Not Forgotten: Frank Black & The Catholics – Dog in the Sand
The relationship between musician and listener is not always easy. Occasionally the misunderstandings are inevitable and sometimes compromises need to be made. However with the appropriate patience and open hearts and minds, you can reach a level of mutual understanding that you had not previously considered to be possible. There are times when your appreciation …
Not Forgotten: Caravan – In the Land of Grey and Pink
Along with Soft Machine, Caravan are perhaps the definitive Canterbury Scene progressive rock act. Less jazzy than their more famous neighbours, Caravan weren’t as heavy handed as their more critically lauded peers, but what they did have was a much firmer grasp of pop dynamics and nowhere was this more obvious than their 1971 album, …
Album Review: White Denim – Stiff
I’m not sure when it first occurred to me, but I’ve now spent many years coming to terms with the fact that I have a problem with rock and roll. Or at least rock and roll in the context of the phrase ‘That’s so rock and roll!’. You see, when used in that context, it …
Not Forgotten: 10cc – The Original Soundtrack
By early 1975, 10cc had extricated themselves from an unfavourable recording contract under which their first two albums had been released. This resulted in The Original Soundtrack being a confluence of the experimental pop of their first two albums, with a boost of confidence and a sense of freedom. 10cc were always group that were …
Not Forgotten: Neil Young – After the Gold Rush
Always knowingly wilful, Neil Young has never been an easy musician to pin down. Having cut his teeth with Buffalo Springfield, his solo career started off with a solid enough debut of relatively standard singer-songwriter fare, a style he almost immeadiately ditched in favour of hooking up with half of garage band The Rockets, renaming …
Not Forgotten: Grandaddy – Sumday
In the process of comprehensively out-OK Computered Radiohead with the stunning The Sophtware Slump in 2000, Grandaddy had gained an enviable reputation for musical brilliance, but that hadn’t really translated into sales. However, with a line of cosmic americana shot through with a thread of melancholy, Grandaddy’s career had organically grown from self-releasing EPs and …
Album Review: Matt Berry – Matt Berry and The Maypoles Live
A quick perusal of the artwork of Matt Berry and the Maypoles Live, with it’s Acid Jazz label styled in the manner of the old Philips logo, a back cover which consists of the tracklisting and photos of the individual members of The Maypoles playing live and the inside of the CD booklet consisting of …
Album Review: The Stone Foxes – Twelve Spells
At the start of rock and roll the generational the battlelines were well defined and they remained static for decades. The young rock and pop acts specifically targeted the youth market, and those acts that appealed to the average individual over the age of 30 were few and far between. Simply put, if you were …
Album Review: They Might Be Giants – Phone Power
The third album to be compiled from tracks that They Might Be Giants released on their rebooted Dial-A-Song service on YouTube during 2015, Phone Power has been released as a pay-what-you-want download, and will be released in more traditional formats in the future. So far, so Radiohead. TMBG fans knew that a third album of …
Not Forgotten: Paul Westerberg – 14 Songs
The former The Replacements frontman Paul Westerberg had been the main creative force behind his former band for the last few years of their career, so in the early 90s, him transitioning to a solo career on the same record label was a natural move for him. Not that he leapt straight into recording his …