POP FACTOR: 620 CONTROVERSY SCORE: 248
What you hear in Baby Cakes depends on what story you’ve been following. The story of garage? Then it’s an afterthought, a sidestep, barely even vital enough to qualify as a move backwards. The sto[…]

THE SQUARE TABLE 13 / The Libertines – “Can’t Stand Me Now?”
Pop Factor: 510
“How can anyone still get it up for this?” asked Blissblog a bit ago. Good question. Listening to this I can’t help thinking of wh[…]

POP FACTOR: 450 CONTROVERSY RATING: 344
Hard-won experience of life has crushed poor Avril’s enthusiasm: the instrumental hook of “My Happy Ending” is the hook of “Sk8er Boi” stuck in a sulky tar-pit. I’m gratefu[…]

POP FACTOR: 635 CONTROVERSY RATING: 183
The new Thunderbirds are not puppets any longer – and so who better to soundtrack their adventures than Busted… who… are also… not…. gnarrrrr. This record exists beyond all defin[…]

Pop Factor: 400
At Glastonbury, Goldie Lookin’ Chain were enormous; the dance tent was flooded with people trying to cram themselves in and catch a glimpse of the comedy Welsh rap troupe. You wouldn’t have got that sort of crowd for MC M[…]

POP FACTOR: 596 CONTROVERSY SCORE:
I’m not proud of losing touch with hip-hop, even the most commercial big-production hip-hop, so much but facts are facts and that’s what’s happened. All it needs I’m sure is one or two grea[…]

POP FACTOR: 839 CONTROVERSY RATING:
“Was I ever in love? I called it love.
I mean, it felt like love.
There were moments when –
well –
There were moments when.”
8 (Tom)
The Streets finally have indie cred here. Painfully hip […]

THE SQUARE TABLE 7/ Lou Reed – “Satellite Of Love ’04”
POP FACTOR: 460 CONTROVERSY SCORE: 255
Lou Reed must surely have one of the most horrible voices in rock: a weak, blank, tissue-thin method-acting smug smirk. I’m f[…]

THE SQUARE TABLE 6/ The Shapeshifters – “Lola’s Theme”
Pop Factor: 673 Controversy Score: 260
My appreciation for Lola’s Theme considered as the image of a dance track:
A. THE BUILD: it seems like it’s always bee[…]

Pop Factor: 807 Controversy Score: 153
A little cold, a little forbidding, perhaps even a little too well-drilled: typical Girls Aloud. Their singles are design objects: beautiful, impeccably put together, never neglecting the practical (i.e. you c[…]