FEATURE: Modern Heroines: Part Forty-Four: Nicki Minaj

FEATURE:

 

 

Modern Heroines

PHOTO CREDIT: Patrick Demarchelier for The New York Times 

Part Forty-Four: Nicki Minaj

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THIS is a slight departure…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Dennis Leupold for Wonderland.

from my usual Modern Heroine features. I normally include female artists who might be quite new but are showing signs that they are icons and hugely inspirational figures of the future. Nicki Minja’s debut album, Pink Friday, came out in 2010; she started recording music quite a way before then. Her fourth studio album, Queen, was released in 2018. There are going to be a lot of people excited to se if Minaj offers up a new album soon (not that there has been an announcement). Despite the fact that she is established and has a legacy already, I think we will see a lot more from Minaj. At thirty-eight, one can argue there are other women at her heels when it comes to the title of ‘Queen of Rap’. That said, I still think she can hold that honour. Despite the fact that there have been some controversies through the years, Minaj’s philanthropy and extraordinary persona have turned into a modern-day heroine who inspires fans and artists alike. I am going to end this feature with a review of Queen – at the very end, I will drop in a career-spanning playlist. Before quoting from two fascinating interviews conducted around the release of Queen – one in 2017, the other in 2018 -, I want to  source from Wikipedia. They provide some useful background, in addition to (stating) why Minaj is such a phenomenon:

“Minaj's third and fourth studio albums, The Pinkprint (2014) and Queen (2018), marked a departure from the dance-pop stylings of her previous records and a return to her hip hop roots. The Pinkprint was critically acclaimed, spawning the single "Anaconda", which reached number two on the Billboard Hot 100. Queen featured "Chun Li", which reached number 10 on the Hot 100. In 2019, Minaj released a collaboration with Karol G, "Tusa", which debuted at number one on the "Hot Latin Songs" chart and went on to become the longest-running number-one single on the Argentina Hot 100, having spent 6 months at number one on the chart.

Her feature on the remix of Doja Cat's "Say So" and her collaboration with 6ix9ine, "Trollz", both released in 2020, marked her first and second number-one singles on the Hot 100, respectively, with the latter making her the second female rapper to debut atop the chart after Lauryn Hill in 1998. Minaj is the first female artist of any genre to reach 100 entries on the Hot 100 chart, and is one of the only two female artists across all genres that have more than 100 Hot 100 entries, with the other artist being Taylor Swift.

Cited as one of the most influential and best selling rap artists of all time, and dubbed as the "Queen of Rap" by several media outlets, Minaj has received numerous accolades throughout her career, including six American Music Awards, twelve BET Awards, four MTV Video Music Awards, four Billboard Music Awards, one ASCAP Latin Music Award, and two Billboard Women in Music Awards. She has also been nominated for 10 Grammy Awards. Minaj was the highest-ranked female rapper on Billboard's list of the top artists of the 2010s. In 2016, Minaj was included on the annual Time list of the 100 most influential people in the world”.

I have got into Minaj’s work more than last few years. Although there have been controversies and feuds through her career, one cannot argue against the fact that Minaj is a sensational artist that will go down in the music history books. I do think, as I said, we will see a lot more from a modern-day leader who, in years to come, will be remembered as an icon. I think that she has helped open doors for so many women in Rap.

I want to move onto Queen and some of the interviews that Minaj conducted around the time. I learned a lot whilst researching. In this Wonderland. interview, we learn about some of the influence behind the title, Queen – in addition to why Minaj is so successful and respected:

“Miss Minaj is still here, a good eight years since she made her major label debut with the now classic Pink Friday, and even longer since she first caught the hip hop world’s attention with her witty and wild words, rapping and pushing mixtapes on the block in her native Queens, New York. She has a new album out called, resolutely, Queen, which bears the weight of that title, a tense, intense collection of songs about life as the commander-in- chief. Throughout the album, she raps of triumph and war, most pointedly on first single, “Chun-Li”, in which she slams those who try to make her out to be a villain, and pounds her chest while calling herself King Kong.

Her target on the album mostly remains nameless, though amongst others, Cardi B is an unavoidable spectre, as she is the only woman since Nicki’s reign began to have come close to her level of success. The previously inferred rivalry came to a head when they crossed paths at a New York Fashion Week gala at the Plaza Hotel in Manhattan this September. Grainy video appears to show the two women, both impeccable in full-length ball gowns, with the Bronx-born Cardi trying to fight through a crowd of security and bystanders to get to a calm Nicki, eventually throwing a red high-heeled shoe at her Queens counterpart. Though Nicki was unavailable for comment after the altercation, when we spoke about a week before the chaos, she was coy but cutting. “My truth is I don’t have an issue with any woman in rap. If they have an issue with me they can suck my dick,” Nicki says.

She is the most successful female rapper of all the time, a woman who has achieved things that no other woman (or man, really) in hip hop ever has, an MC who has been able to become as successful on the global stage as any more conventional pop singer. By making pop songs (and singing the hooks for them) as gooey sweet as “Super Bass” while maintaining her New York bona fides with gutter tracks like “Beez in the Trap,” she has changed what it can mean to be a female rapper in the industry. Go to karaoke anywhere from Bangkok to Vienna, and you will hear people rapping to Nicki Minaj like they sing along to Katy Perry. She is the woman with the most entries on Billboard’s Hot 100 charts – ever. “When I was first trying to rap, female rappers weren’t out here getting paid a million dollars a show,” she says.

But though “success” is the theme of Queen, fame has never been the most interesting thing about Nicki Minaj. She’s a writer, a real writer, and at a time in which celebrity itself is honoured as an art, Nicki has always made actual art, with a command of language and metre and metaphor that is thrilling at its best, and, even with all of her accolades, often taken for granted. Born Onika Tanya Maraj in Trinidad and Tobago in 1982, she grew up in hip hop’s home, New York, where her family settled in Southside Jamaica, Queens. She had a tumultuous childhood, with an alcoholic father who burned down their family home at one point, a trauma she detailed on the track “Autobiography” from her 2008 tape, Sucka Free. But she was ambitious, auditioning to be a student at LaGuardia High School in Manhattan, best known as the school that inspired Fame, and a storied dramatic arts centre that has produced stars like Al Pacino and Eartha Kitt. “I majored in drama and theatre. We had all the freedom in the world to do any and everything we wanted,” she says.

She has put everything in our conversation on shaky ground, which is perhaps, for her, like levelling the playing field, since that seems to just be the atmosphere in her world. And the strategy, if something this instinctive can be called a strategy, works, at least on me in this conversation: has Nicki just been misunderstood all this time, a Joan of Arc that we’ve thrown into the bonfire? “I’m not going to change myself. People have to loosen the fuck up,” she says. For good and for bad, Nicki has never been afraid of controversy, sometimes with joyful effect and sometimes not. The night before we speak, she had a wardrobe malfunction which exposed her breasts live on stage, and to me, she admirably shrugs it off by saying, “Everyone has already seen my nipples.” But she can also be truly frustrating, like with her recent duet with New York rapper Tekashi 6ix9ine, who pled guilty “to the use of a child in a sexual performance” in 2015 relating to a case involving a girl of 13 years-old. When discussing criticism of their collaboration on Queen Radio, she basically called the allegations fake news: “When I know somebody there’s nothing you can tell me about them.”

 PHOTO CREDIT: Dennis Leupold for Wonderland.  

Beneath the current chaos, it is wise to remember that there is real pathos in Nicki Minaj – she has proven again and again that she is a sensitive, creative, even vulnerable soul, no matter her current level of outrageousness. I ask her about a moment in 2015, when she read on stage at a benefit concert the famous poem “Still I Rise”, by Maya Angelou, about what it means to be a black woman in the face of all the shit the world dishes out. “Does my sassiness upset you?” Angelou asks in the poem at one point. “I didn’t realise even until I was up there reading it how much it resonated with me personally,” she says. “That poem reminded me that I will always come out on top. When your heart and your passion are in the right place, you come out on top. I know who I am.” She giggles sweetly and says she has a boyfriend now, though she won’t say much about him, just calls him “new boy” and says that pregnancy, something she has long publicly wished for herself, is on the horizon, too. “I’ve got to get married first then I’ll have a child. I might be closer than people think actually,” she trolls again but playfully so. “I love children. I’m not going to put that off for much longer”.

I look at some of the women in Rap and Hip-Hop today – like Cardi B and Bree Runway -, and they definitely owe a nod and debt to a trailblazer of the game. Before wrapping things up by bringing in a review of Queen, there is a 2017 interview from The New York Times that makes for illuminating and interesting reading:

“THROUGHOUT HER CAREER, Minaj has demonstrated a discipline and intelligence that is rare among other pop stars of her generation. She has what she describes to me as “the X-factor, which is just the thing you can’t put into words.” Onika Tanya Maraj was born in Saint James, Trinidad and Tobago, in 1982, and immigrated to Queens, N.Y., with her family at the age of 5. She began her music career singing with various rappers and working odd jobs. When she waitressed, she wrote lyrics constantly on the notepad she used to take orders. There is genuine pleasure in her voice as she reminisces about this. “I would take people’s order and then a rap might come to me just by what they’re wearing or what they said or did, and I would go in the kitchen and write it down, put it in the back of my little thing or my apron, and by the time I was done I would have all of these sheets of paper thrown around everywhere with raps.”

Since then, her career has been a checklist of milestones. In 2009, she was the first woman artist signed to Young Money, the label founded by Lil Wayne. Three mixtapes and three studio albums — “Pink Friday” in 2010, “Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded” in 2012 and “The Pink Print” in 2014 — followed, and in March 2017, Minaj surpassed Aretha Franklin for the most appearances (76) by a woman on the Billboard Hot 100, a record Franklin had held for almost 40 years. She is the rare hip-hop artist who has successfully and sustainably crossed over into pop music. Minaj, M.I.A. and Madonna performed their single, “Give Me All Your Luvin,” at the 2012 Super Bowl. Days later she performed solo at the Grammy Awards. Her dance song “Starships” went platinum six times over. She even collaborated with Ariana Grande on 2016’s song “Side to Side,” and while the pairing was unexpected given Grande’s previously wholesome image, the song went triple platinum. Minaj does not temper her swagger or sexuality. Sometimes, when I am daydreaming, I marvel at the phrases “dick bicycle” and “If you wanna ménage I got a tricycle” from “Side to Side,” which are so damn clever and funny and vulgar but also accurate as hell for a song Grande once described as being “about riding leading to soreness”.

MINAJ’S PUBLIC IMAGE and personas are carefully curated. The tabloids have assiduously tracked her professional and personal lives and I restrain myself from asking about her ex Safaree Samuels, who appears on “Love & Hip Hop,” a reality television series about the music industry, and if she would ever give Drake a shot. (I restrain myself greatly.) I don’t know that anyone but her inner circle knows who Nicki Minaj really is.

This elusiveness is compounded by her fascinating catalog of performative alter egos, including Harajuku Barbie (a fashionista obsessed with pink and Minaj’s longest-running persona), Nicki Teresa (known as “The Healer”) and the sexually explicit Nicki Lewinsky — there is even a male persona, Roman Zolanski, a slightly exaggerated version of Minaj herself. She has a vocal range that can go from a high-pitched twittering to a growl in a few bars. In both music and regular conversation, she enjoys playing with accents, offering up valley girl-speak or island patois. During our time together, she switched to a British accent a couple of times and then effortlessly returned to her normal voice, a slightly affectless cadence that recalls her Queens upbringing. In public, she often wears dramatic makeup, dramatic outfits and a rainbow of dramatic wigs, which is to say she performs both on- and offstage. There is no point during our conversation where Minaj demonstrates anything but absolute self-awareness. She pauses briefly before she answers my questions, as if calculating every possible outcome to everything she says. By the end of the interview, I am impressed by her fierce intelligence.

At this point in her career, Minaj is able to reconcile, somewhat, her struggles. “I kind of love that I’ve had to go through so many hurdles to get where I am because I feel like I deserve it.” She is frank about what she has been up against. “I had so much going against me in the beginning: being black, being a woman, being a female rapper. No matter how many times I get on a track with everyone’s favorite M.C. and hold my own, the culture never seems to want to give me my props as an M.C., as a lyricist, as a writer. I got to prove myself a hundred times, whereas the guys that came in around the same time as I did, they were given the titles so much quicker without anybody second-guessing”.

Just before closing, The Independent were full of praise when reviewing Queen. Despite the fact she collaborates with a few artists on the album, it is her voice and talent that shines the brightest:

“Queen starts off with “Ganja Burns” and the sweet contrast of her singing voice against her cutting bars, flexing lyrical muscles against a tropical beat. She raps: “They done went to witch doctors to bury the Barbie”, a reference to the supposed hate train that is attempting to stall her career. She is even more direct when she raps “Unlike a lot of these hoes whether wack or lit, At least I can say I wrote every rap I spit” - surely a swipe at Cardi B who has been criticised for her reported use of ghostwriters.

“Majesty”, featuring Eminem and Labrinth, fails to live up to the imposing title of the album; Eminem asserts on his super fast verse “Let me keep it one hundred, two things shouldn't be your themes of discussion. The queen and her husband, last thing you're gonna wanna be is our subjects.” On paper, “Majesty” should be a thrilling collaboration but in fact, it is one of the few misses of the album, running for too long and lacking a cohesiveness between its three artists.

Hard as she may be, she still shows fans her vulnerable side: “Bed”, the second single released from the album, sees her team up with pop princess Ariana Grande for a seductive, playful number while “Thought I Knew You” unites her with The Weeknd. The two play the part of warring lovers who trade beautifully harmed accusations against each other. “Run and Hide” possesses an eerie production that plays out as Minaj opens up about her trust issues”.

Even though it has been a few years since Nicki Minaj released Queen into the world, she is still busy in the world and, very soon, I am sure we will hear something in the way of plans and new music. Not only is she the modern Queen of Rap; I feel that, in years to come when we look back on the women who broke boundaries and paved the way in the field, Minaj’s name will come to mind. Even if you are not a massive fan of her work, one has to appreciate all that she has achieved and why so many look up to her. Taking that into consideration, it is hard to overlook such a…

HUGELY important artist.

FEATURE: Sacrilege? A Masterpiece? A Segue? A Much-Needed Revisit? Kate Bush’s Director’s Cut at Ten

FEATURE:

 

 

Sacrilege? A Masterpiece? A Segue? A Much-Needed Revisit?

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in a promotional image for Director’s Cut/PHOTO CREDIT: John Carder Bush 

Kate Bush’s Director’s Cut at Ten

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I am doing a few features about…

Kate Bush’s Director’s Cut, as it turns ten on 16th May. Questions were asked when Bush announced the release of the album. As I have said in previous features, it was exciting that we got the news that she would be putting out an album in 2011 – as it turned out, we would have two that year! Bush had not reworked older songs in such an extensive way prior to 2011. Taking songs from The Sensual World (1989) and The Red Shoes (1993) and giving them a new lease of life was always going to draw discussion. I felt that her re-recorded vocal for Wuthering Heights – which was included on the 1986 greatest hits album, The Whole Story – was unnecessary, in the sense that the original is as good as it gets! Whilst The Red Shoes did not score a lot of acclaim in 1993, I think that a lot of people hold the album close to their heart. It is definitely an album that deserves some new attention. The Sensual World was celebrated in 1989 and it remains one of her best-loved albums. How would people react to the news that The Sensual World would be retitled Flower of the Mountain and include lines from James Joyce’s Ulysses? Bush originally asked for permission in the Eighties when she'd wrote the original. The Joyce estate refused to release the words.. She kept the backing track but came back to the lyrics for a track that would become The Sensual World.

On Director's Cut, Bush wanted to include the original version of the song. She contacted the Joyce Estate again. This time, they gave permission. I think that was a big reason for doing Director’s Cut in the first place. Some feel that the original is perfect so, even if you do get access to some classic literature, can it match the mood and beauty of the version on The Sensual World? How about updating the beloved Deeper Understanding and This Woman’s Work (both from The Sensual World)? If people did not like the new versions then the originals are always available! I think some critics felt that Director’s Cut was needless, in the sense the original albums and songs were great and should remain untouched. Others felt that some of the reworkings are inferior to the originals. I am going to bring in a couple of reviews for Director’s Cut in order to give you a sense of what critics were saying in 2011. I think that Director’s Cut was a way for Bush to look back at songs that, perhaps, were a little overdone and lacked necessary soul. All the lead vocals on Director's Cut and some of the backing vocals were  entirely re-recorded. Rather than keep the original compositions, the drum were reworked and re-recorded. A few of the tracks featured the legendary Steve Gadd. Danny Thompson appeared on bass; Mica Paris provides some great backing vocals.

Three songs on the album were completely re-recorded: This Woman's Work, Rubberband Girl and Moments of Pleasure. Two of those songs – This Woman’s Work and Moments of Pleasure – hold a very special place in fans’ hearts. I don’t think it was sacrilegious or wrong for Bush to return to some of her older tracks. They are hers to begin with, and I can appreciate that she had a chance to improve some songs that she was not completely happy with. As a new collection of songs, 50 Words for Snow, arrived in the winter of 2011, it was like Bush was clearing the way for new material – rectifying some wrongs and seeing to an important task before she could move on. I feel some of the new versions are stunning. I love how her voice sounds on Flower of the Mountain, Moments of Pleasure and This Woman’s Work. Even though Bush’s voice is different and deeper than it was in 1989 and 1993, I feel there is a new gravitas and weight that she gives to these songs. I like the fact that she took these tracks, stripped them back and then recomposed them. I think the vocals take centre stage and there is very little in the way of clutter and polish. You can hear that Bush holds affection for her previous work - she is not discarding the originals and casting them aside. Instead, she wanted to give them new respect and consideration.

 

I think the best way to approach Director’s Cut is as a completely new album – which, technically, it is! Though I have ranked my favourite five reversions, I am not someone who compares the old and new versions and critiques them heavily. My idea behind providing a ranking was to show that, actually, it was a great idea to come back to these songs! Bush really adds something new. In subtracting and taking away layers, she has given the songs room to breathe. In any case, just hearing Kate Bush sing is reason enough to love Director’s Cut! In her fifties (as she was then), she had not lost any of her power and beauty. Whilst she may not have the same vocal sound as she did years ago, her voice sounds amazing and has this smoky and deeper tone which is really pleasing. It was quite brave in a way to take on album like Director’s Cut, knowing that there would be objectionable corners and dissent from some fans and media outlets. Even though I would not place the album in my top-five of hers, I have been listening to it a lot in the run-up to its tenth anniversary and finding new things to love. It does not sound incongruous or strange placing tracks from two different albums together, as Bush has reworked them and it sounds like a complete body of work; a new album that is intended to flow and sound different. I also think that many people approached the original albums and discovered songs that they may have been unfamiliar with beforehand.

It would have been challenging following up the double album of Aerial (2005). That album came twelve years after The Red Shoes. After quite a gap, there would have been a desire and demand for another album quite soon after Aerial. I guess some people were wondering whether Bush would follow up Aerial. Happily, she was busy putting together two new, very different, albums. Rather than Director’s Cut being a passage or segue between Aerial and 50 Words for Snow, it was an important project where you can really hear and feel Bush working hard (and treating it as a completely fresh album). Whilst not every critics and fan was going to be entirely happy with the resultant Director’s Cut, it scored some very positive reviews. I will come to one of them very soon. Before that, I want to introduce sections from a Pitchfork review:

“What Bush has done on Director's Cut, put simply, is to strip the 80s from these songs. (That goes for the Red Shoes material, too, even though the album was released in the 90s.) The gigantic drums and digital polish, what both dated the music instantly and gave it that stark contrast between accessibility and the deeply personal, have been replaced with less showy rhythm tracks, and a warmer, more intimate atmosphere. On the original "The Sensual World", the elements drawn from Celtic folk felt like striking intrusions in an all-digital world. Renamed "Flower of the Mountain" here, those rustic elements no longer feel quite so out of place, whether you found the original an intriguing hybrid or an awkward merger of old and new.

The songs still don't have the feel of a band playing together, but they have a new unity, even the synthetic elements part of a lovingly handcrafted sound. "The Red Shoes", another Celtic-inflected standout, with one of Bush's wildest performances, gains a new intensity precisely because the instruments no longer feel so sterile. But not every element of this patchwork has been pieced together perfectly. The eerie keyboard textures on "And So Love Is", the kind of sour 80s kitsch beloved by Gang Gang Dance, seem surprisingly natural in this new environment. But Eric Clapton's bluesy wanking sounds even more out of place now, stadium pop bluster in a homemade world. It produces tension for sure, but the wrong sort.

It's the singing that just as often startles, though. Bush is less show-offy on Director's Cut than any of her pre-hiatus albums. For a woman known for her range, and her fearlessness at using that range, her performances are always tempered and often low-key here. As with so many songs on Director's Cut, "This Woman's Work" becomes almost shocking in its difference, not least because it's transformed from one of Bush's biggest showstoppers into something far more mournful, the singer restraining herself as if almost but not quite broken by love. The backing track is just as minimal, but deeper, the instrumental textures less brittle. A hushed, lonely Bush sounds as if she's drifting through a vast, lonely space. But instead of the original's childlike verses surging to grown-ass-woman longing on the choruses, Bush is more evenly paced here, communicating deep regret more through a bereft tone than diva theatrics. It's desolate and intimate, like much of Director's Cut, where the original's bravura made it feel both tender and defiant, like much of Bush's early work.

Even with an older and more reserved Bush occasionally putting the brakes on that melodrama, these reworked songs don't totally relinquish that unashamed grandiosity that makes Bush such a love-hate proposition. Director's Cut provides a unique opportunity to do an A/B comparison between a late-career artist and her younger self. But which you'll prefer likely depends on whether you favor a more assured artist working within her strengths, or a brash younger artist delighting in the defying of pop conventions”.

It is impressive how Bush managed to take a selection of songs from two previous albums and unite them into a cohesive and natural new whole. Other artists might have made the album sound inconsistent or poorly structured. Instead, Director’s Cut sounds like Bush has put The Sensual World and The Red Shoes out of her head and started from scratch. In this review from The Independent, Andy Gill discusses Bush’s new vocal elements and tones:

“Despite its being comprised of reworked versions of songs that originally appeared around two decades ago, Kate Bush regards her Director's Cut as a new album in and of itself.

And she's right to: There's a consistency and homogeneity about the 11 tracks (seven from The Red Shoes, four from The Sensual World) which echoes her work on Aerial, and which lends the project a character entirely its own.

This is largely due to her re-doing all the lead vocals, which has imposed a warmer, more reflective tone on proceedings. The most striking change is on the closing "Rubberband Girl", where she sounds oddly muffled: the original stratospheric yelps are gone, along with Jeff Beck's flashy guitar, replaced by an understated harmonica groove that aims for more hypnotic impact – as too does "The Red Shoes" itself, whose mesmeric mandola groove is nudged along by softly pulsing drums. Ironically, though less flamboyantly abandoned, Kate's vocals here better evoke the sense of possession in the dance.

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in a promotional image for Director’s Cut/PHOTO CREDIT: John Carder Bush 

All the new versions are longer than the originals, some considerably: completely re-recorded, "This Woman's Work" has almost doubled in size in this new, more restrained form. Originally written for the film She's Having a Baby, and frequently used in TV dramas ever since, this, ethereal re-imagining untethers the song from those associations, allowing it to float free again. A similarly effective renovation has been done to "The Sensual World", here retitled "Flower of the Mountain": denied the use of Molly Bloom's soliloquy from Ulysses in the original, Bush was this time granted permission by James Joyce's estate, and the effect is remarkable. With her voice up close and intimate, the undulating repetitions are hypnotically gripping, as Uillean pipes dance with abandon about the gently puttering groove, caressed with string-pad synths: yes, yes! It's the most genuinely sensual music you'll hear this year.

