Innholdsfortegnelse for March - April 2023 i Classic Pop

80 @ClassicPopMag LISTEN NOW When the news broke last November that Haircut 100 would be reuniting for a one-off show at Shepherd’s Bush Empire this May to mark the 40th (pandemic adjusted) anniversary of their debut album, Pelican West, it was met with nothing short of a feeding frenzy by all manner of music fans. The feverish reaction to the news can be explained by several defining factors. That remarkable debut studio LP is a much-loved classic from our favourite decade of music, of course, but there’s also a sense of unfinished business at play here. Just how far could the Haircuts have gone if they’d managed to hold it together with frontman and songwriter Nick Heyward? For our world exclusive cover feature this issue we catch up with the…

3 EASY WAYS TO SUBSCRIBE SCAN THIS CODE 01371 853 609 QUOTE CODE JAN23CLPP classicpopmag.com /halfprice23 A regular fix of pop nostalgia is guaranteed to improve your year ahead. With in-depth features, exclusive inter views and comprehensive reviews in ever y issue, Classic Pop will immerse you in the world of pop and chart music. As a subscriber, you’ll get ever y brilliant issue delivered straight to your door, as well as access to our vast digital archive, plus exclusive discounts to use across all back issues. Join us today and save 50% off the cost of your subscription! 3 REASONS TO SUBSCRIBE TO CLASSIC POP TODAY • Receive the magazine to your door and your device ever y other month, bringing you all the best in pop music •…

Madonna has announced a globe-spanning trek celebrating her 40 years as a recording artist. Titled The Celebration Tour, a total of 72 dates have already been announced, kicking off at the Rogers Arena in Vancouver, Canada, on 15 July, and continuing through to the winter and climaxing at the KIA Forum in Inglewood, California, on 8 January 2024. The world tour was announced in a specially-lensed clip, echoing the Material Girl’s infamous 1991 documentary, Truth Or Dare (In Bed With Madonna on these shores). In the video, various celebrities including Jack Black, Judd Apatow, Amy Schumer and Lil Wayne play a game of truth or dare with the singer which culminates in Schumer challenging the Queen of Pop to play a greatest hits world tour. The Celebration Tour will, a…

Most musicians count themselves lucky if their songs strike a chord with the public once, but Glaswegian indie doyens The Bluebells are among the select few who’ve been pop stars twice over: once in the mid-80s before a Volkswagen TV ad catapulted their most famous hit to No.1 almost a decade later. Now they’re back again with a belated follow-up to their only album, 1984’s Sisters. Shaggyhaired mainman Robert Hodgens explains what they’ve been doing in the interim and why he’s not embarrassed about that song. So after nearly 40 years why do another album? We’d been back performing gigs for a few years, doing lots of festivals and that. But after a while you think, ‘It would be nice to have new songs to play other than the same…

There may have been a disco backlash in 1980, but Funkytown was instantly and utterly irresistible. An absolute masterpiece of pop songwriting, it was always going to avoid the vinyl bonfires. Lipps Inc, pun intended, were formed in 1979 by Minnesota DJ Steven Greenberg. Funkytown had everything to make it a staple of both dancefloor and radio – instant earworm intro, easy to recall lyrics, singalong bridge, infectious chorus, all sung in a kooky, endearingly disinterested way by Cynthia Johnson. It’s a very simple record but that does it great credit, boasting the kind of melody and structure that a career composer should have found 20 years earlier. Disco may have allegedly sucked at the time, but Funkytown, from debut album Mouth To Mouth, still took the world’s charts by…

12 Spandau Ballet released their second album, Diamond, on 12 March, almost exactly a year on from their debut, Journeys To Glory. Like that first record, Diamond was produced by Richard James Burgess, only album two saw the band inch toward a more funk and soul sound, exemplified by its lead single, Chant No.1 (I Don’t Need This Pressure On). Making the album wasn’t easy, it seems, with Gary Kemp experiencing a severe case of writer’s block. “Unlike second marriages, second albums are notoriously difficult,” he wrote in his autobiography, I Know This Much: From Soho To Spandau. “Journeys had been developed over some time and played live before we went into the recording studio, with some songs being discarded at the last minute. It was a mission statement, cohesive…

Camp Bestival, the much-loved all-encompassing family festival experience, is offering one lucky winner and their nearest and dearest the chance to enjoy the ultimate festi-holiday experience with a Family Ticket to one of this year’s events. Camp Bestival Dorset is back at Lulworth Castle (27-30 July) for an extra special 15th birthday bash headlined by Grace Jones, Craig David Presents TS5 and The Kooks plus there’s the returning fan-favourite HMS Camp Bestival stage. After a bumper first year for Camp Bestival Shropshire, the stellar sister show to the UK’s favourite family festival returns to Weston Park on 17-20 August with a host of incredible acts including Primal Scream, Melanie C, Sophie Ellis-Bextor and The Human League. Year after year, Camp Bestival remains a judgement-free zone for parents and a weekend…

