Innholdsfortegnelse for November 2024 - December 2025 i Classic Pop

It’s always nice to have a handful of surprises up our sleeves for readers – and in this particular issue of Classic Pop I think we’ve outdone ourselves. So, where do I start as we roll out the musical Welcome mat to some unexpected faces? First up, The Human League return to these pages for their first print interview in eight years. We’ve certainly missed them and they’re on terrific form as the trio look back on their career as synth-pop icons ahead of the group’s forthcoming Generations 2024 tour. Equally exciting is the chance to hear from all three members of Thompson Twins as they reissue their Into The Gap album. Yes, even Joe Leeway, who has spoken about his life in the band for the first time in…

BMG SEQUEL ALBUMS ARE RARE, YET KYLIE JUSTIFIES HER DECISION TO RETURN TO THE STUDIO WITH AN INTENSE NINE-SONG BLAST OF NEW MATERIAL TO SIT ALONGSIDE FOUR RECENT COLLABORATIONS Although Tension II inhabits the same dancefloor space as its predecessor, its title has led to suspicions that its nine new songs are simply offcuts, which would usually be packaged in a deluxe edition of Tension, rather than claiming this is a wholly separate album. Fear not. These nine new bangers only last a total of 25 minutes but, as fizzing lead single Lights Camera Action showed, they are absolutely worthy of Full Kylie billing. The only padding is via the four existing collabs at the end to bulk out the running time. With apologies to Bebe Rexha, Sia and the…

Chesney Hawkes has debuted his first new music in over a decade with the release of Get A Hold Of Yourself. The singer, best known for his 1991 hit The One And Only, wrote the single with the BRIT Award-winning Jake Gosling (Ed Sheeran and One Direction) and Adam Coltman. Chesney said: “It’s really strange experiencing this all again – three decades later and with three decades worth of growing up. It’s taken a long time to feel confident enough to really throw myself back into a project but growing up and feeling much more comfortable and freer within myself has allowed that to happen. That’s what Get A Hold Of Yourself is about, getting hold of yourself and being free and not giving a fuck what people think. I…

R IS FOR… THE 80s REVIVALS The 80s revival seems to be everywhere these days. Festivals, BBC Four specials, radio shows… It has to be said that, back when Classic Pop started out, that wasn’t the case. The magazine was at the forefront (and still is). But there’s one thing Classic Pop has never talked about, or will ever talk about. And that’s ‘80s music’. Because there’s no such thing. There’s music from the 80s, but it’s an era not a genre. And here’s another thing that so often gets overlooked. It was a decade that was full of revivals. Yes, it was the decade that spawned synth-pop, new pop, New Romanticism, acid house and all points in between. But you had to work hard to hear it all and…

It’s 1.59pm on 28 August. Classic Pop is due to meet The Human League at the bar of the Mercure Hotel in Sheffield, chosen because of renovation work on the group’s studio 10 minutes away in the city centre. None of the group are here yet. Their publicist gets up to have a quick look outside for any impending arrivals. As he does so, at 2pm exactly, Philip Oakey, Joanne Catherall and Susan Sulley stride through reception together. It’s the single most impressive way to enter an interview that Classic Pop has ever seen. “We come as a team,” smiles Joanne, aware The Human League’s arrival is every bit as choreographed as walking onstage: they’re dressed as chicly as if playing a festival, too, rather than for an upscale chain…

SHAUN RYDER The charismatic frontman, recast in more recent years as the eccentric dysfunctional uncle, due to his participation in TV shows including I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here and Gogglebox. MARK ‘BEZ’ BERRY Utterly superfluous yet utterly essential. The Mondays are synonymous with a dancing Bez, shaking those maracas. A shamanistic character, Bez doesn’t contribute musically. Instead, he’s their good-time, hype-master talisman. PAUL RYDER The quiet bassist with some seriously funky grooves integral to acid house. Paul passed away in 2022, aged 58. MARK DAY AND PAUL DAVIS Performing guitar and keyboards/programming respectively, they’re two of the band’s more reserved characters, hidden in plain sight, but key to the sound. GARY WHELAN The band’s funky drummer with beats as loose and baggy as his mane of hair.…

