Music
Psych Insight: Album Review: Wooden Shjips – Back to Land
There have been few new albums out this year that I have been eagerly awaiting more than the latest Wooden Shjips album, Back to Land. The problem with this is that this can mean that I will almost certainly be disappointed with the outcome, so high are my expectations. When I was thinking about this …
NOT FORGOTTEN – JASON LYTLE – YOURS TRULY, THE COMMUTER
“The last thing I heard I was left for dead” – Now that’s an arresting way to open your solo debut, especially if you were the main creative force of one of the best, yet almost universally overlooked bands of your generation. Sometimes you just don’t realise what you had until it’s gone. Grandaddy were …
Not Forgotten: Kenickie – At the Club
The guitar bands that rose to prominence in the UK through the mid 90s in the UK were a mixed bunch. There were a handful of thoroughly enjoyable bands, but on the whole as it was largely either ridiculously pretentious, impossibly dull or lowest-common-denominator rubbish. It was even worse for the female fronted groups, as …
NOT FORGOTTEN – BILLY JOEL – COLD SPRING HARBOR
What the hell is this? A Billy Joel album in this ongoing A to Z of underappreciated albums? When I first started this series of reviews, I never imagined that of all of the acts that come under the letter J in my collection, it would be Billy Joel’s solo debut that would leap out …
Album Review – Corsicana Lemonade by White Denim (Downtown Music)
I am the first to admit that I am a bit of a snob when it comes to music. I know what I like and by the same token I know what I do not, and for some reason I am not very keen on bands who become too popular. I am not sure what …
News: Morbid Angel reissue Covenant, plus US tour dates
I once read a review of some music that claimed that it was ‘a crass monster, a hideously writhing wounded dragon, which refuses to expire, and though bleeding in the Finale, furiously beats about with its tail erect.’ It illustrates two things, it shows that not everybody understands or likes new music, but also it …
NOT FORGOTTEN – THE ISLEY BROTHERS – SHOUT!
How hard must it be to write a brilliant pop song? You know, one of the all time, genuinely timeless greats that doesn’t rely on the technology or gimmicks of the age, one that can withstand any number of heavy-handed and unsympathetic cover versions by even the most cloth-eared performer. “Shout” is one of those …
Not Forgotten: Half Man Half Biscuit – 90 Bisodol (Crimond)
Even after all these years I find there’s something very admirable about Half Man Half Biscuit and the way they have conducted themselves throughout the last quarter of a century. Remaining on the miniscule Probe Plus label since their debut release, they remain singularly anti-career in their approach. They do not tour, but play one …
Album Review: A Sagittariun – Dream Ritual
When I was growing up there was this sort of obsession with fast food. McDonalds were springing up everywhere, and if you had to wait for longer than ten minutes for anything at all there was something going wrong and you had very right to complain to the rafters about it. These day of course, …
Say Psych: Album Review – Stars Are Our Home by Black Hearted Brother (Sonic Cathedral)
Neil Halstead will be familiar to many as one of the main driving forces behind shoe gaze stalwarts Slowdive and country folk band Mojave 3, and is part of the trio, along with Mark van Hoen (Seefeel, Locust) and Nick Holton (who produced and appeared on Halstead’s recent solo albums), who go to make up …