FEATURE: Spotlight: Viji

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

Viji

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I have quite a bit to cover…

when it comes to the sensational Viji. The London-based, Austrian-born artist is someone people need to know about. Real name Vanilla Jenner, Viji is primed for greatness. Her album, So Vanilla, has won a lot of applause. It came out on 27th October. I will work my way to that. I want to cover off some biography and interviews first. Previous E.P.s, Are You in My Head (2020) and Suck It (2021), were pandemic releases that were hard to tour and promote. Both tremendous, her debut studio album has been released at a time when she scan truly strike! Signed to Speedy Wunderground, she is in very good hands indeed. Here is some biography regarding a truly wonderful artist that is hugely original and exciting:

“As a teenager in Austria, rising alt-pop artist Viji – aka Vanilla Jenner – was always searching for something more. Fueled by an obsession with US TV shows and pop culture of the time, she dreamt of making an imprint on this world. As a budding musician, she longed for peers who took being in a band as seriously as she did. “There were musicians around but no one who wanted world domination,” she laughs. “Nobody was writing songs.”

Years later and now signed to Dirty Hit, the artist is building a world for herself that fulfils all her desires. Since releasing her debut single ‘Cherry’ in 2020, she has marked herself out as a creative new force in the alternative sphere – both through her hook-filled songs and the inventive visuals that accompany them – with a streak of determination driving her forward.

“Put my head down and work hard / Reach my hand out super far,” she sings on ‘Cali’, the balmy title track from her upcoming third EP and a love letter to one of her dream states. “I’ve forever and always had an obsession with California,” she explains, noting that in the future, she’d like it to be somewhere she calls home for at least some of the year. “I always say I’m gonna work hard, and then once I’m there – wherever there is – I’ll move to Cali.”

With the determination to write her own story, Viji left home at 15 to spend a year in Colorado. Following many summer breaks abroad in the states (including Hawaii), she made one more stop in the south of the continent, spending time with her Brazilian side of the family.

Just as America seems to have been a constant in the new talent’s life, so too has music. Her grandfather was a classical pianist, her cousin was in a band growing up, and her dad builds instruments for a living. Even her name comes from an album. “My dad does a lot of folk instruments and Renaissance instruments, and apart from old school rock’n’roll, he’s also into weird elvish folk,” she says. “There’s this band called Blowzabella and they brought out an album called ‘Vanilla’. He was like, ‘That’s a pretty name for my future daughter’.” When Viji was embarking on her own musical journey, friends suggested she use her first name as her stage name, but she refused: “I don’t personally relate to whatever vanilla stands for in this world.”

If vanilla is typically associated with something plain and unadventurous, then Viji is here to challenge that perception. Over the last 15 months, the London-based musician has built the foundations of her career on songs that breathe new life into ‘90s and ’00s-inspired guitar-driven sounds, upping her inventiveness with each release. It’s something that’s already won her praise from the likes of DIY, The Fader, The Line Of Best Fit, Nylon and more. Her debut EP, ‘Are You In My Head’, was more straightforward plaid-tinged grunge-pop, before 2021’s ‘Suck It’ EP invited fresh synth elements into the mix, adding more dimensions to her core sound”.

I am going to get to a slightly older interview before coming up to date. Fred Perry shot some questions the way of Viji. When they spoke with her, she hadn’t yet played shows as ‘Viji’. An artist still waiting to bring her alter ego to the stage. I hope that we get to see Viji touring quite widely in 2024. She will definitely do some London shows:

“Name, where are you from?

Vanilla Jenner, Austria (living in London).

Describe your style in three words?

Baggy Bratz fits.

What’s the best gig you’ve ever been to?

I saw Justice play at Red Rocks in CO. That was really special cause it’s this open-air natural amphitheatre and their set was just as it was getting dark. So you got Justice playing and the moon with Denver skyline in the back, really can’t beat that for a vibe.

If you could be on the line up with any two bands in history?

Fugazi and Frank Ocean would be crazy. I don’t know how the energy would match but I’d like to think they dig each other’s music... and mine.

Which subcultures have influenced you?

Skate, emo and rave, currently a bit of otaku.

If you could spend an hour with anyone from history?

Would love to have Elon Musk and Grimes in a room to hear their take on the next ten years.

Of all the venues you’ve played, which is your favourite?

I haven’t played any shows as Viji (✖﹏✖). I’m dying to though! I miss live music. One of my London favs is Electric Ballroom.

Your greatest unsung hero or heroine in music?

Alex G, I think he’s amazing! I used to listen to his Album 'Rocket' every morning. It has so many different genres on it and he nails all of them.

The first track you played on repeat?

'Don’t Tell Me' by Avril Lavigne. I just listened to it again for the first time in forever. Still a banger!

A song that defines the teenage you?

'Adam’s Song' by Blink-182. I was a moody teenager and def thought I was doomed to die young. So 'Adam’s Song' seemed appropriately dramatic”.

I will come to an interview from DIY from October. They embraced her “narcotic, ‘90s influenced guitar world”. There is a lot of attention aimed the way of this extraordinary artist. Viji is a name that should be on everyone’s mind right now:

“Vanilla Jenner might have spent her early years in Austria - an epicentre of classical music - but from a young age the rules and rigidity of the genre were clearly destined to be an ill fit. “I was never that interested in the theory; that was never my thing. With guitar I was like, ‘Ah, let’s just play four chords in my room over and over and hum over it…’” she laughs, tooth gems glinting and bleach-blonde hair scruffed up in a clip. “I was very much approaching it as a songwriter instead of learning guitar as a crazy skill. I would be a lot better at instruments if I practised like they told me to practise at school…”

Instead of poring over textbooks, however, she began striking out independently, cultivating the identity that would go on to infuse the gauzy grunge of her musical project, Viji. Aged 15, she spent a term in Colorado where her listening habits were turned upside down. “My friends there introduced me to a lot of music I didn’t know. The Breeders; Bikini Kill; we listened to ‘Totally Crushed Out’ by that dog a lot - I got into all of it just through depressed friends who were like, ‘Listen to this!’” she laughs. “Elliott Smith is like, my everyday companion.” After school, she made the move to the UK, wanting to break away from Austria’s largely non-English-speaking music scene into a place with wider potential.

It’s a mix of intuition and ambition that’s been there from the start. “I did think at 12 or 13: I want to be a rock star. A pop star, rock star, just a star… I didn’t really think about doing anything else,” she notes. And, having released a debut trio of EPs via Dirty Hit (2020’s ‘Are You In My Head’, 2021’s ‘Suck It’ and the following year’s ‘Cali’), her new home of Speedy Wunderground is proving a fertile base for both.

PHOTO CREDIT: Emma Swann

Written and recorded collaboratively with the label’s Dan Carey, Viji’s incoming debut LP ‘So Vanilla’ is a record that’s wonderfully, woozily out of step with the current market of hyper-polished pop. From the tumbling melodies of opener ‘Anything’, through the tetchy prowl of ‘Karaoke’, to the bare bones acoustic melancholy of ‘Blanket’, the record weaves between energy levels but maintains a sense of both sonic and emotional grit throughout. “We were conscious of keeping it purposefully raw to preserve the energy of the live show; of not making it super polished or perfect because the music I listen to is not like that,” Viji explains. “I know it’s 2023 but it doesn’t all have to be super clean and sanitised…

“Lyrically it all blended [together with ideas of] memory, romantic boredom, tiredness… It’s quite a depressing record!” she continues. “All my favourite artists and movies, everything has dark twists, so everything I consume is on the darker side of entertainment.” Shimmeringly narcotic recent single ‘Down’, she explains, is literally about the fear of being too happy to be inspired. “If you live a happy life and you don’t really have anything to say, you’re gonna struggle to have that drive. If you’re just happy, why do anything?!”

Emerging after a steady gestation period with a record that makes a clear, cohesive statement about exactly what kind of artist she wants to be, Viji might be at risk of falling into her own happiness trap. But on ‘So Vanilla’, she’s proven herself anything but plain”.

 PHOTO CREDIT: Emma Swann

There are a couple of other interviews worth mentioning before getting to details about So Vanilla. Under the Radar Mag spoke with Viji about her debut studio album and what it was like working with super-producer Dan Carey. You can feel the passion she has for her music. Someone who wants it to connect with fans around the world:

“I definitely have the travel bug; I can never seem to stay in one place,” confesses the Vienna-born, Brazilian-Austrian artist, Vanilla Jenner, known by her stage name Viji. Thankfully, Jenner has settled in the UK to focus on her musical career. “London is now my base,” Jenner reveals. “I was born and raised in Vienna but hold dual nationality because of my father’s Brazilian heritage. I have a lot of family still living in Rio and regularly visit. I did spend a period of time in America on a student exchange too, but I’ve been in London for a few years now.”

Music has coursed through Jenner’s veins since her youth. Her grandfather was a pianist, and her father, an instrument maker. “Yes, my dad actually crafts Renaissance instruments. When we were kids, on long family journeys, Dad would encourage my brother and me to sing old folk songs and intricate four-part harmonies. I had a cousin who played in a rock band, which was more of an influence on the musical journey I wanted to take as I grew up.”

And that journey eventually led Jenner to work with award-winning producer Dan Carey, resulting in her wonderful debut album, So Vanilla, which is out today. They met when a songwriting session was set up whilst Jenner was still signed to the Dirty Hit label under her Viji moniker, and the pair hit it off immediately.

“I think we began working together around the time of my third EP,” recalls Jenner. “I was signed to Dirty Hit, but that was only to release my EPs.” As they continued to write and create, it started to become apparent that Dan’s label, Speedy Wundergrund, would be the ideal outlet for Viji’s work. “It just made perfect sense,” explains Jenner. “There’s a tight-knit group around Speedy, a whole scene going on there, and with me embracing a different sonic approach, it seemed like a very good fit. It’s a very ‘Speedy’ type of record.”

Carey has produced albums by Wet Leg, Geese, black midi, Fontaines D.C., Squid, Foals, Bat For Lashes, and many others. Artists often say, after working with him, that he’s a producer who doesn’t impose his own signature style on a record but rather respects and helps finesse the artists vision and perhaps nudges them towards sounds and effects that might work for their record. “Totally,” enthuses Jenner. “It’s been a really fun process from writing to producing with Dan. His studio is like this sprawling magical mess,” she laughs. “There are cables everywhere, but everything there makes such a beautiful sound. It’s very much a case of you go in and Dan caters for your vision. I’d never been involved in writing sessions with anybody before, but Dan seems to get what musicians hope to achieve and picks up the mood of the artist. He’s so enthusiastic—and has a sense of excitement when he finds something new—he’ll say things like, ‘Look at this, I’ve just bought it—and it makes this sound!’ It never feels like work when you go into a session with Dan.”

Amongst other things, Carey is known for his unerring ability to capture the energy and excitement of an artist’s live performance in the studio. However, with Viji being Jenner’s solo project, that wasn’t always possible, as she explains. “It was mainly me and Dan in the studio, and I had Yuri [Shibuici] from Honeyglaze on drums. And I did get my live band in for bits. My bassist did some backing vocals and also contributed the infamous screaming bit on [previous single] ‘Karaoke.’ A typical day recording with Dan would involve starting with some guitar tracking, and we’d do my vocals in the afternoon, as that’s when I prefer to sing. It’s magical watching everything come together; it was beautiful having a cello on a few tracks. I usually make sure I’m stocked up with lots of snacks so I don’t get distracted by any food cravings! And when I’m doing vocals, I usually have whiskey and honey and ready salted crisps. I don’t know if it’s a myth, but I heard that the oils in the crisps can help with your voice,” she says, referring to what Americans call potato chips.

The results speak for themselves. So Vanilla is a beautifully judged, perfectly paced album that allows Jenner’s ear for melody and her astute poetic lyrics to shine. When I ask if there’s a theme, such as dissatisfaction with modern life, or if the mention of religion is part of a wider theme she laughs before explaining, “There was never a theme, really, I just wanted to get my best songs recorded. Somebody else asked if it was about ennui, with songs like ‘Sedative,’ ‘Ambien,’ and ‘Blanket,’ but it’s a coincidence. The same with any mention of religion. I was raised an atheist and I’m not a believer in institutionalized religion, although I respect people who do. I mean I’m not a brutalist atheist in that I can see the beauty in the likes of cathedrals, but any sort of organized religion isn’t for me. I’m more interested in myths and legends and folklore from different cultures, any religious theme was certainly unintentional”.

It does seem like recording So Vanilla was joyful and fulfilling. Viji has now put out this magnificent debut album that will take her music to new places. Clunk Mag spotlighted Viji recently. If you have not added her album to your collection, there is so much to recommend when it comes to So Vanilla:

“George: Can you tell us a bit about what your year’s looked like so far? It’s been a big one!

Viji: It’s been substantial. I finished the record! We recorded it in November last year but the mix/master we finished in January. It’s been a lot of working on the record, creating all the content, shooting all the videos and bringing all the visuals to fruition. We really started playing live in March, going on tour with our friends which was really fun.

George: How has it translated to a live setting? Has it been a challenge?

Viji: No, it’s been really fun actually! We’ve been playing mostly the new songs actually which is really exciting. I’ve switched my band around a bit and it’s really fun because they’re my friends. As a solo artist, it’s a struggle to translate it live with the right people. My friends have made it a lot more enjoyable.

George: We love the album, it’s brilliant. Can you tell us about it, is there a concept? What should people be expecting?

Viji: It’s really not a concept album. It’s more of a collection of songs I’ve written over the last two years. The lyricism is definitely on the darker side, not to say that the music is. It’s mostly a guitar record, there’s only a few synth songs.

George: It’s quite a varied record. How do you balance noisiness and catchiness?

Viji: (laughs) I don’t really think of it in such detail. It usually starts with guitars, either at home or in the studio in a writing session. It’s mostly because I sing very softly and the melodies I write are more pop melodies. It’s definitely not on purpose!

George: Can you tell us a bit about working with producer Dan Carey and how you got involved with Speedy Wunderground?

Viji: It’s amazing working with them, he’s such a nice person. We randomly got set up for a session two years ago. It was really funny because I didn’t really know who he was, he didn’t really know who I was, we just agreed to meet. For me, it was a few days after having a few other sessions with somebody else and I was very tired. So, I came to the studio and said ‘let’s just write a really chilled song!’.

The studio is really fun, there’s so many things to fuck about with. Even though I was so exhausted it was so fun because he just totally went with the vibe. We weren’t here to write a hit song. It’s the last song on the record now.

He’s always been so supportive of the music and the process and it’s such a natural transition working with Speedy Wunderground.

George: What makes their style of production and recording unique to other people you’ve worked with?

Viji: I feel like the music I listen to is from the 90s and 2000s, so working in a space where it’s not all digital always helps. Not that I could necessarily hear the difference, I’m not a crazy analogue-head. It translates into the production and the rawness. Everywhere you go to the studio in LA, the sound is so heavily overproduced with effects. Working with Dan is so refreshing”.

You might want to know more about So Vanilla before investing. It is one of this year’s best albums, but here is some information from Rough Trade about a wonderful work. I get something new from the album each time I pass through it. An album that I would say everyone can get something from:

“London-based Austrian-Brazilian artist Viji with her highly-anticipated debut album So Vanilla out on tastemaker label Speedy Wunderground. Referencing the easy, sleazy sounds of the 90s, Viji – real name Vanilla Jenner – has been cementing herself as one of the most exciting alternative artists to watch in the UK right now. So Vanilla was recorded predominantly in London, in partnership with four-time Mercury Prize nominated producer and Speedy Wunderground label head, Dan Carey (Fontaines D.C., Kae Tempest, Wet Leg).

Having finished So Vanilla in November 2022, Viji relays that every song had a different writing process – some saw her and Carey playing guitar chords together for hours, until the sounds fused into one, and others came from late night ramblings at home. Born and raised in Vienna, Austria until the age of 16, she travelled first to the US and then to Brazil to stay with family. After Brazil, she moved to the UK to study music production in Brighton. Although she had written her first songs aged nine, and had carried on writing through her teens, she had never recorded them, and understanding the technicality of production techniques allowed her to grow as a writer and performer. “If you can be self-sufficient you can get stuff done way quicker. If you can make your own music, your own demos, you don’t need to rely on anyone. For writing it means you are not constrained to your voice and an instrument, it opens up a new spectrum of songwriting and creativity,” she explains. After finishing the course she moved to London and started to figure out her own sound. Her approach to shoe-gazey rock, raw instrumentals and vocal delivery makes her stand out as one of the most exciting UK artists to watch, pioneering what rock music can sound like in the modern era”.

I will finish off with this review of So Vanilla. I am predicting massive things for the London-based artist. Viji is a sensation that will soon be playing all around the world. Do ensure that she is in your thoughts. She caps off a wonderful and busy 2023:

“It’s common to get excited when you hear that an artist has been signed to in-demand record labels such as Dirty Hit and Speedy Wunderground, and Australian-Brazilian multi-instrumentalist Vanilla Jenner, known as Viji, has experienced both in the lead-up to the release of her debut album, So Vanilla. An album that has been completed for almost a year, So Vanilla begins to cement Viji’s status as one of the most exciting artists currently blending 90’s inspired shoegaze and bedroom pop.

Opener, ‘Anything’, indulges on the lust that is felt when you know that you are someone’s fantasy, with a forceful chorus. Previous single, ‘Down’, then begins with a soft introduction that builds up to an intense and cathartic climax. Here, Viji’s creative potential shines through, delivering a powerful performance and evoking emotions that are both raw and authentic. The line ‘misery makes me holy’ echoes throughout the track, leaving a lasting impression on the listener, where the grunge-inspired tones of Sonic Youth can also be heard, adding an edge to Viji’s sound.

‘Sedative’ sees Viji explore the complexities of attraction and rejection through reflective vocals. Here, the lyrics convey a sense of inner turmoil, as she grapples with her emotions towards someone, struggling to express them freely – as if in a self-imposed trap, unable to escape her own thoughts. However, as the song progresses, Viji’s vulnerability gives way to an admission of her true feelings – that ‘London isn’t as cool without you’.

So Vanilla features a unique blend of sound, with ‘Karaoke’ and ‘Sharks’ standing out as they pay their homage to Viji’s ‘emo’ roots. The former is a captivating slice of alt-pop that exudes angst and vocals that draw inspiration from shouty Japanese punk tracks. Despite the stark contrast in sound found on the album, So Vanilla manages to maintain a cohesive flow.

Taking inspiration from a wide range of artists and genres, Viji’s debut album is a hit. The bond between her and producer, Dan Carey, is palpable, and their collaboration truly brings So Vanilla to life and overall, the album is a strong debut that showcases Viji’s talent and sets the bar high for what’s to come”.

The Austrian-born Viji is a wonderful artist that is being heralded and featured on so many hugely reputable and popular websites, music magazines and radio stations. With a great footing in the U.K., there are tonnes of fans internationally that want to see Viji in the flesh! With that sort of demand, I know that next year will…

BE even busier.

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Follow Viji

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/vijiwater

Twitter:

https://twitter.com/dontworrybeviji

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/artist/5T8jStToPqlBhbVU5WNHvi

YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/@vijiwater

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/vijiwater/

FEATURE: One for the Record Collection! Essential December, January and February Releases

FEATURE:

 

 

One for the Record Collection!

IN THIS PHOTO: Marika Hackman

Essential December, January and February Releases

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I may update this at the start of the year…

IN THIS PHOTO: IDLES/PHOTO CREDIT: Tom Ham

but, as we are almost at the end of 2023, I wanted to recommend some of the best albums still to come – and also look ahead to what is scheduled for the first couple of months of next year. Things may change; albums may be added or shift their release date. I am writing this on 31st October, so this is what is planned for December of this year, plus January and February next year. There is not a tonne out in December – though there are a few that might prove to be perfect as Christmas presents. I am going to highlight one you will want to get. On 1st December, Peter Gabriel releases his first studio album in twelve years, i/o. This is an album that you are definitely going to want to pre-order:

“More than 20 years in the making, this December finally sees the release of i/o, Peter Gabriel’s first album of new material since 2002’s Up. During 2023, Peter has been releasing a new song from the album on the occasion of every full moon. Being revealed roughly every four weeks, each track has been allowed to find its own time and space, to enjoy its own orbit. “It’s a little like getting a Lego piece each month,” Peter explains. Now it’s time to stand back and admire the final, completed creation. And what a creation – 12 tracks of grace, gravity and great beauty that provide welcome confirmation of not only Peter’s ongoing ability to write stop-you-in-your-tracks songs but also of that thrilling voice, still perfectly, delightfully intact. Throughout the album the intelligent and thoughtful – often thought-provoking – songs tackle life and the universe. Our connection to the world around us – ‘I’m just a part of everything’ Peter sings on title track i/o – is a recurring motif, but so too the passing of time, mortality and grief, alongside such themes as injustice, surveillance and the roots of terrorism. But this is not a solemn record. While reflective, the mood is never despondent; i/o is musically adventurous, often joyous and ultimately full of hope, topped off as it is, by the rousingly optimistic closing song, Live and Let Live.

Always looking to push the boundaries, i/o is not simply a collection of a dozen songs. All 12 tracks are subject to two stereo mixes: the Bright-Side Mix, handled by Mark ‘Spike’ Stent, and the Dark-Side Mix, as reshaped by Tchad Blake. “We have two of the greatest mixers in the world in Tchad and Spike and they definitely bring different characters to the songs. Tchad is very much a sculptor building a journey with sound and drama, Spike loves sound and assembling these pictures, so he’s more of a painter.” Both versions are included on the double-CD package, and are also available separately as double vinyl albums. And that’s not all. A third version – the In-Side Mix, in Dolby Atmos, comes courtesy of Hans-Martin Buff “doing a wonderful job generating these much more three- dimensional mixes” and is included in three-disc set, including Blu-ray.

Peter has kept his trusty inner circle of musicians close to hand, which means guitarist David Rhodes, bassist Tony Levin and drummer Manu Katché are sterling presences throughout. Several songs bear the fingerprints of long-time associate Brian Eno, whilst there are notable contributions from the likes of Richard Russell, pianist Tom Cawley, trumpeters Josh Shpak and Paolo Fresu, cellist Linnea Olsson and keyboard player Don E. Peter’s daughter Melanie contributes warm backing vocals, as does Ríoghnach Connolly of The Breath. Soweto Gospel Choir and Swedish all-male choir Oprhei Drängar lend their magnificent harmonies and the mass strings of the New Blood Orchestra, led by John Metcalfe, both soothe and soar. Peter has also invited a range of visual artists to contribute a piece of art to accompany each track. The dozen artists make an exceedingly impressive team of collaborators: Ai Weiwei, Nick Cave, Olafur Eliasson, Henry Hudson, Annette Messager, Antony Micallef, David Moreno, Cornelia Parker, Megan Rooney, Tim Shaw, David Spriggs and Barthélémy Toguo. Having handpicked the artists, Peter recognises that “They have the same obsessive attention to their visual work that we musicians have in sound”.

That was the standout from December. There are a few others that you might want to pre-order, though there is plenty in January and February worth exploring! The first January release to seek out is on 5th. Ghetts’s On Purpose, With Purpose is going to be sublime and must-hear. This is going to kick off 2024 with real aplomb and command! One of our finest voices in Hip-Hop and Rap, I was a big fan of 2021’s Conflict of Interest. His approaching album sounds like it could well rival that. Here is where you can pre-order On Purpose, With Purpose:

“Ghetts proudly presents new album, On Purpose, With Purpose. The record - which follows 2021’s epic Conflict Of Interest - continues the ongoing artistic evolution and unstoppable rise of one of the UK’s greatest rappers.  Ghetts returns sounding sharper, more unflinchingly honest and boldly confident than ever before. As well as achieving dizzying new heights as a songwriter and rapper, On Purpose, With Purpose finds Ghetts expanding his sonic palette by reaching out beyond rap and incorporating elements of wider musical influences such as soul (Double Standards), R&B (Mine), gospel (Hallelujah), Afrobeat and amapiano (Gbedu, Blessings, Tumbi)”.

Let’s move things to the following week: releases out on 12th January. Kali Uchis’s Orquídeas is going to be very special. Back in March, she released the hugely acclaimed and brilliant Red Moon in Venus. It is wonderful that we get another album so soon! Not too much is known about the ins and outs of her new album. Suffice to say, it is going to be another remarkable album that you will want to pre-order:

“Grammy Award winner Kali Uchis releases her fourth studio album, Orquídeas. Marking Uchis’ striking return to Spanish-language music, the project features a superstar lineup with Karol G, Peso Pluma, El Alfa, and JT. Inspired by the sensual allure of Colombia’s national flower, the orchid, Orquídeas traverses multiple Latin genres including reggaeton, dembow, bolero and salsa furthering Uchis’ connection to her Colombian roots”.

Maybe four more from January that are worth getting. Prior to coming to them, let’s stick with 12th January and Marika Hackman’s Big Sigh. Sporting a particularly wonderful and eye-catching cover, you will want to pre-order an astonishing album from one our most consistent and finest artists. It is an album that I will check out when it arrives:

“Big Sigh brings together the best of Marika’s previous works as an indie musician and adds a new layer of epic sounds and full-bodied production. Big Sigh is the “hardest record” Marika has ever made. As the title suggest, it is a relief of sorts – of sadness, of stress and lust, but mostly relief. Co-produced with Sam Petts Davies (Frank Ocean, Radiohead, Red Hot Chilli Peppers) and Charlie Andrew (Alt J, Wolf Alice, London Grammar). Lyrically there’s always romance alongside grief, with elements of vulnerability and feeling trapped.

“This album took a long time to make. It was not easy, and by the time I got to the end of it I was quiet. I wanted to be away from it and let it sit in its own space. Now the dust has settled and I’ve got re-enter the world of Big Sigh, and I’m excited. Stepping into a new world, moving forward, chipping away. Breathe in, breathe out. Big sigh”.

It is always interesting when a new Green Day albums comes along. Saviors is out on 19th January. This is an album that Green Day fans will be all over. I feel it may be one of their most important and brilliant releases since 2004’s American Idiot. Definitely, there are shared characteristics:

“Right from “The American Dream Is Killing Me” — the first single and opening track from Saviors, Green Day is sending out a fiery SOS for these troubled times. Amazingly, Saviors represents Green Day's 14th studio album, yet somehow this enduring power trio - Billie Joe Armstrong, Tré Cool and Mike Dirnt - remain devoted to their defiant craft that has fueled their career-long destruction of every boundary bestowed on the genre, and landed 3 East Bay punks in the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame. So even as the band acknowledges its illustrious past — such as with the 30th Anniversary of their now classic Dookie album and the 20th Anniversary of American Idiot coming 2024 — Green Day remains firmly focused on the here and now. Saviors features 15 tracks, and from the aforementioned opening track, "The American Dream Is Killing Me" to the blissfully ironic “Look Ma, No Brains!" to the fittingly emotional track, "Father To A Son,” this is a deeply felt song cycle that provides the soundtrack for our world on fire – the one we deserve, and the one that we need. The album was recorded in both London and Los Angeles under the audacious ear and rock prowess of Green Day's longtime friend and collaborator, Grammy® Award-winning producer Rob Cavallo. Need a little inspiration to live on to fight the good fight another day?”.

One of the biggest albums due the first quarter of next year comes on 19th January. Sleater-Kinney’s Little Rope. A stunning work from Carrie Brownstein and Corin Tucker, another superlative album that is going to be well worth the money. Go and pre-order the latest from the mighty Sleater-Kinney:

“Sleater-Kinney release their eleventh studio album, Little Rope via Loma Vista Recordings. Recorded at Flora Recording and Playback in Portland, Oregon with Grammy-winning producer John Congleton, Little Rope is a powerfully honest and soul-baring album by one of modern rock’s most vital bands. Little Rope is one of the finest, most delicately layered records in Sleater-Kinney’s nearly 30-year career. To call the album flawless feels like an insult to its intent – it careens headfirst into flaw and brokenness – a meditation on what living in a world of perpetual crisis has done to us, and what we do to the world in return. On the surface, the album’s 10 songs veer from spare to anthemic, catchy to deliberately hard-turning. But beneath that are perhaps the most complex and subtle arrangements of any Sleater-Kinney record, and a lyrical and emotional compass pointed firmly in the direction of something both liberating and terrifying: the sense that the only way to gain control is to let it go”.

Moving to 26th January and an artist people might not be aware of, Katy Kirby’s Blue Raspberry is one I can recommend people pre-order. It is going to be a really beautiful, open, playful and memorable album. If you are thinking about which albums are worth grabbing due out in January, Blue Raspberry should be near the top of your list:

“Blue Raspberry is Katy Kirby's follow up to her renowned debut album Cool Dry Place, which came out in February 2021.

Singer/ songwriter Katy Kirby introduced her warm, articulate vocals, perceptive lyrics, and playful adult-alternative style on her debut album as she toured tirelessly supporting bands like Waxahatchee, Andy Shauf, Julia Jacklin and Alex G.

That record was a tried-and-true folk collection, perfectly displaying the chops of a young songwriter and emanating the warm feel of a band in a room; Blue Raspberry, made with the same band and producers (Logan Chung and Alberto Sewald), hits the gas and enters completely new territory as we see Katy truly step into her own as a songwriting force. She fearlessly leans far into baroque piano pop on tracks like 'Redemption Arc' and the title track 'Blue Raspberry', and lyrically she explores themes of loss and queer love. Very few are able to capture the same emotional, theatrical magic of artists like Fiona Apple, Tom Waits and Joanna Newsom but Katy pulls it off on this record; standout 'Drop Dead'”.

A magnificent American artist whose albums are always remarkable, Torres is preparing to release her sixth studio album, What An Enormous Room, on 26th January. It follows the stunning Thirstier of 2021. Fans and newcomers alike will want to pre-order this album:

“What an enormous room is not only the title of the new album by Torres, it is an incantation, a phrase Mackenzie Scott has had in her head now for several years, for as long as some of the songs found here.

What an enormous room is an entirely new look at Torres. Scott’s undeniable skill as a guitar player is still the engine driving her songs, but in “Collect,” it’s pushed through a polyphonic octave generator, creating a sound that is sexy and alien and peak Torres, a provocative statement of purpose that’s both a call to arms and a call to the dance floor. “Wake to flowers” is a celebration of the unexpected joy of things turning out much better than one could have hoped. It’s on the slinkier side of What an enormous room, exploring new territory for Torres that Scott attributes to recording with her friend Sarah Jaffe, the Texan singer-songwriter whose inclination to break genre boundaries has led her to collaborate with Eminem and producer Symbolyc One.

Jaffe provides What an enormous room’s rhythm section, playing bass and drums, and the easiness of her collaboration with Scott made it possible for songs like “Jerk into joy” to emerge like the incantation central to it, and the album itself—after years in Scott’s head in a way that is simultaneously more direct and more sonically ambitious than any Torres record to date. When she sings “look at all the dancing I can do,” it’s an invitation to awe, and there is much here to be awed by. What an enormous room contains wry, Laurie Anderson–esque art rock, Nirvana’s rage, and ABBA’s strut. Rather than fear the unknown space she occupies, Mackenzie Scott has chosen to fill it with as much of herself as possible, an artist unwilling to be stifled. We’re hardly alone in our admiration for TORRES. As Julien Baker attests: What I can say about Torres is I think the music comes from a convicted place. Not convicted meaning a person is narrowly and foolishly committed to an ideal, or unshakably convinced of themselves, or a zealot, or stubborn.

I mean dedicated, I mean: If Torres’ music gets weird, gets brainy, gets funny, gets defiant, provokes, deliberately scandalizes, employs the crass to undermine the austere, courts lofty philosophical truth—it’s all done with the conviction of an artist with the (essential) belief in the worth of their task. I think you can hear it in the songs, someone reaching, leaning over the boundary between known and not, probing the almighty. After a decade and six studio albums and however many one-offs and tours and articles read and conversations had, the parts of this pursuit I’ve been able to observe are all marked by a dedication to creation that treats the act ongoing with as much preciousness as the evidence of the act that is left in a record. The modes of being are different: heartbroken, broke, furious (right- and unrighteously), awestruck by love, compelled by desire. sometimes resigned to death, sometimes fascinated by and reverent of the future. Sometimes viscerally present, other times suspended in heady awareness, poised on a fulcrum of observation and participation in the phenomenon that aliveness is.

The tools are the same: instruments that growl and shriek and moan, a lyrical voice shouting, swooning, chuckling, snarling as the moment commands. Torres’ music-making is conducted in a melodic vocabulary unique to itself—methods, equipment, circumstances shifting around the impulse to affirm the self within the world, to make art that bears all these little artifacts of the divine and of the real and show it to people and know it is valuable. I think that’s what Mackenzie’s music does. And I think it’s just incredibly good music to listen”.

We are in February now. The first is perhaps the most anticipated debut album in many years. The Last Dinner Party’s Prelude to Ecstasy is one that you will definitely want to pre-order. The London band are one of the most talented and promising groups of this generation:

“Without doubt Last Dinner Party will be the sound of 2024. Their debut album Prelude To Ecstasy is released via Island Records. It was produced by James Ford in London, and features the breakthrough singles, “Nothing Matters”, “Sinner”, and “My Lady Of Mercy”.

At the turn of 2023, The Last Dinner Party was little more than a new name being shared amongst those that had caught them live. Great songs, strong aesthetic. Having spent much of 2022 writing those songs, road-testing them, and then taking them into the studio, it wasn’t until April when the band released the instantly more-ish, dark guitar-pop of Nothing Matters that seemingly everyone had now formed an opinion on them. It was an introduction that took the online world by storm, and yet behind all the excitement and narrative was a fantastically confident indie-rock song by a band doing it the old-fashioned way, out on the road.

Third single, My Lady Of Mercy, an almost gothic, haunting rock song, and now with this atmospheric and anthemic ballad, On Your Side, the band’s songwriting is testament to all the buzz and excitement already accumulated. As it should be. Rather than wilt under the spotlight, they’ve arguably become a tighter, stronger unit because of it”.

Out on 9th February is Chelsea Wolfe’s She Reaches Out to She Reaches Out to She. Another captivating songwriter with a voice that buckles the senses, I would encourage people to pre-order an album that is going to scoop some huge reviews:

“Chelsea Wolfe’s latest album, She Reaches Out To She Reaches Out To She, is a rebirth in process. It’s about how such a moment connects to our past, our present, and our future. It’s a powerfully cathartic statement about cutting ties, as well as an important reminder that healing is cyclical and circular, and not a simple linear process. As Wolfe explains, “It’s a record about the past self reaching out to the present self reaching out to the future self to summon change, growth, and guidance. It’s a story of setting yourself free from situations and patterns that are holding you back, in order to become self-empowered. It’s an invitation to step into your authenticity”.

A terrific young artist who is still under the radar I think, Declan McKenna’s What Happened to the Beach? is a treat out on 9th February. 2020’s Zeros was an acclaimed and wonderful album. Almost four years after that was released, we get another treasure from a magnificent artist. If you do not know much about him, I can recommend checking out interviews and his previous albums. There are scant details about the album out there at this early stage. Even so, he is such a strong artist who never puts a foot wrong. His new album will definitely be worth time and investment:

“Produced by Gianluca Buccellati (Lana Del Rey, Arlo Parks), What Happened To The Beach? marks Mckenna’s third studio album following 2020’s Zeros. The LP is an album that revels in both space and atmosphere and the tracks much looser”.

An album I am looking forward to is Helado Negro’s Phasor. Due out on 9th February, you should pre-order this album. It is going to be a magnificent release you will not want to miss out on. Definitely worth some investigation if you have not heard of Helado Negro and want to take that first step:

“The eighth full-length album in Helado’s catalogue follows his critically acclaimed 2021 album Far In.

Some of the seeds for Phasor were planted in 2019 on Lange’s 39th birthday after a 5-hour visit to Salvatore Matirano’s SAL MAR machine at the University of Illinois. A complex synthesizer that creates music generatively with a vintage super computer brain and analog oscillators, it can create an infinite amount of possibilities in sound sequences. “I was enthralled by it,” Lange recalls.

That SAL MAR experience became the bedrock for Phasor. It taught Lange more about himself and became central to his creative process. “It gave me special insight into what stimulates me,” Lange explains. “This pursuit of constant curiosity in process and outcome. The songs are the fruit, but I love what’s under the dirt. The unseen magical process. I don’t want everybody to see it because not everyone cares to see it. Some of us just want the fruit. I do. But I want to grow the fruit, too.”

Phasor is Lange’s tightest collection—deep, atmospheric, meticulously executed. It’s aligned with 2019’s This Is How You Smile which found him incorporating more upfront drums and bass and focused grooves. His 2021 album, Far In, focused on being in quarantine—talking to your mother through Zoom instead of across a room. Phasor, in turn, is a homage to going outside again. It’s a returning-to-life record, remembering what the sun feels like and letting it warm your skin”.

Before getting to an album from 23rd February – and the one I am most looking forward to -, there are a selection due out on 16th February that I will highlight. Grandaddy’s Blu Wav is the first one. The legendary band’s forthcoming album will be one you’ll want to pre-order:

“Grandaddy release a brand new studio album Blu Wav via Dangerbird Records. A prolific storyteller, Jason Lytle is inspired by the overwhelming beauty of nature to the mundane moments that spark life’s strongest memories. Introducing pedal steel into the band’s repertoire for the first time, buoyant lead single “Watercooler” comments on the dichotomy of both. It was inspired by having his own outdoorsy rock guy (in both senses of the word) lifestyle while his partner had an office job. Lytle shares, “Most of my relationships have involved girls who worked in office settings. This song is about the end of one, or perhaps a few, of those relationships. Listeners will also notice the pedal steel on this track and eventually on many others from the forthcoming new album. It’s a first for Grandaddy, and I couldn't be more thrilled about this fact.”

With the album title Blu Wav meant to be a literal mash-up of “bluegrass” and “new wave”, the new collection has a distinct feel, a uniform vibe, and a somewhat unexpected sound. It was conceived as Grandaddy maestro Jason Lytle was driving through the Nevada desert, and Patti Page’s "Tennessee Waltz" came across the classic country station on the radio. He was immediately intrigued by the possibilities of what it might sound like to keep the slow sway and sweet, simple lyrics of the bluegrass waltz while adding layers of dense synthesizers and the electronics of new wave. It incorporates the lo-fi lushness and sometimes-psychedelic orchestration Grandaddy is knownfor with Lytle’sfirst foray into true country. Seven of its 13 songs are waltzes, and as Lytle notes, “there’s an inordinate amount of pedal steel”.

The brilliant IDLES release TANGK on 16th February. With a range of physical formats available for you to pre-order it on, there is no reason not to go and check out this latest album from one of the world’s very finest bands! I love everything they put out into the world:

“TANGK is the righteous and vibrant fifth album from madcap truth-seekers, IDLES. Pronounced “tank” with a whiff of the “g” - an onomatopoeic reference to the lashing way the band imagined their guitars sounding that has since grown into a sigil for living in love - the record is the band’s most ambitious and striking work yet. Where IDLES were once set on taking the world’s piss, squaring off with strong jaws against the perennially entitled, and exercising personal trauma in real time, they have arrived in this new act to offer the fruits of such perseverance: love, joy, and indeed gratitude for the mere opportunity of existence.

A radical sense of defiant empowerment radiates from TANGK, co-produced by Nigel Godrich, Kenny Beats, and IDLES guitarist Mark Bowen. Despite his reputation as an incendiary post-punk sparkplug, frontman Joe Talbot sings almost all the feelings inside these 10 songs with hard-earned soul, offering each lusty vow or solidarity plea as a bona fide pop song—that is, a thing for everyone to pass around and share, communal anthems intended for overcoming our grievance.

TANGK is a love album—open to anyone who requires something to shout out loud in order to fend off any encroaching sense of the void, now or forever”.

The penultimate album you should check out is due on 16th February. Paloma Faith’s superb The Glorification of Sadness. I would encourage those who might not be aware of or a huge fan of Faith’s to pre-order this album, as I think this might be her best work yet. Its themes and objectives are ones that we can all get behind and appreciate:

“The Glorification of Sadness is more than an album about relationships. The celebration of finding your way back after leaving a long term relationship, being empowered even in your failures and taking responsibility for your own happiness. It is Paloma's most personal album to date, drawing on her own experiences with Paloma acting as the anchor to direct a deeply personal narrative and album. This is the first new music from Paloma since the release of her fifth studio album Infinite Things in November 2020 and is the first time in her career where she has executively produced a record”.

On 23rd February, queen Nadine Shah releases Filthy Underneath. Following 2020’s Kitchen Sink, the first single from her new album, Topless Mother, might be one of her very best songs. It is insanely catchy and brilliant! I have no hesitation in recommending that everyone pre-orders what is going to be among the best albums of next year:

“Nadine Shah releases her fifth album - Filthy Underneath on EMI North. The follow up to 2020's critically acclaimed Kitchen Sink and 2017's Mercury Prize nominated Holiday Destination.

