FreakyTrigger
  • UncoolTwo50 X: If Your Speaker’s Weak Then Please Turn It Off
    42. SIOUXSIE AND THE BANSHEES – “Cities In Dust” (1986) One of the best singles artists of the early 80s – “Fireworks”, “Melt”, “Slowdive”, “Swimming Horses”, “Spellbound”. Like a lot of great sing[…]
  • UncoolTwo50 IX: Crown The First Girl That I Meet
    45. PRINCE – “Alphabet St” (1988) In the pop polls, Prince was nominated well over 30 times, something no other artist came near. He won one poll – LP closers, with “Purple Rain” – and came second in Soundtracks ([…]
  • Omargeddon #46: Se Dice Bisonte, No Bùfalo
    Se Dice Bisonte, No Bùfalo shares many similarities with A Manual Dexterity: Soundtrack Volume I in that both are atmospheric, mostly instrumental filmic albums. However, unlike the latter, Se Dice isn’t technically a soundtrack; the liner notes a[…]
  • UncoolTwo50 VIII: Numerous Ways You Can Choose To Earn Funds
    48. MOBB DEEP – “Shook Ones Pt II” (1995) The UncoolTwo50 challenge period covers the time – roughly speaking, 1989 to 1996 – when I took a lot of my cues about music and its quality from the weekly music press.[…]
  • #UncoolTwo50 VII: Please Don’t Knock It Until You’ve Tried It
    49. QUAD CITY DJ’S – “C’mon N’ Ride It (The Train)” (1996) There was a bit of chat the other day when Pitchfork released its list of Top Tracks Of The 2020s So Far; as is often the way it was sparked by th[…]
  • #UncoolTwo50 VI: The Past Is Made Of Gold
    50. THE AUTEURS – “The Rubettes” (1999) This song is now as old as “Sugar Baby Love” by The Rubettes was when Luke Haines borrowed its hook for “The Rubettes”. It’s been squatting in my head for those 25 years; it[…]
  1. the punk community kindly disownes you, have your stuff packed, being hateful is not punk, honestly this is the most…


Popular
  • TONY CHRISTIE ‘ft’ PETER KAY – “Is This The Way To Amarillo?”
    The success of Elvis’ reissues – a promotional gimmick which actually managed to hack the charts – made a strong case that the new pop of 2005 simply wasn’t able to capture the wider public imagination. This record makes it inarguable[…]
  • McFLY – “All About You”/”You’ve Got A Friend”
    McFly’s biggest hit, crossing the 500k sales barrier partly because it was the official Comic Relief single. The Carole King cover is doing most of the hard work on that front, with a video involving the lads helping out in Uganda, and the song sto[…]
  • STEREOPHONICS – “Dakota”
    “Dakota” has a curious reputation. A lot of music fans I know see it as Stereophonics’ best song. That in itself is hardly unusual. But many of those people also see it as the band’s only good song. Which is odder – these guys have eigh[…]
  • NELLY ft TIM McGRAW – “Over And Over”
    There are meetings between genres where creative sparks fly and new hybrid forms can be glimpsed, like undreamed-of particles in a supercollider. There are also meetings between genres which feel more like high level EU summits – whatever happe[…]
  • JENNIFER LOPEZ – “Get Right”
    There is a 2005 single, a huge hit, and many will tell you it’s producer Rich Harrison’s masterpiece. On that record, cut-ups of funk breaks are rearranged at oblique angles in a 21st century update of James Brown’s rhythmic modernism, buil[…]
  • U2 – “Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own”
    While I’ve been writing about 2004 and 2005’s pop music I’ve also been helping my wife sort out her mother’s memorial service, so a song about a parent dying is – unfortunately – Relevant To My Interests right now. Not that I real[…]
  1. Hang on! Dare you mention that Cardi *BUNNY* record? Wait until Popular 2020, please - assuming we'll get there!


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