pop
CD: All Saints - Red FlagSaturday, 02 April 2016
Never ever have I felt so… nostalgic for the late 90s. While memories of platform jelly shoes, silver eyeshadow and purple all-in-ones mostly have me cringing, there’s no denying that the ultimate coolest thing about that generation was "Pure Shores... Read more... |
CD: Pet Shop Boys - SuperWednesday, 30 March 2016
The deadpan duo of Tennant and Lowe have never been easy to suss out at the best of times: maybe their way of layering wackiness on deep seriousness, eyebrow-flickering subtlety on roaring camp, giddy frivolity on erudition, has been their way of... Read more... |
CD: Emmy the Great - Second LoveSunday, 06 March 2016
The answers, for the listener curious as to whether Emmy the Great’s Second Love fared any better than her first (it’s the title of her 2009 debut as much as any reference to the songwriter’s psyche), do not emerge until its final track. “Once I was... Read more... |
CD: Basia Bulat - Good AdviceSunday, 07 February 2016
Canadian singer-songwriter Basia Bulat’s first three albums were recognisably folky. Her main instrument was the autoharp. Good Advice is different. With its more upfront songwriting and verve, her fourth album is a giant leap. It is also Bulat’s... Read more... |
CD: Sia - This Is ActingSaturday, 23 January 2016
All the tracks for Sia’s seventh studio album were pitched to pop stars like Rihanna, Katy Perry, Beyonce, Adele and Demi Levato, but didn't make the cut. To fashion an album out of rejection is so Sia – it’s tongue-in-cheek, playing a game by... Read more... |
I'm Not in Love: The Story of 10cc, BBC FourSaturday, 05 December 2015
10cc were the closest the Seventies came to a Fab Four. They were multi-talented vocalists and instrumentalists, came from Lancashire, were technologically ahead of the curve, wrote classy, inventive pop songs in a bewildering array of styles,... Read more... |
CD: Adele - 25Thursday, 19 November 2015
The anticipation for Adele’s new album has been building for months. It’s been nearly five years since her last, 21, which became the biggest-selling album of the 21st century, shifting over 30 million copies.Numbering the ages at which she wrote... Read more... |
Storyville: Orion - The Man Who Would Be King, BBC FourTuesday, 17 November 2015
The story of Orion, aka Jimmy Ellis, really was a case of truth being weirder than fiction. “He couldn’t have failed, if Elvis had never lived,” we heard from Shelby Singleton, boss of Nashville’s Sun Records, which launched his career – meaning... Read more... |
ABC, Pavilion Theatre, WorthingTuesday, 17 November 2015
Martin Fry is unsure whether Worthing is enjoying itself enough for his liking. Clad in a sharply tailored grey three-piece suit, ABC’s frontman keeps asking us if we’re having a good time. The shouts of approval that greet the question suggest we... Read more... |
CD: Enya – Dark Sky IslandSunday, 15 November 2015
Like so much inspirational endeavour, it began in a garden shed. Enya (Eithne Ní Bhraonáin in her native Irish), dissatisfied with her role in Clannad, was experimenting with Nicky Ryan, the band’s manager, and Ryan’s wife Roma, a poet. Using multi-... Read more... |
CD: Justin Bieber – PurposeSaturday, 14 November 2015
Justin Bieber’s undoubtedly had a tricky time of it, living in the full glare of the world’s media. While it’s demonstrably not “the toughest thing in the world”, as he recently suggested in Billboard magazine, it can’t be much fun having your every... Read more... |
CD: Ellie Goulding – DeliriumThursday, 12 November 2015
Ellie Goulding's new album is one to be experienced rather than merely heard. With a bit of drum and bass, a touch of techno, a little bit of house and a flirtation with dubstep rhythms, it’s a full-on roster of proper pop tunes.It’s not the kind of... Read more... |
