REVIEWS

Album reviews

Review of Two Door Cinema Club - Tourist History by

Two Door Cinema Club are three young men from Bangor and Donaghadee in Northern Ireland. With a neat line in twitchy indie-pop, and at least one eye on the dancefloor, they share common ground...

Review of Marina & The Diamonds - The Family Jewels  by Marina and the Diamonds
At last year’s Electric Picnic this listener went to check out Marina And The Diamonds, following a tip-off from a fellow Ragged Words contributor (who shall remain nameless). So...
Review of Beach House - Teen Dream by Beach House

Hype can be a terrible thing. Personally, the stir whipped up around Animal Collective’s Merriweather Post Pavilion and Grizzly Bear’s Veckatimest made them partially unlistenable in...

Review of Broadcast 2000 – Broadcast 2000 by

Despite their band-like moniker, Broadcast 2000 is largely one-man show. Rising from the ashes of the rather excellent Artisan, North London resident Joe Steer built-up Broadcast 2000 with his...

Review of These New Puritans – Hidden by

These New Puritans are not your average folk band. In fact despite the numerous bassoons, horn arrangements and melodious vocals they aren’t a folk band at all. Far from it. But listening to...

Review of Fionn Regan - Shadow Of An Empire by

Imagine if the only films you ever saw consisted of romantic slush. Sure, it’s pleasant enough to watch the odd feel-good rom-com, and the latest slew of indie flicks that employ some...

Review of Blockhead - The Music Scene by

Tony Simon is best known, at least in Hip Hop aficionado circles, as the producer of much of Aesop Rock’s revered back catalogue. To some, he is the East Coasts answer to DJ Shadow. However...

Review of Eels - End Times by Eels

Like Roy Orbison, one can imagine Mark E Everett standing or sitting motionless, hardly moving his mouth whilst singing. It just spills great waves of emotion and love and death, spinning tales of...

Review of The Magnetic Fields – Realism  by The Magnetic Fields

Ever since the charming audacity of The Magnetic Fields’ 2000 release, 69 Love Songs, frontman Stephin Merritt has struggled to recapture his muse to quite the same effect. Live, they still...

Review of Sounds Of System Breakdown - Sounds Of System Breakdown by Sounds Of System Breakdown

What's most refreshing about Dublin's Sounds Of System Breakdown is that they're not out to impress anyone in particular. Their makeup - three lads whose guitars, percussion and electronic bleeps...

Caught live

Caught Live: Spoon

The rain seemingly hasn’t stopped for a moment as the Electric Ballroom spills out another bellyful of indie lovelies onto the ever-depressing streets of Camden Town. But the weather, despite...

Caught Live: The Low Anthem

The Low Anthem are one of those types of bands that seem to just float around for a while, managing bit by bit to earn themselves a nice little following. They last played Dublin in September...

Caught Live: Surfer Blood

January isn’t typically a month that welcomes sunshine sounds and cheery vibes, yet somehow and somewhat out of nowhere, Surfer Blood managed to roll those summer months in way ahead of sched...

Caught Live: Atlas Sound

Tonight’s support act Hulk consists of Dublin-based producer Thomas Haugh and guest Adrian Crowley; Crowley provides guitar atmospherics, while Haugh fiddles with all manner of intr...

Caught Live: Steve Earle
Tonight’s performance is part of a tour in memory of Townes Van Zandt, a songwriter of preternatural insight under whom Earle served a lengthy and informal apprenticeship. Just old en...
Caught Live: Dawn Landes
 

Three years have passed since Ragged Words last caught Dawn Landes live. During this time she has released two exquisite albums of lilting country and blues infu...

Caught Live: Cymbals Eat Guitars

The Lexington is so packed, Ragged Words has to apologise for breathing. We're so squashed in that to do so would feel like invading the space of the rather large guy we're stood next to. For a sma...

Caught Live: Monsters Of Folk

Three hours! Americana super group Monsters of Folk are clearly not a band for those lacking in stamina. On a night that soared to astonishing dizzy heights - propelled primarily by Jim James...

Caught Live: Fionn Regan

There are a few things you never expect to happen to you in your life. Winning the lottery, that’s a pretty common one. Being struck by lightning, yep, that’d be pretty high up on the l...

Caught Live: A Place To Bury Strangers, Japandroids
Japandroids are very excited to be in Ireland. And so they should be: the Vancouver duo’s stock has been steadily on the rise since the release of début LP Post-Nothing, and tonight...