tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9520673652703296522024-02-20T08:22:31.744-08:00Mark Savagemrdiscopophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18121597046093715380noreply@blogger.comBlogger18125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-952067365270329652.post-80297308541583982372021-05-13T05:57:00.003-07:002021-05-16T07:50:02.147-07:00St Vincent interview: Bonus bits<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwmxzERLN_TJO4kBHTqEe3nQZMPVO0qLLSICeDFRIr-0Aly7GUAVP7Y7dfgSJ2lwz4gmNaPAbWzkAi7i56L6t0TI8W4fK20KVGyUdEtghPI2WTydup08qe0iZqGBLxZ6pxzUyjdTyBb_tl/s2048/Daddy%2527s+home+cover+final+RGB.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="2048" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwmxzERLN_TJO4kBHTqEe3nQZMPVO0qLLSICeDFRIr-0Aly7GUAVP7Y7dfgSJ2lwz4gmNaPAbWzkAi7i56L6t0TI8W4fK20KVGyUdEtghPI2WTydup08qe0iZqGBLxZ6pxzUyjdTyBb_tl/w400-h400/Daddy%2527s+home+cover+final+RGB.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div>Last time I interviewed St Vincent, <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-41467671">she locked me in a pink box</a> and forced me to listen to ambient music while we talked. <div><br /></div><div>This time round was more conventional - a phone call, late at night, with her in New York and me in my attic trying not to wake the kids up. </div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-57026926">You can read the full interview over on the BBC</a> - but here's a section of the chat that got cut because (a) it as a massive tangent and (b) the article was already way over the agreed word count.
Hope you enjoy! </div><span><a name='more'></a></span><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><b></b></div><blockquote><div><b>In your <a href="https://soundcloud.com/audible/st-vincent-words-music-exclusive-clip-feeling-like-an-outsider">Audible series last year</a>, you talked about being an outsider. And your songs thrum with empathy for other outsiders and the down-and-out. Is that where you feel you would be if it wasn't for music? </b></div><div><br /></div><div>Oh, I'd probably be dead. I probably would have jumped off the mortal coil. Dead literally or dead inside. </div><div><br /></div><div>I mean, no. I'm sure I would have had more fortitude and figured something out. But let me just say I'm very glad. I'm very lucky that I get to play music for a living, which is just absolutely insane. </div><div><br /></div></blockquote><blockquote><div></div><div><b>When did you realise music would be a lifeline? </b></div><div><br /></div><div>I realised I was obsessed with music when I was really young. It did something to me - and for me - that nothing else in the world did. I knew I wanted to be in it, a part of it, by the time I was nine or 10. Nirvana’s Nevermind came out and the Pearl Jam Jeremy video was on the TV and I was like, “This is it for me”. </div><div><br /></div><div> It's funny now, when I look at other 10-year-olds, I think, “Oh wow, they might know exactly what they want.” Isn't that wild? </div><div><br /></div><div> In one way, it makes perfect sense to me in my own narrative, and then I see it from the outside, how young a 10-year-old is, I'm like, “Whoa.” </div><div><br /></div><div><b>That’s so weird – because my son is 10 and just this morning, he asked me: “What age do you know what you want to do when you grow up?” </b></div><div><br /></div><div>What did you say? </div><div><br /></div><div><b>Well, I was stumped! But my wife said, “Honey, I still don't know.” </b></div><div><br /></div><div>That is fair and true. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>I remember that I wanted to be a pop star, then I wanted to be an astronaut, and then I fell in love with the idea of becoming an historian and shambling around in a crusty old jacket with egg stains on my tie. </b></div><div><br /></div><div>Yeah, being an historian does sound pretty nice, doesn't it? </div><div><br /></div><div><b>I mean it's literally just reading books for a living. </b></div><div><br /></div><div>Yeah, it really is. You're right. That could be lovely. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>Didn’t you start reading books about Stalinist Russia during lockdown?</b> </div><div><br /></div><div>[Laughs self-deprecatingly] Yeah I did. I don't really have a formal education [but] I pick up subjects that interest me. </div><div><br /></div><div>I’ve always been a big fan of Stravinsky and Tchaikovsky, and I guess I was like, “What, happened to the Russian art of the mid-20th century?” And of course the answer is: “Oh, Stalin killed them all.” So yeah I want back and read Solzhenitsyn's Cancer Ward and Gulag Archipelago; and Martin Amis's book on Stalin and the Applebaum book [Red Famine]. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>And that was purely for intellectual stimulation. You’re not planning a rock opera about Stalinist Russia?</b> </div><div><br /></div><div>God no! God no!
But there's such cruelty in the 20th Century. I mean, the mentally weakest among us, flushing out all that's good about humanity. And Mao made Stalin look pretty nice, so it's just like, geez, that was really something. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>Was there an aspect in which you were reading this stuff because of the political climate in America last year?</b> </div><div><br /></div><div>Oh, sure, sure. Besides the advent social media, human beings have been pretty similar throughout history. So we've seen despots before, we've seen dictators before. We've seen them. And we've seen satanic panics before, we've seen witch hunts before. </div><div><br /></div><div> So, I think going back was helping me understand where we are now. And to have some perspective - to basically try to not get so hysterical about everything and zoom out and go, “OK what what's at play here?” because I kind of doubt that the predominant narrative was the most accurate one.</div></blockquote><div></div><div><br /></div><div>St Vincent's new album, Daddy's Home, is out today and it is as brilliant as everyone says it is. </div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ZUTu65AXrJw" width="320" youtube-src-id="ZUTu65AXrJw"></iframe></div><br /><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>mrdiscopophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18121597046093715380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-952067365270329652.post-86490946861769721042021-03-05T08:58:00.006-08:002021-03-05T08:58:39.027-08:00A chat with Jessie Ware and Gemma Arterton<p>I was lucky enough to Zoom a Zoom with Jessie Ware and Gemma Arterton last week. Why? Because they've made an incredibly moving video for Jessie's new single, Remember Where You Are. </p><p>Here's how it "went down".</p><span><a name='more'></a></span><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/T_Le6roHEQs" width="320" youtube-src-id="T_Le6roHEQs"></iframe></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>When I last interviewed Jessie last year, we had a little chat about this song - which, at the time, was just a deep cut on her 10/10 album What's Your Pleasure. Here's what she said: </p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b></b></p><blockquote style="text-align: left;"><p style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">On Remember Where You Are – the vocal arrangement reminds me of Minnie Ripperton.<br /></span></b></p></blockquote><p> </p><blockquote style="text-align: left;"><p style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></b><span style="font-family: inherit;">Oh yeah, we were totally trying to do <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1kDd6yBQZ4">Les Fleurs</a>. Absolutely. We went for it. And there’s this amazing Donna Summer / Vangelis song <a href=" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccJebYTndRk">State Of Independence</a>, too. We wanted it to feel like an overture. Almost choral. For it to be a group vocal but to be sung with drama. <br /></span></p></blockquote><p> </p><blockquote style="text-align: left;"><p style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">I’m so proud of that song. I love it. And I always wanted it to be at the end of an episode of Handmaid’s Tale. They always use really good music, and I feel like that’s good enough to be at the end of Handmaid’s Tale.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> <br /></span></span><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></b></p></blockquote><p> </p><blockquote style="text-align: left;"><p style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">That's quite a high benchmark!<br /></span></b><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></p></blockquote><p> </p><blockquote style="text-align: left;"><p style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Well, yeah. I think Trump was in town when we wrote it. Boris had just got elected and it felt like a bit of a shit-show. The lyrics work perfectly for now: "The heart of the city’s on fire – remember where you are." I<br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></p></blockquote><p> </p><blockquote style="text-align: left;"><p style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It felt like us acknowledging the state of what’s going on – and that a bit of intimacy and love can always work a treat.</span></p></blockquote><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/StUYHGDJUbQ" width="320" youtube-src-id="StUYHGDJUbQ"></iframe></div><br /><p><br /><br /></p><p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><p></p>mrdiscopophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18121597046093715380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-952067365270329652.post-48724683270586375742021-01-30T08:42:00.001-08:002021-01-31T01:47:00.773-08:00Dave Grohl Q&A<center><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Foo_Fighters_-_Southside_Festival_2019_4360_-_1.jpg" title="Mr. Rossi, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons"><img alt="Foo Fighters - Southside Festival 2019 4360 - 1" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3b/Foo_Fighters_-_Southside_Festival_2019_4360_-_1.jpg/512px-Foo_Fighters_-_Southside_Festival_2019_4360_-_1.jpg" width="512" /></a></center>
<div>I jumped on a Zoom call with Dave Grohl last week, shortly before President Biden's inauguration (at which the Foo Fighters played) for a chat about his new album, US politics and funky drumming. </div><div><br /></div><div>Pretty much the entire conversation ended up being used, in some form or another, in my <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-55766265">BBC News write-up.</a> But for the completists, here's a full transcript of our chat, with all the rambling asides left in. It won't come as a surprise to learn that he comes across as a genuinely nice guy, even by the medium of video chat.</div><span><a name='more'></a></span><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><div><b>Hey Dave! Thanks so much for taking the time to talk. And it's just a couple of hours before the inauguration concert...</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div>I should do my hair. I'm a bit unkempt.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>I take it the performance was pre-taped?</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div>Yeah, we taped it about a week ago. Unfortunately, we couldn't be in Washington, DC, which is my hometown. I would have loved to have been there.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>You're playing Times Like These. Why choose that song?</b></div><div><br /></div><div><div>It just seemed appropriate. The song was written, maybe 18 years ago when I was at this crossroads in my life - questioning which way to go but hopeful in some sort of rebirth. And as terrifying as that can seem, it's necessary to be hopeful, when you have to start again. </div><div><br /></div><div>And, this is a bit morbid, but whenever someone close to me has passed away, I've always found that you have to do everything in life once without them before you can move on. You have to learn to live again, you have to learn to love again. So, you know, there's optimism in the lyric and I think it's something that the world needs a lot of now. So we were asked to play that particular song. And it seemed to make perfect sense because of everything that our country has been through. I think there needs to be this hopeful re-examination of which direction we'll move in. </div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/T_bQ9nzt9Xo" width="320" youtube-src-id="T_bQ9nzt9Xo"></iframe></div><br /><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><b>Your dad, if I'm right, was a republican speechwriter wasn't he?</b></div><div><br /></div><div>He was. He was a conservative guy. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>So where did you get your politics from?</b></div><div><br /></div><div>Dead Kennedy's records! It's funny, that's partially true. </div><div><br /></div><div>My mother is a very liberal former public school teacher and my father was a rather conservative journalist and political speech writer, so I was raised somewhere in the middle. And I realised that these things can co-exist somehow. It's never easy. But there has to be some sort of co-operation or understanding or collaboration to keep the wheels from falling off, and that was the way I grew up. </div><div><br /></div><div>At the same time, the time I've spent in Washington DC... One of my fondest memories was the first time the Foo Fighters played at the White House, which was on the Fourth of July, in the first year of President Obama's administration.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>No pressure on that gig, then.</b></div><div> </div><div>Just a picnic in the backyard! But I invited my mother and I invited my sister, and we were standing on the South Lawn of the White House. I looked down to the Lincoln Memorial, where I used to attend these Rock Against Reagan concerts - these, like, punk rock protest concerts in the early-to-mid 80s, which would happen on the Fourth of July. So you'd have a million people coming down to the mall to see the national fireworks display and, over here in the corner, you have these punk rock bands screaming about the conservative Reagan Administration. And here I was, years later, on the South Lawn of the White House, celebrating the first African-American president on the Fourth of July. It meant something to me, in a way. It meant that progress and change is possible. </div><div><br /></div><div>You know, if you look back at the policies of the Reagan administration, and then to stand beside the first black president, you'd think that maybe change, as slowly as it may happen, is possible.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>I guess we should stop talking about politics and talk about this record.</b></div><div> </div><div>Please. I'm not running for President, that's for sure.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Would you?</b></div><div><br /></div><div>Absolutely not. It's hard enough to be the singer of the Foo Fighters, I can't imagine being the fucking president!</div><div><br /></div><div><b>[Laughs] You've been you've been sitting on this record for almost a year. You must be going crazy waiting for people to hear it.</b></div><div><br /></div><div>Yes, you know, usually when you're finished making an album, the energy is so high, you hit the road as soon as possible. And you see the songs go from the early stages of being written on a notepad, to them being performed in front of a microphone, to the mix in the studio, and then take it to the stage and share it with your audience. Well, that process was scrambled this time around. So, when we finished the album, everything just stopped, and there was silence. </div><div><br /></div><div>We've always taken the live element into consideration. It's been a huge part of our band for 25 years. But when that's taken away, you just have to sort of adapt or re-examine how and why you do what you do. And after months of waiting and waiting, and waiting, I finally realised that these songs were meant to be heard, no matter where. No matter whether it is in a stadium or a festival or in your home alone or in your car as you sit in traffic. Whatever it is, these songs were written for people to share them with me. </div><div><br /></div><div>And the key finally turned, and I thought, 'Okay, I'm not just doing this so that it'll blare at 120 decibels, out of a fucking stadium PA system. I'm doing this so that people can maybe share what I feel.' So that's basically when I decided I don't want to wait until I can stand in front of you and sing this. I want you to sing it on your own before we meet again.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>There's a lot to sing along to... But I'm a drummer so I really appreciate the kind of Sly & The Family Stone references and the groove-based stuff on there - because that's the sort of music I grew up playing.