The NYLPM Archives get their six-monthly update. Relive all your favourite pop reviewing moments![…]

You might have noticed that it’s been almost a month since Freaky Trigger got updated. This is squarely down to the World Cup, which has been taking up most of my every morning for the last three weeks, neatly eating up a proportion of time I m[…]

A Little Knowledge Is A Dangerous Thing
Why is Rakim good? I asked Google this question and here’s what it told me: “Rakim’s peerless skills on the mic…the greatest MC the genre has known…to use Rakim [on a track] is to […]

MIS-TEEQ – “Roll On”
You’d have thought the current Asian-samples vogue in hip-hop would have been something UK producers picked up on quick and did well, given that “Get Ur Freak On”, “Addicted”, &#822[…]

Is Pop Cool?
I got an interesting e-mail last week. Ben Rayner, a writer for the Toronto Star, wrote to me asking for a couple of quotes for a column he was writing about pop music. Because of the World Cup, I’ve not been checking my e-mail muc[…]

THE PRODIGY – “Baby’s Got A Temper”
The best bit of this record is the cheeky “Firestarter” quote about thirty seconds in – a blipvert reminder of who the long-gone Prodigy are, and a dash of swagger in a tra[…]

PRIMAL SCREAM — ‘Miss Lucifer’
Hold on to your hats! Or sides. ‘Skinny girl / Dressed in black / Leather boots / Nazi hat / Tattooed panther / [something something]* / Sexy dancer / Immaculate grace / SHAKE IT BABY!’ &#8[…]

Supertroupers: from the same edition of the Guardian, a quiet demonstration of how it should be done, as Peter Paphides interviews two of ABBA. An experienced pop writer taking on and taking seriously a group he clearly has great affection for &#8211[…]

The Poet and the Princess: Gabriel Garcia Marquez on Shakira, a featurette that must have got the commissioning editors salivating. Actually, Colombia’s most famous novelist turns in a celebrity puff piece that would have had Hello! blushing. I[…]

MISS KITTIN AND THE HACKER — ‘Frank Sinatra’
DJ ASSAULT — ‘Big Booty Hoes And Sluts Too’
Motor and muse for nu-electro she might be, but you could easily mistake Miss Kittin’s autocue blankness for genuine va[…]