Filthy Underneath chronicles a period of unprecedented turbulence in Nadine Shah’s life. And yet, the experience of listening to it is oddly life-affirming – a parade of ghosts spanning the entirety of Nadine’s thirty-seven years, moving with balletic beauty to the music that Nadine and long-time co-writer and producer Ben Hillier have created around them, with renewed emphasis on placing melody and movement front and centre”.

One in December, a few from January, more from February, the albums above are ones you might want to save money for. Christmas is not too far away so, if you are saving for an album or get some money as a present, I hope the suggestions above are of use! It is looking like a pretty interesting start to 2024 albums-wise. As I say, things can be added and change between now and then – as these are albums confirmed as of 31st October. I am sure there are one or two albums above that you will want to…

ADD to your collection.

FEATURE: Kate Bush’s This Woman’s Work at Thirty-Four: Whether Overused or Perfect in Anything, This Classic Endures and Inspires Still

FEATURE:

 

 

Kate Bush’s This Woman’s Work at Thirty-Four

Whether Overused or Perfect in Anything, This Classic Endures and Inspires Still

_________

A Kate Bush single…

I have written about a fair few times, I want to bring together a feature reviews and interviews about it. Whilst This Woman’s Work was released as a single on 20th November, 1989, the fact is that it appeared on the film soundtrack of John Hughes’s She’s Having a Baby the previous year. It is definitely one of Bush’s most emotive and memorable songs. Before moving on, here is some interview archive where Kate Bush talked about the wonderful This Woman’s Work:

“That's the sequence I had to write the song about, and it's really very moving, him in the waiting room, having flashbacks of his wife and him going for walks, decorating... It's exploring his sadness and guilt: suddenly it's the point where he has to grow up. He'd been such a wally up to this point. (Len Brown, 'In The Realm Of The Senses'. NME (UK), 7 October 1989)

There's a film called 'She's Having A Baby'. And John Hughes, the director, rung up and said that he had a sequence in the film that he really wanted a song written to be with. And I'd only worked the once before on the 'Castaway' film - where I'd really enjoyed that - so I was extremely tempted by the offer. And when he sent the piece of film that the song was going to be part of, I just thought it was wonderful, it was so moving, a very moving piece of film. And in a way, there was a sense that the whole film built up to this moment. And it was a very easy song to write. It was very quick. And just kind of came, like a lot of songs do. Even if you struggle for months, in the end, they just kind of go - BLAH! - You know. [Laughs]. So that was the first song that I wrote for 'The Sensual World' album. In fact at the time we weren't even sure whether to put it on the album or not. And I must say that Del was very instrumental in saying that I should put it on the album, and I'm very glad I did. Because I had the most fantastic response - in some ways, maybe the greatest response - to this song. And I was really - I was absolutely thrilled, that you felt that way about it. (Kate Bush Con, 1990)”.

Whereas Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) has been used in various places but took off when it appeared on Netflix’s Stranger Things in 2022, This Woman’s Work has not had the same explosion. Even so, it has been used quite frequently. I will come to an article that argues, perhaps, the song is a bit of a go-to. Seen as an emotional song that is a little easily deployed and, therefore, common, I think that This Woman’s Work has elevated many a moment. I will wrap up with thoughts about a stunning song that is as impactful and emotional as it has ever been. Vulture wrote about how This Woman’s Work was used effectively in season 2 of The Handmaid’s Tale:

“This Woman’s Work,” a ballad originally written by Kate Bush for a 1980s John Hughes movie, has appeared many, many times over the years in film and on television. Unlike other songs that suffer from pop-cultural overuse — like “Hallelujah,” in all its incarnations — this gut puncher about trying to summon strength in a moment of profound weakness never loses its power. Instead, it has accumulated additional, profound layers of meaning.

Most recently, “This Woman’s Work” shows up in season two of The Handmaid’s Tale, during the horrifying opening sequence in which June (Elisabeth Moss) and several other Handmaids realize they are about to be executed. As each woman is shoved toward a noose, the first, delicate trembles of Bush’s voice break through the silence. Suddenly, with “This Woman’s Work” laid on top of it, a moment that is already terribly sad becomes utterly devastating. That musical choice injects the scene with a sense of futility — “All the things we should have done though we never did” — and also a tinge of irony.

“This woman’s world / Oh, it’s hard on the man,” Bush sings, even though the bleak dystopia these women inhabit is run by men, and it’s monumentally harder by the longest of long shots for women. “I know you’ve got a little life in you yet,” Bush continues. “I know you’ve got a lot of strength left.” That may be a message that June and her fellow women are trying to convey to themselves, even as they appear to be facing the end, but it’s also one sent from the show to those of us watching. June’s got more than a little life in her yet, it says. You’ll see after she and the others survive this moment. Indeed they do, as the floor beneath their feet never drops away and they escape the gallows, shaken but still alive.

“It was shattering and perfect,” Bruce Miller, creator of The Handmaid’s Tale adaptation, told Vulture’s Maria Elena Fernandez about the track. “One of the things I really like about the song is that on its face, there’s a bit of very interesting lyrical play. It’s nice that that’s going on while you’re watching.”

That kind of lyrical play and juxtaposition wasn’t something that Kate Bush necessarily envisioned back in the ’80s. As she explained in a 1989 interview with the BBC’s Radio One, she wrote “This Woman’s Work” specifically for a scene in the John Hughes movie She’s Having a Baby, about a couple, played by Kevin Bacon and Elizabeth Montgomery, navigating marriage and the imminent birth of their first child. Originally, the track was meant to underscore a moment of crisis and reflection for Bacon’s character, as he waits to find out whether his wife and about-to-be-born baby will make it through a potentially dangerous delivery.

“This is actually the moment in the film where he has to grow up. He has no choice,” Bush explained in the BBC interview. “There he is, he’s not a kid anymore; you can see he’s in a very grown-up situation. And he starts, in his head, going back to the times they were together. There are clips of film of them laughing together and doing up their flat and all this kind of thing. And it was such a powerful visual: it’s one of the quickest songs I’ve ever written. It was so easy to write. We had the piece of footage on video, so we plugged it up so that I could actually watch the monitor while I was sitting at the piano and I just wrote the song to these visuals.”

It’s obvious while watching that scene that it was designed to sync up with its story and emotional beats, which makes it a little on the nose, but still certainly moving. Yet Bush’s lyrics are so brilliantly universal that the song has proven to be applicable to an array of significant pop-culture moments.

In the years since She’s Having a Baby was released, “This Woman’s Work” has provided the soundtrack for: other men having breakdowns (the Party of Five episode “Hitting Bottom”); young men and women grappling with abuse and what it means to be a victim (the second act of the Felicity two-parter “Drawing the Line”); double agents grappling with grief over the loss of their fiancés (the second episode of Alias); longtime friends having sex for the first time (the movie Love and Basketball, which features the Maxwell cover); and, of course, for women having babies. That last one happens in an episode of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, of all things, that opted for a cover by Swedish musician Emma Ejwertz. The FXX comedy isn’t known for its sentimentality, but when “This Woman’s Work” popped up in season six after Dee delivered a baby in what turned out to be a surrogate pregnancy, a normally absurd sitcom about classless dopes actually got sweet for a couple minutes.

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

When there’s an element of irony involved, Bush’s otherwise cathartic, ultraserious ode to pain and regret can even succeed at scoring laughs, as it did in the season one finale of You’re the Worst, when a deflated and drunk Lindsay sang a karaoke rendition of “This Woman’s Work.” As played by Kether Donohue, Lindsay did so beautifully, sincerely, and with absolutely no awareness that she’s never done any actual work in her whole damn life.

But in the past year or so, “This Woman’s Work” has more often been used to reflect the mood and mind-set of those fighting injustice, or those just trying to find shreds of hope in hopeless times. That trend may have started because of the way that Maxwell — who first covered the song for MTV Unplugged in 1997, then recorded it on his 2001 album Now — began to frame it during his 2016 live shows, flashing images of lives lost, often to police violence, on the screen while he performed. “As this violent year draws to a close, this song became protest, dirge and battle cry,” a writer for the Economist put it in October 2016. “Night after night, by juxtaposing black and white, man and woman, today and yesterday, ‘This Woman’s Work’ has been reborn as a plea for social change and an olive branch of inclusivity.”

It made complete sense, then, when Maxwell’s take on the song was featured in a trailer for Fox’s limited series Shots Fired, which explored racism and police brutality. In that context, the song captured exhaustion and trauma of seeing the same tragedies play out over and over again (“Make it go away”).

When Spike Lee used it in the penultimate episode of She’s Gotta Have It, again within a story line about cops and racism, it had a similar effect. Maxwell’s cover slips in after the protagonist, Nola, insists on being taken into custody after an uppity white neighbor accuses her homeless friend Papo of spraying graffiti on the steps of a Brooklyn brownstone. Both Papo and Nola, who tries to take responsibility for the infraction, end up getting arrested and head to the station while Maxwell, again, insists in that desperate falsetto that they can find strength. To an even deeper degree than it does in that admittedly brief Shots Fired trailer, the song communicates how tired Nola is of having to defend herself and her friends, again and again having to do the work of a black woman living in a gentrifying neighborhood.

Now that we’re two years out from Maxwell’s 2016 concert tour and his reimagining of the subtext for “This Woman’s Work,” it’s obvious why the song resonates even more now. “Pray God you can cope” isn’t just the first lyric of this beautiful dark night of the soul set to music; it’s what people whisper to themselves in 2018 before they check their news feeds. “Make it go away” is what we say once we start processing what’s there. There’s a sense in the air that the country is stuck in some limbo between despair, surrender, and stubborn perseverance. All those feelings are conjured up by Kate Bush’s song, which was originally conceived to capture a moment of profound personal crisis but works just as well at capturing a social or political one.

That makes it just right for a drama like The Handmaid’s Tale, which is often received as if it’s the worst-case scenario of America’s future. In every episode, June and her fellow Handmaids are trying to summon the fortitude to press on, to get to a place where they don’t feel like they should be hoping, but where they can just hope. By placing “This Woman’s Work” in that near-hanging sequence at the beginning of season two, the show emphasizes through music that the possibility of death always hovers over June and her Handmaid sisters, but their fight to find a little life — not just by bearing children but by someday being free enough to build lives for themselves again — is going to continue. In other words, this woman’s work is never done.

“This Woman’s Work” is also a fitting in the Hulu drama for an simpler reason: Once again, a song that Kate Bush wrote just a few years after Margaret Atwood published The Handmaid’s Tale is being used to convey just how scary it is when a pregnant woman finds her life in danger”.

A new version of the song, by Max Tundra, was released earlier this year. It is a song that sounds great and interesting when others tackle in. Maybe some see This Woman’s Work as a personal song to Kate Bush or one that should not be wilfully and too overly used and incorporated into film and T.V. It is intriguing how it was perceived when featured in the recent Netflix film, The Mother, starring Jennifer Lopez. The Daily Beast had their say on a song that is a needle drop go-to to many – perhaps a track that should remain relatively chaste and untouched:

“Rumor has it that I enjoyed The Mother, Netflix’s new action film starring Jennifer Lopez. But really, I’m not so sure if that’s true. I’ve been a little too hung up on one moment, right at the very end of the movie, to remember what came before. Everything up until those last 10 seconds was more than serviceable—at least, I think it was. It all turned into flat, static noise the second I heard two piano notes, followed by the familiar coo of a certain English chanteuse, rattling over a shot of a resolute and triumphant-looking J.Lo: Ooooooohhhhhh haaaaooooooooooo.

If you’ve not yet experienced the phenomenon of music supervisors plopping Kate Bush’s “This Woman’s Work” into a piece of visual media that you’re watching, then you either have hobbies that don’t include mindlessly staring at a screen all day (good for you!), or you haven’t yet seen The Mother (a curse unto your firstborn). At this point, “This Woman’s Work” is starting to veer on, well, any song on the Suicide Squad or Guardians of the Galaxy soundtracks in terms of sheer overuse.

It’s kind of like when a lot of us cried watching that one gay episode of The Last of Us, before the most annoying people online cropped up to say, “Stop weaponizing Max Richter’s ‘On the Nature of Daylight.’” Since its release in 2004, Richter’s song appeared in notable moments in The Last of Us, Arrival, Shutter Island, and several other films and television shows as well. I don’t really have much of an ear for recognizing the repetition of a sappy orchestral piece, but I certainly do for a bravura vocal performance from one Kate Bush. And I fear that too many music supervisors are misunderstanding the intention behind “This Woman’s Work” and using it as a slapdash form of emotional exploitation.

“This Woman’s Work” was written by Bush for John Hughes’ 1988 film, She’s Having a Baby. The song is introduced in a pivotal moment during the film, which is by-and-large a romantic comedy—until the titular baby that she’s having comes a-knockin’, and the movie suddenly takes on a very real gravity. In a hospital waiting room, Jake (Kevin Bacon) reflects upon his relationship with his wife Kristy (Elizabeth McGovern), whose health is in danger during labor, when their child reaches the breech position. Jake understands that he could lose Kristy, their child, or the both of them, and he can’t even be near them in this moment. As he waits for news, a flashback montage of his life with Kristy plays, set to “This Woman’s Work.”

It sounds almost a bit corny—and distinctly ’80s—but the scene is incredibly effective in its context. That’s especially true, considering that this was the first time audiences ever heard “This Woman’s Work;” it was written by Bush about experiencing a crisis during childbirth, from the man’s point of view. The video for the song made these details a bit murkier, so it could resonate with a larger audience, but the crux of the song’s meaning stays the same. Put simply: If you’re going to use “This Woman’s Work” in a film or television show, it should stay far away from the thin line between sentimental and hokey.

In the past five years alone, I’ve seen two shocking and unforgettable debasements of “This Woman’s Work,” which were equally appalling, but for different reasons. The first was in the second season premiere of The Handmaid’s Tale, where a group of 50 or so handmaids are sent to a barren, dystopian version of Fenway Park and made to climb up to gallows, where they think they are about to be hung under the glare of stadium lights. As nooses are put around their necks, that Bush’s memorable warble sings out. “I know you have a little life in you yet/ I know you have a lot of strength left,” she croons, while the handmaids, who have had their mouths muffled, silently exchange glances and tearfully try to accept their fate”.

Constantly appearing on the top ten and twenty lists of Kate Bush songs, This Woman’s Work is played fairly regular on radio. Still homogenised as an artist when it comes to a limited number of songs played, I can understand why This Woman’s Work resonates. Rather than it being specific to Kate Bush, the lyrics - which talk about dealing with a crisis - are relevant constantly. At a very bleak and tough time, it is going to be a song that filmmakers gravitate towards. Neon Music, in a feature from August, explored the legacy and continued relevance of This Woman’s Work. If Daily Beast felt it was an over-used part of soundtrack and not deployed carefully or skilfully, this article was a little more open-minded:

“As Kate Bush recalled in an interview with The Guardian, she wanted to write a song that would “make people cry”. She said, “I was very moved by the story. It was about a man who suddenly realises how much he loves his wife when she might die. It was such a powerful idea.” She also revealed that she had to work under pressure to finish the song in time for the film’s release. She said, “I had to write it very quickly. They sent me a video of the film, and I wrote it for the visuals. It was very difficult because there were lots of sound effects and dialogue over the top.” She also faced some technical problems while recording the song in her home studio. She said, “The tape kept breaking, and we had to splice it back together. It was a nightmare.“

LYRICS AND MUSICAL ELEMENTS OF THE SONG

At the heart of This Woman’s Work lie its poignant lyrics, which delve deep into the emotions of fear, guilt, regret, love, and hope experienced by the husband during his wife’s life-threatening situation. The song’s musical composition is a masterclass in evoking emotion. The piano melody, which sets the tone, builds tension throughout the song, drawing listeners into its narrative.

Bush’s vocal performance is nothing short of mesmerising, showcasing her range and emotion and bringing the meaning of This Woman’s Work to life. The strategic use of silence, pauses, and breaths adds drama and contrast, while the background vocals provide depth and harmony. The inclusion of strings further amplifies the song’s emotional impact, making it a timeless piece.

The lyrics of This Woman’s Work are divided into three verses and a chorus that repeat throughout the song. The first verse introduces the husband’s situation as he waits outside the operating room while his wife undergoes an emergency caesarean section. He reflects on how he has taken her for granted and how he wishes he could have done more for her:

I should be crying, but I just can’t let it show. I should be hoping, but I can’t stop thinking Of all the things I should’ve said that I never said, all the things we should’ve done that we never did All the things I should’ve given, but I didn’t. Oh, darling, make it go. Make it go away.

The chorus expresses his fear of losing her and his hope that she will survive:

Give me these moments back. Give them back to me. Give me that little kiss. Give me your hand.

The second verse shows his regret for not being more supportive of her dreams and aspirations:

I know you have a little life in you yet I know you have a lot of strength left. I know you have a little life in you yet I know you have a lot of strength left. I should be crying, but I just can’t let it show. I should be hoping, but I can’t stop thinking. Of all the things we should’ve said that we never said All the things we should’ve done that we never did All the things that you needed from me All the things that you wanted for me All the things that I should’ve given but I didn’t

The third verse reveals his love for her and his gratitude for their life together:

Oh, darling, make it go away. Just make it go away now.

The musical elements of This Woman’s Work complement and enhance its lyrics, creating a powerful and moving song. The piano melody, composed by Bush herself, is simple yet effective, consisting of a few chords that repeat with slight variations. The melody sets the mood of the song, which is sombre and melancholic, and builds up tension throughout the song, mirroring the husband’s anxiety and anticipation. The melody also matches the rhythm and pace of the film’s visuals, creating a seamless integration of sound and image.

RECEPTION AND LEGACY OF THE SONG

Upon its release, This Woman’s Work received acclaim from critics and audiences alike. Although it only reached No. 25 in the UK charts, it has since become one of Bush’s most beloved creations. The song’s emotional depth and relatability have made it a classic, touching on themes of womanhood, motherhood, and gender roles. Its influence can be seen in its numerous covers, references in other media, and its use in social movements.

Critics praised This Woman’s Work for its lyrical and musical brilliance, as well as its cinematic connection. Rolling Stone called it “one of Bush’s most stunning achievements”, describing it as “a devastating ballad that captures a man’s fear of losing his wife during childbirth”. The New York Times described it as “a haunting song that matches words to images with eerie precision”, noting that “it is rare for a pop song to be so perfectly suited to a movie scene”. The Guardian ranked it as one of Bush’s best songs, stating that “it is hard to think of another song that packs such an emotional punch in such a short space of time”.

Audiences also responded positively to This Woman’s Work, especially women who related to its themes of womanhood, motherhood, and gender roles. Many women found the song empowering and inspiring, as it highlighted the strength and resilience of women in the face of adversity. Some women also used the song as a source of comfort and support during their own experiences of pregnancy, childbirth, or loss. For example, one woman wrote on a fan forum: “This song helped me through a very difficult time in my life when I had a miscarriage. It made me feel less alone and more hopeful.“

This Woman’s Work has also been covered, sampled, referenced, or used in various forms of media, demonstrating its widespread appeal and influence. Some of the most notable examples are:

She’s Having a Baby (1988), where the song was originally featured and synced with the climax scene.

In the film Love & Basketball (2000), Maxwell’s cover of the song was used in a similar scene of a woman giving birth while her partner plays basketball.

The TV show ER (2001), where the song was used in an episode where a pregnant woman suffers a stroke and her husband has to decide whether to save her or their baby.

The TV show The Handmaid’s Tale (2017), where the song was used in an episode where a handmaid gives birth in a dystopian society where women are oppressed and enslaved.

The TV show Pose (2018), where the song was used in an episode where a transgender woman undergoes gender confirmation surgery and faces complications.

The social movement #MeToo (2017–present), where the song was used as a rallying cry for women who have experienced sexual harassment or assault.

MOST NOTABLE COVERS OF THE SONG

One of the most renowned covers of This Woman’s Work is by American singer-songwriter Maxwell. His neo-soul rendition, first performed for his MTV Unplugged session in 1997 and later released as a single in 2001, brought a fresh perspective to the song. Maxwell’s Woman’s Work introduced an urbanised sound with a longer instrumental intro and a distinct vocal delivery and interpretation. The cover found its way into movies like Love & Basketball, showcasing its widespread appeal.

Maxwell’s version of This Woman’s Work differs from Kate Bush’s original in several ways, both musically and lyrically. Musically, Maxwell’s version has a more contemporary and urban sound, featuring elements of R&B, soul, and hip-hop. He also extends the instrumental intro of the song, adding drums, bass, guitar, keyboards, and horns to create a groove and a build-up. He also changes the key of the song from A minor to C minor, making it lower and darker”.

As it turns thirty-four on 20th November, I wanted to approach This Woman’s Work from a different perspective. Only reaching twenty-five in the U.K. when it was released as The Sensual World’s second single in 1989, I do feel that the song deserved better on the charts. It has been used a lot through film and T.V., though I feel it is good This Woman’s Work has widespread appeal. It goes to show…

WHAT a powerful song it is.

FEATURE: Spotlight: Lucy Gaffney

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

 PHOTO CREDIT: Charlotte Patmore

Lucy Gaffney

_________

EVEN though most of the interviews…

I am going to quote are from around 2020 and 2021, I think that is very much worth spotlighting the wonderful Lucy Gaffney. The Belfast artist is proudly putting Irish music on the map. Showing there is incredible strength and quality coming from there. I will use this feature to highlight some interviews where we learn more about a truly remarkable young artist who everyone needs to know about. Her latest single, Next Year, shows why she is such a special and instantly memorable songwriter! Gifted with a sublime voice and a wonderful songwriting ear and eye, her music is unforgettable! I am going to start with this biography about the sensational Lucy Gaffney:

“'Celestial' - Liam Gallagher

'A superstar in waiting' - This Feeling

'Seriously great record' - Huw Stephens/BBC Radio 1

Hailing from Belfast, Irish singer-songwriter Lucy Gaffney’s music conveys an abundance of hypnotic and sensuous charm with vocals that flow effortlessly over laid-back brooding lo-fi rock, enveloped in a bohemian haze.

Recent single 
‘Easy Come Easy Go’ captures your attention from the first note. It invites you into a world that preaches of the beauty in the mundane, everyday loneliness and coping with the anxieties of the unforeseen. It takes you on a journey immersed in distortion-driven guitars reminiscent of the Pixies that counter low evocative conversation in Lucy’s voice. Tilting a cap towards Elliot Smith, Lucy’s vocals evoke a warmth, longing and urgency that sparkle with a glimmer of hope from beginning to end. Lucy recorded the track in her home-studio in Liverpool in 2021 and it was produced by her brother Thom Southern.

Lucy Gaffney began her solo career at the beginning of 2020. Penned in Liverpool, her debut singles ‘Can’t Escape’ and ‘Send Me Away’ were produced by The Coral frontman James Skelly and immediately caught the attention of Ireland’s most influential, with Hot Press Magazine saying Gaffney “has emerged as one of the country’s most promising indie-pop prospects” and the iconic Liam Gallagher calling her music “celestial”.

Big supporters at radio have come in the form of BBC Radio Ulster, BBC Across The Line, BBC Radio 1, BBC Introducing Merseyside, RTE Radio 1, RTE 2FM, Radio X, NPO 3FM and KINK. Lucy has opened for DMAs, Bill Ryder-Jones and Sorcha Richardson in her short career to date - summer 2022 will see her biggest performance yet opening for Ryan McMullan at Belfast’s 5,000 capacity Custom House Square”.

I do hope that Lucy Gaffney gets the opportunity to perform in the U.K. (especially London). I know there are a lot of her fans down here that would love to see her on the stage. I think one of the most striking and notable aspects of Lucy Gaffney’s music is the sense of atmosphere. You get songs filled with wind, weather and the wild. Dreamy vocals with something more stirring. Such a varied and instinctive artist, Gaffney stands out from a wave of songwriters this year. Because of that, she is going to enjoy a very long and successful career! I am going to include a recent feature where Gaffney chose albums that are influential to her. There are some pleasant surprises in the mix! I am going to start out with this Fred Perry question-and-answer:

“Describe your style in three words?

Comfy, chilled, casual.

What’s the best gig you’ve ever been to?

Queens Of The Stone Age - Reading & Leeds Festival 2016, it was the first time I got up on someone’s shoulders and the sun was setting throughout the whole gig and the sky was bright orange, absolute vibes.

If you could be on the line up with any two artists in history?

Nirvana and Elliot Smith. I guess there’s something magic in the fact that I’ll physically never be able to witness either of those musicians play live, makes them even more special and genius. I seriously can’t imagine what seeing them must have felt like.

Which subcultures have influenced you?

From growing up and discovering new genres of music and art, I definitely have taken a pinch of a lot of different subcultures into my style and my tastes. The mods always resonated with me, especially when I discovered The Who and The Jam as a teenager but I don’t think I could ever fully commit to the essence of it all though. I also always wanted to be a grunger but I doubt I’m cool enough haha. I went through a mad '60s phase at one point too, I wanted to be Nico, flares, fringe, pea coat, deadpan vocals. I still really love all that, it never goes out of style.

If you could spend an hour with anyone from history?

David Bowie - I was gutted when he passed away, I remember that day I sat and watched all his interviews online. He’s just so down to earth and suave. Also, he’s got some great one-liners, I’d probably spend the whole hour laughing at his jokes.

Of all the venues you’ve been to or played, which is your favourite?

The Olympia Theatre in Dublin. It’s always been a mega gig and night for me there, and the backstage area is class.

Your greatest unsung hero or heroine in music?

Chrissy Hynde from the Pretenders. I’m not sure if she’s unsung. But she’s an absolute legend in rock music. Her voice and presence on stage is second to none. She could compete with any man in rock n roll. I hung out with her backstage after a Neil Young gig in Dublin and we chatted through the night, she’s the most supportive and cool person I’ve ever met, an absolute legend.

The first track you played on repeat?

'Walk On The Wild Side' by Lou Reed.

A song that defines the teenage you?

'Sweet Black Angel' by The Rolling Stones. I used to have it as my alarm clock ring tone when I got up for school every day, always puts me in a good mood. Also discovering the 'Exile On Main Street' album was a game-changer for me.

One record you would kee forever?

'Ape In Pink Marble' by Devendra Banhart.

A song lyric that has inspired you?

I remember that time you told me, you said
'Love is touching souls'
Surely you touched mine, 'cause
Part of you pours out of me
In these lines from time to time"

From 'A Case Of You' by Joni Mitchell.

The song that would get you straight on the dance floor?

'Cosmic Dancer' by T. Rex. I danced with a guy in Edinburgh to this one night in a club that was doing a '70s dance night, we never got each other's names, but we danced circa 1970 and I think it was one of the most freeing and fun nights of my life”.

In 2020, LOCK spoke with an artist they were really excited about. Even though she was – and is, I guess – a rising artist, that promise and potential was there. Showcasing the strength of Irish music, the amazing Lucy Gaffney let us into her world. I am a recent fan of hers, so it is interesting looking back at older interviews:

“You’ve recently released your In The Air EP, which includes an acoustic version of ‘Can’t Escape’, and a cover of DMA’s, The Stone Roses and Oasis.

How did you choose which songs to include and cover?

I just really liked playing those songs acoustic in my own style.

People seemed to love the videos I put up of them, so I thought it’d be kind of cool to record them in my studio properly during lockdown for something extra to have online before my second single drops.

How did it feel to have your cover of ‘Songbird’ shared and described as “celestial” by Liam Gallagher?

That was pretty cool haha. I remember a fan messaged me the morning after I released it saying ‘you know Liam’s been talking about your cover?!’ Best compliment ever.

How have you found the Liverpool music scene in comparison to your hometown of Belfast?

Liverpool’s ALL about the music for sure, living and breathing it.

You can’t turn a street corner without hearing a busker or a pub blasting tunes everyday of the week.

Belfast has a great music scene too but I feel like there isn’t as much of a young band culture throughout the city unless there’s a festival on or something.

There are some great nights and venues in Belfast but I think the scene needs to be embraced more.

Aside from music, how have you been keeping busy during lockdown?

I’ve been pretty busy with my music to be fair but apart from that I’ve done a a good bit of gardening and cooking – pretty proud of all the herbs and fruit I’ve grown.

Do you have any more releases planned for this year?

Yeah totally! I’ve got a single coming out in a few weeks and then there’s plenty more on the way after that.

I’m keeping it kind of hush hush at the minute but let’s just say the best has yet to come.

What are your goals for the future?

Touring non-stop if I can once gigs start properly again. I wanna play Glastonbury so bad!

What would you like listeners to take away from your music?

I just want my music to make people feel, music’s all about the buzz it gives you, so if people dig what I’m making I’m pretty proud of that”.

Let’s go forward to 2021. HotPress spoke with an artist that was described as "celestial" by Liam Gallagher. Tipped for success in 2021 (which was more than fulfilled!), Lucy Gaffney emerged as one of Northern Ireland’s most promising Indie-Pop names. Also in the interview, Gaffney reflected on her early days busking in Belfast; going solo; and drawing inspiration from the late great Sinéad O’Connor:

“I don’t even play covers that often, but that’s one Oasis song that I’ve always really loved – I think because it’s quite Beatles-y,” Lucy reflects. “I just stuck it up on Twitter, and within a couple of hours I had a fan messaging me, telling me that Liam had commented on it. I was like, ‘Wait, what?!’”

Although she was raised in Belfast, Lucy has been based in Liverpool in recent years – working in the city’s iconic Parr Street Studios with James Skelly on her first two singles. Skelly, who she first met while touring with his band The Coral, was a crucial force behind her evolution into a solo artist.

“I was coming out of a different band, where it was really veering towards me just being the lead singer,” she explains. “James Skelly was like, ‘These songs are really good. Have you recorded any of them?’ So me and the band went into the studio with him, and what we did felt more like a solo project. I decided that’s the way it should go, and James helped develop it – along with my brother. It just fell into place, and we went with it.”

“Irish music has always been really strong, but especially so at the minute – when you see how Fontaines D.C. have just taken over,” she continues. “I know I’m biased, but I feel like Irish acts have this really pure kind of talent. It goes back to Phil Lynott, and then U2. There’s always been very classic songwriting here – I suppose because there’s so much literature. You can’t get away from it. It’s in our blood.”

Placing her within this legacy of Irish talent, Lucy’s already been compared to the likes of Sinéad O’Connor.

“Sinéad O’Connor is amazing,” she enthuses. “Her track ‘Mandinka’ really inspired a lot of my new songs that haven’t come out yet. I first heard that when I was listening to Cillian Murphy’s show on BBC Radio 6 Music. I remember thinking, ‘Oh my God, why have I never heard this track?’ She’s got a great energy to her, and a bit of spunk, which I like.”

You can expect some of those Sinéad-inspired tracks in the months ahead – as Lucy reveals that she hasn’t been resting on her laurels over lockdown.

“I’ve got quite a lot to come out this year,” she says. “I was fairly busy towards the end of last year – working with a producer in LA, and a producer in England. I’m also writing some stuff with Bill Ryder-Jones at the minute. I should be releasing my next single and an EP in March. So it’s been a pretty busy year, in a weird way!”

I think we will get even more interviews with Lucy Gaffney soon. Picked up by radio stations like BBC Radio 6 Music, her music is spreading far and wide. No longer just an Irish treasure, she belongs to the world! Even if she is very original and is unmistakably indebted to nobody, there are various albums and artists that she has been inspired by. This feature from September sees Gaffney naming albums important to her. I have included most of them. I am especially interested in her Beck selections! I am a big fan of his - and I especially love 2005’s Guero. The fact that she leads with a very early and obscure album of his really piqued my interested and showed she has this deep love and knowledge of albums that many do not know about:

“Beck – One Foot In The Grave

This album brought something new into my life when I first heard it. I played it on repeat until I new every word and guitar riff like second nature. Each song blissfully brings with it a mood of off the cuff nonsense that resonated to the nth degree.  It changed my songwriting and allowed me the ability to care less about what fits on an album and what actually flows. Beck’s albums mould into every crevice of my life in some way or another. This one in particular needs to be heard from start to finish over and over to fully appreciate it. It’s a beautiful two fingers up to his success on ’Loser’ just months prior and encapsulates everything I love about raw untouched songwriting and production. The album artwork and inside sleeve on the LP is perfect and I’ve spent many a lazy afternoon enjoying it with a cup of tea in hand; ‘Sleeping Bag’, ‘Hollow Log’ & ‘It’s All In Your Mind’ being my highlights on the record.

Air – Moon Safari

This album was the catalyst for my love of dreamy French space-pop. Beth Hirsch’s vocal on this record washes over you and takes you on a journey of nonchalant coolness. I first heard the track ‘All I Need’ on a trip to Santa Monica, driving around with my cousins in the LA sunshine. The vocal feels like a personification of that – warm sunshine, flowing like silk over your brainwaves. I was lucky enough to stand front row at Air’s gig back in 2010 and it’s still one of the best moments of my life.

Chet Baker – My Funny Valentine

This is the first vinyl I ever bought for myself in Head Records in Belfast. My love for Chet Baker from then on ran deep. I got a record player for my 18th birthday and sat on my bed most nights listening to this instead of doing homework. This album brought me into my romance era in my early 20s, it also got me through a 12 hour art exam which I’m forever thankful for. You can’t help but loose yourself throughout every track. Chet’s voice is intoxicating. ‘I Get Along Without You Very Well’ might be my favourite but I blow with the wind in regard to that so I can’t really say for sure.

Miles Davis – Kind Of Blue

I guess this record really speaks for itself. It was my proper introduction to jazz at 16. I initially found this album when my older brother’s friend Jimi (with incredible taste) kindly leant me his iPod for a few days. I listened to ‘Blue In Green’ over and over until my heart hurt and wrote copious amounts of poems listening it with teenage angst. Getting the chance to listen to it on vinyl in a quiet room is simply breathtaking and should be on everyones to do list. 

Nirvana – Unplugged

It goes without saying that this is one of the best live performances of all time and makes the hairs on your neck stand up. As a little kid we used to play the full record start to finish on long car journeys to the west of Ireland and I remember saying over and over “Can you play the one about the parrot” because I was obsessed with the intensity of the storytelling. Kurt becomes the character in each song oozing humanity and depth. It absorbs you. ‘Where Did You Sleep Last Night?’ is a prime example of this.

Beck – Sea Change

The album closest to my heart on this planet potentially. I have lived and breathed every track on this ten fold. I listen to this when I need to remember myself and feel whole again. It’s got me through many phases in my life. It’s the one record that I don’t think I can ever fully listen to too much. It’ll break your heart and put it back together on every listen. The album artwork visually has been a massive influence over the years. ‘Lost Cause’, ‘End Of The Day’ and ‘Guess I’m Doing Fine’ might be my favourites, but it’s far too hard to narrow it down with this record.

Serge Gainsbourg – Histoire de Melody Nelson

Thee coolest album ever made I imagine. I’ll be honest I listen to this the second I wake up on a weekly basis anytime I need an artistic pick me and to start my day with a little joie de vivre. You can’t listen to this without automatically feeling a little bit more sultry and cool. My French friends say its a crying shame that I can’t understand the depth of the poetry in the words but nevertheless its a sublime piece of unwordly art that makes you want to pack a case and move to Paris instantly”.

If you have not heard of Lucy Gaffney, she is a fabulous and enormously talented artist that I cannot recommend highly enough. Somebody we will be hearing from many years from now, she has had a very busy 2023. I am not sure what her gig plans are for 2024. I know there will be a lot of demand for her to come see people around the world. With September’s Daydream in Tokyo E.P. gaining acclaim, I want to end with a Thoughts Words Action feature, where Gaffney discussed the amazing and mesmeric title track:

“Lucy Gaffney returns today with new single ‘Daydream In Tokyo’ and news of a new EP of the same name to arrive on 29th September via Nettwerk.

Lucy Gaffney is no newcomer to the power of patience and pure intention. The Belfast native began releasing solo material in 2020, with two well-received lo-fi offerings recorded by The Coral frontman James Skelly. Fast forward to 2023 and ‘Daydream In Tokyo’ luminously marks her arrival. The first single from her upcoming second EP, it’s a pure-cut indie-pop gem every bit as Technicolour as Gaffney’s journey along the way.

Written when she was living in Liverpool, the song is an escapist anthem with a trajectory that takes you on a journey. Across three minutes, it captures how a potent sense of place far beyond can – even in one’s mind’s eye – be an antidote to the mundane. But for Gaffney, dreaming of Tokyo isn’t a knee-jerk lunge in the throes of wanderlust. Musing on walking through neon-lit streets, and singing ‘Thirteen’ by Big Star in a backstreet karaoke bar, it bears the physical imprint of the Japanese capital as channelled in her favourite film, Lost In Translation.

“I’ve always adored and been fascinated by its cinematography,” says Gaffney. “There’s so much depth in the mystery and ambiguity of discovering a foreign place. I find it hard not to completely relate to every scene. I can’t write unless there’s something inspiring me visually, so I wanted it to capture the aesthetic of the movie and, in a similar way, translate a relatability in everyday thoughts and relationships between people.”

Nodding to Bowie’s ‘China Girl,’ and jangle-pop gems like ‘There She Goes’ by The La’s and The Pretenders’ ‘Brass In Pocket’ as influences for its classic style and structure – along with the subtle but powerful approach of contemporary artists like beabadoobee, Phoebe Bridgers and girl in red – the single is a feat of full-blown indie-pop finesse. It may not be the case for all of Gaffney’s songs but ‘Daydream In Tokyo’ is open-hearted and idealist to its core. It also doubles as an invitation to dig deeper and discover the full spectrum of her sound.

“There’s a side of me that really likes writing in a darker way,” says Gaffney. “but there’s also a side to me that absolutely loves pop music and that feeling of elation when you are having a moment where you’re really up for a dance, and really rocking out to a tune. I was so heavily into the Cure and the Smiths, where every song is catastrophizing your own life, so that’s definitely worked its way into some of my writing. At the same time, making it pop is so much fun. It’s always been the big track that has turned me onto bands and got me hooked. It’s the lesser-known tracks that I fall in love with. The sad stuff is what you’ll give time to once you’re hooked on the tracks that make you feel elated. ‘Daydream In Tokyo’ is a song I want people to hear, then they can dig deeper.”

To record ‘Daydream In Tokyo,’ Gaffney flew to the Isle Of Lewis in The Hebrides, Scotland to record a bunch of her new tracks at Black Bay Studios with her brother Thom Southern and London-based producer Duncan Mills. “We had a lot of fun working on this track in particular and I think we captured a lot of that energy from the studio in the final mix,” she says. “I usually tend to construct songs with three tracks, meshing melodies and hooks together. Like on this song, I can usually just hear it in my head. I love deconstructing a track and blending things together, almost like a DJ would.”

Alongside Duncan Mills and Thom Southern, Gaffney tapped into the simple yet powerful majesty of the moment when she holed up in the secluded Black Bay recording studio on the Isle of Lewis last year. For two weeks, the trio worked around the clock to realise her vision for widescreen indie-pop that makes space for big hooks every bit as sonic points of reference such as Pixies and Pavement.

“The studio looked out onto the Atlantic ocean and hills of heather,” says Gaffney. “It was that kind of wild beauty you can’t really capture on your phone camera but you know you don’t want to forget. We’d wake up in the morning and record until 3 or 4 am some nights, so we quickly became a well-oiled machine where everyone had a part to play. Sure enough, we were like zombies by the end of it but I was always obsessed with that Exile on Main Street documentary as a kid so I was there for it. It was the best experience I’ve ever had in a studio, we all felt totally detached from society out there, no shops, no people, just the odd sheep or fisherman passing by. It was the “back of beyond.”

“My life this last decade has been so weird,” she says. “I’ve had really random experiences travelling with my music, like going to play in South Korea and stuff, I never thought I’d do that. I don’t know if my life will ever be as crazy as the last ten years but I love that it’s brought me to the point where I can finally understand more about myself. I’ve always sort of known the genres of music I’ve wanted to make from day one and I’m at the point where I can properly ask myself, ‘What can you physically do yourself and where can you go sonically?’”

“For me, the answer is telling yourself you actually need to embrace curiosity and do it now because there’s no better time than the present. As David Bowie once said: ‘If you feel safe in the area you’re working in, you’re not working in the right area. Always go a little further into the water than you feel you’re capable of being in. Go a little bit out of your depth. And when you don’t feel that your feet are quite touching the bottom, you’re just about in the right place to do something exciting. I think I’m finally ready to embrace that”.

