FEATURE: Unglamorous Profession: Steely Dan's Gaucho at Forty-Five

FEATURE:

 

 

Unglamorous Profession

Steely Dan's Gaucho at Forty-Five

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GAUCHO is an album that was…

IN THIS PHOTO: Steely Dan’s Walter Becker and Donald Fagen/PHOTO CREDIT: Corbis via Getty Images

a bit of a crucial moment for Steely Dan. It would be their final album together until 2000’s Two Against Nature. Walter Becker and Donald Fagen had spent a lot of time in studios recording albums since they released their 1972 debut, Can’t Buy a Thrill. Their recording was always intense. So many musicians and takes. They might not necessarily call themselves ‘perfectionists’, though it is clear that there was this sense of expectation and standard. Aja, released in 1977, is their best album. In terms of everything coming together, Becker and Fagen were at their peak. Things changed by the time Gaucho was released on 21st November, 1980. I wanted to mark the forty-fifth anniversary of this album. It was pretty much Donald Fagen recording without Waler Becker for quite a bit of the album. Gaucho was not as critically acclaimed as Aja. Strains and problems within the group meant that they would not continue as a unit. Donald Fagen embarked on a solo career after and released The Nightfly in 1982. Becker would produce Fagen’s second solo album, 1993’s Kamakiriad. However, I think that Gaucho is one of Steely Dan’s best albums. It contains Babylon Sisters, Hey Nineteen and Time Out of Mind – three of their finest works. Before getting to some features about Gaucho, I want to first bring in an interview from Musician Magazine that was published in 1981:

“Three years, two hundred outtakes, a few mistakenly erased tracks, and one shattered shank after Aja, Steely Dan has come sauntering out of hibernation with a ravishing new record, Gaucho. It’s elegant, it’s extravagant; it shows again why Walter Becker and Donald, the masters of Ellingtonian Backbeat, Coolpop-Jazzrock, are the closest thing this generation has to pre-war sophistication of Porter and Berlin, Rodgers and Hart, Weill and Waller. If Aja convinced Woody Herman to let his big band loose on Steely Dan materiaf (Chick, Donald, Walter and Woodrow, 1978), prompted a Berklee College of Music songwriting analysis course featuring their work, and elevated the taste of the frat-dance college crowd, one wonders what kind of a dent Gaucho might make. One thing it won’t do is send Steely Dan back on the road, not even after Becker’s carcrunched leg heals completely. Nor will they perform in their native New York. So we are left solely — and quite happily — with the music at hand.

Which is, as may be expected by now, sublime and fragrant and audaciously smooth. Steely Dan Inc.’s revolving door of studio sidemen hasn’t stopped swinging yet — some 36 grace Gaucho — and I mean this in the musical sense as well: rarely have so many done so little spontaneous blowing for so much music that sounds so fresh. But it probably won’t sound that way upon first or second listen; chances are it will sound soft and round, blandly pleasant, almost superficial. With further listening, each of the record’s seven tunes opens and deepens, revealing the harmonic jewels and subtle understated solos. At first obscured by the dominant colors of the surface, background colors become apparent, much as they will in fine oil paintings as your eye moves closer and closer to them; rhythmic nuances make themselves felt; each piece eventually jumps out of bed with the others and goes its own way: the patina, a rather mundane orgy of highgloss sensuality, gives way to the substance — seven different compositions in profound intercourse with their own partners, their indigenous lyrics.

As for the lyrics’ subject matter, rest assured Steely Dan enters the ’80s with some timely tales of tawdry high- life and desultory desperation. Gaucho overflows with mystics, coke dealers, sexual rivals, gosling girls ignorant of ‘Retha Franklin, concupiscent Charlies out for “that cotton candy,’ playground hoopers, Third World schemers mobilized on First World lawns, surprisingly gay friends and bodacious cowboys. The stories are rich, richer than Aja‘s, the metaphors subversive and witty. For instance, the rival lover is introduced with the couplet, “The milk truck eased into my space/Somebody screamed somewhere.” All in all, we may say this about Steely Dan: the more things strange, the more they stay the same. I recently spoke with Messrs Becker and Fagen at an MCA rented suite of the Park Lane hotel on Central Park South in New York. As I entered the room, the two jokingly whined about the day’s previous interviewers; every one, it seems, had grazed over the parched grass of basic bio material, asking, “So did you two really meet at Bard College?” With furious swipes of my pen, I mimed scratching that one off the top of my list of questions and mumbled something about my masterplan being destroyed.

MUSICIAN: It has been a considerable time since Steely Dan first started: how do you feel you’ve grown as artists, as musicians and lyricists, since that time?

FAGEN: [Long pause] It’s a matter of maturing. Becoming more selective with material, knowing what to write about, being able to pick and choose — showing more discretion than in the earlier days. Musically, our harmonic vocabulary and so on has expanded a great deal. so I feel we’ve progressed a lot since our first records. They are plain embarrassing, if you listen to them.

MUSICIAN: When you look back at your older work — as all artists, regrettably or enthusiastically, must do — do you think, “Oh God, that just wasn’t it at all”?

FAGEN: [ Laughs] Well, yeah, you know I don’t listen to our old records, but if I happen to hear one on the radio, my general feeling is humiliation. I don’t really understand some of our earlier stuff.

BECKER: [Limping slowly back into the room] You mean: why would we do a thing like this or that?

FAGEN: In terms of why we would do certain things musically and also lyrically.

BECKER: Like, say ” My Old School”? Gimme a for instance…

FAGEN: Not that one so much. That one has taken on a certain, well, it’s improved with age. I’m trying to think of a really embarrassing one, but I can’t off-hand.

MUSICIAN: At what point can you begin to stand yourself, listening back? 1974? 1975?

FAGEN: The next album I like pretty well. The one we haven’t done yet. The rest of them are fairly humiliating.

MUSICIAN: You don’t feel Gaucho is what you want to sound like?

FAGEN: Well, on the humiliation scale each album gets lower and lower. I think starting with Pretzel Logic, I began to like a few cuts here and there as things I can really listen to.

MUSICIAN: How do you feel, Walter?

BECKER: Differently. But I don’t listen to them either. I mean there were a lot of things that were very shoddily done, and a lot of things that were just bad, but probably different things for me than for Donald. We were doing the best we could, but fuck it, it wasn’t very good. It’s like looking at yourself in a mirror: it’s not how you really look. Left-handed people look weird. I don’t know whether it’s ultimately good or not, I really don’t.

MUSICIAN: Which brings me to another question. I know you agonize over your lyrics. Does it ever frustrate you that with many or most of the people listening, they may being going in one ear — and with little in between to stop them — right out the other? That all they may want is a beat and a hummable melody?

BECKER: I assume that’s the case for most of the audience, or at least a big part of it, and that’s why we try to always make the lyrics not grab your attention. We want them to sound good with the music, even if you’re not an English-speaking person.

MUSICIAN: But for those that are listening, atlas and dictionary in hand, you don’t want the lyrics to be one-shot deals, like a comedy record that you put on once and it gets tired pretty quickly after that.

BECKER: That’s definitely a problem. We have to be clever, but not funny.

FAGEN: We have a problem, trying not to cross the comedy threshold.

BECKER: Every time someone’s in the next room when we’re writing a song they’ll say, ” Don’t tell me you’re fucking writing songs in there, you’re not working, ‘ cause you’re fucking screaming and laughing in there. You’re not writing, you’re making up Pope jokes.”

FAGEN: Sometimes Walter comes up with a line, and it’s just too fuckin’…

BECKER: Funny. The whole thing would just stop; it would be like making Spike Jones records.

FAGEN: Suspension of disbelief would stop; there’d be laughter. You have to keep the equilibrium, have to maintain the irony, without getting into yuk-yuk territory”.

There are some interesting features that take us inside Gaucho. How it was a difficult and challenging time for Donald Fagen and Walter Becker. How it really shouldn’t have sounded as good as it does given the fracturing and turbulence within the ranks. In 2020, for its fortieth anniversary, Albumism highlighted this. Even so, I feel that Gaucho is one of their finest works. A wonderful Steely Dan album that I have always loved. It was a hard task following up Aja:

“Gaucho is nothing shy of a miracle in its creation, which was plagued with problems so deep that a superstitious man might call it cursed. So, it’s right, somehow, that the curse should finally break, exactly 40 years later, as we are collectively miring through the worst year most of us can remember.

In late December 1979, the two were working on “The Second Arrangement,” which Donald Fagen and Walter Becker, as well as Nichols and producer Gary Katz, agreed was their favorite song on the album. But a careless studio tech erased all but 19 seconds of it, and though attempts were made to re-record, it was never up to Fagen and Becker’s standards, and the song was abandoned, “Third World Man” substituted in its place.

Demos have floated around the internet for years; there are groups dedicated to cleaning up the demos to as close to studio perfection as one might have. The band has only performed the song live once, at the “Rarities Night” show at the Beacon Theatre on September 17, 2011. I was there in the balcony, the first of many, many Steely Dan shows. It’s a story I tell anyone who will listen, a date I remember as closely as my wedding anniversary.

But the plagues didn’t stop there. Becker was not only struggling with his own drug addiction—sometimes not even showing up for sessions. Fagen himself was depressed and tired. In January 1980, Karen Stanley, Becker’s girlfriend, died of a drug overdose in their home. He was sued by her family for introducing her to drugs, a case settled out of court in Becker’s favor. Four months later, he was hit by a car, breaking his leg in multiple places, leading to a six-month recovery that kept him out of the studio. He listened to the tapes at home, working out parts with Fagen over the phone.

As such, “Time Out of Mind,” a poppy, pleasurable, Michael McDonald-aided confection that makes doing heroin sound like the most fun thing ever, feels like a weird inclusion, practically a mockery of Becker and Stanley’s struggles with addiction.

Even “Glamour Profession,” with its shadows and midnight dumplings, recognizes the seedy underworld beneath the slick coo of Fagen’s electric piano.  Like “Babylon Sisters,” the narrator —or rather, the backup singers, including Valerie Simpson, who act as his conscience—know that he is only a momentary pleasure, a kept man for the Showbiz Kids—in this instance, a Lakers player—who would dispose of him as soon as it comes time for him to undertake the rehab-and-redemption part of the Hollywood fairytale”.

It was unfortunate that this incredible perfectionism and the issues with the group coincided. Layering tracks to the maximum, some would say that Gaucho required stronger editing. Maybe stripping it back a bit. Some of the critical reviews in 1980 and 1981 compared it unfavourably to albums from Steely Dan they felt were superior. In years since, Gaucho has been re-evaluated. Acknowledged as one of the greatest albums. This feature explores an album that, through its recording sessions, they employed forty-two different musicians:

“When Gaucho finally surfaced in 1980, any fears that Steely Dan might relax their exacting standards were silenced with the first needle drop. Perfectionist obsessions that had driven songwriters Walter Becker and Donald Fagen remained audible in the sheen of the set’s seven songs. If anything, the arrangements were even more meticulously groomed, their sonic finish smoother yet than on Aja, the acknowledged masterpiece that preceded it three years earlier.

Before Aja elevated them to multi-platinum stature, Becker and Fagen had pushed each new LP further toward ambitious musical and technical goals. Since downsizing from working band to floating studio workshop, they cast an ever-widening net to recruit heavyweight musicians, earning a reputation as demanding taskmasters willing to burn through miles of multitrack tape in pursuit of the perfect take. From the outset they aspired to the state of the recording art, long before Aja became ubiquitous as a demo disc for high-end stereo salons.

Gaucho continued the mission that Becker, Fagen, producer Gary Katz and engineer Roger Nichols began with Steely Dan’s 1972 debut album, but completion required navigating a maze of technical, legal and personal obstacles after the songwriters moved back to New York following six years in Los Angeles. Lawsuits, false starts, lost master tapes, a debilitating injury and an overdose death stretched the interval between Aja and Gaucho to three years.

In all, they recorded a dozen songs during sessions at studios in New York, Los Angeles and Philadelphia, comparable to prior albums, drawing from a pool of 42 musicians. On the eve of its release, Becker and Fagen noted a greater reliance on layering tracks. One casualty of the overdubbing process resulted from an assistant engineer’s accidental erasure of nearly three weeks’ work on “The Second Arrangement,” an early contender for one of their most promising tracks.

Other technical hurdles included tests of the Soundstream system, one of the first digital audio recorders. Ultimately, they chose to stick with analog tape after deeming the sound “different but not necessarily better,” in Becker’s estimation.

Then there was Wendel, a costly adventure to mate the complexity and nuanced touch of world-class drummers with the mechanical precision of disco. Roger Nichols volunteered to tackle the challenge, drawing from his earlier career as a nuclear engineer. Six weeks and $150,000 later, Nichols delivered a 12-bit digital editor enabling them to manipulate and tame dozens of takes into a final rhythm track.

That quest for the perfect groove proved a key denominator across the album, which retreats from bolder shifts in meter to tilt toward steady R&B, Latin and, yes, even muted disco pulses.

The finished album dovetails seamlessly with Aja’s bespoke arrangements. That album had proven a tipping point in Becker and Fagen’s overall ensemble design, stepping further away from rock instrumentation to sculpt the material with keyboards, percussion and horns. Gaucho upholds that elegant restraint with “Babylon Sisters,” a laid-back ode to Cali decadence that kicks off the set with studied nonchalance.

“Drive west on Sunset to the sea,” Fagen directs his companions in anticipation of a three-way tryst set to a faintly anesthetized reggae pulse, undercutting the singer’s salacious come-on to the “sisters.” “This is no one-night stand, it’s a real occasion,” he insists, only to compare their rendezvous to “a weekend in TJ…it’s cheap but it’s not free” before female vocalists offer a soothing refrain that’s a thinly disguised warning: “Here come those Santa Ana winds again,” they coo, alluding to “devil winds” that blow west from the California deserts that Raymond Chandler and Joan Didion notoriously invoked as harbingers of chaos”.

I am going to finish with a review from Pitchfork. Alex Pappademas wrote a book with artist Joan LeMay in 2023. Quantum Criminals: Ramblers, Wild Gamblers, and Other Sole Survivors from the Songs of Steely Dan explored the characters in Steely Dan’s work. Gaucho has a fair few, including the Babylon Sisters, The Gaucho, the Third World Man, the Dread Moray Eel (Glamour Profession) and The Dandy of Gamma Chi (Hey Nineteen). Pappademas holds a lot of love for Gaucho:

“It’s their most obviously L.A. record, so of course they made it in New York, after spending years out West making music so steeped in New York iconography it practically sweated hot-dog-cart water. And it’s also the most end-of-the-’70s record ever made, 38 minutes of immaculately conceived malaise-age bachelor-pad music by which to greet the cold dawn of the Reagan era. The characters in these songs have taken an era of self-expression and self-indulgence as far as they can. They’re free to do and be whatever and whoever they want, but all that severance of obligation has done is isolate them from other people.

The only character who’s having any kind of communal fun is the coke dealer on “Glamour Profession,” who makes calls from a basketball star’s car phone and takes meetings over Mr. Chow dumplings with “Jive Miguel…from Bogotá.” Everyone else is lost out there in the haze, having mutually demeaning sex or reaching for human connection in angry, possessive, usually futile ways. “Gaucho” and “My Rival” are both about relationships into which some threatening/alluring interloper has driven a wedge; both “Hey Nineteen” and “Babylon Sisters” are about older guys who chase younger women and wind up feeling older than ever. Things fall apart, the center does not hold, there’s a gaucho in the living room and he won’t leave, and it’s getting hard to act like everything’s mellow.

There’s a precisely calibrated mix of empathy and irony in the way the Dan observe these poor devils, these sinners in the grip of a checked-out God— Becker, perfectly, called it “a sneer and a tear.” This is, at points, a very funny record—particularly the title track, whose unfolding absurdity builds to the moment where the narrator, having caught his lover holding hands with a bodacious cowboy in a spangled leather poncho, cries out, “Would you care to explain?” in high dudgeon worthy of Frasier Crane.

When Becker and Fagen started making this music, it was 1978, and they were coming off the platinum-selling Aja, the biggest hit they’d ever had. They briefly toyed with the idea of putting together a band and touring—a form of strenuous exercise they’d given up years earlier—but instead they went back to work on new music, and didn’t emerge from the studio until late 1980. One of the first tracks they finished was “The Second Arrangement,” a blithe kiss-off from an unapologetic Jaguar-driving lothario whose faithlessness is suddenly fashionable. You can find the song on YouTube in various states of completion—a piano demo with Fagen trying a shaky falsetto on the chorus, a polished instrumental, a bootlegged-sounding full-band version whose discoid thwack evokes a waterlogged “Get Lucky”—but you won’t find it on Gaucho. After an assistant engineer accidentally erased a large chunk of the master tape, Becker and Fagen tried for a while to recreate the track, then gave up on it entirely. It wasn’t the only good song they discarded during the sessions—even with all the king’s sidemen at their disposal, they couldn’t capture “The Bear” or the surreal colonialist fever-dream “Kulee Baba” either—but it might have been the best song on the album if it had survived. They replaced it with the merely-very-good “Third World Man,” a retooled track left over from the Aja sessions, featuring a downhearted soliloquy of a guitar solo by Larry Carlton, who was reportedly surprised to discover he’d played on Gaucho.

In January 1980, Becker’s girlfriend Karen Stanley, who Becker later said had struggled with depression, died of what may have been an intentional overdose in Becker’s apartment. Then, in April of that year, while walking on a New York street, Becker was hit by a taxi cab. He spent seven months in a cast with a fractured tibia and was effectively sidelined from the studio for most of the three laborious months it took to mix Gaucho. Mixing was Becker’s forte; Fagen was left to muddle through. During a visit to the studio in summer 1980, Palmer watched him sit with Katz and Nichols, “inhaling a cigarette in spasmodic gulps” while endlessly retooling the fade-out at the end of “Babylon Sisters,” eventually spending four hours fiddling with fifty seconds of music.

Of the nearly 40 consummate studio pros whose work at the Gaucho sessions made the final cut, the player with the heaviest footprint belongs to “Wendel,” a Paleolithic 12-bit sampling unit designed and built by Nichols, deployed by Becker and Fagen to impose a drum-machine-like consistency on the work of live drummers like Steve Gadd and Rick Marotta. “In the ’80s,” Becker told Mojo years later, “hand-crafted, hand-played music was being overtaken by this increasingly mechanical, perfectionist machine music, and we were just trying to get there first. They had all these disco records that were just whack-whack, so perfect, the beat never fluctuated, and we didn’t see why we couldn’t have that too, except playing this incredibly complicated music…It seemed like a good idea.”

Of course, the computerized micro-tweaking of live instrumentation is now as commonplace a part of pop-music production as reverb, but back then the option to program with real drum hits was tantamount to magic, especially for two guys who’d spent much of their professional lives being just a tiny bit disappointed by some of the finest session musicians on the planet. But Wendel was also a bit of a prickly collaborator. “[E]ven the most minute event,” the band wrote in the liner notes to a 2000 reissue of Gaucho, “had to be programmed in the gnarly and unforgiving 8085 Assembly Language, in which all relevant parameters needed to be described in its baffling hexagesimal-base numerical system, which ultimately became the only language Roger Nichols spoke or understood, at least for a time”.

On 21st November, we mark forty-five years of Gaucho. Although we sadly lost Walter Becker in 2017 and he will not get to see this album being celebrated and discussed on the day, I do wonder how he viewed that period. Especially tough for him, I am glad that he and Donald Fagen got together for two more Steely Dan albums and toured together until Becker’s death. I think that Gaucho is an incredible album with some of Steely Dan’s best songs. If you have not heard this album in a long time (or ever), then seek Gaucho out and…

PLAY it in full.

FEATURE: So Real: Remembering the Great Jeff Buckley at Fifty-Nine

FEATURE:

 

 

So Real

IN THIS PHOTO: Jeff Buckley in 1994/PHOTO CREDIT: Andy Willshire

Remembering the Great Jeff Buckley at Fifty-Nine

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ON 17th November…

IN THIS PHOTO: Jeff Buckley at Tower Records, N.Y.C. on 16th December, 1994/PHOTO CREDIT: Merri Cyr

we remember Jeff Buckley on what would have been his fifty-ninth birthday. We sadly lost this iconic musician in 1997 at the age of just thirty. I have been a fan of his for decades and feel his loss is one of the most tragic in all of music. In terms of how far he could have gone and what could have been. Rather than pointlessly speculate, we have to look at what he left behind in his brief yet brilliant career. A sole studio album, Grace (1994), that ranks alongside the best of all time and is one of the most influential albums in history. We can also here him in live albums, a posthumous album, Sketches for My Sweetheart the Drunk (1998), in addition to recorded and filmed interviews and live performances. We have books like Jeff Buckley: His Own Voice and Jeff Buckley: From Hallelujah to the Last Goodbye. There is also a documentary, It's Never Over, Jeff Buckley, that can be streamed on services like Apple TV+. The question around a biopic keeps surfacing. Fortunately, a proposed biopic starring Brad Pitt was nixed by Jeff Buckley’s mother, Mary Guibert. Since then, I think there has been talk and rumours, but nothing is confirmed. You feel, with the success of music biopics involving Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen, that Jeff Buckley’s name must be constantly pitched and various actors of today attached. I think that his mother and estate would be very reluctant to see one come to light unless it was at the right time and with the right actor.

You could imagine Jeff Buckley hating the idea of a biopic if he was alive! Sine his death in 1997, Buckley’s music has touched so many other musicians. Radiohead, Muse, Coldplay, Adele, Lana Del Rey, Bon Iver, Bat for Lashes and Massive Attack are among those who have cited Buckley as an influence. Looking ahead to 17th November and what would have been his fifty-ninth birthday, I want to update something I have done before. That relates to a comprehensive playlist. A mixtape here of his best songs. Through live albums, Grace and his posthumous work, this is a look inside the genius of Jeff Buckley. It will be especially sad next year when we mark his sixtieth birthday. However, his legacy is being kept alive. You can hear his influence across modern music. Grace frequently talked about alongside the best albums ever. With a voice like no other, I can see his music enduring for generations. His amazing guitar playing and songwriting is not discussed enough. I know that fans around the world will pay tribute to Buckley on his birthday. I am curious what the next step is in terms of books, documentaries or anything relating to Jeff Buckley. Rather than milk things or go overboard, I do feel like there is something big to come. In the meantime, go and listen to the stunning music of a once-in-a-lifetime artist whose brilliance shines bright twenty-eight years after his death. This celebratory mixtape is a selection of wonderful musical moments from an artist that we…

MISS so much.

FEATURE: Kate Bush’s Aerial at Twenty: Looking Ahead to a Special Night at Avalon Cafe

FEATURE:

 

 

Kate Bush’s Aerial at Twenty

 IMAGE CREDIT: Avalon Cafe

Looking Ahead to a Special Night at Avalon Cafe

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I am going to end with a couple of reviews…

for Kate Bush’s 2005 masterpiece, Aerial. I don’t think that word is ill-placed and hyperbole. Even though many would argue it would come say, fourth or five in her ‘best albums’ list – behind Hounds of Love (1985), The Dreaming (1982) and maybe even The Sensual World (1989) -, I do think that Aerial is one of her finest works. In terms of production, it may be her very best example. That genius at work! I have written about Hounds of Love a lot lately, as it turned forty in September. I am also comparing Aerial and Hounds of Love a bit in this series of anniversary features. How family is very much at the heart of both albums. How nature and the natural world enforces their conceptual suites. On Hounds of Love’s The Ninth Wave it is water. On Aerial’s second disc – as it is a double album -, there is water involved. I would say the sky is more prominent. The expanse and beauty of what is above, rather than the terror and unknown of what is beneath the sea. Also, both albums were regarded during high points. Very happy times. Hounds of Love was a period where Bush changed her lifestyle and built a home studio at East Wickham Farm. She followed up one of her most challenging albums (1982’s The Dreaming) with her most acclaimed work. Aerial was released seven years after she gave birth to her son, Bertie (Albert McIntosh). As a new mother, you can feel her contentment and sheer joy come through. Especially on the first disc of the album. I feel the decision to have A Sky of Honey be about a summer’s day from its start to its end was also reflective of her new life. Perhaps based around her own English garden with new family, Bush took us much further and wider – to the Balearic-infused final stages of the suite, complete with a beach fantasy and as close as she has come to full-on Rave and Dance!

I cannot do full justice to Aerial in this feature! I am going to explore and dissect it more as I run through the series. The main reason for this feature is that I will be co-hosting an event on 6th November (a day before Aerial’s twentieth anniversary) in London. Here are more details:

“Kate Bush’s “Aerial” is turning 20. On the eve of the album’s 20th anniversary, join us at Avalon Cafe for a celebration of Aerial and all things Kate Bush 💃🏻
We’ll not only be listening to the album’s second disc, A Sky of Honey - a 40 minute experimental suite and ode to the rapture of summer - but will also be pausing midway for a discussion and Q&A with @leah.kardos and @liddicottsam. Kate tunes to be played throughout.
Released after a 12-year hiatus, traversing a multitude of themes and sounds, Aerial is the work not only of Kate Bush, the artist, who fashioned a truly experimental sound into something universal and refined, but also that of Kate Bush: mother, daughter, lover.
Over 16 tracks and two discs, Bush declares that she has not only made peace with life’s grief and loss, found untold love in motherhood, and ascended to certain domestic bliss - but that she remains, as ever, capable of teasing out the sensuality, sublimity and weirdness that exists in everyday life.
Join us Thursday 6th November at Avalon Cafe as we celebrate this incredible album”.

It is exciting that A Sky of Honey will get a full airing. Even though the first disc will not get a spin, we can discuss that at the event. I especially want to dive into my favourite Aerial song, Mrs. Bartolozzi! Even so, I don’t think Aerial will get the same press and attention as Hounds of Love when it turned forty on 16th September.

Even though I feel both are comparable masterpieces, Hounds of Love is more known and played. Its first side especially gets regular radio airplay. Aerial in contrast maybe has King of the Mountain (its sole single) played and, perhaps, one or two other tracks now and then. It is definitely not as written about and covered as Hounds of Love. The fact Hounds of Love is twice as old as Aerial is not the reason. I do feel like some see Aerial as having a few weaker moments – Bertie, Pi and Joanni are brought up in reviews as being ‘lesser’ tracks -, though I don’t feel there are any weak moments. I love the maternal bliss of Bertie and perhaps the most Kate Bush song ever, Pi. I would say Mrs. Bartolozzi is the most Kate Bush track ever, though a song where she recites Pi (incorrectly at one point) is so her! Also, Joanni is this fascinating and beautiful song that I feel is more about Kate Bush and motherhood. In fact, I feel like motherhood and mothers weave into so many songs on the album, including A Coral Room and How to Be Invisible. Even King of the Mountain, I feel, is about Kate Bush seen as a recluse and mystical figure when, in fact, she was starting a family! I want to try and help dispel some myths around Aerial and so-called weaker or less essential songs. That the album is up there with her very best and warrants more love and inspection. Also, that the production throughout proves that Kate Bush is a genius and one of the finest producers of her generation. It is good that I get to speak with Leah Kardos. I would consider her to be one of the great Kate Bush authorities. If I were to set up a dinner party of Kate Bush experts and superfans, I would have her there. The fine folk of Kate Bush News, Graeme Thomson, Tom Doyle, Laura Shenton, the brilliant and dedicated minds behind Gaffaweb, together with some high-profile Kate Bush fans (maybe Guy Pierce would be in there!). I heard Kardos speak about Hounds of Love at London’s The Horse Hospital on its anniversary. It was powerful and insightful. Hearing the album in full and her speak about the album. She wrote a book for 33 1/3 series. I think this is the only time a Kate Bush album had been included in the series.

I have a dim memory of The Dreaming being written about, though I am not sure it is available. As The Kick Inside is fifty in 2028, I would be tempted to throw my hat in the ring for that pitch! It is amazing that Kate Bush was so underrepresented. Leah Kardos’s insights, analyses, expertise and writing is brilliant. I know she loved Aerial so much and I do think this is an album that should also be included in the series. As I write in another feature, maybe she will take on the task or someone else will. Aerial is so fascinating and has so much history. The twelve-year gap from The Red Shoes and everything leading up to 2005. The impact of the album and how it took six years for Bush to release another album (2011’s Director’s Cut). Also, as we have waited almost fourteen years for another Kate Bush album – since 2011’s 50 Words for Snow -, there is a modern relevance to Aerial. I will be hot-footing it from my job in Covent Garden on 6th November to Avalon Café in Bermondsey to be part of a very, very special night. Go and get your ticket here. I think Leah Kardos will have more insight into the musical and production detail and its brilliance. I think we are of a similar age, so we have that generational perspective. Also, I have said how Aerial’s A Sky of Honey should have a cinematic release. Something built around it. Whilst Kate Bush mounted it for 2014’s Before the Dawn residency in Hammersmith – Leah Kardos caught one of the dates; I did not get a ticket -, there is an argument to revisiting it. So why get excited about coming to a night where we discuss Aerial and play A Sky of Honey?! Well, on its twentieth anniversary on 7th November, fans will share their memories. I know Kate Bush will remember the album fondly. Critics were definitely awe-struck and affected in 2005 when Aerial arrived. I am going to wrap up soon, but not before dropping in a couple of ecstatic reviews for arguably Kate Bush’s finest (double) album.

