New music
CD: Beady Eye - BESaturday, 08 June 2013
When Liam Gallagher comes up in conversation, it’s usually as to whether he’s the last great belligerent rock star or just a boorish goon. As he leads four fifths of the final Oasis line-up into the second Beady Eye album, he appears to be neither.... Read more... |
Elvis Costello & The Imposters, Royal Albert HallThursday, 06 June 2013
Comebacks may be all the rage but Elvis Costello just keeps on going. It's the third year running that he has taken his band The Imposters on the Revolver Tour, featuring The Spectacular Spinning Songbook: a giant carnival wheel of songs which... Read more... |
CD: KT Tunstall - Invisible Empire // Crescent MoonThursday, 06 June 2013
That KT Tunstall has released probably her most introspective album to date is unsurprising, given that the past year has seen both the end of her marriage and the death of her father. But the trouble with introspective albums is that, without a... Read more... |
Rod Stewart, O2 ArenaWednesday, 05 June 2013
For certain types (yes, I was that serious-minded teenager) in the late Seventies Rod Stewart made a convenient hate figure – a coke-snorting dinosaur with interchangeable blondes on his arm who, having made some decent records, was now making banal... Read more... |
CD: Boards of Canada - Tomorrow's HarvestTuesday, 04 June 2013
Boards of Canada have it nailed. If we are to believe what we’re told, Scottish brothers Michael Sandison and Marcus Eoin are semi-permanently holed up in rustic heathlands south-west of Edinburgh, beavering with mystical intensity at analogue... Read more... |
10 Questions for Musician Cerys MatthewsTuesday, 04 June 2013
“He who sings frightens away his ills.” Cerys Matthews has spent a lifetime heeding the wise counsel of Don Quixote. Born at the tailend of the Sixties, she grew up in the Welsh tradition of musical surroundsound before veering right into the heart... Read more... |
The Stone Roses: Made of StoneTuesday, 04 June 2013
Titling their long-delayed second album The Second Coming meant The Stone Roses had run out of religious metaphors for their 2012 reunion. They already had a song called “I Am the Resurrection”. Still, with super-fan director Shane Meadows on hand... Read more... |
CD: Phildel – The Disappearance of the GirlMonday, 03 June 2013
Few albums evoke the essence of wind, but landscapes buffeted by the elements are vividly depicted on Phildel’s The Disappearance of the Girl. With frost-coated but warm-centred songs about darkness, sacrifice and the wolf as a dispenser of... Read more... |
Barbra Streisand, O2 ArenaSunday, 02 June 2013
It opened with a standing ovation. And in a place the size of the 02 – the venue put on this earth to make Luton airport feel better – that’s impressive. It was that kind of evening: not so much Streisand in concert as an opportunity for worshippers... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Ian Dury, Tom Moulton, José Feliciano, Archie SheppSunday, 02 June 2013
Ian Dury: Lord Upminster / Ian Dury & the Music Students: 4,000 Weeks HolidayAs a single, "Spasticus Autisticus" was never going to be an easy sell. Ian Dury's reaction to the United Nation’s declaration of 1981 as the International Year... Read more... |
CD: CSS - PlantaSunday, 02 June 2013
CSS appeared riding the 2007 “nu rave” music media furore – their catsuit-wearing lead singer, Lovefoxxx, even dated one of scenester leaders The Klaxons for a while. That whole business is ancient history but, unfortunately, a host of great bands... Read more... |
CD: Queens of the Stone Age - ...Like ClockworkSaturday, 01 June 2013
Reasons behind the prolonged absence of Queens of the Stone Age are legion, including line-up turbulence, successful side projects and the near-death experience of band linchpin Josh Homme. As if to acknowledge and compensate for the lengthy gap in... Read more... |