Elsewhere, the computer love song "Deeper Understanding" profits from a less brittle, more lovingly cossetting arrangement, while the balance between Eric Clapton's guitar and the fluting keyboards and backing vocals of "And So Is Love" seems much more subtly resolved in this new incarnation. That song's underlying message ("We let it in, we give it out/ And in the end, what's it all about?/ It must be love") could stand as the motif for the album as a whole, which constitutes the latest of Kate Bush's series of investigations of the nature of love, both sexual and spiritual.

It's her forte, and it's a theme which she has learned to express in music as much as in lyrics. Even when suddenly blurting out "Don't want your bullshit, just want your sexuality" in "The Song of Solomon", the attention to texture in the arrangement of harp, piano, murmuring synth and Bulgarian backing vocal creates a delicate web strong enough to carry her demand without snapping the song in two. That combination of gentle touch and toughness is a rare gift indeed”.

Ahead of the tenth anniversary of Director’s Cut, I wanted to do a series of features that approaches the album in different ways. Few of us would have known that, so soon after giving us a new album, Bush would be readying another for release in the form of 50 Words for Snow. It is testament to her hard work and organisation that she not only released two albums in 2011; she also managed to make them sound very different - and there was no sense of overlap between them. I am glad that Bush recorded Director’s Cut. It is a rare chance to see these familiar and older tracks approached and recorded…

IN a whole new light.

FEATURE: One for the Record Collection! Essential May Releases

FEATURE:

 

 

One for the Record Collection!

IN THIS ILLUSTRATION: St. Vincent releases her sixth solo studio album, Daddy’s Home, via Loma Vista on 14th May/ILLUSTRATION CREDIT: openchested 

Essential May Releases

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IT is that time of the month where I…

look forward and see which albums are arriving next month. May is a busy one for exciting albums. I am writing this on 14th April so, as I say, things can change between now and the time that this feature comes out (25th April). Let’s hope that there are no delays and rescheduled release dates, as the records due next month are ones you will want to get. I am chiselling down to the essential releases in May. 7th May is the first week for new releases. Squid’s Bright Green Field is one you will want to order. It is a much-anticipated debut album from one of Britain’s hottest young bands. This is what Rough Trade say about the album:

“At last the debut album from Squid and it's everything you wished for and more. Bright Green Field is produced by Dan Carey and released via Warp Records. It's an album of towering scope and ambition, it is deeply considered, paced and intricately constructed. With all band members playing such a vital and equal role, this album is very much the product of five heads operating as one. Some bands might be tempted to include previous singles on their debut - and the band already released two more in 2020 via ‘Sludge’ and ‘Broadcaster’ - but instead Bright Green Field is completely new.

This sense of limitlessness and perpetual forward motion is one of the key ingredients that makes Squid so loved by fans and critics alike, from BBC Radio 6 Music who have A-Listed previous singles, ‘Houseplants’, ‘The Cleaner’ and ‘Match Bet’ to publications such as, The Guardian, NME, The Face, The Quietus and countless others.

Bright Green Field features field recordings of ringing church bells, tooting bees, microphones swinging from the ceiling orbiting a room of guitar amps, a distorted choir of 30 voices as well as a horn and string ensemble featuring the likes of, Emma-Jean Thackray and Lewis Evans from Black Country, New Road. Whilst the album title conjures up imagery of pastoral England, in reality, it’s something of a decoy that captures the band’s fondness for paradox and juxtaposition. Within the geography of Bright Green Field lies monolithic concrete buildings and dystopian visions plucked from imagined cities. Squid’s music - be it agitated and discordant or groove-locked and flowing - has often been a reflection of the tumultuous world we live in and this continues that to some extent”.

I will try not to miss too many great albums out due next month. You can look at the full list of albums out next month, as it is a very packed time! The next album from 7th May that is worthy of investigation is Weezer’s Van Weezer. It is yet another album from the prolific U.S. legends. If you are a fan of Weezer, then you will want to pre-order a copy of Van Weezer. It promises to be one of their most interesting releases for years:

“Van Weezer is the 14th studio album from Weezer. The inspiration for this album derives from the deepest roots of Weezer - metal! What has metal got to do with Weezer, you ask? In his earliest years, Rivers was a huge Kiss fan; Brian was a big Black Sabbath fan; Pat worshipped at the altar of Van Halen and Rush; Scott loved Slayer and Metallica. The last time this vein of harder rock was mined by Weezer was on their much-loved 2002 album Maladroit; Van Weezer is primed to take that album's sonics many steps further courtesy of producer Suzy Shinn”.

Before moving onto the next album in May you need to order, I want to bring in a recent interview from The Forty-Five. The band’s lead, River Cuomo, talked to them about their current album, OK Human – they also looked ahead to Van Weezer:

“Their greed is matched only by Cuomo’s output. On January 29, Weezer released ‘OK Human’, an album of introspective lyrics soundtracked with a 38-piece orchestra. Drawing on classical inspirations, it’s an ambitious project with personal touches. Its lyrics, which deal precisely with being alone, are very 2020 – something Cuomo says is pure coincidence. “Most of the lyrics were written during 2018. Maybe 10% was written during the lockdown,” he tells me. Weezer started putting ‘OK Human’ together in 2018, recording the strings at Abbey Road. Just as they were finishing, however, they got booked onto Hella Mega. “We realised, we just made this classical-influenced album with strings and orchestra and piano. If we’re going to put that out and go on tour with Green Day, that just doesn’t make sense.”

They put ‘OK Human’ on hold and immediately started work on ‘Van Weezer’, wanting to “make a real stadium rock album with shredding guitars and blow those bands off the stage”. After putting the finishing touches on ‘Van Weezer’, however, everything was cancelled – making a big stadium record redundant. “We realised we just made the worst possible album for a lockdown. We couldn’t even play together as a band to promote that album!” he laughs. They went back into the studio to finish up ‘OK Human’, releasing it to comments that it was perfect for the moment. “It’s weird for me because everyone is telling us they think the album was written during the lockdown for the lockdown because they really relate to it, the way they have to live now, but that’s how I am all the time! That’s how I feel all the time.”

It’s clearly working for him: 14 albums down, and Weezer are far from done. In May, they will finally release ‘Van Weezer’, but despite releasing two full records and over 2600 demos in the span of a year, they have the next phase planned. “We’re working on a four-album set right now. I think they’re going to be eight songs a piece. They’re called Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter and together they’re called Weezer Seasons,” he says, telling me that the first one will drop on the first day of spring 2022. On top of that, he’s working on a movie musical called Buddha Superstar with the Broadway producer responsible for the Green Day musical. “It’s something I’ve always wanted to do, and I can’t believe it’s taken me this long. I think I just needed somebody else to come along and really encourage me,” he says”.

14th May offers five albums that people need reserve some pennies for. Juliana Hatfield’s Blood is worth seeking out. Go and pre-order Blood, as it promises to be a fascinating album from a hugely prolific songwriter:

“Over the past four years, Juliana Hatfield has kept fans engaged and intrigued as she oscillates between impassioned original releases (Pussycat, Weird) and inspired covers collections (Juliana Hatfield Sings Olivia Newton-John, Juliana Hatfield Sings The Police). This year she returns with her latest album of originals, Blood, out May 14, 2021.

Her 19th solo studio album takes a deep dive into the dark side with a lens on modern human psychology and behaviour. “I think these songs are a reaction to how seriously and negatively a lot of people have been affected by the past four years,” says Juliana. “But it’s fun, musically. There’s a lot of playing around. I didn’t really have a plan when I started this project.”

With the pandemic limiting studio safety and availability, Juliana took the opportunity to learn to record at her Massachusetts home with recent collaborator Jed Davis assisting from Connecticut. “Usually I work in a studio,” explains Juliana. “I did more than half the work in my room—with Jed helping me to troubleshoot the technology, and helping with building and arranging some of the songs--and then I finished up with additional overdubs and mixing with engineer James Bridges at Q Division Studios in Somerville, MA.”

The first single, “Mouthful of Blood”, is gritty and abrasive yet groovy and melodic. That duality is represented throughout Blood. It is eminently hummable and thought-provoking. Sophisticated but catchy. Challenging but danceable.

“I always love coming up with melodies and then trying to fit words into them—it’s like doing a puzzle,” says Juliana. “And I always find places to use the Mellotron flutes and strings, on every album, because those sounds are so beautiful to me. They are a nice counterpoint to the damaged lyrical content”.

Moving on, and Paul Weller’s Fat Pop (Volume 1) is another treat. Out on 14th May, this is an album that you should go and pre-order. I am a big fan of Paul Weller, so I will be sure to check out his upcoming album from the master:

“We may be cursed to be in the midst a global pandemic, buffeted by all of its stresses and pain. But everyone knows that art provides succour, that music is the most reliable balm. And for many there is further significant comfort to be drawn from the knowledge that Paul Weller is in the midst of an unbelievably prolific purple patch. Paul Weller will not let us down when we need him most.

Paul Weller releases his 16th solo album since his self-titled debut in 1992, which comes in just under twelve months following June 2020’s magnificent, chart-topping On Sunset. It’s not hyperbole to state that this new album, titled Fat Pop (Volume 1), is among his most compelling collections. It’s an absolute scorcher.

During spring last year, after his tour dates were postponed, Paul Weller needed something else to focus on. With many ideas for new songs stored on his phone, Paul started to record them on his own with just vocals, piano and guitar which he’d send to his core band members (drummer Ben Gordelier, Steve Cradock on guitar and bassist Andy Crofts) to add their parts. Despite it being strange not being together, it kept the wheels rolling and sanity prevailing. The band reconvened at Weller’s Black Barn studio in Surrey when restrictions were lifted to finish the work with the shape of the album becoming clear to all.

Fat Pop (Volume 1) – Paul adding the “Volume 1” to keep options open for a second volume in the future - is a diverse selection of sounds. No one style dominates. There’s the synth-heavy, future-wave strut of Cosmic Fringes, the stately balladeering of Still Glides The Stream (co-written with Steve Cradock), the chunky percussive groove of Moving Canvas (a tribute to Iggy Pop no less), and the kind of dramatic immediate pop symphonies on Failed, True and Shades of Blue with which Paul Weller has hooked in generation after generation of devotee.

As ever, Fat Pop, sees a number of guests contributing including Lia Metcalfe, the young Liverpudlian singer with The Mysterines who combines her tremendous vocal as well as a song writing credit to True. Andy Fairweather Low adds his distinctive vocals to superfly strutting Testify and Paul’s daughter Leah co-wrote and features on the classic 3 minute pop kitchen sink drama Shades Of Blue which will be the first single taken from the album. Hannah Peel is back in the fray adding her classic string scores to Cobweb Connections and Still Glides The Stream”.

Another great album out that week is Sons of Kemet’s Black to the Future. They are such a thrilling and original act that are hard to categorise or ignore! They were nominated for a Mercury Prize in 2018 and are one of the most exceptional Jazz groups in the world. If you have avoided the genre before, go and get Black to the Future, as it is an album that you will love:

“Sons of Kemet returns in 2021 with their new album Black To The Future. The follow up to 2018’s Mercury Prize nominated breakout release Your Queen Is A Reptile. This release finds the UK-based quartet at their most dynamic – showcasing harmonically elegant arrangements and compositions, coupled with fierce, driving material that will be familiar to initiated fans.

Led by celebrated saxophonist, clarinetist, and composer Shabaka Hutchings, Sons of Kemet are a political, U.K.-based modern jazz supergroup comprised of musicians from across the globe.

Their sound combines modal and free jazz, African rhythms and modes, and Caribbean dub and Middle Eastern timbres, as evidenced by 2018's internationally renowned Your Queen is a Reptile.

This is their 4th record, and 2nd on Impulse! Compared with Your Queen is a Reptile, this album has featured vocalists and more of an emphasis on fuller compositions and arrangements. Guest artists include Kojey Radical, Moor Mother, Angel Bat Dawid, Joshua Idehen, D Double E”.

Perhaps the biggest album out in May arrives from St. Vincent. St. Her Daddy's Home album is one that is a must-pre-order. Annie Clark is one of the most inventive and consistently brilliant artists in the world. In this recent interview with The Forty-Five, we learn more about the album:

“Daddy’s Home‘ began in New York at Electric Lady studios before COVID hit and was finished in her studio in LA. She worked on it with “my friend Jack” [Jack Antonoff, producer for Lana Del Rey, Lorde, Taylor Swift]. Antonoff and Clark worked on ‘Masseduction’ and found a winning formula, pushing Clark’s guitar-orientated electronic universe to its poppiest maximum, without compromising her idiosyncrasies. “We’re simpatico. He’s a dream,” she says. “He played the hell outta instruments on this record. He’s crushing it on drums, crushing it on Wurlitzer.” The pair let loose. They began with ‘The Holiday Party’, one of the warmest tracks Clark’s ever written. It’s as inviting as a winter fireplace, stoked by soulful horns, acoustic guitar and backing singers. “Every time they sang something I’d say, ‘Yeah but can you do it sleazier? Make your voice sound like you’ve been up for three days.” Clark speaks of an unspoken understanding with Antonoff as regards the vibe: “Familiar sounds. The opposite of my hands coming out of the speaker to choke you till you like it. This is not submission. Just inviting. I can tell a story in a different way.”

The entire record is familiar, giving the listener the satisfaction that they’ve heard the songs before but can’t quite place them. It’s a satisfying accompaniment to a pandemic that encouraged nostalgic listening. Clark was nostalgic too. She reverted to records she enjoyed with her father: Stevie Wonder’s catalogue from the 1970s (‘Songs In The Key Of Life’, ‘Innervisions’, ‘Talking Book’) and Steely Dan. “Not to be the dude at the record store but it’s specifically post-flower child idealism of the ’60s,” she explains. “It’s when it flipped into nihilism, which I much prefer. Pre disco, pre punk. That music is in me in a deep way. It’s in my ears”.

Check out the The Black Keys’ official website, as their Blues covers album, Delta Kream, sounds really interesting (you can also pre-order it here). This is what Brooklyn Vegan had to say:

“Delta Kream (due May 14), is said to call back to the band's roots, placing emphasis on the sounds, styles, and artists that have played a key role in helping mold their sound. As described via the fan club website, it "honors [the] music of Mississippi Hill Country Blues, R.L. Burnside & Junior Kimbrough, among others who have influenced The Black Keys." Some of the other artists featured include other icons of the American country blues genre, including Ranie Burnette, "Mississippi" Fred McDowell, and Joseph Lee Williams — you can view the full tracklist and cover art below.

To get a taste of what the record might sound like, you can listen to the first single, "Crawling Kingsnake," a cover of John Lee Hooker's 1941 blues track, "Crawlin' King Snake," over at the fan club website (it's free to register). Earlier this week, the band tweeted out a link to John Lee Hooker's version of the track, a discreet teaser hinting at this cover and the forthcoming album. The record will be available for pre-order beginning Thursday, April 15”.

I will move on to 21st May. Gary Numan’s Intruder is an album from that week I would advise people to pre-order. Here is a bit more information from one of Britain’s very finest:

“Intruder is the 21st solo album from the iconic and influential Gary Numan. Intruder sees Gary reunite with producer Ade Fenton, who previously produced four critically acclaimed albums for Numan: Jagged, Dead Son Rising, Splinter and Savage.

With a career that has spanned nearly four decades, his approach to electronic music remains an inspiration to artists across genres and eras, from stadium goliaths such as Depeche Mode, Prince and Nine Inch Nails to alternative heroes such as Beck, Damon Albarn and Marilyn Manson. Even Kanye West owes him a debt, and David Bowie once credited him with “writing two of the finest songs” in British music.

Gary has had 23 top 40 singles and 15 top 40 albums in the UK. The British electro pioneer was also awarded the Inspiration Award for songwriting and composition at the Ivor Novellos in 2017”.

One album that I very much looking forward to is VWETO II. I think that it is only available digitally - but you will definitely not want to overlook this gem from a truly remarkable artist that puts out such exceptional and rich musical waves:

“VWETO III is intended for movement. It’s to be played when you birth yourself back outside after a long introspective period to get the things you need. It intends for you to be your own superhero and wants to be your theme for power.” Georgia Anne Muldrow”.

Gruff Rhys’ Seeking New Gods is also out on 21st May. I love Rhys’ work so, if you want some musical goodness, you will want to pre-order his upcoming album. As with every Gruff Rhys album, it is going to be packed with phenomenal moments:

“Gruff Rhy releases his new album Seeking New Gods through Rough Trade Records. This is Gruff’s seventh solo album. Seeking New Gods was recorded following a US tour with his band and mixed in LA with superstar producer Mario C (Beastie Boys).

The album concept was originally driven to be the biography of a mountain, Mount Paektu (an East Asian active volcano). However, as Gruff’s writing began to reflect on the inhuman timescale of a peak’s existence and the intimate features that bring it to mythological life, both the songs and the mountain became more and more personal.

“The album is about people and the civilisations, and the spaces people inhabit over periods of time. How people come and go but the geology sticks around and changes more slowly. I think it’s about memory and time,” he suggests of Seeking New Gods’ meaning. “It’s still a biography of a mountain, but now it’s a Mount Paektu of the mind. You won’t learn much about the real mountain from listening to this record but you will feel something, hopefully.”- Gruff Rhys”.

Another cracking album due on 21st May is Billie Marten’s Flora Fauna. The third album from the Yorkshire-born songwriter, I am a huge fan of her work. Make sure that you pre-order her beautiful new album. It is promising to be one of this year’s best and most interesting releases:

“Flora Fauna is the third album from Billie Marten. Raised in the rolling hills of North Yorkshire on artists such as Nick Drake, Joni Mitchell, Joan Armatrading, and Kate Bush, Marten’s critically acclaimed debut album Writing of Blues and Yellows, was released in 2016 when she was still just 17, while its follow-up Feeding Seahorses By Hand was similarly lauded in 2019 (# 53 in UK album chart).

Flora Fauna, was recorded with Rich Cooper in London. Marten’s new material blends those signature hushed, resonant vocals with a rapid pulse and rich instrumentation, her inspirations now stretching from krautrockers Can, to Broadcast, Arthur Russell, and Fiona Apple.

Built on the minimalist acoustic folk foundations she made a name for herself with, Flora Fauna is a more mature, embodied album fostered around a strong backbone of bass and rhythm. Shedding the timidity of previous work in favour of a more urgent sound, the songs mark a period of personal independence for Marten as she learned to nurture herself and break free from toxic relationships - and a big part of that was returning to nature”.

Very recently, Pop sensation Olivia Rodrigo announced her debut album, Sour. After the runaway success of her single, drivers licence, many people will be keen to hear what she has to offer. Pre-order a copy from her website. Before the arrival of Sour was announced, Rodrigo spoke with Ben Barna from Interview Magazine. She was asked about the smash single and whether she feels, as such a young artist, there is room for growth and improvement:

“BARNA: It used to be that musicians weren’t able to see how many people were listening to their music in real time. What’s your relationship to the numbers?

RODRIGO: It’s a perk of the 21st century. I looked at them a lot, maybe the first week, just in total disbelief. I don’t really look at them anymore just because I cannot wrap my head around numbers like that. It’s really strange to put out music in quarantine, because I’ve actually never played a show with my own music. I’ve never met the people that are listening to the songs. So it’s just solely on social media and stuff, and sometimes that can be a weird world that feels disconnected from reality. But I hear stories. One of my friends said that yesterday she was on Melrose Avenue in L.A. and three cars pulled up next to each other and they were all blasting “Drivers License” at the same time and they just all turned it up and sang it at the same time. It’s stories like that where it’s real people listening to it that absolutely astonishes me.

BARNA: Do you fantasize about an alternate reality where “Drivers License” came out during a normal time?

RODRIGO: That’s a great question. I’ve never played a show with my own music in my life, so I’m really excited to do that one of these days. But if I could go back, I don’t think I’d change a thing. Honestly, quarantine probably contributed to its success. Lots of people are stuck in their houses, and, obviously, it’s been a hard, depressing, anxious time for all of us. I think this song is a sort of catharsis for a lot of people.

BARNA: You’re only 18 years old and you obviously have room to grow as an artist. Do you know which areas you need to improve in?

RODRIGO: I feel like I’m constantly growing. I’ll be a developing artist until I’m 85. I think the best songwriters are like that. I always listen to my songs and try to think of ways I can strengthen them. But yeah, I just turned 18. I truly don’t really know who I totally am yet. I don’t know the way I like to dress. I don’t know the way I like to act around certain people. I don’t know what my purpose is. I don’t know what people are my true friends. I’m just going to keep on making music and I’m probably going to be really confused along the way, and I think that’s the beauty of it. I’m trying not to pretend like I have everything figured out because I sure as hell don’t”.

There are three more albums I want to point people in the direction of. Coming to 28th May, there are some great albums that you will want to check out. The second album black midi,  Cavalcade is one such example. The hugely praised British band stunned on their debut album , Schlagenheim. They look set to continue this on Cavalcade. Pre-order a copy and discover what they have to offer:

“black midi’s new album Cavalcade is a dynamic, hellacious, and inventive follow-up to 2019’s widely-praised Schlagenheim, “a labyrinth with hairpin-turn episodes and lyrics full of dourly corrosive observations” (New York Times, Best Albums of 2019). It scales beautiful new heights, pulling widely from a plethora of genres and influences, reaching ever upwards from an already lofty base of early achievements”.

An album I am looking forward to is k.d. lang’s makeover. I really love lang. I think that she is both one of the greatest songwriters ever, yet she remains somehow underrated! I think that makeover sounds like a really interesting album. Rough Trade explain more:

“In celebration of Pride Month, Nonesuch Records releases KD Lang’s Makeover, a new collection of classic dance remixes of some of her best-loved songs. The album brings these remixes, made between 1992 and 2000, together for the first time, and includes ‘Sexuality’, ‘Miss Chatelaine’, ‘Theme from the Valley of the Dolls’, ‘Summerfling’, and the #1 dance chart hits ‘Lifted By Love’ and ‘If I Were You’. makeover’s cover art features a previously unseen 1995 portrait of lang by David LaChapelle”.

The final May-due album that you will want to go and pre-order is Kele’s The Waves Pt. 1. This is another album from one of the country’s finest artists. Go and pre-order it, because it looks set to be a treat. Kele spoke with DIY about making the album:

“Following the release of ‘The Heart Of The Wave’ earlier this month, Kele has now confirmed that his fifth solo album ‘The Waves Pt. 1’ will be released on 28th May via his own label, KOLA Records / !K7.

Sharing new track ‘Smalltown Boy’ alongside the news, Kele says of the record, “After the first lockdown I found myself in an odd position. We were due to start working on my second musical with the Lyric Theatre but when the lockdown came into effect those plans were thrown into disarray. I became a stay at home dad of a 3 year old and a 6 month old. Those initial days were hard but looking back they were also incredibly rewarding. In the rare moments of down time I would go up to my music room and play the guitar, looping myself, making this wall of sound. it became a type of therapy for me, something to calm me down as it seemed like the whole world was losing its head. I realised in those moments that I missed the act of performing, so I joined Instagram so I could upload performances of my old songs and songs that I love. It was a lifeline for me, to still feel connected to an audience, to still feel like a musician in this time of freefall.

“What also became clear was that I still had the desire to create. Usually when I make records it’s an ensemble affair, there are usually lots of other musicians and singers I work with, but as we were in lockdown I did not have that luxury of being able to work with other musicians. I knew I had to fill in the space of this record entirely by myself, which was daunting but also very liberating. This album is literally the sound of me.

