Category ACROSS THE DECADES
DARK PLEASURES
It’s a striking opening line to the first song on your first album: “I’ve been waiting for a guide to come and take me by the hand”. Searching, yearning for direction, for counsel. The song is called “Disorder”, a one-word summary of the singer’s internal state. A plea for human contact: take my hand. Please. […]
ALBUM COVERS | PICKS AND PICS
Having launched into Instagram during lockdown, I kind of lost my appetite for its rapid digestive cycle after a year or so. More an icy pole than a proper meal, if you get what I mean. But a current September “challenge” caught my eye and so I decided to throw some records into the ring. […]
BETA ALPHA
The transition from novel to film involves many changes. Some enhance, others distract; often the response depends on what you did first… watched the film or read the book. The novel High Fidelity, by Nick Hornby, was first published in 1995. The movie, starring John Cusack and directed by Stephen Frears, was released in 2000. In […]
DEPARTURES | SECOND QUARTER 2023
A late posting, in every respect 🖤 Barry Humphries 17 February 1934—22 April 2023 🖤 Broderick Smith 17 February 1948—30 April 2023 🖤 Andy Rourke (The Smiths) 17 January 1964—19 May 2023 🖤 Tina Turner 26 November 1939—24 May 2023 🖤 Gordon Lightfoot 17 November 1938—1 May 2023 George Winston 26 December 1949—4 June 2023 […]
BILATERALLY YOURS
Glancing at the front cover, you could be forgiven for assuming you have just flicked past yet another early 80s record company sampler, a collection of mismatched tracks chosen by the not-so-hip uncle of the work experience kid and trotted out in a vain attempt to generate some (in this case) CBS buzz. You flip […]
TIMELESS
Cascading keyboard notes and flurries of guitar; soon they are dancing through a frenetic dialogue as dextrous as it is energising. Welcome to “Lungs”, the unexpectedly manic opening to Timeless, the entrancing 1975 album by John Abercrombie. “Lungs” was composed by the keyboard player Jan Hammer, he of Mahavishnu Orchestra fame. In group leader Abercrombie, […]
MORE SONGS ABOUT SEX AND BOOZE
What do you get if you mix the diamond grit of Dinah Washington, the heartbreak of Billie Holiday, the brash charm of Janis Joplin and the sass of The Ronettes? It’s a heady and potent cocktail, and one that resulted in soaring peaks and desperate troughs during the short life of Amy Jade Winehouse. In […]
INOCULATE AGAINST FEAR
One of the most popular on-line music guides lists more than 50 adjectives to describe the last album by progressive-metal masters Tool. This tells you a lot about the complexity of their 2019 eighty-minute epic. Some of the descriptors are pretty obvious… dramatic, powerful, intense, heavy… words that fans of the band will see as […]
ROUND LIKE A RECORD
During the 1970s “Sampler” LPs were a staple of record company marketing. Compiling a variety of tracks from various artists on their roster, these albums usually sold for much less than the prevailing price point of a new record. In fact, a number of companies called them, with disarming candour, “Loss Leaders”. There are a number […]
FEATS ALIVE!
Blending elements of rock, blues, country, funk and jazz, Little Feat created a sound that was entirely their own. Driven by the unique song-writing skills of Lowell George and a band both technically excellent and infectiously grooving, they were—and are—a favourite outfit of those who love their American rock somewhere West of the freeway. Yet […]
BACK AT THE CREASE
So much sport. So much music. Time to multi-task. Although not as dramatic as the Ashes tests, Wishbone Ash’s 1974 album There’s The Rub is a corker. Perhaps their last truly complete LP and my second favourite. Perfect for watching Australia clean up England in the first two tests. (Don’t mention the third.) The eccentric British troubadour-poet […]
GOOD(BYE) FRIDAY
Jeff Beck 24 June 1944—10 January 2023 🖤 Yukihiro Takahashi [YMO] 6 June 1952—11 January 2023 🖤 Renee Geyer 11 Sep 1953—17 January 2023 🖤 David Crosby 14 Aug 1941—19 January 2023 🖤 Tom Verlaine [Television] 13 Dec 1949—28 January 2023 🖤 Burt Bacharach 12 May 1928—8 February 2023 🖤 Wayne Shorter 25 August 1933—2 […]
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