Various Artists – Song Reader (Capitol)
Beck’s sheet music-only “album”, Song Reader, proved surprisingly divisive as a concept. Some lapped up the intended, vaguely Luddite reminder of pop music’s origins as a DIY and ephemeral home entertainment; others shuddered at the “vintage” flavour (liquorice and pomade) or found the prerequisites of musical literacy/ability and access to an instrument elitist. I was always in […]
The Weeknd – House Of Balloons / Thursday / Echoes Of Silence (XO)
Sex, drugs, more sex, more drugs, each song details another night of Bacchanalian excess with no redemption in sight. Are you ready to party?
Elbow – Build A Rocket Boys! (Fiction)
They’re not afraid to make an album that whispers.
Spotlight – 32: Mika
Don’t act so surprised, I have form here – OK? This is like Jarvis and ‘Another Brick In The Wall’ and Queen and Lady Gaga and Belinda Carlisle and Ladies And Gentlemen…The Fabulous Stains combined…and who’d have thought it?! THAT’S A GOOD THING!!! Listen to We Are Golden here. It actually makes way more sense if […]
Spotlight – 7: The Pastels/Tenniscoats
Notes written on my iWhatever about the forthcoming Pastels and Tenniscoats collaboration Two Sunsets on the plane flying into Perth at sunset for the Revelation Film Festival. Now if I was writing this up for a Guardian or Plan B article then obviously I would structure and make sense of my initial impressions, but I’m […]
