FEATURE: Spotlight: Upchuck

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

 

Upchuck

__________

THIS is another classic example…

of a great band having a terrible name. I have highlighted a few recently, including Turnstile. However, I will focus on Upchuck and the brilliant music, rather than dwell on their name. They have released one of this year’s most remarkable albums with I’m Nice Now. I will end with a review of that album. I want to start out to getting to a few interviews with the band. Despite the fact they have been around since 2018, they are not a well-known name in the U.K. That said, they have signed to Domino and are releasing their first album through the British label. The five-piece formed in Atlanta out of the city's skateboarding and D.I.Y. scene. The group consists of vocalist Kaila ‘KT’ Thompson, guitarists Michael ‘Mikey’ Durham, Alex ‘Hoff’ Hoffman, bassist Armando Arrieta, and drummer Chris Salado. I am quite fresh to Upchuck, but there are a few radio stations here that play them. They are currently touring in the U.K., which I hope means that their music will get more exposure and discussion here. Let’s get to some interviews. CRACK featured the band in September. Among the tour dates they had lined up for the U.K. was Blackpool. A band that seem out of place there, this was an interesting discussion point. However, the band’s intensely energetic, raw, and aggressive performances are resonating with people around the world. They are a band that people want and need to hear. Especially at such divided and horrible times like this:

“Upchuck bonded over their mutual love of skate culture and working the same part-time jobs before starting the band in 2018, with Thompson and Hoff both working at Tabernacle – a downtown Atlanta concert hall she jokingly describes as “for real artists”. Since tearing through Atlanta’s hardcore scene, they’ve shared stages with everyone from UK anarcho-punks Subhumans to garage-punk heavyweights Amyl and the Sniffers and Ty Segall.

The band have since racked up a catalogue of crazy tour stories in addition to the trolley incident, and Salado is happy to add to their lore, recalling a memorable exchange with Amy Taylor. “I was bitten at a gig and she said, ‘Dude. Please, go get a tetanus shot,’” Salado laughs, without confirming if he actually did. Disarmingly lovable, Salado quickly identifies himself as the one who keeps the group from taking itself too seriously. When asked who’s most likely to get arrested on tour, Thompson giggles and says: “Oh, definitely one of us,” nodding towards Salado and herself. As the two trade theories about what they’d be locked up for, the rest of the band sprawl out with greasy rider pizza, occasionally listening in and squeezing past to use the bathroom in the cramped green room.

Upchuck found a devoted cult following with their first two albums, Sense Yourself and 2023’s Bite the Hand That Feeds, even catching the attention of no-fucks-given rock royalty Iggy Pop and Henry Rollins on their radio shows. Now, the five-piece return with I’m Nice Now, their debut release with Domino. Pushing into new territory while keeping the raw urgency that propelled their earlier work, the result is nastier, filthier and, at times, unexpectedly groovy.

PHOTO CREDIT: Lilah Culliford

Upchuck’s politics are something they refuse to dilute or compromise, even as their audience grows. Drawing on Thompson’s lived experience as a Black woman and Salado’s as a Latin American, they use their time on stage, between crushing guitar onslaughts, to condemn the systems of oppression. This need to raise awareness was thrown into sharp relief after an incident that took place shortly after shooting the video for Plastic in their home city. In the video, Salado cruises through the streets in a lowrider like an already-made-it rock star, screaming headfirst into the camera. But a day after they wrapped, the scene quickly changed. “ICE pulled up in Sandy Springs, where the day labourers wait for work,” Salado says, his voice dropping heavily. “They took like ten people. No warrants, no proof. Just because they spoke Spanish or looked Hispanic. Some of them were even US citizens. This is what is happening.”

Unsurprisingly, much of I’m Nice Now grapples with Upchuck’s frustration over Trump’s second term and the fractured, volatile climate that has settled across America. But also, the record allows a space for Thompson to be vulnerable. She turns the lens inwards on Forgotten Token, softly describing her place in the world as a woman of colour. “The song is about being Black, and how people value your worth. Being Black can dictate how people perceive you or how they understand your talents”.

In this interview with Loud Women, Upchuck revealed how U.K. audiences are even rowdier than U.S. ones. Whilst American audiences I feel will always be louder and more exaggerated, it seems like we channel something else. A certain sense of chaos that you do not get in the U.S. No wonder that Upchuck are touring and loving it here. Let’s hope they come back to the U.K. next year and play another run of dates:

“I’ve heard you say previously that the Atlanta’s DIY scene is kind of a bit of a melting pot of punk bands and rappers and indie kids all colliding. Do you think that kind of cross pollination is part of the reason why Upchuck sounds the way it does?

Oh, for sure. I think, yeah, that’s the epitome of why we were even able to meet each other.

How did you come together then?

So, Mikey [guitarist Michael Durham] and Chris [drummer Chris Salado] were the first ones to start it. They, like, work together, in something like construction, okay? And I think Hoff [guitarist Alex Hoffman] ended up going with them and the bassist [Ausar Ward] as well. And I was working with the bassist, and he was like, ‘hey, I’m in this band, and we’re looking for a singer, like, if you want to, like, come check it out and try it out!’ And so I went over to Mikey’s, and I just seen, like, these men sitting on the couch, and they’re, like, writing lyrics. And I’m like, ‘Whoa, what?!’ Didn’t know it was going to be like this! But kind of once I recorded my part, I think, like, it all just kind of clicked for everyone. And we were like, man, okay, I think we should take this seriously.

So the album! I thought there’s punk and also a kind of a 90s grungy sound to the album. Were you deliberately drawing from different influences?

We were speaking to another interviewer the other day, and we were asked questions about, like, our writing process, and more and more I was like, ‘Wait, we’re kind of mad chaotic!’ Because there really is, like, no thought process behind it. It’s kind of just like a practice session, and it just gets created and made. We all just come together and sync up on that right there. But I think whatever is going on, like, instrumentation wise, when it comes to the to the boys, because I just play whatever they write. But when it comes to my writing, I’m just writing about whatever is literally happening in real time, or what I’ve dealt with in that process of writing. You could see the different levels of growth within that process, yeah.

And, wow, ‘Tired’ as the as the opener – it’s quite a ferocious way to open an album!

I think it’s, it has to do with, like, even the whole ‘I’m nice now’ concept. It’s upsetting. I’m kind of getting over yelling the same shit over and over again, preaching the same lesson, shit not changing, and watching real time shit get worse. The way that they have things set up over here in the States is just back-to-back-to-back bullshit, to break you down, and keep you weak, keep you defeated. But, at the end of the day, I’m tired of these tactics. I’m tired of these games. I’m tired of this ongoing and forever. It seems like the troubles never end”.

Prior to getting to Kerrang! and their review of I’m Nice Now, there is an interview with Femme Metal Magazine that I found interesting and had some good exchanges. Kaila ‘KT’ Thompson was questioned. I think there is a lot of love from a lot of the press. With every tour date and release comes this real sense that Upchuck are going to be massive. You can tell they are going to be remembered and talked about decades from now! So clear is that potential, you really need to follow Upchuck:

“The new album of Upchuck – I’m Nice Now

I know that I’m Nice Now is to be released via Domino Records on October 3rd. I wanted to ask you a little bit about the album’s general production and conception—when you started to collect the first ideas for it.

Actually, I would say it’s about a level of preservation. There’s so much shit being thrown at us constantly. I feel like there isn’t a day when something is going to shit, and that’s meant to break us down and make us feel defeated. I think that’s why the title is important; I’m trying to preserve myself to continue to deal with this day-to-day shit.

Upchuck debuts with Domino Records

“I’m Nice Now” also marks your debut with Domino Records. I wanted to ask how Upchuck came in contact with them and how the new collaboration adventure is treating you so far.

Our manager, Cyrus, was the main person behind this. We were with him on his old record label, but he had worked for Domino Publishing. We were talking about how sick it would be to be on Domino Records’s roster.

He did it, and Lawrence came to see our worst show. The sound man came up to us right before we went on, and the show sounded like shit. It’s funny, but they gave us a chance and saw us in Florida. It’s been sick; everyone comes to our shows and helps us out with logistics and everything. I feel like that’s a crazy weight lifted. I know it’s new for us, but I don’t feel overwhelmed”.

I am finishing up with that review from Kerrang!. James Hingle provided his assessment of perhaps the most angered, direct and powerful album of the year. One from a band who have released three albums so far, but you feel like their best is still ahead. Getting stronger with every album. The more they perform, the more they hone their skills and strengthen as a force. The Atlanta band can look back proudly at everything they have achieved this year:

“Atlanta punks Upchuck don’t just play songs: they spit venom, grind teeth and slam their fists against the rotting walls of America. On their third album, I’m Nice Now, the band sound like they’ve swallowed every injustice and vomited it back as pure punk fury. They take on the subjects of racism, sexism, classism and the whole ugly scaffolding of modern-day oppression and use their anger to add more fuel to their already fired-up punk sensibilities.

Opener Tired is an unflinching rallying cry. It’s the exhaustion of existing in a society built to grind you down, flipped into a giant middle finger at the powers that have constructed the foundations we’re expected to adhere to. Vocalist Kaila ‘KT’ Thompson doesn’t just carry rage in her voice, she embodies it with her sharp, ragged, human tones. And when drummer/vocalist Chris Salado jumps to the mic for Homenaje and Un Momento, singing in Spanish, it feels like a cultural reclamation, showing punk’s snarling edge to use their music for a greater good. These tracks are anthemic, if doused in a distorted barrage of punk aggression.

It’s Forgotten Token that cuts deepest. Written in the aftermath of KT’s sister’s death, it’s a gut-punch meditation on grief, commodification, and how people are devalued both in life and in death. Amid the band’s explosive noise, it feels like the record’s bleeding heart.

Ty Segall’s production keeps everything raw, live-to-tape and bristling with danger. Slow Down drips with 1970s Stooges grime, dragging you through sleaze and smoke, before closer Nowhere detonates in one last storm of serrated guitars, which acts as a final, furious fuck-you aimed squarely at a crooked system.

This is punk as it was always meant to be: loud, ugly, righteous and alive. I’m Nice Now isn’t just an album, it’s a survival tactic, a soundtrack to resistance in a country still burning”.

Go and show love and support for Upchuck. Currently performing in the U.K., they head to Europe from 11th November and have a date in Australia and one in New Zealand next year. It must be exhausting being on the road and delivering such incendiary sets. However, the energy they get from the crowds must give them that push! With all they have done this year, they have deserved a rest, and I hope Upchuck get to wrap up the year at home. For anyone who has not discovered the brilliance of Upchuck, go and listen to the five-piece…

AS soon as you can.

____________

Follow Upchuck

FEATURE: The Empty Bullring: Where Do New Discovers of Kate Bush Begin?

FEATURE:

 

 

The Empty Bullring

 

Where Do New Discovers of Kate Bush Begin?

__________

THIS feature will also double up…

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1993

as a Christmas gift guide. I have written before how Kate Bush has a generation of new fans. Not only does she have a wave of new young listeners. There are people of all ages that have found her work through the past few years. Given how we might not know whether a new album will arrive next year, there might be a bit of a wait for the next chapter. How she follows 2011’s 50 Words for Snow. In the meantime, how do you engage fans who are finding an artist who has not released new music in fourteen years? I will start out with the gift side of things. Obviously, there is Kate Bush’s Shop on her website, and you can find reissues of her studio albums. If you only know her for a few songs and do not have too much content, then it can be hard to navigate and decide what to buy. In terms of merchandise, you will buy only what you think you need, though the Hounds of Love T-shirts are a good starting point. An item that is popular with fans and concerns her best-known and popular album. When it comes to the remastered albums, that is really down to you. I would say to go and stream her albums. Many might go for Hounds of Love, but I would say a good starting point is her earlier albums. Invest in one of those on vinyl and then you can work from there. Whether that is her debut, 1978’s The Kick Inside, or you jump to 1980’s Never for Ever (her third album), you will get a sense of where she came from. This year has seen big anniversaries for Hounds of Love (forty) and Aerial (twenty). Kate Bush has not given any interviews this year, though she did speak with Emma Barnett late last year and opened up the possibilities of new work. In terms of the choice of interviews and what best to listen to, there is so much out there. I would spend time on YouTube and type in ‘Kate Bush interview’ and work your way through. However, that 2024 interview is wonderful.

A lot of new fans might not have heard Kate Bush speak. Their frame of reference might be 1985 and Hounds of Love. Hearing the modern-day Kate Bush in her sixties provides new context and avenues. How she speaks now and where she is in life. It may be jarring to jump between time periods regarding interviews. Whilst you cannot cover them all, again, go back to her earliest chats. 1978-1980 provides these fascinating glimpse into a young artist who was having to navigate the industry and was facing discrimination, sexism and often mockery. The way she composes herself and how professional she is. Viewing these interviews is free, so you can spend a lot of time doing that. I will return to this later. Continuing the buying guide, I will finish with five books that I feel are essential. You probably won’t be able to afford all of them in one go, so I would say start with Graeme Thomson’s Under the Ivy: The Life and Music of Kate Bush. Leah Kardos’s 33 1/3 book about Hounds of Love is an essential guide and dissection of Kate Bush’s biggest and most successful album. I would also say go and get Tom Doyle’s Running Up That Hill: 50 Visions of Kate Bush. Both  biographers take different approaches, and you will get a complete portrait of Kate Bush reading both. Also go and get Homeground: The Kate Bush Magazine: Anthology Two: The Red Shoes to 50 Words for Snow. You could also get the first volume but, if you invest in one, maybe bringing things more up to date is best. A photobook that was compiled by her brother, John Carder Bush, KATE: Inside the Rainbow. There are other books I could recommend but, as a stating point, I think this is a good place to start. I have highlighted these books many times, but I stand by that, as they are well worth getting and tell you so much about Kate Bush.

With text, photos and music are your disposal, you can begin your Kate Bush experience. Going beyond Hounds of Love and what most people focus on, you will get a broader understanding of her and her music. However, there are also essential fan sites like Gaffaweb, Kate Bush News and the Kate Bush Encyclopedia. Again, I have highlighted all of this before. I realise that every fan will be different. In terms of what they are looking for and their budget. I would say buying merchandise and books is not the most important thing. Invest in a biography if you want to get a book, and you will get a great overview and impression of Kate Bush. Learning quite a lot. Not every album will appeal to you, so do a bit of research first. Read reviews of her studio albums and listen to a few of the songs from each on YouTube. Then, you will be in a better place to decide what is right. I have said how going back to the start is best, though there is nothing wrong with starting with The Sensual World (1989) or The Red Shoes (1993). There are a lot of resources out there. Archive interviews, features and discussion pieces. Reading as much as this is a great way of getting to the heart of Kate Bush. Utilising a site such as YouTube. Whilst you wait for your book to arrive and maybe have decided which album to buy, check out the archives. You won’t manage everything, but spending a week or so dipping into interviews, live performances and other Kate Bush stuff is a real treat. It can all seem a bit daunting but, if you get into this routine of looking at a few videos a week or so, over time, you get this build. Create playlist on YouTube and add videos to them. If you are on Apple, you can buy songs and albums there, so you can have this digital library too.

Connected to this, I have been thinking about how there are a lot of new Kate Bush fans. There is nothing really that connects them. We are on social media, though you are not seeing or talking to each other. Other artists and bands have fan websites and they have conventions. There will be forums they can go to and interact. Listening parties of their albums. Not much like that for Kate Bush and her fan community. 2026 might be a year when we need to unite existing and new Kate Bush fans. Whether that is a digital fanclub organising a big convention or event where we can all get together, or some album streaming parties, I do think that the time is now. How Kate Bush is writing and planning new music, a perfect moment for the fans to get together. There are also some brilliant Kate Bush tribute acts like An Evening Without Kate Bush that I would suggest seeing, as it is a great night out! Fan websites like Kate Bush News and Kate Bush Community. Also check out the Kate Bush Fan Podcast. If you are on social media, seek out fellow Kate Bush fans and connect with them. Next year is going to be an interesting one. In terms of whether there will be an album anniversary or not. It is a moment when her fanbase is growing so much. I wonder whether we will get any new books or what might be offered up. If you are fresh to Kate Bush and need some guidance and steer, I hope what I have shared is a good starting point. Let’s hope that there is something launched that unites fans and we can all get together. I have pitched an event where people can discuss Kate Bush and there can be talks, interviews and pieces read. A convention where her work is discussed by different people through writing and videos/podcasts. That would be fascinating. It is great to welcome new fans to Kate Bush. It is thew greatest experience with an artist…

YOU will ever have!

FEATURE: Needle Drops and Scores to Settle: Scene One: Modern Love: Frances Ha (2013)

FEATURE:

 

 

Needle Drops and Scores to Settle

 

Scene One: Modern Love: Frances Ha (2013)

__________

 I am not sure…

whether this new series has legs, though I am really interested in exploring some great film scores and soundtracks (the next feature will look inside the soundtrack for Quentin Tarantino's 1998 smash, Jackie Brown). I guess we have to differentiate between the two. The soundtrack is the songs that appear in films. Most films take older songs and combine them, though some do have original tracks. The score is more the non-vocal music, whether it is Classical or another genre. Songs can be diegetic – you hear them played in a scene by a character(s) or in the background – or they appear over the top of a scene. When the music is released to buy on vinyl or C.D., normally the score and songs will feature as one, though some films that have a score and soundtrack separate them. I am going to look at some great and classic examples of great scores and or soundtracks. I don’t think there are as many genuinely standout ‘needle drop’ moments in modern cinema (though many would challenge me on that). That is when filmmakers use a pre-existing song to underscore a scene and, more importantly, to emphasise it. I am partly inspired by Mark Kermode’s must-read and excellent book, Mark Kermode's Surround Sound: The Stories of Movie Music. He co-wrote it with radio producer, Jenny Nelson. There are insightful discussions like this one, where Kermode and Nelson explore everything related to film soundtracks, and highlight and dissect why soundtracks are an essential piece of cinema:

“How can a film score make you cheer, shiver, cry or punch the air?
How do directors communicate their musical vision to composers?
And when does a soundtrack take on a life of its own?

In Mark Kermode's Surround Sound the award-winning film critic, together with radio producer Jenny Nelson, embarks on a full-throttle trip down the glorious rabbit hole of film composition.

Celebrating the emotional connection that audiences form with film music, exploring the evolution of film scoring from silent films to the present day, and examining how what we hear has an impact on what we see, Mark talks to some of his favourite composers and delves into the movie music he loves”.

Maybe it is subjective, but there is something about a genuinely wonderful film score and soundtrack that stays with you. Some are undeniable classics, whereas others may be less obvious. I am starting out by covering the soundtrack of my all-time favourite film first, as it is notable because of its effective use of music. Frances Ha was premiered in 2012 at the Toronto International Film Festival, but it came out in the U.S. and U.K. in 2013. You can watch on Amazon Video, BFI Player or Apple TV+. The film employs some recognisable contemporary songs – well, it does have its heart in the 1970s and 1980s, so they are fairly old I guess -, but there is also this use of lesser-known French Classical music from earlier in the century. Directed by Noah Baumbach and co-written with its star, Greta Gerwig, the film centres around the semi-eponymous heroine, a twenty-seven-year-old dancer in New York, and her navigating life. When her best friend Sophie Levee moves out, Frances is left to fend for herself. She experiences new adventures in the city, where she also finds love and makes a decent living.

I have written about the film before and how it struck me. Almost identifying with Greta Gerwig’s heroine and that quest and struggle to find your feet and place. Maybe not as grown-up or far ahead as you should be. It is such a charming film where you root for Frances and are on her side, though you have to question whether this is someone you should always be rooting for, considering some of her actions and decisions. The chemistry between its leads, Greta Gerwig and Mickey Sumner (who plays Sophie Levee), is incredible. Also in the main cast are Michael Zegen (Benji), Adam Driver (Lev Shapiro), Grace Gummer (Rachel) and Charlotte d'Amboise (Colleen). Shot in black-and-white and filmed on-the-fly and covertly and quickly – owing to a restricted budget and not having permission to film through a lot of New York -, it has this immediacy to it. However, it feels like a film you can sit with and absorb. There is plenty of precision and scenes that took multiple takes to get down. Testament to the direction of Noah Baumbach and the writing of Baumbach and Gerwig that there is a seamless marriage of the loose and honed. I said Greta Gerwig played the semi-eponymous heroine, as the film is named Frances Ha, because her surname is Halladay. I have seen reviews misspell and get her surname wrong for some reason (which makes you wonder if they made it to the end of the film or just have poor eyesight). It is even wrong on Amazon Video!. At the end of the film, when Frances gets her own place and is preparing a strip of paper/card to go in the mail cubby/compartment alongside the other residents, her full name does not fit in the small slot. So she folds the paper and it spells out ‘Frances Ha’.

IMAGE CREDIT: Mondoshop

I will talk about the film more generally in the future. However, its use of popular music and instrumentals/score is wonderful! Perhaps the most notable needle drop moment is a scene where the camera finds and catches up to Frances as she dances and runs through the streets of New York (Chinatown, to be more precise) to David Bowie’s Modern Love (taken from his 1983 album, Let’s Dance). Gerwig revealed how Modern Love fitted into Frances Ha: “Great pop music, when it’s over, you just want to play the song again right away,” says Gerwig. “We talked about wanting the movie to feel like a pop song. When it’s over, there’s a feeling of, “Put it on again”. I would love to get a complete soundtrack and score from this film. There is a selection of songs from the film available on a U.S. website. I am desperate to see this soundtrack expanded and reissued on Neon Pink vinyl and available to buy in the U.K., as the music is one of the big reasons why Frances Ha is such an affecting and mesmeric film! The reason for shooting it in black-and-white, as Noah Baumbach explained, was to make it this instant classic. How there was nostalgia to a film set in modern times. Frances Ha was released to theatres in 2013, though it is a film that seems like it could have been set in the 1960s or 1970s. The soundtrack, I feel, features popular music from this time, as that is where its heart is. Also, the use of New Wave compositions by composers like Georges Delerue and Jean Constantin is wonderous and inspired! The film does take us to Paris near the end – Frances goes there for only a couple of days or so and really doesn’t do much (she takes sleeping pills and oversleeps, fails to meet up with friends for dinner after they picked up her voice messages late, and the wasted trip lands her in debt) -, but you don’t know that at the start of the film. In some ways you do get this mix of modern-day U.S. cinema and 1960s and 1970s New Wave French cinema.

The loveable-but-flawed Frances and her friendship with Sophie is the core of the film. Sophie moving on and getting engaged/married to Patch (he is a character that Frances never really gels with and wonders why Sophie is with him) and has a publishing job – she briefly moves to Japan with Patch -, whilst Frances is an apprentice at a dance company and is over-dependant on her friend. It is almost like this childhood friendship and, when one of them moves and sees goes away, there is this jealously and anger. However, Frances has a good heart and loves her friend! The music beautifully scores the film and heightens the scenes. The New Wave pieces are simultaneously sweeping, quirky and exciting. I had never heard of these French composers before. The use of Hot Chocolate’s Every 1’s a Winner during the sojourn to Paris is especially inspired and effective. I wonder why that particular song was selected. Maybe it is irony. How Frances is losing out and failing. That comedic edge that you get through repetition of the chorus! Paul McCartney’s Blue Sway (a song that was not included on his 1980 album, McCartney II for some reason) is a gorgeous deep-cut used to brilliant effect in the background in Lev and Benji’s apartment when Frances is there. She is asked to give them a dance move, to which she reluctantly agrees. Chrome Sitar from T. Rex this brilliant needle drop following a funny scene where Dan (Frances’s boyfriend) tries to get her to move in but she cannot, as she was supposed to renew her lease with Sophie. The scene ends on a comedic note and we cut to Frances entering a party with a bottle of beer as Chrome Sitar plays. Whereas a lot of filmmakers go for bigger and more obvious songs, it is this decision to go with slightly less obvious choices from well-known artists that makes the soundtrack so nuanced and fascinating. Maybe that was a budgetary thing and they could not get permission or afford other tracks. However, Modern Love and its use during that iconic scene is a standout. This quarter-life crisis that Frances is facing. How she seems to wander and can’t seem to commit or find her way. The soundtrack and score could have been too offbeat, jarring, maudlin or quirky. Instead, we get this perfect blend of dynamics and emotions. The music, whilst occasionally diegetic – that scene at the apartment (where Blue Sway plays); the party directly after the breakup, and Frances premiering her own production/performance piece near the end are examples -, is mostly played like a score. It is used over scenes and is never intrusive or misplaced. Everything beautifully selected!

When Frances runs to an ATM to get some cash during a dinner with Lev; a moment when she and Sophie are sharing lunch together and you get a swell of Stanislas et Camille by Hugh Wolff & London Sinfonietta. This feature from 2022 marked ten years of the first collaboration between Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach (they are married and have been working together on and off ever since; the most recent time being for 2023’s Barbie). Essentially a series of vignettes, I have highlighted sections of the feature that discusses how the music is used to great effect throughout Frances Ha:

“Both Gerwig and director Noah Baumbach aspired to make the film feel loose and unchoreographed, while having each scene be the opposite – choreographed to the finest detail. Some scenes would need 40 takes before they were finished, with Baumbach suggesting that often their attempt to get “many pages to work in one shot” may have resulted in perfectionism coming into play.

The film’s soundtrack follows her movements too, as she traipses from New York to Paris. In New York, strings and piano accompany Frances’ life, the lightness of the instrumentals perfectly suiting a character living in her own world. While in Paris, Hot Chocolate’s ‘Every 1’s A Winner’ gnaws at her, playing over an extended montage of her making her way through the city and amplifying the dissonance between her perception of the world and reality. The music choices represent a daydream-like fantasy that is on the verge of collapse.

Teased by Sophie for never being able to account for her bruises, Frances is clumsy yet charming.Though in a sense a romcom, the romantic treatment that the film gets does not result in the traditional outcome that audience members expect from the trope. There is no love interest who sweeps her off her feet, nor is there a sudden change in context where she’s met fulfilled dreams. Acknowledging it’s more common to compromise happiness to realise one’s dreams than to compromise dreams to be happy, the film navigates the lens of romance through a discovery of new dreams.

The dialogue alone is reason enough to watch the film. Written with a wispy sense of humour, scenes like Frances offering to shout her friend Lev dinner after receiving an unexpected tax refund are delectable. “I’m so embarrassed, I’m not a real person yet,” Frances tells Lev, after finding out the restaurant they’re at only takes cash or credit – both of which she lacks. She proceeds to run outside the neighbourhood, trying to find an ATM to save face, all the while being accompanied by Jean Constantin’s ‘L’Ecole Buissonnière’ . This song first played in the soundtrack of Les quatre cents coups (1959), a coming of age film that defined the New Wave cinema movement. Deftly borrowed by Baumbach for this sequence, the music pays homage to this era with utmost sincerity.

Homage is further paid to French New Wave through the black and white presentation of the film, as well as the use of soundscapes from older films to echo the melancholy of losing friendships and youth. Contrasting that aspect of the film is the costume design, which largely celebrates and mirrors youth. Sprightly optimism is expressed through white and polka dots, while signs of maturity are donned in darker tones like black jackets and solid-coloured dresses.

The film is polished and pristine, strung in a patchwork of episodeswith the utmost of care. In its style and construction, every beat in every sequence is lined with the spirit of youth and sells moments of joy and connection authentically. Baumbach and co-writer/lead actress Gerwig ended up falling in love with one another on set, which is both a beautiful sentiment in and of itself as well as a testament to the tenderness and affection that eminates from the film.

In an interview with the Criterion Collection, Baumbach stated, “I think intuitively with the black and white and the music, I had this feeling that we would kind of celebrate the kind of romance and the energy and the spirit of New York City and being young, and how good that can feel.” This film paints the human experience in an offbeat fashion and deserves many replays in 2022. Exhibiting the comfort of a ‘wrapped-under-blankets’ movie, Frances Ha is a hopeful story for those who may feel like they’re drifting through life, without an anchor. It’s a reminder to not take things too seriously and that there is charm in the unknown”.

I will wrap in a minute. There is not as much as there should be written about a truly great soundtrack. This feature from 2017 is interesting and insightful. One of the big reason why Frances Ha is my favourite film is because of the music. How it used to heighten scenes, add comedy, romance and pathos. How you get a perfect blend of genres and moods that score emotions and internal monologues. It would be tantalising to think about a follow-up to the film and see where as the characters ended up:

“Music is an integral part of creating her internal fantasy. The twinkling, carefree instrumentals provide the lens with which we experience Frances’s world - or at least a more gilded version of how she envisions herself living in it. In tandem with the film’s precise editing and Greta Gerwig’s tremendous performance, the music choices make her everyday life a daydream that’s headed towards an inevitable collapse.

Haven't we all wanted this version of friendship, this kind of youth? Where even the inconveniences or struggles are charming? It’s an illusion we can be sink into, but never trust as a true depiction of her full reality. When music does exists in Ha’s real world, it’s either unheard (“aren’t these headphones the tits?”) or pale, like the hometown church service.

But that optimism runs out to hilarious effect as Hot Chocolate’s “Every 1’s A Winner” haunts Frances’s misguided trip to Paris. Baumbach would later use the same band to explore the delusion of another Gerwigian New Yorker in Mistress America, but here it's sequence specific. Like the rest of the film’s musical fantasy, this song sounds exactly like what we imagine from a spontaneous jaunt to Paris: glamorous fun in a blur of sexiness. The song stops and starts over the extended montage, as if Frances is listening to it on repeat in some effort to lift her mood.

Except each time it plays it only highlights to increasing distance between her rose-colored glasses and her depressive reality. The title alone is giddy in taunting Frances at her lowest, an added insult that we dance along as her isolation deepens. “Everyone’s a winner, baby, that’s the truth” - except for her. Frances Ha gets labeled as Baumbach’s sweetest film, but this sequence is as acerbic as he’s ever been.

It’s a long way off from how Baumbach employs David Bowie’s “Modern Love”, a disco musing on restless unintended stagnation in its own right:

There’s no sign of life
It’s just the power to charm
I’m lying in the rain
But I never wave bye-bye
But I try, I try

Like Frances’s failures, it should be depressing but its affectation of feeling is too convincing. It’s an exacting song choice because Bowie just wants us to dance along and Frances just wants to dance, literally and metaphorically. Plus, it’s a banger that can’t be denied - you should want to relent to the feeling here, and “Modern Love” demands you to move. That iconography of a twirling, leaping Gerwig hurtling herself through the New York City streets (minus any oncoming traffic) is as pure a distillation of feeling like you can overtake the world as your heart can handle. Of course, the real world crashes the party.

And she tries, she tries. When the song returns over the closing credits, it’s after another brisk bit of montage showing that she’s gotten her shit together. What’s doubly meaningful in the film’s reusing of the same music when Frances goes from mess to stable is how it tells us we don’t have to sacrifice our core self in order to grow up. The Frances that was led solely by the best version of her life can be equally as alive and sunnily disposed by the realest version too. And perhaps it’s more special because the real is much simpler”.

I would urge anyone who has not seen Frances Ha to view it. A million miles away from what Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach would do with the huge-budget Barbie, this 2013-released slice of gold has this modesty and Indie feel. The conversation is very real and natural. Frances Ha does feel like a very realistic and relatable film (though reading Greta Gerwig discuss a particular scene that took so long to get down, some days would have been tougher than others!). There is also a joke int he film where Benji, who is an aspiring writer and says he was approached to write skits on Saturday Night Live (Lev busts his balls and calls him a liar), says he is working on a sample script for Gremlins 3 and just cracked the second act. It seemed far-fetched and random that there would be a third Gremlins! However, it has recently been announced that the third instalment is coming for Christmas 2027, so it is funny and strangely fresh watching that scene in Frances Ha! Beautifully written, acted and directed, I think it is topped off with a brilliant soundtrack. For further reading and insight, check out reviews of Frances Ha from The Guardian, Cinema from the Spectrum, The New York Times, The New Yorker, Empire, BFI, and The New Republic. I think the soundtrack deserves its own reviews! These wonderful and interesting French New Wave pieces together with some well-placed and selected Pop (as in ‘popular’, as opposed a generic sound) tracks. One of these lost classics, I hope that a Neon Pink version of this soundtrack is reissued on vinyl! It would be a perfect way to introduce new fans to the glorious music…

FEATURED in Frances Ha.

FEATURE: Groovelines: Joan Armatrading - Love and Affection

FEATURE:

 

 

Groovelines

 

Joan Armatrading - Love and Affection

__________

 I was keen to include…

PHOTO CREDIT: Joel Anderson

Joan Armatrading’s Love and Affection in this Groovelines as its author turns seventy-five on 9th December. Appearing on her 1976 eponymous album, I think that this is the song that people associate with Armatrading above all others. The iconic and legendary songwriter has written more than her fair share of timeless songs. However, there is something especially stirring and important about Love and Affection. One of the all-time great songs, in honour of the upcoming seventy-fifth birthday of Joan Armatrading, I want to spend some time with her masterpiece from 1976. There are a couple of interviews/features I want to introduce. However, last year, The Guardian spoke with Joan Armatrading and took questions from their readers. A couple related to Love and Affection:

“What are your memories of your legendary performances on the BBC’s Old Grey Whistle Test? VerulamiumParkRanger

I remember being very nervous – I’m always nervous! – and it would have been one of the first times people would have seen me playing on television. Before that, John Peel would play me and he would come to the sessions, so people had an inkling of me, but you wonder: “What will people think?” I remember meeting [presenter] Bob Harris – his big smiley face hasn’t changed. I introduced Love and Affection by saying “Track four, album three, side one, Joan Armatrading”, because I tend to do stuff like that.

