
Euphoric melancholy is one of the true pillars of pop, giving listeners the chance to dance the pain out of their feet and let all the air leave their body while they joyfully singalong with something that might be upsetting. ABBA were the masters of it, and pretty much the whole of soul music. It’s

Honey Gentry has featured on these pages before and we’re very into the baroque, creeped out pastoral Americana she’s producing. And so to her take on the Queens of the Stone Age song, ‘Go With The Flow’. Bands don’t normally veer too far from the source material (which is a shame), but on this, the

Aphex Twin and Warp Records were teasing stuff, and eagle-eyed fans spotted pretty quickly that it was something to do with ‘Selected Ambient Works Vol II’, and as it’s the 30th anniversary imminent, it was obvious there was a new version of it coming out. That’s still good news though, for electronic music heads! This

In British English, the word ‘duff’ is pretty common parlance. In dictionary jargon, it’s something like ‘adjective INFORMAL: BRITISH 1. of very poor quality’ – you know the score. Outside of Britain, the word may or may not be used – we’ve not checked, but we’re going to assume that at least in the States,

Or: Longevity doesn’t automatically get you the big gigs. Without looking at inflation, it does seem that arena shows are disproportionately expensive these days. There’s been a spike in ticket prices in the post pandemic period that leaves a number of fans thinking that they’re priced out of shows. Now, anyone with any cop-on will

One of France and European pop’s most iconic women has died. Françoise Hardy, who propelled herself to stardom in the ye-ye scene and beyond, passed away after a long battle with a dreadful illness. In her later years, she would campaign for euthanasia in her home country, and her son Thomas Dutronc, left the simple

Latto’s ‘Sunday Service’ is now an all-star affair now there’s a redo with the million selling Megan Thee Stallion and the mighty Flo Milli. As you’re expect, it’s a huge club ready clunky beat and firebrand cockiness on the mic from all three. An uber charismatic affair as you can imagine. It’s not a game-changer

Mclusky have a small but devoted fanbase and, rightly so, even if occasionally the reaction to adoration from the band can seem fractious at times. It’s all part of nervous, tense fun, obviously. They’ve announced a new album called ‘The World Is Still Here and So Are We’, which is their first in 21 years.…

Pearl Charles is great. She’s made shimmering ’70s pop, glitterball disco, and cosmic singer-songwritery stuff. It’s the latter that her latest release errs on the side of, and it’s one of her best songs to date! She’s been working with the brilliant Michael Rault on her new music, and ‘Step Too Far’ is a brooding,…

Kanye has been at it recently and a lot of people have been talking about him being off the meds, which illness his brain has, how he’s not been the same since his mother died, and on and on and on and on and on and… It’s obvious that attention is one of the major…

Look, you should already be subscribed to BANDSPLAINING on YouTube. If you’re not, this is your heads-up. The latest video explains Library Music, so if you’ve been jonesing for someone to dissect what it is, what’s good about it, and who it influenced, this is a great primer to get you going. If you’re already…
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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