The ongoing longevity enjoyed by Happy Mondays and Black Grape legend Shaun Ryder is proof that his unique talents and maverick charm have woven themselves into the fabric of British culture. In a career of […]
Proudly released independently and with a good chance of breaking into the UK Top 40 comes the hugely enjoyable debut album from Penfriend. The latest alias of Bristol-based multi-instrumentalist Laura Kidd is something of a […]
It’s not just the diversity of Paul Weller’s 16th solo album that gives it the feel of a Best Of collection, but the stellar form of the songwriting. Described by the British legend himself as […]
The sound and style of Scottish indie legends Teenage Fanclub is one of comforting familiarity, and it’s very much business as usual on their 11th studio album Endless Arcade. Behind the scenes, however, there has […]
With their triumphant fifth album, Carlisle based four-piece The Lucid Dream continues a fascinating journey that has come by leaps and bounds with each LP since the more typical psychedelic rock of their early years. […]
The monthly XS Noize Spotify playlist brings together the essential new music of the last month featured on the website. The March 2021 edition features tracks from James, Paul Weller, Richard Ashcroft, Imelda May, Noel […]
“Like water through cracks, we creep and trickle-down”, sings Ian Hodgson on the opening track to the first Bradford album in over 30 years, very much summing up the underrated and “could’ve been” status of […]
25 years on from the release of their debut single, what could we possibly expect from another new Mogwai album? It’s become something of a cliché to state how consistent the Scottish group are, however […]
Scottish singer-songwriter Charlie Clark has just released his brand new single ‘Don’t Have A Cow, Man!’, the first taste of his upcoming album Late Night Drinking. A multi-talented songwriter, Clark and lifelong friend Willie Campbell […]
The monthly XS Noize Spotify playlist brings together the essential new music of the last month featured on the website. The February 2021 edition features tracks from The Coral, Hello Cosmos, Teenage Fanclub, King Gizzard and […]
The Covid-19 pandemic of 2020 meant that many of us had to spend a lot of time indoors. Definitely a bummer in most cases, but one of the few silver linings is that musical geniuses […]
Since the split of Oasis over a decade ago, the debate has continued on just who made the era-defining band what it was. While Noel Gallagher’s development and experimentation as a solo artist brings a […]
Mansun were without a doubt one of the most interesting and unusual groups to grow from the Britpop era of the mid-’90s. While the industry and the music press were desperate to comfortably pigeonhole every […]
As a John Foxx-fronted five-piece, Ultravox (formerly with an added “!” in homage to Neu!) gained much critical acclaim with their increasing synth dominated glam punk rock, but split after third album Systems Of Romance […]
The last time Manic Street Preachers frontman James Dean Bradfield released a solo album was in 2006. His band were at a strange and somewhat transitional point in their long career, taking a few years […]
In hindsight, it’s easy to see why Gene stood out amongst all the other British guitar bands that emerged in the mid-’90s, but it would also be a lie to claim that they had nothing to […]
After the Britpop years of the 90s had peaked, it’s fair to say the disillusionment with fame and the resulting hangover had left Pulp in a creative rut. 2001’s Scott Walker-produced ‘We Love Life’ would […]
Following 2014’s acclaimed Futurology, the stellar, anthemic 2018 album Resistance Is Futile reaffirmed the Manics’ position as the UK’s most resilient and enduring guitar band. As well as continuing to make brilliant new music, their […]
Formed in 2014 and having gathered traction with a series of well-received EPs, the four-piece Ist Ist is a band with an unmistakably Manchester sound. Their long-awaited debut LP arrives in the form of ‘Architecture’, […]
32 years after its formation, The Orb follows the genre-hopping 2018 treasure No Sounds Are Out Of Bounds with this equally cerebral new LP. Abolition Of The Royal Familia is the Alex Paterson helmed unit’s […]