Album Review: Delicate Steve – Till I Burn Up
Over the past ten years Delicate Steve has been establishing a reputation as being a musicians musician. With a unique instrumental style Delicate Steve sounds as equally at home as a guest performing next to the likes of Built to Spill or Tune-Yards, or collaborating with Paul Simon. In addition to this he has been …
Not Forgotten: Soundgarden – Superunknown
For some reason it’s those bands who almost achieved massive success but just fell short that I find the most compelling. Jethro Tull were huge, but they never made into the rock superleague like Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd. XTC never enjoyed anywhere near the commercial success that their talent deserved. For all their musical …
Not Forgotten: Kula Shaker – Peasants, Pigs & Astronauts
Kula Shaker’s fall from grace here in the UK was so dramatic that it’s impossible not to attribute the relative commercial failure of Peasants, Pigs & Astronauts, as well as the band’s subsequent disillusionment, to the fact that Crispin Mills was an obnoxious brat who opened his mouth to say something stupid once too often. …
Album Review: Nick Waterhouse – Nick Waterhouse
In my 25 years plus as a music obsessive, one of the things that has become apparent to me is that sometimes you just need to hear a certain album or artist at a certain time for them to make sense to you. If you’d played me a Nick Waterhouse album five years ago, chances …
Classic Album: Queen – The Works
The Works is frequently seen as a concerted effort by Brian May and Roger Taylor to return Queen to their rocking roots after far too long dabbling with a horrible mix of funky disco pop rock. As an album, The Works contains some of the band’s biggest global hits, finds them if not creatively recharged, …
Classic Compilation: David Bowie – The Platinum Collection
A pair of compilations and a bonus disc gathered together rather than a release in its own right, on the surface of it the lazily named The Platinum Collection is just another David Bowie compilation. Where this compilation scores over most others that cover Bowie’s career, is that each disc is themed by era, with …
Not Forgotten: Kirsty MacColl – Titanic Days
Intelligent, witty, wilful, vulnerable, contrary, mind-bogglingly talented, possessing a steely resolve and yet still able to project a balance of both vulnerability and approachability utterly vulnerable, Kirsty MacColl, for all her glowing brilliance, never really managed to string together the career her immense talent deserved. This resulted in some of her albums becoming relative obscurities, …
Classic Compilation: Joe Cocker – The Anthology
Has there ever been an artist in the history of popular music as ill-served by compilations as Joe Cocker? The racks are stuffed full of Joe Cocker compilations, covering a couple of sizeable hits in the late 60s when he was one of the great voices of British blues, and then leaping forward almost twenty …
Not Forgotten: Tori Amos – Under the Pink
It can’t have been easy following up an album as attention grabbing and uncompromising as Little Earthquakes, but to Tori Amos’s eternal credit, with Under the Pink she somehow managed to strike the balance between solid follow up and incrementally increased accessibility. While many will (quite rightly) point to Little Earthquakes as Amos’s masterpiece, it’s …
Album Review: Disturbed – Evolution
The one thing that is common among hard rock / heavy metal acts throughout the genre’s evolution is just how devoted their fans are. It doesn’t matter if you have followed Led Zeppelin since the late 60s, or were a denim and leather clad Iron Maiden fan of the 80s, or a Nine Inch Nails …