It is clear that everyone needs to hear Lucy Gaffney! A real dream of an artist, I am excited to see how her career evolves and unfolds. One of the most impressive artists that I have heard in a very long time. I really love what she is doing right now. Gaffney is someone who loves Ireland and proudly talks about her home and heritage. In return, the country is very…

PROUD of her!

___________

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FEATURE: Second Spin: David Gray – White Ladder

FEATURE:

 

Second Spin

David Gray – White Ladder

_________

AN album that provides…

a combination of comfort, reflection and some wonderfully crafted songwriting, David Gray’s White Ladder turns twenty-five on 27th November. I think that many know it for standout tracks like Babylon, Please Forgive Me and This Year’s Love. I think that it is much more worthy than its singles. You get a greater impression of Gray as a songwriter if you listen to the while album. The fourth studio album from the British artist arrived in a year when music was pushing away from Britpop. With more experimental and Electronic sounds coming to the forefront, it was actually a nice relief and balance getting an album like White Ladder! There were other albums like out around, though few were stronger. Travis released The Man Who the year after – I think it shares some DNA with White Ladder. David Gray’s 1998 commercial smash (it went to the top of the album chart in the U.K.) is one that is often named alongside the best of the 1990s. I am going to come to a couple of reviews for this superb album. It is one I don’t think is explored as much as it should be. I did not know the background and circumstances of White Ladder. During a period where other genres and artists were more in vogue, it would have been hard for David Gray to get a foot on the ladder so to speak. In 2020, when speaking with The Guardian about making White Ladder, he and producer Iestyn Polson discussed the setting and situation of White Ladder:

“David Gray, singer-songwriter

I was a struggling folky singer-songwriter during the 90s Britpop and dance boom. By the time I got to my third album, it was a Spinal Tap-style disaster. At one gig the sign outside read: “Barbecue ribs sold out, David Gray 9pm.”

I jettisoned my manager, label, everything, to work out what I wanted. I’d never captured our live energy in the studio, so I started recording in my bedroom in Stoke Newington, London, with some basic kit: computer, sampler, keyboard. Phil Hartnoll from Orbital gave me a small mixing desk and recommended the Roland Groovebox drum machine.

I’d been going to Orbital gigs since the early 90s and wanted to try on clubbier culture and make music that expressed living at that moment. I secreted myself away with the Groovebox during a dinner party and the chords and lyrics for Please Forgive Me fell out of the sky. The hairs on my neck stood on end. That song was the starting pistol.

Clune [drummer Craig McClune] and I had been gigging as a two-piece and had a joyous musical understanding. He brought rhythmic ideas and [producer] Iestyn Polson was perfect: he was street, naughty, a bit wild, but had this bat-like ear for detail and was super-creative. Iestyn created the drum’n’bass-like effect on Please Forgive Me.

Once we had four or five tracks, we were on a roll. The title track came in a day. Then Babylon landed. The imagery is what my life was like – a young person in London, going out all the time and getting a little bit lost. The album isn’t always autobiographical, but “let go your heart, let go your head” is me speaking to myself. I was in my late 20s, had lost my youthful momentum and was looking at myself. Financially, I was a mess. I’d got married and then my parents split up, which led me to probe everything deeper. I wanted every second of the album to be as good as it could be.

Everything happened fast. We self-funded with donations from my old boss Dave Boyd at Hut Records and another friend, pressed 5,000 copies and initially released it in Ireland, where I had some fans. From the moment we started playing the new music live, the albums sold like hot cakes off the merch stand. Eventually, East West Records licensed it. It took two and a half years to get to No 1, but I’m very proud that an album made in a bedroom is the [UK’s] 26th bestselling of all time. It’s proof that you don’t need much to make something that lasts.

Iestyn Polson, producer

I’d worked in studios but wasn’t known as a producer. Dave’s manager shared an office with the manager of my band. I met him outside a pub and later he said: “Dave’s having trouble working all this gear. Could you go over?” When I arrived, Clune was leaning out of the window.

We were limited by what we had, so I was chopping up beats and making samples, which I was into back then. I got Clune to play some drums in the bathroom – we were lucky with the neighbours. The problem was external sounds. They were constantly digging up the road outside the house and you can hear traffic on the record. On Babylon, there’s a car going right past the house. When I edited it out, the song didn’t sound as good, so I put it back in.

I’d turn up at 10am and we had to finish before Dave’s wife came home from work. The last half hour would be pretty frantic, then Dave would have to rush out to pick her up from the station. It was strict, but gave us time to reflect on the day’s work. Soft Cell’s Say Hello, Wave Goodbye was part of Dave’s live set so we cut that live with Simon Edwards from Fairground Attraction playing bass. I’d seen them on Top of the Pops, so when he came in I was completely starstruck.

There were no great commercial hopes for the album. We were doing fairly full shows in Ireland, then coming back to the UK and playing to 30 people. But then suddenly young girls started coming, then they brought their mums. At Glastonbury, someone [Burt Bacharach] cancelled, so we ended up playing twice, the second time on the Pyramid stage. The reaction was much bigger and you could hear people singing along. I thought: “Wow, this is it”.

You can look at the modern singer-songwriter market and artists such as Ed Sheeran and Lewis Capaldi. No doubt inspired by White Ladder, that is a mixed blessing to some! I think nobody get closer to the appeal of David Gray. White Ladder is a much more complete, appealing and satisfying album than anything that has come since (sound/genre-wise). The Young Folks has their say in a 2021 retrospective:

“Ultimately, the best way to understand this album’s brilliance is to simply sit down and listen to the thing. You hear the tasteful backdrops he’s concocted alongside producers Iestyn Polson and Craig McClune—not complex, sure, but lush and meticulously woven, the ideal bedrock for Gray’s emotional musings. You experience his unmistakable delivery: a gruff, impassioned growl that recalls a young Bob Dylan, with a unique percussiveness not unlike Gray’s idol Van Morrison. (He even interpolates the latter’s “Madame George” and “Into the Mystic” on Ladder toward the end of an equally-epic cover of Soft Cell’s “Say Hello Wave Goodbye.”) And you quickly realize that there are no throwaway moments on White Ladder—when this fella sings something, he means it. Even all the whoas and yeahs and my-mys burst with a deeply-felt potency.

The word “cinematic” comes to mind here. Take opener “Please Forgive Me,” with its intense flood of piano and synthesized strings girded by a drum-machine loop like running footsteps. It easily could (and still does) pop up at a pivotal moment in many a sappy romcom.

Not a bad thing, of course, as there’s a certain subtle and affecting charm to how Gray captures the feeling of so achingly, desperately wanting someone that you come off a dumbstruck idiot in their presence. In his lovesick suffering, he paraphrases Jesus on the cross: “Please forgive me if I act a little strange/For I know not what I do/Feels like lightning running through my veins/Every time I look at you.” When he croons about “how good it feels/When you look at me that way,” you feel his exuberance as if she were flashing you that look. The real kicker, though, comes in the final verse as we learn just how nuts he is about her: “I got half a mind to scream out loud/I got half a mind to die/So I won’t ever have to lose you, girl/Won’t ever have to say goodbye.” Damn.

Ivor Novello Award-winning cut “Babylon” is the biggest hit off the disc, and for good reason. It remains a flawless pop song over 20 years on, buoyed by that playful guitar/piano hook that’s probably chiming in your brain as we speak. The track demonstrates Gray’s gift for pinpointing and illuminating life’s specific moments—in this case, a lonely, contemplative weekend in London. He walks us through it one color-coded day at a time: a dull Friday evening at home “turning over TV stations,” followed by a hedonistic night of partying and a hungover Sunday spent “kicking through the autumn leaves/Wondering where it is you might be going to.” All the while, he dearly misses the love of his life, kicking himself for not being able to overcome his fear and make his feelings known.

And then it happens: he’s heading back, he turns, and she’s right there! It’s the kind of thing that only happens in the movies, or the words of a song—it makes no sense and it makes all the sense in the world. Gray’s now-iconic refrain—“Let go your heart/Let go your head/And feel it now”—drives the message home: Surrender to the wild, brazen uncertainty of love. It can be as insane and extravagant as life in that titular biblical city, and it may not work out in the end, but how will you know unless you try?

In fact, if a batch of solid tunes isn’t enough for you and you simply must unite Ladder’s songs under the umbrella of a single “concept,” that might be the difficulties that come with launching (and staying in) a romance. These range from depression (“Seems these days I don’t feel anything/Unless it cuts me right down to the bone”) to substance abuse (“Can’t tell the bottle from the mountaintop/No, we’re not right”) to the aforementioned terror of giving oneself over to the pain and mayhem (“…it takes something more this time/Than sweet, sweet lies, oh, now/Before I open up my arms and fall/Losing all control/Every dream inside my soul”).

By the time Gray and his lover “Sail Away” on the wispy seas of Rufus Wainwright/Baz Luhrmann collaborator Marius de Vries’ magnificent co-production, it seems they’ve fully embraced the mantra of the frosty, kinetic title track: “There’s no rhyme or reason to love/This sweet, sweet love.” They’re Charlie Chaplin and Paulette Goddard walking off together at the end of Modern Times, unsure of what lies ahead but content to at least have one another.

If Gray’s songwriting seems straightforward or commonplace, perhaps it’s because of the universality of the feelings he expresses. We’ve all been hurt by those we care for in some way. We’ve all allowed lonesomeness, doubt and insecurity numb us to the outside world. We’ve all feared the vulnerability that comes with opening ourselves up to another person. We’ve all found euphoria at the very thought of a crush or significant other. In short, we’ve all been in love. It takes a special kind of songwriter to chronicle the human condition so succinctly yet so poetically, and Gray is one of them”.

I am going to wrap up with parts of Pitchfork’s review for the 20th Anniversary release of White Ladder. The 2020 review (the same year the reissue came out) makes some interesting observations. Maybe quite divisive at the time, there is no denying the influence David Gray has had. How remarkable a success story White Ladder is:

“Adding 1998’s state-of-the-art electronic beats to his sturdy, occasionally sappy folk-pop gave White Ladder an air of novelty, even if it was hardly anomalous during a time when the coffee house and the club converged into a veritable subgenre: Think, for instance, of Everything But the Girl’s Walking Wounded, or Beth Orton collaborating with William Orbit. Though “Sail Away” featured production from Marius de Vries, a collaborator of Bjork and Madonna, White Ladder wasn’t intended as a reinvention. The newly aerodynamic production contrasted with Gray’s endearingly po-faced image, emphasizing what he already was: a self-described sincere guy with a guitar, and also a man slightly out of time, someone watching from the periphery as others less burdened by regret lived, laughed, and danced without care. Paul Hartnoll of Orbital weaponized the four-on-the-floor thump that brings “Please Forgive Me” to a climax into an unlikely Ibiza smash, while the single “Babylon” was given an industrial remake. But on White Ladder, these underlying elements of dance music sounded like they were being experienced from a safe and sad distance, a drum’n’bass track muffled by a midnight cab’s dull engine roar. The synthetic percussion of White Ladder betrays its origins as a home-recorded folktronica album—the hollowed-out trip-hop drums of “Nightblindness” bear the requisite influence of Radiohead’s “Climbing Up the Walls,” while the lightly carbonated shuffle of “Silver Lining” makes Gray sound like he’s suspended in a glass of OK Cola for six minutes.

“Please Forgive Me” was also included in the pilot of Scrubs, more indicative than its club cameos of the album’s future in meet-cute media. Half of its 10 songs were released as singles, so White Ladder clearly worked as a collection of episodes that could be experienced discretely and repeatedly. There’s no linguistic subtext to any song on White Ladder: Recall that Gray’s sincerity and plainspokenness are his main selling points, but the lack of specificity leaves space for emotional interpretation. “This Year’s Love” likely did soundtrack countless wedding dances and many drank alone to it. The pleas of “Sail Away” are either bravely passionate or absolutely desperate; “We’re Not Right” can either be a blithe acceptance of alcoholism’s grim fate or an agent for change. “Babylon” tells a story with a clear conflict and resolution that still leaves room for projection—to tell someone you love them or that you loved them or even that you wish you had told them these things. “If you want it, come and get it for crying out loud,” and whatever it was, you could get it: “Babylon” was a festival anthem disguised as a counterbalance to the monsters of Glastonbury.

The frontloading of its biggest, most unabashedly optimistic hits lends White Ladder a narrative thread: As I always imagined it, here was a skeptical romantic hitting the bars with a precarious hope of finding connection; slowly sulking into the corner while his friends laughed and flirted; bitterly going home to commiserate with his favorite records. It all ends with an unfathomably sad, nine-minute cover of Soft Cell’s “Say Hello, Wave Goodbye” that interpolates Van Morrison’s “Madame George” and “Into the Mystic.”

While White Ladder was virtually inescapable in public spaces during the early 2000s, its influence has dissipated in the time since, though it is audible in the crystalline, cosmic folk of Amen Dunes’ 2018 album Freedom. Gray himself suggested that he had paved the way for folk-pop idols like Ed Sheeran and James Blunt. “When I started out, a man with a guitar baring his soul wasn't in vogue at all. Suddenly, it's everywhere!” Gray exclaimed in 2011, despite soul-bearing guitar men being the primary vessel for acclaimed rock music for the past 50 years.

Yet he’s not totally wrong. Man or woman, guitar or no guitar, the world will always be full of people who believe that they’re the only ones truly baring their soul, doing so in a way that brings them constant misunderstanding and disappointment at their jobs and relationships, an exception in a world where dishonesty and artifice are the rule and guys like David Gray get dropped from their label. And then an album like White Ladder comes along to sell millions of copies and offer the hope that living the exact same way can be the best revenge”.

An album that was widely played and ubiquitous in the late-1990s, I think that White Ladder is not as explored as much as it should be. Perhaps seen as a product of its time and not relevant today, the fact that a wave of artists influenced by David Gray have stolen attention might betray a debt to the original. An artist whose fourth studio album was a big success, at a time when Folk and Singer-Songwriter sounds were not that widespread, popular and seen as cool. Timeless and simple songwriting with messages that resonated meant that White Ladder became a massive success. It is an album that needs to be heard more widely. Released on 27th November, 1998, the supreme White Ladder became that year’s love. You can feel and see its influence spread far and wide…

TO this very day.

FEATURE: 402023: Yes’ Superb 90125 at Forty

FEATURE:

 

 

402023

Yes’ Superb 90125 at Forty

_________

ON 7th November, 1983…

Yes released the brilliant album 90125. Some sites say it was released on 11th November, though their official social media say it is 7th November. Perhaps best-known for its single, Owner of a Lonely Heart, there is not a weak moment on 90125. The eleventh studio album from the London band was a little rocky and controversial in terms of band line-ups ands changes. Jon Anderson, who left the group in 1980, was convinced to rejoin on vocals. With the legendary Trevor Horn producing, 90125 has a more Pop feel compared to previous Yes albums. Jon Anderson, Trevor Rabin, Chris Squire, Tony Kaye and Alan White released an album that took their music to new fans. Charting at five in the U.S. and sixteen in the U.K., it was a big success for Yes. I want to mix together some features and reviews concerning an album that turns forty on 7th November. Louder writing in 2016, provided background to the album. This was an incredibly unlikely comeback from a band who, in 1983, arguably released their finest album:

“In 1983 Yes stormed the charts with a new pop sound. Yet just months before, the band hadn’t even existed. This is the story of one of music’s least likely comebacks...

By 1981, Yes had disappeared. As the new decade dawned, the line-up that had given us Drama the previous year had cracked and splintered. Keyboard player Geoff Downes and guitarist Steve Howe became founding members of Asia and enjoyed huge success in their own right. Vocalist Trevor Horn was on an upward trajectory as a producer. And that left bassist Chris Squire and drummer Alan White trying to find a cohesive musical direction.

“Atlantic, to whom Yes were signed, were determined to keep Alan and I working together,” recalls Squire. “We had tried to form a new band, XYZ, in 1981 with Jimmy Page, but that had fizzled out. And then in 1982 Trevor Rabin’s name came up. Brian Lane, our former manager, had actually played me some of his tracks in 1979 and I thought it was the new Foreigner album. But three years later, we agreed to meet up with him.”

While Squire and White contemplated where life might lead in the post-Yes era, multi-instrumentalist Rabin had been facing an exciting, albeit uncertain, future. After releasing three well-received but commercially disappointing solo albums, he relocated to Los Angeles from the UK after signing to Geffen.

“I went through an intense writing phase out there, when I effectively came up with the songs which would appear on 90125,” he explains. “But Geffen weren’t impressed, so they dropped me.”

After getting some interest from other labels, Rabin eventually agreed a deal with Atlantic, and it was Phil Carson, one of the most powerful men at the company, who put him in touch with Squire and White.

“He felt that I needed a rhythm section,” Rabin says. “So, the three of us agreed to meet at a sushi bar in London. Chris was late, which I was to discover was usual for him, but we eventually went back to his place and jammed. I have to say, it wasn’t a very good session. But there was clearly a chemistry between us which was worth pursuing.”

Despite coming on to the scene rather late, Anderson still had some input into the writing process. “I changed some of the choruses and added lyrics to certain songs as well. I only had about three weeks in the studio to do my parts, but found it to be a very rewarding experience. I loved working with Trevor Horn as he was always so receptive to any ideas I had.”

But Squire has a different take on the relationship between the returning vocalist and the producer. “Oh, they butted heads quite a lot. At times, there was major friction.”

To add to the melodrama in the studio, Kaye had his own problems with Horn. “They didn’t get on at all,” says Rabin. “So, he left the band before we’d finished the album, and I had to finish the keyboard parts.”

Squire, though, has an alternative version on what happened. “Tony actually completed all his work. So, because he wasn’t on good terms with Trevor Horn, we suggested he should go home to Los Angeles. But he was never fired from Yes, nor did he quit. The only reason we had Eddie Jobson feature in the video for Owner Of A Lonely Heart was because he was around when we shot it. We never talked to Eddie, or anybody, about replacing Tony.”

“We did hold discussions with Eddie about coming into the band for touring,” disagrees Rabin. “And we also considered Duncan Mackay. But we got Tony back in the end because he knew all the parts and with Horn not involved in touring, there was no chance of any of those problems rearing up again.”

Rabin recalls the studio sessions as running well behind schedule. “We had a very laissez‑faire attitude. There were times when I was in the studio with just one of the engineers doing my parts because Trevor was away working on Malcolm McLaren’s Duck Rock album. It was typical of the inefficient beast called Yes.”

And there were even problems with Horn’s final mix, as Squire recalls: “Trevor Rabin wasn’t satisfied and did a couple of his own remixes. But the label were very happy with the original mix, and we didn’t want to compromise and have a few Rabin mixes alongside the rest from Horn. So we went for the amazing sound that Trevor Horn got for us.”

So where did the idea for the album title originate? There’s no consensus on this, with both Rabin and Anderson claiming to have come up with the idea. But Squire has his own view. “The suggestion came from Garry Mouat, who designed the sleeve. We couldn’t come up with any suitable title and he thought of using the catalogue number. Actually, it was supposed to be called 89464. That was to be the album catalogue number. But we were two months late delivering the album [in July 1983], so the release date and the catalogue number changed.”

The success in 1983 of 90125 gave Yes a fresh impetus for a new era of achievement, which is something that Squire acknowledges: “We reinvented Yes,” he says. “Because the album was so fresh, we picked up a new audience. Some 70s diehards might have been upset by what we did. However, it gave us an extra dimension.”

“I was delighted with the reaction the album got,” adds Rabin. “The fact that Owner Of A Lonely Heart was a big hit gave us a new profile for the MTV age. I was determined this wouldn’t be seen as a continuation of Yes as they were in the 70s, and we got it right. It was a new beginning for Yes, not just another chapter”.

I want to come to this 2015 feature from Ultimate Classic Rock. It seemed nearly impossible that a band who seemed to be on rocks in some ways made this big statement with 90125. A massive chart success, Yes toured for the album in 1984 and 1985. This included two headline shows at the inaugural Rock in Rio festival:

“It's often said that it's always darkest before the dawn. This has proven particularly true for Yes fans, who endured the band's ugly 1981 breakup only to watch the prog legends rise from the ashes with one of their most popular albums two years later.

The group's 11th LP, 90125, arrived on Nov. 7, 1983, the happy end result of a long series of twists and turns that included yet another flurry of lineup changes for the famously fluctuating outfit. In fact, while comings and goings had become customary for the band, 90125 didn't even start out as a Yes album. Following 1980's rather poorly received Drama album, the group more or less imploded, with bassist Chris Squire and drummer Alan White left at loose ends.

Knowing they still wanted to keep making music together but unsure of what form it should take, Squire and White dabbled for a bit with a couple of short-lived projects (including what would have been a mighty intriguing-sounding supergroup with Jimmy Page) before getting down to work with guitarist Trevor Rabin. Although he wasn't known to many Yes fans, Rabin had been hovering in the band's axis for some time – to the point that he nearly ended up joining Asia with former Yes members Geoff Downes and Steve Howe.

Aside from his considerable guitar skills and a sturdy singing voice, Rabin brought a stack of songs to the new band, which would eventually be named Cinema – a group whose ranks were quickly expanded to include former Yes keyboardist Tony Kaye. By the time Cinema entered the studio at the tail end of 1982, it had started to look less like a new enterprise and more like yet another iteration of Yes. Once former Yes singer Jon Anderson heard what the new group was up to in the spring of '83, it was obvious that the band would reform in earnest.

Although Rabin was initially reluctant to make the change from Cinema to Yes, and bristled at the notion that some would see him as a replacement member of the band, he was eventually won over by Anderson's enthusiasm. Looking back, it's easy to see why: Even though Yes had suffered from lack of direction in the years leading up to 90125, Rabin's influx of fresh ideas – coupled with Trevor Horn's clean, technologically driven production – brought the group a new sound that managed to be fresh while still bearing many hallmarks of the band's past.

Best of all, at least from a label perspective, was the eminently radio-ready focus of Rabin's songwriting. Where Anderson's lyrics tended to focus on more esoteric subjects, Rabin tended toward poppier fare. And although Yes would never truly be thought of as a Top 40 band, there was no way for radio programmers to resist hook-laden tracks like the album's lead-off single, "Owner of a Lonely Heart."

Boasting grinding guitar, clattering synths and a soaring vocal from Anderson, the track signaled the start of a new era for Yes – and a fairly lucrative one, too. "Owner of a Lonely Heart" eventually became the band's first and only chart-topper, helping send 90125 to the Top Five and paving the way for three more singles (one of which, "Leave It," broke the Top 40 the following year). It certainly wasn't Tales From Topographic Oceans, but it was identifiably Yes, and it expanded the band's audience to a degree that nobody could have predicted.

Unfortunately, as it so often tended to be with Yes, the harmony proved short-lived. In fact, Kaye left the lineup even before 90125 was finished, forcing Rabin to handle a substantial portion of the keyboard work. Although kaye returned in time for the tour, ongoing tensions with Horn added another layer of difficulty to the already-messy sessions for the follow-up album.

By the time Yes re-emerged from the studio, four years had gone by, and the result – 1987's Big Generator – was neither as cohesive nor as cutting-edge as its predecessor. By the end of 1988, Yes had split into different factions yet again ... and yet another reunion loomed on the horizon”.

There are two more features that I want to get to. Progarchy provided a retrospective on 90125 on its thirtieth anniversary in 2013. With a new guitarist, Trevor Rabin, in the fold, that caused some controversy and split among fans. Also, in terms of the music and style fans were used to, 90125 was a big departure. Even so, the album was a huge success and an unexpected triumph from a band some presumed all but finished:

“Yes, it was definitely Yes

 A cursory examination of the membership makes it hard to declare the band that created ‘90125’ anything other than Yes.  Four of the five members on the album were Yes veterans.  Three of them – Jon Anderson, Chris Squire, and Tony Kaye – were original members of Yes.  The fourth, Alan White, had originally joined Yes more than a decade prior, and was firmly established in the band.  Calling the band Cinema, as they were before Anderson’s return, would have been odd, to say the least.  In fact, I’m willing to bet most of the “it’s not Yes” crowd would have said “well, it’s really just Yes” had they tried to get away with calling the band Cinema.  Four established Yes veterans with Jon Anderson on vocals is, for all intents and purposes, Yes.  And thus an album created by such a band is, for all intents and purposes, a Yes album.  When Anderson reconnected with Rick Wakeman, Steve Howe, and Bill Bruford in 1989, they may have called themselves Anderson, Bruford, Wakeman, and Howe for legal reasons, but everybody knew is was really just another incarnation of Yes.  Otherwise, why call the shows on your tour ‘An Evening of Yes Music Plus’?

One person who was decidedly a fan of the new band – Rabin himself – was also against calling it Yes.  I have sympathy for Rabin’s position, given that he took the brunt of the criticism from the established Yes fans.  Still, there was nothing else you could call this band, with four veterans in the lineup including Anderson on vocals.  It simply would not have been credible to call it anything else but Yes.  With a different vocalist – or with the pre-Anderson lineup, the Cinema name would have worked.  Once Anderson came on board, Yes was the only name that would do.  The band that did ‘90125’ was not Cinema.  It was Yes.  Yes with a new guitarist? Sure.  A Yes wherein the newest member had the most impact on his first recorded output with the band?  Undoubtedly.  But still Yes.  There is simply no other credible band name for the lineup that recorded ‘90125’.

Musically?

Even with as radical a departure as this album was from its predecessors, it’s hard to think musically of ‘90125’ as anything other than a Yes album.  Certainly, it had a heaviness that was rarely heard on previous Yes albums.  The intro to ‘Owner of a Lonely Heart’ telegraphed early on that this was going to be a different kind of Yes music.  ‘Hold On’, ‘City of Love’, and ‘Changes’ produced more power chords than had been heard in any previous Yes album.  The music also had much more of a 80’s feel to it, and Tony Kaye’s description of it as sometimes being dimensionally sparse was fitting.

Still, there were more than a few common threads with previous Yes works.  And despite Anderson’s late entry into the project, there is no doubt that his creative impact on the final product was second only to Rabin’s.  No other song exemplifies this more than ‘It Can Happen’, in particular when the Cinema version is compared to the final Yes version.  The Cinema version of ‘It Can Happen’ appears, among other places, on disc 4 of the YesYears box set.  The lyrics on that version were those of a rather sappy love song.  Even keeping in mind that this is more or less a demo version, the music was relatively mundane.  In contrast, it is clear that Anderson had completely rewritten the lyrics by the time the final version was recorded. The rewritten lyrics have much more of the trademark cosmic mysticism that infuses so much of Anderson’s output.  Moreover, the music has much more in terms of ‘Yessy’ touches to it, beginning with the sitar intro.  If a Yes fan had entered a cave in 1979 and emerged in early 1984 to hear ‘It Can Happen’ on the radio, he or she might have concluded that Yes had never broken up or had gone through the turmoil of the intervening years.  The final version of ‘It Can Happen’ clearly sounds like a Yes song, and, 80’s production values notwithstanding.  It would not be out of place in the earlier Yes catalog.

Various vocal arrangements on the album also tie in nicely with Yes music past.  In ‘Hold On’, a multi-part harmony is sung on the verse that begins with “Talk the simple smile, such platonic eyes …”.  This bears a lot of similarity to the final chorus of “Does It Really Happen” (“time is the measure, before it’s begun …”) from ‘Drama’.  And of course, ‘Leave It’ is a vocal tour de force that begins with a huge five-part harmony that is unmistakably Yes (this was the second song I heard off of this album, and the one that told me “Yes is back!”).  In the previously mentioned ‘It Can Happen’, Anderson and Squire alternate on lead vocals, with Squire singing lead on those portions that serve as a transition from the verses to the chorus.  And finally, Anderson’s delivery on the album’s finale, ‘Hearts’, is not something that sounds unusual to the experienced Yes listener.

Other notable connections to previous Yes music includes the ebb and flow of ‘Hearts’, Squire’s bass work on ‘Our Song’ and ‘Cinema’, and the keyboard intro to ‘Changes.’  Had this lineup of musicians released these same songs under the guise of Cinema, I would have scratched my head and asked “why didn’t they just call themselves Yes?”, and I doubt I’m alone in that aspect”.

I will finish with a Classic Rock Review assessment from 2013. Forty years after its release, 90125 still sounds fantastic. Maybe some say it is dated, yet I don’t think that is the case. We still hear songs from it on the radio today. It is a magnificent album I hope a new generation have discovered. It is accessible and deserves to get a new audience and appreciation:

“The album’s original first side was filled with charting singles. “Hold On” reached #27 On the Mainstream Rock chart and starts as kind of an upbeat bluesy ballad with later added sonic textures including a choppy organ, a heavy guitar and plenty of vocal motifs. The tune was actually a combination of two songs by Rabin and the two distinct parts of the song are held together nicely by the simple but effective drumming by Alan White. “It Can Happen” may be a song either of hope or foreboding and uses a synthesized sitar sound for the main riff. The song, which gets a bit more intense towards the end, reached the Billboard Top Forty in 1984. “Changes” has a long xylophone-like intro playing a very syncopated riff, similar to Yes of yesterdays, until it breaks into a standard rock beat with bluesy overtones.

The lead single from 90125 and the band’s first and only #1 hit was “Owner of a Lonely Heart”. The song originated from a solo demo by Rabin in 1980 and was originally written as a ballad. Trevor Horn later developed this album version as a final addition for commercial purposes. The song contains excellent production which includes plenty of orchestral and odd instrumental samples above the crisp guitar riff, strong rhythm, and soaring vocals.

The second side begins with a track named after the original group name for this project. “Cinema” developed from a twenty minute-long track with the working title “Time”, but was paired back to a barely two minute final product. The song is driven by White’s intensive drumming and Squire’s fretless bass, which topical instrumentation that gives it a sound more like old Genesis than old Yes. In 1985 it won the Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental, the Yes’s only Grammy. A half decade before Bobby McFerrin made it popular, the a cappella vocals of “Leave It” drove the early choruses of this fine pop song with precision polyphonic vocal effects. Above this orchestra of vocals, Squire and Anderson alternate lead vocal duties on this popular radio hit which peaked at number 24 on the American pop chart.

The fun continues with the exciting intro of “Our Song”, which sounds like a cross between Rush and Dire Straits stylistically. It is the hardest rocking track on the album, led by Kaye’s intense organ riff. The song references a 1977 Yes concert in Toledo, Ohio, where the temperature inside the arena reportedly reached over 120 °F, resulting in the song being a big hit in that area (while a moderate hit everywhere else). “City of Love” starts with doomy bass and synth orchestral effects and is decorated by 1980s sounds while maintaining an entertaining rock core. The album’s closer “Hearts” works off a simple Eastern-sounding verse with vocal duet sections and a couple of inspired guitar leads by Rabin. After abandoning this initial riff, the seven-minute track morphs into many interesting sections, with Anderson firmly taking over vocally while building on the general feel of the song.

90125 reached #5 on the album charts and has sold over three million copies, by far the band’s most successful album commercially. This same incarnation of the band and production team returned with Big Generator in 1987, another successful album of contemporary and catchy with the edge that only Yes provides”.

On 7th November, we mark forty years of Yes’ 90125. Few bands release something so complete and unexpected when they get to album number eleven. Yes released their twenty-third studio album, Mirror to the Sky, earlier in the year. Even if the line-up is different again, the band still have plenty of life and brilliance in them! In my view, 1983’s 90125 is their…

FINEST work.

FEATURE: If I Only Had the Words (To Tell You): Billy Joel’s Piano Man at Fifty

FEATURE:

 

 

If I Only Had the Words (To Tell You)

Billy Joel’s Piano Man at Fifty

_________

ONE of Billy Joel’s…

IN THIS PHOTO: Billy Joel in 1973/PHOTO CREDIT: Don Hunstein/CBS Records

most famous and well-known studio albums, Piano Man turns fifty on 9th November. The second album from the master, Piano Man arose from legal difficulties with Joel's former label, Family Productions, and ultimately became his first breakthrough album. Even though it is a minor classic, Piano Man peaked outside of the top twenty on the US Billboard 200. The title track is iconic. I will spotlight that soon. I want to bring in some features/interviews regarding this album. Piano Man was certified gold by the RIAA in 1975. I will start with a feature from Houston Press. They argued that it is the best song of all time. Quite a big claim - though it is a signature song from Billy Joel! In fact, he is nicknamed ‘ The Piano Man’. You cannot deny the quality and legacy of this remarkable song (that was released as a single on 2nd November, 1973):

“The subject of Billy Joel’s breakthrough hit and signature song, and the question of whether it is, in fact, the greatest song ever written, was broached recently by a friend on Facebook. Within minutes of his fun-spirited post (he later admitted he was drunk when he wrote it), he was bombarded with stinging rebukes like “Every track on The Stranger is better” and less diplomatic fare like, “Forever ignorant” and “You fart queen.”

Because I am a good friend with a reasonable command of words and a soft spot for underdogs, I chimed in support of this incredibly subjective notion. It was Friday morning and I was bored at work, so my few paragraphs for the affirmative helped kill an hour before lunchtime. As I finished going Lincoln to the negatives’ Douglas, a weird thing happened:  I’d convinced myself that Billy Joel’s “Piano Man,” recorded 35 years ago this fall, is better than any Beatles song, the entirety of Motown’s musical output, whatever 50 million Elvis fans considered right and all the collected works of the classical masters. It is the greatest song ever written.

I realize this sounds absurd. “Piano Man” is not even my favorite Billy Joel song. Nor is it his. Joel appeared on Stephen Colbert’s late night show once and Colbert asked him for his top five Billy Joel songs. “Piano Man” was noticeably absent. (It should be noted that “favorite” and “greatest” are two different adjectives for two different things. Did da Vinci consider the "Mona Lisa" his favorite work? Did James Joyce believe Ulysses was his greatest masterpiece? Let’s book them on Colbert to find out).

I also admit I am laughably biased. I’m an avowed Billy Joel fan. I own every album on vinyl, cassette tape and CD. I know all of the lyrics, even to core-of-the-earth deep cuts like “The Great Suburban Showdown” and “Last of the Big Time Spenders.” I’m convinced Joel wrote “Scenes From an Italian Restaurant” for me and three old friends. I have yellowed clippings from his past Houston shows in a closet upstairs. I’ve seen him live eight times since 1982, seven times with my wife by my side singing along. When he last came to Houston in November 2015, the editors at Houston Press indulged me in a week’s worth of articles about the man, his music and its impact on my own life. He is my favorite musical artist, besides my own kids, who are both musicians, as is his daughter, Alexa Ray. When Joel croaks, if he does ahead of me, I'll be inconsolable. Just leave me to my copy of Songs in the Attic. After a few spins of “I’ve Loved These Days” my broken heart will begin mending.

I know you probably disagree with me. Quoting Billy Joel himself, “You may be right; I may be crazy.” But I truly feel I can set aside my prejudicial leanings and make an objective case. “Piano Man” is the greatest song ever written”.

There are some features worth bringing in, as they give us different aspects to the Piano Man album. As it is fifty on 9th November, many of Billy Joel’s fans will be playing it through anew. It holds a special place in many people’s hearts Maybe not his most successful and loved albums, Piano Man is definitely among his best. The Vinyl District had their say in a feature from 2016:

“Me, I hear the alienation but not the condescension; on “Piano Man” Joel doesn’t seem to be looking down on the customers in that cocktail lounge so much as feeling empathy for them, and the same goes for the reefer-smoking kid who seeks refuge on his “special island” in “Captain Jack.” We all need something to get us through this world, Joel seems to be saying, and while that’s sad, it’s just the way things are.

Besides, Piano Man is hardly the album to sit around and contemplate your navel to. In fact it’s full of fast numbers, like the chug-a-lugging “Travelin’ Prayer,” which is powered by the banjo of Eric Weissberg and the violin of Billy Armstrong, and the bona fide funky “Ain’t No Crime,” on which Joel once again tells us that getting fucked up may be the only way to survive in this hellhole of a world of ours. And on the similarly funky and calypso-flavored “Worse Comes to Worst” Joel sings, “I’ll get along/I don’t know how,” which is a despairing sentiment if I’ve ever heard one, and really isn’t so far away from Samuel Beckett’s “I can’t go on. I’ll go on.” As for “Somewhere Along the Line” it sounds like an Elton John song, and on it Joel, sitting in a café in Paris sings, “But in the morning there’ll be hell to pay/Somewhere along the line.” There’s no free lunch on this LP, and that’s one of the things I like most about it.

The best tracks on Piano Man are “The Ballad of Billy the Kid,” “Captain Jack,” and the title cut. “The Ballad of Billy the Kid” is a romanticized recounting of the career of the legendary killer with an interesting twist at the end; after Billy the Kid’s hanging Joel tosses in a final ironic verse in which he cuts to the present day, and sings, “From the town known as Oyster Bay, Long Island/Rode a boy with a six-pack in his hand/And his daring life of crime/Made him a legend in his time/East and West of the Rio Grande.” In the boy’s mind, perhaps. As for “Captain Jack,” it boasts a lovely melody and tells the story of a po-faced young man from “a one-horse town” who goes to Greenwich Village in his “New England clothes” to score some weed. Because, sings Joel, “Captain Jack will get you by tonight/Just a little push and you’ll be smiling.” The chorus soars, the kid plays his albums and masturbates, and he can’t understand what went wrong and why his world is so dead. But in the end it doesn’t really matter. Because here comes Captain Jack to get him high tonight, and take him to his special island.

As for “Piano Man,” I don’t know what to say about it that hasn’t already been said. It’s a great story song, with Joel going from lost soul to lost soul in his cocktail lounge of the living dead; this one is in the Navy and “probably will be for life,” this other one is a “real estate novelist,” whatever the fuck that is, and next to Billy at his piano sits an old man “making love to his tonic and gin.” All of them are, in Joel’s words, “sharing a drink they call loneliness/But it’s better than drinking alone.” Like wounded animals they come to that bar, to lick their wounds and forget about their troubles, but it remains, for all that, a kind of Hell in miniature, despite the piano that “sounds like a carnival.” And finally the song’s narrator acknowledges that he’s no different from anyone else in that lounge, and wow. Played to death or not, great song.

It is interesting reading constructive interpretations of Piano Man. There are some classic moments for sure, although maybe one or two songs that have weaker elements. Brutally Honest Rock Album Reviews, true to their name, highlighted the highs and lows of Billy Joel’s second studio album. One that ranks alongside the best and most important of 1973:

“It’s been nice to listen to the album without dropouts all over the place where my dad recorded over swear words, I’m the kind of music lover who gets a little uptight when something interrupts the listening experience (surface noise on vinyl drives me right up the wall), so hearing the album again has been a whole new experience for me. Gotta say, though, that album cover still creeps me out. I don’t know what Billy was going for with that, but he landed on “scary looking drug addict”. Would you let your daughter date a guy who looked like that? Not me man. I think its one of the creepiest album covers ever that isn’t Blind Faith. I mean really, it’s kind of disturbing, it’s what you’d get if Charles Manson shaved his beard and tried to recreate the album cover of With the Beatles. No wonder the album wasn’t a hit.

One thing that strikes me about the album – other than the somewhat disturbing cover – is that considering this is Billy Joel, how many of the songs aren’t built around piano parts. “Piano Man” is, obviously, and “If I Only Had the Words” is, and the piano drives “The Ballad of Billy the Kid”, and several others. But album opener, “Travelin’ Prayer”, begins with just drums. Piano comes for a minute not long after, but is conspicuously absent from the rest of the song other than a fantastic piano solo. Around the second verse a banjo kicks in, and some hoe-down fiddle playin’ mosies along after a bit – buyers could hardly be blamed if they thought Billy was aiming for the “Hee Haw” crowd. Thing is, I like the song – it’s catchy, it’s got a great melody, and Joel sings with a lot of passion. But considering it was the world’s introduction to Billy Joel albums (the misfire that was Cold Spring Harbor hardly counts in that no one ever bought it, and Attila sure as hell doesn’t count), it’s a little weird. So Billy Joel introduces himself to the world of pop music at a hoe-down, probably not the opening number I would have gone with. “You’re My Home” is another song that isn’t really built around a piano part, and I really like that one. It’s much more standard pop than “Travelin’ Prayer”, with a calm vibe and a catchy melody. That line ”you’re my castle, you’re my cabin, and my instant Pleasuredome” icks me out a little bit, I’m not sure how most women would feel about being called a Pleasuredome, but hey, its better than on “Captain Jack” where he talks about being his own Pleasuredome. Anyway, I kind of see these non-piano songs as Billy’s attempt to make it clear he isn’t just another Elton John – yes, piano is his thing, but it’s like he wants to emphasize that there is more to the Billy Joel package than just that.

