FEATURE: Station to Station: Song Six: Annie Nightingale (BBC Radio 1)

FEATURE:

Station to Station

IN THIS PHOTO: Annie Nightingale/PHOTO CREDIT: Milton Boyne

Song Six: Annie Nightingale (BBC Radio 1)

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THERE are few broadcasters as busy as Annie Nightingale…

IN THIS PHOTO: Annie Nightingale at the launch of URB (University Radio Bath) in 1973

at this moment. Her Annie Nightingale presents… show is in full steam, and she is counting down some of the biggest tracks of the decade very soon. She had Sofi Tukker to talk with her just recently, and it looks like 2020 will be a very packed and enjoyable one for her! I am surprised I didn’t include Nightingale earlier in a feature that celebrates radio icons and innovators. When one thinks about those who have changed the game and pushed radio forward, Annie Nightingale must be near the top of everyone’s list. I have discussed gender equality a lot this year, and I think the radio industry is an area that is slowly improving. To be fair, most of the big stations have a way to go until there is true equality, but it is thanks to broadcasters like Annie Nightingale that we have come so far. I am not sure whether she would approve of me using her name as a champion of gender equality, but there are so many women in the industry – and not just in radio – that revere her and hold her in very high esteem. There is no denying the fact Annie Nightingale is hugely important. Not to go all Wikipedia here, but it is worth highlighting the incredible biography of a radio titan. Nightingale’s first broadcast for the BBC was in September 1963 as a panellist on Juke Box Jury. Her debut Radio 1 show was in February 1970. Annie Nightingale was the first woman to broadcast on BBC Radio 1.

IMAGE CREDIT: Kathy Wyatt Illustration

That sounds absurd when we think of all the brilliant women in radio now; Nightingale’s stint as a Sunday evening host was short-lived, but her impact and important was clear. At a male-dominated station, I can imagine the earliest days might have been a little strange for her. Perhaps they weren’t. I am not sure why there were no women on BBC Radio 1 before Nightingale, but she had an enormous impact and, for the sole fact that she was the first woman to present on the station, she warrants serious respect and acclaim. Nightingale is the longest-serving presenter on the station, and I love the fact that she remains loyal to her roots. Through the 1970s and 1980s, Nightingale presented a few different shows on BBC Radio 1, including a Sunday afternoon request show in the mid to late-1970s. I do wonder, with the sheer raft of great artists around, why music T.V. is not a thing anymore. We have Jools Holland and his BBC show, but I think there is room and demand for another format in the market. Annie Nightingale was the main presenter on The Old Grey Whistle Test from 1978, where she replaced Bob Harris. I have seen clips from the show and just love Nightingale’s presenting still and passion. Because of Nightingale, the popular show moved away from Country and Blues Rock – favourites of Bob Harris – and included genres like Punk Rock and New Wave.

Although Nightingale can be heard in the early hours of Wednesday morning, I think she will have other shows on BBC Radio 1, maybe occupying a daytime slot. Nightingale has helped popularise Trap music and had her own 1Xtra show. It is dizzying taking in everything she has achieved and what she has given to radio! It is clear that a lot of people – not only women – owe a debt to a pioneer like Annie Nightingale. I know she will have many more years on radio, but Nightingale also D.J.s and can be found bringing bliss and energy to club-goers around the world. I think Nightingale is one of the most important champions of music we have. Like her friend, the late John Peel, Nightingale has been responsible for bringing so many great acts to the forefront. She was an early supporter of Basement Jaxx and Daft Punk. Rightly, Nightingale received an MBE in 2002 for her services to broadcasting and I wonder, in years to come, whether she will be made a Dame. In 2007, she was nominated for the Broadcasters’ Broadcaster Award and in 2008, Annie won the John Peel Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music Radio, awarded by the PRS Radio Academy. In 2011, for the sixth year running, she also won Best Radio Award at the International Breakbeat Awards before receiving the first-ever Pioneer in Media Award in 2014 from Music Week magazine.

Nightingale speaks at festivals about her career and is an invaluable source of guidance for anyone wanting to follow her footsteps. In addition to all of this, Nightingale is a journalist and has contributed to news programmes such as The Today Programme. Maybe we do not realise how hard it was for women like Nightingale at a time when there was sexism in radio – there is now, but it was far more pronounced in the 1960s and 1970s. I want to source from a couple of interviews and let Nightingale speak for herself but, reading this BBC article, it is clear how pioneering Nightingale was (and is still) and what she had to face early in her career:

“We tend to take particular notice of the women who come first. When Radio 1 decided that they needed a 'token woman', Nightingale was there, ready and eminently qualified. Her standing as the only female DJ continued for 12 years until Janice Long joined Radio 1 in 1982.It was not until the 1990s and the 'girlification' of Radio 1 with the likes of Sara Cox, Jo Whiley and Zoe Ball, that Nightingale's exceptionality became her longevity and impact rather than her gender alone.The radio itself is a reference point in her interviews and memories, beginning with the small white Bakelite wireless bought by her father, through which she listened to BBC children's serials, and later, Radio Luxembourg. Her intimate relationship with radio and with the audience was formed at this time:

The breakaway moment came when my Dad who was always obsessed with tuning the radio in properly and you'd have it on a dial and it would say all these places like Prague and Hilversum which were kind of magic. They might have been on another planet. I didn't know where Hilversum was, or Prague, but these are places you could tune your radio in and it was like a mystery. I still feel that romance. I still feel when you're broadcasting, you don’t know where it’s going, and it could be reaching outer space somewhere and I am still in love with that, completely.

The experiences that Nightingale reiterates in her interviews and writing are the stories that matter. She has often talked about how she shifted from managing a band to presenting a pop music programme on television, about how she was initially locked out of the BBC, confronted by sexism in ways that she had not experienced as a print journalist. She describes the independence of being an evening DJ compared with a daytime presenter tied to the playlist, and how difficult it was to master the technical aspects of broadcasting. Each of these stories maps change, reminds us of who helped (and who didn’t) and demands that we remember the work of all the women who came first.

On 1st April of next year, Annie Nightingale turns eighty. She will still be at BBC Radio 1 and, when we mark the start of her ninth decade of life, I think we owe more than a few kind messages and generic birthday messages! There are very few who have remained as relevant as Nightingale. A lot of her contemporaries in the 1960s and 1970s are no longer in radio, with very few of those remaining in a position as esteemed and important as Nightingale. I keep returning to gender and why Nightingale is so influential, but it is a big part of her story.

In this interview from 2015, the radio icon discussed the barriers that were in place when she was starting out:

 “Oh, there was all sorts of nonsense. They said I wouldn’t have authority because I was a woman, or that my voice wouldn’t carry properly. One executive told me that DJs were supposed to be ‘husband substitutes’. Well, I’d survived Fleet Street as a journalist, so I knew how to stand up for myself, and I wrote in magazines, so I had a voice.”

Facing a growing wave of criticism for their lack of female talent, the BBC turned to the woman who’d been lambasting them in article after article – a decision that’s paid off rather spectacularly.

“The situation’s improved immensely for women in radio”, agrees the trailblazer herself. “There’s more women on Radio 1 than there’s ever been. I’m a patron of Sound Women, a group that works with women in radio.

“I met a girl a few weeks ago who does a breakfast show, co-hosted with a guy, and I asked her if she drove the desk? She said no, he does. I told her she had to change that. It’s more work, but otherwise you’re just a passenger”.

In the same year, Nightingale discussed the subject of sexism when she was interviewed by The Guardian:

 “There’s been lots of healthy dialogue about sexism in the arts in recent years. What were your experiences like?

There was a ban on women on Radio 1. They said that disc jockeys were husband substitutes, so they didn’t need any women. They also believed women’s voices didn’t have enough authority to be on the radio. I was writing for various magazines, so I was in a position where I could attack their stance. At some point, the culture changed, they realised they needed to do something about it and my name came up.

PHOTO CREDIT: Handout

Were you surprised that more women DJs didn’t come along after you started?

I thought loads of women would rush through the door and then there wasn’t anyone for 12 years until Janice Long came along. I ended up thinking that perhaps it was just something that no one wanted to do. Of course, now it’s all changed.

We look back at the music business in the 70s with some horror now. Did you have any sense of that at the time?

It’s become a national joke, the idea of a 70s DJ. I lived in Brighton and had small kids, so I’d come into London, do my show and go home. You were always fighting over studio time. There wasn’t a situation where you’d all hang out together. There was no sense of knowing what [the DJs] were doing when they were off air”.

Regardless of attitudes decades ago, Nightingale is very much about the present. She encourages music lovers to go and support artists and catch D.J.s at clubs; she is all about embracing what is to come. It is wonderful to see someone like Annie Nightingale give so much of her time and energy to new music. She has helped make radio a more equal space – despite the fact there is a way to go – and inspired countless people to go into radio as a career. My words hardly do her full justice, but please do make sure you catch her on BBC Radio 1 – go to the BBC Sounds page/app and you can listen back – and (if you haven’t done so already) acquaint yourself with a radio icon. The sensational and hugely influential Annie Nightingale is true…  

RADIO royalty.

FEATURE: Mistletoe in the Snow: Cool Cover Versions, Beautiful Images and Angry Messages: The Alternative Christmas Playlist

FEATURE:

Mistletoe in the Snow

PHOTO CREDIT: @fineas_anton/Unsplash

Cool Cover Versions, Beautiful Images and Angry Messages: The Alternative Christmas Playlist

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THIS is going to be pretty short…

PHOTO CREDIT: @anniespratt/Unsplash

as I am focusing on the music. As Christmas is here, we are hearing a lot of new Christmas songs, but many of the classics that we all know and love. I know we have the impression that Christmas is all giving, snow-strewn scenes and happiness of the season. For many, that is not the reality at all – whether their circumstances or different or they are just cynical and a little bitter! From various genres, there are alternative Christmas songs that a little angrier, out-there or eye-popping. Also in the playlist are cover versions of well-known Christmas classics. We will have out fill of cheesier Christmas songs over the next few days and, whilst they are great and put us in the mood, I do think we need the flip side to offer some sense of relief, release and fresh perspective. Because of that, I have been digging through the archives to find those perfect songs that give an alternative take on Christmas. These songs address the Christmas spirit in a different way and provide…

PHOTO CREDIT: @jeshoots/Unsplash

SPICE in addition to sweetness.

FEATURE: Golden Years: Vinyl Reissue: Putting a Glorious Period of Music on T.V.

FEATURE:

Golden Years 

IN THIS ILLUSTRATION: U.S. Hip-Hop group Public Enemy’s Flavor Flav and Chuck D/ILLUSTRATION CREDIT: Roger Andrews

Vinyl Reissue: Putting a Glorious Period of Music on T.V.

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THAT title might suggest…

IN THIS PHOTO: Madonna in 1990/PHOTO CREDIT: Harper’s Bazaar

I am talking about David Bowie and his Golden Years track from 1976’s Station to Station. Rather, I am thinking about the late-1980s and 1990s. There have been documentaries made about the period before: from looks at the Madchester scene and Rave through to Britpop and Grunge, we have been given the chance to experience the music and culture of the time. I was born in 1983, so I got a first-hand experience of the times and was really drinking in everything. It was thrilling to be part of a time that was synonymous with experimentation, music scenes and absolute quality. There are many people who wonder why we can’t go back to the late-‘80s and ‘90s and see that sort of music come back. Certainly, they were simpler times, and we did have some remarkable music around. There have been shows where the 1980s and 1990s have been used as the backdrop. From Derry Girls and My Big Fat Diary, we have been able to enjoy the music of the time. I do not think there has been a show on T.V. that looks at the music of the late-1980s and 1990s in a very detailed and first-hand way. Whilst the shows I have mentioned brilliantly illuminate that time and perfectly back them with an astonishing score, I am thinking more in the vein of Vinyl – a short-lived show that was on HBO back in 2016. That concerned the record industry and featured artists around in the 1970s.

That time period was wonderful, and it was great to see a show that was about the records and culture of the 1970s. So many people are fascinated by the music and movements that occurred in the 1980s and 1990s, yet we have seen very little in the way of television shows. Right now, we have The Goldbergs on: a show set in the 1980s that, at times, drops in songs from the decade. I was especially inspired by The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. That has just finished its third season, and started life in the 1950s – at the end of the third season, we are in the early-1960s. I love the colour and sense of escape you get watching the show. I am not suggesting a 1980s/1990s-set show would be escape from the modern world, yet one could definitely get involved with an immersive and fascinating story and get so much of the music from the time – from the Dance of the late-1980s to the Britpop of the 1990s and, if there was enough longevity, the final days of the 1990s. It is clear T.V. is getting darker and, even at this time of the year, there is so much darkness and misery. People defend this as T.V. makers making our lives less bleak but, truly, we want T.V. to be an escape or project some positivity – why would anyone willingly tune into a show where they were being barraged by unhappiness and gloom?! I think a 1980s and 1990s soundtrack would not be all upbeat – there is Grunge to include! -, but there would be some truly terrific tracks and, with it, incredible scenes.

Mobile phones were getting slimmer and people were using C.D. players more. In spite of that, there were still a lot of cassettes and records being played. It was a fantastic time where scenes were being formed and there was a lot to be excited about. Not only that, but so many artists from today have taken inspiration from this time. I am not sure what the exact plot and store of the series would be but, in my view, Vinyl’s run was unfairly cut short after only one series. The premise focused on music scene in 1970s New York; one still awash in sex and drugs, but Rock 'n' Roll was giving way to an era of Punk, Disco and Hip-Hop. Desperately trying to navigate the changing landscape is American Century Records founder and President Richie Finestra, whose passion for music and discovering talent has gone by the wayside. With his American Century Records on the verge of being sold, a life-altering event rekindles Finestra's professional fire, but it may leave his personal life in ruins. That is the basic nub of the series but, with an epic soundtrack and a great cast (including Olivia Wilde and Ray Romano), it is a pity something like this has not been kicked back up. One can argue that 1970s time period was the most varied and exceptional but, as several T.V. series have shown, people have a lot of love and affection for the late-1980s and 1990s – when we had everything from Rave and the second Summer of Love to the excellent Alternative scene coming out of America.   

There is an appetite for dramas and comedies that are set decades ago, because it is unusual and new and, for those who lived during that time, there is something nostalgic and comforting. Maybe it would not get the same budgets as an HBO show, but I see no reason why it could not be taken up by Amazon or Netflix. I have written about a comparative T.V. show before but, as we are stepping into a new decade, it is back on my mind. I think British T.V. is in a pretty poor state and, with only the odd decent comedy and a few dramas showing any originality and legs, the Americans are still leading the way. A new T.V. series could feature similar lines to Vinyl, whereby we concentrate on a record label or, maybe, friends that are pulled apart at the end of the 1980s. We could switch between the U.K. and America. Maybe the series could relate to a band navigating their way through different scenes and, again, we could take in the U.K. and U.S., to get a contrast in regards the various sets and sounds. All the while, there would be this epic soundtrack and, like Vinyl and series such as The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, we could have real-life characters and artists – maybe Oasis and Kurt Cobain walking alongside Björk and Public Enemy?! There have been various films, biopics and series that have touched on the music, but none – in this country at least – that have really used music as the central force and represented that changing time as their prime intention.

As we celebrate artists and albums from the 1980s and 1990s, I do think there would be a demand, granted the characters were compelling and there was a good story. As Vinyl had Martin Scorsese and Mick Jagger helming it, there was a lot of excess and a lack of rawness. Maybe the lack of simplicity and focus was a reason why many critics did not warm to the show. Some noted how there was patchy humour and, when you needed structure and cohesiveness, that all went away. The lack of a compelling story and structure was, perhaps, a reason why Vinyl did not get a second series. If one were to put the 1980s and 1990s into a series, there has to be more than a biblical soundtrack and nostalgia. The story would have to involve the music industry in some way, whether that was radio stations, bands or record stores. The latter would allow for something grounded and relatable and, like Vinyl, we could see musicians and historic figures of the time come into this world. Humour would have to be a big part and, with an eclectic cast, I think that broadness would allow for natural humour without things being cluttered and unfocused. It would be exciting to think someone could bring this to the screens and, no offense to British companies, but I think it would need its fair share of American production, money and talent to make it a success. If the balance was struck and the story was arresting I think that, combined with incredible music and characters, could make for a series that would…  

ENDURE for quite a while.

FEATURE: A Soundtrack for the Ages: The Magic of A Charlie Brown Christmas

FEATURE:

A Soundtrack for the Ages

IMAGE CREDIT: United Feature Syndicate

The Magic of A Charlie Brown Christmas

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BACK in 2015…

IMAGE CREDIT: Charles M. Schulz

A Charlie Brown Christmas turned fifty. I will bring in an article that pays tribute and shines the spotlight on a wonderful animated special. It derived from Charles M. Schulz’s Peanuts strip. This was the first time characters from that universe were brought to life through the medium of T.V. Making its debut on 9th December, 1965, we find Charlie Brown depressed as Christmas approaches. Lucy van Pelt (the older sister of Linus and Rerun; she is opinionated and bossy in the Peanuts strip) encourages Charlie to direct a neighbourhood Christmas play, yet this is met with mocking and derision. It all looks lost for Charlie Brown. Linus van Pelt (Charlie Brown’s best friend and the younger brother of Lucy) explains to Charlie the true meaning of Christmas and all the Peanuts gang. There is a lot to unpack regarding the messages and plot of A Charlie Brown Christmas. When Charlie and Linus head to the frozen pond, Charlie confides in Linus he is still depressed. After visiting Lucy’s psychiatric booth, she advises him to direct a nativity play but, whilst that advice is sound, her concerns are more material: she wants real estate but is always getting toys. On his way to the auditorium, Charlie Brown sees his beloved Snoopy decorating his doghouse and Sally (Charlie’s younger sister) dictating a letter to Santa – thinking how much she can get.

Charlie arrives to find to find fake trees and gaudiness. Charlie is convinced a little decorated tree will be more special than the aluminium trees.  Charlie asks what the meaning of Christmas is and, being surrounded by a lot of selfishness, he is dejected. After Linus explains the true (biblical) meaning of Christmas, the children realise they were tough on Charlie – scorning him and turning their noses up at him. The tree Charlie chooses is drooping and not as magnificent as the fake ones. Linus helps repair the tree whilst others grab decorations from the doghouse; the tree grows bigger and Lucy even comes around to Charlie’s choice. They all sing Hark! The Herald Angels Sing and Charlie returns to find his small tree is now a magnificent thing. It is not surprise A Charlie Brown Christmas was a hit and so many people tuned into watch back in 1965. A Charlie Brown Christmas became a staple in the U.S., and I am not surprised! I think there are a few interesting takeaways from the special. We have ended a year that has been pretty tough and challenging. Politics has divided us all and we head in 2020 with uncertainty. Whilst mine and many other people’s Christmases will be full of presents and excess, I think many of us have been made depressed by the same things. It seems like all is a bit hopeless at the moment but I have heard about so many people donating to charity and helping the homeless.

PHOTO CREDIT: @tomzzlee/Unsplash

Living in London, I have seen so many people changing their mood and helping other people. Maybe it is just a Christmas spirit, but rather than get depressed and tired by division and hate, this time of year should be about acceptance and understanding. I think A Charlie Brown Christmas Special is a  wonderful show that is relevant now and will always be so. It is okay to embrace the commercialism of Christmas, but now is a time when the truer meaning of Christmas – in the sense of acceptance and love – should be taken to heart and spread. Social media can be a poisonous and horrible place, so I wonder whether all of us need to be more aware of the effects of negative words and argument. It may sound schmaltzy, but I there is a lot we can learn from A Charlie Brown Christmas. I do think we can all be a bit kinder and more charitable. Whilst it is okay to open presents and enjoy the big day, I think a togetherness and sense of greater understanding is what we need moving forward. If you want to know more about Peanuts, there is a great documentary here, and I wanted to talk about the music and how A Charlie Brown Christmas was scored. The messages and charm is one thing, but the music featured is brilliant. I will bring in a Pitchfork article from 2015 that poured a lot of love on the soundtrack; Pitchfork also spoke with musicians who recounted their memories of A Charlie Brown Christmas:

“And then there was the soundtrack, composed by jazz piano impresario Vince Guaraldi along with Fred Marshall on double bass and the great Jerry Granelli on drums. “We did the music in a day and a half, two days,” Granelli tells me. “That’s just how you recorded records back then.” These days, it’s quite possibly the most ubiquitous and universally lauded holiday album out there, not to mention the gateway for generations of children who would go onto explore the bottomless chasm of the jazz idiom. Yet for the network suits expecting some Burl Ives-type maximalism, Guaraldi's quaint score was deemed too weird and dark, even though the soundtrack—released on the Fantasy label right around the time the special aired on TV—received rave reviews by such legendary critics as Nat Hentoff, who in 2010 wrote a beautiful tribute to Guaraldi in JazzTimes.

Vince Guaraldi Trio's Jerry Granelli                   

Part of the magic of the whole thing is that nobody had any big plans while making the soundtrack, like, “This is it!” We just played, man. It’s a jazz record. It was pretty natural and real. People heard the heart in it. Honestly, I turned left creatively with my career after that and never thought about it for a while; jazz musicians are sometimes not as open as they may seem when it comes to people having hits or things crossing over—everybody gets all uppity. But then I matured enough to realize that it went way beyond music. It was the first entry point to jazz for a lot of people. And now that I’ve got my credentials as an artist, I’m proud and delighted to be a part of it”.

Perfect Pussy’s Meredith Graves

I've only seen A Charlie Brown Christmas about four or five times, but I know the Vince Guaraldi soundtrack back and forth. And I know that record so well because I basically was Charlie Brown growing up. I was a nerdy kid who couldn't really do anything right. And I was always a singer in the choir as a kid, all the way up through high school. I was the lead in the musicals in the all-state choir and the all-state jazz choir and in opera competitions. And I was weird and mopey, and shit often went totally awry. So, for me, A Charlie Brown Christmas is very much just about Charlie Brown, who gets shit on by his classmates for being a weirdo. Its soundtrack was my soundtrack.

Veruca Salt’s Louise Post

As a kid growing up in the ’70s, seeing a cartoon of children dealing with anxiety and depression was illuminating and liberating. We were all finding our way through those perplexing years, navigating a path through the world of adults—my parents divorced when I was eight after years of unrest—and here was a world made up exclusively of children, expressing their feelings, having their own experience. It was for us. It became sacred. I also felt a closeness with the Peanuts characters, as if they were my childhood friends, and I related to the sibling relationship of Lucy and Linus. I played piano, like Schroeder, and my father was a psychiatrist, so he and Lucy had that in common. Snoopy was my favorite character, and my stuffed Snoopy was with me all throughout childhood and beyond. In college, I got the soundtrack, and it gets played on repeat every Christmas. And now that I have a little girl, we watch the special every year again, too.

It is the time of year where we remember others in addition to swapping presents and being with family. It may sound like a tenuous link, but A Charlie Brown Christmas’ endless spirit and true message seems more relevant and powerful now than it did in 1965. From its sensational music to its heart-warming story, I do think we can all go into 2020 with a fuller heart and a determination to bond together and make the world a better place.

This Christmas, give some money a homeless person or charity; ask someone in need how they are and, next year, think about the efforts needed to improve the environment and world around us – perhaps this goes back to A Charlie Brown Christmas and Charlie wanting a natural small tree rather than something more harmful and less biodegradable. It seems like we all have the potential to make the world better and bring more love into – off the back of a year that has been pretty tough. Of course, the musical element of A Charlie Brown Christmas is a big reason I am here; the majestic nature of the songs and, as we can see above, how (the music) has connected with so many artists. I shall leave things here but, as we approach Christmas Day and wonder what we are all getting, we should take a moment to look around us and help those in need; spend some of our time and money on others (away from family) and think ahead. It has been a good year away from all the bad stuff, but next year will throw up its challenges. I think we will all resolutely combine and commit to helping people and making our world a finer place. I was compelled to write this feature after seeing A Charlie Brown Christmas and, over fifty years after its release, this divine offering is still…  

CHANGING the world.

FEATURE: Prince of Fools: The Ongoing Debate Regarding Posthumous Releases

FEATURE:

Prince of Fools

IN THIS PHOTO: Prince

The Ongoing Debate Regarding Posthumous Releases

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I was going to write another feature today…

PHOTO CREDIT: Mike Maloney/Mirrorpix/Getty Images

but am holding it back because I read an interesting feature over on Pitchfork that relates to a podcast featuring Jon Pareles (The New York Times’ chief pop music critic), Naima Cochrane (a music and culture writer for Billboard, Vibe and others); Keith Murphy (a music journalist for ESPN’s The Undefeated, Esquire, The New York Post and others) and Jay Smooth (the host of Ill Doctrine Radio on hiphopmusic.com). There is debate as to whether the late Prince – who died in 2016 – would have wanted so much of his archive out in the world:

“Prince was a perfectionist. He was a relentlessly creative musician and a refined aesthete, careful about the music he put out in the world, always presenting a seamless package — image and sound.

In the three and a half years since Prince’s death at 57, those responsible for his estate have had to decide just how much of the private Prince will be revealed. When he died, the musician was in the early stages of working on a memoir. “The Beautiful Ones,” published in October, contains the early pieces of the project, as well as images of Prince ephemera. And last month, a deluxe edition of “1999” arrived, including a significant cache of unreleased work from his vault.

Would Prince have agreed to the release of this material in this form? Does the potential public good, and the contribution to the historical record, outweigh whatever uncertainties Prince might have had about the revealing of his rough drafts?”.

There is this legendary vault that, it is rumoured, contains enough material for the next hundred years. Whether that means one album a year or another measure, I am not so sure. It is clear Prince was a tireless artist who was always working on something. Hit n Run Phase Two was released in 2015 and was Prince’s thirty-ninth and final studio album. It is a shame he did not live to see a fortieth studio album out but, even so, Prince contributed to soundtracks and worked with artists like Kate Bush and Madonna. I know I have covered both posthumous releases and Prince’s vault in other features, but it is amazing how much he has put out in 2019 without being alive. In February 2019, the Prince Estate announced reissues of the albums Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic and Rave In2 the Joy Fantastic on purple vinyl as well as Ultimate Rave. On 7th June, 2019, Warner released a new Prince album, Originals, exclusively through TIDAL. The album contains Prince's original versions of fifteen songs he offered to other artists in the past. On 13th September, 2019 The Versace Experience - Prelude 2 Gold was reissued on purple vinyl and C.D. as well as on digital formats. On 18th October, 2019, a single with his acoustic demo of I Feel for You was released digitally, alongside a limited edition 7" purple vinyl in honor of the fortieth anniversary of the Prince album release. On 27th November, 2019, the 1999 album was reissued in a Remastered, Deluxe and Super Deluxe edition; the latter including thirty-five previously unreleased songs and two live concerts.

Who knows what is going to come from Prince in 2020! There is a bit of an ethical debate one can apply to any artist who is no longer with us. Prince amounted this vast reserve of music that he did not have time to finalise and hone before he died. Maybe a lot of the material is there for prosperity; perhaps Prince wanted to revisit the music years later and never got around to it. Whatever the reasoning, his music was left in the hands of the Prince Estate. I am not surprised Prince did not write a will, as he died unexpectedly at his Paisley Park estate aged fifty-seven. When you are a musician, there is a risk of not drawing a will up, which means estates and family members will have the final say. Of course, Prince recorded more than he could ever release and finish. Many artists have files and archives of half-finished tracks and ideas. Maybe Prince would have wanted as much of his vault material out there in the case of his death, though one wonders whether posthumous releases distil an artist’s legacy and quality. I mentioned this when writing about artists like Amy Winehouse, Michael Jackson and Jeff Buckley. Are estates motivated by money, or is there a genuine desire to give fans unheard material because it needs to be out there and digested?

Many would say money drives posthumous releases, but I can understand why it would be a bit mad to leave material left unheard. Prince is an artist who will be subject to posthumous albums for years and years to come. When you weigh up all the albums that we have seen from 2016 to now and going forward to those that were released in his lifetime, will we hear more posthumous material than anything? Prince’s unfinished or archived material is far stronger than most of the stuff other artists put out when they are at their peak. When thinking about quality, I know the Estate will discern what is worth airing and the material that is a bit scrappy and inferior. Sadly, a lot of great artists will depart the world in years to come and, unless they have a will that clearly states what happens to their material after death, it is a bit of a lottery. I know there are fans who will want to hear every morsel of Amy Winehouse or Prince. They won’t care if it is a demo or a cover version, so long as it keeps the artist alive – in one way, at least. I do not agree that, when an artist dies, there are no more releases from them. It would be a tragedy if there was something great in the archive that was left there for all time.

