FEATURE: All We Ever STILL Look For… Kate Bush: Will We Get to See the Rarities and the Unheard?

FEATURE:

 

 

All We Ever STILL Look For…

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in the studio of her brother, John Carder Bush, in 1977/PHOTO CREDIT: John Carder Bush

Kate Bush: Will We Get to See the Rarities and the Unheard?

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A subject that I have…

PHOTO CREDIT: Kate Bush News

covered and discussed before, I am briefly coming back to it, as a new edition of the Kate Bush Fan Podcast with Brian Bath.  A second part has gone out. I was excited that Seán from The Kate Bush Fan Podcast got to talk with someone who has been in Kate Bush’s sphere since the start. A friend before she recorded her debut album, The Kick Inside, in 1977, there was this fascinating chat, plus the airing of some unheard and rare audio (Bush singing Bath's Dream Island). Here are some details about a conversation with a crucial part of Kate Bush’s music and history:

“A very special episode! Few people have more of an insight into Kate Bush's very earliest career and rise to fame than her bandmate and friend, the wonderful guitarist and songwriter, Brian Bath. In this episode of the Kate Bush Fan Podcast, Seán talks to Brian about his growing up in London in school bands with his friend Del Palmer, befriending and making music with a young Paddy Bush in 1970, visits to the Bush family home, forming bands with Vic King and Charlie Morgan and ultimately forming The KT Bush Band in 1977 with Del, Vic and Kate to briefly take the London pub and club scene by storm before Kate recorded her debut album! Historic stuff. And this is only Part One of our conversation! p.s. Listen out for some never-before-heard audio treats too”.

It is great that, in 2023, there is this ‘new’ Kate Bush audio. It got me thinking about rarities and unheard material that there must be out there. I love that period where the KT Bush Band were playing pubs and clubs in 1977 prior to Bush getting into the studio and recording her debut. Some of her very early recordings, Cathy Demos, was the young Bush at home on the piano. Many of the early songs were considered for her debut. I know that there is stuff out there that has not been cleaned up and remastered. One song, Scares Me Silly (But It Gets Me Going), is on YouTube. The audio quality is not great. I can imagine that there are live recordings from those KT Bush Band days. Some unfinished sketches or some demo-versioned songs that were considered for her studio albums that never got worked into anything much. I can imagine Kate Bush would not want to have stuff she considered to be poor or insufficient put out into the world. I understand that some of those very early recordings are something Bush wants to put distance between. I can imagine there are things in the archives from her studio albums that are yet to be unearthed. During quite intensity and long hours, there would have been other songs that were recorded but never released. When tapes were running, maybe some chatter or ideas being exchanged.

What we have received officially from Kate Bush through the years has been very clean, controlled and without huge surprise. She has released an album with B-sides and covers on it. We have not had a surprise moment when something truly unexpected has been issued. Either something visual like a documentary or songs that were recorded during the album sessions but not released. Kate Bush is private and does want to have a say on what goes out there. Even so, as she has just reissued her studio albums and is not averse to retrospection and repackaging, she must be aware that all fans would love to hear something ‘new’. No rush regarding an eleventh studio album, yet putting something into the world we have not heard would be massive. I am not sure what form that would take. As we approach Christmas, a treat from Bush would be a little glimpse into the vault! I know that there will be stuff set aside. Whether that is a demo or something unreleased she recorded for Never for Ever in 1980, a gold piece of audio from the Hounds of Love sessions in 1985 or if we go right back to 1977 or earlier, I have been thinking about what must be in her possession. Though we would all really love a new studio album, there will also be that curiosity around older material and clips that we have not heard. Not that she needs to raid her archive and give us everything! Fans’ loyalty definitely should translate into one or two recordings. I suppose we will never see documentary footage at all. Cameras were not in the studio when she was recording her albums, so we will never get that Beatles/Get Back-style release. You know there would have been some home recordings and some photos taken that we have not seen (but Bush might want to keep those personal and private).

 PHOTO CREDIT: Kate Bush/Fish People

It is amazing that Brian Bath has been talking about Kate Bush and memories of working with her. I really love the fact that we have access to people from her past, at a time when Bush is posting messages on her website but there are no new interviews with her. Not that we should always look to her past though, aside from the studio albums, there is not a tonne from those periods that has been released. Still gaps out there. Certain songs and albums not available on streaming services. Songs that are rarities but are in poor state audio-wise. Even her videos, as I have said before, would warrant a 4K HD treatment. The Tour of Life’s visuals and audio does not really exist in a brilliant and clear format. No footage from 2014’s Before the Dawn. Some interviews and live performance with scratchy and grainy footage. Such an important artist, I do hope there is restoration and revelation to come. I am going to wrap it up now. We are all grateful to Kate Bush for the communication she has put out. The reissues; everything she has done and given us in 2023. I have no idea what next year holds, though wishing too hard for album eleven might leave us disappointed! I stand by that desire for rarities and something ‘between albums’ for fans. Stuff we have not heard but is something Kate Bush feels comfortable releasing into the world. There must be more than a few examples! As we look towards Christmas and the idea of gifts, though Kate Bush has provided more than a few treats, an annual message on her website together with an audio gem that is an exclusive from the archives…

WOULD be the best gift ever!

FEATURE: A Truly Brilliant Year for Music… Part Two: My Favourite Albums of 2023

FEATURE:

 

 

A Truly Brilliant Year for Music…

 PHOTO CREDIT: cottonbro studio/Pexels

Part Two: My Favourite Albums of 2023

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FOR the first part…

IN THIS PHOTO: Blur

of this feature, I collated my favourite singles of the year. I crowned a bronze and silver medal option followed by a top ten. This dozen concerns the best albums of 2023. At least the ones that I see as the very best. It has been a remarkably strong year for music, so there are going to be some big omissions. I know that, as we close in on the end of the year, there will be more and more features that rank the best albums and singles of the year. I have been really engrossed by albums from established artists and some newer ones alike. I am looking forward to discovering what the next year holds in store. There are going to be some massive albums released, that is for sure! Below are my dozen wonderful albums from this year that I feel…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Corinne Bailey Rae

ARE hard to beat!

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BRONZE: Blur – The Ballad of Darren

Release Date: 21st July

Labels: Parlophone/Warner

Producer: James Ford

Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/en-gb/product/blur/the-ballad-of-darren-2

Standout Tracks: The Ballad/The Narcissist/The Heights

Review:

“While 2003’s ‘Think Tank’ emerged despite Graham Coxon and, twelve years later, ‘The Magic Whip’ was completed because of him, it’s tempting to assert that in 2023 it’s Damon Albarn who might need his bandmates around him more than at any point this century. He’s called it an “aftershock record,” following in the wake of the pandemic, losses like Tony Allen and Bobby Womack and, closest to home, the deaths of long-term tour manager Craig Duffy and his wife.

The desire to reflect on those most important to the band is immediately evident. The album’s title derives from Albarn returning to a track from his twenty-year-old, low-key, lo-fi solo effort ‘Democrazy’; ‘Half A Song’, which Darren ‘Smoggy’ Evans – another of the group’s work family – had begged him to finish ever since. Opener ‘The Ballad’ is gorgeous, fitting perfectly in the grand tradition of slow, aching blur beauties. Despite Damon’s lyrical tendency towards the abstract, it’s hard to escape a sense of emotional turmoil.

‘Barbaric’ is immediately one of their very best, melding heartbreaking lyrics to as memorable a melody as they’ve deployed since the mid-Nineties. The enormous chorus initially asserts: “I have lost the feeling that I thought I’d never lose, now where am I going?” before switching the pronoun to “you” and “we” as it progresses. When the strings ascend towards a conclusion, it arrives at a place of irresistible but unflinching vulnerability. It’s one of a number of tracks that serve as a reminder that Alex James is one of the most criminally underrated bassists in popular music.

‘St Charles Square’ features Fripping marvellous, raucous posturing, with screams in the chorus and tales of a fearful creature under the floorboards. It made for a visceral set-opener during recent gigs and was so clearly a delight to record. Some will cry for more like it, but what can initially feel a little one-paced is actually a nuanced exploration of the constituent parts of blur in 2023. The brief plunge from chorus to verse in ‘Russian Strings’, slowly intensifying orchestration of ‘The Everglades’ and barely controlled electronic vibrations of ‘Goodbye Albert’ all foreground the band’s distinctive DNA, fizzing with obvious chemistry from dynamic studio time.

Blistering first single ‘The Narcissist’ is a striking reflection on the effects of fame with a near-perfect hook. Coxon’s spacious playing continues on ‘Avalon’, sitting naturally alongside some slight but euphoric piano refrains from Albarn. Closer ‘The Heights’ appears to nod to the faithful, treasuring the connection that exists between band and audience. Tense, manic strings chop away at the languid celebration, presaging a gathering storm of noise that reaches its peak only to be plunged abruptly into silence. No neat resolutions here, folks. Onwards. 9/10” – CLASH

Key Cut: Barbaric

SILVER: Róisín Murphy – Hit Parade

Release Date: 8th September

Label: Ninja Tune

Producer: DJ Koze

Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/en-gb/product/roisin-murphy/hit-parade-2

Standout Tracks: What Not to Do/CooCool/Free Will

Review:

“The sublimity is also unmistakably down to Murphy’s painfully accurate reflection of the phantom intimacy that is unrequited or even forbidden infatuation: the power and powerlessness, the whiplash of obsession and rejection. Hit Parade starts with a dare, the dripping, dubbed-out shudder of What Not to Do, in which Murphy posits: “Whether you want it / Or you don’t / Whether we get on it / Or we don’t”, her voice a slackened, licentious sneer. Her proposition turns to delusion, convinced that only this other person could ever know her on the breathless, writhing techno of Can’t Replicate, one of the more straightforward songs here; imagining their union as something written in the stars in CooCool and The Universe.

And Murphy puts in the headiest performance of her life, revealing dimensions far beyond the stentorian disco maven of 2020’s Róisín Machine: she is ecstatically available on Fader as she admits “I lay eggs every single time I think of you”, harsh with self-loathing on Hurtz So Bad, a panicked blurt on The House, a doomed portrait of intimacy. There’s startling acceptance on the twinkling scrape of Eureka, about begging a doctor to cut this pain out of her; the sharpest bitterness on You Knew, a masterpiece of arid, throbbing, angry, forlorn dub-techno in which Murphy castigates the object of her desires for misleading her.

Her recriminations spill out in fast flurries, the speed eventually breaking them apart, like bits of a rocket falling off as it penetrates the atmosphere; Koze bounces her voice like a ball, letting it skid and skitter. The song is a cold burn, the anguished realisation that you’ve imagined yourself into a fantasy so intensely that you feel cheated of a reality that you never had in the first place. That sense of shattered illusions hits especially hard this week” – The Guardian

Key Cut: Fader

TEN: Jorja Smith – falling or flying

Release Date: 29th September

Label: FAMM

Producers: Blue May/DameDame*/Jodi Milliner/New Machine/P2J

Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/en-gb/product/jorja-smith/falling-or-flying-2

Standout Tracks: Try Me/Falling or flying/GO GO GO

Review:

“There’s always been something special about Jorja Smith. Since the Walsall-raised artist’s arrival in 2016 with her breakout hit ‘Blue Lights’, there’s been a certain magnetism about her: the voice is technically sensational, and there’s truth to every word sung. Early comparisons to Amy Winehouse, her idol, were not unwarranted, and her ability to resonate with listeners across the spectrum only blossomed.

Her 2018 debut ‘Lost & Found’ showcased that personality, if only in subtle ways: with the tasteful R&B and pop stylings, it felt like a safe first step to satiate the hype rather than a defining musical portrait. Musical collaborations with Drake, Burna Boy, and rising star Enny continued to build the star and myth around her.

It was 2021’s ‘Be Right Back’, a mid-pandemic mixtape, that simmered with Smith’s most intriguing material yet, like someone realising where their path was headed and how to harness it. She hasn’t looked back: ‘Falling or Flying’, her second studio album, is a triumph because of that conviction. Having decided that London was not conducive to her life and music-making, she moved back home to the Midlands, keen to rekindle the pre-fame Jorja that the industry didn’t want you to see but that existed every time the mic was off. In an accompanying statement, she says that formative years growing up in the industry had made her a “people pleaser” and that moving home helped her be “better at trusting myself, not doubting myself as much, and not being so affected and worried by other peoples’ opinions.”

On ‘Falling or Flying’, she teams up with DAMEDAME*, an emerging production duo who also happen to be Smith’s pals from back home; their presence is keenly felt, the trio coursing with ideas and freedom. From the mesmerising opener ‘Try Me’ to ‘Little Things’, a nod to UK funky that has potential to rival ‘On My Mind’ for her biggest dancefloor heater, ‘Falling or Flying’ reveals itself much like Solange’s 2019 album ‘When I Get Home’: an uncompromising and arresting treasure of a record. Even ‘Go Go Go’, a fairly formulaic, indie-indebted number, is the type of song that could only spring from febrile recording sessions with close confidantes: it’s not hard to picture the three thrashing along hard and laughing at each other above the din.

Scarcely any songs on ‘Falling or Flying’ sound the same, but the throughline of Smith trusting her gut remains and reconnecting with herself remains a guiding constant. ‘Greatest Gift’, a song about Smith reconnecting with her younger self, is as touching as she’s ever sounded as a pertinent message rings true: I promise to make sure you’ll never fall far from your grace / I hope that you know you are never too far from your purpose” she reminds herself. ‘Falling or Flying’ was the record she was destined to make, she just had to allow herself to get there” – NME

Key Cut: Greatest Gift

NINE: Corinne Bailey Rae – Black Rainbows

Release Date: 15th September

Labels: Black Rainbow/Thirty Tigers

Producer: S. J. Brown/Corinne Bailey Rae/Paris Strother

Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/en-gb/product/corinne-bailey-rae/black-rainbows-2

Standout Tracks: Black Rainbows/New York Transit Queen/Put It Down

Review:

“Her curiosity piqued by a photo of Theaster Gates taken in his workspace, Corinne Bailey Rae met the artist and activist the next time she played Chicago, where he welcomed her to the Stony Island Arts Bank, a gallery, archive, library, and community center. Bailey Rae felt profoundly affected inside the South Side monument to Black culture, and returned for an artist residency at the invitation of founder Gates. She wrote songs informed by her surroundings and experience -- everything from works of art to pages of Ebony and Jet to a dance party soundtracked by the preserved record collection of house pioneer Frankie Knuckles. Approaching the material as a side project had a liberating effect that allowed her to create without thinking about how the results would be received. Although Black Rainbows is a uniquely conceptual work and sticks all the way out from Corinne Bailey Rae, The Sea, and The Heart Speaks in Whispers, it's at least as personal as any of the singer's first three albums. Contrary to her reputation for making pillowy adult contemporary R&B, Bailey Rae started in a punk band that was hard enough to be courted by Roadrunner Records. Black Rainbows taps into that spirit more than once. "New York Transit Queen" is a thrashing celebration inspired by a mid-'50s image of future fashion legend Audrey Smaltz. "Erasure," seething and thunderous, was written in response to examining graphically anti-Black postcards. On these songs, Bailey Rae's buzzing guitar is as much a lead as her full-tilt vocals. Other moments -- the bristly, knocking, and wailing "Black Rainbows," the unfurling incantation "Before the Throne of the Invisible God" -- sound unselfconsciously sculpted, teeming with unbound imagination. The solitary piano ballad, "Peach Velvet Sky," is also a progression; written from the confined and anguished perspective of abolitionist and author Harriet Jacobs, it features Bailey's most powerful lyrics and vocal performance. The house diversions are suitably carefree, delightfully weird, and just as meaningful. A futuristic paradise is imagined in "Earthlings" through a slow, off-center groove slathered in guitar and concluded by birdsong. In the eight-minute "Put It Down," Bailey Rae achieves hard-fought release, distressed over turbulent strings and synthesizers, then seemingly indestructible as her voice slides atop a stout four-four rhythm. "I put it down -- I feel so free" could be the album's subtitle” – AllMusic

Key Cut: Peach Velvet Sky

EIGHT: Mitski – The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We

Release Date: 15th September

Label: Dead Oceans

Producer: Patrick Hyland

Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/en-gb/product/mitski/the-land-is-inhospitable-and-so-are-we-2

Standout Tracks: Buffalo Replaced/My Love Mine All Mine/Star

Review:

“Many musicians would give anything to have a sound at once so distinctive and multifaceted as Mitski’s, which explores a unique, fragile heartache just as capably through piano ballads as in glitchy synth stomps. ‘The Land Is Inhospitable And So Are We’, her seventh record, is an achievement in that in such a diverse catalogue it manages to hatch its own identity without straying from her singular voice. ‘Bug Like An Angel’ clues in to a more subdued record populated by acoustic guitars and big vocal arrangements, but this is an illusion. Through songs that often seem to have bare-bones arrangements, the album becomes increasingly intense. For its entirety, guitars, pianos and whole orchestras are lost in vibrating soundscapes, and drums are rare. On ‘The Deal’, a lilting ballad morphs into an apocalyptic whirlwind, while ‘Star’ is at once discordant and glowing, as complex and delicate as anything off ‘Pet Sounds’. Taken individually these songs are all gorgeous, but as a whole they create an effect of being hemmed in by absence, that inhospitable land overwhelming in its minimalism. No other record today sounds so beautiful and full while being quite so sparse” – DIY

Key Cut: Bug Like an Angel

SEVEN: Lana Del Rey – Did you know that there's a tunnel under Ocean Blvd

Release Date: 24th March

Labels: Interscope/Polydor

Producers: Jack Antonoff/Benji/Zach Dawes/Lana Del Rey/Drew Erickson/Mike Hermosa

Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/en-gb/product/lana-del-rey/did-you-know-that-theres-a-tunnel-under-ocean-blvd

Standout Tracks: The Grants/A&W/Paris, Texas

Review:

“I’d go on a seven-minute rant with a repetitive melody,” Lana Del Rey recently told Billie Eilish in an interview about her writing process for Did You Know There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd. Indeed, many of the songs on her newly released ninth album do fit that description. They are long and can be repetitive, but truly, a rant has never sounded so alluring.

The six-time Grammy nominee, née Elizabeth Grant, returns this week with her latest album, two years on from a double release in 2021 (Chemtrails Over the Country Club and Blue Banisters). Across eight records and 11 years, Del Rey has built a world and iconography of her own. Hers is one of cherry cola cans, white sundresses, sycamore trees, seedy dive bars and American flags that fly both defiantly and depressingly. More controversial in the Lana lexicon are the deadbeat boyfriends with fast fists that feel like kisses. (Her previous record, she said, was a defensive work written in response to criticisms, including glamourising domestic abuse.)

Her sweeping, layered ninth album is more ruminative than reactive: questions of family and legacy, memory and death swirl around one another until they’re one and the same. To hear Del Rey tell it, Ocean Blvd is “straight vibing”, an exquisitely sung account of her innermost thoughts. And with them comes a new level of specificity. “The Grants” is a testament to that. The album’s opening track is steeped in memory – practically sepia-toned as she recalls “my sister’s firstborn child” and “my grandmother’s last smile” in one heart-pinching line. Lyrics on this album tend to rebound off its walls; echoes of one song appear in another and another. Del Rey’s question in “The Grants” – “Do you think about heaven?/ Do you think about me?” – rings in the next title track, as she implores again and again, “Don’t forget me”.

“Ocean Blvd” is a patient, building ballad that shouts out not only a Harry Nilsson song but a timecode (2.05) within it during which his voice breaks with emotion. There are comparable moments all over her own record. “Ocean Blvd” enters with a stoic piano and swelling strings. It’s impossible, though, not to bend your ear towards her muted breathing; that whoosh of air is like hearing the inside of a conch shell and imagining waves.

It’s an album populated with references. There’s the same kind that her work is always chock full of (John Denver, Forensic Files, a Marielle Heller movie, a three-star hotel chain, the Griffith observatory all make an appearance) but as on 2021’s Blue Banisters, there are personal details, too. Del Rey sings about her grandpa, her brother, her dad, her sister, her sister’s baby, her Uncle Dave. Meanwhile, the record’s themes of legacy spiral into questions of motherhood. “Will the baby be alright/ Will I have one of mine/ Can I handle it even if I do?” she asks on the tender, orchestra-backed “Fingertips”. That song, “Did You Know”, and three others were written in one sitting with ex-boyfriend, director and cinematographer Mike Hermosa, who features as a producer on the album. Del Rey has said it was her familiarity with Hermosa that allowed her to open up as much as she did; they wrote the songs together in her living room on voice memos.

None of this is to say that Del Rey has put away her box of Lana-isms for good. Brazen lyrics such as “F*** me to death/ Love me until I love myself” would feel easily at home on her 2012 trip-hop debut Born to Die. Her winking braggadocio is intact on “Sweet” as she jeers “If you want some basic b****, go to the Beverly Centre and find one”. Images of “bruised knees”, “palm trees in black and white” and “skipping rope in the bayou” crop up, as predictable and familiar as Del Rey calling her paramour “baby”.

Did You Know is a 77-minute-long endeavour. And with a hefty chunk of its 16 tracks dedicated to similar swooning balladry, time doesn’t exactly fly. There is some pleasure to be taken in the trance-like way these songs flow into one another, but watching the tide of even the most beautiful ocean becomes boring. Thankfully, the water does get choppy at times. Take “A&W”, its title both a reference to an American fast food chain and an acronym for American Whore. What begins with the soft strum of a guitar and the heavy step of a piano is a folky reverie not unlike those found on 2021’s Chemtrails Over the Country Club. The masterfully slow fade at its four-minute mark, however, gives way to a sleazy, synthy bassline and later, an adult-rated interpolation of a 1959 doo-wop sample best known from Tom Hanks’s kids’ movie Big. The second half of the seven-minute track plays like an alien transmission from an entirely different Lana era. It’s thrilling – a testament to how an artist’s so-called eras are only as rigid as they want to be. “Fishtail” and “Peppers” – which features a sampled hook from a live performance by Canadian rapper Tommy Genesis – are similar treats. The latter track is a swaggering rap mashed-up into psych-rock. If only Del Rey’s voice wasn’t completely drowning in reverb.

This being a Lana record, a lot of it is about love. The familial kind, the platonic kind, the romantic kind. Album highlight “Margaret” is a pure paean to the latter. With its lovey-dovey lyrics (“’Cause when you know you know”) about finding The One, it is heartbreaking to learn that the song isn’t about Del Rey herself. It was written for her producer, the Bleachers’ Jack Antonoff, and his actor fiancée, Margaret Qualley. Elsewhere, there is love of the religious kind. Del Rey, who was raised Catholic, enlists the help of gospel singers in a number of songs, as well as pastor-to-the-stars Judah Smith, whose four-minute sermon forms one of the album’s two interludes. Jon Batiste heads up the other.

The album ends appropriately on “Taco Truck x VB”. Another reworking of a past Lana era. This time, it’s more explicit. Here, her nine-minute soft-rock lullaby “Venice B****” from 2018’s high-water mark Norman F***ing Rockwell! gets a grimier, trappier remix. Admittedly, there is something of the original lost in this new version, but it’s an audacious thing to sample yourself – and with a back catalogue as deep and sprawling as Del Rey’s undoubtedly is, it’s ripe for the picking” – The Independent

Key Cut: Kintsugi

SIX: Caroline Polachek – Desire, I Want to Turn Into You

Release Date: 14th February

Labels: Sony Music/The Orchard/Perpetual Novice

Producers: Caroline Polachek/Danny L Harle/Dan Nigro/Jim-E Stack/Sega Bodega/Ariel Rechtshaid

Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/en-gb/product/caroline-polachek/desire-i-want-to-turn-into-you-2

Standout Tracks: Welcome to My Island/Fly to You/Billions

Review:

“The tight 12-track collection is doe-eyed, confident, and sonically varied – not only is it wholly different from its predecessor, it’s a portrait of someone in love. From its opening screams welcoming the listener to her world, Desire, I Want to Turn Into You is an island where romance is meshed with clearly focus artistic vision.

Much more here than on Pang, Polachek writes almost as if to determine what sounds good sonically, instead of having songs with a clear thesis. The effect is lurid and fable-like, as if she’s telling you myths instead of truths, to the point where it can often be difficult to discern what a song is really about. Not necessarily a criticism – but on “Bunny Is a Rider,” she sings that it’s “dirty like it’s Earth Day / Tryna wet that palette,” and on the twinkling closer “Billions,” she describes herself as “Psycho / Priceless / Good in a crisis.” Okay, sure! Her abstractness is an asset: these songs read more like poetry, the sonnets she describes in “Billions.” She’s been vocal about this stream-of-consciousness style, particularly on “Pretty In Possible,” which advances almost as if she’s making it up on the spot.

Amongst these dreamy, loose works are ones rooted in the present – usually love-drenched song of longing and passion. “Fly to You,” which manages to balance features from both Grimes and Dido, shows someone vulnerable enough to go to their partner instead of retreating within themselves; “Crude Drawing of an Angel” is a snapshot of messy mid-morning beauty; and “I Believe” uses its stadium-bright synths to picture yearning at its highest form: “Violent love / Feel my embrace.” The best of which – and perhaps the album’s finest moment – is “Blood and Butter,” which could easily slot into a video game soundtrack centred in a cave. Backed by her own vocals, guitars, and bagpipes(!), she’s in awe of the body aura and gravity of her partner: “Look at you all mythicalogica land Wikipediated,” she sings, inventing words and emotions only she could create. “I don’t need no entertaining / When the world is a bed,” she admits, later revealing that she wants to get closer to her partner than their new tattoo. It’s otherworldly, blending the bizarre and romantic in pure Polachek fashion.

Desire operates at a higher caliber than Pang – it’s almost as if she’s gotten the ‘accessible’ music out of her system (if you could even call it that) and has made ample room to experiment with her own creativity. It makes sense that these songs exist in the liminal – she even admits that “real life is a rumor” in the slow-burn “Hopedrunk Everlasting.” In an ode to her late father on “Welcome to My Island,” too, she reckons with her distinctive creative process: “He says watch your ego, watch your head, girl / … Go forget the rules, forget your friends / Just you and your reflection.”

Polachek does things on her second effort that most artists never dream of achieving. A clear mastermind at work, her brilliance is in every nook and cranny of each song. The attention to detail – whether it be the layering on “Sunset” or “Blood and Butter,” or vocal melodies that branch between songs and albums – make her one of the most innovative artists today. The desire she sought to turn into on the title track is fully realised in these mesmerising and wholly unique soundscapes” – The Line of Best Fit

Key Cut: Crude Drawing of An Angel

FIVE: Jessie Ware – That! Feels Good!

Release Date: 28th April

Label: EMI

Producers: James Ford/Stuart Price

Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/en-gb/product/jessie-ware/that-feels-good

Standout Tracks: Free Yourself/Begin Again/Beautiful People

Review:

“Jessie Ware, the British quadruple threat—powerhouse singer, author, podcaster, and children's fashion magnate—has spent the last few years reading up on queer history, and is looking to her forebears for inspiration. Disco is a long-explored touchstone for excess and emancipation, and the genre, or at least the concept of the genre, has certainly taken hold of the modern pop milieu, whether Beyoncé’s full-body immersions, Dua Lipa’s corpo-rave pleasers, or Lizzo’s feel-good bass funk. But That! Feels Good!, Ware’s fifth album, stretches beyond vibes and delves into the well-oiled mechanics of bands like Chic, Sister Sledge, the Trammps, and a little P-Funk, opening up the hood and pulling out all the parts to see if she can piece them back together. Alongside disco-savvy producers like Stuart Price (aka Thin White Duke/Jacques Lu Cont) and James Ford (Simian Mobile Disco), as well as co-songwriters Shungudzo Kuyimba and Sarah Hudson, Ware has achieved a rare feat: a genre revival album that’s painstakingly true to its source material, but doesn’t sound like a curdled rehash. This has everything to do with Ware’s unfailingly strong vocals—one of her generation’s preeminent white belters—and the wild joy she emits on every track, with a thesis that le freaking it on the dancefloor and in the bedroom is key to liberation, and that love alone will save the day.

Disco is familiar territory for Ware—2020’s What’s Your Pleasure looked towards Giorgio Moroder’s blueprint for arpeggiated synths and light-up dancefloor grooves, helping kickstart pop music’s disco revival. That! Feels Good! is a grittier affair, reminiscent of the small underground disco clubs of the early ’70s at individual apartments and lofts in downtown New York. Accompanied live by the preternaturally tight eight-piece funk/Afrobeat band Kokoroko, which has the freewheeling but precise instrumentation of disco down to a science, Ware floats into the sweet spot for her elastic soul vocals, somewhere between Donna Summer and Teena Marie: a glamorous libertine we’ll follow into any dingy club so she can show us the light.

It helps that Ware is a true believer, underscoring That! Feels Good!’s title track with a command that’s almost militant: “Freedom is a sound, and pleasure is a right. Do it again.” Like Donna Summer before her, she eliminates the distance between dancefloor ecstasy and sexual pleasure, suggesting an imperceptible difference between the two. With the thrust of funk bass and spontaneous yelps, she also conjures the physical release of a Soul Train line, transported by syncopation. And when she belts, “Why don’t you please yourself? If it feels so good then don’t you, baby! Don’t you stop!” she revels in the sensual prerogative of adult womanhood, of spiritual excess, staking out her own joyful territory. (She also suggests, over the driving piano of “Free Yourself,” that rapture doesn’t necessarily require a partner.) Her confidence fizzes and levitates with an assuredness that feels deserved but hard-won. “I’ve always relied on people that believe in me because maybe I haven’t believed in myself enough,” she told Pitchfork of her past experiences with music industry men, “but now, actually, I do, which is really wonderful.”

Having reached the point where she can own her vast talent, she’s in a position to extend the favor. On “Beautiful People,” she drops a perfect pride anthem, channeling her existential angst—“I wake up in the morning and I ask myself, ‘What am I doing on this planet?’”—into a purple leather outfit and a cocktail party. “Mix your joy with misery,” she reasons, before deciding that “beautiful people are everywhere.” It’s a vibrant exhortation fueled by cowbell and the band’s robust horn section, mining the eternal solution to life’s indignities—the dancefloor, with friends—and a song dying for a drag queen to lip-sync it. (Whither Sasha Colby!)

Largely, though, Ware’s focus is on the corporeal, celebrating self-determination and sexual versatility with cheeky metaphor: bottles that pop, lips that are underworked, and the mother of all innuendo, pearls. (She also works in time-tested double entendres of food and humping, linking her career interests by invoking limes, strawberries, and pink champagne.) On “Pearls,” she conjures the soul arias of Chaka Khan with another paean to dancing until your insecurities are moot and your clothes are in a pile. “Freak Me Now” ups the cosmopolitan allure by introducing French touch and a distinctly computerized synth whorl to the equation. While it steps away slightly from the ’70s lane Ware has so carefully carved, it sits comfortably among the analog piano and string jaunts. The only other track outside That! Feels Good!’s classic disco-ball rubric is “Lightning,” where Rhodes, strings, and layered harmonies sit next to a pitch-shifted vocal flourish and a boom-bap beat that zooms you right ahead to 2016. It’s a lovely song because Ware is an exceptional vocalist, but it takes you out of the fantasy, which any actor or drag queen can tell you is a mortal mistake.

But overall, That! Feels Good! stays focused on a mission that never feels like a chore. In its relatively brief 40-minute runtime, Ware takes her task extremely seriously, but she’s unencumbered by its immensity; actually, it seems to unleash her, as she experiments with vocal tricks—smoky, Grace Jonesian talk-singing; spirit-catching falsetto that’ll absolutely melt off your Halston—with the sure knowledge that the good-time, nighttime prima donna was always who she was meant to be” – Pitchfork

Key Cut: Pearls

FOUR: Olivia Rodrigo – GUTS

Release Date: 8th September

Label: Geffen

Producer: Dan Nigro

Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/en-gb/product/olivia-rodrigo/guts-3

Standout Tracks: all-american bitch/vampire/get him back!

Review:

“Olivia Rodrigo knocked it out of the park on her first try, with her instant classic of a debut, Sour. So expectations have been sky-high for her next move. But the suspense is over: Her excellent new Guts is another instant classic, with her most ambitious, intimate, and messy songs yet. Olivia’s pop-punk bangers are full of killer lines (“I wanna meet your mom, just to tell her her son sucks”), but she pushes deeper in powerful ballads like “Logical.” All over Guts, she’s so witty, so pissed off, so angsty at the same time, the way only a rock star can be. And this is the album of a truly brilliant rock star.

As on Sour, O-Rod co-wrote the songs with her trusty collaborator-producer Dan Nigro. Last time she kicked off the album with the question, “I’m so sick of 17/Where’s my fucking teenage dream?” This time, she signs off with the ballad “Teenage Dream,” lamenting, “I’m sorry that I couldn’t always be your teenage dream.” But it’s America’s sweetheart blowing up into the self-proclaimed “All-American Bitch” and getting a few things off her mind. As she declares from the start, “I’ve got the sun in my motherfucking pocket.”

Rodrigo avoids all the typical second-album pitfalls — no songs about how fame is stressful, no songs about social media. The great lead single, “Vampire,” turns out to be a total outlier, because it’s the only song that goes for a celebrity-life angle. Instead, she focuses on the topic she really cares about as a songwriter: the gawky, insecure, ordinary American Every-Girl we met in “Driver’s License.” All over Guts, she shows off her amazing flair for detailed storytelling, making each line feel like she’s just spilling it out, one pained confession at a time.

“All-American Bitch” kicks it off with a fantastic pop-punk angst rant, with a title from Joan Didion, picking up where “Brutal” stopped. It’s full of slumber-party energy (“I’m light as a feather, stiff as a board”) as she sings about striving to live up to a perfect ideal (“I got class and integrity, just like a goddamn Kennedy”) but trying to hide her dark side. At the end, she sneers, “I’m grateful all the time/I’m sexy and I’m kind/I’m pretty when I cry.” (That line might feel like a shout-out to her pal Lana Del Rey.)

Her love life is brutal as ever, and she knows how to savor it as a great joke. In “Love Is Embarrassing,” she fumes, “You found a new version of me/And I damn near started World War 3.” But she’s always coming back for more, though she admits, “I’m planning out my wedding with some guy I’m never marrying.” The closest thing to a happy romantic connection is the ex she jumps in “Bad Idea Right,” who at least owns a bed.

“Get Him Back!!” rips into a bad-news boyfriend, with a brain-devouring pop-punk chorus and a Joan Jett-level air-guitar hook. Olivia goes full blast with putdowns like “He had an ego and a temper and a wandering eye/He said he’s 6-foot-2 and I’m like, dude, nice try.” She can’t decide whether she wants to “get him back” as in reuniting, or as in revenge, but she craves both at the same time, so she vows, “I wanna key his car/I wanna make him lunch/I wanna break his heart then be the one to stitch him up.” There’s also an intriguing personal aside when she quips, “I am my father’s daughter, so maybe I can fix him?”

But the best moments on Guts are her emotional piano ballads like “Logical,” “The Grudge,” and “Teenage Dream.” “Logical” is the most poignant and powerful moment on the album. Like so many of these songs, it’s the story of a young woman getting manipulated and humiliated by an older man. Rodrigo’s voice chokes with rage as she sings, “Said I was too young, I was too soft/Can’t take a joke, can’t get you off.” The song builds to the point where she sings the troubling line “I know I’m half responsible” (she’s not) and ends by asking herself, “Why didn’t I stop it all?”

“The Grudge” is at the same powerful level — she torments herself over a breakup, arguing with him when she’s alone in front of her bedroom mirror. As she sings, “I’m so tough when I’m alone/And I make you feel so guilty/And I fantasize about a time when you’re a little fucking sorry.” But she wonders why she couldn’t stand up for herself, confessing, “It takes strength to forgive, but I don’t feel strong.”

“Lacy” is a mournful lament about falling under the spell of a femme fantasy ideal, who’s a “dazzling starlet/Bardot reincarnate,” but turns out to be “made of angel dust.” (“Lacy” will be widely interpreted as a comment on alleged personal dramas she may or may not be having with another pop star, and Olivia does not exactly go out of her way to minimize this impression by singing, “I try, I try, I try.”)

“Pretty Isn’t Pretty” is a devastatingly candid exorcism of negative body image (“it’s in the phone, it’s in my head, it’s in the boys I bring to bed”) and the way it does damage to every level of life. As she sings, “I bought all the clothes that they told me to buy/I chased some dumb ideal my whole fucking life.” She goes into a different type of pain in “Making the Bed,” where she’s “getting drunk at the club with my fair-weather friends.” The former Disney princess is now old enough to go party with the chic set, ordering different drinks at the same bars, “another day pretending I’m older than I am.” But she wonders why this version of adulthood is no fun. She also confesses to having nightmares where she’s driving in the city. Weirdly, it’s one of the only moments on the album where Ms. I Drive Alone Past Your Street uses her drivers’ license.

