2022 was another interesting and relatively lucrative year for music. Not much of particular note happening in the way of rock’s oldest active veterans (i.e. those who began in the ’60s or ’70s), but a few major ’90s and 2000s came back to show that they’re still determined to move forward artistically. One 2010s starter… Read more
With the world largely returning to normal this year, 2022 saw no shortage of musical releases – with big hitters like Beyoncé, Drake, and Kendrick Lamar returning (to varying levels of success) and a new generation of talent (like Ethel Cain and London’s Black Country, New Road) making themselves heard. Below I sift through the… Read more
2022 saw no shortage of fantastic music, which is perhaps why there’s so much disagreement as to what the year’s big, standout releases were. With this list, I attempt to break through the noise and put aside any personal biases to objectively assess the most important releases from this year. #10. Alvvays – ‘Blue Rev’… Read more
I’m always finding it harder to put together a “best songs of the year” list than a “best albums of the year” list because whenever I listen to music, I prefer to consume the entire album rather than pick out specific songs. Yeah, there really are people like me out there! Nonetheless, here are ten… Read more
Photo Credit: Zachary Spangler The debut album of supergroup L.S. Dunes was always going to be met with impossible-to-fulfill expectations – how could a collaboration between the Circa Survive lead singer Anthony Green and My Chemical Romance guitarist Frank Iero among others not? This sense of high expectations, and an eagerness to fulfill them, come… Read more
Photo Credit: Getty/Roskilde Press The post-festival discussions about the 50th edition of Scandinavia’s biggest festival have mainly dealt with the Strokes’ reportedly awful performance. I, who ended up at the festival thanks to a fortunate coincidence, had to travel back home before the Strokes, and instead of going on about Julien Casablanca’s awkward dialogues for… Read more
Photo Credit: BBC (All Photos) The final night of the Radio 6 Festival begins with a brief performance from Evangeline Ling and David Wrench – the duo who blend pop, House, and post-punk to create truly distinctive music. While their stage presence is low-key, and young vocalist Ling seems understandably nervous at the start of… Read more
Photo Credit: Ebru Yildiz (All Photos) A little after 7 pm, Fenne Lily – supported by her band – walks onto stage to open for label-mate Lucy Dacus in Bristol – the city in which Lily has been performing since the age of 15. Now 25, she begins with her best song yet, “Car Park”;… Read more
Photo Credit: Getty Images for The Recording Academy (All Photos) Award show attendance has been reliably falling year-on-year and this year, the Recording Academy seemed less concerned than ever about doing anything to revert that trend, with an overlong, self-indulgent ceremony that ran for a seemingly never-ending 2 hours and 33 minutes. Beyond making a… Read more
Mark Josephson, Executive Director of the New Music Seminar said back in 1988 that “alternative music has real strength, real quality, real excitement, and it has to be socially significant, as opposed to Whitney Houston, which is pablum.” That’s a great explanation of what started during the late-‘70s to early-‘80s as college radio features like Dead Kennedys… Read more