BACKSTREET BOYS – “Shape Of My Heart”
Teenpop on its knees: the Backstreets swap their usual robotix for Abbafied mid-tempo slickness, and the lyrics have a sinister, intriguing edge. “Save me from the man I’ve become&#8[…]

COLOR FILTER – Satellite Of Love
TURBONEGRO – Suffragette City
The cover version: two approaches. Color Filter take the shy-shuffly-beats route so familiar to all indiepop listeners – think Stars’ “This Charming Man&#822[…]

POP-EYE 15/10/00
I have a wretched headache, for once not drink-induced. Oh, alright, when it started yesterday evening it was probably drink-induced, but it’s gone on far too long now and is almost certainly a brain tumour. In my stricken stat[…]

BLUR – “Music Is My Radar”
You can take the boys out of the art-school, but you can’t take the art-school out of the boys. Now often that isn’t a bad thing, but Blur let’s not forget had a gift as big as Gibraltar […]

Here’s Pitchfork talking about Plus 8 Classics, the 2CD compilation of Richie Hawtin and John Acquaviva’s techno label’s greatest tracks. Having just bought it I can inform you that greatest in this context is no lie, though secretl[…]

Sir Cliff admits youth jabs: what is shocking about this is that Sir Cliff believes the media when it talks about his ‘ever-youthful image’. Cliff, man, wake up to yourself! Nobody thinks you’re young! At the very very most they mig[…]

I want Nick Mirov’s job: the most entertaining part of Pitchfork lately has been the reader mail, since the site has obviously hit that critical mass of readership where it gets flowery and indignant letters from people who secretly wish they w[…]

WHEATUS – Teenage Dirtbag
What if LFO had written “Creep”?[…]

There was something about Mary: also from the Guardian, this extract from Al Green’s upcoming autobiography, dealing with the ex-lover/hot grits/hurling/resultant suicide incident. A dramatic enough story without the slight over-writing that se[…]

Much amusement to be had from the unintentionally funny interview with Alan McGee, which finds him wildly enthusing about a lot of knackered old music. “Genius!” he says, of everyone, before rambling offensively about how Ian Curtis was &[…]