Also, I don’t think it is a good idea to release everything possible so that the artist is commercially viable or profitable. Prince is an artist who released a load of material in his life and, whilst some of his posthumous releases have been pretty awesome, there has been enough that could have remained at Paisley Park. What does one do to ensure there is that balance between posthumous material that is necessary and that which is not ripe for public consumption? It does seem, when studying a couple of articles from 2018, that Prince’s unreleased material – however revealing it is – would not have been given the sign-off by Prince himself. It seems control over the material was key to him. This NRP article reacts to the release of the Piano & a Microphone 1983 album release of 2018:

“Piano & a Microphone 1983, is the first posthumous album released by the Prince Estate since the superstar's death two years ago. It's an intimate recording of the artist before he was a giant, international star working through songs in a home studio — just Prince and his piano. The never-before-heard recording was discovered in the singer's personal vault on a cassette tape and takes place in Prince's Kiowa Trail home studio in Chanhassen, Minn. But don't think of this release as some unearthed demos meant for others to hear. As NPR Music critic Ann Powers explains, these songs were for Prince to try out ideas and develop new material.

"We are being allowed into a moment that we don't necessarily get and we never would have had access to, honestly, while Prince was alive," Powers says.

As working tapes, Powers believes that if Prince were alive he would "most certainly not" want this early music out in the world. But she also argues that the release of Piano & A Microphone 1983 isn't an exploitation of the artist.

"I think we understand Prince's creativity in a different way because of it and for that reason, it doesn't feel like a violation, it feels like a gift," Powers says.

As The Conversation wrote in a 2018 article, Prince was pretty clear about how he wanted his material to be released:

“…But what of Prince? We will never know what he really thinks but in a 2004 interview in Rolling Stone magazine he spelled out his desire for independence and the power to define himself, away from the influence or pressure of the music business: “Despite everything, no one can dictate who you are to other people.” In my opinion, perhaps the record companies and the people who run Prince’s estate should reflect on that”.

Of course, it doesn’t help matters when the press heaps praise on posthumous releases and raves. People like me are guilty too, as we review this posthumous work and wonder what could have been. It is a hard to compromise so that you can please fans but do not exploit an artist after they have died. I think, in the case of Prince, the tide of material is a little much and I do worry about the financial motivation behind it all. When a beloved artist has died, of course there is interest when ‘new’ material comes out. We like the notion that an artist can continue to produce music even though they are no longer with us. I do think, in most cases, it is best estates and relatives…

LET the artist rest.

FEATURE: A Record High: Albums to Look Forward to Next Year

FEATURE:

A Record High

IN THIS PHOTO: IDLES are due to release their third album, Toneland, next year/PHOTO CREDIT: Naomi Wood for CRACK

Albums to Look Forward to Next Year

___________

THIS year has produced some stunning albums…

IN THIS PHOTO: Agnes Obel

but we can look ahead to 2020 and start planning which albums we want to snap up. Of those already confirmed, there are some real treats in the pack – I will finish with those that are speculated and not just firmed up. Agnes Obel’s Myopia is out on 21st February – you can pre-order it now. It is a highly-anticipated release from the Danish songwriter, and follows her third album, Citizen of Glass, of 2016. It seems like we are in for a treat.

“Following the same principles as with her previous albums (Philharmonics, Aventine and Citizen Of Glass), which she completed as a one-woman project in her own Berlin home studio, Obel has been under self-imposed creative isolation with the removal of all outside influences and distraction in the writing, recording and mixing process for Myopia. “The albums I’ve worked on have all required that I build a bubble of some kind in which everything becomes about the album.

“For me the production is intertwined with the lyrics and story behind the songs,” says Obel. This is precisely what makes her music so compelling and the same is true with Myopia. “Paradoxically, for me I need to create my own myopia to make music.” Obel was experimenting with techniques of recording processing, warping and pitching down vocals, strings, piano, celesta and lutheal piano, finding ways to melt these elements together to become one and twisting them in a way that you feel at home within the sound she conjures throughout the record”.

I am not going to these alphabetically and, in fact, I am going to break my rule about leaving those T.B.A. albums until last. There is rumour The Avalanches will follow up 2016’s Wildflower next year. We all know they left a sixteen-year gap between their debut, Since I Left You and Wildflower; it is amazing we will get a third album so soon! Again, there is going to be a lot to recommend:

“I think getting 'Wildflower' out of the way... feels like a weight’s been lifted,” multi-instrumentalist Robbie Chater told FBi Radio, adding: “The [new] music is really light, it’s some of the best stuff we’ve done.” It looks like album No.3 will continue to serve up some interesting collaborations, with the likes of the Australian Boys Choir, experimental rapper JPEGMAFIA, soul singer Leon Bridges, and Dhani Harrison (son of George) all rumoured to be involved in its making”.

On 10th January, The Big Moon’s Walking Like We Do, is out and alive. You can pre-order it, and I suggest that you do. The London quartet’s debut of 2017, Love in the 4th Dimension, was nominated for a Mercury Prize, and I love what they are producing. I think they are a band who will be festival headliners in years to come. Just one week later, Bombay Bicycle Club’s Everything Else Has Gone Wrong is released. Make sure you pre-order Everything Else Has Gone Wrong, as it is going to be one of 2020’s best albums.

Guitarist Jamie MacColl spoke with NME about the upcoming record:

“Guitarist Jamie MacColl meanwhile, took a degree in War Studies at King’s College, before making a documentary for the BBC on protest music. Following those projects, he launched a campaign group to help under-30s get involved with Brexit negotiations, helping to get a wide range of voices heard. If that wasn’t enough, he then went to Cambridge to study a masters in Philosophy.

All of this feeds into new album ‘Everything Else Has Gone Wrong’, that Jamie didn’t really think would happen, but now stands as a nice surprise for both band and fans. As the band announce their new record and lengthy 2020 tour, we catch up with the guitarist to talk over all that’s gone on since their disappearance, and what comes next.

Did revisiting that debut album affect how you were writing for the upcoming record? Do you see similarities between ‘I Had The Blues…’ and ‘Everything Else Has Gone Wrong’?

“What we’ve been doing at the moment is definitely more guitar-heavy than the last album, and I’d say that’s particularly the case on ‘Eat, Sleep, Wake’. Also with Jack having done Mr Jukes, he’s maybe been able to separate the two strands of his writing and production, because the last album had loads of layers and samples on every song, whereas I think what we’re doing now is a bit simpler. I was thinking about it in regards to ‘Eat, Sleep, Wake’, and there is a nostalgic element to both the song and the lyrics, and reading what people are saying on social media – which I know I’m not supposed to do – people do seem to be tapping into that, and thinking about being a teenager. Maybe we are conscious of the 10 year anniversary, and also being a bit reflective and looking back on our younger selves with some perspective”.

Field Music’s Making a New World is out on 10th January; it is the seventh album from the Sunderland band, and it is going to be a cracker! I have a lot of love for the group, and I admire their hugely original and memorable sound. This is an album I am definitely looking forward to already. Occupying a different space, Halsey’s MANIC is out on 17th January. She is one of the biggest Pop stars in the world, and MANIC follows 2017’s Hopeless Fountain Kingdom. Halsey spoke with Cosmopolitan about her upcoming album:

“Still, she says, she’s a Libra—meaning she just wants everyone to love her, even at her most incorrigible. “That’s the problem: I’ll do what I want, knock down everyone in my path who says I shouldn’t, and then when people don’t like it, I’m like, ‘Why?!’” she admits with a grin. “When I made ‘Nightmare,’ there were people saying, ‘I don’t think this is the move. You just had a number one song and now you’re gonna put out this weird, political song that’s not safe.’ Well, yeah, that’s why I’m gonna do it.” She’s talking about her latest radio smash, part of her “Marilyn Manson–inspired goth record” phase. If “Nightmare” is any indication, with its howled lyrics about trampling the patriarchy, the vibe of her forthcoming album is primal scream from the soul.

That might seem like a radical departure if you’d listened only to songs like “Without Me,” the chart-topping ballad she released mid highly public breakup with her on-again-off-again-who-even-knows-again ex G-Eazy. Or “Closer,” her 2016 collaboration with The Chainsmokers that could probably be statistically proven as the biggest song of the 2010s. But then you’d be missing the point. Because Halsey hasn’t been trying to be some sort of picture-perfect pop star. This rabbit hole she’s gone down, it just kind of happened. “But I love that, because I wake up every day wild-eyed and spongy,” she says, “trying to do things better than the last time”.

IN THIS PHOTO: Halsey/PHOTO CREDIT: Peggy Sirota for Cosmopolitan

Radiohead’s Ed O’Brien has an album out next year and, after sharing the new track, Brasil, many people are intrigued to see what direction he takes. I cannot see an album title yet, but keep your eyes peeled closely. Grimes’ Miss_Anthrop0cene is an album you just know will score huge reviews and own 2020. Pre-order a copy now and own one of next year’s most anticipated albums. Here is what the BBC said:

“It's been four years since her critically-acclaimed album 'Art Angels', but we will soon get to hear Grimes’ long-awaited, and much-delayed, fifth record. Claire Boucher's latest release will be called 'Miss_Anthrop0cene', and she has described it on social media as "a concept album about the anthropomorphic goddess of climate change," with each song representing "a different embodiment of human extinction as depicted through a pop star Demonology.

We’ve already heard the dark synth-pop of 'Violence' and equally brooding 'So Heavy I Fell Through the Earth'. Previous single 'We Appreciate Power', which refined Boucher’s unholy alliance of K-pop, riot grrl punk and industrial metal, sadly won’t feature on the album, instead included as a bonus track for the album’s Japanese edition”.

IDLES’ Toneland is their third and will be out next year. The Bristol band are one of the biggest acts in the world and are getting stronger and stronger. Their last album, Joy as an Act of Resistance, was nominated for a Mercury this year and is an absolute beast! IDLES are touring next year and have barely had chance to rest since they burst through.

I know Toneland will be another truly magnificent record! This year has been a huge one for the iconic band. They talked to DIY in September and were asked about their Mercury Prize nomination (they lost out to Dave’s PSYCHODRAMA):

“How did you process the news of your album being shortlisted for the Hyundai Mercury Prize?

I think the only way to process it is to be grateful and put it in perspective to where you are and then put it your pocket and keep it there, to keep you warm and fuzzy. It’s something you want and something you work for. The Hyundai Mercury Prize isn’t an award as much as it is a conversation; to celebrate what is going on in Britain in that year that is important and relevant. I think every act on the list for the first time in a while is an interesting and valid part of that conversation. It’s just f*cking beautiful to be part of that conversation. I shall not apologise, nor shall I over-celebrate that. It’s just something that we feel we are part of so we’re glad to be part of it. Obviously you enter, we paid that £190 to be part of the conversation and now we are, and it’s beautiful. I can’t wait to go and see it and see what the other acts have to offer.

You mentioned being a part of that British narrative, you’re in esteemed company; do you feel like part of a wider dialogue?

Yes absolutely. I was talking about this yesterday to Tim Putnam from Partisan Records. Individually, as voices, slowthai, Anna Calvi, Grian [from Fontaines DC] and myself who write all the lyrics, we are worlds apart and we create very different universes, perspectives and windows into the world for our audiences. That’s something that’s intrinsic in us. That’s something that you can’t compare in terms of style. When you extract that style and you talk about believability, vividness and gumption for something they believe in, whether it be something abstract or something real; something working class, something from a woman’s perspective, something from a queer perspective, something from a black perspective, something from a middle-class perspective, something from an Irish perspective, all those things are exactly what we should be talking about and celebrating in Britain”.

IN THIS PHOTO: Laura Marling

Kendrick Lamar and Laura Marling are teasing albums for next year. Lamar’s previous album, DAMN., arrived in 2017, as did Marling’s Semper Femina. I am a huge fan of both artists, but I am especially looking forward to Marling’s new album – an artist who has not put a foot wrong since her debut album! No set dates and titles are confirmed so, again, keep your eyes out. Moses Sumney’s græ is arriving in two parts: the first is in February and the second is in May. You can do some pre-ordering and hear the Californian soar. I want to bring in extracts from an interview he recently gave to SSENSE:

“One way you’ve defined your identity in the media is by presenting your own personality via the ideas of others. You prefaced your last record with an examination of Aristophanes, and then on the record itself, you have a song called “Stoicism.” Where does your interest in Greek mythology and philosophy come from?

It’s so funny, because I think the record makes it seem like it’s been a deep interest of mine, but it only really emerged towards the end of making the record. I wanted to contextualize it in a way that reached beyond modern times.

We’re in such a place where people are [self-]identifying more than ever before, and that feels so modern to people, especially to the old guard. I wanted to contextualize identification as something that has always happened. We’ve always been looking for ways to define and describe ourselves, or ways to give cultural significance to our personal feelings. And so I needed to reach beyond when any of us were born to say, like, these concepts I’m thinking about have been around forever.

In terms of self-identification, Aristophanes himself was a comedic playwright. As serious as your music can sound, do you think there’s anything about Aromanticism—the concept or the record itself—that’s funny?

I do, I think it’s hilaaaarious. The first song on the album is called “Don’t Bother Calling,” and it’s basically being really over-dramatic, and just saying, “Oh, don’t call me, I’ll call you,” and, “I’d love to be in love with you but I’m too busy thinking of the sun, the moon, and the stars, and the alignment of our galaxy.” It’s just so over the top and over-dramatic that in a lot of ways, I feel like I was playing a character while I was writing it, and trying to be as dramatic as possible—which is inherently funny.

I shall do a few more albums that are out next year but we do not know too much about. Phoebe Bridgers is preparing to 2017’s Strangers in the Alps. It was a marvellous debut from the American. She proved herself to be one of the most original songwriters out there and is someone I am looking forward to hearing more of next year. In October, NME asked her about her second album:

“Does that make you feel like a very different person and songwriter to that which wrote ‘Stranger In The Alps’?

“I could talk a big game about how I’m not that person or I’m getting far away from those topics, and then I end up with 10 songs that are about depression. I have no idea. I’ve never really been afraid of how people were going to define me, as long as I didn’t write some cheaper song because people like that I’m depressed.”

IN THIS PHOTO: Phoebe Bridgers/PHOTO CREDIT: Christopher Hall/Mixtape Magazine

And what makes the new album different from your debut?

“The production is totally different to my first record. People still kind of think of me as like a folk artist, but on the first record, I truly was deferring to other people to produce me. I basically had these country folk songs. [On the new record] I do a little bit of screaming on what we’ve recorded so far”.

Run the Jewels’ Run the Jewels 4 is out in 2020, but we are not 100% sure exactly when it will drop. The Orielles’ Disco Volador is their second; it is out on 28th February; so make sure you get a copy. The Halifax band are one of this country’s finest. Expect 2020 to be a very busy and successful year for them. The fourteenth album from Pet Shop Boys, Hotspot, is one you will also need in your life. Here is what the BBC reckon:

“For 14th studio album ‘Hotspot’, Pet Shop Boys relocated to Kreuzberg, Berlin’s Hansa Studios, which helped birth records including David Bowie’s Berlin trilogy, U2’s ‘Achtung Baby’ and Pixies’ ‘Bossanova’.

“We’ve written much of our music over the last ten years in Berlin and it was an exciting experience to work on this album in Hansa and add a new dimension to our sound,” the band say on their website about ‘Hotspot’, which was produced by Stuart Price (Madonna, Kylie, The Killers). 2019's ‘Dreamland’ single features Years & Years frontman Olly Alexander, while Suede’s Bernard Butler plays guitar on ‘Burning the Heather’”.

Poliça’s When We Stay Alive is out on 31st January. It is worth your pennies, and here is this some more information:

“The final roots of the band's first solo album in three years - having released a collaborative record with classical ensemble s t a r g a z e last year - lie in an accident that left frontwoman Channy Leaneagh with a smashed L1 vertebrae and battered spine that saw her in a brace with limited mobility for months. Half of the album was written before the accident and another half was written after.

A press release explains: "While recovering, Leaneagh's doctor told her to focus not only on physical healing, but to meditate on the mental act of healing as well - working to erase the anger, regrets, and fear she felt about her fall. To do so, he suggested she rewrite the story she told herself about what happened [when she fell and sustained her injury]."

This process saw Leaneagh look further back into her past. "I felt there were many things I could look at and say, 'This happened to me but I'm okay now,'" she explains. "'It’s not happening anymore and I got the care I needed for it. Now it’s time to rewrite the story I tell about myself and to myself'".

In terms of more albums for next year, here are some more in the ether: Baxter Dury - The Night Chancers (20th March), Childish Gambino – TBA; Everything Everything – TBA, Frank Ocean – TBA; Georgia - Seeking Thrills (10th Jan), La Roux – Supervision (7th Feb), Lana Del Rey - White Hot Forever and Nadine Shah – TBA.

IN THIS PHOTO: Nadine Shah

Let’s break a few of these down. You can pre-order Baxter Dury’s album; it is going to be another witty and highly special album from the master. Go and pre-order Georgia’s Seeking Thrills. This going to be an album you will not want to miss:

“Second album from the wonderous Georgia. Georgia is seeking a thrill. Her new album, Seeking Thrills, is a musically daring story of hedonism, self-discovery, and above all, the transcendental power of the dancefloor.

Inspired by the Chicago House and Detroit Techno of the early 80s, Seeking Thrills is a sonic feat of exploration and excellence, with textures that reflect Georgia’s background in ethnic musicology, and hours upon hours spent rifling through records. Feminine without being saccharine, Georgia’s deep, brooding reflections carry us through euphoria, heartache and melancholy but always with the memory of the good times.

Started Out, the first single Georgia released from Seeking Thrills, is an upbeat pop twist on Mr Fingers’ Can You Feel It, and as Georgia sings you can almost hear the smile: “We are wicked young fools who behave / Back in the arms of somebody who saved us”. Its release was shortly followed by About Work The Dancefloor, a synth-charged, Robyn-adjacent pop song with a delicious hook. Both were runaway hits. The album is underpinned with sense of melancholy and vulnerability, but with a real sense of power.

Seeking Thrills fuses analogue club sounds with stunning pop songwriting, and showcases Georgia's lifelong love affair with the drums. As a session drummer, making her name playing and collaborating with Micachu, Kwes, and Kate Tempest, she used her technical knowledge to replicate set-ups from 80s house and techno”.

Next year will see a lot of eyes trained the way of Lana Del Rey. She only released Norman Fucking Rockwell! this year, so here is another artist keep to capitalise. White Hot Forever proves Del Rey is in fine and productive form. She spoke with NME recently, where she was asked about her albums and working alongside Jack Antonoff:

“Ever since she broke through with the elegantly downcast ‘Video Games’, Del Rey has been an outlier in the pop world, keeping herself sonically separate from her peers. It’s surprising, then, that on ‘Norman Fucking Rockwell!’ she chose to work with Jack Antonoff, frontman of Bleachers and pop producer du jour who’s worked with Lorde, Taylor Swift, Carly Rae Jepsen, Sia and Pink. While he doesn’t overshadow the women he works with, there’s a definite Jack Antonoff pop sound – a shimmery kind of deceptive euphoria – that weaves its way through most records he’s involved in. If Del Rey had already carved out her own, very specific space in culture, how would teaming up with someone with an equally distinct but very opposite oeuvre work?

IN THIS PHOTO: Lana Del Rey/PHOTO CREDIT: Mat Hayward/Getty Images

“Jack very much takes my lead – I don’t know how it is with him with other people, but he liked for me to know where I was going,” she says. The two met at a party and it was him who extended that invite to work together. “He asked me if I wanted to come over to his studio in New York and I told him I didn’t have anything to write,” she explains, but he insisted that they could do something together if she just gave him a couple of hours. The way she tells the story makes it seem like she was fairly nonchalant about his offer at the time, but she accepted anyway and was surprised by what she found. “His sensibility is a little more traditional and acoustic than I thought it was. That was really good because some of my songs in my journals were already eight minutes and I didn’t want to condense anything. He’d like, ‘Ten minutes?! Alright!’ He’s like a little comedian”.

Green Day’s Father of All… is out on 7th February, and it sees the Pop-Punk icons as fired up as ever. Tame Impala’s The Slow Rush is another album that is gathering a lot of buzz. The singles Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker has put out this year have been blistering – I am especially fond of Borderline. In this interview, Parker talked about his process:

“Parker has clearly felt some pressure. “If I could make an album every year I would,” he said. “I’d love to. I hate to sound precious, or to say I can’t hurry it, but it’s true.”

He added: “Part of the thing about me starting an album is that I have to feel kind of worthless again to want to make music. I started making music when I was a kid as a way of feeling better about myself, you know? The ironic thing is, if I’m feeling on top of the world or feeling confident or like everything’s good, I don’t have the urge to make music.”

IN THIS PHOTO: Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker/PHOTO CREDIT: Graham Miller for The New York Times

Glen Goetze, the A&R manager at Universal Music Australia who first signed Tame Impala and continues to advise Parker, said making music is “a stoically solitary process” for him.

“I know it turns his head inside out sometimes, not having a bandmate or a band, not working in any way where you can turn to other people,” Goetze said. “He’s got to go through all those phases to come out the other end with something as incredible as he does”.

I will finish up soon, but The 1975’s Notes on a Conditional Form will arrive next year. It follows last year’s A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships. Here is what we know so far; but you can pre-order and mark your calendars for 21st February. There are actually a lot of great rumoured albums out next year, and I know some brilliant newcomers and legendary artists will bring us some wonderful music. Lady Gaga and Morrissey have albums out next year, and there are a few details out regarding Lady Gaga’s upcoming album. Joanne came out in 2016, and since then she has been keeping busy; her turn in A Star Is Born won her awards and brought huge kudos. Whilst this interview she conducted with Oprah Winfrey for ELLE does not ask her about her next album, I love the openness and bravery Lady Gaga shows when talking about herself. She discusses, among other things, living with mental illness and fibromyalgia:

“It needs to be a much bigger conversation. I want to know, What did you once believe was insurmountable, and in the end, you realized, the solution was so easy?

I once believed that there was no way back from my trauma. I really did. I was in physical, mental, and emotional pain. And medicine works, but you need medicine with the therapy for it to really work, because there’s a part that you have to do yourself.

IN THIS PHOTO: Lady Gaga/PHOTO CREDIT: Sølve Sundsbø for ELLE

Is this suffering from your fibromyalgia?

It is. Although there are many different theories about fibromyalgia—for me, my fibromyalgia and my trauma response kind of go hand in hand. The fibro for me is a lighter pain; the trauma response is much heavier and actually feels the way I felt after I was dropped on a street corner after I’d been raped repeatedly for months. It’s a recurring feeling. So I had a psychotic break at one point, and it was one of the worst things that’s ever happened to me. I was brought to the ER to urgent care and they brought in the doctor, a psychiatrist. So I’m just screaming, and I said, “Could somebody bring me a real doctor?” And I didn’t understand what was going on, because my whole body went numb; I fully dissociated. I was screaming, and then he calmed me down and gave me medication for when that happens—olanzapine.

This is my last question: What do you believe life is asking of us?

I believe life is asking of us to accept the challenge. Accept the challenge of kindness. It’s hard in a world the way that we are; we have a very, very grave history. We’re in trouble, and we have been before. But I think life asks us amid these challenges, this hatred, this tragedy, this famine, this war, this cruelty: Can you be kind and can you survive?”

Dua Lipa is the last artist I shall mention. Her second album, Future Nostalgia, is out next year. She recently put out the title track and has promised a fun and upbeat album with sounds of the 1980s and Disco. It sounds like it Is going to be one of Pop’s biggest albums of next year. I want to bring in an interview she gave earlier this month, where she discussed her sources of inspiration and her fans:

“That unselfconscious expression is something that comes to the fore on Don’t Start Now and the rest of “DL2” (the title her fans have been using in demanding tweets basically ever since the first one came out). She’s aware that her lyrics will be picked apart and scoured over for clues as to her past relationships, but she’s also keen not to give oxygen to specifics. “I mean, it is what it is,” she shrugs. “Art is subjective and the way I think of it is that I focus on songs until the second they’re out and then once they’re out they no longer belong to me. So if people want to pick them apart and make of them what they will then that’s fine. It’s just me being honest and sometimes that bites me in the arse.” She’s acutely aware too that this lyrical unpicking is gendered (“I think as a woman in the music industry, and especially with my life in the public eye, I have been demonised”), and that female sadness is preferred when it comes to high profile break-ups. “I feel like with this record there’s a lot more about being upbeat and fun, and enjoying the fact that I’m allowed to be happy,” she says. “That I’m allowed to have a good time. Without allowing the opinions of others to get in the way of that”.

IN THIS PHOTO: Dua Lipa

Pop stars vs the opinions of others is an ongoing battle, accentuated by social media. It’s partly why she cleared out her Twitter and Instagram ahead of this new era. “Start everything fresh,” she smiles. “But also to prove to me that it’s not real. You can just do whatever you want and people shouldn’t get so caught up in it.” Like most of her peers Lipa has a love/hate relationship with it all. On the one hand she enjoys connecting with her fans, and was obsessed with being the first person to tell them about the new single, favouring a teasing tweet over a billboard or some sort of Challenge Anneka-style marketing campaign. On the other, it’s what nearly crushed her confidence when it came to performing, an area of the (female, men can get away with a lot less, but that’s for another time) pop star code she’s perhaps not excelled at quite yet (there are memes, of course there are). “I was fine for a long time and then I started to see people’s reactions even to things I was proud of,” she says. “I’d go on social media and I’d read things people would write… and I’m not made out of steel. You know. As much as I’d like to think I am, I’m not. It definitely made me second guess myself.” She says 2018’s Electricity video, which saw her dancing around a New York-style apartment, was a turning point. “It was really the first time that I was on set and I had no inhibitions. I wasn’t afraid of what anyone thought. I was proud of myself for not allowing my nerves or anybody else’s opinions get in the way. It was really freeing”.

As the clock ticks I sense we’re eating up valuable pop star time. One last thing: How would her friends describe her? “Probably quite blunt and to the point,” she says, er, bluntly. “I’m probably the most honest, in your-face-person. Like if a mate said ‘what do you think of this dress?’ I would never be the person to lie to them. Or same with boys. ‘Complete wrong ‘un, get rid of them’.” She laughs. There must be so much fakery in this industry though? “Either invoke a ‘be kind’ policy or say things to my face,” she shrugs. “Just be honest. I don’t need a yes person.” And with that she’s off, a little bruised but ready for round two.

IN THIS PHOTO: Nine Inch Nails (Atticus Ross and Trent Reznor)

In terms of late news arrival, it seems Nine Inch Nails are brewing something for 2020. NME provide more details:

“Nine Inch Nails have revealed they are planning to tour and record new music in 2020.

Since the band’s most recent album ‘Bad Witch’ in 2018, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross have been busy focusing on soundtrack work.

But, in a new interview, it’s been revealed the band intend to tour and work on new Nine Inch Nails music.

There is no further detail on their plans as yet. The interview in Revolver with Reznor and Ross about their soundtrack work simply states: “Nine Inch Nails is not forgotten. In 2020, Reznor and Ross plan to take the group back out on tour, as well as record new NIN music.”

Nine Inch Nails last toured in 2018, around the release of the experimental ‘Bad Witch’ which, at half-an-hour, was the shortest NIN album”.

It is going to be a great year for music next year. I know, as the months progress, we will get more details about those unconfirmed titles and rumoured albums. There are a lot of great ones that we know about; some real corkers in the pack! It is obvious that 2020 is a year where we have…

IN THIS PHOTO: Grimes/PHOTO CREDIT: Chuck Grant for Interview Magazine

SO much to look forward to.

FEATURE: Beyond the Critics’ View: Overlooked, Underappreciated and Underexposed Albums of 2019

FEATURE: 

Beyond the Critics’ View 

PHOTO CREDIT: @katstokes_/Unsplash

Overlooked, Underappreciated and Underexposed Albums of 2019

___________

WHILST this might seem a bit subjective…

IN THIS PHOTO: Amyl and The Sniffers’ eponymous debut is one of 2019’s best albums/PHOTO CREDIT: Nat Wood for KERRANG!

I think there are some albums that have not received the acclaim and praise they deserve. Whether critics have been a bit harsh or an album has not quite gained the traction it warrants, it is important to nod to these treasures. Many people are compiling their favourite albums of 2019 lists, and I might put out another feature before the year is through along those lines. I might well update this feature but, right now, I have compiled some albums that are worth a second glance. In each case, I have included a sample review that either doesn’t do the album justice, or it is glowing and makes me wonder why it (the album) didn’t get more acclaim. Make sure you check out these underrated treats…

IN THIS PHOTO: Former Totally Mild lead Elizabeth (Elizabeth Mitchell) released her debut solo album, the wonderful world of nature, earlier this year

FROM a jam-packed and brilliant year.

