Album Reviews
Not Forgotten: Billy Bragg – Don’t Try This at Home
Billy Bragg’s first full album since Workers Playtime, an album which saw him change his style to something a little more mainstream than clattering his battered Telecaster and delivering his love them / hate them vocals (personally I’ve always been charmed by his rampantly untutored vocal stylings) with assistance from a few select collaborators (step …
Album Review: Cocoon – Mathias Kaden & Popof in the Mix
It’s that time of year again when everyone turns to Cocoon and their famous mix series to see what the sounds of the summer will be. This time charged with laying out the enduring German label’s sonic mix for Ibiza 2014 is Mathias Kaden and label regular Popof. They do so across two fantastic mix CDs, which in …
Not Forgotten – Steely Dan – Katy Lied
The general consensus seems to be that Katy Lied is Becker and Fagen’s least favourite Steely Dan album, because it didn’t match their levels of studio perfectionism that they had achieved on their other albums. As it turns out that is exactly the reason that it is my favourite Steely Dan album. I’m a rock …
Album Review: A Sunny Day In Glasgow – Sea When Absent
I can’t remember the first time I heard A Sunny Day In Glasgow, but I do remember how I felt. I felt as if I’d found this wonderful musical gift. Part dream pop, part shoegaze, and yet still totally modern. They were taking the building blocks of those late-80s noise genres and turning into something …
Album Review: Taylor McFerrin – Early Riser
Lets get this straight right from the off. Taylor McFerrins debut LP Early Riser is one of the albums of the year, and the fact that its taken this long since its release (nearly a month) to get a review together is a crime for which we here at Backseat Mafia are torturing ourselves with …
Not Forgotten: Wilco’s A Ghost Is Born Ten Years Later
I don’t think there’s a more divisive Wilco record than A Ghost Is Born(maybe Wilco(The Album)). It was a record filled with claustrophobic silence, whispered musical intentions, and the sound of numbed pain. It was the record where people asked “What’s going on with Jeff Tweedy’s voice?” Well I asked it, anyways. It felt both pared down …
Not Forgotten – Faces – A Nod is as Good as a Wink… To a Blind Horse
There are some bands whose true worth only became obvious following the passage of time, whose stature continues to build year upon year, long after the band members themselves have gone their separate ways. Faces are not one of those bands. In the early 90s gold rush to re-evaluate and re-assess the music of the …
Not Forgotten: Deep Purple – Made in Japan
It is the 70s. Weeks last three days, amplifiers are stacked, hair is long and unkempt, pants are loon and sleeves are gatefold. In the pop charts, glam-rock and hollow pop held sway, while the album charts were dominated by progressive and hard rock bands, whose live reputations were at least as important as their …
Album Review – Guided by Voices – Cool Planet
Guided by Voices are one of those acts where I genuinely cannot remember where or when I first heard their name, but I’ve known it for a while now. I guess he first time they registered on my radar as anything more than just a name, was about nine years ago when a Canadian friend …
Not Forgotten: Dusty Springfield – Dusty in Memphis
It’s heartbreaking that someone who had such a huge talent as Dusty Springfield suffered from almost crippling insecurity and self-doubt. Legend has it that she struggled so much with the recording of this, Dusty in Memphis, now her most celebrated album, that “Son of a Preacher Man” and “Just a Little Lovin’” aside, she was …