rescuing musical virtue in distress.
1976 was a pretty dynamic year in music. The Band played their last ever show, which was immortalised on film by Martin Scorsese, ABBA adapted their logo to include a reverse B and The Ramones released their debut album. And somewhere along the banks of the Mississippi, a small folk festival took its first steps.... Continue Reading →
What puts me off most modern metal is that it always seems to get tied down in its own showboating, always trying to be the most intricate, employ the growliest of vocals, use the most kick drum beats, the biggest riffs, the most…well, just the most. What I warmed to immediately when I first heard... Continue Reading →
Depending on how you look at things Tristan Clark, the man behind The Tristones, is either stuck in the past or a perfect parodist of it. Listen to Camaro’s lyrics and you could be forgiven for thinking that you had wandered down some sort of more innocent late seventies, yacht-rock time loop but that is... Continue Reading →
I’ve done it again. Judging books, or in this case debut e.p.s, by their covers. There is nothing wrong with the cover at all, but I have to admit that it did suggest to me just another perky-popster following the same old chart-focused templates. How wrong I was. For although there is an element of... Continue Reading →
You could make a valid argument that country music, much like the blues, can only really be sung by someone with more than a few miles on the clock. How else are you going to fill songs with the requisite life-experience. Pop singers might wax lyrical about first loves and do so as if they... Continue Reading →
Last time that Going To The Sun passed my way with their glorious and eponymous debut, I’m pretty sure that I may have used the phrase “life-affirming” and it is great to hear that although a not insignificant slice of life has passed since then, they seem to have lost none of their positivity. Hopeful... Continue Reading →
Smooth. That’s the word that springs to mind as the soulful vibes and blissful, R&B-infused pop of Navy shimmers and sashays its way out of the speakers. It seems apt that I write this as the summer seems finally to have arrived as it feels not only like an anthem to the loved-up but also... Continue Reading →
If rock and roll is all about the swagger and the spectacle and country music based around more deft and emotive song crafting, then it is in bands such as 32 Below that the two genres manage to marry up perfectly. A rock yin to a rootsy yang. As Such a Waste nearly demonstrates, the... Continue Reading →
Sometimes, songs tell their story through the medium of lyrical communication, laying out the narrative in no uncertain terms. Other times they tell their tales in less tangible ways, through emotion and feeling, or perhaps just a general vibe. The Warped Glimmer seems to do both but it is to the latter approach that it... Continue Reading →