FEATURE: The Digital Mixtape: Tracks from the Best Albums by Women in 2025

FEATURE:

 

 

The Digital Mixtape

IN THIS PHOTO: The cover for Maren Morris’s D R E A M S I C L E

Tracks from the Best Albums by Women in 2025

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I can’t quite recall…

IN THIS PHOTO: Folk Bitch Trio/PHOTO CREDIT: Ian Laidlaw for NME

whether I have done this playlist already. That concerns songs from the best albums by women released this year. Regardless, I will end with a mix of great tracks from albums released by female artists. There is a great range from some wonderful talent. Featuring some huge mainstream acts through to some newer talent, 2025 has been this incredibly strong year for music. We are only in August, though you know we are not done yet when it comes to huge albums and women continuing their domination! This playlist is selection from some amazing queens. You might not know of a few of these albums/artists, so I hope there is a new discovery or two in there! These songs are taken from some of the…

IN THIS PHOTO: Oklou

BEST of this year.

FEATURE: One for the Record Collection! Essential September Releases

FEATURE:

 

 

One for the Record Collection!

IN THIS PHOTO: Cardi B’s second studio album, Am I the Drama?, comes out on 19th September

Essential September Releases

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NEXT month is hugely busy…

IN THIS PHOTO: Sophie Ellis-Bextor releases her new album, Perimenopop, on 12th September/PHOTO CREDIT: Bekky Calver

for new albums. Some of the biggest of the year are due out. I shall try and include as many as I can but, if you want an idea of what else is out, then check out this website. I am going to take four from 5th September. Some real gems to kick us off! Let’s start out with Big Thief’s Double Indemnity. A band I really like, their new album looks really interesting. I particularly love the cover. You can pre-order the album here:

“Big Thief release their sixth studio album, Double Infinity, on 4AD. Double Infinity is the follow-up to 2022’s Grammy-nominated album, Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You, recorded last winter at the Power Station, New York City.

For three solid weeks, the trio would ride bicycles on frozen streets between Brooklyn and Manhattan, meeting in Power's Station's warm wood-panelled room. Together with a community of musicians (Alena Spanger, Caleb Michel, Hannah Cohen, Jon Nellen, Joshua Crumbly, June McDoom, Laraaji, Mikel Patrick Avery, Mikey Buishas), they would play for nine hours a day, tracking together – simultaneously – improvising arrangements and making collective discoveries.

Double Infinity was produced, engineered, and mixed by longtime Big Thief collaborator Dom Monks. “How can beauty that is living be anything but true?” Adrianne asks as she drives nose against the future with childhood mementos on ‘Incomprehensible’. She understands, “everything I see from now on will be something new.” The silver hairs on her shoulders are new as well. Yet fear of aging is cracked by proof. If a life is shaped by living, “Let gravity be my sculptor, let the wind do my hair.” Being born, then staying a while, remains the greatest mystery. Adrianne claims her place and time. “Incomprehensible, let me be”.

Also out on 5th September is David Byrne’s new album, Who’s the Sky? This is one that you will definitely want to pre-order. It is going to be a typically brilliant work from the Talking Heads lead. Based on what has been released from Who’s the Sky? so far, it seems the album will sit alongside the very best from this year. A David Byrne work of brilliance I am looking forward to hearing more from:

“Byrne was inspired to enlist Ghost Train Orchestra for the album after hearing their 2023 tribute album to the blind New York composer and street poet Moondog, and later that year jumped on stage with the group during a Brooklyn performance. Enticed by the 15-member Ghost Train’s varied instrumental lineup – which includes drums, percussion, guitar and bass along with strings, winds and brass – he thought to himself, “what if that’s what these new songs of mine sounded like?”

Byrne asked if they’d want to serve as his band for the Who Is the Sky? sessions, and they quickly agreed. Mixed by Mark “Spike” Stent and mastered by Emily Lazar, the finished product is about both hiding and revealing, or as Byrne puts it, “a chance to be the mythical creature we all harbor inside. A chance to step into another reality. A chance to transcend and escape from the prison of our ‘selves.’”

These concepts are heavily incorporated in the Who Is The Sky? album package, which was designed by Shira Inbar and finds Byrne nearly obscured by radiating, colored patterns and psychedelic, spiky outfits designed by Belgian artist Tom Van Der Borght.

“At my age, at least for me, there's a ‘don't give a shit about what people think’ attitude that kicks in,” Byrne says. “I can step outside my comfort zone with the knowledge that I kind of know who I am by now and sort of know what I'm doing. That said, every new set of songs, every song even, is a new adventure. There's always a bit of, ‘how do I work this?’ I've found that not every collaboration works, but often when they do, it's because I'm able to clearly impart what it is I'm trying to do. They hopefully get that, and as a result, we're now joined together heading to the same unknown place”.

Two more albums to cover from 5th September. The first is the final album from Saint Etienne. International is going to be this bittersweet album. It is a new release from a band who always produce the very best music. However, it is the last album that we will get from them. A bit of an emotional realisation. You can pre-order International here. Because it is such an important album, you will want to add this to your collection:

“After Saint Etienne's 35-year excursion through pop, International is their final album-length statement. A dreamlike drift with friends and collaborators, International features cameos from the higher echelons of pop — 80s chart heroes, electro, acid house and all points in-between — from Vince Clarke to Nick Heyward, Confidence Man to Erol Alkan, Chemical Brothers, Orbital, Doves and Xenomania, through to the lesser known, but equally exhilarating Augustin Bousfield and Flash Cassette.

Saint Etienne are the 90s band who never left us, never imploded, and never adhered to clichéd excess. They are a testament to getting along, getting on with creating something new and, of course, getting away with it. RT LP and RT CD with bonus four track remix CD featuring International Spanish Song, "Almost (Electro Mix)", "Walk Away From her Things", and "Break Down".

Before moving on to releases from 12th September, there is one more from 5th September. Suede’s Antidepressants is another huge album that you will want to grab a copy of. Go and pre-order it here. I want to come to an interview from MOJO, where the band discussed the upcoming album. Lead Brett Anderson and guitarist Richard Oakes are mentioned or featured in this part of the interview:

“Although ten years his future bandmates’ junior, Oakes was imbibing the music that Antidepressants draws upon – the bands Anderson and Oakes were out downing snakebite to – via his older sister’s record collection.

“My teenage influences – Keith Levene, John McGeoch, The Fall, Wire – didn’t really have a place in the writing in the early years. And I had to wait,” says the guitarist of initially having to fit into the Bowie-meet-Ballard blueprint laid out by Anderson and Butler. “When we did Autofiction, suddenly I felt it did have a place. The frame of mind when we started writing Autofiction was, Let’s try and play to our strengths, be a band in a room again. One of the most prominent features of the band is the guitars. That’s why my presence is a lot more obvious than it was. It certainly wasn’t me elbowing my way to the front – because I’m just not that guy.”

Songs on Antidepressants include Disintegrate, Sweet Kid, the Bowie-in-Berlin inspired Dancing With The Europeans, and the fractious Broken Music For Broken People, which was also the album’s working title.

“Thematically, it’s a lot different from Autofiction. More paranoid and neurotic,” says Anderson of his lyrics on Antidepressants. “This sense of being a citizen in a benign yet oppressive world. But also I like the joy in defying that control. Broken Music For Broken People is a the-weak-shall-inherit-the-earth song – a song of defiance.”

While Antidepressants finds the band in an alienated, post-punk hinterland, Suede’s tenth album could have landed them in a very different place indeed. In the Covid-initiated hiatus between Autofiction’s recording and its release, Suede wrote what they thought would be its follow-up – a ballet soundtrack, the polar opposite to the record they’d just finished. Such was the glowing response to Autofiction, however, that the project was binned. Yet, two of its grandiose mood pieces – Somewhere Between An Atom And A Star and Life Is Endless, Life Is A Moment – were repurposed as endpieces for each half of Antidepressants.

“I always feel like we can stretch Suede and get arty and do unusual things,” says Anderson, “but it always snaps back to being a rock band”.

Let’s move to a few albums from 12th September. Four from this week to cover off. Pleasingly, the first one is from Adam Buxton! The comic and podcaster releases his debut album, Buckle Up. Go and pre-order it here. Whilst many might be expecting a comedy album, they are songs that are sincere and emotional - though there is also humour too. Influences including LCD Soundsystem and Talking Heads. It sounds like a fascinating and effective combination:

“British Writer, comedian and podcast host Adam Buxton releases his debut music album Buckle Up on Decca Records. The album sees Buxton collaborating with Metronomy’s Joe Mount (as lead producer) and The Vaccines’ Pete Robertson.
When Decca approached Buxton to make his first solo album, five years ago, the label didn’t realise they were dealing with a “master of self-deluded overcomplication”. He told them he wanted “Berlin-period Bowie and Eno going for lunch with Radiohead and Nina Simone at Brian Wilson’s beach brasserie.” He told them he wanted a Bulgarian choir, too. Then he enlisted Metronomy’s Joe Mount as producer: “I hoped it would be a Metronomy record with my voice!” None of these plans materialised.
Instead came Buckle Up, fifteen songs in which Buxton is inescapably, and beautifully, himself. “You inhabit the uncanny valley between funny and sincere,” advised Greenwood, “and I’m not sure anyone’s ever made that work.” Buxton has come to accept that the uneasy balance between funny and sincere might be what he does best. “That encapsulates everything I’ve ever done,” he admits. “Efforts to be thoughtful undermined by silliness, and vice versa”.

One of my favourite artists around is Baxter Dury. I am looking forwards to the release of Allbarone on 12th September. You can pre-order the album here. Even though I am not overly-keen on many of the album covers from September-due releases – including Baxter Dury’s album -, the music within this particular album is going to be world-class. He always delivers stunning music with witty and compelling lyrics:

“Baxter Dury releases his tenth studio album Allbarone via Heavenly Recordings. The album was produced by Paul Epworth (Adele, Florence and The Machine), his first album he’s worked on in over five years.

It was Sunday, June 28th, 2024, and Baxter had just stopped from a rapturously received set on The Park Stage at Glastonbury festival. After towelling himself down, a familiar figure approached him backstage. It was Paul Epworth, the lauded producer/songwriter whose creations have draped themselves across the airwaves of the 21st Century more successfully than others.

They agreed to meet back in Epworth’s North London Church Studios in late November, not long after Baxter had finished touring his last album. Their first day in the studio working on this new eighth solo Baxter Dury album was an eye-opener for Baxter, though, and not just because of the comfortable surroundings of The Church, which has hosted the likes of Frank Ocean and Adele.

Together they dreamt up Allbarone's nine-track tour-de-force, stripping everything away and building Baxter’s most melodically direct, futuristic collection in intense three-hour daily shifts throughout December and January. "It’s kind of a character arc that goes through the whole thing, two personalities," he explains. "It’s very critical of people, this album, whoever they are, maybe some bloke with a moustache and sockless loafers in Shoreditch or a fat old Chiswick gangster lording it up in a really comfortable middle-class part of London."

"I don’t want to say it’s contemporary," he summarizes. "Because I sound like a **** using that word. But it does sound really contemporary. It doesn’t sound like a Harrods hamper band made it. It doesn’t sound like a band made it all. Which is what I wanted most of all. It’s just something that’s brand new for me. It’s quite exciting, really." Which in Baxter Dury-speak is as good as proclaiming "I’m top of the world!”.

Two more albums from 12th September before moving on to a packed 19th and 26th September! The first of two is King Princess’s Girl Violence. This might be an artist you have not come across yet. I would definitely recommend that you check out her music. She is a stunning talent whose latest album, Hold On Baby, was released in 2022. This New York City-born artist should be on your radar. You can pre-order Girl Violence here:

“Girl Violence is the third album from New York artist King Princess (Mikaela Straus), marking her most personal and unapologetic work to date. Written after walking away from a long-term relationship, a major label deal, and a city that dulled her spark, the album captures the chaos, clarity, and catharsis of starting over.

Across bold pop anthems and intimate confessionals, Straus explores the nuanced, messy and magnetic dynamics of loving women. The result is a record that’s emotionally feral, sonically fearless, and deeply self-assured.

Since her breakout with “1950” - a Platinum-certified anthem with over a billion streams - King Princess has carved out a singular space in modern pop. On Girl Violence, she turns the page, taking full creative control and delivering her most striking and uncompromising vision yet”.

Let’s round off albums from 12th September with Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s Perimenopop. This legendary artist has been on the scene for almost a quarter of a century. Not to freak her out, but I remember when she featured on Spiller’s Groovejet (If This Ain’t Love) back in 2000. That single turned twenty-five on 14th August. I have marked that with a separate feature. You can order Perimenopop here. Ellis-Bextor has a string of tour dates ahead. In fact, May and June were pretty packed. Before some dates in September and October, she has a bit of a rest. Here is some more information about her upcoming album:

“The new record follows 2023’s ‘HANA’ and features previously released tracks ‘Freedom of the Night’, ‘Relentless Love’ and ‘Vertigo’.

“With ‘Taste’, I collaborated with MNEK and Jon Shave to write a playful, flirtatious pop song about chemistry,” Ellis-Bextor explains. “What can really make you want to be around someone is when their taste, what they like in life, is something you become addicted to. You want to experience all delights with them and share it with them as everything they introduce you to feels just right. All your senses feel alive and awake – like the full flavour of life is realised. Chef’s kiss”.

19th September is a seriously busy week for new albums! Though I cannot feature them all, there are four that I want to shine a light on. I am kicking off with Cardi B’s Am I the Drama? Perhaps one of this year’s most anticipated albums, I am going to move to an article from Variety around the announcement of her second studio album. Go and pre-order Am I the Drama? here:

“More than seven years after the release of her Grammy-winning debut album “Invasion of Your Privacy,” Cardi B has announced that the follow-up is finally coming.

The rapper revealed that her sophomore album “Am I the Drama?” is slated for release on September 19. She announced the record on social media, along with the album cover, which shows her posing against a flock of crows.

Cardi was typically unsubtle about signaling that the album was finally on the way. In an Instagram post on Sunday, she said in a voiceover as glamorous images of herself surrounded by (fake) crows rolled by: “Seven years and the time has come. Seven years of love, life and loss. Seven years I gave them grace, but now, I give them hell. I learned power is not given, it’s taken. I’m shedding feathers and no more tears. I’m not back, I’m beyond. I’m not your villain, I’m your tyrant. The time is here. The time is now.” She recently told her followers that she had delivered the album to her label, Atlantic.

Last week, Cardi premiered the new track “Outside,” during a performance at Cannes Lions. The song officially released last Friday, includes a dig at her ex-husband Offset and name-drops her new squeeze, New England Patriots wide receiver Stefon Diggs.

Cardi opened her performance in Cannes with “Bongos,” a song she shares with Megan Thee Stallion, and also delivered “Bodak Yellow,” “I Like It,” “Money,” “Up,” and her and Megan’s smash hit from 2020, “WAP.”

Cardi’s second album has been anticipated for many years — there was even speculation around the time of “WAP,” which topped the Billboard Hot 100. But although she has dropped more than a dozen singles and guest appearances, including spots with Lizzo, Bruno Mars, Shakira, Anitta, Kanye West, Ed Sheeran, Lil Yachty, Glorilla and more”.

I would recommend that people pre-order Kojey Radical’s Don't Look Down. The London-born artist released his debut album, Reason to Smile, in 2022. I am excited to see what Kojey Radical has in store for the follow-up. You can pre-order your copy of Don’t Look Down here. He is a major talent indeed:

“Over the past decade, East London artist Kojey Radical has cemented himself as one of the most creative and unique voices in British music. His debut album Reason to Smile (2022) was released to critical acclaim, and saw him emerge as one of the defining voices in UK culture.

Now, the 32-year-old he releases his second album Don’t Look Down. “I wanted to make this album more personal and more honest,” he says, “we have to be able to accept that the messenger has flaws and all.

16-tracks long, Don’t Look Down is a musically rich and deeply introspective reflection on the shifting tides, lows, and joys that have passed through his life since his emergence into the public eye. Sonically, the album provides the most experimental and eclectic music of his career, with influences ranging from golden age Hip Hop to disco, grime to Indie, Jazz to Ska.

Together, these strings combine to give a pertinent insight into Kojey’s inner world, and a timestamp documenting the feelings, emotions, and experiences that arise when many reach the milestone of their 30s”.

Two more albums from 19th September to get to before diving into the hectic 26th September! One of this country’s finest young artists, Lola Young’s I’m Only F**king Myself is an album that you will want to pre-order. You can do so here. I have selected The Basic Bitch Edition rather than The Punching Bag Edition, as I think the album cover is funnier and more appropriate given the title:

“The return of Lola Young with this year's massive POP album. Standard LP: Pressed on 140g nude pink vinyl, this edition comes with a 12x12 insert and includes the hit single ‘One Thing’. It’s sweet, subtle, and a little sarcastic, perfect for those days when you need to scream into the void and still look cute doing it. Call it “basic,” call it iconic, either way, it’s yours to define.

This is for anyone who’s ever rolled their eyes and then turned the volume up. Who even decides what’s basic, anyway? Exactly. CD: Packaged in a sleek digipack, this CD includes the hit single ‘One Thing’ and feels like the emotional glue holding everything in place. It’s for the ones still burning CDs in their cars and holding on to something physical in a world that won’t stop glitching.

Easy to play, hard to ignore. Whether you’re spiraling in your bedroom or cruising at midnight, this is the version that stays with you. Indies LP: Exclusively available at indie stores, this 140g marbled vinyl comes in a matte-finish sleeve with a 12x12 insert. Featuring the hit single ‘One Thing’, this edition doesn’t pull punches, it wears the bruises proudly.

It’s for the emotionally weathered, the quietly strong, and anyone who’s ever had to laugh through the pain. Emotional baggage isn’t included, but if you know, you know. Raw, rare, and real, this one’s just for you”.

The final 19th September-due album you need to look out for is from the Irish band, NewDad. Altar is going to be an extraordinary album you will want to grab a copy of. You can pre-order it here. This is a band I am really excited about. They are going from strength to strength. Their high-profile fans including Robert Smith of The Cure:

“NewDad, fronted by enigmatic songwriter and vocalist Julie Dawson, are an alternative three-piece from Galway, Ireland. Their influences vary from legendary bands like The Cure, Pixies, R.E.M., and My Bloody Valentine, to more contemporary acts, such as Big Thief and Beabadoobee.

NewDad make music that confronts the horrors of the modern world. Julie's lyrics find beauty in her pain, with a unique perspective on her generational despair that resonates broadly. With writing that regularly evokes imagery of water and religion, she reflects on the band’s upbringing on the West Coast of Ireland through her songwriting.

Altar is the second album from Ireland’s next great guitar band, and the third album from their prolific frontwoman Julie Dawson in less than 2 years. It’s a grungey alt-rock future classic that jolts between anger-fueled anthemics on the one hand, and darkly intimate and melancholic introspection on the other. They’ve built a dedicated cult following with their acclaimed debut Madra and if they’re good enough for the godfather of goth they’re good enough for you…

“I liked the NewDad album, that’s been on in my car for a long time” (Robert Smith)”.

There are eight albums from 26th September I need to cover off, so let’s get down to it! I will start with Cate Le Bon’s Michelangelo Dying. She is someone I always have time for. I love her music. You can pre-order the album here. If you need some details about her new release prior to making a decision, then this is what Rough Trade say about an album I feel will slot alongside the best-reviewed of this year when we look back in five months or so:

“Its creation led by pure emotion, Cate Le Bon’s seventh record Michelangelo Dying usurped the album she thought she was making. The product of all-consuming heartache, her feelings overrode her reluctance to write an album about love, and in the process became a kind of exorcism.

What emerges is a wonderfully iridescent attempt to photograph a wound before it closes up — but which in doing so, picks at it too. Musically, there is a continuation and expansion of a sound — a machine with a heart — that has taken shape over her last two records (2019’s Reward and 2022’s Pompeii) as Le Bon has increasingly taken control of the playing and producing herself.

As guitars and saxophones are pushed through pedals and percussion and voices are fed through filters, an iridescent, green and silky sound emerges, with flashes of the artistic singularities of David Bowie, Nico, John McGeoch and Laurie Anderson surfacing and disappearing below the waterline throughout.

What we’re left with is an ever-changing, continuous entity, a kind of song cycle. Each iteration reflects and progresses the last, “each one a shard of the same broken mirror” — shifting, glinting, concealing and revealing, depending on how it is turned in the light.

There are ultimately, Cate asserts, “No revelations. No conclusions. There is no reason. There is repetition and chaos. I eventually allowed myself a vacant mind to experience it without resistance and without searching for a revelation or order to any of it.”

An exercise in the viscerality of life, of love, of humanity for both listener and artist, Michelangelo Dying knows what it is to hold, to be held, and to be exquisitely, profoundly alone. “The characters are interchangeable” concludes Cate, “but at the end of it all, it’s me meeting myself”.

Number two of eight is Coach Party’s Caramel. A band I championed years ago and have since played huge stages and supported Queens of the Stone Age, the Isle of Wight group are bound for huge things. I am really looking forward to Caramel. You can pre-order it here:

“Coach Party return with 2nd album Caramel. It is a melody-packed, infectious record born from the shared experiences and unity of the band's four members: Jess Eastwood, Steph Norris, Guy Page, and Joe Perry.

Produced by the band's own Guy Page, Caramel channels the introspection and bite of bands like Hole, Sprints, Turnstile, and Amyl and the Sniffers. Clocking in at 33 minutes, it's a sharp, melody-driven record that expands on the themes of their 2023 debut Killjoy — heartbreak, identity, and finding your voice.

The band has built a reputation for intense, sweat-soaked live shows, touring with the likes of Queens of the Stone Age, Wet Leg, and Royal Blood, and making festival appearances at Glastonbury and Rock en Seine. With Caramel, they push their sound further than ever—hook-heavy, emotionally honest, and made for the big stage”.

Joy Crookes’s Juniper is an album that is going to be in my collection! Following 2021’s Skin, Juniper is going to be another phenomenal release from the Lambeth-born artist. You can pre-order Juniper here. I am a fan of Crookes and am really looking ahead to 26th September and this album. Here is some information about what we can expect:

“A stunningly candid and fearless body of work, the album reaffirms Joy as one of the UK’s most vital and original voices. A once-in-a-generation talent, Crookes delivers a record that is both emotionally raw and sonically rich; humorous, heartbreaking, and profoundly human.

Following the success of her 2021 debut Skin, which earned BRIT and Mercury Prize nominations, went Top 5 in the UK charts, and drew acclaim from The Guardian, NME, and many more, Joy set out to make an album that pushed her further both musically and personally. Juniper is the result: a project defined by its depth and dynamism.

Written with a stripped-back approach and produced by long-time collaborators including Blue May (Kano, Jorja Smith), Tev’n (Stormzy), and Harvey Grant (Arlo Parks), Juniper features standout guest appearances from Vince Staples on the incendiary ‘Pass The Salt’ and Kano on the bittersweet confessional ‘Mathematics’.

Crookes describes the record as “more nuanced” than Skin: “With Juniper, every situation is visceral and I’m very much in it. It’s me in the centre of it all.” The title itself nods to resilience (an evergreen that thrives in harsh conditions) and the album dives deep into themes of body politics, mental health, queer love, anxiety, industry hypocrisy, and the ecstasy (and terror) of falling in love.

Lead singles like ‘Pass The Salt’ and ‘I Know You’d Kill’ showcase Joy’s lyrical agility – blending poetic detail with razor-sharp wit. Meanwhile, the euro-pop inspired ‘First Last Dance’ channels euphoric melodies to mask deep emotional struggle, and the cinematic ‘Perfect Crime’ sees Joy fully self-actualize in the style of a Western showdown.

On ‘Paris’, the closing track, Joy reflects on a formative queer relationship: “Something I feared so much finally, actually felt like love.” It’s a sentiment echoed across Juniper – a record that captures the beauty and brutality of emotional openness.

The album arrives after a period of personal upheaval for Crookes, including a mental health crisis that shadowed the album’s creation. “I was in the trenches,” she says. “But the studio became my solace. What you hear is live and direct from that time.” Despite the darkness, Juniper radiates warmth, levity, and life, powered by Joy’s ever-restless creativity and artistic excellence”.

I might include one or two more albums that I mentioned for this week as I have noticed some I overlooked. Mariah Carey’s Here for It All is the next one on the list. The sixteenth studio album from the music icon, here is where you can pre-order it. This People article from last month provides some more information about an album that is hotly anticipated:

“Are you ready for more new Mariah Carey music?

In an interview with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe and Ebro Darden on Monday, June 30 in Los Angeles to celebrate 10 years of the streaming service, the Songbird Supreme teased her upcoming sixteenth studio album.

Carey, 56, revealed the project will feature details about her life, which includes her 14-year-old twins Monroe and Moroccan. "Definitely when the album is released, there’s a lot of who I am today, and the last 10 years, the last 14 years [in it]," she said. "It’s an interesting situation when you have kids, and it’s a whole ‘nother paint job. It’s a whole different thing."

While the "Fantasy" vocalist admittedly didn't want "to tell too much about the new album," she further teased the body of work with a lyric — "It's a special occasion / Mimi's emancipation" — from her hit 2005 The Emancipation of Mimi single "It's Like That."

"What is next? The album coming out. I don’t wanna tell too much about it because I just don’t want to reveal the whole thing," said Carey, before revealing: "It’s finished."

She detailed the project will have either "11 songs, or 12" and hinted at its contents: "We got some Mariah ballads."

Last month, Carey kicked off her new era with the single "Type Dangerous," which she then performed at the 2025 BET Awards — where she was honored with the BET Ultimate Icon Award. The song debuted at No. 95 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Before fans get the full new album, she told Apple Music, "A second single is coming soon."

"I’m very excited about it," Carey said. "It’s very summer-y. I like the beat as well."

The new album will mark her first since 2018's Caution, which featured songs like "GTFO," "With You" and "A No No."

While accepting the BET Ultimate Icon Award on stage last month, Carey reflected in her speech, "My life and career have been quite the adventure. I will spare you the long, drawn-out saga tonight. It's all in my book [The Meaning of Mariah Carey] anyway."

"It took me a while, but I finally realized life is far too short to live for anyone else's approval, which is something I always did," she said. "So I decided to own who I am. My extraness, my fabulousness, my and yes, my success and my iconicness."

Carey continued, "I'm so grateful for you all to celebrate it with me tonight. Thank you so much. I just want to encourage everyone out there to believe in yourself. Love and respect yourself. Be a diva, be a boss, be anything you wanna be. But be iconic while you're doing it”.

Patrick Watson’s Uh Oh is out on 26th September. You can pre-order it here. It sounds like it is going to be a really interesting album. There are some details provided by Rough Trade that give you some insight and illumination:

“What is life but an endless series of “uh oh”s? From our earliest childhood accidents to our most overwhelming adult anxieties, it’s a little phrase that looms large throughout our existence. Just ask Montreal indie-pop maestro Patrick Watson who was recently faced with the biggest “uh oh” a professional singer could endure.

One morning in the winter of 2023, Patrick woke up to discover that his voice—the angelic instrument that propelled 2006’s carnivalesque art-rock opus Close to Paradise to the Polaris Music Prize winner’s podium —had gone completely kaputt.

“Obviously, I like singing for people, but I was really enjoying my Modular [synth] and diving into instrumental music”—a natural inclination for Patrick, who’s composed over 15 film scores to date. “But then I was like, ‘Oh, it’d be cool to write songs for all these different singers that I really want to hear sing—I’ll find my way out of this situation that way.’ Because my voice wasn’t supposed to come back. And when it did, I just thought having all these other singers was still a cooler idea for a record than me singing.”

I am not going to drop any details in, but Robert Plant’s Saving Grace is out on 26th September. You can pre-order it here. Three more albums to go. I shall move on to Olivia Dean’s The Art of Loving. That is out on 26th September. You can pre-order it here. Even though there is not a lot of information available about The Art of Loving, this interview from last year does mention it:

“Speaking of fashion, I'm thinking of Glastonbury, your style, your stage outfit with Chapova Lowena. It was such a moment. If you could collaborate with another brand for a look, do you have a brand in mind or a moment?

Yeah,  good question. I mean, that look was just so perfect, and one of my favourite things I've ever been able to wear. I really like the idea of working with British designers. I think that's really fun. I really like Wales Bonner and Martine Rose. But is there anything coming up? I don't know, maybe, like a big show in the States or something, a show in LA or something would be fab to do something quite extravagant you know, but we'll see.

You also have impeccable taste outside styling, with music. I see your Spotify playlist, Sweet Things that you post on your Instagram. How do you go about creating and choosing these artists for that playlist?

Honestly, I'm always listening to music. Like, aside from making it, I'm just like obsessed with it, and I kind of use Spotify like I would imagine some people use Tiktok – I'm not really a Tiktok person, but I'll just sit on Spotify all night and just like, look for stuff, like virtual crate digging. I'm a big fan of YouTube. Like, there's loads of cool stuff on YouTube that you can find, just random old soul records. I like a lot of old stuff. I'm quite bad for that. it's just, it's just a hobby of mine. Really, I just love music.

I would love to talk about your latest song, Touching Toes. It's such a delicate love song about letting someone into your space and recognising the moment when you know it's love. Why did you choose Touching Toes to mark the end of this chapter?

Honestly, I got a good guitar given to me by my manager after Messy was finished and out, and I've been writing a lot on the guitar, and I wrote Time and Touching Toes  on it, but especially Touching Toes, I really held onto it for a moment, because it felt quite vulnerable. And I was a bit like," I don't know, maybe I don't need to share this one". Maybe this is just a sweet song for me, but I think it just felt like a good, a good closer to this couple years of music. And I like how close up it is. I really like how intimate it feels. It just felt like a sweet way to end this bit of music and be close with people that like listening.