“As I didn’t have so much time in the days to work on the ideas I had to be very focused with the little time that I did have. During the night I would go for long walks around the city on my own, listening in the moonlight to what I had recorded in the day, rearranging the songs in my head, trimming the fat. It became very clear to me that I had the start of a new record and it was going to feel very different to what I had done before.

“The initial plan was that the record was going to be solely instrumental, after 2042 I knew that I wanted a break from writing words. Although making that record had been rewarding it had also at times been quite traumatic for me, as I was forced to examine a lot of my own personal fears and anxieties about race relations in this country and the US.

PHOTO CREDIT: Katherine Anne Rose/The Observer 

I made 2042 in 2019, so when those same discussions about race came into sharp focus after the death of George Floyd in 2020 I personally felt that I needed a break from the heaviness, I knew that whatever I did next musically would need to cleanse me.

“Slowly I started adding words and vocal melodies to the ideas and I could see songs starting to take shape but it was important to me that the music felt fluid, that it drifted in out like the bobbing of waves, that if you let yourself succumb to it maybe it could take you somewhere else, somewhere far away from here”.

Those are a selection of albums that are announced for next month. There is a great range of artists and sound and, if you can afford it, then check out the ones that sound like your sort of thing. I am particularly looking forward to the new St. Vincent album, in addition to k.d. lang’s album. As the weather starts to warm up and we are getting closer to summer, I think that these terrific albums will help to warm the spirit and body even more. If you need some guidance regarding albums in May that are worth ordering then I hope that my suggestions…

PROVE fruitful.

FEATURE: Spotlight: Nadia Rose

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

PHOTO CREDIT: Alex De Mora for Wonderland. 

Nadia Rose

___________

THIS is one of these Spotlight features…

where I am featuring an artist who has been around for a while. I want to spotlight Nadia Rose because I think she is hitting a new stage in her career and there are people who do not know about her work. I will drop in a couple of interviews from last year nearer the end. First, I want to head back to when a then-twenty-three-year-old Rose was placed fifth in the BBC Sound of… 2017 poll:

“Two years ago, Nadia Rose was studying for a degree while working 12-hour shifts in a betting shop to make ends meet.

In her spare time, she’d scribble down lyrics but all around her male contemporaries – Section Boyz, Bonkaz and her cousin, Stormzy - were starting to break through.

Realising that the job was holding her back, she packed it in and started making music with friend and producer The Black Obsidian.

From the start, her witty lyrics and sense of fun set her apart. Her breakthrough video, Station, was shot, without permission, at a local railway station, with Nadia dancing nonchalantly on the tracks as a train pulled in.

More recently, the colourful, funky single Skwod saw the rapper taking over the streets with a girl gang, body-popping Beyoncé choreography and all.

“It’s Nadia Rose,” she raps on DFWT. “Who's she? Who's that? Well, who really knows?”

With a record deal at Sony and an arsenal of killer rhymes, that could easily change in 2017”.

I discovered Nadia Rose’s music back in 2017. I think she has grown in stature and confidence since she came onto the scene. That being noted, she definitely caught people’s eyes and ears very earl on! It is interesting reading interviews from 2016 and 2017 and hearing about this phenomenal young talent. In 2016, The Guardian featured Rose. We got to learn more about one of Britain’s most interesting rising female artists:

‘Everything we’ve done has stemmed from the fun factor. I can’t do boring,” says Nadia Rose emphatically. The 22-year-old Croydon rapper’s first music video, last year’s Station, found her dancing on railway tracks, unperturbed by the train pulling into the platform behind her. “We didn’t have permission,” she admits. “We literally had one shot to do that clip otherwise they’d have called the operators, but the videographer knew when the train was coming and timed it perfectly.”

The fun factor is very much present in the handful of singles Rose has released to date. She speeds up, slows down, drops into patois; stacks rhymes on rhymes, doubles up meanings, bounces between pop culture references. It’s no surprise to learn she used to read the dictionary for fun (“My mum wanted the Bible by my pillow, but I had the dictionary there!”); now, that childhood nerdiness is put to good use rapping circles around her targets and turning up the energy for her crew.

Most impressively, Rose seems to have skipped the amateur experimentation stage to emerge as a fully formed artist with her own distinct voice. There are echoes of her influences: Missy Elliott’s verbal eccentricity, Eminem’s technical panache with a dollop of dancehall, and she shares the penchant for banter that marks out her British peers such as Lady Leshurr. But on singles such as D.F.W.T. (her first viral moment, scoring nearly half a million YouTube views since last October) and Mufasa, her confidence in taking on two well-known, disparate beats – Mila J’s DJ Mustard-produced My Main and Wiley’s classic grime riddim Eskimo – and making them her own is breathtaking. It’s no shock, then, that Rose’s rise has been meteoric. This year alone, she’s signed a deal with Sony, played her first festival main stages and been invited to perform at an Alicia Keys showcase.

But just two years ago, there was rather more boredom in Rose’s life. Juggling university with a job in one of the many betting shops that have proliferated on Croydon’s high street since she was a kid, Rose would scribble lyrics on betting slips and go home to record them but kept it a secret from all but her closest friends. “It was a barrier. I wanted to do it, but I couldn’t,” she says now. So she quit her job, with no safety net. “I didn’t have a timescale, I didn’t have a plan. But I had the best people around me, and I haven’t looked back.”

The most formative of those people included her dad, a DJ who passed on a love of the musical spectrum from jungle to the Spice Girls; Rose remembers the first time his music drew her downstairs: “It was Capleton’s Cuyah Cuyah, I came down and would just sit there and take everything in from the speakers.” The charisma and hint of arrogance that magnetised her then still inspires her now: “There’s no point doing this if you’re not confident.”

A wave of charismatic, rapid-witted British female MCs is coming through along with Rose, such as Lady Leshurr and Lady Lykez. Rose is wary of a box that can be a trap for female artists, though. “We’re cool, but I don’t like the fact that we’re separated from the guys. Sometimes I feel they like to force the ‘unity’ too much and therefore separate themselves even more. Like, we’re the girls, we stick together.

“But right now we’re trying to bridge the gap. It’s cool that unity’s there, but also understand that the guys are there and they’re still our competition as well. We need to be drilling all angles”.

Not to skip through E.P.s and years but, as I want to try and bring things as up-to-date as possible, I am going to bring in interviews from 2020. I feel Nadia Rose’s best years are still ahead. She is, as I said, growing stronger and she will be a worldwide sensation very soon.

 PHOTO CREDIT: Alex De Mora for Wonderland. 

There was a lot of attention around Nadia Rose last year as she released her First Class E.P. It is an extraordinary release that highlights the fact that we have a very special talent in our midst. Rose spoke with Wonderland. last year. We discover more about her pre-music life and how, in 2020, she was a force of nature, impossible to stop:

“At 16, she went through a period of anxiety. “Growing up, I tried to give off this confidence that I don’t know if I really believed in,” she explains. “I guess it got to a point where I realised that I’d have to start believing in it myself in order for anybody else to see me that way.” What she needed was within her, she just hadn’t unlocked it yet. “Maybe it was just making the decision to focus completely on music that changed things,” she considers. “It’s a vulnerable thing to share what you’ve taken out of your brain. I had to learn how to share myself and understand what would come with that.”

And now, Nadia Rose is “unstoppable”. Her confidence has been put to rights. Rose’s music will always be fun; again, that’s her “thing”. But she’s also aware that the secret to being a good artist rests, at least in part, on something that goes a little deeper than humour. “I like to think that I’ve grown into my music, that I’m able to express myself a bit more,” she says. “I realised that I needed to delve into myself and allow listeners to get to know me, which is something I had to do as a person as well. People have always found me a bit hard to read. I didn’t really see how that made sense. As in, how could I be so closed off when music is such a personal and vulnerable thing?”

Her conscientiousness is an echo of her mother, a nurse, who Rose cites as one of the hardest workers she knows. “My mum is super confident,” she says. “I’ve always tried to emulate that. She’s a hero to me.” And then there’s Lil’ Kim, who showed Rose that rap was by no means a man’s game. At a time when hip hop was dominated by the likes of Biggie and Tupac, Lil’ Kim, as Rose puts it, was “one of the only women repping.” “I loved how unapologetic she was,” she continues. “She said exactly what I’m trying to say now – that I’m equal, if not better.” Things are more level now; not perfect, but easier. Although, the issue in hand is just as important to Rose. “I just hate the inequality in the world,” she says. “I’m no different to the men in the game, and I want that to be something that every woman can see in what they do. It doesn’t have to be rap. It doesn’t have to be acting or dancing. It doesn’t even have to be creative. You’re a woman, and whatever field you’re in, you are an equal to the rest that are there. That’s what I try to push.”

Her video to “Big Woman” presents just this. It removes stereotypical beauty standards and showcases Rose’s appreciation for “real, clean-hearted people”: people dancing, people enjoying themselves without inhibition, people cheering other people on. At the centre of the video is Grace Victory, a body positivity advocate and blogger who takes to the dancefloor. “I wanted to show off people who, for whatever reason, society doesn’t want to show off,” Rose adds. This takes us back to where things are now. At present, Rose is suspended between two chapters. While the mess with Relentless is over, there’s still work to be done. From this point onwards, all of her music will be released via her own label. “I also want to put a spotlight on other acts,” she says. “I’ve already got a first signee in mind. I want to create an empire of superbeings.” And before that, Rose will appear in her debut acting role, which, at the time of our interview, is strictly under wraps. But the ball is rolling. It’s exciting to see firsthand. “I feel like they tried to slow down my train,” she says of her previous record label. “But now the engine is just revving 100%. It’s full steam ahead”.

I do think that we will see an album and some huge tour dates in the next year or two. First Class is an E.P. that more than lives up to its name! I want to source from this interview, as we discover why Nadia Rose continues to release music as an independent artist:

“First Class is your first big release as an independent artist. Why did you decide to continue without a big label?

It was around this time last year when I decided to cut ties with my label and start my own label. It was all becoming real and everything was coming out what has been around for a while.

How is it to be your own boss and make all the decisions yourself?

I finally feel in control of my destiny, which is something I guess everybody wants in their life in general. Just the freedom to express myself and do what I want to do is absolutely priceless. Honestly, I’m really enjoying this so much and finally have my power back.

Did that also boost your creativity because you don’t have to hold back?

I feel like I had a ton of chefs in the kitchen with me that all gave their unnecessary opinions. I’m finally free now and feel the way I felt before I entered the industry when I was writing music that felt right for me. There weren’t opinions and thoughts about stuff like sales, performing it live, and other things. I think I really got back to that youthful mindset that I had once before. Free as a bird when I’m creating now and nothing that infiltrates my dream anymore.

t’s been four years since you emerged on the big stage. What was your biggest accomplishment looking back?

Getting free from the shackles of Sony is definitely up there, but I’d probably say winning the MOBO Award for ‘Best Video’ with “Skwod”. Growing up, MOBO was the place where I saw all my favorite artists from over here and the US. As time was going, I saw people like my cousin Stormzy or Section Boyz all on my screen doing it. For me, being added to that great list was very special, and I was up against some real talent and some amazing visuals. I was so thrilled to know that my work has touched people and was rewarded for it.

Is there a big difference between the US and the UK scene in your opinion?

In terms of like production and all the things the Americans would do, which was really about going all out, I didn’t see that much over here. But it has always been fascinating for me that there’s a great scene over here as well that was flourishing. In terms of unity and collaborations, I definitely see a lot more happening of that in the US scene but as time has gone on, the UK is also doing a lot more dope collaborations. It’s great to see.

What’s for you, as the creator, the difference between your first project Highly Flammable and the new EP First Class?

I definitely say that the difference sound-wise, is that First Class is a little bit more polished. For Highly Flammable, I was just enjoying that I was making the EP because it was my first one, and I just wanted to put my favorite songs on it. First Class is my lead-in to my debut album because I think it’s a lot more directional and I, once again, got to work with some amazing producers. Further, I think there’s a lot of growth because I’m not holding back. Sometimes, the younger me being in these situations with all these different opinions, I might got too much in myself sometimes and didn’t say all the things that I wanted to say. Whereas now, I’m just saying what I think and feel”.

I am going to end up with a review of First Class. It is a wonderful E.P. and another remarkable chapter. I loved 2017’s Highly Flammable and, upon listening to the mini-album, I was pretty blown away! The same can be said of First Class. When London in Stereo reviewed First Class, this is what they had to say:

“It’s been three years since South London rapper Nadia Rose released her debut EP, Highly Flammable. During that period (2017), there was a lot of hype around her name and the project was a snack for fans to nibble on ’til she released her debut album. Unfortunately, she got caught up in a bad music deal and could only occasionally feed her fans singles and freestyles. Now, however, it’s a new era for the rapper and her supporters. To celebrate her artistic freedom, and prepare listeners for an era of consistency, she has released First Class.

On the opening track ‘Sugar Zaddy’, her witty lyrics and rhyme skills shine as she drops braggadocious lines. In the song she raps, “Big titties that resemble the racks // Cat, fat like the rest of the stack.” Meanwhile, on the Gemini anthem ‘Too Bad’ she adds another melodic hook to her collection while rapping about what it’s like to be in a relationship with Geminis.

First Class is like a Christmas present you can’t wait to open. In this case, 6th of August is Christmas Day, and ‘Werk It Out’ and ‘Higher’ are the rapper’s gifts to listeners. Beyond the fact that both are fresh (never been heard before) songs, Nadia Rose hits high notes like Adele over guitar riffs and smooth harmonies on ‘Higher’. While on ‘Werk It Out’ the touch of the bass guitar in the beat makes it a standout production-wise.

Nadia Rose is a confident rapper who will flaunt her endowments whenever she gets the chance to and, with the EP title, she asserts that she is in a class of her own. Also, on songs like ‘Sugar Zaddy’ and ‘Bad N Boujee’ her verses come with Swagger. On the latter, she says, “Already know I’m a cocky bitch.” Her hilarious descriptions lead to spit-take moments that make her a captivating rapper who holds your full attention. First Class might be a 5-track project, but it’s filled with anthems from start to finish, leaving listeners thrilled ’til the end”.

I wonder whether we will hear anything more from Nadia Rose in 2021. She featured on the Bad Habits single alongside TiZ EAST and Moelogo; she paired with Melanie C on the fantastic Fearless. Having joined forces with a Spice Girl and having huge fans like Rihanna, there is no doubt that Nadia Rose has a large and acclaimed fanbase. I feel she will continue to eschew the charms and attempts of a big label and direct her career in her own way. Succumbing to temptation – if there is any about signing with a big label – is quite hard. In the rising and always-brilliant Nadia Rose, we have an artist who is likely to be…

A superstar very soon.

_______________

Follow Nadia Rose

PHOTO CREDIT: Campbell Addy for FADER 

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/nadiarosemusic/

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/nadiarosemusic

Twitter:

https://twitter.com/nadiarosemusic

YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgTrzuH6dNDnSTqHSaqSTPg

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/artist/0Nc09HuPN9ELmbTCLyNKnO

FEATURE: Queer as Folk: The New Normal: Changing Attitudes and Acceptance in 2021

FEATURE:

 

 

Queer as Folk

IN THIS PHOTO: girl in red (Norwegian singer-songwriter Marie Ulven) identifies as a queer artist

The New Normal: Changing Attitudes and Acceptance in 2021

___________

THAT title might…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Arlo Parks (left)

seem quite vague to many people. I want to bring in an interview where the amazing girl in red discussed her material and hope she can normalise queerness in music. I think the last few years has seen change and greater acceptance. In terms of race, we still have a way to go in terms of there being parity and true progression. I think there is greater visibility and inclusiveness compared to a few years back. The same goes for gender. Whilst we have problems with festival line-ups being male-heavy, I do think that there have been improvements in other areas. I think the pandemic has provided a chance for reflection and, hopefully, change. I think the sexual spectrum has opened and become more integrated into music. There are artists like Sam Smith who identify as non-binary. Ezra Furman recently came out as transgender. There are amazing bisexual, gay and queer artists. From Years & Years’ Olly Alexander, to Arlo Parks, to Shura, I feel that it is important that music is as broad and open as possible when it comes to sexual identity. There was a time when music, especially in the mainstream, was very heteronormative. I still think there is this ideal and majority that has meant a lot of artists – who identity as L.G.B.T.G.Q.I.A.+ - have been afraid to express themselves or be honest through their music.

I will get to that interview soon, as a very interesting point was raised. Baby Queen, FLETCHER and Liz Lawrence are amazing queer artists who are definitely inspiring others. I wonder whether, as my title implied, there is a bit of a genre limitation. I think that more Pop and Indie artists are identifying as queer and L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+. I am not suggesting that other genres and areas of music are less accepting, though I wonder whether there are concerns that they might not be as tolerant and encouraging when it comes to integrating that into the music. From ZAND, Vincint and Tia Carys, there are some awesome L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ artists to watch out for this year. Attitude have provided a guide; as have The Gay Times. I am heterosexual male, and it can be tiring and frustrating realising there are artists that struggle for acceptance or they have changed the way they write because they are fearful that people will not listen. I do think that things are changing when it comes to L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ artists and finding an audience. Huge artists like St. Vincent and King Princess have shown that. Whilst many of the songs documenting love might be gender-neutral or, perhaps, less explicit than you might hear from many heterosexual artists, I don’t think that is because of potential blowback or judgment. Japanese Breakfast is another wonderful artist who is flying the L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ flag. So too is the superb Rostam and Romy (of The xx). Here is a useful article that highlights L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ artists teasing albums this year.

I really like the music of girl in red. I think she is going to be a huge star. The twenty-two-year-old is someone to watch. She is a queer icon, and someone who commands a huge following - on TikTok, she is followed by 1.7 million people. I think there is a stigma on some platforms and corners where people feel that, if you listen to the music of a queer/L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ artist, then that means you are the same as them, sexually. It is worrying that this mindset and ignorance exists. I want to grab from an interview The Guardian conducted with girl in red recently. Whilst the music industry as a whole is moving in the right direction regarding queer visibility and acceptance, there are some countries that are still very much behind the time:

“Ulven cottoned on to the trend, putting posters with the slogan in countries such as Brazil, Poland and Russia, “places where gay rights are not moving in the right direction, and we made it a really cool moment,” she enthuses. “If my songs can in any way shape or form normalise queerness then that’s amazing.” She is optimistic on the subject, foreseeing a future where “coming out” – a duty only queer people are lumbered with – is no longer necessary. “I think in the next 40 years we’re going to see a big difference. I listened to this podcast that said a lot of people feel like there’s no threshold [any more], there’s nothing to come out of. I think we’re moving in the right direction for that, at least in some places in the world.”

Ulven is thankful that she grew up in a liberal country, but her home town of Horten, in eastern Norway, felt stifling in other ways. Excitement was hard to come by: she occupied herself by writing songs after being turned on to guitar music in her mid-teens by the film The Perks of Being a Wallflower (“I went from full-on basic bitch to full-on indie girl”), although she also attributes the lo-fi, C86 style of her early work to her limited production abilities. Now, however, Ulven’s music is free from restraints and her superb upcoming debut album If I Could Make It Go Quiet – which she wrote almost entirely herself, and also produced with help from Matias Tellez and Finneas – flits between synthpop, R&B, new wave, rap and piano balladry: “I don’t fuck with genres, but who does any more? I made it, that’s the uniting thing.”

Whether her theme is desire or depression, Ulven’s personal voice is characterised by stark, specific honesty. She belongs to a new wave of young artists determined to counter empty empowerment anthems with warts-and-all vulnerability – not that Ulven likes the term’s connotations of weakness or exposure. “I don’t feel like I’m being really vulnerable because these are things that we all go through. There’s nothing to expose about feeling heartbroken”.

I think artists like girl in red, and the vulnerable way she writes, will help normalise queerness and break down boundaries. It will also encourage other queer artists and show that they are able to write about their experiences and relationships in a way that is very natural. I think it will not be long until we do not need to talk about queerness as being different or visible – it will just become normal. The same goes for other L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ artists. It is encouraging to hear girl in red say that, for artists (and others in society), the usual queer experience of ‘coming out’ might not be needed; that there is no threshold to come out of. There are a lot of fantastic queer artists now. It would be great to see even more integration and awareness. Some genres have some bright and hopeful young artists talking about their experiences as a queer person. There are others where there are very few – I think it is more to do with other factors beyond there not being many queer artists in that genre(s). Thanks to the amazing and inspiring queer artists in music right now, it will become…

THE New Normal.

FEATURE: Too Good to Be Forgotten: Songs That Are Much More Than a Guilty Pleasure: Paula Abdul - Straight Up

FEATURE:

 

 

Too Good to Be Forgotten: Songs That Are Much More Than a Guilty Pleasure

Paula Abdul - Straight Up

___________

THIS may be one of those cases…

where the artist rather than the song is seen as a guilty pleasure. As I always say, I cannot get behind the idea that any song is a guilty pleasure. I have seen Paula Abdul’s Straight Up viewed as a guilty pleasure; one of those songs that you can’t really admit to liking. Taken from her debut album, Forever Your Girl, I also love the 1989 single, Opposites Attract (with The Wild Pair). With the album and Straight Up single released in 1988, Abdul was a huge star! Although Straight Up was written, produced and arranged by Elliot Wolff, it is Abdul’s performance and confidence that really puts the song in your brain. I really like a lot of her material. One can definitely not have a bad word to say about a song like Straight Up. I am going to round off soon. Before that, I found a lot of good background regarding Forever Your Girl and the popularity of Straight Up from the official Paula Abdul website:

“Six months after the release of Paula’s second single “The Way That You Love Me”, her “Forever Your Girl” album was declared a flop and Virgin was ready to move on. In fact, label executives were in the process of reorganizing the label’s roster of artists and cutting their less successful acts.

Due to Forever Your Girl’s failure to launch, Abdul’s record contract was on the chopping block. As quoted in “Virgin: A History Of Virgin Records” by Terry Southern, Simon Draper, a Co-founder of Virgin Records says “[Paula] had quite a big success for Virgin America- but they were still losing money- and suddenly, and seemingly quite miraculously, she took off. I went out to America with Kenny for a big crisis meeting with Jordan and Jeff (top American execs) worried about the amount of money they were spending; we were to go through their artists’ roster with them.

“One of the artists they were getting ready to drop was Paula Abdul; they were spending all this money on her and it hadn’t really happened. It’s unbelievable, but at lunchtime we sat in on a marketing meeting where they were arguing about this remix of her single [The Way That You Love Me], and on that same day the things suddenly started to turn around, orders started to pile in, and the record took off like a rocket- the record played a major role in establishing Virgin America – but it was close! Another week and they might have got rid of her.”

It was during this meeting one of the Executives turned on the radio to hear Abdul’s “Straight Up” playing. Radio station KMEL in San Francisco had started playing "Straight Up" from the album and had begun charting immediately.

At that point Virgin decided to abandon "The Way That You Love Me" and refocus its attention on "Straight Up". The strategy paid off, as "Straight Up" was followed by three more number-one hits from the same album.

Paula’s mother Lorraine found "Straight Up." Abdul says that her mother knew someone whose boyfriend (Wolff) was an aspiring songwriter, and she was handed "Straight Up" as an 8-track demo.

Abdul said the demo version was “so bad” that Abdul’s mother was "crying laughing" at it, and threw it in the trash. But Abdul was intrigued and heard something she liked in it, and retrieved it saying, “There's something about it that's crazy good, and I have to hear it again."

Virgin Records didn't think the song was any good but Abdul offered to record two songs they wanted, which she didn't like, if they would let her do "Straight Up". The song was recorded at a cost of $3,000.

