Hi readers – we’re aware that the FT server has been erratic at best today if you’re accessing it via the site. We’re looking into this. Apologies, especially to any new readers who came looking for us after the MacCauley And […]

More excavations from the Freaky Trigger archives. If you find the commentary too self-indulgent you can simply enjoy the pieces by clicking on the link at the top right of this page!
My list of the “Top 100 Singles Of The 90s” started as[…]

A quick recap!
This is a series of posts “liveblogging” the Pitchfork 500, reflecting the book’s dual purpose as criticism and playlist. The ground rule is that I do the writing in real time as I listen to the music: no edits after that (except[…]

BLIMEY. I will be on Radio 2 at ten past six, talking to Chris Evans about Popular.
(I’ll delete this post after the event, so as not to clog up the front page. And I will get on which writing the next Popular entry, which is after all a great […]

Three more links from the past…. (the just-the-content version is here)
June 1999: Let’s Just Say That Sometimes ? > ! – naturally, having decided to establish Freaky Trigger as a trailblazing website about modern pop, one of the fi[…]

Like all new Freaky Trigger series, the idea for this one came in the pub. I had been re-reading MR James’ Collected Ghost Stories and started talking about them with Mark and Rick: within moments I thought, “let’s blog it”. H[…]

Three more links from the past – two of them never before reprinted! (possibly with good reason) If you want just the content and none of my reminiscing, go here. (more…)[…]

Freaky Trigger is ten years old this March. We’re going to have a few things celebrating that fact – some kind of party, some other bits of special content – but this is also a really good opportunity for me to revisit some of the s[…]

A quick recap!
This is a series of posts “liveblogging” the Pitchfork 500, reflecting the book’s dual purpose as criticism and playlist. The ground rule is that I do the writing in real time as I listen to the music: no edits after that (except[…]

Comics Should Be Good links to my old Pitchfork essay on THRILL-POWER, a term I use a lot without ever having managed to give a good summary of what I mean by it. (“Earthlet, if you have to ask, you’ll never know”)
This awesome comm[…]