</b></div><div><br /></div><div>That's the thing: That's the type of music I did not grow up playing, you know? Like I've always loved dance and disco, and go-go music in Washington DC, funk and R&B. The Motown songs and the Motown rhythms - these are things that I've loved my entire life but I've never been in a band that that played that type of music. Not that the Foo Fighters have become a Motown review, but those grooves are somewhere in all of us as the Foo Fighters, and it was just a matter of time before we decided to let it out. It felt so good to to focus on that, rather than focus on any sort of expectation from our catalogue of records. It was like, 'No, no, no, let's let's turn that off and let's let this out.' </div><div><br /></div><div>So, as a drummer, a lot of my favourite albums are based on the rhythm. So, when I referenced Let's Dance by David Bowie, it has so much to do with the rhythmic quality of that record, whether it's Tony Thompson playing drums or Omar Hakim playing drums - it's the engine that makes that music move. And that's the thing that I've always been really into but have never really peeled back with the Foo Fighters - so this time it was priority number one. Like, this is where it's going to start. There's some songs that are exceptions - Waiting On A War is an exception - but for the most part the other stuff is like, 'Let's start here with this fucking drumbeat, and this drumbeat is glued to this riff. And then let's make the song.'</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Mn6y3dsKTWU" width="320" youtube-src-id="Mn6y3dsKTWU"></iframe></div><br /><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><b>I read that Taylor was resistant to that approach at first...</b></div><div><br /></div><div>Damn right, Taylor was resistant. I mean, you're a drummer, you'll understand...</div><div><br /></div><div><b>No, I'm terrible so I need the loops. That's fine. Quantize me.</b></div><div><br /></div><div>[Laughing] First of all, every Foo Fighters record we've ever made, I've been in the way, right? Typically, I'm hovering over the producer, drawing these boundaries and saying, 'No, I don't think we should do that. No, I don't think we should go there.' So, in a way, I've kept the band from doing so much over the past 25 years, only for the sake of keeping the music within my own personal restrictions. It's weird. </div><div><br /></div><div>So, in meeting Greg Kurstin, and working with Greg Kurstin, I felt some sort of security where I could just back away. I eventually got to the point where I thought, 'the less involved I am with the Foo Fighters record, the better it will be'. And so, yeah, there aren't too many people in the world that I would just hand, the wheel to, you know? But with Greg Kurstin being the best producer of the fucking world, I felt entirely safe saying, 'Yeah I'm gonna go make a sandwich, do whatever you want.' </div><div><br /></div><div>And so, with the drum loops in particular, we entered into this album with a very open mind. Whatever it took to make a good sound, whatever it took to make a good song, that's what we would do - if it were a drum loop, if it were an instrument that we didn't possess or have never used before. Whatever it was to make the song as best as it could be, that's what we would do. And of course, I'm a huge believer and proponent of the human element of music, but this time we decided, 'Okay, well let's stretch a little bit, do something that might surprise us.'</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Melodically, it's a really strong album, too. Chasing Birds sounds like a McCartney song.</b></div><div><br /></div><div>You know, to me, dissonance and chaos is easy. Having listened to a lot of very difficult music in my formative years, I eventually found that the challenge of simplicity and melody is more rewarding than just putting on a fucking delay pedal with screaming feedback, and distorted drums. The simplicity and melody is really my biggest challenge. And so, there were songs that we recorded that didn't make the album because they sounded too much like the Foo Fighters, to be honest. I kind of wanted to stretch. </div><div><br /></div><div>Something like Chasing Birds - a song like that, some people might hear and question where that comes from. And, you know, to me, we've had years of songs that are maybe similar in tone or dynamic - but that song is on the album because of its melody. Melody has always been so important to me. And I realised a lot of that when I was in Nirvana. Kurt's songwriting was very simple. And ultimately, it really grabbed people's hearts because of its because of its simplicity and melody. But, yeah, it's not easy to do.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><b>No, it's the hardest thing in the world to write a pop melody isn't it? But tell me about Waiting On A War - it seems to be about growing up under that threat of nuclear war, which is something we would both have experienced in the 70s and 80s.</b></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>Yeah, so growing up outside of Washington DC in the early 80s, I was always afraid that if there was a war, we would be the first people to die - because of the proximity to the Pentagon, and the White House, within a few miles. I would have these dreams of missiles in the sky and soldiers in my backyard. I mean, <span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;">I vividly remember a dream where I was standing in my back yard and I saw a soldier come out from behind a tree and, as I turned to run back to my bedroom, I was shot in the back</span>.</span> </div><div><br /></div><div>At 11 or 12 years old, these were the dreams I was having and I think they were fuelled by seeing the news and the tension of international conflict, whether it was between the US and Russia or whatever it was at the time. So I just always imagined that there was going to be a war and that's how I would die.</div><div><br /></div><div>Then, while we were making the record in the fall of 2019, I was taking my daughter to school. And she turned to me and said, 'Dad is there going to be a war?' And I guess that she had turned on the television and had seen something. North Korea or Iran, or whatever it was. But it immediately brought me back to those dreams I had when I was a kid, and it was heart-breaking to think that she was feeling that same hopeless fear, at the same age, 40 years after I had felt the same thing. </div><div><br /></div><div>So, you know, it made me think of her, like, what does she have to look forward to, if that's the dark cloud that she lives under? And so I wrote the song the next day and brought it into the studio and we recorded it really quickly. But you know, it makes me sad to think that my own child has a sort of a bleak outlook on her future. It really made me sad. Because there's got to be more to life than that, you know? But unfortunately it's true - there's millions of children around the world that feel the same. And, you know... It kind of broke my heart.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/CJd82T1_o1A" width="320" youtube-src-id="CJd82T1_o1A"></iframe></div><br /><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><b>I think that age as well is when you start to take notice of the news and the things that are going on in the world. And as soon as you pay attention to all the negativity there, it occupies your mind until you learn how to live with it and cope with it. Funnily enough, my son's 10 and he had a dream the other night where he was shot, just like you did.</b></div><div><br /></div><div>That's so fucking terrible. I mean, it's very difficult time for any of these kids with the pandemic and the quarantines and lockdowns. So, you know, I think it's important to somehow instil hope, not just in in our kids but in the world, because I've always considered myself a hopeful person. And it's the thing that gets me to the end of every day. So I think the world needs a little bit more of that right now.</div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>The thing we always tell our kids when something bad happens is: Don't look at what's going wrong. Look at all the people who've turned up to help. Look at the doctors and the nurses and everybody else who's working together to fix the problem. That's what the world is really like.</b></div><div><br /></div><div>That's great advice. You might have to email that to me.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>But actually, talking about kids, isn't Violet on the album doing backing vocals? Was that her request or yours?</b></div><div><br /></div><div>It just sort of happened by accident. I mean, Violet is an incredibly talented musician. She can pick up an instrument and learn it within a week on her own. She has perfect pitch and sings from her gut, and has done since she was seven or eight years old. I mean, she sings with soul. And she's well aware that she's the best vocalist in the Grohl family. She's said it before. She said, 'Dad, you're not even the best singer in our family.' And I said, 'I know'. </div><div><br /></div><div>But, yeah, we recorded the album in an old house. We didn't do it in the studio. We recorded it in this funky old house down the street from where I live. So, at around two or three o'clock, I would take a break and go pick her up from school. Sometimes she'd want to come back to the studio - to the house. And she'd sit on the couch as we worked and she'd do her homework. And one day, Greg Kurstin, who knows Violet is an amazing singer said, 'Hey Violet, would you like to do a backup vocal on the song?' And she said, 'Yeah, sure, what do you think?' And she got behind the microphone, she did a few takes, they sounded perfect and the chorus of Making A Fire, that's Violet's high vocal in there. </div><div><br /></div><div>And then, after school, she would just come by the studio and get behind the mic every now and then. It seemed very natural, you know? First of all, it wasn't planned, but it felt comfortable and right and natural. Because, in a way, we're all one big family in the Foo Fighters. It didn't seem official until my accountant called a few months ago and asked where she should deposit Violet's cheque. And I said, 'What are you talking about?' She said, 'Well, she sang on the album so she has to be paid.' And I said, 'You can take that money and give it to me. And I'll put it in an account for Violet, that she can open when she's 18 years old!'</div><div> </div><div><b>That's brilliant, and I saw the video of Violet singing at the Nirvana reunion last year. She was blowing everyone off the stage. </b></div><div><br /></div><div>Yeah, I mean, we had talked about the different vocalists that we'd like to have sing with us - Annie Clark, St. Vincent, was one; Beck was another. I think we had asked Joan Jett but Joan Jett couldn't make it. So I thought, 'Oh maybe Violet will want to sing a song.' And you know, Violet and I don't really have in depth conversations about Nirvana. It's just not a part of our everyday life. I'm more interested in what to make her for dinner or, you know, trying to get her on her fucking Zoom call for class. </div><div><br /></div><div>But anyway, so I say, 'Hey Vi, do you want to sing a Nirvana song at this thing that we're doing?' She said 'yeah, sure'. I said, 'What song do you think you want to sing?' And she thought for two seconds and then said, 'Heart Shaped Box'. Perhaps the darkest of all Nirvana songs. So, I mentioned it to the guys and they said, 'Wow, she really picked a doozy'. And we did it at soundcheck and, you know, beyond the sound of us playing together, there was this beautiful feeling of connection - that I was sharing a chapter of my life with her that she never got to experience, and doing so without words. So, in a way, she got to feel what it was like to be on stage when I was 24 years old. </div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/8eFl7nH8gOg" width="320" youtube-src-id="8eFl7nH8gOg"></iframe></div><br /><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>But the one thing that I think stood out was, here you have all of these musicians in their 40s and 50s, playing Nirvana music, and then a teenager in an old sweater, ripped jeans and Converse chucks, singing the song from an entirely different place. There was some generational return, where, when she sings Heart Shaped Box she feels it just as the teenagers did in the 90s. So it was interesting. It was a trip. To be her drummer, is one of my life dreams. Maybe someday, she'll let me be her drummer again.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Oh my God, you're like, you're like Haim's dad, who turns up to all their sound checks and plays the drums for them.</b></div><div> </div><div>Oh my god that's funny</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Speaking of Nirvana - I don't want to ask loads of Nirvana questions - but this year is the 30th anniversary of Nevermind. And there was talk of a reissue of the album but didn't the masters get destroyed in that big fire at Universal Studios?</b></div><div> </div><div>Yeah, I think they may have been. I honestly don't know. I've been asked this a few times in the last few weeks, and I don't know of any specific plans [for the anniversary], I just don't. I'm sure that there'll be some sort of something, but I honestly don't know what anyone is planning at all.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>And obviously, with anniversaries, last year was supposed to be the 25th of the Foo Fighters' debut album. Take me back just quickly to Seattle, in 1994, when you put together that cassette and stuck it in the back of your truck and started handing it out to people. What were your aspirations for that music, then?</b></div><div> </div><div>Since I was about 18 or 19, years old, I had been recording songs on my own, where I played all of the instruments. It was always just an experiment. If at the end of the day, there was an extra three or four minutes of tape on the reel to reel, I would ask my friend Barrett Jones if I could do a quick experiment. And I'd perform a song by myself where I play all the instruments and try not to take up too much of his time. So I'd run from the drum set to the guitar, from the guitar to the bass, maybe do a quick vocal and then make a cassette copy of what I just recorded, bring it back to the house and listen to it and think, 'Okay, on to the next one,' and then I would do it again and I would do it again. </div><div><br /></div><div>So I had this collection of songs that nobody had ever heard that were really only done as some sort of personal experiment. I never imagined that I would jump up on stage with a guitar and sing the songs. I never imagined that they would really become a band. </div><div><br /></div><div>But after Nirvana was over, I turned off all the amplifiers and put all of the instruments in their cases and didn't really want to have anything to do with music because I was still heartbroken and that feeling was so raw that it was almost impossible, just to pick up an instrument and play. Until I got to the point where I realised that music had been saving my life my entire life, and that that's what I needed most now. </div><div><br /></div><div>So rather than just go join another band, rather than become someone else's drummer, I thought 'I'll start again with this experiment that I've been hiding for fucking years.' And so I went to this strange underground recording studio - literally underground, I mean that place is built under a house, within the side of the hill - and booked six days, which to me was an eternity. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/imxAeQZjBeI" width="320" youtube-src-id="imxAeQZjBeI"></iframe></div><br /><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>Like I said, the songs that I've recorded by myself before I would do in five minutes, 15 minutes, 20 minutes. Never more than half an hour, it would just go super-fast because I didn't want to inconvenience my friend Barrett, who was my roommate, and my producer-engineer. So, six days to me - fuck, I felt like I could make Dark Side Of The Moon. I was like, 'This is amazing! Six days!' And I recorded three or four songs a day for the first three-and-a-half, four days and then did my vocals on the fifth day mixed on the sixth day, took those reels to a tape duplication place and made 100 cassettes, and they were in a cardboard box with a simple sleeve in every cassette. </div><div><br /></div><div>I mean, I remember standing at the desk at the tape duplication place, picking the font for the lettering on the cassette. That, to me, was the most exciting thing - just deciding which type face should be used on this cassette. I didn't know who I was giving them to. I didn't necessarily have a plan on what to do with them but it just felt good to hold this in my hand and know that I'd done it. </div><div><br /></div><div>And that box was in the back of my truck and I literally would meet people and say, 'Oh wait, hold on, let me go to my truck I'll give you this thing I just worked on,' and I would hand them to them. I didn't know what I was doing. I still don't really know. But it was mostly just an exercise in having something to look forward to.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>And now we're here and it's 10 albums in. And if you look at 10th albums: The White Album is the Beatles' tenth; Exile On Main Street is the Stones' tenth; Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots that's the Flaming Lips tenth - so it's a good place to be. </b></div><div><br /></div><div>You know I think maybe there's something to be said for making it this far. There's no turning back, right? So, in order to keep moving, you just have to make sure that your head is face forward and you go for it. </div><div><br /></div></div>mrdiscopophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18121597046093715380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-952067365270329652.post-11526555505253788142020-12-31T03:44:00.005-08:002021-01-01T00:56:33.526-08:00The best albums and songs of 2020<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDa_QHqHXqMsv6WbnBdk8zWcAY1PJmVjujZol-BEfx6KACfBOSFhHiB5KAGq5vzJIuU5VcazK5i4kPFfub1n955LhxkMd218n4ZvdltBy8SZesG01EGXPHxfwkCWJSR3Vq5gyj3yiZUTgU/s976/top10still.