Q Whendid you first become a Superfan of Robin Scott and why do you like him? A Isaw M perform Pop Muzik on Top Of The Pops when I was seven. I’d never heard anything like it and it’s still my favourite record. I like Robin’s inventiveness that he went from 1960s folkie to synth-pop to world music and beyo nd. Q Whatdo you have in your collection? A Hundredsof records, CDs, tapes, promos, demos, acetates and posters as well as sheet music, promotional clothing, badges, photos and press releases. I have well over 100 different copies of Pop Muzik alone from around the world. Q Howmuch have you spent on it? A Nottoo much. There’s not a great deal of competition for M items, but they can be hard…

1 GREATEST HITS LOUISE Spanning the last 30 years of her pop career, the 30 -track Greatest Hits boasts Louise’s complete singles back catalogue in addition to nine reimagined versions of solo material as well as a smattering of Eternal gems, produced by Steve Anderson. Also featured is current single Super Magic among five new songs including a hook-up with the legendary Jam & Lewis. 2 CIRCADIAN RHYTHMS JAMES ATKIN The EMF frontman returns with his sixth solo album that promises “pure electronic music full of vocal- driven pop songs”. A host of live dates to promote Circadian Rhythms is also scheduled for the summer. 3 DEEP LISTENING 2019-2022 RICHARD NORRIS Rounding up The Grid man’s ambient and electronic work over the past three years via the Music For Healing…

RCA ★★★ Her reputation is as one of our more interesting mainstream pop stars; a bit of a maverick who’s unafraid to take punky left turns, whose calling card is unvarnished honesty. But in truth, it’s been a while since P!nk surprised us. Her last few albums have largely reprised similar themes and last signature hit, the brilliantly brazen So What, is a decadeand-a-half old now. P!nk has been coasting for some time. Sad to say, then, that Trustfall is more of the same. The uptempo tracks are unspectacular – Runaway is a sleek piece of Weeknd-ish electropop, Hate Me this album’s ballsy power-pop anthem, even if it sounds a little too close to Avril Lavigne’s Girlfriend for comfort. Worse, though, is the Max Martin-produced single Never Gonna Not Dance…

WARNER ★★★★ As a way of escaping the shadow of his grisly existence since 2014 as Karaoke Freddie in the dignity-dodging Queen + Adam Lambert roadshow, a covers album seems a strange move. You want to redefine yourself away from Queen’s penny-chasing charabanc with more cover versions? Hmm. And yet… Being a judge on an ITV talent show hosted by Olly Murs via last year’s Starstruck seemingly acting as the wake-up call he needed, here Lambert brings the extravagance and sauce that first made him a star with, well, cover versions on American Idol in 2009. Lambert is often a fabulous interpreter, and only a horrific toytown techno take on Kings Of Leon’s Sex On Fire that’d solely be palatable coming out of a haunted out-of-season dodgems, lowers the tone…

ON THE FIDDLE ★★★ The notion of the Levellers reimagining their back catalogue as “stripped back, more traditional folk songs” might seem an odd prospect, as they were hardly awash with shredding guitar solos or programmed LinnDrum beats in the first place. But there are gains to be made here. Despite swapping the fiddle for… a slightly different-sounding fiddle… The Game (from 1991’s Levelling The Land) succeeds in bringing out the song’s brooding menace, while a new take on 2002’s Wake The World breaks the acoustic makeover rule by actually being faster than the original – and is undeniably more appealing. Others fare less well – Battle Of The Beanfield sucks all the energy from one of the band’s greatest rabble-rousing anthems, while some just feel a bit redundant: you…

HUMAN RE SOURCES ★★★★ It’s always heart-warming when an artist who felt diminished by their previous record company breaks out and finds themselves triumphantly proving the major label doubters wrong. That’s the tale of Raye, who’d spent the last decade on Polydor releasing EPs and popping up on no end of collabs with the likes of David Guetta, Joel Corry and Disclosure, but was denied the opportunity of releasing her own full-length studio album. Since departing, the Londoner has gone independent and saw in the first full week of 2023 atop the singles chart with her banger, Escapism. Hurrah! The resulting album doesn’t disappoint, setting itself up as a jazz club -type performance. Raye flips from dismissing ne’er-do-wells on Amy-esque moments such as The Thrill Is Gone and Mary Jane,…

BELLA UNION ★★★★ Although describing themselves as pop, Danish quintet Lowly are mostly a world away from the expected tropes of Scandipop. Seasons slinks past like Dubstar, The Fish and Nothing Much share the shuffling groove of Doves and the title track has the hard-won optimism of Badly Drawn Boy. If they gloomily mope along like a hungover a-ha on Feel Someone, that’s atoned by the astonishing You Are Good And I Love You: a total earworm, featuring a rare use of vocal treatment adding to Soffie Viemose’s compelling charisma. There’s often an indefinable magic at play here. JE…

ISLAND ★★★★ Despite debut LP How Beautiful Life Can Be making No.1, Wigan quartet The Lathums haven’t had it easy, losing their bassist, with bookending tracks Struggle and Undeserving documenting singer Alex Moore’s unease with success. He should prepare for more: Turmoil sounds like The Housemartins’ mythical follow-up to Caravan Of Love, while Facets and Lucky Bean have a new energy hinted at on single Sad Face Baby. Whatever issues the band have been dealing with, it’s led to some mighty tunes. JE…