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Loyle Carner - Not Waving, But Drowning

Release Date: 19th April

Labels: AMF/Virgin EMI

Producers: Jordan Rakei/Tom Misch/Joice, Parsley Palette/Kwes/ Rebel Kleff/Dan Parry (additional)/Charlotte Day Wilson

Standout Cut: Loose Ends (ft. Jorja Smith)

Sample Review:

“At other moments, Carner’s rejection of the blokey posturing that typifies hip-hop – the threats, the boasts, the jokes – proves refreshing. Yet Not Waving, But Drowning isn’t future-facing in a sonic sense: diaristic outpourings of emotion are matched with the comforting patter of boom-bap beats and the cosy tones of vintage soul, while edges are softened further still via luxuriant crooning from Sampha and Jorja Smith. The result is a collection of smooth, soft-centred rap that verges on the sickly, with Carner’s genial charisma floating adrift in a sea of sentimentality and nostalgia” – The Guardian

Brooke Candy – SEXORCISM

Release Date: 25th October

Label: NUXXE

Producers: Boys Noize/Andrew Goldstein/Oscar Scheller/Raf Riley/Carl Ryden/Sega Bodega

Standout Cut: XXXTC (feat. Charli XCX & Maliibu Miitch)

Sample Review:

“What’s particularly ironic is that - thanks to a protracted saga involving her previous label - it’s taken so long for Candy to release her first album that she’s actually been upstaged in the arena of spitting button-pushing, hyper-sexualised, unapologetically crass bars. Over the last few years, CupcakKe has stepped up to the plate and shown how this kind of thing can be done with both technical proficiency and a wicked sense of humour, two things which - on the evidence of ‘Sexorcism’ - Brooke Candy seems to be sadly lacking.

In fact, it’s some of the guest appearances that really show how limited Candy’s range is. Charli XCX is no MC, but she does an alluring turn on ‘XXXTC,’ turning her Home Counties vowels into something more sultry. Similarly, Rico Nasty shows up on album closer, ‘FMU,’ offering a tantalising glance at what could have been.

Ultimately, ‘Sexorcism’ is lacking in ideas and appears to have arrived at the wrong time in Brooke Candy’s career trajectory. There’s always a place to explore and celebrate sexuality in music, but this feels more like a say-nothing, protracted crotch thrust to the ears. Candy’s uncompromising approach has been a breath of fresh air when providing guest verses in the past, but a whole album of pornographic paeans will leave you feeling limp” – CLASH

Sarah Mary Chadwick – The Queen Who Stole the Sky

Release Date: 12th April

Label: Rice Is Nice

Standout Cut: Confetti

Sample Review:

“Personal suffering is often privileged in art. Throughout this record Chadwick challenges this by outlining suffering and then minimising or rationalising it. On the song Next In Line, she spins fairy tale fantasies about romance before shattering them.

“I never had a man around to love me,” she sings over the organ’s drone, before adding, almost like a hastily added post-script, “Having said that, there’s no amount of love could fill me, so I keep working through the line.” It’s romance imagined as construction line, one of life’s great mysteries skewed, dismembered and vacuum-sealed.

Towards the end of the album, on the record’s title track, Chadwick makes peace with life’s dull edges. “Sometimes there will be tears, I’ll have good years and bad years,” she concedes, “I’ll have friends and have no friends, love will start and love will end.” It’s something of a Pyrrhic victory – after an album of trying to rationalise mundane struggle and find something beyond it, we’re told there’s little to be found. Considering the product of that victory, though, it’d be hard to ask for more” – The Guardian

Pom Pom Squad - Ow

Release Date: 12th April

Label: 4MCMC

Standout Cut: Heavy Heavy

Sample Review:

“Pom Pom Squad’s new EP, Ow, is a step above the already-great Hate It Here in every way. The songs are more polished, but they’ve lost none of the edge that made the Hate It Here songs so strong. The vocal hooks are stronger, the production clearer, and the song sequencing highlights Berrin’s strength for storytelling (more on that later). Overall, Ow is just bigger. The diaristic recordings of the last EP have gained about 10 pounds in pure muscle; it’s the same observant, beating heart, but its body is more confident and assertive. Take the first single, “Heavy Heavy.” Its loud electric guitar, sneering vocals, and strong hook make it an instant earworm and crowd-pleaser. 

The biggest strength of Ow, however, isn’t just its singles, no matter how good they might be. What makes Ow so great a listen is its structure. Across these seven tracks, the EP takes on a cinematic structure, with “Ow (Intro)” serving as an impressionist opening credits scene and the final song, “Owtro,” mirroring many of those initial sounds. The middle five songs, then, take on the narrator’s story, and that character arc is reflected in both the lyrics and the arrangements themselves. “Heavy Heavy” and “Honeysuckle” are the early attention-grabbers (and first released singles) where a bad month has stretched into a bad month, that bad month has stretched into a bad break up. “Cherry Blossom” and “Again” slow the pace and strip back the production, reflecting both the narrator’s regret and sorrow. The climax, “Cut My Hair,” swells to a finale where the narrator finds some piece of relief in self-acceptance, and she’s able to move on.

If you wanted to take it on that level, you could. Ow has a story and themes for you to pick at and untie: a soundtrack for your (or someone-like-you’s) life. If you just wanted a solid 20 minutes of great song after great song, Ow can be enjoyed as a dynamic collection of singles. Whichever way to want to hear it, though, Pom Pom Squad has gotten bigger and better in the two years since Hate It Here. Pom Pom Squad’s attention to the big-picture might be their greatest strength, but its their knack for writing undeniable pop songs through a grunge filter that will keep you coming back again and again” – Post Trash

Sampa the Great – The Return

Release Date: 13th September

Label: Ninja Tune

Standout Cut: Final Form

Sample Review:

“It’s fair to say that Tembo’s bragging is not your standard cars-and-girls inanity – instead, she is careful to recontextualise her self-aggrandisement as righteous empowerment, using it to write an impassioned alternative to the narrative of western (and white) supremacy (Final Form, The Return), and emphasising the music industry’s exploitation of black talent on Time’s Up and Any Day. Yet despite weaving southern African influences into the drumming and multilingual lyrics, Tembo’s keen intellect and strong personality isn’t always accompanied by the most distinctive sound: highlight Final Form channels Kanye’s brash take on classic soul and there is much busy but generic R&B on the bloated tracklist. Her vocal, meanwhile, can be offputtingly affected, resembling a parody of Kendrick Lamar’s reedy, staccato flow. That said, Tembo is undoubtedly an intriguing addition to rap’s increasingly rich tapestry – albeit one yet to land on a sonic palette as fresh and compelling as her perspective” – The Guardian

Drenge - Strange Creatures

Release Date: 22nd February

Labels: Infectious/Rough Trade

Standout Cut: This Dance

Sample Review:

“The pair’s third album has plenty of peaks but it also has its troughs. Interestingly, they come in what are probably the two most accessible points on ‘Strange Creatures’ – the wiry new wave of ‘Autonomy’ and the laser-sharp guitars of ‘This Dance’. They’re hooky and poppy, but something about them feels off and, placed next to each other on the tracklisting, they feel too repetitive to belong on a record this daring and bristling with ideas. Still, nearly a whole four years since their last album, ‘Strange Creatures’ is an audacious and gratifying return that makes you want to envelope yourself in its gloom” – NME

Ari Lennox - Shea Butter Baby

Release Date: 7th May

Labels: Dreamville/Interscope

Producers: Jermaine Cole (also exec.)/Elite (also exec.)/Ibrahim Hamad (exec.)/Bigg Kid/Christo/Deputy/DJ Grumble/Hollywood JB/Jaylen Rojas/Kojo/Masego/Nick Quinn/Omen/Ron Gilmore/Shroom

Standout Cut: Up Late

Sample Review:

“The issue of navigating relationships is a foundational crux of R&B, and Ari Lennox channels and tackles both the good and the bad of this. At her most vulnerable – which is arguably on ‘I Been’ – the artist slows it down and keeps things relatable. Somewhere between the purple haze, Tinder references and dodging lies, the 28-year old manages to impart some wisdom to her female fans: “Life is too short to be blocking your blessings like that.”

Lennox learns that no relationship is worth emotional trauma and transforms into a contemporary empowerment leader. In an era defined by ‘situationships’, ‘I Been’ serves as a valuable reminder that toxic environments shouldn’t be tolerated.

Perhaps the most endearing aspect of ‘Shea Butter Baby’ is an authentic innocence that threads through it – the subtle interludes that feature in the space between songs lay bare Ari Lennox’s passions, fears, desires, and intentions. They allow listeners to get to know the singer and her universe, evoking an undeniable form of humility – something that makes the soloist captivating.

‘Shea Butter Baby’ manages to meld contemporary R&B with other sounds like soul, funk, and blues, all while introducing us to the Ari Lennox of today – and the inspirations that guide her every move” – CLASH

Jamila Woods – LEGACY! LEGACY!

Release Date: 10th May

Label: Jagjaguwar

Producers: Slot-A/Oddcouple/Peter Cottontale/Ralph Gene/Justin Canavan/Aminata Burton/Jamila Woods/Stephon "Mooch" Brown/Jasmin Charles/Nico Segal

Standout Cut: EARTHA

Sample Review:

“Racism and its side effects, from theft of culture and land to willful distortions and ignorance of black achievement, weigh heaviest on Woods' mind, yet her voice maintains a sweetness, unfurling like ribbon over the rhythms. Vulgar rebukes such as "Shuddup muthaf*cka, I don't take requests" are expressed with enough grace and melodicism to be as quotable and whistle-able as "I tenderly fill my enemies with white light" or "Take a picture if you want me quiet." Just like HEAVN, Woods' debut, LEGACY! LEGACY! is a modern R&B album recorded in Chicago, mostly with Chicagoans. There's more from Saba and Nico Segal, HEAVN collaborators who respectively add a tailwind-generating guest verse and beaming horns. Three-quarters of the songs, plus a garage-flavored remix of "BETTY," are dynamic Slot-A productions, covering sci-fi electro-soul of numerous shades and chunky hip-hop with elements of post-bop jazz, sometimes with an electric quartet. There's evidence his work was custom built, like when the keyboards burble and blare out of "Miles," evoking the namesake trumpeter's early-'70s dates, and the moment a sampled Geoff Barrow/Adrian Utley one-off elbows its way into "MUDDY," resembling the grit of Electric Mud (an LP recorded in Chicago with Chicagoans). This galvanizing declaration of pride, support, and discontent will no doubt inspire covers itself. Every public library should have at least one copy” – AllMusic

Elizabeth - the wonderful world of nature

Release Date: 1st November

Label: Universal Music Australia

Standout Cut: don’t let my love (bring you down)

Sample Review:

“Elizabeth has just dropped a series of well-crafted "heartbreak bangers" in the form of her first solo album The Wonderful World Of Nature.

The singer-songwriter was the lead singer of indie-pop quartet Totally Mild, but after the band’s break-up earlier this year, fans wondered where she would go from there. Armed with a debut album, Elizabeth has emerged unflinching, and is wasting no time in carving out her identity as a solo artist.

Elizabeth’s sharp, intimate vocals are the perfect balance for the hazy backdrop of distant melodies. Her voice acts like a beacon which focuses all your attention on her, and in songs like Take Me Back, it’s almost haunting.

The Wonderful World Of Nature is beautifully tragic and unapologetically sad. Her melodic voice entices you in to indulge in her pain, but instead you’re confronted by love’s ugly truths. Throughout the album, Elizabeth paints herself as the villain in a series of unhealthy relationships, but instead of wallowing in it, she empowers herself through her indiscretions. This is emphasised in tracks like Don’t Let My Love (Bring You Down) and Here, which bear a stark honesty, but are in no way apologetic” – The Music

Rozi Plain - What a Boost

Release Date: 5th April

Label: Memphis Industries

Standout Cut: Conditions 

Sample Review:

“The brooding and joyful riffs of "Swing Shut" and percussive whooshing of "Conditions" build with all the playful experimentations of AnCo. It all sounds undeniably English, as well. The sweet and earthy allusions to apple trees and awkward smiles, small-talk about the weather – you know, before the racists got in the way. Even the album title reads like a passage of speech in a particularly hearty comic book, more exclamation points the better! There’s no music video juggling satsumas with your parents, and none of the alt-pop jauntiness from the "See My Boat" days – it’s mellowed and grounded – but there’s still plenty of time for a bad punchline. "Symmetrical" sings about asymmetry, then b-symmetry and c-symmetry, too.

Rozi Plain’s signature lyrical peculiarities stay put – "Dark Heart" a particularly bewitching highlight. Musically there’s a confidence in to every layer, from psychedelic synth lines added by The Comet Is Coming’s Dan Leavers to a soothing closing duet with Sam Amidon. Even the slightly awkward wheezing vocal samples in "The Gap" sound crafted with a knowing smile. To fall flat for hyperbole, What A Boost is Rozi’s best, most interesting and experimental album to date. It’s what happens when her introversions gather the worldliness and confidence to let others in. There’s all the same tenderness, all the same familiarity, but it’s never sounded this good before” – The Line of Best Fit

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - Infest the Rats' Nest

Release Date: 16th August

Producer: Stu Mackenzie

Labels: Flightless/ATO

Standout Cut: Planet B

Sample Review:

“Coming from a band that was singing wistfully about birdies just a few months ago, Infest the Rats’ Nest is a convincing display of metal muscle. But as heavy as the album is, it feels slight in the context of the band’s catalog, lacking both the unpredictable detours of their biggest rock-outs and the insidious melodies of their more pop-focused work. At their best, King Gizzard absorb an array of seemingly incompatible influences into a sound uniquely their own, with a careening momentum that ensures you’re never really sure where they’re taking you. Infest the Rats’ Nest, on the other hand, is a rock’n’roll spin class—intense and relentless, to be sure, but ultimately fixed in the same spot. Even when the album’s second side introduces a conceptual narrative about a group of people who escape Earth to live on Venus (spoiler: things do not end well), it doesn’t venture anywhere—musically or thematically—it hasn’t already been” – Pitchfork

SAULT - 7

Release Date: 27th September

Label: Forever Living Originals 

Standout Cut: Feel so Good

Sample Review:

“At the other end of the spectrum, both in terms of timeline and tunes, is November’s 7 by Sault. A partner piece to their debut 5, released in May, it’s hard to think of them as anything other than a double album split by a few months and the lack of a spine. Not musically, you understand – these songs possess the backbone of a whale, shaking with carefree punk-funk attitude and deep soul rhythms.

Plundering the past with high-octane abandon, Sault have an incredible sense of which routes lead to the dance. There’s nothing circuitous here, nothing wasted, just an irrepressible desire to find the quickest short-cut to pleasure. Consequently, tracks like “No Bullshit” and “Feels So Good” sound like they were cut in the rush of excitement as soon as the hook had caught. This sense of abandon continues – though taking on a very different form – in “Smile and Go”, which fuses the DIY sound with elements of R&B and African funk. Meanwhile “Threats” is an incredible piece of UK soul – smooth in intent and raw in delivery. It’s about as affecting combination as I’ve ever heard.

Often when bands opt for a melting-pot approach, they run the risk of a clash of flavours that lack coherence and taste of nothing in particular. By stripping back and getting to the essential core of it all, 7 (and its predecessor) reveals something almost indistinguishable from its constituent parts and much, much more appetising. It seems that Sault adds flavour” – The Arts Desk

Kanye West - JESUS IS KING

Release Date: 25th October

Labels: GOOD/Def Jam

Producers: Kanye West (also exec.)/Angel Lopez/Benny Blanco/BoogzDaBeast/Brian "AllDay" Miller/Budgie/DrtWrk/E*vax/Federico Vindver/FNZ/Francis Starlite/Labrinth/Michael Cerda/Mike Dean/Pi'erre Bourne/Ronny J/Timbaland/Warryn Campbell/Xcelence

Standout Cut: Follow God

Sample Review:

“No longer the scumbag of "Runaway," West -- born again and repenting past sins -- fully commits to this direction, forgoing curse words and lewd rhymes in a complete turnaround from the rest of his catalog. While his grasp of Christ's teachings is elementary -- giving detractors further ammunition to question his true intentions (which he tackles on "Hands On") -- his seeming sincerity and vulnerability help temper embarrassing rhymes about fast food chicken sandwiches ("Closed on Sunday") and his troubling alignment with prosperity gospel teachings ("Water," "On God"). Despite the occasional lyrical misstep, Jesus Is King is a wonder of production, housing some of West's most focused and inspired work since 2013's Yeezus. From the rapturous choral sweep on "God Is" and the slapping beat of "Follow God" to the digital swirling "On God" and the languid flow of "Water," the true power of this set lies in what West has accomplished with all his meticulous studio tinkering, crafting an immersive sonic experience that only improves upon repeated listens. Well-utilized guests Ty Dolla $ign and Ant Clemons bridge the secular with the religious, joining gospel singer Fred Hammond and the Sunday Service Choir to add further heft to the proceedings. West even manages to match a reunited Clipse with saxman Kenny G. Considering his new message, the reinvigorated production, and the communal spirit that courses through the album, West seems to be in a healthier place. Presumably reborn in Christ, Jesus Is King reframes Kanye West as a work in progress and, despite the controversies, demonstrates (as humbly as his ego will allow) that he's at least trying” – AllMusic

Shura - forevher

Release Date: 16th August

Label: Secretly Canadian 

Producers: Shura/Joel Pott

Standout Cut: the stage  

Sample Review:

“As with Shura’s debut, Nothing’s Real, her second album is front-loaded. After a brief intro come Forevher’s three best songs, followed by a slump it never quite recovers from. Side Effects is the clear highlight, a perfect collision of aesthetic and emotion. The English songwriter’s spacey, super-melodic, immaculately produced pop casts a wonderful spell when it works, particularly on lead single Religion (U Can Lay Your Hands on Me) or the swooning, filtered coda to The Stage, as endless as summer seems in early July.

It just feels that whenever the rhythms retreat, the songwriting behind these airy, 80s-Janet Jackson jams isn’t always strong enough to really connect. Shura’s sugary voice works best when the beat is insistent, pulling you towards the dancefloor in your head. Sometimes she sounds tamed, quiescent, processed and treated, her vocal lacking the personality to overcome the distancing effect of its digital rendering. That said, you can always hear how songs such as Forever or the endearingly batty Flyin’ (“a virgin had a baby, it’s crazy… I’m scared of flying/ I’m scared of dying”) could be remixed into magic, while the languorous closer Skyline, Be Mine is a beauty” – The Guardian

Gang Starr - One of the Best Yet

Release Date: 1st November

Labels: To the Top/Gang Starr Enterprises

Producer: DJ Premier

Standout Cut: Family and Loyalty (ft. J.Cole)

Sample Review:

“Premier avoids the pitfalls of posthumous releases. The material he has to work with isn’t stretched too thin – tracks linger long enough for Guru to make his point, then stop; the whole thing clocks in under 40 minutes – and the cameo roles seem to have been filled on the basis of compatibility rather than commerce. The one big contemporary name is J Cole, whose position as upholder of traditional hip-hop values and conscience of mainstream rap is well-established. “Who’d have thought J Cole would be rhyming with ghosts?” he wonders, over a beautifully mournful piano figure on Family and Loyalty. Mostly, the guest microphone is ceded either to Guru’s contemporaries or Gang Starr associates: Q-Tip, Jeru the Damaja, Big Shug, and Group Home, whose turn on What’s Real belies the obscurity into which the duo have fallen since the mid-90s.

There was a time when Gang Starr’s story seemed to have ended rather sadly. The duo’s split clearly wasn’t without acrimony. Worse, on Guru’s passing, his controversial latter-day producer Solar published a bizarre letter, supposedly written by the rapper on his deathbed, insisting that he wanted Premier to “have nothing to do with my name, likeness, events, tributes etc”.Some people insisted the letter was faked by Solar, and alleged abuse and neglect on his part. But you didn’t have to take sides to think this was no way for one of hip-hop’s most intelligent voices to go out. In that context, a genuinely strong final album with Gang Starr’s name on it, even an artfully patched-together one, feels not unlike righting a historical wrong. One of the Best Yet does exactly what long-term fans might expect a Gang Starr album to do. As a full stop to their career, it works perfectly. In the pantheon of posthumous albums, it lives up to its name” – The Guardian

KAINA - Next to the Sun

Release Date: 12th July

Label: Sooper Records

Standout Cut: Green  

Sample Review:

“The record is named Next To The Sun, and that’s precisely where you’ll want to be when you listen to it for the first time. A lavish fusion of neo-soul and RnB with elements of her Latin heritage weaving it all together, at its best Next To The Sun is, to quote the city’s most famous musical talent, an unmistakably summertime Chi’ album.

That’s not to say it’s all relentless optimism. The melancholic introspection and personal details that form opening tracks ‘House’ and ‘Ghost’ are a vital part of the immersion KAINA builds throughout. Even the album’s title track has a dark undertone with fuzzy guitar lines galloping under KAINA’s gothic vocals. As the album progresses, however, these clouds pass, and by the time it reaches its towering conclusion on ‘Green’, a track blessed with perfectly mixed horns, beautiful percussion and all manner of vocal goodness from KAINA, the sun is shining once more, maybe forever” – LOUD AND QUIET

Amyl and The Sniffers - Amyl and The Sniffers

Release Date: 24th May

Label: Rough Trade Records

Standout Cut: Got You  

Sample Review:

“To an extent, these callbacks are deliberate—certainly, Amyl and the Sniffers borrow heavily from the sartorial style of the sharpies—but what makes the group such a blast is that it takes no knowledge of arcane Australian rock’n’roll to enjoy their debut. The group exists entirely on the surface, cranking amps to 11 and playing like it’s in a rush to head back to the bar.

What makes Amyl and the Sniffers slightly preferable to one of the band’s gigs is that Orton channels its energy and then adds definition to its roar. Also, at home it’s easier to catch lead singer Amy Taylor’s knack for the catchphrases and fleeting images that anchor their songs. Perhaps Taylor doesn’t often shape these words into a coherent story—“Gacked on Anger,” a perennial anthem of the underclass (“I wanna help out the people on the street/But how can I help them when I can’t afford to eat”), and the besotted “Got You” come the closest—but it’s enough to suggest she could sharpen this instinct once she bothered to take a breather.

Then again, the appeal of Amyl and the Sniffers is that it never bothers to slow down. That doesn’t mean the record lacks slack moments—the opening instrumental fanfare “Starfire 500” feels best left on the stage, where the lads can vamp as audience anticipation for Taylor grows—but the aggressive acceleration means the album never invites any time for contemplation. Such relentless momentum can give the illusion that the songs are sturdier than they are, but that’s also the pleasure of Amyl and the Sniffers: The album exists so thoroughly in the moment that it winds up obliterating the group’s fetishization of the past and just delivers pure, uncut rock’n’roll fun” – Pitchfork

FEATURE: In Memoriam: Musicians We Have Lost in 2019

FEATURE:

In Memoriam

IN THIS PHOTO: The iconic Scott Walker died on 22nd March, 2019/PHOTO CREDIT: Jake Walters/Contour by Getty Images

Musicians We Have Lost in 2019

___________

WHILST we acknowledge the best albums…

IN THIS PHOTO: Ranking Roger of The Beat - who died on 26th March, 2019 - at O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire, London in 2017/PHOTO CREDIT: Lorne Thomson/Redferns

and artists of the year, there is also a sadness that needs to be recognised: the great artists we have said goodbye to. Every year, we lose someone dear to music and, whilst there has been a lot of positives and things to celebrate, the loss of some truly big names has really taken us aback. Apologies if I miss anyone significant out of the list – I am not including EVERY artist and person related to the music -, but it has been a year where a lot of important people have died. Sadly, we lost Peter Tork in February. Best known as the keyboardist and bass guitarist of The Monkees, his death at the age of seventy-seven was a big loss. There were a few tribute articles written about Tork, but I wanted to bring in some quotes from a piece in The New York Times:

“The Monkees were an unabashedly manufactured band, created by Hollywood producers in the 1960s to capitalize on the astounding popularity of the Beatles. The members — Mr. Tork (the oldest, at 24), Davy Jones, Micky Dolenz and Mike Nesmith — were cast as the stars of an NBC sitcom, “The Monkees” (1966-68), in which they performed and dealt with comic situations with a childlike irreverence, much as the Beatles had in their hit films “A Hard Day’s Night” and “Help!”

Mr. Tork was positioned as the goofy one, the court jester. The director Bob Rafelson, one of the show’s creators, compared him to Harpo Marx.

Because they were created for television, did not write their own songs (that was left to professionals like Gerry Goffin, Carole King and others) and did not play their own instruments (they mimed playing on camera), the Monkees were disdained by many; if the Beatles were the Fab Four, the Monkees quickly earned the derisive nickname the Prefab Four.

Mr. Tork reunited with his fellow Monkees for a world tour in 2011 and with Mr. Dolenz and Mr. Nesmith in 2012 for a tour that included a tribute to Mr. Jones, who died that year. In recent years the surviving Monkees released two albums”.

In February, we also said goodbye to Talk Talk’s Mark Hollis. Talk Talk are a band I have been familiar with for a few years, but their work only truly hit me after the death of Hollis. That might sound a bit bad, but I neglected the brilliance of the band. Albums like The Colour of Spring and Spirit of Eden are absolute classics. The sheer sophistication of the music and the emotion in Hollis’ voice; the timelessness of Hollis’ songs and the incredible effect the songs have on you. Talk Talk are a band who might have passed by a lot of people my age (in their thirties), but I think a lot of people are discovering Talk Talk now. It is shame that we lost Hollis so young (aged sixty-four), but the music he helped create will live forever. There was great outpouring from so many people in the music world.

I know Elbow’s Guy Garvey is a particular fan, and he was especially affected by Hollis’ death. Here is what The Guardian wrote in their tribute feature:

“With Hollis as its singer and creative mastermind, the group made a name with 1980s hit singles such as It’s My Life, Today, Talk Talk and Life’s What You Make It. They progressed to albums like Spirit of Eden, which was hailed as a “masterpiece”, and Laughing Stock.

His cousin-in-law Anthony Costello tweeted on Monday: “RIP Mark Hollis. Cousin-in-law. Wonderful husband and father. Fascinating and principled man. Retired from the music business 20 years ago but an indefinable musical icon.”

Talk Talk’s bassist Paul Webb, aka Rustin Man, paid tribute to Hollis on Instagram. “I am very shocked and saddened to hear the news of the passing of Mark Hollis,” he wrote. “Musically he was a genius and it was a honour and a privilege to have been in a band with him. I have not seen Mark for many years, but like many musicians of our generation I have been profoundly influenced by his trailblazing musical ideas.”

Talk Talk: 'You should never listen to music as background music' – a classic interview from the vaults

In an interview with Q’s backpages at the time, later republished in the Guardian, Hollis expressed awareness that he could be “a difficult geezer” but that was because he refused to “play that game” that came with the role of musician in the spotlight.

“It’s certainly a reaction to the music that’s around at the moment, ‘cos most of that is shit,” Hollis also said of Spirit of Eden. “It’s only radical in the modern context. It’s not radical compared to what was happening 20 years ago. If we’d have delivered this album to the record company 20 years ago they wouldn’t have batted an eyelid”.

IN THIS PHOTO: Keith Flint

On 4th March, the legendary Keith Flint of The Prodigy died. This was an especially big loss to me, as I grew up listening to music from The Prodigy. Although Flint only sang on a few of the band’s songs, his incredible energy and personality helped score some of their biggest anthems. Whilst Flint projected this wild image on stage, off of the stage we found a very different man – one of the sweetest and most accessible people you could meet. After Flint was found hanged at his home, many people went online to raise awareness of mental-health issues and the importance of talking to someone if you need help – although the coroner found insufficient evidence to suggest Flint’s death was a suicide. Such a tragic and premature death shocked us all and it is very odd to think we will never see Flint take to the stage with The Prodigy. I was a teen when Breathe and Firestarter were unleashed on the world. Taken from 1997’s The Fat of the Land, it was clear there was nobody out there who could sing like Keith Flint. Maybe it was his delivery and accent or something else; he was a crucial ingredient in The Prodigy’s success. Here, the XL label boss Richard Russell remembers a true original:

“When The Fat of the Land [the Prodigy’s 1997 album, which included Firestarter] got to No 1 in America, Keith was in the frontline, presenting something new, something powerful and completely undiluted. What the Prodigy were doing was so strong the mainstream had to understand it, and had to bend towards it.

