Tag: reviews
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As Marmite Morrissey returns, let’s talk about the actual music
When news broke of a new Morrissey single and album last week (both titled Make-Up is a Lie), one thing was assured: it was going to get people talking. Perhaps the most “Marmite” artist of all time, it’s hard to find an artist who divides opinion as much as Morrissey. To some, he is so…
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Black Grape: It’s Great When You’re Straight… Yeah at 30 – one of music’s greatest comeback stories
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Shaun Ryder had the world at his feet. His band, The Happy Mondays, had been key players in the UK “Madchester scene” and had scored a platinum selling album with 1990’s Pills ‘n’ Thrills and Bellyaches. Bands everywhere had tried to imitate the new “baggy” sub-genre it had…
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Will the Oasis reunion usher in a Britpop summer – or is it just a marketing ploy?
The trend for naming summers has become something of a cultural phenomenon. Think for example of 2019, which was branded a “hot girl summer”, inspired by rapper Megan Thee Stallion’s song. In 2021 there was the much-ridiculed “white boy summer” (named after a song of the same name by Tom Hanks’s son, Chet). Then 2022…
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Four records that embody the joy of the double album – from the Beatles to Outkast
In the summer of 1966, a race was on between two very different opponents. On one side was Bob Dylan, the established and bestselling folk artist. On the other was new act The Mothers of Invention, a genre- (and mind-) bending band led by avant garde composer Frank Zappa. The aim? To release the first…
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Who Believes in Angels? by Elton John and Brandi Carlile shows the power of true collaboration
Having collaborated with the likes of (deep breath) John Lennon, Aretha Franklin, George Michael, Rod Stewart, Little Richard, Luciano Pavarotti, Eminem and Leonard Cohen, it’s fair to say that Elton John likes to work with other artists. The news, then, that he has embarked on another joint musical project, this time with Grammy-winning American superstar…
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Obsessing over the ‘true’ meaning of lyrics misses the point of songwriting
Many of us assume that everything a musician sings emerges from some autobiographical impulse. Pop music lyrics in particular are often read literally by fans as transparent disclosures about the singer’s life. For some reason, this seems to apply solely to lyrics. Writers from other media, such as film and TV, are generally presumed to…
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The ten best albums of 2024 – according to music experts
Alastair Gordon, De Montfort University; George Reid, Kingston University; Glenn Fosbraey, University of Winchester; Julia Toppin, University of Westminster; Katherine Schofield, King’s College London; Lillian Hingley, University of Oxford; Mykaell Riley, University of Westminster; Neil Cocks, University of Reading; Paul Stephen Adey, Nottingham Trent University, and Stephen Ryan, University of Limerick With Something Good, the…
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Glenn Fosbraey 