The manner in which Paul Heaton dealt with the loss of his long-term, much-loved vocal foil, Jacqui Abbott – who was forced by illness to quit their UK tour in December 2022 – tells you a lot about the man. Her absence endangered a creative partnership encompassing four albums between 1994 and 2000 with The Beautiful South (including two which topped the charts), a further five with Heaton from 2014 to 2022 (all of which, incidentally, went Top 5), as well as a musical, The 8th, written for the 2011 Manchester International Festival. Afterwards, as he began preparing his next batch of songs, it became clear that further work together, whether live or in the studio, was sadly not going to be possible either. Heaton now had a difficult decision…

01 (NEW ENTRY) BLACK OR WHITE MICHAEL JACKSON (EPIC) BLACK OR WHITE MICHAEL JACKSON (EPIC) By 1991, every single Michael Jackson song was a full-on EVENT. Long gone were the days when he’d knock off a simply-produced song in an afternoon, and then marry it to a basic Nick Saxton-directed video. Now Jackson was the Cecil B DeMille of pop, putting out vast sonic epics, supported by lavish mini-movie videos. Black Or White, then, was written and recorded over a staggering 18 months and when its video (all 11 cameo-studded minutes of it) premiered simultaneously in 27 countries, it was to an audience of 500 million, the most ever for a music promo (it was directed by John Landis, the man behind the similarly pioneering Thriller). A well-meaning, if simple…

SONGS OF A LOST WORLD POLYDOR/FICTION SOME ALBUMS NEED MORE TIME TO SURFACE. NOW, AFTER 16 YEARS, THE CURE ARE BACK TO BREAK YOUR HEART WITH AN AGE-APPROPRIATE MASTERPIECE THAT MUSES ON MORTALITY. On one level, The Cure’s first studio album since 2008 is strangely unshowy: there are only eight songs, so it’s finished in less than 50 minutes. What those eight songs say, however, is as important as anything as Robert Smith has ever sung. Not since David Bowie’s Blackstar has an album been so expressive about mortality. If Blackstar was about Bowie’s own death, The Cure have created a mortality record whose beauty lies in perfectly expressing the need to savour love while we can. That’s hardly a unique sentiment, but the bold, bleak expression of Smith mourning…

THE SHAPE OF HISTORY THE WENDY JAMES LABEL “You don’t come here to be comfortable, you come here to be excited,” sings Wendy James at the top of her 10th album. But if that sounds like a warning to brace yourself for more of the pouty provocation that defined James’ Transvision Vamp days, then what follows may surprise you. The Wendy James of 2024 is an older, wiser and far more intriguing prospect – one who long ago stopped relying on other (male) songwriters to put words in her mouth. Take that opening track, Sweet Like Love. Having promised excitement, it wrongfoots the listener by delivering what sounds like the overture to a West End musical, one that showcases James’ impressive vocals against a shifting time signature which defies all…

SMALL CHANGES POLYDOR One of the very best of this century’s many singer-songwriters, Michael Kiwanuka has established himself in just three albums as a chameleon at home with jazz, deep grooves, soul, AOR and pop. Winning the Mercury Prize for his bravura self-titled 2019 album was the award’s most inarguable choice of the past decade. Surprisingly, Small Changes stays sedate throughout its 11 tracks. To generalise, album four is Kiwanuka’s AOR record. Lowdown (Part II) is a two-and-a-half minute guitar piece, wherein Kiwanuka goes full George Benson. It’s grandiose, it’s classy, but it’s also staid when compared to the haunting instrumental Piano Joint (Intro) on Kiwanuka. Recently eulogising his love of Jimi Hendrix on BBC2’s The Misinvestigations Of Romesh Ranganathan, Kiwanuka has long sought to be acclaimed for his guitar…

QUESTION EVERYTHING SCARED HITLESS Too late for glam and too early for Britpop, Boys Wonder melded mod, 70s rock and wistful 60s pop together with more hooks than an angling shop. But they had the misfortune to be launched in 1987, when – SAW aside – music was studiously soulful and popstars dressed like accountants. Now, their shelved debut album and demos for a second are finally released. Remember when The Darkness came out and some weren’t sure if they were taking the piss? Boys Wonder are the same. Each track swaggers out of the blocks, daring you to snigger at its brazen cheek. In fact, large parts of Question Everything appear to have been inspired by Bowie’s flop debut, mockney vocals and all. I’m Alright Jack could easily have…

