First off, hello NYLPM readers! It’s been a long time (or perhaps only as long as since you last left my blog). I saw Tom post on this one, and I was about to do the same on my blog, but I figured what the hell. So here’s one for nostalgi[…]

You Lucky, Lucky People: several British respondents to this year’s focus group were a bit baffled by the inclusion of a handful of classy American hits in the poll. Well, four of the best pop tracks of the year are coming out here on single in[…]

Like a virgin? “Why did the man approach her record company? Is that etiquette for this type of thing?: yes, it’s the Britney shag story, with interesting analysis by Polly Vernon.[…]

PopEx!: everyone’s always saying pop is a commodity, now here’s your chance to put your (virtual) money where your mouth is on the Pop Stock Exchange. Click here to start playing under my glorious auspices.[…]

Speaking now with the benefit of hard-won years of musical experience, this is bobbins. Chinless singing; boxy, stilted drumming; nowhere lyrics – and to cap it all it doesn’t even have any whooshsome Ride guitar rushes to recommend it. B[…]

Last To The Links Dept.: Feed writes about marketing the alternative and everyone seems either pragmatic or defeatist about the new indie music trend in car ads (which I personally find just as annoying as the soulboy chic that dominated ads in the l[…]

DUEL!: it’s back. Embrace vs Ian Brown – go for it.[…]

Good Heavens, this is poor! I thought BDB was supposed to be some sort of back-bedroom indie original, not this back-pub-room plodrocker. His being signed to XL should have been the tip-off: the only people who’ll go for BDB are ex-indie fans w[…]

Mumbly, mildew-voiced men scratching their warty groins in ill-lit pubs, leering at women and sobbing into their drinks. Another useless cabaret entry in the Great British Parade of liver-failure chic and lowlife tourism: move on, nothing to see here[…]

I take Massive Attack to stand for just about everything that was wrong with the nineties, and not just musically. I take Protection to stand for the whole of their recorded output, as a mid point between the dull but worthy previous album, Blue Line[…]