FEATURE: Spotlight: Domi Hawken

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

PHOTO CREDIT: Domi Hawken

 

Domi Hawken

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I am not sure…

how I came across Domi Hawken. I think I was on Instagram and her profile was suggested for me based on my likes/preferences. I had never heard her music before but, upon further investigation, I was intrigued. You can follow her on Instagram (all the links are below), and she does have a Twitter and Facebook page, but the former especially has not been updated for a long time. Domi Hawken is a London-based Indie/Alternative artist known for a Dark-Rock sound that merges Punk, Folk, and Rock 'n' Roll with emotionally raw vocals. Someone who used to write for others, Hawken launched her solo career in Liverpool before moving to London, releasing the stunning 2024 E.P., Sociable Pariah, and launching a 2026 project to release twelve songs in twelve months. I am writing this feature on 28th March, so I might miss out on the March song from her. Break My Heart Again will be available from Tuesday (31st March). Her February song, Stalling., is one of my favourite of this year. In terms of her influence, I have seen in interviews how she has discussed Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan and Tom Waits. This ‘holy trinity’ of songwriters, you can sense some of their genius and mood through her own work. However, in a scene where there are soundalikes and samey artists, Domi Hawken definitely stands as an original. That’s what I think.

I am going to get to some press about her. Although Hawken is quite new to a lot of people’s radar, she is someone who has been in the music industry for a while, as I say, writing for others before embarking on her own material. When you look at the visuals for her songs too, you realise that Hawken has this gravitas and pull. Someone who is as engaging in front of the camera as she is on the microphone. I wonder if she will ever consider acting in the future as she has this hugely engaging aspect that makes the songs strike even harder. I digress somewhat. I am going to start out by wondering whether there are dates coming up for Domi Hawken, as this is someone I would love to see live. After recently discovering her, I am really fascinated by her sound, influences and the whole package. This complete artist that warrants wider airplay. I wonder if too if stations like BBC Radio 6 Music have picked up on her, as she seems ready-made for their playlist. If I have missed her being included on the air then I apologise.

I am wondering whether Domi Hawken will release an E.P. or album this year. I guess, with a single a month coming, that in itself is an album’s worth of material. There will be such big demand for her to come to the stage. I do love artists who are so honest with their music. That it is not about being polished, TikTok-ready and following the herd. It is going to be so exciting seeing where this artist goes from here and how her career develops. I do hope that we get an interview with Domi Hawken in the middle of the year maybe, as she is embarking on this project of a song every month. Catching up to see how it is progressing and what is inspiring her songs. It is not just the case of putting out songs quickly that sound the same. Blue Fish and Stalling. Are very different. Last year’s Water and the Wine very different too. Such a curious and diverse artist, perhaps I should have held out writing this until the new single came out. I might pop it in this feature closer to publication. I want to come to Mystic Sons and their interview from last year. Around the time The Moment I Need You the Most was released, I do love the artists Domi Hawken name-checked when asked about her childhood tastes:

“Erupting with raw rock 'n' roll energy 'The Moment I Need You The Most' dives deep into unrequited love while transcending conventional heartbreak through Hawken's signature blend of punk swagger and folk storytelling. "To me, the song is unhinged," Hawken reveals "It isn't about pining over someone you're in a relationship with - the protagonist is desperate, maybe the person she's singing about barely knows her, their relationship being completely overblown in her mind."

Following the single's release, we sat down with Domi to explore the inspirations behind her sound as she prepares to unveil what promises to be her most ambitious work yet.

What kind of music did you love when you were younger?

All sorts, it was a real mix. There was all the older stuff that my Dad was showing me, which I loved, mixed in with what my older sister was showing me. So I loved led zeppelin but I was also super into Steps, then when I was 14 I ‘discovered’ Bob Dylan and that literally changed my life forever.

What was the first album you remember owning?

It was either Maroon 5, Songs about Jane or White Stripes,  Elephant. We did have a Spice Girls cassette, but I’m not sure I can claim ownership, it was probably my sister’s.

What’s the most rewarding part of being a musician? And the most frustrating part?

The people who listen to the music, it’s a double edged sword. I’ve had messages from people saying they listened to a song of mine before going on a date and it made them less nervous, or on the way to work to pump themselves up, and that’s great seeing a song become bigger than what you created, watching it mean something to complete strangers. But also, you can’t control any of it. I can’t make anyone like what I’m doing, or come to a show, or listen to a song, and sometimes it can feel like you’re just throwing stuff into the void and hoping someone notices it.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve received as a musician?

Stop thinking. You’re not a musician if you’re not engaging in some kind of music, playing or writing. Don’t overthink or question ‘will this be popular?’ The very worst songs I’ve ever written were when I was trying to write like somebody else or in a way I thought people wanted. I have no control over that, in a way it’s none of my business what people think of the music once it’s out there and if you focus on that you’ll never create anything. So, stop thinking, just write, play, put it out and then drop it, onto the next”.

There is not a lot online so far regarding Domi Hawken at the moment. However, given the amount of new music she is putting out this year, there will be more promotion and insight into this remarkable artist. I am going to end with Richer Unsigned and their piece this year about Blue Fish. A phenomenal single from an artist who I think will have a very bright future:

“London-based indie/alternative artist Domi Hawken launches her bold 2026 project – one new song every month – with the haunting first release, ‘Blue Fish.’

Dark, guitar-driven and emotionally unfiltered, the track explores self-discovery at the point where love, life and death collide. Raised on Leonard Cohen and Led Zeppelin, Hawken blends poetic introspection with raw rock intensity, delivered through a DIY, home-recorded, grunge aesthetic that favours honesty over polish”.

If you have not discovered the remarkable Domi Hawken, then make sure that you follow her. I am a recent fan but, after hearing her music, I am going to keep an eye to see where she heads. Her work is progressing and growing. Her second E.P., last year’s The Water and the Wine, built on Sociable Pariah. Spill Magazine wrote about the remarkable E.P. last year: “Her upcoming EP Water and The Wine promises to be Hawken’s most ambitious work to date, showcasing a different side to her artistry. Moving away from the rigid vision of her debut, Hawken has embraced a more collaborative approach with her band members Matt Robson, Cyprien Jacquet, and Kobi Pham. “When our drummer Cyprien sent back his first version of ‘Water And The Wine,’ he asked if it was what I wanted,” she recalls. “I told him it was so much better than what I wanted. From that moment, I was much more relaxed about letting the guys put their stamp on the songs.” The result is a grittier, more creative sound that benefits from the collective input of the entire band”. 2026 has already been a really busy one. Releasing a new track each month, I wonder what the long-term holds for Domi Hawken. She is such an exciting talent with a sound that instantly stands her aside from her peers, you simply need to hear her music right now. An artist who will put out incredible music…

FOR so many years to come.

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Follow Domi Hawken

FEATURE: Smile Away: Paul and Linda McCartney's RAM at Fifty-Five

FEATURE:

 

 

Smile Away

  

Paul and Linda McCartney's RAM at Fifty-Five

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THERE have been various…

IN THIS PHOTO: Linda and McCartney in 1971/PHOTO CREDIT: Daily Record

incarnations of Paul McCartney’s career. As part of The Beatles, Wings and as a solo artist. However, the Paul McCartney and Linda McCartney partnership is perhaps the most unknown and best. RAM is the only album credited to each of them, in spite of the fact that Linda McCartney worked on several of her husband’s albums. It turns fifty-five on 17th May. Before getting to some features about this incredible album, here are some notes and a bit of background:

“The only album credited to both Paul and Linda McCartney, RAM reached Number 1 in the UK and stayed in the US Top 10 for five months. Recording after he’d left The Beatles and before the formation of Wings, Paul initially flew with Linda to New York to record the songs they'd written but arrived without a band. As Paul recalls, “We were thinking of forming a group at that time, Wings. We went to New York, found a really grotty little basement somewhere and auditioned a bunch of people. We got someone to throw a lot of drummers at us, out of which we picked Denny Seiwell who’s one of the best, and his personality fitted. Then we went in, worked with him, Hugh McCracken, Dave Spinozza, a couple of New York session men, and did RAM.” To avoid arousing too much interest, the auditions were held under the guise of a session for a commercial jingle. As well as Paul’s lead vocals there are harmonies from Linda. “I gave her a hard time, I must say, but we were pleased with the results. Elton John later said somewhere that he thought it was the best harmonies he’d heard in a long while. It was very much the two of us against the world at that point.” Despite an initially lukewarm Rolling Stone review, it was later hailed by them as one of his best solo albums. In 2012, RAM was reissued in remastered form with many extra elements, as part of the Paul McCartney Archive Collection.

Performed by Paul & Linda McCartney with Denny Seiwell, Dave Spinozza & Hugh McCracken
Tracks 1, 2, 3, 6, 11, 12 composed by Paul McCartney
Tracks 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10 composed by Paul & Linda McCartney
Produced by Paul and Linda McCartney
1993 reissue: Tracks 13 (‘Another Day’) & 14 (Oh Woman, Oh Why’) produced by Paul McCartney
Sound Engineers: Tim, Ted, Phil, Dixon, Armin & Jim
Mixing Engineer: Eirik the Norwegian”.

I am going to lead to a review from 2012. Pitchfork reviewed the reissue of RAM and provided some interesting insights. In 1971, there was still a lot of animosity around Paul McCartney. People blaming him for the break-up of The Beatles. His debut solo album, 1970’s McCartney, was hammered. Even though RAM is a masterpiece, there was this negativity because it was a Paul McCartney album:

“Sometimes an album gets a review so resoundingly negative that it lurks forever like a mournful spirit in its rear view mirror: Jon Landau, writing for Rolling Stone, claimed to hear in Ram "the nadir in the decomposition of Sixties rock thus far." Which is intense. But people wanted impossible things from Beatles solo albums-- closure, healing, apologies, explanations for what to do with their dashed expectations. John Lennon tried telling everyone outright "The dream is over" on Plastic Ono Band's "God", but that still wasn't a cold-water jet hard enough to prepare people, apparently, for the whimsical pastoral oddity that was Ram.

Landau was right, however, that it did spell the end of something, which might be a clue to the vitriol: If "60s rock" was defined, in large part, by the existence of the Beatles, then Ram made it clear in a new, and newly painful, way that there would be no Beatles ever again. To use a messy-divorce metaphor: When your parents are still screaming red-faced at each other, it's a nightmare, but you can still be assured they care. When one of them picks up and continues on living, it smarts in an entirely different way.

Ram, simply put, is the first Paul McCartney release completely devoid of John's musical influence. Of course, John wiggled his way into some of the album's lyrics-- in those fresh, post-breakup years, the two couldn't quite keep each other out of their music. But musically, Ram proposes an alternate universe where young Paul skipped church the morning of July 6, 1957, and the two never crossed paths. It's breezy, abstracted, completely hallucinogen-free, and utterly lacking grandiose ambitions. Its an album whistled to itself. It's purely Paul.

Or actually, "Paul and Linda." This was another one of Paul's chief Ram -related offenses: He not only invited his new photographer bride into the recording studio, he included her name on the record's spine. Ram is the only album in recorded history credited to the artist duo "Paul and Linda McCartney," and in the sense that Linda's enthusiastically warbling vocals appear on almost every song, it's entirely accurate. Some read Paul's decision as the ultimate insult to his former partner: I've got a new collaborator now! Her name is Linda, and she never makes me feel stupid. In the album's freewheeling spirit, however, the decision scans more like guilelessness and innocence. The songs don't feel collaborative so much as cooperative: little schoolhouse plays that required every hand on deck to get off the ground. Paul had the most talent, so naturally he was up front, but he wanted everyone behind him, banging pots, hollering, whistling-- whatever it is you did, make sure you're back there doing it with gusto.

It is exactly this homemade charm that has caught on with generations of listeners as the initial furor around the album subsided. What 2012's ears can find on Ram is a rock icon inventing an approach to pop music that would eventually become someone else's indie pop. It had no trendy name here; it was just a disappointing Beatles solo album. But when Ben Stiller's fussy, pedantic "Greenberg" character painstakingly assembles a mix for Greta Gerwig intended to display the breadth and depth of his pop-culture appreciation, he slides Ram 's "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey" on there. It's the song we see her singing along to enthusiastically in the following montage.

Critics hated "Uncle Albert". "A major annoyance," Christgau opined. Again, from the current moment we can only plead ignorance, assume that some serious shit had to be going down to clog everyone's ears. Because "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey" is not only Ram 's centerpiece, it is clearly one of McCartney five greatest solo songs. As the slash in the title hints, it's a multi-part song, starring two characters. To put its accomplishments in an egg-headed way: It fuses the conversational joy listeners associated with McCartney's melodic gift to the compositional ambition everyone assumed was Lennon's. To put it a simpler way: Every single second of this song is joyously, deliriously catchy, and no two seconds are the same. Do you think early Of Montreal, the White Stripes at their most vaudevillian, or the Fiery Furnaces took any lessons from this song?

What a lot of people thought they heard on "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey", and everywhere else on the album, is cloying cuteness. But it turns out you can say a lot of things-- things like "go fuck yourself" ("3 Legs"), "everything is fucked" ("Too Many People"), and even "let's go fuck, honey" ("Eat At Home)"-- with a big, dimpled grin on your face. "It's just the critics who say, 'Well, John was the biting tongue; Paul's the sentimental one,'" Linda observed shrewdly in a dual Playboy interview from 1984. "John was biting, but he was also sentimental. Paul was sentimental, but he could be very biting. They were more similar than they were different”.

This review from 2021 also highlights the vitriol aimed at RAM. Even Ringo Starr dismissed it. Saying there were no tunes on RAM and feeling McCartney was getting weird. Fifty-five years after its release and the magic and sheer brilliance of RAM has not dimmed. AS huge critical shift and retrospective positivity:

“Fifty years on from its release, the album is now being held aloft beneath the spotlight and readily proclaimed a classic. Still simple but now “relevant”, “revealing” and “austere”, an endearing snapshot of the time, and of a singer’s circumstance. It has taken time, Lord knows it has taken time, but this collection of songs is now seen and loudly credited for those very same joke-filled, shuffling and spontaneous lyrics to a loving young family that had rescued a tortured man from unrelentingly dark hours, and from the bottom of a bottle.

“The break-up had its effect on me,” Paul revealed later. “I took to the booze. I was trying to recover in whatever way I could.”

Remnants of those dark and unrelenting hours still managed to seep through somewhere though, as thinly-veiled barbs and none-too-subtle digs at his one-time friends and now former bandmates being torn apart by money-fuelled arguments and the endless rounds of high court meetings; four friends now angrily and hungrily picking very publicly over the bones of their joint creation and legacy. And, as a testament to all of this, RAM now stands alone, although suddenly proud. As the sole McCartney album credited equally to both Paul and Linda McCartney. As a family’s scrapbook of lyrical snapshots from a life together, far away from all the madness and recriminations, and of an artist waiting to be rediscovered within the sanctity of a sprawling farm hidden far away from prying eyes in remotest Scotland.

“If Linda hadn’t got on his case,” drummer Denny Seiwell told Tom Doyle for MOJO magazine, “RAM never would’ve been made.”

“She just eased me out of it,” MOJO reports McCartney as saying of that time, “and sort of said, ‘Hey, y’know, you don’t want to get too crazy.’ And made me feel a lot better. And then I moved again into music therapy, which was RAM…”

With each song, cathartically penned and reworked between the daily chores demanded by a working farm and a young growing family, and demoed at night, single-handedly, in a homemade studio that was little more than a simple “lean-to” propped up against an old out-house but containing a favourite four-track machine, McCartney began to rediscover his joy. He began to sober up, “to heal”. He began to emerge from the shadows of The Beatles, from the ties that bound him to John, George and Ringo and from the debris of all the legal wrangling that had threatened to bury him.

“I suppose I was just letting myself be free,” he would admit later to Tom Doyle.

In New York, fulfilling an ambition and finally managing to record in the U.S., something The Beatles had never done, and working with a new band comprising of David Spinozza, who had been recruited personally by Linda, Hugh McCracken and drummer Denny Seiwell, who would later join Wings, the recording sessions for RAM began on the 18th October 1970, and saw everyone enveloped within a family atmosphere, Paul and Linda’s daughter Mary content in a playpen installed in the control room of Columbia Record’s Studio B.

“Immediately what dawned on me was how good the songwriting was,” Spinozza tells MOJO.
“It was some of the best stuff that he did – definitely since leaving The Beatles,” Denny Seiwell revealed to Classic Rock.

The album opens with the track ‘Too Many People’, throughout which McCartney’s feelings begin to form and take shape, rising bitterly to the surface and aimed specifically towards his one time writing partner, John Lennon; the track famously beginning, apparently, with the words, “piss off”, sung in a whisper just above an otherwise slightly psychedelic intro, although now, Paul insists that he actually sings, “piece of cake”.

“And hey,” he tells Doyle, “come on, how mild is that?” And of the lines, “Too many people preaching practices…” and “you took your lucky break and broke it in two”?

“I felt that was true of what was going on. ‘Do this, do that.’” Now it seems as though Paul would not have cared so much if all the “preaching and the practices” he saw coming from those advising John, George and Ringo, namely Allen Klein, had been wise. But, according to The Beatles’ former business associate, Peter Brown, Lennon strongly believed that several songs, including ‘Too Many People’ and ‘Dear Boy’ had been aimed directly towards him and Yoko Ono, whilst both George and Ringo interpreted the song ‘3 Legs’ as attacks directed at them and John, especially the lines, “My dog he got three legs, But he can’t run”, and “I thought you was my friend, But you let me down”. The small image of two beetles, strategically placed on the back of an otherwise simple album cover, would only help to add to all these pent-up feelings of frustration, mistrust and recrimination, to what fans read and heard as barely hidden innuendoes.

One track that McCartney insists had nothing to do with Lennon though, is ‘Dear Boy’. Instead, he says, it was written to Linda’s first husband, who, as Paul sings, didn’t realise quite, “how much you missed”. But, the songs had been pored over endlessly by former bandmates, fans and critics alike, and the interpretations and lasting first impressions had been made, rightly or wrongly. And it was the songs ‘Too Many People’ and ‘Another Day’, the single released just before RAM, that Lennon would soon respond to directly, his track ‘How Do You Sleep’ famously including his own bitter observation that: “The only thing you done was yesterday, And since you’ve gone you’re just another day”. There would be no disguising who that was aimed at.

“Those freaks was right when they said you was dead, The one mistake you made was in your head.”

For Paul though, RAM was a way of making sense of all the conflicting emotions, and of working through them, finally ridding himself of all the confusion and frustrations. “Like I say,” he would explain to Tom Doyle, “that was my saviour.”

Ram is now seen as a more highly polished and professional offering than the album that had come before, McCartney, and with much less of the “homemade” or “rushed” feel about it, even including the New York Philharmonic who added full orchestrated flesh to the singles ‘Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey’ and ‘The Back Seat of My Car’. Still minimalistic and simple, according to the various reviews that mark this anniversary, but now it is revered as tuneful and heartfelt, as a classic album from an artist cheerful and seemingly fulfilled, even in the midst of all the adversity.

“Looking back at it now, like a lot of things in retrospect,” Paul admits to Classic Rock, “it looks better than it looked to me then”.

I am going to end with an interview from 2021 from Paul McCartney. A RAM special, it is interesting hearing his recollections and insights into a time which was very strange and stressful. However, being in Scotland on a farm and away from the pressure and rush of the city must also have provided some space at least:

“Locutus on Twitter: In another interview you mentioned (when composing songs) "you know when it's a good one". When making RAM - a now highly acclaimed record - did you know it would be a good one?

Paul: I thought it was a good one, and enjoyed making it, and felt like I’d made a good album. What ruined it for me was that it was not well received critically, and that kinda put me off. Which is weird, it’s sort of weak of me to be put off by a review, but these things happen. The adverse reviews made me think ‘oh, maybe it wasn’t such a good album, I better try and make another one’.

But the saving grace in all of this is that years later people would tell me RAM was their favourite album, and that made me go back and listen to it and think again. The critics put me off it, and the fans put me on it! I remember my nephew Jay said to me ‘oh, my favourite album of yours is RAM’, and that was especially nice to hear because he grew up with it. Whenever I had a new album I’d want to play it for my family, so the kids got to hear it, which means he’s probably got nice memories of listening to it at home.

I actually did an interview the other day with a guy called Lou Simon from the Beatles channel on Sirius XM in America, and he said that it’s not only his favourite album of mine, it’s his favourite record of all time. Wow! Considering what great records there have been over the years, that was a pretty big compliment. But yeah, there are people who really like this. So, it’s really nice to rediscover something like that, particularly when you weren’t sure whether it was good or not.

PM.com: Does that change how you think of reviews now?

Paul: Yeah. Obviously, you’re always trying to make the best record so you only put records out that you think are good. The first person I need to please is me. You start there, and you think ‘if I like it, there’s a good chance that other people who are going to like it’. And then when you talk to the fans and they say they like it, or you see them writing in or tweeting in.

IN THIS PHOTO: Paul McCartney during the recording of RAM at Columbia Studios, New York in 1970/PHOTO CREDIT: Linda McCartney

Pintaadaptor on Instagram: How was writing on your farm in Scotland different from writing at studios such as Abbey Road etc?

Paul: Because of the lifestyle we were living, it was very free. The Beatles had been great, and I’d loved it, but I couldn’t say it was free, personally. I couldn’t exactly go to Scotland for a few months. If you were in The Beatles, you had to make records and work. But when we went to Scotland, we had a very free, sort of hippie lifestyle. It meant I could sit around in the kitchen in the little farmhouse we lived in, with the kids running around and me just with my guitar, making up anything I fancied. ‘Three Legs’ for instance was me jamming around with a blues idea, and then with no particular relevance I sang ‘my dog, he got three legs, but he can run’, meaning that everything doesn’t have to be perfect, it can still work. And then I added the lyric ‘a fly flies in’, and I’m sure that happened, with the window open in Scotland! I’m sure a fly actually flew in and I went ‘okay – you’re in the song! Fly flies in, fly flies out’. So yeah, it was a very free period and I think that found its way into the record.

I always think that the way we were living then was the way a lot of young people would like to live. We were escaping the constrictions of society. It’s why people move out to the country, or do a lot of gardening, all of those sort of things. It’s a great opportunity in your life to do something different.

IN THIS PHOTO: Paul McCartney in Scotland in 1971/PHOTO CREDIT: Linda McCartney

Fleur on Facebook: How did the writing partnership with Linda work? Did you sit down formally together like you did with John?

Paul: No, it was much looser. I would be writing something mainly, because Linda didn’t really play a guitar and we didn’t have a piano knocking around, so it would be me messing around with a guitar and I might say to her ‘sing along!’ and then ‘ah that’s good, we’ll put it in’. She’d make suggestions as we went along, or sing a harmony or something, but it wasn’t a formal thing like John and I where you had two people sitting down with the intention of writing a song. With Linda I’d be sat in the kitchen making it up, and she’d throw a suggestion in and that made her a co-writer.

Brendan on Twitter: Linda’s harmonies on this album are exceptional. Did it take a long time to get right or was she naturally brilliant from the start?

Paul: Well, we worked at it. Because that’s what you do when you work on a record, you want it to sound right. Linda told me that she used to be a member of a glee club in America, when she was in college. Like the TV series ‘Glee’! I’d never heard of a glee club before, because in Britain we didn’t have that, and she explained that they would sing together and they used to go to a bell tower at the school because it had a good acoustics. She knew certain things about it, so when it came to writing and recording, she would naturally just sing a harmony or I would suggest one and we’d harmonise at home. Then when we would get into the studio, we’d work a little bit harder to try and get it right.

Looking back at the records we made together, I think our harmonies were a really individual sound, and a very special sound. Probably because she wasn’t a professional singer, that gave her an innocence to her tone that comes through on the records. I’d be singing ‘hands across the water’ and she’d echo ‘water, water’ and do this funny little American accent, and we’d put it in! We were having fun”.

On 17th May, RAM turns fifty-five. It is this exceptional album that I still don’t think gets enough credit. Paul McCartney recently announced a new album, The Boys of Dungeon Lane. That arrive on 29th May. This masterful genius still producing amazing music. I wonder whether he will say anything about RAM on its fifty-fifth anniversary. Despite how disheartening and damaging it would have been reading some of the reviews in 1971, Paul McCartney can be immensely proud of what he and Linda McCartney created. It is their album. Whilst we sadly lost Linda McCartney, Paul carries the legacy and can discuss the album. His memories of recording with his beloved wife. An album warmly received now, someone who went through such hell during the time and when it was released can now…

SMILE away.

FEATURE: Modern-Day Queens: Nadine Shah

FEATURE:

 

 

Modern-Day Queens

PHOTO CREDIT: Amelia Read

 

Nadine Shah

__________

I chatted with the…

queen that is Nadine Shah last year, as she was part of the Together for Palestine single that almost made it to the Christmas number one slot. It was a remarkable and important single that raised money for humanitarian aid in Gaza. Lullaby is this incredible song I asked Nadine Shah abut. Here, I am spotlighting her as a solo artist, as I believe she is currently working on her sixth studio album. 2024’s Filthy Underneath was my favourite of that year and its lead single, Topless Mother, is a song I listen to loads now and absolutely love. The video is amazing too! I am revisiting Nadine Shah, not only because I am a fan, but I feel she is one of the most important voices in music. There are some fascinating interviews from throughout the years I have included in other features about Shah. I am going to dip back into a slightly older one released around the release of the 2020 album, Kitchen Sink. For The Quietus, Nadine Shah selected albums important to her. To provide a bit of context, I will include several that she mentioned that you can sort of detect in her work. Though Shah is a huge original, and the abiding takeaway from her music is this singular and peerless voice.

“Tori Amos

Little Earthquakes

“It’s an honest one, this. I guess I call them my emo years, not that I listened to actual emo. I’d left London for a time and moved back to the north east when I was about 20, and I stayed there for a year. And I realised I’d made a mistake and I wanted to go back to London. I was living with my parents and I had no money and I was saying "Please dad, can you lend me some money so I can move to London?" and he was saying, "No, I already lent you money years ago, you’re not getting anymore. Get a job’; ‘I don’t want a job!’ [laughs]. I was feeling really sorry for myself.

I had a really camp manager at the time, a brilliant guy called Steven Brains, and he was such an advocate for great female musicians I didn’t know about like Diamanda Galas and also Tori Amos. He told me how important she was to him. My mum and dad live by the sea and I would play this Tori Amos album to myself over and over again feeling so sorry for myself. Walking across the dramatic north east coastline looking out to the North Sea and singing along really loudly on the clifftops. I thought she really knew me and she felt my pain. Now I cringe!

There’s something about her vocals that has a unique character. I appreciate artists who show you every bit of them. They’re not there to appease or blend in. These people provide the soundtracks of our lives, and she provided one for me when I was feeling very, very sorry for myself. And it was a really great way to exorcise that pain, so aye, thanks Tori Amos for that”.

Richard Dawson

Nothing’s Important

He’s an old friend of mine. You know when you go to house parties and someone pulls out a guitar and you’re like, "ah right, it’s time to go home"? When a boy pulls out an acoustic guitar, it’s like, ‘Fuck off, he’s gonna play ‘Wonderwall’, see ya later. Time to go to bed, party over’. And when I first knew Richard Dawson years ago, I was at a house party in Newcastle and he gets the guitar and starts playing, and I couldn’t even finish saying "party’s over" because he started to play. Honestly, I’ve never known anything like it. I was spellbound by his voice, his presence, his playing, the way he detuned his guitar strings so they were slack, and I’ve not heard tuning like that ever.

He’s completely phenomenal and he was a cult icon in Newcastle for years. He had a big drinking problem, which he’s talked about, and he’d turn up at parties wasted and play, and then he really got his act together and he honed his craft. He’s been such an inspiration of mine. For me and my friends he was this huge inspiration.

I try not to listen to any Richard Dawson when I’m writing because it makes me want to put the pen down and stop what I’m doing and not bother. I’m in love with his voice too. The lyrics for ‘The Vile Stuff’ are just sensational. And some of the names in the song – I know who those people are! And then I spoke to a music journalist who said, "It’s really clever how he mentions all the Apostles in that song" and I was like, what? Fucking hell, Richard Dawson, you clever bastard. It has all the makings of the perfect song for me, ‘The Vile Stuff’: I love a drunken sea shanty or a song that sounds like you need a tankard to bash against a wooden table. It’s one of the most glorious pieces of music that I’ve ever heard and so different from the music that I do hear or I imagine that I ever will hear. I put it on when I’m mischievous and whisky drunk. Bloody Richard Dawson, he’s the best.

Lauryn Hill

The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill

I would have been 12 when this came out and I think it’s probably one of the only albums I can think back on from childhood that’s quite a cool one. I didn’t have a very musical family, I didn’t have a bunch of muso friends, so I dunno how I stumbled upon it. I would have heard something on Top of the Pops or it would have been on the wall advertised in HMV because it was a really big album and that’s the one you go to.

I knew every word to every song on the album, even the rapping. I’ve been banned from rapping in isolation by my boyfriend which is quite frustrating because I love rapping. I remember being really proud of myself and knowing all the lyrics, but there’s a lot of stark political commentary in her words too, and maybe I wouldn’t have noticed that at the time. There’s beautiful nostalgia attached to it from my childhood but I think it still stands out compared to so much stuff I’ve listened to. Whenever I listen to new music I find it interesting to go back to old favourites, and that still stands out as unique and quite revolutionary.

It’s a really coherent piece of work. It’s amazing, there are all these segues between songs which take place in a classroom, and there’s a teacher talking to the kids. They’re really sweet, lovely, gentle moments, and there’s that one song ‘Doo-Wap (That Thing)’ – it’s quite retro even for the time – and there are these silky songs sung by Lauryn Hill and she just has such a beautiful singing voice. It’s the album I’ve given to people and never got back the most. I swear I’ve replaced it at least 12 times saying, ‘you’ve got to listen to this!’

There wasn’t much after that. You wonder, when you make such a pivotal album, whether an artist feels pressurised and thinks they can’t make anything else like that. And in a way, if you feel within yourself that you can’t make anything better then just leave it at that. You’ve accomplished what you set out to do. Retire as heavyweight champion, why not?”

Last year was a pivotal one for Nadine Shah, I feel. She released her Live in London album. That was taken from her performance at the Kentish Town O2 Forum. I was at that gig, and I can attest at how phenomenal that show was! Such an utterly engrossing and powerful performance that blew me away, Shah also performed at festivals including Glastonbury. One reason why I want to highlight these events is how she used her platform not just to play her music and leave it there. She uses that musical pulpit to talk about vital issues like the genocide in Palestine and humanity. She is an artist who has a huge heart and conscience. Someone who has spoken out against the bloodshed in Gaza and the pacificism of government. Shah also will be busy this year with gigs. I am not sure when a new album is arriving, though I am also going to drop in a review of Filthy Underneath, as it is a masterful and enormously memorable album. One where some of the most potent moments are when Shah opens her soul and brings you into her struggles and tougher elements. Someone who can be very personal and soul-baring, she can mix that deep emotion with humour. Topless Mother is an example of her wit and songwriting genius at the fore! To give a bit of background to Filthy Underneath and Nadine Shah’s life leading up to the recording of that album. It was one of the hardest periods of her life. The Guardian write how “the singer became isolated in grief, PTSD and addiction. But after ‘falling in love with everybody’ in rehab, she’s put her experiences into her biggest music yet”:

“On leaving rehab, she felt sturdier. “In the past, I wouldn’t be able to do an interview or a show without having a drink,” she says. “I didn’t realise how difficult I found it to exist within this industry, being quite an awkward, shy person.” Perhaps inevitably, her skin is much thicker now; her marriage has now ended, but she remains friends with her ex. “I don’t sweat the small stuff. I guess that happens when you nearly die. A lot of things that used to bother me don’t any more. I have no issue with people criticising me on the internet.”

The first thing she did when she got out was get back to work. She’d never acted onstage before until September 2022 when she joined a “gleefully anarchic” Shakespeare North Playhouse production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, playing Titania; but she revelled in her part’s playfulness and earned a nomination at the What’sOnStage awards.

She also finished her fifth album, written with the same playful spirit. Filthy Underneath is a document of Shah’s downward spiral and recovery set to an impeccable groove. It builds on the sonic world of Kitchen Sink but several songs have a wilder rhythmic looseness, recalling the Burundi beat of 80s new wavers Bow Wow Wow, and the gothic exotica of Siouxsie Sioux’s side project the Creatures. Other songs are shot through with 70s influences, such as the Turkish psych of protest singer Selda Bağcan and Indian siren Asha Puthli’s sensual cosmic disco.

PHOTO CREDIT: Suki Dhanda/The Guardian

I thought: is this too personal? But I lost my mystery a long time ago. I may as well make brutally honest work

The melodies are adventurous, and the contradictions of Shah’s inner psyche loom large, as she confronts her shadow self and ego, and laments the end of her marriage. If that sounds a bit like therapy-speak, lead single Topless Mother takes sardonic aim at some uncomfortable counselling sessions she had during recovery. Its delirious word association (one example: “Sharia, Diana, samosa”) comes off like a playground taunt, as she appears to flip between herself and the voice of her therapist.

Shah uses her vocal range to its fullest, too: there is weightless falsetto and, on the serpentine Food for Fuel, a trill familiar to qawwali, the Arabic-south Asian devotional music style. “I’ve always underplayed my singing, singing in my lower register and not doing too many acrobatics in order to be taken more seriously,” she says. “Whereas actually, I’ve got a big voice.”

It is put to stellar use on Greatest Dancer, a strident goth banger inspired by the time she took some of her mum’s prescription meds in front of an episode of Strictly Come Dancing, and the operatic synthpop ballad Keeping Score – both feel primed for her current shows supporting Depeche Mode in huge arenas. The latter song returns to a familiar theme of hers, toxic relationships, but the subject matter is still raw. “I haven’t worked out how to talk about that one yet,” she says. “It’s about male violence against women, verbal or physical.”

At one point, she was unsure whether she would be able to do this as a job again. But her mum gave her her love of music – especially Scott Walker – and it helps to keep her close: “I am holding the note for her,” as she sings on the deeply moving See My Girl. “I couldn’t give up music because it brings me back to my mam,” she says now. “I’ve got that connection to her, always.”

Another standout is the biting spoken-word sermon of Sad Lads Anonymous, with its wince-worthy depiction of rock bottom. “I’m describing being at an awards show, and my band have left, and I’m still there in a toilet cubicle telling a work experience kid my darkest secrets,” she says. “I look back on this stuff and I’m laughing about a lot of it, but so much of the dumb stuff I did, it was humiliating.” Making Filthy Underneath, Shah thought: “Is this too personal? Is this giving away too much? But I lost my mystery as an artist a long time ago. I’m not gonna get that back, so I might as well just make brutally honest work.”

And there is none more brutally honest than the closing track, the sinister yet wry French Exit, about “sliding off the dancefloor” of life. At first she was apprehensive about showing a song about suicide to Ben Hillier, with whom she makes all her music. But another image springs to mind when she thinks about French Exit now. “We actually used the instrumental of it in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. I have a sexual dance with a donkey to that song”.

There is something I am leading up to before looking ahead to the rest of this year. Uncut wriere full of praise for one fo the true standout albums of 2024. Maybe her finest work to date, I do feel it warranted award recognition. Even so, the live dates Nadine Shah performed were full of fans sending tyheir love to her on the stage. I am so excited to hear what comes next for her:

“After a hellish few years, versatile songwriter produces her best work to date

To say that Nadine Shah has been through a lot since 2020 would be an understatement. On top of a global pandemic, she lost her mother to cancer, got married, attempted suicide, went to rehab and got divorced. All of which is funnelled directly into her latest record. Although it explores pain, death, mental illness and the dizzying process of coming out of all of that, it’s also a record that contains bundles of beauty, tenderness, humour and even joy.

Made in collaboration with her long-term writing partner Ben Hillier, it is also musically the most varied and exciting album the pair have made together. The opening “Even Light” is driven by an infectious and bouncing bassline that drills into the core of the song as Shah’s voice floats atop, while subtle electronics bubble away and brass-like synth stabs punctuate. It sets the tone for an album that is leaps and bounds above anything else Shah has done before – a record that’s layered and detailed, coated with beautifully rich production, yet also spacious and considered.

Lead single “Topless Mother” is perhaps the track that feels most in keeping with Shah’s previous work, with a whiff of the PJ Harvey and Bad Seeds influence still hovering around, but the song is somewhat of an anomaly. The flurry of drums, crunchy guitars and animated vocal delivery – which, combined, could easily be mistaken for something by the Swedish psych-rock outfit Goat – soon gives way to an album that winds things down rather than cranks them up.

Any familiarities quickly dissipate: “Food Or Fuel”, for instance, absorbs the influence of the Indian disco-jazz-pop artist Asha Puthli, and turns it into a subtle funk strut that is soothing and hypnotising as it locks into its twisting, pulsing rhythm. Shah leans into singing more than ever here, so her voice feels like a vital instrumental force as well as functioning as an intimate and captivating narrator. This is most perfectly embodied on the sprechgesang track “Sad Lads Anonymous”, which sees Shah lashing out generous helpings of self-deprecating humour. “This was a dumb idea, even for you,” she begins, as a gothic groove locks in, and she recalls tales from “the madhouse” along with a preceding spiralling period. It’s brilliantly direct songwriting that is honest and raw but also goes way above the diary entry confessional. The lyrics are dark and anguished but biting, funny and vivid; it almost feels perverse to extract such pleasure from something so clearly rooted in torment and turbulence, but such dichotomies are what gives the album its flair and punch.

As a whole, guitars take a backseat role here and are generally utilised for adding texture and atmosphere, while synths are plentiful. Itchy, propulsive post-punk-esque rhythms are largely ditched for a more glacial and unfurling pace that gives Shah’s voice room to breathe and soar. On tracks such as “Greatest Dancer” and “Hyperrealism”, her voice sounds truly remarkable. On the former it wraps itself around immersive electronics and a potently hypnotic beat, while the delicate composition of the latter, merging piano and warm blasts of synth, leaves room for a vocal performance that at one point suggests Nina Simone before gliding into something else, sparkling with pristine and devastatingly beautiful elegance.

