FEATURE: Tricks, Tracks and Takes: Kate Bush’s Mastery and Curiosity in the Studio

FEATURE:

 

 

Tricks, Tracks and Takes

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1979/PHOTO CREDIT: Brian Aris

Kate Bush’s Mastery and Curiosity in the Studio

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THERE was a time in Kate Bush’s career…

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush at Abbey Road Studio 2 in 1982/PHOTO CREDIT: Steve Rapport

where she had the opportunity to take more control in the studio. I might talk about it more when I cover Never for Ever in more detail. That album is forty-four next month. It is worth highlighting the excellence of the album, in addition to how underrated it is. I think that Abbey Road was a bit of a turning point. Not that the studios for The Kick Inside and Lionheart were underwhelming. Bush, after Lionheart, definitely wanted to work alone more. Not have to follow another producer. Rather than being someone whose songs were directed by another person, Bush knew that the way to get what she wanted from her songs was to take the reins. She would solo produce from The Dreaming onwards, yet the experience of working on Never for Ever was pleasurable. I have written about it before. How there were laughs in the studio and the band and crew would hang out together and socialise. There was quite a heavy workload, though Bush as producer wanted people to be relaxed and together. By all accounts, it seems like it was a really warm and supportive environment. It also seems like Abbey Road was a benchmark or sacred ground. In terms of Bush as the studio perfectionist. If not a perfectionist, it was clear that she could not stay with a single take or two. Babooshka was one of the songs that was honed and performed over and over in Abbey Road. It was a studio that seems to connect Bush to some of the artists who played there. Maybe some of The Beatles’ studio inventiveness and curiosity. I always think of Steely Dan when I think of Bush in the studio. A fan of theirs, this was about the time she would have been hearing albums like Aja (1977). She named Gaucho (1980) as a favourite of hers in an interview around the time of Never for Ever’s release – or shortly after at least.

Steely Dan were famous for casting. Going through different players to get the right sound. If Bush was not quite as intense and perfectionist as Walter Becker and Donald Fagen, she did at least know that an expensive and illustrative studio was worthy of passion and focus. She knew that, as a producer with Jon Kelly, this was a moment to prove herself. There would have been reservations from EMI about Bush working with an inexperienced producer. Maybe not ready to step up and take command. The fact Never for Ever went to number one in the U.K. and set a record in doing so – it is the first studio album (not a greatest hits compilation) by any solo female artist to reach number one in the U.K. – was proof that Bush’s brilliance, production excellence and reputation was at a high. I do think critics that reacted rather mixed towards the album were slow to realise Bush was adapting and not wanting to repeat herself. I love the image of Kate Bush and Jon Kelly sitting in the control room listening to the band play. Hearing various players and calling them in. Asking if they would not mind sitting things out. Even Bush’s boyfriend, Del Palmer, was yanked off a sessions. It was during Babooshka when we saw Kate Bush’s real reserve and strength. Someone who, as a producer, could not be sentimental and biased, Palmer was replaced. He was not happy to say the least! It was proof that Bush was looking for something beyond what we heard on her first two albums. Never for Ever might be an album where she was still in flux and transition. Going from her previous life and how things used to work to what she really wanted to achieve. The Dreaming might have been an extreme example of independence and searching for the very best take and sound. This mix between budding experimentalism and a beautiful simplicity.

I would love if there were photos of Bush in the studio during this time! Rather than focus on Never for Ever too much – as I have a couple of anniversary features -, I am using it as a starting place. Technology was a big motivation when it came to multiple takes. The Fairlight CMI came in late during Never for Ever and was more of a fixture for the next two albums. It does seem like Kate Bush was striving for a quality and peak that could never be realised. Instead, because this was her music and she was not allowed too much production input in 1978, this was a way of righting that wrong. Players noted how Kate Bush was great at instructions and directions. Clear and helpful, she would sit in the control room – with Jon Kelly on Never for Ever – and chat about tracks with the musicians. Even if there was this sense of her taking risks and not having a definite plan on some tracks, Bush was keen to explore and experiment. Abbey Road Studio 2 did see some carnage and breakage when Bush was using objects and the environment to create new sounds and scenes. Look at 1977 and 1978 when she was recording her first two studio albums. Maybe not able to explain her vision to musicians who were new compatriots, it perhaps was not as seamless and smooth. A bit of translation breakdown. The communication thereafter was a lot more seamless and strong. It was clear technology was a real mind-opening revelation. Not only exciting as a producer, Bush as an artist could write in a more ambitious, visual and detailed way. Knowing that she would be able to create whatever sound she wanted. You can see how her music expanded and added in new layers from 1980 onwards. I love the fact she was a diligent and rigorous producer who was not afraid to try different musicians for parts.

It was not really until The Dreaming and Hounds of Love when Kate Bush and technology connected and coexisted calmly. A little bit new on Never for Ever, it was a learning process. Maybe explaining some of the longer sessions and multiple takes, the big difference between Never for Ever and The Dreaming was how technology was used. The latter saw Bush more used to it and pushing it for its potential. At the start, maybe a sense of learning the ropes and using the time to get something out of the Fairlight CMI rather than pushing it to its limits. As a naturally light sleeper, Bush was largely nocturnal. In terms of the sessions, they would often run into the night and early hours. Pretty tiring and exhaustive, she was someone who put her life into music. Especially true as a producer. There was socialising. Some did happen at studios like Abbey Road, though most of it would be away from the studio. Whether that was at Paddy Bush’s flat or somewhere else. You get the impression that Bush wanted to be in the studio as much as possible and that outside socialising was a distraction. Whether truly happy in the studio or not, Bush knew that is where she was best and needed to be. Where her new music and ideas came to life. If multiple takes suggest someone obsessive or not keen on fresh ideas, that was the point of her production and mastery. Each new take was something new. As such, the song became new and different each time. Imagine what her albums would sound like with other producers. It was Kate Bush’s instincts and passion that make them so enduring and original. So true to herself. She also hugely valued her musicians. Always communicating and never being ‘the boss’. Loving, maternal, professional and astonishing, this was an artist and producer who was always seeking…

THE very best take.

FEATURE: Strangers: Portishead’s Dummy and the Landscape of 1994

FEATURE:

 

 

Strangers

Portishead’s Dummy and the Landscape of 1994

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ONE of the most distinct and extraordinary…

debut albums of the 1990s turns thirty on 22nd August. In terms of what was around it, you can’t say there was anything like Portishead’s Dummy. It is hard to link Dummy to any other album from 1994. In many ways, 1994 was one of the most eclectic and weird years for music. Think about the chart songs that were around that year. Think about the best-selling and biggest singles of 1994. Wet Wet Wet, Whigfield, Doop and Mariah Carey are high in the mix. It was a big year for Pop music. Not just the more commercial variety that was in the mainstream and making the charts. In terms of what was happening away from the more commercial centre, you had Britpop growing and starting to form. Bands like Blur and Suede breaking through. Rock bands such as Oasis. Grunge and Alternative Rock were making a statement in the U.K. in addition to the U.S. Portishead’s Dummy received huge acclaim and won the 1995 Mercury Music Prize. It is often credited with popularising the Trip-Hop genre. In terms of British music, Dummy was a rarity. No real compatriots and competition like in mainstream Pop and Britpop. I think about bands like Green Day, Weezer, Soundgarden, Hole, Manic Street Preachers and Beastie Boys releasing incredible albums. You could say that there are fairly common threads or links between albums these groups released. Vastly different to most of the top forty, you also had this periphery bands and albums that could not really combine with what was happening elsewhere. In many ways, Dummy did not have a place.

Rather than it being alienated and this curious thing, it was a remarkable album that almost ignited a genre. A sound and sonic palette that few had heard or were used to, I think some were cynical and critical towards Portishead. However, there were so many glowing critical reviews. Recognising what an important and seismic debut it was. Introducing something new and exciting to British music. Much more cinematic, deep and interesting than a lot of what was seen as the ‘defining’ sound of 1994. Bands like Oasis. I guess one could say Massive Attack shared something in common with Portishead. Their album, Protection, was released a month or so after Dummy. Darker than Dummy, I feel that there is a bit of similar D.N.A. between Portishead and Massive Attack’s albums. Albums that are so individual and unusual can often be met with criticism or a lack of interest. That was not the case with Dummy. There are a couple of reviews I want to bring in before I round off. I am so pleased that Portishead’s debut album was greeted with acclaim and embrace. Critics recognising what a work of genius it is. This is how AllMusic assessed Dummy:

“Portishead's album debut is a brilliant, surprisingly natural synthesis of claustrophobic spy soundtracks, dark breakbeats inspired by frontman Geoff Barrow's love of hip-hop, and a vocalist (Beth Gibbons) in the classic confessional singer/songwriter mold. Beginning with the otherworldly theremin and martial beats of "Mysterons," Dummy hits an early high with "Sour Times," a post-modern torch song driven by a Lalo Schifrin sample. The chilling atmospheres conjured by Adrian Utley's excellent guitar work and Barrow's turntables and keyboards prove the perfect foil for Gibbons, who balances sultriness and melancholia in equal measure. Occasionally reminiscent of a torchier version of Sade, Gibbons provides a clear focus for these songs, with Barrow and company behind her laying down one of the best full-length productions ever heard in the dance world. Where previous acts like Massive Attack had attracted dance heads in the main, Portishead crossed over to an American, alternative audience, connecting with the legion of angst-ridden indie fans as well. Better than any album before it, Dummy merged the pinpoint-precise productions of the dance world with pop hallmarks like great songwriting and excellent vocal performances”.

I was eleven when Dummy came out. I definitely felt like it was a bolt from the blue. I guess I was aware of Portishead just before the debut. I knew about Massive Attack. In terms of what I was listening to, it was a combination of British Pop and Rock together with Dance and Pop from Europe. Mainly chart music and bands like Blur and Beastie Boys. Dummy was a real revelation. Some might say Dummy defined 1994 in some ways. I think that it really stands out as atypical and this real revelation. It arrived in August 1994. At this time, there was such a weird and wonderful blend of artists. Hard to imagine that we’d get anything quite like Dummy. We did have some warning. Numb arrived in June 1994. Sour Times at the start of August. Consider how Dummy won the 1995 Mercury Prize and saw off stiff competition from the likes of PJ Harvey and Tricky. You can see the accolades and positive reviews Dummy received. Even so, I do wonder whether today people see it as one of the best and most influential debut albums of the 1990s. There is a lot of talk about other bands and albums. Not as much attention on Dummy. It is an album that may not have been typical of what 1994 was about. Given the explosion of respect for it, I do think more features should be written. More podcasts recorded. I want to bring in a review from NME. Even though there is some questionable language and odd praise, the big takeaway from the NME review is how they recognise Dummy as ahead of its time. Like Björk (Debut) and Massive Attack (Blue Lines), Portishead released a debut that was very much of the future:

“POOR PORTISHEAD. The town, I man, not the slo-mo sound sculptors who have made this innocuous seaside hideaway sound so relentlessly tragic. For this is, without question, a sublime debut album. But so very, very sad.

'Dummy' unspools with melancholic majesty. From one angle, its languid slowbeat blues clearly occupy similar terrain to soulmates Massive Attack and all of Bristol hip-hop's extended family. But from another these are avant garde ambient moonscapes of a ferociously experimental nature. In other words, seriously spooky shit. But terrific shit all the same. Geoff Barrow's hugely evocative compositions earn constant comparisons with soundtrack gods Ennio Morricone and John Barry, although this is no smartarse spot-the-reference sample show. Most of these dislocating noises are played directly onto vinyl and then scratched back into the mix, creating deep and textured ambience instead of second-hand special effects.

Besides, it is Beth Gibbons' soulful sobs which really put Portishead on the emotional map. She can be Bjork or Billie Holliday, but the numb heartbreak is her recurring theme, culminating in the almost unbearable refrain "nobody loves me" from funereal current single 'Sour Times'. Both Barrow and Gibbons are products of lonely, loveless childhoods, so titles like 'Mysterons' and 'Wandering Star' as much products of other-wordly isolation knowing trash-culture obsessions - the shadowy underside of human behaviour distilled into weeping strings, spectral there vibrations and haunting silences.

Portishead's post-ambient, timelessly organ blues are probably too left-field introspective and downright Bristolian to grab short-term glory as some kind of Next Big Thing. But remember what radical departures 'Blue Lines' 'Ambient Works' and 'Debut' were for the times and make sure you hear this unmissable album. This may not be the future, but it is a future - one where Portishead is a desolate exquisitely beautiful place to visit.

9/10”.

I hope more is written about Portishead’s Dummy as it turns thirty. On 22nd August, we celebrate a truly awe-inspiring debut album from Beth Gibbons, Adrian Utley and Geoff Barrow. I still think it sounds like nothing else. If acclaimed and a commercial success (Dummy reached two in the U.K.), it is clear that 1994 was such an unpredictable and inconsistent year. I often define it with Pop music. The start of Britpop and this influence from the U.S. All sounds tremendous and popular, though very little had the same sort of atmosphere and allure as Dummy. If you were not aware of Portishead before 1994, Dummy changed that. These perfect strangers created a masterpiece. A band respected because of their work and music rather than personalities, scenes and hype. Often cited as one of the best debuts of the 1990s and greatest albums ever, the magnificent, monumental, hugely smart and accomplished Dummy…

WAS no sucker!

FEATURE: A Career I Don’t Have. A Life I Don’t Lead: The Pains of Having a Visual and Ambitious Imagination

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A Career I Don’t Have. A Life I Don’t Lead

PHOTO CREDIT: ATC Comm Photo/Pexels

The Pains of Having a Visual and Ambitious Imagination

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THIS is a bit of a move away from…

PHOTO CREDIT: picjumbo.com/Pexels

focusing on music purely and other artists. I wanted to shift it to myself but also look out at the creative industry. That will include music and film. I realise that I am lucky get to write a blog and have access to all sorts of videos and photos. It is great to be able to illustrate features with aids like that. Bring them to life. I would hate it if I did Substack or just wrote and there was no option to bring words more to life. One of the most important parts of music journalism is photography and the music itself. I recently published a feature about music photography and how important it is. How it is an artform and integral aspect of the industry. How the professionals need to be valued. It is great that music photography flourishes at this time. I do think that a lot of music photography does lack imagination and concepts. A too busy photo can be a bit too much to take. Portraits are important, though it can be limited keeping it purely on the face and expression. I will never be a music photography, though I have so many ideas for photos and concepts, I wonder where that will go. Ideas that could go to waste. Maybe not just myself in the photo, I often scour clothing websites and imagine pairing this and this. Envisaging a room with some vinyl and some cool retro stuff in. A whole composition that would be eye-catching. Maybe a shot on the streets of New York with this chaotic rush going on behind but this calm in the forefront. A look that is intriguing and complex. I have ideas like this all the time and envy music photography. I think about album covers too and visualise what I would do. I have so many different concepts and images.

It is almost like a music video, albeit it one set to already-existing music. I can imagine the rest of the film, yet it is the opening titles that really excite me. That imaginative and ambitious split-screen. How the left and right then synch and we get this satisfying conclusion. I have another film idea which is a one-take. A dance number through the streets of New York. It is a film set during the last months of Disco. Around 1979. The songs, like the other film, would be more of a mixtape. Various songs from 1979, including Disco numbers merging and building. A colourful and growing dance routine. Dazzling and bright. The central character dancing to each track before ending with Fleetwood Mac’s Tusk. Almost impossible to realise, we go through the streets and so many different locations with this incredible soundtrack. The sound builds and builds with the noises of the street and people. It then goes down and down right at the end. This idea of street sounds creating this urban symphony that sits with the soundtrack. The third and final filmed title sequence could be a music video. It starts with a close-up on a pair of eyes. There is this single take where the camera than move slowly upwards and sideways so that we uncover parts of this larger view.

Like a jigsaw being made. Revealing more and more of this unravelling and unnerving scene. Some beauty and horror alongside striking images. I am not sure of all the details, but I like this idea of panning up and wider bit by bit. The camera then comes back down and goes side to side and down so it closes back in. It is set to this one song – again, not sure what -, until we get back to a close-up of the eyes as they close. Not sure if it was a dream or they were on the ground. I guess this was more about me sort of getting things out. Airing stuff. It is a frustrating experiencing having ideas and visions that you cannot really put anywhere. I am a very visual thinker and that is one of the advantages of music journalism. However, if you extend that and have these ideas that are outside of journalism, what do you do?! It is a bit frustrating. I love imagining various photos, filmed things and even an album. I don’t think that they are worth forgetting about and being seen as rough sketches. Instead, they all have potential and roots that could grow into something bigger. It is what to do with them and how they will be realised. I am really keen for them all to…

PHOTO CREDIT: cottonbro studio/Pexels

COME to life.

FEATURE: Let It Be: Will We Get Another Documentary About the Beatles Soon?

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Let It Be

IN THIS PHOTO: The Beatles in 1969/PHOTO CREDIT: Apple Corps Ltd./Courtesy of The Beatles

Will We Get Another Documentary About the Beatles Soon?

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I guess there have been…

IN THIS PHOTO: Ringo Starr, Paul McCartney, John Lennon and George Harrison, circa 1965/PHOTO CREDIT: Bettmann

more than a fair share of documentaries about The Beatles through the years. In the past few years, we have seen more examples. The Beatles: Get Back was released in 2021. There have been audio documentaries and plenty of Beatles-related series and documentaries. In all, I think the band have been covered well in recent times. The thing is, most of the recent documentaries – say the past ten years – are of a particular time period or part of their career. I can’t remember the last time where there was a more career-spanning documentary. I think, whilst we still have Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr with us, it is a perfect time to plan ahead and consider something. Maybe one of the last Beatles documentaries with surviving members. Some may say that it is overkill. Sure, there have been plenty of Beatles activity and projects. Books and other bits. Now that the band are gaining new fans and attention after The Beatles: Get Back and its aftermath, there will be curiosity about their entire catalogue. From the start and period before the 1963 debut album, Please Please Me, right through to the final days. Maybe that late period has been more than covered, though there are large swathes without much recent representation and re-investigation. Making a stylish and fascinating documentary that takes apart albums, album covers, looks at live gigs. Speaking with various high-profile fans, long-time fans, people who worked in the studio with the band, plus podcasters and modern-day fans who are keeping their music and legacy alive. Maybe words from the world’s leading Beatles authority, Mark Lewisohn.

It would be easier getting it green-lit compared to documentaries about other artists. Paul McCartney especially would be interested and invested, as he is the world’s biggest Beatles fan. I guess it might be a hard task covering so much ground in a single documentary. What I was thinking was a multi-part documentary. Maybe something with the length of The Beatles: Get Back, though it would look through the years. Bringing in Paul McCartney photos, older interviews and new clips, together with a dive into their songs and albums. Bringing in Revolution in the Head by Ian MacDonald, together other books about the band. Mixing filming techniques. A pictorial and graphical look at the albums and key moments. Rather than it being a general overview for fans, it would be an authoritative career-spanning documentary about a band who not only changed music in the 1960s – they changed popular culture forever. Maybe each episode in terms of themes. One about the albums and songs. Another dedicated to fans and touring. Stuff would have to be left out I guess. You literally cannot cover everything! I think we are very lucky having Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr with us. Not to be too morbid, but we maybe have a decade or so at the most with these two in the world. Having their recollections and words. Revealing things they might not have discussed before. It would be amazing to get them to look back on The Beatles’ lifespan this long after they broke up. Discussing the impact of the band. Also, The Beatles became popular again in the 1990s. This renewed interest perhaps after the 1995 documentary, Anthology. It is hard to find ways of streaming this essential series. Maybe a lot was covered back then. Nearly thirty years later, there is more to cover and discuss.

It is no coincidence that so many artists emulated and incorporated The Beatles into the music not long after that series came out. Many Britpop players – such as Blur, Oasis and their contemporaries – very much inspired by The Beatles. You had countless cases of artists nodding to the band. You can look around now and wonder whether The Beatles and impacting new artists. Maybe in a less obvious and prolific way as we say in the 1990s. Perhaps the Pop scene now does not have the same sort of wave and space for this representation. I would love to see a host of new artists and bands with The Beatles at their core. People might say we have cases of that today. I cannot name too many obvious examples. Since 1995, a lot has changed. We have seen album reissues by Giles Martin (son of the late Beatles producer George Martin). Discussing about that and doing animated videos and clips of different talks and demos. So many podcasters, actors, musicians and other people who are fans and want to discuss the band. Updates about their legacy. Fans who were there at the start. Mark Lewisohn taking us inside his expansive and authoritative Beatles book, Tune In. That was published in 2013. We have been treated to a continuation of Beatles projects and things for years and decades. A year does not go by without a book, series or something else. I have been thinking about Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr. How important they are. If they have spoken extensively about The Beatles, maybe a final example of them coming together on film to talk about those great years would be more than nostalgia. A chance to get The Beatles out to new listeners and artists.

As much as anything, underlining how important they are. The cultural impact. So many areas to explore. Maybe there is something is in the works, though I fear most have the assumption that everything has been said and there has been a lot from the last few years – so why add anything else?! Is it a waste of money and time basically rehashing footage and covering the same ground. The thing is, as technology has advanced and there is so much more out there about The Beatles, there would be fairly little repetition. One could say Anthology is the definitive series/representation of The Beatles. I think there is room for more. It may be the last documentary we have to feature McCartney and Starr. Also, I wonder how many more album reissues will come. I guess 1964’s A Hard Day’s Night will be reissued at some point. I guess 1965’s Rubber Soul will be next. Following that, there is not really a lot else to come from the archives. Or maybe there is. Most of the best books have been written. Not to say that things will dry and we will search around for Beatles things years from now. However, after a certain point, there will be a natural drying up. Having this extensive documentary/series that ties almost everything together and would be a compendium with lots of archive footage plus valuable words from McCartney and Starr. People like Glyn Johns (chief engineer during The Beatles’ Get Back sessions) and Yoko Ono. Almost a desperation and acknowledgment of mortality. Capturing words and recollections whilst we have this incredible archive. People who were there at the start. Beatles children and tribute bands. I also like the idea of uncovering and diving into the studio albums.

It would take a lot of time together, but I can’t think of many reasons against the idea. There would definitely be a momentum and demand. If it did something new and was this attempt at something definitive, it would be worth investing in. It would take years to come together and complete, so I hope that something similar is being planned. I don’t think that there has been a recent documentary or series that has been broad and career-spanning. There are audio documentaries and podcasts, yet it is the visual aspect that is the key. Taking us inside album covers and the studio. Getting a real sense of what it was like being on the road with The Beatles. Importantly, and in terms of a unique selling point, discussing what their legacy is now and how that has shifted. Trying to inspire a new wave of artists to keep The Beatles’ sound alive. At a time when the scene is lacking that obvious influence. In any case, for fans and those in The Beatles’ world, it could be a celebration and final visual chapter. Something that can remain for decades and sit alongside the films, documentaries and series on The Beatles. Again, that chance to feature modern-day Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr. Who would have plenty more to say. The final words with them. What The Beatles meant to them and how they would like the band to be remembered. If some say it would be too ambitious or not new, I would argue against that. It is achievable, if time-consuming and a lot. It would definitely provide opportunity for lots of new information and angles. I am not sure what it would be called but, when considering a new Beatles documentary or series, just imagine…

WHAT could be.