How did Lester Freamon from The Wire (actor Clarke Peters) come to sing the deep baritone vocals on Love and Affection? GaryDonner

His name was Pete Clarke then but he had to change it because in [actors’ union] Equity there was another Pete Clarke. We were both in [rock musical] Hair so I knew him, and when I wrote Love and Affection I wanted a bass voice. Pete wasn’t a session singer but not many people can sing that low, so he also did the bass voice on another song of mine, Opportunity”.

There may be some overlap in terms of information and details about the song. However, I wanted to bring in this PRS for Music interview from back in 2011. Joan Armatrading discussing the recording of and legacy of Love and Affection. A song that I know she has performed a lot live, it has been covered by other artists. Reaching ten on the U.K. chart, this song has been covered by, among others, Sheena Easton, Sly Stone and Martha Davis, Courtney Pine, and Kele le Roc:

“Love and Affection was Joan Armatrading’s first chart success. Released in 1976, it reached number 10 in the UK charts and has since been covered by Sheena Easton, Sly Stone and Martha Davis, Courtney Pine and Kele le Roc.

M spoke to the Ivor and Gold Badge award winner to find out how she wrote her most enduring ballad.

M: Do you remember where and when the song came to you?

Well, it came out in 1976, and I wrote it in 1975. Such a long time ago!

M: What first triggered you to write the song?

So far I’ve never told anyone, but it’s obvious in terms of its opening line, ‘I’m not in love, but I’m open to persuasion’. It’s really a song about love and friendship and about not being fickle. There’s a line in there that says, ‘I’ve got all the friends that I want, I may need more, but I’ll stick to the ones I’ve got’. Sometimes people get caught up thinking that having lots of friends means they’ve got lots of acquaintances, instead of just a handful of people that they are close to. It’s pretty important and special to have close friends, because you know if anything happens, or you are really down on your luck, there are people there to help you. That’s really what the song is about.

M: Was it a lyric, melody or something else that first popped into your head?

It’s actually two songs that I put together. I can’t remember exactly what started it all off because I don’t have a definite way of writing. I don’t write words first, or music first. Sometimes a verse will trigger me off, sometimes it's music and words together. Sometimes everything comes from a guitar I’ve picked up, and sometimes I go to the piano. Love and Affection came from my 12-string guitar. It started and ended with that guitar, it didn’t migrate onto anything else.

How did you develop the song from those two original ideas?

There is one part of Love and Affection that is the dominant bit, but I used a part from another song near the end. If you have something like that and you put things together, you really don’t want to be thinking in terms of two separate songs or it won’t work. For me, it had to quickly become one song. I don’t even remember how much of the second song went now.

M: When and where did you first record it?

I recorded it at Olympic Studios in London. I wrote it in 1975, and when I was touring that year I sang it on stage. I had it all worked out before I recorded it. I had all the parts ready, and knew what I wanted. Glyn Johns was the producer, but even when I have a producer I’m very much involved with what’s going on with the song. I write in a range. I think about what’s going to be in the song and tend to think about the whole of it as opposed to parts.

M: So did you record it all at home first?

Absolutely. I’ve always had a tape recorder at home. I started out with just a cassette, then I got a two-track, followed by a four-track, eight-track, 16-track. Right from the beginning I’ve always demo-ed everything myself and played everything myself. So with Love and Affection it was a case of layering stuff up at home. For my last four albums I’ve recorded and played everything myself; it’s just an extension of what I’ve always done. But instead of doing it on analogue tape I do it on a computer now, with Logic.

M: The song is still really popular today. Why do you think it has resonated with so many people?

Whatever answer I give won’t be the right one! I suppose you have to go and ask all those people what it is. They’ll all come up with something different, but one thing I think they might have in common is a connection to the opening line. People can relate to that. It’s such an opener for people to think about their own situation. If they are in love, at some point they weren’t in love. That can strike a chord. Then I think they like that big voice that comes in and they like the 12-string guitar. It’s got a few things going for it that really work with people”.

Let’s wrap up with Capitol FM and their feature around Love and Affection. This is a song that captivated the world. I hear it played frequently and widely to this day. A song that it is impossible not to be spellbound by, her eponymous album of 1976 is also a masterpiece. One of the greats. Go and listen to if you have not done so before:

“In 1976, Joan Armatrading released one of her most iconic songs, “Love and Affection.” This track, which became a hit worldwide, showcased her unique talent and cemented her place in music history.

Joan Armatrading’s “Love and Affection” remains a timeless global hit with universal appeal.

To understand the success of “Love and Affection,” it’s essential to delve into the song’s composition, its performance on global charts, and Joan Armatrading’s illustrious career before and after its release.

Composition of “Love and Affection”

“Love and Affection” is a soulful ballad that stands out for its heartfelt lyrics, rich melody, and Armatrading’s distinctive vocal delivery.

The song features a blend of folk, jazz, and pop elements, making it a timeless piece that resonates with listeners across generations.

The composition is characterized by its gentle acoustic guitar intro, smooth saxophone solos, and a powerful yet tender vocal performance by Armatrading. The lyrics speak to the complexities of love and the yearning for emotional connection, themes that are universally relatable.

Success in the UK

Upon its release, “Love and Affection” quickly climbed the UK charts, peaking at number 10. This success marked a significant milestone in Armatrading’s career, as it was her first top 10 hit in the UK.

The song’s popularity was bolstered by frequent radio play and television appearances, which helped introduce Armatrading’s music to a broader audience.

The track’s success in the UK was a testament to its wide appeal and the emotional depth of Armatrading’s songwriting.

Impact in the US and Europe

While “Love and Affection” did not achieve the same level of commercial success in the US as it did in the UK, it still managed to capture the attention of American audiences.

The song received considerable airplay on adult contemporary and soft rock radio stations, allowing Armatrading to build a dedicated fan base in the United States.

In Europe, the track was particularly well-received in countries like Germany and the Netherlands, where Armatrading’s blend of musical styles resonated with diverse audiences.

Reception in Asia and Australia

In Asia, “Love and Affection” garnered a niche following, especially in Japan, where Armatrading’s music was appreciated for its lyrical depth and unique sound.

The song also found success in Australia, where it was played on various radio stations, ranging from pop to adult contemporary formats.

The track’s universal themes and Armatrading’s soulful delivery helped it transcend cultural barriers and find an audience in these regions.

Joan Armatrading’s Career Before and After “Love and Affection”

Before the release of “Love and Affection,” Joan Armatrading had already established herself as a talented singer-songwriter with a distinctive voice.

Born in 1950 in Basseterre, Saint Kitts, and raised in Birmingham, England, Armatrading began her musical journey in the early 1970s. Her debut album, “Whatever’s for Us,” released in 1972, showcased her unique blend of folk, jazz, and pop influences.

However, it was her self-titled third album, released in 1976, that featured “Love and Affection” and catapulted her to international fame.

Following the success of “Love and Affection,” Armatrading continued to produce critically acclaimed albums throughout the late 1970s and 1980s. Tracks like “Willow,” “Drop the Pilot,” and “Me Myself I” further solidified her reputation as a versatile and emotive songwriter.

Armatrading’s ability to convey deep emotions through her music earned her a loyal fan base and critical acclaim.

In the decades that followed, Armatrading’s career continued to flourish. She experimented with different musical styles, from rock and blues to jazz and classical, showcasing her versatility and enduring talent.

Her extensive discography and continued relevance in the music industry have made her a respected figure and a trailblazer for female singer-songwriters.

Radio Play and Enduring Appeal

“Love and Affection” remains a staple on various radio formats, including adult contemporary, soft rock, and oldies stations. Its timeless quality and emotional resonance ensure that it continues to be played and appreciated by new generations of listeners. The song’s enduring appeal lies in its beautiful composition, relatable lyrics, and Armatrading’s powerful vocal performance.

In concerts, “Love and Affection” often serves as a highlight, drawing enthusiastic responses from audiences.

Joan Armatrading’s live performances of the song are noted for their emotional intensity and connection with the audience, further cementing the track’s status as a classic”.

I shall end here. Because the phenomenal Joan Armatrading turns seventy-five on 9th December, it provided this opportunity to explore her most popular and played song. Her twenty-first studio album, How Did This Happen and What Does It Now Mean, was released last year. There is no sign of Armatrading slowly any time soon! Just as well, as she is one of our all-time greatest songwriters. A single from her 1976 eponymous album, it has been great spotlighting…

THE extraordinary Love and Affection.

FEATURE: Spotlight: Revisited: Rianne Downey

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight: Revisited

 

Rianne Downey

__________

 ONE of my favourite artists around…

I wanted to revisit the music of the brilliant Rianne Downey. I spotlighted Downey almost two years ago now, and she has done so much since then. I shall come to her new album, The Consequence of Love. It is her debut, and it has received huge acclaim. Another challenger for album of the year, Downey has also performed with Paul Heaton and she has played some big festivals. A remarkable artist who everyone needs to know about, I am going to end with a glowing review for The Consequence of Love. I will bring in some recent interviews first. Currently on tour, I would advise people to check out where she is playing and get a ticket if you can, as Rianne Downey is a sensational live performer. There are some great album bundles, so go and check them out. As Rianne Downey notes in recent interviews, as someone from Glasgow, it is quite rare to hear a Scottish Country artist. However, as Country has Celtic roots, it is not that unusual. In modern music, most Country artists are from the U.S. We have a fair few in England. However, there is something distinct and powerful about Downey’s sound. Different from American Country. Better and more effecting in my view. I want to come to some recent interviews with Rianne Downey. The Rodeo Mag spoke with Downey about bringing Country back to its Celtic roots:

“Rianne Downey’s debut album The Consequence of Love has been a long time coming. Blending contemporary folk and country with Scottish traditional folk, it’s also highly anticipated – when we chatted a few weeks ago, her tour was already nearly sold out. Recorded last year in May at Bear Creek Studios near Seattle (yes, there was a creek and bears nearby), Rianne has since been busy working and performing with Paul Heaton, wanting to give him all her time and energy before giving all of hers to her own work and for it to be the right time. Although, she did learn that with art, there isn’t ever a right time. “It’s so precious to you, isn’t it? So, you feel like the longer you hold onto it it’s safe, but it comes to a head doesn’t it. You need to show the world so you can move onto the next thing.”

While there might never be the right time in the eyes and ears of the artists to release their work into the wild, seasonally speaking The Consequence of Love has been released at the right time for the listener. There is something very autumnal about this album, it evokes the soft light in the mornings, the changing of the season, the warmth of the sun and chill in the air. Rianne was very pleased to hear that I had picked up on this, especially on the song ‘Sunblind.’ “I actually had sort of autumn mornings in my head, I’m quite an autumnal person so when I was writing, that’s a lot of the things I could see, like the sun setting dead low,” she says with a huge grin.

Alongside Johnny Cash, Fleetwood Mac are amongst Rianne’s biggest influences. “When you’re young and a teenager and so caught up in the thing of finding yourself, I think they definitely helped me along that path,” Rianne says on the impact Fleetwood Mac has had on her. “Learning about them and the chaos of their lives gave me peace in a way as well.” She cites Stevie Nicks as a particular inspiration in terms of music, fashion and life. “It was Stevie Nicks who introduced me to feminism as well, which I love, so she’s definitely helped me in a lot of ways.”

Other influences include Simon and Garfunkel and, in her songwriting, Townes Van Zandt (“I really do love that sort of really classic, fingerpicking, old country style”), as well as her contemporaries Noah Kahan and Phoebe Bridgers. Not only has the sounds and productions of Noah Kahan played a big role in recent inspirations, but also his huge successes, as it’s made Rianne feel more confident that there is an audience for her.

Rianne shares that this was a big worry for her in 2021 when she released her first EP and there wasn’t quite the resurgence of country and folk as there is now. “I sort of felt like, oh God what if people don’t like country, then that means they don’t like me, and I don’t want to make a gimmick of myself.” Though this fear led her to stray away from country and folk as she experimented with indie and pop, she kept returning to her roots and the music she deep down always wanted to make. “It felt really freeing and refreshing to just decide I’m doing this for me and I’m writing what I want to write.”

Rianne has unfortunately faced some negative comments. “It is quite an unorthodox thing, a Scottish country singer, so I have had trolls online saying like, ‘ugh she’s just another country singer,’ ‘she’s just another karaoke singer,’ ‘you can’t even tell she’s Scottish, why she putting on an accent?’” Anyone who’s referencing Townes Van Zandt is far from a karaoke singer… Luckily, Rianne has a strong sense of self and tries to see the positive in that if she’s getting hate online it means her presence and reach is growing. She’s also not too worried about the “miserable people,” because she’s being true to herself, or to use the country buzzword, she’s authentic. “If I was trying to do something else, then I’d never really know if I was doing it right or wrong, whereas when I’m being me, I don’t really think I can do that wrong.”

It’s also important to remember that a lot of elements in country music come from Celtic folk music. For example, when Dolly Parton sings old bluegrass songs or harmonises with her sisters, you can hear in her voice, the way in which she delivers the notes and stories, her Celtic ancestry. “I guess maybe that is why it feels so natural to me,” smiles Rianne. “I think it is that sort of raw storytelling thing that definitely feels like that’s my sort of Celtic roots.” And so, Rianne being inspired by American mountain music but singing it in her own Scottish accent is like the bringing together of country and folk’s past, present and future”.

Beginning busking in Glasgow aged fifteen, and having been asked to support Paul Heaton after she uploaded a cover of The Beautiful South’s Rotterdam (Or Anywhere) to YouTube, Rianne Downey has also supported Paolo Nutini and Deacon Blue. The Skinny spoke with Downey back in September. There is understandably a lot of focus on this amazing Country artist. Someone who is going to rank alongside the legends of the genre in years to come:

“Some of music's biggest stars like Ed Sheeran, Rod Stewart, Gerry Cinnamon and Dylan John Thomas started their careers as buskers. When did you start singing and was busking always something you wanted to do?

I always loved to sing and would get my mum to print out lyrics to my favourite songs like Johnny Cash’s Ring of Fire or June Carter and Carl Smith’s Time’s A Wastin’. I’d do performances in front of her and my grannies. Then when I was ten I asked for my first guitar after I got hooked on Amy Winehouse’s Back to Black. But I didn’t think I was cool enough to be a singer-songwriter. I loved performing, and musical theatre seemed like the way for me at first. I got a scholarship to the Royal Conservatoire when I was at school.

I would hang about with people in the busking scene in Glasgow. One of my old pals would encourage me to give it a go but I was so nervous. Then one day when I was 15 I just got up and did a song and got the busking bug. It was very daunting. One guy told me to go and shoot myself in the head. You’d get wolf whistles. As you grow up you look back and think about the condescending men who would come over after your set. At the time you think they were being nice and giving you advice, even though they’ve not sung a note in their life. But busking builds a thick skin and taught me how to win people over. Now though, most of the trolling is online.

The title track of The Consequence of Love is about your Granny Cathy, who has dementia. Why did you decide to write a song about that and has she heard it?

My Granny and the family had been dealing with her decline for a while but it didn’t really hit me until I was leaving the UK to record my debut album in Seattle. She had started to deteriorate really quickly. It was her last days in her own house and she was going into a home and you could just really see she wasn’t the woman that I knew anymore, there was this glaze over her eyes. Even though I’d known my Gran had dementia for years I think I was in denial. I then wrote the song which is about how nothing prepares you to lose the one you love. You can know all the facts, prepare yourself and know it’s coming because it’s part of life, but when you actually see that person deteriorating it’s a pain like no other.

I was in so much pain, but I wouldn’t change anything, because I got to have the life with my Gran and saw the woman she was; I have all these memories. [Writing the song] was my way of dealing with grief. I haven’t played her the song yet but I’ve written some of the lyrics in a notebook she has for the family to write messages to her. She cries a lot now and I don’t want to upset her. But I did write down some of the lyrics including: ‘I would walk a million miles in your shoes to take the load off / And I’d save all my pennies to buy back the time that we used up’, so she has seen it in some way.

As someone who loved country music from a young age why did you choose Seattle rather than Nashville to record your debut album? 

The chance to work with the producer Ryan Hadlock who has worked with Brandi Carlile and Zach Bryan [...] I looked into loads of producers, compiled a playlist of all my favourite songs and my favourite genres growing up until now and what is as close to my sound now and the common denominator was Ryan. I plucked up the courage to ask my label to send me over there and I was lucky they wanted to take a chance on me. His studio Bear Creek is in the forest. It’s called Bear Creek because it’s by a creek and in a forest that has black bears. I heard one while I was in the hot tub. I was terrified. I felt very vulnerable at that point [...] As for Nashville, I’d love to play the Grand Ole Opry. That’s my main goal. After I play the Barras”.

The final interview I am coming to is from Rolling Stone. Speaking with them last month, they declared Rianne Downey as Scotland’s boldest voice in Country music. Someone many might associate more with her work with Paul Heaton, we need to shine a light on her incredible solo music and The Consequence of Love. One of the strongest debut albums of this year. If you have not heard it then go and check it out:

“We’re speaking weeks before the album drops. Excited?

I’m dead excited but I’m nervous as well. It’s that feeling of when you were younger and it was Christmas Eve and you’re buzzing for Santa to come. It’s how I feel now, giddy but nervous because you never really know what’s going to happen. It’s a really special time.

What does the record say about you as an artist?

I think encapsulates me and my journey. The album is rooted in country and folk, but has these sort of classic Celtic touches which feel unorthodox. It’s quite a unique and quirky and almost wonky album in a way and there is a sort of beauty to the wonkiness and I think that sort of really encapsulates me and my journey, as a person and as a musician, I’ve had quite quite a unique journey.

And you got the proper country experience recording in the US, right?

Yeah I recorded with my producer Ryan Hadlock at a studio in Seattle called Bear Creek and it has that name because, well, there’s bears and there’s a creek surrounding it. It was amazing, I didn’t see a black bear but I did hear one at night one time when I was out in the garden and I was terrified.

It made the full thing feel like dead enchanted. I felt so at one with myself and it was a nice way to shut out the world. Being in that setting where you’re just in the trees, in a barn in the middle of nowhere, it’s just completely about the music and myself really.

Ryan was amazing for production as well. There’s a song on there called ‘Lost in Blue’ which was maybe more acoustic and he turned that into this dreamy Fleetwood Mac style song. What was lovely too is that he could sense what I needed without me having to articulate it and I think that’s the beautiful thing about having the right producer. If you can just feel what each other are thinking then it’s the perfect match.

We know you’ve performed with Paul Heaton at a string of his gigs. What’s he taught you about music?

It’s strange because I’m sort of learning as I’m watching and listening to him, so it’s never like we sat down and he’s said ‘this is what you need to do’. I’ve just learned in the most natural way possible and almost like in a very simple way because that’s who Paul is.

There’s no airs or graces and he’s very down to earth and, he does things in his own way. I think just being around him and watching him be such a lovely person and a good soul and the way that he treats people really brushed off. He knows it’s all about the music and the importance that it doesn’t get compromised, but it’s nice to just see someone doing that while being such a kind person, a gem of a person, but still having that strong will. It definitely helped with my album and allowed me to realise that this is about me and what I do. Everyone’s listening to the album because of me, everyone’s coming to the gigs because of me, so you have to sort of stay true to that”.

Whilst you would have hoped a lot of the bigger music websites – such as NME, The Guardian, The Line of Best Fit, The Forty-Five etc. – would have reviewed The Consequence of Love, there are some really positive ones from those who have sat down and reviewed Rianne Downey’s debut album. This is what HIVE said in their review. It is clear that The Consequences of Love came with so much anticipation and expectation. It has more than lived up to expectations! One of this year’s best albums without doubt:

“I can’t think of the last time a debut album had expectations quite like this. Despite this being Rianne Downey’s first album she’s already a household name from her partnership with the legendary Paul Heaton and the multiple tours and festivals she’s done by his side. She’s a name many are familiar with however to the many who may have seen her at Heaton’s side this album may come as a surprise.

Downey made her name through her beautiful country music and her sound is influenced by legends like Dolly Parton just as much as it influenced by the sounds and stories of Scotland. It’s a very distinct take on country and adds a layer of sincerity you won't find elsewhere. Country music is a genre I’ve historically been very critical of, especially modern American country, as I typically tend to find the genre formulaic and insincere but when country artists buck these trends and wear their heart on their sleeves in a manner such as Rianne Downey does here I have to swallow nearly every word I’ve said to disparage the state of the genre as I’m reminded there are still incredible artists out there.

The opening track ‘Good In Goodbye’ is a mesmerising piece of music. Propped up by mandolin and banjo to create this warm, familiar and joyous feeling as we hear Rianne sing a song of love and loss but a song that’s ultimately about acceptance. It’s a song that wrestles with the joy that can come from grief. Releasing yourself from what once was and accepting that sometimes loss is the only way to move forward is a hard reality to grapple with but it’s one we all have to face at one point or another and as this record opens we hear Rianne doing just that. In this case it seems to be a reflection on a past relationship, something that came around at the wrong time and that whilst it was great it was never meant to be. It’s an incredibly evocative song, especially lyrically with such vivid imagery painted by her lyrics. As she sings “We were like the trees, how they can chain and intertwine, but when our branches came to meet the forest set on fire,” we hear this song at its core. Loss and grief and recovery aren’t linear, sometimes something you really want to happen you have to let go but finding the ‘Good In Goodbye’ can bring you more happiness than it ever would have originally.

The album’s second track and in my opinion the best offering on the whole album, ‘The Song Of Old Glencoe’ is a love letter to Scotland and a track that ditches the influence of the sounds of American country music that tint the record throughout. Feeling closer to folk it’s a soft, contemplative and tender effort as she sings a love song to the land. From its stripped back, more grounded feel to the vocalisation of “too-loor-a-lie-o” on the chorus this feels like a definitive track that will be a staple for years to come. It’s so unapologetically Scottish in its misty sounds and it is a beautiful track.

An ever-present theme with the lyrics of this album is duality. The push and pull of love and loss. The harmony they create as they exist with and against each other. You can’t lose without love and this is something Downey explores deeply throughout. Even the title of the album The Consequence Of Love hints towards this and the title track also, unsurprisingly, explores this concept. That song is a beautiful ballad, one that made a huge impact from the first time I heard her sing the chorus “Nobody prepares you to lose the one that you love, Nobody warned you how much losing feels like a loss, And it comes to all of us, A consequence of love.”

Another standout track arrives towards the end of the album in ‘Sunblind’ as we hear Downey seemingly questioning if the feelings that come with the honeymoon phase of a relationship can continue to last. Is this something real or is it a flash in the pan? Is she sabotaging herself to preserve her happiness and ultimately holding herself back from something? This song poses so many interesting questions against the backing of this summery, playful tune that feels like something out of the book of Dolly Parton B-Sides (and I mean that as the biggest compliment I can muster)

As far as debut albums go it’s one of the most driven, confident and incredible debuts I’ve heard in a while. Rianne Downey is marked for big things, she was before the release of this album, but this has cemented her as someone we cannot ignore anymore. An incredible album from your next favourite singer”.

An exceptional artist who everyone needs to know about, Glasgow’s Country queen, Rianne Downey, has put out one of 2025’s finest albums. Downey also appeared on Paul Heaton’s superb 2024 album, The Mighty Several. And you feel like she will feature on his next album. She is touring at the moment, but I think next year will be her biggest. If you have not heard this stunning artist then make sure that you follow her and hear The Consequence of Love. A singular musician with…

MANY years ahead.

______________

Follow Rianne Downey

FEATURE: Sounds and Visions: The Concept of an Ambitious Album with No A.I. or Huge Technological Input

FEATURE:

 

 

 Sounds and Visions

PHOTO CREDIT: Tima Miroshnichenko/Pexels

 

The Concept of an Ambitious Album with No A.I. or Huge Technological Input

__________

 THIS is me sort of cheekily…

IN THIS PHOTO: New York, NY/PHOTO CREDIT: Nout Gons/Pexels

circling back to an ambition of mine. Not one that can be easily fulfilled, it may be the case of writing songs and designs and let other people doing the performing. I have said in previous features how there is a real absence of influence when it comes to Steely Dan. Meaning the group – formed by Donald Fagen and the late Walter Becker – have a lot of fans but that has not translated to their sound being integrated into modern music. Maybe more in terms of attitude and feel, their brilliant and distinct lyrics and their compositional sound is barely heard today. I always wondered why that is and whether it is a case of money and not having time to be in the studio that long. I am returning to this thought now because, more and more, I am fascinating by real and genuine music without a tonne of technology. Photos that are natural and not guided by A.I. I am someone who hates too much A.I. interference. I use it for information generation and helping with research, though when it comes to creating stuff and adding images, it is something that I avoid. I know many musicians are fearful of the potential of A.I. regarding their music and how damaging it could be. In terms of my own musician ambitions, I have said before how I have a title in mind, American Grammar, where the music is influenced by Steely Dan. Including Lou Hayter (a Steely Dan) fan as a vocal collaborator. Actor Rachel Brosnahan as a featured vocal – speech rather than singing – on one track, I’ll Get to New York City One Day Soon. Other tracks and titles in mind. Eastside with Lana Del Rey singing beautifully the ingredients of this Eastside cocktail as the chorus, though the song is about a strange romance and the hidden paradise of a bar in Brooklyn. Another track, For Those in the Back Rows, about gender inequality and misogyny in music and the brilliance of women. Another, Katy’s Switch, about trans rights and transphobia. Hipsterlooza about generational gaps and someone older trying to vibe with modern music and TikTok. Long Shot about trying to approach a barista in a coffee shop in a dismal town and have this sort of awkward flirtation.

IN THIS PHOTO: Rachel Brosnahan/PHOTO CREDIT: Jackie Kursel for Interview

Negative Space about the struggles of living with other people and how that can be challenging. Can’t Buy a Thrill (the title is the same as Steely Dan’s 1972 debut album) about the harsh realities of life in the U.S. under President Trump, but also about excess. American Grammar about women’s rights, abortion access and the way the President wants to control women. Other songs look at minor celebrities, misguided love and wonderful characters. The main purpose of the album was to discuss big issues like women’s rights, the stripping of body autonomy and reproductive rights in the U.S., growing violence and divisions. However, there is humour and wit laced in. That is where Steely Dan comes in. Also, utilising session musicians for the songs without breaking the bank. The ideal of capturing everything at Electric Lady in New York City. Having piano, percussion, bass, brass and backing singers, everything as natural as possible and recording in a similar manner to how Steely Dan did. Having everything mixed without too much modern technology. Also, that desire extends to the album cover. I bemoan the lack of inspiring album covers. There are a few good ones from this year, but nothing that ranks with the classics. My idea was a hellish composition and collage of modern America. The title track about abortion rights and that being taken away. A pram in the bottom centre and instead of a baby, it is a sonograph with a red cross drawn across the image as woman either side look down and coo or are happy (they are pro-life and are dressed in 1950s clothing) whilst the expectant mother, played by Imogen Poots, is dressed in blue or like a prisoner, but she has tear-stained eyes. I am a big fan of Poots and want any excuse to include her, including a potential video. I also want Emilia Clarke on the cover. Other images around the modern U.S. and the themes of the songs combine into a cover that I hope can all be shot naturally in a studio and sits alongside the all-time best. Also in the shot includes bygone icons and depiction of politicians and famous figures. Characters in songs and nods to songs like Eastside and Can’t Buy a Thrill.

IN THIS PHOTO: Imogen Poots/PHOTO CREDIT: Victor Demarchelier for Tatler

More than anything, I wanted to launch something that goes back to a different time. Not just inspired by Steely Dan, getting a collection of great musicians recorded to tape. An album cover that seems like a classic. At is a time when musicians have even less money to make albums. All of what I have said seems too ambitious. That you may need to rely on A.I. and technology to save costs. Is that possible if you want to dream big when it comes to musicians and studios?! I do feel, inspired by a group like Steely Dan, that this kind of music, that there should be more of it. Not to say that too much at the forefront is samey or sounds too processed. It is exciting to think if building an album from scratch and having a list of potential collaborators, musicians and ideas for the cover. It may all come in expensive, though there are examples in modern music of artists using the minimum when it comes to recording. Getting that natural warmth and creating ambitious albums. I am fascinated by gaps in music and filling them. As a writer and not a musician, there would have to be a lot of delegation. In terms of A.I., the drawbacks are a lack of authentic emotional depth and originality, jobs and natural musicians being replaced, complex ethical and copyright concerns. You can also get a homogenised musical landscape, and over-reliance on technology which can lead to a decline in traditional skills. It is tantalising to think whether a dream music project could be realised. Bearing in mind costs and the demands of pulling together lots of musicians and being able to afford that without bringing in A.I. or cutting back. So intriguing to see…

WHETHER it could ever be possible.

FEATURE: Kate Bush’s 50 Words for Snow at Fourteen: Could She Go in the Same Direction for Her Next Album?

FEATURE:

 

 

Kate Bush’s 50 Words for Snow at Fourteen

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in promotional photo for 2011’s 50 Words for Snow

 

Could She Go in the Same Direction for Her Next Album?

__________

 IT is a redundant question at the moment…

as Kate Bush has not officially announced that she will release another album! I will drop in an interview that she gave for the Today show late last year, where Emma Barnett asked Kate Bush whether she would release more material. Bush said she has been very busy, but that she is excited to do something new and get into that headspace. We could get an album next year or the year after, though it will not come with tease, build-up or fanfare: Kate Bush will announce it through her website not long before its release and that will be that. As her latest album, 2011’s 50 Words for Snow, turns fourteen on 21st November, I wanted to look at this album but also cast ahead. One of the most notable shifts when it came to new music from Kate Bush is how different 50 Words for Snow was from 2005’s Aerial. The former is a double album that is impossible to categorise but is about motherhood, family and a summer’s day. The second disc, A Sky of Honey, is about that twenty-four-hour period. A summer’s day. 50 Words for Snow is obviously chillier and different. Aerial has a lot of shorter tracks, whilst 50 Words for Snow is seven longer tracks. This album has the most words in any Kate Bush album title, whereas Aerial ties for the least (alongside Lionheart). In terms of where she goes next, I wonder if is realistic that Bush can head in the same direction as she did for 50 Words for Snow. It is, stylistically, more Chamber Jazz than anything else. If Aerial was quite lush in places and had many upbeat and energetic moments, 50 Words for Snow is one of her least energised, propulsive and upbeat albums. Not in a bad way!

I think the tonal shift is brilliant. This is an album that unfolds and these songs unfurl, expand and create their own worlds. If many reviews were hugely positive, 50 Words for Snow, since 2011, has been ranked low when it comes to the best Kate Bush albums. In terms of the less enamoured reviews, below is one from SLANT. It is quite positive, though not as effusive as many:

“Just in time for the arrival of winter cold, Kate Bush’s 50 Words for Snow settles in like a dense, icy fog, delivered in a slow, deliberate style that’s far different from the singer’s usual doe-eyed dynamism. Following up on the more leisurely take on old material that characterized Director’s Cut, the album applies Bush’s usual lyrical palette, purple tales of romance characterized by expressive fantasy elements, to long, glacially progressing tracks.

This means that, despite Bush’s long-term reputation as a purveyor of singularly odd pop songs, the material here isn’t as catchy as it is catatonic. Yet her measured new style works well, reaching an apogee on tracks like “Misty,” which runs to an unbelievable 13-and-a-half minutes on little more than words and piano. It’s mesmerizing enough that it’s easy not to notice the bizarre lyrical focus, which boils down to an erotic interpretation of “Frosty the Snowman.”

At other times the wide-open spaces make it all to evident how silly the material is. Bush’s songs have always had an element of the ridiculous, something that was lost in, or easily forgiven by, how dynamically propulsive and weird they were, full of vocal acrobatics and bizarre effects. With those things stripped away, songs like “Snowed in at Wheeler Street,” a blustery duet with Elton John chronicling a doomed love affair spanning hundreds of years, only point out how much Bush and Anne Rice have in common.

Nothing else here is nearly as bad, despite a litany of odd choices: on “Lake Tahoe” another 10-minute-plus mammoth, Bush pairs up with choral singer Stefan Roberts; on “Snowflake,” her son sings from the snowflake’s point of view; and Stephen Fry shows up on “50 Words for Snow” to recite the titular words as Bush croons over him. As absurd as it sounds, all of this is somehow perfect and eerily charming. 50 Words for Snow is a success not only because it’s so challengingly bold and peculiar, but because it repackages Bush’s usual idiosyncrasies in an entirely new form. It succeeds as a transitional work, but first and foremost as its own singular world—a hushed, magnificent snow globe full of strange stories and characters”.

Similarly, whilst they highlights strengths and merits, NME didn’t seem fully captivated by 50 Words for Snow. Maybe expecting a new album to be socially and thematically warmer or more Pop-driven, it is interesting seeing some of the difference of opinions. Their write-up is quite interesting and insightful, mind. Everyone had their own take on this beguiling and original album that was like nothing Kate Bush released previously:

“Musically, we’re in the same expansive, unhurried territory as 2005’s ‘Aerial’, but this time, it’s winter. In the cool atmosphere of opener ‘Snowflake’, the soft impact of piano and muffled drums conjures the feel of thick fluffy snowfall. Kate’s voice is soft, subtle, seeming barely impelled by breath, while her son Bertie’s is choirboy-pure, cutting silvery and innocent through sparse flurries of Fantasia violins, and ripples of high piano notes. It takes a confident mistress of mood to start an album with a nine-minute song so sparely drawn.