The closing track exists as a perfect embodiment of the album and Shah’s approach to tackling the difficult subject matter. Its title, “French Exit”, uses a phrase that means ducking out of a party without saying goodbye to explore her suicide attempt. “Just a French exit/A quiet little way out/Nothing explicit,” she sings over a gentle yet compelling beat that almost recalls Oneohtrix Point Never as it gently builds. It’s a roomy, expansive song that feels quietly haunting and devastating, perhaps even more so because it leaves such space for genuine contemplation as the album ends. It allows you, forces you even, to reflect on the remarkably hard journey this artist has been through, while soaking up the immense beauty that’s been created in its wake”.

I do want to include a live review from last year. Performing in Bradford last year in promotion of Filthy Underneath, On Magazine shared their thoughts and takeaways spent in the company of one of the music world’s greatest live performers. When I saw Shah in London, she caused such an incredible effect. People were talking about the brilliance of the songs, though they were also stunned by what Shah brought to the stage and how hypnotising and jaw-dropping she was. In terms of the power of the performance:

“The dark and moody stage lighting worked perfectly with Nadine’s first offering, ‘Keeping Score’, from her critically acclaimed fifth album, Filthy Underneath, released in February 2024. It’s one of Shah’s most personal and profound lyrical works. The songs are a walk-through of her documented breakdown, mental health struggles, spiralling addiction, a stint in rehab and – more happily – her recovery. They offer a vivid account of what she has overcome.

‘Sad Lads Anonymous’ verges on spoken-word poetry and showcases her Tyneside dialect, drawing the listener in. There’s an abundance of positivity too. A BSL signer stood at the side of the stage, and Shah jests that ‘Topless Mother’ might be an interesting one to interpret. The song, about a counsellor she disliked, is a crowd-pleaser that has the audience hooked. She stalks the stage with jerky but purposeful dance moves.

‘Twenty Things’ appears emotionally draining as she recounts some of the people she met during her recovery. The lyrics, “They’re laying flowers by the bus stop, some poor old junkie’s luck’s up,” echo hauntingly around the auditorium.

“Passion and pain”

Introducing the “serious part” of her set, she urges people not to go to the bar – rightly so, no one moves. Reaching back to her 2015 album Fast Food, she has the audience in the palm of her hand, hanging on every word of ‘Stealing Cars’. Shah then moves on to a BBC 6 Music favourite, ‘Greatest Dancer’, wowing with her stage presence and dominating the entire floor. The band are tight and with her all the way. The crowd is fully on board now – eyes closed, arms in the air. She clearly speaks to people.

If you follow Nadine, you’ll know her political passion. Wearing a Palestine badge on her blazer, she delivers an unbelievable and floor-shaking performance of ‘Out the Way’ from her 2017 album Holiday Destination. Chanting “Ceasefire,” the crowd responds. Her passion and pain are palpable, making it an emotional experience.

Nadine is one of a kind. Her vocal range and gift for storytelling through song are a force to behold. If you’ve never seen her perform, I urge you to – she’s a truly unique and deserving artist”.

Far Out Magazine named Nadine Shah their Spokesperson of the Year. Her tireless dedication to activism and music. That was a great way to end 2025. I feel that the rest of this year is going to be really interesting. Hearing that first taste of new music from Shah:

“For some people, music is a means of escaping the often ugly realities of life, but over the course of the past year, artists like Nadine Shah have been quick to point out that we are well past the point of escapism.

Throughout the entirety of 2025, whether on the news or through a constant stream of content on social media, we have been bombarded with deplorable, heartbreaking scenes from places like Sudan and Palestine. Some of the worst atrocities imaginable – genocide, enforced famine, and the levelling of entire cities – have been beamed into our retinas on a daily basis, yet there is still a plethora of prominent voices telling us to ignore it all.

With that horrifying backdrop, though, one ray of hope over the past 12 months has been the prevalence of artists and musicians using their voices and platforms as a means of political activism.

One of the most important events in the musical calendar – Glastonbury Festival, for example, was awash with admirable activism. Whether it was artists like CMAT or Amyl and the Sniffers halting their performances to stand in solidarity with Palestine, countless calls for the British government to take action, or the farcical controversy surrounding Kneecap and Bob Vylan in the weeks that followed, the weekend was a perfect reflection of just how unavoidable these issues have become.

Perhaps the most powerful speech of the weekend, however, came from Whitburn’s finest, Nadine Shah. On the Other Stage, during an untelevised, early afternoon slot, Shah used her incredible set to bring attention to the war crimes occurring in Palestine and the UK government’s complacency in those horrors.

Reading out an open letter on behalf of the persecuted activism group Palestine Action, the songwriter shared, “Palestine Action is intervening to stop a genocide, it is acting to save life. We deplore the government’s decision to proscribe it, labelling non-violent direct action as terrorism is an abuse of language and an attack on democracy.”

“The real threat to the life of the nation comes not from Palestine Action but from the Home Secretary’s efforts to ban it,” she continued. “We call on the government to withdraw its proscription of Palestine Action and to stop arming Israel.”

It was an incredibly poignant, emotional address to the crowd, and one which was reflected throughout the entirety of Shah’s performance. Throughout the year, and throughout her entire life as a performer and songwriter, Shah has always made an effort to hold up a mirror to injustice and directly call out those responsible for them.

During a performance at Bradford’s St George’s Hall in March, for instance, she had the sign-language interpreter sign the word ‘genocide’, declaring, “Now we can all say it.”

During a year in which countless people in the public eye have been falling over themselves not to take a public stance on the genocide in Gaza, or taking the Israeli government’s clear falsehoods over their war crimes as gospel, the unwavering activism of Nadine Shah has been as essential as it has been refreshing.

So, we can think of nobody more befitting of being Far Out’s ‘Spokesperson of the Year’ for 2025 than Nadine Shah, not just for her undying dedication to speaking out against injustice over the past 12 months, but throughout her illustrious career.

“I’m often mocked over my political outspokenness; it doesn’t bother me,” the performer told Far Out. “I’m not an artist that thinks that all others should follow suit and use their platforms the same way I do, and I won’t engage in pressuring them into doing so either.”

Continuing, Shah highlighted the importance of integrity when it comes to activism. “It’s quite clear when artists are speaking out politically as a result of peer pressure, it feels disingenuous. Just do or don’t, I do and most likely always will…until the day you mute me or until the day the whole world is on fire cause you sat there and took it and did fuck all.”

She signed off, “Namaste”.

As we march on into 2026 – and I’m sorry not to come bearing a festive message of hope and cheer – it seems unlikely that things will improve in the near future, either with relation to the genocide in Gaza and Sudan, or, for instance, President Donald J Trump’s countless illegal actions as he marches the USA further into the bowels of fascist oppression.

If things are to improve, however, then the position of artists like Nadine Shah, and their dedication to raising awareness for these issues when many politicians and traditional spokespeople will not, is utterly essential”.

Nadine Shah has posted to Instagram how she is in the studio and working on her sixth album. I am a huge fan of everything she does, so it is going to be exciting when the album is released. Considering the ongoing genocide in Gaza and the ineffectiveness of world leaders in tackling the dictatorial evil and inhumanity that is affecting so many nations who are in the grip of war and genocide, will Shah’s music react to that? Maybe more to do with relationships and how her life has been transformed the past few years, though things are obviously not perfect. There were some really raw and heartbreaking songs on Filthy Underneath, though there was so much warmth, wit and the sort of distinct and unforgettable music only Nadine Shah can make! That is why I wanted to write about her now. Keep your eyes peeled for what comes next. Even though it has not been released yet, I think her sixth album will be the most important and best…

OF her career.

FEATURE: The Ivor Novello Awards and Gender Disparity: An Issue in Music That Needs Addressing

FEATURE:

 

 

The Ivor Novello Awards and Gender Disparity

IN THIS PHOTO: Florence Welch (Florence + The Machine have been nominated in the Ivor Novello Awards category, Best Song Musically and Lyrically, for Everybody Scream (written by written by Florence Welch, Mark Bowen and Mitski)

 

An Issue in Music That Needs Addressing

__________

YOU might think that…

IN THIS PHOTO: Little Simz has been nominated in Best Contemporary Song for Free (written by Little Simz (Simbiatu Ajikawo), Alex Bonfanti and Miles Clinton James)

the music industry is dominated by male songwriters. In terms of the best music and most successful songs, all men behind the scenes wiring the music and lyrics. I do feel that there is an issue that urgently needs to be addressed. I don’t think that it is the case that the best songs are coming from huge mainstream artists where the writing team is mostly men. Or hugely successful male artists. Look around at music now and the most incredible albums and songs being released, and the majority are being made by women. In terms of songwriting, a lot of the albums and songs are either written by the artist or they are among a small team of writers. It does seem to be case that male songwriters are represented more at awards shows. That is the case today. The Guardian reported how the Ivor Novello Awards’ nominations that have just come out skew more towards men. The awards are about songwriting excellence. Even though Olivia Dean, Wolf Alice’s Ellie Rowsell and Self Esteem are nominated, the biggest takeaway is that the majority of the award nominees are men. I will come to some recent findings. However, I want to ask if things have progressed in the past six or seven years. In 2019, Vick Bain published a report that is a study of gender inequality across the music industry. These words are particularly striking and impactful:

“Another thing that was striking was observing the low number of women, until very recently, winning music industry awards, including both the public-facing awards on television and internal-facing industry awards. Of course, I had an especially privileged view of the awards BASCA organised such as the British Composer Awards and the Ivor Novello Awards (The Ivors). In 2013, all 13 winners of the British Composer Awards were men (thankfully not repeated). In over six decades women have been the recipient of 6% of all Ivor Novello Awards; that percentage has risen to only 10% since 2010. These low statistics are mirrored across the industry; according to the Annenberg Initiative ‘Inclusion in the Recording Studio’ (Smith, Choueiti and Pieper, 2018) report from the US, only 12% of songwriters of the 600 most popular songs appearing on the Billboard Hot 100 end­of­year charts from 2012 through 2017 were women.

At PRS for Music, the royalty collection organisation for songwriters and composers in the UK, 17% of its 140,000 registered members are female (2018). Similarly, 108 (17.5%) of the 616 songwriters nominated for Best Single Brit Awards since 1999 have been women. This year the BBC published its own research looking at the disparities of women in the charts: ‘In 2008, 30 female acts were credited on the best­selling 100 songs of the year. In 2018, the figure was still 30. But the number of men has risen by more than 50% as the number of collaborations has grown over that time ­ from 59 men in 2008 to 91 in 2018. Which means the gender gap has grown.’ This demonstrates the prevalence of men preferring to work only with other men. Moreover, these low numbers affect how women view the industry. In talking about screen­music awards, the Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA AMCOS) comments that, ‘Largely male­dominated awards nominations and ceremonies have the potential to contribute to how women view both the value of screen music awards and also the position of women in the screen music industry more generally’. This scenario is applicable across the industry worldwide. So, the question must be asked… are women just not as good as men at music? In the past decade, we have seen men still winning the vast majority of music industry awards, getting the lion’s share of classical commissions and achieving far more economic success in the pop charts. Music awards are ostensibly the pinnacle of an industry; the best of the best. However, the winners of music awards can only be chosen out of entries entered; in the case of the Ivor Novello Awards entries mainly come from music publishing companies. Moreover, those entered will have usually fulfilled certain criteria such as chart placing, requiring label support and a huge amount of investment leading to that success. You have to be in it to win it”.

Also in 2019, PRS for Music outlined the extent of gender disparity and inequality in songwriting: “Over 1,000 women in the UK registered as working songwriters and composers last year, yet the ratio of male-to-female songwriters and composers remains disappointingly flat year-on-year, with only 17% of PRS for Music’s writer membership identifying as female, signalling slow progress across the music industry to address gender disparity in the profession. This figure was just 13% in 2011”. If anything, things might be going backwards. This article reacted to the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative on a new study that makes for troubling reading:

“The USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative has published its annual Inclusion in the Recording Studio study, which examines the representation of women and people of colour in the Billboard Hot 100 Year-End charts as artists, songwriters and producers.

The report's conclusions are troubling, finding that 2025 saw "no progress" for women in music, with a decrease in participation across every single category measured. The percentage of female artists dropped by 1.6% year-on-year to 36.1% in 2025, while the percentage of women credited as producers fell from 5.9% in 2024 to 4.4% in 2025.

The USC Annenberg report also found that more than 90% of 1400 songs evaluated across 11 years did not feature a female producer – in comparison, only seven of those songs did not credit a man in a producing role.

The numbers are even less encouraging when it comes to female representation in songwriting: the percentage of women credited as songwriters decreased from 18.9% in 2024 to 14.5% in 2025, a ratio of 5.8 male songwriters to every one woman.

"There has been no change for women songwriters since we began this research," the report summary reads. "The numbers are going backward and now are not significantly different than the 11% of songwriters in 2012 who were women. Half of the songs on the Hot 100 Billboard Year-End Chart were missing women songwriters entirely. Across 14 years, women held 13.9% of all songwriting credits."

“The lack of women songwriters does more than prevent women from working,” added USC Annenberg's Dr. Stacy L. Smith. “It means that some of our most culturally pervasive ideas and beliefs are crafted by men and exclude women’s creativity and perspective. Of the 1,400 songs we examined, 11 men were credited on 21.7% of those tracks. This gives a very small group incredible influence to shape culture and ideas”.

The Guardian reacted to the Ivor Novello Awards and the fact male songwriters dominated. Even though a lot of the categories have a majority of women nominated – particularly Best Album -, categories overall are male-heavy in terms of the nominees:

“Olivia Dean, Ellie Rowsell of Wolf Alice, Jacob Alon, Self Esteem and Kae Tempest lead this year’s Ivor Novello awards for excellence in British and Irish songwriting, with two nominations apiece. Self Esteem’s cowriter Johan Hugo, and Tempest’s Fraser T Smith, are also credited among the leading acts.

Tempest will go up against himself in the best contemporary song category, with two nominations: one for I Stand on the Line, written with Smith, and one for Know Yourself, written with Smith and Tom Rowlands of the Chemical Brothers. Both songs come from Tempest’s fifth album, Self Titled.

The nominations reveal the gender disparity in British and Irish music: there are more than twice as many male nominees (40) than female (19), with two non-binary artists making up the 61 songwriters and composers recognised.

Research by the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative at the University of Southern California found that the number of female songwriters across the 1,400 most popular songs of the year had starkly decreased from 18.9% in 2024 to 14.5% in 2025.

Elsewhere among those names, stalwart artists such as Lily Allen, Florence + the Machine and Gorillaz stand alongside those at the breakthrough end of their career, among them CMAT, Jerskin Fendrix and Lola Young, last year’s most-nominated artist.

Billing the awards as recognising “exceptional craft, originality and cultural impact in songwriting and screen composing”, the Ivors have also this year positioned themselves as “a powerful affirmation of human creativity and the cultural value of songwriters” as many are asking fearful questions about how AI will affect musicians’ livelihoods.

Little Simz receives her fifth Ivors nomination for her song Free, from last year’s album Lotus. Young’s nomination is her fourth in total, as is Florence Welch’s; Allen’s is her third, a reflection of the era-defining songwriting of her fifth album – and first in seven years – West End Girl, a partly fictionalised account of the breakdown of her marriage to Stranger Things actor David Harbour.

Coldplay’s 2008 song Viva la Vida receives its third nomination in and of itself, this year for most performed work, following the band’s vast global tour. It is its second time being nominated in the category; it previously won best-selling British single in 2010.

Allen, Wolf Alice, Dean and CMAT make up the best album category alongside rapper Jim Legxacy for his 2025 record Black British Music. Wolf Alice, Sugababes (best song musically and lyrically) and Divorce (rising star) are the only bands nominated among a wealth of solo artists”.

This is something not often written about. When a report is published or you get an award ceremony where women are in the minority, it does raise discussion. This is not a case of female (and male/non-binary) artists choosing to work largely with men. Instead, there is a systemic issue that goes right through the industry. The same is true as was the case in 2019 that this disparity is driven by systemic industry sexism and a ‘boys' club’ culture, tied to a lack of female representation in technical roles like producing. A small percentage of professional songwriters are women, due to unconscious bias in hiring. There are also far fewer networking opportunities, and the persistent pigeonholing of women as performers rather than creators. That is what PRS determined in 2019. Claire Jarvis, Director of Membership, PRS for Music in 2019 said this: “These statistics are indicative of widespread gender disparity across the entire UK music business and shine a light on the need for continued positive action to be taken to make our industry a fairer and more inclusive space. Whether through creating opportunities, breaking down barriers, improving education, or mentoring, we need to work together to ensure tomorrow’s songwriters have visible role models to aspire to”.

I do hope that there is a new report published that outlines a growing issue. There are so many amazing female artists who are obviously writing their own music. However, when it comes to representation overall, there is this imbalance that has been present for years. For International Women’s Day in 2024, Youth for Music wrote about the underrepresentation of women behind the scenes in music and “how finding and supporting the right grassroots organisations can change that”:

“Making music accessible at an entry level and allows communities to fuel the creative scene. It allows those who may feel unwelcomed in the mainstream industry to make a space for themselves and others alike,” stated Nat Greener, founder of Tits Upon Tyne, a breast cancer awareness and women in music platform. “Supporting grassroots movements proves there is a demand for representation and equity at the core of the industry,” she continued.

However, as much as these organisations do to encourage and support women into behind the scenes roles, lasting change will only happen when the rest of the industry steps up.

“We don’t believe it should be the sole responsibility of charities to fund future diversification of British music,” Matt Griffiths asserted. “The industry benefits directly from the work we do, so we need to start to see major labels stepping up and taking the lead in investing too”.

Not to take anything away from anyone else nominated for an Ivor Novello (the awards take place on 21st May), but I am including songs here made by female artists. Even if they may have a few male songwriters in the mix, it is their incredible sonic and lyrical voice, teamed with their talent and gravitas, that makes the award-nominated music so worthy and phenomenal. The awards recognise impactful accomplishments in songwriting and composing; presented to music creators by their peers from within the United Kingdom. After the celebrations have ended, there does need to be renewed focus on this enduring disparity. Whether findings have been addressed and there is genuine change happen. Without that, we will be in s situation where girls and women will be discouraged from pursuing music and choosing it is a career. That would do huge damage to the industry in terms of diversity, inclusion and richness. That bleak possibility needs to be…

TACKLED as a priority.

FEATURE: Kate Bush: The Tour of Life: A Live Innovator Whose Influence Can Be Seen Today

FEATURE:

 

 

Kate Bush: The Tour of Life

IN THIS PHOTO: Albert McIntosh (Kate Bush’s son) and Bob Harms playing son and father for a scene during Kate Bush’s extraordinary and acclaimed 2014 residency, Before the Dawn, at the Eventim Apollo in Hammersmith, London/PHOTO CREDIT: Ken McKay/REX

 

A Live Innovator Whose Influence Can Be Seen Today

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IT is a little confusing…

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush and band during the finale of a Hammersmith date from 1979’s The Tour of Life/PHOTO CREDIT: Max Browne

using the name of Kate Bush’s only tour as part of the title for this feature. However, I have been spending a bit of time writing about Kate Bush’s live influence. On 3rd April, it was forty-seven years since The Tour of Life started. Thirty-five years later, on 26th August, 2014, Before the Dawn began. For the production of each live spectacle, Kate Bush innovating constantly. I wrote about this a bit when covering The Tour of Life. I will nod back to it, as there are some live tours today that have been celebrated for their scale and feel. Even if David Byrne has been touring more than Kate Bush and actually was recording music before she put out her first album, I feel that his current tour – which has been getting some incredible reviews can be applied to Kate Bush’s The Tour of Life and Before the Dawn. Even if legends like David Byrne and massive Pop artists of today have their own concepts and might not directly cite Kate Bush as influential, I don’t think that we discuss enough how her impact has definitely remained today. The live album for Before the Dawn turns ten in November, so I will explore the residency again nearer the time. I did not get to see Before the Dawn. However, there are a couple of questions to raise. How many artists, unless they are major and mainstream, can afford to mount something like Before the Dawn? Also, in terms of preparation, it was an intense process. Lots of preparation. Again, perhaps only the most massive artists. Even so, I have argued before, and will again, how Kate Bush’s live brilliance and invention influenced artists after 1979 when The Tour of Life was mounted. Again after 2014 and Before the Dawn. The sheer scale, joy and ambition of the residency did compel many artists to become more ambitious. I know there were artists mixing media and various artforms into a music concert. That said, it was not really a hugely common thing in 2014.

Before the Dawn was more of a spectacle and theatrical production than a gig. Almost filmic in its scope. You do not need to produce something big and highly ambitious to leave audiences’ jaws dropped. Smaller, intimate and powerful shows can leave an impression as deep and long-lasting. I do wonder, when we think of the great live performers, whether Kate Bush’s name comes into the conversation. The fact she has only been on one tour and one residency since her career began. A lack of consistency. This blending of disciplines and sectors of the arts is maybe not as common as it should be. Modern artists like ROSALÍA do it. Are Pop artists a little too rigid in that regard? You can say that there are phenomenal artists who put more choreography and larger set pieces into their tours. What strikes me about Kate Bush is how The Tour of Life, and especially Before the Dawn, pushed boundaries and definitely took live performers to new heights and areas. Twelve years after that residency and there are some artists today who embody Kate Bush. Reading about Before the Dawn in Graeme Thomson’s Under the Ivy: The Life and Music of Kate Bush. David Munns, an old friend of Bush’s, was chosen to scout venues in addition to offering advice. Another Dabid, Garfath, who directed the video for Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God), directed the filmed sequences for The Ninth Wave for Before the Dawn. Bush in a water tank and singing And Dream of Sheep. The component parts and how many aspects go into Before the Dawn. Bush assembled an experienced and hugely reliable group of session musicians. Including David Rhodes, John Giblin and Mino Cinelu. When you watch a massive tour of a show that does have filmed pieces and there are different disciplines and layers to it, how often do we think about behind the scenes and its coming together? The Chorus who adopted various personae throughout the performance, four of whom came from the stage and musical theatre. Her son, Berie, Sandra Marvin, Jacqui DuBois and Jo Servi joined Bob Harms. Maybe sharing something with David Byrne and artists executing these staggering and awe-inspiring live performances. The people they share the stage with are just as important.

For Before the Dawn, Kate Bush teamed with Adrian Noble (former creative director of the Royal Shakespeare Company) co-directed. His role was to ensure Bush’s visions came to the stage and included some of his finesse and experience. David Mitchell, author of Cloud Atlas and other hugely important books, the two were almost kindred spirits and had this spark and bond. For the written pieces for The Ninth Wave and creating this narrative, Bush turned to Mitchell for his help. Before the Dawn took eighteen months of planning, revising, rehearsing and performing. Actors and singers auditioned. Rather than this being Kate Bush concert, Before the Dawn was credited to the KT Fellowship. That is just skimming the surface of the preparation and detail that went into a residency that wowed thousands of fans. It was not only about Kate Bush on the stage after so many years. If she had done something basic or like her contemporaries then the reaction would not have been as ecstatic. It was the whole package. The costumes, lighting and visuals. Bringing together two album suites that are very different but each unfolded beautifully and with incredible effect. The Ninth Wave from Hounds of Love and Aerial’s A Sky of Honey. The incredible players and this blend of filmed sections and what was happening on the stage. This is what The Guardian wrote in their review of David Byrne’s extraordinary show that they say will restore your faith in humanity. Byrne, as they observe “once again reimagines the possibilities of the live gig”. It did instantly put me in mind of Kate Bush: “Throughout a hideously apropos Life During Wartime, footage from ICE raids bleeds into the arena, while the insularity of the pandemic is a recurring theme, notably when the screens re-create his home for My Apartment Is My Friend. Byrne’s response is noise, laughter and community. It’s beautiful to see the audience pulled from their seats – slowly at first, then all at once – by the guitar stabs of This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody), their voices turning something lithe and delicate into a collective shout along. “Love and kindness are a form of resistance,” Byrne says at one point. You’d hope so”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Kevin Pick

It might be me connecting loose threads or tenuous links. Before the Dawn is in my mind and I will write about it more before the end of the year. I can see how 1979’s The Tour of Life and the revolution caused. Completely shaking up live music and what it could be. Even if the sort of thing Kate Bush did then was more prolific and evident by 2014, I do feel she once more reimagined live music and going beyond the limits. The venue, the Eventim Apollo in Hammersmith, helped a lot. In terms of its high ceiling. Opened in 1932 as a cinema named the Gaumont Palace, it is perfect for live performances that really utilise the full space. That is what Bedore the Dawn did. There was the blend of the dramatic and intimate. Kate Bush not just standing on stage. Out in the audience at one stage and being carried down the aisle. Technically, the Fish People carried her down the ramp and into the theatre. Performers on stages wearing masks/heads and there being this almost surreal edge. Bush being raised from the stage during The Ninth Wave. It was such an immerse and cinematic experience. Think about some of the biggest concerts that followed Before the Dawn, and I do really think that the impact of that residency inspired so many others.

Looking at modern artists reinventing live performance, it does raise the question around a new Kate Bush live chapter. If there was a final residency or concert, you could imagine it being even bigger than The Tour of Life and Before the Dawn. Kate Bush has no plans to perform live anytime soon, and there is the question about what she would include and what a show would consist of. She is this phenomenal live artist who pushed forward and helped transform live music. I don’t think that is acknowledged much. This is what Pitchfork observed in their review of Before the Dawn: “And her humanity is what we should all love her for, anyway—for helping to turn a spirit of restless invention and emotion into a music industry touchstone, for translating high art, high thinking, and her huge heart into catchy, hooky modern pop music. The two-song encore that sends us on our way shows us that knack in excelsis: "Among Angels", from 2011's 50 Words for Snow, played by Bush, perfectly, alone on the piano, then "Cloudbusting", her 1985 hit about Wilhelm Reich's rain-making machine, with her band. Tonight wasn't an exercise in the time-honoured art of battering an audience to death and making them like it, after all. It was about a raft of new ideas from someone who we didn't expect to see onstage again”. That stream of ideas and genius. Remaining fresh and surprising. Her warmth and humanity. You can feel that encoded and embedded in the bone and blood of some of the most arresting and remarkable modern live shows. As someone who has helped broaden and evolve the definition and boundaries of live performance, the divine Kate Bush definitely should…

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush embraces her fans as she takes to the stage for the first of her Before the Dawn concerts/PHOTO CREDIT: Ken McKay/REX

GET that recognition.

FEATURE: Spotlight: Dolder

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

PHOTO CREDIT: Rosie Tonkin

 

Dolder

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IT would be wonderful to see…

more new interviews with Dolder, as they are a beguiling sibling duo that people should know about. To be honest, I only discovered their music this month, so I am kind of catching up. There is a recent intervbiew that I want to bring in. Dolder are the Newcastle-based duo of Dani and Zara Dolder. In terms of catching them live, you can see the dates here. Some brilliant U.K., Irish and European gigs. If you can go and see them and grab a ticket then I would definitely recommend it. You listen to their voices on record and how transcendent it is. Experiencing that in a venue with that intimacy and directness must be spine-chilling and this memorable experience! Their E.P., The Motive, was released last year. It is a sublime and unforgettable listen. They released the single, Sleeping Dogs, recently. In terms of genres, I wonder if you can categorise them. There is Pop, Country and Folk. It is a beautiful blend that works wonderfully. Distinct songwriting and gorgeous vocals means their music stays in your head and heart. I will come to that new interview to wrap things up. There are a few other bits to include here first. I want to include Karma Magazine and their feature from last year. They highlighted and gave praise for the first single from Dolder, Charlie. This is a song that has resonated with fans and made a big impact:

“Identitical twin sisters Dani and Zara Dolder have emerged on the music scene with their first single, ‘Charlie’. The song is an enthralling hybrid of nostalgic and new, with timeless lyricism and arresting harmonies.

The song begins with softly strummed acoustic guitar and delicate vocals. Twinkling piano and the twins’ heavenly harmonies in the chorus give it an underlying country feel. The stripped back instrumentalism are complemented by the melodious vocals, enhancing the track’s emotions. The song is a thoughtful and disarming, as the sisters slow things down to contemplate their unsuccessful experiences with love.

Emotions cut deep on ‘Charlie’, with the track’s lyrics detailing different heartbreaks experienced by the twins. The lyrics are dark and poetic, with lines like “Kiss me one more time before / You send my heart back / Wrapped in barbed wire and it’s dripping black” painting a vivid picture.

Speaking about the track, the sisters reveal how it came to fruition one Halloween: “We drove home in the dark, pouring rain replaying the demo from that day over and over again. It just has such a warmth to it. Charlie is a multitude of boys who we have felt heartbroken by.”

‘Charlie’ marks the first step in Dolder’s journey and a mesmerising debut. The song is out now on EMI and available to listen to on streaming services. Add Dolder on social media to stay tuned with what comes next from the duo, and get a ticket to one of the concerts below to see them support Ben Ellis on his tour”.

It is exciting that Dani and Zara Dolder are working on a second E.P. Their debut was recorded in Newcastle, though the second is them working in New York. A lot of artists do go to New York to record, as it gives new impetus and energy. The inspiration of the people and landscape. It must have been a costly jaunt, through you feel it will add something extra and new to their music. The Line of Best Fit shone a light on the wonderful Girl I Know. Following on from Charlie, it is one of their very best songs:

“Emotionally resonant, the duo's second-ever single following “Charlie” lingers long after it ends, balancing heartbreak with moments of tender reflection. “‘Girl I Know’ is about a very honest part of young womanhood,” say 22-year-old twins Dani and Zara Dolder.

The track fuses narrative songwriting with stripped-back guitars and harmonies, giving it a timeless quality. Their sound feels intimate; the vocal polyphony conveys a sense of closeness as they confess heartache and self-blame over bare instrumentals. “We always knew we wanted to keep this whole EP more stripped back so it allowed space for our vulnerable lyrics to come through,” they share.

Growing up in Newcastle, the twins have been making music since they were eleven. With Dolder, they craft an atmosphere of honesty and vulnerability through acoustic arrangements and effortlessly catchy melodies, transforming soft narrative pop into anthems for deep thinkers and anxious romantics.

“Girl I Know” came directly from a stream of consciousness in Dani’s diary: “Told you I thought about dying on the day that we met.” “[The line] is verbatim and extremely overdramatic (not surprising for us),” Dani says. The conversation that inspired it took place outside a bar on Grey Street in the early hours of the morning. She reflects with candid humour: “No wonder he ghosted me.”

Delicate piano keys shimmer beneath a repeated acoustic guitar riff in the refrain, while raw lyrics — “You craved a body / But it was my mind you broke” — are delivered through soft, harmonising vocals. The track’s analogue warmth lingers like the ghost of a lost love, with minimalist production highlighting the fragility of its emotions.

The bridge introduces an empowering shift, where overthinking gives way to the realisation: “You’ll move on, grow, and be better off, while some guys just stay stuck in their cycle of lovebombing and leaving.” The feeling of redemption emerged intuitively during the writing process: “This song took some time to run, but once we got there, it just flowed from one lyric to the next. Having a slight euphoric, claiming-my-power-back bridge was the perfect place for it to go,” the duo explain.

Dolder's supply feels both immediate and classic. The chorus of “Girl I Know” sticks with you like a half-remembered daydream, while the acoustic textures evoke a warm, nostalgic glow. It's the kind of track that revisits old diaries, late-night conversations, and past heartaches. It stands as a delicate reflection on how growth and melody can coexist in the most intimate of pop songs”.

It is worth highlighting a positive review for The Motive. A wonderful debut E.P. from Dolder, Pop Passion Blog shared their insights and thoughts. I would say to anyone who has not discovered Dolder to go and listen to their music now. Really do go and see them live if you can:

“Coming out from mentally abusive relationships is a battle with your mind. You spend so long being manipulated by someone who was supposed to love you and it causes internalized blame and guilt. It feels like you’re out of touch with yourself and it’s a spiral that feels like it will never end. Dolder just released an EP titled after one of the singles “The Motive.” “The Motive” is a heartbreaking confession about the self-hatred that follows after a damaging relationship. With tension filled melodies and angelic harmonies, this song rips at your heartstrings. If you’ve ever been broken by someone you were supposed to trust the most, this song is for you.

“The Motive” truly shows how deeply manipulation can distort someones perception of care and self-worth. “I assumed that this was love.” You feel like you’re doing everything in your power to make them happy, but they never are and even though it’s not your fault, it’s easy for their deceptions to make you feel like it is. "Lately I've had the motive to hate me." Dolder wrote from a place of reflection on how much trauma can live in your mind without realizing. It’s hard to confront and it follows you every time you feed it. All of this can feel isolating and there’s comfort in songs like this to know most of us have been there. Let “The Motive” be a reminder that your emotions are worth feeling and it’s okay to sit in the pain before getting up and moving on. It's not your fault for the damage caused by someone elses hand.

Dolder is a duo name for identical twins Dani and Zara. They are 22 year old alt-pop singer-songwriters from Newcastle. The sisters are heavily inspired by the rich 60/70’s sound that they bring into their music to create a nostalgic feeling. Emerging just this year, their debut single “Charlie” brought immediate attention. With confessional lyricism and timeless ease, they’ve received recognition from Rolling Stone, Wonderland, The Line of Best Fit, NME, Dork and more. “The Motive” is their debut EP which is out now for everyone to listen. If you’re a fan of Gracie Abrams and Fleetwood Mac, Dolder is the perfect combination while bringing their own unique sound. Follow the links down below to stay up to date on future releases”.

I am ending up with an interview from The Indie Scene. Last year was a very busy one for Dolder. Releasing their debut single and E.P., they are preparing their second E.P. and have released Sleeping Dogs. They are preparing for live dates and maybe performing new or unheard tracks for the audiences. I have so much admiration for Dolder. Obviously they are very close and are completely in-sync. That reflects in their music. This phenomenal chemistry and harmony that made The Motive such a jaw-dropping listen. I am excited to hear their second E.P. It is going to be one of the year’s best releases:

“2025 was a year of firsts for Dolder, a singer-songwriter duo made up of identical twins, Dani and Zara. They released their first single, played their first shows while supporting Ben Ellis on tour, and wrapped up the year with the release of their first EP. Despite being in the early stages of their career, the duo are already making a mark on fans thanks to their intimate lyrics and lush harmonies. We had the pleasure of chatting to the girls in one of their first interviews to talk all things songwriting, growing up in a musical family, and new music to come.

Although they’ve only just started formally releasing their work, music has always played a large role in Dani and Zara’s lives. Their father and former Prefab Sprout drummer, Steve Dolder, fostered their love of music from a young age. “We were obsessed with The Beatles. Our first crushes were John Lennon and George Harrison. And dad tells this story: when we were about five or six, we were sat in the back of the car and just harmonising to The Beatles without realising,” Zara explains. “It’s just been ingrained in us. We’ve been singing together forever, and then, when we were about ten or eleven, we started writing.”

“They were absolute rubbish,” Zara quips when describing their earliest material. However, the twins kept at it and, as COVID struck during their teenage years, they began to take it more seriously. During that time they were constantly producing new material.

When asked about how they found the fan response to the project, the twins agree the experience has been unreal and found themselves surprised by how quickly their community has already grown. “I’m in complete sort of denial because I’m like ‘they’re not fans, they’re just like our friends’. They’re just like our online friends, which is adorable,” Dani says. “It’s really strange because obviously we don’t have like a massive platform yet and we’re very much in the early stages but to have such obsession from certain fans and respect and excitement is a really strange feeling… but they’ve all been so amazing and to see like comments or get messages about how the songs relate to them or their friends’ situations.”

While this moment in time is quite surreal, there was little time to process it all as they’d already started working on their next project. “We’ve been making the second EP since November, before the first one actually came out, so we had almost like halfway detached from that world and put ourselves into the world of the second EP,” Zara says. When asked what more they could share about what’s to come from Dolder, Zara shared, “We have a single coming out in February, which is one that we played live, and I think that will be [a] deluxe [single] off the end of the first EP. And then the second EP will be coming shortly after. We’re very, very excited about it.”

While the first EP was recorded in Newcastle, the second EP was recorded in New York, bringing a different energy to the project. “We loved the first EP because it was done at home, and we could drive home and we were staying with family, which was lovely. And then we had this new business around the second EP and chaos with being in a city like that, which was so inspiring. It just made you want to get up and go,” Zara says.

Having a dad who has been through the same things has also proved invaluable. “He’s the triplet,” Dani jokes, “He’s the third member and, honestly, if it wasn’t for dad, we would not be pursuing music at all, I don’t think.” Steve would play the girls records of great artists like Steely Dan, The Doobie Brothers, Eagles, Glen Campbell and Carole King, which had a large impact on the twins from an early age. “If it wasn’t for dad believing in us so much, we wouldn’t believe that we could do it. He is our best friend, and he’s the funniest man I’ve ever met,” Dani adds”.

I can imagine the house where Dani and Zara Dolder grew up was filled with classic music. These legendary artists. A dad in the music industry with all that experience and insight. Even though they are only in their twenties, you feel their earliest years were exposed to some of the best music ever made. It definitely would have fostered their ambitions and desires. Such a magnificent duo who I feel are going to be making music for so many more years, go and follow them and show some love. It is impossible to listen to their music and not be carried away and engrossed. Their distinct and utterly superb songs are…

TREASURES to behold.

