The Sixth Freaky Trigger Pop Music Focus Group: Yes it’s FINALLY HERE![…]

IN THE COURT OF THE CRIMSON KING – AN OBSERVATION BY KING CRIMSON
An album by King Crimson, I would understand. A CD, an LP, even a work by King Crimson would make sense. But an observation? An observation is something made by lousy alternative[…]

Conservative Pop Music: via Nate P’s blog comes this list of great conservative pop songs. “Al Wilson, ‘The Snake’ (#27, 1968): explains liberalism”. I very much disagree with most of the views the guy seems to hold but […]

SAINT ETIENNE feat. WILDFLOWER – “Soft Like Me”
I feel a bit bad for giving “Action” a slagging here the other week – it does do an adequate job of leading off Finisterre but the real highpoints come later in the d[…]

Abortion is not very popular among New Country’s demographic; when children are involved it’s usually a positive thing, a sign of God’s providence. There are hundreds of ‘well she got pregnant young, but we pulled through song[…]

Sofas in pubs: there is something alluring about the pub sofa. “Come sit in me” it suggests “I’m better than your poxy stool”. The poxy stool sits there making eyes at the standing punters. But I’m not sure that so[…]

PUERTO MUERTO – Jean Lafitte
What is the secret of a good record? Innovation often swings it, or even better the fine crafting of someone else innovation. It can be the pure buffing of production, or the raw excitement of something lo-fi and en[…]

The day the music died: Stuart Jeffries puts the case against Pop Idol and the colonisation of the charts by TV. A lot of blood and thunder and what seems to be a strong central point (ignoring the use of the lazy m-word) – “Manufactured […]

PROGGY WENT A COURTING
Yet again rumours of my death are exagerrated. Its true that all that breakfast has caused a significant clogging of my arteries, but nothing a stint of watching Celebrity Fat Club and a gin dialysis won’t cure. This howe[…]

Sinker vs Frith (well not versus, exactly…) – rewarding rockcritics.com online exchange with Simon Frith: readers emailed in their questions and Frith answers some more comprehensively than others. My question was “Can I be a Mercur[…]