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
Music
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
Not just for birthdays … Pharrell Williams wants you Happy all the time
I come across an extraordinary amount of songs as I graze across the vast new digital musical landscape but rarely does a song make me so euphorically, well, happy as Pharrell Williams new single, appropriately titled “Happy”. It is a joy to listen to, to dance to, to put Continue Reading
Now This is Music #19: Jonas Oakland, Layla, Ida Corr, Kele, Neneh Cherry
Though we’re almost on the cusp of wall to walls renditions of “Deck the Halls”, “We Three Kings” and “O Come All Ye Faithful” – all of which by the way is fine with me, the Christmas Addict – there’s still time for some funky, cutting edge pop music Continue Reading