FEATURE: Nearly Dan: Living Out the Album Dream

FEATURE:

 

 

Nearly Dan

 PHOTO CREDIT: cottonbro studio/Pexels

 

Living Out the Album Dream

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I did say that my previous feature…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Donald Fagen and Walter Becker of Steely Dan/PHOTO CREDIT: Lynn Goldsmith/Corbis/VCG/Getty Images

concerning Steely Dan would be my last. This is sort of Steely Dan-adjacent! I think that many music journalists have that dream of recording an album. I am not a natural singer and I do not play instruments. That said, I have always been fascinated with songwriting and creating music. This feature might be a little self-indulgent, but it also mentions A.I. This is being used more and more in music. Steely Dan are relevant as, if I ever made an album, the songwriting style of Walter Becker and Donald Fagen would very much by in my mind. Fagen would never go for it, but you do wonder whether there would be any attempt to make Steely Dan A.I. A sort of ‘lost’ album. I will come back to this thought later. I have written about how many artists in modern music overlook important themes. Their music can be overly-personal, in the sense that there is not much room for other subjects. At a time when there is environmental catastrophe, divisions and hatred aimed at the trans and L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ community as a whole, where is the outrage and musical condemnation?! Raising awareness through music is a powerful force. We don’t really have Hip-Hop artists like we did in the past making this political and incendiary music – and more is the pity! As we look ahead to the genre’s fiftieth anniversary in August, I do wonder whether artists need to be more conscious of addressing bigger themes and talking about things like discrimination, gender inequality, and climate change. Some artists do this already, yet there are so many who have the opportunity to do something genuinely important and reactive.

 PHOTO CREDIT: Alexander Grey/Pexels

I think, it is I got the chance to do an album, it would be writing and assisting production, rather than singing on it. There would be a use of samples, similar to how Hip-Hop used them back in the day. As it is expensive and hard to get clearance, there might not be that many (though using a few would be good). I think A.I. would come in when it comes to instruments and effects. Maybe using it for production and some backing vocals. Steely Dan are key, as a lyrical approach that is quite witty and intelligent would make the songs more accessible and enduring. There are artists like Hak Baker who are talking about important thing. His new album, Worlds End FM, discusses struggles and conflicts. I am not saying no artists are doing something important and raising issues that need exploring. It seems to be less common. I have been really immersing myself in Steely Dan. Whereas they were never really political, they tackled unconventional themes and interesting characters in their songs. I know I will never get an album out there. But, as I have had ideas and I want to also explore deeper themes in music and A.I., I can lay the songs and concepts out there. I love the idea of having different singers take on the songs. The same rich and detailed compositions ‘The Dan’ used to do. An album that does take on some big things, but there is also humour, love, and these interesting and odd adventures. In terms of tracklisting:

IMAGE CREDIT: Posetrmywall.com

The opening track deals with sexual harassment and assault in the industry. Using Chanel perfume and a blue dress as a central point, it would end up as evidence in court. Not explicitly mentioning people like Harvey Weinstein, it would be a take on the more predatory nature of some men in music and Hollywood. Lawyers trying to discredit these women. Claiming they want stardom and are t blame. It would also allude to a court case where Taylor Swift was testifying about being sexual assaulted. There has not really been a #MeToo movement in music, so this is sort of a combination of highlighting the issues and calling for this movement. It may sound like a heavy start to an album, but it going to have a lighter composition. Maybe a sample from an older film (dialogue), together with a couple of samples. Forgive the self-indulgence, but St Germain’s What You Think About… (from Tourist) comes to mind, as would Girl by Destiny’s Child. It would have Steely Dan touches when it comes to the descriptions and scene-setting, but it would lead to something quite emphatic and huge at the end. Maybe a building of vocals and mood to this crescendo. Lasting about six minutes, it would be one of the longest songs on the album – the title and cover I shall cover at the half-way point. Local Celebrity would be more humours and Dan-esque. It concerns the differences between smaller towns and the city. Smaller towns residents that put stock in minor things. How a local celebrity could be someone quite minor. It is also about politics and voting for those who look after their best interests and not the wider world. I have been back to where I was born, and you people excited about the weirdest things. Not really aspiring beyond their ordinary lives. Not that there is anything wrong with that. You can feel the contrast when you go back into the city. It would be a shorter song but also one of the catchiest!

Summer By the Ocean is about climate change and rising temperatures. Maybe referencing Beach Boys songs and early sounds, it would be a satirical look at those who love the sunshine and burn in it, unaware that it is a bad sign. The fact that, soon, ocean temperatures will rise. In places, there will be floods and more natural disasters. The New Arrangement is the clearest Steely Dan nod. The Second Arrangement was a song they recorded for 1980’s Gaucho. It got wiped and, spending a massive amount of time and money to try to recreate it, they gave up. It is one of those music what-if scenarios that has been answered - as it has been recently discovered!. I am not sure about the content of the song, but it would be a nod that aborted track. I am thinking about a hustler. Maybe a legend who rolls loaded dice, steals women and uses street Kung Fu. Almost a mix between a spy theme and this 1970s-set Blaxploitation picture. David Has a Masterplan concerns gun violence in the U.S. A nation that makes abortion illegal in some states, and yet people are allowed to carry guns. The weird contrast between mass murders and gun tragedies and this Stone Age visions about women’s rights and abortion. This has been covered in music I think, but it needs to be more front and centre. The protagonist would be someone who has these placards and stickers about abortion and supporting making it illegal, but he has a gun to protect himself. Someone who seems to value unborn life above existing ones. The story would end with him carrying out a ‘masterplan’ about shooting out a school, but he is foiled and makes a mistake. Southside is also the name of a cocktail (which combines gin with lemon juice, sugar and mint). Other cocktails would be mentioned in the song, but it is a tale set on the south sided of L.A. A sort of loser who drifts through life. Other cocktails would be named and used as lyrical references – Manhattan, Jungle Bird, French 75, Old Fashioned, Naked and Famous. The song would end with him at a party having passed out in the bath as lewd acts happen around him. It would be another song that took into some samples.

 IN THIS PHOTO: A Southside cocktail

As an interlude, I wanted to talk about album covers and titles. I think that album covers have become less ambitious and striking through the years. You do get the odd great one each year, but so many others are quite bland and plain. Maybe the artists will be on there in a pose, but you can do something original and new. Some say that there is less emphasis on covers because people listen digitally. Vinyl sales are climbing, so there is value in ensuring that the cover is memorable and as good as possible. My idea would be one that is quite busy but has a bold central image. Like the inside of a creative mind, there would be an outline of a brain or suggestion of it. The photo would be a single room with lighting. There is a woman in the centre holding a bottle of alcohol in one hand. The other one would have a book in it that is on fire. You do not see which one it is. The suggestion might be is she has had her mind blown or it is suicidal. There would be this image of her looking up with quite a shocked or enigmatic look. One that stays in the mind. Some of the song titles would play out in the photo. There would be items around the room such as cocktails. The woman would be in a blue dress that is torn. There is a scratch on her shoulder. In the room would also be a typewriter. It would sort of be similar to Harry Styles’ Harry’s House cover in a way. A sense of personal upside-downness and confusion. I am working on it – if conception ever is required to transition into execution -, but it would be a cover that is striking but has mystery. The title, Autumn at Katz’s Deli, refers to an iconic delicatessen in Brooklyn (and the words/reference is sung in the album’s final song). That could change, but the title has multiple meanings and possible connections - both literal and metaphorical.

 IN THIS PHOTO: The cover for Harry Styles’ 2022 album, Harry’s House

I am not sure how the lettering would be displayed, but maybe in a neon sign or written on a wall, either in blue blood or lipstick. There would also be allusions to film, plot twists, environmental decay and political corruptness within the photo. In terms of the liner notes, there would be lyrics to each of the songs and the titles in this cool font. Alongside them would be illustrations. I think it is important to have as much detail as possible in the liner notes/booklet. You get the artwork on the cover, and there would be an interesting image on the back cover (the one I have used is for test purposes). Maybe the same room and scene from the front cover being cleaned up. The tracklisting would be on the back, with the thirteen tracks divided in the middle over both sides of a vinyl (one for C.D., two for cassette). There would be musician and production details and dates for each song. Having an artist paint pictures or little illustrations for each song gives them this life and personality. I was thinking, as she did such beautiful and interesting paintings for the book, Quantum Criminals: Ramblers, Wild Gamblers, and Other Sole Survivors from the Songs of Steely Dan, Joan LeMay could do some for the album. The whole album would be about art and trying to convey these different scenes. The colours, sights and smells that are contained within the world of the songs…

PHOTO CREDIT: Tayla Walsh/Pexels

Getting back to the album, and the second half would be a mixture of serious subjects and Steely Dan-like losers. There would be a couple of songs that utilise samples. Hipsterlooza is one of the less political and most Steely Dan-esque. Maybe about someone going to a music festival and trying to be cool. Someone who can’t keep track of new music and says things were better in the past. A wider tale of people pretending to be someone they are not or wearing fake clothes. There would be images between new generational branding and music, together with this out of step man who has a faded band T-shirt. It would, I hope, contain a Grateful Dead sample (affectionately placed, and not as a representation of that man’s musical delusions). For Those in the Back Rows is very much about women being overlooked in music. From festival bills being male-heavy to playlists featuring fewer women; older female artists ignored by some statins altogether. The title refers to rows on a festival poster, but also those who are in the back rows of a cinema or boardroom. Grabbing their attention or, if they need to squint to see what is in front of them, then they need to move forward. I hope to be able to use a Kylie Minogue and Madonna sample for this one. Four more tracks before I link it to my points around A.I. I do maintain a couple of things. Album covers have largely lacked real substance or effort. I can appreciate this is a digital age, but it is one where physical albums are as in demand now as they have been for many a year. Even though Steely Dan’s album covers were largely terrible, I have bought albums on the strength of the cover alone. More often than not, the music inside reflects the quality and innovation of the cover.

 PHOTO CREDIT: wayhomestudio/Freepik

Antique Ruby has a few meanings. The title word ‘Ruby’ refers to both the shade of red and Jack Ruby (he murdered Lee Harvey Oswald). There is a lot of Americana and old-skool American references through the album, I know. A murder-mystery song with a vibe of a 1950s setting, but there are multiple meanings. Stuck in the Middle with Me is a generational thing about the narrator trying to understand the younger generation coming through and their references and slang and the older taste and values of his parents and their generation - and not being able to relate to either. It then leads to Control, Alt, Repeat. This is about corrupt and extreme governments taking a hold and then, when the public complaints, they still get re-elected. Not learning from the mistakes of history, an alternative and preferrable option is not taken. Katy’s Switch relates to the journalist and broadcaster Katy Montgomery. A trans woman, she often has to deal with a lot of abuse and hate online. People attacking the trans community. The song has her in mind, but it more about the ignorance displayed against transgender people. A need for people to educate themselves and stop posting such vile and misinformed comments. The album ends with I’ll Get to New York City One Day Soon... It is a gentler song that has, I hope, features a guest vocal by Rachel Brosnahan, and a musical cameo from Donald Fagen. The song has this desire and yearning for New York City. Seeing it portrayed on screen and in literature but never being able to reach it. I am hoping actually that these songs and album become a reality. Having different vocalists and musicians for each song – though many of the same musicians might spread throughout the album -, there will be a role for A.I. Rather than it being used to replicate existing artists and trying to replace them, it can create professional-sounding music at a low cost. Inspired by Steely Dan, getting that incredible sound from a lot of musicians will be costly and timely. A.I. can give access to technology and possibilities that were not previously there.

 PHOTO CREDIT: wirestock/Freepik

I am not a musician or singer, but I have songs and ideas that I want to bring to life. Rather than letting them go to waste, A.I. is a way of being able to layer instruments and build a studio sound from home. It also helps in terms of photography and imagery. Being able to composite a shot that might be costly and difficult for real. Many might ask whether using technology like that through an album that wants to be genuine and old-skool is a contradiction. It has been interesting thinking about an album and every layer of it. I think so many people have that idea of what an album would be like if they set their mind to it. I have talked about Steely Dan enough but, after writing about them a fair bit lately, I have been compelled to think of songs and subjects. Their characters are always so vivid and intriguing. I wanted to do something similar A.I. is not trying to make this ‘lost’ Steely Dan album. Instead, it is giving license and opportunity to a fan of the band. Inspired by them, it would be awesome to see an album come to light. There are not many artists you can really compare to them. Shockingly few who are picking up the Donald Fagen and Walter Becker mantle. When it comes to features about Steely Dan, this is absolutely…

GOING to be the last (for a while!).

FEATURE: Put the Pin Back In: Inside of The Dreaming’s Promotion

FEATURE:

 

 

Put the Pin Back In

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush at a record signing for The Dreaming at Virgin Megastore on Oxford Street in London on 14th September, 1982/PHOTO CREDIT: Getty Images

 

Inside of The Dreaming’s Promotion

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I have already…

used the brilliant Kate Bush chronology, The Garden, for various features. You get these dates and events that are important when it comes to Bush’s career. I am returning to 1982 and the run-up to The Dreaming being released - in addition to promotion in the month or two following it coming out. I will do more general features in the coming weeks, but I am interested in a specific chunk of time that had some interesting events take place. I don’t think many Kate Bush fans realise some of the details behind the albums. There is a lot of standard promotion, but it goes deeper than that. Think about The Dreaming. It was a hard album to record, as it consisted of very long hours and not too much rest. Bush, sole producing for the first time, was really throwing her all into the album! Maybe proving that she was a serious artist, she really put her all into each song. A more dense and complicated listen than previous albums, it was hard for Bush to really sell the album. It got some positive reviews but, in terms of the selling the singles and really trying to get people invested, that was a harder task! Think about August 1982. The Dreaming was a single that I really like, yet it did not chart well. Getting to number forty-eight, BBC Radio 1 gave it no daytime airplay. I am thinking about modern comparisons. In 1982, Radio 1’s playlist would have been very Pop-focused. More accessible than a song like The Dreaming, it must have been gutting for Bush and EMI. The first single from The Dreaming, Sat in Your Lap, was more successful. Perhaps more accessible and relatable, putting out a more unusual second single was a gamble. Bush had to release singles from the album, though you get the sense she would have preferred to put the album out on its own and not really do single promotion. As it was, because the lack of airplay, The Dreaming’s title track struggled.

Even though there was not a great deal of support for The Dreaming, it remains one of Bush’s most interesting tracks. The album itself came out in September 1982. That was quite a busy month. I love looking at the promotional trail of each album. Perhaps less hectic and itinerant than The Kick Inside’s promotional at 1978, there was still quite a bit of to and fro. Bush appeared live at a Radio 1 Roadshow at Covent Garden’s Piazza, where she was interviewed about her album. I cannot find audio of that. It must have been quite a strange time. This denser and more layered album being discussed before an audience (and for a station) that had heard nothing like it. I am not certain how much say Bush had regarding who she spoke to and where she went, but it would have been important to connect with a younger audience. Maybe The Dreaming was ahead of its time in some ways. It must have been quite a strange time. She was speaking with radio stations and explaining her album, yet radio stations were baffled when it came out on 13th September, 1982. The Dreaming asks for a certain degree of patience and time. You could not put it on in the background or skim through it. You sort of get that today. Not many big stations like BBC Radio 1 are going to play songs or albums that are more experimental and layered. They want something that is quick and easy. More instant and less demanding of your intellect and soul, Bush would have been in an odd position. She has made this incredible album, yet she was largely promoting it to stations and places where it was not understood or being played! If there was this dissonance between Bush’s latest album and radio stations, the fans came out in force!

You get albums where the reviews might not be great and there is this rather dismissive attitude. The public’s love and the album’s commercial success contradicts and contrasts that. This was very clear with The Dreaming. It got some love from critics listening hard enough, but it was Bush’s fans that really made it a success. It got to three in the U.K., and it was top thirty in nations like France and Australia. Even if it only reached 157 on the U.S.’s Billboard 200, it still charted. It was a small sign that at least her music was beginning to penetrate there. The follow-up, Hounds of Love, and 1989’s The Sensual World would build on that. To promote The Dreaming, as I have written before, Bush made a personal appearance at the Virgin Megastore in London's Oxford Street. The queue again exceeds a hundred yards in length. Bush’s ardent fans were turning out, keen to have their copy of The Dreaming signed! It must have been heartening, after a couple of shaky or rather fruitless promotional visits, to know that there was love out there. Bush’s fans have always been able to see the beauty and genius of her music. If somewhat older and less informed people in the media gave little time to The Dreaming, there was the admitting fanbase. That, coupled with some reviews that rightly acknowledged the brilliance of The Dreaming, would have given encouragement to EMI. They were a little disappointed the album took so long to finish. In terms of its commercial success, it did not sell massive units, but a top three success cannot be sniffed at! Bush did not promote as far-reaching as with previous albums, but she was hitting the road hard to get the album out there.

After that successful and love-filled signing in London, Bush continued by train to Manchester, using a specially cleared goods car to rehearse for a video for the next single. That must have been the routine for There Goes a Tenner (released in November 1982). It is amazing to picture Bush getting a train to Manchester and, rather than sit and kick back, she used that time to rehearse a video’s choreography! That was not an isolated incident. On more than one occasion I think, she was being driven by van somewhere and would rehearse dance moves and prepare for a video in the back. Use that small space to try and work out a routine! Whilst she was up in Manchester, she appeared on The Old Grey Whistle Test. The video for The Dreaming is shown for the first time on British T.V. That show was probably a better fit for promotion compared to BBC Radio 1. From promoting the album, Bush wanted its eponymous single to do well. She put the graft in discussing and hyping it, but it was a song that was a relative commercial failure. The video was more filmic and less traditional. Most Pop videos rely on quick cuts and tighter angles. The Dreaming relied on wider shots and fewer cuts. It was almost like a film in some ways. Even if it was directed by Paul Henry; you know that Bush had some say and creative control. That was true of Sat in Your Lap too. She would have offered her ideas and wanted the video to be like what she saw in her mind. Following the low chart position of The Dreaming, EMI said to Bush that the next video needs to be simpler and more conventional. It is sad that the brilliant There’s Goes a Tenner and its cool video resulted in chart disaster – the song did not chart at all in the U.K. (well, it was outside of the top 100).

In terms of the stations and T.V. shows she was promoting on/for, it was definitely eclectic! Bush made an appearance on Razzmatazz, performing There Goes a Tenner (which is to be the next single). That was on 21st September. I can only imagine how the children in the audience reacted to a song like There Goes a Tenner! She had been on the show in July 1981 to talk about Sat in Your Lap and how it was made. She bonded with the children and they seemed to hang on every word. Between then and this new appearance, Bush took time out from recording the album to visit Loch Ness. She also visited Abbey Road Studios to celebrate their fiftieth anniversary. I forget that Bush was promoting Sat in Your Lap, yet The Dreaming had not been completed yet. It must have been strange promoting its first single before the whole album was done! Not too many modern artists would do that. Anyway, back to 1982. After her new appearance on Razmataz, she visited Europe. Whilst in Munich, The Dreaming is performed, whereupon she is presented with a Gold Record for German sales of Never for Ever during the same television appearance. How confusing to receive an honour for her previous album whilst promoting her new one! Like albums before, there was not too much chance to decompress. Bush was swiftly off to Milan, where she performs The Dreaming. Maybe there was also a trip to Spain, though this cannot be confirmed. Bush must have needed a holiday at this point! She did holiday in Jamaica in May 1982 as a way of getting some relaxation following such hard work on the album. Unable to relax and enjoy the tranquillity, the oddness of not having noise and the bustle of London sort of messed with her mind! I feel, at this point, Bush was so used to the hectic schedule and busy cities that she was unable to relax or appreciate the quiet.

In October 1982, Bush appeared on the BBC’s Saturday Superstore to be interviewed about the new album. Noel Edmonds chatted with her. It was a nice moment where she could be on home soil. I suppose, like most artists, the label were aiming the music at a younger audience. She did quite a few spots on children’s T.V. Whilst none of Bush’s albums were children-friendly or for that demagogic, she still appeared on those shows and was able to bond and connect with younger fans. Maybe the critics were a bit confused, but whilst she was on the road, there were people turning out. Bush made personal appearances in Glasgow, Newcastle and Birmingham. The Dreaming goes Gold. Keeping that promotional train going, in October 1982, when she was up in Birmingham, Bush records an appearance on the Beeb’s Pebble Mill at One where she was interviewed by Paul Gambaccini about the new album. The interview is screened on 29th October and part of the video for There Goes a Tenner is shown; the only time that this video is aired on British T.V. Gambaccini predicted Sat in Your Lap would be a success, but Bush was not too sure. She was finding it hard to predict how people would react to her singles. If she loved meeting fans and wanted them to listen to the album, you feel her heart was not in doing singles and trying to make songs chart. The Dreaming is a not a singles album. Hounds of Love is much more so. That would have pleased EMI. Bush recorded The Dreaming very much as a single piece of work. Rationing out the songs and expecting them to succeed and resonate out of context would have been a struggle. I am not sure whether there are any unseen photos from that promotional tour in 1982, though the fans would definitely love to see them!

After U.K. airtime, Bush was back in France for more T.V. promotion of the album, where she lip-synched Suspended in Gaffa (it was released as a single in Europe) and did an in-depth interview for French T.V. station France-Inter. By November 1982, with The Dreaming out there and doing well, Bush would have been thinking ahead to Christmas and a chance to relax and celebrate with her family. Never allowed too much time to chill, November 1982 saw her going to Germany where she was promoting like a champ. Again, she gave a lip-synced performance of Suspended in Gaffa (this performance was known as the ‘puppets’ or ‘marionettes’ version). If The Dreaming single did not chart and was ignored for airplay, I think the performances of Suspended in Gaffa helped make it more of a success. Although not a massive top ten success, it did chart in European countries. It is now viewed as one of her best songs. In November 1982, a crop of positive U.S. reviews and an okay chart position, there is buzz there. The Dreaming is pushed by spots on U.S. college radio. Towards the end of the year, airplay begins to pick up. Bush expands her small cult following in the U.S. to attract a wider audience. As I recently wrote, Bush was due to do a promotional tour of the U.S. in 1983 but travel issues meant she stayed in England, where she turned her thoughts to building a home studio for Hounds of Love. I love the fact that there was this small group of fans in the U.S. that were listening to Bush! I can imagine The Dreaming being bought and played in dorms and on campus. This cool English artists that was seen as a bit weird and cool! If the U.S. felt Wuthering Heights was strange back in 1978, four years later, an album as weird and different as that debut single was being embraced – albeit by a cult and minor following.

