ABBA were THE defining music group of my youth, and you could well argue my entire life. Though I can’t remember which song I heard first, or when the mania took hold, ABBA dominated my music listening choices all through the 1970s, with the stranglehold – a very welcome stranglehold Continue Reading
Music
Now this is music #79: Fleurie, SIGNAL, Sannie, Jessica Says, Bishat
To its detractors pop music is vacuous, musical slop for the uncritical masses. But for those of us who know it well and see it at its best, it’s vibrant, inquiring, combining thoughtfulness and an irresistible way of getting its message across. That’s very much the case with these Continue Reading
Mamma Mia! ABBA to reunite … virtually
Like many ABBA fans, I occasionally find myself daydreaming of ABBA reforming, recording an album of new material, or at the very least pulling a double album of rarities out of their rumoured treasure vault of unreleased songs, and making all my fandom dreams come true. After all, due Continue Reading
Now this is music #78: Petite Meller, Bastille, Attlas, How to Dress Well, Oliver
Love is a complicated beast. We love it , we hate it, we want it, we have it, we hope someone will love us, we despair when they don’t. All those freewheeling, cartwheeling possibilities, love’s inherent contradictions, joys, possibilities and soul-crushing disappointments provide a rich well from which a Continue Reading
She’s still got it! (Of course) Angela Landsbury sings Beauty and the Beast theme #fansbury
Around about the time that the world marked The International Angela Lansbury Appreciation Day, a delightful video emerged of the multi-talented and endlessly effervescent Angela Lansbury performing the theme from Beauty and the Beast as its 25th anniversary screening. This gala event, whch also featured the actors who played Continue Reading
Now this is music #77: LEISURE, Sleigh Bells, Magic City Hippies, merk, Opia
Fridays are the gateway to the weekends of the soul. OK they’re also literal weekends too but as they say, and they know things they do, all work and no play leaves makes Jack and Jill a dull couple of people, and you need those days to regroup and Continue Reading
From Bowie to Bieber: The under-appreciated art of the music video (curated article)
The spectacular release of Beyoncé’s visual album Lemonade earlier this year, and the critical response to it, has fleetingly put the music video in the spotlight. For a ubiquitous and influential art form, music videos tend to be easily dismissed and under-analysed, which means it took something as extreme Continue Reading
Just dance! TV show characters get their groove on in Timberlake mashup
A deftly executed mashup is a viral thing of great joy and so it is with the latest superlative effort from What’s the Mashup? which blends dance footage from 75 television shows ranging from Friends to Sponge Bob Square Pants, Mr. Bean to Happy Days and The Simpsons to Continue Reading
Now this is music #76: KUOSA, Polographia, DENM, Petite Meller, Death Team
The theme this week is quirky and a little bit different. That’s not the same as not having something worthwhile to say which is often what quirky is unfortunately conflated with; rather these are serious songs from artists who have thrown something out of the ordinary into their musical Continue Reading
CLIP ME! “Tilted” by Christine and the Queens
It’s a rare thing as you get older – not too old thank you, just older – when the first blush of musical discovery that so defines your teens has dissipated and you either only listen to the music of those turbulent years or use them as a stepping Continue Reading