CHRYSALIS ★★★★★ Originally conceived by American producer Joe Massot as a film about Madness, he binned that idea in favour of documenting the whole 2 Tone movement. Dance Craze filmed performances in 1980 around the UK and US, featuring Madness, The Specials, The Selecter, Bad Manners, The Beat and The Bodysnatchers. It was first released in 1981, with an accompanying soundtrack album containing 15 of the 27 performances. The album became a staple of every pre -teen and teenage rudeperson’s collection, especially those (too much) too young to attend the manic and occasionally fractious shows. Now, the whole package has been remastered and expanded. Across a 3CD or 3LP set, the album includes the full 27-song soundtrack on the first two discs. A third disc recreates the original 1981 soundtrack…

CHRYSALIS ★★★★★ Once dubbed the ‘Sgt Pepper of hip-hop’, such is the ‘throw everything at the wall and see what sticks’ diversity of this game-changing rap landmark it’s more accurately De La Soul’s ‘White Album’. The Long Island trio’s 1989 debut was a whole sonic universe in itself, and one which flew in the face of gangsta rap’s aggressive rise. As De La Soul regain control over their back catalogue after years of legal wrangles, 3ft High And Rising returns here as a straight 23-track reissue. With the multitude of additional material and remixes available, surely an expanded boxset can’t be off the table in the future, too. That said, such is the generosity of ideas contained on 3ft High..., few listeners could come away from the original thinking they’ve…

UMC/PROPER ★★★★★/★★★★ One of Britain’s finest songwriters, Michael Head has finally begun receiving his due since returning after an 11-year gap with 2017’s sumptuous Adios Senor Pussycat. The time is right to rediscover his story, with his first band The Pale Fountains’ two albums getting straight vinyl reissues. Both albums missed the Top 75, but 1984’s Pacific Street showed Head arrived fully formed. There are glimpses of current Head and his subsequent band Shack’s beautiful acoustic pop. Here too are more regular jangly melodies and, on Unless, a moving precursor to Black’s Sweetest Smile. There’s even Head going full-on punk roustabout on Usual. Produced by Ian Broudie, ’85’s ...From Across The Kitchen Table is more streamlined. Pacific Street had hints of Head’s fascination with bossa nova and its sequel saw…

PAST NIGHT FROM GLASGOW ★★★★ Seemingly the archetypal good-time Britpop band, Glasgow quintet The Supernaturals reached No.9 with their debut in 1997, thanks to catchily simple hits Lazy Lover and Smile. The latter has been a staple on TV ads since. Their darker moments have fared just as well, glimpses of singer James McColl’s melancholy under the shininess in a similarly contrasting extreme as labelmates Blur. Largely forgotten now, this straight vinyl reissue deserves to have their dual personality reassessed, even while Smile is doubtless advertising a holiday getaway right now somewhere. JE…

CHERRY RED ★★★★ This electronic pop deep dive focuses on 1982, a pivotal year for synths in the charts. Although the 56-track collection features several success stories (Heaven 17’s Let Me Go!, New Order’s Temptation, Tears for Fears’ Pale Shelter), the 3CD set is an even more engaging look at keyboard music’s esoteric corners. Psychedelic rock icon Arthur Brown offers up the minimalist, quirky Conversations while Scottish group Those French Girls chime in with the catchy, Thomas Dolby-esque Sorry Sorry and Julie And The Jems put a New Wave spin on 60s soul hit 1-2-3. AZ…

BMG ★★★ Capitalising on Marianne Faithfull’s Daniel Lanois-produced LP Vagabond Ways ushering her back into the limelight, a stellar guestlist assembled in 2002. Jarvis Cocker and Beck perfectly caught her freewheeling nihilism, but Billy Corgan bludgeoned her and Blur’s title track was sloppy rather than louche. At least this reissue – with seven bonus CD tracks and a first-time vinyl release – sees The Freelance Hellraiser bring genuine funk to that Blur jazz on his unreleased mix. The pick is Dave Stewart’s Song For Nico, touching and acerbic. JE…

PERMUTED PRESS ★★★ If Holly Knight’s name may not be instantly familiar, you can bet that her music will be. Over the past four decades, she’s penned songs such as Animotion’s Obsession and Pat Benatar’s Love Is A Battlefield, as well as nine tracks for her muse, Tina Turner (who provides a foreword in the book) including The Best and Better Be Good To Me. Though her music spans synth-pop to her favoured hard rock, its common denominator is the theme of fighting for something, the reason for which becomes apparent through I Am The Warrior. With music being her great love from learning piano at the age of four, Knight’s ambition to make a living from it was met with resistance at every turn. She meets the challenges head…

