pop
Not Forgotten: Sparks – No.1 in Heaven
Career reinventions don’t come much more well executed than Sparks’ recently reissued 1979 album, No.1 in Heaven. While brothers Ronald and Russell Mael had found an enthusiastic audience for their arch intelligent pop in the UK in the mid 70s, reaching a commercial peak with the game-changing single ”This Town Ain’t Big Enough for the …
Track – Ellie Goulding: 16
On the surface, 16 is a standard pop song, but there are depths here for those with the time to find them. The cheerful, spangling melody is familiar to anyone who has been in a Top Shop on a Saturday. The video is all smoking and tattoos, the suburban rebellion of a girl from the …
Track: Madonna – Medellín
The Queen of Pop is back. On June 14, Madonna launches her 14th album, Madame X, and is trailing the first track Medellín on Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple Music and all the usual places now. The album marks another reinvention from a woman who already has more regenerations than Doctor Who. This time Madonna is …
Track: Heir – After Forever, plus European dates.
That wave of ’80’s influenced “indie” has yet to subside as of yet, believe it or not. I’m not disparaging it by any means but I am sure we can all be honest when we say it has stuck. And they said that decade was awful. At least millennials seem to think that is the …
New Tracks: Barrie – Clovers/Darjeeling plus album and tour news
Barrie produced, for me, one of the stand out singles of 2018, Tal Uno – a perfect slice of pop heaven from the EP ‘Singles’. They have now announced a much anticipated album – ‘Happy to be Here’ due for release on 3 May 2019 as well as a tour that will take them across …
Not Forgotten: Kirsty MacColl – Titanic Days
Intelligent, witty, wilful, vulnerable, contrary, mind-bogglingly talented, possessing a steely resolve and yet still able to project a balance of both vulnerability and approachability utterly vulnerable, Kirsty MacColl, for all her glowing brilliance, never really managed to string together the career her immense talent deserved. This resulted in some of her albums becoming relative obscurities, …
Not Forgotten: Paul McCartney & Wings – Band on the Run
A superior musician and with a deeper understanding of melody than his former writing partner, it seems that no one will ever forgive Paul McCartney for having the nerve to actually form another band after he had left The Beatles. Sure, there were a couple of solo albums in the interim, but in Wings McCartney …
Not Forgotten: The Kinks – The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society
As unfeasible as it seems, there was once a time when the singles chart was of equal importance to the album chart. Actually, no, it was more important. In the first decade of rock’n’roll, the single was king. Admittedly in the 60s The Beatles were masters of the pop single, but the fight for the …
Classic Album: The Beatles – The Beatles (a.k.a The White Album)
Oh dear, the double album. A place for acts to stretch their legs and indulge their every creative whim, part diverse buffet of styles, part bloody mess. Dylan and Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention were the first rock acts out of the gate with their four sides of vinyl each, but once The …
Not Forgotten: Kate Bush – Lionheart
Kate Bush had exploded on the British music scene early in 1978 and had made an immeadiate impact, sweeping all before her and instantly becoming the biggest artist in the UK. Or at least that’s what her record company wanted you to believe. In reality Miss Bush had been groomed for fame for at least …