After Firestarter, the Prodigy became huge and they’ve kept playing at that level ever since [every Prodigy album except their debut, up to and including 2018’s No Tourists became a UK No 1]. It didn’t faze Keith. He’d hang around backstage and be nice to people, and just pour this different character out on stage. He’d go home between tours and take care of his animals. He lived in the countryside in Essex, and he loved being there. He knew the value of things.

Keith lived life full-on, and he gave himself to everything he did. He got involved in motorcycle racing, which he’d always been a fan of, and became incredible at it [in 2014 he set up his own team, Team Traction Control, which won two races at the Isle of Man TT, two years running]. He kept very fit. But it’s important to recognise that living life to the max then dying the way he did is not really something to celebrate. Keith’s death was awful. It’s impossible to be philosophical about what happened. It shouldn’t have happened. We were all so shocked”.

On 16th March, Surf icon Dick Dale passed away. If many of us associate Dale with Miserlou and Pulp Fiction, his legacy and importance is much wider and deeper than that. Just listen to the way he played guitar; he opened up the instrument to others and pushed it beyond natural limits. Dale was a true innovator and introduced a style that will inspire musicians for years to come. If The Beach Boys were providing lyrics to surf scenes, Dick Dale brought the music; this rumbling, evocative sound that was a true revelation. Rolling Stone paid tribute to Dick Dale following his death:

“As the progenitor of the surf rock genre and an innovator who helped stretch the possibilities of the electric guitar, Dale inspired musicians like Jimi Hendrix, Eddie Van Halen, Ry Cooder and the Beach Boys. Dale’s “Miserlou” also notably featured in the opening credits sequence of Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction.

Dale defined surf music as “that rumbling and all that stuff like that they associated the heavy Dick Dale staccato… it sounded like the barrel of a goddamn wave” in an interview with Surfer.

Dale was also recruited by the Fender company to test drive and help improve their instruments and amps; thanks to its association with Dale, the Fender Stratocaster became the go-to guitar for surf rock, with Dale’s signature golden Stratocaster dubbed “the Beast” a gift from Leo Fender, who custom-made the guitar for maximum volume.

Jimi Hendrix, like Dale, would play his Stratocaster left-handed. Eddie Van Halen would later cite Dale and surf music as one of his prime inspirations, with the Van Halen guitarist modeling his method on Dale’s quick-picking. Stevie Ray Vaughan, another disciple, would team with Dale on a cover of the Chantays’ surf classic “Pipeline” in 1986; the rendition would be nominated for Best Rock Instrumental Performance at the 1987 Grammys.

In addition to influencing a generation of guitar gods, Dale enjoyed a resurgence in popularity in the Nineties thanks to the placement of “Miserlou” in Pulp Fiction”.

On 22nd March, the sensational Scott Walker died. He rose to fame in the mid-1960s as part of The Walker Brothers, and he embarked on a solo career with 1967’s Scott. His music became more baroque towards the late-1960s and, although his solo work did not sell overly-well, Walker has inspired so many artists – including David Bowie, Alex Turner (Arctic Monkeys) and Jarvis Cocker. Like all true originals, there is really nobody like Scott Walker. One can hear little shades of his voice in artists like Neil Hannon (The Divine Comedy) and Thom Yorke of Radiohead, but no-one can truly capture the essence and incredible power of Scott Walker.

The New York Times published a beautiful tribute to a true icon:

“Mr. Walker left the group in 1967 to start a solo career that became a rejection of his rock-star phase. In one iteration he recorded songs by the Belgian singer and songwriter Jacques Brel. But his most critical period was a retreat into the studio to create avant-garde music that was hard to categorize: ominous and clangorous, existential and electronic, with big blocks of sound, his baritone voice now used to almost operatic effect. For many years, he did not appear in concert.

Reviewing a recording on which Mr. Walker collaborated with the metal band Sunn O))) in 2014, Ben Ratliff of The New York Times described his music as “intricate puzzles of shock, indiscretion, non-resolution, theatrical uses of text and extended technique, often with a 40-piece orchestra.” He added that Mr. Walker was always looking for a “whoops factor”— “a moment of incomprehension from the listener.”

Although the best-known songs of his Walker Brothers period did not portend how radical his music would become, Mr. Walker began to demonstrate a willingness to free himself from the conventions of pop and rock as early as 1967, when he began releasing a series of solo albums — “Scott,” “Scott 2,” Scott 3” and “Scott 4.” He did so again on “Nite Flights” (1978), an album made during a brief reunion of the Walker Brothers.

Along the way, he found an admirer in David Bowie. Mr. Bowie, a transcendent musical experimenter, was in a relationship with a woman who had dated Mr. Walker and kept his albums. Mr. Bowie listened to the music and became so enamored that he later took the role of executive producer of “Scott Walker: 30 Century Man” (2007), a documentary directed by Stephen Kijak.

“I like the way he can paint a picture with what he says,” Mr. Bowie said in the film. “I had no idea what he was singing about. And I didn’t care”.

Ranking Rodger died in March at the age of fifty-six. The singer of the two-tone band The Beat, Rodger’s passing has left a huge hole in the music industry. Like Talk Talk, The Beat were a band that I familiarised myself with more after Rodger’s death. The influence and impact of The Beat extended beyond Ska and Two-Tone. Roger was a massive figure, and he was responsible for some of Ska and Two-Tone’s most iconic songs:

“The Beat (or, as they're known in the U.S., the English Beat), came up as part of the second wave ska movement in the U.K. in the late '70s and early '80s. They experienced big commercial success, and their songs endured because they were more than just a genre band. The Beat combined ska elements (like a horn section) with soul, reggae, punk, and pop hooks to make some of the era's most indelible standards, particularly "Save it for Later" and "Mirror in the Bathroom." Leading the band's musical direction with a soulful, emotive voice was singer Roger Charlery, or, as he was known on stage, Ranking Roger”.

It is always especially tragic when a group or artist on the cusp of mainstream acceptance and success departs. Liverpool duo Her’s were making waves and turning heads with their incredible chemistry and stunning songwriting. I know they were being tipped as an act to watch and were building up a passionate and solid fanbase. Her’s members were killed in a car crash on their way to a gig – as this NME article reports:

“The duo, comprised of Stephen Fitzpatrick and Audun Laading, were travelling from Arizona to a gig in Santa Ana, California earlier this week (March 27) when they were involved in a road accident. Both members and their tour manager, Trevor Engelbrektson, died in the incident.

In a statement posted on Facebook, the band’s label Heist Or Hit wrote: “We are all heartbroken.

“Their energy, vibrancy and talent came to define our label. As humans, they were warm, gentle and hilarious. Each time they stopped by the office made for an uplifting experience. To say they were close would be an underestimation of a friendship that was genuinely beautiful to witness; they loved one another like brothers.

“Musically, Her’s were astonishing,” the statement continues. “An aptitude for melody, fun, and entertainment combined with a complexity that was as sophisticated as it was stylish. They were in America playing to thousands of adoring fans. Fans they made a point of meeting and spending time with, such was their passion and humbleness. The world was at their feet”.

IN THIS PHOTO: Dr. John

On 6th June, the wonderful and cherished Dr. John died. Another legend of the scene, his death sent shockwaves around the world. Dr. John was active as a session musician from the late-1960s until his death, but he gained widespread popularity after the release of his album, Gris-Gris, and his appearance at the Bath Festival of Blues and Progressive Music. His live shows were the stuff of legends that brought together Mardi Gras, voodoo ceremonies and strange theatrics. Dr. John (Malcolm John Rebennack Jr.) recorded thirty studio albums during his lifetime and contributed to countless other recordings. He was remembered by Rolling Stone:

“God bless Dr. John,” Ringo Starr wrote on Twitter. “Peace and love to all his family. I love the doctor.”

“There was no other performer like Dr. John, and there never will be,” Louisiana native Ellen DeGeneres wrote. “Tonight my heart is in New Orleans.” 

Although best known for his Seventies solo work and radio hits like “Right Place, Wrong Time,” Rebennack had a career that spanned pop history. He was a key part of the “Wrecking Crew” stable of ace Los Angeles session musicians in the Sixties. He played on recordings by Cher, Aretha Franklin, Canned Heat, Frank Zappa and countless others, fusing funk with R&B and boogie woogie.

Rebennack began putting out his own records in 1968 with the release of his debut album Gris-Gris. It was the beginning of his larger-than-life Dr. John Creaux the Night Tripper character, with Rebennack incorporating elements of voodoo into his outrageous stage show. He quickly grew a large following, introducing much of America to New Orleans music.

Signing with Atlantic, by way of legendary producer Jerry Wexler, Dr. John found his groove and his voice, starting with Gumbo, the landmark 1972 album that featured his renditions of “Iko Iko,” “Let the Good Times Roll” and other New Orleans classics. The next year, he hit his commercial peak, when his funky stomp “Right Place, Wrong Time” hit the Top 10. Those albums showcased not only his loose growl and rhythmic sense but his piano playing, which incorporated boogie and swinging syncopation.

Speaking to Rolling Stone in 1973, Rebennack discussed his internal battle over making “commercial” music. “The only thing that makes a record commercial is if people buy it,” he said. “Originally, I felt to go commercial would prostitute myself and bastardize the music. On reflecting, I thought that if without messin’ up the music and keeping the roots and elements of what I want to do musically, I could still make a commercial record I would not feel ashamed from, I’m proud of, and still have a feel for, then it’s not a bad thing but it even serve a good purpose.” 

He was popular enough by 1976 to be invited to perform at The Band’s Last Waltz alongside Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Eric Clapton, Muddy Waters and other greats of the era, but his commercial fortunes waned in the Eighties and an addiction to heroin hobbled his career for years. He kicked the drug in 1989, around the time that Ringo Starr helped revive his career by bringing him on the road for his inaugural All Starr Band Tour. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2011.

IN THIS PHOTO: Daniel Johnston

Daniel Johnston was a cult musician whose music was often cited as being child-like in tone. Not only did he find a fan in Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain; Johnson’s influenced has stretched far and wide. One listens to his music and there is this lo-fi, D.I.Y. sound that makes his songs sound utterly direct and personal. Johnston recorded at home to cassette and I just love that sort of ethos and approach. Johnson was also an accomplished visual artist and had his illustrations exhibited at galleries around the world. Johnson lived with mental illness for much of his life and was the subject of the documentary, The Devil and Daniel Johnston. The Independent remembered him in this feature from September:

“Daniel Johnston established his reputation as a near-mythical figure in indie rock through a vast canon of humorous, bittersweet songs, many recorded at home on cheap cassette, but his career was marked by struggles with mental health issues.

Johnston, who has died of a suspected heart attack aged 58, suffered with manic depression and schizophrenia and faced increasing health problems in recent years, notably diabetes and hydrocephalus, a build-up of fluid in the brain. Although he said he hoped to continue performing, he embarked in 2017 on what was billed as his final tour, joined by a backing band that included members of Wilco, Fugazi and Built to Spill – a roster of indie rock all-stars that spoke to his reputation as a master lyricist and intimate, uninhibited singer.

With a high-pitched voice and mild lisp, Johnston bared his soul in folksy songs about unrequited love, existential dread, his affection for The Beatles and the thrills of a speeding motorcycle.

Emerging from Austin’s underground music scene in the mid-1980s, he used a $59 Sanyo boombox to record himself on acoustic guitar, organ and piano, and released cassette tapes decorated with his own ink and marker artwork.

His music was unabashedly simple and straightforward but drew a cult following, notably after Kurt Cobain of Nirvana was photographed in a T-shirt bearing the cover of Johnston’s album Hi, How Are You (1983). His songs – “recorded so intimately, it almost feels like an invasion to listen to them”, according to Pitchfork – were covered by, among others, Tom Waits, Beck and Lana Del Rey.

Johnston also found some success as an artist, inking cartoon-like drawings of an “alien frog” with eyes like lollipops, a boxer with a hollow head like an empty bowl, and Casper the Friendly Ghost. More than a dozen of his pictures were exhibited at the 2006 Whitney Biennial in Manhattan, after he had previously used his drawings to barter for comic books in Austin, or simply given them away.

IN THIS PHOTO: Ric Ocasek/PHOTO CREDIT: Astrid Stawiarz via Getty Images

The last five names I want to mention cover are very different moccasins. On 15th September, The Cars’ Ric Ocasek died at the age of seventy-five. I really love the music of The Cars, so it was a real shock to hear of Ocasek’s death. He was one of those songwriters whose work we all knew and could relate to. I think Ocasek is one of the best songwriters of all-time and does not get the full credit he deserves. As part of the New Wave band, The Cars’ Ocasek was a true visionary. Here is how The New York Times remembered him:

“The Cars grew out of a friendship forged in the late 1960s in Ohio between Mr. Ocasek and Benjamin Orr, who died in 2000. They worked together in multiple bands before moving to Boston and forming the Cars in the late 1970s with Elliot Easton on lead guitar, Greg Hawkes on keyboards and David Robinson on drums. It was the beginning of the punk era, but the Cars made their first albums with Queen’s producer, Roy Thomas Baker, creating songs that were terse and moody but impeccably polished.

Mr. Ocasek’s lead vocals mixed a gawky, yelping deadpan with hints of suppressed emotion, while his songs drew hooks from basic three-chord rockabilly and punk, from surf-rock, from emerging synth-pop, from echoes of the Beatles and glam-rock, and from hints of the 1970s art-rock avant-garde.

Each of the five albums the Cars released from 1978 to 1984 sold a million copies in the United States alone, with ubiquitous radio singles like “Just What I Needed” in 1978, “Shake It Up” in 1981, “You Might Think” in 1984 and “Drive” in 1984. Although Mr. Ocasek wrote them, “Just What I Needed” and “Drive” had lead vocals by Mr. Orr.

Mr. Ocasek’s songs were invariably terse and catchy, spiked with Mr. Easton’s twangy guitar lines and Mr. Hawkes’s pithy keyboard hooks. But they were also elaborately filled out by multitracked instruments and vocals. Lyrics that might initially seem like pop love songs were, more often, calmly ambivalent.

The Cars disbanded in 1988 as Mr. Ocasek and Mr. Orr grew apart. Mr. Ocasek had begun making music on his own while still in the group and would eventually release seven solo albums from 1982 through 2005, though none achieved the popularity of his Cars catalog. 

While he said he didn’t want people prying into his personal life, “I feel that my song lyrics are kind of an open book.” he told The Chicago Tribune in 1986. “I feel that writing songs for my solo albums is kind of like spilling my guts, telling people how I really feel subconsciously. When I’m writing, it’s like I’m not really in control”.

Many might not be familiar with Kim Shattuck but, as founder of The Muffs, you only need to listen for a few moments until her brilliance is obvious. In addition to her work with The Muffs, Shattuck was involved in other musical projects: She sang on a NOFX song, Lori Meyers on the album Punk in Drublic, and a Bowling for Soup song, I'll Always Remember You (That Way). She also collaborated with vocals for the Kepi Ghoulie song, This Friend of Mine, on the album, American Gothic.

Shattuck joined Pixies for their fall 2013 European tour, following the departure of original member Kim Deal. At the conclusion of the tour in late November 2013, she was fired by the band. This article nods to a truly great songwriter and artist:

“The 30-year-plus career of Kim Shattuck is also the history of the development of American alternative rock — and she played a big part in how that sound evolved. She got her start in the '80s with the Pandoras, an L.A. psychedelic garage rock band that got more of a hard edge as the decade wore on. In 1991, she left that group and with former bandmate Melanie Vammen, Shattuck soon formed the Muffs, a quintessential '90s alterna-pop band, blurring the lines between pop-rock and punk and anchoring it all with her signature raspy but bouncy vocals. The Muffs are probably best known for a cover of Kim Wilde's "Kids in America" for the soundtrack of Clueless, a song that pretty much defined that classic teen movie. Shattuck also guested on songs by bands clearly influenced by the Muffs' edgy/snarling/radio-friendly pop-punk, such as NOFX and Bowling for Soup. In 2013, she enjoyed a short but high-profile stint replacing Kim Deal in the Pixies, a gig that would last a mere five months”.

Perhaps the biggest loss we encountered this year was that of the legendary drummer Ginger Baker. There is no telling just how far his legacy extends. One can quibble and argue as to who the best drummer ever is; Ginger Baker had a talent that was almost supernatural! Although he had a reputation for being a bit difficult, there is no denying the incredible ability and importance of this incredible musician. Baker is probably best known as co-founder of Cream, but he collaborated with scores of musicians in his lifetime, spanning multiple genres and worlds.

PHOTO CREDIT: WATFORD/Mirrorpix/Mirrorpix via Getty Images

Following his death at the age of eighty, so many fans, musicians and journalists were keen to pay their respects to one of music’s titans. This is what The Guardian had to say:

“Among those paying tribute were two Beatles. Fellow drummer Ringo Starr said: “God bless Ginger Baker, incredible musician wild and inventive drummer. Peace and love to his family.” Paul McCartney tweeted: “Great drummer, wild and lovely guy … Sad to hear that he died but the memories never will.”

The family of the late Jack Bruce, the band’s lead vocalist and bassist in one of Baker’s bands Cream, published a statement on Twitter saying: “Surviving a love-hate relationship, Ginger was like an older brother to Jack, their chemistry was truly spectacular. RIP Ginger, one of the greatest drummers of all time.”

Baker was born Peter Edward Baker in 1939 in Lewisham, south London, and grew up amid the blitz; his father was killed in action in 1943. He began drumming in his mid-teens, remembering in 2009: “I’d never sat behind a kit before, but I sat down – and I could play! One of the musicians turned round and said, ‘Bloody hell, we’ve got a drummer’, and I thought, ‘Bloody hell, I’m a drummer!’”

Cream sold more than 15m records worldwide and had hits including Sunshine of Your Love, Strange Brew and White Room; three of their four albums reached both the US and UK top five.

The band split in 1968, releasing a final album in 1969. A reunion in 2005 ended in animosity, with Baker and Bruce shouting at each other on stage in New York. In 1969, Baker and Clapton formed the short-lived band Blind Faith with Steve Winwood and Ric Grech, and the latter pair joined Baker in his next project, jazz-rock band Ginger Baker’s Air Force.

Winwood said yesterday that Baker’s death was “a very sad loss ... a loss also for his contribution to music. He was well-grounded in jazz from very early on and later managed to combine this with African and rock music to create his own inimitable style of playing.”

He added: “Beneath his somewhat abrasive exterior, there was a very sensitive human being with a heart of gold. He’ll be missed.”

Other famous names in music paying tribute yesterday included Brian Wilson, co-founder of the Beach Boys, who called him “a great drummer”, and the Rolling Stones singer Sir Mick Jagger, who called Baker “fiery but extremely talented and innovative”.

Two very recent deaths also need to be mentioned. Rapper Juice Wrld. Barely twenty-one, he died on 8th December very suddenly. Drugs and premature death are becoming synonymous with rappers. So many of Juice Wrld’s peers have died over the past few years; so many at a tragically young age. Like contemporaries such as Mac Miller (who died in 2018), Juice Wrld was preparing to embark on a long and successful career. He was starting to break through and few could have predicted that he would die at the age of twenty-one. This article reacts to the death of yet another Rap star-in-waiting:

“Every thoughtful piece I read about his life and work expressed despair at the wasted potential of an entire generation of rappers, particularly Soundcloud rappers, who are overdosing or being incarcerated at a rate that suggests far more needs to be done by those profiting from their music.

In his biggest hit, Lucid Dreams, he laid out his existential despair: “I take prescriptions to make me feel a-okay,” he sang. “You were my everything / thoughts of a wedding ring / now I’m just better off dead.” When writing his obituaries, many have noted that he seemed to have been writing his own.

The opioid crisis, prescription drugs, depression and mental healthcare are all factors, but the music industry is hardly known for taking its pastoral responsibilities seriously.

When Kurt Cobain, much loved by Soundcloud rappers, died at the age of 27, his mother Wendy was reported to have said, “He’s gone and joined that stupid club. I told him not to join that stupid club.”

On Legends, released at the start of the month, Juice WRLD sang, “What’s the 27 club? We ain’t making it past 21”.

 It is a shame that this year has seen a couple of young artist leave the world. It is always especially heart-breaking when we have to lose someone who was just getting their career started. Marie Fredriksson’s death on 9th December was another big shock. The Roxette lead died as a result of a recurrence of a previous brain tumour, and she suffered ill health for a lot of her later life. Roxette were one of these acts that sort of divided people. The Swedes faced their share of ridicule and dismissal, but I think they created some of the most memorable and hook-heavy Pop of the 1980 and 1990s. I absolutely loved their music and grew up listening to them. Tracks like Joyride and The Look are instantly recognisable and put you in a better frame of mind. We do not really hear Pop and Rock music like this any longer – which is a real shame. This article salutes the wonderful Marie Fredriksson:

“Commanding female vocalists were never more popular than in the late 1980s, and for a time Marie Fredriksson, whose voice could blister paint or seduce a kitten, was one of the biggest. The singing half of the Swedish power-pop duo Roxette, she piloted them, with guitarist Per Gessle, to near ubiquity, and 75m record sales. Her widescreen delivery of their four biggest songs – It Must Have Been Love, Joyride, The Look, and Listen to Your Heart – helped to send each to No 1 in the US, a country rarely receptive to Swedish groups, even those singing in English. Britain and the rest of Europe also succumbed, and Fredriksson, who has died of cancer aged 61, was one of pop’s most recognisable frontwomen in Roxette’s 1989‑91 golden hour.

Even those who found the group’s music insubstantial – a view that has recently been undergoing reappraisal – agreed that Fredriksson could sell a song. They included the New York Times, which panned the duo’s first Manhattan concert in 1992 (“Roxette won’t be accused of too much originality … Hearing Roxette could make a listener long for Abba”), while praising Fredriksson: “[Their] main asset is Marie Fredriksson, a singer with a sob in her voice [and] a platinum-blond Billy Idol hairdo.” In fact, the hairdo was closer to Annie Lennox’s streamlined crop, and Fredriksson was as angular and statuesque as the Eurythmics singer. She and Gessle probably did not engineer their look to resemble Lennox and her musical partner Dave Stewart, but there was an undeniable similarity, adding to the perception that Roxette were lightweights. “We don’t care what they say,” Gessle maintained in 1990. “We’re used to people saying our music sounds like crap.”

Vocally, though, Fredriksson was her own woman, rippling through her three-octave range in a display of both emotion and mezzo-soprano technique. English was her default language for Roxette songs – a necessary commercial decision, but also one that shielded her from the “vulnerability” she said she felt when singing in Swedish. Nonetheless, seven of the eight solo albums she made between 1984 and 2013 were in her native language – all were substantial hits in her home country – and showed a gentler side”.  

FEATURE: The December Playlist Vol. 3: The Quiet Before the Storm

FEATURE:

The December Playlist 

IN THIS PHOTO: Jarvis Cocker/PHOTO CREDIT: Xavi Torrent/WireImage

Vol. 3: The Quiet Before the Storm

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THIS week is pretty calm…

IN THIS PHOTO: James Blake/PHOTO CREDIT: Press

regarding new releases, but there are still some good songs in the mix. There are new tracks/videos from James Blake and Jarvis Cocker; Sparks and Best Coast sit alongside Vince Staples and Stormzy. I will return to my usual female-led and weekly playlists next year but, as we are only a few days from Christmas, most artists are winding down and seeing what 2020 has in store. I am looking forward to next year and how music will shape up. Before then, we have the weekend to tackle and we all need a bit of a nudge to keep the spirits high. This playlist will get the blood flowing and guarantee that we are all energised…

IN THIS PHOTO: Best Coast

JUST ahead of Christmas!   

ALL PHOTOS/IMAGES (unless credited otherwise): Artists

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PHOTO CREDIT: Mariel Argüello

Jarvis Cocker - Running the World (Kaiser Quartett Version)

Sparks - Please Don't Fuck Up My World

Lana Del Rey - Norman F***ing Rockwell

Best Coast - Little Saint Nick

James Blake - I'll Come Too

Tom Misch – Marrakech

Robbie Williams, David Arnold – Hey Tiger!

Baker Grace – See the Future

Jennifer Hudson – Memory (From the Motion Picture Soundtrack, Cats)

Cub Sport – City of Angels

Grandma – The Future’s Just So Clear

Laura White – Nobody

Vince Staples – Hell Bound

PHOTO CREDIT: Tatjana Rüegsegger Photography

Sophie Jamieson – Wine

Stormzy – Do Better

BENEE – Blu

Sam Tompkins – Not So Grey

Bombay Bicycle Club - Racing Stripes

Asha Gold - Too Good

FEATURE: Justify Our Love: The Complex Issue of High Gig Ticket Prices

FEATURE:

Justify Our Love

IN THIS PHOTO: The Queen of Pop, Madonna, captured performing earlier this year/PHOTO CREDIT: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images

The Complex Issue of High Gig Ticket Prices

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IT can be difficult buying for the music fan…

in your life and figuring out what they want. One can ask them but, when it comes to a great gift, gig tickets are a pretty decent solution. I am determined to get out to some gigs next year and, as I live in London, I am spoiled for choice. The great thing about gigs is that you can meet so many like-minded people and bond in a safe space. There are a lot of terrific venues around London and, with quite a few closing down, I do wonder what the health of live music will be years from now. That said, we do have some brilliant venues we can enjoy; so many top acts will be playing next year. Many people avoid going to gigs because they think they are too expensive! With travel, drinks and food, one is already paying quite a bit out before the music starts. I actually think most venues are pretty reasonable when it comes to price, and one can buy a drink or two and not break the bank. I know London is especially expensive, but I think it is important to support live music and venues around the country. Whilst newer acts and most artists rely on the revenue from gigs to support their music and keep them going, the realities are not the same for bigger artists.

I am not going to single Madonna out, but she is one of the biggest artists ever and, since her teenage years, she has been grafting and working her way to the where she is. One has to tip their cap to Madonna and how far she has come. The Queen of Pop is current touring her Madame X album and is playing in the U.S. at the moment. She is performing some intimate shows at the moment. This review from a recent show in New York proves Madonna is still able to turn in legendary performances:  

 “Pop’s most rebellious star does just as she pleases during the first round of the ‘Madame X’ world tour at the plush Howard Gilman Opera House too. You might expect the world’s biggest pop stars to have their audience out the door by 11pm but, by the time the clock strikes that hour in Brooklyn, Madonna’s only just come on stage. Not that anyone minds – there are a few outbursts of impatient claps and cheers in the time leading up to her arrival but the overriding atmosphere in the venue is one of pure excitement as people – in their finest gowns, tuxes, and vintage Madonna merch – sip wine from plastic beakers and hover in the select zones were phone use is allowed (all mobiles are locked in pouches for the entirety of the show).

The late start is immediately worth it. The show is a mind-blowing riot of theatrics and powerful political messaging, opening with a quote from James Baldwin being banged out onto a screen laid over the stage by a silhouetted woman at a typewriter. Each key press thuds like a gunshot and is accompanied by a dancer jerking and flinching as if he’s been hit by a bullet. “Artists are here to disturb the peace” the message ends before the queen of pop emerges and launches straight into the autotune-heavy anti-gun anthem ‘God Control’.

As much as Madonna might do what she wants, she also recognises the need to crowd-please at least some of the time. As such, the setlist is littered with some of her biggest songs – an a cappella verse of ‘Express Yourself’ here, an early rousing rendition of ‘Vogue’ there. It’s ‘Like A Prayer’ that provides one of the most joyous moments of the night, though, transforming the opera house into Madonna’s own church. Moments later, she’s in the aisle, marching towards the exit as a defiant version of ‘I Rise’ brings the night full circle.

The crowd follows her to the door like her very own disciples as the house lights come up, jostling to get their phone pouches unlocked to tell the world what they’ve just witnessed – pop’s ultimate freedom fighter putting on one of the most powerful, empowering, and stunning gigs of the year”.

The tour is coming to the U.K., and fans will get the chance to see Madonna up close. Whilst prices for her more intimate shows would have been affordable to many, one only needs look at the ticket prices for her London dates to be taken aback! I understand major artists are going to be pricier, because of the costs of their tours. Think about all the dancers, personnel and effects that are involved in a typical set. Madonna is a worldwide sensation, so she is going to command a high price. The fact gig tickets are being advertised for hundreds of pounds is startling! I know it is nothing new, but one wonders how many people can afford that sort of cost. Obviously, thousands of people will go and see Madonna play, but it does make me wonder why ticket prices need to be that high. I know artists have very little to do with ticket prices, but one can see a massive artist like Paul McCartney and not have to pay the world. It depends on the venue; you can catch Macca in Europe and pay no more than £80 for a ticket. I wonder why big artists charge so much for a ticket. When you get to that stage, you do not need a lot of money and profit is not going to be top of the priority list. Upcoming artists rely on the money gigs bring in, but established artists are not in the same predicament.