A few things are apparent when thinking about Bush’s touring towards the middle and end of 1982. Bush had been promoting quite steadily since 1981, so she was putting a lot of effort into ensuring that The Dreaming was talked about and heard. It is clear that EMI wanted the album to be successful and better-reviewed than it was. One cannot call the album a failure in any way. That said, Bush was under great pressure to tour to make up for the lack of obvious single success in the U.K. A tour is seriously considered, although it was never pursued. It is a great tragedy that songs from Never for Ever and The Dreaming have not been staged and joined together! Maybe tired of promotion and feeling it took her away from the studio, she looks ahead to 1983: a year when she will push on with a new album and start work for what was to become her magnus opus, 1985’s Hounds of Love. 1981 and 1982 was full of promotion and recording. It was a hectic time for Bush. 1983 and 1984, whilst busy and packed at times, seemed less tiring in terms of commitment, promotion and travel. I wanted to revisit the promotion for The Dreaming, as there are some fascinating stops and dates. From T.V. and media interviews to the videos for The Dreaming and Sat in Your Lap showing new sides to Kate Bush, it was an interesting time for her. Only twenty-four, Kate Bush has achieved so much. The fact that she produced an album like The Dreaming at that age is testament to her genius and supernatural abilities. Maybe the media were a little cold to the album – aside from some positivity from people who got what she was doing -, but the fans turned out and bought the album. They showed Bush…

SO much love.

FEATURE: Spotlight: Aja Monet

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight


Aja Monet

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FOR this Spotlight…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Fanny Chu

I am looking at the amazing Aja Monet. The New York-born contemporary poet, writer, lyricist, and activist is based in Los Angeles. Having written several books and volumes of poetry, I was fascinated to hear her wonderful debut album, when the poems do what they do. It is not only one of the best debut albums of this year: it ranks alongside the absolute finest albums of the year full stop! Such an immersive and moving experience. I will come to some reviews of that album. First, here is some biography regarding the amazing Aja Monet:

“Born in New York City to parents of Cuban and Jamaican descent and raised in the Brooklyn neighborhood of East New York, Aja Monet Bacquie began writing poems when she was eight or nine years old. While attending Baruch College Campus High School, she performed spoken-word for school talent shows. Around this time, Monet joined Urban Word NYC—a non-profit organization that offers guidance and public platforms to young writers, particularly those of color—and became a part of a community of aspiring urban writers.

At 19, Monet became the youngest winner of Nuyorican Poets Café’s Grand Slam. She later earned her Bachelor of Arts from Sarah Lawrence College and MFA in Creative Writing from the School of the Art Institute in Chicago. Not long after graduation, she published two chapbooks: The Black Unicorn Sings (2010) and Inner-City Cyborgs and Ciphers (2014). Both were later released as e-books. Monet also co-edited and arranged the spoken-word collection Chorus: A Literary Mixtape (2012) with Saul Williams and writer and actress Dufflyn Lammers.

Monet has performed spoken-word in France (she lived, briefly, in Paris), England, Belgium, Bermuda, and Cuba. During her visit to Cuba, Monet connected with her extended family there—relatives from whom her U.S.-based family had become estranged after Monet’s grandmother fled the island. In 2018, Monet released her first full-length poetry collection, My Mother Was a Freedom Fighter, dedicated to women of the Black diaspora and to mothers. The book was nominated for an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work in Poetry.

The collection includes her best-known poem #sayhername, a dedication to the Black female victims of police brutality often overlooked by news media and activists. Inspiration for the poem came after an event at which Monet read a poem that expressed her solidarity with the struggle of Palestinians. Eve Ensler, who was in attendance, invited Monet to contribute a poem to the #SayHerName vigil. Monet joined Ensler, legal scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw, and others on May 20, 2015 in New York’s Union Square to remember Black women and girls murdered by police.

Monet, who lives in Little Haiti, Miami, co-founded Smoke Signals Studio in Miami—an arts collective dedicated to music, art, and community organizing. She also manages the poetry workshop Voices: Poetry for the People and organized its first annual Maroon Poetry Festival in the Liberty City section of Miami.

In 2018, Monet was a speaker at TEDWomen, where she appeared alongside Georgia legislator Stacey Abrams and Children’s Defense Fund founder Marian Wright Edelman. Monet has expressed admiration for the work of fellow Black women poets June Jordan, Jayne Cortez, Carolyn Rodgers, Wanda Coleman, Audre Lorde, and Phillis Wheatley”.

I am going to come to The Creative Independent’s interview with Aja Monet back in January. Ahead of the release of when the poems do what they do, they discussed finding language in what you've lived, art as a form of service, the oral tradition as a way to live forever, and being drawn to wordlessness:

“When did you first realize that words could make a powerful impact?

My grandmother, she’s a santera but I gravitated towards the church because I knew that there was something deeply spiritual about the way I saw the world as a young girl. I was always into other realms and curious about magic, and the power of the spirit. And prayer was a really big thing for me. So, I would say my first real relationship to understanding the power of language was really in relationship to the church. And maybe not so much the church, but at least the Bible, “In the beginning was the Word.” And growing up in New York, understanding that your word is your bond. That used to be the slogan of the time, “Word is bond.” All those things were a part of my upbringing.

Culturally, as a Black woman in the world, your word has always had weight in terms of one’s capacity to tell the truth. Standing by what words you offer and also, the ability of words to offer new ideas or to speak goodness over someone, to transform and heal. I knew that prayer was a big part of spell casting and magic making, and if one prayed powerfully enough… I grew up in churches where the women who prayed could change the course of one’s life with the power of the words that they spoke over you. So, I was always aware that language and the marriage of voice and intent and vibration, that all of those things went hand in hand. They were never separate. That’s been my orientation in the world and it’s followed me everywhere. It’s a big part of why I can’t see language as just something that belongs on the page. It is alive, a breathing thing. That’s a bit of where my relationship to the power of language comes from.

Storytelling keeps the fabric of the inter-generational continuum together. It sounds like you were an early deep-listener, which is not something everyone is good at but it’s very powerful. What do you tap into and access from past generations to bring forward into the next?

I learned how to listen very young, realizing that part of learning from life was to look at those who’ve come before and just being intrigued by that. It was like every elder I met, they were always reflecting and had a way of being like, “Be as present as you can. You better make the most of life because you never know.”

Black folks, I think we’ve always had a relationship to our mortality. This isn’t to be judgmental, but I do think there’s more propaganda around whiteness and western society being fascinated with immortality in the stories and traditions. And I think from my history as African and Black tradition, we eat death for breakfast on Tuesday. I have a line in one of my poems, “Death is a cousin, or a family member you didn’t know until you meet.” And so, I think it’s just one of those things that, for me, when you talk about your elders and when you talk about listening to your elders, I think it’s about having a sense of humility and grace that there are those who have come before us who have endured and suffered and dreamed and imagined and loved and thought us up. And so, it is our obligation to be in service to that. To learn whatever there is to know so that we can take those things and create something else, and imagine and dream something else up, but informed by our relationship to our ancestors, our genetic memory, and the legacy that we follow in. Time is not linear, but it’s a way of being, an all-encompassing approach to one’s breath and life and existence. I listen to my ancestors when I write and I look forward to the day I can be that sort of elder for someone else.

There’s a beautiful line in one of your pieces, “I know I don’t like money. I only want it to buy mangoes, and cinnamon, and rice, and water, and a place to live, and bathe, and love, and raise growing things.” Challenging times reinforce the truth that community is more important than money and by fortifying a community means that when you really need it, it can really be there powerfully. How important is the coexistence of a social practice with your artistic practice?

I’m a part of the many voices in the air, I’m a reflection. I’m introspective about that often. I also have to be honest with where my limitations are. What are the things that I struggle with, as a person who’s been culturally shaped by this society? I have to talk about and question my individual wants. Some of it is superficial, “I might want to decorate my room this way, so let me get this cool fabric.” And that might seem not important, but those are the things that the artist in me gravitates towards, the ways to beautify spaces around me, and to believe that the pursuit of beauty is valuable and worthy, especially in the time of revolution and uprising, has always been my struggle. To believe that I am worthy of beauty, even as I suffer the ugly around me, has been part of my journey in this time. And to organize around that beauty, to believe that it is worth fighting for has been a big thing. I don’t believe in art for art’s sake in some ways, but I do believe in creative freedom and artistic freedom”.

Before getting to reviews for the mesmeric when the poems do what they do, I have another interview I am keen to include. The New York Times spoke with Aja Monet earlier this month. It is always fascinating reading about and learning from this wonderful poet, writer, musician, and activist. She is someone that everyone should know about:

“Monet grew up in East New York in Brooklyn and started writing poetry when she was 8 because she was “fascinated by typewriters and people who would sit at typewriters,” she said. “The first thing I ever asked my mother for Christmas was a typewriter,” she added, recalling an early interest in “stories and storytelling, and the ways that people tell stories.”

An English teacher at Baruch College Campus High School in Manhattan was an early inspiration. “She would read and recite one foot from one desk to the next, and give us encouragement to really see what was happening in the language and what was going on in the stories,” Monet said.

At home, she listened to a different kind of poetry: the R&B singers Sade, Whitney Houston and Mary J. Blige, and the rapper Tupac Shakur. She knew they were each saying something profound, even if she couldn’t fully process what it was yet. When she won the school talent show with a poem, “I just remember all my teachers in tears in the front.”

Monet didn’t find much community for burgeoning poets like herself, though, so she created her own club: SABA, or Students Acknowledging Black Achievements, a space where others at her high school “with the weird obsession of poetry and art” could convene. After a classmate encouraged her to check out Urban Word NYC, a program that teaches creative writing to minority students, she attended her first poetry slam there and was hooked.

PHOTO CREDIT: Tyrone Delaney for The New York Times 

“To this day it’s probably one of the most pivotal memories in my life,” Monet said. “Because it was the beginning of me being introduced to a whole world, legacy and tradition that I now found myself called to. It deeply felt like a home that I had been waiting to return to.”

The poet Mahogany L. Browne remembered a 15-year-old Monet at Urban Word. “From that moment, I could see the power of her purpose,” Browne said in a telephone interview. She invited Monet to a poetry workshop at a group home for pregnant teens in Manhattan’s Inwood neighborhood, which opened the young writer’s eyes to what poetry and community activism could accomplish. Later, as a freshman at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, N.Y., Monet organized a poetry potluck to aid those affected by Hurricane Katrina.

“I just remember feeling so powerless, away from the community of poets that I knew understood what that meant and what it felt like,” Monet recalled of her response to the storm. “It was just jarring to see Black people being killed literally by neglect of this country.”

Those themes and concerns stayed with her, and inform “When the Poems Do What They Do.” The album blends poetry Monet has written over the years with vigorous live instrumentation. “The Devil You Know” pairs dark, psychedelic jazz with searing observations about America, and “Yemaya” centers upbeat, polyrhythmic percussion with words about the cleansing power of water”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Tyrone Delaney for The New York Times 

There are a couple of reviews for when the poems do what they do. It has received so much praise and love from critics. I am hopeful that as many people as possible listen to this phenomenal album! I know that Aja Monet has many more releases to come. NPR had their say regarding one of the most astonishing releases of 2023 so far:

“In Black American folklore, music and poetry share the same soul. The poets of the Black Arts movement, particularly Sonia Sanchez, Nikki Giovanni, Audre Lorde and Amiri Baraka, were in touch with jazz as if it were of the same coterie, and they opened the door for the more music-driven spoken-word artists of the 1970s — Gil Scott-Heron, The Last Poets and The Watts Prophets, jazzmen who inspired hip-hop. All understood that poems not only could be music, but had an inherent musicality: that performance merely brought its natural rhythm and voice to the ear, and that poetry could "lift the veil," as Percy Bysshe Shelley put it, and see clearly when music couldn't.

The blues poet and activist Aja Monet is careful about upholding that tradition. In 2021, as the co-founder of the Smoke Signals collective, she released The FREE Tape, a hip-hop-forward, self-described "soundtrack for liberation" made in conjunction with the group's many singers, poets and multi-instrumentalists. Her 2020 poetry collection, entitled My Mother was a Freedom Fighter, is full of lessons on the continuum of activism, one that, for Monet, extends to her great grandmother. It is also full of verses about language and speaking as song, and its pages include a revision of Jay-Z and Kanye's "N****s in Paris" and a plea to recognize all the women who have been muses to songwriters in album credits. On the poem "my parents used to do the hustle," Monet writes, "i gravitated toward turntables and cyphers / disco and latin freestyle / watchin over / enveloped in the cool / jazz of their joy." Her performances carry all of that motion in them — the instincts of cypher and freestyle.

Monet's wondrous debut album, when the poems do what they do, is actively thinking about performative poetry's purpose, and her place in the continuity. Among many other things, on opener "I Am," she is the djembe drum; the gardenia in Billie Holiday's hair; a Bob Marley dreadlock; Marcus Garvey's last microphone. But, most importantly, she is a reflection of community: "I'm only possible because we are," she exclaims. This is not the first time her poetry has been staged with music, but it is her first recording, the first time she has felt like part of an ensemble and the first time her poems feel like songs. Here, she is not only a bard but a bandleader, one tapping the smoothness and urgency of soul to deliver restorative messages at a time when they're much needed.

Gorgeously meditative and potently groovy, when the poems do what they do brings many of Monet's most deeply considered ideas into perfect focus, executing thoughts about solidarity in the process. Produced alongside Chief Adjuah (Christian Scott), with Marcus Gilmore on drums, Elena Pinderhughes on flute and Samora Pinderhughes on piano, the album's arrangements range from soft-simmering jazz ("why my love?") to ambient boogie ("for sonia") to blues epics ("yemaya"). Monet, for her part, is responsive to the band's internal tension. Her performances can be fiercely lyrical or gently intoned; dictating flow or wading into the current. Her voice is a balm and barb, both soothing and piercing, but definitive. Songs build around her climactic execution, yet she also knows precisely when to let the music breathe and speak for itself”.

The final piece I am bringing in is from Pitchfork. They mentioned her volumes of poetry and incredible background. Backed by some phenomenal Jazz musicians, they showed love and respect for the Brooklyn poet’s debut album – one, as they say, possesses a profound and forceful clarity. It is clear that Aja Monet is going to get a lot more attention and eyes trained her way. One of the world’s most astonishing and inspiring wordsmiths:

“In her previous collections, such as My Mother Was a Freedom Fighter and The Black Unicorn Sings, Monet explored themes of childhood, race, and the rhythms of New York City with a rare gentleness and precise eye. Her new record expands upon these subjects, taking us through storm-battered homes and jump rope competitions as she explores Black joy and the blight of capitalism. The unhurried and gentle arrangements that accompany her words—provided by Grammy-winning trumpeter Chief Xian aTunde Adjuah, drummer Marcus Gilmore, and other acclaimed musicians—only add to the gravitas and wonder.

On opening track “I Am,” tapped rhythms land like errant raindrops on a windowpane; Monet begins describing herself in all her contradictions and complexities, painting herself as, simultaneously, “a kiss that quivers, a machete that bleeds … a brown liquor flirt.” The drumming then ramps up to a crescendo, loud and erratic like a  stampede as she pivots to recognize the role others have played in her life. When Monet cries, “I am because of you, we are here together, there’s no me without you” at the end of the song, the percussion sounds like a chorus of affirmation.

When Monet speaks her work aloud alongside curls of percussion and jazzy instrumentation, she creates a unique kind of musical intimacy. “Weathering” begins with a long, languid jazz intro consisting mainly of a muted trumpet over brushed drums and piano. It’s slow and sensual, underscoring Monet’s rapturous lyrics about a lover who “kisses wounds and sets free tornadoes down my spine.” While she frequently invokes the grandeur of the natural world in her writing, she can also inhabit a more colloquial mode; on “Why My Love,” Monet describes an affection for her community that is “Indigenous, ocean-wide, sky-deep” and then “ass-whooping, accountable.” An airy flute flies gracefully overhead, serving as a reminder of the lightness love can provide even in times of darkness.

The record’s highlight is “Black Joy,” which tenderly describes the beauty and vibrancy of Monet’s locale, even when it’s struggling with violence. She notices “twerks and taps, jooks and jives, Harlem shakes, electric slides” as well as neighbors rocking on their porch and barbecuing in their backyards. In the background, there is the echo of street chatter: faint sounds of laughter, a “whoop!” When Monet states that “joy is righteous and ratchet,” we don’t have to wonder what she means; instead we experience it along with her. Here is a glimpse into her desires, fears, and dreams, offered with unflinching honesty”.

Go and investigate the fabulous Aja Monet. I would recommend you seek her poetry out. But, when you get a free moment, go and listen to when the poems do what they do. This is someone that you need in your life! I have my fingers crossed she tours and performs in the U.K. at some point this year – as there are many here that would love to meet her. I have been blown away by Monet and her phenomenal work! She is someone who always produces…

THE most profound and thought-provoking work.

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Follow Aja Monet

FEATURE: Kept Yourself Alive: Queen’s Remarkable Eponymous Debut at Fifty

FEATURE:

 

 

Kept Yourself Alive

Queen’s Remarkable Eponymous Debut at Fifty

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A top 40 success…

when it was released in 1973, I wanted to look ahead to the fiftieth anniversary of the eponymous debut album by Queen. The mighty Queen was released on 13th July, 1973 through EMI Records in the U.K. and by Elektra Records in the U.S. It was recorded at Trident Studios and De Lane Lea Music Centre, London, with production by Roy Thomas Baker, John Anthony and the band. Even though few would place Queen’s eponymous album in their top three, I think that it is hugely important. As it is coming up for fifty, it is worth spotlighting it. Inspired by Metal and Heavy Rock, I often think of Queen’s debut in terms of .Led Zeppelin. There are comparisons. Zep were discussing folklore, mythical things and love on the same album. Robert Plant has a similar charisma to Freddie Mercury. And I guess one could compare the guitar skills of Jimmy Page and Queen’s Brian May. Although, by 1973, Led Zeppelin were a big success and had released one of their greatest albums (Led Zeppelin IV/Four Symbols, 1971) and actually put out Houses of the Holy months before Queen’s debut arrived, you could make some comparisons. It is best to judge Queen on their originality and individuality, as they arrived with a distinct swagger and brilliance! No band lead like Freddie Mercury had existed before 1973 – and there has not been one since. That rare blend of pantomime, opera, sexuality and playfulness. It would come to full fruition on subsequent albums, though it was pretty evident through Queen’s `1973 eponymous debut. I want to come to a couple of features regarding Queen. One is a retrospective piece, whilst the latter is a review.

Even though it got into the top 40, I guess many might consider Queen to be a relatively minor album. Certainly, not all critics were on board. Five of the ten tracks were written by Freddie Mercury; Brian May wrote four songs; drummer Roger Taylor both wrote and sang Modern Times Rock and Roll. Keep Yourself Alive is one of Queen’s most impressive and memorable opening tracks. I think that those who have scored the album low or sold it short need to have another listen! This feature from last year looked back on one of music’s most important debuts:

“Friday the 13th of July was a lucky day for fans of Queen. That morning their eponymous debut album was released. In the evening they performed a brilliant concert at Queen Mary College in Basingstoke, the first date of a short tour that would culminate in a brace of shows at a happy hunting ground, London’s Imperial College, before embarking on a prestigious Mott the Hoople support slot.

But if Queen’s star was about to rise only the cognoscenti would have heard of them at this juncture. Brian May, Roger Taylor, and Freddie Mercury – born Farrokh Bulsara – had road-tested their act in an earlier incarnation called Smile with mutual friend Tim Staffell. Older than the others he had the distinction of being in a blues-rock group named 1984 that supported Jimi Hendrix and Pink Floyd. When Tim left to pursue different ventures, Brian, Freddie, and Roger persisted as a trio with May bringing his guitar influences to the table.

May, an ardent fan of the Jeff Beck Group, Cream,  and Hendrix of course, Brian’s thickly textured, heavily syrupy guitar riffs and colors would fire the early Queen, as Mercury had since named them – for all the word’s flamboyant connotations – into similar realms of hard rock and British heavy metal, though that term was not in wide circulation yet. Those who saw Queen during 1972 likened their sound to Led Zeppelin, praising the crunchy attack May gave them while the rhythm section of drummer Roger and the recently recruited bassist John Deacon, younger than his mates, laid down a box-tight backing.

Freddie was something else again. A natural showman who was increasing in confidence as the months to the album’s release date raced by, his interest in multi-media rock was also somewhat inspired by having attended David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust spectacular a year earlier at Friar’s club, Aylesbury. Roger and his Mini drove the pair to the Buckinghamshire market town. The drummer recalled: “We loved it. I’d seen him there about three weeks before in the long hair and the dress. Suddenly you saw this spiky figure coming on stage. You thought, wha-a-at? Ziggy and the Spiders From Mars looked like spacemen.”

Ignoring that backhanded advice Queen rehearsed like mad and made demos in De Lane Lea Studios, in Dean Street, Soho. Four of these, “Keep Yourself Alive,” “Great King Rat,” “Jesus” and “Liar” would be remodeled for the album proper. While they enjoyed De Lane Lea’s state-of-the-art equipment (designed to provide music for TV and movies) the room wasn’t ideally set up for rock music and so it was only a short hop to Trident Studios for work in earnest.

At this point, Queen were signed to Trident’s Neptune Productions, set up Roy Thomas Baker, the man who would produce them in the years ahead. Also on hand was John Anthony, the other half of Neptune, and fresh from ground-breaking work with Genesis and Roxy Music, two more of the unusual outfits flourishing in this fascinating era. These highly gifted technicians suited Queen’s modus operandi but since finances were still tight at this stage the first album was recorded in fits and starts on what bands call downtime – not ideal but needs must. At least they made full use of Trident’s 8-and-16-track facilities, bouncing the parts for extra atmosphere.

Looking back on the album the members will have opinions colored by hindsight – drums could sound better here, the guitars should have been more orchestrated there, and so on.

It doesn’t matter because the record that was released by EMI after many others had turned it away will prove to be an important, auspicious and vital entry – Queen’s firstborn now sounding like a landmark.

Consider the evidence: the opening “Keep Yourself Alive,” composed by May, had an ironic meaning in his mind but once Freddie sank his teeth into the lyrics the whole dynamic changed with band collaboration to the fore, switching the structure so that May and Roger sang the bridge to add a counterpart. It is certainly a quite startling and brilliant beginning that throws Queen’s gauntlet down and dares you not to pick it “Doing All Right” was a May and Staffell number from Smile days. Now newly envisaged the music fuses acoustic and metal guitars, Brian’s piano part (though Freddie did the honors live) using Trident’s famous instrument, and the unique in-house sound found on St. Anne’s Court.

Brian’s “The Night Comes Down” is a lovely introspective slice of nostalgia and personal commentary that references his love for The Beatles in an allusion to John Lennon’s “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds.” In this instance, Queen retained most of the De Lane Lea mix, though Taylor gave his drums a bigger kick. His own “Modern Times Rock ‘n’ Roll” is a fine addition to the debut, a short old-school romp with John Anthony joining in the fun on backing vocals. By way of contrast May’s “Son and Daughter” stretches out the ensemble playing with a bluesy, psych metal twist.