FEATURE: The Digital Mixtape: A Mariah Carey Celebration

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The Digital Mixtape

A Mariah Carey Celebration

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ONE can only imagine how tough…

IN THIS PHOTO: Mariah Carey in 1994/PHOTO CREDIT: Uli Weber

it is for any artist to perform and commit to that sort of life. Not only is it so exhausting performing so often and committing so much of yourself to that life. You also have to do so much promotion and other work away from the stage. The toll is takes on them can be quite severe indeed. I have been thinking about high-profile artists and how it is for them. Such is the intensity of the performances, I do worry about their wellbeing. If an artist is doing a residency or huge and long concert, the accumulative impact of that can be really huge. It brings me to Mariah Carey and news that she has been to the point of tears during her Las Vegas residency. A legend who is performing night after night and doing these incredible shows, it is only natural that she would come to a point where she needs to take some time away from the stage. It does raise bigger questions around artists’ mental and physical happiness. How there is this desire to see them live for many dates. If you think about what effect that can have on them, we sort of need to address live performance and how much of a sacrifice it is. We all wish Mariah Carey the best and hope she will be okay and have time to spend some time away from the stage to rest. I am keen to celebrate her career with an ultimate playlist. In October, her album, Merry Christmas, turns thirty. Rainbow turns twenty-five in November. Her latest album, 2018’s Caution, is her fifteenth. I hope that we get more music from her. Wishing her love and happiness, below is a mixtape of Mariah Carey hits and some deep cuts. Showing that there is nobody quite like her. The New York-born icon is someone who is beyond comparison. She is a truly…

PEERLESS talent.

FEATURE: The Digital Mixtape: Artists Who Have Changed Their Names

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The Digital Mixtape

IN THIS PHOTO: Gretel (formerly Gretel Hänlyn)

Artists Who Have Changed Their Names

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FOR various reasons…

IN THIS PHOTO: Radiohead (formerly known as On a Friday)

you get artists who change their name. It might be for legal reasons or the need to alter identity or enter a new phase of their career. Some bands change their names before they get into the public eye. Radiohead used to be On a Friday. Blur were Seymour. Even The Beatles went through various incarnations before they became The Beatles – including The Quarrymen, Johnny & the Moon Dogs, and The Silver Beetles. I often wonder how it affects their catalogue. Being listed under more than one name. Whether a new name means a new artist. If you can discount material before. I guess it can depend on the act. I can understand if an artist has to change their name of their feel their old one needs to be updated. Maybe it can be harder for fans of the future to find them or discover all of their work. I am compelled to do this playlist because the amazing London artist Gretel Hänlyn has dropped the second name. Going now be that one-word forename – whose real name is Maddy Haenlein -, is now trading as Gretel. Maybe less distinct in terms of setting her aside from the crowd, I think that it signifies a new stage of her career. Perhaps not wanting to be associated with the past, or perhaps fancying shortening the name. More Google-proof but perhaps more true to her music now, Far Out is her latest track. CLASH provide more details:

“Alt-pop voice Gretel returns with new single ‘Far Out’.

The singer made waves as Gretel Hänlyn, before opting to shorten her name. The reinvigorated Gretel launches a new chapter in her life with a headline show at London’s Omeara on Thursday (June 11th).

New single ‘Far Out’ is a window into her world, with Gretel opting to write in her “sarcastic, rebellious” voice. Co-produced by pop wunderkind mura masa, it’s an instantly catchy track, with her biting lyrics offset by some super melodies.

Released via her own imprint Breadcrumb Records, in partnership with AWAL Recordings, ‘Far Out’ presents Gretel in her fully independent era.

She comments…

‘Far Out’ is a big window into my personality and my favourite bits of the writing process; it’s aloof and came from a kinda sarcastic, rebellious place. There’s elements in the song that I never thought would make the Final Cut, like the loud, constant beeping, but once I started conceptualising the deadpan dancing in the music video, I realised those elements only added more personality.

I had an idea a long time ago that I wanted to do a weird dance for a music video but I was waiting for a suitable song to whip out my moves. Alex was actually the one to show me the iconic Bob Fosse club dance scene in his film ‘Sweet Charity’, said it looked like something I’d do, and I was dazzled. The music video pays homage to that scene, and I used styling as a direct nod to Suzanne Charny’s character. This song is the first of many more”.

To honour both Gretel and the other artists who have changed their name and, as such, signified this evolution and new identity/part of their career, I am going to end with a playlist of songs from artists who have changed their name. Whether it was before they became publicly known and embraced or later in their careers, there are a lot of famous cases. You will hear some songs from some legends and modern greats. All brilliant and interesting tracks. Artists we might know previously as someone else. Or maybe unaware that they changed their name. A mixtape dedicated to…

THE game of the name.

FEATURE: The Nation’s Favourite: Why BBC Radio 2 Remains the U.K.’s Most Popular Radio Station

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The Nation’s Favourite

PHOTO CREDIT: BBC

Why BBC Radio 2 Remains the U.K.’s Most Popular Radio Station

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THERE is a good reason…

PHOTO CREDIT: BBC

why BBC Radio 2 is the most popular station in the U.K. A title I don’t think will ever be taken from them. You can follow the station on Instagram and Twitter. There were some interesting findings from the recent RAJAR figures. It seems, regardless of how much time passes, you cannot dent and deny the role BBC Radio 2 plays. How it remains so popular. This fixture for millions of listeners:

“BBC Radio 2 remains the UK’s favourite radio station with Vernon Kay presenting the UK’s biggest radio show and Zoe Ball presenting the most popular breakfast show.

According to RAJAR, podcast listening is at an all-time high with 12.3 million people in the UK (15+) now listening to podcasts each week, a new record. This reflects evolving listener habits, with an increased appetite for podcasts and on-demand content, as digital audience figures continue to grow.

BBC Radio 2 had 13.3m listeners with 6.4m tuning in for The Zoe Ball Breakfast Show. Vernon Kay has the biggest UK radio show with 6.7m listeners”.

Even though I am a devotee of BBC Radio 6 Music, I have listened to BBC Radio 2 since I was a child. Even if I do not listen as much now, there are still reasons to tune in. Zoe Ball is a wonderful breakfast host and worth everything she earns. A source of constant joy and energy, I love the fact that she and the team have this infectious and brilliant bond that makes you part of the family. She is a legendary broadcaster and someone I hope remains at the station for years and years more. In addition to the live shows are incredible weekly edition of Dance Sounds of the 90s with Vernon Kay, Sounds of the 90s with Fearne Cotton, and Eras. We have Pick of the Pops, Rylan on Saturday, Liza Tarbuck, Vernon Kay, Sara Cox, and Jo Whiley. I tune into the excellent Radio 2 Unwinds with Angela Griffin (Sunday at 11 p.m.).

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There is so much variety and range on BBC Radio 2. I do not agree that any station has a set demographic in terms of age and musical tastes. BBC Radio 2 plays a lot of modern music in addition to looking back through the decades. If you want something a bit more Indie, deeper-diving or off-the-beaten-track, then BBC Radio 6 Music provides that. BBC Radio 1 perhaps more concerned with the contemporary rather than classic (though they do nod back quite a bit). BBC Radio 2 is not a station for archived music or an older listenership. Instead, it caters to pretty much anyone. You will find something to love. Every presenter so committed to their role. Part of this family rather than some faceless, corporate organisation. I guess the station still has a bit of an issue with gender and racial balance in terms of its playlist. Look across their entire playlist and it is still balanced very much in favour of male artists. Quite heavily on some shows and days. This needs to be addressed. Same goes with artists of colour. However, there have been some improvements when it comes to the most played songs on the station. Much better balance there. I want to come to a recent feature from Music Week. They spoke with Helen Thomas, Jeff Smith, Jo Whiley and Trevor Nelson on the station's role in the industry. This was an interview from August 2023. The interview has been shared as, next month, BBC Radio 2 in the Park returns (and will be held in Preston) for the first time since 2019, where Kylie Minogue and Tears For Fears lead a star-studded line-up. After a turbulent period, it’s set to be a celebration of the station’s dominance over U.K. radio:

“To continue that analogy, Radio 2 head of station Helen Thomas and longstanding head of music Jeff Smith have shown themselves to be chancellors of distinction. Radio 2 was still top of the class in the RAJAR results for the first three months of 2023, with its ratings down just 0.8% year-on-year to 14.46 million and up 1.2% on the prior quarter.

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It seems an opportune time, then, for Music Week to check in with the team over Zoom – especially with the imminent return of Radio 2 In The Park for the first time since 2019. Taking place in Leicester’s Victoria Park from September 16-17 and headlined by Kylie Minogue and Tears For Fears, the expanded event will be the station’s biggest ever gathering held outside London.

“All roads lead to Leicester right now, that is absolutely where our focus is,” says Thomas. “It’s our flagship live music event, so we can’t wait. This is like year one for us really, because we got so close with Leeds last year, which would have been our first two-day event.”

The 2022 show was cancelled following the death of the Queen.

“It couldn’t be more important because it’s a chance for us to see our listeners face to face and for all our presenters to come together,” Thomas continues. “It’s all available on iPlayer, BBC Sounds and, of course, on Radio 2 as well, so it’s a hugely significant live music moment for us.”

Jeff Smith, too, foresees a landmark moment.

“We achieved an awful lot with our festival in a day, so it’s brilliant to be able to have two days and also take it around the UK,” suggests Smith. “We saw with Glastonbury and the response to Elton that there is such an appetite for live music, and I think we’re going to see that again.”

Bananarama, Texas, James Blunt, Deacon Blue, Beverley Knight, Busted, Soft Cell, Pretenders, Shalamar, Rick Astley, Jessie Ware, Lemar, Sam Ryder and Simply Red are also on the bill, with all of the 70,000 tickets available selling out in under eight hours.

“No other radio station could put that bill on, because it is an authentic reflection of what we do at Radio 2,” says Thomas. “To have everyone from Tears For Fears to Jessie Ware, who has also presented on Radio 2, is such a brilliant statement of our music policy made real.”

Thomas took up the reins in 2020, succeeding Lewis Carnie, whereas radio veteran Smith has held his title since joining the Beeb from Napster in 2007. The pair are highly complimentary of each other’s qualities.

“Jeff is amazing,” says Thomas. “I genuinely feel blessed to have someone of his experience and wisdom. He’s excellent counsel for me. We’ve got an amazing team at Radio 2 and when you’ve got people who share the vision, you can achieve a lot – and we have. We’ve been through so much since I got this job: we’ve had two royal deaths and a pandemic, and that’s just for starters.”

“I’ve never worked with a better boss,” beams Smith. “We get on so well because we understand each other perfectly. To Helen’s credit, she’s brought this station together more than I’ve ever known it.”

Presenter Trevor Nelson, who has hosted Rhythm Nation on the station since 2016, believes the numbers speak for themselves.

“The audience figures tell you why the industry needs Radio 2,” he laughs. “I think we’ve offered something that clearly no one else has. Number one, we just offer that comfort. In lockdown, the audience reacted to all these known voices they’d trusted every year, so there is that assurance.”

Nelson suggests Radio 2’s balance of entertainment and music is something few of its peers can match.

“We have our specialists and we have our massive mainstream personalities, and it’s that balance that makes it,” he says. “The number one word I always get from listeners is – and it’s so cheesy – is friendship. There’s that companionship and familiarity in a changing world, without it being ‘Hitsville USA.’”

Nelson, who appeared on stage with Thomas to collect the Radio Station honour at the 2021 Music Week Awards, says new music is among his top priorities.

“I don’t stick to the tried and trusted all the time,” he says. “And I’m trying to drive people who might have slightly musically checked out to stream music, make their own playlists and have a bit more interest in new music, as well as rediscovering old music.”

Nelson has upped his workload further still of late, delving into his interview archive for the Trevor Nelson’s Divas series on BBC Sounds, hosting an orchestral reimagining of Bob Marley’s greatest hits from Birmingham Town Hall and presenting a one-off concert at the Royal Albert Hall to mark the 75th anniversary of Windrush. He is also curating Trevor Nelson’s Soul Christmas at the London venue this December. As one of the few diverse voices on Radio 2, he is willing and able to utilise his platform to make a difference.

 “I feel a huge responsibility,” he says. “I do four shows a week on Radio 2 and they let me playlist my own show, which is brilliant for musical diversity. My old cohort [DJ] Spoony joined recently; he started depping for me and then they gave him a show. And Angela Griffin has a late night show, so there are diverse voices. I’m not standing here saying we 100% need more, the audience that are listening to the station reflect the DJs on the station. But bit by bit, over the years to come, I expect that to change and I want it to.”

Nelson also says that he can help drive the shift.

“The fact that I’m Black and am on the biggest station is great for my culture, because it proves that if someone else comes along, there isn’t a perception that they can’t be successful on Radio 2,” he says. “So I do take the responsibility. It’s a question I would have avoided years ago, because I always wanted to be judged on merit, not the colour of my skin, but I accept the challenge at Radio 2 and so far, so good. I’ve got nothing but love for the audience.”

Of course, BBC Radio 2 is seeking to impact the industry in other ways.

Chief among its innovations is the Piano Room, which has been a hit with listeners since launching in January 2022. The format sees each artist perform three tracks – a new song, one of their well-known tracks and a classic cover accompanied by an orchestra – during the morning show and has welcomed acts such as U2’s Bono & The Edge, Depeche Mode and Cat Burns.

In February, Piano Room Month featured Stormzy, Pink, Sugababes, Suede, Haircut 100 and Jake Shears featuring Neil Tennant of Pet Shop Boys, each of whom performed with the BBC Concert Orchestra live from Maida Vale studios.

“We’ve created an opportunity whereby artists like Pink can expand that whole arrangement with us and deliver a longer piece to TV or iPlayer,” points out Smith. “Clearly, what we’re all about is value for the licence fee payer, but also the music industry and I think the value it can get out of that content is incalculable. And it’s another way of getting new music through to daytime.”

Smith considers R2’s relationship with record labels to be “brilliant”, but is keen to encourage even closer cooperation.

“I’d say to the music industry, talk to me more about what we can do with the Piano Room to expose your artist’s music to a wider audience than ever before with the sheer scale and scope that we can offer,” he says. “Pink was a great example of that, but also Depeche Mode, who had never done anything with an orchestra before. I was talking to their manager and he was saying it’s one of the best things they’ve done for decades. And they did a million views on each of those tracks on YouTube.”

Blur, meanwhile, recently became the latest big name act to star in BBC Radio 2 In Concert, performing an exclusive show in front of a small audience of listeners at BBC Radio Theatre in July.

While Smith believes the extent to which radio can claim credit for breaking acts in 2023 is a matter of opinion, he is convinced it remains a vital piece of the jigsaw.

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“I’m not too sure it necessarily begins within mainstream daytime radio,” he muses. “Nowadays, all sorts of people could claim they’ve given birth to these hits. But if you want to be successful, ultimately, I believe you’ve got to be on the radio. That is a level you have to attain and it has to be the ambition for many artists, even now. If you want to be successful why wouldn’t you want to be on the biggest radio station in the UK? The biggest radio station in Europe? It’s not going to work for everybody and not all artists are going to work for us, but radio is still so important to breaking new music.”

Smith accepts that the advent of streaming and platforms such as YouTube and TikTok have impacted the medium – just not in the way many would assume. He cites the resurgence of Kate Bush’s 1985 classic Running Up That Hill on the back of featuring in Netflix’s Stranger Things to flesh out his point.

“Generations are coming together through consumption of music and it’s happenstance that we now find ourselves in a world where that is celebrated,” he surmises. “People aren’t as tribal now. They love a broad range of music and Radio 2, as a one-stop shop, is a great place to find that.”

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Smith says that Radio 2 stands apart due to its “full-service nature”.

“If one of the platforms we just talked about started to try to be something like Radio 2 that would be interesting, that would be a threat. I’m not arrogant enough to say there’s not competition out there, but those are very much on-demand experiences.”

Sharing her delight at the statistic that one in four adults who listen to UK radio are listening to Radio 2, Thomas points to the open-mindedness of the station’s audience.

“Whatever their age, they don’t just want to listen to the music of their youth, they also want to hear what their kids or grandkids are listening to,” she insists. “We are a proud station aimed at everyone over the age of 35, and that feeds through every aspect of our schedule. There is no other radio station like it on the planet and I want it to continue to tower above all others.”

Even so, the past 12 months have not been without their challenges. Vernon Kay became the new host of the mid-morning show after Ken Bruce, who presented the slot for more than three decades, departed for Bauer Audio UK’s Greatest Hits Radio. Bruce, who had also hosted Radio 2’s Eurovision coverage since 1988, could claim to be the UK’s most popular DJ based on RAJAR figures released in February, with 8.2 million listeners.

“Ken is an amazing broadcaster, who was here at the BBC for 45 years and 31 years on mid-mornings, and he chose to leave,” says Thomas. “It wasn’t a change that I was looking to make, but he had an offer and he decided to go.”

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Helen Thomas views the passion of the station’s listenership as an overwhelming positive.

“The listeners of Radio 2 love the station and they tell us what they think, and I value that,” she says. “I would rather have that relationship with our audience because they’re grown-ups as well. I’ve been doing this a long time and Jeff has been doing it even longer, and you know in your gut if something sounds right. You feel it, you can hear it and you can see the response from the listeners.”

As she looks ahead, Thomas says that she wants to keep pushing boundaries.

“Post-Radio 2 In The Park, where are we going next year? Who are we going to get on the bill?” she says. “Hilariously, I was asking Jeff who we’d got for the Piano Room next February, literally the day after selling out 70,000 tickets for Leicester, because it never stops. So I feel like the future is going to be all right.”

Before we leave Thomas and her team to it, we ask whether, amidst all the positivity, there is anything that keeps her awake at night.

“Well, to be honest with you, everything,” she answers. “I’m a terribly light sleeper!”.

I was keen to include as much as that feature as possible. Still dominating the U.K. airwaves, BBC Radio 2 is this institution. What role does it have going forward? I feel, even in a streaming age, the station can remain relatable and contemporary. Showcasing so many incredible new artists but also playing plenty of legacy artists, there is this broad playlist that speaks to listeners across the age demographic. I think there will be new faces coming to the station in years to come. Maybe some younger blood, we will still see icons like Zoe Ball remain. It is great that the station remains so popular. Soi many reasons as to why that is. I have listened to the station since I was very young. I will continue to do so. You get something very special from BBC Radio 2 that you cannot…

GET anywhere else.

FEATURE: Groovelines: Jeff Buckley - Hallelujah

FEATURE:

 

 

Groovelines

 IN THIS PHOTO: Jeff Buckley during the Grace shoot, Arcadia Studios, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York in 1993/PHOTO CREDIT: Merri Cyr

Jeff Buckley - Hallelujah

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I do not include…

many cover versions in Groovelines. There is a special reason why I want to focus on Jeff Buckley’s version of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah. Not only is it a definitive and beautiful reading of a song that, upon its original release, was not as adored and raved about as Buckley’s version. Included on Cohen’s 1984 album, Various Positions, it is still a brilliant song. Those incredible and vivid lyrics. Poetic and timeless. I think that Jeff Buckley brought something special from the song. His celebration of the orgasm, as he said. Cohen’s original version is deep-voiced and a little plodding. Not as evocative and hymnal as Buckley’s rendition. Of course, Buckley’s vocal was partly inspired by John Cale. His version of the song was included on the 1991 album, I'm Your Fan: The Songs of Leonard Cohen. Hearing this tribute album, Buckley saw new potential in Hallelujah. A song he must have known about originally, John Cale definitely inspired him to tackle Hallelujah. Buckley’s version remains the finest and definitive version. It is sad how the song was murdered and drained of any beauty and meaning but endless cover versions! The overwrought and horrible versions that are comfortably into double figures. I hear buskers sing the song in London and it is always horribly over-dramatic and irritating. St. Vincent recently said how American Idol cover versions of the song were the “worst thing in the world”. She has a point! Artists have seen how people responded to Jeff Buckley’s version of felt compelled to have a go. Not that you can distil or eradicate the moving version Buckley performed. I just hope artists stop covering it, as it has been done too much and nobody will match Buckley’s take. All the ghastly and needless covers will not change the fact!

Another reason to focus on Jeff Buckley’s Hallelujah is that the album it is from, Grace, turns thirty soon. Even though it was released in the U.S. on 23rd August, it was released in Europe the week before. So, on 15th August, we mark thirty years of Grace. You do get occasions where promising original songs are given new life and meaning by other artists. Doing something to the song that the author could not imagine. Buckley did that with Hallelujah. Taking Leonard Cohen’s perfect words and adding the needed tenderness and passion to the piece, we see this song in a different light. If Leonard Cohen’s original vocal was about the complexities of life and called for something more grave or darker, there is this sense of light and beauty from Buckley’s reading. Sadly, again, the version is overused on T.V. and film. Used almost as a sad and death song. Deployed when characters are dying or dead. It has never suggested itself as being about that. I am not sure why people think it is appropriate in that context! It goes to show that producers and filmmakers really need to learn what the song is about; what Jeff Buckley’s rendition is about and not lazily and incorrectly think it is this sombre and depressing. Listen to Jeff Buckley’s Hallelujah and you will find so much more than that. I want to bring in a few features about Buckley’s cover of Hallelujah. Far Out Magazine took us inside the cover in 2020:

“Hallelujah’ is a definitive rarity for its ability to make people feel and truly emote in a way that other songs can’t. Buckley’s Gen-X crowds were often rowdy throughout his sets and he always used to make sure to leave this track until last. As soon as he sang the first note of ‘Hallelujah’, you could hear a pin drop as the audience was silenced by the emotion emitted from the stage. Cohen’s version has the ability to stop someone dead in their tracks and, although Buckley tackled the song from a different perspective, he manages to make listeners feel the very same raw emotions as the legendary Canadian does with his version.

Leonard Cohen later explained the meaning behind the song whilst leaving it open to interpretation in his trademark poetic fashion: “Hallelujah is a Hebrew word which means ‘Glory to the Lord,” he explained. “The song explains that many kinds of Hallelujahs do exist. I say: All the perfect and broken Hallelujahs have an equal value. It’s a desire to affirm my faith in life, not in some formal religious way but with enthusiasm, with emotion.”

 Whereas Buckley interpreted the lyrics in his own way, the late singer referred to his voluptuous rendition of the track as being a homage to “the hallelujah of the orgasm.” He explained in a Dutch magazine OOR: “Whoever listens carefully to ‘Hallelujah’ will discover that it is a song about sex, about love, about life on earth.

