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A Perfect Ten for Carpenter Brut
The popularity of synthwave has skyrocketed in the last decade, with films like Drive and games like Hotline Miami bringing a genre once thought lost to the ’80s back into the zeitgeist. It’s only gotten more popular since those formative pieces of media, and these days there’s an almost endless number of bands, groups, DJs, […] More
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Land of the Free — The Killers and American Politics in Music
America, a deeply divided and politically polarised country, has always had its politics portrayed in art culture. In music, there are increasingly prominent political statements and award shows have become a platform for artists to express their political displeasure or their support for ideologies and causes. Popular artists have always taken the burden of playing […] More
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in One Track
The Bliss of Disappointment: “Let Down” by Radiohead
The first time I heard “Let Down,” I almost couldn’t believe it was a Radiohead song. The emotions it evoked seemed too optimistic; for a Radiohead song, it felt weirdly comforting. Although there is a sense of melancholy and subdued rage in the lyrics, to me, the music ultimately conveys a feeling of acceptance. Lyrically […] More
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Three Cheers For A Perfect Ten — My Chemical Romance
Comparing other bands in the 2000s emo scene to My Chemical Romance felt like a cheap shot at times. Often, the theatricality of other bands in their camp felt like posturing, their overly verbose lyrics hiding nothing but teen angst and fragile masculinity. With MCR, though, there was something different. The quintet possessed a sense […] More
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The Charlatans, Still Tellin’ Stories 25 Years Later
The Charlatans have always been my band. You know, that one band that resonates with you more than any other. To be honest, I have a few ‘my band ‘ bands, but The Charlatans inspire in me a dedication and love that few others do. It’s with Tellin’ Stories release in 1997 that I learned some early […] More
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in One Track
Gang of Youths Find Hope in Despair on “the kingdom is within you”
A close death can turn your whole world upside down but imagine whilst grieving you learnt that that the person you loved had a whole other life you were not aware of. This is what happened to Gang of Youths lead singer David Le’aupepe after the death of his father Tattersall. The Tattersall he knew […] More
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Super Furry Animals: A Return to Radiator
On 25 August 1997, Super Furry Animals released their second album, Radiator. I can honestly say, 25 years later, my life has not been the same since. Super Furry Animals had been busy before Radiator. After buying a tank to blast techno at festivals and releasing an expletive riddled ode to forgotten hero football Robin […] More
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in One Track
Bakar’s “Free” Is the Uptempo Track We All Need Right Now
The greatest songs trick us into believing we have caught the singer off-guard; that they have revealed more about themselves then they intended. The bracing candidness of the opening 20 seconds of “Free” show that Bakar clearly knows how to cast this spell. Taken from Camden-born Bakar’s first studio album Nobody’s Home, the sound of […] More
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Ladies and Gentlemen, This is Spiritualized
Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space was an important first for me. It was the first album I bought solely on recommendation from reviews, specifically the “4 out of 5” from Select Magazine and the “9 out of 10” from NME. I had slavishly been buying music journalism for over 12 months, but […] More
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The Velvet Rope: The Queen of R&B’s Magnum Opus
The arc of history has done unfortunate things to Janet Jackson and her legacy. For one of the most relevant artists of the ‘80s and ‘90s, her career suffered a nearly fatal blow when the CBS corporation blacklisted her and her relevance precipitously waned. But at her height, Jackson was a megastar, setting records and […] More
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In Defence of Blur’s Self-titled Album
Blur aren’t best remembered for their self-titled album.The Britpop pioneers that dominated UK tabloids in the 1990s are better remembered today for their jaunty, spirited, and heavily London-accented songs like “Parklife” and “Girls And Boys”, as well as for their feud with fellow indie-rock juggernauts, Oasis. Despite acquiring critical acclaim at the time and breaking […] More
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A Warm, Dark Dream: A Love Letter to This Mortal Coil
There is no better introduction to This Mortal Coil—one of my favorite bands of all time—than the quote that graces the top of their page on 4AD‘s website: “This Mortal Coil was not a band, but a unique collaboration of musicians recording in various permutations, the brainchild of 4AD kingpin Ivo Watts-Russell. The idea was […] More
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