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 might usually spend writing. But I haven’t been completely idle – I’ve been working on the Focus Group, and a couple of pieces for when the football ends – and I’ve also updated the FT Archives with four old pieces:

– a Ned Raggett review of Earwig’s Under My Skin I Am Laughing. I think this is the first thing Ned ever wrote for us.
– Robin Carmody’s epic Battle for English Soul, a potted and idiosyncratic examination of certain strains and refrains in English pop.
– my celebration of London in the guise of a Saint Etienne album review, which has stood up fairly well I think.
– and my overview of exotica, not a piece I was that happy with at the time but again it seems to work better with hindsight.

Watch for more archive stuff – and new pieces – soon.