Not Forgotten
Not Forgotten: Pulp – His ‘n’ Hers
In retrospect Pulp were a band that burned brightly and became hugely important to a generation, but whose work remains oddly preserved in a sort of musical aspic. Although they had been around since the late 70s, Pulp had remained almost comically incapable of making any sort of commercial or critical impact. That remained the …
Not Forgotten: Pixies – Doolittle
While C’mon Pilgrim and Surfer Rosa had hooked many people into the Pixies with their abrasive sounding crunching alt rock, 1989s Doolittle saw them take a different approach, with a sound which saw them being ‘produced‘ for the first time. C’mon Pilgrim had effectively been polished up demos, and Surfer Rosa had seen the band …
Not Forgotten: Fountains of Wayne – Utopia Parkway
In the years before the tuneful “Stacy’s Mom” seared them into the subconscious of music fans as one hit wonders, Fountains of Wayne were a band enjoying medium-sized success, with a string of modestly charting power pop singles. A self titled debut album charted in the UK in 1996, albeit way outside a top 40 …
Not Forgotten: Ian Hunter – You’re Never Alone With a Schizophrenic
While Ian Hunter’s self-titled solo debut was met with enthusiasm, the increasingly muted reception that met his next two albums must have been disappointing for the former Mott the Hoople frontman. Reconnecting with regular collaborator and general guitar genius Mick Ronson, while also engaging the services of three members of the E Street Band, two …
Album Review: Marvin Gaye – You’re the Man
In case you were wondering, You’re the Man is a double album’s worth of prime period Marvin Gaye, one of the few Tamla Motown artists that could remotely hold a candle to his label mate Stevie Wonder over the course of an album in the early 70s. From crooner, to both solo star and duet …
Not Forgotten: Soundgarden – Superunknown
For some reason it’s those bands who almost achieved massive success but just fell short that I find the most compelling. Jethro Tull were huge, but they never made into the rock superleague like Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd. XTC never enjoyed anywhere near the commercial success that their talent deserved. For all their musical …
Not Forgotten: Kula Shaker – Peasants, Pigs & Astronauts
Kula Shaker’s fall from grace here in the UK was so dramatic that it’s impossible not to attribute the relative commercial failure of Peasants, Pigs & Astronauts, as well as the band’s subsequent disillusionment, to the fact that Crispin Mills was an obnoxious brat who opened his mouth to say something stupid once too often. …
Classic Compilation: David Bowie – The Platinum Collection
A pair of compilations and a bonus disc gathered together rather than a release in its own right, on the surface of it the lazily named The Platinum Collection is just another David Bowie compilation. Where this compilation scores over most others that cover Bowie’s career, is that each disc is themed by era, with …
Not Forgotten: Kirsty MacColl – Titanic Days
Intelligent, witty, wilful, vulnerable, contrary, mind-bogglingly talented, possessing a steely resolve and yet still able to project a balance of both vulnerability and approachability utterly vulnerable, Kirsty MacColl, for all her glowing brilliance, never really managed to string together the career her immense talent deserved. This resulted in some of her albums becoming relative obscurities, …
Not Forgotten: Tori Amos – Under the Pink
It can’t have been easy following up an album as attention grabbing and uncompromising as Little Earthquakes, but to Tori Amos’s eternal credit, with Under the Pink she somehow managed to strike the balance between solid follow up and incrementally increased accessibility. While many will (quite rightly) point to Little Earthquakes as Amos’s masterpiece, it’s …