NOT FORGOTTEN – JOE COCKER – I CAN STAND A LITTLE RAIN
Throughout my childhood I grew up hearing Joe Cocker due to the fact that my dad is a huge fan of his. Cocker is Sheffield born and while he was attempting to establish a name for himself through the 60s, he lived barely a stones throw away from where my dad was growing up in …
NOT FORGOTTEN – HALF MAN HALF BISCUIT – THIS LEADEN PALL
With references to long distance haulage companies, pear drops and heavy metal groups of the 80s, it’s no surprise that lyrical diversity is a strength of This Leaden Pall. What is perhaps a little more surprising is all these references are squeezed into the opening number… Welcome to the obscure, unique, and yes, occasionally downright …
ALBUM REVIEW – NEKO CASE – THE WORSE THINGS GET, THE HARDER I FIGHT, THE HARDER I FIGHT, THE MORE I LOVE YOU
Its her voice that strikes you at first. It’s a clear voice, an honest voice, a strong voice. A voice that’s compelling whether you like alternative country music or not. The first song I heard her sing was “Margaret Vs. Pauline”, the stunning opener to her gorgeous Fox Confessor Brings the Flood album and since …
Not Forgotten: XTC – Nonsuch
In the latter half of the 80s the combined successes of Skylarking and Oranges & Lemons had saved XTC and they had re-established themselves as mature and intelligent pop-rockers that could appeal to all ages. The conceptual grandeur of Skylarking had initially been a commercial failure, but a freak hit on American College Radio with …
Album Review: Justin Currie – Lower Reaches
It’s an inevitable result of the relentless passage of time that our social circles change as we grow older. As jobs evolve into careers and relationships develop into families, your life shuffles into a new shape and you inevitably lose touch with some of the people that, in your younger days, you felt would always …
ALBUM REVIEW: THE POLYPHONIC SPREE – YES, IT’S TRUE
Ten years ago I got hugely into what was being referred to as the ‘Cosmic Americana’ scene, a loose sub-category of American alt-rock that had given us such instant classics as Deserter’s Songs, The Soft Bulletin and The Sophtware Slump. An act I had initially lumped in with the likes of Mercury Rev, Flaming Lips …
ALBUM REVIEW: VUVUVULTURES – PUSH / PULL
In the next few weeks I’ll be transitioning from my ‘early 30s’ to my ‘late 30s’. It’s not the end of the world, and 35 isn’t traditionally seen as being a landmark birthday, however I find myself oddly preoccupied with a wistful nostalgia for my youth, lamenting the long-missed opportunities that just passed me by. …
ALBUM REVIEW: MATT BERRY – KILL THE WOLF
I came to Matt Berry later than a lot of people. I must have first become aware of him when a friend of mine gave me the DVD of Garth Marenghi’s Dark Place, then over the years I repeatedly noticed him in comedy shows like The Mighty Boosh and The IT Crowd. Pretty much whatever …