Sammy Andrews

About Me

  York, UK based

Specialising in Alternative and Indie reviews and features. 

Featured in Distorted Sound, Redbrick, Gigwise and The Unwritten. 

My Work

Distorted Sound Magazine •

ALBUM REVIEW: State Champs - State Champs - Distorted Sound Magazine

The self-titled album is a pivotal statement for any band. It stands in the band’s career as a declaration their DNA as a group, who they are, where they’ve been and where they’re going. On their self-titled album, STATE CHAMPS solidify their position as giants of the modern pop punk scene, consolidating their sound into an energetic and sharp album.

Opening track, The Constant, is a quintessential STATE CHAMPS song. Bursting out with powerful drums and guitars, it’s full of the attitude that y...
Distorted Sound Magazine •

ALBUM REVIEW: Dial In The Ghost - Ritual Error - Distorted Sound Magazine

London-based RITUAL ERROR refuse to have their voice unheard on debut album Dial In The Ghost.Channelling both the sound and the confrontational ethos of 90s post-hardcore and noise rock, RITUAL ERROR pay homage to what has come before them, whilst firmly planting their feet in the present scene. Dial In The Ghost brings a frustrated and ferocious outlook on current society, and leaves nothing unsaid.

On opening track Good Conscience In Three Stages, RITUAL ERROR ensure that you enter the album...
Distorted Sound Magazine •

ALBUM REVIEW: Ultrabliss - Mother's Cake - Distorted Sound Magazine

On their fifth studio album Ultrabliss, the follow-up to 2020’s Cyberfunk!, MOTHER’S CAKE find themselves forging a new path for their sound. Melding psych and prog jams with a free forming direction, Ultrabliss attempts to find MOTHER’S CAKE liberated in their expression. Yet, laced with cinematic and musical references, the album at times becomes weighed down by its influences, and struggles to tow the line into a fully realised expression of MOTHER’S CAKE‘s sound.

Opening track Clockwork ent...
Distorted Sound Magazine •

ALBUM REVIEW: Tar - Corecass - Distorted Sound Magazine

On Tar, CORECASS envelopes you into a haunting journey from despair to regrowth. Blending dark ambient with post rock and neoclassical, Tar is consistently compelling. Uniquely combining piano, organ, harp, drums and electric guitar, Tar displays CORECASS’ musical proficiency and willingness to explore unexpected avenues. Each track builds to euphoric heights but does not shy away from strangeness. In fact, it is in the strange and in counterpoints, that Tar truly comes to life.

Opening track O...
Distorted Sound Magazine •

EP REVIEW: This Won’t Last When You Know the Beginning - trueandtrue - Distorted Sound Magazine

From Oslo, Norway, TRUEANDTRUE bring their own distinct spin to hardcore and post-punk on their latest EP This Won’t Last When You Know the Beginning. The band energetically move through big and small moments capturing intense themes in their most intimate and most overwhelming of forms. TRUEANDTRUE create an intense and emotional listening experience, ensuring that no turn is left untaken on this journey.

Opening track Doomed immerses the EP into a space of existential contemplation. The track...
Distorted Sound Magazine •

ALBUM REVIEW: With You In Spirit - Balance And Composure - Distorted Sound Magazine

After a four-year hiatus, BALANCE AND COMPOSURE have returned with their first full-length album in eight years. Yet With You In Spirit is far from a simple comeback album, and instead offers a glimpse into a band laying all to bare and leaving nothing unsaid. It finds the band coming back together to confront life’s uncertain questions, contemplating themes across grief, mortality, faith and family. In interrogating such anxieties, BALANCE AND COMPOSURE create an atmospheric, swirling explorati...
Redbrick •

Album Review: Dead Pony- IGNORE THIS | Redbrick Music

IGNORE THIS is a brash and unapologetic call to attention from Dead Pony. On their debut album, the Glasgow band refuse to play it safe, experimenting with genres, production and what an album itself means to them. 
Melding their established grunge leaning alt-rock sound with crunchier guitars, intense drums, and electronic production, Dead Pony refuse to be put in one box on IGNORE THIS. Influences can be heard from the hyper-pop production of title track ‘IGNORE THIS’, to the dance grooves of...
Redbrick •

Album Review: Kacey Musgraves- Deeper Well | Music

It has become very easy to say that an album is an introspection. Artists more and more frequently are looking inward, utilising the form of an album to navigate and document that process. But Deeper Well deals with something a little bit more than simple introspection. Balancing the spiritual with the mundane, in Deeper Well Kacey Musgraves ruminates on her position in the world around her and all of its kaleidoscopic offerings.

