pop music
Album: BTS – Map of the Soul: 7Saturday, 22 February 2020
To anyone out of their teens or without a grasp of the Korean language, BTS are probably an unknown quantity. Yet, they are probably the most successful boyband, if not the most successful band, in the world. In fact, just as Abba had a massive... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: The Honeycombs - Have I The Right? The Complete 60s Albums & SinglesSunday, 16 February 2020
August and September 1964 were golden months for Pye Records. The Kinks hit number one on the British charts in September with “You Really Got Me”, their third single for the label and the group’s first success following two flop 45s.Before The... Read more... |
Classic Albums: Tears for Fears, Songs From The Big Chair, BBC Four review - anatomy of an anthemSaturday, 15 February 2020
Roland Orzabal, co-founder and lead guitarist of Tears for Fears, laughs to himself often during this documentary — the latest in the BBC’s often-excellent, always-forensic Classic Albums series. “I agree, I agree, it sounds great,” says Orzabal. He... Read more... |
Carly Rae Jepsen, Brixton Academy review - punchy, polished popTuesday, 11 February 2020
Few will forget back in 2012, when Canadian singer Carly Rae Jepsen came crashing into the airwaves of pretty much every pop station on the planet, with the sugary synth-pop sounds of Call Me Maybe. With a track as big as that – even Jepsen herself... Read more... |
CD: Tennis - SwimmerSaturday, 08 February 2020
There is something deliciously normal about Tennis, the Denver husband and wife team of Alaina Moore and Patrick Riley. Steeped in the best pop of a bygone age, the couple’s lyrics seem so simple and yet unpack hidden depths on repeated listening.... Read more... |
Album: La Roux - SupervisionThursday, 06 February 2020
10 years ago, a wave of exciting femme-pop was cresting, women taking the reins with singular visions; the results were shiny, personally honest, inventive and ebullient, from Gaga to Adele and beyond. A leading light was La Roux, a duo fronted by... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Tea & Symphony - The English Baroque Sound 1968-1974Sunday, 02 February 2020
When it was issued in May 1968, “Fading Yellow” attracted no attention. It couldn’t have as it was the B-side of “Mr. Poem”, Mike Batt’s poor-selling debut single. The top side was good, very 1968 and along the lines of whimsical 45s like Donovan’s... Read more... |
Madonna, London Palladium review - a fiesta of the surreal and the fiercely fabulousFriday, 31 January 2020
The first time I heard Madonna, I was 8 years old at a school disco. Horrified parents, who came to pick us up as we jumped up and down yelling along to “Like A Virgin” in a fluorescent flurry of topknots, puffer skirts and lace gloves, subsequently... Read more... |
Album: Kesha - High RoadWednesday, 29 January 2020
Doubters presume Kesha’s multi-million-selling success derives mainly from a decade ago, the time of her monster hit, “Tik Tok”? Since then, the thinking goes, after the gruelling, much-publicised sexual abuse court cases with Dr Luke, she’s more a... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Game Theory - Across The Barrier Of SoundSunday, 26 January 2020
Since this column last caught up with the totemic California art-popsters Game Theory, band mainstay Gil Ray passed away. He died in January 2017. He had joined Game Theory as their drummer and backing vocalist in 1985. The new collection Across The... Read more... |
Bombay Bicycle Club, Cardiff University Students Union review - guitar pop, perfectedSunday, 26 January 2020
When a band claims a crowd is the loudest of the tour, you can usually guarantee they've said it on every other date too. But for one sweaty night in Cardiff, you had to believe them. Bombay Bicycle Club returned after a six-year absence and were... Read more... |
Album: Gabrielle Aplin - Dear HappyMonday, 13 January 2020
According to Gabrielle Aplin, the delicate piano ballad which closes, and provides the name of, her first album in over four years was written as a letter to herself; and one penned at a particularly turbulent point in her life. “It’s not easy for... Read more... |