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="549" data-original-width="976" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDa_QHqHXqMsv6WbnBdk8zWcAY1PJmVjujZol-BEfx6KACfBOSFhHiB5KAGq5vzJIuU5VcazK5i4kPFfub1n955LhxkMd218n4ZvdltBy8SZesG01EGXPHxfwkCWJSR3Vq5gyj3yiZUTgU/s16000/top10still.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p>What a year it's been for music. Concerts might have been completely wiped out, but artists have responded with powerful, career-defining, albums and songs.</p><p><span></span></p><a name='more'></a>And, because working from home means fewer phone calls and meetings, I've been able to listen to more new music than ever before. That's one of the reasons I'm not looking forward to going back to an open-plan, headphones-only office environment.<p></p><p>Anyway, enough preamble. Here are the records that got the most airplay around our house in 2020.</p><div style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>The best albums </b></span></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-size-adjust: auto;"><b><br /></b></p><div style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: inherit; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>1) Dua Lipa – Future Nostalgia</b></span></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: inherit; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6tZl99-PhEo5mCIQ0t3fzYHz307wO41mmEMwD2ohGUO6meiChuqDrhgxJfrlRjM1oLLH9mjqE-JqXnncWBEZlHU1m4HsQrrbqQX9bWVtfeSUyu5ZCwwWczvcGXpdVovUjcoey_NYjFhxb/s300/future-nostalgia.png" style="font-family: inherit; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6tZl99-PhEo5mCIQ0t3fzYHz307wO41mmEMwD2ohGUO6meiChuqDrhgxJfrlRjM1oLLH9mjqE-JqXnncWBEZlHU1m4HsQrrbqQX9bWVtfeSUyu5ZCwwWczvcGXpdVovUjcoey_NYjFhxb/s0/future-nostalgia.png" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><div style="text-align: left;">"I made this album to get away from any pressures and anxieties from the outside world," <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-52117012">Dua told me in March</a>. "Yes, it was made to be listened to out in the clubs and festivals... but maybe it had to just come out now."</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Never has an album felt so in opposition to the times, while being so vital to surviving them. But, pandemic or not, Future Nostalgia would have gone down as a classic. 37 minutes of uninterrupted, unadulterated pop genius. And the remix album was superb, too.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div></div><span style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: inherit;"><div style="text-align: center;"><b style="font-family: inherit;">2) Haim – Women In Music, Pt. III</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjA0f1OGEkfV9gvxNiH32lyyHmAjaDS2yBTbZsh_J63E2TyafjYLhUJG5n8wUnMXAJ9atKTKt3nfHWtTQNzzE2M7K7GgKD8sLqoXYDo4hZGmARbokmIy_LbPWsWd3Du0FSvX7Qv1RyB0Aw0/s600/Women+in+Music+Pt.+III_Haim.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjA0f1OGEkfV9gvxNiH32lyyHmAjaDS2yBTbZsh_J63E2TyafjYLhUJG5n8wUnMXAJ9atKTKt3nfHWtTQNzzE2M7K7GgKD8sLqoXYDo4hZGmARbokmIy_LbPWsWd3Du0FSvX7Qv1RyB0Aw0/s320/Women+in+Music+Pt.+III_Haim.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">"Women make the best rock music," exclaimed Haim in an Instagram message, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CH_kcyellaO/">delivered via the medium of underpants</a>. And they had a point. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Their third album is a musical and melodic tour de force, hoovering up decades of rock, pop and R&B influences and creating 17 songs that are simultaneously brand new and utterly timeless. </div><br /><b style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></b></div></span><div style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: inherit; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>3) Tame Impala – The Slow Rush</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); clear: both; font-family: inherit; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiT95geK8tNPznGG_CG5yaj9w2EnX_vvOUuO6LHHNLOY3BQEoQ99ihHInnehFPyuGQZkhn2Zf8YGTQg-vPWpS1P5I72alYTt37Pe_2vqWm51s1Qj4y88sTR5C2baQp20nlCVUd-LZNifYuW/s300/Tame_Impala_-_The_Slow_Rush.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiT95geK8tNPznGG_CG5yaj9w2EnX_vvOUuO6LHHNLOY3BQEoQ99ihHInnehFPyuGQZkhn2Zf8YGTQg-vPWpS1P5I72alYTt37Pe_2vqWm51s1Qj4y88sTR5C2baQp20nlCVUd-LZNifYuW/s0/Tame_Impala_-_The_Slow_Rush.png" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: left;">Kevin Parker's dreamy, psychedelic soundscapes were the perfect escape from the doldrums of 2020. Best listened to on headphones, while imagining yourself on a Venutian beach holiday.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: 700;"><br /></span></div></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: inherit; text-align: center;"><b style="font-family: inherit;">4) Childish Gambino – 3.15.20</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); clear: both; font-family: inherit; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwl1_j7yIEo2eOUef0k4NSiwZo9AWv5vLlEAE3Gikwu84Wx5o3WcpHPQw4i0-UbbGeqsc65TuuIyQKW7CaRCV7YXOR97QtzP3_dICsztqkU9lwFX2VZJCGXnpAhko-jwx2p11QX_1DuXGb/s811/donald-glover-presents.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="811" data-original-width="811" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwl1_j7yIEo2eOUef0k4NSiwZo9AWv5vLlEAE3Gikwu84Wx5o3WcpHPQw4i0-UbbGeqsc65TuuIyQKW7CaRCV7YXOR97QtzP3_dICsztqkU9lwFX2VZJCGXnpAhko-jwx2p11QX_1DuXGb/s320/donald-glover-presents.jpg" /></a></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: inherit; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Donald Glover's surprise album had been percolating for several years, with songs written, reworked and remoulded several times, in the pursuit of making something idiosyncratic and audacious.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;">"I always say the album felt like a global journey," <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/childish-gambino-album-dj-dahi-interview-970222/">producer DJ Dahi told Rolling Stone</a>. "You’re on a magic carpet, flying over different parts of the world. You listen to someone’s conversation - 'ok, cool, let me fly over to this country.' Then you go here. Then you go back in time."</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">It's hugely ambitious, hopping between beautiful a-capella harmonies to anxiety-inducing white noise, often in the space of a single song. But it's never less than compelling; and marks a new chapter in Donald Glover's musical career.</div><b style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: inherit;"><br /></b></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: inherit; text-align: center;"><b style="font-family: inherit;">5) Selena Gomez - Rare</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); clear: both; font-family: inherit; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpm6kPf__AdpDOY1P89FcmjW8yykmE5FH9CrECT5P4cY01rVLd_fRY72MQeBkXxeOKhmpuzsZoUjfGd2ijR-MTlLF-LfHsi681zZ0REr8HUoNEgdbJNm9f5C19lxzoHIU_VVp-sAdQHszb/s300/Selena_Gomez_-_Rare.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpm6kPf__AdpDOY1P89FcmjW8yykmE5FH9CrECT5P4cY01rVLd_fRY72MQeBkXxeOKhmpuzsZoUjfGd2ijR-MTlLF-LfHsi681zZ0REr8HUoNEgdbJNm9f5C19lxzoHIU_VVp-sAdQHszb/s0/Selena_Gomez_-_Rare.png" /></a></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: inherit; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Unfairly overlooked in a lot of year-end lists, Selena Gomez's deeply personal, musically alluring third album was full of low-key pop bangers. An album so good that a modern classic like Bad Liar was demoted to bonus track status.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">The highlight was Lose You To Love Me - one of the most vulnerable break-up songs in living memory. But the quality control never dropped, from the flirtatious Latin beats of Ring, to the middle-finger-flipping Cut You Off. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>6) Phoebe Bridgers - Punisher</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimwF-EV4-um5SVTh2FBthN1IWV5OUsk8LJV7DiMs0xt2nklCniXjyh4JVvclZK8xibt3O8R8Feevumn_TZ5PmLNaPKLv-PfMwqiIdJQbmZvpWIQJjkKZ3_ul-cISK4Da7-bGKApZSFJA2w/s600/Punisher+_Phoebe+Bridgers.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimwF-EV4-um5SVTh2FBthN1IWV5OUsk8LJV7DiMs0xt2nklCniXjyh4JVvclZK8xibt3O8R8Feevumn_TZ5PmLNaPKLv-PfMwqiIdJQbmZvpWIQJjkKZ3_ul-cISK4Da7-bGKApZSFJA2w/s320/Punisher+_Phoebe+Bridgers.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Smart, sad, funny, elegant. Phoebe Bridgers' Punisher was an album about apocalypse - both personal and global - that starts with a song about fighting back evil thoughts, and finishes with a song about the end of the world.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Her murmured, multi-tracked vocals draw you closer, all the better to hear killer lyrics like Kyoto's take-down of Bridgers' estranged father, and his attempts to connect with her brother:<span face="ReithSans, Helvetica, Arial, freesans, sans-serif" style="color: #3f3f42; font-size: 16px;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #3f3f42;">"</span><i class="css-po6dm6-ItalicText e5tfeyi1" style="border: 0px; color: #3f3f42; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">You called on his birthday / You were off by like 10 days / But you get a few points for trying.</i><span style="color: #3f3f42;">"</span></span></div></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It's one of those albums where you think, "OK, I get this," the first time you hear it - only to find yourself blindsided by a sardonic quip or unexpected harmony on the 100th listen.</span></div><b><br /></b><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><b style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: inherit;"><br /></b><div style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: inherit; text-align: center;"><b style="font-family: inherit;">7) Fiona Apple - Fetch The Bolt Cutters</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); clear: both; font-family: inherit; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjo39AaKuPDijdzdGl1MIKHELwcjbDEAcAhfXgxSwsaM-96wcABBq8s3hWDRmTFdyDyXpT7uKKKeqEeBMAN_OQDFNrhyphenhyphenuCWkEoJvXc27avrtDGgFm5dN_S0ifkesIGAUjvqQyQ4jFdqLC3G/s300/Fiona_Apple_-_Fetch_the_Bolt_Cutters.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjo39AaKuPDijdzdGl1MIKHELwcjbDEAcAhfXgxSwsaM-96wcABBq8s3hWDRmTFdyDyXpT7uKKKeqEeBMAN_OQDFNrhyphenhyphenuCWkEoJvXc27avrtDGgFm5dN_S0ifkesIGAUjvqQyQ4jFdqLC3G/s0/Fiona_Apple_-_Fetch_the_Bolt_Cutters.png" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: left;">Fiona Apple's fifth topped the <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-55336503">BBC's "poll of polls"</a> to find the ultimate album of the year - and deservedly so. Rambunctious and unfiltered, it's the sound of an artist batting away her demons with whatever comes to hand - a bashed-up old piano, the back of a chair, pots, pans and even the bones of her dead dog.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">It's an uncompromising listen at first - Apple's raw vocals and overextended vowels take a bit of getting used to - but the gorgeous melodies of Ladies, and the sarcastic bite of Under The Table will keep you coming back for more.</div></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: inherit; text-align: center;"><b style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></b></div><span style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit;"><div style="font-family: inherit; text-align: center;"><b style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit;">8) Chloe x Halle – Ungodly Hour</b></div><div style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFCRnd6S6juZFE2ZuZzT_zYiOYstxYOzwf5HInhRrsHSZRIzjUxoBrVXgwtmNlBWzg3r4Ccs8xVO3XqXB1TpeG-EIn6S_VyzrxmY7wvt7hyphenhyphen9spo1bWYM9TtH5mYX2yJ3u_5zWiQWqSoDhD/s300/Chloe_x_Halle_-_Ungodly_Hour.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFCRnd6S6juZFE2ZuZzT_zYiOYstxYOzwf5HInhRrsHSZRIzjUxoBrVXgwtmNlBWzg3r4Ccs8xVO3XqXB1TpeG-EIn6S_VyzrxmY7wvt7hyphenhyphen9spo1bWYM9TtH5mYX2yJ3u_5zWiQWqSoDhD/s0/Chloe_x_Halle_-_Ungodly_Hour.png" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit;">Atlanta duo Chloe and Halle Bailey are precociously talented sisters, whose devilishly intricate harmonies and offbeat R&B arrangements conjure up images of a twisted, dark-side Destiny's Child.</span></div><div style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit;">While their first album was all about female empowerment and self-love, their second is more morally ambiguous. On Wonder What She Thinks Of Me, they take on the role the "other woman" breaking up a marriage; while Tipsy sees them (playfully?) threatening to murder a boyfriend who messes around.</span></div><div style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;">"We wanted to challenge the idea of us being these perfect angels that everybody has [as] this image of us in their head," <a href="https://music.apple.com/us/post/idsa.528fa160-956d-11ea-a390-531cacc536ee?app=music&itscg=80029&itsct=con_show_zanelowe_null&at=1001ltS&con_show_zanelowe_null">Halle told Zane Lowe</a>. Mission accomplished.<div style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit;"><br /></span></div></div></div></span><div style="font-weight: bold; text-align: center;"><b><span style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: inherit;">9) </span><span style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: inherit;">Rina Sawayama - Sawayama</span></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-weight: bold; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhggLkAtSY-ylbOAE48ez1ksMRyN3E45Mk_KnGsdJNRyvju4HJSHafMYvR0Hq8MCvyBHm4JnOLwOIe0K99ukvc8qjKj4hyphenhyphenVKztWGxbWfICb_OMUWRKgWnOoXhKK7a6pg5GqoWc-uWZMAZZP/s316/Sawayama-album-cover.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="316" data-original-width="316" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhggLkAtSY-ylbOAE48ez1ksMRyN3E45Mk_KnGsdJNRyvju4HJSHafMYvR0Hq8MCvyBHm4JnOLwOIe0K99ukvc8qjKj4hyphenhyphenVKztWGxbWfICb_OMUWRKgWnOoXhKK7a6pg5GqoWc-uWZMAZZP/s0/Sawayama-album-cover.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-weight: bold; text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: left;">Sure, mashing up nu metal and pop and R&B and power ballads and stadium rock <i>sounds</i> easy - but, in the hands of most artists, it would be an absolute car crash.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Rina Sawayama pulls it off with panache. Her debut album is a whirlwind of musical juxtapositions - most notably on the racist-baiting lead single STFU, whose gut-punching metal riff gives way to the nursery rhyme chorus: "<i>Have you ever thought about taping your big mouth shut? Because I have many times</i>."</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">That's just one of many highlights: From the anti-consumer anthem XS to the LGBTQ anthem Chosen Family. An astonishingly assured debut that would, in a just world, be up for 300 Brit Awards next year.</div><span style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: inherit; font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-weight: bold; text-align: center;"><b><span style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></b></div><div style="font-weight: bold; text-align: center;"><b><span style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></b></div><span><div style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: inherit; text-align: center;"><b style="font-family: inherit;">10) U.S. Girls – Heavy Light</b></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: inherit; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGP8mt2FAKzBqXCYzrIZd_BjKYwzbiVAHOk-u4YoB-G2LQqtygVKMm2EZVf4e_Oelalhm10ari6LPpsV2pzvZD0XG82ylr_qi3QSSB2UZrp5Q9e5uB73LGrhtx-BbcrtoxR4VY5RnJwDhq/s320/Heavy+Light_U.S.+Girls.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="320" data-original-width="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGP8mt2FAKzBqXCYzrIZd_BjKYwzbiVAHOk-u4YoB-G2LQqtygVKMm2EZVf4e_Oelalhm10ari6LPpsV2pzvZD0XG82ylr_qi3QSSB2UZrp5Q9e5uB73LGrhtx-BbcrtoxR4VY5RnJwDhq/s0/Heavy+Light_U.S.+Girls.jpg" /></a></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>Meghan Remy's perfectly-crafted, theatrically-delivered alt-pop songs were recorded live in Montreal with 20 session musicians - and there's a loose, spontaneous feel to this album that's utterly irresistable.</span></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: inherit; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: inherit; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The lyrics encompass everything from global warming and domestic abuse to the evils of accumulated wealth - but it's the sweet, almost old-fashioned melodies of songs like 4 American Dollars and Woodstock '99 that kept me coming back time and time again.