Gig prices have doubled since the 1990s, and artists are not powerless when it comes to setting prices. Ed Sheeran may divide people, but he has managed to keep his ticket prices low, despite the fact he is one of the most popular artists in the world. He is not a big fan of V.I.P. tickets and understands how important it is to make gigs accessible and open to all. Artists are not selling as many albums as they used to; with streaming, there is less money being made in general. I can appreciate the fact artists need to make money, but how can some acts justify charging hundreds of pounds for a gig ticket?! Whilst there are plenty of affordable gigs, there are cases where enormously popular artists are pricing out loyal fans. This NME article from earlier in the year references The Who and how they were criticised for charging exorbitant amounts when fans came to see them at Wembley:

“When The Who recently announced a one-off concert at Wembley Stadium with the Kaiser Chiefs and Eddie Vedder supporting, many fans were left reeling when they discovered even the nosebleed seats were nearly £80 while the best seats on the pitch were over £200 a pop.

One fan wrote: “The Who charging circa £230 for front block at Wembley is disgusting. All they’re doing is ripping off their loyal fans that have probably seen them many a time. Plus to make the pitch all seating when they know everyone will stand is obscene. Just comes to pure greed.”

So why are promoters hiking their prices up so much? And how much do the artists have a say in setting ticket prices?

Gideon Gottfried, UK and European editor for US concert industry trade magazine Pollstar argues that there are a number of factors affecting the primary ticket market. Firstly he points out that artists rarely make money from albums any more with the rise of online streaming. In this sense, older acts like The Who, who last released a studio album 13 years ago, also tend to make comparatively less than contemporary artists like The 1975 and Taylor Swift from album sales.

IN THIS PHOTO: Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend of The Who/PHOTO CREDIT: Rick Guest

“I’ve spoken to promoters who say artists have a right to be greedy these days because live entertainment has become their sole income and recorded music doesn’t bring much revenue any more,” he explained. “But it is quite astonishing to see some of these prices from certain heritage acts. My only explanation is that they know people are gonna pay it, so they charge it.”

Jon Chapple, news editor at international live music business magazine IQ, also points out that live music is currently in a “boom period” and prices are soaring as a result.

“Ultimately, I think, it’s capitalism at its most basic,” he said. “The prices are growing as demand grows. And while there are fans who can afford to pay those high prices, the majority of acts will continue to charge them”.

There is plenty of evidence to suggest gig prices are getting too high. I was eager to see Madonna in London next year, but prices are too rich for my blood. There is high production costs involved in the biggest shows, and the major artists have a lot of crew and people on the road. Once wages are paid and every aspect of a tour is budgeted for, the artist themselves needs to be paid. I can understand why streaming has reduced income for artists and why, for that reason, touring is the primary source of income. Many would argue the fact there is clear supply and demand. The only reason artists can keep touring is because people want to come and see them. The titans can fill out stadiums and big venues because they have legions of fans that are desperate to see them. Whilst few fans actively grumble about the high price of tickets, one wonders whether that is because they would pay anything to go. It brings me back round to the issue of necessity and financial need. Consider the fact thousands of people will go to a gig and, if they are charged £70 or £80 for a ticket…that is a mighty taking! Venues will take their cut and all the crew will get paid.

PHOTO CREDIT: @chazmcgregor/Unsplash

Once everyone has been paid and accounted for, the artist will still get a very handsome pay-out. Major artists often perform dozens of gigs during a single tour, so that is going to be a lot of money in their pockets! I know the big artists cannot cut their ticket prices right down, but there are too many cases of major artists charging far too much for a ticket. Maybe diehard fans will put their hand in pocket, but what of the younger fan or new convert? This article shows how much fans of particular artists are willing to pay. If an artists has dominated Spotify and is immensely popular, there is that enormous demand for tickets. If that artist plays two or three gigs in the same city, they will charge less for a ticket; if they are just doing the one date per city, supply and demand means the average ticket will be more expensive. Even if artists try and stop resale of tickets and V.I.P.s, the average fan is still paying too much. Is the cost of that ticket representative of true value for money?! Whilst paying a lot of money for a once in a lifetime gig might seem reasonable, I wonder whether it is really…

PHOTO CREDIT: @chazmcgregor/Unsplash

WORTH that sacrifice.

FEATURE: Focus: Reasons to Be Cheerful: Setting My Sights on the New Year

FEATURE: 

Focus

PHOTO CREDIT: @sebastian123/Unsplash 

Reasons to Be Cheerful: Setting My Sights on the New Year

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AS I write this…

PHOTO CREDIT: @farber/Unsplash

the results for the General Election have come through. Whilst it is tempting to emigrate to Canada or Norway or somewhere else, I have to stay put an accept the reality that Great Britain under Boris Johnson will be a very elitist and unwelcoming place – at least until we have a party who can replace the Tories. It is a rather bleak end to the year; one that has produced so much great music. Political selfishness and music might not seem related but, as we move forward, I wonder what impact Brexit – if it ever does happen – will have on musicians and those coming to the U.K. Times are challenging, so it makes me think about 2020 and trying to bring positivity. This article might only serve my own agendas and aims – tying it nicely into Boris Johnson and the Conservative Party -, but I feel it is essential we all look at the coming year and try to find the positives. The word that I opened this blog with all those years ago was ‘focus’. I was a little undecided whether I wanted to follow a path into music but, very soon, it all crystallised. I have been working for years with new artists and, even though I have now stopped doing that, my passion for music is undiminished. I am exploring sides of music beyond new acts and, whilst new artists are still part of my weekly output, I am actually thinking about moving into podcasts and radio. That was the dream when I was a child (radio), so it makes sense that a rather unsteady and fractious year should jolt me into some personal motivation and realisation.

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1983/PHOTO CREDIT: Sunday Mirror/Mirrorpix/Getty Images

We will all adapt to the political situation and, when it comes to music, I think there is a lot to be thankful for. Many artists will reflect the Election result and we will see a lot of angry and political albums. Also, there is going to be a push for positivity and togetherness. In terms of my own output, I feel I have been a bit insular and isolated for a long time. By embarking on a podcast or documentary, I am going to be more out in the world and engaging. I have written about my plans for a Kate Bush podcast, and that is one of the key goals for 2020. It seems hard gathering the energy and focus to get things done, but I have reached a point where I need to put my money where my mouth is; start spending on podcast equipment and shouting loud when it comes to my dreams – that includes more than one documentary I want to have made. This year has been great, but I do think a lot of it has been spent behind a laptop and not doing what I really want to do. I am pleased with what I have produced, so I would never try and take anything away from that. Rather, one gets to a certain place and they need to move forward.

PHOTO CREDIT: @farber/Unsplash

Now that I have a little money saved up, I feel it is the time to take a leap and start branching out. Rather than this being a resolution, it is more a commitment to following something I have put off for a while now. I am not sure how long it will take to get a final and finished podcast done, but I am hoping to have something moving before the summer. A lot of great music will arrive next year and, whilst I am excited to write about it and put out more posts, there is something satisfying about a single focus. When someone like me works every day and they are writing so much, it is easy to lose that focus and get caught in a routine; maybe not as rewarding and fulfilling as it could be. Rather than wallow in the strain and anger that is percolating, concentrating on something meaningful, exciting and beneficial is great. I have already talked about my podcast idea and various other bits, so I won’t tread over old ground. I said to myself, back in 2011, that I would focus and do the best I could. After eight years, I stopped taking on commissions regarding new artists and interviews, but I feel I have done a lot of good writing articles and promoting terrific women in music. Now, as 2020 beckons, it is time for another change. It can be hard getting out of a comfort zone and doing something different.

PHOTO CREDIT: @jeroendenotter/Unsplash

One of the reasons I am excited about a podcast and documentaries, is the fact I can watch a project go from the foundations to a completed thing. Putting out articles is pleasing, but they are transitory and, before you know it, you are onto something new. Rather than get hooked on putting as much out there as possible, taking a step back and crafting something personal and important is much more worthy. I know I have pledged this drive before, but 2020 is a year where we will see a lot of change and progress. There will be some hard days and moments, but I have great optimism when it comes to music. I would urge anyone else out there who has always wanted to start a project or chase an ambition to do it next year. Even if an idea has been covered before, there is no reason why you cannot add your voice and provide a different angle. That need to focus and, actually, do something I have dreamed about for years is vital. It has been a busy year, and I have done a lot of good work. I will keep on doing that, but there is that urge and desire to work on something that is very much my own. I hope, through podcasts and documentaries, to work with a lot of cool people and begin a career in radio/audio. It will be a different change of pace and, honestly, it could come to nothing. After a very busy year, I am eager to step back a little bit and channel my energy on a podcast; maybe trying to pitch a documentary here and there. I don’t know about you, but that sounds like a…

PHOTO CREDIT: @johnschno/Unsplash

REASON to be cheerful!

FEATURE: Station to Station: Song Five: Annie Mac (BBC Radio 1)

FEATURE:

 

Station to Station

PHOTO CREDIT: Annie Mac

Song Five: Annie Mac (BBC Radio 1)

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IN this feature…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Stylist

I am spotlighting amazing broadcasters who have made a significant impact on radio. In future editions, I will look across the airwaves and include iconic D.J.s and those a bit newer on the blocks. Annie Mac might be new to some people, but she is a veritable legend of the airwaves! She presents her Future Sounds show on BBC Radio 1, and this is what her profile declares:

“Radio 1’s champion of new music, the successor to Zane Lowe and John Peel, Annie Mac now presents the primetime weekday evening show from Monday to Thursday as well as her primetime specialist Friday night Dance Show, while maintaining huge success as a live DJ in demand from stadiums to superclubs”.

The reason Mac is such a champion of the best new music across the spectrum is one reason why she should be honoured and followed. You can follow her on Twitter and keep on top of her recommendations and happenings. In this era, we often ignore tastemakers, because there are so many playlists; we all curate our own playlists and do not rely on music quite the same way as we used to. Whilst fan-picked songs do help artists, we cannot underestimate people like Annie Mac and how important they are. On stations such as BBC Radio 6 Music, there are a few pretty impressive and reputable tastemakers – including Steve Lamacq and Mary Anne Hobbs.

I will feature Lamacq down the line but, right now, I want to throw some love the way of Annie Mac. I will mention gender parity soon. Rather than this being a feature that highlights how Mac has opened the door for women and is helping equality happen on the airwaves, I wanted to discuss her as a broadcaster – and not attach gender tags. Naturally, Mac has paved the way for women, and she is a shining example of why we need more women on the radio. Mac has been in the business for a while but, every year, she seems to get more influential and important. I don’t think there are many more important D.J.s around right now, such is the role Annie Mac holds. Her first BBC Radio 1 show was broadcast in 2004. Before then, Mac was working as a producer. Another reason why Annie Mac is so vital is because she backs artists across multiple genres. Also, since 2015, Mac has presented the Lost & Found Festival, which takes place on Malta during May. She curates the line-up and this four-day event is divided between a number of night and day parties. As Mac is a mother, I wonder where she gets the energy and stamina. That might be a silly question for anyone who knows her and can appreciate how passionate she is about music. Not only does she want to bring people together and play the biggest tracks to the masses; Mac is determined to celebrate the finest musicians from every corner of the land – from the hot new bands to bedroom-produced singer-songwriters. 

Whilst Annie Mac is on BBC Radio 1 right now, I wonder whether she might move to a station like Beats 1 or BBC Radio 6 Music. It seems like she has her home at BBC Radio 1, so one cannot imagine her shifting anytime soon. I turn in when I can, because I love Mac’s enthusiasm and knowledge. She has an incredible interview style and, when it comes to uncovering future gold, there are few as skilled as her. Annie Mac is one of the hardest-working broadcasters around, and one can see her broadcasting for decades to come. I want to slip in some interviews, just so one can get a better impression of Annie Mac and her career arc. This first interview is from 2015; just a few weeks after Mac took over Zane Lowe’s slot on BBC Radio 1:

“When we first speak, Annie is just three weeks into her new job at Radio 1. She bagged her first show on the network in 2004, aged 26, specialising in dance. She still delivers her Friday night show to over a million listeners - “Bonkers,” she says – but after holding a specialist role for a decade, on 15 February it was announced that Annie would inherit the Monday to Thursday nightly programme, previously fronted by Zane Lowe and with a lineage that goes back to John Peel. It’s a big job.

“My first reaction was, ‘Fuuuuuuuck!’” says Annie, who still refers to the slot as “Zane’s show”. Her main fear was that Radio 1’s audience wouldn’t think she’d be up on her new bands. It may surprise people that, in fact, this dance evangelist spent much of her 20s moshing in the rock venues of Camden Town. “I told my boss years ago, I’m more than just the ‘dance girl’,” she recalls. To reinforce the point, Annie opened her first ‘Zane show’ with London grungers Wolf Alice”.

Having the perspective of a club DJ gives Annie a different currency on radio. She builds momentum by “placing one song next to another” the sequence of music as important as the songs. “Zane would play Bring Me The Horizon then Laura Marling, get his Kaoss pad out and go: ‘Z-z-zane Lowe-Lowe’, but I’m not that broadcaster,” she says. “I still play every type of music but when Matt says: ‘Play this next.’ I say: ‘Babe, we need to get there.’ Getting there is my whole vibe.”

While her choice of music is inclusive, that doesn’t mean Annie doesn’t have her own way. She can play a song she likes three times over and is largely free from the constraints of a playlist. She is also vocal about the music she doesn’t like, which instantly sets her apart from the stereotype of the relentlessly enthusiastic Radio 1 presenter who has exclamation marks for eyeballs. The most obvious contrast is with her predecessor Lowe and his fannish manner. “I’m slightly different from Zane,” she says carefully. Annie spent an early part of her career as Lowe’s assistant producer. She’s understandably cagey when prompted on his uncontroversial style where EVERYTHING! IS! AMAZING! But her own style of presenting is quite different”.

The best way to get a feel for the artists Mac champion is by tuning into BBC Radio 1 weekday evenings. I said I would not mention gender parity too much. When thinking about Annie Mac and how she campaigns for change, one really does have to mention the subject. For the last couple of years especially, Mac has been very vocal regarding inequality at festivals and how there needs to be change. When she spoke with The Independent last year, Annie Mac discussed festivals and the artists she is vibing to:

“Everyone in charge in the music industry at large is a white male,” she nods. “I read this Grayson Perry book where he talks about the ‘default man’ being white, upper/middle class, and subconsciously we don’t even see it, in law, politics… everyone in positions of power.

“It applies to the music industry as well. Apart from Emily Eavis at Glastonbury, pretty much all the major festivals are booked and run by white men. I feel like they just don’t see what’s missing, a lot of the time, because they don’t have to. It’s about having them in positions of power where they can make an impact on the major decisions that happen in the industry.”

She was one of the most vocal critics of Wireless festival when it was pointed out, following their lineup announcement, that just three artists on the billing were women, next to 34 male acts; branding it “appalling” and “so so embarrassing” on Twitter, and writing a response piece for Grazia.

Asked what new music she’s keen on right now, she rattles out a bunch of tracks by great artists including Dream Wife, Yaeji, George FitzGerald, and the DJ duo Floorplan – which consists of Robert Hood and his daughter Lyric. When she started out at Radio 1, she says she sniffed a little at the idea of having a person, or team, filter which music she received. “Now I get it,” she laughs. “There are oceans of f***ing dance music promos that come from all over the world. It’s quite overwhelming in trying to keep on top of it. So many different genres – and I play everything.

She cackles when we talk about the constant hand-wringing over radio “having less influence”, the “death of bands” and how “streaming is ruining the music industry”.

“It’s all very easily contradicted isn’t it?” she grins. “‘Bands are dead’ = lie. There are loads of bands, new ones I’m so excited about”.

Annie Mac, through her championing of new artists and highlighting of inequality in the industry is a key role model for so many women. She presents one of the best slots on one of the country’s biggest stations and is held in very high esteem. Rather than talk about Annie Mac in the context of being a woman in radio, it is best to see her as this powerful campaigner and crucial voice who wants to see women given proper dues and opportunities, not only at festivals but in the industry as a whole. I will wrap this up very soon, but I want to bring in another interview, where Annie Mac’s role as an ambassador for change was highlighted:

“One of the most prolific DJs in the UK, Annie Mac is a long time host on BBC Radio 1 and has performed live sets around the world for over 15 years. For any women looking to break into the music industry, there’s no doubt that she serves as a role model. In partnership with Smirnoff, Annie has today announced the launch of the Equalising Music Pledge - a campaign that challenges every person in the music industry to ‘do one thing’ for gender equality this year.

In a statement released today, Annie Mac shared her passion for the campaign and her concern for the catalyst behind it:

“The music industry is still embarrassingly lopsided when it comes to gender parity.  There is still so much work to be done in terms of fighting for women of all ages to be embraced and championed by this industry, both in front and behind the scenes. I’m delighted to be a part of it and I’m genuinely excited to see the impact women will have on this industry.”

Keychange’s aim is to build awareness of the issues that women - both behind the scenes and on stage - still face and is currently working with 150 festivals to ensure a 50/50 gender balance across their lineups.

The Equalising Music Pledge comes as part of Smirnoff’s Equalising Music initiative, a global campaign launched in 2017 to eliminate gender inequality within the industry. After seeing the power that small changes can make, Smirnoff is turning to the professionals of the industry to get to work. This doesn’t just stop at artists, either - the campaign is encouraging everyone from venue bookers to PRs to make efforts to be more inclusive.

Head of Smirnoff Sam Salameh shared his support for Equalising Music after witnessing the music industry “sidelining female talent for far too long.”

Being "the only female on the line up" more often than not when DJing, Annie has had plenty of gender imbalance experience herself and suggested that the music industry needed to find more ways to "open" itself up to female professionals in the future.

"I believe that the pledge can really help to instigate change. I want to see equal gender line ups as the absolute normal. I want to see less women dropping out of the industry after they have families. I want to see more women having the courage to own their ideas. To start their own businesses. To do it their way. The more this conversation is being pushed forward the more chances the next generation of music lovers have in being able to work in an industry that is open to everyone. I’m excited for what that will look like".

Things are slowly improving regarding gender equality, but there is still a very long way to go. Having people like Annie Mac calling for change is key. She is someone who knows the music industry is at its strongest and most inspiring when there is parity. As one of the jewels in the radio crown, Annie Mac is a treasure. You can check out her recommendations, and get involved with her Dance Party on Fridays. I think tastemakers are as important now as they have ever been; Annie Mac is one of the very best. She is a role model to so many people out there; a shining light to young broadcasters who hear the fantastic work she is doing and want to…

REACH the same levels.

FEATURE: Spotlight: Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs

FEATURE:

Spotlight

Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs

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I am not sure off the top of my head…

IN THIS PHOTO: The band chilling with Marc Riley/PHOTO CREDIT: BBC

where the Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs name comes from - but it is definitely fun to say. It is amusing hearing D.J.s say it, as they take a run up and forget how many times they have said ‘pig’! It might be easier saying ‘pigs times seven’, as that does the job too! In any instance, the Newcastle-Upon-Tyne band are one of the moist exciting and popular out there. They are on tour next year, and I suggest you go out and catch them. In terms of sound, they occupy their own territory; there is a little bit of Motörhead and other bands but, really, Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs are in a league of their own! Whilst they have been around a bit, I think 2020 is when they will really explode and conquer. Go and check out their work on Bandcamp and experience this truly refreshing, tight and powerful band. Matt Baty (Vocals), Sam Grant (Guitar); Adam Ian Sykes (Guitar), Christopher Morley (Drums) and John-Michael Hedley (Bass) are a sensation who have caught the ear of stations like BBC Radio 6 Music. The BBC have just announced their Sound of 2020 longlist, and I am surprised bands like Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs are not in there. Maybe they are not eligible, but I do think there is an absence of great Rock music; artists who blow your socks off.

Of course, the lads might not see themselves as a Rock band; maybe it is foolhardy applying genres and labels so easily. They have not put out too much this year, although the lads have been hitting the road and look set to have a very exciting and busy 2020. I will bring in some reviews and interviews; first up, here is a bit of the interview they gave to CRACK in 2017:

“Band-wise there’s been loads of amazing music for quite a while,” Sykes says of the Newcastle scene. But the problem lies in the closure of many of the city’s most precious event spaces. Among them the Star and Shadow, where that first gig was played. “That left a big hole,” says Baty. Though hope has not left the city’s music scene completely: the volunteer-run cinema and venue now owns its own building and will re-open to the public in due course, as will The Old Police House, the revered underground spot just across the bridge in Gateshead, which had to shut its doors recently.

Venue troubles aside, Baty has a theory as to why Newcastle maybe doesn’t get the recognition it deserves. “I suppose it’s because there’s a lack of music industry in Newcastle. I’d be surprised if many labels or managers come to scout bands. They’ll find them in Manchester or London. You could be the greatest band on earth playing in Newcastle and no-one will ever fucking know about you. Sometimes people talk about it as if you’re on Mars”.

The band has been making waves for a few years now. Their Feed the Rats album of 2017 is extraordinary! It consist three tracks – Psychopomp, Sweet Relief and Icon -, and there are these two epic cuts and a much shorter track in the middle. It is a dizzying listen and one has to admire the ambition and balls of Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs! The album won some positive reviews. People could detect this experimental band who were creating their own world of sound. I do suggest you have a listen to the album, as it makes for a truly wonderful experience. Here is what Psych Insight Music had to say:

“I first came across Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs, one of my favourite band names ever, through their split with the Cosmic Dead back in 2013. I’d just got into the Cosmic Dead and basically bought anything that they had brought out. This was a very good move as the Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs side was, to my ears, every bit as good as the other side; which in itself is a reliable sign of quality. So when Rocket Recordings recently announced that they were putting out a Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs album I assumed that I had probably missed a few releases in between. After a bit of digging it appears that very little seems to have been released in the interim, a mini-cassette album from Box Records being the only release I could find, and the Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs track on that is to be found on this new release.

“Somewhat relieved that I had missed anything I settled in to listen to ‘Feed The Rats’. As you would expect from a band who share members and/ or orbit in the same heavy psych galaxy as the likes of Blown Out, Haikai No Ku, Terminal Cheesecake, Luminous Bodies (to name just a few); this Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs album is bloody heavy. To be clear, its not heavy like metal is heavy…it’s getting sucked into a black hole heavy, and from the very beginning of album opener ‘Psychopomp’ (the title should be a clue) ‘Feed The Rats’ is an unrelenting motherfucker of a listen from start to finish. Beginning with a massive bridgehead-assaulting riff ‘Psychopomp’ starts as if an army led by Lemmy is invading to grant sonic liberty to all that stands in its wake. That riff is massive, firm and unstoppable and Matt Baty’s vocals just add that extra level of menace to what is an already scary proposition. But the thing is, that this is arguable the least heavy track on the album. Because, when ‘Sweet Relief’ opens up, ‘relief’ is not the first word that comes to mind. A much shorter track than the other two, this is like getting a bowling ball at full pelt between eyes. I again love Baty’s Lemmy-esque vocals together with a more classic 70s rock aesthetic mixed in with the psych/ stoner heft. Just a brilliant track, and likely to remain so for the foreseeable future”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Matt Martin for CRACK

Those who were new to Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs in 2017 were treated to King of Cowards in 2018. This album/mini-album has six tracks and nothing as long as on Feed the Rats. Although many of the tracks were over five minutes, the album as a whole is tighter and more focused. The lads lost none of their spark and genius. In fact, I think there was a step-up in terms of quality and production. GNT is about as good an opening track as one can imagine; Gloamer brings things down to landing with plenty of bang and crash. I love King of Cowards and it was the first thing I heard from the band. In their review, Drowned in Sound, were full of love:

“Opening track 'GNT' begins with echoey feedback before crashing riffs come in waves and a rabble-rousing chorus backs Baty’s roaring charge. All of which is paired with battering percussion, courtesy of ex-Gnod drummer Chris Morley, and scorching guitar solos that heighten the pitch. It’s an auspicious start, to say the least, and one that gives you eardrums a good kicking. This is rock music in all its glory.

The record may be a more focused effort, but Pigs have lost none of their psychedelic dexterity in the process: billowing tempos make for a trippy sense of time and slippery guitar lines trick the senses. A track like ‘Shockmaster’ rocks you gently into a false sense of security, then tears the rug from beneath. Lyrically it’s equally unpredictable - “Angels are easy to love… demons are easy to love” - blurring the ever-tricky defining lines of morality. On the other hand, ‘A66’ abandons sludgy rhythms for ravenous rapidity. An ominous midway break merely builds suspense for the cascade of heavy riffs and deliberate percussive thumps that follow. It builds to a dizzy apex matched by the immense capacity of Baty’s vocal.

King of Cowards is an album rich with detail, it’s a brassy racket that keeps on giving. ‘Thumbsucker’ forges a banging groove that the band stay true to aside from the snaking guitar that appears periodically, one of the many little features that make the record so mesmeric. Towards the end, Baty bellows the unlikely (and quite hilarious) line, “I LOVE YOU, MUMMY… I LIKE IT WHEN YOU RUB MY TUMMY AND LET ME SUCK MY THUMB.” Pigs may conjure a demonic din, but there’s something genuinely loveable and warm about their ruckus. That said, the deranged commotion of King of Cowards actually reduces you to a state of wanting to curl up in the foetal position and suck your thumb, so the jokes on us really”.

I will wrap this up in a bit but, just before I do, I want to bring in another review for King of Cowards. I wonder whether Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs will bring out an album next year or whether we might get an E.P. Indeed, will they return to the longer and more sprawling sound of their debut or hone their songs down a little? I love Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs in every guise as they have this incredible sound and are so different to anybody else in music right now.

The Guardian offered their opinions in 2018:

“Their second album is rather more accessible than last year’s debut, Feed the Rats, in relative terms at least. Where that had only three tracks, two of them more than a quarter of an hour long, this one offers six, and none break the nine-minute mark. It’s more sonically expansive: on Feed the Rats, all the instruments sounded as if they were recorded on top of each other, in the world’s loudest broom cupboard, but there’s rather more space to breathe this time round. That doesn’t reduce the effect of the riffs: they’re still pulverising, but now they sound like an advancing storm front rather than as if you’ve been trapped in a sudden downpour. I’d love to tell you about the lyrics – sin is apparently a big theme – but they’re largely obscured by the guttural bellow of singer Matt Baty. Still. It’s hard not to hail the magnificence of a group who name the album’s centrepiece track A66, though they’re probably thinking of the Middlesbrough end rather than having afternoon tea in Cockermouth”.

Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs have been getting a lot of praise and attention from many different sources. So many people want to see the band play so, as such, they have been hammering the road hard. I know that will continue next year, but I also hope they can get back into the studio and lay down another album.

Many ask whether Rock is dead and whether it will ever be like it was years ago. I do not think it is dead, but we are seeing a lot of Post-Punk bands emerge. That is great, as we are getting a lot of truth, politics and mind-opening songs. There are fewer bands that bring us grit, riffs and something a bit more classic and fun. Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs are spearheading a new wave of bands that you need to go and see. Whilst Rock might not be back on its feet and leading a charge, you can never make sweeping statements or assume all is lost. Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs have an element of Rock and Heavy Metal bands of the 1970s; there are a lot of other seeds that makes their garden blossom with colour and wonder. I want to bring in an interview from earlier this year, when the boys were asked about playing the 6 Music Festival:

“Hi, how are you? Your work has had a lot of support from 6 Music, how did it feel to get asked to play the 6 Music festival?

So far I’m feeling good, I’m very tired, we played in Cardiff last night and we set off at midnight to get to a Travelodge at 4am. It’s good to be here, it’s amazing to be asked to play, it’s very exciting and for that reason I’m sure it’s going to be really, really good.

“To our knowledge you are by far the ‘heaviest’ act on the line up, I would suspect that has happened multiple times in your career; how do you approach a performance when this is the case?

I don’t think we approach it any differently, we just do it.

You said about considering changing your name in the early days, was that because of negative feedback about the name?

‘If you’re at a festival and you see [our name] on the line up and you’ve not heard of us and you don’t want to go and see that out of curiosity then maybe there’s something wrong with you.’