“The hallelujah is not a homage to a worshipped person, idol or god, but the hallelujah of the orgasm. It’s an ode to life and love,” he added. Buckley also admitted to hoping that Cohen wouldn’t get to hear his version in case he was upset at his interpretation of the classic.

Buckley’s close friend Glen Hansard, who moved to New York with the singer, praised his friend’s effort to The Atlantic, stating: “He gave us the version we hoped Leonard would emote, and he wasn’t afraid to sing it with absolute reverence. Jeff sang it back to Leonard as a love song to what he achieved, and in doing so, Jeff made it his own.” It was this transition which saw Buckley’s version of the track be counted as a true masterpiece and, at the very least, on a level footing with the original, if not better”.

Prior to coming to a feature from Classic Rock, I want to introduce this feature. They write how the potential of Hallelujah was not really seen and explored until Jeff Buckley covered it. Grace, sadly, an album many did not discover until after his death in 1997. An artist well ahead of his time. It is a shame that Buckley was never really as embraced, understood and celebrated in his life as he should have been. Hallelujah gained a whole new lease after Buckley died. As I say, it has been covered so many times. Used and played far and wide. Perhaps one of the greatest cover versions of all time:

“The most famous cover song on Grace (and probably Jeff Buckley’s most well-known song overall) opens up side two of the record, giving the backing band a break and putting the spotlight solely on Buckley’s voice and electric guitar. The song itself probably needs no introduction – it’s easily one of the best ever written, with its iconic opening lines (“I heard there was a secret chord/That David played, and it pleased the Lord/But you don’t really care for music, do ya?”) and its swaying melody being immediately recognizable along with its simple but effective one-word chorus. If you didn’t know this from Leonard Cohen’s original or John Cale‘s cover from 1991 (which directly inspired Buckley’s version), then you might be one of those folks like me who first heard it in the movie Shrek (which used Cale’s version in the actual film, even though Rufus Wainwright‘s version appears on the soundtrack album). Or else you heard someone attempt it on a reality singing show or cover it in concert. Suffice to say, it’s one of those songs that has reached near-total cultural saturation by now, to the point where it’s becoming a bit of a cliché to cover it.

While Buckley’s version helped to popularize the song, it’s notable that his version is quite stark in comparison to Cohen’s original, given the complete lack of accompaniment that allows his watery guitar chords to ring out against a backdrop of utter silence. There are several seconds before, between, and after the verses where he deviates from the rhythm entirely and just sort of noodles on his guitar and croons a bit, giving it the feel of a stripped-down live performance. (I don’t know this for sure, but it seems like the sort of thing that might have been recorded in a single take.) This track runs for nearly seven minutes as a result, yet none of it seems wasted, because Buckley is so utterly lost in the moment that it’s hard not to get swept up in the sheer passion of his performance. I’m sure many essays have been written on the possible interpretations of this song, which uses different characters from the Bible as analogies for a present-day relationship that is utterly broken, recasting the central refrain in more of a context of crying out to God in the midst of grief and helplessness, rather than the usual “praise the Lord”-type context you might hear in Christian music. I think that’s what makes the song so striking to such a wide variety of listeners, regardless of their own religious or non-religious inclinations. There’s no way I’d ever come up with anything innovative to say about it, but I know I’ve loved it from the first time I heard it, and it’s easy to see why Buckley’s version (along with Cale’s) is now seen as definitive.

Grade: A+”.

I am going to end with a feature from Classic Rock. I did not know that there have been hundreds of covers of Hallelujah. It is both touching and depressing. What I really love is that people can recognise Jeff Buckley’s version. How it has and will never be bettered. Even though the endless string of covers has been a bit annoying and needless, you have to concentre on the oriignal version and Jeff Buckley’s cover:

“But in the end only two versions really matter: the original, on its writer Leonard Cohen’s Various Positions album of 1984, that gave the song life, and Jeff Buckley’s spellbinding one-man tour de force, released a decade later on Grace. Both still force all else into the background.

Hallelujah was obviously an itch to scratch for Cohen, who drafted 80-some verses and tortured himself over the lyrics, famously sitting in his underwear at New York’s Royalton Hotel, notebook in hand, banging his head on the floor.

It paid off. Up to a point. While the Hallelujah lyrics evolved with every tour, Cohen’s original studio version remains a powerful piece of writing, steeped in the scriptures and full of indelible lines (‘Your faith was strong but you needed proof/You saw her bathing on the roof/Her beauty in the moonlight overthrew you’). But the track suffers, almost terminally, from its dated synth and dour lead vocal, further dwarfed by the gospel choir.

Buckley had a bolder plan. In early days, the singer-songwriter had made New York’s Sin-e club shiver with a reading that he said nodded to “the hallelujah of the orgasm”. And in late 1993, when Grace was recorded, he hammered home that sensual treatment (the track even begins with an audible sigh).

“Whoever listens closely to Hallelujah will discover that it is a song about sex, about love, about life on earth,” Buckley once said. “It’s an ode to life and love.”

There was a little of the Cale version (from 1991’s I’m Your Fan) here, but whereas the Velvet Underground man had led with the piano, Buckley elevated the song with a showcase of solo electric guitar, starting out rich, sad and slow, then blossoming into a shimmering instrumental passage that stopped all the clocks.

“I hope Leonard doesn’t hear it,” he once said – but that could only have been to spare the older songwriter the ignominy of hearing his own song perfected and wrestled away from him.

Released between grunge and Britrock, Buckley’s Hallelujah seemed a fragile anomaly, too good for this world. So too, it transpired, was Buckley. By the time the 30-year-old’s body was dredged from the choppy waters of Tennessee’s Wolf River in May 1997, the song had taken on an almost unbearable poignancy.

“There’s a spiritual quality in Hallelujah that touches people,” Buckley’s one-time collaborator Gary Lucas once told this writer. “There’s a holy quality in that song. But it’s like they said about Sinatra: Jeff could have sung the phone book and made it sound great”.

On 15th August, it will be thirty years since the sensational Grace was released in Europe. It came to the U.S. on 23rd August. I wanted to spend some time with Hallelujah. Perhaps the centrepiece and focal point of Grace, it has this huge power and meaning today. I don’t see it as sad and maudlin. It is this celebration and incredible stirring song, performed with such beauty and, yes, grace! No matter how many people – from the streets to studios – tackle Hallelujah, nobody will ever come remotely close to matching. Jeff Buckley’s version. It buckles the knees and makes the heart stop. Surely one of the most astonishing cover…

EVER committed to tape.

FEATURE: One for the Record Collection! Essential September Releases

FEATURE:

 

 

One for the Record Collection!

IN THIS PHOTO: Suki Waterhouse

Essential September Releases

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AS I write this (10th August)…

IN THIS PHOTO: London Grammar

there are some really great albums planned for next month. A busy month for new releases, I am going to highlight those I think you should pre-order. You can see a more comprehensive and extensive list of albums out next month here. There are four release weeks/dates I am going to include. Each of them is pretty packed! On 6th September, there are a fair few albums you will want to get a hold of. I am going to highlight three. The first is David Gilmour’s Luck and Strange. You can pre-order here. The legendary musician is an amazing solo artist. Of course, formerly with Pink Floyd, you are going to want to get a hold of this album. A musical master showing that he is still very much a major force in music:

“The brand-new album by David Gilmour, Luck and Strange was recorded over five months in Brighton and London and is Gilmour’s first album of new material in nine years. The record was produced by David and Charlie Andrew, best known for his work with ALT-J and Marika Hackman, with lyrics mostly written by Polly Samson, Gilmour’s co-writer for the past thirty years. The album features eight new tracks along with a beautiful reworking of The Montgolfier Brothers’ ‘Between Two Points’, which sees Romany Gilmour, who performs backing vocals across the album, on vocals and harp. Musicians contributing to the record include Guy Pratt and Tom Herbert on bass, Adam Betts, Steve Gadd and Steve DiStanislao on drums, Rob Gentry and Roger Eno on keyboards and the string and choral arrangements are by Will Gardner. The title track also features the late Pink Floyd keyboard player Richard Wright, recorded in 2007 during a ‘Barn Jam’ at David’s house. The album’s cover image, photographed and designed by renowned artist Anton Corbijn, is inspired by lyrics written by Charlie Gilmour for the album’s final song ‘Scattered’. Gatefold sleeve and booklet with photography and design by Anton Corbijn”.

Another album from 6th September I want to recommend comes from Hinds. The amazing Viva Hinds is an album I think you will want to add to your collection. The first album from them since becoming a duo – from a quartet -, Viva Hinds follows from The Prettiest Cure. The title seems to indicate some form of new confidence or liberation. Maybe a sense of defiance after losing band members. I really love the group and don’t feel they lose any impact and importance halving members. Still so magnetic as a duo. You will want to pre-order this album:

“Spanish indie rockers Hinds are back with their utterly triumphant fourth album, Viva Hinds. Written by the band’s co-founders, co-vocalists, co-guitarists and co-songwriters Carlotta Cosials and Ana Perrote, it features their first-ever fully Spanish language songs, as well as first collaborations with the likes of Beck and Fontaines D.C.’s Grian Chatten”.

Boasting one of the most eye-catching and well-designed album covers of this year so far, Max Richter releases In a Landscape on 6th September. It sounds like it is going to be a really interesting and original idea. Something you will want to check out. I would advise people to pre-order the album. I am relatively new to Richter and have not really investigated his previous work. I do think he is a phenomenal artist that everyone should check out and spend some time with:

“Max Richter presents his 9th studio album 'In A Landscape'. A record about “reconciling polarities"; bringing together the electronic and the acoustic, the human and the natural world, the big questions of life and the quiet pleasures of living. "A memoir of the present moment”. In his own words, Max describes the music on the record as being about “connecting or reconciling polarities. the tracks themselves are, as ever, my attempts to figure out how to make sense of our lives in the here and now of our daily life as I experience it.” One of the most influential and acclaimed composers of all time, Max's fusion of classical technique and electronic technology, heard across genre-defining solo projects, countless scores for film, dance, art and fashion, has won him legions of fans world-over, and blazed a trail for a generation of artists”.

There are five from 13th September that are well worth getting into. Pre-ordering. It is a busy week with plenty of options. I think there are five albums in particular worth spending some money on. The first is from a wonderful British trio who I have been a fan of since their debut album over a decade ago. That is London Grammar. The Greatest Love is going to be among this year’s absolute best albums I feel. With another great album cover, the Hannah Reid-led trio are going to provide a real treat. An album well worth pre-ordering:

“The Greatest Love follows the British trio’s critically acclaimed #1 selling album Californian Soil, which was released in 2021 and earned the band their second BRIT nomination for Best British Group. Arriving over a decade since the trio first entered the industry, the new album is a celebration; the sound of a band laying to rest the past and realising a newfound sense of freedom.

First single House embodies London Grammar’s new trajectory as frontwoman Hannah Reid delivers the uncompromising lyric: This is my place, my house, my rules. Speaking about the single Hannah said, “House is about drawing boundaries around yourself. When I hit my thirties, my mindset shifted, and I no longer felt like a victim of anything – it all felt within my power. I thought, making music should be fun, and we're gonna make that happen.”

Having first formed as teenagers at University, their seminal double-platinum selling debut If You Wait paved the way for what was to become a hugely successful career for the band, the rare longevity of which has firmly rooted London Grammar in British pop culture. Now over 10 years later, the band have sold more than 3 million albums world-wide, with two #1 selling records, 1 billion streams, an Ivor Novello and numerous BRIT Award nominations under their belts”.

Let’s get to another great album out on 13th September. Similar to David Gilmour, Nick Lowe is this long-serving and wonderful legend who continues to produce magnificent music. Indoor Safari sounds really interesting. I know I have pretty much said that about every single album so far. I have known about Nick Lowe for years but not checked out his latest tracks. This is an album that sounds like it will appeal to long-time fans and newer converts. Go and pre-order this album:

“Nick Lowe returns with Indoor Safari, his frst studio album in over a decade. Backed on every track by Nick's trusted collaborators Los Straitjackets, Nick exhibits his razorsharp songwriting ability through a multitude of sonic environments. With his signature wit on display for grooving numbers like "Went to a Party" and "Don't Be Nice to Me," to the heartfelt sentiment on "Blue on Blue" and "Jet Pac Boomerang," and topped with Nick breathing new life into hidden gems of the '60s like "Raincoat in the River" and "A Quiet Place," Indoor Safari demonstrates how Nick Lowe continues to make his mark as a performer, songwriter and producer over a half-century after his start in the music industry”.

Completely different in terms of style and sounds, Nilüfer Yanya’s My Method Actor is an album that I am excited about. There is not a lot of information out there about it. It is a shame that there is not more on websites that have new albums. How much information do consumers need?! I guess keeping it brief can be useful and economic, though I would like to see more about My Method Actor. I would suggest people think about pre-ordering the new album by the exceptional Nilüfer Yanya:

“One of the most exciting musicians today, Nilüfer Yanya returns with a brand new studio album My Method Actor via Ninja Tune. With a unique blend of soulful melodies, indie rock grit, and jazz influences, Yanya’s music continues to captivate audiences worldwide. The new body of work being a development and evolution from her previous sound. Her first album Miss Universe and its 2022 follow-up Painless cemented her as one to watch and a staple in the indie scene, lauded by critics on both sides of the Atlantic. Recommended if you like…Arlo Parks, King Krule, Sharon Van Etten, Helado Negro, Sudan Archives”.

The album I am most excited about next month is Suki Waterhouse’s Memoir of a Sparklemuffin. One of my favourite artists around, the fabulously-titled new album from the British-born, American-based artist is one I am going to check out. With a fabulous album cover, it makes me think about great album art and how we do not highlight it enough these days. Anyway, I think that you will want to pre-order the latest album from an artist I have so much admiration for:

“The new album by Suki Waterhouse is a masterful slab of exuberant, emotionally vulnerable pop with hooks galore. It features her hit songs “OMG”, “To Love”, “My Fun”, plus 15 brand new songs.

Suki Waterhouse’s music sounds like a collage of her inspirations, experiences, and emotions stitched together by honeyed vocal delivery, bright-eyed melodies, and evocative storytelling. It doubles as a mirror image of her life as a consummate creative, artist, actress, model, and mother, yet it also breaks the glass to unveil raw truth. She leans on an ever-evolving sonic palette to convey what she’s feeling - whether it be folky Americana, nineties alternative, turn-of-the-century indie, or handcrafted otherworldly pop. You’ll hear Suki’s longing in a swooning chorus, fearlessness in a crunchy chord, elation in a danceable waltz, and wonder in a soft coo befitting of a lullaby. She faithfully followed a lifelong passion for music to her 2022 full-length debut, I Can’t Let Go. Adorned by “Moves” and “Melrose Meltdown,” it incited widespread critical applause from Variety, Nylon, NME, The Line of Best Fit, and more. Between headlining shows and touring with Father John Misty, “Good Looking” surged online, generating nearly a billion streams, going RIAA platinum, and paving the way for the Milk Teeth EP. Simultaneously, she absorbed inspiration from a season of change earmarked by unforgettable moments a la gracing the stage of Lollapalooza 2023, performing on multiple continents, becoming a mom, and closing out the Gobi Tent at Coachella in 2024. Everything just set the stage for the gold-certified songstress to assert herself as a versatile, vibrant, and vital presence on her 2024 double-LP, Memoir of a Sparklemuffin”.

Prior to getting to the great albums due on 20th September, there is one more from 13th that I am interested in. Tindersticks’ Soft Tissue. One of the most prolific bands around, this is going to be another tremendous and original album from Tindersticks. Nobody sounds like them. I think that there are many people who will want to pre-order this album:

“Tindersticks' 14th album Soft Tissue showcases their exploratory spirit, mixing intimate songwriting with experimental soundscapes. The album evolves from their previous work, balancing introspective lyrics with innovative musical textures. Band members, including singer Stuart Staples, emphasize the collaborative nature of the creation process, fostering a dynamic dialogue that shapes their music. Key tracks like "New World" and "Always a Stranger" highlight this blend of personal reflection and sonic exploration, underscoring the band's enduring ambition and versatility”.

There are five from 20th September I am excited to get to. The first is Blossoms’ Gary. The Stockport band released their eponymous debut in 2016. Their fifth studio album follows 2022’s acclaimed Ribbon Around the Bomb. I am really looking forward to hearing what Gary offers, as Blossoms are a fantastic band who have been consistently releasing brilliant music since their inception. I would recommend those new to the band to pre-order Gary, as it will be a really rewarding and satisfying album. It is shaping up to be among this year’s most promising releases:

“Produced by J Lloyd (Jungle 12M MLs) and James Skelly, What Can I Say After I'm Sorry? ushers in the start of the band's 5th album campaign. The album titled Gary is named after a 8 foot fibre glass gorilla was stolen from a Lanarkshire Garden Centre in early 2023, and since then there has been a campaign to locate him, his rear end was recently found, but his frontage is still missing! Cameo from Everton Football Manager Sean Dyche…The band's 5th album comes after four top 5 albums in the UK. Blossoms’ 2016 debut topped the album charts for two consecutive weeks and went on to earn the band Brit Award and Mercury Prize nominations, while 2018’s Cool Like You charted at Number 4 in the UK album chart, spawning the anthemic singles I Can’t Stand It, There’s A Reason Why (I Never Returned Your Calls) and How Long Will This Last? Their third studio album, 2020’s Foolish Loving Spaces was the band’s second UK Number 1 album and following the release of In Isolation/Live From The Plaza Theatre, Stockport in 2020”.

The next album due on 20th September I want to recommend is Joan as Police Woman’ Lemons, Limes & Orchids. Yet another September with a wonderful cover, I am looking forward to hearing the new album from an artist I have been following for a while. Go and pre-order Lemons, Limes & Orchids. Joan as Policewoman is such a distinct and remarkable artist. With every album, she produces work that gets into the heart, mind and soul. Her forthcoming release will be no exception to that rule:

“The twelfth of her studio albums, Lemons, Limes, and Orchids is a crowning showcase of Joan's voice in all its metamorphic splendour.

“I was ready to make an album that truly featured my voice. The basics were recorded like they used to be- with me singing live along with the band. My good friend said told me this is the sexiest album I’ve ever made. Honestly, I think she’s right.”

The record is a nocturne about love and loss — what else is there? — and a reckoning with our collective disorientation, part hymn to holding on and part benediction of letting go.

Joan has toured the globe, performing in dive bars and symphony halls, at independent music festivals and on the BBC, and has collaborated with a kaleidoscope of luminaries, including Lou Reed, Rufus Wainwright, Tony Allen, Damon Albarn, John Cale, Laurie Anderson, Sufjan Stevens, Anohni, Beck, Meshell Ndegeocello, Toshi Reagon, David Byrne, and Daniel Johnston. She has participated in three Africa Express trips, teaches at NYU’s Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music, lives in Brooklyn, and loves the world”.

There are three albums from musical Katys/Kates. We have new work from Katy Perry (143) and Kate Pierson (Radios and Rainbows). The best of the K-named artist releasing a new album on 13th September is Katy J Pearson with Someday, Now. Go and pre-order the album. Here are all the details that you need to know:

“Following 2020’s Return and 2022’s Sound of the Morning, Someday, Now sees Katy J Pearson’s signature acoustic-led, sweetly-voiced singer-songwriter fare transmuted through the desk of electronic producer Nathan Jenkins, aka Bullion. After a period of burnout, self-enforced exile from music-making, and solo travel, Pearson came back to her practice with clarity of mind and vision. “I knew exactly who I wanted to work with, I knew exactly who my session band were going to be, I knew where I wanted to record. It felt like I was finally calling the shots for myself, and that was so empowering”, she reflects.

Where previous Katy J Pearson records were made with a slower, more piecemeal approach, Someday, Now was rigorously written and rehearsed ahead of time, and laid down efficiently over a couple of weeks at Rockfield Studios in Monmouthshire, with a band composed of Heavenly label-mates Huw Evans [H. Hawkline, Aldous Harding, Cate Le Bon, and Pearson’s Sound of the Morning and The Wicker Man EP] and Davey Newington [Boy Azooga], along with fellow Broadside Hacks collaborator Joel Burton. It was engineered by Joe Jones [Aldous Harding, Dry Cleaning, Jane Weaver]”.

I will do two more albums from 20th September before ending with three from 27th September. The next from 20th is Nelly Furtado and 7. Again, there is little about the album available on the Rough Trade site. I would advise people to check out interviews like this. You will get some more background and insight from Furtado. I have loved her music ever since her 2000 debut, Whoa, Nelly! It is one of my favourite albums from that decade. Her seventh studio album, in spite of the uninspiring title, seems like it is going to be a very personal album. One that follows on from 2017’s The Ride. Even if you are new to Nelly Furtado or have dipped in and out through the years, I would suggest people go and pre-order her new album:

“Grammy Award-winning global superstar Nelly Furtado releases her highly anticipated new studio album, 7. Her most inspired and personal collection to date, 7 is the culmination of four years of artistic rediscovery. Nelly Furtado is an undisputed icon whose innovative songwriting shaped an era and transformed pop music”.

Let’s move on to the final album due for release on 20th September. I am looking ahead to Pale Waves’ Smitten. A band that I am pretty keen on, it is going to be an incredible album I am very sure. The Manchester band should definitely be on your radar. I think that you need to get involved with them. Go and pre-order their upcoming album. It is going to be truly tremendous:

“Acclaimed Manchester-based pop-rock outfit Pale Waves burst onto the scene back in 2018 with the runaway success of their debut album My Mind Makes Noises. Two top five albums later and an outpouring of support from the likes of BBC Radio 1, Apple Music, Spotify, NME, and more, the band are back with a newfound maturity to accompany their fourth studio album Smitten.

While Pale Waves’ first three albums focussed on the band’s immediate present, Smitten is a lot more preoccupied with past lives – some more recent than others. Written two years after Unwanted, and after the tour that followed, Heather found herself in a headspace where she could finally breathe, and reflect, like peeling through the pages of a long-forgotten teenage diary and being surprised by what she found. “I found myself writing about not just a certain time period, but my whole life, from years ago,” she says. “When I fall in love, I fall deep, and it’s interesting to me that you can feel so fascinated and smitten with someone and then they can become a total stranger. So I feel like Smitten really summarised perfectly what I felt for others at a certain point”.

Even though there are many more from 20th September worth buying, I am selecting three from 27th September you will want to pre-order. The first one is Hayden Thorpe’s Ness. The former Wild Beasts lead has had this amazing solo career. This is an album with another fabulous cover. Quite a bounty in September! If you are new to his work, I would suggest you pre-order Ness. It is going to be a sumptuous and beautiful album. The concept and narrative for his upcoming work is really engrossing and original. I am compelled to listen and see what Ness offers:

“Using a process of redaction, Thorpe brings songs to life from the pages of best-selling author Robert Macfarlane’s book of the same name. Ness is inspired by Suffolk’s Orford Ness, the former Ministry of Defence weapons development site during both World Wars and the Cold War. Acquired by the National Trust in 1993 and left to re-wild, it to this day remains a place of paradox, mystery and constant evolution. Thorpe’s Ness is an ode to Orford Ness, the physical place and the book it inspired, both featuring the words of Robert Macfarlane and the artwork of Stanley Donwood.  Where possible, this album has been made using recycled materials”.

