pop
Track: Tegan and Sara – Boyfriend
Taken from the Canadian sisters forthcoming new album Love you to Death, out on June 3rd but available on pre-order now, comes a new little shimmering pop diamond in the shape of Tegan and Sara’s new track, Boyfriend. Seventeen years after their first recordings, the girls have moved away from the woolly indie folk of …
Album Review: Pet Shop Boys – Super
You can’t keep a good man down. That’s the saying, isn’t it? Well in this case it’s two good men. Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe have been together as The Pet Shop Boys since the eighties, and have always prided themselves on creating inventive electronic pop music. You either love them or hate them, but …
Not Forgotten: Sparks – Lil’ Beethoven
Having comprehensively out smarted Roxy Music with their art pop in the mid-70s, and proved you could be an influential synth pioneer and still have a sense of fun by the end of the decade, the 80s and 90s had seen Sparks become an uncelebrated act that had nevertheless influenced countless acts that followed in …
Album Review: The Last Shadow Puppets – Everything You’ve Come To Expect
Alex Turner and Miles Kane are back as the Last Shadow Puppets, still playing at the Riviera bad-boys like Morecambe & Wise at their cinematic best. As on their debut album, they skid on Shirley Bassey strings arrangements like dogshit in a badly-lit car park, and merge Radiohead’s ‘Creep’ histrionics with 50s pizzazz, yet still …
Album Review: Gwen Stefani – This Is What The Truth Feels Like
Gwen Stefani has always been one of our cooler and kookier pop stars. Her strange fashions, and love for sampling musicals to make quirky but credible hits have always helped her to stand out from the crowd. She is a truly unique artist in her own right. Her long career as front woman of No …
Album Review: ZAYN – “Mind of Mine”
Zayn Malik has certainly made plenty of headlines in the recent months and years, but now he has also made a record and apparently, made up his mind too. “Mind of Mine” sees the 23 year old unleash his version of events, as it were, on the musical world. Those expecting a bitter, revelatory expose …
LIVE: The 1975, Manchester Apollo, 12/3/16
On this tour, The 1975 are doing something rather special- instead of playing arenas to thousands of people like they so easily could, they’re choosing to do several dates at some smaller venues. London’s Brixton Academy saw the band take to its stage no less than four times last week, while the band are now …
Album Review: Låpsley – Long Way Home
Holly Lapsley Fletcher (aka Låpsley) is from Merseyside, but it’s easy to imagine she’s from Scandinavia based on the icy electronica melting under the warmth of her soulful vocals on debut album ‘Long Way Home’. This contrast of hot and cold is an interesting juxtaposition on album opener ‘Heartless’ and it’s a theme that continues …
Album Review: Raleigh Ritchie – You’re a Man Now, Boy
Jacob Anderson is without doubt a talented young man. As an actor, he is known to many as the second most famous (but definitely the most fearsome and endearing) eunuch in “Game of Thrones” where he plays loyal warrior Grey Worm, leader of the Unsullied army and servant to Daenerys Targaryen, the show’s Queen of …
Album Review: The 1975 – I Like It When You Sleep, For You Are So Beautiful Yet So Unaware Of It
The 1975 have returned, following a brief disappearance from social media (causing ripples of panic to their fans), with their mammoth 17-track sophomore album I Like It When You Sleep, For You Are So Beautiful Yet So Unaware Of It. The record was released worldwide on 26th February 2016, swiftly followed by a tour across the …