H is for….”Hit ‘Em Up” by 2Pac. Greg tells me there are other records I need to hear before I can fully understand Tupac’s fatal diss, though rightly points out that a track which begins “I fucked your bitch, you f[…]

G is for….”Garden” by The Fall, from the 1983 classic Perverted By Language. Their records at that point were a mixture of lively sarcasm and a thick, inscrutable brutalism. Knotty riffs, garage monobeats and fat, menacing keyboard […]

The Spiller article Tom linked to gives me the impression that it was written by an indie fan. (At this point I admit that I don’t read Tangents so I’m going entirely on the one article here.)
“Groovejet” is, in effect, no dif[…]

F is for….”For Doz That Slept” by Black Sheep. Marvellous slice of party hip-hop whose only lyrics are “Fuck you”, sung, rapped and scratched in every which way you can think of. Courtesy of the mighty Brian M., who says[…]

MADONNA REALLY THOUGHT SHE COULD SLIP THIS BY ME?
She’s just like the Queen Mum these days – is Madonna. Everybody loves her for dropping sprogs, going out with rubbish British gangster film directors and finally given up the idea that be[…]

E is for….”Everything Happens To Me” by Julie London: this irascible reviewer/fan accentuates Julie’s sultriness, but on this wittiest of songs what gets me is how well she uses arched-eyebrow resignation to paper over heartbr[…]

D is for…”Don’t Talk (Put Your Head On My Shoulder)”, one of the more sublimely wimpy cuts from Pet Sounds. Kathleen found this article, which takes a pop at that album’s canonical status. Fair enough, Pet Sounds is an o[…]

EVERY ONE A CAPTAIN KIRK
Attentive readers will recall our discussion of Sting’s efforts in preventing the world from perishing by nuclear fire, viz. “Russians”. But he wasn’t the only 80s pop star concerned about our planet&#[…]

C is for….”Circa” by Flare, aka LD Beghtol of 69 Love Songs fame. This is the first Flare I’ve heard, and it’s every bit as lugubrious as I’d expected. Beghtol’s smooth, cold voice always makes me think of so[…]

B is for….”Balham To Brooklyn” by Turin Brakes, a Spartan, folky London duo whose State Of Things EP has come as a surprising pleasure to me. It’s impossible to describe the band (or song) in a way that doesn’t make them[…]