I am going to move to a review from The Guardian. Even though critics felt this was a Kate Bush return, the actual truth is that she never went away. Instead, she was busy making music and enjoy new responsibility as a mother. Anyone expecting something like an updated The Red Shoes were in for a shock! This was a sublime, expansive and beautifully realised album of ambition and incredible beauty:

“Why do so many pop performers produce their best work when they are in their early-to-mid twenties? A simple answer is that pop is essentially a juvenile form, the expression of a certain youthful worldview and rebellious sensibility, and the more the musician matures and learns about music, the greater can be the desire to complicate and to experiment with what once felt so natural and spontaneous.

Few artists experiment more than Kate Bush - often to thrilling effect. Her first single, 'Wuthering Heights', was a huge number one hit in 1978, when she was just 19. After that surprise, EMI allowed her near-absolute artistic control. Since 1980 she has produced and written all her own material and, as the wait for each new album has grown longer and longer, she has become the musical equivalent of a celebrated novelist who refuses to be edited: she has the freedom to do whatever she wants and at whichever speed she desires. If she wants to combine the orchestral string arrangements of Michael Kamen with uninhibited rock guitar, as she does here, she can. If she refuses to play live, as she has done for more than 20 years, no one will try to force her to change her mind.

Twelve years is a long time to wait for a new record from any artist, even from one as consistently inventive as Kate Bush, but at least Aerial offers value. It's a 14-track double album, and the more experimental of the two records is 'A Sky of Honey'. It begins not with music but with the sound of birdsong, the wind in the trees and the voice of a child calling for her parents. What follows is a suite of seven unashamedly romantic and interconnected songs taking us on a long day's journey into night and then on through to the next morning when birdsong is heard once more and the whole cycle starts all over again. There are similarities here with the second side of the remarkable Hounds of Love (1985) and to the song sequence 'The Ninth Wave' that took us into the consciousness of a drowning woman (the sea, in her work, has long been a source of inspiration and of threat). That album, memorable for its daring, its imaginative use of sampling, and its erotic intensity, was, like much of Bush's work, preoccupied with memory - and with how we are never entirely free from the voices and sounds of childhood. It remains her best album.

'A Sky of Honey' is music of pagan rapture - songs about acts of creation, natural or otherwise; about the wind, rain, sunlight and the sea. Sometimes it is just Kate alone at her piano, her voice restrained. Sometimes, as on the outstanding 'Sunset', she begins alone and softly, but soon the tempo quickens and the song becomes an experiment in forms: jazz, progressive rock, flamenco.

There are weaknesses. At times, Bush can be too fey and whimsical, especially on 'Bertie', which is about the joy of motherhood, or on 'Mrs Bartolozzi', a rhapsody to nothing less than a washing machine: 'My blouse wrapping itself around your trousers... slooshy sloshy/ slooshy sloshy.' And the bold, musically adventurous second album is a little too insistent in its 'hey, man' hippyish sensibility, with Kate running freely through the fields or climbing high in the mountains. She did, after all, once dress up as a kind of white witch for the cover of Never For Ever (1980), on which she is portrayed flying through the air, like a giant bat.

'What kind of language is this?' Kate Bush sings, self-interrogatively, on the title track, the last of the album. It's a good question, to which she offers a partial answer on 'Somewhere in Between', which in ambition and content is where most of the songs on this album are suspended - somewhere in between the tighter, more conventional structures of pop and the looser, less accessible arrangements of contemporary classical and the avant-garde; somewhere, in mood and atmosphere, between the lucidity of wakefulness and the ambiguity of dream; between the presumed innocence of childhood and the desire for escape offered by the adult imagination; between abstraction and the real. Even when she escapes her wonderland to write songs about actual figures in the known world, she remains attracted to those figures such as Elvis ('King of the Mountain', the album's first single) or Joan of Arc ('Joanna') that, in death as indeed in life, have a mythic unreality.

So, again, what kind of language is this? It is ultimately that of an artist superbly articulate in the language of experimental pop music. But it is also the language of an artist who doesn't seem to want to grow up. Or, more accurately, who has never lost her child-like capacity for wonder and for pagan celebration and who, because she is sincere and can communicate her odd and unpredictable vision in both words and through sumptuous music, occupies a cherished and indulged position in the culture. There is no one quite like her, which is why, in the end, we must forgive her excesses and eccentricities. We are lucky to have her back”.

Among the highlights of Aerial is Kate Bush singing along with a blackbird (Aerial Tal most explicitly) and her putting on an Elvis Presley drawl (King of the Mountain). A Sky of Honey is especially detailed and arresting. So many highlights. Aside from the black mark that is Rolf Harris featuring (his vocal parts were replaced on a later release, where Bush’s son took his parts), Aerial is this near-perfect album. AllMusic provided their take on the sublime and truly captivating Aerial:

“Fierce Kate Bush fans who are expecting revelation in Aerial, her first new work since The Red Shoes in 1993, will no doubt scour lyrics, instrumental trills, and interludes until they find them. For everyone else, those who purchased much of Bush's earlier catalog because of its depth, quality, and vision, Aerial will sound exactly like what it is, a new Kate Bush record: full of her obsessions, lushly romantic paeans to things mundane and cosmic, and her ability to add dimension and transfer emotion though song. The set is spread over two discs. The first, A Sea of Honey, is a collection of songs, arranged for everything from full-on rock band to solo piano. The second, A Sky of Honey, is a conceptual suite. It was produced by Bush with engineering and mixing by longtime collaborator Del Palmer.

A Sea of Honey is a deeply interior look at domesticity, with the exception of its opening track, "King of the Mountain," the first single and video. Bush does an acceptable impersonation of Elvis Presley in which she examines his past life on earth and present incarnation as spectral enigma. Juxtaposing the Elvis myth, Wagnerian mystery, and the image of Rosebud, the sled from Orson Welles' Citizen Kane, Bush's synthesizer, sequencer, and voice weigh in ethereally from the margins before a full-on rock band playing edgy and funky reggae enters on the second verse. Wind whispers and then howls across the cut's backdrop as she searches for the rainbow body of the disappeared one through his clothes and the tabloid tales of his apocryphal sightings, looking for a certain resurrection of his physical body. The rest of the disc focuses on more interior and domestic matters, but it's no less startling. A tune called "Pi" looks at a mathematician's poetic and romantic love of numbers. "Bertie" is a hymn to her son orchestrated by piano, Renaissance guitar, percussion, and viols.

But disc one's strangest and most lovely moment is in "Mrs. Bartolozzi," scored for piano and voice. It revives Bush's obsessive eroticism through an ordinary woman's ecstatic experience of cleaning after a rainstorm, and placing the clothing of her beloved and her own into the washing machine and observing in rapt sexual attention. She sings "My blouse wrapping itself around your trousers/Oh the waves are going out/My skirt floating up around your waist...Washing machine/Washing machine." Then there's "How to Be Invisible," and the mysticism of domestic life as the interior reaches out into the universe and touches its magic: "Hem of anorak/Stem of a wall flower/Hair of doormat?/Is that autumn leaf falling?/Or is that you walking home?/Is that a storm in the swimming pool?"

A Sky of Honey is 42 minutes in length. It's lushly romantic as it meditates on the passing of 24 hours. Its prelude is a short deeply atmospheric piece with the sounds of birds singing, and her son (who is "the Sun" according to the credits) intones, "Mummy...Daddy/The day is full of birds/Sounds like they're saying words." And "Prologue" begins with her piano, a chanted viol, and Bush crooning to romantic love, the joy of marriage and nature communing, and the deep romance of everyday life. There's drama, stillness, joy, and quiet as its goes on, but it's all held within, as in "An Architect's Dream," where the protagonist encounters a working street painter going about his work in changing light: "The flick of a wrist/Twisting down to the hips/So the lovers begin with a kiss...." Loops, Eberhard Weber's fretless bass, drifting keyboards, and a relaxed delivery create an erotic tension, in beauty and in casual voyeurism.

"Sunset" has Bush approaching jazz, but it doesn't swing so much as it engages the form. Her voice digging into her piano alternates between lower-register enunciation and a near falsetto in the choruses. There is a sense of utter fascination with the world as it moves toward darkness, and the singer is enthralled as the sun climbs into bed, before it streams into "Sunset," a gorgeous flamenco guitar and percussion-driven call-and-response choral piece -- it's literally enthralling. It is followed by a piece of evening called "Somewhere Between," in which lovers take in the beginning of night. As "Nocturne" commences, shadows, stars, the beach, and the ocean accompany two lovers who dive down deep into one another and the surf. Rhythms assert themselves as the divers go deeper and the band kicks up: funky electric guitars pulse along with the layers of keyboards, journeying until just before sunup. But it is on the title track that Bush gives listeners her greatest surprise. Dawn is breaking and she greets the day with a vengeance. Manic, crunchy guitars play power chords as sequencers and synths make the dynamics shift and swirl. In her higher register, Bush shouts, croons, and trills against and above the band's force.

Nothing much happens on Aerial except the passing of a day, as noted by the one who engages it in the process of being witnessed, yet it reveals much about the interior and natural worlds and expresses spiritual gratitude for everyday life. Musically, this is what listeners have come to expect from Bush at her best -- a finely constructed set of songs that engage without regard for anything else happening in the world of pop music. There's no pushing of the envelope because there doesn't need to be. Aerial is rooted in Kate Bush's oeuvre, with grace, flair, elegance, and an obsessive, stubborn attention to detail. What gets created for the listener is an ordinary world, full of magic; it lies inside one's dwelling in overlooked and inhabited spaces, and outside, from the backyard and out through the gate into wonder”.

I am looking forward to being at Avalon Café on 6th November. On the eve of the twentieth anniversary of Kate Bush’s Aerial, I will be joining Leah Kardos – and hopefully a full and willing audience – to discuss Aerial and have a chat. Listening to A Sky of Honey will be a highlight, as Kate Bush always intended it to be heard in a single go, rather than handpicking tracks. As a suite, it is one of her greatest achievements. Nearly twenty years after it was released, Aerial is a staggering…

WORK of brilliance.

FEATURE: Kate Bush: Something Like a Song: The Infant Kiss (Never for Ever)

FEATURE:

 

 

Kate Bush: Something Like a Song

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1980/PHOTO CREDIT: Patrick Lichfield

The Infant Kiss (Never for Ever)

__________

I have not discussed this song…

for a while, and it is one I am keen to now. I think its title alone would mean it would not get played on the radio. People instantly misunderstanding the meaning or feeling people would complain if they heard the song. This idea of Bush singing as a woman and suggesting she is kissing this young boy. The complexities, implications and connotations. Maybe it would be too controversial and create a backlash. However, this track from 1980’s Never for Ever is one of her best. Certainly one of her most underrated tracks. Not released as a single and never performed live, I am also not sure whether it has been played on the radio. I think the last time I approached this track was back in 2022. I am going to bring in sections of an article I used back then. However, for people who do not know the backstory of this song, it might all seem a bit confusing. In fact, and as was quite common with Kate Bush, this is a song inspired by film. There are a couple of 1980 interviews, where Kate Bush discussed the song. In the first, she explains how The Innocents was influential when it came to the creation of this song. The Infant Kiss could have easily been misconstrued. In the second interview, Bush was keen to dispel any misreading of the title and the lyrics:

“It was based on the film, The Innocents. I saw it years ago, when I was very young, and it scared me, and when films scare you as a kid, I think they really hang there. It’s a beautiful film, quite extraordinary. This governess is supposed to look after these children, a little boy and a girl, and they are actually possessed by the spirits of the people who were in the house before. And they keep appearing to the children. It’s really scary – as scary on some levels as the idea of The Exorcist, and that terrified me. The idea of this young girl, speaking and behaving like she did was very disturbing, very distorted. But I quite like that song.

Radio Programme, Paul Gambaccini, 30 December 1980

The thing that worries me is the way people have started interpreting that song. They love the long word–paedophilia. It’s not about that at all. It’s not the woman actually fancying the young kid. It’s the woman being attracted by a man inside the child. It just worries me that there were some people catching on to the idea of there being paedophilia, rather than just a distortion of a situation where there’s a perfectly normal, innocent boy with the spirit of a man inside, who’s extremely experienced and lusty. The woman can’t cope with the distortion. She can see that there’s some energy in the child that is not normal, but she can’t place it. Yet she has a very pure maternal love for the child, and it’s only little things like when she goes to give him a kiss at night, that she realizes there is a distortion, and it’s really freaking her out. She doesn’t fancy little boys, she’s got a normal, straight sexual life, yet this thing is happening to her. I really like the distortedness of the situation.

Kris Needs, ‘Fire In The Bush’. Zigzag (UK), 1980”.

There is that feeling of taboo around a track like this. People jumping to wrong conclusions. However, The Infant Kiss is one of Kate Bush’s most beautiful and interesting tracks. I love her vocal performance on it. A mix of confusion, fear, desire and caution. She produced Never for Ever with Jon Kelly, so Bush would have had a lot of say in regards to how The Infant Kiss sounded. What I love about The Infant Kiss is the musicians she played with. Unlike many other song where there is a familiar crew, this was a bit less familiar. Well, Alan Murphy on electric guitar is no shock! However, Adam Sceaping played the viol and Jo Sceaping. They arranged strings. The lyrics, “There’s a man behind those eyes/I catch him when I’m bending/Ooh, how he frightens me/When they whisper privately/(“Don’t Let Go!”)/Windy-wailey blows me/Words of caress on their lips/That speak of adult love” put you inside the mind and psyche of the heroine. The fact Kate Bush watched The Innocents and then connected it with a song that breed up. Only an artist like her could do that! Although there was no official music video, Chris Williams, an American fan of Kate Bush, made one. She saw the video and told him that the scenes from The Innocents that he included were the exact ones in her head when she was creating the song! I will include it in here, but a French version of the song, Un Baiser d’Enfant, was released. Un Baiser d’Enfant has French lyrics by François Cahan. Recorded in one day by Kate Bush, Del Palmer and Paul Hardiman on 16th October, 1982, it was released as the B-side of Ne T’enfuis Pas and on the Canadian/U.S. mini-L.P., Kate Bush.

I will round up soon. However, I want to come to an article from Dreams of Orgonon from 2020. It is clear that, whilst The Infant Kiss is extraordinary and one of the most original tracks produced at that time, it will always be the victim of misinterpretation. A shame that such a beautiful song that provokes genuine discussion will never be played:

“The inaugural track of the album’s rear-guard, “The Infant Kiss,” is in some ways its most conventional, as it fits squarely into the “Wuthering Heights” and ”Hammer Horror” mold of baroque piano songs with intricate relationships to texts featuring psychologically unstable protagonists (once again, Bush’s source material is cinematic — the BBC’s 1967 Wuthering Heights serial is a greater influence on Bush’s song than Brontë’s novel). Yet “The Infant Kiss” drifts more than the rock inclinations of those two tracks would allow them to go, with its apprehensive minor-key piano machinations providing the song’s musical backbone (“The Infant Kiss” is only tenuously in D# minor — it starts with the III chord [F#] and often returns to the VII chord [C#], but inverts the key by playing the VI as B minor, and even forces in F# minor). pensively underlined by stalwart Alan Murphy’s electric guitar and the string accompaniment (viol and lirone) of brothers Adam and Jo Sceaping, sounding rather like a 1950s’ horror film’s soundtrack. Bush’s vocal is a triumph of her singing career, as she lifts her voice to a pointed F#5 (“noo-OO con-TROL,” a character description and virtually a self-assessment). Bush’s vocal shifts from eerie to spectral; as her songwriting slowly removes the lines between internal processing and external reality, Bush pushes her voice towards pitches of fear and nausea. Utilizing the higher end of her range, Bush’s vocal for “The Infant Kiss” is throaty, and she sounds like she’s choking her cries of “I cannot sit and let/something happen I’ll regret” and “I only want to touch.”

This source material is enough to make “The Infant Kiss” one of Bush’s most difficult songs. It’s by no means an endorsement of pedophilia (nor specifically about it — Bush’s comments about wanting to strike the child or being terrified of the child suggest more pathologizing and narcissistic manipulation than sexual attraction), but it fundamentally centers an adult woman’s obsession with a prepubescent boy. “What is this?/an infant kiss/that sends my body tingling” has clear implications. Instead of a man with a child in his eyes, this boy has “a man behind those eyes.” The song doesn’t treat this as a positive point — it views it as a source of disorienting horror (albeit more for the voyeur than the child, whose perspective is absent). In interviews, Bush expounded on the way in which “the whole idea of looking at a little innocent boy and that distortion” was “absolutely terrifying.” Her fixation on the disunity between mind and external situation has gone beyond herself – it now applies to other people. The song lacks any element of sexual abuse (although not physical abuse, i.e. “I want to smack but I hold back”), but its narrative of an incipient narcissist’s fixation on adolescence and obsession with a child is as unsettling as Bush gets. Never for Ever contains sundry portraits of failed motherhood, of which “The Infant Kiss” is the most spectral. Of course the boy is a ghost. So is every child who gets raised by a narcissist.

Even the healthiest relationships are complicated in many ways, and relationships’ healthier aspects often illuminate points of stress. Even wanting to help someone can be fundamentally harmful if one’s intentions are in the wrong place. Bush sees that with perfect clarity: a child possessed by a ghost is far less frightening than the mind of a person who perceives that”.

One of the best and also most complicated songs in Kate Bush’s cannon, I wonder if the English original of the song can ever be played or discussed. If Bush re-recorded it in French perhaps to reapproach the song that plagued her to a degree, there is no denying the intent behind the song. That film connection to The Innocents. I did feel that the haunting The Infant Kiss…

DESERVED discussion and investigation.

FEATURE: The Digital Mixtape: Fleetwood Mac’s John McVie at Eighty

FEATURE:

 

 

The Digital Mixtape

Fleetwood Mac’s John McVie at Eighty

__________

I don’t think…

IN THIS PHOTO: John McVie (back centre) with Fleetwood Mac in 1975/PHOTO CREDIT: Polaris

I have ever spotlighted John McVie before. I have written about Fleetwood Mac quite a lot. Whether that is around one of their albums or a fellow members, such as Stevie Nicks, I have not focused on their incredible bass player. Whilst the band might be retired and I don’t think we will see them play together again, there is no denying the impact McVie made on the band and their sound. Playing with Fleetwood Mac since 1967, the band is named after their drummer, Mick Fleetwood, and John McVie – with ‘Mc’ being extended to ‘Mac’. Even though McVie played with other artists, people know him best for his work with Fleetwood Mac. On 26th November, he turns eighty. I hope there will be celebration aplenty! He is an amazing bass player and has provided some of Fleetwood Mac’s best lines. Maybe his bass work on The Chain (from 1977’s Rumours) is his most-famed performance. I am going to end with a mixtape showcasing his bass work with Fleetwood Mac. Before then, here is a fulsome biography from AllMusic:

"As the bassist for Fleetwood Mac -- and, indeed, providing the "Mac" in that group name -- John McVie may be the most circumspect, self-effacing rock musician ever to achieve anything like superstar status. This fact could be explained when one recognizes that he never set out to be a rock musician, or a superstar. Among bassists whose names are (or have been) household words, he's positively a shrinking violet next to figures such as John Entwistle, Paul McCartney, Jack Bruce, John Paul Jones, Sting, et al., all the while appearing on just about as many records as any of them (save McCartney) that are in people's collections.

John Graham McVie was born in Ealing, West London, in 1945, and expressed an interest in music from childhood, when he took up the trumpet. He reached his teens amid the British skiffle boom and the first serious rumblings of home-grown rock & roll, and decided to switch to the guitar. But he saw that everyone was taking up the guitar, seeking to emulate either Lonnie Donegan or Hank Marvin and Bruce Welch of the Shadows; he also was inclined to play along to their work on the Shadows' records. And so, in a profoundly important moment, he chose to learn the bass instead, and to use the Shadows' original four-string player, Jet Harris, as his model. His father contributed to the choice by buying him a Fender bass, then a very expensive purchase in England. His listening included the work of Willie Dixon and Charles Mingus, though upright bass doesn't ever seem to have figured large in McVie's own career. Jazz and blues loomed large in his thinking, though he did find one rock player after Harris whose work intrigued him, Paul McCartney.

McVie's first band was the Krewsaders, comprised of friends he knew from Ealing, playing local dances and weddings. He was struggling along, paying his dues at local gigs, and planning to join the civil service as a tax inspector, when lightning of a kind struck. McVie had a friend, Cliff Barton, who was playing with the Cyril Davies All-Stars, one of the top British blues bands working in London at the time, and who was offered the chance to join a fledgling band called the Bluesbreakers, organized and led by John Mayall. Barton wasn't interested, but he told Mayall that he should look up the then 17-year-old McVie, who joined the Bluesbreakers in January of 1963. From that modest beginning (a ten-shilling payday for his first gig, at a pub, according to one interview), he stayed with the band for years, and was there when Mayall and company became important enough to rate a recording contract with Decca -- while McVie was working as a tax inspector during the daytime.

McVie was good enough to last, despite a propensity for drinking that grew more severe as time went on, and resulted in periodic dismissals and rehirings. He was there for the tenure of Eric Clapton on lead guitar, and for his successor, Peter Green. And he found a new partner in the rhythm section in 1967 with the addition of drummer Mick Fleetwood, a veteran of bands such as Peter B's Looners, and to a lot of connoisseurs, that band -- Mayall, Green, McVie, and Fleetwood -- was the best lineup the Bluesbreakers ever fielded. Green's tenure with the band was difficult, owing in part to his own aspirations and also to the dominant personality of Mayall, who exerted his authority as leader without compunction. Green decided to strike out on his own after work on the album A Hard Road, and wanted to take Fleetwood and McVie with him. Fleetwood went along, but McVie, who had been with Mayall far longer than the others, didn't want to betray his mentor/benefactor and also saw the new band as a risk; blues bands were springing up all over London, while the audience seemed to be splintering amid the burgeoning psychedelic movement, and there was this outfit called Cream that seemed to be getting most of the press and sales -- even the decision to call the proposed band Fleetwood Mac (or Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac), thus giving each member a stake in the name, couldn't get McVie dislodged from the Bluesbreakers.

In one of the luckiest gestures of friendship and good will that one is likely to find in music of that era, Green and Fleetwood agreed to "hold" the bassist slot open for McVie, and engaged Bob Brunning as their temporary bassist. Finally, in the early fall of 1967, McVie jumped ship -- Mayall had been changing the band amid the shifting personnel, and came out with something that was more jazz than blues, in McVie's view, and jazzier than he wanted to be. McVie's arrival enabled Fleetwood Mac to become everything that Green saw in its potential and more -- they went on, even in the blues years, to regularly reach the uppermost levels of the charts in England, and were getting reviews second only to Cream (and sometimes not second) among blues outfits. A recording contract with Blue Horizon made that company's fortune and yielded sales high enough to get the group signed to Reprise Records (part of Warner Bros. Records) following its second album.

That record included some piano played by Christine Perfect -- the lead singer of a Blue Horizon act called Chicken Shack -- who McVie first met at the Windsor Jazz Festival, where both groups were performing, and they were married less than six months later in August of 1968. Fleetwood Mac added guitarists Jeremy Spencer and Danny Kirwan to their lineup and eventually Christine McVie would formally join as well, and take over a lot of the lead vocals. Green, Spencer, and Kirwan all eventually departed under the weight of various personal and psychological stresses, and Bob Welch passed through as well, and all the while Fleetwood and the McVies soldiered on, releasing albums that sold in the hundreds of thousands over time, and building a substantial (if not huge) audience in America. McVie's playing on those albums was exceptionally fine -- anyone who wants to hear some of the most beautifully melodic pop/rock bass work ever should give a fresh listen to Penguin (1973), one of the classics of what proved to be the "bubbling under" years for the band. They were successful enough, and sufficiently well known as a top-flight blues band in England, to yield a string of notorious impersonator bands, which resulted in lawsuits and Fleetwood and McVie eventually getting legal possession of the Fleetwood Mac name.

Amid all of this activity, McVie still struggled with his chronic alcoholism, which rose and fell but never quite disappeared. Eventually, it led to the breakup of the McVies' marriage, but not before the group added another couple -- Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks -- to its lineup and ascended to a level of mega-pop stardom rivaled only by the likes of the Beatles. The self-titled Fleetwood Mac album turned McVie into a superstar, along with the rest of the band, while its follow-up, Rumours, recorded as his marriage was disintegrating, only solidified the group's newfound status, exceeding the earlier album's sales. By the time sales began to die down from that album, McVie was married a second time. His career has continued apace since then, he and Fleetwood regarded as one of the best rhythm sections in the history of rock music, and essentially writing their own ticket in terms of recordings. He has reportedly cleaned himself up of drug and alcohol dependencies, and found time to cut his first-ever solo project, John McVie's Gotta Band with Lola Thomas, on which he even made a rare appearance on backing vocals.

Despite the band's inevitable celebrity status and the resulting press coverage, McVie has managed to keep a lot of his private life relatively private. McVie's best spokesman, apart from himself in the occasional interviews he gives, is his music, which now comprises a 44-year legacy and counting. In addition to his work with the band that carries his name, he has never been averse to working with former associates including his ex-wife Christine, former mentor Mayall, and longtime friends such as the late Warren Zevon, and he and Fleetwood have also lent their talents and celebrity to figures who they respect and admire, such as Grass Roots bassist/lead singer Rob Grill”.

I think John McVie is one of the most important artists alive, yet does not get talked about as much as other legends. His eightieth birthday on 26th November should, I hope, shine a light on the role he played in Fleetwood Mac! Occasionally as a songwriter, but predominantly and prominently as their incredible bass player, we may see him portrayed some day on the screen. I have always said how we need a Fleetwood Mac biopic or film that looks at them around the Rumours era. I guess the stage play, Stereophonic, is loosely based around Fleetwood Mac, though it would be nice to see an authorised and official biopic. For now, I shall end with a playlist containing some amazing John McVie bass work. As you will hear, he really is…

A truly awesome talent.

FEATURE: A Brilliant and Much Needed Collaboration with Saffron: Why FKA twigs’ Initiative Is a Hugely Important Step Forward

FEATURE:

 

 

A Brilliant and Much Needed Collaboration with Saffron

IN THIS PHOTO: FKA twigs is launching a new educational grant to get more women into music tech roles, in partnership with non-profit organisation, Saffron/PHOTO CREDIT: Jordan Hemingway

Why FKA twigs’ Initiative Is a Hugely Important Step Forward

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ONE of the most egregious…

IN THIS PHOTO: Catherine Marks in an award-winning producer and engineer who has worked with the likes of boygenius. However, she is one of very few women working in professional studios

aspects of the music industry is how it is left to women in music to make life better for themselves. Creating their own opportunities and tackling a lack of progression. From fighting to be heard on festival line-ups to changing the way modern studios are dominated by men, there is little support from men. Very few men in the industry speaking out and showing their allyship. It would have been nice to have seen more of this before. Men in the industry pledging to affect change. However, the brilliant FKA twigs has announced she is working with a non-profit organisation to address the imbalance when it comes to tech jobs and roles. How young women are very much in the minority. I have some thoughts on it. However, The Forty-Five shared this:

“FKA twigs has announced a new educational grant to get more women into music tech roles, in partnership with non-profit organisation Saffron. The news came as the artist collected her Inspirational Artist award at the Music Week Women In Music Awards in London on Friday – and used her speech to deliver a fierce critique of the industry’s gender imbalance.

Alongside being a creative polymath, Twigs has long been an advocate for change. She hopes the new grant will help support women who are interested in “working at the backbone of the industry – techs, engineers, all of the roles I hope to see more women earning and being successful at in the future”.

Saffron provides hands-on opportunities for women and non-binary people to access music production and sound engineering development through short courses, workshops, mentoring and industry connections. Their vision is a creative landscape where all underrepresented artists can harness technology for full self-expression, disrupting power structures and shaping culture.

Twigs’ speech didn’t shy away from calling out the sexism she’s faced throughout her career.

“When I was a little girl, I would daydream about one day being a music artist, and I would doubt myself,” she said. “I’ve been releasing music now for over 10 years, and to my surprise, those things are actually the easy part. The hard part of being a female singer and producer artist – the part I have found the most challenging – is dealing with men.”

She spoke candidly about navigating “a male-dominated industry rife with unwanted sexual advances and fragile egos,” recalling times she’s had to fight to retrieve her own stems from male producers whose “pride had been bruised.”

“These experiences seeded doubt in me,” she said. “When I’ve told males who are being paid off the back of my talent that I feel unsafe, and I’m told to ‘take the situation with a pinch of salt’, that I ‘need these people for my career’, so I should just ‘play the game back’… No doubt many women in music have had to navigate these situations and obstacles before they even get to lay a finger on a keyboard or touch a computer mouse.”

“If we don’t use our voices collectively to raise these concerns,” she continued, “how do we expect the circumstances to be any different for the next generation of women?”

Her message was backed by stark statistics.

