Sound Mouth.

January may now be almost over, but I couldn't let the month pass without finally sharing my picks for my favourite albums of the preceding year. Given how strong and varied 2019 was for music, it was difficult to limit this list to an easily-digestible ten record selection, so there's also a few honourable mentions towards the end. Some picks may surprise you or seem out of place alongside each other, but that's part of the fun. Let's get to it... 10 . The Darkness - Easter is Cancelled  This may seem like an unexpected start to a 'serious' year-end list, but hear me out on this one. I went back and forth on this choice more than any other, debating whether this sixth LP from the glam rock revivalists really deserved a top 10 spot or would be a mere honorable mention. However, recently returning to the album left me with no doubt. Easter is Cancelled is comfortably The Darkness' best effort since their still-brilliant 2003 debut Permission to Land, seei...

October was a pretty busy month for me, so that's why I'm only just getting round to posting this month's Top Tracks feature, along with the fact that there was such an influx of new music last month that this has been my hardest list to compile yet. Still, I persevered and finally my work is done! Read on to hear about my picks for the top five tracks of October... The Darkness - Heavy Metal Lover Well this was a surprise. The Darkness were the first rock band that I ever loved, with their debut album Permission to Land still holding a firm place amongst my favourite albums. Since their 2011 reunion, the band have released a string of fairly strong albums, but their latest effort, Easter is Cancelled, is quite possibly their best since that glorious debut. One of the standout tracks is undoubtedly 'Heavy Metal Lover', an audacious and confidently daft mix of tranquil balladry, tongue-in-cheek lyrical witticisms and blistering thrash metal riffs that onl...

September may have seen Green Day and Blink-182 dropping some of their most embarrassingly bland material to date, but there was also enough greatness from across the music spectrum that I could have easily made this month's list even longer. Either way, I've stuck to my usual five picks of the very best tracks of the past month. If you haven't heard these yet, get them in your ears! Foals - The Runner This second single from the upcoming Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost - Part II is a more than worthy follow-up to last month's excellent 'Black Bull'. While not quite as furious as that track, 'The Runner' sees Foals continue to deliver on their promise of heavier material for this new album with a formidable, fuzzy lead riff and production that packs a hefty punch. The chorus is a straightforward but hugely effective showcase for Yannis Philippakis' soaring vocals, while the frontman's conceptual lyrics are, as ever, owed your atte...

Now that the summer of 2019 is over, I've been in a retrospective mood, so it felt appropriate to look back on some of my favourite tracks of the last month. August was a pretty busy and diverse time for new releases, so I limited myself to my five favourite tracks to keep things concise. Get this stuff in your ears! Foals - 'Black Bull' The Oxfordshire indie giants are really spoiling us this year. Following the March release of Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost - Part I , perhaps their best album to date, the band have recently dropped the first single from the upcoming Part II record. 'Black Bull' is a rough and raw bulldozer of a track , probably the heaviest Foals have ever released, and I absolutely love it. 18th October can't come quick enough, nor can a chance to hear this hard rock rager live. The 1975 - 'People' Foals are not the only band to have dipped their toes into heavier sounds lately, with indie-pop megastars The 19...

Between Foals dropping a new single, Tool finally adding their discography to streaming services, and Slipknot releasing their brand new album, last week was a big one for rock and metal. As always, I'm here with a round-up of how rock's biggest names have fared across the UK charts this week and there's plenty to talk about, so let's get stuck in! 'Rewind, Replay, Rebound', the new album from American metallers Volbeat has received something of a mixed response since its release last week, but that didn't stop it from nabbing the top spot on the Rock & Metal Albums Chart . The album also managed to make an impressive impact on the main UK Albums Chart, coming in at a very respectable number 7 in a testament to the band's growing popularity. As mentioned, Tool finally moving with the times and making their entire back-catalogue available for streaming was a huge moment in the world of metal. Unsurprisingly, the decision is already paying off for...

The 2019 edition of Truck Festival is happening this week and I couldn’t be more excited! In anticipation of what will actually be my first-ever festival experience (yes, really), I’ve chosen six of the acts I’m most eager to see and, if you’re going, who you should be sure to see too! This ranges from well-established headlines to future stars and underground favourites, showing why the stacked line-up is perhaps the very best any UK festival has to offer this summer. Wolf Alice Given the mix of indie, hard rock and alternative pop across the Truck bill, Wolf Alice are the perfect choice for a headliner. The indie quartet have enjoyed a meteoric rise in their young career, releasing two critically-acclaimed albums so far, with 2017’s sensational ‘Visions of a Life’, being one of my favourite albums of recent years. Few bands are able to pull off as diverse a sound as Wolf Alice, relaxing you with dreamy indie-pop one minute and slapping you in the face with high-energy punk roc...