I have a new Pitchfork column up, called “45 Things I Love About Pop”, which as titles go is among my more straightforward ones. A lot of what I talk about is helpfully linked to thanks to the wonders of YouTube: this post is designed to […]

As Martin S pointed out on the “I Will Survive” comments thread, Pulp have borrowed both lyrics and hooks from this song, the latter in their epic His N Hers track “She’s A Lady” – which shares a theme as well as a[…]

“Until” was the B-Side to “Tragedy”, and well worth hearing perhaps especially if you’re no fan of the A’s more overblown qualities. It’s also on parent album Spirits Having Flown, so it’s not especiall[…]

Like the pictures sleeves, this is something I wish I’d thought of doing aaaages ago, but instead it came to me in a flash tonight when this track showed up in the MP3 player.
A Popular Companion is an MP3 blog, of sorts, accompanying Popular: […]

In an ordinary Olympic games, Britain racks up 5 or 6 gold medals: this time, we have 16 and counting – marvellous news, incredible work on the part of Team GB, etc etc. But also, in a sense a slightly raw deal for some of the athletes involve[…]

Thanks to the miracle of the BBC streaming video I have now seen some live weightlifting – the mens’ 62kg finals. I can report that I was – as someone in the comments mentioned – quite wrong about the lack of tactics: but the […]

Some of Freaky Trigger’s Olympic coverage, you will have realised reading Kat’s swimming piece, is being provided by writers who are genuine experts and enthusiasts in their field – as well as possessing a gift of bringing the drama[…]

Mentioned on the Brotherhood of Man Popular thread were Luv’ (the apostrophe is part of the name, yes) – manufactured Dutch late 70s pop designed to fill the gap in the market left when ABBA got all serious and technical and stopped doing[…]

Can Electronic Cigarettes Beat The Smoking Ban?
“I think people need to be cautious,” warns Dr Roberta Ferrence, director of the Ontario Tobacco Research Unit. “It’s an unknown.”
“The concern is that the product wi[…]

I was 16 when the Tim Burton Batman film came out. At the time it was the most-hyped movie I could remember for several years. It was the first major comic-book film to come out for a while, and the first since the new wave of comics – and spec[…]