pop music
Boy George and Culture Club: From Karma to Calamity, BBC FourThursday, 12 April 2018![]() The title signalled what was coming so clearly, it may as well have been called When Bands End Badly: the two camps, the arguments and sniping and the eventual collapse of Culture Club’s US and UK tour to promote an album of new material. It’s... Read more... |
CD: Kylie Minogue - GoldenThursday, 05 April 2018![]() Oh this is annoying. One really doesn't want to be mean about the People's Princess. Kylie is one of the great pop stars of our time: charming, witty, a survivor, with several dozen proper classic songs under her belt, she has never stopped sparking... Read more... |
theartsdesk on Vinyl 38: Led Zeppelin, Lissie, Holger Czukay, Gomez, Ringo Starr, Moscoman and moreTuesday, 03 April 2018![]() Can you find a more extensive and comprehensive rundown of monthly vinyl releases than theartsdesk on Vinyl? We can’t. But then we would say that. Don’t believe us, though; below we surf punk, techno, film soundtracks, folk, major label boxset... Read more... |
CD: Daphne & Celeste - Daphne & Celeste Save the WorldFriday, 23 March 2018![]() The last we heard of US duo Daphne & Celeste was 18 years ago, when they made their name with three hits, notably the nursery-rhyme playground chant bitch-offs “U.G.L.Y.” and “Ohh Stick You”. They famously performed under a hail of bottles at... Read more... |
CD: The Vaccines - Combat SportsMonday, 19 March 2018![]() Three years ago The Vaccines’ last album, English Graffiti, received a mixed response. It appeared to be a stab at moving sideways from the previous two, at proving they were more than just a guitar band in the classic indie mould, that they could... Read more... |
CD: Alexandra Burke - The Truth IsThursday, 15 March 2018![]() Full disclosure: I have never quite gotten over Alexandra Burke's rendition of Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah. I'm not sure I ever will.And now I'm unsure as how to cope with the fresh outrage of realisation that it is now 10 years since that flagrant... Read more... |
CD: Kim Wilde - Here Come the AliensWednesday, 14 March 2018![]() It’s difficult to dislike Kim Wilde, whatever you think of her music. Even more so after her pissed Christmas sing-along on a tube train a few years back became a massive YouTube hit. Or how about her appearance at Download Festival in 2016 with... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Robert KirbySunday, 11 March 2018![]() The similarity is intentional. The cover design of When the Day is Done – The Orchestrations of Robert Kirby nods explicitly to that of Nick Drake’s debut album Five Leaves Left. That wasn’t just the first record by the singer-songwriter, it was... Read more... |
CD: Tracey Thorn - RecordSunday, 04 March 2018![]() Tracey Thorn’s solo career in the 21st century has veered between contemplative adult music and the pop dancefloor. With her latest, we’re definitely on the pop dancefloor, but, despite delicious synth-led production from Ewan Pearson, ignore the... Read more... |
theartsdesk on Vinyl 37: Cocteau Twins, Stranger Things OST, Watain, Ryuichi Sakamoto and moreTuesday, 27 February 2018![]() Without further ado, let’s cut straight to it. Below theartsdesk on Vinyl offers over 30 records reviewed, running the gamut from Adult Orientated Rock to steel-hard techno via the sweetest, liveliest pop. Dive in!VINYL OF THE MONTH 1Zoë Mc Pherson... Read more... |
Tony Banks: ‘You either do it by diplomacy or you do it by violence’ - interviewFriday, 23 February 2018![]() In a career that began in 1967 and may yet have further life in it, Genesis have sold 150 million albums (and possibly more), and in their original incarnation with Peter Gabriel as vocalist were an influential force in the development of... Read more... |
CD: Moby - Everything Was Beautiful, and Nothing HurtThursday, 22 February 2018![]() After two albums of battle anthems for Trump-addled times, raging against the machine with his “Void Pacific Choir”, Moby’s fifteenth long-player is ostensibly a return to his millennial purple patch, when Play conquered the world and was bought by... Read more... |