</span></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: inherit; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: inherit; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: inherit; text-align: left;"><div style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>The best singles </b></span></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Watch a playlist of all 25 songs</span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">1) Dua Lipa - Levitating</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">2) Dua Lipa - Physical</span></div></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">3) Haim - The Steps</span></div></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">4) Phoebe Bridgers - Kyoto</span></div></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">5) Megan Thee Stallion ft Beyoncé - Savage (Remix)</span></div></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">6) The Weeknd - Blinding Lights</span></div></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">7) Lady Gaga & Ariana Grande - Rain On Me</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">8) Rina Sawayama - XS</span></div></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">9) Christine & The Queens - People, I've Been Sad</span></div></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">10) Harry Styles - Watermelon Sugar</span></div></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">11) Selena Gomez - Feel Me</span></div></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">12) Arlo Parks - Black Dog</span></div></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">13) Regard & Raye - Secrets</span></div></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">14) Little Mix - Holiday</span></div></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">15) Dua Lipa - Hallucinate</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">16) Doja Cat - Say So</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">17) The Weeknd - In Your Eyes</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">18) Chloe x Halle - Do It</span></div></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">19) Joel Corry x MNEK - Head and Heart</span></div></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">20) Tate McRae - You Broke Me First</span></div></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">21) Hayley Williams - Simmer</span></div></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">22) Joy Crookes - Anyone But Me</span></div></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">23) Billie Eilish - Therefore I Am</span></div></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">24) Beabadoobee - Care</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">25) Ariana Grande - Positions</span></div></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div><br /></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span>https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-55504199</span></div></span>mrdiscopophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18121597046093715380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-952067365270329652.post-10580752916703622902020-12-27T09:40:00.005-08:002020-12-27T09:40:39.184-08:00The best music of 2020 (BBC version)<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpkise_1ATA-lWM7fj3bjqkMKbhBKQxJPOFf0dR93xM2nmLeqFw-ad3mg1VlA5ctWtlKNheUOcZ6zZYgs4chjs54dMP2Nhs13xg8fIOG9Zp1zhBBLqtv3UCld0VVpRTfUa381G-mZrUvcZ/s1024/2020-collage.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="1024" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpkise_1ATA-lWM7fj3bjqkMKbhBKQxJPOFf0dR93xM2nmLeqFw-ad3mg1VlA5ctWtlKNheUOcZ6zZYgs4chjs54dMP2Nhs13xg8fIOG9Zp1zhBBLqtv3UCld0VVpRTfUa381G-mZrUvcZ/w640-h360/2020-collage.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p>Every year, I sit down with a packet of digestives and a massive Excel spreadsheet to work out the <i>definitive</i> list of the best albums and songs of the last 12 months.</p><span><a name='more'></a></span><p><br /></p>
It works like this: I scour 35 end-of-year lists published by the world's most influential music magazines, blogs, newspapers and broadcasters, then tally up the points for each record in their list. The number one album gets 20 points, the number two album receiving 19 points and so on.<div><br /></div><div>This year, Fiona Apple (deservedly) came out on top. And you can <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-55336503">read the whole rundown</a> on the BBC News site.</div><div><br /></div><div>I'll put my own Top 10 together once the year has run out and post it here. Promise.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>mrdiscopophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18121597046093715380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-952067365270329652.post-1098068035908750242020-12-27T08:45:00.003-08:002020-12-27T09:40:56.145-08:00A chat with Keith Richards<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiVHd3s7uIfTRDcy_TGl4eUgWTJU60P4ZqTRi6mafIEftbCOyMe8NRYDXFXvR1tVWv2ml3rQB83-_ehSrYiieKtYN_1PgJSFdw0fHKFGxDyuB6iCiXUma3DuDEFdEmhaddr0z3hRzZ4Atw/s2048/IMG_2243.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="2048" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiVHd3s7uIfTRDcy_TGl4eUgWTJU60P4ZqTRi6mafIEftbCOyMe8NRYDXFXvR1tVWv2ml3rQB83-_ehSrYiieKtYN_1PgJSFdw0fHKFGxDyuB6iCiXUma3DuDEFdEmhaddr0z3hRzZ4Atw/w640-h640/IMG_2243.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>You can't tell unless you squint, but the above image is Keith Richards striding across the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury 2013...<span><a name='more'></a></span><div><br /><p></p><p>I didn't get to speak to him (or any of the band) that night, but he recently conceded to a BBC interview to promote the re-release of his solo album Keith Richards and the Expensive Winos, Live At The Hollywood Palladium.</p><p>Amazingly, he phoned me directly from his house in Connecticut. There was no PR or intermediary "connecting the lines" - just Keith, calling up for a chat. Truth be told, it was cleverly disarming. And it set the stage for a slightly rambling conversation... Me slightly in awe, him full of one-liners and sentiment.</p><p>The best bits all made it onto the BBC. <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-54985958"><br />Here they are.</a></p></div>mrdiscopophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18121597046093715380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-952067365270329652.post-20887734900286515772020-12-23T02:12:00.003-08:002020-12-23T02:17:38.308-08:00Lana Del Rey interview off-cuts<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOgpbP-GsBRLQW6uSdBaoElz3myU3SaYAUGaknchNzkuiKGyzNbOUXKQTSpsWc8M8cHFfNyXyEsROGgeN1YKo2bOeVzmI2v1o9XzaLhHKwL2A22OmgAMk8Ui84lpBoeO36qmjwbUtabHQH/s2048/IMG_6199.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1813" data-original-width="2048" height="566" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOgpbP-GsBRLQW6uSdBaoElz3myU3SaYAUGaknchNzkuiKGyzNbOUXKQTSpsWc8M8cHFfNyXyEsROGgeN1YKo2bOeVzmI2v1o9XzaLhHKwL2A22OmgAMk8Ui84lpBoeO36qmjwbUtabHQH/w640-h566/IMG_6199.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p>Back at the start of her career, I sat down for a lengthy chat with Lana Del Rey in the coffee room of a posh London hotel. </p><span><a name='more'></a></span><p><br /></p><p>Before she arrived, I told her manager how much I'd loved the demos she'd recorded for her debut album Born To The Races. "Whatever you do, don't tell her that," he replied. Apparently the new, record-company approved mixes weren't entirely to her liking...</p><p>Music industry politics avoided, we had a wonderful chat - and <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-16729651">the interview went up on the BBC</a> a few days later. But here are some of the bits I had to shave off.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Can you remember the first time you thought "I can write a song?"</b></p><p>I didn’t really start writing until I was 18 and my uncle sort-of taught me six basic chords on the guitar. I realised I could probably write a million songs with those six chords – so I moved to New York and I took a couple of years to just write whatever I wanted.</p><p><b>That's quite late to start writing.</b></p><p>It’s really late</p><p><b>Had you been creative in other ways before that?</b></p><p>Yes, in some ways. I don’t know if I’d say it was my focus. I never really thought about writing my own music but I did like to sing.</p><p><b>Do you remember the chords your uncle taught you?</b></p><p>It was G, C, A. It was D minor, A minor and some diminished chord as well. Some trick, some shortcut. When I learned F, which I assumed would be easy, I was like "fuck". F was just never going to happen. Four fingers? Never going to happen. It's too hard.</p><p><b>There isn't much guitar on the album. When did you switch to piano?</b></p><p>I didn’t switch because I don’t really play piano – unless it’s a Wurlitzer and I’m sort of just holding sustained chords. On my first record, I played guitar throughout most of it. With this one, I started working with this guy Justin Parker who’s never really done anything in pop music. I just started freestyling over his sustained, melancholic chords. And that was how, really, the second evolution of my style began.</p><p><b>You said you were always a singer... Where did that start? Do you remember singing with your family when you were young?</b></p><p>I remember singing with my mom and with my dad. There were musical children’s movies, like Mr World and Raffi.</p><p><b>In my house, my sisters loved Grease.</b></p><p>We loved Grease, me and my sister. [sings Summer nights] They’re really beautiful, those songs.</p><p><br /></p><center><iframe allow="autoplay" frameborder="no" height="166" scrolling="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/34997934&color=%23ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true" width="100%"></iframe><div style="color: #cccccc; font-family: Interstate, "Lucida Grande", "Lucida Sans Unicode", "Lucida Sans", Garuda, Verdana, Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; font-weight: 100; line-break: anywhere; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap; word-break: normal;"><a href="https://soundcloud.com/mrdiscopop" style="color: #cccccc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" title="mrdiscopop">mrdiscopop</a> · <a href="https://soundcloud.com/mrdiscopop/lana-del-rey-sings-summer" style="color: #cccccc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" title="Lana Del Rey sings Summer Nights">Lana Del Rey sings Summer Nights</a></div></center><p><br /></p><p><b>The movies that inspire you now come from a slightly darker place.</b></p><p>It’s not my fault that my inspirations are dark. I’m not a very dark person, but I find that most great works of art verge towards darkness. My favourite movie is The Godfather II – the settings alone are just so epic. The same with film noir. It’s not the darkness I’m attracted to, it’s the fact that it’s so beautiful. Visually stunning.</p><p><b>I’m interested in the montages you’ve made for your music videos. The clips you use don’t really bear any narrative relation to the lyrics, so what makes you choose them?</b></p><p>I think they must share an aesthetic, or a mood. When I go to Germany and France, people always ask me about the Hollywood imagery – but when I started putting the movies together, I wasn’t necessarily looking for clips of Hollywood. I was looking for vintage film from the 50s. I liked the texture and the colours of those films.</p><p>It’s funny, when I was putting the montages together at first and showing them to people, nobody seemed to get it. They thought it was a very weird juxtaposition, verging on creepy. It’s strange now that people think that it’s a really cohesive package, because for a long time it seemed like a really disjointed project that I was alone in believing in.</p><p><b>Where do you find all those film clips?</b></p><p>YouTube. I steal them! But I have a copyright specialist that I work with, so she reaches out to get permission now. Ever since I got sued.</p><p><b>Over which one?</b></p><p>Video Games. That was a bad day. A million views and it got wiped out.</p><p><b>You’ve got more than 25 million streams on YouTube now. Do you get royalty payments?</b></p><p>I don’t think so. Why aren’t you on my team, honey? Where the fuck have you been?</p><p>Those viewing figures must translate into some kind of material value. I mean, there are adverts streaming before two of them.</p><p><b>What’s the story behind Video Games?</b></p><p>I’ve been coming to London for a long time now, off and on. But I’d been coming for about 14 months before I wrote that song. I found one of my musical soulmates, Justin Parker. I just sat down with him and said "I’m tired of trying to be good and be noticed. I just want to write whatever I want to write." And he said, "then just write whatever you want to write". And he played out some sustained piano chords, and I leaned back and started thinking about one of my favourite times.</p><p>I usually draw inspiration back from the same few moments in my life, and so I started thinking back to when I was really happy in this one relationship and had just let go of my musical ambitions and... settled.</p><p>I was always a wanderer. I never stayed in one place for very long. I never thought I’d have the luxury of loving someone and being loved. I always hoped that that would happen and when it did, it really was what they talked about in the movies.</p><p><b>Geek question: What was the video game he was playing?</b></p><p>It was World Of Warcraft. It’s actually an all-consuming game.</p><p><b>Did you play it, too?</b></p><p>He... Well, he wouldn’t let me.</p><p><b>What was his character?</b></p><p>I think he played as a monster. You can’t really see the character when you’re in the game.</p><p><b>What I love about that lyric is that songs don’t usually talk about the bits of relationships where you’re just slobbing around the house doing your own thing.</b></p><p>People talk about me being an anti-feminist because of that song. They think it’s coming from a place of submissiveness. But in reality it was more about coming together happily and doing your own things happily in the same living space.</p><p><b>What would you say the theme of the album is?</b></p><p>You should honour love, even when it's lost.</p><p><b>Is the relationship from Video Games over now?</b></p><p>In the end, we couldn’t be together. When I’ve been separated from various things and people in my life that I wanted to stay close to, I felt pride in not sabotaging myself with fear. By staying calm and being strong, I was honouring the memory of those things and those people. I’m proud of that, and I continue to do that – try and live gracefully.</p><p><b>How difficult do you find that now that you’re in the public eye?</b></p><p>I’ve lived a really quiet life for the last decade and I don’t see that changing. I hope the record does really well but regardless of how things end up turning out, I have a really big life outside of music. I have a really big family, I have friends, I have other work and I have my studies that I’ve continued to pursue.</p><p><b>What were you studying?</b></p><p>Philosophy.</p><p><b>Does the fact that this album is doing so well when the first one disappeared without trace make you suspicious of success?</b></p><p>Well, why would that make me suspicious? I guess I’m always wary that beautiful things that happen to me aren’t for real. Really great things are rare. But maybe sometimes they’re genuine.</p><p><b>What exactly happened with the first album?</b></p><p>People act like it’s so shrouded in mystery – "the forgotten terrible album". But if you look on YouTube all 13 tracks are available with millions of views. So it’s not like no-one’s heard them. I was the only one signed to that independent label. They gave me $10,000 and I made a record but they couldn’t fund the release of it. It’s not like it was bad. We were all proud of it. It’s pretty good.</p><p><b>Would you consider buying the rights back?</b></p><p>I already have the rights. I bought the rights upon my exit. I’m re-releasing it, maybe in late summer.</p><p><b>A lot of people have claimed you "re-invented" yourself after that record failed – but it’s actually called Lizzy Grant aka Lana Del Ray [sic].</b></p><p>Exactly! It was never really a shift in persona, it was just the name of the music I was making. The name of the project. They’re not even separate personas.</p><p><b>People don’t spend a lot of time criticising Florence Welch because she doesn't have a machine.</b></p><p>[Almighty laugh] The way I’ve lived my life is so straightforward, it’s ridiculous. I’ve been so clear and upfront about everything but most articles I see... My publicists, in their long career, say they have never seen someone be more fictionalised.</p><p>I know what people say about me and I'm not really that concerned, because those kind of problems I'm not really interested in. I'm concerned about the potential collapse of the euro, the state of the global economy. We have serious problems. Of course I hope the record does really well but, regardless of how things end up turning out, I'm not concerned about my future. I'll be OK.</p>mrdiscopophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18121597046093715380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-952067365270329652.post-75386482235572527322020-12-23T01:47:00.003-08:002020-12-28T03:31:26.672-08:00Journalist • Broadcaster • Composer<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjN3o6qYPNqCdusdYdgbgPR8qc9IGZF2LRunVi3mRYy1dFI7lgog8sISoXgv0oNBpufBPsjmO0j3dxjNaE-X7VdCYQWTvawDRZd7gIUj4ZL3MsQ2ZibBVsir6XnRW6dMtsT0v76cE3MvYii/s1024/Mark-and-some-CDs-balanced.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="1024" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjN3o6qYPNqCdusdYdgbgPR8qc9IGZF2LRunVi3mRYy1dFI7lgog8sISoXgv0oNBpufBPsjmO0j3dxjNaE-X7VdCYQWTvawDRZd7gIUj4ZL3MsQ2ZibBVsir6XnRW6dMtsT0v76cE3MvYii/w640-h360/Mark-and-some-CDs-balanced.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div><br /></div>
