Lauren Mayberry, Barrowland, Glasgow review - solo star stays too close to the day job

★★★ LAUREN MAYBERRY, BARROWLAND, GLASGOW Solo star stays too close to the day job

The Chvrches singer mixed some great tunes with an overly heavy sound.

It took until the last song before Lauren Mayberry started to well up onstage, which was good going. The singer had mentioned early on the prospect of a hometown Glasgow gig for her solo career had left her emotional all day, both with joy and fear.

Album: The Horrors - Night Life

A new line-up proves no hindrance to a band bringing electro-rock zip to the darkness

For fans of The Horrors, the headline here is that, 20 years into the career, for their sixth album, the band have lost two of their founding members. Original keyboard player Tom Furse has gone, as has drummer “Coffin” Joe Spurgeon, to be replaced, respectively, by Amelia Kidd of Scottish synthy post-punkers The Ninth Wave and Jordan Cook of alt-indie Welsh outfit Telegram.

Mercury Rev, Islington Assembly Hall review - the august US psychedelic explorers cover all bases

Balance is maintained between the anticipated and the spontaneous

The body language fascinates. Mercury Rev’s frontman Jonathan Donahue could be playing a theramin. The arm movements fit the bill, yet the putative instrument is absent. At other points, his arms are outstretched, palms down. He might be projecting invisible rays in the manner of a silent-screen magician or, when he's in front of the band’s guitarist Grasshopper, absorbing invisible energies.

Album: The Loft - Everything Changes, Everything Stays The Same

Belated debut album from the early Creation Records mainstays

“Sitting on a sofa, cigarettes and beer, ten years disappear…agreeing to agree, just to get along.” By going into the difficulties of resuscitating the past, the lyrics of “Ten Years,” the fourth song on The Loft’s first album, neatly sum-up the band’s current situation. The final line gives the 10-track set its title: “Everything changes, everything stays the same.”

Album: The Burning Hell - Ghost Palace

Reflective Canadians interpret an increasingly unfathomable world

Cultural references run up the flagpole on Ghost Palace include Deep Purple’s “Space Truckin’” buskers covering Lynryd Skynyrd and Ed Sheeran, Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome and The Ramones’ Leave Home album.

Album: Doves - Constellations for the Lonely

Prog-rock existential wranglings from the grizzled Mancunians

Doves really are quite prog rock aren’t they? It’s never really leapt out at me before, probably because I’d always thought of them as brooding indie first and foremost.

Album: bdrmm - Microtonic

★★★ BDRMM - MICROTONIC Post-shoegazing quartet’s third album evokes the communal musical experience

Post-shoegazing quartet’s third album evokes the communal musical experience

Microtonic comes into focus on its third track, “Infinity Peaking.” Album opener “Goit,” featuring a guest vocal by Working Men’s Club’s Syd Minsky-Sargeant, is doomy post-Balearic impressionism with spoken lyrics seemingly about the loss of self. Next, the distant-sounding rave-shoegazing hybrid “John on the Ceiling.” “Infinity Peaking” is the point of coalescence; where beats-bedded, drifting electronica is suited to the comedown experience.

Album: Sam Fender - People Watching

★★★ SAM FENDER - PEOPLE WATCHING Solid, sincere evolution and full of moments that stay with you

The North Shields indie star's third album is a solid, sincere evolution

While discourse on many topics grows toxic and polarised, it’s the voices who speak plainly about the reality of everyday lives that provide some sanity and make us feel heard. Enter Sam Fender, whose straight talking and pride of his working-class roots has seen him emerge as a figurehead for the younger generation, who at times feel unheard and underappreciated.