FEATURE: Groovelines: Iraina Mancini – Take a Bow

FEATURE:

 

 

Groovelines

 

Iraina Mancini – Take a Bow

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IN a recent interview…

IN THIS PHOTO: Iraina Mancini in the studio recording for her second studio album (which follows her 2023 debut, Undo the Blue)/PHOTO CREDIT: Lee Vincent Grubb

Iraina Mancini said that her second studio album – as yet unnamed and without a set release date – feels like the darker, older sister of Undo the Blue. There have been a lot of changes, personal and otherwise, and that it is a more confident, grounded record. Mancini now has a deeper belief as a woman in the music industry. I am excited to see how she follows up 2023’s Undo the Blue. I have raved about that album on several occasions. Speaking with Shindig Magazine about her new album and collaborations, it is a fresh chapter for London-based Iraina Mancini. Last year, she released Running for your life. That is the first taste of the new album. You can check out her Instagram page, as she is one of the busiest people in the industry. Not only recording a new album and making sure it is absolutely as good as it can be, she is also hugely in demand as D.J. Mainly in London spaces (but further afield and internationally too), I can only imagine how full her calendar is this year! I am not sure when the second album will be released and whether it will coincide with the summer festivals. However, alongside recording and D.J. work, she is a broadcaster for Soho Radio and has her own show. Her show is fantastic! Playing music that is so different to mainstream stations and what they feature, I am always fascinated by what she picks and discusses. She recently posted a photo of her father on the set of The Man Who Fell to Earth with David Bowie. That film turned fifty. Warren Peace is this legendary musician who was a close friend of Bowie’s. Iraina Mancini’s Instagram feed is one of the most joyous and inspiring. So many incredible gigs and wonderful moments, this is someone who is among the best D.J.s in London. I am looking ahead to what comes next and how she is in the studio and keeping busy.

Rather than trying to guess album titles or release dates, I just wanted to check in and say, to anyone who does not follow Iraina Mancini, that you need to show her some support and love. Maybe suggestion a second album will be darker and more personally revealing than Undo the Blue. Even though that album had some amazing moments of bliss and delight – listen to Undo the Blue and Sugar High -, there were some more intense or revealing moments. However, what you get from the debut is this incredible eclectic and complete thing. Pete Paphides, of Needle Mythology (the label the album was released on), said that every track could have been a single. That is how it sounded to me. So good, each song was very different but not a weak moment on them. The overall listening experience is one of complete awe! It was my favourite album of 2023. However, you feel like those personal changes and challenges. Iraina Mancini finding new depth and qualities in her voice. Even if this second album is a step forward maybe in terms of personal insight and reflecting where Mancini is now and how her life has changed, I still feel that Undo the Blue is one of the most impressive and enduring debut albums in the past decade. How various songs pop to mind, and I listen to the album in full as much as I can. Go and grab it on vinyl, stick the needle down and immerse yourself in the phenomenal songwriting. Mancini has one of the strongest and most varied voice. How she can summon a range of emotions and nuances. Compositions that are at once tough and snarled and then to something akin to Minnie Ripperton. Cinematic, lush and gritty, there is this gamut of colours and strands to Undo the Blue. In future features where I discuss Iraina Mancini, I will focus on the new album. There will be an explosion of love and excitement when that announcement is made. Gigs that follow will give fans a chance to see these new songs delivered fresh. Given how the recording process must have been quite expensive and challenging at times, there will be a relief and pride getting the album out!

I hope Iraina Mancini will forgive me for, perhaps for the last time in a while, revisiting Undo the Blue. I have written about it and maybe even focused on the title track for a piece. I declared how Undo the Blue was my favourite song from the album but, as I listened to the album more and more, its final track, Take a Bow, stuck in my head the strongest (I was at this gig in 2023 when she performed it live). Made a bigger impact on my heart. For a number of reasons. I think, objectively, Undo the Blue is an unrated masterpiece of an album. One that was slept on to a degree by the press. In terms of streaming numbers, the title track will hit a million this year perhaps - or maybe early in 2027. Three tracks from the ten are in six digits in terms of streams. The sublime and epic finale has been streamed just over ten-thousand times. Given how immense and stunning the song is, it seems scandalous! I am not sure whether Take a Bow relates to a previous relationship or what inspired the track. There were a few interviews released around Undo the Blue, though I am not sure whether Mancini was asked about Take a Bow. It is one of these unmined gems that I feel should be talked about. I will look at some of the lyrics. One reason I love the song so much is that it is a perfect closer. Given the comparatively sunny, energised or dreamy songs that came before, there is this darkness or sense of mood that you could not put anywhere else on the album. How there is almost a conceptual thread to Undo the Blue and, appropriately, Take a Bow is the curtain call. The night has drawn in and maybe a relationship has run its course. However, as I observed in a review of Undo the Blue, perhaps there is this sense of hope or compassion there. Iraina Mancini’s voice is stunning on this song. Such power, panache and control. Providing backing vocals and overlapping, I do love how there are layers and these beautiful combined vocals. The first verse has lines that paint a somewhat defeated or tense picture: “I couldn't think, but found the words to say/I’m shouting out but I can’t concentrate/I should of known, but left too much too late/Cos we both know, these days are growing cold”. I sense that perhaps two lovers who were once close maybe have a slight division: “We used to be wild dreamers/So take a bow/Tell me it’s overdue/I think by now we both need something new/Let’s not make this harder…”. That sense of needing something new. Are they new partners or a new spark?

When listening to tracks on Undo the Blue, there is this wonder when you listen to Iraina Mancini sing. She can inhabit these different scenes, situations and personas in a song. Take a Bow has these different stages. It is almost this short film, in itself. One of the most cinematic tracks on the album, I never tire of hearing it! My favourite package is when she sings “So just stay bright/We'll be all alright/A freefall dive/A breath of life”. The opening stages see Mancini delivering the words almost sensually. The chorus sees her filled with passion and power. City lights and dancing shoes ready. Time running out. There are all these images that compel the listener to step inside the song and what is unfolding. The more I pass through the song, I come up with different possibilities and interpretations. The song has such a sense of emotional unfolding, story and movement. The pre-chorus is stunning. Iraina Mancini’s voice so stirring and grand in the chorus! That sense that they will both be alright. To slow down. Is there that hope and sense that they can rebuild? It such a deep and intriguing song that definitely deserves so many more streams that it has earned. I guess, unless a station plays or it gets mentioned, then it is quite hard to get people to it. Also, Mancini probably not really allowed to play her own songs on Soho Radio – or if she would even want to! Before the anticipated second album from one of our finest artists, I wanted to talk about why Take a Bow, the wonderful closing track of Undo the Blue, is one I absolutely adore. Such a rich, evocative and spine-tingling cut, it is the final scene of a simply amazing record. If Iraina Mancini feels that a new album coming is more representative of her now or does feel more complete or better, in the meantime, people really do need to listen again to Undo the Blue. Every track is an absolute pearl! If Undo the Blue, Do It (You Stole the Rhythm) and Deep End are the most popular tracks (according to Spotify), then I would say give some love and attention to the gorgeous and arresting Take a Bow. All fans of Iraina Mancini are so thrilled she is recording a second album! Perhaps not easy to put it out as soon as she would have liked, you do feel like every ounce of her heart and soul is going into it. When it is announced and we know what themes and sounds it explores, that will give a sense of how this wonderful D.J., broadcaster and artist has progressed and where she is now. Before we welcome in this second album and a new chapter for Iraina Mancini, I wanted to provide a (perhaps) last salute and affectionate nod to Undo the Blue and an utterly brilliant final track. I am not sure how its performer views it and whether it still holds personal relevance and importance. However, I feel it is an amazing and hugely accomplished and fascinating piece of music that…

EVERYONE needs to hear.

FEATURE: A Balanced (and Extraordinary) Bill: Reacting to the Reading & Leeds Line-Ups

FEATURE:

 

 

A Balanced (and Extraordinary) Bill

IN THIS PHOTO: RAYE is one of the headline acts for this year’s Reading & Leeds festivals

 

Reacting to the Reading & Leeds Line-Ups

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THE smaller festivals…

around the world are quite good when it comes to a balanced bill. I am not sure why a lot of the major ones struggle when it comes to gender and fair representation. Female artists are dominating music and there are ample choices. However, every year sees our biggest festivals struggling to balance things. Glastonbury last year created evenness through the bill, though the headliners on the Pyramid Stage were once again male-heavy. I do hope that, when it is on in 2027, that more women headline. There are plenty of options! I have been hard on Reading & Leeds before because they have been very male-heavy when it comes to their line-up. Look at their headliners from throughout the years, and it is enormously male-dominated. Getting this reputation as not recognising women and sticking rigidly with Rock and Alternative acts, they have been in hot water because of unwise comments when it comes to gender imbalance. However, the headliners this year are both fantastic and there is a balance: Charli XCX, Dave, RAYE, Chase & Status, Florence and The Machine, and Fontaines D.C. RAYE has just released one of the best albums of the year with This Music May Contain Hope. Charli xcx should have headlined Glastonbury last year, so this is an overdue chance for her to mount her music on a major stage. Songs from her “Wuthering Heights” soundtrack coming to life. Florence + The Machine released Everybody Scream last year. One of the best of 2025. I think they are the most exciting acts headlining. Dave is sensational and will be great, though I do wonder about the age thing. I mentioned this when highlighting how Glastonbury book male artists over forty as headliners but not women (though Florence + The Machine’s Florence Welch turns forty on 28th August - pretty much half-way through the festivals’ run) . Maybe wanting to keep the headliners younger, there are iconic and legendary artists who you would love to see headline. Even so, it is a big step forward for Reading & Leeds.

This article reacted to the recent wave of new names added to the Reading & Leeds billed. There are even more names to come. Pleasingly addressing previous gender inequality whilst keeping things pure but also eclectic in terms of genres, it does bode well for the future. I am genuinely concerned about some major festivals when it comes to headliners and that reliance of male artists. Let’s hope that Reading & Leeds keep up this evolution and next year sees some incredible queens headline. There are brilliant artists like Slayyyter delivering spectacular albums that warrant a headline outing. The fact the headlining women are British too. There will be a lot of support for Charli xcx, RAYE and Florence + The Machine:

“Reading & Leeds has dropped a hefty second wave of names for its 2026 edition, adding more than 60 artists to an already stacked line-up topped by Charli xcx, Chase & Status, Dave, Florence + The Machine, Fontaines D.C. and RAYE.

Leading the new additions are Gunna and Loyle Carner – both set for Reading only – alongside Declan McKenna, Maisie Peters and James Marriott. Elsewhere, indie and alt-pop are well represented with Men I Trust and Viagra Boys (both Reading only), Arthur Hill, The Lathums (Leeds only), Holly Humberstone, Julia Wolf and Clara La San joining the bill, while Paris Paloma, Kingfishr, Slayyyter and The K’s (Leeds only) round out a broad sweep of rising and established names.

The festival has also confirmed the debut of a new arena for 2026 – The Warehouse – a purpose-built space dedicated to dance music. Promising a full club experience, the stage will pair high-spec sound with immersive lighting, signalling a clear push into late-night territory. Among those set to take it over are Max Dean b2b Luke Dean (Reading only), Hybrid Minds and a pair of Skepta link-ups – with Prospa in Reading and East End Dubs in Leeds. The line-up leans heavily into underground and crossover club sounds, with sets from Rossi., Mall Grab, Omar+, Hedex, Silva Bumpa and Notion, alongside appearances from Bou (Reading only), Luuk Van Dijk (Reading only) and a Joss Dean b2b Nafe Smallz set at Reading. Leeds exclusives include Alisha, Locky, [IVY] and Jack Marlow, while Hamdi, Riordan, IN PARALLEL and Meeshy are among those playing both sites.

Beyond the headline-grabbing additions, the latest drop digs deep into emerging talent across genres. YT, Niko B and Bassvictim join the weekend’s line-up, alongside bar italia, SPEED and Frost Children (Reading only). Clementine Douglas, Jane Remover (Reading only) and dexter in the newsagent add further depth, with Cardinals, Westside Cowboy and Say Now also confirmed. New names continue across both sites, including The Lilacs (Leeds only), Overpass, Radio Free Alice (Reading only) and Gurriers (Leeds only), while Seb Lowe, Chloe Qisha and Fliss are among the Reading exclusives.

The bill stretches into a new generation of acts too, with Cruz Beckham and The Breakers, Violet Grohl and The Guest List appearing alongside a raft of buzzy newcomers including Mulaa Joans, Amma, Day We Ran and People I’ve Met. Elsewhere, artists such as Ruby Roberts, Raynor, Pozzy and she’s green underline the festival’s continued focus on discovery.

Set to take place across the August Bank Holiday weekend, Reading & Leeds 2026 is shaping up to be one of the festival’s most expansive editions yet – balancing chart-topping headliners with club culture incursions and a deep bench of next-wave talent”.

It is not only that Reading & Leeds have addressed the male-skewed headline acts and in the process broadened the sound and feel. That will appeal to a wider sector of festival-goers. The entire line-up is a lot more ambitious and eclectic. I think there are purists who turned their nose up at how the festivals are moving away a bit from guitar-based music. Or that older image where a lot of the artists were Alternative, Indie or Rock. Even if Glastonbury is still the biggest British festival, I sort of feel Reading & Leeds have taken bigger steps and done something that Glastonbury did not do last year. That relates to ensuring that their biggest slots represent the amazing women who are contributing so much to music. There is always that issue that a festival may lapse and go back to the older ways. However, you do feel that Reading & Leeds have this new commitment and ethos – and it is great to see! I love the artists that they have announced so far. From Violet Grohl to Men I Trust, Maisie Peters and Loyle Carner. Those incredible and diverse headlines. Chase & Status alongside RAYE. I think that RAYE’s headline slot may be one of the best and most extraordinary the festival have seen. I see Slayyyter is on the bill, yet I feel next year could be one where she headlines. We have artists playing festivals for the first time. Absolutely and Cruz Beckham will play. There is very much something for everyone! With Glastonbury on a fallow year, there is that void and demand that I feel Reading & Leeds have covered! I feel it is one of their best lines-up ever. Some future stars and modern greats standing alongside one another. Their bills are quite diverse and always interesting, yet that male-dominated headline trait and bias was worrying and rightly received criticism. Now that this has been addressed – and let’s hope it is now the norm! -, it really is…

SUCH a relief!

FEATURE: Spotlight: The Femcels

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

IN THIS PHOTO: Gabriella Turton (left) and Rowan Miles (right) of The Femcels/PHOTO CREDIT: Bruno Mosso

 

The Femcels

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HERE is a sensational…

and instantly memorable duo who are creating quite a lot of buzz and conversation. Rowan Miles and Gabriella Turton. In January, the London duo were questioned by Richard Turley for Interview. With the headline declaring/describing their music as “Holy Noise, Horny Despair and the Art of Dreaming Yourself Alive”, it is really interesting discovering how life started for The Femcels. Rather than this being a long plan and them carefully planning, there was a degree of things falling together fairly quickly. It is always hard to say how much longevity artists have when they are starting out. However, on the strength of I Have to Get Hotter, it does seem that they are going to be around for a very long time:

“The Femcels didn’t form so much as coalesce: one broken pink toy guitar, a lobby miracle, four songs recorded drunk in a single night, and suddenly London had another problem. Rowan Miles and Gabriella Turton (Gabi) talk like they make music—fast, feral, funny, allergic to sincerity—ricocheting between hymns, horny despair, indie nihilism, and the sacred fantasy of Pitchfork hating them. They didn’t meet online, dated the same men, stole pick-and-mix, coded homework in dark cinemas, acquired yuppie older boyfriends, posted ads for go-go dancers, and woke up to discover they were already a band. Their debut album I Have to Get Hotter, produced by Ike Clateman (Bassvictim), is out VERY SOON and easily the most exciting, deranged thing I’ve heard in ages — its tracklist reading less like songs than a series of threats: “Even Though Ur Blonde,” “She Seems Kind of Stupid (Draft),” “Please Don’t Stab Yourself Like Elliott Smith.” They skewer pop feminism, sneer at boy-run music culture, loot Catholic hymns for melodies, and flinch (briefly) at the terror of singing in front of another human. If people are going to misunderstand you anyway, the logic goes, you might as well make it unforgettable. Less an origin story than a shared hallucination, documented in real time.

The Femcels didn’t form so much as coalesce: one broken pink toy guitar, a lobby miracle, four songs recorded drunk in a single night, and suddenly London had another problem. Rowan Miles and Gabriella Turton (Gabi) talk like they make music—fast, feral, funny, allergic to sincerity—ricocheting between hymns, horny despair, indie nihilism, and the sacred fantasy of Pitchfork hating them. They didn’t meet online, dated the same men, stole pick-and-mix, coded homework in dark cinemas, acquired yuppie older boyfriends, posted ads for go-go dancers, and woke up to discover they were already a band. Their debut album I Have to Get Hotter, produced by Ike Clateman (Bassvictim), is out VERY SOON and easily the most exciting, deranged thing I’ve heard in ages — its tracklist reading less like songs than a series of threats: “Even Though Ur Blonde,” “She Seems Kind of Stupid (Draft),” “Please Don’t Stab Yourself Like Elliott Smith.” They skewer pop feminism, sneer at boy-run music culture, loot Catholic hymns for melodies, and flinch (briefly) at the terror of singing in front of another human. If people are going to misunderstand you anyway, the logic goes, you might as well make it unforgettable. Less an origin story than a shared hallucination, documented in real time.

RICHARD TURLEY: When did this start?

ROWAN MILES: On the 24th of February 2024, we went into the studio with no music. Just a name: The Femcels.

GABI TURTON: A month before, I was styling Maria from Bassvictim and I brought this pink toy guitar and she broke it. That night we asked Ike if he’d produce for us. The next day in our lobby, the same pink guitar appeared but fixed—it’s a sign from God.

ROWAN: We were scared, so we got really drunk. We recorded four songs in one night and they’re all on the album. Ike understood exactly what we were and made perfect beats for us in what felt like 45 seconds. We were so scared to sing in front of someone. We’d just been handed this whole thing of being musicians in one evening.

TURLEY: So, how did you meet?

ROWAN: Online. Then I saw her across the room. She had her mouth open for a really long time. Then later on you invited me to an awkward girly sleep over.

GABRIELLA: Me and my friend used to do this thing where we would invite girls we thought were cool on Instagram.

ROWAN: We realized we’d dated all the same boys.

GABRIELLA: Then she tried to set me up with her ex-boyfriend and he said he’d bring his friends to the date. I got really freaked out so I brought Rowan along.

TURLEY: Tell me about the lyrics.

ROWAN: They are just all from real life experiences. I was heartbroken and you were a Femcel. They are basically all about this relationship where I was flown out to New York by some rockstar. I was a wannabe groupie and was harnessing the musical powers of these guys through this type of science magic I invented.

TURLEY: You sat on the album for two years. Why release it now?

ROWAN: We had a manager and then we decided we were going to do this record deal and then we really decided that wasn’t what we wanted to do.

GABRIELLA: We reclaimed our indie-ness. We decided to self-publish. That’s what makes sense for us.

TURLEY: How seriously are you taking this?

GABRIELLA: It would be awesome to do music, just music, but London is really expensive. I think we both really enjoy playing shows. I’m just excited to play a show and people actually know more than two songs.

ROWAN: That’s most exciting for people to sing along. There’s two girls that want to audition to be our go-go dancers one of them has black hair and one is blonde so its kinda perfect.

PHOTO CREDIT: Max Mistry

Before ending up with a review of I Have to Get Hotter, I want to shift to an NME and their recent interview. However you want to label their music – “electro-twee-punk” is how NME define it -, it is evident there is that very strong bond between Rowan Miles and Gabriella Turton. I am keen to see them live. NME stepped into The Femcels’ “idiosyncratic world as they prepare for their first headline show and reflect on their recent debut album, ‘I Have To Get Hotter”:

“So far, their instincts seem to have served them well. They started making music in 2024 after Miles, on a whim while working as a stylist, asked Bassvictim’s Ike Clateman to produce for them. On their first night working with Clateman (February 24 – they want it mythologised), they wrote four songs. They released two of these songs, ‘He Needs Me’ and ‘Not Ur Friend’, as singles, which quickly gained traction. Since then, they have performed with the likes of EsDeeKid and Fakemink, been photographed by Hedi Slimane, and opened for Frost Children. Miles has also made an album with Worldpeace DMT that’s well worth checking out. Finally, the duo released their first album, ‘I Have To Get Hotter’, in January 2026.

The album is a joyously chaotic, crude, and often hilarious look into the girls’ mirror-world. It’s a release of pure id that Miles says surprised even them: “It’s shocking when you’re writing a song and the stuff that comes out is stuff you wouldn’t say to anyone. But, it’s like: ‘I’ve written it now, and it works with the melody.’ You end up writing a song about sending a boob pic to a 45-year-old, and that’s the only way to explain your feelings.”

Turton nods: “We’re not crude in real life. I don’t think we’ve ever really talked about sex to each other. But in our music it’s all about that.”

It’s this play between shocking honesty and total absurdity, sincerity and irony, that many find so exciting about The Femcels’ music. They manage to give us hymn-like melodies, guttural screams and twee moments, with knowingly cartoonish production and a miraculously punk sensibility. Far from sarcastic vapidity, these songs belie raw emotion while remaining fun and lighthearted.

“Most of the parts I wrote on this album came from this diary I was writing because I was heartbroken,” says Miles. “I was destroyed and trying to write everything down. I was howling in the house, and it must have been really annoying for everyone else.”

“It’s nice to make things into a joke instead of feeling sad,” adds Turton. “Not to sound like a wet tissue, but the music did heal me a bit. I actually was kind of a femcel when I started making the album, and now I’m kind of not.”

“It’s nice to make things into a joke instead of feeling sad. The music did heal me a bit” – Gabriella Turton

The term ‘femcel’ typically refers to female members of the ‘involuntary celibate’ community. It’s often used ironically, but some who identify with it can be quite protective about the label. The girls say they’ve received hundreds of comments accusing them of being ‘cosplayers’, ‘LARPers’ or ‘fakecels’.

“The project isn’t supposed to be taken too seriously; you should just enjoy it,” says Turton. “But also, I think a lot of the people giving us hate in the comments might relate to [the album], and maybe they should listen to it… Like with the body dysmorphia stuff. In popular media, it’s meant to be that you’re just effortlessly skinny; no one ever really talks about it. Lily Allen talks about it, and I remember thinking that was really cool. I think it’s important to show that people do think about it, and are stressed about it, and you’re not just in your own head”.

I Have to Get Hotter is one of the most distinct, best and important debut albums of this year. An act we are going to gearing from years from now. CLASH sat down with an amazing album and provided their views. For anyone who has not heard their music really needs to get involved and check it out:

“A London duo whose stated ambition in life is to make music Pitchfork will hate, The Femcels aren’t people you should take too seriously. Or is that a pre-conception? Debut album ‘I Have To Get Hotter’ thrives on confusion, a kind of meta-post-ironic feast of sincere insincerity, a project packed with eye-searing colour and fuelled in equal doses by eye-liner and one-liners. It’s funny, occasionally cruel, and ridiculously filthy – truly, what else do you want from pop stars?

The song titles alone are worth the price of entry. ‘No One Will F*ck Me When I Wear Two Different Shoes’ gasps the breath out of your lungs and ‘Please Don’t Stab Yourself (Like Elliot Smith)’ is staggeringly close to the bone. Yet, somehow, they skirt around bad taste and come through unscathed – it’s a record packed with ideas, and held together by some wicked melodies.

At times, 00s indie pop shines through – the Juno soundtrack reworked with a pair of dodgy Casio keyboards and a cracked version of Fruity Loops. Working within their limitations, The Femcels are content to break any rule going – if they run out of words, they simply shriek and scream.

Forever self-referential and self-deprecating, songs like ‘Indiest Girl At School’ and ‘Monster In You’ are endlessly fascinating, while the beeps and sonic burps which fuel the spiteful ‘Not ur friend’ are worthy of those early PC Music uploads on SoundCloud, or even the unjustly overlooked Kero Kero Bonito.

Scrappy, brash, and devoutly punk, it’s done and dusted in 33 minutes. Utilising brevity to pack a punch, one song is a smidge over 90 seconds – it’s as though their TikTok-addled imaginations will self-destruct is the concept of a middle eight is mentioned.

Brutally funny and remarkably imaginative, ‘I Have To Get Hotter’ is brattish, attention-seeking, and at times ridiculous. The Femcels are out there on their own – this album is a riot”.

I guess still seen as a new or rising duo, The Femcels seem like they will dominate festivals very soon. As they produce more work, their fanbase will grow and there will be this increased demand. I Have to Get Hotter is a phenomenal album. Go and follow them now. All the hype and love around them is…

MORE than justified.

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Follow The Femcels

FEATURE: The Great American Songbook: Sabrina Carpenter

FEATURE:

 

 

The Great American Songbook

PHOTO CREDIT: Steven Meisel

 

Sabrina Carpenter

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THIS time out…

for The Great American Songbook, I am featuring twenty songs from one of the biggest artists on the planet, Sabrina Carpenter. Her most recent album, Man’s Best Friend, was released last year. I feel that the Pennsylvania-born artist and actor is one of the true greats. Someone who is most definitely a global superstar. I really love all of her albums, though Man’s Best Friend might be her best. I will come to that playlist. I am starting out with AllMusic, who provide some background and biography:

“Grammy-winning singer and actor Sabrina Carpenter is known for her sweetly ebullient, often lyrically candid brand of dance-oriented pop. Although no stranger to fans, Carpenter landed a global summer hit with 2024's "Espresso," reaching number three on the Hot 100. Building upon her early years as the star of the Disney Channel series Girl Meets World, she embarked on a successful music career, releasing albums including 2016's Top 30-charting EVOLution. In the meantime, she continued to act, appearing in movies such as 2019's Tall Girl and the next year's Clouds. After signing with Island Records, she issued her fifth LP, 2022's emails i can't send, which reached 23 on the Billboard 200 and was followed by the 2023 holiday EP Fruitcake. In 2024, Carpenter delivered her sixth studio album, Short n' Sweet, led by the disco- and funk-infused hit "Espresso" and the number one Hot 100 single "Please Please Please." Heralded by the cheerful chart-topper "Manchild," she delivered Man's Best Friend LP in 2025.

Born Sabrina Annlyne Carpenter in Quakertown, Pennsylvania, on May 11, 1999, she became interested in performing at a young age. By age ten, she was going to auditions with her parents and won her first part playing a guest role on the hit NBC drama Law & Order: SVU. Two years later, she was cast as the best friend of Rowan Blanchard on the Disney Channel's coming-of-age sitcom Girl Meets World, the sequel to the immensely popular '90s sitcom Boy Meets World. Carpenter inked a deal with Hollywood Records and issued the single "Can't Blame a Girl for Trying" in March 2014, which was followed by her debut EP of the same name a month later. In 2015, she delivered her full-length debut, Eyes Wide Open. It peaked at number 43 on the Billboard 200. She returned the following year with her sophomore album, EVOLution, and embarked on a sold-out headlining tour. Next up was a starring role in the Disney Channel's version of Adventures in Babysitting, a few months before EVOLution peaked at number 28 on the Billboard 200.

In 2017, Carpenter teamed up with social media star Jasmine Thompson for a soulful cover of Harry Styles' "Sign of the Times." That same year, she worked with the Vamps and Mike Perry on the track "Hands," released the solo single "Why," headlined her own The De-Tour concert tour, and was featured on Lost Kings' "First Love." The latter landed in the Top 30 of Billboard's Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart. "Alien," Carpenter's first release of 2018, was a collaboration with British producer and DJ Jonas Blue that climbed to number 12 on the same chart. It was followed by an appearance in the film The Hate U Give, based on the Angie Thomas young adult novel. That November, Carpenter issued her third solo long-player, Singular: Act I. A companion piece, Act II, arrived in 2019, as did "On My Way," a collaboration with Alan Walker and Farruko that cracked the Top Ten of the dance/electronic chart. Before the end of 2019, Carpenter also appeared in the Netflix original film Tall Girl.

In 2020, the singer issued the Valentine's Day single "Honeymoon Fades" just before making her Broadway debut as Cady Heron in the musical Mean Girls. Her run only lasted a couple days, though, as theaters closed their doors on March 12 due to the COVID-19 outbreak. (The production officially closed during the lockdown.) Later in the year, however, Carpenter could be seen in the Netflix musical film Work It and in the Disney+ musical film Clouds, which she starred in alongside Fin Argus.

Meanwhile, she headed to the studio with Captain Cuts' Ryan McMahon, returning with the single "Skin" in January 2021. It marked her debut for Island Records. Another track, "Skinny Dipping," arrived that September as the first single off her fifth studio album, emails i can't send. Released in July 2022, the record peaked at number 23 on the Billboard 200 and spawned several more popular singles, including the John Ryan-produced "Fast Times" and the Jason Evigan-produced "Vicious." A cover of Taylor Swift's "I Knew You Were Trouble" arrived in October 2023. A month later, Carpenter delivered the holiday-themed EP Fruitcake, which featured originals including the single "A Nonsense Christmas," as well as a pop-infused rendition of the Irving Berlin classic "White Christmas."

Released in April 2024, her single "Espresso" became a global smash, topping several charts around the world and making the Top Five in the U.S. She followed it a couple months later with "Please Please Please." Both singles paved the way for her sixth studio album, 2024's Short n' Sweet, which found her working with producers Jack Antonoff and Julian Bunetta. Along with topping the Billboard 200, the album also picked up Grammy nominations for Album of the Year, Best Pop Vocal Album, Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical. At the 2025 ceremony, she took home her first Grammy Awards for Best Pop Vocal Album and Best Pop Solo Performance.

Carpenter reunited with Antonoff for her next album, and the lead single, June 2025's bright, tinny synth pop tune "Manchild," was another international hit; it went to number one in the U.K., Ireland, and in the States. The complete Man's Best Friend followed on Island in August”.

I am a big fan of Sabrina Carpenter and am excited by what is next. I wonder if she will take up some acting roles in addition to releasing new music. Later this month, Carpenter plays the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival 2026, though I am not sure what comes after that. This playlist assembles essential Sabrina Carpenter cuts. Proving that she is…

A Pop great.

FEATURE: Spotlight: Slayyyter

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

 

Slayyyter

__________

I was pretty sure that…

PHOTO CREDIT: Ethan Holland for FADER

I had spotlighted Slayyyter recently, but I can find no record of it. So I am sort of doing this to make amends. I shall end with a review of her new album, WOR$T GIRL IN AMERICA. I am starting out with some recent interviews. Slayyyter is the alias of Catherine Grace Garner. This is not the first album from the Missouri-born artist. Her debut, Troubled Paradise, was released in 2021. A lot of new artists have been proclaimed the future of Pop or the sounds of today. I do think that Slayyyter is not only one of the most important and astonishing artists we have today. I feel that she will inspire so many other artists coming through. WOR$T GIRL IN AMERICA is an example of her peerless talent. I want to come to interviews now. There are a lot of new interviews with Slayyyter. I am starting out with Cosmopolitan and their chat. Declaring that this artist has released a new album that is” gory, glittery, and introspective just in time for festival season”, Slayyyter has a busy diary ahead. She is playing Reading and Leeds in the summer. I feel that she could have headlined the festival. Maybe she will do soon enough. She plays London’s Roundhouse in November, but that is already sold out:

“Congrats on Worst Girl in America. How are you feeling about it now that everything’s out?

I get really nutty on release day. I kind of like it. I feel very anxious and fearful, but there’s really nothing to be afraid of. People already like the singles, but it’s hard to describe. It’s just a weird feeling of doom.

Even the title is quite polarizing. How did you decide this was the name of the record? Was it something you had in mind before hitting the studio, or did it come to you as you started working on the music?

I was inspired by my skater friends in St. Louis. There’s this terminology or nickname if someone’s drunk too much, like “He’s the worst dude.” “Worst girl” feels like it could be a term of endearment, but it could also be something I feel insecure about, like people thinking I’m not a good artist or person, feeling annoying, or like I don’t really fit in with any of my peers. As soon as that title popped into my head, it clicked.

Well, you’ve been an “artist to watch” since those days, and they say it takes 10 years to become an overnight success. Does this era feel like you stepping into your next form? How do you feel you’ve grown up within pop?

The reason we keep seeing artists with long-winded careers recently having big breakout moments is that it takes time to develop yourself. Back in the 90s, you would be swallowed into the system at a very young age, but you would be developed for years before your first song ever hit the market. Now, you have something hit on the internet, and then you’re thrown into the deep end and told to swim.

This project is not something I could have made at any other point in my life because it required years of experience and exploring different sides of me. I finally hit the mark on who I am as an artist, where I haven’t really been able to do that in the past. This album is a sweet spot of what my true sound is and what my visual output looks like, and it’s an evolution of what I'm capable of creatively. That can only come from years of trying and failing.

This era has such a gritty glam-meets-Americana aesthetic. What was on your moodboard, and how are you bringing that visual world to the stage at festivals this summer?

I’m going to be performing with a band for the first time, which I’ve never done. The music really called for that, and I didn’t want it to be me and a DJ performing to a track. I was really inspired by the Soul Wax tour documentary and how no two shows were ever the same—they would switch it up every single night. Worst Girl in America lends itself to a live setting so well, and I’m excited for festivals to give it a different energy. My biggest goal for the tour is to make it feel like people are stepping into a music video with the set design and the band”.

Even though I am spotlighting Slayyyter, I am not referring to her as emerging or up and coming. She has been in the industry for a long time and put out quite a bit of work. Established and with huge gigs booked, this is someone perhaps who is becoming a modern idol. EUPHORIA. spoke with Slayyyter to discuss the sensational WOR$T GIRL IN AMERICA:

“Since 2018, Slayyyter has maintained an impressively steady output, releasing a string of singles, three studio albums, a mixtape, and a remix EP. Alongside headlining her own tours, she has also supported Tove Lo and Kesha, ensuring her profile continues to rise. What began as a small online cult following has steadily expanded, with Slayyyter’s fanbase growing louder and more visible as her influence widens.

“Everything’s been a slow build over the past couple of years,” she says. “Instead of chasing a viral moment, I’ve focused on building my fan base organically. You can’t really predict those big moments anyway. It’s been gradual — everyone is kind of coming together over time. I feel a bit like a cult favorite, which feels real. I never tried to occupy that position, but over the years, it’s slowly become this little inside club.”