Nigro’s production has all the punch and gloss of Sour, but also the knack for tension-and-release hooks he’s shown ever since his emo band As Tall As Lions. The bops go for a 1980s synth/guitar New Wave chug a la the Cars or the Go-Go’s, though you can hear surprisingly detailed echoes of Missing Persons (“Love Is Embarrassing”) or the Motels (“Pretty Isn’t Pretty”).

“Teenage Dream” ends Guts with a massively powerful piano ballad. The title might be a salute to Katy Perry, but Olivia sings about a very different kind of teenage dream. She comes clean about being a troubled ingenue, heading into her twenties, but wondering why she’s still bringing all her same old doubt and confusion. As she sings, “Only 19, but I fear they already got the best parts of me.” “Teenage Dream” evokes the pensive tone of “Nothing New,” Taylor Swift’s Red vault duet with Phoebe Bridgers, with a litany of questions. Olivia asks, “When am I gonna stop being wise beyond my years, and just start being wise? When am I gonna stop being a pretty young thing to guys?”

The song never settles on an answer, but it soars into a Oasis-worthy piano-anthem crescendo. Olivia Rodrigo might not have her awkward teenage blues all figured out just yet. But all over Guts, she proves that she’s a voice that’s here to stay and a songwriter built to last” – Rolling Stone

Key Cut: bad idea right?

THREE: Kylie Minogue – Tension

Release Date: 22nd September

Labels: Darenote/BMG

Producers: Duck Blackwell/Cutfather/Jackson Foote/Jon Green/Oliver Heldens/KayAndMusic/Lostboy/PhD/Biff Stannard

Buy: https://www.kylie.com/

Standout Tracks: Padam Padam/You Still Get Me High/10 Out of 10

Review:

“Going two-for-two with early-2020s knockouts, global dancefloor queen Kylie Minogue moves the party from the shiny mirrorball disco to the sweaty, neon-lit club on the flawless Tension. Breaking that titular seal, this set is custom-made for living in the moment and embracing cathartic release, providing 11 laser-focused opportunities for sheer exhilaration. Taking additional cues from Fever and Aphrodite, Tension focuses on the light and happiness found through dance, proving once again that Minogue is peerless when it comes to unassuming crowd-pleasers, heard most explicitly on the surprise 2023 hit "Padam Padam." Carried by her catchiest chorus in decades, the unstoppable earworm pops through woozy production as a hypnotic groove throbs beneath the surface. She purrs that "I'll be in your head all weekend," and that's only partially true: like her defining 2001 single, listeners won't soon be able to get "Padam Padam" out of their heads. From there, Tension doesn't relent. The encouraging uplift of "Hold On to Now" sparkles like "All the Lovers," building to a joyous chorus atop intergalactic synths and subtle New Order-esque guitar noodling. The funky, bass-laden "One More Time," the playful Doja Cat-meets-Dua Lipa "Hands," and the saxophone-infused "Green Light" keep a platformed heel on the Disco dancefloor, as '80s-inspired bops like "Things We Do for Love" and the unfolding "You Still Get Me High" shift gears to hyperspeed with urgent singalong choruses, decade-appropriate synths, and dramatic sax breaks. On-trend, Tension lands in the '90s, updating that familiar house sound for the 2020s on the sensual title track (with another chorus for the ages) and the ballroom-ready "10 Out of 10" produced by Oliver Heldens. Even the heartwarming closer "Story" maintains the energy without sacrificing emotion, a swelling love letter to herself and her loyal fans that pushes Minogue's voice to joyous new heights. Much like Disco, Tension is a master class in pop wizardry and escapist bliss. Releasing an album this expertly crafted and stunning in her fifth decade in the business is an absolute wonder to behold” – AllMusic

Key Cut: Tension

TWO: boygenius – the record

Release Date: 31st March

Label: Interscope

Producers: boygenius/Catherine Marks

Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/en-gb/product/boygenius-2/the-record-5

Standout Tracks: Without You Without Them/Cool About It/Not Strong Enough

Review:

“The opening line of boygenius’ ‘the record’ doubles as a thesis statement for the album: “Give me everything you got / I’ll take what I can get / I want to hear your story and be a part of it”. On ‘Without You Without Them’ Phoebe Bridgers, Julien Baker and Lucy Dacus harmonise a sincere request, their voices taking on complimentary choral tones to create the shape of a timeless Americana folk song: it is haunting, beautiful and piercingly vulnerable. You have to have radically honest to start an album with a song like this, an acknowledgement that you want to be known deeply and meet others at that depth as well, but as ‘the record’ proves, boldness is something boygenius have in droves.

The supergroup began working on ‘the record’ back in 2020, two years after the surprise release of their debut self-titled EP. Since then, the trio have been busy making and touring music of their own, positioning themselves as generation-defining songwriters, picking up Grammy nominations, high-profile collaborations and the respect of their peers along the way. Somehow however, just a week after Bridgers’ critically-acclaimed second album ‘Punisher’ dropped, they found time to flirt with the idea of getting the band together again, sharing demos, asking questions and collapsing their individual songwriting and musical propensities into something new. They are a supergroup worth their salt, and one that take on extra powers when working together.

The opening four songs came from solo writing, but they work as stylish introductions into their distinct styles. Baker brought in the frolicking and erratic ‘$20’, as a means for the band to have “more sick riffs” according to accompanying liner notes. “It’s a bad idea and I’m all about it” she sings amidst a chugging riff before threatening, “when you wake up I’ll be gone again”. When Bridgers and Dacus join in, a wall of emotion and delicate sounds form around Baker’s endeavour.

For Bridgers, it was ‘Emily I’m Sorry’, her slow-burning strumming and repetitive apologies demonstrating proclivity for melancholy love songs. And then, Dacus’ ‘True Blue’ which comes with  acute observations on relationships: “When you don’t know who you are / You fuck around and find out” she sings, eventually resolving “It feels good to be known so well / I can’t hide from you like I hide from myself.” Dacus writes with so much emotion it hurts; Bridgers oscillates from cynical to sincere; Baker’s piercing vocals make even the most ironic line feel genuine. Each boygenius may have separate artistic aims, but their talents coalesce to hit you right where it hurts.

Recorded at Malibu’s Shangri-La studios, the trio leveraged 10-hour days and pieced the LP together over a month, taking turns writing lines and making changes, allowing each other’s neurosis and perfectionism to guide the album’s phrasings and sound. The result is some of the most pristine songwriting Bridgers, Dacus and Baker have ever penned. The acoustic ‘Leonard Cohen’ shines a light on the inner workings of their friendship, the cracks that let the light in, in-jokes about “writing horny poetry”. The brash and witty ‘Satanist’ focuses on the limits of unconditional relationships, wondering if nihilism or satanism are deal breakers or would you, as my friend, just join in.

The band shines in the stripped-back moments of ‘the record’, but one of its brightest achievements comes halfway through, in the layering, arrangements and vocals of ‘Not Strong Enough’. It swings in like a typical indie love song at first, but towards the end of the tack, as the trio spirals out the words “always an angel never a god” in unison followed by a heartbreaking, voice crackling “I don’t know why I am / The way that I am”. Masterful stuff.

This debut is a gorgeous testament to what can happen when you allow yourself to fully be seen. Though each of the album’s 12 tracks could have fit nicely on one of their personal records, their work together takes on a brighter bolder existence, enabling them to light up individually and together at the same time. Bridgers, Dacus and Baker did the tedious work of getting to know each other artistically and collaboratively and then poured what they found out into the world. Now, we as listeners, get to benefit” – NME

Key Cut: Satanist

ONE: Iraina Mancini – Undo the Blue

Release Date: 18th August

Label: Needle Mythology

Producers: Jagz Kooner/Erol Alkan/Sunglasses for Jaws/Simon Dine/J.B Pilon/Ian Barter

Buy: https://needlemythology.tmstor.es/?ffm=FFM_fa0cd214aff8840f1859e65d11c2ae20

Standout Tracks: Cannonball/Sugar High/What You Doin’

Review:

“What does it sound like?:

What’s this? You ask. Dave Ross reviewing a new album? If the world wasn’t crazy enough already in 2023 this is too much. Let me explain. It’s no secret that as a hobbyist music writer Pete Paphides is the writer I wish I could have been. Fair to say I’m a bit of a fanboy. I mean I’m not about to turn up at his house or turn my living room into a shrine like the guy from Alan Partridge but I love his writing style. His love of ABBA, encyclopaedic music knowledge (he once referenced King’s Taste Of Your Tears as a good thing. I know!) and his general niceness is all the more reason to love him. Broken Greek is the book I wish I could write weaving as it does personal stories with the music of the time. However, full disclosure here. On Twitter he’s been bloody relentless and not a little annoying about Iraina Mancini and her debut album on his Needle Mythology label. Anyway, out of interest as it clearly means a huge amount to Pete I gave it a listen. I mean it must be good if it’s got Pete’s name attached right?

Iraina is a striking young woman with as I discovered an incredibly listenable voice. It also turns out her father, Warren Peace, was a childhood friend of David Bowie’s who contributed to several of Bowie’s albums and tours. So she was raised around a broad range of music beyond her 34 years as again I was about to discover.

The first song Deep End has an incredible brass intro and becomes a driving, breathless opener in the style of Republica’s Ready To Go. It certainly got me interested. Iraina gives us a 90s vocal masterclass. Intense and dramatic. OK, I’m in.

Cannonball is more of the same putting me in mind of Garbage this time. I suspected this was where Iraina’s influence lies before I found out more about her. It’s an era that almost passed this 80s boy by but this song has that voice, guitars, organ, passion and plenty of hooks to drag me along.

Sugar High is a lovely shift in styles. Jazzy and dreamy. Iraina’s voice sounds amazing and my crazy brain is getting Olivia Newton John pre-Grease during the chorus. Imagine Olivia doing a Style Council or Blow Monkeys song and we’re there. The string arrangement is exquisite. This is absolutely lovely.

The title track is another smooth delicious piece of pop. I’m going back to Dusty now or Lenny Kravitz doing It Ain’t Over. In fact, such is the range displayed here there it goes from those unlikely sisters Swing Out and Shakespears. It has a fabulous crescendo moment, harmonies and swoon. Some song this.

Do It (You Stole The Rhythm) and we’re back in the 90s with a baggy rhythmed slightly underwhelming song only elevated by Iraina’s voice. Maybe it’s a grower, a slow burner lost in an inferno.

My Umbrella has more than enough hooks for any one song. It’s the Astrud Gilberto moment. Even my old hips are moving (in their own time but moving none the less). I need a hot day, a fast car and an open road to seal the deal on this song. Ooh it’s very good.

Shotgun could be the theme to a smart 60s / 70s detective thriller. It’s no Shaft but it has that smokey late, hot New York night vibe. If Netflix don’t start developing Shotgun on the back of this then they’re not really trying. If Regé-Jean Page doesn’t get Bond somebody send him this song.

What You Doin’? Annoys me in a good way. I’m failing because there’s a 70s glam song in there that wants its groove back and I can’t bloody get what song it is. Suzi Quatro maybe? Showaddwaddy? Can someone help? I am also afraid that What You Doin’? the monster earworrm it is will be rattling round my head at 2 am denying me sleep. Especially if I can’t find what it reminds me of.

Need Your Love is, surprise surprise, a love song with a feel of a Bond theme. A great showcase for Iraina’s vocal range but doesn’t really get going until a lovely spoken section. I will grow to love it I’m sure. Just needs more listens.

In a flash we are at the last song Take A Bow. Come on Iraina let’s finish on a high. She goes back to the 60s again. Join her and float on a gorgeous ride through the great chanteuse of our time. Pick out the voice of your choice it’s in there somewhere. Take A Bow Indeed

What does it all *mean*?

I’d seen so much about this album on Twitter that it had become like white noise. I came to it with quite a bit of negativity. Come on then, prove you’ve worth all the fuss. I should have trusted Pete. This is something very special that I wouldn’t have listened to without the relentless plugging. Maybe this is the album that will prove to me that despite me being so entrenched musically there is other stuff out there for me. New stuff. You know that special place you always wanted to go but just couldn’t bring yourself to Dave? It’s right here now go and find some more. Cheers Pete. And Iraina obviously.

Goes well with…

Anything really. It’s the sort of album you could put on anywhere and it will lift yours and the mood of anyone listening. Dare I mention Sade here?” – The Afterword

Key Cut: Undo the Blue

FEATURE: Spotlight: Rianne Downey

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

Rianne Downey

_________

EVEN though she has…

received some airplay from big stations, I still think there are some as-yet unaware of the brilliant Rianne Downey. The Glasgow-born, Liverpool-based singer-songwriter is a simply awesome artist! Someone whose music gets right into the heart and head; I think that everyone should check out what Downey is putting out there. Her new single, Beautiful View, came out this week. It is among her very best work. I am going to come to some fairly recent interview with her. If you are near any venue Downey is scheduled to play, then do make sure that you go and see her. She is a tremendous talent we are going to hear from for years. In February, Back Seat Mafia spent some time with a Scottish shining star. Since then, I feel Rianne Downey has been heralded and spotlighted by some major radio stations and publications. Surely she will be on everyone’s ‘Ones to Watch in 2024’ lists?! She is an artist who fascinates me:

“Give us a potted history of yourself

My name is Rianne Downey. I am a singer/songwriter from Glasgow, living in Liverpool.

Things kicked off during lockdown when I started to upload covers from my bedroom. Everyone seemed to love them and my following grew from there. The anticipation grew online for my own original music and so I released my first single in February 2021 and from there, things have grown bigger and bigger eg. My debut EP vinyl release selling out in a week. Having my songs played on BBC Radio 1, 2 and 6. Playing up and down the country at IOW Festival, Truck, TRNSMT and SXSW. As well as some amazing support slots – Paolo Nutini, Liam Fray, The Snuts, DMA’s, The Lathums, and The Coral.

In November 2022, I was awarded the Breakthrough Artist of The Year Award at the Scottish Music Awards.

Who inspired you to start making music

My mum always said I could sing before I could speak. When I was younger, I discovered Ska through listening to Amy Winehouse’s covers of The Specials. I was obsessed with the sound & became obsessed with their style & attitude. I became heavily influenced by Skinheads and Mods. I found a collection of my parent’s old CDs which is how I discovered Oasis, and The Stone Roses and from there I became obsessed with the 80s/90s indie movement and who inspired those bands which then opened my eyes to all kinds of amazing musicians throughout the years. I wanted to be able to express myself and have a voice of my own through music. Paolo Nutini was a huge inspiration to me, being from Scotland and writing unbelievable, universal tunes that became the soundtrack to my childhood. It made me want to do my country proud like Paolo, defy the Scottish small town mindset odds and perform for a living”.

Tell us how you write

I’ve never found a proper routine or strategy for writing a song. I tend to always be switched on and looking for lyrics/inspiration in everyday life. My brain doesn’t switch off. I’m constantly listening to music and singing to myself, hoping that the right melody will come out. I usually just sit down with my guitar and figure out what I want to say or what theme I want the song to have and go from there. I usually need to be in a room myself with no distractions.

Tell us about your live show What would be your dream gig

My live shows are about to kick off with a bang. It’s sounding and looking massive and the set list is flooded with bangers now. I can’t wait to show everyone what I’ve been working on. My bucket list gigs would be headlining the barras then the hydro. Glastonbury in any capacity and touring Europe and America! I’d also absolutely love to support Paolo Nutini again.

What can we expect from you in the near future

I’m not going anywhere anytime soon! I’ve got a load of songs ready to release to the world and each one is better than the last and I am so excited to show everyone. I head off on a UK Headline tour in March and onto a number of festivals in the summer. I can’t wait for the gigs to just keep coming and getting bigger every time.

Tell us your favourite records that are rocking your headphones/tour bus/stereo

Strangers – The Kinks

Every Night – Paul McCartney

Hazy Shade of Winter – Simon & Garfunkel

I Just Imagined You – Blossoms

Radio – Paolo Nutini

Reason to Believe – Karen Dalton

Under the Skin – Flyte

Little Bitch – The Specials

Bluebird Wine – Emmylou Harris

Devil to Pay – Johnny Cash”.

I hope that more people line up to speak with Rianne Downey. 2023 has been a busy and exciting one for her. No less because her ticket sales surged following her TRNSMT performances in July, where the legendary Paul Heaton introduced her as a Celtic fan! Hailing from Bellshill, Downey took to the TRNSMT main stage alongside Heaton, having previously played with him on the headline slot at Neighbourhood Weekender earlier this summer. There are some cool interviews out there with Rianne Downey. This is what went down when she spoke with Bodega Nottingham back in July:

“Hey Rianne, we’re really looking forward to welcoming you to The Bodega! How are you feeling ahead of the show?

Why thank you! I’m looking forward to coming. I’ve never even been to Nottingham before so the response to the gig already has totally blown me away. I can’t wait to meet a bunch of new folk, play my tunes to them and have a big ole sing song. Feeling very grateful.

You recently released your new EP ‘Method To My Madness’ and we’re loving it over here, how are you feeling post-release?

I’m glad you guys are loving it! The love and support my EP has received has been so heartwarming. I put my everything into this EP and the fact the songs are resonating with people really means the world, I feel like I’m doing my job right and the years of graft are paying off. Vinyl selling out in a day and being played on Radio 1 & 6, pinch me!! It’s given me the bug to keep writing and releasing songs. If my songs can help anyone in the way music has helped me, then I feel like I’ve made it!

Where does that distinct country tinged pop stem from? Is it something you’ve been surrounded by for a long time?

My granny and papa listened to loads of country on the radio growing up so I think its always been in my subconscious. I always loved country music. Johnny Cash’ Ring of Fire was the first song I had on my first mobile phone haha. I love how raw the music is. I think it’s an amazing thing trying to find the most simple but beautiful way to tell a story or to find the positives, humour, heartache and most importantly, the truths within our human experience and put them on a pedestal so that others can find the words or the answers they’ve been looking for. That’s what I think country/pop music is. Plus I love a good line dance.

 A lot of the tracks on the new cut are bitter-sweet, is it important that there’s an emotional depth to your music?

I feel like my best work comes when I write from experience and let myself feel everything that’s in my soul at that time. I think a lot less and just sing the words that need to be sang. Most of the songs I loved and that have helped me throughout my life always seemed to be the songs that came from deep within the writer’s soul and I’d love to carry that on through my music. It’s the best way to connect with yourself and with others when you can put it all out there. And I think that’s why a lot of us love music because it makes us feel connected to/part of something.

What goes into prepping for a tour as extensive as this one?

A lot of rehearsals, Travelodge bookings, setlist rearranging, outfit picking (cowboy boots are a given though)! A whole load of things to think about but I’ve got a lot of gigs over the summer at festivals and sharing the stage with Paul Heaton on his summer tour, that’ll get me match fit and ready to take to the stage in November. My main priority is that everyone who’s bought a ticket has a grand ole time at the gigs and I’ll make sure they do!

Lastly, if money wasn’t a factor, what would be your dream rider?

Unlimited pasta

Unlimited Vocalzones (cause they’re expensive

American Sour Patch Kids

Pornstar Martini’s made fresh”.

I am going to end with a pretty recent interview from Gigantic. It is exciting looking back and seeing what Rianne Downey has accomplished so far. As she says in her own words in the interview, next year is going to be a big one. I am sure that we are going to hear a lot of new music from a gleaming jewel in the new music crown:

“Fusing pop, country and folk, singer-songwriter Rianne Downey is the fresh new talent who is captivating listeners and fast transitioning from online sensation to becoming the latest recipient of the Breakthrough Artist of The Year Award at the Scottish Music Awards.

Born in Glasgow and now based in Liverpool, Rianne Downey first attracted attention as a lockdown star, playing viral bedroom covers of her favourite songs with just an acoustic guitar which revealed her tremendous talent and incredible voice. The rising star has continued to impress, writing prolifically and releasing three EPs in just two years including titles Fuel To The Flame which sold out in just a week, Come What May and her latest four-track offering Method To My Madness which dropped this summer.

When she isn’t in the studio, Rianne is now a major player on the festival circuit, having already made prominent appearances at Glastonbury, SXSW, TRNSMT, Isle of Wight Festival and Truck Festival. She has also played support for such major names as Paolo Nutini, The Coral, DMA’s and The Snuts!

And now, Downey announces headline dates of her own seeing out 2023 with shows at The Bodega, Nottingham and Crofters Rights, Bristol.

We were honoured to be able to fire off some questions at the prodigious six-string player, asking her about the influences on her music, her meteoric ascent and her favourite festival experiences.

What inspired you to start songwriting and who are your influences?

When I first heard Jake Bugg, I thought he was amazing. I was 12 and just discovering indie music. I loved Jake Bugg because he took country/folk music and made it indie. He made my favourite genres cool again! It inspired me to pick up an acoustic and learn to finger-pick. I didn’t have the confidence to properly start writing my own tunes ‘til during lockdown when my covers online started to blow up. I felt like I could actually be a proper musician, so I thought “it’s now or never”. My biggest musical influences for writing were definitely Johnny Cash, Dolly, Simon & Garfunkel and The Doors. I’ve recently been taking a lot of influence from Townes Van Zandt and Taylor Swift. Might be a mad mix but I love what I love and take what I need from it all haha!

You have an incredible voice. How did you build on your natural talent and become so exceptional?

Thank you so much! My mum said I could sing before I could speak, I think the music’s always been in me. It was the only thing in life that truly made me content. I feel alive and like I have a place in the world when I perform. I just spent all my time when I was younger practising in my room or going to theatre school or playing gigs of all kinds. I went to singing lessons for a few years when I wanted to be on Broadway too haha. I gave all of myself to music and I think that’s what’s helped me get this far. It was always all or nothing for me because I love it so much.

How did it feel to be named Breakthrough Artist of The Year Award at the 2022 Scottish Music Awards? That must have been a huge honour!

It was such an honour. I was so surprised but so buzzing. I didn’t expect such a prestigious award so early in my career. It’s literally just the beginning and I am so grateful for the recognition”.

Any plans to drop a debut album in the new future? What else have you got in store for Rianne Downey fans?

I don’t know how much I can tell you but let’s just say 2024 is the big one. That’s the year. I’ve got plenty more tunes on the way and a big, shiny set ready for all my gigs. It’s only getting bigger, better and a lil more country pop, yeehaw!”.

A phenomenally talented artist who I have so much time for, Method to My Madness is among this year’s best E.P.s. From the Scottish treasure Rianne Downey, here is an artist who will command some huge stages at festivals next year. I’d love to hear her collaborate with some major artists. That question about a much-desired debut album too. I am sure this will all come to fruition next year. Beautiful View is another slice of brilliance from Rianne Downey. Following a year with so many great memories, we look ahead to 2024 and those artists who will define it. I feel that the tremendous Rianne Downey is going to be…

RIGHT at the front!

__________

Follow Rianne Downey

TikTok:

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

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/riannedowney/

Twitter:

https://twitter.com/riannedowney_

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/artist/254gmlnuhtyLCJmHiodIri?si=p21Ac6WWT-Km_KTtxj_2mw

YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/c/RianneDowney

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/RianneDowneyMusic/

Store:

https://riannedowney.tmstor.es/

FEATURE: A Truly Brilliant Year for Music… Part One: My Favourite Singles of 2023

FEATURE:

 

 

A Truly Brilliant Year for Music…

PHOTO CREDIT: Orione Conceição/Pexels

Part One: My Favourite Singles of 2023

_________

LATER this month…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Nadine Shah

or at the start of December, we are going to see more features released where albums and singles of the year are selected and ranked. I think that there are quite a few out already that provide good guidance. Not to say that all of the best of the year has come out already – though November and December are generally quieter for albums and singles. In the first of a two-part feature, I have selected my singles of the year. It has been a very tough decision! Having to omit great artists like Blur and The Beatles (their final single, Now and Then, is one I am going to write about separately) was tough, though what I have done is choose the ten best, plus a ‘silver’ and ‘bronze’ medal – so, essentially, the twelve best singles of 2023. Many will have their own opinions. Coming to the end of such an amazing year, it has been a pleasure getting all this wonderful music. I feel bad about the artists I have left out! Rest assured, they are all brilliant and worthy of big success. Below are my views on the best singles…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Antony Szmierek

FROM this year.

_______________

BRONZE: Lauren Mayberry – Shame

Release Date: 10th October

From the Album: TBA

Label: EMI

Review:

“Shame” feels inevitable. There was little doubt that Lauren Mayberry, the effortlessly charismatic lead singer of the Scottish band Chvrches, would someday venture out with solo material, and there was also no reason to expect that the sound of that music released under her own name would be wildly apart from what she helped created in her main gig. A death metal track from Mayberry would certainly be attention-getting, but who needs that when she’s clearly got a gift for making synth-pop songs that shimmer brightly while smuggling through barbs in the lyrics.

On “Shame,” Mayberry’s second solo single, all the elements are in place, tidy as nested boxes. She might be the only current performer who can make lyrics such as “Tell me sweet things/ Just enough to make me beg/ I’ll learn to like it/ Or at least that’s what you said” come across as oddly triumphant. In her rendering, the forceful stating of those lines — the acknowledgement of miserable truths — is where the power lies. Go ahead and dance the pain away” – Coffee for Two

SILVER: SZA – Kill Bill

 

Release Date: 10th January

From the Album: SOS

Release Date: 9th December, 2022

Labels: Top Dawg/RCA

Order: https://www.roughtrade.com/en-gb/product/sza/sos-5

Review:

“Solána Imani Rowe, known as SZA, is an American singer and songwriter. The stage name SZA stands for saviour or sovereign, zig-zag and Allah. The name was inspired by RZA from the hip-hop group Wu-Tang Clan. She was born in St. Louis, Missouri, in the United States, on November 8th, 1989. She started making music in the early 2010s, releasing two EPs before signing with Top Dawg Entertainment, a hip-hop record label. In 2014 she released her third EP Z, and the same year she co-wrote “Feeling Myself” with hit rapper Nicki Minaj and hit singer Beyoncé. The song that made her most famous was “Good Days” released on Christmas Day in 2020, which became her first solo top hit on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2021. She has been nominated 66 times and has won 25 awards. “Kill Bill” is SZA’s second most popular song from her album SOS, with over 300 million streams to date on Spotify.

“Kill Bill” by SZA starts with a strong, eerie detuned synthesizer, which lures listeners. SZA’s smooth vocals and steady beats carry us to the song’s ending. While SZA raps in the verses and pre-choruses, she sings in the chorus, making the infectious melody stand out. “Kill Bill” is built around a midtempo, groovy rhythm and it has a retro, late 1990s–early 2000s sound, influenced by a subgenre of hip hop music called boom bap.

However, some may argue that the SZA’s bold lyrics are responsible for this song’s popularity. Many relate to the anger and frustration that comes with having an ex-partner move on to a new relationship and the underlying sentiments of doing whatever it takes for love. The song title references Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill (2003), in which the main character is shot by her employer and his crew and then seeks revenge. In contrast, Sza’s song replaces the employer with a boyfriend and discusses killing his new girlfriend. While the lyric “I might kill my ex” is the most memorable, the song is filled with hooky lyrics like “I’m so mature/I’m still a fan even though I’m salty/ rather be in hell than alone.” Critics praised “Kill Bill” for its exploration of SZA’s unfiltered, violent emotions.

The duration of the song is also an asset of the song as it conveys just the right amount of material lyric-wise to keep people hooked. Although some listeners might find the dark lyrics don’t match the light sounding beat, they may grow to appreciate the dichotomy between the music and its message.

According to SZA, the creation of “Kill Bill” was “super easy,” and she deemed it a “one take, one night” type of song. While writing a song about committing murder was a risk, the song has become SZA’s biggest success and is being streamed millions of times every day” – Met Radio

TEN: The Staves – You Held It All

Release Date: 14th September

From the Album: All Now

Release Date: 22nd March, 2024

Label: Communion Records

Pre-Order: https://www.musicglue.com/the-staves/#preorder

The Skinny:

“The Staves have shared new single ‘You Held It All’.

The group are currently in a state of evolution, with sister Emily Staveley-Taylor taking a slight step back. She isn’t present on this new single, the first to present The Staves formally as a duo, and their first release since 2021’s ‘Good Woman’.

Out now, ‘You Held It All’ marks their inaugural release on Communion Records, a moment of refreshment and overhaul. Produced alongside close friend John Congleton in Los Angeles, it finds The Staves tapping back into their core values, emerging renewed in the process.

Lilting melodies with a touch of West Coast sunrise to the arrangement, The Staves somehow manage to sound more mature, more rounded.

The group comment…

“’You Held It All’ is a song about understanding, and the knots we tie ourselves in when we don’t express our truth; and how much power and freedom there can be when we do” - CLASH

NINE: Hak Baker - DOOLALLY

Release Date: 18th May

From the Album: Worlds End FM

Release Date: 27th October, 2023

Label: Hak Attack Records

Order: https://www.roughtrade.com/en-gb/product/hak-baker/worlds-end

The Skinny:

“DOOLALLY” is an unfiltered scene from the East End. Capturing Hak’s raw lyrical style that blends cockney dialect picked up from growing up in the Isle of Dogs, to Jamaican Patois from his mother and grandmother, Hak’s flow developed from his younger years as a Grime MC in B.O.M.B. squad.

“We thought we was big, big boys, going to MC at these little clubs in Romford. Don’t forget that Moet cost 30 quid back then so we were having it large,” says Hak Baker. “Everybody loves a house party. You’re talking to the house party king here. These are all the shenanigans rolled into 3.5 minutes, or all the ones I can talk about anyway - DOOLALLY!!”

"DOOLALLY" follows the previously released singles, “Telephones 4 Eyes” – which was A-listed at BBC 6 Music – and children of the Windrush generation chant “Windrush Baby”.

Hak Baker is set to play the Trevor Nelson hosted and curated Windrush 75 concert alongside Craig David and Beverly Knight at Royal Albert Hall in June” – The Line of Best Fit

EIGHT: Say She She – C’est Si Bon

Release Date: 8th June

From the Album: Silver

Release Date: 29th September, 2023

Labels: Karma Chief Records/Colemine Records

Order: https://www.roughtrade.com/en-gb/product/say-she-she/silver-4

The Skinny:

“'C'est Si Bon' is Say She She’s discodelic anthem to seize the day and make your time count.

A tribute to the global dance floor; 'C'est Si Bon' is part Parisian playground, part 90’s LA shopping mall glamour,

with an enchanting explosion of 1970’s cool downtown New York, and the gutter glitter of London nightlife.

The She She’s beckon you to throw your hands up and declare your heart’s desires.

“Tell them what you want!

The time will soon be gone.

When all is said and done

The world keeps spinning on…”” – Bandcamp

SEVEN: The Last Dinner Party – My Lady of Mercy

Release Date: 9th October

From the Album: Prelude to Ecstasy

Release Date: 2nd February, 2024

Label: Island

Pre-Order: https://www.thelastdinnerparty.co.uk/

Review:

“If there were ever a song to define the band so far, My Lady of Mercy would likely be it. A delicate and rhythmic introduction which descends into a volatile and exciting piece. All of their songs so far do, and seeing them live is surely a similarly wild experience. Confident processes from the band bring out their very best, artistic singularity meeting with a defined quality. Only the best can manage it, and sometimes it takes them a decade to get there, as it did for Arctic Monkeys. Others, those bold enough to dive in at the deep end like The Last Dinner Party, are reaping the wild rewards of starting off where any band would hope to get to after a few years of working away. It just goes to show, with a little confidence and a hell of a lot of talent, a band can start off doing what they love and build from there. Hit it out of the park the first time around and producers let the Sparks influence out of the box” – Cult Following

SIX: VV Brown – Black British

Release Date: 27th March

From the Album: Am I British Yet?

Release Date: 27th October, 2023

Label: YOY Records

Order: https://www.roughtrade.com/en-gb/product/vv-brown/am-i-british-yet

The Skinny:

“The singer-songwriter conceived, created, and produced the single and music video’s concept. The essay – due to be published along with the upcoming album by the “artist, mother, activist, journalist and teacher” – will explore Brown’s idea of being Black British and provide social commentary on her ethnicity and subculture.

This is Brown’s first release since she released her third studio album ‘Glitch’ in September 2015. ‘Black British’ also broke her six-year musical hiatus as she took time off to focus on her mental health and motherhood.

“The last six years have been a difficult mental health journey for me,” she said. “But I came to the realisation that I need music to feel alive.”

She credited living in the countryside to be “liberating” and allowing her “to create without that industry pressure.”

She continued: “Everything about this album, whether it be the artwork, the lyrics, the production or the visuals, is about starting sociological conversations” - CLASH

FIVE: Billie Eilish – What Was I Made For?

Release Date: 13th July

From the Album: Barbie the Album

Release Date: 21st July, 2023

Label: Atlantic

Order: https://www.roughtrade.com/en-gb/product/various/barbie-the-album

Review:

“I’m more into rock and metal music, but when it comes to Billie Eilish’s music, I can’t he͏lp ͏but acknowledge her musical brilliance. The young star’s most recent song, “What Was I Made͏ For?” is proof͏ of her mesmerizing͏ talent.

In collaboratio͏n with her͏ brother Finneas, Billie Eilish poured he͏r he͏ar͏t ͏and soul into crafting this intimate ͏and emotionally ch͏arged song.

Created in their Los Angeles home studio, th͏e siblings’ creative synergy shine͏s through in every note and lyric. The outcome is a captivating an͏d moving composition that effortlessly re͏sonates with the listener͏.͏

The new single perfectly captures ͏the essence of͏ the film, acting as a backdro͏p to pivotal scenes throughout the storyline.

Billie Eilish’s signature ͏whisper-like ͏vocals, combined with ͏the delicate instrume͏ntation, create an ethereal͏ atmosphere that leaves a lasting impact.

The song not only complements the film’s narrati͏ve but ͏also amplifies its underlying message, making it a powerful addition to the overall cinematic experience.

Acco͏mpanying the release of the song is the official music video, which͏ showcases Eilish’s artistic vision as͏ a ͏director.

The vide͏o captivates viewers with its stunning visuals, perfectly synchronized͏ with the son͏g’s evocat͏ive ͏lyrics, offering fans a multi-sensor͏y experience that further deepens their connection to the song and its themes.

The timing of its creation couldn’t have been mor͏e serendipitous, ͏offering Eilish a much-needed outlet for her emotions.

This authen͏ticity and ͏vulnerabili͏ty shine through in the final product, making “What Was I Made For?” a truly special release for both the artist and ͏her audience.

Moreover, the inclusion ͏of “What Was I Made For?” in the star-studded “Barbie the Album” soundtrack further emphasizes its importance within the film’s overarching narrative.

With the production expertise of͏ Mark Ronson, alongside Greta Gerwig’s involvement as ͏writer͏, director, and executive producer, the soundtrack promises to be a ͏must-listen for both fans of the film and music enthusiasts alike.

The song’s emotional depth, paired wit͏h its seamless ͏integration in͏to the film “Barbie,” re͏sults in a sonic experience that is bou͏nd ͏to captivate audiences” – rocknheavy.net

FOUR: boygenius – Cool About It

Release Date: 20th September

From the Album: the record

Release Date: 31st March, 2023

Label: Polydor

Pre-Order: https://www.roughtrade.com/en-gb/product/boygenius-2/the-record-5

Review:

“You may not have heard of Boygenius yet, but you probably know the three artists that make up the band: Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers, and Lucy Dacus. They had previously worked together as solo artists on tours but came up with the idea of collaborating after realizing that they had great chemistry. The name is a reference to the frustration they've experienced when working with some male egos in their separate careers. Despite this, it has given them a name to operate under, and we should be grateful for that because the sound they create is exceptional.

The complexity of the lyrics in "Cool About It" makes this song fascinating to listen to. Unusually, the phrase "Cool About It" doesn't appear in the song at all, but it reflects the situation that the song paints a picture of. We are taken on a journey through a relationship that leaves us feeling a sense of sadness towards the end, as one party's feelings towards the other are revealed.