Let’s wrap up with two more albums from 27th September. The first is Holly Macve’s Wonderland. You may not know this artist. You really do need to listen to her music, as she is this relatively undiscovered gem. I think people need to pre-order Wonderland. If you need some more details about an album that is sure to scoop some hugely positive reviews, then the below should give you some guidance:

“Having been declared by Lana Del Rey as "one of the most beautiful singing voices in the world," Holly Macve returns with her 3rd album Wonderland.

Released on her own imprint 'Loving Memory Records' Wonderland is Macve's most opulent, cinematic, luxurious album yet and confirms Macve's status as one of the UK's most exciting songwriters.

When singer-songwriter Holly Macve wrote her third album Wonderland, it coincided with a period of profound transformation - but not in any way she could have imagined. "It's been a time of real change in my life," she shares. "Moments of extreme highs and extreme lows, it's just kind of been chaos."

Now taking ownership of her journey in every possible way, optimistic that the future is finally looking a lot brighter. "I think that Wonderland is meant to represent the next chapter in my life, which is me being unashamedly myself," she says,"and just appreciating being alive”.

The final September-due album I want to highlight is bittersweet. It is the posthumous eponymous album from the much-missed SOPHIE. We sadly lost her in 2021 having suffered an accidental fall in Greece. Her absence is notable and yet her influence lives on. SOPHIE is such an important album that people need to pre-order:

“SOPHIE, the self-titled second album from the visionary artist, producer and pop pioneer, released via Transgressive and Future Classic.

This album was created by SOPHIE and some of her most cherished collaborators. Close to completion when she tragically died, it has been lovingly finalised by those who hold her closest. As SOPHIE's studio manager and most trusted sounding board for over a decade, Benny Long was heavily involved in the release of Oil Of Every Pearl's Un-insides, with mastering, production and mixing credits to his name. The two then worked together over several years developing the concept and production of this follow-up album, which Benny has lovingly completed, honouring SOPHIE’s vision.

“When we, SOPHIE’s family, took our first steps towards bringing this project to fruition we contacted the dear friends with whom she envisioned the album. We wrote, “We have been finding comfort in the music SOPHIE left us, it is a gift that we truly cherish as we try to find a way forward, with SOPHIE forever at the centre of our worlds.”

SOPHIE didn’t often speak publicly of her private life, preferring to put everything she wanted to articulate in her music. It feels only right to share with the world the music she hoped to release, in the belief that we can all connect with her in this, the form she loved most.

This album has always told the story of SOPHIE’s musical journey, a cacophony of skill and creative vision eclipsing time and genre. Her unique sound world moves at an emotional level, encouraging the listener to intuitively embrace the ever-evolving landscape of light and dark, soft and hard, to the end of self-love and joyful self-acceptance. Emphasising contradictions of sound and material, SOPHIE’s work supersedes the pure aural to create the dimension she dreamed of.

Now, it holds another poignant meaning, it tells a life story, from mysterious unknown, through wild clublands, to euphoric immateriality.

SOPHIE gave all of herself to her music. It’s here that she can always be found”.

Above are albums from next month that you will want to investigate. So much variety and choice! From SOPHIE and London Grammar to David Gilmour and Suki Waterhouse, it is a really busy month with some potential year-best releases. You can check out what else is out next month. If you are stuck of which albums you need to add to your collection, I hope that the selections in this feature…

PROVIDE some useful guidance.

FEATURE: Spotlight: Dua Saleh

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

PHOTO CREDIT: Grant Spanier

Dua Saleh

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AN album that I am looking forward to…

comes from the Los Angeles-based Sudanese-American artist Dua Saleh. Their forthcoming album, I SHOULD CALL THEM is among the most anticipated of the year. Such a remarkable talent. This incredible actor and artist, we all need to turn our attention to what they are about to deliver to us. I want to bring in some articles and interviews. Highlighting the phenomenal Dua Saleh. I want to actually start out with someone else spotlighting Saleh. The Guardian recently included them in their Ones to Watch feature. Someone who definitely has a fanbase and traction here in the U.K. Make sure that you follow this incredible musician:

“Since 2017, the artist’s songs have folded in rap, indie, rock, jazz and R&B with poignant musings on love, self and grief. Saleh has previously said their comfort in making such unapologetic self-explorations is rooted in finding their voice from a young age. Their family were refugees from the second Sudanese civil war, moving from place to place before eventually settling in the US, in Minneapolis. There, a teenage Saleh led a high school walkout in protest against the disproportionate school-to-prison link for disadvantaged young people, acutely aware of injustice and the need for collective action and care.

Their spectacular forthcoming debut album, I Should Call Them, is somewhere in the same league as Ghanaian American star Amaarae in terms of its boisterous, unrelenting ambition. Saleh flits between sugary vocals and more unflinching, rap-adjacent inflections over cosmic electronics, sultry strings and cacophonous guitars. It’s a bold, mesmerising set of songs examining softness, toxic relationships and climate anxiety. Saleh is unafraid to take up space and, in turn, create it for others. In doing so, they look set to become one of the most inventive, sensual pop purveyors of the moment”.

It is important to hear from Dua Saleh. Get to know more about them. Deservedly, they won the Rising Star in Music as declared by Gay Times last year. As we see it is a big and important honour for Saleh. They have managed to maintain this varied and brilliant acting career but also this focus on music. A singular sound that is like nothing else around it. Such a distinctive artist who I am fairly new to. Do make sure that they are on the radar:

“Dua Saleh is the recipient of the GAY TIMES Honour for Rising Star in Music.

Saleh has seamlessly made huge strides in both music and acting.

Revolting against the binary, they have fluidly intersected genres and created their own music that crosses over a glitchy alt-pop sound to sultry afrobeats and, more recently, emo genre. Saleh delighted fans in 2023 with their return to music under new record label 2023, Ghostly International, with single ‘Daylight Falls’.

Their unexpected venture into music at the age of 22 was enriched and influenced by Saleh’s formative years. They were born in Kassala, before the Second Sudanese Civil War, ahead of fleeing to the States as a refugee of war.

“In Arabic, a lot of the sentences strung together are naturally prose or poetry,” they told GAY TIMES exclusively in their Honours cover interview. “I think Sudanese people are wordsmiths even if they’re not trying to be, there’s a real charm to the language.”

They also recalled how the imam’s prayer calls introduced them to pentatonic scales, which they now draw on when making left-field R&B.

This poetic quality is evident in their work that integrates English, Spanish, Arabic and patois, enmeshing their experience of spoken word to explore the musings and complexities of non-binary identity and sapphic romance.

PHOTO CREDIT: Erik Carter

The LA-based star has released three EPs Nūr, Rosetta and Crossover, all of which have received widespread critical acclaim and racked up more than 81 million streams cumulatively. The EPs were followed up with the album Crossover, which sits alongside an impressive portfolio of remixes and collaborations including Travis Scott, Bon Iver and Sampha.

This was followed by their acting breakout role in the third season of Netflix’s acclaimed series Sex Education. They starred as Cal Bowman, a new student from Minnesota. Like Saleh, Cal is non-binary and throughout the third and fourth seasons their character navigates gender dysphoria, microaggressions and chosen family networks.

It is their unapologetic commitment to be themselves and carve their own path that they have been celebrated by young Black, Muslim, gender non-confirming and queer people.

They are aware of the importance of this responsibility: “To have a nonbinary Sudanese person who was a refugee on the cover of GAY TIMES, for example, is really incredible. Not to make it about my identity points, but I am hyper-aware of how shifts in history are propelled by moments like these. And as much as I might shy away from it, it’s good to be there for your people, in whatever capacity it is”.

Prior to coming to an interview from this year, I want to go back to last October. Attitude highlighted an intriguing rising star on their stunning growth from poet to songwriter. How they were using artistry to inspire activism, and how queer music speaks to their soul. If you are new to Dua Saleh, I would recommend people look back at their older interviews and music to see where they have come from. How music and influence has changed for them:

“Dua Saleh (they/xe) is a cultural chameleon. You might know them for their powerful performance as heroic character Cal, who is trans, in Sex Education.

You may also be familiar with their viral performance poetry on social media. Now, signed with a new record label, they return to the spotlight with new single, ‘daylight falls’ and an upcoming R&B-inspired album. 

Here, James Hodge talks to Dua about their growth from poet to songwriter, using artistry to inspire activism, and how queer music speaks to their soul. 

You began life in Sudan, and then moved to America, where you have lived all over the country. Who were the pop culture icons that you grew up with?

The biggest Sudanese influence was Mohamed Wardi. He’s a big star in Africa: he’s our Madonna, our Michael Jackson. He makes operatic music in the Sudanese tradition. He’s very high drama, which I love – that’s where I get my dramatic flavour from. But then there’s my Western influences. Beyonce, of course, is my biggest influence. I need to stop saying that in interviews – she’s going to think I’m a crazed fan, but I really love her. And then there’s my love of punk: the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, the Sex Pistols…

You began your artistic career as a performance poet and later made the move to music. How did the transition take place? 

Creativity is in my bloodline: Sudan is a melting pot of culture amongst the African nations. I’ve been writing poetry since I was three years old. Songwriting came later and was a natural development from that but it came from a different place. I was suffering with depression because I wasn’t being honest with myself about my non-binary identity. My gender dysphoria made me anxious – I was constantly being referred to as a woman and it was extremely triggering. As my music emerged, I found it soothed me. Music was and continues to be my saviour.

Are politics important to your music?

Personally, I try to avoid politics in my art itself. I am a musician – I don’t know anywhere near as much as NGOs and action groups about political life. But I engage in politics by supporting these organizations and aiding them through my creative outlets. Currently, I’m working with groups who are trying to get assistance to Sudan as they’re in the midst of a civil war. I’m planning on throwing fundraisers when I perform later this year to raise money for the Darfur Women’s Action Group. 

PHOTO CREDIT: Braden Lee

Your new single, ‘daylight falls’, explores what it means to be a survivor. What inspired it? 

It’s deliberately ambiguous because I wanted it to remain universal – about struggles in all their forms. It’s for anyone who is wrestling with their mental health. I wanted to offer words that encouraged the listener who is in need, whatever the cause – depression, addiction – to talk about how they are feeling. Suicidal ideation is something that I struggled with in the past. Instead of climbing on the railing on the edge of a bridge, talk to somebody, anybody. Family, friends. 

It’s a different sound for you, venturing into indie music. What inspired it?

Olivia Rodrigo was a start point – I love current punk pop, alongside the pioneers of electronic music. I’ve recently signed with a new label – Ghostly International – and I’ve been writing for other artists like Travis Scott, but this was my first time working with other songwriters. I came with ideas, with melodies – I’m very melody-driven, but working with incredible talent helped me to make it perfect. That’s what I strive for as an artist – simply to make the best song possible.

The video is very striking in its visuals in its journey out of the darkness. It ends with a striking explosion of pink and blue. What is the significance of the ending?

I wanted the ending to culminate with my return to life out of the darkness. It’s an acknowledgement of my transness. 

Your upcoming album, in contrast, has a very different sound. You have hinted that it’s going to be R&B. Can you give us anymore teasers as to what to expect?

It’s really queer. It’s boisterous. For me, queer music is like when you look up to the heavens and find amongst the clouds a glowing clarity – a beautiful sound that bursts through. It is the universe reaching out to us. 

And on that note, it’s been a hard week for queer people in UK politics. What message would you offer the community during this time of struggle?

It’s easy for us to talk about hope, but we must stay strong and continue to fight. You deserve your rights. Voice your concerns loudly – be honest and proud of your existence.  Don’t let people tell you that you can’t be yourself and continue to lobby – we have to push politicians to do what’s right”.

The final feature that I want to bring in is from DAZED. A beautiful and fresh fusing of Black Metal and R&B, it is no surprise that Dua Saleh has been gaining a lot of intertest and conversation around them. It is only a matter of time before they are a festival fixture. I would love to see Saleh at Glastonbury next year. The release of I SHOULD CALL THEM should make that almost a sure-fire eventuality:

“Using straightforward R&B and rock elements to underscore feelings of betrayal and lust, “want” chronicles the realities of situationships, specifically, toxic on-again, off-again situationships. “It’s an anthem for those relationships that might happen at the right time but feel so right that you go against your intuition,” Saleh explains. “It’s about discovering self-worth but still wanting to lean into that cheeky naughtiness.”

“want” is Saleh’s latest single, a captivating glimpse of what’s to come from their highly anticipated debut album I SHOULD CALL THEM, which is set to be released in October via Ghostly International. Saleh, who first attracted attention online for their poetry, signed to Ghostly International in 2023 after releasing their punk-infused stand-alone single “daylight falls”.

Following their three critically acclaimed EPs, alongside their breakout role in Netflix’s hit series Sex Education, Saleh has skillfully combined and reversed genre norms with a gritty, bold and melodic sound that is socially concerned. Their new album, I SHOULD CALL THEM, is a unique compilation of electronic indie-pop songs with R&B influences. This blend of genres is both creative and profoundly personal, as the album celebrates the joy, resiliency and spiritual strength of love shared by two star-crossed lovers. And featuring striking collaborations with Gallant, serpentwithfeet, Sid Sriram and Ambré, I SHOULD CALL THEM is a statement record that only Saleh could make.

We spoke to the LA-based musician about their music, the conflation between their activism and artistry and how R&B is their safe space. 

How would you describe your music to someone who’s not come across your music?

Dua Saleh: I can’t really describe my music as it stands now, but I can give you some insight into the music that I’m currently releasing. There is an emphasis on R&B and alternative R&B that I’m leaning towards because of influences from childhood. Nostalgia is a huge part of creation for me right now and R&B is a safe space for me to fall back on when I need to calm my nerves. I would describe my new singles as R&B with electronic infusions. It’s an homage to my love for the genre.

What are your earliest memories of music?

Dua Saleh: Probably listening to cassette albums with my mom in Asmara, Eritrea. I remember listening to a bunch of people and dancing with them in my neighbourhood during “Haflas”, another word for Sudanese parties.

What’s your star sign, and are you a typical one of that sign?

Dua Saleh: Scorpio, and yes, I am, but only because I have six-star placements in Scorpio on my chart!

What’s your love language?

Dua Saleh: Quality time.

If you could create a new micro-genre of music, what would you call it, and what would it sound like?

Dua Saleh: I’m creating it already. One of my upcoming songs is a mixture of R&B and Black Metal. Keep an eye out for that.

What music are you listening to right now?

Dua Saleh: Throwbacks. Brandy, Wutang and Mya etc.

Are there any misconceptions about you?

Dua Saleh: People think I’m an activist! I’m not. I’m mainly smooth-brained!

Do you have any guilty pleasures?

Dua Saleh: Sweets. Lately, I haven’t been able to stop eating baklava”

Out on 11th October through Ghostly International, I SHOULD CALL THEM will announce Dua Saleh as this incredible young artist. Someone already established as an actor, I think that their music is even more remarkable. A person who clearly brings a lot of the disciplines and emotions from acting into their music (ands vice versa), I am going to be keen to see what the future holds for them. If you do not know about the magnificent Dua Saleh, then make sure that you…

CORRECT that now.

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Follow Dua Saleh 

Official:

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FEATURE: The Digital Mixtape: Elvis Costello at Seventy

FEATURE:

 

 

The Digital Mixtape

Elvis Costello at Seventy

_________

ON 25th August…

PHOTO CREDIT: Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS

we celebrate the seventieth birthday of Elvis Costello. One of the most successful and celebrated artists of his generation, I want to end this feature with a career-spanning playlist of some of his best-known songs. An artist who has achieved so much in his career, I want to bring in this biography from AllMusic. We get some fascinating details and information about a truly legendary musician:

“Elvis Costello arrived as a sneering spitfire, the smartest and meanest singer/songwriter in the first wave of 1970s British punk backed by the Attractions, a band who could match his ferocity. Soon, Costello galloped away from the loud, fast rules of punk, demonstrating his musical and verbal facility with Armed Forces, a 1979 album that contained "Oliver's Army," "Accidents Will Happen," and his cover of Nick Lowe's "(What's So Funny About) Peace, Love and Understanding," a trio of singles that turned into new wave standards. Such rapid musical evolution and switches in style became the rule in Costello's career, as he amassed a catalog that seemed to touch upon every conceivable genre of popular music. Many of his more esoteric projects arrived in his middle age and beyond, after he'd cultivated a loyal audience in the '80s through a series of rapid-fire masterpieces, most backed by the Attractions. He later reconvened the band -- and later still, retains most of the players for his latter-day backing group the Imposters -- but starting with 1989's Spike, Costello seized the freewheeling opportunities that came with being a solo act, bouncing from dense pop to classical compositions to collaborations with '60s icons Paul McCartney and Burt Bacharach. This sense of adventure increased in the 2000s as he toured with the Imposters, cut Americana albums with his old cohort T-Bone Burnett, and collaborated with both New Orleans R&B legend Allen Toussaint and the venerated hip-hop group the Roots. His eclecticism never seemed forced: the one constant in his career was an insatiable appetite for music, a hunger evidenced by such adventurous albums as the jazz-inflected Hey Clockface and Spanish Model, where he reworked This Year's Model with contemporary Latino singers. Alongside his left-turns, stripped-down albums like 2022's The Boy Named If showed that the fire that inspired him to pick up a guitar in the first place hasn't dimmed even a little.

The son of British bandleader Ross McManus, Costello (born Declan McManus) worked as a computer programmer during the early '70s, performing under the name D.P. Costello in various folk clubs. In 1976, he became the leader of country-rock group Flip City. During this time, he recorded several demo tapes of his original material with the intention of landing a record contract. A copy of these tapes made its way to Jake Riviera, one of the heads of the fledgling independent record label Stiff. Riviera signed Costello to Stiff as a solo artist in 1977; the singer/songwriter adopted the name Elvis Costello at this time, taking his first name from Elvis Presley and his last name from his mother's maiden name.

With former Brinsley Schwarz bassist Nick Lowe producing, Costello began recording his debut album with the American band Clover providing support. "Less Than Zero," the first single released from these sessions, appeared in April of 1977. The single failed to chart, as did its follow-up, "Alison," which was released the following month. By the summer of 1977, Costello's permanent backing band had been assembled. Featuring bassist Bruce Thomas, keyboardist Steve Nieve, and drummer Pete Thomas (no relation to Bruce), the group was named the Attractions; they made their live debut in July of 1977.

Costello's debut album, My Aim Is True, was released in the summer of 1977 to positive reviews; it climbed to number 14 on the British charts but it wasn't released on his American label, Columbia, until later in the year. Along with Nick Lowe, Ian Dury, and Wreckless Eric, Costello participated in the Stiff label's Live package tour in the fall. At the end of the year, Jake Riviera split from Stiff to form Radar Records, taking Costello and Lowe with him. Costello's last single for Stiff, the reggae-inflected "Watching the Detectives," became his first hit, climbing to number 15 at the end of the year.

This Year's Model, Costello's first album recorded with the Attractions, was released in the spring of 1978. A rawer, harder-rocking record than My Aim Is True, This Year's Model was also a bigger hit, reaching number four in Britain and number 30 in America. Released the following year, Armed Forces was a more ambitious and musically diverse album than either of his previous records. It was another hit, reaching number two in the U.K. and cracking the Top Ten in the U.S. "Oliver's Army," the first single from the album, also peaked at number two in Britain; none of the singles from Armed Forces charted in America. In the summer of 1979, he produced the self-titled debut album by the Specials, the leaders of the ska revival movement.

In February of 1980, the soul-influenced Get Happy!! was released; it was the first record on Riviera's new record label, F-Beat. Get Happy!! was another hit, peaking at number two in Britain and number 11 in America. Later that year, a collection of B-sides, singles, and outtakes called Taking Liberties was released in America; in Britain, a similar album called Ten Bloody Marys & Ten How's Your Fathers appeared as a cassette-only release, complete with different tracks than the American version.

Costello and the Attractions released Trust in early 1981; it was Costello's fifth album in a row produced by Lowe. Trust debuted at number nine in the British charts and worked its way into the Top 30 in the U.S. During the spring of 1981, Costello and the Attractions began recording an album of country covers with famed Nashville producer Billy Sherrill, who recorded hit records for George Jones and Charlie Rich, among others. The resulting album, Almost Blue, was released at the end of the year to mixed reviews, although the single "A Good Year for the Roses" was a British Top Ten hit.

Costello's next album, Imperial Bedroom (1982), was an ambitious set of lushly arranged pop produced by Geoff Emerick, who engineered several of the Beatles' most acclaimed albums. Imperial Bedroom received some of his best reviews, yet it failed to yield a Top 40 hit in either England or America; the album did debut at number six in the U.K. For 1983's Punch the Clock, Costello worked with Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley, who were responsible for several of the biggest British hits in the early '80s. The collaboration proved commercially successful, as the album peaked at number three in the U.K. (number 24 in the U.S.) and the single "Everyday I Write the Book" cracked the Top 40 in both Britain and America. Costello tried to replicate the success of Punch the Clock with his next record, 1984's Goodbye Cruel World, but the album was a commercial and critical failure.

After the release of Goodbye Cruel World, Costello embarked on his first solo tour in the summer of 1984. He was relatively inactive in 1985, releasing only one new single ("The People's Limousine," a collaboration with singer/songwriter T-Bone Burnett issued under the name the Coward Brothers) and producing Rum Sodomy and the Lash, the second album by the punk-folk band the Pogues. Both projects were indications that he was moving toward a stripped-down, folky approach, and 1986's King of America confirmed that suspicion. Recorded without the Attractions and released under the name the Costello Show, King of America was essentially a country-folk record, and it received the best reviews of any album he had recorded since Imperial Bedroom. It was followed at the end of the year by the edgy Blood and Chocolate, a reunion with the Attractions and producer Nick Lowe. Costello would not record another album with the Attractions until 1994.

During 1987, Costello negotiated a new worldwide record contract with Warner Bros. and began a songwriting collaboration with Paul McCartney. Two years later, he released Spike, the most musically diverse collection he had ever recorded. Spike featured the first appearance of songs written by Costello and McCartney, including the single "Veronica." "Veronica" became his biggest American hit, peaking at number 19. Two years later, he released Mighty Like a Rose, which echoed Spike in its diversity, yet it was a darker, more challenging record. In 1993, Costello collaborated with the Brodsky Quartet on The Juliet Letters, a song cycle that was the songwriter's first attempt at classical music; he also wrote an entire album for former Transvision Vamp singer Wendy James called Now Ain't the Time for Your Tears. That same year, Costello licensed the rights to his pre-1987 catalog (My Aim Is True to Blood and Chocolate) to Rykodisc in America.