During the creative process, Slayyyter knew things felt different this time around. “This was the first album where I really felt my age while making it. I’m almost 30. I don’t want to still be called ‘up and coming’ at 33,” she reveals. Her previous frustrations even almost caused her to quit altogether. “I started asking myself if I wanted to do this forever. Should I move back to Missouri? Do something else? I love music and visuals more than anything — it’s my heart and soul. But you reach a point where you ask what you’re fighting for. So I decided to make the sickest record I could, give it everything, and if nothing happens, at least I made something I’m proud of,” Slayyyter continues.

However, she recognizes that this album wouldn’t exist without that constraint. “I couldn’t have made this album at 21,” Slayyyter declares. “It came from being older and feeling that pressure. For the first time, I didn’t care about writing a hit. I didn’t care about radio or TikTok song lengths. If I wanted to make a six-minute song, I did. A very cool project came out of that freedom.”

I saw online there had been speculation about the album title. Can you reveal why you chose WOR$T GIRL IN AMERICA?

This was always the main title. I had another one floating around that I’m saving for the next project, but this just made the most sense. It’s how I feel a lot of the time. It’s tongue-in-cheek — it can be sarcastic or real. It started as a term of endearment from my skater friends. If I was hungover or threw up at a party, they’d joke and say “worst girl.” But a lot of the songs are about my angst and anger — where I sit in music, in social settings, feeling like a loser sometimes. There are moments where I feel like the worst person in the world. I don’t really have artist peers I’m close with. I don’t feel like people have taken my music seriously. It’s been years of being called “up and coming,” and when you’re almost 30, that starts to feel insulting. I channeled all of that into this album and the title. Sometimes I feel like I’m too drunk at a party, not doing what I’m supposed to be doing, not making people enough money. It felt like the perfect title to capture where I’m at in my career and life.

“GAS STATION” is also another standout. Production wise, it feels as if you took notes from early Crystal Castles.

I grew up listening to Crystal Castles and that Tumblr-era music. “GAS STATION” was one of the first songs for this project. My friend Marvy and I started it, and I kept saying I wanted to make “iPod music” — music that reminds me of being a teenager, downloading songs intentionally, curating what lived on your iPod. It was before Spotify really took over. “iPod music” almost feels like a genre to me — indie electronic from 2010–2011. Nostalgic but still forward-thinking. “GAS STATION” was the first one that really defined that sound for this project. It feels like something I would’ve loved in high school, but it also feels timeless. Crystal Castles is definitely an influence, even if the album wasn’t directly inspired.

Gosh, I feel like everyone wanted their own song to feature on an iPod commercial.

Back then, getting an iPod commercial sync could make an artist’s career. I remember discovering so much through iTunes’ Free Single of the Week and Free Video of the Week. It was such a big editorial moment. A lot of indie electronic or alt songs would get that placement — the kind of thing you’d hear on Gossip Girl. That’s the spirit of this album. Creative music videos that didn’t need huge budgets, just strong ideas. I’ve tried to approach the visuals the same way. The visuals are just as important as the music, and they’re very

You finish the album with “BRITTANY MURPHY.” Why did you want to end the album on that note?

That song is a very personal diary entry. I was feeling stuck in my career and having dark thoughts. I kept thinking, if this were the last album I ever made, what would I want it to be? Would I leave behind party songs, or something more personal? “BRITTANY MURPHY” isn’t really about her specifically — it’s about my own suicidal thoughts and feelings. But she inspires me. Uptown Girls meant so much to me growing up. The themes of girlhood and not feeling like a grown woman even when you are — that resonated deeply. The title is more about honoring her, but the song is about me. Ending the album there felt complete. You go through all the angst, insecurity, bravado, and then it lands in something sad and honest. It felt like tying a bow on the whole emotional journey”.

Adrian Horton, writing for The Guardian, spoke with an artist who was hitting a peak. She writes how “the self-described ‘worst girl in America’ is having a breakthrough”. It must be a bit frustrating for Slayyyter to be seen as a new artist or someone still coming through. I think WOR$T GIRL IN AMERICA will change that. Horton also notes: “Slayyyter’s new album Worst Girl in America scratches a similar anarchic itch. Immediate, vertiginous and diabolically cheeky, the after-hours record finds her channelling a ferality that feels rare in our slop-ified pop culture (cue the rock-tinged Cannibalism), and has garnered breathless hype among those in the know”:

“Out of her midwest trash drag, Slayyyter is also midwest nice – chatty, digressive, eager to discuss any of the many naff noughties cultural references that inform Worst Girl in America’s haute-trash style, from paparazzi shots of Lindsay and Paris to Kate Moss’s rain-soaked boots at Glastonbury (as an homage, the album’s vinyl appears stained by dirt), and Perez Hilton to The Hills. We’re breezily FaceTiming from what appears to be her bed in Los Angeles, recalling mutual teenage obsessions from a time when celebrities “seemed both glamorous and totally out of control”, partying and battling TMZ in a way “that felt like a completely foreign world to my suburban midwest upbringing”. Like much of her fanbase, Slayyyter is highly pop-culture literate, shaped by years on Twitter (irony) and Tumblr (evocative pastiche). Growing up in suburban St Louis, she was “a bit of a loner kid” who found her tribe online, and whose interests in celebrity culture and music were “one and the same”.

Her early music, posted to Soundcloud in between shifts as a receptionist at a hair salon – “they wouldn’t let me touch the hair, only the phone” – turned popculturediedin2009 fixations into vibrantly tacky, bombastic, deep-fried pop. “It was very much a parody on that kind of paparazzi, McBling, tabloid, trashy girl,” she recalls – webcam photos with Paris’s mugshot in the background, knowingly ridiculous yet catchy songs about Juicy Couture and rhinestone jeans. After her first major breakup with a boyfriend in Missouri, the artist then known as Slater coped by trying to get all her social media handles in order – hence the three Ys, under which she released her first track with a beat bought from the underground electronic producer and fellow very online teen Ayesha Erotica. The Bacardi-soaked BFF went moderately viral in the right circles for 2017 – stan Twitter, largely – while Slayyyter was on shift at the salon. “I remember sitting at my desk at my job and a magazine put it on their songs of the moment list, and I was like: what is going on? It was so fast.”

At the time, “hyperpop” was not an overused genre term for any self-referential, boundary-pushing electronic music outside the mainstream, and Y2K was not yet an all-encompassing aesthetic. “I feel annoying saying this, but at the time when Ayesha and I were making music, no one was doing that yet, it wasn’t a trend yet,” she says. “Now you type Y2K into your search bar and it’s like every fast-fashion brand has a section on their site.” McBling had legs, and the stan internet-to-experimental-pop-darling pipeline flowed.

Still living with her mom in St Louis, Slayyyter cobbled together attention-grabbing tracks into a mixtape and indie record deal, then a spot on Charli xcx’s self-titled tour in 2019. There was a move to LA to make full albums: her gussied-up 2021 debut Troubled Paradise and the cocaine chic of 2023’s Starfucker, an intoxicating and deeply underrated exploration of Hollywood’s destructive and defiantly plastic allures. There were tours with Tove Lo and, more recently, Kesha. There were unexpected wins: Daddy AF, a dementedly horny and catchy riff on the slut persona, which in 2024 became one of the least likely songs to be included in an Oscar-winning movie when it soundtracked strip club scenes in Sean Baker’s film Anora.

But approaching 30, navigating pop’s hollowed-out middle class started to feel bleak. She had big co-signs but seemed to have hit the ceiling of being “famous but not quite”, as Charli xcx put it on her career-realigning 2024 album Brat.

“It feels so depressing to say, but I was like, ‘Oh, I guess it’s over for me,’” Slayyyter says candidly. “[I] started from a place of me wanting to do this for fun with the hopes that maybe I’ll be a star. And then when it kind of happens but not all the way, the goalposts shift. You’re like, ‘Well, my numbers aren’t good enough. Everyone’s getting TikTok hits, and I don’t have that.’

The urgency of Worst Girl In America can be traced to 80s gutterpunk and noughties electro sleaze as well as the whiplash pace of her internet-addled brain. “I have ADHD in a way that is so severe,” she laughs in one of many unfinished digressions. When I note that Crank does in fact hit like Adderall, she laughs – “How do you think that got written?” And, of course, there’s Kesha, the party-girl trailblazer Slayyyter recently supported on her Tits Out Tour. (Like Kesha before her, Worst Girl in America is stylized with a $.) Her tourmate has been a necessarily vocal critic of the music industry’s most predatory practices; Slayyyter has luckily avoided the worst – “I can’t even imagine,” she says – and Kesha has helped her learn through osmosis. “She was unapologetically herself always,” Slayyyter says. “That inspires me to do the same and to not feel the need to be so buttoned-up all the time.”

It is admittedly difficult to imagine the self-proclaimed Worst Girl in America buttoned-up, especially on an album this riotous, which rips through dive bars, motels and emotionally desolate gas stations with preposterously heavy beats and bared teeth. It’s certainly magnetic, and that rare thing for the very online these days: fresh. It feels like a breakthrough moment, but Slayyter has seen enough of the fickle music industry to not allow herself to believe that yet. “My biggest thing right now is just continuing to work on music and expand on the sound,” she says. “I’m not, like, looking for a mainstream moment. But if one happens, that’s great”.

 

I am ending with a review for Slayyyter. NME provided their take. WOR$T GIRL IN AMERICA has received so much praise and affection. NME highlight how this year-defining album “finds salvation in the underbelly of American cinema”:

“Our first brush with the third studio album by the eternally up-and-coming pop genius Slayyyter is a blistering checklist of hedonistic excesses: “Money, drugs, chains on my chest, that vintage Celine / Diamond grills, champagne bottles, swagger I bleed,” she sings on lead single ‘Beat Up Chanel$’. It’s a state of mind for the fast-living, blunt-carrying, self-destructive narrator. “I want a cigarette,” she squeals at last, before the track lurches into a splendorous clash of thumping electro house, peppered with screwed synthesisers and all. This is the ‘Wor$t Girl In America’, take her or leave her.

Charting a chameleonic shift from the noisy proto-popstar of her self-titled debut, to the sultry, ’80s-noir of ‘Starfucker’, Slayyyter returns to the saddle on album three with her take on the lurid world of late-noughties indie sleaze (which she affectionately terms “iPod music”). Here, she indulges in clichés of American life as depicted on screen by her favourite auteurs, from drugged-up trailer trash (Spun) to deprived misfits (Gummo) and even homicidal showgirls (Faster Pussy Cat, Kill Kill!). Inspiration from the latter manifests in the spooky sonics of ‘Cannibalism’, a new-wave bop led by a lusty, cooing chorus that undulates between screamo-pop and the bravado of a tragic, on-screen heroine.

At the beating heart of the project’s explosive and utterly delirious sound lies ‘Crank’, a salacious, screaming techno track with shudders of industrial rip-roars that features some of this year’s best lyrical offerings. Lines like “She pick up then we fuck, I get so gay off that Tequila” and “He wanna fuck Slayyyter, Richard, we should link later” (the latter followed by a gallant Matthew McConnaughey impression) play to the singer’s historically cheeky pen, toeing the line between the project’s playful, rage-fuelled spirit.

These sonic experiments continue in flirtations with dark wave (‘Gas Station’), twinkling synthpop (‘Unknown Loverz’) and even religious sermon (‘Prayer’). But paramount to all of this is a note of club-led salvation, nowhere more so than on album opener ‘Dance…’, which charts a slinky new territory for the artist as she edges on the precipice of come-up with doses of acidic Korg basslines and slow-burning electro clash. Slayyyter fashions a similar patchwork of influences in the album’s self-directed music videos too, visually feasting on fireworks, rodeos, flickering cityscapes, derelict backyards and a trip to Prada Marfa, as if she was surfing through her own Tumblr feed.

The album concludes with an ode to the incomparable Brittany Murphy, the star of Jonas Akurland’s aforementioned Spun, which the singer has cited as a significant reference for the project. Synonymous with girlhood at its most challenging and delirious, Murphy couldn’t be a more fitting subject as archetype for the album’s final girl. Giggling through the chaos of the past 13 tracks as psychedelic dream-pop fills in the gaps, we can’t help but give in to the cinematic peak of ‘Wor$t Girl In America’, touching us the way all good movies do”.

If you have not heard Slayyyter or followed her music, then now is a perfect time to show support for an artist who is going to become one of the biggest on the planet. WOR$T GIRL IN AMERICA is one of my favourite albums of the year and I really love Slayyyter. She is a modern genius whose music is impossible to ignore. Let’s all salute and show respect for…

THIS music goddess.

____________

Follow Slayyyter

FEATURE: Kate Bush: Them Heavy People: The Extraordinary Characters in Her Songs: Your Sister/Zeus (The Kick Inside)/Snowflake (Lake Tahoe)

FEATURE:

 

 

Kate Bush: Them Heavy People: The Extraordinary Characters in Her Songs

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1978/PHOTO CREDIT: Gered Mankowitz

 

Your Sister/Zeus (The Kick Inside)/Snowflake (Lake Tahoe)

__________

THIS is an interesting paring…

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in a publicity photo for 50 Words for Snow, creating Lake Tahoe

as I am combing characters from The Kick Inside (1978) and 50 Words for Snow (2011). Kate Bush’s debut and most recent studio albums, there are similarities between then. How, for 50 Words for Snow, Bush went back to the piano more and wrote songs in a way she would have done for her debut. Even though 50 Words for Snow is a different-sounding album and maybe steps into different genres, it is interesting that she sort of went full circle. I will come to an animal character from 50 Words for Snow that also shares the name of a song title from the album. Connections there. Before that, there are two characters from the title track of The Kick Inside I need to cover. One of those albums with a fair few characters – at least two more songs from the album I need to cover off -, Your Sister and Zeus are in my mind. I am going to investigate this more for a future feature, so I will not try to repeat it too much. I am going to come to some words from Kate Bush regarding a remarkable title track. I think it is unusual that a title track ends an album. Or perhaps not. However, Bush ended her debut album with a song that could only end an album. As it is emotional, heavy and brilliantly ends. This lingering and haunting note that finishes her debut. I want to first cover the live performances from 1978. The Kick Inside was memorably performed during Kate Bush’s appearance during the Efteling T.V. special:

“On 12 May 1978 at 7.12pm, the Dutch broadcaster TROS broadcast a 20 minute Kate Bush television special, recorded at the Dutch amusement park Efteling. On 10 May 1978, Efteling was ready to open the Haunted Castle, the most expensive attraction it had ever constructed, and they wanted to promote it as much as they could. Ton van der Ven, who designed the castle, appeared in a popular talk show and in April a documentary featuring the Haunted Castle was made by filmmaker Rien van Wijk, who was eager to shoot in the latest attraction before it officially opened. Kate, who just had a big hit with Wuthering Heights, was approached for a television special that would promote both Efteling and her songs. The special was filmed in April, a month before the official opening of the castle”.

I am going to first discuss the live performances of 1978 and this very special…well, special. For this performance, Kate Bush was filmed on the lake, lying in a death-barge. I guess having to show different areas of the amusement park, it was a fascinating moment. How that offer came to her and what attracted her to it. I guess the exposure was useful but, in a busy year, it was also quite a commitment! During The Kick inside, Bush sails down the river, which evokes images of Elaine and The Lady of Shalott, classic poetical figures of Arthurian legend. The sense of legend in the song. I will come to that. However, that idea of Bush as an ill-fated heroine on the water. Cast forward to 1985’s Hounds of Love and The Ninth Wave. Another stricken woman. Different circumstances, though Bush’s connection to and fascination with water present. Obviously, the title of The Kick Inside refers to pregnancy and there is that water link too. Amniotic fluid, often called the ‘water’ surrounding a baby in the uterus, is a crucial protective layer that cushions the foetus from impact, maintains a steady, warm temperature, and keeps the umbilical cord from being squeezed.

I am fascinated by touring commitments and live performances. Bush would not tour until 1979, though she was pulled to all sorts of places in 1978. Japan and the U.S. among them. You think of an album like The Kick Inside and its maturity and brilliance. If an artist released an album like that today, there would be great reviews and praise, though there would not be subjected to the demands placed on Kate Bush. Nineteen when the album was released, she undertook so many interviews and promotional duties. How taxing and draining that would have been. I am not sure whether Bush ever came to love T.V. appearances. Mainly in Europe, Bush was performing – or miming – her songs in front of audiences who perhaps didn’t know who she was. That translation issue. Especially evident and striking in Japan. However, her Efteling might be my favourite live appearances. She would perform The Kick Inside during 1979’s The Tour of Life. However, there is something unique about her in this Dutch amusement park. From the colour of her hair to the concept behind the performance, it is this fascinating thing that actually gives new meaning and insight into the song. Prior to moving to specific insight into the song and what Bush was thinking. However, this article highlights the energy, professionalism and work rate of Kate Bush in 1978:

“The special starts with a tombstone bearing the name Kate Bush. This tombstone was the subject of a lot of speculation among Dutch Kate Bush fans, since it disappeared from view between 1978 and 2003. The tombstone suddenly resurfaced in 2003 at the 25th anniversary of the Haunted Castle, and stood there at the entrance. Since 2007 the tombstone could be seen in the catacombs of the main show in the castle. The Haunted Castle was knocked down in 2022 and the tombstone has moved to the depot of the Efteling.

Light designer Bert Klos recounted about the recording of the special in 2014. “They were very heady days. There were so many different locations and I wanted to support the actions of Bush as well as possible with light. She was a short woman with a thin voice, but very professional. That woman couldn’t be stopped, she just kept on going. When we wanted to sit down for a while, she already stood up and said: ‘come on guys!’. I can even recall a soundman tripping across his own feet from sleep at 1am!” Henk Gulikers, who did camera during these days, recalled: “We didn’t sleep until 3am and at 6.30am we were back around the table with Kate and a cup of tea. We stayed in Hotel De Swaen in Oisterwijk. I got an LP from her, on which she’d written: ‘For dear Henk, the one who is very much alive behind the dead camera.’ Very nice, I liked that. Apparently she felt very much at ease”.

I have mentioned how The Kick Inside is this brave and bold album. A teenage artist releasing a debut in 1978. A woman in the industry. It was a time when there was male dominance and other styles of music were heralded and favoured by the press. Kate Bush’s incredibly original and unusual – compared to what was around it – received criticism and mockery. Sexism and misogyny from the start. It could have been easy for her to write lyrics about love and keep things commercial and simple. However, a song like The Kick Inside showed how different she was from her peers.

“The song The Kick Inside, the title track, was inspired by a traditional folk song and it was an area that I wanted to explore because it’s one that is really untouched and that is one of incest. There are so many songs about love, but they are always on such an obvious level. This song is about a brother and a sister who are in love, and the sister becomes pregnant by her brother. And because it is so taboo and unheard of, she kills herself in order to preserve her brother’s name in the family. The actual song is in fact the suicide note. The sister is saying ‘I’m doing it for you’ and ‘Don’t worry, I’ll come back to you someday.’

Self Portrait, 1978

That’s inspired by an old traditional song called ‘Lucy Wan.’ It’s about a young girl and her brother who fall desperately in love. It’s an incredibly taboo thing. She becomes pregnant by her brother and it’s completely against all morals. She doesn’t want him to be hurt, she doesn’t want her family to be ashamed or disgusted, so she kills herself. The song is a suicide note. She says to her brother, ‘Don’t worry. I’m doing it for you.’

Jon Young, Kate Bush gets her kicks. Trouser Press, July 1978”.

I couldn’t think of an artist today who would write and perform a song like this. Maybe Ethel Cain (just the first name that came to mind!). Maybe seen as taboo or not something people could share, this tale of an incestuous pregnancy and suicide would really create some division. If many male journalists felt Bush was toothless or lacked Punk rebellion and importance in 1978 clearly didn’t listen to her debut album! How many Punk artists were writing songs like The Kick Inside?! She was as compelling and provocative as any around her, though her music was beautiful and sophisticated. Maybe seen as odd or too oft, we really need to reappraise an album that stands alongside the greatest and most important debuts ever.

It is the bravery of the lyrics. How they tackle subjects very few others were discussing. The sister and brother are not named in the song. However, you sympathise with the sister. Never sure how that pregnancy happened – whether it was consensual or not -, to avoid shame on her family and any issues, she takes her own life. I am not sure whether an artist could write about this in the modern day. Even if this is fictionalised and based on old traditional song, it still mentions topics that would be seen as inappropriate or controversial. However, this is one reason why Kate Bush is such a remarkable and relevant artist. She was so far ahead of her time. That idea of her being inspired by folk tales, traditional songs, film, T.V. and literature. I cannot speak for other artists in 1978. However, think about the scene and her contemporaries. I do love how Kate Bush was tackling subjects and themes that went beyond love and politics. Not to say music was narrow in 1978. However, you did not get too many artists going beyond that in any striking or inventive way. It is not the only song in Kate Bush’s catalogue where a pregnant woman takes her own life. In The Wedding List (from 1980’s Never for Ever), a bride whose husband-to-be is assassinated, and she avenges his death by going after the killer. Another song where Bush took inspiration from an unexpected source. On that occasion, it was the 1968 film, The Bride Wore Black. I do love how worldly and sophisticated Kate Bush was and is. This perception that she was this rich girl from a middle-class family and there was this stereotyped and insulting view of her. Lizie Wan (or Lucy Wan, Child Ballad #51, Roud 234) is a traditional English murder ballad focusing on incest, adultery, and murder. In the song, a woman named Lucy (or Lizzie) becomes pregnant by her brother, who then murders her, attempts to hide the deed from their mother, and flees. How do you even discover that?! Her brother John/Jay is a poet and might have brought it to her attention. Bringing that into popular music. Darker elements than what one would associate with a Pop artist. However, Bush grew up loving artists like Captain Beefheart, David Bowie and The Beatles. It is not a great leap to imagine why she would go beyond the normal and write a song like this. I do love The Kick Inside. It is a song that is so heart-breaking. It is also very beautiful. One of her finest vocal performances. The sister in the song is this poor woman who seems to have no choice. Rather than face punishment or judgment from her family, she finds no other way out. Rather than glorify or sensationalise this, Bush handles the subject matter wonderfully. The end of the song (and the album) is the sister saying that she has left a (suicide) note and by the time you read this, she will be gone forever. It is so sad and poetic.

Although not integral to the song, Zeus is mentioned. I have written before also how Kate Bush had this fascination with mythology. The ancient world. Zeus is the king of the gods in Greek mythology, ruling as the sky and thunder deity from Mount Olympus. As the son of Titans Cronus and Rhea, he overthrew his father to lead the Olympians. Known for his power, scandals, and justice, he is associated with the lightning bolt and is considered the ‘father’ of both gods and humans. You can see why Kate Bush chose Zeus to mention in the song. It is a fascinating inclusion. How does he fit into the song? The opening lines are like poetry that warrant scrutiny: “I’ve pulled down my lace and the chintz/Oh, do you know you have the face of a genius?/I’ll send your love to Zeus/Oh, by the time you read this/I’ll be well in touch”. The peculiarity and brilliance of those lines. Maybe it is Bush portraying this sister who knows she is going to die and reach the heavens and join Zeus. The lyrics also mention “No more under the quilt to keep you warm”. That young sibling relationship and how that innocence cannot be reclaimed. I actually have lines from The Kick Inside tattooed on my arm: “You must lose me like an arrow/Shot into the killer storm”. Such exquisite imagery! There is drama and turbulence. This idea of a killer storm rumbling. Zeus is this powerful God that plays a part. Kate Bush saying in an interview how she was bored of ordinary love songs. The Kick Inside is about love, though it is this complex sibling relationship and situation. That mythological mention. Almost like a Greek tragedy in a sense. This once carefree brother and sister who had all the great times are now divided. A sense of shame befalling their family. The sister unable to come back but feels that, once she has died, she will see her brother again. The domestic and everyday combining with mythology and something somewhat ancient. The Ballad of Lucy Wan was first published in Herd's Scottish Songs in 1776. Two-hundred years later, this young modern artist inspired by this tale for the title track that ends a sublime album.

There are unnamed characters through 50 Words for Snow. We have the lover that Elton John plays on Snowed in at Wheeler Street. Lake Tahoe has one character that is alluded to but never really named. It is this lady in the lake. It sort of connects to The Kick Inside. Water once more. How Bush performed The Kick Inside at Efteling and was on a boat and evoked The Lady of Shalott. Lake Tahoe about a woman that died in the river and was this ghostly figure. I will write about her. I cannot help but focus on water once more. So crucial and key throughout her career. From The Kick Inside’s title track and other songs on that album – Wuthering Heights evokes this storm-lashed night -, right through to Hounds of Love’s The Ninth Wave and Aerial’s (2005) A Coral Room, Bush has always been fascinated by water. The fear of being trapped on it or the mystery and potential wonder under the water. I do really love the story behind Lake Tahoe:

“It was because a friend told me about the story that goes with Lake Tahoe so it had to be set there. Apparently people occasionally see a woman who fell into the lake in the Victorian era who rises up and then disappears again. It is an incredibly cold lake so the idea, as I understand it, is that she fell in and is still kind of preserved. Do you know what I mean?

John Doran, ‘A Demon In The Drift: Kate Bush Interviewed’. The Quietus, 2011”.

Lake Tahoe is situated by the Sierra Nevada mountains, directly on the border between California and Nevada in the Western United States. 50 Words for Snow takes us to the U.S. on more than one occasion. In fact, it is one of the most globe-straddling albums. Wild Man mentions various locations. The Garo Hills by Dipu Marak among them. Snowed in at Wheeler Street recalls a photograph taking in New York on 9/11 (“Have we been in love forever?/9/11 in New York, I took your photograph”). I guess The Ninth Wave might have taken place near the U.S. Somewhere in the Atlantic. However, it is interesting that we have this Victorian legend from the U.S. Ghosts, spirits and the otherworldly have also been key from throughout Kate Bush’s career. What I love about Lake Tahoe is that we never know who this Victorian woman was and how she got into the lake. A whole story there. There is something to be written about that. However, I did want to mention an animal. Bush warns in the song that nobody should step near Lake Tahoe. The danger. This Victorian woman whose eyes were fixed or dead. This pale apparition. “She was calling her pet, "Snowflake! Snowflake!”/Tumbling like a cloud that has drowned in the lake”.

Animals have featured in Kate Bush’s music. Her cat, Rocket, in Rocket’s Tail. I do love how this dog called Snowflake shares the same name as the opening track of 50 Words for Snow. Although the songs are not connected, it is interesting that we get this story of an animal who has lost their owner. I am going to mention another animal, Little Shrew, and the symbolism of that creature and how it plays into the song and gives it power. There is something more heartbreaking about an animal being lost or distressed than a human. There shouldn’t be, though that is human nature I guess. “No-one's home/Her old dog is sleeping/His legs are frail now/But when he dreams/He runs.../Along long beaches and sticky fields/Through the Spooky Wood looking for her/The beds are made. The table is laid”. This dog that may be old or he is just deprived of warmth and food. It is quite a tragic story.  Maybe the woman was walking the dog and went into the water. I am not sure whether the dog dies and they are reunited or the ghostly figure of the woman “The door is open/someone is calling: It's a woman/"Here boy, here boy! You've come home!/I've got an old bone and a biscuit and so much love/Miss me? Did you miss me?/Here's the kitchen - There's your basket/Here's the hall - That's where you wait for me/Here's the bedroom - You're not allowed in there/Here's my lap - That's where you lay your head/Here boy, oh you're a good boy/You've come home/You've come home”. You sort of picture this home where they used to live. When the woman died in the lake, Snowflake wandering and looking out for her. Now she is back. Maybe the dog did die and they are reunited in another world. This is Bush and her curiosity beyond the human realm. Exploring the mysterious and unexplained. Wild Man has that sort of curiosity too. Another way of tying back to The Kick Inside. Think of Wuthering Heights. Catherine Earnshaw as this ghostly figure outside the window at Wuthering Heights trying to get to Heathcliff. “My one dream, my only master”.

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in promotional photograph for 2011’s 50 Words for Snow

I am going to get to some reactions to Lake Tahoe and some of the unfair criticism of 50 Words for Snow. This is an album that was not made for singles. Wild Man was released and we had a radio edit. However, this was a song that Bush loved. Maybe an unofficial single, she actually wrote and directed a short animated video to accompany Lake Tahoe called Eider Falls at Lake Tahoe. It features five minutes from the eleven- minute track, and contains elegant shadow-puppetry. It is this dramatic and wonderous song that feeds into an album that feels like a film or short story. Maybe each song that seems like a short film in itself. Very few musicians in the mix. Steve Gadd and his brilliant percussion. Never to imposing, he creates this nuanced mood. So many different shades and emotions in his percussion. Bush on the piano. One of the most divisive element was the vocals from Stefan Roberts and Michael Wood. I do think that they create this heaving aspect. An ethereal nature. It has this choral angle that seems to fit with the Victorian inspiration. Something classical and old-world. Look at the animated video for the song. Bush would direct more than one animated video. Eider Falls at Lake Tahoe focuses on Snowflake. The dog that gambles and runs along. We see this frail woman come down the steps of a house whilst her dog waits. The combination of the song, the video and the haunting vocals from Stefan Roberts and Michael Wood is phenomenal. Lake Tahoe was released as a picture disc 10″ single, made exclusively for Record Store Day in 2012 in a limited edition of just two-thousand copies. Among Angels was a B-side. One of the absolute highlights from 50 Words for Snow. I love everything about Lake Tahoe. How we do go to America and this great lake but tie it to a Victorian legend. Maybe people visit there now and feel they see this woman rise from the water. Rathe than it being all about that idea, it is more about Snowflake and this bereft or lost pet trying to find their way back to the woman. Like The Kick Inside’s title track, such a fascinating and different subject to write about. How many other artists in 2011 were writing songs like this?!

I do feel that 50 Words for Snow got a lot of unfair criticism. People not willing to listen to seven longer songs, rather than shorter numbers. This idea that Kate Bush was a Pop artist who was going to write shorter tracks or something more commercial. Beyond the fringe of the mainstream, this was an artist always changing and doing something new. Chamber Jazz you might call 50 Words for Snow. Bush also released Director’s Cut in 2011. She wanted to release it in 2011 and would have to wait until winter 2012 otherwise. It was tis hectic time of releasing two albums. She started it as a winter piece but, as she wrote, it honed down to it being about snow. She wanted to explore the longer structure of songs, so that the storytelling and journey would be longer. Bush feeling her music needed that exploitation and detail. Allowing it more space and ambition. Perhaps this idea that songs that run so long are stretching people’s patience. I feel 50 Words for Snow is one of Kate Bush’s underrated and misunderstood albums. Lake Tahoe is one of the gems on the album. There were some mentions of Lake Tahoe it in reviews. This is what The Guardian noted:

“Then there's "Lake Tahoe", which tells of a legend in which a drowned woman seems to rise up out of the lake. "Is your kitchen as you left it?" Bush wonders, making the domestic poignantly romantic as she did on Aerial's "Mrs Bartolozzi" ("Washing machine/ Washing machine… "). But despite some sylph-like singing from Bush, and arresting atonal passages, "Lake Tahoe" never quite electrifies; guest chorister Stefan Roberts is just too churchy”

The sense of the outside world and atmosphere. Rather than it being about the intimacy of home or love or something more focused. 50 Words for Snow is so widespread and expansive. Snow is the common theme, yet the geographical spread is immense. Snowed in at Wheeler Street takes us to the U.S. and Ancient Rome. Lake Tahoe to this very distinct and evocative space. Collapse Board had this to say when they discussed Lake Tahoe:

“This album is no exception; the great majority of tracks are strongly evocative of natural environments. Yet despite settings often as specific as Delaney’s teeming grey Salford – Kangchenjunga’s caves, buried beneath the snow in the roof of the world; glacial Lake Tahoe, where Cousteau is said to have found his white forest of perfectly-preserved lost swimmers – Bush nonetheless keeps these real places at one remove. She seems less preoccupied with location than with dislocation, as though the snow, in hiding the land, revealed a land beyond the land – and in particular the lost, occupied land of the indigenous people Bush invokes here, the Wahoe, the Yupik, the Inuit and the Sami.

50 Words For Snow’s multitude of characters and voices fall from the sky, rise from lakes, wind around trees, are rolled into golems, thick with twigs and stones. Its architecture is granular: the songs borrow ideas, names and settings from one another, crystallising into pairs, triplets, drifts. In the thick of this exchange, people aren’t so recognisable”.

Kate Bush was aware of the long period it takes to record album. 50 Words for Snow is perhaps less structured and honed than many of her albums. Bush said there is this divine intervention that is part of the creative process. When speaking with John Wilson in 2011, this is what she said. How she was getting near the end Lake Tahoe and she was playing so lightly that there was this space. She felt like she should keep going. This little hole. Almost like a live take. I want to come to a review from The Quietus and their approach to Lake Tahoe. What they say about the vocals on the song:

“Just as Benjamin Britten blended the voices of a tenor and a countertenor in his second canticle – singing together in perfect and still unison, they represented the voice of God advising Abraham to sacrifice his own son – fifty-nine years later Kate Bush scored Lake Tahoe for a tenor and a countertenor. Singing together they become the voice of a ghostly narrator. “Cold mountain water, don’t ever swim there”, they warn. Lake Tahoe is 1,645 feet deep. Lake Tahoe is filled with mosquito fish, bluegill, cutthroat trout, the bodies of Chinese railroad workers from the 1870s and a drowned Victorian woman still dressed in white satin. The dead don’t float in Lake Tahoe, the cold preserves them. A thousand feet down their blue eyes are open but once a year they walk the shore. Kate Bush sees her Victorian woman searching for a dog. “Snowflake! Snowflake!” she calls out. Kate Bush becomes a Victorian woman. “Snowflake! Snowflake!” she sings out. Her dog is warm at home sleeping in the kitchen. Kate Bush’s skin and hair are wet, her eyes blue, underneath her fingernails is Tahoe silt. We cannot save her. And the snow is falling – softly at first but soon in deep plodding flurries like the heavy walking chords of her piano as she climbs the keyboard out of Lake Tahoe. Quavers of snow crown the surrounding peaks, melting into the chilled water. Lake Tahoe doesn’t freeze. You cannot walk across it, unless you are Snowflake running towards his ghostly mistress – ears flailing, curly white hair windswept behind him. – Richard Scott”.