‘Lake Tahoe’, featuring classical singers Stefan Roberts and Michael Wood, is a chilly choral ghost story based around the urban myth of the cold Californian mountain lake, whose bottom is rumoured to be lined with perfectly preserved bodies. The smoky and sparse feel of the piano puts us somewhere between minimal modern classical and Carole King or Laura Nyro.

On ‘Misty’ her voice becomes deeper, minxier, as she husks “give him eyes/Make him smile for me, give him life”. Her growl is bewitching, and despite the utter ludicrousness of her love, you become as snowblind in it as she is. “Melting in my hand”, indeed…

The only yellow spot is the title track, which is, as anyone who remembers ‘Pi’ from ‘Aerial’ will be not at all surprised to learn, a list of wackadoodle alternative descriptions for snow (“deamondi-pavlova… eiderfalls”) recited in Stephen Fry’s matter-of-factly QI-est of tones as Kate counts down the numbers in the background then willdy yells “come on Joe, you got 22 to go” as a chorus.

Sure, it’s an interesting idea. I could make a song by listing all the names of all the UK’s motorway service junctions (“Watford Gap… Fleet… Newport Pagnaaaaallllll”), but it’s doubtful I’d be saying anything to anyone about their lives. But maybe Kate’s just having a laugh, throwing you a sonic snowball. She’s allowed. The long, hungry hiatus before ‘Aerial’ has had the effect of making [a]Kate Bush[/a] criticism an unnecessarily serious-faced pursuit, but her songs have always reveled in the daft and whimsical.

‘Wild Man’ is also, frankly, quite silly on first listen. That faintly Eastern motif, the oddly accented, lurching delivery. At first it seems forced, but repeated listens bring out a real sense of the abominable snowman’s raw loneliness.

The most surprising moment is a duet with one of Kate’s childhood heroes, [a]Elton John[/a]. Not just a drug counselor to international pop stars, our Reg is, it seems, still capable of an arrestingly rich and complex vocal on this high-drama tale of time-travelling lovers repeatedly torn apart and reunited, holed up in front of the fire, keeping the snowstorms, faintly menacing synths and the future at bay. Closer ‘Among Angels’, while less striking, has a spacious, sacred feel. Like the rest of ‘50 Words For Snow’, it makes you crane your head close to listen. [a]Kate Bush[/a] no longer needs to cartwheel through dry ice to get your attention. By following her own strange snowy course without thought to what might be expected, she sets her own agenda. To hope for a ‘Running Up That Hill’ or a ‘Wuthering Heights’ would be to miss the point, and the subtle pleasures – there’s enough people walking the ways Kate cleared 30 years ago. Follow her footprints off the beaten path, and you’ll find some weird winter wonders”.

The Times’ review of 50 Words for Snow was more empathetic and passionate. I guess 50 Words for Snow is a hard album to  fully embrace. It is one that demands attention and focus. No shorter or punchier songs. Given the seven tracks are all long and Wild Man (its sole single) had a radio edit that even then was quite long, it meant that it did not get all the attention and airplay it might have. Harder to promote an album that way when the songs are longer. However, I feel Bush is more and more becoming someone who wants her music to be experienced in physical formats and does not want to do a load of promotion and have it geared for radio. That is commendable:

“Her first album of entirely original material since 2005’s sprawling and utterly uncategorisable Aerial, the 65-minute, conceptual 50 Words for Snow follows this year’s Director’s Cut, on which Kate Bush reworked songs from The Sensual World and The Red Shoes. If Aerial raised eyebrows for addressing the unexpected possibilities and mental triggers contained in domestic routine, her new album proves no less befuddling and beguiling — and idiosyncratic. The title track features Stephen Fry intoning a litany of white-stuff descriptions (“Hooded wept”, he purrs; “Faloop’njoompoola”); Elton John duets on the airy, forlorn Snowed in at Wheeler Street; the stunning Lake Tahoe tells the story of a dog reunited with its owner in the afterlife; and Misty sees Bush enjoying a tryst with a snowman, and includes the characteristically lubricious line “I can feel him melting in my hand”. Musically, the album finds Bush at her most spare: several tracks feature no more than voice (thicker now, and even more emotionally resonant), piano, bass and drums. It isn’t entirely successful — there are times when you long for more sonic grandeur and open spaces, and fewer jazz colourings — but then along comes the hushed, compelling, overwhelming Among Angels, and yet again you think, there is nobody who comes close to this extraordinary woman”.

I don’t think Kate Bush, if a new album does arrive, will repeat the structure and format of 50 Words for Snow. She makes every album sound new. So, sonically, there will be no repeat. However, you cannot rule out a seven-track album that has a different feel. However, given that 50 Words for Snow is perhaps one of her least-discussed, explored and played albums, I do think that it is more probable Kate Bush will rejig and release an album that is a sort of middle ground between 50 Words for Snow and Aerial. I don’t think we will have a lot of shorter tracks or a suite. Instead, it is probably going to be a ten/eleven-track album that is more conventional in terms of structure and format. I do feel like 50 Words for Snow is massively underrated. Bush will be conscious of perhaps being more engaging to a social media or TikTok audience. Not that she will compromise entirely but, as she has a new generation of fans on board, she will reflect that with an album that is perhaps a move back to what she was producing in the 1980s. I think a new album will be more ‘Pop’. However, this is all speculation. I have written about this recently and theorising what a future album could be like. However, this feature is to mark fourteen years of 50 Words for Snow, but also ask if a new Kate Bush album will be similar in any way. I feel that the biggest similarities we will see relates less to the genre and album length and more to do with tone. By that, I think there will be ethereal and darker elements. 50 Words for Snow seems to be set at night. All the tracks have that feel to them. I think Bush will vary this on for a new album. Where Aerial seems more about the day, a future album will possibly not mirror that.

To me, it feels like that stripped and more bare sound is going to stay. If Bush will gear herself to a new audience, that does not mean more layers. Instead, I feel we will get something perhaps daker in terms of a Pop feel, but something that does not comprise of loads of instruments. I feel we will get a couple of contributors too. Maybe not Kate Bush singing everything herself. We definitely need to share 50 Words for Snow more in some way. Perhaps not through radio, perhaps a listening party or doing something with the songs. In another feature, I argued how a short film of the seven tracks could be interesting. I love cuts such as Misty, Lake Tahoe and Among Angels. It is a wonderful album that sort of takes us back to the beginning. Kate Bush and the piano for the most part. Or her taking things back to basics in a sense. A new album might have to change in that respect, though Bush talked warmly about recording 50 Words for Snow and the affection she has for it. Turning fourteen very soon, it would be great if Kate Bush fans talked about this album, as it seems to get forgotten about. Or not held in such high regard! This masterful and truly engrossing album turns fourteen…

ON 21st November.

FEATURE: The Beatles’ Rubber Soul at Sixty: My Five Favourite Songs from the Album

FEATURE:

 

 

The Beatles’ Rubber Soul at Sixty

 

My Five Favourite Songs from the Album

__________

IN the second anniversary feature…

IN THIS PHOTO: The Beatles photographed in Milan in 1965/PHOTO CREDIT: Archivio Farabola

I will share about The Beatles’ Rubber Soul, I am going to highlight my favourite five tracks from it. The first feature was a more general overdue with some features about reviews. Today, I am honing in on the tracks and I will select my favourite five. Of course, Rubber Soul is an almost perfect album. Aside from the ghastly and misogynistic Run for Your Life (though I am highlighting a couple of tracks below that are not exactly kind to women!) – as I say, the band had Day Tripper at their disposal and chose not to include it and kept this stinker -, everything I feel has a place. Turning sixty on 3rd December, I am curious how the anniversary will be marked. We have not really had outtakes or demos from that album. Rubber Soul takes and some rarities that would be a nice treat. However, there will be new anniversary features and spotlighting of this masterpiece. Recording in a month and at a time when The Beatles had a bit of downtime and were not touring, it is amazing they managed to put Rubber Soul and Help! out within a few months of each other. Their work rate was astonishing! What could be considered a rushed album, instead, was their most mature, accomplished and complete to that point. With a broader sound palette and new elements in their sound – including the sitar and acoustic dynamics were more present -, Rubber Soul was a step forward for the four-piece. The songwriting so incredible through Rubber Soul! It is my favourite Beatles album and one that I think is their best to that point. So rich and deep. In terms of the moods and sounds. It is hard to home in on the best five tracks, though there are those that stick out to me. I will rank there here…

______________

FIVE: You Won’t See Me

Personnel and Players:

“Written by: Lennon-McCartney
Recorded: 11 November 1965
Producer: George Martin
Engineer: Norman Smith

Personnel

Paul McCartney: vocals, bass, piano
John Lennon: backing vocals
George Harrison: backing vocals, rhythm guitar, tambourine
Ringo Starr: drums
Mal Evans: Hammond organ”.

Inside the Track:

“Written by Paul McCartney about his then-faltering relationship with Jane Asher, ‘You Won’t See Me’ was recorded during The Beatles’ last session for the Rubber Soul album.

It was written at her parents’ house in London’s Wimpole Street, while Asher had temporarily moved away from McCartney to perform in an adaptation of Great Expectations at the Old Vic theatre in Bristol. The song recounts McCartney’s frustration and vulnerability at being unable to contact her.

At 3’23”, ‘You Won’t See Me’ was The Beatles’ longest recording to date. The song was written by McCartney alone, and was inspired by the Tamla Motown sound.

This was written around two little notes, a very slim phrase, a two-note progression that I had very high on the first two strings of the guitar: the E and the B strings. I had it high up on the high E position, and I just let the note on the B string descend a semitone at a time, and kept the top note the same, and against that I was playing a descending chromatic scale. Then I wrote the tune for ‘You Won’t See Me’ against it…

To me it was very Motown-flavoured. It’s got a James Jamerson feel. He was the Motown bass player, he was fabulous, the guy who did all those great melodic bass lines. It was him, me and Brian Wilson who were doing melodic bass lines at that time, all from completely different angles, LA, Detroit and London, all picking up on what each other did.

Paul McCartney
Many Years From Now, Barry Miles

In the studio

The Beatles took part in a 13-hour session to finish Rubber Soul, beginning at 6pm on 11 November 1965 and ending at 7am the following morning.

The group recorded two takes of the rhythm track and a number of overdubs for ‘You Won’t See Me’. These included a Hammond organ part played by The Beatles’ assistant Mal Evans, whose contribution was limited to a single note held throughout the final verse – Beatles Bible

Further Reading:

“Rubber Soul was released on 3 December 1965 on EMI’s Parlophone record label. “You Won’t See Me” was sequenced as the third track, between Lennon’s “Norwegian Wood” and “Nowhere Man“. While the album was an immediate commercial success, some reviewers in the UK were unprepared for the artistic progression the Beatles had made in their musical arrangements and as lyricists.

In his review for Record Mirror, Richard Green wrote: “It is possible to say that Lennon and McCartney are the great songwriting team of the day and that Beatles performances are spot-on, but this LP cannot support that statement.” He included “You Won’t See Me” among the tracks that were “dull and ordinary” with “none of the old Beatles excitement and compulsiveness about them”. Melody Maker said that the band’s sound had become “a little subdued” and that songs such as “You Won’t See Me” and “Nowhere Man” “almost get monotonous – an un-Beatle-like feature if ever there was one”. By contrast, Nikki Wine (aka Eden) of KRLA Beat found the album “unbelievably sensational” and described “You Won’t See Me” as “One of the greatest arrangements and blending of melodies by the Beatles … and it has to be one of the best cuts on the disc.”

Among more recent appraisals, Tim Riley says that the song’s “antagonism can’t help being tempered by [McCartney’s] melodic suavity, so he winds up sounding like an innocent victim rather than a co-conspirator in a love affair”; similarly, the arrangement and the position of McCartney’s vocal in the mix ensure that “the texture becomes more engaging than the emotion.” Riley nevertheless admires the complementary aspect of McCartney’s bass and piano contributions, adding of Rubber Soul as a whole: “without ever being intrusive, his bass emerges as an irreplaceable part of the overall texture. Because he virtually breathes melody, his bass lines begin to soar with inventive counterpoint to the band …” Ian MacDonald says the song, like “Nowhere Man”, “needed something to lift it” and rues the group’s use of the “irritating ‘ooh-la-la-la’ backing-vocal formula”. He concludes that, while it is “redeemed” by McCartney’s fluid bass playing, “‘You Won’t See Me’ soon founders under the weight of its own self-pity and expires long before struggling to the end of an unusually protracted fade.” In his song review for AllMusic, Richie Unterberger finds the buoyant melody at odds with the dejected lyrics, but he praises the vocal arrangement, particularly “the brilliant interaction of counterpoint melodies” through the addition of Lennon and Harrison’s harmonies. […]” – The Paul McCarrtney Project

FOUR: Girl

Personnel and Players:

“Written by: Lennon-McCartney
Recorded: 11 November 1965
Producer: George Martin
Engineer: Norman Smith

Personnel

John Lennon: vocals, acoustic guitar
Paul McCartney: backing vocals, bass
George Harrison: backing vocals, lead acoustic guitar, acoustic 12-string guitar
Ringo Starr: drums”

Inside the Track:

“The last song recorded for Rubber Soul, ‘Girl’ was mostly written by John Lennon. It explored the notion of the ideal woman, and touched upon Lennon’s feelings towards Christianity.

This was about a dream girl. When Paul and I wrote lyrics in the old days we used to laugh about it like the Tin Pan Alley people would. And it was only later on that we tried to match the lyrics to the tune. I like this one. It was one of my best.

John Lennon

Of the Rubber Soul songs, musically it is most closely related to McCartney’s ‘Michelle’, with its acoustic instrumentation, minor chord changes and skillful vocal harmonies. Part of the music for ‘Girl’ was actually written by McCartney while on a Greek holiday in September 1963.

In the song ‘Girl’ that John wrote, there’s a Zorba-like thing at the end that I wrote which came from that holiday. I was very impressed with another culture’s approach because it was slightly different from what we did. We just did it on acoustic guitars instead of bouzoukis.

Paul McCartney
Many Years From Now, Barry Miles

Lyrically, meanwhile, it presented a femme fatale figure, ‘the kind of girl you want so much it makes you sorry’, whom the song’s protagonist finds himself helplessly drawn towards.

‘Girl’ is real. There is no such thing as the girl; she was a dream, but the words are all right. It wasn’t just a song, and it was about that girl – that turned out to be Yoko, in the end – the one that a lot of us were looking for.

John Lennon
Anthology” – Beatles Bible

Further Reading:

“Bigger than Christ

The song was recorded in November 1965, several months before the infamous interview in which John Lennon compared The Beatles’ popularity to that of Jesus Christ. Lennon was exploring the theme of religion in the lyrics of the song. He later told Rolling Stone magazine, “I was just talking about Christianity in that—a thing like you have to be tortured to attain heaven. I’m only saying that I was talking about pain will lead to pleasure in ‘Girl,’ and that was sort of the Catholic Christian concept—be tortured and then it’ll be all right, which seems to be a bit true, but not in their concept of it. But I didn’t believe in that, that you have to be tortured to attain anything, it just so happens that you were.”

She’s the kind of girl who puts you down
When friends are there
You feel a fool
When you say she’s looking good
She acts as if it’s understood
She’s cool, ooh, ooh, ooh
Girl, girl, girl

Lennon’s Breathing

The Beatles were always trying to push the envelope by seeing what they could get away with. During Rubber Soul, they had begun smoking marijuana, and it was clear they were interested in peppering in various phrases or words to see what they could get away with. Lennon’s breathing on “Girl” could be interpreted either way. Was it a pot reference or just a person contemplating a situation? Paul McCartney told author Barry Miles, “My main memory is that John wanted to hear the breathing, wanted it to be very intimate, so George Martin put a special compressor on the voice, then John dubbed it. … It was always amusing to see if we could get a naughty word on the record: ‘fish and finger pie,’ ‘pr–k teaser,’ ‘tit tit tit tit.’

“The Beach Boys had a song out where they’d done la la la la, and we loved the innocence of that and wanted to copy it but not use the same phrase. So we were looking around for another phrase, so it was dit dit dit dit, which we decided to change in our waggishness to tit tit tit tit, which is virtually indistinguishable from dit dit dit dit. And it gave us a laugh. It was to get some light relief in the middle of this real big career that we were forging. If we could put in something that was a little bit subversive, then we would. George Martin might say, ‘Was that dit dit or tit tit you were singing?’ ‘Oh, dit dit, George, but it does sound a bit like that, doesn’t it?’ Then we’d get in the car and break down laughing.”

Was she told when she was young
That pain would lead to pleasure?
Did she understand it when they said
That a man must break his back
To earn his day of leisure?
Will she still believe it when he’s dead?

Singer/songwriter Jackson Browne told Rolling Stone magazine, “There was a tremendous intimacy in everything John Lennon did, combined with a formidable intellect. That is what makes him a great singer. In ‘Girl,’ he starts in this steely, high voice, Is there anybody going to listen to my story. It’s so impassioned, like somebody stepping from the shadows in a room. But when he comes to the chorus, you suddenly realize he’s talking directly to her. When I heard this as a young teenager, it hit the nail on the head. It embodied the feelings I was living with every day—completely burning with sexual desire, with almost a regret at being so overpowered” – American Songwriter

THREE: In My Life

Personnel and Players:

“Written by: Lennon-McCartney
Recorded: 18, 22 October 1965
Producer: George Martin
Engineer: Norman Smith

Personnel

John Lennon: vocals, rhythm guitar
Paul McCartney: harmony vocals, bass
George Harrison: harmony vocals, lead guitar
Ringo Starr: drums
George Martin: piano, tambourine”

Inside the Track:

“One of the highlights of the Rubber Soul album, ‘In My Life’ was written mostly by John Lennon, and started out as a nostalgic set of memories of Liverpool.

There was a period when I thought I didn’t write melodies, that Paul wrote those and I just wrote straight, shouting rock ‘n’ roll. But of course, when I think of some of my own songs – ‘In My Life’, or some of the early stuff, ‘This Boy’ – I was writing melody with the best of them.

John Lennon, 1980
All We Are Saying, David Sheff

Lennon regarded ‘In My Life’ particularly highly, citing it – along with ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’, ‘I Am The Walrus’, and ‘Help!’ – as among his best.

For ‘In My Life’, I had a complete set of lyrics after struggling with a journalistic vision of a trip from home to downtown on a bus naming every sight. It became ‘In My Life’, which is a remembrance of friends and lovers of the past. Paul helped with the middle eight musically. But all lyrics written, signed, sealed, and delivered. And it was, I think, my first real major piece of work. Up till then it had all been sort of glib and throwaway. And that was the first time I consciously put my literary part of myself into the lyric. Inspired by Kenneth Allsop, the British journalist, and Bob Dylan.

John Lennon
All We Are Saying, David Sheff

Early drafts

He first had the idea for the song in 1964, when journalist Kenneth Allsop asked Lennon why his songs were less revealing and challenging than his books. Musing on this, Lennon decided to take a nostalgic look at specific places and memories from his Liverpool past.

I think ‘In My Life’ was the first song that I wrote that was really, consciously about my life, and it was sparked by a remark a journalist and writer in England made after In His Own Write came out. I think ‘In My Life’ was after In His Own Write… But he said to me, ‘Why don’t you put some of the way you write in the book, as it were, in the songs? Or why don’t you put something about your childhood into the songs?’ Which came out later as ‘Penny Lane’ from Paul – although it was actually me who lived in Penny Lane – and ‘Strawberry Fields’.

John Lennon
All We Are Saying, David Sheff

In the same interview, Lennon described how the song’s early draft was significantly different from the final version.

‘In My Life’ started out as a bus journey from my house on 250 [sic] Menlove Avenue to town, mentioning every place I could remember. And it was ridiculous. This is before even ‘Penny Lane’ was written and I had Penny Lane, Strawberry Fields, Tram Sheds – Tram Sheds are the depot just outside of Penny Lane – and it was the most boring sort of ‘What I Did On My Holidays Bus Trip’ song and it wasn’t working at all. I cannot do this! I cannot do this!

But then I laid back and these lyrics started coming to me about the places I remember. Now Paul helped write the middle-eight melody. The whole lyrics were already written before Paul had even heard it. In ‘In My Life’, his contribution melodically was the harmony and the middle eight itself.

John Lennon
All We Are Saying, David Sheff” – Beatles Bible

Further Reading:

“When John Lennon wrote Help! in early 1965 (“and now my life has changed in oh so many ways, my independence seems to vanish in the haze”) he was feeling trapped by Beatlemania and the fame he had sought.

As he would always say, it was true what he said in the lyrics, it was cry for help.

And with that one song, more than any other to that point, he began to realise the artist is a valid subject for the art.

It was a position he would increasingly adopt, as he did on In My Life which appeared on the Rubber Soul album of later that same year.

Here Lennon, still only 24 but being reflective about what had been lost in his life, managed to couch memories of friends and lovers, and people and places which went before, into a love song.

It went almost unnoticed that he included “lovers” in there, a very adult description in pop culture at the time when there was still a lot of boy/girl innocence about.

Lennon had written quiet and reflective songs previously. But unlike You've Got Hide Your Love Away (on the Help! album) and Norwegian Wood (also on Rubber Soul), this song bore no trace of Dylan's folk influence.

On paper the words read more like prose than song lyrics where the rhymes are internal or subtle, nowhere near as obvious as “here I stand, head in hand” or “she showed me her room, isn't it good, Norwegian wood”.

Lennon was stretching himself in the song's construction with a conversational tone and long lines where such rhymes as there are, are delayed.

If Rubber Soul was the album which helped them put Beatlemania behind them it was because of songs like this which, not only was mature but had a sophisticated sound. Rather downbeat and wistful, and of course with that unusual and certainly unexpected instrumental break.

It is widely known now that it was George Martin who played the piano and then sped up the tape, but at the time many thought it was the sound of a harpsichord.

Martin tried out a passage on organ first but then moved to electric piano and recorded it at half speed.

The result was an outstanding song which was both personal and inclusive, and had no connection with the band's more familiar upbeat pop style” – Elsewhere

TWO: The Word

Personnel and Players:

“Written by: Lennon-McCartney
Recorded: 10 November 1965
Producer: George Martin
Engineer: Norman Smith

Personnel

John Lennon: vocals, rhythm guitar
Paul McCartney: vocals, bass, piano
George Harrison: vocals, lead guitar
Ringo Starr: drums, maracas
George Martin: harmonium”

Inside the Track:

“Released in 1965 on Rubber Soul, ‘The Word’ found The Beatles singing for the first time about love as a notional concept. It was a turning point in their writing, marking a transition between early songs such as ‘She Loves You’, and the psychedelic era’s belief that ‘All You Need Is Love’.

It sort of dawned on me that love was the answer, when I was younger, on the Rubber Soul album. My first expression of it was a song called ‘The Word’. The word is ‘love’, in the good and the bad books that I have read, whatever, wherever, the word is ‘love’. It seems like the underlying theme to the universe.

John Lennon
Anthology

The lyrics of ‘The Word’ displayed an almost religious fervour, with John Lennon and Paul McCartney acting as evangelists for their new revelation about love.

In the beginning I misunderstood
But now I’ve got it, the word is good…

Now that I know what I feel must be right
I’m here to show everybody the light

‘The Word’ demonstrated The Beatles’ increasing awareness of their power as spokesmen and figureheads. This was developed especially by Lennon, in 1966’s ‘Rain’ (‘Can you hear me?’; ‘I can show you’) and his later political songs.

The song was a collaboration between Lennon and McCartney, and began as an attempt to write a song based around a single note.

We smoked a bit of pot, then we wrote out a multicoloured lyric sheet, the first time we’d ever done that. We normally didn’t smoke when we were working. It got in the way of songwriting because it would just cloud your mind up – ‘Oh, s**t, what are we doing?’ It’s better to be straight. But we did this multicoloured thing.

Paul McCartney
Many Years From Now, Barry Miles” – Beatles Bible

Further Reading:

“Help! showed more signs of their progression, with Dylan-esque tracks like John Lennon’s “You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away” and Paul McCartney’s classical hybrid “Yesterday.” But 1965 marked the beginning of the Beatles’ transformation with the release of Rubber Soul, a quiet, introspective work that laid the groundwork for Revolver and all subsequent albums. The album contains numerous game-changing songs like “Norwegian Wood” and “Nowhere Man,” but “The Word” stands out for its prophetic lyrics and its subject: love in general, not just romantic love.

In later interviews, Lennon and McCartney claimed they wrote the lyrics while stoned. For the first time, they smoked pot while composing the song by drawing the lyrics in multicolored words on a sheet of paper. According to Barry Miles’ McCartney biography Many Years from Now, McCartney explained that “We normally didn’t smoke when we were working. It got in the way of songwriting because it would just cloud your mind up: ‘Oh, shit, what are we doing?’ It’s better to be straight.” In 1980, Lennon said that while McCartney helped with the lyrics, “it’s mainly mine. You read the words, it’s all about gettin’ smart. It’s the marijuana period. It’s love. It’s a love and peace thing. The word is ‘love,’ right?”

Indeed, “The Word” gives listeners a preview of what was to come just over a year later. Instead of singing that money can’t buy love or discussing how “I give her all my love; that’s all I do,” the Beatles address love in a much broader sense. “Say the word and you’ll be free; say the word and be like me,” Lennon, Harrison, and McCartney harmonize. They suggest that they have achieved a kind of transcendence by simply uttering the word. “Have you heard? The word is ‘love.’ It’s so fine, it’s sunshine,” they croon, arguing that love is a “new” topic that everyone is talking about. But this is another type of love — one that is abstract, tied to nature, and bigger than all of us.

The next verse finds Lennon proselytizing, acting as a preacher: “Now that I know what I feel must be right; I’m here to show everybody the light.” In this role, he wants to share his discovery with listeners and bask in his newfound joy. He has clearly researched the topic, implied by the lines “everywhere I go I hear it said, in the good and the bad books that I have read.” The word is “just the way,” Lennon sings, and with McCartney and Harrison emphasizes his message’s importance: “Say the word, ‘love,’” they chant before the harmonium takes over.

As the song fades out, one can digest the Beatles’ concluding argument: this word will play a major part in the near future. By submitting to Love with a capital “L,” we too can find this transcendence that others have thus far not achieved. Like Harrison demands in “Think for Yourself,” the group lets us decide whether to follow their lead.

As usual, the Beatles’ recording sessions proved astoundingly fast and efficient, as the track was arranged and recorded in a single evening on November 10, 1965. The basics — guitar bass, and drums — were laid down first, then other instruments like maracas and the harmonium (played by producer George Martin), and finally the tight harmony vocals. Lennon’s voice is double tracked on the song, creating four-part harmony. Mixing commenced a day later, but the stereo mix had to be redone on November 15.

Rubber Soul went on to become one of the Beatles’ most critically acclaimed albums, and represents a huge step in their creative development. In the Anthology documentary, Harrison noted that he always considered Rubber Soul and Revolver “volume one and volume two,” resembling bookends. At the very least, Rubber Soul illustrated their interest in politics and their increasing awareness as spokesmen for their age group.

“The Word” remained a deep album track until 2006, when the Cirque du Soleil show Love included a mashup with “Drive My Car” and “What You’re Doing.” Perhaps inspired by this unique showcase, McCartney resurrected the tune during his 2011 On the Run tour. During his Bologna show on November 26, 2011, he performed “The Word” in a medley with “All You Need Is Love,” a fitting song pairing thematically and chronologically. “The Word” foreshadowed the Summer of Love anthem and signaled an impending change in direction for rock and pop culture” – Something Else!

ONE: Drive My Car

Personnel and Players:

“Written by: Lennon-McCartney
Recorded: 11 November 1965
Producer: George Martin
Engineer: Norman Smith

Personnel

Paul McCartney: vocals, bass, piano
John Lennon: backing vocals
George Harrison: backing vocals, rhythm guitar, tambourine
Ringo Starr: drums
Mal Evans: Hammond organ”.

Inside the Track:

“Written by Paul McCartney about his then-faltering relationship with Jane Asher, ‘You Won’t See Me’ was recorded during The Beatles’ last session for the Rubber Soul album.

It was written at her parents’ house in London’s Wimpole Street, while Asher had temporarily moved away from McCartney to perform in an adaptation of Great Expectations at the Old Vic theatre in Bristol. The song recounts McCartney’s frustration and vulnerability at being unable to contact her.

At 3’23”, ‘You Won’t See Me’ was The Beatles’ longest recording to date. The song was written by McCartney alone, and was inspired by the Tamla Motown sound.

This was written around two little notes, a very slim phrase, a two-note progression that I had very high on the first two strings of the guitar: the E and the B strings. I had it high up on the high E position, and I just let the note on the B string descend a semitone at a time, and kept the top note the same, and against that I was playing a descending chromatic scale. Then I wrote the tune for ‘You Won’t See Me’ against it…

To me it was very Motown-flavoured. It’s got a James Jamerson feel. He was the Motown bass player, he was fabulous, the guy who did all those great melodic bass lines. It was him, me and Brian Wilson who were doing melodic bass lines at that time, all from completely different angles, LA, Detroit and London, all picking up on what each other did” – The Beatles Bible

Further Reading:

“Drive My Car" was written by Lennon and McCartney at Lennon's home in Weybridge, England. "This is one of the songs where John and I came nearest to having a dry session," McCartney recalled in Many Years From Now. "The lyrics I brought in were something to do with golden rings, which is always fatal. 'Rings' is fatal anyway, 'rings' always rhymes with 'things' and I knew it was a bad idea."

The co-writers dismissed the idea because they had already used the "rings" theme is "Can't Buy Me Love" and "I Feel Fine." "We struggled for hours; I think we struggled too long." McCartney said in Anthology. "Then we had a break and suddenly it came: 'Wait a minute: "Drive my car!"' Then we got into the fun of that scenario: 'Oh, you can drive my car.' What is it? What's he doing? Is he offering a job as a chauffeur, or what? And then it became much more ambiguous, which we liked, instead of golden rings, which was a bit poofy. 'Golden rings' became 'beep beep, yeah.' We both came up with that. Suddenly we were in L.A.: cars, chauffeurs, open-top Cadillacs, and it was a whole other thing."

Cars and chauffeurs have been used as a sly sexual reference as far back as 1939 when Billie Holiday sang "Some tell me baby you're built for speed" in "Billie's Blues." Memphis Minnie's 1941 "Me and My Chauffeur" was even more explicit: "Won't you be my chauffeur / I wants him to drive me / I wants him to drive me downtown / Yes he drives so easy / I can't turn him down."

"To me it was L.A. chicks, 'You can be my chauffeur,' and it also meant, 'You can be my lover,'" McCartney explained in Many Years From Now. "'Drive my car' was an old blues euphemism for sex, so in the end all is revealed. Black humor crept in and saved the day. It wrote itself then. I find that very often, once you get the good idea, things write themselves. So that was my idea and John and I wrote the words, so I'd go 70-30 on that to me."

"Paul's song," Lennon told Playboy in 1980. "He got this 'drive my car' thing and the 'beep beep beep' in the studio. I think we just threw it in."

McCartney has pointed out that, like Rubber Soul's "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)," there is a surprise twist at the close of "Drive My Car." The woman in the tune admits she doesn't actually have a car "but I've found a driver and that's a start."

"We've written some funny songs — songs with jokes in," McCartney told NME soon after the two tracks were recorded. "We think that comedy numbers are the next thing after protest songs."

Beatles biographers have differed on whether Harrison or McCartney played bass on "Drive My Car." The issue was complicated by Harrison, who said in Anthology, "I played the bassline on 'Drive My Car.'"

But in 1977 Harrison explained in Crawdaddy that McCartney, on bass, mimicked his guitar lines. "What Paul would do, if he had written a song, he'd learn all the parts ... and then come in the studio and say, 'Do this.' He’d never give you the opportunity to come out with something.  But, on 'Drive My Car,' I just played the line, which is really like a lick off 'Respect,' you know, the Otis Redding version — and I played that line on the guitar and Paul laid that with me on bass. We laid the track down like that. We played the lead part later on top of it."

The Redding classic, which featured Donald "Duck" Dunn on bass, was released in August 1965, less than two months before the Beatles' session.

"In the early days, they were very influenced by American rhythm and blues," producer George Martin said in Anthology. "I think that the so-called 'Beatles sound' had something to do with Liverpool being a port. Maybe they heard the records before we did. They certainly knew much more about Motown and black music than anybody else did, and that was a tremendous influence on them."

The uptempo "Drive My Car" was chosen to lead off the U.K. release of Rubber Soul. But in the U.S., folk rockers like Bob Dylan and the Byrds were popular when Rubber Soul was released on Dec. 6, 1965. Capitol Records deemed "Drive My Car" too much of a hard rocker for the times. To maintain a softer sound, "Drive My Car" was left off the LP along with "If I Needed Someone," "Nowhere Man" and "What Goes On." The four songs were later included on Yesterday and Today, which was released in the States in June 1966” – Ultimate Classic Rock

FEATURE: Empty Words: Can Independent Journalism Survive in the Long-Term?