I don’t think I’ve ever read anything too negative about the name. The way I see it is if you’re at a festival and you see [our name] on the line up and you don’t want to go and see that out of curiosity then maybe there’s something wrong with you.

As we earlier commented we can’t hide that you’re not another indie band and we and other critics have been very complimentary of your work but Adam Sykes (of Pigs x7) said yourself that “If anything I think we’re incredibly derivative.” What do you think has been the reason you’ve been able to penetrate some mainstream media in ways that other heavy bands aren’t?

‘I think what’s great that’s happening with our band is that it shows there is a hunger and a thirst for people to enjoy this music that might not otherwise come across it. If you put this music in front of people, ‘wow this is great and I’m surprised that I really enjoy it’ and I think that’s a beautiful thing.’

I feel that sometimes the kind of music that we play can be very serious and a bit dark whereas there’s some sort of levity in what we’re doing. That’s not to say there’s not other bands out there doing it very well too because there are; maybe it’s just our name! I think there’s something about the sonics of what we do as well, we’re in the thick of it but I don’t experience it as something abrasive or dark and I think that’s possibly opening our doors to a wider audience who feel like they can enjoy it as well. I said earlier on in an interview that quite often music like ours gets cornered and tucked away in specialist shows or journalism which is great but I think what’s great that’s happening with our band is showing there’s a hunger and thirst for it. People are enjoying our music that might not otherwise come across it. It goes to show. if you put this music in front of some people they might think ‘wow this is great and I’m surprised that I really enjoy it’ and I think that’s a beautiful thing”.

Make sure you get acquainted with Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs, as they have a very long future ahead. There are tour dates booked for next year, and many will be looking to see how they follow King of Cowards. With music still very London-centric – the BBC’s Sound of 2020 features a majority of artists from London and the South -, it is great to talk about a grand group from the glorious North! Get behind Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs, because this incredible crew are…

ONE of the best bands around.

____________

Follow Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs

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FEATURE: Vinyl Corner: Beyoncé - Lemonade

FEATURE:

Vinyl Corner

Beyoncé - Lemonade

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THE remaining editions of this feature…

are dedicated to exploring some of the best albums of this decade. Last week, I featured Solange and her album, A Seat at the Table. This week, Solange’s sister, Beyoncé, is at the forefront. When one thinks about remarkable albums of the 2010s, you need to include Lemonade in that discussion! It is an album I am still listening to, three years after its release. I realise both Solange and Beyoncé released their albums in 2016 – for the rest of the Vinyl Corner slots, I will take albums from other years. There is so much to talk about when it comes to Lemonade. Of course, one should buy the album on vinyl as it would make a great Christmas present. Lemonade is the second visual album from Beyoncé. There are articles out there that explain the lyrics and the themes explored. Beyoncé mixes politics with the personal; the affectionate alongside the angered and charged. It is an enormously powerful album that mixes genres such as Pop, Reggae and Gospel together to electrifying success. Lemonade was accompanied by the release of a sixty-five-minute film of the same title, produced by Good Company and Jonathan Lia, which premiered on HBO on 23rd April, 2016. It is divided into eleven chapters, titled Intuition, Denial; Anger, Apathy; Emptiness, Accountability; Reformation, Forgiveness; Resurrection, Hope and Redemption. Beyoncé released a visual album in the form of her eponymous release of 2013.

Transcending into cinematic territory, I think Lemonade is more powerful and illuminating because of its visual nature. The filmed pieces make the album seem like an event; this big and wonderful record that demand you listen and learn from. Most artists cannot afford to run such a campaign and put out visual albums, but Lemonade is no ordinary album. After Beyoncé of 2013, so many eyes were on Beyoncé. She released her best album to date, so many people wondered how she could possibly follow it. Featuring collaborators like Kendrick Lamar, James Blake and Jack White, Lemonade is a busy and eclectic album. Although there are a fair few producers and writers in the mix, it is Beyoncé’s voice and spirit that comes through the clearest. She turns in her strongest set of vocals to date; her most ambitious songs and videos/visuals that took her work to a new level. At the heart of Lemonade is fidelity and trust. There were rumours that the songs were based on her husband, Jay-Z, and alleged indiscretions. Beyoncé has denied that, yet one cannot help hear the purity of anger when she sings about betrayal and cheating. Rather than Lemonade capturing a time in her life or documenting a rocky moment of her life, Beyoncé stays in the present, but she also looks back to her roots. Beyoncé explores blackness, her southern roots and family through Lemonade.

At times tender and nostalgic, at others raw and calling for formation, Lemonade is not only one of the best albums of the 2010s; one could comfortably include it alongside the best albums of all-time. Lemonade was nominated for nine Grammy Awards in 2017; it won for Best Urban Contemporary; Formation received nods for Record of the Year and Song of the Year. The sort of attention and celebration that Lemonade received cannot be understated. Beyoncé was an enormous star in 2016, but Lemonade brought her music to new listeners and took her status to new peaks. I have heard some fantastic albums this decade, yet few have the same sort of weight and importance as Lemonade. In this review, AllMusic gave their take on Beyoncé’s sixth studio album:

“The cathartic and wounded moments here resonate in a manner matched by few, if any, of Beyoncé's contemporaries. She sometimes eclipses herself in terms of raw emotion, as on the throttling Jack White encounter "Don't Hurt Yourself." At the low-volume end, there's more power in the few seconds she chokes back tears while singing "Come back" -- timed with the backing vocal in Isaac Hayes' version of "Walk on By" -- than there is in most contemporary ballads. Romantic conflict is nothing new for her, but there is a degree of concentration and specificity, and an apparent disregard for appealing to commercial radio that makes Lemonade a distinct addition to her catalog.

PHOTO CREDIT: Parkwood Entertainment

(Another distinguishing factor is the length of credits which, due to a vast assortment of collaborators and samples, exceeds that of the self-titled album.) Lemonade can also be heard as the dark flipside of Beyoncé. When "Dishes smashed on the counter" is bleakly observed, just before "Pictures snatched out the frame/Bitch, I scratched out your name and face" is delivered with seething wrath, it's hard to not flash back to "Drunk in Love," in which the presumably same couple were revelrous in the same room. After the first three-quarters play out in compelling if somewhat erratic fashion, Lemonade closes with a torrid stretch. "Freedom" is a marching anthem of resilience and preservation, produced by Just Blaze with a glowing guest verse from Kendrick Lamar. The loved-up "All Night" is a tangle of emotions and hints at reconciliation, facilitated by the horns from OutKast's "SpottieOttieDopaliscious." And then, at last, there's the strutting "Formation," simultaneously a tack-on and an ideal finale, where Beyoncé delights in her blackness, femininity, and Southern origin with supreme wordplay”.

Lemonade is an album that blows you away the first time you listen. One needs to return time and time again to truly absorb everything. In some songs, Beyoncé sounds utterly enraptured and on fire; in others, you can practically feel the emotion and upset in her voice. She is astonishing through the album and commits to every single note. I think the sheer versatility and diversity in terms of sound and textures means Lemonade speaks to everyone. That is not to say previous albums from her were restricted to certain people; it is just Lemonade is so wide-ranging, everyone will find something to love.

In their review of Lemonade, The Independent had this to offer:

“The personal cannot help but overshadow the political when dealt with so forcefully. On the film released on HBO to coincide with this album, Beyoncé does not pull her punches: throwing away her wedding ring, wielding a baseball bat with venom, committing suicide, dripping water, destroying cars… all of this is nothing next to the venom exhibited in the music, and songs.

"So what are you going to say at my funeral now that you've killed me?” she asks. “Here lies the body of the love of my life whose heart I broke without a gun to my head. Here lies the mother of my children both living and dead. Rest in peace, my true love, who I took for granted."

The culmination of the spooked Pray You Catch Me and Hurt Me, Don’t Hurt Yourself features licks from rock stalwart Jack White. The distortion and fury, and occasional breaks of restraint from White work, brutally and wonderfully”.

It is hard to pick a highlight but, in my view, Formation and Don’t Hurt Yourself are top of the pile. I love so many of the songs on Lemonade, but there are certain cuts that stand above the rest. I will conclude in a bit but, first, I wanted to source from an article that discussed Beyoncé in the terms of Rock’s black female legacy. It is worth exploring the whole article, but I have grabbed a couple of passages:

“The most disrespected person in America is the black woman,” Malcolm X says in a sample used on Beyoncé‘s Lemonade. “The most unprotected person in America is the black woman. The most neglected person in America is the black woman.” He was talking about society in general, but the same is true of popular art, specifically rock. The female artists who helped build rock are often forgotten, but the re-imagination of what rock can be and who can sing it by Beyoncé and her superstar peers is giving the genre a second life – and may be what can save it.

On Lemonade, Beyoncé’s choice to include both a raucous blues-rock track — “Don’t Hurt Yourself,” featuring Jack White — as well as an Americana romp — “Daddy Lessons” — is as political as the poetry she intertwines with her songs on her visual album. Lemonade is, in part, an album about black legacy, and her choice to tap more fully into rock, a genre she has touched lightly upon before, is an important nod to the often forgotten place black women had in inspiring and forming the genre. Seen in this light, the fierce and vengeful tone of “Don’t Hurt Yourself” takes on a broader cultural meaning.

PHOTO CREDIT: Parkwood Entertainment

On Lemonade, Beyoncé pays her own tribute by proving she’s a quick study of the blues-rock form. On “Don’t Hurt Yourself,” she swaggers and roars, evoking the gritty garage style her collaborator has been known for. Her anger is tempered by a steady funk bass line, then mirrored by the roar of the track’s crunchy riff, like a new generation’s “Whole Lotta Love” or, if the verses were slowed down, “Babe I’m Gonna Leave You.” The twang of her Texas accent comes to the fore on “Daddy Lessons,” a track on which she even embraces the traditional folk trope of familial history. Still, both songs are entirely Beyoncé, much in the way Tina Turner transformed “Proud Mary.” This tradition has always been in her, and much in the same the way that she channels black historical trauma in her most recent opus, she channels the erasure of forgotten black female voices as well.

If you have not experienced Lemonade, go grab it on vinyl or stream it. It is the finest thing Beyoncé has put her name to and the songs will definitely leave an impression! At the moment, there are no announcements regarding a new Beyoncé album. She performed at Coachella in 2018, and, in the same year, released Everything Is Love alongside Jay-Z – the two form The Carters. It has been a busy last couple of years. The iconic artist, surely, will have musical plans for next year; maybe we will get a new solo album or, with talks of a Destiny’s Child reunion in the offing, perhaps they will get another album together.

PHOTO CREDIT: Melina Matsoukas for Elle

Beyoncé did give an interview to Elle a couple of days back – she is their January 2020 cover star -, where she discussed everything from fashion to family. She was asked about Lemonade in the interview:

“I connected with Lemonade and I almost passed out when I saw Homecoming. You brought it and made me want to stand up and scream your name!! What’s up with the people who give out awards? Were you disappointed not winning? Because you know, you already won with me.—via Instagram

I began to search for deeper meaning when life began to teach me lessons I didn’t know I needed. Success looks different to me now. I learned that all pain and loss is in fact a gift. Having miscarriages taught me that I had to mother myself before I could be a mother to someone else. Then I had Blue, and the quest for my purpose became so much deeper. I died and was reborn in my relationship, and the quest for self became even stronger. It’s difficult for me to go backwards. Being “number one” was no longer my priority. My true win is creating art and a legacy that will live far beyond me. That’s fulfilling”.

The final days of the 2010s are upon us and, as we look ahead to a new decade, I have been considering the albums that have defined the past ten years or so. Do get hold of Lemonade and give it a good spin. Its importance and relevance will not diminish; its personal potency and importance is also very obvious and moving. Even if you are not a fan of Beyoncé, Lemonade is an album that transcends everything. It is a musical tour de force and…

A mighty revelation.

FEATURE: Modern Heroines: Part Thirteen: Janelle Monáe

FEATURE:

 

Modern Heroines

Part Thirteen: Janelle Monáe

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THERE are so many incredible women in music right now…

PHOTO CREDIT: Matt Jones for Rolling Stone

who have the promise to go down as legends; who are legends already! One of the absolute best artists out in the world is Janelle Monáe. Although she did not put an album this year, she has been busy touring and has conducted a few fantastic interviews. I really love her music, and, with each album, she seems to take a big step forward. When thinking of Monáe, one is blown away by her fierceness and power; there is seductiveness and sexiness; there is something David Bowie-esque and funky like Prince. Above everything is this incredibly determined and original artist who is conquering the music world. Before I go on, I wanted to bring in some biographical information that tells you more about Janelle Monáe:

“With comparisons merging between Lauryn Hill, Annie Lennox, James Brown, David Bowie and Andre 3000, multi Grammy nominee neo-soul singer Janelle Monáe (born 1 December 1985) from Kansas, US also known as her android counterpart Cindi Mayweather has collaborated with the likes of Estelle and Fun adding her unique touch.

It was her move to Georgia, US after studying at drama school that her career really kicked off. Meeting Bad Boi of Outkast in 2001, together they created the Wondaland Art Society with like-minded individuals. Describing her genre as bending, Monáe meanders through elements of psychedelic soul, jazz and old school R&B while remaining a conceptualist through and through. Using the alter ego of android Cindi Mayweather from the year 2719 who is on the run from her home planet of Metropolis for breaking the law and finds herself on earth falling in love with human Anthony Green, a storyline which provided the backbone of her debut self EP “The Audition” in 2003.

With a little nudge from friend Big Boi, Sean Combes aka P. Diddy and CEO of Bad Boy Records checked out Monáe’s Myspace page and was mesmerised. In 2007 she signed with his label and released her second EP “Metropolis: The Chase Suite” the following year, a continuation of the Mayweather saga. The EP earned her a nomination at that year’s Grammy’s with the single “Many Moons” for “Best Urban/Alternative Performance”.

Whilst Monáe put out E.P.s prior to her debut album I think that album, The ArchAndroid, is the best place to start. I recently wrote an article on the album, as it is a work of true brilliance. Released in 2010, it is one of the finest albums of this decade and introduced to many this unique and tremendous artist. Production took place at Wondaland Studios in Atlanta and was taken care of by Monáe, Nate ‘Rocket’ Wonder and Chuck Lightning. So many artists would come in with a debut that is confident yet lacks any real selling point or anything that differs from what is around. Monáe delivered an album jammed with terrific songs, but there was also this concept and central figure. The ArchAndroid continued Monáe’s fictional tale of a messianic android and brought together Afrofuturism and science fiction like never before – if at all! With themes of love and self-realisation siting in the blend, this was no ordinary album.

As Monáe was portraying a character and had created this wonderful world, comparisons with Prince and David Bowie were inevitable. In fact, Monáe worked with Prince shortly before his death in 2016 and she holds huge affection for him. I can see why people were making those Bowie links. Maybe they saw Monáe’s ArchAndroid as a Ziggy Stardust character or a mix of that and some other personas Bowie adopted through his career. It is a shame both Prince and Bowie died in 2016, as one can imagine Monáe working with both of them; perhaps taking to the stage and performing alongside each other. Whilst the aesthetic and conceptual arc of The ArchAndroid is very different and bespoke, the sonic palette is eye-opening. Monáe has a love of film scores, and one can hear James Bond themes sat alongside elements of Stevie Wonder and Hip-Hop. Monáe channels OutKast and touches on genres such as Neo-Soul and Glam Rock. If the futuristic elements seemed rooted in Science Fiction novels and films, the messages of self-empowerment and breaking chains was very much rooted in the present…and past for that matter. Black artists have been struggling for a voice for decades, so Monáe’s debut album was yet another example of a tremendous black artist singing loud. Whilst there is still racial inequality, artists like Janelle Monáe are leading a fight and helping to affect change. The ArchAndroid is a heady and sumptuous album, overrunning with so many scents, scenes and styles. It is a record that everyone needs to investigate and cherish.

The reviews for Monáe’s debut album were hugely positive. This is what AllMusic had to offer:             

“The ArchAndroid not only picks up where The Chase let off, but contains both the second and third Metropolis suites in one shot with no discernible “let’s make some hits now” intervention. The packaging alone -- the elaborate crown, the inspiration listed beside each song, etc. -- provides much to process. Liner notes from the vice-chancellor of the arts asylum at the Palace of the Dogs, Monáe’s residence, outline the (possible) situation fleshed out in the songs. In short, Monáe was genoraped in the 28th century, sent back to the 21st century, and had her organic compounds cloned and re-purposed for the existence of ArchAndroid Cindi Mayweather, whose directive is to liberate Metropolis from a secret society of oppressors. Understanding all this stuff enhances the enjoyment of the album, but it is not required. A few tracks merely push the album along, and a gaudy Of Montreal collaboration is disruptive, but there are numerous highlights that are vastly dissimilar from one another. “Tightrope,” the biggest standout, is funky soul, all locomotive percussion and lyrical prancing to match: “I tip on alligators, and little rattlesnakers/But I’m another flavor, something like a Terminator.” Just beneath that is the burbling synth pop of “Wondaland,” as playful and rhythmically juicy as Tom Tom Club (“So inspired, you touch my wires”); the haunted space-folk of “57821” (titled after Monáe’s patient number); and the conjoined “Faster” and “Locked Inside,” packing bristling energy with a new-wave bounce that morphs into a churning type of desperation worthy of Michael Jackson. Monáe might not have much appeal beyond musical theater geeks, sci-fi nerds, and those who like their genres crossed-up, but no one can deny that very few are on her creative level. She can sing, sang, and scream like hell, too”.

 PHOTO CREDIT: Colette Aboussouan

I have heard few artists come out of the gates so impassioned and confident. I know Monáe had released material prior to 2010, yet this was her first full-length effort. Not only did Monáe sound completely different to anyone out there, she did that whilst creating an album that is universal and easily accessible. One can identify with what she says throughout and bond with the subject matter and sounds. It is an album to make you think and get lost inside. The Guardian were full of praise when they reviewed The ArchAndroid:

“Janelle Monáe is not like other pop stars. The ArchAndroid, her debut album, is an 18-track, 70-minute conceptual opus, split into two suites, each one separated by ludicrously extravagant Overtures. To say it's ambitious feels like damning with faint praise; its sheer musical scope – from the James Brown funk of Tightrope to the English pastoral folk of Oh, Maker – is spellbinding. So, the excellent Cold War is new wave with lashings of sci-fi, Locked Inside takes in Off the Wall-era Michael Jackson, while Come Alive (War of the Roses) finds the 24-year-old screaming herself hoarse over squealing guitars. Influences are treated as stepping stones rather than laboured over, with only Make the Bus (a collaboration with Of Montreal) shifting the focus away from the star. The album ends with the eight-minute, string-drenched BaBopBye Ya, a song that teeters on the brink of ridiculousness yet, as with the album as a whole, somehow reins itself in with great aplomb. Behold, pop music has found its latest superstar”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Baptiste Monáe 

I love the fact Monáe was seen as this alien-like artist who was from another planet. Not that it was an insult at all: she was such a breath of fresh air and extraordinary that many did not quite know what to make of her. Again, one can think of David Bowie at his most bedazzling and extra-terrestrial. I am interested in Monáe’s working method and how her debut came together. It is a hugely impressive debut and one that covers so much ground! I cannot think of any artist since her that has produced a debut that hits so hard and lasts in the memory so long. Of course, with a bold and truly brilliant album out in the world, Monáe captured the attention and affections of the media. I am going to bring in a few interviews through this piece. I wanted to quote from an interview from The Guardian, where we learn about Monáe’s path into music:

“Whatever rules Monáe imposes on herself seem to be working. Only a singularly self-possessed individual could have pulled off the artistic high-wire act of her hugely acclaimed album, The ArchAndroid (Suites II and III). This 18-song opus, the most praised album of the year according to the review-aggregating website Metacritic, by turns recalls Prince, OutKast, Erykah Badu, James Brown, Grace Jones, Stevie Wonder, David Bowie, Jimi Hendrix, Bernard Herrmann, Funkadelic and the Incredible String Band, and establishes its creator as the most compelling new character in pop.

As vivid and varied as the music are the ideas behind it. The tracklisting cites such influences as "the blue of Luke's lightsaber" and "the atomic bombs in Muhammad Ali's fists". The sleevenotes, allegedly written by the vice chancellor of the Palace of the Dogs Art Asylum, explain that Monáe is an inmate who claims to be a time-traveller from 2719, and whose stolen DNA has been used to clone an android freedom fighter called Cindi Mayweather. "Most of the story does not bear logical sense," the writer drily notes.

She moved to New York to attend the American Musical and Dramatic Academy, where she was the only black woman in her classes. "I felt like that was a home but I wanted to write my own musicals. I didn't want to have to live vicariously through a character that had been played thousands of times – in a line with everybody wanting to play the same person."

So she dropped out and moved to Atlanta, where she lived in a boarding house with five other women and worked at Office Depot. It was while selling her self-funded debut CD The Audition and touring black colleges that she met songwriters and producers Chuck Lightning and Nate Wonder, with whom she formed Wondaland. "It was a Matrix moment where we all locked eyes and it was almost like we were meant to be on the same team. We wanted to create a different blueprint." Lettin' Go, a song about being fired from Office Depot for going online to answer emails from fans, attracted the attention of OutKast, who invited her to sing on their 2006 album, Idlewild.

Apart from sci-fi, Monáe's main reading seems to be business manuals; she enthusiastically endorses Seth Godin's Purple Cow: Transform Your Business By Being Remarkable. Hence, perhaps, her willingness to conduct her own business – after several potential record labels suggested changes to her debut mini-album, 2007's Metropolis: Suite I (The Chase), Wondaland decided to sell it themselves online. "The record execs were not connected to the people," she says sternly. "They didn't know, they still don't know, what the people want." For this new album, Sean Combs provided clout and contacts and left everything else to Wondaland, whose online manifesto declares: "We believe songs are spaceships. We believe music is the weapon of the future. We believe books are stars".

After such an important and loved debut album, there was a lot of touring demand and press interest. Monáe had gone from this artist with a dedicated-if-modest following to someone who was picking up new fans at the rate of knots. The Electric Lady arrived in 2013 and, whilst different to her debut in many ways, it did conclude her Metropolis concept series – this was the fourth and fifth instalments. If there are notable differences regarding sound and tone, Monáe continues on the theme of dystopic cyborgs and futuristic visions. I think The Electric Lady is a little less eclectic and more personal than The ArchAndroid, yet it does incorporate new experimentations and genres – Monáe steps into ballad territory and brings in Pop Punk and Jazz. Monáe stated in interviews how The Electric Lady is a prequel to The ArchAndroid and features guest spots from Solange, Erykah Badu and Prince.

 PHOTO CREDIT: Fault Magazine

Such an impressive pedigree of collaborators show what respect there was for Monáe and how incredible her music was/is. Few were unaware of Monáe by 2013, as her songs were getting a load of radio-play and The Electric Lady took her to new heights. I think my first taste of Monáe was when I heard The Electric Lady shortly after 2013. Like her debut, there was a lot of love for The Electric Lady, if not quite on the same level as The ArchAndroid. I am casting my mind back to 2013 and the albums that were around then. (I think Arcade Fire put Reflektor out then, and Kanye West was busy). There was still nobody like Janelle Monáe! Although there was a three-year gap between releases, it was definitely worth the wait for The Electric Lady. I want to bring in a review, because it is a good example of how the press reacted to Monáe’s sensational second album. In this review, The Telegraph were keen to heap praise on Janelle Monáe:

“What a wild and wonderful listening experience this is: bristling with ideas, constantly shooting off at different angles but always replete with earworm melodies, plush with glittering sounds, charged with intelligent and emotional lyrics and underpinned by a syncopated rhythm section that shifts gears effortlessly from tightly coiled to blazingly expansive. Atlanta r&b maverick Janelle Monáe was critically acclaimed for her quirky, sci-fi-styled debut The ArchAndroid in 2010, firming up her reputation with punchy live performances in which she led her ensemble with the drillmaster precision of a latter-day James Brown. Now this dazzling, daring, psychedelic funk pop opus puts Monáe firmly in the front rank of 21st-century stars.

In its mix of pop melodies, offbeat arrangements and ultra-slick band playing, it is reminiscent of Prince in his Eighties pomp, achieving the kind of cosmic funk grandeur he aspired to on Sign o’ the Times. And, sure enough, the Minneapolis wonder makes a telling appearance, his clipped guitar and falsetto vocals powering the compressed blues funk of Given Em All My Love. When he lets rip with an echoey solo and the horns kick in, it is almost as if he is bestowing his graces on a righteous heir.

The Electric Lady proved Monáe was one of the most exciting talents on the scene and, with two remarkable albums in her pocket, there was no stopping her! I want to introduce an interview she gave in 2013 but, just before, one more review that highlights an incredible album:

“Attention to detail is nothing new for the admittedly obsessive Monáe, but man, there are some knockout details here: the rusty poking bedspring of a guitar that powers "Q.U.E.E.N."; the percussion loops on "Electric Lady"; the manic clean-toned jazz guitar skittering behind the vocal breakdown on "Ghetto Woman". The strings carry some of the most heart-tugging melodies, and the most beautiful moments come when songs melt from an amped-up funk groove into a glimmering, soul-revue orchestra, like "We Were Rock and Roll", "Give Em What You Love", and "Q.U.E.E.N". Gorgeous soul ballads like "Can't Live Without Your Love" are built on the kind of rich, finely managed melodies and jazzy modulations that haven't been the sound of the radio since the late 70s

Taken as a whole, The E**lectric Lady is a convincing argument for the virtues of micromanagement, but some of the most powerful, tender moments come from acknowledging  limits. On "Sally Ride," she admits defeat, of sorts, declaring she's "packing my spacesuit, and I'm taking my shit up to the moon." On "Victory," Monáe offers, "I'll just keep singing until the pain goes," and there's something humbly stoic in her voice. She's not singing to exorcise pain, which will hang around until it's good and ready to go, she's just passing the time until it does doing the thing she does best”.

Could one call Monáe a modern treasure after only two albums?! Could we see her as an icon of the future?! Maybe some would feel that a little rash, I think Monáe was a definite star in 2013. She had managed to win acclaim across the board and was making music that sounded so original yet was familiar. It is hard to describe the essence of Janelle Monáe and just why she is so brilliant. I did mention how there was a lot of media interest in Monáe. Unlike many other artists, Monáe had a story to tell and she captivated easily. I will bring in the odd interview before wrapping up, but I did want to bring in an interview with The Guardian from June 2013. 

“We're very quick to make stars these days, partly because of the speed with which we move on, partly because we're afraid the big characters of rock'n'roll might be a thing of the past. It's possible to be the Saviour of Pop (and a fashion icon) while most people still don't have a clue who you are, and Monáe occupies this position with great poise. Born in 1985 in Kansas, she didn't know much about David Bowie till the parallels were drawn by journalists. Like Gaga, she accepts the comparisons seriously, academically. And like Bowie, she is literally making herself up as she goes along.

Perhaps music is still the best way to deliver a political message?

"Sometimes when a child has to take medicine it must be delivered inside his favourite food," she says. "You have to figure out how you can make your message palatable for those who may not want to hear. I consider myself a wordsmith, and everything created through me is meant to provoke thought. And sometimes it's not – it's just meant to jam."

She has clearly decided it's time to tease her audience with talk of romantic love. On the new album, Primetime is a smooth boy-girl duet with Miguel; We Rock and Roll, is "about a relationship I had…" She is a lesbian icon, but when asked about love in the past she has replied that she only dates androids. Perhaps the key to longevity as a pop icon is revealing the real life inch by inch.

"As an artist, you highlight the things that you want people to know about you," she says. "Of course there are things that are not highlighted, which my family are privy to. Does the world and everybody have all of me? No – even I don't have all of me. Janelle Monáe is evolving constantly, and she is blossoming. You get the real me in real time – and that's as real it's going to get".

This sort of leads us to Janelle Monáe’s latest album, Dirty Computer, of 2018. Although there was another gap between releases (five years), Monáe was busy touring and working on new songs. I feel artists are rushed into releasing albums close together, as labels try and capitalise on success and feel, if someone leaves it too long to release another album, they will be forgotten about.

