Back catalogue: Rock

Review: Seven Psalms finds Australia's most imperious musical misfit Nick Cave leaving his Bad Seeds at home and teaming up with frequent collaborator Warren Ellis for a limited 10". The spoken word pieces on this record are the result of a daily song writing practice over a week during lockdown - Cave himself describes them as "small, sacred songs," set to appropriately subtle musical accompaniment. Recorded during the sessions for Cave and Ellis' 2021 album Carnage, it's a rich work in its own right that offers a different perspective on Cave's considerable gifts as a soothsayer.

Review: Pressed for the first time on 7" vinyl, two killer rock club tracks from the legendary Colloseum, track 1 and 2 from their sophomore 1969 album 'Valentyne Suite' - 'Elegy' and 'The Kettle'.
The powerful and up-tempo 'Elegy' is a funky love song, with steaming guitars and heavy groove, an absolute home run of a funky club banger. On the flip is the 'The Kettle', featuring a heavy rock groove that the attentive ear will recognise as sampled by Fatboy Slim for 'Ya Mama'.

Review: British trumpeter and bandleader Ian Carr put out his most revered album in 1972. Its iconic fusion of jazz and rock has become a sought after rarity. Featured musicians include members of bands like Nucleus, Brian Auger's band, Soft Machine and Stan Tracy Group, and they all help lend the record a psychedelic, proggy aesthetic, with swirling melodies making for moody but funky tunes. Tracks like 'Mayday' put expressive solos and complex arrangements front and centre, while 'Suspension' is a more laidback joint for sinking into. The gorgeous meandering lilt of 'Summer Rain' is our personal favourite.

Review: Like owning a little piece of history with a bonus memoir, The Clash's Combat Rock was - is - the band's best selling album of all time and highest charting in both the US and UK. This was also the last time Joe Strummer, Mick Jones, Paul Simonon and Topper Headon would record together before the lineup changed, and the track list contains at least two of the outfit's most recognised songs - namely 'Should I Stay Or Should I Go' and 'Rock the Casbah'.

The original version of the LP was less expansive than this special edition released to mark 40 years since the long-player went on sale. The addition of The People's Hall offers fans a chance to relish in no less than 12 extra tracks, including collaborations with the legendary Ranking Roger - 'Rock the Casbah' and 'Red Angel Dragnet' - the iconic late-frontman of The Beat more than ideally suited to the crew's sound.

Review: Album number five from legendary British post-punk and New Wavers The Clash was first unveiled on 14th May 1982. 40 years on it finds itself the centre of attention once more, re-released both in this original version and an extended edition with bonus record The People's Hall. Sticking to this outing, fans will likely already know that the record as it was first intended remains the band's most successful of all time, outselling all that came before or after and charting higher than any other in the US and UK alike.

Respectively hitting number seven and number two in the charts of the day, and spending 23 weeks in the top 40 albums in Britain and a mammoth 61 weeks in the LP league tables Stateside, today it's a double-platinum testament to just how potent the combination of Joe Strummer, Mick Jones, Paul Simonon and Topper Headon was. The last record to feature that iteration of the outfit, tracks like 'Rock the Casbah' and 'Should I Stay Or Should I Go' remain utterly timeless.