__________

Follow Dolder

FEATURE: Spotlight: Revisited: UPSAHL

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight: Revisited

 

UPSAHL

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THIS artist is someone…

PHOTO CREDIT: Emily Schumacher

whose music I have huge respect and affection for. I last wrote about UPSHAL in 2023. Even if she has not put out new music for a little while, there are questions from fans around a new album. UPSAHL has assured them that she is working on new stuff. Taylor Cameron Upsahl is an Arizona-born artist who released Lady Jesus in 2021. An amazing debut album released during the pandemic. I am going to get to some interviews from last year with Arizona. The twenty-seven-year-old is someone I feel everyone should connect with. This is a moment where she is building the foundations for a new album. Putting stuff together. There is a lot of demand on artists. That idea of putting stuff out consistently. Not enough time to allow them to breathe and work on albums. A gap of five years or so might seem like a very long time, though artists like UPSAHL have been releasing singles and touring. She put out a live album on 2022 called This Is My First Live Album. In 2023, UPSAHL PRESENTS: THE PHX TAPES came out. She has played here in the U.K. a fair bit, and I do hope she comes back at some point. I have never seen her live, though she is an electrifying and phenomenal live performer. I shall bring in a live review. This is such a uniquely talented and vital voice in modern music. It is a transition period where she is building songs or looking ahead to her second studio album. If you have not heard of her or need a bit more information, then I hope that this feature is of benefit. She is someone who might not garner the same focus and adulation as mainstream artists. However, UPSAHL’s work and live shows, tied to her aesthetic, story and personality, are up there with the most incredible and distinct artists. She will be in the music industry for many years to come.

Before getting to a few great interviews, this live review from 2023 reacted to UPSAHL playing at Roadrunner in Boston. I am sad I missed her when she last played in London. I will try and correct that if she comes back here at any point. I love all the music she has put out to date, and I am looking forward to what comes next. We need to give this artist space to create an album in her own vision in her own time. Being UPSAHL, whatever does come is going to be truly magnificent and memorable:

“On Sept. 12, Taylor Cameron Upsahl, better known for her on-stage mononym UPSAHL, arrived at Roadrunner in support of Swedish dance-pop star Tove Lo for the North American leg of her “Dirt Femme” tour. UPSAHL has been writing and producing music since her early teens, garnering a small following in her hometown of Phoenix through a collection of self-released projects. In 2019, UPSAHL shot to TikTok notoriety with her single “Drugs,” which remains her most listened-to track with over 100 million streams. She then released her debut album “Lady Jesus” in 2021, followed by a series of EPs titled “The PHX Tapes.” One could only describe her style as provocative and outrageous, with selections like “WET WHITE TEE SHIRT” and “Lunatic” as some of the standouts from her more recent releases.

UPSAHL’s performance at Roadrunner was nothing short of electrifying, matching the fiery shock of her red hair. After drenching her white tee shirt in water to begin her set, it was clear from the get-go that UPSAHL was there to make a statement. The crowd’s energy seemed to embolden her as she confidently strutted across the stage, making a name for herself with any audience members unfamiliar with her music.

The highlight of the evening was undoubtedly her viral hit “Drugs,” which turned into a thrilling call and response between UPSAHL and the audience. Supported by two members of her band decked out in bubblegum pink coveralls, UPSAHL managed to connect with the packed venue effortlessly, encouraging them to groove and sing along.

Throughout the performance, UPSAHL wasn’t afraid to experiment with the work of other established artists. Interpolating a cover of The Ting-Tings’ “That’s Not My Name” into her song “GOOD GIRL ERA,” UPSAHL not only welcomed new listeners into the fold, but also commanded the attention of her own fans in the crowd.

Throughout the performance, UPSAHL’s stage presence was undeniably exhilarating, reflecting the edgy nature of her music. She fearlessly interacted with the crowd, at times even running down from the stage to sing directly to audience members. It was this close connection with her listeners that made the concert feel intimate despite the large venue.

Adding to this intimacy were the song choices she made, like the inclusion of her song “Toast,” co-written with Tove Lo. In contrast to her cool-girl affect on “Drugs” or “WET WHITE TEE SHIRT,” “Toast” was a heartfelt and desperate plea to an ex, adding a touch of vulnerability to an otherwise explosive set.

“Wonder if I am still on your mind,” she crooned to a swaying crowd. “How didn’t I know it was coming to an end?”

As the evening drew to a close, it became readily apparent that UPSAHL’s performance was not just thrilling but also profoundly memorable. Her ability to blend the provocative with the authentic, all while maintaining an infectious energy, solidified her as one-to-watch in the indie pop scene. For those lucky enough to be in attendance, it was a night filled with unforgettable music and a powerful connection between artist and listener. UPSAHL’s star is on the rise, and her performance in Boston left no doubt that she’s a force to be reckoned with”.

Before a couple of interviews from last year, I want to go back to 2024 and this interview. I love the fact that UPSAHL gets such a buzz from touring. It can be exhausting for artists to tour quite a lot. However, it is clear the audiences show such love for UPSAHL and there must be this incredible energy when she performs:

“When it comes to your stage/artist persona, is “UPSAHL” a reflection of who you are, or is your persona something opposite?

Everything I do for my artist project feels super authentic to me as a person, but I like to think that UPSAHL is just the most confident, badass version of myself that I get to embody whenever I go on stage. Whenever I’m feeling down or insecure, “UPSAHL” kind of saves me from those feelings.

You have mentioned before in other interviews/posts that you’d be on tour 365 days a year if possible - what is it about the transitory lifestyle that you love?

I just love how connected I feel to my fans when I’m on tour. To be in the same room, getting to engage with them every night, makes the craziness of this job worth it to me - the energy I feel from these shows every night is unmatched. And honestly, I feel like I have the most stability and sense of routine when I’m on the road - Even though it’s a lot of travel, it really is just the same shit in a different city every day, which I love.

In your songs, you mention and discuss things such as your struggles with depression and anxiety - how honest do you get with your work? Are there things you feel like you can’t talk about still with your fanbase?

The honesty and vulnerability that makes its way into my songs kind of happen by accident - I feel grateful for my collaborators that create such a safe space for me in the studio to talk about how I’m feeling, but that means I sometimes write songs and realize the next day like “Oh fuck, is this embarrassing to say/does everyone need to know that this is how I’m feeling?” But I think that’s the point of music. If I’m feeling some type of way, odds are at least one other person feels that way, so why not put the music out into the world? There are still parts of my life that I haven’t shared in the music I’ve released yet, but that doesn’t mean those songs haven’t been written… I feel like I’m a pretty open book when it comes to my music, especially with my fans, so it’s just a matter of time until those songs come out.

When you aren’t on tour, what would a regular day look like for you?

When I’m not on tour, I’m usually in the studio every day, working on new music. I love a sweaty morning workout/sauna and an overpriced coffee down the street from my house in LA, and then I usually will spend some time filming content for social media, staying connected with my fans online. Then, I head to the studio for a session. Usually, my sessions go until about 10 pm, and my day ends with me half asleep cheffing it up in my kitchen. No complaints!

In your song “People I Don’t Like,” you express a great deal of apathy and disconnection - it resonated with our generation a lot, the exhaustion with it all. Yet you are still here, on tour, doing interviews which I’m sure can feel tedious and similarly plastic. How do you keep going with it all? What is it about you that you think allows you to push forward?

Yesssss, love this question! When I wrote “People I Don’t Like,” I was feeling so frustrated with the surface-level conversations that I felt like I had a lot within the industry… and I easily blamed this on everyone else rather than recognizing myself as a part of the problem. In order to continue touring and doing interviews and constantly having social interactions, most people would think you have to sort of dissociate so that you don’t completely drain yourself emotionally. But for me, over time, I’ve found that bringing my full self and finding a way to be as present and authentically myself as possible for all of this makes it feel the most rewarding and real for me”.

The Luna Collective spoke with UPSAHL last year. Maybe she would not see herself as a rising artist anymore. However, it is clear that she is only just getting started. I do think we will be talking about this artist for many years to come. I think I first heard in 2020. It is amazing what she has achieved so far and how many fans she has behind her. That will only grow:

“UPSAHL has quickly become a rising force in the pop and alternative scene. As she embarks on her Melt me down headline tour, there’s a palpable excitement — and it’s not just about the  music. From intricate visuals that tease her forthcoming album to a community of die-hard fans who have been with her from the beginning, UPSAHL’s world is one of transformation, growth, and fierce artistic vision.

With a balance of icy new vibes and the fiery energy fans love, UPSAHL gives us a glimpse into the next chapter of her career — and we can’t wait to see what’s next. Ahead of her Austin show we got a chance to chat about the evolution of her live performances, the journey of working on her upcoming album, and how she's merging the concept of "fire and ice" into a cohesive artistic experience. She opens up about the emotional layers of her creative process, the incredible team of badass women behind her visuals, and how she’s pulling early 2000s pop inspiration into her modern sound.

LUNA: How has your live show evolved since you first started performing?

UPSAHL:  It’s changed a lot. A fan recently tweeted me a video of one of my first-ever performances, and then they stitched it with a video from a recent show. The growth is crazy. With this tour specifically, I really wanted to elevate everything. A lot of fans come to multiple shows, so I wanted to make it feel fresh each time by adding old songs, unreleased stuff, and new covers. I want it to feel brand new for everyone.

LUNA: It feels like you’re in a new era, musically and with your live performances. How has your creative process changed to reflect that?

UPSAHL  I've been working on an album for the past nine months, which is coming soon. I wanted the album to live in this cohesive world, and I wanted the live show to hint at what’s to come, which is why the tour is called the *Melt Me Down* tour. It’s a blend of fire and ice, which ties into the album’s themes.

I’ve been able to roll out little easter eggs throughout the shows that will make more sense when the album drops. It’s the first time in my career that I’ve been able to do something like this, and it’s been really fun.

LUNA: You mentioned the album earlier, so without giving too much away, can you share any themes or narratives you're exploring? Is it a concept album?

UPSAHL: Yes, it’s a concept album. I wanted it to feel icy, hard, and cold-hearted. A lot of my previous projects have centered around fire, which resonates with me because I’m a Sagittarius—such a fiery sign. My brand has always been fiery, and I’ve connected with that. But after seven years in the  music industry, with all its highs and challenges, I’ve developed this hardness to myself that I’ve always admired in others. I wanted the album to reflect that—this icy, cold-bitch energy. Musically, it’s inspired by a lot of early 2000s pop, like what Gwen Stefani did with Pharrell or Nelly Furtado with Timbaland. That era is back in style, and I’m pulling from that energy—badass, hot baddie vibes”.

I am finishing off with Lucire and their interview from last year. Based out of L.A., I am curious whether UPSAHL will base herself there full-time in the future. It does seem like the landscape and the people suites her music and lifestyle. If a new album does arrive this year, it will see UPSAHL travelling the world:

“Are you usually in LA these days and what has been the vibe there recently? Do you still get to travel around at all?

Whenever I’m not on the road or visiting family back in Phoenix, I’m at my place in LA doing sessions every day and working on new music. Right now, I’m in full self-discovery–album mode, so I’ve been writing a lot for my project, as well as working with a lot of other artists on their projects. I’ve spent the past couple years touring a bunch, so it’s been nice to just lock in on writing for a bit.

There's a large visual component to Upsahl with photo shoots, videos and social media. Where do you get your inspiration and does your look and fashion sense reflect the music you’re making at the time?

I love the visual component to being an artist. When I’m working on music in the studio, I’m already dreaming up music video ideas, or what the song “looks” like, and I’m constantly saving a bunch of weird visual ideas to my own mood boards to reference later. So when it comes time to do a photo shoot, or make a video, even if it’s just for social media, I have a well of inspiration to pull from. It just feels like I’m constantly collecting little visual ideas. I always want my look and my fashion choices to reflect the music that I’m making at the time. It allows me to fully dive into the world of the music and live and breath the music I’m making.

Do your sound and look change over time naturally or do you consciously plan out new looks and sounds?

I feel like I naturally notice when I’ve outgrown a sound or a look. Once that happens, I’m pretty intentional about planning what’s next for me. I’m in that phase of my life right now, and it involves a lot of soul searching, mood boarding, listening to a lot of music, journalling, consuming a lot of art, and a lot of solitude. It makes me feel so inspired going into creating a new world”.

Go and follow the brilliant UPSAHL. Check out her music so far. It is an excited period. How she is working on new stuff and we will get that revealed in time. I am looking forward to seeing what comes from her, as UPSAHL is a truly awesome person and artist. Someone who I feel is…

SUCH a musical force of nature.

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Follow UPSAHL

FEATURE: Kate Bush: Them Heavy People: The Extraordinary Characters in Her Songs: Kashka (Kashka from Baghdad)/Adolf Hitler (Heads We’re Dancing)

FEATURE:

 

 

Kate Bush: Them Heavy People: The Extraordinary Characters in Her Songs

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1979/PHOTO CREDIT: Gered Mankowitz

 

Kashka (Kashka from Baghdad)/Adolf Hitler (Heads We’re Dancing)

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FOR this run of features…

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush at her home in Eltham, London on 13th September 1989/PHOTO CREDIT: Kevin Cummins/Getty Images

I am joining together characters mentioned in Kate Bush songs. The first I am mentioning is from 1978s Lionheart. I may not have too many opportunities to write about characters from this album, as I think I have covered most. The same with the second album. I will come to an evil historical figure that was mentioned in a deep cut from 1989’s The Sensual World. I am beginning with the eponymous Kashka from Kashka from Baghdad. I did write about this song last year, so there may be a bit of repetition. One of the most interesting facts around this song is that Kate Bush performed it on Ask Aspel in 1978. I will come to an article written about Kashka from Baghdad. Subjects around L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ representation and possible cultural appropriation. It is fascinating that Bush wrote this song and what inspired it. The Kate Bush Encyclopedia highlight an interview where Kate Bush talked about Kashka from Baghdad:

“That actually came from a very strange American Detective series that I caught a couple of years ago, and there was a musical theme that they kept putting in. And they had an old house, in this particular thing, and it was just a very moody, pretty awful serious thing. And it just inspired the idea of this old house somewhere in Canada or America with two people in it that no-one knew anything about. And being a sorta small town, everybody wanted to know what everybody what else was up to. And these particular people in this house had a very private thing happening.

Personal Call, BBC Radio 1, 1979”.

I am going to cover unusual and unique instruments providing nuance and layers to Bush’s music. I will also move to Kate Bush and the L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ community, in addition to the reasons why Lionheart needs to reappraised and discussed. This was a song Kate Bush wrote in 1976. As a teenager, another example of her maturity and curiosity. Not that there were too many contemporaries writing at such a young age. However, in the 1970s and 1980s, a lot of the Pop mainstream was filled with commercial songs about love and relationships. Although there were exceptions, there were few artists breaking from that norm and convention.

Not only does Kashka from Baghdad take us away from the traditional heteronormative narrative of Pop music. We also visit characters away from the U.S. and U.K. Rather than Bush writing a song about a same-sex couple in the U.S., she wrote about a gay couple in Iraq. When Bush wrote the song, Iraq was experiencing a high point in its modern history, characterized by rapid economic development, industrialization, and the consolidation of power by Saddam Hussein, who was then Vice President under Ahmad Hassan al-Bakr. Following the 1975 Algiers Agreement, which temporarily resolved border disputes with Iran and ended support for Kurdish rebels, the government in 1976 focused on internal stability and regional influence. By 1978, Iraq under the de facto leadership of Saddam Hussein (as deputy to President Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr), experiencing a period of high oil-driven economic growth while aggressively consolidating political power and shifting away from its alliance with the Soviet Union. The nation in the news perhaps for bad reasons. In November 1978 (when Lionheart was released), the 1978 Arab League summit was held. It was a meeting held between Arab leaders from 2nd and 5th November in Baghdad as the 9th Arab League Summit. The summit came in the aftermath of Egypt's Anwar Sadat's unilateral peace treaty with Israel. In terms of public opinions and perceptions of Baghdad and Iraq, there might have been a lot of negativity. People only knowing about the people because of conflict and political tensions. Kashka from Baghdad never names Kashka’s partner. “At night they're seen/Laughing, loving/They know the way/To be happy”. There is this feeling that it is illicit. They cannot be seen in the daylight. The silhouettes seen at the window under the moonlight. A neighbour looking across. The lady who rents the room knows what is happening. Perhaps taboo and dangerous for this gay relationship to be brought to larger attention. “'Coz when all the alley-cats come out/You can hear music from Kashka's house”. Kashka’s house seems like a place of love and joy. It was the case in 1978 as it is now. So much of the Middle East has such regressive and Stone Age attitudes towards L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ people. As we see here, those in L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ relationships are open to stigma, punishment and imprisonment: “individuals are subject to criminal penalties under the 2024 law making homosexual relations punishable by up to 15 years in prison with fines and deportation; the 2024 law also criminalizes and makes punishable by prison time promoting homosexuality, doctors performing gender-affirming surgery, and men "deliberately acting like women”.

There were very few songs released in 1978 that were discussing L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ people. I want to explore this further. Kate Bush very much standing out or not repeating what was seen as popular and desired at that time. This article provides some interesting personal observations from Michael Langan:

“This is an album I wasn’t very familiar with, being immersed in The Kick Inside, Hounds of Love, and particularly The Sensual World (still my favourite), so I had the lovely experience of discovering something new from her, and a whole new story opening up from him. Henrique told me how he’d heard the first lines, “Kashka from Baghdad lives in sin, they say, with another man,” when he was a teenager and they’d awakened something in him that seemed hopeful and hidden, exotic and strange. As we listened to it together the song’s story unfolded, as told by a curious observer, of a reclusive gay couple; “Old friends never call there. Some wonder if life’s inside at all … But we know the lady who rents the room. She catches them calling a la lune.” But they’re not tragic figures these gay men, instead they engender love and hope; “At night, they’re seen laughing, loving. They know the way to be happy.” The narrator’s interest intensifies into longing, perhaps for a life different from the mundane, that Kashka and his lover personify. “I watch their shadows, tall and slim, in the window opposite. I long to be with them. ‘Cause when all the alley cats come out, you can hear music from Kashka’s house.”

There’s some brilliant footage of Kate singing this song live on Ask Aspel. (Click here to watch the clip.) Those of us of a certain age will remember that, before iplayer, before video recorders even, kids would write in to Michael Aspel at the BBC and ask him to show clips from TV programmes that we’d missed or were desperate to see again. It amazes me to think that a song about a gay relationship was performed live on children’s television in those days. It’s possible that I even saw it and didn’t twig, but that somehow it seeped into me by osmosis”.

At a time (1978) when Punk was at the forefront, Kashka from Baghdad was hugely unusual in terms of its sound and themes. Not only was it unusual for a same-sex relationship to be represented in popular music. Setting it in Baghdad in a period when there was conflict in Iraq and homosexuality was illegal then, this was such a bold and important song. One that does not get enough attention and discussion.

will end with Ask Aspel, the unusual instrumentation in the song, and the huge merits of Lionheart. I am coming back to a compelling and deep article from Dreams of Orgonon and their take. Whilst heterosexuality is almost subtextual in many of her songs, Kashka from Baghdad removed those layers. However, there are problematic elements to Kashka from Baghdad:

“Any fulfilling discussion of Kate Bush will inevitably detail her relationship with queerness and queer fandom. She’s influenced queer artists such as St. Vincent, Anohni, and Tegan and Sara. You could spin a whole book out of why this is — Deborah Withers has essentially done so with their seminal text Adventures in Kate Bush and Theory. Suffice it to say that Bush has long fostered LGBT-positive readings of her work with her engagement of camp and glam, her crossing of gendered lines, and her general positioning as an outsider. There’s no shortage of queer friendliness in her music — her most famous single of the Eighties demands a trans reading.

There is, of course, something to be made of the racial exoticization at play here. Kashka is first and foremost defined by his nationality. So the fetishization he receives is troubling to say the least. He is represented rather than seen. Bush has never been great on race issues, and this is just one example of that. Nonetheless, it’s intriguing to note exactly what his relationship with race (and by extension class) is. Kashka is an immigrant — he’s not in Baghdad but from it (although his un-Anglicized name, Qashqai, has more to do with Iran than Iraq). Bush’s use of “we” suggests that Kashka is the subject of gossip (“we know the lady who rents the room/she catches them calling a la lune”). Having pinpointed her primary influence for the song as an American detective show (which she’s frustratingly not named), it’s clear “Kashka from Baghdad” is something of a mystery. It’s a whodunnit with the emphasis on whodunnit. More pertinently it’s a fantasy, one about lust.

Homosexuality is a spectre that haunts the song. It’s never allowed to appear onstage. It’s hearsay or it’s a shadow on the wall, something nobody in the song sees up close (“old friends never call there/some wonder if life’s inside at all”). It’s the stuff of gossip and its pleasure comes from its illicitness. Bush clearly has no problem with the illicit. In fact, she clearly considers it a good thing. But she still falls into the trap of speaking of it in hushed tones, something naughty that must be kept behind closed doors rather than pushed into the light.

This makes her treatment of Kashka’s gay life as a matter of secrecy distressing. The polite heterosexual audience needs its eyes shielded from the gay sex it’s teased with. Yes, remaining in the closet is a safety measure for many if not most gay people. But it takes a severe toll on one’s mental health. In “Kashka” the closet is a place where great, magical events happen (“at night they’re seen laughing”). The difficulties of closeted life don’t enter the equation. Bush reduces Kashka and his partner to an instrument of pleasure and titillation”.

In my previous feature about Kashka from Baghdad, I argued the point whether the song was ingenuine because Kate Bush is straight and the gay relationship was never truly explored and executed in the way it should have been. I noted how it was a brave and brilliant song too. One that is bold and taboo-addressing. However, there is this balance between it being an empathetic representation or a ‘ghettoised’ view of queer love kept behind closed doors. I shall discuss further Kate Bush’s continued influence and importance in the L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ community. I do think that her heart was in the right place. I am fascinated to see who she visualised as Kashka. She did perform the song as part of 1979’s The Tour of Life, though the story was never acted out on stage. It was amazingly ballsy that Bush performed this song for Michael Aspel in 1978. She originally wanted to perform In the Warm Room, though it was seen as sexually explicit. A song about two gay lovers was deemed less controversial and appropriate for a young audience! It makes me wonder whether there was a certain dismissal of Bush’s music and whether people paid attention to her lyrics. 1978 was a year when Bush was being parodied. Everyone from Faith Brown to Pamela Stephenson was taking her off. A song like Kashka from Baghdad ripe for ridicule and piss-taking. However, there is so much to commend about Kashka from Baghdad. Another example of Bush being influenced by T.V. Like Wuthering Heights and a BBC adaptation, Kashka from Baghdad started life after she watched a U.S. detective series. One of the most notable elements of the Lionheart gem is the strange instrumental elements. Paddy Bush playing Strumento da Porco, mandocello and panpipes. The Strumento de Porco is “a variety of the psaltery, a stringed instrument of the zither family. It was originally made from wood, and relied on natural acoustics for sound production”. The mandocello is “is a plucked string instrument of the mandolin family. It is larger than the mandolin, and is the baritone instrument of the mandolin family”. Few artists were breaking beyond the drum-guitar-bass dynamic. I think a lot of Punk and mainstream music in the late-1970s lacked complexity or depth. Kashka from Baghdad has this sense of the unusual and exotic. If some feel that there was some cultural appropriation in the song; Bush and her problematic approach to race is reflected here. The composition and musical dynamic of Kashka from Baghdad is extraordinary. I do feel like Kashka is one of Bush’s most interesting characters. Whilst reserved to home and the shadows, he does provoke conversations and wider discussions.

Prior to moving to a dictator mentioned in a song from The Sensual World, it is worth noting how Lionheart remains underrated. It turns fifty in 2028, though it will not get the same celebration as The Kick Inside. That turns fifty in February 2028. Bush’s debut album more acclaimed and revered. Underestimated and lacking proper love, the sophistication of the songs should be commended. The reviews around Lionheart were mixed to negative. People thinking Bush would create a follow-up to The Kick Inside that was the same. Bush caught in this awkward position. Forced almost into quickly following up The Kick Inside, she was being ridiculed and parodied. That temptation to break away from her debut album. However, its immense popularity and commercial success also would have made her feel the public at least wanted more of that. Recording in France and with only three new songs written for Lionheart, it is incredible that she released something so extraordinary. Nearly fifty years after its release, we do need to revisit Lionheart. It is a fascinating album. It is that bridge between the debut album and where Kate Bush was heading. Even though Bush liked Lionheart when it was completed, she did put distance between it shortly after. That feeling it was not as she wanted or did not have enough time. I think that there are three or four songs on that album that sit alongside Bush’s best. Kashka from Baghdad among them. Wow and Symphony in Blue right up there. After her second album, Bush did not want to head back into the studio. Perhaps EMI would have pushed her back in to sort of ‘undo’ some of the negativity towards Lionheart. Instead, Bush worked on The Tour of Life and released Never for Ever in 1980. That live exposure and experience benefiting the sound and songwriting scope. Bush co-producing with Jon Kelly. I do feel like Lionheart is a remarkable album where Bush’s songwriting so refreshing and different to what was around her.

This may be the most controversial character Kate Bush has included in a song. Another song I covered recently, Heads We’re Dancing is a track beloved by Charli xcx. Before addressing a few subjects related to Heads We’re Dancing, Kate Bush discussed the background and origin of this track:

“It’s a very dark idea, but it’s the idea of this girl who goes to a big ball; very expensive, romantic, exciting, and it’s 1939, before the war starts. And this guy, very charming, very sweet-spoken, comes up and asks her to dance but he does it by throwing a coin and he says, “If the coin lands with heads facing up, then we dance!” Even that’s a very attractive ‘come on’, isn’t it? And the idea is that she enjoys his company and dances with him and, days later, she sees in the paper who it is, and she is hit with this absolute horror – absolute horror. What could be worse? To have been so close to the man… she could have tried to kill him… she could have tried to change history, had she known at that point what was actually happening. And I think Hitler is a person who fooled so many people. He fooled nations of people. And I don’t think you can blame those people for being fooled, and maybe it’s these very charming people… maybe evil is not always in the guise you expect it to be.

Roger Scott, BBC Radio 1, 14 October 1989”.

The Sensual World was released in 1989. Fifty years after the start of World War II. That decision to use Adolf Hitler in the song. The nature of appropriateness of the song. Some would read Heads We’re Dancing as a glorification or romanticisation of one of the worst people in history. I think Kate Bush wrote Heads We’re Dancing around 1987. It has personal origins: “But it was all started by a family friend, years ago, who’d been to dinner and sat next to this guy who was really fascinating, so charming. They sat all night chatting and joking. And next day he found out it was Oppenheimer. And this friend was horrified because he really despised what the guy stood for”.

When discussing Kashka from Baghdad, I discussed the context of releasing that song in 1978 and what was happening in Iraq. In 1989, major global conflicts were defined by the end of the Soviet-Afghan War, the U.S. invasion of Panama, and the beginning of the Liberian Civil War. The year year saw the ‘Revolutions of 1989’, which effectively ended communist rule in Eastern Europe and brought down the Berlin Wall. It was a year when Germany was being unified and divisions removed. Recording a song about a dictator who divided Germany and created such evil during World War II, I do wonder how people perceived the song in 1989. You can understand why Bush might have felt uncomfortable talking about the song. How she would not write about it now. Whilst not a political or protest song, it is also not showing Adolf Hitler in a positive light. She recalled a dream a friend had and she adapted that for a song. Essentially, this is a song discussing a dream. Bush did write about other historical figures. Joan of Arc is one example (immortalised in Aerial’s Joanni). However, few of her songs focused on evil or desperate people. Many of her songs courted some controversy because of some of the lyrics or inspiration. The Dreaming’s title track. The Infant Kiss from Never for Ever. If Heads We’re Dancing seems problematic or controversial on paper, it does raise interesting discussion points. The representation of dreams in songs and what certain images reveal. Pitchfork mentioned Heads We’re Dancing in their review of The Sensual World: “Even its most surreal songs are rooted in self-examination. “Heads We’re Dancing” seems like a dark joke—a young girl is charmed on to the dancefloor by a man she later learns is Adolf Hitler—but poses a troubling question: What does it say about you, if you couldn’t see through the devil’s disguise? Its discordant, skronky rhythms make it feel like a formal ball taking place in a fever dream, and Bush’s voice grows increasingly panicky as she realizes how badly she’s been duped. As far-fetched as its premise was, its inspiration lay close to home: A family friend had told Bush how shaken they’d been after they’d taken a shine to a dashing stranger at a dinner party, only to find out they’d been chatting to Robert Oppenheimer”.

There is this acting performance happening in the song. How it is almost like a film scene. Bush, as the girl/woman in Heads We’re Dancing, being approached in 1939 by a man who she did not recognise. This idea of The Devil approaching her. Almost caught in this trap and dancing with Adolf Hitler, it is a fascinating visual. Even if she could never release a video for this song, you do immerse yourself in the track and are stood by the side and watching things unfold. Whilst not trying to be comical or overlook Hitler’s atrocities, it is this real-time unfolding. Someone duped. That Pitchfork question where they ask what it says about a person if you cannot see through the disguise. Heads We’re Dancing raises psychological questions. There is an article that raises some themes I want to explore. Kate Bush said in an interview how Adolf Hitler duped and fooled a nation (Germany) and brainwashed them. It would be forgivable if a woman was fooled by Hitler if he approached her at a dinner. What is remarkable is how Kate Bush wrote into songs these characters and subjects that could be seen as jokey or mishandled by others. She has written from the point of view of a foetus (Breathing). Bush turned into a donkey for The Dreaming’s Get Out of My House. She talked about a night of passion with a snowman (50 Words for Snow’s Misty). As this article examines, The Sensual World documents sensuality, growing and exploring passion. Across the album, there are tales of love, break-up and pregnancy/childbirth. Although fantastical, Heads We’re Dancing is another song that examines sensuality and passion - albeit from a darkly comical or unusual angle:

“Taken in this way, Heads We’re Dancing is actually not quite the outlier on the The Sensual World that may be first assumed. The whole album deals with the trajectory of growing and manoeuvring through a world of sensual experiences. It charts the highs as well as the lows, where the joyous imagining of Molly Bloom entering our three-dimensional world is contrasted against tales of dangerous obsession (A Deeper Understanding) and of desires being snuffed out by reality and leading to heartbreak (Never be Mine). A lyric on the latter, a confession of “I want you as the dream, not the reality’’, reflects an important component of The Sensual World’s vantage point on sensuality — that of recognising the barrier between fantasy and fact, of desires and realities, that takes on a new relevance when applied to Heads We’re Dancing. The song embodies that horrifying moment where pleasures become pain — perhaps where we recognise that our habits are dangerous, our vices degenerative, and that now it is too late to change and the damage is done. Here it is presented with extremity — being seduced by a fascist dictator, on the eve of a world war — but it can be easily scaled down to represent any person, thing or idea that enters into your life and seduces you into acting with careless abandon. As Bush states above, Hitler stands in as a perfect metaphor for destructive behaviours or obsessions because he was so seductive to the German public, and this was so intrinsically tied to his villainy — 1939 was both the year Hitler threatened the extermination of ‘the Jewish race in Europe’ in the Reichstag, and the year he was voted Time Magazine’s Man of the Year”.

Many love songs talk about being attracted to bad people. Having your heart broken. These toxic people. Whilst a definite extreme, could an artist today ever write a song where, say, Donald Trump replaced Adolf Hitler? This idea of someone evil involved in this wooing and seduction?! It would be interesting to discuss. That idea of a bad or wrong person coming into your life and leading you down a bad path or leading you to bad decisions. Rather than Bush talking about an ordinary person, she took a historical figure. However, there is still something relatable about Heads We’re Dancing. I have written before how Bush was hugely positive towards men. Even if she would have been in relationships that broke down, I am not sure she ever dated anyone that was duplicitous or damaging. Her long-term relationship with Del Palmer broke down after 1989, though they remained friends and worked together right up until 2011 (Palmer died in 2024). It is also worth noting how a lot of modern music avoids political figures. At a time when there is political unrest around the world and we have these corrupt leaders, you do wonder whether artist should address this more. Following on from the passage quoted above, these points were raised:

“But it is impossible to listen to it today without giving thought to its political ramifications, and its more overt commentary on the seductive powers of corrupt politicians. In the UK we are grappling with a government fronted by a man who won his position masquerading as a lovable buffoon, and sold as a preferable alternative to an idealist who was framed as a dangerous radical. Bush often tackled political subject matter at the beginning of her career (the aforementioned anti-nuclear war centric Breathing, or the critique of militarism in Army Dreamers), but by the time of The Sensual World her political commentary was mostly smoothed out, replaced by more internal, emotional affairs. Heads We’re Dancing may in fact stand as her last overtly political parable, and it retains all of the bite of its predecessors”.

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1989/PHOTO CREDIT: Guido Harari

Kate Bush would have been conflicted about including Heads We’re Dancing on The Sensual World. It does stand out from the other songs in terms of tone and its lyrics. It does raise that question of human nature and whether we would see true evil if it was standing in front of us. How these diabolic people seduce entire nations. We are seeing this now across the world. Especially in the U.S. In an article I have sourced before, they ask whether we could see true evil. That idea that, if faced with Hitler in 1939 and knowing how evil he was, could you justify killing him? A song that is truly engrossing and thought-provoking:

“Who would be the ultimate figure when it comes to envisioning the most evil person to ever exist? One that says, “If the coin lands with heads facing up, then we dance!” in a softly-spoken voice, with no indication whatsoever that he might be harbouring some big, dark secret? For Bush, Adolf Hitler was the only person to fit the role. “The idea is that she enjoys his company and dances with him and, days later, she sees in the paper who it is, and she is hit with this absolute horror – absolute horror,” she sad. “What could be worse? To have been so close to the man… she could have tried to kill him… she could have tried to change history, had she known at that point what was actually happening”.

The Sensual World is another Kate Bush album that is not as lauded as it should be. Heads We’re Dancing is one of the deeper cuts. Never released as a single and never performed live, I do feel it is one of the most relevant tracks. How it applies to today and conversations around world leaders. That braveness of Kate Bush when it came to song inspiration. Always intrigued by flawed, dark and unusual figures, the song is filmic. You can see songs played out. Bush narrating this situation where this man approaches a woman and if a coin toss lands heads-up, then they dance: “They say that the Devil is a charming man/And just like you I bet he can dance/And he's coming up behind in his long/Tailed black coat dance/All tails in the air/But the penny landed with its head dancing”.

Before wrapping up, I want to discuss Kate Bush songs that are fantastic and worthy but could not get played on the radio. I spotlighted this when I assessed The Infant Kiss recently. A song that could be seen as a woman attracted to a child, it is not about that at all. However, if played on the radio, people can misunderstand and it could see Bush criticised. Heads We’re Dancing rarely or never played on the radio. Could it ever be played where people appreciate the song and it is not judged? Although it should be examined and applied to the modern day, perhaps stations and broadcasters are censoring more. Especially when it comes to politics. Though not Bush being political, discussing any politician or someone like Adolf Hitler would be seen as political. Organisations and bodies censoring artists for calling for Palestine to be free. Anyone who criticises Israel’s genocide seen, wrongly and stupidly, as being antisemitic. I do wonder if there were fewer barriers in 1989 than now when it came to releasing a song like Heads We’re Dancing. Bush said this about Heads We’re Dancing when interviewed: “but I do know that whereas in a piece of film it would be quite acceptable in a song it’s a little bit sensitive”. That notion of talking about Adolf Hitler in a song and putting him in this scene much more controversial than if it was in a film. That raises conversations around acceptability and censorship in film and music. Whether the former is a more open and less reactionary and excluding industry. Can we make films today about dictatorships and put that into a scene without much attack or censorship? Artists who sing about this more open to criticism and issues. It is really curious to explore that. Bush did use her platform to write about historical figures rather than modern-day ones. What we should take from Heads We’re Dancing is her boldness and how she was (and is) such an original and inventive songwriter. Kashka from Baghdad and how unusual that was in 1978. Heads We’re Dancing and its power and relevance in 1989. Both of these wonderful and discussion-worthy cuts displaying how Kate Bush always has been…

AN astonishing songwriter.

FEATURE: Kate Bush: The Whole Story: An Article and Interview from the Kate Bush Club Issue 16

FEATURE:

 

 

Kate Bush: The Whole Story

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush photographed in September 1983/PHOTO CREDIT: Michael Daines/Mirrorpix/Getty Images

 

An Article and Interview from the Kate Bush Club Issue 16

__________

THIS is a new Kate Bush series…

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1982, whilst making The Dreaming/PHOTO CREDIT: Åke Lundström

that does not require a lot of typing from me. It sort of combines the erstwhile The Kate Bush Interview Archive and Kate Bush: The Tour of Life. The latter is one I am continuing. Kate Bush: The Whole Story uncovers and explores some interviews, writing and periods of her life that, as the title implies, provides the whole story about Kate Bush. The greatest hits album that shares the name turns forty later in the year, so I will be doing features around that nearer the time. I wanted to run a new series where we get to see her career almost like a diary. These entries from various years. I was looking at this from Gaffaweb. I am going to dip into The Complete Kate Bush Club Newsletter/Writings of Kate Bush section, as these are archives that many Bush fans do not know about. For this inaugural Kate Bush: The Whole Story, I am highlighting her KBC (Kate Bush Club) article in Issue 16. I think that issue was published either late in 1983 or in 1984, as Bush was interviewed and asked if there will be any touring in 1984. You can see the incredible Kate Bush Club archive here. I will be returning to this too for future instalments:

“As spring arrives, the songs are being finished, and it's lyric time. I'm in Ireland, and it is incredibly beautiful; a very creative environment. It's not until you're somewhere this quiet, this peaceful, that you realise all the distractions there are at home. There is no television, no phone except for a wind-up one that is reluctant to produce an operator at the other end, and the nearest house is made of stone and has no roof and only three walls--it is bliss.

Having written most of the "tunes" for the album, and feeling like I'd done most of the hard work, I remember now how difficult it can be to work on the lyrics! And when that is finished, and I'm feeling smug, I'll suddenly remember all those wonderful problems that start when you begin to record--and I can't wait. It's been quite hard this time to decide which songs to use--not that there's a great choice, but it is still nice to be able to choose. However, there can be a time problem even when you have made your choice. The last link in the chain is definitely the weakest.

Even when you get a beautiful cut, after the record is mass-pressed in the factory the result can be heart-breaking, and the only way to help this situation is to cut down the time on each side, getting a deeper cut. Especially rock music has to heed this, as classical or acoustic music can get away with a slightly shallower cut because they don't usually have the kind of bass frequency that requires a deep cut. [Let's hope Kate doesn't let the limitations of this antiquated vinyl format induce her to shorten tracks on KBVI!]

