Since releasing her first album as U.S. Girls in 2008, Meg Remy has been a prolific powerhouse of ideas, filling eight records with rich, vital and idiosyncratic pop music. Recent years have seen the Toronto musician leap deftly from the rough textures and patchwork grooves on 2015’s Half Free to dense, churning psychedelia on 2018’sContinue reading “Album Review: U.S. Girls – Bless This Mess”
Author Archives: zoekat99
Winter Highlights 2022-23
I’ve not been short of albums to review since I last posted. The last couple months of 2022 and the first few weeks of 2023 have seen some of the albums I’ve been anticipating for months, even years, released to great acclaim and excitement. But what I have been short of is time. And soContinue reading “Winter Highlights 2022-23”
The Best Albums of 2022
Three weeks into January and I’m only just rounding off last year with my second ‘Best Of’ list. 2022 was absolutely stacked with phenomenal albums and it took me a long time to narrow down my favourites. Reading other year-end lists – the ones which were actually out on time – I always see theContinue reading “The Best Albums of 2022”
The Best Songs of 2022
15. ‘The Overload’ – Yard Act One of 2022’s first breakthroughs, Yard Act’s debut album of boisterous post-punk stormed into January packed with wry, sardonic wit and scathing political satire. Its title track ‘The Overload’ was first released in late 2021 but, as a punchy opening set-piece for the album, it takes on new life,Continue reading “The Best Songs of 2022”
Why all the best Christmas songs are just a little bit sad
It was Christmas Eve, babe, In the drunk tank, An old man said to me, ‘Won’t see another one.’ – The Pogues, ‘Fairytale of New York’ I have no shame or hesitation calling this one of the most devastating lines in music. No matter how many times I’ve heard it, it hits with all theContinue reading “Why all the best Christmas songs are just a little bit sad”
Review: Taylor Swift – Midnights
Consciously or not, Taylor Swift has always been pop artist. No matter whether the song is tingling with teenage emotion and country jangle like Fearless, glazed with the 80s sheen of 1989, or crystallised in pristine chamber folk as on Folklore, underneath the surface is an effortless talent for melody and shamelessly pop sensibilities. AfterContinue reading “Review: Taylor Swift – Midnights”
Review: Björk – Fossora
Since her 1993 debut, every Björk album has come with a concept, a theme that defines it against the rest of her discography, whether it’s the sublime sensuality of Vespertine, the entirely a cappella album Medúlla or the nature-inspired Biophilia with its accompanying apps. Fossora is no exception. When the Icelandic musician announced her tenthContinue reading “Review: Björk – Fossora”
The 10 Best Joni Mitchell Covers
When it comes to your favourite artists, it’s hard for a cover version to stand up to the original. It can feel jarring, inauthentic, even disrespectful sometimes to hear their words and melodies sung by another voice. But a cover that truly reimagines the source material, while capturing its essence, can allow you to experienceContinue reading “The 10 Best Joni Mitchell Covers”
Review: Nicole Cassandra Smit – Third in Line
Very rarely does a first album showcase as much raw talent and imagination as Cassandra Nicole Smit’s dazzling debut Third in Line. The Edinburgh-based Indonesian-Swedish musician is not afraid to take risks on this LP, melding soul, jazz, hip-hop and electronica into her own sonic elixir. Yet the fluidity and sense of artistry underpinning everyContinue reading “Review: Nicole Cassandra Smit – Third in Line”
The E Street Shuffle: Bruce Springsteen’s messy, flamboyant, life-affirming second album
In 1973, when Bruce Springsteen presented his completed second LP The Wild, the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle to Charles Koppelman at Columbia Records, he was told in no uncertain terms that the record would be a commercial flop. With its scruffy musicianship and lengthy, sprawling songs, the album would, Koppelman believed, kill Springsteen’sContinue reading “The E Street Shuffle: Bruce Springsteen’s messy, flamboyant, life-affirming second album”
Myriad Voices 