Jamie Atkins
Currently based in London but born and raised in the South West, Jamie Atkins is the Reviews Editor of Record Collector. He has written about music for over a decade, having previously worked in both the health service and educational institutions. Consequently, he owns scrubs with his name embroidered on them, corduroy trousers and far too many records. He once shared Mike Love's houmous and pitta, which is about as rock'n'roll as things have got.
84 articles
List of articles in the library
Review by Jamie Atkins, Record Collector, February 2013
FOLLOWING THEIR bleakly festive 'Christmas Eve Can Kill You' single, Will Oldham and Dawn McCarthy return for an album-length exploration of the Everly Brothers’ songbook. ...
Review by Jamie Atkins, Record Collector, February 2013
It takes four to Tengo. ...
Review by Jamie Atkins, Record Collector, March 2013
FOLLOWING 2011's mammoth stock-taking collection EPs 1991-2002, this new double-disc offering from electro pioneers Autechre emphasises that this most perpetually forward-thinking of groups is in ...
Palma Violets: 180 (Rough Trade)
Review by Jamie Atkins, Record Collector, March 2013
THE LATEST BAND hailed as the Great White Hopes of bland, student-friendly indie-rock, Palma Violets have, remarkably, managed to make a record so uninspiring and ...
Laura Marling: Once I Was An Eagle
Review by Jamie Atkins, Record Collector, June 2013
WHEN LAURA Marling announced that her follow-up to 2011's A Creature I Don't Know would be a mostly solo acoustic affair, one may have been ...
The National: Trouble Will Find Me
Review by Jamie Atkins, Record Collector, June 2013
THE SIXTH ALBUM from Brooklyn's The National sees them continue an impressive run of form which has left them seemingly on the verge of mainstream ...
Review by Jamie Atkins, Record Collector, October 2013
Massive step forward for mesmerising talent ...
Review by Jamie Atkins, Record Collector, October 2013
Massive step forward for mesmerising talent. ...
Manic Street Preachers: Rewind The Film
Review by Jamie Atkins, Record Collector, October 2013
Cassette-culture vultures pick at their own carcass ...
The Beach Boys: Made In California
Review by Jamie Atkins, Record Collector, October 2013
THE BEACH BOYS' 50th anniversary year was never likely to be an event-free lap of honour. Upon reforming, they managed to produce an intermittently great ...
Review by Jamie Atkins, Record Collector, October 2013
WITH A WHIFF of revisionism about it, Sound System collects the Clash's output up tothe departure of guitarist Mick Jones,ignoring 1985's Cut The Crap but ...
Vampire Weekend: Modern Vampires Of The City
Review by Jamie Atkins, Record Collector, October 2013
THE MODERN, thinking indie rock fan's band of choice, Vampire Weekend return from extended leave with their third album. While MVOTC doesn't represent a seismic ...
Review and Interview by Jamie Atkins, Record Collector, January 2014
FEW BANDS OF recent times have made attracting both an obsessive fanbase and critical acclaim seem as effortless as Los Angeles’ Warpaint. The languorous, psychedelic ...
Marissa Nadler: July (Bella Union)
Review by Jamie Atkins, Record Collector, March 2014
AN INITIALLY unlikely partnership that, if you think about, makes perfect sense, July sees folk-gothic singer songwriter Marissa Nadler team up with producer Randall Dunn, ...
Review by Jamie Atkins, Record Collector, April 2014
UPON THE MARCH 1991 release of their second album, Spiderland, Louisville's Slint were officially no more. The four-day session that produced one of the most ...
Review by Jamie Atkins, Record Collector, June 2014
Pallett cleanser for a string-driven thing. ...
Sharon Van Etten: Are We There (Jagjaguwar)
Review by Jamie Atkins, Record Collector, June 2014
It's fair to say she's arrived. ...
Review by Jamie Atkins, Record Collector, June 2014
FOLLOWING AN album as monumental as 2012's triple-disc behemoth The Seer would be a tall order for just about any band. ...
Crosby Stills Nash & Young: Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young: CSNY 1974
Review by Jamie Atkins, Record Collector, September 2014
CSNY'S 1974 reunion has long been synonymous with the start of an age of the worst kind of rock'n'roll excess; 30 shows, masterminded by Bill ...