FABER & FABER ★★★★ With more than 60 years in the music business, Tony King has witnessed the industry change beyond recognition and played an integral role in the careers of everyone from The Beatles and Rolling Stones to Queen and Ed Sheeran, taking in a stint as one of the most powerful figures of the disco scene in late 70s New York along the way. To paraphrase the words of his longest-standing client and close friend Elton John, it’s a miracle that King is still standing, such is his life experience. Because music has been the defining force in Tony’s life, it would be impossible for him to tell his story without including his famous friends. From being in the studio with The Beatles, on the road with the…

A standalone single that bridged the gap in bet ween their Rio and Seven And The Ragged Tiger studio albums, Is There Something I Should Know? would net Duran Duran their first ever UK No.1. Recorded at Tony Visconti’s Good Earth Studios in Soho with producer Ian Little, the track would go through various iterations until the group were happy with it, with a final, apparently punchier mix being overseen by Alex Sadkin – who would co-helm Seven And The Ragged Tiger – and Phil Thornalley at RAK Studios. Duran guitarist Andy Taylor claimed that it was the band’s fastest-selling 7” and their quickest to write, apparently the five-piece penned it in just 10 minutes. Propelled by a silky, st ylised video directed by regular collaborator Russell Mulcahy, the song…

The winner of the Best Writer, Specialist category, in 2022’s British Society of Magazine Editors Awards, for our latest issue John Earls catches up with Haircut 100 for our world exclusive cover feature and meets Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth before overseeeing our new albums and reissues reviews sections. Dan Biggane grew up in Coventry and will probably tell you his first records were by The Clash or The Specials, when in reality it was Suzanne Vega and Martika. In this issue, he reviews The Cure’s Cardiff live show and talks to Lynval Golding and Neville Staple about Fun Boy Three while reflecting on the premature passing of Terry Hall with Rhoda Dakar and The Beat’s Dave Wakeling. Mark Lindores grew up during the golden age of pop magazines, devouring the likes of Smash…

Sparks have announced that they are returning to Island Records for their next studio album, The Girl Is Crying In Her Latte. The LP, their 26th, will be the duo’s first for the label since 1976’s Big Beat. “Funny how things work!” say the brothers Mael. “One of the most memorable periods for Sparks, the one that forever cemented our relationship with the UK and also exposed Sparks to a bigger audience around the world, was the 70s Island Records era. And here we find ourselves in 2023, almost 50 years later, re-signing with Island again with an album that we all feel is as bold and uncompromising as anything we did back then, or for that matter, anytime throughout our career. We’re happy that after so much time, we’ve…

What’s the first song you remember loving? I loved The Wombling Song when I was really small. There’s the cult of Mike Batt now, isn’t there, about what a genius songwriter he was. The Jungle Book was the first record I remember playing, when I was four or five, and all the tracks from that are bangers. But it was Yesterday by The Beatles that was the first song to have a big emotional impact on me. Did you have posters of pop stars on your wall as a kid? The first music poster I had was Bowie, which I got from Athena, a very pastel-coloured Let’s Dance-era Bowie. I was totally entranced by him even at a young age. And Betty Boo, though I was a bit older then.…

The first material produced by the British Electric Foundation (B.E.F) is set for a surprise reissue. Formed by Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh after their departure from The Human League, B.E.F’s Music For Stowaways was initially released as a limited-edition eight-song cassette in March 1981 and later revamped as a full album, Music For Listening To, with an alternate tracklisting and artwork. ‘Stowaways’ was a reference to the original name for the then-new Sony portable cassette player – later renamed the Walkman – which allowed owners to “design a soundtrack for your everyday life for the first time and have it playing while you walked around.” “[That] became the theory behind [Music For Stowaways],” explains Ware. “It was about how you could play your music and change your mood…

Ihardly ever get asked about music,” Robert Palmer told The Guardian in 2002. “I do, however, get asked about the Addicted To Love video and my suits on a daily basis.” When he died just a year later, of a heart attack at the age of just 54, sadly that’s what most of the obituaries focused on – the rock-pop playboy who seemingly prized style over substance, hedonism over musical integrity. But while other sharp-suited lotharios such as Bryan Ferry are celebrated as rakish geniuses, somehow Palmer’s considerable contribution to music seems to have been cold-shouldered. The image of Robert Palmer that’s seared into our collective memory is of him performing amidst a bevy of identical-clad supermodels, a perfectly coiffed sophisticate luxuriating in the pages of a Vogue photoshoot. The…

Ihate that phrase – sophistipop,”says chief Blow Monkey Robert Howard, rolling his eyes. “I’ve tried to remove it from Wikipedia, but they won’t let you. I don’t know what it means. But whatever it is, I don’t want to fucking be it.” Well this is awkward. Not just because the S word is a beloved staple of the Classic Pop style guide, but because the record we’re here to discuss – the Blow Monkeys’ 1986 sophomore album Animal Magic – is widely considered to be a high-water mark of the form. The first Blow Monkeys’ record to make a commercial splash, Animal Magic arrived in the slipstream of breakthrough single Digging Your Scene, which was a Top 20 hit on both sides of the Atlantic. Blending slick, soulful (and, yes,…