”Straight Up” was written and produced by Elliot Wolf. The song was co-produced by Keith “K.C.” Cohen. The single was officially released on Nov 22, 1988. The demo was recorded by Delissa Davis.

After debuting at # 79 on Billboard the week of December 3, 1988, the song became so popular that it ascended to the Hot 100 top 20 before a music video had even been filmed to promote the song.

The black and white video, directed by David Fincher and choreographed by Paula herself in mid-January 1989, won four 1989 MTV Video Music Awards for Best Female Video, Best Editing, Best Choreography, and the first Best Dance Video.

The video features a special appearance by Paula's friend, comedian Arsenio Hall, whose popular talk show had premiered a few weeks prior to the video shoot. Djimon Hounsou (from the movie “Amistad”) also makes an appearance.

Released in February 1989, the video at the time went into very heavy rotation on MTV, and it also made Abdul known for her exceptionally creative and stylish dance videos.

In the US, "Straight Up" reached the number-one spot on the Billboard Hot 100 by February 11, 1989, where it stayed for three consecutive weeks.

When Virgin Records called Paula to tell her that the song reached #1 on the charts she was in bed sick with a 103° temperature, worn out from her hectic schedule working on the album and various choreography commitments.

"Straight Up" was one of the most popular R&B and dance-pop singles of the entire year, remaining in the Top 10 for seven weeks, the Top 20 for nine weeks, and the Top 40 for sixteen weeks.

The success of "Straight Up" catapulted the "Forever Your Girl" album into the top 20 on the album chart. Two more number-one hits from the album boost it up further into the top 5 where it lingered before it finally reached #1 in October after a record-setting 64 weeks on the market.

In Australia, 'Straight Up (Ultimix Mix)' was released as a single in its own right in 1990 to promote the 'Shut Up and Dance' album, peaking at #55 on the ARIA Chart in July 1990”.

It is one of those cases where the label felt a song was going to be a flop, but it then goes on to do extremely well! One of the things about Forever You Girl is that at the time of the album's release it was the most successful debut album of all time - and it was the first time an artist scored four US Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles from a debut album! For that reason alone, I think that the album and its immense single, Straight Up, warrants respect. Maybe the production is a little dated now, though I feel the song still sounds great and holds up. If you have not heard Straight Up for a while, I would definitely recommend…

THAT you give it a play.

FEATURE: An Inspirational Talent: Spotlighting the Amazing Vick Hope

FEATURE:

 

 

An Inspirational Talent

PHOTO CREDIT: Arron Dunworth

Spotlighting the Amazing Vick Hope

___________

THIS is not timed to an announcement or anniversary…

but I was thinking, when BBC Radio 1’s Annie Mac announced that she was leaving the station after seventeen years, how she is a hugely inspiring female broadcaster who has encouraged so many other women to get into radio/the media/music. She has won acclaim and respect from all corners of the literal and musical globe. She is being replaced on her Future Sounds show by the brilliant Clara Amfo. It seems like, compared to a couple of years ago, there has been a really positive change in redressing gender imbalance on the radio. Things are not as level as they should be, though I think there has been some steps forward. One person who I hope we hear more from in terms of radio hours is Vick Hope. This might not be the most eloquent feature she has ever read about herself, but I am compelled to discuss hope more. As (co)host of BBC Radio 1’s Life Hacks, Hope is a part of a massive station. I listen to and really love her Songs to Live By podcast. The tag is “Songs To Live By celebrates Black culture through the music we love. Host Vick Hope is joined by two guests from different generations to share songs that have shaped them”. I would encourage people to check it out, as Hope is a brilliant host. The range of guests and the songs they discuss makes for compelling listening. I will bring in an interview from last year that really caught my eye. Before moving on, a bit of background regarding the amazing Vick Hope:

“Victoria Nwayawu Nwosu-Hope (born 25 September 1989) is a British multi-lingual TV and radio presenter, journalist and published author. She hosted the Capital Breakfast show on Capital FM radio station. She also presents Crufts on Channel 4, Carnage on Sky One, Trending Live on 4Music, Life Hacks on BBC Radio 1, FYI Daily on ITV2 and became the backstage presenter for ITV's The X Factor in 2019, after becoming the digital reporter for The Voice UK in 2018. In 2020, she became the red carpet host of 2020 BAFTA Film Awards. In October 2020, it was announced that Hope would host a new ITV Hub sister show entitled I'm a Celebrity...The Daily Drop.

As well as presenting, Hope works as a print and broadcast journalist for ITN and publications including The Argentina Independent and Marie Claire. In 2017 Hope won the Broadcasting Powerhouse Award at the Marie Claire Future Shapers Awards. She is a human rights activist and Amnesty International ambassador, having worked with the organisation since she was 16.

Hope is best known for her work presenting the Capital Breakfast show in London along with Roman Kemp and Sonny Jay since 2017. Before this she hosted weekend breakfast on sister station, Capital Xtra. On 24 February 2020, she announced that she would be leaving the show to focus on other ventures. On 20 March 2020, Sian Welby replaced Hope as co-host of Capital Breakfast.

In 2019, Hope joined Classic FM presenting Classic FM's Revision Hour alongside Ellie Goulding, Lewis Capaldi & Dan Smith.

In August 2020, Hope replaced Cel Spellman to co-host Life Hacks and “Official Chart: First Look” alongside Katie Thistleton on BBC Radio 1”.

Rather than this being an excuse to praise Hope and her work – not that there is anything wrong in that! -, I have been thinking about radio icons and how there is a wave of young broadcasters who I can see really shaping the future of radio. I wonder if there are any plans for Hope to present her own show. She loves music, and she is so knowledgeable and respected. Hugely intelligent and educated, Hope is a definite inspiration to a lot of people. I caught her recently speaking with Jane Garvey and Fi Glover on their Fortunately… podcast. Hope comes across as this incredibly affable and likable.

Although she is still very young, I do think that stations should be knocking her door down. The nominees for the ARIAS were announced last week. There is some serious talent up or awards. I can see Hope being among the nominees before too long. From her incredible knowledge of elephants, to her acclaimed and broad career so far, I think that Vick Hope can offer a lot in her own show. I am not sure what form that would take. I could see a mix of music and conversation – maybe with a political or sociological perspective. Before getting to an interview from The Times, this year saw Hope release a children’s book alongside her former radio colleague, Roman Kemp. You can buy Shout Out: Use Your Voice, Save the Day here. Last month, Hope spoke with HELLO! about the new book:

“Starting off 2021 with a bang, Vick released children's book Shout Out: Use Your Voice, Save the Day!, a children’s book she co-wrote with former colleague Roman Kemp – a sequel to their 2019 debut Listen Up.

"The world has changed so much this year. Currently kids are indoors, unable to see their friends or go to school – they need that escape. I feel that a children’s book is really needed now."

She added: "I find children amazing and so interesting, intelligent and insightful – their curiosity is something I can relate to. And I feel they deserve stories that can cultivate them, and if that happens at a young age, then the sky’s the limit."

Vick explains how she and Roman (son of Martin Kemp) became good friends while presenting the radio show together. "When you see someone every single day, at 5.30am in the morning, you have to break down all barriers, you become very close. It’s a brother-sister friendship.

"We came up with the ideas of characters from a world that we knew, our own childhoods, which were very different. And then, what do we know together now? It’s radio."

Vick claims her affinity with children is down to the fact she’s never really grown up. "Even at weddings, I’m quite often put on the children’s table, even though I’m very much a full adult," she laughs.

"I find children amazing and so interesting, intelligent and insightful – their curiosity is something I can relate to. And I feel they deserve stories that can cultivate them, and if that happens at a young age, then the sky’s the limit”.

There truly is no end to Vick Hope’s talents! You can follow her on Instagram and Twitter. Lockdown has not been a good situation for many people in terms of their careers and doing all they planned to in 2020/2021. I guess Vick Hope is in the same boat. I am not sure if she had projects and radio work shelved. I suspect that she is looking ahead to a post-pandemic world and making us for lost time! Alongside hugely inspiration women in radio like Annie Mac, Clara Amfo, Lauren Laverne, Zoe Ball, Dotty, Jamz Supernova and Vanessa Feltz (and many others), I think that Vick Hope is going to make a huge impact on the next generation. I do hope that radio bosses – whether at BBC Radio 1 or another station – give her the opportunity to helm a big show in a great timeslot.

I want to end up with an interview from The Times from last year. We got a glimpse into the life and brilliance of Vick Hope:

“The first thing I do when I wake up is dance around my flat to Lizzo, Robyn or Ariana Grande. Sometimes singing into the hairbrush. Doing that gives me joy.”

If you need a lesson in positivity, self-care or whatever else millennials do to survive a pandemic, try spending an hour with the infectiously upbeat Vick Hope. The broadcaster, presenter, writer and beauty ambassador is an increasingly influential role model for Britain’s adolescents in 2020. It’s a far cry from the 1990s, when I was growing up, and Sara Cox and Zoe Ball ruled the airwaves, famous for their cheeky radio chat and weekend benders. Hope is leading a new wave of female broadcasters — Clara Amfo, Maya Jama, AJ Odudu and Laura Whitmore — who are, yes, cool and glamorous, but also woke and multifaceted; women whose Instagram accounts are a stream of flawless selfies and cooking tutorials alongside yoga poses and Black Lives Matter placards.

I meet Hope, 30, for coffee in east London. Bright-eyed, smart and chatty, it’s clear why she has become an accidental agony aunt for Gen Z. Even when it comes to fashion and beauty, she uses her platform (she has 138,000 followers on social media) for good. Hope works with the beauty brand Shea Moisture UK as an advocate for curly hair — she stopped straightening her own naturally wavy afro hair in 2017, having treated it her entire adult life. “With afro hair it’s always about ‘taming curls’ or ‘controlling frizz’,” she says. “That language could do with changing. You’d be surprised how much that goes in and stays with you. I always thought I was ugly because of my hair or nose, when actually they are African features and they’re beautiful.”

Next month the Cambridge-educated presenter starts as a Radio 1 DJ, presenting the station’s much-loved Life Hacks show, where she’ll be giving advice to its young audience. Previously known as The Surgery, it’s been running since 1999 and Hope says it’s her dream job. “I grew up listening to that show and found solace in it. They talked about sex, relationships, mental health, all the stuff you’re trying to work out when you’re young and may be too embarrassed to talk about with your friends or parents.”

Hope left her gig at Capital Radio’s breakfast show in February after three years. She cohosted with her best friend Roman Kemp, and the two have written two children’s books, with the second coming out in January next year. She’s close to her fellow female presenters too: “Clara [Amfo] lives down the road from me. As soon as I left Capital she was like, ‘Babe, we’re going for breakfast”.

Hope, who is “almost fluent” in French and Spanish, took night lessons when she was still at school — “My secondary school didn’t offer Spanish and I campaigned all the way through for it. Eventually they did offer it but only after I’d left” — before studying modern languages at Cambridge university. “At first I felt like I didn’t belong. It’s not hugely diverse, not just being black but being from the north you are few and far between. Sometimes it did feel tokenistic. I was put on the front of the prospectus within two months of being there with a profile that felt a bit like: ‘If I can do it, anyone can.’ ” She laughs it off. “I’m happy to have been part of that access literature, it’s important that they’re working on it and I feel lucky to have gone there.”

Hope has been using lockdown to record voiceover work from her flat and prepare and deliver meals to refugee families. She is also an ambassador for Amnesty International UK and continues to be vocal about antiracism; she spoke about the issue on ITV’s Lorraine and has posted in support of Black Lives Matter on Instagram. By the time our chat draws to an end, I frankly feel lazy just listening to all her achievements — but I’m cheered by the fact she’s still a bit of a party girl. “Twenty-five of my mates came to Ibiza with me to celebrate my 30th birthday,” she grins. “At Capital quite often I was coming in [to do the show straight] from a night out”.

I think that, when lockdown measures are eased further and things start to get back to normal, we will see more of Vick Hope on the radio. Rather than this being me trying to direct her career, I get more and more bowled over the more I learn about her! Aside from everything she has achieved and does, she is one of the most compelling voices on radio. I shall wrap things up there. I love all of Vick Hope’s work. From listening to and reading interviews, she has this inspiring and wonderful quality that makes her someone to watch closely. I do hope that we hear a lot more from her on the airwaves. In Vick Hope, we have a multi-talented treasure with…

AN extremely bright future.

FEATURE: Second Spin: Sleigh Bells - Reign of Terror

FEATURE:

 

 

Second Spin

Sleigh Bells - Reign of Terror

___________

ONE musical duo that do not…

get the credit they deserve is Sleigh Bells. They have released some terrific albums, but the Brooklyn duo, vocalist Alexis Krauss and guitarist Derek Edward Miller, have put out one or two that did not get the acclaim I feel they warrant. Their current album, 2016’s Jessica Rabbit, is one such example. I think that their second studio album, Reign of Terror, is another. It got some great reviews, though there were others who were less kind or found fault. I am going to bring in some contrasting reviews for the 2012 album. I love the album and, from its intriguing and brilliant cover to its solid songs, there is a lot to admire. Here is some more information regarding Reign of Terror:

“Following the critical success of their debut album Treats, Sleigh Bells started writing new material for their next album while on tour for their debut album, and recorded it over the course of five months in 2011. While Treats used a mixture of guitars and beats that eschewed pop song structures for their overall sound, Reign of Terror emphasized more guitar sounds that follow structures with emotionally heavy lyrics.

The album received a generally positive reception from critics. Reign of Terror debuted at number 12 on the Billboard 200 and spawned only one single: "Comeback Kid". To promote the album, Sleigh Bells toured across North America and Europe”.

I think Reign of Terror is an album deserves reinspection. It debuted at number-twelve in the Billboard 200. The album descended to number-seventy-eight in the second week with sales falling to around 8,000 copies - a 72% drop. I am not sure why the album did not fare better. Listening now and, whilst there are a couple of weaker tracks and the odd issue – I am not sold on the album sequencing and opening with True Shred Guitar -, it is better than a lot of critics gave it credit for. In a mixed review, this is what PASTE noted:

“But these songs don’t have hooks. “Born to Lose” is memorable for all the wrong reasons, with its distorto-chord blasts that don’t connect into a progression in an awkward, dragging rhythm akin to a child trying to sound out each letter of a word he’s trying to speak. They wanted it to sound “wrong” obviously, which I can respect, but it doesn’t go anywhere, which I can’t. “Crush” never escapes its marriage of cheerleader chant and Pulp’s “Common People.” The single “Comeback Kid” is one of the few songs here to move from place to place rather than sit still and build on top of one idea, but it still manages to land on a whiny bridge (“You’re gonna make it/ You’ll come back somedaaaaay”) after tantalizing verses. It’s almost saved by a twin-guitar break, though this album relies so heavily on those that it lacks surprise (Treats deployed the twin-guitar novelty just once, and perfectly, on its opening hammer “Tell ‘Em”).

If I sound like I’m rooting against the band’s decision to make a conventionally-produced album and grow out of compressed noise, I’m not. But they took elements away rather than replace that gap with new ones. Losing dynamic range should’ve warranted more surprises in the audio spectrum—I don’t expect them to replicate the land mine ending to “Infinity Guitars,” but what about the horns from “Kids”? Where’s the resourcefulness that their bigger budget’s supposed to reflect?

“The bigger culprit is the decision to cast off much of their hip-hop element, which kept the songs uptempo, and rely more on chugging metal, which gives even the better tracks like “Road to Hell” a dragging feel. While it’s fun to throw your inability to shred in metalheads’ faces by claiming their turf anyway (love the part in “Demons” when they “stand ‘em up six by six by six”), it’s better to back it up with memorable music. As it happens, the sweet shoegaze ballad “You Lost Me” is the best thing here, and it’s the song that has the least to do with anything you’ve read about Sleigh Bells. So maybe they didn’t go far enough in straying from the blueprint they tried hard not to repeat. Either way, Reign of Terror plays like a band with original ideas who got stuck in quicksand”.

There is a lot to enjoy through Reign of Terror. Those familiar with Sleigh Bells can appreciate the album, as can those coming to it fresh. Perhaps Reign of Terror is a classic case of an album growing stronger over time. I want to bring in a positive review from Consequence of Sound. They were much more approving of a brilliant album:

“But Reign of Terror goes bigger by way of width and depth rather than by volume, as it were. One of the most thoughtful tracks, “You Lost Me”, takes a hair-metal ballad and flips it on its head, with Krauss cooing about a sordid and doomed relationship and Miller turning in his best Def Leppard impression by palm-muting arpeggios up and down the guitar. Krauss’ tone adopts that poppy, teenage apathy well and she fills out most of the album with lyrics that are very simple and very important — not unlike high school. “Don’t run away from me baby/ just go away from me baby,” Krauss ekes out on “Road to Hell”, a mid-tempo chug-a-lug that continues to wed Miller’s re-born love for heavy metal with Krauss’ newborn beautiful and evocative voice. Other discarded schoolyard missives are all over this album, like “I’ve got a crush on you now” on “Crush”, but it’s all much more dangerous and detached than a mall-rock band, like Krauss is singing with a crooked, nasty smirk. She already knows everything that’s pretty and ugly about love.

Their greatest boon (or perhaps schtick?) is how well Sleigh Bells can capture this moment, the one that’s happening right now. Reign Of Terror already feels definitively 2012 by way of reappropriating the decadent pop of the ’80s with a louder snarl and a deeper cynicism. Miller’s guitars scream like a speeding ambulance, the drums beat on against the current of timidity, and Krauss makes beautiful all things that have no right to be. There was barely a precedent for Sleigh Bells two years ago, and there’s hardly a precedent for them now. That’s success. That’s having a song like “Comeback Kid”, the album’s flagship salvo, that solders all these elements together into one anthem that stands above the rest. It’s past, present, and future Sleigh Bells that sounds just as effortless as Krauss’ vocal gymnastics on the track. Miller even turns off the distortion on his guitar at the end! It couldn’t possibly drop on the scene the same way “Crown On The Ground” did two years ago, but it shouldn’t. “Comeback Kid” is about Sleigh Bells still having the power to grab the masses by the lapels and say,”This!” and have it actually mean something.

There’s a coda to the album, the final track “D.O.A”, which is a simple Krauss + Miller duet with almost no percussion save for some finger-snaps. It’s a haunting and abrupt way to end the album, but in it Krauss sings, “How come nobody knows how the chorus should go?” She’s not asking a question. She’s throwing down the gauntlet”.

If you have not listened to Sleigh Bells’ Reign of Terror, then go and check it out now. There was some positivity towards it back in 2012. However, I feel most reviews were quite mixed. Whilst not perfect, I think Sleigh Bells’ second studio album is a work that requires new ears and study so that it can begin…

PHOTO CREDIT: Patrick O'Dell 

A new reign.

FEATURE: Groovelines: Queen Latifah (ft. Monie Love) – Ladies First

FEATURE:

 

 

Groovelines

PHOTO CREDIT: Raymond Boyd/Getty Images 

Queen Latifah (ft. Monie Love) – Ladies First

___________

OVER the course of this feature…

I am spotlighting songs that are important or have made a big cultural impact. In the case of Queen Latifah’s Ladies First, both are true. The 1989 track featuring Monie Love is an all-time classic. The song is taken from debut album from Queen Latifah, All Hail the Queen. The album and the single are both enormously significant:

“All Hail the Queen is the debut studio album by hip-hop artist Queen Latifah. The album was released on November 28, 1989, through Tommy Boy Records. The feminist anthem, "Ladies First" featuring Monie Love remains one of Latifah's signature songs.

All Hail the Queen peaked at no. 6 and no. 124 on the Billboard Top Hip Hop/R&B Albums and Billboard 200 charts, respectively. "Wrath of My Madness" was the first single from All Hail the Queen, and was later sampled in Yo-Yo's "You Can't Play With My Yo-Yo". "Mama Gave Birth to the Soul Children" peaked at no. 14 in the UK. In 1998, the album was selected as one of The Source's 100 Best Rap Albums. It was also featured in Robert Dimery's 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.

In 2008, the single "Ladies First" was ranked number 35 on VH1's 100 Greatest Songs Of Hip Hop”.

I am going to drop the song in soon. I love Queen Latifah and feel that it is one of her greatest tracks. I feel it is so strong because she and Monie Love combine so seamlessly. It is an anthem that resounds heavy and powerful today. I still feel women are having to fight to have their voices heard. It means that (sadly) Ladies First has not dated and is so relevant today.

It is a shame that Hip-Hop and Rap, even in 2021, are struggling against gender imbalance, sexism and misogyny. Maybe the problem is not as pronounced as it was in the late-1980s, though there is still a way to go until things are where they need to be. Ladies First was a bold and brilliant anthem from a Hip-Hop queen who definitely was not going to be pushed aside. As this article from 2014 explains, Ladies First was an important breakthrough:  

“Hip-hop was, at first, pretty much a guy thing. And it still is, in many ways. But many women, along the way, have made their presence felt, and one of the first was Queen Latifah.

“Ladies First,” a track from Latifah’s 1989 “All Hail the Queen” album that featured British rapper Monie Love, was a bold declaration, in the days when hip-hop was still defining itself, that women could hold their own:

The ladies will kick it, the rhyme that is wicked

Those that don’t know how to be pros get evicted

A woman can bear you, break you, take you

Now it’s time to rhyme, can you relate to

A sister dope enough to make you holler and scream?

It’s a serious point, but the tone of the song isn’t dry or humorless. The music has a wild, funk- and jazz-influenced edge: Latifah is making a joyful statement, not an angry one.

Latifah, who grew up in Newark, East Orange and Irvington, has stuck to the song’s philosophy throughout her career. Just as she wouldn’t take no for an answer as a rapper, seeking hip-hop glory at a time when few women did, she has not conceded to any limits in her career, distinguishing herself as a singer (not just a rapper), an actress, a talk show host, a writer (whose 1998 memoir was titled “Ladies First: Revelations of a Strong Woman”) and, perhaps most significantly, as a businesswoman who has both taken firm control of her own career and helped bring others, including Naughty by Nature, to the attention of the world”.

Last year, the AMC series, Hip Hop: The Songs That Shook America, focused on six individual Rap songs that changed the genre. The season finale concerned Ladies First. This okplayer. article explains more:

“Songs That Shook America concluded its first season on AMC on Sunday (November 17th.) The series has delved into the hip-hop songs that defined a movement, a region of America, and times in history. For the season finale, Queen Latifah’s anthem of women empowerment, 1989’s “Ladies First,” gets the final dissection. As with every other song, “Ladies First” is exalted but ultimately used as a vessel for a deeper dive into the sexist history of hip-hop.

In the episode, Jessica Lynch, the president of Tommy Boy Records when “Ladies First” was released, recalls being mistaken for a prostitute at the Jack The Rapper’s Family Affair convention because she was a woman. Latifah gives first-hand accounts of the lack of money put towards female rappers for marketing and music videos compared to male counterparts. Her “Ladies First” collaborator Monie Love recalls labels only choosing to have one female MC at a time, adding credence to Lyte’s statement later in the episode of “women being pitted against each other.” This episode hammers the point of sexism being the industry standard in hip-hop during the 1980s, often leaving an indelible imprint in the viewer’s mind that reshapes their view of the episode and the series as a whole”.

I am a big fan of Ladies First. It is a confident and vital track that definitely helped pave the way for women in Hip-Hop. Over three decades since its release, the song is still being taken to heart by artists. If things have slightly improved in Rap and Hip-Hop since the time Queen Latifah and Monie Love dropped a classic, we are still experiencing problems. In 2021, I think that the tremendous Ladies First should be…

HEARD and respected.