The acid rock-styled “Jesus,” ostensibly a straightforward and descriptive view of Christ healing the sick, may also have been written by Freddie with Bowie’s words and imagery from “Ziggy Stardust” and “Five Years” still resonating. Whatever, Jesus is also referenced in “Great King Rat.” An outtake from this album called “Mad the Swine” also deals with a character making his second coming. These were intriguing times.

Queen reaches its finale with the short instrumental “Seven Seas of Rhye” of which we will hear more later on. Running at only one minute 10 seconds it certainly left the listener desperate for more; there was nothing left to do but turn the album over and hit play again.

Placed in context Queen’s debut is one of the great albums of 1973, a year that also saw the release of Steely Dan’s Countdown To Ecstasy, George Harrison’s Living In The Material World, Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon, Led Zep’s Houses of the Holy and Bowie’s Aladdin Sane – all albums that make a nonsense of the concept that rock music was moribund and self-indulgent.

Queen were certainly not operating in any comfort zone. They display élan and hungry ambition here and once they take the songs out on the road, either under their own steam or with Mott the Hoople, the fan base will suddenly grow exponentially while a vibrant music press takes due note of a new and potentially world-beating phenomenon.

The band members were typically self-effacing about the record. A few weeks after release May told Guitar Magazine: “I’m quite pleased with it. But it’s been such a long time – the band’s been together for three years and most of the songs were written about three years ago. We just feel that, as a band, we’ve gone past what’s on the album. We put it down in order to progress to different things.

“We like some of the stuff on it, but we sometimes fell into the trap of over-arrangement. You know, the songs changed over the years and some of them probably evolved too much. You can get so far into something that you forget what the song originally was. On a personal level, it was frustrating for me to take so long to get to this point. I wanted to record things with, for instance, tape echoes and multiple guitars five years ago. Now I’ve finally done it, but in the meantime so have other people! Which is a bit disappointing. But you have to get away from the idea that playing music is a competition. You should just keep on doing what you think is an interesting thing to do.”

Indeed you should and Queen would. A month after their debut was released they went straight back to Trident to commence work on Queen II”.

I am going to round up with one of the most positive reviews for Queen, Written in 1973 for Rolling Stone, Gordon Fletcher was powerless to resist the wonder, strangeness, power and unique world that Queen created! The band are all awesome but, in Freddie Mercury, we had this genius whose voice was like nobody else’s. No wonder that so many people were blown away:

“RUMOR HAS IT that Queen shall soon be crowned “the new Led Zeppelin,” which is an event that would certainly suit this observer just fine. There’s no doubt that this funky, energetic English quartet has all the tools they’ll need to lay claim to the Zep’s abdicated heavy-metal throne, and beyond that to become a truly influential force in the rock world. Their debut album is superb.

The Zeppelin analogy is not meant to imply that Queen’s music is anywhere near as blues-based as the content of Led Zep I & II. No, their songs are more in the Who vein, straight-ahead rock with slashing, hard-driving arrangements that rate with the finest moments of Who’s Next and Quadrophenia. Yet there’s a certain level of intelligence with which the show is presented, a structured sanity that coexists alongside the maniacal fury that gives me the impression that the band must have had a lot of Yessongs on their turntables in the three years this album was taking shape.

“Great King Rat” and “Doing All Right” are most indicative of the intricacy of Queen’s product, each a lengthy piece composed of several vignettes. The contrasting moods of the latter are stark, at opposite moments calm and thunderous, summoning up memories of a thing called “Babe I’m Gonna Leave You.” The group does direct, three-chord rock just as well, though, with “Keep Yourself Alive” displaying a truly awesome move for the jugular.

 

Personnel: Brian May plays guitar, and if it seems as though he really knows the ins and outs of his instrument it’s for good reason. He made it himself, from wood he found in a 100-year-old fireplace, a bizarre creation with rollers where you’d normally expect to find a nut. And where you’d normally expect to find holes in a three-piece band’s sound you’ll instead find May making excellent use of his instrument’s electrical attributes. A master of fuzz, wah and sustain, his solos are persistent, hard-hitting and to the point.

Vocalist Freddie Mercury has a strong, steady voice that never lacks for power and authority. Through the storms of “Liar” to the artsy, choir-boy innocence of “My Fairy King” he handles a wide range of vocal chores, never once losing his air of cocky, regal arrogance.

Let’s just say that the product of drummer Roger Meddows Taylor and bassist Deacon John is explosive, a colossal sonic volcano whose eruption maketh the earth tremble.

There’s a song on the album (remarkably reminiscent of “Communication Breakdown”) called “Modern Times Rock ‘N’ Roll,” and that’s exactly what Queen’s music is. They’re the first of a whole new wave of English rockers, and you’d best learn to love ’em now ’cause they’re here to stay. Regal bearings aside, Queen is a monster”.

On 13th July, Queen’s wonderful debut album turns fifty. It is one of those albums many might compare unfavourably to the classics from the band, but I would pout it right up there. Even if the songs on the album had been written years before and played a lot, they come alive and sound fresh on 1973’s Queen. I would urge everyone to listen to this magnificent album before it celebrates its…

FIFTIETH anniversary.

FEATURE: The Digital Mixtape: Queen Róisín Murphy at Fifty: Her Greatest Solo Cuts

FEATURE:

 

 

The Digital Mixtape

PHOTO CREDIT: Nik Pate

 

Queen Róisín Murphy at Fifty: Her Greatest Solo Cuts

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IN addition to her sixth studio album…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Ninja Tune

coming out on 8th September, there is something else I wanted to celebrate before then. Actually, you can pre-order Róisín Murphy’s Hit Parade. I think that it is going to be one of the albums of the year (its cover is definitely up there with the best of them!). On 5th July, Murphy celebrates his fiftieth birthday! I wanted to use it as an excuse to collate some of her very best solo tracks and deeper cuts. Before getting there, I want to bring in some biography from AllMusic:

“A purveyor of adventurous, omnivorous pop, Róisín Murphy makes influences as far-flung as disco and hot jazz her own. As a solo artist, she builds on the eclectic style she forged as Moloko's frontwoman in increasingly confident and distinctive ways. Even given her pedigree, 2005's Ruby Blue was unexpected, fusing found sounds, vintage vocal pop, funk, and more in its equally eccentric and catchy songs. On 2007's Overpowered, she streamlined her music into something approaching mainstream pop, yet still bearing her signature idiosyncratic style. Her singles and EPs, such as 2012's "Simulation," 2014's Italian-language EP Mi Senti, and her 2018 collaborations with Maurice Fulton, are just as vital to her body of work as albums like 2015's Mercury Prize-nominated Hairless Toys, which found room for touches of house, glam rock, and country within its sophisticated blend. With 2020's pulsing Róisín Machine, she continues to blaze a trail as a one-of-a-kind talent.

Born in Dublin, Murphy moved from Ireland to Manchester, England with her family when she was 12, and remained there even after her parents returned to Dublin four years later. On her own at 16, she joined a post-punk band with some schoolmates, then moved to Sheffield and became involved in the city's club scene. In 1994, she formed the eclectic electronic pop duo Moloko with producer Mark Brydon, whom she met at a party. The combination of her theatrical vocals -- which were inspired by Grace Jones, Siouxsie Sioux, and Björk -- and his stylish, playful production work won acclaim for albums spanning 1995's Do You Like My Tight Sweater? to 2002's Statues. They also scored several hits, including "Fun for Me," "Sing It Back," and "The Time Is Now." During this time, Murphy also worked with other artists such as producer Boris Dlugosch, whose 2001 single with Murphy, "Never Enough," was an international hit. By the time of Statues' release, Murphy and Brydon's personal and professional relationships were strained, and Moloko called it a day after completing the tour supporting that album.

To start her official solo career, Murphy moved to London and collaborated with forward-thinking electronic producer Matthew Herbert, who had previously worked on a remix of "Sing It Back" with Moloko. He encouraged Murphy to bring typically non-musical items like notebooks into the studio and use them in musical ways; the results were first released as three limited-edition vinyl EPs, Sequins #1, Sequins #2, and Sequins #3. then as the album Ruby Blue. Arriving in June 2005 on Moloko's former label Echo, the album drew inspiration from the funky experimentalism of Outkast's Speakerboxxx/The Love Below, early 20th century vocal jazz, and the everyday sounds that surrounded Murphy. Ruby Blue peaked at number 88 on the U.K. Albums chart. Following its 2006 release in the U.S., songs from it were featured on popular television shows like Grey's Anatomy and So You Think You Can Dance. That year, Murphy signed to EMI and began work on her second solo album, recording in studios in Miami, London, and Barcelona with members of Bugz in the Attic and Groove Armada. A smoother and more pop-oriented work than Murphy's debut, October 2007's Overpowered reached number 20 on the U.K. Albums chart and spawned the singles "Let Me Know" and "You Know Me Better." The album was also shortlisted for Ireland's Choice Music Prize.

During the late 2000s and early 2010s, Murphy issued a string of singles, EPs, and collaborations, starting with a 2008 cover of Bryan Ferry's "Slave to Love" for a Gucci advertising campaign. The following year, she issued 2009's garage-house single "Demon Lover" (which was released the same day Murphy announced she was pregnant with her first child) and "Orally Fixated," another collaboration with Bugz in the Attic's Seiji. January 2010 saw the release of "Momma's Place," and guest appearances on Crookers' album Tons of Friends and David Byrne and Fatboy Slim's collaboration Here Lies Love, which followed later in the year. In 2011, she worked with the Dutch DJ Mason, singer/actor Tony Christie, and the Feeling. She returned in 2012 with a trio of singles: the David Morales-produced "Golden Era" in May, the sleekly disco-tinged "Simulation" in August, and "Flash of Light," a collaboration with Luca C & Brigante, in October. Over the next two years, she worked with producers including Boris Dlugosch, Hot Natured, and Freeform, and also released the EP Mi Senti, a collection of Italian-language songs inspired by singers such as Mina. Late in 2014, "Invisions" -- another collaboration with Luca C & Brigante -- arrived.

Early in 2015, the single "Gone Fishing" heralded Murphy's first full-length in eight years. Hairless Toys was a more personal set of songs sparked by sources including Paris Is Burning, the 1990 documentary of New York City's ball culture and the African-American, Latino, gay, and transgender people who created it. Reaching number 19 on the U.K. Albums Chart, the album was nominated for the Mercury Prize as well as Ireland's Choice Music Prize, and was certified silver in 2016 for sales of more than 20,000 copies in Europe. That July, Murphy released her fourth album Take Her Up to Monto. Recorded with longtime collaborator Eddie Stevens during the Hairless Toys sessions, it was a livelier, more wide-ranging set of songs that peaked at number 41 on the U.K. Albums Chart and number eight on Billboard's Top Dance/Electronic Albums Chart. Shortly after the album's release, Murphy staged a show at London's famed Globe Theatre.

Murphy returned in 2018 with a series of 12" double A-side singles produced by vaunted house producer Maurice Fulton. The following year, she issued the single "Incapable," the first peek at October 2020's full-length Róisín Machine, a collaboration with Crooked Man's Richard Barratt. Along with the pair's 2012 single "Simulation," the album also featured freshly recorded tracks of hypnotic disco-house. The following April, Barratt's reinterpretations of the Róisín Machine tracks arrived as Crooked Machine”.

In order to properly salute Róisín Murphy ahead of her fiftieth birthday on 5th July, I have compiled an ultimate playlist. Her absolute best solo tracks, sprinkled in with some deeper cuts that are worth listening to. One of our very best artists and live performers, queen Róisín Murphy is someone who no doubt is inspiring so many other artists (among them Jessie Ware and VV Brown). Take a listen below to this musical…

SOLID gold.

FEATURE: A Call to the World: Inside the Revolutionary and Incredible WIMIN Festival

FEATURE:

 

 

A Call to the World

IMAGE CREDIT: WIMIN Festival

 

Inside the Revolutionary and Incredible WIMIN Festival

_________

AFTER hearing…

IN THIS PHOTO: Katy J. Pearson

Anna Grace Du Noyer and Katy J. Pearson talk to Chris Hawkins on BBC Radio 6 Music (1:36.25 on) about the extraordinary WIMIN Festival, I was compelled to write about it. Thanks to this website, here are the details about the incredible festival. One that everyone needs to be aware of – at a time when so many festivals are overlooking women and not booking female headliners:

“WIMIN Festival is a groundbreaking event in Bootle, Liverpool and managed by Scrapyard Studios CIC. The festival aims to foster talent and creativity of women in the music industry. The festival is set to make history with an all-female led lineup of performers and a female-crewed production team.

About Scrapyard Studios CIC

Scrapyard Studios CIC is a not-for-profit organisation based in Bootle that offers year-round inclusive workshops and activities for artists and creatives of all genders in the local community. With a commitment to addressing the challenges women face in the events industry, Scrapyard Studios strives to create a supportive and safe environment for female professionals in Liverpool's music scene.

“The UK music scene is set to experience a seismic shift this summer. In response to the industry's gender disparities, WIMIN Festival unveils the first wave of a pioneering female lineup. Headlined by unforgettable pop performer Katy J. Pearson, who is revered for her songs that slide effortlessly between lovelorn country, glittering pop, and lo-fi folk". The festival - described as a movement - with an all-female production crew and - is managed by Scrapyard Studios CIC, a Bootle-based non-profit, working with a skilled team of partners across Merseyside and beyond to deliver WIMIN Festival to music-lovers of all genders, on Saturday 29th July when the extensive ground of the Lock and Quay, Bootle will be transformed into a 3-stage festival site.

Now on sale for with discounts for teens and bundles, tickets are expected to be snapped up fast, following this first-wave announcement so music fans are encouraged to act quickly to secure a ticket before prices rise following the next wave announcement.

Leading the parade of talent from the main stage, festival goers will get to experience Katy’s singles Talk Over Town and Alligator, taken from her album Sound of the Morning described as “captivating” by The Guardian and “a sweet elixir” by NME. No stranger to the festival scene, Katy played the main-stage at Green Man 2022 as well as appearing at Latitude, Deer Shed and Blue Dot. The star’s presence at this grass-roots festival highlights the magnitude of feeling around gender inequality in music.

Adding to the event’s potent blend of talent is Manchester's indie-pop prodigy, rising star Abbie Ozard, bringing a uniquely compelling sound to the stage, off the back of her recent UK tour. Having gained recognition through her singles "Growing Pains", "Heartbreak Radio" and "On A Low", Abbie Ozard is known for her emotional depth and lyrical finesse. Her emotionally-driven tracks have resonated with fans and critics alike, earning her extensive radio play on stations such as BBC 6 Music.
Fans will also be treated to a fusion of sonic grunge and DIY punk from London-based band A VOID. Known for their raw energy and boundary breaking live performances, a testament to the band's commitment to challenging the status quo. Embracing non-conformity and progression, this band epitomises the spirit of this maverick music festival and movement, WIMIN Festival.

WIMIN Festival is much more than a celebration of music; it's a determined stride towards an industry that truly values and promotes its female artists such as Brighton's intriguing dream-pop outfit hanya - another stellar addition to the WIMIN Festival line-up. The band bring a tonne of energy to their live performances - with a distinct sound drawing comparisons to acts like Beach House and Warpaint. The art-rock trio will impress revellers with their innovative blend of genres that has been described as ‘all consuming and addictive’.

Organised entirely by female talent - from management, marketing, production teams, and artists - the festival represents more than a gathering of talent. WIMIN Festival is a statement of intent and action, making a stand against inequality while nurturing new talent and championing skill and creativity.

The festival promises a lot of bang for your buck. Beyond the impressive line up of musical performances, across 3 stages, ticket-holders will benefit from industry-expert-led panels, wellbeing and practical workshops, delicious drinks and food and a mini-market to buy from female-founded local businesses in The Garden.

IN THIS PHOTO: WIMIN Festival’s Director Holly Tulloch

"We have an incredible line-up of trailblazing female artists leading the charge for the first WIMIN Festival - with loads more to come. We are so excited to be working together to forge a more equitable music scene for women,” said Holly Tulloch, Director of Scrapyard Studios CIC.
The festival is a direct response to the needs expressed by the women who work and create in the music scene as revealed in the results of Scrapyard Studios 2022 Women in Music survey. Shockingly - or perhaps not so - 64% of women who responded said they feel unsafe in Liverpool's music venues and 88% sought better career opportunities, marking WIMIN Festival much-needed beacon of progress - as well as an incredible, family-friendly day out this Summer.

With the impressive first-wave also including Hushtones, Liverpool's sparkling indie-pop 5 piece, Mica Sefia who melds neo-soul and rock influences, SOFT LAD, a multi-instrumentalist turned pop songstress, Lazygirl, an emerging pop artist with infectious tunes, Seagoth with their ethereal indie rock soundscapes, Americana/Folk-Rock band Motel Sundown, introspective and melodic performer nil00, dynamic pop artist Micayl, and Liverpool's own dream-pop singer/songwriter, Niki Kand - WIMIN Festival is set to be the event of the Summer is one not to be missed.

With anticipation building and further artist announcements in the pipeline, the tickets are on sale now, including discounts for teens and bundles, but are set to increase soon, so secure your spot now”.

 IN THIS PHOTO: Anna Grace Du Noye

You can book your ticket here. Anna Grace Du Noyer at Fierce PR is a great contact. If you want to follow them on social media:

Instagram: @wiminfestival @scrapyardstudioscic @lockandquaybootle @fierce_PR

Twitter: @WiminFestival/@ScrapyardCIC/@_LockandQuay/@Fierce_PR.

There are more details here. I shall come to writing about fellow all-festival festivals, why the WIMIN Festival is so important, and why other festivals need to take note:

“ARTIST SOCIAL MEDIA HANDLES :

A VOID

Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/avoidinyou/

Twitter

https://twitter.com/avoidinyou?lang=fr

Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/avoidinyou

Spotify

https://open.spotify.com/artist/3ha9mtXhb0Ia40lnrU2cOI

Bandcamp

https://avoidinyou.bandcamp.com/album/dissociation

Soundcloud

https://soundcloud.com/avoidinyou

YouTube

 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBwCzGg0kXD8delfwMQqgtQ

Apple Music

https://music.apple.com/fr/album/awkward-and-devastated/1439338745

Abbie Ozard

Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/abbieozard/

Twitter

https://twitter.com/abbieOzard

Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/abbieozardmusic

Spotify

https://open.spotify.com/artist/03Xxe7sWXZW0NlayYQQHIn?si=ZDRni2wgQCK5tnWGTobv0w&nd=1

Bandcamp

https://abbieozard.bandcamp.com/album/water-based-lullabies

Soundcloud

https://soundcloud.com/abbie-ozard

YouTube

 https://www.facebook.com/abbieozardmusic

Apple Music

 https://music.apple.com/gb/artist/abbie-ozard/1332966674

From Boudica focusing on amazing women on and off of the stage, to the L.G.B.T.Q.+-supporting festival for women Femme Fest, Loud Women Fest that stages these incredible womxn that might overwise be overlooked by some festivals, there are these wonderful and much-needed showcases of female talent. I will come back to WIMIN Festival in a minute. Back in 2019, when inequality (like now) is still rife at festivals, The Guardian asked why there has been a rise in all-female festivals:

“In 2015, music blog Crack in the Road tweeted a doctored image of the poster for the Reading and Leeds festival, erasing all acts that didn’t include a female performer. Only 10 groups remained. It started a conversation about gender inequality at music festivals – an issue that, despite the outcry, persists in 2019. This weekend’s edition of Reading and Leeds features only one female performer, Billie Eilish, among the festival’s 11 top-billed acts. Scotland’s TRNSMT and metal festival Download each had only one act featuring women across their nine lead acts, while there are no female headliners at indie festivals Green Man and End of the Road.

At this year’s Glastonbury, despite the presence of Janet Jackson, Kylie, Lauryn Hill and Miley Cyrus lower down the bill, the Pyramid stage headliners were all male. “The pool isn’t big enough,” said organiser Emily Eavis. “It’s time to nurture female talent. Everyone wants it, everyone’s hungry for women, but they’re just not there.”

 This year, a number of festival organisers are attempting to redress the issue by having only women on stage. Those with all-female lineups include Native festival in Kent, Loud Women Fest in north London, and Boudica festival in Coventry. KT Tunstall is involved with a festival called HearHer, which will feature a programme comprising of female solo artists or women-fronted bands, and women manning the behind-the-scenes production.On the west coast of the US, there’s California Women’s Music and Women Sound Off; meanwhile, Brandi Carlile, the Americana star who won three Grammys this year, will bring back her Girls Just Wanna Weekend to Mexico in January 2020.

Angela Martin – co-founder of Cro Cro Land, a female-organised festival in south London where the lineup and crew have a 50/50 gender balance – puts the boom in such festivals down to “unrest among women in music”. This, she says, leads to an increase in female promoters creating their own events.

She cites the PRS Foundation’s Keychange initiative as a catalyst in raising awareness about gender inequality at festivals. The campaign encourages festivals to have a 50/50 gender split among performers by 2022. More than 150 events worldwide have pledged to hit this target, including the Proms, Bluedot and Standon Calling.

The mastermind behind Keychange, Vanessa Reed, said the rise in all-female lineups this year was a necessary phase to help redress the balance. “People are feeling frustrated by festival lineups being male-dominated. Until Keychange there was no big debate about this or positive action. Some places, as an act of defiance, are saying: we are going to book loads of female talent in our city.”

Others put the rise down to politics, including the #MeToo movement that took off in the wake of sexual assault and rape allegations made against the Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein. Reed mentions Statement festival in Sweden, which had an all-female lineup and an all-female audience, too. (It was later successfully sued for discrimination.) “That was set up for a different reason, specifically in response to incidents of sexual harassment – they wanted to make a statement.”

Victoria Boyington founded California Women’s Music festival in 2014 because promoters were not booking enough women. In the last year, she says there has been an “insurgence of feminism and the feminist movement”. She believes the trend may have peaked, and that it is a sign of change when bigger corporations jump on the bandwagon. She points to US radio conglomerate iHeartRadio and its all-female Women Who Rock concert for International Women’s Day, which featured artists including St Vincent and Karen O. “The future won’t necessarily be all-female lineups, but more inclusive festival lineups for major festivals.”

However, Boyington says some bookers lack integrity, booking women simply as a marketing ploy. “I am not sure they have the same focus as our organisation, which is more grassroots and founded by women for women.”

Reed says the next step is to establish gender equality more deeply through the festival industry. “There are still so many male promoters and bookers and established networks that have traditionally booked more men than women. All those things mean it’s harder to instigate change. But I have been inspired by the fact that lots of younger men in the music industry are as keen as women are for programmes to be more balanced. So I hope to some degree it’s about generational change”.

