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Deftly hushed, confessional and yet timid, Cavernzz’ woozy bedroom pop sits on the fringes of collective security—drawn from the quiet, empty hours of the night, where shapes and shadows exist in ways you’ve never noticed before, in a unique and sometimes eerie strain of vulnerability. Sitting down to chat song-writing, Luke Bolitho seems conscious of […]
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I couldn’t tell you that I was turned-on by the idea of Pale Waves when I first heard them on their All The Things I Never Said EP in the winter. What can I say? Call me a fool. I just didn’t hear a way in. But then I thumbed through their cover feature in […]
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The title of Kylie Minogue’s latest album ‘Golden’ undoubtedly reflects the sentiments of the majority of its tracks: warm, wholesome and positive. Everyone is familiar with her distinctive pop/electronic sound from songs such as ‘Can’t get you out of my head’ and ‘Spinning around’, with her 30-year music career making her a household name across […]
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“This is a new song,” Jorja Smith half-giggles into the mic. “It’s about how shit the government is.” The crowd goes wild – she knows her market well. Bathed in dusky yellow light on a stage reminiscent of your mum’s front room, Jorja Smith is starting a small revolution of her own. Two years after […]
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On the day I saw Frank Ocean at Lovebox Festival in London, the news came through that a California judge had allowed a lawsuit filed by his father, Calvin Cooksey, against him, to continue its progress through the courts. The judge called the defences Ocean had offered against his father’s claims “devoid of any factual […]
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Sylvan Esso’s newest album “What Now,” released 28 April, continues the relaxed pop vibes of their 2014 self-titled debut album. The music undeniably and knowingly fits into the manufactured pop category but seems to resist this generic placement. Most of the tracks feature peppy beats so rhythmic that it is easy to be distracted from […]
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“We go through different pairs of words, but for me at the moment I think of it as messy R&B”, says Be Good singer Ash, when I ask how they define their music. “Sex-pop” is Charlie’s alternative, “but I don’t think you can really get away with that in media terms”. Well perhaps not, but […]
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How has the music world reacted to President Donald Trump? ‘Bigly’, you might say. Music has always been revolutionary. Even at the best of times, it finds something to grumble about. But Donald Trump, in all his spray-tanned, finger-waving glory, has stirred up its fiercest protest in years. Some are even hailing a new punk […]
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‘’Cause I couldn’t care less / If they call us reckless’. Accompanied by blasts of garish horns and a skittering electro-pop beat, this chorus from album opener ‘Dangerous’ rings out like a manifesto for The xx’s latest album, ‘I See You’. It’s a surprising shift for the notoriously shy trio. Back in 2009 when they […]
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The Japanese House, interviewed by Rowan Ferguson & Aoife de Bhál. Amber Bain, aka The Japanese House, is on the way to great things. Her debut track ‘Still’ was Zane Lowe’s final ‘hottest record’ on Radio 1, and her distinctive style of melancholic alt-pop has been tipped for the mainstream by international tastemakers such as The […]
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Pete Burns, the famously flamboyant singer of eighties dance-pop band ‘Dead or Alive’ has died at 57 after a heart attack. Heralded as ‘one of our great true eccentrics’ by Boy George, and ‘a cross between Oscar Wilde and Dorothy Parker’ by, strangely enough, George Galloway, tributes from celebrities and fans have poured in since […]
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After an accidental leak last week, Rihanna’s long-awaited eighth studio album ANTI dropped on music streaming service Tidal, going platinum within just 24 hours. It’s been more than three years since the release of Unapologetic, her seventh album in eight years, and perhaps that is why this newest offering is uncharacteristically thoughtful and considered. Rihanna’s […]
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Why the Beatles Still Deserve our Attention On 24th December last year, the Beatles released their back catalogue onto several major streaming platforms; they now sit in the 50 most listened-to artists on Spotify. Although they’re by no means threatening to challenge Justin Bieber’s hegemony over the charts, that’s an impressive figure for a band […]
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‘I came to slay, bitch.’ And slay she did. Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past 24 hours, you won’t have missed Beyoncé’s surprise release of her new track ‘Formation’, on the eve of her hotly anticipated Super Bowl performance. The track, along with its video, has generated a lot of hype […]
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Even if you have not heard of Eliza and the Bear, you are likely to have listened to them due to the fact that their song ‘Friends’ has been gracing the Bulmers advert across commercial television over the past month or so. Their feel-good pop music vibe has been gathering them fans at a rapid […]
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Casual consumers of pop music could be forgiven for believing Gwen Stefani already returned to us on the radio this past summer. ‘I’m so Fancy/you already know’ blared from speakers of all sizes across the land. That hook. That delivery. It was trademark Gwen. And yet she wasn’t. It was Charli XCX, dropping the self-consciously […]
Continue ReadingAs a definite non-fan of the X-Factor, even I bow down at the sheer success that certain finalists of Season 7 have achieved. Aiden Grimshaw has released some music that wasn’t half bad, and Matt Cardle has done whatever an X Factor finalist is meant to do. I’m talking about Rebecca Ferguson, who managed to […]
Continue ReadingThere are a rigid list of rules to follow nowadays if you want to become a pop starlet: a long overdue album, drugs bust with semi-famous boyfriend and some kind of collaboration with Dev Hynes. At the end of it all, if you’re successful, you get a spot as support on a Miley Cyrus tour. […]
Continue ReadingJack Steadman wrote So Long, See You Tomorrow, Bombay Bicycle Club’s fourth album in five years, while travelling in India, Turkey, Tokyo, Holland and the UK. It was clearly a “discover yourself” period and, as with many gap years, the result isn’t a consistently interesting listen. So Long tracks Steadman’s travels and the difficulties of […]
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