Even watching the music video with just you and the guitar, seeing you so vulnerable, it was so beautiful, simple.

Yeah, I'm always into less is more and simplicity. I was just listening to a lot of acoustic music, and I just thought, why not? I could do that.

And besides Laneway Festival, what have you got coming up that you're quite excited about?

What can I say? *Laughs* I'm making new music. I'm working on my second album, which is going to be great, hopefully. More shows, I can't say where, but more shows next year and other places in the world. And I think I'm just looking forward to the next year of my life. This year's been crazy, and I think next year will be crazier still”.

Two more to get to. SPRINTS’ All That Is Over arrives on 26th September. The Irish band are extraordinary and I really admire their music. You definitely need to pre-order this album. Below is some more details about one of the biggest releases of this year:

“There’s a palpable flurry of momentum surrounding SPRINTS. The Dublin band have enjoyed a whirlwind year, marked by back-to-back wins and rapid ascent. They unveiled their Top 20 debut album Letter to Self in January 2024, picked up two RTÉ Choice Award nominations for Best Irish Album and Breakthrough Irish Artist, opened for IDLES and Pixies, and delivered feverishly talked-about sets at Glastonbury, End of the Road, and All Together Now.

Since the album’s release in 2024 – met with 5-star reviews from NME, DIY, and Dork, and acclaim from Pitchfork and Brooklyn Vegan – the four-piece have taken their visceral live show across the globe. Along the way, they’ve become an essential new name in contemporary rock, known for urgent, compassionate songwriting shaped by personal tales of trauma and resilience.

Now, SPRINTS are turning that relentless energy into new material. SPRINTS about the new album: "All That Is Over" feels like a second chance at a first album. Gone are the shackles of insecurity, and we have confidently stepped into what we feel is our best work yet. It’s loud, emotive, boisterous, and a lot of fun. This is an album about love, lust, art, and passion. It is a rejection of the narratives they will try to spin to force those already marginalized to suffer more. It is the repelling of criticism, critique, and the combat of the modern world. This is renaissance and rebellion because within the disillusionment with the world, the fatigue, there is still hope. There is still love, music, and art and a chance to start again and that’s where you’ll find us. In between hope and a hard place. Welcome to our cowboy gothic”.

I am going to end by recommending an album from an American Pop queen. Zara Larsson’s Midnight Sun is the final album from 26th September that I want to highlight. It is going to be an immense album that will get a lot of attention. Here is where you can pre-order it:

“Multi-platinum chart–topping global pop powerhouse Zara Larsson kicks her boldest era yet into overdrive with her heavily anticipated new album Midnight Sun. Created over the last year with frequent collaborator MNEK, alongside producer Margo XS and songwriter Helena Gao, this album is her best work to-date. Its storytelling bursts with truth and vulnerability, plumbing the depth and growth of Zara’s artistry and journey over nearly 20 years in the public eye. It’s an album unafraid to show all sides of the 27-year-old: lovestruck, wistful, ambitious, cocky, flippant, and uncertain, often in the same breath”.

September is the busiest month of the year so far when it comes to fantastic albums. I have covered most of the best, though there are still others that you may want to investigate and order. From Sophie Ellis-Bextor to Cardi B through to Adam Buxton and Olivia Dean, there is something on offer for pretty much anyone! It goes to show that September is…

A jam-packed month!

FEATURE: Kate Bush’s Hounds of Love at Forty: Six: Cloudbusting

FEATURE:

 

 

Kate Bush’s Hounds of Love at Forty

IMAGE CREDIT: Mal Bray

Six: Cloudbusting

__________

THIS feature…

takes me to the last song on the first side of Hounds of Love. I am doing a twenty-feature run to mark the album’s fortieth anniversary on 16th September. I am looking At Cloudbusting today and will then do a feature about 1983 and Kate Bush recharging. Then I shall start working through the tracks on the second side, The Ninth Wave. The second single from Hounds of Love, Cloudbusting was released on 14th October, 1985. I would have though Bush would release the title track before Cloudbusting. However, I can see why she wanted Cloudbusting to follow Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God). One of her most popular songs, it features the late Donald Sutherland in the video. I shall come to a feature soon that explains why Donald Sutherland became involved in the video for Cloudbusting. He and Kate Bush got on so well. The part in the video where she sheds tears was for real, as this was Sutherland essentially leaving the set and video. Bush playing Peter, the son of Sutherland’s Wilhelm Reich. The shot of Sutherland being arrested and taken away in a car and driven off was his actual goodbye I think. Bush’s real emotions coming through in the video. It is a magical video from an album that sported a few of them! I will start out with some interview archive, where Bush discussed Cloudbusting. Like all of the song features for Hounds of Love, I will refer to Leah Kardos’s 33 1/3 book, Hounds of Love. I will also reference Graeme Thomson’s Under the Ivy: The Life and Music of Kate Bush. Let’s start out with some archive from the Kate Bush Encyclopedia -

“‘Cloudbusting’ is a track that was very much inspired by a book called A Book Of Dreams. This book is written through a child’s eyes, looking at his father and how much his father means to him in his world – he’s everything. his father has a machine that can make it rain, amongst many other things, and there’s a wonderful sense of magic as he and his father make it rain together on this machine. The book is full of imagery of an innocent child and yet it’s being written by a sad adult, which gives it a strange kind of personal intimacy and magic that is quite extraordinary. The song is really about how much that father meant to the son and how much he misses him now he’s gone.

Conversation Disc Series, ABCD 012, 1985

It’s a song with a very American inspiration, which draws its subject from ‘A Book Of Dreams’ by Peter Reich. The book was written as if by a child who was telling of his strange and unique relationship with his father. They lived in a place called Organon, where the father, a respected psycho-analyst, had some very advanced theories on Vital Energy; furthermore, he owned a rain-making machine, the Cloudbuster. His son and he loved to use it to make it rain. Unfortunately, the father was imprisoned because of his ideas. In fact, in America, in that period, it was safer not to stick out. Sadly, the father dies in prison. From that point on, his son becomes unable to put up with an orthodox lifestyle, to adapt himself. The song evokes the days of happiness when the little boy was making it rain with his father.

Yves Bigot, ‘Englishwoman Is Crossing The Continents’. Guitares et Claviers (France), February 1986

If I’ve got this right,he believed that sexual energy was positive, usable energy that he tied in with his concept of orgone energy. He upset a lot of people selling orgone boxes, saying they could cure cancer and stuff. He ended up being arrested and put in prison. I knew nothing about Wilhelm when I read the book,which was his son’s experience of all this, written from a child’s point of view with a tremendous innocence and sadness. Years ago, I just went into a shop and picked it off the shelf, and really liked the title and the picture on the front. I’d never bought a book before which I hadn’t known anything about;I just felt I’d found something really special. And nine, 10 years later, I re-read it and it turned into a song. When it was finished, I wrote a letter to Peter Reich saying what I’d done. It was important to me in some way to have a sense of his blessing because his book really moved me. He sent me back such a lovely letter. It was an incredible feeling of returning something he’d given to me.

Mat Snow, ‘Follow That!’. Q/HMV special magazine, 1990”.

I won’t quote all of Leah Kardos’s information about Cloudbusting. However, it is a fascinating part of the book. I love how there were live strings recorded for this song by the Medici Quartet (who were extended to a sextet via overdubbing). “Their parts were arranged for the ensemble by Dave Lawson, who had helped realize the string arrangements for ‘Houdini’ on The Dreaming. Aside from a brief moment when the sextet stretch out in curvaceous countermelody during the second verse (‘On top of the world’ at 1’16”), the group mostly remains focused on the obsessive staccato bounce”. There are a lot of interesting observations around the instruments and vocal layers. Bush, as producer, layered up her own voice but also the tones of Brian Bath, John Carder Bush (her brother) and Del Palmer (her engineer and then-boyfriend). “Paddy Bush’s basso profundo can also be heard harrumphing along with the bouncing pulse of the coda”. Bush was not quite sure how to end the song. The cloudbuster sound that you hear was a decoy to mask the “petering out of the drums and strings”. Bush came up with the idea of this steam engine closing the song. Del Palmer was the steam. “And we got a whistle on the Fairlight for the “poop poop”. There are some haunting images and memories on Cloudbusting “Watching a parent forcibly taken away. Peter Reich, now a man, is haunted by memories of his dad (‘Every time it rains, you’re in my head’) and still clings to the feeling of magic that he felt as a child (‘I just know that something good is going to happen’)”. I am going to end with a bit more from Leah Kardos and some detail from Graeme Thomson. However, the video is worth talking about. Last year, CLASH published a feature that explored why Donald Sutherland became involved in the video for Cloudbusting:

“The song is a pivotal moment on the English artist’s internationally successful ‘Hounds Of Love’ album, and came back with a memorable video. The lyrics took inspiration from the 1973 Peter Reich memoir A Book of Dreams, with the song honing in on the relationship between Peter and his father, the psychiatrist and philosopher Wilhelm Reich.

The video was shot by Julian Doyle, and dreamed up by Kate Bush working in tandem with Monty Python co-founder Terry Gilliam. In the striking clip, Donald Sutherland takes the role of Wilhelm Reich, and Kate Bush plays Peter.

Initially, however, the actor had absolutely no interest in the shoot. Approached multiple times, he set back multiple rejections – until Kate Bush personally knocked on his door to ask.

“I wanted it to be a piece of film rather than a video promotional clip,” Bush told MTV in 1985. “I wanted it to be a short piece of film that would hopefully do justice to the original book and let people understand the story that couldn’t really be explained in the song. So we wanted a great actor. We thought of Donald Sutherland.”

The 1985 edition of the Kate Bush Club newsletter contains the full story, with Donald Sutherland detailing his initial refusal. “Barry Richardson, who was the hairdresser on Nic Roeg’s Don’t Look Now, asked me if I’d do a music video with Kate Bush. I told him no and we went on to other conversations,” Sutherland said.

Learning that he was staying at the Savoy Hotel in London, Kate Bush decided to intervene. “I opened it. There was no one there,” he recalled. “I heard a voice saying hello and I looked down. Standing down there was a very small Kate Bush. Barry had told her where I lived. What can you do?”

Kate Bush explained the song’s lyrics and narrative in detail, emphasising the connection to Wilhelm Reich – whose work Donald Sutherland was familiar with while filming Bernardo Bertolucci’s Novecento. “Everything about Reich echoed through me,” he explained. “He was there then and now he was here. Sitting across from me in the person of the very eloquent Kate Bush. Synchronicity. Perfect. She talked some more. I said okay and we made ‘Cloudbusting.’”

“She’s wonderful, Kate Bush. Wonderful. I love that I did it,” Sutherland continued. “I remember being in the car and the hill and them taking me, taking Reich, away and looking back through the back window of the car and seeing her, seeing Reich’s son Peter, standing there. And I remember the first morning on set seeing her coming out of her trailer smoking a joint and I cautioned her, saying she shouldn’t smoke that, it’d affect her work, and she looked at me for a second and said she hadn’t been straight for nine years and I loved her.”

For her part Kate Bush told MTV: “Whenever we were acting, he was my father. I just had to react to him like a child. He made it very easy”.

Leah Kardos writes how Cloudbusting is one of “those rabbit-hole songs that can lead listeners to an inspirational source text (A Book of Dreams) and further on to the wild worlds of Reich and his maverick research. But the song also functions meaningfully in the larger structure of Hounds of Love. It transports us to the world of dreams and nightmares. It is the sound of the rain promised in the clouds of ‘The Big Sky’. After successfully mastering the watery weather at the end of ‘Cloudbusting’, the tables are quickly turned when the listener flips the record over. In moments, Bush will be at the mercy of the elements, helplessly adrift in a drowning dream”. I never realised how water on the first side leads to the endless expanse of the ocean on the second side. The childlike glee of the sky and potential flood-creating black in the sky. The idea of busting clouds to make it rain. All this curiosity and wishing leads to this nightmare extreme. Another fascinating thread one could explore around Hounds of Love. The elements and nature and how elemental and instrumental they are. Graeme Thomson notes in Under the Ivy: The Life and Music of Kate Bush how Bush was haunted by A Book of Dreams. “She had contacted Peter Reich to explain her motives in writing ‘Cloudbusting’ and to express the wish that she hoped that he approved of the song; in a neat, serendipitous touch, she received his reply while they were working on the track at the farm”. That was East Wickham Farm, in a studio Bush had built by her family home.

Haydn Bendall (he was the chief engineer at Abbey Road Studios for the recording of The Dreaming, Hounds of Love, The Sensual World and The Red Shoes). Peter Reich sent a letter back approving of the track when Bush was recording her vocal. Bendall tells how it was a privilege witnessing Kate Bush standing in front of a microphone: “We’re used to effects in the studio and computer graphics in films, but when you’re faced with raw talent it’s still stunning. She’s quite softly spoken and laughs a lot and is very joyous, but she takes on these different personae when she is singing – she’s an actress as well as a singer”. Graeme Thomson writes how Cloudbusting is a “wonderfully balanced song, both sad and strangely ecstatic, and filled with a real understanding of a child’s love for a parent; for don’t we all, as children, want to believe that our parents can perform miracles and cosmic sleigh of hand?”. Thomson notes how Cloudbusting could be an ode to her own inspiring and supportive father. Also, when it was performed live for 2014’s Before the Dawn residency, it was a tribute to her own son, Bertie. Her family and the love and support of her family runs right through Hounds of Love. Her own siblings and parents appear at various moments. Cloudbusting might be inspired by another family and does not seem personal, though I think that it had personal meaning for Kate Bush. That takes us to the end of side one of Hounds of Love. I will flip to The Ninth Wave soon. Before that, I will return to Graeme Thomson’s Under the Ivy: The Life and Music of Kate Bush when discussing 1983 and why that was a reset moment for Kate Bush. Reaching number twenty in the U.K., I always think Cloudbusting deserved better commercially. I would advise people to read this feature about the story of Hounds of Love. Until the next fortieth anniversary feature for Hounds of Love – before its anniversary on 16th September -, I would encourage everyone to listen to…

ONE of Kate Bush’s greatest tracks.

FEATURE: Oh, Leave Me Something to Breathe: Kate Bush’s Never for Ever at Forty-Five

FEATURE:

 

 

Oh, Leave Me Something to Breathe

Kate Bush’s Never for Ever at Forty-Five

__________

I feel as though…

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1980/PHOTO CREDIT: Brian Aris

I have covered all of the songs on Never for Ever before. Rather than readdress them for this feature, I am going to look more at the promotion and build-up around the album and its impact. Cover a little of what I have before but, as Never for Ever turns forty-five on 8th September, I am coming back. Updating my previous features. Let’s start out with some timeline before getting to a couple of promotional interviews. Let’s take things back to June 1980. A few months before Never for Ever was released, Bush released its second single. It is one of her best-known songs:

“June 23, 1980

Babooshka is released. Because the technicians at the BBC are on strike, the video cannot be shown. Babooshka, however, is Kate's most successful single since Wuthering Heights.

Kate takes a few weeks out to rest from her exertions on the album.

August, 1980

Kate puts down the first ideas for a new album, beginning the two-year project that would produce The Dreaming [which remains to this day the single greatest piece of music of the twentieth century (OK, so this chronology was transcribed by a Kate fanatic. Surprised?)].

September 8, 1980

Never For Ever is released. Kate undertakes a very heavy promotional schedule.

September 11, 1980

The album's head is wetted at a huge party for dealers in Birmingham. Kate is meanwhile engaged in a personal appearance tour, signing albums in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Newcastle, Liverpool, Manchester (where she kisses over 600 fans), Birmingham and London (where the queue awaiting her stretches over 100 yards outside the record shop and down Oxford Street).

September 16, 1980

The album enters the official chart at number 1. Kate is the first British solo female artist ever to reach the number 1 position on the British album charts.

September 1980

During this same month, Kate promotes the forthcoming album (Never For Ever) in Germany and France. First, in Germany, she performs the famous "Mrs. Mopp" version of Army Dreamers, one of at least three quite different visual presentations that Kate has prepared for the song, on RockPop, along with a solo performance of Babooshka. Then she visits Venice, Italy, to perform a new version of Babooshka with her dancing partner Gary Hurst for a live broadcast which also features Peter Gabriel. After that, she returns to England to film the official video for Army Dreamers. While in England she polishes the final mix of Warm and Soothing.

Army Dreamers, the third single from Never For Ever, is released.

Back in London again at the end of the month, Kate attends a concert by Stevie Wonder. The energy of the event has a profound effect on Kate, and on the following day she puts down the first full demo version of Sat In Your Lap, the key to her next album, The Dreaming”.

I wanted to use this anniversary feature to give people an idea of the promotion and lead-up. How busy a time it was. A bit about the impact and importance of Never for Ever. Perhaps I should have written another feature that focuses in on the songs. I waver on this point. However, I think we can get a good sense of the album and what it is about from the interview. I have picked parts from two of my favourite examples. Sound International published an interview in September 1980. Pre-Never for Ever, there was this heavy association between Kate Bush and this idea of a strange thing. An odd creature with this high voice. Never for Ever made a lot of people stand up and respect her as a songwriter. An important breakthrough:

“There is a surprising amount of variation between the different media accounts of Kate's beginnings in the 'biz' so I shall endeavor to set the record straight. First attempts to get a reaction from record companies were made by a friend of Kate's armed with n early demo of some of her songs. He met a blanket of rejection until 1975 when he played the tapes to an old friend from Cambridge by the name of Dave Gilmour. The Floydian guitarist reinforced his reputation for giving help to new acts by advising Kate to cut finished masters of her best three songs for presentation to companies. The tapes are often referred to as "demos" but after exhaustive research (I read the sleeve notes on The Kick Inside) I can reveal that he Gilmour financed recordings provided two of the tracks which were to appear on Kate's first album some two years later. They were "The Man With The Child In His Eyes" and "The Saxophone Song". I asked Kate about all this as the album has a continuity that makes the two-year "gap" surprising.

"Yes, they do fit very well on that album, don't they? Maybe there's a few reasons for that. But the thing that I notice is the difference in my voice, that's the only thing that gives it away for me. They probably fit well because Andrew (Powell) was the arranger on all the tracks. I wonder how many people would notice that because no-one comment on hearing any difference, you're the first person to mention that. No-one's commented on that before so it's very interesting."

When Gilmour took Kate into Air Studios to record "The Man With The Child In His Eyes" and "The Saxophone Song" she was 16. When Gilmour played the tapes to an EMI executive they wanted Kate. EMI treated her well from the word go, though the media (true to form) stereotyped the situation with a standard: Big company manipulates and exploits the young innocent etc, etc.

The company did not rush Kate into completing an album although she has some 100 songs already written. Instead they advised her to get a lawyer, an accountant, and advanced her L3,000. Around that time an aunt of Kate's died and left her some money. Finding herself able to forget about immediate monetary problems she went about developing various aspects of her abilities. Lindsay Kemp had an ad in Time Out offering his services as a teacher of mime and dance. Kate responded and she was soon receiving group instruction for 50p a day from the magister artis. She was fascinated by singing in a high register and worked on singer higher and higher notes. She wrote more songs.

It was two years exactly before she returned to Air Studios to record the rest of the material for her debut album The Kick Inside. Virtually the last song she wrote for the album was "Wuthering Heights" - "The Man With The Child In His Eyes", for example, had been written some five years earlier. Apart from the general supportive role her family plays, they make individual specific contributions to her music and business affairs. As well as taking care of business, J also photographs Kate. His shots can be seen on the "Babooshka" sleeve as well as on the back of her new album. Paddy has played mandolin, guitar, mandocello, panpipes, and sung back-up on her albums. Kate says that her father remains a doctor first and foremost but ... "mulls over anything with negative and legal aspects."

She undoubtedly is a very together person. My impression is that she does use her family as a sounding board and frequently takes their advice. On the other hand I think she frequently listens carefully to their advice before she goes on to do exactly what her instincts had told her in the first place! There again, she does not display any of the signs of an ego which forces her to do thing her way for the sake of it. Her satisfaction comes from being good at what she does. Obviously the fact that she produced her new album - albeit with the technicalities handled by John Kelly - is the major point of interest. Before talking her about that I asked about her relationship with Andrew Powell who produced her first two albums.

"Dave knew Andrew. I don't know how, and he thought Andrew was a very competent arranger and would be quite capable of taking care of the production side. So we went into Air Studios, I was about 15 or 16 at the time."

Was she terrified? "Yes, I was very nervous. It's a big studio. Andrew was fantastic. He was completely in control of it. I was just a schoolgirl doing my exams at the time and reeled at the prospect of someone just working on my songs. The musicians did their own thing and Andrew wrote some beautiful strings. We managed to get it to EMI and they leapt at it. Then there was the situation obviously where I was only 16, totally naive to the business and everything and EMI were wondering what to do with me.

"They could either send me out into the world with the songs I had - a 16-year old - or hang on. I was more then happy to hang on because I didn't feel that I was ready. Although I was waiting to make an album for at any minute, after about six months I realised that it was a long-term project so I stated getting on with my own things. I decided to leave school and go fully into the business. Then I got a little group and we played around in pubs. After that came the album. And Andrew, of course, because he had done so well on the earlier tracks, was the first guy we thought of.

"As soon as I started the first album, already three years had passed from the demos (sic) to the album and I obviously gathered a lot more self confidence. I was beginning to understand what I wanted in my music. The songs were obviously maturing and I was getting around and understanding the business more. Andrew did a fabulous job on the album, he really did. Even at that stage I could feel that there were areas where he was taking the music that perhaps if I had been in control, I wouldn't. That's understandable. He was the producer and therefore - he was very good and always listened to what I wanted - he would obviously plant his feelings there.

Kate helped out with some vocals on Peter Gabriel's recently acclaimed album and I presume it was through Peter that she met Larry Fast. "We managed to get Larry before he flew off and he's a fantastic guy, wow. He's wonderful. He finished off "Breathing" for us. We got to the point where there was a deadline coming up for the release of the song as a single. So far up to then we'd been working on the tracks quite generously. When we had a guitar overdub to do we'd do all the guitar tracks for the album as you logically would. As we had a deadline for "Breathing" we put aside all the other tracks and worked on the one song until it was complete. Larry came in for a day and he was wonderful. We were all gathering such and intense vibe working on the one very nuclear song. We'd been working on it until about five or six in the morning each day for about a week. It was very intense in the studio and very nuclear. It felt just like a fallout shelter."

For those unfamiliar with Studio Two at Abbey Road it is a huge studio with a high ceiling. The control room looks down from a top corner giving a false impression of being underground. Also the decor is basic and deliberately unchanged since the days when the studio's prime users were the Beatles. "Larry came in in the middle of all this nuclear intensity and he was wonderful, " said Kate. "He's put on some incredibly right animation sounds. You see, I think of synth players like that. It's probably wrong because I'm thinking just in terms of my music. I see them as such an animation thing, they seem to complete the picture so beautifully. It's like they put on the colour on the track sometimes.

"So Larry was there for a whole day just working on the one track and built up some beautiful stuff, just sort of underneath the back of the arrangement. It was such a pleasure to work with him because I've always wanted to but he's such a busy many. I really hope I can work with him again. His standards are ridiculous, I mean he works to the clock. He'd say: 'Gosh, that took me 10 minutes and it's only supposed to take two!' and gets really upset. He's such a professional and he works so hard, I think a lot of people can learn from him" (see interview, SI March '80).

Kate wanted to put together the promo film for "Breathing" - and did. It became a visual presentation of the subject matter, and showed her as the unborn child at the time of nuclear attack. "We decided to make it very abstract. I had the image of me being a baby in the womb yet not a baby because it's like a spiritual being, surrounded by water and fluid in a tank because that's what a baby does, floats around inside this beautiful place."

Keith Macmillan is the man who has been interpreting Kate's ideas and actually getting them on film for the great part of the 2 1/2 years she has been releasing records. He explained one or two problems to her with this particular idea. Like she might drown. Also no insurance company would underwrite the risk. Kate has total faith in Macmillan and was happy to leave it with him to come up with an idea for overcoming the problems.

"He went away, he's got fantastic guys working with him who get all the props together. So he came up with he idea of inflatables which when filmed through would give a watery effect. So I would be inside one which would be inside maybe one or two others.

"Then we had a problem with the costume because an embryo is of course naked but we couldn't make it sexual because of the innocence and sincerity of the thing. And we had a few problems with that because it is very difficult to look clothed but not clothed. Because we were working with inflatables which were basically just plastic we decided to use the same material which would be pretty cool for an embryo because it would just be flesh that was amongst all the other. So we just wrapped polythene all around me and then the whole thing became this sort of transient stuff that wasn't either costume or inflatables. The next thing with the video was to get from the break into the end where the baby has come out of the womb. Because of the fallout the first thing that would happen is that the baby would be put straight into a protective suit, probably sprinkled with Fuller's earth. [??? Does anyone know what this is?]

"Again we tried to do that in an abstract way so that I would burst out of the bubble and land somewhere outside that was very weird. Then the two guys with the suns - the anti-nuclear sign - hand me the fallout suit as the symbolism of being in the outside world full of fallout. The end was getting as many people as I could in water - again water because that was the whole visual them - and say: 'What are we going to do without clean air to breathe?'

"It took us two days of filming, one to do the studio lot and one to do the end sequence with all our friends in the water and for the nice quiet scene at the end. It was really quite an epic compared with all the other videos I've done. It wasn't that extravagant or expensive, not that long and not that anything. But as I said it felt so important because that one song for me - and quite a few people who are close - was like a mini-symphony or something. So everything had to go into it even if it wasn't going to be a big hit and that's how we felt about it. OK, people say: 'It didn't get into the top five.'

"But I'm so pleased with how it went because for the subject matter I was dealing with, you know my previous associations with the public: that I'm a very harmless unpolitical songwriter."

"Singing is such an important thing for me. I have such a strange thing about it, probably like every other artist. I really often feel that I can't sing. I know I can sing but when I hear the track back it's not what I want, it's just not. I don't get paranoid but I do get very, very worried about it because it's so important to me that I express the perfect emotion of the word because they are telling a story, and unless I feel that I fulfil the character perfectly, I should get someone else to sing it. Especially as people have been kind enough to give me awards as a female singer that I have to try so hard to make it good for them.

"I think maybe I should relax a bit more about it, I am getting a bit paranoid. I love singing, it's just that when I hear it back on tape it is never quite perfect enough for me. But I'm sure you understand that. So many artists, like Eric Clapton, he probably thinks his solos could be better. He probably wouldn't say it but I'm sure that he feels that. But I wouldn't stop singing because I love it. All I need is for someone to say: 'That's great.' And then I can go: 'Really?' Then I feel all right, especially in the studio”.

The second promotional interview for Never for Ever was by Mike Nicholls for Record Mirror. He noted how Kate Bush “just spent six months producing a new collection of ten songs. Of these, four were recorded beforehand and another five already written before her long sojourn at Abbey Road Studios”. There is one track missing – as Never for Ever has eleven tracks -, but it does show how she was afforded more time to record and prepare news songs. 1978’s Lionheart came nine months after her debut, The Kick Inside. Bush had only the opportunity to write three new songs for that album:

“Since our last rendezvous at the beginning of the year, I'd heard that her father and brothers, ostensibly the greatest influences in her family-orientated life, were great believers in the Russian "magician" George Ivanovitch Gurdjieff. Thinking it might assist our dialogue, I spent some time before the interview swotting up on the guy, who in the early part of this century ran a school for wealthy mystics, that preached stuff like "We had better torture our own spirit than suffer the inanities of calm," and "Any unusual effort has the effect of shaking the mind awake."

Now there seems to be a certain amout of overlap between these observations and Kate's remarks about "shocks of emotion", but, perhaps fortunately for your good selves, she didn't seem into having a protracted natter about G. I. Gurdjieff (classic initials, what?)

Besides, it wouldn't entirely have suited the circumstances of our discourse. On a marginally sunny day, it seemed absurd to be cooped up inside some dusty office at EMI, particularly when outside their West One premises there is a little park. Now you might think that in talking to Kate Busdh in central London one runs the risk of attracting inquisitive stares from God knows how many passersby--especially when, during a photo-session on the same piece of greenery last year, Cliff Richard was besieged by scores of drooling school-kids.

But rate-payers (no quips about EMI's ability to retain this status, thank you very much) are allocated a key to the gardens, so Kate and I spent a chatty couple of hours locked within these leavy confines, and I was too much a gentleman to throw away the key.

Since the interview was for promotional purposes, it was hardly surprising that she was happiest talking about the new songs. And because these are the latest instalment of her life, questions were answered conscientiously and, of course, enthusiastically. With promotion being an extension of her work and hence her life, etc., it was illuminating to see how she handled interruptions to it. These came first from a couple of scruffy pubescents who athletically scaled the spiky railings to see if she really was who they thought she was, and then from a slightly lunched-looking gardener who reckoned it was us that had done the climbing.

Kate dealt with both in untypically peremptory fashion, even though in retrospect the distractions added a little light to the generally serious, if nonetheless enjoyable, shade of the proceedings.

Light and dark, good and bad. Both types of emotions flow out of Kate Bush and into her songs. Visually, it's all there on the sleeve of Never For Ever. Nick Price's Hieronymus Bosch-style cover shows a confused mass of bats and swans. The latter symbolise good, and on their backs ride the bad--all of them billowing out of Kate's dress, which is handsomely decorated with the clouds of her imagination.