This song about a woman that comes from the depths and rises, fully dressed. Preserved by the icy water. Kate Bush noting how it was such a heavy image. How she was so proud of 50 Words for Snow, in a way she had not felt since The Kick Inside. The piano-led approach. Bush consciously or not linking to that album. Lake Tahoe exists because Bush was arguing for the importance of the album. 50 Words for Snow very much this complete work that was intended to be this full work that you would listen to in a single go and not separate tracks. Snowflake, the canine character from Lake Tahoe, one of the most interesting I think. Even if we feel the song is about the woman who died in a lake and can be seen rising, it seems like a story about a dog who is looking to reunite. Something that holds on but is lost and scared. Maybe I am reading that wrong. 50 Words for Snow, named or not, has this broad and fascinating cast of characters. Snowflake up there with the most compelling. That is why I wanted to examine him/her for…

THIS Kate Bush feature.

FEATURE: Spotlight: Domi Hawken

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

PHOTO CREDIT: Domi Hawken

 

Domi Hawken

__________

I am not sure…

how I came across Domi Hawken. I think I was on Instagram and her profile was suggested for me based on my likes/preferences. I had never heard her music before but, upon further investigation, I was intrigued! You can follow her on Instagram (all the links are at the bottom of this feature), and she does have a Twitter and Facebook page, but the former especially has not been updated for a long time. Domi Hawken is a London-based Indie/Alternative artist known for a Dark-Rock sound that merges Punk, Folk, and Rock 'n' Roll with emotionally raw vocals. Someone who used to write for others, Hawken launched her solo career in Liverpool before moving to London, releasing the stunning 2024 E.P., Sociable Pariah, and launching a 2026 project to release twelve songs in twelve months. I am writing this feature on 28th March, so I am too early to include the March song from her. Break My Heart Again will be available from Tuesday (31st March). Her February song, Stalling., is one of my favourite of this year. In terms of her influence, I have seen in interviews how she has discussed Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan and Tom Waits. Or journalists have noted how these artists are important to her and feed into her music. This ‘holy trinity’ of songwriters, you can sense some of their genius and mood through her own work. However, in a scene where there are soundalikes and samey artists, Domi Hawken definitely stands as an original. That’s what I think.

I am going to get to some press about her. Although Hawken is quite new to a lot of people’s radar, she is someone who has been in the music industry for a while, as I say, writing for others before embarking on her own material. When you look at the visuals for her songs too, you realise that Hawken has this gravitas and pull. Someone who is as engaging in front of the camera as she is on the microphone. Effortless cool and authority, but also a sense of mystery and vulnerability. I wonder if she will ever consider acting in the future, as she has this hugely engaging aspect that makes the songs strike even harder. I digress somewhat! I am going to start out by wondering whether there are dates coming up for Domi Hawken, as this is someone I would love to see live. I can imagine she is such a spectacular and powerful solo artist who leaves the crowds wowed. After recently discovering her, I am really fascinated by her sound, influences and the whole package! This complete artist that warrants wider airplay. I wonder if too if stations like BBC Radio 6 Music have picked up on her, as she seems ready-made for their playlist. Maybe I have missed her music being played on the station but, with a new single dropping late each month for this year, it is a perfect time to embrace and celebrate such a distinct and enormously talented artist. Someone who I can see spending years in the industry building her reputation as a world-class vocalist and songwriter. Maybe producing for other artists in the future too.

I am wondering whether Domi Hawken will release an E.P. or album this year. I guess, with a single a month coming, that in itself is an album’s worth of material. There will be such big demand for her to come to the stage. I do love artists who are so honest with their music. That it is not about being polished, TikTok-ready and following the herd. It is going to be so exciting seeing where this stunning queen goes from here and how her career develops. I do hope that we get an interview with Domi Hawken in the middle of the year maybe, as she is embarking on this project of a song every month. Catching up to see how it is progressing and what is inspiring her songs. It is not just the case of putting out songs quickly that sound the same. Blue Fish and Stalling. are very different. Last year’s E.P., Water and the Wine, very different too. Such a curious and diverse artist, perhaps I should have held out writing this until the new single came out! I might pop it in a future feature about her. Or, if I get to interview Hawken, slip it in there. I want to come to Mystic Sons and their interview from last year. Around the time The Moment I Need You the Most was released, I do love the artists Domi Hawken name-checked when asked about her childhood tastes:

“Erupting with raw rock 'n' roll energy 'The Moment I Need You The Most' dives deep into unrequited love while transcending conventional heartbreak through Hawken's signature blend of punk swagger and folk storytelling. "To me, the song is unhinged," Hawken reveals "It isn't about pining over someone you're in a relationship with - the protagonist is desperate, maybe the person she's singing about barely knows her, their relationship being completely overblown in her mind."

Following the single's release, we sat down with Domi to explore the inspirations behind her sound as she prepares to unveil what promises to be her most ambitious work yet.

What kind of music did you love when you were younger?

All sorts, it was a real mix. There was all the older stuff that my Dad was showing me, which I loved, mixed in with what my older sister was showing me. So I loved led zeppelin but I was also super into Steps, then when I was 14 I ‘discovered’ Bob Dylan and that literally changed my life forever.

What was the first album you remember owning?

It was either Maroon 5, Songs about Jane or White Stripes,  Elephant. We did have a Spice Girls cassette, but I’m not sure I can claim ownership, it was probably my sister’s.

What’s the most rewarding part of being a musician? And the most frustrating part?

The people who listen to the music, it’s a double edged sword. I’ve had messages from people saying they listened to a song of mine before going on a date and it made them less nervous, or on the way to work to pump themselves up, and that’s great seeing a song become bigger than what you created, watching it mean something to complete strangers. But also, you can’t control any of it. I can’t make anyone like what I’m doing, or come to a show, or listen to a song, and sometimes it can feel like you’re just throwing stuff into the void and hoping someone notices it.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve received as a musician?

Stop thinking. You’re not a musician if you’re not engaging in some kind of music, playing or writing. Don’t overthink or question ‘will this be popular?’ The very worst songs I’ve ever written were when I was trying to write like somebody else or in a way I thought people wanted. I have no control over that, in a way it’s none of my business what people think of the music once it’s out there and if you focus on that you’ll never create anything. So, stop thinking, just write, play, put it out and then drop it, onto the next”.

There is not a lot online so far regarding Domi Hawken at the moment. However, given the amount of new music she is putting out this year, there will be more promotion and insight into this remarkable artist. I am going to end with Richer Unsigned and their piece this year about Blue Fish. A phenomenal single from an artist who I think will have a very bright future:

“London-based indie/alternative artist Domi Hawken launches her bold 2026 project – one new song every month – with the haunting first release, ‘Blue Fish.’

Dark, guitar-driven and emotionally unfiltered, the track explores self-discovery at the point where love, life and death collide. Raised on Leonard Cohen and Led Zeppelin, Hawken blends poetic introspection with raw rock intensity, delivered through a DIY, home-recorded, grunge aesthetic that favours honesty over polish”.

If you have not discovered the remarkable Domi Hawken, then make sure that you follow her. I am a recent fan but, after hearing her music, I am going to keep an eye to see where she heads. Her work is progressing and growing. Her second E.P., last year’s The Water and the Wine, built on the promise and brilliance of Sociable Pariah. Spill Magazine wrote about the incredible sophomore E.P. last year: “Her upcoming EP Water and The Wine promises to be Hawken’s most ambitious work to date, showcasing a different side to her artistry. Moving away from the rigid vision of her debut, Hawken has embraced a more collaborative approach with her band members Matt Robson, Cyprien Jacquet, and Kobi Pham. “When our drummer Cyprien sent back his first version of ‘Water And The Wine,’ he asked if it was what I wanted,” she recalls. “I told him it was so much better than what I wanted. From that moment, I was much more relaxed about letting the guys put their stamp on the songs.” The result is a grittier, more creative sound that benefits from the collective input of the entire band”. 2026 has already been a really busy one. Releasing a new track each month, I wonder what the long-term holds for Domi Hawken. She is such an exciting talent with a sound that instantly stands her aside from her peers, you simply need to hear her music right now. An artist who will put out incredible music…

FOR so many years to come.

____________

Follow Domi Hawken

FEATURE: Smile Away: Paul and Linda McCartney's RAM at Fifty-Five

FEATURE:

 

 

Smile Away

  

Paul and Linda McCartney's RAM at Fifty-Five

__________

THERE have been various…

IN THIS PHOTO: Linda and McCartney in 1971/PHOTO CREDIT: Daily Record

incarnations of Paul McCartney’s career. As part of The Beatles, Wings and as a solo artist. However, the Paul McCartney and Linda McCartney partnership is perhaps the most unknown and best. RAM is the only album credited to each of them, in spite of the fact that Linda McCartney worked on several of her husband’s albums. It turns fifty-five on 17th May. Before getting to some features about this incredible album, here are some notes and a bit of background:

“The only album credited to both Paul and Linda McCartney, RAM reached Number 1 in the UK and stayed in the US Top 10 for five months. Recording after he’d left The Beatles and before the formation of Wings, Paul initially flew with Linda to New York to record the songs they'd written but arrived without a band. As Paul recalls, “We were thinking of forming a group at that time, Wings. We went to New York, found a really grotty little basement somewhere and auditioned a bunch of people. We got someone to throw a lot of drummers at us, out of which we picked Denny Seiwell who’s one of the best, and his personality fitted. Then we went in, worked with him, Hugh McCracken, Dave Spinozza, a couple of New York session men, and did RAM.” To avoid arousing too much interest, the auditions were held under the guise of a session for a commercial jingle. As well as Paul’s lead vocals there are harmonies from Linda. “I gave her a hard time, I must say, but we were pleased with the results. Elton John later said somewhere that he thought it was the best harmonies he’d heard in a long while. It was very much the two of us against the world at that point.” Despite an initially lukewarm Rolling Stone review, it was later hailed by them as one of his best solo albums. In 2012, RAM was reissued in remastered form with many extra elements, as part of the Paul McCartney Archive Collection.

Performed by Paul & Linda McCartney with Denny Seiwell, Dave Spinozza & Hugh McCracken
Tracks 1, 2, 3, 6, 11, 12 composed by Paul McCartney
Tracks 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10 composed by Paul & Linda McCartney
Produced by Paul and Linda McCartney
1993 reissue: Tracks 13 (‘Another Day’) & 14 (Oh Woman, Oh Why’) produced by Paul McCartney
Sound Engineers: Tim, Ted, Phil, Dixon, Armin & Jim
Mixing Engineer: Eirik the Norwegian”.

I am going to lead to a review from 2012. Pitchfork reviewed the reissue of RAM and provided some interesting insights. In 1971, there was still a lot of animosity around Paul McCartney. People blaming him for the break-up of The Beatles. His debut solo album, 1970’s McCartney, was hammered. Even though RAM is a masterpiece, there was this negativity because it was a Paul McCartney album:

“Sometimes an album gets a review so resoundingly negative that it lurks forever like a mournful spirit in its rear view mirror: Jon Landau, writing for Rolling Stone, claimed to hear in Ram "the nadir in the decomposition of Sixties rock thus far." Which is intense. But people wanted impossible things from Beatles solo albums-- closure, healing, apologies, explanations for what to do with their dashed expectations. John Lennon tried telling everyone outright "The dream is over" on Plastic Ono Band's "God", but that still wasn't a cold-water jet hard enough to prepare people, apparently, for the whimsical pastoral oddity that was Ram.

Landau was right, however, that it did spell the end of something, which might be a clue to the vitriol: If "60s rock" was defined, in large part, by the existence of the Beatles, then Ram made it clear in a new, and newly painful, way that there would be no Beatles ever again. To use a messy-divorce metaphor: When your parents are still screaming red-faced at each other, it's a nightmare, but you can still be assured they care. When one of them picks up and continues on living, it smarts in an entirely different way.

Ram, simply put, is the first Paul McCartney release completely devoid of John's musical influence. Of course, John wiggled his way into some of the album's lyrics-- in those fresh, post-breakup years, the two couldn't quite keep each other out of their music. But musically, Ram proposes an alternate universe where young Paul skipped church the morning of July 6, 1957, and the two never crossed paths. It's breezy, abstracted, completely hallucinogen-free, and utterly lacking grandiose ambitions. Its an album whistled to itself. It's purely Paul.

Or actually, "Paul and Linda." This was another one of Paul's chief Ram -related offenses: He not only invited his new photographer bride into the recording studio, he included her name on the record's spine. Ram is the only album in recorded history credited to the artist duo "Paul and Linda McCartney," and in the sense that Linda's enthusiastically warbling vocals appear on almost every song, it's entirely accurate. Some read Paul's decision as the ultimate insult to his former partner: I've got a new collaborator now! Her name is Linda, and she never makes me feel stupid. In the album's freewheeling spirit, however, the decision scans more like guilelessness and innocence. The songs don't feel collaborative so much as cooperative: little schoolhouse plays that required every hand on deck to get off the ground. Paul had the most talent, so naturally he was up front, but he wanted everyone behind him, banging pots, hollering, whistling-- whatever it is you did, make sure you're back there doing it with gusto.

It is exactly this homemade charm that has caught on with generations of listeners as the initial furor around the album subsided. What 2012's ears can find on Ram is a rock icon inventing an approach to pop music that would eventually become someone else's indie pop. It had no trendy name here; it was just a disappointing Beatles solo album. But when Ben Stiller's fussy, pedantic "Greenberg" character painstakingly assembles a mix for Greta Gerwig intended to display the breadth and depth of his pop-culture appreciation, he slides Ram 's "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey" on there. It's the song we see her singing along to enthusiastically in the following montage.

Critics hated "Uncle Albert". "A major annoyance," Christgau opined. Again, from the current moment we can only plead ignorance, assume that some serious shit had to be going down to clog everyone's ears. Because "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey" is not only Ram 's centerpiece, it is clearly one of McCartney five greatest solo songs. As the slash in the title hints, it's a multi-part song, starring two characters. To put its accomplishments in an egg-headed way: It fuses the conversational joy listeners associated with McCartney's melodic gift to the compositional ambition everyone assumed was Lennon's. To put it a simpler way: Every single second of this song is joyously, deliriously catchy, and no two seconds are the same. Do you think early Of Montreal, the White Stripes at their most vaudevillian, or the Fiery Furnaces took any lessons from this song?

What a lot of people thought they heard on "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey", and everywhere else on the album, is cloying cuteness. But it turns out you can say a lot of things-- things like "go fuck yourself" ("3 Legs"), "everything is fucked" ("Too Many People"), and even "let's go fuck, honey" ("Eat At Home)"-- with a big, dimpled grin on your face. "It's just the critics who say, 'Well, John was the biting tongue; Paul's the sentimental one,'" Linda observed shrewdly in a dual Playboy interview from 1984. "John was biting, but he was also sentimental. Paul was sentimental, but he could be very biting. They were more similar than they were different”.

This review from 2021 also highlights the vitriol aimed at RAM. Even Ringo Starr dismissed it. Saying there were no tunes on RAM and feeling McCartney was getting weird. Fifty-five years after its release and the magic and sheer brilliance of RAM has not dimmed. AS huge critical shift and retrospective positivity:

“Fifty years on from its release, the album is now being held aloft beneath the spotlight and readily proclaimed a classic. Still simple but now “relevant”, “revealing” and “austere”, an endearing snapshot of the time, and of a singer’s circumstance. It has taken time, Lord knows it has taken time, but this collection of songs is now seen and loudly credited for those very same joke-filled, shuffling and spontaneous lyrics to a loving young family that had rescued a tortured man from unrelentingly dark hours, and from the bottom of a bottle.

“The break-up had its effect on me,” Paul revealed later. “I took to the booze. I was trying to recover in whatever way I could.”

Remnants of those dark and unrelenting hours still managed to seep through somewhere though, as thinly-veiled barbs and none-too-subtle digs at his one-time friends and now former bandmates being torn apart by money-fuelled arguments and the endless rounds of high court meetings; four friends now angrily and hungrily picking very publicly over the bones of their joint creation and legacy. And, as a testament to all of this, RAM now stands alone, although suddenly proud. As the sole McCartney album credited equally to both Paul and Linda McCartney. As a family’s scrapbook of lyrical snapshots from a life together, far away from all the madness and recriminations, and of an artist waiting to be rediscovered within the sanctity of a sprawling farm hidden far away from prying eyes in remotest Scotland.

“If Linda hadn’t got on his case,” drummer Denny Seiwell told Tom Doyle for MOJO magazine, “RAM never would’ve been made.”

“She just eased me out of it,” MOJO reports McCartney as saying of that time, “and sort of said, ‘Hey, y’know, you don’t want to get too crazy.’ And made me feel a lot better. And then I moved again into music therapy, which was RAM…”

With each song, cathartically penned and reworked between the daily chores demanded by a working farm and a young growing family, and demoed at night, single-handedly, in a homemade studio that was little more than a simple “lean-to” propped up against an old out-house but containing a favourite four-track machine, McCartney began to rediscover his joy. He began to sober up, “to heal”. He began to emerge from the shadows of The Beatles, from the ties that bound him to John, George and Ringo and from the debris of all the legal wrangling that had threatened to bury him.

“I suppose I was just letting myself be free,” he would admit later to Tom Doyle.

In New York, fulfilling an ambition and finally managing to record in the U.S., something The Beatles had never done, and working with a new band comprising of David Spinozza, who had been recruited personally by Linda, Hugh McCracken and drummer Denny Seiwell, who would later join Wings, the recording sessions for RAM began on the 18th October 1970, and saw everyone enveloped within a family atmosphere, Paul and Linda’s daughter Mary content in a playpen installed in the control room of Columbia Record’s Studio B.

“Immediately what dawned on me was how good the songwriting was,” Spinozza tells MOJO.
“It was some of the best stuff that he did – definitely since leaving The Beatles,” Denny Seiwell revealed to Classic Rock.

The album opens with the track ‘Too Many People’, throughout which McCartney’s feelings begin to form and take shape, rising bitterly to the surface and aimed specifically towards his one time writing partner, John Lennon; the track famously beginning, apparently, with the words, “piss off”, sung in a whisper just above an otherwise slightly psychedelic intro, although now, Paul insists that he actually sings, “piece of cake”.

“And hey,” he tells Doyle, “come on, how mild is that?” And of the lines, “Too many people preaching practices…” and “you took your lucky break and broke it in two”?

“I felt that was true of what was going on. ‘Do this, do that.’” Now it seems as though Paul would not have cared so much if all the “preaching and the practices” he saw coming from those advising John, George and Ringo, namely Allen Klein, had been wise. But, according to The Beatles’ former business associate, Peter Brown, Lennon strongly believed that several songs, including ‘Too Many People’ and ‘Dear Boy’ had been aimed directly towards him and Yoko Ono, whilst both George and Ringo interpreted the song ‘3 Legs’ as attacks directed at them and John, especially the lines, “My dog he got three legs, But he can’t run”, and “I thought you was my friend, But you let me down”. The small image of two beetles, strategically placed on the back of an otherwise simple album cover, would only help to add to all these pent-up feelings of frustration, mistrust and recrimination, to what fans read and heard as barely hidden innuendoes.

One track that McCartney insists had nothing to do with Lennon though, is ‘Dear Boy’. Instead, he says, it was written to Linda’s first husband, who, as Paul sings, didn’t realise quite, “how much you missed”. But, the songs had been pored over endlessly by former bandmates, fans and critics alike, and the interpretations and lasting first impressions had been made, rightly or wrongly. And it was the songs ‘Too Many People’ and ‘Another Day’, the single released just before RAM, that Lennon would soon respond to directly, his track ‘How Do You Sleep’ famously including his own bitter observation that: “The only thing you done was yesterday, And since you’ve gone you’re just another day”. There would be no disguising who that was aimed at.

“Those freaks was right when they said you was dead, The one mistake you made was in your head.”

For Paul though, RAM was a way of making sense of all the conflicting emotions, and of working through them, finally ridding himself of all the confusion and frustrations. “Like I say,” he would explain to Tom Doyle, “that was my saviour.”

Ram is now seen as a more highly polished and professional offering than the album that had come before, McCartney, and with much less of the “homemade” or “rushed” feel about it, even including the New York Philharmonic who added full orchestrated flesh to the singles ‘Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey’ and ‘The Back Seat of My Car’. Still minimalistic and simple, according to the various reviews that mark this anniversary, but now it is revered as tuneful and heartfelt, as a classic album from an artist cheerful and seemingly fulfilled, even in the midst of all the adversity.

“Looking back at it now, like a lot of things in retrospect,” Paul admits to Classic Rock, “it looks better than it looked to me then”.

I am going to end with an interview from 2021 from Paul McCartney. A RAM special, it is interesting hearing his recollections and insights into a time which was very strange and stressful. However, being in Scotland on a farm and away from the pressure and rush of the city must also have provided some space at least:

“Locutus on Twitter: In another interview you mentioned (when composing songs) "you know when it's a good one". When making RAM - a now highly acclaimed record - did you know it would be a good one?

Paul: I thought it was a good one, and enjoyed making it, and felt like I’d made a good album. What ruined it for me was that it was not well received critically, and that kinda put me off. Which is weird, it’s sort of weak of me to be put off by a review, but these things happen. The adverse reviews made me think ‘oh, maybe it wasn’t such a good album, I better try and make another one’.

But the saving grace in all of this is that years later people would tell me RAM was their favourite album, and that made me go back and listen to it and think again. The critics put me off it, and the fans put me on it! I remember my nephew Jay said to me ‘oh, my favourite album of yours is RAM’, and that was especially nice to hear because he grew up with it. Whenever I had a new album I’d want to play it for my family, so the kids got to hear it, which means he’s probably got nice memories of listening to it at home.

I actually did an interview the other day with a guy called Lou Simon from the Beatles channel on Sirius XM in America, and he said that it’s not only his favourite album of mine, it’s his favourite record of all time. Wow! Considering what great records there have been over the years, that was a pretty big compliment. But yeah, there are people who really like this. So, it’s really nice to rediscover something like that, particularly when you weren’t sure whether it was good or not.

PM.com: Does that change how you think of reviews now?

Paul: Yeah. Obviously, you’re always trying to make the best record so you only put records out that you think are good. The first person I need to please is me. You start there, and you think ‘if I like it, there’s a good chance that other people who are going to like it’. And then when you talk to the fans and they say they like it, or you see them writing in or tweeting in.

IN THIS PHOTO: Paul McCartney during the recording of RAM at Columbia Studios, New York in 1970/PHOTO CREDIT: Linda McCartney

Pintaadaptor on Instagram: How was writing on your farm in Scotland different from writing at studios such as Abbey Road etc?

Paul: Because of the lifestyle we were living, it was very free. The Beatles had been great, and I’d loved it, but I couldn’t say it was free, personally. I couldn’t exactly go to Scotland for a few months. If you were in The Beatles, you had to make records and work. But when we went to Scotland, we had a very free, sort of hippie lifestyle. It meant I could sit around in the kitchen in the little farmhouse we lived in, with the kids running around and me just with my guitar, making up anything I fancied. ‘Three Legs’ for instance was me jamming around with a blues idea, and then with no particular relevance I sang ‘my dog, he got three legs, but he can run’, meaning that everything doesn’t have to be perfect, it can still work. And then I added the lyric ‘a fly flies in’, and I’m sure that happened, with the window open in Scotland! I’m sure a fly actually flew in and I went ‘okay – you’re in the song! Fly flies in, fly flies out’. So yeah, it was a very free period and I think that found its way into the record.

I always think that the way we were living then was the way a lot of young people would like to live. We were escaping the constrictions of society. It’s why people move out to the country, or do a lot of gardening, all of those sort of things. It’s a great opportunity in your life to do something different.

IN THIS PHOTO: Paul McCartney in Scotland in 1971/PHOTO CREDIT: Linda McCartney

Fleur on Facebook: How did the writing partnership with Linda work? Did you sit down formally together like you did with John?

Paul: No, it was much looser. I would be writing something mainly, because Linda didn’t really play a guitar and we didn’t have a piano knocking around, so it would be me messing around with a guitar and I might say to her ‘sing along!’ and then ‘ah that’s good, we’ll put it in’. She’d make suggestions as we went along, or sing a harmony or something, but it wasn’t a formal thing like John and I where you had two people sitting down with the intention of writing a song. With Linda I’d be sat in the kitchen making it up, and she’d throw a suggestion in and that made her a co-writer.

Brendan on Twitter: Linda’s harmonies on this album are exceptional. Did it take a long time to get right or was she naturally brilliant from the start?

Paul: Well, we worked at it. Because that’s what you do when you work on a record, you want it to sound right. Linda told me that she used to be a member of a glee club in America, when she was in college. Like the TV series ‘Glee’! I’d never heard of a glee club before, because in Britain we didn’t have that, and she explained that they would sing together and they used to go to a bell tower at the school because it had a good acoustics. She knew certain things about it, so when it came to writing and recording, she would naturally just sing a harmony or I would suggest one and we’d harmonise at home. Then when we would get into the studio, we’d work a little bit harder to try and get it right.

Looking back at the records we made together, I think our harmonies were a really individual sound, and a very special sound. Probably because she wasn’t a professional singer, that gave her an innocence to her tone that comes through on the records. I’d be singing ‘hands across the water’ and she’d echo ‘water, water’ and do this funny little American accent, and we’d put it in! We were having fun”.

On 17th May, RAM turns fifty-five. It is this exceptional album that I still don’t think gets enough credit. Paul McCartney recently announced a new album, The Boys of Dungeon Lane. That arrive on 29th May. This masterful genius still producing amazing music. I wonder whether he will say anything about RAM on its fifty-fifth anniversary. Despite how disheartening and damaging it would have been reading some of the reviews in 1971, Paul McCartney can be immensely proud of what he and Linda McCartney created. It is their album. Whilst we sadly lost Linda McCartney, Paul carries the legacy and can discuss the album. His memories of recording with his beloved wife. An album warmly received now, someone who went through such hell during the time and when it was released can now…

SMILE away.

FEATURE: Modern-Day Queens: Nadine Shah

FEATURE:

 

 

Modern-Day Queens

PHOTO CREDIT: Amelia Read

 

Nadine Shah

__________

I chatted with the…

queen that is Nadine Shah last year, as she was part of the Together for Palestine single that almost made it to the Christmas number one slot. It was a remarkable and important single that raised money for humanitarian aid in Gaza. Lullaby is this incredible song I asked Nadine Shah abut. Here, I am spotlighting her as a solo artist, as I believe she is currently working on her sixth studio album. 2024’s Filthy Underneath was my favourite of that year and its lead single, Topless Mother, is a song I listen to loads now and absolutely love. The video is amazing too! I am revisiting Nadine Shah, not only because I am a fan, but I feel she is one of the most important voices in music. There are some fascinating interviews from throughout the years I have included in other features about Shah. I am going to dip back into a slightly older one released around the release of the 2020 album, Kitchen Sink. For The Quietus, Nadine Shah selected albums important to her. To provide a bit of context, I will include several that she mentioned that you can sort of detect in her work. Though Shah is a huge original, and the abiding takeaway from her music is this singular and peerless voice.

“Tori Amos

Little Earthquakes

“It’s an honest one, this. I guess I call them my emo years, not that I listened to actual emo. I’d left London for a time and moved back to the north east when I was about 20, and I stayed there for a year. And I realised I’d made a mistake and I wanted to go back to London. I was living with my parents and I had no money and I was saying "Please dad, can you lend me some money so I can move to London?" and he was saying, "No, I already lent you money years ago, you’re not getting anymore. Get a job’; ‘I don’t want a job!’ [laughs]. I was feeling really sorry for myself.

I had a really camp manager at the time, a brilliant guy called Steven Brains, and he was such an advocate for great female musicians I didn’t know about like Diamanda Galas and also Tori Amos. He told me how important she was to him. My mum and dad live by the sea and I would play this Tori Amos album to myself over and over again feeling so sorry for myself. Walking across the dramatic north east coastline looking out to the North Sea and singing along really loudly on the clifftops. I thought she really knew me and she felt my pain. Now I cringe!

There’s something about her vocals that has a unique character. I appreciate artists who show you every bit of them. They’re not there to appease or blend in. These people provide the soundtracks of our lives, and she provided one for me when I was feeling very, very sorry for myself. And it was a really great way to exorcise that pain, so aye, thanks Tori Amos for that”.

Richard Dawson

Nothing’s Important

He’s an old friend of mine. You know when you go to house parties and someone pulls out a guitar and you’re like, "ah right, it’s time to go home"? When a boy pulls out an acoustic guitar, it’s like, ‘Fuck off, he’s gonna play ‘Wonderwall’, see ya later. Time to go to bed, party over’. And when I first knew Richard Dawson years ago, I was at a house party in Newcastle and he gets the guitar and starts playing, and I couldn’t even finish saying "party’s over" because he started to play. Honestly, I’ve never known anything like it. I was spellbound by his voice, his presence, his playing, the way he detuned his guitar strings so they were slack, and I’ve not heard tuning like that ever.

He’s completely phenomenal and he was a cult icon in Newcastle for years. He had a big drinking problem, which he’s talked about, and he’d turn up at parties wasted and play, and then he really got his act together and he honed his craft. He’s been such an inspiration of mine. For me and my friends he was this huge inspiration.

I try not to listen to any Richard Dawson when I’m writing because it makes me want to put the pen down and stop what I’m doing and not bother. I’m in love with his voice too. The lyrics for ‘The Vile Stuff’ are just sensational. And some of the names in the song – I know who those people are! And then I spoke to a music journalist who said, "It’s really clever how he mentions all the Apostles in that song" and I was like, what? Fucking hell, Richard Dawson, you clever bastard. It has all the makings of the perfect song for me, ‘The Vile Stuff’: I love a drunken sea shanty or a song that sounds like you need a tankard to bash against a wooden table. It’s one of the most glorious pieces of music that I’ve ever heard and so different from the music that I do hear or I imagine that I ever will hear. I put it on when I’m mischievous and whisky drunk. Bloody Richard Dawson, he’s the best.

Lauryn Hill

The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill

I would have been 12 when this came out and I think it’s probably one of the only albums I can think back on from childhood that’s quite a cool one. I didn’t have a very musical family, I didn’t have a bunch of muso friends, so I dunno how I stumbled upon it. I would have heard something on Top of the Pops or it would have been on the wall advertised in HMV because it was a really big album and that’s the one you go to.

I knew every word to every song on the album, even the rapping. I’ve been banned from rapping in isolation by my boyfriend which is quite frustrating because I love rapping. I remember being really proud of myself and knowing all the lyrics, but there’s a lot of stark political commentary in her words too, and maybe I wouldn’t have noticed that at the time. There’s beautiful nostalgia attached to it from my childhood but I think it still stands out compared to so much stuff I’ve listened to. Whenever I listen to new music I find it interesting to go back to old favourites, and that still stands out as unique and quite revolutionary.

It’s a really coherent piece of work. It’s amazing, there are all these segues between songs which take place in a classroom, and there’s a teacher talking to the kids. They’re really sweet, lovely, gentle moments, and there’s that one song ‘Doo-Wap (That Thing)’ – it’s quite retro even for the time – and there are these silky songs sung by Lauryn Hill and she just has such a beautiful singing voice. It’s the album I’ve given to people and never got back the most. I swear I’ve replaced it at least 12 times saying, ‘you’ve got to listen to this!’

There wasn’t much after that. You wonder, when you make such a pivotal album, whether an artist feels pressurised and thinks they can’t make anything else like that. And in a way, if you feel within yourself that you can’t make anything better then just leave it at that. You’ve accomplished what you set out to do. Retire as heavyweight champion, why not?”

Last year was a pivotal one for Nadine Shah, I feel. She released her Live in London album. That was taken from her performance at the Kentish Town O2 Forum. I was at that gig, and I can attest at how phenomenal that show was! Such an utterly engrossing and powerful performance that blew me away, Shah also performed at festivals including Glastonbury. One reason why I want to highlight these events is how she used her platform not just to play her music and leave it there. She uses that musical pulpit to talk about vital issues like the genocide in Palestine and humanity. She is an artist who has a huge heart and conscience. Someone who has spoken out against the bloodshed in Gaza and the pacificism of government. Shah also will be busy this year with gigs. I am not sure when a new album is arriving, though I am also going to drop in a review of Filthy Underneath, as it is a masterful and enormously memorable album. One where some of the most potent moments are when Shah opens her soul and brings you into her struggles and tougher elements. Someone who can be very personal and soul-baring, she can mix that deep emotion with humour. Topless Mother is an example of her wit and songwriting genius at the fore! To give a bit of background to Filthy Underneath and Nadine Shah’s life leading up to the recording of that album. It was one of the hardest periods of her life. The Guardian write how “the singer became isolated in grief, PTSD and addiction. But after ‘falling in love with everybody’ in rehab, she’s put her experiences into her biggest music yet”:

“On leaving rehab, she felt sturdier. “In the past, I wouldn’t be able to do an interview or a show without having a drink,” she says. “I didn’t realise how difficult I found it to exist within this industry, being quite an awkward, shy person.” Perhaps inevitably, her skin is much thicker now; her marriage has now ended, but she remains friends with her ex. “I don’t sweat the small stuff. I guess that happens when you nearly die. A lot of things that used to bother me don’t any more. I have no issue with people criticising me on the internet.”

The first thing she did when she got out was get back to work. She’d never acted onstage before until September 2022 when she joined a “gleefully anarchic” Shakespeare North Playhouse production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, playing Titania; but she revelled in her part’s playfulness and earned a nomination at the What’sOnStage awards.

She also finished her fifth album, written with the same playful spirit. Filthy Underneath is a document of Shah’s downward spiral and recovery set to an impeccable groove. It builds on the sonic world of Kitchen Sink but several songs have a wilder rhythmic looseness, recalling the Burundi beat of 80s new wavers Bow Wow Wow, and the gothic exotica of Siouxsie Sioux’s side project the Creatures. Other songs are shot through with 70s influences, such as the Turkish psych of protest singer Selda Bağcan and Indian siren Asha Puthli’s sensual cosmic disco.

PHOTO CREDIT: Suki Dhanda/The Guardian

I thought: is this too personal? But I lost my mystery a long time ago. I may as well make brutally honest work

The melodies are adventurous, and the contradictions of Shah’s inner psyche loom large, as she confronts her shadow self and ego, and laments the end of her marriage. If that sounds a bit like therapy-speak, lead single Topless Mother takes sardonic aim at some uncomfortable counselling sessions she had during recovery. Its delirious word association (one example: “Sharia, Diana, samosa”) comes off like a playground taunt, as she appears to flip between herself and the voice of her therapist.

Shah uses her vocal range to its fullest, too: there is weightless falsetto and, on the serpentine Food for Fuel, a trill familiar to qawwali, the Arabic-south Asian devotional music style. “I’ve always underplayed my singing, singing in my lower register and not doing too many acrobatics in order to be taken more seriously,” she says. “Whereas actually, I’ve got a big voice.”