“In the two decades I’ve been in the studio, aside from the sessions where it’s been at my request, I’ve only worked with one female engineer. I’ve met one female head of a label, and no female producers have ever accidentally joined any of my studio sessions. That’s despicable — but not surprising — considering fewer than 5% of professionals in music production are women, and less than 1% of those are women of colour.”

“I wish when I started out, I could have had more women around me — engineers, techs, managers, executives — more support, more advice, more people to hold those accountable who made me feel uncomfortable. Then maybe I wouldn’t have had to navigate so much unnecessary noise.”

Still, she made a point of gratitude too.

“There have been so many incredible men who have supported me with my art behind the scenes, and I’m so grateful to you. I just want more diversity and equal opportunity so that young females can be making it in the music industry across all roles and concentrating on what we’re supposed to be doing — which is making art.”

Next month, Twigs releases ‘Eusexua: Afterglow’, a new body of work that continues the visceral, dance-driven world she began with the Mercury-prize nominated ‘Eusexua’ earlier this year. A reminder, if one were needed, that her power extends far beyond performance – to changing the structures behind it”.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Saffron (@saffronrecords)

FKA twigs’ words are not unique to her. In terms of women who have faced sexism and having doors closed in their faces. Being in studios and surrounded by men and not seeing many women in tech roles. It is industry bias and a lack of incentive from men to balance things. How, if they feel things are not broken, then they will not be fixed. I am interested to see how her work with Saffron develops and what form it takes. Saffron shared their support and appreciation. They are a record label but also provide tech courses and artist development. A growing community that provides these essential workshops, check out the brilliant work they do. Even though we are seeing tiny steps forward when it comes to tackling inequality and sexism in various corners in the industry, there are others where little or no movement has happened. I have saluted and discussed brilliant women in studios such as producer and engineer, Catherine Marks. There are brilliant women in studios that are still in the minority. It extends beyond that to all tech roles. I still think that women in music are reserved to music itself. When we think of the very best D.J.s, managers, P.R. representatives, executives, tech, engineers and beyond, it is very much men that are mentioned. Even though many women-self produce albums, think of the professional studios and production credits. Most producers men. Even more so when it comes to engineers. FKA twigs is one of many artists whose experiences have led her to fight and call for change. Even if many men are supportive, women coming into music need to see more women around them.

That sense of familiarity and inspiration. If studios, tech roles, boardrooms and all corners of music are male-dominated, then it does not seem like an industry that reflects them and it made for them. The sexism and misogyny that still runs rife through music. Going ahead, I would love to see more men in the industry using their time and name to call for equality and more opportunities for women. Making it easier for women to be more visible and active in roles geared for men. The culture needs to change. FKA twigs’ grant initiative and her work with Saffron will definitely affect movement and change. There needs to be more action and cooperation. It is so angering and disheartening to see these stats when it comes to tech roles and production. I know for a fact how man incredible women work as tour crew and lighting engineers. These incredible women who manage artists and work in P.R. Terrific producers and engineers. The truth is that their voices are not as amplified as their male colleagues. Things have to change. The Women in Music Awards 2025 showcased some incredible talent and truly inspiring women. It should give a kick to the industry. That these brilliant women, whilst in the minority, are being celebrated for a reason. That artists like FKA twigs do not want to see an industry that is so imbalanced and male-heavy when it comes to technical roles. With women dominating music in terms of the best albums released, we need to see more women in these roles where they are still underrepresented. Whilst FKA twigs ended her Women In Music Awards 2025 speech with some gratitude to men who helped her, these words stuck out, with regards to seeing so few women in tech roles and around her when she was coming through: “Then maybe I wouldn’t have had to navigate so much unnecessary noise”. That struggle and experience that she and so many of her peers have faced. It makes her upcoming work with Saffron…

SO important.

FEATURE: Modern-Day Queens: Leigh-Anne

FEATURE:

 

 

Modern-Day Queens

PHOTO CREDIT: Derek Bremner for NME

Leigh-Anne

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THE Pop scene right now…

is so exceptional and varied. In terms of the absolute best out there, Leigh-Anne is near the top of the pack. The past couple of years have seen her put out some incredible singles. Her debut album, My Ego Told Me To, will be released on 20th February. That is going to be among the most anticipated albums of 2026. Her Little Mix bandmate JADE released her debut album, THAT’S SHOWBIZ BABY, in September. Also in September, Perrie Edwards, as Perrie, released her eponymous debut album. I know there will be a lot of analysis of the three members’ albums. It is not competition at all. Instead, it is three members of a hugely successful girl group presenting their solo debut albums. I know that Little Mix will come together for something in the future but, for now, we are seeing three amazing artists deliver remarkable albums. Leigh-Anne’s is going to be one to get. Prior to that, I did want to highlight this amazing artist. Someone who is among the true heavyweights of modern-day Pop. I am sharing this after 23rd October, but there was this pre-release option where you could get various bundles and options for My Ego Told Me To. Including a cassette on its own and a vinyl, cassette and C.D. bundle, there was this choice for fans. Great value too. Actually, the options are still available, though that date cut-off gave pre-sale access to Leigh-Anne's upcoming tour. I am keen to get to some fairly recent interviews with Leigh-Anne. One of the most remarkable artists we have in our midst, this is someone who is already influencing other artists coming through. Before getting to an interview from last year, I want to start with a recent article from NME, who gave details about Leigh-Anne’s debut album and upcoming tour:

“Former Little Mix member Leigh-Anne announced her debut album ‘My Ego Told Me To’ and a UK and Europe tour. Find all the details below.

The album, which will be her first outside of Little Mix, will be released on February 20, and is available to pre-order here.

A new single, ‘Dead And Gone,’ will come out this Friday (October 17), following on from ‘Been A Minute‘ and ‘Burning Up’, the latter of which came out back in August and drew inspiration from her Caribbean heritage.

Speaking about the album, Leigh-Anne said: “This album is the truest representation of me as an artist. Versatile, rooted in reggae and my heritage, but stamped with pop. It’s personal and impossible to box in.

“I wanted it to feel authentic, blending the genres I love with a sound that’s distinctly mine. It’s also a statement: standing by my art and doing it my way,” she continued. “These are songs I’ll be proud of in five, ten years, because they reflect exactly where I was.

“You’ll hear my world in it, my daughters, my marriage, my fight for power, and the moment I embraced my fire side and said: no more. This is my show now.”

Alongside news of her album, Leigh-Anne has also announced the ‘My Ego Told Me To Tour’, which will include dates in the UK, Ireland and Europe.

The shows kick off in Dublin on April 6, before she makes stops in Glasgow, Manchester, Bristol, London, Paris and Amsterdam. She’ll then wrap things up in Berlin later that month.

Tickets go on sale on October 24, and will be available here. Ahead of that, an artist presale will kick off on October 23, which you can gain access to by pre-ordering the album here”.

There was a lot of excitement and a bit of shock when Leigh-Anne announced her solo career. In the sense many felt this signalled the end of Little Mix. That she was leaving for good. Speaking with DORK in June of last year, we discover how Leigh-Anne was stepping out on her own for this solo venture of self-discovery. Stripping layers away to reveal the truest form of herself. Although quite scary to go out solo, it is clear that Leigh-Anne had a lot to say as an independent artist. She could be more authentic as a sole artist rather than being part of a group:

“Thanks to the success of Little Mix and the devotion they inspired from fans worldwide, Leigh-Anne knows she’s not exactly starting her solo career from scratch, “but I am essentially a new artist who is at the start of building something,” she offers. “I’m still growing, I’m still finding my feet, and I’m still experimenting, all of which is normal for a new project.” She goes on to say she’s still working on her debut album. “I definitely feel like it’s there, and I’m excited for it to finally come out. The pressure has been taken off a little bit now, though, and I feel a lot more comfortable about it.”

Part of that comfort has come from blocking out social media noise. “It’s easy to get sucked into worrying about what other people think I should be doing or achieving, especially because Little Mix were so huge. There are obviously going to be expectations, but I’m just really focused on doing my own thing, which is putting out music that I think is brilliant,”

“I absolutely loved what we did in the group, but what I’m doing right now is completely different,” she says. If it wasn’t different, what would be the point of leaving the safety of the group in the first place?

After big, pop-infused songs like ‘Don’t Say Love’ and ‘My Love’, that upcoming body of work sees Leigh-Anne shimmy away from polished spectacle and lean into creating something more intimate. “It’s definitely the most raw I’ve been,” she explains. “Those early singles and the massive videos were such amazing moments, but this record is me stripping some of those layers away and just being open about my story. It’s scary, but I hope it allows people to come into my world more.”

PHOTO CREDIT: Lou Jasmine, Adama Jalloh

When she first started writing music for her solo career, Leigh-Anne wanted to explore all the different things she was experiencing – being a new mother, leaving the band, stepping into her power – but she kept coming back to her relationship with her husband, Andre Gray.

“I really do lead with love,” she says. “If I’m hurt in love, or if I’m happy in love, that really does affect me. And at the beginning of my relationship with Andre, he put me through some crap where I was left hurt and didn’t know if we were going to make it. At the same time, I had to pretend everything was ok,” she continues. She didn’t feel like she could talk about it with the rest of Little Mix despite their tight bond, and those feelings were left unexplored. “I just never really healed from it,” says Leigh-Anne. “When I went into the studio, I felt like I needed to get it off my chest, and it’s been a healing process.”

The entirety of Leigh-Anne’s upcoming record is about her relationship with her husband. “There have been sad times, sexy times and happy times, so it’s definitely a journey of emotions,” she explains.

The first chapter of the currently-unannounced #NHF story is ‘Stealing Love’, a beautiful, tightly-wound track about not receiving the love you deserve in a relationship, while the second is ‘Forbidden Fruit’. “I never really wanted to talk about how I met my husband because it was forbidden fruit,” says Leigh-Anne. “We were both in situations, but we genuinely couldn’t deny the love that we had for each other.” As she sings in the song, “Broke a couple hearts just to be forever”.

“I don’t really want to get too into it because it still feels wrong. When I talk about it, I still feel icky,” she continues. “But at the same time, love had to come first.”

“The way that I’m attacking this solo era is by wanting to be as honest as I can,” says Leigh-Anne. But that’s also a daunting prospect, considering how many people are listening. “Obviously, people don’t know this stuff,” she explains. “People assume things are always great, especially because you only post the good bits on social media. But let’s face it, nothing is ever perfect. It’s been really freeing to embrace that.”

She hopes people can find hope in her raw, vulnerable storytelling. “There are so many songs about heartbreak and breakups, but this story is about finding a way through. It’s about making things work. It would have been really easy for me to walk away from that relationship, but now we’re married, and we have our twins. All of that came from fighting for each other.” It’s a far cry from the colourful, bright and happy world of Little Mix, but it’s not a complete departure. “We always wanted to inspire people, and I’ve definitely taken that with me into my solo music,” Leigh-Anne adds. “It’s so important to spread a joyful message”.

In July, Rolling Stone spent time with Leigh-Anne. The start of a bold and thrilling new era, Been a Minute was released into the world. She was asked about its incredible music video. Leigh-Anne also shared some behind-the-scenes images from the music video. Since then, we have had a further few singles from Leigh-Anne, including one of the year’s best in Burning Up:

“This is your first release as an independent artist – what’s the biggest lesson you’ve learnt so far?

To always trust my gut, I don’t think it’s failed me once. Always stay true to myself and what’s authentic to me. And just enjoy and savour every moment and every win no matter big or small.

You’ve overseen the whole creative direction for this music video. Tell us about the concept and what’s it been like fine tuning and creating your own vision?

It’s been the most freeing experience watching my vision come to life. For the ‘Been a Minute’ music video I wanted to create a space where everyone feels like they can be themselves unapologetically. It’s giving afterparty carnival vibes, everyone’s sweaty, there’s zero fucks given and we’re all living life. I wanted to capture the essence of the song, and to me that’s all about freedom and fun. I have an amazing team around me who just get it. Feeling grateful to have found my tribe.

How was it working with director Femi Lade?

I think it was one of the easiest shoots I’ve ever done, it was such a smooth process. Femi absolutely smashed it, we really clicked and brought our vision to life.

PHOTO CREDIT: Lucy and Lydia

There’s a lot of strong choreography throughout the video – how did you decide on this movement?

I love a bit of choreo so had to give a little taste of what’s to come! I love how this movement feels a bit more loose and free. Literally like you and your girls have taken over the dance floor and living your best life!

The music video captures the essence of carnival and has a very warm palette. How important was that to portray?

The warm palette and energy of the video were really intentional. I wanted it to feel rich, vibrant, and alive. It was about paying homage to heritage, not just in a visual sense but in spirit too. My culture is colourful, it’s expressive, it’s bold and I wanted all of that to bleed through. Now that I’m in control of my artistry, I can really bring those influences to the forefront unapologetically. This era is about embracing all parts of me, and I can’t wait to show more of what I’ve been working on.

The video takes a turn towards the end as we see a doppelgänger dressed in red take your place. Who are they and what do they represent?

There’s a shift happening, and that moment at the end is a small glimpse into something bigger. I don’t want to say too much yet, but everything you’re seeing has a purpose. The story has only just started…you’ll have to wait and see how it all unfolds.

Are there any details in the video that only you would notice?

I had a day to learn the choreo! But I’m really hoping the fans don’t notice that!

What can fans expect in this new era of control and independence from you?

Everything done on my terms, taking more risks, worrying less about what people think and other people’s expectations of me. We’re coming to disrupt. No more miss nice girl…”.

Leigh-Anne played at Reading Festival in August. Backstage, NME chatted with this wonderful artist. Someone who is a natural festival act. Someone who could well headline soon enough. Leigh-Anne spoke about this new period of music for her and what the future of Little Mix is. It is clear that, alongside her esteemed sisters in Little Mix, Leigh-Anne is forging this wonderful Pop sound and legacy. She will continue to build and grow as an artist. However, the music she is releasing now is tremendous:

“You’ve recently released two new singles ‘Burning Up’ and ‘Been A Minute’. Is this the start of a new era?

“It is 100 per cent the start of a new era. I had to take a bit of time to step back – and I’m newly independent now as well – so I was going through that process. I needed to find my tribe. People say ‘Have a tribe around you that sees your vision, otherwise how can you really get to where you wanna go?’ I finally get that, and I’m trusting myself and leading everything myself. I feel great.”

We’ve seen you grow as an artist from your beginnings in Little Mix. How has your sound evolved over that time?

“At the beginning of my solo career, I felt like I knew what I wanted, but there was too much noise around it. There was too much politics, like ‘It has to sound a bit more like this’, and I couldn’t have the real creative control to do what I wanted. So I think it’s evolved by literally just taking the reins myself and saying, ‘No, I’m doing it my way’ and taking the jump to go independent.

Is there anything that you’ve taken from your time starting out in the girl group that you’re still implementing now, or is it two separate worlds for you?

“I definitely feel like I learned everything in Little Mix, so everything I do now [stems] from that. Probably, the fact that I always want to put on a show. In Little Mix, we turned it out every time. I’ve still got that in me – always wanting to give everything I can to have the best show possible. That’s the main thing, the performance level and striving to be even better.”

You’ve said that this isn’t the end for the group, it’s just a hiatus. Do you think all of your respective solo projects and individual sounds could shape the way that we see Little Mix when it makes a comeback?

“I’ve been thinking about this, because we have all gone off and done our own things, found our own sounds, and we are in completely different lanes — which is amazing. I have been wondering though, when we eventually come back, what will that sound like? That’s going to be an exciting thing… but at the same time, Little Mix is Little Mix, and part of that is wanting to deliver what people love. I have to wait and see”.

I am ending with DORK again. Another interview around her Reading performance, Leigh-Anne slayed when she played. However, very few Pop acts are invited to play at Reading & Leeds. It is still very much reserved for ‘heavier’ acts. A degree of elitism, rigidity and misogyny, certainly when it comes to its headliners. I hope that powerful and phalangeal artists like Leigh-Anne can bring about a change. It is high time that major festivals work up and released how important women in Pop are. I know many festivals book Pop artists, though I feel other ignore them out of principle:

“The first taste of the new chapter was the smirking comeback track ‘Been A Minute’, which was released in July. “It’s such a summer banger, I had to release it,” explains Leigh-Anne. “It really is just the beginning, though. I have so much to say and want to take the fans on a journey.”

She doesn’t want to give too much away (“I’m excited to keep unveiling”) but does say the next project is all about “the journey of discovering my power, owning it and standing up for myself.” She’s also excited to challenge expectations. “People think Leigh-Anne is the emotional, sensitive mum… and I am, but there’s a different side to me as well.”

A lot of this next project is inspired by playing live. “With ‘No Hard Feelings’, I wanted to explore deep things like my relationship with my husband and heartache. The headline tour for that record was amazing, but doing these festivals with ‘Been A Minute’ and ‘Burning Up’, the energy has just been electric. It’s been such a party, it’s reminded me what I enjoy – I love to dance, I love to put on a show. There’s space for those ballads, but I want to make sure people have a great time.”

PHOTO CREDIT: Frances Beach

During her feel-good set at Reading Festival, Leigh-Anne took a moment to encourage the crowd to “to sing for love, to stand for love and to spread the love, in a world that needs it so bad right now,” before a glorious cover of Bob Marley’s ‘You Could Be Love’. “How could you ignore what’s going on right now because the world is a fucking scary place,” she says of her decision to promote love during a time when hate is on the rise. “The injustices, oppression and everything else that’s happening right now is fucked, quite frankly. I just wanted to talk about the importance of spreading love, and Bob Marley’s ‘You Could Be Loved’ is one of those beautiful songs that just brings people together.”

She also performed a trio of Little Mix songs – ‘Touch’, ‘Power’ and ‘Sweet Melody’. “All those songs are important to me, but they’re also bangers, so they slotted into the set nicely.” As much as Leigh-Anne is starting a new solo chapter, she’s got no intention of leaving her past behind. “I wouldn’t be where I am without Little Mix. Everything I’ve ever learned and everything that I am is because of the group. What we’ve done is unbelievable, and I’m only really just processing that now. There’s just this pride, and I think that’ll be something I always bring to my shows.”

Despite the shadow cast by being a member of one of the world’s most successful girl groups, Leigh-Anne says she doesn’t care about the expectations around her solo project. “It took a while to retrain my brain, but I now know I don’t have to prove anything to anyone,” she grins. “I’m done with thinking like I do. I’ve been doing this for more than 12 years. Now, I just want to do it with no inhibitions”.

I am going to wrap up. Leigh-Anne is about to embark on the busiest time in her solo career. With a debut album out in February and a tour coming, she will make this major step. One where she is independent of Little Mix. Not that she wants to cut free from them, though you can hear the realest and most potent form of Leigh-Anne in her solo material. A queen of modern music, I wanted to salute…

THE awe-inspiring Leigh-Anne.

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Follow Leigh-Anne

Official:

https://www.leigh-anneofficial.com/

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/leighannepinnock/

TikTok:

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

Twitter:

https://x.com/LeighAnneMusic

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/artist/79QUtAVxGAAoiWNlqBz9iy?si=asYeqzRFScCECU0oKZjSXA

YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCt3aMDPD6lSUFcLgvg7Zcig

FEATURE: The Digital Mixtape: Tracks from the Best Albums of 2025 So Far

FEATURE:

 

 

The Digital Mixtape

IN THIS PHOTO: The Last Dinner Party/PHOTO CREDIT: Rachell Smith

Tracks from the Best Albums of 2025 So Far

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I wanted…

IN THIS PHOTO: The cover of Perfume Genius’s Glory

to look back on the very best albums of this year so far. I know that we are almost through 2025, and I will name my favourite albums in December. However, there have been some remarkable albums released so far and I am keen to combine songs from them. You would have heard most of the albums in the mixtape at the end of this feature. However, there might be some that you have not discovered. I am including a few of the albums that were shortlisted for the Mercury Prize this year. I think that 2025 has been one of the strongest years for music in a very long time. So many albums that will endure and be talked about a long time from now. I hope that you enjoy the mix of songs from the…

IN THIS PHOTO: The cover of Oklou’s choke enough

BEST albums of the year.

FEATURE: Groovelines: Missy "Misdemeanor" Elliott – Get Ur Freak On

FEATURE:

 

 

Groovelines

Missy "Misdemeanor" Elliott – Get Ur Freak On

__________

LAST month…

PHOTO CREDIT: The Gap via Getty Images/Getty Images

Rolling Stone published their list of the two-hundred-and-fifty best songs of this century so far. It is an interesting list, but I wanted to spend time with the song that topped that feature. It is Missy “Misdemeanour” Elliott’s Get Ur Freak On. You can see what they had to say about the song here:

“Missy Elliott dropped “Get Ur Freak On” just in time to rule the radio in the long, hot summer of 2001 — and nothing was ever the same. It was more than just the latest mind-bending Missy smash — it was a challenge, a dare, the sound of Miss E and Timbaland defying everyone else to keep up with the future or get left behind. The dynamic duo from Portsmouth, Virginia, were music’s most radically innovative team, ever since they flipped hip-hop upside down with their 1997 debut hit, “The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly).”

But “Get Ur Freak On” was one step beyond, riding a crazed space-bhangra beat. Timbaland warps a tabla hook into head-spinning Dirty South avant-funk, playing the six-note motif on the tumbi, a one-string Punjabi guitar, while the party people go off in Japanese and Hindi. Missy yells her epic “Hollaaaaa!,” commands all freaks to the dance floor, hocks a loogie, and boasts, “I know you dig the way I sw-sw-switch my style!” It was a nonstop freak manifesto that made the musical future sound limitless. And after more than two decades, “Get Ur Freak On” still sounds like the future — everything vibrant and inventive and cool about 21st-century pop is in here somewhere. Holla, forever. —R.S.”.

Released on 13th March, 2001, this classic was written and produced by Elliott and Timbaland for her acclaimed third studio album, Miss E... So Addictive (2001). What makes Get Ur Freak On so different and timeless is that the song utilises Bhangra elements. This is a music and dance form from the region of Punjab, India. Get Ur Freak On is this mix of Hip-Hop and Bhangra. Something that was not common at the time, it was a bit of  revolution. Last year, the BBC published an article that looked inside the making of a game-changing song. It definitely changed the career of Missy "Misdemeanour" Elliott:

“Switching things up had definitely been Elliott's intention. By then in her late 20s, she was already a savvy businesswoman, had founded her own offshoot (The Goldmind) from major label Elektra, and was conscious of the industry pressure surrounding her next move. There was also a sense that while Timbaland's distinctive productions were proving widely influential, they weren't yet getting their mainstream due.

In a 2001 Vibe feature (written by Marc Weingarten), Elliott explained that: "I wanted to do what everybody else is scared to do." She and Timbaland had actually created Get Ur Freak On as an impromptu late addition for what would be her third album Miss E… So Addictive; first, though, she intended to let the track "marinate in the clubs for a while, get a street buzz going". This buzz would blossom into a crossover storm; Get Ur Freak On channelled serious hip-hop caché, worldly flavours, and an instant, all-encompassing pop appeal, as Elliott insisted: "It could be about dancing, the bedroom, whatever. You're cleaning your house? Get your freak on!"

It's also impossible to separate the vivid music from its eye-popping visuals. Elliott had already established a reputation for outlandish videos directed by Hype Williams; the '90s had proved a creatively febrile, increasingly big-budget period for US hip-hop and R&B, but Elliott presented alternative, fuller-figured and fearlessly surreal statements. For Get Ur Freak On, she turned to a new collaborator, video director Dave Meyers, and together they conjured a murky-glamorous world that projected the avant-garde into the prime-time. Meyers told Fortune in 2019 about his initial connection with Elliott: "She reached out to take me to dinner and then took me to see Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. We just vibed about perspectives of the world and weird stuff and developed a trust… There are no limits with Missy. The crazier, the better. She tends to respond to interesting movement."

Reaching the mainstream

Get Ur Freak On's urgent dance moves were created by another of Elliott's regular collaborators, visionary choreographer Nadine "Hi-Hat" Ruffin. Elliott's dancers throw shapes in some kind of industrial underworld – crouched on concrete blocks, hanging upside down like bats. The video also spotlights an array of Elliott's established and emerging peers: Timbaland, Busta Rhymes, Eve, LL Cool J, Jah Rule, Nicole Wray. Elliott herself is both queenly and cartoonish: craning her head from her body; swinging from a chandelier; and in one memorably trippy, Matrix-like effect, spitting long-distance into a male dancer's mouth.

The track received international airplay, scoring Platinum success on both sides of the Atlantic. In the UK, Elliott was emerging as a cover star across publications that had rarely afforded such attention to hip-hop – although she had already been a mainstay in acclaimed street culture and music magazine Touch. "Get Ur Freak On was the song that really took Missy to the mainstream, although R&B fans already knew her from her earlier band Sista, and had the two albums prior to this," says Lawrence Lartey, former contributing editor of Touch, now creative director at Ravensbourne University. "I liked the track, though I did think that everyone was playing catch-up; they'd finally seen how good she is. And it immediately sounded and looked different in the national charts; this wasn't Oasis or S Club 7! It was the age of bling, but also a time where the mainstream was opening up to the offbeat in other acts like Outkast. It was also a precursor to the UK really projecting its own identity in hip-hop and R&B”.

Music Radar published a detailed feature about Get Ur Freak On. It is a song that almost didn’t happen. However, twenty-four years after it was released, it is has gone down as this groundbreaking work of genius. The Bhangra-sampling song is an enduring moment in music history. Small wonder that it was crowned the best song of this century by Rolling Stone. You can feel its influence in music that followed.

“Though instruments like these may not be unfamiliar to today’s listeners, when Timbaland dropped these into a mainstream, major-label hit, it was a groundbreaking decision, opening up the charts to a kaleidoscope of international sounds. “It felt like a watershed moment where, sonically, you feel like the world would never be the same again," DJ and broadcaster Nihal Arthanayake told the BBC last year.

"Certain sections of the press had leaned towards an esoteric orientalism when it came to Asian music," Arthanayake continues. "Then this guy [Timbaland] was African-American, and one of the biggest producers in the world, along with one of the most exciting rappers on the planet, and they incorporated the beats in a way that was commercially viable, not just exotic. It kind of gave Asian producers, and people who used Asian beats, a validation.”

Though the tumbi and tabla hail from Northern India, that’s not where Timbaland discovered Get Ur Freak On’s boundary-pushing sounds. According to WhoSampled, these were lifted from a slightly more pedestrian source: Spices of India, a sample pack from British company Zero-G.

Released in 1995, the library features a “selection of Bhangra rhythms, instruments and vocals”, among them Classic Tumbi Loop 03 and Tomi Tablas 07, two samples that Timbo chopped up, rearranged and pitch-shifted in Get Ur Freak On’s pioneering production.

It wasn’t only Get Ur Freak On’s instrumentation that pushed the envelope, but its melody, too. The song makes use of the Phrygian scale, a musical mode with roots in Ancient Greek music. Though it’s central to Middle Eastern, Indian classical and even flamenco music, the Phrygian mode doesn’t make frequent appearances in Western pop. (When it does, its colourful intervals are often employed to convey a vague sense of darkness or mystery.)

While Get Ur Freak On ultimately became by far the most popular cut from Miss E… So Addictive, the song very nearly didn’t happen. In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, Elliott revealed that the track arrived at the very end of the recording sessions for the project, when Timbaland believed they already had everything they needed. “I had completed my album, but I kept saying I didn’t feel like it was all the way complete. I felt like a song was missing,” Elliott recalled. “But Timbaland, he kept saying: ‘no, your album is dope. We’re done!’”

Visibly tired and ready to head home at the tail end of a studio session, Timbaland started “bamming” the keyboard, just “hitting anything”, Elliott says. “He was ready to go, and he felt like the album was done, but he hit something and I was like: ‘that’s it, right there.’ He was like, ‘what? What you talking ‘bout?’ I was like, ‘whatever that sound is that you just played’. He just went down the keyboard again and then he finally hit it. I was like: ‘that! That right there!”

Timbaland continued to protest, Elliott says, but eventually she persuaded him to pursue the idea. “He was like: ‘I don’t know why you’re saying this, because your album is done. Your album is hot.’ But I was like, ‘no, let’s work on that’,” she says.

Timbaland eventually relented, looping the tumbi melody with a basic kick pattern for Elliott to record some scratch vocals over. “He just put a kick and the sound in there, and I just went in the booth and did the record," she recalls. "Then he added all the other stuff later when the song was done.”

While we might have Timbaland to thank for Get Ur Freak On’s forward-looking production, it was Elliott’s ear for a hook – and her dogged determination – that brought the song into being. And whether or not you agree with Rolling Stone that Get Ur Freak On is the best piece of music that the past 25 years has produced, there’s no doubt that it’s a landmark release”.

Written and produced with Timbaland, Get Ur Freak On is the standout from the phenomenal Miss E... So Addictive. A chart success around the world, in the years since it was released, it has been named as one of the best songs ever. Multiple publications have hailed this song as the work of greatness that it is. I hope that this feature gives you more of an insight into Get Ur Freak On. A genius cut from Missy “Misdemeanour” Elliott. I remember when it came out in 2001. It was like nothing I had heard to that point. In the years since, I have lost none of my affection for the song. Rolling Stone naming it the century’s best song is…

FULLY deserved.