Although of course, he was always going to be known as a “Piano Man”, and if that isn’t the best song he ever wrote, it’s pretty damn close (Bible swear word, see?). Joel made some interesting choices on the arrangement for this one – he could have had a whole full-on orchestra plus the kitchen sink like he did on “The Ballad of Billy the Kid”, but this is mostly just piano, harmonica, and accordion backed by drums and bass. And I think it was a wise decision – put much more on the song and the piano would have been drowned out, and the piano really needs to be the star of the show on the song. I find the arrangement perfectly suited to the song – good call there Billy. Given the relatively sparse arrangement, he manages a rousing climax in the final verse, its actually remarkable how much mileage he is able to get out of just a few instruments and a powerful, passionate vocal. The song itself, of course, is wonderful, a true classic. Love the melody, the piano solo is fantastic, the story of lonely souls looking to escape the solitude of their existence for a couple of hours in a piano bar is skillfully told – all in all it’s a real triumph. It’s got those cool internal rhymes (“…talking to Davy who’s still in the Navy”, “…quick with a joke or to light up your smoke”). Oddly enough, people don’t realize it wasn’t a huge hit – it topped out at 25 on the Billboard Hot 100 back in 1973, hardly indicative of the stadium filling machine Billy Joel’s career would one day become, where not one of the tens of thousands of fans in attendance would go home happy without hearing “Piano Man”.

I consider “If I Only Had the Words (To Tell You)” the other standout on the album – great piano part, beautiful melody, pretty good lyrics – Joel makes the excellent point that writing a great love song isn’t so easy “when the simple lines have all been taken/And the radio repeats them every day”. Great bridge on this one too – not every songwriter gets the way a bridge can take a song in an exciting new direction for a few seconds, but Joel did it with this one. Excellent ballad.

“Stop in Nevada” is pretty good too, although I’m a little wary of that “And though he never tried to make her/She often thought it would be nice” line, that’s a little iffy. Otherwise, this song cooks, and it’s another song with some great instrumentation along with Joel’s always exceptional playing. When I hear the orchestrations on this song and “The Ballad of Billy the Kid”, it makes me think Columbia must have believed in Billy Joel enough to put a little money into the record. Too bad they probably didn’t make that money back until The Stranger (and then Billy Joel suddenly turned into a very good investment indeed).

There’s a surprisingly low filler quotient, although there is some filler. For some reason “Ain’t No Crime” was one of the songs released as a single from the album, but I have no idea why, to my ears it’s filler. That piano lick that opens the song gets run into the ground, the chorus isn’t all that catchy, it just doesn’t have much going for it. “Worse Comes to Worst” isn’t a great song – everything about it is kind of awkward, the instruments, the melody, Joel’s weird faux-reggae singing. Nothing about the song works – except that cool bridge, the ”lightning and thunder” section, that’s actually pretty cool. And Billy’s piano solo in the middle, that’s pretty great. But the rest of the song falls pretty flat, it doesn’t really have any momentum, there’s no groove, its like the song is swimming upstream against a swift current – filler. But then no Billy Joel album that isn’t a greatest hits album is going to be completely filler free, and this album actually comes fairly close.

Personally I love Piano Man, it’s my favorite Billy Joel album except maybe An Innocent Man, and I like it way better than The Stranger, which for some odd reason became the best selling album of all time up to that point (all I can say is hey, it was 1977, a lot of things didn’t make a lot of sense that year). In a rational world, Piano Man would have outsold The Stranger several times over.   But we don’t live in a rational world, now, do we?”.

On 7th November, the wonderful Piano Man turns fifty. It is an album well worth getting on vinyl. I really like it! I wanted to mark its fiftieth anniversary, as it is seen by many as the true debut of a legendary artist. Billy Joel is still performing to this day. I wonder how he sees Piano Man. With its genius title track, it definitely made him more of a household name. He would follow up Piano Man with 1974’s underrated Streetlife Serenade. I guess his first critical and commercial peak was his fourth studio album, 1976’s Turnstiles. Still, Piano Man is a brilliant album that warrants salutes ahead of its fiftieth anniversary. Maybe it did not connect with all critics, yet I feel that Piano Man is a…

TERRIFIC release.

FEATURE: Nice to Meet You: Spotlighting the Incredible PinkPantheress and Her Forthcoming Debut Album, Heaven Knows

FEATURE:

 

 

Nice to Meet You

PHOTO CREDIT: Jeff Hahn for Rolling Stone UK

Spotlighting the Incredible PinkPantheress and Her Forthcoming Debut Album, Heaven Knows

_________

BECAUSE the amazing PinkPantheress…

releases her debut album, Heaven Knows, on 10th November, I wanted to shine a light on the Somerset-born artist. One of our most remarkable talents, PinkPantheress is going to release one of the most important debut albums of the year. You can pre-order the album here. I want to get to a couple of interviews from PinkPantheress – one that was recently published and is in promotion of the upcoming release of Heaven Knows. For anyone who is not aware of PinkPantheress’s work, I am going to end with a playlist featuring some of her best tracks. Before then, Elle spoke with PinkPantheress about her song, Angel, being featured in the Barbie film earlier this year:

“You just released ”Angel” for the Barbie album. Can you tell me how you got involved with making the album for the film? Who approached you?

I think someone in the board meeting must have just brought up my name, and I think that they just were just like, “Yeah, let’s try and ask her.” And they did. I was actually gassed beyond belief, because, again, I do not think that anyone knows me. I’m always surprised. So, the fact that Greta Gerwig [does]...

I remember I was on a call with Mark Ronson [a producer on Barbie The Album] and he was naming my deep cut songs. I was like, “This is f-ing crazy.” So, I was really happy to be on it. And the song that I made...we just made a random little thing for it. It’s random, but I just felt like it was appropriate for the soundtrack. There’s an Irish jig moment in it.

I was going to say, the fiddle was a fun little moment.

Yeah, because the soundtrack reminded me of a 2000s Disney prom scene. I was just like, let’s try it and see what they think. I just wanted to have fun.

Did you get to see any of the movie to prepare?

I’ve seen a little bit. Everyone’s going to love it.

The sound of “Angel” is not what you’d expect from the Barbie film. Is that something that you intentionally wanted to do?

I get what you’re saying...I think it is actually so on par though! When I listen to that song, all I think about is the color pink. And when I think of pink, I think of Barbie. And then, the jig moment, I’m like, “No, I’m sorry. This is soundtrack music.” I don’t know. I was trying to make it so it was a song and soundtrack vibe. I wasn’t trying to have it be more of one or the other. But I like the other songs I’ve heard as well. I think they were good.

As for what else is coming next, what are you cooking up right now? Are you working on anything? An album?

Yeah, I’m trying to work on an album. I don’t know, I haven’t ever been much of a feature person until this year. I’ve been so into it. I’m just thinking, maybe a few features here and there. You never know. We’ll see what happens”.

f you are new to PinkPantheress and wondered about her path to Heaven Knows, then this Billboard interview from earlier in the year gives some background to a truly amazing artist. I do think that all eyes will be on PinkPantheress on 10th November. A definite late contender for album of the year:

“Nothing caught on — but when she took to TikTok in December 2020, seemingly overnight, she became an indie pop darling. “Pain” broke onto the U.K. Singles chart in August 2021 and peaked at No. 35. Later that year, she signed a deal with Parlophone and Elektra Records and released her first mixtape, To Hell With It. As booking offers came in for PinkPantheress — who had yet to perform live — her management at Upclose took things slowly, opting for smaller shows that allowed her to build an audience rather than going for festival stages.

“I remember my first few shows after my mixtape was out at the end of 2021 and [my management] were making me do rooms of like 100 people and 150 people,” she recalls. “The biggest room I did was probably 800. I remember thinking, ‘Why are these rooms so small?’ ”

“It has been superintentional,” says Jesse Gassongo-Alexander, PinkPantheress’ co-manager, when asked about helping her build a fan base after finding so much success online. “It was always a case of putting in the hard work and taking the slower route to build a foundation that is solid that’s going to allow her to stay here for a while.”

PHOTO CREDIT: Lia Clay Miller

Her story resembles that of another young female artist who managed to parlay massive online success into real-world results: rapper Ice Spice. On paper, PinkPantheress and Ice Spice may seem like photo negatives of each other — one’s a brash rapper from the Bronx who has no problem putting herself in the spotlight; the other’s an introverted singer who prefers the solitary pursuit of songwriting to industry glad-handing — but to PinkPantheress, they’re more alike than different. So much so that she offered Ice a spot on the remix to her hit song, “Boy’s a liar Pt. 2,” earlier this year.

“I feel like I don’t have that many peers that exist in a similar space to me,” she says. “I’m not talking about levels. I’m talking about internet space. I think a lot of people see me as being this, like, internet cutesy teen-pop girl. I feel like she was one of the newcomers whom I got drawn to because, even though she does drill and rap, it still feels like she’s in the same cutesy world to me. And she’s Black too, and that was a big important part of it to me. I prefer to collaborate with other Black artists.” 

The song became an instant hit, her biggest so far, debuting at No. 14 on the Billboard Hot 100 after going viral on TikTok. For many in the United States, “Boy’s a liar Pt. 2” was the first time they had heard PinkPantheress. It got her her first BET Award nominations (best collaboration, BET Her Award), landed her an MTV Video Music Awards nod (best new artist) and ultimately peaked at No. 3.

Many believe she’s a lock for her first Grammy nomination thanks to the song — if she had to guess, probably for best pop duo/group performance. She’s taken aback and amused when told about the drama that has surrounded the Grammy Awards’ classification of certain albums by Black artists — even more so when she learns how disappointed Justin Bieber was when his album Changes got the nod for best pop vocal album instead of best R&B album.

PHOTO CREDIT: Lia Clay Miller

But even without a Grammy nomination, she can count this year as an unequivocal success. In addition to her biggest single yet, she appeared on Barbie: The Album — as good an “I’ve arrived” moment as any. But still, even as her career explodes, it’s surprising to hear that TikTok has taken a back seat.

“I didn’t leave it behind. I still post on it,” she says reassuringly. “I love using it to post my own videos, but I do not watch videos on there. Because like a year ago, I would scroll and I’d see too many TikToks about me. I was like, ‘I can’t do this anymore.’ ”

Makes sense. Her management team trusts her to make the best decisions for herself. “I think she has shown how globally intelligent she is by being one of the earlier trendsetters,” Gassongo-Alexander says. “Coming from TikTok and appealing to a wider audience and then knowing how to retain that wider audience.”

How does PinkPantheress plan to keep growing that audience? By keeping on keeping on, it seems. She’s uninterested in sacrificing her core audience at the altar of pop stardom. Thankfully, her music is naturally easy on pop fan ears. “What I’ve realized is that my natural way of writing is more pop-friendly than anything,” she says. “So even though the beats can be kind of alternative, I still write in a very standard structure. And I make sure all the lyrics are tangible. And because of that, I think that it has made the [music] that I’m doing very accessible to mainstream audiences. But my biggest fear is having people hear me do a [song] and recognize that I’m doing it for the wrong reasons”.

I will end with a new interview form Rolling Stone. Such a sensational artist whose music is original and imaginative. I do think that PinkPantheress is one of our most important young artists. Someone primed for world domination! Heaven Knows is shaping up to be a truly incredible album:

“Raised in the suburbs of Kent, PinkPantheress, 22, was drawn to London from an early age, and moved there as soon as she could, for university. When she was propelled to notoriety a few years back, she was still studying film — one of many young people robbed of the full student experience by the pandemic. But it was that forced confinement that gave her extra time to experiment with music. She recorded at home, mostly on GarageBand, challenging herself to consistently put snippets of songs out into the world. (PinkPantheress was her TikTok username.) “Day 2 of posting my song until someone notices it,” she wrote in the text accompanying an early TikTok. And then, at first gradually and then seemingly all at once, without uttering her birth name or initially showing her entire face, suddenly millions of people did notice.

In 2021, PinkPantheress released her debut mixtape, To Hell with It, 19 minutes of melodies, samples and reinterpretations of house, drum-and-bass and cybercore soundscapes about teenage tribulations: loneliness, family conflict, crashing your car, and failing your A-levels. From there, things kept taking off: she scored spots on blockbuster soundtracks — Wakanda Forever and Barbie — and collaborated with Willow Smith, Skrillex, Kaytranada, Troye Sivan, Destroy Lonely and Ice Spice, who joined her for ‘Boy’s a Liar Pt. 2’, a global hit and her biggest track to date, amassing more than a billion streams.

PHOTO CREDIT: Jeff Hahn

Though her bite-size tracks (and concerts) have been known to speed past you with the headiness of a sugar rush, PinkPantheress is in it for the long haul, harnessing her TikTok-farmed momentum into a four-dimensional career. Her debut album, Heaven knows (due out on 10 November), is all about growth — both personally and artistically. In this new patchwork, you might find a riff on Oxlade’s Afrobeats hit ‘Ku Lo Sa’, hefty gothic organ chords, lengthy rock-guitar solos, strings, or the sound of thunderous rain. Collaborators include Greg Kurstin, Mura Masa and Cash Cobain, among others. “It was hard to let go of drum-and-bass, but …” she says a little wistfully, looking off into the distance for a second before snapping back. “It wasn’t, actually — it was so easy. I just realised I had to mature lyrically and do things like sampling in a different way. We’ve got more guitars in there, more live instruments.”

Even with some of her defining references disappearing in the rearview mirror, the PinkPantheress sound still has the same singular, addictive essence, I tell her. “Essence,” she agrees, emphasising the sibilance in the word a few more times. “That’s true. Every artist I love has an essence.… You just can’t mistake their songs [for anyone else], even if they use multiple genres. Someone like Lily [Allen], even aside from her singing voice, you always know it’s her because of the subject matter, or the tone, or the vibe of the instrumental. Some artists are really smart at being able to kind of pack their stuff up in a suitcase and then unload it onto a new track.”

PHOTO CREDIT: Jeff Hahn

PinkPantheress’s music carries a similar tension, with lyrics often teetering on the edge of darkness, but delivered with sweetness and playful production that seems to unburden you from the weight of those problems, or at least create a space where for a few minutes they don’t matter. If anything, spending more time in the land of palm trees and permanent summer may have added a sprinkle of bliss to the bleakness: “That’s the thing. Previous to this album, I’d never recorded anywhere else but London, so that’s new, and probably why the songs do sound different. But I can never lose the Britishness in me.”

Heaven knows started out as an ode to those beginnings, she tells me. “I actually wanted [this album] to sound like classic Brit pop, and then it ended up turning into something I actually don’t know how to categorise. Like, I have no idea. I guess it’s alt-pop,” she offers. Genre has always been a tricky subject when it comes to PinkPantheress. When she first emerged, many listeners took the opportunity to point out her influences — from jungle to drum-and-bass to garage especially. Her success became an overdue reason to spotlight the rich history of electronic music and club culture in the UK. She took on that mantle gracefully, citing her inspirations and samples across interviews, dissecting the significance of Y2K culture for her generation, and giving flowers where flowers were due.

Today, she stands firmer than ever in the place she created for herself, rooted in something far deeper than just nostalgia: “When people say, ‘Oh, she’s not original,’ or ‘She hasn’t done anything different,’ or ‘I’ve heard artists like her before,’ they can never name me a single one. Because even if you name people back in the 2000s, they didn’t really sound like me, and I don’t sound like them.” Of course, she has inspirations, but today they’re more eclectic than you might guess — Imogen Heap’s openhearted, whimsical storytelling, Grace Jones’s decades-long career, Lily Allen’s inimitable voice. “I think people forget that music is more than just the beat.… Unless you’re finding someone that uses this type of beat, and writes about the same thing that I do, and in the same melodic way that I do, then I am the first person you’ve heard make this kind of music”.

Following 2021’s mixtape, To Hell with It, we are going to get a much-anticipated debut studio album. We have heard three singles from it already. They sound amazing! Having taken her sound to new places after that 2021 mixtape, we are primed to receive a wonderful album from the mighty PinkPantheress. She really is…

AN artist to behold.

FEATURE: You See a Sight That Almost Stops Your Heart: The Music Video As Cinema: Is It Possible in the Modern Age?

FEATURE:

 

 

You See a Sight That Almost Stops Your Heart

PHOTO CREDIT: Pavel Danilyuk/Pexels

The Music Video As Cinema: Is It Possible in the Modern Age?

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I ask that particular question…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Douglas Kirkland/Glitterati Incorporated

as perhaps the greatest music video of all time premiered forty years ago on 21st November. Michael Jackson’s Thriller was given this cinematic treatment:

“On November 21, 1983, a nearly 14-minute music video for Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” premiered in Los Angeles. Directed by John Landis (An American Warewolf in London, Three Amigos, Trading Places), the ghoulish visual paid homage to some of Hollywood’s biggest horror films, including a voiceover from the genre’s original icon, Vincent Price. Michael Jackson’s Thriller saw heavy rotation on MTV, helping to make its namesake album become the highest-selling LP in history”.

I think one reason why it is so revered is because of its length. Michael Jackson was no stranger to epic videos. During the Bad (1987) and Dangerous (1991) eras, he would put out these long and conceptual videos where you almost got short films. I am going to come to a couple of features relating to Thriller. The title track from the 1982 classic album, few videos before had this sort of cinematic approach. Maybe because of costs and the fact that most music videos were a lot shorter, Thriller seems like a breakthrough. At a time when MTV was new and artists liker Michael Jackson were struggling to get played, Thriller helped to change that. I am going to come to other videos that are pretty epic and tell this longer story. I want to focus on whether, at a time when music videos are not as desired/popular and very few modern artists can afford to do that, whether we are losing something. I’ll move to a detailed article from Vanity Fair. They told the story of an iconic video. A behind-the-scenes look:

“Michael Jackson, a shy pixie in a red leather jacket and jeans, stands in shadow in the theater’s entryway, talking with actress Ola Ray and director John Landis. The camera crew is making final preparations for a crane shot that will pan down from the marquee as Jackson and Ray, playing a couple on a date, emerge from the theater. Judging from the saucy looks she is sending his way, Ray is clearly besotted by her leading man, who responds by casually throwing an arm around her shoulders.

I am on set covering the shoot for Life magazine. Landis says that he needs a “ticket girl” in the background and orders me to sit in the booth—a prime spot from which to watch the performances.

Just before calling “Action,” Landis fortifies his actors with boisterous encouragement.

“How are you going to be in this shot?” he shouts.

“Wonderful,” Jackson chirps, barely audibly.

Seconds later Jackson steps into his nimbus of light, and it is as if he flips on an internal switch: he smiles, he glows, he mesmerizes. Landis executes the long crane shot, then moves in for close-ups and dialogue. “It’s only a movie,” Jackson reassures his date. “You were scared, weren’t you?”

Landis calls for another take and coaxes: “Make it sexy this time.”

“How?” asks Jackson.

“You know, as if you want to fuck her.”

The star flinches and licks his lips uncomfortably, then gazes earnestly into Ray’s eyes. Landis gets the shot he wants and calls for the next setup, satisfied. He whispers to me, “I bet it will be sexy.”

The world certainly thought so, and apparently still does. The campy horror-fest with dancing zombies that is “Michael Jackson’s Thriller,” originally conceived as a 14-minute short film, is the most popular and influential music video of all time. In January of this year it was designated a national treasure by the Library of Congress, the first music video to be inducted into the National Film Registry.

Unlike forgotten favorites from MTV’s heyday (Duran Duran’s “Hungry Like the Wolf,” anyone?), “Thriller” is thriving on YouTube, where one can view, along with the original, scores of “Thriller” dance tutorials and re-enactments by Bollywood actors and Bar Mitzvah celebrants. The dance has become an annual tribal ritual in major cities around the world, with initiates in ghoul makeup aping Michael’s moves en masse; the current record for largest dance of the undead is 12,937, held by Mexico City. A YouTube 41-million-hit sensation features more than 1,500 inmates in a Philippines prison yard executing the funky footwork as part of a rehab program designed to “turn dregs into human beings”; the prison, in the city of Cebu, has become a T-shirt-selling tourist attraction.

None of this was imaginable back at the Palace Theatre 27 years ago. Jackson then was a naïve, preternaturally gifted 25-year-old “who wanted to be turned into a monster, just for fun,” as Landis recently told me—and had the money to make it happen. “Thriller” marked the most incandescent moment in Jackson’s life, his apex creatively as well as commercially. He would spend the rest of his career trying to surpass it. “In the Off the Wall/Thriller era, Michael was in a constant state of becoming,” says Glen Brunman, then Jackson’s publicist at his record company Epic. “It was all about the music, until it also became about the sales and the awards, and something changed forever.”

It was the “Thriller” video that pushed Jackson over the top, consolidating his position as the King of Pop, a royal title he encouraged and Elizabeth Taylor helped popularize. “Thriller” was the seventh and last single and third video (after “Billie Jean” and “Beat It”) to be released from the album of the same name, which had already been on the charts for almost a year since its release, in November 1982. The video’s frenzied reception, whipped up by round-the-clock showings on MTV, would more than double album sales, driving Thriller into the record books as the No. 1 LP of all time, a distinction it maintains today. But, for anyone paying close attention during the making of the “Thriller” video—and Jackson’s collaborators were—the outlines of subsequent tragedies were already painfully visible.

But in June of 1983 the album, after four months as No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart, was bumped from the top slot by the Flashdance soundtrack. It briefly regained the top position in July, then was toppled again, this time by Synchronicity, by the Police. The three remaining planned singles—“Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’,” just released in May, “Human Nature,” scheduled for July, and “P.Y.T.” for September—were not expected to drive album sales as “Billie Jean” and “Beat It” had, nor were they suitable for videos.

Jackson was upset. Obsessive about tracking his sales figures, he compared them constantly with those of his competitors in the top echelon, including Prince and Madonna. “He enjoyed being on top,” says Larry Stessel, Epic’s West Coast marketing executive, who worked closely with the star. “He reveled in it. He didn’t like it when it ended.” With his own album making history, Jackson yearned to shatter records held by the Fab Four. “It was all about the Beatles,” says Stessel. “He knew in his heart of hearts that he would never be bigger than the Beatles, but he had such tremendous respect for them, and he certainly wanted to come as close as he could.”

In the summer of ’83, Yetnikoff and Stessel answered calls at all hours of the night from Jackson. “Walter, the record isn’t No. 1 anymore,” Yetnikoff remembers Jackson saying. “What are we going to do about it?” “We’re going to go to sleep and deal with it tomorrow,” Yetnikoff told him. It was DiLeo who first mentioned the idea of making a third video, and pressed Jackson to consider the album’s title track. “It’s simple—all you’ve got to do is dance, sing, and make it scary,” DiLeo recalls telling Jackson.

Jackson had known episodes of real-life terror. His father once put on a fright mask and crawled into Michael’s bedroom, screaming.

In some ways “Thriller,” written by Rod Temperton, is the album’s sore thumb, a semi-novelty song with sound effects of creaking doors and eerie footsteps and bwah-ha-ha narration by Vincent Price. Horror was a genre with which Jackson had an ambivalent relationship. As a child, he had known episodes of real-life terror. Michael’s biographer J. Randy Taraborrelli recounted that Joe Jackson had once put on a fright mask and crawled into Michael’s bedroom through a window at night, screaming; Joe Jackson said his purpose was to teach his son to keep the window closed when he slept. For years afterward Michael suffered nightmares about being kidnapped from his room, and said that whenever he saw his father he felt nauseated.

Jackson had reason to be fascinated by scary disguises and things that go bump in the night, but he didn’t want them to seem too real. His tastes generally ran to benign Disney-esque fantasies where people were nice and children were safe. “I never was a horror fan,” he said. “I was too scared.” He would make sure that the tone of his “Thriller” film was creepy-comical, not genuinely terrifying.

In early August, John Landis, whose most successful films had been National Lampoon’s Animal House and Trading Places, picked up the phone and heard Jackson’s wee voice on the line. The star told Landis how much he had enjoyed the director’s horror spoof An American Werewolf in London. Would he be willing to direct Jackson in a music video with a spooky story line that had him transform into a werewolf? At the time, making music videos was not something feature directors did. But Landis was intrigued enough by Jackson’s entreaty to take a meeting.

On the afternoon of August 20, Landis and his producing partner, George Folsey Jr., drove through the gates of Hayvenhurst, the high-walled mock-Tudor estate in Encino where the family had moved when Jackson was 13, and where he still lived with his parents and sisters LaToya and Janet. In 1981, Jackson had purchased the house from his parents and rebuilt it, installing such diversions as an exotic-animal farm stocked with llamas, a Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs diorama, and a 32-seat screening room with a popcorn machine. In the corner of his second-story bedroom suite stood his “friends,” five life-size, fully dressed female mannequins.

At the time, Jackson was a practicing Jehovah’s Witness who obeyed his religion’s mandate to spread the faith by knocking on doors in his neighborhood, wearing a crude disguise of mustache and glasses. He attended services at the local Kingdom Hall and abstained from drinking, swearing, sex before marriage, and, supposedly, R-rated movies. The gregarious Landis teased Jackson about having watched the R-rated An American Werewolf in London. “I said, ‘Michael, what about the sex?’ He said, ‘I closed my eyes.’”

Landis told Jackson that he would not direct “Thriller” as a music video, proposing instead that they collaborate on a short narrative film that could be released in theaters—reviving that endangered species, the short subject—before it went to video. Landis would write a story line, inspired by the song, about a cute young guy on a date who turns into a monster. The short would be shot on 35-mm. film with feature-film production values, including great locations and an impressive dance number. Landis would call in a favor from Rick Baker, the Oscar-winning makeup wizard who had created the title creature for An American Werewolf in London, and get him to design Jackson’s transformation makeup. Jackson was enthusiastic about Landis’s vision and immediately said, “Let’s do it.”

Although CBS/Epic had ponied up $250,000 for the “Billie Jean” video, Yetnikoff had refused to underwrite “Beat It,” so Jackson had paid $150,000 out of his own pocket. When Folsey and Landis worked up the budget for “Thriller,” they put it at an estimated $900,000. Landis and Jackson placed a call to “Uncle Walter,” as Jackson referred to him, to explain the “Thriller” concept and what it would cost. Landis says that Yetnikoff screamed so loudly that the director had to hold the phone away from his ear. “I’ve only heard three or four people swear like that in my life,” he says. When Landis hung up the phone, Jackson said calmly, “It’s O.K. I’ll pay for it.” Eventually Yetnikoff agreed that the record company would contribute $100,000 to pay for the video, but that left a long way to go and Jackson’s collaborators didn’t want the star to be on the hook”.

It is clear that Thriller changed music videos! It showed that they can be artform and cinematic. A new school and wave of music videos influenced by Thriller’s impact came about. Given Michael Jackson’s legacy and reputation now, there will be fewer celebrations of the Thriller video on its fortieth anniversary. That is a shame to something that remains truly astonishing. I am going to move on. Before that, The Guardian ran a feature in 2013 - marking thirty years since Thriller was first shown in public. Some hugely popular and innovative filmmakers were impacted by the video:

“Nevertheless, the Thriller video was set to be so expensive – $900,000, to pay for not just the filming and effects but 10 days of dance rehearsals – that Landis and Jackson had to find a way to fund it (Jackson had paid the $150,000 cost of the Beat It video himself). It was Landis's producer George Folsey Jr who came up with the idea of the making-of video, which could be sold to networks as bespoke content. MTV paid $250,000 and Showtime $300,000 for the rights to the documentary, Jackson would take care of upfront costs, and the video was able to go ahead, with the label coughing up $100,000. When the documentary was released on VHS, selling for $29.95, it attracted more than 100,000 advance orders in its own right.

Trudy Bellinger was studying art in Brighton when it first shown and it inspired her to start making music films herself. "It was really groundbreaking to have such a long video, and it helped to shape the future of music videos, which previously had been more performance-based," she says. "I recall everybody at college talking about it; about how it was like a mini-movie and how much it had cost. It really opened our eyes to music videos as a creative form of film-making, and a potential career." Six Girls Aloud videos later and Thriller is still part of Bellinger's life. Her 10-year-old son recently learned the routines at a holiday kids' club in Turkey, reminding her of the huge impact it had on kids in the 1980s.

One such kid was Spike Jonze, who was 14 in 1983. "I loved it," he says. "It had some magic that made it shine. When I started directing videos myself a few years later, it was like a touchpoint. I didn't have this thought intellectually at the time, but when I watch it now I realise that there's no reason for a lot of it; it's so free and loose. There's the car running out of gas and it's like a movie, then it just keeps going, as if they're saying: 'That'd be cool, let's do that.' Michael Jackson seems like this kid who loves music, horror films, special effects, makeup, zombies and wants all of those things in the video. It has that spirit to it that must have been contagious; it spoke to other kids."

Jonze took the freedom he sensed in Thriller – and also its eccentricity and humour – and ran with it, creating some of the 90s' most famous music videos, including the Beastie Boys' Sabotage and Praise You by Fatboy Slim, which also get continually spoofed. "When I made videos, whether it was with the Beastie Boys or Björk, we weren't chasing anything," he says. "It was never like some marketing thing. I just wanted to create something that would do justice to the song and I was excited about making, and I think Thriller was the same way."

Perhaps that's Thriller's ultimate legacy, and it's also why Jonze has become a key influence on film-makers creating videos for YouTube. As Psy's Gangnam Style proved, films shot relatively cheaply and quickly, and which don't require pluggers, or for the artist to necessarily have an existing profile, can have a global impact comparable to Thriller. The rules have been rewritten, unleashing a new surge of creativity.

"For nearly three decades, music-related projects had to conform to TV's rules," says Giorgio Testi, who makes artful, elegant films with bands like the Killers and Savages that are not related to a single's release, yet clock up hundreds of thousands of views online. "Then YouTube came along and that suddenly brought film-makers back to a more unconventional way of thinking, which I see as a totally positive thing."

In fact, says Dave Ma – another up-and-coming film-maker who's worked with Foals and Delphic – directors now have no choice but to be as unconventional as Landis 30 years ago, because their work needs to rise above all the junk online: "The emergence of YouTube has given us a plethora of mindless throw-away 'content'. Love it or hate it, labels are obsessed with it and it's here to stay. The flipside of all these interviews, sessions and phone footage is that it takes the heat off music videos, making the traditional performance video completely redundant."

"People are making great videos again," Jonze says. "Romain Gavras – he did M.I.A.'s Bad Girls and that's got to be one of the best videos ever. Ray Tintori, who did MGMT's Kids is really good, too. And Chris Milk – the [interactive] stuff he's doing, like The Wilderness Downtown with Arcade Fire and The Johnny Cash Project could never have been done in the 90s. He's taking things to a whole new place."

Jonze doubts Thriller has had a direct influence on the new school of music video directors, but he is nonetheless convinced it will survive – as a portrait of an artist on the mountaintop. "Above all, it's just this amazing documentation of Michael Jackson at his most electric," he says. "Even him bantering with the girl after they come out of the movie; you're seeing him at this incredible age and at this moment in his life. It's like he's disconnected from everything and everyone, and that's exciting”.

IN THIS PHOTO: Taylor Swift/PHOTO CREDIT: Kevin Mazur

I guess, in today’s music scene, we do not have that many artists who can command the same sort of focus and spotlight as Michael Jackson did in 1983. Maybe the modern-day comparison when it comes to musical brilliance and these epic videos is Taylor Swift. Even though MTV does not play music videos much and there is not that same culture today, Swift has put out some short films of her songs. Again, few can afford to do this. I do think we miss something. Not only are videos less popular and viewed as they once were; they are definitely made to a budget. Few artists have the sort of money to rival the all-time greats. I know you can make a genius video with little money though making something like a short film takes money. I think that the most effective videos are less to do with being a background to the song and more to do with a narrative and distinct aesthetic. The music as a jumping off point to a more engrossing central focus. I will come to Taylor Swift as someone who is among those pushing boundaries and still keeping the epic, cinematic music video alive. In 2021, Hollywood Insider observed how there have been some wonderfully bold, clever and epic videos in the twenty-first century. Here are a few:

“Arcade Fire – “My Body is a Cage”

The pairing of a great film and great music does not happen too often. And matching two, completely different works of art from different ages of film and music is even more difficult to accomplish. Still, that’s exactly what happened when Sergio Leone’s mashup with Arcade Fire hit YouTube.

Chicago-based designer & music fan J Tyler Helms took it upon himself to edit a music video for the Arcade Fire song “My Body Is A Cage” using clips from the classic Sergio Leone film ‘Once Upon A Time in the West’. Not only does the edit amplify the church-organ-driven, somber tone of the song remarkably well and intensify its lyrics, but the slow-motion movements and extreme close-ups match the rhythm of the song so organically that you almost begin to doubt whether this really is an edit or an actual reenactment.

No wonder that when the video was brought to the attention of someone associated with the band, they contacted Tyler straight away and requested his permission to use his work on their official site.

Jay-Z – “The Story of O.J.”

The animated video obviously hints at America’s long history of racist cartoons from major studios. In the video, Jay reads the lyrics as an animated cartoon character Jaybo, whose name is a reference to both the racist ‘Little Black Sambo’ books and cartoons from the early 20th century and to the story of ‘Dumbo’, a Disney cartoon with its own set of racist caricatures.

DJ Shadow & Run The Jewels – “Nobody Speak”

This brilliantly executed video gives us the opportunity to satisfy our wildest fantasies of how debates behind the closed doors of political summits could go – instead of stone-faced diplomats making cunning statements and meticulously undermining each other’s interests, we see politicians spitting insults, dissing, and finally engaging in an all-out brawl with each other. What really amplifies the build-up of tension is that the actors nailed every character and their body language. The two leaders of the groups are played by Igor Tsyshkevych and Ian Bailey as the video was filmed at the Narodniy Dim Ukraine exhibition center in Kyiv, Ukraine.

“We wanted to make a positive, life-affirming video that captures politicians at their election-year best,” DJ Shadow said in a prepared statement. “We got this instead.” No wonder that the present political climate of discord and animus in and outside of the US had its influence on the video production, which has definitely rendered a not-so-subtle allegory on the disappointing state of diplomacy and the dysfunctional political leaders of recent years.

Jamie XX – “Gosh”

This 2016 Romain Gavras video strikes the last chord in our list because there is simply nothing else quite like it. Firstly, the location: In the early 2000s, China began to build imitations of Western cities and ended up constructing replicas of English, Swiss, and American towns in China – and if you go to Tianducheng, you’ll find yourself in Paris. Its central feature is a 300-foot-tall replica of the Eiffel Tower and 12 square miles of Parisian-style architecture, fountains, and landscaping.

However, the city didn’t live up to expectations and was somewhat close to being a ghost town for some time. And that’s where the main character – an albino young man (Hassan Kone) – wakes up from virtual reality and leads an army of yellow-haired devoted younger followers, who finally form a synchronized, marching circle that revolves around him as a worshipping, ego-boosting baptism wheel.

The video is loaded with allegories and metaphors that can be interpreted a few hundred ways, but to me personally, one ritual clearly depicted there is coming of age. It’s obvious that the main character’s time has come, and he is about to make the transition to a new state; the younger kids circling around him are perfectly aware of this and, under the watchful eye of his elders, they respectfully give him their last goodbye though this awe-inducing choreography of camaraderie”.

Taylor Swift is someone whose videos are primed for feature-length treatment. Her videos are praised for their cinematic quality and great concepts. I think she is going to lead other artists to combine film and cinema in a more expansive and ambitious way. I don’t think that it is wealthier mainstream artists this luxury is reserved for. A stunning and long music video can create its own legacy. It can go down in history. Not that artists need to do it all of the time…yet there are very few in the modern day. I am thinking about the fact that, on 21st November, 1983, Michael Jackson’s Thriller premiered and created this huge reaction. I don’t think we have seen many music videos since then that have almost been their own film. It had this whole language and story that distinguishes it from more conventional, short-form videos. As someone who loves music videos and how there is this direct link with cinema, Thriller is in my mind. Despite its stars blackened name and problematic status, it takes nothing away from a video often seen as the best ever made. There are still artists pushing limits and taken music videos to new places. Will we get anything like Thriller again?! This historic short film that tells this story and has a distinct arc. I think there are even greater possibilities to make something even more striking and memorable than Thriller. I suppose it comes down to the status of the artist, the budget they can pull, plus people’s willingness to share and discuss it. A major station like MTV does not have the same influence today. Maybe videos that are Thriller-esque fear being lost - or they will only be shared on social media. I live in hope that we will see more artists – such as Taylor Swift – who experiment with videos and create something longer. Might we see a modern-day Thriller? Perhaps so. That would truly…

BE thrilling to see.

FEATURE: catch me or I go... Dua Lipa, and the Allure, Complexity and Mystery of the Social Media Teaser Campaign

FEATURE:

 

 

catch me or I go...

Dua Lipa, and the Allure, Complexity and Mystery of the Social Media Teaser Campaign

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IT is not a new thing…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Magnus Mueller/Pexels

but there does seem to be this allure and fascination when it comes to the social media tease. On Friday (27th October), Dua Lipa posted a photo to her social media that suggested a new song. With the caption saying, ‘catch me or I go…’, that may be an album or song. There is that sensuous and rather mysterious photo of her with a key between her teeth. I am going to go into more depth about social media tease campaigns and how effective they are. First, NME reacted to Dua Lipa’s cryptic posts:

“Dua Lipa has hinted at the imminent release of new music with teaser post shared to social media today (October 27).

Earlier this month, fans predicted that a new era could be on the way from the ‘One Kiss’ singer after she wiped her Instagram profile and uploaded a new profile picture.

Now, the artist has suggested that a new single could be arriving very soon, sharing a close-up picture of a small key between her teeth with the caption “catch me or I go…”.

The singer’s anticipated follow-up to 2020’s ‘Future Nostalgia’ has been teased for a few years. In March last year, she told Elton John that the album was “50 per cent done”, before walking the statement back in December. “When I was speaking to Elton I really felt like I was halfway done,” she said.

In an interview with New York Times Magazine in August of this year, it was then revealed that the album will be released in 2024.

The same profile also appeared to suggest that Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker has worked on the album. When discussing the collaboration, the writer of the piece said it’s “a rumour [Lipa] all but confirms by denying.”

As for what fans can expect, artist said last year that her third album has “taken a complete turn”, adding: “The album is different – it’s still pop but it’s different sonically, and there’s more of a lyrical theme. If I told you the title, everything would make sense – but I think we’ll just have to wait.”

The singer’s Barbie collaborator Mark Ronson also revealed that he’s heard some of Lipa‘s new album, describing it as “incredible”.

 IN THIS PHOTO: Beyoncé in a promotional image for Renaissance (2022)/PHOTO CREDIT: Carlijn Jacobs

Some artists black out their social media before an album or single is release. Before the Internet and social media, you had T.V. and radio adverts but not too much. Some print media promotion. There wasn’t this multimedia format and access where you could build up this huge intrigue. I think that the modern promotional cycle is interest. I think every artist wants to maximise impact and use social media to the maximum. There are guides that gives steps as to how to get your music out there and keep the pressure on. Platforms like Instagram, TikTok and YouTube mean artists can engage across multiple forums and spaces in different ways. I feel digital and visual promotion is much more effective than anything written or even spoken. Having a photo or tease like Dua Lipa gets people talking. Maybe a silent short clip on TikTok or YouTube adds to that mystery and hype! There is that pre-release stage where artists are finding new ways to grab fans’ attention. Once a song or album comes out, artists and teams are still ensuring that there is engagement and discussion. Music promotion is a business and market as much as anything. With a particular cycle in place, it is as very complex and competitive routine. I can emphasise with independent artists especially. They have fewer number and followers compared to mainstream artists. I will come back to Dua Lipa. I think that the latest images might be part of a wider marketing campaign. These initial and fascinating seeds are part of a much larger cycle and thought process. I want to highlight incidents where artists and their teams and have utilised a marketing campaign to full effect. Going outside of social media when it comes to branding and promotion, ICMP highlighted ten astonishing and memorable music marketing campaigns:

“Beyonce | ‘Renaissance’

Beyonce is perhaps the biggest megastar in contemporary music. As befits her status as the 'Queen of Pop', her marketing tactics continually raise the bar for how artists interact with audiences and grow their following.

In 2013, she changed the game with her self-titled fifth record. Many artists have followed her lead and releasing a surprise album is now a common tactic.

Then in 2016, she released 'Lemonade' on Tidal for the music and HBO for a visual album, something few stars of her stature had tried before.

‘Renaissance’, released earlier in 2022, has again set the path for others to follow. The story is multi-faceted as indeed Beyonce is an artist.

From working with a plethora of brilliant, cutting edge producers (A.G. Cook and Honey Dijon - we’re looking at you) to the tracks themselves and the musical splash it caused (she’s 'saving' house music, according to the media narrative), this release positions Beyonce as a cultural centre around which everything else orbits.

The album cover is as out there as some of the music - and suggests that now Beyonce can do whatever she wants. Rather than taking over the pop universe, she is now a universe in herself that we are all in awe of...

