Pop
Vintage whine
The American Whine is one of the key vocal registers in rock and roll. You can trace that thin disaffected…
Woodstock this wasn’t
One learns the strangest things at festivals. That, for instance, this summer has been a bit of a blackcurrant disaster…
What a way to go
The greatest pleasure of writing about pop music – even more than the free tickets and records, nice as they…
Queen B
You feel a little sorry for Renaissance, the first solo album by Beyoncé in more than six years. It just…
Sons of a preacher man
A few years ago, I spoke to Mick Jagger and asked him which of the (relatively) new crop of rock…
Indie heaven
‘Well, it’s just not Glastonbury, is it?’ said my daughter aggressively, when told that our yurt featured an actual bed,…
Miracle in an evening gown
When Motown first packaged up a roster of artists and songs that could be embraced by a non-black audience, no…
The borrowers
‘Version’ is an old reggae term I’ve always loved. It refers to a stripped-down, rhythm-heavy instrumental mix of a song,…
The real deal
One of the biggest talking points in pop these past couple of years has been how successful old musicians have…
Imperial measures
At the turn of this century, looking back on the late 1980s when the Pet Shop Boys could do no…
Oops! He did it again
Every so often, Jason Pierce drifts into focus. It happened at the end of the 1980s, when his then group…
Skin in the game
Drummers are patient chaps, in the main. Think of Ringo in Peter Jackson’s recent Beatles docuseries, Get Back. Lolling around…
The perfect pop star
Dua Lipa’s second album, Future Nostalgia, was released at the least promising moment possible: 27 March 2020, the day after…
The essential Wellerness
You don’t need to be a historian of pop to realise that having been part of a huge manufactured group…
Toxic testosterone
Squaring up to the prospect of a new Red Hot Chili Peppers album, I’m reminded of a vintage quote by…
Family entertainer
Stormzy occupies a curious place in British pop culture right now. He’s the darling of liberals for all his good…
Her dark materials
It took a moment to realise Keeley Forsyth was there. There were already three musicians, faint figures on a dark…
Playing hooky
One of the curiosities of modern pop’s landscape is that no one knows any longer how to measure success. An…
Such sweet sorrow
We gathered on a freezing Sunday night, inside a barrel-vaulted church designed in the 1890s by Charles Rennie Mackintosh, to…
Hardcore thrills
Even leaving aside its origins as prison slang, punk has always meant different things on either side of the Atlantic.…
A great leap forward
The single thing you don’t want when you are beginning a run of four shows in a prestige venue, with…
Mike Yarwood moment
Any artist who has habitually written or performed in character — from David Bowie to Lady Gaga — eventually arrives…
The potency of cheap music
Christmas: the most vulnerable time of the year. I heard ‘A Winter’s Tale’ by David Essex on the radio the…
The singing is the star
When I were a lad — back when you could buy the entire back catalogue of the Fall for thruppence…
The weird turned pro
Pop quiz time: which act was named Melody MakerGroup of the Year in 1975? The answer is not, as you…