FEATURE: Spotlight: ALT BLK ERA

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

ALT BLK ERA

__________

IF you do get the chance to…

PHOTO CREDIT: Dean Chalkley

see the Nottingham duo of Nyrobi Beckett-Messam and Chaya Beckett-Messam, then I would thoroughly recommend it. They are known as ALT BLK ERA. One of the most exciting acts and sensational live propositions around, you can check live dates here. There are a lot of great interviews from this year. I am going to end with one from Music Week, where the duo won the New Artist prize at Music Week’s Women in Music Awards 2025. They have already been recognised by the MOBOs. Rave Immortal was released earlier in the year. I am surprised that the album did not get a Mercury Prise nomination. It has won a score of positive reviews. I shall end with one of them. I am going to start out with Kerrang! from February. They highlighted how the duo won awards and have taken to big stages before their debut album arrived. Also, they discussed “Nyrobi’s experiences of chronic illness, and why their sisterhood is stronger than ever”:

“Since that initial performance in skyscraping footwear, ALT BLK ERA have been on an upward trajectory. Aged just 17 and 20, they’ve already dominated stages at Glastonbury, Download and beyond, and have just dropped their debut album Rave Immortal, which hit Number One on the UK Rock & Metal chart. Rather than being riddled with adolescent angst, however, Nyrobi reveals the record “is about the journey of my disability and coming to terms with it.”

Opening track Straight To Heart deals with “the feelings of isolation that I felt when I first became disabled and noticed that my friends had moved on and left me”, the singer explains, adding that the song, “is about being abandoned”.

Usually songwriting late into the night (as that’s when Nyrobi is most active), putting pen to paper proved to be quite the cathartic experience with lines like, ‘Save me, they left me in the dark / Wasting away under the stars.’

But putting the song out into the world was an even more powerful experience. Despite the older sister initially being in tears when the single was released, she was soon inundated with messages from from fans offering support or telling her how they resonated with the message.

“The release, emotionally, was a little bit daunting, but the support was overwhelming in a positive way,” Nyrobi reflects. “It was worthwhile.”

Symptoms like exhaustion don’t always show up in a way that can be seen, so it can be hard for people who suffer from chronic fatigue syndrome to get the support they need from the people around them.

“I still feel like people don't view me as disabled, because it's not a visible disability, which is sometimes a good thing and sometimes not a good thing,” Nyrobi explains, acknowledging that it can be difficult for those with symptoms like exhaustion to get the support they need. “It's a good thing when they treat me just like a human being and not a different entity, but it's a bad thing when they don't acknowledge that I do have needs and I do need help.”

The second track on the album, Come On Outside, is a brighter follow-up to Straight To Heart – a sister song in both senses – that recounts how Nyrobi’s health improved with Chaya’s support. She says the song is, “about my journey to health and how Chaya helped me through that. So I say Come On Outside is really about our bond as sisters. [We] have a really good relationship, and I'm not sure how rare that is, but it seems to be pretty rare.”

Bandmates are there to share work and ideas, but for Nyrobi, it’s all the more important that she has someone to rely on.

“I think I've been really fortunate in the way that I have my sister… She does a lot of the admin or the day-to-day work. For instance, yesterday, I was just out of it. I was so terribly ill, I didn't get any work done. I just slept the whole day. And it's really unpredictable like that,” she explains”.

There are a few more interviews I want to bring in. Nyrobi Beckett-Messam and Chaya Beckett-Messam spoke with PRS for Music in the summer about bonding with their fans, playing the illustrious and prestigious SXSW, and the importance of funding. They are an inspiring and stunningly talented duo (they play live with a drummer) who are going to go from strength to strength and will have a massive year next year:

“Behind the scenes, the pair have become masters at transforming harrowing personal memories and moments of self-doubt into shimmering spectacle. Nyrobi lives with chronic fatigue syndrome, a condition that means pushing herself to be physically or even mentally active can lead to a crash. While touring, she and her sister make adjustments — such as carving out time for Nyrobi to catch up on sleep, staying in 24/7 contact with their team and arriving at venues with ample time to spare — to ensure they can give their all on stage.

Rave Immortal is the result of intense introspection and healing; the record highlights how Nyrobi has spent a long time sitting with her pain and worked to feel peace with herself. The band have performed to rapt festival audiences at the likes of Download, Reading & Leeds and Glastonbury, as well as being selected to represent the UK for the British Music Embassy at SXSW in Austin, Texas.

With a stacked season of summer festivals on the horizon — and an illustrated book project in the pipeline — M caught up with Nyrobi and Chaya for the latest edition of our On The Road series to discuss, in their own words, what it takes to thrive as a live act in 2025.

Nyrobi: ‘At the start of our tour, it was a little overwhelming having a room full of fans singing our words back to us night after night. It's such an odd feeling, especially when you consider how much some of the songs mean to those people in the crowd. The music doesn’t just belong to me and Chaya any more. On the album, we speak about everything from my struggles with my hidden disability to changing friendships, and wanting to go crazy in a rave but not being able to. It just feels surreal seeing how these stories have resonated.

‘The one moment that really stuck out for me, however, was when I spoke with someone who was in a wheelchair, and they just broke down. I was trying not to cry while she was talking about what the album meant to her. Even though it was emotional, I felt really at peace knowing that our music was getting to those that need to hear it. Knowing that our album has potentially changed other people's lives — as well as ours — is amazing.

‘In a way, we learned that we actually need to carve out more time after shows to chat with fans. Connecting with the people who make up the ALT BLK ERA community has become such a big thing for us. Most people can do this while touring day after day, playing back-to-back shows, but there is no chance I would be able to tour if we didn't have days off in between.

‘The funding that we got from PRS Foundation allowed us to do two days of shows and then have a two-day break, so I could actually reset my body and get on with my therapies. It was a privilege to be able to tour knowing that this was an option.’

Chaya: ‘During this downtime, we had to make more [friendship] bracelets because the fans loved them! They sold out by our second show, so we spent hours [in our hotel rooms] making more of them. We even had our band members and their partners getting involved. Otherwise, we spent time on vocal rest and ensuring that Nyrobi got lots of sleep to help combat her chronic fatigue.’

Nyrobi: ‘We mean it when we say that PRS have supported us at every stage in our career, from our first EP [2023’s Freak Show] through to the album, SXSW and even our first ever book. Without the funding we get from PRS Foundation, there would be no tour. They have helped us lay the foundations for our big moments, all of which would probably look a bit shaky without them. If you were to go back in time and we didn't have PRS, ALT BLK ERA would not be the same band we are today.’

Chaya: ‘I remember being shocked when we had the call from PRS Foundation asking us if we wanted to go out to SXSW. That was really big for us, to be able to showcase ALT BLK ERA on an international stage — especially in America! It was amazing to see the fans that had travelled to see us, as well as enjoy shows from artists that we wouldn’t be able to catch otherwise.’

Nyrobi: ‘Crucially, we learned so much at SXSW beyond enjoying the music. We wanted to go there not just to perform, but to really engage in the community and culture of the festival. Part of that meant attending seminars, particularly as we got to Austin ahead of time in order for me to adjust with my chronic fatigue. We learned so much about marketing and different industries that we never thought we could be a part of but aligned perfectly with us”.

I want to head back to January and an interview from Left Lion. They spoke with ALT BLK ERA about Rave Immortal. How this incredible debut has launched into the world and it has been taken to heart by so many. I love how they end the interview by looking ahead to the rest of this year. Could they have imagined they would achieve so much in 2025?! The sky is the limit for them! Make sure they are on your radar:

“I want to talk about Straight To Heart, which is of course a very personal track for you Nyrobi, bravely sharing your battles with chronic illness in recent years. Was writing that song a cathartic process for you?

Nyrobi: I think when we were writing the song, it felt really healing, just to acknowledge this is how I felt and that my feelings were valid… because you can start blaming yourself for things. And we’re not ‘outside people’, so not many people knew in the outside world - it was just me, my sister and my mum in the build-up to the release.

I think on release day, it really hit me that the song was out. It was one thing to put it on Spotify and work on it within the comfort of my own home, but when it released, my heart kind of dropped. I was like, “Oh my gosh, it’s actually out and people are actually going to see a side of me that I’ve been hiding for so many years.”

But I think now it's healing knowing that other people can connect with the song as well. Even now, fans will come up and speak to me like, “Oh I heard about your chronic illnesses, I also suffer with them.” So, I was shocked and in bits on release day, but I am glad it’s out now looking back.

I feel you’re one of the bands right at the forefront of this wave of great Nottingham artists getting national exposure at the moment. What would you say it is about the Nottingham music scene that has made it such a successful breeding ground for musicians in recent years?

Nyrobi: I guess I would say it’s the genuine love and support. I never grew up anywhere else so I can’t speak for other places, but there’s just something about Nottingham that feels genuine. Like people speaking to you after the show – it’s just so real.

Chaya: There’s a lot of festivals like Dot to Dot, Hockley Hustle, where you can catch new artists too

Nyrobi: Yeah, I think it’s that exposure as well. Nottingham allows new artists to start out, grow and be seen regularly. You know with all the venues that we have here at different levels, you can always find someone, which I think is really important. I also just think the people here are nice!
Chaya: They genuinely are!

So you have the album release and the launch show at Saltbox – but what else is on the horizon for 2025?

Chaya: Well, we have a record store signing / acoustic set-up that we’re going to be doing across the UK. Then around April time we have a UK tour that I’m very excited about, which will be our first UK tour!

Nyrobi: A lot of collaborations coming up for 2025 – a lot of big ones as well, like huge! So loads more new music in 2025 – we’re not stopping. We’re not disappearing for three years, we’ll still be here dropping new music throughout 2025, mixed in with festivals. Then we’ll probably be getting ready for album two… but that’s another story!”.

Game-changing women who are making a real impact in the music industry, ALT BLK ERA were richly deserving of the New Artist award. Music Week spoke with them to get their reaction and look back at their path so far. With some new music perhaps arriving very soon, it is an exciting time. Make sure that you get involved with this amazing duo. It does seem a bit baffling that there was no Mercury nod. Maybe their album was not submitted. Anyway, I am sure they will be scooping plenty of awards very soon. Nyrobi Beckett-Messam and Chaya Beckett-Messam are phenomenal musicians and role models:

“Congratulations! How does it feel to win?

Nyrobi Beckett-Messam: “Really, really honoured. We know that Music Week and the Women In Music Awards are so respected in the industry, so it feels like a win, not just for us, but for everyone else who's been supporting us on this journey. So it's massive.”

It's tough out there for new artists at the moment – what has your experience been like in terms of trying to break through and make your way?

NBM: “It's been really mixed. We've always been the type of people who march to the beat of our own drum. Coming into the industry, we didn’t know if we would be allowed to continue to do that.”

You won Best Alternative Act at the MOBOs back in February. It’s only the second year that category has existed. How important was it to you to be recognised and that the music you make is represented at events such as the MOBOs? What do you think it says to the industry?

NBM: “First of all, it means so much to already be winning awards [at events] as prestigious as the MOBOs and Music Week's Women In Music. That kind of recognition, so early on in our careers and while we’re still quite young, is not lost on us at all. We really respect that our peers, fans and industry professionals are seeing us and rooting for us, and it makes us even more determined to work hard and show that people were right to back us.

PHOTO CREDIT: Panni Renner

“With respect to alternative and rock music, people often forget that these genres have deep Black roots. Recognition from the MOBOs is powerful because it pushes back against that historical erasure, it reclaims the space, and it broadens what Black music representation can look like. It’s the same way artists like Beyoncé are reminding the world that Black people were always part of country music and culture. It feels like we’re in the middle of historical shifts, and the MOBOs are leading the way in the UK. To be a small part of that through our win in the Alternative category feels incredible!

“For the industry, we think it’s such an exciting moment. Because of the MOBOs’ Alternative category, we’re going to see more artists feeling confident about experimenting with genres that sit outside of the usual musical pathways. So, industry-wise, it’s a time for celebration and it’s a call to action for more work to be done.”

WIM is all about celebration – who are the women in music you'd most like to celebrate and why?

CBM: “I would say our mum. She’s been with us for our whole lives and she was the one who pushed us towards the music industry. It was 2020, we were writing loads of songs and doing covers on YouTube. And then our mother was like, ‘Why don’t you actually try and release a song?’”

NBM: “First she said, ‘Learn about the industry.’ And then it snowballed into this huge career! I’d also say Kanya King, CEO of the MOBOS, is a massive, massive inspiration for everything that she’s done over the years. Also, Alyx Holcombe – we got our first ever Radio 1 play from her and our first year of music was massive.”

What are Alt Blk Era’s biggest ambitions?

CBM: “I would love to collaborate with all my favourite artists. That would be a bucket-list thing. I listen to such a wide range of artists – Stromae, Billie Eilish, Beyoncé, Lady Gaga – I don’t know what that would sound like! But it would mean so much to have the opportunity.”

NBM: “Legacy is a big one. Just being able to say, at the end of our career, we’ve changed lives. I want small artists to listen to us and think, ‘Oh, they’re cool. I didn’t realise you could mix all these genres, I didn’t realise you could do this and this.’ We want to bring a new perspective to the industry”.

I am going to end with a review for Rave Immortal. I am going to come back to Kerrang!. If some critics felt Rave Immortal was more powerful Bubblegum Pop than something more Rave-indebted and fierce, there is no denying the potency and sense of power from the album. A declaration that ALT BLK ERA are here and are going to make a big splash! Maybe album number two is already being worked on. They will grow in strength and ability the more music they put out. As it stands, they are very much set for greatness and longevity:

“ALT BLK ERA exploded onto the scene as a fascinating prospect – two sisters with yin and yang personalities taking a hammer to genre boundaries and flying the flag for misfits and weird kids everywhere. Last summer, however, Nyrobi and Chaya Beckett-Messam got a little more personal. Onstage at 2000trees, Nyrobi revealed she’s been living with a chronic illness since the middle of the pandemic, which has left her bed-bound, fatigued and in pain. This is the nexus of the Nottingham duo’s debut album, but beyond this showing of vulnerability, the sisters prove that they’re still determined to live loudly.

At first, things look a little darker. Opener Straight To Heart vibrates with a subdued pulse as the sisters recount how Nyrobi’s friends 'Left me in the dark / Wasting away under the stars,' while she was most ill, before the surging alt.rock of Come Out Outside beautifully captures the support Chaya offered her.

From there, the clouds dissolve into a lurid rainbow of sound, but their willingness to delve into sometimes untouched topics remains, and it’s one of their biggest strengths. The fizzing My Drummer’s Girlfriend delves into complicated friendship dynamics, while Hunt You Down’s eerie synth-pop (almost reminiscent of Fame-era Lady Gaga) lends a thrumming edge to an exploration of unhealthy obsession.

ALT BLK ERA’s sound has often remained quite fluid, but as the title of Rave Immortal suggests, they’re committing to the unbridled energy of the illicit warehouse party here. The jittering sounds of drum ‘n’ bass power much of the record and at its best – the fierce Crashing Parties and tongue-in-cheek Upstairs Neighbours – listening while sitting still does not feel like an option. Even with a couple of slightly samey tracks in the second half, the spooky Catch Me If You Can opens a portal to Halloween for three minutes in a clever late album twist.

The exciting part is that this is just the first chapter. They’ve got a foundation for greatness, not to mention a knack for sticky hooks and a giddy playfulness to the way they seem to make whatever the hell they want. It won’t be long before they find a way to outdo themselves”.

I shall end it here. Undoubtably one of the most important new (or emerging) acts around, the fact that ALT BLK ERA have won awards and plaudits so early on is only the start of things! They will continue to grow and dominate. Their music, whilst perhaps not at their absolute peak, is phenomenal and instantly engrossing! I am excited to see where they go and how far they go. Nottingham’s Nyrobi Beckett-Messam and Chaya Beckett-Messam truly deserve…

THE world.

____________

Follow ALT BLK ERA

PHOTO CREDIT: Esmé Bones for Kerrang!

Official:

https://www.altblkera.com/

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/altblkera

TikTok:

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

YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/c/ALTBLKERA

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/artist/4FNR2qdCVKGAep4alfgt25?si=85TTn7k1Sf-WlBofuHArHQ

FEATURE: Modern-Day Queens: Isabel Garvey

FEATURE:

 

 

Modern-Day Queens

IN THIS PHOTO: Isabel Garvey, Chief Operating Officer at Warner Music UK (a role which she steps down from at the end of this year), was the winner of Outstanding Contribution at the Women In Music Awards 2025 on 10th October, 2025 at JW Marriott Grosvenor House London/PHOTO CREDIT: Music Week

Isabel Garvey

__________

ONE of the most important events…

PHOTO CREDIT: Sarah Louise Bennett

in the music calendar occurred on 10th October. It took place at the JW Marriott Grosvenor House London. I think that more focus needs to be put on the event. Not only because women in music are not celebrated as much as they should be. We do not spend enough time spotlighting and commending the incredible work that women do throughout the industry. At a time when there is still huge imbalance and misogyny. Technical roles and studio jobs. Still dominated by men. Not as many opportunities for girls and women as there should be. In another feature, I will reflect on a scheme FKA twigs is launching. Someone who recognises that women are underrepresented, Saffron is designed to challenge that. You can read more here. The New Artist award winners are Alt Blk Era. I am going to shine a light on them in another feature. For this Modern-Day Queens, rather than highlight an artist, I instead want to talk about Isabel Garvey. It has been announced that she is stepping down from her role as Chief Operating Officer at Warner Music UK. Prior to her work with Warner, Garvey was the managing director of Universal Music's Abbey Road Studios. There is no denying the huge contribution that she has made to music. I am going to come to the Music Week interview with Isabel Garvey. I will come to a couple of other interviews before that. I want to start out with an interview from Music Ally. Isabel Garvey discussed what success means now for artists. Whereas a chart-topping album was a real peak, now things are different. It is more complex and multifaceted. I am really interested in what Garvey says and I wanted to bring in the first parts of the interview:

“Isabel Garvey has been COO of Warner Music UK since May 2023, having previously been MD of Abbey Road Studios (owned by Universal Music Group). Going from where records are crafted to where hits and success have to be minted marks a creative shift, a business shift and a cultural shift.

What shape that success takes, however, depends on your expectations, your scale of investment and what angle you are looking at it all from.

“Success is very different in the world we live in today – or the metrics of success are different,” says Garvey. “An artist’s definition of what success looks like can vary as well.”

Under the ownership of Edgar Bronfman Jr (from 2004 to early 2012), the focus at Warner Music was around multiple-rights deals (or, ideally, 360-degree deals), in a large part a spread bet response to cratering CD sales. That era, says Garvey, is firmly in the past for Warner, outside of a handful of smaller markets. “There is no prerequisite that you must sign up to these things,” she says of current artist contracts. The focus is on recorded music revenues, although that can include partnering on D2C.

“The reality is we probably pick up artists at a lot of different phases,” says Garvey of how acts are signed at Warner. “I can think of a couple of signings we did this year that are super early stage and there are no followers of social media. They are very music-driven signings. Then there are artists where you can see the bubblings of social media picking up on a song or on the artists themselves. And then there’s the signing frenzy around these artists.”

She says that acts must be backed in the long term as the build is longer and harder. Charli XCX, with Brat, is a solid example of that, taking six albums before hitting the mainstream (or what we understand as the mainstream now).

“We’re investing [in acts] at the same rate, if not more, because the media environment and the media landscape is so changed,” she says, arguing the acts can run at a loss for longer than in more impatient times in the past – all in the hope or belief that success is coming. “I think we tolerate the red for a long time.”

She points to Fred Again.. as an act that might not have one of the key success metrics of the past (major chart hits). “But he is streaming incredibly well, building a hugely engaged listener base and selling out stadiums around the world.”

She adds, “We’re investing for the longer term, so we will stick with things. Charli is on album six now. We’re really sticking with artists. It’s not: ‘That didn’t work – goodbye.’ The whole point of A&R is to pivot. We saw some shoots of success here, so let’s pivot towards that and let’s grow that audience”.

Back in May, Music Business Worldwide spoke with Isabel Garvey and asked her to name the songs that define her life. Those that are most important. The Music Week interview I will come to explains why Garvey is so important and influential. Why she richly deserved the Outstanding Contribution award at the Women in Music Awards 2025:

“1) Dave Brubek, Take 5 (1959)

I’m one of four girls, and when I was growing up my dad used to take himself off on a Sunday to listen to jazz on vinyl, it was quite religious for him. Jazz was very much part of the soundtrack to my very earliest days, hearing trumpets and piano coming out of his room while he escaped for a couple of hours!

It brought a kind of calm to the house – which wasn’t always there thanks to there being four girls. I associate it with the smell of print from the Sunday papers, and it’s just a very warm memory for me.

“I still love jazz to this day, to the extent that I’m currently trying desperately to force my eight-year-old to learn the trumpet.”

It also clearly seeped in, because I still love jazz to this day, to the extent that I’m currently trying desperately to force my eight-year-old to learn the trumpet.

There was a lot of music in the house generally. My mum actually grew up in a very classical music environment. And, like I say, my dad was really into his jazz. But then whenever we’d go on car journeys we’d force him to put musical soundtracks on while all four of us sang our heads off.

I think that’s why he needed his Sundays.

3) Corona, Rhythm of the Night (1993)

This takes me back to night clubs, growing up in Dublin and being with all my childhood friends.

This was our song, it was the one where you put your bag down and you went onto the dance floor.

I struggled to pick just one track from that era of dance music, because there was so much of it that we loved.

There was Haddaway, there was Daft Punk, there was Darude… they’re all tracks that take me back to a real time and place and bring me such a lot of joy, still to this day.

“I was at a birthday party recently, this came on and I couldn’t have been happier! It’s amazing the impact one track can have.”

In fact, I was at a birthday party recently and this came on and I couldn’t have been happier! It’s amazing the impact one track can have.

It was a great time to be going out in Dublin, whether to bars that hosted live gigs with DJs coming on after. or the clubs on Leeson Street.

7) The Beatles, Come Together (1969)

Obviously I had to have at least one track with an Abbey Road connection, and this one just seemed perfect.

Running Abbey Road for eight years has been one of the absolute privileges of my life. It’s just a phenomenal place, steeped in history. You still get the goosebumps going up the steps.

Of course its story is so interwoven with the Beatles, and this particular song is from Abbey Road, which is the album that named the studio. Until then, it had always been known as EMI Studios.

The connection between the two is magical, and when you bring people to the studio, the first thing they want to see is Studio Two, the Lady Madonna piano, etc.

These are the fables that the studio is built on, but they’re not fables; they are part of the reality of that building, they’re the result of how the Fab Four – along with Sir George Martin – worked with that studio.

We did a lot of playbacks of Beatles songs, and this is one that we used quite a lot, so it’s ingrained in me as a track that represents my time there.

My time at Abbey Road was full of very surreal moments: I’m in Abbey Road, which is mad enough, I’m running Abbey Road, which is crazy – and now I’m just casually saying hello to Paul McCartney in the corridor!

8) Dua Lipa, Levitating (2020)

I actually feel like I owe a lot to Dua Lipa, for this song and this album. It came out in lockdown when we were all in the depths of depression, a lot of us struggling quite a bit with this unprecedented situation, and then there’s this irresistibly joyful and uplifting album reminding us that we will be back out there at some time in the future.

One thing I did to preserve my sanity in lockdown was go for a run along the Thames, and I would make sure I planted this song halfway through my playlists to lift me and keep me going.

It was the album we all needed. It was kind of a throw back to the eighties, and to the days of disco, so it was both familiar and new – all made even better by a phenomenal voice. It was my salvation”.

I will end with the main interview. When Music Week spoke with its main award winner recently. Someone who has made a huge impact on he music industry, it is fascinating reading her words. What she has accomplished. Also, the question regarding what comes next, as she is leaving her role as Chief Operating Officer at Warner Music UK in December:

“Isabel Garvey has always been someone who is willing to embrace change, who will invest in new technologies, adjust business structures or look for patterns in consumer behaviour. And, days before being presented with the Music Week Women In Music Award for Outstanding Contribution, she turned towards another huge change and announced she would be stepping down from her role as chief operating officer at Warner Music UK in December. 

Garvey informed colleagues that her decision was made following the reorganisation at the major last month when Tony Harlow stepped down as CEO. Under the new framework, Atlantic and Warner Records presidents report to US management, while Warner Music UK’s other teams will be overseen directly by Simon Robson, president, EMEA, Recorded Music. 

“The structure of our UK business has changed quite fundamentally,” Garvey tells Music Week. “I've worked with leadership here to figure out if there's a path for me going forward. But, I think, the structure has changed so much that there isn't much of a COO role anymore. So it felt incredibly logical to step down and think about the next thing. I do wish everyone at Warner, and the new structure, well. I am sure it will be a raving success.”

Garvey’s time at Warner has been full of highs. Since joining in 2023, she has overseen the commercial, legal, business affairs and artist relations teams, as well as Rhino Records UK and The Firepit Studios. This has included restructuring the commercial team and establishing a data and insight team.

“There was always a brilliant data team here at Warner, so it was just about creating easy reference tools,” she says. “It’s almost like a new language of how we communicate with the artists and with the labels, to make sure that the data is actually changing behaviour and really accelerating artists profiles… We have a lot of data scientists who've done really smart work around the correlation between social media discovery and streaming. It has been a really exciting area to be in, it felt very cutting edge.”

Prior to her work as COO of Warner, Garvey was the managing director of Universal Music’s Abbey Road Studios, where, amongst many other things, she launched the legendary venue’s digital production services and Europe's first incubator for music tech innovation. She has also held various other senior roles, including SVP of commercial channels and consumer marketing at Warner Music International and VP of digital at EMI.

So, what’s next?

“I'm very excited about the future,” she says. “I think there's plenty I can still contribute and do and I'd like to be somewhere where I can be the mastermind of that.”

And so as Garvey ponders her next outstanding contribution, we reflect on her story so far...

Firstly, what are your initial reflections on winning the Outstanding Contribution honour?

“It was a huge honour to be in that room and amongst so many incredibly talented women, and to be singled out feels really special. It's brilliant. I love this industry, so to be honoured by the industry is a real, real joy.”

With this award and your impending departure from Warner, is this a time for reflection on your years in the industry?

“Yes, the beauty of this award is it really forces you to reflect on the journey. I mean, my entry into the company was particularly interesting. One of the first things I did was stand in front of a government inquiry on misogyny. That's very apt to bring up for this interview, but that was a baptism of fire. But we liaised with the government and the BPI and did a lot of work on that. We’ve worked with the government on AI challenges and looked at what we need to do to lean into a new government and make sure this industry was set up for growth. I've also done a lot of work with a team here and internally on how we kind of become a lot more strategic, a lot more data-led in terms of our decision making.”

With the likes of Dua Lipa, Charli XCX, PinkPantheress, Rachel Chinouriri and more, Warner acts have been at the heart of a period of female acts dominating the charts and the live circuit. Why do you think these acts are doing so well at this time?

“Personally, I think it's long overdue. Previously we were all terribly concerned that the representation in the charts still wasn’t female enough. Now the pendulum has swung the other way, where we have almost a dominance of female artists who are real lyricists and storytellers. It’s not throwaway pop, it’s relatable and thoughtful artistry.”

In terms of female talent on the executive side, are you seeing enough coming through? Is this something that you've been involved in nurturing?

“Yes, yes, yes.  I personally grew up in an industry where I never had female leadership above me and anyone to model myself against. I've always taken my role very seriously in terms of being hopefully inspirational and definitely a mentor to people coming through. But Tony [Harlow] and I have very purposefully thought about diversity, particularly gender diversity, in the UK team. We have an incredible generation of women that are coming through in numbers. It's not just identifying talent, it is also having the right parental leave in place and nurturing a culture that supports women through all their various life stages. I feel like there's excellent groundwork in place and a generation that's ready to push through.”

How would you describe your own journey through the music business?

“I've been in this industry now for over 20 years, and I have just loved it. I joined it when Napster was stealing the world's music. The parallels with today are quite ironic, it’s strange that we're on the next iteration of that [technological shift with AI]. I've always been at the intersection of creativity and commerce, and the changes that are forcing the business to innovate.”

You started out at EMI, how do you reflect on that time now?

“I joined as the chief of staff at EMI Music. I was working for Alan Levy and David Munns. It was a great introduction, because they were chairman and vice chairman of the recorded music side and they taught me the industry top to bottom. So I got the best schooling you could get. And then I moved into business development. That was the era of ringtones and going over to the West Coast of the US to do ringtone deals with Microsoft. It was a really exciting time, it was that cusp of change again, because at that point only 2% of revenue was digital. Just imagine how far we’ve come.”

And from there you took a job at Warner Music International…

“I ran the European digital business there. That was an era where we talked about 360 degree deals a lot, so it was about expanded rights. But rather than grabbing rights from artists, it was about building capabilities, buying merch companies and live companies, many of whom are still in the portfolio today throughout Europe. I’ve always been very digital and technology leaning in what I’ve been doing. But then I got the call to go and run Abbey Road…”

How exactly did that come about?