EARTH MATE 444 In the late 80s, it briefly looked as if Julia Fordham might break through to become an international star. It never quite happened, but she’s carried on to create a string of fine albums that meld pop, folk and jazz. This time around, the title Earth Mate reflects the idea that many of us don’t find a soulmate, instead giving a relationship a shot with someone who may not be an ideal life partner. If that sounds bleak, it’s worth noting Fordham thinks people often gain from the experience. More widely, themes of domesticity recur, notably on Home (If This Is What Love Is), carried by a gentle yet insistent melody that shifts in ways recalling Joni Mitchell. Other songs go out into the world. Everest is…

ROYAL ALBERT HALL 04.10.23 CHRYSALIS Recorded last year at a gig celebrating his 70th birthday, this is a reminder there’s far more to Midge Ure than just Ultravox. We get a short acoustic set, including a moving version of Lament. Then the synths get switched on. There’s a sinister Yellow Pearl, which segues into If I Was and before you know it we’re at the centrepiece: the Vienna album played in full. Fans will know Ure can be something of a raconteur, but here chat is kept to a minimum. It makes for a no-nonsense journey through a fascinating career.…

WHEN LORD GOD ALMIGHTY READS THE NEWS LATE NIGHT FROM GLASGOW Billy Reeves is a man of many talents: an award-winning BBC London football commentator and, notably, the guy who helped launch Sophie Ellis-Bextor via Theaudience. Reeves is also a writer of deft, observational pop: When Lord God Almighty Reads The News concludes a triptych that began with Nostalgia Of The Future in 2022. Described by Reeves as “Anthony Newley meets Yazoo”, politically motivated electro banger Never Cross is the pick: “You can cross my brother anytime… but please never cross a picket line.”…

THE AGE OF CONSENT LONDON PERFECT POLITICAL DISCO REMAINING REGRETTABLY RELEVANT 40 YEARS ON, BRONSKI BEAT’S DEFINING STATEMENT GETS THE COMPREHENSIVE REISSUE THAT IT DESERVES Pop stardom was never the key goal for Jimmy Somerville, Steve Bronski and Larry Steinbachek. Buoyed by the success of their debut single Smalltown Boy marching to No.3 in the UK during pop’s gayest year of 1984, The Age Of Consent covered a whole lot more ground, combining sexuality, war and homophobia, plus a sprinkling of covers of standards. It arrived wrapped in a sleeve using the reclaimed imagery of the pink triangle and listing the ages of consent across the planet: this was a manifesto. And it’s not for nothing that Smalltown Boy has spent the last few months knocking around the lower half…

NOW YEARBOOK ’77/NOW YEARBOOK EXTRA ’87/NOW VAULT ’84/NOW 12" 80S: 1983 PART 2/NOW MILLENNIUM ’08-’09 NOW / / / / Yearbook ‘77 reminds us that it was a year of tribes, with punk and disco taking over. Were you Team White Riot, Peaches and Sheena Is A Punk Rocker? Or Team Yes Sir I Can Boogie, I Feel Love and Boogie Nights? Maybe you steered clear and preferred the ra-ta-ta-ta of Manhattan Transfer’s frothy Chanson D’Amour, Emerson, Lake & Palmer’s monolithic pumper Fanfare For The Common Man and swoonsome David Soul’s Silver Lady. It’s surely the only compilation around where the bong-passing prog of Yes’ Wonderous Stories shares equal billing with Meri Wilson’s ditsy confection Telephone Man. Having finally sated NOW fans’ demands for a 1987 Yearbook, the year’s Extra…

RETROSPECTIVE: SELECTED RECORDINGS 1973-2023 BMG The image of Bryan Ferry that carries down the years is of the besuited chanteur, a man forever singing ballads to thwarted love and life’s disappointments. But this has only ever been part of the story. Another way to view Ferry is to think of him as a grammar schoolboy from a modest background done spectacularly good, an art school graduate with a fierce work ethic who used the chances that came his way to reinvent himself – while consistently taking risks. That’s certainly a picture you can map onto Retrospective, a 5CD compilation which, in 81 tracks, ranges across the 50 years of Ferry’s solo output. For newbies, the first disc is a greatest hits compilation (available separately on CD and 2LP). The collection…