Change is certainly happening – Barcelona’s Primavera festival, one of the biggest music festivals in Europe, offered a 50/50 gender split in its 2019 lineup. “With loads of great music made by women, the paradigm of what we understood as ‘headliners’ until now is changing,” organiser Marta Pallarès wrote in Loud and Quiet magazine. “Music shouldn’t be the ‘pale, male and stale’ playground any more”.

It is clear sexism is rife in music. Katy J. Pearson said that to Chris Hawkins during the BBC Radio 6 Music interview yesterday (27th June). From techs and sound guys assuming that a women sound-checking or on stage is only singing and other people are playing instruments, to a general attitude held by festivals that women cannot headline, there is this contrast between the obvious wealth of talent out there and this discrimination and barrier. Rather than the brilliant WIMIN Festival excluding men or pushing them away, it is a celebration and safe space for women. It is a place where women can feel supported and seen. Where new skills can be learned; where women can network and feel included and heard. You can meet the team behind the festival. I would encourage people to share news and details online. I will finish soon with information of how and why you should support WIMIN Festival. Things are not changing fast. I have just published a feature reacting to Glastonbury having no female headliners this year. Many major festivals are ignoring the headline readiness of sensational women. In the feature, I interviewed drummer Anna Prior (Metronomy) about why festivals need to be gender-balanced and her advice to women coming through in the industry. Last year, the stats around female headlines was grim reading. It is clear that the industry is not nourishing and supporting women. You get the sense that articles like this will still be published next year – at a time where every festival should commit to a balanced line-up and feature women headlining.

If you can support the mighty, amazing and hugely important WIMIN Festival, that would be amazing. The festival’s director Holly Tulloch wants this to be a spaced where women can be front and centre. Where they can thrive without limitations. Together with an amazing team of women – including PR Manager Anna Grace Du Noyer -, here is a festival that not only provides this showcase of tremendous female talent. It should encourager other festivals to be more inclusive, safer and more aware of women, and it also highlights some brilliant emerging talent. Here is how you can support the brilliant festival headed by Holly Tulloch:

“I am a 26 year old woman and I work in the Liverpool events industry.

During my short career, I have experienced multiple examples of discrimination, physical and sexual abuse. It might be a surprise to some that the music industry is still heavily weighted against women. It is harder for our voices to be heard. Mentorship and learning opportunities are more difficult to come by. And even when our skills have been mastered, it is harder for us to put them into practice.

I am a Director of Scrapyard Studios CIC, a not-for-profit organisation in the North of Liverpool. We offer inclusive workshops and activities for artists and creatives in our local area. Through running these, I have met dozens of women who have had similar experiences to me. People who have faced sexual abuse, discrimination, gate-keeping - all for daring to pursue a career in their passion.

I realised that through Scrapyard I have a platform to try and address some of the injustices that women in the Liverpool events industry face.

WOMEN IN MUSIC SURVEY

In the summer of 2022, Scrapyard put out a survey for women in the local music industry to document their experiences. I wanted to see how many women were out there who had experienced similar things to me and get a better understanding of how Scrapyard could support women in the industry.

We received 100s of responses. Of the women who replied to the survey:

  • 64% said that they feel unsafe in Liverpool's music events and workspaces, with many citing instances of discrimination, harassment and emotional or physical harm

  • 88% said they wanted to see increased career development opportunities

  • 90% said they wanted more gigging opportunities

  • 94% more networking opportunities with women

  • 91% said they wanted to experience more leadership and mentoring opportunities

These findings did not shock me, but they did spur us on to take action.

 WHAT IS WIMIN FESTIVAL?

WIMIN Festival will be a one-day event taking place in North Liverpool. It will be organised entirely by women.

  • The management team is all women

  • The marketing team is all women

  • The production team and crew will all be women

  • The artists across our stages will all be female-fronted

  • Anyone will be allowed to attend

Most importantly, WIMIN will provide women in the Liverpool music scene with an opportunity to learn new skills from each other and apply them in a safe environment free from discrimination or abuse.

WIMIN will take place in the grounds of The Lock & Quay across two distinct spaces:

  • The Marquee will feature the very best up-and-coming female artists in Liverpool

  • The Garden will showcase local, female-founded independent businesses, who will share their experiences of working in the Liverpool music industry across a series of panels and workshops

Our ambition is to expand the festival to create a Main Stage that would feature well-known touring artists, allowing WIMIN to reach even more people across Merseyside.

THE TEAM

We have assembled a team of over 30 women based in Liverpool who are already working on the event. We are made up of established and aspiring events industry professionals, all rallied behind the common goal of putting on a progressive festival in a fair, abuse-free environment.

 We hold monthly full festival team meetings. The more experienced members of our network mentor the new talents. WIMIN will be an example of what can happen when large groups of people come together to showcase their skills on their own terms. Opportunities to learn and apply knowledge are few and far between. We have made our own career development opportunity.

We have partnered with numerous female-founded Liverpool businesses who have aligned themselves with our cause. These include We Want Women, Where Are The Girl Bands, Bitch Palace and Sounds Northern, and all will be featuring in The Garden during the event.

 WHY DO WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT?

Scrapyard is a not-for-profit company, and festivals cost a lot of money to make happen. From the artists performing, the production, the staff working across the day, there are many costs that we simply cannot cover on our own. We are looking into sponsorship opportunities, funding bids and even hosting monthly Gals Who Gig events to help fund the project. 

I know that there are more in Liverpool who feel like I do. Have experienced worse than what I have. I have got to know many of them well over the past few months. So most importantly we are looking for help from people who feel that our story resonates with them, to enable us to make a difference in our community.

The traction that WIMIN has already gathered on a purely word-of-mouth basis has been so exciting. We now want to bring it to the rest of the city.

WIMIN Festival will take place on July 29th 2023.

The Lock & Quay

11am - 10pm

We are grateful for any support we can get for the festival, and all those who donate over £20 will be granted access to the event.

If anyone would like to get involved or find out more, they can reach us via email.

Thank you”.

Be sure to spread the word and support WIMIN Festival. Whilst many other festivals this year will feature no female headliners and are not as inclusive they should be, there is this amazing festival that is nurturing and backing important women, both as performers and those who want to get into areas like production. As I said, I hope eyes are opened to the continued inequalities and discrimination. WIMIN Festival shows that there is this demand and need to see more women on bills! As I also keep saying when ending features regarding festivals and gender inequality, let’s hope that things…

IMPROVE next year.

FEATURE: Front Row Seats: The Complex Debate Regarding Women at Festivals

FEATURE:

 

 

Front Row Seats

IN THIS PHOTO: Lana Del Rey

 

The Complex Debate Regarding Women at Festivals

_________

EVEN has though it might seem easy…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Texas’ Sharleen Spiteri at the Pyramid stage on Friday (23rd June) at Glastonbury, where she defended festival co-organiser Emily Eavis against criticisms of favouring male-dominated bands/PHOTO CREDIT: Kate Green/Getty Images

to accuse some of the major festivals of being sexist regarding their uneven bills, the issue is quite a complex one. I think there is a degree of not doing enough to secure female artists for festivals, but I guess things are not as simple as all that. Glastonbury has just happened. Many noted how some of the best sets from Worthy Farm were by women. In fact, CLASH argued that the festival was made wonderful and almost defined by female artists:

“Alas, it wasn’t to be. With faltering sound, a wayward set list, Axl’s vocal idiosyncrasies, and lots – and lots – of guitar solos, this is a headline set which never quite landed. Even a later guest spot from rock’s foremost gentleman Dave Grohl couldn’t save them – Guns N Roses had about as much punch-through as a water pistol against a tank.

In truth, female artists have held the festival together. From Fever Ray’s remarkable late night journey to Sudan Archives’ storming West Holts set, Glastonbury has assembled a slew of phenomenal female voices. Last night – June 24th – underlined this emphatically. It began with a magical performance from Maggie Rogers, the American songwriter bringing a dose of ecstatic joy to the Other Stage. A huge fan of the festival – she was spotted dancing side-stage during Carly Rae Jepsen’s set – her performance climaxed with a thrilling overhead display from the Red Arrows. Heavenly.

Lizzo’s secondary headline status seemed to fire up the much-loved artist, who responded with a phenomenal performance on the Pyramid Stage. Honed across an exhausting international tour – including a fully sold out UK run – she’s a simply lethal live artist right now. People fully believe in her self-love mantras, and with the sun beating down Lizzo is the perfect choice for Worthy Farm. There’s no solid metric to test this, but purely using our eyes: Lizzo seemed to get a bigger crowd than Guns N Roses. Yep, we’re calling it.

And then, of course, there’s Lana Del Rey. Arriving onstage stylishly late – a mere 30 minutes – she breezed into a magical set that blended old with new. Opening with ‘A&W’ the first chapter of the set leaned into her recent album ‘Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd’ before venturing into broader currents within her catalogue. A majestic ‘Ultraviolence’ seemed to indicate where the set was going next, a carefully curated journey into Lana’s majesty accompanied by a wonderful stage show, the dancers swirling around the singer’s magnetic persona.

But then the mic went out. Having started late, Lana Del Rey fell foul of the curfew. Dropping to her knees, she begged figures at the side of the stage to let her continue, but to no avail. Rules are made to be obeyed, we suppose, but there is certainly a feeling on the ground that Lana had been hard done by. Perhaps that’s apt microcosm for women as a whole during festival season – flourishing, in spite of the obstacles”.

Whilst plenty of male artists – from Lil Mas X, Foo Fighters and Elton John – delivered exceptional sets, the fact that some of the biggest crowds of the event were for female artists shows that there is a demand. It might be the case, as Nova Twins told Woman’s Hour, that we do not nurture female and non-binary bands the same way as male ones. That is true. I think that festivals headliners often have to be seen as bands. Normally Indie or Rock bands. Men with guitars. It is important, I think, to have one band as headliner. There are plenty of bands with women in that could have headlined Glastonbury. I am taking it wider than that, because organiser Emily Eavis did include many terrific women on the bill – and she ensured the festival was one of the best ever! I think there is that thing of under-promoting and nurturing women and bands with women in. Whether that is because there is a legacy of prioritising male bands, or labels are not signing bands with women in as much, I am not sure. New and left-field musicians are not supported and funded. Looking at many of the headline sets across the summer, and there are few bands with women in them. It is not only about having that central figure. Promoting and booking bands with women in them is essential. Major festivals liker Glastonbury have shown that there are plenty of potential female headliners. A lot of acts lower down the bill who are stronger and more engaging than their male peers!

 IN THIS PHOTO: Anna Prior

Before moving on, Anna Prior talked to me about gender inequality at festivals, and why it is important to celebrate all women in bands - and not just ‘female-fronted’ bands. As drummer and backing singer with Metronomy, and a successful solo artist, her perspective was incredibly valuable and interesting. She has said how we need to also get away from this narrative of mentioning ‘female-fronted’ bands and celebrate any band with women in them. I was keen to find out more; what advice she had for women taking their first steps towards becoming a musician:

There has been a lot of discussion about the lack of female headliners booked for Glastonbury and other festivals. Do you think this is a problem with the ‘pipeline’, or is it something is it a reluctance to almost ‘take a risk’ on female artists?

If we're speaking only in terms of headliners, then yes, I think festivals don't want to take risks. However, Glasto (Glastonbury) sells out before the line-up is announced, so why not take risks?

As you have said on Twitter, it is important to discuss women performing in bands and on the stage, whether they are the lead or not. Whereas the term ‘female-fronted’ is a term many women feel uncomfortable about, should we instead put focus on women in bands generally?

The term 'female-fronted' perpetuates the notion that women are just a thing to be looked at. We should be focusing on female musicians in a much wider context. Doing research, finding out which 'male-fronted' bands actually have women musicians in them, and not excluding these bands for headline slots because the women in the band isn't the singer.

What has your experience been like performing solo or with Metronomy? Have you experienced personal challenges and obstacles being a woman in a band? It is important, in addition to discussing the band and their strengths, to also highlight an inspiring woman who is no doubt influencing a lot of other women.

I've been lucky enough to be doing this job for 15 years, and I have seen the industry change a lot in that time. The main factor is that there seems to be more women collaborators; in the performance side of things or and the business side of things. We tend to help each other out more, whereas 15-20 years ago, we were always pitted against each other - by the media mainly.

“Give women the jobs, give them the exposure, give them the opportunities”.

It is evident that you have influenced a lot of women coming through at the moment. How
important is it that to you? Together with Sarah Jones (who played drums and performed backing vocals on Harry Styles’ current tour), it must be encouraging that, slowly, more attention is being paid to women in bands – and not just whether they are ‘female-fronted’.

It's one of the most important things for me. We need the exposure, we need the jobs to be given to women musicians. I was barely aware of any female drummers when I started - now, any young women wanting to learn has so many established artists to look up to.

It is clear that watching Glastonbury that women are dominating music and there are so many
headline-worthy artists. What do festivals and the industry need to do to highlight their incredible music and ensure that they supported?

Give women the jobs, give them the exposure, give them the opportunities. Actively seek female musicians, do research, and find out which male solo artists have women in the their band.

Do you have any words of advice or encouragement for female artists looking to follow in your footsteps when it comes to picking up drumsticks?

Start a band! It's the best way to learn drums, to become more creative, and learning how to play with other people is helpful in building character in your playing.

I have seen posts saying that festivals are sexist and they are not trying hard enough. There are others that look at the pipeline and observe that there might be fewer options when it comes to finding female artists that can fill bigger festivals slots (especially as headliners). I think things will radically change next year. It is obvious that festivals are stronger when female (and non-binary) artists are given bigger platforms. There are more than enough choices when it comes to women who can headline. Even though it is not a case that festivals are purely sexist and ignoring women, I think more risks need to be taken. If a solo artist or band with women in them does not seem like a traditional or obvious headline act, you don’t know until you book them! It is clear the old guard and go-to bands are no longer fresh or required. It seems very tired! At a time when there are so many fresh and wonderful women who can command a big stage and deliver a captivating headline set, we are relying on older male acts or the white boys with guitars route. The debate is complex. Things will not be completely fixed by next year. There will be development, mind. In spite of there being no female headliners at Glastonbury, there were many incredible women – as solo artists/band or bands with women in there – that got incredible crowds and reviews. That shows that it is not the punters who do not want to see women play. Maybe it is a mindset or a feeling that people will revolt or be disapproving if boys in bands and male artists are balanced out or even outweighed by female talent of all genres.

 IN THIS PHOTO: Carly Rae Jepsen/PHOTO CREDIT: Jasmine Safaeian

There are a lot of festivals coming up. If the bills are depressingly male-heavy, every single one of them is going to be held to task next year. I think, aside from every festival needing to acknowledge and accept that they have no excuses to be male-heavy and deny women headline slots, we need to look deeply at the industry. Less funding and attention to the more innovative and left-field artists. Radio playlists – especially major stations – are still not playing nearly enough women! Bigger labels are not signing enough women and nurturing them the same way as they do men. Those in power (men) still have this feeling that men rule music and that is what people want to see and hear. It is patently not true! If things need to change across all festivals, organisers need each section and layer of the industry to do more to ensure that women are given opportunities and equality. As it stands now, there is a massive pool of women that are available and ready to dominate festivals next year. Many of the best and most popular sets from festivals this year have been from women. I also find that, broadly, female artists have this incredible rapport with their audiences. I am not saying men do not, but there seems like there’s greater wit, warmth and a deeper connection. Another reason why this current inequality is maddening! Things cannot completely change instantly, though there are ways of making big steps right away. Booking more bands with women in them (not just ‘female-fronted’ or ‘all-female’) is a step forward. Young women and girls seeing women in bands, whether they are on drums or guitar, is a very positive and important thing. Simply committing to do things differently and stop leaning on the tired and rather uninspired options. I think 2024 will bring about improvement and progress! When it comes to inequality and a lack of proper recognition and opportunity for women at festivals, let’s hope that this is…

THE last year we see that!

FEATURE: Jamaica to Australia: Kate Bush’s June and July, 1982

FEATURE:

 

 

Jamaica to Australia

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1982/PHOTO CREDIT: Pierre Terrasson

 

Kate Bush’s June and July, 1982

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ONCE more…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush deep in thought at Abbey Road Recording Studios on 15th October, 1982/PHOTO CREDIT: Steve Rapport/GI

I am referring to the invaluable and indispensable The Garden for this feature. They are a resource that provides a timeline of Bush’s career and all the important events and dates. I have utilised this before for other features but, as there are no anniversaries approaching for a bit, I thought I would go down a different path. I have already done a few features that documented an important month or moment in Bush’s career (including May 1983; I did a recent feature on 15th June, 1983). I wanted to look back at 1982, and specifically June and July. Forty-one years ago, Bush’s career was in a very interesting place. The first single from The Dreaming, Sat in Your Lap, had been released, though the album was still not out. It would eventually be released in September 1982. The album was supposed to come out earlier, but it had been delayed. It was a period of rest and new endeavour. In the May of 1982, Bush travelled to Jamaica for a holiday. Rather than finding it relaxing, there was something deafening about the peace and tranquillity. Having spent so much time in studios recording The Dreaming (sixteen months combined), you can understand why she wanted to go on holiday. Maybe unable to switch off the noise and pace of London, I wonder how beneficial that trip was. Straight back from holiday and there was stuff for Bush to attend and address.

 IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1982/PHOTO CREDIT: Pierre Terrasson

In June, the announcement was made that The Dreaming’s title track and planned second single was delayed. Maybe Bush was going to Jamaica and expecting her new single to be out very soon after. Instead, it was released in late-July. It must have taken some momentum away. Wanting to get a new single out after a year, many were wondering where she was and what was awaiting them. 1981’s Sat in Your Lap was a top twenty hit for her. Whilst different to anything she had released so far, it was a fair indication of what was to come. I will talk more about The Dreaming’s title track (and second single) nearer its anniversary in July. I wanted to mark out June and July, 1982, as it was a period between Bush returning from holiday, her album being delayed, and the second single coming out. I wonder whether it was originally conceived that the album and single of the same name would both come out in July. Regardless, there was not too much time to decompress and sit back after her holiday. In June 1982, Bush did some session work for Zaine Griff, who with her had attended Lindsay Kemp's mime classes back in 1976. She does backing vocals on a track dedicated to Kemp, Flowers. In the same month, there was that announcement the single would be delayed. Perhaps there was too much competition that month for it to chart. Maybe the unique aspects were not going to resonate as much in June 1982. I don’t know. When the single did come out, it charted low and got some decidedly mixed reviews – in spite of the fact it is a fantastic song, maybe not an obvious single! If Kate Bush felt a sense of tiredness or strangeness after her holiday, the ensuing few months showed that she did need a rest. It was a frantic time!

Unbeknownst to her, the first issue of the fanzine, HomeGround, was being prepared. Twenty-five copies are run off in an office photocopier. That happened in June 1982. Maybe Kate Bush did know about it, but I think that it is quite unlikely! They celebrated their fortieth anniversary last year with special edition. The fanzine ceased being in 2011, but from 1982 until then, they produced these wonderfully passionate informative zines with fans’ poems, letters, drawings, news and anything relating to Kate Bush. At a time when Bush was transitioning between recording and completing The Dreaming and awaiting the arrival of its second single, there was this HomeGround fanzine – its editor, Peter FitzGerald-Morris, also collated this timeline (The Garden) I am referencing – coming to life. On 26th July (though I have seen some say it was out on 27th), The Dreaming’s title track was released into the world. Although some press sources saluted the bravery and innovation of the song there was not a lot of radio interest. Only a week before the song came out, and with forty-eight hours' notice, Bush was asked to take David Bowie's place in a Royal Rock Gala before H.R.H. The Prince of Wales in aid of The Prince's Trust. She gives a rare live performance of The Wedding List (from 1980’s Never for Ever), backed by Pete Townsend and Midge Ure on guitars, Mick Karn on bass, Gary Brooker on keyboards and Phil Collins on drums. Rather than do Sat in Your Lap or a sneaky peak of anything from her fast-approaching new album, Bush sang live a track from Never for Ever that is a definite deep cut. By all accounts, her performance was one of the highlights of the night!

When The Dreaming’s title track was released, Bush was firmly thrust back into the promotional cycle. With very little time between everything being finished and that single coming out, I can appreciate why she made a firm decision that Hounds of Love would be a different experience. From 1983, as I have written about, she built her home studio and dedicated herself to dance and a more healthy working life. It is wonderful envisaging Kate Bush’s life during June and July of 1982. With some plans being delayed and an unexpected live appearance coming up, she was clearly keeping busy and living through this unpredictable time! I will refer to The Garden again and that invaluable resource of dates and important Kate Bush events. More than anything, it provides opportunity to explore vital dates and important moments. I think that the lead-up to The Dreaming coming out as a single is a pretty big one! After it came out, we got a sense that this artist we thought we knew was going in a very different direction. The Dreaming album would arrive in September and confirm Bush as one of the most innovative and unpredictable artists of her generation. A few days after The Dreaming (single) came out, Bush turned twenty-four. So amazingly ambitious, assured and accomplished at such a young age! I guess you can never be surprised or shock when it comes to Bush and her seemingly superhuman powers. She would unleash this incredible song about the Aboriginal Australians and how they were displaced and repressed. No artist her age was singing about these sort of things! Live performances of the song are among her most interesting and jaw-dropping. I absolute love…

EVERYTHING she does.

FEATURE: #PrideMonth: Songs from the Best L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ Albums of 2023 So Far

FEATURE:

 

 

#PrideMonth

IN THIS PHOTO: Amaarae

 

Songs from the Best L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ Albums of 2023 So Far

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IN a previous Pride Month feature…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Jake Shears

I looked at the best L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+/Pride albums of 2022. It was interesting hearing the albums and assembling songs from them into a playlist. For this feature, I have put together a selection of the best songs from similar albums of 2023. These are tracks by artists that are part of the L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ community. Representing Pride Month with some amazing music, I hope there is something in the playlist that catches the ear. In any case, go and listen to the albums the songs are from, as they are incredible works. This will be my final Pride Month feature, and I was keen to look at some awesome albums from this year. To celebrate an incredible Pride Month, take a listen to this playlist and…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Rebecca Black

DIVE right in.

FEATURE: Not Yet Two Weeks Ago: Spotlighting the Amazing Maisie Peters

FEATURE:

 

 

Not Yet Two Weeks Ago

PHOTO CREDIT: Sonny McCartney

 

Spotlighting the Amazing Maisie Peters

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I have already spotlighted…

Maisie Peters but, as she played Glastonbury last week in a celebrated set, I thought it was a perfect time to celebrate her once more. For those in attendance, it was a magical experience down at Worthy Farm. It was a gig that gave her a perfect opportunity to showcase songs from her new album, The Good Witch. The second studio album from the West Sussex-born songwriter, it follows 2021’s debut, You Signed Up for This. I think that The Good Witch announces Peters as one of our finest young artists. Rolling Stone assessed her Glastonbury performance:

“The worst way to love somebody is to watch them love somebody else,” sings Maisie Peters during ‘Body Better’, the song that opens her set today on Glastonbury’s Pyramid Stage.