I find this the ultimately frustrating part of the process. It seems wrong to me to have to cut down on tracks to get a great sound. Surely people pay enough for an album (and wait long enough in some cases) without finding there are only six or seven short tracks on the whole album. Until there is a universal compact disk, or everyone decides to change over to cassettes from records, unfortunately this can't be solved.

But this is the nitty-gritty of the Biz, and not much fun, and it couldn't be more remote from this spot in Ireland. It is like "Old" England--I've never stepped thro' a time-warp before--I definitely recommend it.

While we're here, I'm hoping to get together with Bill Whelan (who did the fantastic arrangements on Night of the Swallow), as I am hoping he will be able to do some arrangements on the coming album.

I am so pleased at the reaction, both to the video and the boxed set of The Single File. It was a buzz for me to get the video released, and to see five years sitting in a little green box, but the feedback to them is stunning. Thanks to all of you for feeding-back.

There were three dates planned for me to go to W.H. Smith and sign anything anyone had, but unfortunately only two of them were executed. The first was Cardiff, and I would like to take this opportunity to explain what happened. Without mentioning any names, a certain person representing EMI who accompanied me "misjudged" the train departure time, and I will never forget the look on their face as we walked thro' the gate and the train pulled away. The next half an hour consisted of running from platform to platform, and eventually ending up on a train which happened to be going the wrong direction! Now, we could say that my profession is renowned for a certain untogether reputation, and so unfortunately a great deal of presumption goes on. What can I say? At the second P.A. I ended up running the last mile to the shop. The clouds had opened and the streets had jammed with traffic, and I arrived somewhat wet and out of breath. And at the third P.A. everything was great--third time lucky, I guess.

Talking about "guessing", at last someone has discovered what's being said at the end of Leave It Open-- well done! But let me tell you about some of the fascinating encounters I've had. There is a Mr. John Reimers from the U.S.A. who has rung up once a week with his new version:

"Is it...?"

"Nope!"

"Well, is it...?"

"Nope!"

"Tell me! Tell me!"

John, you're terrific!

But I'm afraid this is just a mild case. One night I woke up to a tapping on the window. It was someone hanging from a nearby tree by their feet. In their hands was a card, and written on it was: "Is it 'We paint the penguins pink?'" I'm afraid I had to laugh, and shook my head. They burst into tears and ran off into the moonlight. But I think the cleverest was a phone call I had the other week.

"Hello, Kate?"

"Hello?"

"It's Jay here, how are you doing?"

He sounded a little squeaky to me. Then he said:

"You know, it's ridiculous. I was sitting here listening to the end of Leave It Open the other day, and I just couldn't remember what you said--I know it's crazy but--"

I interrupted.

"'We paint the penguins pink.'"

"Oh, yeah! Of course, how could I forget? See you soon--buy!"

Hmmm...see what I mean?...C-lever!

But seriously, I have enjoyed your guesses tremendously, but I have terrible dreams about your reactions now that the answer has been revealed. Do I hear cries of "You're kidding! But that's stupid!" or "Cor, that's pathetic--all our efforts over that?"

Well, I hope not...And remember to let the weirdness in.

Lots of love,

Kate xxx

Interview

What is Gaffa? What does Suspended in Gaffa mean?

"'Gaffa" is Gaffa Tape. It is thick industrial tape, mainly used for taping down and tidying up the millions of leads, and particularly useful in concert situations. Suspended in Gaffa is trying to simulate being trapped in a kind of web: everything is in slow motion, and the person feels like they're tied up. They can't move." defeat

Many of your songs contain references to occult and esoteric philosophy. Is this a particular interest of yours, or are you just widely read?

"I don't think I am particularly interested in gthe occult, but I do have an interest in the human mind, and the unusual situations that occur, or are said to occur, to human beings in extreme religious or spiritual states. But surely we all have a curiosity for things that we know little about."

How do you manage to do the guitar, bass and drum arrangements, as you don't play those instruments? Do you hear in your head what you want, and if so, how do you communicate it to the session musicians?

"Mostly I have a strong idea of what I want to hear. The sound aspect I would explain to the engineer, but musically I would suggest the mood, or any piano lines I wanted picked up. But usually I leave the musical content to the musician, and they always understand the atmosphere you want to create. With the drummer, we're now working a lot with drum machines. I originally explain the type of rhythm I want to Del, who then programmes the Linn. I demo the song using the rhythm, and then ask the drummer to replace the feel, adding his own subtle human adornments."

How do you choose which songs to include when you tour? I know some of them are obvious selections, but what about the rest? Have you any idea what songs you will include when you next tour? Any idea when that will be?

"I think the most important thing about choosing the songs is that the whole show will be sustained. Obviously we would try to pick the strongest songs, try to get a variety of moods, but build the show up to a climax. And the songs must adapt well visually: a show is visual as well as audial, so there must hopefully be a good blend of the two. I think we all know about the tour situation by now--It's really a matter of time, but how long? I don't know. [Four more years have passed since Kate wrote this.] This is the truth. So the safest thing to say: once this next album Hounds of Love ] is out, I have to promote and do videos, so time is already being eaten up this year; but once the album "project" is out of the way, I do plan to make another tour the next priority. [Hah!] I think also that because there will have been three albums since the last tour, we will not include any songs from the first two albums. But it's all a long way off at the moment, and who can really say what will happen?"

Any chance of a tour for '84?

"Let's just say 'Unlikely,' to be on the safe side."

Do you choose all the photos of you that appear in magazines?

"No, I don't. It does depend on the magazine, but most like take at least one of their own at the time of the interview, and if they have room for more photos, we supply them with our favourite shots."

Do you decide what records are going to be released in other countries, and what the picture sleeves are going to be?

"Apart from the U.S.A. releases, we normally know up front what's happening, if there's to be a special release. In the cases of the Irish Night of the Swallow, the U.S. mini-L.P., the European Suspended in Gaffa and the French Ne T'enfuis pas, we designed the bags, hoping they would particularly appeal to that market."

Why don't you release any twelve-inch singles?

"I'm afraid to say that EMI don't find them 'commercially viable propositions'. We very much wanted to release the single The Dreaming on a twelve-inch--we could have got a beautiful-sounding cut with that one. I could lend you my twelve-inch if you'd like to hear how good it is!"

As the lyrics to Violin are different on Never For Ever from the Tour version, could you please tell us the bits of the Tour version that are different?

"The lyrics on Violin at the beginning of the Tour were slightly different from those at the end. The odd word would move here and there, and to be honest, I don't remember them; except I know they weren't that great!"

I have just finished reading Shakespeare's Othello. In the scene just before Othello kills Desdamona, he says, "Put out the light/Then put out the light." I was wondering if this means the same thing in Blow Away.

"You're the first person in four years to pick up on this--so, thank you."

A couple of years ago I read that you were writing a book. Did this ever come out--as I've tried everywhere to get it--?

"It was planned at one time, but I just could not find the time amongst my album projects; and perhaps I am not yet ready to write a book about myself."

You obviously believe in keeping yourself as healthy as you can through exercise and eating the correct foods, etc. But it puzzles me and others as to why you continue to smoke.

"I can understand why it should surprise you, but unfortunately I am only human." [Bravo, Kate! Maybe that'll silence these obnoxious anti-smoking pests for a while, though it's unlikely.]

Have you ever considered doing a version of Number Nine Dream by John Lennon (which I know is your favourite single)?

"I think what would be nice is if they re-released it. It was well ahead of its time, and didn't really get the attention it deserved."

What was your favourite record of 1983?

"101 Damnations, by Scarlet Party."

About a year ago I purchased a U.S. promo record containing four tracks from The Dreaming. On the front was a sticker stating "Not for sale--For promotional purposes only." Is it illegal to possess such a record? How come I was able to buy it if it's not for sale?

"I shouldn't worry, you're not in any trouble for buying it, but unfortunately whoever sold it to you was making an illegal sale. Thanks for bringing it to our attention."

I understand you like Steely Dan. What is your favourite album of theirs?

"Gaucho. For me, each album got better, and I wish they hadn't split up."

Has anything ever happened while recording--say, a strange sound by mistake which you have decided is worth keeping in the track?

"A lot of accidents happen, but usually they're re-done for the master recordings. They seem to happen mostly at the demo stage: tracks leaking through, odd voice phrases, a synth that wasn't rubbed oof when it should have been. That sort of thing."

Is the single version of Sat In Your Lap mixed differently from the album version? The vocals on the album seem a lot louder than the instruments. Any special reason for this?

"Yes. The single mix is different from the album. We very much wanted to do another mix. The album has a definite flavour that was confirmed by the mixes, so we wanted Sat In Your Lap to be a part of that. The voice was also deliberately lifted, because we had quite a lot of feedback about the lead voice being a little quiet on the single version."

Do you actually read any of the letters sent to the Club? And how many staff work there?

"Yes, I do. Lisa runs the Club, but with the help of 'family' hands and friends."

What is your response to the poor airplay of your recent single releases?

"Disappointing. But it just shows how reliant you are on the people at the radio stations liking the singles, to get the airplay."

Is Paddy married, and if not would he marry my friend?

"No, he's not married, but I'll add your friend's name to the list (number 759)."

Is the man featured on The Dreaming's cover in the Houdini pose Del Palmer?

"That's for me to know and you to find out."

I was told recently that you appeared on Zaine Griff's album Figures. Is this true? And what did you do, B.V.s or keyboards?

"Yes, I did. Zaine had written a song for Lindsay Kemp called Flowers, and he asked me to sing B.V.s. It is a really lovely song. Zaine and I met years ago at Lindsay's classes, and as Lindsay was such a powerful influence on us both--as he is on anyone who is captured by his strong magic--it was a real pleasure to be a part of something dedicated to him."

Why do you always move your eyes right and left in your videos? It is very pleasant to watch, but it intrigues me. What is the idea behind it?

"I have to watch out for any demons that might be creeping up on me, and video shoots attract so many of them that I have to keep an extra eye out in case they trip me up while we're going for a take. You've seen what happens to Faith Brown because she doesn't look out for them." [Kate's referring to Brown's parody of her Wuthering Heights video, in which Brown trips and falls.]”.

It has been great bringing to light this writing to life. I was not aware of Kate Bush’s entries and diary entries for the fan club. You do not really get this anymore. Social media has replaced that. It makes me yearn for a Kate Bush Club today. Something that mixes that older version and brings it a little up to date. I think that many people would be interested. I hope that you have enjoyed the first edition of…

THIS new series.

FEATURE: Celebrating a Music Giant… John Robb at Sixty-Five

FEATURE:

 

 

Celebrating a Music Giant…

 

John Robb at Sixty-Five

__________

I normally write about…

artists for my blog. However, I do sometimes focus on those outside of that sphere. Important journalists and figures in the industry. Few are as important as John Robb. I will talk about him and why I want to include him here. However, here is some biography about a music great:

“Not just a well known face from TV but also a best selling author, musician, journalist,  presenter and pundit, music website boss, publisher, festival boss, Eco champion vegan behemoth and punk rock warlord as well as TV and radio talking head plus singer from post-punk critically acclaimed mainstays The Membranes.

John Robb is all these things and more.

His recently released book ‘The Art Of Darkness – the History Of Goth’ is a worldwide pop culture best seller and his soon to be launched ground-breaking new scheme – the Green Britain Academy, is set to train up people in thousands of Eco jobs whilst Borders Blurred is a gaming and music agency with a twist.

He grew up in Blackpool before punk rock came along and saved his life and he formed the Membranes – the highly influential post punk band whose current albums keep pushing forward with added choirs and textures and are critically acclaimed.

He was one of the leading post-punk fanzine writers in the UK with ‘Rox’ before he went on to write for the rock press with Sounds in the 80s. He was the first person to interview Nirvana and coined the expression Britpop and was instrumental in kick starting and documenting the Madchester scene with his writing. His music and culture website louderthanwar.com is currently one of the top 3 most read music and culture sites in the UK and at the front of diverse modern culture.

He is a constant on TV and radio commenting on music, culture and politics and one of the UK’s leading in conversation hosts who has his own successful youtube channel and his own books and music festival in Manchester every year called Louder Than Words.

He has written many books like best sellers like ‘Punk Rock – an Oral History’ and The Stone Roses and the Resurrection of British Pop’  and in 2022 a  book about the leading Eco energy boss Dale Vince from Ecotricity called ‘Manifesto’ and a collected works of his journalism”.

As an independent journalist, I am quite prolific and have put out quite a bit for almost fifteen years. However, John Robb is one of the most respected, prolific and important music journalists ever. “From the post punk fanzine era to the music press era of Sounds to running his own website Louder than War John Robb has remained at the forefront of pop culture. He was the first person to interview Nirvana, was key in launching the Stone Roses and made up the word Britpop and so much more. Louder Than War is a music and culture website and magazine focusing on mainly alternative arts news, reviews, and features. The site is an editorially independent publication that was started by the English musician and journalist John Robb in 2010 and is now co-run by a team of other journalists with a worldwide team of freelancers. There has been a print edition since 2015”. He is someone I look up to. He turns sixty-five on 4th May, so I wanted to salute him prior to that date. I hope that others in the music world will shout out this legend. You can buy John Robb’s books here. On 12th May, he releases his latest book, Punk Rock Ruined My Life: And Other Stories: “The irresistible story of a one-man cultural phenomenon. Minister for the Counterculture, Mancunian mainstay and alternative national treasure John Robb has lived a life in music. In this book he charts his adventures on the cultural frontline, chronicling the making of a DIY icon. Robb’s quest began in his hometown of Blackpool – where punk was a battle against the odds – and went international when he toured the world with his band. The first person to interview Nirvana, he also discovered The Stone Roses for weekly newspaper Sounds and did early interviews with The Jesus and Mary Chain and The Manics, before moving on to legends such as Mark E. Smith, Nick Cave and Patti Smith. Along the way, he became an on-screen commentator and author of bestselling books. Robb’s memoir tells of deep friendships with figures from Poly Styrene to Chris Packham. Packed with riotous stories, it provides an alternative account of British musical and cultural history and a triumphant blueprint for a punk rock life”.

I will move to RESOUND, who chatted with John Robb during his Do You Believe In The Power of Rock n Roll? spoken word tour. He discussed, among other things, being at the forefront of music for over four decades. I have taken selected exerts, though I would urge everyone to read the full interview:

“Around the late ’70s John also began writing about music “to try to understand why I liked some stuff I shouldn’t have”, setting his up his own fanzine, writing for various publications including SOUNDS and MELODY MAKER, and penning numerous books on music and culture including Punk Rock: An Oral History, The Stone Roses And The Resurrection of British Pop, The North Will Rise Again: Manchester Music City 1976-1996 and latest tome The Art Of Darkness: The History Of Goth. Now running music website Louder Than War, he says,

there’s something about the vibrations and sounds of music that are very powerful…it constantly takes you by surprise and you can overthink it, but sometimes you have to just cut the crap and admit that it sounds f**king great to you!”

One memory of his time at SOUNDS John won’t forget is interviewing Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain, the first interview the band had done. He laughs as he tells us “I remember going to my friend’s record shop to order the first Nirvana single (1988’s Love Buzz) and everyone saying ‘oh no, this isn’t a good as Mudhoney!’” But that didn’t faze John, who was drawn to Kurt’s vocals.

After arranging the interview, he rang Kurt up at his mum’s house, which in turn led to another interview with the band in New York nine months later when they were supporting fellow Sub Pop grunge outfit Tad, Nirvana unaware of the impact they were about to make on the music world.

John grins as he tells us he ended up crashing on the floor of the tiny flat the two bands were sharing and at the time thought it was all a bit of a drag, the Tad guys taking up most the the space. Of course, looking back he realises just how well he got to know Nirvana and how lucky he was to have a birds-eye view of their early days. But despite his pleas, and the fact that Nirvana’s record company were saying that they could be as big as Sonic Youth, Tad appeared on the cover of SOUNDS, taking precedence over Nirvana… Nevermind, the rest, as they say, is history.

Chatting about Kurt Cobain gets us on to the subject of Mark Lanegan, who The Membranes supported in 2019. During that tour John and Mark spoke about Kurt, who was a close friend of Mark’s, John recalling Mark telling him that on the day Kurt died, he’d gone round to his house and had never forgiven himself for not kicking his door down when he didn’t answer. “Mark said Kurt would always answer the door. They shared a house together when they lived in Seattle, all on heroin, listening to blues records and decked out in wedding dresses!” Ah, picture the scene…

If things had turned out differently, John reckons that Kurt’s musical style and path would have been similar to that of Mark’s. “His voice would’ve been similar as he got older, and I imagine he would have played more acoustically,” something which was hinted at in the infamous Nirvana MTV unplugged session. “I imagine he would’ve played intimate, powerful music – similar to Mark’s but to bigger crowds because of the Nirvana influence, but effectively occupying the same space.”

Around the late ‘80s John also coined the term Britpop, before the ’90s scene as we know it had even taken off, though writer and DJ Stuart Maconie also claims to have come up with the term. However, John acknowledges that Stuart “probably did make it up, unawares” a few years later, using it in SELECT magazine… maybe they should just put it down to a case of great minds and all that!

John confesses that he’d previously used ‘Britpop’ as a joke, going on to say “SOUNDS did a thing about a new British punk scene called Punk Core and I used the word Britpop as a joke on that really. Music’s really hard to describe, as Frank Zappa said. I mean, you can describe it but sometimes the words aren’t normal words. Anyway Britpop became a thing, as these things tend to…It’s the same with ‘goth’, it was coined by the NME as a joke, referring to the alternative music scene of the time in alternative clubs”.

Of course not every musician wants to be pigeonholed like this but as John explains, there are benefits to belonging to a certain scene. “There’s a duality to it… I don’t think bands mind being part of a scene which gets them out of the local pub and onto the national circuit but at the same time they don’t want to be imprisoned by that scene.” He goes on to say.

Of course, goth is a subject close to John’s heart, with the publication last year of his latest book The Art Of Darkness: The History of Goth, which has seen fans of the darker side of post-punk unite up and down the country to listen to him talk through the ins and outs of the scene. Inevitably this has led to some heated debates on what’s goth and what’s not, and it’s fair to say it’s not an argument that will be settled any time soon unless you’re a member of Fields Of The Nephilim. But anyone who went along to one of his chats on the book, which he’s still out touring in Europe, will be drawn into his latest tour which will no doubt have a dark flavour at times”.

In 2024, Sheffield Magazine sat down with John Robb for a great conversation. They spoke to him “about his latest book “Do You Believe in the Power of Rock & Roll?: Forty Years of Music Writing from the Frontline.” During our chat he told us, in great detail, about his love for this city of ours, along with his best stories from his time as a writer”:

“Keeping with the DIY ethos, do you think there has been a big shift across music in general and that in some cases maybe the DIY element has been lost?

"No, I don’t think that. Nobody who was truly DIY ever really ‘broke through.’ Some people did of course, but not many! It’s always been the underground of people creating this little network of music venues and music scenes of the music they want to listen too. That’s still there, it’s still here now, and it’s as strong as it ever was, if not stronger. I was thinking about this the other day, people were talking about all these venues closing down, but weirdly I’ve found there to be more venues now than there ever was. I don’t think it’s easy running a venue though, there are a lot of problems involved in it, but in the '80s you’d go to Birmingham for example and there would be one venue that you could perform at!"

"Now you have a choice, I think that now there’s more people in more bands and there’s more space for people to do stuff in. I do think now the problem is that there’s too many people in too many bands so therefore people’s expectations can’t be realised. You can’t have 10,000 bands all sustaining themselves. I do think it’s great though that everyone’s in a band, and it’s great that there’s still people creating this culture and stuff, but it makes it difficult if they all expect to make a living out of it you know, because it can’t stretch that far."

What’s your best story from your time as a writer? Whether that be when you ran your fanzine Rox or when you wrote for the music papers.

"I guess the story everyone always wants to hear is from when I interviewed Nirvana. I was the first person in the UK to interview them! I phoned them up at his (Kurt Cobain's) mum’s house before the first single came out, and I had no idea they hadn’t done an interview, but I also had no idea that anyone was going to like them! They were just a local band, they were signed to Subpop Records and most people though that they (Subpop Records) had done a misstep, as this band was not as good as the other bands."

"But I was sort of captivated by his (Cobain's) voice, he sounds like an 80-year-old man singing in an 18-year-olds body, it just sounded wise and teenage at the same time – that’s the first thing I thought was amazing. 9 months after this interview we flew out to New York to do a feature on them, and we went to the flat they were staying in at the time as they were supporting TAD on tour, and they were all staying in this one room, punk rock DIY style! We said to the PR guys, where are we staying? And they said you’re staying here. So, we slept on a floor for 5 days next to Nirvana – I didn’t have any sleeping stuff, so I had to sleep under my coat with my rucksack as a pillow! We got to know them pretty well as we were helping them carry the gear in and out the flat, and we went to the gigs. We saw them play at Maxwell’s in Hoboken and there was about 20 people watching, they were amazing! They trashed all the gear, and it was really exciting."

"But there was no idea that this band were going to be more than a weird cult band that I would write about in Sounds. There was no idea that they were going to be the biggest band in the world. Within 2 years, ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ comes out and it just goes insane. Looking back, you kind of get used to these things happening, it’s like of course Nirvana is massive, but at the time the jump they did was massive! Where I live in Manchester, I live right next to the University. I still see students wearing Nirvana T-shirts, and he does just look like a sort of Rock’n’roll Jesus, doesn’t he? I always think it’s funny as I walk past them as they have no idea that this weird looking old dude was the first person to interview that band on their T-shirt. It’s mad how well American bands do, like The Offspring sold 12 million albums which is just madness. But none of those bands could touch Nirvana, they were way way better than all those other bands. He just wrote really great songs, and they were just quite rough sounding, and his voice was amazing”.

I am going to end with an NME interview from last year. When Oasis reformed and performed that run of acclaimed international dates, there were books published about them. John Robb discussed his Oasis book with NME. You can tell that was more of a labour of love than anything. Someone who has a deep respect for and fascination of Oasis:

“Robb recently published Live Forever: The Rise, Fall And Resurrection Of Oasis – featuring a new and exclusive interview with Noel Gallagher. After the returning Britpop legends kicked off their Live ’25 reunion tour in Cardiff last week, tonight (Friday July 11) sees the band continue with the first of their homecoming residency nights at Manchester’s Heaton Park.

Robb, himself a Manchester native, told us about the importance of the city in shaping the band and a vibrant music scene.

“There’s an attitude in Manchester. It’s there in the music scene as well,” he told NME. “The bands that were key stepping stones to Oasis were all Manchester bands: The Smiths, The Stone Roses, that lineage. What you have to think about Noel is that he’s almost like Johnny Marr’s younger brother in a way; they’re very similar. I always found it odd that Johnny Marr didn’t end up being their producer.”

NME: Hello John. Your book is pretty definitive, comprehensive and all-encompassing. You can’t be accused of throwing together a last-minute cash-in project…

“It was a pretty intense period of writing, with six months of 15-hour days. But then again, I’d already done the research in having being around from the beginning. I was next door at The Boardwalk and at the early gigs. I’d seen Noel around town when he was the Inspiral Carpets’ roadie. I knew what the vibe was around town and at gigs, so it was quite easy to describe.

“I didn’t have to interview anyone else for that stuff, I just had to remember.”

It was interesting when your 2024 interview with Noel ran just days before the reunion was announced, and his attitude towards Liam appeared to have visibly softened…

“Well it’s interesting, actually. That interview was filmed three months before. It looked like it was done with the reformation all in one block, but it was done back in June at Sifters [Records, Manchester]. I did put down a stipulation that it would be nice if he said nice things about Liam. The banter is funny, but it kinda gets in the way of the band sometimes.

“The stuff he said about Liam was great, and it was really heartfelt. At the end of the day, brothers fall out and they fight, but they still love each other. Siblings have complex relationships. The only problem is when you’re that famous, it becomes your only story. Everything about Oasis gets reduced to a tabloid story. I deal with that in the book, but the point is that’s just the tip of the iceberg. There’s something far more creative and interesting going on underneath the bonnet.”

Pulp and Blur have both pulled off very impressive records as more mature bands. You can’t help but wonder what ‘old man Oasis’ would sound like….

“Yes, it’s intriguing. Liam still feels like the eternal teenager. You don’t buy into Liam for songs about getting old. Maybe they could be the introspective Noel tracks and Liam’s could be raging against the light?

“It’s brilliant that Pulp got a Number One album [with ‘More’], but there’s a pressure on Oasis because they were so much bigger. People always forget that the last Oasis album got to Number Five in America, and they were getting quite big over there towards the end of their career. You don’t want to blemish that either. I was just hoping there would have been more gigs, weren’t you?”

As an Oasis biographer, how do you feel about the band’s post-2000 output that a lot of people see as a decline?

“I think their later albums are really underrated and overlooked. By the time you get to the last album [‘Dig Out Your Soul’, 2008], they’re doing something really interesting – it’s like an art-rock record. They would never say that, but they’ve got drum’n’bass loops, backwards guitars and bits of kraut-rock. A lot of people would just say, ‘Oh, they’re just doing The Beatles again’, but they’re not really. There’s a lot of different stuff on there. Rock’n’roll isn’t a fashionable form of music, but when bands are good at it, it’s really good.

“Put all that through the filter of pop, and no matter how off-piste they go, it’s always going to be a good record”.

On 4th May, John Robb turns sixty-five. I am not sure what he has planned for the day but, with a new book coming out days later, he will be busy prespring for that. As a journalist, I have so much respect for his work and legacy. One of the most important authors too. He is such a prolific and fascinating figure who you feel needs to be represented himself in terms of a documentary – or someone playing him on the screen. This is a salute and early happy birthday to the amazing John Robb. Let’s hope that we see many more books, work and words from a true great. Someone who has inspired countless artists and journalists through the decades. Through journalism and the music world, there are few that are…

AS important as him.

FEATURE: Spotlight: Naïka

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

PHOTO CREDIT: Jackson Ducasse for The Line of Best Fit

 

Naïka

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HER new album is out…

so it is a perfect time to discover and bond with Naïka. ECLESIA is an amazing and major statement from one of the most promising artists in music. I have said that about a couple of other artists recently, though I stand by those words. Naïka is someone that everyone needs to know! I am going to come to some interviews. However, first, here is some biography about an artist you will be hearing a lot more from in the coming year or two:

“Born to a French father and Haitian mother, Naïka embodies the new generation of global pop artists. Having lived and grown up between the Caribbean, South Pacific, Africa, France and the United States, Naïka has developed a sound that bridges cultures, a vibrant blend of Pop, R&B, and Afro-Caribbean influences anchored by her powerful voice and emotional storytelling.

Writing and singing in English, French, and Haitian Creole, Naïka brings a unique multicultural perspective to her art. Her music celebrates identity, resilience, and unity, turning her story into a symbol of connection across borders. As an independent artist, Naïka has built a worldwide community of over 2 million+ fans and surpassed 270 million streams across her three EPs Lost in Paradïse Pt. 1 (2020), Lost in Paradïse Pt. 2 (2021), and TRANSITIONS (2022). Her key tracks include Sauce (featured in an Apple commercial), Water (FIFA 21 soundtrack), 1+1, and 6:45.
Her upcoming debut album ECLESIA opens a new cinematic chapter, previewed by singles BLOOM, BLESSINGS, MATADOR, and ONE TRACK MIND.

Naïka’s rise has been exponentially building worldwide, with viral singles amassing hundreds of millions of streams, sold-out headline tours across Europe, North America and MENA, and major festival appearances. Her recent international tour sold out within 2 weeks of announcement in nearly every city, requiring venue upgrades and additional dates added in every city. Her influence continues to grow globally. Naïka was named Caribbean Fusion Artist of the Year at the 2025 Caribbean Music Awards, and her Grammy Reimagined cover of Doja Cat’s Woman became the most-viewed performance within 24 hours. Her music has charted on Spotify Viral and Shazam in over 40 territories, earning strong editorial support and covers on major DSP playlists.

Beyond music, Naïka is a dynamic force in fashion and visual storytelling. Known for her bold, eclectic aesthetic, she has collaborated with major luxury brands and cultural platforms including Jimmy Choo, Fendi, Jean Paul Gaultier, Burberry, Maison Margiela, Elle, Jamalouki Magazine, and more, building a visual universe as distinctive as her sound.

Furthermore, Naïka is deeply committed to giving back. She collaborates with organizations like Fleur de Vie, a Haitian NGO that focuses on improving education for children, with her ultimate goal of building a school in Haiti.

Naïka isn’t just an artist. She’s a world-builder, a storyteller, and the voice of a new global generation”.

In an interview from last year, The Line of Best Fit note how Naïka “used to see her multinational upbringing as a dilemma but in her seamless blend of pop, afrobeats and R&B sung in three languages she’s crafting anthems for a generation that finds home in a shared feeling”. I am bringing in parts of the interview where we learn about Naïka’s upbringing. Some of the lead-up to the remarkable ECLESIA:

“Born to a Haitian mother and French father, Naïka’s location was dictated by her father's work in renewable energy, which has seen her move between the Caribbean, Kenya, France, and South Africa. Every few years meant packing up and leaving to embark on a journey in a new country, as she tells me. Settling into a new school, learning a new language, and making new friends. "That's all I knew my whole life," she recalls. "We'd get somewhere, live there for three to four years, and then pack up and start over somewhere else." Unbeknownst to Naïka at the time, each move would add another layer to her identity, which she would ultimately come to appreciate wholly.

However, this all changed when Naïka’s father unexpectedly lost his job during her mid-teens. Her family settled in Miami, where Naïka was born but had never actually lived. Although Miami should have offered some level of familiarity, Naïka admits that it felt like arriving somewhere completely foreign. "For the first time, I had to come face to face with the question of my identity," she explains. "I was in a place that I was supposed to be from, and I felt so disconnected to and felt so lost and alien in."

"From that point on, there was always a bit of inner turmoil about where I belong, and who my community is. I never felt like I was enough of anything to be from somewhere,” she continues. “When I started making music, that was a bit of a stressful time, because I strive to be authentic. So, I was trying to figure out what angle I would take with my artistry and music. But little by little, with time, I started realising that instead of trying to find this one thing that doesn’t exist, I should just embrace all of it.”

Naïka’s desire to embrace every part of her experience has ultimately culminated in her debut album, ECLESIA, due for release in February. The name — suggested by her father — comes from an ancient Greek word meaning "a gathering, coming together of people,” as she tells me. “I thought that was so beautiful, and exactly the type of sentiment that I want to bring,” she smiles.

It’s fitting, as the album is eclectic by design. Across thirteen tracks, Naïka offers a thoughtful blend of pop sensibilities steeped in multicultural influences, sung across English, French, and Haitian Creole. "The album has a wide spectrum of different sounds, topics, and energies that fit so perfectly with who I am. ECLESIA is an introduction to what I truly have to bring to the table.”

The singles alone paint a vivid picture of the range within Naïka’s world. The smooth percussion of “Bloom” is punctuated by an almost buzzy key note against Naïka’s collected vocalising, creating something slightly off-kilter and engaging, an ode to her appreciation for subtle details. “Blessings” is drenched in tropical warmth, the production tinged with afrobeats influence. When Naïka sings, ”I should take my time, trust the signs, I decide all the blessings,” it feels meditative — a contrast to ”Matador”, which serves as a snappy, enticing curveball. It’s sung entirely in French, moving with quick, sleek rhythms.

Hearing Naïka navigate the language through her sound with such cool ease emphasises the artistry within her code-switching. It requires an intuitive gaze. Naïka’s multilingual approach to songwriting is organic; she doesn’t sit down and decide when a verse needs to be expressed in a different language in a calculated, organised way, but she lets the language emerge naturally from the emotion. Sometimes French captures a romantic inflection that English can't quite reach. Other times, a line demands the depth of Haitian Creole. "Different languages have their essence in a way," Naïka tells me. "Sometimes you can paint a more impactful picture with one language versus the other”.

I want to include parts of this interview from YUNG. They spotlighted Naïka because she was YUNG’s Breakthrough Artist of the Year in THE LIST 2025. Even though these are still early days for Naïka, I do feel like she is going to continue to rise and be this truly major artist touring the world and playing enormous stages:

“Her sound, a melting pot of pop, R&B, and global influences, reflects that emotional openness. Pop forms the foundation, she explains, but it’s shaped by the rhythms and textures she grew up with. “World music is quite a broad term,” she notes, “it’s the category my sound often falls into, even though what I’m actually doing is pulling from the cultures that shaped me.”

She keeps playlists not just of songs, but of sounds; percussions, synths, textures that spark something vis­ceral. “Sometimes it’s like, why don’t we try this element? Or that rhythm?” she says. The process is experi­mental, intuitive, moving by feeling rather than the rigid grammar of genre. Trial and error is the point.

There are a few references she keeps close, not as influences in the traditional sense, but as markers she checks in with. Bob Marley, for the way his music could hold joy and grief at the same time without ever forcing either. Cesária Évora, for the softness, for how longing could exist inside something almost bare. Somewhere between them sits the Haitian saying “konpa synth”, it surfaces instinctively. Together, they don’t point her in one direction so much as keep her oriented.

And what anchors it all is trust. Trust in her instincts, in her collaborators, and in the idea that emotion, when followed honestly, will always find its form. However, that wasn’t always the case for the singer. When she first moved to Los Angeles in 2018, she entered an industry that spoke in numbers, formulas, and expectations. It was a world where success came pre-packaged, melodies engineered for virality, songs built to fit radio logic, creativity measured by outcome.

“At the time, it felt very mathematical,” she recalls. “Everything was geared toward making hits, toward cook­ie-cutter success.” For someone whose process was rooted in instinct and emotion, the environment felt constricting. “I felt really caged,” she says. “What felt authentic to me didn’t feel like what was going to make money.”

PHOTO CREDIT: Fouad Tadros

She tried to adapt. Like many young artists finding their footing, she questioned her instincts, wondering whether they were too personal, too risky, too untranslatable. “Back then, I didn’t trust myself,” she admits. “I didn’t know what I was doing on my own.” The doubt lingered; not because her vision lacked clarity, but be­cause it hadn’t yet found support. “I also didn’t grow up in an environment that celebrated this kind of career.”

What changed wasn’t a single breakthrough, but a slow recalibration. Naïka began paying closer attention to what felt real rather than what felt acceptable. She stopped chasing validation and started listening inward. “Over time, I learned to really rely on my authenticity,” she says. “To trust what feels honest and true to me.”

Risk stopped feeling like a gamble and started feeling like honesty. The music she wanted to make was always capable of reaching people — it just didn’t arrive neatly pre-approved, wearing the right instructions. The EPs she released during that period became acts of exploration rather than destination points. They were spaces in which to experiment, to fail safely, to discover her sound in public. “That’s why I made EPs,” she explains. “I was figuring myself out — discovering who I was and how I wanted to present myself to the world.”

When Naïka speaks about Eclesia, her debut album, she’s quick to correct one assumption. This isn’t a pivot. It isn’t a new era manufactured for momentum. “It’s funny you mention that,” she tells YUNG, when the idea of reinvention comes up. “It’s not a different era. It’s me finally being able to show people that I’m here.”

The album’s foundation arrived early, long before the final tracklist took shape. It began with a single word. “The title came first,” she reveals. Eclesia. From the outset, she knew what the project needed to be: an intro­duction. Not just to her sound, but to her interior world. “I knew it was going to encapsulate all the different elements that make up who I am.”

Releasing in February of 2026, the album unfolds like a journey, moving through textures, moods, and emo­tional registers without asking for cohesion in the traditional sense. “It feels like travelling,” she says. “Different places, different topics, different sounds.”

If there’s a throughline that carries Naïka across cultures, genres, and phases, it’s that very same curiosity. Not ambition. Not certainty. Curiosity. “I’m a big observer,” she says. Having lived across drastically different envi­ronments, she learned early that no place — and no person — can be reduced to a single story. “Everywhere has layers, duality, contrast,” she explains. “There’s always a spectrum.”

That belief extends to faith. Naïka doesn’t follow a specific religion, but she maintains a strong spiritual ground­ing. “My biggest connection is with the universe, and with God,” she says. “I respect all religions, but I trust in energy, in a higher power. I can’t pretend to understand it — and that’s what grounds me”.

I am going to end with a new interview from NME. They write how Naïka pours herself into “her joyfully multicultural music to create a “universe” for herself and her community”. I am new to her music, though I did instantly connect with her music. Even if there are a lot of influences and sounds coming together, it all sounds so distinct and whole. A spectacular artist with a sound like no other:

‘Eclesia’ shifts seamlessly between Afro-Caribbean beats, Haitian konpa and South Pacific drums, between French, Creole and English throughout 13 vibrant and vulnerable tracks. On lead single ‘Bloom’ she declares “Island girls are blessing ‘til nobody can reach them” over a glitchy dance beat. The alluring ‘Matador’ explores what it means to defy societal standards imposed on women. In ‘Blessings’, she casts spells of positive affirmation, and atop the deceptively calming rhythm of ‘What A Day!’, she sings about war and injustice: “What a day for crime/ Kids are dying in Palestine/ Blood is paving Congolese mines/ And the world keeps going.”

For Naïka, responding to the violence in the world as an artist is natural, necessary and a basic responsibility. “I’m a human being and I care about other human beings’ lives and protection and freedom and basic rights,” she says. “I’ve always written songs about the world and how it’s affected me. It’s how I process what’s happening. Whether it’s ‘My Body, My Choice’ [that] I wrote about women’s rights, or ‘Before He Falls’, I wrote about the war in Syria, it’s something I’ve always done.”

Outside of her music, she also works as an ambassador for Fleur de Vie, a Haitian NGO focused on education and building safer schools. “I grew up in countries where I would see extreme poverty, and kids my age didn’t have shoes on and were in the street when I was on my way to school. I’ve been aware of the lottery of life from a very young age.” For Naïka, art may be a form of resistance, but it’s also how she heals. “Music has really strong frequencies. It’s a powerful art form,” she explains. “When I see songs I’ve created to express how I was feeling and my vulnerabilities, my emotions, my thoughts resonate with other people in a way that’s stuck with them, that’s the biggest thing in the world for me. Truly.”

