The Pop Corporation
WORDS ABOUT MUSIC + POP CULTURE
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When you’re singing along to a song at the top of your lungs, sometimes you don’t know what you’re singing. Sometimes you can be singing the saddest lyrics imaginable, but you’ve not realised because you’re half-cut on a bottle of rum and some floor-drugs, and it’s Friday night. Ever danced to ‘Gimme Gimme Gimme’ by
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We’re not arsed if you already knew about this, because some of us didn’t. Below is a video of Nico (Velvet Underground/Warhol) playing in Preston, and that’s exciting. Nico’s time with the Velvets is well documented, but ever the Bohemian, she moved from romantic partner to country and was generally a nomad going where the
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It really is hard to imagine the shape of pop and soul music without Barrett Strong. While he may not have been the household name that many of his peers were, where would popular music be without his hugely influential and soulful powerhouse that is ‘Money (That’s What I Want)’? There’s more too – he
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Imagine for a second, you’re driving past Abbey Road, and you nearly hit a pedestrian on that famous crossing. Imagine some more, that the pedestrian in question is Paul McCartney. The car in question is a Prius, so it’s kinda funny that he nearly got offed by a green motor. Also, let’s go with the
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We all need cool stuff to read. Finding it in the soup of the algorithm can be tricky, with a bunch of former broadsheet sorts going solo, and trying to flog subscription content on their mailers and whatnot. No harm, no foul – but these things tend to skew toward the po-faced and overly earnest.
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Caroline Polacheck’s is an adventurous pop star, and that’s always a good thing. She’s recently hit out at lazy comparisons to Bjork and Kate Bush, preferring to make music under her own steam, which is fair enough. She’s got a big voice and likes to be mildly awkward, which we say as a compliment of
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Hey! Do you like new music and, not just new music, but slightly difficult music that’s fun? Well, you should check outy Rob Mazurek’s Exploding Star Orchestra newbie, ‘Future Shaman’. Apply here if you like wonky jazz and post-rock. It’s discordant, good stuff. Mazurek is a composer/trumpeter and the Exploding Star Orchestra features Damon Locks
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We like a popstar making bold choices, and Sam Smith has been doing exactly that lately. It doesn’t matter whether you like the tunes or not, we should absolutely support a commercial artist when they lean into the experimental and off-kilter. Did you see them on SNL, with Sharon Stone draping themselves all over the
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It feels kinda shitty referring to a new artist as ‘Bjork’s daughter’, but needs must. Isadora Bjarkardottir Barney is her name, and she’s released her debut solo work as part of a comp showcasing Icelandic music. The comp is called ‘DRULLUMALL 4’ and Isadora’s track – ‘bergmál’ – is really good, you’ll be glad to
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The mighty Pet Shop Boys are all set to share some previously unreleased songs in April. It’s all part of a new thing they’re doing and that new thing is a book called ‘Annually’. The 2023 edition of the yearly release (hence the name) will be a 64-page hardback affair, containing journals, photos from their
STOP HOARDING TUNES
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MORE BILL CALLAHAN
We already shared the first of Bill Callahan’s new music – but there’s more! ‘Lonely City’ is the second song from the forthcoming ‘My Days of 58’ album, and is apparently a tribute to the Big Apple, New York city. He says: “Lonely City is a song I’ve been meaning to write for decades. It…
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KING GIZ AI SPOTIFY IMPERSONATION DOOM
While thick people enjoy the fruits of artificial intelligence, everyone is left rolling their eyes and tightening their fists. Either way, the tech is outpacing any human response to it, and it’s making a real mess in the process. Take for example, some songs appearing on Spotify impersonating King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, and…
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SASSY 009 + YUNE PINKU
We’re big fans of Yunè Pinku, which is how we stumbled into the new one from Sassy 009, who happen to have their debut album coming out next month (in January 2026, if you’re not reading this hot off the press). The album is called ‘Dreamer+’, and the new Pinku featuring single is called ‘Mirrors’,…
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MARIE DAVIDSON MODERN SYNTHPOP
Canada’s Marie Davidson released some highly rated bits this year, and typically, we completely missed the boat. Her ‘City of Clowns’ has been in for a lot of praise and she’s ending the year with a track from it called ‘Fun Times’. She says of it: “While touring City Of Clowns, I stumbled on a…
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