IN THIS PHOTO: Stormzy/PHOTO CREDIT: Adidas

Stormzy | 'This is What I Mean' and Adidas

As an artist and creative, Stormzy, like Beyonce, is writing his own rulebook with his music marketing strategy. While his musical roots are in the abrasive rhymes and beats of UK grime, he’s launched his own Merky Books publishing house and launched a scholarship at Cambridge University.

Like Beyonce, he turns his hand to any method and all platforms are all up for grabs to fuel a powerful marketing strategy.

His new record, ‘This is What I Mean’, has seen Stormzy using heavyweight promotional tactics somewhat removed from his early career. Its release has been propelled by a high-profile BBC interview with Louis Theroux, and an online video where Stormzy plays the record to the inspirational and inspired producer, Rick Rubin.

Alongside the record, Stormzy has long-been associated with Adidas and features in the brand's ‘Impossible Is Nothing’ recent World Cup 2022 campaign.

The ‘Family Reunion’ film follows Stormzy as he unites with a number of football heroes including Lionel Messi, Jude Bellingham and more.

Radiohead | 'Kid A'

As we all know, the online world dominates all aspects of our lives.

However, back when Radiohead’s ‘Kid A’ was being teased at the end of the nineties, the internet and streaming services did not exist in the way they do now.

Getting music heard was very much about the physical format and marketing strategy rather than anything digital.

Radiohead, who feature ICMP alumnus Ed O'Brien on guitar, have always been known as future-facing and their decision to market the album entirely online made it the first album to be promoted like this.

Not only did they overhaul how albums were marketed, Radiohead also changed the way albums were bought with their 2007 album 'In Rainbows'.

This was self-released and fans had the option to purchase online and pay whatever they wanted - even nothing.

The record went on to sell three million copies across all formats...

Lewis Capaldi

Scottish singer songwriter Lewis Capaldi is one of our biggest stars - not only for his music but also the way his marketing emphasises his self-deprecating sense of humour.

To promote his new music, ‘Forget Me’, released in September 2022, the acclaimed singer songwriter posed in his underwear for a series of massive billboard ads in cities around the world.

Lyrics to Lewis’ new track appeared alongside the image: ‘I’m not ready to find out you know how to forget me,’ along with his name.’

Announcing the unique promotional ads, he wrote on Twitter, said: "Took my clothes off and traumatised the general public all in the name of shameless self promotion.

By including the not-so-glamorous moments, his social media platforms and accompanying music video both show how he's just as normal as you or me”.

 PHOTO CREDIT: Andrea Piacquadio/Pexels

I think that there is so much to consider when it comes to social media! The more platforms there are, the more artists and labels need to consider ways to attack that. Coming up with a plan that maybe starts with photos and teasers. Then it goes to various different online filters, gimmicks and teaser videos. The singles get promoted with lyrical videos and tease videos. I think it is the idea of engaging fans and sending out unique and tailored messages is what caught my eye about Dua Lipa’s new announcement and photos. This article salutes some iconic music marketing campaigns through the years:

“1. Ariana Grande’s Sweeten

When reality meets music social media campaigns, it just couldn’t be sweeter. At least that’s what Ariana Grande proved with the release of her album, Sweetener, in 2018.

The popstar’s music marketing campaign team gave “Arianators” quite the adventure. In partnership with Landmrk, a location-based VR platform, fans were sent on a treasure hunt across the UK to find “Sweet Spots.” At each of these spots, billboards containing codes that needed to be deciphered were found. These had to be entered on the official website to win prizes like official merchandise, Sweetener albums, and even tour tickets. And for the fans who couldn’t go to the billboards in person, virtual billboards were created too.

Ariana proves that you can never go wrong with interactive campaigns and treasure hunts for new music releases.

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2. BTS’s “Dynamite”

BTS’s song, “Dynamite” (2020), holds the YouTube record for having the most views ever (over 100 million!) within 24 hours. The song is, without a doubt, a total bop with a colourful burst of energy.

One aspect that contributed to its record-breaking stature is its genius music marketing campaign. One month prior to the release of the song, a new BTS website containing nothing but seven countdowns was launched. Whoever thought of relating the song “Dynamite” to a ticking timer deserves a standing ovation, honestly.

Each timer was counting down to 12 midnight (KST) but corresponded to different dates spanning one month. The mystery surrounding these countdowns made millions of people stay up at night to see what each timer would reveal.

For each countdown completed, BTS released various content on almost every social media platform. This included pre-order links for vinyl and cassette versions of “Dynamite,” their promo schedule (including surprise TV show performances), and a music video teaser on YouTube, to name a few.

The art of mystery works. Humans are a naturally curious species, and when you put enigmatic timers on a blank website and social media, the anticipation within just thrives.

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3. Ed Sheeran’s “Bad Habits”

Ed Sheeran’s new music releases always leave “Sheerios” wanting more. And when he went flying around as a glamorous vampire in his music video for “Bad Habits” (2021), everyone already knew it was a look worth copying.

The singer-songwriter’s music marketing campaign team saw this coming for sure, and released a “Bad Habits” Snapchat filter that allowed fans to rock their own set of digital fangs.

After all, who could resist trying out filters? It’s a habit this generation won’t be breaking any time soon.

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4. The Weeknd’s After Hours

The Weeknd’s music marketing campaign for the release of After Hours (2020) was pretty much a blast from the future.

The album was hyped by Spotify using some incredible artificial intelligence (AI) technology. To provide fans with a personalized way of experiencing the singer’s brand new album, a site featuring a one-on-one chat with The Weeknd’s AI self was launched.

When Spotify users landed on AloneWithMe.ai, they were instantly greeted by the singer who would address each person by name. Next, this alter ego would mention the statistics on how often the specific fan has streamed his music on Spotify through the years. Then, the intimate listening party of After Hours began.

Are you thinking what we’re thinking? The future of music social media campaigns has officially arrived.

5. Billie Eilish’s Happier Than Ever

If there’s one thing that defined Billie Eilish’s Happier Than Ever era, it was golden fabric.

To honour the release of the singer-songwriter’s brand new album, Instagram and Facebook gave fans the option to switch to a Billie Eilish chat theme with a gold fabric background. Who doesn’t love music social media campaigns that come with some shimmer?

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6. Carrie Underwood’s Cry Pretty

One of the sparkliest music social media campaigns on our list is Carrie Underwood’s Cry Pretty.

To amplify the conversation on the country star’s new album, her team tapped four popular Instagram influencers to share makeup looks inspired by the album title. These social media personalities then encouraged their followers to create their own Cry Pretty-inspired looks, which automatically entered them into a contest to win a signed album.

It turns out, you actually can look pretty when you cry — and even gain some cool prizes for it in the process.

7. Taylor Swift’s Reputation

There’s no denying that Taylor Swift is one of the queens of teaser tactics.

Her music social media campaign for the release of Reputation in 2017 began with the “great wipeout” of her entire Instagram feed. This was followed by various cryptic (and unsettling) images of snakes — considering Taylor Swift is well-known for her colourful and “America’s Sweetheart” image, fans knew this was marking the countdown to a brand new era.

You guessed it right: “Swifties” everywhere quite literally lost it on every social media platform. And just like that, it went down in history as one of the campaigns that changed the way the music industry promotes new music releases”.

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Something that should be part of a larger book or documentary, the modern-day music promotional cycle and social media teaser. We may learn as early as next week what these images of Dua Lipa leads to. Maybe it is an album. Perhaps her next single. Artists who are new might not know about a teaser campaign and how to start one. There are articles that gives you some insight and explanation. You get some more ideas here. In such a hectic, competitive and fast-paced social media world, artists large and new need to target and impact their audience as effectively as possible. It is so difficult to make an impression when so many other artists are in the same situation. I love the fever and speculation you get when someone like Dua Lipa posts a photo. Taylor Swift might put out a short video. I know these are huge artists - though even newcomers and rising artists can really do something memorable. It is an interesting phenomenon the social media teaser campaign. How far you go and how many stages you implement. It can be overkill at times. All eyes are on Dua Lipa’s social media sites. We will hold our breaths to see…

WHAT comes next.

FEATURE: Now, Then and Everywhere… The Final Beatles Song, and the Mix-Filled ‘Red’ and ‘Blue’ Hits Collections

FEATURE:

 

 

Now, Then and Everywhere…

PHOTO CREDIT: Apple Corps Ltd.

The Final Beatles Song, and the Mix-Filled ‘Red’ and ‘Blue’ Hits Collections

_________

THERE is a real treat…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Apple Corps Ltd.

in store for fans of The Beatles. Two in fact! So close to Christmas, news broke that the iconic ‘Red’ and ‘Blue’ albums that compiles the best of the band from their start to end, is to be reissued fifty years after the original editions. With new mixes and extra tracks, I wonder how new fans of The Beatles will react. Those of us who grew up with these compilations and this was almost a first point of call had a distinct impression and arc regarding The Beatles and their music. With the extra tracks, young listeners will have a different view and narrative. Out on 10th November, here is the pre-order link. With various different format options alongside merchandise, it is a chance to explore a new version of the career-spanning collection from The Beatles. Before then, tomorrow (2nd November) as it happens, the ‘final’ song from the band, Now and Then, is released. With assistance from AI and support from Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney, it is this finalisation of a John Lennon song. The fact that we get this a week before The Beatles’ ‘1962-1966’ (The Red Album) and ‘1967-1970’ (The Blue Album) collections with expanded tracklists is a real bonus! Here are some details from Variety:

“Although the material, apart from “Now and Then,” is all familiar, these aren’t just fresh playlists. All of the songs on these two collections that had not been previously remixed by Giles Martin for previous deluxe editions have gotten the full treatment now — adding up to a total of 36 brand-new remixes across audio formats: 30 on “1962-66” and six on “1967-70.” (Additionally, a Dolby Atmos release has its own new, immersive mixes of those same 36 tracks, plus another seven remixed for songs Martin had previously updated only in stereo.)

Collectors who say “I wanna hold my physical single” will be happy to know that “Now and Then” is getting a stand-alone release on vinyl, and even cassette, apart from its place as an addition to the reconfigured “1967-70” album. The newly completed track will come out on vinyl in four different 7-inch or 12-inch variants. It’s being described as a “double A-side single,” with the new stereo remix of the Fabs’ first single, “Love Me Do,” on the flip side. (Note, however, that some variants of the single and two hits collections will only be available via the Beatles’ own webstore.)

A 12-minute documentary about the making of “Now and Then” will premiere on Nov. 1. Written and directed by Oliver Murray, the mini-doc includes footage of Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, the late George Harrison, Sean Ono Lennon and Peter Jackson (whose technology was put to use in the track’s unique creation). A 34-second teaser for the mini-doc went up on YouTube today. Watch that trailer here:

Beatles fans have been curious about the credits for the “Now and Then” song, and those were released in full Thursday. As was previously known, the tune has its origins in a John Lennon solo demo from the ’70s that Yoko Ono made available when the surviving members decided to add fresh tracks to the “Anthology” collections in the mid-’90s. While Paul, George and Ringo finished “Free as a Bird” and “Real Love” with producer Jeff Lynne at the time, they set aside “Now and Then,” in part because Lennon’s rough home-cassette vocal lacked the fidelity to easily mesh with what the other members were attempting to graft on two decades later.

IMAGE CREDIT: Apple Corps Ltd.

It was McCartney’s idea last year to re-approach “Now and Then” and pull a usable version of Lennon’s vocal using the same technology that’d been used to separate music or conversation from background noise for Peter Jackson’s “Get Back” documentary film. The new single has a telling credit for the New Zealand company WingNut Films Productions Ltd. for “source separation”; the press announcement notes that Jackson’s sound team was led by Emile de la Rey, who was charged with taking Lennon’s low-fi demo and setting his vocal apart from his piano and other noise.

(1/6) “NOW AND THEN. THE LAST BEATLES SONG. OUT 02.11.23. #NowAndThen
New expanded and mixed editions of the "Red and Blue" albums to be released 10.11.23.
Pre-order now: https://t.co/jQtFaz4Tq8 pic.twitter.com/aLS2C046Pu

— The Beatles (@thebeatles) October 26, 2023

Otherwise, most of the “Now and Then” credits read straightforwardly, leaving fans to figure out which parts were recorded in the ’70s, ’90s and 2022. McCartney and Giles Martin are credited as the producers, with an additional production credit for Lynne. Lennon and McCartney are credited with primary vocals; all four members are credited with background vocals, McCartney’s and Starr’s being new additions. Harrison, who died in 2001, has electric and acoustic guitar parts recorded in 1995 on the track — although a slide guitar solo that bears an unmistakable similarity to his trademark style was actually laid down by McCartney, “inspired by George,” during the 2022 sessions. McCartney also is credited with brand new bass, piano and electric harpsichord, and Starr’s drum playing is a fresh addition as well … and both get credit for playing shakers.

A new string arrangement was written for the song by McCartney, Martin and Ben Foster and overseen by McCartney at Capitol Studios in L.A. The press announcement says that “Paul and Giles also added one last, wonderfully subtle touch: backing vocals from the original recordings of ‘Here, There and Everywhere,’ ‘Eleanor Rigby’ and ‘Because,’ woven into the new song using the techniques perfected during the making of the ‘Love’ show and album.” Spike Stent mixed the McCartney/Martin production.

“There it was, John’s voice, crystal clear,” McCartney said in a statement. “It’s quite emotional. And we all play on it, it’s a genuine Beatles recording. In 2023 to still be working on Beatles music, and about to release a new song the public haven’t heard, I think it’s an exciting thing.” Added Starr, “It was the closest we’ll ever come to having him back in the room, so it was very emotional for all of us. It was like John was there, you know. It’s far out.”

Olivia Harrison co-signed on the effort to revive the track. She said, “Back in 1995, after several days in the studio working on the track, George felt the technical issues with the demo were insurmountable and concluded that it was not possible to finish the track to a high enough standard. If he were here today, Dhani and I know he would have whole-heartedly joined Paul and Ringo in completing the recording of ‘Now and Then.’” Sean Ono Lennon added his imprimatur to the project, too, saying: “It was incredibly touching to hear them working together after all the years that Dad had been gone. It’s the last song my dad, Paul, George and Ringo got to make together. It’s like a time capsule and all feels very meant to be.”

What choices do collectors have in picking up “Now and Then” (and B-side “Love Me Do”) in stand-alone, physical form? Apart from its online digital release in both stereo and Dolby Atmos, retail outlets will be selling it in both 7-inch and 12-inch form on black vinyl, along with light blue and clear 7-inch variants. A cassette version is exclusive to the Beatles’ store. A blue-and-white marbled 7-inch was also announced as a Beatles webstore exclusive, although it will apparently be available at independent record stores too, as those retailers were solicited on the release Thursday morning.

The sleeve art for the single was designed by the noted artist Ed Ruscha.

As for the 2023 editions of the “1962-66” and “1967-70” albums, choices abound there, too. Retailers everywhere will offer both collections as separate two-CD or three-LP 180g black-vinyl sets. But if you want them bundled together in a slipcase, and/or want colored vinyl, those are limited to the Beatles’ store and described as limited editions. The webstore offers a four-CD set that bundles the two collections together in a slipcase. More tantalizingly, the Beatles’ store offers the “red” album on red vinyl and the “blue” one on, yes, blue — either individually or bundled together in a slipcase as a six-LP set. A bundled six-LP set on standard black vinyl in the slipcase is also exclusive to the Beatles’ store.

(6/6) All the songs are mixed in stereo and Dolby Atmos, and new 4CD and 180g 6LP vinyl collections pair ‘Red’ and ‘Blue’ in slipcased sets. Digital, CD, and vinyl available to pre-order/pre-save now. https://t.co/uAxSpf4UzF

— The Beatles (@thebeatles) October 26, 2023

The track listings for the vinyl editions are in a different order than what appears on the CD and digital/streaming versions. In the case of the three-LP “1962-66” and “1967-70” sets, the first two records in the set follow exactly the same order of the sequence that appeared on the 1973 double albums, with the third LP devoted to all the material that has been added for 2023. Those who want to remember the song orders as they existed for 50 years will surely be pleased by that decision, while still getting the additional material. However, the editions that do not break things up by sides — that is, the digital and CD versions — dispense with that and present all the material in chronological order, with the fresh additions sprinkled in along the way instead of segregated.

In answer to the question that inevitably comes from many audiophile fans: No, there is no BluRay audio option; the Atmos mixes are not being issued on discs but are available for download or streaming.

Although the printed material is not expected to be as elaborate as what accompanied the “Sgt. Pepper,” White Album, “Abbey Road,” “Let It Be” and “Revolver” deluxe editions, the new red and blue hits editions will include new essays written by author John Harris.

Many fans had expected “Rubber Soul” to be next in what has become a mostly annual series of deluxe sets, if the Beatles were to start working backward from last year’s “Revolver.” But they’ll get an awfully good head start on that anticipated project via “1962-66,” since it includes brand new Giles Martin remixes of no fewer than seven of the 14 tracks from the original U.K. version of “Rubber Soul”: “Drive My Car,” “Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown),” “Nowhere Man,” “Michelle,” “In My Life,” “If I Needed Someone” and “Girl.”

But Beatles fans will be at least as curious, when “1962-66” comes out Nov. 10, to hear what Martin has done with the rest of the material dating back even further. It’s long been considered a challenging task to make full-sounding new stereo mixes of early ’60s track that essentially glued together multiple vocal or instrumental parts on one of two channels. But Martin had said recently that he believed the time and the technology for that were at hand, mentioning the kind of separation that Jackson’s “Get Back” team had been able to pull off. Now fans will get a huge sampling, all at once, of just how effective those newly realized techniques are at making stereo (or immersive!) mixes that sound far less bizarre to the modern ear.

“Love Me Do” in Dolby Atmos: It’s about to be a thing.

While the lion’s share of the previously unheard Giles Martin stereo mixes will arrive with the “red” album, it’s surprising to see how many songs on “1967-70” had not yet been given the updated treatment till know — either selections from the “Magical Mystery Tour” soundtrack EP, or assorted non-album singles or B-sides. Those new remixes for songs from the later period include “Revolution,” “I Am the Walrus,” “Magical Mystery Tour,” “The Fool on the Hill,” “Hey Bulldog” and “Old Brown Shoe.”

Among the songs making their Atmos debut next month, meanwhile, are “All You Need Is Love,” “Strawberry Fields Forever,” “Hello Goodbye,” “Hey Jude,” “Lady Madonna,” “The Ballad of John and Yoko” and this version of “Get Back”.

I was very pleased to talk with the amazing Roxanne de Bastion about Now and Then and The Beatles’ Red and Blue album expanded reissues. As a wonderful musician and massive fan of the band, it was insightful and interesting hearing what she had to say:

Hi Roxanne. I know you are a massive Beatles fan. Do you remember when they came into your life, and whether it was a particular album or song that caught you?

My love for The Beatles precedes my memory - but my mother tells me that it all started when she showed me the animated Yellow Submarine movie when I was four. Apparently I was so enthralled with the songs that I ran to my room, got my little Fisher-Price cassette recorder and asked if I could have the songs on that (how I knew about music pirating at that age, I do not know).

What it about The Beatles that especially captivates you? Their melodic and experimental sensibilities, the kinship between the four lads - or is it just the sheer quantity and variety of their catalogue?

There is no band that comes even close to achieving the depth and breadth of creativity, quality and historical significance as The Beatles, and I don’t think there ever will be. I mean, let’s not discount Taylor Swift, yet with all her genre hopping and record breaking…but she’s just one person - the fact that The Beatles featured three brilliant songwriters, each with their own interests and sensibilities, has a lot to do with their magic. It wasn’t one thing that captivated me, it was very much the whole package: the melodies, the harmonies, the lyrics, the visuals, etc. Ultimately, I fell in love with The Beatles at such an early age and they are such a constant in my life that to me, their music is my home.

“Perhaps rather predictably, I got very emotional watching the trailer. I cannot wait to hear it”

As a musician yourself, how important have they been regarding your journey and passion for music?

They are very much the foundation to my whole life, never mind my career. But it was certainly because of The Beatles (and John Lennon in particular) that I wanted to start writing my own songs. I spent hours in my room listening to their albums on loop and trying to sing the songs perfectly - emulating every breath and memorising every word. My favourite thing to do was sit in the kitchen and sing The Beatles together with my dad - he was usually Lennon, I was McCartney.

Their final song as a band, Now and Then, is out tomorrow (2nd November). How excited were you when you heard the news?! In terms of a ‘finale’, is this going to be a perfect way to wrap things up do you think?

A NEW BEATLES SONG!! Perhaps rather predictably, I got very emotional watching the trailer. I cannot wait to hear it. One of my favourite John Lennon songs, Real Love, was released posthumously, and so I have no doubt that there’s potential for Now and Then to be very special. As for wrapping things up, I somehow don’t think this will be the last treasure to be unearthed. The four Beatles created (and continue to create) so feverishly throughout their respective lives, I think we have many more decades of surprises, unfinished songs and unheard recordings to look forward to.

Of course, the ‘Red’ and ‘Blue’ albums are being reissues and remixed. Were the original albums played when you were a child?

I spent much more time listening to the original albums and the BBC live album (which was an early favourite of mine, as it captured The Beatles’ electric live energy, their charm and their humour). I did own both on CD though and have a really strong memory of hearing We Can Work It Out for the first time. I remember being fascinated by the conversational tone of the lyrics (“Try to see things my way” is such an arresting opening line). I will forever associate that song with my dad explaining to me how clever it was that the time signature changed from a straight 4/4 to a waltz at the end of the chorus.

As a child, I was also fascinated by the Red and Blue album artwork. Firstly, I loved how they look down and straight into the camera. It somehow made it feel as though they were smiling down and looking directly at me. To my childlike eyes, they looked so much older on the Blue cover than they actually were at the time (beards are definitely deceiving!), so to me it seemed magic that they were photographed in exactly the same spot, almost as if they were time travellers. But they may as well have been - the Red and Blue albums are extraordinary evidence to just how much the band evolved musically and visually in the span of just a couple of years.

I like the fact this reissue is a more complete and comprehensive account of their early and later career. Are there extra songs - that were not on the originals - particularly important or standout when it comes to defining or redefining their importance and brilliance?

It’s interesting that the reissue includes some cover songs (Roll Over Beethoven and Twist and Shout), but I suppose interpreting Rhythm and Blues and Rock ‘n’ Roll classics was an important part of their career and their development. I’m thrilled to see that the reissue features This Boy, which is just such a stunning example of their harmony work. It’s also one of my favourite Lennon vocal deliveries ever. I’m equally excited to see Harrison’s If I Needed Someone added to the Blue Reissue and, hey, if there’s a new mix of Tomorrow Never Knows, the song responsible for the sound of countless bands that followed, I’m here for it!

“Isn’t it just amazing that sentences such as “It has been a busy past few years for The Beatles” can be totally true in 2023?”

It has been a busy past few years for The Beatles. Quite a bit to see and listen to. Why do you think the band remain so important and in demand?! I think it is also great that Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr are still with us and get to actively have a say in this incredible music.

Isn’t it just amazing that sentences such as “It has been a busy past few years for The Beatles” can be totally true in 2023? If I could be at a Paul McCartney concert every day of my life (like, you know, eight days a week) I would! It’s incredible that he performs three hour sets with just as much showmanship, charm and musicality as he did half a century ago. I think the answer is simple: Great music is timeless. Every generation will discover them anew (I’m sure somewhere in the world there’s a wide-eyed four-year-old watching Yellow Submarine for the first time right now) and that’s a beautiful thing. The Beatles and all their songs about love and how it is all we need are well and truly immortal and that, in today’s world of doom-scrolling and twenty-four-hour news cycle, is a very comforting thought to me.

Finally, as look ahead to next year, people might ask what album will be reissued or remixed. What would you personally like to see come out? Maybe Rubber Soul or A Hard Day’s Night expanded reissues?

The film A Hard Day’s Night is so iconic, it would definitely be fun to see what’s in the vaults, both audio and visual - perhaps some kind of mixed-media re-release? I’m here for it all :)

The final link in this feature is an interview with Will Hodge. He is the Zine Editor for vinyl reissues Bandbox and a freelance music journalist with bylines for Rolling Stone, the Grammys, No Depression, and a variety of other publications. It was fascinating and wonderfully getting his views and impressions regarding two very important Beatles releases. It is quite a seismic moment. We will never get another Beatles song! There will be reissues and new releases in terms of their albums. I am not sure what studio album will get the remix and remaster treatment from Giles Martin (perhaps Rubber Soul). I love the sixth side of The Beatles’ ‘1962-1966’ (The Red Album) and ‘1967-1970’ reissues, as you get Then and Now plus Hey Bulldog. I think one of the criticism of the original red and blue selections is that stuff was omitted. Rather than it being an update of the originals, it looks more like an expanded greatest hits. Something for new fans to get, though diehards will also want to add these reissues to their collection. I think most eyes are on the new, final track from The Beatles. Whether it is going to be any good or up to expectations. Maybe one of the most hyped or important songs of this generation, we will hear a moment of history. Regardless of how the song comes out and how people react to it, this is a moment of history. The greatest band ever might have split up over fifty years ago, yet there is no shortage when it comes to the archives and new mixes of older material! That expansive reissue that is available in various formats together with the new single – available digitally and physically – gives us a nod to the past but also the future. What now for The Beatles’ music?! We will never get another track, though there are going to be many who want a studio album reissued or a new book. It will be exciting to see what arrives next year. It is clear, though, that this year has been an exciting and huge one…

SamLiddicott · Interview with Will Hodge

FOR fans of The Beatles.

FEATURE: Now and Again: Forty Years of the Iconic Compilation Series: The Digital and Physical, and Its Incredible Legacy

FEATURE:

 

 

Now and Again

Forty Years of the Iconic Compilation Series: The Digital and Physical, and Its Incredible Legacy

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ONE of the most recognisable brands in music…

the Now That’s What I Call Music! series is forty on 28th November. The makers announced some special anniversary releases. You can get some information and history about the iconic and beloved series. I wanted to discuss the digitisation of the compilations, plus a suggestion regarding making some of the editions physical. It is great that there is a decades-spanning release for the fortieth (here is another link). There are a couple of features/articles that I want to bring in before getting to thoughts about the archives and making everything digital and physical. I also have some interviews coming from very special people who will discuss their experiences and memories of the Now That’s What I Call Music! series. It is important to first recognise one important milestone (you should check out the Now That’s What I Call Music! official site, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter and Facebook). Even if I don’t buy most of the Now albums on C.D. anymore, I keep track of them through streaming. I feel a special connection with the compilation series, as it was launched in the same year that i was born. It is in very rude health ahead of its fortieth birthday. On 28th November, I think that a lot of people will share their memories of the compilation album and when they came to it. I might have chance to do another feature/something special before the big day.

SamLiddicott · Now That's What I Call Music! at Forty - An Introduction

When the one-hundredth instalment of Now That’s What I Call Music! arrived in 2018, Music Week spoke with Virgin boss Richard Branson. The first Now That’s What I Call Music! was released through Virgin/EMI. Branson reflected on the legacy of the celebrated and iconic compilation series:

“Today’s the day. Now That’s What I Call Music 100 hits stores, cementing its place in music business folklore as the UK’s longest-running and best-loved compilation series.

Somewhat ironically, back in the day, bosses were concerned about numbering each edition, fearing teenagers wouldn’t be interested in the brand once it passed Now 21. Such worries proved unfounded, and Now 100 has attracted widespread publicity, not least in the form of an all-encompassing feature in the current print edition of Music Week.

Music Week was there at the start for Now, back in November 1983, when the concept was dreamed up by Stephen Navin and Jon "Webbo" Webster and the brand was launched by Richard Branson’s Virgin Records in a blaze of curious pig-themed marketing. So Branson – now Sir Richard, founder of the Virgin Group and Music Week’s Strat Award winner in 1991 – sat down with us Music Week to talk through the birth of a compilations phenomenon – and, of course, the historic significance of that pig…

How did Virgin come up with the concept for Now That's What I Call Music?

“At the time Virgin was dominating the charts with our singles, but I was fed up with third party labels like K-Tel ringing us up for our hits and making fortunes out of our hard work. So I went to see EMI and said, ‘Why don’t we both create our own label together which would put out ours and other’s hits?’. The only thing was, we didn’t have a title.

“I’d fallen in love with a beautiful girl called Joan who worked in a shop in Westbourne Grove that sold ephemera. The owner of the shop made it clear that I had to buy something in order to spend time with her in the shop. One day, I saw this wonderful poster for Danish Bacon with the words ‘Now, that’s what I call music’ written on it. We had our name and the rest is history. As for that beautiful girl in the shop? She became my wife…”

Did you think it would be anywhere near as successful/mould-breaking as it went on to be?

“I knew from its initial success that we had created something very special. However, I don’t think anyone would have predicted the 35-year-long success of any brand, especially in the record industry. The music business is fast-changing and ephemeral at the best of times, which makes Now That’s What I Call Music’s success even more extraordinary.”

How important were the compilations to Virgin, financially and creatively, at that time?

“The Virgin label was going through an enormously successful period in the early ‘80s with UB40, The Human League, Culture Club, Phil Collins, Genesis, Simple Minds, OMD, and many more. The success of the Now compilations allowed us to invest more into the business to help maintain Virgin as the premier label it was.”

What is the secret to the series' enduring success?

“I suspect it’s the attractive combination of quality, value, and of course that great brand title: Now That’s What I Call Music, which resonates so well with everyone. And of course Now is always current yet, at the same time incredibly nostalgic, which is an unusual and very positive combination. They represent a host of emotions and memories; as well as some great music it’s those memories that people hold with such affection, whether they bought it on a CD or via streaming. It is the thoughtful curation that ensures every album evokes such memories and becomes a soundtrack of a time in our lives”.

So, how did Now That's What I Call Music! get its start? How did it get its name? The Oxford Blue looked at the story behind a series of compilation albums that remains popular to this very day. I honestly cannot see it ending or becoming less popular in years to come. It flourishes at a time when digital music succeeds and dominates still:

“If you were anything like me as a child, you vividly remember the Now! compilation albums. I can recall hours upon hours spent listening to these albums, which would be playing from the pink flowery CD player which sat proudly upon my desk. A huge amount of time would be spent singing along to the radio edits of songs such as Katy Perry’s ‘Firework’, Cee Lo Green’s ‘Forget You’, and Taio Cruz’s ‘Dynamite’, to name just a few. It was always a treat to receive the newest Now! album for Christmas, which would never fail to encapsulate the pop scene of the time through an eclectic mix of the biggest releases from the last few months. Looking back at the tracklists today is like looking into a time capsule. Now! is a brand which has endured the test of time, still going strong today after more than 100 numbered album releases since its inception in 1983. Spin-offs and other Now! series such as Now Dance and Now Decades take the total number of releases past 250. Their success can be contextualised by considering the musical landscape of the time and the potential to exploit a gap in the album market.

In 1983, compilation albums existed, but they were often seen as tacky. They were cheap and nasty, with songs which had been messily put together to create disarrayed and generally poor albums. This all changed when Stephen Navin and Jon Webster at Virgin Records, the top selling singles label in the UK at the time, had an idea. Companies were repeatedly asking Virgin to buy tracks to use in their compilation albums, and Navin and Webster realised how lucrative it could be to simply create their own compilation albums instead. Virgin spoke to EMI about this to see if they would get involved, as EMI were a larger and older establishment which could help out with getting big bands on board. Together, they resolved to create a brand which would give music lovers compilation albums which they could genuinely enjoy listening to. They were much more elegantly compiled and were made to look very different to other compilation albums, with sleeker packaging which contrasted with the basic black and white or black and red sleeves which were seen with previously existing compilation albums. From the beginning, the product was presented as a more luxurious product, evoking excitement in the general public.

The name Now That’s What I Call Music! came from a 1930s poster for Danish Bacon which was hung in the office of Simon Draper, Navin and Webster’s boss. It was bought for Draper by Richard Branson, Draper’s cousin, and depicted a pig listening to a hen singing, with the caption “Now that’s what I call music”. The poster was a joke, referring to Draper’s early morning irritability – Branson said that he was “notoriously grumpy before breakfast”. On seeing this poster, Navin decided that the phrase said exactly what they wanted to say and so the name was chosen.

The first album was released on 28 November 1983, compiling 30 UK hit singles from that year by artists such as Phil Collins, Duran Duran, and Rod Stewart. The album went straight to number one, selling 1.1 million copies. Webster has said that it was difficult to convince some artists to get involved to begin with, due to concerns that it could affect single sales and reputations, but once the album sales took off, everyone was keen to be a part of it. David Bowie and Eurythmics refused to be on the first one, but after its triumphant release, they agreed to feature on Now 2. Three Now! albums were released in 1984, and a pattern was established. The albums were released just before every Christmas, Easter, and during the summer, just as they are today. Polygram and Universal began to contribute tracks to Now!, but other labels got involved in another new compilation brand known as Hits. This new brand was able to get big American acts involved, but Now! was known for maintaining a notable sense of Britishness. Many people seemed to like this, and Now! reached much greater success. As Draper said to the BBC in 2018, Now! “wiped out all the opposition”. Along with the numbered series, some of the spin-off albums have also reached huge success. The Now! Christmas album is the seventh best-selling album of all time in Britain, having sold four and a half million copies and outselling even Pink Floyd’s (The) Dark Side of the Moon

The rapid decrease in the number of people owning CD players, the rise of digital downloads and the increased popularity of streaming services have meant that sales have been gradually declining. Every Now! album released prior to 2018 received platinum or multiplatinum certification, but none of the albums released from 2019 onwards achieved this. However, it would be unfair to claim that there is not still a large amount of interest in the releases, as most of these later editions still received gold certification, meaning that over 500,000 copies were sold. However, the downward sales trajectory shows no sign of stopping, so the brand will have to evolve and adapt to changes in technology and the listening habits of the general public. I really do hope that the album series is able to continue – it is simply too iconic to lose”.

The first track that opened the first Now That's What I Call Music! is Phil Collins’s You Can’t Hurry Love. The second, released in 1984, opened with Queen’s Radio Ga Ga. It is amazing to think that, forty years ago, the public saw adverts for a compilation album that united chart hits. Nobody knew that it would run for so long! This interesting 2014 interview featured the co-creators, Jon Webster and Stephen Navin. It does seem like the launch day for Now That's What I Call Music! was pretty chaotic! You can get recent Now That's What I Call Music! albums on Spotify if you want to see how it has evolved. I can appreciate why there might be a reluctance to put them there, as you want people to buy instead. Get them on C.D. As most people listen to music digitally, I suppose it would be a gamble to do a physical-only release in 2023. I do wonder whether every one of the Now That's What I Call Music!  series will be on streaming platforms like Spotify. I think the majority are, though I have noticed some gaps. Also, I cannot see a dedicated profile or page where you can see every album listed chronologically. There is this profile where you can get quite a few compilations, mind. I know that users put together their own compilation of various-numbered editions so you get the same tracks in the same order – but not officially part of the Now That's What I Call Music! Spotify page. I think you can get most of the series through Spotify, though there are some gaps. It can be hit and miss. Maybe it is a case of having a website where you get every number in the series where you have a link to the Spotify album/playlist. I hope that the archives are fully brought to streaming. It will mean it is more accessible to future generations. There was a Now That's What I Call Music! app announced in 2016.

In terms of the physical releases, you can go to Amazon or HMV and get the compilation series on C.D. You can even get the original 1983 release on C.D. and vinyl. As the prices vary between the editions, I wonder whether the official website would stock all of them at the same cost. Maybe a special Now That's What I Call Music! store of shop with every edition is available on a range of physical formats. It might be financially and logistically impossible to do but, as I have posed before, how about a cassette, vinyl and C.D. option for each? Maybe also a digital link to that album – going to Spotify, Apple or Deezer etc. As it stands, you can get some digital Now That's What I Call Music! albums. You can get a great deal of them physically. However, as mentioned, the prices vary. I don’t know if you can get every one of the Now That's What I Call Music! albums on a physical format new. You can see which albums are available on vinyl. An affordable range of C.D.s too. As far as I understand – and maybe owing to the number of tracks and it would be unwieldy – you can’t get any/most on cassette. Perhaps it would need to be three cassettes to fit all the tracks in. That said, I do remember buying Now That's What I Call Music! 24 on cassette back in 1993. I think a lot of people would love the option of owning their favourite Now That's What I Call Music! albums on cassette, vinyl or C.D.

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I am going to include a few interviews with some wonderful people who tell me about their experiences with the NOW/Now series. It has been really interesting getting some different and unique perspectives on this timeless and legendary compilation album. In some way or another, I feel most of us have a love of Now That’s What I Call Music! Maybe people do not share them today the same way that they did years ago, though it is clear there is still a lot of demand for the album. First is the magnificent journalist Lee Campbell. He currently writes for UTR, The Guardian, Belfast Telegraph, Rolling Stone UK, Hot Press, and Sunday Times Ireland. You can catch Lee’s incredible recent Danse Macabre interview with Duran Duran’s Nick Rhodes for Under the Radar. He also has an upcoming interview with Holly Johnson from Frankie Goes to Hollywood (which will be published in the next month). Also, please do check out the leecampellwrites Linktree link. It was a most enjoyable experience speaking with him and getting his unique insight into a compilation series that is very dear in my heart.

SamLiddicott · Now That's What I Call Music! at Forty Interview with Lee Campbell

My penultimate interview is with someone who knows the NOW series better than most people. The fantastic Iain McDermott runs the tremendous Back to NOW! podcast. A podcast that is all about “celebrating the variously compiled world of pop”, he chatted to me about his love of the compilation series and some of his impressions about its impact, importance and future:

The Now That’s What I Call Music! series was launched in the U.K. on 28th November, 1983. What are your earliest memories of the series? When did you hear the very first edition?

I have a vivid memory of the T.V. advert for the first NOW, around Christmas 1983. I was 11 the day after the first album was released that year. Tracey Ullman did the voiceover for it and it looked very glamorous featuring those (very '80s graphics) tracks and images from the album. I don’t remember asking for it for Christmas that year, however I did borrow a copy from a friend’s big sister early in 1984 and ‘may have’ accidentally copied it to cassette. I certainly remember making an inlay sleeve for it, faithfully recreating that iconic first NOW white font on black background, with plenty of felt tips. But my first purchase was a cassette copy of NOW3 in the summer of 1984. WH Smith, I think - holiday money. Having all of those songs in their entirety, the ability to rewind, fast forward and play repeatedly, pouring over the chart stars in the fold out inlay, that cover with the pig in sunglasses (for the first time) and the Day-Glo colour scheme was so exciting.

I was born six months before NOW was launched. It seems strange being the same age. My favourite compilation is 1993’s NOW24. Have you got a personal favourite or a top three?

NOW24 is a great entry to the series! And happy 40th to you too! Some of the albums are more special for different reasons, and whilst I drifted a bit from the NOW series in the mid-to-late-1990s (purchased them all since!), there are some that I would call favourites. * NOW3 - the first for me as stated above. * NOW7 - 1986 often gets a raw deal when people review the '80s (post-Live Aid, cynicism of the record industry, C.D.s evolving etc), but for me this album is awash with my 13-year-old Pop heaven. * NOW Dance 901/902/903 - (is this cheating, picking three here?) - My first year as a student (1990) and also starting out DJing, these three albums highlighted NOWs interest in the dance scene and featured 12’ mixes (which I loved) and actually, for me, say more about 1990 than the actual numbered NOWs of that year - 17 and 18. Blissful!

“Duran, UB40, Culture Club et al were all relatively new acts, but in 1983 they all seemed to move up a gear in image and sound”

It was quite revolutionary in 1983. Why do you think that that year was the right one for NOW to come about? How did it change the way we looked at chart music?

I think that 1983 marked a point where the ‘80s found their identity. The first three years of the decade had been full of swagger, excitement and experimentation in Pop, and by 1983 there was a genuine '80s legacy starting to emerge. Duran, UB40, Culture Club et al were all relatively new acts, but in 1983 they all seemed to move up a gear in image and sound. I also think that EMI/Virgin had such a presence in the singles chart that it made perfect sense to pull forces and celebrate their success (as opposed to licensing out to other compilation companies). It kind of equates to a decade earlier in 1973 when singles sales were equally huge and similarly the '70s got into their stride properly too.

The NOW brand signified a new quality for compilation albums; not just the biggest hits but also how the landscape was producing new and exciting acts too that could easily sit alongside no.1s of the year (enter The Cure, Simple Minds and, on NOW2, The Smiths, Big Country etc). Chart music was obviously big business by this point of the '80s, but it was also a huge part of our lives. T.V., newspapers and the media at large were just as interested in the likes of Simon Le Bon and Boy George as Smash Hits were. For me, NOW captured that presence and excitement in that glossy, colourful gatefold vinyl.

I am not sure whether any specific plans are afoot for the fortieth anniversary? How will you be marking it?

