It’s been eight years, and I’m still not entirely sure how much I actually like this record. I do like it, it I remember going into it expecting it to be disappointing, and never really found enough within to chance the preconception. When Homesick dropped, British magazine Kerrang! gave Homesick a pretty damning 2/5, and part… Read More Record of the Day #25 – A Day To Remember, Homesick
How about this one for a throwback? Back when I didn’t have much of a fashion sense (not that I do now) and so only wore Nike trainers, tracksuit bottoms, and baggy hoodies, Original Pirate Material was my kind of record. I think of my rundown hometown in the early 2000s when kids used to walk around… Read More Record of the Day #24 – The Streets, Original Pirate Material
Here it is, the first record I ever owned. Even before I had a record player, I had Moose Blood’s debut 7″ Moving Home. Even just looking at these pictures gets me nice and nostalgic. This was where it all started, and what follows is four years of money I’ll never get back, but was spent… Read More Record of the Day #23 – Moose Blood, Moving Home
I had my first university seminar of my Master’s degree yesterday, and we spent a good amount of time discussing inspiration – what inspires us, how we inspire others, and how we seek out inspiration. I avoided mentioning that inspiration normally finds me at its most poetically potent after a drink or five, so instead… Read More Record of the Day #22 – Somos, Temple Of Plenty
I’m not a big advocate of greatest hits compilations. I see their merit, but I tend to treat them cynically – not as cash grabs, but mostly just as unnecessary. I can appreciate the appeal of having a record of nothing but hits, in that the experience is normally a much stronger one than a… Read More Record of the Day #21 – Red Hot Chili Peppers, Greatest Hits
Yesterday I had a lot of writing to do – emails, stories, reviews, lesson plans, the list goes on. It was a day spent in front of the computer (aside from a trip to uni for a swim), hammering the keyboard for hours on end until the to-do list I’d started the day with was… Read More Record of the Day #20 – Sigur Ros, Valtari
I wake up this morning hungover, with a heavy head and shaky hands. I wake up having inflicted this upon myself. I’m currently in the process of beginning a year of postgraduate study at the University of East Anglia, and I’ve been doing my bit to go out and get involved – to meet people… Read More Record of the Day #19 – Yndi Halda, Under Summer
I don’t normally pick up soundtracks, mostly because I don’t assign them the same value as my other records. I find it a lot harder to invest the time or develop an emotional connection with a soundtrack, especially when the tracklist exists as fragments or snippets of a movie. I find that with most soundtracks… Read More Record of the Day #18 – Whiplash OST
This one hurts. Yesterday evening I was left saddened to hear of the passing of soul singer Charles Bradley, and woke up this morning feeling like I should write a few words about a musician I respect a great deal. Born in Florida in 1948, Bradley found success late in his life, releasing his debut… Read More Record of the Day #17 – Charles Bradley, Victim Of Love
I have a lot of love for Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin. Maybe it’s because their name makes me think of Jim Carrey films. It’s more the case that their music is really good, and I rate this Springfield indie-pop outfit pretty highly. I was introduced to them back in 2011 upon hearing their… Read More Record of the Day #16 – Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin, The High Country
I’ve worked a few jobs across my twenty-two years of living, and my first and favorite role was a relatively straightforward one. Between the ages of thirteen and seventeen, I delivered papers around the neighborhood in which I lived, putting in a shift six days a week so that I could afford music magazines and CDs… Read More Record of the Day #15 – Trash Talk, Eyes & Nines
There was probably a time when I would’ve had a hard time admitting just how much I like this album. That time is in the past, and Brand New Eyes is a great record, finding Paramore more mature, better songwriters, and frontman Williams an increasingly formidable force. It stands as by far my favorite Paramore record, and I… Read More Record of the Day #14 – Paramore, Brand New Eyes
I woke up this morning and ventured outside to find Norwich decidedly wintry. Granted, it’s normally pretty cold here anyway, but today it felt cold. Maybe that’s what I get for deciding to do a food shop at eight in the morning. I was shivering like it was December, but maybe that’s also what I get for… Read More Record of the Day #13 – Seahaven, Winter Forever
Melbourne’s The Smith Street Band are great, and you’re missing out if you’re presently unaware of them. I suggest you go and look up some of their songs instead of reading this glowing endorsement of their fourth record. You could also read this interview I did with frontman Wil Wagner back in June (if you… Read More Record of the Day #12 – The Smith Street Band, More Scared Of You Than You Are Of Me
Man, here’s one for the books – Silverstein’s Arrivals & Departures. I used to love this record, like, really fucking love it. I walked home from school every day when I was thirteen and had this record on constant repeat, the album occupying the entire journey and occupying it well. I’m pretty sure that I adored Arrivals… Read More Record of the Day 11 – Silverstein, Arrivals & Departures
I’ll have to keep this one brief, like the actual record itself. Trap Them’s debut LP Sleepwell Deconstructor clocks in at just over twenty-one thunderous minutes, twelve tracks of gritty hardcore punk/grindcore/hardcore. However you want to classify it, it shreds, a devastating record produced by Converge’s own Kurt Ballou. This thing is fierce, and its a record… Read More Record of the Day #10 – Trap Them, Sleepwell Deconstructor
I don’t buy many seven-inch records, and I’ve wondered often about why that might be. I think it’s a matter of quantity, knowing perhaps that I’d rather sit down and listen to a record for a full half hour than for only ten or fifteen minutes. I like the size of a twelve-inch record also… Read More Record of the Day #9 – Aaron West and the Roaring Twenties, Bittersweet
The Used dropped a new single this week, titled Over and Over Again, and some people aren’t feeling it. The single, taken from the bands upcoming seventh LP The Canyon is decidedly pop, and this pop sound continues to divide fans of the band. I’m not sure why, because The Used have been a band leaning… Read More Record of the Day #8 – The Used, Lies For The Liars
I wrote yesterday about what I’m pretty sure was the fourth record I ever bought. Today I’ve turned my attention to the third record I ever bought – Gospel by Fireworks. When I think of pop-punk records I hold particularly dear, I think of Gospel. As far as I’m concerned, the Michigan outfit released a near-perfect sophomore record… Read More Record of the Day #7 – Fireworks, Gospel
I started buying vinyl records way back in 2013 and started off by picking up a few essentials, and a few under-the-radar additions. American Radass (this is important), if I remember correctly, was the fourth record I ever bought, purchased on a whim from the new extinct Distrosauras Rex. Distrosauras Rex was a very small… Read More Record of the Day #6 – Dads, American Radass (this is important
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