The good emotions have produced songs like All We Ever Look For and Blow Away-- the one about liveing for music and being naively optimistic about death. The idea is that when she (or the musician she is purportedly singing about) dies, he will go and join all the other musicians in the sky. Hence, references to Keith Moon, Sid, Buddy Holly and even Minnie Riperton, who died around the time the song was being conceived.

It was based on an article she read in the Observer about people who had temporarily "died" through cardiac arrests. Apparently several members of the public interviewed about this experience reckoned they felt their spirits leave their bodies and go through a door, where they were re-acquainted with dead friends and relatives. When their hearts were resuscitated, it was almost with reluctance that they stepped back out of the room and returned to their bodies.

"So there's comfort for the guy in my band," Kate explains, "as when he dies, he'll go 'Hi, Jimi!' It's very tongue-in-cheek, but it's a great thought that if a musician dies, his soul will join all the other musicians' and a poet will join all the Dylan Thomases and all that."

Hmmmm. The darker side of her emotions shows the lady as down-to-earth as her surname befits. In fact, it's more than realistic: it's downright sinister. Hence The Wedding List and its obsession with revenge.

What happens here is that at the point two people are about to be married, the bridegroom gets shot. Who by is irrelevant, but the bride's need for vengeance is so powerful that all she thinks about is getting even with the villain. Since his death is the best wedding gift she could have, he goes right to the top of the (wedding) list.

"Revenge is a terrible power, and the idea is to show that it's so strong that even at such a tragic time it's all she can think about. I find the whole aggression of human beings fascinating--how we are suddenly whipped up to such an extent that we can't see anything except that. Did you see the film Deathwish, and the way the audience reacted evey time a mugger got shot? Terrible--though I cheered, myself."

Another film Kate saw recently was the highly publicised Elephant Man, which, though directed by loony humourist Mel Brooks (Blazing Saddles, and History of the World Part I), is ultimately a tragic movie. [Both Nicholls and Kate were mistaken on this point. The film was directed by David Lynch (Eraserhead, Dune, Blue Velvet). Mel Brooks merely produced Elephant Man, mainly because he was able to cast his wife, Anne Bancroft,in a leading role. Given Kate' increasing involvement in the craft and business of film direction since the time of this interview, however, it's unlikely that she still retains this misconception.] Ever ready to seek out the introspective angle, she philosophises as follows:

"I thought, 'How weird for a comedian to do such a serious film,' but if you think of the syndrome of the comedian who is hilarious onstage but really manic-depressive at home, it figures."

Of the few artists in her field whom she has met [Few?], she cites Peter Gabriel as one who is able to separate his public and private personas.

"Offstage he's very normal, and that's the kind of thing I believe in." Kate helped out with the backing vocals on his excellent recent album, and describes the experience of walking into someone else's work as "lovely--especially after the pressure of going out under your own name.

"I was thrilled to do it, and it's not often that I meet people in the same position that I can relate to. It' not like relating to people at EMI, as they're on a completely different side of the fence."

Does she not meet many artists at these notorious record-biz ligs?

"Well, I don't go to parties very often. Only if I'm invited (shame!) or I've got time, or there's someone there I want to meet. Often I don't like the hype of the situation and that worries me a lot--because there are things I do which I feel are hyped, but because there is a good motivation in there, I think you should do them. But it's a drag that there always has to be a forced situation."

Meeting Gabriel came about via different circumstances, but he's obviously had a profound effect upon Kate, and on the album sleeve he is thanked for "opening the windows". At the end of the interview, she offered (honest!) to sign my copy of Never For Ever, and included in the lengthy inscription 'Thank you for making me think.'"

I don't know about that--it seemed very much a case of vice-versa, and she does seem to do quite enough thinking already. As she pointed out herself, "I'm learning things all the time, and the more I learn, the more I see there is to learn, and that's so fascinating."

The more open the road, the broader the horizon, and each time I meet Kate Bush, the more there seems to be found out about her. There's more to the picture than meets the eye; and, particularly in her case, that's...fascinating?”.

I am going to round off in a second. However, Never for Ever was this shift. In terms of the sound and production. Andrew Powell, who produced her first two albums, was out. Bush co-produced with Jon Kelly. The newly-acquired Fairlight CMI was used in some parts of the album and would open windows and doors going forward. Used more widely on 1982’s The Dreaming. Bush creating this new sound and direction for her third studio album. No surprise that all of this resulted in her first number one album. Bush set a third record when Never for Ever was released. She was the first woman in Pop history to have an entirely self-penned song reach number one in the U.K. charts (Wuthering Heights, 1978); the first woman to write a million-selling debut album (The Kick Inside, 1978) and the first woman to have an album debut at number one in the U.K. (Never for Ever). Even though I think Never for Ever remains underrated and not considered as highly as it deserves, there is no doubt that it is held in high affection by many. I will end with a couple of reviews. In 2018, Drowned in Sound recognised the songwriting brilliance throughout Never for Ever:

“You listen to all of these records in sequence and good as The Kick Inside is, it’s just very apparent that the songwriting has gone up a gear with Never Forever. Strident, diverse, and intense Never Forever is the last Bush album with batshit mental prog art, the last album with an outside producer (though she co-produced with Jon Kelly), and the last record before she started using her beloved Fairlight synthesiser/sampler. It was also her third album in three years, that preempted the first meaningful gap in her career - you could point at the ways in which it predicts The Dreaming and call it a transitional album, but the truth is Never for Ever feels like the [apotheosis] of Leotard-era Kate Bush. The songs are just dazzlingly strong and distinctive. There are singles: ‘Babooska’ is a lot of fun, and the closing one-two of the eerie ‘Army Dreamers’ and the apocalyptic ‘Breathing’ is remarkable. But there’s a hell of a lot of little-remembered gold amongst the album tracks: the breakneck ‘Violin’ and tongue-in-cheek murder ballad ‘The Wedding List’ are really extraordinarily good pieces of songwriting. (8)”.

Based greatly on the success of Never for Ever, Kate Bush was voted Best Female Artist of 1980 in polls taken in Melody Maker, Sounds and the Sunday Telegraph. In 2020, Rolling Stone included Never for Ever in their 80 Greatest Albums of 1980 list. I will end by sourcing part of a feature from 2022 by PROG, who wrote how Kate Bush changed her career forever with the magical Never for Ever:

“Like her public persona at this time, Never For Ever is an album that still has one foot in ‘old showbiz’ (EMI protégé, Multi-Coloured Swap Shop guest, a target for prime-time TV parodies); yet the other displaying her development (working with established artists such as Roy Harper and Peter Gabriel, and the album’s unsettling subject matter). Commercially, her previous long-player, Lionheart, hadn’t been a roaring success, and its singles had not set the charts ablaze. It was time to change course.

Never For Ever was an album of firsts for Kate Bush: her first co-production; her first release after renegotiating her EMI deal; her first time recording at Abbey Road, and her first use of the (then brand new to the country) sampling synthesiser Fairlight CMI, which was so to shape her material for the next decade.

Bush’s new-found confidence and step away from the machine (something she was soon to perfect) was to inform Never For Ever – an album influenced by death, technology, relationships and a 21-year-old simply bursting with ideas. “There are 10 tracks, and if there is a main theme, it’s about human communication and its difficulties,” Bush wrote in September 1980, a few months after her 22nd birthday. Although largely stylistically different, Never For Ever fitted into the pattern of the day for art rock experimentation crossing borders and genres. It is blessed with the same spirit as Robert Fripp’s Exposure, David Bowie’s Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps), Fear Of Music by Talking Heads, and Peter Gabriel’s third album. Never For Ever may not be the masterpiece that 1985’s Hounds Of Love is frequently cited as being, but, for many, it remains their favourite Kate Bush album, and one that unquestionably paved the way for future triumphs.

Never For Ever was Kate Bush’s first studio recording after her groundbreaking The Tour Of Life in spring 1979, which had turned the notion of a live concert on its head. Fully choreographed by Anthony Van Laast, the sold-out 28-date tour was a visualisation of her first two albums, The Kick Inside and Lionheart. Much was made of it costing between £200,000 and £250,000 and employing 40 people – it was just at the very cusp of the touring industry being taken seriously. There was a BBC TV Nationwide special on the tour to coincide with the opening night at Liverpool Empire. Reporter Bernard Clark asked Bush, “Do you have a problem now: what next – how are you going to follow the success?” There seemed to be a feeling that, after only a year in the spotlight, Bush had achieved her goals. “You’re now just over 21 and you’ve made it,” Clark probes. “What is there left to do now?” Bush offered her gracious smile and replied: “Everything. I haven’t really begun yet.” How right she was”.

Released on 8th September, 1980, Never for Ever was such a pivotal moment for Kate Bush. Able to produce for the first time and given much freedom, you can feel her bringing new technology into her albums. That slight move from the piano sound of her first two albums. A sonic shift and songs that felt different and had a new shape. More political in places, but just Bush taking a step away from what she had done before. A number one album that set a record and gave her new confidence and fans, I do hope that there are other features published about this album on its anniversary. A remarkable moment in music history that people need to talk about more, go and spend some time with this…

STAGGERING gem of an album.

FEATURE: The Stonehenge Equation: Spinal Tap II: The End Continues and the Issues with Following a Classic

FEATURE:

 

 

The Stonehenge Equation

Spinal Tap II: The End Continues and the Issues with Following a Classic

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THIS feature will be split…

IN THIS PHOTO: (L-R): Michael McKean (David St. Hubbins), Harry Shearer (Derek Smalls) and Christopher Guest (Nigel Tufnel) with (bottom right) Rob Reiner (‘Marty’ Di Bergi) in Spinal Tap II: The End Continues/PHOTO CREDIT: Kyle Kaplan

into a couple of different parts. I want to spend some time with the forthcoming sequel, Spinal Tap II: The End Continues. Released (in the U.K.) on 12th September, this film follows from the 1984, This Is Spinal Tap. That film is considered to be among the funniest of all time. Perhaps the funniest film ever. It is always risk follow up a classic. Think about other comedy films like Airplane! and its sequels. I also think that greatness should be left. Even if the first Spinal Tap was a success and is seen as a comedy work of genius, it seems like the sequel is going to fall very short of that standard. I am basing that on the trailer. However, with one sort of okay joke in there, I do worry about the film and how it will be received. Maybe the trailer does not do it justice. However, the story tells of David St. Hubbins, Nigel Tufnell, and Derek Smalls (Michael McKean, Christopher Guest and Harry Shearer) forced to reunite for one final concert. It is a tempting plot to explore. You can understand why the film has happened. With many real-life bands reuniting after years for various reasons – money, nostalgia or celebrating anniversaries – it does feel natural a film like this has come about. However, the Rob Reiner-directed film has this expectation already attached. The trailer left me somewhat cold. I was not expecting it to be as great as the first Spinal Tap film. There are some cameos in there (including Paul McCartney) and there will be some great new songs. I do think that the film will be subject to mixed reviews. I sort of wish they had left This Is Spinal Tap alone. The first film is a classic because it seemed fresh and real. Not many mocumentaries at that time. Its charm and brilliance down to the improvisation and how you felt like you were watching a real band falling apart.

I know comedy is a really hard thing. If something worked in one decade and was a success, that is not to say it is easy to replicate that decades later. Culture and comedy have changed. I may be wrong about the new film. However, as logical as it might seem to have a sequel, I kind of wish a masterpiece had been left alone. There have not been a tremendous amount of hugely funny films released in the past few years. Not that comedy is declining. I feel we will see a change and a wave of tremendous comedies come out soon enough. If it will be good to see the members of Spinal Tap again on the screen, will they deliver the goods? Is it going to be a far cry from their 1984 film? We will wait and see. I guess it is not just comedy classics where sequels are risky. It is the way of the film industry to invest in sequels and franchise. Fewer original works coming out than there should be. If something worked before, then it stands to reason that more of the same will make money. And money seems to drive so many creative decisions. I love This Is Spinal Tap and recognise that it spawned a lot of other similar films. So many people inspired by that. At the moment, there are not a lot of films that combine music and comedy. Most of the past attempts have been a mixed bag. I think that comedy is subjective and it is hardest genre to write. To win people over. However, I do hope that there are more films that marry comedy and music. I have tried to pitch my own before and know how hard it is. Fresh ideas and interesting films where we either put music key in the mix or the action revolves around musicians.

Spinal Tap II: The End Continues is not a case of rehashing the first film and trying to modernise it. The arc and reason behind the film is logical. How this band who split are back together for a final gig. That is relevant and relatable. However, I think a lot of the comedy that worked well in the 1980s might not now. That the appeal will translate now. I want to be wrong about Spinal Tap II: The End Continues but I have a suspicion that it might fall a bit flat. As much as anything, I have such love for comedy classics. How incredible they are and how they made me feel. Sequels rarely match the originals. There will be more teasers and bits of the film released. So we get a clearer picture. I do like how we have Rob Reiner directing and the band are together. That there have been no changes or compromises there. So the pedigree is there! If Spinal Tap II: The End Continues is a success, might we see sequels of decades-old comedies coming about? Will that necessarily be a bad thing? At such a horrific time where we need laughter, relief and also some familiarity, Spinal Tap II: The End Continues does seem to hit the spot. I hope it will! Like the famous Stonehenge scene in the 1984 film – Nigel Tufnel suggests staging a Druid-themed show and asks the band’s manager, Ian Faith, to order a Stonehenge trilithon. However, Tufnel mislabels its dimensions, and the resulting prop is only 18 inches (46 cm) high rather than 18 feet (5.5 m) –, something that should be epic and grand is rather underwhelming and misjudged. The talent on display, including the new members of the cast, is undeniable. However, I wonder what the reason for the film is, beyond getting together these beloved characters. I hope the wait is worth it. I get a feeling Spinal Tap II: The End Continues is going to be meagre compared to its predecessor. It brings back the question as to whether it is too much of a risk trying to follow up a classic. A masterpiece comedy. At a moment when comedy films seem like a rarity and the ones we do have are pretty hit and miss, I feel there is a demand and niche when it comes to music-based comedies. However, something new and not a sequel. Spinal Tap II: The End Continues might please some of the critics and fans of the original, and yet I feel it is going to be a vastly inferior follow-up to a film released…

FOUR decades ago.

FEATURE: The Art of Nostalgia: Robbie Williams’s BRITPOP and Redressing Professional Loss

FEATURE:

 

 

The Art of Nostalgia

Robbie Williams’s BRITPOP and Redressing Professional Loss

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MAYBE it should be its own type of art…

IN THIS PHOTO: Robbie Williams at Murrayfield, Edinburgh, earlier this year/PHOTO CREDIT: Alan Rennie/Shutterstock

but, when it comes to a genre that seemed to help define music in the 1990s, could there be an exhibition of Britpop figures? The reason I mention this is because Robbie Williams releases his thirteenth solo studio album, BRITPOP, on 10th October. The title refers to the genre/style of music that was around in the 1990s. A term applies to British artists who produced this music that was largely celebratory and anthemic. Not necessarily talking about the pride of being British. It was more a sound of Pop that was positive and uplifting. Think of bands like Oasis, Blur, Elastica and Cast. Some band resent being labelled as ‘Britpop’. I am not sure whether Pulp would every be comfortable being defined as a Britpop band. Regardless, there is this rose-tinted glasses view of that time. Sure, a lot of the music was great, though culture and society was not necessarily that great in many ways. Perhaps we overrate and overhype Britpop. That said, it has not really dated because, at times like this, we do need that blast of nostalgia and happiness. We can never go back to the 1990s and the Britpop era. Maybe we shouldn’t. However, I can understand why an artist like Robbie Williams would want to focus on that time and style of music. One he sort of missed out on. Apart from him showing up at Glastonbury in 1995 in a red tracksuit and being on stage, there was not a lot of professional growth. He would release his debut solo album, Life Thru a Lens, in 1997. It strayed away from Britpop and was different to the music of Take That. Williams left the band in 1995. It was quite a traumatic year. The recent biopic, Better Man, documents Williams’s time in Take That, the fallout and the move to his solo career. It is very honest when it comes to Williams’s struggles in the band and the strained relationships. The fame and excess. Williams turning to drink and drugs and ultimately having to leave Take That because he could not continue. At a time in British music that was all about pomp and celebration, things were a lot darker for Robbie Williams.

There will be interviews nearer October. Robbie Williams discussing BRITPOP and his memories of 1995. This is not Williams necessarily trying to live in the past. Instead, he wants to embrace a genre/scene that happened around him. In a period where he was wrestling with addiction and personal issues, there was this explosion happening. I am looking forward to the album. There is one track, Morrissey, that raised eyebrows. I know Morrissey is important to Williams, though it feels uncomfortable celebrating or spotlighting someone who is so controversial and has been accused of racism so many times. A musician who perhaps should not be lauded. Though I am not sure what Robbie Williams’s song will contain in terms of its angle and approach. Regardless, it is admirable that Williams wants to redress some professional loss. Go back a time when he should have been riding a musical high. Instead, he was witnessing British music bloom and conquer but he was not part of it. If he remained with Take That throughout 1995 and beyond then I wonder what his life would have been like. If he had gone solo that year, would he have released a Britpop-sounding album? Williams recently shared his British Pop playlist. He clearly loves that time. It is going to be fascinating seeing what we will get from BRITPOP in October. However, whilst his new album might lioness and spotlight this time of British music, will he be able to capture some its sound? Is Britpop something we can and should recapture in 2025? Is that term problematic or meaningless?

In sonic and musical terms, there was a lot of good created. I wonder whether that term comes with baggage and issues. Britpop has been criticised due to its nostalgia, insularity, and a lack of diversity. While it was a commercially successful and culturally impactful movement, its narrow focus on certain aspects of Britishness and its exclusion of other voices and styles have led to criticism. I am all in favour of joyfulness and this sense of uplift. So long as we do not ignore and paste over the horrors of today and ignore addressing that, we do need music that is take the best elements of Britpop – its sound and some of the attitudes from artists of that time – but moves forward. More inclusivity and range. A new-style Britpop that is more gender and racially balanced. The sound broader and more modern. I do feel that living too much in the past is a bad thing. Aside from the face BRITPOP’s album cover is brilliant and is very clever and raises conversation, is Williams able to produce something that is personal and memorable without relying on copying other artists or replicating the Britpop sounds? I can understand why he wants to address that time. He missed out on so much of that period and was not in a band or solo through its glory years. His debut album was almost a deliberate attempt to be less Britpop and more ‘serious’. Williams wanting to leave his mark as a more original artist that was not chasing trends and tying to be like a lot of the artists who were ruling Britpop. I do reckon he will deliver a great album, but one that maybe does not quite capture Britpop’s benefits and sprinkles in something distinct and unique – perhaps too much of the throwback? However, from reviews of his recent live shows, this incredible entertainer is at the top of his game.

It is especially tempting today to escape into Britpop and a revisit and revise the sound. A lot of modern artists incorporate elements and shades of a glorious time. One that had its problems and drawbacks, though there was also this sense of hope and pride. However, there was a lot of exclusion and issues. Articles like this and this that discuss the downsides of the movement. Maybe attitudes have softened and shifted since these articles were published. Albums from that time celebrating big anniversaries. Bands like Oasis and Pulp reforming. Supergrass taking their 1995 debut album, I Should Coco, on tour. However, I think that we can’t get too bogged down in nostalgia. Britpop had its place and saw some world-class and decade-defining albums come out. However, now, it seems like a sign of the past. Something we cannot return to or revive. A moment that we tend to over-romanticise and forget the problems. Is it possible even to produce Britpop-influenced music without it sounding inferior or outdated? Do the youngest generations – who were either not born or very young in the 1990s – going to appreciate it? Will BRITPOP appeal to Robbie Williams loyal fanbase and also bring in new listeners? The singles released so far sound like a blend of Britpop’s swell and grandeur but something that distinctly sounds like Robbie Williams. One of the reasons for writing this feature was to look at the issues and positives of nostalgia. Britpop has been so in focus this year. There does need to be a new book or documentary perhaps that looks at the highs and lows. For Robbie Williams, BRITPOP is a chance to go back to the 1990s and release music that he wished he had done. Music he is a fan of. Not overlook his personal and professional struggles. He wants to make something celebratory and fun. I do wonder whether there will be more pastiche than the personal. Whether he can strike a balance and release an album that is nostalgic but also has enough original thought so that it is his work and not a pale nod to the past. Getting that balance right is…

AN artform in itself.

FEATURE: Two Faced: Linkin Park, Nu Metal and Shifting Perspectives

FEATURE:

 

 

Two Faced

IN THIS PHOTO: Linkin Park

Linkin Park, Nu Metal and Shifting Perspectives

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I am glad that…

PHOTO CREDIT: Warner Records

various music scenes and genres have changed in terms of gender disparity of misogyny. Music definitely has an issue with this still. Even though there are incredible women like Doechii in Hip-Hop, this is still a side of the music spectrum that has a sexism issue. One where women are still not as embraced as respected as they should. Rock, Metal and its sub-genres, too. I do feel that it is a real concern. Whether it is a general thing or not. The idea of women leasing loud bands. Playing guitar or being in a role seen as ‘a man’s place’. I grew up in the 1990s and there was a lot of misogyny and sexism in the music industry. A lot of exploitation of women. It continued into the 2000s. Many of the Rock and Nu Metal bands of the time were men. You did not see many women leading bands in that scene. Now, things have shifted. Nu Metal might seem very niche, though this applies to Rock, Alternative and Metal. Great solo artists like Rina Sawayama and Poppy adopting and adapting its fury. Have a lot of the attitudes from the '00s held on? It takes me to a recent interview with Linkin Park from The Guardian. The U.S. Rock/Nu Metal band were previously led by the late Chester Bennington (who died in 2017). They are not fronted by Emily Armstrong. Though a lot of the new and old faithful Linkin Park fans have embraced Armstrong, there are still factions who are unsure of the new line-up – simply because Emily Armstrong is a woman:

“Shinoda takes a different tack to public criticism, but ends up in the same place. After the Wembley show, he posted a picture of himself in a T-shirt emblazoned with the opening lines of a snide news story about the band’s decision to downsize the venue of their LA show. “There are times when I’m not above being a little petty,” he grins. The T-shirt was “not meant to be mean at all”, he clarifies, and the music outlet in question “are not the only ones who’ve said it. Lots of people have said this band is fumbling: ‘Look how stupid they are, look how bad they’re doing.’ Well, according to the data, we’re not, but you can believe whatever you want to believe.”

When it came to Armstrong, Shinoda felt people’s complaints were also disingenuous. “There were people who lashed out at Emily and it was really because she wasn’t a guy.” Fans, he thinks, were “used to Linkin Park being six guys and the voice of a guy leading this song. They were just so uncomfortable with what it was that they chose a ton of things to complain about. They’re pointing in 10 different directions saying: ‘This is why I’m mad, this is why the band sucks.’”

In the months since Linkin Park 2.0 launched, the reaction from fans has softened and Armstrong has been widely embraced. But devotees are still clearly looking for traces of Bennington in the band’s work. Many interpreted Let You Fade, a bonus track on From Zero’s deluxe edition, as a tribute to the singer, but “it wasn’t written that way,” says Shinoda. “People even pulled out the fact that there’s numbers in the song [that align with] Chester’s birthday. I was like: whoops. That’s not intentional.”

At any rate, From Zero does hark back to the band’s original sound: rock-rap fusion vocals, hip-hop record-scratching, highly accessible melodies and enough gristle (grinding guitar and screaming; anxious and indignant lyrics) to both intensify and offset them. Serendipitously, nu-metal is back in a big way, “thanks to TikTok, the Y2K revival and, of course, enduring teenage angst”, as per the New York Times, with bands such as Deftones enjoying a massive resurgence and acts including Fontaines DC, 100 gecs and Rina Sawayama incorporating the genre into their work”.

With peers including Korn, Slipknot and System of a Down, the nu-metal cohort was novel and outrageous enough to precipitate a mild moral panic – yet sexist lyrics in the work of groups like Limp Bizkit really were a problem. Linkin Park always seemed less aggressive and intimidating than their peers, and Shinoda always disliked the macho aspect. “Chester connected with it a little more than the rest of us did, but not by much.” His band, he feels, featured “more lyrics that were introspective. It wasn’t like: ‘Hey, I’m gonna kick your ass.’ It was like: ‘Somebody kicked my ass and I’m so frustrated.’ In high school, I wasn’t kicking anybody’s ass. That was not happening.”

Nowadays, nu-metal’s aesthetic has been freed from its more unsavoury elements by a streaming generation who simply don’t remember it; it’s just another fun retro style to rehabilitate. Even Shinoda is less disgusted. “Genres are so blended and music is so all over the place, I don’t hate nu-metal any more”.

There is a lot to reflect on., I am pleased that a band like Linkin Park don’t have to be part of a boys club. Nu Metal – if that is the genre Linkin Park are part of – has always been associated with men and male rage. The band would not like to be defined by genre or labelled. In any case, for the sake of this point, we are seeing slow changes. What was once dominated by men and where sexism reigned is starting to evolve. Incredible bands of the moment comprised of women or led by them. We should be in a time where gender is not discussed because there is equality and respect. That it is second nature for genres to be equal and barrier-less. However, we are still not there. That reservation from some Linkin Park fans to accept a female lead. I know there were other reasons some objected to Emily Armstrong – due to her links to Scientology and her attending a a hearing in support of Danny Masterson, an actor and Scientologist who was eventually convicted of rape. Armstrong has severed ties with him and looks back at that decision with regret -, a lot of it comes down to age-old misogyny and this rigid view of what certain types of music should be defined by. Who is on the microphone. Even bands like HAIM get criticism and sexism because they play their own instruments and are accused or faking it.

IN THIS PHOTO: SPRINTS/PHOTO CREDIT: David Willis

Bands like SPRINTS – led by Karla Chubb, as part of the Irish band, she has been subjected to sexism and abuse - have to face misogyny and hatred. Nodding back to that article from The Guardian that I mentioned. Concerning women coming through and adding their own energy and rage to genres like Nu Metal. These closing words stood out:

“But back in the nu-metal heyday of the late 90s and early 00s, it was rarely a woman expelling her rage into the mic. Although many women were fans, onstage you would be hard-pressed to name more than a handful of performers beyond Evanescence and Kittie, while the moshpit, manned as it was by a ratking of pummelling arms and flying wallet chains, was not a place where many women felt comfortable. “It was definitely a masculine genre,” says Sawayama. “Metal itself lends itself to toxic masculine tropes, but it’s also almost taking the piss out of a very masculine expression of emotion.” Using this to exorcise her own anger felt right. “There’s a lot to be angry about in this world; for me, raging against microaggressions and satirising them worked with the whole genre.”

Taking a traditionally masculine style and twisting it into something current feels very now, and while reclaiming nu-metal may be a small one, it’s still a step towards unpicking music’s boys club. Let’s just hope it doesn’t pave the way for ska-punk to make a comeback”.

I wanted to use that interview with Linkin Park as a jumping off point. Their new album, From Zero, is brilliant. Rather than betraying their roots of disrespecting the memory of Chester Bennington, it is a rebirth and restart. A band who have kept their old fans and are recruiting new ones. A lot of support for them. However, there is still this sorting whiff of sexism that applies to so many other bands similar to them with women in the mix. This mentality and mindset that women still the potency and authenticity of that music. There is a line in Linkin Park’s best-known song, In the End, that seems to apply to genres like Nu Metal and a change in practice. Women, if not fully accepted, definitely adding something incredible to the genre: “Things aren't the way they were before”. Having lived through the '00s and a lot of the discrimination and sexism that pervaded, that is not a time that…

WE want to return to.

FEATURE: Going Into the City: Lost for Words: In Recognition of the Brilliant Robert Christgau

FEATURE:

 

 

Going Into the City: Lost for Words

PHOTO CREDIT: Jane Bruce

In Recognition of the Brilliant Robert Christgau

__________

THIS is not tied…

PHOTO CREDIT: Michael Ip/Redux (via The New Yorker)

to any piece of news or a big birthday. Instead, I want to spend some time with Robert Christgau because he considered to be the most prolific music journalist ever. I myself have published thousands of features. I think around five-thousand. Millions of words. I am not sure of the exact amount. Robert Christgau has published many thousands more reviews and articles than me. Known for his incredible capsule album reviews and music criticism, he is one of the most important and prominent music journalists ever. He is eighty-three now and I hope he keeps writing for many more years. He was born in April 1942 and he began his career in the late-1960s. Christgau is notable for his early support of Hip-Hop, Riot Grrrl, and African popular music. He was the the chief music critic and senior editor for The Village Voice for thirty-seven years. We don’t really spend some time considering the huge importance of music journalists. I often feel you can make a film around Robert Christgau. If not him at the centre then someone playing him. Focusing on him in a film maybe set in the 1970s. Following the music of the time and putting a story around him. I do think that musicians are undervalued and underpaid. Music journalists undervalued and under-respected. Many cannot afford to work independently and there are so few opportunities for people to work professionally. It is to be respected that someone like Robert Christgau is about and still producing excellent work. I would love to work for as long as him. Even though I can never catch him in terms of his output and prolificacy, he is someone I aspire to. A critics that should be portrayed on the screen. Robert Christgau has written several books. I will come to a couple of them soon.

