The National – High Violet

I was going to write about how the recently touted idea of The National as the next band about to leap the great divide into arena rock is, without wishing to offend them, on so many levels laughable. By any definition they contain none of the required ingredients. I was also going to write about [...]

Joanna Newsom – Have One On Me

There is a great summary of Joanne Newsom in 140 characters on Twitter by @Discographies. It goes “Joanna Newsom: 1 Plink! Plinketa-plink!; 2 Plink! Plinketa-plink! (with orchestra); 3 Plink! Plinketa-plink! (for two goddamned hours). Kind of nails it in so many ways but equally there’s so much more to say. Forgive my suspicions. A triple [...]

Tracey Thorn – Love And Its Opposite

Okay, I give in then. The rest of the world has swooned in very small numbers to The Marine Girls; early Tracey Thorn solo stuff; Ben Watt (especially Ben Watt in terms of the numbers) and early Everything But The Girl. The rest of the world swooned in rather silly large numbers to latter day [...]

Katell Keineg – At The Mermaid Parade

At some point in recent months my music collection passed one thousand CDs. I know this because I have a spreadsheet that tells me so (for insurance purposes, obviously!). For no logical reason whatsoever I kind of wanted that one thousandth purchase to be something special; a bit memorable. I guess I should have paid [...]