
Blur announced some massive Wembley gigs and that was that, right? Wrong. They have surprised everyone by announcing a new album! It’s called The Ballad of Darren and is out July 21 via Parlophone. Their first since ‘The Magic Whip’. And there’s a new song too, called ‘The Narcissist.’ Damon Albarn: “This is an aftershock record, reflection and…

Donald Trump’s use of ‘YMCA’ (and to a lesser degree, ‘Macho Man’) by the Village People has been a curious thing. For someone who is, and represents everything virulently homophobic and a whole other bunch of phobics in the US, it’s particularly strange that he’d plump for a song that is not only very camp,…

You’ve invariably picked up a Beatle LP, seen that famous green apple, got an emorous sense of well-being, and got on with your day (unless you’re one of those terrible hipsters who think it’s fashionable to hate The Beatles – you do you, boo). Anyway, the famous split apple across two sides of a Beatle…

The late Japanese composer and Yellow Magic Orchestra founder Ryuichi Sakamoto’s management have shared the last playlist compiled by the late, great musician. Calling it ‘Ryuichi’s Last Playlist’, they wrote: “We would like to share the playlist that Ryuichi had been privately compiling to be played at his own funeral to accompany his passing. He…

When SBTRKT were around last time, they were known for their forward thinking dancefloor chuggers, designed for those kids who weren’t necessarily into dance music and a bit frightened of Techno Lads on pills, but still wanted to scuff their sneakers up on the dirty dancefloors. ‘Pharaohs’ and ‘Wildlife’ were solid gold bangers, but in…

Candie Payne’s ‘I Wish I Could Have Loved You More’ was one of the best albums of the Noughties, melding pop with ace ’60s girl group pop and noirish spy flick moodiness. These days, Candie is making art of a different stripe, but we’ve kept playing tracks like ‘All I Need To Hear’ and the…

if you’re in the market for some summery, retro, West Coast-ish yacht pop, you could do a lot worse than dig into the new track from Douglas A Benson. The track is called ‘On The Run’ and is taken from his forthcoming EP ‘Joys Of Growth’, which should land later in ’24. It’s going a…

If you love those ace LPs that spearheaded electronic music in the ’60s and ’70s, you’re going to love the imminent LP from the Will Gregory Moog Ensemble. It’s a debut LP called ‘Heat Ray: The Archimedes Project’ and it has made in collaboration with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. Apparently, it was inspired by…

Annie-Dog hails from Ireland and has a new single out and, honestly, we’ve not ever heard anything quite like it. That’s worth writing about in itself, because it’s incredibly difficult to be original in a landscape that has an algorithm that favours familiarity, and of course, decades of music using up most of the ideas…
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