pop music
Album: Bobby Gillespie and Jehnny Beth - Utopian AshesMonday, 28 June 2021
Lee Hazelwood and Nancy Sinatra’s “Some Velvet Morning” is a clichéd indie-rock odd couple touchstone, and after an initial duet on Suicide’s “Dream Baby Dream” during the latter’s chaotic 2015 Barbican swansong, Bobby Gillespie and Jehnny Beth... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Elton John - Regimental Sgt. ZippoSunday, 27 June 2021
Empty Sky, Elton John’s first album was released in June 1969. Now, an album titled Regimental Sgt. Zippo has turned up. It’s marketed as “The debut album that never was.” The 12 tracks are annotated loosely as having been recorded from November... Read more... |
Album: Mykki Blanco - Broken Hearts and Beauty SleepFriday, 18 June 2021
Broken Hearts and Beauty Sleep has been five years coming. It’s only a mini-album but is spiced with a range of guests, and offers an array of musical styles, the whole sound ably built with alt-tronic producer FaltyDL. The press release tells us... Read more... |
Album: Marina - Ancient Dreams in a Modern LandMonday, 07 June 2021
The latest album from Marina Diamandis, her fifth, is a startling explosion of vim and attitude. It mingles speeding, wordy, indie-tinted dance-pop bangers, tilting at all manner of contemporary ills, with sudden moments of broken-hearted piano-led... Read more... |
Album: James - All the Colours of YouMonday, 07 June 2021
James, and Tim Booth in particular, have always been too genuinely, gauchely odd to be hip – outsiders at the Madchester rave yet responsible for one of its biggest anthems, “Sit Down”, then shedding their skin for suppler, sexual territory with... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Donovan - Hurdy Gurdy SongsSunday, 06 June 2021
Early last month, Donovan issued his extraordinary new single “I am the Shaman”. Recorded at David Lynch’s Los Angeles studio, it was produced by the polymath director and fellow transcendental meditation devotee. The accompanying video was also... Read more... |
Album: Tomorrow X Together - The Chaos Chapter: FreezeSaturday, 05 June 2021
This second full-length album from South Korean quintet TXT scrambles musical genres in rich and fascinating ways. From the fizzing hi-hats and dreamy chords of opener “Anti-Romantic” to the harmonic stasis and minimalist groove of “Frost” which... Read more... |
Album: Wolf Alice - Blue WeekendFriday, 04 June 2021
When Wolf Alice appeared a decade ago, you’d have to have been a soothsayer of Merlin-like proportions to predict the career trajectory they’ve had since. Certainly, prior to their debut album, this writer took them for just another female-fronted... Read more... |
Album: Greentea Peng - Man MadeTuesday, 01 June 2021
Greentea Peng is a south Londoner, heavily tattooed, heavily spiritual, heavily anti-establishment, and very, very heavily into basslines. She cuts a singular figure in many ways, but her rebel dub soul style also makes her a particularly British... Read more... |
Album: Liz Phair - SoberishMonday, 31 May 2021
Pop music, like Hollywood, is a dream factory: a place where you can be anything you like, as long as that’s not a middle-aged woman. I’ll hit the last year of my 30s next week, with the number one spot in the country held by a woman who has her... Read more... |
Album: Crowded House - Dreamers Are WaitingSaturday, 29 May 2021
More than three decades after their acclaimed, self-titled debut, Crowded House has grown from a trio to a quintet. In addition to the group’s lead singer, main songwriter and founding member, Neil Finn, the current incarnation of the band includes... Read more... |
Glastonbury Festival: Live at Worthy Farm livestream review - glitched access upstages beautifully shot live footageTuesday, 25 May 2021
INTERLUDE 1: INVALID CODE-AGEDDON6.45 PM on Saturday 22nd May and all is well. Like tens of thousands of others across the UK (or maybe even more?) my wall flatscreen is tuned to Glastonbury’s livestream. Prior to the event itself promos for Water... Read more... |
