The Strokes
Reality Awaits
It’s The New Abnormal with fewer guardrails, with a dash more Voidz, with whatever nutso energy comes from recording with Rick Rubin in Costa Rica
Consequence Of Sound
Yard Act
You're Gonna Need A Little Music
The UK band smooths out its characteristically jagged post-punk for a vaguely uplifting album that brings to mind lots of older British rock groups
Pitchfork
Charli XCX
Music, Fashion, Film
Latest experimental offering from Charlotte Aitchison may sail close to self-indulgence but also cements her status as one of our most compelling pop stars
musicOMH
The Strokes
Reality Awaits
As old songs become cultural artefacts and time folds in on itself, The Strokes rotate the lens outwards and inwards. What comes next? The future feels more ominous and isolating than hopeful, and that lack of resolve is the reality we have to prepare for
Clash
Charli XCX
Music, Fashion, Film
If Brat was the nightclub, then this feels like three hours into the after party that you never wanted to be at, full of posers chatting shite about “real incestuous vibes”
Far Out
Charli XCX
Music, Fashion, Film
The pop star’s seventh album plays around with a number of ideas about her three favourite artforms, along with questions of identity and self-worth. It’s strange to hear her sounding so unsure of herself after the neon-green boldness of ‘Brat’
The Independent
Charli XCX
Music, Fashion, Film
Her proper follow-up to Brat is a brilliant, catchy, often very funny look at the machinery of fame
Rolling Stone
Charli XCX
Music, Fashion, Film
Brilliant writing that is subtle and clever, delivered with arrogance, irony and self deprecation
Beats Per Minute
Charli XCX
Music, Fashion, Film
On the follow-up to BRAT, the pop auteur pivots to a referential, proudly tossed-off rock sound that offers mystifying glances behind the curtain of stardom
Pitchfork
Charli XCX
Music, Fashion, Film
Her art dips into legacies without being beholden to them, rejecting references as soon as she invokes them, creating a playful contradiction that feels like her own post-postmodern language
The Line Of Best Fit
Charli XCX
Music, Fashion, Film
How do you follow up the album that made you a star – and a caricature? In classic Charli style: with a pivot to guitar and a meta masterpiece about the instability of identity
The Guardian
Charli XCX
Music, Fashion, Film
A candid, introspective triumph that leaves just enough of the dancefloor well and truly alive
DIY