Not Forgotten: Fleetwood Mac – Tango in the Night
Like many acts who hit their creative peaks in the 60s and 70s, Fleetwood Mac struggled with the 80s. By the middle of the decade, the willingness to experiment with their tried and tested formula that they had demonstrated so definitively on Tusk, had been lost. 1982’s Mirage had been a disappointingly standard Fleetwood Mac …
News: Black Crowes reissued on vinyl
The Black Crowes were a band for whom the stars almost aligned. Arriving on the music scene seemingly fully formed with their Faces / Rolling Stones / Humble Pie blues rocking coupled to a type of hard rock that exposed the hair metal hoards as being an exercise in style over substance. Fronted by brothers …
Not Forgotten: Little Feat – Waiting for Columbus
It starts with the band chanting along with each other instead of the usual crowd noise, which eventually gives way to the sound of an MC introducing the band and then the glorious sound of Little Feat ripping into one of their signature tunes. By 1977 Little Feat had long established themselves as one of …
Not Forgotten: Mott the Hoople – The Hoople
Sometimes you really do need to be careful what you wish for. After years of hard-gigging, road-hardened Mott the Hoople had thrown in the towel in March 1972, only for the towel to be caught mid-flight by David Bowie, who as an encore got them out of their unfavourable record deal, donated to them a …
Album Review: They Might Be Giants – Why?
Music for children is often an awkward art to master. Obviously you want something tuneful and memorable, but you also want to avoid adult themes. Another thing you want to avoid is the music itself being ‘childish’, otherwise it will inevitably grate on the nerves of the parents and therefore only get played under duress. …
Not Forgotten: Mansun – Attack of the Grey Lantern
Released at a time when any UK four piece with guitars was being mercilessly marketed as Britpop and ‘indie’, Mansun’s Attack of the Grey Lantern is an album that succeeded, not because, but despite, the hyperbole around it. Schizophrenic image problems or not, Mansun had spent the months prior to the release of their debut …
Not Forgotten: The Band – Music From Big Pink
The Band are an acts whose heavyweight reputation promises far more than it actually delivers. For all the revisionist history since, in truth they only released two truly world class albums, Music From Big Pink and their eponymous second. That said, those two albums are probably responsible for influencing more Americana acts than anyone else …
Album Review: Father John Misty – I Love You, Honeybear
Bella Union have been on a massive – and I mean massive – roll this year. In 2015 they’ve released the long overdue return albums by B.C. Camplight, Mercury Rev and John Grant and Ezra Furman’s breakthrough album. In among all these was Father John Misty’s second album, I Love You, Honeybear, which saw J. …
Album Review: Def Leppard – Def Leppard
It’s been seven years since Def Leppard’s last album, “Songs From the Sparkle Lounge”, and the musical landscape has continued to evolve at a bewildering rate in their absence. Things have changed for Def Leppard too, as their new eponymous album is their first without the support of Mercury Records. Listening to their new album, …
Album Review: The Kinks – Sunny Afternoon
Okay, so what do we have here? Another Kinks Kompilation? Aren’t there enough of those already? The latest attempt to distil the brilliance of The Kinks onto two CD’s ties in with the jukebox musical based on their material. Whether you’re a fan of them or not, jukebox musicals have been big business for a …