnotic grooves with a veritable smorgasbord of other influences, the Ride guitarist doffing his cap to the Stone Roses, Neu! and Arthur Russell among others. Bell recently took time out of his (very) busy schedule to tell Clash a little bit more.
https://www.clashmusic.com/features/sonic-wanderer-clash-meets-andy-bell/
Doves - Constellations For The Lonely
Overcoming adversity isn’t a new experience for Doves.
After a studio fire curtailed their first incarnation as Sub Sub, Mancunian trio Jimi Goodwin and brothers Jez and Andy Williams returned as the new millennium dawned, taking the electronic mindset into dusky indie anthemia to great success and acclaim.
After another three albums, the trio took a break before returning in bombastic form with 2020’s The Universal Want.
Unfortunately, after delaying the tour because of the pandemic, the campaign was definitively cancelled when Goodwin’s health and well-being concerns became apparent.
Yet beauty has come from sadness, with Constellations For The Lonely arguably their best album yet.
The Murder Capital - Blindness
After broadening their sonic palette on second album Gigi’s Recovery, The Murder Capital very nearly burnt themselves out on the subsequent tour and opted for a fresh approach for the recording of their next album.
Decamping to LA to work with producer John Congleton, for the first time in their career the quintet had few ideas or song titles, instead referring to scraps of ideas recorded on their phones.
In their typically combative fashion, the band fell out on the first day, nearly splitting up but fortunately reconvened to deliver a barnstorming third effort.
No strangers to intensity, by stripping away the extant timbres The Murder Capital found a new strand of it; Blindness purveys an almost claustrophobic sound, truly feeling like the band are in the same room at the same time.
https://www.live4ever.uk.com/the-murder-capital-blindness-rev/
Kyle Falconer - The One I Love The Most
Despite the nuance of their work, The View have perhaps struggled to shake their initial reputation of scallies, detailing escapades and encounters with characters in their music. But beyond the galivanting, lead songwriter Kyle Falconer has always had the muse of someone who’s had their heart broken. Even on ‘Hats Off To The Buskers’, tracks like ‘Face For The Radio’ and ‘Claudia’ stood out from the boisterousness.
In his solo work, Falconer has been free to pursue that side of his songwriting, culminating in the deeply confessional and reflective No Love Songs For Laura in 2021. Now, as if to prove the point, just in time for Valentine’s Day, he’s compiled his most personal selection of songs, reworking them to showcase the essence of the music without production or heft.
https://www.clashmusic.com/reviews/kyle-falconer-the-one-i-love-most/
The Verve - This Is Music: The Singles
Richard Ashcroft was right all along: History does have a place for The Verve and given that he will performing a clutch of their songs to stadium audiences this summer, it seems an appropriate time to re-evaluate their fearsome back catalogue.
While they were never a singles band as such, with their sonic wizardly and density better found in the corners of their four albums, this compilation (originally released in 2004) represents them well. The Wigan four-piece were dubbed as shoegazers when debut single ‘All In The Mind’ was released in 1992, yet the ominous, bone-rattling power of the song generates more of an acid-flecked vibe, complete with Cure-esque bassline.
Later the same year, they released eight-minute opus ‘Gravity Grave’. Listening today, it’s a piece that feels ripe for a remix by some brave soul, all seductive bass and meandering guitar. Thankfully, this new edition includes second single ‘She’s A Superstar’ (cruelly truncated in 2004) in all its majesty. The twinkling verse gives way to a turbine engine of a chorus before an extended coda where guitarist Nick McCabe winds in every possible direction. Sublime.
https://www.clashmusic.com/reviews/the-verve-this-is-music-the-singles/