Z is for….”Zoom” by Fat Larry’s Band. Why write about bad music? Because every song, dreadful or sublime, means something to someone somewhere, and in a sense it’s the critic’s job to find out why. Usually that som[…]

Y is for….”You Wear It Well” by Rod Stewart. Half a phone call, a golden riff, and a masterclass in how to talk a girl round. It’s the delicious balance between Rod’s abjection and his geezer cheek that wins it, the know[…]

I like Jonathan Romney: he’s pretty much my model of what an intelligent, engaging arts journalist should be. And here he is talking about Kid A. I’d basically agree with what he says about the response to the album, with the proviso that[…]

Music Taste Turn-Offs: one of the most common questions we music lovers ask ourselves is what our ‘guilty pleasures’ are, and one of the most common answers we give is that oh no, we don’t have any, we’re not guilty about what[…]

Stop this madness now! I have nothing against stuffed animals. In fact I’m in favour of them. I have my favourites, of course. I prefer the weatherbeaten knitted variety, or the shapeless bean ones, to the articulated ‘realistic’ cr[…]

What’s up with Madonna?: two Salon writers dissect Madonna’s mediocre new album, and by extension her current status. Interesting points are made: for British readers, none more interesting than the parts dealing with Guy Ritchie. “[…]

Channel 4 is preparing a Top 100 No.1s Of All Time show, which has been fairly obviously rigged, in that on the website at least you only get to vote from a shortlist of 105. I have a strong and sentimental belief in the magic of the No.1 spot, but h[…]

I’ve updated the archives and links list on the right: if you think you should be on there and you’re not, by all means let me know.[…]

I like bombast-xxx. It’s smartly written and covers bands I’ve heard about, even if it then goes and says something dim like – on a Britney gig – “As costume after costume went on and came off and song after song switche[…]

One of the crucial questions for mankind over the coming century will be the ethics and dangers of Artificial Intelligence. Are we about to become extinct, crushed under the metal heel of a race of super-robots like in the films? Well, I can’t […]