It is put to stellar use on Greatest Dancer, a strident goth banger inspired by the time she took some of her mum’s prescription meds in front of an episode of Strictly Come Dancing, and the operatic synthpop ballad Keeping Score – both feel primed for her current shows supporting Depeche Mode in huge arenas. The latter song returns to a familiar theme of hers, toxic relationships, but the subject matter is still raw. “I haven’t worked out how to talk about that one yet,” she says. “It’s about male violence against women, verbal or physical.”

At one point, she was unsure whether she would be able to do this as a job again. But her mum gave her her love of music – especially Scott Walker – and it helps to keep her close: “I am holding the note for her,” as she sings on the deeply moving See My Girl. “I couldn’t give up music because it brings me back to my mam,” she says now. “I’ve got that connection to her, always.”

Another standout is the biting spoken-word sermon of Sad Lads Anonymous, with its wince-worthy depiction of rock bottom. “I’m describing being at an awards show, and my band have left, and I’m still there in a toilet cubicle telling a work experience kid my darkest secrets,” she says. “I look back on this stuff and I’m laughing about a lot of it, but so much of the dumb stuff I did, it was humiliating.” Making Filthy Underneath, Shah thought: “Is this too personal? Is this giving away too much? But I lost my mystery as an artist a long time ago. I’m not gonna get that back, so I might as well just make brutally honest work.”

And there is none more brutally honest than the closing track, the sinister yet wry French Exit, about “sliding off the dancefloor” of life. At first she was apprehensive about showing a song about suicide to Ben Hillier, with whom she makes all her music. But another image springs to mind when she thinks about French Exit now. “We actually used the instrumental of it in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. I have a sexual dance with a donkey to that song”.

There is something I am leading up to before looking ahead to the rest of this year. Uncut wriere full of praise for one fo the true standout albums of 2024. Maybe her finest work to date, I do feel it warranted award recognition. Even so, the live dates Nadine Shah performed were full of fans sending tyheir love to her on the stage. I am so excited to hear what comes next for her:

“After a hellish few years, versatile songwriter produces her best work to date

To say that Nadine Shah has been through a lot since 2020 would be an understatement. On top of a global pandemic, she lost her mother to cancer, got married, attempted suicide, went to rehab and got divorced. All of which is funnelled directly into her latest record. Although it explores pain, death, mental illness and the dizzying process of coming out of all of that, it’s also a record that contains bundles of beauty, tenderness, humour and even joy.

Made in collaboration with her long-term writing partner Ben Hillier, it is also musically the most varied and exciting album the pair have made together. The opening “Even Light” is driven by an infectious and bouncing bassline that drills into the core of the song as Shah’s voice floats atop, while subtle electronics bubble away and brass-like synth stabs punctuate. It sets the tone for an album that is leaps and bounds above anything else Shah has done before – a record that’s layered and detailed, coated with beautifully rich production, yet also spacious and considered.

Lead single “Topless Mother” is perhaps the track that feels most in keeping with Shah’s previous work, with a whiff of the PJ Harvey and Bad Seeds influence still hovering around, but the song is somewhat of an anomaly. The flurry of drums, crunchy guitars and animated vocal delivery – which, combined, could easily be mistaken for something by the Swedish psych-rock outfit Goat – soon gives way to an album that winds things down rather than cranks them up.

Any familiarities quickly dissipate: “Food Or Fuel”, for instance, absorbs the influence of the Indian disco-jazz-pop artist Asha Puthli, and turns it into a subtle funk strut that is soothing and hypnotising as it locks into its twisting, pulsing rhythm. Shah leans into singing more than ever here, so her voice feels like a vital instrumental force as well as functioning as an intimate and captivating narrator. This is most perfectly embodied on the sprechgesang track “Sad Lads Anonymous”, which sees Shah lashing out generous helpings of self-deprecating humour. “This was a dumb idea, even for you,” she begins, as a gothic groove locks in, and she recalls tales from “the madhouse” along with a preceding spiralling period. It’s brilliantly direct songwriting that is honest and raw but also goes way above the diary entry confessional. The lyrics are dark and anguished but biting, funny and vivid; it almost feels perverse to extract such pleasure from something so clearly rooted in torment and turbulence, but such dichotomies are what gives the album its flair and punch.

As a whole, guitars take a backseat role here and are generally utilised for adding texture and atmosphere, while synths are plentiful. Itchy, propulsive post-punk-esque rhythms are largely ditched for a more glacial and unfurling pace that gives Shah’s voice room to breathe and soar. On tracks such as “Greatest Dancer” and “Hyperrealism”, her voice sounds truly remarkable. On the former it wraps itself around immersive electronics and a potently hypnotic beat, while the delicate composition of the latter, merging piano and warm blasts of synth, leaves room for a vocal performance that at one point suggests Nina Simone before gliding into something else, sparkling with pristine and devastatingly beautiful elegance.

The closing track exists as a perfect embodiment of the album and Shah’s approach to tackling the difficult subject matter. Its title, “French Exit”, uses a phrase that means ducking out of a party without saying goodbye to explore her suicide attempt. “Just a French exit/A quiet little way out/Nothing explicit,” she sings over a gentle yet compelling beat that almost recalls Oneohtrix Point Never as it gently builds. It’s a roomy, expansive song that feels quietly haunting and devastating, perhaps even more so because it leaves such space for genuine contemplation as the album ends. It allows you, forces you even, to reflect on the remarkably hard journey this artist has been through, while soaking up the immense beauty that’s been created in its wake”.

I do want to include a live review from last year. Performing in Bradford last year in promotion of Filthy Underneath, On Magazine shared their thoughts and takeaways spent in the company of one of the music world’s greatest live performers. When I saw Shah in London, she caused such an incredible effect. People were talking about the brilliance of the songs, though they were also stunned by what Shah brought to the stage and how hypnotising and jaw-dropping she was. In terms of the power of the performance:

“The dark and moody stage lighting worked perfectly with Nadine’s first offering, ‘Keeping Score’, from her critically acclaimed fifth album, Filthy Underneath, released in February 2024. It’s one of Shah’s most personal and profound lyrical works. The songs are a walk-through of her documented breakdown, mental health struggles, spiralling addiction, a stint in rehab and – more happily – her recovery. They offer a vivid account of what she has overcome.

‘Sad Lads Anonymous’ verges on spoken-word poetry and showcases her Tyneside dialect, drawing the listener in. There’s an abundance of positivity too. A BSL signer stood at the side of the stage, and Shah jests that ‘Topless Mother’ might be an interesting one to interpret. The song, about a counsellor she disliked, is a crowd-pleaser that has the audience hooked. She stalks the stage with jerky but purposeful dance moves.

‘Twenty Things’ appears emotionally draining as she recounts some of the people she met during her recovery. The lyrics, “They’re laying flowers by the bus stop, some poor old junkie’s luck’s up,” echo hauntingly around the auditorium.

“Passion and pain”

Introducing the “serious part” of her set, she urges people not to go to the bar – rightly so, no one moves. Reaching back to her 2015 album Fast Food, she has the audience in the palm of her hand, hanging on every word of ‘Stealing Cars’. Shah then moves on to a BBC 6 Music favourite, ‘Greatest Dancer’, wowing with her stage presence and dominating the entire floor. The band are tight and with her all the way. The crowd is fully on board now – eyes closed, arms in the air. She clearly speaks to people.

If you follow Nadine, you’ll know her political passion. Wearing a Palestine badge on her blazer, she delivers an unbelievable and floor-shaking performance of ‘Out the Way’ from her 2017 album Holiday Destination. Chanting “Ceasefire,” the crowd responds. Her passion and pain are palpable, making it an emotional experience.

Nadine is one of a kind. Her vocal range and gift for storytelling through song are a force to behold. If you’ve never seen her perform, I urge you to – she’s a truly unique and deserving artist”.

Far Out Magazine named Nadine Shah their Spokesperson of the Year. Her tireless dedication to activism and music. That was a great way to end 2025. I feel that the rest of this year is going to be really interesting. Hearing that first taste of new music from Shah:

“For some people, music is a means of escaping the often ugly realities of life, but over the course of the past year, artists like Nadine Shah have been quick to point out that we are well past the point of escapism.

Throughout the entirety of 2025, whether on the news or through a constant stream of content on social media, we have been bombarded with deplorable, heartbreaking scenes from places like Sudan and Palestine. Some of the worst atrocities imaginable – genocide, enforced famine, and the levelling of entire cities – have been beamed into our retinas on a daily basis, yet there is still a plethora of prominent voices telling us to ignore it all.

With that horrifying backdrop, though, one ray of hope over the past 12 months has been the prevalence of artists and musicians using their voices and platforms as a means of political activism.

One of the most important events in the musical calendar – Glastonbury Festival, for example, was awash with admirable activism. Whether it was artists like CMAT or Amyl and the Sniffers halting their performances to stand in solidarity with Palestine, countless calls for the British government to take action, or the farcical controversy surrounding Kneecap and Bob Vylan in the weeks that followed, the weekend was a perfect reflection of just how unavoidable these issues have become.

Perhaps the most powerful speech of the weekend, however, came from Whitburn’s finest, Nadine Shah. On the Other Stage, during an untelevised, early afternoon slot, Shah used her incredible set to bring attention to the war crimes occurring in Palestine and the UK government’s complacency in those horrors.

Reading out an open letter on behalf of the persecuted activism group Palestine Action, the songwriter shared, “Palestine Action is intervening to stop a genocide, it is acting to save life. We deplore the government’s decision to proscribe it, labelling non-violent direct action as terrorism is an abuse of language and an attack on democracy.”

“The real threat to the life of the nation comes not from Palestine Action but from the Home Secretary’s efforts to ban it,” she continued. “We call on the government to withdraw its proscription of Palestine Action and to stop arming Israel.”

It was an incredibly poignant, emotional address to the crowd, and one which was reflected throughout the entirety of Shah’s performance. Throughout the year, and throughout her entire life as a performer and songwriter, Shah has always made an effort to hold up a mirror to injustice and directly call out those responsible for them.

During a performance at Bradford’s St George’s Hall in March, for instance, she had the sign-language interpreter sign the word ‘genocide’, declaring, “Now we can all say it.”

During a year in which countless people in the public eye have been falling over themselves not to take a public stance on the genocide in Gaza, or taking the Israeli government’s clear falsehoods over their war crimes as gospel, the unwavering activism of Nadine Shah has been as essential as it has been refreshing.

So, we can think of nobody more befitting of being Far Out’s ‘Spokesperson of the Year’ for 2025 than Nadine Shah, not just for her undying dedication to speaking out against injustice over the past 12 months, but throughout her illustrious career.

“I’m often mocked over my political outspokenness; it doesn’t bother me,” the performer told Far Out. “I’m not an artist that thinks that all others should follow suit and use their platforms the same way I do, and I won’t engage in pressuring them into doing so either.”

Continuing, Shah highlighted the importance of integrity when it comes to activism. “It’s quite clear when artists are speaking out politically as a result of peer pressure, it feels disingenuous. Just do or don’t, I do and most likely always will…until the day you mute me or until the day the whole world is on fire cause you sat there and took it and did fuck all.”

She signed off, “Namaste”.

As we march on into 2026 – and I’m sorry not to come bearing a festive message of hope and cheer – it seems unlikely that things will improve in the near future, either with relation to the genocide in Gaza and Sudan, or, for instance, President Donald J Trump’s countless illegal actions as he marches the USA further into the bowels of fascist oppression.

If things are to improve, however, then the position of artists like Nadine Shah, and their dedication to raising awareness for these issues when many politicians and traditional spokespeople will not, is utterly essential”.

Nadine Shah has posted to Instagram how she is in the studio and working on her sixth album. I am a huge fan of everything she does, so it is going to be exciting when the album is released. Considering the ongoing genocide in Gaza and the ineffectiveness of world leaders in tackling the dictatorial evil and inhumanity that is affecting so many nations who are in the grip of war and genocide, will Shah’s music react to that? Maybe more to do with relationships and how her life has been transformed the past few years, though things are obviously not perfect. There were some really raw and heartbreaking songs on Filthy Underneath, though there was so much warmth, wit and the sort of distinct and unforgettable music only Nadine Shah can make! That is why I wanted to write about her now. Keep your eyes peeled for what comes next. Even though it has not been released yet, I think her sixth album will be the most important and best…

OF her career.

FEATURE: The Ivor Novello Awards and Gender Disparity: An Issue in Music That Needs Addressing

FEATURE:

 

 

The Ivor Novello Awards and Gender Disparity

IN THIS PHOTO: Florence Welch (Florence + The Machine have been nominated in the Ivor Novello Awards category, Best Song Musically and Lyrically, for Everybody Scream (written by written by Florence Welch, Mark Bowen and Mitski)

 

An Issue in Music That Needs Addressing

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YOU might think that…

IN THIS PHOTO: Little Simz has been nominated in Best Contemporary Song for Free (written by Little Simz (Simbiatu Ajikawo), Alex Bonfanti and Miles Clinton James)

the music industry is dominated by male songwriters. In terms of the best music and most successful songs, all men behind the scenes wiring the music and lyrics. I do feel that there is an issue that urgently needs to be addressed. I don’t think that it is the case that the best songs are coming from huge mainstream artists where the writing team is mostly men. Or hugely successful male artists. Look around at music now and the most incredible albums and songs being released, and the majority are being made by women. In terms of songwriting, a lot of the albums and songs are either written by the artist or they are among a small team of writers. It does seem to be case that male songwriters are represented more at awards shows. That is the case today. The Guardian reported how the Ivor Novello Awards’ nominations that have just come out skew more towards men. The awards are about songwriting excellence. Even though Olivia Dean, Wolf Alice’s Ellie Rowsell and Self Esteem are nominated, the biggest takeaway is that the majority of the award nominees are men. I will come to some recent findings. However, I want to ask if things have progressed in the past six or seven years. In 2019, Vick Bain published a report that is a study of gender inequality across the music industry. These words are particularly striking and impactful:

“Another thing that was striking was observing the low number of women, until very recently, winning music industry awards, including both the public-facing awards on television and internal-facing industry awards. Of course, I had an especially privileged view of the awards BASCA organised such as the British Composer Awards and the Ivor Novello Awards (The Ivors). In 2013, all 13 winners of the British Composer Awards were men (thankfully not repeated). In over six decades women have been the recipient of 6% of all Ivor Novello Awards; that percentage has risen to only 10% since 2010. These low statistics are mirrored across the industry; according to the Annenberg Initiative ‘Inclusion in the Recording Studio’ (Smith, Choueiti and Pieper, 2018) report from the US, only 12% of songwriters of the 600 most popular songs appearing on the Billboard Hot 100 end­of­year charts from 2012 through 2017 were women.

At PRS for Music, the royalty collection organisation for songwriters and composers in the UK, 17% of its 140,000 registered members are female (2018). Similarly, 108 (17.5%) of the 616 songwriters nominated for Best Single Brit Awards since 1999 have been women. This year the BBC published its own research looking at the disparities of women in the charts: ‘In 2008, 30 female acts were credited on the best­selling 100 songs of the year. In 2018, the figure was still 30. But the number of men has risen by more than 50% as the number of collaborations has grown over that time ­ from 59 men in 2008 to 91 in 2018. Which means the gender gap has grown.’ This demonstrates the prevalence of men preferring to work only with other men. Moreover, these low numbers affect how women view the industry. In talking about screen­music awards, the Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA AMCOS) comments that, ‘Largely male­dominated awards nominations and ceremonies have the potential to contribute to how women view both the value of screen music awards and also the position of women in the screen music industry more generally’. This scenario is applicable across the industry worldwide. So, the question must be asked… are women just not as good as men at music? In the past decade, we have seen men still winning the vast majority of music industry awards, getting the lion’s share of classical commissions and achieving far more economic success in the pop charts. Music awards are ostensibly the pinnacle of an industry; the best of the best. However, the winners of music awards can only be chosen out of entries entered; in the case of the Ivor Novello Awards entries mainly come from music publishing companies. Moreover, those entered will have usually fulfilled certain criteria such as chart placing, requiring label support and a huge amount of investment leading to that success. You have to be in it to win it”.

Also in 2019, PRS for Music outlined the extent of gender disparity and inequality in songwriting: “Over 1,000 women in the UK registered as working songwriters and composers last year, yet the ratio of male-to-female songwriters and composers remains disappointingly flat year-on-year, with only 17% of PRS for Music’s writer membership identifying as female, signalling slow progress across the music industry to address gender disparity in the profession. This figure was just 13% in 2011”. If anything, things might be going backwards. This article reacted to the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative on a new study that makes for troubling reading:

“The USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative has published its annual Inclusion in the Recording Studio study, which examines the representation of women and people of colour in the Billboard Hot 100 Year-End charts as artists, songwriters and producers.

The report's conclusions are troubling, finding that 2025 saw "no progress" for women in music, with a decrease in participation across every single category measured. The percentage of female artists dropped by 1.6% year-on-year to 36.1% in 2025, while the percentage of women credited as producers fell from 5.9% in 2024 to 4.4% in 2025.

The USC Annenberg report also found that more than 90% of 1400 songs evaluated across 11 years did not feature a female producer – in comparison, only seven of those songs did not credit a man in a producing role.

The numbers are even less encouraging when it comes to female representation in songwriting: the percentage of women credited as songwriters decreased from 18.9% in 2024 to 14.5% in 2025, a ratio of 5.8 male songwriters to every one woman.

"There has been no change for women songwriters since we began this research," the report summary reads. "The numbers are going backward and now are not significantly different than the 11% of songwriters in 2012 who were women. Half of the songs on the Hot 100 Billboard Year-End Chart were missing women songwriters entirely. Across 14 years, women held 13.9% of all songwriting credits."

“The lack of women songwriters does more than prevent women from working,” added USC Annenberg's Dr. Stacy L. Smith. “It means that some of our most culturally pervasive ideas and beliefs are crafted by men and exclude women’s creativity and perspective. Of the 1,400 songs we examined, 11 men were credited on 21.7% of those tracks. This gives a very small group incredible influence to shape culture and ideas”.

The Guardian reacted to the Ivor Novello Awards and the fact male songwriters dominated. Even though a lot of the categories have a majority of women nominated – particularly Best Album -, categories overall are male-heavy in terms of the nominees:

“Olivia Dean, Ellie Rowsell of Wolf Alice, Jacob Alon, Self Esteem and Kae Tempest lead this year’s Ivor Novello awards for excellence in British and Irish songwriting, with two nominations apiece. Self Esteem’s cowriter Johan Hugo, and Tempest’s Fraser T Smith, are also credited among the leading acts.

Tempest will go up against himself in the best contemporary song category, with two nominations: one for I Stand on the Line, written with Smith, and one for Know Yourself, written with Smith and Tom Rowlands of the Chemical Brothers. Both songs come from Tempest’s fifth album, Self Titled.

The nominations reveal the gender disparity in British and Irish music: there are more than twice as many male nominees (40) than female (19), with two non-binary artists making up the 61 songwriters and composers recognised.

Research by the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative at the University of Southern California found that the number of female songwriters across the 1,400 most popular songs of the year had starkly decreased from 18.9% in 2024 to 14.5% in 2025.

Elsewhere among those names, stalwart artists such as Lily Allen, Florence + the Machine and Gorillaz stand alongside those at the breakthrough end of their career, among them CMAT, Jerskin Fendrix and Lola Young, last year’s most-nominated artist.

Billing the awards as recognising “exceptional craft, originality and cultural impact in songwriting and screen composing”, the Ivors have also this year positioned themselves as “a powerful affirmation of human creativity and the cultural value of songwriters” as many are asking fearful questions about how AI will affect musicians’ livelihoods.

Little Simz receives her fifth Ivors nomination for her song Free, from last year’s album Lotus. Young’s nomination is her fourth in total, as is Florence Welch’s; Allen’s is her third, a reflection of the era-defining songwriting of her fifth album – and first in seven years – West End Girl, a partly fictionalised account of the breakdown of her marriage to Stranger Things actor David Harbour.

Coldplay’s 2008 song Viva la Vida receives its third nomination in and of itself, this year for most performed work, following the band’s vast global tour. It is its second time being nominated in the category; it previously won best-selling British single in 2010.

Allen, Wolf Alice, Dean and CMAT make up the best album category alongside rapper Jim Legxacy for his 2025 record Black British Music. Wolf Alice, Sugababes (best song musically and lyrically) and Divorce (rising star) are the only bands nominated among a wealth of solo artists”.

This is something not often written about. When a report is published or you get an award ceremony where women are in the minority, it does raise discussion. This is not a case of female (and male/non-binary) artists choosing to work largely with men. Instead, there is a systemic issue that goes right through the industry. The same is true as was the case in 2019 that this disparity is driven by systemic industry sexism and a ‘boys' club’ culture, tied to a lack of female representation in technical roles like producing. A small percentage of professional songwriters are women, due to unconscious bias in hiring. There are also far fewer networking opportunities, and the persistent pigeonholing of women as performers rather than creators. That is what PRS determined in 2019. Claire Jarvis, Director of Membership, PRS for Music in 2019 said this: “These statistics are indicative of widespread gender disparity across the entire UK music business and shine a light on the need for continued positive action to be taken to make our industry a fairer and more inclusive space. Whether through creating opportunities, breaking down barriers, improving education, or mentoring, we need to work together to ensure tomorrow’s songwriters have visible role models to aspire to”.

I do hope that there is a new report published that outlines a growing issue. There are so many amazing female artists who are obviously writing their own music. However, when it comes to representation overall, there is this imbalance that has been present for years. For International Women’s Day in 2024, Youth for Music wrote about the underrepresentation of women behind the scenes in music and “how finding and supporting the right grassroots organisations can change that”:

“Making music accessible at an entry level and allows communities to fuel the creative scene. It allows those who may feel unwelcomed in the mainstream industry to make a space for themselves and others alike,” stated Nat Greener, founder of Tits Upon Tyne, a breast cancer awareness and women in music platform. “Supporting grassroots movements proves there is a demand for representation and equity at the core of the industry,” she continued.

However, as much as these organisations do to encourage and support women into behind the scenes roles, lasting change will only happen when the rest of the industry steps up.

“We don’t believe it should be the sole responsibility of charities to fund future diversification of British music,” Matt Griffiths asserted. “The industry benefits directly from the work we do, so we need to start to see major labels stepping up and taking the lead in investing too”.

Not to take anything away from anyone else nominated for an Ivor Novello (the awards take place on 21st May), but I am including songs here made by female artists. Even if they may have a few male songwriters in the mix, it is their incredible sonic and lyrical voice, teamed with their talent and gravitas, that makes the award-nominated music so worthy and phenomenal. The awards recognise impactful accomplishments in songwriting and composing; presented to music creators by their peers from within the United Kingdom. After the celebrations have ended, there does need to be renewed focus on this enduring disparity. Whether findings have been addressed and there is genuine change happen. Without that, we will be in s situation where girls and women will be discouraged from pursuing music and choosing it is a career. That would do huge damage to the industry in terms of diversity, inclusion and richness. That bleak possibility needs to be…

TACKLED as a priority.

FEATURE: Kate Bush: The Tour of Life: A Live Innovator Whose Influence Can Be Seen Today

FEATURE:

 

 

Kate Bush: The Tour of Life

IN THIS PHOTO: Albert McIntosh (Kate Bush’s son) and Bob Harms playing son and father for a scene during Kate Bush’s extraordinary and acclaimed 2014 residency, Before the Dawn, at the Eventim Apollo in Hammersmith, London/PHOTO CREDIT: Ken McKay/REX

 

A Live Innovator Whose Influence Can Be Seen Today

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IT is a little confusing…

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush and band during the finale of a Hammersmith date from 1979’s The Tour of Life/PHOTO CREDIT: Max Browne

using the name of Kate Bush’s only tour as part of the title for this feature. However, I have been spending a bit of time writing about Kate Bush’s live influence. On 3rd April, it was forty-seven years since The Tour of Life started. Thirty-five years later, on 26th August, 2014, Before the Dawn began. For the production of each live spectacle, Kate Bush innovating constantly. I wrote about this a bit when covering The Tour of Life. I will nod back to it, as there are some live tours today that have been celebrated for their scale and feel. Even if David Byrne has been touring more than Kate Bush and actually was recording music before she put out her first album, I feel that his current tour – which has been getting some incredible reviews can be applied to Kate Bush’s The Tour of Life and Before the Dawn. Even if legends like David Byrne and massive Pop artists of today have their own concepts and might not directly cite Kate Bush as influential, I don’t think that we discuss enough how her impact has definitely remained today. The live album for Before the Dawn turns ten in November, so I will explore the residency again nearer the time. I did not get to see Before the Dawn. However, there are a couple of questions to raise. How many artists, unless they are major and mainstream, can afford to mount something like Before the Dawn? Also, in terms of preparation, it was an intense process. Lots of preparation. Again, perhaps only the most massive artists. Even so, I have argued before, and will again, how Kate Bush’s live brilliance and invention influenced artists after 1979 when The Tour of Life was mounted. Again after 2014 and Before the Dawn. The sheer scale, joy and ambition of the residency did compel many artists to become more ambitious. I know there were artists mixing media and various artforms into a music concert. That said, it was not really a hugely common thing in 2014.

Before the Dawn was more of a spectacle and theatrical production than a gig. Almost filmic in its scope. You do not need to produce something big and highly ambitious to leave audiences’ jaws dropped. Smaller, intimate and powerful shows can leave an impression as deep and long-lasting. I do wonder, when we think of the great live performers, whether Kate Bush’s name comes into the conversation. The fact she has only been on one tour and one residency since her career began. A lack of consistency. This blending of disciplines and sectors of the arts is maybe not as common as it should be. Modern artists like ROSALÍA do it. Are Pop artists a little too rigid in that regard? You can say that there are phenomenal artists who put more choreography and larger set pieces into their tours. What strikes me about Kate Bush is how The Tour of Life, and especially Before the Dawn, pushed boundaries and definitely took live performers to new heights and areas. Twelve years after that residency and there are some artists today who embody Kate Bush. Reading about Before the Dawn in Graeme Thomson’s Under the Ivy: The Life and Music of Kate Bush. David Munns, an old friend of Bush’s, was chosen to scout venues in addition to offering advice. Another Dabid, Garfath, who directed the video for Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God), directed the filmed sequences for The Ninth Wave for Before the Dawn. Bush in a water tank and singing And Dream of Sheep. The component parts and how many aspects go into Before the Dawn. Bush assembled an experienced and hugely reliable group of session musicians. Including David Rhodes, John Giblin and Mino Cinelu. When you watch a massive tour of a show that does have filmed pieces and there are different disciplines and layers to it, how often do we think about behind the scenes and its coming together? The Chorus who adopted various personae throughout the performance, four of whom came from the stage and musical theatre. Her son, Berie, Sandra Marvin, Jacqui DuBois and Jo Servi joined Bob Harms. Maybe sharing something with David Byrne and artists executing these staggering and awe-inspiring live performances. The people they share the stage with are just as important.

For Before the Dawn, Kate Bush teamed with Adrian Noble (former creative director of the Royal Shakespeare Company) co-directed. His role was to ensure Bush’s visions came to the stage and included some of his finesse and experience. David Mitchell, author of Cloud Atlas and other hugely important books, the two were almost kindred spirits and had this spark and bond. For the written pieces for The Ninth Wave and creating this narrative, Bush turned to Mitchell for his help. Before the Dawn took eighteen months of planning, revising, rehearsing and performing. Actors and singers auditioned. Rather than this being Kate Bush concert, Before the Dawn was credited to the KT Fellowship. That is just skimming the surface of the preparation and detail that went into a residency that wowed thousands of fans. It was not only about Kate Bush on the stage after so many years. If she had done something basic or like her contemporaries then the reaction would not have been as ecstatic. It was the whole package. The costumes, lighting and visuals. Bringing together two album suites that are very different but each unfolded beautifully and with incredible effect. The Ninth Wave from Hounds of Love and Aerial’s A Sky of Honey. The incredible players and this blend of filmed sections and what was happening on the stage. This is what The Guardian wrote in their review of David Byrne’s extraordinary show that they say will restore your faith in humanity. Byrne, as they observe “once again reimagines the possibilities of the live gig”. It did instantly put me in mind of Kate Bush: “Throughout a hideously apropos Life During Wartime, footage from ICE raids bleeds into the arena, while the insularity of the pandemic is a recurring theme, notably when the screens re-create his home for My Apartment Is My Friend. Byrne’s response is noise, laughter and community. It’s beautiful to see the audience pulled from their seats – slowly at first, then all at once – by the guitar stabs of This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody), their voices turning something lithe and delicate into a collective shout along. “Love and kindness are a form of resistance,” Byrne says at one point. You’d hope so”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Kevin Pick

It might be me connecting loose threads or tenuous links. Before the Dawn is in my mind and I will write about it more before the end of the year. I can see how 1979’s The Tour of Life and the revolution caused. Completely shaking up live music and what it could be. Even if the sort of thing Kate Bush did then was more prolific and evident by 2014, I do feel she once more reimagined live music and going beyond the limits. The venue, the Eventim Apollo in Hammersmith, helped a lot. In terms of its high ceiling. Opened in 1932 as a cinema named the Gaumont Palace, it is perfect for live performances that really utilise the full space. That is what Bedore the Dawn did. There was the blend of the dramatic and intimate. Kate Bush not just standing on stage. Out in the audience at one stage and being carried down the aisle. Technically, the Fish People carried her down the ramp and into the theatre. Performers on stages wearing masks/heads and there being this almost surreal edge. Bush being raised from the stage during The Ninth Wave. It was such an immerse and cinematic experience. Think about some of the biggest concerts that followed Before the Dawn, and I do really think that the impact of that residency inspired so many others.

Looking at modern artists reinventing live performance, it does raise the question around a new Kate Bush live chapter. If there was a final residency or concert, you could imagine it being even bigger than The Tour of Life and Before the Dawn. Kate Bush has no plans to perform live anytime soon, and there is the question about what she would include and what a show would consist of. She is this phenomenal live artist who pushed forward and helped transform live music. I don’t think that is acknowledged much. This is what Pitchfork observed in their review of Before the Dawn: “And her humanity is what we should all love her for, anyway—for helping to turn a spirit of restless invention and emotion into a music industry touchstone, for translating high art, high thinking, and her huge heart into catchy, hooky modern pop music. The two-song encore that sends us on our way shows us that knack in excelsis: "Among Angels", from 2011's 50 Words for Snow, played by Bush, perfectly, alone on the piano, then "Cloudbusting", her 1985 hit about Wilhelm Reich's rain-making machine, with her band. Tonight wasn't an exercise in the time-honoured art of battering an audience to death and making them like it, after all. It was about a raft of new ideas from someone who we didn't expect to see onstage again”. That stream of ideas and genius. Remaining fresh and surprising. Her warmth and humanity. You can feel that encoded and embedded in the bone and blood of some of the most arresting and remarkable modern live shows. As someone who has helped broaden and evolve the definition and boundaries of live performance, the divine Kate Bush definitely should…

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush embraces her fans as she takes to the stage for the first of her Before the Dawn concerts/PHOTO CREDIT: Ken McKay/REX

GET that recognition.

FEATURE: Spotlight: Dolder

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

PHOTO CREDIT: Rosie Tonkin

 

Dolder

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IT would be wonderful to see…

more new interviews with Dolder, as they are a beguiling sibling duo that people should know about. To be honest, I only discovered their music this month, so I am kind of catching up. There is a recent intervbiew that I want to bring in. Dolder are the Newcastle-based duo of Dani and Zara Dolder. In terms of catching them live, you can see the dates here. Some brilliant U.K., Irish and European gigs. If you can go and see them and grab a ticket then I would definitely recommend it. You listen to their voices on record and how transcendent it is. Experiencing that in a venue with that intimacy and directness must be spine-chilling and this memorable experience! Their E.P., The Motive, was released last year. It is a sublime and unforgettable listen. They released the single, Sleeping Dogs, recently. In terms of genres, I wonder if you can categorise them. There is Pop, Country and Folk. It is a beautiful blend that works wonderfully. Distinct songwriting and gorgeous vocals means their music stays in your head and heart. I will come to that new interview to wrap things up. There are a few other bits to include here first. I want to include Karma Magazine and their feature from last year. They highlighted and gave praise for the first single from Dolder, Charlie. This is a song that has resonated with fans and made a big impact:

“Identitical twin sisters Dani and Zara Dolder have emerged on the music scene with their first single, ‘Charlie’. The song is an enthralling hybrid of nostalgic and new, with timeless lyricism and arresting harmonies.

The song begins with softly strummed acoustic guitar and delicate vocals. Twinkling piano and the twins’ heavenly harmonies in the chorus give it an underlying country feel. The stripped back instrumentalism are complemented by the melodious vocals, enhancing the track’s emotions. The song is a thoughtful and disarming, as the sisters slow things down to contemplate their unsuccessful experiences with love.

Emotions cut deep on ‘Charlie’, with the track’s lyrics detailing different heartbreaks experienced by the twins. The lyrics are dark and poetic, with lines like “Kiss me one more time before / You send my heart back / Wrapped in barbed wire and it’s dripping black” painting a vivid picture.

Speaking about the track, the sisters reveal how it came to fruition one Halloween: “We drove home in the dark, pouring rain replaying the demo from that day over and over again. It just has such a warmth to it. Charlie is a multitude of boys who we have felt heartbroken by.”

‘Charlie’ marks the first step in Dolder’s journey and a mesmerising debut. The song is out now on EMI and available to listen to on streaming services. Add Dolder on social media to stay tuned with what comes next from the duo, and get a ticket to one of the concerts below to see them support Ben Ellis on his tour”.

It is exciting that Dani and Zara Dolder are working on a second E.P. Their debut was recorded in Newcastle, though the second is them working in New York. A lot of artists do go to New York to record, as it gives new impetus and energy. The inspiration of the people and landscape. It must have been a costly jaunt, through you feel it will add something extra and new to their music. The Line of Best Fit shone a light on the wonderful Girl I Know. Following on from Charlie, it is one of their very best songs:

“Emotionally resonant, the duo's second-ever single following “Charlie” lingers long after it ends, balancing heartbreak with moments of tender reflection. “‘Girl I Know’ is about a very honest part of young womanhood,” say 22-year-old twins Dani and Zara Dolder.

The track fuses narrative songwriting with stripped-back guitars and harmonies, giving it a timeless quality. Their sound feels intimate; the vocal polyphony conveys a sense of closeness as they confess heartache and self-blame over bare instrumentals. “We always knew we wanted to keep this whole EP more stripped back so it allowed space for our vulnerable lyrics to come through,” they share.

