GRACE JONES – “Slave To The Rhythm” (12″)
“Ladies and Gentlemen….” What Eighties pop had more than anything before or since is a sense of scale. Long tracks previously tended to be messy jams, or primitivist […]

SLIMM CUTTA CALHOUN – “It’s OK”
Another day, another magnificent hip-hop single. It’s almost easy to take this year’s embarrassment of riches for granted: things are so good right now that you can almost lie back a[…]

Ally reviews a new Sarah Cracknell EP, so I thought I’d point out that Cracknell’s Saint Etienne bandmates have co-written most of the songs on the new Shampoo CD. Now, I’m not going to buy it any more than you are, but there is a c[…]

It’s that time of year again: Son Of The Son Of The Freaky Trigger Pop Music Focus Group is almost upon us (well, about a month away) and this time so as to avoid missing out any really really obvious records I’m asking for nominations in[…]

Arts: Tim Cumming on Miles Davis: NYLPM’s descent into the gutter continues. No, no, it doesn’t: this is an overview of Davis’ electric period – nothing new precisely but it’s well done. If you own the records this&#8217[…]

boston — peace of mind: what is so perversely appealing about this? summer and joy pervade the helium harmonies, the meticulously-crafted and sports-car-sleek just-enough tough-pop guitar riffs, and the snappily driving beat. nearly as blues[…]

What better way to celebrate the end of my alphabetical toils than with a good bit of PORN. (Josh, you wanted filthy links on NYLPM: here they are.)
OK, this is really the new Add N To X video, “Plug Me In”, for which the analogue Camden […]

Z is for….”Zoom” by Fat Larry’s Band. Why write about bad music? Because every song, dreadful or sublime, means something to someone somewhere, and in a sense it’s the critic’s job to find out why. Usually that som[…]

“Kid A” will debut at #1 on this week’s Billboard chart. 209,000 copies of the album were sold in the States in its first 7 days of release.[…]

Y is for….”You Wear It Well” by Rod Stewart. Half a phone call, a golden riff, and a masterclass in how to talk a girl round. It’s the delicious balance between Rod’s abjection and his geezer cheek that wins it, the know[…]