2020s

The feature-length Luther film is far from brilliant, replacing characterisation and intrigue with action and a dollop of torture porn. But the music makes up for it.

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Not many people reading this will have heard of Dorothy Moskowitz, an iconic counter-cultural figure from the late Sixties, apart from my friends familiar with the avant-garde fringes of music.

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The Luka State: More Than This – album review

U2: Songs Of Surrender – album review

Sparks are a phenomenon. One of a kind. Or, to be precise, two of a kind. Russell and Ron, the Mael brothers, are still going strong with a combined age of 151.

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On a sunny day in 1976 I joined 150,000 other people in Knebworth Park to see The Rolling Stones. The line-up that day included Todd Rundgren’s Utopia, 10CC, Hot Tuna and, immediately before the headliners, Lynyrd Skynyrd.

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There are some guitarists, only a handful, whose playing – whose tone – appeals so much that I can listen to almost anything by them, just to hear them play. Thurston Moore is one of those.

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I first came across Heather Woods Broderick when she was playing keyboards for Sharon Van Etten at Cargo in Shoreditch, back in 2012. It was the first time I had seen Shaz, who was promoting her third album Tramp and would go on to become my favourite singer.

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Gyasi – Baby Blue

27th February 2023 · 2020s, 2022, Glam, Music

Is there a Glam revival? If there is – and this would seem to suggest as much – then it’s crept up on me unawares. Rather like that cat Mud sang about. Apparently this video has gone viral, and I can see why: it’s like a pastiche of something from an early 70s Top of the Pops.

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As a longtime fan of The Dears, I’ve always enjoyed the melancholy music and Bowiesque / Morriseyesque / Albarnesque croon of frontman Murray Lightburn. Even so, this is something I never expected from the creator of apocalyptic albums like Degeneration Street and No Cities Left.

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