The song starts with a wonderfully balanced guitar that gives the impression of a soft and calm thought-provoking song. The music gradually builds, with a banjo-sounding second guitar and strings accompanying the melody. The second verse and chorus feature string accompaniment that phases out in the third verse before gradually rebuilding. The harmonies build throughout the song in a way that keeps the genuine feel of the song, as the vocal leads change. The melody fits beautifully with the gliding lyrics, which paint a vivid picture of life in the modern world. This song has the potential to be the soundtrack to many people's lives, as the meaning of the lyrics and the power of the song echo through the track's concept” – Music Talkers

THREE: Antony Szmierek – How Did You Get Here?

Release Date: 20th October

From the E.P.: Seasoning

Release Date: 16th November, 2023

Labels: LAB Records/Underplay

Order: https://antonyszmierek.tmstor.es/

The Skinny:

“Antony Szmierek. Remember the name.

Across a handful of singles the Manchester-based talent has proved his worth, his emotive word play both revealing and challenging in equal measure. Half-spoken word, half-melodious, Antony’s delivery recalls everyone from Mick Skinner to John Cooper Clarke, while remaining committed to his own originality.

All upcoming shows are long since sold out, with the wordsmith aiming to end 2023 with a bang. New single ‘How Did You Get Here?’ amplifies the hype still further, a self-conscious indie-disco bop that erupts with energy.

There’s a tenacious pop aspect to Antony Szmierek’s work, with his fantastic immediacy aligned to n emotional richness, a revelatory passion for words. Out now, he comments:

“It’s an indie-disco banger with hidden depths. It’s about coming to terms with making the same mistakes twice. We like to think we learn from our failures but maybe we don’t, and maybe being fallible is okay. If the lyrics represent ego and insecurity, the music puts a hand on your shoulder and reassures you that you’re not alone” – CLASH

TWO: Iraina Mancini – Cannonball

Release Date: 5th April

From the Album: Undo the Blue

Release Date: 18th August, 2023

Label: Needle Mythology

Order: https://needlemythology.tmstor.es/?ffm=FFM_bec5377b4631ce490964930fc72eddf9

The Skinny:

“A full album is incoming, with new single ‘Cannonball’ online now. It feels like the lost theme to a 60s spy film, a kind of Modesty Blaize character updated for the modern era. A female-forward slice of action-packed pop, it was co-written alongside Simon Dine, and produced by Sunglasses for Jaws (with the redoubtable Erol Alkan on additional production).

The neat keyboard arpeggios in the background recall the Killing Eve soundtrack work constructed by Unloved, while the loping bassline is sheer McCartney. A psych-pop whirlwind, ‘Cannonball’ finds Iraina yearning for freedom.

She comments…

“I wrote ‘Cannonball’ about taking a chance in life and following your heart. It’s that moment where you meet someone or something and it knocks you for six! Your intuition kicks in and you’ve got to go with what it’s telling you. I really wanted to write something that grabbed people’s attention, I got lost in my head in an action packed, 60s stylish thriller film”- CLASH

ONE: Nadine Shah – Topless Mother

Release Date: 18th October

From the Album: Filthy Underneath

Release Date: 23rd February, 2024

Label: EMI North

Pre-Order: https://nadineshah.co.uk/

The Skinny:

“One of Britain’s most revered, powerful and resonant indie voices, Nadine Shah has just  shared the lead single and video from her upcoming album ‘Topless Mother’ which went straight onto the BBC 6 Music A-List. The track comes from her fifth album Filthy Underneath due to drop on 23rd February. The video release comes ahead of a special sold out preview show on Thursday 2nd November at London’s Lower Third. This follows a string of dates as a special guest for Young Fathers.

Speaking of the ‘Topless Mother’ video Shah said,

“I just wanted to muck about and play. Choreographer Lynne Page directed the video and encouraged that. She’s a big kid like me. Pam Hogg’s dress stole the show though.” “Three years might seem like a prolonged absence to some people, but it’s also a period of time in which the apparatus that holds your world in place can be dismantled and reassembled so that you can keep living, keep creating.”

Filthy Underneath chronicles a period of unprecedented turbulence in Nadine Shah’s life and yet, the experience of listening to it is oddly life-affirming – a parade of ghosts spanning the entirety of Nadine’s thirty-seven years, moving with balletic beauty to the music that Nadine and long-time co-writer and producer Ben Hillier have created around them, with renewed emphasis on placing melody and movement front and centre. On the album’s sensational lead single ‘Topless Mother’, her double-tracked harmonies converge with a physically irresistible groove.

Inspired by a series of comically tense exchanges with a counsellor, the song alights on that counsellor’s unorthodox tendency to burst into tears if she felt she wasn’t getting anywhere with her patient. The tone here is powerful, celebratory, an instant fan favourite to rub shoulders alongside her best” – God Is in the TV

FEATURE: One Heart and Two Legs: Why Margaret Glaspy’s Between-Tours Ultramarathon Got Me Thinking About Holistic and Physical Releases for Artists

FEATURE:

 

 

One Heart and Two Legs

IN THIS PHOTO: Margaret Glaspy/PHOTO CREDIT: Ebru Yildiz

Why Margaret Glaspy’s Between-Tours Ultramarathon Got Me Thinking About Holistic and Physical Releases for Artists

_________

I have produced a few features…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Ebru Yildiz/ATO Records

that talk about artists’ mental health. It can be very strenuous when on tour. A lot of ways to cope with stress and the anxieties of touring do not work. Others are a bit hit and miss. Whilst exercise and getting out as much as possible can be very beneficial, something U.S. artist Margaret Glaspy said in a recent interview that caught my eye. Maybe an extreme way of relieving tension or setting a goal between tours, she decided to enter a twenty-nine-mile run: an ultramarathon. When speaking with Rolling Stone recently, we learned more about the reasoning behind this incredible undertaking:

“Margaret Glaspy was 17 miles into the race when she entered the pain cave.

It was always a question of when, not if, she would experience it. Her body was already jetlagged when she started, thanks to an international flight two days before. Tropical Storm Ophelia had been pummeling her with wind and rain throughout the entire race. (The message on the race’s website seems almost sadistic in hindsight: “Hopefully we are going to have a nice fall day!”) The course, which blended technical single-track trails, rolling hills, and double-wide gravel roads, could either be her best friend or hated enemy, depending on the terrain. None of it was a clear path, she realized. It was all boulders and roots — a lot of ways to fall.

But now, after around four hours of running in the Squatchayanda Trail Festival in New Jersey last month, Glaspy entered the pain cave, a visualization technique popularized by ultramarathoner Courtney Dauwalter to describe how to mentally power through the part of a race where your rational, logical, craving-for-calories body is begging you to stop.

It was Glaspy’s first ultramarathon — defined as any race past the marathon distance of 26.2 miles — and consequently, her first cave. She pushed through it against her better judgment and ran 12 more miles, only stopping at 29 miles because it started to get dark. She thought about running more, but there was still an entire U.S. tour to think of.

For many people, the idea of running an ultramarathon even in the best training conditions is a mentally questionable decision. The training for a 50-miler, 100K, 100-miler or beyond can be long, grueling, monotonous, painful, and all-consuming. Tell a person you’re doing a marathon and they’ll reply, “Good for you!” Tell them you’re doing an ultra and prepare for a bemused “Why?” There’s strength work, foam rolling, speed work, mental training, stretching, more foam rolling, prep races, yoga, nutrition and hydration planning, and even more foam rolling. Ten-milers become “fun runs” compared to Saturdays, which are usually 20- to 25-milers for months on end. Social engagements are planned and cancelled. Families’ patience is tested. And sleep is the most idyllic part of the week.

It’s a big commitment for anyone. Glaspy — the California-raised, New York-based singer-songwriter, who just released her superb third album, Echo the Diamond — chose to take it on between UK and U.S. tours. “I would say I’m not a masochist,” she tells Rolling Stone at the start of her U.S. leg. “It was not some challenge of, ‘Let’s see if I can go on tour and then run as much as I can.’ It was more like, ‘I just have these few months where I can train for this the best that I can. I have this little window.’ So I just did it.”

When Glaspy’s mother, also a distance runner, was in her mid-twenties, she had run parts of the Western States course, one of the most acclaimed and punishing ultramarathons in the country, to stay in shape. “When I was growing up, there was always a running energy in the air,” Glaspy says. “We woke up one day and there was a poster of Jackie Joyner-Kersee on the wall. There was this tone set: ‘You will run, and it will be a part of your life.’”

Glaspy herself ran casually in her teens and twenties, attending Berklee College of Music before releasing her debut EP, Homeschool ,when she was 23 and signing to ATO Records two years later. Emotions and Math, her debut LP recorded in “only three or four days,” arrived in 2016 to critical acclaim. “I make records almost the way that jazz musicians do in the sense that it’s just like, I like to play it down and then done,” says Glaspy, who remembers Miles Davis and John Coltrane on steady rotation in her parents’ home. “I don’t really like going back and pondering about it. It just is what it is as soon as you play it.” Her sophomore album, 2020’s Devotion, found Glaspy expanding both her fanbase and palette, mixing electronic flourishes and keyboards with her candid lyrics.

But as her musical career ascended, it was only “in the last couple of years” that she had a realization: She needed to run longer. 5K races turned into half-marathons, which morphed into a desire to push herself for even longer distances. “I started to promote this new record and it just took over and I just said, ‘All right, I’m gonna do this,’” she says. “Going from 13 to 29 miles is a big jump, but in being a fan of the sport, it’s absolutely nothing.”

It raises the question: Why not go from a half-marathon to a marathon like most people?

“I didn’t really relate to marathon culture; I just couldn’t quite wrap my head around why it was fun,” she says. “It was like, go big or go home, which is usually the case with me.”

Soon she set on the idea of a 50-mile run. “It’s such a beautiful thing to do and to find an activity and a community that is completely separate from music, and just dive headfirst into it was such a treat for me,” she says. She chatted with ultramarathoner Addie Bracy, who would become one of her biggest running inspirations. “I asked her, ‘Am I crazy to try and run 50 miles?’ But she was like, ‘No, just go do it”.

 PHOTO CREDIT: jasmin chew/Pexels

Maybe artists do not have to go to the same lengths, though there is something holistic and channelling about what Margaret Glaspy did. Taking on such a physical challenge and the preparation or that. With there being limited resources for artists in terms of support and therapy, there will be many who are struggling when it comes to touring. A lot of that is because of financial losses, though there is also a sense of drain and struggle being on the road and in such close quarters for so long. Many might feel that doing an ultramarathon might exacerbate any fatigue and strain. I do feel that physical challenges and something that commits an artist to the land, nature, the physical and enduring can be of massive help. I know many artists exercise regularly, though something singular and epic like a marathon/ultramarathon takes things to a new level. How about beyond that?! Like exercise and something physical demanding, enjoying nature and doing something similar and less strenuous has mental health benefits too. I do feel we need to hear about artists’ ways of unwinding or concentrating their mind. Charities and organisations are helpful when it comes to offer support and guidance. Every artist might have their own way of finding some sort of balance and calm. I am reading a new book by Camilla Nord called The Balanced Brain. It talks about the science of mental health. She discusses how there is this link between mental health and pleasure and pain. Everyone with mental health struggles has their own tolerance and threshold for pain. Doing something slightly painful or disconformable can boost mood and release stress. I think that the combination of pleasure and pain one might get from an ultramarathon would provide some benefits to mental health.

 PHOTO CREDIT: Vladislav Murashko/Pexels

I am just amazed by the revelation you get in some interviews. Margaret Glaspy’s ultramarathon before embarking on a U.S. tour. At a time when so many artists are struggling with mental health and many are burning out, I wonder if there will be more exploration from the music industry regarding ways in which artists can use a range of methods and activities to boost and balance their mental health. Touring and Mental Health: The Music Industry Manual provides resource for those in the music industry regarding mental health and what they can do. It is a brilliant book. I think that more routes need to explored regarding a growing mental health crisis in music. Not that exercise, new routines or challenges is going to be the answer for all those in the industry. It is just that there is this point where charities and help is out there and I think it can supplemented with other avenues. CLASH recently wrote about the growing concern of the mental health of those in the music industry:

“Over the past few years the general population have been faced with an increasing number of mental health challenges. Everything from the aftermath of COVID-19 and Brexit, to the climate and cost of living crises have added to the stressors of everyday life. However, research shows that those working in the music industry are more prone to mental health problems, and are up to three times more likely to suffer from clinical depression.

Joe Hastings, head of Music Minds Matter – the sister charity of Help Musicians, providing free 24/7 mental health support for this working in the UK music industry – reports a 200% increase in those seeking support over the past two years. Even prior to the pandemic, a 2019 study by Swedish platform Record Union highlighted that 73% of independent musicians struggle with mental illness, which rises to 80% when considering only those between the ages of 18-25.

PHOTO CREDIT: Mental Health America (MHA)/Pexels

This may seem surprising to those on the outside looking in. The romanticisation of working in music often means that the struggles of those within it can be overlooked or misunderstood. A 2022 independent survey carried out by Music Support reveals that 84% of people looking for help within the music industry would prefer help from someone with industry experience.

George Levers, head of service development and delivery at Music Support, is on the front lines, supporting people with addiction and mental health challenges. She leads the charity’s helpline and email service, which is predominantly run by people who have lived experience of both working in the music industry and their own mental health challenges.

“When somebody calls our helpline, we understand the industry that they’re coming from. And that’s really important to musicians and people that come from the music industry,” she explains. “I’ve had people that called and said, ‘I’ve had some therapy, but to be honest with you the therapist spent more time talking about how amazing it must be to work in the music industry, than actually what was going on for me.’”

IN THIS PHOTO: Tamsin Embleton’s Touring and Mental Health: The Music Industry Manual is invaluable reference and reading/PHOTO CREDIT: Luke Curtis

There are a vast range of compounding factors that increase the risk of mental health challenges to those working in the music industry: work overload, work underload, pressure to gain and maintain success, racism, sexism, homophobia, discrimination, performance anxiety, band dynamics, pressure from labels, lack of autonomy, social media toxicity and job insecurity, to name only a few.

“It can be complicated, but common contributing factors include poor working conditions, lack of recognition and unstable working patterns, all of which are likely to make it more difficult for people working in music to manage their mental health and wellbeing,” says Hastings. “Compounding these issues over recent times are external pressures such as the pandemic, Brexit regulations and the cost-of-living crisis, all of which have put the music industry under incredible strain, and those working within it.”

In the aftermath of the pandemic, challenges to the touring sector in particular, have multiplied. “When COVID happened the music industry was decimated,” says Levers. “People found other jobs, and when the music industry opened its doors again, it went from famine to feast. The people that were left needed to make up that income again, and so they went back into the touring life and became utterly exhausted and overwhelmed”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Gabe Garza/Pexels

As awareness of the music industry’s mental health challenges proliferates, so does the ever expanding range of charities and initiatives seeking to help. There are the aforementioned organisations (Help Musicians, Music Support, Music Industry Therapist Collective and Music Managers Forum), peer support groups such as The Back Lounge run by tour manager Suzi Green, and it’s always worth speaking to your local GP. All of these encourage people in the music industry to reach out whenever things begin to feel too much, and will endeavour to offer support, or signpost to a service that can

“Reaching out and asking for help – I know that sounds really obvious, but that’s really difficult for a lot of people, especially for men. And that’s why we try to reduce the stigma around mental health and addiction,” says Levers. “A massive thing for human beings is connection. If we’re not connected to people that’s when our mental health starts deteriorating.”

Directory

Helplines

Music Minds Matter (Open 24/7) // Website
0808 802 8008

Music Support (Open Monday-Friday, 9:00am-17:00pm, except for Bank Holidays) // Website
0800 030 6789

Samaritans (Open 24/7) // Website
116 123

Organisations

Help Musicians // Website
Music Industry Therapist Collective // Website
Music Managers Forum // Website
PRS Members Fund // Website
Royal Society of Musicians // Website
Musicians Union // Website
The Back Lounge // Website
Back Up Tech // Website
Stage Hand // Website”.

For Margaret Glaspy and her ultramarathon, there was that idea of a new community. Something that was a bit fun but required a lot of work. It may seem like an impossible and arduous labour, yet it sounds like it was refreshing and revitalising in many ways. From spending more time in nature and the outdoors to taking on physical activities, or even finding a new crowd or project that will engage the mind away from music and provide some assistance is essential. When so many folk in the industry are struggling with mental health problems, any inspirations, positive stories or curious ideas that could be of assistance should be highlighted and discussed more widely. There is so much that grabbed and intrigued me when it came to…

MARGARET Glaspy’s ultramarathon challenge.

INTERVIEW: Anna Pancaldi

INTERVIEW:

PHOTO CREDIT: Laura Rhodes

Anna Pancaldi

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AN artist I have been following for years…

 PHOTO CREDIT: @matghisolff

and really love and respect, the magnificent Anna Pancaldi is someone everyone should check out. I have been talking with her about her amazing new single, Stay This Way. Someone who I have high hopes for in 2024, she has a string of dates coming up. Go and see Pancaldi perform live if you can, as she is a magnificent and singular artist. I am going to quote from her website when it comes to drilling into her successful 2023:

“After a sold-out London headline show at Folklore in May 2023 after the release of her rousing new single, Where Do I Lay All the Love I Have Left, Anna then released her anthemic single, Stay This Way, in September with more songs to follow shortly. Anna embarks on a full headline UK tour, including another sold-out headline show at London’s The Waiting Room on October 20th.

2023 marks a poignant new epoch for Anna having musically remerged from her chrysalis with her most inspired music yet and a pivotal turning point in her career.

With an impressive catalogue of music placements in film and TV including the globally acclaimed Grey's Anatomy trailer, Focus Feature film, Every Body, Pretty Little Liars, Love Is Blind, Famous in Love, Paramount film, The In Between and has featured in and soundtracked an adrenaline filled Levi's campaign.

With three Top Ten's in the singer-songwriter iTunes charts, Anna has gone on to captivate audiences headlining across the UK, Europe and the US. Headlining shows in NYC, LA, Chicago, and Nashville. Anna has captured audiences with TV appearances on CBS LA and London Live and toured the world opening for heavyweight artists such as David Ryan Harris (John Mayer's guitarist), Jake Isaac and Fatai”.

The brilliant Anna Pancaldi has released, what I think is one of her very best songs. She discusses that track, what it was like recently playing The Waiting Room in London, how she is feeling about upcoming tour dates, some new artists we should also investigate, in addition to how she thinks her own music has changed and evolved through the years. Follow Anna Pancaldi (links are at the bottom of this interview), as this is someone who will be producing amazing music for years to come. A truly sensational talent, there is nobody out there…

QUITE like her.

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Hi Anna. How has your week been? Your single, Stay This Way, came out in September. It has been really well received. How does it feel to get that sort of love?

A relief haha. But also truly wonderful because at last I feel comfortable in the skin I’m in. Singing the songs that mean the most to me and to see it connecting is a feeling of sheer delight.

I really love your vocals and the piano on that track. How did it start life? Do you begin with a melody line or chorus, or does it depend on the song?

It’s totally dependent on the song, and this one has a slightly unusual story as I started it at home on my own and there the melody and piano parts were born. I didn’t think the song was for me, and so I took it into a session with another writer in L.A. on Zoom, with sync in mind, and then realised it touched me and wanted to keep it for myself and adapt the lyrics so it could fully be mine.

“To me, touring and being in a room with people is the most impactful way to build connections with your audience”

You recently played The Waiting Room in London. What was it like playing that space?

It sold out. Thank you to my amazing fans. Performing live is where I am most energised, joyous and adrenaline-filled. This year has been the first time I’ve been able to stand on stage and just love being there; normal nerves to keep me in check, but my self-deprecation valve  (as I like to call it) has closed up and I feel so free on stage. You almost have to drag me off I’m enjoying it so much. Haha.

There are quite a few more dates coming before the end of the year. Are there particular towns or venues you are excited about? How does it feel connecting with the audience in such a direct way when on stage?

No favourites. To me, touring and being in a room with people is the most impactful way to build connections with your audience. It’s where I feel most at home and where I can share my music, but also talk with people too. I can’t keep my career alive without them, and I find playing live my most unforgettable of nights.

“But I’m here now and it feels as if the music is connecting more than ever”

I see you have a double header gig with Emma Miller coming up on 7th December. Is she an artist you have been following a while?

Ahh, she’s amazing! She saw me play at a Sofar Sounds many years ago when she was studying in London and then we met properly in WEB3!

I have been following your music now for years. How do you feel you have evolved and changed as an artist since your earliest days?

Thank you for sticking around (smiles). I feel more confident in writing and making the music I want to be creating. Feeling confident in what you’re doing is paramount, but it has taken me many years to get there. But I’m here now and it feels as if the music is connecting more than ever. My songs mostly delve into grief and untimely bereavement, for which I used to worry about it making people uncomfortable or thought it too depressing; now I know that I can’t help the road I am walking on through this life and my songs reflect just that and that’s ok. Not all roads I’ve led down have been something I’ve had choice over, so being honest is all I have.

Briefly take me back to the start. Were there particular artists or albums that sparked your love of music or spoke to you in a powerful way?

I was hardcore obsessed with Barbra Streisand. Not only her voice, but the way she performed. Mariah Carey and countless others. They made me want to sing. My dad is a wonderful singer and performed throughout much of his younger life, so growing up with a house filled with his voice and the sounds of Carly Simon, Marvin Gaye, The Beach Boys and many others laid out a perfect foundation of music.

What comes next in terms of music? Are there further releases planned for next year?

Absolutely. Keeping all the plates spinning! I’m sitting on lots of new music and very much looking forward to sharing it with you all.

IN THIS PHOTO: Victoria Canal

Obviously, there are a lot of great rising artists around right now. Are there any that you would recommend we keep an eye out for?

Ohh. Some I love are Victoria Canal and Humble the Great and Maeta.

Christmas is coming soon. How will you be spending it this year?

Ah, I used to obsess over Christmas. It genuinely filled me with joy, but after losing one of the closest people to me, I’ve always struggled to look forward to it or enjoy it. It’s a day about family and being with loved ones, and when some of those most precious are taken away too soon, it’s hard to bring back the magic. But I am an auntie now and those little cheeky chaps have brought much happiness, so I enjoy it in a new way now; wanting to make sure they have the most joyous day and delight in the enchantment I used to.

Finally, and for being a good sport, you can choose any song you like (from another artist) and I will include it here. What do you want to go for?

Joe Hill by Paul Robeson. I’ll let the song speak for itself.

_________

Follow Anna Pancaldi

PHOTO CREDIT: Curious Rose Photography

Official:

https://www.annapancaldi.com/

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/annapancaldimusic

TikTok:

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

Twitter:

https://twitter.com/annapancaldi

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/artist/6om1oTl0iSZGBRs52bJEqI

YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/Annapancaldimusic

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/annapancaldimusic/

FEATURE: Saluting the Queens: Little Simz

FEATURE:

 

 

Saluting the Queens

Little Simz

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IN the next part of this feature run…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Jackie Nickerson for Document Journal

I am going to focusing on someone behind the scenes in music. This feature salutes powerful and important women in music. For this edition, I am focusing on someone very much at the forefront and in the spotlight. Today, it is all about the mighty Little Simz. I wanted to look back at her album from last year, NO THANK YOU, which turns one very soon. As she (Islington-born Simbiatu Abisola Abiola Ajikawo) has just done a run of live dates, it is worth bringing in a couple of reviews for a particularly special homecoming. To demonstrate what an immense live performer she is, in addition to showcasing her incredible potential as a headliner next year. Released on 12th December, 2022, NO THANK YOU was an unexpected follow-up to the previous year’s Sometimes I Might Be Introvert. That (Sometimes I Might Be Introvert) became Little Simz’s first album to place in the top-ten of the U.K. album chart. It won the Mercury Prize that year. It also won the BRIT Award for British Album of the Year. It was named Best Album at the MOBO Awards. Despite the fact that Little Simz released this stunning and heralded album, there were setbacks through 2022 in terms of her touring capabilities. As an independent artist, she was unable to tour as widely as she’d hoped. Such an important and respected artist having to lessen her scope and reduce her shows! I want to come to reviews for one of last year’s very best albums.

Quite a lot of the interviews that came about from 2022 were in reaction to Sometimes I Might Be Introvert. Others focused on her work acting in the series, Top Boy. Harper’s Bazaar spoke with Little Simz in November 2022 (a month before NO THANK YOU came into the world). They named her their Women of the Year 2022 Musician:

“Being an individual can be scary," Little Simz says, her brow furrowed. "But I always want to say to people, if you believe something is cool, it’s cool. And if you want to do something, do it." The independent-label musician, rapper, writer, actress and photographer is well-qualified to reflect on the joys and perils of doing your own thing. As deft and multidisciplinary as she is driven, Simz has, for the last decade, been forging a career path that is entirely her own. In the past couple of years, this one-woman cultural phenomenon has released a five-star-reviewed album, art-directed short films, joined forces with Gucci, photographed a beautiful portrait series featuring her long-time friend, the Black Panther star Letitia Wright, and taken pride of place on Barack Obama’s ‘Favourite music of 2021’ playlist.

But she has been at her most prolific in 2022. In the spring, she won a Brit for Best New Artist (and brought the house down performing two tracks on the night, the interlude delivered by her collaborator, the actor Emma Corrin), then the NME Best UK Solo Act gong. Shortly afterwards, Netflix released the latest series of Top Boy, its cult drama about London drug gangs, in which Simz plays a central role; and in June, she headlined Glastonbury’s West Holts stage. September saw her step out in Stormzy’s groundbreaking music video for ‘Mel Made Me Do It’ alongside Usain Bolt, Dina Asher-Smith, Malorie Blackman and Louis Theroux, and a month later she was named the worthy winner of this year’s particularly competitive Mercury Prize. All the while, Simz has been writing a non-fiction book that will be published in 2023 – a collection of photographs and handwritten personal essays alongside interviews with fellow members of the creative industries, as well as people from other professions, such as a doctor and a chef.

"I’ve had a wicked year – prosperous –though a bit mad at times," the artist says modestly. "I’m quite relaxed about the success. I’m just proud of myself, because I’ve done something I set out to achieve, and it’s nice seeing dreams come into fruition. I am not anywhere near peaking, though. In a way, it sets off a new fire in my belly."

In person, Simz – casually dressed in black with her hair tied back – is calm and self-effacing; a contrast to the commanding presence I saw on stage at a festival in the summer, performing from her album Sometimes I Might Be Introvert. In its 19 tracks, Simz moves through the musical spectrum via rap (containing her signature superlative wordplay, often delivered at jaw-dropping speed), orchestral strings, soul, Afrobeat, grime, hip-hop and gospel, and her lyrics feature cultural references ranging from Judith Kerr to Kendrick Lamar. These touchstones are woven into wider topics, both political and deeply personal, including womanhood, race, love, and her professional troubles and triumphs. On one track, she cheerleads herself gloriously – "I think I need a standin’ ovation/Over 10 years in the game, I’ve been patient". She half-jokes that she was "too brave" on the album, in sharing so much. "But I think that’s why people relate to it," she says. "I’ve always found comfort in putting things down on paper – I communicate at my best when expressing myself through writing."

PHOTO CREDIT: Camilla Åkrans

Simz is clearly motivated by a desire for human connection. She lights up when discussing how her sound and sentiments resonate with people from all backgrounds, however different they are from her own. "Purpose is so important to me. I want to always act with it," she says. "With music or words, people think they’re hearing sound, but they aren’t – they’re hearing intention. If it’s there in the writing and production, that is the reason why, when someone plays a specific chord on the piano, it can move you to tears."

As such, she sets a high bar for her own live gigs. "I hope it makes the audience feel they’re experiencing something big and engaging together, that they’ll tell their kids about in 20 years. Not comparing myself to her, but you know that thing when someone tells you they got to see Beyoncé? I would love people to feel that about my shows, and get to say: 'I was there.'" She is smiling. "That makes me want to give everything to them”.

I will get to some promotion from this year. I’ll also come to some reviews for NO THANK YOU; finishing with a couple of live reviews from very recently. Even though we know Little Simz as an artist, Simbiatu Ajikawo is a very talented actor who I can see taking on film roles and rising to new heights here. Rolling Stone UK spoke with Little Simz last November about her music. They also were curious about her role in Top Boy (she plays Shelley):

“It’s like flexing a different muscle. As Little Simz, she’s in charge. It’s her vision, accelerated by her ideas. She is, after all, a solo artist. She built a career from freestyling as a teen and self-releasing mixtapes to winning awards — she also won a Brit in February — with that singular drive. Being part of a franchise took some getting used to. “It’s like a football team: everyone’s coming together to make this thing work. You’ve got to have trust in your teammates,” she says. Sometimes, when they’re doing press as a cast and she can’t quite come up with the right line, she’ll turn to Walters or Jasmine Jobson (Jaq), as if to say: “Help me out.” She and Walters have clicked since her audition. The prompt? For him to make her laugh. “And he did — that was it. It was super quick and simple,” she says. She remembers them laughing, shooting and re-shooting a sad scene from season two with Marsha Millar (who plays Pat, Dushane’s mum). When she describes the story, it’s so clearly loaded with in-jokes that I barely understand why it was hilarious. But she’s beaming. You had to be there.

Shooting season three has been bittersweet, she says. Ajikawo wrapped her scenes a couple of weeks ago: “There’s an element of letting go of that part of you.” But it’s also taught her about her limits, and about what feels good on set. “We worked with two incredible actor-directors this time around as well” — she won’t share their names because she’s “not sure” she’s allowed to yet. “And they really cared about performance as opposed to… aesthetic, and how it looks.”

PHOTO CREDIT: Kosmas Pavlos

She chooses these words carefully, slowly. Rather, this duo understood how to concentrate on how a scene felt. They knew how to see things from both sides of the lens. “Sometimes, if I’m doing a scene that requires me to go somewhere emotional, I ain’t got 30 takes in me to do that. Working with people who understand your capacity and what you can handle on any given day, is a blessing, for sure,” she explains.

Earlier in the day, I watch her navigate the photographer’s vision in a similar way. She’s wearing an electric-blue Gucci boilersuit and Adidas accessories. Quiet, determined, focused on every shot. The photographer yells encouragement at her, as she contorts her body: crouching, kneeling, then standing. At one point she roars, staring down the lens. Later, we’ll joke that Tyra Banks was right on America’s Next Top Model, about poses feeling weird but translating beautifully on camera. Even so, as the photographer clicks away, a member of Ajikawo’s team passes her message onto her publicist: this will be the last look. The information is relayed to Rolling Stone UK’s fashion director. Ajikawo is firm. Later, she’ll say she’s become “very protective of myself. I’m big on boundaries right now.” Maybe she hadn’t been before.

Does that mean she was pushed too far on other sets? “Not so much with acting,” she begins, but it can be tricky when having her picture taken. “You want me to shoot 20 looks today? I… I can’t,” even though she’d love to in principle. She’s learning to set limits. “When it comes to working with people on set, especially women, I feel like there’s a duty of care,” she says. “Everyone who gets photographed should be asked: ‘What makes you feel comfortable? What makes you feel safe?’ We’re using our bodies; that’s a vulnerable space to be in.”

I can see how Ajikawo has changed over the years. When she was younger, she was quicker to smile to put others at ease in interviews. Then, she had more to prove in a male-dominated industry where her world-building on EPs and mixtapes bucked chart trends. She seems to know herself better now. Her voice is direct, almost biting at times. She knows people on set are “checking for their jobs and whatnot, but I’m also trying to get in the zone. I’d rather not have 10 people look at me while I’m doing it”.

Earlier this year, DAZED chatted with Little Simz. Someone who followed the epic Sometimes I Might Be Introvert with the more stripped-back NO THANK YOU, this was an artist always moving and evolving. In spite of the success and brilliance of the albums, there were a lot still not aware of Little Simz. I think this is starting to change - though 2024 is a year where I hope more people turn on to her music and full range of talents:

“Sometimes, greatness needn’t be defined by metrics you have no control over. It’s also about succumbing to the belief that who you are today is as permanent as a handprint on a cold window. The life of an artist can be like this – a cycle of rebirth, a snake eating itself. Little Simz has no idea who she’ll be tomorrow, next month or ten years from now. What’s assured is her exploration of self through art, and this, probably the most beautiful element of being an artist, is emblematic of the ouroboros.

“I guess more people know who I am now,” says Simz with a wry laugh, commenting on life since the release of Grey Area in 2019. “Not much has changed really; I’m still doing what I’ve always done. Making my art and putting it out into the world and hoping it resonates with people.”

The first time we spoke, just before the release of that record, Simz described being content with where she was in her career. The frustration that came with not being where she felt she should have been was a feeling she was no longer concerned with. Back then, she’d yet to win a Brit award and the Mercury prize, publish a book or advance her acting career with a role in the third series of Netflix gangland drama Top Boy. Four years on, you can hear the resolve and quiet confidence in her voice; a flame has been rekindled in recent years.

PHOTO CREDIT: Jamie Morgan

“Grey Area was my breakthrough, but Sometimes I Might Be Introvert was a real turning point,” says Simz of her Mercury-winning fourth album, a Top 5 hit in the UK that cracked Rolling Stones’ greatest hip-hop albums list last year. “The concept, visual wise, subject matter, and just where I was at in life. I think I came into myself more but it’s also consistency.” She has just arrived back from her tour in Australia, her first visit in a few years, and there is some lag still in the air. “Sometimes I Might Be Introvert was definitely more expansive and conceptual. [I was] making music that I felt was need- ed and music I enjoyed; I wanted to make bops and I’m in my bag right now.”

For its follow-up, last year’s No Thank You, “I wanted it to be super-conversational,” says Simz, “and to give people an insight as to where I am and what I’m experiencing.” That insight into where she is creatively (“Charged up, fully barred up, I’m unleashing”) can be felt viscerally in the music video for “Gorilla”, directed by Dave Meyers and taken from the album. The bag she’s in is gargantuan; Simz is talking her shit on the track; it’s just straight raps. Sometimes, that is a concept that’s enough in itself, especially for someone who has moved beyond artistic frustration.

If there’s anything to take away from Simz’ work in recent years, it’s that finding comfort in success can just be about finding fellowship with other artists and recognising your own power. The fear that anyone would have to overcome to decide, ‘You know what? Today, I feel like showing people something different.’ Now, Simz gets to decide which version of herself she wants to be today. The musician. The rapper. Actor. Writer. Producer. “You’re free to be experimental and take risks,” she says of her approach to her work, which will next see her reprising her role in a new season of Top Boy. “Sometimes it’s scary but it’s so rewarding.”

“Music is energy,” she explains. “You want it to bounce off the walls, you want it to bounce between people, you want it to fill a room. It’s just fun to make music with people.” By her own admission, previous projects before Grey Area often had multiple producers sending beats over email with Simz recording whenever and wherever she was able. Working solely with one producer across various projects required a willingness to embrace the possibilities that opened up, a letting-go of what she thought she knew. The musical telepathy evident in No Thank You could not have been achieved on Simz and Inflo’s first project, as it required a deeper level of understanding of one another which may not have possible in 2019.

PHOTO CREDIT: Jamie Morgan

The publication of her first book this year proved one thing, at least: concern with being the best is child’s play. Simply titled the *book, the project features words and original photography from Simz and is described by the rapper as “a representation of my journey throughout life, the places I have visited, as well as people I have encountered. My moments, my thoughts, my accolades, my world... transcribed into pages, pictures, textures and colours”.

Simz has forged her own lane but to walk it, she’s had to overcome obstacles along the way. “I’ve found ways to deal with the frustration but I also think that my focus and attention is on other things,” she says. “I was probably worrying a lot about things I didn’t have but now my focus is more about what I do have and getting better.” It’s a feeling artists experience all too often, because there’s an underlying understanding that where you are currently is very rarely where you want to be. On the other hand, sometimes it’s just about getting on with it and controlling what can be controlled, leaving the rest up to chance. “Being frustrated doesn’t really do anything; it just leads to more frustration. I’ve found a way to use that energy in a different way and be productive.”

More people certainly know who Little Simz is now, but she’s more than just the sum of her work to date: there’s a fire in her belly to see how far this can go. “As long as I continue to be playful and have fun with what I’m doing, the evolution’s naturally going to go to a place that I can’t predict,” she says. “I just have to remember who I am and who I was before all of this”.

I am going to come to a couple of the many massively positive reviews for NO THANK YOU. I think that it was worthy of a Mercury Prize nod this year. This is what NME said about one of 2022’s very best albums. One might think that Little Simz would struggle to match Sometimes I Might Be Introvert. NO THANK YOU showed that there was no nerves or any sort of drop. She was very much at her peak:

“Little Simz is sick of hearing that she’s “underrated”. In September 2021, she bluntly addressed the tag by asking her Twitter followers: “Why don’t you stop being sheep and change the narrative?” It was a curious yet revealing moment: seldom do our current crop of musicians take stock, or at least speak publicly, about their place in the scene. That’s without even mentioning how Simz is currently enjoying widespread praise and bagging numerous accolades along the way, most recently nabbing the Mercury Prize back in October for her fourth album ‘Sometimes I Might Be Introvert’.