Bristling with beautiful folksy guitar patterns, Musgraves is son
Gigwise •

Album Review: Birdy - Portraits | Gigwise

If you think you know what you’re getting from a Birdy album, think again. Expecting intimate piano ballads, I was swept into the synth filled opening track ‘Paradise Calling.’ A burst of energy, and an upbeat assertion of ‘all I ever wanted was something to believe in’, Birdy throws you headfirst into the album. This is the liberation of an artist finding their voice.

It's not a coincidence then that a lot of the songs ponder the idea of letting go of something. Both ‘Heartbreaker’ and ‘Automa
Gigwise •

EP Review: GIRLI - Why am I like this?? | Gigwise

Girli is reckoning with the messiness of life on Why am I like this?? Refusing the tie herself down, the alt-pop singer sets out to capture the multitudes of herself.

The EP is easily at its best when Girli tackles her own insecurities head on. Brutally forthcoming, witty, and sharp, her pen feels especially sharp on opening track ‘I really f**ked it up.’ The song is a catchy affirmation of the need to embrace the messiness of life.

As she reckons with her own insecurities, it always feels rel
Redbrick •

Album Review: Fall Out Boy - So Much (For) Stardust | Music

Music Critic Sammy Andrews reviews Fall Out Boy’s new album, So Much (For) Stardust, highlighting its variety of coexisting elements and the return of the band’s classic sound

So Much (For) Stardust is Fall Out Boy’s step back onto the stage after five years. A dive back into their classic pop-punk/rock sound, the album sees the band firmly returning to their roots, and it is a return that is very welcome.

From the opening few chords of ‘Love From the Other Side’ I knew I would be in for a rid
Gigwise •

Album Review: Billie Marten - Drop Cherries | Gigwise

Four albums into her career, Billie Marten is not reinventing herself. On Drop Cherries, Marten is instead, turning further inwards. Examining, musing, and ruminating on love, Marten makes introspection her own.

Opening track ‘New Idea’ feels like a wistful entrance into the imaginative space of the album. Simple hums and guitar patterns build over the echoes of the tape recording, and you are lulled into Drop Cherries slowly and gracefully as the strings further pull you along.

It is easy eno
Redbrick •

Album Review: Paramore - This Is Why | Music

The anticipation that has built surrounding a new Paramore album has built an entire mythology surrounding their return to music. And This is Why is nothing short of a confirmation of this mythological status. This is Why sees Paramore at some of their best, blending their past roots with new influences, and spanning some of their most vulnerable themes yet. In their search to navigate the modern world, Paramore reckon with, embrace, and confront the messiness of it all.

The title track ‘This i
Redbrick •

Review: That '90s Show | TV

TV writer Sammy Andrews revels in the nostalgic elements of the Netflix series, while believing that its new time setting and characters could be explored in greater depth

If, like me, the lyrics ‘Hanging out, down the street’ instills a wave of nostalgia in you, it’s very likely you hold That ’70s Show very close to your heart. Since its release, it has become a cult favourite, and now, a new generation are here to take up the basement for their own in That ’90s Show. Kitty (Debra Jo Rupp) and
Redbrick •

Music's Albums of 2022 | Music

Arriving five years after the chart-smashing success of DAMN., Kendrick Lamar’s fifth studio album Mr Morale & The Big Steppers is the Compton rapper’s most personal record to date as he invites the listener to follow him on his own journey through childhood trauma, grief, fame and infidelity. A deeply emotive and thematic album, Mr Morale positions Kendrick as a highly vulnerable figure whose lyrics at times read like diary entries or confessions to a therapist. Songs like ‘Mother | Sober’ embo
Redbrick •

