There is an art to constructing an enduring pop persona. It has to be flamboyant and over the top enough to attract the necessary attention, with a dash of controversy here and hints of scandal there. You need to be able to titillate the voyeurs, and those looking to like Continue Reading
Music
Sonic Bliss #3: My favourite songs of the week
Can there be more songs worth listening to already? It’s only been seven days right since I waxed lyrical about my last lot of sonic treasures and the music artists of the world couldn’t possibly have served up five more delicious pieces of sonic bliss to feast on right? Wrong. Continue Reading
Sonic Bliss #2: My favourite songs of the week
Five more favourite songs already? Just a week after the first lot? Yes I say! Did you not pay attention to the last post? I am new music junkie, and with the vast eclectic range of artists I follow, it’s is frighteningly easy (in a very good way) to come Continue Reading
Sonic Bliss #1: My favourite songs of the week
If you’ve even glanced at this blog in passing, it will have become fairly obvious fairly quickly that I love music. To an almost unhealthy I-should-go-to-rehab-or-get-shock-therapy-while-strapped-to-a-gurney-in-a-1950s-hospital degree, and even then I suspect it likely wouldn’t work. And frankly I wouldn’t want it too. Music is vital, wonderful and without a Continue Reading
I love my Scandinavian pop! 2
Who doesn’t love a sequel? Hollywood adores them. Book publishers are having them written by living authors for books by dead authors. And even artists like Mary J Blige are doing album Part 2s. It’s all in the rage, and not wanting to miss the sequel boat – which looks Continue Reading
"Le Voyage Dans la Lune" – Air
The atmospheric spacey melodies of Air, a French outfit known for their ethereal electronica, are back in (admittedly delicate) force on his album which is the soundtrack for the re-issued 110 year old George Melies movie, Le Voyage Dans la Lune. A colour version of the film is about to Continue Reading
Lindsey Stirling: never have violins been this much fun!
I hate to admit this but I have always found bouncy upbeat tunes featuring violins a bit twee. Perhaps it was the Switched On Classics of my youth. Perhaps I was attacked by a pack of poorly played violins as a child. Who knows? I can’t be certain what caused Continue Reading
"Locked By Land" – Jinja Safari
Is there such a genre, in this ever more musically fragmented world, as Rastafarian-Funk-Tribal? Because if there is, then Jinja Safari should own it hands down. Not that that is the dominant sound on this wholly unique album. It also possesses some Bon Iver dreaminess, or the folk sensibilities of Continue Reading
"Born To Die" – Lana Del Ray
Why does everyone hate Lana Del Rey so much? I know it is much easier to tear down than build up, and people are often too cowardly to voice a differing opinion when the inflamed mob is of one brain-addled mind. Even so, it is like people have gathered together Continue Reading
"Something" – Chairlift
For Chairlift the 1980s, and its synth-drenched rhythm never really ended. And no, I am not using their choice to put down creative roots in the heyday of Gary Numan, and Duran Duran as some sort of patronising putdown. It is anything but. Unlike so many other bands that draw inspiration Continue Reading