Elbow Create a Monster Called “Balu”
Elbow (and lead singer Guy Garvey particularly) are a sort of underground national treasure in the United Kingdom. They play shows for royalty, but they appear to be the kind of band you’d want to spend the afternoon in the pub with. Garvey himself presents a popular and very enjoyable regular radio show. But his […]
Fleetwood Mac’s Secret Weapon Strikes Again on “You Make Loving Fun”
One of the well-documented wonders of Fleetwood Mac’s seminal album Rumours is how all the members of the band managed to devote themselves to making the best music they possibly could whilst simultaneously ripping each other apart emotionally. Some of the songs on the album understandably have bitter, heartbroken, or regret-laden lyrical content. But one […]
Tiny Habits Show the Beauty in Transition with “Mudroom”
There’s a nice picked acoustic guitar. There’s the passing slide of an electric. And then there’s the most beautiful, resonant voice singing about porch swings and backyards. This is “Mudroom” by Tiny Habits. They are Maya Rae, Cinya Khan, and Judah Mayowa and they all sing a verse on this thrilling and meditative new song. […]
“So Long, Frank Lloyd Wright” is Simon and Garfunkel’s Break-up Song
On what turned out to be their last album together, Simon and Garfunkel created what some regard as a masterpiece. The album contains some iconic songs, not least the title track, “Bridge Over Troubled Water.” Some of these are lodged in my marrow, songs that feel like I’ve known them forever that recall distant times, […]
Kinn’s “25 On 22nd Street” is as Intimate as It Gets
Imagine you’ve just walked into a club. You heard the music as you walked through the door, so you go past the bar and down the stairs, passing posters and objects that reflect little personal pockets of taste and cultural favorites. You walk into the small but spacious room to find three people singing the […]
Radiohead Bring the Strings and Paranoia with “Burn The Witch”
Radiohead are good at (and renowned for) upending people’s expectations. So their lead single from 2016 album A Moon Shaped Pool was what we might call an expected surprise. Radiohead are sometimes described as alt rock or indie rock. There’s often guitars somewhere, and whilst this album has that feel, the first song everyone heard […]
Novo Amor’s Experiments with What You Leave Out on “Years On” and “Land Where I Land”
The world is a frenetic place. Sometimes it’s overwhelming. Music can be an antidote to this, and in the case of Novo Amor’s new songs, it certainly is. There’s a meditative quality to the light, bubbling electronics at the beginning of “Years On” and a not quite whispered vocal that soon employs harmonies, multi-tracked voices, […]
Katy Kirby Celebrates Something Sparkly on “Cubic Zirconia”
A cubic zirconia is an artificially created diamond. A competitor to the real thing, it’s close enough for the average person not to be able to tell the difference. It’s also the title of Katy Kirby’s new song. The song is charming. But it’s also arranged to surprise you. For whilst it contains sounds and […]
The National offer hope on ‘Send For Me’
The National seem to have slowly and purposefully shuffled towards legendary status over the years. Collaborating with superstars and boasting a rabid fanbase, they create wild bursts of rock about random moments of social interaction or elegiac laments about abandoned clothing or emotions with extraordinarily colourful and inscrutable lyrical content. Less regularly, as with the […]
Is “Wherever You Are” Neil Finn’s most romantic song?
In 1996, a TV advert ran with the tagline, “you know more Crowded House songs than you think you do.” It was clever, but also true. The inherent catchiness in Neil Finn’s songwriting paired with lyrics that sit on a knife’s edge between reality and dreams ensure that his songs, once in your brain, are […]