There was no chance of anyone forgetting Monáe, given the epic material she released prior to 2018. In 2016, Monáe appeared in the feature-length film, Moonlight. She also appeared in Hidden Figures and, between the two films, acted alongside Naomie Harris and Octavia Spencer. Monáe also contributed to a couple of albums – including the soundtrack of the Netflix series, The Get Down – and was already working on Dirty Computer when scripts started to come through. I can understand that there would have been pressure and expectation for Monáe to release a third album. I can also understand why people were knocking down her door and wanted her to appear in film. After the success of The Electric Lady, Monáe was a true superstar and an artist who was inspiring many others. When Dirty Computer arrived on 27th April, 2018, fans and critics were keen to listen and have their say. I think Dirty Computer was one of the best albums of 2018 and, from the very first listen, you could tell it was very much business as usual. Gone were the same concepts and themes as heard on Monáe’s first two albums; instead, here was a record that sounded like a new chapter. Although my favourite album from Monáe is The ArchAndroid, I have a lot of love and respect for Dirty Computer. When she spoke with Rolling Stone, we learn more about the albums recording; Monáe was also asked what it was like not being able to speak with Prince – as he died in 2016:

“Monáe recorded most of Dirty Computer here, in a small studio with Havana-inspired decor. Guests and collaborators ranged from Grimes to Brian Wilson, who added harmonies to the title track. The album’s liner notes cite Bible verses and a recent Quincy Jones interview alongside Monica Sjöö’s The Great Cosmic Mother and Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther.

Rumors spread that Prince co-wrote the single “Make Me Feel,” which features a “Kiss”-like guitar riff. “Prince did not write that song,” says Monáe, who sorely missed his advice during the production process. “It was very difficult writing this album without him.” Prince was the first person to get a physical copy of The ArchAndroid – she presented the CD to him with a flower and the titles written out by hand. “As we were writing songs, I was like, ‘What would Prince think?’ And I could not call him. It’s a difficult thing to lose your mentor in the middle of a journey they had been a part of”.

2016 was a strong year for music, yet very few albums matched the same levels and peaks as Dirty Computer. A lot had changed in Monáe’s life since 2013, but she remained this truly incredible artist with a sound and passion like nobody else. My first taste of Dirty Computer was the single, Make Me Feel. It is one of those songs - like Tightrope from The ArchAndroid - that bounces around the head and has that instant brilliance. Each track on Dirty Computer is packed with detail and delight. One can tell how hard Monáe had worked since 2013. One can feel the effort, love and energy in every beat and chorus. In their review, this is what AllMusic had to say:

 “Oddly enough, "Make Me Feel," the one Dirty Computer track on which Monáe employs a wholly pop songwriting team including Julia Michaels, Justin Tranter, and Mattman & Robin, is the funkiest and friskiest number here, clearly influenced by the late (and uncredited) Prince. Monáe and her trusty Wondaland partners, the album's dominant creative force, colorfully twist and flip new wave-leaning pop with booming bass drums and rattling percussion. They transmit powerful and defiant jubilance in response to "wack ass fuckboys everywhere (from the traphouse to the White House) who make the lives of little brown girls so damn hard," among dozens of other inspirations Monáe acknowledges in the essential liner notes. Almost every track is densely packed with quotables delivered in approaches that shift from easygoing elegance to hard-fought, triumphant conviction.

The latter approach yields the album's apex, "Django Jane," in which Monáe raps throughout with inhuman precision, threatening a pussy riot, declaring "We ain't hidden no more," and uplifting the "highly melanated" while dropping some of the set's few sci-fi allusions, "Made a fandroid outta yo' girlfriend" among them. Not to be lost in all the power moves are indirect and direct references to a romantic relationship -- another form of dissent -- referenced and explored throughout, from the glowing "Crazy, Classic, Life" through the fiery "So Afraid," the only moment of emotional fragility. While this is easily the most loaded Monáe album in terms of guests, with Brian Wilson, Stevie Wonder, and Grimes among the contributors, there's no doubt that it's a Wondaland product. It demonstrates that artful resistance and pop music are not mutually exclusive”.

A lot of people have compiled a list of their favourite albums from this decade. I know The ArchAndroid is included on many lists, and I do feel a special place needs to be reserved for Dirty Computer. In any case, Janelle Monáe crafted a masterpiece in Dirty Computer. Looking at the glowing reviews for Dirty Computer, one is blown by the affection for the Kansas-born songwriter. NME offered their perspective on Dirty Computer:

 “The “celebration of creation, self-love and pussy power” of majestic Grimes collab ‘Pynk’ is the album’s centrepiece, showcasing her knack of letting go while declaring total control. Among the wailing guitar heroics of ‘Screwed’ ft. Zoe Kravitz, she preaches: “Everything is sex, except sex – which is power. You screw me and I’ll screw you too – you know power is just sex? Now ask yourself who’s screwing who”. Elsewhere, the bouncing bomb pop-banger ‘I Got The Juice’ (with Pharrell Williams) pulses with sexuality while sending a clear warning to any objectifiers living in the shadow of a certain tiny-handed bastard: “If you try to grab my pussycat, this puss will grab you back.”

“His spirit will never leave me,” Monáe has said of her friend and collaborator Prince, who had helped her with sounds for the album “before he passed on to another frequency”. Sure, he lent a synth-line to the undeniable behemoth of ‘Make Me Feel’ (the greatest of her hits to date), and the gospel-funk power ballad of closer ‘American’ is the politicised blood descendent of ‘Let’s Go Crazy’ – but this record isn’t a monument to His Royal Badness. It’s one of the greatest artists of our time carrying Prince’s baton into the new world”.

Of course, with every album release, there was this press interest. Each interview reveals something new about Monáe. I guess, since the start of her career, Monáe faced speculation regarding her sexuality. Although it is not really relevant to the music, there was a lot of intrigue building; so many people were asking the question. I have read a few interviews from 2018, where Monáe was promoting Dirty Computer and talking about her progress over the past few years. I will end the feature soon but, right now, my eye has been caught by an interview in The Guardian from 2018 where Monáe was asked about politics and sexuality:

“Rumours have long been whispered about her sexuality, but Monáe has thus far resisted publicly defining it; she characterises herself again as “sexually liberated” and she declines to frame Make Me Feel in literal terms. “It’s a celebratory song,” she says. “I hope that comes across. That people feel more free, no matter where they are in their lives, that they feel celebrated. Because I’m about women’s empowerment. I’m about agency. I’m about being in control of your narrative and your body. That was personal for me to even talk about: to let people know you don’t own or control me and you will not use my image to defame or denounce other women.”

It’s an ugly phenomenon she has glimpsed on social media. “I see how people try to pit women against each other,” she says. “There are people who have used my image to slut-shame other women: ‘Janelle, we really appreciate that you don’t show your body.’ That’s something I’m not cool with. I have worn a tuxedo, but I have never covered up for respectability politics or to shame other women”.

It has been a hell of a career for Janelle Monáe. From her early E.P.s to her latest album, she has come a long way. This year has hardly been a quiet one. She performed at a number of festivals, including Primavera Sound and Glastonbury. I have not really mentioned Monáe as a live performer and how electric she is. I have not seen her up-close, but I have read a lot of reviews and seen performances she has given. There are artists who are spellbinding in the studio and sort of good when they hit the stage; for others, the reverse is true. When it comes to Monáe, she is world-class in both arenas. Her Primavera Sound set was truly exhilarating. NME reacted to her set:  

 “But it’s also for herself. Gliding effortlessly from ‘Crazy Classic Life’, of which her vocals are sadly too low in the mix, into the joyful funk blasts of fellow ‘Dirty Computer’ song ‘Screwed’, Monae flips the tone for another one of her latest album cuts, ‘Django Jane’. In her red and white plastic suit, she swaps a peaked cap for a bejewelled Egyptian headdress and ascends the stage’s white, stepped pyramid to sit on its throne. Monae takes ownership of the political issues she litters her show with with – blackness, queer identity, feminism, the working classes – spitting bars from atop the imaginary palace that her dancers flank. The lyric, “Black girl magic / y’all can’t stand it” may as well have been left to the audience to rap; likewise with, “Let the vagina have a monologue,” which fans bellow to the high heavens. Monae deadpans at the song’s close, though her attempts to disguise a smile don’t go unnoticed.

What’s striking about tonight’s show is just how much Monae is enjoying herself. Be it synchronised jolts with her uniformed dancers, drop-kicking the air, changing costumes or sending big political fuck you’s (“as a queer black woman in America, I hate what Trump is doing”), Monae exhausts every note, move and expression as if it was the last show on earth”.

When playing the West Holts Stage at this year’s Glastonbury, Janelle Monáe wowed the crowds! In a year where there were some especially memorable sets, Monáe was very close to the absolute best. Her set was full of huge songs and big messages. When reviewing her performance, The Independent made some observations:

“After “Make Me Feel”, which is all clicks and clucks and funky staccato guitar and which she ends by falling to her knees, she makes an announcement. “We must fight for the rights of immigrants. We must fight for the rights of LGBTQIA people, of black people, of women. And we must impeach Donald Trump.”

It seems as though the set is over. The crowd begin to pour away. But before long, Monae returns, for a gloriously frenetic rendition of ArchAndroid track “Come Alive (The War of the Roses)”. She did this at this festival eight years ago, stepping one foot over the barrier between her and the crowd as a security guard clung onto her.

Tonight, she goes several steps further, wading far into the crowd, further than I have seen anyone venture into a crowd this size, and participating in an enormous mosh. She emerges unscathed. This truly is a safe space. “What you just saw you will never see again,” she yells at the top of her lungs, straight into the camera. There's little doubting that”.

Who knows what 2020 holds for Janelle Monáe. I think there will be more tour dates but, in terms of another album, we might yet have to wait a couple of years more. There are articles out there marking Monáe  as a revolutionary figure, whilst others cannot get enough of her live performances. Even after three albums, I get the feeling Janelle Monáe is a leader; someone who will transition to iconic status before too long. Her words inspire and move whilst her music makes you think and moves the body. It is not an exaggeration to compare her with artists like Prince and David Bowie – I am sure she would not mind the comparisons! Monáe is a wonderful artist who will reign and amaze for many years to come. No matter what mood you are in, you can put on a Janelle Monáe song or album and feel revived, transported and stunned. She is an artist who…  

MAKES us all feel something.

FEATURE: Heavy in the Head: Stormzy and the Pressures of Fame

FEATURE:

Heavy in the Head

Stormzy and the Pressures of Fame

___________

WITH a new album out…

IN THIS PHOTO: Stormzy at Glastonbury this year/PHOTO CREDIT: Samir Hussein/WireImage/Getty

and picking up some big reviews, one might think that Stormzy is on top of the world. Let’s have a look back at a year which has seen the Grime king take to the Glastonbury stage. Stormzy’s headline slot from earlier in the year must go down as one of the most important and explosive sets ever. It did seem like the country could turn a corner and, with such a powerful performer stunning thousands, many believed that Stormzy’s energy and sermons could bring about political change. Although the General Election did not go the way of Labour, I think Stormzy got a lot of people voting and engaged. Many felt Stormzy was unprepared for a Glastonbury headline slot, considering he had only released one album, Gang Signs & Prayer in 2017. There was a lot of criticism aimed his way and, after such a festival-defining headline set, few were left in any doubt regarding Stormzy’s credentials! Alongside the rise to fame is the sort of toxicity that never goes away from social media. Stormzy receives more than his share of flack, and there are plenty of people taking jabs and putting him down. Some might say that is part of the business, but there is never any excuse for abuse and the kind of things artists like Stormzy have to read on a daily basis. The sudden rise to prominence seems like a dream for any artist but, when we think of the reality, it is not always so rosy.

Every artist wants recognition and to get their work out there. When you sort of go from this promising young rapper to someone who is on the cover of magazines and being courted by the media, that can get a bit much. Music this year has been incredible, and I think a lot of artists have been very brave when it comes to documenting mental-health struggles and using music as a platform to talk about big issues. It would be tempting to hide the pressure of fame and the sort of attention, positive and negative, Stormzy receives. On Friday, Stormzy put out his second album, Heavy Is the Head. It is an album that has plenty of bold and brash moments from a man that is not short on confidence and ability. Rather unexpectedly, Stormzy talks about the weight of fame:

 “But it’s not all triumph and it hasn’t been an easy ascent to the head of the kingdom. The album is just as much a requiem for the huge pressures and responsibilities that come with his platform. On the record’s lead single, “Crown”, Stormzy surveys his realm and ruminates on how his attempts for good -- namely his scholarship for young BAME students to attend Oxbridge -- have been misjudged or twisted by the media. On recent release “Audacity”, meanwhile, which features Headie One, Stormzy also clashes with the heretics who have the audacity to come for him.

H.I.T.H is nothing if not multilayered. For every defiant bar which epitomises the grime star’s public-facing image, there's another that looks a little deeper. He's still the Stormzy we know from the razorsharp days of “Shut Up”, cautioning others to mind the throne; but at the same time he reflects on his own struggles with anxiety, depression and mental health. Recently, during an appearance on the Jonathan Ross show, Stormz revealed that he was devastated after his headline performance at Glastonbury and cried inconsolably when he thought he’d messed up his sound levels. On “Audacity” he briefly touches on that, rapping “When Banksy put the vest on me / Felt like God was testing me”. But on a later track “One Second” featuring H.E.R, he laments on becoming “the poster boy for mental health”. Against H.E.R’s haunting vocals of hope and struggle, the track is pared-back, almost choral, a naked and introspective look at the pressures of fame”.

I can appreciate the fact artists like Stormzy are synonymous with an element of braggadocio and self-hype. They are competing with other MCs, and there is always going to be grief from his competition. It is the additional load of social media abuse and pressure that can really do damage. I am sure Stormzy has always wanted adulation and praise, but he has seen his profile rise hugely over the past year or so. I will go on to look at the pressure of fame in a bit, but I wonder whether there is catharsis in putting pen to paper and letting it out. Stormzy’s latest album nods to his success and how he has risen through the ranks but, on the other side, there is the darkness and downside of fame.

PHOTO CREDIT: Getty Images Europe

This review from The Guardian talks about the contrasts on the album:

“Britain is currently teeming with fantastic MCs, but Stormzy is the only one your dad knows the name of. In the two years since the release of his debut album, Gang Signs & Prayer, he has become a boundary-crossing figure in British cultural life. Not only is he able to take a single as uncommercial as the dark, minimal Vossi Bop to No 1, but he has translated his commercial success into roles as a philanthropist, publisher and activist with enough clout to have his opinions raised by those interviewing the prime minister. He has attracted praise not just from the usual sources but from the vice-chancellor of Cambridge University and the Archbishop of Canterbury, who has said he prepares for officiating major events by listening to Stormzy’s 2017 single Blinded By Your Grace: neither are figures noted for their in-depth knowledge of freestyles, diss tracks and Lord of the Mics clashes.

Of course, an MC’s success isn’t dependent on establishment approval. Nevertheless, no other figure in UK rap history has achieved anything like this. Understandably, Heavy Is the Head begins in triumphal style: the brassy fanfare of Big Michael heralds lyrics that enumerate Stormzy’s achievements and tell his rivals where to get off in characteristic style (“Suck your mum”). But the celebratory mood lasts only two tracks, before the album’s emotional temperature plummets.

But the picture Stormzy paints of stardom is a pretty bleak one; an unremitting parade of jealous friends, unwarranted criticism, ever-increasing numbers of enemies and damage to his mental and physical health, in which the only consolation, luxury Swiss watches aside, comes from a combination of regularly skinning up and religious faith. “Holy blood of Christ,” he says on the wracked Do Better, “you never let me down.”

You do sometimes wonder if he wouldn’t be better off leaving Twitter and ignoring the comments sections rather than scanning them for slights. The kind of when’s-International-Men’s-Day? Dimwit who takes to social media to decry as racist Stormzy’s bursary to help underprivileged black kids study at Cambridge is probably best ignored rather than responded to in song”.

Whilst it might seem easy for you and me to watch an artist like Stormzy and assume that he has a pretty good life, I don’t think we understand just how scrutinised and under the microscope. Maybe there was a naivety from Stormzy about how big he had become and how influential he was. One of the downsides of so much press focus is the impact it had on his relationship with Maya Jama. This BBC feature explains more: 

 “Stormzy also said he's had to come to terms with his personal life being in the public eye.

An emotional song called Lessons on his new album addresses the end of his four-year relationship with Maya Jama.

They stopped dating in the summer. In the interview, he suggested the split was the result of "a public disrespect that needed a public apology".

 IN THIS PHOTO: Maya Jama and Stormzy/PHOTO CREDIT: Anton Corbijn for Vogue, February 2018

He explained how it was "surreal" to see everything play out in the media, and that he wanted his album to be a body of work people could listen to and "understand exactly where I'm at in life".

Looking back on his relationship, he said: "It's the deepest thing... I've ever been involved in or the heaviest my heart's ever felt.

"For any proper supporter of mine... it would have been like 'yeah but that thing came out and it was never addressed'".

He said the song was "totally new territory" and that he'll use the experience "to become a better man".

"I will whole heartedly say that that's a phenomenal woman who love man wholeheartedly, gave man everything and you disrespected and was inconsiderate.

"I tried to communicate to her through my art".

Artists like Stormzy command so much respect and love. When things do get a bit heavy, it can be hard explaining that or taking a step back. Not only will his new album speak to others who are feeling pressure in life; it proves that artists are using music more and more to go beyond the obvious. They are opening up and showing that there is no stigma regarding mental-health and being open. Stormzy recently spoke with Jonathan Ross and talked about the past couple of years:

"In the past two years, I've been in a kind of mind state where it's been super overwhelming for me and I've found it super terrifying. I used to shy away from it," he tells U.K. chat show host Jonathan Ross. "When people would say 'role model' I used to say 'You've got the wrong man'."

Stormzy, real name Michael Ebenazer Kwadjo Omari Owuo, Jr., says he has spoken to pals and had therapy and has grown into his position as a star.

"I've been to therapy, I talk to my friends... I'll be brutally honest, there are times I'll get super low, I'll get super depressed and I will shut myself off from the world, I'll do stupid things that no one should do, I'll stay in my house and I'll smoke, I'll not answer my phone," he explains. "But as I'm growing older, I'm learning how to deal with things."

However, he still admits to struggling with his dual role in life - but sees it as part of being a normal man as well as someone people look up to.

"Most days I am super up for all the duties I've taken on myself and everything I know God has lined up for me, I'm super ready and I'm in my element and I'm ready to bite all the bullets and stand on the front line and do whatever is needed," he explains. "But a lot of the times I just feel like I'm a normal man, I get bad road rage, I'm very flawed, I'm super normal, I'm a person".

On Friday morning, Stormzy spoke with Dotty on the BBC 1Xtra Breakfast Show about coming to terms with fame and how he is sort of embracing the goods and bads. Ironically, a fantastic second albums means there will be a lot of new attention the way of Stormzy. I think it is brave and commendable to talk about pressure and the less welcome side of fame. Let’s hope 2020 allows Stormzy a few moments to unwind and find some peace because, since the start of this year, his feet have barely touched the floor! It can be hard avoiding what is written on social media or finding space among a hectic schedule. On Heavy Is the Head, Stormzy explores the weight of pressure, but he also realises that he has a lot of followers behind him. The General Election did not go the way he (and many) hoped, yet Stormzy has activated a lot of young voters and is an inspiration. He is a role model to so many out there and is one of the brightest stars in the musical sky. Stormzy is a king who...  

WEARS the crown proudly.

FEATURE: Celebrating an Iconic American Family: The Simpsons at Thirty

FEATURE:

Celebrating an Iconic American Family

IMAGE CREDIT: Matt Groening/FOX

The Simpsons at Thirty

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ON 17th December, 1989…

IN THIS PHOTO: The Simpsons’ creator Matt Groening/PHOTO CREDIT: Getty Images

we were treated to a full half-hour with a family who would soon become icons. The Simpsons made their debut on The Tracey Ullman Show back in 1987. The Simpsons, then, were used as interstitials that would help link parts of Tracy Ulman’s show together. The short little episodes were pretty charming and, whilst the animation was a little crude, it was still mind-blowing. For a start, we had not seen anything like The Simpsons. These yellow characters, for one, were odd and not your usual cartoon fare. It would not be long until the family moved from this bit-part slot to having their own show. On 17th December, 1989, he first full episode arrived and, as a child at the time, I was instantly mesmerised by the show. Rather than The Simpsons being this cartoon that was for children and had no real depth, the show marked itself as an animated comedy with heart; a show that was for everyone and had its own style. Again, if one compares the animation on the first episode, Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire, with what they look like now…the difference is pretty startling! I like the rather basic animation of the debut episode. It makes the show feel warmer and more human, in a strange way. One was not expecting mind-blowing animation in 1989; The Simpsons offered this unique world where you could instantly identify with the characters. Although the characters would become more defined and rounded in seasons to come, there was this sense of individuality and, whilst they were a dysfunctional family, they were there for each other and there was this love.  

On Tuesday, we will mark thirty years of a show that is part of our cultural fabric. There are whispers The Simpsons might end but, with nearly seven-hundred episodes under the belt, I do not see what happening! Look at that Christmas debut now and one is still charmed and moved. The basic plot is that Homer discovers that he will not be getting a Christmas bonus; his family has no money to buy Christmas presents after they had to waste money on getting his son Bart's tattoo removed. He decides to keep their financial troubles a secret and gets a job as a shopping mall Santa Claus, but later discovers that the job does not pay enough. Desperate for a stroke of luck, Homer and Bart go to the dog-racing track on Christmas Eve in hopes of earning some money but end up adopting an abandoned greyhound, Santa's Little Helper. The family gets this new member, delivers some big laughs and announces themselves to the world. Since 1989, The Simpsons has grown and evolved. I mention the show, not only because it is thirty on Tuesday, but the fact so many musicians have appeared through the years. This article takes us to 2014 but, in the five years since, a whole host of artists have interacted with America’s favourite family. There is always that great debate as to whether The Simpsons is still funny and whether it peaked by the end of Season 10.

I admit that the show was at its finest through the 1990s; it kind of started to dip a little into the next century but, with changing writers and producers, it was not always going to be as sharp and iconic for all those years. There are theories as to when the show declined, yet I maintain The Simpsons has always been funny. Everyone has their favourite episodes and moments. For me, Lisa the Vegetarian is the perfect show: it has a great plot, bags of laughs and a real emotional punch. In terms of moments, everything from Homer eating sixty-four slices of American cheese to protect a bear, Bobo, from Waylon Smithers and Montgomery Burns – they manage to break into the house and abseil across the ceiling as Homer sits in his underwear and eats cheese -, to Marge being seduced by a lascivious bowling instructor in one of the earliest days…it has been quite a ride. I can watch episodes I have seen countless times and am still overcome with laughter. Such is the brilliance of the voice actors and everyone who works on the show, you are amazed by the humour and quality. I do like how The Simpsons has heart and does not shy away from adding treacle when necessary. Also, like cartoons and animated series, the characters on The Simpsons have not aged much since the earliest episodes. This article gives their ages: Lisa is ten, Bart is eight; Marge and Homer are in their thirties. It is nice that there is a sense of preservation and continuity. If Bart and Lisa were teenagers, the show would feel different and plain odd.

Also, it feels peculiar ageing characters when they have encountered situations that would kill normal people; that sense of them being immortal is what allows for flexible reality and some golden comedy! It is sad to realise that, inevitably, The Simpsons will end one day. It is the greatest-ever T.V. show and one that has followed many of us through childhood and into adulthood. It is clear The Simpsons has changed T.V., and its legacy is clear. I want to bring in an article that talks about how The Simpsons’ heart and comedy brilliance has resonated; how the characters remain unchanged and instantly recognisable:

“Father and mother, happily married but not without their problems, the eldest son, an often undervalued sister, and a baby who came along, unexpectedly, a few years later. This, however, is where the normality ends.

IN THIS IMAGE: A still from the debut episode of The Simpsons, Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire/IMAGE CREDIT: Matt Groening/FOX

The head of this ‘nuclear’ family is an employee at a power plant which deals with the same kind of energy, while his wife has gravity-defying blue hair, which is somehow accepted by audiences along with the bright yellow skin. Furthermore, The Simpson family, like the rest of the inhabitants in their home town of Springfield, are afflicted with a case of Peter Pan syndrome: nobody ever grows up. The show has seen six US presidents, yet Maggie is still sucking on pacifiers.

Words such as 'iconic' are often employed in discussions of this show (is it no coincidence that Lisa's hair resembles the crown of the Statue of Liberty, another concept indivisibly associated with America?) The sheer number of episodes produced guarantees it the honour of the first binge-watchable show in history, quite an achievement considering it came long before Netflix or even the internet. Indeed, as well as being a cultural icon, The Simpsons is also an invaluable introduction to the greatest movies, television shows and celebrities, ever to have existed - all of which the show has either parodied or, in the case of the latter, had on as guest stars”.

It will be emotional marking thirty years of The Simpsons on 17th and seeing how much it has changed – in terms of animation – and how, since 1989, so many people have fallen under its spell. Of course, music is part of the show’s D.N.A. and fabric. From incredible guest appearances to those highly memorable music moments, we all have our highlights. When it comes to music guests, I would select Paul and Linda McCartney from Lisa the Vegetarian and U2 in Trash of the Titans. There have been many classic original songs on the show, but I have a particularly fond spot for We Do (The Stonecutters' Song) – it is an Emmy-nominated song from the twelfth episode of Season 6, Homer the Great. The music was composed by Alf Clausen and the lyrics by John Swartzwelder.

You do not see too many comedies that have used music in the same way as The Simpsons. From using existing songs in the soundtrack to creating their own numbers, it is only right I nod once more to this brilliant show. I will not list the best music guests again – as I have done so already -, but I would encourage people to spend a bit of time on YouTube and on online, listening to the music and the iconic clips. Do some reading and study some articles to see just how impactful The Simpsons really is. Maybe it will not last too many years longer, but that would be a real pity. I think it is a cornerstone of popular culture and it has yet to be equalled. Because of that, to all the residents of Springfield and all the people who have worked on the show from the very start: we offer each one of them…   

ALL of our love and respect!

FEATURE: Taylor Swift: Woman of the Decade: A Role Model for Everyone

FEATURE:

Taylor Swift: Woman of the Decade

PHOTO CREDIT: Inez & Vinoodh for Vogue

A Role Model for Everyone

___________

I know I have talked a bit about Taylor Swift…

in a musical context and the fact that, as an artist, I am not her absolute biggest fan. Whilst the music might not be designed for me and does not capture in the same way as the best Pop music ever, I can appreciate a different side of her. Maybe her brand is not full of hooks and designed to last through the ages but, in many ways, the way she holds herself and what she says away from music will have more of a legacy. Her songs do touch of themes such as L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ visibility and equality, but she is much more than a musician. Swift has received Billboard’s first-ever Woman of the Decade award. She picked up the award on 12th December at Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles and collected it from Jameela Jamil. I shall not quote the entire speech, but the reason I wanted to include Taylor Swift in a feature is how she continuously speaks up and speaks out against industry failings and how women are judged. Before I continue, here are a few passages from her speech:

“I'm Taylor, good evening. I wanna first thank Billboard from the bottom of my heart for this honor…I wanna say thank you so much to Billboard for giving me this honor, for naming me as their Woman of the Decade.

So what does it mean to be the woman of this decade? Well, it means I've seen a lot. When this decade began I was 20 years old and I had put out my self-titled debut album when I was 16, and then the album that would become my breakthrough album, which was called Fearless. And I saw that there was a world of music and experience beyond country music that I was really curious about.

I saw pop stations send my songs ‘Love Story’ and ‘You Belong With Me’ to number one for the first time. And I saw that as a female in this industry, some people will always have slight reservations about you. Whether you deserve to be there, whether your male producer or co-writer is the reason for your success, or whether it was a savvy record label. It wasn't.

PHOTO CREDIT: Taylor Swift

I saw that people love to explain away a woman's success in the music industry, and I saw something in me change due to this realization. This was the decade when I became a mirror for my detractors. Whatever they decided I couldn't do is exactly what I did….Whatever they criticized about me became material for musical satires or inspirational anthems, and the best lyrical examples I can think of are songs like ‘Mean,’ ‘Shake It Off,’ and ‘Blank Space.’ Basically if people had something to say about me, I usually said something back in my own way.

In the last 10 years I have watched as women in this industry are criticized and measured up to each other and picked at for their bodies, their romantic lives, their fashion, or have you ever heard someone say about a male artist, I really like his songs but I don't know what it is, there's just something about him I don't like? No! That criticism is reserved for us!

But you know, I've learned that the difference between those who can continue to create in that climate usually comes down to this. Who lets that scrutiny break them and who just keeps making art.

