After they released It All Comes Down to This, their third new LP of the 2020s, A Certain Ratio looked to the past by touting — and touring in support of — anniversaries related to two of their ’80s albums. Issued simultaneously with Force Majeure, which presented early versions of songs from the 40-year-old Force, The Joy of Sextet marked 45 years since the recording of Sextet. (Sextet was also intended for release in 1981, but did not materialize until early 1982.)
A different proposition from Force Majeure, The Joy of Sextet is the result of ACR handing the multitrack Sextet tapes to Andrew Meecham, aka the Emperor Machine, a veteran producer who had previously remixed ACR tunes and even played on 2023’s rather confusingly titled 1982.
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When 
Mystique has become a commodity in contemporary music. These pseudo-intellectuals, hidden behind vague social media posts and complicated album rollouts, seem more concerned with the aesthetic around their music than the songs themselves, resulting in a slew of impressive-looking albums with little substance.
The Will of Tongues, the latest record by performer-composer 
Into the Sky is the realisation of a project six years in the making. With the need to keep active during lockdown, former Late of the Pier singer Sam Eastgate – aka 
The discourse surrounding the Linda Lindas is more telling about the state of the music industry than of the band’s actual music.
Forty years on, The Jayhawks remain true to their trusted sound. Their lush and patented three-part harmonies and thoughtful, imagery-filled lyrics never go out of style. Their 12th studio album, Sanctuary Park, is a balm for these times. They capture the innocence of teenage years, reflecting from the perspective of adulthood. The opening track, “Keeping Our Heads Above Water,” begins with the line, “under the football lights,” immediately putting the listener in a nostalgic frame of mind. Yet, the upbeat music obscures the theme of resignation heard at the end, “taking all that you have to believe again.” The album’s most riveting track, “Hands on the Wheel,” begins this way in a cappella harmonies, ‘We’ll steal your daddy’s car/Roll down the window…
When Alabama Shakes sauntered in with the Southern groove of ‘Hold On’ in early 2012, the members were barely older than the boys and girls for which they named their debut. Sure, guitarist Heath Fogg was nearing 30, but 
In the summer of 1976, Bob Marley & The Wailers hit the UK shortly before the heatwave, in mid-June. They’d been touring Rastaman Vibration since April – breakthrough shows in the US and Europe – and in Britain, just a few months after the success of Live! and No Woman, No Cry, filled four nights and two matinees at
the Hammersmith Odeon, announcing that reggae was no niche novelty but a potent force. In the audience was future DJ Don Letts who in the linernotes here makes an impassioned case for that residency’s significance. “It made British kids who’d never stepped in a Caribbean household feel the hum of something deeper than rock or pop. Marley showed the world the spirituality, rebellion and beauty inside our culture.” Letts also asserts that reviewers of…
A chandelier of CCTV cameras hangs down from the cover of 
When 
During the first wave of post-punk, the bulk of its practitioners lived in nations with undeniably agit-worthy issues. But they weren’t faced with anything like the existential chaos that’s been a day-to-day reality for generations in Lebanon. In other words, Beirut bands like 
Pioneering Arabic/Western fusion singer 
In his excellent Rough Guide to Country Music, Kurt Wolff devotes a chapter to the Nashville Sound. In his introduction, he charts its emergence back in the late 1950s as: “Goodbye fiddle leads, hayseed routines and nasal voices; hello string sections, background choruses and smooth sophisticated singing. This country-pop blend – or countrypolitan, as it came to be known – worked like a charm, as far as record sales and radio listenership were concerned”.
…The deluxe edition introduces 2 previously unreleased studio tracks rescued from the original sessions, newly mixed by Stephen Mougin.