
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
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

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

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

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

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

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

You can try and be as clever as you want, deep diving on this, that, and the other… but sometimes it’s just worth reminding yourself how great a band were. From Detroit, America’s greatest music city, Inner City was the brainchild of the great Kevin Saunderson and Paris Grey. Saunderson of course, was one of

If you like standing around groups of other dweebs debating what constitutes a track that could slot into a Balearic set, welcome to the fold. We don’t mention that by accident, because when we first heard Art Feynman’s new single ‘Desperately Free’, we wondered exactly that. Anyway, Luke Temple (Art is his alter-ego, of sorts)…

What was that song The XX did? It was alright wasn’t it? To some, that sentence is probably sacrilege as The XX felt like the most important group in the world for a period (and probably for a certain type of person trying to navigate 2009 – swine flu, the death of Michael Jackson etc).…

Blur surprised everyone with the announcement of new LP ‘The Ballad of Darren’ and there’s a key word in there to get excited about – ballad. Fact is, if you’re a die-in-the-wool Blur fan, you’ll know that they’re a generational talent when it comes to melancholy and the softer side of rock. Of course, tracks…

Travis Scott is planning to do a gig at the Pyramids of Giza, which is very prog of him indeed. There’s been a bit of chatter about the whole thing, with a lot of pushback from Egypt’s Musicians’ Syndicate, who are trying to revoke the permit for the show because it “contradicts the identity of the…
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.
POP CULTURE IS WORTH TALKING ABOUT.
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