I want to start off with an article from Medium. They spent an hour with Robert Christgau in 2018. Someone who has been writing for over five decades and had reviewed, at that point, more than fifteen-thousand albums, he says how it is too late to stop now. It is impossible to give up that lifestyle. If you write non-stop and are committed to music journalism, then what is the alternative? It is such a seductive thing! Let’s hope Christgau never feels that need to slow down as he is inspiring so many music journalists:

“He proclaims himself with no shyness “the dean of american rock critics”. And though it sounds arrogant, he rightfully deserves the title. Robert Christgau along with Lester Bangs and Greil Marcus, starting in the 60s, and they are considered to be “the holy trinity” of rock ctitics ever since. If Lester Bangs achieved that through gonzo temperament and Greil Marcus with an exemplary analytical and detailed writing, Robert Christgau distinguished himself from the rest for his critic libels, his flash album reviews (usually between 20–150 words) that became his trademark. Using a language that combines academic with slang, loads of humor and without going easy with anyone, he also created his own rating system: a scale from A-E with +/-, honorable mentions with stars (*, **, ***) but also…duds, which mean his wish for a blow-up (and extermination) for the specific album that gets it.

This review “brand” as he calls it, was named Consumer Guide and blossomed from 1969 to 2006 in Village Voice (where he was also an editor). He continued his review “shots” in MSN Music and you now can find him in Noisey and his Expert Witness column, and he has also appeared through the years in magazines like Esquire, Playboy, Rolling Stone and Creem.

Robert Christgau has written for about 15000 albums in 50 years, with a writing that has preexisted profitable to day, in a time when statuses and tweets “rule the world” –one of his most notorious reviews counts one word: “Melodic.” (for Simon and Garfunkel’s Bridge Over Troubled Water). But he can also be impressive in longform. In his new book, Is It Still Good To Ya? Fifty Years of Rock Criticism, 1967–2017 (Duke University Press –some more review collections and his memoir Going Into The City have been published before), that gathers many of his longer essays, with an interesting introduction and prologue.

This new publication was the motive for an hour long “video encounter” between Athens and New York, during which Robert Christgau in a good mood and almost adolescent impetus, talked about his writing process, music journalism in the digital era, declaring that he’ll go on undismayed, as long as the most important thing of his life is by his side: his wife…

On the introduction of your book you say that you love collections.

Yes, I do. I’m actually doing a second one that’s gonna be pieces I wrote about books and it’s gonna come out in six months. I’m not advertising because I’m afraid people are waiting to review it. But I read collections almost every year. Like by great baseball writer, Roger Angell and people older than me.

Do you think that collections work with today’s perception of information?

Precisely. Collections are a way to put information in order and a physical form that is organized and says “You may think you have to work on your fingertips but one fuck up can blow it all out”. People who believe that this thing is gonna go on and on and is never gonna be some sort of a major attack and glitch on it, are crazy. It’s going to be killed some day. Not necessarily killed, but damaged, seriously damaged. And some information is going to disappear, it’s gonna be gone. If it’s on paper, it will still be doing.

So, how do you wish Is It Still Good To Ya? to work for the readers?

The idea with a collection is sort of to begin with a kind of bang. In this case there’s both an introduction and a prologue that has to do with when my father died. There’s a lot of mortality in this book. On the end there are old pieces I wrote on Prince, David Bowie and Leonard Cohen. In the case of Prince and David Bowie their deaths were very surprising. And Leonard Cohen’s was also actually unexpected. I have a t-shirt that says “Trump killed Leonard Cohen”. In any case, I do believe that Trump killed Leonard Cohen. I do believe that Leonard Cohen looked at Trump and said “It’s not worthy any more”. In Cohen’s case, this was a man of pessimistic temperament and my guess is not an all together healthy psychochemistry and couldn’t deal with that dark future.

You also say that collections need all the status they can get. I flip the scheme: do collections give to the content a status they need and can get?

Oh, yes. You know, I got this very good organized website. I don’t believe that website is destined to live on perpetuity. I believe that there’ll still be libraries though, well, paper is not the world’s most prominent mean.

You are a very idiosyncratic writer. Did you find yourself, at any point of your career, to get into the hesitation of style over content?

I always thought that the two things were joined. What I did with my students was that I would tell them to read non fiction writing every week. And I would write in the board in big letters “What are you going to write about?”. Subject is very important. If you’re going to write non-fiction the style means nothing or very little. The content justifies the effort you need to put into the writing itself. Of course there are exceptions to this but I was gonna show these kids technical stuff about writing. But I wanted to show was “Students, this is big deal”. If you wanna write non-fiction you have to be interested in the world. Which they didn’t. Nevertheless and moreover, I would also say that a writer’s style is going to serve the content with a certain flavor to accent certain things about it.

Which gives the writer’s point of view…

Exactly. For example, my version of Bob Dylan is very different from most people’s version of Bob Dylan, even though, we talk about the same great artist. But I’m skeptical about him and not an impassionate fan. Most people write about Dylan, for instance, my friend Greil Marcus, my acquaintance Jonathan Lethem, these are people who hang on his every word. My writing is built into a kind of hitting around, joking, snorky irony that sometimes inflect my choices of language. So, my Dylan is not anybody else’s Dylan. And with an artist as complicated as Dylan that’s not weird. This is not a man who sets himself out to be known, he sets himself out to be unknown. And then millions of his followers try to get him anyway. They simply don’t respect what it is that he does.

About the digital era of journalism, nowadays everything tends to be quicker, the texts are smaller and music comes easily in any platform you can listen to it. Except for the initiate readers that will read music journalism anyway, what do you think is really the position and functionality of music criticism today?

I think it’s sadly and tragically dismissed. And that’s partly a function of the technology itself. There’s a lot of studies that indicate that people retain staff they read on paper better than what they read on the screen. There’s a word I made up for what happens with digital journalism, “externality”. I believe that writing on music is experienced inside your head, is not a physically present in the world, it has a different kind of authority and prominence and you absorb it differently. The second thing is the economic. Nobody is getting paid. The internet has greatly reduced the cash that is valued on both recorded music and the written word. One of the thing this means is that the typical music journalist has to produce two or three snippets of info a day. To write them, maybe read it once and publish them”.

Going Into the City: Portrait of a Critic as a Young Man was published in 2015. An essential book, you can read more about it here. I am not sure whether I have missed a T.V. or film project that has featured Robert Christgau in some form. However, thinking about his decade-old book, it is time to adapt it in some form. This is what Waterstones said about a tremendous and engrossing read:

“One of our great essayists and journalists-the Dean of American Rock Critics, Robert Christgau-takes us on a heady tour through his life and times in this vividly atmospheric and visceral memoir that is both a love letter to a New York long past and a tribute to the transformative power of art. Lifelong New Yorker Robert Christgau has been writing about pop culture since he was twelve and getting paid for it since he was twenty-two, covering rock for Esquire in its heyday and personifying the music beat at the Village Voice for over three decades. Christgau listened to Alan Freed howl about rock 'n' roll before Elvis, settled east of Manhattan's Avenue B forty years before it was cool, witnessed Monterey and Woodstock and Chicago '68, and the first abortion speak-out. He's caught Coltrane in the East Village, Muddy Waters in Chicago, Otis Redding at the Apollo, the Dead in the Haight, Janis Joplin at the Fillmore, the Rolling Stones at the Garden, the Clash in Leeds, Grandmaster Flash in Times Square, and every punk band you can think of at CBGB.

Christgau chronicled many of the key cultural shifts of the last half century and revolutionized the cultural status of the music critic in the process. Going Into the City is a look back at the upbringing that grounded him, the history that transformed him, and the music, books, and films that showed him the way. Like Alfred Kazin's A Walker in the City, E. B. White's Here Is New York, Joseph Mitchell's Up in the Old Hotel, and Patti Smith's Just Kids, it is a loving portrait of a lost New York. It's an homage to the city of Christgau's youth from Queens to the Lower East Side-a city that exists mostly in memory today. And it's a love story about the Greenwich Village girl who roamed this realm of possibility with him”.

Before rounding things off, I am going to come to a Vice piece from 2015. Robert Christgau speaking about Going Into the City: Portrait of a Critic as a Young Man and his experiences. A fascinating life. Although I don’t think all of his writing is available online, you can get a real sense of the scope and importance of this journalist:

“No matter the publication, Christgau’s voice is consistent and undeniable; his prose filled with verbose descriptors, far-flung references and the hyperbolic musings of a man who writes to understand himself and the art he consumes. A contemporary of rock critics Greil Marcus, Jon Landau, Dave Marsh, and Lester Bangs, Christgau is the best and most relevant music writer still writing, largely because he stays so in step with what’s happening in modern music without waxing nostalgic about decades gone. Earlier this year, for example, he devoted an entire column to the Bandcamp releases of former Das Racist member Kool A.D.

Though Christgau’s voice is so distinct that a bit of his personality bleeds into everything he types, Going into the City is Christgau’s first work that deliberately puts his own trajectory in the spotlight. He previously published column compilations and record guides for the 70s, 80s and 90s, but where his prior tomes were hand-crafted by Christgau the critic, Going into the City examines Christgau the man. In close to 400 pages, he discusses his early life and first forays into journalism, his horrid and successful romantic relationships (sprinkled with oddly worded tales of sexual encounters, like, “After some expense-account Chateaubriand she took me home and made me come with skillful rapidity”), and his indelible commitment to documenting the music of his times, which through perseverance and a little luck have managed to stretch from the subversive rock of the late 60s to the pop-rap of the present.

Flaws, delusions, and hangups are abound, but aside from one celeb story of a night spent with John and Yoko, The City is a highly personal peek into the origin story and working life of a living legend who’s still an adept enough writer to explain why he’s a legend. The result is a portrait of a highly opinionated, sometimes-mean, oftentimes-horny, and always-thoughtful critic of our culture.

Noisey: Let’s start with your life as a music fan, and how it informed your career as a rock critic.
Robert Chrisgau: 

I’m not a musician, I can’t read music, but I came from a family of music fans. Not mad music fans, but people who like music. Both of my parents can play the piano. They were very good dancers, which I am not. And my grandfather loved music a lot and he had a big influence on me. One of the most fun-loving people I met in my life. I was just drawn to music. I was drawn to records, early… The first single I ever bought was “Secret Love” by Doris Day and the second was “Sh-boom” by The Crew Cuts. I still love “Secret Love” by Doris Day, “Sh-boom” a little less.

You mention some work in sports and news writing in your first few years out of college. News writing can be very direct and concise. Is that something that later informed your style as a music writer?

I actually think I learned to write concisely working for an encyclopedia company in Chicago. I had to write about [Russian author] Isaac Babel in 11 lines. That’s like 90 words. So I learned how to squeeze a lot into a small space. I don’t remember how long those high school sports features I turned out for the newspaper were. They were about 400 words, I don’t know. But in any case, it didn’t feel like I had to leave a whole lot out to write about these high school guards who I knew for about 15 minutes over the phone. But I learned. I learned how to make [the stories] hookier. It was a skill I had to master. It was because I read journalists who I really loved, like A.J. Liebling and the sportswriter Red Smith, who were great stylists inside the journalistic medium. So I always tried to be a little classy, a little funny… But both of my daily newspaper gigs, at the Star-Ledger for a little over a year and Newsday for two years, they both taught me to be productive and practical about getting stuff done.

I think that’s what comes from a newspaper background—that feeling that a story needs to get done regardless of outside factors or circumstances.

That’s right, but I would like to think my standards are higher than most newspaper writers, even the really good ones. Or not necessarily higher, but different. I make different kinds of demands of myself than they do. One of them is: avoid cliches at any cost. And: if somebody else said this, don’t say it again. Say it a little different.

One of the things you’re best known for is your capsule record reviews.

It’s my legacy. I used to think I’d written 14,000, but I did some figuring it out. I’m at around 13,400. 14,000 including duds and stuff, but I don’t think that counts. I’ve gone through over 16,000 records and I’ve written capsule reviews of at least Honorable Mention length of 13,400.

Tell me about the process of how you approach a record you’re reviewing. How do you listen to it? How many times? Do you take notes as you sit with it?

I completely immerse and I play things over and over again. Things happen to you somatically when music goes through your head, and then one day you say, “Oh, I know that!” If I play something three, four, or five times, even if I like its looks, and I don’t have that moment where I say, “Oh, I know that!”, then I figure there’s something wrong with it. Unless a lot of people tell me I’m wrong, and then I try some more. Then there are things that sound so drab and no one else writes about that I can’t even get through it once. That happens a fair amount. But I don’t write a full capsule review of anything I haven’t heard five times. It’s usually closer to ten”.

When do you think you’ll stop writing about music?

Probably never. But I may not write at the same pitch. And I may not necessarily do these Consumer Guide-style reviews forever. But on the other hand, I don’t intend to stop writing, while I can still write. But I may not write as much. I wouldn’t mind working less. [Laughs] I really wouldn’t”.

2019’s Book Reports: A Music Critic on His First Love, Which Was Reading “establishes Christgau as not just the Dean of American Rock Critics, but one of America's most insightful cultural critics as well”. Is It Still Good to Ya? Fifty Years of Rock Criticism 1967-2017 is another book to get. This “definitive collection also explores pop's African roots, response to 9/11, and evolution from the teen music of the '50s to an art form compelled to confront mortality as its heroes pass on. A final section combines searching obituaries of David Bowie, Prince, and Leonard Cohen with awed farewells to Bob Marley and Ornette Coleman”. I am excited to see what comes next for Robert Christgau. You can check out his work here. Still writing reviews and articles, I think we will see more books and essays from him. Someone determined to keep writing for as long as possible, Christgau is surely among the most influential music journalists ever. Definitely one of the most prolific. I don’t think anyone will catch him. Seeing this great brought to the screen would be a dream. Hopefully that will be realised…

ONE day soon.

FEATURE: The Digital Mixtape: Shania Twain at Sixty

FEATURE:

 

 

The Digital Mixtape

Shania Twain at Sixty

__________

I may have sourced…

this biography before but, as the absolute music legend that is Shania Twain turns sixty on 28th August, I wanted to return to it. I am going to end with a career-spanning playlist. To show what a phenomenal catalogue of work Twain has accrued. One of the most successful female artists ever, this is someone who has been responsible for inspiring so many other artists. Most might know her for 1997’s Come on Over. That album was a massive-selling success and spawned s string of popular singles. Shaina Twain is more than one album. She has released so much brilliant music through her career:

“Shania Twain rivaled Garth Brooks as the defining country star of the 1990s, the musician who helped broaden the sound and appeal of the genre. Where Brooks brought a pop audience to country, Twain invaded the pop charts, working with producer Robert John "Mutt" Lange to marry country conventions with classic rock swagger and adult contemporary appeal. The pair unveiled this blend on The Woman in Me, the 1995 album that produced four number one country hits, but perfected it on Come on Over, a 1997 blockbuster featuring "You're Still the One," "That Don't Impress Me Much," and "Man! I Feel Like a Woman," hits that altered the course of modern pop by delivering country music with the flair and style of MTV. Twain's appeal extended far beyond American country audiences, targeting international markets with Up!, a 2002 album that marked the end of her collaboration with Lange but not her stardom. She spent the first years of the 2000s and 2010s quietly, as generations of musicians raised on her music started to become stars in their own right. After a nearly 25-year hiatus, Twain re-emerged with the reflective Now, which debuted on the top of the charts upon its release in 2017. For its 2023 follow-up, Queen of Me, Twain moved in a decidedly pop direction.

Twain was born in Windsor, Ontario, and raised in the small, rural town of Timmins, Ontario. As a child, she learned to play guitar at an early age and would spend much of her time singing, writing, and playing. Early on in her musical development, her parents pushed her on-stage, making her perform frequently around their little town; often, she would be pulled out of bed around one in the morning to sing at local bars, since as a child she could only appear in the clubs after they had stopped serving alcohol. In addition to bars, she sang on local radio and television stations and at community events. When she was 21 years old, both of her parents died in a car crash, forcing her to take responsibility for her four siblings. In order to pay the bills and keep food on the table, she took a job singing at a resort in Deerhurst. With the money she earned at the resort, she bought a house and had the family settle down.

She sang show tunes, from George Gershwin to Andrew Lloyd Webber, as well as a little country. Twain stayed at the resort for three years, at the end of which all of her siblings had begun lives of their own. When she was finally independent again, she assembled a demo tape of her songs, and her manager set up a showcase concert in Canada. Twain caught the attention of a few insiders with the concert, and within a few months Mercury Nashville had signed her to their roster. Her eponymous debut album was released in 1993, and although it wasn't a major hit, it performed respectably in the United States, launching two minor hit singles, "What Made You Say That" and "Dance with the One That Brought You"; in Europe, the album was more successful and Country Music Television Europe named her Rising Video Star of the Year.

Shortly after the release of Shania Twain, the singer met and fell in love with Robert John "Mutt" Lange, a hard rock producer known for his work with AC/DC, Def Leppard, Foreigner, and the Cars. Lange had been wanting to move into country music for a while, and after hearing Twain's debut album, he decided to get in contact with her with the intention of working on an album. By the end of the year, the pair had married and begun working on her second record. The two either wrote or co-wrote the material that eventually formed The Woman in Me.

The Woman in Me was released in the spring of 1995. Its first single, "Whose Bed Have Your Boots Been Under?," went to number 11 early in the year, quickly followed by "Any Man of Mine," which became her first number one single in the spring. The album's title track went to number 14 in the fall, while the fourth single, "(If You're Not in It for Love) I'm Outta Here!," rocketed to number one toward the end of the year; early in 1996, "No One Needs to Know" became her third number one hit. By the beginning of 1996, The Woman in Me had sold over six million copies and broken the record for the most weeks spent at number one on the country charts. During the course of 1996, it would rack up another three million in sales. Come on Over followed in 1997. She spent the next two years touring the globe in support of the album; by the end of 1999, Come on Over had sold 36 million copies.

Twain took a sabbatical and returned to her Swiss home for some down time with her husband. The next summer, she and Lange welcomed their first child. A son, whom they named Eja, arrived August 21, 2001. During this time, Twain brainstormed for a fourth album. While balancing a domestic life and a career, the end result was Up!, which appeared in November 2002.Up! was released to considerable fanfare -- not only was it accompanied by a huge publicity blitz, but it appeared in three different mixes, designed to appeal to country, pop, and international audiences -- and it was initially a big success, selling over 870,000 copies in the U.S. upon its first week and debuting at number one in the Billboard charts, but despite such hits as “I'm Gonna Getcha Good!” and “Forever and for Always,” it failed to have the same kind of staying power as The Woman in Me or Come on Over. Those two albums sold over 10 million copies a piece in the U.S., whereas Up! sold 5.5 million -- an impressive number that only pales when compared to her track record. As Up! worked its way down the charts, Twain released a Greatest Hits album in the holiday season of 2004; the compilation was a great success, going triple platinum in the U.S. where it peaked at number two on the Billboard charts. In the wake of Greatest Hits, Twain released a song called "Shoes" on the 2005 soundtrack to the TV soap opera Desperate Housewives, but otherwise she slowly slid into an extended hiatus.

In 2008, she announced her separation from husband Mutt Lange, and in the following year she wrote an open letter to her fans apologizing for the lack of new music. Despite this, new music wasn't imminent from Twain. She started to return to active status in 2011 via the reality series Why Not? With Shania Twain, which culminated with the release of a new single called "Today Is Your Day"; it peaked at 36 upon its July 2011 release. A few on-record cameos followed -- she appeared on Michael Bublé's 2011 Christmas album and on Lionel Richie's 2012 country album Tuskegee -- before she turned her attention to a three-year residency at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas, Nevada. Once that wrapped up, she embarked on a tour called Rock This Country in 2015. During 2016, she worked on the album that became Now, teased by the singles "Life's About to Get Good" and "Swinging with My Eyes Closed." Now was released in September 2017, debuting at number one on Billboard's Top 200 and Country Albums charts.

Twain supported Now with an international tour, which was followed by a Las Vegas residency called Let's Go! opening in late 2019. Originally slated to run for two years, it wound up being curtailed by the COVID-19 pandemic. During July 2022, the Not Just a Girl documentary debuted on Netflix, accompanied by the hits collection Not Just a Girl: The Highlights. Shortly afterward, she preleased "Waking Up Dreaming," a cheerful preview of her sixth studio album, Queen of Me. Featuring collaborations with such producers as Adam Messinger, Mark Ralph, David Stewart, and Tyler Joseph, Queen of Me found Twain embracing 21st century pop, emphasizing big, happy hooks and a clean digital sheen”.

I am going to end things in a second. On 28th August, the titan that is Shainia Twin turns sixty. I hope that she has many more albums inside of her. The word gets overused when it comes to music. ‘Icon’. However, when it comes to Shania Twain, she very much is…

A true icon.  

FEATURE: Spotlight: Alessi Rose

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

PHOTO CREDIT: Patrick Gunning for DORK

Alessi Rose

__________

RELEASED on 25th July…

Voyeur is the debut E.P. from the fantastic Alessi Rose. She is one of our brightest young artists. Someone I have just discovered but has been getting a lot of love for a while now. I will come to some interviews with this phenomenal talent. Before that, there is some biography that provides some background of Alessi Rose. I can see her dominating the music scene in years to come:

“Born in Derby, East Midlands, Alessi was drawn to the stage from a young age, enrolling in singing lessons as a child and taking an instant shine to musical theatre. Raised by a mum who loved ‘80s new wave and a dad who loved country music – “My dad put me on to Taylor Swift, which is funny,” she quips – she remembers feeling creative from a young age, entering poetry competitions in school and eventually combining her fondness for that form with the skills she was learning in singing and piano lessons. It was a strike of youthful ingenuity that led to her actually sharing her talent with the world: after seeing Gracie Abrams posting 30-second clips of herself performing to camera, and seeing some flicker of resemblance in Gracie’s conversational, casual style, Alessi decided to start posting videos of herself performing in her bedroom, too. Posting performance videos emboldened Alessi to pursue music for real. Towards the end of lockdown, a friend of her parents had found out that she was interested in music, helped her download music production software and gave her a pair of speakers to use as monitors in her makeshift bedroom studio; slowly, she began to self-produce demos and upload them to BBC Introducing. Dean Jackson started playing Alessi’s bedroom productions, which weren’t even mixed or mastered, every Saturday, an early boost that signalled to Alessi that maybe her dreams of stardom weren’t so far-fetched; she ended 2022 being one of their most played artists of the year, without ever officially releasing any songs. Alessi’s hustler instincts kicked in, and she began trawling the credits of her favourite songs on Spotify and cold-emailing producers she particularly liked, sending hundreds of emails asking if anyone wanted to work with her”.

Six months after her E.P., for your validation, Voyeur is out. There is this momentum forming. It is worth reading some interviews from earlier in the year such as this one. We get an idea of how Alessi Rose was being written about after the release of her previous E.P. Now, with this incredible new E.P. out in the world, there will be many who are picking up on her music for the first time. I am moving to an interview from DIY. From playing at small venues to playing festivals and huge spaces, it has been a whirlwind. This big leap that is richly deserve:

“Now, a mere six months on from unveiling her second project, the pop powerhouse is embracing a new chapter with her latest EP. “‘Voyeur’ is me dealing with [my] transition into being an artist and someone that people look to,” the 22-year-old explains. A body of work that sees her navigate the trials and tribulations of young adulthood while adjusting to being in the public eye, the eight-track project has already sparked discourse online. “I’ve always had a relatively young audience and I think that makes people think that I have to be palatable,” she notes, referencing the degree of controversy surrounding its title. “But I’d rather teach young girls that they don’t have to be palatable and suit everything that people want them to be.”

Deconstructing her relationships and experiences with unguarded candour, the EP lays out Alessi’s uncompromisingly bold vision. “The voyeurism is two-fold; the people who listen to my music become a voyeur in that they know all of these deeply personal things about me, but also I’m a voyeur of myself and my own decisions,” she explains. Between ‘Dumb Girl’’s visceral declaration of “Your tongue fits in my mouth / Like it’s by design”, to the aching frustration of unrequited love on angsty guitar anthem ‘Same Mouth’, or the emotional fallout of a friendship breakup on the ‘90s indie rock-infused ‘Stella’, ‘Voyeur’ finds the singer revelling in her artistic freedom.

Written over the past six months between her hometown and sessions in London and LA, the EP further marks a shift in Alessi’s creative process. “I’ve become a lot more comfortable with the label of pop,” she explains. After initially grappling with whether her lyric-focused writing style could fit within the genre, it was ultimately the time-defying classics of Britney and ‘80s Madonna that reaffirmed her mission. “I don’t think you have to sacrifice anything by calling yourself a pop artist; there’s so much scope”. It’s a statement that comes to light on EP standout ‘Take It or Leave It’, which pairs wittily poetic storytelling with an infectious, hook-driven chorus, issuing a defiant bite-back at a non-committal lover.

Paving the way for a new generation of popstars, Alessi’s confessional anthems continue to resonate on a global scale. With a run of festival dates this summer (including a set at Madrid’s Mad Cool this month) and her third headline tour scheduled for this autumn - alongside a series of dates supporting Tate McRae in North America - hers is a name that’s set to remain on the tip of everyone’s tongue. But, as the crowds proceed to get bigger, it’s the support of her fans (the self-titled ‘delulu girls’) that remain at the centre of it all. “Playing any size venue to people [who are] there for you and [are] passionate about you is the best feeling ever - they’re the reason I do this,” she grins.

Whether it’s making her Glastonbury debut opening the Other Stage or announcing her next single by projecting it onto Wembley Stadium, Alessi Rose has undeniably found her forte in transforming her innermost thoughts into huge pop moments. And, if the last 18 months are anything to go by, it looks like she’s well on her way to headlining arenas herself”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Patrick Gunning

Before moving to the final two interviews, it is interesting to note the reaction Alessi Rose got when she played Glastonbury recently. Playing the Other Stage on the Saturday, DORK highlighted an artist who sold out a U.K. and European tour and is primed for seriously huge things. I am going to end with an interview from NME. Before that, People chatted with Alessi Rose about an E.P. where she has truly hit her stride. Perhaps the most personal and authentically ‘her’ work. One that comes off of the back of these incredible sets and some big exposure this year:

"Voyeur feels like the most quintessentially 'me' project that I have released so far. My next wave of music feels self-assured, formed through the sounds I have learned to love whilst spending more and more time in the studio working with my favorite people," she says about the E.P.

"It's pop music but it's lyrically based in my most introspective, raw and sometimes uncomfortable thoughts," she continues. "It also all just feels massive to me. I remember listening to the masters of all of the tracks whilst running over Williamsburg bridge and just feeling emotional and so proud of this thing I'd made."

After supporting Dua Lipa on the European leg of her tour as an opening act, Rose is set to join Tate McRae as she plays in the U.S. this fall.

"My headline shows in New York and L.A. back in April had some of the most lively and passionate crowds I've ever performed for," says the singer, who recently played at Glastonbury.

"I felt nervous up until the very last minute, which is very unlike me but the moment I stepped out, I felt back to normal and empowered and kind of emotional," she adds about her festival set. "I've watched Glastonbury sets on TV with my parents for as long as I can remember, and now I get to perform too."

While in Madrid, Rose performed at the Mad Cool Festival, which marked her first headlining show in Spain.

"They are some of the most passionate, energetic and loving people I am lucky to call fans of my music," says Rose, who got to meet some of the fans at the UMusic Shop.

"It's the best, most special feeling in the world," she adds of seeing them sporting her merch and singing along to her music. "I am endlessly grateful that I get to be around them and understood by them. That's why touring is my favorite part of all of this. I get to see them all".

Before some exciting U.K. dates starting from November and European dates in September, Alessi Rose will play Reading & Leeds next month. You can check out her dates here. This NME cover story spotlighted an artist documenting the messiness and complexities of growing up. One of the fastest-rising artists this country has produced for years, there is a section of the interview that particularly caught my eye. One of the defining aspects of Alessi Rose’s artistry is her lyrics. Confessional and raw, it has connected with so many fans:

“Rose’s meteoric rise thus far is a testament to her deeply confessional brand of songwriting – one that’s allowed her to build a deep connection to her fanbase, who’ve dubbed themselves the “delulu girls”. Her appeal lies in a fortuitous combination of skills: Rose is both a storyteller letting you in on her most intimate thoughts (and occasionally most humiliating experiences) and an architect of endlessly catchy pop hooks – the kind you find yourself humming on your commute after hearing once on the radio. Alongside that, she has the stage presence of a born pop star, unfazed by intimidating, iconic stages.

Mostly, though, it’s an homage to the theme of romantic devotion that serves as her most consistent muse. “I have always been inspired by the relationship between worship and unrequited love,” she explains, tapping into the hivemind of a generation afraid to commit: a 2024 poll from YouGov found that 50 per cent of 18-to-30-year-olds had been in a situationship, a statistic often attributed to their coming of age in a turbulent political period and unstable economic climate.

This penchant for grasping for shreds of attention from situationships feels akin to seeking cosmic signs from a divine force, Rose thinks. “When you are so devoted to a god, you’re giving so much energy, and maybe sometimes you’re not getting the energy back. When I am going through the process of crushing on someone, there is so much energy invested into this thing, and who knows if it even exists.”

Perhaps it’s why Rose is blunt when addressing sex in her music, presenting a stark contrast to the way pop has traditionally skirted around the topic through irony and innuendo. Though infinitely more poetic, the tone of Rose’s lyrics often resembles a particularly candid voice note to a best friend, brimming with horniness, desperation and regret. On ‘Everything Anything’, from her upcoming EP ‘Voyeur’, she’s left confused over someone she “used to have sex” with who now won’t pick up the phone, while on ‘Oh My’, she laments a love interest who “gives me head while I’ve been losin’ mine.”

“It just feels nice to be completely honest,” she says. “I love metaphorical lyrics. I love cheeky, sexy pop songs, but for me, I like to revel in the discomfort and the provocative side of it.”

