
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…

Light In The Attic have been doing a wonderful job giving Lee Hazelwood’s back catalogue a spring clean, and they’re at it again, this time with ‘Nancy & Lee Again’, now available to pre-order on vinyl and, even better, 8-track! It’ll be streaming too, if you’re not in the habit of buying stuff. It’ll be…

Some people are already all over this, some are not – but Eddie Chacon was in Charles & Eddie (‘Would I Lie To You?’ ohyeah!) and he’s been releasing really, really brilliant music lately. Like, utterly fantastic AOR/Future Soul/NuYacht brilliance on Stones Throw Records. No lie. With the 2020 album ‘Pleasure, Joy And Happiness’, he…

We’re like everyone when we say we’re interested in things that are genuinely horrible. Not ironically; no humour — just a fascination in how things can go so badly wrong… or weird. If you’re not into upsetting things, this is your warning to stop reading right now. Of course, a lot of people enjoy reading…

Girl Ray, later this year, will release an album that absolutely deserves to be topping all kinds of charts and finishing toward the top of critic lists. We know this because the singles that have been released from it so far have all been unequivocally brilliant. They deserve all the success, truly. And they’ve just…

“The Monkeys we loved are gone” wrote someone about the Arctic Monkeys headlining set at Glastonbury. “They used to be good” wrote another. Critics and fans alike had certain demands and preconceived notions, and it turns out that the Arctic Monkeys may have outmanoeuvred or outgrown fair weather music fans. Or do they just suck…

Whether you know Carwyn Ellis as Colorama, or through his Rio 18 work, being pals with The Pretenders, his Soho radio show, working with Edwin Collins, or just by being a humble, lovely man from Wales, you’ll know that his name means good music isn’t far away. Adding to his considerable bow already, he’s teamed…

Stan Culture – the act of feverishly following a band and defending and promoting them at every conceivable turn – is widespread and has been for a while now. Literally named after the Eminem track of the same name about a dangerously obsessive fan, countless internet pile-ons are present daily, as one fan group goes…
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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