‘NO THANK YOU’ arrives as a pleasing coda to this particular purple patch. Announced just a week before its release with minimal fanfare, the stories she details over its 10 tracks seek to demonstrate that, amid the critical acclaim, there have been moments of anguish, frustration and betrayal, too. Some of these have already been made public: due to the spiralling cost of touring, Simz was forced to cancel a run of US dates earlier this year (a common story for independent acts like herself), while there were reports in October of a split with her longtime manager, a situation both parties are yet to comment on.

Regardless, Simz has a bone to pick: with the discourse, the industry hangers-on and those trying to exploit her name for their own gain. On ‘Angel’, she’s candid about the issues at hand: “Why did I give you the keys to authorise shit on my behalf? / Now I’m scarred and mortified,” she calmly reveals. Later on in the track, she speaks about how her success is benefitting everyone around her except herself: “I refuse to be on a slave ship / Give me all my masters and lower your wages.” ‘No Merci’ is equally blunt: “Everybody here getting money off my name / Irony is, I’m the only one not getting paid.”

In lesser hands, this subject could stray into self-pity. But Simz’s storytelling is deft and full of range, gliding between generational trauma (‘Broken’) and faith and the grind (‘Who Even Cares’) with ease. The album’s sonic palette, meanwhile, takes on a mellower and less grandiose tone, with Inflo – the producer behind her last two records and the mysterious musical project Sault – and collaborator Cleo Sol bringing a warm, homely base for Simz to nestle in. There’s still ostentatious string sections to be found on ‘Heart On Fire’ and ‘Broken’, but ‘Gorilla’s twanging bassline brings a playful pace, as does the warped pop of ‘Who Even Cares’.

‘NO THANK YOU’s quiet, understated release provides parallels to Kendrick Lamar’s ‘Untitled Unmastered’ release from 2016, a series of leftovers from his ‘To Pimp A Butterfly’ sessions. That too had a certain looseness and freedom to the tracks, and, much like Lamar, a clear-headed Simz has something to say urgently. The case for Simz to be recognised as a true modern great has only been strengthened with this release”.

The second review is from Rolling Stone. Getting some love and attention from a U.S. publication, let’s hope that Little Simz gets opportunity to perform through the country more next year. I know she has a growing American audience. Things are going from strength to strength for our Little Simz:

“Little Simz is like a hood BBC anchor. Her songs come off like quiet but spicy broadcasts, as if she checked in for a soothing afternoon chat if that somehow involves a soul-scorching read. Pleasant but snarky, Simz combines Queens Gambit cordiality with Top Boy aggression to marry well-bred flows to blistering bars. Appropriately, the London-born MC (and skilled actress) flaunts a thespian’s remarkable range: she gives us humor, charisma, and a lot of feels.

Emotion is Simz’s secret weapon. She has a knack for sharing heartfelt tales with marked conviction that settles deep in your sternum. She’s a bona fide technician, no doubt. But the sheer technicality of her rhymes is not at odds with her natural ability to craft poignant songs that make you laugh, cry, and silently rage. On No Thank You, the follow-up to her excellent 2021 breakthrough Sometimes I Might Be Introvert, Simz gives us 10 choice cuts (showcasing her brilliance and breadth) that convey the whole emoji board of riveting emotions.

IN THIS PHOTO: Little Simz at Fabrique Club on 5th December, 2022 in Milan/PHOTO CREDIT: Francesco Prandoni/Getty Images

Those battle-ready bars distinguish “Gorilla,” where Simz, over loping bass and crisp percussion, spits, “I’m cut with a different scissor/From the same cloth as my dear ancestors.” And it’s captivating to hear her effortlessly unpack a couplet that floors you as she skillfully pivots to the next bruising punchline.

But “Broken” is a boon of self-reflection, and it’s arguably Simz’s most powerful song to date. Buoyed by the strains of a choir, Simz describes how racism afflicts her, wasting her time, energy, and agency. “It shouldn’t be a norm to live your life as a tragedy/To live your life in a state of confusion and agony,” she sighs. And you’re reminded that being Black means being in a constant state of rage.

On “No Merci,” Simz kicks caustic bars (“I’m a human landmine/I am not a human being you can gaslight”), indicting lames that want her “stuck up in the matrix.” Meanwhile, “Heart on Fire,” with its blithe hook asserting that “my life is a blessing,” is her stirring manifesto. But the soulful “Sideways” is the obvious standout. Here, Simz embodies snappish warrior energy, confirming her calm sovereignty: “Walkin’ in my light, my shadow is protectin’ me/Never movin’ sideways, I done this shit my way.” We’re forever thankful for Simz’s bold originality”.

When Little Simz played a homecoming gig at Alexander Palace, North London earlier in the month, it was met with huge applause and love! A triumphant and five-star performance from one of our greatest artists. A singular talent and someone who is primed for headline slots next year – I shall talk about this to end -, there are few live performers as captivating as Little Simz! GRM Daily had their say about a truly memorable night:

“Alexandra Palace has always played host to homecomings of its local stars since the turn of the century. Seven years ago, veteran Skepta shelled down the halls of Alexandra and paid homage to his London roots. It was now the turn for one of Islington’s shining stars in Little Simz. A North London native who shared two hours of joy, celebration, honesty, and open arms.

Fans had been eagerly anticipating this moment. Having already achieved superstar status from her NO THANK YOU tour across the pond in North America and Australia, it wasn’t just the celebration of fireworks that intensified a smokey atmosphere ahead of the final lap. Osiris The God and Hak Baker kept the masses entertained. The opening acts ensured an enjoyable patience and allowed many to grab timely refreshments and a bite before the main event kicked off.

20:45 crawled closer and closer. Alexandra Palace was sent into darkness as they awaited their homecoming star who would send the 10,000 capacity into the raptures. Simz had stated she’d be going to work for the two-hour offering, supporters adhered to the message, sporting their icons now customary look of a drapey, oversized white shirt and black-tie attire. The assignment was understood on a memorable night in N22.

PHOTO CREDIT: Karolina Wielocha

The prestigious hall’s blanket of pitch black took a turn to the heavens as the wordsmith entered her stage. The visuals were aesthetically pleasing and absorbing on the eye. Was this a concert or a movie? It was undeniably both. We were invited into the mind and genius of Little Simz. Backdrops of silhouette figures merged as a choir, complimenting the opening song of the night and a standout on the recent album, “Silhouette”. “That’s when you find the strength and pick yourself up”. Sometimes, she may have her introverted moments, but for two hours the elegant lyricist had a magnetic aura which turned the venue into a frenzy.

The demographic of the night was a mixture of both new and already-accustomed listeners of the artist. Aligning both was a task Simz enjoyed, taking turns between her two most recent bodies of work which would be met with unmeasurable applause with every track ending. Her presence was something to behold. We were looking at a performance befitting of being likened to André 3000 and Kendrick Lamar. Early birds who managed to navigate themselves into the front rows of the audience were treated to intimate moments. An honourable mention to the fan whose memorabilia was signed by the superstar, and which is guaranteed to be a bucket list moment for any concertgoer.

With the world enduring a tough 2023 and more so the recent months, the headlining act asked Alexandra Palace for a moment of silence which was embraced with open arms. This would be a snippet into a more vulnerable side of Little Simz who held every fan in close proximity, sharing unfortunate news of coming into the last show with a bout of illness. Nevertheless, this would not put an end to the celebrations.

Obongjayar, a fellow Nigerian native who has stamped his authority all over 2023 would grace the stage for the energetic anthem “Point And Kill”. There was a carnival feel inside the hallowed halls and it continued with “Gorilla”, a track which embodies the artistry, confidence and perseverance of a woman who has manoeuvred to the top of an elite musical industry. That is where she sits now. Hindsight is a beautiful thing and something Simz recognised and shared towards the end of the glittering evening.

On show was unity. More than ever throughout the fledging, acoustic performance of the emotional “Broken”. Little Simz recognises she was once in a position of having to battle to be someone alike us all. Paying attention to the love she was shown also came as a full-circle moment.

As 22:15 approached, euphoria was still in motion and befitting of what she has achieved throughout her illustrious career. The outro was appreciative, and flowers were given to every female in the room with a powerful rendition of her soothing single “Woman”. Whilst the night had sadly came to an end, this had been a show for the ages. A perfect homecoming performance from Islington’s Little Simz”.

The Standard caught an artist at the top of her game. A confident and spellbinding performer, she delivered one of her finest performances. I did mention how I hope she gets U.S. dates next year. Simz has performed in the U.S. this year. I hope that there is more scope for bigger and wider touring in 2024:

“London, I need you to understand that you’re witnessing greatness, and I don’t say that with arrogance, I say that with confidence,” declared Little Simz midway through her second sold out night at Alexandra Palace, the final date of her tour in support of last year’s fifth LP No Thank You.

It’s a confidence that’s been hard-won; having flown criminally under the radar for the first part of her career, since 2019’s Grey Area, Simz’ currency has steadily risen, culminating in a Mercury Prize win and a BRIT Award for 2021’s Sometimes I Might Be Introvert.

Now, dressed in a slick, special agent-style uniform of white shirt, black tie, shades and leather gloves - with fans dotted throughout the venue in matching, tribute attire - she’s an indisputable star, in command of an unforgettable show that could be transposed onto any major festival headline slot and soar.

In truth, it’s a particular mix of supreme confidence and endearing honesty that encapsulated Simz’ - real name Simbiatu Abisola Abiola Ajikawo - presence. Entering to Silhouette, backed by a towering wrap-around screen showing a group of appropriately silhouetted gospel performers in the throes of song, for a large portion of the night Simz was the only physical body on stage: a bold move that only the most commanding of performers could pull off in such a cavernous space.

But for every moment that she cemented her place at rap’s top table from the playful verses of "might bang, might not", to the majestic, laser-focused Introvert - there was another that cut through the spectacle to pull back to the person who’d grown up a mere stone’s throw away.

The biggest spontaneous cheer of the night came during an early Two Worlds Apart, in which Simz rapped “London-born estate girl to international sensation”, while, later in the night, she gave an inspirational speech about following your dreams: “If there’s anything that anyone is truly passionate about then go for it. My house is 20 minutes away, and now I’m selling this place out”.

Interspersed with admissions that she’d woken up feeling ill and “didn’t know how [she] was going to find the strength”, and a poignant request for a minute’s silence for those lost in the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, Simz’ show was as much about community and humanity as it was an underlining of one of the most talented lyricists and performers of her generation. A stunning and heartfelt display from an artist at the absolute top of her game”.

I think that Little Simz should be headlining Glastonbury next year. Two female headliners have been promised, though we do not know which artists are booked. Maybe boygenius or Dua Lipa will be one of them. I hope that Little Simz is booked, as she has proven herself to be headline-worthy. One of music’s most important artists, I wanted to salute a music queen! Capping off a majestic and sensational 2023, all eyes are on the amazing artist for next year. I think that she will keep building and release another amazing album. There will be big tour dates and, let’s hope, she is booked to headline several festivals. In Little Simz, we have an artist who is…

BOUND for glory and immortality.

FEATURE: Precious Stones and a Merseyside Final Chapter… 2023 and the ‘Return’ and New Success of Legends Like The Beatles and The Rolling Stones

FEATURE:

 

 

Precious Stones and a Merseyside Final Chapter…

IN THIS PHOTO: Mick Jagger of The Rolling Stones/Thea Traff for The New York Times

2023 and the ‘Return’ and New Success of Legends Like The Beatles and The Rolling Stones

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THIS article…

 IN THIS PHOTO: The Beatles/PHOTO CREDIT: © Apple Corps Ltd

I am about to source was published a little while ago, though I have been compelled to react to it. It makes an interesting point. In terms of this year, we have seen some exceptional new music from artists coming through. It is quite rare that two bands who entered the music scene over sixty years ago would make the news. The Beatles’ final single, Now and Then, hit number one on the charts. The Rolling Stones’ latest (and perhaps final) album, Hackney Diamonds, went to number one in the U.K. Who would have thought that two legends of the past are still making headlines?! Some have said it is almost like a return to 1967. That was a big moment for both bands. I am going to expand on that thought. I am sure there is this fortunate moment when two iconic British bands are releasing hugely impressive and important work at the same time. There is also a slightly yearning to the past. Also proof that music is not dominated by the young and contemporary. I wonder whether we will see more legacy artists reign and be back in the headlines. There is a possibility that contemporaries of both The Rolling Stones and The Beatles, The Kinks, will reform in some form. I know artists decades-running such as Kylie Minogue have released career-best work this year too (with Tension); Madonna is on a worldwide tour, though there is something even more unexpected and special about one-time ‘rivals’ The Beatles and The Rolling Stones putting out music. Rolling Stone reacted to the release and success of Now and Then and Hackney Diamonds:

“IN THE PETER Jackson-directed video for the just-released “Now and Then” — touted as the “final Beatles song” — present-day Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr are pleasantly haunted by the ghosts of John Lennon and George Harrison, and even their own younger selves. It’s hard not to think that life inside McCartney and Starr’s heads is a little bit like that on a daily basis, burdened as they are by the weight of history. And they may not be alone: “I walk the city at midnight/With the past strapped to my back,” Mick Jagger sings on “Get Close,” from Hackney Diamonds, the Rolling Stones‘ first new album of original songs in 18 years.

In their own ways, both acts transcended death itself to deliver new music within a few weeks of each other in 2023 — though only the Stones actually still exist as a working band. The new episode of Rolling Stone Music Now digs into the controversies and triumphs of both “Now and Then” (which used an AI tool to extract John Lennon’s vocals from a messy demo) and Hackney Diamonds. Angie Martoccio and Andy Greene join host Brian Hiatt for the discussion, which also includes a debate on that new Beatles video — is it moving or creepy? For the full episode, go here for the podcast provider of your choice, listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, or just press play above.

Download and subscribe to Rolling Stone‘s weekly podcast, Rolling Stone Music Now, hosted by Brian Hiatt, on Apple Podcasts or Spotify (or wherever you get your podcasts). Check out six years’ worth of episodes in the archive, including in-depth, career-spanning interviews with Bruce Springsteen, Mariah Carey, Halsey, Neil Young, Snoop Dogg, Brandi Carlile, Phoebe Bridgers, Rick Ross, Alicia Keys, the National, Ice Cube, Taylor Hawkins, Willow, Keith Richards, Robert Plant, Dua Lipa, Questlove, Killer Mike, Julian Casablancas, Sheryl Crow, Johnny Marr, Scott Weiland, Liam Gallagher, Alice Cooper, Fleetwood Mac, Elvis Costello, John Legend, Donald Fagen, Charlie Puth, Phil Collins, Justin Townes Earle, Stephen Malkmus, Sebastian Bach, Tom Petty, Eddie Van Halen, Kelly Clarkson, Pete Townshend, Bob Seger, the Zombies, and Gary Clark Jr. And look for dozens of episodes featuring genre-spanning discussions, debates, and explainers with Rolling Stone’s critics and reporters”.

I will come to these two almost historic releases that have stirred up this fascination. Two of the greatest bands ever still very much relevant – in very different ways – in 2023. The rawness and quality of Hackney Diamonds shows the stamina of The Rolling Stones. The fact that Now and Then sounds so glorious was a huge relief for fans of The Beatles. There really was this love for two bands who put out stunning music. Louder Sound had this to say about Hackney Diamonds:

“According to Mick Jagger, Hackney Diamonds producer/bassist Andrew Watt “kicked us up the arse”. Watt’s USP is his ability to put artists back in touch with who they actually are. He recently coaxed the remarkable Every Loser out of Iggy Pop by asking him: “Are you ready to be yourself?” And it seems he’s done it again, because the Rolling Stones haven’t delivered an album this quintessentially Stonesy in 40 years. That said, Hackney Diamonds is no museum piece. It’s a 21st-century record for a 21st-century audience that, with an old-school 48-minute duration, only ever leaves the listener hungry for more.

Opener and lead single Angry benefits from a contemporary production that doesn’t go too far. Watt plays it just right across the entire album, as he modernises the Stones without once dressing them in a sound that doesn’t suit them.

Following the muscular, riff-driven Get Close, Depending On You is a classic Stones ballad: pedal steel, subtle strings, cascading keyboards, and Jagger, ‘I’m too young to die, but too old to lose’ (with the merest suggestion of contemporising auto-tune) on heartbreakingly fine form.

The stroppy Bite My Head Off finds Paul McCartney pumping out a slack-jawed, punked-up bass solo and Keith being so unapologetically Keith that it’s all you can do not to punch the air. Whole Wide World boasts a chorus to die for (and Jagger never more deliciously ‘Lahndan’ in his over-sold vernacular), Dreamy Skies a reflective country blues with a melody line reminiscent of Short And Curlies, before two back-to-back Charlie Watts-featuring tracks (elsewhere Steve Jordan shines reliably), Chic-y floor-filler Mess It Up and Bill Wyman-benefitting textbook Stones rocker Live By The Sword, with loose-ass handclaps and miles of Keith and Ronnie’s intricately woven ancient art to unravel.

Driving Me Too Hard finds Jagger on the unfortunate end of a cruel, mistreating woman, and Tell Me Straight a mournful Keith musing: ‘Is my future all in the past?’ Gospel epic Sweet Sound Of Heaven is a Jagger master class, Lady GaGa in fine voice, with Stevie Wonder also in evidence, but as with all the album’s guest slots (Elton John also serves) no one outshines the Stones. Performances serve songs rather than egos.

And finally, Rolling Stone Blues (the Muddy Waters tune that gave the band their name) closes the circle. Raw, stripped, flawless, it’s an unspoken message for all who choose to receive it. Brilliant”.

There were some not completely sold on Now and Then. Many others were full of love and emotion when they heard Now and Then. It did get a lot of very positive reviews from the music press. This is what The Guardian said when they spent time with the most important song of this year:

“Last night, BBC One shifted its schedules to broadcast a film about the making of the “final” Beatles single, Now and Then. It was brief and rather moving, but it offered a tactfully bowdlerised version of events, understandably stepping around the parts of the story that might cause anyone to regard Now and Then with a wary eye. It talked about the surviving Beatles’ initial attempts to work up John Lennon’s late 70s demos in the mid-90s, but didn’t mention the slightly muted response the completed versions of Free as a Bird and Real Love received. It was the height of Britpop, the Beatles’ stock higher – and their influence on current music more obvious – than at any point since their split. And yet Free as a Bird – clearly released with the intention of bagging the Christmas No 1 spot, as the Beatles regularly did in the 60s – couldn’t dislodge Michael Jackson’s Earth Song from the top: by its second week in the charts, it was being outsold not just by Jackson, but Boyzone’s cover of Cat Stevens’ Father and Son.

Real Love, meanwhile, managed a couple of weeks in the Top 10 before disappearing (by week two, Boyzone were outselling that as well). Perhaps it was stymied by Radio 1’s disinclination to play it, which led Paul McCartney to pen an angry article in the Daily Mirror, decrying the station’s “kindergarten kings”: whatever your take on the issue, there was something a bit unedifying about the Beatles’ return ending with Macca fulminating about Radio 1’s ageism à la Status Quo. Moreover, the overdubbed recordings had an eerie, uncanny valley quality. Everyone involved had clearly done their best with the technology available but there was no getting around the fact that Lennon’s voice sounded ghostly.

The new film discussed technical issues hampering the surviving Beatles’ intention to rework Now and Then in the mid-90s as well: there were meant to be three “new” Beatles songs, one for each volume of the Anthology compilations, but the sessions for this song were abandoned as Lennon’s vocals and piano couldn’t be separated for the new mix. This was a slightly different version of events to the one given by McCartney a decade ago. Then, he claimed the late George Harrison – always the most unbiddable ex-Beatle – had singlehandedly drawn the sessions to a close by describing Now and Then as “fucking rubbish”. (“But it’s John!” McCartney had apparently protested, to no avail: “This is fucking rubbish,” Harrison countered.) Indeed, Harrison seemed unsure about the whole idea of reworking Lennon’s material. “I hope someone does this to all my crap demos after I’m dead – turn them into hit songs,” he subsequently remarked, which perhaps wasn’t the promotional boost for the new songs Apple was after.

Listening to Now and Then, it’s hard to see what Harrison’s objection was in purely musical terms. A moody, reflective piano ballad, it’s clearly never going to supplant Strawberry Fields Forever or A Day in the Life in the affections of Beatles fans, but it’s a better song than Free as a Bird or Real Love. And posthumously reworked as a Beatles track, it definitely packs a greater emotional punch. If you want to be moved, the lyrics provide ample space in which do so. It’s doubtful whether Lennon had his fellow Beatles in mind when he wrote the song – although who knows? – but with a new middle eight sung in tandem by Lennon and McCartney, it very much becomes a song about the Beatles, expressing a yearning for their bond: “Now and then I miss you / Now and then I want you to be there for me.” There’s something similarly moving about the sound of a very Harrison-esque slide guitar solo being played by McCartney, who apparently balked at Harrison’s slide guitar additions to the mid-90s sessions as too reminiscent of his 1971 solo hit My Sweet Lord. That was precisely the kind of older brother-ish judgement that always rankled with Harrison: there’s something rather touching about McCartney paying tribute as if in shrugging concession that he might have been wrong, although Harrison’s actual presence seems to be restricted to acoustic rhythm guitar.

Advances in technology have solved the problems with Lennon’s vocals, which are nothing like the spectral presence that floated through Free As a Bird. The other potential vocal problem – at 80, McCartney’s voice has aged considerably since the remaining Beatles last reconvened – is solved by keeping him low in the mix: you feel his presence rather than notice it directly. The additions to a song that was obviously incomplete are seamless – again, unlike Free as a Bird, where McCartney’s new middle eight jarred slightly against Lennon’s original song – the arrangement is sumptuously tricked out with orchestration, but never stoops to deploying obviously Beatles-y signifiers. If you squint, you could just about imagine that it’s the Beatles playing together, which definitely wasn’t true of the mid-90s songs.

So Now and Then is a qualified success, although the question remains: what’s it for? It clearly doesn’t exist to make money, which none of the Beatles or their estates need – although the 7in single version retails for an eye-watering £18 – nor to burnish the Beatles’ existing catalogue, which hardly needs burnishing. Perhaps the real reason for its existence lies with McCartney. No Beatle tried harder to keep the band together or seemed more shattered by their split. And no Beatle has worked more tirelessly to affix a happy ending to their story, never failing to remind interviewers that the band were a tight studio unit to the end, regardless of what was happening outside of it, and that he and Lennon were friends again at the time of his death; re-releasing the Let It Be album without Phil Spector’s orchestrations (an addition that McCartney called the “breaking point” in the Beatles’ demise in the 1997 book Many Years from Now); green-lighting the Get Back documentary series, which showed their 1969 recording sessions in a happier light than the baleful Let It Be documentary; using the same technology behind Now and Then to duet with Lennon onstage at Glastonbury. The premature conclusion of the mid-90s sessions clearly niggled him: he has repeatedly mentioned finishing Now and Then in the intervening years. Now he has, an act of closure underlined by one of the lyrics he appended to Lennon’s: after the lines about missing you and wanting you to be there for me, he adds “always to return to me”.

There has this blend of embracing new music and some form of ‘nostalgia’ this year. In the sense we have seen older and legacy artists heralded. In some cases it has been because they have produced some of their best work. It is encouraging that there is room for legendary artists who have been around for decades and those who are fresh. Joni Mitchell recently celebrated her eightieth birthday. There has been a lot of new interest in her music. It is inspiring that some of the cornerstones of musical history are still relevant and out there. Paul Simon released Seven Psalms earlier this year (it is meant to be heard as a single piece; the songs are entirely acoustic). There is something historic regarding The Beatles and The Rolling Stones being talked about in the same breath in 2023. Think back sixty years. The Rolling Stones were still to release their debut single, yet they were a band coming through. The Beatles were already on the scene. It was a young and exciting moment for two groups who would change the world! In spite of The Beatles losing two members (John Lennon and George Harrison) and The Rolling Stones losing members (including, quite recently, Charlie Watts), they are very much still generating huge interesting and magnificent music. In such a hard and devastating year, it is no surprise that people were always going to be especially interested in anything new from The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. Even if it does seem like a resurgence or new wave for both bands, it is more likely full stops. Now and Then is the final Beatles single. I am not sure The Rolling Stones have any plans to release another album (though they will continue to tour until they drop one feels!). I do like that people have compared 2023 The Beatles and The Rolling Stones to 1967 or the 1960s in general. Even if this is a one-off moment/occasion, the fact that these legends have put out new (amazing) music is a magical…

IF brief moment of history.

FEATURE: Sublime! My Favourite Film of 2023: Barbie

FEATURE:

 

 

Sublime!

IN THIS PHOTO: Barbie’s director and co-writer (with her partner Noah Baumbach) Greta Gerwig/PHOTO CREDIT: Leeor Wild/The Observer

My Favourite Film of 2023: Barbie

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THIS may seem unrelated to music…

but there is a musical connection when it comes to Barbie. Released on 21st July, it was a huge box office success that saw it take over $1bn. Its director Greta Gerwig was named the first female director to achieve that feat. Its soundtrack is also pretty awesome! In fact, a couple of songs from the film, Billie Eilish’s What Was I Made For?, and Dua Lipa’s Dance the Night, are both nominated at next year’s GRAMMY Awards for Song of the Year. I think Taylor Swift will win that category for Anti-Hero, though Ryan Gosling (who played Ken in the film) is nominated for I’m Just Ken – which is in the Best Song Written For Visual Media (that also sits alongside three other songs from Barbie, so it seems a shoo-in the film will win at least one GRAMMY!). What Was I Made For? is also nominated for Best Music Video (directed by Billie Eilish), whilst the soundtrack is nominated in the Best Compilation Soundtrack For Visual Media category. Dominating the GRAMMYs, there is that strong musical connection. I think one reason why it is so well-represented at the GRAMMY Awards is the beauty of the film. The direction and placement of the songs is perfect. The script, written by Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach, captivated audiences. Starring Margot Robbie as the titular character (Stereotypical Barbie, to be precise!), Barbie was a phenomenal success. It gives me a chance to explore it one final time for this year. As the strikes are over in Hollywood, there is going to be campaign ahead of award season next year. Further promotion that was not permitted months ago. I want to get to some interviews and reviews, just to give you a feeling of why Barbie was so celebrated and has been this once-in-a-lifetime experience. I will drop the soundtrack in, plus some clips and various bits and pieces.

Before coming to any of that, I want to give general impressions. I also love Celine Song’s Past Lives. In terms of filmmaking this year, female directors and writers have produced some of the most startling and memorable films. I know we shouldn’t be dividing by gender and talking in those terms though, at a time when there is not full recognition of women in Hollywood, the fact is that Greta Gerwig, Celine Song and so many other amazing women have created masterpieces needs to be recognised and resonate – and I hope that is reflected at award ceremonies. I do think that Barbie is going to get nominated for at least four Oscars. For set design and costumes. Greta Gerwig seems certain to be nominated for Best Director. One hopes that Margot Robbie is nominated as Best Actress. Maybe Ryan Gosling will get nominated as Best Actor? I think the screenplay for Barbie is phenomenal, though that is a tough category so it may not get nominated. We know that, prior to the 21st July release, Barbie was pitted against Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer. They came out on the same day. Even though they are very different films, there was this ‘Barbenheimer’ phenomenon that nobody thought we’d see in modern cinema! Almost this cultural moment where people were celebrating cinema and there was this deep fascination with two sensational filmmakers. Oppenheimer will also get a lot of Oscar recognition – including Best Director for sure -, yet Barbie has been the big cinema winner this year. My favourite film by far, it is one that I have discussed and dissected so many times. I do feel that a documentary or book about Barbie is warranted. Charting its inception, promotion and impact. It genuinely is one foy those generational highpoints that needs to be celebrated and discussed as much as possible.

I will come to a review of Barbie in a minute. I will end by a recent feature/piece about the film and its success. It is worth focusing on interviews with Greta Gerwig (Noah Baumbach was not really involved with any promotion) and Margot Robbie. I am going to source from an interview they each did separately. Gerwig, as the director coming from Indie cinema who wrote/directed her first ‘major’ motion picture, was very much in the spotlight. This wonderfully colourful and imaginative transition. Margot Robbie, who bought the rights to Barbie and brought the idea to Gerwig, taking on her most high-profile and biggest role to date. In July, The Guardian published an interview with Greta Gerwig. This was a film, as she said, that had to be “totally bananas”:

“One night in April, a stranger I met in a pub pulled out his phone and showed me pictures of something he was working on. We were in a town near to the Leavesden film studios, where the stranger had been constructing sets for Barbie, a film co-written and directed by the American filmmaker Greta Gerwig. “You have to see this,” the man said, before presenting images of a hot-pink, human-sized Barbieland, a place he described as an antidote to our hideously cold winter. Rain was forecast the following day, and even colder cold, but the stranger couldn’t care less. He would be a world away.

When I tell Gerwig this story, over Zoom, one day in June, her large eyes brighten. “That makes me feel like a proud mama!” she says, and, “Gosh, that makes me tear up.” Over the hour we spend together, while she sits in Manhattan, in a room she describes as “half office, half baby nursery,” this is the kind of pronounced buoyancy I come to expect from her. Even when I suggest the stranger perhaps shouldn’t have shown me the pictures – the set being locked down, me being a journalist – Gerwig says, in a wink-wink tone, “But I love that he felt he wanted to.”

Gerwig was invited to write Barbie by the actor Margot Robbie who, with Warner Bros, had bought the rights to the film. (Robbie stars in Barbie as Barbie.) Gerwig has said she was terrified to accept the job. “It’s not like a superhero, who already has a story. It felt very much like it was going to be an adaptation. Except what we were adapting is a doll – an icon of the 20th century.” Before writing the script, Gerwig thought: “It felt complicated enough, sticky enough, strange enough, that maybe there could be something interesting there to be discovered.” She didn’t know she was going to direct the film until after the script was written. “I kind of had two thoughts: I love this and I can’t bear it if anyone else makes it. And: they’ll never let us make this movie.”

PHOTO CREDIT: Leeor Wild/The Observer

To pitch Barbie to executives, Gerwig wrote a poem so strange and “surreal” that she will not read it to me now. When I ask what it concerned, she says, “Oh, you know, the lament of Job?” before adding, “Shockingly, it does actually communicate some vibe of the movie.” Gerwig wrote Barbie with her partner, the filmmaker Noah Baumbach, though for a while she didn’t tell him she’d enlisted his help. (“He was like, ‘Did you sign us up to write a Barbie movie?’ And I was like, ‘Yes, Noah, get excited!’”) They worked on the script during the pandemic, when doubt plagued the future of the communal cinema experience. “There was this sense of wanting to make something anarchic and wild and completely bananas,” Gerwig says, “because it felt, like, ‘Well, if we ever do get to go back to cinemas again, let’s do something totally unhinged.’” The anarchy of Gerwig’s Barbie comes from “the deep isolation of the pandemic,” she says – “that feeling of being in our own little boxes, alone.”

I like people. It’s one of the reasons I like living in New York City. I wouldn’t do well alone in the woods

Such are the levels of secrecy around Barbie that I was only allowed to watch the first 20 minutes of the film, which I did in a large screening room, alone but for a projectionist, a Warner Bros employee, and a man who sealed my phone in an opaque bag. Watching 20 minutes of a film is not enough to say if it is good or not, but it is enough to confirm an early vibe, which is anarchic. There is colour and artificiality, fun and chaos. There are many Barbies and many Kens. It has the atmosphere of an over-the-top gender-reveal party during which various things go wrong. Barbie’s feet become flat, not stiletto-arched. Her shower runs cold. Her breakfast burns. She develops neuroses. A once perfect-seeming life becomes not perfect.

Partway through an elaborate, multi-cast dance number, Robbie asks, suddenly: “Do you guys ever think about dying?” Gerwig thinks of this line as being demonstrative of the film’s anarchic energy. When I ask in what other ways the film is anarchic, she replies, not quite answering the question, “Oh. This movie is crazy.”

I ask her to describe it. “There were so many ways to go into it,” she says, before listing some. “The idea of Barbieland. The idea of Barbie herself being constrained in multitudes. The idea that self is dispersed among many people, that all of these women are Barbie and Barbie is all of these women. That’s pretty trippy to begin with. And the sense that she is continuous with her environment. That there really is no internal life, at all. Because there is just no need to have an internal life.”

Barbie was conceived in 1959, by Ruth Handler, who co-founded the doll’s manufacturer Mattel. Barbie has since occupied a complicated position in the lives of her owners. On one hand, she has been terrible for girls’ body image, a fact Gerwig acknowledges playfully in the film’s opening 20 minutes. (On discovering Barbie’s flat feet, several other Barbies, and at least one Ken, heave mawkishly and knowingly in disgust.) But according to fans she has empowered, too. In more recent times, Mattel has produced dolls with different skin colours and in different shapes. While researching Barbie, Gerwig toured the company’s headquarters. “The kind of amazing thing is that Barbie went to the moon before women had the ability to get credit cards,” she says. “That’s crazy. She was always a kind of step ahead.”

At Mattel, Gerwig saw an image of an all-female Barbie presidential ticket. “I was like, ‘Huh, so Barbie’s done it, but we haven’t?” (The first presidential Barbie appeared in 1992; in the film, president Barbie is played by Issa Rae.) Gerwig was fascinated. “As an icon, she’s always been complicated,” she says. “She has always had these two sides to her.”

Growing up, Gerwig had a tangled relationship with the doll. “I was always intrigued,” she says, because, “Barbie was, if not exactly forbidden in our house, well, it was not encouraged.” Why not? “Oh, the usual criticisms. ‘If she was a real woman, she wouldn’t even be able to stand up; she wouldn’t be able to support her head.’ My mum was a child of the 60s. She was like, ‘We got this far, for this?’” Eventually, Gerwig’s mother relented. “She got me my own,” Gerwig recalls. “Fresh out the box.” It replaced the neighbourhood hand-me-downs she had been playing with.

But Gerwig already had a strong connection to other dolls, the kind you mother, and she had a vivid imagination. “I played with dolls until… I don’t want to say too late, but I played with them long enough that I didn’t want kids at school to know I still played with them. I was a teenager. I was about 13 and still playing with dolls. And I knew that kids at that point were already kissing.” She smiles. “I was a late bloomer.”

Gerwig has said that Barbie’s story mimics that of a girl’s journey from childhood to adolescence. “I always think that 8, 9, 10 years old is peak kid. I was brash and unafraid and loud and big. And then, you know…” Puberty. “It’s a shrinking. Wanting to make yourself smaller, less noticeable, take in all that spikiness and bury it. And you’re profoundly uncomfortable, because you’re going through metamorphosis, literally.” You begin to introspect. “But also, you’re getting tall. You’re getting your period. You get spots.” Gerwig describes childhood as being at peace with the world and adolescence as being suddenly not. “My experience of it was wanting to hide.”

I ask, “Is the film about growing up?”

“It’s not about growing up, exactly,” she says. “But in a way… This is about Barbie, an inanimate doll made out of plastic. But the movie ends up, really, about being human.”

I had two thoughts: I love this and I can’t bear it if anyone else makes it. Barbie went to the moon before women had the ability to get credit cards

In many ways, the themes in Barbie chime with those Gerwig has tackled previously, not least in Lady Bird, her loosely autobiographical directorial debut, and a 2019 adaptation of the Louisa May Alcott novel, Little Women, which the critic Anthony Lane said, “may just be the best film yet made by an American woman”. Both films star Saoirse Ronan and feature adolescent women becoming new, more complicated versions of themselves. Gerwig was nominated for best director at the Oscars for Lady Bird – she became only the fifth female director to be nominated for the award. If Lady Bird announced Gerwig as a top-tier filmmaker, Little Women confirmed it. Plaudits followed. Hollywood invited her in. But Barbie is different altogether: bigger budget, bigger anticipation – what might be the first true summer blockbuster, post-pandemic. When I ask Gerwig how she feels about the film’s release, she says, “I’m just so nervous. I’m so nervous. I’m excited! But I’m so nervous.” And then: “I just can’t believe, like, here it is… Let’s go!”