Welcome to my website. I'm the music reporter for BBC News, covering industry stories, chart news and artist interviews.<div><br /></div><div>Over the years, I've been lucky enough to speak to everyone from <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-41269047">Madonna</a> and <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-45482360">Paul McCartney</a> to <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-35520865">Dua Lipa</a> and <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-39113501">Ed Sheeran</a>. I'll post links to the best ones here, alongside some of my radio and TV work.</div><div><br /></div><span><a name='more'></a></span><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>I also composer music for TV shows, podcasts and audiobooks, some of which you can hear on the Music section of the site. If you want to commission me, the rates are reasonable (I mainly do this for fun), so drop me a line.</div><div><p></p><div><br /></div></div>mrdiscopophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18121597046093715380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-952067365270329652.post-87945802782823472482020-12-23T01:39:00.002-08:002020-12-23T02:17:00.583-08:00Phoebe Bridgers interview<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmAump1Na3Qb2hRgnfwDxcT9M-a1HIngS5DTo_2SngLTZF6OR_BCLJ8gAeqwqSbBkHc4VJChazpCVwfnvAUGhIduT9TygaIg7ab91AEb9SbUv8VGveqmmHkntjm0BI1AUa3LtUEIdYa6j5/s1024/_116100626_editphoebebridgerscreditfrankockenfels2copy.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="1024" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmAump1Na3Qb2hRgnfwDxcT9M-a1HIngS5DTo_2SngLTZF6OR_BCLJ8gAeqwqSbBkHc4VJChazpCVwfnvAUGhIduT9TygaIg7ab91AEb9SbUv8VGveqmmHkntjm0BI1AUa3LtUEIdYa6j5/w640-h360/_116100626_editphoebebridgerscreditfrankockenfels2copy.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>I was lucky enough to jump on the phone with Phoebe Bridgers for a chat about her successful/surreal 2020. <span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p><p>We discussed everything from the making of her Grammy-nominated album, Punisher, to the day she spent learning to drive a tractor.</p><p>Here are the edited highlights...</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-55307542">How Phoebe Bridgers made one of 2020's best albums</a></li></ul><p></p>mrdiscopophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18121597046093715380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-952067365270329652.post-64665360843069719392019-01-04T03:08:00.004-08:002020-12-29T03:13:54.630-08:00Top 10 singles of 2018So here, a full year after the last update, are the 10 singles I listened to most often in the past 12 months (ordered by the play count in my iTunes library). <span><a name='more'></a></span>They're not a bad bunch, and you'll find a handy YouTube playlist at the bottom of the post.<br />
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<center><b>10) George Ezra - Shotgun</b><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGLzqOs7AExxF6SiGOvfX0CoFTrMJerMoB8zKTBjCXbqbxf6P3rg6XN9dDyH1DLee1__zfiBEAWHT-PJkG4hb7tawj6rfoBHGL2Eimnas7BIa8q2ZP4Isb6scAz2CXGQ2PF4mGtVjFvAU/s1600/shotgun.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="500" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGLzqOs7AExxF6SiGOvfX0CoFTrMJerMoB8zKTBjCXbqbxf6P3rg6XN9dDyH1DLee1__zfiBEAWHT-PJkG4hb7tawj6rfoBHGL2Eimnas7BIa8q2ZP4Isb6scAz2CXGQ2PF4mGtVjFvAU/s320/shotgun.jpg" width="320" /></a></div></center>Shotgun was a last-minute addition to George Ezra's second album, after label boss Ferdy Unger-Hamilton told him the album "wasn't finished".<br />
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"It was one of those awful, 'I think you need to write another song even though I don't know you very well' conversations," Unger-Hamilton told a recent edition of Music Week. "He came back with Shotgun within about 10 days and I was like, 'this is fucking amazing'."<br />
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He wasn't wrong. This echoed round our kids' school playground all summer, albeit with the slightly altered lyrics: "I'll be riding shotgun / underneath the hot sun / you look like a dumb-dumb."<br />
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Legendary.<br />
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<center><b>9) Theophilus London - Bebey</b><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjB7ydEbPCIWNhFkGyUiGJ354h3AnqfX-81tUphJHRrIfdTwFvrCULwxc8SvKzgPHoGZcLvPujRDK5FkYnv1bfAmd-3PVULbelPjttwzH6PnNae8nGvec0SGrJUqSMSr6dILwAHo5S1Xro/s1600/bebey.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="750" data-original-width="750" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjB7ydEbPCIWNhFkGyUiGJ354h3AnqfX-81tUphJHRrIfdTwFvrCULwxc8SvKzgPHoGZcLvPujRDK5FkYnv1bfAmd-3PVULbelPjttwzH6PnNae8nGvec0SGrJUqSMSr6dILwAHo5S1Xro/s320/bebey.jpg" width="320" /></a></div></center>The bassline of the year was written at a McDonald's in Brooklyn at 3 in the morning while Theophilus waited for a bus. True story.<br />
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<center><b>8) Mark Ronson ft Miley Cyrus - Nothing Breaks Like A Heart</b><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeqUN8HSEo6fHipe3wn6PQmRkDWXWfwAWTvwp3BFEaeF7owt2hJNsGfM_0ToSgPhf-cDV5UplaLtp3mR_FlTuQ1e4Nrp8n0UBj6vIuETMT4vPO_dXHRrTHyfpRlPGTAe8KnXW8HVzr27Y/s1600/nothing+breaks+like+a+heart.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="800" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeqUN8HSEo6fHipe3wn6PQmRkDWXWfwAWTvwp3BFEaeF7owt2hJNsGfM_0ToSgPhf-cDV5UplaLtp3mR_FlTuQ1e4Nrp8n0UBj6vIuETMT4vPO_dXHRrTHyfpRlPGTAe8KnXW8HVzr27Y/s320/nothing+breaks+like+a+heart.jpg" width="320" /></a></div></center>This place was reserved for Kacey Musgraves' country-disco crossover High Horse until Miley swooped in during the closing seconds of 2018 with a country-disco crossover of her own. A shimmering, splintered break-up anthem that's so convincing I was momentarily surprised when Miley got married to Liam Hemsworth.<br />
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<center><b>7) Calvin Harris ft Dua Lipa - One Kiss</b><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZkNV_cwxtlpfXGxXA21fOgA1qlVrT7E7iDly-4jPq9If9NOhhAOYvSZeajSkuJa-UuNunQy05C7t0YEIHb8f5C8MUNn7_-cIVd9_OmWUeVUWkE4i2Ds72ZkZ5Rt0G2Go2dYK2ErTZjPQ/s1600/one+kiss.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="500" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZkNV_cwxtlpfXGxXA21fOgA1qlVrT7E7iDly-4jPq9If9NOhhAOYvSZeajSkuJa-UuNunQy05C7t0YEIHb8f5C8MUNn7_-cIVd9_OmWUeVUWkE4i2Ds72ZkZ5Rt0G2Go2dYK2ErTZjPQ/s320/one+kiss.jpg" width="320" /></a></div></center>I hated this at first, which just goes to show what I know. The UK's biggest-selling single of the year, fact fans.<br />
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<center><b>6) Jade Bird - Uh-huh</b><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPPAF-ki6v8sm9P8WC1_5kOMhdyAUxiI69vCl6AlLNjR10pcU3yMicJE84u9MYG_LMUKIorp-OLeTcPxF-_SkycRMF1mkmOLOFhV-WxJ3FJMWC2CLOURiXoHPS9csEIG03-70bK77ioig/s1600/uh+huh.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="1000" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPPAF-ki6v8sm9P8WC1_5kOMhdyAUxiI69vCl6AlLNjR10pcU3yMicJE84u9MYG_LMUKIorp-OLeTcPxF-_SkycRMF1mkmOLOFhV-WxJ3FJMWC2CLOURiXoHPS9csEIG03-70bK77ioig/s320/uh+huh.jpg" width="320" /></a></div></center>Jade Bird appears to be bitching about her ex's new girlfriend... but wait for the middle eight and there's a delicious twist:"<i>She's got you where it hurts / But you don’t seem to see / That while she's out at work / She's doing what you did to me</i>". Yeowch.<br />
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A relentless rock song with a shout-your-throat-raw chorus, it marked Jade's coming of age as a songwriter. If she isn't a massive star by the end of 2019 the world is an unjust and deplorable place. <br />
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*Checks the news*<br />
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Oh shit.<br />
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<center><b>5) Tove Styrke - Sway</b><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_TWwcP528pJuBc5g7nctmhfFrUVZFe1AfpW6rKhx4KQeqiBxUfJIoKjBeeRptf7G1C_GssmCo6RkfS6MyJhyphenhyphenbOXkhDNU9aU8UjvMLU3iAd-CPfZUTvV3S0VZE9yncvXCHzho5ZWRjEQE/s1600/sway.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="460" data-original-width="460" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_TWwcP528pJuBc5g7nctmhfFrUVZFe1AfpW6rKhx4KQeqiBxUfJIoKjBeeRptf7G1C_GssmCo6RkfS6MyJhyphenhyphenbOXkhDNU9aU8UjvMLU3iAd-CPfZUTvV3S0VZE9yncvXCHzho5ZWRjEQE/s320/sway.jpg" width="320" /></a></div></center>"Sway to me, is one of the most romantic songs on the album," said Tove Styrke, the day she released Sway - the latest in a long procession of perfectly-crafted pop songs. <br />
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"The album is like a collection of little love stories, and some of them are like not romantic at all because life's like that, you know? And some of them are really like, pink and like, everything is good. This is one of those songs, I love it so much."<br />
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Me too. *swoons*<br />
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<center><b>4) Rosalía - Malamente</b><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8gaACHRkjRpssPmzrdai_L-Qzizen4VmfbUzlxkQ4oOYvwJUKkg4SrVZmxqpLE7Vto58njU6BxAsYgg7SlIETiCopVPvaWG7_4CecUSmI7lU-TWeMt5soacJdlvvBUONOEE2f9M1y22g/s1600/malamente.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="640" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8gaACHRkjRpssPmzrdai_L-Qzizen4VmfbUzlxkQ4oOYvwJUKkg4SrVZmxqpLE7Vto58njU6BxAsYgg7SlIETiCopVPvaWG7_4CecUSmI7lU-TWeMt5soacJdlvvBUONOEE2f9M1y22g/s320/malamente.jpg" width="320" /></a></div></center>Spanish star Rosalía made quite a few "best of 2018" lists with her subversive and brilliant album El Mal Querer, which blends traditional Andulasian flamenco music with trap drums and suitcase-rattling basslines.<br />
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The record tells the story of a woman who's imprisoned by a jealous lover, and this is the opening chapter - subtitled "Augurio" (Omen) in Spanish. A moodier, more compelling piece of R&B is hard to find, while the video is crammed full of the slick choreography and loaded imagery you'd normally expect from Beyonce.<br />
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<center><b>3) Let's Eat Grandma - It's Not Just Me</b><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVx98j4CA3vm4teRDwDdCoglFRFOhiKuvLXie3kYqCAc_n2VmE5ky1N0-RljQ2kwQuCWDVQjVjoJiaQ4GyLVjaQZnIVT7jQZCS3qIfPax3s_C0aD2a6fhE2YGnecl0wirFFTThFiyLih4/s1600/not+just+me.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="640" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVx98j4CA3vm4teRDwDdCoglFRFOhiKuvLXie3kYqCAc_n2VmE5ky1N0-RljQ2kwQuCWDVQjVjoJiaQ4GyLVjaQZnIVT7jQZCS3qIfPax3s_C0aD2a6fhE2YGnecl0wirFFTThFiyLih4/s320/not+just+me.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div></center>Interviewing Let’s Eat Grandma earlier this year, I told them how much I loved the lyric “<i>you left a dent in my home screen</i>” and the way it captured that state of obsessively stabbing at your messages app, in the hope of a new message from your obsession. <br />
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They looked at me like I was deranged and said, “but it’s about someone dropping my phone”. <br />
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Ah well, this is still a towering achievement. Five minutes of restlessly inventive, shape-shifting pop that sucks you in, shakes you up and spits you out. <br />
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<center><b>2) Ariana Grande - Thank U, Next</b><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjR6naRRjXA4xGBPfU4zVeZlWNhT3EDrW25V3eVaRxI-BZSjfpd8kD4DkJcSWtlhEF8Fv0wjW-7Mpfh192gI4u69VCwP0gd2bnJHoG4sw-6xRdAjZBxuSxi167oV2ayah0GUx7xMYHAZNk/s1600/thank+u+next.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="500" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjR6naRRjXA4xGBPfU4zVeZlWNhT3EDrW25V3eVaRxI-BZSjfpd8kD4DkJcSWtlhEF8Fv0wjW-7Mpfh192gI4u69VCwP0gd2bnJHoG4sw-6xRdAjZBxuSxi167oV2ayah0GUx7xMYHAZNk/s320/thank+u+next.jpg" width="320" /></a></div></center>No-one navigates the choppy waters of modern pop stardom better than Ariana Grande, whose music this year tussled with her own personal dramas, acknowledging a tough transition to adulthood, while remaining wryly self-aware about her image.<br />
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Nothing said this better than Thank U, Next. Supposedly released to overshadow her ex-fiancé's return to Saturday Night Live, it was actually a gracious and thoughtful reflection on the end of their relationship. The video, which riffed on teen comedies like Mean Girls and Legally Blonde, made deliberate comparisons between high school gossip and social media fixation on her personal life - the message being, "I'll take care of myself, if that's alright with you". <br />
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But the best bit is when she (metaphorically) turns to the camera and winks: "<i>At least this song is a smash</i>". In the future, they'll write textbooks about this.<br />
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<center><b>1) Janelle Monae - Make Me Feel</b><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjq-fm0nisU48zIjjTO0stNQAWpXcbDd8W6dOYb94yEfJ8kAHo_vxCIO2UENbTOUSjI8J7DgMfYWudz2WKU15Ban0U_1oJ0Gs1HUxRscyAsiKk6N-evHs_7q0u06-7l6WfPqUilDQVpPR8/s1600/make+me+feel.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="750" data-original-width="750" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjq-fm0nisU48zIjjTO0stNQAWpXcbDd8W6dOYb94yEfJ8kAHo_vxCIO2UENbTOUSjI8J7DgMfYWudz2WKU15Ban0U_1oJ0Gs1HUxRscyAsiKk6N-evHs_7q0u06-7l6WfPqUilDQVpPR8/s320/make+me+feel.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div></center>I could never shake the feeling that Janelle Monae was too slick to be funky. Her first two albums, great though they were, felt sanitised and fussy, unable to get down in the dirt and really scuff things up.<br />
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The Dirty Computer album gave us the context - Janelle's music was buttoned-up because she felt her sexuality and her identity were being stigmatised. Make Me Feel was the moment she broke out of the shackles, with a filthy slinky chorus, a bassline like a trampoline, and a sticky, celebratory "sexual bender". <br />
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As she puts it herself: There's nothing better.<br />
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<center><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/tGRzz0oqgUE" width="500"></iframe></center>mrdiscopophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18121597046093715380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-952067365270329652.post-51398662243041474292018-01-07T03:11:00.002-08:002020-12-29T03:13:40.039-08:00Top 10 albums of 2017<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLZRU7S1gEREh3qP-CuYnYXO4r2rHL8cMPXgn6Z2yefBf6iV38t36eV5g-dnWZIG3klMHG1i3NOVjFeo-SZYsiTdKzZzM1fD9aiA-SwGyMiUWWT1iJTrXf9zHipgiOmnD47BjTGOOD_Ns/s1600/montage.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="270" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLZRU7S1gEREh3qP-CuYnYXO4r2rHL8cMPXgn6Z2yefBf6iV38t36eV5g-dnWZIG3klMHG1i3NOVjFeo-SZYsiTdKzZzM1fD9aiA-SwGyMiUWWT1iJTrXf9zHipgiOmnD47BjTGOOD_Ns/s1600/montage.jpg" /></a></div>Better late than never... These are the records that went on repeat at Discopop Towers<font size="1"><sup>TM</sup></font> in 2017. Which was a week ago.<span><a name='more'></a></span><br />
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<center><b>10) Muna - About U</b><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJddihe27CwE5ye_wvSc22_qVCDTfwK4C9yLUi_Ql7sT4Z0ZWfHRl5sYQ78NrcHwrxVcYiNaw4kkmQsSOK-RZupTSobjiPg2MLY8QAMEfYeq0r5T5pGDKeNHFhKWkcBMzzCiOPVG0Dq_Q/s1600/muna.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="350" data-original-width="350" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJddihe27CwE5ye_wvSc22_qVCDTfwK4C9yLUi_Ql7sT4Z0ZWfHRl5sYQ78NrcHwrxVcYiNaw4kkmQsSOK-RZupTSobjiPg2MLY8QAMEfYeq0r5T5pGDKeNHFhKWkcBMzzCiOPVG0Dq_Q/s1600/muna.jpg" /></a></div></center><br />
When you're beaten and a friend unexpectedly comes to your defence. When you're silently hurting and someone notices. When you just need to be understood. That's what this album is, but songs.<br />
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<center><b>9) Billie Eilish - Don't Smile At Me</b><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYo8oEhs2xnPVY1fO82-Iv9RLRfu-I1Sse5Js73szdUl_f8lpoQDzuYhmLmdWgelM66ERMyJ6JnFMp5bDAGOCIh3cqp0ux7GPE8g375nql1cAcjl0C7nalt0S1lG470A_Vlnet8g0PeXc/s1600/billie.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="350" data-original-width="350" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYo8oEhs2xnPVY1fO82-Iv9RLRfu-I1Sse5Js73szdUl_f8lpoQDzuYhmLmdWgelM66ERMyJ6JnFMp5bDAGOCIh3cqp0ux7GPE8g375nql1cAcjl0C7nalt0S1lG470A_Vlnet8g0PeXc/s1600/billie.jpg" /></a></div></center><br />
Technically an EP, but longer than most Beatles' albums, so I'm allowing it.<br />
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Billie Eilish has a faultless ear for melody, a lean-closer voice and a bucketful of acidic lyrics. Everyone, including me, goes on about Bellyache, where she fantasises about killing her friends. But my favourite (because I actually lived it) is Party Favor, where she casually and callously dumps her boyfriend on his birthday. "<i>I hate to do this to you on your birthday</i>," she coos. "<i>Happy birthday, by the way</i>". <br />