James Yorkston : The Cellardyke Recording & Wassailing Society (Domino)
Review and Interview by Jamie Atkins, Record Collector, September 2014
IT’S A RARE joy when an artist with unfailingly high standards over a decade-long career reaches a new level of excellence – and, with his ...
Vashti Bunyan: Heartleap (Fat Cat)
Review by Jamie Atkins, Record Collector, October 2014
AFTER A 35-year gap between her beloved debut album and its follow-up, Lookaftering, Vashti Bunyan's third – and supposedly final – long-player, Heartleap, might have ...
Review and Interview by Jamie Atkins, Classic Rock, November 2014
BAXTER DURY’S last album, Happy Soup, saw the singer-songwriter follow a period of extended downtime with a more pared-back and lo-fi sound. It’s A Pleasure, ...
Richard Dawson: Nothing Important
Review by Jamie Atkins, Record Collector, December 2014
WITH A TRACKLISTING running to just four songs, Richard Dawson's latest album might at first seem like an underwhelming prospect. As it happens, nothing could ...
Joni Mitchell: Love Has Many Faces – A Quartet, A Ballet, Waiting To Be Danced (Rhino)
Review by Jamie Atkins, Record Collector, January 2015
AFTER THE SUCCESS of her 2007 war-themed ballet The Fiddle And The Drum, Joni Mitchell set herself the task of distilling her myriad writing on ...
Nic Jones: The Enigma Of Nic Jones
Film/DVD/TV Review by Jamie Atkins, Record Collector, January 2015
ORIGINALLY AIRED on BBC Four last September, The Enigma Of… uses the return to live music of one of British folk's most beloved figures as ...
The Go-Betweens: G Stands For Go-Betweens – Volume 1, 1978-1984 (Domino)
Review by Jamie Atkins, Record Collector, January 2015
DOMINO TAKE a fittingly comprehensive approach to anthologising this rarefied band. The first in a planned three-volume set, it collects the group's first trio of ...
Father John Misty: I Love You, Honeybear (Bella Union)
Review by Jamie Atkins, Record Collector, February 2015
IN TERMS OF audacious ways to announce a new album, the way Josh Tillman heralded the arrival of his second as Father John Misty takes ...
Public Enemy: It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back/Fear Of A Black Planet (Deluxe Editions)
Review by Jamie Atkins, Record Collector, February 2015
BOTH THE music industry and the media have a way of attaching such an air of historical significance to certain records that it's easy to ...
Bill Wells and Aidan Moffat: Bill Wells & Aidan Moffat: The Most Important Place In The World
Review by Jamie Atkins, Record Collector, April 2015
2011'S UNSUNG marvel Everything's Getting Older saw former Arab Strap chanteur Aidan Moffat and composer Bill Wells cataloguing the grimy process of aging with black ...
Björk: Vulnicura (One Little Indian)
Review by Jamie Atkins, Record Collector, April 2015
WHILE THE initial conversation surrounding Björk’s latest full-length concerned the internet leaks that led to its premature online release, it quickly became apparent that the ...
Sufjan Stevens: Carrie & Lowell
Review by Jamie Atkins, Record Collector, April 2015
EVER THE restless soul, Sufjan Stevens has, since the hysteric electro of his last album proper, 2010's The Age Of Adz, released an album with ...
Brian Wilson: No Pier Pressure (Capitol)
Review by Jamie Atkins, Record Collector, May 2015
THE NEWS THAT Brian Wilson was working with Frank Ocean, She & Him and Lana Del Rey on his latest album was met with derision ...
Richard King: Original Rockers (Faber & Faber)
Book Review by Jamie Atkins, Record Collector, May 2015
IT IS DIFFICULT to imagine a book more guaranteed to stir the nether regions of RC readers than Richard King's expansive memoir of his time ...
Review by Jamie Atkins, Record Collector, October 2015
OVER THE COURSE of 11 albums, Duluth, Minnesota, outfit Low have been responsible for work of a remarkable consistency, almost as if their discography has ...
Paul McCartney: Tug Of War/Pipes Of Peace
Review by Jamie Atkins, Record Collector, October 2015
WITH THE 1980 release of McCartney II, Paul McCartney was in his rudest creative health for some time. Though the following two years would see ...
