Category Archives: Album & EP Reviews

COYLE GIRELLI – Museum Day

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Despite his very distinctive name, the chances are that even by the time of this album’s release, you might not be over familiar with Coyle Girelli. The one time Your Vegas frontman began his solo career in 2018, and on his earlier albums, he explored a world of rock and pop that often sounded more mature than his years. Various tracks from his ‘Love Kills’ debut sounded like a pop-ish take on a Chris Isaak sound, whilst bits of ‘Funland’ follow up fused his retro heart with slight new wave elements and light indie influences that could occasionally be likened to The Killers.

This third (proper) album continues Girelli’s ascent and ventures further into an adult pop-rock sound, and at the core of the ten songs, you’ll discover some great, sometimes very commercial hooks that show off a great talent.

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PORTABLE RADIO – Counting To Three

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The self-titled debut album from Portable Radio was one of 2021’s more welcome surprises. Coming at the end of a year where most people not employed as a Conservative MP spent most of their time rattling around indoors, the British band’s brand of retro music hit like a little ray of sunshine, piercing through the gloom. Their big single ‘Should’ve Bounced’ – a tune loaded with stabbed pianos and chiming guitars – gave a good indication of the album’s finer wares with its infectious pop inspired by Jeff Lynne but, even deeper into a great record, the Portable Radio brand of retro pop held firm. With other tunes tapping into the same influences beloved by Teenage Fanclub, and material sounding like a marriage between The early 70s Hollies and the poppier end of Supergrass, the album offered something great for most lovers of AM radio inspired pop.

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VOLUME – Requesting Permission To Land

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Their chosen band name mightn’t stick out – and certainly isn’t search engine friendly – but if you should chance upon Volume, it’ll take all of four chords to get the measure of this stoner/retro metal band. Originally released in 2002, ‘Requesting Permission To Land’ didn’t get as much press attention as ‘…And The Circus Leaves Town’ by Kyuss a few years earlier, or the works of Orange Goblin and Fu Manchu, but its five tracks take as much of a classic approach. What’s more, Volume were also adept at revisiting the proto metal sounds of the late 60s and early 70s and injecting them with an even greater vigour, making their sole album as much about force as doom-laden weightiness. In short, for retro thrills, it’s great – the kind of thing that should have been picked up by Man’s Ruin Records (RIP), or championed by Josh Homme and been massive.

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MALADROIT – Real Life Super Weirdos

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Back in February 2020, just before the world went utterly tits up and various things became far more important than punk rock, French band Maladroit released a great EP entitled ‘Steven Island’. Its four songs blended simple punk hooks with Spielberg obsessed lyrical themes, and although it was all rather silly, it showed off a band that could knock together a catchy tune or three. Obviously, that EP subsequently got lost in the noise, but as with all good music, it’s never too late to check it out retrospectively. You’ll be glad you did.

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CHINESE TELEPHONES – Outta My Hands EP

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Back in the 00’s, US punks Chinese Telephones released a few split EPs and an album on It’s Alive Records (home of Gateway District, The Methadones, City Mouse and others) before calling time before the end of decade. They received some positive press, but in punk terms, never seemed to be mentioned as often as they deserved to be. This had as much to do with an over-subscribed scene as anything else. For those outside of Milwaukee, chances are that the only real encounters you had with the band back then came courtesy of the audio widget on the Last FM website which, in a pre-Spotify age, would happy drop tracks from the Chinese Telephones album between better known material from Teenage Bottlerocket, The Copyrights and The Lawrence Arms.

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