PHOTO CREDIT: Tom J. Johnson

NME sees firsthand just how deeply Naïka’s music resonates with fans in a small room in New York City a month before the album’s release. Anthurium flowers decorate the microphone stand. A vintage rug, small couch, rattan furniture, and plants fill the compact stage. Naïka dances barefoot on the bar, to fans’ enthusiastic cheers, before gracefully moving to an ornamental platform inspired by a picture of her childhood apartment and her mother’s style, which she describes as “tropical vintage glam”. ‘Eclesia’ was always meant to be performed in a room full of people. “When I found the name, I looked up what it meant,” she says. “In ancient Greece, it meant a coming together of people. That was the ‘click’ for me. This is what I want this album to be called, because that’s really what I hope to do with my music.

“I feel like I’ve never belonged to one community. To see the audience and to see people from all different walks of life, all different religions, different genders… When I see this diversity, it really makes me feel at home.” Through her music, she wanted to create her own world, and her fans have joyfully joined her there. “I was like, ‘I’m not fully going to be accepted anywhere, so let me just make my own universe for my [feelings] and for others who feel the same way.’”

The ‘Eclesia’ tour’s last stop is in Miami, where both Naïka’s musical life and career began. “I didn’t even think about that until you just said it,” she says of the full-circle moment where she’ll play at the Miami Beach Bandshell next month. “What’s so funny is that it’s at a venue that every time we would drive past it, my dad would say, ‘One day I want to see you play there,’” she remembers. “The universe works in crazy ways sometimes”.

If you have not heard ECLESIA and are new to Naïka, then do go and follow her. There are artists who are proclaimed and heralded who then fade away. However, when it comes to this remarkable artist, you know that she is going to be putting out the very best music for…

YEARS more.

__________

Follow Naïka

FEATURE: Come Into My World: Is Kylie Minogue's Fever One of the Most Underrated Classics Ever?

FEATURE:

 

 

Come Into My World

 

Is Kylie Minogue's Fever One of the Most Underrated Classics Ever?

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SOME might say…

PHOTO CREDIT: Vincent Peters

that Kylie Minogue’s 2001 album, Fever, is a confirmed masterpiece. One of the most commercial successful and popular albums of the 2000s. It is exciting this year, as Fever turns twenty-five on 1st October. Its lead single, Can’t Get You Out of My Head, is twenty-five on 8th September. Reaching number one in the U.K., this song confirmed the continued relevance of Kylie Minogue in the twenty-first century. After the success of 2000’s Light Years, Fever was this remarkable follow-up. Can’t Get You Out of My Head was written by Cathy Dennis and Rob Davis. I will come to some reviews of Fever. In spite of the fact Fever contains some of Kylie Minogue’s best songs – including Come Into My World, In Your Eyes and Love at First Sight -, there were some critics who were cold and mixed towards the album. Come Into My World will gain new focus as it soundtrack the CHANEL 25 Handbag Campaign. Starring Margot Robbie (with direction by Michel Gondry and Kylie Minogue appearing), the iconic and stunning video for Come Into My World is recreated. You can read more about the campaign here. I cannot understand any of the apathy towards this Fever! Maybe 2001 was a strange year for Pop. Fever was released a few weeks after the 9/11 attacks. There was a sombre mood. Realising Can’t Get You Out of My Head came out three days before the attacks. In spite of quite a few positive reviews, there were some mixed ones. I feel Fever is one of the best Pop albums ever. It should have won five-star reviews across the board. It is a faultless album where the deep cuts are superb too. In terms of the videos for the singles too. It was this incredible period for Minogue. On Metacritic, Fever has a score of 68/100. I know it is a faulty metric, as it does not include every review. Even so, that is a remarkably low score for an album that was a massive worldwide success. In terms of its legacy, I am going to source Wikipedia and their page about the legacy of Fever:

“Fever is considered to be a prominent example of Minogue's constant "reinventions”. The image she adopted during this period was described by Baker as "slick, minimalist and postmodern", and it was seen as a step forward from the "camp-infused" tone of Light Years. Larissa Dubecki from The Age used the term "nu-disco diva" to describe Minogue during this period. Andy Battaglia from The A.V. Club opined that Minogue's public image and her persona in her music videos "presented herself as a mechanical muse whose every gesture snapped and locked into place with the sound of a vacuum seal". He further remarked that the singer's "hygienic coo summoned a cool sort of cyborg soul, and her videos showed her gliding through sleek futurescapes, tonguing the sweet-and-sour tang of a techno kiss"

Adrien Begrand from PopMatters felt that the simplicity of the album made it a "classy piece of work" and commented that Minogue's experience and choice of collaborators resulted in "the thirtysomething Minogue upstaging soulless, brainless music by younger American pop tarts like Britney [Spears] and Christina [Aguilera]". Robbie Daw from Idolator pointed out that Britney Spears's recording of her 2004 hit "Toxic", Madonna's comeback album Confessions on a Dance Floor (2005), Paris Hilton's musical debut Paris (2006), and radio stations' shift towards playing "more groove-oriented sounds" all followed the release of Fever, although he mentioned that "we have no way of knowing whether [Fever] was directly responsible for these pop happenings". Nick Levine from NME ranked Fever as the greatest album of Minogue's career, noting "the project’s effortless confidence and strength in depth."

I am going to bring in some of the reviews that were not completely effusive. In terms of influence, you can feel Fever resonating with artists such as Dua Lipa and Sabrina Carpenter. This is what The Guardian opinioned in their review of Fever in 2001:

“Let us imagine we have travelled back in time. It is September 1991. Your hair is hanging either side of your face in the currently modish "curtains" style. Your jeans are the handiwork of Joe Bloggs. You chuckle at the Mary Whitehouse Experience and worry that Bryan Adams's Everything I Do (I Do It for You) will be number one for the rest of your life. That aside, you goggle with excitement at music's future. Primal Scream's Screamadelica has just been released. So has Nirvana's Nevermind. The Happy Mondays' Pills 'n' Thrills & Bellyaches is seldom far from your CD player. The second Stone Roses album should arrive soon. The world is one of boundless musical possibilities.

But what if you were told that Primal Scream were about to stall, Kurt Cobain would be dead in three years and the Happy Mondays and Stone Roses would never make another decent record? How would you react to the suggestion that all those bands would be commercially outlived by Kylie Minogue? That in 10 years' time, the British media would be speculating not about Sean Ryder, but whether the Australian pop moppet's 33rd single would be another number one? You'd laugh so hard, your heat-sensitive Global Hypercolour t-shirt would turn a virulent shade of puce.

Back then, it was impossible to believe that Kylie Minogue was a harbinger. Before Kylie, female pop stars were tough R&B singers, squeaky pubescents or Madonna. Minogue was different: antiseptically sexy and curiously devoid of public personality, the puppet of all-powerful producers and songwriters, a media celebrity first and singer second.

If Minogue seemed lost during Britpop - her eponymous 1997 "indie" album flopped - she fitted in perfectly when Oasis's appeal faded. Camp, disposable pop, performed by antiseptically sexy media celebrities, the puppets of all-powerful producers and songwriters, now has a stranglehold on the charts. British music has come round to Kylie's way of thinking.

Her recent battle with Victoria Beckham has even afforded her artisitic credibility. Critics have fallen over themselves to garland her eighth album Fever and bash Posh's VB. One broadsheet proclaimed Minogue "a genuine artiste" discovering "a muse of her own". It's easy to see how judgments have become distorted. Compared with Beckham's malnourished R&B, Fever sounds as experimental as Captain Beefheart jamming with Can. Remove Posh's album from the equation, however, and you're left not with a challenging work of art, but a polished, radio-friendly pop album and a sense that some journalists should calm down a bit.

Fever is written and produced by a crack team of pop songwriters. Their motley ranks include former Mud guitarist Rob Davis, 1980s starlet Cathy Dennis and erstwhile New Radicals singer Gregg Alexander, still at large in society despite contributing to Geri Halliwell's last album. Their work here is startlingly slick, a combination of house beats, fashionable electronic effects largely borrowed from Daft Punk, and choruses designed to lodge in the brain after one listen.

Like Robbie Williams's songs, the tracks on Fever are big on easily digestible pop references. Love at First Sight features the same stuttering disco samples as Stardust's number one Music Sounds Better with You. Give It to Me sounds like Moloko. The lyrics of In Your Eyes cheekily tip a wink to Minogue's comeback hit Spinning Around. You can easily picture any of Fever's 12 tracks in the current top 10. A backhanded compliment, certainly - the current top 10 is hardly overburdened with works of musical genius - but you can only marvel at Fever's money-making efficiency.

Nevertheless, the album is not without flaws. The relentless four-to-the-floor beats eventually become numbing. Minogue's voice, meanwhile, is devoid of emotion. Her videos may flash acres of flesh - Minogue publicly exposes her buttocks with the fervour of a rugby-club drinking society - yet her actual records are curiously unsexy. A robot could deliver the lyrics to the come-hither title track more passionately.

But perhaps such criticisms are beside the point. No one buys a Kylie Minogue album expecting grit and passion. Complaining that Fever is soulless and manufactured is like complaining that Radiohead are kind of mopey. It's a mature pop album only in that it's aimed at the boozy girl's night out rather than the school disco. Mercifully, however, it has no pretensions to be anything else. Audibly packed with hits, Fever achieves exactly what it sets out to achieve. The odds on Kylie Minogue's career long outliving 2001's critically lauded rock bands must be as minuscule as the lady herself”.

I will come to some more respectable opinions. Fever is undeniably one of the biggest and most successful albums of the 2000s. I disagree that there is too much repetitiveness or lack of invention. Some truly iconic songs and videos. This is what SLANT wrote for their review of an album that I first in 2001. I was pretty much starting out at university:

“It’s a shame that Australia’s Kylie Minogue was sent back to the land of mindless dance-pop after the critical and commerical disappointment of 1997’s experimental Impossible Princess. The result was 2000’s Light Years and, now, the terminally cheesy Fever.

The album’s first single, the aptly titled “Can’t Get You Out of My Head,” has already topped the charts in 22 countries and is set to invade brains this side of the Atlantic. Co-penned by former dance pop songstress Cathy Dennis, the track is cheeky, soul-sucking fun, its la la la’s waiting and willing to lodge themselves in your psyche. Similarly, “In Your Eyes” and the bleepy “Give It to Me” are contagious potential club hits.

A trio of tracks take their titles from older, more famous songs; the neo-disco shuffler “More More More,” the campy “Fever” (“Hey doctor, just what do you diagnose…So now, shall I take off my clothes?”), and the acoustic guitar-infused “Burning Up” all make one yearn for their older, superior siblings (by Andrea True Connection, Peggy Lee, and Madonna, respectively). Minogue’s chirpy coos leave much to be desired and her articulation is painfully precise on tracks like “Love Affair”; what should be playful and sexy is often rendered mechanical and hollow. Armed with 10 producers, you’d think Minogue would be able to serve up something a little less monotonous”.

Before ending with some positive reviews, there is a promotional interview with The Guardian - who were happy to praise Kylie Minogue when they interviewed her and talk up Fever, but they also overlooked and almost dismissed it when they reviewed it! -, that is quite insightful. It was a whirlwind time for Minogue:

“She's here today to promote her eighth album, Fever, and what will be her thirty-fourth consecutive UK hit single, the hypnotic 'Can't Get You Out of My Head'.

Kylie knows it's good. With the previous album - her first for her new label, Parlophone - she was struggling to re-establish herself as a pop princess after a relatively disastrous period working with credible rock names such as The Manic Street Preachers. When the first Parlophone single, 'Spinning Around', went to number one last year, she cried with relief. But this time, there's just a quiet confidence.

'I feel like I'm on a wave and I actually know how to stand on the board at this point,' she says. 'I feel quite solid. I don't know where it's taking me, but everything feels really good.'

She's 33, and she's been famous for half her life. We talk about the way she'll turn on and 'become' Kylie. 'You have to,' she says. 'There's no way you could maintain that all the time. If you get up and do a Saturday morning kids show, you don't wake up and be that person. You go, you get ready, and 20 minutes beforehand, you start to become... It's no different to anyone else. I go to work as well.'

Her close friends don't call her Kylie. They call her Min. She says she sometimes feels guilty about those friends - how others get smiley Kylie, and they have to settle for grumpy Min. When you're always performing, she explains, 'home is the only place you can have a long face and really mope about'.

I point out that stroppy pop stars are the norm, that we like our celebrities to have attitude and angst. But Kylie is a trouper, an old-fashioned professional who believes that the show must go on: 'Perhaps I'm more old-school than my years in that respect. It's just where I came from, working in TV, where it's not about you, where you don't get anything done without everyone else.'

Kylie was 11 when she appeared in her first TV soap, 17 when she left school and entered our living rooms as the feisty mechanic Charlene in Neighbours . We've watched her grow up - making shiny, infectious production-line pop for Stock, Aitken and Waterman's south London Hit Factory, ditching the froufrou frocks for sleeker, sexier clothes, and finally taking control of her music as well as her image by leaving the SAW stable and signing to hip dance label DeConstruction.

Frequently derided in her early career, she has now become something of a national treasure, sitting next to Prince Charles at a charity dinner one night, hanging out in cool clubs the next, equally at home on the covers of Vogue and Smash Hits. We've seen her change her looks, change her music, change her boyfriends, change her record label (three times), reinvent herself. But through it all, Kylie has been careful to keep a little mystery back. Part of her appeal is that she has always been something of a blank canvas, a screen on which we can all project our Kylie fantasies.

This is why so many big-name artists and photographers agreed to contribute to her 1999 art-book, Kylie. Why designer Patrick Cox recently told Vogue: 'She's a living Barbie doll. All gay men want to play with her, dress her up, comb her hair.' Why there barely seems to be a band, songwriter or producer in Britain who hasn't clamoured to work with her at some point.

If you ask her about them, she will tell you about her relationships with Michael Hutchence and later with the photographer/director Stephane Sedanoui, but she tends to tell the same anecdotes each time. She has decided exactly how much to reveal. 'I'm aware that you have to give so much, because if you make yourself unavailable, people want it so much more. It's a very fine line. You have to hand over some of your private life, but pretty much the same stories get rehashed. People want to know if you've got a boyfriend, who he is, what he does.'

Her current relationship is with James Gooding, a 26-year-old model who has no interest in being part of any Kylie media circus. Which is why she is unwilling to talk too much about him, beyond saying that they are happy together. 'As far as being able to keep a lot of my private life private, I don't use any of that to exploit my career, and in a very subtle way, I think, the media understands that,' she says.

What she does enjoy talking about is the technicalities of her job. About how, in her last tour, she descended from the roof on a dazzling silver anchor that was actually 'a bit of MDF with shiny sticky-backed plastic on it'. After one of the London shows, the fashion designer Matthew Williamson came backstage wanting to know how she'd managed the frequent fast costume changes. They happily discussed press-studs and poppers and how she'd walk calmly to the side of the stage, then be enveloped by frantic dressers trying to strip off her outfit and fit the next one, like mechanics in a Grand Prix pit stop. 'I could have talked for ages about it,' she says, 'because here was someone who understood.'

Similarly, on another night a friend from the film world asked about the barely visible harness fixing her to the anchor. 'The rest of the world went away while I talked about how the harness was made in LA and was only two inches wide. These things are major triumphs in the show - you have no idea how many hours were spent talking about the harness, safety regulations, how we'd disguise it.'

Her last tour was a camp extravaganza, with elaborate choreography, glitzy costumes and sets straight out of a Fifties musical. Kylie has never seemed more at ease on stage. 'I will always be a bit camp. I call it being a showgirl, because what we call camp is what used to be called showy. Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell doing their Gentlemen Prefer Blondes kind of thing. And I still happen to be a big fan of it.'

Australians tend to be good at this kind of unabashed homage - take Baz Luhrmann's new film, Moulin Rouge , an energetic, Technicolor tribute to classic musicals and contemporary pop in which Kylie makes a short but memorable appearance as the green absinthe fairy. A huge fan of Luhrmann's work, Kylie was thrilled to be part of it. But then she tells me about seeing it for the first time, and you see that her new confidence is still mixed in with the old self-consciousness.

She'd flown out to Los Angeles for the premiere the day after her tour finished. Even though her part is brief, she says, 'I was just so nervous'. She knew that a lot of people involved in the project were sitting in the row behind her, and since they'd already seen the film, she thought they might be looking at her instead, to gauge her reactions. So she sat rigid throughout, taking none of it in. 'I was too scared to do anything. It's like when you're starving and you look at a menu and you can't focus on anything - I just wasn't completely there.'

She gets sent a lot of bad film scripts. 'And I've made really bad choices as well, but you learn that way.' Among the bad choices was the 1995 film-of-the-computer-game Streetfighter, and Bio-Dome, an unbelievably awful 1998 film starring Pauly Shore, who at the time seemed like America's next comic genius. Kylie claims she's never even seen the finished film. 'You know how with parents, you can do something that's not so great, and they'll tell you they loved it? My dad said, "I can't believe that you did that. That was just diabolical!" So I never watched it.'

At the age of 19, Kylie suffered what she now calls 'a kind of mini-breakdown'. Her schedule on Neighbours was punishing. They filmed all week, and then at weekends the younger cast members would plaster on their smiles and make appearances in shopping malls across Australia to boost the show's ratings. After she'd been ill, her dad sat her down and said, 'You can say no and the world's not going to fall apart. You don't have to please all these people.' She revisits those words from time to time. 'Saying no has never been that easy, but I'm starting to get better at it.'

She has always worked hard, in the belief that she'd eventually reach a point where things would get easier, but she's finally starting to see that success doesn't work that way. 'You actually have more opportunities available to you, so you have more things to say no to.' So she's starting to rethink. 'At the moment work's great, everything's going great, but I need to find more balance in my life. What am I doing all this for? Am I going to keep doing this till I'm 50? I don't know. I'm at this odd place where I couldn't wish for more in my career”.

There are a couple of features to illuminate. Stereogum wrote about Fever on its twentieth anniversary in 2021. I wonder whether Kylie Minogue will release an expended edition of Fever closer to its twenty-fifth anniversary on 1st October. I do genuinely think it is one of the most underrated albums ever. One that has influenced so many artists and has epic singles and these incredible album tracks:

“By 2000 she was resurgent. Minogue adapted to the Y2K-era global pop landscape on her seventh album Light Years, which critics hailed for introducing disco-pop to a younger crowd with a sophisticated edge. Light Years topped the Australian albums chart and became the design that launched Minogue toward her 2001 statement album. Fever would be the definitive release of her career, a euphoric metamorphosis so compelling that Americans couldn’t ignore it -- including me.

Before discovering that the foundations of disco were originated by queer Black artists during the 1970s, as a child, Fever was my second taste of the genre. (Ironically, my first was another Fever from Down Under: the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack by fellow Aussies the Bee Gees.) When I saw the Fever album cover on a promotional billboard outside my local, now-defunct Virgin Megastore, I was hypnotized by its minimalism and Minogue’s smoldering, icy gaze; like the song says, it was love at first sight. As a young Black girl who regularly opted for early-2000s hip-hop and R&B, Minogue was the first white artist I remember listening to unapologetically. While dance and electronica were worlds away from the genres I was used to, Fever opened my ears to a spectrum of experimental soundscapes from early-2000s international dance acts like Daft Punk, Jamiroquai, Basement Jaxx, and Röyksopp.

Though repetitive at times in production and lyrical content, Fever was an ultra-sleek turn into the wonders of millennial pop futurism. The aesthetic was best reflected by Fever’s rhapsodic lead single "Can’t Get You Out of My Head," the song that sent the dance-pop world into Minogue mania. Co-produced and co-written by former Mud glam-rock guitarist Rob Davis and British pop singer-songwriter Cathy Dennis, "Can't Get You Out of My Head" began in Davis' garage-turned-makeshift studio in South East England. They initially offered it to former British pop group S Club 7 and indie pop singer Sophie Ellis-Bextor, both of whom passed on the demo. It thus serendipitously landed on Minogue, who wanted the song within 20 seconds of hearing it.

Balancing in-your-face ubiquity with a more elusive seduction as it built to an infectious "la la la" refrain, "Can't Get You Out of My Head" launched Minogue into icon status. The song became her biggest hit in the US since "The Loco-Motion," peaking at #7, and her bestselling single overall, with worldwide sales of over five million copies. The visual for "Can’t Get You Out of My Head" looked just as glossy as the song sounded -- Minogue's razor-sharp jawline stole the show alongside robotic choreography by an army of clones with cutout tops that would give Mean Girls' Regina George a run for her money.

There was more where that came from. Veering towards discotheque futurism, Fever arguably made Minogue the global queen of nightclubbing. Opening track "More More More" throbbed with a rapturous, tech-y hotline tone and a deep house bassline courtesy of British producer Tommy D. Second track (and third single) "Love At First Sight" pulsated with an adrenaline rush of optimism as Minogue cooed about passionate reverie. The title track was an alluring, flirtatious escapade that brought the steamy album cover full circle.

Breathy vocals ran rampant throughout Fever, notably on the lush, nearly-inebriated sounding "In Your Eyes" and "Come Into My World," which won Best Dance Recording at the Grammys three years later. (It was released as a single in November 2002, placing it within the eligibility window for the February 2004 ceremony.) "Come Into My World" was a follow-up collaboration between Davis and Dennis, who spun it out into a hallucinogenic disco utopia, paving the way for releases decades in the future like Dua Lipa's Future Nostalgia”.

I am finishing off with Classic Pop and their incredible feature. I want to include their track-by-track guide to a classic. I am baffled by any reviews that were less than glowing and rapturous! There was definitely some misogyny in some of them. The media not respecting this Pop titan. Even if one or two songs are not as strong as the best moments, Fever has plenty of range and diversity to keep the listener engaged and engrossed from start to finish:

“1. More More More
Fun, frothy and flirty, More More More sets the agenda for the rest of the album. Spiritual brethren of the dirty disco of Andrea True Connection’s risqué track of the same name, the house-inflected opener, written and produced by Tommy D, sees Kylie at her most alluring. Very much capturing the carefree abandon of disco in its lyrics, the production gives it a modern twist.

2. Love At First Sight
Co-written by Kylie, Love At First Sight is a standout on the album, one of her personal favourites and a regular highlight of live shows. A breezy ode to the feeling of being in a new relationship, the song is elevated by its state-of-the-art dance production which evoked recent hits from Daft Punk, Modjo and Stardust’s Music Sounds Better With You. Released as the third single from Fever, Love At First Sight reached No.2 and became her third ever US hit.

3. Can’t Get You Out Of My Head
Thirteen years into her pop career and Kylie scored her biggest hit. The track saw Minogue embraced by the dance world, not only for the song in its minimal electro form, but in various remixes – the most popular of which was Erol Alkan’s mash-up of the vocal over the backing track of New Order’s Blue Monday, which was a staple of his sets at celebrated club night Trash. Kylie took the mix mainstream when she performed it at the BRITs in 2002. Stuart Crichton created an official remix of the track for the B-side of Love At First Sight.

4. Fever
Written by Greg Fitzgerald and Tom Nichols, Fever’s title track is a departure from the dance-pop sound that dominates much of the album, instead being an updated electro track inspired by the New Romantic sound of the early 80s. Lyrically, the song’s tongue-in-cheek flirtation between a ‘lovesick’ Kylie and her doctor gives it an air of ‘Carry On Kylie’, a narrative brought to life on ITV’s An Audience With Kylie, in which she performed it in a campy doctors and nurses scenario before an audience of bemused-looking celebs.

5. Give It To Me
Fever’s weakest song, Give It To Me’s hard electro-funk sounds out of place on the album and could have been replaced with some of the strong tracks relegated to B-side/bonus track status such as Tightrope (a hidden gem of her discography), Good Like That or Boy. Heavily treated with chopped-up vocals and an annoying recurrent telephone ringing, the song is an experiment that didn’t quite hit the mark.

6. Fragile
After the sonic chaos of Give It To Me, the soothing Fragile is a beautiful mid-tempo track with a dreamy vocal from Kylie perfectly capturing the essence of the song which details the feeling of vulnerability in a relationship, singing: “’Cause I’m fragile when I hear your name/ Fragile when you call/ This could be the nearest thing to love/ And I’m fragile when I hear you speak/ Fragile feeling small/ This could be the closest thing to love,” over a hypnotic soundscape.

7. Come Into My World
A last-minute addition to Fever and another triumph from Rob Davis and Cathy Dennis, Come Into My World treads a similar sonic path to Can’t Get You Out Of My Head. The fourth and final single from the album, it was re-recorded for the album’s deluxe edition and single release (apparently as Cathy Dennis’ backing vocal was too prominent on the original) though Kylie’s breathy vocal sounds flimsy in contrast to the stronger original. In 2004, Kylie won her first Grammy for this song for Best Dance Recording. Come Into My World was also the basis for one of Kylie’s best ever remixes when it was given an electroclash reworking by Fischerspooner.

8. In Your Eyes

A dance anthem, In Your Eyes is a sultry ode to lust across a crowded nightclub with an aggressive beat and infectious chorus and the perfect follow-up to Can’t Get You Out Of My Head. However, despite its release being pushed back by a month due to the endurance of its predecessor, In Your Eyes was still somewhat overshadowed. It was also notable for self-referencing, with Kylie imploring: “Is the world still Spinning Around?” The album’s second single, it reached No.3 in the UK and No.1 in Australia where it was also released as her first DVD single.

9. Dancefloor
Written by Cathy Dennis and long-time Kylie collaborator Steve Anderson, Dancefloor is the song that sounds most like a continuation of the classic disco sound of Light Years. A breakup track on which Kylie berates an ex for not treating her as well as she deserved and getting over him by hitting the dancefloor, the song’s message is fairly universal.

10. Love Affair
If Fever had produced a fifth single, Love Affair would almost certainly have been the main contender for release. A perfectly crafted slice of dance-pop with Kylie at her seductive best, Love Affair is a continuation of the narrative from In Your Eyes with a similar clubby style with trance-like inflections. An undeniable album highlight.

11. Your Love
Winding down the album, Your Love is another stunning mid-tempo number. Similar to Fragile, a lilting guitar lends the song a blissed-out Balearic feel. The sole track on the LP from Pascal Gabriel and Paul Statham, Your Love is from the same sonic palette as some of the other tracks on the album which, had they been recorded by other artists with a lesser identity than Kylie, risked sounded same-y rather than succeeding as a cohesive body of work.

12. Burning Up
An anomaly to close the album, Burning Up was again penned by Greg Fitzgerald and Tom Nichols who with this, along with the title track, provided two of the record’s best moments. Burning Up’s unusual teaming of an acoustic verse with an upbeat, dance-y chorus has been revived recently by Kylie who has deployed a similar structure to her recent hit Dancing. With its gentle, hazy chorus bursting into a bassline and chorus reminiscent of Nile Rodgers’ best work, Burning Up was a standout performance of her Fever Tour”.

I was excited when Fever arrived in 2001. I had heard Can’t Get You Out of My Head and there was this fascination. One of these singles and videos that created such an impact. I do associate Fever with a terrible year for world events. Whilst it did provide a lift and relief, maybe it was unfortunate timing. However, in years since its release, you can see all these artists impacted by Fever. I Wonder if Kylie Minogue plays any songs from the album on her tours. It is going to be exciting to see if there are anniversary celebrations later in the year. A phenomenal album that did remarkably get some two or three-star reviews. It is a masterful and astonishing album that still hits and gets into the heart…

A quarter-century later.

FEATURE: Beneath the Sleeve: Ariana Grande - Dangerous Woman

FEATURE:

 

 

Beneath the Sleeve

 

Ariana Grande - Dangerous Woman

__________

AS it turns ten…

on 20th May, I wanted to use the opportunity to dive inside Ariana Grande’s Dangerous Woman. Not only is Grande an incredible artist. She is a successful and acclaimed actor. Appearing in huge films like Wicked: For Good, Grande is one of the world’s biggest talents. In terms of studio albums, Ariana Grade’s most recent is 2024’s eternal sunshine. Dangerous Woman is Grande’s second studio album. I am going to end with a review for this amazing album that I feel has not gained as much credit as it deserves. Dangerous Woman and its singles were nominated for various accolades, including two Grammy Awards. It helped Grande win Artist of the Year at the American Music Awards. You can pick up Dangerous Woman on vinyl. There are some 2016 interview that I want to get to first before coming to some reviews. Grazia Daily spoke with an artist who they say was going big on her female activist calling:

‘I’m a woman so I face my fair share of double standards and misogyny and ignorance on a daily basis,’ Ariana says. Her message is simple. ‘A lot of women think of the stereotype that comes with the word “feminist”. But there’s not just one type of feminist.

You can be a feminist who gets their hair and make-up done, you can be a feminist who cuts their hair off and doesn’t wear any make-up. Who has lots of sex or who doesn’t. There’s no limit.’

Ariana has clearly warmed to the theme since she dropped that wisdom on Twitter last summer. Then, she described how women were ‘mostly referred to as a man’s past, present or future PROPERTY/ POSSESSION’, a view informed by her experience of dating rapper Big Sean. Her good-girl image also took a slating last year, in a bizarre and overblown story where she was caught on camera licking doughnuts on display in a bakery.

The frustration with all that judgement occasionally finds its way on to the new record, which mostly sounds like grown-up, genre-busting RnB pop, with the occasional insight into Ariana’s life. On Bad Decisions, an empowered twist on the old story of a good girl being led astray, Ariana sings, ‘Ain’t you ever seen a princess be a bad bitch?’ After some cajoling, she concedes that this line is personal. ‘I feel like people are always constantly trying to pin me down as a good girl or a bad girl but I think women can be whatever, and me too.’

It’s a difficulty acutely felt by the female teen star transitioning into adult artist – Ariana was trolled for wearing lingerie in the video for Dangerous Woman. ‘When a young male artist posts a shirtless picture on Instagram the comments will be like “Oh my God, heart eyes, so hot, babe alert!”,’ she says of stars like Justin Bieber who, in the week we meet, posted a nude picture. ‘Like, whatever. If a woman posts a suggestive photo or anything that expresses her own sexuality or confidence within her body, it’s a very different response.’

It’s clear Ariana’s education in female empowerment comes from growing up on a diet of The First Wives Club and pop pioneers like Madonna, whom she recently sang Unapologetic Bitch with. But the lessons started closer to home. She comes, she has noted, ‘from a long bloodline of female activists’, which included her aunt Judy Grande, a Pulitzer nominated Washington Post reporter. Ariana gets out her phone and shows a picture of Judy with renowned feminist Gloria Steinem.

‘I feel like I have to carry on her legacy,’ she says of her aunt, who died in 2008 from breast cancer. ‘I feel like it’s my responsibility to keep the fight going”.

Billboard featured Ariana Grande in May 2016. Like other artists, they say, Ariana Grande was “under pressure to not only prove herself grown and sexy, but that she's somehow lifting up herself and other women as she does”. Even if you are not a huge fan of Grande, you really need to hear Dangerous Woman. I think it is a remarkable album:

“As a matter of fact, Grande appears on the cover of Dangerous Woman in shiny black headgear with long ears. It looks like it was designed for American Horror Story by the cartoonists at Warner Bros. The Super Bunny “is my superhero, or supervillain — whatever I’m feeling on the day,” says Grande. “Whenever I doubt myself or question choices I know in my gut are right — because other people are telling me other things — I’m like, ‘What would that bad bitch Super Bunny do?’ She helps me call the shots.”

Whether owing to her gut, her team or her alter-egos, it has been a grand career for Grande so far. With her March hit “Dangerous Woman” — a sultry R&B track with a self-empowerment message and an arena-annihilating hook — Grande became the first artist in Billboard Hot 100 history to have the lead single of each of her first three albums debut in the top 10. She has sold 1.3 million albums in the United States, according to Nielsen Music; grossed $41.8 million on 2015’s Honeymoon Tour, according to Billboard Boxscore; claims 4 billion YouTube views; clocks in at fourth among all humans on Instagram (with 71.4 million followers) and 18th on Twitter (38.8 million); and will kick off her album release with a performance at the Billboard Music Awards on May 22. And, she says, “I feel like I’m still just getting started — a lot of people forget I’m only three years in.”

Grande’s challenge is with her quote unquote brand. Like all female pop stars entering adulthood these days, she’s under pressure to not only prove herself grown and sexy, but that she’s somehow lifting up herself and other women as she does it. And in her bid to be taken seriously, she has more to overcome than many of her peers. The world first met her as Cat Valentine, the adorably dopey character at the heart of two Nickelodeon teen sitcoms (the second, Sam & Cat, ended in 2014), and she hasn’t quite shaken off that childlike sheen. Her tiny stature (she’s just 5 feet tall), love of Harry Potter (she describes Super Bunny as “my patronus”) and all the animal-themed, Lolita-meets-S&M gear don’t exactly help. Neither did getting caught on a bakery security camera in 2015 licking pastries that weren’t hers while declaring, “I hate America.”

But Grande’s got a not-so-secret weapon in all this: showstopping talent. “She’s a pure singer,” says Macy Gray, 48, who appears on Dangerous Woman’s most soulful cut, “Leave Me Lonely.” “It’s similar to what Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston and Christina Aguilera have — that power thing. But I didn’t realize that. She does all these pop records where you can get a song across without showing your chops.”

And Grande’s talent is not merely as a singer. Her turn as SNL host in March garnered rave reviews. Steven Spielberg was so impressed he texted Lorne Michaels to say so. (“I can’t tell you how surreal and insane that is for me,” gushes Grande. “My second birthday party was Jaws-themed. My brain almost combusted when I heard it from Lorne.”) Her skits were great, but the real win was the monologue, in which Grande spun Doughnutgate into a showcase for her artistry and self-awareness, singing about her need for a proper adult scandal (“Miley’s had them, Bieber’s had them”) to take her career to the next level. “I was just so happy to be able to make fun of myself,” says Grande. “If you think you’re laughing at me, I promise I laughed first.”

When it comes to the delicate art of signaling her feminist awareness, Grande has proved less of a natural. Instagramming pictures of Maya Angelou, Coco Chanel and her journalist aunt Judy Grande with Gloria Steinem in the lead-up to the release of “Dangerous Woman” felt a bit on the nose when the constituents of Taylor Swift’s woke women’s consortium advertise their membership simply by appearing together on red carpets.

Still, Grande’s feminism is clearly no put-on. “Do you want to see something I saved to my phone because it upset me so much?” she asks me. It’s a collection of tweets from a U.K. radio station with a salacious streak — two praise Justin Bieber and Zayn Malik for showing skin, and two scold Miley Cyrus and Kim Kardashian for the same. “If you’re going to rave about how sexy a male artist looks with his shirt off,” says Grande, “and a woman decides to get in her panties or show her boobies for a photo shoot, she needs to be treated with the same awe and admiration. I will say it until I’m an old-ass lady with my tits out at Whole Foods. I’ll be in the produce aisle, naked at 95, with a sensible ponytail, one strand of hair left on my head and a Chanel bow. Mark my words. See you there with my 95 dogs.”

In June, Grande tweeted a screen grab of an essay she wrote about her budding independence, capped with a 1971 Steinem quote: “Any woman who chooses to behave like a full human being should be warned that the armies of the status quo will treat her as something of a dirty joke. She will need her sisterhood.”

Grande’s sisterhood includes her mother and nonna, managers Stephanie Simon and Jennifer Merlino (Grande parted ways with co-manager Scooter Braun in February, though he shares an A&R credit on Dangerous Woman with Republic Records EVP Wendy Goldstein), her fans the Arianators and old pals from Florida: Misha Lambert, now a self-published author, and Alexa Luria, who just graduated from the University of Florida and has 560,000 Instagram followers thanks to her BFF status with Grande.

“I have a bunch of really dope friends I’ve known since elementary school,” says Grande. “They think it’s funny that people want to take pictures with me at Starbucks, because it is — it’s weird. They’re going to keep me healthy and humble. I still feel like Ariana from Boca [Raton] who loves musical theater and dogs. I’m just working now”.

Prior to finishing up with a review from NME, this article expressed how Ariana Grande shed her Pop persona for Dangerous Woman. It is a work that saw her “moving into edgier territory and forging a new musical identity though genre exploration”. Ten years after its release and I feel that it still sounds powerful and meaningful. I wonder whether Ariana Grande will celebrate a decade of Dangerous Woman on 20th May:

“Entering dangerous new territory

The Dangerous Woman era started with the promotional single “Focus,” which was in October 2015. While “Focus” featured the same upbeat, horn-driven energy of Grande’s 2014 smash hit “Problem,” it also teed up the album’s first official single, as Grande coquettishly instructed listeners to “focus on me.”

Emerging five months later, the album’s title track found Grande venturing into moodier territory than the frothy pop of “Focus.” Sparked by an electric guitar, the singer climatically calls out, “Somethin’ ’bout you makes me feel like a dangerous woman!” throughout the track. We knew Grande could deliver arena-sized singalongs, and this slow jam channeled all the great power ballads of the 80s with a hook that promised, “All girls wanna be like that/Bad girls underneath, like that.”

On the other side of the spectrum, “Be Alright” offered a stark contrast to the slow tempo and sensuality of “Dangerous Woman.” Dipping into a deep house sound, Grande’s celebratory single was adopted as an anthem for the LGBTQ community.

Embracing collaborators

A month later, she’d embark on the new course that trap-R&B had laid out in mainstream music, dropping the hypnotic “Let Me Love You,” featuring Lil Wayne. This paved the way for the dance-pop perfection of “Into You,” which signaled that Grande was ready to storm the summer of 2016.

With a belting declaration of love that revolved around thudding EDM basslines, “Into You” is Grande and hitmaker Max Martin at their best. It contained all the hallmarks of a classic earworm, with Grande’s breathy falsetto floating over the thick beats. Grande finished off the album’s advance singles run with the retro-pop, uptown funk of “Greedy,” a song given away with digital pre-orders and which featured a choir of her exuberant vocals over a slick bassline.

