Not Forgotten: Skunk Anansie – Stoosh
Skunk Anansie were one of those acts in the 90s that you couldn’t help but be aware of, particularly around the time of their second album, Stoosh. A punkish hard rocking quartet, they stood significantly apart from the various cookie-cutter Britpop acts of the era, with an utterly different attitude and a significantly different sound. …
Album Review: Craig Finn – We All Want the Same Things
In late 2007 I encountered an album that saw me regain my faith in rock music. With its cranked up guitars, big choruses and quick-fire repeated lyrics, that album was Almost Killed Me by The Hold Steady. In a matter of weeks I had bought all three of the albums they had released up to …
Album Review: The Shins – Heartworms
The Shins confuse me. Heartworms is the fifth album by a band that was effectively a side project of a band which only released one album. In the past initial listens to their albums have left me disorientated, confused and of the opinion that they had ‘lost it’, only for the album of theirs that …
Album Review: Thunder – Rip It Up
There has always been something comforting about Thunder. Perhaps it’s their no frills approach to the classic hard rock sound, perhaps it is down to their reliable quality in terms of output (from 1990’s Back Street Symphony to Rip it Up, they’re still recognisably the same band in terms of their sound, with relatively few …
Not Forgotten: Arcade Fire – Neon Bible
It’s fair to say that immediately prior to the release of Neon Bible, the music scene was working itself up into a frenzy over Arcade Fire, with their full length Funeral being (rightly) hailed as a modern masterpiece, to the point where a band that initially released their debut album with the minimum of fan-fair …
Not Forgotten: Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds – The Boatman’s Call
Released in early March 1997, Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds’ The Boatman’s Call was received with a modest amount of fanfare, and was pretty much instantly embraced as one of their best albums by longstanding fans, as it quickly proved itself to be their gentlest and most romantic album since The Good Son seven …
Album Review: Grandaddy – Last Place
In the early years of the last decade, I saw Grandaddy as one of a trio of bands that opened the doors to a style of music I still occasionally refer to as ’Cosmic Americana’. The other two acts were Mercury Rev and The Flaming Lips, both of which had enjoyed crossover hit albums that …
Album Review: Randy Newman – The Randy Newman Songbook Vol. 3
You know, sometimes it really is just down to the songs. On hearing Kate Bush lavish sounding Before the Dawn for the first time recently, I have to admit, I was impressed, especially given how much improved many of the songs were with Bush’s mature and more lived-in vocal. Something I did ponder on however …
Classic Album: Stevie Nicks – Bella Donna
You almost don’t need to hear Bella Donna to know what it sounds like. Name recognition alone will inform you that this is a solo album by the Fleetwood Mac frontwoman and visual figurehead. There she is on the cover, resplendent in a floaty dress, lofty heels, big hair and brandishing a cockatoo. Oh, and …
A buyers’ guide to Kirsty MacColl
Has any songwriter ever been more perfectly human than Kirsty MacColl? Intelligent, witty, wilful, vulnerable, contrary, mind-bogglingly talented, possessing a steely resolve and yet still coming across as approachable and utterly vulnerable, was there any wonder that I was besotted with her back when I was a teenager? Hell, I guess I still am. However, …