In some ways, her desire to be upfront comes from a sense of responsibility to her predominantly female and queer fanbase, whom she’s keen to demystify and destigmatise sex for. “I didn’t really get much of a sex education in my school. I knew nothing, and that was quite scary,” she says. “We should talk about sex more. I mean, there’s nothing unnatural about it.”

Inevitably, having a young following introduces pressure to become a role model – something Rose has been grappling with recently. Now, she says she’s keen to take on the title, but as a big sister, hoping you’ll learn from her own excruciating mistakes, rather than a saintlike figure who won’t make any at all. “I don’t think any 16-year-old wants to be spoken to like a 16-year-old, anyway,” she affirms. “When I was a teenager, I would look to movies and books and art when I wanted to feel older and more mature”.

Go and check out Voyeur and follow Alessi Rose. After festival dates and her U.K. shows later in the year, it is onwards and upwards. Not much time to rest, I hope she gets time to reflect on a massive year. Perhaps the most important of her career. The next few years are going to see her go from a promising/rising artist to someone who will stand alongside the biggest artists in the world. Worldwide success and admiration will occur…

SOONER rather than later.

_____________

Follow Alessi Rose

PHOTO CREDIT: Bella Howard for NME

Official:

https://shopuk.alessirosemusic.com/

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/alessirose/

TikTok:

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

Twitter:

https://x.com/alessir0se

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/artist/6QXtidyXX0uGggafrYdktx?si=j9g-9EE2QpGTLw4sVSeMwA

YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1gy4m2zFMkPZE7aKMST-CA

FEATURE: Is This Just Fantasy? Fifty Years Since Queen Started Recording Bohemian Rhapsody

FEATURE:

 

 

Is This Just Fantasy?

Fifty Years Since Queen Started Recording Bohemian Rhapsody

__________

I will look more deeply at the song…

IN THIS PHOTO: (L-R) Brian May, John Deacon (standing), Roger Taylor and Freddie Mercury at Les Ambassadeurs where they were presented with silver, gold and platinum discs for sales in excess of one million of Bohemian Rhapsody, which was number one for nine weeks, on 8th September, 1976 in London/PHOTO CREDIT: Anwar Hussein/Getty Images

in a minute. Queen started recording Bohemian Rhapsody on 24th August, 1975, at Rockfield Studios in Monmouth, Wales. The recording process took about three weeks. It is almost fifty years since the band recorded one of the best songs ever created. An epic multi-suite work of genius that the world had seen nothing like. Released as a single on 31st October, 1975, Bohemian Rhapsody reached number one in the U.K. and other countries around the world. You can read more about the track here. As it is almost fifty years since Queen started work on Bohemian Rhapsody, I want to mark its anniversary. The first single from the band’s fourth studio album, A Night at the Opera, I want to delve into the story of this classic song. A Night at the Opera was released on 28th November, 1975. Even though nothing on the album quite matches Bohemian Rhapsody, it does contain another Queen gem: John Deacon’s You’re My Best Friend. I want to start with this article from last year. An ambitious and rule-breaking song that smashed records and continues to stun listeners, this amazing work from Freddie Mercury will never be equalled in terms of its idiosyncrasy and ambition. There have been songs since that tried to match the scale and shape of Bohemian Rhapsody. However, you can never better the original:

“Queen guitarist Brian May remembers the brilliant singer and songwriter giving them the first glimpse in the early 70s of the masterpiece he had at one time called “The Cowboy Song,” perhaps because of the line “Mama… just killed a man.”

“I remember Freddie coming in with loads of bits of paper from his dad’s work, like Post-it notes, and pounding on the piano,” May said in 2008. “He played the piano like most people play the drums. And this song he had was full of gaps where he explained that something operatic would happen here and so on. He’d worked out the harmonies in his head.”

Mercury told bandmates that he believed he had enough material for about three songs but was thinking about blending all the lyrics into one long extravaganza. The final six-minute iconic mini rock opera became the band’s defining song, and eventually provided the title of the hit 2019 biopic starring Rami Malek as Mercury.

The recording of Bohemian Rhapsody

Queen first properly rehearsed “Bohemian Rhapsody” at Ridge Farm Studio, in Surrey, in mid-1975, and then spent three weeks honing the song at Penrhos Court in Herefordshire. By the summer they were ready to record it; taping began on August 24, 1975 at the famous Rockfield Studios in Monmouth, Wales. It was a moment that May described as “just the biggest thrill.”

The innovative song began with the famous a cappella intro (“Is this the real life?/Is this just fantasy?”) before embracing everything from glam-metal rock to opera. A week was devoted to the opera section, for which Mercury had methodically written out all the harmony parts. For the grand chorale, the group layered 160 tracks of vocal overdubs (using 24-track analogue recording), with Mercury singing the middle register, May the low register, and drummer Roger Taylor the high register (John Deacon was on bass guitar but did not sing). Mercury performed with real verve, overdubbing his voice until it sounded like a chorus, with the words “mamma mia”, “Galileo” and “Figaro” bouncing up and down the octaves. “We ran the tape through so many times it kept wearing out,” May said. “Once we held the tape up to the light and we could see straight through it, the music had practically vanished. Every time Fred decided to add a few more ‘Galileo’s we lost something, too.”

The references in Bohemian Rhapsody

Mercury had supposedly written “Galileo” into the lyrics in honor of May, who had a passionate interest in astronomy and would later go on to earn a Ph.D. in astrophysics.

“Bohemian Rhapsody” brims with imaginative language and is a testament to Mercury’s talents as a songwriter. Scaramouche was a buffoonish character in 16th-century commedia dell’arte shows; “Bismillah”, which is taken from the Quran, means “in the name of Allah”; Beelzebub is an archaic name for the devil.

“Freddie was a very complex person; flippant and funny on the surface, but he concealed insecurities and problems in squaring up his life with his childhood,” said May. “He never explained the lyrics, but I think he put a lot of himself into that song.”

The legacy of the song

Mercury’s ambitious song, which earned him an Ivor Novello Award for songwriting, quickly became a highlight of Queen’s live show after being unveiled on the A Night At The Opera Tour of 1975 (the closing night of which is captured on their A Night At The Odeon DVD, the deluxe box set of which features the band’s very first live performance of the song, recorded during the soundcheck).

“Bohemian Rhapsody” opened their celebrated Live Aid set in July 1985 and it has remained remarkably popular. In 2004, the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall Of Fame, and Mercury’s vocal performance was named by the readers of Rolling Stone magazine as the best in rock history. “Bohemian Rhapsody” is the third best-selling single of all-time in the UK and, in December 2018, “Bo Rhap” – as it is affectionately known among Queen fans – was officially proclaimed the world’s most-streamed song of the 20th Century, passing 1.6 billion listens globally across all major streaming services, and surpassing Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” A mere seven months later, on July 21, 2019, the video surpassed one billion streams on YouTube. In 2021, it was certified diamond by the RIAA.

“It is one of those songs which has such a fantasy feel about it,” Mercury said. “I think people should just listen to it, think about it, and then make up their own minds as to what it says to them”.

The penultimate feature is from Dig! that was published in 2020. They wrote how Bohemian Rhapsody changed things. In terms of what Rock and Roll could be. It was this unique song that seemingly came out of nowhere. People knew how good Queen were, though few could see this Freddie Mercury-penned symphony coming! I wonder what people will write about Bohemian Rhapsody closer to its single release on 31st October:

“The penultimate song of A Night At The Opera is a microcosm of the album itself in the same way A Day In The Life is for Sgt Pepper, combining almost every genre imaginable. As May correctly states, A Night At The Opera is meant to be listened to as a whole album, a sensory overload of suitably royal proportions, with Bohemian Rhapsody as “the jewel in that crown”. Following that, the guitarist’s instrumental arrangement of God Save The Queen is a perfect end to a perfect record.

“The biggest single of the century”

Bohemian Rhapsody was nearly not the album’s lead single. Being six minutes long and containing a potentially uncommercial operatic section, it was a gamble and feared unlikely to be played on radio. At many suggestions, the song was cut down, but its composer led the band’s staunch position of all or nothing. No one doubted it was extraordinary; apparently their manager played the tape to his other super-talented, super-extravagant client Elton John, whose response was, “Are you fucking mad?”

After Mercury slipped a copy to Kenny Everett, the oddball DJ played it 14 times over one weekend on his Capital Radio show and the decision was set. Released on the last day of October, Bohemian Rhapsody became Queen’s first UK No.1 single, spending nine weeks at the summit before being displaced by ABBA’s Mamma Mia. Despite being a member of perhaps the only group to provide more karaoke classics than Queen, Björn Ulvaeus hailed the Queen effort as “the biggest single of the century”.

These days, a song of that magnitude requires an equally sizeable music video. But in 1975, such a thing didn’t really exist. Only movie-star crossovers could provide any form of video accompaniment to their music if they featured it in a motion picture (see Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley and The Beatles). For standard artists, the only real exposure other than touring was to go on Top Of The Pops, where you would comically mime to your own music as if it were live, with the result usually called a “pop promo”. But to avoid the hassle of actually appearing on Top Of The Pops, a Bohemian Rhapsody video was made to be used instead, freeing Queen to go on tour. The equally sensational and iconic clip was essentially made up as they went along. It also brought the cover of the band’s second album, Queen II, to life, with silhouette figures giving the perfect tone to accompany such a melancholy lyric.

“It’s very self-explanatory”

It’s a lyric which tells a remarkable story, but what about? Well, on the surface, the lament of a poor boy who throws it all away by shooting a man. A potential spanner in the works is the operatic section: will you do the fandango? Um, not sure, really. Bohemian Rhapsody is best summed up by drummer Taylor, who believes “It’s very self-explanatory, there’s just a bit of nonsense in the middle.”

The song’s deeper meaning, however, is a lot more difficult to make out. Common thought is that Mercury wrestled with his demons and put his thoughts into an abstract story. We all know his troubled relationship with his sexuality, and the back and forth cries in the song suggest we are looking at the intense throes of one – or possibly multiple – relationships. What was the exact meaning? “I don’t think we will ever know,” says guitarist May. Poetry does not need a discernible source to be validated, and as Rami Malek, as Freddie Mercury, so eloquently puts it in Bohemian Rhapsody, it is simply “an epic poem”.

A lasting legacy

So why else are the song and album so critically well-revered? Essentially, because Queen were pushing boundaries in the studio. As Roy Thomas Baker said, creating such a spectacular album in the mid-70s “wasn’t easy… then eventually technology caught up with us”. The motivation for this is obvious, according to May, nothing, “The Beatles were our Bible.”

It’s appropriate then that the legacy of Bohemian Rhapsody matches that of any Fab Four hit. Queen’s first UK No.1 hit helped catapult them to national stardom and set in motion the outstanding catalogue of work to follow. The song was released again following Mercury’s death, in 1991, 16 years after its initial outing, and once more topped the UK charts.

The list of accolades garnered by Bohemian Rhapsody is endless. In 2002, it was named by The Guinness Book Of Records as the top British single of all time; two years later it was inducted into the Grammy Hall Of Fame. The song regularly comes near – and often tops – relevant newspaper, magazine and television polls, and, in 2012, readers of Rolling Stone magazine voted Mercury’s vocal performance on the song as the greatest in rock history.

According to the Official UK Charts, as of June 2018, Bohemian Rhapsody is the UK’s third biggest-selling single of all time, with over 2.5 million sales. Globally, it has sold over six million. In December of that year, shortly after the Mercury biopic was release, it was officially named the world’s most-streamed song from the 20th century, surpassing 1.6 billion streams globally across all major streaming services.

To help get a full sense of the standing of Freddie Mercury and his creation in not just rock-music history but in the very fabric of British culture, look no further than The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert For AIDS Awareness that took place at Wembley Stadium on Easter Monday, 20 April 1992. For an audience of 72,000, titans including Metallica, Def Leppard, U2, Roger Daltrey, Robert Plant, David Bowie and George Michael covered Queen hit after Queen hit”.

I am going to wrap up soon. However, before coming to that, TIME ran a feature in 2015 highlighting how critics were somewhat mixed regarding Bohemian Rhapsody. Such a challenging and unusual song, you can understand why some were a bit flummoxed or taken aback. However, it is impossible to deny the brilliance of Bohemian Rhapsody. How could anyone dislike or feel anything other than awe when reviewing this song?! It is a masterpiece. From an album called A Night at the Opera, there is something distinctly operatic about the album’s penultimate song:

“The critics never saw it coming.

“Unfortunately,” TIME opined, “Queen’s lyrics are not the stuff of sonnets.” The New York Times, reviewing a 1978 appearance at Madison Square Garden came down equally hard: “Lyrically, Queen’s songs manage to be pretentious and irrelevant. Musically, for all the virtuosity—though it was cheating a bit to turn over the complex middle portion of their ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ to a taped version, with empty stage and flashing lights—the songs still sound mostly pretty empty, all flash and calculation.”

Rolling Stone didn’t mention the song in its review of the album A Night at the Opera (“The Prophet’s Song” got top billing as the best track) but later referred to the song as a “brazen hodgepodge.”

But that skepticism is long gone. Rolling Stone eventually put “Bohemian Rhapsody” on its list of the 500 greatest songs ever, and it also has pride of place on TIME’s own list of the greatest songs since 1923”.

I can’t recall when I first heard Bohemian Rhapsody. Maybe when I was a child. It must have been almost alien when I was that age! However, in years since, I have come to respect the sheer guts of the song. To release something so long as a single in 1975 was a commercial risk. Nearly six minutes long, that might not seem unusual today. However, back then, this was a gamble. Despite some critical contrasts, in years since, Bohemian Rhapsody is listed among the greatest songs ever. In terms of its legacy, this section from a Wikipedia article puts it into perspective:

“The song has won numerous awards and has been covered and parodied by many artists. At the 19th Annual Grammy Awards in February 1977, "Bohemian Rhapsody" received two Grammy Award nominations for Best Pop Vocal Performance by a Duo, Group or Chorus and Best Arrangement for Voices. In October 1977, only two years after its release, the British Phonographic Industry named "Bohemian Rhapsody" as the best British single of the period 1952–77.  It is a regular entry in greatest-songs polls, and it was named by the Guinness Book of Records in 2002 as the top British single of all time.  The song is also listed in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll.

In 2004, the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. As of 2004, "Bohemian Rhapsody" is the second most-played song on British radio, in clubs and on jukeboxes collectively, after Procol Harum's "A Whiter Shade of Pale". On 30 September 2007 for BBC Radio 1's 40th birthday, it was revealed on The Radio 1 Chart Show that "Bohemian Rhapsody" had been the most played song since Radio 1's launch.

In December 2018, "Bohemian Rhapsody" officially became the most-streamed song from the 20th century, surpassing Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and Guns N' Roses' "Sweet Child o' Mine". "Bohemian Rhapsody" also became the most-streamed classic rock song of all time. The number of downloads of the song and original video exceeded 1.6 billion downloads across global on-demand streaming services. The video surpassed one billion views on YouTube in July 2019, making it the oldest music video to reach one billion on the platform, and the first pre-1990s song to reach that figure”.

On 24th August, 1975, Queen started recording Bohemian Rhapsody. Did the band know what it would end up like and how the song would take on a life of its own?! It still sounds so exciting and grand fifty years later. You do not get songs like this today! Often topping polls of the best songs of all time, Bohemian Rhapsody deserves…

EVERY plaudit it gets.

FEATURE: The Great American Songbook: Beastie Boys

FEATURE:

 

 

The Great American Songbook

PHOTO CREDIT: Kevin Cummins

Beastie Boys

__________

FOR this The Great American Songbook…

I want to look at one of my favourite groups. Beastie Boys formed in New York City in 1981. They comprised Adam ‘Ad-Rock’ Horovitz, Adam ‘MCA’ Yauch, and Michael ‘Mike D’ Diamond. Their final album together was 2011’s Hot Sauce Committee Part Two. Their 1986 debut, Licensed to Ill, turns forty next year. That seems hard to believe! To show how incredible this trio were, I am going to select twenty songs from throughout their career. I do love how all of their albums are different and yet there seems to be this consistent excellence throughout. This series celebrates great American artists and their impressive songs. I am not sure who I will focus on next though, when thinking about American acts who have made a big impact, I thought naturally of Beastie Boys. Some people might know Beastie Boys for a few songs or a particular era. If you need a fuller picture of their brilliance and sense of evolution, then I hope that the mixtape at the end provides that sense of clarity and insight. This is a sonic nod to…

A phenomenal three-piece.

FEATURE: Kate Bush’s Never for Ever at Forty-Five: Inside an Underrated Masterpiece

FEATURE:

 

 

Kate Bush’s Never for Ever at Forty-Five

IMAGE CREDIT: @flandrepudding 

Inside an Underrated Masterpiece

__________

IT is awkward starting the…

first of a few anniversary features about Kate Bush’s Never for Ever where there are debates around the exact release date. I have seen some say it is 5th September, 1980. Others 7th September. I am pretty sure it is 8th September, but it is frustrating that there is not that clarity regarding the exact release date! We shall say 8th September, 1980 for the purpose of these features. Turning forty-five soon, I will come to a couple of promotional interviews/features from 1980. It is amazing to think how underrated this album is. Consider the brilliance of singles like Babooshka and Breathing. How phenomenal the album is and how different it is to anything else that was released in 1980. Never for Ever was the first-ever album by a British female solo artist to top the U.K. album chart, as well as being the first album by any female solo artist to enter the chart at number one. It is such an important album. Before getting to a couple of interviews, I want to start out with some features that look inside the album. I am going to start out with The Quietus and their fortieth anniversary feature from 2020. They argued that, whilst it is not her most celebrated, it might be her most pivotal. I would agree with that:

“Listen now and you can still hear that fundamental shift Bush spoke of, the birth of some new, peculiar magic. It starts with ‘Babooshka’, in which a paranoid wife impersonates a younger woman to test her husband’s roving eye, and ends up destroying her marriage. It’s a wonderfully wicked premise: Bush based it on the cross-dressing, happy-ever-after hijinks of the traditional English folk ditty ‘Sovay’, but her revamp is less a cheeky romp than a surreal, bitter farce, pitched somewhere between Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? and Tales Of The Unexpected. Most startling, though, is the way it sounds, like unearthly Russian folk music: there’s something both archaic and futuristic about its echoey keys, eerie synths and the ethereal strings of her brother Paddy’s balalaika, as uncanny as a Cossack band playing on the Mir space station. Bush sings like two different people, flitting from coy trills to operatic shrieks, and eventually her world comes crashing down in a crescendo of squalling guitars and the Fairlight’s splintering glass.

Then, before the debris has cleared, she drifts into the wispy beauty of ‘Delius (Song Of Summer)’, which recounts how Frederic Delius’s amanuensis, Eric Fenby, took down his idol’s compositions from dictation after he was waylaid by syphilis. All the same, if “moody old man” Delius was difficult, there’s no rancour in its shimmering reverie of hazy sitar and bubbling percussion: it hums with the heady buzz of the olde British countryside, and Bush’s vocal has the crisp, bucolic freshness of dandelion and burdock. Both tracks size up the album’s big themes – the push-and-pull of thorny relationships, the constant churn of emotions – but one bursts into thunder, and the other floats on the breeze.

Never For Ever is a starting point, not a zenith, and those miraculous opening six minutes aren’t as groundbreaking as her later innovations. But it is, I’d argue, the first of her LPs that’s genuinely experimental. Paddy’s greater involvement brought weird new instruments – zithers, kotos, musical saws – although Peter Gabriel introduced Bush to the Fairlight, the sonic equivalent of a Jedi being handed their first lightsaber; there were only three in the UK, and while she wouldn’t master it until later, her instant obsession speaks to how determined she was to bend her ornate style into bizarre new shapes. ‘All We Ever Look For’, her happy-go-lucky reflection on knotty parent-child relationships, mutates into several different forms by itself: it jumps between lurching, whistling synths, the koto’s fluttering strings, and a mishmash of Foley-style noises including chirping birds and hurried footsteps. “The whims that we’re weeping for/ Our parents would be beaten for,” sings Bush over its jaunty, oddball din, like the ringmaster at a baroque big top”.

I am going to come to this PROG article that talked about the diversity of the album. How it was this incredible album that was beyond a traditional Pop album. In terms of what Kate Bush was writing about. More unusual and original than what was around her:

“It was her 70s swansong, which opened up all manner of possibilities for her 80s explosion. Much as 1979’s The Tour Of Life remains legendary in the collective memory/imagination, afterwards Kate Bush avoided live concerts until her triumphant return with the Before The Dawn shows some 35 years later. She had been uncomfortable with EMI’s visual emphasis on her sexuality, and felt she’d been rushed on her previous album, Lionheart.

So after the Christmas 1979 TV special, where she’d premiered some of these Never For Ever songs, she began to ease away from promotion (thus acquiring priceless mystique) and took control, with her family, of her business affairs. In the studio, she became an auteur. The success of Never For Ever was therefore a crucial confidence boost, lighting the pathways for her subsequent transcendent work.

It was the first album by a British female solo artist to top the UK album chart (straight in at No.1), and the first by any female solo artist that wasn’t a compilation. She had a lot more up her skirt than the cats, bats and butterflies pictured on the sleeve, but here was where her swans truly took flight.

BABOOSHKA

A more bitter than sweet love story, coming from somewhere between Edmond Rostand’s Cyrano de Bergerac and Rupert Holmes’ Escape (The Pina Colada Song). Bush told Australian TV that the wife of the tale tests her husband’s loyalty by sending him “scented letters” from a young temptress, but he becomes so besotted with the fictitious creature she’s dreamed up that their relationship is ruined. (Nowadays they’d just Snapchat each other.)

The traditional English folk song Sovay, involving a woman in disguise, was another inspiration, having fascinated Kate since childhood. In the video, she played the wife, while the double bass symbolised the man (John Giblin’s fretless bass was a key element of the track). The sound of glass breaking at the end (she smashed up crockery at Abbey Road, later apologising with chocolates to the studio’s kitchen staff) was an early use of a sample made on the spanking new Fairlight CMI synth to which Peter Gabriel had introduced her. (There were only three in the UK at the time.)

The song became a UK Top Five hit, and thus her biggest since Wuthering Heights. Kate’s admitted that she didn’t realise that ‘babushka’ is the Russian word for grandmother, and many shared her misapprehension that the word signified a series of dolls of decreasing size placed one inside another. ‘Matryoshka’, the technically correct phrase for that, wouldn’t have scanned or been half as catchy.

ARMY DREAMERS

This insistent waltz decries the effects of war, centring on a mother, rattled
by guilt as she grieves for the loss of her son who was killed on military duty. She wonders if he could’ve been a rock star or a politician, if she’d been able to afford him a guitar or ‘a proper education’. Weirdly, the single was longer than the album track (which fades). Insanely, it was banned by the BBC during the 1991 Gulf War. Bush rocked camouflage gear in the video. The song’s been covered in numerous languages, from Hebrew to Finnish.

“I wanted the mother to be a very simple woman who’s obviously got a lot of work to do,” she told Flexipop! at the time. “She’s full of remorse but has to carry on, living in a dream. Most of us live in a dream.” She also told interviewers that it wasn’t “specifically” about Ireland. “I’m not slagging off the Army,” she said to ZigZag’s Kris Needs. “It’s just so sad that there are kids who have no O-levels and nothing to do but become soldiers, and it’s not really what they want. That’s what frightens me.”

BREATHING

An eerie, thoroughly prog trip back to the womb was a curious choice as the first single and teaser for a new project (it stalled at No.16), but uncompromisingly confirmed that Bush was now taking a firmer hand in decision making. Again her telly watching played a part as she cited a documentary she’d seen on the perils of nuclear fallout (fragments of spoken word describing the flash from a nuclear bomb can be heard). It’s interwoven with fears that the mother’s smoking may also damage the foetus (as if the kid didn’t have enough to worry about, with the apocalypse and all). No wonder Kate, in the video, wants to get out of that rather low-budget plastic bubble. ‘We’re all going to die!’ cries a background voice.

Upon release, in the fan club letter, she called it “a warning and plea from a future spirit to try and save mankind and his planet from irretrievable destruction”. She told ZigZag it was “the best thing I’ve ever written, the best thing I’ve ever produced – my little symphony”, while Smash Hits elicited the quote, “We’re all innocent. None of us deserve to be blown up.”

Roy Harper had a backing vocals credit. Talking to Melody Maker’s Colin Irwin, Bush said, “When I heard Pink Floyd’s The Wall I thought there’s no point in writing songs any more because they had said it all. When something really gets you, hits your creative centre, it stops you creating… After a couple of weeks I realised that [they] hadn’t done everything […] Breathing was definitely inspired by the whole vibe I got from hearing that album, especially the third side. There’s something about Floyd that’s pretty atomic anyway”.

I think I might move to the interviews now. However, I would advise you read this fascinating article that provides some different perspectives and angles that highlight the importance of Never for Ever. I think it may be Kate Bush’s most underrated albums. In the second anniversary feature for Never for Ever, I shall go deeper with the production and the finer details. In September 1980, the Evening Standard ran an interview with Kate Bush. It is interesting reading the print interviews that came out around the release of Never for Ever. Whilst few are insightful or anything beyond empty and somewhat inane, it is beneficial providing this sort of context. Promotion was a big part of the album process. Trying to sell it to people. It is a shame a lot of the interviews are not better:

“KATE BUSH would be less than human if she did not sometimes marvel at the attention she has received over the last three years.

She says: "Sometimes I see myself in the paper and it's hard to associate with the name Kate Bush. She is this well-known person who has almost become like a brand name like Maxwell House coffee or something. Meanwhile, I'm just working on my music and my life."

Somehow she remains an awkward personality to categorize. One newspaper has described her as Britain's top pop sexpot while a new, unauthorized biography about her life opted for the title Suburban Princess.

Even now she comes over in person as part pop star and part ordinary girl from East Welling in Kent, firmly in the south London commuter belt, while her conversation ranges between traditional pop world cliches to perceptive comment.

Her guilelessness and insistence on being eager to please almost offers a challenge to find some kind of hidden dark secret to her life. However, nothing rarely emerges.

"I often think people are looking for something in my life that they can't find," she comments. "A number of performers, I suppose, come from working-class families or their parents were divorced, perhaps that gives them the urge to go out and struggle for something.

"But basically I have always had a normal, very happy life with my family. I never went out and beat up old ladies or became an alcholic at school.

"I think the public have become conditioned to want to know who is sleeping with who, or how many marriages somebody has had, but as far as I'm concerned it's totally irrelevant. I'm really very normal and there is nothing sensational to uncover. I wouldn't talk about some private things to my mother so why should I to anybody else."

Nevertheless one still feels impelled to broach the subject of sex, especially as many of her songs seem to incorporate underlying sexual themes.

According to Kate: "I think music and love are very similar. They're both natural energies, they have the same kind of all-embracing freedom, the elation.

"The communication of music if very like making love. If you play a piano, for example, you're so united it's really a beautiful thing."

Now 22-years-old, the singer has accomplished almost everything the pop world has to offer except in the U.S.A. as yet. She has performed at the Palladium, made frequent appearances in the charts, and been given almost every major award available.

POWER PLAY

A new album due out next week has been held back for three months by EMI since they regard it with such importance that they did not want it's appearance to clash with other major releases this year by Paul McCartney and the Rolling Stones.

When we arranged to meet this week one could feel the power-play of the record business grinding into action as a car whisked one off to her hotel to meet the singer on her return from a television appearance in Germany.

While she remarks that she has felt more grown up of late, she has always appeared untouched by the pressures and difficulties that can accompany fame and fortune.

"I can see why people do have nervous breakdowns and so on, but it all depends on the person rather than what you happen to be doing.

"Sometimes I have felt that I'm losing control and that it's all running away with me, but all I have to do then is say to myself 'well leave then, give it up' and I know I never would because my life is really music and I love it so much.

"I would like to survive like people like Cliff Richard or Paul McCartney. If you look at them they're so strong and solid and happy, they'll be able to go on for as long again as they have already. They're happy because they're doing exactly what they want."

One particular buffer against the outside world would seem to be the Bush family. Her father, a former family doctor, and her three [three?] brothers are involved in different levels of her career.

FAMILY AFFAIR

One brother, Paddy, plays an assortment of instruments on her new album, while Novercia Ltd., the company that has been formed to look after her interests, has no fewer then five Bush family members as directors.

"I'm lucky to have a family I love who can give me advice when I need it. I like to think of myself as director of the force, but I'm not a business woman, for example, and when it comes to legal jargon I need some help.

"They're obviously people I trust and not just motivated by money, because if they wanted some, I'd give it to them anyway.

"Right at the beginning they weren't that involved, though they were always interested. It's just been something that's evolved as there has become a need for it.

"My parents weren't keen on me giving up school at the beginning to go into singing and dancing, but once they saw I was serious about it they gave support.

"I was quite stubborn about my decision and in the end they realised it was for the best”.

Before wrapping up, I want to actually source a weeklong diary Kate Bush wrote for teen magazine, Flexipop, around the release of Never for Ever. It is a really interesting piece where we are getting this personal account from Bush and what her week consists of. Perhaps more useful and illuminating than a lot of the interviews from that year:

“Friday

One hell of a day. I get up at about half ten. I don't have breakfast--I never do. Just a cup of tea. The first thing on the agenda is an interview with Paul Gambaccini. Before I leave I read my post, which is mostly business. Most other mail goes to my fan club, which is really well organized now. Fantastic. My driver picks me up at about noon. We go to a small studio in Soho. I can't drive. Apart from my driver I go everywhere unaccompanied. The reason I use the driver now is that it was getting ridiculous with cabs, it really was. It's so much easier now, it's just wonderful. [Actually Kate did obtain a drivers license, after one failure, in 1976.]