Dangerous Woman opens with the swinging doo-wop ballad “Moonlight,” closely aligning with the sound Grande experimented with on Yours Truly. On the deep cut “Leave Me Lonely,” she brought Macy Gray back into the public eye, the latter expertly delivering some Nina Simone theatrics that fit in with the dramatic nature of the song.

A mature transition

Keeping in line with the album’s premise, Grande debuts her “adult” anthem, “Side To Side,” with help from hip-hop’s raunchiest queen, Nicki Minaj. Like many former child stars turned pop divas before her, Grande was consciously leaning into her “grown-up” phase, while at the same time side-stepping all the usual clichés that came with the territory.

One of the best pop and hip-hop collaborations of the decade, “Side To Side” capitalized on the dancehall trend of the time, with reggae riddims and plenty of sexual innuendo packaged in the campy imagery of the SoulCycle fitness craze. Just as Olivia Newton-John made her “body talk” in the iconic “Let’s Get Physical” music video, Grande and Minaj’s cardio-driven duet rode its way to the top of the charts, hitting No.4 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Grande followed “Side To Side” with another collaborative effort on the Future-assisted “Everyday.” As trap-influenced pop started to gain more traction in the mainstream, “Everyday” helped fuel its dominance, paving the way for the trap leanings on her subsequent albums Sweetener and thank u, next.

Evolving the pop formula

Much of Dangerous Woman sees Grande playing with tempos, genres, and time shifts. “I Don’t Care” finds her embracing orchestral R&B to forget a lost love, “Sometimes” ventures into more acoustic pop (a rarity for Grande), and “Bad Decision,” “Touch It,” “Knew Better/Forever Boy” and “Thinking Bout You” all rely on Grande’s powerful pipes and EDM synth-pop production.

With her third album, Ariana Grande found success in evolving the pop formula she’d already established while venturing into uncharted, edgier territory. The gamble paid off, with Dangerous Woman debuting at No.2 on the Billboard 200 charts and notching her first No.1 album in the UK. It was clear that the ascending pop queen was just getting started”.

I am going to finish with NME and their review of Dangerous Woman. 2016 was a remarkable year for music. Some of the best albums of the past few decades released then. I feel that many might have overlooked Ariana Grande or not given Dangerous Woman as much credit as it warranted. This is a reason why I wanted to spotlight it:

“Nine months ago, Ariana Grande‘s greatest act of rebellion was daring to lick a donut in a California bakery, then reacting to the piles of junk food in front of her with the doomed sentence, “I hate America”. Two disregarded apology videos and a Justin Bieber collaboration later, she emerges transformed, donning a leather bunny outfit for the cover of third album ‘Dangerous Woman’; in one of its more understated IDGAF moments she declares simply, “I love me.”

Her 38 million Twitter followers suggest she’s not the only one. Grande came to fame via her role on Nickelodeon’s teen sitcom Victorious and has since carved out a tween-friendly pop career almost as unblemished as Taylor Swift’s – but she’s spent the past few months publicly loosening up, showcasing pinpoint J-Law and Britney impressions on SNL in March and now, with ‘Dangerous Woman’, being what your nan might term ‘risqué’. Club anthem-to-be ‘Into You’ sees her informing a Stupid Boy, “A little less conversation and a little more touch my body“, and pushing her astoundingly malleable voice into what’s known as the whistle register. The frequent comparisons made between Mariah Carey and Grande are apt.

That track was co-written by hitmaker Max Martin, the Swede behind everything from The Weeknd’s ‘Can’t Feel My Face’ to Grande’s 2014 mega-smash ‘Problem’. His hand is in a variety of other tracks on the new album, including lusty disco cut ‘Greedy’ and the waltzing title track, on which she proclaims, “I’m bulletproof and I know what I’m doing”. Nudge-nudge moments come thick and fast throughout the album, most explicitly from collaborators – Nicki Minaj rides a “dick bicycle” on cheesy reggae cut ‘Side to Side’, Lil Wayne pictures her “grinding on this grande” on sultry slow-jam ‘Let Me Love You’.

It’s not only the consistent songwriting clout that elevates this album from recent efforts by Grande’s teen-star peers, Demi Lovato and Selena Gomez. Even if most of it is co-written, the modish message of empowerment feels honest coming from Grande, especially after an essay she shared last year that railed against the media’s description of her as Big Sean’s ex: “I do not belong to anyone but myself,” she wrote. By the time the sublime closer ‘I Don’t Care’ comes around, it’s genuinely satisfying to hear her put that sentiment on record so resoundingly. “I used to let some people tell me how to live and what to be,” she ponders, “But if I can’t be me, the fuck’s the point?”.

I am not sure whether Ariana Grande is working on a new album, though at the time I am writing this (21st March), there are hints. Fans think they have spotted things that suggest an eighth studio album is coming. By the time this feature is shared, Ariana Grande may have made an official announcement. Many might rank other albums of hers higher, but I feel that the incredible Dangerous Woman is…

UP there with her very best.

FEATURE: Groovelines: Radiohead – Burn the Witch

FEATURE:

 

 

Groovelines

  

Radiohead – Burn the Witch

__________

ON 8th May…

PHOTO CREDIT: Alex Lake

Radiohead’s most recent album, A Moon Shaped Pool, turns ten. Its lead single, Burn the Witch, was released five days earlier. To mark a decade of this powerful single, I wanted to explore it more for this Groovelines. Radiohead worked on Burn the Witch during the sessions for their albums Kid A (2000), Hail to the Thief (2003) and In Rainbows (2007). Thom Yorke mentioned the song in a 2005 post on Radiohead's blog and posted lyrics in 2007. On 3rd May, 2016, the world got this first taste of a new Radiohead album. The video for Burn the Witch is even more striking than the song itself. I will come to reviews of the single. To start, this Medium article provided some background to Burn the Witch, a song that had been in the making for a while:

“Radiohead spread Inklings of “Burn the Witch” in 2003 when the song’s title appeared on the cover artwork of Hail to the Thief, reports one Radiohead fan website. This, of course, means the song was in development as early as 2002 when the cover artwork for Hail to the Thief was painted by Stanley Donwood, Radiohead’s longtime album cover artist and college friend of frontman Thom Yorke. According to a 2006 article published in The Guardian, Donwood’s main concept for the album artwork came from various roadside advertisements in Los Angeles, though he did have some additional input from a mysterious collaborator called “Dr. Tchock,” a name many believe is a pseudonym for Thom Yorke.

Over the next five or so years, the band released more teasers of the single, posting excerpts of lyrics, short blog updates from Thom York regarding the status of the song, and even playing snippets of the intro at a few live shows. After 2008, however, it seemed that the trail had gone cold– until May 1, 2016, that is.

Just three days ago on May 1st, fans were shocked to discover that Radiohead had effectively erased their Internet presence. The band’s website was whited out, and all posts from the band’s social media accounts were deleted, including posts on Thom Yorke’s accounts. On Saturday, April 30 some fans reportedly received bizarre leaflets in the mail featuring artwork, the Radiohead logo, and the cryptic message, “Sing the song of sixpence that goes ‘Burn the Witch.’ We know where you live,” Billboard reported on May 1. While many suspected an imminent announcement, for the time being it would seem that Radiohead had dropped off the face of the earth.

Finally, on May 3, the culmination of thirteen years of waiting resulted in a claymation music video posted to Radiohead’s official YouTube channel featuring the single “Burn the Witch.” Rumors are spreading about a ninth studio album to be released later this year, but so far nothing is confirmed”.

You can get a sense of what the song is about when you hear it without a video. However, it is the video that visualises the powerful messages. The Guardian published an article in 2016 where they analysed the video. We live in a time when there is huge anti-immigrant sentiment. Burn the Witch seems more relevant now than it did in 2016:

“The animator of Radiohead’s Camberwick-Green-meets-The-Wicker-Man video for Burn the Witch has suggested the clip might have been a commentary on Europe’s refugee crisis.

In an interview with Billboard, Virpi Kettu said the band may have wanted to increase awareness of the issue, especially “the blaming of different people … the blaming of Muslims” that leads people to want to metaphorically “burn the witch”.

Kettu also referred to the postcard sent to Radiohead fans bearing the words: “We know where you live,” which she suggested reflected the insecurity promoted by politicians demanding a clampdown on the movement of refugees.

However, Radiohead – never ones to be second-guessed – appear to be damping down speculation. Billboard’s interview with Kettu is headed with a disclaimer insisting: “The opinions expressed in this article about Burn the Witch do not necessarily reflect those of the band, the video’s director or any of the band’s representatives.”

As of Thursday morning, the Burn the Witch video – launched at 4pm BST on Tuesday – had chalked up more than 6.6m views on YouTube. Using animation in the style of the Trumptonshire trilogy, the children’s animations made between 1966 and 1969 and set in an all-white, happy rural England, the video portrays a community where paranoia and rage go hand in hand with bucolic peace – the clip ends, seemingly, with an outsider being burned alive in a giant wicker man.

Kettu said the clip took two weeks to make from start to finish, with the team producing an average of 30 seconds of animation per day, compared with the 12 seconds that was typical when she worked at Aardman. She only learned the video had been released on Tuesday, the same time as the rest of the world”.

There are a few more things I want to include before wrapping up. For All Songs Considered, NPR spoke with Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood. They labelled A Moon Shaped Pool as Radiohead’s “quietest” record. That said, Burn the Witch has a tension, terror and sense of drama that is maybe not reflected across the album:

“A Moon Shaped Pool, Radiohead's ninth and quietest record, owes much of its sound to the band's visionary guitarist, violist, electronics wiz and arranger Jonny Greenwood. On this week's All Songs +1 podcast I talk with him about how A Moon Shaped Pool came to be.

Jonny Greenwood explains that Radiohead approaches each record with a different recording style or new technique. For this latest record, the group traded in "traditional Pro Tools" for an analog 8-track tape machine. "It's kind of a miracle," he says. "This is going to sound very conceited, but it's a surprise to me how well so many of these songs came out and the one or two frustrations I have are nothing compared to the eight or nine key things I'm just amazed we got good recordings of. We all feel really lucky and happy to have this as a record."

Greenwood on why Radiohead changes its process with each album:

"I guess it feels like every record we make, we finish and have a collective thought that we didn't quite mean to do it like that and the next one will be different and then we'll get it right. It's kind of like rewriting the same letter and getting each draft slightly wrong. So it's a good motivation force — it keeps us going."

On why he loves recording string sections:

"Our string days are just the most exciting days to record. I live for them. It's amazing, the whole excitement in the morning of putting out music on these empty stands and, you know, an orchestra are coming later that day and you'll only have them for four hours and you've got to make the most of it. It's really just the most exciting thing and then to sit in a room and hear them play it's really like nothing else".

There are a couple of reviews I want to get to. The Guardian provided praise for a song from a band who put out their first new single in about five years. It was a big moment when Burn the Witch was released in 2016. A Moon Shaped Pool received a huge amount of praise. I wonder how people will assess the album a decade after its release:

“And finally the first music arrived. What seems to be the first track from Radiohead’s new album was launched on their website on Tuesday afternoon, accompanied by a video featuring animation in the style of Bob Bura and John Hardwick, the creators of Trumpton, Chigley and Camberwick Green. Burn the Witch had been trailed on Instagram, but the brief clips didn’t give much clue as to what music we might expect. But what arrived was thrilling – a burst of taut, tense music, driven by pizzicato strings, that had more in common with conventional rock than some hints had led us to believe – Brian Message, from their management firm, had claimed the new album will sound “like nothing you’ve ever heard”.

The rest of the album would have to be very different indeed from Burn the Witch for that claim to be true. Because Burn the Witch is like nothing you’ve ever heard only if you’ve never heard a rock band use a string section whose members have been ordered to convey brooding menace, or a two-chord pattern, or a voice jump to falsetto over a vaguely euphoric chord. There’s even a refrain – though Thom Yorke’s wailing admittedly lacks the kind of immediacy you get in the choruses of singles by, say, Olly Murs – in which the brooding menace descends into fully-fledged did-you-ever-hear-anyone-so-moody art rock.

As one might expect, then, Yorke hasn’t been raiding the poetry of Pam Ayres for songwriting inspiration: “Stay in the shadows / Cheer the gallows / This is a round-up,” he opens. The lyrics appear to be skirting around the surveillance society, but equally they might be meditating on the difficulties of open discussion in an age where thought is scrutinised and policed by the public itself on social media, where any idle thought runs the risk of seeing one condemned as #problematic: “Loose talk around tables / Abandon all reason / Avoid all eye contact / Do not react / Shoot the messenger / This is a low-flying panic attack.”

The dissonance between the pretty conventional music – no electronic skronk here, nothing to scare off the crowds at their festival headline slots this summer – and the mood of incipient dread is heightened by the video, in which it becomes apparent that the band haven’t remade Trumpton, but The Wicker Man.

The intriguing question now is whether this foreshadows the new album, or whether Message was right. It’s certainly the kind of return – bold and expansive, as well as dark and claustrophobic – that the world might have hoped for”.

I am going to finish off with this review for Burn the Witch. Radiohead played shows in the U.K. and Europe last year. Their first since 2018. They recently announced how they are playing a lot more from next year on. There is talk whether there is going to be another album. Will A Moon Shaped Pool be their final album together? It will be interesting to see where they head, musically and lyrically, if there is another album:

“Brisk strings attack the ears from the start. The musicians are using a technique called col legno which traditionally involves hitting the strings briskly with the back of the bow. But according to Jonny Greenwood, they are using guitar plectrums to do it. This is very Radiohead: do something almost unheard-of to create something brilliant.

So you prepare yourself for an orchestral piece. But this being Radiohead, it’s only a few seconds before a strange electronic texture joins underneath and then what seems like a voice that has been sampled and sped up to create a weird, slightly disturbing, strangely beguiling or comforting ‘eerrrrrr’ sound. Whether the drums are programmed or actually played by Phil Selway is unclear – they have also been affected in some subtle way.

Thom Yorke starts singing, warning us of the dangers of standing up for what’s right and what’s just. Don’t stand out, scream along with the crowd at the persecuted innocent, for fear of being singled out yourself.

There’s a variety of phrases used that evoke the time of witch-hunts:

Cheer at the gallows
Red crosses on wooden doors
If you float you burn

And my particular favourite, Yorke sings earlier on:

Sing a song on the jukebox that goes…

The witch-hunts are going on today, as well as in the past. Later, he changes it to:

Sing the song of sixpence that goes…

Considering Radiohead have made some of the most unsettling rock music of the last 20 years, Thom Yorke’s voice is an extraordinarily beautiful instrument in its own right. Here, this beautiful, angelic voice narrates a horror film, and when it gets to the economic chorus, his voice soars to the heavens as he sings “burn the witch” twice.

The second time he sings it, he adds syllables to it that makes it less recognizable but more affecting. He follows it with:

We know where you live

Just in case you were still thinking of speaking out for what’s right.

During the choruses the strings become more traditionally played in order for the arrangement of the song to keep you on your toes. At the end of the second chorus, the strings take over, building to an urgent, shrieking crescendo before an abrupt stop.

Radiohead have long been purveyors of the problems in society. With “Burn the Witch,” they managed to get a flawless balance of lyric, mood, and delivery that is as listenable as it is unsettling. The lyrics are a nursery rhyme, the arrangement is uneasy, queasily leading you to a worrying conclusion without answers.

The song would be enough without the video using the visual style of a beloved UK children’s TV program. With it, the outcome is one of the best collective artistic endeavors of the last 20 years.

“Burn the Witch” is urgent, catchy, different, and brilliantly conceived. It’s up there as one of Radiohead’s greatest moments”.

Radiohead themselves faced criticism for not condemning Israel and genocide. Seen as supporting the country. They issued a statement later to say they would never play in the country again. I do think they lost a lot of fans and respect for their initial position. However, no matter what you think of the band and their politics, there is no denying how their music is among the greatest ever released. On 3rd May, it will be ten years since Radiohead released Burn the Witch. It is a chilling masterpiece that is among…

THEIR greatest songs.

FEATURE: Spotlight: underscores

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

PHOTO CREDIT: Brendan Wixted for Wonderland.

 

underscores

__________

EVEN if…

this artist is not new on the block, I feel underscores can still be seen as a rising talent. The moniker of April Harper Grey, she just released the extraordinary U. One of the most interesting, original and brilliant Pop artists in many years, this is a period where underscores is building her fanbase and being discussed as among the finest and most promising artists of the moment. I am going to end with a review of U. I will come to some interviews before that. However, here is some brief background of underscores. If you have not heard her music yet then you will do soon enough. So many people talking about underscores as a major name in the making:

“Origin stories reenact familiar myths; this one begins with a kid alone in a bedroom, trying to make something no one has heard before. Hailing from San Francisco, Filipino-American artist April Harper Grey started making music as underscores in middle school, when years of noodling around on GarageBand culminated in the realization that, if taken seriously enough, this whole “trying to be like Skrillex” thing might amount to something great.

For years, underscores released a steady stream of one-offs via SoundCloud, which endeared her to like minded artists and a burgeoning community of fans, but it wasn’t until 2017, with the release of EP skin purifying treatment, that the project stepped out of its solitary origins and began to capture the attention of a much larger audience. In 2021, underscores released the debut underscores album, fishmonger, which was written and recorded in that same childhood bedroom amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.

That collection launched underscores from recording vocals in a car to opening for 100 Gecs on the U.S. leg of the 10,000 Gecs tour. Before hitting the road, underscores released yet another collection, boneyard aka fearmonger, a collection of seven tracks that manages to sound like both the climax of and the morning after the craziest night of your life. On the heels of 10,000 Gecs, the first underscores mini-tour sold out in NY, LA, Chicago, and underscores’s hometown of San Francisco. Since then, underscores has played Lollapalooza’s Main Stage, Electric Forest, FVDED in the Park, and Corona Capital CDMX”.

I want to start out with one of the most recent interviews with underscores. NME. The Hyperpop artist spoke with them abut her escapist and phenomenal Dance-Pop gem, U, “amid industry pressures and the trappings of fame”. I am not sure whether she is planning on coming to the U.K. There are a strong of U.S. tour dates coming up, though I wonder whether there will be some dates here anytime soon:

“As a child, April Harper Grey didn’t play with toys. Instead, she had two main obsessions. The first was hotels: six-year-old Grey would pore over interior design books, and when she visited her grandparents in New York, her grandmother convinced the Hotel Gansevoort to let them peek inside a room. “That was one of the best days of my life,” she grins.

The second was her father’s computer. She’d create YouTube videos and mess about on GarageBand, eventually starting a small dubstep project called Underscores aged 12. Now 25, Underscores has become one of the biggest names from the online hyperpop community thanks to her 2021 debut ‘Fishmonger’ and 2023’s ‘Wallsocket’. On her upcoming third album ‘U’, she’s blending all the sounds from her last two albums to create an escapist “pop bible”.

‘U’ was written among the hoi polloi of megamalls, ritzy hotels and posh airports, as Grey attempted to “connect with what I was feeling really inspired [by] as a six-year-old”. “I knew at some point I would make a project that made sense in this fluorescent, consumerist architecture,” she tells NME. “I don’t want to glamorise this kind of architecture, but it has always inspired me since before I knew what its connotations were. And I don’t know – I like the luxurious vibe right now.”

When we spoke to Grey last year for The Cover, she was basking in the success of ‘Wallsocket’ and its intricately woven narrative. Since the record’s release in 2023, Grey has toured with EDM legend Porter Robinson and contributed to fellow Cover star Oklou’s breakout debut album, ‘Choke Enough’. Grey’s albums even revived Danny Brown’s love for electronic music, going on to collaborate with the rapper for his last album, ‘Stardust’. But despite these milestones, she told NME at the time that she was “fucking terrified” of making music, worried she was “going to constantly let down” her fans.

PHOTO CREDIT: Bailey Krawczyk

Exhausted from the labyrinthine lore of ‘Wallsocket’, Grey wrote ‘U’ – a self-titled of sorts, combining elements of her past albums to create a defining “thesis statement” on Underscores’ M.O. There’s storytelling, but no story, leaving Grey all the energy to indulge in her favourite pop sounds: “This time I wanted to focus on the music, because that’s what people come here for the most.”

The singles released from ‘U’ seem to establish a quintessential Underscores sound. Over a juddering, jackhammer bass, Grey coos on the cheeky but sincere ‘Music’: “Last night, I had a wet dream ’bout the perfect song”. It’s no surprise, then, when she reels off Jane Remover, 2hollis and Osamason as equally inspiring as Brandy, Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake while making ‘U’.

eing a popstar has always required some level of financial and reputational power, and on ‘U’, that relationship doesn’t go unnoticed. Grey playfully assumes the role of a celebrity negotiating a hookup on ‘Do It’ (which NME named one of the best songs of 2025), telling their prospective partner: “I’m tryna run a business here – come on, babe”. But they retreat from the relationship, justifying that they’re “married to the music”. Clearly, there’s more to marriage than just love.

Grey has consistently satirised the rich and the famous, even years before her come up as an unknown 21-year-old on ‘Fishmonger’. On one level, her fascination with celebrity culture was a form of wish fulfilment – “that’s where I saw myself, and I was confident about that,” she admits – but it also comes from a darkly psychological place. “I’ve always scrutinised myself like I was famous. I’ve always been like, ‘someone’s gonna pick my life apart to pieces someday, so I need to prepare for that’. But obviously some of that is some mental shit.”

Grey might be a star in the underground realm, but ‘U’ makes clear that being in that position isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. On ‘Spoiled Little Brat’, her biggest hit from ‘Fishmonger’, Grey proudly professes: “I get what I want”. Now, album opener ‘Tell Me (U Want It)” sees her backtrack: “I get what I want and then find out right after I get it, I don’t even want it”.

“‘Wallsocket’ was super conceptual, but it was still very personal – this feels more like I’m telling you upfront”

“I do think my relationship with making music has changed after being able to do it for a living,” Underscores professes. “There’s 10 other jobs that you have to do along with your dream job – which I’m perfectly fine with, but it does sometimes suck the fun out of it a little.”

Grey could choose to become complacent and pump out left-field dance-pop hits. But culture moves fast, and she predicts pop will experience a “twee revival” in three years’ time, citing artists like Brat Star as examples (think The Moldy Peaches, if they were “Bladee at the same time”).

“I think the true Kimya Dawson twee is impossible for our generation to access because we’re just so ironic and self-aware, but I do think some attempt to get to this millennial twee will result in something new,” she estimates.  Grey says she plans to become a hipster when that happens: she’ll go to bars, get into speciality coffee, maybe make a record reflecting her new life. For now, she’s going to savour the glory of ‘U’ and its full-circle vindication of hyperpop – just not for too long.

“I started [Underscores] when I was 12, and it’s gone through a lot of iterations over the years,” Grey tells us. “I tried to encapsulate as much as I could of [my] previous music, but I’ll probably switch up again after this – I tend to wring the sonic identity of each album dry until there’s nothing left. Then, I’ll move on”.

A couple of other new interviews before I get to a glowing review of one of the best albums of the year. Wonderland. explored how underscores mutates with each album. Always remarkable but never the same, this is an artist constantly evolving, questioning and searching. In terms of what U represents, Wonderland. muse that this is underscore’s “unadulterated pop era”. Such an exciting time for an artist primed to blow up very soon. Already she has this loyal fanbase, though U will see a lot of new people come her way:

“November 2025’s “Do It”, a second glimpse at the forthcoming LP, took April’s budding pop-fanaticism to a new acme. The choreography-heavy video would make Britney herself proud. Sonically, it borrows from K-pop and hyper-pop – amplified by January’s remix with Korean rising star Yves – fusing crowd-pleasing sheen with something sharper and more knowingly sexual. She interrogates her subject’s finances, their car, and if they like rough sex, before dismissing them entirely: she’s married to the music. For 25-year-old April, it reads as more than a sonic pivot, but a playful flex of sexuality and self-possession.

From the early SoundCloud-era electronic productions to the raw indie experimentation of her 2021 debut record fishmonger, to her second full-length, Wallsocket, a complex and challenging concept album, galvanic and restless jumps in April’s artistic core are nothing new. Much of this coming album’s shift in style lies in a stripping back of her creative process – embodied by the short, sharp song titles, and the use of a singular letter as the album’s title. “I liked the idea of doing a self-titled [project], but I don’t know if I’d call an album ‘underscores’,” she explains. “But I got obsessed with the idea of calling itU.”

The work is a trimming of musical indulgence and a decluttering of technical complication. It’s made in its entirety by April alone – from the writing to the production to the mixing and mastering. Because “my biggest tenet right now is to do it myself even if it’s a worse product. Like – this is as much from mybrain as it could be. If people don’t like my voice or they don’t like the production or the videos, at least it was all from me. At least I was being earnest.”

Much of the work was written nomadically, as she toured with DJ/producer Porter Robinson in the spring and during a stint supporting her mercurial collaborator Danny Brown at the backend of 2025. “Usually if I’mon the road, I don’t make music at all. I just wait until I get home to make everything,” she says. “But there’ve been many times where I didn’t know why I wasn’t just making music on the road. My setup has gotten way simpler: I reverted back to a [Focusrite] Scarlett interface and an SM7B [microphone] instead of anything too fancy, just because it’s easy to bring around and it’s rugged. It’ll survive in my backpack.”

PHOTO CREDIT: Brendan Wixted

A group of songs that she’s proud of but now feels difficult to revisit, April’s previous album Wallsocket is a dark and daring descent into the crevices of middle America. It was made in a “pretty good time” in her life, but “when things get good, that’s when philosophical thoughts start creeping in. You start asking, ‘Why am I here?’” U flips this instinct. Written against a more anxious world, it rejects the idea that profundity must equal heaviness. There’s power in lightness. In pleasure. In escape.

“Art has served different purposes for me over my life,” April says. “But there are certain times when people really want to escape into something and be out of the world for a minute. And I definitely feel that right now. On [Wallsocket], I wanted to reckon with the world through art. Whereas with [U], there feels like a need to step into something nice to be in, and that doesn’t make you feel bad about existing in the world. You don’t have to always ask these big questions; sometimes you just want something nice to put on.”

April’s soon-to-be-shared third album completes a trifecta tapestry of taste and influence that feels wholeheartedly unique in tone and approach. To listeners, the trilogy forms a shapeshifting tapestry. To her, they’re branches of the same tree. “Each project has a different sound, world, geographical location or architecture,” she murmurs, as if thinking aloud. “But I don’t know, for me it almost feels like I’m kind of making the same album every time. Taking another crack at the same thing and getting closer.”

Closer to what?

“I don’t know,” she contemplates. “Some kind of perfect package.” The search for artistic enlightenment is endless, and for April, defining her own version of pop stardom is the current driving force. Making music that’sboth inspired and inspiring is one thing, but bigger forces are at play. Mr Boyle, for instance. Aqua Dots, too – small plastic beads she once ate as a child and survived to tell the tale. But mainly, eyebrows.

“I wish more people would ask about my eyebrows,” she sighs.

Really? Why?

“Because I want to make a statement. We’re in a thin eyebrow – or no eyebrow–apocalypse. These,” she gestures to her thick, dark brows, “need to come back.”

You heard it here first. Vive la revolution!”.

The final interview I want to highlight is from CRACK. They open by saying (of U) “Inspired by the synthetic gloss of airports, hotels and shopping malls, underscores’ latest album… transports her glitchy electro-pop to liminal, urban spaces where dreams and waking life coalesce”. I am quite new to underscores. However, it only took a couple of songs from U to make me realise all the praise and proclamation are very much justified:

“Her lyrics on U – exploring love, desire and consumerism – feel playful and tongue-in-cheek, delivered in pitch-shifted vocals or quiet whispers. Even at its most polished, the record doesn’t abandon Grey’s signature experimentation. If U is a pop bible, then it’s one with flickering lights and scuffed edges. Its maelstrom of ornate hyperpop textures collide as Grey constructs feelings of confused desire from grating percussion, pixelated ripples and Auto-Tuned vocals.

" I wanted to be a little more shameless with this record. It feels way more luxurious”

Elsewhere, digital artifice is offset by the raw reproduction of ‘real-world’ sounds. The album ricochets from the brash confidence of opener Tell Me (U Want It) to the soft vulnerability of chiming synths that mimic the sound of plucked strings on Lovefield. Album closer Wish U Well merges wistful, strummed acoustic guitar with electronic intercom beeps, radio static and dial tones.

There is an ambivalence on this record that feels like a departure from the teen angst of her previous outings. “Now that I’m 25, I just want something that’s nice to be in and escape to,” she says. “I wanted to be a little more shameless with this record. It feels way more luxurious.”

Throughout underscores’ music, there is this tension between fantasy and reality, shame and desire. She is enjoying inhabiting this silver-plated dream of commercial perfection for now, using it as a canvas to stretch the limits of her pop imagination.

To Grey, hyperpop might feel more “designer” now, but her music still carries the messy, maximalist spirit of the internet music scenes she grew up with. Her sound shifts unpredictably, like moving through interconnected rooms in a recurring dream, following curiosity down strange hallways or across sprawling terrain – then, upon waking, striking out with total clarity”.

Let’s end with a review from The Guardian for U. Perhaps the greatest and most memorable work from underscores so far, you know this artist will continue to grow stronger and put out sensational work. Not that the Pop scene is repetitive or lacking standout artists. However, it is clear that artists like underscores are more compelling, richer and stand out more than many of the biggest mainstream Pop acts:

“There was no getting around the heavily-caffeinated pop thrills provoked by her best work, but while Wallsocket was bombarding you with distorted guitars, stammering vocal samples, dive-bombing brostep basslines, honking rave electronics, nu-metal riffs, heaving shoegaze textures, gunshot sound effects, vintage video-game bleeps, drums that split the difference between dancefloor pulse and the double-time thunder of hardcore punk, and vocals alternately delivered in a bratty drawl or a full-throated, heavily distorted scream, there were definitely moments when you wished Grey might consider the wisdom of the old adage about less sometimes being more.

Maybe she has done. No one is going to call the contents of U a masterclass in opaque subtlety. In the first few minutes alone you get fizzing EDM synth noise, vocals that are heavily AutoTuned and cut up, the sound of a DJ backspinning a record, plunges into silence punctuated by laughter, and booming drums dosed with reverse echo over which Grey repeats the title of opening track Tell Me (U Want It) in the kind of hoarse menacing whisper with which teenage campers tend to be addressed in horror films, shortly before the owner of said whisper impales them with a garden implement. Notice is thus served that we’re still dealing with an artist with a thing for maximalism and overload.

But nonetheless, a certain degree of paring back has taken place. U sounds substantially less hair-raising than her previous work, perhaps as the result of a distinct musical shift. The emo/punk influence is more-or-less absent: a faint suggestion of it lingers around the chugging rhythm of Bodyfeeling and The Peace, the latter a song you can somehow imagine set to distorted guitars, rather than its beatless, Imogen Heap-ish assemblage of sampled voices. Instead, U’s musical north star seems to be late 90s/early 00s R&B, the fertile, experimental period dominated by Timbaland, the Neptunes and Rodney “Darkchild” Jerkins. You can pick out echoes of the era everywhere, from the bright, No Scrubs-y acoustic guitar samples that weave through Hollywood Forever and Wish U Well, to the staccato vocals of Music and the spare, bumping rhythm of Innuendo (I Get U) to Do It’s grinding synth blare, a distant, noisier relation of the sound that powers Justin Timberlake’s Sexyback.

Grey certainly isn’t the only artist to look to that genre, in that era, for inspiration, but her take on it works incredibly well: further tricked out with AutoTune-overloaded vocals, dubstep electronics, beats that keep changing gear into speedy pop-house and chattering acid lines, it feels entirely modern, resolutely not a retro recreation. Moreover, dialling her sound down at least a little reveals more clearly how skilled a pop songwriter Grey is, something it was easy to overlook amid the aural bombardment of her past work. A genuine auteur – everything on U was written, performed and produced by her – you find yourself musing that Bodyfeeling or Do It are the kind of songs other pop artists would happily pay vast teams of professional songwriters vast sums of money for.

The lyrics too feel a little dialled down compared to her previous work. The story behind Wallsocket was so complex that its construction apparently required the use of flowcharts and whiteboards – or “some corkboard detective shit”, as Grey put it – but here the songs stick pretty fast to the theme of love, albeit expressed via some winningly original conceits. The Peace charts the progress of a relationship through a series of shared cigarettes; Hollywood Forever and Do It wittily ponder the topic of dating while at least moderately famous: “Am I in your playlist?” demands the latter. “Do you have Spotify?”

It would be nice to suggest that dialling everything down from 11 has resulted in an album that could shift April Grey from the realms of the moderately famous – a critically acclaimed artist deep in pop’s leftfield – towards a more mainstream kind of stardom. But trying to predict those shifts is a fool’s errand in 2026, and, besides, perhaps she’s happy where she is, entirely in charge and working to her own plan. It’s a plan that appears to be coming off: U is certainly a more interesting, accomplished and better-written pop album than most major pop artists have dished up of late”.

I am going to leave it there. Go and follow underscores and listen to U. There are a lot of fans in the U.K., so it would be wonderful it she played here at some point. The musical alter ego of the compelling and hugely inspiring April Harper Grey, I wonder what the rest of this year holds for her. After some American tour dates, perhaps there will be thoughts of more music or new dates announced. U is rightly being hailed as this modern masterpiece. You cannot argue with that. Those Pop artists who are stagnating, lacking real flair and distinction, really do need to…

FOLLOW her lead.

__________

Follow underscores

FEATURE: Spotlight: Chanel Yates

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

 

Chanel Yates

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I really love…

Chanel Yates, though I am fairly new to her music. I am spotlighting her now, as this year is going to be a huge one for Yates. Last year, she put out singles such as Colourblind and Big Girl Boots. In January, BBC Introducing named their Yorkshire artists to look out for. Chanel Yates was among a glittering array of artists who are going to make a big impression on the music industry:

“This Country Pop Queen ticked off some bucket list-level accomplishments throughout 2025, including topping the bill on our very own BBC Introducing stage at Reading and Leeds.

But, knowing Chanel, there will be no signs of slowing down, with a sold-out headline show already booked for February.

Just being in her presence for a short time can lead to a marked improvement in your mood as she embodies the sort of kindness and positivity I have only ever seen in correspondence with the great Dolly Parton.

Currently based in London, but hailing from Sheffield, she lists Alanis Morrisette, Kacey Musgraves, Kelsea Ballerini, Carrie Underwood, Taylor Swift and Megan Moroney among her many influences”.

There is so much to admire about Chanel Yates. Her music is filled with personality and nuance. You are immediately hit by it but, with every new listen, you get some different. I have never seen her live, though I can imagine she is a remarkable and hugely engaging performer! After such a busy 2025, this year is one where a whole host of new people have connected with her work and will spread the word. Once, Country music was seen as quite niche or uncool. However, with huge artists releasing Country albums, it shines a spotlight on the whole genre.

There are a couple of interviews from last year that I want to come to. I am going to move first to some further biography of the tremendous Chanel Yates. If you have not connected with her yet, then I would strongly urge you to and listen to her music. This is someone who is going to stand alongside our best and most popular artists very soon. There are few in music that are as instantly awe-inspiring as her:

“Chanel Yates is the pocket sized cowgirl everyone’s talking about. With a fast growing global fanbase and support from BBC Introducing and BBC Radio 1’s Future Pop, Chanel’s honest, no filter songwriting has made her one of the most exciting new voices to watch in country music.

Rooted in real life moments, heartbreak and humour, Chanel’s girl power anthems have resonated with fans around the world, gaining millions of streams and landing on top editorial playlists across Spotify and Apple Music. Chanel is creating a huge buzz in the UK and overseas with her relatable lyrics paired with a viral line dance for one of her latest records “Big Girl Boots.”

On stage, she brings her signature style and infectious energy to life, lighting up festivals like C2C, Tramlines, Reading and Leeds Festival, and most recently hitting the road across the UK and Europe on tour with Alexandra Kay. Whether she is playing sold out headline shows or writing in Nashville, Chanel continues to break genre boundaries.

After a breakout year of sold out shows, major festivals, and with new music on the way this year, Chanel Yates is THE one to watch. She’s the sister you call after a breakup, and your new bestie in country music”.

Country in the UK sat down with Chanel Yates last year. Talking about her then-new single, Colourblind, and reflecting on a year where she played some huge and important festivals, it was clear that a very special artist was in our midst. One that I can see dominating some massive U.S. stages and festivals soon. It will be really exciting seeing where Yates will go from here:

“2025 has been a huge year for Chanel Yates where she has cemented her place as one of the hottest emerging acts in country music on this side of the Atlantic with her infectious and catchy melodies along with charming and fun on-stage performances. Through the course of the year, she made her debut at C2C: Country to Country, opened for Alexandra Kay on her extensive UK tour, has had mainstream radio airplay on both BBC Radio 1 and BBC Radio 2, had viral success with her hit “Big Girl Boots” along with playing Reading and Leeds festivals which are two of the UK’s largest multi-genre events.
As the year draws to a close, Chanel has just released her latest track “Colourblind” and also announced her first headline show for February at The Grace in London so we had plenty to catchup on and look forward to when we hung out with her on Zoom.
How you doing girl?

“I'm good, I'm really good. My tickets went up for sale for my show today and we've sold out the pre-sale already which is very fun so have just been working on that this morning.”

Yay! Well done you, it’s main sale tomorrow isn’t it and it’s at The Grace in Highbury. It’s a cool venue, with a bit of WWE style steel cage like structure around the bar where you think it could be chaos if things get too rowdy. Selling out in the pre-sale is amazing but getting to do your first headline show somewhere like there is a really big thing and one of those things that really shows you how things are progressing.

“Yeah for sure, it's a good one, I'm very excited.”

I know I've seen you about a bunch at various things, but since we last like spoke properly, which was like in March, I guess, you've been super, super busy, so let's start with the one that really stands out to me. Reading and Leeds, which obviously is huge, it's  probably the biggest festival here outside of Glastonbury and although it's multi-genre, it's typically not somewhere that country, Americana and even commercial pop artists tend to feature too much. How was that in terms of playing and also, how was that as a crowd for an artist like you compared to what you're normally used to at country events?

