Cloudspeakers

“You don’t understand how damaged we really are,” Courtney Love sings on the title track to the first Hole album in a dozen years. Oh, but I think we do. After two decades of Love acting out in pub... Lees meer

With their front man/songwriter just 18, and the drummer still in high school, Avi Buffalo scarcely seem old enough to have a back story. But they do. The unrequited love (or, more accurately, sexu... Lees meer

You can’t say she doesn’t warn you. “Don’t say you love me/I’ll run away,” Ndegeocello sings on the opening track, Slaughter. While this may allude to her emotional relationships, it’s equally appo... Lees meer

After years of success with his band the Wallflowers, Jakob Dylan finally confronted the elephant in his particular sitting room on his solo debut, 2008’s Seeing Things, stripping away the rock bac... Lees meer

John Grant’s talent was wasted in the Czars — and Grant was the one who was wasting it, drugs and alcohol either causing or cushioning the band’s constant underachievement. Grant was waiting tables... Lees meer

They didn’t much like the idea of being big stars before they were famous (remember Time to Pretend’s dystopian future of, well, choking on their own vomit?); and they don’t like the idea now it’s ... Lees meer

When Black Francis (then plain old Frank Black) supplied some guest vocals on a Gordon Gano solo album a few years back, Gano asked him to do the screaming thing. “What screaming thing?” asked Mr B... Lees meer

We may have to rethink the adjective Orwellian if this French band keep on making albums this delightful. Far from the forbidding, ominous, corrupt and corroding future the word currently sums up, ... Lees meer

She’s less well known here, but Kaki King has been hailed as a “guitar god” in America, where her intricate playing has given her the status of a “guitarist’s guitarist” (although — technical quest... Lees meer

Over the years, we have been told, variously, that happiness is a warm puppy, a warm gun, a journey not a destination, even a cigar called Hamlet. Based on the nine songs on Go, we now need to add ... Lees meer