SPIRIT: THE 12" SINGLES SONY Depeche Mode continue their 12" vinyl collector series with a new boxset centred on 2017’s Spirit. Their final album to feature Andy Fletcher, Spirit was more overtly political than anything they’d released previously. Intriguingly, where songs like Where’s The Revolution felt clunky in their original format, here these remixes breathe insurrectionist life into the lyrics. Producer James Ford’s reworking under his Simian Mobile Disco moniker with Jas Shaw gives the aforementioned track a punishing techno edge, while Algiers douse the song in feedback and push their skittering drum machine into the red, making for a thrilling sonic bonfire that rather answers the question of Where’s The Revolution’s title. Going Backwards, the second single, gets treated to a stunning Detroit techno makeover by dance music royalty…

THE COMPLETE SESSIONS LAST NIGHT FROM GLASGOW Eight months before their debut album Difficult Shapes & Passive Rhythms…’s 1982 release, John Peel invited China Crisis to record their first Radio 1 session. While the four resulting tracks, and four recorded 10 months later, have previously been included on expanded CD editions of Difficult Shapes… and its follow-up Working With Fire And Steel…, these sessions are now available on vinyl for the very first time, as well as independently on CD. Inevitably, they show a band in their chrysalid stage, lacking the polish multiple producers brought to those contemporary albums, but there’s still charm in this era’s simplistic pop. This Occupation – Wishful Thinking’s B-side – sounds more like a Yazoo tune and African And White B-side Be Suspicious’ bedroom melancholy…

THE REST OF THE BEST UMC Although The Cardigans continue to tour, there’s been no new music since 2006. A rarities compilation should have mopped everything up, but this is a fudge. It’s two 2LP/1CD volumes, rather than one, for seemingly no reason. Many tracks here were on the bonus disc of 2008’s Best Of. There’s none of their many excellent remixes by the likes of Todd Terry and Dimitri From Paris. Either make it one 3CD set including mixes or don’t bother: if the band can’t make new music, at least organise a proper one-stop clearing house.…

BOLAN BOOGIE: THE BEST OF DEMON Does the world really need another T-Rex compilation? No. And always. No, because output from Marc Bolan has been endlessly repackaged. Always, because he remains one of the greatest popstars, a supremely talented songwriter and frontman – yet someone who, especially as his star faded, knocked out records when more care was needed. Still, even the weakest material on this 2CD/2LP set has its charm, while the hits and classic tracks – including Jeepster, Metal Guru and, the quintessential Bolan song in being arch yet powerful, Cosmic Dancer, are fabulous.…

DURDHAM DOWN, BRISTOL 1 SEPTEMBER THE YIN AND YANG APPROACHES OF UNDERWORLD AND LCD SOUNDSYSTEM CLOSE OUT BRISTOL’S FESTIVAL SEASON There’s an intriguing contrast in styles on show as Underworld and LCD Soundsystem play back-to-back sets on the final night of the two-day Forwards Festival in Bristol. Both respective masters of the art of dance music, they arguably have diametrically opposed artistic visions – minimalist and maximalist approaches. Underworld’s Karl Hyde and Rick Smith boil their work down to its very essence as thumping 4/4 beats drive trancelike grooves, occasionally interspersed with gorgeously rich keyboard washes during the breakdowns. That philosophy is there from the get-go here with set openers Two Months Off and Dark & Long (Dark Train) – those lush keyboards particularly effective in the latter. Across just…

ELTON JOHN HYPERION AVENUE “If you’re going to call it quits, make it the best goodbye party it can be,” Elton John writes in this memoir of his farewell tour. The party lasted five years, from 2018-23 (minus a pandemic), circling the globe with 330 shows that thanked fans via a multi-media presentation and 24-song setlist of hits and deep cuts. This lavishly illustrated coffee table book/diary serves as one last curtain call. The photos remind us of Elton’s sartorial splendour courtesy of designers such as Bob Mackie and Bill Whitten – from denim dude to Donald Duck, plus the trademark flashy eyewear. In contrast to his flamboyant stage persona, Elton is a modest, humble memoirist, making each tour-stop a Proustian madeleine that reveals an episode from his 60-year journey.…