“Yeah, it was really, really cool. I got to represent country music at a festival that, like you say is not really known for that. It was a very special moment and I got to play with a band with my new music which was amazing because I have the most talented friends. My friend Caleb on the drums, Tom on guitar and Ollie was on my playback for one of the shows. It was just crazy, it was really fun and Chappell Roan was headlining the big stage and it was a great crossover because her fans, I'd say are very similar to my fans so there's a really cool crossover there with people wearing cowboy hats, boots and everything. So, they stopped and saw me wearing a cowboy hat and boots where they were like, oh, this is my kind of music. It was really fun to be able to own the stage in that sense and headline on my first time playing Reading and Leeds, It was really fun.”

You mentioned you played with a band there, is that something that we're going to see at the show at The Grace?

“Yeah, I would say I'd expect a band. It's very fun to just have my boys on stage with me or the girls if I end up getting girls in the band. It’s too fun so definitely looking out for a band.”

Another cool thing this year, was going out on the road with Alexandra Kay and I thought you were great when I saw you at Shepherd’s Bush. We also love you neon sign and it looks so cool! I love AK, I got to chat with her in Berlin last year and she’s so much fun but what’s she like to tour with?

“She's really great, her team are amazing and I’m thankful for having the opportunity to be on the road with them and make really good friends with them. It's lovely to be in that environment and we played some really epic venues, like O2 Shepherd’s Bush has been on the bucket list for a while and we got to tick that off, which was so fun. It was me and Ollie, he controls all my playback and everything runs smooth. He's always watching and it was great, it was really fun time.”

As well as the headline show being announced, we’ve had some new music, so give us the backstory being “Colourblind” and where the idea came from.

“Yeah it came at a point of me just trying to write a lot of new music. I spent a lot of time in Nashville, then when I came back, we got in the studio and we were like, okay, well, I need a new record to put out, what could it be? We started writing “Colourblind” and I was kind of in a place where I'd released like a revenge anthem with “Shotgun Seat” and “Big Girl Boots” are very powerful anthems, and I thought, we need another. “Colourblind” is that don't get bitter, get better, kind of mindset. It's just like, I don't need to prove anything to you that I'm doing better than you, because clearly, I'm just doing better than you. I think it's just fun to be like the nonchalant big sister of all of the three songs that I've released this year. I love it because in the chorus, there is very playful lyricism with colour theory in there, so like, I saw red when you walked out then I was down and blue when I was crying on the couch. It just uses colour of a lot, I love colour and every corset was a different colour in my show so I just love incorporating colour and I think I got to do that with “Colourblind” so it's very fun.”

You'd said that this was the third of three songs this year, are we building towards something bigger and more extended with them?

“I'm not too sure yet. I'm working on a lot of stuff and I'm kind of compiling as it goes along, where whatever happens next year, happens next year, but I think there's a lot of new music that I will be putting out next year because I just love it. I think that “Big Girl Boots” and “Shotgun Seat” have set a really fun wave for my sound and I think it's just been so cool to be able to see them connect with my fans in a different way. So, yeah, I expect lots of new music next year. I'm not sure what it will look like but I have plans in my head and I'm very excited so we'll see where it goes”.

I am going to end with Headliner and their interview from last year. Focusing on a British Country-Pop artist making waves in a genre dominated by U.S. artists, there were so many reasons to be proud of Chanel Yates. As they say, she is a “fast-growing global fanbase and support from BBC Introducing and BBC Radio 1’s Future Pop, Yates’ honest, no-filter, girl-power songwriting has made her one of the most exciting new voices in country music”:

“Where did your love of country music come from?

My parents never listened to country music. It wasn’t a thing in our household. They loved pop; my mum’s a massive Take That fan, and so was my dad. The first albums that I got for Christmas were Black Eyed Peas and JLS. It was all very pop-related. Avril Lavigne, too – I had her on repeat. Let Go is one of the best albums ever.

Then I found Alanis Morissette, who was set in the pop space and completely dominated the songwriting from that perspective, and then I discovered Kacey Musgraves. That’s when I realised I wanted to be a songwriter. Jon Bellion is one of my favourite artists of all time, and I was the biggest die-hard One Direction fan. I’ve carried that into my music now. It’s pop-country. Country music is the core of it, but there are a lot of very poppy hooks that I include and try to blend.

Country music is having a huge resurgence in the mainstream UK charts thanks to artists like Beyoncé, Morgan Wallen, and Post Malone. How has it been to see that rise in mainstream popularity over here?

It’s the best thing in the world, because there are just so many country artists coming to the UK now. I got to tour with Alexandra Kay, and that was the biggest dream ever – being able to do that with a US country artist. It’s so cool to see it all happening. Jessie Murph, Megan Moroney coming over here, and Zach Bryan at Hyde Park – it’s amazing.

Your songwriting is based on your real experiences. Do you get used to revealing personal things about yourself through your music, especially if people you know can guess who the songs are written about?

I see music as therapy. All my songs are about something I’ve been through. People in my life go, “Oh, that’s about this person,” or “I know exactly who this song’s about.” People who don’t know you personally won’t know who it’s about, but they’ll know it’s about someone.

It’s great to be able to write about real things and to write what you’re going through. People relate to it because your experience isn’t unique. Somebody else has experienced it. Somebody else has been cheated on. Somebody else has been lied to. Somebody else has had a really toxic partner, or a really great partner, or been so in love. Those experiences are so universal. Songwriting ties it all together, especially in this genre. Storytelling is the core of it.

Colourblind is a post-breakup anthem celebrating confidence, self-worth, and growth. What were you thinking about when you wrote this song?

I just got back from Nashville, and I did a lot of sessions out there. I came back feeling really inspired and needed a song to follow Shotgun Seat. I wanted it to be a big anthem. We wrote this in the studio, and we all got goosebumps listening to it.

When you get that feeling, it’s very rare, so I just ran with it and created Colourblind. To me, the lyrics – “If you’re thinking that the grass is greener on the other side, baby, you’re colourblind – just made sense. The grass isn’t actually greener; it just looks different from what it is.

Big Girl Boots was a rage girl anthem; walking away from someone, putting on your big girl boots. Shotgun Seat was about setting fire to a car.

With Colourblind, I wanted something a bit more nonchalant. I wanted it to be like, “Yeah, well, you left me – joke’s on you, I’m the better person.” So to me, it’s that sassy, nonchalant big-sister energy in the song. It’s about someone thinking they’re better off without you, but really, they’re wrong.

What can you reveal about any upcoming new music?

What I can tell you is there’s a lot of new music on the way. 2026 is definitely going to be full of new stuff, and I’m really excited to put it out. Hopefully it connects – fingers crossed.

Away from music, what do you like to do?

My life is completely consumed by music; I don’t even know what I do outside of it. I play golf. It’s a nice time because you’re off your phone, just hitting balls. It’s really good for getting anger out, too. Honestly, if you’re angry, go to the golf course, smash some balls, and probably get even more frustrated because they don’t go where you want them to [laughs]. But I love that.

The gym is super important to me as well. I love to be strong. When you’re on the road, you need to be able to carry stuff, and of course, you need to be fit to run around on stage for an hour. So yeah, the gym and golf are my two little pastimes”.

You just know Chanel Yates is going to be a massive artist. We will see many albums and some headline shows for sure. I am writing this before the first taste of new music in 2026. Caputing so much attention and love right now, here is an immensely talented musician who should be…

ON your radar.

__________

Follow Chanel Yates

FEATURE: The Voice of Frank Sinatra: Why a Modern Interpretation of the Big Band Sound Could Work Today

FEATURE:

 

 

The Voice of Frank Sinatra

IN THIS PHOTO: Frank Sinatra

 

Why a Modern Interpretation of the Big Band Sound Could Work Today

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I missed the actual anniversary…

IN THIS PHOTO: Seth MacFarlane released Lush Life: The Lost Sinatra Arrangements in 2025/PHOTO CREDIT: Pamela Littky

but Frank Sinatra’s debut studio album, The Voice of Frank Sinatra, turned eighty on 4th March. Its anniversary month has made me think about that type of singer and how we do not really have a modern-day Frank Sinatra. Maybe more prevalent and relevant in the 1940s and 1950s, Pop groups like The Beatles and Rock & Roll artists like Buddy Holly revolutionised music and took it in a new direction. That might be an over-simplification, though there was a period and era where artists like Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr. were at the forefront. I grew up listening to songs from these artists. Julie London too. Not a huge part of my upbringing, I do think that these artists often gets reduced to being seen as Easy Listening. When popular music changed and songs became shorter and sharper, perhaps artists like Sinatra seemed old hat. Today, Pop music is very much the dominant force. Though we have Jazz and Adult Contemporary artists who one could say channel the legends of decades past. If Easy Listening is not really a genre now, you can see a range of Adult Contemporary artists who, in some ways, provide a modern-day version of the crooners and icons of the past. One could say knowing Frank Sinatra is a generational thing. However, there is something about his voice and the gravitas that defies age and the time period. It is a shame that his music would be seen as niche or fringe now. Something that is very unlikely to be played by younger audiences. I have nothing against modern Pop. It is fantastic. However, there is this reliance on songs that are faster. If that is the right word. Listen to Frank Sinatra’s work and there are songs that unfolds. They have a particular dynamic and tempo. Not something you hear much in today’s Pop. Artists like Lady Gaga have gone in that direction. Her albums with the late Tony Bennett. Jazz standards. Modern artists like Samara Joy have that blend of nostalgic Jazz and Easy Listening with modern sensibilities.

Another reason why I was musing on this is because of someone in the contemporary climate who is very much influenced by Frank Sinatra. One might associate Seth MacFarlane with his comedy. However, he is a huge music fan with a fantastic voice. His debut album, Music Is Better Than Words, is fifteen in September. He has released nine studio albums. The most recent, 2025’s Lush Life: The Lost Sinatra Arrangements, is one I will focus on. It is a remarkable listen, and it made me wonder – having heard the richness of the performances – why the type of music Sinatra was famed for is dying. Is it seen as outdated or uncool? Music has evolved, so do audiences today have the patience or taste for Sinatra? I do love MacFarlane’s albums. There is something hopefully romantic and wonderful about the holiday albums he has released. So many major artists put out Christmas albums where they cover the standards. However, his holiday albums, especially 2023’s We Wish You the Merriest (with Elizabeth Gillies) are filled with so much warmth and joy. Hearing the two sing! I do wonder, for a possible tenth studio album (if he has one planned), whether MacFarlane will write some originals and marry his love of Big Band and Jazz. I guess that is the correct genre denomination. Rather than ‘Easy Listening’ it is ‘Big Band’. The rush and majesty; the cool of the orchestra and that rousing and spine-tingling sound they summon. You can hear Bobby Darin, Sammy Kaye, and Ella Fitzgerald in his voice too. I would love to hear him write some lyrics. I do feel there is a place for Big Band today. A modern version. So much of today’s Pop seems samey, stale or lacking in emotional richness and a certain spark. People assuming Big Band and Jazz is always slow or dull. That is not the case. Listening to Seth MacFarlane’s albums and how he interprets some of the greats. Puts his own stamp on them and really provokes a range of emotions and reactions.

Thinking of The Voice of Frank Sinatra and how it is now eighty. It made me wonder if we can revitalise or repurpose the sound of an artist who made his debut at a time when the world was still recovering from a World War. There are a couple of promotional interview with Seth MacFarlane that I want to bring in. Giving us an understanding why he embarked on the project and the meaning of these lost Frank Sinatra arrangements. Jazz Times sat down with MacFarlane around the album’s release last summer:

“Lush Life: The Lost Sinatra Arrangements (Fuzzy Door/Republic/Verve), the first fruits of his labor, started its journey when MacFarlane acquired the Sinatra music archive from the family estate of the Chairman of the Board and its fervent watchdog, Tina Sinatra, in 2018. Before taking hold on the sainted job of curating the Sinatra song legend, MacFarlane discovered that over 100 never-recorded or finished takes on arrangements from Nelson Riddle, Billy May and Don Costa were in the estate vaults, a series of “little black pencil dots on paper” that MacFarlane and his team brought to life.

As an artist working within the theatrical realm, the emotional drama and nuance of Sinatra’s finest vocal interpretive work is something that MacFarlane never takes for granted. “As a singer and an interpreter, no one can touch him,” he says.

“There’s a reason that he stands alone, still, amid a cast of characters from that era that were all truly great vocalists. There is just something in the way that Sinatra acts out a story, the way that he allows the role of the orchestrator and the band to play a part in the recording — an achievement only rivaled by Nat ‘King’ Cole — that makes his recordings a uniquely rich experience.”

Beyond Ol’ Blue Eyes

At no time during Lush Life or his other eight albums do you hear MacFarlane impersonating Ol’ Blue Eyes and his sauntering, clearly enunciated phrasing. Shared swagger aside, there is no imitating Sinatra — which is pretty great when you consider MacFarlane’s power of mimicry as an animation voiceover artist.

“I think that every vocalist post-1955 who does this music is influenced by, and indebted to, Sinatra in the same way that every animated television series post-1990 is influenced by The Simpsons,” Seth says, touching on a highlight of his day job. “We’re always going to be in the shadow of this towering figure who rewrote the vocal rulebook. I’m glad that I did this Sinatra album now because I’ve had time to settle into a style, a method of interpreting lyrics that brings my own vibe to the table.”

Besides, Sinatra is not the only object of MacFarlane’s reverence. Surprisingly, he brings up lounge singer Steve Lawrence as well as Gordon MacRae, the actor and booming baritone behind two of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s most masculine musicals, Oklahoma! and Carousel. “MacRae’s was a voice that I was in awe of because it’s always accessible even after a night of drinking — and then he’d end each song on a silky falsetto note that came from out of nowhere. He had the range of an opera singer at their peak, yet MacRae was singing pop music and showtunes. Steve Lawrence too is wildly underrated. This was a guy who sounded so relaxed and at ease, yet had a rich, natural instrument. He never phoned it in. When I record, that’s what I watch out for. They made it sound so easy, yet if you analyze the recordings, they’re never giving less than 100 percent. As Sinatra pointed out, there’s a big difference between crooning and singing. The swagger? It’s secondary. It’s garnish.”

The Inner Sanctum

Though forever bewitched by Sinatra, it was MacFarlane’s getting to know Tina and Frank Sinatra Jr. (who co-starred several times as himself on Family Guy) that brought him closer, in a literal and figurative sense.

“I had seen Frank Jr. on The Sopranos and thought if he had done that show, that maybe he would do ours,” says MacFarlane. “He did, and came in ready to go and up for anything. We wrote songs for him and he sang with Brian and Stewie, so that was a blast. He was also a walking encyclopedia of music from the big-band era and the golden age of vocal standards. The orchestras from that era that he turned me onto, that I’d never heard of, were amazing. Like the Sauter-Finegan Orchestra. Who were they? Frank Jr. knew, and he put them on my radar.” [Ed.: Eddie Sauter and Bill Finegan, both important composer-arrangers, co-led this sprawling, money-losing, quasi-Third Stream project throughout the 1950s.]

When Frank Jr. passed away, MacFarlane got closer to Tina. “She’s an amazing steward of her father’s legacy but also a great hang. She can smell bullshit and what she saw in me was a love of her father’s music. And on his 100th birthday, with an orchestra in tow, we got to sing many of Frank’s favorites — that’s a cool way to have a birthday party.”

At that very party, Tina gave MacFarlane a ring with the Sinatra family crest, of which there are fleetingly few. “Tony Bennett got one. I was immensely grateful… I wear it during every live show and recording I do.”
He was asked to acquire the Sinatra music archive from the family estate — some 1,800-plus charts and more — and MacFarlane grew interested in the songs written or arranged for Sinatra that fell by the wayside. Gathering MacFarlane’s longtime producer-arranger Joel McNeely, conductor John Wilson and engineer Rich Breen (who insisted on reel-to-reel tape), the team begin to dissect the once-lost arrangements of Nelson Riddle (nine), Billy May (two) and Don Costa (one).

“We knew that this was something we couldn’t screw up,” says MacFarlane. “It had to be done in the way Nelson Riddle would want these arrangements to be heard. And we had fun doing it.”

MacFarlane and the team were guided by Sinatra Enterprise archivist Charles Pignone when dealing with songs like Gus Kahn’s “Flying Down to Rio,” which was cut for the Come Fly with Me album but never used. There was a gorgeously odd Nelson Riddle arrangement of Johnny Mandel’s “The Shadow of Your Smile” that MacFarlane is planning for another volume. There was the melancholy “How Did She Look?” planned for the ruminating romance epic Only the Lonely but never cut. “There were 1,200 boxes of Sinatra’s that were mostly unmarked, so the only way to know what was there was to play them. So we got an orchestra to play them, and that was a real voyage of discovery.”

Riddle orchestrations such as “Shadows,” “Who’s in Your Arms Tonight” and the longing-filled “How Did She Look?” from 1958, as well as “When Joanna Loved Me” from 1977, are among the arranger’s finest moments. But it is Billy Strayhorn’s “Lush Life” that really tested Frank”.

Paste spoke with Seth MacFarlane last October about Lush Life: The Lost Sinatra Arrangements. It is not about impersonation or trying to replicate Frank Sinatra. I do feel like the authenticity and musicianship of a band or orchestra seems to be the anthesis of a lot of processed and digital music. I think this was the first MacFarlane album not recorded out of Abbey Road Studios. A cost and inaccessibility might put most artists off. Recording at a world-famous studio and hiring a lot of musicians is out of the reach of most. I have asked before why we do not have a modern equivalent of Steely Dan. The same reasons. Many days and weeks in a studio honing songs with multiple players. That said, listen to the results on Seth MacFarlane’s latest album, and it makes me yearn for more of it nearer the mainstream:

“It’s rare for anything in a contemporary space to have so many bodies—so many players—in the same room together like they are on Lush Life. How does this record compositionally compare to what you’ve done before? These songs—they’re pop standards, really—were composed by Nelson Riddle, Billy May, and Don Costa. What was the challenge for you when it came to stepping into them and embodying and honoring what they are?

It was twofold. Thank God I did this record now, instead of ten, fifteen years ago, because I really wouldn’t have known what to do with it. I hadn’t acquired the experience or the knowledge that I’ve learned from all of these musicians over the years that I’ve worked with, and certainly from Joel McNeely. But it was trying to figure out how to keep enough of myself and the tone and style that I had established over the eight or so albums that I had released over the past fifteen years present, and, at the same time, recognizing that this is music that was written for a particular instance, for a particular performer, by arrangers who had their own styles. Musically, a lot of it was looking for clues in a Billy May chart. He uses these wet-sounding sax lines; you hear it a lot on his arrangements. We would use that as an anchor, to figure out how fast or slow he might have wanted this chart to have been played. Sometimes, the dynamics on these score sheets literally say “uptempo,” which could mean 80 million different things, right? It’s up to you to figure it out.

And, with all these guys having passed away, it’s a lot of guesswork. You have to piece together what you know of their individual styles and cross-index it with what’s on these scores, that no one has ever played, and try to read their minds, basically. The same was true with Sinatra. Vocally, I was really trying to honor what it was that he would have wanted to hear, because he was so particular about his orchestrations. At the same time, I was making sure that it didn’t feel like a Vegas cover show, or that I was just doing an impression. It was this Goldilocks zone that I had to exist in, musically. Hopefully we pulled it off.

When it comes to craft, be it the craft of the charts or the craft of your interpretations of them, what do these songs best exhibit about that, by your approximation?

It’s really the art of the arrangement. It’s the art of orchestration, which, in many ways, is kind of lost for a number of reasons—one being for the same reason that melodic writing is lost: It just is of another time and of another world. It’s also just not necessary, in many ways, for the kind of music that we produce today. What always astounds me is that, if you pull Sinatra’s vocal out of the recording and you listen to just what’s going on with the orchestra, it’s amazingly intricate and amazingly detailed. And, in some cases, it sounds like you’re listening to a fucking symphony. On some of these ballads, it’s just amazing.

Probably the simplest litmus test that you can do is, if you go to a karaoke bar and listen to the “orchestration” or arrangement from your pick of pop songs today—to take nothing away from that music, it’s a different style—it’s comparatively simple. There’s a simplicity to it and a steadiness to it that doesn’t really deviate from itself a whole lot. Listening to something like “Spring is Here,” there’s an insane amount going on in that orchestra, even without Sinatra.

Craft-wise, it’s about 75-percent of the reason that I do this. I love orchestras. My favorite part of working on a film or working on a TV show is going to that soundstage and hearing the orchestra play, because it’s the one part of the process that I really have nothing to do with. A lot of times, I just get to go and listen. It’s the part that still has some mystique for me. Every other part of the filmmaking process, I now know the ingredients of the soup. I know how they’re doing it—and it’s helpful, because I have to, oftentimes, do it myself—but it takes away some of the excitement that I used to feel, going to the movies and having no idea how they’re doing these things. The one thing that still has that feeling of mystery is the musical process. When I give my composer a finished episode of a show or a finished film, and they come back, if it’s a film, eight weeks later with a full score that is just so astonishing and so intricate, and I hear the orchestra play it, I don’t really know how they’re doing it. And I certainly don’t know how they’re doing it that quickly. That part of the craft is still the most affecting for me. Again, some of this is because of ignorance—I’m able to preserve some of what I loved about making music and TV shows that’s now gone, because I do know how it all works.

I remember being thirteen years old and seeing the cover of Music Is Better Than Words for the first time. It was huge for me. I bought Chet Baker Sings on vinyl because it reminded me of that. When I was in high school, you were showing people my age how cool it was to sing standards by Rodgers and Hammerstein, or Lerner and Loewe. I don’t think I understood why that meant something back then, not until I went to and graduated from college. We had no idea back then. But so much of that style that you’d cultivated for yourself, and have been tending to since, was so often in response to Sinatra’s inventions and what groundwork he laid for vocalists seventy years ago. Between that first record of yours and Lush Life now, what’s your favorite thing that’s changed about your musicality?

I had the same experience when I was a kid too, because my parents introduced me to all of these old films and musicals—things that I was receptive to but didn’t really appreciate until I was in college and started to understand what it was that I had been hearing. More than anything, it’s an understanding of casting musicians, which is something I had really no clue about. Today, I at least have this skill of, like, “Okay, if we need a guitarist for this type of recording, is it Larry Koonse? Is it Graham Dechter? We need a drummer. We have Peter Erskine, we have Ryan Shaw. We need a woodwind player. Is it Dan Higgins? Is it Brian Scanlon?” These are names that I wasn’t really aware of fifteen years ago. I mean, I was aware of them, but I hadn’t dug in deep and hadn’t really gotten the education of each individual player and what their skill set is. It really is like casting an actor. It’s right down to the song. If you’re doing this kind of song, you probably want this trombonist.

It’s the art of orchestration. I was able to really learn about what it is that comprises the gears of this machinery, and why an orchestra sounds the way it does playing a particular piece of music, and why it is that old recordings sound the way they do, and why they have that warmth that’s so often hard to duplicate. If you hear somebody making a big band recording today, there’s a weird antiseptic quality to it. You can tell, instantly, that it was made today. There are a lot of little elements that we learned over the years that, by the time we got to Lush Life, we were able to use to make sure that this sounded as authentic as it could.

And that’s down to how you record it. Rather than recording digitally, we used reel-to-reel tape. They would haul these old reel-to-reel recorders out of the basement of Capitol Records or Abbey Road, wipe off the dust, and record it. That little hiss that you hear is actually part of it. It’s how you mic the band; how much vibrato the string players and woodwind players use when they’re recording; and, above all, it’s making the time to rehearse with the band. Even on film scores back in the forties, fifties, and sixties, you had all these contract orchestras that were just there every day. If you were a part of the Warner Brothers or MGM orchestras, you were sitting next to the same person every single day for years. So, what you had was an ensemble that could sometimes be ninety players that would have the tightness of nine, like a small jazz combo. Achieving that kind of sound is something that, in tiny increments, I learned over the course of the past fifteen years. And that’s why I’m very happy that this opportunity didn’t come about when Music Is Better Than Words came out, because I don’t think it would have been anywhere near as good”.

Eighty years after Frank Sinatra’s debut album, and you can feel his influence running through certain corners of music today. Whilst we do not have a modern Rat Pack (a 1960s group of entertainers led by Frank Sinatra, featuring Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Peter Lawford, and Joey Bishop), you can detect the legacy and impact of Frank Sinatra on modern artists. Though perhaps not as prolifically and prevalently as when he was in his pomp. Seth MacFarlane’s music keeps alive the Big Band sound and that cool. Rather than mimic and replicate Ol’ Blue Eyes, MacFarlane keeps his spirit and genius alive, though he does it…

HIS way.

FEATURE: I’m Waiting for the Day: The Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds at Sixty

FEATURE:

 

 

I’m Waiting for the Day

 

The Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds at Sixty

__________

1966 was an incredible year for music…

IN THIS PHOTO: The Beach Boys' Pet Sounds photoshoot by George Jerman at San Diego Zoo, California, in February 1966/PHOTO CREDIT: Capitol Photo Archives (via TIME)

where two bands in particular were dominant. Bob Dylan was one of the most successful solo artists but, when it came to groups, The Beatles in the U.K. and The Beach Boys in the U.S. were ruling. The Beatles released one of their greatest albums, Revolver, in August 1966. An album inspired by The Beatles was The Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds. That was released on 16th May, 1966. I want to mark sixty years of a masterpiece by exploring it in depth. There is something special announced for the sixtieth anniversary:

“The Beach Boys have announced a new run of “audiophile pressings” of their ‘Pet Sounds’ album, to celebrate its 60th anniversary.

The record arrived back on May 16 1966, and went on to be regarded as both a firm fan favourite, as well as one of the greatest albums of all time.

To mark its upcoming 60th anniversary, the L_ will be celebrated with a series of releases on May 15 via Capitol/UMe – including two distinct premium all-analogue audiophile pressings.

The latter includes a Vinylphyle Edition, featuring the original album in both mono and stereo, and a Definitive Sound Series Audiophile Edition. A collectible Zoetrope vinyl edition of the album will also be available”.

Wouldn’t It Be Nice, Sloop John B, and God Only Knows are perhaps the best-known and admired songs from the album. A chart success and critically acclaimed, in years since its release, Pet Sounds is seen one of the most important albums ever. The production of Brian Wilson makes Pet Sounds what it is. In terms of his ambitious and vision. Symphonic, epic, beautiful and multi-layered, it is a big reason why Pet Sounds has endured for decades. Apologies if I have included this information in previous features. However, it is worth revisiting. I want to start with this feature and their view that Pet Sounds remains a work of art. Lacking any commercial ambition, it is this experimental album that arguably changed music:

“The Beach Boys were probably the last group on earth expected to start a musical revolution. After all, they had built their renown as clean-living all-American kids delivering harmonized hymns that worshipped surfing, girls, and hot rods – the holy trinity of Californian teenagers in the early 60s – over a rocking backbeat that bore a tangible trace of rock and roller Chuck Berry‘s musical DNA. And yet, in May 1966, the Hawthorne-hailing group – consisting of the Wilson brothers Brian, Carl, and Dennis, together with their cousin Mike Love and family friend Al Jardine – unleashed an audacious sonic experiment they called Pet Sounds. It was a collection of songs that would quickly cause a paradigm shift in pop.

Few pop albums – before or since – have enjoyed the notoriety of Pet Sounds, which for decades has been showered with almost every accolade imaginable and continues to be a high achiever in magazine polls ranking the best pop and rock LPs of all time. It is pop music’s equivalent to what Citizen Kane is to the world of cinema; a universally recognized masterpiece that defined a new era while simultaneously redefining the art form it represented.

Despite its fame, Pet Sounds still remains an unexplored country for some, who may have heard of the album but are unaware of its significance. For the uninitiated, then, this article intends to answer some of the fundamental questions about what is undoubtedly the Beach Boys’ – and possibly pop’s – greatest album.

Why is Pet Sounds so important?

Quite simply, Pet Sounds ushered in a new approach to album making that revolutionized popular music. It was shaped by the musical sensibilities of songwriter/producer Brian Wilson, whose collection of carefully crafted pocket pop symphonies was unlike anything the Beach Boys – or any band for that matter – had done before. It brought about seismic changes to the landscape of pop music with its unusual sonics, novel textures, and structural innovations.

Pet Sounds didn’t follow the format of conventional pop albums of the day; It wasn’t merely a collection of disparate songs that combined a couple of hit singles with reheated covers, as was the norm in the mid-’60s; rather. It was conceived as a coherent work of art where every song – even every note – counted. Nothing was inconsequential; even the album’s two instrumental tracks, “Let’s Go Away For A While” and “Pet Sounds,” were integral to the record’s narrative arc.

How and when did the album get written?

Brian Wilson began writing the material for the album alongside a new collaborator, lyricist Tony Asher, when the rest of The Beach Boys were performing in Japan and Hawaii in January 1966. (Wilson, a nervous flyer, had quit touring with the band a year earlier). One of the tracks that ended up on the album – “Sloop John B.,” an adaptation of a traditional Bahamian folk song – was already in the can, cut in 1965, but the remaining 12 songs were recorded at three Hollywood studios (United Western Recorders, Gold Star Studios, and Sunset Sound Recorders) between January 18 and April 13, 1966, with Chuck Blitz engineering.

What influences shaped the album?

Producer Phil Spector, famed for his signature “wall of sound” approach to making records, had a profound impact on Brian Wilson’s production style and directly influenced Pet Sounds‘ multi-layered recording technique as well as its cavernous reverb effects. Another, perhaps bigger, influence on Pet Sounds was The Beatles‘ groundbreaking Rubber Soul album. Wilson heard it in late 1965, and later described it in his autobiography, I Am Brian Wilson, as “probably the greatest record ever…where everything flows together and everything works.” Ultimately, however, Pet Sounds transcended its influences”.

I am going to come to Classic Rock and their feature from last year. Also heralding how this experimental album was not aiming for the charts or to be like any other Pop album, “Brian Wilson threw away his Beach Boys’ template, assembled a battalion of top session players, and began recording an all-time classic”. Sixty years after its release, can you say that any other album sounds like it? Even if The Beatles’ Revolver and Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967) revolutionised culture and defined the 1960s, I feel Pet Sounds has something special about it no other album does:

“I used to refer to him as the Stalin of the studio,” laughs Mike Love, Wilson’s cousin and who sang on many of the Beach Boys hits. “He was totally in command up to Pet Sounds and Smile [the legendarily aborted project Wilson undertook after Pet Sounds, with collaborator Van Dyke Parks]. After that, the influence of LSD made him withdrawn, a recluse almost.”

Wilson talks in terse monosyllables, at this moment eager to be anywhere else but here being interviewed about his most famous and most lauded work. At times he can seem like a fidgety, barely interested kid at school – Adult Child is the name of an unreleased album that Wilson worked on simultaneously to Smile (another unissued Wilson album, which came out in bootleg form in 1992, was titled Sweet Insanity) – but he focuses in fits and starts as he recalls the highlights of that momentous period.

Wouldn’t It Be Nice might have been the opener on Pet Sounds, but side one closer Sloop John B was the first track to completed. A cover of an old folk song, it was the anomaly on this song cycle about love and hope, regret and sorrow, and yet its lustrous orchestration was typical of the album.

The other Beach Boys – Brian’s brothers Carl (guitar) and Dennis (drums), plus Johnston, Love and Al Jardine (guitar) – may have barely contributed instrumentally to the album (That’s Not Me was one of their few showcases as musicians), but their signature vocal harmonies throughout are stunning: on the hymnal You Still Believe In Me they sound like a choir; the chord sequence for Don’t Talk (Put Your Head On My Shoulder) was so affecting it reduced Brian’s then-wife Marilyn to tears; I Know There’s An Answer was originally going to be called Hang On To Your Ego, but it was Love who apparently deemed it too weird and druggy and insisted on the change; I Just Wasn’t Made For These Times was the perfect title for this staggeringly beautiful song about alienation.

There were two instrumentals on Pet Sounds: Let’s Go Away For A While, which nodded to that other sublime 60s melodist Burt Bacharach, and the title track, briefly mooted as a James Bond theme (with the title Run James Run). Finally, there was Caroline, No, a deeply autobiographical song – the only one on the album to have lyrics written by Brian – full of yearning for a girl, and a past, that could never be recovered.

It was actually released as a Brian Wilson solo single, but, as he recalls, it barely charted. “It didn’t go over very well,” he says. “But it was a very pretty tune.”

Mike Love, who wrote the words for many of the Beach Boys’ songs before Pet Sounds, was a voracious reader himself. Although as a lyricist he’s best known for early hits such as Fun, Fun, Fun and California Girls, which crystallised the idea of the Beach Boys as frothy pleasure seekers, it was Love who, having listened to Wilson’s deeply sad music for the pre-Pet Sounds ballad The Warmth Of The Sun, wrote a poignant lyric for it about loss (it was written on the eve of the assassination of US president John F Kennedy). And it was Love who wrote the words to Pet Sounds songs Wouldn’t It Be Nice, I Know There’s An Answer and I’m Waiting For The Day, which essayed a sort of pop existentialism.

“I was reading just about every kind of philosophy there was, from Rosicrucian to Vedic, and poets such as Emerson,” Love recalls of the time. “I guess that’s what made me the songwriting partner for Brian, because I had a natural affinity for concepts and lyrics.”

Love would write the lyrics to Wilson’s next sonic departure, Good Vibrations, a boy-girl love song wrapped in LSD clothing, all psychedelic imagery and flower-power vibes. He notes the two factions in the Beach Boys: those who experimented with stimulants (the Wilson brothers), and the Love/Jardine/Johnston axis that didn’t”.

I will finish with this review from Treblezine, as it is a really interesting read. I wonder how people will write about Pet Sounds ahead of its sixtieth anniversary on 16th May. I must have heard songs from Pet Sounds  when I was a child. I could sense then how significant the album was:

“For most of my adult life, I haven’t been someone who cried often. It’s not a masculinity thing—that’s never mattered much to me. I don’t feel weird about telling friends I love them, giving them a warm embrace or sharing my insecurities, and perhaps that vulnerability can still come across as guarded. But my natural demeanor is low-key and easy-going, a quality that’s been an asset as a journalist—I tend to think I put interview subjects at ease—and during some of the most trying crises of young adulthood.

It wasn’t until my thirties that I began to notice a change. On an otherwise uneventful weekday morning I found myself tearing up while listening to Angel Olsen’s “Windows,” a song that’s delicate and beautiful in its simple message to find a positive ray of light to hang onto. I can’t explain exactly why it hit me so directly in that moment and burrowed directly into a part of myself that even I never see, but I couldn’t fight it. That cool exterior was starting to fracture, and I began to notice those high-pressure emotional leaks happening more often. Like whenever I watch Anya try and frustratedly fail to understand death and grieving in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode, “The Body.” Or when Tina shows up to Louise’s poetry reading on Bob’s Burgers‘ “The Plight Before Christmas.” I barely held it together while recently watching Ratboys perform the title track of their last album The Window, and then on the drive home felt that same catch in my throat when I heard Waxahatchee’s “Right Back to It.” It’s a weird thing to suddenly find yourself hostage to an image or a timbre or a melody or a harmony. I should probably be used to it now, but I’m still adjusting to this relatively new norm.

When I saw Brian Wilson perform The Beach Boys‘ landmark 1966 album Pet Sounds in its entirety in San Diego in 2016, however, I knew what was coming, and yet I still wasn’t prepared for it. For the first 11 songs, the legendary Beach Boys songwriter, backed by a band that also featured his former bandmate Al Jardine, kept it light and breezy, flipping through the group’s catalog of songs both beachy (“California Girls”) and baroque (“Heroes and Villains”), even leading a sing-along of “Row Your Boat” before kicking off the main event with “Wouldn’t It Be Nice?” In fact, he even rowed that very boat again just before “God Only Knows.” But once he sang that opening line—”I may not always love you/But as long as there are stars above you…“—my defenses collapsed on that warm summer evening, the dam not so much breaking as springing a leak that I haven’t been able to successfully patch.

If the songs Wilson wrote for [Pet Sounds‘] planned follow-up, Smile, were teenage symphonies to God, as he famously said, the songs on Pet Sounds comprise an operetta of disillusionment.

A quick survey on social media of friends and colleagues who attended the show reported very much the same thing. Brian Wilson, his voice weathered from age and decades of trauma, could still evoke such powerful emotional reactions in cynical millennial and Gen-X musicians and journalists. Pet Sounds, Wilson’s greatest achievement in a career of many highs, has that power.

There are millions, billions of words written about Pet Sounds for its innovations in pop-song arrangements and lyrical introspection—all of which are true. (Except for the ones decrying it as overrated, but such is the burden of a legendary set of music.) In that sense, it’s much like The Beatles’ Revolver, released that same year, one of two 1966 albums that forever changed the landscape of pop music and whose influence remains palpable in music made more than 50 years later. In fact, the two artists played a ping-ponging game of influencing each other, Wilson first taking inspiration from The Beatles’ own Rubber Soul, and then Paul McCartney being inspired to write “Here, There and Everywhere” after hearing “God Only Knows.”

There are perhaps just as many but arguably still not enough about how this is a record about feelings more than chord charts, about being saved by love and love that can’t be saved—about the unbearable weight of the world and perhaps the even more unbearable chasm of one’s own self worth. If the songs Wilson wrote for its planned follow-up, Smile, were teenage symphonies to God, as he famously said, the songs on Pet Sounds comprise an operetta of disillusionment. But it’s one still kissed by a Pacific Ocean breeze, carrying a sweetness that prevents it from ever tumbling into full-blown bummer.

In the early 1960s, Hawthorne, California’s Beach Boys—featuring brothers Brian, Carl and Dennis Wilson, along with cousin Mike Love—became hitmakers on a string of singles that celebrated a beachy Southern California lifestyle. Their first three albums each feature “Surf” in the title, and two more include the word “Summer.” Though by only a few years in, Wilson’s aptitude for more intricate arrangements began to show through highlights like “All Summer Long,” and on standouts such as “In My Room,” he even showcased the kind of vulnerability and introspection that permeated the ballads of Pet Sounds. In hindsight, Pet Sounds seems inevitable, Wilson cultivating an open wound salted with baroque pop arrangements, but there’s something strangely intangible about its effect on a listener, something that’s better felt than analyzed.

