Watch: Charli XCX – The F Word and Me
Collapse Board favourite, Charli XCX has made a documentary for BBC3 about feminism. Even though it only really scrapes the surface and is more of a tour diary with some interviews included as opposed to solely being an in-depth assessment/analysis of being a woman in the music industry in 2015, you should watch it. Just […]
Segregation Under a Groove: Pop Music’s Unspoken Colour Lines
Many years ago, a great schism occurred in the history of popular music. As amps got louder and concerts got bigger, new groups responded by creating a heavier kind of music that relied on sheer sonic power as opposed to the lighter sounds of early sixties pop. Rock music broke away from pop and in […]
A year and change | The Return of Scott Creney
By Scott Creney Just so you know, I had CB’s lawyers (lawyer, singular, who are we kidding?) give this a quick readthrough to make sure I wasn’t disclosing too much information, but I figured a very, very small number of people might want an explanation before I started writing about music again—where have I been, […]
“You don’t have to be an activist to want to make a change” | Students on authenticity
I should preface this list by stating that authenticity in popular music is mutable (if it exists), that it is utterly dependent upon genre, time and place (if it exists), that it is defined in relation to its ‘inauthentic’ counterpart (if it exists), that it is a construct with dubious links all the way back […]
What I did the other night instead of seeing Jessie J live
I wrote a tribute to a man I never met – Daevid Allen from Gong/Soft Machine. I tried to make it as honest and true to life (which means injecting humour) as I could. I spoke to my close friend Mike Howlett first, as he’s played bass in Gong for three zillion years. I tried […]
The return of Everett True | 122. Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks
It was always going to take something pretty special for me to feature Stephen Malkmus in this series. This is it. See how good he still sounds when he actually has a decent song to sing?
The return of Everett True | 116. Charli XCX
Pouting white bread pop star Charli XCX has made less than an impression on me so far, but if you think I can resist this – a Josie And The Pussycats-style punk cover of one of 2014’s finest pop songs – then you are crazy. There’s such energy, such an infectious delight. The handclaps! The spontaniety! The […]
10 Songs that should (but probably won’t) top triple j’s Hottest 100
The Guardian asked me to provide some suggestions as to what should be topping the Hottest 100 in Taylor Swift’s stead. Now, this was before my sudden – rather alarming – conversion to Taylor Swift’s new album 1989, otherwise I might just have voiced the opinion that many share: what the hell is wrong with Taylor […]
The return of Everett True | 102. Taylor Swift
This one has taken me by surprise. I was hoping stuff like this would happen – and it has, several times already – when I began this series a few short days ago. I didn’t expect it to come from this quarter, though. I had to go with this first: so immediate and so compelling. […]
No one sent us the new Taylor Swift album to review
So no one sent us the new Taylor Swift album to review. It’s a shame as we would have done our best to buck the trend and not have another review written by a male reviewer. Spot the difference: NME’s review of Taylor Swift’s ‘1989’ by Matthew Horton Rolling Stone’s review of Taylor Swift’s ‘1989’ by […]
