New music
Album of the Year: Eminem - The Marshall Mathers LP 2Sunday, 29 December 2013
“Maybe I needed to grow up a little first/ Well it looks like I hit a growth spurt”. So goes MMLP2’s opening track and over the course of the next hour it becomes apparent this is no idle brag. The album’s dizzying mix of melody, syllables-per-... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: The Best of 2013Sunday, 29 December 2013
Despite his nickname and habit of doing a bunk, George “Shadow” Morton was one of America’s highest-profile and most distinctive producers and songwriters. He was responsible for shaping the sound and style of The Shangri-Las, Janis Ian, Vanilla... Read more... |
Queer as Pop, Channel 4 / The Joy of Abba, BBC FourSaturday, 28 December 2013
Queer as Pop (****) was as much about social as musical history, and Nick Vaughan-Smith’s film told its story with a combination of outstanding archive material and some incisive interviewees, the archive taking fractionally more of the weight.... Read more... |
Album of the Year: Arctic Monkeys – AMSaturday, 28 December 2013
2013 was yet another year when hip hop added a bit of punch to old rockers. Elvis Costello had a crack at his own distinctive version of rap on Wise Up Ghost, while Arctic Monkeys' fifth album successfully fused Alex Turner's recent... Read more... |
Album of the Year: Bassekou Kouyate and Ngoni Ba - Jama KoMonday, 23 December 2013
Mali has been in the news this year: music was under serious threat from the fundamentalism that spread through the north of the country and ransacked parts of the ancient city of Timbuktu. The jihadists are hardly music-lovers and Mali’s creative... Read more... |
Listed: The 12 Derangements of ChristmasSunday, 22 December 2013
We at The Arts Desk are as fond as the next person of swans-a-swimming, partridges and pear-trees, not to mention gold rings, but be honest: 'tis already the season to be jolly sick and tired of all those knee-jerk compilations of Slade, sleighbells... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Beachwood Sparks, John’s ChildrenSunday, 22 December 2013
Beachwood Sparks: Desert SkiesBeachwood Sparks didn’t become Fleet Foxes, but their DNA is integral to the harmonious Seattleites. Both bands have been issued by the Sub Pop label, but after two albums Beachwood Sparks drifted apart in 2002. Fleet... Read more... |
Album of the Year: John Fullbright - From the Ground UpSunday, 22 December 2013
It's a happy coincidence that John Fullbright hails from Woody Guthrie's home town of Okemah, Oklahoma, but his debut album presents an artist who is far from being a mere clone of the fabled balladeer. A spin through the dozen tracks on From the... Read more... |
Album of the Year: Daft Punk - Random Access MemoriesSaturday, 21 December 2013
“Like the legend of the Phoenix…” So began the party song of this year, last year, next year, probably the year after.I always thought Daft Punk were overrated. The Nineties was a wondrous narco-techno rave, then along they came with their wah-wah... Read more... |
Album of the Year: Sons of Kemet - BurnWednesday, 18 December 2013
The Sons of Kemet’s peculiar forces of two drummers, tuba and reeds have been on the road for over two years now, their performances landing on an unsuspecting crowd like a petrol bomb on seasoned timber. With the tuba playing as part of both the... Read more... |
The Mission & Fields of the Nephilim, O2 Academy, BirminghamWednesday, 18 December 2013
It’s panto time in the UK and what better way to get into the spirit than the Goth Christmas Roadshow that is The Mission and Fields of the Nephilim? Here are two bands who were part of the goth scene that sprang forth in the second half of the... Read more... |
Album of the Year: Special Request - Soul MusicTuesday, 17 December 2013
It's an understatement to say that the massive revival of fortunes of club music in the 2010s has had its ups and downs. It's been a time of chaotic glut, of excess and spectacle – thanks particularly to the American “EDM” (electronic dance music)... Read more... |