FEATURE: The Lockdown Playlist: Destiny’s Child’s Survivor’s Twentieth Anniversary as a U.K. Number-One

FEATURE:

 

 

The Lockdown Playlist

 Destiny’s Child’s Survivor’s Twentieth Anniversary as a U.K. Number-One

___________

IN the latest Lockdown Playlist…

I am marking twenty years since Destiny’s Child went to number-one with the song, Survivor. On 26th April, 2001, the track went to the top of the U.K. chart. Taken from their excellent 2001 album of the same name, Survivor is an absolute classic. The track, unsurprisingly, was a big success:

“Survivor" is a song by American R&B group Destiny's Child. It was written and composed by group member Beyoncé, Anthony Dent, and Mathew Knowles for the band's third studio album of the same name (2001). "Survivor" was inspired by a joke that a radio station had made about the fact that three members had already left the group, comparing the band to the reality game show Survivor. Beyoncé was inspired to take the negative comment and turn it into a positive by writing a song out of it. The song won the Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals at the 2002 Grammy Awards.

The video won the 2001 MTV Video Music Award for Best R&B Video and a Soul Train Lady of Soul Award for Best R&B/Soul Single, Group, Band or Duo. The opening track of singer-songwriter Jill Sobule's 2004 album The Folk Years 2003–2003 is a cover of the song, and a pseudo-cover of the song also opens rapper Vanilla Ice's 2005 album Platinum Underground.

Billboard named the song number 40 on their list of 100 Greatest Girl Group Songs of All Time”.

I love the music of 2001. Not only was it very eclectic. One also got to enjoy big Pop songs and R&B anthems - the likes of which we do not really hear twenty years later. As the Official Charts note, it was an interesting musical week when Destiny’s Child scored a number-one with Survivor:

“They weren't going to diss you on the internet, but they were taking over the chart. This week in 2001, Beyoncé, Kelly and Michelle – aka the third, final and definitive lineup of Destiny's Child – were celebrating their second chart-topper.

Survivor was Destiny's Child defiant recovery from a tough time. Two original band members had quit the year before, and a replacement member hadn't lived up to the band's high expectations, apparently after a problem with lost luggage caused friction between her and Queen B. They'd all but been written off, but a chart-topping theme song for the new Charlie's Angels movie, followed by this confident classic, let people know they were back in business.

Survivor sold 104,000 in its first week and was the band's last Number 1 together. Not that they're complaining, of course – their mama taught them better than that. It finished on 260,000 sales that year and 2001's 31st best-seller.

Survivor's total figure has grown considerably since then, currently at 760,000, including 40 million streams since records began in 2014.

There were four other new entries in the Top 10 this week in 2001. Ronan Keating scored his fourth solo Top 10 with the breezy Lovin' Each Day, while O-Town, who shot to fame on MTV documentary Making The Band, were new at 3 with the suspiciously-titled Liquid Dreams. Missy Elliott's still-thrilling Get Ur Freak On completed the all-new Top 4”.

To celebrate that huge number-one single’s twentieth anniversary, this Lockdown Playlist is a collection of songs that include the word ‘survivor’, ‘survive’ or ‘survival’ (or variations of those words) – I will also include a cheeky song from the band, Survivor. Here is a playlist dedicated to…

AN iconic track at twenty.

FEATURE: Station to Station: Part Eight: Jamz Supernova (BBC Radio 1Xtra, BBC Radio 6 Music)

FEATURE:

 

 

Station to Station

PHOTO CREDIT: Sarah R. Harry-Isaacs for DJ Mag 

Part Eight: Jamz Supernova (BBC Radio 1Xtra, BBC Radio 6 Music)

___________

I have not done a Station to Station…

PHOTO CREDIT: Sarah R. Harry-Isaacs for DJ Mag

for a little while now. Recently, the nominations for the ARIAS (Audio & Radio Industry Awards) came out. These radio awards recognise the best talent across various mediums and station. In the mix was BBC Radio 6 Music’s and BBC Radio 1Xtra’s Jamz Supernova. On her 1Xtra show, she unearths forward-thinking scenes and sounds from around the world, from alternative R&B and experimental Hip-Hop through to Jazz and leftfield Electronica. On BBC Radio 6 Music, we get a similar music of broad and fascinating sounds. In ARIAS (which happen on 26th May) categories, Jamz Supernova’s Somethin' Else for BBC Radio 1Xtra is up for Best Specialist Music Show. I have followed her on BBC Radio IXtra. She is also at BBC Radio 6 Music and providing a great show each Saturday. A hugely knowledgeable and passionate broadcaster, I think that she is going to go on to become a broadcasting icon. There are some many wonderfully engaging and influential broadcasters out there. I think that Jamz Supernova is among the very best. I want to bring in a couple of different interviews I found that, I think, provide some depth and detail when it comes to the Jamz Supernova story. In 2018, she spoke with CLASH. The MOBOs (Music of Black Origin) that year was not being broadcast and promoted widely – a sign that, perhaps, it was seen unimportant or lesser than the BRITs or Mercury Prize. This was touched on in the interview:

“Part of a growing wave of intersectional tastemakers dismantling and redefining the parameters of black music, you can rely on Jamz Supernova to soundtrack your late nights. Embedded within the fabric of BBC Radio 1Xtra, her own ethos is tantamount to the station’s: “I’ve been working at 1Xtra since I was 19. I’ve been privy to watching, learning and celebrating with them as they champion the alternative.”

Jamz Supernova · Club Jamz Vol 10

From the more sanitised endorsement of crossover American rap and R&B, to the emergence of more localised, grass-roots music, Jamz fuses pirate radio informality with deft commentary. Yet the foundation for it all is rooted deep in her youth. “I’m a true ’90s baby. Growing up, it was about the back catalogues. It was a good time to be empowered, so maybe the strength of TLC and Missy rubbed off on me.”

A fully-fledged DJ in her own right, Jamz’s Future Bounce nights sees her veer further off-track, flexing her love for electronics - think Baltimore house and UK funky. The license is to thrill, but a trickier balancing act ensues: “It’s a risk when you’re repping underground club music; will the audience want you to play Drake all night? Are they here for the line-up? You’re educating the audience on new and old sounds. When you find that happy medium, it’s a sick experience.”

It’s meant she’s been able to cultivate a curatorial formula when cherry-picking artists. “It has to be personal. I have to love the music. I’m such an over-thinker, but it means nothing is done on a whim.” This is coupled with an unerring hunger to resist convention: “You can’t jump the gun. One great record doesn’t make them the next big thing. I want to hear growth, so I can grow with them.”

Jamz bemoans the lack of televised coverage for the R&B/soul category at the 2017 MOBOs, seemingly resonating with viewers, underscoring a desire to protect the integrity of the genre. “I respect what the MOBOs have done for music, but I was confused when it wasn’t a genre worthy of being shown. Sometimes when we think about ‘black music’ we forget to appreciate just how progressive it can be. In not showing the category, it set the illusion that the genre isn’t thriving.”

And according to Jamz it is the antithesis - her own personal forecast for 2018 emulates the forward-thinking trajectory of black music. “I laid a strong foundation in 2017, I’d like to keep building on that. Grow my radio show, more DJ gigs, more festivals, more Future Bounce parties across the UK, start my label, tour Asia and just enjoy the journey”.

I want to source heavily from an interview in DJ Mag from March. We get to learn so much about Jamz Supernova and how she has been spending lockdown. A wonderfully intriguing set-up and synopsis for the interview (“Jamz Supernova is spearheading the next generation of radio DJs with her residencies on BBC Radio 1Xtra and Selector Radio. While equally at home behind the decks in a club, she’s used her time in lockdown to bolster her Future Bounce label and perfect her radio shows, recording podcasts and voiceovers and helming TV docs along the way. It’s a career that Jamz seems born to do, but it hasn’t always been plain sailing for her — or happened overnight. Chal Ravens takes a (socially distanced) stroll in south London with the charming host to discuss her rise through the radio ranks, and finding her place as a club DJ”), it shone the spotlight on a broadcasting great:

“Born Jamilla Walters, raised in south London, and named by a chance encounter with a space encyclopaedia, Jamz Supernova is one of those terminally busy people for whom lockdown has meant a well-earned rest. Previously, on any given week, she might have been recording a voiceover, scouting new talent for Sony RCA or performing in Cape Town or Tbilisi.

As a DJ she moves fluidly between dancefloor riddims like kuduro, dancehall and UK funky, and radio-friendly electronic soul: broken beat, jazzy house and psychedelic hip-hop. Her record label Future Bounce straddles both, home to the nocturnal glow of singer-producer Sola as well as the pounding funk mutations of Bamz.

On 1Xtra, Jamz represents that modern strain of R&B often awkwardly described as “future” or “alternative”, with voices like NoName, Nubya Garcia and serpentwithfeet slotting into an offbeat lineage going back through Odd Future, The Neptunes and Erykah Badu. Her working rhythm is set by the show, which has gone out week after week during one of the hardest years in memory, including a special three-hour show at the height of the Black Lives Matter protests in June.

“I always found comfort in the radio,” says Jamz, revealing a voice slightly less mellow and languorous than the one most people know. “Instinctively, I wake up and put the radio on. If I leave my dog alone I’m gonna put on the radio for him.”

At the start of the pandemic, she was sent some mics so she could pre-record the show at home. These days, as so many workplaces adjust to the long-term reality of COVID-19, she gets a cab to the studio once a week, recording in an empty room with her producer on the other side of the glass. She’s not really alone, of course, because out there somewhere are her listeners. Who are they? “I know I have a lot of actual artists listening,” she says. “But I think who I’m talking to is a mirror of me, someone who’s on a quest to find this music”.

Jamz’s work ethic goes bone-deep. She started earning money at 11, first with a paper round and then as an usher and in a health food shop. “My mum wouldn’t let us say ‘Can’t’,” she notes. But her industriousness is just as much a reflection of the entrepreneurial mindset that’s familiar to a generation of young people who’ve lived through two financial crashes and never known job security.

Her latest endeavour speaks to exactly these people: a podcast called DIY Handbook, launching this spring off the back of her DIY Generation series on 1Xtra, where she squeezes advice and motivational tidbits from actors, activists, software developers and other self- made success stories.

The podcast will offer deeper conversations on the “back end” of success — topics like dealing with rejection and how to say no. But does the name reflect a taste for self- reliance over collectivism? “You have to use the word DIY quite loosely,” she laughs, pre-empting the criticism. “I don’t think it’s possible to completely do it on your own, but the DIY ethos is about getting things started yourself. No one is an island.”

She’s noticed this mentality taking shape in certain pockets of music too, with DJ collectives like 6 Figure Gang and Boko Boko leading the way. “That’s how it should be done. It’s lonely to do it alone, and to have it all for yourself. I didn’t really have that when I was coming up, it was more dog-eat-dog.”

Her first clubbing experiences were local, starting with dancehall parties at Le Fez in New Cross — now a Sainsbury’s Local — before graduating to Rinse FM raves and UK funky nights at the O2, back when going out meant dressing up. “You’d get your bodycon out. Guys in sunglasses,” she laughs. “I had all the CDs you’d get outside the raves. You couldn’t find the songs, you didn’t even know who the artists were.”

Radio was the rhythm of her daily life: in the car to school she’d switch between Xfm (her mum and stepdad’s pick) and Choice, the station that took Black British music from pirate radio into the mainstream, and the blueprint for 1Xtra when it launched in 2002. “That was a time when DJs had records that nobody else had. When I was doing my college work I’d listen back to people like G Child and Ronnie Herel, obsessed with trying to find the records — then when they were finally out I’d be on LimeWire trying to get my hands on them.

The music industry has always been a gig economy, with little chance of a job-for-life, but increasingly it feels like every career in the business requires a level of juggling and risk-taking that would make a circus clown turn green. There’s a pressing requirement to sell yourself and become a brand. That means being visible all the time — not only showing off your work, but keeping followers “engaged” with selfies and steady streams of novel content. Jamz is blunt about the effects of social media. “I don’t think it’s good for my mental health. I think so much of what we do has to come from here — your source, your gut, who are you when you’re just being you, without being swayed. And you go on social media and it’s just carbon copies.”

The need to maintain a public image while also making art and paying the bills can feel like an impossible demand. When you invest so much of yourself into your work, it’s hard to cope if things don’t work out; this much is argued in a recent book, ‘Can Music Make You Sick? Measuring the Price of Musical Ambition’. The researchers behind it discovered that solo artists, songwriters and DJs are more anxious and depressed than other musicians, with a staggering 85% of DJs reporting high levels of anxiety.

Jamz nods in recognition. Her dad likes to remind her that she’s more than just her job, “but there is always a tiny voice that’s like, well, I’m not,” she says, laughing over Zoom when DJ Mag calls her a week later. “I’m like, am I really sad? Is this a sad life that I’m living? But this is the life that fulfils me, because everything that I do musically is my personality. I’ve chosen to make that personality a commodity.”

It’s an attitude that puts her at risk of exhaustion, and she knows it. “It's always been in the back of my head, not burning out. With the podcast, even though we’re talking about business and being creative, it always ends up with self-care — taking time for yourself, not being hard on yourself. Therapy’s come up quite a few times”.

I wanted to bring a lot in from that interview, as it is clear that there is much to love and know about Jamz Supernova. Broadcasting tremendous sound across the BBC, she is reaching a huge audience. I also like the fact that there seems to be no end to Jamz Supernova’s talents and energy! I wish her the best of luck at the ARIAS. She is keeping busy with podcasts, voiceovers and the Future Bounce label. You can follow her on Instagram and Twitter. I think we have a tremendous talent in Jamz Supernova. She is someone who will continue to push her talent and passion in exciting and fresh ways. Here we truly have…

A legend of the future.

FEATURE: Spotlight: The Lottery Winners

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

PHOTO CREDIT: MEN UGC 

The Lottery Winners

___________

I wasn’t sure whether to call them…

‘The Lottery Winners’ or ‘Lottery Winners’ – as they are called either depending on whether one looks at Twitter or Spotify. I will refer to the former. I have been following the Leigh, Greater Manchester band for a while now. Even though they were formed in 2008 by Thom Rylance (vocals/guitar), Robert Lally (guitar/vocals), Katie Lloyd (bass/vocals), and Joe Singleton (drums), I think they are really coming into the spotlight over the past year or so. It seems that they have an important date at The Great Escape Online next month. Some interesting and kick-ass new music is also coming soon. I think the band will reach a lot of new people this year. Their previous studio album,  Sounds of Isolation (a collection of cover versions), was released last year. The band put out the Start Again E.P. this year. Not only do I love the songs and the fact the band are always evolving and staying fresh. They put a lot of effort and detail into their cover art and social media channels. They are a group who consider and care about every asset and facet of what they do – one reason why they have a loyal and growing fanbase and are a band who will catch the eye of the wider world very soon! Whilst many artists were struggling to get into 2021 and find any energy – understandable, really! -, The Lottery Winners put out the title track of the Start Again E.P. They recruited a certain Frank Turner for the track:

“January is a time for looking forward as the bleakest year in living memory fades and now, soaring over the mound of broken resolutions, comes hope! Lottery Winners join with the punk-folk hero, Frank Turner in the first big blast of optimistic, fresh air of 2021 with their single, Start Again. A soundtrack for the vaccine-era, of a new US President, light after the dark, rebirth and new beginnings.

Written about leaving the past behind and embracing new beginnings, the luminescent video for the track features Turner appearing as a remote flight commander, guiding the band as astronauts through space. The I Still Believe singer helps the glass-half-full four-piece find their way to a heart-shaped planet filled with sweeter things as their space rocket lurches away from Armageddon on earth.

Lottery Winners and the HAL-esque Turner power away from raging nuclear war, hate and disease to a new planet engineered in plush velvet and filled with Haribo jelly sweets. Clear in their mission, the band returns to earth and distributes the sugary goodness to all, ushering in the new start to life everyone needs right now. A COVID-Lockdown-busting production, almost every shot of the video was filmed in singer-songwriter, Thom Rylance’s garage using tin foil and a whole heap of imagination.

The sun-bringing track bottles a moment of future-facing good feeling in an instant classic, FM-ready pop song. Bubbling up through fertile writing and recording sessions at Giant Wafer Studios in rural mid-Wales, it was the keen ear of producer, Tristan Ivemy heard the Frank Turner-shaped hole in the track. Kept apart by necessity, Turner sent vocals digitally to leapfrog the tedious blockades caused by the fun-strangling virus and became the final, perfect-fitting piece of the jigsaw”.

The Lottery Winners have gigs listed on their official website, so go and see them if you can (though I suspect tickets might all be sold). They are a wonderfully exciting band who have a genuine love for one another. That connection and loyalty has not only resulted in them being as strong as ever after so long; they seem to get better and better! I feel their best days are still ahead. With every new release, they adopt new layers and brilliance.

I will wrap things up in a bit. I wanted to source a couple of interviews that provide more detail and story behind one of the U.K.’s brightest and most hopeful young bands. I forgot to mention that, prior to Sounds of Isolation, they put out their eponymous debut album in 2020. They were Taylor Swift levels of productive last year! It is amazing to think that they got so much done and released such cracking work at a difficult and stressful time. Maybe a lack of gig opportunities attributed to that, though I just feel like they had a lot to say and wanted to get it out there! Even the Stars spoke with the band when The Lottery Winners arrived. I will not quote everything from the interview (as it is a pretty hefty one!). There were a few questions-and-answers that caught my eye:

“So, your debut album is out today. It's ten years since you became a band. How does it feel actually having it in your hands and out in a record shop?

Katie : I cried

Thom : Probably cried, not like a little tear of relief and happiness. She was like snotting and she was on the floor and lots of people had to come and check she was OK.

Rob : St John's Ambulance had to come over

Katie : Me and Joe were talking before and all this work we've been putting in, sat in rehearsal rooms, having arguments, you're in a band..

Thom : What do you mean arguments?

Katie : I mean, we've all been getting on. But to stand here like before, in an actual HMV and to feel like an actual band for the first time, it just made me cry.

It's been a long journey hasn't it?

Thom (interrupts) : It's only down the Lancs isn't it?

Some things haven't changed (everyone laughs). You recorded it with a different label, and then you got the album back and it's come out with Modern Sky. Was there a point where it felt like it was never going to happen?

Thom : Constantly, it was really really hard on our mental health.

Joe : Thom quit the band every day. One day he'd say "I'm quitting" then the next day he'd be "I'm definitely quitting. 100% I'm out of the band"

Do you have favourite songs on the album. Are there any on there have a particular sentiment?

Thom : The album's like an autobiography for me so I can tap into where I was, what the song's about and how I felt at that time. I've got a favourite song for when I'm feeling sad, a favourite song for when I'm feeling happy, when I'm feeling thankful, when I'm driving through Leigh. I like them all, apart from three.

Rob : My favourite changes every single day. Today it's Headlock, but I think they're all crackers.

Joe : I remember more back to when we were in the studio, different parts that took hours and hours to think about

Thom : We started recording it in 2016, that was our first studio session. That's four years ago, we hate it all now, it's well old (everyone laughs)

Katie : My Only Friend and Young Again

Thom : The last two, you've got a long time to wait for yours

Katie : Just because of what we were going through at the time, it was very frustrating, I think those two songs make me want to cry again.

It's taken four years then for the record to come out. What's happened to songwriting in that time, have you now got a big set of new songs ready to go?

Thom : Of course, because throughout all that time when we were frustrated and nothing was coming out, we had all these feelings to write about. We've got albums in the bank now and it's all happened for a reason. We've been working hard all the time. I really feel that if you want to do this, and we do, and all our eggs are in this basket, we've got no plan Bs, then you've just got to do it every day and you've got to live and breathe it, otherwise what's the point? We don't want to do anything else. We live and breathe this every single day and that's the way it should be if you want to be a successful band and hopefully one day we will be successful”.

I will round things off with an interview from RGM. It was quite a fun chat where we learn a few new things about The Lottery Winners:

“I caught you live at Kendal Calling last year, your live shows are so much fun, the energy from the band comes out and you instantly grab the crowd by the bollocks with your whit and storytelling, how organic are those things or are some planned ahead?

Oh god, no, I never have a clue what’s going to happen until it’s happening, sometimes I surprise myself. It’s like it’s not even me up there, it’s someone else. I only ever get to meet him on stages, he’s better than me. I like him. I wish he could be there when I have to get a bus or walk in a pub on my own and it’s scary.

What’s the most fun you have had on stage?

I literally love being on stage for anything at any time. I just love showing off, I always have.

What’s the worst experience you have had on stage?

My full penis fell out once, I felt it on the cold back of my guitar and panicked. I turned around and the drummer at the time got an eyeful. Well, not full.

Tell us something about each member that you think people would be surprised about?

Joe was head boy at school and knows every flag in the world. Rob is really good at football, but in slow motion, it’s like an action replay all the time. Kate used to be a goth and I’ve never even tried a cup of tea or coffee in my life.

While the world goes through difficult times and we all adjust to a different way of living, how are the lottery winners adjusting?

We’re taking some time to process everything that’s happening around and being there for those who need us. We have plans to make an album, and we’re working on pushing LWTV, which I’m excited about. But for now, the priority is staying safe and looking after ourselves and each other.

What would you like to say to your fans at these difficult times?

I’ve seen so many messages and tweets from people that have said our album is helping them get through these grey days. It’s been so touching to think we could have injected even the smallest bit of colour back in. I am so grateful for everybody’s support.

But mainly, wash your hands, stay inside and listen to our record. Love will keep us together.

So once things get back to normal what can we expect to see from the band?

We’ll pick up exactly where we left off. We have a lot of unfinished business”.

Things are looking pretty exciting in The Lottery Winners’ camp right now! Having put out a lot of music last year – plus an E.P. featuring Sleeper, Frank Tuner and The Wonder Stuff -, one could forgive them for resting or taking some time out! A lot of top musicians want to record with The Lottery Winners. The band are establishing themselves as one of this country’s very finest. If you have not followed them on social media and checked out their music, then make sure that…

YOU go and do this now.

_______________

Follow The Lottery Winners

PHOTO CREDIT: MEN UGC 

Official:

https://www.thelotterywinners.co.uk/

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/thelotterywinners/

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/thelotterywinners

Twitter:

https://twitter.com/lotterywinners

YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCE6pK7-0MJTbHOWg48YDeOg

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/artist/0LLilNa5TUAaUwJwLyOf2b?si=oZLiKK1vRnCc4yCObjkXFQ&nd=1

FEATURE: Reel Gone Kids: The Coming-of-Age Film Soundtrack

FEATURE:

 

 

Reel Gone Kids

The Coming-of-Age Film Soundtrack

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I was watching an episode…

of Mark Kermode’s Secrets of Cinema where, each week, he dissected a genre of film and the clichés, conventions and complexities that define them. One episode focused on coming-of-age films. Whilst it was interesting learning about the narrative structures, insights and characters that define these films, one quintessential element of a coming-of-age film is the soundtrack – it almost seems to be an integral character in the films itself. 2017’s Lady Bird seems to be one of the most-recent coming-of-age films that has really resonated in terms of its story and performances. It also boasts a pretty good soundtrack. From The Breakfast Club and Footloose in the 1980s to Almost Famous in 2000 and Blinded by the Light in 2019, if done right, there is a big appetite for the coming-of-age tale. It can be heart-warming and nostalgic. We can root for this character/characters as they make their way through a film - and we see them develop and overcome obstacles; bond with friends and learn valuable lessons. Whilst the performance, direction, cinematography and editing are all essential ingredients that need to go into the mix, I think that the soundtrack is not only an interlinked and familial part of a coming-of-age film; the songs that we knew in another context can take on a whole new dimension. We can see them in a different light. There have been polls as to the greatest coming-of-age soundtrack. My favourites are either The Breakfast Club or Stand By Me. Whilst the coming-of-age soundtrack of the 1980s holds a special place, I think there have been some great coming-of-age soundtracks of the 2010s that combine classic songs with something a little more modem.

