A new year dawns my friends and with it the promise of more music that your ear drums can possibly take in. But fear not! I have laid in the path of all those oncoming tunes, iPod pressed firmly in my hand with the thumb unequivocally on PLAY and Continue Reading
Music
Happy 40th ABBA: Big plans to mark the Swedish supergroup’s epic 1974 Eurovision anniversary
You know that sinking feeling you get when you realise that time is screaming by at an unconscionable pace and there’s nothing you can do about it? Of course you do. It’s usually triggered by some major event or watching a TV program you watched as a youngster turn Continue Reading
Gifted singer ÁLI bridges two musical worlds with new single “Breakout Breakfree”
I first came across ÁLI about nine months ago when I came across her beautiful song “Cocoon”, an impressive melding of the operatic and pop worlds, firm evidence that it is possible to mix the both without coming across as kitsch or a one hit wonder novelty act. So seamless Continue Reading
FUTURE ZEITGEIST: Pop culture goodness I am looking forward to in 2014
I love new years! I am most definitely not one of those cynical old souls who reaches New Year’s Eve, harrumphs with Scrooge-like intensity and balefully glares at the next 365 days, convinced they will be just as awful as I imagine them to be. While I am old Continue Reading
LISTEN BACK: The 10 songs I loved most in 2013
So many songs, so few Gb on the iPod! This year I featured something like 100 songs in my Now This is Music series, and they were only a sampling, yes a sampling,of the 100s of songs that came my way. If the internet has done one thing (beyond Continue Reading
On the 9th day of Christmas 2013 … I read I Saw Mommy Biting Santa Claus
This festive season, as you hang your stockings “by the chimney with care”, you might wander want to reconsider hoping that “St Nicholas soon would be there”. For it seems that even Santa, that seemingly immortal figure removed from the concerns and troubles of our world, except for the Continue Reading
On the 6th Day of Christmas … Hey Carol listen to this! 3 Christmas songs I love and their origins
Ah Christmas music. You either love it or you hate it. No points for guessing that I love it, since I am a self-confessed Christmas junkie and festive music is after all the soundtrack to my tinsel-clogged addiction. But it goes well beyond the fact that it’s Christmas and Continue Reading
On the 2nd day of Christmas 2013 … I listened to A Mary Christmas by Mary J Blige
It would be fair to argue that one of the defining attributes of Mary J. Blige as an artist is her passion. Whether it’s been channelled into songs of anguish, heartache and pain, and the understandable willingness to fight back, such as “Enough Cryin’”, or articulated in songs of Continue Reading
Now this is music #20: Zendaya, Seinabo Sey, If You Say So, Dornik, Lifelike
Yes everything is beginning to look a LOT like Christmas but don’t forget it’s also sounding a lot like Christmas too! Now even if you love carols as much as I do, you’re still going to need a wee break from all the Christmas music so I have pulled Continue Reading
ABBA’s Ring Ring Deluxe Edition (history of the album + review)
After over 40 years in the public spotlight, it is easy enough to assume that ABBA were always ABBA, four talented Swedes who somehow emerged from the womb as a joint entity, their fates already intertwined, their birthright already sealed as the creators and purveyors of some of the Continue Reading