“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 […]
Noah Gundersen isn’t giving up on “Better Days”
There’s a piano. It’s broken or muffled. There seems to be the sound of people moving about in the background. It turns out those noises are the drums that soon join in. This is how Noah Gundersen’s “Better Days” starts. Quietly, effected, but deceptive, for when the singing starts it’s crystal clear, soulful, and emotional. […]
The The get “Infected” with a Sweet Disease
In 1989 English band The The released Mind Bomb, a luscious album that capitalised on everything its predecessor had promised. It’s a quiet masterpiece that still holds very strong today and is one of my favourite albums of all time. But the previous 1986 album was where I discovered this passionate, unique band. I was […]
The Half-awake Dream of Jörgen Kjellgren’s “On A Tuesday”
If you make music, if you put pen to paper and voice to tape (well… the electronic equivalent these days, but I’m being nostalgic), does the time of day or day of the week affect what comes out? Tuesday is the day of the week for music producer and singer songwriter Jörgen Kjellgren’s latest song, […]