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<center><b>8) Wolf Alice - Visions Of A Life</b><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjGAt-FX8c4j-FSIfcdvOr7aqT5OAcinWKdrvpvXJOdP7G5fwvKfi6ScuEMFggkg74QTKTpjUPt8Q-WU78A128VLR2Eibydu6knWcpffHd8MuQfecpHAOnYt4CxobR-q_dkab3txFbE_o/s1600/wolf.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="350" data-original-width="350" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjGAt-FX8c4j-FSIfcdvOr7aqT5OAcinWKdrvpvXJOdP7G5fwvKfi6ScuEMFggkg74QTKTpjUPt8Q-WU78A128VLR2Eibydu6knWcpffHd8MuQfecpHAOnYt4CxobR-q_dkab3txFbE_o/s1600/wolf.jpg" /></a></div></center>Good luck summing this one up. Ellie, Theo, Joff and Joel sound like they've raided the musical pick'n'mix counter, grabbing handfuls of grunge and dream-pop and punk shoegaze and anything else that takes their fancy - Ellie even borrows Neil Tenant's deadpan vocal "stylings" on Sky Musings. But somehow it works. You can holler along to Beautifully Unconventional, you can spit at Yuk Foo, you can swoon to Don't Delete The Kisses.<br />
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"I think hummus is quite a good analogy for our album," <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-41352719">Ellie told me in September</a>. "You get all these different varieties but at the end of the day they're all hummus." <br />
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Told you it was impossible to sum up.<br />
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<center><b>7) Kendrick Lamar - Damn</b><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZjuJHIjDxIcfDuIbJDuLpaoHntKtGBIA1cVTq84W37XurBUxAIJ9Ylbm6hyphenhyphen1cs6_OrGqP_FkSLLeKa5-6ZzL6W157gLv6n8jB-oJ1i_lW1td3sJLjkHn5yZg6YUn7aFK6myN8mISxtrg/s1600/kendrick.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="350" data-original-width="350" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZjuJHIjDxIcfDuIbJDuLpaoHntKtGBIA1cVTq84W37XurBUxAIJ9Ylbm6hyphenhyphen1cs6_OrGqP_FkSLLeKa5-6ZzL6W157gLv6n8jB-oJ1i_lW1td3sJLjkHn5yZg6YUn7aFK6myN8mISxtrg/s1600/kendrick.jpg" /></a></div></center>The fire, the fury, the blood, the piss, the faith, the doubt, the humility, the false humility, the Rihanna duet, the breezy, casual competence of it all. At this point, he's basically showing off. <br />
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<center><b>6) Paramore - After Laughter</b><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8G3myGlqf5rzerRf6RYuQfgM9DPXVhWvNDsSxvmaoTqJfeF1-Op1PmKjFSu_wCZ8NOfYX7apbNz916tvVAh6DoLtUlotbIEceZDRHgn1CIup6yPsKZ8skzwh2ZOZ06KzCk3NIVvo6ufU/s1600/paramore.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="350" data-original-width="350" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8G3myGlqf5rzerRf6RYuQfgM9DPXVhWvNDsSxvmaoTqJfeF1-Op1PmKjFSu_wCZ8NOfYX7apbNz916tvVAh6DoLtUlotbIEceZDRHgn1CIup6yPsKZ8skzwh2ZOZ06KzCk3NIVvo6ufU/s1600/paramore.jpg" /></a></div></center>Paramore's technicolor fifth album completes their transformation into pin-sharp pop stars - but not, like, Katy Perry or anything. ("I can't imagine getting up there and playing a Max Martin song – at that point we might as well just stop," guitarist Taylor York told The New York Times in April). <br />
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Instead, they take their cues from the angular elbows and polyrhythms of Talking Heads and Cyndi Lauper, while Hayley Williams picks at the scabs of her depression in a procession of unflinchingly stark lyrics. <br />
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My favourite track is Rose Colored Boy - where she rages against an irritatingly glass-half-full acquaintance. "<i>And oh, I'm so annoyed</i>," she hisses, "<i>'Cause I just killed off what was left of the optimist in me</i>". Sad-dancing hasn't been this good since Robyn last released an album.<br />
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<center><b>5) Lorde - Melodrama</b><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiThthIsimlYQfWO_6J5x7bFeLjbCW7cPLt38kVT2Y_gnH6vKgx7wKm8Co7cIOW6QilVoxB69o0aW6yxMWa-ZjQJdHzXKhIt_gR02CjwOqIU0lYXEfjvkyeOzOGHCQKaCBAQNTTlSCCsNI/s1600/lorde.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="350" data-original-width="350" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiThthIsimlYQfWO_6J5x7bFeLjbCW7cPLt38kVT2Y_gnH6vKgx7wKm8Co7cIOW6QilVoxB69o0aW6yxMWa-ZjQJdHzXKhIt_gR02CjwOqIU0lYXEfjvkyeOzOGHCQKaCBAQNTTlSCCsNI/s1600/lorde.jpg" /></a></div></center><br />
Too clever for its own good, Lorde's second album suffers from a surfeit of ideas. When they work (the conspiratorial tongue click on Perfect Places, the submerged vocal samples of Sober) it's glorious. But other tracks threaten to collapse under the weight of their ambition. It's telling that the standout moments are the simplest: Liability and Writer In The Dark. <br />
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But you can't argue with Ella Yelich-O'Connor's facility with melody, nor her gothic, awkward, evocative lyrics - somehow cool in their lack of coolness. <br />
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"<i>We're the greatest/ They'll hang us in the Louvre / Down the back... but who cares? Still the Louvre</i>" is a stand-out, but my absolute favourite is "<i>I'm closing my teeth around this liquor-wet lime</i>".<br />
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A flawed masterpiece.<br />
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<center><b>4) Dua Lipa - Dua Lipa</b><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2JS_KEdOxCyU3pbD5zXNuNk3L37canh7KD1fDob2jFX3NZEgGewB96DG4nNmZK7Q6SuyYPCxpEivA7evHjj3maO_TVjvi_6SJLN9_hMgg9hIzRVyaSo8JH6L4ZTNI26H-In2jGAsgiww/s1600/dua.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="350" data-original-width="350" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2JS_KEdOxCyU3pbD5zXNuNk3L37canh7KD1fDob2jFX3NZEgGewB96DG4nNmZK7Q6SuyYPCxpEivA7evHjj3maO_TVjvi_6SJLN9_hMgg9hIzRVyaSo8JH6L4ZTNI26H-In2jGAsgiww/s1600/dua.jpg" /></a></div></center><br />
Was it groundbreaking? No. <br />
Did it rewrite pop history? No. <br />
Was it an unimpeachable collection of pop songs? Yes. <br />
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New Rules was the standout, naturally, but you get six other singles for your money, from the self-descriptive Hotter Than Hell to the ridiculously danceable Blow Your Mind (Mwah). And check out Dua's sultry, husky vocals on Thinking 'Bout You for proof that she's set to be the UK's finest pop star. <br />
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<center><b>3) St Vincent - Masseduction</b><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiblUd01cK5aIvfrGuosBw0i7NlxsKuph2jvqCKOjgWJRLij1_s-YjhnAt8ZGKIY1GAnozFElQWzo4FSDpRtwnbLcrH2oS72GbjVQnKxZCvGudmVC2IbVTNGTMfNAhyphenhyphenubDuQD80hNydBiY/s1600/stvinvent.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="350" data-original-width="350" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiblUd01cK5aIvfrGuosBw0i7NlxsKuph2jvqCKOjgWJRLij1_s-YjhnAt8ZGKIY1GAnozFElQWzo4FSDpRtwnbLcrH2oS72GbjVQnKxZCvGudmVC2IbVTNGTMfNAhyphenhyphenubDuQD80hNydBiY/s1600/stvinvent.jpg" /></a></div></center><br />
All seedy glamour, giddy highs and unsettling lows, St Vincent's fifth album is as sticky and messy as real life gets. <br />
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Over crunching programmed beats, her stories invariably deal with loss of control ("<i>I cannot stop the airplane from crashing</i>," she sings on the title track), with references to mood-stabilising drugs, and a soul-crushing break-up ("<i>how can anyone have you and lose you and not lose their mind, too?</i>" - Los Ageless).<br />
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Annie Clark's most personal album to date, it's also her most pop-fuelled. She's ably assisted in this by Jack Antonoff, who also produced Lorde and Taylor Swift's latest albums, but never surrenders her wit, her inventiveness or her fury.<br />
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<center><b>2) Kesha - Rainbow</b><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPzj_x82Se1gV6ldvZCIe8DNhEvwwaCF1FDTHEZlG-v2U4v0octS_8ni9HEJwbjKIjJCpgRiyw5vNrumI_fMaz3XUpEA31wjiqmJJviK5pBvqVtwqOo9po8Mc0iuODUrRWuRCZUpnhbvs/s1600/kesha.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="350" data-original-width="350" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPzj_x82Se1gV6ldvZCIe8DNhEvwwaCF1FDTHEZlG-v2U4v0octS_8ni9HEJwbjKIjJCpgRiyw5vNrumI_fMaz3XUpEA31wjiqmJJviK5pBvqVtwqOo9po8Mc0iuODUrRWuRCZUpnhbvs/s1600/kesha.jpg" /></a></div></center><br />
When life gives you lemons, make a defiantly bonkers hillbilly pop record. <br />
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Kesha may not have won her freedom from Dr Luke, the producer and label boss she accuses of drugging and sexually abusing her (claims he denies) but she was finally free to make the music she wanted. <br />
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Out go the vocoders and retrospectively creepy lyrics about being drunk and out of control. In come throat-shredding vocals and revelatory songs about resilience, compassion, independence and, er... dating Godzilla. <br />
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The back story makes it compelling, but it's the songs that keep you coming back. <br />
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<center><b>1) Laura Marling - Semper Femina</b><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCMfT8HC-Mz9uqFBr3VZh-zd8vSjROE3L6SGE2zCoEO48aCK5RNDDExQjYQ8tzLSuFpUQunq1adCtjA-TyoYHmnBs6WCl06jVLXhJ3fc-eujclk29yXOtT4DtW_uFdy6xqojZruvDpw0k/s1600/laura.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="350" data-original-width="350" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCMfT8HC-Mz9uqFBr3VZh-zd8vSjROE3L6SGE2zCoEO48aCK5RNDDExQjYQ8tzLSuFpUQunq1adCtjA-TyoYHmnBs6WCl06jVLXhJ3fc-eujclk29yXOtT4DtW_uFdy6xqojZruvDpw0k/s1600/laura.jpg" /></a></div></center><br />
Acres of newsprint were wasted discussing how Laura Marling wrote about femininity from a male perspective. For a start, she abandoned that conceit half-way through (although the record is broadly about female archetypes, from the wild child to the artist's muse). But worse than that, it steers your attention away from the mesmerising beauty of these songs.<br />
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The album opens with Soothing, whose prowling, sensuous bassline suggests all kinds of sex, until Marling kicks her lover out: "<i>I banish you with love</i>". On Wild Fire, she channels Lou Reed, while shaming a plonker who tells her "you're at your most beautiful when you don't know you're being watched". "<i>Maybe someday when God takes me away,</i>" she drawls. "<i>I'll understand what the</i> fuck <i>that means</i>."<br />
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Musically, she's never sounded more relaxed. Under the watchful guidance of Blake Mills (Alabama Shakes, Fiona Apple) she lets in all sorts of new musical textures - backmasked vocals, sweeping strings, even a guitar solo - that add to the dramatic acuity of her lyrics.<br />
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Beguiling and brilliant, it's the best album of her career. <br />
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<li> Here's a playlist of tracks from the Top 10 albums. You can see numbers 11 to 20 below.<br />
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<center><iframe allow="encrypted-media" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" gesture="media" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/videoseries?list=PLMYdFc8mV-73oBn1qD2-7G7E-pBF6kIN0" width="500"></iframe></center><br />
<blockquote><font size="1"><br />
<b>FYI: The next 10:</b><br />
11) SZA - CTRL <br />
12) Taylor Swift - Reputation<br />
13) Lana Del Rey - Lust For Life<br />
14) Stormzy - Gang Signs & Prayer<br />
15) J Hus - Common Sense<br />
16) Haim - Something To Tell you<br />
17) Niia - I<br />
18) Feist - Pleasure<br />
19) Jessie Ware - Glass House<br />
20) Jay-Z - 4:44<br />
</font><br />
</blockquote></li>mrdiscopophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18121597046093715380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-952067365270329652.post-42148626372495092017-07-04T03:22:00.006-07:002020-12-29T03:34:55.441-08:00Billie Eilish is a girl on fireIf you haven't heard of 15-year-old pop prodigy <b>Billie Eilish</b> yet, you're missing out. <br />
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The LA native has lit up my "most played" list this year with a handful of smart, dark pop songs, in which she fantasises about things like killing her boyfriend and burning his car. You know, typical teenage stuff...<br />
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Her new single, Watch, came out last Friday and it's packed with more Melodrama than Lorde's entire album. "Go ahead and watch my heart burn," she trills, "with the fire that you started in me".<br />
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Listen below.<br />
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<center><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/UWAbdiiAOZA" width="500"></iframe></center><br />
If you want to know more about Billie, here's some highlights from her first forays into the media.<br />
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<blockquote><br />
<li> Billie wrote her first song when she was four. It was about falling into a black hole [<a href="http://www.interviewmagazine.com/music/discovery-billie-eilish/#_">Interview</a>]<br />
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</li><li> Her neighbour asked her to star in his homemade horror movies when she was six, which isn't creepy at all. [<a href="https://noisey.vice.com/en_us/article/9a8xja/billie-eilishs-bellyache-is-totally-psycho-and-perfectly-pop">Vice</a>]<br />
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</li><li> For the last eight years, she's been a member of the fancypants Los Angeles Children's Chorus. [<a href="http://www.teenvogue.com/story/how-billie-eilishs-ocean-eyes-turned-her-into-an-overnight-sensation">Teen Vogue</a>]<br />
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</li><li> As well as singing, Billie is a trained dancer, who used to practice 11 hours a week until "my hip decided to explode" last year. [<a href="https://soundcloud.com/wfnmusic/billie-eilish-interview">WFN Music</a>]<br /><br /></li>
<li> Billie writes all her songs with her older brother Finneas. "Him and I get along really well, so it's perfect," she says, before basically admitting no-one else will put up with her. "I'm a super-particular person and I always have to have stuff my way." [<a href="http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/musicnews/s4652148.htm">Triple J</a>]<br />
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</li><li> Her breakthrough song was the lullaby-like Ocean Eyes, which Finneas wrote for his band, but gave to Billie when she needed a piece for her dance class. "We put it on SoundCloud with a free download link next to it so my dance teacher could access it," she says. "We had no intentions for it, really. But basically overnight a ton of people started hearing it and sharing it." [<a href="http://www.teenvogue.com/story/how-billie-eilishs-ocean-eyes-turned-her-into-an-overnight-sensation">Teen Vogue</a>]<br />
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</li><li> The song has now had 1.96m streams on Soundcloud, winning her a record deal with Interscope and a slot on the 13 Reasons Why soundtrack. [<a href="https://soundcloud.com/billieeilish/ocean-eyes">Soundcloud</a>]<br />
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<center><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="270" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/hG4lT4fxj8M" width="480"></iframe></center><br />
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</li><li> Her best song to date is Bellyache, which she describes as "a flat-out a song about murder". [<a href="http://ladygunn.com/music/billie-eilish-takes-us-on-a-dark-and-twisted-pop-ride-in-bellyache">Ladygunn</a>]<br />
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</li><li> It probably goes without saying, but you shouldn't take the lyrics literally. "You don’t have to kill people to write a song about killing people," says Billie. "I'm not going to kill people." [<a href="http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/pop/7736384/billie-eilish-interview-bellyache-debut-album">Billboard</a>]<br />
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</li><li> In fact, the song has a deeper meaning. "Like, if you do something to impress somebody else or because your parents want you to or because whatever, you’re going to end up alone one day... with a bellyache." [<a href="http://www.onestowatch.com/blog/a-qa-with-pops-next-big-thing-15-year-old">Ones To Watch</a>]<br />
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<center><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="270" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/gBRi6aZJGj4" width="480"></iframe></center><br />
</li><li> Her favourite colour is yellow, as she will explain to you at length. "I think of myself as yellow because I think a lot of people used to maybe doubt yellow or not like it because it’s one of those colors that people just sort of hate. Nobody likes it and it’s such a good colour! I don’t even know how to describe it. I just feel like I am yellow. I do and say what I want and I don't really care if people like it or not. That makes me yellow." [<a href="http://popcrush.com/billie-eilish-bellyache-interview/?trackback=tsmclip">Popcrush</a>] <br />
</li></blockquote><br />
So there you go: That is Billie Eilish "in a nutshell", if the nutshell was about 600 words of text on a stunningly popular music blog. <br />