FEATURE:

 

 

Empty Words

PHOTO CREDIT: Mizuno K/Pexels

 

Can Independent Journalism Survive in the Long-Term?

__________

THIS is not…

PHOTO CREDIT: Suzy Hazelwood/Pexels

to throw shade at people who follow me on social media. However, as I have been writing and publishing to my blog for almost fourteen years now, there was this expectation that I would have reached a certain audience by now. In terms of who is reading and how many people are sharing my work. I publish a lot of features about Kate Bush and they, by far, are the most popular and discussed. I value that a lot and appreciate everyone who interacts with them. However, the vast majority of my output does not relate to Kate Bush! I have published thousands of features – I am not sure of the exact amount, though it must be close to six or seven-thousand at this point -, and there are so many that do not get anything at all. That can be so disheartening and infuriating. I am not pumping stuff out for the hell of it! Everything I do, I am committed to and want people to read! It is so hard to get an audience for journalism that is perhaps seen as drier or less engaging than those who make podcasts, post videos and do recorded interviews. However, this is the type of journalism that pre-dates all of the modern influence and has a place today. Maybe the bigger music websites who I would not class as truly independent, combined with the big magazines and those who have been around for decades, are those that can get a big audience and share more in terms of videos and more dynamic and ear-catching options. I have seen so many websites either go dormant or close shop, as people are not reading. Making money from them is the main reason people stop doing it, rather than a lack of passion.

PHOTO CREDIT: Marta Klement/Pexels

If you run a website, there is this desire to review gigs and speak with artists. You either have to hope that an artist will give you a ticket and you can see a gig for free to review or they will do a reduced rate. Also, traveling to interview people and the realities of doing that for years does mean people go into the red. Holding down a full-time job, having time to do this and the money too is almost impossible to balance. I very occasionally go to gigs because of a tight budget. I am not in a position to review gigs regularly and pay full ticket price, as much as I would like to. Also, going to visit artists to chat to them is hugely costly. I get all of that. However, there is still enormous worth in journalism where words and research are presented. On the screen without videos or anything audible (apart from songs that are included). I always felt, if a journalist interviewed me and said I could come up with a photo concept for the main image, I would have a black-and-white portrait-sized image with me as a mime artist looking distracted or sad and looking to the side as there are broken plates on the floor. It would be this symbolism of someone who is not being heard or whose voice does not matter. That may seem dramatic, though many journalists feel this way. In terms of money, Taylor Swift has literally earned more than me in the time it takes you to read this line of text than I have made from journalism in fourteen years! It is not about work rate and worth. Massive artists can make a lot of money whilst the rest cannot. For journalists, it is even bleaker. It is no longer viable to rely on making it a paying career and the few fortunate ones that do are not being paid much.

PHOTO CREDIT: cottonbro studio/Pexels

I feel, if we are to see independent journalism continue, and it really does need to survive and flourish, then the work needs to be shared and appreciated more. We all have busy lives, so it may not be viable to read everything people like me share. Though, this month alone, I have written so many interesting features that have got nothing. Or view little in terms of interaction. Given the hours dedicated to producing those features and the time sacrificed, it makes me wonder whether independent journalism can ever survive. Unless you are an established brand or you have this growing and willing audience, how pragmatic is for me and few like me to gain a foothold and remain years from now?! The only way I can keep going is by keeping my site free and my costs low. The only think I pay for is website subscription and domain name. I will buy albums now and then, yet gigs are a luxury rather than a necessity. Also, given the fact that I do not have a huge following, I cannot realistically charge people for looking at my stuff. I don’t engage with advertisers as I hate it and it always gambling sites and sh*ts like that I want nothing to do with! I know Substack is good to earn a little money, but once more, how much are you going to earn?! It seems like the chances of making any real money are slim. For me, I want my work shared because, the more people that see it, the more people follow me. Major artists and labels might then read something I do and that provides opportunities. Low engagement and poor metrics is not attractive for artists when you approach them for interviews.

PHOTO CREDIT: Pixabay/Pexels

Rather than this being a personal gripe and something unique to me, look around and think about the independent websites that have endured for as long as mine (since 2011). The pool is getting smaller and smaller. Unless you can find a revenue stream that earns you enough to be ambitious regarding content and what you share, then most people will have a short lifespan. I want to keep going for decades more, though I would say the vast majority of everything non-Kate Bush-related I publish ever gets no likes/shares/comments or maybe one or two. I have thousands of people following me, so I am bewildered why it so low! A site that offers so much variety and such frequent content, it is almost like people go out of their way to avoid journalism! Again, unless you are an NME, MOJO, The Guardian or one of the big websites, then how viable are long-term ambitions?! Even well-known websites ask for donations and contributions. If people think that artists struggle when it comes to being paid for what they produce, then look at the realities for music journalism. Though I can appreciate artists do this full-time and it is their job, whereas people like me have a job. It is about appreciation and feeling what you do has relevance and value. Being ignored or getting very little engagement (I am aware, ironically, this feature will probably be overlooked by everyone!), having spent hours doing a feature, is galling and avoidable. Independent journalism needs to survive and we need to let people know that it has a future. If only the bigger sites can get traction and survive then that is bleak. People might say they value independent journalism but, unless they discuss it, make sure the work is seen and shared, then it amounts to…

PHOTO CREDIT: Karola G/Pexels

EMPTY words.

FEATURE: Beneath the Sleeve: Vince Guaraldi Trio - A Charlie Brown Christmas

FEATURE:

 

 

Beneath the Sleeve

 

Vince Guaraldi Trio - A Charlie Brown Christmas

__________

MAYBE Jazz…

is this genre where snobbishness still exists. Not necessarily the only genre, it is still synonymous with a certain attitude I feel. A lot of modern Jazz is more experimental than traditional Jazz. It is such a wide-ranging and evolving genre. Some are happy about this, whereas ‘purists’ feel Jazz should sound a particular way. This takes me to an album that did divide Jazz fans upon its release in December 1965, Vince Guaraldi Trio’s A Charlie Brown Christmas. I am marking sixty years of the album. As Christmas is next month, you might hear songs from this album. Since 1965, there has been a split opinion whether the album is pure or actual Jazz of something less authentic and lighter. Inarguably a classic and such a beautiful album, I will come to some features and reviews around this festive classic. You can buy a vinyl copy of Vince Guaraldi Trio’s A Charlie Brown Christmas here. The first piece I want to bring in is this. In terms of how the Jazz community views A Charlie Brown Christmas, maybe modern fans are more kind and can see its strengths. That has not always been the case:

“By the end of the 1950s Charles M. Schulz’s comic strip “Peanuts” had become a nationwide sensation with syndications in seven national US newspapers including the creator’s hometown Minneapolis Star, The Washington Post and Chicago Tribune.

With the everyday trials and tribulations of the “loveable loser” Charlie Brown, his iconic dog Snoopy and their ragtag bunch of friends becoming a global hit, TV producer Lee Mendelson hatched an idea for a documentary. While “A Boy Named Charlie Brown” never happened, it set in process one of the most viewed Christmas TV specials and successful yuletide soundtracks ever made.

For the score Mendelson had turned to pianist Vince Guaraldi. Raised in the North Beach area of San Francisco, Guaraldi was the nephew of Joe and Maurice “Muzzy” Marcellino, two prominent bandleaders in the Bay Area. It was through his mom’s two brothers that Vince got the music bug, starting on the piano when he was just seven. He got his break in 1953 when he appeared on The Cal Tjader Trio’s self titled 1953 album for Fantasy that helped introduce Mambo to mainstream America.

By the mid-1950s while still a member of Cal Tjader’s various ensembles, Guaraldi was leading groups of his own, recording albums for Fantasy like “The Modern Music of San Francisco” with his quartet as well his the debut as ”Vince Guaraldi Trio”. When he was invited to write a number for Antonio Carlos Jobim/Luiz Bonfá 1962 album, “Jazz Impressions of Black Orpheus” the wind was firmly in his sails.

After the success of “Cast Your Fate to the Wind” Fantasy released the live album “In Person” followed by a series of Bossa Nova influenced albums with Brazilian guitarist Bola Sete. An unexpected turn came when Reverend Charles Gompertz invited Guaraldi to compose a jazz mass for the choir of Grace Cathedral, San Francisco, with a subsequent album on Fantasy in September 1965. Both projects would prove pivotal in the story of “A Charlie Brown Christmas”.

Two years earlier Lee Mendelson was driving over Golden Gate Bridge when he heard “Cast Your Fate to the Wind” on the KSFO radio show hosted by Al “Jazzbo” Collins. The mood of the piece (awarded a Grammy Award Best Original Jazz Composition in 1963) immediately connected with Mendelson who had his ears tuned to possible music for his forthcoming documentary. “It was melodic and open, and came in like a breeze off the bay. And it struck me that this might be the kind of music I was looking for,” he recalled in the book “A Charlie Brown Christmas: The Making of a Tradition.”

Introductions were made by music critic Ralph J. Gleason, and Guaraldi penned the first track of a then untitled number. That track would become “Linus And Lucy” from the album “Jazz Impressions Of A Boy Named Charlie Brown” released in 1964 despite the documentary for which it was composed never being made.

While the project was shelved because of lack of sponsorship, Guaraldi had so impressed Mendelson that he would turn to him again when he and Schulz were commissioned by Coca Cola to create the Peanuts animation “A Charlie Brown Christmas”.

Recorded by the Vince Guaraldi Trio (with drummer Jerry Granelli and bassist Fred Marshall) “A Charlie Brown Christmas” opened with a version of “O Tannenbaum” chosen as the show was based around Charlie’s search for the perfect Christmas tree.

Elsewhere on “Great Pumpkin Waltz” Guaraldi created one of his many lilting 3/4 time numbers, while “My Little Drum” updated “Menino Pequeno da Bateria” from Vince Guaraldi and Bola Sete’s 1964 album “From All Sides”.

Then there was “Hark, The Herald Angels Sing” and “Christmas Time Is Here” where the pianist invited back the children from the Eucharist Chorus of San Francisco, for the two beautiful choral numbers that opened and closed the 30 minute animation that first aired on CBS on December 9, 1965.

Of the best known original composition “Linus And Lucy”, revisited for this Peanuts special, Mendelson captured the magic in the music when he recalled in “Vince Guaraldi at the Piano” a book by Derrick Bang from 2012. “It just blew me away. It was so right, and so perfect, for Charlie Brown and the other characters…There was a sense, even before it was put to animation, that there was something very, very special about that music”.

It is worth highlighting the merits and strengths of Vince Guaraldi Trio’s A Charlie Brown Christmas. I was always aware of the music from it, and the Charles M. Schulz T.V. special. Maybe I saw that in the 1990s. However, I can happily listen to the album in isolation, as the music alone is captivating. This is what Rolling Stone noted a decade ago when they celebrated fifty years of a classic soundtrack:

“The legend goes like this: In 1963, producer Lee Mendelson made a documentary about Peanuts cartoonist Charles M. Schulz, for which he needed music. One night, Mendelson was driving over the Golden Gate Bridge, tuned into a San Francisco jazz station. “Cast Your Fate to the Wind” came on the air, a drifting cut where melodies appear and then disappear, and bouncing elation is matched by tiny moments of despair. The track was pianist Vince Guaraldi’s mini-hit that year, and Mendelson was struck by how it sounded simultaneously adult and childlike. The next day, he called up the San Francisco Chronicle‘s jazz critic, Ralph J. Gleason. “Do you have any idea in the world who Vince Guaraldi is?” Mendelson asked. “Yes, as a matter of fact, I’m having lunch with him tomorrow,” Gleason said. Mendelson met Guaraldi a few days later, and they agreed to work together.

The documentary ultimately didn’t sell. But two years later, Coca-Cola, who had seen the doc, called up Mendelson, and asked if he’d ever thought of making a Christmas special. Mendelson said, “Absolutely!” and hung up the phone, then called Mr. Schulz. As Mendelson remembers it: “I said, ‘I think I just sold A Charlie Brown Christmas.’ And Schulz said, ‘What in the world is that?’ And I said, ‘It’s something you’re going to write tomorrow.’ There was a long pause, and he said, ‘Alright. Come on up.'”

The rest, of course, is history. A Charlie Brown Christmas aired 50 years ago, on December 9th, 1965. Over the years, the special has become a perennial classic: the 25-minute story of wistful Charlie Brown and his struggle to find the true meaning of Christmas in the face of holiday-season commercialism. “I almost wish there weren’t a holiday season,” he sighs, at the story’s beginning. “I know nobody likes me. Why do we have to have a holiday season to emphasize it?” The genius of A Charlie Brown Christmas was the way it channeled the looming sadness and anxiety that come with the holidays — and the way its timeless, best-selling soundtrack by the Vince Guaraldi Trio tapped into that narrative seamlessly, with muted, melancholic jazz.

Indeed, to create such an unabashedly anti-consumerist story with the backing of both Coca-Cola and CBS was a subtly radical accomplishment in 1965, as it would be now.  The executives at CBS were displeased with the finished product: its slow-moving animation, its religious undertone, its jazz soundtrack. They had no choice but to air it, though — they had already advertised it in TV Guide.

“They wanted something corporate, something rousing,” says drummer Jerry Granelli, the lone surviving member of the Guaraldi combo. “They thought the animation was too slow. They really didn’t like that a little kid was going to come out and say what Christmas was all about, which wasn’t about shopping. And then the jazz music, which was improvised — you know, the melodies only take up maybe 30 seconds.” Yet A Charlie Brown Christmas was an immediate, massive success”.

The penultimate feature I want to bring in is actually a review of the 2006 reissue of A Charlie Brown Christmas. Pitchfork were in praise of a truly timeless soundtrack. I think this is one that you can introduce to someone very young and they would not need context. It is a record that continue to amaze and delight six decades after its release. I have been playing it again and marvelling in its beauty and emotion-provoking magic:

“Playing a smooth brand of West Coast jazz comparable to Dave Brubeck or a very snappy Bill Evans, and having scored a modest pop hit with “Cast Your Fate to the Wind,” Guaraldi made an easy choice in 1963 for television producer Lee Mendelson as composer for a documentary on Schulz and Peanuts. The doc was made, but never aired; apparently, the networks didn’t want kids hearing any unnecessary “adult” thoughts about Peanuts. So when plans for A Charlie Brown Christmas came to fruition in 1965, Guaraldi’s music—including the classic “Linus and Lucy” theme—got its chance. The rest is history: The special has been rebroadcast every year since its premiere and, though Guaraldi’s death of a heart attack in 1976 (in between sets at a club no less) prevented him from seeing the full extent of his influence on popular culture, it would be hard to name a more recognizable cartoon theme, give or take a Danny Elfman piece.

But then the reissue of Guaraldi’s soundtrack for A Charlie Brown Christmas has a lot more going for it than “Linus and Lucy.” Melancholy covers of “O Tannenbaum,” “What Child Is This?,” “The Christmas Song,” and “Hark, the Herald Angels Sing”—and yes, it has the Peanuts kids singing “loo-loo-loo, l-loo-loo-loo-loo”—make for the perfect dysfunctional holiday music. Certainly, I will make a point this year to get too drunk, thereby spending the week after Christmas listening to this record and regretting telling off my grandma. However, it doesn’t have to be so bad; Guaraldi’s rolling, snow-mystic touches on “What Child Is This?” or his reconstruction of “Little Drummer Boy” as the minimalist bossa “My Little Drum” are hypnotic, faithful mappings of the rhythm of snow falling, or the reflections of people walking by store windows.

And “Linus and Lucy” is here in all its deceptively simple glory. In fact, the motive bass line and a perfect realization of the melody are patterns that should be taught to all beginning piano students as models of efficient finger technique. The closest parallel to this music is Philip Glass, and really, “Linus and Lucy” is a lot more interesting than anything Glass has done in years. Guaraldi’s “Christmas Is Coming” is similarly kinetic, shining with the kind of understated elation you’d expect for any music soundtracking the misadventures of kids always ready to celebrate while perpetually shown the downside of Christmas. If there’s a muted quality to a lot of this music, it’s smiling nonetheless.

The reissue includes alternate takes of several tracks, and great liner notes detailing the history of the project. Even the cover is cool, with an animation still and foldout, faux LP-style jacket. If all of this screams “stocking stuffer,” please don’t let me stop you. Nostalgic though it may be, anything that’s as full of introspection, empathy, disappointment, loneliness, and the perpetual hope of better things around the corner can’t be all bad. Like the strip, Guaraldi’s songs here are small, observant miracles”.

I am going to wrap things up with this feature from 2022. Turning sixty in December, I do hope to see new features written about A Charlie Brown Christmas. A masterpiece from the Vince Guaraldi Trio – you can read about Guaraldi’s other albums here -,  this is one that is going to be passed through the generations. The Christmas special that it scored is also this perennial favourite:

“Apparently, not all jazz aficionados share my exalted opinion of the Vince Guaraldi Trio’s A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965), which may or may not be the greatest jazz album of all time but is certainly the Sgt. Pepper’s, maybe even the Saint Matthew Passion, of televised cartoon soundtracks. In their Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings, Richard Cook and Brian Morton dismiss Guaraldi as “a harmless pop-jazz pianist,” “the lightest of the lightweights.” A few more phrases might suggest their tone: “about as hot-blooded as a game of dominos,” “relentless triviality of the material,” “mild unambitious variations,” and, most damning of all, “If this kind of music appeals…” Well, this kind of music does appeal, and if it makes you (or me) feel any better, Wynton Marsalis and some other heavyweights greatly admire Guaraldi too. I probably wouldn’t understand what Marsalis likes about A Charlie Brown Christmas, but I like the relaxed brushing of the snare drum, the creaking of the fretboard on the upright bass, the ripple-in-water effect of the spreading piano chords, all those things I never hear in rock ‘n roll. Despite the shocking absence of electric guitar solos, the music feels embracing, partly because the songs remain songs, not intimations of A Love Supreme and other things that I will never understand. “O Tannenbaum,” for instance, which leads off the album, is still “O Tannenbaum” even when Guaraldi breaks into a “mild unambitious variation” after a mock solemn introduction.

Whether in the final analysis A Charlie Brown Christmas is anywhere near as good as I think it is hardly matters. There are lots of important and influential jazz records out there; maybe this isn’t one of them. I still don’t like a lot of things about jazz, especially the endless saxophone solos, frequently as pointless and indulgent as their rock and roll equivalents on guitar. Most of all I dislike the priestly solemnity of some of its gatekeepers. But at least A Charlie Brown Christmas gives me a sense of what all the fuss is about. My God, maybe the jazz snobs are right! It is a highly evolved musical form which we owe it to ourselves to experience, even in the unlikely form of a soundtrack album for a children’s cartoon show whose songs are played at Christmastime in every shopping mall and food court in America. Maybe not the least of Guaraldi’s achievements is that he composed a soundtrack almost as memorable as the disturbing story of the depressive ten-year-old with the round head and ethical aspirations too large for the world he so uncomfortably inhabits”.

Maybe it is a little premature to play a Christmas album at this moment, though this is one that is suitable all year round, I feel. It has that sense of wonder about it that I don’t feel it can strictly be reserved to Christmas. Go and investigate this phenomenal album. A Charlie Brown Christmas, sixty years after it came out…

STILL leaves an impression.

FEATURE: Alright, Still? Exploring Lily Allen’s Remarkable and Moving West End Girl

FEATURE:

 

 

Alright, Still?

PHOTO CREDIT: Charlie Denis

 

Exploring Lily Allen’s Remarkable and Moving West End Girl

__________

SOME might see the title…

IN THIS IMAGE: The cover of Lily Allen’s West End Girl/ART CREDIT: Nieves González

of Lily Allen’s fifth studio album and think of the Classic Pet Shop Boys song, West End Girls, of 1986. However, when listening to Allen’s fifth studio album, you realise that this is perhaps her most powerful, personal and remarkable release. Arriving after 2018’s No Shame, I am going to end with a couple of reviews for West End Girl. It was a bit of a surprise. Without the build-up and endless promotion that artists do for albums, this came pretty quickly and without ceremony. West End Girl is going to win awards and go down as one of the best albums of the year. I think that many have that perception of Lily Allen as being exactly like she was when she on 2006’s Alright, Still. Even though that album deals with relationships in a raw way and has some darker lyrics, the music is lighter and more Ska-influenced. It has this more uplifted, sunny and playful edge. I think many people always have that view of her. However, listen to No Shame and especially West End Girl, and it is clear that Allen is a different artist. The assumption that her new album is all personal and about the breakdown of her marriage (due to the infidelity of David Harbour). That is not explicitly the case. As Stylus explain, it does not matter if each line is gospel truth or there is some fiction. It is this soul and teeth-baring album that should be cherished and heralded:

“The assumption is that the album references Allen’s ex-husband, actor David Harbour, from whom she split in December 2024 after four years of marriage. The musician has been clear that she has taken creative liberties, describing West End Girl as a “mixture of fact and fiction”. But while not every lyric may have been drawn directly from Allen’s real life, what’s refreshing about the record are its straight-talking lyrics and refusal to hide behind metaphor. There are no Easter eggs or guessing games about how Allen feels or what she thinks. The word vulnerability has been so overused in recent years to become almost meaningless, but Allen is genuinely vulnerable in songs such as Ruminating, in which she sings of obsessing over a partner’s other loves: “I can’t shake the image of her naked on top of you and I’m dissociated… I’m not hateful but you make me hate her.”

Too often, women are told to conform, to be stoic, to shrink. From an early age, we’re taught to stay polite, agreeable, contained. All of these pressures are magnified for women in the public eye. And when women express anger or sadness after a breakup, we’re called bitter, unladylike, washed-up. Not only that, women are often made to feel as though it’s undignified to air the truth about how or why a relationship ended. Angelina Jolie and Amber Heard have both been cast as hysterical or vindictive for speaking out about alleged mistreatment and abuse (claims their ex-husbands have denied). Even Princess Diana, the so-called people’s princess, was sometimes painted as vengeful or unstable for daring to speak candidly about her marriage to the then-Prince Charles. 

Men don’t face the same treatment. It might be seen as unmasculine to be cheated on, but generally, when a man speaks about suffering due to infidelity, he is cast as a sympathetic figure. Justin Timberlake’s Cry Me A River video, which suggested Britney Spears had cheated on him, is perhaps the all-time example of this (despite Spears later stating that, actually, Timberlake had been unfaithful to her). The dynamic can be seen in cases of general heartbreak, too. Think of the kneejerk response to Joe Jonas and Sophie Turner’s divorce, which framed him as the wounded, responsible dad while she was criticised for having too much fun. Or Ben Affleck’s misery in paparazzi shots, and how it became seen as endearing. When men hurt publicly, we reward them for vulnerability; when women do, we call it oversharing. Yet despite knowing the risk of being shamed for her candour, Allen has gone full-throttle in West End Girl.

But it doesn’t matter whether each line in West End Girl is the gospel truth (again, Allen has said this isn’t the case). Her private life is hers to share or fictionalise as she sees fit – although I’m sure many lawyers were involved before the record was released. Instead, what is interesting about the album is its emotional honesty. Allen has always written clearly about her feelings and experiences: satirising them but never sanitising them to fit neatly into a more-marketable box. In a world where too many women still hold back from saying how they really feel, that’s something to be inspired by”.

Before I get to a couple of reviews for West End Girl, there are some new interviews that I want to cover. Allen discussing her album. One, as I say, that will sit alongside the very finest of 2025. I am going to start with a brilliant and in-depth interview from Perfect. For anyone who has not followed Lily Allen and is not perhaps aware of what she has been though in regards to her marriage breakdown and addiction struggles, it is discussed in this interview. West End Girl is this album that talks about her experiences and marriage breakup in a very potent way, though this being Lily Allen, there is still humour and wit running through it:

“West End Girl, the new album from Lily Allen, is a coruscating account of a broken marriage in 14 startling pop songs, alternately angry, despairing and defiant. Each track opens a new chapter in a sad and sometimes sordid story, and each is delivered with Allen’s bravura combination of angelic voice, acid tongue.

A hardcore revenge drama, a pitch-black anti-romcom, a work of bracing autofiction written from the point of view of a woman scorned, betrayed, provoked, Allen’s fifth album is that rare thing in the age of Spotify: a collection of songs conceived as a single work, to be consumed whole, in sequence.

The title nods to the Pet Shop Boys classic (“Too many shadows, whispering voices / Faces on posters, too many choices”) as well as to the singer’s recent successes as an actress on the London stage.

It opens with a title track that functions almost as if it were the opening scene in a stage musical, words spoken as much as sung, snatches of dialogue, crestfallen phone calls. Then it’s away: panicky spiralling (‘Ruminating’), unanswered pleas for honesty (‘Sleepwalking’) and the one-two gut-punch of ‘Tennis’ and ‘Madeline’, an imagined conversation between a wronged wife and the other woman in her husband’s life: ‘I can’t trust anything that comes out of your mouth / I’m not convinced that he didn’t fuck you in our house.’

The lurid, uncompromising ‘Pussy Palace’ will perhaps receive the most feverish attention from amateur online sleuths: ‘Duane Reade bag with the handles tied / Sex toys, butt plugs, lube inside / Hundreds of Trojans you’re so fucking broken / How did I get caught up in your double life?’

On ‘4Chan Stan’ the cheating husband is dismissed with a sharp barb: ‘You’re not even cute.’ Later songs ‘Nonmonogamummy’; the forlorn ‘Dallas Major’ – explore the disappointments of a 40-year-old woman seeking validation on dating apps. And the drama reaches a vituperative pitch with the heartbroken ‘Beg For Me’.

West End Girl moves through suspicion, paranoia, shock, recrimination and, ultimately, some kind of catharsis: closing number ‘Fruityloop’, in which tentative accommodation is made with what has gone before, in a phrase that calls back to the title of her most successful album, from 2009: ‘And finally I see / It’s not me, it’s you.’

PHOTO CREDIT: Morgan Maher

It is, as they say, a lot. But then much has happened – clearly! – in the seven years since Allen’s last album, 2018’s No Shame.

First, she got sober. Then she met and married the actor David Harbour and moved to a townhouse in Brooklyn. She embarked on a successful new career as a stage actor, starred in a TV sitcom, marketed her own sex toy. She launched a hit podcast with her friend Miquita Oliver. She opened an OnlyFans account to sell images of her feet. To much acclaim she returned to singing live, as a guest of the American pop sensation Olivia Rodrigo at Glastonbury and then at the O2 in London on Rodrigo’s Guts tour.

Everything seemed to be going splendidly, even if there were those, like me, who occasionally wished she’d get back in the studio and make some new music – because for all her many talents, being a pop star is still what she does best.

Then the relationship with Harbour broke down, and they separated.

AB: You haven’t released any new music in seven years. Was there a period where you thought you might permanently retire from pop stardom?

LA: Yeah, there was a lot of time where I felt like that. I was writing pretty consistently throughout the last four years, but I just didn’t think it was any good.

AB: Why not?

LA: I don’t know. I can’t really explain it. To me the value in it is meaningless until it feels like it’s something that you want to release into the world. And I hadn’t gotten to that point until I wrote this collection of songs.

AB: You were blocked?

LA: I was. I hated everything. I guess I have a barometer, which is that if I don’t leave the studio with a bounce of the song to listen to in the car or to send to friends, then I know I’m not emotionally attached to it, I know I don’t really care about it.

AB: What were you writing about at that time?

LA: Observational stuff about the internet and the world. It just all seemed really obvious and crap.

AB: No Shame was made after a turbulent period in your life. Among other things, you’d got divorced from Sam [Cooper, her first husband and father of her daughters]. Do you find it easier to write, and that the work is better, if you have had some personal difficulty that you can channel into the songs?

LA: Yes, but I don’t think that that’s unique in any way. I think everyone does. Even people on the Daily Mail comment section. It’s easier to write funny things that are rooted in darkness or anger or... terminal hatred.

AB: Let’s talk about West End Girl. You’ve been saying to me over the years that you were struggling to come up with songs you liked. And then not so long ago you said you’re going to LA to make a record and it felt like two days later you got back and it was done.

LA: It was 10 days.

AB: Ten days is still astonishingly quick to write and record an album. Tell me how it happened. What was it that provoked this sudden outpouring of really good material?

LA: I wish I could tell you. If I knew the answer to that then I would make it happen all the time. I think with all my records – bar [her third album] Sheezus, which felt a little bit misguided – all of them have felt like… not hard. I mean, it was hard to make this record. It was incredibly manic, and it was emotionally traumatic. But nothing felt forced. It just sort of fell out of me. And I think that’s what happens when you’re writing from a place of truth, and without an agenda. I think when I struggle with writing it’s because I’m worried about how things are going to be perceived or how things are going to be consumed, or where I exist in the market, or whatever. This record was purely for me, and it was a way of processing things that I was going through in my private life.

AB: You made it in LA.

LA: I made it with a friend of mine who was also the musical director on my last tour, Blue May. And he put together a really strong team of different people – writers, producers, players – that would come and go from his studio in LA. There were a few days that we went and worked in this guy called Chrome Sparks’s house, but apart from that it was all done in the same room.

AB: It is a very dark record. It’s the sound of someone in pain. Forgive me for telling you what your own record’s about, but it is the story of a broken marriage and a series of betrayals that has caused the singer to feel really devastated. Is that an accurate description of West End Girl?

LA: Yes. That is an accurate description.

AB: The album paints a very unflattering portrait of the idea of open marriage. People have had open marriages for centuries, of course. But it does seem to have become somehow part of the culture lately, the idea of polyamorous relationships, multiple partners. And it strikes me that women are made to feel sort of uncool or uptight if they don’t go along with it, because it’s the modern way of being.

LA: Do I think that that’s true? Yeah, I do. And it seems to me that younger people find it easier to embrace as a concept. Maybe the 2.4-children-nuclear-family thing has not been rammed down their throats quite as much, so it’s not so much in their wiring. But it’s not something I ever thought about when I was younger or going into either one of my marriages.

AB: Do you find the idea of an open marriage appealing?

LA: No.

AB: Some people would be like, ‘Oh, amazing idea!’ You get to have all the comfort and reassurance of a relationship but you also get to fuck other people.

LA: I guess it’s just my attachment style. I grew up in a really unstable household. Neither of my parents was particularly present. And so what I craved in adulthood from my relationships was to be centred. And I’m not particularly interested in anything else. Right?

AB: Totally. I also would not find the idea of an open marriage appealing. I mean, I’m older than you. When I was younger this was not presented as a serious option. But everything’s changed. I think porn is responsible for a load of this.

LA: I think porn is responsible for a load of it, and I think that Instagram is responsible for a load of it. If you are a 60-year-old man and you’re on social media you’re not being served pictures of women in their forties. You’re being served pictures of women in their mid-twenties. The algorithm is showing you what is desirable”.

I am going to come to an interview with British Vogue. Though they say this is Lily Allen making her musical comeback – a word I hate, as I have said, as Allen went nowhere and it is not a return or comeback! -, West End Girl is “is putting the tumult of her life into her music once more”. It is one of the most remarkable albums of the year. One that many people were not expecting:

“The album certainly appears to tell a story of a marriage coming spectacularly undone; of the all-consuming pain and confusion of betrayal. The upbeat opening track, “West End Girl”, acts as a sunny musical prelude of sorts, setting the scene of a newlywed couple embarking on married life in a Brooklyn brownstone (sounds awfully like the home she and Harbour showed Architectural Digest around in 2023, to internet-breaking effect). Already, though, there are warning signs (“You were pushing this forward / made me feel a bit awkward,” she sings). From there, the album unfolds like a tragic novel, each subsequent song a different chapter charting a relationship’s demise.

Take one of the album’s standout tracks, “Sleepwalking”: “You let me think it was me in my head / and nothing to do with them girls in your bed”. Or “Dallas Major”: “You know I used to be quite famous that was way back in the day / I probably should explain how my marriage has been open since my husband went astray”. Allen’s deadpan, “fuck you” humour is alive and well: “What a sad, sad man, it’s giving 4chan stan” she sings on “4chan”. Running through it all is a narrator desperately trying to understand what the hell happened to the life she thought she had. So here’s the question then: is it her?

Allen sucks on her vape. “There are things that are on the record that I experienced within my marriage, but that’s not to say that it’s all gospel,” she says, in the manner of someone who has recently spent an inordinate amount of money on lawyers’ fees. “It is inspired by what went on in the relationship.” What did she feel as she was making it? Cue more displacement activity as she applies a coat of lip balm and replies: “Confusion, sorrow, grief, helplessness.”

Between the end of last year and speaking to her now, Allen has been to “some very, very bleak places” emotionally. It wasn’t always thus: though she has long since scrubbed her Instagram clean of any Harbour-related content, scroll back far enough on his and you can find the blissful photos from their wedding day: her, beaming, in a 1960s-style Dior minidress, being held aloft outside the Graceland Wedding Chapel; the newly marrieds with her children having a celebratory In-N-Out burger.

PHOTO CREDIT: Francesca Allen

Thinking about it, all of her albums “have been informed by big traumatic experiences”, she says. “My first album really was the break-up of my first love. And my second one was – this is going to sound so stupid – but the ‘Trauma of Fame’.” Her third, Sheezus, “was a mess, because I was a pop star who suddenly had two children and didn’t fit into this world. So actually it’s kind of exactly what it should have been,” she says, laughing. “Then my last album was emerging from the detritus of my first marriage.” A beat. “And we’ll see what happens with these songs!” Cue wide eyes and rictus grin.

