Gretchen Shae & The Middle Eight’s ‘Exit Fire’ EP from 2022 introduced listeners to a band with an impressive amount of punch. That release’s best material mixed the slightly punkier aspects of Justine And The Unclean with a bass heavy undercurrent that drew more from a classic post-punk/retro alt-rock sound. What was abundantly clear, though, was that Gretchen knew her way around a catchy hook, with ‘Unnatural Love’ and ‘Red Light Green Light’ (in particular) flaunting choruses that were a match for any similar sounding acts from yesteryear.
Category Archives: Album & EP Reviews
GET THE FUCK OUTTA DODGE – Just Keep Looking Forward EP
Get The Fuck Outta Dodge’s third full length album ‘It’s Not Our Fault Your Boyfriend’s Stupid’ marked a step forward for the garage punk duo. Recorded with Arctic Monkeys engineer Alan Smyth and released in 2022, the material presented a warmer, fuller sound, making the Dodge boys sound a little more professional but without taking away too much of their rawness. Their 2024 EP ‘Just Keep Looking Forward’, somewhat ironically, doesn’t really maintain that progress or forward motion, but instead opts for going further back to their roots, with the best of the recordings sounding more like vintage Dodge circa 2020. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
LITTLE ALBERT – The Road Not Taken
At the point where the Covid-19 pandemic was about to smother the world, Albert Piccolo – masquerading as blues musician Little Albert – released the genuinely excellent ‘Swamp King’. Since it featured some superb power trio based sounds with influences from Gary Moore, Jimi Hendrix and Robin Trower, the album genuinely represented the kind of thing that most blues/rock enthusiasts would love, but from a promotional perspective, the timing couldn’t have been worse. With much bigger things at stake, at least socially, it became one of the year’s many “lost” recordings in many ways.
Listen: The Kut re-releases ‘Waiting For Christmas’
Originally released in December 2020, just in time for Xmas – the “lockdown Christmas”, unless you happened to be a Tory MP – The Kut’s ‘Waiting For Christmas’ is the ultimate downbeat Xmas track.
ROBIN GUTHRIE – Astoria EP
The follow up to Robin Guthrie’s ‘Atlas’ EP (released in July 2024), ‘Astoria’ presents four more very laid back instrumental pieces which not only show off the one-time Cocteau Twins’ composer and guitarist’s talents, but really add new depth to his solo work. Three of its four tracks aren’t especially immediate, but in time, all of the musical sketches will feel as essential as anything from Eno’s classic years, or those fantastic discs by Jansen Barbieri Karn.