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mrdiscopophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18121597046093715380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-952067365270329652.post-12483486976011400002017-05-18T03:35:00.001-07:002020-12-29T03:36:29.611-08:00Selena Gomez may be a bad liar, but she's a great pop star<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjn4-QPbmY4QvC-3q5rr7eW7zBvOYzOgdREkTRv-Qh7zYLnVFdPqULUmqU6QcBiZAxKbWIgluEV3XwKEJB9kSAT4rlDqQ0UvK9fY9ALT16VDzBM6eecfNYZFYago0Zpd7ulWTzhOL9FnO8/s1600/selenag.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjn4-QPbmY4QvC-3q5rr7eW7zBvOYzOgdREkTRv-Qh7zYLnVFdPqULUmqU6QcBiZAxKbWIgluEV3XwKEJB9kSAT4rlDqQ0UvK9fY9ALT16VDzBM6eecfNYZFYago0Zpd7ulWTzhOL9FnO8/s1600/selenag.jpg" /></a></div><br />
There is so much to love about <b>Selena Gomez</b>'s new song, Bad Liar: The way the lyrics trip over themselves like a lovestruck teenager; the brazen lift of Talking Heads' <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwj37IiV8PjTAhWC0RoKHQf-DwIQyCkIKjAA&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DO52jAYa4Pm8&usg=AFQjCNF_MiciScHPCLEWInnm7V11WLE7Eg&sig2=drCuNcrIq-GliQfatnpjzg">Psycho Killer</a>; the borderline ridiculousness of the lyric: "<i>like the battle of Troy, there's nothing subtle here.</i>"<br />
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Oh, and the post-chorus hook "<i>all my feelings on fire, guess I'm a bad liar,</i>" is an early contender for pop moment of 2017. <br />
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Selena has never been a big belter in the vocal department but, like Janet Jackson before her, she's turned that into an asset. This subtle, sultry groove has an whispered intimacy that, say, Adele could never hope to achieve. <br />
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It's great to have her back.<br />
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<center><iframe width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/YVtzQms7lps" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></center>mrdiscopophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18121597046093715380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-952067365270329652.post-45584704278295395972017-01-03T03:40:00.001-08:002020-12-29T03:41:25.101-08:00Top 10 albums of 2016<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgN68RCJctYVOwUBXacJf1JPgYYmCGJVJdBgua4kU7ne6_lQQ4dbUcxFZ7zlDgW144Qg-T55vTYab8DB0FiHO4zdqTrpdFbJWFV8-Tp1C-VSg-l2OvJdZizkozdewzjEucYyRw91zPF5hI/s1600/top10.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgN68RCJctYVOwUBXacJf1JPgYYmCGJVJdBgua4kU7ne6_lQQ4dbUcxFZ7zlDgW144Qg-T55vTYab8DB0FiHO4zdqTrpdFbJWFV8-Tp1C-VSg-l2OvJdZizkozdewzjEucYyRw91zPF5hI/s1600/top10.jpg" /></a></div>Better late than never, here are my top 10 albums of the year just passed. As always, the rankings are based on my iTunes play counts - so these are the records I actually listened to, not the ones I appreciated on an intellectual level (nb: I don't have an intellectual level). <br />
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So, without further ado...<br />
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<blockquote><center><b>10) Radiohead - A Moon Shaped Pool</b></center><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuyF-MeZsRc97LVKgka4ADBWMgV20olREsDQYVRl14lkio84mCScTZu2WGF_ee5h_RzlYCEB_IMd4e4EEj9oHtp_zjvHXr3t792xgMwJg5Bohza0Xkyw5ma59C9pRdhi1CNEBTaRFJFaE/s1600/Radiohead.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuyF-MeZsRc97LVKgka4ADBWMgV20olREsDQYVRl14lkio84mCScTZu2WGF_ee5h_RzlYCEB_IMd4e4EEj9oHtp_zjvHXr3t792xgMwJg5Bohza0Xkyw5ma59C9pRdhi1CNEBTaRFJFaE/s320/Radiohead.jpg" width="320" height="320" /></a></div>Depending on your point of view, Radiohead either rediscovered the joy of melody on this, their ninth album, or simply released half a dozen forgotten songs from "when they were good". Who cares, though, when the results were this magical? Boosted by Jonny Greenwood's cinematic string arrangements, the album feels epic and intimate at the same time, from the low flying panic attack of Burn The Witch to the grieving melancholy of True Love Waits - a track written as a love letter almost 20 years ago, only to be released as Thom Yorke's relationship fell apart. <br />
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<center><b>9) Tove Lo - Lady Wood</b></center><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi643jbEie-68-t_uoNfcNPYVbRx4kHC9bPIpkkUwaEZmcC7pFoOGMEUKIYlUFb-jrDkpDQIHny4nT9hMr3K9lJ6ALR_0wbHya6T8a091NHpVyf-emELIBLuVSdHp0-S2XDRJz4qSh1H8E/s1600/Tove-Lo-Lady-Wood-2016-2480x2480.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi643jbEie-68-t_uoNfcNPYVbRx4kHC9bPIpkkUwaEZmcC7pFoOGMEUKIYlUFb-jrDkpDQIHny4nT9hMr3K9lJ6ALR_0wbHya6T8a091NHpVyf-emELIBLuVSdHp0-S2XDRJz4qSh1H8E/s320/Tove-Lo-Lady-Wood-2016-2480x2480.jpg" width="320" height="320" /></a></div>Tove Lo is the pop equivalent of Just 17's sex column. "Look at this smut," she says, patting herself firmly on the back. "Isn't it <i>outrageous</i>?" <br />
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That attitude is writ large throughout Lady Wood, from the title (fun fact: it's a euphemism for a clitoral erection) to the vagina in the logo. Meanwhile, Tove effs and jeffs her way through the album like a teenager trying to shock her parents, but her heart is in the right place. The confessional tales of lust, loss and desperation are relatable and cathartic - and she anchors everything in a dark, minimalist house production. <br />
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She may call herself a True Disaster, but this is a blemished pop gem.<br />
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<center><b>8) Clare Maguire - Stranger Things Have Happened</b></center><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhchVLf8KaLMa4yUEnjP4GG8eCzhH9IThw9e1wF0S1rcm0IwQuWm19y-mMEPsXxJkDhIzPkdWREIw_pi7i8outBkLXG1nZCp8QSKS4lBzEjQm05mxGIVzKKCjBFPm7a40hy3PZ9urvE9ak/s1600/Clare-Maguire-Stranger-Things-Have-Happened-2016-2480x2480.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhchVLf8KaLMa4yUEnjP4GG8eCzhH9IThw9e1wF0S1rcm0IwQuWm19y-mMEPsXxJkDhIzPkdWREIw_pi7i8outBkLXG1nZCp8QSKS4lBzEjQm05mxGIVzKKCjBFPm7a40hy3PZ9urvE9ak/s320/Clare-Maguire-Stranger-Things-Have-Happened-2016-2480x2480.jpg" width="320" height="320" /></a></div>Clare Maguire has been through the wringer and no mistake. Dropped by her label, she was drinking litres of vodka every day until a doctor gave her two weeks to live. Miraculously (and with a lot of hard work) she turned her life around and produced this spell-binding album of classic, piano-led pop. <br />
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She's at her best when she peers into the abyss - Channelling Nina Simone on the autobiographical opening track, Faded; and delivering the best lonely hearts advert of all time on Whenever You Want It: "I just wanna have someone who laughs at my shit jokes."<br />
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Don't we all, Clare? Don't we all?<br />
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<center><b>7) Michael Kiwanuka - Love and Hate</b></center><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6-43ANFOH8hmC-0LAEj6B8NvPfZ4D3HzufNuhbeXrtePtDGaLl2xJFeZceIaqk6DMPfW2kTKUzDiG8grmHtUaKrjw8ikQwY56gI6IsiKaBp5b0R36mNjP5lhOTfHMO3Gc6Z19TkrEWWE/s1600/love+and+hate.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6-43ANFOH8hmC-0LAEj6B8NvPfZ4D3HzufNuhbeXrtePtDGaLl2xJFeZceIaqk6DMPfW2kTKUzDiG8grmHtUaKrjw8ikQwY56gI6IsiKaBp5b0R36mNjP5lhOTfHMO3Gc6Z19TkrEWWE/s320/love+and+hate.jpg" width="320" height="320" /></a></div>Resolutely old-school, Michael Kiwanuka's second album riffs on Marvin, Isaac and Curtis but never descends into pastiche. It finds him world-weary and melancholy, after a crisis of confidence almost persuaded him to abandon music altogether. "But when you have all or nothing to lose, you just become fearless," he told <a href="http://nbhap.com/people/interview-michael-kiwanuka-on-the-long-wait-for-his-new-album/">Nothing But Hope And Passion</a>. <br />
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The result is breath-taking: A psych-soul opus backed by opulent strings and a full choir. The opening track unfolds over 10 minutes, while the bluesy Black Man In A White starts like a plantation song before picking up a funky shuffle that never quite settles into a groove - a musical metaphor for Kiwanuka's sense of unease. It took a lot of people by surprise, in the best possible way.<br />
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<center><b>6) Christine & The Queens - Chaleur Humaine</b></center><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0TtjSo4enTEJF3Lpg-81AJkCGO8Rg5RFYtZRsIK3yeovL2AagHO1SKcj6XHBVRgp5WAM6gco1K0Rpzbs98xkVq1DsE3BFhjJ8htwwi5teRZXSqyoYSKH0ArfZox1QmrLAdAPSiFwx1EE/s1600/Christine_and_the_Queens_-_Chaleur_Humaine_600_600.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0TtjSo4enTEJF3Lpg-81AJkCGO8Rg5RFYtZRsIK3yeovL2AagHO1SKcj6XHBVRgp5WAM6gco1K0Rpzbs98xkVq1DsE3BFhjJ8htwwi5teRZXSqyoYSKH0ArfZox1QmrLAdAPSiFwx1EE/s320/Christine_and_the_Queens_-_Chaleur_Humaine_600_600.jpg" width="320" height="320" /></a></div>I came to this far too late but that was my own stupid fault. Chaleur Humaine is classy, delicate synthpop that embraces mystery and androgyny like nothing else on this list. Lots of mainstream artists get labelled "outsider pop" but Héloïse Letissier is the real deal. <br />
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Of course, I wasn't the only person to overlook it: In her native France, Héloïse released the album in 2014, winning a cupboard full of awards and receiving endorsements from Madonna and Elton John. That it took her to re-record some of the lyrics in English merely illustrates, in the year of Brexit, how closeted and unadventurous the UK can be, even in the resolutely liberal world of pop. <br />
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<center><b>5) Nao - For All We Know</b></center><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhm2bKdzImKBfHHA5KyvWjhryae1NY3ihyphenhyphenbkMS6D7rtHIAntOY8_cCRvoqwyaRkTIyjCu8iwNTEpAezt-UrRaI3HJXmbQiQIfxkF6wD7H2nTkscjQo_vrPov29Eszutf7natP8wgBljqcU/s1600/nao.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhm2bKdzImKBfHHA5KyvWjhryae1NY3ihyphenhyphenbkMS6D7rtHIAntOY8_cCRvoqwyaRkTIyjCu8iwNTEpAezt-UrRaI3HJXmbQiQIfxkF6wD7H2nTkscjQo_vrPov29Eszutf7natP8wgBljqcU/s320/nao.jpg" width="320" height="320" /></a></div>In a year we lost Prince, Nao made the best Prince album this side of Musicology. For All We Know is a lurching, off-kilter, pop-funk extravaganza, where the South Londoner autopsies love (requited and otherwise) in her gorgeous, high-pitched voice. A thoroughly impressive debut.<br />
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<center><b>4) Shura - Nothing's Real</b></center><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbsK2p4DQnkZMeFKrPzkdRil0yexzdV3IFkD2SB7IBNjdt80M5ai-YUCRxTEOXf5yIUhQ8pddr0dWEnhjBzohngf9pmTZtWWfe5EKhAeO4hhFc-729pS9A60-fYaJUlhS-eQuY7bAJkk4/s1600/Shura-Nothings-Real-640x640.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbsK2p4DQnkZMeFKrPzkdRil0yexzdV3IFkD2SB7IBNjdt80M5ai-YUCRxTEOXf5yIUhQ8pddr0dWEnhjBzohngf9pmTZtWWfe5EKhAeO4hhFc-729pS9A60-fYaJUlhS-eQuY7bAJkk4/s320/Shura-Nothings-Real-640x640.jpg" width="320" height="320" /></a></div>Imagine if Madonna ever experienced doubt or insecurity. That's Shura's debut album. Named in honour of a panic attack that altered her perception of reality, it follows an introverted wallflower as she navigates her way through crushes, infatuations and break-ups ("thought we'd get married and have kids and stuff," she sings of one particularly devastating break-up).<br />
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Where she doesn't lack confidence, though, is in the music. What's It Gonna Be, all staccato guitars and shimmering synths, it sounds like the theme to a 1980s teen film without succumbing to pastiche. Even better is the extended, bravura coda of White Light - the disco equivalent of 2001: A Space Odyssey's Star Gate sequence. <br />
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<center><b>3) Regina Spektor - Remember Us To Life</b></center><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgj3CZoI89i0Jgaj8IwZDiDGlUmSGI3IwiEYUIJyq0rY12QjfgpYXPEKOkdjFfAtGTYK7WKM0kuWKNxdwtj98SUjz4vipOHSJ5frEsnEo926pZGDR2RGM3fCOaU8IXzaaoJ1xRTxkFvotY/s1600/Regina_Spektor_-_Remember_Us_to_Life_600_600.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgj3CZoI89i0Jgaj8IwZDiDGlUmSGI3IwiEYUIJyq0rY12QjfgpYXPEKOkdjFfAtGTYK7WKM0kuWKNxdwtj98SUjz4vipOHSJ5frEsnEo926pZGDR2RGM3fCOaU8IXzaaoJ1xRTxkFvotY/s320/Regina_Spektor_-_Remember_Us_to_Life_600_600.jpg" width="320" height="320" /></a></div>Back after a baby-having hiatus, Regina Spektor is on fine form. Her character studies and lyrical insights are sharper than ever ("All the lies on your resumé have become the truth by now," she sings on Older and Taller), while the sombre tone smooths out her quirkier tics. Not coincidentally, this is the first time she's written a record from scratch).<br />
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The stand-outs are many: The Grand Hotel is a baroque ballad that reimagines Wes Anderson's <i>Grand Budapest</i> as a portal to hell; while The Trapper and The Furrier is a scathing polemic about the greed of bankers and pharmaceutical companies that starts a capella and ends with an unrestrained scream. Best of all is Sellers of Flowers - a deep blue ink blot, lamenting the fragility of memory. <br />
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An absolute treat. <br />
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<center><b>2) Solange - A Seat At The Table</b></center><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimAmNLihu1vFEaPbpHFRFgGUbSCo2gaaTMCh1U6w8N9wTmiHx5AGPdkndlMTDLfp7nGkdx77DS8aYKTjbrysi8HTg63Ccab9nbf2pTJ4h9tPmAe2ikIP5eUpv7yueedzC5Y3SG3smWAks/s1600/Solange_Cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimAmNLihu1vFEaPbpHFRFgGUbSCo2gaaTMCh1U6w8N9wTmiHx5AGPdkndlMTDLfp7nGkdx77DS8aYKTjbrysi8HTg63Ccab9nbf2pTJ4h9tPmAe2ikIP5eUpv7yueedzC5Y3SG3smWAks/s320/Solange_Cover.jpg" width="320" height="320" /></a></div>On which Beyonce's little sister comes into her own. Recorded in New Iberia, Louisiana, where her grandparents were fire-bombed out of their house fifty years ago, it is informed by the dehumanising acts, large and small, black people face on a daily basis. That doesn't mean it's an angry album, although anger certainly rears it's head. Rather, Solange presents a poised, nuanced portrait of the pains and joys of black womanhood.<br />
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Musically, she's found her footing, too. Gone is the lightweight R&B of her debut album, in favour of deep, dreamy R&B grooves. You'll recognise the spirits of Minnie Riperton, Marvin Gaye, Aaliyah, Janet Jackson, Herbie Hancock and Isaac Hayes dropping by to pay their respects - but this is Solange's album, through and through.<br />
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<center><b>1) Beyoncé - Lemonade</b></center><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1X8wtFvvHj_aLbXclR-QmAp2LDOP9nPvKrrMmkU_nRtCXs2-5kmKec1D2EopxEeBCQIqHVfbrYkpn53n5qfmkMtzFXoeo2KiqWGqwK0Uezu4QZ_R346c3qqzLmUpizglPckXv_HSSjtk/s1600/beyonce-lemonade-cd-dvd.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1X8wtFvvHj_aLbXclR-QmAp2LDOP9nPvKrrMmkU_nRtCXs2-5kmKec1D2EopxEeBCQIqHVfbrYkpn53n5qfmkMtzFXoeo2KiqWGqwK0Uezu4QZ_R346c3qqzLmUpizglPckXv_HSSjtk/s320/beyonce-lemonade-cd-dvd.jpg" width="320" height="320" /></a></div>Remember when everyone thought Lemonade was a record about Jay-Z cheating on Beyoncé? Turns out "Becky with the good hair" is the biggest Trojan horse since, well, that horse in Troy. <br />
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Beyoncé's tale of betrayal masked a much bigger discourse on male privilege, white privilege, police violence, female empowerment, rejection, forgiveness, anger, scorn, pain, redemption... The list goes on. <br />
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The signs were there when she turned up at the Super Bowl dressed as a Black Panther and made a video in which she sat on top of a police car as it sank into post-Katrina floodwaters. Those are pretty bold statements, especially for an artist of Beyoncé's stature. Can you imagine Elvis or Michael Jackson putting their necks on the line so boldly. No, you cannot.<br />
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But here's the thing - the message goes nowhere without fantastic tunes. Luckily, Beyoncé delivered them by the truckful. Hold Up, Sorry, All Night, Freedom, Formation - Beyoncé could have sung, "<i>Yes my name is Iggle Piggle</i>" over those tracks and they'd still be classics. (Note to Beyoncé: Please release this record in 2017). <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2N51dIHkKDCp4V61ThtfgKAkTysTqyyurh2GpDGmSOxRzqrkKOXmlyooggvfGEZfTPbQvUJoGHvCYQ574ykisaoshEECb1LRArUbIDLcbFClhVb9x8xShYgZf5a9ah0emHfpwUcp1jjg/s1600/2016-04-28-1461854769-4484092-beyonce600x600.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2N51dIHkKDCp4V61ThtfgKAkTysTqyyurh2GpDGmSOxRzqrkKOXmlyooggvfGEZfTPbQvUJoGHvCYQ574ykisaoshEECb1LRArUbIDLcbFClhVb9x8xShYgZf5a9ah0emHfpwUcp1jjg/s320/2016-04-28-1461854769-4484092-beyonce600x600.jpg" width="320" height="320" /></a></div><br />
</blockquote><br />