I wonder if being a mother to now-teenage daughters has altered her outlook at all. Does she worry about them out there in the world?

“I try not to smother them,” she says. “I feel like I can try and shield them and protect them from things, but I don’t think that really works. A big part of what I’m doing at the moment creatively is for them. I need to show them that, yeah, we’ve been through something fucking devastating – twice now – and that I can get us through.” They’ve seen me in the depths of despair this last year and they have listened to my music and they are proud, I think.” (They don’t really understand the lyrical content, she says, “But their TikTok dance is ready!”)

“I feel like I often talk on the podcast about how fucking hard it is to be a mum,” she continues. “And people come to me and say, [she puts on a grouchy voice] ‘Imagine your children reading this.’ And it’s like, yes, I want them to know that so that they don’t do the same thing! You know? I felt totally gaslit by my mum about motherhood.” How so? “Well, she was like, ‘Oh, it’s easy, just throw it over your shoulder and everything’s fine.’”

And what about her personal life now? “Are you on the apps or are you in a relationship?” she fires back to me. “Because when you get to 40, you go into a different category and your selection is suddenly very different,” she says, her voice becoming a squeak.

PHOTO CREDIT: Francesca Allen

But this is moot: dating is not a priority until she has worked some things out. “Listen, I am in a period of self-discovery at the moment and I’m really trying to explore how I’ve got myself into certain situations in the past,” she says. “I need to unpack some things and break some patterns and probably talk to my therapist about my relationship with my dad.” You haven’t done that yet? I baulk. “I think we have some more work to do.”

By all accounts, it is hell out there in the world of modern love and dating. What exactly, in her opinion, has happened to men? “I think the internet happened. And I think the abundance of opportunity that the internet has created and the ease with which things and people are available is what happened.”

With a bit of distance, some rage has subsided. Looking back on her second marriage, she is able to say that “there were lots of good things” about it. “My kids had an amazing experience living in America for five years, and I have a lot of compassion for my ex-husband. I think we all suffer.”

And with that, it is almost time for Allen to get to the theatre, to transform into her role as a “convincingly brittle newlywed” as The Guardian will praise her performance come opening night.

But she is more excited to step back into the role she was born to play: musician. “When I feel like I’ve captured something well and it does something for me, but can also do something for others, I want to play it to people straight away,” she says. “It’s all I want to listen to.”

However difficult the road to making this record has been, she is thankful this is what has come out of it. Finally, she has something that is truly, authentically, her. “It feels like me, unquestionably,” she says, proudly. “It feels like my voice. I listen to it and I go, ‘Yeah, that’s me”.

There are a couple of reviews that I want to get to. The Guardian provided their take on West End Girl. Noting how it contains “these stylistically varied songs have melodies that sparkle”, anyone who has not heard it yet really needs to! This is a year when incredible women in music are releasing these very open, frank and personal records – Florence + The Machine’s Everybody Scream (out on 31st October) is another -, I think West End Girl will compel other artists to bare their scars, soul and experiences in music in a similar way:

“So West End Girl arrives in a very different and more welcoming climate to its predecessor. But although you can hear a Charli xcx influence on the fizzing, trebly synths and Auto-Tune overdose of Ruminating, and a whisper of PinkPantheress about the two-step garage-fuelled Relapse, West End Girl really doesn’t seem like an album made for opportune reasons. It feels more like an act of unstoppable personal exorcism. It appears to pick through the collapse of Allen’s second marriage so unsparingly, with such attention to vivid, grubby detail, that you have to assume the lyrics were reviewed by a lawyer. (She told British Vogue that the album references things “I experienced within my marriage, but that’s not to say that it’s all gospel.”)

While you can’t tell where poetic licence has been applied, its narrative arc traces accepting an open marriage along certain guidelines (“He had an arrangement, be discreet and don’t be blatant,” Allen sings on Madeline, “there had to be payment, it had to be with strangers”) only for the relationship to explode when it transpires that the husband isn’t abiding by the rules. There are confrontations with other women, a visit to an apartment where Allen (or her character) believes her husband is practising martial arts but where she finds “sex toys, butt plugs, lube” and “a shoebox full of handwritten letters from brokenhearted women”. There is a brief, unhappy attempt to beat him at his own game – on Dallas Major, she joins a dating app under an assumed name, but keeps repeating the phrase “I hate it”. It reaches a bitterly unhappy denouement: “It is what it is – you’re a mess, I’m a bitch … all your shit’s yours to fix.” It’s simultaneously gripping and shocking. There are moments when you find yourself wondering if airing this much dirty laundry can possibly be a good idea, impeccably written and laced with mordant wit though the lyrics are.

Obviously said lyrics will attract the lion’s share of attention. In an era where every pop song is combed through for inferences about the artist’s private life, Allen has dramatically upped the ante: certainly, Taylor Swift complaining that another star once called her “boring Barbie” seems pretty small beer by comparison. But there’s far more to West End Girl than just cathartic disclosure. The songs skip through a variety of styles: the title track’s orchestrated Latin pop; Beg for Me borrows from Lumidee’s 2003 R&B hit Never Leave You; Nonmonogamummy blends electronics and dancehall-influenced guest vocals by London MC Specialist Moss.

What ties the songs together beyond the story they tell is the striking prettiness of the tunes, which seem, jarringly, more evocative of a romantic fairytale ending than the anger and unhappiness the lyrics convey. And West End Girl seems to reserve its sweetest melodies for its bleakest moments. 4chan Stan is possessed of a wistful loveliness at odds with its internet basement dweller-referencing title; Pussy Palace – the one with the lyric about butt plugs etc – may well be the most musically addictive, hook-laden track here: it’s as if Allen is defying you not to hit rewind even if you don’t want to hear its squalid story more than once.

It’s hard not to wonder whether West End Girl is going to get the reception it deserves for its boldness and the quality of its songwriting: it would be a great pop album regardless of the subject matter. Perhaps some listeners will view it as too personal to countenance. Or perhaps fans who have grown up alongside Allen, now 40, will find something profoundly relatable in the story it has to tell about modern relationships. Underneath all the gory details, it seems to tacitly suggest that open arrangements are easily abused, usually by men, and that believing you’re above outmoded concepts of fidelity – “a modern wife”, as Allen puts it at one point – is no guarantee you won’t get your heart broken. We shall see. What’s for certain is West End Girl is a divorce album like no other”.

It is interesting what The Independent say in their review. How there must have been lawyers, friends and family wondering whether Lily Allen should release this album. West End Girl is not a confessional album at all. Instead, “it’s obliterative; an emotional post-mortem carried out in public, a death-by-a-million-cuts account of a thoroughly modern marriage breakdown”:

“Songs about cheating (“I can’t shake the image of her naked/ On top of you and I’m dissociated”), open relationships (“I don’t wanna f*** with anyone else/ Now that’s all you wanna do”) and sex addiction (“hundreds of Trojans, you’re so f***ing broken”) are best experienced raw, on their own terms. Inevitable comparisons to classic heartbreak pop albums written by thirtysomethings will seem wrong. Beyoncé’s Lemonade, after all, is mediated by marital reconciliation; Kacey Musgraves’s Star-Crossed made measured by the lack of betrayal; Adele’s 30 tempered by a few years of reflection. But the bewildered and wounded Allen wrote West End Girl in 10 days. It shows, in the best way.

This musical of deceit and suffering puts her in the starring role, seizing control of her narrative and holding little back. Those distinctive, creamy vocals sound sad and deflated, as if she’s processing in real time. Seven years since her last album, this intense story-driven format lets her sound sharper, smarter, and more clear-eyed than before.

The show opens with the jaunty title track – an unnervingly sunny bit of scene-setting. Allen’s narrator got her happy ever after, moved to New York for him, hesitated, then conceded when he talked her into a house that was too expensive. But all is not well. In real life, Allen starred in 2:22: A Ghost Story, playing a woman who suspects her new home, bought with her husband, is haunted. The irony is acute: art imitating life, or perhaps life catching up with art. Allen misses nothing, which is part of the problem for her narrator’s marriage.

Allen has said she drew from personal experience to write songs that feel universal, though that relatability only really lands in the final two tracks – and they’re two of her best. On the quietly triumphant“Let You W-in,” she lays out the album’s aim: “I can walk out with my dignity if I lay my truth out on the table.” What’s eerily universal is how easy it is, in love, to drown in someone else’s shame and mistake it for your own. On the bittersweet closing ballad “Fruityloop”, she serves herself a slice of responsibility: “I’m just a little girl/ Looking for her daddy.”

After two albums that defined mid-2000s British pop, Allen lost her grip on the pop star version of herself that once felt effortless. Sheezus and No Shame had the same attitude but lacked focus. The pain of this real-life breakup has given her something solid to attack with all her might, and West End Girl feels like the clarity she’s been writing toward for years. In 2025, Allen sounds newly alive in the contradictions we loved her for: acid-tongued and soft-hearted, ironic and sincere, broken again but alright, still”.

You wonder where Lily Allen will go next in terms of her music. Maybe the next album will see her in a relationship and in a very happy place. Perhaps something different altogether. It is clear how important it was for her to get West End Girl out. Recorded in ten days, this is such an urgent album. One that has received rave reviews and really stunned critics and listeners. I have been a Lily Allen fan for twenty years now. I think that West End Girl is her greatest work. It is clear that West End Girl is going to create ripples and conversation…

FOR a long time to come.

FEATURE: Modern-Day Queens: Amy Allen

FEATURE:

 

 

Modern-Day Queens

PHOTO CREDIT: Ethan Benavidez for The Times

 

Amy Allen

__________

THIS feature…

PHOTO CREDIT: Joelle Grace Taylor

puts a spotlight on one of the most reputable and greatest living songwriter. Certainly when it comes to Pop music. Amy Allen might not be known to everyone, but I can guarantee you have listened to some of her work! You can follow her on Instagram. I am going to bring in some interviews with her. Among modern-day Pop hits she has had a hand in are Sabrina Carpenter's Espresso and Tate McRae’s greedy. You can find a comprehensive list of her songwriting credits here (I am including a playlist at the bottom of this feature that includes her incredible list of songwriting credits). I am going to start with this feature and introduction from last year courtesy of GRAMMY. This is one of the most influential and prolific modern-day songwriters. We often talk about these major mainstream artists, though songwriters who collaborate with them are not often discussed:

“Some artists are lucky enough to have a moment: a song of the summer, a radio hit, or a point at which their song dominates the pop conversation. Before even launching her own singing career, Amy Allen has done just that — multiple times.

In 2022, the Maine native contributed to hit songs from Harry Styles, Lizzo, Charli XCX, and King Princess; at the 2023 GRAMMYs, she was one of the inaugural nominees for Songwriter Of The Year, Non-Classical, and celebrated an Album Of The Year win alongside Styles thanks to her work on Harry's House. And as of press time, two songs she co-wrote with Sabrina Carpenter are in the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 chart: "Espresso" and "Please Please Please," the latter of which hit No. 1.

When you have a resume and catalog as impressive as Allen's, it's hard not to get stuck in a run of highlights — but Allen's writing style is so full of remarkable emotional depth and inevitable hooks that her life and career deserves further exploration. After binging on classic rock and performing in rock and bluegrass bands in her youth, Allen began writing songs for others in the mid 2010s and has only continued to expand her impact on audiences and collaborators alike.

"Amy is a once-in-a-lifetime writer and friend — it all comes to her very naturally and effortlessly," Carpenter recently told Variety. "She's super versatile: She can wear any hat and yet it still feels authentic. I've learned a lot from her and admire what an incredible collaborator she is."

Along the way, Allen has continued honing her skills as an artist in her own right, releasing a handful of EPs and singles since 2015, initially under the name Amy and the Engine. But on Sept. 6, she's ready to fully introduce herself with her debut album — fittingly titled Amy Allen.

Just after Allen celebrated her latest No. 1 and released her newest single, "even forever," GRAMMY.com rounded up the key details you need to know about the singer/songwriter's diverse musical background, from her advocacy for female creators to seeing Harry Styles sing a song she co-wrote to a massive audience.

Her Origin Story Features A Lot Of Car Talk

Allen's early musical growth relied on four-wheeled vehicles to drive the plot forward — in many different forms. Growing up in rural Maine meant long car rides to for school and family outings, which in turn meant a lot of time with the radio.

"My dad is the biggest classic rock fan, so since I was little, I spent hours every day listening to music in the car with him and my sisters," she told Variety earlier this year.

When it came time for one of her sisters to start a band, the elder Allen named it No U-Turn, setting the theme. When the band needed a new bassist, Amy took up the low end at just 8 years old, learning classic songs from the likes of Tom Petty and Rolling Stones. The band started collecting opening spots at a bar in Portland, Maine, and lasted until Allen was in high school and her sisters had left for college. In addition, she started playing in a bluegrass band called Jerks of Grass alongside her high school guitar teacher.

Eventually, Allen thought about moving on and changing course. "I went to nursing school at Boston College for two years, and within a month of getting there I was like, 'I made a big mistake,'" she continued. After moving over to the prestigious Berklee School of Music, Allen started a new project, yet again turning to vehicular terminology: Amy and the Engine, who would go on to open for the likes of Vance Joy and Kacey Musgraves. The project's timeless indie pop charm shone brightly on singles like "Last Forever" and the 2017 EP Get Me Outta Here!, fusing references ranging from the Cranberries to the Cure.

She's A Major Champion For Women In Music

Back in 2021, Allen pondered whether it was time to carve up one of America's most prominent monuments. "Can you imagine tits on Mount Rushmore/ And Ruth Bader Ginsburg from dynamite sticks?" she sang on "A Woman's World," a highlight from her 2021 solo EP AWW!. The song backs off from that explicit ask, but the low-slung waltz of ghostly piano and gentle acoustic guitar still subversively slices at traditional gender roles and power dynamics.

And while the track may focus its first verse on the Notorious RBG, Allen designed it as a more approachable anthem. "I felt very proud of that song. And it's something that I love to play live, because I think that it's nice as a woman to give that moment to other women in the audience where I see them," she told The Line of Best Fit upon the EP's release.

Her solo work sits in a long line of female pop and rock stars looking to lift others up — with Allen's list of influences including everyone from the Carpenters and Pat Benatar to No Doubt, Hole, and Siouxsie and the Banshees. But she's also aware of the shortcomings in the industry when it comes to behind-the-scenes matters, with female songwriters representing a disproportionately small percentage of the industry and often at lower revenue than their male counterparts.

"It's important to have more women writing and performing so that younger girls can be hearing that and really connecting with that and resonating with that, and then being inspired to do that themselves," she continued. "I'm really excited to hear what the next generation of singer songwriters creates, and I want to do my part in making sure that they're able to”.

In February, Amy Allen became the first woman to be named Songwriter of the Year. In fact, she won in the category, Songwriter of the Year, Non-Classical. You can see her listed as the winner on GRAMMY’s website. Among the songs listed is Leon Bridges’s Chrome Cowgirl. The Maine-born songwriter (Amy Allen) was nominated for the inaugural Songwriter of the Year award at the 65th GRAMMYs for her work on releases by King Princess, Alexander 23, Lizzo, Charli XCX, Sabrina Carpenter and Harry Styles. At the same ceremony, she won Album of the Year for her contribution to Harry Styles’s Harry's House (2022). There is a new book out about her that talks about her rise from living in this small town in Maine and becoming this huge songwriter talent. I do wonder if Allen will write a book herself. She is this incredible talent, so it would be interesting to hear her story. I am going to move to an interview from Billboard. For their On the Record podcast, Amy Allen “talks pitch records, songwriting trends and locking in with Carpenter for Man's Best Friend”. I will embed the full interview, through below are some highlights:

“Over the last few years, I’ve been hearing songwriters and publishers complain that pitch records [songs written when the artist isn’t in the room] are becoming increasingly less popular. You’ve said that your first hit, “Back To You” by Selena Gomez, started off as a pitch, so I’m wondering — how could this trend away from pitch songs impact up-and-coming songwriters?

It feels like it will be harder for songwriters to get into the door, because my first two songs that changed my trajectory of my career were pitch records — that Selena Gomez song and a Halsey song called “Without Me” and that changed everything for me. I wouldn’t have gotten to go into the room with those artists at that time in my career, because I didn’t have any track record of writing songs. So, it feels like two arms are being tied behind your back as a new songwriter, where, you know, the pitch game is not as strong as it used to be, and artists are wanting to be in the room and writing with songwriters.

But this trend also leads to really exciting songs now where the artists are using every part of their life in these songs, and that’s really exciting.

I think the other thing that could be seen as a positive is that now big songs are coming from everywhere. Like, when I was coming up in songwriting seven or eight years ago, TikTok wasn’t a thing. People weren’t exploding off of TikTok. Now, there are a lot more ways for songwriters to get into the door of people at early phases in their career. Sometimes artists might find a songwriter on TikTok now. There’s pros and cons.

So TikTok can be a discovery platform for songwriters as well as artists?

Yeah, and I think it just goes to show that amazing songs come from anywhere. It’s not like we’re just being told by the radio programmers who the big artists are today.

What are some career highlights for you?

Writing “Matilda” with Harry [Styles]. I really will always love that song. It means so much to me and getting to make that with him was one of the highlights of my entire career. I also love “Please Please Please” because I love how many boundaries that pushes as a big pop song. When we were writing it, I don’t think anybody in a million years would have been like ‘this is going to be a hit.’ It felt like we were just following some emotion that we all loved, and we were all on the same train, writing it together and not knowing exactly where it was going. And when it was done, we came out with something that felt so new and exciting. To see the public react in the way that they did and make it a pop hit is so cool”.

I am going to move to a recent interview from PAPER. It is interesting what PAPER write in the introduction to the interview, where they say Amy Allen’s love of classic songs and artist melds into modern sensibilities and sounds. It makes for a fascinating blend that is not that common in modern-day Pop: “Timelessness could be the word, an essence that derives from Allen’s ongoing commitment to the fundamentals of songwriting. Or maybe another word is “rooted,” an adjective she frequently invokes in our conversation. Calling in from her sunny home in Venice, she describes her writerly sensibilities as being grounded in the Tom Petty, Dolly Parton and John Prine she’d listen to in long car rides in rural Maine, where she grew up. While her brain has surely been filled with the fizz of contemporary pop since then, it’s those classics that lend her songs a fundamental clarity that is relatively rare in the 2025 pop machine, where art is so often made via committee and informed by algorithms”:

“We talked a lot about being from Maine and how that shaped his artistry, how the transition to LA was a particular culture shock for him, because it’s so opposite in so many ways. Was that your experience as well?

It was for sure. I didn't have a ton of friends out [in Los Angeles] when I first moved here, and the few friends I did make worked in music. It just felt like everything you talked about was music, everything social gathering you went to revolved around music. I first moved to West Hollywood, which is like, so, so industry-centric. Two and a half years in, I moved to Venice, where I live now, and everything changed for me because none of my friends in Venice work in music, and I'm right by the beach, which is how I grew up in Maine. I can walk to everything. I kind of forget that I live in such a major city. I go in every day for sessions to different places, but I feel like I've found my area here, so it's much more doable for me.

I'm from LA for context and a lot of my friends work in music. Part of why I wanted to get away was because everything can feel so industry there. Your writing feels very timeless and removed from that. I'm curious about how you created that space or stay on your own frequency.

I grew up in rural Maine in Wyndham, which is on Tobago Lake. When I was in high school, my parents moved to the ocean, close to the same town where Tucker is from.I had to do such long drives when I was younger. My dad would always play a lot of timeless music that I really associated with being outdoors, like Tom Petty, Dolly Parton, John Prine, and Fleetwood Mac. It was Americana country and folk. It just felt very grounded and earthy to me, and I think especially when I moved to LA, it felt like the opposite of that and the opposite of me in a lot of ways. What's always drawn me to music is this feeling that I'm grounded and rooted in an emotion, or close to home and the people that I love.

Going back to those records has helped me immensely through significant life changes, such as attending college for music or moving to the West and signing a publishing deal. It's helped me keep my world feeling a lot smaller than this big, scary, massive music world that I could easily get lost in. I just continue to come back to the core of what I loved about music and the artists that I loved. That informed a lot of my writing instincts as well.

Pop songwriting is an art and a science. I'm curious how much you think about the math of a pop hit?

Not at all. I don't know much theory at all. In terms of math, I can tell there are certain tricks that songwriters pick up along the way. When you listen to a Max Martin song, there are a lot of strategic moves that are happening so that the chorus feels massive. Every part to it feels like a building block that's moving up the ladder to the big climax. I’m not really a music-mathy gal, but I do know that when I'm writing a pre-chorus or verse, I don't want the notes that I'm hitting in the pre-chorus or the verses to be walking all over the note that the chorus is going to hit. Then the chorus just doesn't feel as euphoric. Or if there's a certain line in the chorus that I really want to stand out … maybe don't want to be reiterating that same thought throughout the verse. You don't want to give too much away.

PHOTO CREDIT: Caity Krone

There are definitely bits that I am very conscious of, but I'm not technically mathy, and it's actually really fun because there's a lot of accounts now that are pretty mathy that will be like, "Oh my God, ‘Without Me’ or ‘Please Please Please,' or 'Espresso,'" did all these things that weren’t necessarily super thought about in the process. A lot of my favorite songwriters just go off of emotion. My favorite artists are the exact same way. They're really governed by how it feels in their body. I've always been that way, so that's where I stand on that. But I'm always in awe of people that are very mathy about music and can make a song that’s technically perfect.

So with something like “Espresso,” which people would say is the perfect, earworm pop, that arrived intuitively in the same way that something longer like “Please Please Please” came about?

It's only the same process in the sense of I trust Sabrina [Carpenter] with my whole heart, soul and guts. She is such a phenomenal songwriter and artist, and I know she trusts me as well as a collaborator. When something feels good, we allow that to take the reins and we can run with it. There are very few people in the world who I'm like, “Let's go,” and we just start moving, and it snowballs into something that we're all really excited about in the room. That takes a lot of trust and rapport to have with somebody to get to that point where you can allow something to come so naturally and it doesn't have to be this robotic thing. It feels very natural.

“Espresso” and “Please Please Please” came together in very different ways, but both were so exciting. They're such different songs, and to get to work with an artist that can put out “Espresso” and live in that world and then do the same with another song like “Please Please Please,” which is very different … I don't know any artist that could live under both of those umbrellas and sell them both so seamlessly and phenomenally. I feel blessed to be able to work with somebody that can do that.

One of the most remarkable things about Sabrina is the sense of humor that comes out on these two records that you worked on. Is that your sense of humor as well, or are you tapping into Sabrina's?

One of the most exciting things for me as a songwriter is getting to learn more about myself with every single artist that I work with — whether it's Sabrina or somebody else. Sabrina is so funny, witty, quick, smart, and so musical, just being within her orbit brings out parts of me that I didn't even know existed or wasn't necessarily brave enough to follow. She is this amazing artist that can encompass light and funny moments, and also immensely vulnerable, serious and heartbreaking moments, and have them all wrapped up in one. Of course, it's a collaboration. She is fully the engine and I just feel grateful to be around it for sure”.

I am going to end with an interview from Music Week. They talked to Amy Allen about the fun and laughter in the studio, her remarkable collaborations and hot streak, and advocating for women “leading the charge” in songwriting. Allen was also asked about the realities of songwriting and how it pays. Artists we know are paid very little and have to tour and rely on merchandise sales and record sales. However, songwriters have different challenges and obstacles:

“This year’s evidence of Allen’s hot streak includes Sabrina Carpenter’s seventh album Man’s Best Friend (on which she wrote on every track, as she did on Short N’ Sweet), which sold 85,305 copies on debut in the UK, at the time the biggest opening week for an album by an international artist in 2025. Man’s Best Friend has 163,316 sales to date, according to the Official Charts Company, while Short N’ Sweet has 816,453. Also in 2025, Allen wrote on Ed Sheeran’s No.1 Play and Olivia Dean’s The Art Of Loving, one of the most eagerly anticipated albums by a new UK act in recent memory. Meanwhile, Apt by Rosé and Bruno Mars – another recent Allen co-write – has a monstrous 1,519,027 sales.

Yet even the winner of the 2025 Grammy for Songwriter Of The Year, Non-Classical – who has written with a glut of stars also including Harry Styles, Charli XCX, Dua Lipa, Tate McRae, Selena Gomez and many more – still has pinch-me moments.

“I met Paul McCartney for the first time the other day,” Allen, who hails from Windham, Maine, begins. “He was at the Oasis concert and I was in the same box as him. I introduced myself and it felt like a full out-of-body experience, I didn’t know what to say, I really went into shell shock.”

You might think the former Beatle would have had some words of hitmaking wisdom, only, they didn’t quite get that far.

“I don’t even think I told him I worked in music,” she reveals, breaking into laughter. “There aren’t that many artists where I really am at a loss for words.”

Ed Sheeran’s album hit No.1 here shortly after Man’s Best Friend. What was it like to work with him for the first time?

“It was so amazing because I’ve been a fan of his for so long. I remember going to an Ed Sheeran show when I was a teenager. I don’t even know if I’ve told him this, I might have, but it was in Boston. I’d never even seen somebody use a loop pedal before. Some of his songs are some of the best written pop songs ever, so getting to be a collaborator was incredible. He’s in a place in his life that is really different to a lot of artists that I work with. He has a beautiful family, he’s a father and a husband. I’m not in that stage of my life. I’m not married and I don’t have children, so that was really nice. He can write big up-tempo bangers like Shape Of You, but he also is a really honest, vulnerable man and songwriter. He was ready to have a song [For Always] on the record that felt really heartfelt and was an ode to his loved ones. I had done some harmonies on it in the UK, then when Ed asked me if I wanted to add some more, I was over the moon because to get to do any background vocal with Ed Sheeran is amazing, let alone on a song that I really love.”

You’ve also co-written for Olivia Dean and Inhaler. Are more acts coming to you from the UK and Ireland?

“For sure. I also had a song come out this year with Dua Lipa [Handlebars with Jennie Kim], who I’ve been a fan of for a long time. In terms of Olivia, she is great, 10 out of 10, I absolutely love her. She’s a phenomenally talented artist and songwriter; so genuine, intimate and real and I loved getting to write with her. I’ve also worked with Charli XCX, Niall Horan, one of my dearest friends, and Sam Smith, who I’ve been close with for ages and worked with many times. Even a lot of American artists that I work with have been wanting to write in the UK, so I’ve really got to spend a lot of time here.”

Are you concerned about how AI might impact the craft of songwriting?

“There’s this video of a female news broadcaster, I think it was when the internet was first becoming a thing, and she was like, ‘I don’t think it’s going to catch on…’ I’ve been like that about AI for years now. And I’m like, ‘I can’t be that woman, I have to embrace this new wave that is coming.’ Somebody just told me a stat the other day that 28% of all songs uploaded to Deezer are AI-generated now, which is really wild. However, I have so much faith in the artists, songwriters and producers of this generation and the next. I will always stand by the idea that humans can offer something that computers can’t. And even if things turn into a big AI world for a bit of time, people are going to crave watching somebody play a live guitar solo, or listening to an artist that is saying a lyric that is so personal and undeniably unique to them as a human, that a computer could not have come up with it. But that’s just me.”

Earlier this year, UK major labels committed to a per diem allowance and expenses for songwriters at their sessions. What is your position on songwriters making a sustainable living?

“Per diems sound great, as long as it’s in addition to what the writer will be getting anyway, in terms of publishing and things like that. When I graduated from college, I worked at Lululemon for a year-and-a-half to save up money to move to New York. I also saved throughout college from playing with my band, I was playing so many shows. I had enough to live in a really tiny apartment in New York for a year and within that time I wrote my first song and ended up signing my first publishing deal, which then gave me a lot more runway in terms of finances and being able to move to LA and become a full-time songwriter, as opposed to working numerous jobs, which I know so many people have to do. That’s why everything with how songwriters are compensated with streaming platforms and so on is heartbreaking because there are so many phenomenally talented songwriters out there that can’t really ever fully get both feet in the door because they are financially struggling. They could be doing six sessions a week, but they’re doing one a month because they have to be working multiple jobs.”

Finally, do you have any dream collaborators?

“For sure. I mean, I’m the biggest fan of Rosalía and I’m a huge fan of SZA. Stevie Nicks would just break my brain if that ever happened. Carole King… I mean, so many!”.

Wrapping up there, for anyone who has not checked out the songwriting and incredible work of Amy Allen, check out her eponymous debut album from last year. Also, listen to artists she has written for and incredible songs that she has helped create. It would be amazing if Amy Allen got to work with artists like Stevie Nicks and ROSALÍA! One of the greatest songwriters we have ever seen, even though you may not have seen Amy Allen put in the spotlight and heralded as a modern-day songwriting genius, then that definitely needs to change! There is no doubting her…

INCREDIBLE talent and pedigree.

FEATURE: Black History Month 2025: The Remarkable and Vital Black Music Coalition

FEATURE:

 

 

Black History Month 2025

 IMAGE CREDIT: Black Music Coalition

 

The Remarkable and Vital Black Music Coalition

__________

I realise I have not posted…

as much as I should for Black History Month. As October is about celebrating and spotlighting Black heritage and culture, it is perfect to focus that to music. I wanted to use this feature to react to interviews and articles Music Week recently shared regarding the Black Music Coalition. Now in its fourth year, the Black Music Coalition’s Excellence Honourees initiative recognises emerging talent changing the industry. I am going to get to what Music Week published, as on this Black History Month, it is important to spotlight the brilliant work that the Black Music Coalition do. I am going to share a bit of background about them before moving on:

“The Black Music Coalition (BMC) is a Black led organisation created in June 2020, in the wake of #TheShowMustBePaused and the parallel movement in the UK, #TheShowMustBePausedUK, at a time when a spotlight had been cast on anti-Black systemic racism in the world causing Black executives in the UK music industry to look inwards at the industry and to reflect upon their shared experiences of racism and discrimination as Black execs. The commonalities of those experiences informed the creation of our organisation and its goals.

The BMC is dedicated to eradicating racial inequality and establishing equality and equity for Black executives, artists and their communities within the UK Music Industry. The organisation currently consists of an executive committee formed of Black professionals either working in or affiliated to the UK music industry, as well as a wider committee also formed of Black music industry professionals.

On Monday 8th June 2020 an open letter was sent out by the BMC to the music industry community setting out our stance, that “for far too long, the global Black community have faced racial injustice, inequality and disenfranchisement across all aspects of society and [that] here in the UK, [it was] no different”. In that letter we set out our calls to action and made it clear that, we wanted actualise to the shows of support we’d seen from #BlackOutTuesday and to drive forward tangible changes in the industry. We then set about formulating the long-term objectives of the organisation which we set out in our manifesto which released to the industry and all interested parties in September 2020”.

IN THIS PHOTO: Sheryl Nwosu

In the first feature, Black Music Coalition’s Chair, Sheryl Nwosu, introduces this year’s awesome Honourees and reflects on the impact and importance of the project. I am quite new to the work they do and what they are about. That is on me, and I should have discovered them and shared everything I could. Having read about them in the newest edition of Music Week, it has been eye-opening and rewarding learning more about them and their Honourees list:

“As the BMC started looking towards the fourth year of our Excellence Honourees awards, the team and I sat down and reflected that we were also coming up to our fifth birthday as an organisation. It was an opportune pit-stop to take stock of not just who would make the longlist of potential Honourees, but also what we wanted to celebrate by continuing these awards, which have now become a staple in our year.

When we created the BMC, we didn’t know the road that lay ahead. In 2020, at the flashpoint of Blackout Tuesday, we, along with many others, were all resolutely passionate about what would become our overarching cause, namely the eradication of anti-Black racism in the music industry. But for the BMC specifically, it was also about creating a space where Black music executives – and supporting, celebrating and recognising their experiences – would be the primary focus. Through each year since, we’ve remained steadfast in ensuring that Black music, Black creatives and execs remain at the centre of what we do.

This five-year point was also a moment to look at the industry and all the names put forward to us with a bit of a retrospective lens on. Through the nominations, our observations and discussions, the word ‘despite’ continuously came up. As we talked and counted votes, we realised that these execs were excelling despite the difficulties facing various areas of the industry. Their passion remained and, through their work, it shone through.

And so it was with this in mind that this year’s Honourees were selected: these execs were lauded for pressing forward despite obstacles, creating their own spaces and in turn their own successes despite notable downturns, and it is fair to say that our final picks really stood out in this respect.

This year’s Honourees embody excellence, resilience, creativity and transformation, and so it’s with a real sense of pride that we honour them. In my view, they represent the very best of the talent the UK music industry has in its ranks: diverse, dynamic, innovative, sharp and community minded – and those are just a few of their combined qualities. Between them, they are claiming their own professional space while also making ways for diasporic connections, building and adding to the music industry by cultivating and guiding rising music stars or navigating and solidifying the paths of more seasoned artists. They are creating organisations which are unapologetic in their aim to highlight and importantly respect the culture whilst dealing with the commerce, and moving upwards in the corporate space maintaining integrity and authenticity.

Announcing this year’s Honourees during the UK’s Black History Month is a serendipitous happenstance brought largely about by schedule and capacity, but I am personally delighted about it. Despite promises of change it is now undeniably clear that the issues of diversity, equity and inclusion have slipped to all but a footnote on many an agenda. Black History Month therefore provides a moment to reflect loudly on the stories and successes of Black professionals across all industries.

