pop
Feature: Vinyl Reissue vs streaming
With the vinyl re-issue of Annie Lennox’s Diva, me and Spouse decided to put vinyl versus streaming to the test. I’m a simple soul who likes good music well played, but Spouse is an actual musician and former science teacher, with a fairly extensive vintage vinyl back catalogue. He has VIEWS on music quality. We …
Album Review: Band of Gold – Where’s the Magic
I’ve always had a quiet regard for Scandi-pop. Maybe it’s the to do with the enunciation, something which can give a sense of cool detachment from the lyrics. Whatever the case, Band of Gold’s second album, Where’s the Magic, comes across as well executed smart art pop. Band of Gold consist of Nina Mortvedt and …
News: Elvis Costello and the Imposters announce ten UK & Ireland dates this Summer
Following his acclaimed DeTour solo tours of 2015 and 2016, Elvis Costello returns with The Imposters for 10 unmissable UK & Ireland Dates this summer. Joined by backing vocalists Kitten Kuroi and Briana Lee, Elvis Costello and The Imposters (drummer Pete Thomas, keyboardist Steve Nieve and bassist Davey Faragher) will be performing songs from their incomparable back catalogue. With the release of …
Album Review : Yo La Tengo’s ‘There’s a Riot Going On’
I got into Yo La Tengo pretty late. Like my first record experience with them was 2009s Popular Songs. I don’t know what took me so long to jump into the Ira Kaplan, Georgia Hubley, and James McNew world, but as soon as the the nearly 16-minute album closer “And the Glitter Is Gone” ended …
See: Squeeze reveal new video for ‘Rough Ride’
Taken from their 15th studio album, The Knowledge, Rough Ride is the new single from Squeeze, and it’s Tilbrook and Difford comment on the current state of the British welfare crisis, and features guest performers from the bands home patch of South London, namely Lewisham & Greenwich NHS Choir and the Thorntree School Choir. A …
EP: Before Breakfast – Sticky Sweet
Sticky Sweet is the debut EP from Sheffield four-piece Before Breakfast, combining their strong vocal harmonies and soaring classical influences to create something passionate, honest, and vulnerable. The EP opens with its title track, immediately capturing your imagination with exquisite harmonies and bewitching lyrics. The pace is slow and steady as it takes you on …
Track: La Bête Blooms – Take Arms
Hull’s inimitable La Bête Blooms are back with a blistering new single and video ‘Take Arms’. This is a rousing punky shouty call for action in the muscular power pop/punk style of that exemplifies the band – fuzzy. slightly anarchic and full of wry humour: Blasting aside stereotypes, commiserating with the general state of the …
Album Review : MGMTs ‘Little Dark Age’
Man, do you remember when Oracular Spectacular dropped in 2007? I don’t. I was too busy in my own crowded little universe to notice a couple college kids from Connecticut leaving one of the most impressive debut records of the naughts at the doorstep of world. But by 2009 I was hip to it. Day-go-colored …
Not Forgotten: Kate Bush – The Kick Inside
A startling debut from one of the UK’s most unique talents, The Kick Inside has since been eclipsed by better received (and better selling) Kate Bush albums, but there is still a section of her audience that maintain that she never bettered her first album. The Kick Inside certainly has an abundance of whatever it …
Meet: Pål Waaktar-Savoy on Savoy, songwriting and See the Beauty in your drab Hometown
Every song is a puzzle. It isn’t often you get to meet your musical hero, much less one who taught you one of the essential tools of being a writer. Pål Waaktar-Savoy is the quiet, talented one in A-ha, who wrote or co-wrote the most of their hits. I was thrilled to meet him and …