Monday 14 February. Valentine’s Day. Lovers around the world showing signs of affection and buying gifts. This was also the day that Radiohead chose to share their latest present with their milions of adoring fans. Their long awaited eigth album – The King of Limbs – will be making it’s overdue appearance imminently. This Saturday, [...]
I’m sure this is a regular occurence amongst music lovers. They listen to album, decide they don’t like it and resolve never to play it again. It’s happened to me a few times – after all, there’s no shortage of exciting new music to listen to – but today, prompted by one of my work [...]
Last Friday, at a Christmas do for a company I used to work for, I was set a monumental challenge: to list my dream lineup for a medium-sized festival (smaller than Glastonbury, but bigger than an arena gig) that was to be watched by millions around the world. There were only two rules (well, these are the [...]
I had an interesting revelation not too long ago. Needing to concentrate at work, I put on my headphones. Deciding I needed something different to listen to from my usual day time fayre - that usually being 6 Music or random tunes on Spotify – I put on a spot of Dvořák. Yes, you read that right. Dvořák. [...]
A timely moment in music, this one. Sadly, the mighty I Am Kloot didn’t win the Mercury Music Prize this year. Their magnificent latest album, Sky at Night would have been a very worthy winner. It’s full of heartfelt, descriptive songs that are drenched with emotion, from despair to optimism. At least the Mercury Music [...]
Oh, happy days. I’ve got an Arcade Fire gig on the horizon. Hot off the heels of releasing their excellent new album, The Suburbs, Arcade Fire announced some UK gigs in November/ December. I’ve been lucky enough to snaffle tickets for one of their O2 shows, and I’m thoroughly looking forward to seeing them again [...]
Tonight, listening to a few songs, I was reminded of the unexpected pleasure that was the Magic Numbers bursting into a glorious cover of Neil Young’s Cowgirl in the Sand when I saw them recently at Tapestry Goes West at Shenley Park. There’s been a few times recently, including this one, where I’ve been impressed [...]
Each Glastonbury I go to, I try and see at least one band that I’ve not heard of before. This year, that honour fell to the Avett Brothers. I’d already eyed them up in the programme after they were described as a “folk rolk band from North Carolina who combine bluegrass, punk and pop, and [...]
Long time no speak, loyal reader! I’ve been a tad busy at work since my return to the real world after another fantastic Glastonbury – definitely my second favourite so far – so they’ll be a deluge of Glastonbury-related posts to come in coming weeks. I’ll kick off my recollections of this year’s monumental Glastonbury by mentioning [...]
This week’s moment in music is one that recurs for me quite often. Whether it’s REM, The National, U2 or Radiohead, going back and discovering a band’s back catalogue when you’re late on the bandwagon can be very rewarding. Take the National for example. Contrary to seemingly popular opinion, their breakthrough album Alligator was actually their [...]
Musings on moving moments in music.