This is why we are passionate about our Honourees, because shining a spotlight on Black executives’ stories is important in building what will be not only their individual legacies, but also the shared legacy of the UK music industry. I’m so pleased to announce this year’s Excellence Honourees as:

Alex Omisesan (founder, Late Bloomer & artist manager, Nemzzz)
Chris Chance (CEO & director, Single Channel Films)
Janay Marie (founder & managing director, Tallawah Agency)
Kara Harris (senior promoter, Live Nation)
Keecia Ellis (founder/director, Rekodi Music)
Nasra Artan (head of international A&R, Sony Music Publishing)
Neicee Oakley (tour manager & co-founder, Blk Kactus)
Nnamdi Okafor (senior manager, global commercial partnerships, AWAL)
Terry Appiasei (CEO, Golden Boy Entertainment/co-founder, Black Pearl Music Group)
Uchenna Ubawuchi (Twnty Four Music)”.

There are a few interviews from Honourees that I want to share. This one is with the brilliant Chris Chance, CEO & Director of Single Channel Films. I am not going to quote and source the whole interview, though I am including most of it. It is laudable and commendable that Chance’s key ambition is to affect the career trajectory of creatives early in their careers. Making a real difference. That is to be applauded:

“How did you first break into the music industry?

“My cousin Aaron Attille was a mentor to me when I first started out and barely knew how a camera worked. My entry point into the music industry was during my time studying post production at Ravensbourne University. I knew local musicians and started to shoot and edit music videos for them to gain experience and improve my knowledge of the craft. After leaving university, I had a respectable portfolio of work on YouTube and a growing profile in the industry as a visual creative. I spent the next few years as a producer and director within corporate spaces working at MTV and Sony Music, during which time I worked alongside creatives such as Neron Power, Mark Tintner and Laurence Warder.”

You launched your own production company after working in-house at bigger companies – what made you take the plunge?

“The experience and industry knowledge I gained from working for those companies is invaluable. I moved on to figure out what I wanted for my own career and, after deep introspection, I decided that I wanted to build my own brand.”

What’s been the biggest challenge you’ve faced so far and how did you overcome it?

“Finding a core team of professionals who trust and support my vision for Single Channel Films was something that didn’t come instantly, but having a track record of successful collaborations and leaning into the network that I’d built from previous projects was something that proved useful. Maintaining patience and trusting the process is another key one; I’m Christian so prayer and my faith definitely helps.”

How do you hope the industry changes in the coming years?

“I hope to see more Black and brown change-making personnel in leading positions. As for the individuals who are already in those groundbreaking positions, I’d like to see them continue to pay it forward to the next generation, helping to expand our presence and diversify the ways in which we as innovators and entrepreneurs are able to contribute and benefit from our commitment to the industry.”

What’s your ultimate ambition for your own career?

“To be able to positively affect the career trajectories of creatives at early stages in their professional journeys. I want to do this by maintaining a position where I’m able to build partnerships across the media industry, create opportunities and inspire others”.

I will move to a great interview with Janay Marie, Founder and Managing Director of TALLAWAH Agency. This is an amazing woman. “TALLAWAH Agency is an agency with the commitment to bridging the gap between the amplification of the global majority and the rich cultural tapestry of the Caribbean Diaspora via experimental events, consultancy + community-led initiatives”:

“What does it mean to be named as one of the BMC’s Excellence Honourees for 2025?

“Honestly, it came as such a huge surprise. When I first received the email, I thought it was someone trolling me. This year has been incredibly challenging for so many reasons, so to be recognised as one of the Excellence Honourees was such a lovely and humbling surprise. Tallawah Agency was created out of frustration at seeing how little cultural investment there was within the industries I work in, especially across music and the influencer ecosystem. I really wanted to change that. From the start, our goal has been to show brands what authentic investment in culture looks like and the kind of long-term impact it can have. It’s not just about shaping the industry, it’s about creating lasting change in the lives of the people and communities we serve.”

Is the wider industry doing enough to uplift and platform Black executives?

“I definitely think it’s getting better. I’ve seen a shift within the last few years, and it’s super-refreshing to see collectives such as BMC, Women Connect UK and the like amplify people behind the scenes, and it is not getting quieter either. There are more employee resource groups in companies that work overtime in ensuring that Black executives are thriving and are celebrated, which is so wonderful to see.” 

What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learned about how to make it in music so far?

“The importance of staying grounded and not getting swept up in everything. This industry can sometimes make you feel like you have to prove yourself or fit a certain mould, but I’ve realised that carving your own path is a strength, not a threat. Music is beautiful and rewarding, but life is so much bigger than work. My deepest joy comes from my sisterhood, my pets, my family, my friends, and the moments I treasure outside of it all. Protecting that balance is what keeps me centred and allows me to show up fully when I step into work.”

And what’s the biggest myth about working in the music industry?

“The biggest myth about working in the industry is that it’s easy to break into. I remember being 17, fresh out of the BRIT School, applying for over 100 roles and hearing ‘no’ every single time. It would have been so easy to give up, but I wanted it badly enough to keep going. I enrolled in media programmes, took on weeks of work experience and kept pushing until I finally got my first ‘yes’. It wasn’t overnight, but that persistence paid off, and it taught me that relentless dedication opens doors you might not even see yet”. 

IN THIS PHOTO: Terry Appiasei/PHOTO CREDIT: Calvin Ceile

I am going to end with an interview with Terry Appiasei, CEO of Golden Boy Entertainment/Co-Founder of Black Pearl Music Group. I would suggest people to go and buy Music Week, where you can read more about the Black Music Coalition and their incredible legacy and role. More about this year’s impressive and diverse Honourees. Each of them doing incredible things in their field. A big reason why I wanted to spotlight them for this Black History Month. Celebrating the cultural impact of Black Music Coalition:

“You’re alongside lots of talented people on the Honourees list – how do you feel about the new wave of talent coming through?

“It’s definitely a privilege to be part of such a talented list. There’s loads of great Black talent coming through in the industry, all from different walks of life and with different goals. I think that the key to continued growth is to keep pushing forward and setting amazing examples, which the BMC allows to happen.”

Is the industry doing enough to ensure there is a diverse pool of new acts?

“In the current climate, I do not feel like there is a diverse pool of talent coming through. The Black music scene is not where it was a few years ago. However, there are loads of great artists that are yet to get their chance, and also loads of great artists flying the flag here and internationally. I think the industry could do more to nurture talent. This is definitely a cut-throat industry and sometimes people forget that there are real people from all walks of life behind the artists. Ensuring that artists are exposed to therapists, mental health professionals and even media and social media training could go a long way.”

What is the industry not focusing on enough?

“Mental health is an important one. The industry has so many ups and downs and not everyone can deal with the roller coaster, which in many unfortunate cases can lead to downward spirals.”

You have the keys to the industry for a day – what would you do?

“This seems like a lot of pressure for just one person, but I would put on a global music festival and every country in the world would be able to select an artist to represent them”.

Go and follow Black Music Coalition on Instagram. You can read more about the other amazing Honourees and why they were awarded and included. A body driven to combat systemic racism through the music industry and create equality to provide opportunities and voice for Black executives within in the U.K. music industry. As I say, I am fairly new to them, but it has been enriching and moving learning about their vital role in the music industry. For this Black History Month in the U.K., I wanted to dedicate some time…

TO the remarkable Black Music Coalition.

FEATURE: Behind That Locked Door: George Harrison's All Things Must Pass at Fifty-Five

FEATURE:

 

 

Behind That Locked Door

 

George Harrison's All Things Must Pass at Fifty-Five

__________

I have been writing a lot…

IN THIS PHOTO: George Harrison in 1970/PHOTO CREDIT: GAB Archive/Redferns via Guitar.com

about The Beatles this year and I am going to be again at least a couple of times. However, because George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass turns fifty-five at 27th November, I needed to spotlight this album. One of the finest Beatles solo albums. A lot of these songs were in his head and available during his Beatles career. I can imagine how keen he was to release these songs free from a band that was centred around on John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Released in the U.S. on 27th November, 1970, this was a huge album from Harrison. I am going to bring in some features about All Things Must Pass. However, I want to drop in some background information from Beatles Bible that caught my eye:

“George Harrison’s third solo album was his crowning glory. All Things Must Pass was a triple album, and his first release after the break-up of The Beatles.

The album contained the hit singles ‘My Sweet Lord’ and ‘What Is Life’, the Dylan collaboration ‘I’d Have You Anytime’, and a third disc of jam sessions titled Apple Jam.

All Things Must Pass saw Harrison transcend his Beatles status and established him briefly as the most successful former Beatle, with sales outstripping the likes of John Lennon’s Imagine, and Paul and Linda McCartney’s Ram. Harrison topped the US Billboard single and album charts simultaneously, a feat not equalled by his former bandmates until McCartney and Wings did so in June 1973.

Cast and crew

All Things Must Pass featured an extensive list of collaborators, including Ringo Starr, Eric Clapton, Billy Preston, Badfinger, Klaus Voormann, saxophonist Bobby Keys, and drummers/percussionists Alan White, Jim Gordon, Ginger Baker, and Phil Collins.

It was produced by Phil Spector, the maverick American then most famous for his Wall of Sound technique. Spector’s tendency to mass-record instruments and smother them in echo was his trademark, but several of the All Things Must Pass songs were overproduced. Remastered versions were released in 2001, 2010, and 2014, but a remixed version is yet to be issued.

On 27 January 1970 Spector had produced Plastic Ono Band’s single ‘Instant Karma!’, which featured Harrison on acoustic guitar. The producer was brought in again to remix The Beatles’ Let It Be recordings in March and April 1970, which helped convince both Harrison and Lennon to sign him up to produce their respective next solo albums.

Harrison was finding his own feet as a producer. From April to July 1969 he co-produced Billy Preston’s fourth studio album That’s The Way God Planned It, a mix of gospel, soul and rock. Harrison also co-produced the following year’s Encouraging Words. Released in September 1970, two months before All Things Must Pass, Encouraging Words contained versions of the songs ‘All Things Must Pass’ and ‘My Sweet Lord’. In addition to bolstering his skills as a producer, working on Preston’s albums helped Harrison understand the structure and composition of gospel music, and its expression of spiritual love and devotion.

Harrison and Preston had also worked together on soul singer Doris Troy’s eponymous album, released by Apple Records in 1970, for which Harrison co-wrote many of the songs.

I think he had been involved in soul music for years – he listened to it, he loved it, and that’s what made him want to do it. I wasn’t actually introducing him to the stuff, he already knew it. The Beatles as a whole listened to black music, a lot of their soul and feelings came from American music.

Doris Troy
While My Guitar Gently Weeps, Simon Leng

In April 1970 Harrison was in New York City, where he visited Bob Dylan, then recording New Morning at Columbia Studio B. Harrison performed uncredited on ‘Went To See The Gypsy’, ‘Day Of The Locusts’, and ‘If Not For You’, and jammed with the studio musicians on a number of songs including The Beatles’ ‘Yesterday’”.

I will end with a review from Pitchfork. This is an album that arrived at a strange time. In 1970, The Beatles were broken up and the members were releasing their own albums. John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band came out in December 1970. Paul McCartney’s McCartney came out in April of that year. He was attacked and criticised for releasing a solo album and was blamed for breaking up the band. With all of this tension, it must have been a combination of tense and freeing for George Harrison. Able to release a new album without being in the band and negotiating that. Ringo Starr released Sentimental Journey in 1970. Each member releasing an album that year. George Harrison made the biggest statement. Ultimate Classic Rock looked at All Things Must Pass in 2023:

“George Harrison Was Stifled in the Beatles' Later Years

It's no secret that Harrison's later years in the Beatles was frustrating for him as an artist. As the youngest member of the band, he started songwriting later than Lennon and McCartney. Then, eager to expand his contributions to the group's albums, he would write and submit songs to his bandmates for consideration. But by the time Beatlemania had peaked, Lennon and McCartney pretty much controlled the band's records, duly allotting a song each to Harrison and Starr to sing on the albums.

But unlike the drummer (who was never comfortable in the spotlight, and, until the end, often just sang a cover or a number given to him by Lennon and McCartney as an obligation), Harrison was writing more and more songs. By the time the members basically split into four solo artists with the other members of the group as backing bands on the White Album, the Quiet Beatle was no longer keeping quiet.

One of his songs, "Not Guilty," was pulled from the record at the last minute, and his contributions to Abbey Road – "Something" and "Here Comes the Sun" – were among the best on the Beatles' final recording together. But he was still treated as a second-tier member. 

Who Did George Harrison Recruit for 'All Things Must Pass'?

When Harrison started putting together All Things Must Pass in May 1970 – gathering songs originally written for the Beatles – he was ready to unload years' worth of frustration. He poured almost everything he had into the album, turning his first real solo work into a sprawling, triple-record set that included jams, sketches, fragments and a long list of friends like Starr, Eric Clapton, Bobby Keys, Dave Mason and Ginger Baker.

Working with producer Phil Spector (who helped assemble the Beatles' disastrous sessions that ended up on Let It Be), Harrison reworked many of the best songs his old group had rejected, including "My Sweet Lord," "What Is Life," "Isn't It a Pity" and the title track, and wrote some new ones for the project. And he hosted a jam session with his famous friends that filled the entire third record of the set.

It was and remains an astonishing album, the first truly great one by a former Beatle. Harrison was also the first to reach No. 1 on the Billboard singles chart as a solo artist with "My Sweet Lord," which later was the center of a lawsuit involving the Chiffons' 1962 girl-group chart-topper "He's So Fine" and charges of plagiarism. (Harrison lost the case, but that takes nothing away from the song's greatness.)

And if it occasionally seems like Harrison gets a little lost along the way, or loses a grip on some of the unstructured jam tracks, it's all part of All Things Must Pass' lasting appeal. It's a self-indulgent work at times, certainly, but it's also a shot at Lennon and McCartney, who routinely passed on his songs for their own on Beatles albums. It's certainly a better record than McCartney, and it nearly tops the cathartic John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band.

It was a bigger album than both of them too, staying at No. 1 for seven weeks, which had to feel like some sort of vindication for the neglected Beatle.

But most of all, the album served as Harrison's separation from the Beatles and their legend. All of their early solo albums, in some way, were about breaking with the past, but All Things Must Pass was more so, establishing Harrison as the thoughtful, spiritual and inquisitive one. He finally got his chance to speak here, and he did so loud and clear. All these years later, that voice still resonates”.

I want to move to this feature from 2022. Even though this was not George Harrison’s first album, it was his first after The Beatles broke up. It is remarkable how ambitious and brave the album is. Harrison not holding anything back at all. No wonder that it is seen as one of the greatest albums ever. Fifty-five years after its release and it still sounds exceptional. All Things Must Pass is a wide-ranging and hugely impressive masterpiece that everyone needs to hear. I hope there are new anniversary feature written about it:

“The sound of All Things Must Pass is so huge that at times it is hard to be precise as to who appears on which track. Aside from the musicians already mentioned there’s Ringo Starr, Billy Preston, an uncredited Peter Frampton, and German bassist Klaus Voormann, who also did the artwork for the cover of The Beatles’ Revolver album. Members of Apple band, Badfinger, on acoustic guitars, also helped to create the wall of sound effect. On keyboards, there’s Bobby Whitlock, and Gary Wright, who had been a member of Spooky Tooth and later in the 1970s had considerable solo success in America. Other keyboard players included Tony Ashton and John Barham, who both played on Wonderwall Music.

The drummers are future Yes man, and member of the Plastic Ono Band, Alan White; Phil Collins, in his young, pre-Genesis days plays congas; and Ginger Baker plays on the jam, “I Remember Jeep.” Other musicians included Nashville pedal steel player Pete Drake and Procol Harum’s Gary Brooker.

Eric Clapton, Bobby Whitlock, Jim Gordon, and Carl Radle played London’s Lyceum in the Strand on Sunday June 14, 1970 and decided, shortly before going on stage, to call themselves Derek and The Dominos. Earlier in the day, they were at Abbey Road for an All Things Must Pass session when they cut “Tell The Truth,” which became Derek and The Dominos’ first single release in September 1970. The B-side was “Roll It Over,” recorded at another All Things Must Pass session on June 25, and this included George, along with Dave Mason on guitar and vocals.

Originally, Harrison had thought it would take just two months to record the album, but in the end, sessions lasted for five months, and were not finished until late October. George’s mother was ill with cancer during the recording and this necessitated his frequent trips to Liverpool to see her; she passed away in July 1970.

As a producer, Phil Spector proved somewhat unreliable, which led to George doing much of the production work himself. Final mixing of the record started at the very end of October in New York City with Spector. George was not entirely happy with what the famed producer did, yet nothing can take away from the brilliance of this record. Tom Wilkes designed the box to hold the three LPs and Barry Feinstein took the iconic photos of George and the four garden gnomes on the lawns in front of Friar Park.

Captivated audiences everywhere

When recording began it was scheduled for release in October, but the delays meant it came out in America on November 27 1970, and three days later in the UK. It was the first triple album by a single artist and captivated audiences everywhere, entering the Billboard album chart on December 19, going on to spend seven weeks at No.1 in America, from the first chart of 1971. It entered the UK on the Boxing Day chart, making No.4 on the official listings, though it topped the NME’s chart for seven weeks. As the lead single from the album, “My Sweet Lord” topped the bestsellers list on both sides of the Atlantic.

As time passes, admirers have come to love this amazing record even more. It is the kind of album that says so much about what made music so vital as the 1960s became the 1970s. It’s full of great songs with lyrics that not only meant something then, but still resonate today. As decades arrive and pass, and new generations of music lovers look back, this is the kind of work that will take on almost mythical status. It’s one thing being able to read about its making, it’s quite another thing to allow it to envelop you, to caress you and to make you feel the world is a better place in which to live”.

I will end with a review from Pitchfork. In 2016, they took us deep inside such an important album. George Harrison reinventing and reshaping what an album could be. It goes to show what could have been if his songwriting was perhaps taken more seriously and got more love when he was in the Beatles. Anyone who has never heard All Things Must Pass should listen to it now:

“Given his own studio, his own canvas, and his own space, Harrison did what no other solo Beatle did: He changed the terms of what an album could be. Rock historians mark All Things Must Pass as the first “true” triple album in rock history, meaning three LPs of original, unreleased material; the Woodstock concert LP, released six months before, is its only only spoiler antecedent. But in the cultural imagination, it is the first triple album, the first one released as a pointed statement. With its grave, formidable spine, it’s symbolically freighted photo of Harrison in the country, pointedly surrounded by three toppled garden gnomes, it still sits like a leather-bound book, a pop-music King James Bible on any shelf of records it occupies. It is one of the first such objects in pop music history, the unwieldy triple album that spilled out oceans of black vinyl, printed thousands of sheets of lyrics, traversed multiple sides and made you get up and sit back down again five times, walking half a mile between your couch and your stereo to experience it all. It was the heaviest and the most consequential Beatles solo album, the first object from the Beatles fallout to plummet from the sky and land with a clunk in a generation of living rooms. It is a paean to having too much ambition, too much to say, to fit into a confined space, and for this reason alone it remains one of the most important capital-A Albums of all time.

It was also massively popular, despite its hefty retail tag; All Things Must Pass spent seven weeks at No. 1, and its’ lead single, “My Sweet Lord,” occupied the same slot on the singles chart, marking the first time a solo Beatle had occupied both spots. The success was sweet vindication for Harrison; his triumph was so resounding that his former partners could not pretend to ignore it. “Every time I turn on the radio, it’s ‘Oh my lord,’” John Lennon joked dryly to Rolling Stone. Rumors have it that John and Paul reacted with chagrin at hearing the bounty of material spilling forth on the album, finally grasping the depth of talent they had been slow to recognize. Their solo albums would be considered successes to various degrees, in their own ways, but only George had the wind of true surprise at his back.

All Things Must Pass had the quality of a broken-off conversation picked up years later; there were gorgeous songs here that Harrison had brought to the group, only to be met with to varying degrees of indifference. “Isn’t It a Pity” had been rejected from Revolver, while “All Things Must Pass” was passed over for Abbey Road. In hindsight, it is impossible to imagine these songs having half the impact if they had appeared sandwiched between, say, “Don’t Pass Me By” and “Why Don’t We Do It in the Road.” Taken together, they have their own cumulative weight and depth; you can even imagine their demos perhaps sounding too patient or too plodding to the other three. Reviewing it in Rolling Stone at the time, Ben Gerson compared it to the Germanic Romanticism of Bruckner or Wagner, composers who were unafraid of risking a little ponderousness to reach grandiose heights. Harrison might have been nursing resentments, but his former bandmates did him a perverse favor by leaving him with this material: This is music of contented solitude, and it only makes sense by itself.

Besides John, George was the only Beatle unafraid of writing from anger or negativity—his early Beatles tunes, like “Think For Yourself” and “Taxman” are almost startling in their bile. But where John thrashed and sometimes wallowed, George gently explored; when John Lennon pounded his fist, hollering that he was “sick and tired of hearing things from uptight, short-sighted, narrow-minded hypocrites,” George simply noted it was a “pity” that “not too many people/ Can see we’re all the same.” The biting “Wah-Wah,” produced by Phil Spector and layered with so many different guitar tracks it feels like three guitar rock songs fighting each other, is possibly Harrison’s most pointed missive as a solo artist, addressed to his increasingly alienated former bandmates. But even here he seems more bemused than pissed-off; the swoop and dip of the melodies and antic main riff resemble chuckling rather than shouting, and the most resonant lyric (“And I know how sweet life can be/ If I keep myself free”) is the sound of a tentative soul allowing himself a measured yawp of freedom, however provisional and careful.

Sometimes, it seems as if the Beatles invented everything worth knowing about pop recordings. The process of making them, the process of venerating them, the idea that albums could be Ahab-like pursuits swallowing their creators nearly whole: We carry these notions in our heads because the Beatles put them there. With its sheer size and heft and gravitational pull, All Things Must Pass reinforced that the album could be an epic novel for a different sort of age. Today, “albums” exist largely as ideas rather than objects, shadow puppets we throw up against the wall to remind ourselves of the forms they represent. The language of physical media still haunts our vocabulary. Streaming services debut playlists that get dubbed “mixtapes”; we pull music from the available air and pipe them through our phones like water from a tap, and we still call use quaint words like “LP” and “EP” to describe them. For that legacy, we have artifacts like All Things Must Pass to thank. Today, albums like this are a bit like old ruins: They are important to keep around, even if they mostly remind us of what has changed. This dichotomy is the kind of thing that Harrison, who exited the earth in 2001, would probably have appreciated. All Things Must Pass is a monument to impermanence that has never once, even for a moment, left us”.

On 27th November, George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass turns fifty-five. Hugely acclaimed and a number one success around the world, including the U.S. and U.K., I want to finish off discussing the legacy of All Things Must Pass. How influential and important it is. Wikipedia’s useful article gives us a glimpse into the stature and legacy of All Things Must Pass:

“Among Harrison's biographers, Simon Leng views All Things Must Pass as a "paradox of an album": as eager as Harrison was to break free from his identity as a Beatle, Leng suggests, many of the songs document the "Kafkaesque chain of events" of life within the band and so added to the "mythologized history" he was looking to escape. Ian Inglis notes 1970's place in an era marking "the new supremacy of the singer-songwriter", through such memorable albums as Simon & Garfunkel's Bridge Over Troubled Water, Neil Young's After the Gold Rush, Van Morrison's Moondance and Joni Mitchell's Ladies of the Canyon, but that none of these "possessed the startling impact" of All Things Must Pass. Harrison's triple album, Inglis writes, "[would] elevate 'the third Beatle' into a position that, for a time at least, comfortably eclipsed that of his former bandmates".

Writing for Spectrum Culture, Kevin Korber describes the album as a celebration of "the power that music and art can have if we are free to create it and experience it on our own terms", and therefore "perhaps the greatest thing to come out of the breakup of the Beatles". Jim Irvin considers it to be "a sharper clutch of songs than Imagine, more individual than Band on the Run" and concludes, "It's hard to think of many bigger-hearted, more human and more welcoming records than this”.

Such a perfect album from one of the all-time great songwriters, I know there will be new celebration and inspection of All Things Must Pass on 27th November. Such incredible songwriting throughout, few could release a triple album and make it as consistent as George Harrison. No real filler at all! That is a huge and rare achievement. All Things Must Pass is an album…

WITHOUT fault.

FEATURE: The Word: The Beatles’ Rubber Soul at Sixty

FEATURE:

 

 

The Word

 

The Beatles’ Rubber Soul at Sixty

__________

ONE of The Beatles’…

greatest albums turns sixty on 3rd December. It is my favourite from the band. That is Rubber Soul. Even though it is not a perfect album – the closing track, Run for Your Life, is misogynistic and a bad song -, it is a very special album to me. One I heard as a child and love to this day. You can read about when the tracks were recorded and who played on what. In the first of two anniversary features, I am going to explore its background and why it was a step forward for the band. Arriving a few months after Help!, it was a step forward for the band. That album is tremendous, though Rubber Soul is perhaps their most fascinating and different-sounding album. In the sense that it was not a selection of short and sharp Pop songs. More acoustic elements. Indian influences and a broader range of sounds. I am going to start with a feature from The Beatles Bible, and how this was a more mature step from the band. Still fresh in their careers, their work rate and sense of progression was peerless and stunning:

“The Beatles’ sixth UK album and 11th US long-player, Rubber Soul showed the group maturing from their earlier pop performances, exploring different styles of songwriting and instrumentation, and pushing boundaries inside the studio.

In October 1965, we started to record the album. Things were changing. The direction was moving away from the poppy stuff like ‘Thank You Girl’, ‘From Me To You’ and ‘She Loves You’. The early material was directly relating to our fans, saying, ‘Please buy this record,’ but now we’d come to a point where we thought, ‘We’ve done that. Now we can branch out into songs that are more surreal, a little more entertaining.’ And other people were starting to arrive on the scene who were influential. Dylan was influencing us quite heavily at that point.

Paul McCartney
Anthology

Rubber Soul furthered the group from the straightforward love songs that had characterised their early recordings, and continued the exploration of wider themes that had begun in songs such as ‘Help!’ and ‘You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away’.

John Lennon, in particular, was enjoying a songwriting peak, creating some of his best work such as ‘Girl’, ‘In My Life’, and ‘Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)’.

In ‘Nowhere Man’, Lennon detailed his lack of confidence and feelings of insecurity, and ‘Norwegian Wood’ dealt obliquely with an affair he was having, yet didn’t want his wife to discover.

‘In My Life’, meanwhile, began as a nostalgic set of memories of Liverpool. In 1980 Lennon described it as “my first real major piece of work”,

I think ‘In My Life’ was the first song that I wrote that was really, consciously about my life, and it was sparked by a remark a journalist and writer in England made after In His Own Write came out. I think ‘In My Life’ was after In His Own Write… But he said to me, ‘Why don’t you put some of the way you write in the book, as it were, in the songs? Or why don’t you put something about your childhood into the songs?’ Which came out later as ‘Penny Lane’ from Paul – although it was actually me who lived in Penny Lane – and ‘Strawberry Fields’.

John Lennon
All We Are Saying, David Sheff

I am going to move to an article from The Guardian from 2015. Marking fifty years of Rubber Soul, the 1965-released work of genius was so ahead of its time. No matter how many times you play the album through, it loses none of its brilliance. If I was introducing someone to The Beatles, then I would play them Rubber Soul. It boasts some of the best songwriting from the band – especially by Paul McCartney and John Lennon:

“Interviewed in Melody Maker in late 1965, the Beatles revealed that “comedy songs” were their new direction. As there had always been a streak of humour running through their songs, this isn’t immediately apparent, but the biggest clue is on the opening Drive My Car, which even has a punchline. Michelle is frankly hilarious, a baguette-and-beret pastiche which McCartney had written years earlier without any actual French words, just French noises. I especially like the droll “I want you, I want you, I wa-a-ant you … I think you know by now.” Another song with a mock continental sound was the Weimar-esque Girl, a downer take on the Third Man theme, though lyrically it wasn’t very funny at all. Girl is a rich girl put-down, similar to Mike D’Abo’s Handbags and Gladrags but, instead of finger wagging, it opts for an entirely exhausted approach. Lennon sounds desperate, caught in a game with an unfamiliar set of rules. Clearly, they weren’t hanging out with the girls from the Cavern or Iron Door any more. You’re minded of the likes of Maureen Cleave, Edie Sedgwick or Pauline Boty on songs like Girl, George Harrison’s cool but fierce Think for Yourself, and Norwegian Wood; on the latter the group find Scandinavian furniture frightfully exotic, and this is reflected by a wry vocal delivery and Harrison’s quite foreign sitar line. The exoticism of Rubber Soul is subtle, still grounded by Merseyside.

The Beatles were, by 1965, regulars at the soirees of pre-rock singer Alma Cogan’s home on Kensington High Street. Lennon nicknamed Cogan “Sara Sequin” and, according to her sister, had a fling with her; McCartney wrote the beginnings of Yesterday on her piano. It was quite the salon; the Beatles could have been rubbing shoulders with Cary Grant, Princess Margaret, Audrey Hepburn, Sammy Davis and Noël Coward. This was a new world for the moptops (which were by now a little shaggier, creeping over the tops of their black roll-neck jumpers, over the collars of their suede jackets – did they ever look better?) and on Rubber Soul they mirrored it with cheek and a little distance, but never with cynicism.

The Beatles were young adults. The lyrics are now more about sex than hand-holding – Drive My Car is a single entendre, and there are lines like “it’s time for bed”. Rubber Soul also contains the first elements of true darkness in the Beatle sound. I know Lennon’s cry for Help! had been real enough, but it’s still quite a shock to find death crops up on three of his Rubber Soul songs – Girl, Run For Your Life and In My Life. Alma Cogan would die in 1966, and Brian Epstein a year later; there’s an odd feeling of foreshadowing.

It has faults, of course – a few of the songs are a verse and bridge too long (noticeably Nowhere Man), and most of them audibly slow down, which may have been something to do with the smoky studio atmosphere. The humour borders on the puerile (“tit tit tit”), on the otherwise affecting Girl. And what’s with the gargled backing vocals on You Won’t See Me?”.

Before getting to a review of the album, this feature from Ultimate Classic Rock outlined how Rubber Soul was a departure for The Beatles. Even though their sixth album is perhaps less energised and exuberant than their previous work, I think it is a deeper and more interesting album. One that inspired their ambitions for 1966’s Revolver. The band becoming more curious about the studio. Maybe recording music that they could not tour. Tiring of the excess and demands, their music was not aimed at fans’ adulation and creating songs like they used to. Maybe that alienated and annoyed some fans. However, if The Beatles continued as they did, then I feel like they would have regretted it:

“The exuberance found on the Beatles' first three albums had been gradually disappearing. Beatles for Sale suggested the whirlwind pace of the previous two years was getting the best of them, and Help! showed the influence of Bob Dylan. The group's willingness to experiment with musical ideas outside of rock 'n’ roll, which began with “Yesterday,” continued with a song recorded at the album's first session.

“I went and bought a sitar from a little shop at the top of Oxford Street called Indiacraft,” George Harrison recalled. “It was a real crummy-quality one, actually, but I bought it and mucked about with it a bit. Anyway, we were at the point where we’d recorded the ‘Norwegian Wood’ backing track and it needed something. … I picked the sitar up — it was just lying around. I hadn’t really figured out what to do with it. It was quite spontaneous. I found the notes that played the lick. It fitted and it worked.”

“We were all open to anything,” Ringo Starr continued. “You could walk in with an elephant, as long as it was going to make a musical note. Anything was viable. Our whole attitude was changing. We’d grown up a little, I think.”

This was also reflected in the lyrics. Gone were the expressions of puppy love found in their earlier work, replaced by more adult ideas, particularly in John Lennon’s songs. “Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)” was his admission that he’d had an affair, “Nowhere Man” continued the introspection of Help! and the last verse of “Girl” was a comment on Christianity.

But the biggest leap of all took place in a song that ranks among Lennon’s best. “‘In My Life’ was, I think, my first real, major piece of work,” Lennon said. “Up until then, it had all been glib and throwaway. … It was the first song that I wrote that was really, consciously, about my life. … It started out as a bus journey from my house on 251 Menlove Avenue to town. I had a complete set of lyrics, naming every site. It became ‘In My Life,’ a remembrance of friends and lovers of the past.”

After setting it to the music, Lennon felt "In My Life" needed something beyond the group’s musical limitations. So, he asked Martin to play a Baroque-style piano solo. The part Martin wrote was a bit too complex for his own skill, however, and the solution was to slow down the tape and play the solo at half-speed. The Beatles were so intrigued by the harpsichord-like sound the piano took on that they began experimenting with tape speeds regularly to change the texture of instruments and voices.

Lennon wasn’t the only Beatle who was changing. Paul McCartney was quickly expanding his musical horizons, too, adding jazzy chords to “Michelle” and fuzz bass to Harrison’s “Think for Yourself.” And despite its sweet melody, “I’m Looking Through You” includes the most deliciously nasty lyric he’s ever written.

The willingness to take chances even extended to the way they played around with Robert Freeman’s cover photo, which McCartney called “one of those little exciting random things that happen.”

