Steps – Gold
Steps – some human atom in the five-faced hundred-bodied pop machine that was Steps – decided to call their greatest hits album Gold. You know, like Abba’s greatest hits album, Gold. It was a good joke because it […]

BOOTYLICIOUS! – Bootlegs And Why I Love Them
“Some of these bootleggers / They make pretty good stuff…” (Bob Dylan, “Sugar Baby”, 2001 – sample it!)
SKEE-LO – “I Wish (Soulwax Remix)”
It was[…]

The Strokes – Is This It?
In 2001 you had to have an opinion on The Strokes, which is a good thing from the off because a little bit of opinion makes being a pop fan more enjoyable. Your opinion could be deranged enthusiasm or distanced disgust[…]

Peggy Lee – “Is That All There Is?”
I broke up with a woman three weeks ago who loves Peggy Lee, and who introduced me to her (and who, and who…) I’ve just been listening to a lot of her stuff again, in alphabetical orde[…]

TANYA’S RAINBOW OF RUBBISH: Babes In Toyland = “Bruise Violet”
Riot Grrls and I have an unhappy history together, readers. Of course when they turned up they declared war on dreary boyrock, and that’s a battle I’m alway[…]

Rosemary Squires – “I Poured My Heart Into A Song”
Irving Berlin wrote many songs about music, about singing and showmanship; ‘There’s No Business Like Show Business’ and ‘Just A Couple of Song and Dance Men&[…]

Everlasting Pop and Dexys Midnight Runners
There is pop, and there is popular, and then there’s popular. And there’s also “timeless”. Sometimes when people say that a record is “timeless” – let’s pick o[…]

The Gossip, The Point Oxford, sometime in August
There I am running rivers of sweat down my neck, down my chest, down my belly and through my shirt, and I’m dancing harder than I’ve ever danced to a rock band. (more…)[…]

The Origin Of The Species
The tape itself is some fifteen years old, from a time when buying new blank tapes seemed as big a thing as buying shoes, so the same four or five were recorded over again, and again, matted with sound and fuzz. This one pro[…]

Before we go any further, let us get one thing clear between ourselves: I am 31 years old. It’s not a fact that adds a jaunty skip to my gait but then again it doesn’t make me want to lay down and DIE either – it is what it is, an[…]