“Universal had just acquired EMI and with it Abbey Road. They had really exciting entrepreneurial plans about what you could do with a brand and a place as magical as Abbey Road. I spent seven years there reimagining this place that’s an incredible cultural icon, but working on how to take it outside just being a physical studio in north west London. So we built tech incubators and schools and retail stores, and it became a business with multiple strands, but always with creativity and music production at its core.”

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What do you think the future of the industry looks like?

“I wish I had that crystal ball. It feels daunting, but I have no doubt that if the government puts the right legislation in place, if we're smart about how we licence and how we represent artists in this new AI world, then I think there's plenty of opportunity. I think the challenge for all of us is we can see how powerful the technology is, but we don't see what the consumer proposition is just yet. There are so many articles out there at the moment about how disruptive AI can be. But in terms of actual industry uptake, how we use it day-to-day, or how we use it facing our audiences… we’re not there yet. It's kind of like Skype. We all know Skype and video calling now, but it took 10 years for that technology to make sense. So I think it's going to be a journey. Change has just been such a constant in our industry, I have no doubt that we will be able to hold hands with all of the various stakeholders and actually find something that kind of comes through.”

And, speaking personally, what would you like to do next?

“I don’t know… I am definitely the person who is the commercial brain, and I love this beautifully creative business that we work in. I love the clash. It can be really frustrating, but it’s also really rewarding, that clash of creativity and commerce. I'd love to stay in that intersection and find a growth business, a business that has a real energy about doing something different. We're about to hit another phase of serious disruption, so being able to plot something disruptive, disrupting with the disruptors, feels really compelling. It can feel quite daunting, reading the headlines and trying to get our heads around AI in the first instance. How do we market effectively? How can we be really good champions of artists in this world and this landscape? But it brings huge opportunities and new ways of working. Who knows where the next opportunity is?”.

A hugely important figure in the music industry, I wanted to shine a light on the award-winning Isabel Garvey. It will be exciting to see what her next step is and what opportunities lie ahead. The Women in Music Awards 2025 celebrated everyone from Chantal Epp, Semera Khan and Amy Wheatley. I will be spending time with some of these amazing women for future features. However, I did want to spend some time with Isabel Garvey. A modern-day queen and incredible influence and force for good in music, small wonder that she received such a high accolade from Music Week. The amazing and inspiring Isabel Garvey is such…

AN incredible human.

FEATURE: Spotlight: Shivani Day

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

Shivani Day

__________

I will start out…

with a couple of interviews from last year before getting to one from this year. They relate to Shivani Day. The Leicester-born, London-based artist released her debut E.P., That Which Is Not, last year. It is a remarkable E.P. and I would urge anyone who has not heard it to check it out. Day has put out a couple of brilliant singles this year. Too Well came out in April. I am new to her music and have only recently discovered her. However, I feel next year will be one where we will see Shivani Day blow up. Loads more interviews and perhaps another E.P. Her music fuses Electronic, Trip-Hop, and alternative R&B music. It is a sonic cocktail that takes from her South Asian heritage. I am going to start out with Wonderland and their interview from last July. Shivani Day talked about the creation of her debut E.P. and what drew her to music:

“Talk us through your musical origins? 

My musical origins start from my father, who played so much different music for me and my sister growing up. One of my earliest memories of music was him pausing songs and asking if we knew what the lyrics meant and then he would proceed to tell us the meaning and often the songs would have social and political meanings. This was quite a big part of my knowledge of music being a tool to get a message across and be used as a way to inform. Music has always been a safe space for me and meant a lot to me and that continued to the point of expression. In 2019 I taught myself how to DJ and was building on that for a few years, then in 2021 I decided to start making my own music and see what I could do. Since then it’s been my life haha.

Who and what inspired you to pursue artistry?

I mean to be honest I’ve always wanted to be this I just never really knew how I would get there and didn’t think someone like me would be able to. I’m just an Indian girl from Leicester, it was not the norm to see someone like me doing this or even attempting it. I think as I started working in the industry as a DJ and then started making more connections I gained a bit of inspiration and thought well if it doesn’t work at least I can say I tried. My good friend Erin said to me before I took the plunge that I could sing and I said I know shyly and it was her reassurance that pushed me to take the plunge back in 2021.

How does your cultural background influence your musical and personal outlook? 

Growing up I would watch and listen to Bollywood movies and South Asian sounds all the time, I used to dance Kathak and Bollywood so it was a big part of my childhood. In terms of my own music I pull from it when it feels right, I normally like to weave certain aspects into all of my music sometimes more overtly and sometimes covertly. It has to feel right for me I don’t force it and definitely don’t do it for the sake of it, my ear is naturally drawn to those sounds due to my upbringing and so it weaves itself in naturally. Also the complexity of the music is something that I really emulate in my own music. I took some open classes for Hindustani and Carnatic vocal last year and it’s something I want to explore deeper.

Congratulations on your new EP! Talk us through the creative process?

Thank you! I’ve essentially been working the EP since I began my musical journey in 2021. A few of the first songs I ever wrote are on it (“Rhetoric”, “Autoflight” & “Sucks to be There”). This EP is me for the last few years figuring things out, my experiences, my observations etc. Ive worked a lot with my 2 close collaborators Sonny (23Sunz) and Minas, I met them both in 2021 and I was very blessed things just clicked and they were very open to letting me steer and my crazy ideas haha. They are both lovely and have been a big part of me growing into the artist I am. I also worked with Earbuds on a track on the EP which was really cool as I had been a fan of his other work for years. I’ve been blessed to be with FAMM and be able to put things out the way I want and to my creative vision, the creative team and my sister who is also my creative director have really been such a wonderful support system in doing so. Shoutout Erea and Jay working with them on my videos for this EP, honestly I do feel blessed to work with so many great and talented people who enjoy my music.

What’s to come from you, this year and beyond?  

Hopefully some live shows, I’m keen to start performing and bringing my EP to life. More music and delving deeper into my artistry and self. I really love the process of making music and figuring out the next parts of the song so right now Im just in the studio putting the next pieces together. I also look forward to DJing again and doing it in a way that’s Shivani Day”.

Before coming to an interview from very recently, I am going to move to one from NOTION from last year. They asked Shivani Day about her music firsts. Within the interview, we hear about her love for Sade and her father’s musical influences. If you have not listened to Shivani Day, then make sure that you connect with her music. She is this astonishing talent that is going to have a very long and interesting career in music. I am excited to see what next year holds in store:

“No one has a sound quite like Shivani Day. Though a fresh face to the scene, she has nailed her artistry down to a ‘T’, blending a bold electronic palette and a sultry R&B smoothness that takes genre-bending to greater heights. Her sound feels modern, suave and an authentic tribute to her South Asian heritage, finely tuned in every note she configures and lyric that she sings.

Despite her newcomer status, Shivani’s voice resonates with an old-school charm that belies her youth. Raised on a diverse musical diet curated by her father—comprising reggae, Chicago house, Latin and jazz—her eclectic tastes swiftly saw her stand out amongst her peers. While pursing International Relations at university, it was there where her passion for music truly blossomed. Teaching herself the ins-and-outs behind the decks, Shivani swiftly became a name in the game, travelling across the UK for sets that included a coveted Boiler Room gig.

Whilst she has moved on from her DJ roots, Shivani still brings her love for electronica into her sound today. In her debut single, ‘Rhetoric’, released this spring, she seamlessly fuses electronica with R&B, incorporating traditional South Asian motifs into the fabric of the genres, whilst infusing the track with hints of sounds that pay homage to her heritage.

First time you fell in love with music?

I think I fell in love with music from inside the womb. I have a few strong early memories of music which really shaped my ear. From the beginning of my life music was always played and my dad would pause songs and explain their meaning. Learning that music can be a tool to help state an opinion or be a means to inform was something that stuck with me.

First song you were infatuated with?

I have two! One is ‘Jealous Guy’ by John Lennon, or as I used to call it, “dreaming of the past”, which my dad used to sing to me every night to put me to sleep. The other is ‘No Ordinary Love’ by Sade, which I’ve heard countless times; the progression and emotion get me every listen.

First time you felt starstruck?

I haven’t, maybe it’s yet to come.

First thing on your rider?

I have never had a rider but it would be tea for sure, english breakfast or a good chai. I need my daily cup of tea around 2/3pm.

First track you play when handed the aux?

It depends on the environment! I’m a particular person, so I always need context. I can never answer these types of questions”.

I am going to wrap things up with CLASH and a new interview from them. We learn that Shivani Day is working on her new project. I am interested to hear what form that takes. I do love how websites like CLASH are spotlighting Shivani Day and introducing her music to new fans. I do think that she is going to be making waves and inspiring people for years to come. Someone that we really need to embrace and celebrate. Her music is among the most distinct and brilliant you will hear:

“Shivani Day might be relatively new to the scene, but her artistic intention already shines in its ambition and creative possibility. Just coming off the success of her singles ‘Too Well’ and ‘Know When You Call’, her music embodies multitudes of being: a melange of cultural identities, a comment on human behaviours, and a duality of past and present.

Day isn’t precious about this, and she empowers her listeners to believe that they can exist in multitudes too. Leading with independence and introspection, these are two words Day has self-subscribed to in her craft. She is most creative in her solitude, and attributes her uniquely independent vision to her space of quiet.

Even more so, independence and introspection stand all the more powerful as a female artist fronting her culture. When I cited the importance of distinctive identity against this backdrop, she reassured me that this was a conversation she would always want to have. As someone who inherently cares about these conversations, she says it’s hard not to implement these thoughts into her music.

“So tell me about the new project you have coming out next!

I’m so excited to talk about this new project. It builds on this idea of dystopia—which I think is quite real. We’re living in a state of dystopia, whether we want to admit it or not. This project is about fusing the ancient with the futuristic. ‘Ancient-futurism’ is a keyword I’m holding throughout this project, and I think it will be a theme in my work moving forward, at least for now. It’s always been part of me, this blend of old and futuristic. I’ve always loved it, especially in the films and sci-fi I watch. Films like Tron really laid the groundwork for me, fusing those two worlds together. But, of course, I’m coming at it with elements of my Indian heritage and more Eastern influences. Some of that is obvious, some more subtle.

My influences and inspirations also come from people like Sade, Grace Jones, Aaliyah. They had such elegance and a strong sense of self. They never compromised on who they were, and that’s something I channel in my work and visuals. One thing I don’t love about things now is how people need to be spoon-fed everything. Art is so subjective and open to interpretation. I want people to think about it and connect with it in their own way. If you attach your own meaning to it, that’s just as valid. For the next project, I want people to pick up on the main themes I’m putting out there, but also really think critically about it. Everything I do is intentional. Even with the sonic elements, everything is thought out. For example, one of the songs we worked on—I had Minas [my producer] add a conch sound, which is something used in Hindu temples. It’s used to call people in and set the tone for prayer. I’m going to put it in an electronic song, with glitches and everything, to bring those worlds together. It’s intentional, again, fusing the ancient with the modern world.

PHOTO CREDIT: Aanaya Ferreiro + Anaya Dayaram

I think being a creative and a woman of colour sometimes means we’re justifying a lot of our identity to other people, but we shouldn’t have to do that. Your music really breaks that mould, and that’s why I love what you’re doing. It’s not on the nose, but it brings out your culture and your interests and you’re just saying, “this is me”.

I’m so happy you get it. I really hope people do too. It’s true that I’m speaking about those things, but like I said, it’s not overly obvious—it’s deeper, and I think that’s something I’ve always loved in music. I’ve always enjoyed songs with hidden meanings, things you have to read between the lines to understand..

Not everything needs to be obvious, and critical thinking is key. I studied International Relations at university, and that was kind of a mix of politics and human behaviour—how humans interact with each other and the world. That definitely influenced my music and the things I wanted to address. Music can be an escape, but it’s also such a powerful tool for saying something real, and I think it’s important to speak about things that matter.

Do you feel like implementing these influences comes quite naturally to you? Or are you quite intentional with it?

I think it comes quite naturally, to be fair. Of course, there are certain points where I put more thought into it, but for the most part, it just flows. With this project, I’m always thinking about how to weave these deeper themes into the music and give it those double meanings and subtle messages. I can’t wait to reflect that in the visuals as well. I’ve been making mood boards and putting together a big project book, like a scrapbook, with printouts and notes. As I move forward with the real-life aspects, like live performances, I’m really keen on immersing myself in that experience. I want people to feel like when they hear my music or see me perform, they’re not just listening to a song or watching a show—they’re learning something about themselves. I want them to question things, maybe discover something new, or at least think critically. I also want to transport them into this world, this blend of ancient and futuristic, a place where even in the dystopia, there’s still hope.

How do you hope to grow as an artist in the next few years?

I really hope to connect with more people who resonate with my music and understand the world I’m trying to create. Building a community is at the core of what I want to do, and I think that’s been the biggest challenge for me so far. I’ve been craving real connections, you know, with like-minded people, and I feel like I’m slowly getting there—especially this year, as I’ve been more consistent with what I’m putting out.

But beyond that, I want to do more live shows, have genuine, real conversations with my audience. I encourage anyone to reach out. I think it’s so important to bring that sense of community and connection back into the conversation, especially when so much of social media feels so disconnected. I’m also excited to work with more producers, particularly female producers, and just keep exploring new creative spaces”.

I will wrap there. The wonderful Shivani Day has had a pretty good year. I think that we will see even more from her next year. Working on a new project – whether that is an E.P., mixtape or album -, maybe that will come out early next year. She is no doubt going to be playing some big stages. I think that everyone needs to listen to Shivani Day. This phenomenal musical talent is…

SOMEONE to be truly proud of.

_________

Follow Shivani Day

Official:

https://shivaniday.com/

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/shivaniday/

TikTok:

https://www.tiktok.com/@shivani.day

YouTube:

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

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/artist/5mnwQTXBL1eoE4Fj9v9Awn?si=-YpLz4gXQimj2lGKUNMCXA 

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/shivaniday

FEATURE: Kim Wilde at Sixty-Five: Inside Her Classic, Kids in America

FEATURE:

 

 

Kim Wilde at Sixty-Five

Inside Her Classic, Kids in America

__________

I am sort of…

tying two things together. First, the amazing Kim Wilde turns sixty-five on 18th November. I am going inside Kids in America, as this was Wilde’s debut single. I love how Kim Wilde’s eponymous debut album, where Kids in America features, had all the songs written by Kim Wilde, her younger brother Ricky, and her father, Marty Wilde. In fact, it was mostly father-daughter writing the songs. That is the case for Kids in America. Released as a single on 26th January, 1981, it reached number two in the U.K. One of the most successful and remarkable debut singles in music history, Kids in America sold so well in its first week, many suspected foul play because it was not included in that week's chart. A scam. Kids in America, in its first eight weeks of release, sold more than half a million copies in the U.K. alone. It is easy to see why! The song is so infectious that you cannot help but to listen to it again and again! I am going to get to an interview with Kim Wilde, where she said she felt caged in by Kids in America. Artists who are defined by one song or expected to repeat it, it did take on a life of its own. I am starting out with some features about the classic single and how it was made. In 2018, LOUDER published their feature. Speaking with Kim Wilde about the making of Kids in America, it is a fascinating piece. I have included the earliest parts of the interview. An idea of how the seeds were planted:

“Kim Wilde remembers exactly where she was when she stumbled upon the song that would change her life forever. “I’d just left art college in St Albans, and I was half thinking about going on to do a degree, only because I hadn’t found a band,” she tells TeamRock from her home in Hertfordshire. “Actually, one of my main motivations for going to college was to try and start a band, because I heard that could be a good place to start them.”

Having grown up under the watchful eye of British rock’n’roll singer and MBE-awarded songwriter Marty Wilde, Kim’s career in music was as good as set, as was that of her older brother, Ricky. “Ricky had left school at 16 and had been on the road with my dad Marty when he started writing songs. My dad had some studio time he couldn’t make because he’d double booked himself, so he gave the studio time to Ricky.”

That simple administrative mistake ended up sewing the seeds for what would become one of the biggest-selling songs of the 80s. “Ricky went in demoed some songs he’d been writing and ended up taking them to London to meet with several record companies,” recalls Kim. “One of them happened to be Mickie Most’s RAK Records. Mickie recognised very quickly that he had a great talent on his hands with Ricky’s production, songwriting skills, energy and passion for pop music – they were all the things he recognised in himself.”

With Ricky firmly ensconced in Mickie’s favour, Kim sensed an opportunity. “I asked Ricky to ask Mickie if it was okay if I went and did some backing vocals on these tracks that Ricky had done,” she says. “I was trying to row myself in as a backing singer really, which is where my head was at the time. I had a lot of experience with my father in studios and live and I knew how to work with harmonies; it came as second nature to me. So I thought, ‘Right, I’m going to get myself in as a session singer, and then I’m going to get on the circuit’.”

“So obviously I arrived looking as natty as I could,” says Kim. “I remember I had a pair of black red striped pants and an old dinner jacket of my dad’s. At that point I’d already started dyeing my hair, so I basically turned up looking like Kim Wilde, but not realising that at the time.”

As it turned out, Kim wasn’t the only one sensing an opportunity. “Mickie asked Ricky who I was and mentioned something about getting me in with his producers, Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman, who were writing all the hits for Suzi Quatro and numerous others at RAK Records at the time,” says Kim. “They were sort of like the Stock Aitken Waterman team, but it was Mickie Most, Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman. So Ricky thought, ‘Sod that’. He was determined to impress upon Mickie that he didn’t need other producers, that he was a one-man show.”

So Ricky set about writing the song that would transform both of their careers – but not without inspiring some good, old-fashioned sibling bickering in the process. “He went home that weekend – we were all living in Hertfordshire at this point – and he wrote Kids In America,” recalls Kim. “I remember that happening, because his bedroom was next to mine and he’d got himself a Wasp keyboard –­ the little yellow and black thing – and I was really annoyed by all the noises coming out of his room. It had a sort of pulsing beat which ended up being the intro to Kids In America. That was particularly annoying coming through into my room while I was trying to listen to Joni Mitchell,” she laughs”.

In 2023, Marty Wilde talked to Songwriting Magazine about how he and Kim Wilde wrote Kids in America. It is one of the most enduring hits of the 1980s. One that arrived right near the start of the decade, I still think it is amazing today! It still pops and has this incredible addictiveness. Not so dated and old that it does not fit into modern Pop:

“I’d seen a TV programme which was about a certain batch of young teenagers in America and they frightened the hell out of me, because their attitude was…quite interesting! They came across very single-minded and their attitude was was very hard, which of course, a lot of youngsters can have, at a certain age. But I thought, if the American youth are going to be like that, we’re going to have a third World War in a few months time! So with this song, I said to Rick, ‘That’s the title: Kids In America.’ Then, of course, I had a clear cut picture. I wanted this tough girl who was looking out of a window, looking at the nightlife and people, traffic rushing by and thinking, ‘What the damn hell am I doing sitting here? Let’s get down there, let’s follow the music! Once you are there, you’re in control, in that song. She is in control. It’s not the guy, it’s not the person she’s dancing with, she is in total control. And that’s what I got from watching those American teenagers, I thought that’s what they would be like.

“It came together fairly quickly, really. I mean, Rick is very productive, he’s a very talented writer and he’s full of ideas – we both were – and, of course, Kim’s input was important. We worked in a studio in Hartford with a group called The Enid – I think they’re still in operation. They were a wonderful group of musicians. So whenever we were in their studio, [they would create] whatever sound that we wanted. So if we wanted a French horn, or a bit more synth on this, or a more powerful sound there… They knew they could twiddle the knobs and get it up, so suddenly we had a French horn at the end of Kids In America and we had sirens and a great pulse… They were a very experienced band so we were helped, we were fortunate to have them, so there’s no question that The Enid must take some credit. All the tracks that we did there, which were n Kim’s first album, came very quickly.

“It was one of those those times when I hadn’t really written anything of value and hadn’t been writing at all for some time – I’d probably not written for about five or six years when I started to write this song – so that layoff did me good. Because with lyrics, if you’re talking about love and after you’ve written [so many] songs on love, you start desperately looking around for a fresh angle. So I had the angles, I had fresh ideas and I felt like I was about 20 years old again! And with Rick being a young guy, the whole thing really went through like a dream. As we were finishing one song, he would get a melody line or I would get an idea and we’d be moving on to the next one.

“[With the iconic ‘woa-a-oh’ backing vocal] there was always a gap there but we all thought it should be a vocal ‘answer’ and also something you which you can get a crowd to join in with. It was just a natural chant that came in and it was needed. It comes down to the arrangement, you couldn’t leave [it out] so that tiny little line really fills it up. And when Kim does a concert you can here them all going, ‘Woa-a-ohh!’

“It was like every song that I’ve ever been a part of, when I’m actually writing it, I’m 100 percent up for it. Sometimes you can be very wrong. I’ve been there many times, you can be part of a song that you think, ‘Oh, this is a smash!’ But whatever happens, you go in with that kind of enthusiasm when you’re writing because you need to keep your energy flowing. If you start to doubt yourself, your song will end up on a piece of paper in the corner of a room instead of being out on a record. So yeah, I still get a buzz. Sometimes you write a song you think: why in God’s name wasn’t that a hit? It’s one of those things, there needs to be a gap for a song to be a hit. There has to be a market for it and a bit of luck. [We had] phenomenal luck!”.

There are a couple of other interviews I want to bring in. The Guardian chatted with Kim and Marty Wilde in 2017. A single that was controversial as it sold so fast. Seen as a scam because of its instant success, there is no denying how Kids in America was this titanic thing. It instantly connected with people. I want to include recollections from Kim Wilde:

“My brother Ricky hated school and left at the age of 17. He started writing songs and trying his luck with record companies. He was bowled over by the charismatic Mickie Most at RAK Records and took me along to meet him. I wore my best black-and-red punky trousers and had newly acquired blond hair which, according to one teacher, was the most creative thing I’d done at art school.

Mickie noticed me straight away. He asked Ricky: “Does your sister sing?” Suddenly, Ricky was being asked to write songs for me. He wrote the tune for Kids in America with my dad [the singer Marty Wilde] doing the lyrics. Ricky came up with the melody on a Wasp synth, a little black and yellow thing that made a bloody irritating noise if you were an older sister in the bedroom next door.

We recorded it in a studio in Hertfordshire owned by prog rock band the Enid. It was full of reptiles and other slithery things. The finished song sounded really exciting, but took a year to get released, during which time I worked in a local pub, wondering what was going to happen. When Kids in America finally came out, it sold so fast the people who regulate the charts thought it was a scam. It sold 60,000 copies a day and was only kept off No 1 by Shakin’ Stevens.

As Hertfordshire kids who grew up with Saturday Night Fever, we always imagined American teenagers were having a much better time: going to drive-ins, eating hamburgers, wearing fabulous clothes, snogging really cool kids. The song worked because everyone had the same fantasy.

Four years ago, Ricky and I were coming back on the train after the Magic FM Christmas party. They had all these exotic cocktails, so we’d stayed much longer than we planned. I’d acquired a pair of antlers and, since Rick had his guitar, I said: “Come on, let’s have a sing-song.” A passenger filmed us so there’s this footage of me on YouTube, extremely squiffy, wearing antlers and singing Kids in America. To my amazement, it went viral”.

Kim Wilde has very little but respect and love for her best known song. In 2015, The Guardian spoke with her, and she did say this: “After the 1980s I felt very caged in by “Kids in America”. I put out a more R&B influenced album but the public just didn’t want that girl Kim Wilde doing that. So I got out of the music business. Now I realise what a piece of gold that song is; I feel extremely honoured it’s mine”. I can appreciate she did not want to feel defined by one song. However, it is a gift that keeps on giving. Widely played to this day, she is still out there releasing phenomenal music. Her fifteenth studio album, Closer, was released in January. Writing on the album with Ricky Wilde and his daughter, Scarlett, it is another case of family being at the heart of her music! The same with Kids in America and writing with her father. Even though Marty Wilde is not songwriting anymore, he can look back proudly at one of his greatest moments. As Kim Wilde turns sixty-five on 18th November, I wanted to show proper respect…

FOR Kids in America.

FEATURE: The Digital Mixtape: Neil Young at Eighty

FEATURE:

 

 

The Digital Mixtape

PHOTO CREDIT: Ryan Pfluger for The New Yorker

Neil Young at Eighty

__________

BECAUSE the one and only…

PHOTO CREDIT: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

Neil Young turns eighty on 12th November. I am going to come to a career-spanning mixtape featuring so many of his incredible songs. One of the greatest songwriter ever, I am going to focus on Neil Young solo (or him with Crazy Horse too), rather than his work with David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash. Before getting there, I am going to bring in some incredibly detailed and deep biography from AllMusic:

“An iconoclast with a large, loyal audience and a long, very successful career, Neil Young has explored a impressive range of styles -- from acoustic introspection and wistful country-rock to blistering hard rock, electronic experimentation, blues, rockabilly, and heartfelt polemics -- while sounding entirely like Neil Young at all times, with his engagingly craggy voice, his flinty sincerity, and unique gifts as a songwriter. Young's creative restlessness is a comfortable match for his prolific nature, and he's not averse to dropping his current fascinations for something else on the drop of a dime, which frustrates some fans but also helps keep his music fresh and full of ideas. Even when he's in relatively familiar musical territory (his electric music with Crazy Horse, his rootsy semi-acoustic work, the intimacy of his solo performances, his thematic albums focusing on life experiences and his take on the world around him), there's a spark of unpredictability that fuels his muse and keeps him in the present day despite a career spanning over seven decades.

Looking back at the blockbuster success of "Heart of Gold," the mellow country-rock tune that became his first number one single and only Billboard Top 40 hit in 1971, Neil Young remarked that the song "put me in the middle of the road. Traveling there soon became a bore so I headed for the ditch." Young wrote this passage for the liner notes of Decade, a double-disc compilation that documented the first part of his career, ten years that took him from the pioneering Los Angeles rock & roll band Buffalo Springfield, through his emergence as a lone folk-rock troubadour and his alliance with Crosby, Stills & Nash, to his noisy, rambling wanderings with Crazy Horse. Over the years, he would tap back into these different sounds and personas, but his avoidance of the middle of the road pushed him into eccentric territory his singer/songwriter peers would generally avoid. Young's willfulness could be as much a hindrance as an attribute -- famously, Geffen Records sued him for delivering albums that were "uncharacteristic" -- but his muse also led to a series of distinctive, indelible records whose legacy sometimes only revealed itself over time; eventually, the electro experiments of 1982's Trans were acknowledged as an artistic achievement, not a commercial disaster. Many of Young's most enduring works arrived in the '70s, when he alternated between such bruised, beautiful introspection as 1970's After the Gold Rush and noisy guitar jams like 1969's Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, taking detours for such after-hours decadence as 1975's Tonight's the Night. Young would follow this rough blueprint for years, swaying between noisy rock and intimate folk. Occasionally, his muse led him directly into the cultural zeitgeist, as it did during the 1990s, when he was hailed the Godfather of Grunge and collaborated with Pearl Jam, and he always felt compelled to address social ills, whether it was through his 2006 Iraq War protest album Living with War or The Monsanto Years, a record about the environment made with Promise of the Real in 2015. Even backed only by his guitar or a piano, he could still mesmerize an audience, as on 2025's Coastal: The Soundtrack. Young often returned to his home base of Crazy Horse -- they backed him on efforts like Barn (2020) and the Rick Rubin-produced World Record (2022), and echoes of their noisy approach could be heard on Young's first album with the band the Chrome Hearts, 2025's Talkin To The Trees -- yet despite these constants in his career, he remained a vital, unpredictable presence for decades, challenging himself and his audience.

Born in Toronto, Canada, Neil Young moved to Winnipeg with his mother following her divorce from his sports journalist father. He began playing music in high school. Not only did he play in garage rock outfits like the Squires, but he also played in local folk clubs and coffeehouses, where he eventually met Joni Mitchell and Stephen Stills. During the mid-'60s, he returned to Toronto, where he played as a solo folk act. By 1966, he'd joined the Mynah Birds, which also featured bassist Bruce Palmer and Rick James. The group recorded an album's worth of material for Motown, none of which was released at the time. Frustrated by his lack of success, Young moved to Los Angeles in his Pontiac hearse, taking Palmer along as support. Shortly after they arrived in L.A., they happened to meet Stills, and they formed Buffalo Springfield, who quickly became one of the leaders of the California folk-rock scene.

Despite the success of Buffalo Springfield, the group was plagued with tension, and Young quit the band several times before finally leaving to become a solo artist in May of 1968. Hiring Elliot Roberts as his manager, Young signed with Reprise Records and released his eponymous debut album in early 1969. By the time the album was released, he had begun playing with a local band called the Rockets, which featured guitarist Danny Whitten, bassist Billy Talbot, and drummer Ralph Molina. Young renamed the group Crazy Horse and had them support him on his second album, Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, which was recorded in just two weeks. Featuring such Young staples as "Cinnamon Girl" and "Down by the River," the album went gold. Following the completion of the record, he began jamming with Crosby, Stills & Nash, eventually joining the group for their spring 1970 album Déjà Vu. Although he was now part of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, he continued to record as a solo artist, releasing After the Gold Rush in August 1970. The album, along with its accompanying single "Only Love Can Break Your Heart," established Young as a solo star, and fame only increased through his association with CSN&Y.