About three o'clock we go from Soho to Round Table at the Beeb, which Gambaccini also does. [This is a radio programme in which celebrity musicians and critics sit around to listen to and review new records.] We get there about four-thirty. A couple of kids outside--one who's always there every time I go to the BBC. His name is Keith. Must be in his early twenties. He always shows me things I've never seen before, like posters out of record shops. Old magazines. A picture of Pink Floyd before Gilmour was in it--I went WOW. I was really surprised, you know--they were all autographed and everything. I sign a few things, and then go in.

I don't have a go at anyone on the show. There's never any reason to do that. After, I have to go down to Abbey Road studios to re-mix the new single. We get there at about eight-fifteen. About this time I have my first bite to eat of the day--a toasted sandwich and chips. And of course, lots of cups of tea. The only way I can tell if I need food is when I feel sick. I smoke more at night, but I still usually get through less than twenty a day. John Player Special at the moment. We're still at it at three a.m. and I feel fine, but the engineer wants to call it a day. He's a great engineer, and I know he can finish it tonight, so I talk him into it. Come seven a.m. I'm not exactly perky, but I'm still not at all tired. I'm very much a nocturnal creature. My driver picks me up and I get to bed about seven-thirty a.m.

Saturday

I live alone--in southeast London--and today I don't get up until late: perhaps one or two p.m. A friend of mine from the Hare Krishna temple rang me up about eight-thirty, but I was too tired to natter much. About three o'clock I go over to my parents'--they live twenty minutes' drive away, in Kent. I'm doing a TV show in Germany on Tuesday [the programme was RockPop, and the taping was in mid-September, 1980] and my Mum's got some clothes to lend me. I'm going to do two numbers for the show. Army Dreamers is one, and I want to dress up as a cleaning woman. My mother lends me a headscarf, an old apron, and lots of my old jumble clothes. The song is about a mother who lost her son overseas. It doesn't matter how he died, but he didn't die in action--it was an accident. I wanted the mother to be a very simple woman who's obviously got a lot of work to do. She's full of remorse, but he has to carry on, living in a dream. Most of us live in a dream

I stay round my parents for a few hours--after all, you can't just go round, take all the clothes you want and rush off--drink lots of tea and eat chocolate eclairs and sandwiches, the sort of things that mothers like to fill you up with. I feel absolutely delightful after that, and I go back to start work on my routines for Tuesday.

What I do is have a little cassette machine with the mixes I'm going to work on, and I go into my back room where I have four mirrors propped up against the wall, and I rehearse in front of them. It's all very well to work out the routine for Army Dreamers, but the two dancers I work with [Stewart Avon-Arnold and Gary Hurst] are busy--one's in Godspell and one's in France. So I needed people who would be able to perform. Paddy, my brother, he does pretty well. And the guys from the band, who are natural performers anyway. I am pretty wiped out still, and I don't get as much done as I could have. After working out for a while I don't feel too good, so I have a bath and try some more. I work out for two or three hours, then cook a meal for myself.

I'm not a bad cook. I love making bread. It's such a wonderful thing to do. So I watch the telly--the late-night movie: guys having their eyes pulled out, or something really awful. Paddy has come back by now, so we have a long chat and I get to bed about three o'clock. [Apparently Kate was still sharing the family's Lewisham building of flats with her two brothers. She has since moved to a house of her own, situated nearer her parents's home in Kent, and she uses a third building as a private dance studio.]

Sunday

Sunday is definitely the day that I have to physically work out. When I get up I can hardly stand up. My calves are beginning to feel sore from the night before.

Again, I get up around early afternoon. I don't bother buying Sunday newspapers--I don't read newspapers much at all, though if there's one around I'll read it. I don't read books very much either. I have a big guilt thing about that--I'm missing out so much, I read fact rather than fiction, usually when I'm on holiday. I tend to read religious things or theories on the universe. [This sounds like an early reference to Stephen Hawking, whose book, Kate has since explained, partially inspired her 1989 recording, Deeper Understanding. Another example of the long gestation periods typical of Kate's work.] I love Don Martin (of Mad magazine), he cheers me up. And if there's a Beano around, I've just got to look at it. When I was a kid that was really my thing. The illustrations are really great.

I spend all the day working out the routine for Babooshka. All Sunday is working out--dancing and miming. For miming you have to get the inflexions exactly right. I don't do that in front of mirrors, though. I hate watching myself sing. It's really weird. I also do more work on Army Dreamers. Gary, the dancer who's in Godspell, rings me up--and I've been sending out messages for him to ring me all day. We have this weird telepathic thing with the telephone. Whenever I want him to ring and whenever he wants me to ring him I get these 'messages'. So he rings up and says, 'I've been getting these messages all day, what's the matter?' I tell him that we've been trying to work out these routines, and quite honestly it would be useful to know what he thought of them. He says he wants to see me anyway, so he comes around at about midnight. He gets home at about five or six in the morning. I have a bath and go to bed.

Monday

I have to get up early because the single is being cut. I have to be at Abbey Road at two o'clock, and while I do the cut, the band go off to get their army gear for Army Dreamers. Then we all go over to my parents' to rehearse--there's no room for full-scale rehearsal in my flat. We do it in the garden. That song is pretty well tied up by the evening, so I go home. I generally get stuff ready for the trip. I don't take huge amounts of stuff with me, just hand luggage. Waiting for luggage at the terminal roundabouts is such a drag. Again, I get to bed around four a.m.

Tuesday

The car for the airport leaves at eight-fifteen, so I'm pretty wiped out. No one hassles me at the airport. A few years ago there used to be loads of photographers, but they don't bother me anymore. It makes things a lot easier, not having to walk up a corridor with everyone going 'OOOH LOOK'.

We arrive at about half one, and go straight to the TV station. I'm not very successful in Germany, and it's a big market, so it's an important show for me. Problems straight away. The stage has three tiers, which are going to get in the way. It has a big glass section they want me to work on--I work ninety-nine per cent of the time in bare feet, and there's this huge chunk of broken glass in the middle. I say, 'no way, you'll have to get rid of it'. It takes them half an hour to take it apart, and then I notice all these huge staples sticking out of it, so I ask this guy to pull them out.

The show starts at about eight--I fill in the time doing my make-up, sewing up little bits and pieces of my costumes that are falling to bits. I like to do that myself, it saves time. I'm so pleased when the show is over, and it went well. We go for a lovely meal courtesy of the record company. Things like that normally aren't lovely but I enjoyed this a lot--really nice. Leave the restaurant about one, go to the hotel, have a FANTASTIC bath and go to bed about three.

Wednesday

We have to be ready downstairs by half eight, and go straight to the airport. Flying doesn't bother me too much--only when I fly a lot in a short space of time, because then the odds seem to get higher. I try to be philosophical about it--once you're in the plane there's not too much to be done. Arrive in London later than morning. Do an interview at the Heathrow Hotel, and have some photos taken. Then I go home and feel wiped out again, so over to my parents' to sit in the sun. I recuperate, and go home again. I slob around, clean the flat up--it's in awful shape...I feed the cats, Zoodle and Pyewacket. Even when I'm that tired, I still don't get to bed till three or four. I spend a lot of time on the phone.

Thursday

Radio all day. I was meant to start with Luxembourg, but they pulled out, so I go straight to Capital. [Capital Radio is the independent station that broke Kate in 1977 by playing Wuthering Heights months before its official release date.] There for three, a very short chat. Then I do Radio One, then hang around a bit to do Brian Matthews on Radio Two. I leave about nine, and go home. On the way I pick up a Chinese takeaway. I don't need a bodyguard or anything for stuff like that. If people do recognize me they're not too likely to smother me in kisses or anything. Get home about ten, look through some photos with my brother [this would be John Carder Bush], and natter about odd bits of business. If I've got nothing to do I have a quick tinkle on the piano, which I try to get to all the time. Bed as usual three a.m.

Kate Bush (1980)”.

I am going to end things there. On 8th September, it will be forty-five years since Never for Ever was released. This record-setting third studio album from Kate Bush, I do hope it gets written about a lot soon. It is a terrific album that contains some of Bush’s best material. I am looking forward to writing the second anniversary feature. From 1980, Bush’s continued to layer and change her music. It would become more ambitious and change shape. In some ways, Never for Ever was that bridge between her first two albums – The Kick Inside and Lionheart of 1978 – and The Dreaming in 1982. Anyone who has not heard this stunning album needs to…

EXPERIENCE it now.

FEATURE: Spotlight: Florence Road

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

Florence Road

__________

THIS is a band…

that everyone should know about. I listen to BBC Radio 6 Music a lot and they have been mentioned by the station. Although they are near the start of their career, there is every reason to believe that Florence Road are going to be making music together for years to come. Their E.P., Fall Back, was released in June. I want to come to a few interviews with this wonderful Irish band. I am going to start out with their chat with Golden Plec from last month:

“It’s been like a whirlwind” vocalist Lily Aron admits, when she sits down to discuss the dramatic rise of her band Florence Road over the past 18 months. Surrounded by bandmates Emma Brandon (guitar), Ailbhe Barry (bass), and Hannah Kelly (drums) backstage in The Grand Social ahead of a sold-out headline show in celebration of the release of their five-track mixtape 'Fall Back'.

Since they released their debut single ‘Another Seventeen’ in 2022, the Wicklow quartet have gone from strength to strength, signed with Warner Music, played shows across Europe in support of US act Sombr, played Boston as part of Dermot Kennedy’s Misneach festival alongside the likes of Mick Flannery and Sorcha Richardson, and next week will support worldwide superstar Olivia Rodrigo in both London’s Hyde Park and Dublin’s Marlay Park. Taking it all in, whirlwind seems like an understatement.

“It’s been everything we’ve expected and more” Lily continues, “Even doing a music video was a huge dream of ours, and we did the ‘Goodnight’ music video two months ago and the whole experience was phenomenal. We’re all into the creative side of music so to be able to explore than has been amazing”.

“I feel like I went in with no expectations because I didn’t want to get my hopes up” drummer Hannah Kelly adds,” but everything has been great.”

The members of the band all first met in school, some already deep into their musical education while others were still fresh. The band first began life as Panorama, with Lily Hannah and bass player Ailbhe, before guitarist Emma approached Lily one day asking to work on a song together.

They did, performing a cover of ‘Happier Than Ever’, at which point it became clear to everyone (though Emma took slightly more convincing) to continue as a four-piece. They very quickly won a talent competition, with first prize being recording time, which they used to record ‘Another Seventeen’.

Whilst the band’s musical output is undeniably catchy, with single ‘Caterpillar’ in particular being one of the best new Irish songs of the past year, one of the major driving force behind their success to this point has been their social media presence, in particular on TikTok, where they have garnered over 900,000 followers and 30 million views.

Their experimentation with video all started as a joke between friends, when one of them got an ealry iPhone 0.5 camera. “We just got together and made a video for fun, posted it, and it didn’t do well in the first day or so” Lily recalls of one of their early viral hits, “but then it gradually began creeping up and it’s getting bigger ever since”.

“It was again a case of us going in with no expectations” Emma adds,”People were just loving the big blue eyes and freaky angles, and we just went “great, lets do more”.

Despite the growing numbers online, the band recognise the importance of knowing when to take a step back.

“It can be easy to get swept up in that online validation but we have such a good team around us, our family and friends, and we know that that’s just not real” Lily explains, “We recognise it’s been so important in helping us get to this place, but if we get a nasty comment or video doesn’t do as well, we know ourselves it doesn’t reflect our work or hold weight as long as we’re proud of it”.

“Performing live is really our main focus at the moment” Ailbhe adds, “I feel like social media is just used to boost that really. I’ve definitely taken a step back from looking at the numbers and reading comments, it’s really helped. There was a while there when we were getting so much hate comments we had to just log out and disconnect, in particular when working on new stuff”

PHOTO CREDIT: Patrick Gunning for DORK

I am going to move onto a great interview from DORK that was published last month. Whether you see Fall Back as an E.P. or mixtape – I am not sure of the distinction myself to be honest! -, it is one of the best releases of this year. Stunning stuff from a band that started out with no plan, a single song and a shed. It will not be long until Florence Road are performing in the U.S. and further afield. They have some dates coming up, including a stop in London on 20th August. Go and catch them if you can:

“Coming this spring is Florence Road’s debut mixtape, ‘Fall Back’. Spearheaded by their knockout debut single ‘Heavy’, the mixtape sees the girls get in the room with big-name producers faster than they could’ve ever imagined.

Where ‘Heavy’ was produced by John Hill (whose best work includes contributions to Charli xcx, Florence + the Machine, and MUNA tracks), their follow-up, the delicate and pensive ‘Caterpillar’, had Dan Nigro’s magic wand waved over it (a name that’s been wafting around since the 2020s kicked in, thanks to his collaborations with Olivia Rodrigo and Chappell Roan). Also making an appearance in the credits of ‘Fall Back’ is Dan Wilson, whose roster of hits includes work with a couple of small artists; maybe you’ve heard of Taylor Swift and Adele?

“We went over to LA for the first time, which was kind of bonkers,” says Lily. “We worked with Dan Wilson, who we love, and Dan Nigro, of course, that was very cool. I had to be like, I’m not thinking about this. Going in with these producers who we know are, you know, really well renowned, there’s that tiny bit of subliminal pressure to perform well. Honestly, I find it helpful.”

PHOTO CREDIT: Patrick Gunning

“I think because it’s still so fresh, and we’re so grateful and amazed to be there, that’s why we’re so quick,” adds Hannah. “It’s like, okay, let’s go and be able to come out with a demo because it’s just incredible to be there at all.”

There’s a wide-eyed optimism about Florence Road that seems to stop this whole rollercoaster from derailing. It’s only the very beginning, and with everything exciting so far only happening behind the scenes, being so close-knit helps the four stay grounded.

“When we started doing those first sessions, we very quickly had a lot of meetings, and we were meeting with kind of every single record label in the UK. It was the coolest thing ever, but also kind of scary. Everyone does tell you what you want to hear,” Lily explains.

“It had never crossed my mind until it was like, okay, now you’re meeting with the three big names. I was like, surely not?” adds Ailbhe.

“There’s a lot of imposter syndrome,” says Lily. “It kind of feels like there was a lot of being in the right place at the right time with this whole thing. I do believe that we’re very talented, but also so are a lot of other musicians. You can do a lot of why me and why us, you know, but I think we kind of take everything as it comes. I’m constantly grateful for everything. I’m constantly pinching myself. Even today, it’s so cool.”

It helps that the girls are so giddy, because Dork has been putting them through their paces today. Several hours scaling the woods in the rain and icy winds would’ve been enough to put any band off ever agreeing to an on-location photo shoot again, but they take it like real champs.

As grounded (and bewildered) as Florence Road are, when the boring side of the internet catches wind of a young female band who are doing well, accusations of being ‘industry plants’ feel poised to end up knocking on their door.

“If someone says we’re industry plants, we can be like, look at us two years ago, do you think they planted that?” says Ailbhe.

“The internet is a terrifying place,” adds Lily. “You always have to be on your toes with it and take everything with a grain of salt, because people are going to say the most egregious shit.”

“I think because we have such a digital footprint,” says Emma, “it would just be silly”.

There is a review of Fall Back that I want to finish with. Before that, I am going to source some of this NME interview from earlier in the month. If you do not know about Florence Road, then you need to rectify that now. Go and check out their phenomenal music! I have really high hopes for this band. I would love to go and catch them live one day. I might try and get a ticket for their London gig if there are any left. NME spotlighted a band who have already supported Olivia Rodrigo and have released this stunning and complete mixtape/E.P. One that sets them aside from their peers:

“‘Fall Back’ moves through a lot of different genres – how does it introduce Florence Road’s sonic world?

Aron: “I think what’s nice is that we never overthought it. ‘Caterpillar’ is very different to ‘Figure It Out’, and you could say the same about every single song. There are definitely crossover points, but it was never a discussion. The feeling was there, and we knew each song had its own moment. Having different musical influences, we have a lot of range in our songs, and they take you up and down. That’s something I love about our music – I don’t listen to one genre, I love music in all forms, and that’s why it comes out in what we do. I don’t see a reason for a box, or to say we can’t have piano cos we’re a rock band.”

Naming yourself as a rock band feels integral – are there other women in that space who’ve been influential?

Aron: “Wolf Alice are so cool, and Beabadoobee – the way she can do rock but also the lighter stuff. I listened to her a lot growing up, and that definitely influenced me.”

PHOTO CREDIT: Jan Philipzen

You’re now all 20, what does this EP say about being that age?

Aron: “I think it’s definitely a very emotionally-driven project. That transition from being a teenager to adulthood – even though we don’t feel like adults at all – there’s that feeling, and a lot of it for me is about being anxious and trying to get over that. It’s been really helpful for me to write about it and get it all on a page, and then getting to sing them all the time is very therapeutic. And then ‘Figure It Out’ is a yearning song of ‘I like you, like me back please!’ which is very common at this age.”

What’s coming up next – are there plans for an album in the works yet?

Kelly: “From day one, we’ve known that ‘7563’ is going on the album, and there are at least four or five others that are certain, so now it’s about trying to fit them together in a way that feels cohesive.”

Ailbhe Barry: “We’re writing all the time, so it’s exciting to see what we’re gonna do next and see what we haven’t touched on and maybe find new sounds and find what doesn’t exist yet.

Aron: “We just have so much fun together. When something big happens, I always say, ‘If this is it, then this is amazing’, and my expectations keep getting blown out of the park. We just have a blast, and it is so fabulous to do it with these three”.

I am finishing with one of the many positive reviews for Fall Back. Still Listening praised a work where Florence Road established their sound. A magnificent release filled with “angst, tenderness, and grunge-pop charm”. For those who have not heard Fall Back yet, do go and spend some time with it. It is evident that Florence Road are going to be huge very soon. So exciting to see a band who came from humble foundations rising and winning such plaudit. Their music needs to be heard by everyone:

“It seems that 2025 is the comeback year for indie bands - and placing themselves firmly within that category is the four-piece girl band Florence Road, who have just released their highly anticipated debut EP, Fall Back, via Warner Records last Friday.

The band features Lily Aron on lead vocals, Emma Brandon on guitar, Ailbhe Barry on bass, and Hannah Kelly on drums, all childhood friends from Wicklow in Ireland. Initially gaining popularity through their TikTok covers, the band are slowly making a name for themselves; having just finished opening for Sombr around Europe, as well as securing an opening slot for Olivia Rodrigo at BTS Hyde Park and Dublin this year.

The group's sound teeters between multiple subgenres - indie, soft-rock, grunge, and alt-pop - and combines these styles to create something new and refreshing. Lily's vocal delivery throughout the EP is particularly strong; it's emotional, raw and completely untamed, which only adds to the candidness of the lyrics.

The EP opens with Hands Down, a soft-rock ballad with a heavy electric guitar chorus. Lily's vocals ring throughout, her voice breaking and full of feeling, yet never too much or uncontrolled. The instrumentation and production follow suit: it's messy in nature, which I think it should be, given how early the girls are into their careers and the nature of the topics that they're writing about: navigating youth in all of its chaos.

Goodnight is next, possibly the most Olivia-Rodrigo-coded song, with a strong beat and bass line, and an angsty and catchy chorus and bridge. Lily chants lyrics 'this time, I'm gonna get it right, I'll leave the past behind, and your bags outside' / 'I'm sorry that it didn’t end well, but you never were a good pretender. I'm sorry that it didn’t end well, but you didn’t help yourself'. Whilst being a great sing-along tune, this might be the most predictable track on the EP in terms of melody and production, and not as sophisticated as the other tracks.

The EP swiftly moves on to showcase some of the band's strongest lyricism - an acoustic guitar ballad Caterpillar. Lily's delivery is soft to begin with, singing of the ever-so-familiar feelings of anxiety, with lyrics such as 'know that I'll feel better with the tap on, something about the water running down my side' / 'caterpillar hatching in my chest'. The chorus continues: 'is there something inside of me? / 'making me believe, that black is white' / 'is there something I can't defeat?' / 'maybe I should try and sleep tonight, sleep tonight'. As the instrumentation builds, with swelling strings, so does the rawness and emotion in Lily's voice.

Figure It Out jumps straight back into the grunge-bitten vengeance Flo Ro are known for: catchy guitar, lots of distortion, and a carefree vocal delivery. Closing the EP is Heavy, with lyrics 'tell me, tell me it's not that heavy, lie to my face and beg me not to cry, say it's alright, and we'll let it slide'. A whirlwind of a track with impressive production, the song finishes with just piano and Lily's unfiltered vocals.

Fall Back sees Florence Road firmly establishing their sound - and at such an early point in their career, it's impressive. With a range of styles being explored whilst simultaneously maintaining an artistic identity, it's exciting to see what the band will do next”.

Go and follow Florence Road. A tremendous young group who are going to be festival headliners very soon, I do really love what Florence Road are doing. They may be unknown to some. I would strongly suggest that you go and check out this band. They are an exciting and hugely promising name that you…

SHOULD not live without.

__________

Follow Florence Road

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/florence.road/

TikTok:

https://www.tiktok.com/@florence.road

Twitter:

https://x.com/Florence_Road

YouTube:

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

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/artist/0zzKEeF2bAVKrWeKc9CyJV?si=Uml1PyXbT2GI65tXm8Fq0A

FEATURE: That Golden Ticket! Kate Bush’s Before the Dawn Residency at Eleven

FEATURE:

That Golden Ticket!

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush performing at the Eventim Apollo in 2014 during her Before the Dawn residency/PHOTO CREDIT: Gavin Bush/Rex

Kate Bush’s Before the Dawn Residency at Eleven

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ONE of the biggest regrets…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush captured during the first night (26th August) of her Before the Dawn residency in 2014/PHOTO CREDIT: Ken McKay/Rex

of my life is not being able to get a ticket for Kate Bush’s Hammersmith residency in 2014. Or not being fast enough getting on the phone to buy one! The run of twenty-two wonderful nights began on 26th August, 2014. As we are almost at the point of marking the eleventh anniversary of Before the Dawn, I wanted to return to it once more. I am going to bring in a review about the residency. I have written about it quite a few times, so I will not go over stuff I have covered before too much. Although the cheapest tickets were not that cheap, think about gig tickets for major artists today and what you get. Unless it is a huge performance and very long, are you getting value for money?! Kate Bush delivering this incredible production with these wonderful sets and scenes, you would happily pay loads to witness that! Demand was so huge for the initial fifteen dates that tickets sold out in fifteen minutes. Seven additional dates were added. Bush won the Editor's Award at the Evening Standard Theatre Awards. It was also nominated for two Q Awards in 2014: Best Act in the World Today and Best Live Act. Thinking back, if I could have got a ticket, I would have been as close to the front as possible. I would have snapped up some merchandise and made it a night to remember. Not to revisit regret and a missed opportunity, for the thousands that did get to see Kate Bush at the Eventim Apollo in 2014, that must have been simply unforgettable! In many ways, her son Bertie helped persuade her to get back on the stage. Thirty-five years after her first big live undertaking, The Tour of Life, Bush made an announcement few thought that she ever would. There was not a great deal of coverage around the tenth anniversary last year. Given it is one of the most significant live shows in the past few decades, why was there this absence of features and celebration?!

One cannot rule out Kate Bush doing this again. In previous features, I have asked what another residency would involve. Which albums and songs would go together. Perhaps, after an eleventh studio album is released, that would give her more inspiration and possibility. In terms of the setlist and musicians who played, you can read more here. When it came to the songs included, it was mainly fusing Hounds of Love with Aerial. Only two tracks from the former were not included (The Big Sky and Mother Stands for Comfort); a few songs from Aerial were missed out to give chance for songs from The Red Shoes and 50 Words for Snow to feature. Even though Bush did not have to travel too far from her home to Hammersmith, the idea of doing twenty-two dates must have been daunting. That is a massive undertaking! The live album for Before the Dawn was released in 2016. I will end with a review of Before the Dawn. I am surprised that there has not been an entire book about the residency. Providing context, reviews, details and documentation of being there. The famous faces that were in attendance from the world of film, radio, literature and beyond. How there would have been this incredible anticipation in the air. On 26th August, 2014, this was this excitement and electricity around the Eventim Apollo! Though Kate Bush was nervous before coming onto stage every night, her performances were outstanding. She and her team mounted an unbelievable stage experience. I think a lot of massive artists today who produce these spectacles with set changes and visual elements are inspired by Kate Bush. In terms of turning a live performance more into a film or this multimedia experience. One of the major reasons for Before the Dawn was to finally see The Ninth Wave realised. The second side of 1985’s Hounds of Love, it was initially going to be turned into a film. That is what Kate Bush had in mind. That never happened (though I think that it should).

I keep thinking how I missed out on something life-changing. In terms of how everyone I know who got a ticket said it was one of the most emotional nights of their lives! There will never be a DVD release of one of the performances. I will wrap up shortly. When the press attended Before the Dawn, I guess they had no ideas what to expect. Most would not have seen Kate Bush perform live. This was an artist in her fifties delivering an awe-inspiring performance that was worlds away from what other artists were producing. So much more immersive and ambitious. This is what DIY observed when they were in attendance:

“While you try to catch your breath and reorganise your sense of reality after three hours of an astonishing, immersive and utterly singular show, the one thing that instantly becomes apparent through the mist is that Kate Bush is not one to cede to your run-of-the-mill expectations.

The whole night feels unreal and unravels in a dreamlike fashion – even attempting to put it into words here it seems to dissolve on the screen. That’s not just because of the feverish speculation that came before the show or the fact that Bush hasn’t performed in concert since 1979, but also because whatever your hopes or anticipations for this show – one of the most eagerly awaited pop performances in history – Bush turns them on their head and pours them away in an avalanche of artistic contrariness and outlandish theatre which sees the stage filled with a wooden mannequin, fish skeletons, sheets billowing like waves, a preacher, a giant machine that hovers above the audience pounding like a helicopter as well as lighthouses and living rooms, axes and chainsaws.

Yet through all the theatrics and artistry one thing remains constant, and it’s the thing that shines through the most: the rush of humanity that ties all the ideas together; the one thing that takes Bush to that other place. It’s the innate heart that pulses through all this theatre and all these ideas: the simple truths of love, hope and family life that hold all her ideas together.

‘I feel your warmth,’ she says appreciatively as the crowd passionately cheer and clap her every move and gesture. And it’s her shy but generous smile at the response from the crowd which shows exactly what this means to her.

This is the weight of 35 years being lifted – thrown off with the skilfulness and heart that shows Kate Bush is no ‘mythic’ artist but a very real, supremely talented original. Tonight is an unequivocal demonstration that she’s a one-off: only she has the ambition, nerve and imagination to pull off the ideas that had filled her mind.

Yet at first it seems she’s going to play it pretty straight. Barefoot and dressed in elegant black, she strolls around the stage gently, occasionally twirling. It begins with ‘Lily’ as she leads a small group of backing singers that includes her son Bertie (who, she says, has given her the "courage" to return to the stage). The band that line up behind her are as tight as you would imagine. They play ‘Hounds Of Love’ and ‘Running Up That Hill’. They sound huge, they sound brilliant. If there’s one thing you notice most it’s that her voice is remarkably powerful and it’s brilliant on ‘King Of The Mountain’ which brings the opening ‘scene’ to a close, heralding a storm as a bullroarer fills the air and cannons fill the theatre with confetti.

It's now time for the drama of 'The Ninth Wave', the second half of 'Hounds of Love'. Here we see a story of resignation and resurrection played out in the most theatrical of ways. We see Bush in a lifejacket floating in water, looking up at the camera as if waiting to be rescued (she’s reported to have spent three days in a flotation tank at Pinewood Studios to create the special effects). At one point fish skeletons dance across the waves, at another a helicopter searches the crowd, before a living room (yes, a living room) floats across the stage in which a son and his father – played by Bertie and Bush's husband Danny McIntosh – talk at length about sausages.

It’s hard to comprehend exactly what’s happening but the band skilfully navigate the pastoral prog and Celtic rock. Even when the music isn’t captivating, the sheer sense of spectacle means you can’t avert your eyes for a second. As the ‘The Morning Fog’ brings the performance to a close with another standing ovation.

After a twenty minute interval – during which time the bars buzz with delirium – the third act sees her play out ‘Sky of Honey’, the entire second half of 'Aerial'. It’s so intricately detailed that you get the feeling Bush had always planned to perform these two scenes live.

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush during her Before the Dawn residency in 2014/PHOTO CREDIT: Gavin Bush/Rex 

‘Honey’ is a grandiose daydream moving through a summer's day. Again the scope of her vision is immense – even when the songs don’t enthral the enormous paper planes and human birds do, as we see a wooden mannequin finding himself lost and alone. Bertie plays a major part throughout dressed as a 19th-century artist – and at one point telling the mannequin to "piss off". It ends, as only it could, with Bush gaining wings and flying.

She returns to earth to perform a solo version of ‘Among Angels’ on the piano, before the band return to help close the show with a joyful ‘Cloudbusting’. "I just know that something good is going to happen", she sings as a now even more euphoric crowd jump to their feet.

Then she’s gone. You’re left with the image of a singer who has managed to retain her mystery and surprise. An enigma, the mythic artist who is intensely human. It’s overblown and preposterous and brilliant. All its startling achievements, magical highs and am dram faults – its relentless ambition and human imperfections – make it the only document you could possibly have asked for from such a unique artist. Before the Dawn is everything you would expect but couldn’t imagine”.

