Not Forgotten
Not Forgotten: Bob – Leave the Straight Life Behind Reissue, plus interview
It might be unjustified, but I’ve always North London indie band BOB were in debt to me. I’d discovered them, as I did most things back then (then being the cusp of the 1990’s) by listening to John Peel, and there, shoehorned in between experimental electronica and dub reggae (probably) was this gorgeous, uplifting, glistening …
Not Forgotten – Sparks – Exotic Creatures of the Deep
Following up the undisputed best album of your career must be an unenviable task. There was no way that Oranges & Lemons was ever going to be a match for Skylarking, Desire was no Blood on the Tracks, i, as brilliant as it is, will always suffer in comparison to 69 Love Songs, Guerrilla would …
Not Forgotten – Elton John – Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
Top selling musicians these days have it easy. The average recording artist is expected to release a new album once every two years, maybe one a year if they are a new artist. Back in the early 70s it was a given that at least one album a year was the acceptable rate, that way …
Not Forgotten: Brendan Benson – The Alternative to Love
2005 was an odd year for power pop, when three big names released albums of new material. As fate would have it these much anticipated releases by Teenage Fanclub, The Posies and Big Star were solid, but at the end of the day they were just preaching to the converted. Just the same skillful playing …
Not Forgotten – Gene Clark – No Other
You know something, sometimes it’s okay to not succeed. Sometimes you put every ounce of energy and emotion at your disposal into achieving your goal and still you fail. Sometimes the level of effort you have put into something only becomes evident months, years, maybe even decades after the event, thus offering retrospective redemption to …
Not Forgotten – The Rutles
After years of only being available as a hideously overpriced import, when The Rutles finally received an official CD release in the UK, it was at least a decade too late, but hey, we have it now and the pre-fab four have never sounded better. So why was it at least a decade too late? …
Not Forgotten – Mercury Rev – All Is Dream
After the totally unexpected comeback that was the brilliant Deserter’s Songs, Mercury Rev had to put out an album that was a suitable follow up to one of the key albums of the late 90s. Their track record of coming up with the goods when the chips was so far untested and there was the …
Not Forgotten – The Magnetic Fields – i
After the Herculean epic that was 69 Love Songs, The Magnetic Fields were due a rest. A mere five years later they offered up a splendid and economical follow up in the shape of i, a smaller album on a smaller theme, the theme being the ninth letter of the alphabet. Yep that’s right, all …
Not Forgotten: Poisoned Electrick Head…Take Your Protein Pills!
If you will, allow me to take you back to Runcorn in 1990. Not somewhere many people would want to go back to voluntarily, I’ll grant you. Not only that, I would specifically like to take you to Foxy’s night club, a small nondescript club, where disco pop never stopped (until maybe 1am). What possible …
NOT FORGOTTEN – JELLYFISH – BELLYBUTTON
The early 90s were an unexpectedly fertile time for power-pop. The Posies blended harmonies and overloaded guitars with dreams of joining Big Star, Matthew Sweet proved it was possible to be a power-pop solo artist, Del Amitri were a little more rock, but were more than welcome to sit at the table, Crowded House were …