New Music Reviews
Reissue CDs Weekly: Soft CellSunday, 16 September 2018
During their original 1980 to 1984 lifespan as a recording unit, Soft Cell issued three albums, a mini-album, eleven singles and EP. There were also compilation appearances, bonus tracks on discs included with albums or singles (such as the 12-inch of Jimi Hendrix cover versions accompanying The Art of Falling Apart) and extended tracks which appeared on 12-inch singles. Everything could probably be collected on six CDs. Read more... |
Classic Albums: Amy Winehouse - Back to Black, BBC Four review - suffering turned into songSaturday, 15 September 2018
Formats are second nature to TV: the BBC and Eagle Rock’s Classic Albums will run and run. Like all formats, there’s always the risk that the medium becomes the message, and content suffers under the weight of form. Read more... |
Arctic Monkeys, O2 review - musicanship and showmanship successfully collideFriday, 14 September 2018
So here we are. Over a decade since we all fell in love. So many light years from the rubble to the Ritz. From Sheffield to LA, where half the band is now based. And by the looks of the audience, a fair proportion has been along for the whole ride. Not that it’s always been easy to support them. Never mind the information/action ratio, what perhaps should concern us about the Arctic Monkeys is... Read more... |
The The, Digbeth Arena, Birmingham review - Matt Johnson takes his political pop back on the roadMonday, 10 September 2018
Matt Johnson is a genial bloke with a trunk-load of songs that view the glass as not only half empty but too small. In the '80s and early '90s this pessimistic protest singer even managed to bother the charts a fair few times before quietly slipping out of sight until the release, a year or so ago, of his experimental Radio Cineola Trilogy album. Read more... |
theartsdesk in Cologne: urban boutique on the RhineSunday, 09 September 2018
The terrace beside the restaurant in Cologne’s Stadtgarten – the city park – is heaving. Agreeably so. A bar and a food counter facing onto it are fringed by rows of long tables. Overhanging trees unite in a canopy suggesting this might be forest clearing. Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Stella ChiwesheSunday, 09 September 2018
Until now, hearing the extraordinary “Ratidzo” was all-but impossible. The original single is rare and has not been reissued before. It begins with a plaintive whistle which sets the scene for a hypnotic and beautiful rotating pattern of single notes possibly played on a gamelan-style instrument. Rhythmic accompaniment comes from a form of shaker. Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Try A Little SunshineSunday, 02 September 2018
In 1969, a stream of creative new albums pointed to how what had grown from pop music could be reframed. Bob Dylan’s Nashville Skyline embraced country music. The Band’s eponymous second album drew on and was integral to defining Americana. The first album by Crosby, Stills & Nash shied away from the increasingly harsh template embraced by rock. Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: JapanSunday, 26 August 2018
In May 1981, Japan played two nights at London’s Hammersmith Odeon. Read more... |
h 100 Young Influencers of the Year: Lucie Wolfman vlogs at the BarbicanSaturday, 25 August 2018
Watch Lucie Wolfman's vlog review of Carl Craig's Synthesiser Ensemble at the Barbican. Lucie Wolfman studies English at the University of Sussex, and covers arts for the National Student. She is a Barbican Young Reviewer, creating vlogs about productions.
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Reissue CDs Weekly: Teenage FanclubSunday, 19 August 2018
The cover images of the four albums Teenage Fanclub issued on Creation Records suggest ambivalence. While Bandwagonesque’s title acknowledges the hopping onto trends endemic in pop, the graphic of a bag with a dollar sign recognises the related collateralisation of music. Read more... |
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