CHAIAlbum by CHAIReleased 22 September 2023SynthpopLabel – Sub PopRating – 7/10 Quintessential Chai fun. – While Chai’s music is reasonably linear, it can be difficult to tell what exactly is going on. I like this; the Nagoya band brandishes an elite, cutesy combo of J-Pop, future funk, city pop and R&B (sometimes all at once), […]
That! Feels Good!Album by Jessie WareReleased 28 April 2023Disco / Pop / R&BLabel – PMR / EMIRating – 7.5/10 What’s your dirtiest pleasure? – Jessie Ware turned heads when she traded her shop-worn pop soul for the vesture of disco. What’s Your Pleasure, released in 2020, rubbed shoulders with the groovy opulence of classic dance […]
‘It’s Not Them. It Couldn’t Be Them. It Is Them!’ – Guided By Voices It’s got to be them. Surely it’s them. It is them; they release like five albums each year! ‘It’s Not Them’ is essentially the default Guided By Voices album, or at least by modern standards. It’s the furthest thing from embarrassing, […]
Music of the SpheresAlbum by ColdplayReleased 15 October 2021Pop / Space RockLabel – Parlophone / AtlanticRating – 2/10 Any creative refinement of Coldplay’s space-bound concept album is sucked up by a black hole. – Coldplay’s ‘Coloratura’ deserves the utmost credit. Culminating ‘Music of the Spheres’, the album’s closer heroically wades its way through altering passages […]
Stand for MyselfAlbum by YolaReleased 30 July 2021Country Soul / Pop SoulProduced by Dan AuerbachRating – 8/10 Yola matches the chops of her multi-genre influences on ‘Stand for Myself’. – Juggling beehives and bottles of moonshine, Yola views limits as chattels applicable only to the beholder. Country soul is not a twenty-first century revelation; it’s […]
The Turning WheelAlbum by SpelllingReleased 25 June 2021Progressive PopProduced by SpelllingRating – 7/10 ‘The Turning Wheel’ is a well-travelled collection of curious heart songs. – We need this opening paragraph to result in the phrase “this ain’t your grandpa’s Spellling album”. Ready? Well, compare ‘The Turning Wheel’ to the musting ruins of ‘Mazy Fly’ or […]
ChromaticaAlbum by Lady GagaReleased 29 May 2020Electropop / Synth PopLabel – Streamline / InterscopeRating – 6/10 ‘Chromatica’ is a pop album 100% honest about itself. 2020 has been dominated by world-burning pessimism, from fires to pandemics to the ugliness of racism and injustice. Many artists have taken it upon themselves to better themselves, whether reactionary […]
Ancient Dreams in a Modern LandAlbum by MarinaReleased 11 June 2021Pop / ElectropopLabel – Atlantic / Neon GoldRating – 7/10 Marina splendidly denounces normality – and many other things – on ‘Ancient Dreams in a Modern Land’. – “You don’t have to be like everybody else, you don’t have to fit into the norm, you […]
WINKAlbum by CHAIReleased 21 May 2021Indie Pop / ElectropopLabel – Sub PopRating – 7/10 ‘WINK’ is a reminder that pop music can be smart in its innocence. – There is a huge selection of hazards a band must cope with from album to album; accusations of sameness; accusations of not enough sameness; a global pandemic. […]
Scaled and IcyAlbum by Twenty One PilotsReleased 21 May 2021Pop / RockLabel – Fueled by RamenRating – 3/10 ‘Scaled and Icy’ is safe to an embarrassing fault. – I feel as though whatever shrewd, conceptual idea Twenty One Pilots have had has simply never been for me. I do appreciate meeting what is essentially pop […]
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