Father John Misty: Chloë and the Next Twentieth Century
Grade: A– In which Josh Tillman reimagines the whole back catalogue of 20th-century American pop music (except for rock), tilting…
My phone call with God
Got slightly wrecked over the bank holiday weekend and had hoped to kind of glide through the early part of…
Something doesn’t add up
More exciting news arrives from Britain’s dimmest university, Durham, which is embarking on a programme to ‘decolonise’ mathematics. About time.…
Converting opinion
I see that on the issue of gay conversion therapy, the Prime Minister has been floating around all over the…
It’s so hard to do the right thing
Delighted though we all are that Benedict Cumberbatch has decided to allow a Ukrainian family to live in one of…
Band of Horses: Things Are Great
Grade: B That thing, ‘indie rock’, is so well played and produced these days, so pristine and flawless, that it…
What I learnt in sex education
The state of Florida recently passed a piece of legislation making it illegal for teachers to hold discussions with pupils…
Oxxxymirin: Beauty & Ugliness
Grade: A+ I was going to review hyperpop chanteuse Charli XCX’s album this week, but it was such boring, meretricious,…
The great delusion
Putin’s invasion has exposed the West’s impotence
The Weather Station: How Is It That I Should Look at the Stars
Grade: C– Anyone remember that TV advert for Canada from the 1980s – a succession of colourful images, including a…
Watching the clock
Having just dusted down my Geiger counter and argued with the family about whether or not there is room for…
Avril Lavigne: Love Sux
Grade: B Yay, life just gets better and better. World War Three and now this. More petulant popcorn pre-school punk…
Has Putin saved Boris?
It was with some relief that I heard that Labour’s Diane Abbott was opposed to the Russian invasion of Croatia,…
All’s not well that ends not well
My most important new year’s resolution was cast aside this week. I had vowed that in 2022 I would eschew…
What Russia really wants
You have the advantage over me. It may be that you are reading this now in your makeshift fallout shelter,…
Black Country, New Road: Ants From Up There
Grade: A+ It is not true, fellow boomers, that there is nothing new under the sun nor no good new…
Nicola Sturgeon’s last laugh
I was delighted to discover that the University of Bristol has been advising students how to address those who identify…
Crisis? What crisis?
When a political party is hit by a crisis, the tendency these days is for both the politicians and their…
Jethro Tull: The Zealot Gene
Grade: C+ I bought the ‘seminal’ Jethro Tull double album Thick as a Brickfrom a secondhand shop when I…
The freedom to be wrong
I must offer my support to Luke Main and Dr Joanna Brunker, who as a consequence of their fervent Christian…
The trouble with Auntie
An incalculable number of trees have been hewn down recently in order to provide paper for people writing lengthy, largely…
Looking back in anger
What Keir Starmer should have said, but didn’t, was that he had indeed drunk some beer in a frowsy Labour…
The truth about that No. 10 party
People seem surprised and a little doubting that the Prime Minister is incapable of remembering if he attended a party…
Neil Young and Crazy Horse: Barn
Grade: A I have persisted in buying everything Neil Young releases since I first heard On the Beach as a…
A barking approach
We are considering privatising or selling off our dog, Jessie. She seemed a rather wonderful idea when we got her…