The Libertines: Anthems For Doomed Youth
Review by Jamie Atkins, Record Collector, October 2015
IT’S ASTONISHING to discover that the long-running soap opera, The Libertines, has been mildly piquing the interests of the nation for just two years less ...
Amy Winehouse: Asif Kapadia: Amy (Island/Universal DVD)
Film/DVD/TV Review by Jamie Atkins, Record Collector, December 2015
WHILE GIFTED, tragic figures are the very bread and butter of the music documentarian, has there ever been a film in which the downward spiral ...
Joanna Newsom: Divers (Drag City)
Review by Jamie Atkins, Record Collector, December 2015
WHILE THE five years since the stunning triple album Have One On Me have seen Joanna Newsom expanding her horizons with acting roles and guest ...
Mogwai: Central Belters (Rock Action)
Review by Jamie Atkins, Record Collector, December 2015
DURING THEIR RISE to prominence, very few onlookers would have predicted that post-rock upstarts Mogwai would have the staying power to be receiving the 20th. ...
Rick Danko: Stage Fright – Live Collection (Floating World)
Review by Jamie Atkins, Record Collector, December 2015
ON THE SURFACE, the years following the initial disintegration of The Band and the release of his only solo album yielded diminishing returns for Rick ...
Sleater-Kinney: Carrie Brownstein: Hunger Makes Me A Modern Girl: A Memoir (Virago)
Book Review by Jamie Atkins, Record Collector, January 2016
ARTISTICALLY, 2015 has been quite a year for Carrie Brownstein — the band that brought her to public attention, Sleater-Kinney, returned with No Cities To ...
Animal Collective: Painting With (Domino)
Review by Jamie Atkins, Record Collector, February 2016
IF THERE'S a common thread that links Animal Collective's songwriting it's their instinctive use of repetition – from the mantra-like becalming kind, to the sort ...
Eleanor Friedberger: New View (Rough Trade)
Review by Jamie Atkins, Record Collector, February 2016
EMERGING FROM a band as idiosyncratic and cultishly-adored as the Fiery Furnaces to go her own way must have been a little daunting for Eleanor ...
Leonard Cohen: "You can add up the parts, but you can't find the sum"
Special Feature by Jamie Atkins, Record Collector, February 2016
So said Leonard Cohen himself in 1992's Anthem. But RC's Jamie Atkins still tries to do the math in this tribute ...
David Bowie: Bowie at the Beeb
Review by Jamie Atkins, Record Collector, March 2016
THIS ISN'T the review I expected to write, obviously. It wasn't supposed to be difficult listening, a beautifully packaged four-disc vinyl reissue of Bowie's early ...
The Replacements: Bob Mehr: Trouble Boys – The True Story Of The Replacements (Da Capo)
Book Review by Jamie Atkins, Record Collector, April 2016
IN RECENT YEARS there's been a shift in the way the Replacements are regarded. While for those in the know, they've always been adored, there ...
Kendrick Lamar: untitled unmastered (Interscope/Top Dawg)
Review by Jamie Atkins, Record Collector, May 2016
LAST YEAR, under enormous pressure, rapper Kendrick Lamar released one of the most culturally and socially resonant albums in memory, To Pimp A Butterfly. ...
Marissa Nadler: Strangers (Bella Union)
Review by Jamie Atkins, Record Collector, May 2016
ON 2014's July cult folkie Marissa Nadler made the rather unexpected move of working with Randall Dunn, a producer best known previously for his work ...
Grateful Dead, The National: Various Artists: Day Of The Dead (4AD)
Review by Jamie Atkins, Record Collector, June 2016
2009'S DARK WAS The Night benefit album for the HIV/AIDS charity Red Hot Organization was something of an anomaly among such compilations; whereas most collections ...
XTC: Andy Partridge: Mid-Morning Matters
Interview by Jamie Atkins, Record Collector, July 2016
"Empires and whole XTC albums have been built on Tunnock's wafers. Their packaging! It's like the glam version of traditional." XTC's main songwriter and musical ...
case/lang/veirs: case/lang/veirs (Anti-)
Review by Jamie Atkins, Record Collector, July 2016
WHILE A collaboration was first mooted several years ago, it was only when k.d. lang and Neko Case contributed to Laura Veirs' underrated 2013 album ...
