Music24

It's time for another weekly album round-up, in which I bring you opinions you didn't ask for on albums you haven't (yet) heard. Though I have listened to a mix of albums of old new, the blogs will now focus solely on the latest and greatest/not-so-greatest Cardinals - Masquerade If Dublin has Fontaines D.C., then Cork has the brilliant Cardinals. Having familial roots in Ireland's wonderful second city myself, I was immediately drawn in when I'd heard their brilliantly lovesick waltz, 'Roseland', combining elements of The Pogues with unmistakable post-punk akin to the likes of Iceage, and storytelling that oozes the city of Cork. Their debut album dropped back in mid-February, and was one that I was very much hotly anticipating since hearing the single back in 2024. Masquerade , it transpires, is good, and threatens at times to even be great. The run-time of just over half an hour, however, doesn't allow the songs to be as freewheeling and majestic as t...

As 2026 enters its third month, it dawned on me that I'd already listened to around twenty new albums this year already, where in recent years I'd struggled to keep up to date with new releases. Given that I've regularly written passionately about music in the past alongside my football nonsense, now feels like the right time to bring back some kind of music blog, but to essentially give you the rundown of my week in music.  I may occasionally focus on the classics and various older releases, but the purpose of this weekly blog will be to shine a light on the newer releases from artists you may not have realised were still a thing, or bands that you'd never even heard of in the first place. My aim will be to listen to at least one album each day - possibly even two if time is on my side. At the end of the year, I hope to also create an extensive album of the year list. Over the course of the year, you may also see some classic album blogs. Ultimately I'm hoping to m...

] 1997 was a brilliant year for music. Though I can in no way claim to remember any of it, being only two years of age, a mere glance at the end-of-year lists tells you all you need to know. OK Computer , Urban Hymns , Homework to name but three of the most iconic albums dropped in the 90s. One that perhaps gets overlooked in favour of its older siblings, however, is Blur’s self-titled fifth album Blur . Even the name conjures up a simplicity in its newfound no-nonsense approach. That’s not to say that Parklife and Modern Life is Rubbish were full of nonsense, but they were decidedly more lavish, extravagant and concept-driven in comparison to their 1997 counterpart. Blur was inspired hugely by Pavement and the US, and it shows.  That said, the Englishness is still there throughout, however subtle that may be. The opening track, ‘Beetlebum’ signals this change perfectly. As for the music video, pairing Coxon’s hypnotic outro with drone footage of London’s grimy industrial facad...

Recently, I saw a meme on Twitter mocking Keir Starmer supporters - rightly so of course. Within the dystopian montage of images set to MGMT’s excellently memeable track ‘Little Dark Age’ were the usual valid critiques of Starmer and his fanbase . However, one part I couldn’t forgive was the inclusion of the generic Spotify template proclaiming ‘This is Elbow’, as if being a fan of Elbow is somehow akin to believing in Centrism in all its (lack of) glory and progress. Well frankly, I’m not having it. Sure, ‘The Seldom Seen Kid’ probably strikes a chord with every dad across the land and beyond with its wistful and poignant croons that could just as easily be courtesy of your dad’s mate down the pub. Sure, ‘One Day Like This’ has inevitably become the overplayed staple of those that yearn for the Britain of the 2012 Olympics when everything was fine and dandy (it only took a year after those London riots as well - amazing!). But at the risk of sounding hipster, there was so much before ...

 To misquote Alan Partridge with regard to the title, this sounds disconcertingly vague. But fear not, all will be explained. Ten years ago, I was just turning 16; world at my feet, suddenly able to buy scratchcards and lottery tickets. My GCSEs were nearing completion, and A-Levels were set to begin. Stevenage had secured an unlikely route to League One football via a memorable day at Old Trafford. Life was pretty sweet. But how do you revisit a year musically? There's just so much to get through. So many albums listened to, so many tracks added to varying playlists. In comes the convenient end of year list. It would be remiss of me to go anywhere else but NME  for this, given my obsession with the magazine from 2007 to around 2014, though in truth the magazine had died something of a death long before I'd purchased my final copy. But this is not a paen to dead magazine that used to be okay. This is simply a return to a list of ten years ago. How have these albums aged over t...

At the time of listening to DAMN , I rather abruptly decided that it was my favourite Kendrick album. With that in mind, it seems the perfect time to revisit Kendrick's underappreciated gem from 2017. Okay, so  To Pimp a Butterfly is majestic from start to finish, with cuts like 'Alright' hitting even harder than before in light of recent events over the last year.  Good Kid, M.A.A.D City  very much remains a masterpiece of modern hip-hop, just as relevant today as it was in 2012. Debut,  Section 80 ,   also has its moments like 'ADHD' and 'The Spiteful Chant'. But is  DAMN  a dud or an overlooked masterpiece? Or is it somewhere in between? DAMN  remains the last album released by Kendrick back in April 2017, meaning that Kendrick has left us in the lurch for at least four years. Given the painstaking creative process Kendrick undergoes, however, the wait is somewhat understandable.  I remember first listening to DAMN on a train up to Gl...