Growing up in Newcastle, the twins have been making music since they were eleven. With Dolder, they craft an atmosphere of honesty and vulnerability through acoustic arrangements and effortlessly catchy melodies, transforming soft narrative pop into anthems for deep thinkers and anxious romantics.

“Girl I Know” came directly from a stream of consciousness in Dani’s diary: “Told you I thought about dying on the day that we met.” “[The line] is verbatim and extremely overdramatic (not surprising for us),” Dani says. The conversation that inspired it took place outside a bar on Grey Street in the early hours of the morning. She reflects with candid humour: “No wonder he ghosted me.”

Delicate piano keys shimmer beneath a repeated acoustic guitar riff in the refrain, while raw lyrics — “You craved a body / But it was my mind you broke” — are delivered through soft, harmonising vocals. The track’s analogue warmth lingers like the ghost of a lost love, with minimalist production highlighting the fragility of its emotions.

The bridge introduces an empowering shift, where overthinking gives way to the realisation: “You’ll move on, grow, and be better off, while some guys just stay stuck in their cycle of lovebombing and leaving.” The feeling of redemption emerged intuitively during the writing process: “This song took some time to run, but once we got there, it just flowed from one lyric to the next. Having a slight euphoric, claiming-my-power-back bridge was the perfect place for it to go,” the duo explain.

Dolder's supply feels both immediate and classic. The chorus of “Girl I Know” sticks with you like a half-remembered daydream, while the acoustic textures evoke a warm, nostalgic glow. It's the kind of track that revisits old diaries, late-night conversations, and past heartaches. It stands as a delicate reflection on how growth and melody can coexist in the most intimate of pop songs”.

It is worth highlighting a positive review for The Motive. A wonderful debut E.P. from Dolder, Pop Passion Blog shared their insights and thoughts. I would say to anyone who has not discovered Dolder to go and listen to their music now. Really do go and see them live if you can:

“Coming out from mentally abusive relationships is a battle with your mind. You spend so long being manipulated by someone who was supposed to love you and it causes internalized blame and guilt. It feels like you’re out of touch with yourself and it’s a spiral that feels like it will never end. Dolder just released an EP titled after one of the singles “The Motive.” “The Motive” is a heartbreaking confession about the self-hatred that follows after a damaging relationship. With tension filled melodies and angelic harmonies, this song rips at your heartstrings. If you’ve ever been broken by someone you were supposed to trust the most, this song is for you.

“The Motive” truly shows how deeply manipulation can distort someones perception of care and self-worth. “I assumed that this was love.” You feel like you’re doing everything in your power to make them happy, but they never are and even though it’s not your fault, it’s easy for their deceptions to make you feel like it is. "Lately I've had the motive to hate me." Dolder wrote from a place of reflection on how much trauma can live in your mind without realizing. It’s hard to confront and it follows you every time you feed it. All of this can feel isolating and there’s comfort in songs like this to know most of us have been there. Let “The Motive” be a reminder that your emotions are worth feeling and it’s okay to sit in the pain before getting up and moving on. It's not your fault for the damage caused by someone elses hand.

Dolder is a duo name for identical twins Dani and Zara. They are 22 year old alt-pop singer-songwriters from Newcastle. The sisters are heavily inspired by the rich 60/70’s sound that they bring into their music to create a nostalgic feeling. Emerging just this year, their debut single “Charlie” brought immediate attention. With confessional lyricism and timeless ease, they’ve received recognition from Rolling Stone, Wonderland, The Line of Best Fit, NME, Dork and more. “The Motive” is their debut EP which is out now for everyone to listen. If you’re a fan of Gracie Abrams and Fleetwood Mac, Dolder is the perfect combination while bringing their own unique sound. Follow the links down below to stay up to date on future releases”.

I am ending up with an interview from The Indie Scene. Last year was a very busy one for Dolder. Releasing their debut single and E.P., they are preparing their second E.P. and have released Sleeping Dogs. They are preparing for live dates and maybe performing new or unheard tracks for the audiences. I have so much admiration for Dolder. Obviously they are very close and are completely in-sync. That reflects in their music. This phenomenal chemistry and harmony that made The Motive such a jaw-dropping listen. I am excited to hear their second E.P. It is going to be one of the year’s best releases:

“2025 was a year of firsts for Dolder, a singer-songwriter duo made up of identical twins, Dani and Zara. They released their first single, played their first shows while supporting Ben Ellis on tour, and wrapped up the year with the release of their first EP. Despite being in the early stages of their career, the duo are already making a mark on fans thanks to their intimate lyrics and lush harmonies. We had the pleasure of chatting to the girls in one of their first interviews to talk all things songwriting, growing up in a musical family, and new music to come.

Although they’ve only just started formally releasing their work, music has always played a large role in Dani and Zara’s lives. Their father and former Prefab Sprout drummer, Steve Dolder, fostered their love of music from a young age. “We were obsessed with The Beatles. Our first crushes were John Lennon and George Harrison. And dad tells this story: when we were about five or six, we were sat in the back of the car and just harmonising to The Beatles without realising,” Zara explains. “It’s just been ingrained in us. We’ve been singing together forever, and then, when we were about ten or eleven, we started writing.”

“They were absolute rubbish,” Zara quips when describing their earliest material. However, the twins kept at it and, as COVID struck during their teenage years, they began to take it more seriously. During that time they were constantly producing new material.

When asked about how they found the fan response to the project, the twins agree the experience has been unreal and found themselves surprised by how quickly their community has already grown. “I’m in complete sort of denial because I’m like ‘they’re not fans, they’re just like our friends’. They’re just like our online friends, which is adorable,” Dani says. “It’s really strange because obviously we don’t have like a massive platform yet and we’re very much in the early stages but to have such obsession from certain fans and respect and excitement is a really strange feeling… but they’ve all been so amazing and to see like comments or get messages about how the songs relate to them or their friends’ situations.”

While this moment in time is quite surreal, there was little time to process it all as they’d already started working on their next project. “We’ve been making the second EP since November, before the first one actually came out, so we had almost like halfway detached from that world and put ourselves into the world of the second EP,” Zara says. When asked what more they could share about what’s to come from Dolder, Zara shared, “We have a single coming out in February, which is one that we played live, and I think that will be [a] deluxe [single] off the end of the first EP. And then the second EP will be coming shortly after. We’re very, very excited about it.”

While the first EP was recorded in Newcastle, the second EP was recorded in New York, bringing a different energy to the project. “We loved the first EP because it was done at home, and we could drive home and we were staying with family, which was lovely. And then we had this new business around the second EP and chaos with being in a city like that, which was so inspiring. It just made you want to get up and go,” Zara says.

Having a dad who has been through the same things has also proved invaluable. “He’s the triplet,” Dani jokes, “He’s the third member and, honestly, if it wasn’t for dad, we would not be pursuing music at all, I don’t think.” Steve would play the girls records of great artists like Steely Dan, The Doobie Brothers, Eagles, Glen Campbell and Carole King, which had a large impact on the twins from an early age. “If it wasn’t for dad believing in us so much, we wouldn’t believe that we could do it. He is our best friend, and he’s the funniest man I’ve ever met,” Dani adds”.

I can imagine the house where Dani and Zara Dolder grew up was filled with classic music. These legendary artists. A dad in the music industry with all that experience and insight. Even though they are only in their twenties, you feel their earliest years were exposed to some of the best music ever made. It definitely would have fostered their ambitions and desires. Such a magnificent duo who I feel are going to be making music for so many more years, go and follow them and show some love. It is impossible to listen to their music and not be carried away and engrossed. Their distinct and utterly superb songs are…

TREASURES to behold.

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Follow Dolder

FEATURE: Spotlight: Revisited: UPSAHL

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight: Revisited

 

UPSAHL

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THIS artist is someone…

PHOTO CREDIT: Emily Schumacher

whose music I have huge respect and affection for. I last wrote about UPSHAL in 2023. Even if she has not put out new music for a little while, there are questions from fans around a new album. UPSAHL has assured them that she is working on new stuff. Taylor Cameron Upsahl is an Arizona-born artist who released Lady Jesus in 2021. An amazing debut album released during the pandemic. I am going to get to some interviews from last year with Arizona. The twenty-seven-year-old is someone I feel everyone should connect with. This is a moment where she is building the foundations for a new album. Putting stuff together. There is a lot of demand on artists. That idea of putting stuff out consistently. Not enough time to allow them to breathe and work on albums. A gap of five years or so might seem like a very long time, though artists like UPSAHL have been releasing singles and touring. She put out a live album on 2022 called This Is My First Live Album. In 2023, UPSAHL PRESENTS: THE PHX TAPES came out. She has played here in the U.K. a fair bit, and I do hope she comes back at some point. I have never seen her live, though she is an electrifying and phenomenal live performer. I shall bring in a live review. This is such a uniquely talented and vital voice in modern music. It is a transition period where she is building songs or looking ahead to her second studio album. If you have not heard of her or need a bit more information, then I hope that this feature is of benefit. She is someone who might not garner the same focus and adulation as mainstream artists. However, UPSAHL’s work and live shows, tied to her aesthetic, story and personality, are up there with the most incredible and distinct artists. She will be in the music industry for many years to come.

Before getting to a few great interviews, this live review from 2023 reacted to UPSAHL playing at Roadrunner in Boston. I am sad I missed her when she last played in London. I will try and correct that if she comes back here at any point. I love all the music she has put out to date, and I am looking forward to what comes next. We need to give this artist space to create an album in her own vision in her own time. Being UPSAHL, whatever does come is going to be truly magnificent and memorable:

“On Sept. 12, Taylor Cameron Upsahl, better known for her on-stage mononym UPSAHL, arrived at Roadrunner in support of Swedish dance-pop star Tove Lo for the North American leg of her “Dirt Femme” tour. UPSAHL has been writing and producing music since her early teens, garnering a small following in her hometown of Phoenix through a collection of self-released projects. In 2019, UPSAHL shot to TikTok notoriety with her single “Drugs,” which remains her most listened-to track with over 100 million streams. She then released her debut album “Lady Jesus” in 2021, followed by a series of EPs titled “The PHX Tapes.” One could only describe her style as provocative and outrageous, with selections like “WET WHITE TEE SHIRT” and “Lunatic” as some of the standouts from her more recent releases.

UPSAHL’s performance at Roadrunner was nothing short of electrifying, matching the fiery shock of her red hair. After drenching her white tee shirt in water to begin her set, it was clear from the get-go that UPSAHL was there to make a statement. The crowd’s energy seemed to embolden her as she confidently strutted across the stage, making a name for herself with any audience members unfamiliar with her music.

The highlight of the evening was undoubtedly her viral hit “Drugs,” which turned into a thrilling call and response between UPSAHL and the audience. Supported by two members of her band decked out in bubblegum pink coveralls, UPSAHL managed to connect with the packed venue effortlessly, encouraging them to groove and sing along.

Throughout the performance, UPSAHL wasn’t afraid to experiment with the work of other established artists. Interpolating a cover of The Ting-Tings’ “That’s Not My Name” into her song “GOOD GIRL ERA,” UPSAHL not only welcomed new listeners into the fold, but also commanded the attention of her own fans in the crowd.

Throughout the performance, UPSAHL’s stage presence was undeniably exhilarating, reflecting the edgy nature of her music. She fearlessly interacted with the crowd, at times even running down from the stage to sing directly to audience members. It was this close connection with her listeners that made the concert feel intimate despite the large venue.

Adding to this intimacy were the song choices she made, like the inclusion of her song “Toast,” co-written with Tove Lo. In contrast to her cool-girl affect on “Drugs” or “WET WHITE TEE SHIRT,” “Toast” was a heartfelt and desperate plea to an ex, adding a touch of vulnerability to an otherwise explosive set.

“Wonder if I am still on your mind,” she crooned to a swaying crowd. “How didn’t I know it was coming to an end?”

As the evening drew to a close, it became readily apparent that UPSAHL’s performance was not just thrilling but also profoundly memorable. Her ability to blend the provocative with the authentic, all while maintaining an infectious energy, solidified her as one-to-watch in the indie pop scene. For those lucky enough to be in attendance, it was a night filled with unforgettable music and a powerful connection between artist and listener. UPSAHL’s star is on the rise, and her performance in Boston left no doubt that she’s a force to be reckoned with”.

Before a couple of interviews from last year, I want to go back to 2024 and this interview. I love the fact that UPSAHL gets such a buzz from touring. It can be exhausting for artists to tour quite a lot. However, it is clear the audiences show such love for UPSAHL and there must be this incredible energy when she performs:

“When it comes to your stage/artist persona, is “UPSAHL” a reflection of who you are, or is your persona something opposite?

Everything I do for my artist project feels super authentic to me as a person, but I like to think that UPSAHL is just the most confident, badass version of myself that I get to embody whenever I go on stage. Whenever I’m feeling down or insecure, “UPSAHL” kind of saves me from those feelings.

You have mentioned before in other interviews/posts that you’d be on tour 365 days a year if possible - what is it about the transitory lifestyle that you love?

I just love how connected I feel to my fans when I’m on tour. To be in the same room, getting to engage with them every night, makes the craziness of this job worth it to me - the energy I feel from these shows every night is unmatched. And honestly, I feel like I have the most stability and sense of routine when I’m on the road - Even though it’s a lot of travel, it really is just the same shit in a different city every day, which I love.

In your songs, you mention and discuss things such as your struggles with depression and anxiety - how honest do you get with your work? Are there things you feel like you can’t talk about still with your fanbase?

The honesty and vulnerability that makes its way into my songs kind of happen by accident - I feel grateful for my collaborators that create such a safe space for me in the studio to talk about how I’m feeling, but that means I sometimes write songs and realize the next day like “Oh fuck, is this embarrassing to say/does everyone need to know that this is how I’m feeling?” But I think that’s the point of music. If I’m feeling some type of way, odds are at least one other person feels that way, so why not put the music out into the world? There are still parts of my life that I haven’t shared in the music I’ve released yet, but that doesn’t mean those songs haven’t been written… I feel like I’m a pretty open book when it comes to my music, especially with my fans, so it’s just a matter of time until those songs come out.

When you aren’t on tour, what would a regular day look like for you?

When I’m not on tour, I’m usually in the studio every day, working on new music. I love a sweaty morning workout/sauna and an overpriced coffee down the street from my house in LA, and then I usually will spend some time filming content for social media, staying connected with my fans online. Then, I head to the studio for a session. Usually, my sessions go until about 10 pm, and my day ends with me half asleep cheffing it up in my kitchen. No complaints!

In your song “People I Don’t Like,” you express a great deal of apathy and disconnection - it resonated with our generation a lot, the exhaustion with it all. Yet you are still here, on tour, doing interviews which I’m sure can feel tedious and similarly plastic. How do you keep going with it all? What is it about you that you think allows you to push forward?

Yesssss, love this question! When I wrote “People I Don’t Like,” I was feeling so frustrated with the surface-level conversations that I felt like I had a lot within the industry… and I easily blamed this on everyone else rather than recognizing myself as a part of the problem. In order to continue touring and doing interviews and constantly having social interactions, most people would think you have to sort of dissociate so that you don’t completely drain yourself emotionally. But for me, over time, I’ve found that bringing my full self and finding a way to be as present and authentically myself as possible for all of this makes it feel the most rewarding and real for me”.

The Luna Collective spoke with UPSAHL last year. Maybe she would not see herself as a rising artist anymore. However, it is clear that she is only just getting started. I do think we will be talking about this artist for many years to come. I think I first heard in 2020. It is amazing what she has achieved so far and how many fans she has behind her. That will only grow:

“UPSAHL has quickly become a rising force in the pop and alternative scene. As she embarks on her Melt me down headline tour, there’s a palpable excitement — and it’s not just about the  music. From intricate visuals that tease her forthcoming album to a community of die-hard fans who have been with her from the beginning, UPSAHL’s world is one of transformation, growth, and fierce artistic vision.

With a balance of icy new vibes and the fiery energy fans love, UPSAHL gives us a glimpse into the next chapter of her career — and we can’t wait to see what’s next. Ahead of her Austin show we got a chance to chat about the evolution of her live performances, the journey of working on her upcoming album, and how she's merging the concept of "fire and ice" into a cohesive artistic experience. She opens up about the emotional layers of her creative process, the incredible team of badass women behind her visuals, and how she’s pulling early 2000s pop inspiration into her modern sound.

LUNA: How has your live show evolved since you first started performing?

UPSAHL:  It’s changed a lot. A fan recently tweeted me a video of one of my first-ever performances, and then they stitched it with a video from a recent show. The growth is crazy. With this tour specifically, I really wanted to elevate everything. A lot of fans come to multiple shows, so I wanted to make it feel fresh each time by adding old songs, unreleased stuff, and new covers. I want it to feel brand new for everyone.

LUNA: It feels like you’re in a new era, musically and with your live performances. How has your creative process changed to reflect that?

UPSAHL  I've been working on an album for the past nine months, which is coming soon. I wanted the album to live in this cohesive world, and I wanted the live show to hint at what’s to come, which is why the tour is called the *Melt Me Down* tour. It’s a blend of fire and ice, which ties into the album’s themes.

I’ve been able to roll out little easter eggs throughout the shows that will make more sense when the album drops. It’s the first time in my career that I’ve been able to do something like this, and it’s been really fun.

LUNA: You mentioned the album earlier, so without giving too much away, can you share any themes or narratives you're exploring? Is it a concept album?

UPSAHL: Yes, it’s a concept album. I wanted it to feel icy, hard, and cold-hearted. A lot of my previous projects have centered around fire, which resonates with me because I’m a Sagittarius—such a fiery sign. My brand has always been fiery, and I’ve connected with that. But after seven years in the  music industry, with all its highs and challenges, I’ve developed this hardness to myself that I’ve always admired in others. I wanted the album to reflect that—this icy, cold-bitch energy. Musically, it’s inspired by a lot of early 2000s pop, like what Gwen Stefani did with Pharrell or Nelly Furtado with Timbaland. That era is back in style, and I’m pulling from that energy—badass, hot baddie vibes”.

I am finishing off with Lucire and their interview from last year. Based out of L.A., I am curious whether UPSAHL will base herself there full-time in the future. It does seem like the landscape and the people suites her music and lifestyle. If a new album does arrive this year, it will see UPSAHL travelling the world:

“Are you usually in LA these days and what has been the vibe there recently? Do you still get to travel around at all?

Whenever I’m not on the road or visiting family back in Phoenix, I’m at my place in LA doing sessions every day and working on new music. Right now, I’m in full self-discovery–album mode, so I’ve been writing a lot for my project, as well as working with a lot of other artists on their projects. I’ve spent the past couple years touring a bunch, so it’s been nice to just lock in on writing for a bit.

There's a large visual component to Upsahl with photo shoots, videos and social media. Where do you get your inspiration and does your look and fashion sense reflect the music you’re making at the time?

I love the visual component to being an artist. When I’m working on music in the studio, I’m already dreaming up music video ideas, or what the song “looks” like, and I’m constantly saving a bunch of weird visual ideas to my own mood boards to reference later. So when it comes time to do a photo shoot, or make a video, even if it’s just for social media, I have a well of inspiration to pull from. It just feels like I’m constantly collecting little visual ideas. I always want my look and my fashion choices to reflect the music that I’m making at the time. It allows me to fully dive into the world of the music and live and breath the music I’m making.

Do your sound and look change over time naturally or do you consciously plan out new looks and sounds?

I feel like I naturally notice when I’ve outgrown a sound or a look. Once that happens, I’m pretty intentional about planning what’s next for me. I’m in that phase of my life right now, and it involves a lot of soul searching, mood boarding, listening to a lot of music, journalling, consuming a lot of art, and a lot of solitude. It makes me feel so inspired going into creating a new world”.

Go and follow the brilliant UPSAHL. Check out her music so far. It is an excited period. How she is working on new stuff and we will get that revealed in time. I am looking forward to seeing what comes from her, as UPSAHL is a truly awesome person and artist. Someone who I feel is…

SUCH a musical force of nature.

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Follow UPSAHL

FEATURE: Kate Bush: Them Heavy People: The Extraordinary Characters in Her Songs: Kashka (Kashka from Baghdad)/Adolf Hitler (Heads We’re Dancing)

FEATURE:

 

 

Kate Bush: Them Heavy People: The Extraordinary Characters in Her Songs

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1979/PHOTO CREDIT: Gered Mankowitz

 

Kashka (Kashka from Baghdad)/Adolf Hitler (Heads We’re Dancing)

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FOR this run of features…

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush at her home in Eltham, London on 13th September 1989/PHOTO CREDIT: Kevin Cummins/Getty Images

I am joining together characters mentioned in Kate Bush songs. The first I am mentioning is from 1978s Lionheart. I may not have too many opportunities to write about characters from this album, as I think I have covered most. The same with the second album. I will come to an evil historical figure that was mentioned in a deep cut from 1989’s The Sensual World. I am beginning with the eponymous Kashka from Kashka from Baghdad. I did write about this song last year, so there may be a bit of repetition. One of the most interesting facts around this song is that Kate Bush performed it on Ask Aspel in 1978. I will come to an article written about Kashka from Baghdad. Subjects around L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ representation and possible cultural appropriation. It is fascinating that Bush wrote this song and what inspired it. The Kate Bush Encyclopedia highlight an interview where Kate Bush talked about Kashka from Baghdad:

“That actually came from a very strange American Detective series that I caught a couple of years ago, and there was a musical theme that they kept putting in. And they had an old house, in this particular thing, and it was just a very moody, pretty awful serious thing. And it just inspired the idea of this old house somewhere in Canada or America with two people in it that no-one knew anything about. And being a sorta small town, everybody wanted to know what everybody what else was up to. And these particular people in this house had a very private thing happening.

Personal Call, BBC Radio 1, 1979”.

I am going to cover unusual and unique instruments providing nuance and layers to Bush’s music. I will also move to Kate Bush and the L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ community, in addition to the reasons why Lionheart needs to reappraised and discussed. This was a song Kate Bush wrote in 1976. As a teenager, another example of her maturity and curiosity. Not that there were too many contemporaries writing at such a young age. However, in the 1970s and 1980s, a lot of the Pop mainstream was filled with commercial songs about love and relationships. Although there were exceptions, there were few artists breaking from that norm and convention.

Not only does Kashka from Baghdad take us away from the traditional heteronormative narrative of Pop music. We also visit characters away from the U.S. and U.K. Rather than Bush writing a song about a same-sex couple in the U.S., she wrote about a gay couple in Iraq. When Bush wrote the song, Iraq was experiencing a high point in its modern history, characterized by rapid economic development, industrialization, and the consolidation of power by Saddam Hussein, who was then Vice President under Ahmad Hassan al-Bakr. Following the 1975 Algiers Agreement, which temporarily resolved border disputes with Iran and ended support for Kurdish rebels, the government in 1976 focused on internal stability and regional influence. By 1978, Iraq under the de facto leadership of Saddam Hussein (as deputy to President Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr), experiencing a period of high oil-driven economic growth while aggressively consolidating political power and shifting away from its alliance with the Soviet Union. The nation in the news perhaps for bad reasons. In November 1978 (when Lionheart was released), the 1978 Arab League summit was held. It was a meeting held between Arab leaders from 2nd and 5th November in Baghdad as the 9th Arab League Summit. The summit came in the aftermath of Egypt's Anwar Sadat's unilateral peace treaty with Israel. In terms of public opinions and perceptions of Baghdad and Iraq, there might have been a lot of negativity. People only knowing about the people because of conflict and political tensions. Kashka from Baghdad never names Kashka’s partner. “At night they're seen/Laughing, loving/They know the way/To be happy”. There is this feeling that it is illicit. They cannot be seen in the daylight. The silhouettes seen at the window under the moonlight. A neighbour looking across. The lady who rents the room knows what is happening. Perhaps taboo and dangerous for this gay relationship to be brought to larger attention. “'Coz when all the alley-cats come out/You can hear music from Kashka's house”. Kashka’s house seems like a place of love and joy. It was the case in 1978 as it is now. So much of the Middle East has such regressive and Stone Age attitudes towards L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ people. As we see here, those in L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ relationships are open to stigma, punishment and imprisonment: “individuals are subject to criminal penalties under the 2024 law making homosexual relations punishable by up to 15 years in prison with fines and deportation; the 2024 law also criminalizes and makes punishable by prison time promoting homosexuality, doctors performing gender-affirming surgery, and men "deliberately acting like women”.

There were very few songs released in 1978 that were discussing L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ people. I want to explore this further. Kate Bush very much standing out or not repeating what was seen as popular and desired at that time. This article provides some interesting personal observations from Michael Langan:

“This is an album I wasn’t very familiar with, being immersed in The Kick Inside, Hounds of Love, and particularly The Sensual World (still my favourite), so I had the lovely experience of discovering something new from her, and a whole new story opening up from him. Henrique told me how he’d heard the first lines, “Kashka from Baghdad lives in sin, they say, with another man,” when he was a teenager and they’d awakened something in him that seemed hopeful and hidden, exotic and strange. As we listened to it together the song’s story unfolded, as told by a curious observer, of a reclusive gay couple; “Old friends never call there. Some wonder if life’s inside at all … But we know the lady who rents the room. She catches them calling a la lune.” But they’re not tragic figures these gay men, instead they engender love and hope; “At night, they’re seen laughing, loving. They know the way to be happy.” The narrator’s interest intensifies into longing, perhaps for a life different from the mundane, that Kashka and his lover personify. “I watch their shadows, tall and slim, in the window opposite. I long to be with them. ‘Cause when all the alley cats come out, you can hear music from Kashka’s house.”

There’s some brilliant footage of Kate singing this song live on Ask Aspel. (Click here to watch the clip.) Those of us of a certain age will remember that, before iplayer, before video recorders even, kids would write in to Michael Aspel at the BBC and ask him to show clips from TV programmes that we’d missed or were desperate to see again. It amazes me to think that a song about a gay relationship was performed live on children’s television in those days. It’s possible that I even saw it and didn’t twig, but that somehow it seeped into me by osmosis”.

At a time (1978) when Punk was at the forefront, Kashka from Baghdad was hugely unusual in terms of its sound and themes. Not only was it unusual for a same-sex relationship to be represented in popular music. Setting it in Baghdad in a period when there was conflict in Iraq and homosexuality was illegal then, this was such a bold and important song. One that does not get enough attention and discussion.

will end with Ask Aspel, the unusual instrumentation in the song, and the huge merits of Lionheart. I am coming back to a compelling and deep article from Dreams of Orgonon and their take. Whilst heterosexuality is almost subtextual in many of her songs, Kashka from Baghdad removed those layers. However, there are problematic elements to Kashka from Baghdad:

“Any fulfilling discussion of Kate Bush will inevitably detail her relationship with queerness and queer fandom. She’s influenced queer artists such as St. Vincent, Anohni, and Tegan and Sara. You could spin a whole book out of why this is — Deborah Withers has essentially done so with their seminal text Adventures in Kate Bush and Theory. Suffice it to say that Bush has long fostered LGBT-positive readings of her work with her engagement of camp and glam, her crossing of gendered lines, and her general positioning as an outsider. There’s no shortage of queer friendliness in her music — her most famous single of the Eighties demands a trans reading.

There is, of course, something to be made of the racial exoticization at play here. Kashka is first and foremost defined by his nationality. So the fetishization he receives is troubling to say the least. He is represented rather than seen. Bush has never been great on race issues, and this is just one example of that. Nonetheless, it’s intriguing to note exactly what his relationship with race (and by extension class) is. Kashka is an immigrant — he’s not in Baghdad but from it (although his un-Anglicized name, Qashqai, has more to do with Iran than Iraq). Bush’s use of “we” suggests that Kashka is the subject of gossip (“we know the lady who rents the room/she catches them calling a la lune”). Having pinpointed her primary influence for the song as an American detective show (which she’s frustratingly not named), it’s clear “Kashka from Baghdad” is something of a mystery. It’s a whodunnit with the emphasis on whodunnit. More pertinently it’s a fantasy, one about lust.

Homosexuality is a spectre that haunts the song. It’s never allowed to appear onstage. It’s hearsay or it’s a shadow on the wall, something nobody in the song sees up close (“old friends never call there/some wonder if life’s inside at all”). It’s the stuff of gossip and its pleasure comes from its illicitness. Bush clearly has no problem with the illicit. In fact, she clearly considers it a good thing. But she still falls into the trap of speaking of it in hushed tones, something naughty that must be kept behind closed doors rather than pushed into the light.

This makes her treatment of Kashka’s gay life as a matter of secrecy distressing. The polite heterosexual audience needs its eyes shielded from the gay sex it’s teased with. Yes, remaining in the closet is a safety measure for many if not most gay people. But it takes a severe toll on one’s mental health. In “Kashka” the closet is a place where great, magical events happen (“at night they’re seen laughing”). The difficulties of closeted life don’t enter the equation. Bush reduces Kashka and his partner to an instrument of pleasure and titillation”.

In my previous feature about Kashka from Baghdad, I argued the point whether the song was ingenuine because Kate Bush is straight and the gay relationship was never truly explored and executed in the way it should have been. I noted how it was a brave and brilliant song too. One that is bold and taboo-addressing. However, there is this balance between it being an empathetic representation or a ‘ghettoised’ view of queer love kept behind closed doors. I shall discuss further Kate Bush’s continued influence and importance in the L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ community. I do think that her heart was in the right place. I am fascinated to see who she visualised as Kashka. She did perform the song as part of 1979’s The Tour of Life, though the story was never acted out on stage. It was amazingly ballsy that Bush performed this song for Michael Aspel in 1978. She originally wanted to perform In the Warm Room, though it was seen as sexually explicit. A song about two gay lovers was deemed less controversial and appropriate for a young audience! It makes me wonder whether there was a certain dismissal of Bush’s music and whether people paid attention to her lyrics. 1978 was a year when Bush was being parodied. Everyone from Faith Brown to Pamela Stephenson was taking her off. A song like Kashka from Baghdad ripe for ridicule and piss-taking. However, there is so much to commend about Kashka from Baghdad. Another example of Bush being influenced by T.V. Like Wuthering Heights and a BBC adaptation, Kashka from Baghdad started life after she watched a U.S. detective series. One of the most notable elements of the Lionheart gem is the strange instrumental elements. Paddy Bush playing Strumento da Porco, mandocello and panpipes. The Strumento de Porco is “a variety of the psaltery, a stringed instrument of the zither family. It was originally made from wood, and relied on natural acoustics for sound production”. The mandocello is “is a plucked string instrument of the mandolin family. It is larger than the mandolin, and is the baritone instrument of the mandolin family”. Few artists were breaking beyond the drum-guitar-bass dynamic. I think a lot of Punk and mainstream music in the late-1970s lacked complexity or depth. Kashka from Baghdad has this sense of the unusual and exotic. If some feel that there was some cultural appropriation in the song; Bush and her problematic approach to race is reflected here. The composition and musical dynamic of Kashka from Baghdad is extraordinary. I do feel like Kashka is one of Bush’s most interesting characters. Whilst reserved to home and the shadows, he does provoke conversations and wider discussions.

Prior to moving to a dictator mentioned in a song from The Sensual World, it is worth noting how Lionheart remains underrated. It turns fifty in 2028, though it will not get the same celebration as The Kick Inside. That turns fifty in February 2028. Bush’s debut album more acclaimed and revered. Underestimated and lacking proper love, the sophistication of the songs should be commended. The reviews around Lionheart were mixed to negative. People thinking Bush would create a follow-up to The Kick Inside that was the same. Bush caught in this awkward position. Forced almost into quickly following up The Kick Inside, she was being ridiculed and parodied. That temptation to break away from her debut album. However, its immense popularity and commercial success also would have made her feel the public at least wanted more of that. Recording in France and with only three new songs written for Lionheart, it is incredible that she released something so extraordinary. Nearly fifty years after its release, we do need to revisit Lionheart. It is a fascinating album. It is that bridge between the debut album and where Kate Bush was heading. Even though Bush liked Lionheart when it was completed, she did put distance between it shortly after. That feeling it was not as she wanted or did not have enough time. I think that there are three or four songs on that album that sit alongside Bush’s best. Kashka from Baghdad among them. Wow and Symphony in Blue right up there. After her second album, Bush did not want to head back into the studio. Perhaps EMI would have pushed her back in to sort of ‘undo’ some of the negativity towards Lionheart. Instead, Bush worked on The Tour of Life and released Never for Ever in 1980. That live exposure and experience benefiting the sound and songwriting scope. Bush co-producing with Jon Kelly. I do feel like Lionheart is a remarkable album where Bush’s songwriting so refreshing and different to what was around her.

This may be the most controversial character Kate Bush has included in a song. Another song I covered recently, Heads We’re Dancing is a track beloved by Charli xcx. Before addressing a few subjects related to Heads We’re Dancing, Kate Bush discussed the background and origin of this track:

“It’s a very dark idea, but it’s the idea of this girl who goes to a big ball; very expensive, romantic, exciting, and it’s 1939, before the war starts. And this guy, very charming, very sweet-spoken, comes up and asks her to dance but he does it by throwing a coin and he says, “If the coin lands with heads facing up, then we dance!” Even that’s a very attractive ‘come on’, isn’t it? And the idea is that she enjoys his company and dances with him and, days later, she sees in the paper who it is, and she is hit with this absolute horror – absolute horror. What could be worse? To have been so close to the man… she could have tried to kill him… she could have tried to change history, had she known at that point what was actually happening. And I think Hitler is a person who fooled so many people. He fooled nations of people. And I don’t think you can blame those people for being fooled, and maybe it’s these very charming people… maybe evil is not always in the guise you expect it to be.

Roger Scott, BBC Radio 1, 14 October 1989”.

The Sensual World was released in 1989. Fifty years after the start of World War II. That decision to use Adolf Hitler in the song. The nature of appropriateness of the song. Some would read Heads We’re Dancing as a glorification or romanticisation of one of the worst people in history. I think Kate Bush wrote Heads We’re Dancing around 1987. It has personal origins: “But it was all started by a family friend, years ago, who’d been to dinner and sat next to this guy who was really fascinating, so charming. They sat all night chatting and joking. And next day he found out it was Oppenheimer. And this friend was horrified because he really despised what the guy stood for”.

