pop music
Album: Glass Animals - DreamlandWednesday, 05 August 2020
It’s been a hell of a four years for Glass Animals since their last album How to Be a Human Being, from a well-deserved Mercury nomination to drummer Joe Seaward requiring neurosurgery after a near-fatal bicycle accident. But while Human Being was... Read more... |
Laurel Canyon, Sky Documentaries review - musical bliss in lotus landSunday, 26 July 2020
It was Alison Ellwood who directed 2013’s History of the Eagles, and now she’s at the helm of this new two-parter on Sky Documentaries, telling the story of the Los Angeles music scene from the mid-Sixties to the early Seventies. The musicians’... Read more... |
Album: Taylor Swift - folkloreSaturday, 25 July 2020
When she announced her “surprise” 8th album on social media this week, Taylor Swift described its subject matter as a combination of “fantasy, history and memory” told with “love, wonder and whimsy”. For the listener, this hits home around track... Read more... |
New Music Unlocked 2: Nick Cave, Tomorrowland, The Prodigy, The Clangers and moreWednesday, 22 July 2020
Everyone keeps upping their game with what and how they’re presenting music in these unwelcome times, and this week sees a red hot selection on offer. Below is a cross section of the best that’s out there to see, hear and get involved... Read more... |
Album: The Chicks - GaslighterWednesday, 15 July 2020
I have had an obsessive-loop Dixie Chicks tune for every eventuality of my life so far – “Ready To Run” for a big break up; “Wide Open Spaces” for road tripping; “Cowboy Take Me Away” for whimsical love affairs; “Not Ready To Make Nice” for general... Read more... |
New Music Unlocked 1: Reef, Supersonic Festival, Elton John and moreWednesday, 15 July 2020
The lockdown which began in March is now noticeably easing, although in the realm of gigs and festivals things are still nowhere near operative. Nonetheless, theartsdesk is responding to the changes by ceasing our many weeks of New Music Lockdown... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Dennis HerroldSunday, 12 July 2020
It’s been a long strange trip for Dennis Herrold. The Virginia-born rocker’s sole single, December 1957’s “Hip Hip Baby” / “Make With the Lovin’”, was a full-bore rockabilly two-sider. Yet it made no waves despite being reviewed glowingly by music... Read more... |
Album: JARV IS – Beyond the PaleFriday, 10 July 2020
National treasure Jarvis Cocker recently claimed in an interview with the New York Times that lyrics really aren’t that important. He’s so very wrong. Within this very album – brief though it is (seven songs, 40 minutes) and long overdue (the band... Read more... |
Album: The Streets - None of Us Are Getting Out of This Life AliveFriday, 10 July 2020
Given the collaborator list on this album, it should be a bit of a mess. Brit punks IDLES, Aussie woozy pop auteur Tame Impala, pumping bassline house producer Chris Lorenzo turning his hand to drum’n’bass, as well as Ms Banks, Dapz On The Map,... Read more... |
Album: Shaggy - Hot Shot 2020Thursday, 09 July 2020
Hot Shot 2020 has been billed as a rerub of Shaggy’s colossal turn of the century release Hot Shot. It’s not quite an accurate description of an album that has already been released in three different forms and shifted nine million copies though. In... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Philip Rambow - The Rebel KindSunday, 05 July 2020
“Strange Destinies” is the first track. “Take your eyes off me Svengali” is its memorable opening phrase. Conjuring up Van Morrison, Tom Petty, Mike Scott, Bruce Springsteen and even The Boomtown Rats when they were aping the first and fourth of... Read more... |
Album: The Jayhawks - XOXOSaturday, 04 July 2020
If one song best captures the overall mood of XOXO, it's the Beatles-meets-country strains of "Living in a Bubble". The punchy lyrics offer a timely warning about the effect of 24-hour news. The real impact, however, comes from the gentle, acoustic... Read more... |
