Music Reviews
Albums, singles and live performances analysed beyond the hype. We explore artistry, authorship and the systems influencing what gets heard.
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At a certain point in life, time stops feeling abstract. It becomes physical. It lives in the body, in memory, in the quiet realisation that the person you once were is not the person you are becoming. For Ndidi O, that realisation sits at the centre of her new album It’s About Time, released March…
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Thursday rolls around again and our new ritual of Tracks of the Week begins here at TIR. New and indeed great music never really stops arriving. It seeps out of studios, bedrooms, basements and tour buses like groundwater. The job is simply to listen closely and separate the sparks from the noise. Here are four…
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Our Rating 6/10 When BLACKPINK release music, it is never just a drop. It is a recalibration of global pop temperature. Deadline arrives after a period where each member expanded her individual identity. That matters. You can feel it in the control here. This EP is not chaotic spectacle. It is sharpened, deliberate, aware of…
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Our Rating 10/10 flawless. Rosalía has spent years proving she can bend tradition and modernity into something uniquely hers. LUX is what happens when she stops proving and starts claiming. This is not a pop album chasing scale. It’s an album built for it. In interviews around the record, Rosalía said, “Llevo preparándome toda la…
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Our Rating 7/10 Lord Jah-Monte Ogbon doesn’t rap like he’s trying to impress you. He raps like he already knows he can. As of Now is long, loose, and deliberately personality-driven. It opens with humour. Not throwaway humour. Sharp, slightly absurd, meme-aware humour that immediately establishes tone. He understands the internet age of rap, but…
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Every year the industry declares a new wave. Most of it is noise. Real movement is quieter at first. It shows up in sold-out mid-size rooms, in longlists before the headlines, and in artists tightening their live sets while the wider market is still distracted. The ten names below are not algorithm accidents or overnight…
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Our Rating 9/10 In a culture obsessed with noise, Dotts O’Connor chooses stillness. The alternative folk songwriter has built his reputation on restraint. Rooted in rural landscapes and the emotional weight they carry, his work inhabits the space between connection and isolation, routine and longing. Nothing feels forced. Nothing feels ornamental. His songs sound lived…
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Focus track: “Gang Signs” Our Rating: 7/10 THUMPER have always understood impact. Density. Volume. The physicality of sound. But Sleeping With The Light On suggests something more interesting than just noise. It suggests discipline. The album opens with “The Rip,” and the name is apt. It does not ease you in. It arrives with crunch…
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Our Rating: Nostalgia I have always considered Daft Punk to be one of the rare acts who understood mythology as well as melody. Their split five years ago felt less like a breakup and more like the end of a chapter in modern electronic folklore. They exited quietly, deliberately, without reunion bait or nostalgia merch…
The Industry Review 