The creative direction of Brian Wilson has led to frequent mention of Pet Sounds as being a solo album—a suggestion that’s both indisputable truth and miles from it. The album saw Wilson—increasingly dabbling in cannabis and psychedelics use—taking nearly complete creative control over the project, with songs that traveled far afield from the group’s typical fun-in-the-sun fare. Even its exotica-tinged instrumentals like “Let’s Go Away for a While” carry an undercurrent of melancholy, while the one song that very literally features the ocean as its mise-en-scène, a cover of Jamaican folk standard “Sloop John B,” is as much a litany of disappointment and dejection as anything else here. It’s single, “Caroline, No,” was even released as a Brian Wilson solo track, further reinforcing the idea of this being entirely a record of Wilson’s own vision.

And yet the album is a grand undertaking, featuring string and horn arrangements and dozens of musicians, including the famed session group The Wrecking Crew, which included bassist Carol Kaye, drummer Hal Blaine, and guitarist and country artist Glen Campbell, who took over Wilson’s vocal duties when the group’s leader ceased touring. Not to mention the countless curious details that arise throughout its 36 minutes: the harp plucks that open “Wouldn’t It Be Nice?”; the bicycle horn that honks at the close of “You Still Believe In Me”; the Theremin solo on “I Just Wasn’t Made For These Times.”

Pet Sounds is also propelled by the same driving force behind every prior Beach Boys album: the mesmerizing, intricate harmonies of the Beach Boys themselves. Despite the oft-mentioned lore of tension behind the scenes, Wilson’s change of direction on Pet Sounds took some getting used to for most members of the Beach Boys, but didn’t create major rifts, at least not initially. And Carl insisted that the group loved the album, despite suggestions to the contrary. Yet Mike Love was the most vocally averse to scrapping the easy pop hooks for something more nuanced and complex. “Mike’s a formula hound – if it doesn’t have a hook in it, if he can’t hear a hook in it, he doesn’t want to know about it,” Jardine said in an interview with Goldmine in 2000. However, Love was the only member who was consulted by Wilson and likewise heard early versions of the songs, which Wilson played for him over the phone.

Yet regardless of who we literally hear on Pet Sounds, we’re hearing Brian, whose own private world was increasingly growing unsteady as his marriage was falling apart and drug use was growing more frequent. At times it sounds hopeful, as on opener “Wouldn’t It Be Nice?”, which paints a picture of domestic bliss: “Wouldn’t it be nice to live together/In the kind of world where we belong?” But the subtext is what’s not being said, at least not so explicitly. As a friend of mine once retorted, “It would be nice—but it ain’t gonna happen.”

From there the feelings of sadness and inadequacy only intensify, highlighting things we perhaps all see in ourselves even if we’d rather not acknowledge them. “You Still Believe In Me” never fails to wreck me, underlining its confessions of low self-worth with gentle expressions of love and gratitude toward someone still providing the kind of support we all seek: “I know perfectly well I’m not where I should be/I’ve been very aware you’ve been patient with me.” By contrast, Wilson is the one providing support on the sweetly melancholy “Don’t Talk (Put Your Head on My Shoulder)”. In closing side A with “Sloop John B,” the members of the group all get a chance to shine, swapping verses and engaging in the kind of group sing-along that connects it more directly to previous Beach Boys releases. Yet for how upbeat and joyous it feels, the overall takeaway is one of frustration and futility: “I feel so broke up, I wanna go home.”

A plink of organ and burst of French horn in the intro of “God Only Knows” kicks off the album’s second side, and with it, a complete 180-degree turn from the optimistic hopelessness of “Wouldn’t It Be Nice?” That it opens with the line “I may not always love you” suggests a kind of bleak resignation, but it’s the kind of head fake we also hear in a song like George Jones’ “He Stopped Loving Her Today.” For the rest of the first verse—”...but as long as there are stars above you/You need never to doubt it/I’ll make you so sure about it“—confirms that only the death of the universe itself would derail that devotion. It’s a heartachingly sweet song that merely sounds sad, a ray of light emanating from a field of despair—if it makes McCartney choke up, what chance would I have?

Yet just as Wilson and company allow that drop of sweetness to ripple, the bitterness returns. “I Just Wasn’t Made for These Times,” my personal favorite song on the album, glides on the wheeze of a harmonium as Wilson laments a timeline connected by disappointment after disappointment: “Each time things start to happen again/I think I got something going good for myself/But what goes wrong.” Decades later that very song scored one of the greatest moments in scripted television, the backdrop of a scene on Mad Men where Roger Stirling takes LSD with his wife Jane before their own marriage comes to its inevitable end. And on closing track “Caroline, No”—originally titled “Carol, I Know,” named for collaborator and lyricist Tony Asher’s ex-girlfriend, with whom he had recently broken up—the love that buoyed a broken man is ultimately gone for good: “Where is the girl I used to know? How could you lose that happy glow?“

There’s a certain interpretation of Pet Sounds as a concept album about a relationship that eventually comes to an end, though in its meticulous encapsulation of the spectrum of human emotion, it’s not nearly that linear. The estrangement in “Caroline, No” is evident from “Wouldn’t It Be Nice?” but not necessarily in “Don’t Talk (Put Your Head On My Shoulder)” or “God Only Knows.” It’s an album about breakups in some sense, but it’s also about love, growing up and learning to understand yourself—your failures, faults and all. It’s maybe pop music’s most beautifully written document of personal frailties and insecurities, and if it makes you cry, well, you’re only human”.

A symphonic and groundbreaking album that transformed Pop music and what it could be, The Beatles would bring out Revolver three months after Pet Sounds. Sixty years after its release and Pet Sounds is still this glorious thing. If you have not played it in a while, then you really do need to immerse yourself in the album. Its genius and legacy is…

BEYOND words.

FEATURE: Spotlight: Ms Banks

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

  

Ms Banks

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EVEN if she has released…

mixtapes before, including 2022’s Bank Statement, SOUTH LDN LOVER GIRL is seen as her debut album. I am including Ms Banks in my Spotlight feature now, as this is a big moment. I have known about her music ever since 2014’s mixtape, Once Upon a Grind. Born Thyra Kigho Deshaun Oji in south London, here is one of our finest rappers putting out an incredible and accomplished debut album. Despite the fact in the past she cited Nicki Minaj as her biggest influence – given Minaj’s Donald Trump love, maybe that has dented her respect for Minaj -, this is a distinct and original artist who very much stands in her own lane. However, it would be great for her to hook up with Megan Thee Stallion or Ms. Lauryn Hill. I shall end with a couple of reviews for SOUTH LDN LOVER GIRL. Before that, there are some interviews to cover off. Music Week discussed the road to making her debut album. In the industry for over a decade, this might be her biggest and most important year:

“You started releasing music more than 10 years ago – why is now the right time for a debut album?

“I’ve always wanted to release an album. I could have probably released one ages ago. I started having a breakthrough moment in 2019 and I was quite eager to [put an album out], but I always had a lot of people in my ear making me feel like I wasn’t ready. I decided I was just gonna put out an album because I’m so tired of this narrative of, ‘You’re never going to be ready.’ But in all honesty, I don’t really regret my timing, because I feel like I’m in a place where I can be my most authentic self. I’m quite vulnerable on the album, and I feel like it’s taken years of growth – like I’ve finally just circled back to who I truly am at my core.”

Why did you choose to partner with Believe for the record?

“I really liked my A&R there [Bridie Asare, A&R manager]. I feel like she understood what I was trying to deliver. I liked her energy a lot, and I also felt like they had other artists prior to me that fit in my world, and they’ve had success with them. So I thought it would be a good match. I feel like they do believe in my vision.”

What would success with this album look like for you?

“Number one is cultural impact. Something that is timeless, that other young Black female rappers can look at in 10 years and be like, ‘Listen to Ms Banks’ South LDN Lover Girl if you want to know what a good or great album should sound like.’ Also, hopefully, some chart success. It would be nice to have a debut moment on the Official Charts – I would love that. But hey, I’ll definitely take the cultural impact first”.

Finally, you’ve played shows with Nicki Minaj, Megan Thee Stallion, Cardi B and more. You must have some memorable stories from the road?

“There’s so many! I really connected with Megan Thee Stallion. That was my first arena tour as a special guest, and it was amazing. We have a really good friendship outside of music, so we got to party together a lot after the shows and had a really good time in Amsterdam one night. She reminds me of myself, but from the US. She always says, ‘Banks, if I lived in the UK, you would be my best friend.’ I’m like, ‘You’re actually so cute, because I feel like we are similar in a sense, both tall, both Black,’ and I feel like she gets it as well. I’ve seen her go through a lot with the media and, as a Black woman, having her emotions or stories discounted and people not believing her for whatever reason. We had a good time just chopping it up. She’s also into fitness and she got me in that bag as well, which is cute, because when it came time to support on tour, I was arena-ready!”.

It would be great to see Ms Banks working on record with someone like Cardi B. However, I think one of the strengths of SOUTH LDN LOVER GIRL is how Ms Banks does not pack too many collaborators in there. It is her voice and vision that is focused on. If some feel that her best work is still ahead, I do think that her album that has just come out is amazing.

Prior to getting to some reviews of SOUTH LDN LOVER GIRL, there is one more interview to get to. Rolling Stone UK spoke with Ms Banks, who provided a track-by-track guide to the album. I have selected a few tracks to focus on.

“I really just wanted a strong start for the project. I took a lot of inspiration from Meek Mill’s ‘Dreams and Nightmares’ and Cardi B’s ‘Get Up 10’. I wanted something hard-hitting that captures you from the jump start and really build the scene of what a south London soundtrack would sound like in my mind.

‘WHY?’

I really just wanted to have a vulnerable moment and express the questions that go through my mind when I do sometimes feel down or defeated. I’m never the type to go through life being like, “Woe, is me” or, “Why me?” But sometimes I do question my circumstances. I always find a way to make the best of a bad situation and find a resolution and take accountability for my life where I can.

‘POV’

“Could you see my point of view, if I said 2 things could be true?” ‘POV’ is about the juxtaposition of being beautiful on the outside but having feelings and thoughts that aren’t so beautiful on the inside and seeing if a potential partner can accept you, flaws and all. Will you stick around when I’m not so done up? When I don’t feel so good? When you realise how much I need and how much patience I may not have… Can you? Will you?

‘SOUTH LDN LOVER GIRL’

The title track… whew, where do I start. This really is the glue to the project, inspired by two very true stories that are very close to home. On this track, we focus on romance crimes and domestic violence. South London girls tend to have a bad rep but all the girls I know from the ends have always had soft heart under a hard exterior. Due to not being shown what real love is, sometimes we fall in traps and end up giving the best parts of ourselves to people that don’t deserve it. No matter how tough we come across, most of us just want to love and be loved, the right way.

‘HEALING’

Keeping the afro/amapiano vibes high, ‘HEALING’ is a standout track for me. Coming to a close of the project, it’s like I’m having a real realisation of all the things I may need. I’m looking for all these things to make me feel better, whether it’s love or success. Within that, I realise the grace God has had in my life. I remember the day I’ve made this record, I just felt depleted. I don’t believe in writers block, but I just couldn’t come up with anything to really portray how I felt. Me freestyling on the mic is how the hook came to be and the rest was history”.

If you are unfamiliar with Ms Banks or only have heard her earliest work, I would urge you to check out SOUTH LDN LOVER GIRL. It is a stunning album from a modern great. I am going to move to Shatter the Standards and their opinions on SOUTH LDN LOVER GIRL. I am not sure if I have a standout track from the album, though the title track might be at the top of the list at the moment:

“Twelve years is a long time to call yourself an emerging artist. A mixtape in 2014, an EP, two more tapes, a number-one slot on the UK Hip-Hop and R&B Charts, opening for Cardi B, a MAGA Minaj co-sign that started with an unprompted tweet and ended with a spot on the NickiWrldTour, a BRIT Awards performance filling in alongside Little Mix, a Queen’s Jubilee set with Duran Duran and Nile Rodgers, a Fire in the Booth on 1Xtra that still gets cited as one of the best the segment has aired. All of that, and no album. Ms Banks, born Thyra Oji, raised on Walworth Road in Elephant and Castle to a Nigerian father and Ugandan mother, took her time. SOUTH LDN LOVER GIRL carries the weight of a career’s worth of unspent material, and it sounds like someone who decided that if the debut was finally coming, nothing would stay buried.

The album’s first words are a woman staring in a mirror and seeing a Black woman staring back. “Second generation,” she raps, “but first place for the cream.” Her nan came over and paved the way, and if the line don’t work, the trap won’t work, the lights won’t work. She doesn’t want a blue-collar shirt. The streets turned her into a thug, but all she wanted was to love. Two songs later, “Catch You Lackin’” picks up the same geography and sharpens it into pure menace. She grew up in South and it made her a soldier, she rolls with the youngers and fucks with the olders. And then the title track shows you what those streets can actually cost. A girl named Rih holds a gun for her boyfriend while he dodges the feds. She takes a cab to the West End to meet a friend, leaves the bag with the strap in the backseat, and gets arrested before he even makes it home. A second story follows a man called Jack with untreated mental health issues and weed-induced psychosis. He kills his girlfriend Pam, her mum, her nan, and her dad. The song closes with a line about migrants not being wanted in the United Kingdom. Banks recounts both stories in full, without commentary, letting the facts carry the horror.

On “WHY?,” she points the question at the whole system. Why is she more at risk in labour due to race? Why is she told it’d be better if she was light-skinned, that she’d have more global appeal? Why was a woman found dead in her house while police stayed outside for twenty minutes after neighbors called? The track runs as a series of questions with no one to answer them, and the refrain boils it down to seven words: stressed out, worked up, diamond in the rough. “WORK HARDER” picks up the thread. Sampling Layyah on the hook, “It’s hard being a woman, let alone one that is Black,: and Banks turns the verse personal. What does she say to her little sister when the workplace isn’t fucking with her? She went to Spain and her only souvenir was watching her brother sell sunglasses at the seashore. Banks declares she loves her country but wonders what happens when it doesn’t love her back. The upbeat “4C” flips the same anger into something brasher. Hair 4C, no BBL, no filler, she wears her Afro like a crown and calls out the lip filler trend with the confidence of someone who has settled the argument for herself. “POV” unsettles that confidence by asking a partner whether he’d still love her in the morning with no makeup, if she stopped doing music, if the stories he heard about her turned out to be true. She wants to know if two things can be true at the same time.

Scattered across the LP in different moods, the love songs pull in several directions at once. “NO LOVE” is the coldest of them—she only wants sex if it comes with a Rolex or big checks, she watches men like movies but doesn’t entertain them, and the hook asks what type of villain breaks hearts in the streets, while interpolating Shyne’s “Bad Boyz.” “S.O.S” is almost the opposite. “He feels like home,” she writes, and if they mess up they can do it over. “THE ONE” admits she doesn’t want to be alone. Those two positions, charge it to the game and please don’t leave me, exist on the same record without anyone picking a winner, and that honesty is the point. “IDK” brings Zinoleesky for a lighter cut about physical attraction that might be something deeper, and “WAR OUTSIDE” with Strandz poses the simplest version of the question: would you ride for me? The range between these songs is wider than most UK rap debuts would attempt, moving from transactional sex talk to quiet need within a few tracks.

“ME & YOU (OUTRO)” is the song the rest of the project has been protecting. Banks addresses herself as Tyra, her real name, and walks through her childhood on Penborough Estate—doing crime, smoking blem at ten with her white friends Tommy, Danny, Chelsea, and Alex, shotting a little weed. She and a friend shared a birthday and butted heads because they were both Aries. Then the song arrives at the disclosure everything else was circling:

“There was a night that he touched you
That time in Dad’s house, mentally and physically, he fucked you.”

She instructs herself not to talk about the taint of being abused, to become a shadow of yourself with nothing to lose. She labels the men who do this sadistic and adds that they treat you like a statistic. And then the track turns. She speaks directly to herself—“Yeah, Thyra, all the things you used to dream about, you live it, Thyra—and closes: “You done it, Thyra. I’m proud of you.” The specificity of those names, those streets, that abuse, lodges the song somewhere you can’t shake it. It is the most unguarded moment on any UK rap debut in recent memory. SOUTH LDN LOVER GIRL is a strong debut from someone who could’ve made a passable one years ago. Banks spent a decade in the conversation as a rapper. This LP proves something bigger. She’s a writer with range, nerve, and the willingness to say her own name out loud when it counts”.

The final thing I am including is a review from CLASH. Even if SOUTH LDN LOVER GIRL does have its heart in the U.K. Rap scene, there are new elements and layers to this album. Spoken word finding its way in. There are many more albums to come from this monumental talent. Someone who is inspiring so many others at the moment:

“Ms Banks – real name Thyra Kigho Deshaun Oji – has never shied away from having bold opinions; whether that’s advocating for equal pay for women, young black men’s mental health, or explicating what it means to be a second-generation African descendant in today’s myopic world. With a clean, clinical style that blends homegrown rap and R&B with Afrobeats, long-gestating new album ‘SOUTH LDN LOVER GIRL’ toes the line between commercial-leaning bangers and communal confessionals that dig deeper into her psyche.

The title track ‘SOUTH LDN LOVER GIRL’ opens the album as it means to go on, a slowed-down Afrobeats groove laced with samples and idioms that hit harder than the music first lets on. If heard in a café or from a car with the window down, you wouldn’t be wrong for thinking it was another calming rap number, but once you tune in to the caustic lyrics, you’ll find an angst-ridden cautionary tale of addiction and the how some are more predisposed to a life of crime than others. The track ends with a charged diatribe against anti-migrant sentiment, Ms Banks’ pride in her upbringing lifting the number above the usual radio fodder.

The album sticks to Ms Banks roots in the UK rap scene but sees her explore elements of spoken word, either by herself or through samples. Banks embraces the role of storyteller and how it can rouse the disenchanted. It’s these zoned-in, real-life and politicised moments that gives the project its heft – take the ‘Intro’ which ends with a news briefing of when Diane Abbott receiving a death threat from a powerful Tory donor.

‘Catch You Lackin’ hits like a warning shot, a heavy drill-inflected number where Ms Banks shuts down her detractors with the cool, unflinching confidence that has defined her earlier repertoire. The track ends with a touching 30-second rumination questioning what it means to be loved, contemplating whether she, or other South London girls like her, have actually ever been taught how to give and receive love. This moment halfway through the epitomises the duality of this record; the raw introspection and classic, club-honed sound that’s become her signature.

Ms Banks ensures ‘SOUTH LDN LOVER GIRL’ is a powerful paean for young black women. The song ‘4C’ relates to the curls and texture of Ms Banks’ hair – the curliest of curls on the spectrum – and how she’s found strength in her features. Referencing how other women get lip fillers to gain Afro-centric features whilst black women are racialised and vilified, Ms Banks layers whip-smart lyricism over propulsive dancing beat: There’s poetic pride in this anthem.

‘SOUTH LDN LOVER GIRL’ strikes just the right balance between feel-good anthemics and a bracing origin story birthed in the streets, between moments of confrontation and playfulness. It’s a premise we hope Ms Banks builds on as she progresses and evolves, peeling back the layers even further. For now, the album affirms Ms Banks as a true voice from the streets”.

We have some amazing British Rap/Hip-Hop queens that you should know. Alongside a modern great like Little Simz are Ivorian Doll and Cristale. I feel that Ms Banks stands with the very best. SOUTH LDN LOVER GIRL confirms that she is a major talent. It is exciting to see…

WHAT comes next for her.

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Follow Ms Banks

FEATURE: No Sweat? A New Era and Huge Year for the Iconic Melanie C

FEATURE:

 

 

No Sweat?

PHOTO CREDIT: Oliver Begg for Stellar

 

A New Era and Huge Year for the Iconic Melanie C

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THERE are going to be…

PHOTO CREDIT: Charles Dennington

a few interviews dropped in here, in addition to a few of songs from Melanie C’s upcoming album, Sweat. That album arrives on 1st May. Whilst known as ‘Sporty Spice’ during her regency with the Spice Girls – more on them soon -, she is perhaps at her most energised and fit now. Looking sensational and delivering these high-intensity photos, you feel like Sweat has a double meaning. This icon, now fifty-two, in peak physical health and absolutely stunning; perhaps pushing back at ageism and sexism. Women in music seen as over the hill or irrelevant when they past forty. Though things have improved slightly the past few years, you still get stations with strict demographics. Songs from Sweat will not be played as wide as they should, even though they are from a legend of music who has had a hand in some of the most important Pop music of the past thirty years. Sweat is also a call to the Club. The sort of ecstasy and euphoria she experienced in the early part of the 1990s, before she found fame with Spice Girls. I have been a huge fan of Melanie C since the Spice Girls’ stunning debut single, Wannabe. I am going to come to interviews with Melanie C. Snippets from a couple from this year. An opinion piece that argues she is Pop’s most underrated icon. A Dance icon. We look at artists like Dua Lipa, Charli xcx and younger acts. Melanie C is right up there with the best and most relevant queens of Pop, I feel. I covered the Spice Girls recently when there was talk they may reunite. She revealed in a recent interview with Stellar in Australia how Spice Girls faced sexism early on. Ageism took. I am going to pop this interview in below, in addition to others. However, there are some important Spice Girls things to cover off.

This music queen is in a year where she is looking ahead and releasing stunning new music, but also there will be nostalgia and this huge anniversary coming up. Released in Japan on 26th June, 1996 and 8th July, 1996 in the U.K., this is an absolutely huge moment! I am not sure what is planned in terms of celebrations. However, it must be quite nerve-wracking, as people will ask about a Spice Girls reunion. Will they do some gigs to mark thirty years of Wannabe?! Their debut album, Spice, turns thirty on 19th September. I guess there will be a vinyl reissue and things around that. Melanie C has said how she and the rest of the group – Geri Halliwell-Horner, Emma Bunton, Melanie Brown and Victoria Beckham – are wary of doing a reunion wrong. Rushing it or it being seen as a cash-in. Maybe not giving the fans what they deserve. There has been talk for ages and reasons why they have not performed. The group not all on the same page. Some divisions maybe. However, in a year where they mark thirty years since their debut single arrives, fans from the 1990s and new alike crave this event to happen! It is impossible to mark that thirtieth without something happening. Unlike Oasis, I cannot see the five-piece going on a big tour – gauging fans with eye-watering ticket prices in the process – and that being that (though you feel the Gallaghers might get back on stage in the future). Perhaps a couple of gigs or a special one-off. You do feel like they all have their own stuff going on. That is especially true for Melanie C.

Embarking on this new album, Sweat, and getting that out there. Also, that fear of ageism and sexism lingers now. I feel like Sweat will be reviewed a certain way and restricted in terms of where it is played. Have Heart, Radio 1, Capital and other stations spun it? I do think that, when you are a woman over the age of thirty-five or forty, stations seen as ‘younger-focused’ overlook your music. I am sure these stations have played Melanie C recently, through given how incredible recent singles have been and how important she is, why has she not been given unquestioning airplay and respect?! I am eager to see what Spice Girls-related things happen later this year. Wannabe still sounds so fresh and vital today. You can hear major artists of today who, consciously or not, nod back to Spice Girls. Sabrina Carpenter is someone I imagine being a fa of the group. Addison Rae too. You can hear the whole interview below. However, this article notes how, personally, this is a happy time for Melanie C:

“This week, the former Spice Girl told the Stellar podcast her perspective on work/life balance has really changed since she met her now-partner, Australian model and filmmaker Chris Dingwall, a few years ago.

“The grass is always greener, isn’t it? As an artist, I love what I do and in the last couple of years since meeting my partner, I’ve really started to accept that my work is such a big part of my life,” she told Something To Talk About host Sarrah Le Marquand.

“Rather than separating work and life, I enjoy them both together, which has been a big shift for me,” she continued.

“I think that really happened after I met my partner, Chris. He is able to travel with me a lot. “He’s a screenwriter so he can often work from anywhere and that usually means with me, which is good for me.

“It’s just so beautiful to be able to enjoy the life I have with the person I love.”

It’s believed the couple first crossed paths in 2023 when Mel was touring around Australia as a DJ.

Speculation that the pair were dating increased after they posted similar photos from the same hotels to their respective Instagram accounts around the same time.

In July 2025, Mel confirmed their relationship, posting a carousel of loved-up photos from a recent holiday on her Instagram with the caption: “A slice of paradise”.

Elsewhere in the interview, the Never Be The Same Again singer opened up about the Spice Girls’ secret group chats.

“I’ve got in trouble for saying this in the past but all friendship groups have this,” she said.

“We have different ones with different people in [them].

“But the one that makes me laugh – it’s so funny, over the years we have this running joke where everything is Mel B’s idea.

“So the group chat that she started is called ‘My idea’ and she will definitely be the one sending the funny messages.

“I said to Emma [Bunton] once: you know, you’re the only person who’s not got a group chat without you in it. And she’s like, what do you mean? You’re so diplomatic.”

One of the things they’ve discussed on those group chats? A potential Australian reunion tour.

“It would be wonderful. It’s incredible to think ‘Spice Mania’, which is what I call the period between 1996 and 1998, was only two years,” she said.

“We went on tour in 1998 and we toured Europe and North America and they’re the only places we ended up getting to. America didn’t even see the original five Spice Girls because Geri had left by then.

“Our live performances were quite limited and that breaks my heart because that’s my favourite part – so I’d be the first person to put my hand up to tour Australia, followed closely by Mel B, probably”.

Apologies for lazily or oddly dropping in video interviews and songs in the middle of seemingly unconnected interviews. There is a tonne of stuff I want to include. It is clear that there is part of Melanie C always with the Spice Girls. This year is one where she is thinking back to 1996 and breaking through with the group. I can only imagine the pressure she must feel from those who want the group to get back on stage or do something special. However, it has to be right and they all have to agree.

However, she also is looking ahead to Sweat and tour dates. I will bring in a review for the title track soon. There are a couple of interviews from this year that I want to get to. Incidentally, go and follow Melanie C on Instagram, as it is fascinating seeing everything related to Sweat revealed. This is a massive year for her. I am pumped for new music but, as a fan of Spice Girls, that side of things too. I want to head back to earlier in the year when The Times spent time with Melanie C. Actually, they talked about Spice Girls and asked if a reunion as going to happen:

“Was that the Spice Girls’ experience? “No, we called the shots.” You did? “Oh yeah. But I was shocked. I did a panel a couple of years ago with Leigh-Anne [Pinnock] from Little Mix, Shaznay [Lewis] from All Saints, Nicola [Roberts] from Girls Aloud and Keisha [Buchanan] from the Sugababes. I was shocked to hear their stories. Their stories made my blood boil! The experiences they had? I went, ‘What the f***? The Spice Girls, did it mean nothing?’ We thought we were paving the way for everyone else.”

In what way? “When we started we were wet behind the ears. ‘We wanna be famous! We wanna be famous!’ Then people started saying things like, ‘Girls don’t really sell records, not like boy bands. You’ll never be on the cover of Smash Hits, because girls buy the magazine.’ And we were like, ‘F*** that!’ And we started talking about ‘girl power’. When you’re in a band you have to figure out who you are, and we were like, ‘We have to be a girl band, for girls.’ ” One that made the industry reconsider where women stood within it, how powerful they could be and how they deserved to be treated.

“I look back and I think, ‘Wow, you were lucky.’ But I also think we were petrifying. There was something about the energy of the five of us.” You think people were scared of you? “Yes, I do.” You were sort of unknowable, unpredictable, rogue, I say. Like that time Geri pinched Prince Charles’s bottom. “We’d quite revel in that. We were from majority working-class backgrounds, we were going to make music in this heavily male-dominated industry. We had to go in, all guns blazing, make the impact. Sometimes we laugh and go, ‘How did we get away with it?’ But it had to be done.”

PHOTO CREDIT: Claire Rothstein

Like pretty much every celebrity I have ever met, Melanie Chisholm has suffered on account of fame, perhaps as much as she has benefited from it. Perhaps more. “I’ve had some very lonely times in my life,” she tells me. “I’ve had some very difficult times.”

The Spice Girls fizzled out at the end of the Nineties, in a tangle of solo projects that followed the official departure of Geri Halliwell in 1998. In the months before the band’s demise, Chisholm developed issues related to eating, associated with the endless, cruel scrutiny of the tabloid press. “I was exercising more, eating less, getting smaller and smaller.”

Does she think that would have happened to her if she hadn’t been famous? “No, I don’t think it would.” I wonder if the other Spice Girls realised what was happening to her, if they tried to raise it. “Yes, absolutely, it was a very physical thing, very noticeable. When you’re with each other for so much time and your eating habits change, they’re aware. They did try to speak to me, but I wasn’t ready to hear it.”

Chisholm reached rock bottom, she says, after the band ended, when she was trying to find an identity and a career beyond Sporty Spice. She was devastatingly lonely, working and working and neglecting her social life to the point where “I’d come home, and it was just me”. By the millennium new year things had reached breaking point. “I was with my family in LA and I couldn’t get out of bed. I was crying and crying. I’d started having a binge-eating disorder, but I didn’t understand it.” Finally she sought professional help, was diagnosed with both clinical depression and disordered eating, and slowly began to heal.

“When I was pregnant with Scarlet [her daughter, now 16], that was such a huge moment, because for the first time in my life I was proud of my body. I was like, wow.”

PHOTO CREDIT: Claire Rothstein

Scarlet’s father is the property developer Thomas Starr. He and Chisholm were together for ten years before splitting in 2012, when Scarlet was three. Chisholm was in a seven-year relationship from 2015 with Joe Marshall, who was also her manager. “So that was complicated,” she says. For the past two years she has been in a relationship with the Australian model Chris Dingwall.

Are you in love? “I mean, of course!” They met on the celebrity dating app Raya. Is dating as a celebrity a nightmare? I don’t understand how famous people do it. “I don’t understand how anyone does it. When I found myself single, you know what it’s like. You’re like, ‘Not interested, I don’t want to meet anyone ever again.’ Did that for a bit. Then, a night out with the girlfriends, oh, you’ve got to get back in the game! Made me a profile.” She met Chris quickly — “luckily”, as she was already getting tired of men messaging her, “making references to, like, ‘Ooh, Spicy!’”

Dingwall was based in Sydney, Chisholm in north London, but “I had a DJ tour booked in Australia”. They met up, went for dinner, “Been together ever since.” He is good for her because he is incredibly calm, she says. Might she marry him? “You know what? It’s something I didn’t think would be part of my story. But I’m so happy with Chris. Maybe it is something that will be in my life. I just think, just do all the things. Do you know what I mean? Have all the experiences.”

And of course we talk about the Spice Girls. How close are you now? “With the other girls? It fluctuates. Like any friendship group. I’ve always been really close to Emma.”

Are they in a WhatsApp group? “I got in hot water recently. I did an interview with Emma and I said, ‘Oh, you know there’s always a WhatsApp group without you in it, right?’ And she was like, no! But what I was trying to say to Emma is, ‘You’re the only person who is in all the WhatsApps.’ She is that person. She’s never acting up. Everyone else is acting up at some point, but she’s the one who never acts up.”

When was the last time she acted up? “It’s going to be when all this press comes out.” I ask her to give me an example of a Spice Girls WhatsApp group name — one of the ones she’s in. “There’s one Mel [B] started, called My Idea, because everything’s always her idea, allegedly.”

She says she has watched the Victoria Beckham Netflix documentary: “We went to the premiere.” Was that the last time you were all together? Yes. What’s it like? “Well, that was a public event. It’s more fun when it’s just us, and we haven’t changed. It’s like family. You know when you go home and you just fall back into those roles?”

You hate them and you love them and you switch allegiances in a heartbeat and gang up against someone else because it’s funny? “Exactly. People say, ‘Oh, are you still friends?’ It’s more than that. It runs so much deeper. We drive each other mad, you know? Someone is often acting up, and they have to get pulled back into line, but we’d probably go [to war] for each other.”

Professionally, and personally, things seem pretty perfect for her. She tells me she loves DJing, “which I’ve been doing for the past eight years”, and which inspired this album of dance music. She says it’s like she’s picking up that love of raving from where she left off, just before the Spice Girls happened.

And of course I ask her about a future possible Spice reunion. Chisholm has told me that the 2019 reunion tour was wonderful, the first time they’d had the time, space and perspective of age to appreciate “the legacy we’d created. My personal view on this? It’s a public disservice for the Spice Girls to not get back on stage together. You’re speaking to the wrong person, because I’m there, you know?”

I guess there is still a lot of conversation around Spice Girls and their legacy. However, we also need to herald and recognise Melanie C as a phenomenal solo artist. Sweat is this new era. Rather than try to slot in with modern artists and the sound they are making, she is staying true to herself. However, there does seem to be this rise in Dance and Disco. Madonna returning to the dance floor this year for a follow up to her 2005 classic. Kylie Minogue’s previous couple of albums very much immersed in Dance and Disco (more the former I guess). Melanie C following on. However, there is personal resonance and relevance to Sweat and its sound. How she is nodding back to her pre-Spice days and the music she was immersed in. You can pre-order Sweat here:  “Before she became Mel C of the Spice Girls, Melanie Chisolm found herself swept up in the UK's burgeoning '90s rave scene partying to the sounds of Prodigy and Grooverider. Her new solo album Sweat is a love letter to those heady and formative days; an invitation to party, to find community on the dance floor and joy in a dark world. Recorded between London, Stockholm and Sydney, Sweat fuses her past and present - the sport and the spice, the forgotten teenage raver and the accomplished DJ”. Before closing things up, there is an article championing Melanie C and arguing why she is underrated. This is a very special and important artist we all should show more love for:

“When people talk about pop reinvention, the conversation almost always circles back to names like Madonna or Kylie Minogue. Artists who continually reshape their sound, their image, and their relationship with the dance floor.

But there’s another pop icon who deserves to be part of that conversation: Melanie C.

As she releases “Undefeated Champion”, the third single lifted off her forthcoming record, Sweat, it’s becoming increasingly clear that Melanie C has quietly been releasing some of the most compelling – and most underrated – dance-pop of the past five years.

For many listeners, Melanie C will always be synonymous with the global pop explosion of the Spice Girls. Yet if you trace her solo catalogue from the late ’90s to today, what emerges is one of the most fascinating genre journeys in mainstream pop: alternative rock, acoustic confessionals, euphoric trance, sleek disco-pop, and now a fully realised embrace of underground club culture.

And in many ways, it all comes back to the dance floor.

Long before DJ booths and Ibiza residencies, Melanie C already had one of the defining dance records of the early 2000s.

“I Turn To You” – from her debut album Northern Star – became a euphoric club anthem thanks to its thundering remix culture. The song’s propulsive trance production and emotional release captured the peak of turn-of-the-millennium dance music: ecstatic, cathartic, and built for 4am dance floors.

It wasn’t just a hit. It was a statement.

While many of her peers were leaning into R&B or radio-friendly pop, which, yes, the artist also known as Sporty Spice also flirted with, Melanie C embraced the energy of European club music – something that, in hindsight, foreshadowed the direction her career would eventually circle back to.

Fast forward two decades and the dance floor came calling again.

In 2018, a spontaneous DJ booking at the flamboyant London queer club night Sink The Pink reignited Melanie’s connection with club culture. What began as a one-off experiment quickly evolved into a genuine second act: DJ sets at iconic Ibiza venues like Pacha and Café Mambo, and festival appearances that placed her directly back in front of dance music audiences.

That energy fed directly into her 2020 self-titled album, Melanie C, one of the most purely enjoyable dance-pop records released that year. Tracks like “Who I Am,” “Blame It On Me,” and “In and Out of Love” pulsed with confidence: sleek house rhythms, disco shimmer, and hooks that felt both nostalgic and forward-facing. The album wasn’t trying to chase trends. It sounded like someone who had rediscovered the music that first made them fall in love with dancing.

And crucially, it sounded authentic.

Part of what makes Melanie C’s current era resonate so strongly is the space where it lives: queer nightlife. Dance music has always been inseparable from LGBTQ+ culture – a lineage that runs from underground house clubs to Pride main stages. By stepping into that world not just as a performer but as a DJ and participant, Melanie C positioned herself within that tradition rather than above it.

The connection feels organic. There’s a sense of shared joy in her music – the same feeling she describes when recalling nights spent dancing among strangers who suddenly felt like community.

It’s a quality that links her, spiritually at least, with icons like Kylie Minogue and Madonna: artists whose music thrives in queer spaces because it offers both liberation and escape.

Now comes Sweat.

If her 2020 album reintroduced Melanie C as a dance-pop artist, the new record looks set to double down on that identity – pulling together the threads of her life: the athlete’s discipline, the pop star’s instincts, the DJ’s understanding of rhythm, and the raver’s love of euphoria.

In a cultural moment that often feels defined by anxiety and global uncertainty, her instinct is simple: make joyful music.

It’s a philosophy that echoes the best dance music traditions. Clubs have always been spaces where people temporarily outrun the world’s chaos – where, for a few hours, rhythm and community take precedence over everything else.

If Sweat succeeds, it won’t just be another entry in Melanie C’s discography. It will be further proof that her career arc – from Spice Girl to club DJ to dance-pop architect – has been one of the most quietly fascinating evolutions in modern pop.

And perhaps it’s time the conversation caught up with that reality. Because when it comes to reinvention, resilience, and an instinctive understanding of the dance floor, Melanie C belongs in the same breath as Madonna and Kylie.

The only difference is that people don’t say it often enough”.

Rather than bring in any reviews or more interviews, I shall call time here. I wanted to talk about Melanie C’s huge year. Sweat coming out on 1st May. This worldwide tour in promotion of the album. I think she will be on the road when Spice turns thirty However, for Wannabe’s thirtieth (8th July if you are going by the U.K. date) there is nothing in the diary yet. One of our all-time great artists, I am excited to see how Sweat is received. I love the tracks she has put out so far, and it shows she is always adapting and evolving. Let’s hope that Melanie C keeps on releasing music for many years more. The future of Spice Girls and whether anything will happen this year. It is down to them I guess. However, Melanie C also need to focus on…

HER vital solo work.