Full of self-doubt, it’s a vulnerable way to begin her first ever appearance at Glastonbury but Maisie Peters thrives on creating heartfelt pop. Backed by a three-piece band, a fiery sense of purpose and a crowd that knows every word, ‘Body Better’ is quickly transformed from pained confession to jubilant anthem. There’s plenty more where that came from as well and by the end of her hour-long set, Peters has traded in heartbreak for something far more confident. “I’ll fuck your life up as a blonde,” she smirks during the giddy, ‘80s inspired ‘Blonde’.

Maisie Peters’ gigs often feel like a party but today, the singer has more to celebrate than usual. Her second album ‘The Good Witch’ came out at midnight and “what better place to see it in than the most magical place in the world,” she asks.

A “twisted” take on a break-up album, The Good Witch explores destruction, power and magic, without ever dwelling on sadness. There’s self-deprecation but also spiky empowerment and a giddy sense of fun. Today, Peters brings all of that, as well as a little bit of her own magic, to the Pyramid Stage.

‘Cate’s Brother’ is a sugary pop-punk track that feels purpose built for sunny fields, ‘Run’ is an urgent, indie-rock banger while the thunderous ‘Not Another Rockstar’ is introduced by Peters as being about her “terrible, terrible taste in men”. Halfway through the theatrical track, Peters pauses for a second to take in the ever-growing crowd. “The irony is, who’s the rockstar now?” she smiles.

PHOTO CREDIT: Getty Images

Peters has clearly learnt a thing or two from touring stadiums with Ed Sheeran. She’s a master of crowd control and a majority of her set fills suitably grand, with the likes of ‘Villain’, ‘I’m Trying’ and ‘You’re Just A Boy (And I’m Kinda The Man)’ all sounding glorious on Glastonbury’s biggest stage.

There are moments of genuine intimacy as well though.  A gorgeous, slow-burning ‘Worst Of You’ bubbles with emotion before ‘You Signed Up For This’ flickers between hope and heartache. ‘Brooklyn’ is sung for Peters’ sister as an apology for not bringing her a vape on-site while ‘John Hughes Movie’, a hammering song about unrequited love, is dedicated to the queer community. “I wouldn’t have the career I have without you,” she explains. “I feel very honoured to be a woman on the pyramid stage,” she adds a little later.

That ability to forge a connect from afar is clearly working as well. Fans hold up banners reading “We are the granddaughters of the witches you could not burn” which goes nicely with Peters’ own “Women’s hearts are lethal weapons” t-shirt. It’s little wonder she’s been fan-cast as support for Taylor Swift’s European ‘Eras’ tour next year.

Before the phenomenal snarl of ‘Lost The Break-Up’, one fan on the front tow hands Peters her very own broomstick. “What a good day to be a good witch” she grins. It’s early in the day, but this witch has cast the most magical spell over Worthy Farm”.

With similarities made to Taylor Swift, there is something about Maisie Peters that stands her aside from her peers. Making Pop that stays in the head but also stirs the soul, she is someone who is going to have a very long career. I will finish off with a review for The Good Witch. If you are new to Maisie Peters, I have looked at a few interviews online that will give you more depth and detail. There are a couple of interviews I want to bring in Teen Vogue in an interview published last week. We learn, even though Maisie Peters is not especially spiritual, music is as close to something divine and truly meaningful. It is incredible to see how far this wonderful artist has come in a relatively short time:

“She fell in love at an early age. Growing up in Steyning, a small town near the sea in West Sussex, England, where timber-framed buildings line quiet streets, Peters often escaped in the velvety pages of fictional stories. She'd bend the spines and mark the margins of her most sacred texts, The Twilight Saga and The Great Gatsby. Never a fan of being read to, she preferred to move at her own voracious pace. She started writing short stories and poetry in primary school, skills that naturally developed into songwriting as she began curating her taste. She'd pore over the lyric booklets of her favorite albums — Lily Allen's Alright, Still, Florence and the Machine's Lungs, ABBA Gold, and Taylor Swift's Fearless — enamored by their fanciful anecdotes and attention to detail. Despite having no formal music training, she'd make drum beats with her hands and fill her notebooks from cover to cover. When she was 12, she borrowed a friend's acoustic guitar and taught herself to play by watching YouTube videos.

"I was so obsessed," she recalls, "for no reason. It wasn't like I told my family, 'I want to be a singer. I want to be a writer. I want to be a pop star.' I had none of that. I just loved doing it… I wrote so much music and wanted it to go somewhere, but there was no big, grand plan."

Within a year, she had written hundreds of songs, the result of an overactive imagination; by 15, she had joined a band and started regularly busking on the street and performing at pubs, posting original songs on her YouTube page. Early cuts wallow in life's messiest bits, gentle melodies for tempestuous feelings, and a folksy lilt over wistful keys. "Waiting around, still halfway hopeful that you'll show," she sings on 2017's "Birthday," one of her first independently released singles. "You've said you'd call, of course you won't, I should've known."

PHOTO CREDIT: Alice Moitié

"I'm someone who writes music to remember," she shares over a plate of truffle fries. "A lot of why I write music is to chronicle and document. I think some people write music for catharsis, and that's not really my experience with it." She supposes the healing comes after, not for her but rather for the listener to bear. These "stamps of memory," as she calls them, frozen in time signatures, no longer belong to just her. "When you write music the only person that's relevant is yourself," she says. "You're very much in that moment. Then when you release it, it's really not about me at all, or even the person I wrote about. You can listen back to it, you can hear how you felt, but you can't really feel it anymore."

It's a lesson in Swiftian storytelling. It's crafting an image so lyrical and engaging that it places the listener alongside you in the room where it happened — the heartbreak, the disappointment, the love. Last year, Swift described a good song as something that "stays with you even when people or feelings don’t." Peters cites the Midnights mastermind as her "holy grail," her most formative influence. You can hear it in the way she sets a scene. "I am 20 and probably upset right now," she sings on the opening track of her debut album, You Signed Up For This, released under Ed Sheeran's Gingerbread Man Records in 2021. It's an affirmation of self-awareness, equal parts sincere and melodramatic. On "John Hughes Movie," she laments unrequited love over synthy melodies and elastic beats; "Boy," co-written by Sheeran, is a smooth kiss-off to a serial cheater in which she deliciously delivers the lyric "I could be a grown-up, but baby you know what / maybe I’ll release this song instead" with all the pettiness of a young woman scorned.

The Good Witch inhabits a similar space — broken hearts, bruised egos, and offbeat anthems — but Peters displays a heightened sense of introspection and emotional range. If You Signed Up For This was directed at you, the listener, then The Good Witch gazes inward. A breakup album at its core, she sees herself as the story's arcane narrator, both its playwright and its muse”.

I want to move to an interview with Rolling Stone UK. You can buy Maisie Peters’ The Good Witch. A fantastic listen, it shows a more ambitious and confident artist to the one we heard on the excellent You Signed Up for This. With music aimed at dreamers, romantics, and those living in a fantasy, there is something fantastical and magical about her music that is hard to ignore. I do think that we have in our midst an artist who will soon conquer the globe:

“Peters is building on what her idol — and now Maisie Peters fan — Taylor Swift spent 15 years establishing: that women can write pop songs about the insecure, the needy and, most pertinently, the hallucinatory space in which reality and fantasy meet. “I’m obsessed with the almost,” Peters says. “What you almost say, or almost do, or you almost had or almost lost. All of those moments, I think, make for interesting music and also feel very female as well, that whole experience.” She returns to something I previously mentioned about the impossibility of ever knowing if romantic interests obsess about you in the same way as you do them. “You said the word obsessed earlier and I realised when I was looking through my next album, ‘obsessed’ would be the biggest word on my word map. I think women are pretty private with their obsessions, apart from to other women maybe, and sometimes it’s funny because people are like, ‘Oh, you’re so obsessed.’ And you’re like, ‘You have no idea.’ This is the surface of the obsession.”

Later, when Peters plays her headline set at the venue, she will tell the room who she makes music for: the girls who got ghosted and still wish them ‘happy birthday’; the girls who bought gifts for their crush’s mother; the girls who got ditched by someone who was not their boyfriend. The list changes each night, depending on what comes to her in the hours beforehand. “I just think there’s such validity in those relationships, and sometimes they mean more to you than the ones you can define because you never quite had it, or you could never quite explain it,” she says.

PHOTO CREDIT: Emilia Paré

While making her upcoming album The Good Witch, Peters felt powerful. Some of it was written over the past year, firstly in Stockholm — an already magical place to her — with two other women (“we became almost like a coven”), and later in the forests in Suffolk. She cites destruction, femininity and benevolence as its themes. “My universe, in this album at least, is something for me to destroy and to build up again how I want to,” she says.

The first single, ‘Body Better’, is about a recent time she compared her body to another girl’s, deeming it hotter, categorically better. It was an ugly thought, she says, something she’s not proud of for thinking but assumes it will be relatable. She predicts it will be hard to talk about this song when she has to promote it and when fans approach her to ask about it. “I know I’m going to get people who think it’s wrong or bizarre of me to say. I’m well aware I have a lot of privilege, I’m a [UK] size 4 or 6 and white and blonde,” she says. “Equally, it was something that was true to me. I hope that by putting it into the world it is only a force for good.”

The support of the few women who have heard The Good Witch and loved it encourages her. In the weeks spent finalising this album, she’s been co-ruminating and testing ideas out with her female housemate who is increasingly invested in her favourite tracks making it onto the album. “When I tell her so-and-so on my team doesn’t like it, she’s like ‘Why? I don’t agree!’” Peters laughs.

It’s while relaying stories like this that she decides she has a final answer about who a Maisie Peters fan is. “If I were to summarise it, I’d say my music is for the quietly unhinged,” she says. “That’s who I make music for if I was gonna choose a blanket statement. The quietly unhinged… And maybe also the loudly, too — there’s no shame for being loudly unhinged either. I just think that there’s a whole subculture in the world of the quietly unhinged.” And then she goes downstairs to address her many quietly deranged girls in love”.

I am going to round up with a review for The Good Witch. Maisie Peters’ second studio album has won plenty of acclaim. This is what The Line of Best Fit sat down with an album that must rank alongside the best of this year. Peters is a remarkable songwriter who has a distinct style. Everyone needs to check her out. After a busy 2023 so far, the momentum will keep going for her. I am excited to see where she goes next:

“After a long stretch where barely discernible ‘mumble rap’ and hazy, languid R&B beats dominated the radio and tilted popular music, the pandemic has ushered in a new wave of feel-good, glittery pop. This year, Ava Max and Ellie Goulding shifted their style to this emphasis on fun, and TikTok-minted newcomers like Reneé Rapp and Mimi Webb have entered the ring as well.

Maisie Peters’ second album, The Good Witch, follows the same pattern: a solid album of dance-pop paired with the same bounciness and clarity that mid-2010s pop songs used to dominate the radio. Peters could have easily lapsed into forgettable lyrics, but often includes topics done in a smart way that pop music back then would have never touched: body dysmorphia and even gender switching to assert dominance (on one song she declares, “You’re just a boy, and I’m kinda the man.”)

Peters knows how to write a catchy song, and her voice is smart, sharp, and fitting for the digs that permeate the album. “Lost The Breakup” pares down a past relationship to a competition capable of winning, a race to see who can get out of it quicker, stronger, and better – much like MUNA’s recent “One That Got Away.” “Coming of Age” and “There It Goes” tracks self-development and assurance in oneself: “I am the Iliad,” she says on the former, “Of course you couldn’t read me.”

The album includes more tender moments, when Peters is at the opposite end of the breakup: “Watch” goes into pop-punk territory as she sees a former partner’s success (“You’re being a superstar and all I got are victim cards”); the peppy “Body Better” sees her in a moment of speculation and envy, wondering if she’s been dumped because a different girl has a nicer body than hers; “BSC” ditches the pretenses and manners, admitting how a relationship affected her. “You think I’m alright, but I’m actually motherfucking batshit crazy,” she sings, which narrowly loses the title of the album’s funniest line to “I am both Kathy Bates and Steven King,” appearing on the same song.

The record’s few missteps largely reprise themes or instrumental ideas that are too dated: “Two Weeks Ago” is an attempt at a power-pop ballad, and “Want You Back” has a better premise, but still sounds as if it’s plucked from ten years ago, right next to Rachel Platten’s inescapable “Fight Song.” “Therapy” too, is a little contrived, an unwelcome symptom from Instagram mental-health speak: “How come you’re taking me from your arms back into therapy?” she asks, without realising what’s discussed in that session might make for a better song topic.

The Good Witch is pleasant pop, a record that doesn’t feel like it’s trying too hard while still cutting with witty writing. Peters has a fun side, but her creativity is evident in places like closer “History of Man,” which boasts topics most pop stars wouldn’t even think to write about, going back through history and discussing the gender differences between powerful men and women. “Women’s hearts are lethal weapons,” she says, “Did you hold mine and feel threatened?” Such is the story of a woman with smarts and heart to spare”.

Even if I have highlighted and written about Maisie Peters, that was around her debut album. Things have changed and moved on since then. One of the U.K.’s brightest and most accomplished young artists, I can see her doing big venues gigs like her idol, Taylor Swift. Not to be too readily compared, Peters has her own sound. She is someone who will inspire songwriters coming through. Only twenty-three, there are many years and decades ahead of her. We are very lucky to have…

THIS rather special artist.

FEATURE: More Than a Muse: Recognising and Exploring the Women in Classic Tracks

FEATURE:

 

 

More Than a Muse

PHOTO CREDIT: Valeria Ushakova/Pexels 


Recognising and Exploring the Women in Classic Tracks

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WHILST attending…

 PHOTO CREDIT: cottonbro studio/Pexels

an event where Sophie Haydock was discussing her debut novel, The Flames, it got me thinking about songs and the women references. I don’t think there are enough books out there that celebrate women and their influence. There are essential books like This Woman’s Work: Essays on Music (and a few others). Really, there could be more out there that recognises the impact and influence of women in music! If you do not know what The Flames is about, here are some more details:

“Vienna, 1912. Behind every painting, there is a story...

A new century is dawning. Vienna is at its zenith, an opulent, extravagant city teeming with art, music and radical ideas. It is a place where anything seems possible...

Edith and Adele are sisters, the daughters of a wealthy bourgeois family. They are expected to follow the rules, to marry well, and produce children. Gertrude is in thrall to her flamboyant older brother. Marked by a traumatic childhood, she envies the freedom he so readily commands. Vally was born into poverty but is making her way in the world as a model for the eminent artist Gustav Klimt.

Fierce, passionate and determined, none of these women is quite what they seem. But their lives are set on a collision course when they become entangled with the controversial young artist Egon Schiele whose work - and private life - are sending shockwaves through Viennese society. All it will take is a single act of betrayal to set their world on fire…”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Sophie Haydock

It was really interesting hearing Haydock speak about the process of writing The Flames. The fact that these women in the book were largely written out of history. Now, thanks to her, we know more about some incredible subjects who inspired one of the great artists of the twentieth century. She is writing another book about a household artist this time. It is interesting that we see art and the women painted, but we rarely ask who they were and what their stories are. It is a real shame that there is this legion of uncredited women who are seen as ‘muses’ or ‘inspirations’ – but that is all they ever are! I guess the same could be said for music. Whether fictionalised or real, there are countless women in music’s cannon that are idolised, lionised and occasionally victimised. Whether an adoring love song, a song or admiration and curiosity or even a put-down, how many of these women are fleshed out and discussed?! Of course, songwriters will talk about songs featuring women and reveal who those people are. I was thinking that it would be interesting knowing more about the women in classic tracks. I don’t think there is a book out there that, like Sophie Haydock’s The Flames, details the women behind the lyrics. Whether it is from The Beatles, Leonard Cohen, Björk or any other artist you can name where they mention women or name a song after a woman, what about their legacy and importance?! Of course, I know there is that clash and contrast between the fictional and real-life. Even those wonderful imagined women. I think it would be great if their stories were told. Rather than women being seen as ‘muses’ – which I find seems rather reductive or dismissive -, they deserves pages written about their lives and importance!

PHOTO CREDIT: cottonbro studio/Pexels

It is always wonderful hearing women mentioned in music. Some of the greatest tracks ever have been written for or about a woman. Of course, given the sheer number of women mentioned in classic songs, you would be given quite a task to find and recall them all. That said, there is ample supply of incredible women that we do know about. When we play and sing these songs back, do our minds think of the women? I wonder how many people are intrigued to imagine who this particular woman is. It is not just male artists that sing about women. Whether a female artists is a member of the L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ community or they are referring to a fictional woman, a friend, or merely telling a woman’s story, there is ample scope to explore and investigate. I think women get written out of music. Whether it is great artists who have to fight to be heard, or the lack of documentaries and books talking about women’s importance and influence, we need to all do more. I was interested by Sophie Haydock’s acknowledgement and celebration of the women who sat for Egon Schiele. Rather than celebrate the artist for his work and not think about the women he painted and sketched, this book is one that gives life and biography to the women – though there were many more whose stories we might never know. Music is full of these brilliant and diverse women who have been responsible for some of the greatest lyrics ever written. I guess we all have our favourite fictional and real-life women in songs. I especially love The Beatles’ Something. That was written about Pattie Boyd. Many people know about Boyd, but it would be great to have her recognised as the woman who inspired one of the greatest love songs ever. And it goes on and on. So many incredible women who are inside these magnificent tracks!

 IN THIS PHOTO: Pattie Boyd and George Harrison in an embrace on their wedding day on 21st January, 1966/PHOTO CREDIT: Bettmann/Getty Images

In terms of going forward, I hope that someone someday takes up the challenges and commits to documenting ‘the women behind the lyrics’. I have always hated the word ‘muse’. It seems to belittle somewhat. Not give full credit to a woman! The women who are seen as muses and inspirations are written into songs, but they are very rarely discussed beyond that. In fact, there are many songs where the women are anonymous or there is some mystery. Of course, on the other side of the romantic coin are the songs that are a little more acidic and derogatory. Whether this is earned scorned, or a male artist raging and moaning because they have been spurned or cast aside, they definitely deserve their pages! It would require a lot of research and planning, but a book could be put together. Featuring sketches or paintings of these women inside of the songs, I think it would not only give agency and recognition to their role; it would also allow us greater context when we think of these classic tracks. Rather than singing their names and wondering who they were, let’s have them brought to life and sitting alongside one another. For, without them, we would not have some of the greatest songs ever written! These amazing women have words written about them. They are moulded, directed and defined by male (and sometimes female) writers. I think that it is time that we allow these women to…

TELL their stories.

FEATURE: D N’ R: Does the Traditional Rock Band Headliner Have the Same Pull?

FEATURE:

 

 

D N’ R

  

Does the Traditional Rock Band Headliner Have the Same Pull?

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OVER the Glastonbury long weekend…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Elton John/PHOTO CREDIT: Dave Hogan/Hogan Media/Shutterstock

the best-reviewed and received performances were away from the headline slots. Apart from Elton John’s emotional and hugely impressive Sunday night performance, there was a little bit of disappointment on Friday and Saturday. Arctic Monkeys’ Friday night set was a bit middling. There were some fine moments, but I think a lot of people were expecting something more intense and electric. For a band whose sound has changed notably since their debut album in 2006, it would have been hard pleasing everyone. Maybe the assumption was that the set would be a fired-up and bigger than it was. The headline set got some positive reviews…but there were performances elsewhere that were more headline-worthy. In addition to some incredible sets from Rick Astley and Blossoms, and Rina Sawayama, it was a festival where we saw some future headliners. Lizzo played the Pyramid Stage before Guns N’ Roses. Much more exciting, engaging and memorable than the legendary band that she proceeded, there was greater colour and spectacle away from the headliners. You can check out some of the sets here. Christine and the Queens, RAYE, Blondie, Lil Nas X, Caroline Polachek, Cat Burns, Lewis Capaldi and Billy Nomates’ sets were clear highlights. Although Lana Del Rey’s unfortunate lateness cut short her set, you do wonder just how it would have been if she had not been cut short. This year’s festival had ample highlights and an embarrassment of riches. Most would say, aside from Elton John’s magnificent and historic farewell, the other two headline sets were good but not exceptional! Many who saw Lizzo play would say she’d have been a better Saturday night headliner!

 IN THIS PHOTO: Axl Rose and Slash of Guns N’ Roses/PHOTO CREDIT: Getty Images

Maybe it is that idea that male Rock band are what people want as a headliner. This Glastonbury perhaps proved otherwise. Foo Fighters were an exception. They have headlined before, but they did give a crowd-pleasing set. It was other genres and artists who were giving much more thrilling, nuanced and crowd-connecting performances. Even Lana Del Rey’s truncated set was received rapturously. I always wonder why Björk was not asked to headline! There were brilliant women across Pop, R&B and a wide range of genres who could have created a more sonically, racial and gender-diverse outlook. I know there are two female headline acts booked for next year. It is a positive step that is well overdue! Not to say that Guns N’ Roses and Arctic Monkey were boring and lifeless, but there is an argument to say that (white) Rock bands are no longer what people want as a headline act. Or, at the very least, they are not delivering the biggest and most discussed sets. Though, I can see the brilliant Nova Twins headlining in years to come. Elton John was a perfect choice, but Friday and Saturday could have gone to other artists. The festival was a roaring success and there was something for everyone. I am not criticising the organisers. More, this is a sign that the traditional Rock headliner is no longer crucial and the go-to. In past years, headliners like Billie Eilish (2022) have been a much more compelling proposition. Although some of the best performances from the festival were not headline-ready just yet, there were artists who were primed and ready. Lizzo is top of that list. Even if Elton John’s epic and stirring headline set is still ringing in the ears, the best of the rest was away from the Pyramid headline sets. In terms of the type of act that is booked to headline a massive festival like Glastonbury, it is evident that…

IN THIS PHOTO: Lizzo/ PHOTO CREDIT: Getty Images

THINGS have to change!

FEATURE: The Digital Mixtape: The Summer of 1998

FEATURE:

 

 

The Digital Mixtape

PHOTO CREDIT: Anna Shvets/Pexels

 

The Summer of 1998

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WHEN thinking about…

 PHOTO CREDIT: cottonbro studio/Pexels

a playlist I could assemble for The Digital Mixtape, my mind cast back to the summer of 1998. A particular great one for memorable music, I am going back twenty-five years to that glorious time. Summer also provides us with amazing tracks. Rather than do a playlist of the best songs of this summer so far, I wanted to go to 1998 and some of the memorable cuts from that time. Maybe you were around in 1998 to experience these songs first time. Maybe you are too young to remember so, for all and sundry, here are some ace tunes from the summer of 1998. I might do similar playlists chronicling summer tracks from some great years. The weather is fine and hot so, in that spirit, I have assembled some pretty hot songs. It has been a pleasure to cast my mind back to the simply wonderful and magical…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Armin Rimoldi/Pexels

SUMMER of 1998.