When discussing Kashka from Baghdad, I discussed the context of releasing that song in 1978 and what was happening in Iraq. In 1989, major global conflicts were defined by the end of the Soviet-Afghan War, the U.S. invasion of Panama, and the beginning of the Liberian Civil War. The year year saw the ‘Revolutions of 1989’, which effectively ended communist rule in Eastern Europe and brought down the Berlin Wall. It was a year when Germany was being unified and divisions removed. Recording a song about a dictator who divided Germany and created such evil during World War II, I do wonder how people perceived the song in 1989. You can understand why Bush might have felt uncomfortable talking about the song. How she would not write about it now. Whilst not a political or protest song, it is also not showing Adolf Hitler in a positive light. She recalled a dream a friend had and she adapted that for a song. Essentially, this is a song discussing a dream. Bush did write about other historical figures. Joan of Arc is one example (immortalised in Aerial’s Joanni). However, few of her songs focused on evil or desperate people. Many of her songs courted some controversy because of some of the lyrics or inspiration. The Dreaming’s title track. The Infant Kiss from Never for Ever. If Heads We’re Dancing seems problematic or controversial on paper, it does raise interesting discussion points. The representation of dreams in songs and what certain images reveal. Pitchfork mentioned Heads We’re Dancing in their review of The Sensual World: “Even its most surreal songs are rooted in self-examination. “Heads We’re Dancing” seems like a dark joke—a young girl is charmed on to the dancefloor by a man she later learns is Adolf Hitler—but poses a troubling question: What does it say about you, if you couldn’t see through the devil’s disguise? Its discordant, skronky rhythms make it feel like a formal ball taking place in a fever dream, and Bush’s voice grows increasingly panicky as she realizes how badly she’s been duped. As far-fetched as its premise was, its inspiration lay close to home: A family friend had told Bush how shaken they’d been after they’d taken a shine to a dashing stranger at a dinner party, only to find out they’d been chatting to Robert Oppenheimer”.

There is this acting performance happening in the song. How it is almost like a film scene. Bush, as the girl/woman in Heads We’re Dancing, being approached in 1939 by a man who she did not recognise. This idea of The Devil approaching her. Almost caught in this trap and dancing with Adolf Hitler, it is a fascinating visual. Even if she could never release a video for this song, you do immerse yourself in the track and are stood by the side and watching things unfold. Whilst not trying to be comical or overlook Hitler’s atrocities, it is this real-time unfolding. Someone duped. That Pitchfork question where they ask what it says about a person if you cannot see through the disguise. Heads We’re Dancing raises psychological questions. There is an article that raises some themes I want to explore. Kate Bush said in an interview how Adolf Hitler duped and fooled a nation (Germany) and brainwashed them. It would be forgivable if a woman was fooled by Hitler if he approached her at a dinner. What is remarkable is how Kate Bush wrote into songs these characters and subjects that could be seen as jokey or mishandled by others. She has written from the point of view of a foetus (Breathing). Bush turned into a donkey for The Dreaming’s Get Out of My House. She talked about a night of passion with a snowman (50 Words for Snow’s Misty). As this article examines, The Sensual World documents sensuality, growing and exploring passion. Across the album, there are tales of love, break-up and pregnancy/childbirth. Although fantastical, Heads We’re Dancing is another song that examines sensuality and passion - albeit from a darkly comical or unusual angle:

“Taken in this way, Heads We’re Dancing is actually not quite the outlier on the The Sensual World that may be first assumed. The whole album deals with the trajectory of growing and manoeuvring through a world of sensual experiences. It charts the highs as well as the lows, where the joyous imagining of Molly Bloom entering our three-dimensional world is contrasted against tales of dangerous obsession (A Deeper Understanding) and of desires being snuffed out by reality and leading to heartbreak (Never be Mine). A lyric on the latter, a confession of “I want you as the dream, not the reality’’, reflects an important component of The Sensual World’s vantage point on sensuality — that of recognising the barrier between fantasy and fact, of desires and realities, that takes on a new relevance when applied to Heads We’re Dancing. The song embodies that horrifying moment where pleasures become pain — perhaps where we recognise that our habits are dangerous, our vices degenerative, and that now it is too late to change and the damage is done. Here it is presented with extremity — being seduced by a fascist dictator, on the eve of a world war — but it can be easily scaled down to represent any person, thing or idea that enters into your life and seduces you into acting with careless abandon. As Bush states above, Hitler stands in as a perfect metaphor for destructive behaviours or obsessions because he was so seductive to the German public, and this was so intrinsically tied to his villainy — 1939 was both the year Hitler threatened the extermination of ‘the Jewish race in Europe’ in the Reichstag, and the year he was voted Time Magazine’s Man of the Year”.

Many love songs talk about being attracted to bad people. Having your heart broken. These toxic people. Whilst a definite extreme, could an artist today ever write a song where, say, Donald Trump replaced Adolf Hitler? This idea of someone evil involved in this wooing and seduction?! It would be interesting to discuss. That idea of a bad or wrong person coming into your life and leading you down a bad path or leading you to bad decisions. Rather than Bush talking about an ordinary person, she took a historical figure. However, there is still something relatable about Heads We’re Dancing. I have written before how Bush was hugely positive towards men. Even if she would have been in relationships that broke down, I am not sure she ever dated anyone that was duplicitous or damaging. Her long-term relationship with Del Palmer broke down after 1989, though they remained friends and worked together right up until 2011 (Palmer died in 2024). It is also worth noting how a lot of modern music avoids political figures. At a time when there is political unrest around the world and we have these corrupt leaders, you do wonder whether artist should address this more. Following on from the passage quoted above, these points were raised:

“But it is impossible to listen to it today without giving thought to its political ramifications, and its more overt commentary on the seductive powers of corrupt politicians. In the UK we are grappling with a government fronted by a man who won his position masquerading as a lovable buffoon, and sold as a preferable alternative to an idealist who was framed as a dangerous radical. Bush often tackled political subject matter at the beginning of her career (the aforementioned anti-nuclear war centric Breathing, or the critique of militarism in Army Dreamers), but by the time of The Sensual World her political commentary was mostly smoothed out, replaced by more internal, emotional affairs. Heads We’re Dancing may in fact stand as her last overtly political parable, and it retains all of the bite of its predecessors”.

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1989/PHOTO CREDIT: Guido Harari

Kate Bush would have been conflicted about including Heads We’re Dancing on The Sensual World. It does stand out from the other songs in terms of tone and its lyrics. It does raise that question of human nature and whether we would see true evil if it was standing in front of us. How these diabolic people seduce entire nations. We are seeing this now across the world. Especially in the U.S. In an article I have sourced before, they ask whether we could see true evil. That idea that, if faced with Hitler in 1939 and knowing how evil he was, could you justify killing him? A song that is truly engrossing and thought-provoking:

“Who would be the ultimate figure when it comes to envisioning the most evil person to ever exist? One that says, “If the coin lands with heads facing up, then we dance!” in a softly-spoken voice, with no indication whatsoever that he might be harbouring some big, dark secret? For Bush, Adolf Hitler was the only person to fit the role. “The idea is that she enjoys his company and dances with him and, days later, she sees in the paper who it is, and she is hit with this absolute horror – absolute horror,” she sad. “What could be worse? To have been so close to the man… she could have tried to kill him… she could have tried to change history, had she known at that point what was actually happening”.

The Sensual World is another Kate Bush album that is not as lauded as it should be. Heads We’re Dancing is one of the deeper cuts. Never released as a single and never performed live, I do feel it is one of the most relevant tracks. How it applies to today and conversations around world leaders. That braveness of Kate Bush when it came to song inspiration. Always intrigued by flawed, dark and unusual figures, the song is filmic. You can see songs played out. Bush narrating this situation where this man approaches a woman and if a coin toss lands heads-up, then they dance: “They say that the Devil is a charming man/And just like you I bet he can dance/And he's coming up behind in his long/Tailed black coat dance/All tails in the air/But the penny landed with its head dancing”.

Before wrapping up, I want to discuss Kate Bush songs that are fantastic and worthy but could not get played on the radio. I spotlighted this when I assessed The Infant Kiss recently. A song that could be seen as a woman attracted to a child, it is not about that at all. However, if played on the radio, people can misunderstand and it could see Bush criticised. Heads We’re Dancing rarely or never played on the radio. Could it ever be played where people appreciate the song and it is not judged? Although it should be examined and applied to the modern day, perhaps stations and broadcasters are censoring more. Especially when it comes to politics. Though not Bush being political, discussing any politician or someone like Adolf Hitler would be seen as political. Organisations and bodies censoring artists for calling for Palestine to be free. Anyone who criticises Israel’s genocide seen, wrongly and stupidly, as being antisemitic. I do wonder if there were fewer barriers in 1989 than now when it came to releasing a song like Heads We’re Dancing. Bush said this about Heads We’re Dancing when interviewed: “but I do know that whereas in a piece of film it would be quite acceptable in a song it’s a little bit sensitive”. That notion of talking about Adolf Hitler in a song and putting him in this scene much more controversial than if it was in a film. That raises conversations around acceptability and censorship in film and music. Whether the former is a more open and less reactionary and excluding industry. Can we make films today about dictatorships and put that into a scene without much attack or censorship? Artists who sing about this more open to criticism and issues. It is really curious to explore that. Bush did use her platform to write about historical figures rather than modern-day ones. What we should take from Heads We’re Dancing is her boldness and how she was (and is) such an original and inventive songwriter. Kashka from Baghdad and how unusual that was in 1978. Heads We’re Dancing and its power and relevance in 1989. Both of these wonderful and discussion-worthy cuts displaying how Kate Bush always has been…

AN astonishing songwriter.

FEATURE: Kate Bush: The Whole Story: An Article and Interview from the Kate Bush Club Issue 16

FEATURE:

 

 

Kate Bush: The Whole Story

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush photographed in September 1983/PHOTO CREDIT: Michael Daines/Mirrorpix/Getty Images

 

An Article and Interview from the Kate Bush Club Issue 16

__________

THIS is a new Kate Bush series…

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1982, whilst making The Dreaming/PHOTO CREDIT: Åke Lundström

that does not require a lot of typing from me. It sort of combines the erstwhile The Kate Bush Interview Archive and Kate Bush: The Tour of Life. The latter is one I am continuing. Kate Bush: The Whole Story uncovers and explores some interviews, writing and periods of her life that, as the title implies, provides the whole story about Kate Bush. The greatest hits album that shares the name turns forty later in the year, so I will be doing features around that nearer the time. I wanted to run a new series where we get to see her career almost like a diary. These entries from various years. I was looking at this from Gaffaweb. I am going to dip into The Complete Kate Bush Club Newsletter/Writings of Kate Bush section, as these are archives that many Bush fans do not know about. For this inaugural Kate Bush: The Whole Story, I am highlighting her KBC (Kate Bush Club) article in Issue 16. I think that issue was published either late in 1983 or in 1984, as Bush was interviewed and asked if there will be any touring in 1984. You can see the incredible Kate Bush Club archive here. I will be returning to this too for future instalments:

“As spring arrives, the songs are being finished, and it's lyric time. I'm in Ireland, and it is incredibly beautiful; a very creative environment. It's not until you're somewhere this quiet, this peaceful, that you realise all the distractions there are at home. There is no television, no phone except for a wind-up one that is reluctant to produce an operator at the other end, and the nearest house is made of stone and has no roof and only three walls--it is bliss.

Having written most of the "tunes" for the album, and feeling like I'd done most of the hard work, I remember now how difficult it can be to work on the lyrics! And when that is finished, and I'm feeling smug, I'll suddenly remember all those wonderful problems that start when you begin to record--and I can't wait. It's been quite hard this time to decide which songs to use--not that there's a great choice, but it is still nice to be able to choose. However, there can be a time problem even when you have made your choice. The last link in the chain is definitely the weakest.

Even when you get a beautiful cut, after the record is mass-pressed in the factory the result can be heart-breaking, and the only way to help this situation is to cut down the time on each side, getting a deeper cut. Especially rock music has to heed this, as classical or acoustic music can get away with a slightly shallower cut because they don't usually have the kind of bass frequency that requires a deep cut. [Let's hope Kate doesn't let the limitations of this antiquated vinyl format induce her to shorten tracks on KBVI!]

I find this the ultimately frustrating part of the process. It seems wrong to me to have to cut down on tracks to get a great sound. Surely people pay enough for an album (and wait long enough in some cases) without finding there are only six or seven short tracks on the whole album. Until there is a universal compact disk, or everyone decides to change over to cassettes from records, unfortunately this can't be solved.

But this is the nitty-gritty of the Biz, and not much fun, and it couldn't be more remote from this spot in Ireland. It is like "Old" England--I've never stepped thro' a time-warp before--I definitely recommend it.

While we're here, I'm hoping to get together with Bill Whelan (who did the fantastic arrangements on Night of the Swallow), as I am hoping he will be able to do some arrangements on the coming album.

I am so pleased at the reaction, both to the video and the boxed set of The Single File. It was a buzz for me to get the video released, and to see five years sitting in a little green box, but the feedback to them is stunning. Thanks to all of you for feeding-back.

There were three dates planned for me to go to W.H. Smith and sign anything anyone had, but unfortunately only two of them were executed. The first was Cardiff, and I would like to take this opportunity to explain what happened. Without mentioning any names, a certain person representing EMI who accompanied me "misjudged" the train departure time, and I will never forget the look on their face as we walked thro' the gate and the train pulled away. The next half an hour consisted of running from platform to platform, and eventually ending up on a train which happened to be going the wrong direction! Now, we could say that my profession is renowned for a certain untogether reputation, and so unfortunately a great deal of presumption goes on. What can I say? At the second P.A. I ended up running the last mile to the shop. The clouds had opened and the streets had jammed with traffic, and I arrived somewhat wet and out of breath. And at the third P.A. everything was great--third time lucky, I guess.

Talking about "guessing", at last someone has discovered what's being said at the end of Leave It Open-- well done! But let me tell you about some of the fascinating encounters I've had. There is a Mr. John Reimers from the U.S.A. who has rung up once a week with his new version:

"Is it...?"

"Nope!"

"Well, is it...?"

"Nope!"

"Tell me! Tell me!"

John, you're terrific!

But I'm afraid this is just a mild case. One night I woke up to a tapping on the window. It was someone hanging from a nearby tree by their feet. In their hands was a card, and written on it was: "Is it 'We paint the penguins pink?'" I'm afraid I had to laugh, and shook my head. They burst into tears and ran off into the moonlight. But I think the cleverest was a phone call I had the other week.

"Hello, Kate?"

"Hello?"

"It's Jay here, how are you doing?"

He sounded a little squeaky to me. Then he said:

"You know, it's ridiculous. I was sitting here listening to the end of Leave It Open the other day, and I just couldn't remember what you said--I know it's crazy but--"

I interrupted.

"'We paint the penguins pink.'"

"Oh, yeah! Of course, how could I forget? See you soon--buy!"

Hmmm...see what I mean?...C-lever!

But seriously, I have enjoyed your guesses tremendously, but I have terrible dreams about your reactions now that the answer has been revealed. Do I hear cries of "You're kidding! But that's stupid!" or "Cor, that's pathetic--all our efforts over that?"

Well, I hope not...And remember to let the weirdness in.

Lots of love,

Kate xxx

Interview

What is Gaffa? What does Suspended in Gaffa mean?

"'Gaffa" is Gaffa Tape. It is thick industrial tape, mainly used for taping down and tidying up the millions of leads, and particularly useful in concert situations. Suspended in Gaffa is trying to simulate being trapped in a kind of web: everything is in slow motion, and the person feels like they're tied up. They can't move." defeat

Many of your songs contain references to occult and esoteric philosophy. Is this a particular interest of yours, or are you just widely read?

"I don't think I am particularly interested in gthe occult, but I do have an interest in the human mind, and the unusual situations that occur, or are said to occur, to human beings in extreme religious or spiritual states. But surely we all have a curiosity for things that we know little about."

How do you manage to do the guitar, bass and drum arrangements, as you don't play those instruments? Do you hear in your head what you want, and if so, how do you communicate it to the session musicians?

"Mostly I have a strong idea of what I want to hear. The sound aspect I would explain to the engineer, but musically I would suggest the mood, or any piano lines I wanted picked up. But usually I leave the musical content to the musician, and they always understand the atmosphere you want to create. With the drummer, we're now working a lot with drum machines. I originally explain the type of rhythm I want to Del, who then programmes the Linn. I demo the song using the rhythm, and then ask the drummer to replace the feel, adding his own subtle human adornments."

How do you choose which songs to include when you tour? I know some of them are obvious selections, but what about the rest? Have you any idea what songs you will include when you next tour? Any idea when that will be?

"I think the most important thing about choosing the songs is that the whole show will be sustained. Obviously we would try to pick the strongest songs, try to get a variety of moods, but build the show up to a climax. And the songs must adapt well visually: a show is visual as well as audial, so there must hopefully be a good blend of the two. I think we all know about the tour situation by now--It's really a matter of time, but how long? I don't know. [Four more years have passed since Kate wrote this.] This is the truth. So the safest thing to say: once this next album Hounds of Love ] is out, I have to promote and do videos, so time is already being eaten up this year; but once the album "project" is out of the way, I do plan to make another tour the next priority. [Hah!] I think also that because there will have been three albums since the last tour, we will not include any songs from the first two albums. But it's all a long way off at the moment, and who can really say what will happen?"

Any chance of a tour for '84?

"Let's just say 'Unlikely,' to be on the safe side."

Do you choose all the photos of you that appear in magazines?

"No, I don't. It does depend on the magazine, but most like take at least one of their own at the time of the interview, and if they have room for more photos, we supply them with our favourite shots."

Do you decide what records are going to be released in other countries, and what the picture sleeves are going to be?

"Apart from the U.S.A. releases, we normally know up front what's happening, if there's to be a special release. In the cases of the Irish Night of the Swallow, the U.S. mini-L.P., the European Suspended in Gaffa and the French Ne T'enfuis pas, we designed the bags, hoping they would particularly appeal to that market."

Why don't you release any twelve-inch singles?

"I'm afraid to say that EMI don't find them 'commercially viable propositions'. We very much wanted to release the single The Dreaming on a twelve-inch--we could have got a beautiful-sounding cut with that one. I could lend you my twelve-inch if you'd like to hear how good it is!"

As the lyrics to Violin are different on Never For Ever from the Tour version, could you please tell us the bits of the Tour version that are different?

"The lyrics on Violin at the beginning of the Tour were slightly different from those at the end. The odd word would move here and there, and to be honest, I don't remember them; except I know they weren't that great!"

I have just finished reading Shakespeare's Othello. In the scene just before Othello kills Desdamona, he says, "Put out the light/Then put out the light." I was wondering if this means the same thing in Blow Away.

"You're the first person in four years to pick up on this--so, thank you."

A couple of years ago I read that you were writing a book. Did this ever come out--as I've tried everywhere to get it--?

"It was planned at one time, but I just could not find the time amongst my album projects; and perhaps I am not yet ready to write a book about myself."

You obviously believe in keeping yourself as healthy as you can through exercise and eating the correct foods, etc. But it puzzles me and others as to why you continue to smoke.

"I can understand why it should surprise you, but unfortunately I am only human." [Bravo, Kate! Maybe that'll silence these obnoxious anti-smoking pests for a while, though it's unlikely.]

Have you ever considered doing a version of Number Nine Dream by John Lennon (which I know is your favourite single)?

"I think what would be nice is if they re-released it. It was well ahead of its time, and didn't really get the attention it deserved."

What was your favourite record of 1983?

"101 Damnations, by Scarlet Party."

About a year ago I purchased a U.S. promo record containing four tracks from The Dreaming. On the front was a sticker stating "Not for sale--For promotional purposes only." Is it illegal to possess such a record? How come I was able to buy it if it's not for sale?

"I shouldn't worry, you're not in any trouble for buying it, but unfortunately whoever sold it to you was making an illegal sale. Thanks for bringing it to our attention."

I understand you like Steely Dan. What is your favourite album of theirs?

"Gaucho. For me, each album got better, and I wish they hadn't split up."

Has anything ever happened while recording--say, a strange sound by mistake which you have decided is worth keeping in the track?

"A lot of accidents happen, but usually they're re-done for the master recordings. They seem to happen mostly at the demo stage: tracks leaking through, odd voice phrases, a synth that wasn't rubbed oof when it should have been. That sort of thing."

Is the single version of Sat In Your Lap mixed differently from the album version? The vocals on the album seem a lot louder than the instruments. Any special reason for this?

"Yes. The single mix is different from the album. We very much wanted to do another mix. The album has a definite flavour that was confirmed by the mixes, so we wanted Sat In Your Lap to be a part of that. The voice was also deliberately lifted, because we had quite a lot of feedback about the lead voice being a little quiet on the single version."

Do you actually read any of the letters sent to the Club? And how many staff work there?

"Yes, I do. Lisa runs the Club, but with the help of 'family' hands and friends."

What is your response to the poor airplay of your recent single releases?

"Disappointing. But it just shows how reliant you are on the people at the radio stations liking the singles, to get the airplay."

Is Paddy married, and if not would he marry my friend?

"No, he's not married, but I'll add your friend's name to the list (number 759)."

Is the man featured on The Dreaming's cover in the Houdini pose Del Palmer?

"That's for me to know and you to find out."

I was told recently that you appeared on Zaine Griff's album Figures. Is this true? And what did you do, B.V.s or keyboards?

"Yes, I did. Zaine had written a song for Lindsay Kemp called Flowers, and he asked me to sing B.V.s. It is a really lovely song. Zaine and I met years ago at Lindsay's classes, and as Lindsay was such a powerful influence on us both--as he is on anyone who is captured by his strong magic--it was a real pleasure to be a part of something dedicated to him."

Why do you always move your eyes right and left in your videos? It is very pleasant to watch, but it intrigues me. What is the idea behind it?

"I have to watch out for any demons that might be creeping up on me, and video shoots attract so many of them that I have to keep an extra eye out in case they trip me up while we're going for a take. You've seen what happens to Faith Brown because she doesn't look out for them." [Kate's referring to Brown's parody of her Wuthering Heights video, in which Brown trips and falls.]”.

It has been great bringing to light this writing to life. I was not aware of Kate Bush’s entries and diary entries for the fan club. You do not really get this anymore. Social media has replaced that. It makes me yearn for a Kate Bush Club today. Something that mixes that older version and brings it a little up to date. I think that many people would be interested. I hope that you have enjoyed the first edition of…

THIS new series.

FEATURE: Celebrating a Music Giant… John Robb at Sixty-Five

FEATURE:

 

 

Celebrating a Music Giant…

 

John Robb at Sixty-Five

__________

I normally write about…

artists for my blog. However, I do sometimes focus on those outside of that sphere. Important journalists and figures in the industry. Few are as important as John Robb. I will talk about him and why I want to include him here. However, here is some biography about a music great:

“Not just a well known face from TV but also a best selling author, musician, journalist,  presenter and pundit, music website boss, publisher, festival boss, Eco champion vegan behemoth and punk rock warlord as well as TV and radio talking head plus singer from post-punk critically acclaimed mainstays The Membranes.

John Robb is all these things and more.

His recently released book ‘The Art Of Darkness – the History Of Goth’ is a worldwide pop culture best seller and his soon to be launched ground-breaking new scheme – the Green Britain Academy, is set to train up people in thousands of Eco jobs whilst Borders Blurred is a gaming and music agency with a twist.

He grew up in Blackpool before punk rock came along and saved his life and he formed the Membranes – the highly influential post punk band whose current albums keep pushing forward with added choirs and textures and are critically acclaimed.

He was one of the leading post-punk fanzine writers in the UK with ‘Rox’ before he went on to write for the rock press with Sounds in the 80s. He was the first person to interview Nirvana and coined the expression Britpop and was instrumental in kick starting and documenting the Madchester scene with his writing. His music and culture website louderthanwar.com is currently one of the top 3 most read music and culture sites in the UK and at the front of diverse modern culture.

He is a constant on TV and radio commenting on music, culture and politics and one of the UK’s leading in conversation hosts who has his own successful youtube channel and his own books and music festival in Manchester every year called Louder Than Words.

He has written many books like best sellers like ‘Punk Rock – an Oral History’ and The Stone Roses and the Resurrection of British Pop’  and in 2022 a  book about the leading Eco energy boss Dale Vince from Ecotricity called ‘Manifesto’ and a collected works of his journalism”.

As an independent journalist, I am quite prolific and have put out quite a bit for almost fifteen years. However, John Robb is one of the most respected, prolific and important music journalists ever. “From the post punk fanzine era to the music press era of Sounds to running his own website Louder than War John Robb has remained at the forefront of pop culture. He was the first person to interview Nirvana, was key in launching the Stone Roses and made up the word Britpop and so much more. Louder Than War is a music and culture website and magazine focusing on mainly alternative arts news, reviews, and features. The site is an editorially independent publication that was started by the English musician and journalist John Robb in 2010 and is now co-run by a team of other journalists with a worldwide team of freelancers. There has been a print edition since 2015”. He is someone I look up to. He turns sixty-five on 4th May, so I wanted to salute him prior to that date. I hope that others in the music world will shout out this legend. You can buy John Robb’s books here. On 12th May, he releases his latest book, Punk Rock Ruined My Life: And Other Stories: “The irresistible story of a one-man cultural phenomenon. Minister for the Counterculture, Mancunian mainstay and alternative national treasure John Robb has lived a life in music. In this book he charts his adventures on the cultural frontline, chronicling the making of a DIY icon. Robb’s quest began in his hometown of Blackpool – where punk was a battle against the odds – and went international when he toured the world with his band. The first person to interview Nirvana, he also discovered The Stone Roses for weekly newspaper Sounds and did early interviews with The Jesus and Mary Chain and The Manics, before moving on to legends such as Mark E. Smith, Nick Cave and Patti Smith. Along the way, he became an on-screen commentator and author of bestselling books. Robb’s memoir tells of deep friendships with figures from Poly Styrene to Chris Packham. Packed with riotous stories, it provides an alternative account of British musical and cultural history and a triumphant blueprint for a punk rock life”.

I will move to RESOUND, who chatted with John Robb during his Do You Believe In The Power of Rock n Roll? spoken word tour. He discussed, among other things, being at the forefront of music for over four decades. I have taken selected exerts, though I would urge everyone to read the full interview:

“Around the late ’70s John also began writing about music “to try to understand why I liked some stuff I shouldn’t have”, setting his up his own fanzine, writing for various publications including SOUNDS and MELODY MAKER, and penning numerous books on music and culture including Punk Rock: An Oral History, The Stone Roses And The Resurrection of British Pop, The North Will Rise Again: Manchester Music City 1976-1996 and latest tome The Art Of Darkness: The History Of Goth. Now running music website Louder Than War, he says,

there’s something about the vibrations and sounds of music that are very powerful…it constantly takes you by surprise and you can overthink it, but sometimes you have to just cut the crap and admit that it sounds f**king great to you!”

One memory of his time at SOUNDS John won’t forget is interviewing Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain, the first interview the band had done. He laughs as he tells us “I remember going to my friend’s record shop to order the first Nirvana single (1988’s Love Buzz) and everyone saying ‘oh no, this isn’t a good as Mudhoney!’” But that didn’t faze John, who was drawn to Kurt’s vocals.

After arranging the interview, he rang Kurt up at his mum’s house, which in turn led to another interview with the band in New York nine months later when they were supporting fellow Sub Pop grunge outfit Tad, Nirvana unaware of the impact they were about to make on the music world.

John grins as he tells us he ended up crashing on the floor of the tiny flat the two bands were sharing and at the time thought it was all a bit of a drag, the Tad guys taking up most the the space. Of course, looking back he realises just how well he got to know Nirvana and how lucky he was to have a birds-eye view of their early days. But despite his pleas, and the fact that Nirvana’s record company were saying that they could be as big as Sonic Youth, Tad appeared on the cover of SOUNDS, taking precedence over Nirvana… Nevermind, the rest, as they say, is history.

Chatting about Kurt Cobain gets us on to the subject of Mark Lanegan, who The Membranes supported in 2019. During that tour John and Mark spoke about Kurt, who was a close friend of Mark’s, John recalling Mark telling him that on the day Kurt died, he’d gone round to his house and had never forgiven himself for not kicking his door down when he didn’t answer. “Mark said Kurt would always answer the door. They shared a house together when they lived in Seattle, all on heroin, listening to blues records and decked out in wedding dresses!” Ah, picture the scene…

If things had turned out differently, John reckons that Kurt’s musical style and path would have been similar to that of Mark’s. “His voice would’ve been similar as he got older, and I imagine he would have played more acoustically,” something which was hinted at in the infamous Nirvana MTV unplugged session. “I imagine he would’ve played intimate, powerful music – similar to Mark’s but to bigger crowds because of the Nirvana influence, but effectively occupying the same space.”

Around the late ‘80s John also coined the term Britpop, before the ’90s scene as we know it had even taken off, though writer and DJ Stuart Maconie also claims to have come up with the term. However, John acknowledges that Stuart “probably did make it up, unawares” a few years later, using it in SELECT magazine… maybe they should just put it down to a case of great minds and all that!

John confesses that he’d previously used ‘Britpop’ as a joke, going on to say “SOUNDS did a thing about a new British punk scene called Punk Core and I used the word Britpop as a joke on that really. Music’s really hard to describe, as Frank Zappa said. I mean, you can describe it but sometimes the words aren’t normal words. Anyway Britpop became a thing, as these things tend to…It’s the same with ‘goth’, it was coined by the NME as a joke, referring to the alternative music scene of the time in alternative clubs”.

Of course not every musician wants to be pigeonholed like this but as John explains, there are benefits to belonging to a certain scene. “There’s a duality to it… I don’t think bands mind being part of a scene which gets them out of the local pub and onto the national circuit but at the same time they don’t want to be imprisoned by that scene.” He goes on to say.

Of course, goth is a subject close to John’s heart, with the publication last year of his latest book The Art Of Darkness: The History of Goth, which has seen fans of the darker side of post-punk unite up and down the country to listen to him talk through the ins and outs of the scene. Inevitably this has led to some heated debates on what’s goth and what’s not, and it’s fair to say it’s not an argument that will be settled any time soon unless you’re a member of Fields Of The Nephilim. But anyone who went along to one of his chats on the book, which he’s still out touring in Europe, will be drawn into his latest tour which will no doubt have a dark flavour at times”.

In 2024, Sheffield Magazine sat down with John Robb for a great conversation. They spoke to him “about his latest book “Do You Believe in the Power of Rock & Roll?: Forty Years of Music Writing from the Frontline.” During our chat he told us, in great detail, about his love for this city of ours, along with his best stories from his time as a writer”:

“Keeping with the DIY ethos, do you think there has been a big shift across music in general and that in some cases maybe the DIY element has been lost?

"No, I don’t think that. Nobody who was truly DIY ever really ‘broke through.’ Some people did of course, but not many! It’s always been the underground of people creating this little network of music venues and music scenes of the music they want to listen too. That’s still there, it’s still here now, and it’s as strong as it ever was, if not stronger. I was thinking about this the other day, people were talking about all these venues closing down, but weirdly I’ve found there to be more venues now than there ever was. I don’t think it’s easy running a venue though, there are a lot of problems involved in it, but in the '80s you’d go to Birmingham for example and there would be one venue that you could perform at!"

"Now you have a choice, I think that now there’s more people in more bands and there’s more space for people to do stuff in. I do think now the problem is that there’s too many people in too many bands so therefore people’s expectations can’t be realised. You can’t have 10,000 bands all sustaining themselves. I do think it’s great though that everyone’s in a band, and it’s great that there’s still people creating this culture and stuff, but it makes it difficult if they all expect to make a living out of it you know, because it can’t stretch that far."

What’s your best story from your time as a writer? Whether that be when you ran your fanzine Rox or when you wrote for the music papers.

"I guess the story everyone always wants to hear is from when I interviewed Nirvana. I was the first person in the UK to interview them! I phoned them up at his (Kurt Cobain's) mum’s house before the first single came out, and I had no idea they hadn’t done an interview, but I also had no idea that anyone was going to like them! They were just a local band, they were signed to Subpop Records and most people though that they (Subpop Records) had done a misstep, as this band was not as good as the other bands."

"But I was sort of captivated by his (Cobain's) voice, he sounds like an 80-year-old man singing in an 18-year-olds body, it just sounded wise and teenage at the same time – that’s the first thing I thought was amazing. 9 months after this interview we flew out to New York to do a feature on them, and we went to the flat they were staying in at the time as they were supporting TAD on tour, and they were all staying in this one room, punk rock DIY style! We said to the PR guys, where are we staying? And they said you’re staying here. So, we slept on a floor for 5 days next to Nirvana – I didn’t have any sleeping stuff, so I had to sleep under my coat with my rucksack as a pillow! We got to know them pretty well as we were helping them carry the gear in and out the flat, and we went to the gigs. We saw them play at Maxwell’s in Hoboken and there was about 20 people watching, they were amazing! They trashed all the gear, and it was really exciting."

"But there was no idea that this band were going to be more than a weird cult band that I would write about in Sounds. There was no idea that they were going to be the biggest band in the world. Within 2 years, ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ comes out and it just goes insane. Looking back, you kind of get used to these things happening, it’s like of course Nirvana is massive, but at the time the jump they did was massive! Where I live in Manchester, I live right next to the University. I still see students wearing Nirvana T-shirts, and he does just look like a sort of Rock’n’roll Jesus, doesn’t he? I always think it’s funny as I walk past them as they have no idea that this weird looking old dude was the first person to interview that band on their T-shirt. It’s mad how well American bands do, like The Offspring sold 12 million albums which is just madness. But none of those bands could touch Nirvana, they were way way better than all those other bands. He just wrote really great songs, and they were just quite rough sounding, and his voice was amazing”.

I am going to end with an NME interview from last year. When Oasis reformed and performed that run of acclaimed international dates, there were books published about them. John Robb discussed his Oasis book with NME. You can tell that was more of a labour of love than anything. Someone who has a deep respect for and fascination of Oasis:

“Robb recently published Live Forever: The Rise, Fall And Resurrection Of Oasis – featuring a new and exclusive interview with Noel Gallagher. After the returning Britpop legends kicked off their Live ’25 reunion tour in Cardiff last week, tonight (Friday July 11) sees the band continue with the first of their homecoming residency nights at Manchester’s Heaton Park.

Robb, himself a Manchester native, told us about the importance of the city in shaping the band and a vibrant music scene.

“There’s an attitude in Manchester. It’s there in the music scene as well,” he told NME. “The bands that were key stepping stones to Oasis were all Manchester bands: The Smiths, The Stone Roses, that lineage. What you have to think about Noel is that he’s almost like Johnny Marr’s younger brother in a way; they’re very similar. I always found it odd that Johnny Marr didn’t end up being their producer.”

