This week's key live music releases

We take a look back at the week's key releases including Jamie xx, Slaves, Florence and the Machine and SOAK.

Ben Smith

Date published: 5th Jun 2015

It's been one of the most anticipated week's of the year in terms of live music, with Jamie xx baring the fruits of In Colour's vigorous marketing campaign, Slaves raising hell with their raucous effort Are You Satisfied? and Florence and The Machine putting themselves in the Glastonbury frame for 2016 with How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful.

After various Spotify drops, visual streams, interviews...well you name it, In Colour is finally here. It's been touted as a major Mercury Prize contender, and quite rightly so. Marking his best work to date, it's been forever buzzing the radio waves throughout the week with its expansive sound scape firmly embedded in the rich cultural history of the UK rave scene, hats off Jamie. (Read our 'In Colour' review)

Next came Slaves, the punk revivalists who quite frankly don't give a fuck. Are You Satisfied? is a destruction derby of thrashing riffs, belting drums and acerbic vocal hooks that's put punk firmly back on the agenda this festival season. (Read our 'Are You Satisfied?' review)

Florence delivered another stunner, with How Big, How Blue,How Beautiful. It delivered the glistening 'Ship To Wreck', the big and brassy centrepiece 'What Kind Of Man' and an overall more decorated and rhythmic harvest.

SOAK's Before We Forgot How To Dream was a further front runner, emptying London Grammar's long-standing late night water bottle and replacing it with a guitar led wash of indulgent melodies and moments of unadulterated bliss (Listen to 'B a noBody' below).

Picking our shots at the rest of this week's key releases, Kid Wave introduced themselves to the world with Wonderlust, a dreamy whirl of nineties inspired indie pop. Sun Kil Moon unfurled a saunter of extended acoustic contentment in Universal Themes and Girlpool rolled out Before The World Was Big, a folk rooted compilation of plucky numbers made for the open fields.