FEATURE: Physical Attraction: Madonna at Forty: Its Legacy and Visual Impact

FEATURE:

 

 

Physical Attraction

IN THIS PHOTO: Madonna photographed in 1983 by Richard Corman

 

Madonna at Forty: Its Legacy and Visual Impact

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I have already…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Richard Corman

written features about Madonna’s eponymous debut album. Madonna turns forty on 27th July. It is undoubtably an album that changed the face of Pop. I was a couple of months old when the album was released, but I can only imagine what it was like living in a time when this exciting and fresh Pop artist came through! Madonna is an exceptional and enduring album that sort of revived Disco. At a time (1983) when a lot of Pop artists sounded the same, Madonna combined Disco of the 1970s and added something personal and distinct into the mix. Dance-Pop was created. Instantly, here we had this artist with enormous star power! Songs with catchy hooks, bright choruses and infectious moments aplenty, this was an introduction like no other. I am going to discuss the legacy of Madonna. But I want to discuss the visual impact of the album. In terms of the cover, promotional photography and the videos. I think Madonna has always been synonymous with her changing looks and distinct style. Someone who was individual and empowering, she also borrowed from other cultures and periods. In 1983, there was this blend of girl-next-door and cool-as-hell street chic. I am going to drop some photos in. I was caught by something on Wikipedia in the Legacy section of the Madonna page:

“Music critics Bob Batchelor and Scott Stoddart, commented in their book The 1980s that "the music videos for the singles off the album, was more effective in introducing Madonna to the rest of the world." Author Carol Clerk said that the music videos of "Burning Up", "Borderline" and "Lucky Star" established Madonna, not as the girl-next-door, but as a sassy and smart, tough funny woman. Her clothes worn in the videos were later used by designers like Karl Lagerfeld and Christian Lacroix, in Paris Fashion week of the same year. Professor Douglas Kellner, in his book Media Culture: Cultural Studies, Identity, and Politics Between the Modern and the Postmodern, commented that the videos depicted motifs and strategies which helped Madonna in her journey to become a star. With the "Borderline" music video, Madonna was credited for breaking the taboo of interracial relationships, and it was considered one of her career-making moments. MTV played the video in heavy rotation, increasing Madonna's popularity further”.

To start, there is that iconic album cover. Photographed by Gary Heery (the cover for the reissued album was by George Holz) and directed by Carin Goldberg, it is so different to anything that came out in 1983! That year – especially Pop albums – had a lot of bright and almost garish covers. There is something classic and subdued. The lettering and colour scheme is perfect. It perfectly frames this image of a young and hungry artist who mixes sexiness and sweetness. Confident and bold, yet there is that look of mystery and intrigue. It is such a great shot and album cover! The album’s back cover sees Madonna tugging at the chain around her neck. There is that sort of street tough look. There is also an allure and sense of tease in there. I think that Madonna’s looks and style of 1983 is among her most memorable and incredible. She comes across as someone who is quite accessible and relatable. You also get the sense she is a star. Someone who has this incredible aura and power! I will come back to the photos around 1983 soon. Before that, it is worth talking about the music videos for Madonna. Each of them is crucial. I wonder, ahead of the fortieth anniversary of Madonna, whether the videos for Holiday, Lucky Star and Burning Up will be remastered and in HD. The videos for Everybody and Borderline have already received this treatment. I always wonder, if there was more budget, whether Madonna would have reimagined the Holiday video. The one we have is very basic: looking like she is in an aerobics studio, it has that homemade feel. Even so, it shows that here was this quite modest and unstarry artist who was creating videos that were quite low-key. It is clear she had a love of dance and, at a time when the aerobics craze was huge in the U.S., it is perfectly suitable. The videos for Burning Up, Lucky Star and Borderline are the best visual representations of Madonna’s incredible music.

Burning Up sees Madonna on a boat and a variety of locations. The concepts would soon become more adventurous and filmic. Here, it is a showcase of her incredible look. With plenty of wristwear and bracelets, a combination of her album cover look and this awesome white dress (you call tell I am no fashion expert!), and you get this very cool and classic combination! Madonna already standing out as an iconic artist with her own look and designs. Directed by Mary Lambert, Borderline is the standout video from Madonna. Lambert would go on to direct the videos for Like a Virgin, Material Girl (1985), La Isla Bonita (1987) and Like a Prayer (1989). In the video, Madonna plays a young woman emotionally torn between her Hispanic boyfriend (Louie Louie) and a white photographer for whom she models and who publishes her pictures on a magazine cover. A young John Leguizamo appears in the background as an extra. Madonna wears different outfits. From ‘80s thrift looks to a tougher leather jacket and some denim, it is this amazing Pop artist dazzling and conquering the screen. She just owns the video! Even if the plot is quite basic, the direction and visuals are amazing. In every video released from the debut album, Madonna is very much at the front. Showcasing her range of styles and future acting prowess, even in 1983 and 1984, she was impossible to ignore! Borderline was the last video from Madonna. Released on 15th February, 1984, it would be only a few months until the Like a Virgin video came out. A video compilation, Madonna, was released by Warner Music Video and Sire Records in November 1984 to promote the debut album. The first video compilation, it contained three music videos from the album - Burning Up, Borderline and Lucky Star - as well as the then current single, Like a Virgin. It was clear there was this enormous pull early on. A great new artist catching the eye and capturing the heart.

I will come to the photos around in 1983. Before that, I want to take a moment to recognise the legacy and impact of Madonna. CLASH wrote how this wonderful debut changed the face of Pop. It influenced countless artists - and it must surely rank alongside the most important albums of all time:

“It's 1983. Punk is dead. Post-punk is on it's last limbs. According to those in the know, disco is dead also, although that proved not to be the case. Indie and alternative is in it's infancy and pop music seems as varied and sparse in it's tastes as it ever has done. Prince was working up to his career's pinnacle, Talking Heads were about to descend from theirs and, in that climate, it seemed that very few would enjoy more than their fifteen minutes of fame, in a sector of the industry that now felt more immediate than ever before.

Recovering from it's biggest shake up since the emergence of The Beatles in the early 1960s, pop music also felt boundless in what it now had to offer the world. MTV blew the entertainment world wide open in 1981, turning former child star Michael Jackson into The King Of Pop in the process. The industry needed a Queen to share his throne.

Step forward a 25-year-old Michigan native who now worked the restaurants of New York City, following after her move to the big apple, pursuing her dream of making a career in modern dance, fell flat on it’s face. Her name? Madonna Louise Ciccone, although the world would come to know her by only one name.

In 1982, bed-stricken by a recurrent heart condition, Sire Records' founder Seymour Stein pressed play on her demo for ‘Everybody’, the song that was to become Madonna's first single, as well as the closing track on the eventual debut record. Within hours of hearing it for the first time, and calling over to Danceteria DJ Mark Kamis (who had given Stein the tape in the first place), Madonna was by his bedside, signing the contract that would see her career begin with one of the most fabulously realised debut albums in music history.

It's now 2018 and Madonna is celebrating her 60th birthday. It's also 35 years since that eponymous debut album and subject of this spotlight review hit the shelves in record stores all over the world and, as I drop the needle on my newly acquired vinyl copy, I get a sense of just how exciting it must have been for someone in my position to be doing just that, more than three decades ago.

PHOTO CREDIT: Richard Corman

As the shimmering intro to ‘Lucky Star’ begins to play and is replaced by that prime 80s mix of synth beats, choppy guitars and a funky bass line, I find myself transfixed by her timeless, thousand yard stare, one half of which shoes an angelic, young adult, the other a hardened, tortured soul. She had the look of a woman both frustrated by her past and determined to ensure her future is markedly different. More endearingly, she has the look of someone who's completely unaware of how different that future would prove to be, for both herself, and the rest of the entire world.

It's difficult to think of many more debut albums that, in retrospect, hint so boldly at the career that an artist would grow into and the reputation that they would subsequently cultivate – the only one that springs immediately to mind is U2's ‘Boy’, an album made in Dublin kitchens but destined to be played in the world's biggest, best arenas.

Throughout the course of ‘Madonna’, she discusses the tropes present on most pop debuts – the idea of love, loss and the struggles of early adulthood. The overriding presence of her lyrics here is her independence and her ability to challenge the preconceived ideas that others have of how she should act and the choices that she is making”.

That street-smart monochrome cover shot for Madonna by Gary Heery and art directed by Carin Goldberg remains staggering and perfect! I think it captures so many different sides to this new artist who was still mixing styles and personas. It was hard, in 1983, to define who Madonna was. In 2015, The Cut interviewed Carin Goldberg about her memories of directing Madonna for her debut album shoot:

“Because she wasn’t famous, the budget was not huge at all. I asked her to come dressed in the kind of clothes she would normally wear. I said, “You’ve got your thing, just do it.” There was nothing particularly shocking about what she was wearing at the time. I think she just had a unique style. A lot of people did — Betsey Johnson, Cyndi Lauper, Diane Keaton. There was a lot going on then that was all about women wearing all kinds of weird combinations. We were all doing that kind of eclectic look, but Madonna did it with a much more audacious, sexual edge. It wasn’t so much about trying to be a rock star — it was more just making something from something you had around. Taking some piece of fabric and wrapping it around your head, for example. Over the years her style has changed, given her independence and wealth and ability to have designers design for her, but there’s still a kind of eclecticism to some degree.

My memory was that she wore some kind of cut shirt — there was definitely a lot of belly hanging out. And a balloon-y pant with the waist and legs rolled up. A lot of artists really didn’t have very much taste — they don’t always know who they are, and they need to be told — especially these days. Madonna walked in ready-made. She knew who she was. We didn’t have to worry about styling her.

She came with a lot of bracelets on, and so I said, “I think we ought to focus on the bracelets, let’s really try to get that in the picture.” That was the one iconic thing about her outfit, besides the rag in her hair. I thought she needed even more, so the girlfriend of the photographer went into her jewelry box and took as many bracelets as she could find, to give it a bit more boom.

We put on her music and I asked her to dance. There was not much else we needed to do, because she was a performer. It was short, it was sweet. She was prompt, she did everything we asked her to do, she said thank you. It could not have been more easy. I would not call her in any way warm and cuddly, but she was not unfriendly. She was just all business.

And who knew? In my wildest dreams, could I have ever imagined? I mean, I knew she had a little talent. She got there and danced, and sang “Holiday,” I think. I liked it, we could dance to it. But who the hell could have predicted after that? It totally exploded. That album was the moment”.

PHOTO/ART DIRECTION CREDIT: Gary Heery/Carin Goldberg

I think the best images of Madonna from 1983 were taken by Richard Corman (you can read more about his New York City shoot with Madonna here). A lot of the looks and styles in the photos would appear in the videos for Madonna. By Like a Virgin (1984), Madonna has shifted her looks and style choices. Here, in these Corman shots, there is that emphasise on a street-level and relatable artist who was natural in the streets of New York City. Big earrings, bangles and denim was quite a common look in 1983, though Madonna has this natural cool and charm that stands her aside from anyone else. I think the most iconic image from Richard Corman is one where Madonna is not street-ready and casual. In, I guess, a Cinderella homage (see above), she is on the roof and has this beautiful black-and-white striped skirt on. She looks relaxed and happy…and it says as much about Madonna as all the other shots. Kate Simon’s Madonna in NYC, 1983 work is brilliant. I suppose the idea was to portray this young woman from the Bay Area, Michigan who came to New York with not a lot of money to her name. She is a classic case of a promising talent coming to the city and making it. This early in her career, you sense that hunger and desire! Coming across both accessible and a star-in-the-making, the imagery and photography from 1983 (before and after the album release on 27th July) goes hand and hand with the music. George Holz took some grittier and tough images of Madonna (you can see one of his images on the Borderline single cover).

 IN THIS PHOTO: Madonna photographed in 1983 by George Holz

Rather than simply be this sweet and fun artist, there was this definitely toughness and confidence. Madonna was not relying on anyone to make her a success! She wrote most of the tracks on her debut, as you know she had a lot of say when it came to her amazing videos and shoots. I wanted to look at the visual side of Madonna. The album’s videos definitely stood out from what was being released n 1983. When MTV was ruling the world, you had this artist emerging who seemed perfect for them. That incredible album cover, the beautiful and simple videos, together with the great photoshoots where we see this clear star blooming and making her first moves, I think a lot of people will look back at this element when celebrating Madonna at forty. I am not sure if there are anniversary reissues planned, whether the videos will be remastered, or there is going to be a photo exhibition on 27th July. Madonna is preparing for her Celebration Tour. She will be on the road on 27th July, so I am not sure how much time and energy she has to give to that. One of the most important releases in Pop history, the mighty and majestic Madonna changed Pop and influenced a generation of artists – and it continues to inspire artists forty years later. On 27th July, through Sire and Warner Bros., this album arrived off of the back of two successful singles – Everybody (three on the US Dance Club Songs (Billboard) chart) and Burning Up (three on the US Dance Club Songs (Billboard) chart). Of course, when Holiday was released on 7th September, 1983, Madonna became a chart phenomenon and a true star! That was thanks to the incredible album and the momentum she had built. After its release on 27th July, 1983, this wonderful artist would soon…

CONQUER the globe!

FEATURE: Three MC’s and One DJ: Beastie Boys' Hello Nasty at Twenty-Five

FEATURE:

 

 

Three MC’s and One DJ

  

Beastie Boys' Hello Nasty at Twenty-Five

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FOLLOWING 1994’s Ill Communication…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Beastie Boys in 1998/PHOTO CREDIT: Danny Clinch

Beastie Boys released their fifth studio album, Hello Nasty, on 14th July, 1998. It sold 681,000 copies in its first week, debuting at number 1 on the Billboard 200 album sales chart. Hello Nasty also won Best Alternative Music Album and Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group (for Intergalactic) at the 41st Annual Grammy Awards. It splits people as to whether it is in the top-three Beasties albums. One of their members, Ad-Roc, revealed it was his favourite. Some fans put it up there with Paul’s Boutique and Ill Communication, whereas others feel it not up there with their best. I am in the former camp. Hello Nasty is the album that got me into Beastie Boys. Intergalactic is one of the songs of my teenage years. The album will always have a special place in my heart! I don’t think there are any plans for a twenty-fifth anniversary edition. I would urge people to listen to the album ahead of 14th July. One of the best albums of the '90s, Hello Nasty got a lot of love upon its release. I will bring in a few reviews/features. Rolling Stone reviewed Hello Nasty upon its release in 1998:

“SEE ALL THOSE stars up there? That means I can’t walk down my block for a whole month. For a black man, championing the Beasties is like being down with Madonna or rooting for the Utah Jazz. Whether it’s from a well-merited overprotectiveness of our precious culture or from mildly sour grapes, we ain’t supposed to like people who take black culture and refract it through white lenses.

Now, I hate the Salt Lake Celtics as much as the next guy, but the Beasties are complicated. Unlike nearly all white rap acts, the Beasties aren’t white boys in blackface. They’re the embodiment of the modern lower-Manhattan street kid. If hip-hop is as much a New York thing as it is a black thing, if keeping it real means faithfully representing your social aesthetic, if it’s another way of saying perfect pitch, then the Beasties keep it as real for their peoples as Jay-Z and Snoop do for theirs. For modern lower Manhattan, Kids is The Godfather and the Beasties are Sinatra.

Now comes a ludicrously fabulous, oftmanic, sometimes mellow 22-song long player of such astounding variety that it seems a lot longer than 67 minutes: Hello Nasty. Mike D, Ad-Rock and MCA opened their career with a pair of hip-hop albums (Licensed to III and Paul’s Boutique), then shifted gears for a pair of records that were more punk influenced (Check Your Head and III Communication). With their fifth proper album, a playfully mature Beastie record (if that’s possible), they turn the focus back toward hip-hop — there’s not one hárdcore punk song here — but with an understanding of how to conflate their two largest influences into one smooth-flowing package. Imagine the collaboration that Black Flag and De La Soul might have made, mixing jaunty samples and esoteric beats with punk-guitar crunch while shifting between that old we’re-havin’-fun-on-the-mike ethos and a primal, post-vocal wail. Imagine a sonic mix that’s about sixty-five to seventy percent the frenetic, sample-crazy hip-hop eclecticism of Paul’s Boutique and about 25 to 30 percent the funk-punk fun of III Communication — with a cool, Latin-influenced near-instrumental (“Song for Junior”) and a sublime Brazilian-flavored acoustic number called “I Don’t Know,” which is sweetly delivered by MCA(??): “I’m walking through time/Deluded as the next guy/Pretending and hoping to find/That distant peace of mind,” and at that point you, too, will do a double take What? Did my Smashing Pumpkins CD sneak into the player? No, that’s just one of the many nice surprises on Hello Nasty — they wail, they whisper, they sample Spanish, they sample a little kid, they let Biz Markie and reggae legend Lee “Scratch” Perry do whatever they want. Still, it all flows so neatly, it’s like a single, multigroove, multisample, multihook sound collage that kinda morphs into something else every few minutes, with movements titled in a classically smart-aleck Beastie fashion — “Super Disco Breakin,'” “Song for the Man,” “Sneakin’ out the Hospital,” “Dr. Lee, Ph.D.” Good luck digesting all this sonic info before Labor Day. Hip-hop hasn’t unleashed anything this fantastically dense since the heyday of De La and Public Enemy.

On “Unite” the Beasties chant, “We’re the scientists of sound/We’re mathematically puttin’ it down.” Here’s the equation. In one rhyme, Ad-Rock tells you, “Well, I’m the Benihana chef on the SP-12/Chop the fuck out the beats left on the shelf”; and later they add, “I keep all five boroughs in stitches.” That’s the Beastie dichotomy — they’re silly on the mike to make it fun, but they’re Ginsu sharp on the samples and beats, throwing their pure love of sound all over the place. And I’m not supposed to like it? I’m supposed to prefer formula-clinging stereotype promoters who, every so often, catch a ridiculous arrest and make us cringe? The Beasties, as innovative musicians and good citizens, contribute more to the hip-hop community than a lot of MCs. And I’m not supposed to like it? Yeah, right”.

Melody Maker, NME and Rolling Stone ranked Hello Nasty as the second-best album of 1998. Reaching number one in the U.S. and U.K., there is no denying the popularity and commercial success of the album! Albumism revisited Hello Nasty for a feature celebrating its twentieth anniversary in 2018:

“By the time the Beastie Boys released Hello Nasty 20 years ago, they had pretty much won over most of their numerous doubters and haters by remaining true to themselves while maintaining a proper respect for hip-hop. That’s not an easy feat for an all-white rap act. While their 1986 debut Licensed to Ill bordered on parody and what some had perceived as mocking the then very new genre, Paul’s Boutique (1989) was the bellwether of what was to come for the band.

The Beastie Boys started out as a punk band who experimented with using samples. Their first single “Cooky Puss” was also the group’s first hip-hop single. On a personal note, it was in heavy rotation on my radio show back in 1984 at KSCR (now KXSC), USC’s student run radio station.

After Paul’s Boutique arrived to critical acclaim, their following LPs Check Your Head (1992) and III Communication (1994) dipped back into their punk influenced roots, and eventually led them to what was to be the peak of their career. The Beastie Boys willingness to stretch their boundaries while combining all of the elements of their first four LPs resulted in Hello Nasty.

Well, it’s…Fifty cups of coffee and you know it’s on / I move the crowd to the break of break of dawn / Can’t rock the house without the party people / Cause when we’re gettin’ down we are all equal / There’s no better or worse between you and me / But I rock the mic so viciously / Like pins and needles and words that sting / At the blink of an eye I will do my thing” (“Super Disco Breakin’”)

The Beastie Boys are unapologetically a New York band. They’re a hip-hop act with the aesthetic of a rock band from lower Manhattan and it comes through loud and clear on Hello Nasty. The group’s addition of Mixmaster Mike only further strengthened their old school vibe while adding a futuristic feel throughout the entire album.


“Intergalactic” sounds like it could have been the theme from a campy sixties sci-fi movie you’d watch at two in the morning on Channel 9. With samples from the theme from The Toxic Avenger, the song sets itself apart from whatever else was on the radio in 1998. The big surprise at the end is a freestyle rap from Biz Markie that does not come off as a gratuitous cameo appearance. It also makes it clear that The Beastie Boys were musically at another level. The beauty and genius of the Beastie Boys is that they continued to add new elements to the music, while keeping their feet firmly rooted in ‘80s hip-hop without sounding dated. “Three MC’s and One DJ” is further proof of this. The title is ripped straight from the ‘80s and the song gives props to the DJ, who always gets the party started.

It’s hard to write about the Beastie Boys now without thinking of the late Adam Yauch a.k.a. MCA. He was always my favorite member of the group because I always dug his style. MCA’s flow throughout the album had never sounded better and unfortunately, he is also responsible for the LP’s one debatable misstep, “I Don’t Know.” It was his first attempt at singing on wax and luckily it doesn’t ruin the album. It only adds to its quirkiness and spirit of the recording. The cherry on Hello Nasty’s sundae is an appearance by none other than Lee “Scratch” Perry on “Dr. Lee, PhD.” It’s spacey and out there, but it works. Don’t ask me how, but it fits in with the previous 20 tracks.

Hello Nasty proved to be the Beastie Boys’ commercial peak, and remains an important album in their discography. It combined all the elements from their previous output and spit out daring and original material. They could have taken the easy way out and given us a weak greatest hits album, but they chose to show us what they’ve learned and what they intended to do going forward. Hello Nasty is long and dense, but hang in there, it’s definitely worth your time”.

I am going to finish off with a review and retrospective from Stereogum. There will be a slew of new features coming this and next month ahead of a big anniversary for the mighty Hello Nasty. I think this is the last of the ‘classic’ Beastie Boys albums. They followed Hello Nasty with To the 5 Boroughs. Although underrated, I don’t think it has the same sort of ingenuity, layers and quality of previous albums:

“The Beastie Boys never disowned Licensed To Ill, the masterfully assholish frat-rap classic that made them famous. But they did spend the entire rest of their career distancing themselves from it, and sometimes apologizing for it. By the time all three Beasties hit 30, they’d achieved social and political consciousness. They were decrying misogyny and tirelessly lobbying for Tibet. They only barely did Licensed To Ill songs live. Still, Ad-Rock’s delivery on that “New Style” intro lingered. Ice Cube sampled it on “Check Yo Self” in 1992. DJ Kool quoted it on “Let Me Clear My Throat” in 1996. In 1995, the Pharcyde built the entire song “Drop” around the way Ad-Rock said that one word, and Ad-Rock and Mike D showed up to make cameos in the amazing filmed-backwards Spike Jonze video.