Costello reunited with the Attractions to record the majority of 1994's Brutal Youth, the most straightforward and pop-oriented album he had recorded since Goodbye Cruel World. The Attractions backed Costello on a worldwide tour in 1994 and played concerts with him throughout 1995. In 1995, he released his long-shelved collection of covers, Kojak Variety. In the spring of 1996, Costello released All This Useless Beauty, which featured a number of original songs he had given to other artists but never recorded himself. Painted from Memory, a collaboration with the legendary Burt Bacharach, followed in 1998. The album was a success critically, but it only succeeded in foreign markets, outside of its home countries of the United States and Britain. A jazz version of the record made with Bill Frisell was put on hold when Costello's label began to freeze up due to political maneuvering. Undaunted, Costello and Bacharach hit the road and performed in the States and Europe. Then, after Bacharach left, Costello added Steve Nieve to the tour and traveled around the world on what they dubbed the Lonely World Tour. This took them into 1999, when both Notting Hill and Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me featured significant contributions from Costello. In fact, he appeared with Bacharach in the latter as one of a pair of Carnaby Street musicians, albeit street musicians with a gorgeous grand piano at their disposal.

Continuing his tour with Nieve, he began singing the last song without a microphone, forcing the audience to sit in complete silence as he usually performed "Couldn't Call It Unexpected, No. 4" with nothing but his dulcet baritone filling the auditorium. After the record company's various mergers ended, Costello found himself on Universal and tested their promotional abilities with a second greatest-hits record (The Very Best of Elvis Costello). The label promoted the album strongly, making it a hit in his native Britain. Unfortunately, they also made it clear that they had no intention of giving a new album the same promotional push, leaving him to venture into other fields as he awaited the end of his record contract. His first project was a collection of pop standards performed with Anne Sofie Von Otter, which included a few songs originally written by Costello. The album was released in March 2001 on the Deutsche Grammophon label, neatly coinciding with the extensive re-release of his entire catalog up to 1996 under Rhino Records. Each disc included an extra CD of rare material and liner notes written by Costello himself, making them incredible treats for fans.

In 2001, he found himself with a residency at UCLA, where he performed several concerts and was instrumental in teaching music during the year. He also began work on a self-produced album that featured Pete Thomas and Nieve -- now billed as a band called the Imposters -- entitled When I Was Cruel, and the album finally found release on Island Records in the spring of 2002; at the end of the year, he released a collection of B-sides and leftovers from the album's sessions entitled Cruel Smile.

When I Was Cruel kicked off another productive era for the ever-prolific Costello. In 2003, he returned with North, a collection of classically styled pop songs pitched halfway between Gershwin and Sondheim. The next year, he collaborated with his new wife, Diana Krall, on her first collection of original material, The Girl in the Other Room. That fall, Costello released two albums of his own original material: a classical work entitled Il Sogno and the concept album The Delivery Man, a rock & roll record cut with the Imposters. Issued in 2006, My Flame Burns Blue was a live album with Costello fronting the 52-piece jazz orchestra the Metropole Orkest; the release featured classic Costello songs (with new orchestral arrangements) alongside new compositions and a performance of Il Sogno in its entirety.

The River in Reverse, a collaboration with R&B legend Allen Toussaint, arrived in 2006, followed by Momofuku, another effort credited to Elvis Costello & the Imposters, in 2008. That same year, Costello teamed up with veteran producer T-Bone Burnett for a series of recording sessions, the results of which were compiled into Secret, Profane & Sugar Cane and readied for release in early 2009. The pair also recorded a second album, National Ransom, which appeared the following year. In 2011, Costello & the Imposters released The Return of the Spectacular Spinning Songbook!!!, which was recorded live over a two-day stint at the Wiltern in Los Angeles. The next year or so was relatively quiet, but at the end of 2012 he released a new compilation called In Motion Pictures, which rounded up songs he contributed to films.

Costello devoted himself to working with hip-hop band the Roots in 2013. Originally planned as a reinterpretation of songs from his vast catalog, the album Wise Up Ghost turned into a full-fledged collaboration and was greeted by positive reviews upon its September 2013 release on Blue Note. In 2015, Costello announced that he was completing work on his memoirs, and that the book, titled Unfaithful Music & Disappearing Ink, was scheduled for publication in October 2015. Costello also compiled a companion album, Unfaithful Music & Soundtrack Album, which featured a career-spanning selection of songs from his catalog, as well as two previously unreleased selections.

In July 2018, Costello revealed that he was recovering from a "small but very aggressive cancer." By the time he delivered the news, he was not only on the mend but had a new album with the Imposters in the can. Look Now, the group's first record together in a decade, appeared in October 2018; it won a Grammy Award for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album the following year. Look Now was followed quickly in 2020 with Hey Clockface, the first album credited to Elvis Costello as a solo act in ten years.

Inspired by revisiting the master tapes for "This Year's Model" for a soundtrack contribution to David Simon's The Deuce, Costello decided to rework the album of the same name by preserving the original Attractions backing tapes and adding new Spanish-language vocals by contemporary Latino musicians such as Juanes. The resulting Spanish Model appeared in September 2021. At the same time Costello was working on a new set of songs using the skills of Attractions' drummer Pete Thomas and keyboardist Steve Nieve, along with longtime Imposters' bassist Davey Faragher. Recorded remotely, The Boy Named If eschews any hint of introspection in favor of the vitriolic sonic kick of early Costello records and big, tangled emotion. Released in early 2022, the album also features a duet with Nicole Atkins”.

As Elvis Costello turns seventy on 25th August, it is only right to mark his contribution to music. How much of an icon he is. I am going to end with a playlist. A collection of some big hits that most people know, alongside some lesser-known cuts. Showing the huge breadth and depth of his talent. Make sure that you start the playlist and…

PUMP it up!

FEATURE: Kate Bush’s Before the Dawn at Ten: The Cast, Crew and Big Names in Attendance

FEATURE:

 

 

Kate Bush’s Before the Dawn at Ten

PHOTO CREDIT: Ken McKay/Rex Features

The Cast, Crew and Big Names in Attendance

_________

THIS will be the penultimate…

feature that I write about Before the Dawn. I have been fascinated by the whole experience. This whole residency that nobody really expected to happen! It was a great shock when Kate Bush announced this extensive run of shows at Hammersmith. Taking the original fifteen dates and then expanding it to twenty-two, this was a hugely acclaimed ‘return’ for an icon. I have covered so many different elements and aspects of the residency and how it was is important. The thoughts and feelings Kate Bush would have had when she took to the stage for the first time on 26th August, 2014. That sense of excitement and nerves. I will finish with a more general assessment and feeling. Maybe where Kate Bush goes from here. I wanted to use this feature to discuss the cast and crew. Those who were on stage with Kate Bush. Also, the fact that so many big names came and witnessed before the Dawn ten years ago. I will start with words from Kate Bush about why she decided to embark on this quite exhausting and committed residency:

“Kate about Before The Dawn

I’d got to a point where I’d down two albums very quickly, one after the other and I didn’t want to go in and make another album. So I thought maybe I should do some live shows. (Laughs) That’s what happened. I didn’t want to do the shows without Bertie because I thought he’d be a very valuable part of the process, which he was, and it needed to fall at a time that worked around his schedule and that happened to be a good time for him.

I thought the whole idea of putting a show together would be a lot of fun. Not that being in it would be fun, that was very frightening. But putting a show together was something I thought I could do. (…)

I really liked the idea of trying to move from what seemed to be a straight rock concert into a piece of theatre. And what I thought would be fascinating – which I’d not seen done before – was moving from obvious rock show, rhythmic lighting to theatrical lighting.

Jim Irvin, ‘Waving… Not Drowning’. Mojo (UK), January 2017”.

One of the big reasons the shows were so applauded was what was coming from the band. If you think about how important it is to get the right players connected, this is what Kate Bush did. It must have been quite a process deciding who would work well together. As she was piecing together the residency and how it would look, she almost had to approach it like an album. Which of her players would be best. Perhaps she did not want to rehearse loads of musicians and then whittle them down. Instead, she would have known those who were right for the show and then there was a lot of rehearsal. I would be interested to know what that process was like and whether Bush had this longlist of musicians that she did have to cut down. On drums was the magnificent Omar Hakim. One of the most essential and potent players on the stage, Hakim was responsible for some of the most driving, powerful and impactful moments during the residency. Also on percussion was Mino Cinélu. Those two incredible artists giving the heartbeat to the show. An old friend of Kate Bush’s, John Giblin, sadly died last year. He was on bass. He has worked with Kate Bush as early as Never for Ever in 1980. Rather than Bush choosing older band members she worked with before exclusively or going with those who she was fresh to, there was this mix. I like the fact that she worked with Giblin and his incredible bass work was heard by thousands. David Rhodes was one of the guitarists alongside Friðrik Karlsson (who also played bouzouki and charango). In October 2013, David Rhodes was invited to join the band for Bush’s Before the Dawn. The first rehearsals took place in March 2014 with Kate Bush, John Giblin and Rhodes. Band rehearsals started in April 2014. The live shows were recorded and released as Before The Dawn in November 2016. I will move on but, interestingly, David Rhodes spoke with Super Deluxe Edition in 2016 about working with Kate Bush. Also, some of the songs that were rehearsed and considered for Before the Dawn but not used:

“SuperDeluxeEdition: How was it? Can you sum up the whole experience of those six weeks performing in Before The Dawn?

David Rhodes: It wasn’t just six weeks of course, I found out about it, or I was asked about joining, last October [2013].

SDE: And how were you approached; how did that happen?

DR: That was quite funny. I got a call from her [Kate’s] manager. No, it was an email from her manager and he said can you call me as soon as. So I called him and he said would you be interested in playing for Kate and I said “yeah, of course.” He then said “can she call you tomorrow?” and I was out on the road, I was in Dusseldorf with Peter Gabriel and so I said “yeah, if she calls me at nine o’clock her time, I’ll have had breakfast and I’ll be back in my room reading the paper.” I was back in my room reading the paper and I’d forgotten she was going to call and you know when you get an unknown number on your mobile, it’s PPI or it’s your own bank or it’s some shit and I picked it up and just went “AND WHAT DO YOU WANT?”And then she said, “Oh, it’s Kate” and I spent ten minutes apologising to her! She just sounded … well, it just sounded like a delightful project. I guess I didn’t speak to her then for quite a long time, but she sent me a list of songs to check out towards the end of the year.

SDE: When you first got that call in October, did she already have quite a clear vision of what she wanted to do?

DR: I think she was pretty damn clear, yeah. She knew the material late in the year, but very precisely. There was only one thing I’d started listening to – and I can’t even remember what it was – but something got ditched.

SDE:  Really? Because The Ninth Wave and the second half of Aerial, A Sky of Honey, they’re obviously as is. You’re not going to leave anything off that.

DR: No, the first section … I can tell you if I look [David clicks around on his computer]

SDE: This is probably a stupid question, but you didn’t have any hesitation in accepting the offer to play…

DR: No, none at all… [David find’s the info on his computer] She was wanting to do Sat in Your Lap and then changed that for Top of the City. We never rehearsed Sat in your Lap. I learned it, but it never got as far as rehearsals.

SDE: If that had been done, that would’ve been the earliest track to be performed, because that was off of 1982’s The Dreaming.

DR: Yeah. Well, Never be Mine we rehearsed quite a lot, but only did it a couple of times.

SDE: Why didn’t Never be Mine make it into the show, then?

DR: I think Never Be Mine was just a bit too downbeat. And then the other thing we looked at briefly, what was it? The Big Sky, which we’d tried. We only tried it once with the whole band – once or twice – and it just sounded like a bit of a mess because she was thinking of that as the encore, maybe. I think both Bertie and I thought Cloudbusting would be better, so we pushed for that”.

Completing the band were Jon Carin and Kevin McAlea. Between them, they handled programming, guitars, vocals and uilleann pipes. Incredible musicians with a lot of experience between them, they worked magnificently alongside Kate Bush. The trust she would have put in her band. The KT Fellowship. Bush did some pre-recorded piano and synths. I like the fact there was this mix of artists who had never all played together before. Also, with the musicians were the singers and cast. This was a production that was much more than a live show. Like The Tour of Life in 1979, this was a theatrical production. In the chorus were Jacqui DuBois, Sandra Marvin, Bob Harms, Jo Serv and Albert McIntosh (Bush’s son). A rich and magnificent sound, again, I am curious how Bush decided on who to select as the chorus. Those voices that would blend together. How big the chorus was going to be. Especially moving and vital when performing on numbers from Hounds of Love. We do not talk about it a lot. It is important to nod to the rest of the cast and crew. The wonderful collection of people who were as pivotal as Kate Bush and her band. Part of the Fellowship:

“Backline Technicians:

Baz Tymms

Chris Lawson

Morten Turbo Thobro

Steve Grey

Sound Consultant: James Guthrie

FOH Engineer & Surround Systems Supervision: Greg Walsh

FOH Engineer: Davide Lombardi

Live Lead Vocal Engineer: Stephen W Tayler

Monitor Engineer: Ian Newton

Surround Systems Engineer: Davey Williamson

Soundscapes: James Drew

THE NINTH WAVE

Astronomer: Kevin Doyle

Witchfinder: Jo Servi

Helicopter Pilot, Harmonic Vocals, Fujare: Paddy Bush

WATCHING THEM WITHOUT HER

Ben: Albert McIntosh

Dad: Bob Harms

Poem at end of Jig of Life written and narrated by John Carder Bush

Astronomer’s Call, Helicopter Pilot, Watching Them Without Her

Written by David Mitchell & Kate Bush

‘Water Tank’ Lead Vocals

Researched & Recorded by Greg Walsh & Ian Newton

Chorus MD: Nick Skilbeck

Puppeteer: Ben Thompson

Puppet Created by Robert Allsopp”.

I am going to end with a bit of an interview Bush was involved with in 2016. Looking at those names above, there is that mix of old friends, family and new people. I guess The Tour of Life was mostly composed of those Bush knew and had worked with. She needed that sense of support and familiarity. Before the Dawn, a bit more daring in that sense. In interviews, Bush did not really talk much about the selection and those working around her. Rather, she talked about the experience of performing and what it was like being on the stage. Sadly, I did not manage to get there. I can only imagine how stunning it would have been hearing the band come together and create something stirring. The wonderful cast and crew who helped bring everything to life. The dedicated hours ensuring it was all exact to Bush’s specifications. I guess it is not possible to name every celebrity that saw Before the Dawn. We all know Kate Bush has many high-profile fans. Whereas the vast majority of the audience were regular fans, there were these familiar faces that were standing alongside them. I guess most came for the first night. Seeing that unique performance. It also makes me feel how the performances differed. Whether that first night – 26th August, 2014  - was more moving and arresting than later dates. If Bush’s nerves were on show that first night. The raft of positive reviews seem to suggest that she was near-flawless. However, she had this incredible audience cheering on her on. The passion and love from the crowd. In 2014, we did see celebrities take to social media to talk about being at Before the Dawn. Witnessing something they would never see the likes of again.

IN THIS PHOTO: Lauren Laverne was among those high-profile names who attended Before the Dawn

If you think about how diverse Kate Bush’s fanbase are, that was highlighted with the high-profile guests. I know that David Bowie was rumoured to be in the audience but was not. Even so, look at this list: Lily Allen, Marc Almond, Gemma Arterton, Bjork, Peter Gabriel, Dave Gilmour, Guido Harari, Holly Johnson, Lauren Laverne, Annie Lennox, Paul McCartney, Caitlin Moran, Frank Skinner and Ricky Wilde. Pete Paphides was also there. So many more celebrities. If you go and get Graeme Thomson’s excellent Under the Ivy: The Life and Music of Kate Bush, you will get more details about Before the Dawn. All the build-up and the people who were there in attendance. He gives a longer list of famous names. I can only imagine too what it was like for normal and regular fans spotting some big names. Chatting with them before going in. Of course, there was a hospitality package that fans could buy. I am not sure how many of the celebrities went for that. I don’t think there was a sense of them divided from the rest. Thinking they were V.I.P. Instead, this was more of a congregation. Brand new fans and diehards alongside celebrities. A real eclectic mixture. This beguiling and overwhelming electricity and awe that Bush received across twenty-two dates ten years ago. I want to finish bringing in some of an interview with FADER.

In 2016, when the live album was released, Bush was asked about Before the Dawn and her recollections. I think she must still have been taking it all in. That feeling of energy and nerves still running through her, two years after the final date:

“As a performer, do you you get lost in the moment or do you focus on the technical intricacies?

I had to stay really focused as a performer because I'm quite nervous, and I wanted to make sure I was really present when I was performing so that I could try and deliver the character of the song. And actually, the first set was the most difficult part to perform for me, because almost each song is from a completely different place.

Before the 2014 shows you hadn’t toured since 1979. When your return to the stage was so well-received, did you wish you’d done it sooner?

I don't know really. The original show was of the first two albums that I’d made, and I had hoped that to do another show after I had another of two albums’ worth of material. And as I started getting much more involved in the recording process, it took me off into a different path where it was all about trying to make a good album. It became very time-consuming, so I moved into being more of a recording artist. And every time you finish an album, there's the opportunity to make visuals to go with some of the tracks. So I became very involved in that, as well”.

 On 26th August, it will be ten years since that first Before the Dawn date. I think that there may be some sort of acknowledgement from Kate Bush. Posting something about being on stage and how she feels about it now. Maybe nothing like a special release or DVD of the residency. Instead, people will take to social media to talk about their thoughts and feelings. I wanted to shine a light on the musicians, cast and crew who were with Kate Bush for Before thew Dawn. Those who we may not think about when discussing the importance and excellence of that residency. It is important to recognise their massive contributions. Ten years ago, they helped create something…

TRULY life-affirming.

FEATURE: New Room for the Life: The Prospect of Remixing Kate Bush’s Tracks

FEATURE:

 

 

New Room for the Life

N THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush photographed in 1981/PHOTO CREDIT: Anton Corbijn

The Prospect of Remixing Kate Bush’s Tracks

_________

ALTHOUGH it has been done now and then…

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1989/PHOTO CREDIT: John Carder Bush

it is not something that you see much. It might tie into my hope that there will be a Kate Bush project like a tribute album or a greatest hits collection. It is great when we have the studio albums reissued. It brings that music to a new audience. That is really important. Perhaps we have seen the last of the Kate Bush album reissues, even though there are big anniversaries ahead. The Sensual World this year; Hounds of Love (among others) next year. It might be a long shot to think that we’d get new editions with demos or unheard songs. What I do know is that there is so much of the original album material either undiscovered or overlooked. There is this disparity between her most streamed and heard songs and the rest. I was thinking about remixes because, aside from the fact Hounds of Love was remixed in 2012, there hasn’t really been a lot of other reversions and new takes on her songs. There are cover versions, though I would like to hear the original song remixed. I know that albums like The Kick Inside, and especially Lionheart got a bit of criticism because of the material. Perhaps not engaging enough. A little similar to The Kick Inside. A lack of a real step forward. When Bush embarked on The Tour of Life in 1979, she played every song from The Kick Inside and Lionheart, bar the former’s Oh to Be in Love. That has always baffled me. Why leave that one song out!? Almost like Bush not performing Hounds of Love’s Mother Stands for Comfort – the rest of the first half and the entirety of The Ninth Wave was performed – during 2014’s Before the Dawn, I wonder why this one song was left out. It would have been intriguing to see how she mounted and visualised this track. Anyway, I digress! What was interesting about The Tour of Life is how Bush brought these studio tracks to life.

I think it was actually one of the future/new songs, Egypt, that got one of the biggest lifts and new leases of life. The album version is on 1980’s Never for Ever. It is a great track, though some critics feel it is one of the weakest songs on the album. A bit of a turgid or filler track. It is a harsh viewpoint, yet Bush really added something to the song on the stage. I wonder why she did not bring the stage version into the studio. In a way, the stage version and album version are separate and different-sounding songs. Bush’s stage version sounds more like a remix. How the studio track got this fresh perspective. Even though there have been remixes of Kate Bush’s tracks, there has not been too much inspection and reinvigoration. Not that remixes improve a song in all cases. Not that the original album tracks need refreshing. I do feel that there is a problem with her music getting out there. Radio stations play the singles. It depends on the station. When you do hear Kate Bush tracks on the radio, they are ones you have heard. You only get a limited and narrow perspective of her work. Think about the full expanse of her music. How there are so many album tracks either never played or discussed - or only now and then. Even though Kate Bush is always relevant and has inspired so many artists through the generations, there is still a struggle fully bonding her to young generations. Th success of Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) really only brings that song and its sister album (Hounds of Love) to them. I don’t think it is a powerful enough moment to ensure that these young listeners dig deeper and sustain their curiosity. As it is, I don’t think that there is as much knowledge and awareness of Kate Bush and her legacy. So many defining her by one song or in very cliched terms. This artist being weird, reclusive or a product of the 1980s. None of that is true. How do you get her album tracks to the people?!

In the same way as Bush’s Tour of Life showed how her songs could change their shape but retain their core, I do feel that remixes would do something extraordinary. Not only would they stand as great pieces of work in their own right. It is a great way to introduce people to the original albums. Think about all the new fans of Kate Bush. Maybe only aware of her because of exposure and fresh success in 2022. Their reference point is a 1985 single so, as such, they might not wander too far. Do many listeners in their teens and twenties listen to songs from Aerial (2005), The Sensual World (1989) or even The Kick Inside (1978)?! It is hard to make those albums attractive and current/relatable to those who have not heard them or did not experience them when they were first released. Even if there are some younger listeners that will dive deep, most will skim the surface and not spend as much time with Kate Bush as you’d hope. It is not only young listeners. Even those older and long-terms fans might not know about many of the album tracks. Rather than a remix album, I do think that it would be fascinating and worthwhile if producers and artists provided their takes. Giving bigger songs and album tracks a remix. Again, as I say, it has been done before. Not a whole load of examples. Not a big enough movement to really ensure that people are listening to all albums and compelled to explore the fountainhead. I do worry that it is hard to hook and keep young listeners especially keen on Kate Bush with the original albums alone. As wonderful as they are, remixes can often shine a new light on a great song.

