SURG’s Best Albums of 2023
2023 was a big year for music, and what better way to wrap it up then to share our favourite albums. Forget the paid critics and big music magazines, SURG is bringing you the crème de la crème of this year’s record releases. Now read on! Hackney Diamonds – The rolling stones REVI
Retrospective: Fifty years on from Goats Head Soup, have the Stones’ critics learned anything?
At the end of the day, the Stones rock on. The history of the Rolling Stones is, in large part, a history of sceptical critics dismissively writing off albums, and interviewers posing the question of when the band will pack it in. 61 years in, they’re still waiting. Released August 1973, Goats Hea
‘Barbie: The album’ deserved better
The soundtrack for the biggest film of the year is heavy on big names, but light on thrills There are probably very few people as satisfied with themselves right now than the Barbie marketing team. Between the universally praised teasers, social media campaigns that caught on like pink wildfire, and
RETROSPECTIVE: The Cranberries’ ‘Everybody Else is Doing It, So Why Can’t We?’ remains a triumphant debut
30 years on, the Limerick band’s debut album has cemented itself as a uniquely vulnerable classic, writes Aidan Elwig Pollock. Every once in a while, we stumble upon one of those special albums with the capacity to genuinely change our lives. I don’t mean “change our lives” in a trite, hyper
Best Albums of 2022
2022 was a big year in music, and in our opinion SURG members have impeccable taste. Keen to discover some epic albums you may have missed last year (and their spotlight tracks)? Keep on reading. Could We Be More – Kokoroko Reviewer: Jonathan Chalouhi Whether it’s funky rhythms to danc
MIDNIGHT OIL’S 10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 IS A BRILLIANTLY UNIQUE CRY FOR JUSTICE
The Oil’s countdown to midnight remains relevant 40 years on – only saved from being depressingly so by its electrifying rallying urgency, writes Aidan Elwig Pollock. 3,000 bodies had turned the Luna Park Big Top into a steaming, dank pit – a far cry from the late September post-rain cooln
Why Julia Jacklin’s PRE-PLEASURE was one of 2022’s best albums
Kat Porritt-Fraser celebrates a cathartic musical highlight from the past year. Julia Jacklin has the kind of voice that makes you pause what you’re doing to listen in. PRE-PLEASURE has a similar quality as an album – if you resist listening closely, if you’re not ready to open your emotional
RETROSPECTIVE: Electric Light Orchestra’s Out of the Blue deserves a place in the pantheon of double albums
The Birmingham band’s explosive seventh album is an oft-overlooked classic, writes Alex Glase. The double record, so often derided for its looseness and filler, allows an artist room to breathe and experiment with musical convention. Lists of the best double albums ever recorded have a few usual s
ALBUM REVIEW: The Minions 2 Soundtrack isn’t as good (or as bad) as you’ve heard
It’s being lauded as the greatest soundtrack in years, but the tie-in album for Illumination’s latest family blockbuster is a mixed bag at best. How did we get here? That was the question that immediately sprang to mind when the tracklist for the Minions: The Rise of Gru soundtrack
The Best and Worst Albums of Q2 2022
Good 90s revivalism, bad 90s revivalism, and songs about pizza. Matthew Forbes spotlights some of the standout releases of the last few months. After a string of fantastic albums in the first three months of the year, the second quarter of 2022 has been a little less impressive. Of course, there’s