Last year, PASTE spotlighted the best teen movie soundtracks of the 2010s. One film on there that I would count as a modern-day coming-of-age film is Olivia Wilde’s Booksmart (2019). The soundtrack shows that modern filmmakers can concoct pleasing and rich soundtracks that helps to narrate and augment the story; bring the character and setting to life:

“We’ll start with 2019’s token Oscar-snubbed teen comedy Booksmart, Olivia Wilde’s charming and topical directorial debut. The soundtrack is a 2010s indie fan’s wet dream—there’s Perfume Genius (used in one of the coming-of-age film’s most visceral scenes, in the swimming pool), Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros and, most notably, LCD Soundsystem. Another 2019 flick with great music, Someone Great, was actually named after the LCD Soundsystem song of the same name, yet frontman James Murphy denied director Jennifer Kaytin Robinson’s request to use their music, as she told Rolling Stone. If Murphy is picky with which films use his music, he made the right choice between these two: The use of “oh baby” is perfectly timed and fits wonderfully with the mood of Booksmart. There’s also Lizzo, Alanis Morrissette and one of the year’s most memorable entrances courtesy of Billie Lourd and Leikeli47’s “Money.” Legends on all sides”.

I want to focus on the 1980s first in regards the coming-of-age soundtrack. I was born in the decade, so I do not really have a clear memory of the film and culture at the time. Maybe it was the strength of the music of the 1980s or the compelling stories that accounts for some lauded and long-adored coming-of-age films. As this article outlines, some of the best coming-of-age films of the ‘80s feature some incredible, scene-defining musical moments:

“The 1980s, coming-of-age movies and teen comedies overflowed with hip, contemporary tunes and boasted characters with impeccable musical taste. This curation was by design: The powers that be wanted moviegoers to relate to onscreen teens—or at least aspire to be as cool as they were—and saw music as the best way to create an emotional connection.

The movies John Hughes wrote and directed (including 1984’s Sixteen Candles, 1985’s Weird Science, and 1986’s Ferris Bueller’s Day Off) tend to draw special praise for their music supervision, namely because these films placed familiar acts next to underground artists. In fact, coming-of-age films were the tastemakers and influencers of the ’80s where music was concerned.

However, pre-Hughes, the cult 1982 movie The Last American Virgin and 1983’s Valley Girl had already used this formula to expose new groups to a wider audience. Los Angeles power-pop band The Plimsouls especially benefited from the latter, in no small part because they appeared as a bar band in the flick. Little details such as these ensure that coming-of-age films are deeply intertwined with their musical selections.

Many of the biggest ’80s movie hits are inextricably linked to memorable musical moments. In Sixteen Candles, Molly Ringwald’s character finally consummated her crush on hunky Jake Ryan to the gorgeous sound of Thompson Twins’ synth-pop ballad “If You Were Here.” The infamous Phoebe Cates swimsuit-shedding scene in Fast Times at Ridgemont High was set to The Cars’ lurid “Moving in Stereo.” And, of course, John Cusack single-handedly made Peter Gabriel’s “In Your Eyes” a love song for the ages when, in Say Anything, he played the tune for Ione Skye from a boom box hoisted over his head”.

A lot of coming-of-age films feature characters and situations where the lead is undergoing a harsh lesson or is struggling. They then will find clarity, bond with their peers or find satisfying resolution. Not that they all operate in this manner, though there is a distinct arc that many of the best coming-of-age films follow. More than any type of film – apart from a musical or music biopic -, the music in a coming-of-age film is more powerful than pretty much anything else. As most of the films feature teenage characters, this is the age when we discover music and are at our most inquisitive and immersive. One would think that coming-of-age films would only speak to teenage audiences but, as we have seen this type of film released through the decades, the audience demographic is varied. Newer examples such as Lady Bird appeal to younger and older audiences alike. I want to bring in an article that not only underlines a couple of hidden coming-of-age gems. They also explain why the soundtracks are so important and appeal to people:

“If you’ve seen as many coming-of-age movies and series as I have, you’d notice that most of them have one thing in common — our teenage protagonist always loves music. You’ll know this because of the scene where they talk about a specific artist or song. You know, that scene.

Two coming-of-age pictures have slipped onto the radar this year — Oscar nominee Lady Bird and Netflix original Everything Sucks. They are both lovely and I highly recommend them. And while the two aren’t very similar, they do have that one thing in common — they both use music as a storytelling motif.

And really, the list of movies and series that do this goes on. Perks of Being a Wallflower. Submarine. Bandslam. Why do so many screenplay writers feel the need to incorporate music into their coming-of-age narratives?

Nostalgia Factor

Coming-of-age stories always aim to elicit nostalgia. These stories are, of course, about growing up, and there is nothing more nostalgic than remembering what it was like growing up.

Thing is, it’s really easy to elicit nostalgia through music. When a movie is popular, chances are, you’ll see it once in the movie theatre and never again. But when a song is popular, it’s everywhere. Everywhere. You’ll hear it in the mall, the restaurants, the school, and it’ll end up being the number one thing people associate with a certain year.

And coming-of-age writers really like to set their stories in a past year.

Take Lady Bird; set in 2002. We know this because the main character says it in the opening scene, but also, there are numerous references to 2002 pop culture everywhere. When Lady Bird’s dad drives her to school, Hand in My Pocket plays on the radio, and Lady Bird goes, “Did you know that Alanis Morissette wrote this song in only 10 minutes?”

Foundation of Character

In order for a coming-of-age story to work, you have to like the protagonist — or, at the very least, you have to sympathize with them. Fortunately for writers, we’re more keen towards sympathizing with the awkward, out-of-place teenager because most of us felt that way when we were teenagers.

And having a distinct taste in music can make the protagonist seem a.) more odd and nonconformist, and b.) more likable. It’s kind of like the movie is saying “Look, this kid has good taste! Root for him!”

Take the 2009 film Bandslam — a movie that did not get the success it deserved. Our protagonist, Will, is a weirdo for a lot of reasons. But mostly for the fact that he’s in his own world that’s just music. The movie even starts off with him literally writing a letter to David Bowie, and later on, he looks around his classmates and says, “I tend to make snap judgments about people based on what kind of music they like.”

A big part of the movie’s plot is driven by music. Not only because the movie’s main plot is about them forming a band, but also because the turning point of the movie is Will and Charlotte forming a friendship through — you guessed it — music. The two of them find common ground by being both The Velvet Underground fans, and even share a special moment together listening to Femme Fatale.

Coming-of-age films just can’t seem to exist without music — and understandably so. Music is such great shorthand, and a great filmmaker knows how to use shorthand effectively yet subtly.

Heck, even coming-of-age films that don’t talk about music use music as a shorthand. After all, where would Sixteen Candles be without If You Were Here, and The Breakfast Club without Don’t You (Forget About Me)?”

I am going to end by sourcing an article that explores my favourite coming-of-age closing scene – and the incredible song that soundtracks it. Before then, I want to move into the 1990s (I might explore the more modern coming-of-age films in a future feature). In 2009, Entertainment Weekly looked at the coming-of-age soundtracks of the ‘90s. This is a decade that remains very important to me. As a teenager of the 1990s, I not only can connect with many of the films’ characters; the music also resonates inside of me. There are a couple of segments that I want to quote:

“Empire Records— 1995’s episodic day-in-the-life of a ragtag crew of young record-store employees, including Robin Tunney and a pre-Jerry Maguire Renée Zellweger — focused firmly on the present. The movie may have tanked at the box office, but its soundtrack prevailed (remember the irresistible thump and jangle of Edwyn Collin’s “A Girl Like You”?)with its intensely mid-‘90s collection of acts like the Cranberries, the Gin Blossoms, and Toad the Wet Sprocket. Did it hurt to have Aerosmith icon Steven Tyler’s daughter Liv, just beginning her acting career, dancing on a rooftop to The The’s “This Is the Day?” It did not!

Hiphop received far fewer mainstream cinematic tributes than rock in the‘90s, but some of the best artists of the era finally got their due in last year’s indie dramedy The Wackness, set in NYC circa 1994. In it, enterprising high schooler (Josh Peck) sells pot out of a Popsicle cart and reveres the sounds of the city’s rap royalty: the Notorious B.I.G., Craig Mack, KRS One. Still, some rockers of past generations eek their way in too: Mott the Hoople (“All the Young Dudes”), Donovan (“Season of the Witch”), and the Velvet Underground (“Sister Ray”). But no cultural moment exists in a vacuum, right? Rappers like the late Notorious B.I.G. happily sampled from artists of the past, from Minnie Ripperton to the Isley Brothers; no doubt they would appreciate the presence of a few golden oldsters.

For Reference: Lisa Loeb, “Stay”; Me Phi Me, “Revival”; Elliott Smith, “Between the Bars”; The Wu-Tang Clan, “Tears”; Big Mountain, “Baby I You’re your Way”; Nas,“The World Is Yours”; Edwyn Collins, “A Girl Like You”; Evan Dando, “The Ballad of El Goodo”; The Gin Blossoms, “Til I Hear It From You”.

Although the 1990s was twenty/thirty years or go (plus), I think the films and soundtracks – and for other decades – still stands up today. There is a timelessness to these films that means they will be preserved and discovered afresh by teens who are looking for answers and guidance in the modern age.

Each phase of a coming-of-age film is important and needs to connect with its audience. I think the final scene is important, as the rest of the film has been leading up to this moment. That may sound obvious but, whereas an action film or a thriller can provide catharsis or a twist with its final scene, I think the coming-of-age final reel is more varied and satisfying. Whether our characters have learned an important truth, are walking into the sunshine together or, like Stand By Me, there is a sad twist, the song used to accompany this scene is vital! We all have our favourite but, in terms of pure satisfaction and memorability, the end of John Hughes’ The Breakfast Club is the best. This article discusses why a classic Simple Minds song is so important in the finale of the classic ‘80s film:

“Simple Minds’ “Don’t You (Forget About Me),” from The Breakfast Club

This is a quintessential end-of-movie song, from a quintessential teen-movie ending-scene, written and directed by quintessential teen-movie auteur John Hughes. I remember watching The Breakfast Club on VHS at age 15, in 1986, and thinking that Hughes had achieved something singular and true to teenage life.

Years later, it feels like the confessional soliloquies (and sudden romantic pairing-off) among the disparate characters of The Breakfast Club were more idealized than realistic. Still, there’s no question it was a groundbreaking movie in terms of how American teenagers — and their fears, hopes, and preoccupations — were portrayed on the screen. “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” underscores the stakes (who are these kids, and what will they mean to each other after today?) during the film’s climactic moment of symbolic rebellion: Brian reading his “you see us as you want to see us” essay in a voice-over as Bender pumps his fist into the air and the credits roll.

 Interestingly, the Scottish rock band Simple Minds were initially resistant to recording the song, which was composed by producer Keith Forsey and guitarist Steve Schiff (Bryan Ferry and Billy Idol had already turned down the opportunity). They eventually relented under pressure from their record label, and the band is now remembered for this song — and the way it evokes the triumphant final image of The Breakfast Club”.

I shall leave things there. I am interested in the relationship between film scores and the impact they have on scenes. I am also curious about film soundtracks across all genres and the importance of the music. I feel there is something special about the coming-of-age soundtrack and the way music is deployed and utilised. It can be powerful or emotional. It can be uplifting or joyous. The songs can impact an individual in a big way, or they speak to an entire demographic. Not only can a coming-of-age film make a splash at the box office at the time. It can be picked up years down the line and make an impression on a new audience. Similarly, a strong and compelling coming-of-age soundtrack can stand…

IN the memory for generations.

FEATURE: Edited for Cinematic Release: The Five Best Reworkings from Kate Bush’s Director's Cut

FEATURE:

 

 

Edited for Cinematic Release

The Five Best Reworkings from Kate Bush’s Director's Cut

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SOME may overlook the anniversary…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in a promotional image for 2011’s Director’s Cut/PHOTO CREDIT: John Carder Bush

but Kate Bush’s Director’s Cut turns ten on 16th May. It was the first release of two in 2011 – the second being 50 Words for Snow -, and few were expecting Bush to release an album where she reworked songs that originally appeared on The Sensual World (1989) and The Red Shoes (1993). Before I go on, here is some information regarding an important project for Bush:

“Ninth album by Kate Bush, released by Fish People on 16 May 2011. The album was written, composed and produced by Kate. It is made up of songs from her earlier albums The Sensual World and The Red Shoes which have been remixed and restructured, three of which were re-recorded completely. All the lead vocals on the album and some of the backing vocals have been entirely re-recorded, with some of the songs transposed to a lower key to accommodate Bush's matured voice. Additionally, the drum tracks have been reconceived and re-recorded.

For some time I have felt that I wanted to revisit tracks from these two albums and that they could benefit from having new life breathed into them. Lots of work had gone into the two original albums and now these songs have another layer of work woven into their fabric. I think of this as a new album. (Sean Michaels, 'Kate Bush reveals guest lyricist on new album - James Joyce'. The Guardian (UK), 5 April 2011. Retrieved 31 January 2015)”.

To honour the upcoming tenth anniversary of her ninth studio album, I have selected my five favourite reinterpretations/re-recordings off of Director’s Cut. I like most of the tracks from the album, though these are my five selected best. In the run-up to the tenth anniversary of Director’s Cut, I am going to put out another feature or two that explores the album from different angles. In this piece, here are five re-imagined songs that originally appeared on albums years previous. Here are five excellent tracks that deserve to be on the…

HIGHLIGHT reel.

____________________

Flower of the Mountain

Originally Appeared on: The Sensual World (1989; its original title is The Sensual World)

Running Time: 5:14

Background:

“Song written by Kate Bush with text from James Joyce's 'Ulysses', used by kind permission of the Trustrees of James Joyce Estate. Originally released on Kate's 2011 album Director's Cut.

Kate originally asked for permission in the Eighties, when she'd made this song. The Joyce estate refused to release the words. She spent over a year trying to gain permission before accepting defeat. She kept the backing track but 're-approached the words' for a track that would become The Sensual World, released in 1989.

On the 2011 album Director's Cut Kate wanted to include the original version of the song, and so she approached the James Joyce Estate again, and this time, they gave permission” – The Kate Bush Encyclopaedia

Credits:

Drums: Steve Gadd

Bass: Del Palmer

Keyboards: Kate Bush

Pipes, whistles: Davey Spillane

Fiddles: John Sheahan

Canes: Paddy Bush

Lily

Originally Appeared on: The Red Shoes (1989)

Running Time: 4:05

Background:

“Song written by Kate Bush. Originally released on her seventh album The Red Shoes. The song is devoted to Lily Cornford, a noted spiritual healer in London with whom Bush became close friends in the 1990s. “She was one of those very rare people who are intelligent, intuitive and kind,” Kate has said of Cornford, who believed in mental colour healing—a process whereby patients would be restored to health by seeing various hues. “I was really moved by Lily and impressed with her strength and knowledge, so it led to a song - which she thought was hilarious” – The Kate Bush Encyclopaedia

Credits:

Drums: Steve Gadd

Bass: John Giblin

Guitars: Dan McIntosh

Keyboards: Kate Bush

Backing vocals: Mica Paris, Kate Bush

Fujare: Paddy Bush

'The Gayatri' narrated by: Lily Cornford

The Red Shoes

Originally Appeared on: The Red Shoes (1993)

Running Time: 4:58

Background:

“Song written by Kate Bush. Originally released on her seventh album The Red Shoes. Also released as a single by EMI Records in the UK on 4 April 1994. Lead track of the movie The Line, The Cross and the Curve, which was presented on film festival at the time of the single's release.

Formats

'The Red Shoes' was released in the UK as a 7" single, a cassette single and two different CD-singles. The 7" single and cassette single feature the B-side track You Want Alchemy. CD-single 1 added 'Cloudbusting (Video Mix)' and This Woman's Work, and CD-single 2, released one week after the other formats, features Shoedance (see below), together with the single remix of The Big Sky and the 12" version of Running Up That Hill” – The Kate Bush Encyclopaedia

Credits:

Drums: Steve Gadd

Bass: John Giblin

Guitars: Dan McIntosh

Mandola, mandolin, whistles, musical bow, backing vocals: Paddy Bush

Backing vocals: Colin Lloyd Tucker

Additional vocals: Albert McIntosh, Jacob Thorn

This Woman’s Work

Originally Appeared on: The Sensual World (1989)

Running Time: 6:30

Background:

“Song written by Kate Bush. Originally released on the soundtrack of the movie She's Having A Baby in 1988. A year later, the song was included in Kate's sixth studio album The Sensual World. The lyric is about being forced to confront an unexpected and frightening crisis during the normal event of childbirth. Written for the movie She's Having a Baby, director John Hughes used the song during the film's dramatic climax, when Jake (Kevin Bacon) learns that the lives of his wife (Elizabeth McGovern) and their unborn child are in danger. As the song plays, we see a montage sequence of flashbacks showing the couple in happier times, intercut with shots of him waiting for news of Elizabeth and their baby's condition. Bush wrote the song specifically for the sequence, writing from a man's (Jake's) viewpoint and matching the words to the visuals which had already been filmed.

The song was used in the 21st episode of the third season of Party Of Five. The song was also used in the first episode of the second season of The Handmaid's Tale” – The Kate Bush Encyclopaedia

Credits:

Orchestra arrangement: Michael Kamen

Vocals: Albert McIntosch, Jacob Thorn

Top of the City

Originally Appeared on: The Red Shoes (1993)

Running Time: 4:24

Background:

“There are two versions of 'And So Is Love': the album version from 1993, and the version from Bush's album Director's Cut in 2011.

A live version appears on the album Before The Dawn.

Performances

The song was performed live as part of Kate's Before The Dawn shows in London, 2014.” – The Kate Bush Encyclopaedia

Credits:

Drums: Steve Gadd

Bass: John Giblin

Guitars: Dan McIntosh

Piano, backing vocals: Kate Bush

Violin, viola: Nigel Kennedy

Toll: Remi Butler

Rook: Albert McIntosh

FEATURE: Too Good to Be Forgotten: Songs That Are Much More Than a Guilty Pleasure: Scissor Sisters – Take Your Mama

FEATURE:

 

 

Too Good to Be Forgotten: Songs That Are Much More Than a Guilty Pleasure

Scissor Sisters – Take Your Mama

___________

IN this current…

Too Good to Be Forgotten: Songs That Are Much More Than a Guilty Pleasure, I am spotlighting a song that has been featured on one or two guilty pleasures lists. I am trying to show that there is no such thing as a guilty pleasure; one should never feel guilty about liking any song – although there is such a thing as good and bad music. Today, I am concentrating on a track that I am a big fan of. 2012’s Magic Hour is the fourth and most-recent album from Scissor Sisters. Their debut of 2004, Scissor Sisters, is one of the best albums from the first half of the ‘00s. Of the amazing songs on that album is the hit single, Take Your Mama. I am not sure why some feel the song is a guilty pleasure. Maybe there is a sense of self-consciousness singing along to it. In terms of its background and origin, Take Your Mama has an interesting history – and it made quite an impression on the charts around the world:

“Take Your Mama" is a song by American band Scissor Sisters and is the second track on their self-titled debut album. The song, written by Babydaddy and Jake Shears at Shears' parents' horse farm in West Virginia, was inspired by Shears' coming out to his mother, whom he is close with. The lyrics feature a homosexual man showing his mother the activities of gay nightlife in order to bond with her following his coming out.

The single was released on March 29, 2004, peaking at number 17 on the UK Singles Chart and receiving a silver certification from the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) in December 2018. It also saw success in other regions, most notably in New Zealand, where it reached number 11 on the RIANZ Singles Chart. In Australia, where the song peaked at number 40, it was ranked number 23 on Triple J's Hottest 100 of 2004”.

Just over seventeen years old, I wonder whether there are songs like Take Your Mama around today. Maybe L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ music has changed and advanced since 2004 - though I feel there is still assumption that mainstream music should be heteronormative. Do L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ artists have the chance to be expressive and true?! Not only is Take Your Mama an anthem for so many people around the world; the Scissor Sisters’ eponymous debut remains a classic. This is what Blender had to say about the album:

“They dress in bi-curious thrift-store tat and are named after a lesbian sex position. They’ve got silly names (Baby Daddy, Ana Matronic, Paddy Boom, etc.), four out of five of them are men and — yes, you worked it out — they aren’t sisters. You’d imagine that the Scissor Sisters deal in aggressive performance-installation rock. Instead, this is a world-class disco-pop outfit who resemble the Bee Gees, Supertramp and 10cc, all at their best, all at the same time.

More than anything, Scissor Sisters sound like a science-fiction Elton John from back when he made boogie-ing party records instead of overripe ballads. There’s a rare feel-good accessibility that alchemizes their raw materials — the flotsam and jetsam of half-remembered ’70s and ’80s pop radio — and makes them new. Handled with less love, this could feel like a smug wander through an ironic record collection. Here, it becomes sexy, life-affirming pop.

If they’re a fashion band, they don’t act like one: Scissor Sisters cast aside notions of cool, making this possibly the least uptight album ever made. “Laura” opens with vamping pianos and the return, after two decades’ exile, of the crazed, wind-in-the-hair saxophone solo. “Take Your Mama Out” adds yet more rollicking piano; by track three they’re erecting a swirling glitterball above Pink Floyd’s “Comfortably Numb” and turning it into a disco workout complete with scrotum-clenching male falsetto in the Gibb Brothers mold.

A combination of invention and humor (singer Jake Shears enlivens “Laura” with a Michael Jackson–ish “Chamone!”) carries them forward irresistibly. The Sisters’ traditional, even comforting songwriting gets to borrow some of the mind-emptying joy of the dance floor, and everyone goes home happy.

Subject-wise, we’re in an updated Warholian demimonde, home to the freak, the transvestite and the “lovey-dovey ghetto princess,” but it’s an upbeat version where dreams can come true. Even on “Return to Oz,” which tots up the damage crystal meth has done to gay men in New York, there’s hope to be found somewhere, even if it’s only over the rainbow. Scissor Sisters are too in love with pop to let the dirt rub off on them, and this spectacular debut might make you feel invincible, too”.

One does hear Take Your Mama played from time to time. It is a song that everyone can appreciate and bond with, yet I have some class it as a guilty pleasure. It has been covered a fair bit since its release. Wolf Alice performed a version at Glastonbury 2015:

“North London’s Wolf Alice have offered up a rendition of Scissor Sisters‘ 2004 hit ‘Take Your Mama’.

The cover was performed in a BBC live session at Glastonbury Festival over the weekend. The group were joined during the performance by Swim Deep‘s Austin Williams, who played piano for the song.

Glastonbury Festival 2015 saw Wolf Alice perform two sets in total, a surprise outing on the Williams Green stage on Thursday night followed by a Friday evening set on the Park Stage.

During the latter set, Wolf Alice battled technical problems and poor weather conditions to pull off a triumpant performance”.

If you have not played Take Your Mama for a while, go and give it a spin. Also, investigate the Scissor Sisters album. It is a gem that has lost none of its charm and spark since 2004. I think Take Your Mama is one of the finest songs from that album. As the weather is getting warmer and restrictions are easing across the U.K. (and other parts of the world), I think that Take Your Mama is a song to play loud…

AND lose yourself in.

