New Music Reviews
Celtic Connections 2020, Glasgow review - fine feast of Scottish musicMonday, 20 January 2020
Celtic Connections, Scotland’s annual festival of folk, world and fusion music, has been brightening up dreich Glasgow Januaries since its inception in 1994. Originally proposed partly as a way to fill a scheduling gap in Glasgow Royal Concert Hall’s post-Christmas period, Celtic Connections is now a major event in Scotland’s cultural calendar. Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: The Beloved - Where It IsSunday, 19 January 2020
Commercially, The Beloved’s peak years kicked off in autumn 1989 when their electro house-pop began its chart run. The band called it a day in 1996 after the X album and its attendant singles. Read more... |
Judy Collins, Grand Central Hall, Liverpool review - how sweet the sound, even at 80Monday, 13 January 2020
It’s a good few years since Judy Collins last toured Britain and Ireland, though in the US she’s rarely off the road. Over the last couple of years she has notched up more than 100 concerts (and an album) with Stephen Stills, who famously celebrated their 1960s love affair in the magnificent “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes”. Read more... |
Album: Gabrielle Aplin - Dear HappyMonday, 13 January 2020
According to Gabrielle Aplin, the delicate piano ballad which closes, and provides the name of, her first album in over four years was written as a letter to herself; and one penned at a particularly turbulent point in her life. “It’s not easy for me, but I know that I’m close,” she sings, as if willing the emotion into being. Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: She Came From Liverpool! - Merseyside Girl-Pop 1962-1968Sunday, 12 January 2020
In July 1961, the first issue of the Liverpool music paper Mersey Beat put three items on its front page. One was a surreal article by John Lennon titled Being a Short Diversion on the Dubious Origins of The Beatles. Read more... |
Albums of the Year 2019: Little Simz - GREY AreaWednesday, 08 January 2020
In 2019, music kept its place as a vital means for expression and escapism in an increasingly troubled and troubling world. Happily, there were plenty of brilliant albums to get lost in over the course of the year. Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Jon Savage's 1969-1971 - Rock Dreams on 45Sunday, 05 January 2020
As one decade gives way to the next, the beginning or end of the ten-year cycle rarely yields anything cut and dried. With pop music, a host of decade-related platitudes have no respect for the decade-to-decade switch. Depending on points of view, the Sixties didn’t begin until 1962, 1963 or 1964. Read more... |
Albums of the Year 2019: Liz Lawrence - Pity PartyFriday, 03 January 2020
Picking the best album at the end of the year is always unfair on the early releases. Recency bias means the newer albums carry more excitement. Better Oblivion Community Center's self-titled debut would be a major contender if it had released in September as opposed to January. It feels like part of the furniture now, a testament to the songwriting of Phoebe Bridgers and Conor Oberst... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: The Best of 2019Sunday, 29 December 2019
Earlier this year, the Peter Laughner box set was more than an archive release. Its diligence and scale forced a wholesale reinterpretation of the evolution of America’s punk-era underground scene. Read more... |
The Libertines, Margate Winter Gardens – last post on the TS Eliot-named tourMonday, 23 December 2019
Once upon a time – before the nation’s schism – an indie band with dubious reputation espoused the virtues of Albion and invited us on the good ship Arcadia to travel to this Utopia. Things are a bit different now. Read more... |
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