Although Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young were a very successful act, they were also volatile, and they had split by the spring 1971 release of the live Four Way Street. The following year, Young had his first number one album with the mellow country-rock of Harvest, which also featured his first (and only) number one single, "Heart of Gold." Instead of embracing his success, he spurned it, following it with the noisy, bleak live film Journey Through the Past. Both the movie and its soundtrack received terrible reviews, as did the live Time Fades Away, an album recorded with the Stray Gators that was released in 1973.

Both Journey Through the Past and Time Fades Away signaled that Young was entering a dark period in his life, but they only scratched the surface of his anguish. Inspired by the overdose deaths of Danny Whitten in 1972 and his roadie Bruce Berry the following year, Young wrote and recorded the bleak, druggy Tonight's the Night late in 1973, but declined to release it at the time. Instead, he released On the Beach, which was nearly as harrowing, in 1974; Tonight's the Night finally appeared in the spring of 1975. By the time of its release, Young had recovered, as indicated by the record's hard-rocking follow-up, Zuma, an album recorded with Crazy Horse and released later that year.

Young's focus began to wander in 1976, as he recorded the duet album Long May You Run with Stephen Stills and then abandoned his partner midway through the supporting tour. The following year, he recorded the country-rock-oriented American Stars 'N Bars, which featured vocals by Nicolette Larson, who was also prominent on 1978's Comes a Time. Prior to the release of his late-'70s records, Young scrapped both the country-rock album Homegrown as well as future bootlegger favorite Chrome Dreams, and he assembled the triple-album retrospective Decade. All of the songs from these shelved albums would eventually be released in one form or another on various scattered albums as the years went on, and the original forms of each would see proper, official release decades later. At the end of 1978, he embarked on an arena tour called Rust Never Sleeps, which was designed as a showcase for new songs. Half of the concert featured Young solo, the other half featured him with Crazy Horse. That was the pattern that Rust Never Sleeps, released in the summer of 1979, followed. The record was hailed as a comeback, proving that Young was one of the few rock veterans who attacked punk rock head-on. That fall he released the double-album Live Rust and the live movie Rust Never Sleeps.

Rust Never Sleeps restored Young to his past glory, but he perversely decided to trash his goodwill in 1980 with Hawks & Doves, a collection of acoustic songs that bore the influence of conservative right-wing politics. In 1981, Young released the heavy rock album Re*ac*tor, which received poor reviews. Following its release, he left Reprise for the fledgling Geffen Records, where he was promised lots of money and artistic freedom. Young decided to push his Geffen contract to the limit, releasing the electronic Trans in December 1982, where his voice was recorded through a computerized vocoder. The album and its accompanying technology-dependent tour were received with bewildered, negative reviews. The rockabilly of Everybody's Rockin' (1983) was equally scorned, and Young soon settled into a cult audience for the mid-'80s.

Over the course of the decade, Young released three albums that were all stylistic exercises. In 1985, he released the straight country Old Ways, which was followed by the new wave-tinged Landing on Water the following year. He returned to Crazy Horse for 1987's Life, but by that time, he and Geffen had grown sick of each other, and he returned to Reprise in 1988. His first album for Reprise was the bluesy, horn-driven This Note's for You, which was supported by an acclaimed video that satirized rock stars endorsing commercial products. At the end of the year, he recorded a reunion album with Crosby, Stills & Nash called American Dream, which was greeted with savagely negative reviews.

American Dream didn't prepare any observer for the critical and commercial success of 1989's Freedom, which found Young following the half-acoustic/half-electric blueprint of Rust Never Sleeps with fine results. Around the time of its release, Young became a hip name to drop in indie rock circles, and he was the subject of a tribute record titled The Bridge in 1989. The following year, Young reunited with Crazy Horse for Ragged Glory, a loud, feedback-drenched album that received his strongest reviews since the '70s. For the supporting tour, Young hired the avant-rock band Sonic Youth as his opening group, providing them with needed exposure while earning him hip credibility within alternative rock scenes. On the advice of Sonic Youth, Young added the noise collage EP Arc as a bonus to his 1991 live album, Weld.

Weld and the Sonic Youth tour helped position Neil Young as an alternative and grunge rock forefather, but he decided to abandon loud music for its 1992 follow-up, Harvest Moon. An explicit sequel to his 1972 breakthrough, Harvest Moon became Young's biggest hit in years, and he supported the record with an appearance on MTV Unplugged, which was released the following year as an album. Also in 1993, Geffen released the rarities collection Lucky Thirteen. The following year, he released Sleeps with Angels, which was hailed as a masterpiece in some quarters. Following its release, Young began jamming with Pearl Jam, eventually recording an album with the Seattle band in early 1995. The resulting record, Mirror Ball, was released to positive reviews in the summer of 1995, but it wasn't the commercial blockbuster it was expected to be; due to legal reasons, Pearl Jam's name was not allowed to be featured on the cover.

In the summer of 1996, he reunited with Crazy Horse for Broken Arrow and supported it with a brief tour. That tour was documented in Jim Jarmusch's 1997 film Year of the Horse, which was accompanied by a double-disc live album. In 1999, Young reunited with Crosby, Stills & Nash for the first time in a decade, supporting their Looking Forward LP with the supergroup's first tour in a quarter century. A new solo effort, Silver & Gold, followed in the spring of 2000. In recognition of his 2000 summer tour, Young released the live album Road Rock, Vol. 1 the following fall, showcasing a two-night account of Young's performance at the Red Rocks Amphitheater in Morrison, Colorado, in September 2000. A DVD version titled Red Rocks Live was issued that December, and included 12 tracks initially unavailable on Road Rock, Vol. 1. His next studio project was his most ambitious yet, a concept album about small-town life titled Greendale that he also mounted as a live dramatic tour and indie film.

In early 2005, Young was diagnosed with a potentially deadly brain aneurysm. Undergoing treatment didn't slow him down, however, as he continued to write and record his next project. The acoustically based Prairie Wind appeared in the fall, with the concert film Heart of Gold, based around the album and directed by Jonathan Demme, released in 2006. That year also saw the release of the controversial Living with War, a collection of protest songs against the war in Iraq that featured titles such as "Let's Impeach the President," "Shock and Awe," and "Lookin' for a Leader." Restless, prolific, and increasingly self-referential, Young issued Chrome Dreams II late in 2007 and the car-themed Fork in the Road in 2009. Later in 2009, he finally issued the first installment in his long-rumored Archives series, Archives, Vol. 1, a massive first volume that combined over ten CD and DVD discs in a single box. As he was prepping Archives, Vol. 2, Young entered the studio with producer Daniel Lanois and recorded Le Noise, which appeared in the fall of 2010.

Archives, Vol. 2 was not forthcoming, however, as Young stayed very active during the early 2010s, he finally reunited with Richie Furay and Stephen Stills as Buffalo Springfield for a pair of shows at his annual Bridge School Benefit in the fall of 2010. It wasn't a complete reunion, since bassist Bruce Palmer had died in 2004 and drummer Dewey Martin passed in 2009, but the three singers used drummer Joe Vitale and bassist Rick Rosas to fill in. The same configuration played six concerts in the spring of 2011 but reportedly did no studio work. Young continued going through his archives with the release of A Treasure in 2011, a single-disc set of live tracks recorded during his 1984-1985 tour with the International Harvesters that featured five previously unreleased Young songs mixed in with older songs like "Flying on the Ground Is Wrong" and "Are You Ready for the Country?," all done in the classic Harvest style. In 2012, Young reunited with Crazy Horse for Americana, a set of classic folk tunes like "This Land Is Your Land" and "Wayfarin' Stranger," followed several months later by the double-disc album of originals Psychedelic Pill, which again saw Young turning to the guitar garage stomp of Crazy Horse.

In September 2012, Young published his memoir, Waging Heavy Peace: A Hippie Dream. In the book, he wrote at length about his family and career and expressed his frustration with the low sound quality of digital music. Timed with the release of the book, Young announced the founding of Pono Music, originally a new audio format but later simplified to a music player and downloading service designed for audiophiles and listeners who had similar issues with sound quality. A Kickstarter campaign in 2014 raised six-million dollars, one of the largest digitally crowd-funded efforts in history, and the company started shipping the devices in the fall of 2014. On the recording front, Young entered Jack White's Third Man studios in Nashville to cut A Letter Home, a covers album featuring songs from Young's favorite songwriters. Within a few months, he announced another full-length for 2014, Storytone. The album was heralded by the release of an environmentally conscious song, "Who's Going to Stand Up?," that Young had been performing in concert.

Young's passion for environmental causes also informed his next album, 2015's The Monsanto Years, in which he took on the issues of genetically modified crops and agribusiness; the album found him backed by Promise of the Real, a band led by Lukas Nelson, son of outlaw country icon and Young's close friend Willie Nelson. Young and Promise of the Real supported The Monsanto Years with a tour, which became the basis for the 2016 live double-album Earth. Just after the June release of Earth, Young wrote and recorded the protest album Peace Trail, which appeared in December 2016.

Young continued his burst of activity in 2017 with the release of "Children of Destiny." It was the first single from The Visitor, an album recorded with Promise of the Real that appeared in December 2017. The Promise of the Real also supported Young on Paradox, the soundtrack to the Daryl Hannah film starring Young and the band. Also in 2018, Young released two volumes in his Archives series: April saw the release of Roxy: Tonight's the Night Live, which was recorded in 1973, and November brought the release of Songs for Judy, a collection of highlights from his acoustic 1976 tour. Young unveiled another archival release in June 2019, Tuscaloosa, a live set recorded at an Alabama date on the same 1973 tour that produced Time Fades Away.

In May 2018, Young announced he was playing a handful of shows in California with Crazy Horse. Frank "Pancho" Sampedro opted not to perform, and Young recruited Nils Lofgren to join himself, Billy Talbot, and Ralph Molina for the tour. The concerts proved to be a warm-up for the recording of 2019's Colorado, cut in the titular state during a full moon, with the Lofgren/Talbot/Molina edition of Crazy Horse backing him.

Neil Young continued mining his archives in 2020, unearthing the scrapped 1975 album Homegrown for an official release that summer, with the long-awaited box set Archives, Vol. 2: 1972-1976 appearing at the end of the year; a live 2003 performance called Return to Greendale preceded the box by a few weeks. Just two months prior to the 2020 presidential election, Young released The Times, an EP offering solo acoustic versions of his well-known protest songs along with a cover of Bob Dylan's "The Times They Are A-Changin'." In February 2021, Way Down in the Rust Bucket -- a double-disc live album recorded in November 1990 on the Ragged Glory tour -- appeared, followed in March by Young Shakespeare, a live album from 1971. Before 2021 was over, Young issued the first installment of his Official Bootleg Series with Carnegie Hall 1970. Though the second of his two sets at Carnegie Hall had been widely bootlegged over the years, this release offered previously unreleased recordings of the first set, which found Young playing many songs off the then-recently released After the Gold Rush LP, as well as performing tunes that weren't commercially available yet at that point.

Young closed out a busy 2021 with Barn, an album recorded with Crazy Horse; it was the second LP in a row to feature Nils Lofgren, who took over the guitarist role vacated by a retired Frank "Poncho" Sampedro. The Official Bootleg Series continued in May 2022 with the release of three more live sets that had circulated as bootlegs for decades, all presented in upgraded recording quality and packaging: Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Royce Hall, and Citizen Kane Jr. Blues 1974 (Live at the Bottom Line). Dorothy Chandler Pavilion and Royce Hall were recorded within weeks of each other at separate Los Angeles gigs in 1971, and they included material from After the Gold Rush as well as songs yet to be recorded for Harvest. Citizen Kane Jr. Blues captured an unannounced solo set on a bill shared with Leon Redbone and Ry Cooder in 1974. The show featured performances of songs that would appear publicly for the first time a few months later as part of On the Beach. In July 2022, Young issued Toast, an archival release of a studio album he had cut with Crazy Horse in 2001, which was swiftly followed by Noise & Flowers, a document of his 2019 tour with Promise of the Real.

Later in 2022, Young teamed with Crazy Horse once more to record the new LP World Record. Working with producer Rick Rubin, Young and his band tracked the album live in the studio and mixed the sessions to analog tape, giving the entire record an off-the-cuff energy. Unlike the meat-and-potatoes rock of Barn, World Record experimented with expanded instrumentation, and the songs tended toward themes of environmental conversation and efforts to preserve the Earth. Not long after releasing Barn, the four current members of Crazy Horse issued All Roads Lead Home, a record credited to Molina, Talbot, Lofgren & Young.

Young's archival releases continued in earnest in 2023, starting with two additions to his Official Bootleg Series: the 1973 concert document Somewhere Under the Rainbow and High Flyin', the first official release of his very unofficial band the Ducks, a short-lived group who played a handful of unannounced barroom gigs in 1977. Next up was another installment of the Official Release Series -- this volume featured his comeback of the late '80s and early '90s -- and then the first official release of Chrome Dreams, an album originally intended for release in 1977 and heavily bootlegged over the years. At the end of 2023, Young released Before and After, a live-in-the-studio acoustic set that found him revisiting songs from earlier in his career. In 2024, the live set FU##IN' UP captured Young and Crazy Horse performing songs from their 1990 album Ragged Glory in an intimate concert setting, presented mostly with new titles taken from lyrical fragments within the songs. The album was released as Young and the band embarked on a North American tour.

In 2025, his vault-combing continued with the official release of yet another lost album, material from 1977 sessions entitled Oceanside Countryside. Tracked in Malibu and Nashville, one side of the album found Young playing solo, and the other was full band excursions with Rufus Thibodeaux, Joe Osborne, and drums on one tune by the Band's Levon Helm. Actress and filmmaker Daryl Hannah followed Young on the road with a small camera crew when he set out on a West Coast solo tour (not long after the end of COVID-19 restrictions against live performances), where he focused on some of his lesser-known material. Hannah fashioned the material into a documentary, Coastal, which was given a one-night theatrical release on April 17, 2025. The film's soundtrack album was issued the following day.

In 2024, Young revealed he had formed a new backing band, the Chrome Hearts. The group was full of familiar names -- guitarist Micah Nelson, bassist Corey McCormick, and drummer Anthony Logerfo had all worked with Young before as members of Promise of the Real, while keyboard player Spooner Oldham was a veteran session musician and songwriter who first backed Young on his 1978 album Comes a Time, touring and recording with him periodically ever since. Neil Young and the Chrome Hearts booked an international concert tour to coincide with their first album together, 2025's Talkin to the Trees, an eclectic and free-spirited set that featured thoughtful folk-rock as well as loud, loose-limbed rockers”.

One of the greatest songwriter who has ever lived, this year has been another busy one for Neil Young. A headline slot at Glastonbury and another album, his forty-ninth, was Talkin to the Trees. That was released as neil young and the chrome hearts. To celebrate the approaching eightieth birthday of Neil Young, enjoy this career-spanning mixtape…

FROM a masterful artist.

FEATURE: Spotlight: JayaHadADream

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

PHOTO CREDIT: Adam Rosenbaum

JayaHadADream

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I am writing this…

PHOTO CREDIT: Sam Thacker

ahead of the release of her debut mixtape, Happiness from Agony. That came out on 24th October. After a series of solo singles and collaboration, this is the first big project from one of our most promising and talented artists. I am going to start with an interview from 2023, so we can learn a little more about this incredible musician. I will then bring things more up to date. Left Lion spoke with JayaHadADream. The Nottingham (she was based there for university, but now she resides in Cambridge) Hip-Hop sensation was set to take the world by storm. That course is set and she is making big strides. A debut mixtape will definitely take her music to new fans and nations:

“Raised in Cambridge with Jamaican and Irish heritage, Jayahadadream moved to Nottingham in 2018 to study at university. Since then, her time has been split between the two locations, and we were lucky enough to catch her for a chat in our LeftLion offices while she was visiting our city for the weekend…

A number of bands met and formed while they were at university in Nottingham; think Amber Run, Blondes, and Don Broco, to name a few. Jaya (stage name Jayahadadream) - a rising star in the world of hip hop - also found her voice and sound while studying here, and Nottingham has served as something of an honorary hometown for her ever since. “It has been the most nurturing city for me; this is definitely my city. Most of my big checkpoints have been here,” she says. “It feels like home when it’s not, really.”

This month, Jaya will make a further appearance on Nottingham’s vast festival circuit, headlining Green Hustle in Old Market Square. This is an opportunity she was particularly looking forward to because it aligns with her own personal morals and interests. “I’m so excited, not just because I love the people who are hosting it, but also because I'm vegan myself, so the event very much supports my morals and the things I'm interested in.”

The inspiration behind her stage name, which can now be seen displayed on these festival posters, is a complex one with many layers. “There's a lot of different things that went into it,” she says. “I have a sociology degree and I have a strong sense of justice – I can't help it, being a woman and being mixed race. Ever since I was a kid, in the hallway we had a Martin Luther King poster which had his whole speech on it. Then, at the bottom it said, ‘I had a dream.’

“I used to just naturally say ‘Jaya had a dream’ in my songs a lot, and that's something that seemed to stick with people. It just fits. Actually, people in the industry have tried to get me to change it and shorten it. But Tyler, the Creator is a long name, too!” she laughs. “I like it and I do feel like there's something deep in it now, in my soul.”

With the mention of Tyler, the Creator, I recall a tweet where Jaya said she doesn’t listen to much hip hop herself, despite making it. “I forget that people can read my tweets!” she says with a laugh. “I actually only listen to hip hop thirty percent of the time. I listen to a lot of old music, like Stevie Wonder and David Bowie. If I feel the lyrics, I like it. I think Kendrick Lamar and Nas are my top rappers, but I even listen to Kings of Leon and My Chemical Romance. I also love musical soundtracks, like Les Mis and Rocky Horror.”

Using social media can create a lot of pressure and anxiety for recording artists, but Jaya has established a healthy balance that many find difficult to strike. “At the moment, I'm actually finding social media really fun,” she says. “I have support across the world and that wouldn't happen without social media. There is an anxiety, but right now I don't scroll very much. That’s my biggest piece of advice for other artists: just post, don’t scroll!”

Going forward, Jaya plans to release a single which is more in line with the rest of her discography prior to Top One. “Something that's a bit slower, with more of a story, like my other songs,” she explains. A full EP with Nigerian artist Wasalu is also on the way, which has been two years in the making. “I recorded most of it on Glasshouse Street here in Nottingham, in my old flat,” she says”.

I forgot that JayaHadADream put out an E.P., Redemption Songs, last year. In any regards, her debut mixtape is still her biggest release. I am interested to see how it is received. I shall come to a recent interview from NME. Before that, in September, CLASH spoke with the amazing JayaHadADream. This is an artist very much primed and ready. There is focus from radio stations in the U.K., though I don’t think she is being talked about as much as she should be. Go and follow her on social media and check out Happiness from Agony:

“Her first EP, ‘Redemption Songs’, helped propel the razor tongued teacher-turned-emcee into a stratosphere of high calibre performers just over a year ago, off the back of winning Glastonbury Festival’s Emerging Talent Competition. The breakout project included sound-defining tracks such as ‘Twiggy’ and ‘Stubborn’, and placed her on the radar of grime and hip hop’s most prolific voices.

Having recently appeared on Frisco’s ‘Owe Me One’ single alongside JME and Flowdan, and stepped up to the plate of Red Bull’s Raise the Bar Cypher with Chip, Kibo and Kasst, her new sparring partners have helped sharpen the 24-year-old’s burgeoning artistry.

‘Happiness From Agony’ feels like the next evolution in an already shining career. Slick lyricism and infectious energy go hand in hand over an intricate array of different production styles. Keeping the vibe of a project consistent over different genres and BPMs is no mean feat, but Jaya and her big name collaborations do it effortlessly.

Over the course of two hours, connecting from Salford’s Media City to Jaya in the comfort of her home in Cambridge, we explored the importance of her matriarchal upbringing, musical influences throughout her life, and the excitement of releasing a new mixtape and going on tour.

What is your earliest memory of music?

We used to listen to Kisstory in the car. One time this song by CeeLo Green and Kelis came on called ‘Little Star’. Even to this day, if I hear that song it makes me so sad and happy at the same time. That was the first time I recognised that I got goosebumps from music.

I used to cry a lot over songs when I was very young, stuff by Michael Jackson, and Damian Marley – ‘There For You’, because it made me happy. I know it sounds weird, but that was the moment when I was like, ‘Oh, there’s something connected between me and this thing’.

What genres and artists do you love and how have they influenced your music?

I like a lot of 80s music. My Mum was born in the 70s, so she grew up on a lot of stuff from then. Artists like Kate Bush, Bowie, Stevie Wonder and Michael Jackson, and Whitney.

My sisters influenced a lot of the stuff outside of hip hop, [they] went through phases of being into Panic at the Disco, My Chemical Romance, artists that really taught me how to write differently.

I also like a lot of alternative music that’s more recent. I like Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Tame Impala, and Hak Baker. I just like anything that makes me feel like I believe what they’re saying.

Another thing that people don’t know about me is I actually love a lot of musical soundtracks. I just love anything that draws you in. Rocky Horror Picture Show, I probably know that back to back. Les Mis, Grease, Phantom of the Opera. There are always good stories and good characterisation which I really appreciate.

our lyric writing is so powerful. Where does the inspiration come from?

I’m quite an opinionated person, but I have always struggled to be the loudest in the room. Everything I write is like, ‘if I had a platform, this is what I want to say’.

I was a really shy kid. I barely spoke to anyone for the first three, four or five years of school.

When I first started doing sociology, one of the lecturers said “sociology is just ranting about shit that you hate in society…” To an extent, I feel like my music is me ranting about things I hate, things I love. I’m trying to almost set a philosophy of ‘this is how I see it, this is how I want society to be’.

What are the main differences for you as an artist from ‘Redemption Songs’ to ‘Happiness From Agony’?

I feel like I’ve learned so much. As artists, we drop a song, and then we feel a bit like ‘I gotta be doing the next thing’. I think this time, I’ve taken a lot more time with things. I definitely think more about building a song and making songs more cinematic, almost theatrical.

These days, I send voice notes to myself on WhatsApp when I’m out and about. I spend an awful lot of time working out the first bar these days, the first lyric. I’m becoming a real perfectionist with the pen”.

Whether you would class JayaHadADream as Grime or Hip-Hop, it is clear that this introspective and powerful storyteller is changing the scene. NME wrote how this artist is delivering “genre-hopping excellence and racking up recognition in the grime scene”. The magnificent Jaya Gordon-Moore is someone to watch closely. Her background and rise is so fascinating. How she has come through this academic route and has won plaudits, played on huge stations and is being tipped as one of the most essential artists in British music. The Grime/Hip-Hop queen is ready to take over the world:

“’Happiness From Agony’, her debut mixtape, continues to keep listeners on their toes. Gordon-Moore cites the soulful and syrupy number ‘I Know’ as her favourite track and one of her proudest moments of her career so far. “I don’t think people are expecting a mellow track like that from me,” she reasons. “When I made it, I listened on repeat, which is very rare for me. It gave me the same feelings my favourite songs do, and I’ve never really been able to recreate that. I also sing a lot more on it.”

On ‘The Bank’, she leans into bubbly 2-step production, perfect for dented, checkerboarded party floors and garage raves. By contrast, ‘Repackage’, her collaboration with Capo Lee, trades that bounce for trap-ruptured 808s, giving her space to volley back at haters, “repackage hate back to the sender / I’m Top Five, doesn’t matter what gender,” as she puts it.

It’s no surprise, then, that Gordon-Moore relates to artists being forced to categorise their sound – a struggle for someone who hops effortlessly between styles. “It’s just a collage that I’m tapping into,” she explains. “I can’t lie, being biracial [Jamaican and Irish] means you’re automatically one foot in everything ­– you see things differently.

“There’s also a lot of letting people bring you in. I do a lot of grime and hip-hop, and in my early work, I sang more while I was still finding myself artistically. I see grime as a movement and world, and hip-hop as a genre – it’s hard for me to identify with just one thing.”

As our chat winds down, Gordon-Moore smirks, hinting towards more brewing beneath the surface. The next chapter, she says, is all about taking her new tape on the road. What’s certain is how far she’s come from those university bedroom sessions. “Yeah,” she laughs, “my pen game’s better, my delivery’s better. I’ve actually got people to work with now. I’m just being the best MC possible, regardless of the box I’m put in. I think the kid in me who absorbed and saw so much growing up would be proud”.

I am going to end there. This feature is designed to give an insight into JayaHadADream and who she is. Happiness from Agony will be out by the time this feature is shared, and I know it will be met with acclaim and massive love. It is no less than we’d expect from a wonderful talent who richly deserves huge long-term success. I am fairly fresh to her music, though I can tell that she is the real deal. Go and catch her live if you can. She has some dates coming up, including some in London. I might see if I can get along to one of those. A natural and distinct talent who should be known by all. You do not need to be a Grime/Hip-Hop fan to appreciate and understand her music. For anyone who has not fallen under the spell of JayaHadADream, then go and add her to your playlist. We are going to be hearing and watching her shine…

FOR years to come.

___________

Follow JayaHadADream

Official:

https://www.jayahadadream.com/

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/jayahadadream

Twitter:

https://x.com/jayahadadream

TikTok:

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

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/artist/1Zr6I0quVpqoCSTs6TRCpo?si=b9AsYJ9mQh6OOqee1rPO5Q

YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/c/JayaHadADream

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/jayahadadream/

FEATURE: Groovelines: Warren G ft. Nate Dogg - Regulate

FEATURE:

 

 

Groovelines

Warren G ft. Nate Dogg - Regulate

__________

I am including this song…

in Groovelines, as Warren G turns fifty-five on 10th November. Perhaps his best-known track is Regulate. That 1994 single featured Nate Dogg. Nominated at the 1995 GRAMMY Awards for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group, this track was a huge international success. I will come to features about the classic song. It was interesting reading critical reaction to the song. I am going to move on in a minute. However, Wikipedia collated some critical reviews. I think Regulate has gained in stature and legacy in the thirty-one years since its release:

“James Hamilton from the Record Mirror Dance Update named it a "lovely languid 0-95.3bpm US smash gangsta rap with catchy whistling" in his weekly dance column. Gareth Grundy from Select wrote that songs like 'Regulate' "are smooth jeep beats that even a fully paid-up Klan member would struggle to resist." Charles Aaron from Spin commented, "Funny (or maybe not) how pop's young soul rebels sound more comfortably sincere when they're romancing their gats than when they're sweet-talking their ladies. Guess you gotta start somewhere. Anyway, as a rapper, Warren G's a regular-joe version of childhood bud Snoop Dogg; as a producer, his gangsta fantasyland is even more slickly diminished than big brother Dr. Dre. Imagine a stripped Mothership up on blocks with a fresh paint job”.

I will start out with a feature from Billboard published in 2014. I may repeat some of the details later on, though the fact that this feature has Warren G and Michael McDonald discussing the track makes it worth a read. There are sections of the article that particularly caught my eye. McDonald’s I Keep Forgettin' is sampled in Regulate. Its hook. McDonald says how his kids prefer Regulate over I Keep Forgettin'! He also says how Regulate is this landmark track:

“Michael McDonald had just hit the Lower East Side of the N-Y-C, and while he wasn’t on a mission trying to find Mr. Warren G, fate was about to intervene.

This was 1996 or ’97, and the former Doobie Brother and blue-eyed-soul legend was on his way to a Manhattan studio to work on some tracks. Suddenly, a car rolled up, the window went down, and there was Warren, one of several West Coast rappers and producers instrumental in creating the “G-funk” sound that revolutionized hip-hop earlier in the decade.

In the time it took for the traffic light to change from red to green, the two exchanged compliments like old friends, even though it was their first — and to date only — meeting. Then they went their separate ways.

“The fact that he saw me on the street and recognized me, I thought, was kind of funny,” McDonald tells Billboard.com. “I wouldn’t think of myself as a recording artist that, in his generation, you’d know what I look like.”

Of course, this wasn’t the first time fate had brought the two seemingly disparate musicians together. On April 28, 1994, Warren G and his frequent collaborator, the late Nate Dogg released “Regulate,” a single based largely on a sample from McDonald’s 1982 hit “I Keep Forgettin’ (Every Time You’re Near).”

Originally appearing on the “Above the Rim” movie soundtrack, “Regulate” became a summer rap anthem, reaching No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Every teenager in America knew the words, even if they couldn’t really relate to Warren and Nate’s tale about “hitting the east side of the L-B-C” and getting mixed up in all sorts of inner-city drama.

The song succeeds precisely because of its contradictions— gangsta lyrics combined with Nate Dogg’s lover-man crooning and McDonald’s smoother-than-smooth yacht-rock sound — and that’s down to Warren’s reverence for the source material. Thinking back to that face-to-face meeting with McDonald, Warren downplays the strangeness of their stoplight chat.

At the time, Warren was living in a dingy apartment on Long Beach Boulevard with dog crap all over the floor. He hadn’t yet risen to superstar status like his stepbrother Dr. Dre or good buddy Snoop Dogg — with whom he and Nate had founded the group 213 — but he was a striver. Maybe that’s why he related to the Wild West outlaws in “Young Guns,” a movie he happened to watch one night on VHS. It was a fortuitous viewing, as one line of dialogue — “Regulators: We regulate any stealing of this property, and we’re damn good, too” — caught his ear.