I am currently pulling together the annual end-of-year review episode with regular guests and great supporters of the podcast Ian Wade, Mark Wood and Johnny Kalifornia. But, as well as reviewing 2023 and the NOW releases, we are planning to celebrate the 40th anniversary too, with some special guests contributing and general pop nostalgia sprinkled across the episode!

Before carrying on, tell me about the Back to NOW podcast and why that was set up. Are there any new episodes in the offing?

The podcast started back in 2020. The idea had been floating around for a couple of years, and the pandemic probably gave me more time to get it up and running. The premise of the podcast is for guests to select a NOW compilation L.P. that reminds them of important time in their life. Guests don’t have to have owned it…because as well as discussing the tracks, of equal interest is to discuss the wider cultural contexts of the chosen L.P. or time period in Pop: memories of the time, track anecdotes, sequencing of songs and cultural contexts of the music and the world around it at that time. The U.K.’s love of compilation L.P.s means that we have a rich tapestry of curated time capsules representing the changing sounds and styles of our Pop listening landscapes - warts and all!

Episodes have been just as interesting (if not often more so) with the stories of how particular times in our lives are so memorably soundtracked by the music we listen to and often influence our own musical journeys. I’ve been hugely fortunate to have some great guests so far such as Pete Paphides, Alexis Petridis, Bob Stanley, Siän Pattenden, Jude Rogers, Michael Cragg and Will Hodgkinson. More than anything, it has been great chatting with guests who share a love of both Pop music (in all its forms) and pop culture - and have been generous enough to give over an hour or so of time to chat about it over Zoom. As long as I can continue to find interesting guests who are happy to share their memories, and an audience happy to join us, then hopefully the podcast will continue to find its place in peoples’ listening spaces. I’m always incredibly grateful to everyone that connects and chooses to come along with us.

I guess the NOW albums document the best of that year’s chart music. The series has broadened from year-based albums to concentrate too on genres. It has got more thematic. How do you see NOW expanding and evolving through the years?

I have loved the diversification, and I know from speaking to listeners and other fans that the evolution of the brand has been well received. I believe that one of the strengths of the brand is its identification with quality. Whether it was picking up a cassette copy in 1984 or a C.D. in 1994 or a new vinyl retrospective in 2023, the logo/name always lets people know that the content will be well-curated, the correct versions, thoughtfully sequenced. Plus, the team at NOW know their audience and are keen to provide a range of genres, themes etc. based on what people want. The genre-hopping also enables the team to really get creative with their sequencing and track selection. This, and the fact that music can always be viewed through ever- evolving sets of lenses and new contexts, I think creates a vibrant template (with such recognisable brand identity) for so much music to be revisited.

“This emotional response is harder to replicate on a streaming service!”

In a streaming age, it is remarkable that the series continues to flourish and remain in the consciousness! Why do you feel people of all ages keep on buying the physical NOW albums when they could stream the songs individually?!

I suppose, connected to the point above, there is still (to many music lovers) something tangible about physical product. If it is high quality (and I believe that the NOW albums are), then it will always be desirable. The recent expansion into Yearbook editions has been wonderful example of that. Coloured vinyl, hardback C.D.s with sleeve notes and photos - these have highlighted a real love for Pop nostalgia and sparked a great response in fans. Personally, there is still something very exciting about unwrapping a new NOW record/C.D.! This emotional response is harder to replicate on a streaming service!

The NOW series is available on vinyl and C.D. I don’t think that every edition is on those formats. Is this something you feel would be beneficial? Maybe transferring some to cassette – or would it prove too expensive?!

I think the team at NOW have done a great job in expanding the offer for compilation fans in recent years. I think that you will always find someone, somewhere that would find something else they’d like! But for me, the choice is fabulous. No return to VHS compilations that I can see! (I have a box full of them in the loft, so no worry there!). On that note, the NOW TV channels are also worth mentioning as an interesting addition to the brand. Channel-surfing and finding a show called ‘Every Track from NOW2’ or likewise will always catch my attention!

“Wow, I’m getting goosebumps just thinking about it”

Looking back on forty years of Now That’s What I Call Music!, how important has it been in your life in terms of your childhood and teenage years and, indeed, your adulthood? What does it mean to you and your love of music in general?

Huge. NOW always makes me smile for different reasons. Growing up into early-teens, the NOW albums were a massively exciting (and accessible) touchpoint for pop culture throughout the years. In a pre-social media/Internet world, anticipating the double-page glossy advert spread in Smash Hits the week before release was (for me) like nothing else. First chance to see the artwork and tracklist. What songs had made it, how were they sequenced, what surprises were included. Wow, I’m getting goosebumps just thinking about it. As an adult they mean different things. Memory time capsules - as I said earlier with warts and all - which make them even better! I have fond memories of (early-2000s) filling in gaps in my collection via eBay. Now, it’s a joy to see how decades, years, genres etc. are revisited and celebrated again. Often, different tracks are highlighted.

Finally, and maybe an impossible question, you can choose any song from any of the NOW albums and I will include it here. What shall we go for?

I CANT ANSWER THAT! Actually, I can. The Reflex by Duran Duran. NOW3. Side 1, Track 1. Unbridled Pop joy. (As celebrated with great gushing with BBC Music correspondent Mark Savage earlier this year - shameless episode plug! – I hope these rambles are useful. That was a blast! lain x

In the final interview before I wrap up this feature, I have been asking journalist and writer Cath Holland about her experience and memories of the iconic Now That’s What I Call Music! series. You can follow her on Instagram and Twitter/X. It has been fascinating discovering her impressions and perspectives about a compilation that means so much to so many people. We all have different takes and favourites. Like me, the compilations of the 1990s are particularly dear to Holland:

Hey Cath. I hope you are well. As the Now That’s What I Call Music! series turns forty on 28th November, I wondered if you could tell me when you first discovered the series.

For me, it was the compilations of the 1990s that was the most impactful and enduring.

When do you think the peak was? Do you have a favourite number in the series?

The 1990s would be for me, too. I think the value of the series is that each album is a summing up of the Pop hits for the weeks or months each compilation covers. Because the content is largely mainstream and mass market, the quality of each depends on what we each individually view as quality Pop! In the 1990s the sort of music nearer the top of the charts broadened away from cash cow teen fodder, which makes it more interesting, I guess.

PHOTO CREDIT: amyofdarkness

I remember discussing the latest Now That’s What I Call Music! series at school. Was it a big part of your childhood and social circles?

I like the way Alternative music – in its broadest sense - sneaks in: The Cure, Blur, Skunk Anansie, Radiohead, The Sundays, Gorillaz making unexpected appearances.  It allowed me to feel smug and knowledgeable because I knew who they were, and others in my social circle had no idea. If you listen to the 1980s Now albums, they are largely glossy and quite horrible, but then an artist like Yello pops up, bonkers and defiant. Square peg, round hole. I like the anarchy of that, creators of innovative and influential works sharing a space with the disposable, and the idea those buying the Now albums would happily consume something musically and creatively quite different simply because the music was included within the brand. Whether many people went on and did a deep dive into the work of many of the more left-field artists featured and became/become enthusiasts, I wouldn’t know! It’s nice to think that might be the case.

I think it would have been pretty monumental having a compilation of chart hits on an album in 1983. It is still popular today - when we can make our own playlists. Why do you feel Now That’s What I Call Music! remains and has this relevance in 2023?

Sometimes it’s quite an experience to close your eyes, run your fingers along a row of albums at home, feel the cardboard of the vinyl spine, stop at a random one, pull it out and play it. It’s like a luky dip, even if it’s one of your own purchases. To sit there and be presented with a series of songs curated by someone else, Now or not, reminds us of music and creators’ authority - something which we should respect but don’t. Rather than us as individuals putting together a playlist and becoming dependent on the familiar and having the arrogance to believe we are the true tastemakers!

“I kinda like the thought of a Wham! song right in the middle, confusing everyone”

I guess the quality fluctuates. It may not be as exciting today as in past years. Even so, would you say people still buy Now That’s What I Call Music! because it has that almost nostalgic quality?

If I was 14 now, I’d probably think contemporary compilations are the best. That’s the way it should be at that age.

Nostalgia is definitely a substantial part of the Now identity for adults in contemporary times. I see well-thumbed copies in charity shops and car boot sales which makes me a bit sad, a piece of someone’s teen years lashed into a Sally Army shop, left to languish, covered in dust, its glory days of being excitedly played at parties well behind it.

I am not sure what is planned for the fortieth anniversary. What would be the most fitting way to mark its big birthday?

A gloriously Alternative Now compilation would be an inspiration, and great fun. I kinda like the thought of a Wham! song right in the middle, confusing everyone.

The series has a different meaning to every person. What does it mean to you personally?

Each album is a time capsule of sorts. A musical encyclopaedia of the most commercial Pop.

This is a harsh question, but choose your favourite song from a Now That’s What I Call Music! album and I will play it here.

The Smiths – What Difference Does It Make?

As the sensational, legendary and hugely important Now That’s What I Call Music! series celebrates its fortieth birthday/anniversary forty on 28th November, ensuring that this phenomenal series is committed to streaming sites and is availably physically would be a real treat for the fans. I am curious whether this is something the makers are considering that for the future. I was going to just have this feature discuss that point. I thought about expanding it and speaking to different people and learning their opinions about the compilation album. We all have our own memories, so thanks enormously to Lee Campbell, Iain McDermott and Cath Holland for taking the time to go into depth about Now That’s What I Call Music! and what it means to them. After forty years, it is still this exciting and curious yearbook of the best Pop around! I am curious to see how many more years it will survive. I think that we all hope that it will endure…

FOR decades more.

FEATURE: New Discoveries, and Artists Who Have Impacted Me: Marking a Terrific Year in Music

FEATURE:

 

 

New Discoveries, and Artists Who Have Impacted Me

IN THIS PHOTO: Iraina Mancini/PHOTO CREDIT: Kirk Truman

Marking a Terrific Year in Music

_________

AS we are near the end…

 PHOTO CREDIT: cottonbro studio/Pexels

of another great year in music, I wanted to celebrate the fact that some terrific new artists have come through. Whether they have been recording for a while and have released their best music now, or they are fresh on the block, I think that 2023 has been one of the best for many years. There are a few artists I want to mention. All the Spotlight features I have published through this year has introduced me to an artist that is going to go a long way. Those that have added to the variety and brilliance of 2023’s music. There are some lesser-known U.S. artists like UPSAHL (Taylor Cameron Upsahl) that I would recommend. I am going to get to a selection other artists before finishing off. I just want to represent a small section of the wonderful and eclectic sounds that have come into my life this year - or songs from last year that have impacted me in 2023. UPSAHL was interviewed at Lollapalooza back in August:

“Q: Can you describe your style of music to our readers who may not be familiar with Upsahl ‘s sound?

A: “I grew up listening to a lot of, like, punk music because my dad was in punk bands. So, that was kind of, like, the source of inspiration for me. That’s what got me into playing guitar, and like, learning piano, and just being around the punk scene was really inspiring as a kid. And then when I turned, like, I don’t know, 16 I decided I wanted to be a pop star, but I wanted to be punk as f*** about it. And I think just, like, my childhood has definitely had a really big impact on my sound now, which is this, like, alt-pop thing. I love, like, playing bass and guitar, so I try to, like, incorporate that as much as I can”.

Q: How many instruments do you play?

A: “I do just, like, guitar, bass, and piano. I’m trying drums but I can’t get the hang of it. I’m working on it. We’ll get there one day”!

(I sit there and stare at her for a few seconds. The casualness with which she tells me she plays three instruments and is learning a fourth as of it’s the most common talent in the world was mindblowing!)

 Q: Did you always know that this was something going to do as a career or did you kind of fall into becoming Upsahl?

A: “I guess it was really kind of both. I mean it was never really a decision or like, a moment where I was like, ‘Oh, like, I want to do music’ you know? It was always just the biggest part of my identity. Like, as a kid I was always just that, like, random ass b**** just singing or playing an instrument. I was the one being annoying playing instruments in the corner. And then I started going to a performing arts school when I was 10 and stayed there until I graduated high school. So it was always just, like, the biggest part of my life was music. So it was pretty natural for me to like…. I moved to LA right after high school. I, like, started doing

Q: So the music came naturally to you. Did performing as Upsahl come naturally to you?

A: “In the beginning, I would always play instruments. So, I didn’t really have to, like, move around. And then once I was like, ‘maybe I’ll, like, just sing for a song’. The freedom of being able to, like, work a stage was, like, so exciting to me. And I think also coming from, like, a punk background, the level of, like, high energy that those shows are, I try to incorporate into my shows. So now, I think over time I’ve become more and more of, like, a high-energy performer. But I think it came naturally at first and it’s only just progressed I guess”.

Q: Where do you pull inspiration from in your music?

A: “A lot of inspiration from my own life. I write about my life pretty much solely. So that is a big part of it. But musically, like, Gwen Stefani, and No Doubt, to me it’s, like, the f****** blueprint. I’m obsessed with her, so I listen to a lot of that. Outkast was a big one for me growing up, and Weezer. Their pop melodies and, like, guitar riffs are always something that I turn to if I’m ever, like, not feeling inspired, or like, need some ‘umph’. Weezer is what I always go back to”.

Q: So can you walk me through the creative process of writing an Upsahl song?

A: “I mean normally, whenever I’m not on tour, but in LA or wherever doing sessions every day. So normally I just go in with, like, an emotion or like, a feeling or sometimes if I’m feeling really inspired I’ll have, like, a concept or like, a title ready. But normally the session just starts with, like, me and my co-writers just talking about whatever it is I want to write about that day. And then just, like, somewhere along the line of the conversation, someone will just accidentally say what the title of the song is going to be and then everyone stops and it’s like, ‘Wait you just said it’, like, ‘That’s what we’re going to do!” And then the song just kind of, like, happens naturally from there. But I find, like, production-wise, and musically I love going into making a song with another song as a reference. Being like ‘We should do something that’s this tempo’ or ‘Have a bass tone that sounds like this song’. So I pull a lot from, random playlists I make”.

Q: What’s a favorite Upsahl song of yours?

A: “Oh, well I think my favorite song I’ve ever written is coming out in a couple of weeks. Which I’m really excited for, it’s called “0 to 100”. Yeah, I’m very very excited for that. But I think my favorite song I’ve released is probably “Drugs”. Just because it changed my life. But yeah, probably “Drugs”. Because it was the one song that I was, like, genuinely so scared to put out, and then years later it became the song that people seem to relate to the most which is really cool”.

Q: How does it feel to be here for Upsahl’s second Lollapalooza?

A: “It feels crazy. I mean I played Lollapalooza in 2019 on the BMI stage. And, like, it was my first time ever playing a music festival. And I rode that high for months. I was like, ‘That was the best day of my life’. So now, a few years later, getting to be back with a few tours under my belt, it feels just like a cool full-circle moment to be here. I’m really excited. I also feel like the lineup is insane so as a fan I’m, like, slay! I get to go watch all my favorite artists. It’s such an honor”.

Q: What’s the biggest takeaway you’ve learned from your time as a rising star in the industry?

A: “Probably just to, like, trust your instincts. I feel like being young too and getting into the music industry so young, in the beginning, I cared so much about what other people thought. And whether it was, like, my fans or my team, I was so easily swayed. And I think finding your voice and like, trusting it is, like, the biggest thing. Because at the end of the day, like, that’s what people I think are going to relate to the most. And that’s how I as a fan relate to the music, is when the artist is really feeling it. So, yeah, I think that’s the biggest thing that I’ve learned is just to trust my gut and do what I feel”.

I think one of the most impressive new artists I have heard this year is CMAT (Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson). The Irish songwriter released her album, Crazymad, For Me, and it was met with huge acclaim. She is someone who writes with such openness and wit. One of the most relatable and instantly popular young artists, she is going to go a very long way! DIY chatted with a spectacular and hugely talented in August:

“Born in 1996 in Dublin, Thompson spent the majority of her youth in the tiny commuter town of Dunboyne before moving back to the Irish capital to study, and then across to Manchester with her then-boyfriend to pursue music. Throughout these periods, the constant thread was a feeling of frustration at the lack of opportunity afforded to her. “A lot of loneliness came from feeling like I was trapped in poverty, in the sense that I felt I was really talented and good at writing songs, but no one fucking listened to me because I was working in a TK Maxx,” she says. “Nobody had any time of day for me. I wrote 75 million songs and a lot of them were good, and I’d be bringing them back and forth to London but no one cared because I wasn’t interesting enough because I didn’t have any resources to be interesting.

PHOTO CREDIT: Jenn Five

“I felt like, for a lot of years, there was a thing I wanted to do but I literally couldn’t see a way of executing it. I had two jobs - I was also a sexy shots lady - because I just wanted enough money to get the Megabus to London to do writing sessions and gigs, and all of my spare time and effort and energy went into trying to be a musician and a pop star. I was so angry and frustrated all the time that no one was paying attention to me because I didn’t have any money. And that was how it felt, that there was no way to get my foot in the door because I didn’t have any connections or resources.”

Eventually, she would crack the door open by leaving her old band Bad Sea, splitting with her partner, moving back to Dublin and beginning to put her songs on YouTube where she was scouted by a management team. The flights of fantasy coupled with feelings of extreme isolation that populated last year’s full-length debut ‘If My Wife New I’d Be Dead’ capture the intensity of this time, while October’s forthcoming follow-up ‘CrazyMad, For Me’ acts as a potted document of that breakup and the years of anger, questioning and resentment that would follow. However, where CMAT’s poetic leanings and tendency for the swooning epic might lend a romantic hue to many of these offerings on record, the reality was far less rosy.

“I find it funny, because I get a lot of people telling me I should write a book but my life was not fucking interesting,” she explains. “I didn’t do anything. All my drug-taking was sad and weird and not that social, and that’s another thing - that entrapment directly leads to substance abuse and that was very much the same for me. I was stonked out of my brain on hash the whole time that I lived in Manchester because I did not want to be in my reality. So temporarily getting out of it for a bit was like, ‘Great, love it’.”

Still, however, Ciara wouldn’t let herself give up. Upon leaving Manchester, she remembers landing her dream proper job as an auctioneer’s assistant but acknowledging that, if she was ever going to make an album, she would have to turn it down for fear of being “too content”. “In an alternate universe, I’m itemising Tupperware from the 1960s - I could have been a contender!” she laughs. “But even when I was working in a shop, and had no money, and was a normal girl by textbook definition, I also wasn’t relatable because I was a fucking freak. I was selling cigarettes and scratchcards on the till and in my head I was like, ‘None of these people know how good I am at writing songs…’ I’ve never been humble in my life”.

One artist I have been shouting about a lot is Antony Szmierek. The Manchester-based Indie Hip-Hop artist is an incredible wordsmith and performer. Like CMAT, another relatable and down to earth artist who has won support form stations like BBC Radio 6 Music. I know he has an E.P. coming out very soon. With a string of incredible and distinct singles under his belt, he is an artist who has had a magnificent 2023. Whynow spotlighted Antony Szmierek near the start of this year. Someone who was already gaining a lot of traction and acclaim:

“How does it feel now things are taking off with the music: overwhelming, exciting?

A bit of everything. I’d be lying to say that it felt real, to be honest. It’s been relatively quick. I’ve been writing poetry and spoken word for years, so I didn’t expect it to take off. I think it’ll feel a bit more real after the summer, but my life hasn’t changed. I’m still in the same flat, and I’m still skint.

Well, as you said, you’re working six days a week. How are you finding the balance between your job teaching and music?

I’m lucky the people I work for are super understanding, but fingers crossed, [music] is the path, and this is the way, and I get to help people differently and share the music and entertain. [Working as a teacher] keeps me grounded because the kids don’t give a shit how many YouTube views I get.

You’ve been writing poetry for years, as you say, and you’ve written novels. How, in your own words, did you jump to making music?

It’s always been my first love: watching bands and watching artists, that’s what I do to relax. A few gigs a week is standard, and Manchester’s great. It’s the thing that calms me down when I’m not on my phone. It’s always been there. I just never did anything with it. I thought I’d missed the boat of being in a band or anything. So I did things accessible to me; I wanted to write novels and long-form stuff, and my writing just got shorter: novels, short stories, then poems.

You were trying to synthesise meaning down further and further…

I think so. It’s funny; I had a conversation with myself, asking, ‘What do I want people to take from my writing?’ And it was little soundbites or quotes in a one-liner. With everyone’s attention spans being so small, even my own, I think it was just bringing it all together and making it accessible and digestible.

Finding my own sound was difficult because I always wanted to be in an indie band; I like singing, showing off, and melodies. I still try and do a bit of that: [my track] ‘Rock and a Calm Place’ does that. I play with a band live, and it feels like a band: electric guitar, bass, keys, but no drum kit”.

Another great artist who has come to my attention this year is Madison McFerrin. Her album, I Hope You Can Forgive Me, is one of the most soulful, hypnotic, rich and atmospheric of the year. She is a remarkable artist who I am going to follow closely. Even if she has been recording music a little while now. This year has been a real breakthrough. 15 Questions spoke with her earlier in this year:

“For you to get started, do there need to be concrete ideas – or what some have called a 'visualisation' of the finished work? What does the balance between planning and chance look like for you?

There’s very little planning that goes into my creative process. I just go with the flow and see where it takes me.

Oftentimes when I try to force the creative process. It ends up taking a lot longer than when I’m in a natural state.

Is there a preparation phase for your process? Do you require your tools to be laid out in a particular way, for example, do you need to do 'research' or create 'early versions'?

No, I just go to my piano or my computer and start to create.

Do you have certain rituals to get you into the right mindset for creating? What role do certain foods or stimulants like coffee, lighting, scents, exercise or reading poetry play?

I don’t, but maybe I should start! I love some green tea. Baking also gets me in a zone.

I’ll try writing a song after the next time I make scones.

What do you start with? How difficult is that first line of text, the first note?

I always start with the groove, be it the chords or the drum beat. Having that flushed out makes the rest of the writing process flow much easier.

When do the lyrics enter the picture? Where do they come from? Do lyrics need to grow together with the music or can they emerge from a place of their own?

Lyrics come last nine times out of ten. I really love writing melodies, that’s where I try and challenge myself. A great example of that for me is my song “Know You Better.”

I purposefully wrote a melody that explored my range. You can’t always force words or sounds into certain melodic phrases, so my lyrics tend to grow from the melody I’ve created.

What makes lyrics good in your opinion? What are your own ambitions and challenges in this regard?

I really enjoy writing lyrics that seem like one thing on the surface, but are really about something else. It gives a sense of mystery and requires a little extra digging for the listener.

My song “Hindsight” sounds like a breakup song, but it’s actually about being sad that Bernie Sanders didn’t win the US Democratic nomination for President.

I always write from my soul, my lyrics are definitely the closest someone else will get to reading my diary.

Once you've started, how does the work gradually emerge?

It varies. I’ve had songs that emerge immediately and others that take weeks or months.

I think it’s all about letting the song reveal itself to you instead of forcing it to be something it’s not.

Many writers have claimed that as soon as they enter into the process, certain aspects of the narrative are out of their hands. Do you like to keep strict control over the process or is there a sense of following things where they lead you?

I definitely follow where the narrative wants to go. Lots of times, lyrics or melodies reveal themselves to me in a way that I wouldn’t have been able to find had I gone searching for it.

It’s also a fun game for me to explore where a song is taking me – it’s a special kind of journey”.

I am going to come to a remarkable trio of artists who are very different but equally compelling. Among the great groups who have emerged and cemented their potential is Panic Shack. One of the most hard-working, authentic and authoritative bands around, I have been delighted and hooked by their music. Even if they have not released new music this year, their live performances and presence in the industry has been strong. They are going to have a remarkable and busy 2024. In August, The Skinny chatted with a group who are keeping things real. A group who graft and work tirelessly:

“With a name like Megan Fretwell, it should have been a giveaway that she might make a perfect punk guitarist. Despite racking up slots at Primavera and Glastonbury this summer though, Fretwell and her punk peers that make up Welsh DIY fem group Panic Shack only began playing together a few years ago. She dials into our call with a brew alongside fellow bandmates Romi Lawrence and Em Smith (the latter is considered the group’s 'real' musician having played bass in bands since she was 18). The trio are lined up on Smith’s leather couch like the opening credits of Friends.

Completed by Sarah Harvey on vocals and David Bassey on drums, the band deserves a bit of a sit down after a whirlwind ride since forming at the tail end of 2018. The last few years have seen them appear on the BBC Introducing stage at Reading and Leeds, supporting Northern lot Yard Act and earlier this year they sold out their own string of headline dates across the UK. But it was Worthy Farm that made the biggest impression so far. “We felt lucky to be able to go to Glastonbury and then the fact that people turned up!” jokes Fretwell. “We weren't mentally prepared. We went on for soundcheck and they were like, 'Okay, just start!'” jokes Lawrence, clearly flummoxed.

PHOTO CREDIT: Ren Faulkner

It was in a different verdant setting that the catalyst for the group sparked after years of feeling frustrated watching their male peers perform. “It was the first time that the four of us had gone to Green Man Festival together,” explains Smith. “When we got back, we had a buzz going on [our] group chat. We were like 'Shall we do it?'” Like the 70s spirit of punk, Panic Shack channel that do-it-yourself resourcefulness in spades. Even if Lawrence was tentative about fully embracing the role. “I used to get shy and nervous, especially about playing guitar. But then I thought, 'There's no way I can watch my best friends be in a band and not be in it!'”

Getting to grips with bar chords, the foursome quickly began songwriting together. Early single Jiu Jits You was a BBC 6Music mainstay with its Kill Bill cool wandering basslines and scrappy guitars. Alongside their kung fu capers, Panic Shack’s Baby Shack EP sketches relatable stories of young adults scrimping and saving, even if it’s dressed up with a hefty dose of satire. Who’s Got My Lighter? conjures up balmy evenings passing the Amber Leaf pouch around the pub garden. While the touring band service station staple gets a nod in Meal Deal, as Harvey exclaims: 'I’m going out for a meal deal because my flat is fucking freezing / I can’t stand it any longer / Can just about afford my heating'.

PHOTO CREDIT: Siân Adler

Even with the band’s obvious hard graft and modest incomes, their working-class credentials have been criticised in the past. “We had this thing on TikTok, where people were saying that we were private school girlies [and] that we were cosplaying the working class,” says Smith. “You can call me an ugly slag and I'll be fine. Yeah, whatever. If you call me posh, I'm like ‘No.’” The Britpop era of the 90s boomed with working-class heroes like the Gallagher brothers and Madchester kingpins Happy Mondays. In the noughties though, certain pop artists (looking at you, Jamie T and Lily Allen) were called out for their hammed-up cockney characters only to confess they’d both attended private schools. So where are we with the middle-classification of music in 2023?

“Now more than ever, the playing field is off balance. Everyone gets a leg up,” believes Smith. But the tension is being magnified as rising artists are facing a whole new level of background checks, not unlike the towering touring policies for bands in a post-Brexit EU. “The discourse has changed now where people have to prove that they're not posh. Like with the whole nepotism discussions, it's starting to become a little bit nasty.”

There’s nothing more telling of the band’s current situation though than their output so far. There’s a reason why they’ve spent close to the last 52 weeks on the road. “Class is a much harder barrier to get into music,” reflects Lawrence. “It's why we've still not released an album yet,” interjects Fretwell. “Everyone's like, 'Where's the album?' Do you know how much it costs to put an album out? We've got rent to pay!” So much so that when Panic Shack packed down the rigs from their heroic set in the Shangri-La fields this summer, they headed home to Wales the next day and back to work. “You need a lot of money to be able to do this and we don't have anything we can fall back on,” says Fretwell. “We've got to work our arses off to do this [but] we're at this tipping point where we can't stop now. And I don’t want to”.

I will quickly round up soon. Actually, before coming to two final artists, I need to mention Iraina Mancini. This year has been her biggest yet. Her debut album, Undo the Blue, is my favourite of the year. I have seen her perform several times. She is a sensation who so many people love and admire. Mancini spoke with House Collective in promotion of Undo the Blue. Without doubt one of the most talented and fascinating artists around, her debut album has so many different sounds working alongside one another. Mancini is such a captivating and imaginative composer and lyricist. A voice that holds so much beauty and power, here is someone else who is going to go a very long way:

“What set you out on the path to be a musician?

I grew up in a very creative household, my mother was a photographer and my father was a music producer, so I was surrounded by the importance of expressing yourself through art as a kid, whether it was watching my mum develop film in dark rooms or sitting in on music sessions at my dad’s studio. My dad used to sing with David Bowie back in the day, from Aladdin Sane through to Station to Station, so I used to listen to old tapes and watch videos of him on stage – all of that had a huge impact on my life. My love of singing started at a super young age – I used to do vocals for dad in the studio when he had an advert or film to write for, so, even at the age of four, I was singing on a song he wrote for an Italian clothing brand, hilarious! I also had a music teacher at school that really believed in me. I used to write songs, and he used to push me to sing them in church in front of the whole school. When people started to ask for copies of the songs afterwards, I knew that perhaps I was okay!

PHOTO CREDIT: Kirk Truman

Why is musical expression important to you?

If I have gone though a bad patch, I tend to need a way to vent those feelings, and emotion and tension can be expressed so beautifully through melodies and harmonies. I have always had a crazy love affair with music, though. There have been times when I have had long breaks from writing, then, all of a sudden I will get a creative burst and won’t be able to stop. It was actually during the pandemic when my music seemed to take off the most, which was interesting. I really had time to focus on it. I released my first single ‘Shotgun’, and that did really well – it got picked up by lot of radio stations and was playlisted on BBC Radio 6, so that was kind of when I thought, oh, okay, hold on, this is kind of working. Then I really buckled down, and, as with all things in life, when you really focus on something, it kind of works out.

How would you describe your music?

I would describe it as psychedelic pop. I am very inspired by the 60s and French singers, I love the style of that era. I discovered the album Melody Nelson by Serge Gainsbourg in my 20s and I just fell absolutely in love. I love all the music Serge made. I love the grooves. I love all the girls who he picked to be on the records. I mean, probably chosen because he liked pretty women as well, right? But I don't know – that's one of those things, isn't it? (Laughs) I mean, he was obviously a bit of a player, let's say, but I'm not particularly interested in that side of him, more just the music he made. I think he was a bit of a genius. Nowadays, of course, it's as much about the personality and the way that they choose to live, as well as their art, which can cause problems. I think pre-social media you could actually have some mystique”.

Hak Baker is a London artist new to me. He blew me away the first time I heard him. His album, Worlds End FM, is one I felt should have been nominated for a Mercury Prize this year! Mixmag shone a light on a stunning champion of the people who was taking down the power-that-be through his stirring and enormously important music:

“As a direct descendent of the Windrush generation, Hak Baker has an intrinsic understanding of the struggles of his predecessors while also embodying the modern-day struggles that still pervade throughout society in the UK. Hak grew up on the Isle Of Dogs in East London, a notorious British National Party stronghold. In fact, 30 years ago in 1993, the BNP won its first-ever seat in a council by-election in the Millwall Ward, which covers the Isle Of Dogs. For Black people living there, and surrounding areas, it was a potentially dangerous place to live, as it was across London and the rest of the UK. Hak has emerged as a voice of the people - the working class, the downtrodden - writing and performing “rebellion music” in the tradition of his Jamaican heritage. His song ‘Windrush Baby’ highlights this lineage, celebrating the position he now holds. “‘Windrush Baby’ is a celebration of the fact that we are now able to embrace our culture,” he explains, sitting outside a pub in Liverpool. When we talk, Hak is midway through a mini tour of the UK, playing several in-store gigs at record shops from Nottingham to Leeds, Dublin and more. “And to attack any atrocities and call it out for what it is without being cast aside or people saying, ‘Oh, well, come on, you should be grateful and all that bollocks’,” he adds.

Windrush heralded the arrival of the first post-war Caribbean immigrants to Britain. With them came a myriad cultural influences, which are still being felt now. Sadly, they were also met with hostility from the communities they lived in, and the authorities. Police harassment and brutality were rife, with little support or sympathy from the judicial system. “It would have been a great positive if they actually removed their pompousness when we came here,” Hak says. “It still exists now. I don’t know why people pretend racism, which is institutionalised and systematic, doesn't. It still exists now, but we're in a better position than our forefathers, grandmothers and ancestors.”

Hak’s music is rooted in the rebellious nature of the island that makes up part of his DNA. Songs like ‘PC Plod’, featured on his 2020 mixtape ‘Babylon’, pull no punches when it comes to his view of the authorities. For those who are unaware, the term Babylon originated in Rastafarian culture as a reference to governments and institutions that are seen as in opposition to the will of Jah (God). This thread of Rastafarianism, Jamaican culture and the lineage that stretches back beyond Windrush landing in the UK, runs through Hak’s music and ethos. He was made aware of the struggles his predecessors went through from a young age, his mother instilling in him resilience and tenacity that remain inherent to his identity today. “My grandmother passed away quite recently, and [before she died] we spoke about things that I would never have spoken to her about,” Hak confides. “She let me know how difficult things was when she was working. She was told she had to do labour that was fit for men.”

Hak’s music embraces diversity, and while the guitar features heavily in a lot of his songs, the term indie, which has been used by some publications to describe his music, does it a disservice. For Hak it’s rebellion music, echoing the feeling that has emanated from Jamaica for decades. During the slave trade, many of the enslaved Africans in Jamaica rebelled and resisted their captivity. Most famous of those who fought hard for their freedom were the maroons (moors), who escaped and fled to the island’s interior mountains, where slave owners found it difficult to recapture them. Reducing Hak’s music to one trite genre category is misleading as he shifts between folk and roots reggae influences (“the unsyncopated guitar strums,” he says), to drum’n’bass and modern electronic styles. All of which represents his own personal tastes and experiences. “Roots reggae was about rebellion and fighting the power, that’s what my music is all about,” he states, explaining that he’s making Rasta music in his own way. “What I do is difficult, I’m not following trends. I’m trying to write my own story. I know a lot of people would have taken a deal, given up, conformed… I don’t have to do that, ‘cos I know what it’s like to have nothing anyway”.

I will finish off with The Last Dinner Party. A group who have gained a huge amount of attention in a short space of time, they have put out three amazing singles this year. Their debut, Nothing Matters, got a wave of love and interest. Sinner and My Lady of Mercy built on that incredible debut and expanded their musical and lyrical palette. The group are primed for greatness. Their anticipated debut album, Prelude to Ecstasy, is out on 2nd February. It is one that everyone will want to snap up! They spoke with Billboard in September. It is clear that these amazing women mean business:

“Although British rock band The Last Dinner Party scored a top 10 alternative hit with their debut single, for the five women that comprise the group, they’d been preparing for this moment for years. Just before beginning university in 2020, lead singer Abigail Morris, bassist Georgia Davies and vocalist/guitarist Lizzie Mayland crossed paths and became fast friends, bonding over musical interests. (Morris and Davies attended King’s College London; Mayland at Goldsmiths.) “We would go to gigs all the time, researching and thinking about starting a band,” Morris explains. “We were very intellectual about it for a long time.”

They soon recruited lead guitarist Emily Roberts and vocalist/keyboardist Aurora Nischevi, both of whom were involved in the local music circuit. The five began writing music together at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, though their first release wouldn’t come for nearly three years — but the wait paid off. “Nothing Matters,” the cinematic alt-rock debut single that arrived in April has become a force at radio, reaching a new high of No. 8 on Billboard’s Adult Alternative Airplay chart dated Sept. 23.

While fleshing out its sound, the group built a fan base by testing its material in pubs and small venues around London. “In the age of TikTok, people thought unless you have a song go viral, there’s no way of generating a following,” Morris says. “Ours just felt like a more natural thing. We had much more of a jumping off point from playing shows to seven people who don’t give a f–k to [then] playing much larger shows.”

PHOTO CREDIT: Nicole Nodland

With a debut album expected sometime in 2024, The Last Dinner Party’s members seem completely in sync: Morris and Davies finishing each other’s sentences multiple times during our interview, including when discussing what keeps the band’s emotional bond so strong. “I think what’s missing in a lot of artists [is] a commitment to themselves because they want to seem cool or ironic,” says Davies. “I want people to see our sincerity and be themselves too.”

“We advise them, but at the end of the day, they know what they’re doing,” says Richardson. “They have mood boards — everything has already been discussed. Excuse the French, but they’re not f–king around”.

I have selected some of the artists who I have really been invested in this year. Examples of the brilliant artists rising and coming through in 2023. As I said, it has been such a strong year for music. Every artist I have spotlighted through the year is worth following. They will all go on to great things. Even though every year produced some tremendous artists and future legends, I think that the quality we have seen in 2023 will be…

HARD to beat!

FEATURE: Changing the Headlines: Glastonbury 2024: Speculation, Hopes and Progress

FEATURE:

 

 

Changing the Headlines

IN THIS PHOTO: Is Olivia Rodrigo a possible Glastonbury Festival 2024 headliner?/PHOTO CREDIT: Théo de Gueltzl for Vogue

Glastonbury 2024: Speculation, Hopes and Progress

_________

EVEN if we have…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Glastonbury 2023/PHOTO CREDIT: Andy Ford/NME

just had Glastonbury Festival, there is a lot of excitement and speculation around next year’s event. Although Glastonbury this year was great, one thing that was highlighted was the headliners. A female headliner was originally booked for the Saturday – whilst organiser Emily Eavis has not named who it is, one suspects it was Taylor Swift -, though they pulled out. As it was, there was an all-male line-up. Lizzo performed an incredible set that was headline-worthy. So too did the sublime and genius Lana Del Rey. I am miffed as to why these two modern queens were not headliners on the Pyramid Stage, as the sets blew people away! Not that there was anything wrong with Arctic Monkeys and Guns N’ Roses (Elton John was brilliant and really did have to be a headliner), though one feels Del Rey and Lizzo would have been much better and more memorable! In any case, there are rumours and speculation as to who will play next year. Even if the ‘legends slot’ is not technically a headliner, a female legend has been confirmed. Emily Eavis also says that two actual female headliners have been confirmed. As we look to next year and wonder whether music festivals will actually affect progress and do more to make women headliners – there is ample choice and no barriers to booking them! -, let’s hope that Glastonbury sets an example that others follow. I will go on in a minute.

 IN THIS PHOTO: Emily Eavis/PHOTO CREDIT: Dave J Hogan/Getty Images

First, NME report on news and information that Emily Eavis revealed to Annie Macmanus and Nick Grimshaw on their BBC podcast, Sidtracked. It suggests that, after a male-heavy line-up this year, things will improve in 2024:

“Emily Eavis has teased line-up details for next year’s Glastonbury Festival, hinting once again that there could be two female headliners.

The 2024 edition of the legendary Worthy Farm event will take place between June 26-30, with the first batches of tickets due to go on sale next week. No acts have been announced as of yet.

Speaking on the latest episode of Annie Mac and Nick Grimshaw’s Sidetracked podcast, Glastonbury co-organiser Eavis spoke about the progress the team has made in putting the bill together.

“2024 is still a little up in the air. I thought it was kind of taking shape and then last week I just got a call, and this is what happens if you wait a little longer, because quite often we’ll be booked up from July,” she began.

“This year we’re holding out for a little bit longer, and last week I got a call from a really big American artist saying this person’s around next year. And I was like, ‘Oh my God, this is incredible’. Thank God we held the slot.”

Eavis went on to reiterate that she is “really passionate about gender split” on the line-up, having faced some criticism in regards to last year’s all-male headliners (Arctic Monkeys, Guns N’ Roses and Elton John).

“Our problem was that I’d been so outspoken about it that having a year where there wasn’t a female [headliner] sent people a bit mad, or some people,” Eavis continued. “And actually, we did have a female [but] she pulled out and we replaced them with Guns [N’ Roses] on the Saturday.”

She added: “I’m always trying to make it the most balanced, diverse bill. It is difficult with female artists because there aren’t enough headliners. But we’re also creating them. We’re putting the bands and female artists on smaller stages and bringing them through all the time so I feel like the pool is going to be bigger soon.

“And who knows? Next year we might get two [female headliners]. And certainly, I can say that the legend [slot] is female.”

Back in 2019, Eavis promised that she was aiming to ensure “as close to” a 50/50 gender split as possible on the Glastonbury line-up. “I think there’s a light at the end of the tunnel,” she said in 2018 on the strive for gender equality at the festival and in the wider music industry.

Acknowledging this year’s all-male bill-toppers during an interview in March, Eavis attributed the lack of viable female headliners to an industry “pipeline” problem.

Fans are currently speculating over whether Madonna could headline Glastonbury 2024 after Eavis shared an image from a ‘Celebration Tour’ concert in London. The Queen Of Pop is available next June as it stands, with her run of North American dates scheduled to end in April.