NME: Hello John. Your book is pretty definitive, comprehensive and all-encompassing. You can’t be accused of throwing together a last-minute cash-in project…

“It was a pretty intense period of writing, with six months of 15-hour days. But then again, I’d already done the research in having being around from the beginning. I was next door at The Boardwalk and at the early gigs. I’d seen Noel around town when he was the Inspiral Carpets’ roadie. I knew what the vibe was around town and at gigs, so it was quite easy to describe.

“I didn’t have to interview anyone else for that stuff, I just had to remember.”

It was interesting when your 2024 interview with Noel ran just days before the reunion was announced, and his attitude towards Liam appeared to have visibly softened…

“Well it’s interesting, actually. That interview was filmed three months before. It looked like it was done with the reformation all in one block, but it was done back in June at Sifters [Records, Manchester]. I did put down a stipulation that it would be nice if he said nice things about Liam. The banter is funny, but it kinda gets in the way of the band sometimes.

“The stuff he said about Liam was great, and it was really heartfelt. At the end of the day, brothers fall out and they fight, but they still love each other. Siblings have complex relationships. The only problem is when you’re that famous, it becomes your only story. Everything about Oasis gets reduced to a tabloid story. I deal with that in the book, but the point is that’s just the tip of the iceberg. There’s something far more creative and interesting going on underneath the bonnet.”

Pulp and Blur have both pulled off very impressive records as more mature bands. You can’t help but wonder what ‘old man Oasis’ would sound like….

“Yes, it’s intriguing. Liam still feels like the eternal teenager. You don’t buy into Liam for songs about getting old. Maybe they could be the introspective Noel tracks and Liam’s could be raging against the light?

“It’s brilliant that Pulp got a Number One album [with ‘More’], but there’s a pressure on Oasis because they were so much bigger. People always forget that the last Oasis album got to Number Five in America, and they were getting quite big over there towards the end of their career. You don’t want to blemish that either. I was just hoping there would have been more gigs, weren’t you?”

As an Oasis biographer, how do you feel about the band’s post-2000 output that a lot of people see as a decline?

“I think their later albums are really underrated and overlooked. By the time you get to the last album [‘Dig Out Your Soul’, 2008], they’re doing something really interesting – it’s like an art-rock record. They would never say that, but they’ve got drum’n’bass loops, backwards guitars and bits of kraut-rock. A lot of people would just say, ‘Oh, they’re just doing The Beatles again’, but they’re not really. There’s a lot of different stuff on there. Rock’n’roll isn’t a fashionable form of music, but when bands are good at it, it’s really good.

“Put all that through the filter of pop, and no matter how off-piste they go, it’s always going to be a good record”.

On 4th May, John Robb turns sixty-five. I am not sure what he has planned for the day but, with a new book coming out days later, he will be busy prespring for that. As a journalist, I have so much respect for his work and legacy. One of the most important authors too. He is such a prolific and fascinating figure who you feel needs to be represented himself in terms of a documentary – or someone playing him on the screen. This is a salute and early happy birthday to the amazing John Robb. Let’s hope that we see many more books, work and words from a true great. Someone who has inspired countless artists and journalists through the decades. Through journalism and the music world, there are few that are…

AS important as him.

FEATURE: Spotlight: Naïka

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

PHOTO CREDIT: Jackson Ducasse for The Line of Best Fit

 

Naïka

__________

HER new album is out…

so it is a perfect time to discover and bond with Naïka. ECLESIA is an amazing and major statement from one of the most promising artists in music. I have said that about a couple of other artists recently, though I stand by those words. Naïka is someone that everyone needs to know! I am going to come to some interviews. However, first, here is some biography about an artist you will be hearing a lot more from in the coming year or two:

“Born to a French father and Haitian mother, Naïka embodies the new generation of global pop artists. Having lived and grown up between the Caribbean, South Pacific, Africa, France and the United States, Naïka has developed a sound that bridges cultures, a vibrant blend of Pop, R&B, and Afro-Caribbean influences anchored by her powerful voice and emotional storytelling.

Writing and singing in English, French, and Haitian Creole, Naïka brings a unique multicultural perspective to her art. Her music celebrates identity, resilience, and unity, turning her story into a symbol of connection across borders. As an independent artist, Naïka has built a worldwide community of over 2 million+ fans and surpassed 270 million streams across her three EPs Lost in Paradïse Pt. 1 (2020), Lost in Paradïse Pt. 2 (2021), and TRANSITIONS (2022). Her key tracks include Sauce (featured in an Apple commercial), Water (FIFA 21 soundtrack), 1+1, and 6:45.
Her upcoming debut album ECLESIA opens a new cinematic chapter, previewed by singles BLOOM, BLESSINGS, MATADOR, and ONE TRACK MIND.

Naïka’s rise has been exponentially building worldwide, with viral singles amassing hundreds of millions of streams, sold-out headline tours across Europe, North America and MENA, and major festival appearances. Her recent international tour sold out within 2 weeks of announcement in nearly every city, requiring venue upgrades and additional dates added in every city. Her influence continues to grow globally. Naïka was named Caribbean Fusion Artist of the Year at the 2025 Caribbean Music Awards, and her Grammy Reimagined cover of Doja Cat’s Woman became the most-viewed performance within 24 hours. Her music has charted on Spotify Viral and Shazam in over 40 territories, earning strong editorial support and covers on major DSP playlists.

Beyond music, Naïka is a dynamic force in fashion and visual storytelling. Known for her bold, eclectic aesthetic, she has collaborated with major luxury brands and cultural platforms including Jimmy Choo, Fendi, Jean Paul Gaultier, Burberry, Maison Margiela, Elle, Jamalouki Magazine, and more, building a visual universe as distinctive as her sound.

Furthermore, Naïka is deeply committed to giving back. She collaborates with organizations like Fleur de Vie, a Haitian NGO that focuses on improving education for children, with her ultimate goal of building a school in Haiti.

Naïka isn’t just an artist. She’s a world-builder, a storyteller, and the voice of a new global generation”.

In an interview from last year, The Line of Best Fit note how Naïka “used to see her multinational upbringing as a dilemma but in her seamless blend of pop, afrobeats and R&B sung in three languages she’s crafting anthems for a generation that finds home in a shared feeling”. I am bringing in parts of the interview where we learn about Naïka’s upbringing. Some of the lead-up to the remarkable ECLESIA:

“Born to a Haitian mother and French father, Naïka’s location was dictated by her father's work in renewable energy, which has seen her move between the Caribbean, Kenya, France, and South Africa. Every few years meant packing up and leaving to embark on a journey in a new country, as she tells me. Settling into a new school, learning a new language, and making new friends. "That's all I knew my whole life," she recalls. "We'd get somewhere, live there for three to four years, and then pack up and start over somewhere else." Unbeknownst to Naïka at the time, each move would add another layer to her identity, which she would ultimately come to appreciate wholly.

However, this all changed when Naïka’s father unexpectedly lost his job during her mid-teens. Her family settled in Miami, where Naïka was born but had never actually lived. Although Miami should have offered some level of familiarity, Naïka admits that it felt like arriving somewhere completely foreign. "For the first time, I had to come face to face with the question of my identity," she explains. "I was in a place that I was supposed to be from, and I felt so disconnected to and felt so lost and alien in."

"From that point on, there was always a bit of inner turmoil about where I belong, and who my community is. I never felt like I was enough of anything to be from somewhere,” she continues. “When I started making music, that was a bit of a stressful time, because I strive to be authentic. So, I was trying to figure out what angle I would take with my artistry and music. But little by little, with time, I started realising that instead of trying to find this one thing that doesn’t exist, I should just embrace all of it.”

Naïka’s desire to embrace every part of her experience has ultimately culminated in her debut album, ECLESIA, due for release in February. The name — suggested by her father — comes from an ancient Greek word meaning "a gathering, coming together of people,” as she tells me. “I thought that was so beautiful, and exactly the type of sentiment that I want to bring,” she smiles.

It’s fitting, as the album is eclectic by design. Across thirteen tracks, Naïka offers a thoughtful blend of pop sensibilities steeped in multicultural influences, sung across English, French, and Haitian Creole. "The album has a wide spectrum of different sounds, topics, and energies that fit so perfectly with who I am. ECLESIA is an introduction to what I truly have to bring to the table.”

The singles alone paint a vivid picture of the range within Naïka’s world. The smooth percussion of “Bloom” is punctuated by an almost buzzy key note against Naïka’s collected vocalising, creating something slightly off-kilter and engaging, an ode to her appreciation for subtle details. “Blessings” is drenched in tropical warmth, the production tinged with afrobeats influence. When Naïka sings, ”I should take my time, trust the signs, I decide all the blessings,” it feels meditative — a contrast to ”Matador”, which serves as a snappy, enticing curveball. It’s sung entirely in French, moving with quick, sleek rhythms.

Hearing Naïka navigate the language through her sound with such cool ease emphasises the artistry within her code-switching. It requires an intuitive gaze. Naïka’s multilingual approach to songwriting is organic; she doesn’t sit down and decide when a verse needs to be expressed in a different language in a calculated, organised way, but she lets the language emerge naturally from the emotion. Sometimes French captures a romantic inflection that English can't quite reach. Other times, a line demands the depth of Haitian Creole. "Different languages have their essence in a way," Naïka tells me. "Sometimes you can paint a more impactful picture with one language versus the other”.

I want to include parts of this interview from YUNG. They spotlighted Naïka because she was YUNG’s Breakthrough Artist of the Year in THE LIST 2025. Even though these are still early days for Naïka, I do feel like she is going to continue to rise and be this truly major artist touring the world and playing enormous stages:

“Her sound, a melting pot of pop, R&B, and global influences, reflects that emotional openness. Pop forms the foundation, she explains, but it’s shaped by the rhythms and textures she grew up with. “World music is quite a broad term,” she notes, “it’s the category my sound often falls into, even though what I’m actually doing is pulling from the cultures that shaped me.”

She keeps playlists not just of songs, but of sounds; percussions, synths, textures that spark something vis­ceral. “Sometimes it’s like, why don’t we try this element? Or that rhythm?” she says. The process is experi­mental, intuitive, moving by feeling rather than the rigid grammar of genre. Trial and error is the point.

There are a few references she keeps close, not as influences in the traditional sense, but as markers she checks in with. Bob Marley, for the way his music could hold joy and grief at the same time without ever forcing either. Cesária Évora, for the softness, for how longing could exist inside something almost bare. Somewhere between them sits the Haitian saying “konpa synth”, it surfaces instinctively. Together, they don’t point her in one direction so much as keep her oriented.

And what anchors it all is trust. Trust in her instincts, in her collaborators, and in the idea that emotion, when followed honestly, will always find its form. However, that wasn’t always the case for the singer. When she first moved to Los Angeles in 2018, she entered an industry that spoke in numbers, formulas, and expectations. It was a world where success came pre-packaged, melodies engineered for virality, songs built to fit radio logic, creativity measured by outcome.

“At the time, it felt very mathematical,” she recalls. “Everything was geared toward making hits, toward cook­ie-cutter success.” For someone whose process was rooted in instinct and emotion, the environment felt constricting. “I felt really caged,” she says. “What felt authentic to me didn’t feel like what was going to make money.”

PHOTO CREDIT: Fouad Tadros

She tried to adapt. Like many young artists finding their footing, she questioned her instincts, wondering whether they were too personal, too risky, too untranslatable. “Back then, I didn’t trust myself,” she admits. “I didn’t know what I was doing on my own.” The doubt lingered; not because her vision lacked clarity, but be­cause it hadn’t yet found support. “I also didn’t grow up in an environment that celebrated this kind of career.”

What changed wasn’t a single breakthrough, but a slow recalibration. Naïka began paying closer attention to what felt real rather than what felt acceptable. She stopped chasing validation and started listening inward. “Over time, I learned to really rely on my authenticity,” she says. “To trust what feels honest and true to me.”

Risk stopped feeling like a gamble and started feeling like honesty. The music she wanted to make was always capable of reaching people — it just didn’t arrive neatly pre-approved, wearing the right instructions. The EPs she released during that period became acts of exploration rather than destination points. They were spaces in which to experiment, to fail safely, to discover her sound in public. “That’s why I made EPs,” she explains. “I was figuring myself out — discovering who I was and how I wanted to present myself to the world.”

When Naïka speaks about Eclesia, her debut album, she’s quick to correct one assumption. This isn’t a pivot. It isn’t a new era manufactured for momentum. “It’s funny you mention that,” she tells YUNG, when the idea of reinvention comes up. “It’s not a different era. It’s me finally being able to show people that I’m here.”

The album’s foundation arrived early, long before the final tracklist took shape. It began with a single word. “The title came first,” she reveals. Eclesia. From the outset, she knew what the project needed to be: an intro­duction. Not just to her sound, but to her interior world. “I knew it was going to encapsulate all the different elements that make up who I am.”

Releasing in February of 2026, the album unfolds like a journey, moving through textures, moods, and emo­tional registers without asking for cohesion in the traditional sense. “It feels like travelling,” she says. “Different places, different topics, different sounds.”

If there’s a throughline that carries Naïka across cultures, genres, and phases, it’s that very same curiosity. Not ambition. Not certainty. Curiosity. “I’m a big observer,” she says. Having lived across drastically different envi­ronments, she learned early that no place — and no person — can be reduced to a single story. “Everywhere has layers, duality, contrast,” she explains. “There’s always a spectrum.”

That belief extends to faith. Naïka doesn’t follow a specific religion, but she maintains a strong spiritual ground­ing. “My biggest connection is with the universe, and with God,” she says. “I respect all religions, but I trust in energy, in a higher power. I can’t pretend to understand it — and that’s what grounds me”.

I am going to end with a new interview from NME. They write how Naïka pours herself into “her joyfully multicultural music to create a “universe” for herself and her community”. I am new to her music, though I did instantly connect with her music. Even if there are a lot of influences and sounds coming together, it all sounds so distinct and whole. A spectacular artist with a sound like no other:

‘Eclesia’ shifts seamlessly between Afro-Caribbean beats, Haitian konpa and South Pacific drums, between French, Creole and English throughout 13 vibrant and vulnerable tracks. On lead single ‘Bloom’ she declares “Island girls are blessing ‘til nobody can reach them” over a glitchy dance beat. The alluring ‘Matador’ explores what it means to defy societal standards imposed on women. In ‘Blessings’, she casts spells of positive affirmation, and atop the deceptively calming rhythm of ‘What A Day!’, she sings about war and injustice: “What a day for crime/ Kids are dying in Palestine/ Blood is paving Congolese mines/ And the world keeps going.”

For Naïka, responding to the violence in the world as an artist is natural, necessary and a basic responsibility. “I’m a human being and I care about other human beings’ lives and protection and freedom and basic rights,” she says. “I’ve always written songs about the world and how it’s affected me. It’s how I process what’s happening. Whether it’s ‘My Body, My Choice’ [that] I wrote about women’s rights, or ‘Before He Falls’, I wrote about the war in Syria, it’s something I’ve always done.”

Outside of her music, she also works as an ambassador for Fleur de Vie, a Haitian NGO focused on education and building safer schools. “I grew up in countries where I would see extreme poverty, and kids my age didn’t have shoes on and were in the street when I was on my way to school. I’ve been aware of the lottery of life from a very young age.” For Naïka, art may be a form of resistance, but it’s also how she heals. “Music has really strong frequencies. It’s a powerful art form,” she explains. “When I see songs I’ve created to express how I was feeling and my vulnerabilities, my emotions, my thoughts resonate with other people in a way that’s stuck with them, that’s the biggest thing in the world for me. Truly.”

PHOTO CREDIT: Tom J. Johnson

NME sees firsthand just how deeply Naïka’s music resonates with fans in a small room in New York City a month before the album’s release. Anthurium flowers decorate the microphone stand. A vintage rug, small couch, rattan furniture, and plants fill the compact stage. Naïka dances barefoot on the bar, to fans’ enthusiastic cheers, before gracefully moving to an ornamental platform inspired by a picture of her childhood apartment and her mother’s style, which she describes as “tropical vintage glam”. ‘Eclesia’ was always meant to be performed in a room full of people. “When I found the name, I looked up what it meant,” she says. “In ancient Greece, it meant a coming together of people. That was the ‘click’ for me. This is what I want this album to be called, because that’s really what I hope to do with my music.

“I feel like I’ve never belonged to one community. To see the audience and to see people from all different walks of life, all different religions, different genders… When I see this diversity, it really makes me feel at home.” Through her music, she wanted to create her own world, and her fans have joyfully joined her there. “I was like, ‘I’m not fully going to be accepted anywhere, so let me just make my own universe for my [feelings] and for others who feel the same way.’”

The ‘Eclesia’ tour’s last stop is in Miami, where both Naïka’s musical life and career began. “I didn’t even think about that until you just said it,” she says of the full-circle moment where she’ll play at the Miami Beach Bandshell next month. “What’s so funny is that it’s at a venue that every time we would drive past it, my dad would say, ‘One day I want to see you play there,’” she remembers. “The universe works in crazy ways sometimes”.

If you have not heard ECLESIA and are new to Naïka, then do go and follow her. There are artists who are proclaimed and heralded who then fade away. However, when it comes to this remarkable artist, you know that she is going to be putting out the very best music for…

YEARS more.

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Follow Naïka

FEATURE: Come Into My World: Is Kylie Minogue's Fever One of the Most Underrated Classics Ever?

FEATURE:

 

 

Come Into My World

 

Is Kylie Minogue's Fever One of the Most Underrated Classics Ever?

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SOME might say…

PHOTO CREDIT: Vincent Peters

that Kylie Minogue’s 2001 album, Fever, is a confirmed masterpiece. One of the most commercial successful and popular albums of the 2000s. It is exciting this year, as Fever turns twenty-five on 1st October. Its lead single, Can’t Get You Out of My Head, is twenty-five on 8th September. Reaching number one in the U.K., this song confirmed the continued relevance of Kylie Minogue in the twenty-first century. After the success of 2000’s Light Years, Fever was this remarkable follow-up. Can’t Get You Out of My Head was written by Cathy Dennis and Rob Davis. I will come to some reviews of Fever. In spite of the fact Fever contains some of Kylie Minogue’s best songs – including Come Into My World, In Your Eyes and Love at First Sight -, there were some critics who were cold and mixed towards the album. Come Into My World will gain new focus as it soundtrack the CHANEL 25 Handbag Campaign. Starring Margot Robbie (with direction by Michel Gondry and Kylie Minogue appearing), the iconic and stunning video for Come Into My World is recreated. You can read more about the campaign here. I cannot understand any of the apathy towards this Fever! Maybe 2001 was a strange year for Pop. Fever was released a few weeks after the 9/11 attacks. There was a sombre mood. Realising Can’t Get You Out of My Head came out three days before the attacks. In spite of quite a few positive reviews, there were some mixed ones. I feel Fever is one of the best Pop albums ever. It should have won five-star reviews across the board. It is a faultless album where the deep cuts are superb too. In terms of the videos for the singles too. It was this incredible period for Minogue. On Metacritic, Fever has a score of 68/100. I know it is a faulty metric, as it does not include every review. Even so, that is a remarkably low score for an album that was a massive worldwide success. In terms of its legacy, I am going to source Wikipedia and their page about the legacy of Fever:

“Fever is considered to be a prominent example of Minogue's constant "reinventions”. The image she adopted during this period was described by Baker as "slick, minimalist and postmodern", and it was seen as a step forward from the "camp-infused" tone of Light Years. Larissa Dubecki from The Age used the term "nu-disco diva" to describe Minogue during this period. Andy Battaglia from The A.V. Club opined that Minogue's public image and her persona in her music videos "presented herself as a mechanical muse whose every gesture snapped and locked into place with the sound of a vacuum seal". He further remarked that the singer's "hygienic coo summoned a cool sort of cyborg soul, and her videos showed her gliding through sleek futurescapes, tonguing the sweet-and-sour tang of a techno kiss"

Adrien Begrand from PopMatters felt that the simplicity of the album made it a "classy piece of work" and commented that Minogue's experience and choice of collaborators resulted in "the thirtysomething Minogue upstaging soulless, brainless music by younger American pop tarts like Britney [Spears] and Christina [Aguilera]". Robbie Daw from Idolator pointed out that Britney Spears's recording of her 2004 hit "Toxic", Madonna's comeback album Confessions on a Dance Floor (2005), Paris Hilton's musical debut Paris (2006), and radio stations' shift towards playing "more groove-oriented sounds" all followed the release of Fever, although he mentioned that "we have no way of knowing whether [Fever] was directly responsible for these pop happenings". Nick Levine from NME ranked Fever as the greatest album of Minogue's career, noting "the project’s effortless confidence and strength in depth."

I am going to bring in some of the reviews that were not completely effusive. In terms of influence, you can feel Fever resonating with artists such as Dua Lipa and Sabrina Carpenter. This is what The Guardian opinioned in their review of Fever in 2001:

“Let us imagine we have travelled back in time. It is September 1991. Your hair is hanging either side of your face in the currently modish "curtains" style. Your jeans are the handiwork of Joe Bloggs. You chuckle at the Mary Whitehouse Experience and worry that Bryan Adams's Everything I Do (I Do It for You) will be number one for the rest of your life. That aside, you goggle with excitement at music's future. Primal Scream's Screamadelica has just been released. So has Nirvana's Nevermind. The Happy Mondays' Pills 'n' Thrills & Bellyaches is seldom far from your CD player. The second Stone Roses album should arrive soon. The world is one of boundless musical possibilities.

But what if you were told that Primal Scream were about to stall, Kurt Cobain would be dead in three years and the Happy Mondays and Stone Roses would never make another decent record? How would you react to the suggestion that all those bands would be commercially outlived by Kylie Minogue? That in 10 years' time, the British media would be speculating not about Sean Ryder, but whether the Australian pop moppet's 33rd single would be another number one? You'd laugh so hard, your heat-sensitive Global Hypercolour t-shirt would turn a virulent shade of puce.

Back then, it was impossible to believe that Kylie Minogue was a harbinger. Before Kylie, female pop stars were tough R&B singers, squeaky pubescents or Madonna. Minogue was different: antiseptically sexy and curiously devoid of public personality, the puppet of all-powerful producers and songwriters, a media celebrity first and singer second.

If Minogue seemed lost during Britpop - her eponymous 1997 "indie" album flopped - she fitted in perfectly when Oasis's appeal faded. Camp, disposable pop, performed by antiseptically sexy media celebrities, the puppets of all-powerful producers and songwriters, now has a stranglehold on the charts. British music has come round to Kylie's way of thinking.

Her recent battle with Victoria Beckham has even afforded her artisitic credibility. Critics have fallen over themselves to garland her eighth album Fever and bash Posh's VB. One broadsheet proclaimed Minogue "a genuine artiste" discovering "a muse of her own". It's easy to see how judgments have become distorted. Compared with Beckham's malnourished R&B, Fever sounds as experimental as Captain Beefheart jamming with Can. Remove Posh's album from the equation, however, and you're left not with a challenging work of art, but a polished, radio-friendly pop album and a sense that some journalists should calm down a bit.

Fever is written and produced by a crack team of pop songwriters. Their motley ranks include former Mud guitarist Rob Davis, 1980s starlet Cathy Dennis and erstwhile New Radicals singer Gregg Alexander, still at large in society despite contributing to Geri Halliwell's last album. Their work here is startlingly slick, a combination of house beats, fashionable electronic effects largely borrowed from Daft Punk, and choruses designed to lodge in the brain after one listen.

Like Robbie Williams's songs, the tracks on Fever are big on easily digestible pop references. Love at First Sight features the same stuttering disco samples as Stardust's number one Music Sounds Better with You. Give It to Me sounds like Moloko. The lyrics of In Your Eyes cheekily tip a wink to Minogue's comeback hit Spinning Around. You can easily picture any of Fever's 12 tracks in the current top 10. A backhanded compliment, certainly - the current top 10 is hardly overburdened with works of musical genius - but you can only marvel at Fever's money-making efficiency.

Nevertheless, the album is not without flaws. The relentless four-to-the-floor beats eventually become numbing. Minogue's voice, meanwhile, is devoid of emotion. Her videos may flash acres of flesh - Minogue publicly exposes her buttocks with the fervour of a rugby-club drinking society - yet her actual records are curiously unsexy. A robot could deliver the lyrics to the come-hither title track more passionately.

But perhaps such criticisms are beside the point. No one buys a Kylie Minogue album expecting grit and passion. Complaining that Fever is soulless and manufactured is like complaining that Radiohead are kind of mopey. It's a mature pop album only in that it's aimed at the boozy girl's night out rather than the school disco. Mercifully, however, it has no pretensions to be anything else. Audibly packed with hits, Fever achieves exactly what it sets out to achieve. The odds on Kylie Minogue's career long outliving 2001's critically lauded rock bands must be as minuscule as the lady herself”.

I will come to some more respectable opinions. Fever is undeniably one of the biggest and most successful albums of the 2000s. I disagree that there is too much repetitiveness or lack of invention. Some truly iconic songs and videos. This is what SLANT wrote for their review of an album that I first in 2001. I was pretty much starting out at university:

“It’s a shame that Australia’s Kylie Minogue was sent back to the land of mindless dance-pop after the critical and commerical disappointment of 1997’s experimental Impossible Princess. The result was 2000’s Light Years and, now, the terminally cheesy Fever.

The album’s first single, the aptly titled “Can’t Get You Out of My Head,” has already topped the charts in 22 countries and is set to invade brains this side of the Atlantic. Co-penned by former dance pop songstress Cathy Dennis, the track is cheeky, soul-sucking fun, its la la la’s waiting and willing to lodge themselves in your psyche. Similarly, “In Your Eyes” and the bleepy “Give It to Me” are contagious potential club hits.

A trio of tracks take their titles from older, more famous songs; the neo-disco shuffler “More More More,” the campy “Fever” (“Hey doctor, just what do you diagnose…So now, shall I take off my clothes?”), and the acoustic guitar-infused “Burning Up” all make one yearn for their older, superior siblings (by Andrea True Connection, Peggy Lee, and Madonna, respectively). Minogue’s chirpy coos leave much to be desired and her articulation is painfully precise on tracks like “Love Affair”; what should be playful and sexy is often rendered mechanical and hollow. Armed with 10 producers, you’d think Minogue would be able to serve up something a little less monotonous”.

Before ending with some positive reviews, there is a promotional interview with The Guardian - who were happy to praise Kylie Minogue when they interviewed her and talk up Fever, but they also overlooked and almost dismissed it when they reviewed it! -, that is quite insightful. It was a whirlwind time for Minogue:

“She's here today to promote her eighth album, Fever, and what will be her thirty-fourth consecutive UK hit single, the hypnotic 'Can't Get You Out of My Head'.

Kylie knows it's good. With the previous album - her first for her new label, Parlophone - she was struggling to re-establish herself as a pop princess after a relatively disastrous period working with credible rock names such as The Manic Street Preachers. When the first Parlophone single, 'Spinning Around', went to number one last year, she cried with relief. But this time, there's just a quiet confidence.

'I feel like I'm on a wave and I actually know how to stand on the board at this point,' she says. 'I feel quite solid. I don't know where it's taking me, but everything feels really good.'

She's 33, and she's been famous for half her life. We talk about the way she'll turn on and 'become' Kylie. 'You have to,' she says. 'There's no way you could maintain that all the time. If you get up and do a Saturday morning kids show, you don't wake up and be that person. You go, you get ready, and 20 minutes beforehand, you start to become... It's no different to anyone else. I go to work as well.'

Her close friends don't call her Kylie. They call her Min. She says she sometimes feels guilty about those friends - how others get smiley Kylie, and they have to settle for grumpy Min. When you're always performing, she explains, 'home is the only place you can have a long face and really mope about'.

I point out that stroppy pop stars are the norm, that we like our celebrities to have attitude and angst. But Kylie is a trouper, an old-fashioned professional who believes that the show must go on: 'Perhaps I'm more old-school than my years in that respect. It's just where I came from, working in TV, where it's not about you, where you don't get anything done without everyone else.'

Kylie was 11 when she appeared in her first TV soap, 17 when she left school and entered our living rooms as the feisty mechanic Charlene in Neighbours . We've watched her grow up - making shiny, infectious production-line pop for Stock, Aitken and Waterman's south London Hit Factory, ditching the froufrou frocks for sleeker, sexier clothes, and finally taking control of her music as well as her image by leaving the SAW stable and signing to hip dance label DeConstruction.

Frequently derided in her early career, she has now become something of a national treasure, sitting next to Prince Charles at a charity dinner one night, hanging out in cool clubs the next, equally at home on the covers of Vogue and Smash Hits. We've seen her change her looks, change her music, change her boyfriends, change her record label (three times), reinvent herself. But through it all, Kylie has been careful to keep a little mystery back. Part of her appeal is that she has always been something of a blank canvas, a screen on which we can all project our Kylie fantasies.

This is why so many big-name artists and photographers agreed to contribute to her 1999 art-book, Kylie. Why designer Patrick Cox recently told Vogue: 'She's a living Barbie doll. All gay men want to play with her, dress her up, comb her hair.' Why there barely seems to be a band, songwriter or producer in Britain who hasn't clamoured to work with her at some point.

If you ask her about them, she will tell you about her relationships with Michael Hutchence and later with the photographer/director Stephane Sedanoui, but she tends to tell the same anecdotes each time. She has decided exactly how much to reveal. 'I'm aware that you have to give so much, because if you make yourself unavailable, people want it so much more. It's a very fine line. You have to hand over some of your private life, but pretty much the same stories get rehashed. People want to know if you've got a boyfriend, who he is, what he does.'

Her current relationship is with James Gooding, a 26-year-old model who has no interest in being part of any Kylie media circus. Which is why she is unwilling to talk too much about him, beyond saying that they are happy together. 'As far as being able to keep a lot of my private life private, I don't use any of that to exploit my career, and in a very subtle way, I think, the media understands that,' she says.

What she does enjoy talking about is the technicalities of her job. About how, in her last tour, she descended from the roof on a dazzling silver anchor that was actually 'a bit of MDF with shiny sticky-backed plastic on it'. After one of the London shows, the fashion designer Matthew Williamson came backstage wanting to know how she'd managed the frequent fast costume changes. They happily discussed press-studs and poppers and how she'd walk calmly to the side of the stage, then be enveloped by frantic dressers trying to strip off her outfit and fit the next one, like mechanics in a Grand Prix pit stop. 'I could have talked for ages about it,' she says, 'because here was someone who understood.'

Similarly, on another night a friend from the film world asked about the barely visible harness fixing her to the anchor. 'The rest of the world went away while I talked about how the harness was made in LA and was only two inches wide. These things are major triumphs in the show - you have no idea how many hours were spent talking about the harness, safety regulations, how we'd disguise it.'

Her last tour was a camp extravaganza, with elaborate choreography, glitzy costumes and sets straight out of a Fifties musical. Kylie has never seemed more at ease on stage. 'I will always be a bit camp. I call it being a showgirl, because what we call camp is what used to be called showy. Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell doing their Gentlemen Prefer Blondes kind of thing. And I still happen to be a big fan of it.'

Australians tend to be good at this kind of unabashed homage - take Baz Luhrmann's new film, Moulin Rouge , an energetic, Technicolor tribute to classic musicals and contemporary pop in which Kylie makes a short but memorable appearance as the green absinthe fairy. A huge fan of Luhrmann's work, Kylie was thrilled to be part of it. But then she tells me about seeing it for the first time, and you see that her new confidence is still mixed in with the old self-consciousness.

She'd flown out to Los Angeles for the premiere the day after her tour finished. Even though her part is brief, she says, 'I was just so nervous'. She knew that a lot of people involved in the project were sitting in the row behind her, and since they'd already seen the film, she thought they might be looking at her instead, to gauge her reactions. So she sat rigid throughout, taking none of it in. 'I was too scared to do anything. It's like when you're starving and you look at a menu and you can't focus on anything - I just wasn't completely there.'

She gets sent a lot of bad film scripts. 'And I've made really bad choices as well, but you learn that way.' Among the bad choices was the 1995 film-of-the-computer-game Streetfighter, and Bio-Dome, an unbelievably awful 1998 film starring Pauly Shore, who at the time seemed like America's next comic genius. Kylie claims she's never even seen the finished film. 'You know how with parents, you can do something that's not so great, and they'll tell you they loved it? My dad said, "I can't believe that you did that. That was just diabolical!" So I never watched it.'

At the age of 19, Kylie suffered what she now calls 'a kind of mini-breakdown'. Her schedule on Neighbours was punishing. They filmed all week, and then at weekends the younger cast members would plaster on their smiles and make appearances in shopping malls across Australia to boost the show's ratings. After she'd been ill, her dad sat her down and said, 'You can say no and the world's not going to fall apart. You don't have to please all these people.' She revisits those words from time to time. 'Saying no has never been that easy, but I'm starting to get better at it.'

She has always worked hard, in the belief that she'd eventually reach a point where things would get easier, but she's finally starting to see that success doesn't work that way. 'You actually have more opportunities available to you, so you have more things to say no to.' So she's starting to rethink. 'At the moment work's great, everything's going great, but I need to find more balance in my life. What am I doing all this for? Am I going to keep doing this till I'm 50? I don't know. I'm at this odd place where I couldn't wish for more in my career”.

There are a couple of features to illuminate. Stereogum wrote about Fever on its twentieth anniversary in 2021. I wonder whether Kylie Minogue will release an expended edition of Fever closer to its twenty-fifth anniversary on 1st October. I do genuinely think it is one of the most underrated albums ever. One that has influenced so many artists and has epic singles and these incredible album tracks:

“By 2000 she was resurgent. Minogue adapted to the Y2K-era global pop landscape on her seventh album Light Years, which critics hailed for introducing disco-pop to a younger crowd with a sophisticated edge. Light Years topped the Australian albums chart and became the design that launched Minogue toward her 2001 statement album. Fever would be the definitive release of her career, a euphoric metamorphosis so compelling that Americans couldn’t ignore it -- including me.

Before discovering that the foundations of disco were originated by queer Black artists during the 1970s, as a child, Fever was my second taste of the genre. (Ironically, my first was another Fever from Down Under: the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack by fellow Aussies the Bee Gees.) When I saw the Fever album cover on a promotional billboard outside my local, now-defunct Virgin Megastore, I was hypnotized by its minimalism and Minogue’s smoldering, icy gaze; like the song says, it was love at first sight. As a young Black girl who regularly opted for early-2000s hip-hop and R&B, Minogue was the first white artist I remember listening to unapologetically. While dance and electronica were worlds away from the genres I was used to, Fever opened my ears to a spectrum of experimental soundscapes from early-2000s international dance acts like Daft Punk, Jamiroquai, Basement Jaxx, and Röyksopp.