PHOTO CREDIT: Leeor Wild/The Observer

Before filming, Gerwig organised a Barbie sleepover at Claridges, the London hotel, and invited a number of the film’s female cast: Robbie, Rae, America Fererra. The Kens were invited, but asked not to spend the night; the Barbies wore pyjamas and played games. “Honestly, it just felt like it would be the most fun way to kick everything off,” Gerwig says. “And it’s something you don’t get to do that much as an adult. Like, ‘I’m just going to go have a sleepover with my friends…’”

Gerwig is known for creating open, democratic sets. And she describes part of her job as “creating an atmosphere of acceptance, no wrong answers, no judgment. It allows people to feel safe, to bring wonderfully wild things to the table, which they otherwise might not want to.” (“She’s into things arising,” the actor Jamie Demetriou, who appears in Barbie, told me.) That everyone on set bonds is important to Gerwig – hence the sleepover. Before Little Women, she asked the film’s primary cast – Ronan, Florence Pugh, Emma Watson and Eliza Scanlen – to memorise a poem, and to later recite it to each other. “These were professional actors,” Gerwig recalls, “but there was something about the fact they had to select a poem and then recite it… It was very intimate and amazing, and they were very vulnerable. It instantly felt helpful in creating that connection.” She later adds: “As a director, you have the job of dreaming up the movie, and then you have to get everyone else in the movie – hundreds of people – to have that same dream, too.”

Demetriou recalls the Barbie set being full of positivity. “A lot of the film I spent with Will Ferrell and Connor Swindells talking about how there was this magical drip-down effect from her,” he told me, “this positive vibe that everyone wanted to keep going”.

There is no doubt that Margot Robbie’s turn as Barbie/Stereotypical Barbie is the standout turn. Full of nuance, emotion, comedy, vulnerability and passion, it is a breathtaking performance! The fact is that she recognised there was potential to turn Barbie into a film and make it impactful and important. She identified Greta Gerwig – who she had worked alongside before – as someone who could make it a reality. Lesser filmmakers might have turned thew film into pure fantasy or something misjudged. Greta Gerwig’s handling means that you get the superficial and plastic alongside the real world. That hit of realisation when Barbie steps from Barbie Land to the real world and realises that things are not perfect; that men hold all of the power instead. Many thought the film had a bad feminist message and was attacking men. Neither is true. So many wrong-headed features were written about the film – many by The Guardian; the same publication that did such a wonderful interview with Gerwig -, whilst so many others did not get the point or see the full potential of the film. Objectively, Barbie definitely warranted four and five-star reviews right across the board. There were many who were much less favourable. I know film is subjective, yet there was a lot of undue criticism and misinterpretation. Most agreed on one thing, however: Margot Robbie’s performance was sensational (or, to quote Ken, “Sublime!”). In May, Margot Robbie spoke with Vogue about Barbie. I want to quote where she discusses bringing the idea to Greta Gerwig. What Gerwig’s set was like:

“LuckyChap wanted Gerwig and Baumbach to have full creative freedom. “At the same time,” Robbie says, “we’ve got two very nervous ginormous companies, Warner Bros. and Mattel, being like: What’s their plan? What are they going to do? What’s it gonna be about? What’s she going to say? They have a bazillion questions.” In the end LuckyChap found a way to structure a deal so that Gerwig and Baumbach would be left alone to write what they wanted, “which was really fucking hard to do.”

Gerwig and Baumbach did share a treatment, Robbie adds: “Greta wrote an abstract poem about Barbie. And when I say ‘abstract,’ I mean it was super abstract.” (Gerwig declines to read me the poem but offers that it “shares some similarities with the Apostles’ Creed.”) No one at Lucky­Chap, Mattel, or Warner Bros. saw any pages of the script until it was finished.

PHOTO CREDIT: Ethan James Green for Vogue

When I ask Gerwig and Baumbach to describe their Barbie writing process, the words “open” and “free” get used a lot. The project seemed “wide open,” Gerwig tells me. “There really was this kind of open, free road that we could keep building,” Baumbach says. Part of it had to do with the fact that their characters were dolls. “It’s like you’re playing with dolls when you’re writing something, and in this case, of course, there was this extra layer in that they were dolls,” Baumbach says. “It was literally imaginative play,” Gerwig says. That they were writing the script during lockdown also mattered, Baumbach says. “We were in the pandemic, and everybody had the feeling of, Who knows what the world is going to look like. That fueled it as well. That feeling of: Well, here goes nothing.”

Robbie and Ackerley read the Barbie script at the same time. A certain joke on page one sent their jaws to the floor. “We just looked at each other, pure panic on our faces,” Robbie recalls. “We were like, Holy fucking shit.” When Robbie finished reading: “I think the first thing I said to Tom was, This is so genius. It is such a shame that we’re never going to be able to make this movie.”

LuckyChap did make the movie, of course, and it’s very much the one Gerwig and Baumbach wrote. (Alas, that joke on page one is gone.) If you saw the trailer released in December, you’ve seen the opening of the film. It’s a parody of the Dawn of Man sequence from 2001: A Space Odyssey. But instead of apes discovering tools in the presence of a monolith, little girls smash their baby dolls in the presence of a gigantic Barbie. Robbie-​as-​Barbie appears in a retro black-and-white bathing suit and towering heels. She slowly lowers a pair of white cat-eye sunglasses and winks.

PHOTO CREDIT: Ethan James Green for Vogue

I saw more of the movie one morning at the Warner Bros. lot. After the Kubrick spoof we go on a romp through Barbieland, “a mad fantasy of gorgeousness,” as Sarah Greenwood, the film’s set designer, puts it later. Barbie wakes up in her Dreamhouse and embarks on the Perfect Day, accompanied by an original song that serves as soundtrack. (I am not allowed to say who sings it.) Everything everywhere is infused with pink. “I’ve never done such a deep dive into pink in all my days,” Greenwood says. Barbie’s perfectly fake, color-​saturated world retains many of the quirks and physical limitations of the toy version. Her environment isn’t always three-dimensional, and the scale of everything is a bit off. Barbie is a little too big for her house and her car. When she takes a shower, there is no water. Her bare feet remain arched.

The swimsuit Robbie wears in the Dawn of Woman sequence is a replica of the one worn by the first Barbie doll in 1959. Over the course of the Perfect Day, Barbie changes clothes constantly. The progression—poodle skirt, disco look—amounts to a survey of Barbie fashion over time, says Jacqueline Durran, the film’s costume designer. (Wisely, the survey does not include the more retrograde outfits in Barbie’s past, such as the Slumber Party ensemble of 1965, which came with a little bathroom scale set at 110 pounds and a book titled How to Lose Weight that advised: “Don’t eat.”)

“The key thing about Barbie is that she dresses with intention,” Durran tells me. “Barbie doesn’t dress for the day. She dresses for the task.” The task might involve a leisure activity, or a form of employment. One scene pokes fun at the way the Barbie universe seems to blur such distinctions. “My job is just beach,” Ken explains.

Ken is played with daft aplomb by Ryan Gosling. “The greatest version of Ryan Gosling ever put on screen,” in Robbie’s estimation. (Gosling: “Ken wasn’t really on my bucket list. But in fairness, I don’t have a bucket list. So I thought I’d give it a shot.”) In Barbieland, Ken is basically another fashion accessory. “Barbie has a great day every day,” we are told in voiceover delivered by Helen Mirren. “Ken only has a great day if Barbie looks at him.” Mattel introduced the first Ken doll in 1961, in response to letters demanding Barbie get a boyfriend. “Barbie was invented first,” Gerwig points out. “Ken was invented after Barbie, to burnish Barbie’s position in our eyes and in the world. That kind of creation myth is the opposite of the creation myth in Genesis.”

Just as Barbie was given big boobs but no nipples, Ken was given a smooth “bulge,” as Mattel referred to it at the time. Together, their peculiar partial anatomy hints at a world of grown-up things hidden from view. Gerwig: “You feel that there’s something there, which is part of the allure. It’s unclear how this all kinda works. But it’s not without intrigue.” This vague sense of mystery is captured in a comical exchange Ken and Barbie have in front of her Dreamhouse. “I thought I might stay over tonight,” Ken says. “Why?” Barbie asks. “Because we’re girlfriend-​boyfriend,” Ken says. “To do what?” Barbie asks. “I’m actually not sure,” Ken says.

“The key thing about Barbie is that she dresses with intention,” says Jacqueline Durran, the film’s costume designer. Jacket, top, skirt, belt, shoes, and tights, all Saint Laurent by Anthony Vaccarello.

Barbie acquired friends over the years. First came Midge, her longtime best friend, and later Christie, one of her first Black friends. (Mattel didn’t introduce a Black Barbie until 1980, and a forthcoming documentary, Black Barbie, explores this legacy.) When Gerwig took a tour of Mattel, she learned that the vast majority of dolls in its Barbie line are named Barbie. “Now all of the dolls are Barbie. All of them are Barbie, and Barbie is everyone. Philosophically, I was like, Well, now that’s interesting.” The more she thought about it, the more the multiplicity of Barbies suggested “an expansive idea of self that we could all learn from.”

PHOTO CREDIT: Ethan James Green for Vogue

During the casting process, Gerwig and Robbie looked for “Barbie energy,” a certain ineffable combination of beauty and exuberance they concluded is embodied in Gal Gadot. Robbie: “Gal Gadot is Barbie energy. Because Gal Gadot is so impossibly beautiful, but you don’t hate her for being that beautiful, because she’s so genuinely sincere, and she’s so enthusiastically kind, that it’s almost dorky. It’s like right before being a dork.” (Gadot wasn’t available.) They found their Barbies in Issa Rae, Hari Nef, Emma Mackey, Dua Lipa, Sharon Rooney, Ana Cruz Kayne, Alexandra Shipp, Kate McKinnon, and others. (There are multiple Kens too.) In this menagerie, Rae is President Barbie. Robbie is Stereotypical Barbie.

Before shooting began in London, Gerwig threw a slumber party for the Barbies at Claridge’s Hotel. The Kens were invited to stop by, but not to sleep over. (Gosling couldn’t make it, so he sent a singing telegram in the form of an older Scottish man in a kilt who played bagpipes and delivered the speech from Braveheart.) Once production was underway, LuckyChap hosted weekly movie screenings at the Electric Cinema in Notting Hill. Every Sunday morning, cast and crew were invited to watch a movie that served as a reference for Barbie. They called this “movie church.”

Gerwig had a sense that Barbie was being guided by old soundstage Technicolor musicals, so they watched a bunch of those, most helpfully The Red Shoes and The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. “They have such a high level of what we came to call authentic artificiality,” Gerwig says. “You have a painted sky in a soundstage. Which is an illusion, but it’s also really there. The painted backdrop is really there. The tangibility of the artifice is something that we kept going back to.” Her director of photography, Rodrigo Prieto, who shot The Wolf of Wall Street and Babel and Argo and Brokeback Mountain, created a special color template for Barbie with this in mind. Gerwig named it Techni-Barbie”.

Before coming to a final feature, I want to come to one of the most positive reviews for Barbie. The Independent (quite rightly) awarded it five stars. I feel like they got to the heart of the film like few others. Not over-analysing or giving bad takes. Not focusing on commercialism, ‘bad feminism’ or anything that takes away from the remarkable achievements of Greta Gerwig et al. Barbie is one for the cinematic history books:

“Barbie is one of the most inventive, immaculately crafted and surprising mainstream films in recent memory – a testament to what can be achieved within even the deepest bowels of capitalism. It’s timely, too, arriving a week after the creative forces behind these stories began striking for their right to a living wage and the ability to work without the threat of being replaced by an AI. It’s a pink-splattered manifesto to the power of irreplaceable creative labour and imagination.

While it’s impossible for any studio film to be truly subversive, especially when consumer culture has caught on to the idea that self-awareness is good for business (there’s nothing that companies love more these days than to feel like they’re in on the joke), Barbie gets away with far more than you’d think was possible. It’s a project that writer-director Greta Gerwig, co-writer (plus real-life partner and frequent collaborator) Noah Baumbach, and producer-star Margot Robbie were free to work on in relative privacy, holed up during the pandemic away from the meddlesome impulses of Warner Bros and Mattel executives.

The results are appropriately free-wheeling: There are nods to Jacques Demy’s The Umbrellas of Cherbourg and Jacques Tati’s Playtime, deployment of soundstage sets and dance choreography à la Hollywood’s musical Golden Age, and a mischievous streak of corporate satire that calls to mind 2001’s cult classic Josie and the Pussycats. But while the absurdity of its humour sits somewhere between It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World and Pee-wee’s Big Adventure, its earnest and vulnerable take on womanhood is pure Gerwig, serving as a direct continuation of her Lady Bird and Little Women.

The fact that all of this is tied to one of the most recognisable products in existence – and that any success it enjoys will undoubtedly boost Mattel’s stock prices – underlines the fact that it’s largely impossible to embrace art without embracing hypocrisy. Capitalism doesn’t always swallow art whole; occasionally it thrives in spite of it. And that’s a complexity that feels particularly on brand for a director who had her Jo March, in Little Women, declare: “I am so sick of people saying that love is just all a woman is fit for. I’m so sick of it! But – I am so lonely.”

Barbie contains another Gerwig-ian speech, delivered beautifully by an ordinary (human) mum played by America Ferrera, about the hellish trap women have been forced into. Caught between girl-boss feminism and outright misogyny, women now have to be rich, thin, liberated, and eternally grateful without ever breaking a sweat – because when Barbie promised little girls that “women can be anything”, those words got twisted to mean “women should be everything”. Gerwig’s movie begins by playing a brilliant trick on its audience: Helen Mirren’s opening narration is self-congratulatory, a bit of canned PR about Barbie’s “girl power” legacy that grows increasingly tongue-in-cheek. “Thanks to Barbie,” she concludes, “all problems of feminism and equal rights have been solved”.

We’re then introduced to our Barbie – ie “the Stereotypical Barbie” – who is chipper, confident, blonde, and, most importantly, looks like Margot Robbie. She is eternally adored by Ken (Ryan Gosling), whose job is “beach”. Not “lifeguard”, but “beach”. Barbie’s friends all have high-powered jobs: president (Issa Rae), author (Alexandra Shipp), physicist (Emma Mackey), doctor (Hari Nef), and lawyer (Sharon Rooney). Every morning, she steps into her shower (there’s no water), sets out her breakfast of a heart-shaped waffle with a dollop of whipped cream (she doesn’t eat), and then sets off in her pink convertible (she doesn’t walk downstairs, but merely floats). All is perfect. Then Barbie starts having irrepressible thoughts of death.

Barbie’s bid to fix that sudden, scary attack of humanity sees her visit “the Real World”, where she meets the all-male executive board of Mattel (among them Will Ferrell and a wonderfully dorky Jamie Demetriou), who think themselves qualified to determine what little girls like and need because they once had a woman CEO (or two, maybe). Meanwhile, Gerwig uses, through a hysterical farce centred around Gosling and his fellow Kens, the implicit matriarchy of Barbieland to explore how power and visibility shape a person’s self-perception. Gosling gives an all-timer of a comedic performance, one that’s part-baby, part-Zoolander, part-maniac, and 100 per cent a validation for anyone who ever liked him in 2016’s noir comedy The Nice Guys. There are (naturally) some exquisite outfits designed by Jacqueline Durran, some very funny references to discontinued Barbies (have fun reading up on the backstory behind Earring Magic Ken), and a few unexpected pops at fans of Duolingo, Top Gun, and Zack Snyder’s Justice League.

Barbie is joyous from minute to minute to minute. But it’s where the film ends up that really cements the near-miraculousness of Gerwig’s achievement. Very late in the movie, a conversation is had that neatly sums up one of the great illusions of capitalism – that creations exist independently from those that created them. It’s why films and television shows get turned into “content”, and why writers and actors end up exploited and demeaned. Barbie, in its own sly, silly way, gets to the very heart of why these current strikes are so necessary”.

It must have been a shock for Greta Gerwig. We have not even got to award season yet. In terms of the box office and the worldwide reaction to Barbie, it has been a dream! A successful and acclaimed actor and director, Gerwig triumphantly transitioned from smaller Indie films – though Oscar-nominated Lady Bird (2017) and Little Women (2019) were huge successes – to this massive and all-conquering multi-million-dollar film of a very recognisable figure. It could have gone wrong or a massive failure. As it was, Barbie exceeded all expectation! I will end with a BBC article that reacted to Greta Gerwig speaking at the London Film Festival in October. She weas blown away and moved hugely by the reaction to Barbie:

“Greta Gerwig, the director of smash hit movie Barbie, has described the film's success as "so moving".

The blockbuster follows the famous doll and her companion Ken travelling from Barbieland into the real world.

Gerwig, speaking at the London Film Festival, added that seeing the movie being enjoyed by so many had been "the most thrilling thing".

The film has taken $1.44bn (£1.2bn) at the box office, making her the most successful solo female director ever.

The director was in conversation at the festival with Peep Show co-creator and Succession writer Jesse Armstrong.

Such joy

Speaking about the months she spent working on Barbie, she told him: "The process of making it was such joy. It was the most joyful set I've ever been on.

"I thought, if I can make a movie that's half, or [a] quarter as fun to watch as it was to make, I think maybe we've got a shot."

It was released in July, and Gerwig went into cinemas to see the reaction and ensure audiences had the best viewing - and listening - experience, she revealed.

"On the opening weekend I was in New York City. And I went around some different theatres and sort of stood in the back. And then also turned up the volume if I felt it was playing at maybe not the perfect level," she said. "It was the most thrilling thing."

IN THIS PHOTO: Greta Gerwig on stage at the London Film Festival/PHOTO CREDIT: Getty Images

She told film fans at the London festival that she'd grown up loving watching films in movie theatres.

"And I think that part of me always wanted to recreate that feeling from childhood of meeting in a dark room with a bunch of people. So it was so moving to me that that was the thing that people experienced."

She also thanked the BBC for allowing her to use a short extract from its 1995 TV adaptation of Pride & Prejudice in her film.

"I was very honoured they said yes to that," she said. "That was a big deal. They don't always say yes. Thank you to Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth, that was very lovely."

And although she was careful not to name it, Gerwig also spoke briefly about her next, eagerly awaited project, and the challenges it's presenting.

"I'm working on something right now, I'm in the writing process," she told the audience. "And it's hard. And I'm having nightmares. I'm having recurring nightmares”.

My favourite film of the year – and one of my favourites of all time -, there are going to be new eyes on Barbie next year. It will be nominated for scores of awards without question. I hope Greta Gerwig, Margot Robbie and everyone involved gets to speak about the film (and what would have been a wonderful experience for all). The GRAMMY Awards on 6th February will be interesting. With so many of the songs nominated (Lizzo’s Pink was omitted, one suspects, due to allegations made against her earlier this year), Barbie will cross from film into music. In any case, the musical recognition of Barbie shows that it is a film that has conquered and seduced everyone! Such a remarkable film from an iconic and hugely important filmmaker who has broken records and helped to bring to life this astonishing film, everyone who has not seen Barbie needs to check it out (it is available through Prime Video). I am not quite sure what Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie are releasing next and whether they will come together again. I hope that there is another collaboration, as they are so close and have this immense respect for one another! That shows when you watch Barbie. It is a film that created a phenomenon and explosion of cheer and pink at cinemas and theatres across the world. It is an explosion and cultural moment that we will never…

SEE the like of again.

FEATURE: Great Danes of Love: Kate Bush’s Huge Contemporary and Continuing Influence

FEATURE:

 

 

Great Danes of Love

ILLUSTRATION CREDIT: Robin Goodwin 

Kate Bush’s Huge Contemporary and Continuing Influence

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I don’t think that enough features…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1985/PHOTO CREDIT: Guido Harari

have been written about Kate Bush’s influences. You get a few now and then, though most are framed around Stranger Things using Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) last year. I think we have heard enough about that! I will bring in mention of that soon, yet I think that show gets too much credit for popularising Bush’s music to a new generation. I think that it definitely helped reignite some love and awareness of her music, though this appreciation and new attention spreads wider than that one show/song. Even though a lot of artists have since covered Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) – which has not resulted in too much revelation or surprise -, the fact that Bush has been induced into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and her studio albums are being reissued means that this knowledge will expand. Hopefully fans will spread their wings and not stick solely with Hounds of Love (1985). Many young artists are finding Kate Bush’s music and covering her songs. Other are clearly inspired by her. You can hear some of Bush’s sounds and dynamics in their music. Beyond that iconic song and the ‘Kate Bush Effect’, the full breadth and wonder of her music is going to shape a whole new generation of artists coming through. I will nod more to that soon.

First, I want to bring together a couple of fairly recent features where the influence and impact of Kate Bush has been discussed. Last year, this article recognised how Kate Bush has become an idol for Gen Z. Someone having a clear effect on a whole new audience:

“When Kate Bush released Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God) in 1985, it became one of her biggest hits. But against all expectations, 37 years on, it is back at the top of the charts, outperforming the latest releases by global stars such as Harry Styles and Bad Bunny. The song owes its surprise success to its appearance on Stranger Things, a 1980s-based sci-fi show on Netflix.

The series has introduced a new generation of young fans to Kate Bush, a British singer who was often criticized by those who misunderstood her work or disliked the fact that it was by a female artist.

“It was kind of sexist. People thought that Kate Bush was insane. People were embarrassed about admitting that they actually liked her and I think that is something, actually, one good thing about feminism nowadays is that she is not a threat at all,” said Icelandic singer Björk in an interview with Far Out.

Indeed, many global stars, including Rosalía, Adele and Lady Gaga, have spoken openly about the important influence Bush has had on their music. The English singer broke all the molds, she smashed expectations and paved the way for a new generation of pioneering female singers. She elevated her music videos into a kind of performance art, reinvented the concert experience and became a cult figure who endured despite her long absences from public life”.

I am glad that there is a lot of talk around Stranger Things. Even if it is given a lot of credit for putting Kate Bush back in the spotlight, it definitely did help get her name to new fans. There was a recent time when many saw Kate Bush as obsolete or a thing of the past. If an artist has not released music for years, they are often dismissed or forgotten about. The Conversation reacted to the success of Kate Bush and Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) after its Stranger Things appearance. It was a moment when her music crossed generations. An enduring artist who enjoyed a new resurgence from a song almost forty years old:

“Keen observers of popular culture will have become aware of the recent inclusion of Kate Bush’s 1985 song Running Up That Hill into the storyline of the widely-watched Netflix show Stranger Things. As a result of this inclusion, Kate Bush’s classic song was catapulted (again) into the mainstream musical scene, experiencing a true resurgence in popularity and ranking highly in download charts around the world.

Kate Bush herself provided a response by issuing a rare message on social media about the whole affair, not only declaring her enthusiasm over Stranger Things, but also her gratitude for its ability to bestow “a new lease of life” upon her now famous song.

As a result of the boost in popularity of Running Up That Hill, there has been great talk of a whole new group of music listeners from the Gen Z demographic “discovering” Kate Bush’s work, and becoming instantly enamoured with it.

An anecdotal look would seem to suggest that, somehow, Kate Bush is reaching greater fame in 2022 than she did during the 1980s, a prolific creative period that many would rank (unkindly) as the peak of her musical journey. And yet, while there is no denying the instant hold that Kate Bush’s music seems to be having on current listeners, there is definitely something strange in suggesting that her fame was only moderate in previous decades. 

IN THIS PHOTO: Florence Welch (Florence + The Machine)

A contemporary icon

There is no doubting the fact that Kate Bush’s lyrics speak to a variety of identities and desires. She has been credited as an extremely influential figure by contemporary artists such as Lady Gaga, Tori Amos, and Florence + The Machine.

Unavoidably, there is a lot of nostalgia involved in the constant re-discovery of Kate Bush’s music as well, especially for those fans whose memories are attached to her songs from different moments in time. And yet, there also seems to be something more peculiar at play. Kate Bush’s music has a certain nostalgic feel to it, even if new fans and listeners do not have any actual memories of the past associated with her songs.

There is an intimate sense of longing that is interlaced within the fabric her work: a desire to feel, to experience, and to find oneself, which makes her performances so captivating. It is perhaps this definitive characteristic that maintains Kate Bush’s multi-generational appeal, as her music continues to speak to a multitude of fans across the years”.

 IN THIS PHOTO: Caroline Polachek/PHOTO CREDIT: Ian Kenneth Bird

There is no doubt that she is an idol for Gen Z. She has inspired so many artists through the years. St. Vincent covered Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction. Other, including Björk, have often name-checked Kate Bush. You can see all the other artists through the years who cite Bush an influence or have been affected by her work. I think one of the most interesting developments and aspects is how Kate Bush is going to inspire artists coming through at the moment. Few would have thought that her music would still be influencing artists this many years later! Without releasing new music, she has managed to resonate with a young demographic. I think the appeal extends beyond one song. I am not sure what next year will bring. There is no doubt we will see activity in some form. Whether there is more retrospective or reissues, Kate Bush is going to be talked about and very much present. Artists like Caroline Polachek have been called the Kate Bush for Gen Z. Whilst the media is keen to compare modern artists to Kate Bush, it is clear ‘the original’ is very much relevant and irreplaceable! Even if she hit her peak in the 1980s, her music and lyrics are by no means dated. The fact is that Bush’s music speaks to the L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ community. She speaks about understanding and love. Empathetic, deep, hugely original and inspired by film and T.V., these subjects and positives resonate and translate today. So many people gain strength, clarity and understanding from Kate Bush’s music. The music queen engages with fans but is not on social media. That is unlike so many other major artists, which is refreshing and inspiring.

There is a power and constant relevance to Kate Bush’s music that has attracted a young audience. The same is true now as it was in the 1970s and 1990s. This cross-generational appeal remains strong and hugely impressive. Even if it is common for each generation to herald a legacy Rock artist and strong female voice, I think there is something about Kate Bush that will survive and outlive what is expected. Rather than this being a fad or a brief idol who speaks to a young demographic, Bush’s music and influence is impacting in countries that did not pick her up the first time around. There were a lot of articles written about Kate Bush last year following the success of Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God). Even if this article does mention that Hounds of Love track, the fact is that Kate Bush self-produced her work – and had this independence -, a sense of strength and defiance against her label at times, songs that discussed human understanding and compromise, the style and wisdom together with the beauty of her words and outlook means she has instantly connected with Gen Z:

“Following the premiere of the fourth season, “Running Up That Hill” became the top-selling and most streamed title in the U.S. according to Variety. This earned Bush her first No.1 single in the U.K. since 1978 and her first top 10 in the U.S. The song has been topping Billboard charts and remains in the top 10 on both iTunes and Spotify. CBS reports that the song has earned Bush over $2.3 million in streaming royalties since Stranger Things premiered.

Bush released a statement on her website expressing her love and amazement for the show that’s set in the 80s, which was when Bush released her fifth studio album Hounds of Love (1985). “The response to ‘Running Up That Hill’ is something that has had its own energy and volition. A direct relationship between the shows and their audience and one that has stood completely outside of the music business. We’ve all been astounded to watch the track explode! Thanks so much to everyone who has supported the song and a really special thank you to the Duffer Brothers for creating something with such heart,” Bush writes.

The independently-produced song heightens nostalgia as synth-driven ballads, big hair and whimesigoth fashion are making a bigger comeback than ever – and it just goes to show that Bush’s music transcends time and microtrends. Bush said that listeners can interpret the song in whatever way they please, but originally it was written as the idea of a man and a woman swapping places with each other to feel things from each other’s perspectives. Listeners can hear this in the lyrics, “And if I could, I’d make a deal with God / And I’d get him to swap our places.” The song’s original title “A Deal With God” was worrisome as it referred to religion, so her label changed it to “Running Up That Hill.” In Bush’s mind, the song will forever be called “A Deal With God.”

Hounds of Love is Bush’s self-produced fifth album that embraced beauty, radical synth exploration and themes of religion, murder and queer subjects. Proven to be a timeless masterpiece, Bush’s vocals manage to range from utterly beautiful to beautifully raw. Her myriad use of folk influences and theatrics create a unique sound as she expertly captures concepts of romance and the duality of life through a darker lens. Hounds of Love evokes a sense of mystery between the balance of light and dark, as well as the balance of beauty and eccentricity. The entire discography is beautifully dramatic and a testament to her deliriously weird aesthetics. Multiple charting musicians such as Björk, St. Vincent and countless others have credited Bush as a major influence in their sounds”.

After a very busy and important years for Kate Bush, her music and legacy, 2024 is going to be a year when there is transition and new evaluation. We will see rising artists cite Kate Bush as an influence. An idea of how her music has impacted young songwriters. The hope is, as it always is, that these new young fans and artists look beyond Hounds of Love. With a more expansive and explorative embrace of her music, that means even more artists will latch onto her brilliance! I feel Kate Bush is one of the most influential artists ever. Something that is not going to change. It is wonderful that we still hear of Kate Bush making an impression on so many people. Further proof that she is…

A queen and icon.

INTERVIEW: Ski Lift

INTERVIEW:

Ski Lift

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IT is exciting…

to hear and find out more about a new Ski Lift single. The South London band (Benji Tranter - guitar, lead vocals, Lizzy Walsh - bass, vocals, and Adam Fletcher - drums vocals) are back with the incredible Living the Dream. I have been speaking with Benji of the band about their new release. With their newest song emboldened and heightened by a very catchy '60s-Pop-inspired punch and energy, there are nods to and elements of  the likes of Talking Heads and Deerhoof. I learn more about the track and what sort of music influence the trio. I ask Benji about the current music scene and how tough it is for artists. Ski Lift have been championed by, among others, John Kennedy on Radio X, BBC Radio 1’s Gemma Bradley, and BBC 6Music’s Tom Robinson. They are a name that everyone needs to keep an eye out for! With an awesome new single out and some further new material coming at some point soon enough, I think that Ski Lift will enjoy…

AN exciting 2024.

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Hi Benji. How are you? How has Ski Lift’s 2023 been so far?

Benji: Hey there! We’re excited to be releasing music again. We took things easy in early-2023, but since August we’ve been back on the live circuit and have played some of our favourite shows yet.

Your releases so far have seen your fanbase grow and more attention come your way. How does it feel knowing that your music connects with so many people?

It feels good - I’m very wary of taking it for granted. It’s very easy to be always looking on to the next goal, but we’re really lucky to have had some successes along the way so far, and we’re really thankful to all the fans who support us.

“Well, it’s set up to sound like it’s about how well everything’s going, but it’s more like an anxiety dream”

Some pretty big radio stations have played your music. Is it quite a big thrill when you hear a D.J. give your music a shout out?

Oh yeah! I still can’t believe we’ve been played on Radio 1 - that’s actually insane. Never gets old to have anyone care enough to play our music. It’s been wild to see local stations in the U.S. and Netherlands playing our tunes.

Tell me about the new single, Living the Dream. What is the story behind it?

Well, it’s set up to sound like it’s about how well everything’s going, but it’s more like an anxiety dream. It’s about how we have to deal with what's going on inside ourselves, all the problems we’re facing day-to-day, while projecting the version of ourselves we want everyone to see (see social media…)  

In terms of your musical influences, there are elements of bands like Talking Heads. What sort of music inspires Ski Lift?

Musically, this one’s a bit of an outlier for us. Lizzy (who plays bass) says it’s our ‘funky’ track. I was inspired by the song, Criminals of the Dream, by Deerhoof, and also definitely Talking Heads. In general, I am inspired by bands like The Replacements, The Lemonheads and Mystery Jets when writing for Ski Lift.

The modern landscape is hard for artists in terms of earning money and getting gigs. How has it been for Ski Lift? How are things for the band at the moment?

Yeah, not great to be honest - gig fees for support shows are pretty paltry. We can usually cover travel though. I’ve been making some hand-bleached tees, which has really helped to make up the shortfall. And we have CDs too. and we’ve got some exciting Living the Dream merch on the way! Keep an eye out on our socials for more info!

“It’s exciting, but I can’t announce anything else just yet”

Christmas is coming up. A two-part question: How will you be spending Christmas, and what is your favourite Christmas classic?

Last year, my partner and I spent it with my family, so this year we’ll be spending it with her’s, in beautiful Hertfordshire. It’s not as good as Herefordshire, where I’m from, but I’ll be making do ;) Wonderful Christmastime - I love the theory that it’s actually about practising witchcraft. That’s a fun one. If I can choose an album, too, I would go for (Ella Fitzgerald’s) Ella Wishes You a Swinging Christmas.

Is there more music coming in 2024 do you think? Is there an E.P. or album planned?

Definitely - coming soon… It’s exciting, but I can’t announce anything else just yet.

Finally, and for being a good sport, you can choose any song (from another artist) you like and I will play it here.

Hmm, this is the hardest question by far. I’m going to go for Colonial Pop, the latest single by Gold Baby - a band we’ve played with on the London scene (and we just played another show with them on Friday in Oxford). I feel we are kindred spirits of sorts. They’re a great band and should be on more people’s radars.

____________

Follow Ski Lift

 Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/helloskilift/

Twitter:

https://twitter.com/helloskilift

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/artist/4jXBrS7K5sOMm70llecORs?si=7KJjjDwXQGa7QDOlP_lt2w

Bandcamp:

https://helloskilift.bandcamp.com/

YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/@skilift2011

FEATURE: The ‘Red and Green’ Album: 1963–1969: Inside The Beatles’ Christmas Records

FEATURE:

 

The ‘Red and Green’ Album: 1963–1969

Inside The Beatles’ Christmas Records

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YOU can find some information…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Michael Ochs Archive/Getty Images

here about the Christmas records that The Beatles put out between 1963 and 1969. An end-of-year treat for the fan club, they started quite modest and a little ramshackle. They became much more production pieces and impressive by the end. The first record was issued on 6th December, 1963. I wanted to mark sixty years of that debut Christmas record from the band – though I also wanted to look closely at all the albums with the assistance of some great and detailed features. We do not really have it so much now but, in the 1960s, there would have been artists who sent fans Christmas messages and recorded special songs. Few were as converted and interesting as The Beatles’ annual messages. At the end of 1963, there was this enormous interest in this fresh band who had already conquered the world. I would say that, given the fact that the final Beatles single, Now and Then, was released recently, there would be appetite for their Christmas records. They can be found if you want to own the records. I am not sure how easy it is to get good quality new versions of the various records. They do need to be reissued. In 2017, a special release was announced:

“Each Christmas, from 1963 to 1969, The Beatles sent out musical and spoken messages to members of their official fan club, pressed on flexi discs. Those had never been released beyond the fan club until the release of this new Christmas Records boxset.

Press release:

WE ARE RINGING IN THE HOLIDAYS WITH NEW GLOBAL BEATLES RELEASES

London – November 2, 2017 – Apple Corps Ltd./Capitol/UMe are wrapping up new, global Beatles releases for the holiday season, and a splendid time is guaranteed for all.

The Beatles’ annual holiday tradition of recording jolly Christmas messages for fan club members was an important part of the band’s relationship with their most ardent supporters, affectionately referred to by them as “Beatle People.”

Spanning 1963 to 1969, The Beatles’ holiday recordings were originally pressed on flexi discs and mailed to fan club members each December. Never released beyond the fan club until now, The Beatles’ seven holiday messages have been newly pressed on a rainbow of seven-inch colored vinyl singles for The Christmas Records box set, to be released worldwide on December 15.

The limited edition collection presents each vinyl single with its original flexi disc sleeve artwork, accompanied by a 16-page booklet with recording notes and reproductions of the fan club’s National Newsletters, which were mailed to members with the holiday flexi discs”.

It is a shame that they are sold out! I for one would love to own them. When people are asking what the next reissue is going to be, perhaps another studio album would be a better start. Even so, there is so much charm to be found in those Christmas albums. They are a rare and distinct snapshot of The Beatles in that particular year. Maybe, towards the end of the run, they found it a bit of a slog. From 1963’s debut, The Beatles Christmas Record, through to 1969: The Beatles Seventh Christmas Record, the fans got this early present from their favourite band! An L.P. compilation of all seven Christmas records, From Then to You, came out in the U.K. - and The Beatles Christmas Album in the U.S. – came out in 1970. I want to liberally source a feature from Rolling Stone. They wrote how these brief holiday messages and collections really did “offer a glimpse into their stunning evolution”. They covered all seven albums in their feature. I am going to select four of them to focus on:

“Between 1963 and 1969, the Beatles sent limited-edition Christmas singles to paid-up members of their fan club. Consisting of wordplay-laden spoken messages, surreal skits and snatches of original songs, these ultra-rare plastic “flexidisc” records existed in a hazy area between bootlegs and legitimate, if tough to find, releases. In 2017, they were reissued on vinyl as part of a limited-edition box set, The Christmas Records, making them available for general purchase for the first time.

