Album Reviews
NOT FORGOTTEN – CUD – ASQUARIUS
Love at first sound, that’s what it was. The riff that literally tumbled out of the speakers and then that voice. I knew I’d accidentally discovered one of music’s great lost groups and they spoke to me in a way that very few bands did. This wasn’t a passing phase or a temporary thing either, …
Album Review: Harleighblu: Forget me not
If the loss of Amy Winehouse left a soul shaped heart in your record collection, and (as it happens, labelmate) Alice Russell isn’t enough for you, then the answer might just have come from Nottingham songstress Harleighblu. Her new album ‘Forget me not’ dropped today, and immediately she has forced her way to the front …
Not Forgotten – The Bonzo Dog Band – The Doughnut in Granny’s Greenhouse
One of my favourite anecdotes from the history of rock music recalls the Bonzo Dog Band touring the USA in the late 60s and their minibus being stopped by a local Sheriff. The law officer asked if they were carrying any firearms or drugs. When they denied possession of either (preferring alcohol to drugs at …
NOT FORGOTTEN – TORI AMOS – STRANGE LITTLE GIRLS
I must have stood here, staring at my CD collection for half an hour or so. I had known I’d wanted to do an ongoing series of articles for Backseat Mafia that would build up to be an A to Z of unfairly overlooked and forgotten albums through the decades, but I just didn’t have …
Album Review: Sleigh Bells – Bitter Rivals
Far from being bitter rivals, Sleigh Bells third album actually shows they may be working towards more equality. The Brooklyn duo, singer Alexis Krauss and guitarist Derek Miller met when he served her and her mother at a restaurant. According to legend (admittedly not the most famous of legends, but a legend none the less) …
Album Review: Smoke Fairies – Ghosts
There’s something otherworldly about Smoke Fairies. Their name, taken from the Summer mist that collects in the hedgerows of the lanes in the duo’s, school friends Katherine Blamire and Jessica Davies, home county of Sussex. But it’s their ghostly goth-folk, coupled with a healthy dose of Americana, and looked over by the shadow of 4AD …
NOT FORGOTTEN – PULP – WE LOVE LIFE
Of the Brit-pop bands Pulp were something of an anomaly because they had been around in one form or another since 1978 and had gained acceptance the hard way over fifteen years, rather than being the overnight sensations that so many other big bands of the era were. Jarvis Cocker was a perfect anti-star, a …
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: The Polyphonic Spree-Yes, It’s True
The Polyphonic Spree has always had this air of overwhelming positivity. Even on their darkest album, 2007s The Fragile Army, despite the black jumpsuits and black eyeliner they came across as pensive, yet hopeful. I think that quality has always endeared me to them. Tim DeLaughter and Wayne Coyne are like the opposite sides of …