Paul Simon: Stranger To Stranger
Review by Jamie Atkins, Record Collector, July 2016
2011's So Beautiful Or So What was an unheralded marvel from Paul Simon. It was a poised, wise set of songs that hinged upon Simon's ...
Radiohead: A Moon Shaped Pool (XL)
Review by Jamie Atkins, Record Collector, July 2016
WHILE THE 2011 release of The King Of Limbs caused the kind of cyber kerfuffle that tends to greet the slightest of stirrings from the ...
Interview by Jamie Atkins, Record Collector, July 2016
Over the past two-and-a-half decades Kentucky, Lousiville's Will Oldham, or the artist most commonly known as Bonnie "Prince" Billy, has amassed one of the strongest ...
Review by Jamie Atkins, Record Collector, October 2016
WHILE OKKERVIL RIVER has always been a ship steered by principal songwriter Will Sheff, their eighth album proper sees Sheff effectively going it alone for ...
The Beatles: Live At The Hollywood Bowl (Apple/EMI)
Review by Jamie Atkins, Record Collector, October 2016
THE BEATLES AT The Hollywood Bowl was always the last to be picked in a quick Beatles LPs jumpers-for-goalposts knockabout – the only snotty-nosed, clod-humper ...
Review by Jamie Atkins, Record Collector, October 2016
IF MOST BANDS were to announce that their 10th album, 21 years into their career, will be a largely acoustic affair, it would cause all ...
Oasis: Be Here Now (Deluxe Edtion) (Big Brother)
Review by Jamie Atkins, Record Collector, November 2016
FACE IT, IF YOU had gone from playing the toilet circuit to two nights at Knebworth in a couple of years, there's every chance your ...
Marc Bolan, David Bowie: Simon Reynolds: Shock & Awe – Glam Rock And Its Legacy (Faber)
Book Review by Jamie Atkins, Record Collector, November 2016
AFTER DEFINING studies of post-punk (Rip It Up & Start Again) and nostalgia (Retromania), Simon Reynolds turns his gaze to glam in all its glory. ...
Belle And Sebastian: Belle & Sebastian: The Jeepster Singles Collection
Review by Jamie Atkins, Record Collector, December 2016
ON DELVING into this generous box set, you'll find reproductions of Belle & Sebastian's first three mail-outs to fans. ...
Review by Jamie Atkins, Record Collector, December 2016
WHILE THEY MAY have been conveniently lumped in with alt. country, Kurt Wagner's Lambchop have always had a lot more to offer than that suggests. ...
The Band, Robbie Robertson: Robbie Robertson: Testimony (Heineman)
Book Review by Jamie Atkins, Record Collector, December 2016
ONE OF THE delightful aspects of The Last Waltz, Martin Scorsese's doc of The Band's goodbye hootenanny, are the scene-setting vignettes from the group that ...
Super Furry Animals: For Now and Ever
Retrospective and Interview by Jamie Atkins, Record Collector, December 2016
Super Furry Animals emerged from the Welsh DIY scene in the mid-'90s before signing to Creation for their debut album Fuzzy Logic, beginning a run ...
Barry Cain and Neil Matthews: Flexipop! The Book
Book Review by Jamie Atkins, , January 2017
ADAM ANT revealing that, as a child, his father used to call him Fadius Nicodemus; the peculiar habits of Robert Smith ("Today I dressed up ...
Review by Jamie Atkins, Record Collector, January 2017
KEYBOARDIST MERL Saunders' decision to sit in at a regular jam in San Francisco's Matrix club one night in December 1970 would prove a stroke ...
Review by Jamie Atkins, Record Collector, January 2017
WITH 2012's EP True – the wonderful lead single 'Losing You' in particular – Solange Knowles minted a melancholy kind of lilting soul; as in ...
Willie Hutch: Soul Portrait/Season For Love (Be With)
Review by Jamie Atkins, Record Collector, January 2017
IN THE FEW years they've been around, Be With have ensured so many great LPs are back on the racks that they're practically providing a ...