The goofy tracks capture the band at their most playful, showcasing their warm camaraderie and wit punctuated by cheery cries of their invented Yuletide greeting: “Happy Crimble!” As their fame grew and the pressure became more immense, the Beatles welcomed the chance to blow off steam and follow their creativity into areas beyond their usual pop fare. These low-stakes sessions emboldened them to experiment, sometimes inspiring ideas that would later appear on their better-known work. Even when they’re not pushing the artistic envelope, their eccentric humor, heavily influenced by British radio comedy collective the Goons, remains as funny now as it was half a century earlier.

PHOTO CREDIT: Everett Collection/Mirrorpix

“The Beatles Christmas Record” (1963)

The tale of the first Crimble begins on October 17th, 1963, inside Abbey Road’s Studio Two. Before beginning work on what would become their next single, “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” the Beatles had some Yuletide housekeeping to attend to at the behest of their press officer, Tony Barrow, who suggested that they record a Christmas greeting as a special treat to their rapidly swelling fan club. The band liked the idea enough to acquiesce, but were still content to leave the specifics to a seasoned professional like Barrow, who prepared a script filled with standard expressions of gratitude and seasonal platitudes.

Of course, there was a lot to be thankful for. It had been an extraordinarily year of firsts for the Beatles, during which they released their debut LP, embarked on their first headlining tour and began their unparalleled string of Number One hits. Five days earlier they had sent the United Kingdom into its first throes of advanced Beatlemania with a televised performance on Val Parnell’s Sunday night institution, Sunday Night at the London Palladium, inspiring thousands of fans to swarm the stately West End venue. The hysterics would soon become tiresome, but for now it was fresh, and a genuine tone of naïve bewilderment pervades what would be known as “The Beatles Christmas Record.”

 PHOTO CREDIT: Daily Mirror/Mirrorpix/Getty Images

Celestial chimes, the only musical instrument to appear on otherwise a cappella track, herald the band’s arrival as they gather around the microphone to sing a version of “Good King Wenceslas” that’s both hilariously off-key and also hilariously wrong (the snow is not “deep and crisp and crispy” nor is Betty Grable’s name checked). The earnestness and showbiz sincerity of Barrow’s script is immediately undercut as Lennon introduces himself with a cheery, “Hello, this is John speaking with his voice!” Thanking fans for a “really gear year,” he notes the deluge of cards he’d received for his 23rd birthday the week before: “I’d love to reply to everyone personally, but I haven’t enough pens.”

After some irreverent dog barking, he hands it over to McCartney, who echoes the gratitude – save for one thing. Ever since the Beatles expressed their fondness for Jelly Babies (an English cousin of jelly beans) in a recent interview, fans had been shipping them by the crate-load. No longer wishing to be pelted by the confection during live appearances, McCartney takes the opportunity to tell the world, “We’ve gone right off Jelly Babies!” Striking up a faux-German reprise of “Good King Wenceslas” with Lennon, he passes off to Starr, who responds with his own in the style of a hep-cat nightclub crooner. “Thank you, Ringo,” Harrison deadpans as their mock applause dies down. “We’ll phone you!”

The band left it to Barrow to cobble together a workable recording from their banter. “I actually cut the tape recording with scissors, patched the pieces together, and let the discarded bits drop to the floor,” he wrote in his memoir, John, Paul, George, Ringo and Me. “In doing this we destroyed a master tape that at some future date might have raised many thousands of pounds at auction as a unique piece of memorabilia – particularly with all the unused bad language left in!”

Thirty thousand copies of the one-track single were pressed on Lyntone “flexi-vinyl” and sent to fan-club members in the first week of December. In among the jokes and half-songs (like “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Ringo”) heard by anointed “Beatle People,” McCartney delivered a surprisingly prescient mission statement. “Lots of people ask us what we enjoy best – concerts and television or recording. We like doing stage shows, ’cause it’s great to hear an audience enjoying themselves. But the thing we like best – I think so anyway – is going into the recording studio to make new records,” he says. “What we like to hear most is one of our songs taking shape in a recording studio, one of the ones that John and I have written, and then listening to the tapes afterwards to see how it all worked out.” Hours after committing these words to tape, the band would have their first transatlantic hit in the can, elevating the Beatles to a level they could scarcely imagine, and insuring that “The Beatles Christmas Record” would have a sequel”.

“Another Beatles Christmas Record” (1964)

Far from viewing it as a chore, the Beatles had thoroughly enjoyed the experience of recording their first Christmas message and looked forward to a second round. “It was the boys themselves who promoted me into continuing the tradition,” Barrow wrote in his memoir. “‘When are we doing this year’s Crimble record?’ They asked me. They also wanted another script. I knew they needed my words simply as a security measure in case they dried up. In the event they made everything I wrote much funnier by their distinctively zany, Goons-style presentation.”

On October 26th, the band huddled in Studio Two to record five passes through Barrow’s latest message, each one veering off into its own realm of randomness. (Outtakes include a Jimmy Stewart impression, a version of “The 12 Days of Christmas” that consists solely of the item “One plastic bag,” and a hummed rendition of Louis Armstrong’s “Hello Dolly,” the song that had knocked the Beatles off the top spot of the America charts for the first time in 14 weeks that spring.) It was the end of a long day that had begun at 10 o’clock that morning, as the band held the final session for their next LP, Beatles for Sale. Taping nearly 12 hours later, they could be excused for sounding slightly less energetic than they had on their prior Christmas greeting.

PHOTO CREDIT: Daily Mirror/Mirrorpix/Getty Images

The production quality has greatly improved from the previous year, with the sound of marching feet giving way to the opening bars of “Jingle Bells,” backed with piano, harmonica and what sounds like a piece of paper on a comb (a trick recycled during sessions for “Lovely Rita” years later). The band members make no effort to disguise the fact that they’re reading a script, and the supposedly illegible handwriting becomes a running gag. “We hope you have enjoyed listening to the records as much as we have enjoyed melting them,” says McCartney before they all break into peals of laughter. “No, no that’s wrong. Making them!”

Lennon adopts his traditional role as the witty slinger of withering one-liners. “Don’t know where we’d be without you, really,” McCartney graciously tells fans. “The Army, perhaps,” Lennon lobs back. After thanking fans for seeing A Hard Day’s Night, Harrison reveals that their next film will be in color. “Green,” Lennon helpfully adds. In addition to plugging his upcoming book, A Spaniard in the Works – “It’s the usual rubbish, but it won’t cost much” – he manages to sneak in a sly naughty word with “Beatle peedles,” German slang for male genitalia. Its close proximity to the band’s name was the source of great amusement during their club days in Hamburg.

For the fadeout, they sing a loose version of the Irish standard “Can You Wash Your Father’s Shirt.” This soon devolves into demented shouts of “Christmas,” predating Monty Python’s brainless “Gumby” character by half a decade”.

“Christmas Time Is Here Again!” (1967)

The Beatles hold up sandwich boards in different languages (English, French, German, Spanish and Russian) during the Our World satellite broadcast of the song 'All You Need is Love' from Abbey Road Studios in London, UK, 24th June 1967. From left to right, Ringo Starr, Paul McCartney, John Lennon and George Harrison. (Photo by Evening Standard/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Now that the band had mastered their studio domain, the Beatles’ 1967 seasonal message – wrapped in a Sgt. Pepper–like collage of vintage photos created by Lennon and Starr – would be the apex of their Christmas recordings. Recorded back at Abbey Road’s Studio Two on November 28th during a nine-hour marathon session, “Christmas Time Is Here Again!” expands on the sketches of the previous year by adding the only performance among the Beatles’ holiday recordings that could safely be categorized as a proper “Christmas song.” The tune is little more than a holiday mantra, but the Beatles sell it through their full-throated commitment and a clever arrangement reminiscent of their new single, “Hello, Goodbye.” Lennon, ever fond of unusual count-ins (he can be heard intoning “Sugar plum fairy, sugar plum fairy” on early takes of “A Day in the Life”), introduces the song with a hastily exhaled “Interplanetary remix, take 444!” before a lushly multi-tracked chorus of Beatle voices remind listeners that Christmas time is indeed here again.

 The plot, scripted by the band the day before, makes about as much sense as “Everywhere It’s Christmas.” The story begins with the Beatles portraying a fictitious group called the Ravellers, on a quest to audition for the BBC. Once they’ve made it past the gatekeeper (played by their friend Victor Spinetti, who had appeared in A Hard Day’s Night, Help! and the yet-to-be-released Magical Mystery Tour) they perform a tap-dance in the “fluffy rehearsal room.” From there it all becomes a bit difficult to follow as the record fades into a fever dream of fractured broadcast clichés including jingles (“Wonderlust for your trousers!”), a noir radio drama called Theater Hour and a game show where the grand prize is a trip to Denver and automatic appointment to “independent candidate for Paddington.” The Ravellers, having apparently passed the audition, return to croon a tune about jam jars across the airwaves for the benefit of injured woman in Blackpool.

A haze of maniacal echo-drenched laughter gives way to the regal voice of George Martin, addressing fans for the first time on the disc. “They’d like to thank you for a wonderful year,” he says with the tone of a kindly but exasperated schoolteacher, before the students repeat his words with mock reverence. Lennon signs off with a Goonish original poem, a sort of lonely Christmas “Jabberwocky” delivered in a thick Scottish brogue over the sound of a wintery gale. “When the beasty brangom button to the heather and little inn,” he says while “Auld Lang Syne” plays softly. “And be strattened oot in ma-tether to yer arms once back again. Och away, ye bonnie.” So ends the Beatles’ last documented recording of their extraordinary year. It would also be the final Christmas disc recorded together by the group as a unit”.

“The Beatles’ Seventh Christmas Record: Happy Christmas 1969”

The Beatles existed in name only by the Christmas of 1969, after Lennon famously told his compatriots in September that he wanted “a divorce.” But for fear of disrupting upcoming business deals, as well as a genuine sense of confusion, the band decide to keep any talk of a breakup strictly among themselves. To maintain a sense of normalcy, they dutifully set about recording pieces for yet another Christmas record, once more to be assembled by Everett.

Most of the Beatles opted to tape their pieces in the comfort of their own homes. Ono, who had just contributed anonymous backing piano the previous year, introduces her now-husband as they stroll through the grounds of Tittenhurst Park, their Ascot estate where the final Beatles’ photo session had taken place on August 22nd. Together they stage a jokey interview, ranging from their favorite foods to their place in the decade to come. “I think it’ll be a quite a peaceful Seventies … [peace] and freedom,” Ono opines. As the autumn leaves crunch underfoot, Lennon can’t help but belt “deep and crisp and even” – the line from “Good King Wenceslas” he gleefully butchered on the band’s first Christmas record. Once a fresh 23-year-old having a laugh with his mates, he’s now an adult superstar, roaming his palatial estate with his wife, preaching peace to the globe. Even now, the monumental six-year leap remains difficult to comprehend.

McCartney performs another inviting acoustic original, this one titled “This Is to Wish You.” Music will remain his preferred method for bringing peace to those who endured the tumultuous decade he had helped to shape – as well soothe his own soul during the uncertain time. Starr sings a song of his own, a goofy ad-libbed tune, and manages to work in a plug for his new film, The Magic Christian with Peter Sellers, whose radio work with The Goon Show can be felt in each of the Beatles’ Christmas discs. Harrison, however, remains unwilling to submit to this last vestige of mop-toppery. His contribution, a single line uttered at the London offices of Apple Records, runs six seconds long.

Among recordings of Christmas choirs and pipe organs pulled from the tape vault, Everett utilized another preexisting piece of music: “The End” from the Beatles’ swan song, Abbey Road. Perhaps even he had an inkling that this would be the last offering of its kind from the group. He ensures that the concluding sound heard on what would prove to be the final Beatles Christmas record is that of laughter, a fitting reminder of the inherent good humor that runs throughout the band’s works. Even to the bitter end, the Beatles could be counted on to raise a smile”.

Even if these Christmas records were a way to appease fans who would send thousands of letters, I think they grew into something more. It was a personal touch from a band who were often in the middle of recording an albums – and would do these Christmas skits and messages in the middle. The cognitive dissonance of going from a conventional studio album song to being in the festive setting must have been strange! The first one or two Christmas records sounded a little forced and too scripted. You can hear more of the band’s personalities in the subsequent ones. John Lennon, George Harrison, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr added something magical and distinct to these annual stocking fillers. I am keen to see them reissued and made available on a vinyl set or C.D.s. It is a fascinating chapter in the career of the greatest and most important band ever. As we are heading towards December, I was thinking about Christmas and the fact that many Beatles fans might not know about the Beatles records. As the first one was issued on 6th December, 1963, I wanted to mark its sixtieth anniversary. I wonder how Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr feel about them now (and whether they have any clear memories and recollections). They are quite random and scattershot at times, yet they are all very worthy and interesting. A holiday gift for the fans who gave the band so much love and support, I still get charmed and won over when listening to them now! They are irresistible and, at times, wonderfully engrossing. These short and characterful records from The Beatles were…

WONDERFUL Christmas baubles!

FEATURE: Rags to Riches in the East Village: Celebrating and Remembering Fifty Years of CBGB

FEATURE:

 

 

Rags to Riches in the East Village

ILLUSTRATION CREDIT: Michael Borthwick

Celebrating and Remembering Fifty Years of CBGB

_________

I am going to…

start out with some Wikipedia background and summary about the iconic CBGB club. Previously based in East Village, Manhattan, it closed its doors in 2006. The reason I am marking the venue is because it opened its doors on 10th December, 1973. It is coming up to its fiftieth anniversary. It may seem quite minor in terms of music history and the impact CBGB had, though consider the artists who passed through there and how crucial it was for given underground artists (at the time) a platform, and that should tell you how cherished and important it was. Perhaps getting a reputation for one of the edgier and more controversial venues around the East Village – which was part of its charm! -, it was also one of the most characterful and loved. I will come to some deeper articles in a second. For now, an overview of this incredible and legendary spot:

“CBGB was a New York City music club opened in 1973 by Hilly Kristal in Manhattan's East Village. The club was previously a biker bar and before that was a dive bar. The letters CBGB were for Country, Bluegrass, and Blues, Kristal's original vision, yet CBGB soon became a famed venue of punk rock and new wave bands like the Ramones, Television, Patti Smith Group, Blondie, and Talking Heads. From the early 1980s onward, CBGB was known for hardcore punk.

One storefront beside CBGB became the "CBGB Record Canteen", a record shop and café. In the late 1980s, "CBGB Record Canteen" was converted into an art gallery and second performance space, "CB's 313 Gallery". CB's Gallery was played by music artists of milder sounds, such as acoustic rock, folk, jazz, or experimental music, such as Dadadah, Kristeen Young and Toshi Reagon, while CBGB continued to showcase mainly hardcore punk, post punk, metal, and alternative rock. 313 Gallery was also the host location for Alchemy, a weekly Goth night showcasing goth, industrial, dark rock, and darkwave bands.[4][5] On the other side, CBGB was operating a small cafe and bar in the mid-1990s, which served classic New York pizza, among other items.

Around 2000, CBGB entered a protracted dispute over allegedly unpaid rent amounts until the landlord, Bowery Residents' Committee, sued in 2005 and lost the case, but a deal to renew CBGB's lease, expiring in 2006, failed. The club closed upon its final concert, played by Patti Smith, on October 15, 2006.[8] CBGB Radio launched on the iHeartRadio platform in 2010, and CBGB music festivals began in 2012.[9] In 2013, CBGB's onetime building, 315 Bowery, was added to the National Register of Historic Places as part of The Bowery Historic District (not a New York City Historic District)”.

It is a shame that the closure of CBGB in 2006 dwindled the Punk scene in New York. Almost the last sign of the past glory and energy that ran through that club. Not that the music scene in Manhattan lacks today. It is just that there was this whole culture and scene that was blazing in the 1970s. In October 2006, as The New York Times reported, some important faces attended the closing of the fabulous CBGB:

“She had played there many times over the last three decade, but last night, before making her last appearance there, Patti Smith made sure to snap a picture of CBGB.

“I’m sentimental,” she said as she stood on the Bowery and pointed an antique Polaroid toward the club’s ragged, soiled awning, and a mob of photographers and reporters gathered around her.

Last night was the last concert at CBGB, the famously crumbling rock club that has been in continuous, loud operation since December 1973, serving as the casual headquarters and dank incubator for some of New York’s most revered groups — Ms. Smith’s, the Ramones, Blondie, Talking Heads, Television, Sonic Youth — as well as thousands more whose blares left less of a mark on history but whose graffiti and concert fliers might still remain on its walls.

After a protracted real estate battle with its landlord, a nonprofit organization that aids the homeless, CBGB agreed late last year to leave its home at 313 and 315 Bowery at the end of this month. And Ms. Smith’s words outside the club, where her group was playing, encapsulated the feelings shared by fans around the city and around the world: CBGB is both the scrappy symbol of rock’s promise and a temple that no one wanted to see go.

“CBGB is a state of mind,” she said from the stage in a short preshow set for the news media whose highlight was a medley of Ramones songs.

“There’s new kids with new ideas all over the world,” she added. “They’ll make their own places — it doesn’t matter whether it’s here or wherever it is.”

Crowds had been lined up outside since early yesterday morning for a chance to see Ms. Smith and bid farewell to the club, in an event that was carefully orchestrated to maximize media coverage. Television news vans were parked on the Bowery as fans with pink hair, leather jackets and — the most popular fashion statement of the night — multicolored CBGB T-shirts (but not necessarily tickets) waited to be let in and Ms. Smith’s band played a short set for the assembled press.

Curiosity about the club’s last night was mingled with harsh feelings about its fate.

“It’s the cultural rape of New York City that this place is being pushed out,” said John Nikolai, a black-clad 36-year-old photographer from Staten Island whose tie read “I quit.”

Added Ms. Smith outside the club, “It’s a symptom of the empty new prosperity of our city.”

The end of a long and painful denouement for a punk-rock institution.

Ms. Smith was CBGB’s last booking as well as one of its first. In the 1970’s, she was the oracular poet laureate of the punk scene, and her seven-week residency in 1975 is still regarded by connoisseurs as the club’s finest moment. With an open booking policy, its founder, Hilly Kristal, nurtured New York rock’s greatest generation, and in turn those groups made CBGB one of the few rock clubs known by name around the world.

“When we first started there was no place we could play, so we ended up on the Bowery,” said Tom Erdelyi, better known as Tommy Ramone, the group’s first drummer and only surviving original member. “It ended up a perfect match”.

Let’s go back a bit further. It is important to understand why CBGB was so important to so many people – and why its closure was a sad and unfortunate occasion. It must have been heady and wonderful being there. In 2012, Helen Todner wrote a feature for With Guitars concerning the legendary and legacy that comes with CBGB. I wanted to sources some parts of the deep and wonderful feature:

“So let’s start with the facts. There was a bar on 315 Bowery and Becker Street long before CBGB’s came into being but in 1973 Hilly Kristal revamped what had been and opened County, Blue Grass and Blues (CBGB’s or CB’s as it was often known as). This was what the bar had intended to play from the start and it did at first, playing host to the likes of Magic Tramps, The Fast, and Suicide all of which laid the foundations and built the clubs reputation for live music. It was a strange layout for a venue being long and narrow; with the stage at one end and the bar stretching along one side with just enough room to squeeze between the tables but the sound was second to none and was definitely a key factor when bands began coming to play on a regular basis. Even the legendary New York Dolls played there and were hailed as Royalty by the burgeoning scene there. In 1974 things were beginning to change rapidly and bands such as The Ramones, Talking Heads, The Heartbreakers, Blondie, and The Shirts started making appearances there. As the clubs reputation grew new bands from outside of the New York area took to the stage.

During the 80’s it became one of the must go to venues for touring bands and the now infamous matinee Sundays were introduced. These low priced gigs helped to launch many a band including Murphy’s Law, Beastie Boys, The Misfits, Leeway, and Sick Of It All. They also became known for some of the most raucous and violent events going and in 1990 Kristal put a stop to the Sunday events in order to curb the bloodshed but he didn’t abandon the hard-core music and instead of scrapping it altogether changed the times of his bookings. This strategy worked and though still boisterous there was no longer the level of aggression that had plagued the venue during the 80’s matinee years. During the 90’s big name bands such as Guns ‘N’ Roses and Korn began to play the club.

Things went smoothly for over a decade until in 2005, a dispute with Bowery Residents ‘Committee over rent, pushed CBGB’s out of the black and deep into the red. Krystal fought this for over a year but, tragically, the club could not be saved and on October 15th 2006 CBGB’s closed its doors for the final time. During the last week of live music CBGB’s featured live performances from Blondie, The Dictators, Bad Brains, Avail, and The Bouncing Souls. The final gig, performed by Pattie Smith, was broadcast on Sirius Satellite Radio and included guest appearances from Red Hot Chili Peppers Flea and TV’s Richard Lloyd. After the live performance Pattie Smith performed ‘Elegie’ listing all the artist who had performed at CBGB’s and who are no longer with us.

Alas it is no more a mecca for music but now hosts a huge range of designer clothes with the scariest price tags you can imagine, far too many numbers before the decimal point! It has been gentrified like so much of New York s that unless you are on a silly amount of money you simple can’t afford to live there anymore. A far cry from Hilly’s ethos that money was secondary to life as he never set up CBGB’s to make money from it; he did it because he loved music. “I realise one thing I haven’t done through the years is put the emphasis on making money.”

So there you have the bare bones facts of CBGB’s but I’m still no closer to really understanding just what it was like to be there. So in an attempt to find out more our lovely editor here at With Guitars, Steve got busy doing his whole social network guru thing and what do you know he even got a few responses! The first to get back in touch with us was Donna Destri (sister to Blondie keyboardist Jimmy Destri) who performed as a backing singer for the band in the studio. She was kind enough to take time out from her own busy life to tell us a little about the club and the music scene in New York.

How did you first hear about CBGB’s?

“Paul Zone, who was not yet the singer of the fast in the early seventies, functioned as a social director for the lot of us kids from Brooklyn who didn’t have a clue as to where to go or what to do. We started out going to places like the 82 Club, Lady Astors and the Mercer Arts centre (where I saw the NY Dolls for the first time). Mickey Ruskin still owned Max’s Kansas City which was the watering hole for the Warhol people, so Paul kind of discovered CBGB’s for us. He was very friendly with Debby Harry and Stiletto (an early incarnation of Blondie) played there frequently. Soon Mickey Ruskin sold Max’s to Tommy Dean and that is when the downtown scene had bands vie to play Max’s and CB’s.”

What were your first impressions of CBGB’s and what was it actually like the first time you walked in to it?

“Honestly, compared to Max’s I thought it was a shithole. It was dirty and dark and you had the feeling that rats were going to scurry across your feet. I’ll tell you this though, the sound was excellent there.”

How did you feel the first time you took to the stage at CBGB’s?

“Well, it was packed, I remember, so it was quite exhilarating! CBGB’s had a certain vibe though… On stage there you could feel you were like the Beatles playing at the Cavern Club. The audience could come right up to the stage and people were packed in. In other clubs, not so much Max’s but the bigger clubs that came along later ,like Hurrah’s, Danceteria, and the Ritz, people could mill around more so you sort of lost the intimacy of people coming right up to the stage. Nothing provides a performer more energy than an audience that is right there and totally into the performance.”

What is your most enduring memory from your time at CBGB’s?

“My most enduring memory of CBGB’s has to be the bathroom. It was the most disgusting bathroom I’ve ever been in in my life! At any given time the floor was covered in dog and/or human faeces…Absolutely gross. And to think people (who shall remain nameless) had sex down there!!”

Did you ever go to see others perform at CBGB’s and if so who?

“Yes definitely. We went to see whoever was performing.(Television, Talking Heads, Blondie, The Ramones, The Mumps, The Fast, Milk and Cookies, The Heartbreakers…oh so many—too many to name! In those days we went out every single night! I always say it and I’ll say it again. There has never been a music scene in this city like there was back then and I don’t think there ever again will be! I remember some nights walking back and forth between Max’s and CBGB’s because we wanted to catch bands that were playing at both clubs on the same night. It was an awesome time for music, truly!”

It wasn’t just Blondie who played there in the 70’s though and the club”.

It is no exaggeration in saying that CBGC is one of the most important music venues ever. At a time when we have so many spaces closing down, it made me think about the iconic club in Manhattan. How it was reduced to almost nothing. That is one of the most galling things! How, once proud and very much vibrant, where it stands now there is very little of its existence. I have another feature to drop in after this one from Guitar Guitar. They wrote in 2020 about the club that changed the world:

“Within that year, The Ramones had made their debut along with Angel and the Snake, (later renamed Blondie) and CBGB started to develop a reputation. There was a seemingly unstoppable stream of explosive and forward-thinking music being created within its walls and bands all over America were taking notice. The club had two rules - 1. Bands must provide and move their own equipment. 2. No cover bands - aside from this, you were essentially free to take your set and the audience for that matter, wherever you wanted.

With the club's rep and the music scene it was known for quickly gathering momentum, documentary filmmakers began to film live shows and it's amazing to get a real look inside the venue with such high-quality footage for when it was filmed. The years following saw a roster of acts play that's pretty staggering to look back on. Elvis Costello supported the Vodoids, The Damned became the first UK Punk band to playa gig in America, The Cramps, the Talking Heads, The Police, Joan Jett and Blondie all made it their New York haunt. CBGB even became one of the first homes of Hardcore Punk in the city with its own Thrash Night which ran right through to the 90's when crowds became too much for the venue to handle.

Unfortunately, nothing this important can last forever and CBGB ran into problems in the early 2000s after a disagreement with their landlord. Although Kristal was keen to keep it open as long as possible and even won a court battle regarding overdue rent, their landlord refused to lease the club again and essentially put a ticking clock over the venue. They had to be out by October 15th, 2006.

In a last-ditch effort to save the club, an unbelievable lineup of artists played in its final months, culminating in a huge last week which featured many of the band's who'd started out at CBGB's, or been a part of its early scene. Alongside that were a whole host of bands who'd been influenced by the early new wave and punk movement that it housed got on board but sadly, it was in vain. On October 15, 2006, Patti Smith played her final show on the club's stage and it closed its doors forever.

Now a clothing store, the only part of the CBGB legacy that remains is a small etching into the concrete out front which says "CBGB '73". It's funny how something so culturally significant can largely disappear but make no mistake, the music world will never forget the 30 odd years of chaos, carnage and brilliance that came from these humble beginnings. Credited as the birthplace of American punk, Kristal may not have known what he was starting but by providing a venue where young, raw and passionate bands could express themselves and develop their sound, a whole genre flourished and his club left a mark on the world that couldn't be erased, even if it was just scratched into the concrete. It goes to show you how important it is to have these spaces - you never know what might come next. Gabba Gabba Hey!”.

Earlier this year, American Songwriter wrote about the legacy of CBGB. Naming five acts that helped define Punk Rock, they all have to give thanks to this incredible club. One that opened its doors fifty years ago on 10th December. I am not sure that we will see in our lifetimes anywhere like it again. It is one of these one-off venues that was perfect for the time and location. Maybe similar to Studio 51 in a way, these brilliant spaces burned bright in their regency:

“CBGB is more than just a logo on a shirt. Before it concluded its last show in 2006, it was a punk rock dungeon. The stage was angled off to the side with ceiling monitors. The monitors hung so low that if you weren’t careful you’d knock your head against them. And the bathrooms were a special kind of filth only humans are capable of producing.

But would you want a punk rock club any other way? CBGB is responsible for some of the most important bands and one of the most important musical movements of the 20th century.

1. Television

Television might be the true godfathers of punk rock. A mixture of Velvet Underground art-rock and garage rock, the band was led by Tom Verlaine. His Fender Jazzmaster guitar sounded tense and angular. Verlaine sang in a pinched manner with poetic lyrics that didn’t fit neatly into “punk rock” (which is in itself punk). His guitar playing was exploratory and beautiful, like a jazz musician. “Marquee Moon” in all its Mixolydian, nearly 11-minute glory, is peak Verlaine. Richard Hell, the band’s bassist and co-singer, looked like what we now recognize as punk rock. Television are arguably the most influential band to come out of the New York punk scene.

2. Patti Smith Group

Patti Smith and Lenny Kaye attended one of Television’s first gigs at CBGB. Soon they’d be playing their own gigs at the bar. Smith, being both a woman and a poet, contrasted the machismo associated with punk rock. She was a part of two New York worlds: those of both music and literature. Smith is a romantic rebel, a National Book Award winner, and a New York punk rock legend. She appeared at CBGB’s final show in 2006.

3. Blondie

Debbie Harry and Chris Stein formed Blondie in New York City in 1974. They’d already played CBGB in other bands, but Blondie would bridge the gap between punk and New Wave. The band also bridged the gap from the New York underground to mainstream success as Harry became nothing less than a pop culture icon.

4. Talking Heads

The first Talking Heads gig saw them opening for the Ramones. The early minimalism of David Byrne’s group would grow to include more instruments and more sounds from around the world.

Stabbing guitars and Afrobeat defined a band born on the art side of punk. And not for nothing: a Talking Heads song is the reason a British band originally called On a Friday now calls themselves Radiohead.

5. Ramones

The Ramones are considered the first punk rock group. Legend says the Ramones’ first gig at CBGB lasted only 12 minutes. The band is analogous with both the punk rock genre and CBGB. The punk family tree simply doesn’t exist without one or the other. These four guys in leather jackets, led by Joey Ramone (all band members took on the “Ramone” surname), played two-minute songs to limited commercial success. But history is a long game, and the Ramones are now cultural icons who are in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame”.

I was keen to explore CBGB. It opened on 10th December, 1973. Few people knew how it would grow and the way it would be written into music history. Sure, it was quite grimy and raw, though it was a Punk Rock club. It was always going to be like that. It was a personality and atmosphere that enticed in some future legends. From Television and Blondie through to Ramones, CBGB hosted some of the greatest and most influential artists ever. For that reason, it is only right to salute…

THE historic and iconic CBGB.

FEATURE: Still Streets Ahead: The Glorious Mike Skinner at Forty-Five: An Essential Playlist

FEATURE:

 

 

Still Streets Ahead

PHOTO CREDIT: Vicky Grout for GQ

The Glorious Mike Skinner at Forty-Five: An Essential Playlist

_________

ON 27th November…

PHOTO CREDIT: Ben Cannon

it will be the forty-fifth birthday of Mike Skinner. With his alias The Streets, the Birmingham-born genius has released some of the most inventive and inspirational music of this century. The Streets’ debut album, Original Pirate Material, was released in 2002. The follow-up, A Grand Don’t Come for Free, turns twenty next year. I am going to get too an essential playlist feature The Streets’ hits and those deep cuts worth hearing. Their (The Street is sort of a collective, though Skinner is the voice and songwriter) sixth studio album, The Darker the Shadow the Brighter the Light, was released in October. I want to drop in some section from a GQ interview from last month. Mike Skinner was looking back at his career – though it is something so many people seem compelled to make him do. As GQ say, Skinner was marking the first Streets album in twelve years, a sold-out tour, and a long-held film debut that has the same name as the new album. Mike Skinner is very much back. As GQ said in their sub-header, Skinner is grappling “with the usual things: fatherhood, mental health and how to define his legacy without ‘doing a Beckham’”:

“There are plenty of acts from the 2000s still touring and releasing music, but few defined an era in Britain like The Streets. It’s easy to forget how revolutionary Original Pirate Radio, an album Skinner made in his childhood bedroom in a ‘studio’ made out of bed sheets in 2002, was. At the time, rap music in the UK was still mostly imported or mimicked from America. Then suddenly there was a kid from Birmingham spitting with a straight face about the minutiae of nightlife in Britain, of chips thrown in kebab shops and dragging your broken heart home from a nightclub with ecstasy still tingling in your toes. The first time my friends and I heard “Turn The Page” – the stirring, swaggering string-led call-to-arms that might still be the best opening track on a debut album ever – we were speechless. How did a 22-year-old member of ‘the Barratt class’ (as he described himself at the time), with no success behind him yet, write a song that sounded so confident? Skinner squirms a little.

“I went to my sister's house. And we watched Gladiator. And erm, I just started imagining what that would be like... I mean, it's just that simple, really. It's a bit Hans Zimmer, and the beat is a bit like a garage beat, and then, [the lyrics are] you know, ‘we're sort of fighting the good fight’ or something… We can't not open our gigs with that song. I've tried moving it, but you can't. It has to come first.”

PHOTO CREDIT: Vicky Grout for GQ

Boy In Da Corner, the starting pistol for mainstream grime, was still 12 months away; after that, British rap music exploded in the charts. Pioneers like Dizzee Rascal, Wiley and Kano were joined by more radio-friendly acts like Tinie Tempah and Lethal Bizzle in painting a largely London-centric picture of British life. And there alongside them, still doing his garage thing, was Skinner. In 2004 his second album, A Grand Don’t Come For Free, produced his first megahit. “Dry Your Eyes Mate”, a song about a breakup that doesn’t mention the word ‘love’ once, went straight to number one. It was the start of Skinner’s jaded-with-fame era.

“We were in France in the countryside, I think it was a day off on tour,” he remembers. “And a big group of us walked into this village to buy an ice cream. And I just remember thinking: I'm number one in the charts. And it was amazing, because it's what all musicians want, really - well, musicians of my generation anyway. Being on Top of the Pops and having a number one. But then in the same thought, it was, Fuck, I've still got all these demons inside me telling me that I'm useless. And you suddenly realise: this isn't gonna save me.”

The Streets’ third album, The Hardest Way to Make an Easy Living, was a wry, scatty reflection on precisely this dilemma that he still regards with pride as his most honest. Listeners didn’t quite agree – it was a commercial flop compared to Grand… – but still produced arguably the second most cherished song in Skinner’s catalogue, “Never Went to Church”, which brought the same moving clarity as “Dry Your Eyes” to the experience of losing a parent.

He doesn’t consider himself famous anymore – at least not compared to when he was on the side of every bus in London advertising Reebok – but people who do know who he is tend to be devoted fans.

“It’s incredibly moving,” he says of those conversations. “But at the same time, when it happens over and over again, you can't maintain seriousness. There becomes a lightness to it. Because I think if you were moved as much as you should be moved, you would go a bit mad.”

“[But] I'm used to it. And I think it's much better it be like that. There are a lot of famous people that, deep down, don't feel like they deserve it. You know, there's a lot of impostor syndrome. I get impostor syndrome, too. But it's a good problem to have.”

Now 44, Skinner is settled with a wife and two children. As is perhaps fitting for a 14 and a 12-year-old, they aren’t particularly impressed by their father’s career.

“Thankfully, they couldn't give a shit,” he says. “My daughter was very excited when we went to see Fred Again recently. We ended up on the stage with Fred Again [with whom Skinner has collaborated], and she and her friend absolutely loved that. But it was difficult to explain to Fred Again that they didn't want me in the photo.”

Other than that, he’s grappling with the same things as any other parent in 2023.

“I worry about my son, I don't worry about my daughter. That's one thing,” he says when I ask him about how he thinks masculinity has changed since he was releasing songs with titles like “Fit But You Know It”.

“I think ultimately, sadly, when you're a guy, you have to find something that gives you respect in society. You can’t look at something like #MeToo and think that's not positive. It's just made being a man a tiny bit more complicated. But I think that's okay. We just have to teach our sons that.”

Mental health is another topic he’s touched on many times in his lyrics that is the subject of a very different conversation now.

“I think when you become chronically depressed, it's a bit of a surprise to discover that you can't get yourself out of this. And that's really the conversation we're having - that sometimes, you can't get yourself out of these cycles. Sometimes you need to go to a psychiatrist and have therapy, or go on to drugs that enable you to distance yourself from the cycle.

“But when I'm talking to my children, I want to build resilience, as well. And it be really complicated to separate [those things]. What is a chronic mental health illness, and what is the avoidance of resilience? I don't think we're ever gonna really get to the bottom of that. But it's definitely good that we're not just saying you have to be resilient.”

As we wrap up, talk turns to the David Beckham documentary that topped the Netflix charts recently. He finds it fascinating, this reappraisal that is underway of celebrity culture in the ‘90s and ‘00s when he, briefly, had to flee to New York to escape the tabloid press. But this thing of looking back, particularly on his own career, doesn’t interest him.

“I've been signing loads of albums lately. I did about 700 the other day, and they all came with these messages that I had to write. It was quite interesting to see what people want you to put next to your autograph. Probably half of them were stuff from Original Pirate Material or A Grand Don’t Come For Free. And then the other half was quite weird and interesting, and sort of a little bit dark.