“That was our word: regulate,” Warren recalls. “Oh, we gotta regulate that, or we gotta regulate this.”

Realizing the line would make a great sample — and pair nicely with the McDonald bass groove and melody already swimming in his head — he plugged the VCR straight into his Akai MPC60 sequencer. Lastly, he whistled a riff lifted from Bob James’ 1981 funky jazz-fusion cut “Sign of the Times.” Now all the track needed was lyrics, so Warren called up Nate and told him to come on over.

“Why don’t we do a duet-type song like what Dre and Snoop dig with “Nuthin’ but a ‘G’ Thang?'” Warren remembers thinking.

The two went back and forth, Warren penning the first four bars and then passing the pen to Nate. Before long, they’d banged out the first verse and set the scene for the song’s strange, somewhat dreamlike narrative. In the opening lines, our heroes are cruising around Long Beach in separate cars, looking for female companionship. If Warren and Nate had a rough idea of where the story was going next, they didn’t have a chorus”.

I want to come to a feature from Pitchfork that was published in 2014. They talk about “The story of G Funk linchpin Warren G, from his fated break at a bachelor party hosted by Dr. Dre to his debut LP, which soundtracked the summer 20 years ago”. If you have not heard Warren G’s debut album, Regulate... G Funk Era, I would recommend you listen. Pitchfork talk about Nate Dogg and Warren G hooking up. The elegance and simplicity of Regulate. The perfect samples and fusions that make the track so enduring and rich:

“With a marijuantra of “whatever you do, young brother, you best not choke,” Nate Dogg staked his first claim as the most formative hip-hop singer. Had he embarked on a non-secular path, the bowler-hatted Bodhisattva might’ve wound up one the great missionaries of history. Save for Too $hort, it's difficult to think of anyone who could make people lovingly sing such profane things. To a 7th grader growing up in the G-Funk era, the imbalance was obvious: Nate Dogg telling you to smoke weed everyday > D.A.R.E..

“Indo Smoke” peaked at #56 on the Billboard Hot 100, but looped constantly on Power 106, 92.3, and "The Box". It transformed Warren G from a prospective inmate idling around Death Row into a rising prospect. 2Pac became a fan. Searching for his own contribution to the Poetic Justice soundtrack, Warren furnished the future rap martyr with “Definition of a Thug Nigga”. That same session at Echo Sounds in Atwater Village also induced “How Long Will They Mourn Me?”[3]

But nothing anticipated “Regulate”. It ran the summer of '94 with the sort of blockbuster rampage usually reserved for radioactive lizards. The multi-platinum ode from the Above the Rim soundtrack eventually reached #2 on the singles charts. It’s so tattooed into our collective memory that you can pick out any line (“It was a clear black night,” “If I had wings I would fly,” “Nate Dogg is about to make some bodies turn cold”) and the next rhyme is already in your head.

“Regulate” has an elegant simplicity, inasmuch as that’s possible for a song with a plot point hinging on a spontaneous orgy at the Eastside Motel. Warren stitched a loop of Michael McDonald white-linen soul with some whistling from an old jazz record by Bob “Nautilus” James. The cherry on top was the “regulators” speech from Young Guns. The rules were clear: No geeks off the streets, and only people who could earn their keep need apply. You didn’t need to understand the laws to know that they were ones to live by.

In essence, “Regulate” is Nate Dogg and Warren G’s version of “Nuthin But a G Thang”. The narrative revolves around a sliver of Eastside Long Beach: from the neighborhood hub at 21st Street and Lewis to the hourly motels on PCH. You’d have to scrap the entire conceit if you wrote it today, though—Nate Dogg and Warren G wouldn’t need to swerve solo in search of one another, they could just text. But in Motorola pager days, serendipity was possible through Nate catching his best friend in a dice game gone awry, using his marine skills to terminate every attacker, and play seductive Good Samaritan to some curvy girls with a broken car. He said it himself: It went real swell.

By its June 7, 1994, release date, Regulate…G-Funk Era ranked among the year’s most anticipated albums. Most teens didn’t even realize it wasn’t an official Death Row release. I always considered it the last in the Holy G-Funk Trinity, a smooth Sunday cruise to the hydraulic drive-by of The Chronic and Doggystyle. If Dre and Snoop were mythical Gin and Juiced Robin Hoods, Warren was the laid-back younger brother in the sweatshirt—the rap version of Mitch from Dazed and Confused, less intimidating and eager to pass the blunt.

Warren G’s debut received two Grammy nominations, was certified triple platinum, and finished as the year’s fourth most popular rap album—behind Doggystyle, Salt-N-Pepa’s Very Necessary, and the Above the Rim soundtrack (which inevitably sold a million strictly off “Regulate”). During a period where Def Jam and its sister company Rush Associated Labels faced bankruptcy, Warren G’s sales kept the company solvent”.

I might wind up here. Because Warren G is fifty-five on 10th November, I did want to shine a light on that amazing collaboration with Nate Dogg. The lead track from Regulate… G Funk Era, this amazing jam was one I first heard when it came out in April 1994. Regulate is one of the best tracks of the 1990s. I think it still sounds completely remarkable and original today. How it has been passed through the generations. One of those indelible songs that stays inside the head, it is a Hip-Hop masterpiece! Undoubtably, this is a gem that is…

ONE of the classics.

FEATURE: Spotlight: Revisited: Lana Lubany

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight: Revisited

Lana Lubany

__________

HERE is a remarkable…

human who is Palestinian-American artist blending Middle Eastern influences with Western sounds. Lana Lubany is someone I have been a fan of for years now. I spotlighted her back in 2022. A lot has happened since then. I am going to bring in a few interviews that have happened since then. It is a terrible time for so many of us but, for someone who has Palestinian heritage and is seeing genocide is Gaza and has connections to the country and people, it must be especially heartbreaking, angering and raw. We need to herald and highlight more artists who bring in sounds of Palestine and sing in Arabic. Whilst the news focuses on Israelis, their struggle and how they are benefiting from a ceasefire, there is very little about those in Gaza. The news speaking about Hamas post-ceasefire and them not disarming. Ignoring the fact that Israeli forces have killed Palestinians since the ceasefire deal. There is this huge bias towards Israel. Very little is being done to reverse this. I want to start out with this feature. An interview with Lana Lubany. She spoke about embracing her heritage, bilingual pop and the richness and importance of Palestinian culture:

“Your music seamlessly blends English and Arabic sounds, creating a unique fusion that reflects your Palestinian-American heritage. How did you decide to integrate both languages into your songs? And what significance does this bilingual approach have for you?

My mom has always encouraged me to sing in English and Arabic because of my Palestinian heritage. My grandmother, who’s American and from New Jersey, also greatly impacted me, blending different cultural experiences into my life.

For the longest time, I didn't want to sing in Arabic. I didn't think it was something I wanted to do, and I felt like I couldn't be successful singing in Arabic - especially in the Western world, where there were no examples to follow. But a few years ago, I hit a breaking point. I had been trying to find my thing for so long and nothing worked. Then a friend told me about someone looking for a girl who could sing in both languages.

I had to talk myself into it because I didn't think I could, but I wrote my first English-Arabic song, and to my surprise, I ended up liking it. There was something special about it. That experience led me to a path of accepting my identity and discovering who I am. I had to go through the tough times of not being true to myself and watering down my personality and cultural identity, but now I'm so glad I did because it led me to embrace who I am fully. Singing in both languages and doing whatever the fuck I want in my music feels incredibly powerful.

PHOTO CREDIT: Chloe Sheppard

It’s so powerful! Growing up with Arab heritage, I had never heard of or seen that. To see that happening now in the Western world is so incredible. I wish I had that as a little girl. It would have changed my thoughts on myself and music in general. It's incredible what you're doing. As a third culture kid, how do you navigate the duality of your heritage and influences in your music so well. How do you balance these two worlds creatively? And what unique perspectives do you bring to your work?

I find it really enjoyable to be creative in a way that hasn't been done before. It's like working on a blank canvas and I love being in the flow of constantly creating. It's surprising how two seemingly unrelated things can end up meshing together. Authenticity is the key. I will never do something that feels gimmicky or inauthentic to who I am, even if it's related to Arab culture or anything else. I stay true to myself while being open to experimenting and not afraid to be different. I want to do more than just follow trends – I want to do my own thing and create meaningful art.

Representing your homeland through your music is a powerful form of storytelling. How do you approach this responsibility, and what messages or narratives do you hope to convey about Palestine through your songs?

I want to show people what we're really like, the true face of us Palestinians, because we have a beautiful culture and we're such generous, giving people. Everything you see about us in the media is very harmful and sad. My role is very specific to me and to my experiences. There isn't a representation for everyone right now out there in the world. It's really important to me to make people feel they don't have to water down their personalities and backgrounds to fit in. You should be proud of where you're from.

I did that at the start of my career, which I feel sad about now.

I can understand, you felt like you wanted to fit in.

You've been a pioneer in representing your culture through your art; what challenges have you faced in this role? And how important is it for you to speak up?

I feel like you don't know someone entirely online. You can't. It's just impossible. And a lot of people are very judgy. They misjudge you based on one thing that you've said or not said, and they don't think about the whole story. Because the internet is so polarising, I've had difficulty navigating social media, especially in the past year.

Not just that, the political situation has been very difficult for me. I had to step back from social media because I didn't know how to navigate it. But now I know that people are going to judge no matter what.

It's important, especially as a Palestinian artist, for you to protect yourself and your mental health. Have you spoken about the adversity and racism you experienced growing up? If you could go back, what advice would you give your younger self to navigate those challenges?

If I could go back, I would tell my younger self so many things. Being Arab is fucking cool. It's the coolest thing in the world, and you should embrace it. Because I think everybody's hating us because they ain't us. Do you know what I mean?

When I look back now as an Arab woman, I didn't even realise how much pop culture is influenced by our music - like Timbaland. All these artists used our beats and our movements. I looked at it through that lens and was like, ‘Oh, my God, we were there all along.’ People were so into our culture. If I had that perspective back then, things would have been different.

I would tell my younger self not to listen to the narrative that's been so loud in the media for the past years. Because it's all storytelling. I've learned so much about how the media can change the narrative, even if they're lying, which is crazy and scary.

I would tell her to accept herself, which is harder said than done. It’s much cooler to be unique and individual and yourself. It's so corny, but it's so true.

I am going to come to some coverage and interviews from this year. However, last year was one where Lana Lubany was on the radar of a selection of music websites. Her YAFA E.P. was released last Hallowe’en. This year has seen her release extraordinary singles, KHALAS and 73T. It is the fact Lana Lubany strives to incorporate, represent and highlight her Palestinian heritage in her work that is a huge reason to be drawn to her. So few artists who sing in Arabic are talked about. It is perhaps more important now than ever that this language and the voices of these artists is discussed. Last September, ahead of her appearance at Germany’s Reeperbahn Festival, Lubany was interviewed by DIY:

“When it comes to discovering music’s most exciting artists, there’s no better place to do it than Hamburg’s Reeperbahn Festival later this month. As ever, the city will be transformed into Europe’s premier new music hub, with performances coming from some of the buzziest breakthrough acts about – including Lambrini Girls, Soft Launch, Wasia Project, Moonchild Sanelly and more – as well as some more familiar faces for good measure (Swim Deep, Kate Nash, The Lemon Twigs, Rachel Chinouriri, we’re looking at you…).

You’ve had a busy year so far, releasing a handful of singles; how did you want to move forward after the release of ‘THE HOLY LAND’ - did you have a plan of where to go next, or was it much more reactive? 

I definitely had a plan post ‘THL’, but it had to shift due to the unforeseeable circumstances back home that were out of my control. I was experimenting with my sound with the releases that I had lined up, and I almost wanted to surprise people with the versatility I know I’m capable of, whilst also  staying quite reactive to what fans wanted and keeping them in the loop.

We can only imagine that it’s been incredibly difficult this year to be away from your family and home. You mentioned that ‘make it better’, which came out earlier in the year, stemmed from those feelings; without meaning to pry, can you tell us a little more about how challenging it been to stay creative as a Palestinian-American artist in recent months? 

This past year has been beyond difficult. The world was and is burning, inside and out. The basic concepts of humanity have shattered, and this has changed the face of normality. As creative as I always am, there seemed to be no room for art when basic survival was being fought for. I had to take a break to process everything and to give humanity priority, and when I was finally ready and able, I started expressing my emotions and frustration through my art. Everything I wrote this year has my pain and experiences as a Palestinian burned into it.

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Can you tell us a little more about your most recent track ‘PRAYERS’, and what the inspiration was behind it? It has you singing in both English and Arabic - why was it important to explore both languages here?

I wrote ‘PRAYERS’ during a time of desperation as everything fell apart around me, and to advocate for relief of all the pain that’s being inflicted. As a powerless being on this earth, I turned to a higher power to try and understand how this can be happening.

Adding Arabic to my songs is something I’ve been exploring and loving for the past couple of years, and it’s proved to be an important part in me showcasing my full identity truthfully, but during these times it’s felt even more important to me. I feel like my story as a Palestinian, born in her place of origin as a minority, is underrepresented and should be heard, and language is one of the ways I can tell that story.

Is this new material leading to a bigger project? If so, are you able to tell us a little bit about that?

I’m always thinking of the bigger picture when I write, and this new material is definitely building up to something… I’m not gonna reveal too much, but the project incorporates pieces of me and my story, and the role family and home have played in my life. The name of the project is highly personal to me as well! I’m very proud of it”.

It is clear that Lana Lubany has paved the way and changed the game for Arabic-speaking artists in the West. There is now more representation than ever, so Lubany should be hailed for that. However, I still think that the media and music industry needs to do their part more. Show why it is so important that there is more awareness of Arabic-speaking artists and why that is so important. In terms of their stories being told, now is a time in history that they need to be heard and never forgotten. Going back to DIY and their interview from this January. Including Lana Lubany in their Class of 2025, they commended Lubany’s world-building and ensuring that more Arabic voices are heard. Lubany revealed how she wants to let the whole world in. How, also, that she would be releasing a bunch of songs that would hopefully be included on an album. I hope that we hear an album from this remarkable talent next year:

“With Lubany leading the way, it feels like there’s no shortage of Arabic artists finding global stardom right now. Having opened for her friend and viral rapper Saint Levant for a run of sold out shows across Europe earlier in the year, does she feel like the narrative is beginning to shift? “I think there’s definitely a lot more people out there providing people like me representation,” she says. “That part of the world is being explored more through the arts and that’s so cool; suddenly there’s exciting things coming out of the Middle East and its diaspora. I don’t know where it’s going to head but I know it’s going to go far and it’s an honour to be a part of it.”

She also attributes parallels to breakthrough artists in Western culture, with a standout 2024 moment coming when she supported The Last Dinner Party earlier in the year. “I learned so much through watching them perform every night, they’re very inspiring to watch. I love artists who build worlds and it was so fun performing on those big stages to a lot of people who didn’t know me necessarily.”

Having spent so much time on the road this year, Lubany has been able to see the impact her music has had on the Arab diaspora first hand. “I’ve had people come up to me and say that, because of my music, they feel proud to be Arab now,” she muses. “I think that was so beautiful and such a privilege. “I’ve had so many people tell me that they want to learn Arabic through it as well which is really special.”

Given the weight of the ongoing crisis in her home nation, it’s understandable that the shockwaves coming from the Middle East initially brought about a creative pause at the start of the year. “I took a little break; I kind of got a little shaken up by everything going on so I wasn’t able to create in the way that I normally could and I wasn’t able to focus,” Lana says. But after some time for reflection, the musician realised that her art is a form of defiance. “I realise now it’s more important than ever to focus on art and to be telling my story,” she nods. “That’s my way of communicating and that’s my purpose.”

There’s a resulting sense of pride and freedom in her latest EP ‘YAFA’: a love letter to home and her Palestinian culture. The EP is a beacon of hope, celebrating the real Palestine and its people. “It’s important to tell the stories of the things that I’ve seen,” she says. “I love the culture, the people, and I want to bring that representation through. I think you do have to tell real stories of people because we’re not numbers. In the news we’re not humanised and art can really humanise people.”

The most direct way Lubany tells those stories is by leaning into her own family heritage. On ‘YAFA’’s meditative and otherworldly title track, she samples an emotive recording of her own late grandmother discussing her home as a dramatic synth swells around it. “It was really important to me to tell her story within mine because obviously they’re very interlinked,” she smiles. “Family is such an important part of my artistry and my life.”

The release also broaches the struggle around her identity. On the haunting and dramatic ballad ‘I WISH I WAS NORMAL’, one of the very few lines in English yearns, “I wish I was born without something to say”. She says the line came from a particularly difficult time. “I was just wishing I was making songs about normal topics like boys or something,” she explains. “I ended up writing that song which is very vulnerable. It definitely helped me through the healing process that I was going through back then”.

In July, The New Arab spoke with Lana Lubany. They spoke with he about navigating the industry and her career after gaining popularity through TikTok. They also asked about her 2024 E.P., YAFA, and its incredible and powerful title track. If you have not discovered this artist, then make sure the supreme Lana Lubany is on your radar:

“Then there’s the title track, YAFA, which Lana describes as a way of preserving memories, particularly those of her grandmother, who was from Yafa, a city that, like many other Palestinian cities, came under Israeli occupation after the 1948 Nakba.

She shares, “The woman speaking in the song is my grandmother, my teta, from my dad's side. She would always visit us when we lived in Yafa, telling us stories about their grand home. They had a grand piano shipped from Europe, and they would host gatherings where they sang and played together. I was young when she told me these stories, so I wasn’t fully aware, but I remember them clearly.”

YAFA, named after Lana's hometown, incorporates elements of her upbringing and experiences that have shaped who she is today

In sharing this, Lana reveals that the idea for YAFA came to her when she discovered a video of her grandmother telling those very stories.

“I had already created the song when I found that video, and everything just clicked. Her story and mine connected so naturally, it felt like the perfect way to preserve a memory that needed to be shared. It's my love letter to the places that raised me — two places, both of which had an impact on who I am and who I’ve become.”

As for the YAFA visualiser, Lana describes the setting as both simple and powerful: “I’m in a room covered in red material, and the imagery symbolises so much. Everything is covered, with memories scattered on top. There’s a TV that stays off until my grandmother’s story starts, like a news flash interrupting the moment. It’s a video of her," she says.

"Watching the video makes me emotional because it’s so simple, but so powerful. It’s just an older woman sharing her life, and even after all those years, she still remembers where she comes from. And that, to me, is so powerful”.

I have so much respect and love for Lana Lubany. I hope to interview her at some point. I feel next year is going to be her most important yet. For that reason, I was keen to revisit her work. I am going to end there. Go and follow Lana Lubany. Truly, one of the most essential artists in music right now, she is also someone who has helped bring Arabic-speaking music more to the forefront. Her own path is looking bright! I can see her headlining festivals and releasing a string of albums. If you do not know about this American-Palestinian queen, then go and ensure that you…

CORRECT this right away.

___________

Follow Lana Lubany

PHOTO CREDIT: Chloe Sheppard

Official:

https://www.lanalubanymusic.com/

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/lanalubany/

Twitter:

https://x.com/LanaLubany

TikTok:

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

YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/lanalubany

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/artist/53jnd1fhXV7lbXSfjgk1WR?si=2-W-CwxFRkOs1EbRyUFQcQ

FEATURE: The Digital Mixtape: Björk at Sixty

FEATURE:

 

 

The Digital Mixtape

IN THIS PHOTO: Björk in 2024/PHOTO CREDIT: Vidar Logi (via GQ)

Björk at Sixty

__________

ONE of music’s…

IN THIS PHOTO: Björk in 1993 photographed for The Face/PHOTO CREDIT: Glen Luchford

innovators and true originals turns sixty on 21st November. The iconic Björk is one of the most recognisable voices in music history. Her debut album was not 1993’s Debut. Björk released her actual debut album back in 1977. Her most recent, Fossora, was released in 2022. I do hope that there will be more music in the future. I have been a fan of Björk’s since I was very young. I think Debut would be in my top fifty albums ever. It is a masterful and stunning work from the Icelandic artist. As she turns sixty on 21st November, I want to finish with a mixtape that is career-spanning and features big tracks and some deeper cuts. I am going to start out with AllMusic and their extensive biography about the legendary and singular Björk:

“A visionary artist who effortlessly blends avant-garde and pop elements, Björk makes music that is as innovative as it is emotional. When the Icelandic singer, songwriter, producer, composer, and multi-instrumentalist launched her solo career, she traded the arty guitar rock of her former group the Sugarcubes for dance music and worked with some of the genre's biggest names, including Nellee Hooper, Underworld, and Tricky. She established her new artistic direction with 1993's Debut, an international, multi-platinum hit that she followed with two equally groundbreaking albums: 1995's Post, another wildly successful work that reflected her style at its poppiest even as it fused jazz, industrial, and different flavors of electronic music, and 1997's Homogenic, an uncompromising fusion of strings and fractured beats that foreshadowed her increasingly experimental direction in the years to come. She swung from the daring softness of 2001's Vespertine to the primal vocal textures of 2004's Medúlla, and found new ways to connect humanity, technology, and music on 2011's Biophilia. Later in the 2010s and into the next decade, Björk delivered powerful expressions of loss and renewal with albums including 2015's Vulnicura and 2022's Fossora, both of which reaffirmed her as one of the most influential and distinctively creative talents of her times.

Born in Reykjavik in 1965 to activist Hildur Rúna Hauksdóttir, Björk spent her early years living in a commune with her mother and stepfather Sævar Árnason, who was a guitarist in the band Pops. She studied piano and flute at the Reykjavik school Barnamúsíkskóli; when she sang Tina Charles' "I Love to Love" at a recital, her teachers sent a recording to Iceland's Radio One that was then broadcast across the nation. A contract with the Fálkinn record label followed, and Björk recorded her self-titled debut album when she was 11. Released in Iceland in December 1977, Björk became a hit within Iceland and contained covers of several pop songs, including the Beatles' "Fool on the Hill."

As the '70s came to a close, the punk revolution changed Björk's musical tastes. She formed the post-punk group Exodus in 1979 and sang in Jam 80 the following year. In 1981, Björk and Exodus bassist Jakob Magnusson formed Tappi Tikarrass, which released an EP, Bitid Fast I Vitid, on Spor later that year; it was followed by the full-length Miranda in 1983. Following Tappi Tikarrass, she formed the goth-tinged post-punk group KUKL with Einar Orn Benediktsson. KUKL released two albums, The Eye (1984) and Holidays in Europe (1986), on Crass Records. During this time, Björk published a book of poetry, 1984's Um Úrnat frá Björk and appeared in her first film, The Juniper Tree (which was released in 1990). When Kukl dissolved in mid-1986, Björk, Benediktsson, and other former members founded the Smekkleysa ("Bad Taste") arts collective, which included the Sugarcubes among its projects. The Sugarcubes quickly became stars within their homeland and were also one of the rare Icelandic bands to achieve international success when their debut album, Life's Too Good, became a British and American hit in 1988. While the band was on hiatus following the Here Today, Tomorrow Next Week! tour, Björk pursued other projects, including Gling-Gló, a 1990 set of jazz standards and originals with an Icelandic bebop group called Trio Gudmundar Ingolfssonar, and a collaboration with Current 93. She also wrote her own songs and appeared on two songs on 808 State's 1991 album ex:el, an experience that sparked her love of house music.

After recording and touring in support of the Sugarcubes' final album, 1992's Stick Around for Joy, Björk moved to London and embarked on her solo career. Working with Massive Attack's Nellee Hooper as her co-producer, she combined new compositions with songs she had written as a teenager and drew from influences such as Bollywood, exotica, and jazz as well as electronic music. Featuring contributions from Talvin Singh, jazz harpist Corky Hale and reedist Oliver Lake, Debut -- so named by Björk to underscore its musical fresh start -- appeared in June 1993. It quickly became her most successful project to date: the album earned widespread critical acclaim and reached number two on the charts in Iceland and number three on the U.K. Album Charts. Debut went double platinum in the U.K. and platinum in four other countries, including the U.S., and was certified gold in five other countries. Boosted by an eye-catching Michel Gondry video, the single "Human Behaviour" became a Top 40 hit in the U.K., followed by "Venus as a Boy," "Big Time Sensuality," and "Violently Happy." At the end of the year, NME magazine named Debut the album of the year, while she won International Female Solo Artist and Newcomer at the BRIT Awards; at the 1994 Grammy Awards, Gondry's video was nominated for Best Short Form Music Video.

Björk followed Debut's success with a number of collaborations. "Play Dead," a collaboration with David Arnold recorded for the film The Young Americans, appeared shortly after the album's release and was included as a bonus track on a rerelease. In 1994, she lent her vocals to Plaid's album Not for Threes, co-wrote Madonna's "Bedtime Stories," and appeared in an uncredited role in Robert Altman's film Prêt-à-Porter. She also worked on her second album with Hooper, Tricky, 808 State's Graham Massey, and Howie B of Mo' Wax Records; as her co-producers; her other collaborators included Talvin Singh and Brazilian composer and conductor Eumir Deodato. Recorded in Nassau and London, June 1995's Post further broadened Björk's musical horizons, incorporating industrial, ambient, IDM, trip-hop, and jazz into its bustling portrait of her life after moving to London. Hailed for its fusion of pop and experimental music, the album was another critical success as well as on the charts. Post was a Top Ten hit in over 20 countries (including the U.K., where it reached number two) and peaked at number 32 in the U.S. It was certified platinum in four countries, including the U.K. and the U.S., and was certified gold in four more. Post yielded the singles "Army of Me," "Isobel," "Hyperballad" and "It's Oh So Quiet," the latter of which topped the Icelandic charts and was a Top Ten hit in four other countries. The album's accolades included the Icelandic Music Award for Album of the Year and the Grammy nomination for Best Alternative Music Album, while Björk won the Icelandic Music Awards for Artist of the Year, Female Singer of the Year, and Composer of the Year, and won her second Brit Award for Best International Female Solo artist. Additionally, Spike Jonze's vivid music video for "It's Oh So Quiet," which took inspiration from vintage Hollywood musicals, was nominated for the Best Music Video Grammy award. To support the album, Björk embarked on her first official tour of North America with Aphex Twin, and chronicled the European leg of the tour as well as the making of the album in the book Post. November 1996 saw the release of Telegram, a collection of remixes featuring contributions from LFO, Massey, Deodato, Dillinja, and percussionist Evelyn Glennie. The album reached number 66 on the U.S. charts and peaked at 59 in the U.K.

After the lengthy Post tour and an attempt on her life by an obsessed fan, Björk decamped to Málaga, Spain to work on her next album. Seeking a more cohesive approach inspired by Iceland's landscapes, she combined crunchy beats with sweeping strings and worked with co-producers Mark Bell, Guy Sigsworth, Howie B, and Markus Dravs, the Icelandic String Octet, and Deodato, who contributed additional string arrangements. Arriving in September 1997, the moody, forceful Homogenic was another triumph: Reaching the Top Ten in 15 countries, it was also certified gold in six countries, including the U.S. Along with earning Björk her third Brit Award for International Female Solo Artist, Homogenic was nominated for the Best Alternative Music Performance Grammy Award, while Gondry's video for the single "Bachelorette" and Chris Cunningham's video for "All Is Full of Love" were nominated for the Best Short Form Music Video Grammy Award in 1999 and 2000, respectively.

Early in 1999, Björk started work on Lars von Trier's film Dancer in the Dark, in which she played the main character Selma and wrote and produced the score. At the 2000 Cannes Film Festival, Dancer in the Dark won the Palme d'Or, while Björk was named Best Actress. Later that year, her score for the film appeared as Selmasongs, which included contributions from Homogenic collaborator Bell and "I've Seen It All," a duet with Radiohead's Thom Yorke that earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song. During the challenging Dancer in the Dark shoot, Björk composed quiet, intricate songs that provided a respite as well as a way to celebrate her relationship with artist Matthew Barney. Written and recorded in Spain, Denmark, Iceland, and New York, Vespertine appeared in August 2001 and included contributions from Barney, Jake Davies, Marius de Vries, Thomas Knak, Matmos, and harpist Zeena Parkins. Winning critical acclaim for its delicate sonics and sensual, vulnerable songwriting, the album topped the charts in five countries including Iceland and was certified gold in six countries; in the U.S., it reached number one on the Top Electronic Albums chart. Vespertine was nominated for the Best Alternative Album Grammy Award and the Icelandic Music Award for Album of the Year, while Björk was nominated for the Best International Female Solo Artist Brit Award. She brought Parkins, Matmos, and a choir of Inuit women with her on the Vespertine tour, chronicling its smaller-scale performances with the 2002 DVD Live at Royal Opera House and the following year's Miniscule. During this time, she also released Family Tree, a box set gathering rarities and previously unreleased material; Greatest Hits, which collected songs chosen by Björk's fans on her website; and Live Box, a set of live recordings and videos from each of her albums.