I've watched as one of my favorite artists of this decade, Lana Del Rey, was ruthly criticized…in her early career and then slowly but surely she turned into, in my opinion, the most influential artist in pop. Her vocal stylings, her lyrics, her aesthetics, they've been echoed and repurposed in every corner of music, and this year her incredible album is nominated for Album of the Year at the Grammys because she just kept making art. And that example should inspire all of us, that the only way forward is forward motion. That we shouldn't let obstacles like criticism slow down the creative forces that drive us”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Paul Bruinooge/Getty Images

There are articles out there that highlight why Swift is a role model to so many out there. She remains humble and lacking of ego, in spite of the fact she has a huge following and great wealth. Swift has remained true to herself and has a bond with her fans like few other artists. Whilst a lot of major artists will lose identity when it comes to their lyrics, Taylor Swift has remained real and pure. Whilst her sound has evolved from the earliest days, she has not stepped away from her roots and what makes her music resonate. In her Billboard speech, she called out Scooter Braun. That name might not mean much to a lot of people. He was sold the rights to Taylor Swift’s master recordings. This Vox article explains more:

“Taylor Swift just announced that she’s about to hit the recording studio again to make music. But she won’t be working on new material. Instead, the Hollywood Reporter writes, she is rerecording all her albums.

Swift’s announcement comes a month after the news broke that her old record label — Big Machine Records, which she left in 2018 — had been sold to music megamanager Scooter Braun. That gave Braun the rights to all of the master recordings for Swift’s old music, meaning that anyone who wanted to license one of Swift’s old songs to play in a TV show or movie or an ad would have to ask for Braun’s permission and pay him a licensing fee. And because Braun used to work with sworn Taylor Swift enemy Kanye West, Swift was devastated. In an emotional Tumblr post, she called the news “my worst case scenario.”

In an interview with CBS’s Tracy Smith that is scheduled to air this Sunday, Swift said she plans to sidestep Braun by rerecording her entire songbook, which contains all the songs she released prior to her forthcoming album, Lover.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, Smith asked Swift if she is planning to make new versions of all of her masters, and Swift replied, “Oh yeah.”

“That’s a plan?” Smith asked.

Swift confirmed again: “Yeah, absolutely”.

When you’re pretttttty sure that if you were a man, you’d be the man 💅
📷: Sami Drasin pic.twitter.com/rjJesldpEQ

— Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) December 11, 2019

Not only is Swift someone who speaks out against inequality and prejudice; she is also an artist who has great pride in her music and will not let anyone compromise that. She has had to face a lot of upset and criticism through her career, yet she remains resolute and strong. Taylor Swift has been responsible for more women and girls picking up guitars, and she is speaking about political matters. She has just turned thirty and, even at this age, artists are not encouraged to speak out when it comes to their political beliefs. In Pop music, there is huge risk backing a particular party or getting involved in politics. Maybe labels think that sort of bias might be bad for fans or there could be backlash on social media. Swift is a Democrat supporter and does definitely not endorse Donald Trump. The current President has plenty of detractors, yet many artists feel worried about talking about him in case they are attacked or judged.  

I am not surprised Taylor Swift was given a huge accolade by Billboard. Rather than follow the same scripted line as a lot of musicians, Swift is very much her own person. She believes in things passionately and does feel the need to hide that. Whether it is L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ visibility or sexism in the music industry, here is someone who is a very strong role model and voice. I will bring this feature to a close soon, but I wanted to bring in an interview from The Guardian, where Swift discussed politics and L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ rights:

“Instead, she has swapped personal disclosure for activism. Last August, Swift broke her political silence to endorse Democratic Tennessee candidate Phil Bredesen in the November 2018 senate race. Vote.org reported an unprecedented spike in voting registration after Swift’s Instagram post, while Donald Trump responded that he liked her music “about 25% less now”.

Meanwhile, her recent single You Need To Calm Down admonished homophobes and namechecked US LGBTQ rights organisation Glaad (which then saw increased donations). Swift filled her video with cameos from queer stars such as Ellen DeGeneres and Queen singer Adam Lambert, and capped it with a call to sign her petition in support of the Equality Act, which if passed would prohibit gender- and sexuality-based discrimination in the US. A video of Polish LGBTQ fans miming the track in defiance of their government’s homophobic agenda went viral. But Swift was accused of “queerbaiting” and bandwagon-jumping. You can see how she might find it hard to work out what, exactly, people want from her.

PHOTO CREDIT: Taylor Swift

She resists blaming anyone else for her political silence. Her emergence as a Democrat came after she left Big Machine, the label she signed to at 15. (They are now at loggerheads after label head Scott Borchetta sold the company, and the rights to Swift’s first six albums, to Kanye West’s manager, Scooter Braun.) Had Borchetta ever advised her against speaking out? She exhales. “It was just me and my life, and also doing a lot of self-reflection about how I did feel really remorseful for not saying anything. I wanted to try and help in any way that I could, the next time I got a chance. I didn’t help, I didn’t feel capable of it – and as soon as I can, I’m going to”.

Taylor Swift is an artist who is connecting with a much wider audience than a lot of her peers. Maybe that is because of her activism and popularity, but I think her music has become more wide-ranging and boundary-straddling. Maybe I am not a covert, yet there are so many people who were not aware of Taylor Swift years ago that are now fans. When it comes to her latest album, Lover, I can respect the fact that it has broken records, and it a hugely important release. I would suggest people check out her music, as it is a hell of a lot stronger and more intriguing than a lot of what is out there. From the Country sounds of her first couple of albums to what she has brought us this year, this megastar has evolved and broadened her music.

I can appreciate the fact Swift is very personal and honest in her lyrics and, whilst she has her critics, her music has changed lives and is a source of huge inspiration to so many people. Swift connects with her fans and she has a common touch that is very rare; she is a fantastic businesswoman and continues to endure and amaze – it has been thirteen years since her eponymous debut album was released! I want to quote from an interview Swift gave to Billboard, as part of their Woman of the Decade feature. She was asked about being this ambassador/role model and whether she would give her younger self any advice:

 “You’ve served as an ambassador of sorts for artists, especially recently -- staring down streaming services over payouts, increasing public awareness about the terms of record deals.

We have a long way to go. I think that we’re working off of an antiquated contractual system. We’re galloping toward a new industry but not thinking about recalibrating financial structures and compensation rates, taking care of producers and writers.

We need to think about how we handle master recordings, because this isn’t it. When I stood up and talked about this, I saw a lot of fans saying, “Wait, the creators of this work do not own their work, ever?” I spent 10 years of my life trying rigorously to purchase my masters outright and was then denied that opportunity, and I just don’t want that to happen to another artist if I can help it. I want to at least raise my hand and say, “This is something that an artist should be able to earn back over the course of their deal -- not as a renegotiation ploy -- and something that artists should maybe have the first right of refusal to buy.” God, I would have paid so much for them! Anything to own my work that was an actual sale option, but it wasn’t given to me. 

PHOTO CREDIT: Sami Drasin for Billboard

Ten years ago, on the brink of the 2010s, you were about to turn 20. What advice would you give yourself if you could go back in time?

Oh, God -- I wouldn’t give myself any advice. I would have done everything exactly the same way. Because even the really tough things I’ve gone through taught me things that I never would have learned any other way. I really appreciate my experience, the ups and downs. And maybe that seems ridiculously Zen, but … I’ve got my friends, who like me for the right reasons. I’ve got my family. I’ve got my boyfriend. I’ve got my fans. I’ve got my cats”.

So many incredible women have defined music this decade. I think things are starting to change and we are seeing small steps towards equality. There is a long way to go, but we have artists like Taylor Swift to thank. As one of the most successful artists in the world, she could well perform her music and not speak out; she could remain distant and not really engage. It is right that she has been crowned Woman of the Decade by Billboard. As we head into a new decade, Swift will be re-recording her older material, touring the world and thinking about what comes next. I think there will be a lot of charity work and award success. It is hard to tell how the 2020s will treat her. I think Swift will break new ground, and she will continue to inspire and give a voice to those who do not. There is no doubt that Taylor Swift is…

SUCH an important role model.

FEATURE: Silver Future: Huge Albums Turning Twenty-Five Next Year

FEATURE:

 

Silver Future

PHOTO CREDIT: @priscilladupreez/Unsplash 

Huge Albums Turning Twenty-Five Next Year

___________

I have nodded to albums that turned twenty-five this year…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Blur in 1995

but, as we look forward to 2020, I want to spend a moment highlighting a few albums that are twenty-five then. Like a silver wedding anniversary or a twenty-fifth birthday, I think it is important to make a bit of a fuss. When we are in 2020, I will celebrate albums turning thirty, twenty etc. For now, I have been looking back at 1995 and albums that truly arrived with a bang. Being around then, I can recall the excitement of the time. It was a magnificent year for music and, whilst I am only including eleven albums here, there were a lot of other huge releases. Here are some of the very best and most memorable albums from a terrific year in music. Although it is a little while away yet, I know we will all tip our caps to these mighty albums that made…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Björk in 1995

THE year 1995 so wonderful.

____________

Oasis - (What's the Story) Morning Glory?

Release Date: 2nd October

Label: Creation

Producers: Owen Morris/Noel Gallagher

Key Cuts: Roll with It/Don’t Look Baack in Anger/Champagne Supernova

Standout Track: Wonderwall

Buy: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Whats-Story-Morning-Glory-VINYL/dp/B00LCT48L0/ref=sr_1_1?crid=YDI0XHHWE9RV&keywords=oasis+whats+the+story+morning+glory+vinyl&qid=1575961550&sprefix=oasis+what%27s+the+%2Caps%2C131&sr=8-1

Review: “This expanded production helps give Noel Gallagher's sweeping melodies an emotional resonance that he occasionally can't convey lyrically. However, that is far from a fatal flaw; Gallagher's lyrics work best in fragments, where the images catch in your mind and grow, thanks to the music. Gallagher may be guilty of some borrowing, or even plagiarism, but he uses the familiar riffs as building blocks. This is where his genius lies: He's a thief and doesn't have many original thoughts, but as a pop/rock melodicist he's pretty much without peer. Likewise, as musicians, Oasis are hardly innovators, yet they have a majestic grandeur in their sound that makes ballads like "Wonderwall" or rockers like "Some Might Say" positively transcendent. Alan White does add authority to the rhythm section, but the most noticeable change is in Liam Gallagher. His voice sneered throughout Definitely Maybe, but on Morning Glory his singing has become more textured and skillful. He gives the lyric in the raging title track a hint of regret, is sympathetic on "Wonderwall," defiant on "Some Might Say," and humorous on "She's Electric," a bawdy rewrite of "Digsy's Diner." It might not have the immediate impact of Definitely Maybe, but Morning Glory is just as exciting and compulsively listenable” – AllMusic

Pulp – Different Class

Release Date: 30th October

Label: Island

Producer: Chris Thomas

Key Cuts: Mis-Shapes/Disco 2000/Sorted for E’s & Wizz

Standout Track: Common People

Buy: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Different-Class-VINYL-Pulp/dp/B01LWKIL5P/ref=sr_1_1?crid=25UB6CXE99KBC&keywords=pulp+different+class+vinyl&qid=1575961804&sprefix=pulp+different%2Caps%2C130&sr=8-1

Review: “Cocker’s songs on Different Class are such a rich text that you can go quite a long way into a review of the album before realizing you’ve barely mentioned how it sounds. Pulp aren’t an obviously innovative band, but on Different Class they almost never lapse into the overt retro-stylings of so many of their Britpop peers: Blur’s Kinks and new wave homages, Oasis’ flagrant Beatles-isms, Elastica’s Wire and Stranglers recycling. On Pulp’s ’90s records, there are usually a couple of examples of full-blown pastiche per album, like the Moroder-esque Eurodisco of “She’s a Lady” on His ‘N’ Hers. Here, “Disco 2000” bears an uncomfortable chorus resemblance to Laura Branigan’s “Gloria,” while “Live Bed Show” and “I Spy” hint at the Scott Walker admiration and aspiration that would blossom with We Love Life, which the venerable avant-balladeer produced.

Mostly though, it’s an original and ’90s-contemporary sound that Pulp work up on Different Class, characterized by a sort of shabby sumptuousness, a meagre maximalism. “Common People,” for instance, used all 48 studio tracks available, working in odd cheapo synth textures like the Stylophone and a last-minute overlay of acoustic guitar that, according to producer Chris Thomas, was “compressing so much, it just sunk it into the track.... glued the whole thing together. That was the whip on the horse that made it go” – Pitchfork

Radiohead – The Bends

Release Date: 13th March

Labels: Parlophone/Capitol

Producer: John Leckie

Key Cuts: The Bends/Fake Plastic Trees/Just

Standout Track: Street Spirit (Fade Out)

Buy: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bends-VINYL-Radiohead/dp/B01F0XLQZE/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3JITQIS4925B2&keywords=radiohead+the+bends+vinyl&qid=1575962047&sprefix=radiohead+the+be%2Caps%2C128&sr=8-1

Review: “Pablo Honey in no way was adequate preparation for its epic, sprawling follow-up, The Bends. Building from the sweeping, three-guitar attack that punctuated the best moments of Pablo Honey, Radiohead create a grand and forceful sound that nevertheless resonates with anguish and despair -- it's cerebral anthemic rock. Occasionally, the album displays its influences, whether it's U2, Pink Floyd, R.E.M., or the Pixies, but Radiohead turn clichés inside out, making each song sound bracingly fresh. Thom Yorke's tortured lyrics give the album a melancholy undercurrent, as does the surging, textured music. But what makes The Bends so remarkable is that it marries such ambitious, and often challenging, instrumental soundscapes to songs that are at their cores hauntingly melodic and accessible. It makes the record compelling upon first listen, but it reveals new details with each listen, and soon it becomes apparent that with The Bends, Radiohead have reinvented anthemic rock” – AllMusic

The Smashing Pumpkins – Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness

Release Date: 23rd October

Label: Virgin

Producers: Alan Moulder/Billy Corgan/Flood

Key Cuts: Zero/Bullet with Butterfly Wings/Muzzle

Standout Track: Tonight, Tonight

Buy: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mellon-Infinite-Sadness-Smashing-Pumpkins/dp/B000024JHZ/ref=sr_1_1?crid=KA5VFHY29PXF&keywords=mellon+collie+and+the+infinite+sadness+vinyl&qid=1575962326&sprefix=infinite+sad%2Caps%2C133&sr=8-1

Review: “The Smashing Pumpkins didn't shy away from making the follow-up to the grand, intricate Siamese Dream. With Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, the band turns in one of the most ambitious and indulgent albums in rock history. Lasting over two hours and featuring 28 songs, the album is certainly a challenging listen. To Billy Corgan's credit, it's a rewarding and compelling one as well. Although the artistic scope of the album is immense, the Smashing Pumpkins flourish in such an overblown setting. Corgan's songwriting has never been limited by conventional notions of what a rock band can do, even if it is clear that he draws inspiration from scores of '70s heavy metal and art rock bands. Instead of copying the sounds of his favorite records, he expands on their ideas, making the gentle piano of the title track and the sighing "1979" sit comfortably against the volcanic rush of "Jellybelly" and "Zero." In between those two extremes lies an array of musical styles, drawing from rock, pop, folk, and classical. Some of the songs don't work as well as others, but Mellon Collie never seems to drag. Occasionally they fall flat on their face, but over the entire album, the Smashing Pumpkins prove that they are one of the more creative and consistent bands of the '90s” – AllMusic

Tricky – Maxinquaye

Release Date: 20th February

Label: 4th & B’way

Producers: Howie B/Kevin Petrie/Mark Saunders/Tricky

Key Cuts: Ponderosa/Hell Is Round the Corner/Brand New You’re Retro

Standout Track: Black Steel

Buy: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Maxinquaye-VINYL-Tricky/dp/B07GGPNXQ4/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3P90OTIE5DDZ2&keywords=maxinquaye+tricky&qid=1575962574&sprefix=maxinquaye%2Caps%2C130&sr=8-1

Review: “Tricky’s lascivious solo debut, Maxinquaye, stands alongside Massive Attack’s Blue Lines and Portishead’s Dummy as one of the most influential Trip-Hop albums of the ‘90s. Maxinquaye takes the glistening electronic soul of Blue Lines and smothers it in far-grittier textures, exploring the destructive nature of love (“Now I could just kill a man,” he says on “Suffocated Love”) and sin (the devious “Abbaon Fat Tracks”). Tricky’s vocals play back and forth with those of singer Martine, whose hypnotic, slippery phrasing opens the album on the sexy “Overcome.” Samples abound, of course, from Smashing Pumpkins (on the appropriately-titled “Pumpkin,” a moody track featuring Alison Goldfrapp) and Issac Hayes (“Hell Is Around the Corner”) to snippets from films like Blade Runner and The Rapture. If there was ever any doubt about the sonic lineage between hip-hop and trip-hop, “Aftermath” and “Brand New You’re Retro” blur the lines to the point of undeniable extraction. These are beats Timbaland and Dre have only dreamt of” – SLANT

Alanis Morissette – Jagged Little Pill

Release Date: 13th June

Labels: Maverick/Reprise

Producer: Glen Ballard

Key Cuts: You Oughta Know/Hand in My Pocket/You Learn

Standout Track: Ironic

Buy: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Jagged-Little-VINYL-Alanis-Morissette/dp/B009G7WUME/ref=sr_1_1?crid=6YUUXJPU59R8&keywords=jagged+little+pill+vinyl&qid=1575962829&sprefix=jagged+li%2Caps%2C130&sr=8-1

Review: “It's remarkable that Alanis Morissette's Jagged Little Pill struck a sympathetic chord with millions of listeners, because it's so doggedly, determinedly insular. This, after all, plays like an emotional purging, prompted by a bitter relationship -- and, according to all the lyrical hints, that's likely a record executive who took advantage of a young Alanis. She never disguises her outright rage and disgust, whether it's the vengeful wrath of "You Oughta Know" or asking him "you scan the credits for your name and wonder why it's not there." This is such insider information that it's hard to believe that millions of listeners not just bought it, but embraced it, turning Alanis Morisette into a mid-'90s phenomenon. Perhaps it was the individuality that made it appealing, since its specificity lent it genuineness -- and, even if this is clearly an attempt to embrace the "women in rock" movement in alterna-rock, Morissette's intentions are genuine. Often, it seems like Glen Ballard's pop inclinations fight against Alanis' exorcisms, as her bitter diary entries are given a pop gloss that gives them entry to the pop charts. What's all the more remarkable is that Alanis isn't a particularly good singer, stretching the limits of pitch and credibility with her octave-skipping caterwauling. At its core, this is the work of an ambitious but sophomoric 19-year-old, once burned by love, but still willing to open her heart a second time. All of this adds up to a record that's surprisingly effective, an utterly fascinating exploration of a young woman's psyche. As slick as the music is, the lyrics are unvarnished and Morissette unflinchingly explores emotions so common, most people would be ashamed to articulate them. This doesn't make Jagged Little Pill great, but it does make it a fascinating record, a phenomenon that's intensely personal” – AllMusic

Supergrass – I Should Coco

Release Date: 15th May

Labels: Parlophone (U.K.)/Capitol (U.S.)

Producer: Sam Williams

Key Cuts: Caught by the Fuzz/Mansize Rooster/Lenny

Standout Track: Alright

Buy: https://www.amazon.co.uk/I-Should-Coco-Supergrass/dp/B000002TXE/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1BHJKG2THRU0L&keywords=i+should+coco+vinyl&qid=1575963130&sprefix=i+should+coco+%2Caps%2C127&sr=8-1

Review: “In that sense, 'I Should Coco' is a beautifully honest album of, and about, its time. This is their generation - wide (sometimes wild)-eyed, determined not to let anybody else's bastard moral standards grind them down. They look at the adult world - the one that their talent is about to take to the cleaners - and they giggle.

It's all so easy. The sight of the trio, draped around one another, handsomely drunk on the back of the album, calls to mind the Jagger of the early '60s, a cocky lout being feted by politicians and members of high society, people who had invested a lifetime of greasing the right palms to get where they were. Jagger wore a tittering smirk during those days. Like a kid shoplifting in Hamleys. Piece of piss” – NME

Björk – Post

Release Date: 13th June

Labels: One Little Indian/Elektra

Producers: Björk/Nellee Hooper/Graham Massey/Tricky/Howie B

Key Cuts: Hyperballad/It’s Oh So Quiet/Isobel

Standout Track: Army of Me

Buy: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Post-VINYL-Bjork/dp/B00004WSZE/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1W85OP26TEG9Q&keywords=post+bjork+vinyl&qid=1575963314&sprefix=post+bj%2Caps%2C128&sr=8-1

Review: “On Björk second solo album, Post, the ex-Sugarcube finds a bizarre and irresistible connecting point between industrial-disco, ambient-trance, and catchy synth pop. She even shoehorns in a big-band number, though few will confuse the Icelandic pixie — with her otherworldly lyrics and supernatural pipes — with Peggy Lee. Luckily, there’s a conviction to Björk’s delivery and an assurance to her hooks that make her most surreal passages as relatable as moon-June standards. Ultimately, she reinvents that tradition, constructing standards for the cyber age” – Entertainment Weekly

The Chemical Brothers – Exit Planet Dust

Release Date: 26th June

Labels: Junior Boy's Own/Freestyle Dust/Virgin/Astralwerks

Producers: Tom Rowlands/Ed Simons/Cheeky Paul

Key Cuts: Leave Home/Chemical Beats/Chico’s Groove

Standout Track: Life Is Sweet (ft. Tim Burgess)

Buy: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Exit-Planet-VINYL-Chemical-Brothers/dp/B00004WPEP/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3HESLWDFDTPKL&keywords=exit+planet+dust&qid=1575963661&sprefix=exit+planet+du%2Caps%2C127&sr=8-1

Review: “If there is a single song on the record that seems to at least make an attempt at traditional house music appeal, it’s “Three Little Birdies Down Beats.” Though weaker than usual, the bass drum is consistent but soon drowned out by another fresh funk breakbeat. Just as “Leave Home” had its signature sound, “Birdies” has a repeating acid worm that nearly crosses the line into over-repetition before falling away into a simple layered beat breakdown. The degree to which the duo failed to make a traditional dance floor thumper is a glorious mistake because they instead created something far more interesting and timeless in the process.

Exit Planet Dust also reveals the Chemical Brothers’ sentimental side, producing some beautifully arranged, reflective sample-based mood swings. The first six tracks all play as though they were a medley, running into each other in a style borrowed from the live DJ experience. Though a listener could pick out a dozen or so looping moments that constitute their personal favorites, the entire album also works as a complete end-to-end listening experience.

Meanwhile, “One Too Many Mornings” is as close to a ballad as the record comes. In applying the Chemical Brothers’ signature sound to a slower beat, and adding airy female vocal samples dubbed over a pad of angels to an organic meandering bassline, the album goes from being a simple dance music record to a complete music project worthy of entering the conversation for best records of 1995. Noted as the second best dance album of all time by the UK’s Muzik magazine, it continued to chart in the UK for the next five years” – Spectrum Culture

Elastica – Elastica

Release Date: 13th March

Labels: Deceptive (U.K.)/Geffen (U.S.)

Producers: Marc Waterman/Elastica

Key Cuts: Line Up/Car Song/Stutter

Standout Track: Connection

Buy: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Elastica-VINYL/dp/B076YLXFBH/ref=sr_1_fkmr1_1?crid=2R8XHZPBGD8SF&keywords=elastica+connection+vinyl&qid=1575964322&sprefix=elastica+conne%2Caps%2C126&sr=8-1-fkmr1

Review: “Elastica's debut album may cop a riff here and there from Wire or the Stranglers, yet no more than Led Zeppelin did with Willie Dixon or the Beach Boys with Chuck Berry. The key is context. Elastica can make the rigid artiness of Wire into a rocking, sexy single with more hooks than anything on Pink Flag ("Connection") or rework the Stranglers' "No More Heroes" into a more universal anthem that loses none of its punkiness ("Waking Up"). But what makes Elastica such an intoxicating record is not only the way the 16 songs speed by in 40 minutes, but that they're nearly all classics. The riffs are angular like early Adam & the Ants, the melodies tease like Blondie, and the entire band is as tough as the Clash, yet they never seem anything less than contemporary. Justine Frischmann's detached sexuality adds an extra edge to her brief, spiky songs -- "Stutter" roars about a boyfriend's impotence, "Car Song" makes sex in a car actually sound sexy, "Line Up" slags off groupies, and "Vaseline" speaks for itself. Even if the occasional riff sounds like an old wave group, the simple fact is that hardly any new wave band made records this consistently rocking and melodic” – AllMusic

Blur – The Great Escape

Release Date: 11th September

Labels: Food/Virgin

Producer: Stephen Street

Key Cuts: Stereotypes/Country House/The Universal

Standout Track: Charmless Man

Buy: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Great-Escape-VINYL-Blur/dp/B007SAKYAQ/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2230RAIPRU1B4&keywords=blur+the+great+escape&qid=1575964552&sprefix=blur+the+great%2Caps%2C127&sr=8-1

Review: “In the simplest terms, The Great Escape is the flip side of Parklife. Where Blur's breakthrough album was a celebration of the working class, drawing on British pop from the '60s and reaching through the '80s, The Great Escape concentrates on the suburbs, featuring a cast of characters all trying to cope with the numbing pressures of modern life. Consequently, it's darker than Parklife, even if the melancholia is hidden underneath the crisp production and catchy melodies. Even the bright, infectious numbers on The Great Escape have gloomy subtexts, whether it's the disillusioned millionaire of "Country House" and the sycophant of "Charmless Man" or the bleak loneliness of "Globe Alone" and "Entertain Me." Naturally, the slower numbers are even more despairing, with the acoustic "Best Days," the lush, sweeping strings of "The Universal," and the stark, moving electronic ballad "Yuko & Hiro" ranking as the most affecting work Blur has ever recorded. However, none of this makes The Great Escape a burden or a difficult album. The music bristles with invention throughout, as Blur delves deeper into experimentation with synthesizers, horns, and strings; guitarist Graham Coxon twists out unusual chords and lead lines, and Damon Albarn spits out unexpected lyrical couplets filled with wit and venomous intelligence in each song. But Blur's most remarkable accomplishment is that it can reference the past -- the Scott Walker homage of "The Universal," the Terry Hall/Fun Boy Three cop on "Top Man," the skittish, XTC-flavored pop of "It Could Be You," and Albarn's devotion to Ray Davies -- while still moving forward, creating a vibrant, invigorating record” – AllMusic

FEATURE: Sisters in Arms: An All-Female, Autumn-Ready Playlist (Vol. XII)

FEATURE:

 

Sisters in Arms

IN THIS PHOTO: The Big Moon/PHOTO CREDIT: Pooneh Ghana

An All-Female, Autumn-Ready Playlist (Vol. XII)

__________

THE weather out there…

IN THIS PHOTO: Dua Lipa

is not too bad out there at the moment, but I think we still need something to warm us up! I have been looking out for great songs and have found an assortment of brilliant female-led tracks. We are getting close to Christmas, but there are still plenty of terrific songs being released. Because of that, here is a playlist of some of the finest artists around. I am sure the music will give you an appropriate kick and burst of energy. I have enjoyed doing this feature and, with a couple of weeks left until 2020, I am still amazed at the quality of music around. It goes to show that 2019 has been…

IN THIS PHOTO: Alicia Keys

QUITE a fine year.

ALL PHOTOS (unless credited otherwise): Artists

__________

Post Louis – Descender

Izzy Camina – UP N DOWN

Annie Hart – Embrace the New Age

Marie Dahlstrøm– A Loveletter – An Improvisation

Alicai Harley – Tek It to Dem

PHOTO CREDIT: George Selwyn-Brace

The Big Moon – Carol of the Bells

Dua Lipa – Future Nostalgia

Lola Coca – Bow and Arrow

Gabrielle Aplin – Magic

RAYE – Please Don’t Touch

IN THIS PHOTO: Tommy Genesis

Tommy Genesis, Charli XCX - Bricks

Ladyhawke – Colours in the Dark

Grimes - 4ÆM

PHOTO CREDIT: Lauren Gesswein

Okay Kaya - Asexual Wellbeing

Delacey - No One’s Gonna Ever Love U

Hayley Kiyoko – runaway

Sody – Reason to Stay

WESLEE – Peaches

Julia Church – Paradise

Alicia Keys – The Christmas Song

Salt Cathedral – CAVIAR

IN THIS PHOTO: Phoebe Bridgers

Phoebe Bridgers (featuring Fiona Apple and Matt Berninger) - 7 O'Clock News / Silent Night

Kamaiyah – Still I Am

PHOTO CREDIT: Anna Maggý

Sunna Margrét – Art of History

Jackie Hayes – Blink

PHOTO CREDIT: Chloé Lecarpentier

En Attendant Ana – Do You Understand?

Poppy – Fill the Crown