In popular music, lyrics are less important than the music. Often the words of popular songs float past innocuously. Stringing together meaningless words that sound good together can be an effective strategy – ask Jon Anderson or A.C. Newman. Bad…
Of all the b-sides that I’ve covered in this series, Elvis Presley’s cover of ‘Mystery Train’ is the most iconic. It was voted on a 2003 Rolling Stone as the 77th greatest song of all time, an astounding feat for…
Welcome back to the Spotify quiz series. We had ten contestants in the first week of Spotify quizzes, and the leaderboard looks like this: Participant Week 1 Total Rich Kamerman 20 20 Sheik Yerbouti 20 20 jprobichaud 20 20 Jim…
I didn’t enjoy any single album from 2019 as much as I liked Mitski‘s Be The Cowboy in 2018. Nevertheless, 2019 was a strong year – albums that I enjoyed by established favourites like The New Pornographers and Taylor Swift…
Welcome to the final batch of 2019 reviews. One record I thoroughly enjoy, but only picked up on year end lists a couple of weeks ago, while the other two I’ve had on the backburner for months. These New Puritans…
It looks like noone scored more than 24/28 in last week’s royal artists quiz. Congratulations to Rich and J who tied for the best score. This week you need to name the artist, based on their top five Spotify songs.…
It’s important to be a lifelong learner. At the age of twenty I would have unequivocally hated all of these albums. Now mainstream rock seems stagnant, and lots of the interesting action is in genres that I would have dismissed.…
Power-pop legend Matthew Sweet was born in Nebraska, but moved to Athens, Georgia, to join the local alt-rock scene. He recorded two unsuccessful records in the 1980s, before his 1991 breakthrough Girlfriend. The record showcased the brilliant lead guitar of…
Congratulations to Sheik Yerbouti, who just pipped Tony on the squirrel quiz. This week you need to link the hit songs to the artists with royal names, including Duke Ellington, Chaka Khan, and Carole King. Note the hit clause; Prince…
Here are three 2019 albums that are quirky and full of exotic sounds. I’ve ordered them in magnitude of weirdness, with the least eccentric first. Enjoy! Cate Le Bon Reward Cate Le Bon was discovered by Super Furry Animals front-man…