Before the Dawn was a seismic moment in music history. Few thought that Kate Bush would return to the stage, let alone in such spectacular fashion! A residency in London where she focused on two of her best albums. It is hard to believe that, on 26th August, it will be eleven years since that first date. To have been there to witness something so transcendent. All these fans from around the world together to see Kate Bush deliver her first solo live performance in thirty-five years. Though we can never say never, maybe 2014’s Before the Dawn was the final live chapter. If it is, then it was a very special way of signing off! Today, we marvel at artists like Taylor Swift, Beyonce and Charli xcx who give these epic and grand live performances. Ones that take live music to new heights. I think people need to look back to 2014 and what Kate Bush did for Before the Dawn! Surely her inspiring artists of today. Her residency ranks alongside the most important and finest live performances…

THAT we have ever seen.

FEATURE: Dua Lipa at Thirty: What Next for a British Pop Queen?

FEATURE:

 

Dua Lipa at Thirty

PHOTO CREDIT: David Sims for British Vogue

What Next for a British Pop Queen?

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IT may seem too restrictive…

PHOTO CREDIT: David Sims for British Vogue

labelling Dua Lipa as purely ‘Pop’. Like Kylie Minogue, Charli xcx or any other queen on the scene, her music encompasses different genres and sounds. Hard to categorise. However, it is clear that Lipa is the jewel in the British Pop crown. Someone who has released three remarkable albums, a series of incredible tours and she has also picked up awards and done so much more. Whether that is producing documentaries, acting in films or running her own book club, Service95 Book Club. Dua Lipa says that reading has been “an anchor through every phase of my life”. As host of the podcast for the book club, she has interviewed the likes of George Saunders, Emma Cline and Patti Smith. In the midst of a series of tour dates, the rest of this year is going to be very busy for Lipa. The reason for doing this feature is that she turns thirty on 22nd August. Her most recent album, Radical Optimism, was released last year. It came seven years after her eponymous debut album. I want to use this feature to source from some recent interviews with Dua Lipa. Three albums in and with this incredible reputation as a globe-straddling superstar, you wonder where she will head next. In fact, I think I will return to an interview that I used in a recent feature about her. In June, British Vogue spoke to Dua Lipa about her career, finding love (she is getting married shortly), turning thirty and playing Wembley (which she did in June). I am going to end this feature with some live reviews:

“At 18 she was working in clubs and posting covers online when she was cast in an ad for The X Factor. She played a fresh-faced star-to-be who sings along to “Lost in Music” on her headphones while pinning laundry on a line. In the advert, everyone within hearing distance flocks to listen. In life, a similar thing happened. The allure of Dua’s voice became undeniable, and the rest, with a few twists and turns, is pop history.

On the short drive to the stadium in Madrid, the tinted windows are up for privacy, the air conditioning off to protect Dua’s vocal cords. She doesn’t mind – she says she’s prepared to “roast”. When we get there she’ll go into vocal exercises, sound check, hair and make-up, dance warm-ups: everything timed to the minute.

After her last tour in 2022, for Future Nostalgia, when she listened back to the album she preferred the live versions of the songs. This time she’s planned them that way: the songs on Radical Optimism were “written for live”, and she hopes they show more of her range as a musician, not just as a pop star. On this tour, she’s added a new cover version each night for the country she’s in. She likes a little added risk: feet dangling off the edge, as she puts it – and she’ll get that in spades when she plays Wembley this summer.

Dua’s daily schedule is “full, full, full, full, full”. She’s up at 6.30am and in bed by midnight and in between she does yoga, reformer Pilates, weight training, dance rehearsals. She looks after her body, she says, “like an athlete”, and thinks of her voice as a muscle. She has a singing coach as well as a speech therapist, to train her not to run her voice ragged by speaking in a raspy tone (“I love a chat”). When not on tour she’s in the studio with a producer and a fellow songwriter. She’s learning Spanish with a tutor three times a week, she reads (her friends get all their book recommendations from Dua) and when she is on tour she builds in time to explore cities and new restaurants. She loves to cook – even when just off a plane she makes pesto from scratch, not from a jar – and she eats healthily (“I never try and restrict myself from anything”). She looks after her skin, diligently washing her face three times after taking off her make-up, and once a year she sees a facialist in New York. All this, of course, while embarking on several high-profile collaborations in the worlds of fashion and beauty. In the past she has worked on a collection of clothes for Versace, been a brand ambassador for Tiffany & Co, and is a face of YSL Beauty. Notably this year she is front and centre for Chanel, both at the house’s shows and in launching the Chanel 25 handbag this past spring.

Dua’s appetite for life can’t be contained within the span of an ordinary human day – she needs every minute she can get just to meet the demands of her own curiosity. Her friend Mia laughs about this: “Maybe – a theory – she can stop time?”

“She’s been organised her entire life,” Anesa reflects. “She’s ahead of everything. The rest of us have to keep up.”

So what do Dua’s 30s hold for the Radical empire? “I think I’d love to expand Service95 and the book club,” she says. “I’d love to publish authors. I would love to help produce them into film and TV.” She recently executive produced a documentary about the music scene in Camden for Disney+, and would like to do more. She’s keen to see the music festival she set up in Kosovo grow. And at some point she wants to look after other musicians, “maybe have my own record label, maybe represent other artists”. Overall, she’s thinking: “How can I be of service, literally, to other artists, whether that be in film, TV, books, music?” You get the impression she doesn’t so much want to conquer the world as invite it to join her.

“Can you do all that?” I ask. She throws me an “are you kidding – I got this” look. “Yeah,” she says. “Nothing’s impossible

Twenty-two songs and five costume changes into her show, Dua has sung from a suspended platform, danced in the middle of a ring of fire, sprinkled autographs and taken selfies with tearful fans. She’s worn Valentino and Balenciaga. By the time the deep, familiar beat of her hit single “Houdini” comes on, the crowd has mutated into a single ecstatic organism.

“This is our last song!” Dua cries out. “So this is our last chance to dance! Are you ready?” The crowd goes wild. I think back to her telling me: “I feel so strong and I feel sexy and I feel kind of invincible when I’m on stage.”

With one last round of extraterrestrial energy, she launches into the precise and dauntless motions of the dance, gold chains shaking on her black Chanel bodysuit, lifted knee setting hips and shoulders rocking. This is music as physics – she has transformed the energy, changed the air, telegraphed the rhythms of the past two hours direct to the seat of our souls.

Backstage, Team Dua gathers, jaws slack with awe. Though they’ve seen her shows dozens of times before, they all agree that tonight she has transcended what you’d expect of mortals. In her dressing room, amid a joyful cluster of family and friends, Dua has shrunk in record time to a relatable scale. She’s changed back into her jeans, red Courrèges tank top and Puma Speedcats. It seems impossible that this and the giant I’ve just seen onstage are one and the same person.

“Are you human?” I find myself asking her. She laughs, and gives me a hug. “Did you have a good time?” she asks.

Perhaps that’s as much as you can ask of life. If so, Dua’s gift is to make it possible: for her friends, for her followers and for throngs of thousands, night after night. Anyone who thought radical optimism was just an album title hasn’t lived in Dua Lipa’s world”.

I will finish with a live review of a recent London show. Though Radical Optimism did not get the same hefty reviews as 2020’s Future Nostalgia, I think that it was among the best albums of 2024. Dua Lipa pushing her music forward and not repeating what went before. Houdini, Training Season and These Walls are among her best songs. I shall try not to duplicate too much of what I wrote about recently. Another reason for coming back to Dua Lipa is that she is someone who goes beyond the Pop world. In the previous feature, I mentioned her book club and podcast. I also put in a mixtape featuring some of her best songs. I feel there are artists who have or had the potential to be great actors. Gwen Stefani is one artist who should have been in a series of films! Dua Lipa has made some screen appearances. I don’t think she has been given the right roles yet. She has the potential to kick ass in a thriller or spy film or be the lead in a romantic comedy. Or a straight comedy. She could star in a music biopic or slot into a comedy-drama about life in Camden during the 1990s. At a very interesting time for music, focusing on this story that utilises some of the tracks of that time. She is so adaptable and talented, I would love to see her on the screen more. However, at her busiest right now, maybe this is something that will wait. She is getting married and priorities might shift! Also, there is that demand for a fourth studio album. Even though she took four years between her second and third albums, I feel a fourth might come sooner. New themes and subjects might inform the lyrics. Marriage and new love. Will it return to the sounds heard on Future Nostalgia or will she go in a completely different direction?

I also think her Service95 Book Club could get even bigger. In terms of side projects and new opportunities. Doing live episodes or recommendations and books featured appearing in their own section of book shops. I will get a feature that talks about that book club/service. I will come to it now, in fact. Another possibility beyond podcasting is Dua Lipa as an interviewer. Here is someone who could have a role in politics. She is an incredible interviewer and is hugely knowledgeable. She has such humanity too. The Guardian ran a feature in May and asked if Dua Lipa is the best literary interviewer ever:

“Firstly, Lipa seems to read a lot: in a keynote speech on the power of reading at the 2022 Booker prize, she mentions learning about the Albanian spirit of resistance through the work of author Ismail Kadare as a teenager. Her interviews are part of the book club she runs through her lifestyle website Service95, and while a cynic might suggest they’re a way to build a personal brand while pocketing a bit of affiliate-link cash (Reese Witherspoon, Dakota Fanning, Natalie Portman and Fallon himself are just a few of the celebrities to have their own clubs along with, of course, Oprah), she started her first book club with some close friends back in 2019.

She was posting recommendations on Instagram long before Service95, and her own bookshelf, tantalisingly visible in most of her interviews, is stuffed with an impressively esoteric mix of books, from Katy Hessel’s The Story of Art Without Men to Joe Coscarelli’s Rap Capital. Maybe, as someone who’s given hundreds of interviews in her time, she also understands what makes a good interview: the questions artists love and hate, the sorts of things they wish they were asked, and the things that make them open up. It’s unclear if she alone writes the questions – her reps didn’t respond to a request for comment – but she clearly knows the material: she’s always familiar with side characters and subplots, and never seems caught off guard by an unplanned author aside.

Beyond all of that, perhaps Dua Lipa is a good interviewer because she reads the books the way authors hope they’ll be read: diving into their characters and worlds for the sheer joy of the experience. It’s obvious she reads thoughtfully and deeply, bringing her to an understanding of each work that naturally leads her to want to know more. Listen to enough of her interviews, and her enthusiasm is so infectious that it’s difficult not to want to read more, or read more broadly, or just read better. All of that, and she also wrote Houdini. Time to step it up, Fallon”.

Dua Lipa is also one of the greatest live artists in the world. In the past few years alone, she has performed around the world and headlined Glastonbury last year. When Lipa played Wembley Stadium in June, DIY were among the many who awarded it huge praise. We are in a moment where Dua Lipa is going to join the greats of Pop. She is an artist that we should be so proud of:

“For a long time, it’s felt as though Dua Lipa’s been simmering just below the pinnacle of pop icon status. Perhaps that’s because, between her book club and accompanying podcast, lifestyle newsletter, YSL Beauty ambassadorship (there’s a pop-up for the brand set up at the foot of the stadium’s front stairs), and non-stop run of globe-trotting holidays, music is just one of several projects and side hustles she’s turned her hand to. Don’t be deceived, though: like a very sparkly magician pulling an endless string of silk handkerchiefs from her sleeve, her second sold-out night at Wembley Stadium delivers two hours of back-to-back hits to rival any pop juggernaut.

PHOTO CREDIT: Samir Hussein/Getty Images 

Beyond a smattering of glitter, it’s true that this tour hasn’t inspired the same cult dressing as contemporaries who have passed under Wembley’s arch. (That could just be a meteorological issue, to be fair - it’s hard to serve an extravagant look when a heatwave has turned London’s air to treacle-thick soup). Dua more than compensates with her own outfits, anyway - there are five, to be exact, each one heavily bedazzled and two involving fur, which can’t be fun in this temperature. On top of the costume changes, she also has chair-ography, burlesque feather fans, confetti, streamers, lasers, flames, fireworks, and a levitating C-stage. Make no mistake: this is a no-expense-spared spectacle in the truest sense.

Possibly the biggest spectacle tonight, though, is the reveal of her special guest. After last night’s somewhat unexpected Jamiroquai duet, the crowd are on more familiar ground - and predictably lose their minds - when Dua welcomes “the biggest brat” she’s ever met to join her onstage. Although Dua does feature on Charli’s remixed version of ‘Talk talk’, they opt instead for a storming rendition of ‘360’ that’s received with utterly unsurprising fervour.

Despite admitting to feeling nervous, Dua has the 70,000-strong crowd in the palm of her hand from the moment she appears tonight, performing like this is her 20th headline show here, not her second. Debut album singles ‘IDGAF’ and ‘Be the One’ receive just as much love as newer favourites ‘Training Season’, ‘Hallucinate’ and ‘Levitating’, while everyone merrily joins in with the mock fitness video intro for ‘Physical’. The hit parade slows down only when she takes a walk along the barricade - allowing her band to set up downstage - to compare nail art, hug, and take selfies with the front row, most of whom have travelled internationally to be here.

As the marathon show finally dances to a close with shimmering dancefloor-filler ‘Houdini’ (accompanied by even more fireworks, of course) it’s hard to deny that, when she’s not reading books or sampling restaurants on holiday, Dua can turn out a stadium-headlining set like it’s the most natural thing in the world”.

Because the superstar Dua Lipa turns thirty on 22nd August, I wanted to get in early when it comes to marking that. As she enters her fourth decade, what comes next?! A fourth studio album and more tour dates. I hope bigger acting roles and a chance for her to become more involved in politics as an ambassador and spokesperson. I can also see her interviewing more people, either for her podcast or in a different context. In terms of the affect and influence she can have on culture and status, Dua Lipa can match Madonna in years to come. Given her sheer talent and how she is influencing and touching people all around the world, that declaration is definitely not…

AN exaggeration.

FEATURE: Have a Cigar: Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here at Fifty

FEATURE:

 

 

Have a Cigar

Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here at Fifty

__________

THERE is debate…

as to which album is the absolute best from Pink Floyd. Many might go for 1973’s The Dark Side of the Moon. Others might say 1979’s The Wall. There are others who will go for 1975’s Wish You Were Here. I think this is my favourite Pink Floyd album. It turns fifty on 12th September. I wonder whether there will be a vinyl reissue or anything planned for the fiftieth anniversary. Before getting to a couple of reviews for Wish You Were Here, I want to bring in some features. I will start off with Classic Rock History and their feature that looks inside one of the biggest albums of the 1970s. One that has gone six-times platinum in the U.S. It is a remarkable listen:

“As anyone who has listened to Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here throughout their entire life knows, side one of the record only contains two titles. The album opener “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” (Parts I–V)  and side A’s closing number “Welcome to the Machine.”

The opener “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” (Parts I–V) was written by Roger Waters, David Gilmour and Richard Wright. The lead vocals on the epic piece was performed by Roger Waters. This was a stunning piece of music that really defines the entire album more than any other piece of music on the record. The suite runs over thirteen minutes long and continues on side two as the album closer in parts (Parts VI–IX) which runs close to another thirteen minutes. The albums total running time comes in at forty four minutes and eleven seconds. The “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” suites takes up a total of twenty five minutes and sixty seconds making up for over half of the albums running time.

“Shine On You Crazy Diamond” presents rock and roll fans with such a daunting listening experience. Rock fans had never heard anything like it before. Its slow haunting beginning entraps you instantly as Richard Wright’s synthesisers portrayed a cinematic landscape that everyone’s own individual imagination could shape as they wished. The only limitations  were one’s own creative visions as a listener. The arrival of David Gilmour sparse but brilliant guitar riffs further enhanced the visual and mild altering experience. And then there it is at about the four minute mark when that metallic guitar riff takes the band into the heart of the song as David Gilmour continues to perform like he is from another world. Nick Mason and Roger Waters are in such a locked hypnotic groove surrounded by Richard Wright’s synths that it all just perfectly becomes music of legend.

Side two of Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here  album closes with the intense track “Welcome To The Machine.” The song’s opening effects set up a scene where the listeners knew they were in for something pretty special. The opening guitars chords lay the ground for the chilling vocals by David Gilmour. Richard Wright’s synthesisers surrounds David Gilmour’s vocals line with mechanical sounds of doom. This is music that’s as rare as its gets. The lyrics  “Its alright we told you what to dream,” offers insight instantly to what this albums is all about. It’s in the heart of this song where we discover the rage that Pink Floyd has in their souls against the destructive forces of corporate entities on artists and human life itself. This is once again rock and roll rebellion. But it’s done for the first time in a deep progressive rock manner with a futurists almost 2001 Space Odyssey musical design.

Continuing with our look back at Pink Floyd’s classic album Wish You Were Here album here we take a listen to the album’s opening track on side two entitled “Have a Cigar.” The great Roy Harper sang lead vocals on the song. Pink Floyd continues with their lyrical rants against cooperation as they focus in empty promises by record company executives and other unscrupulous music industry individuals. While we could hear the point of these lyrics even at a young age, the music was just so entertaining and brilliant it pretty much completely overshadowed the meaning of the lyrics for many of us who were just floored by the band’s playing on the track. David Gilmour’s guitar playing is more on fire on the song than the dude on the cover of the album.

The title track of the album Wish You Were Here  followed “Have A Cigar,” on side two. This was the outlier on the album. The song opened up like it was being played out of a old beat up transistor radio until the magnificent guitar playing of David Gilmour infiltrates your space with such brilliant production. High School guitar players like my friend Danny Sobstyl jumped on this one as they performed the song in coffee houses and cafes everywhere. It was just one of those perfect accessible songs that musicians could play with an acoustic guitar. A spectacular composition that sounds just as strong and important in 2021 as it did in 1975.

As we stated and covered earlier, Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here album closes with the second half of the “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” suite. This classic Pink Floyd album was the band’s ninth studio album release. The album was released on September 12, 1975. The album cover was once again created by the art firm known as Hipgnosis. We covered Pink Floyd album Cover Art in a very detailed article. Pink Floyd recorded the album at the legendary Abbey Road Studios in London made famous by The Beatles. The album has become known as one of the greatest classic rock albums ever released as it has sold over twenty million copies. Many Pink Floyd fans claim Wish You Were Here as their favourite Pink Floyd album. Even David Gilmour and Richard Wright have said it was their favorite Pink Floyd album they ever released. That pretty much sums it all up right there”.

Apologies if there is any repetition. However, I think that it is important to highlight the relatively few features written about this album. Wish You Were Here should get a wave of celebration and investigation on its fiftieth anniversary. The Boar published a feature earlier this year that heralded a classic album that shines bright (like a crazy diamond) fifty years after its release:

“Wish You Were Here opens with its longest track, a prolonged lament for an absent friend: ‘Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Pts. 1-5)’. The song is centred on a haunting guitar refrain which has since achieved iconic status, only interrupted by Waters’ sombre vocals at the nine minute mark. This leaves plenty of time for Gilmour’s tastefully restrained yet expressive guitar playing, which is noticeably free from the soaring majesty of the solos on ‘Time’ or, later in 1979, ‘Comfortably Numb’. The song ends with a passionate saxophone solo by Richard Parry, who also played on The Dark Side of the Moon, most notably on ‘Money’. On any other album, this would be the standout track.

‘Shine On’ segues smoothly into the desolate industrial soundscape of ‘Welcome to the Machine’ and quickly establishes the emotionally charged politics of Wish You Were Here. The private tragedy of Syd Barrett becomes a public commentary on the insatiable exploitation of the music industry; Barrett’s own breakdown becomes symbolic of the musicians chewed up and spat out by the ‘machine’. The track’s initial ambience is then punctured by heavily layered, futuristic synthesisers and Waters’ talented lyricism once again comes to the fore. He comments on the commodification of artistic creativity: “What did you dream? It’s alright, we told you what to dream” (‘Welcome to the Machine’, Pink Floyd).

In an abrupt yet thematically cohesive change of tone, ‘Have a Cigar’ brings the listener into the office of a music executive, who tells the band: “You gotta get an album out / You owe it to the people”(‘Have a Cigar’, Pink Floyd). This allusion to the music industry churning through artists in a bid to hit the charts is accompanied by disquietingly upbeat instrumentalism, with a bass groove and energetic guitar solo. Voiced by folk musician Roy Harper, the executive asks, “Oh, by the way, which one’s Pink?” (‘Have a Cigar’, Pink Floyd), assuming that ‘Pink Floyd’ is the name of one of the band members. Pink Floyd’s vision of the industry feels distinctly dystopian, dominated by an unsavoury combination of ignorance and greed.

After a brief burst of radio, the album’s most famous song, ‘Wish You Were Here’, opens with another memorable riff from Gilmour, this time played on a twelve-string acoustic guitar. The popularity of ‘Wish You Were Here’ is unsurprising, given that this song above all captures the emotional devastation wrought by Barrett’s absence. Not to be outdone by Gilmour’s guitar, Waters’ lyrics are particularly poignant here; he suggests that “we’re just two lost souls swimming in a fishbowl, year after year” (‘Wish You Were Here’, Pink Floyd). Sure enough, the album takes the listener on a cyclical journey, beginning and ending with ‘Shine On You Crazy Diamond’.

‘Wish You Were Here’ ends with the sound of wind blowing, which continues seamlessly on the album’s final track ‘Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Pts. 6-9)’. This is in many ways the perfect outro, featuring the most dramatic solo on the album. Gilmour’s lap steel guitar shrilly mimics the rising and falling cry of a mourner before the vocals return for one final time, telling the absent Barrett “we’ll bask in the shadow of yesterday’s triumph / And sail on the steel breeze” (‘Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Pts. 6-9)’, Pink Floyd). In the dying moments of the track, a brief snatch of melody from one of Barrett’s songs, ‘See Emily Play’, can faintly be heard, one last tribute by Wright before the album reaches its conclusion.

With Wish You Were Here, Pink Floyd set the gold standard for introspective and politically astute rock, with a legacy that extends into the 21st century. The album’s bleak view of the music industry now appears to have been worryingly prescient. By the time of Syd Barrett’s death in 2006, companies had already begun to shift towards a streaming model with the creation of Spotify, and the exploitation of the ‘70s has continued in the form of streaming giants’ cynical underpayment of artists. In many ways, Wish You Were Here is deeply rooted in time and place, but its intimacy and provocative politics remain undiminished, even half a century later”.

It is amazing that Wish You Were Here was made at all. The Dark Side of the Moon almost ended the band. On 13th January, 1975, Pink Floyd set up Abbey Road’s Studio 3 to start work on their seventh studio album. Sessions took place either side and between two tours of North America. That created extra tension and issues. The slightly fragmented and uneven recording. Their focus and powers being pulled and stretched. Although the tour of North America was a success, there were issues with the police being heavy-handed with fans. I am going to pick up on a Classic Rock feature from 2022. They provide a detailed and fascinating history and background leading up to Wish You Were Here:

“Back at Abbey Road in May, Waters was keen to carry on working, despite obvious tensions. “We pressed on regardless of the general ennui for a few weeks and then things came to a bit of a head,” he recalls. “I felt that the only way I could retain interest in the project was to try to make the album relate to what was going on there and then – the fact that no one was really looking each other in the eye, and that it was all very mechanical.” Waters’s vision was cemented at a band meeting. “We all sat round and unburdened ourselves a lot, and I took notes on what everybody was saying. It was a meeting about what wasn’t happening and why.”

Waters extended further still his ideas of general themes of absence and detachment by opting to write yet more new material.

“I suggested that we change it,” Waters continues. “That we didn’t do the other two songs [Raving And Drooling and Gotta Be Crazy], but tried somehow to make a bridge between the first and second halves of Shine On, which is how Welcome To The Machine, Wish You Were Here and Have A Cigar came in… Dave was always clear that he wanted to do the other two songs – he never quite copped what I was talking about. But Rick did and Nicky did, and he was outvoted so we went on.”

With Gilmour and Waters – the principal players in the band – at complete cross purposes, recording carried on, even if Gilmour wasn’t convinced: “After Dark Side we really were floundering around. I wanted to make the next album more musical. I always thought that Roger’s emergence as a great lyric writer on the last album was such that he came to overshadow the music.”

Even by agreeing to disagree there was also a sense they were being held back by general lethargy, promoted by an alarming divorce rate within the band. Although his own marriage had hit the skids very recently, Waters was able to divert his energies into songwriting. But in Mason’s case his impending split “manifested itself into complete, well, rigor mortis. I didn’t quite have to be carried about, but I wasn’t interested. I couldn’t get myself to sort out the drumming, and that of course drove everyone else even crazier.”

Having finally settled on what it was they were now going to record, they set about putting it all down on tape. Shine On was to be split into two halves: Parts 1-5 and 6-9. Part 5 eventually featured their tour saxophonist Dick Parry, who switches between baritone and tenor sax. Particularly problematic were Waters’s vocal sessions. “It was right on the edge of my range,” Waters recalled. “I always felt very insecure about singing anyway because I’m not naturally able to sing well. I know what I want to do but I don’t have the ability to do it well. It was fantastically boring to record, cos I had to do it line by line, doing it over and over again just to get it sounding reasonable.”

Consequently further tensions surfaced as the boredom of the process took its toll and band members became increasingly disinterested in turning up for sessions at all. “Punctuality became an issue,” Mason recalled. “If two of us were on time and the others were late, we were quite capable of working ourselves up into a righteous fury. The following day the roles could easily be reversed. None of us was free from blame.”

Little changed when they came to record Have A Cigar, and again Waters’s singing was showing its limitations. This time though, their friend Roy Harper was drafted in to sing. “Roy was recording in the studio anyway,” recalled Waters, “and was in and out all the time. I can’t remember who suggested it, maybe I did, probably hoping everybody would go: ‘Oh no, Rog, you do it’. But they didn’t. They all went: ‘Oh yeah, that’s a good idea.’ He did it, and everybody went: ‘Oh, terrific!’ So that was that.”

It was an instantly regrettable decision, and although Waters reluctantly conceded a credit on the album, there was certainly no question of payment. Tape engineer John Leckie recalled Waters saying to Harper that they must make sure he get paid for his efforts. “And Roy said: ‘Just get me a life season ticket to Lord’s.’ He kept prompting Roger, but it never came. About 10 years later, Roy wrote a letter to Roger and decided that, due to the success of Wish You Were Here, £10,000 would be adequate. And heard nothing at all.”

Have A Cigar is Waters’s cynical take on the music industry, and contains the immortal line: ‘Oh by the way, which one’s Pink?’ “We did have people who would say to us: “Which one’s Pink”’ and stuff like that,” Gilmour recalled. “There were an awful lot of people who thought Pink Floyd was the name of the lead singer, and that was Pink himself and the band. That’s how it all came about. It was quite genuine.” In many respects Waters was biting the very hand that was feeding him.

On the eve of their departure from England to begin their second tour of North America, Syd Barrett made his aforementioned appearance at Abbey Road. It was the last time the band ever saw him. Part 9 of Shine On You Crazy Diamond includes the melody from See Emily Play as the track fades out. An afterthought? Perhaps”.

I will wrap things up with a couple of reviews for the epic Wish You Were Here. I am going to go back to last year and a review from Pitchfork. It is a compelling review of a “mournful, emotionally charged mood piece that grounded a historically cosmic band”:

“Nearly 50 years and 20 million in sales later, it’s safe to say this theme resonated far beyond the cloistered world of rock stardom. It didn’t replicate the culture-defining ubiquity of Dark Side nor the feature-length conceptual heft of 1979’s The Wall. But, fitting for a record born from growing pains and adult disillusionment, its legacy is somewhat more understated. There is an apocryphal legend that this is the album that convinced Gilmour to quit smoking, after he heard his unsuppressable cough somewhere low in the mix during the staticky intro of the title track. It also inspired one of the coolest packaging designs in music history, from the band’s loyal collaborator Storm Thorgerson at Hipgnosis, who talked the record company into selling the album with an opaque black sleeve so that serious collectors might own the album without ever actually seeing the real cover. (“Brilliant,” he says in a 2012 documentary, snapping his fingers at the camera: “That’s really absent!”)

But the most famous story about Wish You Were Here is a more troubling one. On a late spring day in June 1975, Barrett wandered into the recording studio, physically transformed, eyes vacant, unrecognizable to his former bandmates. Everyone present has retold the story the same way over the ensuing decades: No one could believe it was him. He had no response to the new music they played for him. He seemed to be in another world entirely. It was the last time most of the band saw him before his death in 2006. Gilmour has said he thinks about him every time he sings the title track, a staple of the band’s catalog that he’s since referred to as a “very simple country song.” Its imagery of a heaven indistinguishable from hell, of heroes traded for ghosts, have become so ingrained in our FM radio subconscious that it can be hard to remember how gutting it must have felt from this band who achieved everything they wanted and still found themselves haunted, hardened, beaten down by where their dreams had led them. After all, Wish You Were Here is what it says on postcards from somewhere beautiful. But it also means you’re alone”.

The final piece I am going to highlight is a review from the BBC. I wonder if we see albums like Wish You Were Here today. One that starts out this amazing suite, then we get a few standalone tracks and the album ends with another suite. A concept album I guess. Maybe some bands do this sort of thing, thought you hope that more can go beyond the traditional and do something as ambitious (or risky) as delivering their own Wish You Were Here:

“As the follow-up to the Floyd’s iconic, record-breaking 1973 concept album The Dark Side Of The Moon, this album is often unfairly overlooked. With the benefit of hindsight, Wish You Were Here has the same faultless pacing and sequencing of its predecessor, but a more coherent musical narrative, structure and tone, as well as greater lyrical sophistication. Here, the ‘concept’ is more down-to-earth, since much of the record is an extended tribute to the late Syd Barrett ­ the genius behind their early works, who flew too high and burned too bright, becoming one of rock’s most infamous drug casualties before Pink Floyd emerged from London¹s psychedelic underground scene to become one of the biggest success stories of the 1970s. It’s also the last great album by a band that would produce something as adolescently puerile as The Wall by the end of that decade.

