190 posts
New albums
Jess Glynne sounds like fun. Check out the video for the Bee Gees-flavoured All I Am, which – contrived though it may be – finds her larking around backstage at…
Review: Elvis Costello & The Imposters – Look Now
Costello again proves he’s a master of disguise, adopting various personalities – and employing celebrity guests judiciously – on this late-period high points. At the risk of sounding like someone…
Review: Blancmange – Wanderlust
One of the streaming revolution’s obvious casualties has been the lyric. Where album sleeves often offered them as sustenance for even the casual fan, these days, it requires a conscious…
Review: Paul McCartney – Egypt Station
Paul McCartney’s dominance of musical culture is such that for most of his 17th solo album, the only person to whom he can be compared is himself. His easy-going way…
Review: Suede – The Blue Hour
This summer, Suede bassist Mat Osman playfully tweeted a photo taken during the Saddleworth Moor fire of a gas-masked woman carrying shopping bags, the band’s logo writ large above. Sadly,…
Review: Paul Simon – In The Blue Light
Paul Simon’s voice will always be a familiar comfort, but if the titles of some of the songs on his 14th studio album are familiar, too, that doesn’t mean you’ve…
Review: Ann Wilson – Immortal
As with her first album, 2007’s Hope And Glory – though that admittedly featured one self-penned tune – Ann Wilson’s second solo collection features a bunch of covers, this time…
Review: Spiritualized – And Nothing Hurt
One can’t help wonder how helpful it was for Jason Pierce to be aligned so closely with drug culture. There was no escaping the famously narcotic haze out of which…
Review: Lenny Kravitz – Raise Vibration
Who wouldn’t accuse Lenny Kravitz of showing off upon hearing him sing, halfway through his 11th album: “Just hold me like Johnny Cash/ When I lost my mother”? He is,…
Review: Dubstar – One
When lined up alongside the Britpop acts of their era, there was something a bit different about Dubstar. Stars first scraped into the Top 40 a month before the infamous…