The Pop Corporation

WORDS ABOUT MUSIC + POP CULTURE

  • THE STORY OF KING CURTIS

    To many, King Curtis is the emotional saxophone at the start of Withnail & I, as his take on ‘A Whiter Shade Of Pale’ drifts over the two unfortunate souls in ’60s London. To others, he’s the blistering sound that made Aretha’s ‘Respect’ pop so hard, as well as ‘Yakety Yak’ by The Coasters and…

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  • ELLIOTT SMITH’S TEENAGE BAND

    Elliott Smith has basically become something of an American Nick Drake – gone too soon and a voice for sensitive and introverted around the world’s bedrooms. Of course, there’s joy in both of their music and so much to love, but it’s the downer, depressed element that made both artists so enigmatic. And when you…

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  • MORE UNEARTHED STEELY DAN

    By now, you’re probably aware of the unearthed and lost track ‘The Second Arrangement‘ by Gaucho-era Steely Dan seeing the light of day. This new bit of news isn’t quite that level, but it’s still fun stuff! A performance of ‘Reelin’ In The Years’ from the Midnight Special has turned up online and finds the…

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  • CHECK OUT THE VEGAS SPHERE // PURE MADNESS

    Venues are every bit as interesting as the bands that play them, and there’s a new one over in Vegas which is psychedelically odd. It’s fun, even if a bit of a mind melter. Technically, it’s called the MSG Sphere (that’s Madison Square Garden, not the stuff you put in food) and it’s innards are…

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  • BOMBINO BACK WITH NEW TUAREG HOT SHIT

    You may not know Bombino, but listen to the song below and you’ll wish you did already. Bombino is a Nigerian artist who sings in Tamasheq and was the subject of the movie ‘Agadez, the Music and the Rebellion’. It’s heavy political music, but also joyful and psychedelic in places, and his music sprung out…

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  • IF THERE’S A FARAWAY LOOK IN YOUR BARISTA’S EYES, THIS IS WHY

    Listen, there’s been a lot of heartache in the service industry of late, and that’s because Taylor Swift tickets are nigh-on impossible to get hold of. Obviously, we haven’t tried because 1. We’re too cynical to enjoy her music 2. We’re too cynical to even join a Ticketmaster queue 99% of the time. This month,…

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  • NEW SAMPHA

    Sampha is back with new music and seeing as he’s one of the most interesting and unique voices in UK pop, that’s good news isn’t it? That’s rhetorical. Yes it is. This is his first single in six years, and it’s called ‘Spirit 2.0’. He’s not been lazy in the interim though – he’s been on…

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  • LIVE // ROISIN MURPHY // TRINITY COLLEGE DUBLIN

    It’s kind of annoying to refer to any musician by comparing them to someone else, but there’s this unavoidable thing with disco and dance music that makes you look at certain performers like they’re carrying the torch for the scene. Sure, there’s a lot of people who have employed house and whatnot into their music,…

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  • ELIZABETH FRASER GOES KOSMICHE

    Cocteau Twin Elizabeth Fraser has teamed up with Damon Reece who is Massive Attack’s drummer for a project called Sun’s Signature and there’s a new thing to lend your ear to. The track is called ‘Bluedusk’ and has been remixed by Lump. The band’s debut LP came out last year, but now, there’s an extended…

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  • KEIRON HEBDEN X WILLIAM TYLER

    Hey Four Tet fans! Keiran Hebden and William Tyler have released a new single called ‘Darkness, Darkness’ and we’re going to share the b-side from it because it’s a great piece of Hauntological Creepcore, and yes, we know saying things are ‘hauntological’ is incredibly fashionable right now. But it is. It sounds like something from…

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STOP HOARDING TUNES


  • IT’S ALL GOING OFF AT TIKTOK

    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…

  • IS 2024 A CRITICAL MOMENT FOR TAYLOR SWIFT?

    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…

  • NISA IS DANCING ALONE

    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…

  • ALT VERSION OF KISS FROM A ROSE

     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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THERE’S NO MONEY IN THIS GAME ANYMORE, BUT IF YOU WANT TO WRITE SOMETHING FOR THE POP CORPS, YOU ARE WELCOME TO GET IN TOUCH. HAPPY HUNTING.