LAST NIGHT FROM GL ASGOW ★★★★ THE BLUEBELLS ALWAYS SOUNDED OLD BEFORE THEIR TIME. NOW THEY REALLY ARE VINTAGE ARTISTS, THEIR FIRST STUDIO ALBUM FOR 31 YEARS IS A BITTERSWEET TRIUMPH. If The Bluebells had made an album called In The 21st Century during their brief 80s peak, it would have doubtless been an unlikely attempt to go futurist, an unwieldy Sigue Sigue Sputnik makeover from a group who were born to be nostalgists. Only the third album of their career, and the first since 1992’s Second failed to be released outside of Japan, the real In The 21st Century is a simple statement that here come Bobby Bluebell and the McCluskey brothers at last, ready to finally make the music their wistful leanings always suggested they should. Born out…

TAPETE ★★★★ There’s a long tradition of pop and rock stars moonlighting as film composers, going back to Paul McCartney’s score for 1966’s The Family Way all the way to Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood, who’s now Paul Thomas Anderson’s go-to music guy. The latest name to make the move is Duglas T. Stewart, captain of Scots retro popsters BMX Bandits, who was approached by first-time filmmaker Mark MacNicol to score his low-budget debut, Dreaded Light. A claustrophobic chamber piece, with a subtle supernatural edge about a man consumed with grief after the death of his wife, the movie’s intense themes prove a snug fit for Stewart – who collaborates on this by turns tender and scarring score with his BMX bud, Andrew Pattie. Course, the great test of any soundtrack album…

I OH YOU ★★★★ Originally, Aussie trio DMA’s managed to export Britpop back to Britain, cheerily admitting their love of Oasis and The Stone Roses, with 2016 debut LP Hills End stuffed with indie anthems. By third album The Glow in 2020, they were experimenting with Stuart Price and had risen to second on the bill at Reading And Leeds Festival. Price is back, here with Muse veteran Rich Costey and rising Australian producer Konstantin Kersting, as DMA’s adroitly manage to distil all their shades, which incorporate those early anthemics on singalongs like the title track and Fading Like A Picture. The middle of the album is more introspective, Tommy O’Dell having matured into a careworn singer for the hard-won empowerment of Forever. It ends on the trio’s most all-out…

METAMATIC ★★★ Having begun exploring piano in depth via collaborations with American composers Harold Budd and Ruben Garcia 20 years ago, John Foxx’s solo piano debut shares his former colleagues’ abstract minimalism. Following 2020’s Howl with John Foxx And The Maths, The Arcades Project’s serenity seems a necessary restorative, a moment of calm to explore without his late piano mentors’ tutelage. The album is named after German philosopher Walter Benjamin’s study of flaneurs, who made walking around Paris’ new shopping arcades of the early 20th century into a lifestyle. There’s a suitable sense of space and tranquillity here in the awed wonder of In All Your Glory. Despite his occasional blasts of rage, Foxx has always been a musician who knows what to leave out, and the 12 pieces’ spartan…

MEMPHIS INDUSTRIES ★★★ Though named as if it’s the companion piece to 2021’s Get Up Sequences Part One, this latest album from Brighton’s premier pop scrapbookers could easily be titled Thunder, Lightning, Strike Part Seven, so unchanged is it from their 2004 debut. As with that album, though, Part Two repackages pop’s past in thrilling technicolour, a pop culture cut-and-paste job that sounds simultaneously retro and futuristic. It’s just a shame that, 19 years on from that first Mercury-nominated album, they’re still remaking it. SO…

DOUBLE SIX ★★★★ Although working with Celeste/ Joy Crookes producer Tev’n, Mason’s seventh album away from The Beta Band has less of a pop edge than 2019’s About The Light. Generally from Mason’s spiritual side, and featuring a gospel quartet, the ballads have a warmth for humanity and quietly hopeful messages. But it’s on the elastic groove of The People Say where he’s at his most commanding, bringing the blissed-out communality of his past beats that match his hypnotic voice so well. Moving, powerful and only occasionally worthy. JE…

EDSEL/DEMON ★★★★★ Like the cool older sibling you never had, Steven Wilson explores the post-punk decade through his favoured progressive lens on this 4CD/7LP “mixtape”. (There’s also an edited 2LP set.) Beginning with the angst, atonal guitars and menace of late-70s/ early-80s bands like Wire, PiL and Gang Of Four, Wilson then traces a fascinating path to the sophisticated late-80s art-pop of This Mortal Coil, The The and the perennially underrated Kitchens Of Distinction. This isn’t exclusively indie: Ultravox, Simple Minds and OMD all surface, too. Wilson highlights the era’s innovation, avoiding the obvious in favour of almost entirely startling, less familiar gems, among them Joy Division’s funereal The Eternal, XTC’s Complicated Game, and Tears For Fears’ yearning Memories Fade. He finds space, too, for leftfield picks such as Durutti…

