An answerphone message, a spin of crackly vinyl, and then, Smokey Robinson: “Since I saw you last there's been many a sunset…” So begin proceedings on The Avalanches’ third album, ‘We Will Always Love You’. Since we saw The...
It’s been the year of the livestream, and since March we’ve seen performances blossom from bathroom acoustic performances to full-blown, interactive showcases. This weekend it’s the turn of Damon Albarn’s Gorillaz for 'Song Machine' Live. Forming in 1998, the...
Julia Jacklin – ‘baby jesus is nobody's baby now’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byB2r0g014E
There have been some truly wild Christmas songs released this week, from Mariah Carey’s extremely high-octane collaboration with Ariana Grande and Jennifer Hudson, ‘Oh Santa!’, to Liam Payne yet again making...
If you ask a friend what they’re up to and they reply “not much going on at the moment”, you must not – under any circumstances – believe them. They have run away to the woods to collaborate with...
“I kind of like the distance,” admits Nilüfer Yanya on ‘Crash’, the first single from her new EP ‘Feeling Lucky?’. She penned the track before the pandemic, but it could easily refer to Yanya’s take on this year –...
You know how some songs sound like Christmas songs, but aren’t? ‘Now Is The Time’, the third album from LA folk-ish band Lavender Diamond, fits that category. It’s the kind of record you’d put on at a December gathering...
Ten seconds in to ‘Nightmare Vacation’, Rico Nasty spits, “I don't write reviews 'cause that's something y'all do,” a blunt reminder – or warning – that she no longer cares what anybody thinks. Her major label debut sees Nasty...
With his Rocky Horror androgyny, expressive face and streaky hair, Yungblud often resembles the love-child of Gerard Way and Caitlin Moran. Live, he leaves it all on stage just like Jagger, Freddie, or Madonna, and when describing his hometown...
Arlo Parks – 'Caroline'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4kYkFRYbaU
Like a friend relating an anecdote in the pub, Arlo Parks tells you quietly about the break-up she witnessed one day at a bus-stop. ‘Caroline’, the latest single from her forthcoming album ‘Collapsed In Sunbeams’, is...
“I was born to run / I don’t belong to anyone,” Miley Cyrus sings on ‘Midnight Sky’, the first single from her seventh album ‘Plastic Hearts’, turning an extremely Springsteen phrase into an extremely Miley phrase. She stamps herself...