Think about great remixes through the decades. Rather than disguising a song and making it unrecognisable, you do get something different and fascinating. I like the idea of Kate Bush tracks getting this treatment. I can’t imagine she would object. As she is such an innovator who was always pushing herself in the studio and never produced two albums that sounded the same, I think that Bush would welcome her original songs given a fresh lick of paint. A new vision. Maybe artists like Charli XCX taking on a Kate Bush song. St. Vincent. Some amazing producers. Rather than it being covers, you would instead retain the album song. Some might feel breaking up album tracks would create an issue. Would people really go back to the album the song came from or would interest start and end at the remix?! I do think that there could be this more widespread appreciation and curiosity around Kate Bush’s music after remixes. Maybe not every album track. Instead, there would be a selection of remixes of songs from each of her nine studio albums (I am not including 2011’s Director’s Cut). It takes my mind back to the way songs dismissed on Kate Bush’s studio albums were celebrated when she performed them during The Tour of Life. Critics lauding the stage version and not really bowled over by the studio takes. I would love to see a raft of remixes. Some really good reasons to do that. A better chance of bringing in potential new fan to an entire album rather than the odd song. Seeing some of those album tracks shown in a new setting. From modern remixes to some older interpolations/remixes by, among others, Utah Saints, Kate Bush’s album tracks have largely stayed as they are. The odd special mix here and there. Not a tonne of remixes released more widely today. Tracks that are reworked are bigger tracks. I would love deeper cuts getting a remix. That could unleash and unearth…

SO much potential.

FEATURE: Doin’ Time: Lana Del Rey’s Norman Fucking Rockwell! at Five

FEATURE:

 

 

Doin’ Time

Lana Del Rey’s Norman Fucking Rockwell! at Five

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PERHAPS the finest album…

PHOTO CREDIT: Melodie McDaniel/Billboard

from Lana Del Rey, Norman Fucking Rockwell! was released on 30th August, 2019. I wanted to mark its upcoming fifth anniversary. Ranked as one of the best albums of 2019 by multiple publications and websites, Del Rey’s sixth studio album reached the top spot in the U.K. and U.S. Recorded at a wide range of studio around the U.S. (mainly Los Angeles) – and a couple in the U.K. -. Del Rey’s masterpiece scored wide acclaim from critics. Five singles were released from the album: Mariners Apartment Complex, Venice Bitch, Hope Is a Dangerous Thing for a Woman Like Me to Have – but I Have It, Doin' Time, and The Greatest. Next month, Lana Del Rey releases her tenth studio album, Lasso. It is interesting thinking about the period after Norman Fucking Rockwell! was released. After the release of her sixth studio album, things took a huge turn for Del Rey:

“During a new interview, Del Rey was asked about where she currently stands from a creative perspective, to which she responded: “The music took a huge turn from Norman, and it’s been going down that path aggressively. I’m going to continue going where I feel the only next stop is, but I think it’ll be in an Americana vein.”

“The hard thing, in your personal life or in public, is that you can lose the idea that passion should be your true North. And, instead, safety should be. That’s the biggest pitfall. Being scared into making safe choices. Having a little bit of a cool-off period from the heat that might have been in a bad way, I got to reevaluate things. When there’s a little space, you get to choose. Then things get good,” she added to The Hollywood Reporter”.

In 2021, Lana Del Rey released two incredible acclaimed albums: Chemtrails Over the Country Club and Blue Banisters. Whereas Norman Fucking Rockwell!, in terms of sound, was Soft/Psych-Rock with some piano ballads, Chemtrails Over the Country Club is more of a Folk, Country Folk, and Americana record. It was clear Del Rey moved consciously in a different direction after Norman Fucking Rockwell! Not in a bad way. I will wrap up after getting to some reviews. This is what NME wrote in their five-star review of one of the most celebrated albums of 2019:

“In Lana Del Rey’s Twitter bio you’ll find a quote from Walt Whitman’s 1892 poem Song Of Myself. It’s an unsurprising move for someone who’s spent much of the last decade carving out her niche as a 21st-century pop poet documenting, much like Whitman did, her own perspective of America.

The quote itself – “Do I contradict myself? Very well then, I contradict myself; I am large – I contain multitudes” – feels like an apt one for this point in Del Rey’s career. Since she broke through with ‘Video Games’ in 2011, she’s been pegged as music’s resident “sad girl”. In 2017, she challenged that label as she beamed at the world from the sleeve of her fifth album ‘Lust For Life’. The narrative was that she was happy now but, as Whitman himself alluded, life doesn’t have a single focus and no one is consistently one thing through it all

On ‘Norman Fucking Rockwell!’, Del Rey is many contradicting things. She is hopelessly in love and resigned to misery, an emotional crutch and a “fucking mess”, willing to forgive the men in her life and disappointed in those who orbit in the same circles as her. It’s an album of emotional ups and downs but one that feels, perhaps thanks to her past habit of filtering things through a world of old Hollywood glamour and soft-focus romanticism, like her realest one yet.

There’s nothing soft or romantic about this record’s opening lines. “Goddamn manchild/You fucked me so good that I almost said ‘I love you’,” she sings on the title track, gentle piano rolling beneath her. As she continues, she paints a fuller picture of the target of her words – a fun and wild “self-loathing poet” who blames his inadequate words on the news. As with many of the men in Del Rey’s songs, she openly acknowledges his flaws with a wicked sense of humour, but seems OK to stick it out with him. “Why wait for the best when I could have you?” she asks at one point, as if finding someone better who doesn’t make her feel blue isn’t a realistic option.

On ‘Love Song’, a gorgeous track that drifts on stroked piano notes and the ghostly echo of strings, things are a little better. “Oh, be my once in a lifetime,” she murmurs serenely, as if she’s whispering her desires to a sleeping lover. ‘Mariners Apartment Complex’, which swells and strips back like the tide, and the dark, driving ‘California’ find her offering to hold someone up and guide them through gloomier days (“You don’t ever have to be stronger than you really are/When you’re lying in my arms,” she promises on the latter), while ‘Happiness Is A Butterfly’ has her almost nihilistically accepting a tragic fate. “If he’s a serial killer then what’s the worst/That can happen to a girl who’s already hurt?” she asks with the air of someone always expecting the worst. “If he’s as bad as they say, then I guess I’m cursed.”

Overall, ‘Norman Fucking Rockwell!’ isn’t a surprising record – it’s a logical next step for Del Rey to take in a journey that’s seen her grow from hip-hop-flecked pop to bohemian folk. It would be easy for it to feel like Lana Del Rey-by-numbers but she avoids that trap by making something filled with beauty that subtly moves her sound on, ushering her into territory marked “timeless”. For anyone who thought her team-up with Jack Antonoff, a now omnipresent figure in big female pop records (Taylor Swift, Lorde) and this album’s producer, would mean the Bleachers frontman’s brand of crystalline euphoria being injected into the mix, that couldn’t be further from the truth. Everything here feels entirely Lana, exactly as you’d want.

Just because ‘NFR!’ isn’t entirely unexpected doesn’t mean there aren’t any moments that catch you off guard though. For starters, there’s a pretty faithful cover of Sublime’s ‘Doin’ Time’, originally recorded for a documentary about the Long Beach ska-punk band. Del Rey’s version has more of a mystical air to it, but still contains echoes of the original’s dubby grit woven into its witchy atmosphere.

Then, there’s the little utterances that are littered throughout the record that you wouldn’t bat an eyelid to with anyone else but feel odd given how closely linked the person singing them here is with nostalgia and vintage Americana. On ‘The Greatest’ (maybe one of the greatest songs she’s ever written), she sings, “the culture is lit and I’ve had a ball” in a tone that could be incredibly sincere or eye-rolling sarcasm. As the album comes to an end, she throws in a quick nod to modern technology, purring, “Hello, it’s the most famous woman you know on the iPad” on the tender waltz of ‘Hope Is A Dangerous Thing For A Woman Like Me To Have – But I Have It’.

That she veers from the ultra-modern to references to Sylvia Plath and photographer Slim Aarons, and from Laurel Canyon folk to trembling psych solos, on an album named after American author and illustrator Norman Rockwell only seem to prove the point she’s trying to make in her Twitter bio. Lana Del Rey is large – she contains multitudes, and the way she balances and embodies them on her fifth album is nothing short of stunning”.

I will move on to a review from Pitchfork. In 2019, the album arrived at an interesting and changeable time for American history and identity. The relevance of Norman Rockwell as the album’s title and focal name. In relation to his viewpoint of idealised America. Lana Del Rey, in 2019, perhaps at a point where she no longer could present herself as Americana. These almost stereotyped images of America and American life. The more I listen to Norman Fucking Rockwell!, the more that I think it is a reinvention and new phase for Lana Del Rey:

“In 2017, Lana Del Rey stopped performing in front of the American flag. Where the singer-songwriter born Elizabeth Grant had once stood onstage before a wavering projection of stars and stripes, charged by a brash apple-pie and blue-jeans patriotism, she now deemed the flag “inappropriate,” preferring a screen of static instead. For a woman whose songs are like miniature syllabi in American Studies—saturated in references to jazz, girl groups, heavy metal, Springsteen; Hemingway and Fitzgerald; money, power, glory; excess and loss; Whitmanian multitudes—it felt like an act of defiance.

Norman Fucking Rockwell! is Lana at her deepest, and it arrives at a time when the history of America as we know it is being rewritten. Norman Rockwell himself illustrated idyllic images of American life and its history, spending 50 years with the Americana propagandists at the weekly Saturday Evening Post. His best-known works used a wondrous narrative style to center comfort and simplicity: A pastoral idea, painted and personified, of the American Dream. Lana neatly cuts through that outmoded fantasy with an emphatic fucking hyphen mark of irreverence, or enthusiasm, or both. As Lana revives American myths, with an empty deadpan that would make Lou Reed proud, she also exposes them. Like the Beach Boys, she’s looking for America; like Elvis, she’s discomfiting; like Dylan, she’s a trickster, and we are all potentially fooled.

Lana is one of our most complicated stars, a constantly unresolvable puzzle—someone who once called her own work “more of a psychological music endeavor” than pop. But on Norman Fucking Rockwell! that ground-swelling complexity coheres to reveal an indisputable fact: She is the next best American songwriter, period. Trading much of her hardboiled trap-pop and trip-hop malaise for baroque piano ballads and dazzling folk—equal parts Brill Building precision, windswept Laurel Canyon, and 2019 parlances—Lana has begun a dynamic second act in profundity. “I really do believe that words are one of the last forms of magic,” Lana once said, and she exalts each syllable more than ever here. Where her elegant wordplay once made her the Patron Saint of Internet Feelings, she now sounds like a millennial troubadour—singing tales of beloved bartenders and broken men, of fast cars and all of the senses, of freedom and transformation and the wreckage of being alive. The stakes have never been higher.

Sometimes Jack Antonoff productions seem to fly because they have been given a trampoline or a children’s bouncing castle. But here, with delicacy and grace, he and Lana find new wings in minimalism, fresh air to breathe, a structural relief. From its cascade of opening piano notes—“God damn, man child” are felicitous first words and the national mood—Norman Fucking Rockwell! achieves levity, tension, and a disarming self-awareness. The languor of Mazzy Star and downbeat skitter of Portishead meet the easy pop-rock breeze of Carole King on 1971’s Tapestry, or the searching resilience of Joni Mitchell on 1972’s For the Roses. It feels like a wall has come down, like Norman Fucking Rockwell! is less to do with camp, and more to do with real life; less to do with scripting the incandescent character of Lana Del Rey and more to do with human complexity; less about aesthetics than being. You can hear the room everywhere, and for all the spectral harmonies and cinematic splendor, it sounds like Lana alone, embracing classic Angeleno isolation.

Lana’s pillars are intact before you even hit play: glamour, eccentricity, the absurd, wit. “Your poetry’s bad and you blame the news,” she proclaims on the title track, with a raised eyebrow, and this forthright song grows more savage from there. On a nine-and-a-half-minute lullaby called “Venice Bitch,” she sings the line “fresh out of fucks forever” like a lilting lady of the canyon—in pop tradition, Lana treats California like a conceptual promised land, and here is the smoggy sprawl, stretching into a neo-psychedelic ballad for a new age of acid festival jams. She curses like the sailors on the cover. She employs old-school lingo on the one hand (“Catch ya on the flipside”) and a narcotic slur on the other. And there is no other pop star who could palatably cover Sublime’s “Doin’ Time” and turn its mall-reggae into something so balmy and sweet.

Above all, Norman Fucking Rockwell! is the sound of a heart shattering and reforming just to shatter again—of troubled people attempting to navigate the mess of love. Her ache is from empathy: for our crumbling world, for the down and out, for lovers at war with their minds. “If he’s a serial killer/Then what’s the worst that can happen to a girl that’s already hurt?” she sings like a crime novelist on “Happiness Is a Butterfly,” which is to say it is fleeting, setting herself up for a kind of heartbreak so torturous it should be possible to have it surgically removed. Many of these exquisitely narrated songs contain reminders that the trappings of masculinity—breaches in communication, emotional stiltedness, fear of vulnerability—come from the same toxic status quo as systemic patriarchy. On the wrenching “California,” Lana processes as much: “You don’t ever have to be stronger than you really are,” confessing in a tumbling rush that “I shouldn’t have done it but I read it in your letter/You said to a friend that you wished you were doing better.” Each word is on a pedestal; the song exists to amplify them. Her faint country warble wells more with each verse, and it’s devastating.

Radiating new dimensions of sensitivity and eloquence, “Mariners Apartment Complex” is a towering peak on Norman Fuckng Rockwell!, a four-minute drama about fateful potential romantic energy. But its turbulent grandeur could speak to the whole Lana Del Rey story. “You took my sadness out of context” and “They mistook my kindness for weakness” are bold refusals to be misunderstood. Referencing Elton John with her pristine declaration “I ain’t no candle in the wind,” a phrase originally inspired by the early deaths of Marilyn Monroe and Janis Joplin, is a patent embrace of life from a woman who once wrote, “I wish I was dead.” When she sings, “I fucked up, I know that, but Jesus/Can’t a girl just do the best she can?” it could be a mic-dropping rebuttal to the ludicrous standards she faced from the start (and the overblown, Internet-engineered Lana outrage that now seems sexist and pathetic). The Hollywood author Eve Babitz once wrote, “Once it is established you are you and everyone else is merely perfect, ordinarily factory-like perfect… you can wreak all the havoc you want.” Lana’s evolution follows suit. “Mariners Apartment Complex” is the sort of ballad that makes teens want to bang on pianos and spill their souls.

Lana zooms out to find her zenith. A piano ballad to close down the bar at the end of the world, “The greatest” collapses time, as if Lana is writing the zeitgeist on a typewriter, her lines raving up with fevered reference to rock’n’roll and depression and a proverbial “Kokomo.” Turning the weight of a generation into light, her words crest like the white of a tidal wave—“L.A.’s in flames, it’s a getting hot/Kanye West is blonde and gone/‘Life On Mars’ ain’t just a song/Oh, the livestream’s almost on”—and they feel on arrival to have existed forever. As ever, Lana regards the despondency of existence as a realist, offering a funhouse reflection of the way we live.

Call her Doris Doomsday: “The culture is lit/And if this is it/I had a ball,” she resolves with ecstasy and fire, a lightning rod of humor, sadness, and perception; flip jadedness and abiding love. Fanning the flames of a culture ablaze, Lana sings each word like a prayer, finessed with conviction and smoke, chaos and control. “The greatest” is a galaxy-brain moment in the pantheon of pop, and it belongs to a generation fully aware we are at risk of being distracted into oblivion, Juuling towards early death while watching Earth burn.

Norman Fucking Rockwell! is the apotheosis of Lana Del Rey, songs of curiosity and of consequence, darkness and light, a time capsule of 2019, proof that a person cannot escape herself but she can change. Lana has said hope is dangerous because of her own experience, because in Hollywood she “knows so much.” Hope is dangerous because women are rarely taken seriously, from matters of authenticity to cases of assault. Hope is dangerous because the world fails women, and the bigotry to which American power is currently pitched ensures it. Lana calls herself “a modern-day woman with a weak constitution,” witnessing “a new revolution,” with “monsters still under my bed that I never could fight off.” What makes this final song of survival so cutting is the palpable difficulty in her delivery. When she lands on “a gatekeeper carelessly dropping the keys on my nights off,” it sounds like an oblique image of corrupted power, as upsetting as it ought to be, one to finally drain her of hope. But she still has it. In a piercing falsetto we rarely if ever hear from Lana, perhaps saved for her most pressing truth, she touches the sky: “I have it, I have it, I have it.” And when she does, you believe her".

I am going to finish with a review from The Independent. Heralding an album where Lana Del Rey was at her most assertive, they observed how Norman Fucking Rockwell! sat somewhere between the minimalist and incredible Trip-Hop of her earliest work, and the “scuzzy desert rock she has toyed with over the years”. Norman Fucking Rockwell! is this modern masterpiece. I hope that it gets a lot of celebration and new love five years after its release:

“Lana Del Rey has always been obsessed with the past. Hers is a sound rooted in nostalgia, a paean to everything she was born too late to live through: old Hollywood, Sinatra, beat poetry, Sylvia Plath and Fifties Americana. At her best, she mines something fresh from it all. At her worst, she wallows in it. Her new album Norman F**king Rockwell, named after a 20th-century American artist, does both.

Co-produced by Jack Antonoff, as is now decreed by law of all female pop stars, the album is sultry and soporific, sitting somewhere between the minimalist trip-hop of Del Rey’s early days, and the scuzzy desert rock she has toyed with over the years. The drum beats are scarce, the piano, harp, and Guns N’ Roses guitar solos are many, and the melodies are more like musical mood boards. She sings of iPads and dropping pins, and it is almost startling that she has even heard of such things.

Often, Del Rey’s music has offered up a sort of anachronistic passivity. Her breakout single, 2012’s “Video Games”, was an infatuated ode to a deadbeat who drank beer, played computer games and yelled at her to “get over here”. “I like you a lot,” she sang on 2015’s “Music To Watch Boys To”, “So I do what you want.” An optimistic reading would suggest a faint sense of irony bubbling under the surface of such sentiments. A less optimistic one might accuse her of glamourising subservience.

This time around, though, things are a little different. “God damn, man child,” is the album’s first line, a statement of intent sung over bleating brass and harps. “I’m a star and I’m burning through you,” she sings on “Love Song”, which sounds like an alternative universe “Wonderwall”. And on the excellent “Mariner’s Apartment Context”, she declares – just as Leonard Cohen and George Michael did before her – “I’m your man.”

This is Del Rey at her most assertive – personally, if not politically. Those hoping for a barbed protest record in keeping with Del Rey’s newfound public activism (last year she called President Trump a “narcissist” who “believes it’s OK to grab a woman by the pussy just because he’s famous”) will be disappointed. But it is gratifying to hear her take control. Aside from “Happiness Is a Butterfly”, that is. “If he’s a serial killer, then what’s the worst that can happen to a girl who’s already hurt?” she asks. Crikey.

The singer-songwriter’s nomadic personality is reflected in the vast scale of reference points on her new record, In a Galaxy. It’s technically a follow-up to 2014’s The Wild, the Wilderness, but the newfound boldness on this new work is startling.

Since that first record, Mushonga has begun to incorporate themes of empowerment into her work. On “AtalantA”, she showcases her muscular vocals, which are capable of switching between an airy lilt to a deep, emotional moan, as she sings lyrics inspired by the Greek hunter goddess who refused to marry. In a Galaxy is a record that takes you far beyond the borders of the world you’re familiar with, and into something altogether more colourful”.

On 30th August, the phenomenal Norman Fucking Rockwell! turns five. Even if some felt that Lana Del Rey did not expand her horizons and take on a new persona, there was a definite move from the kitsch patriotism and the flag draping (to paraphrase one reviewer) to something more intriguing and dystopian. Reflecting America now as it really is rather than harking back to a vintage age. It was a fascinating and much-needed step forward. Some put other Lana Del Rey albums ahead of Norman Fucking Rockwell! when it comes to rankings. To many, her 2019 release is…

HER absolute best.

FEATURE: Madonna at Sixty-Six: Why the Icon Can Never Be Replaced As the Queen of Pop

FEATURE:

 

 

Madonna at Sixty-Six

IN THIS PHOTO: Madonna during her Celebration Tour (2023)/PHOTO CREDIT: Getty Images

Why the Icon Can Never Be Replaced As the Queen of Pop

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BECAUSE we celebrate…

IN THIS PHOTO: Madonna in 1986/PHOTO CREDIT: Herb Ritts

Madonna’s sixty-sixth birthday on 16th August, I have been writing about her. This is my third and final feature. I think about how Madonna came through strong on her debut album and, with each album after that, built on her reputation and name. Starting out as this original and fascinating artist, it would only be a few short years before she was the confirmed Queen of Pop. Solidified and undeniable by 1989’s Like a Prayer, even some critical and press backlash and attack for 1992’s Erotica and 1994’s Bedtime Stories could not dent her reputation. The innovation and impact of those albums showed she was in a league of her own. I think some critics took against her for her work in the early and mid-1990s is because it wasn’t what they were expecting. Always evolving and creating new sides and personas, you only have to look around in the years since to see how albums like Erotica have actually influenced so many other artists. Not only has Madonna forged her own career on her terms and given us so many timeless and pioneering albums: she has had to face so much criticism and sexism. Rising through the 1980s in a landscape that was male-dominated and championed Rock bands and men who were open about their sexuality and desires, when Madonna did the same, she was judged and attacked. In spite of all it all, Madonna stood strong and defiant! She is someone who has always had this loyal and loving fanbase and a media who have not exactly been consistent or kind. You cannot doubt her popularity and success. It seems heartbreaking and angering that, for so many years, Madonna had to face so much poison and offence.

Through the '00s, she still managed to keep her music fresh. Moving with the times and working with a range of collaborators, there has not been this loss of momentum through the past couple of decades. An artist always at the forefront. One might say that artists since Madonna are more relevant and worthy. You can look at modern-day artists like Dua Lipa. Charli XCX, Sabrina Carpenter and Taylor Swift. In terms of the modern Pop scene, you can trace lines from nearly every artist to Madonna. Whether they consciously acknowledge her or not. I don’t think anyone will live to see the day when another artist takes that crown. There can never be another Queen of Pop! A few days shy of her sixty-sixth birthday, Madonna sits commandingly in a modern Pop scene she helped to forge. Despite there being so much ageism hurled at her, the recent Celebration Tour shows that she is unstoppable and at the top of her game. Creating a spectacle up their with her finest tours, the stamina she displayed lets us know that we will see her perform for a while yet. There may be a new album soon enough. What we do know is a long-awaited biopic is in the works. All of this activity and promise means Madonna is not only a legacy artist or someone trading on the past. She is very much driving the modern Pop conversation. Even though this feature was published in 2011, Rolling Stone collated votes as to who the Queen of Pop was. Madonna won quite convincingly:

“To say that Madonna won this poll in a landslide would be like saying that she was a kind of popular pop singer in the 1980s. It wouldn't even begin to explain the scope of the situation. She received five times as many votes as Lady Gaga, who landed in second place by a very comfortable margin. The only persistent criticism that Gaga has dealt with in recent years is that she's too much like Madonna. It's a hard shadow to escape. Madonna is a musical icon without peer. Her run of hits over the past 30 years is simply astounding, and when she hits the road, tickets sell like it's a Led Zeppelin reunion tour. Sure, her last few albums didn't match up to the classics. Nobody cares. She's Madonna. Lady Gaga has accomplished more in recent years than any artist of her era, but she's still got a long climb until she reaches Madonna level. It's very likely that no other artist will ever reach it though. Her manager Guy Oseary recently tweeted that she's started recording her 12th studio album, so clearly she has no intention of slowing down anytime soon”.

