Castle Theater is the moniker of Minnesotan songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Tyler Tholl. He’s released his full-length debut album, Characters, a nine-song collection of warm, lo-fi pop and folk. It was written, recorded, and mixed entirely by Tholl in his basement and loosely inspired by the film, Magnolia.
In the early 1990s Beck Hansen and co-writer Carl Stephenson spent a few hours recording a song called “Loser,” which fledgling label Bong Load Custom Records pressed 500 copies of. It surprisingly made some noise on FM radio in L.A., and Beck was signed to Geffen imprint DGC, which re-released “Loser” in 1994 and included the song on Beck’s album Mellow Gold. Since it actually hit the charts in 1994, most people consider 2014 to be the 20th anniversary of the song, which had as big an impact on the DIY singer-songwriter movement as Kurt Cobain had upon alternative rock.
Born and raised in Elephant and Castle, Joy Crookes musical journey has garnered Amy Winehouse and Lauryn Hill comparisons. The daughter of a Bengali mother and an Irish father, she grew up listening to an eclectic mix of genres – everything from Nick Cave, to King Tubby, Kendrick Lamar and and as a result she’s curious, passionate and music obsessed – traits that creep into her own creations at every opportunity. Joy’s universally appealing sound and knack for smart, modern storytelling and her candid, fearless attitude has seen grow ever amassing fanbase waiting avidly for her next move.
Now, the 22-year-old British-Irish-Bangladeshi musician is releasing a debut album that makes a strong statement about her identity. Joy Crookes’s Introspective Soul Digs Deep Beneath Her ‘Skin’
For a band who have continually reinvented themselves over the years, from the young androgynous punk upstarts who gave us Generation Terrorists, to the virtiolic The Holy Bible era, and the Britpop conquering albums Everything Must Go and This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours, the Manic Street Preachers 14th studio LP The Ultra Vivid Lament still carries with it a big surprise.
Throughout their 35-year career, across all their various stages, the Manics have always been a guitar band. Each incarnation of their sound has been driven by frontman James Dean Bradfield’s compositions, ably supported by his cousin, drummer Sean Moore. Though bassist Nicky Wire and lyricist and guitarist Richey Edwards, before his sad disappearance in 1995, were often the band’s mouthpieces, their spiritual leaders if you like, musically it was Bradfield and his trademark white Les Paul guitar that shaped their sound.
On The Ultra Vivid Lament, though, Bradfield has put the six string to one side and instead crafted each track on the piano, having taught himself to play over the course of lockdown. The inspiration, it seems, came from the likes of ABBA and Neil Diamond, acts who were at the forefront when the Manics themselves were kids, and the result is a set of gloriously rich songs that rank up there with some of the best the band have ever produced.
T Truman, the solo project and alter ego of The Vaccines’ keyboardist Timothy Lanham, releases new single “Vanity Jones” alongside an extravagant accompanying video, which sees Truman cruising through a virtual San Francisco skyline in a vintage Alfa Romeo.
Jack Savoretti is a British singer-songwriter of Italian-German descent. With this combination and his passion for European and Mediterranean music, he has dedicated his career to dazzle audiences with melodies from other eras, adapted to our time and sung with that raspy voice that makes him so special.
Jack Savoretti is back with a wonderful album, Europiana, with a confidence and an emotional swagger that drives these songs onto new heights. It’s the follow-up to his breakthrough 2019 album, Singing to Strangers, his third consecutive Gold seller and first UK No. 1.
Miles Kane best known as a solo artist and the co-frontman of The Last Shadow Puppets covered the classic Edwyn Collins track “A Girl Like You.”
