singer-songwriters
CD: David Brent & Foregone Conclusion - Life on the RoadWednesday, 17 August 2016
“I don’t really care about reviews because if someone slags it off, they’ve missed the joke. How can they slag off a fictional character? It’s win-win. It’s pain-free. It’s bulletproof – commercially and critically.”Ricky Gervais there, talking... Read more... |
CD: Lisa Hannigan - At SwimMonday, 15 August 2016
Water has featured prominently in Lisa Hannigan’s work since striking out solo on 2008’s Mercury-nominated Sea Sew: water that caresses and relaxes; water that turns deadly and drowns. The water in At Swim is the water that the singer finds herself... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Heartworn HighwaysSunday, 14 August 2016
Although Heartworn Highways was a unique document of a collection of country singer-songwriters who had rejected the Nashville establishment in favour of following their own paths, hardly anyone saw the film after its completion. Initially titled... Read more... |
CD: Ryley Walker - Golden Sings That Have Been SungMonday, 08 August 2016
Despites odd dives into atonal sound-colour, Ryley Walker’s third album shares much with the catalogue of Island Records circa 1971 and the more edgy Elektra singer-songwriter albums from around 1969. Not that it sounds dated. The daisy-fresh Golden... Read more... |
CD: Old Fire - Songs from the Haunted SouthWednesday, 27 July 2016
Honestly, you wait years for a lengthy project to come to fruition, then two turn up at once. However, while The Avalanches had to contend with people tapping their watches and sighing wearily, The Earlies’ John Mark Lapham had only his own clock to... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Kris KristoffersonSunday, 10 July 2016
If Kris Kristofferson had just been the writer of “Help Me Make It Through the Night”, “Me and Bobby McGee” and “Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down”, his legacy would have been assured. Each song is a classic, and each is wonderful. Elvis Presley and Gladys... Read more... |
CD: Hannah Georgas - For EvelynMonday, 20 June 2016
How does Hannah Georgas’s 98-year-old grandmother feel about her collaborations with Graham Walsh, her two-time producer better known as part of Canadian electronic quartet Holy Fuck? It is, one suspects, one of a few aspects of this rich, immersive... Read more... |
Malcolm Middleton, The LexingtonSunday, 05 June 2016
The Scottish singer-songwriter Malcolm Middleton has always had a restless creativity, right back to his days in the Bukowskian indie duo Arab Strap. He announced a few years ago that he was sick of playing solo gigs, expected to strum an acoustic... Read more... |
Brighton Festival: Beth Orton, Attenborough Centre for Creative ArtsSunday, 29 May 2016
Beth Orton’s sparsely ethereal new collection Kidsticks has been well received for marking an interesting change of direction. Last night’s Brighton Festival gig gave audiences the best of both, beginning with most of the new songs, then climaxing... Read more... |
Paul Simon Introduces 'Stranger to Stranger'Saturday, 28 May 2016
Perhaps as a hopeful harbinger for Paul Simon's new album Stranger to Stranger, Disturbed recently topped Billboard's Mainstream Rock Songs chart with their flabbergasting version of Simon's 1965 song "The Sound of Silence". However, while... Read more... |
CD: Malcolm Middleton - Summer of '13Wednesday, 25 May 2016
There’s been wave after wave of successful acoustic singer-songwriters this century, whimpering so-and-sos from David Gray onwards, through Damien Rice, Newton Faulkner, James Blunt, Ed Sheeran, and on and on and on. Every year sees a new heap of... Read more... |
CD: Leyla McCalla – A Day For The Hunter, A Day For The PreySunday, 22 May 2016
Brave is the songwriter who sets a piece of classic poetry to music, never mind creates almost a whole album of such Frankenstein creations. Poetry is meant to work against silence, not compete for attention with melody and rhythm. Yet miraculously... Read more... |