FEATURE: Spotlight: Hope Tala

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

PHOTO CREDIT: Rosie Matheson  

Hope Tala

___________

I am putting out a fair few…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Freddie Stisted

spotlight features, as there are a lot of great artists coming through that deserve some focus. Although Hope Tala has put out a few E.P.s so far, she is still building her foundations and fanbase. I will come to her most recent E.P., Girl Eats Sun, in a bit. That was released in November last year. I really love what the West Londoner is putting out into the world! In 2019, Vogue spoke with Hope Tala about her second E.P., Sensitive Soul (2019). We learn more about a fascinating and hugely talented young artist:

“Most 21-year-olds grapple with the pressures and anxieties of completing a university degree. But West Londoner, Hope Tala, managed to graduate from the University of Bristol with a first class honours in English Literature having spent three years juggling contact hours with professors, attending lectures, adhering to deadlines, all the while travelling to and from London, meeting and working with producers, in an effort to release her first EP Starry Ache and her second EP Sensitive Soul, out today.

Hope speaks fondly and rather nonchalantly about her impressive efforts. “I’m so happy I went to university for academic reasons but also because it enabled me to have the time and space to really develop my music and songwriting,” she told Miss Vogue. “Everything that’s happened with my music – having confidence in myself and putting my music out online all started at university. The timing just worked out really well. Had it had happened a year ago, I think I would have struggled. There were moments that were tough though, especially my single “Lovestained” coming out in April, right at the end of university when I was finishing my dissertation. Having your head in multiple places at once and not being able to concentrate on one thing is really hard. Now I’m glad to concentrate and focus on music”.

“The main reason I ever started making music was to create a sound that I’d never heard before but wanted to listen to – the result is a synthesis between bossa nova and Latin influences, with R&B and soul music too. I’d only ever heard singles like but never a full album. So, I wanted to make music where I consistently use those Latin influenced chord progressions and because it just makes me feel good. I want people to connect to some kind of emotion where my music can be an extension of what they’re feeling or that they can relate to it. I gravitate towards happy music – dancey songs that are fun, like J.Lo, “Get Right”, “Signs” by Snoop Dogg and Justin Timberlake. I want to make music that evokes that same feeling of happiness – just making people dance."

Lovestained” and the Sensitive Soul EP, evokes just that. Her light, soft vocals amidst the breezy, quintessential, bossa nova hand-plucked guitar melodies and chords, with trinkets of R&B and breezy, ambient neo-soul, captures the Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights romantic, sexy, sultry, hot summer moonlit night feels that can only be illustrated as the woman dancing in a red dress emoji, making it the perfect album to listen to of what's left of this summer.

“Through music – expressing myself, using female pronouns and being open about being gay has really contributed to my confidence in myself. Hearing people’s stories about how they can identify with my music, inspires me to continue being open about my sexuality. I was 14 when I thought I was bisexual and felt I was a part of the LGBTQIA+ community through music, books. Now, I want to be a part of that because it’s important for young queer people to be able to identify themselves with various forms of art”.

I want to bring things forward to the extraordinary Girl Eats Sun. I think that Tala was stunning on her earliest recordings, through last year’s E.P. shows new strengths and layers. In this interview with DORK of November last year, we learn about the connection between literature and Tala’s writing:

“Do songs find you, or do you have to go searching for them?

I search for them in that I’ll go through the notes on my phone and scan any little poems or phrases I’ve written for lyrical fodder. But I think there has to be a sort of equilibrium of energy where the song is out in the universe for me to catch on that particular day, and I’m in the right frame of mind to take hold of it.

Does your love of literature inform your music at all?

The more I read, the better I write. I would never be writing music if I wasn’t a big reader. It’s rare that I consciously start writing a song based on a storyline I’ve read or tried to emulate a particular author or anything like that, but I think subconsciously, and indirectly, my lyrical style has been cultivated almost completely by what I’ve read.

Tell us about the creation of your new EP, was it put together during lockdown?

I wrote ‘Drugstore’ in lockdown, but I’d made the other songs previously in the second half of 2019. All of those songs I wrote from scratch in the studio, which marked a big change for my writing process – every song on my first two EPs (other than ‘Valentine’ from ‘Starry Ache’) I had written outside of the studio, then taken to a producer. I wrote ‘Anywhere’ from ‘Sensitive Soul’ in the library at uni.

It feels really assertive. Are you generally a bold person, or is that something music pulls out of you?

I’d say I’m a bold person. Definitely a very assertive person – I’ve always been that way. I don’t see any way of surviving and succeeding as a woman of colour that doesn’t involve being assertive – of course, assertion is often misunderstood as either bossiness or aggression, which has caused very harmful stereotypes for women – Black women in particular. You can’t really win in that respect. But assertion is a particularly useful trait to have in a studio environment, in terms of protecting my sound.

If you have not checked out Girl Eats Sun, then go and stream it and discover six songs (is hat technically a mini-album?!) that are so arresting and interesting. I love the blend of sounds and the clear strength of Tala’s voice throughout. In an interview with EUPHORIA., she was asked about vocal layering and Latin blends that can be heard through several songs on Girl Eats Sun:

“I hear at least three songs from Girl Eats Sun that are very Latin music centered. Was that intentional?

That was just natural. The same two guys produced those three songs and I think they and I really share a love of Latin music. Also, I’ve always loved R&B music that incorporates Latin guitar, and I think that’s the sound I was trying to create. I’m very particular about my chords and I think that’s why my music has its own cohesive sound. Having a great guitar progression makes writing a song so easy.

When you said R&B songs with Latin guitar, the first one that came to my mind was “Señorita” by Justin Timberlake. But what are some others?

That’s the first one that came to my mind too! I think a lot of Justin Timberlake’s early music embodies that sound. “Señorita,” but there’s also one called “Still On My Brain” from that album which is kind of similar. I think Justified is an incredible album. That came out when I was a young kid and I became so obsessed. Who else? Some of Ashanti’s stuff. But definitely that early Justin Timberlake. He’s the best performer I’ve seen live hands down.

Speaking of your sound, I love how you layer your vocals. Is there a specific way you attack that in the studio?

I think honestly my vocals are so much better on this project then they have been, because the guys who produced most of the songs Baca and Brandon are super classically trained, or they studied jazz or something. They’re such perfectionists so I was in the booth way longer than I have been. Some of my first songs I did one take and I’d be like, “yeah, that’s fine,” because I didn’t know anything about vocal delivery. With these guys, it was a lot of repetition, but it was definitely worth it. It’s them that had ideas for where there needed to be a double or triple vocal take, or where there needed to be harmonies.

I have never agreed with anything more. I’ve seen that you said you are inspired by Shakespeare in your writing. But are there any other more modern novelists who inspire you as well?

That’s the thing my friends make fun of me for the most. They’ll read in some article that I’m talking about Shakespeare and rinse me for it! But there’s loads of modern writers that I love. There’s this French writer called Francois Sagan. I’m pretty sure she’s dead, but she wrote in the 20th Century. I don’t speak French but I read her stuff in translation. I love Zadie Smith, who’s a British writer. I love Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie who’s a Nigerian author. Ruth Ozeki who’s a Japanese American-Canadian author. The best book I read this year is Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid. Those are the main ones. Maya Angelou…Audre Lorde.

Do any of them also inspire your lyric writing?

They definitely do, but I think it’s kind of indirect and subconscious. I always find that the more that I read the better my lyrics are. I’m not the type of person who hears a lyric in music or hears a chord progression or reads a line of writing and I’m like, “ok let me use that, or adopt that in some way.” Everyone obviously creates art in different ways. But it’s through osmosis that I consume stuff and then expel it. I don’t think it’s a conscious thing. However, I would say that Sylvia Plath is one of my all-time favorite authors and her poetry really inspired me to start writing poetry. So I think a lot of my early writing is really informed by her in a more direct way. I was talking to you before about writing about the body in the way that I do and rib cages and skin. She definitely writes like that. Her poetry collection Ariel particularly informed the fact that I write like that”.

I appreciate so much about Hope Tala’s music. Her lyrics, to me, are her strongest asset. The intelligence and poetic nature of her lyrics are sublime! One can listen to an E.P. like Girl Eats Sun and you will appreciate the vocals and compositions the first listen. You will come back just to experience the strength and depth of the words. In an interview with gal-dem, we discover more about Tala’s lyrical approach:

“Her love of words helps explain her uniquely creative lyrics, which are often vivid, dramatic and almost Shakespearean in nature. In ‘All My Girls Like To Fight’, for example, she sings “I lick their hands clean of bark and bite/so they can sleep deep at night” while in ‘Eden’, she cleverly rhymes “You want me to sing you a song of sixpence/Write you another rhyme/I would open my bones for you but I just don’t have the time/So the stories in my veins will have to do.” Her lyrics strike an impressive balance of feeling both deeply personal and open-ended at the same time. The artist wrote ‘All My Girls Like To Fight’, she says, about being in a relationship with someone who can fight while she feels too timid, but says that she doesn’t want the original meaning of a song to colour a listener’s interpretation.

“It’s important to me to write music that queer people can see themselves in, but I don’t want to force my own narrative onto anyone,” she says. “When I write I’m just doing what feels natural to me, but I’m happy that my lyrics are a bit open ended. I don’t think I can tell someone a song means one thing when they feel completely differently and have shaped it to fit their own experience. Once I’ve released my songs I always say, ‘these have nothing to do with me anymore.’”

‘Cherries’, one of the most popular songs off the Girl Eats Sun EP, is a prime example of how Hope’s words can take on several meanings. True to form, the tune is chalk full of fruit imagery and nature metaphors. The songs opening bars, “The cherries in your mouth spill stars/Scarlet venom to keep in jam jars,” endear and intrigue the listener in equal measure: while the image of cherries in jam jars suggests the song is shaping up to be a sweet love tune, the phrase “scarlet venom” introduces another, darker layer to the narrative. The rapper Aminé, who has supported Hope’s work since she started posting music on Soundcloud, is also featured on this track, and his bars help elevate Hope’s quiet sensuality to overt sexuality.

he fact that Hope can collaborate with both rapper Aminé and sultry singer-songwriter Raveena, is once more a testament to her artistic versatility. The artist has long had an eclectic musical taste. Growing up, she took clarinet and piano lessons and later went on to teach herself guitar. At home, Hope was fed the greats of R&B by her mother – Lauryn Hill, Erykah Badu, D’Angelo – while her dad, whose music tastes Hope describes as the most “controversial” of the family, would often play rock and funk hits by the Foo Fighters, Red Hot Chilli Peppers and the like. Her music tastes remain wide ranging today: “I’m listening to Ariana Grade’s new album every moment of the day,” she tells me while scrolling through her Spotify, “I really love the new Fiona Apple album, I’m loving the Skullcrusher EP. I don’t listen by genre at all, I just listen to whatever I think is good.” Her listeners are similarly diverse: Hope has recently garnered the attention of musician Ellie Goulding and even former US president Barack Obama.

Despite all her success, Hope remains steadfastly humble. “I appreciate that,” Hope remarks when I ask her what it’s been like to blow up as an artist, “but I definitely feel like it hasn’t happened yet.” Though her audience is steadily growing, Hope’s “undiscovered gem” status may just be part of her appeal to listeners.

2021 is set to be big for Hope Tala, who hopes to put out an album this year – though, as she says, “I don’t want to put crazy pressure on it.” If covid precautions allow, she also hopes to go on tour across Europe and North America. “I’ve never gone on tour so I’d love to this coming year,” she said. “I’d say releasing more music, going on tour, collaborating, and going to other people’s shows, that would be the dream.”

The future may look uncertain right now but one thing is for sure: now that Hope has chosen to pursue her music for sure, she can take the heat in 2021 and beyond”.

I am going to finish up with a review for the Girl Eats Sun E.P. The past year or two has seen more E.P.s released than any other time by the look of things. I am not sure why there has been such a rise. It is a good way to put material out before an album. I do wonder if we will get an album from Hope Tala this year. With each E.P., we get new colours and stories from a sensational artist. This is what The Tufts Daily wrote when they reviewed Girl Eats Sun:

“In terms of subject, Tala mostly writes about love and breakups. She frequently uses motifs of fruit ripeness, the body and sunlight which span from single songs like “Cherries” to the title of the EP itself. While beautiful, her metaphor-rich lyrics sometimes sound like a slam poetry writer presenting flowery metaphors as overly profound. This is particularly true in this album, where her attempts to comment on female power in relationships come off as less nuanced than in previous songs. For example, her earlier song “Eden” (2018) explores patriarchy and unequal power dynamics, even in her own same-gender relationship, through the biblical story of Adam and Eve. Another previous song, “Lovestained” (2019), looked at both the positive and damaging effects of love with interesting implications for expectations of female purity. By contrast, “All My Girls Like To Fight” defies traditional gender roles by presenting women as aggressive and unapologetic, an undeniably important message but comparatively obvious.

This is surprising considering Tala’s love of analyzing traditional English texts and modern music alike. Tala received a degree in English literature from the University of Bristol and turned down the opportunity to get her master’s at the University of Cambridge to focus on music. She even wrote her dissertation on Kendrick Lamar’s “To Pimp a Butterfly” (2015), and in a VICE article she admired his complicated political messages.

However, she commented that she doesn’t see herself as equally capable of writing music about politics. It’s perfectly understandable if she prefers to write about other topics, but the fact that her new EP continues the same musical and content-related themes without adding anything new makes it seem like she is not stretching herself to evolve. Clearly, she has much room to grow if she hopes to achieve her ambitious goals, reported by Refinery29, to “win a Grammy [and] be a professor.”

That said, her career is still relatively young and she is off to a strong start. We can still appreciate the pleasant simplicity of “Girl Eats Sun” while we wait to see what Tala does next. In fact, a Dork article quotes her saying that the lightheartedness of the love song “Crazy” is intentional; with such serious matters like COVID-19 threatening the world right now, Tala knows that listeners hardly need anything more serious weighing on their minds. As we anticipate both Tala’s next release and the end of the pandemic, “Girl Eats Sun” is well worth a listen, even if just for the romantic daydream of a post-COVID-19, care-free summer day on the beach that it provides”.

Go and follow Hope Tala and listen to her fantastic music. I am looking forward to seeing what comes next. I think that she is going to be a big artist of the future. In a packed music industry, it can be hard to determine which artists are worth backing. I feel Hope Tala is someone everyone needs to get behind. She has started her career with very strong releases and hugely original music. I think, as she continues to release new music, she will get…

EVEN better!

______________

Follow Hope Tala

PHOTO CREDIT: Rosie Matheson 

Official:

https://www.hopetala.com/

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/hopetala/

Twitter:

https://twitter.com/hope_tala

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/hopetalamusic/

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/artist/74CcYmmNeHKe5PrZaISk8e

YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGmtPsAQjmhNRaIwOz7nfdg

FEATURE: The April Playlist: Vol. 4: The Introvert

FEATURE:

 

 

The April Playlist

IN THIS PHOTO: Little Simz 

Vol. 4: The Introvert

__________

IT is a busy week…

 IN THIS PHOTO: CHVRCHES

where we have new tracks from Little Simz, CHVRCHES, Wolf Alice, Azealia Banks, Jorja Smith, Eliza Shaddad, and John Grant. Throw into the mix some Villagers, Gruff Rhys, Liz Lawrence, The Chemical Brothers, PJ Harvey, Sports Team, Field Music, Sufjan Stevens, Angel Olsen, Yola, and Weezer, and this is a packed and excellent Playlist! If you need some motivation and energy to get you into this weekend, then I would recommend that you check out the tracks below. This year has seen some terrific music releases. In terms of strength, I think that this week’s selection of new tracks is as strong as ever. I hope that this trend continues…

 IN THIS PHOTO: John Grant

THROUGH 2021.   

ALL PHOTOS/IMAGES (unless credited otherwise): Artists

__________

Little Simz – Introvert

PHOTO CREDIT: Danny Clinch

CHVRCHES - He Said She Said

Wolf Alice – Smile

Jorja Smith – Gone

Azealia Banks – Nirvana

PHOTO CREDIT: Flore Diamant

Eliza Shaddad - Heaven

John Grant - Rhetorical Figure

Gruff Rhys - Can’t Carry On

The Chemical Brothers - The Darkness You Fear

Martha Hill – Change

Villagers - The First Day

PJ Harvey – The Letter – Demo

Sports Team - Happy (God's Own Country)

Field Music – When You Last Heard from Linda

Sufjan Stevens - Revelation II – Convocations

PHOTO CREDIT: George Chinsee/WWD

H.E.R. (ft. Chris Brown) - Come Through

Liz Lawrence – Where the Bodies Are Buried

FEET - PEACE AND QUIET

Angel Olsen - Alive and Dying (Waving, Smiling)

Yola - Diamond Studded Shoes

Eaves Wilder - Mother in Your Mind

The Weeknd & Ariana Grande - Save Your Tears (Remix)

Weezer - I Need Some of That

Wyldest – Beggar

PHOTO CREDIT: George Antoni

The Veronicas (ft. Allday) - The Life of the Party

Zoe Wees – Ghost

Kero Kero Bonito – Well Rested

Mysie - In My Mind

Matilda Cole - Afternoon Haze

Holly Macve - Eye of the Storm

Lauren Aquilina - The Knife

Sasha Sloan (ft. Sam Hunt) - when was it over?

illuminati hotties – MMMOOOAAAAAYAYA

Ashe - When I’m Older

Bugzy Malone - Salvador

Rachel Chinouriri – Plain Jane

Amber Mark – Worth It

PHOTO CREDIT: Emily Marcovecchio

Sukie - Honey Puff

Charlotte Cardin - Anyone Who Loves Me

PHOTO CREDIT: Liam Noonan

OhEm - Impatient

Shaybo (ft. DreamDoll) - Broke Boyz

Veps - Ecstasy

Kele - Nineveh

Lissy Taylor - Quiet Rage

FEATURE: Modern Heroines: Part Forty-Three: Hayley Williams

FEATURE:

 

 

Modern Heroines

PHOTO CREDIT: Lindsey Byrnes 

Part Forty-Three: Hayley Williams

___________

RATHER than concentrate on her work…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Lindsey Byrnes

with Paramore, I am going to be including Hayley Williams’ solo music for fonder consideration – the songs in the playlist at the end will be hers. I guess one can not really discuss the solo work of Williams without nodding to her band. Paramore’s most-recent album, 2017’s After Laughter, is hopefully not going to be their last. The band (Hayley Williams, Zac Farro, Taylor York) are phenomenal. I think their main weapon is Hayley Williams. In terms of her songwriting and vocals, she is one of the most expressive, memorable and accomplished leads in music. Before coming to her debut solo album, it is worth bringing in some background information regarding the exceptional Hayley Williams:

“Hayley Nichole Williams (born December 27, 1988) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and businesswoman who is best known as the lead vocalist, primary songwriter, and keyboardist of the rock band Paramore.

Born and raised in Mississippi, Williams moved to Franklin, Tennessee at the age of 13 just after her parents divorced in 2002. In 2004, she formed Paramore alongside Josh Farro, Zac Farro, and Jeremy Davis. The band currently consists of Hayley Williams, Zac Farro and Taylor York. The band has released five studio albums: All We Know Is Falling (2005), Riot! (2007), Brand New Eyes (2009), Paramore (2013), and After Laughter (2017).

Williams released her debut solo single "Simmer" on January 22, 2020, and announced on the same day that her debut studio album, Petals for Armor, would be released on May 8, 2020. The album was preceded by two EPs entitled Petals for Armor I and II that make up the first two thirds of the album. Her second solo record, Flowers for Vases / Descansos, was released less than a year later on February 5, 2021.

Aside from Paramore and preceding her solo career, Williams recorded the song "Teenagers" for the soundtrack of Jennifer's Body (2009) and has collaborated with artists such as October Fall, The Chariot, Set Your Goals, Zedd and New Found Glory. In 2010, she was featured on the single "Airplanes" by B.o.B. It peaked at number two on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. A sequel to the song, "Airplanes, Part II", features new verses from B.o.B. and a verse from Eminem, while Williams' vocals remain the same. This collaboration led to a Grammy nomination for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals”.

 PHOTO CREDIT: Lindsey Byrnes

Released on 8th May, 2020, there were a lot of eyes on Williams when she released Petals for Armor. Many thought it was the end of Paramore. Whilst Williams is taking a break from the band, I think her solo album is less a voyage for freedom; it is a chance for her to go out alone and doing something different. I will get to her second studio album (released in 2021) in a bit. I want to bring in an interview that was conducted by i-D. We learn more about Williams being singled out by the press as part of Paramore, in addition to the transition to her debut solo release:

“When Zane Lowe interviewed Paramore for Gonzo, the cultish British MTV Music show, he expected the firecracker frontwoman he’d learned about. Instead he found someone thoughtful. “I have this memory of Hayley really trying to defer to the other members of the band, to be inclusive when I’d ask questions,” he says. “I’m always wary of environments like that, when you see someone who’s fronting a band and very deliberately trying to step into the background, I’m like, what’s causing that? Is it a shyness? This wasn’t that, this was: there’s something going on here with the dynamic of the band and we’re not going to get the bottom of it with this interview.”

That democratic nature is seconded by Hayley's Paramore bandmate, HalfNoise musician and childhood friend, Zac Farro. “She’s always done that since the very first interview,” he says. “There’d be times where it’d be blatantly obvious questions aimed at Hayley but she’d sit there quietly until someone else would talk. She’d even make it awkward to force the involvement from all the band. It’s a powerful way to run a business and a band and to lead people.”

Hayley remembers being very sensitive about being singled out: “Being female and fronting an all-male band was like throwing your soul to the wolves. People didn’t know how to take you -- if your supposed power meant that they should be intimidated or inspired. In the midst of all of that there’s just a tension. Sometimes I didn’t want that.” What she did want was for the band to be recognised as a pack: for their connection to each other, or at least for their songwriting abilities. “All these reviews would come out that would paint me as some sort of dictator in a band setting, or as a brat -- it’s because I was a female, really,” she says, calmly, adding that she learnt a lot from the experience. “I’m not bitter about it but I grew up understanding that I was a little kid wearing a demon costume that I couldn’t see but everyone else could”.

The triumph -- and beauty -- of the record is how specifically Hayley translates her psychological and emotional growth. When writer-producer Steph Marziano flew to Nashville in July 2019 to co-write “Creepin”, “Over Yet” and “Taken” with Hayley and Joey Howard, it was for a “really homely time”; an environment at Hayley's house where intense, meaningful conversations between the three of them were internalised by the singer and later revealed as lyrics and melody. During a session, Steph was taken aback by a question Hayley asked: If you’re always facilitating the artist, what about yourself? How do you mentally cope with that? “As a producer, a lot of times I’m the therapist for the artist. Whenever they’re telling their story I’m supposed to help them get to the emotion of it,” Steph says. “With Hayley, we were all sharing, which shows her emotional intelligence.”

Petals For Armor is ready for release but Hayley still attends therapy sessions (“I try not to overdo it because you can always have too much of a good thing”) and reflects that the counsel offered in that self-shot teenage video would be different today. Now she allows herself to feel deeply without judgement. “I go through some of the heaviest depression that will hit in a single day, followed up by a real feeling of peace and gratitude that I never experienced until quite recently,” she explains. “Being able to juggle both of those extremes, to be able to say, ‘it’s OK that I don’t feel good’ and ‘I don’t understand how to put words to this feeling’ or that ‘actually now I feel so hopeful and grateful’ has been very important to me, and that’s more the message I wish I’d have known sooner”.