So when the Beasties sampled that line on “Intergalactic,” it wasn’t just a fun, goofy, exciting moment. It was the first time that the Beasties really embraced their own legacy — where they picked over their own old records for something cool, the same way they’d already picked over everyone else’s old records. It was the moment that they recognized themselves as cultural forces. And it was also the moment when they effectively became a legacy act. Maybe I wouldn’t have been so excited that afternoon in the minivan if I’d realized that.

If a band gets famous enough and then sticks together for long enough, legacy-act status is practically an inevitability. It’s going to happen; it’s just a matter of how you slide into it. All through the ’90s, the Beasties had been building themselves their own tiny empire of cool. They had their own label and their own recording compound. They had their own interconnected web of associated acts. They had their own magazine, read religiously by dorks like me. They ventured away from rap, into scratchy instrumental funk and dirt-stache hardcore. And yet they always had something to do with mainstream rap. Check Your Head and Ill Communication, their two previous albums, could be heard as distant branches on the Native Tongues family tree, and the Native Tongues were still making popular records at the time. But by 1998, Native Tongues were a distant memory, and the Beasties couldn’t have possibly had less to do with Bad Boy, or DMX, or Master P.

The Beasties weren’t willing to be like their old Def Jam labelmate L Cool J, ferociously and sometimes desperately clinging onto the rap zeitgeist and rapping over whatever sounds would keep him on rotation in rap radio. They had the luxury of letting that go, making music for the vast and mostly white cult that they’d spent the ’90s cultivating. The Beasties had been making music for themselves, but they’d been keeping an eye on crossover success. Hello Nasty — named for the phrase employees at the Beasties’ PR firm recited when answering phone calls — is more or less the album where they let that go, where they colored within the lines that they’d already drawn and stopped trying to grab anyone from outside that cult.

It was still huge, of course. The Beasties were still making music with focus and drive and energy, and a song as big and silly as “Intergalactic” or “Body Movin'” still got plenty of love on alt-rock radio. The Beasties spent the next few years touring arenas, doing a gimmicky and silly live show where they all wore matching jumpsuits and new recruit Mix Master Mike, late of the Invisibl Skratch Piklz, got a whole lot of chances to show off. But Hello Nasty was still the moment when they’d play live and you’d wait patiently through the new songs. When I saw them that summer, I was excited to hear “Intergalactic,” but I was a whole lot more excited to hear “So What’Cha Want” and “Sure Shot.”

The Beasties would release three more albums after Hello Nasty — none of them especially good, all edging close to self-parody. At a certain point, their infrequent records sounded less like artistic statements and more like excuses to tour some more. There’s nothing wrong with that; it’s the legacy act way. And so Hello Nasty now stands as a fulcrum point in the group’s career, the moment where they started transitioning from boho-rap world-builders to the cool rich dads that they are today. (It’s been six years since we suddenly and tragically lost MCA, but he’d probably be doing a slightly more activism-heavy version of the same shit as his two surviving bandmates if he was alive today.) Hello Nasty was the Beasties coasting on goodwill, but it generated plenty of goodwill of its own. And while it’s far from the best Beasties album, it still sounds plenty good on a July afternoon. Try it for yourself and see”.

On 14th July, the world celebrates twenty-five years of Beastie Boys’ Hello Nasty. Alongside Body Movin', Intergalactic and Three MCs and One DJ, there are some wonderful deeper cuts from the genius minds of Beastie Boys. I would encourage anyone who has never heard the album to do so when they can. Even if Hello Nasty divides some people, I think that it is…

ONE of their very best.

FEATURE: Balance Is Gone: Why the Abuse and Negativity Billy Nomates Faced After Her Glastonbury Set Is Especially Upsetting and Angering

FEATURE:

 

 

Balance Is Gone

  

Why the Abuse and Negativity Billy Nomates Faced After Her Glastonbury Set Is Especially Upsetting and Angering

_________

IF some on social media…

 IMAGE CREDIT: Tor Maries (Billy Nomates)

have claimed that abuse and cruel comments aimed at Billy Nomates (Tor Maries) does not constitute sexism and misogyny – some men, they say, have been put down similarly… -, you only had to read some of the comments that were left on the BBC Radio 6 Music feed to know this is not true! The station has been posting videos of performances from Glastonbury. In its second day now, we have seen some incredible sets and wonderful new artists how why they will be headliners of the future. If the festival was criticised for not including any female headliners this year – even though Lizzo will support Guns N’ Roses later, many (myself included) felt she should be a headliner -, they are rectifying that next year. It is pretty much odds-on that Taylor Swift (who was busy this year) is one of the two women the organisers have promised as 2024 headliners. I have written enough about how women are dominating music. The best albums of the past have been made by women.They are ruling music, and they are giving us so much…and yet there is still so much abuse and misogyny aimed at them. Specific comments about Billy Nomate’s gender shows that it is very much misogynistic. It is, I should note, not BBC Radio 6 Music’s fault, as they are ardent champions and supporters of Billy Nomates’ music! I would struggle to believe if a male artist performed a set with no band behind them, they would not be subjected to a flood of insulting and insulting comments! Billy Nomates performed without the band. As a tweet from BBC Radio 6 Music’s Lauren Laverne showed, she doesn’t need the band: she IS the band! She is called ‘Billy Nomates’, so anyone expecting a full band behind her has missed the point! She put on a remarkable set and, when she was interviewed by Laverne earlier in the day for BBC Radio 6 Music, she was so pumped, excited and wonderfully uplifting. Such a vibrant, friendly, loving and inspiring artist, that was all soured when she learned of a lot of the reaction to her set.

I must say that, from Billy Bragg to Lauren Laverne to The Anchoress (Catherine Anne Davies) to countless others, there has been love, support and condemnation of those idiots who posted misogynistic comments. Dress it up any way you like, and it is very much an attack on women. There seems to be this standard that men are not held to. This discrimination and sexism that is in no danger of going away. People wonder why there are no female headliners when those primed to be one are discouraged and cancel shows because they are so depressed and disheartened by abuse! So many incredible women are playing amazing sets, but so many too have to read sexist and incredibly nasty and unwarranted comments. Even if – and there WAS NOT – anything wrong, strange or substandard about Billy Nomates’ performance, then why comment on it? This festival has seen far weaker and less spectacular sets than what Billy Nomates gave to us – and yet they have not received vile personal attacks and tin-earned poison. Clearly, as Billy Nomates explained in her post, she is not to everyone’s taste. This is very modest of her: those who do not ‘get’ her are missing out on something very brilliant indeed! She is a perfectly accessible and brilliant artist but, like a lot of artists, there will be those who do not take a shine. It is their loss! What you don’t do is go online to attack a performance or artist because you felt it was not to your standards. I think there is still this assumption Glastonbury should be male-heavy bands playing guitars. If a woman dared to perform without a big band, then that is really not what the festival is about!

There is that narrow-minded and very outdated viewpoint of what a festival is. Music is always evolving, and we have more choice and variety than ever before. I do worry, if women like Tor Maries are put down and insulted because they are providing this very direct, personal and extraordinary performance on their own terms, what does this mean for the future of festivals and music in general?! Sexism, sexual assault, discrimination, gender imbalance on radio stations playlists, and a fewer opportunities are already hurdles women have to face. Throw into the mix the fact that, if they do play a prestigious festival on a day that should count as one of their best, they then have to read abuse and clear misogyny, then they might consider quitting or stop playing! Billy Nomates has said there will be no dates after summer commitments. I hope she reconsiders! One of our very best artists, last year’s CACTI is an album that deserves a Mercury Prize nomination next month. She is one of our best artists and human beings. It is humbling and emotional reading all the love and support there is for her! On an amazing day where those in attendance gave her huge respect and applause, a band of Internet trolls and, let’s face it, mostly male keyboard warriors felt the need to insult her performance and why she was not playing with a band.

Taking aim at her voice and demeanour, it is so upsetting to imagine what Tor Maries was thinking when she had to read that! After such a buzz, this is a massive comedown that nobody deserves! I hope that she does keep on playing. I know she will get sent the comments supporting her and calling out those who took aim at her. In a larger sense, the industry and festivals needs to address the way many of its female artists are judged, received, and seen. I know it is a hard situation where they are trying to create gender balance and yet women are being attacked and abused. At a time when there are few female headliners, this sort of thing is not helping the cause! So many have this notion of a festival. It may be mostly a generational thing. I don’t know. That impression festivals should be male-heavy and guitar-based. That it doesn’t matter if there are fewer women playing. So many incredible female artists are enriching the industry, and yet they have to fight so much harder than men. They get fewer gigs and big platforms, less radio play on bigger stations, and they are open and subjected to misogyny and abuse. It will have a devastating impact on an industry that is golden and brilliant because of them. We need to start respecting women in music. For doing that they want to write and perform in the manner and way that they want! I will discuss that in a separate feature, but I wanted to react, like so many, to the sad news that Billy Nomates is going to stop playing because of what was posted. The brilliant Tor Maries warrants nothing but love! She should be celebrated and adored for…

THE legend and queen that she is!

FEATURE: Spotlight: Ezra Williams

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

PHOTO CREDIT: Colette Slater Barrass

 

Ezra Williams

_________

THE incredible Irish artist Ezra Williams…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Colette Slater Barrass

is someone who has released one of the best debut albums of the year with Supernumeraries. Actually, it might be one of the best albums of the year – regardless of whether it is a debut or not. Williams, formerly known as Smoothboi Ezra, has released a debut album that is so mature, interesting, open and powerful. I think people get an impression of what Irish music should sound like. Cities like Dublin having a distinct and narrow vibe. The truth is that the music coming out of Ireland is so eclectic and varied. For a few years, Williams has been honing their songwriting skills that speak about what it is like for someone on the autism spectrum to form close and lasting relationships. Go and check out Supernumeraries when you get time. I am going to get to a couple of reviews for the album later. First, and for those new to Ezra Williams, The Lunar Collective’s interview from March gives us some more insight and detail regarding their music, career trajectory and debut release:

“LUNA: I want to start off by asking about your time as a musician so far: When did making music begin to feel like a meaningful outlet for you, and why does it continue to be meaningful?

WILLIAMS: Music was always a meaningful outlet; even just listening to music was an outlet. I started writing music properly — songs that I actually wanted people to hear — when I was 14, and from the get-go it was always quite meaningful for me. It was more for me than it was for anyone else.

LUNA: Has that changed now that you have been putting out music? Do you still feel like it's mostly for you, even though you have an audience who wants to hear it?

WILLIAMS: It still definitely is mostly for me. I feel like if I was trying to write for someone else, it wouldn't sound the way I wanted it to. A lot of my songs happen the way that they do because I write them for me.

LUNA: That's so good! I feel like you get to, in turn, put out art that you're actually proud of because you're not trying to please anyone else. I love that you have a good relationship with your work. How do you balance wanting to share these parts of you with the world but also prioritize your own mental health and privacy when it comes to releasing these really vulnerable pieces of work?

WILLIAMS: I don't know if I have reached a balance yet. A lot of the time I want to release songs, but with some of them I don't want to explain what they're about when it comes to me. That's why a lot of the time I'll give very vague descriptions of what the songs mean or why I wrote them. Then I'll have my management being like, “Is there anything else? Do you want to talk about it a bit more?" And I'm like, "Nope, not at all!"

LUNA: Yeah, I feel like as an artist, there's all this pressure put on you to divulge your full life story with your discography and explain every single moment of your life, which is kind of inhumane if you think about it.

WILLIAMS: It does feel like that sometimes.

PHOTO CREDIT: Colette Slater Barrass

LUNA: Especially with the nature of your music and how introspective it is, it can be hard to hit that balance of preserving yourself and separating yourself from the “artist self” that you have. Kind of going off that, how do you deal with self-doubt when it comes to sharing your music?

WILLIAMS: What helped me a lot is listening to my friends’ music and hearing them talk about their music. I realized how you [can be] to yourself. I have so many friends who will play me something and they'll be like, "Oh, this is going nowhere, it sucks." And I'm like, "This is the best thing I've ever heard in my life." I'll write a song and sometimes I'll spend too much time on it in one go, and then I'll annoy myself with it or I'll end up not liking it anymore. Then I'll spiral into this thing of [thinking] it was terrible to begin with and that it was so bad. A lot of the time, I have to take a step back and then go back to it at another time. Sometimes if there are songs that I worked really hard on but I don't like how they turned out, I will do something with them later on because I know that I might feel different later, or also that, just because I don't like it doesn't mean that someone else won't.

LUNA: Definitely. I love that you don't immediately scrap a song if it's not what you want or necessarily envision. It's like, "I can come back to this later."

WILLIAMS: I do that with a lot of my songs. That's why loads of the songs on my [upcoming] album are actually songs I wrote a while ago. A lot of them are songs that I decided to scrap a while ago and then came back to.

LUNA: What's the process of revisiting those songs like for you? I imagine some were written a couple years ago as opposed to recently.

WILLIAMS: It's different every time, but for the album that I just made, from the moment that I decided I was going to start writing an album I wrote all the names of every song that I had in my phone and my Notes on sticky notes, and I put them on my wall. Then I organized them based on which songs I liked and which songs I didn't like, so that if I had a moment of inspiration, I could go look at my wall and be like, "Okay, I'll work on this song, or I'll work on this song." And that's how I did it”.

I do not normally bring in other publications’ ones to watch features when doing my own. That said, as The Guardian spotlighted Ezra Williams earlier this month, I thought it was worth dropping in what they had to say about an incredible artist. They are definitely going to go a very long way and release a lot more wonderful music. I am quite new to them, but I am already an intrigued fan. Go and follow Williams on social media when you can, as they are someone with a distinct and amazing sound:

“As an introvert growing up on the coast in County Wicklow, Ireland, a teenage Ezra Williams would steal their brother’s iPod Shuffle and jot down “little poems”. These later became songs, culminating in their first single, 2018’s Thinking of You – a wistful bedroom-pop track that only migrated from GarageBand to SoundCloud’s public sphere for the benefit of their mum, who wanted a listen. After that: “I just kept releasing things. That was it.”

Influenced by artists such as Elliott Smith, Frank Ocean and Fiona Apple, Williams’s soft indie rock is rich with layers of meaning. Their shoegazey 2020 single My Own Person drew in fans after featuring in the coming-of-age Netflix hit Heartstopper, with its gentle melody and heart-wrenching lyrics (“But I wanna start feeling that I can be myself”). “Some of the song is sarcasm relating to the fact that society thinks the trans community is constantly confused,” Williams, who identifies as non-binary, explained.

Now 21 and an art student in Cork, Williams is diving deeper still into themes of desire, alienation and uncertainty. Their forthcoming debut album, Supernumeraries, examines burgeoning or faded relationships amid a considered blend of heady, echoing harmonies and contemplative guitar-strumming. In Williams’s capable hands, intimate details and closely held desires – such as Until I’m Home’s “You smell like a home that you love and you know/ Wish I knew what it smelt like to you” – become resonant and universal”.

I am going to come to those reviews soon. Before I get there, NME spoke with Ezra Williams recently. Back in March, NME opened by saying that Williams is operating in different career cycles. This one they are in now is this growth and progress from a promising artist. Exploring and revealing different facets of their personality, it seems that Williams is writing music that is what they heard in their heads years ago. That said, when it comes to a few of the songs on Supernumeraries, some of the tensions and questions posed during the pandemic (and whey were thinking of these songs) have issues that have since been resolved:

“In the coming months, Williams will fully close out the last seven years of their life with the release of their long-awaited debut album – with details to be revealed soon. The record details old relationships and friendships; situations growing ever distant in the rearview mirror of the 20-year-old’s life as they continue to shed those stories and let go. “A lot of them are 2020 situations – they’re not even things I think about now,” they explain. “Writing and making this album for so long has definitely helped me move past what the songs are about.”

The record ends with a reimagined and re-recorded version of Williams’ 2019 single ‘Seventeen’. Where the original features minimal layers, the artist’s voice taking centre stage over a finger-picked melody, this take completely reinvents the song, splashing drums and a bass groove underpinning effect-laden stuttering vocals. Returning to that track was prompted by Williams’ friend and producer Jacky O’Halloran wanting to make his own version of it. “He sent me the backing track he made and it was really cool, so I was like, ‘Let’s work on it together,’” Williams says.

They squirm slightly at the memory, admitting the lyrics are “not as good as I remember them being”. “It’s kind of weird singing about hoping they will be better when you’re 17 when you’re almost 21,” they note wryly. Looking back on that time and knowing things did work out OK, though, brought them some peace, but they admit: “I wouldn’t wish being 14 to 16 on anyone ever.” 

‘Deep Routed’, the recent first single from the upcoming album, shares William’s feelings on something that has become part of their life since then – dating and relationships from the perspective of an autistic person. “Not understanding social cues and sarcasm and all those things are definitely way more difficult when you’re trying to date people,” they explain. “I wrote it after a first date when I was feeling scared of relationships and intimacy.”

That track isn’t the first time they’ve detailed their experience of autism in their music. Their 2021 EP ‘Stuck’ also shared a view of life through that lens, while Williams’ songs have always dealt in other highly personal stories. Songwriting, for them, has helped them become comfortable with everything that makes them who they are – even if they might need the perspective of someone else to help them get there.

“Music has definitely helped me understand myself more but, when I was younger, I’d write these songs where I didn’t know what they meant,” they say. “I’d show my mum and she’d psychoanalyse me through these songs and be like, ‘It means this’. It was like I’d have to get a second opinion on what I was feeling. That still happens to this day”.

Let’s finish up with a couple of positive reviews for the incredible Supernumeraries. The Line of Best Fit wrote about an album that is soul-searching and revealing. It has a lo-fi, almost homemade feel to it. Making the music seen rawer and more personal, one can understand why Ezras Williams is being talked about as a remarkable young artist to watch closely. I am definitely keeping my eye out for them and where they go next:

“It is a record of vulnerability and introspection, making it unsurprising that it was written and mostly self-produced by Williams, with help from close friends along the way. To set the scene: keeping the circle small, they recorded the album at various friend's houses and at the bottom of their parent’s garden in Greystones. Here, Williams brought together a 12-track showcase of songs written throughout their life, engaging in the breakdown of both romantic and platonic relationships and the deep-rooted feelings they were left with in the end. Supernumeraries comes from a place near and dear to its creator, with each track acting as a small piece of their past in song form.

There is a tactile quality to the song titles which is highly intriguing on first listen. With names like “Skin”, “Bleed”, “Babyteeth”, and “My Nose” all being things that make up the human body, it is slightly unnerving, yet makes this an album full of experiences familiar to all. The title Supernumeraries stems from the excess of teeth Williams had as a child, due to a condition called hyperdontia. After holding onto these teeth for a large portion of their childhood, they are now nowhere to be found. This realisation later became the inspiration for the record- a depiction of something that was once part of you, now being erased from your reality.

Williams leads with a heavenly tenderness on “Skin”, bearing a similar sweetness to the vocals of Clairo. The blend of their soft vocals with the DIY quality the lo-fi production successfully delivers gives their music a classic yet modern feel. Full of emotion and sentimentality, they demonstrate a deep attachment to the past through their lyricism, using speech to connect the dots between the past and present.

Expanding on the meaning behind “Skin”, Williams voices that; “This song is about trying to start dating again after heartbreak, the comparing of new people to past and accidentally falling back into bad habits from previous relationships.”

At its core, Supernumeraries is a record of love. Although not in its most typical form, they share conversations on both the ups and downs experienced in romantic and platonic relationships and the anxieties and strong feelings tied up into these connections. As someone whose queerness, gender identity and neurodiversity play a significant role in their expression as an artist, they are actively contributing to a space which champions love stories from outside the binary”.

The final thing I want to quote is a review from NME. Big fans of Ezra Williams’ work, they discussed this artistic and personal transformation. They feel, although Supernumeraries, is personal and confessional at times, it is never singular in its sound and feel. You get plenty of variety in a very special and remarkable debut album. Williams is proof that some of the most interesting and impactful music is coming out of Ireland:

“On their debut album, Ezra Williams embodies the idea of transformation as much as they sing about it. The 21-year-old is a master at communicating the inner monologue, layering deeply personal observations on desire, tenderness and frustration over soothing, mid-tempo guitar songs. When honesty is served up as nakedly and directly as it is on ‘Supernumeraries’, it can stop you in your tracks.

Over the past year, Williams, a Country Wicklow native, has overhauled both their sound and artistic identity. After emerging in 2018 with the peppy ‘Thinking Of You’, the Irish songwriter began uploading their acoustic tunes to SoundCloud; four years later, their breakthrough single ‘My Own Person’ soundtracked a key scene in Netflix’s smash-hit LGBTQ+ drama Heartstopper, nudging Williams towards the mainstream. But they were still figuring out who they were: earlier this year, Williams scrapped their previous alias of Smoothboi Ezra in order to represent the more confident, full-bodied sound of their new music. “I hated having to explain [the name], an inside joke that I had when I was 14,” they recently explained to NME of the decision.

‘Supernumeraries’, then, skips the friendly hello and dives straight into Williams’ ever-expanding and colourful world. Its 12 tracks are intimate and diaristic, but the album never feels one-note: Williams is at turns hopeful, liberated, confused, and anxious. “I don’t care about being on my own / Actually I do, but I don’t want you to know”, they sing on ‘Seventeen’ over a soaring pop melody, before letting out a lung-shattering scream. Here, Williams unpacks what it means to face up to loneliness, shifting into a confrontational voice that they embody easily.

A folkier softness is highlighted on ‘Don’t Wake Me Up’ and ‘Beside Me’, which glide along at a gentler place than much of ‘Supernumeraries’; they’re tentative songs but with a purpose, both of which contemplate what it means to not have – or need – the right answers for everything. This level of soul-searching is reflected elsewhere, too: ‘I Miss You(r) Face’ adopts a hushed vocal, as Williams hums along to the breezy melody, as though they are deep in thought.

One of the most refreshing things about the record is how, much like their transatlantic peer Leith Ross, Williams is uninterested in finding any kind of solution to the big, endless questions of young adulthood – they have started to make peace with their growing pains. Williams may often sing about the gap between who they are and who they want to be, but the giddy, occasionally uplifting atmosphere of ‘Supernumeraries’ gives them ample space to work out their next steps as an artist”.

If you are looking for a terrific new artist to follow, then I can definitely recommend that you follow Ezra Williams. Their music might be new to your ears or unfamiliar but, before long, you will fall under its spell. They are a brilliant young artist with many years in the industry ahead. Supernumeraries has rightly been getting…

A lot of love.