Rhianna has also been long rumoured to headline Glastonbury, and has recently been reported as planning a new album and live return for 2024.

Other rumoured artists include Dua Lipa, Coldplay, Foo Fighters and Blur. The first line-up poster is traditionally revealed in March”.

I can appreciate that some artists pull out and others are unavailable. I am not convinced by any argument that suggests there were no suitable female headliners available! I have named two that were already booked that could have done it. There were so many other options too. Even though Glastonbury is incredible and the best festival in the world, there is still that issue with not really doing enough to ensure that there are female headliners. Emily Eavis is really trying, that is clear - though this year was a huge, missed opportunity. Two brilliant women stormed their sets lower down the bill, whereas at least two of the male headliners were not exactly mind-blowing and at their best. In any case, we do get to look ahead - and, let’s hope, genuine progress is created that will stick and not be a one-off. That is always the danger. Almost a novelty booking female headliners, only for things to be returned to their former state! I think that, as she is on such a high, Olivia Rodrigo is going to be one of the headliners. The twenty-year-old, like Billie Eilish in 2019, could well be a case of this young artist commanding the world’s biggest festival stage. Both of these American modern icons are among the most important artists of their generation. I don’t think Madonna will headline, given the fact her Celebration Tour is going to be exhausting and extensive. I do think that either Dua Lipa or Rihanna are more likely. It would, of course, be wonderful if all three headline slots were given to women. That said, if we had Olivia Rodrigo, Rihanna and someone like Blur headlining in 2024, that would be pretty amazing!

 IN THIS PHOTO: Corinne Bailey Rae

There are plenty of options when it comes to the legend who will fill that converted slot. It is a woman, as has been confirmed. I do feel like the rest of the bill will also tip ion the favour of women. With incredible new artists like The Last Dinner Party almost guaranteed to get a slot, they join a wave of other solo artists, duos and groups who have made such an impact this past year. Most of the best albums and singles this year have been made by women, so you will see that reflected at Glastonbury 2024 – and I feel everyone from Nadine Shah, Iraina Mancini, boygenius, Mitski, RAYE, Jessie Ware, and Corinne Bailey Rae will be included, alongside newer artists like Panic Shack. Whilst Glastonbury is far from the only festival who have been put under the microscope when it comes to gender balance, on the plus side, they have always been ahead of so many others when it comes to balance and at least getting close to a fifty-fifty split. It is that issue of the headline acts and ensuring that there is female representation there. It will definitely change in 2024!

 IN THIS PHOTO: The Last Dinner Party

That leads us to ask whether other festivals, fully capable of doing the same, will. As more and more amazing women come through the industry, it becomes more apparent that many festivals are not doing all they can. Quite angering when you get a lot of male headliners who are far less worthy than their female peers. I do feel that all festivals need to commit to equality across the bills, including female headliners. It is something many other people want to. Glastonbury 2024 is already shaping up to be pretty exciting. We shall hold our breath to see who is announced when the poster comes out early next year. You know that Emily and Michael Eavis are going to be leading the way when it comes to gender representation at festivals. I do think Olivia Rodrigo is going to be one of the headliners, though it is a personal wish rather than anything concrete. In any case, two female headliners plus a woman in that legend’s slot means that we definitely have…

SOMETHING to look forward to.

FEATURE: King on Queens: Inside the New Podcast, Where It’s At: A Short History of Girlbands

FEATURE:

 

 

King on Queens

IN THIS PHOTO: BBC Radio 1 presenter and former member of The Saturdays. Mollie King, will present a new podcast for BBC Sounds, Where It’s At: A Short History of Girlbands

Inside the New Podcast, Where It’s At: A Short History of Girlbands

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THIS is the second time…

 IMAGE CREDIT: BBC

in fairly short succession that I have discussed girlbands/groups. Whether you see them as dominating in the past yet less significant now, or that the best coming through right now are more innovative and fresher than their older sisters, one cannot deny that there is a lot of variety and legacy. A new BBC Sounds series, Where It’s At: A Short History of Girlbands, will be presented by Mollie King. The Saturdays’ member has this podcast coming out that looks at the history of girl bands. Rather than looking back to the 1960s, it seems like the series picks things up from the late-1980s and 1990s. Nodding to girlbands of her generation such as Girls Aloud and Little Mix, it will be a chance to see how the music and dynamic of girlbands has changed through the decades. You can get a flavour of what to expect here. The series officially launches on 6th November. Here is some detail about the new BBC series:

“Mollie King will host BBC Radio 1’s brand new podcast Where It’s At: A Short History of Girlbands, premiering exclusively on BBC Sounds on Monday 6 November, with the teaser episode launching on 25 October

The podcast will chart the evolution of the Nineties and Noughties’ iconic girl bands with contributions from some of the nation’s favourite female pop-group sensations, including TLC, Girls Aloud, Little Mix and the Sugababes.

In each episode, Mollie will look at how girl bands – including her own, The Saturdays – have become a cornerstone of music history and how groups like FLO, BLACKPINK and Say Now are redefining girl power for a new generation.

Mollie King says: “When the BBC asked me to choose some of my favourite girl bands from the last few decades for a new podcast series, I knew this would be the most fun project EVER and it really didn’t disappoint.

“I’ve had such a great time chatting to some of the women behind a few of my favourite girl bands. From the fashion - the crazy outfits, the high heels and the even bigger hair - the dance routines and the fun of big budget music videos, through to the lesser known lows of what it’s really like to live in the non-stop girl band bubble - it’s been brilliant to remember those times, whilst also looking forward to the future of girl band pop talent.”

Mollie King has been a member of the girl group The Saturdays since 2007, achieving thirteen Top 10 hits and four Top 10 albums before going solo in 2015. She is now better known for being a host on BBC Radio 1 presenting Future Pop (Thursdays, 8-10pm) and weekends (1pm-4pm) alongside co-host Matt Edmondson.

The teaser episode of Where It’s At: A Short History of Girlbands will be available on the 25 October on BBC Sounds, with the first four episodes launching on the 6 November and the remaining four available from the 13 November.

Where It’s At: A Short History of Girlbands is a Spiritland Creative production for BBC Sounds. The series is written and produced by Kate Hutchinson and the Series Editor is Joe Haddow. It was commissioned by Executive Will Wilkin for BBC Radio 1”.

I am going to end with a playlist containing songs from girl bands from the '90s to present time. There had been quite a few years where we did not see many new girlbands/groups. The past few years have seen FLO, Say Now, a raft of K-Pop groups and the odd U.S. export coming onto the market. Even if the scene is not as celebrated, fertile and busy as it was, there is still a role for girlbands. Maybe messages and dynamics have changed since the ‘golden days’. It is still great seeing a group of strong women putting out these powerful anthem. Medium published an article in 2015 where they discussed how girl groups, unlike their male counterparts, were critical because of their appearances and messages. A sexism and misogyny that is starting to erode (thankfully!). Even if there is still a snobby and dismissive attitude to girlbands from some, the fact that we have a new breed of empowering women putting out incredible songs and inspiring girls and women (and other genders/ages) is to be commended! I think that the best girlbands are the ones who can captivate and inspire a young female demographic; also speak to a larger audience in terms of the appeal of the music and lyrics:

“Girls-whether in the entertainment industry or simply posting a picture on social media-are subject to the response of being seen as “too sexy” and “trying to hard”. A member of a boy band can post a shirtless picture and gain many “likes” and compliments, while a member of a girl group posts a picture in a swimsuit and receives harsh criticism. This is because girl groups aren’t targeted to male counterparts, but to girls who have proven they will buy music and merchandise of people they like. Society is quick to judge girl groups on image, but instead of millions of boys stopping the hate because they enjoy the group, it is millions of girls being ignored by the media attempting to stop the hate because they enjoy the messages being sent by the group.

With being international superstars comes the price of fame, and Little Mix is no stranger to bad press. Just today are they making headlines for storming out of an interview, and have been known as “little rebels” in the media. But the group moves forward with their heads held high, with hopes of making more music and making an even bigger difference in our emerging feminist culture.

Girl groups throughout the years have been down played because it was only about their looks, but now with feminism becoming more apparent and stronger in our culture we see many activists through many platforms attempting to spread the word of an important cause. Girl groups are needed for the growth of feminism and female empowerment, giving young girls (and boys) role models that teach of the importance of equality and working for your future, whatever it entails. Stopping this growth because of looks and an image is harmful not only to the performers, but to the fans who want and need to hear these messages that give strength and hope for whatever struggle they are going through. Fans are dedicated, and want to be active in the causes of their favorite celebrities and performers. Taking away their opportunities is the exact opposite of the lessons these girl groups teach.

The next time you see or hear about these girl groups and their goals of helping others and feminism, take the time to read or listen to it. What they are seeing is important not only to them, but to their fans who are shaping the world and our culture, one hit single at a time”.

 IN THIS PHOTO: Little Mix

I know the BBC Sounds podcast will explore the history of girl bands. Seeing how they developed and impacted popular culture. It is clear that there were distinct periods where the girlbands flourished and were at the forefront. Other times, such as the 1970s, where there was perhaps less success and attention. Udiscovermusic.com charted the history of girl groups earlier this year. It does seem that from the 1990s onwards particularly, there was a revival and renaissance:

“The 80s and beyond

Things improved for girl groups in the 80s. From America, the likes of Sister Sledge and Mary Jane Girls cleaned up in the discos during the first half of the decade, and the harder-edged, self-contained band Klymaxx brought a more funky attitude to their take on dance music. The Bangles enjoyed a series of smash hits in the second half of the decade, including a cover of Prince’s “Manic Monday” and the international No.1 “Eternal Flame.” In the UK, Bananarama, a group initially criticized for unison singing in a monotone, grew into a major pop act with the likes of “Shy Boy” and the witty “Robert De Niro’s Waiting.” The group carried on when Siobhan Fahey left to form Shakespears Sister with Marcella Detroit, a duo with a darker sound that scored heavily with the single “Stay” in 1992, from the album Hormonally Yours.

Bananarama had drawn influence from The Go-Go’s, a Los Angeles band fronted by Belinda Carlisle and Jane Wiedlin, who hit with “Vacation” and “Head Over Heels” in the early 80s, plus the song Wiedlin wrote with Fun Boy Three singer Terry Hall, “Our Lips Are Sealed.” Hall’s group had been instrumental in putting Bananarama into the public eye when the two trios cut a pair of hit singles together. In turn, Bananarama were an influence over the next wave of UK girl groups, who had grown up watching them become stars; this included Spice Girls. But there was another US girl group which had considerable input into the expectations of the Girl Power generation, though their fine records are not often cited as an influence: En Vogue.

The funky foursome from Oakland, California, were the brainchild of Foster-McElroy, who’d produced hits for Timex Social Club and Tony! Toni! Tone!. Though known for creating the sound of New Jack Swing, the production boffins yearned to build an act that echoed the late 50s/early 60s girl groups in a modern context. Deciding that elegance, looks and brainpower were as important as strong voices, auditions were held, and the result was En Vogue, who hit big with the highly harmonious funk groove “Hold On,” in 1990. This debut single put them on a hit run that lasted 10 years in the US.

Foster-McElroy’s formula worked – so it was copied. British foursome Eternal enjoyed 15 hits from 1993; All Saints grabbed five No.1s between 1997 and 2000. There were many more acts formed this way. The biggest by far was Spice Girls, whose image of a gang of five ordinary young females having fun and expressing power through their music – and, above all, attitude – had a profound influence on a generation. Their 1996 debut “Wannabe” was a No 1 in every major music market.

In truth, their motto of Girl Power was a dilution of the politics, anger, and energy of the riot grrrl movement which had emerged from Washington state in the early 90s, but Spice Girls’ message was more easily accepted than the likes of the musically more credible Bikini Kill, Huggy Bear, and Sleater-Kinney. Girl Power delivered at least an idea – if not the reality – of feminism to millions of adolescent females. Spice Girls’ initial hitmaking career was no longer than four years, just two of which were spent as a five-piece. Some of their records seemed short on substance, but the marketing of Posh, Ginger, Sporty, Baby and Scary, using the group name as surrogate surnames much as Ramones had during the punk era, was nigh-on perfect, and they became the pop act of second half of the 90s.

American black music continued to bear female fruit: TLC made beautiful records in the first half of the 90s, justifiably selling 65 million of them, a figure more or less matched by Destiny’s Child, the leading trio who followed them and launched the career of the biggest female star of the new millennium, Beyoncé. In the UK, Sugababes and Girls Aloud in turn gave rise to Little Mix; the last two groups were formed through TV talent shows.

It’s a long journey from The Andrews Sisters to Little Mix, but the route is surprisingly direct. For each group mentioned here, there are dozens more, each with something to say. Generations of girls admire them – teenage boys do too. They deliver a different voice to pop: an emotional expressiveness, often surprisingly direct, that male acts cannot – and cannot even hope – to deliver. If that’s the real meaning of girl power, more power to them”.

I am going to finish in a second. Not only will the Mollie King-fronted series celebrate the queens of the past. She will also shine a light on modern girlbands and their value. I want to highlight an article from The Guardian from last year. I think FLO and Say Now are leading a charge for the modern girlband. If some are still formatting and galvanising their music to something strong and long-lasting, there are others that are a little pale. I do wonder why there are not as many girlbands now as before. Maybe, with all-female groups and female-led bands, the form and genre is diversifying. What we now terms a ‘girlband’ does not necessarily mean five or more women doing Pop/R&B and presenting themselves a particular way. It must be quite hard keeping fresh and alive the girlband at a time when there are other genres and groups taking the spotlight:

“But for every success story, there followed half a dozen failed attempts to capitalise on it. After the Spice Girls’ ascent the major label machine pumped out various groups, but, despite some decent hits, the likes of Atomic Kitten, B*Witched and Honeyz never achieved the same cultural dominance. The situation is worse post-Little Mix: the girl bands hoping to fill the void are, frankly, lacklustre.

SVN, a group made up of the original cast of the musical Six plus an understudy, are peddling trite girlboss empowerment anthems that, in an era of Billie Eilish and Olivia Rodrigo’s weighty emo pop, feel dated. The atrociously named CuteBad, a new group backed by Girls Aloud hit-makers Xenomania, feel as if they’re desperately chasing K-pop maximalism but are already struggling to keep hold of band members. Another Xenomania outfit, Unperfect, split up before they got going, while groups like Ring the Alarm and Four of Diamonds have tried and failed to capture pop fans’ attention.

IN THIS PHOTO: SVN

Only the London trio FLO have sparked any excitement. Their debut single, Cardboard Box, produced by MNEK, is a fun hit of nostalgic 00s R&B, although it lacks the sizzling originality of Overload by Sugababes, a group that FLO are heavy-handedly styled after. It might be unfair to write these groups off before they’ve had a chance to thrive: a large part of their failure is down to a simple lack of good tunes. Yet they also seem to have a fundamental misunderstanding of what makes a girl band great.

Spice Girls wouldn’t have mattered if their music was garbage, but, unlike the Hi-NRG dance pop and new jack swing that typified most pop bands of the time, their music spanned groove-filled R&B, disco, funk, 60s girl groups and, later, Latin-inflected pop. Aside from FLO’s throwback R&B, an outlier in a pop landscape that now favours moody singer-songwriters and 00s samples, all other recent UK girl bands have produced music without any identity. CuteBad’s You Don’t Really Wanna lacks any discernible melodic thread, while Gots to Give the Girl, the debut single by Unperfect, attempted relaxed California breeziness to the point of narcolepsy.

British girl bands conceived in the wake of the Spice Girls often failed to capture their lawless ebullience. This was sometimes by design: All Saints, with their sophisticated trip-hop, were like a Silk Cut and a glass of wine compared with the Spice Girls’ candyfloss. Effortless cool was the initial MO for Sugababes, too, although they also arrived with an angsty sense of disaffected ambivalence and an innovative sound in the shape of Overload. (You wonder whether the Spice Girls’ anarchy – stealing their master tapes pre-fame, sacking their manager – made the record industry exert a tighter grip on the doggedly kid-friendly girl bands who came in their wake, such as B*Witched.)

Only Girls Aloud came close to recapturing the spirited chaos of the Spice Girls. Their music was often idiosyncratic: while they weren’t immune to bland covers, songs like Biology and Sexy! No No No … stitched together disparate hooks and textures. Distinct identities helped sell these pop curios: Cheryl Tweedy and the late, great Sarah Harding became tabloid fixtures, famous not only for their late-night antics but also their gobbiness (like Cheryl’s criticisms of other pop stars such as Nicole Scherzinger and Lily Allen). Again, they all felt like individuals who could come together to form something greater.

So in the era of the solo artist, the closest we have to a girl band is when these solo artists collaborate. Sometimes, such as Charli XCX, Christine and the Queens and Caroline Polachek’s various team-ups, these are explorations of simpatico pop sensibilities; others, like Dua Lipa and Megan Thee Stallion’s collaboration Sweetest Pie, are calculated positioning exercises. Supergroups such as US-based Boygenius, comprising Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus, could also signify the next iteration of the girl band: the thought of Bree Runway, Raye and other UK pop stars going full Avengers is certainly appealing. K-pop, of course, is a space where the girl band is thriving: groups like Blackpink, Twice and Everglow offer whiplash-inducing choreography, bombastic bangers and luminescent visuals with astonishingly high production values that make UK efforts look embarrassingly budget by comparison.

IN THIS PHOTO: boygenius/PHOTO CREDIT: Chantal Anderson for WSJ. Magazine

But a new girl band is what Britain needs. If the Spice Girls took the lairy masculine energy of 90s Britain and powerfully feminised it, whoever follows Little Mix needs to similarly tap into the spirit of the age. They will require chemistry, strong personalities, irreverence, a cache of bangers, and an ability to commune with the mood of the country: one that has now been ravaged by a decade of austerity, the fallout from Brexit and vicious culture wars. Bleak times, currently soothed by the sad girls of bedroom pop, also need brightening with bold, dynamic talent, not the second-guessing of major labels. It is a mighty task, but only then will the UK spice up its life once more – Lord knows, we need it.

I am really looking forward to Where It’s At: A Short History of Girlbands. Taking that classic All Saints song as the title, it will be shining a light on the bosses and queens. How fans have formed these tribes. How the music speaks to a particular generation. I feel, at a time where the new breed is taking shape, this is very timely and relevant. I am going to end with a playlist featuring the best girlbands from the 1990s to today. You will hear some amazing and timeless music – a lot of which will be covered and discussed by Mollie King. If you have even a passing interest in the history of the girlband, then you will not want to miss…

THIS amazing series.

FEATURE: Spotlight: Jessica Winter

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

 PHOTO CREDIT: Nan Moore

Jessica Winter

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EVEN though I have…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Grant James-Thomas

included the music of Jessica Winter in weekly playlists, I have not included her in Spotlight. That needs to be corrected! I have been a fan of hers for a while now. Earlier this year, Jessica Winter released the incredible E.P., Limerence. I am going to come to some recent interview with Jessica Winter. There is one from last year I will start with. Before I get there, here is some important information and background about a tremendous artist:

“Jessica Winter is an artist who doesn’t belong to one genre, scene or group.  She is not confined by sound but by song.  Much of her childhood was spent looking out of the window from her hospital bed which enabled a very vivid imagination to grow.  Jessica Winter takes inspiration from every life experience and explores sounds from the 80s, to trap, to indie and back around to pure pop. She is currently residing in Brixton but originally from Portsmouth.

Having been in bands for the past few years and currently one half of the duo PREGOBLIN, Jessica has a habit of never stopping and consistently curious of writing and producing music for herself and others. Most recently Jessica has been working with Jazmin Bean, polish singer Brodka, LYAM, S-Type, Paul White & Remi Kabaka (Gorrilaz) and previously featured on CID RIM’s track, ‘Is This Love’.

After years of writing with people for joint projects Jessica started to write soley for herself in her garden shed come studio releasing her first solo project in 2018 catching the attention of Death Grips who quickly asked Jessica to support them over Europe.

From there Jessica amassed a huge collection of music for her own solo project, fine tuning her works with label friend Redinho, additional productions from Jonathan Snipes of Clipping, plus additional performance from Alex White (Fat White Family) on saxophone and Jason Cooper of The Cure on drums”.

Prior to getting to some 2023 press, there is a great 2022 chat with Rolling Stone UK. They spoke to Jessica Winter around the release of Limerence. Chatting with the London-via-Portsmouth artist about her Experimental Pop music and influences, it is a good starting place for anyone who wants to know more about one of our finest and most exciting young talents:

“‘Limerence’ describes a state of obsessive infatuation, where the intensity of one’s feelings for a person can become intrusive, all-consuming, and downright agonising. The psychologist Doroty Tennov, who coined the term with her 1979 book Love and Limerence, likens it to an addiction, with limerent people doing unusual and out-of-character things in order to get closer to the object of their affections. In recent years the concept has exploded — you can find Reddit communities full of self-appointed coaches and experts who are devoted to helping limerent people get over their crushes.

The UK musician Jessica Winter explores this theme across her new EP, Limerence. “There are three stages of limerence,” she explains, speaking over a Zoom call from her current home in east London. The first is infatuation, where you start to notice a person and feel they’re special; the second is crystallisation, the obsessive response; and the third is deterioration, where you begin to accept that the idealised object is a human being with flaws and the all-consuming feelings start to abate. “The EP’s five songs go through those stages.”

Winter grew up in Hayling Island, Portsmouth. She was born with hip dysplasia, a condition where the hip joint does not properly form. Going in and out of hospital for hip operations from 11 months old, the only place where Winter could only adequately sit with her brace was at a piano stool, and with little else to do but to play the instrument and follow her imagination, she began to cultivate her musical talents. When she was 16, she left Portsmouth and moved to Brixton, where she began to pursue a music career of her own, though a series of bad management arrangements during that time left her feeling pulled in different directions.

It was only when she formed the band Pregoblin with fellow musician Alex Sebley and concurrently began developing her solo project that she refined the musical identity she has today. It’s pop music, and unashamedly so (musical theatre and Barbara Streisand are key influences), but Winter often deals with far stranger subject matter (it’s not for nothing that she previously toured with Death Grips). “I’m obsessed with pop music,” says Winter. “I want to see how far I can take certain sounds, and how I can encapsulate weirder messages, in a pop song.”

She explored those weirder messages on 2020’s Sad Music EP (and its accompanying ‘Chambermix’ piano version) and its follow-up, 2021’s More Sad Music. But outside of her solo songwriting, Winter has built a career as a producer for other artists, recently working with Phoebe Green and The Big Moon (not to mention producing a rework of Metronomy’s ‘I Lost My Mind’, due for release on the UK band’s special edition of Small World later this month). “I feel like I can make people calm in a studio,” Winter says. “I have such a crazy bunch of characters in my family that I know how to deal with people who are up and down, which most artists are.”

We caught up with Winter to learn more about the EP and her upcoming plans for the year ahead.

How did growing up in Hayling Island influence your relationship to music and creativity?

Jessica Winter: Hayling Island is quite a small, depressed town. It’s where people go to die. It’s a bleak atmosphere, and I think in the bleakest atmospheres, you need some kind of imagination to enjoy life. Being surrounded by the sea, too, is something you can’t escape. When I came to London I really missed the sea — maybe there’s a natural rhythm to it.

Your uncle was a local punk hero, and your mother was a glamour model. What impact has your family had on the music you make today?

Jessica Winter: There’s a big punk scene in Portsmouth and Hayling Island. My uncle is in a punk band, so growing up I saw him play. My mum was a glamour model; my mum’s brother is also an artist — Uncle John, he’s called — they all inspired me visually and lyrically. That’s probably where all my sad songs come from.

What sort of things did you hear around the house growing up?

Jessica Winter: My dad was a New Romantic. My mum loved S-Club, Kylie, and Madonna. But my biggest influence was probably the Sex Pistols and 70s punk bands from my uncle. And musical theatre, obviously! I got really into musical theatre and wanted to be a dancer from when I was born, but I couldn’t dance as I’d had so many hip operations and was always in and out of hospital.

I guess punk-rock and musical theatre are both big expulsions of energy, although theatre is choreographed whereas punk is spontaneous.

Jessica Winter: But they’re both very dramatic.

When you were in and out of hospital, you played the piano a lot. But did you pick up any other instruments during that time?

Jessica Winter: I picked up the guitar. I tried a bit of violin; that was really bad. It was the piano that stole my heart. When I was about 11 months old, I couldn’t do anything, as I had a back brace that put me in the splits, so my mum would fix me onto the piano stool with each leg through the hole so I was really secure to this chair, and that would be my entertainment. My only entertainment, really, because I couldn’t walk or crawl. So I’d tinker away for a few hours, and she’d be able to get some chores done.

You moved to Brixton aged 16. That’s quite a mad thing to do at that age.

Jessica Winter: I knew I wanted to be in London. It wasn’t that brave of me, because I went to move in with my uncle. I went up there to try it, and I never left. Brixton was full of interesting sights and smells and culture. Now everyone is being moved out — it’s horrible. But it was such a culture shock going from Portsmouth to Brixton. You’re so in a bubble in a small town.

Did you have a plan in London?

Jessica Winter: When I first wrote a song at 16, it all suddenly clicked into place. I’d love creative things but didn’t know what I wanted to do — I thought I wanted to do acting or dancing or art. But as soon as I wrote something, I was like, ‘This is the best feeling in the world.’ With dancing you have to learn a piece, and with acting you have to learn someone else’s lines, but with a song, you’re creating from the heart.

I got a driving licence, and I had a keyboard and drove everywhere to play gigs. I played in Bournemouth, Portsmouth, Southampton, and London. I got spotted. I thought, then, that that’s how you did it — you get spotted by a man with money. I signed with this manager who ended up trying to get me into the porn industry. That was for five years, and I never put any music out. The management company itself was good — they gave me money every few months so I could spend it crafting, writing, rehearsing, and gigging, but never actually putting music out — but this specific manager… He tried to get me to do something like that, and I thought, ‘That doesn’t seem right.’ My mum had taught me all about that, as she was in the glamour industry and knew all about it. I’ve had a few incidents with people I’ve worked with in studios, producers, people in famous bands, and there was a moment where I felt enough is enough. Now, I’ve put a team around me which is not like any of that and it feels right and nice and like a family. It’s a shame that it has to take these experiences to realise. I’d love to start something for young girls getting into the music industry to recognise the warning signs, like an HR programme.

How did you go from being inside this nightmarish part of the music industry to where you are today?

Jessica Winter: I just stopped working with everyone. You have to do a reset. You get told so many things — ‘You need to do this,’ ‘You need to be like that,’ ‘What about this?’ — so it was good doing that. I met Alex Sebley from Pregoblin at a Harry Merry concert, this German avant-garde artist. Alex is also from Hayling Island [although we didn’t know each other beforehand]. He told me how terrible his music career had been, and I was really angry, and we said ‘Let’s just write a song.’ And then we had Pregoblin. That gave me some confidence. I started my solo artist project around the same time, so it was nice that we could do it at the same time”.

There have not been that many interviews since the release of Limerence. I hope that there are other chats very soon. I will drop in a few, since they give more context and colour to this incredible musician. I feel that 2024 will be a huge one for Jessica Winter. Even though some people may just be tuning into Jessica Winter, she has been in the industry for over a decade. Someone who has been honing her sound and making her way through. The Forty-Five spoke with Winter earlier in the year. They noticed that her sound has evolved through recent years:

“The last time you spoke to The Forty-Five, back in 2020, you were all about the sad banger. The tracks you’re releasing now have a more empowering spirit – still bangers, less sad. Are we entering a new era of your music?

That’s really encouraging to hear that because maybe that means I’m mentally, getting better? I’ve definitely had a few revelations over the last few years. I’ve been in lots of different headspaces that I’ve not been in before so I would hope that all my songs aren’t going to be sad bangers. In your late teens and early 20s, your mind opens up at different times. I’m in that next stage: I’ve had another fishbowl moment where you take the bowl off and you can actually see things way more clearly than you have before. I can look at myself from a different perspective now. I never understood why I was ending up in quite traumatic relationship patterns and it’s only with a lot of digging deep with therapy, that I’ve had some huge revelations. I think it’s going to help me be a bit more balanced in the world.

You work with a lot of other artists (Jazmin Bean, Phoebe Green, The Big Moon) as a songwriter as well as being an artist in your own right. The Big Moon’s Jules credits you for helping her to get over writer’s block after the birth of her baby. Tell us about the experience of working on ‘Wide Eyes’ with her.

I’d heard through the grapevine that she’d had a baby but she didn’t actually tell me until the day. It was so exciting for me to be able to try and think up a song of what it would feel like to have a baby. It’s such an alien concept and I don’t know if I ever want to do it myself, so I just think it’s so exciting to think about how that would feel when you don’t know what they’ll turn out like or if you’ll like them! So because I was just like ‘Wow’, it happened so easily. We literally wrote that in four hours, because she had to get back and feed the baby!

You’ve been in the music industry for close to a decade. What are some changes you’ve noticed over that time?

I do feel like algorithms have ruined a lot of individuality. We’re in an individualistic age but the algorithm is creating a format and a system that everyone must follow in order to be seen and heard. It’s ruining the mystery and the magic of music because you have to be a constant content provider. Sometimes songs can take months and months but now because we’re in a technological age, you can’t really do that. But it is what it is. We just have to accept it.

What are you most excited about in 2023?

I’m going to [Texan new music festival] South by Southwest for the first time. It will be my first gig in the USA. I can’t wait. And then after that I’ll be going to LA to finish off doing some writing and recording for the album. I think it will be released towards the end of this year. It’s a really exciting time. I’m getting so many amazing opportunities which I’ve not had before. I’m particularly excited to play with Rebecca Black in Heaven on Friday. We haven’t spoken much yet. I was in LA working last year and went to a Dorian Electra show. Rebecca was there and we were all just hanging out. We didn’t really talk or anything but then she came through with the tour support, so I don’t know if I maybe impressed her with a dance move or something”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Daisy Jones for DAZED

Let’s move on to DAZED. Having come back from supporting Rebecca Black on tour – that must have been quite a double header! -, Winter led them through the hands of a slightly wild night in East London. We get an even deeper connection and impression of one of our most remarkable talents:

“Winter had been making her own stuff alongside everything anyway, and in 2020 she released her Sad Music EP, followed by More Sad Music in 2021. Most recently, she put out Limerence, an exuberant, paradoxical slice of pop about love, loss and relationships. In “The Love Song” she sings “When I hear you in the morning, it makes the demons go away” over a chugging guitar riff that warps and bends like a heartstring. Why is she so drawn to writing about love’s melancholy, twisted shadow? “I’ve never been very successful at it,” she says. “I do think [romantic] love is possible, it’s just taking me a bit longer. Maybe because I had such an unhealthy teaching growing up. I’ve had to relearn a lot of what healthy love looks like… I was drawn to wild, unstable characters. But I’m not ruling love out yet – don’t worry.”

Winter blames part of this feeling on the “difficult landscape” we’re in now. “Everyone is a bit lost,” she adds. “We’re ever more separated from intimacy than we think we are – it’s really hard to connect. So I just sing about these things that upset me a lot. I’m desperate for something different. If no one says how they really feel, how is anyone supposed to change?” At this point, she casually drops in the fact that she got married at 22, and that she’s currently in the process of getting divorced. It feels fairly typical of Winter – just another odd addition to what’s already been a comparatively colourful life. “I’ve been in codependent relationships, it’s been up and down, like romance in a film and then it’s terrible, traumatic. I didn’t know who I was, or what I wanted.”

Suddenly it’s 10pm and the night is closing in on us, or at least on the cusp of turning. The air outside is thin and spring-like, warmer than you’d expect for February, and we spend some time walking the streets, snapping photos in a local off-licence and hanging around the bin-studded Dalston alleyways. Winter says that after vomiting the other night she’s learned her lesson about touring: you always party at the end, never at the beginning. She won’t be doing that again. The next day, while performing in Bristol, she’d thought she was going to drop down dead, or at least vomit again. Torturous.

So what next for Jessica Winter? She tells me that she’s supporting someone cool very soon, but it’s not confirmed yet, so I can’t reveal anything in print. Other than that, she’s working on a debut album, hopefully out before the year’s through. She doesn’t know what it’ll sound like, but she has some ideas; each song tends to unfurl itself as an individual creation, untethered to genre or the past.

As I leave to catch the overground, I’m thinking about what Winter told me earlier, about becoming solo, and taking control of her own creativity. “I needed to have something that was mine, that was sacred,” she’d said. “I was like ‘fuck it, I can’t rely on anyone. I can only rely on myself.’ I had to take a moment to be like: who am I, what am I and who do I want to be.” Right now – from the outside at least – it looks as though she’s found out”.

I will finish with an interview from DORK. They highlighted the fact Jessica Winter has inspired a load of other artists. She is someone primed to be a star very soon. I would urge anyone who has not checked out Winter’s music to get involved now:

“Jessica Winter is your favourite artist’s favourite artist. Even Robert Smith has voiced his approval. It’s taken her a long time to get here, time spent trying on a variety of styles in a variety of bands. Now she’s striving for success on her own terms, under her own name, as the musician she’s always wanted to be, and the music she’s making is nothing short of magical.

The magic she possesses is never more apparent than when she performs. Dancing under the stage lights at her live shows, singing and spinning in the rain in the music video for ‘Choreograph’, pulling shapes against a stormy sky in the music video for ‘Clutter’, it’s when she’s breathing fresh life into her songs that Jessica shines the brightest.

“I just live for that, actually,” she enthuses of performing. Forging the unique kind of catharsis that comes from dancing away your demons in the dark, her live shows are an exploration of gleefully freewheeling abandon. “It’s a craft, for sure,” she describes. “I feel like I’m at a point now where I’ve felt the audience change with me.”

Having spent more than half a decade cutting her teeth in bands – from the punk stylings of Rotten Luck when she was 16, through turns as Hall Of Mirrors, Glass, and Pregoblin – before starting out as a solo artist, her live show is something she’s reinvented several times over. “You’re always trying to get people’s attention,” she contemplates. “That’s what you’re doing. You’re going out, and you’re going ‘these are my songs! Listen!’”

PHOTO CREDIT: Patrick Gunning

Her innate understanding of who she is as an artist and how to express that to an audience has been hard-won. “I remember looking around just thinking, ‘I don’t even know what I’m doing anymore’,” she recalls of a band she was in back in 2017. “I remember just thinking, ‘do I even like doing this? Do I even like music?’” While she was fronting her own project at the time, writing and performing her own music, she felt disillusioned with where she found herself. More particularly, she felt disillusioned with the industry she found herself in. “It’s like the Wild West,” she describes. It was a moment like this one that prompted the decision to release and perform music under her own name. “What you realise is that you just don’t like the industry,” she clarifies. “Music is healing.”

“I’m obsessed with the juxtaposition of light and dark,” Jessica enthuses of her songwriting. It’s something you can hear in every song she makes. Take recent single ‘Funk This Up’, for example: with its sledgehammer of a beat and glimmering chorus cry of “we can be different,” the track takes the guise of a rallying call to the dancefloor, while the lyrics tell a tale of bad habits and addiction. “That’s what the beauty of pop music is, for me. It’s having the boundary and then trying to push as far as you can go within the boundary.”

PHOTO CREDIT: Patrick Gunning

Playing with elements of light and dark, of directness and poetry, one thing Jessica’s committed to is not holding back. “I’m always trying to find the perfect balance between saying something as directly as possible in the most poetic way,” she describes of her writing process. For her, making music is less about pinning down the direction you’re going in, and more about understanding where you’re creating from. “I think it’s about going back to why you do it in the first place, and not thinking about what you need to do to get somewhere,” she conveys. “It’s trying to find out why you love music and what makes you want to make music and what makes you want to write songs. Once you get focused on that, everything else falls into place.”

And fall into place it has done. ‘Limerence’ has just been released, she’s just wrapped up a UK tour with Rebecca Black, she’s got her first US performances ahead of her at SXSW, and she refuses to slow down any time soon. “This is the beginning now, and I’m not gonna stop putting stuff out for a long time,” Jessica enthuses, “hopefully.” With promises of “a larger body of work” in progress (*cough* debut album *cough*), the alt-pop world is hers for the taking.

“I’m still writing everything at the moment. I haven’t gone into the production stage yet,” she details, before continuing with the magic words, “but I really feel quite confident with a few bangers that I’ve got now.” This, dear reader, is exactly what we’re here for. As for how the new music’s shaping up, it’s early days yet, but her goals are simple ones. “I’m singing from the heart. And hopefully, people will feel that”.

Such a staggering talent who I think is going to go on to some very big places and stages, take some time out and listen to Jessica Winter’s music. What 2024 holds in store, I am not sure. You know that we will get yet more stunning music from your new favourite artist. Coming to the end of a successful 2023, we can see how Winter has attracted the attention of some pretty big stations, magazines and websites. All well deserved. This is an artist that needs to be…

SHARED far and wide.

__________

Follow Jessica Winter

 PHOTO CREDIT: Patrick Gunning for DORK

Official:

https://www.jessicawinter.tv/

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/jessicawinter666/

TikTok:

https://www.tiktok.com/@jessicawinter666

Bandcamp:

https://jessicawinter.bandcamp.com/

Twitter:

https://twitter.com/jessicawinterr

YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCp8dfFa6a5dZkmod_FLarog

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/artist/0gCYUYF1zfqZk5pG0e2ojy

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/jessicawinter666

FEATURE: The Digital Mixtape: Nordoff and Robbins' Northern Music Awards: Newcomer of the Year

FEATURE:

 

 

The Digital Mixtape

Nordoff and Robbins’ Northern Music Awards: Newcomer of the Year

_________

ONE hugely important award ceremony…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Melanie C will receive the Special Recognition award at the Northern Music Awards for her incredible contribution to music/PHOTO CREDIT: Mary McCartney

the Northern Music Awards shines a light on amazing talent through the North. There is a split between Industry categories/votes and Public. In the Industry, we have categories like Inspirational Venue of the Year and Industry Icon 2023. The Public categories include Artist of the Year and The Northern Music Award 2023. In partnership with and backed by Nordoff and Robbins (Britain’s leading music charity), the legendary Spice Girl, Melanie C, is set to receive the Special Recognition award for her outstanding contribution to music. She will perform at the awards show. There are going to be other acts and nominations mentioned soon. As it is said on the official website: “And we’re going to raise a lot of money for music therapy, so that Northern communities can have access to its transformative power. We want to reduce social isolation and enhance connection for local people, through music”. It is a noble and worthy aim and mission statement. A chance to celebrate the vital Northern music legacy and recognise all the influential and important artists, spaces, festival and D.J.s that create that richness and legacy, I wanted to highlight the Northern Music Awards and the great work of Nordoff and Robbins. As the Newcomer of the Year nominees have been named, I am going to end with a playlist featuring two songs from each nominee. Before that, here is some detail about the essential Northern Music Awards:

“Making a stand for Northern Music

Welcome to the Northern Music Awards (NMAs). The one and only major awards show celebrating the best of music from the North.

As Britain’s leading music charity, Nordoff and Robbins is turning up the volume with some of the biggest stars and rising talent that belongs to the North of England. Together, we’re hosting the most influential music awards event that Greater Manchester has ever seen.

And we’re going to raise a lot of money for music therapy, so that Northern communities can have access to its transformative power. We want to reduce social isolation and enhance connection for local people, through music.

More artists announced soon

The best of Northern Music

The biggest names of the North. Right here, performing at the Northern Music Awards.

The legendary Spice Girl, Melanie C, is set to receive the Special Recognition award for her outstanding contribution to music, and will perform at the awards show, with many more acts to be announced

We’re promising some of the greatest talent that the North has to offer. The line-up of live performances will be announced in stages and will only continue to get bigger and better”.

IN THIS PHOTO: Antony Szmierek

“Newcomer of the Year

This act is the ‘next big thing’ and will have a growing fanbase and social media presence. They will have played some busy grassroots venues in their hometown and beyond. Although the winner of this award will not be signed to a label, they may well have management.

The shortlists for the Newcomer of the Year Award are…

Antony Szmierek – Manchester

Manchester-born and bred wordsmith Antony Szmierek’s latest single ‘The Words To Auld Lang Syne’ was released in 2023. With its pulsating production and impeccable lyrical flow, the song has become a firm favourite for fans who have caught Szmierek and his band at Glastonbury Festival and their first European Festival Down The Rabbit Hole, where they played to packed out crowds.

English Teacher – Leeds

With acclaimed debut EP ‘Polyawkward’ heralding their extraordinary rise in 2022, English Teacher’s biting social commentary and unique musical soundscapes have positioned the quartet as influential figures within the emerging indie elite.