“It's great to know that you mean something. But in a similar way to when I got a number one record, it's also a bit heavy. It’s like Beckham… I don't want to be cleaning my oven at home, thinking about the goals I was scoring when I was 25. That's not a place I want to end up. I think when you're older, you start to really look back, don't you? But I'm still looking forward. I'm so grateful that I still get to do my job. But whatever that job means to anyone else, I don't really care”.

As the incomparable and down to earth innovator Mike Skinner is forty-five on 27th November, I have assembled some prime Streets cuts and mixed them together with some of their songs that you may not be that familiar with. Twenty-one years after the debut, The Streets are still an indispensable and crucial part of the music landscape. And for that reason, we have to offer our sincere thanks and appreciation to…

THE one Mike Skinner.

FEATURE: Charming Man: The Brilliant Alex James at Fifty-Five: The Ultimate Blur Playlist

FEATURE:

 

 

Charming Man

The Brilliant Alex James at Fifty-Five: The Ultimate Blur Playlist

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THERE are a few big…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Alex James (right) alongside Damon Albarn

birthdays in the music world occurring between now and the end of the year. I wanted to mark them off and recognise those artists who deserve a salute. As the bassist for Blur, Alex James has been responsible for some of the most memorable basslines of the past few decades. Part of one of the world’s best and most iconic bands, I am going to end this feature with a playlist featuring some terrific Blur deep cuts, together with their popular hits. Blur released one of the best albums of the year with The Ballad of Darren. I know I have compiled a Blur playlist previously though, with a new album out there, it gives me even more scope now! I will come to that soon. I forgot to mention that Alex James turns fifty-five on 21st November. Many happy returns to him! Before coming to that Blur playlist, I want to source an NME article where they spotlight an interview where James talked about his return to performance, and the string of gig dates Blur had ahead:

“Bassist Alex James has claimed that he found returning to Blur a lot more “relaxing” than parenting.

In recent weeks, the 54-year-old musician has played countless shows across the UK and Europe – including two mammoth dates at Wembley Stadium – and released his ninth studio album with Blur, ‘The Ballad Of Darren’.

However, according to a recent interview, the process of being back in the band is more manageable and laid-back than that of being a full-time parent.

Appearing on the Parenting Hell podcast, he reflected on one of his previous quotes, where he claimed to have once spent “a million pounds on drugs and booze” while in the band, before going on to become a cheesemaker on his Cotswolds farm.

“I kind of made it up and everyone believed it. But that is coming back to haunt me now,” he began.

“Playing the bass in a rock band is the easiest thing, compared to parenting,” he added. “It actually is relaxing going back into that Blur bubble.”

He also explained how his five children now have a more “rock ‘n’ roll” lifestyle than he does, and sometimes finds it “terrifying” how immense some of their parties can be: “I think 16th birthdays are the worst of them all, all the years of rock ‘n’ roll, nothing can hold a candle to those parties when you’re like 16… rock ‘n’ roll had nothing on that actually.”

“​​At 16, you’re in the speedboat and you want to know how fast it goes, and by the time you’re 18 you’ve kind of worked out where your limits are a little bit,” he added. “I always try and get them to have their 16th birthdays at [his farm’s annual event] Feastival so that the liabilities are not mine! It’s terrifying, it is really terrifying.”

The Britpop bassist also spoke about the difference between his life on the road with Blur and his home life during an interview with Red Magazine (via Virgin Radio). “The last time I went away, I dropped the kids at school and flew to Mexico City, where there were thousands of people waiting for us at the airport and hotel… When we got to the venue –a stadium – it was huge,” he explained.

“But afterwards, you get home and you have to wash up and the kids are like, ‘Dad, stop being a wanker.’”

The band’s latest LP, ‘The Ballad Of Darren’ arrived on Friday (July 21) and received a four-star review from NME. “There’s always a sense of unfinished business with Blur; they’ve never officially split, but each time they re-emerge it’s as if we’re rekindling a long-estranged affair. Two albums in 20 years since 2003’s ‘Think Tank’ – ‘The Ballad of Darren’ and 2015’s ‘The Magic Whip’ – would suggest they feel the same,” it read.

“On ‘The Ballad…’ the band are muted and contemplative; there are moments of sheer heartbreak in these songs,” it adds. “Beyond the doom, there’s something resolute and life-affirming in the way this record plays out; you sense the whole momentum of the band moving as a unit, not just pieced together in separate takes like in ‘The Magic Whip’”.

To mark the approaching fifty-fifth birthday of one of the most underrated and best bass players of his time, I wanted to celebrate by putting together a nice selection of Blur songs. Showcasing the obvious gifts of the wonderful Alex James. From Charmless Man to The Narcissist, James has been responsible for some…

TRULY extraordinary music.

FEATURE: Destroy the Silence: Ensuring That the Music Industry Protects the Safety of Women

FEATURE:

 

 

Destroy the Silence

PHOTO CREDIT: Alycia Fung/Pexels

Ensuring That the Music Industry Protects the Safety of Women

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DESPITE the fact…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Mikael Blomkvist/Pexels

the news story was reported a little while ago, I have still been thinking about it. It concerns arrests and prison spaces dedicated to those accused of sexual harassment and stalking. Even if jails are overcrowded, it is rather troubling that some very dangerous people (mostly men) are going to be back on the streets. The Independent reported the news:

“Thousands of abusive men could walk free from court under the government’s plans to scrap some shorter sentences as it scrambles to tackle the overcrowding crisis gripping prisons – putting women’s safety at risk.

Some 11,040 men were jailed for around 12 months or less for harassment, stalking and revenge porn last year – all sentences that could now be served in the community to free up space in jails.

Justice secretary Alex Chalk’s proposals, announced earlier this month, would see prison terms of under 12 months axed for most offenders. Critics say the move will affect criminals who target women and girls who typically get low sentences – despite Rishi Sunak repeatedly pledging to do more to protect these victims.

Politicians, campaigners and the government’s own domestic violence watchdog have raised concerns over the measures amid fears domestic abusers and stalkers could “slip through the net”, with Labour saying the plans had been “rushed out with no consideration for victims”.

IN THIS PHOTO: Georgia Harrison/PHOTO CREDIT: Dave Benett via Glamour 

TV star Georgia Harrison, who was a victim of revenge porn at the hands of her former partner, fellow reality TV star Stephen Bear, told The Independent she had concerns over what impact scrapping short sentences could have on victims of crime. Bear was jailed for 21 months in March after he posted a video of the pair having sex in his garden in Loughton, Essex, in August 2020, to his OnlyFans account.

Ms Harrison, who has appeared on The Only Way Is Essex and Love Island, said: “For a lot of these men, especially in a misogynist culture, they feel like they are untouchable and they feel like they can get away with anything.

“And if Bear had walked away from my court case without prison time, I really don’t think he would have learned a single thing from the entire experience. If anything, I think he would have come back worse.”

The latest available figures from the Ministry of Justice for 2022 show:

• 8,996 men were sentenced on average to less than five months for harassment

• 1,809 men were sentenced on average to around 12 months behind bars for stalking offences

• 235 men were sentenced for an average of just over seven months in prison for revenge porn offences”.

Maybe it is not as prevalent as it was in Hollywood regarding high-profile figures, though we are reading about many male figures in the music industry being accused of sexual assault and abuse. It is almost impossible to calculate how many are stalking, abusing and offending women online through social media. Ever since a 2019 report highlighted the epidemic of sexual assault and harassment through the industry, there has been vocalisation for change. Current figures are still quite stark. With L.A. Reid recently accused of sexual assault, we are seeing some pretty big names blackened and disgraced. Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs has also been accused of rape by a former partner of his. How much say and agency to women have when it comes to calling out abusers and those who harass them?! This recent article from The Telegraph reported how Zelda Perkins was speaking at a Parliamentary inquiry into sexual abuse and harassment set to look into use of the secretive deals. She called for the music industry to stop silencing victims of sexual predators. I started by quoting news of certain offender being released early from prison because it will also impact the industry. At a moment when women (and non-binary people) are either fearful or coming forward or are being silence/intimidated, one only can guess how many cases of sexual harassment and assault have taken place and not reported. It is important to note that, as part of its inquiry into misogyny in the music industry, the Women and Equalities Committee is seeking to understand the extent to which non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) are used specifically to silence victims. 

I did wrote about this recently following the Dispatches investigation into Russell Brand. He has been accused of multiple counts of rape and assault. There are many men through the music industry who are culpable and should be brought to light. I think that one major goal in 2024 is ensuring the safety of women. It is not only sexual assault and harassment that needs to be tackled in music. Mistreatment, misrepresentation and coercion. Coming to that article from The Telegraph, it is clear that more needs to be done to protect women in music. Ensure that they are also free to speak out and are not being gagged:

“Pop stars, their agents and music industry executives will face close scrutiny by a powerful committee of MPs, amid growing unease about the use of NDAs.

An inquiry by the Women and Equalities Select Committee into misogyny in the music business is now looking specifically into how and why NDAs are used, as those who have signed are urged to come forward and give evidence, without fear of legal reprisal.

The call for evidence was hailed a “watershed moment” to expose abuse by powerful people whose wealth and influence invariably outstrip those who sign NDAs with them.

Zelda Perkins, who heads the UK’s Can’t Buy My Silence campaign to ban the misuse of NDAs said: “This is long overdue and a watershed moment for an industry which we know has an extraordinary prevalence of NDAs.”

Miss Perkins, who broke her NDA with the disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, to reveal his sexual and financial abuse of numerous women, added: “The issue of NDAs being abused is endemic throughout all sectors of industry.

“Legal agreements designed to protect intellectual copyright have been weaponised. We need the Government to act to change that.”

The committee is expected to hear evidence from musicians who have been abused by record label managers, and also allegations of exploitation by pop stars and their agents, all of which has been hushed up by NDAs for commercial gain.

Many famous faces in the music industry now trade on their celebrity to cross over into other media, including publishing, radio, television and streaming services, to further their earning potential.

IN THIS PHOTO: Rebecca Ferguson/PHOTO CREDIT: Getty Images

Women who have experienced gender-brd discrimination, harassment or abuse related to the music industry and have signed NDAs are being invited to give written evidence before Nov 20, under Parliamentary privilege. Any attempt to silence them could be treated as contempt of Parliament.

The actress Rose McGowan said that Weinstein offered her $1 million to sign a non-disclosure agreement on the eve of an expose of his activities by The New York Times in 2017.

In one case which is already in the public domain, singer and former TV reality show contestant Rebecca Ferguson, who appeared on ITV’s X Factor in 2010, broke her NDA to make allegations of mistreatment, coercion and financial abuse being swept under the carpet when she was just starting out in the industry.

The X Factor, produced by ITV and music mogul Simon Cowell’s Syco company, ran for 17 years before it was cancelled in 2021.

ITV has apologised to Miss Ferguson but insisted it followed a “Duty of Care” charter to protect contestants.

Syco has previously said that Mr Cowell was not personally involved in any incidents or behaviour alleged.

One woman who has signed an NDA in the music industry told The Sunday Telegraph: “NDAs are the tool of choice for pop stars and their management, for making all the things they’d rather the adoring public did not know about just disappear”.

Organisations like We Are Music are working hard to prevent bullying and harassment in the music industry. Cactus City also do important and remarkable work. With every report, statistics and testimony that highlights harassment, abuse or mistreatment of a woman in music, it seems we are getting further away from ensuring that they feel safe and heard. I also recently mentioned how Annie Macmanus spoke to a House of Commons committee talking about this tidal wave of abuse through music. How there are going to be so many new cases coming to light. Quite a few figures have been accused this year. We will see this happen in 2024. I know there are people trying to change things. Raising funds to get organisations expanded and activated. Ensuring that campaigns can be run and resources are available that are both education and protective. More than anything, there needs to be more involvement from men in the industry. Conversations need to happen and we must ensure many are brought into the conversation and pledge to do more.

IN THIS PHOTO: Annie Macmanus

The Government should pledge more money to making sure women are protected and safe. That they are taken seriously and given the freedom and support to speak out. With it likely there will be more lenient sentences for those accused of assault, harassment and abuse, it is an even more scary and frustrating time for women in the music industry. Next year should be one where we are united in that common cause! With women leaving music because they feel unsafe and cannot carry on, it has got to a critical and distressing point. A news report about a TikTok artist Anthony Q Lion asking fans for money and not mentioning that he is a rapist means that more needs to be done so that this does not become a more regular thing. So many cases coming to light shows that this cannot go on. It is a so so essential that one of the main agenda for 2024 is ensuring that women in music (or those who are assaulted and abused by men in the music industry) are not threatened and abused. Even if it has not fully materialised like it did in Hollywood, there were signs of a #MeToo movement years ago. It is something that needs to be reactivated and…

SPREAD worldwide.

FEATURE: Strange Days: The Doors of Perception: Jim Morrison at Eighty: A ‘Complicated’ Legacy

FEATURE:

 

 

Strange Days: The Doors of Perception

Jim Morrison at Eighty: A ‘Complicated’ Legacy

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EVEN if I cannot count myself…

IN THIS PHOTO: Jim Morrison in the late-1960s/PHOTO CREDIT: © Estate of Edmund Teske/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

as a huge fan of The Doors, I recognise their importance and what they gave to music. Their debut album, The Doors, arrived in 1967. Released in a classic year for music, we got this sensational and historic album from the U.S. band. Containing the tracks Break On Through (To the Other Side), Alabama Song (Whisky Bar), Light My Fire and The End, many argue that The Doors did not reach these heights again. Their sixth studio album, 1971’s L.A. Woman, is quite close in terms of quality - as it has Love Her Madly, L.A. Woman and Rider on the Storm on it. That was the band’s final album before their lead Jim Morrison died at the age of twenty-seven. 8th December would have been his eightieth birthday. I am going to, rather than discuss the band’s music and legacy, talk about their frontperson. I know others will write features about Morrison closer to his eightieth, as he is often considered one of the best Rock singers and most iconic leads ever. Charismatic, controversial and primal, he was part-poet, part-artist. An almost mythical figure whose distinct voice and music has endured generations and sounds like nothing else, there is still no clear reason as to how he died in Paris in 1971. Even if some celebrate Jim Morrison’s sexuality and music, there is a more ‘complicated’ side. I had putting that word in inverted commas or quotation marks. This is the word most people use, although it does sounds quite vague and unserious. When it comes to Jim Morrison, there is a lot to celebrate – yet he definitely had a darker side and controversial nature that makes him a hard figure to completely embrace or excuse.

 PHOTO CREDIT: Michael Montfort

It is clear that he had a trouble past. In terms of his later years, there was definitely some questionable and controversial moments. During a gig on 1st March, 1969 in Miami, Morrison attempted to spark a riot in the audience by screaming, "You wanna see my cock?!". On 20th September, 1970, Morrison was convicted of indecent exposure and profanity. He remained free on a $50,000 bond. The band’s drummer John Densmore (whose book, The Doors Unhinged: Jim Morrison's Legacy Goes on Trial, is a must-own) spoke with The Guardian. Fuelled maybe by ego, drink, drugs and this perception of what a poet and Rock god should be, Densmoire spoke about the late Jim Morrison and the destructive, abusive side of The Doors’ lead:

“It took the Doors’ drummer, John Densmore, three years to visit the grave of his bandmate Jim Morrison after he was found dead in a Paris bathtub in 1971. He didn’t even go to the funeral. “Did I hate Jim?” Densmore pauses, although he is not obviously alarmed by the question. “No. I hated his self-destruction … He was a kamikaze who went out at 27 – what can I say?”

Quite a lot, it transpires. Morrison was a man who was spectacularly good at being a rock star – a lithe figure in leather trousers, prophesying about death, sex and magic on some of the biggest hits of the 1960s – Light My Fire, Break on Through and Hello, I Love You. But he was catastrophically bad at the rest of life. Like many alcoholics, he could be reckless, selfish and mercurial. “The Dionysian madman,” Densmore has called him – a “psychopath”, a “lunatic” and “the voice that struck terror in me”. He had lobbied to get Morrison off the road before his death, and even quit the band at one point. “Some people wanted to keep shovelling coal in the engine and I was like: ‘Wait a minute. So what if we have one less album? Maybe he’ll live?’” Why did he carry on? “Because I wasn’t mature enough to say that at the time. I wasn’t trying to enable him. It was another era. I used to answer the question: ‘If Jim was around today, would he be clean and sober?’ with a ‘no’. Kamikaze drunk. Now I’ve changed my mind. Of course he would be sober. Why wouldn’t he be? He was smart.”

Densmore, 75, is a defiant survivor of the music scene he helped build. This, perhaps, is why, in the decades since Morrison’s death, he has become not only one of the great chroniclers of the Doors, but the fiercest protector of Morrison’s legacy. To anyone who has read Densmore’s 1990 memoir – a book he says was “written in blood” – this may come as a surprise; later the book would form the basis for Oliver Stone’s (dreadful) Doors biopic. “It took me years to forgive Jim,” Densmore says. “And now I miss him so much for his artistry.”

Next month, a documentary about another of his bandmates, the keyboardist Ray Manzarek, who died in 2013, will be released. Manzarek’s relationship with Densmore was not smooth either. From the early 2000s, they were embroiled in a vicious six-year legal battle in which Densmore tried to stop Manzarek and the band’s guitarist, Robby Krieger, from touring under the Doors name as well as selling the band’s music for use on a Cadillac commercial. “I know. I sued my bandmates – am I CRAZY?!” he yells. People certainly thought he was. It is not usual to spend years in court trying to stop yourself from earning millions of dollars to prove a point about the value of artistic integrity over the pursuit of money. “What can I say? Jim’s ghost is behind me all the time,” Densmore says. “My knees were shaking pretty strong when they upped the offer of $5m (£3.8m) to $15m. But my head was saying: Break on Through for a gas-guzzling SUV? No!”.

Densmore’s writing about Morrison often reads as if it were done by someone who has survived an abusive relationship, such was the terror he felt around Morrison towards the end. “On the outside, Jim seemed normal,” he wrote. “But he had an aggressiveness toward life and women.” One such incident was early in their friendship when he went to pick Morrison up from a woman’s house and found him brandishing a knife at her while holding her hand behind her back. At the time, Densmore did nothing because he was worried that if anyone found out about Morrison, the band – and his own career – would be over. What does he make of this now? “I was really young,” he says. “I couldn’t figure out whether they were lovers, friends or enemies. I just felt like I needed to get out of there.” Would he have acted differently if it happened today? “Yeah, I would say: ‘What the fuck are you guys doing? Please take it down a few notches here”.

There are definitely multiple sides to Jim Morrison. There was this wild and rebellious nature that meant he was heralded and highlighted by the media. That romantic notion of someone who was a free spirit and poet. Maybe fitting into the idea of what  Rock artist should be in the 1960s and 1970s, there was a toxicity that could not be tolerated today. One of the good things about modern Rock is that we have largely got rid of the darker and seedier side of that culture. Even if Jim Morrison is considered by many as a genius and one of the most important artists of his generation, how is he seen now? CLASH wrote a feature in 2021 that assessed his legacy and complicated image:

“Morrison is talked about as a Jekyll and Hyde figure, with drugs and alcohol blamed for turning him into a monster. Yet time has morphed this description into something cool, using mythologised tales of his dual-souls and bad trips to blur over the stories of the underage relationships, violence towards girlfriends and fans, and even attempted murders.

If Jim Morrison was alive today, modern cancel culture would have a field day. The Blinders’ bassist Charlie articulated this perfectly, talking of his own difficulty confronting the realities of his idols; “if we knew of the abusive behaviour first then we wouldn’t perhaps give them the time that we do. We have a duty to therefore tackle our perceptions of somebody when we acquire knowledge of their behaviour but this can be very difficult to do.” This especially seems to be the case when it comes to looking back; we’re reluctant to get into a conversation about what the realities of our favourite 60s icons’ dark sides really looks like, because it simply looks a lot like abuse.

It’s such a slippery slope. When we start talking about Morrison, we have to start talking about other rock icons and their haram of baby groupies, some allegedly as young as 13. We have to start talking about Lennon’s domestic violence, Elvis Presley and Priscilla’s age gap, and the long list of other problematic details in the lives of our heroes. It’s hard to talk about one without feeling as though we’re risking an entire era of artists as the voice of cancel culture demands we wipe our Spotify library and burn our vinyl.

But we know we could never cancel the classics. Being the figureheads of an era full of events and stories that have been passed down like folklore, icons like Morrison, Bowie, and Lennon are far too engrained into culture to ever be untangled. Yet, although the argument that we should separate the art from the artist might be problematic when we talk about living performers, allowing people to escape accountability and repercussions for their actions, it may be a necessary thing for historic figures.

While their art remains relevant, the separation is necessary if only to remind us that these people existed in a very different time. It’s a fact, not an excuse, to say that the free love era of the 60s didn’t consider these things in the way we do now; assault – very sadly – was barely a word to be recognised in the lexicon. While it’s important to recognise abuse both historical and modern, resisting the insistence to judge the actions of 50 years ago by today’s standards may be the only way we can hold onto our favourite albums.

The argument of blissful ignorance feels like a necessary evil for Bowie and The Beatles. But when it comes to Jim Morrison, it feels like a different story. While other icons have become villains through a modern lens, Morrison was always an abusive figure constantly being let off because of his bad boy act.

The Doors’ drummer John Densmore has spoken a lot about Morrison’s aggression towards women, famously not visiting Morrison’s grave for three years after his death and calling him a “psychopath” who Densmore was terrified of after he walked in on Morrison holding a knife to a groupie. Even at the time, Jim Morrison was known as violent, abusive towards women, and generally destructive, but we erase these stories, along with all others against our favourite 60s icons, to keep our romanticised image of what a rock star should be in-tact.

So what do they need to be to qualify? How quickly does our image of the perfect star as wild and exciting slip into a green card for drug-fuelled chaos and violence? In an industry that’s still so male-dominated, and when men like Morrison are still largely idolised, discussing their abuses and removing the veneer of romance that surrounds them is essential for preventing their toxic behaviours creeping into 2021 under the façade of rock ‘n’ roll.

When we hold up the romanticised image of people like Morrison as perfect icons that represent what music should be, we run the risk of leaving abuse and violence as part of the parcel of stardom, like an accepted symptom of being ground-breaking.

It almost feels like we’re seeing the dangers of this play out in real time currently as more allegations come out against Marilyn Manson. In light of this, Manson’s love for The Doors and obsession with Jim Morrison (and even more violent 60s figures like Charles Manson) starts to raise an eyebrow or two. Similar to Morrison, tales of Marilyn Manson’s dark antics have always been brushed off as wild, allowed to become part of his appeal of fans – except now seeing the violent realities of this, and how the public ego-boost may have enabled his abuse, means that a lot of his behaviours start to look like red flags that were consistently ignored and shrugged off as some form of expected rock ‘n’ roll chaos”.

I am going to end with positives and ‘the other side’ of Jim Morrison. In 2020, Grace Marie Burton wrote for The Burr Magazine. She dissected the conflicted legacy of Jim Morrison. In 2023, he still remains someone who is mythologised and romanticised. Not that his dark and abusive side should be ignored, though it is clear that there Morrison was troubled throughout his short life:

“In the rock canon, there aren’t many bands like The Doors. Simultaneously underground and mainstream at the same time, they’ve certainly left their mark in the rock genre and numerous sub-genres, like punk and gothic rock for example. However, I’m still conflicted about my opinions on them as I love parts of them yet l0athe other aspects surrounding the legacy of The Doors.

The Doors started in 1965 after singer Jim Morrison ran into his former college buddy, Ray Manzarek on the beach in Venice, CA. Even before they ever released any singles or albums, they were pegged as the rebellious poets of the L.A. scene. They were fascinating yet magical and oh so mysterious. Most of this was tied to Morrison, as he was seen as prettier, sexier, dangerous and more clever than any other rockstar before and during his time. The band was also extremely eclectic with their influences and references. The whole of the band was obsessed with poetry and philosophy, particularly Aldous Huxley, William Blake, Arthur Rimbaud and many others. Morrison would also pick up performance elements from the experimental Living Theater novel by Julian Beck.

Their musical influences were also diverse and all over the place. Drummer John Densmore had a flair for Bossa Nova, which influenced songs like “Break on through (to the other side).” Guitarist Robby Krieger has classical guitar training, which can be found in the flamenco solo and backing on “Spanish Caravan.” Manzarek, whose organ made up for the band’s lack of a bass player, is probably the signature of The Doors sound. At times darkly hypnotic, like a midnight carnival ride and at other times funky yet warm, like something from a Ray Charles b-side or soft and brooding, like a Motown torch single.

Critics at the time lauded this experimentation and darkly brooding subject matter Morrison surrounded himself in. They also often wrote about Doors albums like they were collections of poetry. Take this review of the first doors album from Crawdaddy! in 1967 by Paul Williams:

The Doors’ legacy is where the divisions, including my own, bubble to the surface. The true span of the legacy of The Doors doesn’t truly show up until the ‘80s and ‘90s when teenagers brought back both the ‘50s and ‘60s and made them cool and interesting again. Writer and boozehound Lester Bangs reflected on the legacy of both the group and Morrison in 1980, a decade after he torched their album “Morrison Hotel” for Rolling Stone.

PHOTO CREDIT: Joel Brodsky

This isn’t exclusive to The Doors and the youth of the ‘80s and ‘90s either; we can see this occurring today with our modern youth and their obsession with the culture of the ‘90s. However, The Doors and Morrison, mostly due to his death obsession and early demise, had been launched into this idea of what the movements of the ‘60s and ’70s were supposed to mean. The ‘60s were supposed to be this giant decade where everything changed and the youth revolted, questioned authority and revolutionized the American idea of just about everything. However, what got lost in the shuffle when the youth of the ‘80s and ‘90s rediscovered the ‘60s was that most of those revolutionary figures either died due to their own excess, assassination, or had become cogs in the money-making machine once the counterculture had been adopted as a way to make money.

Morrison was an example of that, however, due to his rebellious actions and mystic aura and tendencies, he’s become a symbol rather than a person. The myth of Morrison is summed up with the title of the Rolling Stone article from 1981, following the release of a popular Morrison biography “No One Here Gets out Alive”: “He’s Hot, He’s Sexy and He’s Dead.” Even alive, those were the appeals of Morrison’s persona, the classic gothic mixture of attraction, sexual rawness and how that allures to death.

The issue that I see is while that is true of Jim Morrison, that was mostly his press or performing image; behind the scenes, he was a drunk bad poet who was a serial cheater and drug addict. He’s not the only one who’s like this, even from the ‘60s, but he’s been deified and for that I point the blame to director Oliver Stone and his 1991 film about the band, “The Doors”.

There is no doubt that Jim Morrison was a distinct and incredible writer. A poet and songwriter whose work was explored in this feature, he has also inspired so many artists who followed. Everyone from Iggy Pop, Patti Smith and Ian McCullough of Echo and The Bunnymen are inspired by Jim Morrison. Whether it is his spirit and recklessness, the poetry and words or his particular vocal delivery and style, it is important to recognise the positives and impactful nature of Morrison. He turns eighty on 8th December. There will be new perspectives and interpretations about his work and legacy. I want to bring in some of Richard Jonathan’s words about Jim Morrison as a poet. It is a fascinating take and spotlight of a fascinating-if-controversial figure:

“Jim’s poetry has a strong cinematic dimension. Andrzej Zulawski (a Polish filmmaker whose first film, The Third Part of the Night, was released in the year of Jim’s death), was a filmmaker whose films, especially Chamanka (She-Shaman) and Possession, are perfect expressions of Jim’s ethics and aesthetics (for the true artist, the two are always intimately entwined). Zulawski’s films enact the trance Jim sought as a means to transcendence, they embody Jim’s conception of cinema: ‘Film is the closest approximation in art that we have to the actual flow of consciousness, in both dream life and the actual perception of the world’ (interview). The most consistent cinematic equivalents of Jim’s poetry, then, are the films of Zulawski. Indeed, ‘The End’ and ‘When the Music’s Over’ can be seen as aesthetic precursors of Chamanka and Possession.

In Jim’s poetry a mythical dimension often attaches to words, giving them—like phosphorus exposed to oxygen—a particular glow. The butterfly in ‘the scream of the butterfly’ suffices unto itself, but attached to the insect—for listeners with attuned antennae—is its mythical dimension as ‘the soul freed from its covering of flesh’. In ‘The End’ the snake is clearly mythical: great god of darkness; symbol of both soul and libido; storehouse of potential underlying the palpable world. Night, as we have already seen, is an emblem of ‘the other side’; the word recurs in many songs. In ‘Moonlight Drive’, the moon is awash in mythical associations, giving access to the ‘strait gate’ which opens upon release and light, a short cut to the luminous centre of being and oneness. And what about in ‘Wild Child’? Who is that ‘ancient lunatic [who] reigns in the trees of the night’? A witch, a black moon, a decrepit madman?

IN THIS PHOTO: Jim Morrison between Whisky and the Word in the NYC Subway/PHOTO CREDIT: Paul Ferrara

What gives ‘The End’ its ‘haunting authority’? What—besides the brilliance of the music—makes it so powerful? It is, I would argue, the fact that it reaches deep down into a mythical, primitive psychology and then evokes cinematically what the poet found there. In a 1968 interview with the Los Angeles Free Press, Jim said: ‘I used to have this magic formula to break into the subconscious. I would lay there and say over and over “Fuck the mother, kill the father. Fuck the mother, kill the father”. You can really get into your head just repeating that slogan over and over. Just saying it can be the thing’. Now, ‘the connection with the psychologically primitive characterizes the prophetic writer’, says Frye (p. 54). Jim would agree, and would be quick to make it clear that, to the extent that he is working in a mythological dimension, the ‘prophetic’ is not about foretelling the future, but rather about highlighting the fact that history is a series of repetitions. Thus, just as in film where every image on the screen is in the present tense, not matter where it is situated in the narrative sequence, so in ‘The End’ the ‘stranger’s hand in a desperate land’, the ‘Roman wilderness of pain’, the ‘snake’ and the ‘blue bus’, the killer who ‘walked on down the hall’, are all immediately present to us, even as they resonate through past and future centuries. This is a particular quality of Jim’s poetic genius, and this is what I characterize as the prophetic dimension in his poetry”.

In 2021, The Collected Works of Jim Morrison: Poetry, Journals, Transcripts, and Lyrics, was published. The varied and prophetic writings of The Doors’ lead  was celebrated in the new anthology. The Financial Times ran a feature in anticipation of the release. Whereas some saw Morrison as this drugged, drunk and hellraising idol, others celebrated his poetic and sensitive side. A reason I wanted to write this feature is to get inside a Rock figure we do not really see today. Almost a classic poet in terms of their personality, work and legacy. How do we view Jim Morrison today in terms of his importance and music? It is a question that many have been asking for years now:

Jim Morrison’s reputation as a hell-raising, leather-clad Lizard King means he is primarily celebrated in pop folklore as a beer-swilling frontman, an “erotic politician” who filled rock stadiums with indecent howls and dark wit. Yet the late Doors singer, who was found dead at 27 in a Paris bathtub nearly 50 years ago, was first and foremost a poet, according to Robby Krieger, the band’s jazz-channelling guitarist.

The still-awestruck 75-year-old describes Morrison as “a genius. He was the only guy I met at that age who was so preoccupied with death and philosophy. No one else was even close to thinking like he was thinking.

“Jim was always a poet. When I wrote ‘Light My Fire’, Jim added the line ‘try to set the night on fire’. We found out recently he had actually written that line in a poetry notebook from way back, when he was just a child.”

Created in collaboration with Morrison’s estate, a new, nearly 600-page anthology, The Collected Works of Jim Morrison, honours Morrison’s own plans to publish a book containing all his writings, including poems, screenplays and lyrics — from “The Pony Express”, a poem Morrison wrote when he was in the fifth grade, to sombre reflections from his final days in Paris. There he seems to have made peace with the concept of mortality, prophetically writing: “Naked we come and bruised we go / nude pastry for the slow soft worms below.”

The singer’s sister, Anne Morrison Chewning, says it was quickly apparent that her brother was different from other kids while they were growing up in a military family that moved house almost every six months. “While his friends were playing with toys, Jim was reading Rimbaud, Camus and Genet,” she recalls. “When he graduated, he asked my parents for the complete works of Nietzsche as his gift. He liked to go into Washington DC and wander the streets alone, purely so he could observe people.”

Anne was living in London in 1966 when their mother, Clara, sent over a copy of The Doors’ debut album. Anne was pleasantly surprised to find out about the new career of her older brother, who by that point had disconnected himself from his family. “I always thought Jim would end up as a penniless beatnik poet,” she says. “It felt like the music really was an accidental thing. He wasn’t reaching out to be a musician or singer. It just sort of happened by serendipity.”

This is echoed by his close friend Frank Lisciandro, a fellow film student at UCLA and an editor of the new anthology. He sorted through dozens of notepads and scraps of poetry that Morrison left behind. On December 8 1970, Lisciandro was invited by a heavily bearded Morrison to a studio on his final birthday to watch him record some of his favourite poems (the audiobook of the anthology features these recordings). “Jim was friends with [the Beat generation poet] Michael McClure and loved the way the Beat poets approached language. He wanted to publicise his poetry through the rock stage and turn it into theatre,” Lisciandro says. “It was important we printed his song lyrics alongside his poetry as Jim didn’t really see a distinction.

“He was a very discreet and quiet person. Not at all a braggart. I remember one day he came into The Doors’ office and quietly handed me a book of poems he had just self-published. I thought I was a smart person, but after I read those poems I realised I didn’t know anything about the world.”

“The idea of the world becoming more computerised definitely troubled Jim because he was such a free spirit. He just went wherever the energy pushed him. He would leave a Doors session, walk up to the highway, stick his finger out and hitch a ride. Jim was a hitchhiker in his mind, too, catching rides to the next thought or experience.”

Whatever the future holds in Morrison’s afterlife, Lisciandro is convinced Morrison the poet will keep growing in stature. “I just want people to study his writing, because it has a lot to say about our world. Jim the poet will live on, that is my only hope”.

On 8th December, the world marks Jim Morrison’s eightieth birthday. Undoubtably a hugely important figure in Rock history, there is this constant and ongoing exploration of his legacy and image. A terrific writer and performer, there is also the abusive, dangerous and darker side of The Doors’ leader. With books, volumes and documentaries out there that concern Jim Morrison, one can come to their own conclusions regarding his legacy and truth. It is clear there are different and dark sides to one of the most compelling figures…

IN music history.

FEATURE: Saluting the Queens: Carla Marie Williams

FEATURE:

 

 

Saluting the Queens

Carla Marie Williams

_________

A definite queen and leader…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Carla Marie Williams alongside some unsung music industry professionals at the #girlsirate #mentorme dinner at #londonkindred last month/PHOTO CREDIT: Carla Marie Williams

of the music scene, I wanted to spotlight the remarkable and super talented Carla Marie Williams. She is someone everyone should follow.  A hugely beloved and influential songwriter and champion of women’s voices, she founded the essential Girls I Rate. You can see what they are about here. As it says on the website: “Experiencing first hand the imbalance and inequality within a very male dominated music industry, Carla was compelled to create a movement that provides females with a voice and platform. Her mission is to unite females though GIR and create opportunities for females within the music & creative industries”. This Harrow-born queen is someone who is representing women (and highlighting phenomenal women of colour too) and trying to strike against the imbalance and ingrained sexism that afflicts the music industry – at a time when women are ruling and creating the best and most compelling music around (and there are some wonderful female producers not being nodded to).

I am going to come to some interviews and features Carla Marie Williams was involved with a few years or so back. As a songwriter, she has written or co-written include Beyoncé's Freedom, and Britney Spears's Private Show. In 2016, Williams was nominated for two Grammy Awards for her work on Beyoncé's Lemonade album. She is the vital and hugely adored founder of Girls I Rate. As I am thinking about the recent Women in Music Awards 2023, I was also thinking of Williams. Someone who garners an enormous amount of respect right throughout the industry, the Future Hitmakers Masterclass that took place at London’s Southbank Centre earlier this month joined together Carla Marie Williams with sisters and influential/multitalented contemporaries Jin Jin and Kamille. Her curated Created by Women playlist (see below) shows that she champions and salutes vital and extraordinary women through music!

