New music
Albums of the Year 2024: Kneecap - Fine ArtWednesday, 18 December 2024
In many ways, 2024 has been a stellar year for New Music. There have certainly been plenty of albums released that could easily have gained “year’s best” status in recent times and would have buried those that actually did receive those plaudits.... Read more... |
Albums of the Year 2024: Kenny Barron - Beyond This PlaceMonday, 16 December 2024
Kenny Barron’s Beyond This Place is glorious. Whereas I’ve found some of the more talked-about albums of 2024 either been uneven or unfocused – as if attracting debate is more important than just setting out to make a great album –... Read more... |
Music Reissues Weekly: Vanilla Fudge - Where Is My Mind The ATCO Recordings 1967-1969Sunday, 15 December 2024
Vanilla Fudge could provoke a strong reaction. Writing about them in 1982, Tom Hibbert – then best-known for his contributions to Smash Hits – said of their February 1968 second album, The Beat Goes On, that “on one side of the bombastic concept LP... Read more... |
Albums of the Year 2024: Meemo Comma - Decimation of ISaturday, 14 December 2024
I don’t really want to talk about this year. Genuinely.It’s been so horrific on the macro scale with deranged Fascism and the effects of rampant and undeniable climate change looming everywhere you look – and on the personal level I’ve been been... Read more... |
Albums of the Year 2024: Amelia Coburn - Between the Moon and the MilkmanFriday, 13 December 2024
I’ve known for some time that Ariel Sharratt & Matthias Kom’s Never Work is my Album of the Year. This lividly witty, no-filler take-down of workplace servitude arrived on vinyl in May. The creation of two Canadian indie-folkies (from The... Read more... |
Jesus & Mary Chain, O2 Institute, Birmingham - Reid Brothers refuse to join the heritage industryThursday, 12 December 2024
The Jesus and Mary Chain may have been around for some 40 years (albeit on and off), but the Reid brothers clearly have no intention of setting up camp in the heritage music industry just yet. This was emphatically stressed this week, as they hit... Read more... |
Album: Ajukaja & Mart Avi - Death of MusicThursday, 12 December 2024
Death of Music was created in Estonia. Despite the English lyrics, directness is absent. Take the title track. “Drop the music” exhorts Mart Avi over its pulsing five minutes. “Fight the music” he declares. The word “execution” crops up. There is... Read more... |
Album: Ben Folds - SleigherWednesday, 11 December 2024
The Christmas album is an American phenomenon that doesn’t really exist in British music. Dating back to Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley in the late 50s, it has long been a regular part of the business – with even Bob Dylan having a go in 2009.Ben... Read more... |
Vampire Weekend, OVO Hydro, Glasgow review - a mixture of brilliance and self-indulgenceTuesday, 10 December 2024
When Vampire Weekend arrived onstage they numbered only three and were bunched together at the front with a large curtain draped behind them, obscuring their backdrop. By the time this marathon set ended two and a half hours later, they’d more than... Read more... |
Julia Holter, Islington Assembly Hall review - shelter from the storm in experimental delightMonday, 09 December 2024
On a wet, dreary, winter evening in north London, at Islington Assembly Hall, a crowd gathered for an ethereal although not always engaging set by Julia Holter.The opener was Nyokabi Kariüki, an experimental musician who played with loops, found... Read more... |
Music Reissues Weekly: John Leyton - Lone Rider The Holloway Road Sessions 1960-1962Sunday, 08 December 2024
For John Leyton, it was third time lucky as far as his singles were concerned. The actor’s manager Robert Stigwood teamed him with producer Joe Meek, but Leyton's first two 45s – August 1960’s “Tell Laura I Love Her” and October 1960's “The Girl on... Read more... |
Album: The Unthanks - In WinterSaturday, 07 December 2024
By and large, most Christmas albums seem to fall into one of two camps. There’s either the lively poptastic soundtracks favoured at family or work celebrations, which generally feature plenty of sleighbells and a cover of something by either Slade... Read more... |
