If only there’s only one truism to our existence on this rock, it’s that life often has a way of putting things into sharp perspective. Released in 2022, Shana Cleveland’s well received solo album Manzanita was written in the wake of the birth of her first son, whilst the band she fronted La Luz had released their eponymous fourth album the year previously.
What then followed for her was a breast cancer diagnosis and unsurprisingly the re-evaluation of what was important and what was not. News of The Universe was shaped by that head rush of thought processes and is certainl less dream-like, spectral theatre than it’s predecessor, but Cleveland’s maturity as a songwriter means that there’s still a filter between raw emotions and the music the quarter make.
Still working with largely the same ingredients – garage and surf rock, psychedelia, sixties kitsch – News of The Universe find it’s bygone groove in Good Luck With Your Secret’s vintage organ swirl, whilst Blue Moth Cloud Shadow seems to look to the cosmos for inspiration. The centrepiece though is Always In Love, a take on finding hope through adversity that makes running away someone else’s problem. Life’s like that. And sometimes the best way to face it down is with taking strangers with you on the most personal of journeys.
You can read a full review here.
The Voice Of Unreason 
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