Though repetitive at times in production and lyrical content, Fever was an ultra-sleek turn into the wonders of millennial pop futurism. The aesthetic was best reflected by Fever’s rhapsodic lead single "Can’t Get You Out of My Head," the song that sent the dance-pop world into Minogue mania. Co-produced and co-written by former Mud glam-rock guitarist Rob Davis and British pop singer-songwriter Cathy Dennis, "Can't Get You Out of My Head" began in Davis' garage-turned-makeshift studio in South East England. They initially offered it to former British pop group S Club 7 and indie pop singer Sophie Ellis-Bextor, both of whom passed on the demo. It thus serendipitously landed on Minogue, who wanted the song within 20 seconds of hearing it.

Balancing in-your-face ubiquity with a more elusive seduction as it built to an infectious "la la la" refrain, "Can't Get You Out of My Head" launched Minogue into icon status. The song became her biggest hit in the US since "The Loco-Motion," peaking at #7, and her bestselling single overall, with worldwide sales of over five million copies. The visual for "Can’t Get You Out of My Head" looked just as glossy as the song sounded -- Minogue's razor-sharp jawline stole the show alongside robotic choreography by an army of clones with cutout tops that would give Mean Girls' Regina George a run for her money.

There was more where that came from. Veering towards discotheque futurism, Fever arguably made Minogue the global queen of nightclubbing. Opening track "More More More" throbbed with a rapturous, tech-y hotline tone and a deep house bassline courtesy of British producer Tommy D. Second track (and third single) "Love At First Sight" pulsated with an adrenaline rush of optimism as Minogue cooed about passionate reverie. The title track was an alluring, flirtatious escapade that brought the steamy album cover full circle.

Breathy vocals ran rampant throughout Fever, notably on the lush, nearly-inebriated sounding "In Your Eyes" and "Come Into My World," which won Best Dance Recording at the Grammys three years later. (It was released as a single in November 2002, placing it within the eligibility window for the February 2004 ceremony.) "Come Into My World" was a follow-up collaboration between Davis and Dennis, who spun it out into a hallucinogenic disco utopia, paving the way for releases decades in the future like Dua Lipa's Future Nostalgia”.

I am finishing off with Classic Pop and their incredible feature. I want to include their track-by-track guide to a classic. I am baffled by any reviews that were less than glowing and rapturous! There was definitely some misogyny in some of them. The media not respecting this Pop titan. Even if one or two songs are not as strong as the best moments, Fever has plenty of range and diversity to keep the listener engaged and engrossed from start to finish:

“1. More More More
Fun, frothy and flirty, More More More sets the agenda for the rest of the album. Spiritual brethren of the dirty disco of Andrea True Connection’s risqué track of the same name, the house-inflected opener, written and produced by Tommy D, sees Kylie at her most alluring. Very much capturing the carefree abandon of disco in its lyrics, the production gives it a modern twist.

2. Love At First Sight
Co-written by Kylie, Love At First Sight is a standout on the album, one of her personal favourites and a regular highlight of live shows. A breezy ode to the feeling of being in a new relationship, the song is elevated by its state-of-the-art dance production which evoked recent hits from Daft Punk, Modjo and Stardust’s Music Sounds Better With You. Released as the third single from Fever, Love At First Sight reached No.2 and became her third ever US hit.

3. Can’t Get You Out Of My Head
Thirteen years into her pop career and Kylie scored her biggest hit. The track saw Minogue embraced by the dance world, not only for the song in its minimal electro form, but in various remixes – the most popular of which was Erol Alkan’s mash-up of the vocal over the backing track of New Order’s Blue Monday, which was a staple of his sets at celebrated club night Trash. Kylie took the mix mainstream when she performed it at the BRITs in 2002. Stuart Crichton created an official remix of the track for the B-side of Love At First Sight.

4. Fever
Written by Greg Fitzgerald and Tom Nichols, Fever’s title track is a departure from the dance-pop sound that dominates much of the album, instead being an updated electro track inspired by the New Romantic sound of the early 80s. Lyrically, the song’s tongue-in-cheek flirtation between a ‘lovesick’ Kylie and her doctor gives it an air of ‘Carry On Kylie’, a narrative brought to life on ITV’s An Audience With Kylie, in which she performed it in a campy doctors and nurses scenario before an audience of bemused-looking celebs.

5. Give It To Me
Fever’s weakest song, Give It To Me’s hard electro-funk sounds out of place on the album and could have been replaced with some of the strong tracks relegated to B-side/bonus track status such as Tightrope (a hidden gem of her discography), Good Like That or Boy. Heavily treated with chopped-up vocals and an annoying recurrent telephone ringing, the song is an experiment that didn’t quite hit the mark.

6. Fragile
After the sonic chaos of Give It To Me, the soothing Fragile is a beautiful mid-tempo track with a dreamy vocal from Kylie perfectly capturing the essence of the song which details the feeling of vulnerability in a relationship, singing: “’Cause I’m fragile when I hear your name/ Fragile when you call/ This could be the nearest thing to love/ And I’m fragile when I hear you speak/ Fragile feeling small/ This could be the closest thing to love,” over a hypnotic soundscape.

7. Come Into My World
A last-minute addition to Fever and another triumph from Rob Davis and Cathy Dennis, Come Into My World treads a similar sonic path to Can’t Get You Out Of My Head. The fourth and final single from the album, it was re-recorded for the album’s deluxe edition and single release (apparently as Cathy Dennis’ backing vocal was too prominent on the original) though Kylie’s breathy vocal sounds flimsy in contrast to the stronger original. In 2004, Kylie won her first Grammy for this song for Best Dance Recording. Come Into My World was also the basis for one of Kylie’s best ever remixes when it was given an electroclash reworking by Fischerspooner.

8. In Your Eyes

A dance anthem, In Your Eyes is a sultry ode to lust across a crowded nightclub with an aggressive beat and infectious chorus and the perfect follow-up to Can’t Get You Out Of My Head. However, despite its release being pushed back by a month due to the endurance of its predecessor, In Your Eyes was still somewhat overshadowed. It was also notable for self-referencing, with Kylie imploring: “Is the world still Spinning Around?” The album’s second single, it reached No.3 in the UK and No.1 in Australia where it was also released as her first DVD single.

9. Dancefloor
Written by Cathy Dennis and long-time Kylie collaborator Steve Anderson, Dancefloor is the song that sounds most like a continuation of the classic disco sound of Light Years. A breakup track on which Kylie berates an ex for not treating her as well as she deserved and getting over him by hitting the dancefloor, the song’s message is fairly universal.

10. Love Affair
If Fever had produced a fifth single, Love Affair would almost certainly have been the main contender for release. A perfectly crafted slice of dance-pop with Kylie at her seductive best, Love Affair is a continuation of the narrative from In Your Eyes with a similar clubby style with trance-like inflections. An undeniable album highlight.

11. Your Love
Winding down the album, Your Love is another stunning mid-tempo number. Similar to Fragile, a lilting guitar lends the song a blissed-out Balearic feel. The sole track on the LP from Pascal Gabriel and Paul Statham, Your Love is from the same sonic palette as some of the other tracks on the album which, had they been recorded by other artists with a lesser identity than Kylie, risked sounded same-y rather than succeeding as a cohesive body of work.

12. Burning Up
An anomaly to close the album, Burning Up was again penned by Greg Fitzgerald and Tom Nichols who with this, along with the title track, provided two of the record’s best moments. Burning Up’s unusual teaming of an acoustic verse with an upbeat, dance-y chorus has been revived recently by Kylie who has deployed a similar structure to her recent hit Dancing. With its gentle, hazy chorus bursting into a bassline and chorus reminiscent of Nile Rodgers’ best work, Burning Up was a standout performance of her Fever Tour”.

I was excited when Fever arrived in 2001. I had heard Can’t Get You Out of My Head and there was this fascination. One of these singles and videos that created such an impact. I do associate Fever with a terrible year for world events. Whilst it did provide a lift and relief, maybe it was unfortunate timing. However, in years since its release, you can see all these artists impacted by Fever. I Wonder if Kylie Minogue plays any songs from the album on her tours. It is going to be exciting to see if there are anniversary celebrations later in the year. A phenomenal album that did remarkably get some two or three-star reviews. It is a masterful and astonishing album that still hits and gets into the heart…

A quarter-century later.

FEATURE: Beneath the Sleeve: Ariana Grande - Dangerous Woman

FEATURE:

 

 

Beneath the Sleeve

 

Ariana Grande - Dangerous Woman

__________

AS it turns ten…

on 20th May, I wanted to use the opportunity to dive inside Ariana Grande’s Dangerous Woman. Not only is Grande an incredible artist. She is a successful and acclaimed actor. Appearing in huge films like Wicked: For Good, Grande is one of the world’s biggest talents. In terms of studio albums, Ariana Grade’s most recent is 2024’s eternal sunshine. Dangerous Woman is Grande’s second studio album. I am going to end with a review for this amazing album that I feel has not gained as much credit as it deserves. Dangerous Woman and its singles were nominated for various accolades, including two Grammy Awards. It helped Grande win Artist of the Year at the American Music Awards. You can pick up Dangerous Woman on vinyl. There are some 2016 interview that I want to get to first before coming to some reviews. Grazia Daily spoke with an artist who they say was going big on her female activist calling:

‘I’m a woman so I face my fair share of double standards and misogyny and ignorance on a daily basis,’ Ariana says. Her message is simple. ‘A lot of women think of the stereotype that comes with the word “feminist”. But there’s not just one type of feminist.

You can be a feminist who gets their hair and make-up done, you can be a feminist who cuts their hair off and doesn’t wear any make-up. Who has lots of sex or who doesn’t. There’s no limit.’

Ariana has clearly warmed to the theme since she dropped that wisdom on Twitter last summer. Then, she described how women were ‘mostly referred to as a man’s past, present or future PROPERTY/ POSSESSION’, a view informed by her experience of dating rapper Big Sean. Her good-girl image also took a slating last year, in a bizarre and overblown story where she was caught on camera licking doughnuts on display in a bakery.

The frustration with all that judgement occasionally finds its way on to the new record, which mostly sounds like grown-up, genre-busting RnB pop, with the occasional insight into Ariana’s life. On Bad Decisions, an empowered twist on the old story of a good girl being led astray, Ariana sings, ‘Ain’t you ever seen a princess be a bad bitch?’ After some cajoling, she concedes that this line is personal. ‘I feel like people are always constantly trying to pin me down as a good girl or a bad girl but I think women can be whatever, and me too.’

It’s a difficulty acutely felt by the female teen star transitioning into adult artist – Ariana was trolled for wearing lingerie in the video for Dangerous Woman. ‘When a young male artist posts a shirtless picture on Instagram the comments will be like “Oh my God, heart eyes, so hot, babe alert!”,’ she says of stars like Justin Bieber who, in the week we meet, posted a nude picture. ‘Like, whatever. If a woman posts a suggestive photo or anything that expresses her own sexuality or confidence within her body, it’s a very different response.’

It’s clear Ariana’s education in female empowerment comes from growing up on a diet of The First Wives Club and pop pioneers like Madonna, whom she recently sang Unapologetic Bitch with. But the lessons started closer to home. She comes, she has noted, ‘from a long bloodline of female activists’, which included her aunt Judy Grande, a Pulitzer nominated Washington Post reporter. Ariana gets out her phone and shows a picture of Judy with renowned feminist Gloria Steinem.

‘I feel like I have to carry on her legacy,’ she says of her aunt, who died in 2008 from breast cancer. ‘I feel like it’s my responsibility to keep the fight going”.

Billboard featured Ariana Grande in May 2016. Like other artists, they say, Ariana Grande was “under pressure to not only prove herself grown and sexy, but that she's somehow lifting up herself and other women as she does”. Even if you are not a huge fan of Grande, you really need to hear Dangerous Woman. I think it is a remarkable album:

“As a matter of fact, Grande appears on the cover of Dangerous Woman in shiny black headgear with long ears. It looks like it was designed for American Horror Story by the cartoonists at Warner Bros. The Super Bunny “is my superhero, or supervillain — whatever I’m feeling on the day,” says Grande. “Whenever I doubt myself or question choices I know in my gut are right — because other people are telling me other things — I’m like, ‘What would that bad bitch Super Bunny do?’ She helps me call the shots.”

Whether owing to her gut, her team or her alter-egos, it has been a grand career for Grande so far. With her March hit “Dangerous Woman” — a sultry R&B track with a self-empowerment message and an arena-annihilating hook — Grande became the first artist in Billboard Hot 100 history to have the lead single of each of her first three albums debut in the top 10. She has sold 1.3 million albums in the United States, according to Nielsen Music; grossed $41.8 million on 2015’s Honeymoon Tour, according to Billboard Boxscore; claims 4 billion YouTube views; clocks in at fourth among all humans on Instagram (with 71.4 million followers) and 18th on Twitter (38.8 million); and will kick off her album release with a performance at the Billboard Music Awards on May 22. And, she says, “I feel like I’m still just getting started — a lot of people forget I’m only three years in.”

Grande’s challenge is with her quote unquote brand. Like all female pop stars entering adulthood these days, she’s under pressure to not only prove herself grown and sexy, but that she’s somehow lifting up herself and other women as she does it. And in her bid to be taken seriously, she has more to overcome than many of her peers. The world first met her as Cat Valentine, the adorably dopey character at the heart of two Nickelodeon teen sitcoms (the second, Sam & Cat, ended in 2014), and she hasn’t quite shaken off that childlike sheen. Her tiny stature (she’s just 5 feet tall), love of Harry Potter (she describes Super Bunny as “my patronus”) and all the animal-themed, Lolita-meets-S&M gear don’t exactly help. Neither did getting caught on a bakery security camera in 2015 licking pastries that weren’t hers while declaring, “I hate America.”

But Grande’s got a not-so-secret weapon in all this: showstopping talent. “She’s a pure singer,” says Macy Gray, 48, who appears on Dangerous Woman’s most soulful cut, “Leave Me Lonely.” “It’s similar to what Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston and Christina Aguilera have — that power thing. But I didn’t realize that. She does all these pop records where you can get a song across without showing your chops.”

And Grande’s talent is not merely as a singer. Her turn as SNL host in March garnered rave reviews. Steven Spielberg was so impressed he texted Lorne Michaels to say so. (“I can’t tell you how surreal and insane that is for me,” gushes Grande. “My second birthday party was Jaws-themed. My brain almost combusted when I heard it from Lorne.”) Her skits were great, but the real win was the monologue, in which Grande spun Doughnutgate into a showcase for her artistry and self-awareness, singing about her need for a proper adult scandal (“Miley’s had them, Bieber’s had them”) to take her career to the next level. “I was just so happy to be able to make fun of myself,” says Grande. “If you think you’re laughing at me, I promise I laughed first.”

When it comes to the delicate art of signaling her feminist awareness, Grande has proved less of a natural. Instagramming pictures of Maya Angelou, Coco Chanel and her journalist aunt Judy Grande with Gloria Steinem in the lead-up to the release of “Dangerous Woman” felt a bit on the nose when the constituents of Taylor Swift’s woke women’s consortium advertise their membership simply by appearing together on red carpets.

Still, Grande’s feminism is clearly no put-on. “Do you want to see something I saved to my phone because it upset me so much?” she asks me. It’s a collection of tweets from a U.K. radio station with a salacious streak — two praise Justin Bieber and Zayn Malik for showing skin, and two scold Miley Cyrus and Kim Kardashian for the same. “If you’re going to rave about how sexy a male artist looks with his shirt off,” says Grande, “and a woman decides to get in her panties or show her boobies for a photo shoot, she needs to be treated with the same awe and admiration. I will say it until I’m an old-ass lady with my tits out at Whole Foods. I’ll be in the produce aisle, naked at 95, with a sensible ponytail, one strand of hair left on my head and a Chanel bow. Mark my words. See you there with my 95 dogs.”

In June, Grande tweeted a screen grab of an essay she wrote about her budding independence, capped with a 1971 Steinem quote: “Any woman who chooses to behave like a full human being should be warned that the armies of the status quo will treat her as something of a dirty joke. She will need her sisterhood.”

Grande’s sisterhood includes her mother and nonna, managers Stephanie Simon and Jennifer Merlino (Grande parted ways with co-manager Scooter Braun in February, though he shares an A&R credit on Dangerous Woman with Republic Records EVP Wendy Goldstein), her fans the Arianators and old pals from Florida: Misha Lambert, now a self-published author, and Alexa Luria, who just graduated from the University of Florida and has 560,000 Instagram followers thanks to her BFF status with Grande.

“I have a bunch of really dope friends I’ve known since elementary school,” says Grande. “They think it’s funny that people want to take pictures with me at Starbucks, because it is — it’s weird. They’re going to keep me healthy and humble. I still feel like Ariana from Boca [Raton] who loves musical theater and dogs. I’m just working now”.

Prior to finishing up with a review from NME, this article expressed how Ariana Grande shed her Pop persona for Dangerous Woman. It is a work that saw her “moving into edgier territory and forging a new musical identity though genre exploration”. Ten years after its release and I feel that it still sounds powerful and meaningful. I wonder whether Ariana Grande will celebrate a decade of Dangerous Woman on 20th May:

“Entering dangerous new territory

The Dangerous Woman era started with the promotional single “Focus,” which was in October 2015. While “Focus” featured the same upbeat, horn-driven energy of Grande’s 2014 smash hit “Problem,” it also teed up the album’s first official single, as Grande coquettishly instructed listeners to “focus on me.”

Emerging five months later, the album’s title track found Grande venturing into moodier territory than the frothy pop of “Focus.” Sparked by an electric guitar, the singer climatically calls out, “Somethin’ ’bout you makes me feel like a dangerous woman!” throughout the track. We knew Grande could deliver arena-sized singalongs, and this slow jam channeled all the great power ballads of the 80s with a hook that promised, “All girls wanna be like that/Bad girls underneath, like that.”

On the other side of the spectrum, “Be Alright” offered a stark contrast to the slow tempo and sensuality of “Dangerous Woman.” Dipping into a deep house sound, Grande’s celebratory single was adopted as an anthem for the LGBTQ community.

Embracing collaborators

A month later, she’d embark on the new course that trap-R&B had laid out in mainstream music, dropping the hypnotic “Let Me Love You,” featuring Lil Wayne. This paved the way for the dance-pop perfection of “Into You,” which signaled that Grande was ready to storm the summer of 2016.

With a belting declaration of love that revolved around thudding EDM basslines, “Into You” is Grande and hitmaker Max Martin at their best. It contained all the hallmarks of a classic earworm, with Grande’s breathy falsetto floating over the thick beats. Grande finished off the album’s advance singles run with the retro-pop, uptown funk of “Greedy,” a song given away with digital pre-orders and which featured a choir of her exuberant vocals over a slick bassline.

Dangerous Woman opens with the swinging doo-wop ballad “Moonlight,” closely aligning with the sound Grande experimented with on Yours Truly. On the deep cut “Leave Me Lonely,” she brought Macy Gray back into the public eye, the latter expertly delivering some Nina Simone theatrics that fit in with the dramatic nature of the song.

A mature transition

Keeping in line with the album’s premise, Grande debuts her “adult” anthem, “Side To Side,” with help from hip-hop’s raunchiest queen, Nicki Minaj. Like many former child stars turned pop divas before her, Grande was consciously leaning into her “grown-up” phase, while at the same time side-stepping all the usual clichés that came with the territory.

One of the best pop and hip-hop collaborations of the decade, “Side To Side” capitalized on the dancehall trend of the time, with reggae riddims and plenty of sexual innuendo packaged in the campy imagery of the SoulCycle fitness craze. Just as Olivia Newton-John made her “body talk” in the iconic “Let’s Get Physical” music video, Grande and Minaj’s cardio-driven duet rode its way to the top of the charts, hitting No.4 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Grande followed “Side To Side” with another collaborative effort on the Future-assisted “Everyday.” As trap-influenced pop started to gain more traction in the mainstream, “Everyday” helped fuel its dominance, paving the way for the trap leanings on her subsequent albums Sweetener and thank u, next.

Evolving the pop formula

Much of Dangerous Woman sees Grande playing with tempos, genres, and time shifts. “I Don’t Care” finds her embracing orchestral R&B to forget a lost love, “Sometimes” ventures into more acoustic pop (a rarity for Grande), and “Bad Decision,” “Touch It,” “Knew Better/Forever Boy” and “Thinking Bout You” all rely on Grande’s powerful pipes and EDM synth-pop production.

With her third album, Ariana Grande found success in evolving the pop formula she’d already established while venturing into uncharted, edgier territory. The gamble paid off, with Dangerous Woman debuting at No.2 on the Billboard 200 charts and notching her first No.1 album in the UK. It was clear that the ascending pop queen was just getting started”.

I am going to finish with NME and their review of Dangerous Woman. 2016 was a remarkable year for music. Some of the best albums of the past few decades released then. I feel that many might have overlooked Ariana Grande or not given Dangerous Woman as much credit as it warranted. This is a reason why I wanted to spotlight it:

“Nine months ago, Ariana Grande‘s greatest act of rebellion was daring to lick a donut in a California bakery, then reacting to the piles of junk food in front of her with the doomed sentence, “I hate America”. Two disregarded apology videos and a Justin Bieber collaboration later, she emerges transformed, donning a leather bunny outfit for the cover of third album ‘Dangerous Woman’; in one of its more understated IDGAF moments she declares simply, “I love me.”

Her 38 million Twitter followers suggest she’s not the only one. Grande came to fame via her role on Nickelodeon’s teen sitcom Victorious and has since carved out a tween-friendly pop career almost as unblemished as Taylor Swift’s – but she’s spent the past few months publicly loosening up, showcasing pinpoint J-Law and Britney impressions on SNL in March and now, with ‘Dangerous Woman’, being what your nan might term ‘risqué’. Club anthem-to-be ‘Into You’ sees her informing a Stupid Boy, “A little less conversation and a little more touch my body“, and pushing her astoundingly malleable voice into what’s known as the whistle register. The frequent comparisons made between Mariah Carey and Grande are apt.

That track was co-written by hitmaker Max Martin, the Swede behind everything from The Weeknd’s ‘Can’t Feel My Face’ to Grande’s 2014 mega-smash ‘Problem’. His hand is in a variety of other tracks on the new album, including lusty disco cut ‘Greedy’ and the waltzing title track, on which she proclaims, “I’m bulletproof and I know what I’m doing”. Nudge-nudge moments come thick and fast throughout the album, most explicitly from collaborators – Nicki Minaj rides a “dick bicycle” on cheesy reggae cut ‘Side to Side’, Lil Wayne pictures her “grinding on this grande” on sultry slow-jam ‘Let Me Love You’.

It’s not only the consistent songwriting clout that elevates this album from recent efforts by Grande’s teen-star peers, Demi Lovato and Selena Gomez. Even if most of it is co-written, the modish message of empowerment feels honest coming from Grande, especially after an essay she shared last year that railed against the media’s description of her as Big Sean’s ex: “I do not belong to anyone but myself,” she wrote. By the time the sublime closer ‘I Don’t Care’ comes around, it’s genuinely satisfying to hear her put that sentiment on record so resoundingly. “I used to let some people tell me how to live and what to be,” she ponders, “But if I can’t be me, the fuck’s the point?”.

I am not sure whether Ariana Grande is working on a new album, though at the time I am writing this (21st March), there are hints. Fans think they have spotted things that suggest an eighth studio album is coming. By the time this feature is shared, Ariana Grande may have made an official announcement. Many might rank other albums of hers higher, but I feel that the incredible Dangerous Woman is…

UP there with her very best.

FEATURE: Groovelines: Radiohead – Burn the Witch

FEATURE:

 

 

Groovelines

  

Radiohead – Burn the Witch

__________

ON 8th May…

PHOTO CREDIT: Alex Lake

Radiohead’s most recent album, A Moon Shaped Pool, turns ten. Its lead single, Burn the Witch, was released five days earlier. To mark a decade of this powerful single, I wanted to explore it more for this Groovelines. Radiohead worked on Burn the Witch during the sessions for their albums Kid A (2000), Hail to the Thief (2003) and In Rainbows (2007). Thom Yorke mentioned the song in a 2005 post on Radiohead's blog and posted lyrics in 2007. On 3rd May, 2016, the world got this first taste of a new Radiohead album. The video for Burn the Witch is even more striking than the song itself. I will come to reviews of the single. To start, this Medium article provided some background to Burn the Witch, a song that had been in the making for a while:

“Radiohead spread Inklings of “Burn the Witch” in 2003 when the song’s title appeared on the cover artwork of Hail to the Thief, reports one Radiohead fan website. This, of course, means the song was in development as early as 2002 when the cover artwork for Hail to the Thief was painted by Stanley Donwood, Radiohead’s longtime album cover artist and college friend of frontman Thom Yorke. According to a 2006 article published in The Guardian, Donwood’s main concept for the album artwork came from various roadside advertisements in Los Angeles, though he did have some additional input from a mysterious collaborator called “Dr. Tchock,” a name many believe is a pseudonym for Thom Yorke.

Over the next five or so years, the band released more teasers of the single, posting excerpts of lyrics, short blog updates from Thom York regarding the status of the song, and even playing snippets of the intro at a few live shows. After 2008, however, it seemed that the trail had gone cold– until May 1, 2016, that is.

Just three days ago on May 1st, fans were shocked to discover that Radiohead had effectively erased their Internet presence. The band’s website was whited out, and all posts from the band’s social media accounts were deleted, including posts on Thom Yorke’s accounts. On Saturday, April 30 some fans reportedly received bizarre leaflets in the mail featuring artwork, the Radiohead logo, and the cryptic message, “Sing the song of sixpence that goes ‘Burn the Witch.’ We know where you live,” Billboard reported on May 1. While many suspected an imminent announcement, for the time being it would seem that Radiohead had dropped off the face of the earth.

Finally, on May 3, the culmination of thirteen years of waiting resulted in a claymation music video posted to Radiohead’s official YouTube channel featuring the single “Burn the Witch.” Rumors are spreading about a ninth studio album to be released later this year, but so far nothing is confirmed”.

You can get a sense of what the song is about when you hear it without a video. However, it is the video that visualises the powerful messages. The Guardian published an article in 2016 where they analysed the video. We live in a time when there is huge anti-immigrant sentiment. Burn the Witch seems more relevant now than it did in 2016:

“The animator of Radiohead’s Camberwick-Green-meets-The-Wicker-Man video for Burn the Witch has suggested the clip might have been a commentary on Europe’s refugee crisis.

In an interview with Billboard, Virpi Kettu said the band may have wanted to increase awareness of the issue, especially “the blaming of different people … the blaming of Muslims” that leads people to want to metaphorically “burn the witch”.

Kettu also referred to the postcard sent to Radiohead fans bearing the words: “We know where you live,” which she suggested reflected the insecurity promoted by politicians demanding a clampdown on the movement of refugees.

However, Radiohead – never ones to be second-guessed – appear to be damping down speculation. Billboard’s interview with Kettu is headed with a disclaimer insisting: “The opinions expressed in this article about Burn the Witch do not necessarily reflect those of the band, the video’s director or any of the band’s representatives.”

As of Thursday morning, the Burn the Witch video – launched at 4pm BST on Tuesday – had chalked up more than 6.6m views on YouTube. Using animation in the style of the Trumptonshire trilogy, the children’s animations made between 1966 and 1969 and set in an all-white, happy rural England, the video portrays a community where paranoia and rage go hand in hand with bucolic peace – the clip ends, seemingly, with an outsider being burned alive in a giant wicker man.

Kettu said the clip took two weeks to make from start to finish, with the team producing an average of 30 seconds of animation per day, compared with the 12 seconds that was typical when she worked at Aardman. She only learned the video had been released on Tuesday, the same time as the rest of the world”.

There are a few more things I want to include before wrapping up. For All Songs Considered, NPR spoke with Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood. They labelled A Moon Shaped Pool as Radiohead’s “quietest” record. That said, Burn the Witch has a tension, terror and sense of drama that is maybe not reflected across the album:

“A Moon Shaped Pool, Radiohead's ninth and quietest record, owes much of its sound to the band's visionary guitarist, violist, electronics wiz and arranger Jonny Greenwood. On this week's All Songs +1 podcast I talk with him about how A Moon Shaped Pool came to be.

Jonny Greenwood explains that Radiohead approaches each record with a different recording style or new technique. For this latest record, the group traded in "traditional Pro Tools" for an analog 8-track tape machine. "It's kind of a miracle," he says. "This is going to sound very conceited, but it's a surprise to me how well so many of these songs came out and the one or two frustrations I have are nothing compared to the eight or nine key things I'm just amazed we got good recordings of. We all feel really lucky and happy to have this as a record."

Greenwood on why Radiohead changes its process with each album:

"I guess it feels like every record we make, we finish and have a collective thought that we didn't quite mean to do it like that and the next one will be different and then we'll get it right. It's kind of like rewriting the same letter and getting each draft slightly wrong. So it's a good motivation force — it keeps us going."

On why he loves recording string sections:

"Our string days are just the most exciting days to record. I live for them. It's amazing, the whole excitement in the morning of putting out music on these empty stands and, you know, an orchestra are coming later that day and you'll only have them for four hours and you've got to make the most of it. It's really just the most exciting thing and then to sit in a room and hear them play it's really like nothing else".

There are a couple of reviews I want to get to. The Guardian provided praise for a song from a band who put out their first new single in about five years. It was a big moment when Burn the Witch was released in 2016. A Moon Shaped Pool received a huge amount of praise. I wonder how people will assess the album a decade after its release:

“And finally the first music arrived. What seems to be the first track from Radiohead’s new album was launched on their website on Tuesday afternoon, accompanied by a video featuring animation in the style of Bob Bura and John Hardwick, the creators of Trumpton, Chigley and Camberwick Green. Burn the Witch had been trailed on Instagram, but the brief clips didn’t give much clue as to what music we might expect. But what arrived was thrilling – a burst of taut, tense music, driven by pizzicato strings, that had more in common with conventional rock than some hints had led us to believe – Brian Message, from their management firm, had claimed the new album will sound “like nothing you’ve ever heard”.

The rest of the album would have to be very different indeed from Burn the Witch for that claim to be true. Because Burn the Witch is like nothing you’ve ever heard only if you’ve never heard a rock band use a string section whose members have been ordered to convey brooding menace, or a two-chord pattern, or a voice jump to falsetto over a vaguely euphoric chord. There’s even a refrain – though Thom Yorke’s wailing admittedly lacks the kind of immediacy you get in the choruses of singles by, say, Olly Murs – in which the brooding menace descends into fully-fledged did-you-ever-hear-anyone-so-moody art rock.

As one might expect, then, Yorke hasn’t been raiding the poetry of Pam Ayres for songwriting inspiration: “Stay in the shadows / Cheer the gallows / This is a round-up,” he opens. The lyrics appear to be skirting around the surveillance society, but equally they might be meditating on the difficulties of open discussion in an age where thought is scrutinised and policed by the public itself on social media, where any idle thought runs the risk of seeing one condemned as #problematic: “Loose talk around tables / Abandon all reason / Avoid all eye contact / Do not react / Shoot the messenger / This is a low-flying panic attack.”

The dissonance between the pretty conventional music – no electronic skronk here, nothing to scare off the crowds at their festival headline slots this summer – and the mood of incipient dread is heightened by the video, in which it becomes apparent that the band haven’t remade Trumpton, but The Wicker Man.

The intriguing question now is whether this foreshadows the new album, or whether Message was right. It’s certainly the kind of return – bold and expansive, as well as dark and claustrophobic – that the world might have hoped for”.

I am going to finish off with this review for Burn the Witch. Radiohead played shows in the U.K. and Europe last year. Their first since 2018. They recently announced how they are playing a lot more from next year on. There is talk whether there is going to be another album. Will A Moon Shaped Pool be their final album together? It will be interesting to see where they head, musically and lyrically, if there is another album:

“Brisk strings attack the ears from the start. The musicians are using a technique called col legno which traditionally involves hitting the strings briskly with the back of the bow. But according to Jonny Greenwood, they are using guitar plectrums to do it. This is very Radiohead: do something almost unheard-of to create something brilliant.

So you prepare yourself for an orchestral piece. But this being Radiohead, it’s only a few seconds before a strange electronic texture joins underneath and then what seems like a voice that has been sampled and sped up to create a weird, slightly disturbing, strangely beguiling or comforting ‘eerrrrrr’ sound. Whether the drums are programmed or actually played by Phil Selway is unclear – they have also been affected in some subtle way.

Thom Yorke starts singing, warning us of the dangers of standing up for what’s right and what’s just. Don’t stand out, scream along with the crowd at the persecuted innocent, for fear of being singled out yourself.

There’s a variety of phrases used that evoke the time of witch-hunts:

Cheer at the gallows
Red crosses on wooden doors
If you float you burn

And my particular favourite, Yorke sings earlier on:

Sing a song on the jukebox that goes…

The witch-hunts are going on today, as well as in the past. Later, he changes it to:

Sing the song of sixpence that goes…

Considering Radiohead have made some of the most unsettling rock music of the last 20 years, Thom Yorke’s voice is an extraordinarily beautiful instrument in its own right. Here, this beautiful, angelic voice narrates a horror film, and when it gets to the economic chorus, his voice soars to the heavens as he sings “burn the witch” twice.

The second time he sings it, he adds syllables to it that makes it less recognizable but more affecting. He follows it with:

We know where you live

Just in case you were still thinking of speaking out for what’s right.

During the choruses the strings become more traditionally played in order for the arrangement of the song to keep you on your toes. At the end of the second chorus, the strings take over, building to an urgent, shrieking crescendo before an abrupt stop.

Radiohead have long been purveyors of the problems in society. With “Burn the Witch,” they managed to get a flawless balance of lyric, mood, and delivery that is as listenable as it is unsettling. The lyrics are a nursery rhyme, the arrangement is uneasy, queasily leading you to a worrying conclusion without answers.

The song would be enough without the video using the visual style of a beloved UK children’s TV program. With it, the outcome is one of the best collective artistic endeavors of the last 20 years.

“Burn the Witch” is urgent, catchy, different, and brilliantly conceived. It’s up there as one of Radiohead’s greatest moments”.

Radiohead themselves faced criticism for not condemning Israel and genocide. Seen as supporting the country. They issued a statement later to say they would never play in the country again. I do think they lost a lot of fans and respect for their initial position. However, no matter what you think of the band and their politics, there is no denying how their music is among the greatest ever released. On 3rd May, it will be ten years since Radiohead released Burn the Witch. It is a chilling masterpiece that is among…

THEIR greatest songs.