
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

Madonna is returning to dance music, as it has been announced that she’s returning to Warner Records, and notably, coming at us with ‘Confessions Of A Dance Floor Part 2’, which should be out in 2026. Madonna and dance music is a marriage made in heaven, and if she’s going to help bring back French house…

Brian Eno’s Together for Palestine benefit played out at London’s Wembley Arena, and sincerely, the whole thing felt very similar to the rallies and shows that called for the release of Nelson Mandela during South Africa’s apartheid. During the gathering, there were a number of powerful speakers and performances, and after the show, Massive Attack announced they…

The Charlatans have always been billed as ‘survivors’, which is fair but belies the group’s ability to shift with the times. While a lot of groups quickly (and understandably) fall into nostalgia, The Charlatans insatiable need to keep their ears open has seen them endure. So with that, a new LP is on the horizon,…

There’s a new maxim doing the rounds which, once you read it, you can’t really unsee it, and points to why piracy is back. “If streaming isn’t ownership, then piracy isn’t theft.” Piracy went away for a while, with Spotify and Netflix seemingly being the two silver bullets that solved the problem of stealing content.…
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