
If you’ve been reading the music press this week, there was some alarm or peevish glee (depending on where you were doing your reading) that vinyl sales had dropped. A Billboard piece stated that vinyl sales dropped by 33%, which is not insignificant. That’s selling 34.9 million units, down to 23.3 million in 2024. Are…

At the country music awards, they didn’t nominate Beyonce for anything despite her all-conquering country LP and while many shrugged, many were irritated by the whole thing. The irritation came from all sides, but more importantly, so did the shrugs – apart from something for the shelf in the spare toilet or a sticker to…

There’s something about golden era rap that just loves a fancy action figure, to place on your shelves next to your collected essays from hip hop journalism, tchotchkes, rap comics and high-end record middles and the like. It’s very wholesome, honestly. Well, Doom’s ‘Mm… Food’ is getting a reissue for its anniversary on November 15th,…

Once upon a time, music retreated away from the bombast of Britpop and US rap-rock, and all over the place, more introspective bedroom producers were making tricky electronic music and singer-songwriters gravitated toward the acid-folk of the ’70s, focusing more on cottage industries and community. Tunng managed to straddle both worlds, with critics dubbing their…

Look, most bands put a song out to let you know new things are coming, but not 2nd Grade. The power poppers from Philadelphia have chucked THREE whole songs at our ears and mercifully, they’re all really fun and filled with skuzzy pop hooks and jangly guitars. The revival of power pop is very welcome…

Today is John Lennon’s birthday – he would have been 84 – and to celebrate this, we’ve been treated to something rather surprising. While a lot of repackaged music from musicians can feel a little exploitative at times, churning out old stuff without much new going on, that’s not the case with this latest Lennon…

The excellent GULP are having a party for the 8th instalment of their broadsheet counter-culture magazine, which features all the wonderful words, tidbits, diatribes and cool design we’ve come to expect from them now. The issue drops on Friday 11th October and you can get down in person at The New Cross in Manchester’s Northern…

Here’s the tracklist for the latest FREE RANGE radio show, which is effectively the listenable version of this website albeit with a different name and takes up way more of your time. At least you don’t have to use your eyes and it can join you on the commute to work. Here’s the show to…

A piece of vintage kit that’s somewhere between a proto sampler and mellotron? YES PLEASE! A superb lo-fi thing shown off by the YouTube channel called HAINBACH, you see a kinda synth that uses floppy records to loop from and has all manner of cool and cute rhythms, and some gorgeous ambient synth tones. It’s…

We’re very happy that there’s a spate of soft-pop knocking around at the minute. Focusing on gentle catchiness and easy-on-the-ear stylings, one of the most pleasant songs we’ve heard in a while is from Nature TV. The track is called ‘Frida’ and it’s a cuddly, warm thing and is set to feature on a new…

There’s no popstar on Earth more likeable than Selena Gomez. Have you seen ‘Only Murders In The Building’ yet? She’s wonderful in it. Camp cult classic? ‘Spring Breakers’, everyone. A celebrity makeup range that is actually good and people sincerely like it? You bet. Came out of relationships with other celebrities looking like an actual…
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.
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