pop music
Kieron Tyler
“What's the New Mary Jane” is a nursery rhyme-like song, one of John Lennon’s most peculiar offerings. It was recorded for late 1968’s double album The Beatles (i.e. the White Album) but, literally, did not make the cut. Nonetheless, John Lennon would not let it go.A year on, he moved ahead with getting “What's the New Mary Jane” onto a single. That too did not happen. The first official release came with 1996’s Beatles’ archive set Anthology 3. Now, the thoughtful and well-packaged What's The New, Mary Jane album is dedicated to multiple versions of “What's the New Mary Jane.” Nothing else. Read more ...
Jonathan Geddes
You wait years for a guitar group with brothers to reunite and then two come along at once. The Maccabees return might have attracted far less attention compared to the Gallaghers hitting the road again as Oasis, but as they strolled onstage on a humid Glasgow night the ecstatic reaction from fans suggested it was a sight many had not expected to see again.There are many obvious differences too, given that the London fivesome never dented the public consciousness in the way of Manchester’s finest. And while the Oasis reunion has served up a glorifying of the Britpop era they provoked, Read more ...
joe.muggs
The more time goes by, the more it seems like Dev Hynes might be the antidote to what Guy Debord called “the society of the spectacle”. As is documented in the fantastic recent book Songs in the Key of MP3, Hynes is representative of a type of modern musician whose relationships to mainstream and underground, art and pop, just don’t make sense in the traditional “star” framework of the post rock’n’roll era. He’s defined not by having the biggest shows or iconic moments, but by his connections, his ability to cover ground, his success best defined not as a “rise” to fame but an expansion Read more ...
Thomas H. Green
The history of popular music is littered with bands who fulfilled everything needed to make it. Then fate kicked them in the teeth. Goofin’ good time Brit heavy rockers Dinosaur Pile-Up have had some rubbish luck.In 2019, after slogging the circuit for a decade, their fourth album was signed to Parlophone, they supported The Offspring and Sum 41 on US tours, and their new song “Back Foot” was an ebullient pop-metal classic. They were on the brink of breaking big.We all know what happened next. That virus closed the world. But, worse for the band, frontman Matt Bigland became seriously ill, Read more ...
Thomas H. Green
Who’d have guessed that a dude who first came to attention a decade ago guesting on a cheesy Chase & Status drum & bass track would likely now be heading for his third chart-topping album? Tom Grennan’s done well.His first two albums lent into singer-songwriter territory. His last one became playful. On his fourth, the convolutedly titled Everywhere I Went Led Me To Where I Didn't Want To Be, he’s aiming for the Olly Murs mountaintops.By Tom Grennan we mean Grennan, regular collaborators Dan Grech-Marguerat and Mike Needle, plus new associate, US mega-songsmith Justin Tranter. Between Read more ...
joe.muggs
It’s impossible to overstate how much the early 2000s records of Goldfrapp – the duo of Alison Goldfrapp and Will Gregory – set the tone for the whole rest of the 21st century. The electroclash scene had already ushered in an Eternal Eighties of electropop revival, but Goldfrapp professionalised it, added heavyweight songwriting skill and superstar vocal personality.They drew in the production gloss of precursors like Trevor Horn and William Orbit, instantly influenced existing stars like Kylie and Madonna, and created an updated template for synth pop that you can ear echoing through Read more ...
Thomas H. Green
The default setting for Brighton indie quartet Black Honey is pop-grunge. There are plenty of moments during their fourth album when Nineties femme-rockers L7 spring to mind. But Black Honey also spread their wings and fly in other directions. The latter songs tend to be Soak’s most noticeable, although whatever style the band chose, they know enough about hooks to keep listeners onside.Singer Izzy B Phillips, newly sober and with a recent autism diagnosis, veers lyrically between cinematic impressionism and a more specific observational approach. The album’s closing song, “Medication”, Read more ...
Thomas H. Green
Molly Tuttle is a star of the US bluegrass scene whose last couple of albums have broadened her appeal. On them she wandered into country, folk, and rock. She featured the likes of Gillian Welch, Dave Matthews and Old Crow Medicine Show, intimating, perhaps, a desired trajectory.Her latest album, her fifth solo, tones down these tendencies in favour, much of the time, of a gentler, smoother direction. While it doesn’t imitate Taylor Swift, there’s something of that superstar’s pop-country style and relationship lyricism.“Mistakes, bad dates, man, I’ve had a few/Cheap thrills, bitter pills, I Read more ...
Kieron Tyler
One of the more interesting tracks on Paul Weller’s fascinating new cover versions album Find El Dorado is his interpretation of “When You Are a King,” originally a 1971 hit for White Plains, an ensemble which evolved from the touring version of “Let’s go to San Francisco” hitmakers Flowerpot Men. White Plains, it turns out, are represented on another new release.White Plains are on Chip Shop Pop - The Sound of Denmark Street 1970-1975 with the cascading, harmony drenched “Every Little Move She Makes,” the February 1971 non-charting A-side released between charting 45s “Julie do ya Love me” Read more ...
Thomas H. Green
The stage musical update of Mean Girls, and the film adaptation, pushed Reneé Rapp into the public eye. She played queen bitch Regina George. She’s become well-known for her forthright public persona, especially since coming out as a lesbian last year.Her second album, Bite Me, is a glorious celebration of her sexuality; bright, witty pop that’s loudly lesbian and full of vim. The most immediate material is sensually alert, but playful too. There’s plenty of getting it on, much enthusiastic cunnilingus. Notable in the latter department is “Kiss It”, a catchy 4/4 yacht-rock-tinted club bouncer Read more ...
Thomas H. Green
Debby Friday is a Nigerian-Canadian singer-producer who found some success a couple of years ago with her debut album Good Luck. It won the Best Electronic Album 2023 Polaris Prize, the Canadian equivalent of a Grammy or Brit. That album had a moody rock-tronic feel.The new one, created in her new London base with her guitarist, the Australian producer Darcy Baylis, is more straightforward EDM, but draws from a varied palette and retains her personality. It’s a likeable club-centric outing.Initially, it appears she’s going to go 4/4-bangers-all-the-way but, as the album goes on, she becomes Read more ...
Kieron Tyler
The Pale Fountains played their first live show on 12 February 1980 as the support to on-the-up fellow Liverpudlians Wah! Heat. Their final stage appearance – notwithstanding the odd reunion – was on 21 May 1987 at their home city’s The Majestic Club, a venue which also traded as Mr Pickwick’sIn between, The Pale Fountains’ live schedule was erratic. Nothing was undertaken which constituted a full UK tour. Beyond one-offs or odd consecutive shows, there were a handful of December 1985 dates supporting Echo & The Bunnymen, three Japanese shows in May that year, a sprinkling of UK Read more ...