Favourite Five Recent Releases

Five of the best albums from the recent postings at Elsewhere. Music too good to let slide into the archives. The Elsewhere place if you're looking for a quick fix.

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THE SEEDS. RAW AND ALIVE, AGAIN (2025): Bring the noise of screamadelica

10 Sep 2025  |  2 min read

To paraphrase Matthew in the good book, “Where two or three are gathered in the name of garageband rock'n'roll, the name of The Seeds is in the midst of them”. The Seeds out of Los Angeles in the Sixties -- lead by the extraordinary, charismatic and increasingly eccentric Sky Saxon – had more than one great moment. But their defining two and a half minutes was the... > Read more

Gypsy Plays His Drums

RECOMMENDED RECORD: Rodney Crowell: Airline Highway (New West/digital outlets)

29 Aug 2025  |  3 min read

From time to time Elsewhere will single out a recent release we recommend on vinyl, like this which now comes with an insert lyric sheet and is available in an autographed edition (see end of the review). Check out Elsewhere's other Recommended Record picks . . . .  Those of us old enough to remember Texas' Rodney Crowell as the hot young country artist whose... > Read more

Simple (You Wouldn't Call It Simple)

No Cigar: Under the Surface (digital outlets)

25 Aug 2025  |  1 min read

Although No Cigar have made an impression on the local charts we get the impression they are still not as well known as they should be. We have always rated them in our other life reviewing singles for The Listener, for example when writing about their recent, menacingly chugging single Clean in advance of this album we noted they had two solid albums behind them and were not as risk averse... > Read more

Merci Merci

Paul Weller: Find El Dorado (digital outlets)

18 Aug 2025  |  1 min read

Although El Dorado is a mythical place made of gold and somewhere in the jungles of South America (possibly given extra embellishment by local tribes to throw off Spanish invaders) it seems Paul Weller is intent on finding it. But his gold are songs that he unearths and covers for this album. Let's be honest however, with a few exceptions – Bowie's Pin Ups, Lennon's Rock'n'Roll... > Read more

Small Town Talk

Van Morrison: Remembering Now (digital outlets)

16 Jun 2025  |  2 min read  |  1

It's likely that the vast majority of people who were there for Van Morrison in his first couple of decades have long since parted company: too many album, quite a number a bit indifferent then in recent times his unpopular political statements about Covid mandates, government oppression . . . At least he had new targets because his constant complains about record companies (which dated... > Read more

Memories and Visions