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
Music
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
Now this is music #75: The Lemon Twigs, Mwansa, Crystal Castles, LEAGUES, Middle Kids
Slowing things does a lot of good for the soul. It allows you time to think, to ponder … to feel. And to listen to music by fine, thoughtful artists who know it’s not enough to simply sound wonderful, though they do, but that you also need to speak Continue Reading
Yes I can! Channel 4’s inspiring ad celebrating the athletes of 2016 Paralympics
The Olympics is an impressive display of sporting prowess in anyone’s language. But while I enjoy the daring exploits of Usain Bolt and Michael Phelps, even more impressive for me are the achievements of the athletes who compete in the Paralympics every four years. They are superhumans in every Continue Reading
Now this is music: Songs from The Blacklist #2 (season 3)
The Blacklist is one of those shows that seemed to spring forth fully-formed when it premiered on NBC on 23 September 2013. Possessed of an intriguing premise – one of the world’s most wanted criminals, Raymond “Red” Reddington, played with uncompromising joie de vivre and glee by James Spader, Continue Reading
Everybody wants to rule the world: Gloriously good Game of Thrones montage video
It’s no secret, not after countless books by George R. R. Martin and six seasons of HBO’s watercooler-stomping megahit TV show, that everybody, and I mean everybody, wants to rule to rule the world. Or in this case, sit upon the Iron Throne and look out upon the Seven Continue Reading
Now this is music #74: Dog Orchestra, James Blake, Michl, Jazz Morley, Bishop Briggs
Love is, it’s true, a many splendoured thing. But it can also be fiendishly complicated, fraught, deeply emotional and caught in the kind of ebbs and flows that make navigating its pleasant course more tricky than a Hallmark card might lead you to believe. So wonderful, fabulous, exciting, joyful Continue Reading
Now this is music #73: Annie Bass, Squidgenini, Two People, Ta-ku & Wafia, Ngaiire
It’s an all-Australian mix in this edition of Now This is Music with five immensely-talented, intelligent and highly-original artists who effectively wear their hearts on their sleeves and in their music. This is music that is listenable and accessible but imbued with forethought, care and substance, the kind that Continue Reading