CHERRY POP ★★★ Arguably the first true reality TV pop star, Sheena Easton released her 1981 debut album off the back of an appearance on Esther Rantzen’s wish fulfilment series The Big Time. Unlike the conveyor belt of Simon Cowell discoveries that followed, the Glaswegian wasn’t saddled with an uninspired collection of covers and identikit ballads that screamed “This’ll do.” Running the gamut from Olivia Newton John-esque adult contemporary (Voice On The Radio) and twinkling R&B (So Much In Love) to country-blues (Cry) and even barroom rock (Prisoner), Easton’s debut, Take My Time, is instead a largely original affair, in which Dollar producer Christopher Neil gave her the chance to find her voice. Cherry Red’s latest edition in Easton’s reissue series proves her B-sides were just as eclectic: check out…

ROUGH TRADE ★★★★ The perfect midpoint between Scissor Sisters’ euphoria and The Magnetic Fields’ sternness, Toronto’s The Hidden Cameras were LGBT pioneers built on the ever inventive Joel Gibb. Boys Of Melody and Breathe On It were riotous retro rock’n’roll, peaking on Ban Marriage’s dayglo chant against conformity. Shame and The Man That I Am With My Man showed Gibb could be starkly beautiful, while B-sides Heavy Flow Of Evil and Fear Of ’Zine Failure, among 10 bonus tracks on this 20th anniversary edition, prove the collective had ideas flowing from every pore. JE…

JAWBONE PRESS ★★★★ As the old adage goes, truth is stranger than fiction, and nothing gives that more credence than this exhilarating journey documenting one of the 80s’ most successful, influential and, as its name suggests, bizarre record labels. With a manifesto to carry out the unexpected – the label, helmed by maverick Stevo Pearce, provided a hotbed of creativity for musical misshapes to thrive, launching the careers of Depeche Mode, Soft Cell, The The and Cabaret Voltaire among others. Having interviewed a vast array of artists, producers, writers, photographers, designers – basically anyone who inhabited the world of Some Bizzare, Wesley Doyle weaves those conversations together to deliver a superb oral history like a non-stop exotic cavalcade of musical misdemeanours taking in New York clubland, tropical jungles and Soho…

WHICH BAND IS TOP OF YOUR REUNION WISHLIST? EDITOR Steve Harnell steve.harnell@anthem.co.uk Electronic *1 ART EDITOR Debra Butler debra.butler@anthem.co.uk The Smiths ADVERTISING MANAGER Leah Fitz-Henry leah.fitz-henr y@anthem.co.uk Spandau Ballet SUB-EDITOR Rik Flynn Prefab Sprout *2 DIGITAL EDITOR Steve O’Brien The Smiths *3 CREATIVE DIRECTOR Jenny Cook jenny.cook@anthem.co.uk Eurythmics MARKETING EXECUTIVE Rosie Pankhurst rosie.pankhurst@anthem.co.uk The KLF FOUNDER, EDITOR-AT-LARGE Ian Peel CEO Jon Bickley jon.bickley@anthem.co.uk Oasis MANAGING DIRECTOR Simon Lewis simon.lewis@anthem.co.uk 10cc CONTRIBUTORS Dan Biggane Siouxsie And The Banshees John Earls Japan *4 Dave Freak The first lineup of Ultravox! *5 Paul Kirkley The Blue Nile *6 Mark Lindores Rumours-era lineup of Fleetwood Mac Jon O’Brien The Sundays Barry Page The Smiths *7 Matt Phillips XTC…

Rick Astley has filed a lawsuit against Matthew Hauri, aka Yung Gravy, accusing the rapper of using an impersonation of his voice on the song Betty (Get Money). The track, released in 2022, borrowed heavily from Astley’s signature hit, Never Gonna Give You Up. Though Astley doesn’t appear, the song does feature singer Popnick’s near-perfect impersonation of the SAW veteran. Astley is claiming the use of the impersonator is illegal. “In an effort to capitalise off the immense popularity and goodwill of Mr Astley, defendants... conspired to include a deliberate and nearly indistinguishable imitation of Mr Astley’s voice,” the lawsuit states. Astley’s lawsuit seeks “millions of dollars” in damages, as well as profits from the song.…

Fleetwood Mac mainstay, drummer Mick Fleetwood, has stated that it would be “unthinkable” for the band to reconvene after the recent death of Christine McVie in November last year. Speaking at the 65th Grammy Awards on 5 February, the veteran drummer told the Los Angeles Times: “I think right now, the line in the sand has been drawn after the loss of Chris. I say we’re done, but then we’ve all said that before. It’s sort of unthinkable right now.” Fleetwood vowed to continue performing outside the band and was on the lookout for new collaborators. The drummer performed the Christine McVie-written Songbird alongside Sheryl Crow and Bonnie Raitt during the In Memoriam section of the Grammys. After a lengthy hiatus from Fleetwood Mac, Christine McVie rejoined the band formally…

It stuck in the craw of core OMD fans that The Pacific Age seemed to be entirely for their belatedly-found Stateside audience that had neither witnessed nor connected emotionally with the band’s experimental, alternative past. Pressures from their North American label, prompted by the success of previous album, Crush, were forcing a work to rule, which contributed to internal tensions and led ultimately to Paul Humphreys bowing out for 20 years. Their seventh album is rushed, and, as such, it lacks surprises, offbeat themes and creative nuances, forgoing a tradition begun in their earliest work. Seldom do eyebrows raise, though Southern is a tremendous track sampling Martin Luther King. The only UK hit, (Forever) Live And Die, sung serenely by Humphreys, has soothing harmonies and a lilting chorus. But subsequent singles…