One might say a decade on and things have changed. Sure, Taylor Swift is more of a modern icon. Someone being compared to Madonna, even though their music is very different. You still get articles that are half-hearted. Those accusing Madonna or ruining her legacy with occasional controversy or unwise comments. It seems that there is always this scrutiny around her. There always seems to be this issue around her age. Articles like this asking if she should act her age. Whether she needs to be edgy to prove herself. The thing is, Madonna is authentic. If an older woman dares to act bold and true to herself and not ‘act her age’, she is dismissed and ridiculed. These rolled eyes ands disgusted faces. Why should someone in their sixties not have the same verve and desire as a younger woman?! She is giving so much strength to women of her age in the industry. Those who also have faced ageism. Last year, ahead of her sixty-fifth birthday, Sky News celebrated a warrior, genius and icon:

“Rihanna, Britney Spears, Katy Perry and Lady Gaga have all recognised her influence on their careers, with Beyonce hailing her a "masterpiece genius".

She's had more top 10 hits than Elvis, sung a Bond song, met Queen Elizabeth and performed at Super Bowl half time. There's even part of an academic discipline devoted to her - Madonna studies.

But now, following news of a stint in intensive care following a "serious bacterial infection", fans have been left scrabbling for positive news around the pop icon's health, not to mention the ticket-holders for her now-on-pause tour which had been due to kick off next month.

While the star is understood to be home and recovering, the media frenzy around her illness is just a small sign of the impact Madonna has had on the world, transcending the music industry to become one of the most recognisable faces of the 20th and 21st centuries - a post-modern icon playing the game by her own rules.

The best-selling female recording artist of all time, her sparkling four-decade career has earned her multiple awards and a place in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

A master of reinvention, those of a certain age who have followed her over the years have been treated to numerous musical styles, as well as a succession of colourful personas.

Unsurprisingly, as a woman at the top of her game and in financial control of her art, her business acumen has led to the Grammy, Brit and Ivor Novello-winning singer being labelled a "control freak".

However, Madonna insists she values collaboration, saying in a 2012 interview: "I can't work on my own… I need to hear what people think all the time."

Battling her way in the industry years before the #MeToo movement, she reportedly rejected the advances of Harvey Weinstein (whose then company Miramax produced her 1991 documentary Truth Or Dare) telling him: "Get away from me, you smell like a f****** ashtray."

Her more recent criticism of ageism and sexism in both the music industry and society, has received widespread media coverage..

An early adopter of the hands-free headset microphone, the piece of kit has since been informally named in her honour, dubbed the "Madonna mic".

One constant in her career has been her ferocious work ethic. An exercise lover, she has at times worked out for five-hours per day as well as following a strict macrobiotic diet. It's a dedication which has allowed her to maintain a peak level of fitness and tour into her 60s.

Madonna has previously called cancelling gigs a "punishment", and at the time of her Madame X cancellations told fans that despite considering herself to be "a warrior I never quit, I never give in", she had been forced to stop performing "so that I don't inflict further and irreversible damage to my body".

Despite the setbacks, her tour record as highest-grossing female performer of all time was only broken last year, when she was overtaken by Taylor Swift's The Eras tour.

Perhaps the last word should go to the curatorial director of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Howard Kramer, who said: "Madonna and the career she carved out for herself made possible virtually every other female pop singer to follow... She certainly raised the standards of all of them... She re-defined what the parameters were for female performers."

A re-inventor, a re-definer and a role-model - Madonna may be briefly out, but as her history proves - she's unlikely to stay down for long”.

Think of everything she has gone through and all that she achieved. The way she pathed the way for so many others. Changing the face of Pop music forever. It is great that there are artists that are compared to her. Those influenced by Madonna. I don’t think that a lack of albums, ageing or a new breed of Pop artists coming through can change the order and displace Madonna. Her legacy is too strong. In terms of the record-breaking feats, the sold-out tours and albums that feature in lists of the best of all time. Also, in a music scene more dominated by men and less open to women like her, her passion, determination and fortitude is not something we have had to see in recent years. To come out the other end and continue to make phenomenal music and stay true. If some feel her Instagram videos and posts are a bit too much, you can’t deny that she has earned the right to be who she is and do what she wants! There is still so much in Madonna’s future. It is remarkable she is still with us and still so strong and vital. An artist whose influence you can feel right through modern Pop. That will never change! How could any artist, regardless of streaming numbers and massive tours, achieve what she has accomplished?! It is clear that there will…

NEVER be another Madonna.

FEATURE: The Digital Mixtape: Major/Minor: The Least-Streamed Songs from Classic Albums

FEATURE:

 

 

The Digital Mixtape

IN THIS PHOTO: Amy Winehouse poses for the cover for 2006’s Back to Black/PHOTO CREDIT: Mischa Richter

Major/Minor: The Least-Streamed Songs from Classic Albums

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IT is great when classic albums…

IN THIS PHOTO: The Beatles in 1967

are celebrated and highlighted. Whilst many associate classic albums with the singles and biggest songs, how many of us consider the deep cuts? Looking on Spotify, I am interested in the songs that are least-streamed. These all-time great albums with the ‘minor’ song. The one that has not got as much love as the rest. It does not mean that this is the worst song. It just has not captured as much attention as the rest. I wanted to shine a light on the least-streamed songs from a selection of timeless albums. Give more light and exposure to these minor cuts on major albums. I write about classic albums on big anniversaries, so it has been interesting focusing on them without having to wait for that. I love the big songs from those tremendous albums, though there is something really interesting uncovering those tracks that are not as regarded as the rest. I know Spotify figures do not represent a wider appreciation or truth of an album. It is a usual guide and metric as to the way people interact with albums and particular tracks. Below are the least-streamed songs from classic albums. It has been a pleasure putting the mixtape together. A chance to play tremendous songs that have not got as much…

IN THIS PHOTO: Ms. Lauryn Hill photographed in 1998/PHOTO CREDIT: Jonathan Mannion

LOVE as they deserve.

FEATURE: Sugar High: Looking Ahead to the First Anniversary of Iraina Mancini’s Undo the Blue

FEATURE:

 

 

Sugar High

Looking Ahead to the First Anniversary of Iraina Mancini’s Undo the Blue

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I realise I have…

PHOTO CREDIT: Jason A Miller

written about this album a lot! Almost as compensation for the lack of words it received last year. On 18th August, 2023, the sublime Iraina Mancini released Undo the Blue. We had heard singles previously. In fact, one can trace her career back to 2018. A song that does not appear on the album, Undercover, was released then. Lovers in the Dark came out in 2019. The first single that does appear on Undo the Blue is Shotgun. From there, we got a fairly consistent run of excellent, distinct and beautiful singles that would make their way onto her eclectic, personality-filled, dynamic, sumptuous and hugely accomplished solo album. After Undo the Blue was released, Mancini went on tour. She performed a string of dates around the U.K. I caught her twice in London. I was due to see her at the 100 Club earlier in the year but had to miss it because of suspect kidney stones. I was literally on my way to the gig and had to detour pretty sharp. I was gutted. She is a captivating live performer who is note-perfect. No bum notes or any nerves. Like you are hearing a studio version, only with the extra power and punch of the live band. Mancini a truly transfixing and stunning live performer! Incredibly stylish, chich, cool and charming, she is humble and sweet. Someone genuinely overwhelmed by the crowd’s rapture and affection. Someone who I hope gets to play some big venues around the world. I have said how she would be able to play cities like Paris. Some time in New York and Los Angeles too. An American audience surely awaits. In addition to her U.K. tour, Iraina Mancini also played some festivals and big dates. Go and check out her official website.

After the release of the album, there were some remixes. Saint Etienne were involved. A terrific remix of one of the album’s standout tracks, Sugar High. There was  Beyond the Wizards Sleeve Re-Animation of Undo the Blue. I think there are so many possibilities when it comes to remixing her tracks. I would love others to get involved. Undo the Blue picked up a couple of amazing reviews. This and this. In terms of live performances, she played with The Coral and did some stunning solo sets. I was aghast that more did not review Undo the Blue! Think about the fact songs were being championed by BBC Radio 6 Music. This Needle Mythology signing releasing such an incredible debut album. Where were NME, DIY, CLASH, The Line of Best Fit, The Times, The Guardian and everyone else?! It did seem like they let slip through their fingers one of the best albums of the year. I genuinely feel that Undo the Blue is a flawless album where every track hits hard and is phenomenally strong. Iraina Mancini is a D.J. who has a show on Radio Soho. She is a someone who has this incredible passion for music. A person who digs deep into the crates. Through French and Japanese sounds. Through Disco and Psychedelia, she has won high-profile fans such as Lauren Laverne and Jo Whiley. Born in London, Mancini’s father is Warren Peace. He was a childhood friend of David Bowie, and he contributed to several of Bowie's albums and tours. If you look through Mancini’s music C.V., included will be the time when she was part of a band called The Venus Fury. She was in that with ex members of The Zutons and The Dead 60s.

There is this incredible pedigree and passion. Someone who brought so many different styles and colours to her debut. A phenomenal lyricist and composer, every song sounds both honed and tight but also loose and nuanced. You will get something new from the tracks every time. A brilliantly sequenced debut album, you have an equally potent and appealing first, second and third third. The one-two-three of the racing and thrilling Deep End; the ultra-cool and Beatles-flavoured (I compared the sound to their Revolver period) and then the wonder and joy of Sugar High. Already, three songs in, we have covered different moods, decades and genres! With singles having their distinct videos made, I often wonder what Mancini would have come up regarding videos for My Umbrella and Need Your Love. No matter how many times you play Undo the Blue, it loses none of its sparkle, power, utter brilliance and fascination. So many layers and treasures to be discovered. I think fans are looking ahead to fresh material and seeing where she goes next. Undo the Blue is wonderfully produced. It has this flow. Every track is very different but each can almost be the pick of the album. I know people choose different favourite songs – mine is Undo the Blue, though Deep End and Sugar High I have seen performed live and really love what Mancini does with them. I know I will write about her music when new stuff is out. As the first anniversary is coming up, she will mark that occasion. You can buy the album and some cool merchandise too.

Last year was such a strong and interesting one for album releases. Some absolute classics were released. Besting boygenius’ the record, Iraina Mancini’s Undo the Blue did something very special. Not only was I struck by the songs and hugely determined to see her live. I also listened to some of the influences you can hear in tracks and went back the source. Tracing back and imagining the records Mancini would have been hearing and inspired by when writing her tracks. Her writing and composing is so rich and cinematic. Every song compels vivid projections. I have said how the songs would fit wonderfully in a short film or they could be on the screen. Listening to the album again in full, it makes me excited to see what comes next. There will be no sophomore slump or difficult second album. In fact, it might be even finer than Undo the Blue. Quite a scary and astonishing thing for any artist this early on! Iraina Mancini will be releasing music for years more. Play bigger and bigger venues across cities and countries. In terms of other opportunities, she will collaborate with other artists and, who knows, appear on the small screen. I would love to get an insight into her record collection and her songwriting. Sort of an At Home with Iraina Mancini. Her in the studio putting everything together. Such is the brilliance of her debut, I do hope that the upcoming first anniversary – on 18th August – moves people who have not heard the album to go and check it out. Mancini should be hugely proud of what she achieved! Alongside her fellow producers and songwriters, she created a masterful and spellbinding album. Undo the Blue is an album that you should buy, drop the needle on, and sit back and let it absorb into the heart and soul. It will leave you on…

A massive sugar high.

FEATURE: I Associate Love with Red… The Colours of Kate Bush’s Albums

FEATURE:

 

 

I Associate Love with Red…

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush during the filming of Eat the Music (the song was from 1993’s The Red Shoes; the video was featured in the short film, The Line, the Cross and the Curve)

The Colours of Kate Bush’s Albums

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I shall try not…

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 2005/PHOTO CREDIT: Trevor Leighton

to mention this book in every Kate Bush feature. The magnificent and newly republished Under the Ivy: The Life and Music of Kate Bush compelled me to think about Kate Bush’s albums in a different way. Graeme Thomson’s book has given me a lot of inspiration. It is one particular section when he was talking about the differences between 1982’s The Dreaming and 1985’s Hounds of Love. The colour palette that each album summoned. He remarked on, I think, the blacks, greys and browns of The Dreaming. Dirtier, duskier and darker. Edgy, suffocating at times. More downcast or dirtier. Compare that the more purple, green and silver Hounds of Love. Essentially representing emotions and dynamics within each work, you can also tell from the cover. I think Kate Bush, whether consciously or not, was tying colours and design to the mood of each album. The Dreaming’s cover summons up escape and death-defying. Maybe linked to something she was feeling at the time in terms of being overwhelmed or strained by demand, there is brown in the cover. Hounds of Love is purple. You feel this album is more about renewed energy and ambition. Some might say (perhaps correctly) that colours have no meaning. That you cannot really apply them to anything deeper and psychological. If seems like bad science or something quite New Age, I do think that, in music terms at least and Kate Bush especially, there is some weight into the suggestions colours mean something. I have seen so many reviews of her albums where colours are mentioned. Colour Symbolism is a subjective thing. We attach various words and meanings to each colour. It was something I was taught at school. Linking colours to words and feelings. Blue was for sadness. Red for love or anger. Yellow for hope. White and black, of course, life and death. It is hard not to associate colours with particular feelings or meaning.

I do think that we can look at Kate Bush’s ten studio albums and at least apply one colour to each. Her first, 1978’s The Kick Inside, is pink. Although many covers of the album were used around the world, there is a focal colour. I think that various covers were used is to make sure she was marketed differently in each nation. The U.S. cover more wholesome and relatable to a U.S. audience. The Japanese cover much more daring and sensual. I don’t think EMI knew how to market her. One cover, the U.K. one, perhaps would not translate around the world. They did focus from Lionheart on. In any case, think about The Kick Inside and its themes. It is a distinctly feminine album. In 2019, writing for Pitchfork, Laura Snapes remarked how The Kick Inside is extremely feminine (Graeme Thomson also notes this in his book). There is incredible maturity and desire. Lust and personal revelation. Exploration:

“What made Bush’s writing truly radical was the angles she could take on female desire without ever resorting to submissiveness. “Wuthering Heights” is menacing melodrama and ectoplasmic empowerment; “The Saxophone Song”—one of two recordings made when she was 15—finds her fantasizing about sitting in a Berlin bar, enjoying a saxophonist’s playing and the effect it has on her. But she is hardly there to praise him: “Of all the stars I’ve seen that shine so brightly/I’ve never known or felt in myself so rightly,” she sings of her reverie, with deep seriousness. We hear his playing, and it isn’t conventionally romantic but stuttering, coarse, telling us something about the unconventional spirits that stir her”.

Although The Kick Inside is a complex and varied album, it definitely has its own colour chart. Pink traditionally symbolises peace, femininity, romance, warmth and nurture. There is romance and sweetness. A mix of the white of innocence and the burning red passion of love. Some might say that it is reaching but, for artists like Kate Bush, you do get a sense of albums being defined, not only by emotions and themes, but by colour. The Kick Inside summons up pink. Neon at times. The juvenile and youthful. The original lyrics for The Man with the Child in His Eyes were written with a hot pink felt-tip. Kate Bush wore a pink leotard for the cover to Wuthering Heights. That Gered Mankowitz photo was scrapped, though you can see a version on the Japanese release of The Kick Inside. Kate Bush’s debut is feminist, lustful, pure, tender and passionate.

The next two albums are perhaps a little harder to define. No single colour. 1978’s Lionheart shares a lot of D.N.A. with The Kick Inside. There are pinks. There is definitely purple in the mix. In terms of that colour represents the mystical and regal. It balances the fire and passion of red with calm of blue. There is a song on Lionheart, Symphony in Blue, where Bush explicitly mentions the meaning behind and power of colours. How they match her mood. Consider these lyrics from Symphony in Blue:

“I spent a lot of my time looking at blue

The color of my room and my mood

Blue on the walls, blue out of my mouth

The sort of blue between clouds when the sun comes out

The sort of blue in those eyes you get hung up about

I associate love with red

The color of my heart when she's dead

Red in my mind when the jealousy flies

Red in my eyes from emotional ties

Manipulation, the danger signs”.

Perhaps a more complex and less easy-to-define album, you get a variety of colours and shades with this album. The listener can feel the blue and red. The warmer pinks. However, as has been noted, there is paranoia and stress on the album. The same colour that would come four years later with The Dreaming. Depending on what source you use, different colours can have vastly contrasting qualities. I think brown and black can have positives though, as Graeme Thomson wrote, they are associated with the darker and more depressed. Less attractive. Perhaps the worst and wetter days of autumn. You get that from Lionheart. The anxiety and fear that screams through some of the songs (such as Fullhouse). A young artist making a bold step but also backed into a corner. Lionheart has perhaps the broadest and most fascinating colour palette.

How do you define and represent Never for Ever in terms of colours? It was a time of growth, change and opportunity. The slate being cleaned. After 1979’s The Tour of Life, Bush was starting again. Producing with Jon Kelly, this felt like a moment where she could assume say and control. Put more of herself into the music. Look at the album’s cover and you see mainly white. Some brown, though there is more of the white there. Think also of Kate Bush’s reissuing her studio albums recently for independent record stores. She designed the vinyl art. In terms of the colour scheme. I think that she choses colours very deliberately. The Kick Inside is orange – opportunity, growth, creativity and freshness -; Lionheart is dirty pink (a more tarnished or dulled version of The Kick Inside’s pink; maybe a sense of disappointment or dimmed passion); Never for Ever is Blade Bullet (this mix of brown with some black flecks). Maybe this retrospective and conscious representation of what her albums mean to her now and how she felt at the time. I see Never for Ever as a light album. Optimism and hopeful. Experimental and fresh. There is yellow coming through. A warmer and more airy palette than we would have for The Dreaming or Hounds of Love. Less suffocated and tense than Lionheart. Although white has no hue, it is often associated with cleanliness and clarity of mind. Quite appropriate considering that Never for Ever was very much that. White can also represent perfection, the good, honesty, cleanliness, the beginning; the new, neutrality, and exactitude. Emotionally, from Kate Bush’s perspective, there was this feeling of transition. Not quite a blank canvas, there was this feeling of new creativity and rebirth. Even if Bush has almost disowned every album before Hounds of Love, there is no doubt she was relieved in 1980 when she could produce Never for Ever. What she wanted to do from the start of her career.

Maybe not purely psychological colours, browns, blacks and greens mix. It s a darker and denser album. You can definitely feel a change of seasons between The Dreaming and Hounds of Love. It is understandable that there was a sense of the anxious and paranoid on The Dreaming. It was an intense working period. Bush had been working flat out since 1978. Producing solo for the first time, The Dreaming is a different-sounding album compared to Never for Ever. Whereas the 1980 album felt quite light and had this sense of looseness and breathing room, there is none of that in The Dreaming. It is harder hitting, punchier and denser. Lots of layers and a bigger influence from the Fairlight CMI. As such, you get these hues of brown, black and grey. Hounds of Love came along three years later. Psychologically, Bush was in a better place. Even if the workload was problem the same for Hounds of Love, she had allowed herself a break. Building her own studio near her family home, the influence of the countryside – or a slightly less hectic setting – meant her imagination was being influenced by that. Even so, one can see some tension and suspense right through The Ninth Wave. In terms of colours that suggest themselves, there is lightness and nature. Greens coming through. Purple is the colour that springs to mind. If The Kick Inside has a pink softness and lustfulness, there is something perhaps a little more mature and developed on Hounds of Love. Love and personal relationships still at the fore, though discussed through a different lens.

Purple is synonymous with creativity and pride. Very evident when you think about Hounds of Love and Kate Bush’s life at this time. Also, I often feel the choice of purple on the cover was maybe a nod to someone like Prince. Having released Purple Rain the year before, maybe a suggestion to that. There is that blend of the stability of blue and the fierce energy of red. Purple represents creativity, wisdom, dignity, grandeur, devotion, peace, pride, mystery, independence, and magic. Going back to the Prince point, I think that the fact she made the reissued album Purple Beret is a salute to Prince’s Raspberry Beret. In terms of the emotional spectrum, there are silvers, greens, oranges. More nature and nurture, together with shades of green. It is purple that seems to come through. Whether that is influenced by the cover and Bush’s outfit in the Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) video. Light purples are associated with light-hearted, romantic energies, while darker shades can represent sadness and frustration. There is that mix of light-hearted romance and frustration right through the first side. On The Ninth Wave, there is sadness and frustration. Always hopefully, you do get the sense that Bush had colours in mind when creating the blueprints for her masterpiece.

The next two albums are interesting. Turning thirty in 1988, Bush followed Hounds of Love with 1989’s The Sensual World. Obviously, with it being an album with sensuality running through it, there is also this womanly and feminine energy. Bush wanted a more masculine and harder sound for albums like Hounds of Love. Feminine energy and influence is more present on The Sensual World. Not that this means a return to pink. That is more youthful and teenage. The reissued vinyl is a beautiful Ash Grey. I would actually say that red and grey are the colours that come through. If you think of the look of the album cover. This black-and-white portrait by John Carder Bush. A red flower (a rose?) over her mouth. One might think grey is boring, passive, deathly and pallid. In fact, rather than it being neutral and detached, grey can be a symbol of power. Also, grey is the colour of intellect and of compromise. It's a diplomatic colour, negotiating all the distance between black and white. This is very much what I think of when listening to The Sensual World. A very mature and sophisticated album, but one where Bush is at her most personal. Many of the songs reveal something about her in a way we had not heard before. Even if she was not being autobiographical, you can feel more of herself coming through. This is where red comes in. Red is about passion, love and energy. This can be heard through so many of the songs. The title track, This Woman’s Work (in a paternal sense). There are strange twists on desire and romance from Between a Man and a Woman, Heads We’re Dancing and Love and Anger. Authority and authoritative figures in Deeper Understanding and The Fog. The clash of greys and reds.

