Pop
A perfect welcome back to live music: Sarathy Korwar at Kings Place reviewed
There is a reason music writers tend to stick with music writing rather than transferring their manifold talents to the…
The Byrds without the drugs: Teenage Fanclub's Endless Arcade reviewed
Grade: B– Advancing age has smoothed the edges of Bellshill’s finest lads, once — back in the early 1990s —…
The sermons poked out of the songs like busted bed springs: Van Morrison livestream reviewed
Over the decades, Van Morrison’s role within the tower of song has shifted from chief visionary officer to head of…
‘I’m not interested in moral purity’: St Vincent interviewed
Michael Hann talks to St Vincent about Sheena Easton, Stalin and performing in five-inch heels
Tom Jones is as nuanced a vocalist as Ian Paisley
Grade: C Revisionism has been extraordinarily kind to Tom Jones, ever since he barked his way through Prince’s ‘Kiss’ with…
Watch kids go giddy in Niamey: Mdou Moctar live in Niger reviewed
The other week someone posted on Twitter a link to a YouTube clip titled ‘Family Lotus and D.J. Cookin’ at…
A redemption song, conventionally sung: Sky's Tina reviewed
It has never been easy for women in the music industry. Once upon a time the evidence was largely anecdotal.…
Moments of pure wonder: Folk Weekend Oxford reviewed
Has any musical moment extended its tendrils in so many unexpected directions as the English folk revival of the mid-1960s?…
Demi Lovato makes Taylor Swift resemble Dostoevsky
Grade: Z If you wish to experience the full hideousness of Now, of our current age, condensed into one awful…
The songs are still as fresh and appetising as a hot loaf: The Lightning Seeds livestream reviewed
One thing about a streamed festival is that the toilets are better than at the real thing. The other thing,…
Reminiscent of Roxy Music’s cocktail sound: The Weather Station reviewed
One of the unforeseen consequences of the rise of streaming was a change in the very structure of the pop…
The mystery and romance of the cassette tape
May the gods of Hiss and Compression bless Lou Ottens. As head of new product development at Phillips, the Dutch…
The triumph of bedroom pop
A short history of lo-fi, by Robert Barry
'I like upsetting people': Steven Wilson interviewed
Michael Hann talks to the cult rock star Steven Wilson about why it’s harder to write a pop song than prog
Epic prog rock without the widdly-woo solos: Mogwai at the Tramway reviewed
You very possibly know the music of the Glaswegian band Mogwai, even if you don’t think you do. You might…
Makes me nostalgic for an era when music was more than a click away: Teenage Superstars reviewed
In Teenage Superstars, a long and slightly exhausting documentary about the Scottish indie scene of the 1980s and ’90s, there…
A criminally underrated songwriter: Matthew Sweet’s Catspaw reviewed
Grade: A– The early 1990s were a lovely time for rock music: Beck, Sparklehorse, Sugar, Green on Red and Royal…
Proudly ridiculous and wholly glorious: KLF's Solid State Logik reviewed
Grade: A What a miracle the KLF were: an elaborate practical joke at the expense of the music industry, seemingly…
As pretty as anything he’s written in four decades: McCartney III reviewed
Grade: A- The greatest songwriter of the 20th century, or just one of the top two or three? Who…
'We knew there was greatness in these songs': Steve Diggle of the Buzzcocks interviewed
Graeme Thomson talks to Steve Diggle, front man of Buzzcocks, about orgasms, boredom and Pete Shelley
Like much jazz, it might have benefited from being less solemn: BBC4's Ronnie's reviewed
Ronnie’s: Ronnie Scott and His World-Famous Jazz Club was like the TV equivalent of an authorised biography: impressively thorough, often…
I’ve heard worse things — the death rattle of a close relative, for example: Kylie’s Disco reviewed
Grade: B– Uh-oh. Might have to be careful here, pull my punches a little bit. The editor is a big…