Titus Andronicus – The Most Lamentable Tragedy
Punk
81%
50th anniversary of Dylan going electric
It is one of the single most famous moments in the history of music. On the 25th July 1965, Bob Dylan made a spontaneous decision to play with an electric backing band at the Newport Folk Festival. His set, which included the first ever public performance of ‘Like A Rolling Stone’, was met by both cheering and booing. Folk traditionalists were shocked by the fact that Dylan, who was a key creative force in folk music and was considered the voice of a generation, would move away from his roots in writing acoustic, political themed songs.
Over 1000 musicians play Foo Fighters song
A vast group of singers and musicians have gathered in the Italian town of Cesena to perform the Foo Fighters song ‘Learn To Fly’. The video, which has since gone viral, included a message to frontman Dave Grohl asking him and the band to play a concert in their town. Given the lengths they have gone to and the reception it has gotten I don’t see them saying no.
Album Review: Gunship – Gunship
Album Review: Father John Misty and Aero Flynn
I’m only human, and despite my best efforts to provide frequent and diverse reviews unfortunately sometimes good albums fall through the cracks. Here’s a couple of gems from earlier in the year that I wanted to share with you. Continue reading
Double Trouble: A Record Rant
These days I buy most of my music on vinyl when I can. With the recent resurgence, vinyl manufacturers have upped their game so that the records are sturdier and download codes often come as a standard. However sometimes I am a little put off by some poor production decisions. The issue is with modern albums which weren’t recorded with vinyl in mind as the preferred format. It’s in trying to convert these recent releases into a different format that causes the trouble. Many albums get made into double albums when they shouldn’t be. Continue reading
Must Own Albums: Cool Britannia
The Stones Roses – The Stone Roses
At the heart of the ‘Madchester’ scene, which fused together pop, psychedelic rock and dance music, this landmark album was born. The Stone Roses produced one of the finest debuts in music history, featuring ‘I Wanna Be Adored’ and ‘I Am The Resurrection’. Sadly they couldn’t replicate the magic but this album would go on to spark the Britpop movement and revitalise rock music in the UK… “I Am The Resurrection’ indeed!
Oasis – (What’s The Story) Morning Glory?
Although their debut ‘Definitely Maybe’ receives a lot of praise, Morning Glory is undoubtedly their finest work. It is quite simply hit after hit: ‘Roll With It’, ‘Wonderwall’, ‘Don’t Look Back In Anger’, ‘She’s Electric’ etc. Each with a bigger chorus than the last, simply irresistible to sing along to. Shockingly the album was harshly reviewed by critics when it was first released, but it has since become the definitive British album of the 90s.
Blur – Parklife
After disappointing sales for their previous album, ‘Modern Life Is Rubbish’, Blur hit back with ‘Parklife’. It put them at the heart of the Britpop movement and started a bitter rivalry with Oasis. Whilst many of the prominent Britpop bands originated from the North of England, Blur were the voice of the South and imparticular the Voice of London. In fact the album itself was originally going to be called ‘London’!
Pulp – Different Class
Jarvis Cocker, as well as being one of the most charismatic frontmen of the 90s, was the most successful lyricist of the Cool Britannia movement. The other bands wrote sing along anthems that were somewhat tongue-in-cheek. Jarvis did this as well as (if not better than) his contemporaries but also simultaneously talked about real topics like the class divide and worries about the future on the hits ‘Common People’ and ‘Disco 2000’.
Ocean Colour Scene – Moseley Shoals
Thanks to constant plugging from TFI Friday, ‘Moseley Shoals’ became OCS’s most successful album which contained their most successful singles. It followed the Britpop ideal of emulating the best that British music had to offer. ‘The Riverboat Song’ was influenced by Led Zeppelin’s ‘Four Sticks’ and the lyrics to ‘The Day We Caught The Train’ were influenced by The Who’s classic concept album ‘Quadrophenia’.
Neil Young removes his music from streaming sites
The Canadian singer/songwriter made the decision to remove his music from streaming services after he claimed the sound was “the worst quality in the history of broadcasting”. He stated that he’d be willing to allow his music to stream again if the sound quality improved. This isn’t the first time Young has gone off the rails over sound quality, also dissatisfied with the quality of mp3 files he’s worked to produce his high fidelity ‘Pono’ player although it has found little success.
Ed Sheeran’s record breaking weekend
Singer/songwriter superstar Ed Sheeran has become the first artist to headline Wembley Stadium without the aid of a backing band. Anything worth doing is worth overdoing as he has performed 3 sold out shows over the course of the weekend, just him, his guitar and his array of effects pedals (oh, and Elton John making a brief surprise appearance). It adds to Ed’s other recent success in that his song ‘Thinking Out Loud’ has become the first song to spend a whole year in the UK top 40.
Belwood Music 