Bert Jansch: Living In The Shadows (Earth)
Review by Jamie Atkins, Record Collector, February 2017
IT'S DIFFICULT TO imagine a musician of Bert Jansch's standing and talent ever being taken for granted. But back in 1990, save for the attention ...
Bert Jansch: Living In The Shadows (Earth)
Review by Jamie Atkins, Record Collector, February 2017
IT'S DIFFICULT to imagine a musician of Bert Jansch's standing and talent ever being taken for granted. But back in 1990, save for the attention ...
Jens Lekman: Life Will See You Now (Heavenly)
Review by Jamie Atkins, Record Collector, February 2017
OVER THE course of five albums, Sweden's Jens Lekman has established himself as a worthy successor to the likes of Jonathan Richman, Edwyn Collins and ...
The Magnetic Fields: 50 Song Memoir (Nonesuch)
Review by Jamie Atkins, Record Collector, February 2017
EVIDENTLY, STEPHEN Merritt is the sort of man who believes in grand musical gestures, and they work – the most extravagant thus far (69 Love ...
George Harrison: The Vinyl Collection (UMC)
Review by Jamie Atkins, Record Collector, March 2017
AH GEORGE, the thinking Beatles fan's favourite. The best haircut. The most endearingly grumpy interviewee. The one you'd bet has a wicked sense of humour ...
Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds: One More Time With Feeling (Bad Seed)
Review by Jamie Atkins, Record Collector, March 2017
IN THE BEST possible sense, there has always been an air of the caricature about Nick Cave: the public persona. His career has felt like ...
Run The Jewels: Roundhouse, London
Live Review by Jamie Atkins, Record Collector, April 2017
SOME OBSERVATIONS after having experienced Run The Jewels live for the first time: ...
Thundercat: Drunk (Brainfeeder)
Review by Jamie Atkins, Record Collector, April 2017
WHILE BASSIST Thundercat has been responsible for the nimble low-end of albums by the likes of Kendrick Lamar, Erykah Badu and Flying Lotus, and has ...
Prince: Ben Greenman: Dig If You Will The Picture (Faber & Faber)
Book Review by Jamie Atkins, Record Collector, May 2017
IT'S NO SURPRISE that Prince's death has inspired reams of writing attempting to either unravel the man, his creativity and unique appeal or – less ...
Cody ChesnuTT: My Love Divine Degree (One Little Indian)
Review by Jamie Atkins, Record Collector, June 2017
THE SUCCESS of 2002's The Headphone Masterpiece effectively wrote soul singer Cody ChesnuTT a blank cheque in terms of creative freedom. For a record to ...
Kendrick Lamar: DAMN. (Interscope)
Review by Jamie Atkins, Record Collector, June 2017
Kung Fu Kenny strikes again ...
Profile and Interview by Jamie Atkins, Record Collector, November 2017
After being given an impromptu tour of his manor in search of a decent cup of coffee, RC's Jamie Atkins talked to Baxter Dury about ...
Interview by Jamie Atkins, Record Collector, March 2018
As Richard Russell's collaborative album, Everything Is Recorded, is released, RC's Jamie Atkins meets him to talk about the recording and the music that led ...
Interview by Jamie Atkins, Record Collector, May 2018
As leader of the Jicks and ex-frontman of Pavement, Stephen Malkmus' work has proved enormously influential. But what's on regular rotation on his turntable? Jamie ...
Interview by Jamie Atkins, Record Collector, July 2018
Ever been curious about what's pumping on Gaz Coombes' stereo? RC's Jamie Atkins was, so he headed to Oxfordshire to find out. ...
The Beach Boys: Wake The World: The Beach Boys 1967-'73
Retrospective by Jamie Atkins, Record Collector, July 2018
THERE ARE FEW things music fans like more than a good "what if". And the Beach Boys' career gifts enthusiasts plenty of fantasy scenarios: what ...
Uncle Tupelo, Wilco: Jeff Tweedy: At Least That's What He Said
Interview by Jamie Atkins, Record Collector, February 2019
The recent publication of his autobiography and the release of his first solo album, Warm, have seen Wilco man Jeff Tweedy reflect on a remarkable ...
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