You might be surprised to know that top of my vinyl wishlist last year was a new deep -dive boxset from The Alan Parsons Project. Surprised because, despite a few 80s hit singles, this long-running studio project comes very much from the rock world. The Alan Parsons Project were absolute masters of the concept album, and the arrival of this new 11-LP box – The Complete Albums Collection – proves it beyond doubt. It’s my boxset of the year by far, and spring hasn’t even sprung yet. I haven’t had a sudden change in taste and appetite for rock over pop but it has led me to ask: can pop music do ‘a concept’ as well as rock? Can you write an entire album – while still making it musically…

RATINGS EXCELLENT★★★★★ VERY GOOD ★★★★ AVERAGE ★★★ PATCHY ★★ POOR ★ THE HOT LIST 78 Louise, James Atkin, Richard Norris, The Boo Radleys, Pink Floyd NEW RELEASES 79 U2, Gorillaz, P!nk, The Bluebells, Adam Lambert, Natalie Merchant, BMX Bandits, Sigala, Levellers Collective, DMA’s, Ellie Goulding, Raye, John Foxx, Inhaler, The Lathums, Steve Mason, The Go-Team, Katie Melua, Fever Ray, Mediæval Bæbes, Lowly REISSUES 86 Haircut 100, Robert Palmer, Dance Craze, The Story Of The Batcave Nightclub, a-ha, NOW, De La Soul, Madness, Steven Wilson Presents, Peter Schilling, The Auteurs, Sheena Easton, The Pale Fountains, Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine, Marianne Faithfull, Gary Numan, Whitney Houston, Bow Wow Wow, The Soup Dragons, Musik Music Musique 3.0, The Supernaturals, The Hidden Cameras LIVE 95 The Cure, Belinda Carlisle BOOKS 97 Conform To…

PARLOPHONE ★★★★ Now matching the output of Damon Albarn’s other band, Cracker Island is Gorillaz’ eighth album in their 22-year career. It’s also Albarn’s seventh album since Blur’s last LP, The Magic Whip, in 2015. None have been terrible, but it’s also 13 years since an undisputed classic in Plastic Beach, while last year’s solo effort The Nearer The Mountain, More Pure The Stream Flows was Albarn at his most noodling, introspective and divisive. Although it was announced in August 2022, there’s been an audible shrug around Cracker Island’s prospects: a sense that, whatever the quality, there’ll be another Albarn album along in a minute, so let’s not get too excited. Of course, Blur’s reunion has also overshadowed even an LP this star-studded. Which is really rather unfair. 2020’s Strange…

NONESUCH ★★★★ Natalie Merchant first broke through in the 80s as the free-spirited lead singer of folk-infused rockers 10,000 Maniacs. Along with R.E.M., the New York band served as the social conscience of college rock, as evidenced by lyrics that tackled heavy topics like environmental concerns and navigating pregnancy. Merchant enjoyed immense solo success after leaving 10,000 Maniacs in 1993, thanks to sparse, tender songs like Carnival and Kind & Generous. However, she’s released albums only sporadically after 2001’s Motherland, preferring instead to focus on teaching music to children and raising her now college-aged daughter. Becoming an empty nester was one impetus for Keep Your Courage, Merchant’s first new music since 2014’s self-titled album. She wrote these songs during the pandemic, but stresses in the LP’s liner notes that the…

MINISTRY OF SOUND ★★ The alias of Norfolk-born DJ Bruce Fielder, Sigala has hammered away at the chart since 2015’s debut single, Easy Love – based on a sample of The Jackson 5’s ABC – reached No.1. Essentially an English equivalent of friend and collaborator David Guetta, Sigala has been formulaic ever since. His 2018 debut LP, Brighter Days, featured Nile Rodgers, Sean Paul, The Vamps and a rare Kylie external appearance, but still only reached No.14 in the UK: albums aren’t the point of an artist like Sigala, and Every Cloud is further proof. As with its predecessor, these 20 tracks are each designed to be singles, or possibly a new theme to Channel 4’s irrepressibly chirpy Sunday Brunch. It’s the soundtrack to midnight in a provincial club. Nothing…

POLYDOR ★★★ Ellie Goulding has enjoyed an enviable streak of success since her 2010 debut LP, Lights, to the tune of multiple No.1 singles (most recently a faithful 2020 take on Joni Mitchell’s River) and several multi-platinum albums. However, like so many artists, the pandemic somewhat derailed her career momentum. Although Goulding topped the chart with her last full-length effort, 2020’s collaboration-heavy Brightest Blue, many of that album’s singles missed the UK Top 40. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Higher Than Heaven sounds like Goulding regrouping to embrace the tried-and-true formula she’s previously used for pop success. The album largely eschews guests – save for the Big Sean-featuring highlight Easy Lover – to focus on slick, uptempo dance-pop with nods to disco, 80s synth-pop, sinewy R&B and house. Creatively, Goulding works with familiar…