For her next album, Björk moved away from Vespertine's detailed electronics to focus on the primal power of the human voice. Collaborating with Robert Wyatt, Mike Patton, Rahzel, Japanese beatboxer Dokaka, Inuit throat singer Tanya Tagaq (who also performed on the Vespertine tour) the Icelandic and London Choirs, Nico Muhly and Matmos among many others, she released Medúlla in August 2004. With a title based on the Latin word for "marrow," the largely acapella album earned praise for its experimental approach to the essential qualities of music and vocals. Its global success included placing in the Top Ten of the charts in 19 countries; gold certifications in France and Russia, and silver certification in the U.K.; hitting number one on the Top Dance/Electronic Albums chart in the U.S.; and an Icelandic Music Award nomination for Pop Album of the Year. Björk also received Grammy nominations for Best Alternative Album and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for the track "Oceania," which she performed at the opening ceremony for the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece. The following year, she worked with Barney on his film Drawing Restraint 9, acting in it as well as composing its soundtrack. She also appeared in Screaming Masterpiece, a 2005 documentary about Iceland's musical community. Late in 2006, she and the rest of the Sugarcubes reunited for a performance benefitting the band's former label Smekkleysa.

In 2007, Björk's cover of Joni Mitchell's "The Boho Dance," which appeared on A Tribute to Joni Mitchell, preceded the May release of her sixth album Volta. A percussive, playful work, its contributors included Timbaland, Toumani Diabaté, Antony Hegarty, Konono No. 1, and an all-female Icelandic brass section. Reaching the Top Ten in 18 countries (including the U.S., making it her highest-placing album there), it was certified silver in the U.K. Like its predecessor, the album was nominated for Grammy and Icelandic Music Awards. Björk toured in support of Volta for a year and a half, with the 2009 set Voltaic, which was released in sets ranging from a CD/DVD to limited multi-disc and vinyl editions, capturing select performances.

During the Volta tour, Björk continued to work on music, releasing the single "Náttúra" in October 2008. In 2010, she worked with Dirty Projectors on the Mount Wittenberg Orca EP, appeared on albums by Ólöf Arnalds and Anohni, and paid tribute to her late collaborator and friend Alexander McQueen by performing at the designer's funeral and contributing the previously unreleased song "Trance" to the short film To Lee, With Love. That year, she also received the Polar Music Prize from the Royal Swedish Academy of Music along with Ennio Morricone.

Björk's next project, Biophilia, was one of her most ambitious. An interactive exploration of humanity's relationships to sound and the universe that educated its audience about music theory and science, it took shape with the help of engineers, scientists, custom-built instruments, and video game designers. Released as a suite of apps for the iPad and iPhone and on CD, Biophilia arrived in October 2011. A Top Ten hit in six countries, the album once again topped the Top Dance/Electronic Albums chart in the U.S. and was nominated for the Best Alternative Album Grammy Award and several Icelandic Music Awards. Bastards, a collection of Biophilia remixes featuring Death Grips and Omar Souleyman, was released in Europe in late 2012 and in the U.S. in early 2013. The Biophilia apps were translated to Android in July 2013, the same month that When Björk Met Attenborough, a BBC Channel 4 documentary with Sir David Attenborough and scientist Oliver Sacks that related Biophilia to humanity's relationship with music, premiered. In 2014, Björk contributed vocals to Death Grips' album Niggas on the Moon. She also continued the Biophilia project with a live concert film, Biophilia Live. Filmed at London's Alexandra Palace and featuring spectacular visuals, it was released theatrically and in DVD and Blu-ray sets that included the live audio on CD. That year, the Biophilia apps were added to the Museum of Modern Art's permanent collection.

By late 2014, Björk was putting the finishing touches on her next album. Featuring collaborations with Arca and the Haxan Cloak, Vulnicura was released in January 2015 after it leaked ahead of its scheduled March release date. Tracing the aftermath of Björk's relationship with Barney and harking back to the string and beat-heavy sounds of Vespertine and Homogenic, the album earned rave reviews for its powerful emotional impact. Topping the Icelandic charts and reaching number 11 in the U.K., Vulnicura also charted throughout Europe and was a Top 20 hit in the U.S. It won Best Album at the Icelandic Music Awards, and Björk won the awards for Best Female Artist, Best Songwriter, and Best Producer. At that year's Brit Awards, she was named International Female Solo Artist (marking her fifth Brit Award), and Vulnicura was nominated for the Best Alternative Music Grammy Award, her seventh nomination in that category. In March 2015, the Museum of Modern Art launched a multimedia exhibit documenting Björk's career from Debut through Vulnicura. It presented her notebooks, costumes, the instruments created for Biophilia, and videos, including a film for the Vulnicura song "Black Lake" by director Andrew Thomas Huang commissioned by the museum. The book Björk: Archives chronicled the exhibition.

That March, Björk also embarked on the Vulnicura world tour, backed by Alarm Will Sound and percussionist Manu Delago, with Arca joining on theater dates and the Haxan Cloak on festival shows. A series of Vulnicura remixes kicked off in July, with Lotic, Katie Gately, Mica Levi, Rabit, Juliana Huxtable, and Björk herself among the artists reworking the album's tracks. One Little Indian gathered all 12 remixes in a limited edition vinyl set that December, the same month that "Stonemilker" was released as a VR app including a 360-degree video and a string-based mix of the song. An acoustic version of Vulnicura, Vulnicura Strings, arrived at the end of 2015 and featured the viola organista, a keyboard-driven string instrument designed by Leonardo da Vinci. Vulnicura Live, which featured Björk's favorite performances of the album's songs as well as some chosen from her other albums, was given a limited release; wider distribution followed in 2016. That June saw the premiere of Björk Digital, a touring exhibit collecting the VR videos created for Vulnicura (one of the videos, "Notget VR," won the Cannes Lions Grand Prix Award for Real Time Virtual Reality Experience). At the exhibit's Tokyo date, Björk performed "Quicksand" during YouTube's first ever virtual reality live stream broadcast. Starting in September, she performed a small acoustic tour with stops including London's Royal Albert Hall and Los Angeles' Walt Disney Concert Hall.

In 2017, Björk reunited with Arca for the follow-up to Vulnicura. The lighter but still complex Utopia, which featured Icelandic and Venezuelan birdsong, an all-female flute section, and lyrics inspired by science fiction and folklore, arrived in November 2017. Charting globally, the album reached number 25 on the U.K. Albums Chart and number 75 on the Billboard 200 in the U.S. Utopia was nominated for Best Alternative Music Album at the 61st Annual Grammy Awards, becoming her eighth consecutive nomination in that category and her 15th nomination overall. The album spawned several singles and EPs: 2017's Blissing Me EP featured a collaboration with serpentwithfeet; 2018's Arisen My Senses EP included remixes by Lanark Artefax, Jlin, and Kelly Lee Owens; and the following year's Country Creatures EP collected remixes of "Creatures Features" by Fever Ray and the Knife along with Björk's remix of the Fever Ray song "This Country." Following the initial run of dates in support of the album, in 2019 Björk launched the Cornucopia tour, an ambitious live experience that combined imagery and projections by director Tobias Gremmler and the choir that performed on the album with other musical and visual artists. That year, Björk also shared the stage with Arca, performing "Afterwards," a song that appeared on Arca's 2020 album KiCk 1. She then appeared in Robert Eggers' 2022 film The Northman, marking her first film appearance since Drawing Restraint 9. That September saw the release of her tenth album Fossora. Named for a Latin word meaning "digging" and informed by the 2018 death of her mother, the album combined clarinets, flutes, and strings with choral vocals as well as performances by serpentwithfeet and Emilie Nicolas. The album reached number four on the Icelandic charts and number 11 in the U.K.; in the U.S., it peaked at 100 on the 200 Albums chart and number two on the Top Dance/Electronic Albums chart. Another nominee for the Best Alternative Music Album Grammy Award, Fossora took home the Alternative Album of the Year and Recording Direction of the Year prizes at the Icelandic Music Awards”.

The simply incredible Björk turns sixty on 21st November. I hope there will be celebration and spotlight closer to that date. There is no denying that Björk is an artist in a league of her own! So startingly unique. I was struck by her when I was a child, and I am still massively invested to this day. She is also this remarkable actor and someone whose interviews and words are always fascinating, intelligent and compelling. In a wide and very packed music scene, when it comes to those who could rival or match Björk, it is evidently clear that there is…

NOBODY like her.

FEATURE: How Could Anyone Be So Lonely? ABBA's Super Trouper at Forty-Five

FEATURE:

 

 

How Could Anyone Be So Lonely?

ABBA's Super Trouper at Forty-Five

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RELEASED on…

3rd November, 1980, we are about to mark forty-five years of ABBA’s Super Trouper. The band’s seventh studio album, they would follow it with 1981’s The Visitors. That was their final album until 2021’s phenomenal Voyage. I do wonder if ABBA will follow their most recent album. One of their members, Anni-Frid Synni Lyngstad, turns eighty on 15th November, so there will be new reason to celebrate. I want to focus on Super Trouper because its iconic title track also turns forty-five on 3rd November. Perhaps my favourite ABBA song – though Voulez-Vous is up there too! -, it is one of several standout tracks from a Pop masterpiece. One that includes one of ABBA’s best, The Winner Takes It All. I am going to get to some reviews of the album. Some retrospection inspection. Reaching number one in multiple countries, including the U.K. and their native Sweden, I do wonder if many will assess and revisit Super Trouper on its forty-fifth anniversary. Earlier this year, Classic Pop dug deep into an album that is a unanimous band favourite. One that is fully formed, ABBA put aside their differences (for now) to deliver a timeless album:

“Although ABBA’s sixth studio album took its name from the giant spotlight that glared on the band during their live shows, the four members of the group revealed themselves to be super troopers of a different kind, soldiering on through the catastrophic turmoil that was their personal lives to produce their most accomplished album to date.

While Agnetha and Björn had put on an amicable front when announcing their divorce in 1979, the fact that Björn had met his new partner within a week of his split from Agnetha strained their professional relationship considerably. Also, though unbeknown to the public at the time, Benny had also met a new woman, thus signalling the end of his marriage to Frida.

Therefore, at the dawning of the 80s, ABBA was a very different entity to the fun foursome in flamboyant fashions that captivated the world with their infectious Scandi-pop. On Super Trouper, they emerged, battle scars on display, with an album as rich with emotional depth as it is in complex harmonies – the confessional lyrics testament to Björn’s grasp of the English language and his flair for storytelling.

As initial sessions for the album took place in January 1980, Benny and Björn found themselves struggling to write for the new album. As this was the same predicament they had found themselves in with Voulez-Vous, they once again decided a visit to sunnier climes could help to get their creative juices flowing (not to mention a break from the tensions of their home lives) and headed for Barbados.

The trip was short lived, lasting only 10 days, but was a success, in that it resulted in them having written the first two songs for the album, Happy New Year and On And On And On, the former stemming from the idea of writing a musical that they were still toying with.

Feeling they had made progress with the album, they divided their time in the cottage in Viggsö and in their Polar Studio in Stockholm, penning songs for the album.

With half of an album’s-worth of material written, the band completed a tour of Japan in March (which would be their last), before returning to work on the LP in earnest at the end of May.

As work continued, and Benny and Björn felt that the record was taking shape, they revisited a few older ideas they had recorded and, during one particularly fruitful session, came up with the song that became the centrepiece of the album and would be recognised in the fullness of time as ABBA’s masterpiece.

The Winner Takes It All was released as the first single from the album in July 1980 and is an obvious standout. With a visceral lyric about a couple’s divorce delivered with heartbreaking feeling by the person the track was written about, the track is one of those instances which transcends the boundaries of being a throwaway pop song.

As an emotionally spent Agnetha opines the breakdown of her marriage, the song covers the stages of a broken relationship such as denial, shock, wistfulness and self-punishment, asking her ex questions she doesn’t want the answers to, such as: “Does she kiss like I used to kiss you?/Does it feel the same when she calls your name?”

Although Björn has insisted that The Winner Takes It All is not strictly autobiographical about his divorce from Agnetha, in the sense of there being a winner and a loser, the raw, emotional lyrics can only be a subliminal release. He admitted that once the backing track was complete, the song is one the quickest he’d ever written, with the lyrics pouring out of him.

Aside from the lyrics and Agnetha’s delivery, bathed in choral backing vocals and Benny’s simple cascading piano line, the song is notable for its unusual structure, something ABBA had become masters at ever since their biggest hit, Dancing Queen (which begins halfway through the chorus), taught the pair that there are no rules when it comes to writing timeless pop songs.

The Winner Takes It All is by no means the only song on Super Trouper to explore the pain of the breakdown of relationships. As affecting a song, if not so raw, Our Last Summer finds the wistful Frida of Knowing Me, Knowing You reflecting on a summer spent in Paris, reminiscing of “Walks along the Seine/ Laughing in the rain/ Our last summer/Memories that remain”.

There are two more features that I want to bring in before completing. In 2020, to mark its forty-fifth anniversary, PopMatters shared their words about an album that, in their minds, is uneven and has the odd filler track. I think Super Trouper is a classic that is well worth getting on vinyl. If you have not heard it before, then do go and spend some time with it. A true classic that I would recommend to everyone. I do hope that we have not heard the last of ABBA when it comes to their incredible music:

“So, where exactly were ABBA in 1980? Not that anyone would have known it, but they were in the final year of their commercial ascension. One year later, The Visitors proved that while their artistic growth was ongoing, their commercial decline had begun. Singles released in 1982 (“Under Attack”, “The Day Before You Came”) registered far lower chart positions than those to which the group had become accustomed, especially in their key markets. 1980, on the other hand, was a banner year for ABBA, with two UK #1 singles and a US #8.

Super Trouper, their seventh album, arrived towards the end of the year with a sleeve that captured them in white-and-cream fripperies, standing in the glare of a large spot-light, surrounded by circus performers. Looking at the accompanying picture-sleeve singles, it wasn’t their finest moment in style terms. The discotheque ice-tones of the Voulez-Vous cover, and the “Summer Night City” video, had almost made them look hip. The Super Trouper-era singles heralded a retreat back to Day-Glo knitwear, fussy flamenco outfits, tight perms, and eye-straining, children’s TV presenter daywear. Some of these photo-sessions have been used for the album’s new inner sleeves (the original inner sleeve, featuring the lyrics against a maroon background, has been moved to the interior panels of the gatefold).

The music was a different story. ABBA were at an exquisite apex. Their lyrics bore witty and heart-rending turns of phrase that might have sounded guileful and over-baked coming from native English-speakers. Every track contained an abundance of celestial harmonies and devastating solo vocals. Underneath was a warm, rich, intricately textured blend of synthesizers and traditional instruments.

ABBA understood that the creative process is dynamic – everything influences everything. The received wisdom – that their sound was formed from schlager and other European influences – ignores how the group wore American inspiration quite conspicuously from the start. Their early hits, like “Ring Ring”, were in the great tradition of the American conveyor-belt pop of 1960s New York. On Super Trouper, it’s “On and on and On”, with its chugging, bar-band sensibility and mildly hedonistic lyric, that is probably the most American moment. It’s not surprising it was chosen as a US single, despite remaining an album track in most other territories.

Another prevalent dismissal of the group contends that they were ‘bubblegum’ – something to file alongside The Partridge Family, Boney M, and the Bay City Rollers. That is partly down to how Andersson and Ulvaeus, grappling with a second language, tended to cleave to perfect rhyme at all costs (“money/honey/funny”), presumably because they cared about craft and were learning as they went along. And it’s partly down to the gently-accented English and gauche apparel of their early years. But to believe that ABBA never transcended bubblegum, you’d have to ignore about 90 percent of their work, which had a far higher purpose.

Take, for example, the delicate art of the divorce song. ABBA had a peculiar flair for it, no matter the angle from which they approached this knotty subject of conflict and unresolved pain. On Abba (1975), they looked at it from the viewpoint of an outsider talking with rather brash concern to a divorced single mother (“Hey Hey Helen”). With “Knowing Me, Knowing You”, one year later, they were tackling it in the first person, with the narrator surveying an empty house that also served as a metaphor for her newly-evacuated marriage.

But it was, of course, on Super Trouper‘s “The Winner Takes It All” that the group perfected this curious sub-genre. It comprises just two melodic phrases. Thanks to the arrangement and production, a trick-of-the-ear is achieved, making the song seem elaborate and operatic. Perhaps it was the group’s most convincing divorce song because it came with the added poignancy of being rooted in experience. The Fältskog-Ulvaeus union had splintered during the creation of Voulez-Vous, the Andersson-Lyngstad marriage unraveling a year later. “The Winner Takes It All” is a dignified heartbreak set to music. The way ABBA put together couplets (“Nothing more to say / No more ace to play”) has a slightly odd, formal quality that betrays the writers’ overseas roots but somehow just serves to make it all the more touching.

Then there’s the iridescent title track, the final song assembled for the LP. The faintly silly “su-pah-pah, trou-pah-pah” backing vocals may invite mockery, but there’s great storytelling here. In the verse, Frida sounds matter-of-fact and listless as she relays the apparent privations, loneliness, and tedium of super-stardom. But this is all a set-up for a joyful chorus in which she imagines the thrill of stepping away from mass adulation and coming to life in a lovers’ tryst. Then comes that glorious, lilting, operatic bridge (“So I’ll be there / When you arrive / The sight of you will prove to me I’m still alive”), foreshadowing the exceptional melody writing that would be unveiled on the following year’s “I Let The Music Speak”.

Analog synths create an icy cathedral of sound for the unforgettable introduction to “Lay All Your Love on Me”, ABBA’s final disco song. Rarely has openly expressed jealousy, and the demand for exclusivity from a sexual partner sounded so slinky and appealing”.

I am going to wrap things up soon. I am going to end by sourcing from this article that noted how the 1970s party was over. Super Trouper marked the start of a more introspective era. The four-piece were “retooling themselves for a new decade”. Although there is some stiff competition, I do think that Super Trouper is ABBA’s best album. I can see why the group hold it in such regard! After a difficult and strained time, this seemed like something or a revival or rebirth. A slightly different sound for them, there is so much to love about Super Trouper:

“Across a tight 10 tracks, Super Trouper is like a greatest hits sampler, showcasing all the styles that made the group so successful. “The Winner Takes It All,” regularly voted the people’s favorite ABBA record, and a Top 10 hit in every major market, is the ballad that they never truly bettered. Drenched in pathos, it featured Agnetha’s greatest vocal performance and has been claimed as her favorite ABBA track.

The ballads dominate the album. “Happy New Year,” once earmarked for wide single release until the title track emerged, is a melancholic choker that effortlessly captures that messy moment when the clock strikes midnight. “Our Last Summer” again bathes us in a sentimental haze of melancholia; no one does happy-sad songs as well as ABBA, and the schlager foundations underpinning so much of their work are very evident here.

On “Super Trouper,” the last track to be recorded, but released as the album’s second single, the band’s classic European pop sound found its latter-day peak. In the UK, it proved to be their ninth, and final, chart-topper to date.

But it wasn’t all doom and gloom. The exuberant roar of the dance classic “Lay All Your Love On Me” showed the band still knew how to get us out of our seats. This ahead-of-its-time anthem topped the Billboard dance charts and still fills floors to this day. Lighter fare such as “Andante Andante” and “Me And I,” meanwhile, proved that the standard album material ABBA produced remained leagues ahead of the competition.

Live track ‘The Way Old Friends Do,” lifted from their 1979 tour, closed Super Trouper and, in many ways, sums up the mood of the record. With personal and professional turbulence surrounding them, the four-piece retrenched into a safe place – focusing on simpler pop sounds familiar to the faithful. In time, the urge for experimentation would return but, for now, they remained content to be fixed in the spotlight that gave the album its name… just as long as the beam was a bit dimmer.

After all, it had been one hell of a party…”.

I am going to end it there. The title track is perhaps my favourite from Super Trouper. It is a song that I heard as a child and has stayed with my ever since. As both that single and the album it came from turn forty-five on 3rd November, I wanted to spend some time with an album that was to be one of the last ABBA made before a long time away. After releasing Voyage in 2021, many see this as a new phase for them. I do hope there is more from them! 1980’s Super Trouper is an album that will continue to resonate…

FOR generations more.

FEATURE: The Great American Songbook: Mariah Carey

FEATURE:

 

 

The Great American Songbook

IN THIS PHOTO: Ethan James Green for ELLE

Mariah Carey

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THIS time around…

for The Great American Songbook, I am focusing on an artist who is among the greatest of all time. The sensational Mariah Carey just released her sixteenth studio album, Here for It All. It has won acclaim and been hailed as one of her best albums in years. I put out a playlist of Mariah Carey songs last year but, with a new album out, I want to revise that. Drill down to twenty essential Carey tracks. Before getting there, I want to reintroduce a biography from AllMusic:

“One of the best-selling artists of all time, Mariah Carey is known for her stunning five-octave vocal range and a hit-laden songbook that spans soul-rooted contemporary R&B, pop, and adult contemporary. An elastic talent who has easily moved from glossy ballads to hip-hop-inspired dance-pop throughout her career, Carey earned early comparisons to Whitney Houston and Céline Dion, yet distinguished herself by co-writing almost all of her own material from the start. All four singles off her multi-platinum debut album, Mariah Carey (1990), topped the Billboard Hot 100, beginning with "Vision of Love," which also led to Grammy Awards for Best New Artist and Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female. Each one of her proper studio albums, including the diamond platinum releases Music Box (1993) and Daydream (1995), as well as the Grammy-winning The Emancipation of Mimi (2005), has peaked within the Top Five of the Billboard 200, promoted with smash hit singles that either set or adapted to contemporary pop production trends with solid songwriting at the core. By the time she released Caution (2018), Carey was one of only six artists with two songs in the upper half of Billboard's All-Time Hot 100 Songs (namely the record-breaking "One Sweet Day" and "We Belong Together"). Shortly thereafter, she hosted her first Christmas special, "All I Want for Christmas Is You" became the first holiday single to earn a diamond platinum certification, and she was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. A handful of archival releases and sold-out residencies preceded Here for It All (2025), her self-released 16th studio album.

Born in Huntington, New York, on March 27, 1969, Carey moved to New York City at the age of 17 -- just one day after graduating high school -- to pursue a music career. There she befriended keyboardist Ben Margulies, with whom she began writing songs. Her big break came as a backing vocalist on a studio session with dance-pop singer Brenda K. Starr, who handed Carey's demo tape to Columbia Records head Tommy Mottola at a party. According to legend, Mottola listened to the tape in his limo while driving home that evening, and was so immediately struck by Carey's talent that he doubled back to the party to track her down.

After signing to Columbia, Carey entered the studio to begin work on her 1990 self-titled debut LP. The heavily promoted album was a chart-topping smash, launching four number one singles: "Vision of Love," "Love Takes Time," "Someday," and "I Don't Wanna Cry." Overnight success and Grammy wins in the categories of Best New Artist and Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female (for "Vision of Love), made expectations high for the follow-up, 1991's Emotions. The album did not disappoint, as the title track reached number one -- a record fifth consecutive chart-topper -- while both "Can't Let Go" and "Make It Happen" landed in the Top Five. Carey's next release was 1992's MTV Unplugged EP, which generated a number one cover of the Jackson 5's "I'll Be There." Featured on the track was backup singer Trey Lorenz, whose appearance immediately helped him land a recording contract of his own.

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In June 1993, Carey wed Mottola in a headline-grabbing ceremony. Months later, she released her third full-length effort, Music Box, which became her best-selling record to that point. Two more singles, "Dreamlover" and "Hero," reached the top spot on the Hot 100. After her first tour and a break, she resurfaced in 1994 with a holiday release titled Merry Christmas, scoring a seasonal smash with "All I Want for Christmas Is You." Released in 1995, Daydream reflected a new artistic maturity. The first single, "Fantasy," debuted at number one, making Carey the first female artist and just the second performer ever to accomplish the feat. The follow-up, "One Sweet Day" -- a collaboration with Boyz II Men -- repeated the trick, and remained lodged at the top of the Hot 100 for a record 16 weeks.

After separating from Mottola, Carey returned in 1997 with Butterfly, another staggering success and her most hip-hop-flavored recording to date. #1's -- a collection featuring her 13 previous chart-topping singles as well as "The Prince of Egypt (When You Believe)," a duet with Whitney Houston effectively pairing the two most successful female recording artists in pop history -- followed late the next year. With "Heartbreaker," the first single from her 1999 album, Rainbow, Carey became the first artist to top the Hot 100 in each year of a decade; the record also pushed her ahead of the Beatles as the artist with the most cumulative weeks spent atop that chart.

After signing an $80 million deal in 2001 with Virgin -- the biggest record contract ever -- she starred in her first film, Glitter, and made her label debut with its attendant soundtrack, which went platinum thanks to the single "Loverboy." Virgin and Carey parted ways early in 2002, with the label paying her $28 million. That spring, she found a new home with Island/Def Jam, where she set up her own label, MonarC Music. In December, she released her ninth album, Charmbracelet, her first proper studio album to go merely platinum rather than multi-platinum.

The Emancipation of Mimi, her most successful work in years, appeared in 2005. It climbed to multi-platinum status and earned Carey three Grammy Awards -- Best Contemporary R&B Album and, for the single "We Belong Together," Best Female R&B Vocal Performance and Best R&B Song -- thus restoring her status as a megastar. Two weeks before the release of her subsequent album, 2008's E=MC2, Carey scored her 18th number one hit with "Touch My Body," a feat that pushed her into second place (and past Elvis Presley) among all artists with the most chart-topping singles. That hit song, along with the late April news that she had married Nick Cannon, kept her in the spotlight that year.

Carey went back to work fairly quickly, and in 2009, Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel -- featuring collaborations with the-Dream, including the Top Ten hit "Obsessed" -- became her 12th studio album. The following year, Carey released her second Christmas album, Merry Christmas II You. She gave birth to twins in 2011, and within a year was performing again and judged the 12th season of American Idol. The Miguel collaboration "#Beautiful," the lead single to her next album, was released in 2013 and went platinum. Me. I Am Mariah: The Elusive Chanteuse, her first album for Def Jam, followed in 2014 and debuted at number three.

Between releases, Carey started a residency at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, which ran from January 2015 to July 2017 and showcased all 18 of her number one singles. She also made appearances on the small screen, directing a Hallmark Channel movie, A Christmas Melody, and guest starring on Empire. On the big screen, she lent her talents to 2017's animated The Lego Batman Movie and the hit comedy Girls Trip. After the conclusion of a summer co-headlining jaunt with Lionel Richie, she debuted a new Vegas residency, which commenced in July 2018.

Caution, an album featuring appearances from Slick Rick, Blood Orange, and Ty Dolla $ign, arrived five months later as her first release for Epic. A number five hit, the LP yielded the number seven adult contemporary single "With You," Carey's collaboration with DJ Mustard. Carey celebrated the 30th anniversary of her debut throughout 2020. She published her memoir, The Meaning of Mariah Carey, and issued a number of archival projects. Among these were digital reissues of her singles (including the remixes), The Live Debut: 1990 (a recording of a New York club performance), and The Rarities (previously unreleased material spanning her career). A streaming holiday program and soundtrack, Mariah Carey's Magical Christmas Special, premiered in December 2020 and found the singer performing with a variety of guests, including Ariana Grande, Tiffany Haddish, and Jennifer Hudson. Included on the soundtrack was a re-recorded version of Carey's song "Oh Santa" featuring Grande and Hudson.

The following year, Carey headlined a second holiday special, Mariah's Christmas: The Magic Continues, on which she debuted her song "Fall in Love at Christmas" with Khalid and Kirk Franklin. Also that year, she was featured on the song "Somewhat Loved" from Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis' album Jam & Lewis: Volume One. In 2022, Carey was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and she published her first children's picture book, The Christmas Princess. She was also featured on a remix of Latto's song "Big Energy," which featured a reworking of her 1995 hit "Fantasy." A concert special, Mariah Carey: Merry Christmas to All!, aired that December.

In February 2023, her 2009 song "It's a Wrap" gained a second life after going viral on TikTok, leading the singer to release an EP featuring the song. That September, Carey issued the three-disc Music Box: 30th Anniversary Edition, which included a remastered version of the original album along with previously unreleased tracks and mixes. The following year she examined her 2018 song "Portrait" as part of Audible's Words + Music series. Titled Portrait of a Portrait, it included the re-released single along with a new house remix. 2024 also saw a special 30th anniversary deluxe reissue of Carey's enduring holiday album, Merry Christmas, which made its annual re-entry onto the Billboard 200.

Following a May 2025 release of a 20th anniversary edition of The Emancipation of Mimi, Carey released "Type Dangerous" as the strutting lead single off her 16th studio album, Here for It All. Containing a sample from Eric B. & Rakim's "Eric B. Is President," the song cracked the Hot 100 and was followed a month later by a second single, the dancehall-influenced "Sugar Sweet," featuring Shenseea and Kehlani. The album, Carey's first to be released through her own label, Mariah, arrived that September”.

One of the legends of the music world, Mariah Carey will continue to release amazing albums. It will not be long until we hear the perennial classic, All I Want for Christmas Is You. I will end the mixtape with that song. However, I will also do a career-spanning look at the career of an artist like no other. One who has inspired so many others. Possessed with an incredible gift, Carey has this sensational voice that is…

BEYOND compare.