pop music
CD: Arctic Monkeys - Suck It and SeeTuesday, 31 May 2011
"I poured my aching heart into a pop song/ I couldn't get the hang of poetry": a line from the title track of the Arctic Monkeys' fourth studio offering, Suck It and See, pretty much sums things up really. The new album is a poppy selection of... Read more... |
Queen - Days of Our Lives, BBC TwoTuesday, 31 May 2011
Despite selling 300 million albums, being memorialised in stage musicals and computer games and with a feature film about their early career in the works, Queen are still moaning about the press. It's a theme that simmered steadily through this two-... Read more... |
The Joy of Easy Listening/ The Prince and the Composer, BBC FourFriday, 27 May 2011
Once upon a time, "easy listening" was a term of abuse and contempt, intended to evoke everything uncool, unhip and musically middle-aged. It meant pipe, cardigan, golf and Bing Crosby, and it was the last thing you'd hear before you were felled... Read more... |
CD: Status Quo - Quid Pro QuoWednesday, 25 May 2011
After 29 studio albums, eight compilations, four live albums, amounting to a total of 41 at pretty much one for every year of their existence, the denimosaurus we know as Status Quo has issued a release the title of which is entirely, and for the... Read more... |
CD: Lady Gaga - Born This WayTuesday, 24 May 2011
Why gripe about Lady Gaga? The biggest pop star on the planet is a surrealist fashion icon, fag hag hedonist, high school outsider, art pusher, sex kitten, New York hustler, tween-pop cartoon, and a whole lot more besides. What's not to like? Gaga... Read more... |
CD: Morton Valence - Me and Home JamesSunday, 22 May 2011
A couple of years ago Morton Valence appeared out of nowhere with a fan-financed concept album, Bob and Veronica Ride Again, full of plucky imagination, indie sweetness and Nancy Sinatra vibes. It arrived with a CD-sized novelette and had a faintly... Read more... |
Opinion: Who says music isn’t good any more?Sunday, 22 May 2011
The former Bee Gee Robin Gibb unveiled a plaque at the London home of Dusty Springfield a couple of weeks ago. At the ceremony he commented, “There’s been no one to match her. This includes the United States as well – they can’t come close to her.... Read more... |
UK Festivals 2011 Round-UpSaturday, 21 May 2011
It's time to dust down your tent and ice-box and plan some summer breaks with theartsdesk's definitive clickable festival guide - listings and links for all the UK festivals this summer, from rock by the lochs to DJs in London parks, and catching... Read more... |
The Monkees, Royal Albert HallFriday, 20 May 2011
The Monkees’ Head was their celluloid suicide note. They chanted that they were a manufactured band with no philosophy. The film caught an authentic psychedelic vision which came to life again last night. Post-interval, the show continued with a... Read more... |
CD: Kate Bush - Director's CutWednesday, 18 May 2011
Kate Bush’s musical legacy may speak for itself, but she’s more than just her songs. Her persona seems woven into the nation’s consciousness, and her time-lapse approach to making albums makes her every move an event. Her last record was in 2005,... Read more... |
Noah and the Whale, RoundhouseTuesday, 17 May 2011
They’re a fun band with some cracking tunes and they provided a vibrant night’s music last night at the Roundhouse, but where on earth did the idea come from that Noah and the Whale are a folk band? On this evidence, they’re about as folkie as... Read more... |
CD: Moby – DestroyedMonday, 16 May 2011
What is it with synthesisers and sadness? There’s something inherently melancholic about this instrument, a quality that’s been accentuated by its use in the soundtracks to dystopian movies such as Blade Runner. Moby is a man who has exploited... Read more... |
