Alt-J
Alt-J’s new album is called The Dream – a fitting title for a record of such intrigue, beauty and hidden darkness, recorded throughout the pandemic, but not necessarily a product of it. It’s a record about murder, love, Coca- Cola, twisted logic, revenge, crypto currencies, loss, hope and frequently whatever you yourself decide it’s about.
After winning the Mercury Prize in 2012 with their debut album An Awesome Wave, Joe Newman [vocals, guitar], Gus Unger-Hamilton [vocals, keyboards, bass] and Thom Sonny Green [drums, percussion] made the Grammy-nominated This Is All Yours (2014) and followed it with Relaxer (2017), an album that refused to retread old ground and took the band back to the Mercury’s shortlist the following year. Along the way they plotted giant, globe-trotting tours, sold out Madison Square Garden, the Hollywood Bowl and the O2, amongst many others, and headlined almost any festival you care to mention.