Paolo Mizerna

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The Cranberries - Wake Up and Smell The Coffee

Back from an even longer break are The Cranberries, as it has been over ten years since their last studio album, Wake Up And Smell The Coffee. Dolores O’Riordan’s extraordinary voice never quite managed to claim the successful solo career it deserved through the two albums she recorded during the band’s interim hiatus, but with her old partners back in tow they’ve reunited to create one of the strongest album releases of 2012 to date. O’Riordan’s voice always possessed a dreamy, tender quality that worked well when set alongside her talented bandmates, and tracks like the gorgeous opener ‘Conduct’ or…

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Garbage - Not Your Kind Of People

Yet another band back from a long hiatus and also recording independently from a major label, Garbage return after six years with Not Your Kind Of People. The album is a genuinely successful combination of the ‘dark pop meets garage’ that clearly defined their earlier work but was perhaps not as pronounced on Beautiful Garbage and Bleed Like Me. The electronica has been toned down a touch here, but not so much that you can’t hear shades of Nine Inch Nails on a track like ‘Battle In Me’. Elsewhere, ‘Blood For Poppies’, ‘I Hate Love’ and ‘Automatic System Habit’ showcase…

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The Hives - Lex Hives

After five years The Hives are back with their fifth full-length album, this time released on their own Disques Hives imprint. If you’re familiar with the Swedes’ stomping, energetic sound spearheaded by Pelle Almqvist’s charged yelps and howls then you won’t be left disappointed. To be fair, few fans of The Hives would ask the band for a reinvention anyway, and charged tunes like the two-word-only track ‘Come On’, 60’s-themed ‘Midnight Shifter’ and single ‘Go Right Ahead’ are sure to become popular live staples (and yes, with regard to the latter, don’t worry, The Hives asked Jeff Lynne for permission…

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Steel Panther - Balls Out

Back with their second album under the name of ‘Steel Panther’, the L.A quartet divide time between parody of 80’s glam rock and out-and-out tribute. What could tire quickly as a one-trick gag in the vein of Spinal Tap or those spectacular Australian parody-rockers Bigphallica actually works here because, thankfully, the band possess the musicianship to back it up. These are frenetic, high-energy rock songs with gratuitously over-the-top lyrics that aren’t out to compete with anyone for profundity (to point: “Get on your knees and help me please because it won’t suck itself”). It’s certainly not for everyone, but there’s…

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Betty Wright and The Roots - Betty Wright: The Movie

This is Wright’s first album in a decade, and if you’re looking for music with the sass, funk and soul that she was best known for in the 70’s, then you’ll find it here, but there are also modern flourishes on offer as well. This isn’t just because Wright has the benefit of The Roots as her backing band, or because of drummer Questlove’s deft hand co-producing the album, though both certainly help. She shares the stage on ‘Real Woman’ with Snoop Dogg, and on ‘Grapes On A Vine’ with Lil' Wayne, but it is perhaps ‘Whisper In The Wind’…

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Noel Gallagher - Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds

Regardless of your feelings about the former Oasis band-member – whether tired of the seemingly endless public spats with his brother, perturbed by the apparent hefty ‘borrowings’ from other’s music or put-off by yet another egotistical pronouncement- you’ve always had to concede, whether begrudgingly or not, that Noel Gallagher knows how to pen a bloody good rock and roll song. True enough, Gallagher’s first solo effort represents some of his finest work since ‘Definitely, Maybe’ and ‘(What’s The Story) Morning Glory?’ There’s a lighter, looser feel to the music here than the last albums we heard from Oasis (consider the…

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Kasabian - Velociraptor!

Judging by a look at online message boards regarding Kasabian, there’s little doubt that many folks seem to wish they’d just shut up and stop telling us how bloody awesome they think they are. Or at the very least shut up long enough to let us judge their music for ourselves. Regardless of what you think of their braggadocio, on Velociraptor! the lads from Leicestershire clearly display their inescapable talents in what is a fun, loud, Brit-rock album. But there are quieter moments, too. Neon Noon is a slow burn yet perhaps the best track of the record, exhibiting a…

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Primus - Green Naugahyde

The return of drummer Jay Lane to the fold makes this naturally feel like something of a ‘vintage’ Primus album, an outcome that several critics have inexplicably decried. Sure, those averse to Les Claypool’s wonderfully weird, creepy voice (Moron TV feels like the auditory version of a Cronenberg movie) or the house of horrors vibe that permeates through tracks like Eternal Consumption Engine won’t care for Green Naugahyde. But if that’s the case, why are you listening to a Primus album in the first place? Set the LP aside for those of us that embrace this time-tested, quirky rock freak…

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Liam Finn - Fomo

There’s no denying that a follow-up to his impressive 2007 solo debut I’ll Be Lightning was a big ask, but Finn has put together a confident, hook-heavy album that offers an effective balance between dreamy, kaleidoscopic tunes (Chase The Seasons) and out-and-out melodic pop (Cold Feet). There’s bundles of talent here that’ll one day prompt many to ponder, “His father was Neil who?”

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Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks - Minor Traffic

If looking for a Pavement rehash then you’re unlikely to find it on the Beck-produced Minor Traffic, but there’s plenty of familiar Malkmus alchemy and eccentricity at work here nonetheless. Moments of chaos and noise blur still gel together enough that you’re left marvelling in wonder at the sheer wizardry that has gone into making it all so effectively entertaining (Brain Gallop is a bluesy highlight that feels like it should be dismissed as overlong and self-indulgent - if it wasn’t just so much damn fun to listen to). This is incredibly varied, masterful stuff.

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