rescuing musical virtue in distress.
Bang! Straight in. That’s how you make an impression. But then with the overall song weighing at just over two minutes there isn’t any time to mess around with enticing intros and tantalising sonics teasers. The Persian Leaps get straight to work, you have to admire that. Depending on which era you were born into you’d... Continue Reading →
Anyone with a long memory will find some lovely 80’s pop touches going on in this latest single from Canadian artist Zachary Toigo, particularly if you were a fan of the more alternative end of the scene and maybe had a few albums by The Smiths in your collection.But as is always the way there... Continue Reading →
Trey Connor makes music which sits in a sweet spot. It isn’t big enough to be rock but it channels some of its energy whilst neatly swerving the cliched baggage that the genre carries about with it. It isn’t really pop, not in the current sense of the word anyway, but its easy attractions and... Continue Reading →
If you heard someone throwing around the term pop-rock you could be forgiven initially imagining some sort of middle of the road, fashion-driven dross that neither delivers the immediacy of the former nor the integrity of the later. But what if there was a way of taking the instant hook, the cool catch and inherent... Continue Reading →
It probably says more about me, my age and the fact that I might need some new, more up-to-date reference points, but the fact that Memories I Don’t Want reminds me, in part, of Dream Academy’s masterful Life in A Northern Town, fair warms my nostalgic heart. There is a similar intimate quality to the... Continue Reading →
Some videos are just pretty looking vehicles for selling a record, both metaphorically and all too often, literally. Other times the video is a piece of art in its own right, or at least an interpretation and insight into the track, one that develops the idea and deepens the meaning. And best of all, poses... Continue Reading →
If, like me, you first encountered Cori Elliott playing weaponised bass and kicking ass as the focal point of The Vim Dicta, then Too Far Gone might come as a bit of a surprise. Then again, perhaps not. They were always a band who knew how to work with drama and dynamics, build atmosphere and... Continue Reading →
What is most surprising about this track from Liam Moore's latest album, Visions of a Perfect Life, is not how well thought-out and charming the music is, and it is certainly that, but the reference points that he uses whilst building it. As the song grows and begins to flex its musical muscle it embraces... Continue Reading →
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. There is something wonderfully anthemic about the way The Catalina put their songs together. It proves that impact is often much more than just punch and power and that even when working in a pop idiom, you can still make a big sonic impression. And Hindsight... Continue Reading →
The Ramones might not have all actually been related but The Sidleys most definitely are. And unlike The Ramones, they play a soulful blend of indie and rock woven together in various combinations as the songs require. Such a family connection is often used as a gimmick to sell a band, especially when they don’t... Continue Reading →
If some artists sound like the place they are from, echoing its traditions, history and cultural heritage, perhaps the most interesting music is made by not by them but rather by those who move around. They have the benefit of soaking up small amounts of a wide variety of sounds and styles before moving on... Continue Reading →
Fans of the band ‘New Street Adventure’ will already be familiar with the work of Nick Corbin, he was the singer and songwriter for the band up until 2018, but those of us new to the name will probably find something quite surprising on his debut solo release. After reading the promo sheet that accompanies... Continue Reading →
If he as trying to create nothing other than a wonderfully chilled, dance-infused, mellow vibes, pop song, Olivier Herràn the man behind Dreams of Orion would have succeeded with room to spare. But the fact that he has claimed that the music has a higher purpose means that perhaps the music needs to tick certain... Continue Reading →
Not to take anything away from the music but when you have a song with such great vocal dynamics, ones that remind you of Leigh Nash from Sixpence None the Richer, that in itself is enough to sell the song. Well, it worked for me. All too often a singer seems to be just going... Continue Reading →
Any band who were featured on the now mythical NME C86 cassette, toured with the likes of The House of Love and The Wedding Present and who had called it a day by 1990 leaving behind them four critically acclaimed albums and a solid reputation could probably rest comfortably, assured that they had done enough... Continue Reading →
