
End of year round-ups can be a pretty predictable affair, with publications counting on fandoms of massive stars boosting their signal, be it an inflated spot on the chart, or a provocatively low spot designed to agitate. Of course, some massive releases are worthy of lofty positions, but we prefer to give spots to the…

On Monday, we’ll be announcing our LPs of 2023. We figured that this will leave it late enough that no-one will surprise us with a complete masterpiece and ruin everything. We’ve tried to go for albums that are away from the grain, but honestly, it’s what we were listening to the most, so we’re not…

We are prepping ourselves to do our End Of Year lists, but it’s more of an emotional readying because they take ages to do. What doesn’t help is that everyone has started releasing Christmas songs to really give us a deadline. Thankfully, the one we’re sharing from Anastasia Coope is a little freaky gem. While…

Just the other day, everyone was sharing their Spotify Wrapped graphics and having a giggle and all that, but things were about to get tremendously serious at Spotify HQ. This week, the streaming behemoth announced that they’d be sacking 17% of their staff. That’s around 1,500 people losing their pay just before Christmas. Pretty brutal.…

Kiss are no longer real people, and will be forever young as some imaginary thing. See, they’ve announced the ‘end of its physical existence’ because now, they’ll be digital avatars. They’ve copied ABBA obviously, because pop walks so rock can run. Anyway, it all feels a bit weird and this whole scenario is like when…

Kenya Grace apparently had a viral smash, but virality is something that passes us by so we’ll just have to accept what’s been said regarding all that. What we do know, however, is that Kenya’s new single ‘Paris’ is a slice of future pop that we like a whole bunch. Writing, producing and performing her…

Michael Head and The Red Elastic Band are bringing back the jangle, with Ciao Ciao Bambino! Recorded in West Kirby with Bill Ryder-Jones (him again!), Head says: “’Ciao Ciao Bambino’ came to me one night when I was thinking about the first words I ever heard. It was a song called ‘Ciao Ciao Bambino’ that my…

Greentea Peng has been cutting a groove for psychedelic R&B and now there’s a new single to listen to called ‘One Foot’. If you like R&B that’s left-of-centre, a smidge of jazz and singer songwriter music, you may well find a lot to love here. There’s also fuzz guitars in her back catalogue, so she’s…

Spotify Wrapped 2024 is upon us and, obviously, spare a thought for those people who pushed all their chips into those dreadful puritans over Apple who are gamely looking at whatever Apple Music equivalent their is, while Apple music impose increasingly draconian rules about what is allowed on their marketplace, and thereby taking all vague…

We reckon a thousand hardcore bands have just been formed in the US. See, Knocked Loose performed on Jimmy Kimmel Live! and, as they were taking no prisoners, they played HARD. As such, a number of Americans – remember, for all the ways the US is cool, it is a country full of pearl clutching…

We have noticed that The Quietus, Rolling Stone, The New Yorker, NPR and others have released their Best Albums Of 2024 lists already, and that is far too early. The fact that we’re in the window for SURPRISE DROP! albums, and there’s a strong rumour that Kendrick will have a follow up to ‘GNX’ before…
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