Not Forgotten: Ben Folds – Supersunnyspeedgraphic, The LP
An odds and sods release which lifts the majority of its material from a trio of previously released EPs, rather than a full album in its own right, Supersunnyspeedgraphic, The LP, is nevertheless one of the most out and out enjoyable releases that Ben Folds has ever put his name to. Those of us who …
Album Review: Ebbot Lundberg and The Indigo Children – For the Ages to Come
With The Soundtrack of Our Lives, one of the few bands operating at the turn of the millennia to pull off retro-rocking without sounding derivative, going their separate ways in 2012, frontman Ebbot Lundberg quietly released his solo debut album earlier this year (well, his debut if you ignore the album length song that he …
Classic Album: Led Zeppelin – Led Zeppelin IV
Down the decades certain albums have had so much praise heaped upon them by fans and critics alike, that it becomes almost impossible to be objective about them. If so many people tell you how Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, Dark Side of the Moon and OK Computer are the greatest albums ever recorded, …
Not Forgotten: They Might Be Giants – They Might Be Giants (a.k.a. Pink Album. a.k.a. First Album)
Released into a musical landscape over-populated by purveyors of synth-pop, stadium rock, post punk, underground alternative, heartland rockers, disposable pop and The Smiths (the band that pretty much defined what the mainstream thought indie / alternative music was in the mid 80s, at least here in the UK), the eponymous debut of They Might Be …
Not Forgotten: Super Furry Animals – Fuzzy Logic
Released at a time when seemingly every reasonably new(ish) band within the UK and Northern Ireland who featured at least one guitar player was pigeonholed as Britpop, Super Furry Animals’ Fuzzy Logic is an album that could have been mistakenly dismissed as landfill indie by those who found the whole scene devoid of inspiration. I …
Reissue: Terry Allen – Lubbock (On Everything)
I’m not a huge fan of ‘country’ music. Sure, I can appreciate its narrative qualities, I have a well chosen Johnny Cash compilation in my album collection, I love the output of Dr Hook before they took the full-on cheese-ballad route, I have a healthy respect for the music of Frankie Laine and Marty Robbins, …
Live Review: Matt Berry and The Maypoles / Xylaroo – The Foundry, 26.10.2016
From the inside, The Foundry is a rather anonymous looking venue, tucked away in the bowels of Sheffield University. On the upside, the drinks are cheap (£2.25 for an orange J20 and a lime and soda), the sound is good and some great acts play there. Tonight, with my usual gig companion at home ill, …
Not Forgotten: XTC – Skylarking
To the casual observer, by the time Skylarking was released in the mid-80s XTC looked washed up. Having had to stop touring in 1982 due to Andy Partridge’s crippling stage fright, their subsequent pair of albums, the pastoral Mummer and the industrial The Big Express hadn’t achieved the sort of commercial acceptance that anyone had …
Not Forgotten: Half Man Half Biscuit – And Some Fell on Stony Ground
Half Man Half Biscuit are one of those bands where if you’re a fan you either have, or want, everything they’ve ever recorded (a pristine copy of “No Regrets” still eludes me). By contrast if you’re not a fan then you’ll be baffled as to why such a stupidly named novelty act would inspire such …
Not Forgotten: Babybird – Ugly Beautiful
It’s difficult to comprehend just how much airplay Babybird’s “You’re Gorgeous” received back in 1996. Listening back to it now, it still stands up as a great pop song, albeit one with far more dark and sinister lyrical content than it’s success suggests. It was a massive crossover hit, and something quite unexpected for Sheffield’s …