Before moving onto a couple of points and observations., I want to properly ‘introduce’ the hugely inspiring Carla Marie Williams. Her journey and path to here and now is extraordinary. Here is someone, as Founder of Girls I Rate, who is affecting change through the music industry – in addition to holding conversations with important women and also asking for recognition and more progress. We are still a long way from there being equality and parity in music though, with people like Williams getting their voices heard, that will come soon enough:

“It was incredible. One minute I was doing talent shows in Harlesden, the next I was taking boat trips on the Hudson River, visiting Madison Square Gardens and performing at the Apollo. It ignited a fierce desire to make music my life.”

Carla Marie Williams is an inspiring figure of achievement: Starting her music career at the age of 14 years old where she sang in local talent shows in North West London, whilst writing poetry well beyond her years she strived and fine-tuned her talents, becoming a songwriter to a roll-call of stars including Beyoncé, Britney Spears, Craig David, Girls Aloud and Kylie Minougue.

Why we are @GirlsIRate feel it’s important to invest and educate #FutureHitmakers ESPECIALLY WOMEN! @PPLUK @PRSforMusic @PPLUK @PRSFoundation @WeAreTheMU BIG UP @ZezeMillz @AmazonMusicUK @dellessa for giving @raye a platform to talk our truths! #paysongwriters pic.twitter.com/gj5ktG7MXR

— Carla Marie Williams (@CarlaMarieUK) March 21, 2023

Her career began in girl band Schino managed by Elliot Davis (Ex-Manager of Wet, Wet, Wet) and co writing edgy rock soul songs alongside a guitar at the age of 17.

In Carla’s early career she worked as a youth worker for the Peabody Trust and was later singing backing vocals for artists including Ms Dynamite, Estelle, Corrine Baily Rae, Westlife, Bryan Ferry and Spiritualised.

Carla later went on to join the UK hit factory Xenomania where she worked as an integral part of the team co writing a plethora of top ten hits for artists such as Girls Aloud, The Saturday’s, Alesha Dixon and many more. In less than 2 years Carla had achieved 6 UK tops 10’s an Ivor Novello nomination and BRIT Award for her contribution to the single ‘The Promise’.

In more recent times Carla is best known for writing Naughty Boy featuring Beyoncé’s BRIT smash hit “Runnin”, “Freedom” featuring Kendrick Lemar on Beyoncé’s critically acclaimed billboard album ‘Lemonade’ and Private Show & What You Need on Britney Spears album Glory.

In 2014 Carla was inspired to form own entertainment company NewCrowd where she now houses and develops raw talent.

Carla and NewCrowd have collaborated with a host of artists and producers including Rudimental, MNEK, Beyoncé, DJ Mustard, Pia Mia, Wilkinson, Naughty Boy and Paloma Faith. Becky G, Shae Taylor, Warryn Campbell, Artful Dodger, Reggie & Bollie, Kyla, Rodney Jerkins, DR Luke & Circuit, Preditah, ill Blu, Sticky, DJ Q, Donaeo and many more.

“First and foremost my passion is music and writing great songs that resonate with the masses. But I also want to make a difference for women in the creative industries and help create new platforms for creatives and the future generation of women”.

As I am a (proud) member of The Trouble Club, it seems like Carla Marie Williams is a future speaker. Someone who would be a perfect role model and source of inspiration for those who go to hear her speak. Maybe once better (or exclusively) known as a songwriter to the stars, Williams is now using her experience and platform to look at the wider industry and talk about things that need to change. Also saluting queens like herself who are doing wonderful and important things in music. I cannot see any recent interviews with her – though I am keen to interview her myself! -, so I will include a few from a few years ago. In 2021, Carla Marie Williams was interviewed by Music Week. This was the year Williams was named as Campaigner award recipient at the Music Week Awards:

“The Music Week Women In Music Awards returned for the first in-person event in two years to honour 12 incredible executives and artists, alongside the Roll Of Honour inductees.

Staged in partnership with AIM and UK Music, with YouTube Music as headline sponsor, the ceremony took place at the London Hilton, Park Lane on Friday, October 22.

One of the standout moments of the ceremony came from the recipient of this year's Campaigner honour, the award-winning songwriter and Girls I Rate founder Carla Marie Williams.

"The people at the top of organisations don't look like me," she said onstage. "You need to support organisations that look like me. We're the real girls who represent real people."

Williams has told Music Week about the inspiration behind the speech.

"Since Blackout Tuesday so many corporate organisations have set up subsidiary companies and charities aimed at supporting women and black people which means it has become increasingly harder for black owned independent organisation like GIR to gain funding & support," Williams said. "We're often told, we are already doing something similar', or 'no budget left', or, 'We can’t facilitate those types of activities'. So again, this further pushes the systemic issues as the money and power stays within the system, decreasing the level of support that can be given to small black owned companies and organisations. Being of Jamaican heritage and with Jamaica and the UK historically having strong ties in music, food, sports, and culture, not to mention the Windrush contributions, I’ve been keen to branch out to Jamaica and the Carribean to push for cultural exchanges. However, since doing so I’m realising how increasingly difficult it is as the Carribean is somehow being overlooked."

 Williams went on to details her experiences of trying to get funding.

"I landed an email a few weeks ago about an organisation announcing £3.5 [million in funds] for international projects, and I was so excited," Williams continued. "However, when I looked deeper I found there was nothing in Jamaica – despite being the most long-standing influential island in music, food and sports in the world – or the entire Carribean at all. I pushed for a reason and again was told, 'We do not have the capacity to facilitate projects in this territory'. I could do what’s easy, but I want to do what’s real to me and women like me, so I'm hoping soon they will recognise this and open up these opportunities. We have the young people but we simply don’t have the resources or funds. So we decided to launch #GIRACADEMYFUND GoFundMe in hope of raising some money to support and sustain our projects. Donations will go towards the first safe space studio for women in Jamaica, Mentor Me online Masterclasses, GIR Radio [a platform dedicated to promoting women's music] and core running costs. Please support the #GIRACADEMYFUND."

Here, Music Week Women In Music Awards 2021 Campaigner Carla Marie Williams, founder of Girls I Rate, reflects on her win, her career so far and her hopes for the future...

You’ve just been named Music Week’s Women in Music Award’s Campaigner for 2021, how did you feel when you heard the news?

“I was so ecstatic. I was in Jamaica the week before I heard and I just didn't feel like I had been recognised, especially by some of the establishment involved in the award. I felt like, you know, there would have been other women in particular, white women, that would have got the award. So, I was ecstatic that the work that myself and the girls at Girls I Rate had been doing has been recognised in this way.”

What was the motivation behind Girls I Rate (GIR)?

“Girls I Rate started in 2016, the year before my mum passed away and it came about when I started going to America and being in different rooms. I had already experienced certain challenges in the music industry in the UK, and I quickly realised America was even a bigger place of a lot of red tape and compromise. So basically, I was working with some managers from the States, and I found myself always at loggerheads with them over the things that I wanted to do. I think the last thing that really resonated with me was when one said: ‘Why don't you just shut up and write songs?’ And that's what motivated me to start Girls I Rate and do it with purpose and do it relentlessly.”

What are some of your big wins in terms of GIR so far?

“Our songwriting weekenders were amazing. The first one was at Metropolis, and it was sponsored by MOBOs. And I then ended up doing a UK tour a couple of years later. We went to Liverpool, Dublin, Manchester and Birmingham, where hundreds of girls came out just to hear me talk and work with me.”

Who are some of the organisations you have partnered with?

“A partnership I've had since 2017 includes working with PRS for Music on an initiative called #GetHeard. This is basically where we get A&Rs to come and listen to the girl’s music and give feedback. We also launched the Future Hitmaker competition with the PRS Foundation where we offer our girls bursaries to enter the competition. In addition, we’ve just been awarded financial support from the Spotify Equal Board. And, I also love the partnership we have with Music Week where we highlight amazing women in the industry, black women in particular.”

What is the biggest concern you hear from women when it comes to the music industry?

“A lot of women don't feel like they're taken seriously, that they are undermined, and sometimes it's not just men who are guilty of that - women are also guilty of that in different environments, because we have defence mechanisms to get to the top. I feel like a lot of things we learn as people we need to get rid of, such as the crabs in the barrel mentality. I also know that the Me Too movement is starting to dissect the music industry and we too are getting involved by trying to ensure women feel safe in studios. We are partnering with organisations such as The Cube and Pirate Studios to provide these safe spaces for women”.

 PHOTO CREDIT: via The Arts Desk

I am going to go back even further. I am interested in this Stylist interview from six years ago. Intrigued and excited by the fact that Carla Marie Williams was trying to get more women into the music industry, it is clear we have seen progress since then. It is because of women like her that we have seen these conversations open up:

“Woman of the Week is Stylist’s weekly celebration of women making a difference to society. Grammy-nominated songwriter Carla Marie Williams has written for everyone from Girls Aloud to Beyoncé. Now, she wants to get more women into songwriting.

Adele. Beyoncé. Rihanna. Taylor Swift. Nicki Minaj. Some of the world’s biggest pop stars are women, but don’t be fooled into thinking that the music industry isn’t dominated by men. In the US, less than a quarter of the 600 most popular songs of the last five years were performed by women, according to recent research by the University of Southern California, and just 12% were penned by female songwriters. The same study found that men make up more than 90% – 90%! – of all Grammy nominees since 2012.

Things aren’t much better in the UK, where more than three-quarters of mainstream music festivals taking place in 2018 don’t have a single female-fronted act on their line-up. The average gender pay gap at the country’s major labels is over 30%, while women make up just 6% of members of the Music Producers Guild (MPG). And according to PRS for Music – the UK body that looks after copyright for songwriters, composers and music publishers – just 17% of professional songwriters are women.

It’s against this rather disheartening backdrop that Carla Marie Williams is striving to get more women into the music industry – specifically, to nurture the talents and boost the profiles of female songwriters. The London-born, Grammy-nominated lyricist and composer recently helped launch the #GetHeard campaign, an initiative with PRS for Music to address the gender gap in songwriting. In late June, over 200 aspiring women songwriters gathered at a #GetHeard event in London to share their music with some of the music industry’s most influential figures, and to hear Williams and other prominent women share their insights into the business.

Williams describes #GetHeard as “a way to bring the industry to the girls and to the movement” – the movement, of course, being the rising sense that gender inequality in the music industry needs to be addressed. It’s important to Williams that the campaign doesn’t just pay lip service to the idea of female empowerment, but actually serves a practical purpose, connecting songwriters with people they need to know.

“We want to create producers or writers or artists,” she says. Now the campaign has been launched, she hopes to “gain more support from industry people and sponsors; people that actually believe this can be done and who want to support women. And I mean genuinely support women – not just do ad campaigns that look great.”

When it comes to the music industry, Williams knows what she’s talking about. She spent the first chapter of her career at Xenomania, the music production and songwriting team once described by the BBC as “Britain’s top hit factory”. Partly as a result of her time there, her catalogue of songwriting credits reads like the track list for a 21st century pop compilation album: she’s written for everyone from Britney Spears and Kylie Minogue to The Saturdays and Craig David, and is responsible for some of Girls Aloud’s biggest bangers. (If you ever got drunk and sang Can’t Speak French at a karaoke bar in the late Noughties, you’ve got Williams to thank.)

Although she’d been writing poetry since she was at school, and spent some time in a short-lived girl band in her teens, it was getting her foot in the door at Xenomania that Williams classes as her big break. During her time there, she achieved 6 UK top 10s, an Ivor Novello nomination, and a Brit Award nod for her contribution to the Girls Aloud track The Promise. But in 2014, she decided to strike out on her own.

“I didn’t know what I was going to do,” she admits. “I didn’t have a team, I didn’t have management; I was just by myself. I had to sit down and really think about what I was going to do next”.

Apologies for screwing with the chronology! After Girls I Rate was launched in 2016, Carla Marie Williams has worked tirelessly affecting change and creating dialogues. As someone who has experienced racism, misogyny and sexism throughout her career, Williams knows all too well the challenges and discrimination that so many women face. In 2021, PRS for Music spoke with the iconic Williams. She talked about the Girls I Rate platform. She was also spotlighting the Girls I Rate team hunting for talented songwriters and producers as part of their 2021 #GETHEARD Future Hitmaker competition. That was launched in partnership with PRS for Music and PRS Foundation:

“Grammy-award-winning songwriter Carla Marie Williams is accustomed to shaking up the music industry.

Williams has collaborated with some of the world's biggest artists, including Britney Spears, Sean Paul and Beyoncé, and is one of a handful of Black British female writers to reach superstar status.

But the road to the top was far from smooth. Carla Marie has spoken openly about the racism and sexism she has endured throughout her 20-year music career.

When a certain management company warned her that it was a man’s world, and would always be so, Carla Marie decided to take matters into her own hands.

In 2016, she launched Girls I Rate, a movement designed to help nurture, inspire and champion young women creatives. GIR today provides educational, mentoring and networking opportunities to over 5,000 members looking to build their dream careers in the creative sector.

IN THIS PHOTO: Carla Marie Williams on stage in 2023 with Manny Norté, Kamille and Jin Jin

 The GIR team are currently on the hunt for talented songwriters and producers as part of their 2021 #GETHEARD Future Hitmaker competition.

Launched in partnership with PRS for Music and PRS Foundation, the competition gives young women creatives the chance to have their songs played on the radio and in front of industry experts. Three winners will also receive funding for upcoming music projects alongside other prizes.

We had a chat with Carla Marie via Zoom to find out why she launched the competition, what she looks for in a Future Hitmaker and her 2021 plans for Girls I Rate.

The competition sounds exciting, Carla Marie – what made you launch it?

GIR members have always benefited from getting their music heard by A&R through our #GETHEARD A&R Weekender – but nothing really came out of it. All they got was feedback, which was great because we get some amazing people for our panels, but I knew we could do more.

The competition gives them tangible stuff including a cash bursary of up to £3,000, high-spec equipment, a spot on a six-week production course. This package is based on what our girls told us they needed, so it’s more beneficial for them.

We know gender diversity is a major challenge for UK music – women make up only 18 percent of PRS for Music’s membership. Why do you think the industry still struggles to attract and retain talent women?

I think it’s down to misconceptions about where women fit in the studio. We all need to change our mindsets – that includes me. There’s also a lack of safe spaces for women to learn production and songwriting so they don’t feel self-conscious or give up. These learning experiences sometimes don’t lead to proper employment opportunities – this needs to change too.

What has the industry response been like?

It’s been really good. What I love is there are a lot of men who want to participate and get involved. That to me, in 2021, is one of the most exciting things. I’m all about uplifting and recognising women in the industry but I’ve learnt that it’s also vital that men understand and support what we’re doing. Over the years I’ve tried to involve men where I can and educate them on the importance of supporting women.

We’ve also got some great people and companies like Spotify and Mixcloud on board to support us. A big music artist has offered to co-host the judging panel event with me. I can’t name them now but I’m very excited”.

Someone who is influential to me. Someone I respect gigantically; I hope I have done Carla Marie Williams justice in this feature! With her incredible and passionate work affecting so many women in music and spreading far and wide, I am so fascinated how her career started and how it has changed. Alongside peers such as Kamille, this is a phenomenal queen who I always keep an eye and ear out for. If you have the resources and time, contribute to the GIR Academy Fund, as they are a non-profit organisation who has this #GIRArmy: a strong community of over five-thousand wonderful female creatives. I wanted to properly salute and show my huge affection and admiration for someone who will continue to make change and support women in music through 2024. A queen, leader, campaigner and pioneer, the brilliant and sublime Carla Marie Williams is someone that I wanted to highlight. If you are not familiar with her work and illustrious songwriting background, then check out this…

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SENSATIONAL human being.

FEATURE: Groovelines: Mariah Carey – All I Want for Christmas Is You

FEATURE:

 

 

Groovelines

Mariah Carey – All I Want for Christmas Is You

_________

PERHAPS the best and most celebrated…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Dennis Leupold via USA Today

Christmas song ever, Mariah Carey’s All I Want for Christmas Is You often tops lists of the all-time classic festive gems. TimeOut deemed the song the very best last year; Good Housekeeping concurred this year; Cosmopolitan ranked it top this year too. A song that was released on 29th October, 1994, All I Want for Christmas Is You was selected by the Library of Congress for inclusion in the National Recording Registry this year. I am going to come to its legacy and the reaction to it. For Groovelines, it is a chance to go deep with a song. I am going to get into a new lawsuit that has come about. A Christmas classic called into question regarding its originality. Before that, The Guardian discussed how Mariah Carey’s All I Want for Christmas Is You is being played extra-early this year. People finding comfort in a classic that provides joy and warmth:

“People who argue that Christmas seems to come earlier every year now have an important piece of evidence: the earliest ever appearance of Christmas songs in the UK Top 40.

We’re not halfway through November, but already the widely agreed-upon pair of greatest modern Christmas classics – Wham!’s Last Christmas and Mariah Carey’s All I Want for Christmas Is You – have entered the chart at No 37 and No 40 respectively. Last year, it took until the third week of November for a Christmas song to appear, namely All I Want for Christmas Is You. Each song will now almost certainly remain in the chart for the rest of the year, and possibly early 2024.

The songs’ popularity has grown all the more via the network effect of the download and then streaming eras, with Last Christmas – originally a No 2 hit in 1984 – reappearing in the chart every year since 2008, eventually earning its first No 1 position in January 2021.

Released in 1994, All I Want for Christmas Is You also returned in 2008, and earned its first No 1 spot slightly before Wham!, in December 2020.

Further demonstrating the songs’ classic status is the fact there are no other Christmas hits even in the Top 100 this week, though by Christmas itself the charts will be dominated by them.

Twenty-nine entries in the UK Top 40 over Christmas 2022 were festive, with longstanding favourites such as Brenda Lee’s Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree and the Pogues’ Fairytale of New York joined by a more recent established canon of favourites by Michael Bublé, Ariana Grande, Kelly Clarkson and Justin Bieber.

Neither Last Christmas nor All I Want for Christmas Is You has held the actual Christmas No 1 spot, which in recent years has been dominated by YouTube star LadBaby and his series of singles to benefit food bank charity the Trussell Trust. His fifth chart-topper, 2022’s Food Aid, broke the Beatles’ record for the most Christmas No 1s. He has not announced whether he’ll attempt a sixth No 1 in a row this year.

The festive glow of All I Want for Christmas Is You has been slightly dulled this year as Mariah Carey has been served with a lawsuit alleging copyright infringement over the song”.

There is some controversy that has blighted the magnificent and all-conquering classic. Again, going to The Guardian, we learn that this legendary song has been challenged. A lot of big artists find themselves on the end of lawsuits. Cynically, you tend to find them occurring when a song becomes massive and makes a lot of money. I am not sure what the result will be of All I Want for Christmas Is You’s challenge:

“Mariah Carey has been sued over alleged copyright infringement with her perennial festive hit All I Want For Christmas Is You.

As reported in Billboard, it is the second lawsuit she has faced from songwriter Andy Stone – who performed under the name Vince Vance – who filed then withdrew a similar claim in 2022.

Stone released a similarly lovelorn song of the same name in 1989 with his group Vince Vance & the Valiants, reaching No 52 in the US country singles chart in 1994 after receiving extensive radio play during Christmas 1993. Carey’s song was recorded and released in 1994.

Stone’s lawsuit claims: “The phrase ‘all I want for Christmas is you’ may seem like a common parlance today, in 1988 it was, in context, distinctive […] Moreover, the combination of the specific chord progression in the melody paired with the verbatim hook was a greater than 50% clone of [Stone’s] original work, in both lyric choice and chord expressions.”

Stone is being represented by Gerard P Fox, a lawyer who represented two songwriters in a similar copyright infringement case against Taylor Swift and her song Shake It Off, which resulted in an undisclosed settlement in 2022.

Carey has not responded to the lawsuit. The Guardian has contacted her management company for comment.

Carey co-wrote the song with Walter Afanasieff, though each of them has described the circumstances differently.

In 2021, Carey said: “When I first wrote that song I was very, very early on in my career and I was still thinking about childhood stuff when I did wish for snow every year … I started writing that on a little DX7 or Casio keyboard that was in this little room in the house that I lived in at the time in upstate New York lifetimes ago. Just writing down everything that I thought about. All the things that reminded me of Christmas that made me feel festive that I wanted other people to feel”.

I am going to come to some articles about, arguably, the queen of Christmas songs. I am going to drop in some reception for All I Want for Christmas Is You. Even though I tend to go for Slade’s Merry Xmas Everybody as the champion Christmas  classic, Mariah Carey’s 1994 wonder is in the top three for sure! It has been embraced and celebrated through the years:

"All I Want for Christmas Is You" received universal acclaim. Roch Parisien from AllMusic called the song "a year-long banger", complimenting its instrumentation and melody. Steve Morse, editor of The Boston Globe, wrote that Carey sang with a lot of soul. In his review for Carey's Merry Christmas II You, Thomas Connor from the Chicago Sun-Times called the song "a simple, well-crafted chestnut and one of the last great additions to the Christmas pop canon". Shona Craven of Scotland's The Herald, said, "[it's] a song of optimism and joy that maybe, just maybe, hints at the real meaning of Christmas." Additionally, she felt the main reason it was so successful is the subject "you" in the lyrics, explaining, "Perhaps what makes the song such a huge hit is the fact that it's for absolutely everyone." Craven opened her review with a bold statement: "Bing Crosby may well be turning in his grave, but no child of the 1980s will be surprised to see Mariah Carey's sublime All I Want For Christmas Is You bounding up the charts after being named the nation's top festive song." While reviewing the 2009 remix version, Becky Bain from Idolator called the song a "timeless classic" and wrote, "We love the original song to pieces—we blast it while decorating our Christmas tree and lighting our Menorah."

Kyle Anderson from MTV labeled the track "a majestic anthem full of chimes, sleigh bells, doo-wop flourishes, sweeping strings and one of the most dynamic and clean vocal performances of Carey's career". Music & Media commented, "Phil Spector's Christmas album has been the main inspiration for this carol in a "Darlene Love against the wall of sound" tradition." Music Week wrote, "Mariah meets Phil Spector, some chimes and the inevitable sleigh-bells; this is everything you would expect from a Mariah Carey record." In a 2006 retrospective look at Carey's career, Sasha Frere-Jones of The New Yorker said, the "charming" song was one of Carey's biggest accomplishments, calling it "one of the few worthy modern additions to the holiday canon". Dan Hancox, editor of The National, quoted and agreed with Jones's statement, calling the song "perfection". According to Barry Schwartz from Stylus Magazine, "to say this song is an instant classic somehow doesn't capture its amazingicity; it's a modern standard: joyous, exhilarating, loud, with even a hint of longing." Schwartz praised the song's lyrics as well, describing them as "beautifully phrased," and calling Carey's voice "gorgeous" and "sincere”.

I will delve into the history of All I Want for Christmas Is You prior to coming to its legacy and importance. The song is credited to Walter Afanasieff and Mariah Carey (songwriting and production). A song with an interesting chart ride and release history, there is this fascinating background and history of All I Want for Christmas Is You. One of the biggest questions is to the song’s origin and creation. Who the song belongs to and how it came about:

“Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You” has been one of music’s most recognizable singles—holiday or otherwise—going on three decades now.

Carey’s 1994 hit is considered the defining modern Christmas classic, with Billboard ranking it No. 1 on its list of the Greatest of All Time Holiday 100 Songs—ahead of legendary vocalists like Bing Crosby, Brenda Lee, and Nat King Cole. Thanks to streaming services and the song’s ubiquitous presence in pop culture, it has received billions of plays in its lifetime.

But while “All I Want for Christmas Is You” has become an essential part of the winter season—and earned the 53-year-old Carey the unofficial title of “Queen of Christmas”—its history is more complicated than you might think.

Carey loved Christmas, but her family would “ruin it”

“All I Want for Christmas Is You” is a cheery and boisterous ode to Christmas, not to mention a yuletide crush. It’s also a sharp contrast to Carey’s melancholic experiences around the holidays while growing up.

Mariah was raised on New York’s Long Island and was part of a complicated family dynamic. Her parents—Alfred Roy Carey, a Venezuelan aeronautical engineer, and Patricia Carey, a voice coach and opera singer—divorced when young Mariah was 3 years old. She grew up primarily with her mother. Mariah has detailed their complicated relationship, suggesting in her 2020 memoir that Patricia resented her because of her musical ability. The singer also no longer speaks to her brother, Morgan, nor her sister, Alison.

Although Carey looked forward to Christmas every year, she said in 2019 that her “dysfunctional family” and financial struggles in childhood often overshadowed her excitement. “I always wanted to have a really good time at Christmas, and they would ruin it, so I vowed in my own life I would make sure every Christmas was great,” she told Cosmopolitan UK.

One silver lining was that Carey began writing poems and songs to process her feelings—a practice that helped her quickly become a music megastar.

The singer didn’t want to do a Christmas album

By 1994, Carey was a bona fide hitmaker with eight No. 1 singles to her credit. That included the songs “Vision of Love,” “Emotions,” and “Dreamlover.” So when her record label suggested she compose a holiday album, 24-year-old Carey was hesitant because she felt Christmas music was reserved for artists later in their careers—after their relevance had tailed off.

“I was like, ‘Hmm, I don’t know.’ It seemed a little premature, like I was jumping the gun,” she told the Los Angeles Times in 2020. “The success of [the Merry Christmas album] was definitely a surprise. I mean, ‘All I Want for Christmas Is You’ was the first Christmas song I ever wrote.”

The pop star first told Billboard in 2017 that she wrote the song “basically as a kid on my little Casio keyboard.” In the 2019 Amazon documentary Mariah Carey Is Christmas: The Story of “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” the singer gave a similar account. “Actually, I put on It’s a Wonderful Life downstairs, you could hear it throughout the house, and I went into this small room, and there was a little keyboard in there, and I started playing,” she explained.

The song quickly became popular but not an immediate chart-topper when it was released as a single in October 1994. In fact, Merry Christmas was the second-best-selling new holiday album of 1994. The top was Miracles—The Holiday Album by famed saxophonist Kenny G. But Carey’s multiplatinum album more than made up for it over time, selling the equivalent of 8 million copies by December 2020. “All I Want For Christmas Is You” is now a diamond-certified single, reaching 12 million downloads and streaming equivalents in December 2022.

The song’s origin is disputed

Walter Afanasieff is credited as a co-writer of “All I Want for Christmas Is You” and has rebuffed Mariah Carey’s story of the song’s origin.

Carey is credited as a co-writer and co-producer of “All I Want for Christmas Is You” with Walter Afanasieff. However, their explanations behind the song’s creation are wildly different.

Afanasieff calls Carey’s story “kind of a tall tale.” According to the longtime songwriter, he and Carey—who had previously collaborated for her albums Emotions (1991) and Music Box (1993)—constructed the song together in the summer of 1994 at a home she was renting with then-husband Tommy Mottola. “I started playing a boogie-woogie, kind of a rock. Mariah chimed in and started singing ‘I don’t want a lot for Christmas,’” he said. “So on and on, and it was like a game of ping-pong. I’d hit the ball for her, she hits it back to me.” Ultimately, Afanasieff credits Carey with the lyrics and melodies and says he managed “all of the music and the chords.”

Afanasieff’s insistence has drawn the ire of some of Carey’s most devoted fans. The composer told Variety in 2019 he and his wife, comedian Katie Cazorla, have even received death threats for speaking out about his perceived snub from the singer. Although Afanasieff says he would work with Carey again in a heartbeat, he maintains that her comments have damaged his reputation. “Mariah has been very wonderful, positive, and a force of nature. She’s the one that made the song a hit, and she’s awesome,” he said. “But she definitely does not share credit where credit is due”.

On 28th October, 1994, Mariah Carey released her first holiday album, Merry Christmas. It features mainly standards that she interprets. They sit alongside original material. Like most Christmas albums, it got mixed reception. It was released between 1993’s Music Box and 1995’s Daydream. This was an imperial and purple patch for Carey. Although Music Box did not get great reception when it was released, it has since been reassessed and seen as very important. Daydream is one of her most acclaimed albums. What might have otherwise been a stopgap and change of pace between conventional albums was given a distinct lease of life by All I Want for Christmas Is You. In 2020, Ringer explored Mariah Carey’s classic. A song a lot sadder than you think, it came at a time when the U.S. legend was facing difficulty and problems of her own:

“It’s time. It’s time meaning it’s December. December belongs to Mariah Carey. What are the essential new Christmas songs released in Mariah Carey’s lifetime? “Last Christmas” by Wham. “Wonderful Christmastime” by Paul McCartney. (It’s a great song. I’m not arguing with you about this.) “Christmas in Hollis” by Run-DMC. “Christmas Wrapping” by the Waitresses. (You know it.) And “All I Want for Christmas Is You” by Mariah Carey. That’s the list. “All I Want for Christmas Is You” came out in 1994 and sounds several eons older than that, in the best way. On impact—the very first time you heard Mariah belt out that very first chorus—it sounded classic, it sounded timeless, it sounded like it was playing in the manger when Jesus Christ was born.

And it’s an incredibly sad song. I’m not trying to ruin “All I Want for Christmas Is You” for you. Quite the contrary. I’m trying to heighten it. I’m trying to deepen it. The question before us today is who was the you in “All I Want for Christmas Is You.” I fear that the answer, as Mariah Carey tells her story now, is that there was no you. There was nobody. She had nobody, really. This song is a fantasy. This song is aspirational. This song is a reminder that pop music—and maybe especially Christmas-themed pop music—can be as transportive for the singer (and the songwriter) as it is for the listener. I’m trying to give you a sense, for mid-’90s Mariah Carey anyway, of what the fates allowed, and what they did not allow”.

I am going to end with a TIME feature about the song from 2019. Celebrating twenty-five years of this genius and unstoppable work of brilliance, they talked about All I Want for Christmas Is You as the holiday gift that keeps on giving:

“The melody of ‘All I Want For Christmas’ is astoundingly complicated considering how simple it seems,” songwriter and And the Writer Is… podcast host Ross Golan tells TIME. “The brain latches on songs after the listener invests significant time to learn them. That song in particular is now neurologically built into the zeitgeist.”

This, of course, attests to Carey’s skills as a songwriter, a factor that’s often overshadowed by her outstanding talent and larger-than-life persona. Lest listeners forget while listening to her hit the whistle register, Carey wrote 17 of her 18 #1 hits, a feat that astounds on multiple levels.

“This song is a testament to something that Mariah Carey is still undervalued for: Her songwriting,” beauty writer and self-professed lifelong Lamb (for the uninitiated, Lambs or the “Lambily” are the devoted fans of Carey) Tynan Sinks tells TIME. “Mariah Carey wrote this song, dude. Isn’t that crazy? It’s such a classic that people think it’s a cover of something else, but it’s a Mariah Carey original, baby. She just sat down one day and literally invented Christmas.”

In 2015, Slate reported that the song’s seemingly magic ability to put you in a festive holiday mood is actually because of its dulcet harmony, which contains at least 13 distinct chords, including a specific minor subdominant chord, which they dub “the most Christmassy chord of all” and is found in songs like Irving Berlin’s classic “White Christmas.”

In a deep dive into the song’s structure at Quartz, musicologist and Switched on Pop podcast host Nate Sloan also revealed that since Carey was inspired by old school holiday music, she used an AABA song structure that was popular in the 1940s and 1950s and that was used for songs like “Frosty the Snowman” and “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” which can do plenty for holiday nostalgia for the good ‘ol days.

Unlike “Rudolph” and “Frosty,” however, Carey’s track provides a more adult take on a Christmas song, which also proved to be a boon. By eschewing children-centric holiday iconography like Santa and Rudolph for Carey’s trademark musical subject, love and romance, she reached a whole new — and very large — demographic with a theme that everyone could identify with.

“It’s not a religious song,” Andrew Mall, assistant professor of music at Northeastern Univeristy tells TIME. “She talks about Christmas, but no religious beliefs. It’s actually a love song. Anyone can inhabit those lyrics; the lover is not named, the lover is not gendered, so anyone can put themselves in that position as needing someone to love at the holidays. It’s a secular love song and not a religious Christmas carol.” Mall also attributes the song’s popularity to nostalgia of another kind: for the ’90s as a whole, especially the music of the time.

“The song came out in 1994, her first Christmas album; I think when people talk about nostalgia for this album, they talk about nostalgia for the holidays. I think that’s part of that, but I also think it’s part of a larger nostalgia for music from the ‘90s,” he said, noting that ’90s music, stuff he had been listening to in high school, has been showing up of late in his Spotify playlists and are part of a larger trend of things like ’90s dance parties and DJ sets. “This is an ongoing thing not only for people at the end of Gen X, but for millennials too. It’s not only nostalgia for the holidays, which can be fraught for a lot of people, but for the ‘90s, which you can wipe clean and put whatever kind of identity on that.”

The ‘Love, Actually’ Fact

“All I Want for Christmas” can also attribute some of its dominance during the holiday season to its inclusion in the film, Love, Actually. In the film, Sam, a young boy who plays the drums for a school performance of the song harbors a crush on his classmate, Joanna, who is singing lead; the song plays a significant role to this plotline, which helps open and close the film. Jocelyn Neal, a professor of music at UNC Chapel Hill, points to how both the song and movie have solidified their places in the holiday canon.

“It’s important to consider the use of it in the Christmas movie Love, Actually, which came out less than 10 years after the song was released,” Neal tells TIME. “Love, Actually has become for many middle-class Americans, a sort of holiday ritual to watch that movie, it’s in continuous holiday replay and so you have this song that was by this enormously successful pop star in the ‘90s, it has enough rhythm and blues in it to have that edgy sound for a 1990s to mid-’90s hit, and then a little less than a decade later, it’s going to get this boost by being in this now-classic Christmas movie as a key plot point, so it gets new life through that. There also just aren’t other recordings [is “of” accurate here?] original Christmas songs that sound modern but trigger that nostalgic elements. There aren’t a lot of other competitors when you line up those factors.”

PHOTO CREDIT: Getty Images

Part of the legacy of “All I Want for Christmas Is You” also lies within how it’s also posited Carey as the undisputed Queen of Christmas, something she has unabashedly and wholly embraced — although that wasn’t the case when the album was being made. In an interview with Billboard, Afanasieff said that making a Christmas album was hardly a boon to a contemporary artist like Carey at the time.

“20 years ago, Christmas music and Christmas albums by artists weren’t the big deal that they are today,” he said. “Back then, you didn’t have a lot of artists with Christmas albums; It wasn’t a known science at all back then, and there was nobody who did new, big Christmas songs.

And if there’s any doubt that Carey and “All I Want for Christmas Is You” are losing clout this holiday season, consider this: Spotify streams of the song have already seen a 99% increase since October 1st of this year, with the company projecting that the streams will “ramp up substantially” in November (last year, Spotify saw an increase in streams of “All I Want for Christmas Is You” of 2,077% between October and December). It seems that the holiday season — and Mariah season — has arrived”.

Even if the song is facing legal issues now – maybe someone being opportunistic or genuine -, there is no doubt that All I Want for Christmas Is You is Mariah Carey’s. Not only is it one of the best Christmas songs ever. It is one of the finest tracks of her career. We are starting to hear it at the moment in shops. It is going to be a chart success this year; reaching new people and setting records. Despite a slight black cloud hanging over it at the moment, All I Want for Christmas Is You is abound with light and joy – in spite of the fact it has quite a sad message. Both simple and complex at the same time, there is no doubt it is a classic for a reason! I doubt any new Christmas song can ever match Mariah Carey’s classic – one that turns thirty next year. I think we will be enjoying and talk about this track…

FOR decades more.

FEATURE: Christmas Present: The Best Seasonal Songs from the 2020s

FEATURE:

 

 

Christmas Present

IN THIS PHOTO: Samara Joy 

The Best Seasonal Songs from the 2020s

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WE are the time of year…

 PHOTO CREDIT: George Dolgikh/Pexels

when we are hearing Christmas songs played on the radio and in stores. Whilst we hear the classics and those timeless ones we all know and love (or not), there are also new Christmas songs coming out. It is hard to challenge the established Christmas songs that have been played for years. Whilst most modern Christmas songs released now cannot rival the very best, there are some pretty good ones that are worth mixing into your Christmas playlist. I am writing this in the middle of November - so there will be quite a few new ones released between now and the middle of December. Already, Christmas classics have entered the charts. People are more in the mood for the festive and escapist this year compared to previous ones. Looking at the news and one can hardly blame them! I will do a playlist or feature about the Christmas standards. For this one, I am going to end with a playlist with modern seasonal cuts. Some of the very best Christmas songs from the 2020s. There is a blend of covers and originals in the playlist With artists still keen to add their stamps and have their say regarding a vision of Christmas/the holidays, below are some crackers from the past few years that should…

BE on all of your mixes.