As he explained, they were looking through the results of a photo shoot with Freeman. “He had a piece of cardboard that was the album-cover size and he was projecting the photographs exactly onto it so we could see how it would look as an album cover," McCartney recalled. "We had just chosen the photograph when the card that the picture was projected onto fell backwards a little, elongating the photograph. It was stretched and we went, ‘That’s it, Rubber So-o-oul, hey hey! Can you do it like that?”

And the title? Apparently it was derived from “plastic soul,” which McCartney had heard was a term blues musicians had coined to refer to Mick Jagger”.

In 2009, Pitchfork awarded Rubber Soul a perfect ten. They observed how it was their most Folk-influenced and quiet album. One where you can hear the influence of peers like The Byrds and Bob Dylan. These artists in turn influenced by The Beatles. I think that Rubber Soul is the band’s first masterpiece. A sentiment that is echoed by Pitchfork:

“To modern ears, Rubber Soul and its pre-psychedelic era mix of 1960s pop, soul, and folk could seem tame, even quaint on a cursory listen. But it's arguably the most important artistic leap in the Beatles' career-- the signpost that signaled a shift away from Beatlemania and the heavy demands of teen pop, toward more introspective, adult subject matter. It's also the record that started them on their path toward the valuation of creating studio records over live performance. If nothing else, it's the record on which their desire for artistic rather than commercial ambition took center stage-- a radical idea at a time when the success of popular music was measured in sales and quantity rather than quality.

Indeed, at the time the Beatles did need a new direction: Odd as it seems today, the lifespan of a pop band's career in the early 60s could often be measured in months, sometimes in years, rarely in three-year increments. And by 1965, the Beatles were in danger of seeming lightweight compared to their new peers: The Who's sloganeering, confrontational singles were far more ferocious; the Rolling Stones' "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" was a much more raucous, anti-ennui cry than the Beatles' "Help!"; and the Kinks beat the Beatles to both satirical, character songs and the influence of Indian music. By comparison, most of the Beatles music to date was either rock'n'roll covers or originals offering a (mostly) wholesome, positive take on boy-girl relationships.

Above all, Bob Dylan's lyrical acumen and the Byrds' confident, jangly guitar were primary influences on John Lennon and George Harrison, respectively (and the Byrds had been influenced by the Beatles, too-- Roger McGuinn first picked up a Rickenbacker 12-string after seeing A Hard Day's Night). Dylan and the Byrds' fingerprints had been left on Help!-- Lennon, the group's biggest Dylan acolyte, played an acoustic rather than electric guitar throughout most of that record. Even Paul McCartney's "Yesterday" found him strumming an acoustic. (All this at a time when Dylan was beginning to move in the other direction and fully enter his electric period.) Harrison was growing more serious on the political "Think for Yourself", while "If I Needed Someone"-- his other contribution to Rubber Soul-- is practically a Byrds pastiche and his chiming, sure-footed solo on "Nowhere Man" also displays a debt to that band. His deft touch is all over the record in subtle ways-- appropriate for an album full of finesse and small wonders (the ping at the end of the "Nowhere Man" solo, Lennon's exhalation in the chorus of "Girl", the "tit-tit-tit" of the backing vocalists in the same song, the burbling guitar in "Michelle").

The most lasting influences of Dylan and the Byrds on the Beatles, however, were likely their roles in introducing the group to recreational drugs: Dylan shepherded the quartet through their first experience with pot, while the Byrds were with three-fourths of the Beatles when they first purposefully took LSD. (McCartney sat that one out, avoiding the drug for another year, while Harrison and Lennon had each had a previous accidental dosage.)

Marijuana's effect on the group is most heavily audible on Rubber Soul. (By the time of their next album, Revolver, three-fourths of the group had been turned on to LSD, and their music was headed somewhere else entirely.) With its patient pace and languid tones, Rubber Soul is an altogether much more mellow record than anything the Beatles had done before, or would do again. It's a fitting product from a quartet just beginning to explore their inner selves on record.

Lennon, in particular, continued his more introspective and often critical songwriting, penning songs of romance gone wrong or personal doubt and taking a major step forward as a lyricist. Besting his self-critical "I'm a Loser" with "Nowhere Man" was an accomplishment, and the faraway, dreamy "Girl" was arguably his most musically mature song to date. Lennon's strides were most evident, however, on "Norwegian Wood", an economical and ambiguous story-song highlighted by Harrison's first dabbling with the Indian sitar, and the mature, almost fatalistic heart-tug of "In My Life", which displayed a remarkably calm and peaceful attitude toward not only one's past and present, but their future and the inevitability of death.

Considering Harrison's contributions and Lennon's sharp growth, McCartney-- fresh from the success of "Yesterday"-- oddly comes off third-string on Rubber Soul. His most lasting contributions-- the Gallic "Michelle" (which began life as a piss-take, and went on to inspire the Teutonic swing and sway of Lennon's "Girl"), the gentle rocker "I'm Looking Through You", and the grinning "Drive My Car" are relatively minor compared to Lennon's masterstrokes. McCartney did join his bandmate in embracing relationship songs about miscommunication, not seeing eye-to-eye, and heartbreak, but it wouldn't be until 1966 that he took his next great artistic leap, doing so as both a storyteller and, even more so, a composer”.

On 3rd December, Rubber Soul turns sixty. Among my favourite albums ever, I am interested to see how journalists approach The Beatles’ masterpiece on its anniversary. It is such a stunning work that has so much richness. In terms of the compositional textures. The band taking a different direction and thinking more about the studio than the stage. It was revolutionary! Sixty years after its release and Rubber Soul inspires artists still. It is an album whose influence will…

LIVE forever.

FEATURE: I Knew You Were Trouble… A Further Call to Those Who Have Not Yet Embraced the Wonderful Club

FEATURE:

 

 

I Knew You Were Trouble…

IN THIS PHOTO: Dr. Julia Shaw will be hosted by The Trouble Club on 29th October at Ladbroke Hall

 

A Further Call to Those Who Have Not Yet Embraced the Wonderful Club

__________

THIS is the penultimate feature…

IN THIS PHOTO: The Trouble Club’s CEO and Owner, Ellie Newton/PHOTO CREDIT: Ioana Marinca

of the year relating to The Trouble Club. As I say in every feature, there is some housekeeping to get done. You can check out The Trouble Club here. They have just launched a beautiful and amazing new website! You can also follow them here. Check out their TikTok page too. In this feature, I am going to mention future events. I recently interviewed The Trouble Club’s CEO and Owner, Ellie Newton. I am always in awe of her drive and passion! How she has built The Trouble Club up and up and is hosting some incredible women. With a brilliant team around her (Zea Stuttaford is their Event Manager; Jen Needham their Head of Marketing), membership is growing and widening. Hosting events at these incredible venues and locations across London (events are also held in Manchester), they just hosted Emily Maitlis (on Tuesday) at St Marylebone Parish Church. It was one of their all-time best events at a gorgeous and sold-out venue. A brilliant interview from Ellie Newton! I will highlight some upcoming events that you will want to attend. For anyone who is not a member but has perhaps been to one event or heard about The Trouble Club, then I hope that this provides some push and interest. An event I cannot attend – because of other commitments -, I still really want to recommend Dr Julia Shaw: Exposing Earth-Killers. Taking place on 29th October at Ladbroke Hall, I have been following Shaw on social media for a while. I have read her brilliant 2023 book, Bi: The Hidden Culture, History and Science of Bisexuality. She is currently coming to the end of a book tour discussing Green Crime: Inside the Minds of the People Destroying the Planet, and How to Stop Them:

“Traffickers. Hit men. Outlaws. Thieves . . .

Our planet is a crime scene - but we can catch the killers?

Enter a world where people are murdered, ecosystems are destroyed, organised criminals terrorise communities and corporate gangsters operate outside the law. And, closely following their every move, are teams of secret agents, vigilantes and scientists who are fighting for our planet's future.

Using insider sources and her expertise as a criminal psychologist, Dr Julia Shaw takes us deep into some of the worst environmental crimes of our time. She reconstructs the minds of the perpetrators in cases like the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the Dieselgate emissions scandal, and the Shuidong wildlife crime syndicate. From the Amazon forest to South African gold mines she follows the impact of green crimes right to our doorsteps, and meticulously profiles the work of the heroes bringing these criminals to justice.

Dr Shaw asks: how do the Earth's killers think? What makes their crimes so deadly? And how can we stop them from stealing our future?”.

There are six more events that I want to include and highlight. Some may be sold out, whilst others have tickets free. So apologies for anyone who will miss out! The point of this feature is to highlight the range of events held and why it is so rewarding becoming a member. It is not only talks that The Trouble Club hosts. They have some amazing social events and dinners. Their Christmas event in December is going to be a classic example. One that is going to be very busy! Sadly another event I will have to miss – as I am co-hosting an event of my own somewhere else – is Elizabeth Day: Too Big To Fail?. Another event at the beautiful St Marylebone Parish Church (which, like Ladbroke Hall, is becoming a regular venue for The Trouble Club, and is absolutely beautiful!), this is going to be one of the most popular events of thew year. I have started listening to her podcast, How to Fail with Elizabeth Day and her book, One of Us, came out last month. I want to include part of an interview that might be mentioned and discussed when Day joins The Trouble Club on 6th November. Speaking with The Guardian last month, she spoke about how she struggled with infertility and loss for years…until a call with a psychic changed her life:

“I’d spent the previous 12 years failing to have babies. During my first marriage, I’d had two unsuccessful rounds of IVF followed by a “natural” pregnancy, which I lost at three months. I was in hospital for that miscarriage and can still recall seeing the blotted, bloodied remains of my much-longed-for child in a kidney-shaped cardboard tray the nurses had given me.

Some months later, that marriage ended in the throes of a peculiar sadness: simultaneous grief for what was, for what might have been, and for what had never existed. I thought I was dealing with it but, in truth, I was numb. There seemed to be no way of communicating the magnitude of the loss. Not back then, anyway, when miscarriage and infertility were still barely talked about. A loved one advised me to treat it like a heavy period. Another questioned why I’d told anyone I was pregnant before the three-month mark, as if not speaking about it would have made it less real.

And so, like many women who experience misplaced shame, I readily set about internalising the failure as my own. The doctors told me my infertility was “unexplained” – a diagnosis so blank that I could quite easily shade it with my own self-loathing. It was, I determined, all my fault.

PHOTO CREDIT: Alice Zoo/The Guardian

In my late 30s, I did a cycle of egg freezing at a different clinic. Once again, I was told my results were disappointing: two eggs, where most women my age could have expected about 15. By the time I met Justin, I was 39 and he was 43, with three children from a previous relationship. I decided I would try to be happy without a baby of my own. But then we got pregnant naturally just after my 41st birthday. That ended in miscarriage at seven weeks. We were both so devastated we realised we wanted to try again. We travelled to Athens, to a new clinic and a new set of protocols, and I had an operation to remove a uterine septum. Within a month, I was pregnant again. At seven weeks, we had a scan and saw and heard a heartbeat. At eight weeks, the heartbeat had gone. By now, the UK was in the grip of its first national Covid lockdown. I took pills to trigger a miscarriage at home. The pain was horrendous. Of my three miscarriages, this was the worst to get through.

‘The doctor made it seem straightforward. All we had to do was find a suitable donor, for which he recommended hiring a “fertility consultant”’

I took a few months off the ceaseless trying in order to feel my way back into my own body, to reconnect with who I was when I wasn’t riding a wave of pregnancy hormones, or having my insides prodded and scanned and examined by unfamiliar hands. When Covid restrictions started to lift, I was allowed to book a sports massage at home via an app. The masseur was Polish and when he began working on the left-hand side of my lower stomach, I gasped. He had pressed the exact point where I felt the aching, yawning tenderness of pregnancy loss. It was a very specific sensation, starting in the womb, then spreading through my synapses. I thought I might faint.

“You have a lot of sadness here,” the masseur said.

“Yes,” I replied, eyes closed, trying not to cry.

Lockdowns lifted, vaccinations rolled out, and fertility clinics resumed their normal business. We had been recommended a place in LA by friends. This clinic, we were told, was at the forefront of fertility medicine (“Because lots of Hollywood stars get to their late 40s and the acting parts dry up and then they decide they want a child,” said one of my more cynical acquaintances).

The clinic’s website looked impressive and claimed to offer several cutting-edge procedures that weren’t available anywhere else. In October 2021, Justin and I joined a Zoom call with one of the leading consultants, who apparently had a legion of celebrity children to his name. He was robotic in manner, listing all the ways in which he could ensure higher than average success rates. He advised egg donation”.

IN THIS PHOTO: Elif Shafak

An event I definitely will be attending – and have booked a half-day at work so I can get there – is Margaret Atwood & Elif Shafak: Words Like Fire. At Fairfield Concert Hall, it is going to be an amazing afternoon and evening. The main guests have not been united before at Trouble Club. Both have spoken with them – Atwood before I became a member in 2024, and Shafak has appeared a couple of times I think, as I have seen her twice – and there is also Fantastic Women & Fantastic Stories preceding the  Margaret Atwood & Elif Shafak that welcomes incredible panellists, Bolu Babalola, Lucy Foley and Emilia Hart:

“This conversation will never happen again. Margaret Atwood and Elif Shafak have never sat across from each other, live on stage and discussed their collective body of exceptional work.

Neither author requires an introduction, but for the record: Margaret Atwood is the Booker Prize-winning author of The Handmaid’s Tale, The Testaments, Oryx and Crake, Alias Grace, and dozens more works that have defined and defied the boundaries of literature for over half a century.

Elif Shafak is the acclaimed author of The Bastard of Istanbul, The Forty Rules of Love, 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World, and The Island of Missing Trees. She is a fearless writer and public thinker who has even faced trial in Turkey for the words of her fictional characters.

This will be an unscripted exchange between two of the most vital literary voices of our time. Together, they have written across continents, invented new forms of fiction, and spoken boldly on the world’s most urgent issues: authoritarianism, gender, freedom, silence, climate, and the power of the story.

One night. Two legends. No repeats.

IN THIS PHOTO: Bolu Babalola

Fantastic Women & Fantastic Stories

Our evening will begin with a panel including some of the finest authors in Britain today. We will discuss the phenomenal worlds they have created and the female characters that glue us to the page.

Our Panellists:

Bolu Babalola writes stories of dynamic women with distinct voices who love and are loved audaciously. Her short story collection, Love In Colour, was published in 2020, became a Times bestseller and was shortlisted for Waterstones Book of the Year. Her debut novel, Honey and Spice, was published in July 2022, was a Reese Witherspoon Book Club pick and won the inaugural TikTok Award for Book of the Year. The sequel, Sweet Heat, is publishing in Summer 2025.

Lucy Foley is a No.1 Sunday Times, New York Times and Irish Times bestselling author. Her novels, including contemporary murder mystery thrillers, The Hunting Party, The Guest List and The Paris Apartment have sold over 5 million copies worldwide. The Guest List was a Waterstones Thriller of the Month, a Reese’s Book Club pick, one of The Times and Sunday Times Crime Books of the Year, and it won the Goodreads Choice Award for best mystery/thriller. It was announced in March 2025 that Lucy will be penning the first-ever new Miss Marple mystery, due to be published by HarperCollins in autumn 2026.

Emilia Hart’s first novel, Weyward, was an instant New York Times bestseller, the winner of two Goodreads Choice Awards, and has sold over 700,000 copies worldwide. Her latest novel, The Sirens, was an instant Sunday Times bestseller, an instant New York Times bestseller and a Good Morning America book club pick. Emilia lives in London with her partner, a black cat called Luna and far too many books.

Event Schedule

5:00pm: Doors Open

5:30pm: Fantastic Women & Fantastic Stories

6:30pm: Break

7:00pm: Margaret Atwood & Elif Shafak: Words Like Fire

8:30pm: Book signing for those with tickets.

TICKETS:

Members: Live Ticket £35, Live Ticket & Book Signing £50, Virtual £0

Non-members: Live Ticket £85, Live Ticket & Book Signing £110, Virtual £20”.

IN THIS PHOTO: Kristina O’Neill and Laura Brown/PHOTO CREDIT: Cass Bird

An event I am really excited about is Cool Girls Get Fired! Laura Brown & Kristina O'Neill. Taking place on 17th November at The Ministry Borough, this is one you will want to get to! As they explained to Grazia, in their new book, All the Cool Girls Get Fired, getting canned (their word) was the best thing that could have happened. It will be amazing to hear them talk about the book when they are hosted by The Trouble Club:

“Kristina O’Neill’s first and last meeting with her new boss was the moment she was told her role would no longer be filled by her. The former editor of the Wall Street Journal magazine soon found herself navigating the uncertainty of unemployment—a challenge shared by Laura Brown, who 14 months earlier had been told via Zoom that InStyle magazine’s US print edition (where Brown was editor-in-chief) would cease publication, ending her entire team’s tenure.

Both O’Neill and Brown were casualties of a turbulent media landscape marked by constant change in ownership and leadership. Instead of quietly moving on as many in their glamorous, high-status industry might, they decided to tell the truth. After meeting up for drinks post-firing, the two friends—who first met at a Marc Jacobs show in 2001—posted a selfie captioned, “All the cool girls get fired.”

“For me, it was ownership, and for Kristina, shock ownership,” says Brown. “We had no desire to spin it. We knew we were really good at our jobs.”

The response was overwhelming. Their very public dismissals prompted an avalanche of supportive messages from other women sharing their own experiences—including Monica Lewinsky, who commented, “I got fired. And transferred to the Pentagon, where I became friends with Linda Tripp.”

Recognizing the power in what they’d started, O’Neill called Brown the next day and said, “This is a book.” That idea led to All The Cool Girls Get Fired: How To Let Go Of Being Let Go And Come Back On Top, a part-memoir, part-practical guide. The book covers everything from whether you need a lawyer, to managing your finances, safeguarding your mental health, and how to update LinkedIn—along with inspirational contributions from high-profile achievers like Oprah and Jamie Lee Curtis.

“Getting fired is part of a lot of successful men’s lore and legends,” says Brown, pointing to Steve Jobs and Mike Bloomberg. “For a lot of people, getting fired was the moment that unlocked Apple or Bloomberg. We want more women to be part of that type of storytelling. It was really important for us to put a few women up on that Mount Rushmore of getting fired too.”

When you're pushed off that rung yo worked so hard to climb, it hits you harder.

Why are women perhaps more susceptible to the feelings of shame and inadequacy that job loss can bring? “It took us so much longer to get here, because men have run everything for so long,” Brown explains. “When you’re pushed off that rung you worked so hard to climb, it hits you harder.”

One of their key messages: “The sooner you own what’s happening to you, the sooner you can move on.” Brown calls it the “kettlebell of shame and spin that no one asked you to carry—and no one really cares.” They encourage readers to tell their friends and family, as new opportunities often come from unexpected places.

Their advice for anyone recently unemployed? Don’t hide it—let people help. Use the opportunity to reflect: What made you happy in your career? What didn’t? Give yourself the space to explore, and you may find a new—and possibly better—path forward”.

At the beautiful The Hearth over in Queen’s Park, Bishop Rose Hudson-Wilkin: The Girl from Montego Bay will be held on 24th November. Showing the sheer range of women that are invited to cause trouble, this is going to be special: “From a childhood in Jamaica to the heart of the British establishment, The Rt Revd Rose Hudson-Wilkin, CD, MBE, has lived a life defined by courage, conviction and change. Britain's first black woman bishop, the first woman to serve as Chaplain to the Speaker of the House of Commons and now Bishop of Dover, Bishop Rose has spent over three decades tackling racism and sexism in the Church and reimagining faith as a force for justice in modern society”. I want to source from an interview that Keep the Faith recently published with The Rt Revd Rose Hudson-Wilkin:

“Bishop Rose Hudson-Wilkin is a woman, whose ministry as a Christian leader has been both impactful and historical.

Her landmark appointments include being appointed as Chaplain to the late Queen Elizabeth II in 2007; becoming the first woman to be appointed as Chaplain to the Speaker of the House of Commons in 2010; and being the first Black woman to be appointed as a Bishop in the Church of England – and first woman as Bishop of Dover in 2019.

Her ministry continues to make waves. Earlier this year, her book The Girl from Montego Bay: The Autobiography of Britain’s First Black Woman Bishop was published. Bishop Rose says the response to it has been “overwhelmingly positive” – so much so, that the book won the award for Autobiography of the Year at the Christian Resources Together (CRT) Awards 2025. “I went to America this August, travelling to different cities in both Florida and in New York, and the number of people who would come up to me after book signing or during the book signing to tell me that my story resonated with them was moving.”

She continued:

I think people have resonated with my upbringing. Although it happened in Jamaica, it’s the story, it’s the life experiences, the things that you did as children, and sadly also, some of the abuse.

The book also chronicles her life in Britain, her ministerial appointments, and her role in some of the pivotal spiritual moments in the history of the nation.

Born in Jamaica and raised in Montego Bay, Bishop Rose was called to ministry at a young age. She recalled: “I just knew I was being called to serve the Church, but, at the time, women were not allowed to be priests in church. I remember one of my bishops in Jamaica saying: “Rose, we’re Anglicans. We don’t do that.” In my heart, I thought: ‘You may not do that, and the Church might not do that, but I know that God does that.’ So, for me, it was making a promise to God that I would remain faithful until the Church heard the Spirit and moved with the Spirit. It took a long time. I was 33 when I was ordained as a priest.”

Since answering the call, Bishop Rose has slowly risen up the ranks. She came to the UK as a young woman to do her ministerial training. Ordained as a deacon in 1991, and as a priest in 1994, serving at St Matthew’s Church, she was later ordained as an associate priest at the Church of the Good Shepherd in the Diocese of Lichfield. She then became the vicar of two churches in the London Borough of Hackney (Holy Trinity with St Philip’s Dalston and All Saints Haggerston) for 16 years. It was during this time that she was appointed as a Chaplain to Her Late Majesty Queen Elizabeth ll, before her major appointment as Chaplain to the Speaker of the House of Commons. 

Bishop Rose’s early years growing up in Jamaica have deeply influenced her approach to her faith and ministry. She explained: “The motto of Jamaica is ‘Out of many one people’, so I had the sense that, although we might be different, have different upbringings, cultures or ethnicities, as I was accustomed to seeing in Jamaica, we are all one people, made in God’s image. I also saw trust and dependence on God, particularly in the older generation. God was not some faraway being; He was right there in their midst, and I saw that being lived. It definitely made an impression on me and is something that I have patterned.”

As a trailblazer, Bishop Rose fully recognises that she is a role model to many. “There is a weight of responsibility that comes with being the first. You can’t let the side down and you’ve got to do 100% your best all the time. There’s no resting on the job, because others must come after me.

“I feel quite honoured by the number of people who have said to me: ‘Because you are there, we know that we could do that.’ I hear that repeatedly. That gives me joy, because that is precisely what I want people to be able to say: ‘If she can do it, I can do it too.’”

The Church of England (CofE) is currently discerning a new Archbishop of Canterbury, following Justin Welby’s resignation last year amidst an outcry about his failure – and those of other church leaders – to report a prolific child abuser to the police. Bishop Rose admits leading the CoE is a tough position. “I think it was Rowan Williams, a previous Archbishop, who is quoted as having said: ‘You need the skin of a rhinoceros to be in this role.’ It is a challenging role in many ways. You’re trying to hold together people who don’t always want to be held together.

“People say the good thing about the Church of England is that we’re a broad church. We have people whose actions reflect that of the Pentecostals, and then right at the other end there are those who try to pattern Roman Catholicism, and then there’s much more diversity in the middle. The person appointed to the role of Archbishop of Canterbury has to hold together a church that has all these various views and practices, and it has become more difficult now, because I think, sadly, we have spent so much time nurturing labels, and being identified with certain camps and groups within the Church, and that’s been a disadvantage”.

IN THIS PHOTO: Julia Ioffe

I am going to wrap up and mention the Trouble Christmas party. However, I will get to one more event. Julia Ioffe: The Motherland That Ate Its Daughters takes place on 4th December at The Hearth. I love events at larger venues like St Marylebone Parish Church, though equally great are more intimate spaces like The Hearth. This event will be fascinating: “In 1990, seven-year-old Julia Ioffe and her family fled the Soviet Union. Nearly twenty years later, Ioffe returned to Moscow only to discover just how much Russian society had changed while she had been living in America. The Soviet women she had known growing up: doctors, engineers, scientists - had seemingly been replaced with women desperate to marry rich and become stay-at-home moms. How had Russia gone from portraying itself as the vanguard of world feminism to the last bastion of conservative Christian values?”. It will definitely stir debate. Motherland: A Feminist History of Modern Russia, from Revolution to Autocracy is a brilliant book:

“Award-winning journalist Julia Ioffe tells the story of modern Russia through the history of its women, from revolution to utopia to autocracy.

In 1990, seven-year-old Julia Ioffe and her family fled the Soviet Union. Nearly twenty years later, Ioffe returned to Moscow—only to discover just how much Russian society had changed while she had been living in America. The Soviet women she had known growing up—doctors, engineers, scientists—had seemingly been replaced with women desperate to marry rich and become stay-at-home moms. How had Russia gone from portraying itself as the vanguard of world feminism to the last bastion of conservative Christian values?

In Motherland, Ioffe turns modern Russian history on its head, telling it exclusively through the stories of its women. From her own physician great-grandmothers to Lenin’s lover, a feminist revolutionary; from the hundreds of thousands of Soviet girls who fought in World War II to the millions of single mothers who rebuilt and repopulated a devastated country; from the members of Pussy Riot to Yulia Navalnaya, wife of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, she chronicles one of the most audacious social experiments in history and how it failed the very women it was meant to liberate—and documents how that failure paved the way to the revanche of Vladimir Putin.

Part memoir, part journalistic exploration, part history, Motherland paints a portrait of modern Russia through the women who shaped it. With deep emotion, Ioffe shows what it means to live through the cataclysms of revolution, war, idealism, and heartbreak—and reveals how the story of Russia today is inextricably tied to the history of its women”.

There will be further events added to the Trouble Club calendar before the end of the year. However, the ones I have written about are so varied and exciting. If you can get a ticket to them (or one or two), then I can guarantee it will be well worth it! Such a great community of brilliant women (and men), one of the big rewards is great social events. At Dear Grace on 13th December, A Troublesome Christmas Party!!! will be awesome. I am looking forward to eating, drinking and speaking with existing and new Trouble Club members. Go and book your ticket. I know it sounds premature to talk about Christmas, but it will come around quick enough! Led by the brilliant Ellie Newton and her fabulous team, The Trouble Club is going from strength to strength! I write about them because I have loved being a member for over two years now. I am excited to see what 2026 holds in store. Newton, in her interview, said there are plans and there will be changes. A hugely hard-working woman in her twenties, there will be times when she wants to step back or focus on her personal life. However, she is CEO of something more than a club. It is a community and sense of friendship and connection for its thousands of members! If you are not a member already, then I think Trouble Club membership would be…

A perfect early Christmas present!

FEATURE: Inside the Brilliant Riot Women: Why the New BBC Series Strikes a Chord in Relation to Ongoing Ageism and Sexism in Music

FEATURE:

 

 

Inside the Brilliant Riot Women

IMAGE CREDIT: BBC

 

Why the New BBC Series Strikes a Chord in Relation to Ongoing Ageism and Sexism in Music

__________

I am going to bring in a review…

IN THIS PHOTO: (Back) Lorraine Ashbourne, Amelia Bullmore (front), Rosalie Craig, Joanna Scanlan and Tamsin Greig/PHOTO CREDIT: BBC

for Sally Wainwright’s brilliant Riot Women. You can watch the series here. The plot revolves around five women (Lorraine Ashbourne as Jess Burchill, Joanna Scanlan as Beth Thornton, Tamsin Greig as Holly Gaskell, Rosalie Craig as Kitty Eckersley and Amelia Bullmore as Yvonne Vau) coming together in Hebden Bridge to create a makeshift Punk-Rock band in order to enter a local talent contest but, in writing their first original song, soon discover that they have a lot to say. The title refers to Riot Grrrl, which was an underground feminist Punk movement that began during the early-1990s. Raging against the patriarchy and their dictate, it made feminism more accessible and enthralling to younger generations. I guess, rather than Riot Women being an inversion of a way of introducing feminism to slightly older generations, it is this spin. A movement that, in fact, could and should exist today. For anyone who says that the music industry is not ageist, then you really do need to talk to women! Listen to the most popular radio stations and look at festival line-ups. How many women over the age of forty are being played or headlining festivals? It is very much a double standard. Men over thirty or forty have more opportunities and platforms than women of that age. Think about women who have children and the fact that it is so hard to juggle motherhood with performing. Maternity leave means that their careers are threatened. Also, I think there is still an emphasis on younger women. If a new band came through like we see in Sally Wainwright’s series, would they be covered and given a spotlight? There is still ageism in music. As I have written in previous features, artists such as Kylie Minogue and Lady Gaga have shared their experiences of ageism. Also, as noted, albums released this year from legends like Sophie Ellis-Bextor contain such incredible and interesting Pop. Perimenopop is one of the best of the year and can contend with albums from her younger peers. And yet, there is still more stock in artists under thirty/forty than over, regardless of quality and worth.

If Riot Women is not specifically a commentary on modern music and the sexism and ageism that persists, you can read the title as this wake-up call. The synopsis is “As they juggle demanding jobs, grown-up children, complicated parents, absent husbands, and disastrous dates and relationships, the band becomes a catalyst for change in their lives, and makes them question everything. The themes of the series include the power of friendship, music, and the resilience of women who refuse to be silenced by age or expectation”. I think age is still a barrier for women. I know artists who are in their mid-thirties and forties and say how hard it is to get gigs and spots on radio playlists. Think about a festival like Glastonbury and its main stage headliners. Only once in their history have they had a woman over the age of forty headline (that would be Marcella Detroit of Shakespears Sister. In 1992, they became the first female-fronted band to ever headline the Pyramid Stage). Even if stations other than BBC Radio 2 play women over forty, the reality is that most major stations have an age barrier. Or they are aimed at a younger demographic. For women juggling careers, childcare or who are coming into music at a slightly later time in life, the reality is that the door is very heavy and hard to get through. Though they have a lot to say and deserve as much opportunity as anyone. Riot Women, in addition to be an amazing, funny, warm and thought-provoking series, should ask questions of the music industry. Sexism and misogyny has not exactly gone away. Among artists this year who have talked about ageism include Nicole Scherzinger, who told how she faced ageism early in her career.

In this interview from Rolling Stone UK, we learn more about a series that “reignites the feminist fury of the iot grrrl movement, while also setting the stage for new contemporary voices, as alt-rock duo ARXX provide the original music”. ARXX (Hanni Pidduck and Clara Townsend) and Riot Women’s Joanna Scanlon (Beth) and Rosalie Craig (Kitty) discuss the importance of the series and how older artists, especially women, should be celebrated more. Some of the earliest words in Riot Women are from one of its leads, Beth: “Do you think women of a certain age can become invisible”. This is a question many women in the music industry ask. It is a reason that compelled me to explore the series and ongoing barriers that women in music face:

“Woven into the very fabric of what the Riot Women band learn and practise is the ethos of riot grrrl, the original early-90s underground feminist punk movement spearheaded by Bikini Kill’s Kathleen Hanna and represented by bands like Heavens to Betsy, Huggy Bear and Bratmobile.

The movement was born out of a desire to challenge society attitudes that conflated being a girl with being ‘dumb’, ‘bad’, or ‘weak’, but also to highlight the importance of show-ing up for one another, irrespective of lived experiences. When performing, Hanna, then 23, would make the rallying cry of “Girls to the front!” demanding that space be taken up by those who would traditionally be pushed to the back.

One of the riot grrrl manifesto points feels especially relevant to Riot Women: “non-hierarchical ways of being and making music, friends, and scenes based on communication + understanding, instead of competition + good/bad categorisations”. It’s a point Scanlan touches on when discussing anger and punk, and what seems to be the biggest teaching of Riot Women, that “musical skill was secondary to expression”.

Her character’s early scene in the music shop delivers another punk reference. “You thought The Clash were angry,” says Beth. The action then cuts to Kitty, a woman Beth is yet to meet, who will become the band’s lead singer. Pent-up and intoxicated, Kitty jumps atop a former lover’s car and smashes it with a stolen sledgehammer. As she does so, she casts a strikingly similar silhouette to Paul Simonon on The Clash’s infamous London Calling album cover, an image that became immortalised as an iconic symbol of the rebellious punk rock spirit.

Continuing with the theme of rage, Scanlan tells me, “The idea of being feminine does not usually embrace the idea of anger. I think that’s really a central tenet of the drama.” The actor, who remembers punk from the first time around, recalls it as a pure force of working-class anger at what the world meant and the limitations there were for everyone. “I think what Sally’s trying to talk about is there’s got to be an outlet for the resentment and the feelings of fury and rage about what modern society does to all of us. But the accumulation of it when you get older is quite strong. And I think these women are all at the point of just having had enough.”

From the off, it’s clear that Wainwright doesn’t intend to rely solely on the nostalgia of punk and riot grrrl sonics to ensure the success of the new series, which she has described as being scarily exciting. “Anything with Sally at the helm of it is always going to be a cultural moment,” says Craig.

Aside from early references to Hole, Bikini Kill, Skunk Anansie and Garbage, Riot Women gives flowers to new, strong female voices in music, including those of Billie Ei-lish and The Last Dinner Party, not to mention the involvement of Brighton two-piece ARXX, who have written the show’s original music.