Even before you concentrate on the lyrics and the message being relayed here, there is something heartfelt, nostalgic and perhaps melancholic about the sonic landscape that the words sit in. All too often do the words and the music of songs seem to be separate entities, or at best the latter merely a delivery system... Continue Reading →
I don’t really listen to a lot of pop music these days, not the type of thing found huddled under the style over substance umbrella of today’s market. It probably isn’t really aimed at me anyway and I always feel that is exactly what is wrong with the situation. By assuming that pop should only... Continue Reading →
We know that Echoglass is pretty deft at fashioning music across a wide range of genres, their fluid and fairly eclectic back-catalogue is testament to that. But I feel that they really come into their own when they play the role of small town lamenters, troubadours of the kitchen-sink drama, purveyors of the northern chanson, revelling... Continue Reading →
I get so used to listening to British bands enamoured by the glamour of American music, of ex-punks donning plaid shirts in search of a British Americana sound, whatever that might be, of pop pixies adopting the music and mannerisms of past stateside soul divas, of blues players digging for sonic pearls in the mud... Continue Reading →
It is songs such as Wonder Why which remind me why I am glad that I was too young for punk and instead consider myself a child of the post-punk era. Punk may have kicked in a few doors here and there to grab an NME headline, stormed a barricade or two, mainly when the... Continue Reading →
Some music is like a gemstone, shining with different colours which shimmer, shift and change as you angle it into the light. Such music offers so much to so many different tastes and its ever shifting nature means that there is always something new to find with each listen. Downstream Motion is music of that... Continue Reading →
I’m not sure what vibe I expected to hear from the opening salvo of a young Swindon musician, one presumably brought up on Netflix, Calvin Harris and undoubtedly surrounded by people still banging on about XTC. Whatever my presumptions they didn’t include the sun-soaked, calypso pop of Saturday Nights. (Also the Calvin Harris bit is... Continue Reading →
The name alone gives you a glimpse into the nature of this debut album from Berlin-based French multi-instrumentalist Aurelien Bernard. Such a off-beat name can only be followed up by equally off-beat music. And indeed, upon hearing it, I am immediately put in mind of another Berlin resident Anton Barbeau and therefore by association a... Continue Reading →
I’ve been sat here listening to this debut album from Tiny Fighter trying to work out just why it is so great. Obviously it is full of deft and clever songwriting, it goes without saying that any album deserving such a label has that, but there is something in the delivery of these songs that... Continue Reading →
I suppose the trouble with getting used to watching an artist play small venues and coffeeshops armed with an acoustic guitar and little else is that you associate them with a certain troubadourish, folky-acoustic sound. But of course it is only when they get into the studio that they have the tools at hand to... Continue Reading →
Inspiration, especially musical inspiration, comes from many different sources ranging from the everyday to the extraordinary. But in there can’t be many things more inspiring, more likely to set the creative juices flowing, than a pilgrimage along ancient trails following in the footsteps of medieval pilgrims. I mean, it's a step up from buying a... Continue Reading →
If a song makes you feel as if you have been listening to it your whole life, something that you perhaps picked up from your parents vinyl collection, especially if your parents happened to be a couple of folkies who met at Woodstock, then it is a special sort of song. Tomorrow is a special... Continue Reading →
He may have got his step up fronting Rock Star Supernova after winning the show of the same name, getting to rub shoulders with the great and the good of the rock world along the way, but that doesn’t mean that Lukas Rossi can’t turn out a neat anthemic yet balladic pop song too. And that... Continue Reading →
Although their music has been described as “bedroom pop with an edge,” that does seem quite an understatement as I Am a Rocketship seem to draw together inspirations from far wider than the small, self-contained, world which such a phrase might imply. With a new album, Ghost Stories, on its way, My Nature comes on... Continue Reading →
Writing this at the time of a worldwide lockdown, we are starting to see more clearly the things which really matter. Just as it is underpaid medical staff and not the CEO’s or bankers who will get us through these times, so it is grassroots music which is providing the most direct and intimate contact... Continue Reading →