_____________

Follow Ezra Williams

FEATURE: The Digital Mixtape: Ariana Grande at Thirty: The Ultimate Playlist

FEATURE:

 

 

The Digital Mixtape

  

Ariana Grande at Thirty: The Ultimate Playlist

_________

I wanted to use this feature…

to look ahead at the upcoming thirtieth birthday of one of the world’s most popular artists. Ariana Grande celebrates her birthday on 26th June. On 30th August, her debut album, Yours Truly, turns ten. Her most recent album, Positions, came out in 2020. To mark her approaching thirtieth birthday, I have compiled a playlist of her best-known songs, together with a selection of deep cuts. Firstly, I want to bring in some biography from AllMusic:

“Ariana Grande is perhaps the quintessential pop star of the last half of the 2010s, capturing the era's spirit and style. Emerging in 2013 with the hit single "The Way," Grande initially appeared to be the heir to the throne of Mariah Carey, due in part to her powerhouse vocals. With its Babyface production, her debut Yours Truly underscored her debt to '90s R&B, but Grande quickly incorporated hip-hop and EDM into her music. "Problem," a 2014 smash duet with Iggy Azalea, was the first indication of her development, an evolution reinforced by the hits "Bang Bang" and "Love Me Harder," which featured Jessie J & Nicki Minaj and the Weeknd, respectively. Grande maintained her popularity with 2016's Dangerous Woman, then really hit her stride with 2018's Sweetener and its swift sequel Thank U, Next, whose title track became her first number one pop hit. That achievement was quickly equaled by "7 Rings," a glitzy anthem for the Instagram age that consolidated her stardom and artistry, as well as "Positions," the lead single from 2020's R&B-heavy album of the same name.

A native of Boca Raton, Florida, where she was born in 1993 to graphic designer Edward Butera and Joan Grande (the CEO of Hose-McCann Communications), Grande began singing and acting at an early age, appearing in local theater productions. In 2008, when she was 15, she landed the role of Charlotte in the Broadway production of 13; her performance was well-received, and she won a National Youth Theatre Association Award. Following an appearance in the 2010 Desmond Child-written musical Cuba Libre, Grande was cast as Cat Valentine in the Nickelodeon television program Victorious. The show ran until 2012, at which time Grande's Cat Valentine was spun off into a show called Sam & Cat, which also starred Jennette McCurdy of iCarly.

As she kept herself busy with television, Grande began to pursue a musical career. She frequently made appearances at sporting events and with symphonies, and she made her first appearances on record with the soundtrack to Victorious. In 2011, she released the single "Put Your Hearts Up," which was cut during sessions for a teen-oriented pop album; she later disowned the single due to its kiddie feel. Grande felt much more comfortable with "The Way," her 2013 single featuring Mac Miller. This signaled a mature direction and audiences responded, taking it to the Top Ten in the U.S., where it was eventually certified triple platinum. It was the first single from her 2013 debut, Yours Truly, which also featured hits in "Baby I" and "Right There."

At the end of the year she released a seasonal EP called Christmas Kisses, but her real efforts went into the recording of her second album, My Everything. Preceded by the single "Problem" -- a song that featured a guest spot from Iggy Azalea, the "It girl" of the summer of 2014; it peaked at two on the U.S. charts and was certified double platinum -- the album featured a host of different producers, including Max Martin, Shellback, Ryan Tedder, and Benny Blanco. It was released at the end of August 2014, hitting number one on charts across the globe. Subsequent singles featured assists by Zedd ("Break Free"), Jessie J & Nicki Minaj ("Bang Bang"), and the Weeknd ("Love Me Harder"). At one point in 2014, three of her songs were in the Billboard Top Ten at the same time, a feat matched only be Adele. By the time fifth single "One Last Time" charted in early 2015, My Everything had sold nearly 600,000 copies.

As that album's cycle wound down, Grande guest-starred on Ryan Murphy's campy slasher series Scream Queens and she also recorded another holiday EP, Christmas & Chill. In October 2015, Grande released the single "Focus," which debuted at number seven on the Hot 100 and was certified platinum the following January. That February, she announced her third album, Dangerous Woman, and released the album's title track as a single in March. The song hit number eight on the Hot 100, making Grande the first artist to have the lead single from each of her first three albums debut in the Top Ten. Featuring collaborations with Macy Gray, Future, and Nicki Minaj, the album appeared in May 2016 and debuted at number two. It eventually went platinum, helped by a trio of Top Ten hits and a Grammy nomination for Best Pop Vocal Album. Grande began 2017 by duetting with John Legend on "Beauty and the Beast," the title track for Disney's live-action remake of the 1991 animated classic. She then mounted her Dangerous Woman Tour, performing across North America and Europe during the first half of 2017.

Tragedy struck on May 22, 2017, when a suicide bomber attacked Grande's concert at the Manchester Arena in Manchester, England. Grande returned to performing on June 4, when she held a star-studded charity concert called One Love Manchester to aid the victims of the bombing. Following the show, she resumed the Dangerous Woman Tour, which concluded in Hong Kong that September.

In April 2018, Grande kicked off promotion for her fourth album, Sweetener, by issuing the single "No Tears Left to Cry," which debuted at number three on the Hot 100. It was followed by "God Is a Woman" later that year. Upon its release in August 2018, Sweetener debuted at number one in both the U.S. and U.K.

Three months after the release of Sweetener, Grande returned with the non-LP single "Thank U, Next." Quickly becoming an internet sensation, "Thank U, Next" shot to number one throughout the world, as did Grande's next single, "7 Rings." Both songs were featured on the full-length album Thank U, Next, which appeared in February 2019. Her fourth U.S. number one, the set also topped the charts in over a dozen countries, further buoyed by third single "Break Up with Your Girlfriend, I'm Bored." Mere months after the release of Thank U, Next, Grande moved on with a series of collaborations, including "Monopoly" with Victoria Monet, "Boyfriend" with Social House, and the Charlie's Angels reboot theme "Don't Call Me Angel" with Miley Cyrus and Lana Del Rey. Capping off the year, Grande was nominated for five Grammy Awards: Album of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Album for Thank U, Next, Record of the Year and Best Pop Solo Performance for "7 Rings," and Best Pop Duo/Group Performance for "Boyfriend." She capped this prolific period with k bye for now, a live album recorded at various stops throughout her 2019 Sweetener World Tour.

Grande had duets reach the top of the Billboard charts in early 2020 -- first it was "Stuck with U" with Justin Bieber, then it was "Rain on Me" with Lady Gaga -- before she launched her next album, Positions, with the release of its title track. The single reached number one just before the October 30 release of the album, which crowned the Billboard 200”.

In honour of Ariana Grande’s thirtieth birthday, below is a selection of her tracks. Let’s hope that there is a new album coming along soon. She is one of the most loved artists in Pop, so we can only hope that she announces something new soon! Enjoy this Digital Mixtape that highlights the talent and brilliance of…

THE one and only Ariana Grande.

FEATURE: Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise): Dating and Work-Life Balance for Those in the Music Industry

FEATURE:

 

 

Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)

PHOTO CREDIT: lookstudio via Freepik 

 

Dating and Work-Life Balance for Those in the Music Industry

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A subject I have raised before…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Andrea Piacquadio/Pexels

I wonder whether those in the music industry have enough time to healthily balance work and a social life. I have talked about this before, but so few in the industry have a lot of time to look for love and commit to dating. Whether you are a musician, journalist or someone else who works in the industry, I think it can be really hard to find time for romance or even a social life. Everyone is in a different situation, but promoting music and having a career takes up so much time. A lot of it is done online. Most dating sites aren’t superficially set up for music lovers. That sounds weird, as music tastes and compatibility is one of the most powerful things. Everyone, to some degree, has a love of music. I find that the most interesting people I speak to have similar music tastes or are on the same wavelength. I would normally avoid dating websites, because there is that sense of incompatibility. Like so many in the industry, similar music tastes is a must. As I dedicate so much time to writing and music, it is important for me that dating and social life has a musical element. So many in the industry are so passionate about music, it is hard to talk about anything else. It is so firm in our minds and such a huge part of our vocabulary, hanging out with people who are similarly single-minded is really important. Dating can be hard anyway. In terms of finding the time, energy and money, you don’t really want to search too hard or wade through endless websites. Before this year, I hadn’t really seen any dating websites or apps designed for music lovers. As Mix Mag wrote earlier in the year, there is this new site, Vinlylly (I wonder whether CeCe Peniston signed off on the name!), that is designed with music fans in mind:

“A brand new dating rivalling the likes of Tinder and Bumble, Vinylly, is matching its users through musical compatibility.

Dubbed as a ‘first of its kind’, and the largest dating app based solely on music compatibility, Vinylly saw more than 18,700 matches alone in 2022, and amassed more than 40,000 profile views.

Connecting people through their taste in music, Vinylly looks into your streaming habits and consumption, and asks questions to each user about their tastes and preferences.

Earlier this week, Vinylly founder Rachel Van Nortwick tweeted some statistics from Vinylly’s recent growth, sharing that the app was recently “recognized by Mashable as one of ‘8 dating apps that are bucking against Tinder’s model’.”

PHOTO CREDIT: hrisimir Vasilev/Pexels

“I have been working hard on Vinylly, the inclusive dating app focused on music compatibility,” Van Nortwick explained. “I thought I'd share what we've been up to because we are shaking up the dancefloor.”

Vinylly also allows users to create and share playlists, of which saw more than 21,000 playlists viewed in 2022. Those on the app can also link their Spotify accounts, and chat to other users using music-based openers.

“We launched our own proprietary profile generator, giving all music fans the ability to create a profile in minutes. Users can still sync their Spotify too,” added the founder. “Vinylly's mission is backed by science. Connecting through music increases dopamine, oxytocin and lowers cortisol.”

In a blog post by Vinylly, cognitive psychologist Dr. Daniel Levitin spoke about the science behind music compatibility, stating that “listening to music changes your brain chemistry”. He added: “we know that people use music the way they use drugs.”

The post went on to add: "Vinylly’s algorithm allows you to match with people who have some similarities in music interests – just enough for you to find something in common, while also growing and expanding your music library”.

 PHOTO CREDIT: cottonbro studio/Pexels

It can be very lonely being in the music industry, so any site or app that makes it easier for us to find compatibility and sociability is a must! I also find that it is hard to find many social events where music is the focus. Though we do need more dating clubs and apps that are based around music and have us in mind, what about clubs or nights where those in the music industry can hang? You can go to gigs and find like-minded people, but I do think that it is hard to connect and be really sociable there – because of the noise, busy and packed venues/sites. Leading such busy lives where there is not much time to find love and friendship, it is essential that there is more out there for us. I find also artists are breaking up with their other half or finding it hard to maintain long-term relationships because that person either doesn’t understand their commitment or they are not completely compatible. I would love to find a club or venues that are less hectic than a gig where music fans can hang out. Like a big music café or site where you get smaller gigs, music books and a jukebox. You can all just hang and meet people naturally. That might exist somewhere, but I don’t think anywhere in London has something like that. I think loneliness is a big thing in the music industry. It can be – especially for journalist – particularly solitary and time-consuming. You don’t often have time to put a lot of time into finding a relationship or expanding your friend group.

Social media gives us a fake sense of friendship, belonging and influence. It is nice having people following you and interacting, but you do not often meet them. You can feel heard and supported, but it is all digital and intangible. We spend so much time immersed in that digital world, how often do we disconnect and spend time with others? For those in music, there is a disproportionate work-life balance. I would like a weekly thing I can go to that is for those in the industry. I am not sure what form it would take. But having that set time and place where you are away from the screen but get to be among your tribe and people has a lot of benefits. It can be a great way to network, but you also get more social opportunities and real-life connections. In reality, I think that dating might be harder to get right and find time for. As I say, it can be straining, lonely and isolating being in the music industry. Between spending hours online to not really having that many people who get you or you have a lot in common with, how easy is it to find love? Dating apps seem like a last resort, but they are convenient if you spend a lot of time online and don’t have the money or time to go to bars etc. It can be quite anxiety-inducing and strange trying to find someone in the real world. A lot in the music industry have psychological issues or shyness, so an online site can be a more accessible and comfortable way in. Vinylly is a great idea, but I wonder whether people write about relationships and friendship in music. I guess the situation is different for artists compared to everyone else in the industry. Many are on the road so much. When they do find a partner, it can be hard to make it last. Taylor Swift is in my thoughts when thinking of that. Do artists of her calibre and fame have the time to date, is it harder to sustain a relationship? Whether you date someone who is a musician or a ‘normal’ person, it can be really tough to make things last. That has quite a negative and long-lasting impact – though relationship woes and disconnect can inspire music!

 PHOTO CREDIT: Ketut Subiyanto/Pexels

Recently, new attention has been put on artists and mental health issues. Whether it is because of touring a lot and being drained and affected by long gigs and travel, or the impact of negativity on social media, artists need support and care. They often have to pull back from touring, and I wonder whether labels and those in the industry provide enough care and support to ensure that artists do not overdo things and have that care when they need it. I can only imagine how difficult it is for them to hold down relationships or dedicate their time to it. Friendship and dating is as important as a music career. Often, there is too much weight and time in the latter and not enough on the former. The more I write and immerse myself in music journalism, the less time and energy I expend to a social life or dating. Gigs can provide some overlap. It is that issue of finding time and space to detach from music and allow yourself time to relax and get that human connection. Dating can be a minefield for artists and those in the industry, because so much of that spark and connection revolves around music tastes. Also, I think a relationship or friendship has a greater chance of enduring and developing if you are on the same page regarding music tastes and that passion. It can be all-consuming, so ensuring the other person understands and appreciates that is key. The more I hear about artists struggling and those online spending so much time promoting their music and, at the same time, having to deal with crap and hateful comments, the more I feel it is important to switch off. It can be impossible to do that, but it is really vital. I need to take my own advice and do something with it. From finding a compatible mate to a space where similar-minded music lovers can hang and bond, it can be really tough. If you are able to strike that balance and find that connection it can…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Jonathan Borba/Pexels

MAKE a huge difference.

FEATURE: Breathe Out… Kate Bush’s Best Five Album Closing Tracks

FEATURE:

 

 

Breathe Out…

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1979/PHOTO CREDIT: Brian Arris 

Kate Bush’s Best Five Album Closing Tracks

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I seem to recall…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1993/PHOTO CREDIT: John Stoddart/Popperfoto via Getty Images

writing a Kate Bush feature naming her best opening album tracks. I may have done one ranking all of her album final songs, but for the life of me I cannot find that feature! In any case, I am going to narrow things down and rank the five best. She has released ten studio albums, so I am going to neglect a few I am afraid. It is essential, when recording an album, that the first and last tracks are as strong and memorable as possible! In a lot of ways, it is best to end with the strongest song, as you work up to that and leave the listener wanting more. Kate Bush always opens her albums with such incredible songs! You might be even more striking and memorable when it comes to that album swansong. To acknowledge that, below are her five finest closing songs. I had a hard time choosing but, when you listen to those closing tracks in the context of the whole album – I will embed the five albums throughout -, I think these leave the biggest impression. Such a phenomenal artist, these album-ending gems are guaranteed to…

TAKE the breath away!

____________

FIVE: Breathing (Never for Ever)

Album Release Date: 8th September, 1980

Single Release Date: 14th April, 1980

U.K. Album Chart Position: 1

U.K. Singles Chart Position: 16

Producers: Kate Bush/Jon Kelly

Song Details/Insight:

“When I wrote the song, it was from such a personal viewpoint. It was just through having heard a thing for years without it ever having got through to me. 'Til the moment it hit me, I hadn't really been moved. Then I suddenly realised the whole devastation and disgusting arrogance of it all. Trying to destroy something that we've not created - the earth. The only thing we are is a breathing mechanism: everything is breathing. Without it we're just nothing. All we've got is our lives, and I was worried that when people heard it they were going to think, 'She's exploiting commercially this terribly real thing.' I was very worried that people weren't going to take me from my emotional standpoint rather than the commercial one. But they did, which is great. I was worried that people wouldn't want to worry about it because it's so real. I was also worried that it was too negative, but I do feel that there is hope in the whole thing, just for the fact that it's a message from the future. It's not from now, it's from a spirit that may exist in the future, a non-existent spiritual embryo who sees all and who's been round time and time again so they know what the world's all about. This time they don't want to come out, because they know they're not going to live. It's almost like the mother's stomach is a big window that's like a cinema screen, and they're seeing all this terrible chaos. (Kris Needs, 'Fire In The Bush'. Zigzag (UK), 1980)

From my own viewpoint that's the best thing I've ever written. It's the best thing I've ever produced. I call that my little symphony, because I think every writer, whether they admit it or not, loves the idea of writing their own symphony. The song says something real for me, whereas many of the others haven't quite got to the level that I would like them to reach, though they're trying to. Often it's because the song won't allow it, and that song allowed everything that I wanted to be done to it. That track was easy to build up. Although it had to be huge, it was just speaking - saying what had to be put on it. In many ways, I think the most exciting thing was making the backing track. The session men had their lines, they understood what the song was about, but at first there was no emotion, and that track was demanding so much emotion. It wasn't until they actually played with feeling that the whole thing took off. When we went and listened, I wanted to cry, because of what they had put into it. It was so tender. It meant a lot to me that they had put in as much as they could, because it must get hard for session guys. They get paid by the hour, and so many people don't want to hear the emotion. They want clear, perfect tuning, a 'good sound'; but often the out-of-tuneness, the uncleanliness, doesn't matter as much as the emotional content that's in there. I think that's much more important than the technicalities. (Kris Needs, 'Fire In The Bush'. Zigzag (UK), 1980)” – Kate Bush Encyclopedia

FOUR: This Woman’s Work (The Sensual World)

Album Release Date: 17th October, 1989

Single Release Date: 20th November, 1989

U.K. Album Chart Position: 2

U.K. Singles Chart Position: 25

Producer: Kate Bush

Song Details/Insight:

“John Hughes, the American film director, had just made this film called 'She's Having A Baby', and he had a scene in the film that he wanted a song to go with. And the film's very light: it's a lovely comedy. His films are very human, and it's just about this young guy - falls in love with a girl, marries her. He's still very much a kid. She gets pregnant, and it's all still very light and child-like until she's just about to have the baby and the nurse comes up to him and says it's a in a breech position and they don't know what the situation will be. So, while she's in the operating room, he has so sit and wait in the waiting room and it's a very powerful piece of film where he's just sitting, thinking; and this is actually the moment in the film where he has to grow up. He has no choice. There he is, he's not a kid any more; you can see he's in a very grown-up situation. And he starts, in his head, going back to the times they were together. There are clips of film of them laughing together and doing up their flat and all this kind of thing. And it was such a powerful visual: it's one of the quickest songs I've ever written. It was so easy to write. We had the piece of footage on video, so we plugged it up so that I could actually watch the monitor while I was sitting at the piano and I just wrote the song to these visuals. It was almost a matter of telling the story, and it was a lovely thing to do: I really enjoyed doing it. (Roger Scott Interview, BBC Radio 1 (UK), 14 October 1989)

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

THREE: The Kick Inside (The Kick Inside)

Album Release Date: 8th September, 1980

U.K. Album Chart Position: 3

Producer: Andrew Powell

Song Details/Insight:

“The song The Kick Inside, the title track, was inspired by a traditional folk song and it was an area that I wanted to explore because it's one that is really untouched and that is one of incest. There are so many songs about love, but they are always on such an obvious level. This song is about a brother and a sister who are in love, and the sister becomes pregnant by her brother. And because it is so taboo and unheard of, she kills herself in order to preserve her brother's name in the family. The actual song is in fact the suicide note. The sister is saying 'I'm doing it for you' and 'Don't worry, I'll come back to you someday.' (Self Portrait, 1978)

That's inspired by an old traditional song called 'Lucy Wan.' It's about a young girl and her brother who fall desperately in love. It's an incredibly taboo thing. She becomes pregnant by her brother and it's completely against all morals. She doesn't want him to be hurt, she doesn't want her family to be ashamed or disgusted, so she kills herself. The song is a suicide note. She says to her brother, 'Don't worry. I'm doing it for you.' (Jon Young, Kate Bush gets her kicks. Trouser Press, July 1978)” – Kate Bush Encyclopedia

TWO: The Morning Fog (Hounds of Love)

Album Release Date: 16th September, 1985

U.K. Album Chart Position: 1

Producer: Kate Bush

Song Details/Insight:

“Well, that's really meant to be the rescue of the whole situation, where now suddenly out of all this darkness and weight comes light. You know, the weightiness is gone and here's the morning, and it's meant to feel very positive and bright and uplifting from the rest of dense, darkness of the previous track. And although it doesn't say so, in my mind this was the song where they were rescued, where they get pulled out of the water. And it's very much a song of seeing perspective, of really, you know, of being so grateful for everything that you have, that you're never grateful of in ordinary life because you just abuse it totally. And it was also meant to be one of those kind of "thank you and goodnight" songs. You know, the little finale where everyone does a little dance and then the bow and then they leave the stage. [laughs] (Richard Skinner, 'Classic Albums interview: Hounds Of Love. Radio 1 (UK), aired 26 January 1992)” – Kate Bush Encyclopedia

ONE: Get Out of My House (The Dreaming)

Album Release Date: 13th September, 1982

U.K. Album Chart Position: 3

Producer: Kate Bush

Song Details/Insight:

“'The Shining' is the only book I've read that has frightened me. While reading it I swamped around in its snowy imagery and avoided visiting certain floors of the big, cold hotel, empty for the winter. As in 'Alien', the central characters are isolated, miles (or light years) away from anyone or anything, but there is something in the place with them. They're not sure what, but it isn't very nice.

The setting for this song continues the theme - the house which is really a human being, has been shut up - locked and bolted, to stop any outside forces from entering. The person has been hurt and has decided to keep everybody out. They plant a 'concierge' at the front door to stop any determined callers from passing, but the thing has got into the house upstairs. It's descending in the lift, and now it approaches the door of the room that you're hiding in. You're cornered, there's no way out, so you turn into a bird and fly away, but the thing changes shape, too. You change, it changes; you can't escape, so you turn around and face it, scare it away. (Kate Bush Club newsletter, October 1982)

The song is called 'Get Out Of My House', and it's all about the human as a house. The idea is that as more experiences actually get to you, you start learning how to defend yourself from them. The human can be seen as a house where you start putting up shutters at the windows and locking the doors - not letting in certain things. I think a lot of people are like this - they don't hear what they don't want to hear, don't see what they don't want to see. It is like a house, where the windows are the eyes and the ears, and you don't let people in. That's sad because as they grow older people should open up more. But they do the opposite because, I suppose, they do get bruised and cluttered. Which brings me back to myself; yes, I have had to decide what I will let in and what I'll have to exclude. (Rosie Boycott, 'The Discreet Charm Of Kate Bush'. Company (UK), 1982)” – Kate Bush Encyclopedia