The Best Films of 2022 | Film

There was only one new release that caused me to sink into existential dread in 2022, and that was Charlotte Wells’ devastating directorial debut, Aftersun. The film is a flashback to a holiday between Calum (Paul Mescal) and his daughter Sophie (Frankie Corio). Aftersun explores the idea that our parents are people too, with their own demons, that we might not even know about. Its mature approach to these themes, via its restrained dialogue and cinematography, captures a dynamic rarely explored

Gigwise's 23 For 2023 | Gigwise

Meet the names to know for 2023

2022 was a big year for music, but an even bigger year for new music. With live events well and truly back after the pandemic, up and comers have taken to the stage up and down the country and worldwide, swifty establishing themselves in what's feeling like music's most exciting moment in a long time. With new names playing a vital role as frontrunners of new sounds and new scenes, we’re seeing the birth of future icons.

Boiling down a million and one buzzing na
Redbrick •

Album Review: Taylor Swift - Midnights | Music

‘Meet me at midnight’ are the lyrics we are greeted with at the beginning of Taylor Swift’s latest concept album; whether this is directed at her lover or the listener, Swift wants us to join her for her midnight musings and we would be foolish to refuse.

‘Lavender Haze’ explores the attention that Swift’s relationship faces. Her past relationships have been in the public eye and Swift has faced much criticism about them; she is often subjected to sexist commentary. She addresses this with the
Redbrick •

Live Review: Jamie T | Music

I think that anyone who grew up listening to indie music has grown up with Jamie T as the soundtrack to their teen years: a coming-of-age icon for our generation. I remember hearing rumours around school of when he would come back after his 2016 album Trick, and ‘Zombie’ was a staple for any party. But no place have I ever felt this presence of Jamie T’s generational importance than I did whilst watching him at the O2 Academy. More so, should I say, than watching the crowd and seeing just how im
Redbrick •

Live Review: The Big Moon | Music

Music Critic Sammy Andrews reviews the Big Moon’s live show at the O2 Academy Birmingham on the 21st September, describing it as ‘a welcome reminder of the joy that comes out of live music’

On its third rescheduled date, indie-rock quartet The Big Moon finally brought their live show to Birmingham. Initially the tour for their second studio album Walking Like We Do, their set was since updated with new tracks from their upcoming album Here is Everything. Injected with fun, the show stood as a w
The Unwritten •

The Disabled Cost of Living: Food Shopping is Even Harder When You're Gluten Free

Millions of people are currently struggling to heat their homes, pay their bills and afford food in the toughest Cost of Living Crisis the UK has seen in 30 years. In our new series, The Disabled Cost of Living, we will hear how disabled people are disproportionately affected, due to their lives already costing more and being valued as less.

During the current cost of living crisis, the price of everyday basics seems daunting enough, without having to navigate a specialist diet alongside it. Ye

Album Review: cheerbleederz - even in jest | Gigwise

even in jest is an album full of the spirit of DIY. Fluctuating between brutally honest and tongue in cheek lyrics, each song is infused with personality, making cheerbleederz stand out as a band having a blast whilst making music. This spirit is infectious, and even in jest is a debut effort from cheerbleederz that never falls flat because of it.

Following in the footsteps of those before them, even in jest sees cheerbleederz affirming an unapologetic voice in the current DIY scene. Influences
Gigwise •

Album Review: Beach Bunny - Emotional Creature | Gigwise

At various stages of anxiety, confidence + love

Beach Bunny’s sophomore album Emotional Creature sees the group finding their feet both musically and individually. The album is an exploration of the need to grow, adapt and change, finding beauty in the vast kaleidoscope of human emotions. Arriving with a brash Y2K inspired indie rock sound, Emotional Creature is simultaneously vulnerable and confident – finding solace in the messiness of life and navigating love throughout it all.

Bursting the
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