The final stretch of my Daniel Johnston series has not only been a long time coming, but scatterbrained. I’ve got four more releases to write about, one of which is an extended play released long before the other projects, and I’ll also be publishing a previously unpublished review of a live album that I wrote […]
My initial introductory spiel on Gang of Four centred around the essentiality of bandmembers Jon King and Andy Gill. It was as if Dave Allen and Hugo Burnham – not to mention all their other vital organs, their stablemates and collaborators – never existed. Enter gag about the band not being a gang of two […]
The Dark Side of the Moon ReduxAlbum by Roger WatersReleased 6 October 2023Art RockProduced by Waters and Gus SeyffertRating – 4/10 Well, he did it. – I’m almost certain that when Roger Waters initially announced his redux of The Dark Side of the Moon, he made some sort of arrogant proclamation that it was how […]
In a Silent WayAlbum by Miles DavisReleased 30 July 1969Jazz FusionProduced by Teo MaceroRating – 9/10 Miles goes electric! – Gatekeeping has existed for a loooong time. Can you believe there was a time when Miles Davis was admonished for his lack of musical purity? It happened in 1969 when he had the NERVE to […]
Jane’s AddictionLive Album by Jane’s AddictionReleased 15 May 1987Alternative RockProduced by Mark Linett / Jane’s AddictionRating – 5/10 The sound of rock going native in 1987. – I was initially going to write a ‘worst to best’ article on Jane’s Addiction, which then became a retrospective of the albums released prior to their first breakup, […]
Rick Rubin is often regarded as one of the most pivotal producers in modern music. Sure, his worst habits are just as regularly mentioned – high compression rates, clipping etc. – but focus on the man’s best work, and you’ve got yourself some of the most recognisable hip hop beats in history, including fusions of […]
Fugees is a hip hop group with a complicated past, a half-existent present, and an unclear future. Any optimism to the future stems from the past; while may have been messy, unfriendly and uncomfortable, it was damn historic, glossed by the enlightenment that comes when the future is optimistic. The Jersey trio – Pras Michel, […]
The career of Lady Gaga is an uncanny sequence of invention and reinvention, an artistic and personal maturation that started via the rebellion of a young Stefani Germanotta, flourishing into stardom; music, movies, fashion and beyond. Through patronage, she has fuelled LGBTQ+ rights awareness. Through her own revelations – including a horrifying history of abuse […]
Lost and FoundAlbum by Daniel JohnstonReleased 18 April 2006Singer-SongwriterLabel – SketchbookRating – 7/10 – It’s been a while since we’ve discussed Daniel Johnston. Our next album in the series is Lost and Found, originally released in 2006. Why are we dedicating this edition to just one album? Well, I’m yet to gather my thoughts on […]
Everybody’s got something to hide except for me, my monkey, and Mike Ness. Since Social Distortion – the punk band he fronts – formed back in the late ‘70s, the singer has used his voice, containing throaty inflections that resemble the roughest soil, to access and assess the turmoil of his younger days; numerous stints […]
PEANUTBUTTERPOPE 