Posts By Sam Brookes

When Frank Ocean provided vocals on Tyler, the Creator’s She, a weird track about a guy dealing with his new girlfriend’s stalker, I never thought that the owner of those silky-smooth tones would go on to be the undisputed king of avant-garde R&B.
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With a title like Brutalism, you could be forgiven for expecting a sonic assault from Idles. Despite what the name of the album might suggest, the Bristol five piece’s debut album doesn’t dip its toes into the hardcore and metal genres. Instead, the title seems to be in reference to subject matter, which deals with the current state of the country.
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It’s hard to quantify the impact that Nirvana’s Nevermind album had on the musical landscape. My knowledge of popular genres and the time periods they belong to is fairly standard and if I hear a song, I can probably nail the decade it was produced on based on the tone of the instruments used. Nevermind and the grunge movement that sprung up from the album’s release represents an anomaly, and that’s precisely what makes it so important.
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During the summer between leaving college and heading to university, I ended up taking a paper round out of boredom and desperation for money. That lackadaisical summer was spent pedalling around Leicester, delivering newspapers and exploring my taste in music for the first time ever. The biggest revelation was that I enjoyed rap and hip-hop, which was born from my discovery of an up and coming artist called Mac Miller.
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I found Hobo Johnson via a friend on Facebook, who had been tagged in the comments section of a Lad Bible post about his single Peach Scones (I can’t stand the page, but I guess I should be grateful for the recommendation). Like everyone else in the comments section, I couldn’t decide whether it was a joke or not; and if it was, whether we were laughing at Hobo Johnson or whether he was laughing at us. I still don’t know.
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I will hold my hands up now, I am by no means a Beyonce fan. This review won’t refer to her previous work because I’ve never really listened to any of it. The singles I’ve heard on the radio always seemed to encapsulate all the things I didn’t like about pop & R&B music. On the surface, it seemed overproduced, soulless, with a chorus cooked up in a boardroom to sink a hook into your brain and never let go rather than through genuine experience. Beyonce always had the talent to elevate its artistic standard, but there was none of her experience in the music. Lemonade changes everything I thought I knew about Beyonce.
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Seaway are a common sight in the UK, visiting frequently to tour with all the up and coming pop punk bands. As their sound has diversified with the release of Vacation so too have their touring mates.
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Time comes for us all, forcing us to grow up. It comes for the athlete, the geek, and even the carefree prankster. On his third full-length album This Old Dog, indie rock icon and all-round slacker Mac Demarco takes a more introspective approach to his craft, as his age finally starts to show.
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I’ve performed my annual Christmas sync, my iPhone is now half-full of Christmas songs and carols, so why not take a little of the fun out of the occasion by examining a few of them critically?
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I’ve written in some length about the many career paths of Donald Glover. To sum up, it seems like no matter what creative project he turns his hand to he’s consistently great at it, which is as infuriating as it is spellbinding. Under his alter ego Childish Gambino, Glover has enjoyed some success as a rapper with seven mixtapes, 2 EPs and a trio of studio albums under his belt. It’s on his third full-length album Awaken, My Love that Gambino reinvents himself.
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