The Red Shoes and Aerial are very different albums with their own palettes. Of course many might associate The Red Shoes with red. There is that. Love and passion for sure. There is still romance and lust throughout. Loss too. And So Is Love, Why Should I Love You?, Constellation of the Heart and You’re the One. There is vibrancy throughout the album. The extraordinary energy of Eat the Music and The Red Shoes. If there were greens and purples on Hounds of Love, The Red Shoes has oranges and pinks. I would say that there is there is love, nurture and compassion. Shades and hues of pink. Not in the same manner as The Kick Inside. Not soft and tender, it is more about self-love and outward compassion. The orange of happiness, creativity, attraction and adventure. In terms of Kate Bush’s life, she was entering into a new relationship. In her thirties, she was looking ahead to maybe starting a family and taking a break. As such, there is this clash between reflectiveness and looking forward. Not a dark or gloomy album, there is brightness. Even the most inward-looking or heartbroken songs have this sense of compromise and calm. Not angry or upset. The reissued vinyl for The Red Shoes is a dark red. I guess Bush was thinking about the cover and maybe a sense of keeping the colour true to the title. Deep love and blood. This Dracula red as it is called, perhaps a portrait of self-sacrifice and loss. Aerial is Bush with a new son. Starting a family and being in an idyllic house with a beautiful garden, new life, dawn and summer are present. It is not hard to detect the colours on Aerial. The strong yellows and oranges. It is a mix of the summer and autumnal. Physically and emotionally.

Again, the warmth and happiness of orange. This new creativity and life. The orange of the sun. Whether you associate colours with meaning and words or just hear Aerial and can identify the songs and lyrics with a colour, there are distinct ones on here. Yellow shines though. Its warmth and optimism. Happiness and cheer. Perhaps the happiest and yellow-ist album Kate Bush ever released. Also, in sadder moments where she thinks of family; perhaps some grey or black. However, in terms of the colours, there are also greens of nature. Growth and luck. You can detect this brighter and beautiful palette. Think about her two most recent albums. Those from 2011. Director’s Cut was revision of The Sensual World and The Red Shoes. Those original colours blended perhaps. In terms of it being a fresh and new album, I see blue, orange and purple. People might disagree. In terms of that blend of the future, prosperity, love, wisdom and freshness. It is a fascinating album to dive into. An older Kate Bush revisiting songs she originally recorded over twenty years earlier. There is a lot of wisdom and re-evaluation. When considering the intent and emotion, she was forging a path for new work. Trying to address and correct the pass Psychologically, making amends or looking at things with new eyes and wisdom. It is that wisdom and sense of re-evaluation which leads me to blues especially. It is interesting that the reissued vinyl is Hazy Red. Like red, there is passion, energy, excitement and love. However, as it is hazy; perhaps less intense. Looking at the past and these songs with a haziness. Even if it is a fresh look at the tracks, it is this older women maybe recontextualising songs she wrote when she was in her twenties and thirties.

50 Words for Snow is Kate Bush’s most recent studio album. Of course, many would jump to white of snow. Maybe the grey of sludge. In terms of the visions, themes and feel of the album, there is a lot of white. In terms of physically too, there is white. However, there is also black and blue coming through. The white represents purity, peace, goodness and emptiness. In terms of the blankness of snow. Think of blue and its association with trust, calm and peace. Blue is also about open spaces. 50 Words for Snow is full of open spaces and huge vistas. Wilderness, lakes, nature and cities covered in snow. In terms of black, there is elegance, death and mystery. The mystery of the unknown. The Wild Man subject. Sasquatch or a yeti. The mystery and death of Lake Tahoe. A ghostly figure. There is elegance of the snow and the compositions. Bush’s vocals often very elegant. Mixing black, white, blue and even some orange together. The sense of adventure, warmth and creativity of orange. A mix of colours that is not overpowered by white. Of course, in terms of what you associate with the album, maybe white stands out. It shows that, through ten studio albums, a wide colour spectrum has been represented. Of course, if you do not think colours have psychological meaning or depth, then it will mean nothing. I think Kate Bush would link colours to emotions and themes. From the pink of The Kick Inside to the yellows and greens of the later work, via the browns and darker shades of The Dreaming, you would almost have this colour chart of her albums. The vibrancy and richness of some of the albums and the more dense and concentrated of others. Similarities between albums and colours they share. I was thinking back to that passage from Graeme Thomson where he compared the colours of The Dreaming and Hounds of Love. The darker and deeper browns and blacks of the former; the purple and green of the latter (with some other colours attached to each). It goes to show that her studio albums have this depth. I hope that this feature has given them…

NEW perspective and meaning.

FEATURE: Spotlight: Liang Lawrence

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

PHOTO CREDIT: Mila Austin

Liang Lawrence

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I am quite new…

to the music of Liang Lawrence. She is someone who instantly intrigues me. As she herself is quite new to the scene, there are not a tonne of interviews out there. I would advise people to check out interviews like this. I am going to bring one in very shortly. On 2nd August, she released her magnificent E.P., When Dead and Gone. It is a phenomenal release from one of the brightest and most engaging young artists coming through. A singular talent whose music genuinely will blow you away. I am going to come to some features and an interview soon. First, from the Wilderness Festival website – Liang Lawrence recently played there -, here is some brief biography:

“Liang Lawrence is a singer-songwriter currently creating and performing in the UK. Her debut EP 'letters to myself' was released in August 2023 and racked up over 1 million streams in a matter of weeks.

Having grown up in 8 different countries before she was 18, Liang’s ability to find a home everywhere she goes is reflected in her borderless audience with listeners around the world.

Liang was drawn to music as a source of grounding consistency - painting pictures with words, Liangtaught herself to play guitar and write songs from her bedroom, she found in music a love for story telling and a way to express the messy emotions of everyday life.

Liang’s raw and honest tunes lean into indie folk, soft rock and electronic territories in the vein of Clairo, The Japanese House, beabadoobee, boygenius and Lizzy McAlpine. Most recently, Liang has played a BBC Introducing Showcase and supported artists including Adam Melchor, Will Joseph Cook, Sophie May, Bully, Olive Klug and New Rules”.

One of my favourite singles of the year is Eulogy. A gem from What’s Dead and Gone, I am glad that it got some attention and spotlight. I want to bring in a review of the track from Atwood Magazine. This song showcases what a stunning talent Liang Lawrence is. If you have not heard Lawrence, then you need to follow her on social media and listen to her music:

“Eulogy,” a stunning song from singer/songwriter Liang Lawrence, draws you in from the very beginning, thanks in large part to its unforgettable opening lines:

Intentional or not
I keep on wearing black out to the shops
Now we’re talking outside Tesco
And it looks like I’ve been mourning for months

With lyrics like that, it’s no surprise that Lawrence has quickly become a rising star in the music world. The artist had a unique upbringing, living in eight countries before she turned 18. During this time, she taught herself to play guitar and started writing songs, finding comfort in music as one of the few constants in her life. Now she brings her unique experiences and perspective to her songwriting, telling stories from her everyday life that are clearly resonating with her growing legion of fans.

The situation unfolds in a way that is very theatrical and a bit surreal, and that’s the point. Lawrence explained the inspiration behind the song in a recent BBC Music interview: “I was thinking about how dramatic it all felt when I first broke up with my partner,” she said. “And I really wanted to kind of make fun of that difference — how you feel months later, you’re like ‘I’m so fine now,” but then months before you were feeling really horrible.”

While the song’s imagery and the details of the story it tells may be highly specific, it describes a scenario many people will likely find relatable — it’s that feeling in your stomach when you run into an ex out in the world, and the flood of emotions that accompanies such a chance meeting.

After this dramatic opening, “Eulogy” takes a more serious and reflective tone, with Lawrence thinking back to what caused the relationship to end and wondering if things could have been different:

If you knew all you had to do was say sorry
Would you do it over, do it over again?

Sonically, the song unfolds in three acts — the acoustic opening, a middle section that introduces drums and additional instrumental layers, and a final section in which a crunchy electric guitar accompanies Lawrence as she repeats the question she can’t get out of her mind: “Did you love me?”

But the version of the song that’s now on streaming services was far from the only arrangement Lawrence tried in the studio.

A snippet of “Eulogy” first went viral before the song even had an official studio version, so Lawrence and her team scrambled to record and release the full song after its initial success online. During this process, they continued to reinvent and tweak the song’s production.

“We must have gone through 40 versions of the song,” Lawrence told the BBC of the recording process.

Lawrence has also performed and recorded alternate interpretations of “Eulogy,” including a gorgeous, wistful acoustic version for that same BBC interview. This ability to reimagine her songs is a testament to the strength of Lawrence’s songwriting and musical creativity, and it makes me even more excited for her new EP What’s Dead and Gone, which will be released on July 26th via The Other Songs.

So now that we’re here
Shall I read you out my eulogy?
Oh, I’ll speak in remembrance
You can say all you should have said to me
And we’ll gather our friends
Paint a picture of an end
That’ll help them all find closurе
Spare the details of thе gore
You say wait ’til it blows over

And if you knew all you had to do was say sorry
Would you do it over, do it over again?
Do it over, do it over again?
Do it over, do it over”.

This is another interview that I suggest you listen to. This one is from 2020. I guess, when I said that Liang Lawrence has not been on the scene long, four years is a while! However, in terms of releasing an E.P. and really getting to the attention of journalists and radio stations, these are still the first steps. I am going to finish with a fairly recently interview. However, first, there is an interview from 2022 that interested me. A graduate of Exeter University, Lawrence was interviewed by The Tab about her work. This biology graduate and TikTok was already being recognised as a hugely promising artist:

“When thinking of graduate prospects, the main thing that comes to mind as a best case scenario is a nice grad scheme perhaps with a potential job at the end of it. Otherwise, it’s back to the pub in our home town which employed us when we were 16. Whilst a few of us may have come to uni with dreams of fame, still harbouring teenage fantasies of being spotted, these soon died as we realised that we couldn’t even rouse a cheer at the Vic open mic night and consequently haven’t sung since. Losing your dignity in TP is one thing, losing it at an open mic night is another. However, Liang Lawrence has officially put the rest of our graduate prospects to shame, having been snapped up by a recording company just months after graduating.

 Despite having done her undergraduate degree in Biology, Liang also found time to regularly write original songs and share them with her 111.2K TikTok followers. Combining her love of music with her natural activism, she’s produced songs which touch on everything from: anxiety, seasonal depression, and relationships to abortion rights and climate change.

Talking to The Tab Exeter, Liang said that “it’s just so crazy how things are starting to happen I guess, I never would have thought this could happen for me just from starting out in my bedroom teaching myself the ukulele.” Although she has so many highlights, a stand out moment would probably have to be releasing her original Turns Out on TikTok, which drew attention and praise from pop and celeb royalty including Joe Jonas and Sabrina Carpenter.

She’s already working with some top bands and musicians, including the likes of Fickle Friends and has recently collaborated with Flyte *fangirls*. But, you can still catch Liang at open mic nights around Exeter, performing her originals and some banging Oasis covers too. She admitted she had a special soft spot for Pura Vida as it’s where she did her first ever live performance, and soon became the resident Thursday musician at its sister café: Sunset Society. Although she loves performing solo, she mentioned that “she’s going to start looking at finding a band soon”. *immediately sends her a DM despite having zero musical talent…* She’s releasing new music in a month”.

I will wrap up in a minute. What’s Dead and Gone is Liang Lawrence’s second E.P. It follow’s last year’s letters to myself. That was another stunning E.P. One that I have listened to a lot. View of the Arts spoke with Liang Lawrence earlier this month. The globetrotting artist has this rich and fascinating multicultural background. Discussing the difficulties of personal growth and artistic development, it is a fascinating chat:

“View of the Arts: Liang, you’ve had a fascinating upbringing, having grown up in 8 different countries before turning 18. How has this multicultural background influenced your music and artistic expression?

Liang Lawrence: I’d like to think it’s made me quite an open person and I mean that in both very open to being vulnerable but also very open to learning from other people’s experiences and stories.

View of the Arts: Moving between countries at a young age must have been challenging. How did you find consistency and stability in music during those times?

LL: I think writing and music was the only thing I thought I could control and had to myself. It was the only way I felt that I could express myself whilst having such an unsettled feeling all the time. I’m part of a family that very much dealt with the grievances of moving around by “just getting on with it” and I think I never wanted to feel like a bother or a burden expressing just how overwhelming things felt but the music was able to turn something I thought would be annoying and difficult into something lovely and easy for people to hear. I remember the first few times I’d finished writing a song and it was the proudest I’d ever felt.

View of the Arts: You mentioned that music has been “a grounding force for you”. Could you elaborate on how learning to play the guitar and writing songs from your bedroom helped you navigate the difficulties of your childhood and teenage years?

LL: I think it gave me something to completely lose myself in. I always struggled to focus at school but the second I started to write or learn a song, I was fixated on getting it perfect and spending as much time as needed to get there. To this day, I am terrible at explaining how I feel, I practically go mute when I’m asked to talk about how I feel but if I’m able to write a song and explain it in the context of a story it feels a lot less scary.

View of the Arts: You just released your second EP, What’s Dead and Gone, which contains 6 songs that explore themes of youth, romance, and modern femininity. How much of your personal journey over the past year influenced this release?

LL: They could not be more influenced by my personal journey over the past year, to be honest. All of these songs were written in the year after my first EP, which came out almost exactly a year ago. I spent the majority of the past year of my life just dying to understand myself and trying to feel true to myself, my femininity, and my sexuality, to be honest. It resulted in plenty of terrible and wouldn’t-ever-go-back-there experiences, but equally, I think I needed to go through them to understand myself better.

I was practicing some pretty reckless behaviors by myself and with others, sometimes strangers, and just realized that so much of my validation came from other people, specifically men. Once I kind of circumnavigated that, I realized that so much was tied into it. I had a period where I was almost experiencing what I can only understand as gender dysphoria and just feeling like I wasn’t “a good woman,” and I couldn’t express myself sexually without crying, and I never wanted anything to do with my own body unless someone else wanted it. All that to say, those are the feelings that were governing my headspace when I wrote these songs.

View of the Arts: The title What’s Dead and Gone is quite interesting. Can you tell us how you came up with it and what it signifies for you?

LL: To be honest, it was more of a title for myself than anyone else. I just wanted to mark the end of the bad habits, feelings, and people this project revolved around. In the most dramatic and lowest of times, I really felt like whatever personality and character I had in me was dead and I was just this corpse that was unattractive and uninteresting walking around, so there are also a lot of references to death throughout the EP.

View of the Arts: While I truly love all the songs on this EP, two of my favourites are Set Me Up and If Only. Could you share more about the creative process behind these tracks? Specifically, I’d love to hear about your approach to the musical arrangements and what was going through your mind when you wrote the lyrics.

LL: Those two songs stem from the same story, they’re just talking about two very different angles and feelings that were sparked by the same situation. I wrote them just a month apart from each other as well so I think I was finally able to process the situation in a way that meant I could almost choose how to approach it. I find I can only really write about something once I’ve processed it. I wrote Set Me Up with a lovely writer/producer, Hugo M Hardy. Truly one of my favourite people ever. It was our first session and I came in with this experience that I wanted to tell a story about that painted me as the villain in a way.

Set Me Up talks about letting someone fall in love with this ideal version of you and love that that’s as far as it will go. It was a really interesting spot to be in and it was just a realisation both of us were projecting this ideal on our relationship and ourselves. We changed the demo of this song a lot, it was a bit more of a soft rock sound at first and then I wanted to give more space to the lyrics and story so we stripped it back a bit and slowed it down and Joey Walker and I put it in this electronic folk world that gets busier and “messier” as you get further into the song/story.

PHOTO CREDIT: Nick Ilott

If Only was the last song I’ve ever written about this relationship I had and I think it was very much just an acceptance that there was a part of me that wanted something to work out between us, which I think I felt guilty about for a long time for several reasons. But I think I was combatting that guilt and not sitting with it for months because of how they treated me and who they were and the nature of our relationship and then eventually wrote ‘If Only’ as almost a surrender. Joey and I wanted to keep it pretty stripped, especially being the last track of the EP. Then when we added strings we just knew that was all it needed and I immediately cried when Jed Bevington played the outro in the studio.

I think “What’s Dead and Gone” is even more introspective than ever. It’s the most honest I’ve ever been in my music.

View of the Arts: Your music leans into indie folk, soft rock, and electronic territories. How do artists like Clairo, The Japanese House, and boygenius inspire your sound and songwriting?

LL: I love how honest and almost “in real time” all of their writing is. Eulogy was the first song we worked on in this project and that soft rock and electronic folk sound just really suited the way the stories needed to be told.

View of the Arts: You’ve supported various artists and played at a BBC Introducing Showcase. What have been some of the most memorable moments from these experiences?

LL: My guitarist and I recently played some amazing shows in China supporting HONNE and I think those were just so special for so many reasons. I got to see my family and be back home for the first time in five years all while doing what I love. Not to mention the crowds were the biggest we’d ever played and they were so sweet.

View of the Arts: As an artist with an Asian background, how do you perceive the representation of Asians in the music industry? Do you feel a sense of responsibility to bring more visibility to Asian artists?

LL: I think especially in folk, indie, and the singer-songwriter world, I do often feel incredibly out of place and frequently think about how I don’t look like most of my peers. I believe it’s the industry’s responsibility as a whole to recognise that POC have been overlooked and silenced in all genres for years and years, so shedding light on POC artists with, ultimately what is the most important aspect; that they have different voices and experiences and stories to tell through their music, is always so important. I will never stop sharing Asian artists I love and am inspired by and I think it’s so important that it’s made clear that there is room for all of us and pitting artists against each other for the token space of “Asian Indie Pop Girly” (just as an example) is incredibly toxic and undermining.

I think it’s also important to note that when asking an Asian artist about their sense of responsibility to represent an entire continent of people isn’t very considered which is part of the problem. There are five different regions within the continent of Asia, made up of 48 countries of which have incredibly different cultures and incredibly rich and complicated histories. I feel incredibly lucky and grateful to be where I am but the space I take up in this industry could never be used to represent “Asian artists”.

View of the Arts: You’ve drawn comparisons to artists like Clairo and beabadoobee. How do you feel about these comparisons, and how do you see your musical style?

LL: I love Clairo and beabadoobee, I love how they are experimenting with different genres in pop. I also love both of their vibes. I think at the core of my music it’s always incredibly honest and telling some kind of story which means that I’m able to experiment with my sound until I find one that feels most like me. I think I’m still coming to grips with my sound and that’s so fine and so important but I’m excited as it feels closer and closer with every song I write.

View of the Arts: When you are not working and writing songs, what do you do to get away from it all and relax?

LL: To be honest just spending time in nature is when I feel most relaxed. I love going for sea swims so when I can get away to a beach I am the happiest.

View of the Arts: What are your plans for the future? Are there any new musical directions or projects you’re excited to explore?

LL: I’m super excited to continue to explore working with my band. I love collaborating and the idea of creating a project with my band and then getting to perform the song is so exciting to me. I’m in a real country/grunge/midwest emo phase so hopefully there will be stuff coming in that world soon. I also am just excited to get even more honest in my music than I have ever been. As grateful as I am for the people who have found me through social media, I’m interested to see how things change as I worry less about my social media presence and “image” and more just about the stories I’m telling”.

One of our very best young artists, everyone needs to throw their support behind the incredible Liang Lawrence. What’s Dead and Gone is a wonderful E.P. from someone I can see being in the industry for many years more. She has this voice that hooks you in. Her songs stand up to repeated plays. Such a compelling songwriter and artist. I have never heard her perform live, though I will try to in the future. It is clear that the sublime Liang Lawrence is…

IN a league of her own.

__________

Follow Liang Lawrence

PHOTO CREDIT: Mila Austin 

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/lianglawrence_/

TikTok:

https://www.tiktok.com/@lianglawrence

Twitter:

https://x.com/lianglawrence_

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/artist/3nMWhKVpR0rMn7WFZ0XQoQ

YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2ds0qtJvxbNmUPHWyXBfGA

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/alianglawrence/

FEATURE: The Digital Mixtape: The Mercury Prize 2024 Shortlist

FEATURE:

 

 

The Digital Mixtape

 IN THIS PHOTO: Corinne Bailey Rae

The Mercury Prize 2024 Shortlist

_________

EVEN though the shortlist…

IN THIS PHOTO: Cat Burns

was announced last month, I wanted to spotlight the twelve albums in contention for this year’s Mercury Prize. I did predict a few a while back, though I am surprised the likes of Nadine Shah (for Filthy Underneath) was not shortlisted. Also, I did not think Charli XCX’s album, BRAT, would be in contention, as it was released very recently. Though the record label would have submitted the album before it was released to get her in the mix. It might stand as the favourite. Before making a prediction and deciding the top-five, here is some more detail about the artists and albums who will compete for the Mercury Prize:

“The Mercury Prize has announced its 2024 nominees. The panel’s selections for the best British or Irish album of the year include Charli XCX, Beth Gibbons, Nia Archives, Berwyn, the Last Dinner Party, Barry Can’t Swim, Corinne Bailey Rae, and Ghetts, among others. Check out the full shortlist below. The winner will be announced in September, but the public ceremony has been scrapped for the first time in the award’s 32-year history.

After hearing the news, Charli XCX took to social media to share her thoughts on the nomination, writing, “brat has been shortlisted for the mercury prize and i really am so honored. its so nice to see this body of work get so much love, it truly means the world and watching it take on a life of its own has just been so wild and quite fucking crazy..”

IN THIS PHOTO: Barry Can’t Swim

This year’s panel of judges—chaired by the head of BBC Radio 2 and 6 Music, Jeff Smith—includes the Jamie Cullum, Mistajam, Jamz Supernova, and journalists such as Phil Alexander, Will Hodgkinson, and Sophie Williams. Last year’s Mercury Prize winner were Ezra Collective, who became the first jazz artist to win the award.

Mercury Prize 2024 Shortlist

Barry Can’t Swim - When Will We Land?
Berwyn - Who Am I
Beth Gibbons - Lives Outgrown
Cat Burns - Early Twenties
Charli XCX - Brat
CMAT - Crazymad, for Me
Corinne Bailey Rae - Black Rainbows
Corto.Alto - Bad With Names
English Teacher - This Could Be Texas
Ghetts - On Purpose, With Purpose
Nia Archives - Silence Is Loud
The Last Dinner Party - Prelude to Ecstasy”.

I am confused as to why there is not a public ceremony. How things are going to go down. It does feel unexpected and unjustified to cancel that side of things. The performances on the night and the excitement of the ceremony together is a big reason to watch and pay attention to the Mercury Prize. I hope it loses none of its lure and wonder. And I hope that the public ceremony comes back next year. Despite that error of judgement, there are twelve diverse and great albums in contention. Few precited Ezra Collective would beat the favourites last year, so you cannot bet against Corta.Alto, Nia Archives or Barry Can’t Swim winning. It would be great for Beth Gibbons to win, though she might also be seen as an outside bet. In reality, there are five artists who will be seen as favourites. I think BERWYN, Cat Burns, Charli XCX, The Last Dinner Party and Corinne Bailey Rae are the top-five. With CMAT not far behind. Being the Mercury Prize, this could all change, though personally I would like to see either Cat Burns or Corinne Bailey Rae win this year. We shall see. Next month, one of these amazing twelve albums will win the Mercury Prize. They are all deserving. To end, I have compiled a mixtape of the twelve artists shortlisted and two tracks from each album. It goes to show that the 2024 shortlist is one of the strongest…

IN recent years.