Barrett is the subject of the epic “Shine On You Crazy Diamond, parts One and Two” of which take up more than half the playing time and bookend just three other shorter tracks. Despite some questionable keyboard tones from Richard Wright, the majestically unhurried instrumental intro is a triumph of suspense. It¹s nearly nine minutes before Roger Waters starts singing and the effect is startling, as are the words: ‘Remember when you were young?/ You shone like the sun / Shine On You Crazy Diamond!/ Now there’s a look in your eye / Like black holes in the sky’. It’s debatable whether the ‘iPod generation’ will get all of the eerie, almost visual sound detail in the more melodramatic “Welcome To The Machine”, which presages some of the pomp of their later work. Guest vocalist Roy Harper is a gritty presence on the music industry-bating “Have A Cigar” and the breathless title track finds Waters’ lyrics at their most soul searching. Some may baulk at Dave Gilmour’s long, bluesy guitar workouts, which form the backbone of “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” and crop up throughout the album. Hey, these were the dying days of prog. rock. Punk was just around the corner and it’s easy to see why, but mid-seventies post-psychedelic angst seldom sounded so chilled”.

On 12th September, it will be fifty years since Wish You Were Here was released. If you see it as the best Pink Floyd album or one of their classics, there is no denying that it is a work of genius. It still sounds mind-blowing and cosmic half a century later. I hope that it does get some new love and inspection closer to the anniversary. Some might feel this is an album only a certain generation can appreciate. Older listeners. That is not the case. This is a spellbinding albums that will reach new generations…

ALL around the world.

.

FEATURE: The Digital Mixtape: Chuck D at Sixty-Five: Public Enemy and Beyond

FEATURE:

 

 

The Digital Mixtape

Chuck D at Sixty-Five: Public Enemy and Beyond

__________

ON 1st August…

PHOTO CREDIT: David Levene/The Guardian

one of the most influential figures in Hip-Hop history turns sixty-five. Chuck D (Carlton Douglas Ridenhour) was born in Flushing, New York on 1st August, 1960. Leader of the iconic Public Enemy, this is the group he co-founded with Flavor Flav in 1985. Without doubt one of the most important lyricists of his generation, Chuck D received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award as a member of Public Enemy. I am going to end this feature by collating his best cuts with Public Enemy. I will also include some tracks from his group, Prophets of Rage. Also some solo material. Before getting there, AllMusic have some useful biography of Chuck D. For anyone who does not know about his career and incredible impact on music and society as a whole. We cannot underestimate his importance:

“As the founder of Public Enemy, Chuck D is one of the most colossal figures in the history of hip-hop, not to mention its most respected intellectual. He redefined hip-hop as music with a message, and his strident radicalism ushered in an era when rap was closely scrutinized for its content. His booming voice and revolutionary lyrics provided a sober counterpart to the exuberant comic relief of bandmate Flavor Flav, and as part of the Bomb Squad, he helped pioneer a chaotic, sample-heavy production style that greatly influenced numerous styles of hip-hop and electronic dance music. A decade into his career, the rapper made his solo debut with the 1996 full-length Autobiography of Mistachuck, which found him rhyming over more streamlined funk rhythms than the densely packed collages of his work with PE. While the group remained active, Chuck formed other projects such as the Impossebulls, and released material through his SLAMjamz and Spit Digital imprints, later combined as SpitSLAM Record Label Group. He also recorded and performed with members of Rage Against the Machine and Cypress Hill as the rap-rock supergroup Prophets of Rage during the late 2010s. He revisited busy, Bomb Squad-esque production with his Def Jam-issued 2025 solo album Radio Armageddon.

Chuck D was born Carlton Douglas Ridenhour in Roosevelt, Long Island, on August 1, 1960. His parents were both political activists, and he was a highly intelligent student, turning down an architecture scholarship to study graphic design at Long Island's Adelphi University. While in school, he put his talents to use making promotional flyers for hip-hop events, and went on to co-host a hip-hop mix show on the campus radio station with two future Public Enemy cohorts, Bill Stephney and Hank Shocklee. Under the name Chuckie D, he rapped on Shocklee's demo recording, "Public Enemy No. 1," which caught the interest of Rick Rubin at Def Jam. In response, the now-named Chuck D assembled Public Enemy, a group designed to support the force of his rhetoric with noisy, nearly avant-garde soundscapes.

Public Enemy debuted in 1987 with Yo! Bum Rush the Show, a dry run for one of the greatest three-album spans in hip-hop history. Released in 1988, It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back was acclaimed by many critics as the greatest hip-hop album of all time, and was instrumental in breaking rap music to rock audiences. Fear of a Black Planet (1990) and its follow-up, Apocalypse '91...The Enemy Strikes Black, consolidated Public Enemy's position as the most important rap group of its time. There were storms of controversy along the way, most notably Chuck D's endorsement of the polarizing Muslim minister Louis Farrakhan, and group member Professor Griff's highly publicized anti-Semitic slurs. But on the whole, Public Enemy's groundbreaking body of work established Chuck D as one of the most intelligent, articulate spokesmen for the Black community. He became an in-demand speaker on the college lecture circuit (much like his peer KRS-One), and was frequently invited to provide commentary on TV news programs.

Muse Sick-N-Hour Mess Age (1994) wasn't as well-received as the group's previous albums, and the following year, Chuck put PE on hiatus while planning their next move. In the meantime, he released his first solo album, Autobiography of Mistachuck, in 1996, and published his first book, Fight the Power: Rap, Race and Reality, the following year. He reconvened Public Enemy for the soundtrack to Spike Lee's 1998 film He Got Game, and the following year left Def Jam over the label's refusal to allow him to distribute the band's music through free Internet downloads. Signing with the web-based Atomic Pop label, Chuck became an outspoken advocate of MP3 technology, and made 1999's There's a Poison Goin' On... one of the first full-length albums by a major artist to be made available over the Internet (it was later released on CD as well).

Having previously made a notable guest appearance on Sonic Youth's song "Kool Thing," Chuck made his first full-fledged venture into rock music with Confrontation Camp, a group with Professor Griff and Kyle Jason, which issued the album Objects in the Mirror Are Closer Than They Appear in 2000. He also formed the underground rap group the Impossebulls, who debuted with a self-titled 2001 effort on Chuck's SLAMjamz imprint. Following collaborations with Henry Rollins, Common, Z-Trip, and others, Chuck put together Tribb to JB, a salute to James Brown, in 2007. Public Enemy was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2013. He continued issuing solo material independently, often credited as Mista Chuck, with releases such as 2014's The Black in Man and 2018's Celebration of Ignorance. He also formed Prophets of Rage with three members of Rage Against the Machine and Cypress Hill's B-Real. The rap-rock supergroup released the EP The Party's Over (2016) and a self-titled 2017 full-length, disbanding in 2019 when RATM reunited. Chuck also continued publishing books, including 2017's Chuck D Presents This Day in Rap and Hip-Hop History.

Public Enemy were honored with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2020, and the group made a surprise return to Def Jam with the guest-heavy What You Gonna Do When the Grid Goes Down? Chuck followed it with a solo single, "It's So Hard to See My Baseball Cards Move On," in 2021. The track later appeared on We Wreck Stadiums, a full-length of baseball-themed songs originally written as MLB-TV promos, in 2023. The title track featured appearances by fellow Rock & Roll Hall of Famers DMC and the Furious Five's Rahiem and Kidd Creole. Backed by pianist JP Hesser, Chuck released The Writings of Barbara Dumas Francis, an EP of poems written by his aunt, in 2024. His first Def Jam full-length as a solo artist, Radio Armageddon, arrived in 2025. Returning to the noisy, experimental production style of Public Enemy's early work, the album featured appearances by Daddy-O (Stetsasonic), Schoolly D, Jazzy Jay, and others”.

I am going to end things there. An artist responsible for some of the most powerful songs ever committed to tape, I do hope that there will be more material from Chuck D in years to come. Whether Public Enemy release another album (Black Sky Over The Projects: Apartment 2025 was released this year) or there is another Prophets of Rage album. This mixtape celebrate a pioneer ahead of his sixty-fifth birthday on 1st August. Huge respect and admiration for…

THE mighty Chuck D.

FEATURE: Groovelines: All Saints – Black Coffee

FEATURE:

 

 

Groovelines

All Saints – Black Coffee

__________

THERE are a few reasons…

why I want to feature this song in Groovelines. A classic from All Saints, it is from their 2000 album, Saints & Sinners. There is a reissue coming out on 19th September. Released on 16th October, 2000, it is the second studio album from Melanie Blatt, Nicole Appleton, Natalie Appleton and Shaznay Lewis. Following their eponymous debut album of 1997, Saints & Sinners was a different direction. Produced by William Orbit, some felt Saints & Sinners was too similar to the work of Madonna and Spice Girls. Orbit did produce Madonna’s Ray of Light. There are similar touches between All Saints’ second studio album and Madonna’s Ray of Light. What critics did approve of is the singles released from the album. The second single, Black Coffee, was released on 2nd October, 2000. Turning twenty-five soon, it is one of the very best songs from All Saints. Black Coffee is a piece of music that I can listen to on repeat for ages. It does not get a lot of coverage, so I wanted to spotlight it here. I will get to some critical reaction for this dingle. One that I think ranks alongside the best singles of the early-2000s. Black Coffee was written by Tom Nichols, Alexander von Soos and Kirsty Bertarelli. It is distinct because is the only All Saints original single not to be written by group member Shaznay Lewis. The song has this catchiness that is hard to explain. The harmonies are incredible. Its video is also really memorable. Directed by Bo Johan Renck, it features the group singing as an arguing couple are seen around them. The video was shot in bullet time in a high-rise apartment block. Black Coffee did go through change and evolution. Originally titled I Wouldn’t Wanna Be, after the success of the previous single, Pure Shores, William Orbit, Melanie Blatt and Shaznay Lewis began working on a new arrangement. The song then became Black Coffee. Recording in Los Angeles and London, this direction was new for All Saints. Going more into Electronic and Dance, Black Coffee have the group more freedom and a chance to experiment with new sounds.

What we hear as the single was completely different to the original version. That was recorded by co-writer Kirsty Bertarelli and it was D.J. Gary Davies who believed that it would be perfect to launch her career. Or at least take it to the new level. It was taken to record companies but there was a feeling that it would be better recorded by All Saints. Davies took the demo of the song to Swiss entrepreneur Ernesto Bertarelli. All Saints were his group, so he could see its potential in terms of what they could do with it. Black Coffee is rare in terms of the lead vocals. In terms of singles at least, Shaznay Lewis took lead. Or she had the bigger role. Maybe as one of the songwriter, she felt like leader of the group. Natalie Appleton was frustrated during recording, as she hoped it would be a chance for her and Nicole Appleton to sing lead. However, Shaznay Lewis turned up early for sessions and made her presence felt. Melanie Blatt sang lead on Pure Shores, so maybe she felt her power was waning and that she needed to exert more control. It must have been more intense than it should have been. However, the final arrangement does sound amazing. Black Coffee’s B-side was Don't Wanna Be Alone, which was written by Shaznay Lewis, Ali Tennant, Wayne Hector and K-Gee. In 2018, All Saints released Testament. It saw All Saints reunite with producer William Orbit. DAZED spoke with the group and asked about working with Orbit. It was interesting what they said about working on Black Coffee and how that came about. Twenty-five years after its release and you can see how it is has inspired artists. Aspects of that song being picked up by others:

“The fans are going to freak out about you working with William Orbit again.

Shaznay Lewis: I've seen and spoken to William here and there throughout the years. The contact has never completely been lost. But Nicole and I ran into William one night, and he was like, 'I've heard you guys are doing new music and shows and it's going really well, so when are we going to do something again?' We were literally like, 'Okay yeah, let's do it.'

Nicole Appleton: Honestly, it was like working with an old friend. Things just happened really naturally and fell into place.

Shaznay Lewis: At the end of the day, he's old-school and we're old-school. We come from the school of doing another take, and another take, and another take, until we have a vocal that works. With us, it's not about chopping up the vocals and piecing them together.

Were you apprehensive about working with him again, because “Pure Shores” and “Black Coffee” are such iconic pop songs?

Shaznay Lewis: I know what you mean – but I hate to think that we could never have gone back in the studio with him because we were too scared. We can't make another “Pure Shores” – we'd be mad to try. But at the end of the day, it's about evolving. William is someone who's renowned for a certain sound,  so there's always going to be inflections and reminders of past songs. But as long as what we're working on now is good, and we all like what we're creating, it definitely feels right.

How did “Pure Shores” originally come about? Obviously you recorded it for the soundtrack to The Beach.

Shaznay Lewis: It was really Danny Boyle allowing me to see about a minute or so of The Beach. I just saw the scene where they're under the water. William's music was on it already and I went away and wrote to that. I really enjoyed the process because you don't really have to dig too deep into your own thoughts.

Shaznay, “Black Coffee” is one of the few All Saints singles you didn't write. How did that song come to you?

Shaznay Lewis: Someone at London Records played it to us. And it wasn't anything like the version we recorded. But I remember we all thought it was a good song.

Natalie Appleton: Originally, it was almost like a rock ballad or something.

Shaznay Lewis: I think it was definitely the right song to get handed to William to work his magic on. He's quite good like that – he'll take a part that you may have thought was a verse and make it into a chorus, and generally just swap things around. He definitely messed around with that song and made it what it was”.

The reception for Black Coffee was largely positive. It is a track I remember in 2000. I was already a fan of All Saints and I was hooked right away! One of the standout songs from Saints & Sinners, I hold out hope that All Saints will record more music together. 2018’s Testament is their most recent album. Wikipedia brought together critical reaction to Black Coffee. A huge chart success in several countries, this song is one that I really love and would encourage everyone to listen to:

“Black Coffee" received acclaim from music critics upon release. Simon Evans writing in the Birmingham Post described the song as a "beautiful slice of haunting, hypnotic pop". John Mulvey of The Scotsman praised its "sleek, scrupulously mature sound", while AllMusic's Jon O'Brien regarded it among All Saints' most accomplished and mature work, highlighting its "lush electronics". David Brinn of The Jerusalem Post found the song wistful and radio-friendly. In the Sunday Herald, Samuel McGuire characterised the track as "a gem of a truly wonderous lustre"; the newspaper's Graeme Virtue hailed it as one of "the best pop singles ever". BBC Music's Nigel Packer chose the song as a highlight on Saints & Sinners, while Russell Baillie of The New Zealand Herald said "Black Coffee" along with "Pure Shores" and "Surrender" "put [most of the album] in the shade." The Sunday People's Sean O'Brien gave "Black Coffee" a rating of eight out of ten.

In the NME, Siobhan Grogan called the song almost perfect, writing that "it's wistful in all the right places and makes sadness sound rather alluring like only the bitterest love songs can." Grogan also compared it to "Pure Shores" saying that it "has the same mellow, glossy haziness to it, as if they recorded it lying down." Similarly, Eva Simpson of the Daily Mirror wrote that the track "brought the same high-gloss sheen" as "Pure Shores" and cited it as a curtain raiser for Saints & Sinners. A Western Mail reviewer viewed the two songs as "equally tremendous", while The Guardian's Caroline Sullivan found "Black Coffee" superior, describing it as "beguiling treatment of a domestic scenario" and "easily the most alluring depiction of a bleary-eyed morning routine ever recorded." Sullivan also said All Saints "lend radiance to [Orbit's] twinkling fairy lights.” Lindsay Baker from the same newspaper deemed it Saints & Sinners' "particularly infectious" track, while R.S. Murthi of the New Straits Times called it the album's most endearing song, likening it to releases by the Cocteau Twins”.

I will end with a little about the influence of Black Coffee. Before getting there, I want to come to this review. It argues that there is warmth and escapism in the song. However, there is also bite and a harder edge. It is a perfect combination that meant it was always going to be a massive success. Alongside Pure Shores, it was this remarkable sound that we did not really get on the All Saints album of 1997:

“All Saints’ final number one is their most oblique, their most grown-up, also their finest. The song barely glances at its title – a pair of words out of a hundred in the lyric – but the whole record is a glance or a quiet smile, a celebration of tiny satisfactions, and of finding yourself with someone who conjures them so easily. “Each moment is cool / freeze the moment”. It’s a song, most of it, about feeling contented – a rare subject for pop, which prefers to nose out conflict (the video finds some anyway, staging “Black Coffee” as a post-Matrix bullet time break-up drama). There are songs – cousins to this, like “I Say A Little Prayer” – that capture the way love makes the everyday blush with significance, but “Black Coffee” is after something more comfortable. A day with your lover, as casually sweet as all the other ones. Nothing’s perfect, but “Black Coffee”’s rippling, overlapping melody lines make even the quarrels sound blissful.

It’s a lovely record, two late 90s takes on pop meshing and peaking: All Saints’ idea of a British female harmony group, and William Orbit’s gorgeous dissolve of pop into ambient bubbles and flows. (Both now disappear: All Saints split, to largely unsuccessful ends; Orbit, jilted by his primary collaborator, stepped back from the charts.) The combination, as on “Pure Shores”, is irresistibly of its time: unlike that record, “Black Coffee” isn’t pure escapism. Around the edges of this playful song snaps another, one with a harder bite. The opening and breakdown of “Black Coffee” – crunching drums, radar synths – is like a more unforgiving world which our couple spend the mid-song cocooning themselves away from.

The snap and turn of those opening beats makes me think of catwalk photography; the video feels more like a magazine shoot than a relationship. Probably more than anyone since the early 80s, All Saints were a band who felt like they belonged in fashion, a style press imagining of what pop could be like. They always looked the part, but often the music strained too hard to live up to its references. Finally, with the Orbit collaborations, they got there, and “Black Coffee” is the greatest realisation of the All Saints concept – their most perfectly glossy exterior, and only warmth inside.

Score: 9”.

It is clear that Black Coffee paved the way for artists like Girls Aloud and Sugababes. The production on the track definitely influenced these groups. I feel even artists such as Charli xcx are channelling some of Black Coffee’s sound. A certain blend and attitude that has moved and influenced some huge artists. As a track, it is timeless and I don’t think it will ever lose its brilliance. Unforgettable and intoxicating, Black Coffee is…

A perfect pick-me-up.

FEATURE: Spotlight: Revisited: Maeta

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight: Revisited

PHOTO CREDIT: Sonali Ohrie for NOTION

Maeta

__________

I am revisiting…

someone that I spotlighted in 2023. The incredible Maeta is Maeta Hall, a remarkable artist known for her alternative R&B sound. Growing up in Indianapolis, she released her debut album, When I Hear Your Name, in 2023. She released Endless Night last year. At seven tracks, would we class it as an E.P. or mini-album? In any case, there will be many wondering if another album will arrive. I will get to all the positives. I did read how Maeta supported Chris Brown on tour a while back. An abuser and artist who should not be playing and given any freedom, it is disquieting when artists collaborate with him and perform on the same stage. However, I shall step away from that and focus on Maeta and her stunning music – as Chris Brown does not warrant any of my time and anger. Last year was a busy one for Maeta. This is a moment when I can feel her gearing up for her next chapter. That is why I want to come back to her now. I am starting out with a Billboard interview from last year. We get to learn more about her musical upbringing:

“From the moment she could crawl, Maeta was immersed in music. Spinning her father’s CDs on the living room floor wasn’t just a hobby—it was an obsession. “I’d sit there every day, pick a random CD, and just listen,” she recalls with a sheepish smile, hinting at her young age. But in that childhood ritual, a lifelong passion ignited. At seven, Leona Lewis’ “Bleeding Love” left a lasting mark, solidifying her path. “I thought I was the best singer in the world at seven—I was so trash,” she laughs, reflecting on her early confidence.

Growing up in Indianapolis, a city she fondly calls “a breeding ground for dreamers,” Maeta was fueled by an unwavering determination. Despite limited access to a vibrant music scene, her imagination thrived. School choirs and after-school projects became her first taste of songwriting and recording. “It was bad,” she admits, “but it was the closest thing to the music industry in Indiana.” Even when her dreams felt unattainable, Maeta never wavered and her passion to be a musician was her compass.

Her journey into music wasn’t just about discovery—it was about persistence and vision. At 18, she left Indiana for Los Angeles, diving headfirst into the industry. “I spent four months in the studio, working with so many producers, every single day,” she says. It was overwhelming but formative, helping her find her sound. Even now, she remains fluid, saying, “I just did a dance project, but I’m about to go back into my R&B ballad bag. It’s fun to not always know where you’re headed.”

Her creative process is as unpredictable as her musical direction. “Sometimes I cry, sitting in the dark for hours. Other days, I’m in a good mood,” she explains. For Maeta, the studio is a sacred space. “I like the lights off. I don’t even like to see my engineer half the time. I want to be in my little cave,” she says, describing the intimacy and solitude she needs to create.

But the path hasn’t been without its challenges. Maeta speaks candidly about the power dynamics in the industry, especially with men. “I’ve dealt with men in power trying to take advantage… that’s been happening since I was 13,” she says. Yet, she’s found a team that supports her fully. “I love my team so much… they’ve been so loyal. I wouldn’t want anyone else.”

Her journey is a testament to imagination, grit, and the unwavering pursuit of dreams. “Imagination is everything… but you need the determination to make it happen. I’ve wanted to give up so many times, but you just have to come back to it,” she admits, highlighting the resilience that has carried her through the highs and lows of her career. It’s this blend of vision and persistence that defines not only her artistry but also her personal growth. Now, her music carries a profound depth rooted in lived experience and emotional truth. “I don’t even like songs unless I feel something,” she reflects, emphasizing how her creative process has evolved. “I used to sing whatever I was told. Now, it has to mean something to me.”

This evolution mirrors her alignment with Honda’s ethos of determination, resilience, and the power of dreams. Much like Honda’s commitment to turning bold ideas into reality, she embodies the spirit of pushing forward despite challenges, finding purpose in the journey, and crafting something meaningful along the way. It’s this shared sense of vision and perseverance that makes her a natural fit for this year’s Honda Stage, a platform dedicated to highlighting artists who reflect these ideals through their stories and their music. Her performance becomes a celebration of not just her talent, but the grit and heart that have defined her journey.

Her latest song, “Back,” performed exclusively for Billboard and Honda Stage, delves into self-sabotage, an emotional vulnerability she openly shares. “It’s about when you’re your own worst enemy, especially in love. You overthink, hate yourself, and take it out on the person trying to love you,” she confides. It’s this raw honesty that resonates deeply with her audience.

Her music, much like her creative process, is a blend of spontaneity and intent, where every song carries “little pieces of me.” Maeta remains a chameleon, who finds joy in experimentation but is determined to leave an unmistakable stamp on her music. “You’re not gonna hear my song and not know it’s me.” For Maeta, collaboration isn’t just a part of her career—it’s the lifeblood of her artistry, keeping her inspired and pushing her creativity to new levels. “Artists and musicians are crazy. Creatives are just so inspiring… every time I work with somebody new, there’s just something weird about them that I love”.

Someone who is among the artists who will redefine and rewrite R&B, eyes should be cast her way. I think another positive is the cover for last year’s Endless Night. Such a stunning shot in terms of the composition and colours, it is rare to find an album cover that stands out. However, Maeta’s definitely does! Even though NOTION write in their headline that Maeta is preparing to release a debut album (what do we class When I Hear Your Name as?!), they do note how she is getting rid of “the sad-girl narrative, she’s diving headfirst into a new era where love and self-discovery reign supreme”:

“Still learning as she goes, Maeta understands more than ever the importance of believing in herself and taking control of her career. “When I started out, I had 400 people critiquing my music, what I wore, how I looked and how I did interviews. When you constantly hear criticism, you lose yourself. I went through that recently. But at the end of the day, you’ve got to trust yourself. I’m the artist. We are here because of me,” she says with sincerity. This bold declaration showcases Maeta’s laser-focused ambition that has taken her to the apex of the R&B scene. Now, she’s taking back her power firmly and assuredly setting her sights on one goal: to dominate the global stage. “I want to be a damn pop star. However, I get there, I get there. I don’t plan my way, I just know I’ll get there no matter what. I want to stamp my name on this world and make sure my art and music outlive me.”

And what better way to announce herself and her trajectory than dropping her debut album? Still tweaking the final touches, the record marks a new chapter for Maeta, a chance to tear up the rulebook and declare who she truly is. “Instead of singing about relationships, I’m singing about me. I’m ready to own myself, own what I’ve been through, and own who I am.” Now that she’s done with mapping out old scars, asserting her agency has made Maeta step into “grittier” soundscapes, experimenting with darker and heavier realms that dig deep into the soul. But don’t expect a total mood shift, Maeta is still embracing that lover-girl energy she’s known for. “I want people to listen to the album and really feel how love hits me. I’m a lover-girl. Love drives me. I’m bringing back feel- good love songs. Right now, everything feels so toxic and petty. I want the album to feel like a warm hug.”

Right now, Maeta is chasing more than just musical heights, she’s seeking a deeper kind of fulfilment. After years of living in overdrive, she is finally realising that hitting pause is sometimes part of the journey. “I was like 10 years old worrying about my damn singing career,” she laughs reflecting on how “career-obsessed” she’s been from day one. She interjects, “This whole interview’s going to be all about astrology, but readers keep telling me how my career is my life. I couldn’t change it if I wanted to. But I’m working on living a little more.” How is she living life to the fullest? “My career and love are two things that drive me, so I’m trying to date more. I love love. I want something serious for once, something healthy.” And that’s not all, she’s also got big travel plans that do not involve work. “Every time I travel, I freak out as I feel like I’m wasting my life not working. I want to experience things without feeling guilty for it.”

Call it fate, call it manifestation, or just straight-up cosmic energy, it was clear from the get-go that Maeta’s path would always lead to this. She’s building her own world, where heartbreak, growth and love coexist, raw and unapologetic. And in this next chapter, she’s taking full control, making her mark, all while love rides shotgun. Because after all, what’s life without a little bit of love?”.

I am going to finish off with a CLASH interview from last summer. I think there will be new chats with Maeta very soon. After a busy past couple of years, it is clear that she is settling in for a very long and successful career. An artist that is not yet at the peak of her powers, I do hope that she spends more time in the U.K. I am not sure whether she has any dates in the pipeline:

“Maeta fully immerses herself in her art. As a songwriter, a vocalist, a performer, there are no half measures – her music and her life are intimately intertwined, like the double-helix in her DNA. Rising to prominence on the back of those early SoundCloud demos, the Indianapolis-born singer’s talents were evident from the start – soulful in the deepest sense of the word, each note felt bonded to her heart.

Yet new project ‘Endless Night’ rips up the rulebook. Swapping R&B introspection and lovelorn balladry for something steeped in club energy, the Kaytranada production pushes Maeta into a different space. And you know what? She’s loving every minute of it.

“I’m naturally a deep-lover-girl. I love to cry. I love to be in love. And I love those kinds of feelings,” she tells CLASH. “But I think that this was a nice break from that.”

Much of Maeta’s previous work focussed on love lost; 2023’s ‘When I Hear Your Name’ for instance was a scorching evocation of betrayal and grief born from giving your heart to someone who doesn’t deserve it. Now, though, she’s done with mapping out old scars. “I’m ready to let that go and just own myself and who I am and take control of my life. I feel like I gave myself to another person and I just lost who I was. This project is just me.”

“I just want to have fun. It’s summer, I want to fucking date and be single and have fun and not be stuck in this dark place. I just want to embrace newness and fun and change and freedom and all that.”

An oasis of calm in her life, the studio sessions with Kaytranada were initially only meant to birth a few songs, but it quickly became something more. “One thing that I like about myself, I guess, is that I’m very good at adapting to different things. I get bored easily, so I like trying stuff out.”

“It kind of became such a bigger thing that it was supposed to be, which I’m proud of, and I’m happy with… We just all loved it so much that we made it more of a deal than it was supposed to be.”

With the energy flowing, and with Kaytranada’s creative support, Maeta finally felt able to put the past behind her.  “I think spiritually, I feel like a weight has been lifted off of me because I was in a very dark place like six months to a year ago… I was seriously in a horrible place. And right now I’m so happy!”

“I’m working on my next album already, and it is definitely going to be soulful… there’s a lot of ballads, a lot of love and those kinds of things. But this was the perfect break for me, emotionally speaking. It all happened for a purpose –  but the purpose was that there wasn’t really a purpose, in a way”.

Two years after I included her in my Spotlight feature, a lot has changed for Maeta. After releasing a new E.P./album last year, she has accrued a legion of new fans. Highlighting the fact that she is among the most talented and innovative R&B artists of her generation, there will be a lot of success and riches in her future. Someone who knew from a young age that music was her calling, Maeta is…

HERE for the long run.

__________

Follow Maeta

PHOTO CREDIT: Sonali Ohrie for NOTION

Official:

https://www.maetasworld.com/

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/maetasworld/

Twitter:

https://x.com/maetasworld

TikTok:

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

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/artist/2EwyKG76iX4Pp5HhAD6SKO?si=qzWg_IDeR5Sml5h6UhFpNQ

YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCQkT25-JCnoa60ePGf6wsw