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So there you go... I'm gutted there wasn't space for Chance The Rapper or Childish Gambino, both of whom signposted a way out of rap's current cul-de-sac, or for A Tribe Called Quest's comeback, which did the same thing by sounding exactly like a Tribe Called Quest album from 20 years ago. I thought Ariana Grande might get a look-in, but the album squandered it's promise with a bunch of cookie cutter dance bops that had the filthy hands of major label A&R all over them. <br />
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Bat For Lashes' excellent The Bride (about a bride whose fiancé is killed on the way to their wedding) would have had a place if it wasn't so depressing to listen to, in a good way. And Frank Ocean's Blonde loses out for that godawful Facebook interlude. What a crock.<br />
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Anyway, let's not end on a sour note. Here's a playlist of the best tracks from those Top 10 albums. If you find something you like, why not buy it and single-handedly save the music industry?<br />
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<center><iframe width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/videoseries?list=PLMYdFc8mV-721Ky4IFL6O-kjYlKTdjvsp" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></center>mrdiscopophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18121597046093715380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-952067365270329652.post-55074321139118439392016-12-30T03:37:00.001-08:002020-12-29T03:39:59.637-08:00Top 10 singles of 2016<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixaCT9MEjg30OluCjwzHCn1hQRCaet4_cFUihv3ZLuPLvW-F5wDBPcXiqJKxsNMNCf6IFjJFqdy-F756BL4m5LipZ1Vufe9JlLLr-SGqgPlVHNGY77_zHqYWwsPHLoCT4kO_zzk0JXh6I/s1600/Top+10+montage+2016.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-6oyO_a2X0exLO4gN1LkBnon5dMbxZRdzmgiISZPJXBjBlif1MNBG4QAQAehpclc8EnwqVPdSURzuciVlPkfNfhv6RsmnM9RT56j_MUFMTPav5Mb2nhfMfwjyfNcFD3YSb72WcvmI5-c/s1600/Top+10+montage+2016_500.jpg" /></a></div>Hello strangers!<br />
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I'm emerging from blog hibernation to post my annual Top 10 list. Hopefully this will prompt a bit more posting in the new year... Fingers crossed.<br />
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As usual, my Top 10 is compiled using the play counts in my iTunes library, keeping me honest about the songs I actually listened to, rather than the ones that sound cool. So here they are, in reverse order...<br />
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<blockquote><b>10) Muna - I Know A Place</b><br />
Brand new girlband Muna put on one of the best shows I saw this year, deep underground in London's Notting Hill - and this was the highlight: A great big exuberant hug for the LGBTQ community (lead singer Katie Gavin wrote a <a href="http://time.com/4588327/muna-lgbtq-song-premiere-i-know-a-place/">moving essay about the lyrics in Time Magazine</a>, which is well worth a read).<br />
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Played live, it's one of those coming together moments, where the whole club - from the cloakroom to the drum riser - jumps up and down in unison. The recorded version loses some of that energy, but emerges as a terrific singalong, nonetheless.<br />
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<b>9) Zara Larsson - Lush Life</b><br />
When I first heard Lush Life, I thought it was Rihanna. But apparently she only does life-affirming pop songs for Calvin Harris these days, leaving an open goal of Zara Larsson to score one of the year's biggest breakthrough hits. Looking forward to the album next year...<br />
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<b>8) Shura - What's It Gonna Be?</b><br />
This would have made it into the Top 10 for the John Hughes-inspired video alone. But luckily What's It Going To Be is also a perfect happysad pop banger in its own right, so everybody wins. <br />
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<b>7) Ariana Grande - Into You</b><br />
I wished Ariana Grande's Dangerous Woman album had been a little bit more... well, dangerous. Imagine if she'd fully committed to the promise of the title track, recording a dozen dusky showtunes, draped over a piano like Michelle Pfieffer in The Fabulous Baker Brothers. It could have been a classic. But then we'd never have gotten this - a sexy, synthy prelude to an historic romp under the sheets. <br />
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For once, old cat ears sounded like she just might start purring.<br />
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<b>6) Selena Gomez - Hands To Myself</b><br />
"<i>I mean I could, but why would I want to</i>." It's the sort of line Lauren Bacall would have said to Humphrey Bogart in the 1940s, but in a pop song. Amazing.<br />
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<b>5) Drake ft Kyla and WizKid - One Dance</b><br />
Confession time: I can't stand Drake. His drowsy, monotonous voice is my own personal chloroform. And yet... and yet... One Dance is just so deliciously moreish. <br />
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Maybe it's <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0c8qfMbMac">Kyla's coy, come-hither hook</a>; maybe it's that outer space piano; or maybe it's the sinewy, arabesque guitar line. But it gets me every time. <br />
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<b>4) Grimes - Kill v Maim</b><br />
According to Grimes, "Kill v Maim is written from the perspective of Al Pacino in The Godfather Pt II. Except he’s a vampire who can switch gender and travel through space."<br />
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Amazingly, it comes close to matching that description; while the visuals look like a Manga cartoon and a sweet shop threw up over Michael Jackson's Bad video. A signpost for the future of pop. In 2187.<br />
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<center><iframe width="480" height="270" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/c2EJMd7ZN7w" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></center><br />
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<b>3) Christine & The Queens - Tilted</b><br />
A dance track about being so awkward, your feet won't do what you tell them. A work of genius in both the English and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rs40yxHjTxQ">original French</a> versions. <br />
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<b>2) Justin Timberlake - Can't Stop The Feeling</b><br />
Total fluff. A flimsy song for a flimsy film. But put Justin Timberlake in the same room as Max Martin and you're guaranteed some pop magic. Listen to the playful way JT elongates the word "<i>aaaaaaand</i>" in the chorus; Or the casual way they throw in a gargantuan sing-along hook in the last 20 seconds, forcing you to rewind and start again, just to get more of that exquisite sugar rush. <br />
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<b>1) Solange - Cranes In The Sky</b><br />
My favourite single of 2016 was, in fact, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BLKe1cnhESe/?taken-by=saintrecords">written in a hotel room in 2008</a>. An essay on depression and escapism, it was kept in a drawer for eight years, until Solange dusted it off and used it as a template for A Seat At The Table. Like the rest of the album, it's an elegant, dignified response to harrowing experiences, and a truly exceptional song. <br />
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I couldn't resist it - and nor could my kids (which might explain the higher-than-expected placing in this countdown, to be fair).<br />
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<center><iframe width="480" height="270" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/S0qrinhNnOM" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></center></blockquote><br />
It was a good year for singles. So, if you're interested, the next 10 would have been:<br />
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<blockquote>11) Beyoncé - <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PeonBmeFR8o">Hold Up</a><br />
12) Radiohead - <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yI2oS2hoL0k">Burn The Witch</a><br />
13) Ariana Grande - <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WbCfHutDSE">Dangerous Woman</a><br />
14) The Chainsmokers ft Halsey - <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zGcUoRlhmw">Closer</a><br />
15) Rag N Bone Man - <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3wKzyIN1yk">Human</a><br />
16) Lady Gaga - <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=en2D_5TzXCA">Million Reasons</a><br />
17) The Weeknd ft Daft Punk - <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34Na4j8AVgA">Starboy</a><br />
18) All Saints - <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6c4JyUmVSc">One Strike</a><br />
19) Lissie - <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQevK_bUV9g">Don't You Give Up On Me</a><br />
20) Glass Animals - <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yd9p4n5hLEg">Life Itself</a></blockquote>mrdiscopophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18121597046093715380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-952067365270329652.post-35821968547501996112014-05-12T03:44:00.001-07:002020-12-29T03:44:49.159-08:00Is Pharrell Williams incapable of writing intros?As well as being the owner of a magnificent hat, Pharrell Williams is a brilliant and prolific songwriter. In fact, he's one of the most consistent producers/composers in the business, racking up hits for everyone from Beyonce to Britney to Justin to Jay-Z and, more recently, himself.<br />
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But here's the thing: He's <i>rubbish</i> at writing intros. Take a listen to his new album, GIRL, and seven of the 10 tracks start exactly the same way. He takes the first beat of the first bar, loops it four times, then goes straight into the song. <br />
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It's not a bad technique - for one thing, you get to the melody quicker, and that is a sure-fire way of making your song memorable and radio friendly - but when it's used to such a ridiculous extent, it starts to lose its effect.<br />
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Looking back through Pharrell's production catalogue, both by himself and with the Neptunes, it turns out he's been employing the trick since his first hit in 1993 - SWV's Right Here. Here's a short mix that proves it.<br />
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<center><iframe width="90%" height="450" scrolling="no" frameborder="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/148975757&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&visual=true"></iframe></center><br />
The 13 songs in the mix are:<br />
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<blockquote>1) SWV - Right Here<br />
2) Jay-Z - Frontin'<br />
3) Kelis - Milkshake<br />
4) Snoop Dogg - Drop It Like Its Hot<br />
5) Robin Thicke - Blurred Lines<br />
6) Shakira - Why Wait<br />
7) Frank Ocean - Sweet Life (this one is especially lazy)<br />
8) Pharrell Williams - Brand New<br />
9) Paloma Faith - Can't Rely On You<br />
10) Pharrell Williams - Happy<br />
11) Pharrell Williams - Hunter<br />
12) Jay-Z - I Wish<br />
13) Pharrell Williams - Gust Of Wind</blockquote><br />
And once you notice, it's impossible to un-hear it, so I apologise in advance for ruining all future enjoyment of Pharrell's music. mrdiscopophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18121597046093715380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-952067365270329652.post-49145065023993074732011-12-15T03:47:00.003-08:002020-12-29T03:49:18.274-08:00A picture of Lana Del Rey and some tigers<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwvO-maCtkprJ5XRyooAJ0TMzqDmZ7foT4qY2LfwSQ0jt-fyxp65KNQ1WhanAOmHlZYqGbk41qbCq0XH-n4wVaseJdVj74XUyuEVcxFR5Wtm-7dy2YEdnzCOBdnGSHcvxoubIGIpkq/s1600/lion_del_rey.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="346" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwvO-maCtkprJ5XRyooAJ0TMzqDmZ7foT4qY2LfwSQ0jt-fyxp65KNQ1WhanAOmHlZYqGbk41qbCq0XH-n4wVaseJdVj74XUyuEVcxFR5Wtm-7dy2YEdnzCOBdnGSHcvxoubIGIpkq/w640-h346/lion_del_rey.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>The video for <b>Lana Del Rey</b>'s new-but-not-as-good-as-Video-Games single <b>Born To Die</b> popped up on YouTube last night. <br />
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Compared to the patchwork montage of her previous videos, it's incredibly lavish. She's surrounded by tigers in a gothic chapel, kissing some guy who can't afford a shirt, and generally playing up the whole "femme fatale" thing. <br />
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There are certain realmusicfans<sup><font size="1">TM</font></sup> who have turned against Lana Del Rey after discovering that she'd ditched her first album, worked with new producers and bought some funny lips like Chelsee Healey off Strictly Come Dancing. <br />
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These same people will also tell you that David Bowie is a godlike genius because he changed his name, experimented with a number of voguish musical styles, and spent two years pretending to be an alien. So what do they know?<br />
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If you can bear to listen to this "fake", "manufactured" chanteuse after all that opprobrium, here is the video for the song that she has sung.<br />
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<center><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/E_jWcIDqXq0" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe></center>mrdiscopophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18121597046093715380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-952067365270329652.post-73039555789259008402008-05-24T03:52:00.002-07:002020-12-29T03:56:57.251-08:00Gig review: Girls Aloud, Birmingham NIA<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGPS_S7r6m_oFJX_XBnIzKbV1PLeVqllrEUuLN8KClkJTVaOoW39AhkxnwtbTo1Xy2B3SrAv7Vha76rIdD8SN94p0IhHt54SambLbFSSxRSbR54q1XedTZKFrAoW4jHEuWT_hvdAdtiWeH/s640/640px-Girls_Aloud_-_The_Promise_%2528Out_of_Control_Tour%2529.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGPS_S7r6m_oFJX_XBnIzKbV1PLeVqllrEUuLN8KClkJTVaOoW39AhkxnwtbTo1Xy2B3SrAv7Vha76rIdD8SN94p0IhHt54SambLbFSSxRSbR54q1XedTZKFrAoW4jHEuWT_hvdAdtiWeH/w640-h480/640px-Girls_Aloud_-_The_Promise_%2528Out_of_Control_Tour%2529.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/21128947@N00/3564476746"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Photo by Carlbob on Flickr</span></a></td></tr></tbody></table><br />
<br /><br /><div>The Tangled Up tour is Girls Aloud's fourth jaunt round the UK in as many years, and it's by far their most professional show to date.<br /><br />It's got pyrotechnics, moving walkways, costume changes, wire tricks and five (five!) video screens. But a large part of the girls' success has been down to their scrappy charm, so could all this polish smooth out their charmingly rough edges?<br /><br />The answer is yes. And no.<br /><br />The fivesome rose to the challenge of the show with ease - hitting all their marks and cramming personality into the increasingly complex routines. But their backing band was trying too hard. All of the intricate detail of Xenomania's songs was scrubbed out in a squall of noise, including several unnecessary guitar solos. Worse still, the fussy arrangements frequently drowned out the melodies. Musically, it was an utter mess. <br /><br />By now, however, Girls Aloud are old pros - and occasionally managed to rise above the bombast to get the show moving. Close To Love was an early highlight, the saucy dance routine clearly a tour favourite. A cover of Salt & Pepa's Push It was a riot, too, with Kimberly revealing herself as a surprisingly talented MC.<br /><br />Walk This Way, conversely, was spoilt by deliberate feedback, while Wake Me Up suddenly developed a funk guitar line completely at odds with its riff-tastic origins.<br /><br />One thing that proved to be a constant throughout the evening was the group's boundless energy. Nadine was clearly revelling in being in front of a crowd, laying rest to the persistent rumours that she's abandoning her bandmates for LA. Sarah bounded around the stage like a dog released from the trap, and Cheryl has become a demon of dance, throwing herself about like a woman possessed by Mexican jumping beans. She looks frighteningly thin, though - her once magnificent bum a shadow of its former self.<br /><br />A ballad section performed, as Nadine put it in her beautiful Irish brogue, "in the muddle of the crowd" was another highlight. Their version of Robyn's With Every Heartbeat was heartfelt, if oversung, and Whole Lotta History was magnificently rousing.<br /><br />All in all, then, an uneven concert that will have pleased the band's less critical fans, but which would have been improved by giving the girls more freedoms, while reigning in those allowed to their band.<br /><br /><font size="1"><br /><strong>Setlist</strong><br />Sexy! No No No...<br />Girl Overboard<br />Sound of the Underground<br />Close to Love<br />Can't Speak French<br />Love Machine<br />Black Jacks<br />Biology<br />Whole Lotta History<br />With Every Heartbeat<br />I'll Stand By You<br />Fling<br />Push It<br />Wake Me Up<br />Walk This Way<br />Control of the Knife/Trick Me <br />Call The Shots<br />Jump<br /><br />-encore-<br />Something Kinda Ooooh<br /><br /><em>(Yes, that's right - no sign of No Good Advice. For shame)</em><br /></font><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><br />mrdiscopophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18121597046093715380noreply@blogger.com0