pop
Trolls World Tour review - a visual spectacle full of toe-tapping tunesThursday, 09 April 2020
The world might have changed drastically in the wake of Covid-19, but thankfully those hyperactive, candy-coloured Trolls haven’t. Anna Kendrick and Justin Timberlake are back as the delightful odd-couple, Poppy and Branch, for round two of pop-... Read more... |
Album: Purity Ring - WombThursday, 02 April 2020
Purity Ring, the Canadian duo, are purveyors of simple yet sophisticated dream pop. Corin Roddick makes synth tracks at one end of the country, while crystalline-voiced Megan James writes the lyrics and records the vocals thousands of miles away.... Read more... |
Album: Dua Lipa - Future NostalgiaSaturday, 28 March 2020
Dua Lipa's self-titled debut was unmistakably the sound of a musician feeling their way. It had all the flavours of trap, tropical house, autotune and Lana Del Ray-ish triphop introspection you'd expect on a 2017 pop record. The multi-billion-stream... Read more... |
Album: The Chats - High Risk BehaviourMonday, 16 March 2020
At a time when stepping outside your front door constitutes risky behaviour, the short, sharp, shocking tales of misspent youth from Queensland pop-punk trio The Chats are a proper tonic."Short" might be an understatement, as it goes. The debut... Read more... |
Lewis Capaldi, SSE Hydro, Glasgow review - triumphant homecoming from Brit-conquering heroFriday, 06 March 2020
Critical and commercial success haven’t gone to the head of Lewis Capaldi. The 23-year-old opened his first of two sold-out nights at Glasgow’s 14,000-capacity enormodrome – booked when he was yet to release his debut album – with a video montage... Read more... |
Imagining Ireland, Barbican review - raising women's voicesMonday, 24 February 2020
Recent politics surround the EU and nationhood, fantasies of Irish Sea bridges and trading borders more porous than limestone have revived the granular rub between Eire and Britain, and the Celtic Tiger cool of the Nineties is a history module these... Read more... |
CD: Grimes - Miss AnthropoceneSunday, 23 February 2020
Grimes is hilarious. For all the grandiose conceptualism, apocalyptic visions, high tech sonic manipulation, outré costumes, modish witchery, multiple personas, arch media baiting with her billionaire boyfriend and all the rest, she is still... Read more... |
Supergrass, Barrowland, Glasgow review - nostalgic reunion proves greatest hits stand test of timeSaturday, 22 February 2020
As Gaz Coombes noted around the halfway point of Supergrass’s Barrowland set “the last time we were here it was to say goodbye”. That was a decade ago, when one of Britpop’s most enduring acts finally headed into the sunset. Nothing lasts forever in... Read more... |
Cage the Elephant, O2 Academy, Glasgow review - old-fashioned rock n' roll from Kentucky sextetWednesday, 19 February 2020
Matt Shultz was clearly taking no chances. The Cage the Elephant frontman appeared onstage underneath a large umbrella, presumably bought to cope with the day’s deluge of rain. In the ever effervescent Shultz’s hands it was swiftly used as a prop,... Read more... |
The Murder Capital, QMU, Glasgow review - Dublin outfit find catharsis through pummelling songsMonday, 17 February 2020
It might have been 24 hours after Valentine’s Day, but James McGovern still seemed to have a touch of romance in his head. At one stage during the Murder Capital’s bruising set he referenced his floral-patterned shirt as evidence that he was feeling... 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... |
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... |