RABID ★★★★ If you pine for the days when Björk wrote actual songs, rather than spliced ill-matched instrumentation and caterwauled over it, you’d be advised to check out Fever Ray’s third album. Ex-The Knife vocalist Karen Dreijer is an equally uncompromising Nordic artist, also with a unique drawling vocal style, but leavens this with (hurrah!) some beautiful poppy melodies. Dreijer’s most accessible album since The Knife’s 2006 breakthrough Silent Shout – the lusty, carnal Shiver and the punky Even It Out pulsate like early Human League. Icy, but hospitable. And recommended. BS…

QUEEN OF SHEBA ★★★★ Following their unlikely Orbital collaboration, the preeminent gothic-medieval vocal collective return to familiar territory for a compilation of a cappella works. Encompassing all bar one of their first seven albums (1998’s Worldes Blysse is ignored), Tales… offers spellbinding interpretations of trad ballads Scarborough Fayre and She Moved Through The Fair. Further suggesting they’ve been transported from another time, poems-turned-songs including Slay Me Suddenly and a live take of Foweles In The Frith sound like they’re from the centuries-old canon, too. Jon O’Brien…

BMG ★★★★ Katie Melua’s gorgeous ninth album arrives amidst major life changes, both positive (meeting a new partner, becoming pregnant with her first child) and challenging (the death of the psychiatrist who cared for Melua after her 2010 hospitalisation). Recorded with Leo Abrahams, producer of her 2020 Top 10 LP, Album No. 8, the collection addresses these shifts with nuance and care. With its glacial tempo and reflective piano, 14 Windows touches on finding emotional equilibrium, while the folk-leaning First Date meditates on the first blushes of romance. AZ…

WARNER ★★★★ When Peter Schilling first broke through in 1983, it was impossible to miss the parallels between him and David Bowie – most obviously because of Schilling’s hit, Major Tom (Coming Home), which served as a sequel of sorts to Space Oddity. Besides that, the German musician also favours an eclectic, Bowie-esque approach, with emphasis on synth-pop and darkwave electro, merging with everything including reggae. This comprehensive Best Of underscores that Schilling excels at those first two styles while remains committed to staying up with current trends, judging by the ambient gothic vibe of 2021’s Wyoming Syndrome and the pulsating electronics of new song World Hold On. Covering both his English and German language music, the 2CD edition includes hits such as the clubby The Different Story (World Of…

CHERRY RED ★★★ One of music’s best/worst self-saboteurs, Luke Haines’ most well-known folly is compiled in a 6CD boxset showing both why they were contenders and how, despite his claims, it wasn’t Britpop’s fault The Auteurs never commercially matched 1993’s Mercury-nominated debut, New Wave. That was a brilliant album, with sinister humour wrapped inside glam, bubblegum and, yes, New Wave. But he took its failure to break through very badly. The following Now I’m A Cowboy housed his finest hour, Lenny Valentino, but it stalled at No.41. A furious Haines promptly marched to the back of the class and began drawing a cock and balls over and over again. After Murder Park and How I Learned To Love The Bootboys had flashes of brilliance, but shock tactics were taking over,…

SONY ★★★★/★★★★ Perhaps timed to coincide with the big-screen biopic, Whitney’s debut and equally unimaginatively titled follow-up are the first of five vinyl reissues in 2023. Both remain masterclasses in 80s diva pop, with the former’s power ballads (Saving All My Love For You, Greatest Love Of All) paving the way for Mariah and Celine, and the latter’s party starters (So Emotional, I Wanna Dance With Somebody) confirming she could convey joy as well as heartbreak. No additional material means only casual fans need bother. JO…

PAST NIGHT FROM GLASGOW ★★★★★ Long before their singer became HiFi Sean, and a few years before they were unfairly considered baggy one-hit-wonders, fans knew The Soup Dragons were actually an ever-evolving riot of garage rackets and cardiganed psychedelia, as the Glasgow quartet lit up The Chart Show’s Indie Chart with a string of C-86 jangles. Now, this collection of singles and rarities from 1985-88 adds context, collecting classics such as Hang-Ten!, Soft As Your Face and The Majestic Head? alongside Peel sessions and live tracks, for a cracking compilation of a genuinely brilliant band. .IW…

NINE EIGHT BOOKS ★★★★ While very few would disagree that Karen Carpenter was one of the greatest pop vocalists of all time, that description can often seem reductive, diminishing so many other attributes that the superstar possessed. Here, Lucy O’Brien sets out to rectify that oversight in her latest scintillating study, Lead Sister. Four decades after Carpenter’s untimely passing at the age of just 32 from complications associated with anorexia, the author looks at her life and legacy with a new perspective, thanks to contributions from those that knew the woman behind the musical masquerade. Frequently cast as the tragic, unassuming sidekick to her brother, O’Brien reframes Karen’s narrative in a way that has rarely, if ever, been done before. She highlights her talents as not only the superb interpreter…