I love her debut album and I am eager to bring in a positive review for it soon. There is another interview that I want to source from before I do that. Williams spoke with Ben Barna for Interview Magazine. She was asked about lockdown and going out solo:

“Hayley Williams towers over an empty Times Square. Last week, the singer posted a photo of a Spotify billboard promoting her new album, Petals for Armor, and asked her followers to consider it for “Album of the Apocalypse.” In a pre-pandemic world, countless swaths of passersby would have been tipped off that the frontwoman of the pop-punk group Paramore was releasing her solo debut, but now, there’s an eerie if-a-tree-falls-in-a-forest mood to the whole affair. For Williams, that’s not even the strangest part. “The weirder part was seeing myself up there without Zac and Taylor’s faces next to me,” she says, referring to the drummer Zac Farro and the guitarist Taylor York, the other two members of the band Williams founded in 2004, when she was 15 years old. Since then, Paramore became a global rock act that fought through public drama and a rotating lineup (Farro rejoined the band in 2017 after a falling out) to release 2018’s After Laughter, a deeply personal, ‘80s-inflected album many consider to be the band’s creative peak.

With Petals for Armor, Williams, now 31, has picked up where the last Paramore album left off, digging even deeper into her struggles with mental health, exacerbated by her recent divorce and tamed by therapy and a return to her hometown of Nashville. Williams, who spent her early years as a staple of the Vans Warped Tour, emerges here as a genre-agnostic artist, as comfortable with the electro-pop of “Sugar on the Rim” as she is with the art rock of “Sudden Desire.” Last week, we spoke to Williams from her home in Nashville about adjusting to life in one place after spending so much of it on the road, the disconnect between professional success and personal failure, and why she decided to finally come home.

PHOTO CREDIT: Lindsey Byrnes for Interview Magazine 

BEN BARNA: A lot of musicians talk about the comedown that happens after a tour, and how difficult it is to adjust to the rhythms of a normal day. Now that you’re in quarantine, every day is normal. How are you adjusting to that?

HAYLEY WILLIAMS: I get this intense emotional whiplash after any tour we come home from because I love to be on the road and play songs for people. There’s no greater high than that. But my body has been put through the ringer for so long. This is the longest I’ve been home since I was 16. Some days I fucking hate it, but other days I’m trying to remember gratitude.

BARNA: The forecasts for when large crowds will be able to gather again are grim. Are you having trouble visualizing playing shows in the near future?

BARNA: You’re used to speaking about your music alongside your bandmates. What’s it been like to be the only person representing the music?

WILLIAMS: On the one hand, I fucking talk so much. The guys always laugh at me because before an encore, we take shots of tequila. It was a little tradition for us during the After Laughter tour. And you always knew when I took part, because when I take a shot, I talk even more. But this whole process is just me puking it up. I’m pretty unfiltered these days, and I feel okay about that. If this were a Paramore project, you’re absolutely right. It’s not because I feel ashamed of the work, or because the guys don’t want me to talk, it’s just that it’s not only me, and I love just as much for them to have the light on them. If anything, I love that more. Right now, I’m just letting my fucking mouth flap around, and I’m saying too much. But I don’t ever regret it. There’s no point”.

I feel that Hayley Williams is going to be an icon of the future. She is a tremendous band leader and solo artist, but I feel the next few years will see Williams release more solo material and, hopefully, some new work with Paramore. I think that Petals for Armor is an exceptional debut album. This is what AllMusic observed in their review:

“Hayley Williams' artful and deeply personal solo debut, 2020's Petals for Armor, reportedly comes on the heels of a period of deep self-reflection for the longtime Paramore vocalist, and it shows. Along with Paramore's breakthrough chart success with their 2013 self-titled album and 2017's After Laughter, Williams and the band endured three frought lineup changes. It was also during these years that Williams married, divorced, and saw her beloved grandmother endure a life-altering injury. She brings all of these experiences to bear on Petals for Armor, digging with poetic intensity into the depression and self-doubt that have often clouded her success. Joining Williams is Paramore guitarist Taylor York who also takes the helm as producer. A fluidly inventive instrumentalist and songwriter, York brings the same level of empathetic creativity to Williams' work here as he does with Paramore. Also on board are Paramore touring bassist Joey Howard (who shares at least half of the co-writing credits), drummer Aaron Steele (Ghost Beach, Fences, Ximena Sarinana), and cellist/violinist Benjamin Kaufman. Together, they've crafted a series of intimate mood pieces that pair Williams' candid lyrics (she also plays guitar and keyboards) with arty post-rock arrangements and evocative adult-contemporary flourishes.

There's a palpable sense of exploration on Petals for Armor, as Williams includes nods to the progressive Baroque pop and funky dance music of artists like Kate Bush, Tori Amos, and David Byrne. Cuts like the opening "Simmer" and "Leave It Alone" have a narcotic dream energy, punctuated by menacing bass grooves and icy string accents. They also showcase Williams' continued growth as a singer, her resonant voice pulled down to a hushed lilt one minute and a soaring, mellifluous shimmer the next. While there's a sculpted precision to many of these songs, they are balanced with a frank emotionality. On the dancey, Latin-inflected "Dead Horse," Williams details a toxic relationship, singing "Every morning I wake up/From a dream of you/Holding me underwater/Is that a dream or a memory?/Held my breath for a decade/Dyed my hair blue to match my lips/Cool of me to try/Pretty cool I'm still alive." Also helping to illuminate Williams' softly cathartic sound are singer/songwriter's Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy Dacus, and Julien Baker who sing back-up on the flowing, downtempo orchestral track "Roses/Lotus/Violet/Iris." It's a textured, nuanced song, rife with an empowered and explicitly feminine eye for detail. Williams sings, "I think of all the wilted women/Who crane their necks to reach a window/Ripping all their petals off just cause 'He loves me now, he loves me not.' 'While there's certainly an audible sense of collaboration on Petals for Armor, it's Williams' ability to turn her dark, personal moments into anthems of survival that stick with you. As she sings on "Watch Me While I Bloom," "I'm alive in spite of me/And I'm on my move/So come and look inside of me/Watch me while I bloom”.

Before closing things, I want to source from a review of Hayley Williams’ second album, FLOWERS for VASES / descansos. Released ion February, it came very soon after her debut. I love the sound of both albums, though there is definite shift and difference between them. After the surprise of a solo Hayley Williams album, nobody was expecting another so soon! This is what NME wrote in their review:

“And on ‘Flowers for Vases/descansos’ Hayley Williams revisits her own personal descansos with plain-speaking candour. Though ‘Petals for Armor’ referenced autobiographical details too, they are cloaked in fewer metaphors here. On ‘Inordinary’ she sings directly about starting over in Tennessee aged 14 when she and her mother escaped Williams’ stepfather. “Came home from school one afternoon, she was waiting in the car for me,” she sings over spare, arpeggiated guitar, “she said ‘don’t worry.”

Many other songs are bittersweet, broken expressions of a love that won’t fade despite the instinct to bury it in a deep, secret place. In a meta moment on ‘Trigger’, Williams wonders aloud if she’s capable of making art from a place of peaceful contentment: “What do people sing about once they finally found it?” she asks. The reverberating strums of opener ‘First Thing to Go’ accompany Williams’ attempts to remember the past in vivid detail, and the strange sensation of somebody who once represented everything fading into a fainter memory with missing fragments. “First thing to go was the sound of his voice, it echoes still, I’m sure, but I can’t hear it,” she sings “…Heard what I wanted, until I couldn’t.”

Perhaps partly as a result of how it was created, ‘Flowers for Vases / descansos’ is less spiny and biting than her debut solo album. While that record brought to mind the intricacies of Thom Yorke and Warpaint, and burned with a simmering anger, this comes from a softer, more exposed place with Williams’ voice as its centrepiece. As if tugging up grubby fistfuls of dead weeds to make room for living things to flourish, ‘Flowers for Vases/descansos’ rakes back the debris and leaves Hayley Williams exposed. Sowing new seeds, it’s an approach that reaps rewards”.

I have only really scratched the surface of a remarkable artist. Whether leading Paramore or going solo, Hayley Williams is a tremendous songwriter and performer. I feel we will see a lot more work from one of modern music’s finest artists. Maybe it is a bit rash to say Williams will be an icon in the future, though I think that she has the combination of talent and a quality that many other artists do not possess. If you have not really checked out the music of Hayley Williams then listen to her debut solo albums and go back and hear her work with Paramore. No matter what guise and line-up she is in – part of the band or doing it solo -, the incredible and hugely interesting Hayley Williams is…

>

A remarkable talent.

FEATURE: Inspired By… Part Seven: Jeff Buckley

FEATURE:

 

 

Inspired By…

PHOTO CREDIT: Michel Linssen/Redferns 

Part Seven: Jeff Buckley

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FOR the seventh edition…

of Inspired By…, I wanted to bring in an artist who I mention quite a bit on this site. Jeff Buckley is one of my favourite musicians ever. I know Apple Music do their own series where they collate songs from artists influenced by a legend; they have done one for Jeff Buckley - I was eager to do my own series of some of the artists that I really love. He would have been fifty-five later this year (17th November). Since his untimely death in 1997, his legacy and remarkable music has inspired a new generation of artists. The playlist at the end of this feature is a selection of artists who have either cited Buckley as influential or have been compared to him. I want to bring in a big chunk of biography to give you a flavour of a musician who, in a short life, achieved so much – and left an indelible mark on the music world:

“Jeff Buckley was born in California’s Orange County in 1966 and died in a tragic drowning accident in Memphis on May 29, 1997. He had emerged in New York City’s avant-garde club scene in the 1990’s as one of the most remarkable musical artists of his generation, acclaimed by audiences, critics, and fellow musicians alike. His first commercial recording, the four-song EP Live At Sin-é, was released in December 1993 on Columbia Records. The EP captured Buckley, accompanying himself on electric guitar, in a tiny coffeehouse in New York’s East Village, the neighborhood he’d made his home.

By the time of the EP’s release during the fall of 1993, Buckley had already entered the studio with Mick Grondahl (bass), Matt Johnson (drummer), and producer Andy Wallace and recorded seven original songs (including “Grace” and “Last Goodbye”) and three covers (among them Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah”, Benjamin Britten’s “Corpus Christi Carol”) that comprised his debut album Grace. Guitarist Michael Tighe became a permanent member of Jeff Buckley’s ensemble and went on to co-write and perform on Grace’s “So Real” just prior to the release of the album.

In early 1994, not long after Live At Sin-é appeared in stores, Jeff Buckley toured clubs, lounges, and coffeehouses in North America as a solo artist from January 15-March 5 as well as in Europe from March 11-22. Following extensive rehearsals in April-May 1994, Buckley’s “Peyote Radio Theatre Tour” found him on the road with his band from June 2-August 16. His full-length full-band album, Grace, was released in the United States on August 23, 1994, the same day Buckley and band kicked off a European tour in Dublin, Ireland; the 1994 European Tour ran through September 22, with Buckley and Ensemble performing at the CMJ convention at New York’s Supper Club on September 24. The group headed back into America’s clublands for a Fall Tour lasting from October 19-December 18.

On New Year’s Eve 1994-95, Buckley returned to Sin-é to perform a solo set; on New Year’s Day, he read an original poem at the annual St. Mark’s Church Marathon Poetry Reading. Two weeks later, he and his band were back in Europe for gigs in Dublin, Bristol, and London before launching an extensive tour of Japan, France, Germany, Italy, Holland, Belgium, and the United Kingdom which lasted from January 29-March 5. On April 13 1995, it was announced that Jeff Buckley’s Grace had earned him France’s prestigious “Gran Prix International Du Disque — Academie Charles CROS — 1995”; an award given by a jury of producers, journalists, the president of France Culture, and music industry professionals, it had previously been given to Edith Piaf, Jacques Brel, Yves Montand, Georges Brassens, Bruce Springsteen, Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, and Joni Mitchell, among other musical luminaries. France also awarded Buckley a gold record certification for Grace.

From March 5 through April 20, Buckley and his band rehearsed for an American spring tour with gigs running from April 22-June 2. From June through August, Jeff and company toured the United Kingdom, France, Denmark, Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, and Switzerland. The band took off for Down Under to play six Australian shows between August 28-September 6, 1995. In November 1995, Buckley played two unannounced solo shows at Sin-é.He performed songs including the new “Woke Up In A Strange Place” on Vin Scelsa’s “Idiot’s Delight” show on WXRK-FM on December 17 and celebrated New Year’s Eve 1995-96 with performances at New York’s Mercury Lounge and Sin-é.

Jeff Buckley and his touring ensemble went back to Australia, where Grace had earned a gold record certification, for the “Hard Luck Tour,” which ran from February 9-March 1 of 1996. Drummer Matt Johnson left the group after the final Australian show. The posthumous album Jeff Buckley-Mystery White Boy brings together some of the high points from Jeff’s 1995-1996 live performances. The DVD/home video release Jeff Buckley-Live In Chicago documents, in its entirety, Jeff’s concert at The Cabaret Metro in Chicago on May 13, 1995.

In May of ’96, Jeff played four gigs as a bass player with Mind Science of the Mind, a side-project of Buckley’s friend, Nathan Larson of Shudder To Think. In September ’96, Buckley played another unannounced solo gig at his old favorite haunt Sin-é. December of 1996 found Jeff Buckley embarking on his “phantom solo tour”; designed to experiment with new songs in a live setting (as in his Sin-é days), these unannounced solo gigs throughout the Northeast U.S. were played under a succession of aliases: the Crackrobats, Possessed By Elves, Father Demo, Smackrobiotic, the Halfspeeds, Crit Club, Topless America, Martha & the Nicotines, and A Puppet Show Named Julio.

At midnight on February 9, 1997, Jeff Buckley debuted his new drummer, Parker Kindred, in a show at Arlene Grocery on New York’s Lower East Side. He also played a couple of solo gigs in New York during the first months of 1997: a gig at the Daydream Cafe (featuring band members Mick Grondahl and Michael Tighe as “special guests”) and a solo performance February 4 as part of the Knitting Factory’s 10-Year Birthday Party.

Buckley and his band had recorded intermittently — with Tom Verlaine as producer — during Summer/Fall 1996 and early winter 1997 in New York and in February 1997 in Memphis. After the conclusion of those sessions, Jeff sent the band back to New York while, during March and April 1997, he remained in Memphis and continued to craft his work-in-progress, making various four-track home recordings of songs to present to his bandmates. Some of these were revisions of the songs recorded with Verlaine, some were brand new compositions, and some were surprising cover versions. The new lineup debuted Buckley’s new songs at Barrister’s in Memphis on February 12 and 13. Beginning March 31, Jeff began a series of regularly scheduled Monday night solo performances at Barrister’s. His last show there was on Monday, May 26, 1997. The night Buckley died, he was on his way to meet his band to begin three weeks of rehearsals for my sweetheart, the drunk; producer Andy Wallace, who’d helmed the boards on Grace, was to join them in Memphis in late June to record his new album.

In addition to his Columbia Records releases, Live At Sin-é and Grace, Jeff Buckley has appeared as a guest artist on several other recordings. He can be heard singing “Jolly Street,” a track on the Jazz Passengers 1994 album In Love. He contributed tenor vocals to “Taipan” and “D. Popylepis,” two recordings on John Zorn’s Cobra Live At The Knitting Factory (1995). On Rebecca Moore’s Admiral Charcoal’s Song, Buckley plays electric six-string bass on “If You Please Me,” “Outdoor Elevator,” and “Needle Men” (on which he also plays drums). He both plays guitar and sings backup vocals on Brenda Kahn’s “Faith Salons,” a key track on her Destination Anywhere album (released 1996). Patti Smith’s critically acclaimed Gone Again album features Buckley adding “voice” to the song “Beneath the Southern Cross” and “essrage” (a small fretless Indian stringed instrument) to “Fireflies.” On kicks joy darkness, a various artists’ spoken word tribute to beat poet Jack Kerouac, Jeff Buckley performed on “Angel Mine”; Jeff plays guitar, sitar, and mouth sax (adding words at the poem’s conclusion) on the track. Buckley can be heard reading Edgar Allan Poe’s “Ulallume – A Ballad,” on Closed On Account Of Rabies (Poems & Tales by Edgar Allan Poe) on Mouth Almighty/Mercury Records. He sang “I Want Someone Badly” (Epic) for Shudder To Think’s soundtrack to First Love, Last Rites. Sandy Bell, a friend of Buckl ey’s during his L.A. days, released the resurrected track “Hollywould” in 2000, which she co-wrote and recorded with Buckley.

An ardent enthusiast for a myriad of musical forms, Jeff Buckley was an early champion among young American musicians for the work of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, the world’s foremost Qawwali (the music of the Sufis) singer. Buckley conducted an extensive interview with Nusrat in Interview magazine (January 1996) and wrote the liner notes Nusrat’s The Supreme Collection album, released on Mercator/Caroline records in August 1997. On May 9, 2000, Columbia Records released Jeff Buckley-Mystery White Boy, an album of live performances, and Jeff Buckley-Live In Chicago, a full-length concert (available on DVD or VHS) recorded live at The Cabaret Metro in Chicago on May 13, 1995, in the midst of Jeff’s “Mystery White Boy” tour.

As stated, following the release of Grace on August 23, 1994, Jeff and his group spent much of 1994-1996 performing around the world on the Unknown, Mystery White Boy, and Hard Luck tours. The May 2000 release of Jeff Buckley – Mystery White Boy brought together, for the first time, some of the high points of those shows. Produced by Michael Tighe (guitarist for Jeff’s band throughout their international touring and the recording of Grace) and Mary Guibert (Jeff’s mother) and Jeff Buckley-Mystery White Boy provides an evocative cross-section of Jeff’s repertoire: previously-unreleased Buckley compositions, electrifying live interpretations of songs from Grace, and obscure and marvelous cover choices. The recordings heard on Jeff Buckley-Mystery White Boy have been hand-picked from scores of concert tapes by Mary Guibert and the members of Jeff’s band who played such a large role in helping Jeff realize his musical vision.

According to Mary, the tracks on Jeff Buckley-Mystery White Boy are “the individual performances that represented transcendent moments from each of the concerts we’d identified as being in the ‘overall outstanding’ category.”

“It was obvious which performances were contenders for the record,” concurs Michael Tighe, “and in some cases a performance would be so supreme and unpredictable that I knew it had to be brought to the public.”

In the years since Buckley’s death, his legacy continues to grow. His fan base include rock legends, new artists, loyal followers, and an entirely new generation of music lovers. Jeff’s only studio album in his lifetime, Grace, endures”.

To honour a much-missed and legendary artist, this Inspired By… unites artists who are moved and influenced by the unforgettable Jeff Buckley. It is clear that, so many years after his death, his music and memory continues to reverberate and move people…

AROUND the world.

FEATURE: Groovelines: Ben E. King – Stand By Me

FEATURE:

 

 

Groovelines

Ben E. King – Stand By Me

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THIS is a song…

that has been covered quite extensively through the years. Recorded back in October 1960, Ben E. King’s Stand By Me is one of those songs that has bene taken to heart by so many people. I am mentioning the track, as it was recently Bob Harris’ seventy-fifth birthday. He united a special group to perform a cover of Stand By Me back in 2020. Here is some further information and explanation:

“A huge array of artists have come together under the banner ‘Whispering Bob’s Allstars’ to perform the song remotely, including: Paul Rogers, Mark Knopfler, PP Arnold Peter Frampton, Rick Wakeman, Richard Thompson, Beth Nielsen Chapman, The Shires and Ward Thomas plus many more – see below for full list.

This new recording of the Ben E King classic is spearheaded by the legendary Bob Harris OBE, who celebrates 50 years in broadcasting this year. What better way to mark the occasion than inviting some of his favourite artists to come together to perform his favourite song, 60 years to the day it was originally recorded (27 October 1960) and raise money for a wonderful cause – Help Musicians”.

At such a difficult time, I think Stand By Me has taken on a new life. It is a wonderful song that will continue to be explored by various different artists in the form of cover versions. I am looing at the original recording which, to me, is the very best. Ben E. King’s performance carries so much passion and emotion! It still sound so moving and powerful six decades after its release. Released on 24th April, 1961, I wanted to mark sixty years of a phenomenal song.

Before moving on, here are some more details about an all-time gem of a track that continues to inspire and impact people all around the world:

“Stand by Me" is a song originally performed in 1961 by American singer-songwriter Ben E. King and written by King, Jerry Leiber, and Mike Stoller. According to King, the title is derived from, and was inspired by, a spiritual written by Sam Cooke and J. W. Alexander called "Stand by Me Father," recorded by the Soul Stirrers with Johnnie Taylor singing lead. The third line of the second verse of the former work derives from Psalm 46:2c/3c.

It was featured on the soundtrack of the 1986 film Stand by Me, and a corresponding music video, featuring King along with actors River Phoenix and Wil Wheaton, was released to promote the film. It was also featured in a 1987 European commercial of Levi's 501 jeans, contributing to greater success in Europe. In 2012, the song's royalties was estimated to have topped $22.8 million (£17 million), making it the sixth highest-earning song as of its era. 50% of the royalties were paid to King.[4] In 2015, King's original version was inducted into the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress, as "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant", just under five weeks before his death. Later in the year, the 2015 line up of the Drifters recorded it in tribute.

There have been over 400 recorded versions of the song, performed by many artists, notably John Lennon, Cassius Clay (later Muhammad Ali), 4 the Cause, Tracy Chapman, musicians of the Playing for Change project, Florence and the Machine, and the Kingdom Choir. A-League club Melbourne Victory FC play this song before home matches, while fans raise their scarves above their heads and sing the lyrics”.

There have been some great covers of Stand By Me through the decades. I want to finish off by brining in an article from The Guardian. They published a piece in 2015 to mark fifty-five years since Stand By Me was written. As they explore, one can easily identify the song. It is one of those tracks that resonates after so many years:

“As is the case with all the great pop songs, you can identify Stand By Me by its opening few notes. Mike Stoller’s simple bassline, built around a 50s doo-wop chord progression, is decorated with little more than the faint ting of a triangle and the scrape of a gourd guiro – yet the effect is instant. King’s gospel-infused vocals followed this approach: the strength of his feelings imparted with no need for histrionics.

Fifty-five years after it was written, King’s original version still wields the kind of emotional heft that can reduce people to tears, and get others on their feet at weddings. Yet not everyone saw its magic at first. King had originally intended the song for his band the Drifters, before he left that group in 1960 – it was only after a songwriting session with Stoller and Jerry Lieber had come to an end, and they asked if he had any other songs in the locker, that he put it forward. “I wasn’t trying to make a hit,” he told the Guardian in 2013. According to King, legendary producer Jerry Wexler was even less aware of its magic: “He hated it because we’d gone into overtime in the studio with an expensive orchestra.”

King’s novella The Body inspired Rob Reiner’s 1986 film Stand By Me, and the inclusion of the original version of the song on the soundtrack helped make it an even bigger hit in 1987, when it topped the UK singles chart. The renaissance continued shortly afterwards when Stand By Me was one of several soul classics to appear on adverts for Levi’s 501 jeans. Such ongoing success thrilled King, who vowed to keep performing the song “as long as I’m breathing”.

On paper, Stand By Me seems a simple song, and certainly King wrote it with simple intentions: a love song to his partner at the time, Betty Nelson. Pop songs are seldom expected to mirror the lives of the artists who created them, but it certainly adds a sparkle to the song to know that Nelson would go on to celebrate five decades of marriage with the man who sang to her: “If the sky that we look upon should tumble and fall / All the mountains should crumble to the sea / I won’t cry, I won’t cry / No, I won’t shed a tear / Just as long as you stand, stand by me.”

It’s especially fitting that a song about enduring love – a love able to survive, no matter what trials and traumas it encounters – was built equally strongly to stand the test of time”.

Perhaps one of the most memorable and loved songs ever released, Stand By Me has acquired fresh relevance and potency during the pandemic. Bob Harris’ assembled tribute has done a lot of good and, in the process, brought Ben E. King’s version to new people. It is truly…

ONE of the all-time classics.