pop
Reissue CDs Weekly: Sound System, Songs for the Lyons Cornerhouse, All Kinds of Highs, BananaramaSunday, 08 July 2012
Various Artists: Sound System - The Story of Jamaican MusicThomas H Green This is lovely, a box-set celebration of Jamaican music, marking 50 years of the country’s independence. In a brooks-no-argument fashion, it reminds the forgetful that the... Read more... |
Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons, Royal Albert HallWednesday, 27 June 2012
It was the right venue. Frankie Valli is New Jersey royalty. He might not have been crowned, but appearing in The Sopranos is as good as any coronation. As he leaned into the audience, shaking hands, he spread his magic. Even Jimmy Page had come... Read more... |
Sean Paul, Indigo2Wednesday, 27 June 2012
Sean Paul, the accessible face of dancehall, is back. It’s been 10 years since he rose to the big league with his 2002 breakout album Dutty Rock, and he recently released his fifth album Tomahawk Technique. His mix of dancehall rhythms, bhangra... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Vanguard Records, Tony Blackburn, Lon & Derrek Van EatonSunday, 24 June 2012
Various Artists: Make it Your Sound, Make it Your Scene – Vanguard Records & the 1960s Musical RevolutionKieron TylerSeymour and Maynard Solomon’s Vanguard Records hasn’t been given the same amount of recognition as Jac Holzman’s Elektra,... Read more... |
CD: Saint Saviour – UnionMonday, 18 June 2012
The moment you reach “I Call This Home”, the third track of Saint Saviour's debut album, it’s obvious this is an album to stick with. A pulsing rhythm beds guitars that reverberate like vintage Cure. The voice is quavering, anguished. Then it opens... Read more... |
Best Coast, O2 ABC2, GlasgowSunday, 17 June 2012
Best Coast has always been the quintessential California band, an identity the duo has embraced so fully that the artwork for their latest album features the bear that is the state’s mascot. It would be clichéd to remark on the unsuitability of the... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Can, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, Dreamboats & PetticoatsSunday, 17 June 2012
Can: The Lost TapesKieron TylerDespite being compiled from previously unreleased material, the extraordinary The Lost Tapes is as wonderful as last year's 40th Anniversary edition of Tago Mago. This archive trawl outpaces previous exhumations like... Read more... |
CD: The Beach Boys – That’s Why God Made the RadioWednesday, 06 June 2012
“We’re back together, easy money”. For anyone feeling a wee bit cynical about The Beach Boys' reunion, that lyric – from “Spring Vacation” – is likely to push them towards full-blown contempt. Although That’s Why God Made the Radio is defined by... Read more... |
CD: Regina Spektor - What We Saw From The Cheap SeatsMonday, 28 May 2012
It's been six years since Regina Spektor released Begin to Hope, a festival-friendly breakthrough album with a poppy sheen that easily loaned itself to mobile phone network marketing campaigns and the like. Six years then since the Moscow-born Bronx... Read more... |
Jessie J announces arena tourTuesday, 22 May 2012Capitalising on the success of her alterna-career as coach on BBC One talent show The Voice, pop starlet Jessie J will be back on the road early next year will a full slate of national arena dates.Jessie, whose debut "Who You Are" has sold over one... Read more... |
Robin Gibb, 1949–2012Monday, 21 May 2012
The death of Robin Gibb was announced last night. He had been diagnosed with cancer following surgery for a blocked intestine in 2010, when it was discovered that he had cancer of the colon. This April, it was announced he had contracted pneumonia.... Read more... |
CD: Saint Etienne – Words and Music by Saint EtienneMonday, 14 May 2012
If you are old enough to recall the heady excitement of running out of breath as you hurtled to the record store to buy a single on the day of release Words and Music by Saint Etienne will strike an instant chord. This deliciously melancholic... Read more... |
