
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…

One of the most wonderful things about The Charlatans is their ability to breathe and grow, when many of their peers plough a familiar trough, and rely largely on nostalgia. Not so this lot, who have gone through ’90s psychedelia and indie-dance, to sun-soaked Californian synthetics, to rootsy rock, to Balearic, to post punk, and…

If you’ve been reading our words for a while, you’ll know how much we love the music of Dora Morelenbaum. Her ‘Pique’ album is one of our favourite records, and is a modern Brazilian classic. Read our review here. Well, Dora has a new video out for the swooning, groovy ‘Não Vou Te Esquecer’, and…

The release of Justin Bieber’s ‘SWAG’ album was, for most, a surprise. Not least because of the absence of promotional materials released in the build-up to it, but in part, it was remarkable that he’d even been working on anything. For those not terminally swirling around Bieber’s plughole for every morsel of information, he’d only…

People who write about music, overthink music, read books and websites about music, devour music documentaries and go on Wikipedia deep-dives, are not your average music listener. Don’t read that as ‘better’, rather, atypical. Think about it – there’s people out there who saw the Oasis reunion, but were completely unaware that Liam Gallagher just…
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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