The Riot Women soon discover that music is a way to reclaim their autonomy. “They’re the wife, they’re the mother, and actually having something just for you or having some-thing that you’re not defined by… [They’re] trying to create a new shape, really,” says Craig. She references the sneering reactions these women face from their immediate families as they discuss their intentions to join a band at their age, yet it’s noted early on in the series that they would have been afforded the luxury to start much sooner had they been male. What they discover is how much fun it is to play music with other people.

Scanlan elaborates, highlighting the ultimate “pinch point” between conforming to mounting standards for women, who are expected to look after everybody else but are also thinking, ‘Hang on, how long have I got left and what else do I want to do with my limited time?’

What DIY teaches on a broader level beyond the physical act of making music is a means of regaining control and architecting an environment in your own vision. It’s all the more necessary for underrepresented groups, with ARXX describing the DIY space as pivotal to giving voice to those that aren’t usually allowed to be heard, even more so at a time when Government policy is coming into place to “squash” minority voices.

“You need these spaces to realise that you can say what you need to say,” Pidduck elaborates. “You can feel what you need to feel, and you can have that community and you can just make it happen.” Riot grrrl used these DIY ethics to bypass traditional, mainstream media and cultural gatekeepers in order to generate art, music and literature that spoke to them, that they felt represented by, and to make it easier to see, hear and share each other’s work.

As far as ARXX’s involvement is concerned, the duo have certainly won fans in both leads, with Craig praising what they’re saying as young people in the world as “amazing”, and Scanlan likening picking her favourite ARXX original in the show to the idea of “choosing between her children”. For the band, their love of the show is in the enriching message it sends, and how it tells a story which can be accessed by everyone because you don’t realise how political it is.

“Riot grrrl has not disappeared, it’s just evolved,” says Pidduck. “But for people thinking that that was something that happened and doesn’t happen anymore, go to a gig, hun.” With that in mind, can we expect to see Riot Women live in the future? Craig is keen, and her eight-year-old daughter even more so. “I’ve still got the guitar that Kitty has in the show, and she’s having a go,” Craig recalls with a grin. “I just thought, ‘Well, that’s great if you’ve come to see me at work and it’s inspired you to pick up an electric guitar.’”

And the incentive for older women, trans and non-binary people? “We have many more stories to tell. If anything, older artists should be celebrated more,” ARXX conclude. “I hope the show gives a little bit of that energy”.

You only need to look at recent releases from music icons like Kylie Minogue to realise some of the richest and best work comes later in their career! How they have the same verve, energy, worth and skill as younger contemporaries. Their greater experience and longer careers should be seen as a positive and not a drawback. I do think that sixth-wave feminism will formulate soon and, among its objectives, will be positivity, kindness, greater rights for women; tackling sexual assault and misogyny and also highlighting the voices and stories of older women. I am going to wrap things up soon. I do want to bring in this glowing review from The Guardian regarding the extraordinary Riot Women:

“First, we meet Beth (Joanna Scanlan), who has decided that the only answer to this question is to take her own life. A note is written to her beloved but thoughtless son, Tom (Jonny Green), and propped on the piano and she is getting prepared – when the phone rings. It’s her brother, Martin, selfish to the point of viciousness, calling to berate her for putting their mother in a home that will eat up the inheritance he was looking forward to instead of continuing to care for her by herself. Beth roars back at him, but not cathartically enough to turn her from her chosen path. She only stops trying to see her plan through when her friend Jess (Lorraine Ashbourne) rings. “D’you want to be in a rock band?”

And we’re off. The call has gone out to their friend Holly (Tamsin Greig) too. She has just ended 30 years in the police force by arresting a drunk and disorderly woman – further disoriented by a hot flush – in a supermarket and giving her a bed for the night as she has no home to go to. The next morning, Holly recognises the magnificently obstreperous felon as Kitty (Rosalie Craig), daughter of local gangster Keith. She will be even less delighted in episode two when Beth discovers Kitty doing karaoke in a bar and brings her along to the first band rehearsal as their new and soon indispensable singer. Though Holly has also invited her joyless sister, Yvonne (Amelia Bullmore), to play guitar so they are roughly equal on the potentially bad decision-makinge.

Add in a thick sprinkling of unrewarding children, parents at various stages of dementia, weak men, bad men, bosses who cannot or will not address the suffering of employees whose problems run deeper than hurt feelings, mounting physical problems in the face of medical indifference, a baby given up for adoption in the 90s and now looking for his birth mother and you have a rich and moreish stew that is offered up in generous portions. And it is, of course, in Wainwright’s customary manner, perfectly seasoned with humour, from the lightest (“Rocco was a tree in assembly. Before and after an explosion. It was heartbreaking”) to the darkest. Kitty was expelled from the posh school she was sent away to at 13 after her mother died and her father couldn’t stand the sight of her. “It was an education in all sorts of way. Apart from … education.”

Like all Wainwright’s best work (and work by the likes of Debbie Horsfield and Kay Mellor before her), Riot Women covers a lot of ground without getting bogged down or leaving the viewer feeling shortchanged. As the band fights to get into a fit state to play at the local fundraiser in six weeks’ time, Beth learns to stand her ground and fight against the invisibility that did so much to make her miserable. She bonds with Kitty partly through admiration of her talent and their shared interest in writing original material for the Riot Women (“Old Bags’ Department” was considered as a band name but ultimately vetoed) but also because she needs to mother, and Kitty, whatever she thinks, needs mothering.

It is a drama that, like Happy Valley, looks at the multitudinous roles women manage, the caring responsibilities that accumulate and how they evolve over a lifetime. Children leave home but never stop taking. Mothers become children and take some more. What do you do if you are caught between the two, alone, and no one is around to give you anything? You turn to your equally depleted friends, dig deeper and give what you can to each other. You become a self-supporting circle, which itself becomes a link in the chain that can keep an entire society going. There will be merry hell to pay when that breaks, of course, but TV with this sort of pedigree and cast will buy us a little more time”.

I do think that the brilliant writing and performances through Riot Women will extend beyond the screen. As The Stylist write about Sally Wainwright’s series: “Wainwright has created a call to arms for women of all ages to make sure they prioritise themselves – and not in a woo-woo, have a bath kind of way – but by making space in their lives for the things they love. And if that’s screaming about hot flushes with more anger than The Clash with your best mates, then we’re all for it”. I hope that there is a movement in music that addresses issues that have remained for decades. How women especially not only are held back and face discrimination and sexism constantly. How, so much of the time, they are the ones fighting for equality and raising issues. The combination of anger, friendship and humour through Riot Women, I feel, could lead to something in the music industry. If women over, say, forty are seen as invisible to many, the truth is that they are not. The industry needs to realise this! Not only by accepting ageism is rife and tackling it. Also, to value their stories and experiences. How some of the best music is being made by women over forty – though, to be fair, many women over thirty face ageism! – and this needs to be valued and rewarded. The brilliant Riot Women has and will create tremors and conversation points that the music industry needs to take note of. Testament to Sally Wainwright’s vision and incredible writing. Given all of that, perhaps the greatest and most pressing question is…

WHERE do we go from here?

FEATURE: That Ain't Workin' Is the Closure of MTV’s U.K. Music Channels the Death of the Music Video?

FEATURE:

 

 

That Ain't Workin'

IN THIS PHOTO: A still from Peter Gabriel’s classic music video, Sledgehammer (1986)

 

Is the Closure of MTV’s U.K. Music Channels the Death of the Music Video?

__________

I don’t feel…

PHOTO CREDIT: Jace One/Pexels

we will ever see the end of music videos as we know them. However, as it has been announced that MTV will close the last of its U.K. music video channels at the end of the year. I have written about that before. However, it is clear that there is still a place for music T.V. I guess many people associate MTV with music videos. My memories of MTV are of classic and memorable music videos. In the 1990s, there was this golden period when you would see these amazing and innovative videos. Ones that endure to this day. I really love music video and think that, if done right, can elevate a song. The connection between song and video. It is so amazing that we had this long period where we got these great videos. Now, with so many artists out there and music videos not really played on T.V., it does call into question its future. Whether music videos are viable. I think that artists need to put videos out. There is no way they can ever end. However, I think there is a shift more to Spotify and physical media. Maybe people not going to YouTube and watching videos. Unless you are a massive artist, are you seeking out the video for an artist? There are not that many features that discuss the best music videos of the year. I guess the issues with music videos is that directors and artists not making money from them. Put that together with the cost of making them in the first place, and are they too much of a risk? In a new feature, The Guardian reacted to the moves at MTV and whether a shrinking of their music T.V. output puts the music video under threat:

“For some, it represents the end of an era. Others, such as the musician Hannah Diamond, suggest that era may have been over some time ago. “The last few years, MTV has sort of transformed [into] more of a nostalgic memory,” she says. “It hasn’t been part of the conversation for such a long time that it really doesn’t surprise me that they’re ending it.” As an independent artist, she says, YouTube has always been the primary platform for music video releases.

The specific shuttering of the brand’s music platforms does call into question the position of the music video in today’s industry, and whether the form still provides a viable outlet for expression and promotion. Jennifer Byrne, head of development at Academy Films – the famed production company that launched the careers of film-makers such as Jonathan Glazer through their music video work – says that “labels aren’t as willing” to invest heavily in videos as they once were. “They’re trying to spend that money on so many more deliverables than there used to be,” she says, referring to the multiplicity of online video and social media platforms. “It used to just be one three-minute video. Now it’s: how do you reach all these different audiences and can you cut it in 10 different ways?”

Iris Luz, a London-based director who has made videos for British pop singers PinkPantheress and George Riley, says that budgets for videos are shrinking rapidly, even for seemingly simple clips. “The number of times I’ll come up with an idea that, to me, seems easy, and people are like: ‘No, that’s gonna be 50 billion pounds,’” she says. “I’m like, that’s funny, because it’s in one house with four people. I don’t know what’s going on.”

Neither Luz nor Byrne believes that the end of MTV will significantly impact music videos overall. In Luz’s mind, videos now are less promotional tools than “vehicles for relatability and branding that makes [a viewer] want to buy into the artist,” she says. “They’re just a facet in the ecosystem of a musician. Because of TikTok and the rise of independent artists, people put out music as soon as they’re done with it. So a video is designed to convey that immediacy – where they’re at in one moment – rather than make a big splash like 15 years ago.”

There are also still barriers to entry for smaller artists, says Diamond. “The music videos I have made have been made through sheer luck, grafting or multiple years of work put into one thing,” she says. “I’ve become a musician in an era where artists don’t get the budget to make a music video unless they are a really big artist with a big label behind them that thinks it’s going to be a worthwhile investment”.

It is sad how things have shifted. I guess money is such an issue for so many artists. They need to put music out regularly to stay relevant and make a career. That means touring extensively and making sure any money they do make is put into the music. Not to say videos are under-ambitious, though there is perhaps not the budget to do something high-concept and luxurious. Think about some of the all-time classic videos from the past. Maybe time-intensive or expensive, you have Peter Gabriel’s Sledgehammer and Michael Jackson’s Thriller. Of course, videos do not have to be expensive or complex to be memorable. Think of OK Go’s Here It Goes Again and how amazing that is. If cost is not the biggest barrier, maybe grabbing attention is. If you put out a terrific music video that is intelligent and original, what is the best-case scenario? You might get quite a few videos, but in terms of that adding any value and earning money, is that possible? Perhaps it can lead to more albums sales, but will it be that noticeable? It is harder than ever to make money and the golden age of the music video has passed. If we have seen the last of that MTV age where videos were very much this important stock, I do feel like the music video remains important. At a time when so many people are preferring short-form videos and perhaps have less focus and attention, the music video provides this middle ground. They are typically pretty short and not too demanding. However, one of the reasons why we need to keep music videos going is because it does give that platform for directors. It is also good acting exposure for artists. Directors that go on to make films. A chance for artists to be on camera and pick up this discipline. Whilst they can gain some of that experience from the stage, I do think that the music video performance is something different. Also, I think there is something about the pairing of video and music that makes a song more powerful and enduring. I can remember songs from decades back because of the video. Not because the videos were especially brilliant but because the visualisation of the song was more attention-grabbing and potent.

What Hannah Diamond said about artists and budgets. Maybe there is not a great deal of money available to make videos. I do contend that, rather than there being music video channels, that there are alternatives to the limited music shows we have on U.K. screens. That music videos could form part of one that also incorporated live performances. If some no longer watch music videos, for so many people, they were our path into music. I love the work of directors such as Michel Gondry and have forged aspirations myself of directing because of him. It does come down to profitability and whether there is any financial sense in making them. I do feel like they hold a place, though they are not as prevalent or important as they once were. Only major artists have the budget to make bigger videos and the audience to make them worthwhile. Maybe this will change. Physical music is not rising and has seen a revival, so will music videos be next? I genuinely feel there should be this central fund or organisation that can provide money to artists for music videos. We cannot let such a beautiful and limitless artform dwindle and die. The possibilities and long-term potential. When was the last time you say a genuine standout video that stayed in your mind?! I don’t think it is due to a lack of talent but directors and artists maybe feeling people will not watch videos. Or there is not enough money to make them. To ignore the music video and completely write them off is wrong. If we lost them altogether, or there was this feeling they are not worth investing in, then that…

WOULD be a tragedy.

FEATURE: Trynna Finda Way: Nelly Furtado’s Woah, Nelly! at Twenty-Five

FEATURE:

 

 

Trynna Finda Way

 

Nelly Furtado’s Woah, Nelly! at Twenty-Five

__________

MY association with…

IN THIS PHOTO: Nelly Furtado wears hoop earrings and a tank top backstage at a recording of a CD:UK at Riverside Studios in Hammersmith, London in 2001/PHOTO CREDIT: Dave Tonge/Getty Images

and memories of this album are so vivid. Released on 24th October, 2000, we celebrate twenty-five years of Nelly Furtado’s Whoa, Nelly! When the album came out, I was seventeen and in sixth-form college. I remember taking a trip to Amsterdam in 2001 with a couple of friends. This album, strangely, soundtracked that trip. I remember hearing songs like I’m Like a Bird and Turn Off the Light and really bonding with them. The whole album is brilliant. In terms of an introduction, the sequencing is perfect. The first six songs give us multiple sides to Furtado and her songwriting. Rare for an artist on their debut to have such a hand in the songwriting and put their stamp on an album. That sounds insulting, though so many artists today collaborate with others. Woah, Nelly! Is very much the artist putting her ideas and personality into the music. The Canadian legend released her seventh studio album, 7, last year. It is one of her most acclaimed. Whilst fans might think 2006’s Loose is her best album and one where she is at her most confident, expressive and physical, I love the sound of Woah, Nelly! It is such a beautifully eclectic and personal album for me. I know some of the criticism around her debut concerned the vocals and how Furtado had this unique style. In terms of stretching words and intonations. Tics and mannerisms that they were perhaps not attuned to. The way Nelly Furtado projects and delivers her lines if one of the standout aspects of Woah, Nelly! I am going to get some words about the album. However, as it is twenty-five on 24th October, I wanted to share my feelings about the album. I think it is one of the most underrated debuts ever. Hey, Man!, Shit on the Radio (Remember the Days), Baby Girl, Legend, I’m Like a Bird and Turn Off the Light is this perfect run! Opening the album and taking us to the halfway point without losing a step. So many different sounds and layers but this singular identity.

A number two success in Canada and the U.K., the strength of I’m Like a Bird (released on 25th September) no doubt helped sales. Perhaps its standout song, that track was played on the radio so much. It is still a favourite today. I heard the song today, in fact! Before getting to some reviews of the album, there is an interview from 2001 that I wanted to start with. There are not that many print interviews available from the debut album time. Whoa, Nelly! perhaps took a lot of people by surprise. Not used to a talent like Nelly Furtado. The Guardian spoke with Nelly Furtado and we find out so much about her background and path into music. This was an artist inspiring, passionate and committed from the start:

“To her manager, Nelly Furtado is "the new Madonna", to her record label "the female Beck", while her languid singing style has been likened to to that of fellow Canadian Joni Mitchell, and her Latino looks (inherited from Portuguese parents) to Jennifer Lopez. So much hype, so little time - it has been less than a year since 22-year-old Furtado came out of Toronto with the hippy-dippy hit I'm Like a Bird, quickly attracting praise that would embarrass a less confident soul. Just how confident is she?

When she signed her record deal, aged 20, she mused that she aspired to be Gandhi, Mother Teresa and Mona Lisa "all at the same time, to inspire people, but not in a cheap way".

Even allowing for the fact that Next Big Things often turn out not to be, the music business has reason to welcome Furtado. A year of diminishing returns has seen the industry fall out of love with Britney Spears and her many clones. Furtado (who shares her birthday, December 2, with Spears, though she pretends to be unaware of it) represents a fresh start, a female pop singer who is not just photogenic but who - crucially - writes, performs and produces her own material. This is so unusual in 2001 that it deserves to be repeated: Furtado does it herself. Her Toronto friends Gerald Eaton and Brian West co-produced and co-wrote part of her debut album, Whoa, Nelly! But in American biz-speak, Furtado is the very much the "vision".

Fifteen years ago, it wouldn't have been so remarkable for a chart artist to have artistic control, but the making of pop records has become a division of labour, with the components (the song, producer and "talent") purchased separately and brought together in a studio. To find it all in one package, especially a female one (more kudos for the label in question) is rare enough for veteran executive David Geffen, president of DreamWorks records, to have personally pursued her signature.

"One magazine said he let me stay in his mansion," she says with amusement. "Nooo. I just went over there one day. Well, you want to see what it's like." Evidently, the pad passed muster - she signed with DreamWorks after turning down a £3m offer elsewhere.

Following the lead of her friend Missy Elliott, with whom she rapped on a remix of Elliott's big hit Get Ur Freak On, Furtado has mastered the post-Britney recipe for chart success. What one needs to do, it seems, is to whisk up three-minute tunes from a variety of cross-cultural influences (Furtado uses African, Brazilian and Asian sounds as easily as she does the more familiar ones), then go out and sell them with north American can-do initiative. Given the right breaks, such as MTV and key radio support, can-do becomes has-done.

Today, she has already appeared on GMTV, and faces an afternoon of hobnobbing with the suits at her UK company, Polydor, where she must cut an idiosyncratic figure alongside the likes of Sophie Ellis-Bextor and Hear'Say. Our interview cuts into her lunch break, but she behaves as if nothing would give her more pleasure than to spend the next hour sharing her thoughts in a Kensington hotel room.

She begins chirpily and stays that way, answering even facetious questions with a desire to provide whatever's required. "So you're like a bird? What kind?" I inquire. "A seagull," she says seriously. "I was really inspired by a great book called Jonathan Livingston Seagull [the drippy new age classic by Richard Bach]."

When Furtado talks, it's not a case of gradually drawing her out until she hits her stride. She seems to have hit it as a teenage over-achiever in Victoria, British Columbia ("I joined lots of clubs and was always winning leadership awards"), and hasn't looked back. Her positivity is correlated by a sense of entitlement one frequently encounters in north Americans - she expected success, it duly came and she hasn't wasted energy agonising over whether she "deserves" it. Not that she has been indulging herself in the fruits of her labour, though. In the middle of an earnest rap about the need for women to defer gratification until they break through the glass ceiling, she laces her fingers together and says: "I'll quote Einstein here. 'Intelligence is sacrificing immediate pleasure for long-term gain.' That's the story of my life."

Furtado - whose immigrant parents named her Nelly Kim because "they didn't want to give me a Portuguese name in case I got made fun of at school" - astutely remarks that it has become commonplace. When America's urban radio stations heard her rapping on Get Ur Freak On (which she will perform with Elliott at a Michael Jackson tribute concert in New York next month), some assumed she was Jamaican. She was delighted.

"I want to empower people who don't know much about their culture. I've grown up not seeing my ethnicity reflected in Hollywood, so I was glad when Jennifer Lopez came out. I'm a flag-waver and I don't care because it's so much of what I am. I went to Portuguese language school from the age of four and I'm passionate about my heritage."

Her parents, Maria and Antonio, emigrated from the Azores, a chain of Portuguese islands that accounts for around 80% of Canada's 400,000-strong Portuguese population. Her closest friends at school were children of African, Indian and Latin American immigrants. She did well academically, receiving straight As and handing in 50-page extra projects for fun. "Over-achiever is the word," she says cheerfully. "I've always been the conscientious one in my family. I was the one who'd remember birthdays and would buy cards. My older sister was a rebel and I'd worry if she went out at night. But I was almost like an only child. I worked with my mom as a housekeeper in the motel where she worked, but I loved being by myself and spent hours alone in the park listening to music."

Her form of rebellion was, briefly, a girl gang called the Portuguese Mafia (which disbanded because Nelly couldn't throw rocks at school buses with enough petulance) and music. Through her parents she had a grounding in Latin sounds, which she adores enough to have plans for an eventual Brazilian CD. Her friends introduced her to Asian and dance music, and her brother to Oasis. She admits sending a fan letter to Liam Gallagher under the misapprehension that it was he rather than Noel who wrote the songs. By 18, she had moved to Toronto, formed a trip-hop band called Nelstar and begun making contacts on the music scene. It all happened quickly after that, just as she undoubtedly expected it to.

Whoa, Nelly! sold 300,000 copies in the UK, and the salsa-tinged Turn Off the Light has just become her second British top five single. She even has a coterie of male devotees, known as "Fur-verts". Things have fallen into place so neatly that her intention of being the Gandhi of the MTV generation must seem to her quite reasonable. "Oh, no, the Gandhi quote! I was 19 when I said that! I was just saying I like aspects of their characters. From individuality come great and wonderful things”.

I am not sure if Nelly Furtado will mark the twenty-fifth anniversary of her debut or has anything to say about it. I hope that she shares a post, as it is one of the most extraordinary debut albums of the 2000s. In the first year of this century, we got an album of pure joy, invention and class. SLANT provided their verdict on Woah, Nelly! The sheer range and breadth of the material is one of the reasons why the album is so engaging. At a time when Pop music was perhaps more commercial and samey, Furtado delivered a debut album that was so much more fascinating and distinct than what her peers were offering:

“Flash forward a year or so later and Furtado’s sugar-pop “I’m Like a Bird” is in heavy rotation on College Television. MTV hadn’t quite latched onto the video yet, but I quickly realized that the fresh-faced Portuguese-Canadian singing was the same young woman who delivered the darker, edgier “Party.” Surely some major label suit had gotten a hold of Furtado and coaxed a Top 40 hit out of her.

A few weeks later a promotional copy of Furtado’s debut Whoa, Nelly! floated around the office of the record label where I worked at the time. I quickly discovered that, while “I’m Like a Bird” was the poppiest thing on the entire album, it was anything but a fluke. She directly confronts the issue on “Shit on the Radio (Remember the Days)” via a friend or lover who thinks she’s sold out: “It’s so much easier to stay down there guaranteeing you’re cool/Than to sit up here exposing myself trying to break through.”

 

Chockfull of instantly memorable hooks and lyrics beyond Furtado’s 20 years, Whoa, Nelly! was a delightful and refreshing antidote to the army of pop princesses and rap-metal bands that had taken over popular music at the turn of the millennium. Two years later, the album still sounds as fresh, opening with the sampled Kronos Quartet loop of “Hey, Man!” and cascading track by track into the trip-hop of “My Love Grows Deeper Part 1,” the trip-pop of the hit single “Turn Off the Light,” and the torchy swing of “Scared of You,” while maintaining a rare consistency.

“I’m changing my inflection and how I say the words/Maybe it will sound like something they’ve never heard,” she declares on “Party.” Furtado’s free-verse poetry flows meticulously over a Prince-esque riff on “Trynna Finda Way,” flawlessly summing up her post-rave generation ambivalence (“To see past my lethargy is hard I feign/The beauty of my youth is gone but the chemicals remain”), and her observations are like nothing you’ll hear from her pop-tart contemporaries (“Looks like I only love God when the sun shines my way,” she admits on the cartoonish “Well, Well”).

Furtado’s voice is certainly an acquired taste, but there’s no shortchanging her ability to ad lib along to a trumpet solo (“Baby Girl”) or spit rhymes like a caffeinated MC (“Legend,” “I Will Make U Cry,” in which she snidely taunts an unresponsive love interest by mawkishly weeping, “I will make you cry…boo-hoo!”). The impeccable pop-crackle production—clattering electronic percussion, turntable scratches, hip-hop beats, acoustic guitars, and string arrangements courtesy of Track & Field—never diminishes the resonance of Furtado’s voice, but you may need to read the lyric book to fully appreciate the breadth of her world”.

I am going to end with a feature that argues why Woah, Nelly! is more radical than you might think. Woah, Nelly! is a feminist and empowering status, as Furtado’s fame was so low-key. She did not follow the Pop crowd and redefined what the genre could be. Subversive and inspiring, it is not as celebrated as it should be. In 2018, FLOOD MAGAZINE heralded an album that was ahead of its time. It definitely signalled a change. I hope there is new evaluation on its twenty-fifth anniversary on 24th October:

“Contrastingly, the love for Whoa, Nelly!, recorded when Furtado was only twenty-one years old, is hard to come across on its eighteenth anniversary, even with our pervasive cultural nostalgia. That lack of admiration can’t be divorced from the fact that the Furtado we first met was hard to label. She was a pop star, but not a Christina or Britney analogue. Her debut was eclectic, drawing on her roots—her quavering, emotive voice evoking the pathos of traditional Portuguese fado music—among other pop, rock, and hip-hop influences collected from studying music and growing up in Victoria, British Columbia.

But Furtado wasn’t in the same sultry, exotic world Shakira exemplified with her 2001 English-language breakthrough single “Whenever, Wherever.” Furtado was too pop to be an indie music darling (she didn’t play guitar on stage), too eclectic and intriguing to be a pop starlet (she didn’t dance), both talented and unique, but not enough so to be remembered alongside ingenues like M.I.A. or Amy Winehouse. She’s not a Personality, having never been one for tabloids or reality shows, boasting an Instagram account with 126,000 followers and 0 pictures, whereas Shakira is a Guiness record-holder for her massive Facebook following. Her low-key style of fame is, by design, a feminist statement that can be traced directly back to the self she exposed on Whoa, Nelly!: an artist who stands firm in the belief that no person should be reduced to a one-dimensional front.

Listening to the album when I was still in grade school, its view of love, relationships, and individuality seemed to come from another world I was only just beginning to understand, far beyond the simplified schoolyard version of romance that flowed from the mouths of other Top 40 artists. “I’m Like a Bird” is a certified bop about fear of commitment and the threat of losing one’s self to loving another person. “Shit on the Radio” tells of dealing with a partner or friend too insecure to handle Furtado’s career success. “Turn Off the Light” covers the fallout after a breakup, the kind of self-questioning that happens after you lose someone you never even fully opened up to.

The album is a takeoff of the girl-power ethos that started with riot grrl and was co-opted by another group of idols from my youth—the Spice Girls. As Furtado explored specific interpersonal intricacies, she also marked a new era of empowering music by women that was as emotionally unguarded as it was danceable. There was something inherently political in the narratives Furtado weaved across the album, too. The line “I don’t want to be your baby girl” on the track “Baby Girl” was as much a statement to the music promotion machine as it was, within the song, directed at a patriarchal lover.

Eighteen years later, Whoa, Nelly!’s subversiveness is easier to parse. Its influence has come into clearer focus, as female artists, queer artists, and genre-defying iconoclasts pummel expectations of how a popular artist should look and sound. Unlike Furtado, they have a safety net in the Wild West of the Internet that did not exist back when labels still dictated who became famous or didn’t. With her 2017 independent album The Ride, Furtado continues to be every bit as ungraspable as she was in 2000, veering away from the artist we knew on Loose, and embracing sounds as disparate as stripped-down indie rock and industrial-tinged dance music. Critics praised the effort, with Billboard going so far as to call it “the most slept-on release of 2017.” But that ability to experiment was truly honed at the turn of the century with her debut. Whoa, Nelly! may never be celebrated as the work of feminist rebellion that it is—but as Furtado expresses on the album, she wasn’t vying for our approval anyway”.

I think a lot of people who have written about Woah, Nelly! are my sort of age. In college/university when it came out, we were at that stage of life when we were looking to discover something different. A new century, this was a time of personal transformation and growth for me. Woah, Nelly! was this bolt from the blue. An exceptional debut album from such a wonderful artist! Whilst some artists feel honed in or directed by a label and commercial expectations on their debut album, Woah, Nelly! sees the incredible Ms. Furtado…

FREE as a bird.

FEATURE: Sad Café: The Importance of ‘Appropriate’ Music in Coffee Shops

FEATURE:



Sad Café

PHOTO CREDIT: mh cheraghi/Pexels

 

The Importance of ‘Appropriate’ Music in Coffee Shops

__________

I am not sure what the vibe is…

PHOTO CREDIT: Afta Putta Gunawan/Pexels

when you go to a city like Barcelona or New York. Step into a coffee shop, a chain or an independent shop, and listen to what they are playing. I think that the music in a coffee shop sets the tone and can do a lot. People might think that it is merely background. However, whether you are there alone or meeting someone, the music can inspire conversation and dictate how long you stay at the place. To play copyrighted music in a coffee shop, you must get a music license from the relevant licensing body, such as PPL PRS in the U.K. This is because playing music in a public commercial space is a public performance, and you need permission to do so legally to avoid fines. You can get a single, joint license that covers both recorded and live music, and you cannot use personal streaming services like Spotify or Apple Music for a business. You can find out more here. Whereas a film or T.V. production would need clearance from an artist to play their music and need to pay for that use, things are different for hospitality. As long as you have a license and are permitted to play music, then you can pretty much make your own rules in terms of the mood and sound. I think that each coffee chain or shop has an idea of their demographic and what type of music would suite them. The thing is, with a few rare exceptions, the music is awful! That is not me being a snob at all. I am one of the most open-minded and broad music lovers around. I tend to find that the music in coffee shops is either too unstimulating or heavy-going. I will name the chains. Take Caffè Nero and the music they typically play. Maybe seeing themselves as a more classic or sophisticated option, the music they play tends to be smooth Jazz. Not anything as interesting as John Coltrane or Miles Davis. Instead, it is generic and bland Jazz. They might play more acoustic songs too, but the takeaway is a real lack of energy or variation.

Maybe the objective is to calm people and create this relaxing mood. The thing is, you can do that with better music. Stuff that has personality! Take Pret a Manger. One of the reasons I go there less than I used – aside from the fact it is wildly over-priced – is the music. Maybe different depending on the branch, but their music is more Pop-based. This is not the sort of Pop from the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s that is popular and catchy. It seems like a bunch of A.I.-generated artists who are beyond boring. It is all fake energy without any melody, hook or quality! A chain that sees themselves as more youthful, upbeat or even family-orientated, you occasionally get some popular Pop and R&B but, for the most part, it is pretty awful stuff. I have been into Starbucks and other chains and there is either silence or the sort of background and airport music that is a cross between muzak or music devoid of any purpose or place. As I say, the choice of music is important. It can influence how long you remain in the establishment. Bad music, objectively, can ruin the mood and conversation. Other people can do that, too. From inconsiderate families with noisy children to the infuriating anuses who play music and phone calls on their phones without putting them through headphones, that is a big issue. I tend to carry headphones around when I have a coffee, because I really get annoyed by their choice of music. It is a shame. When I meet someone for coffee, I am always conscious of the music. Too loud and annoying and it can be as bad as music that is as bland and ‘easy going’ as the sort of awful Jazz you can hear. Even if it is largely acoustic music, is that what you want to hear when you have a coffee?!

I know people have a choice and you can listen to your own stuff, though it would be nice to walk into a coffee shop and have some decent music. I think independent shops are a lot better and can be a lot cooler. However, many of the massive chains really do get the tone wrong when it comes to music! One exception is Black Sheep Coffee. I have been going there more and more, not only because of the aesthetic of their shops and the friendly staff. The music is a lot better. That may seem like a subjective statement. However, their soundtrack is broad and interesting. I have heard some classic Beatles, brilliant Miles Davis and some 1990s Pop missed with some chilled Club sounds and some banging dance. The volume is not too high and the emphasis seems to be on ensuring the music matches the décor. More diverse and cooler than some of the more white-walled and bland options, I know that many people will go to Black Sheep Coffee because of the music. In a society where people will choose their own music and listen through headphones, I have found myself taking mine off because a song being played in the shop is better than what I am listening to!

Some might say the music in coffee shops is no big deal. I think it is. It is about the mood and atmosphere. If you get it wrong then it can ruin the experience. I have stopped going to certain chains because their choice of music is either coma-inducing or obnoxiously irritating and A.I.-sounding. Getting that brew just so – in terms of genres, dynamics and moods – and the effect can be transformative. There are other great coffee shops with terrific music, but I have named one that has struck me. I live near Camden (London) and I visit that branch a lot. I was in Manchester recently and found the shops there played incredible music. Patrons may not want to listen to music in coffees shops, so many of them are silent. This might be okay with bustle and a busy day. However, if there are a few people there then it can be embarrassingly awkward and deafening. Also, so long as the volume is not blaring and you have this considered variation of engaging and interesting music, then it can have a big impact. This needs to be realised more. The importance of music. It extends to retail too. Good music can directly impact sales and how many people come through your doors. When lingering for a coffee, music is pivotal. This particular coffee chain, rather than being a black sheep when it comes to their music, instead is very much a…

GOLDEN calf.