
End of year round-ups can be a pretty predictable affair, with publications counting on fandoms of massive stars boosting their signal, be it an inflated spot on the chart, or a provocatively low spot designed to agitate. Of course, some massive releases are worthy of lofty positions, but we prefer to give spots to the…

On Monday, we’ll be announcing our LPs of 2023. We figured that this will leave it late enough that no-one will surprise us with a complete masterpiece and ruin everything. We’ve tried to go for albums that are away from the grain, but honestly, it’s what we were listening to the most, so we’re not…

We are prepping ourselves to do our End Of Year lists, but it’s more of an emotional readying because they take ages to do. What doesn’t help is that everyone has started releasing Christmas songs to really give us a deadline. Thankfully, the one we’re sharing from Anastasia Coope is a little freaky gem. While…

Just the other day, everyone was sharing their Spotify Wrapped graphics and having a giggle and all that, but things were about to get tremendously serious at Spotify HQ. This week, the streaming behemoth announced that they’d be sacking 17% of their staff. That’s around 1,500 people losing their pay just before Christmas. Pretty brutal.…

Kiss are no longer real people, and will be forever young as some imaginary thing. See, they’ve announced the ‘end of its physical existence’ because now, they’ll be digital avatars. They’ve copied ABBA obviously, because pop walks so rock can run. Anyway, it all feels a bit weird and this whole scenario is like when…

Kenya Grace apparently had a viral smash, but virality is something that passes us by so we’ll just have to accept what’s been said regarding all that. What we do know, however, is that Kenya’s new single ‘Paris’ is a slice of future pop that we like a whole bunch. Writing, producing and performing her…

Michael Head and The Red Elastic Band are bringing back the jangle, with Ciao Ciao Bambino! Recorded in West Kirby with Bill Ryder-Jones (him again!), Head says: “’Ciao Ciao Bambino’ came to me one night when I was thinking about the first words I ever heard. It was a song called ‘Ciao Ciao Bambino’ that my…

Black Grape have announced a new LP, which we didn’t see coming. They might have been talking about it for ages for all we know, but that’s not the point. We’re surprised and it’s not wholly unpleasant, is it? The group, of course, are a project of Shaun Ryder (Happy Mondays) and Kermit (Ruthless Rap…

Much like recreational drugs, AI is a fine toy to muck around with if you already know what you’re doing, but wildly annoying in the hands of know-nothings with loud mouths and their hangers on who think it’s the future maaaaan. Anyway, with that, like recreational drugs, we’re going to have to live with it…

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).…
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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