Ben Tipple

DIY • 11th November 2021

Review: Holly Humberstone - The Walls Are Way Too Thin

There’s an expert tenderness to her stories and their delivery.

DIY • 5th November 2021

Review: Snail Mail - Valentine

A record as hopeful as it is bittersweet.

DIY • 22nd October 2021

Review: Biffy Clyro - The Myth Of The Happily Ever After

Eleven tracks that brilliantly capture the turbulence and dysfunction of the past eighteen months.

DIY • 22nd October 2021

Review: Lana Del Rey - Blue Banisters

A collection of sun-kissed moments and hazy memories, free from judgement and firmly rooted in place.

DIY Magazine • 6th October 2021

Review: James Blake - Friends That Break Your Heart

A record that simultaneously expands on his delicate production and sees him fully embrace his singer-songwriter alter ego.

DIY Magazine • 8th September 2021

Review: Kacey Musgraves – star-crossed

Even if the message might be built on cliche, in Kacey Musgraves’ delivery there really is a light at the end of the tunnel.

DIY Magazine • 26th August 2021

Review: Chvrches - Screen Violence

Much like their complicated relationship with screens - the record also created across the Atlantic during a pandemic - ‘Screen Violence’ marries visceral anger and empowerment. The result is their most euphoric rallying cry to date.

DIY Magazine • 12th August 2021

Review: Meet Me @ The Altar - Model Citizen

Model Citizen’ takes everything that has driven the scene forward and injects an unapologetic - and very welcome - Gen Z spin.

DIY Magazine • 6th August 2021

Review: Foxing – Draw Down The Moon

A collection of the best of what has come before, ‘Draw Down The Moon’ finds coherence in its unashamed madness.

DIY Magazine • 28th July 2021

Review: Creeper - American Noir

By further exploring their dramatic side, Creeper continue to blur the lines between rock, pop and musical theatre.

DIY Magazine • 9th July 2021

Review: Half Waif - Mythopoetics

In direct contrast to the album’s title - itself related to myth - the fifth Half Waif album is instead an unfiltered discovery of Nandi’s place and role in the world.

DIY Magazine • 24th June 2021

Review: Lucy Dacus - Home Video

With ‘Home Video’, a product of isolation and a musical reckoning with her past, she confronts her history.

DIY Magazine • 11th June 2021

Review: AFI - Bodies

In fully embracing theatrics, their new wave leanings, and the unquestionable punk legacy, the band have landed on a sound both contemporary and unmistakably theirs.

DIY Magazine • 11th June 2021

Review: Garbage - No Gods No Masters

Both rhythmic and chaotic, it mirrors the frenetic turbulence of the times that have inspired it.

DIY Magazine • 7th May 2021

Review: Salem - Salem II

Salem II’ conjures images of vampires in dive bars, the audible partner for the likes of Tarantino’s ‘From Dusk Til Dawn’ or any of the ‘80s twisted love stories.

DIY Magazine • 7th May 2021

Review: MAN ON MAN - MAN ON MAN

It delivers a positive view of a genuine and lasting relationship removed from the artificiality that often surrounds gay representation, led by two creatives who this far into their musical career continue to break the mould.

DIY Magazine • 30th April 2021

Review: Glüme - The Internet

That ‘The Internet’ is intangible is remarkably fitting for LA newcomer Glüme’s otherworldly sound, sitting somewhere between the concise theatrics of St Vincent, the stylised melancholia of Lana Del Rey, and the early morning hours in a Berlin nightclub.

DIY Magazine • 8th April 2021

Review: Skullcrusher - Storm In Summer

“I thrust my foot through the windshield,” Skullcrusher’s Helen Ballentine sings with delicate brutality on the opener of her folk-meets-bedroom-indie EP, ‘Storm In Summer’.

DIY Magazine • 2nd April 2021

Review: Nasty Cherry - The Movie

It’s like everything that has come before was just the pilot, and now it’s time for the real show.

DIY Magazine • 28th March 2021

Review: Citizen - Life In Your Glass World

“I hope you learn to love yourself,” Citizen offer in the album’s closing moment, having spent almost half a decade re-evaluating their own influences and defiantly doing things the exact way they want.