
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…

Time to work out a sad dance routine for duets with strangers while a sped-up version of a song plays, because it’s all going off at TikTok. Now, seeing as social media has been equal parts brilliant and awful over the years, it’s difficult to know what to actually think about all this. Let’s work…

Look, Taylor Swift is breathing such rarified air these days that any suggestion that she’s not going to be a commercial success is pretty much laughable. Any idea that she won’t have a hit is really not what we’re talking about here, so if you are a person who only works on the metric of…

If we’re weary of two things in music currently, it’s post-punk shouty bollix, and whispery, breathy doe-eyed vocals. You might think this song falls in the latter bracket, but it has a bit more about it, so you should give it a whirl. Nisa’s ‘Dance Alone’ is out now, from the album out on Friday…

It’s a baroque pop gem of a song is ‘Kiss From A Rose’ by Seal. What’s remarkable is that he wrote the song in 1987 and hung onto it until everything was just right to release it on… well… the Neverending Story III soundtrack. And then the Batman Forever soundtrack. Initially, Seal wasn’t too keen…
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