IN THIS PHOTO: Mica Millar

Mica Millar – Manchester

Mica Millar has quickly become one of the brightest new stars of British Soul music, picking up Jazz FM’s prestigious ‘Soul Act of The Year 2022’ award and featuring on the front covers of iconic Blues & Soul Magazine, amidst international radio support and an array of five-star reviews and acclaim from the likes of Echoes, The Daily Express, Record Collector, Music Week, The Official Charts and Word Play.

OneDa – Manchester

She’s on the rise with high-vibration collaborations (Gabe Gurnsey, Mr Scruff) that combine catchy wordplay and gold-plated flow, all fired by an empowered philosophy that she shares in her regular Pussy Power talks. The music bumps and rolls, bringing pumped-up basslines, spare drums and grimey synths that provide the perfect landscape for her vocal vibe energy.

IN THIS PHOTO: Otis Mensah

Otis Mensah – Sheffield

Otis Mensah is a musician and multidisciplinary artist exploring the intersection of poetry and experimental music(s). Taking influence from the rhythmic and expressive freedom of Jazz, Otis’ work uses aesthetic language as an instrument to solo through themes of race, identity, gender and the body. 

Phoebe Green – Manchester

Following the release of a run of successful singles, Phoebe Green released her debut album “Lucky Me” in August 2022. The tracks ‘Crying In The Club,’ ‘Just A Game,’ ‘Make It Easy,’ ‘Lucky Me’ and ‘Sweat’ all received widespread acclaim across national press and radio with extensive support from 6Music (including an appearance at the 6Music Festival) and Radio 1 (including 2 worldwide premieres and a Maida Vale session).

Pip Millett – Manchester

Born and raised in Greater Manchester, Pip Millett shares that her early experiences of loss and grief played a huge part in her resonating with and being obtusely aware of her emotions from her infancy. Remaining centred and a vigorous source of strength for her meant that musicality organically found its way into Pip Millett’s ether, before she realised that she wanted to become a professional vocalist.

IN THIS PHOTO: Pip Millett

Seb Lowe – Saddleworth

Seb Lowe, a talented 19-year-old wordsmith hailing from Oldham, has been making significant waves throughout the UK. With a substantial following of over 430,000 on TikTok which gained the attention of TikTok itself awarding Seb their #Altmusic featured artist of July. Seb and his merry band of misfits have garnered considerable attention.

The Goa Express – Burnley

Teenagehood, brotherhood and a genuine love for alternative music have united THE GOA EXPRESS from the off. Together, brothers James Douglas Clarke (Guitar + Vocals) and Joe Clarke (Keys), along with Joey Stein (Lead Guitar), Naham Muzaffar (Bass) and Sam Launder (Drums) all contribute to a fuzzy wall of diverse sound, becoming harder to pin down with their constantly evolving, psych-umbrella’d, rock and roll.

The Pale White – Newcastle

At the time devoid of fresh blood, Newcastle quickly became alight with buzz around The Pale White upon their formation in 2016. After enduring a global pandemic and concluding a career-best run of headline shows, Dave Barrow injected newfound excitement into the line-up as the new bass player. The revitalised outfit spent much of 2022 realigning themselves before returning to introduce the next era properly, with the ‘A New Breed’ EP truly declaring The Pale White’s rebirth”.

Here are some details as to when the awards take place and what will transpire on the day. Visit the official website so that you can get early bird access and details regarding getting tickets. Follow Nordoff and Robbins on Instagram and Twitter. I am excited to see all the artists, venues and people and organisations in the industry who will be represented and shortlisted. We know who is up for the Newcomer of the Year so, to celebrate these amazing artists, below is a playlist with examples of...

THEIR sublime work.

FEATURE: Saluting the Queens: Catherine Marks

FEATURE:

 

 

Saluting the Queens

PHOTO CREDIT: Mix with the Masters 

Catherine Marks

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IN addition to features…

spotlight great female artists in music, I am also running a feature where I highlight those women in the industry who are inspiring and creating change. Those who are icons and doing phenomenal work. I will look at those running labels, broadcasters, D.J.s, engineers and pioneers. First, and one of a few producers I am keen to include, is someone I have included before. Catherine Marks produced (with the group) boygenius’ the record. One of my favourite albums of the year, you only need to look at her official website to see what a résumé she has! A phenomenal producer and engineer, Marks recently featured in an edition of Sound on Sound. Fronting and leading ‘The Change Makers’, as a skilled and hugely respected mixer, engineer and producer – and she is the Executive Director of the Music Producers Guild -, Marks wanted to create visibility for those killing it in the industry. To show there is a wide and diverse pool out there. Whilst the issue did not mention women and non-binary professionals, it was male-free. Showcasing the incredible women and non-binary people in studios and in the industry who are there for all the decision makers to see. I am going to slightly detour before getting to some interviews with Catherine Marks. I think that Marks is one of the best and most important producers in the world. Billboard recently ran an article that showed how there is dismal representation across all genres when it comes to women and non-binary producers/engineers:

“The authors of a new report that paints a dismal portrait of gender diversity in recording studios are calling on major labels to step up their efforts to hire more women producers and engineers.

Published by Fix the Mix — an initiative launched in 2022 by nonprofit We Are Moving the Needle and official music credits database Jaxsta — the first annual report, created in conjunction with Middle Tennessee State University and Howard University and released Tuesday (April 11), found that women and non-binary people are drastically underrepresented in audio producing and engineering roles in recording studios.

PHOTO CREDIT: Pixabay

Analyzing 1,128 songs from 2022, the report (Lost In The Mix: An Analysis of Credited Technical Professionals in the Music Industry Highlighting Women and Non-Binary Producers and Engineers Across DSP Playlists, Genres, Awards, and Record Certifications) found that only 16 of the 240 credited producers and engineers (6.7%) on the top 10 most-streamed tracks of 2022 across five major digital service providers (Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, YouTube and TikTok) were women and non-binary people.

The levels of representation varied across genres. Among the top 50 songs across 14 genres examined in the report, metal had the lowest percentage of women and non-binary people credited in key technical roles at 0.0%, with rap and Christian & gospel coming in at 0.7% and 0.8%, respectively. On the other end of the spectrum, electronic stands out for its relatively high representation of women and non-binary people in producer roles, accounting for 17.6% of all producer credits on the top 50 songs of 2022, while folk & Americana was close behind at 16.4%.

“While this research notes the genres that have the best and worst gender representations, it is important to note that every genre needs improvement in representation of women and non-binary people,” said report co-author Beverly Keel, dean of Middle Tennessee State University’s College of Media and Entertainment, co-founder of Change the Conversation and co-founder of Nashville Music Equality. “It is difficult to fathom that representation remains so pitifully low in 2023. In any other industry, these low percentages of the genres that have the best gender representation would be an embarrassment, so I hope these ‘high achievers’ are not resting on their laurels.”

PHOTO CREDIT: Hendrik B/Pexels

Analyzing data from streaming services that report assistant credits, the report also found that women and non-binary people are better represented in assistant roles, which have 12.6% percentage points more women and non-binary people on average than key technical roles. The report suggests that, “while this higher concentration of women and non-binary people in assistant roles may indicate a growing pipeline of these contributors rising into key levels, it could be indicative of a glass ceiling preventing this demographic from an upward trajectory.”

This year’s Grammy Award nominees didn’t fare well in terms of representation either. Of all winning albums in the 28 “best in genre” categories in 2023, 17 credited zero women or non-binary people in the key technical roles of producer and engineer. A total of eight projects listed women and non-binary people as producers (representing 11.5% of all producers) and three projects listed women and non-binary people as engineers (representing 3.9% of all engineers). The total number of women and non-binary people credited in technical roles was 19 out of 249, or just 7.6%. Across the eight Grammy Award categories that honored people in technical roles, only one woman was recognized versus 30 men.

To offer a wider look at the music industry, the report also analyzed the RIAA diamond-certified list (songs that have achieved 10-times-platinum status) and the Spotify “Billions Club” (songs that have received 1 billion streams on the streaming platform). Of the top 50 songs on the RIAA diamond-certified list, there are a total of 248 key technical roles credited. Of those, 224 (98.4%) are filled by men while just 4 (1.6%) are filled by women or non-binary people. Of the four women and non-binary individuals credited, three are producers (two of which were the main artist on the track), while one is an engineer. Among the top 50 songs included on Spotify’s Billions Club, women and non-binary people make up only 2% of key technical roles”.

 PHOTO CREDIT: Wallace Chuck/Pexels

Back in October 2021, Professional Sound suggested ways that real change could be affected. There are amazing women and non-binary people in studios. There is still this culture that excludes them. Many professional studios still male-dominated. What are some of the reasons why there is this massive gender imbalance? The article posited some theories and explanations:

“The next obstacle women face within this industry, which likely deters many from entering or staying, is the continual presence of sexism. Of course, environmental and social obstacles are not uncommon in any workforce, but when someone's qualifications and abilities are dismissed daily due to their identity as a woman, there’s clearly an issue. Imagine you're doing your job as a producer when someone walks in and rudely points you out, asking if you're the girlfriend or wife of the studio owner. It’s not only incredibly upsetting, but also unbelievably common, even today. It, of course, doesn’t end there. Several women have also shared stories of being considered studio secretaries and cleaning ladies. Pangsaeng sums up the experience, explaining when a man walks into a recording studio everyone looks to him, thinking of course he’s the producer or engineer.

“If I'm there, the first thing people look for is a man in a room. They’ll just sit there and wait for the engineer, while I’m right there asking if they’d like to get started,” says Pangsaeng. “So, when I wanted to be taken seriously, even though I wasn't aware of it at the time, I began to bury my gender and my sexuality. I think especially as a woman, you instinctively just stack the odds in your favour.”

Sadly, the display and effects of sexism in the industry don’t stop there. Many women comment on how the hostile environment for women breeds a sort of disdain between women in the studio.  “We're really conditioned to accept that there's not a ton of space for more than one woman in the room,” explains Pangsaeng. “Looking back, I definitely made that normal and acceptable in my mind, sometimes even taking pride in being the only woman in the room. That's problematic. However, normalizing women's presence in the studio will change that perspective.”

Winston furthers this point, adding, “There is damage this environment has created and I feel sad, because I know they have weathered an enormous amount of sexism, so I remind younger folks, they're doing it to survive as they have more to lose.”

Another unavoidable issue can be found in the social qualities of a very male-dominated field. In Rogers’ past observations of women starting in the business, she comments on the absence of the pervasive competitive spirit commonly seen in men. “When I teach at the Berklee College of Music, some young female record-makers, engineers, mixers, producers, hit the wall hard trying to interact with men in a competitive environment. We need to model that more for young women – how to continue in the face of that competitive drive. Of course, sometimes due to a lack of self-confidence they’ll feel reluctant to express their opinions and keep up. But other times they're perfectly competent and it's just intolerance from a guy”.

I think Catherine Marks is someone who is genuinely affecting change and progress. From her continued amazing work through to the recent Sound on Sound issue that saluted these change-making women and non-binary icons, Marks is an example of the immense talent out there. Studios do need to be more inclusive and diverse. If recent findings show that only 5% of music producers are women, I do feel that we will see that figure rise (improve). Even so, toxicity and a lack of support is holding back real and quick parity. You can read more about Marks’s background here. Marks won for Best Producer in the prestigious MPG Awards in 2018. I am returning to Marks’s feet, as she continues to grow in stature and importance. Before coming up to date, I actually want to go back to an interview from 2014. Marks, then, was a rising and promising producer. In almost a decade since, she has established herself as an industry leader. Tape Op spoke with someone who was an Australian architecture student that bumped into the legendary producer/engineer Flood while studying in Ireland. She returned home to start playing in bands, before eventually moving to London and become an in-demand engineer and producer. It is an incredible story:

“You'd studied classical piano when you were younger?

Yeah, from like four to 15. I'm not really that good anymore, but I think it helps to be able to communicate notes and chords, at the very least.

I heard that you studied architecture in Melbourne.

When I did architecture at Melbourne uni, I had to do a compulsory year at a firm before I went on to finish my degree. For some reason, I thought it would be a good idea to do it in Ireland, because my mum's Irish. Dublin was full of amazing musicians, at the time. I started going to see bands, which I'd never done before. I met Flood maybe halfway through the year of my time there. It was at a Nick Cave concert, and we got along really well. Someone had mentioned that he was a music producer. I don't think I understood what that was, at that point. I think at my going-away dinner I asked him if he'd produce me, and he said no. I think he was working on a U2 record at the time. He said, "I won't; but if you are really serious about working in music, I'll help you. Go back, finish your degree, and work out if you want to do what I do. It's a big sacrifice."

It's overwhelming. So you went back to Melbourne to finish your degree?

Yeah, I joined a couple of bands playing keyboards. The first band I was in was called The Wreck. I would say it was kind of ethereal indie-pop. Then The Wreck broke up, and I joined this band called The Harlocks.

Was there kind of an open invitation to come to London and work with Flood?

No. In his mind he thinks I pestered him, but in my mind I think that he called me regularly to make sure I was still coming. Either way, we had stayed in contact over those four years. When I eventually moved to London, I became the assistant to the assistant engineer, Andy Savours. But I didn't know what it was to work in a studio. I'd never personally recorded anything. I was not technically savvy, at all. But I was so excited about making music, and being involved in making music. Even the things that I found difficult I was determined to figure out. There's a real dynamic in the studio, which I definitely know now and it's incredibly crucial, but I really didn't understand it then. I'd been working at an architecture firm, and I had people who were working underneath me.

How did you approach learning some of the technical side?

I asked a lot of questions; probably annoyingly. I still constantly apologize to Flood now for the way I was. But Flood and Andy also had this thing they called the "war of attrition." I'd ask a question when I thought it was the appropriate time, but it obviously wasn't. They'd reveal a little bit of information, which of course made no sense to me, at all, because it had no context. I'd ask, "What does compression do?" They'd go, "Well, it does this... but this is all we're going to tell you, for now." I still joke to Alan Moulder that I think I've finally worked out the difference between attack and release. He knows that I know things, but we don't have those kind of discussions. He laughs at me because I don't profess to be overly technical, but I do actually know all this stuff. The technological side of things is, like, 25 percent of it.

How did you get up to speed though?

After three months of shadowing Andy, Flood gave me the keys to this project studio up in Kilburn, which he called The Boys Bedroom. It was a mess. All his mates had been using it. I started sorting things out and repatching. I slowly started teaching myself all the equipment. He just kept throwing me in the deep end. "There's a session here, and the band wants to record 25 tracks, in six days." Things would break down; I'd just stay calm and work it out.

I agree that the technical is a small percentage of what you have to do to get a record done.

I say all this stuff, but recently I engineered the Foals' Holy Fire record for Flood and Alan. I was really nervous about doing that, because you're working with two of the greatest producers and engineers in the world. It was an amazing opportunity, because they rarely work together, and Foals is an incredibly talented band. It was not only keeping the ship running, but also managing the technical side of things as well.

PHOTO CREDIT: Headliner

How much do you end up editing and tuning material?

I don't think I'm particularly fond of comping drums or Auto-Tune. I'm very reluctant. I don't think it's out of laziness, but it's much easier to get them to play again. It saves time. All that stuff is really time consuming. But I know that everyone has a different process. I was talking about it with a band yesterday who was asking if I was going to comp the drums. I said that I'd like to not have to do that, unless they want it to be a creative thing where they'd like things to sound cut-up, or to sound like a drum machine. They said that they worked with people before who just did one drum take and then spent hours cutting it up. I can understand that. It's a process that some people might have to go through. When I'm mixing, the last thing that I do is draw out the esses on the vocals; whether it really needs it or not. It's these things that people do to make them feel like they're doing their job.

You've gone back to Australia and produced and engineered since moving away. How did that come about?

I think that people had heard of me; they heard about this "young Aussie chick" who'd gone to London. I'd gone back to Australia and asked my manager, Karen [Ciccone], to organize some meetings. Because I've worked with Flood and Alan, that opened a lot of doors. I would love to eventually make more records in Australia, and to be close to mum and dad. Through those meetings, I found people who had particular things that I could do. I worked on a Buchanan album. I worked with Paul Kelly, who's an Aussie hero — an incredible musician and songwriter.

What do you see in the future?

I'm working so much at the moment that time is just getting compressed, more and more, into ridiculous schedules. I feel like I'm now coming back to working around the clock. I have a couple of weeks off coming up, which I'm really excited about. I'm just going to sleep. But I don't know what's next. Hopefully I can maintain the interest there is, with the people who want to work with me. Some of the productions I've been doing over the past few years are coming out now, which is exciting. I don't get offended if I don't get chosen for a job though. I think it's so much about personalities, and the dynamic that you have with the band. You're going to be spending loads of time with them, so they need to respect and trust you”.

Apologies if I repeat myself here at all regarding any details and biography. I think that the 2021 interview with Kerrang! provides some great insight into how Marks’s career has bloomed. She gives useful advice to women looking to get into production. Published at a time when the pandemic was restricting movement and work for many in the music industry, Marks was able to keep going. She is definitely one of the most determined, defiant and influential producers and engineers in music:

“In the last decade Catherine has become one of the most in-demand producers, mixers and engineers in the recording industry. In 2018, she won the prestigious Music Producer Guild award for Producer Of The Year, becoming the first woman to do so. The following year she triumphed at the GRAMMYs for her work as a mixer when St. Vincent’s Masseduction won Best Rock Song.

Catherine’s love affair with music stems back to her school days, and her recent successes are the result of a 20-year journey, which began with a chance meeting in 2001 with producer Flood at a Nick Cave show in Dublin. An introduction to Flood’s collaborator Alan Moulder followed later. The pair – who’d helped define modern production aesthetics from the ’80s onwards through their work, both individually and collectively, with the likes of U2, Depeche Mode, Nine Inch Nails, Smashing Pumpkins, PJ Harvey and Thirty Second To Mars – became Catherine’s mentors.

Learning her craft as an assistant engineer, Catherine worked alongside Flood on PJ Harvey’s White Chalk in 2007 and its 2011 successor Let England Shake. A slew of further engineering projects followed involving Foals and The Killers, a number of them initially at Flood and Alan’s Assault And Battery Studio in Willesden, North West London, where she was instrumental in rebuilding Studio 2.

Since then, the Melbourne-born producer has worked at a relentless rate. Her key charges include Wolf Alice and The Big Moon alongside the likes of Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes, The Amazons and Frank Turner – Catherine producing the latter’s 2019 concept album, No Man’s Land, which celebrated the lives of a number of women whose work was overlooked by history due to their gender. Last year Catherine produced Alanis Morissette’s first album in eight years, Some Pretty Forks In The Road, and completed work on the Manchester Orchestra’s forthcoming album, The Million Masks Of God.

As the fourth subject of our We Run The Scene series of short films – an extension of our celebration of International Women’s Day – Catherine is a gregarious and often self-deprecating individual. While she may be slow to boast about her own achievements, she comes armed with sage advice for those looking to follow in her footsteps. We begin our conversation by discussing her unlikely route into the production world…

You didn’t start out wanting to be a producer, did you?

“No, I started as an architect. Coming out of school there was no clear path to working in music and I really loved art, maths and science, so architecture seemed like a natural fit. I was into music and I’d played a lot at school, so in the back of my mind I wanted to be involved in music, but I had stage fright so it couldn’t be as a performer.

“Through my architecture degree I moved to Ireland and I worked in a firm as an intern. In my year there, I met so many wonderful musicians, producers and engineers – the kind of people I hadn’t been exposed to in Australia. I also went to see a lot of live music, which I hadn’t done living in Melbourne.

IN THIS PHOTO: St. Vincent/PHOTO CREDIT: Chad Wadsworth

You’ve worked with some genuinely pioneering and strong women, too: PJ Harvey, St. Vincent, Alanis Morissette and Ellie Rowsell from Wolf Alice. What unique qualities do they bring to what they do?

“That’s a good question. I first worked with Ellie from Wolf Alice on an early EP [Creature Songs in 2014]. We were hyper-aware of the fact that women in music – or the lack of women in music – had become an issue in the press and we were getting asked a lot of questions about that. It was not something we had thought about. We were both very driven, determined and at the start of our careers. The fact that we were women was not going to stop us and we were not aware that we were some kind of rarity. As we thought about it more and more, we discussed it, and we realised that we did have to do a bit more to prove ourselves, but we both agreed that being women was not going to be something that was going to get in our way.

“When I worked with PJ Harvey, that was different. When I first worked with PJ Harvey, I was more in awe of her at the end of the project than I was at the start. I had known her work before I worked with her and I was a big fan. Watching her in the studio and seeing how clear she is with her ideas, how free she is with her expression, I found that so inspiring. Her strength and her vulnerability were two things I really took away from my experience of working with her. It’s something that I’ve carried with me. Having strength and vulnerability is a real asset in the studio." 

That’s maybe because you’re trying to balance time pressure with the creative process, and you’re trying to capture something unique.

“Yes. To me, the most exciting thing about making a record is feeling that ‘thing’ that's in the room and trying to capture it. If I’m successful in capturing that then I feel as if I have made a great record, whether anyone likes it or not. If that feeling is coming through the speakers or you can capture the fact that the air in the room has heated up, or there’s that little air of tension, or complete emotional collapse – if you can capture those things in the room, that’s what matters and makes the difference.

“It’s about creating an atmosphere and capturing it. With The Big Moon record, there is a sense of joy about [it] because we made it quickly and we made the studio feel as if we were on holiday. We had [inflatable] flamingos and palm trees, and we wore Hawaiian shirts and lays to make it feel like we were on holiday. We laughed heartily during the making of that record.”

IN THIS PHOTO: Catherine Marks giving her speech at the 2017 #MPGAwards

What advice would you give a young woman wanting to become a producer?

“There’s still no obvious path for any job in this industry. A lot of things are built around who you know and building your reputation. Having said that, technology is changing and it is very easy now to get hold of technology where you can start making music and producing your own music. It’s like anything creative: there’s always going to be difficult moments, but if it’s something you really want to do then it’s also really rewarding so you should just do it. No matter what barriers are in the way, you should just climb over them. That’s kinda what I did but I never saw them as barriers… it was more of a little obstacle course (laughs). Little mini challenges that I needed to overcome to get to the finish line. And I still experience that. That’s what’s so great about this career: there is no end point. Every day is a constant learning experience. If it’s something you really want to do, you should just do it.”

So what needs to change in order for more women to enter in the world of making records?

“I feel there are certain elements of the industry that need to change, but I think that we’re experiencing and living through the change right now. One of the biggest things I’ve noticed – and I think is incredibly encouraging – is how women are supporting other women in the industry. When I started there was no-one I could look up to or talk to who was a woman in the world of production. There is a wonderful community of female mixers, producers and engineers who I’ve got to know recently, and I feel like we’re supporting the next generation that’s coming through, and to me that’s very exciting. I’m sure there’s a lot more that needs to change and I understand that the conversation needs to continue. But to me that is very positive”.

I am going to end with an interview from this year. Speaking to Music Business Worldwide, Catherine Marks spoke about what she wish she’d known. Those lessons that she has gained from her many years of experience:

“But, actually, it’s about making your own opportunities, working hard and having the right attitude. Had I been more conscious of that, I probably would have stuck to my guns a bit more. When people were telling me, ‘This is the way things are’, I should have said, ‘No, I’m going to explore all of these opportunities that I have’. There was an element of waiting for the big thing to come along to help create my success.

When I was assisting, there would be long chunks where I wasn’t in session. I’d do writing sessions instead and was offered a publishing deal as a songwriter. Someone said, ‘No, you’re Flood’s assistant, that’s not your discipline, you can’t explore that avenue’. I took heed of that and thought, perhaps they’re right, perhaps I do need to focus on learning the craft of engineering and being a good assistant before accepting those kinds of opportunities.

I was 25 at that point and so brand new to the industry. I was learning how it worked and didn’t have the confidence to say, ‘Actually, this is something I would like to do’.

I often look back on that and wonder if I missed an opportunity. It was at the time when there was a transition in the way the industry was working; budgets were getting smaller and the defined roles of a producer, engineer and writer were being blurred. Often, I would be working with people who wore all those hats and I felt that was something I needed to learn, not just the specific role of my mentor, who was a producer/engineer.

At that time, I didn’t want to step on anyone’s toes or seem overconfident. I would often play a little bit of the bumbling idiot in order to not come across as being a particular way. I never behaved like that with the men I worked with and I think that had a lot to do with the culture of women in the industry.

There were a lot of female producer managers or songwriters and there was a culture back then, around 2005, of women not necessarily supporting other women and having to fight for their positions. I regressed and didn’t assert myself in the way I would now, to make myself seem unthreatening. That culture has changed drastically — there is a lot more generosity, solidarity and support amongst other women in the industry.

Taking control of my career came with experience and confidence. Ultimately, this is my business and I have to stand by my decisions. It’s not about someone telling me what I should do, it’s about taking advice and making an educated decision on what I think is best for me.

The final thing I wish I’d known is to trust your instincts. Early on, if something didn’t feel right, I would carry on in that situation because I felt like I had an obligation to someone. Now, if a project doesn’t feel right, we’ve created a situation where we’re able to test the waters. Even if it has the potential to be the most successful thing ever, I just say, ‘I don’t think I’m right for that’. That’s totally okay — I don’t have to say yes to everything.

I’d rather enjoy my experience every day, which is not to say that there aren’t some shitty days, of course. But I’m more conscious of what my gut is telling me now and I think that comes from confidence and experience”.

A queen of the music scene; a change maker and icon, I wanted to start this series with Catherine Marks. With one of the most diverse and impressive C.V.s in music production and engineering, she is someone inspiring a new generation of women coming through. I did start with the stats. They are still quite grim regarding equality and opportunities for women. Things will change. I think people like Catherine Marks are helping bring about progress. When it comes to pioneering and go-to producers, Marks is…

ONE of the world’s very best.

FEATURE: The Smuggler’s Defiance: Kate Bush’s Night of the Swallow at Forty

FEATURE:

 

 

The Smuggler’s Defiance

 IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1982/PHOTO CREDIT: Steve Rapport 

Kate Bush’s Night of the Swallow at Forty

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ONE of the truly great ‘lost’ singles…

from Kate Bush, Night of the Swallow is from her fourth studio album, The Dreaming. It was the final single released from the album. Only released in Ireland, the song is one of the finest from that album. I think that it should have got wider release. It has a quintessential Kate Bush angle when it comes to the story. The type of song no other artist was making, I feel we get a glimpse into the Irish sounds that would come into future albums like Hounds of Love (1985) and The Sensual World (1989). Working with Liam O’Flynn (uilleann pipes, penny whistles), Seán Keane (fiddles) and Donal Lunny (bouzouki), this is Bush letting her imagination take flight, though it is also her nodding to her Irish heritage. There were hints of it prior to Night of the Swallow, though this is the first song where it really comes to the fore – future tracks, Jig of Life (Hounds of Love) and The Sensual World (The Sensual World) would put the Irish sound heavily into the mix. I am going to continue in a minute. First, and thanks to the Kate Bush Encyclopedia, here are some interview snippets where Kate Bush discussed the inspiration behind Night of the Swallow:

“Unfortunately a lot of men do begin to feel very trapped in their relationships and I think, in some situations, it is because the female is so scared, perhaps of her insecurity, that she needs to hang onto him completely. In this song she wants to control him and because he wants to do something that she doesn't want him to she feels that he is going away. It's almost on a parallel with the mother and son relationship where there is the same female feeling of not wanting the young child to move away from the nest. Of course, from the guys point of view, because she doesn't want him to go, the urge to go is even stronger. For him, it's not so much a job as a challenge; a chance to do something risky and exciting. But although that woman's very much a stereotype I think she still exists today. (Paul Simper, 'Dreamtime Is Over'. Melody Maker (UK), 16 October 1982)

Ever since I heard my first Irish pipe music it has been under my skin, and every time I hear the pipes, it's like someone tossing a stone in my emotional well, sending ripples down my spine. I've wanted to work with Irish music for years, but my writing has never really given me the opportunity of doing so until now. As soon as the song was written, I felt that a ceilidh band would be perfect for the choruses. The verses are about a lady who's trying to keep her man from accepting what seems to be an illegal job. He is a pilot and has been hired to fly some people into another country. No questions are to be asked, and she gets a bad feeling from the situation. But for him, the challenge is almost more exciting than the job itself, and he wants to fly away. As the fiddles, pipes and whistles start up in the choruses, he is explaining how it will be all right. He'll hide the plane high up in the clouds on a night with no moon, and he'll swoop over the water like a swallow.

Bill Whelan is the keyboard player with Planxty, and ever since Jay played me an album of theirs I have been a fan. I rang Bill and he tuned into the idea of the arrangement straight away. We sent him a cassette, and a few days later he phoned the studio and said, "Would you like to hear the arrangement I've written?"

I said I'd love to, but how?

"Well, Liam is with me now, and we could play it over the phone."

I thought how wonderful he was, and I heard him put down the phone and walk away. The cassette player started up. As the chorus began, so did this beautiful music - through the wonder of telephones it was coming live from Ireland, and it was very moving. We arranged that I would travel to Ireland with Jay and the multi-track tape, and that we would record in Windmill Lane Studios, Dublin. As the choruses began to grow, the evening drew on and the glasses of Guiness, slowly dropping in level, became like sand glasses to tell the passing of time. We missed our plane and worked through the night. By eight o'clock the next morning we were driving to the airport to return to London. I had a very precious tape tucked under my arm, and just as we were stepping onto the plane, I looked up into the sky and there were three swallows diving and chasing the flies. (Kate Bush Club newsletter, October 1982)”.

It is a shame that this is a song that was never played live or given much of an outing. Without reading too much into it, I think the heroine’s need for freedom and that defiance. That wanting to break free. I get a feeling Bush felt a bit like this by 1982. Wanting to establish herself as a producer and an artist without constraint, I feel there is some personal projection from Bush through Night of the Swallow. Maybe this artist who is seen as diminutive or bird-like it terms of her fragility, I always sense this track is Bush maybe talking with herself. This article explores the track in more detail:

"Night of the Swallow" by Kate Bush is a song that delves into themes of escapism, rebellion, and the desire for freedom. The lyrics present a narrative of a person who is determined to defy authority and take flight, symbolized by the imagery of a swallow. The song's protagonist seems to be addressing someone who disapproves of their plans, possibly a lover or a figure of authority.

In the verses, the protagonist expresses their determination to prevent the other person from doing "what they want to do." There is a sense of defiance in their refusal to let the other person proceed with their actions. The refrain, "I won't let you do it," reinforces this resistance.

The chorus further develops the theme of escape and rebellion. There is mention of a planned flight, orchestrated with secrecy and anonymity. The hired plane and absence of names emphasize the covert nature of the operation. The protagonist confidently states that they will be over the water like a swallow, indicating a swift and liberated journey.

Throughout the song, there are references to Malta, suggesting a specific location for the flight. Swallows are seen as migratory birds, capable of crossing borders effortlessly, which reflects the protagonist's desire to defy boundaries. They aim to free the guilty, symbolized by catching a swallow. The wings beating and bleeding could represent the sacrifices made to achieve liberation.

The bridge reveals a plea for freedom and a desire to break free from the monotony of life. The protagonist seeks something meaningful to justify their existence and yearns for a chance to fly, paralleling the swallow's ability to soar through the sky.

In the final repetition of the chorus, the protagonist directly asks to be released, emphasizing their longing for escape. The mention of pigs flying serves as a metaphor for the impossibility of their true identity being discovered. The song concludes with a realization that the other person is not capable of embracing the same liberation.

Overall, "Night of the Swallow" explores themes of rebellion, defiance, and the longing for freedom. It emphasizes the desire to break free from constraints, both external and internal, and to pursue a life of independence and autonomy”.

With the incredible B-side of Houdini, you wonder why Night of the Swallow did not make a bigger impact. This is a song that means a lot to Bush. Her mother was Irish. There was a lot of traditional Irish music played in the family house. Her brother Jay (John Carder Bush) had a love of Planxty (of which Dónal Lunny and Liam O'Flynn were members). Their music no doubt influenced that decision to use Irish music in her own. Not something that was common or especially mainstream. One of the first two songs to be recorded for The Dreaming, Bush put this down at Abbey Road Studios in the spring of 1981. Bush travelled to Ireland – like she did for Hounds of Love – and recorded those musicians there. Showing dedication and passion for the song, she quickly travelled back to London (after spending the night recording in Ireland; what she would have given for Zoom and the Internet back then!) and completed mixing the song in London. The fact that it was two years after she recorded it that it was released must have been a bit frustrating. I wonder what would have happened if Night of the Swallow was released wider. Rare that the song has no music video and was barely promoted, it is one of those singles that just fell away. The Dreaming was an album where the singles struggled. I feel Night of the Swallow might have been a bit esoteric and Folk for the Pop mainstream to appreciate in 1983. As it is forty on 21st November, I wanted to spend some time with an amazing song. Night of the Swallow is a gem that warrants…

MORE love and attention.

FEATURE: Smoke and Mirrors: Why Are There Fewer Political and Protest Songs At Such a Divisive and Dark Time?

FEATURE:

 

 

Smoke and Mirrors

PHOTO CREDIT: Chris LeBoutillier/Pexels

Why Are There Fewer Political and Protest Songs At Such a Divisive and Dark Time?

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THIS is such an intense time…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Alfo Medeiros/Pexels

where there are conflicts around the world that are horrifying to hear about and see. Regarding Palestine and Israel, there are so many opinions being expressed online. Which side people support, and who is to blame for latest casualties and attacks. It is a very divisive and scary time. It can be complicated getting into the debate and sharing a take. Of course, the right one is to show support for the Palestinians who are being killed and displaced. It does seem that there are so many different voices attacking or coming under attack. There is the war between Ukraine and Russia. Ongoing fears around climate change and what damage that is doing – and what impact it will have in all of our lifetimes. A tonne of anti-trans sentiment and hatred still swirling. That is having a really harmful effect on the community. A time when a lot of awful stuff is happening, there is not really that common voice or wave of change and hope. Maybe it is impossible to easily affect a ceasefire and end to hostilities. Regarding bigotry and misinformation, how easy is it to affect some quick, real and long-lasting change?! In any case, there are subjects and stories that are being discussed and argued online on a daily basis. It is coming into music a little, though there is not really a political or social wave of awareness and debate. Maybe it is hard for artists to say something quite big on political issues. Even when it comes to something as universal as climate change, one does not hear as many songs about that as you should.

The same goes with trans rights and the L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ community as a whole. Again, perhaps there is a worry that there would be backlash or some fans would not agree. That is always a risk an artist has to take. I do think that, with so many big issues at the fore, there needs to be more mobilisation and activation from the music community. I am aware I have beat this particular drum a few times now. An artist does not need to take a firm stance regarding which side to sympathise with when it comes to Israel and Palestine. It is about expressing a dismay and disgust that is out there. Perhaps a feeling is the music will be quite heavy and grim. Once more, it is a sacrifice that an artist has to make. It would also put the message out there memorably and clearly. The composition and tone, whilst serious, does not have to be matched with an incredibly serious or morbid composition. There is flexibility and scope to ensure that the message is one of support/outrage – depending on what is being talked about –, whilst the music can be lighter and more flexible. I feel, the more we see on social media and the news regarding conflict, climate change, sexual abuse, anti-L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ attacks and violence, the more there needs to be something in the way of musical response and documentation.

 PHOTO CREDIT: RDNE Stock project/Pexels

I guess music is mostly personal. In the sense the majority of artists will write about their lives. What they know. Plenty write about global causes and concerns, yet that continued risk of criticism and ‘getting on the wrong side of the argument’ can create repercussions and damage. The more I see vitriol thrown at L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ people and the more we see the news and all the horror going down, the more it compels me to seek out artists who are discussing it. There are not a huge amount doing it. Not at the moment anyway. Protest and shining a light on some dark truths has always been a part of music. Whether Hip-Hop artists discussing violence and brutality against the Black community, or Folk artists writing about war, artists compelled to react to something that needs be addressed. The power and influence music has can make people aware of what is happening in the world and what we need to do. It also allows insight into a community. Issue affecting particular people. Whether social media, in a way, has taken on some of music’s role in terms of protest and highlighting ills and big issues. I am hearing a few songs on the radio and playlists where artists look at climate change and trans rights etc., though they are few and far between. Not quite enough focused anger and essential songs that remain in the mind and help provoke change. In a social media age, there is that instant and widespread reaction to music.

 PHOTO CREDIT: Shane Aldendorff/Pexels

Are artists wary of the feedback they might get?! If they talk about war and gender issues, is that going to create a storm and harsh reaction from some?! We are living through one of the darkest periods of modern history right now. I think music can heal and guide in addition to teach and act as a political voice. It needs to react to what is happening in the world. Give a voice that those whose voices are being ignored and vilified. I think that the music community should be a bit more vociferous and visible standing up to injustice and alongside those in need of allyship. If there was a lot of protest songs in 2020, some asked whether protest and political songs are affective anymore. I am not suggesting that music alone and the power of a song will change the word and inspiring immediate change. The role that these songs have always played is to educate and touch listener. Change starts with the listeners. Music, as a great and universal communicator, has that relevance and role today. I don’t think people are less willing to listen to these songs or take anything away from them. Maybe the songs are too oblique or indirect. Perhaps artists are holding back slightly. Whatever the reason, this is a moment when more artists need to address big themes and darker subjects.

I want to end with a 2019 feature from the Washington Post. In a year where American artists especially might be motivated to rally against corrupt politics and a President (Donald Trump) corrupting the country, they argued how protest music of the year was stuck in the past:

“These are wild and anxious times for our wild and anxious planet. So why do the most visible protest songs of the Trump era feel so inert? From the numb thud of “This Is America” to the woke winks on the new Taylor Swift album, contemporary protest pop feels increasingly prominent, deeply unimaginative and embarrassingly insufficient.

As it stands, the two most widely applauded protest anthems of Trump’s presidency are “Love It If We Made It,” by the British band the 1975, and “This Is America,” by Childish Gambino, the nom-du-rap of Hollywood polymath Donald Glover. The former was named the best song of 2018 by Pitchfork in December. The latter won record and song of the year at the Grammys in February. “Love It If We Made It” recites the ugliest global headlines of the past few years while flashing a hopeless smile. “This Is America” holds a mirror up to our violent, racist, violently racist system, then gives a blank shrug.

What are these songs trying to achieve? Both offer hyper-topical verses, flanked by titular refrains that radiate heroic despair — and by setting those feelings of total powerlessness to such patently urgent music, the effect becomes strangely self-canceling. You feel seen, but you also feel small.

During the civil rights movement — our country’s most sterling model of social change — marchers sang “We Shall Overcome,” a larger-than-life gospel song that promised victory just over the horizon. The watchword of Trump-era protest aspires only to a stalemate: “Resist.” It’s a defensive posture, a declaration of inertia, and it feels apt for these times. In a society so profoundly stuck in its own cultural nostalgia, it’s become impossible to envision what tomorrow should look like.

PHOTO CREDIT: SHVETS production/Pexels

This paralysis of imagination is the crisis of our century. It poisons everything from our politics to our pop culture. You can see it in every Hollywood franchise reboot, every MAGA hat, every episode of “Friends” on Netflix, every hour we spend online celebrating the 20th anniversary of everything we refuse to let go. Even Beyoncé, with all of her vision and political power, chose to spend her summer shoring up the immortality of a 25-year-old Disney franchise.

“American glory faded before me,” Swift sings. “Now I’m feeling hopeless.” Her message — that our democracy is not living up to its promise — is painfully basic, and yet the song has been greeted with reflexive star-worship. Variety recently ran a headline: “Taylor Swift’s ‘Miss Americana’ May Be the Great Protest Song of Our Time.” What a joke. A great protest song can’t just surf the waves of dissent. It has to help create waves of change.

The other great protest song of the century doesn’t have an expiration date. It’s Kendrick Lamar’s “Alright,” an anthem from 2015 that asserts that (black) people must first survive this world in order to change it. At the height of the Black Lives Matter movement, activists sang its astonishing refrain in the streets — “We gon’ be alright!” — proof that a protest song could still synchronize a crowd and consecrate a movement.

That’s how every protest song should be measured — by its empathy, its imagination and its utility. It has to be compassionate enough to get inside your head, visionary enough to help you dream up what’s possible, powerful enough to shake the public airspace. It can’t just turn the tides inside your mind. It has to get your body out onto the street.

Songs don’t change the world. Listeners do”.

We look at the news and social media and it is very scary and confusing! There are so many artists out there who are either keeping their music personal and too narrow, or they are writing about subjects like climate change and war, yet the messages and lyrics are either buried slightly or there is some camouflage and holding back. Even through the world of Hip-Hop and Rap, there is not the same rage and range of incredibly potent songs that awaken a generation and bring politicians and world leaders to task. I do feel there is a time now where music can play a role. So many things that need to be tackled and spoken about. With so much misinformation, division and hatred, there is a common sense, potency, passion, guidance and revelation…

ONLY music can provide.