DEC HICKEY DAMAGED GOODS BOOKS Now back in print after a very limited initial run back in 2012, From Heaven To Heaven takes a deep dive into New Order’s first three years as a live band – specifically February 1981 to August 1984. We find the foursome at a crunch point, of course, as the remnants of Joy Division plus new member Gillian Gilbert attempt to recover from the loss of Ian Curtis by forging a new sound and identity. Featuring more than 400 in-concert shots and behind-thescenes images of the band as well as 200+ items of era-appropriate memorabilia, Dec Hickey traces New Order’s baby steps as a live act across their first 50-odd gigs. His own adventures following the band around the country are fleshed out with anecdotes…

The winner of Best Writer, Specialist category, in 2022’s British Society of Magazine Editors Awards, our latest issue sees John Earls serve up two exclusive interviews via our summit meetings with The Human League and all three Thompson Twins. John also oversees our new albums and reissues reviews sections. Jordan Bassett has written for NME, Time Out, Spin, Grazia, Vintage Rock, Kerrang!, BBC Music and many more. Formerly Commissioning Editor (Music) at NME, he recently saw the publication of his first book, Here’s Little Richard. In this issue, Jordan meets Tears For Fears, who delve into their new live album and film, burnout, creative regeneration and, weirdly, Despicable Me 4. Wyndham Wallace has written for The Guardian, Uncut and The Quietus. His Travis documentary, Almost Fashionable, has been broadcast on…

06 Adam And The Ants release Prince Charming, the band’s third and final LP. It will peak at No.2 on the UK Albums Chart. 13 New Order unveil Movement, their first album under their new moniker, following the death of Ian Curtis the previous year. 17 Sarah Harding, later of Girls Aloud, is born in Ascot, Berkshire. The singer passed away in 2021. 07 Hall & Oates begin a two-week run at No.1 on the US Billboard chart with Private Eyes, the duo’s third single to reach the summit on home soil. 14 The Police hit the top spot in the UK with Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic, the second 45 from their album Ghost In The Machine. 21 Olivia Newton-John starts a 10-week run at No.1 on…

Tom Bailey returned to touring in 2014 and is writing a follow-up to 2018’s solo album Science Fiction, revealing: “I have a lot of material ready to be finished, but I’m not releasing anything this year, as I don’t want to get in the way of the Into The Gap reissue.” Joe Leeway specialises in plant medicine in his therapy work, recently conducting a two-day journey with 20 patients at his home in California. “Being ‘Joe Leeway from Thompson Twins’ has opened a few doors,” he admits. “People always want to talk about that. But being interested in people is the key to being a therapist and getting to know their behaviour.” Are there any similarities in therapy and pop stardom? “I know about mass hysteria…” laughs Joe. Alannah Currie…

Send your Poparazzi pics now to steve.harnell@anthem.co.uk CHERYL BAKER WITH SIMON SKINNER ”I met Cheryl on a cruise back in 2017, such a lovely lady. She was the guest speaker at a special dinner evening at the Limelight Club on board. Cheryl spoke about her life in Bucks Fizz and performed a range of songs, including those by the group but in radically different arrangements to the originals. Afterwards, I had a fantastic chat with her. She was a real pleasure to talk to.” BEVERLEY CRAVEN WITH JAKE STAVRINIDES ”I’ve now lost count of how many times I’ve seen Beverley play live, her melancholy breathy vocals are seriously underrated. She should be in the canon of great singers alongside Kate Bush, Janis Ian and Sarah McLachlan in my opinion. In…

While Heaton’s back catalogue is increasingly acclaimed, there’s one aspect to his talent which rarely draws enough attention: his voice, which displays the innocence of a chorister dragged reluctantly into adulthood, now sporting a wry smile, a dry wit and a finely tuned sense of injustice. This lack of praise is something he doesn’t really think about, but it is, nevertheless, as he himself acknowledges, a subject that doesn’t come up regularly. “People don’t often… they sort of sometimes suggest… They say it’s ‘special’ or whatever.” He laughs as he delivers the last words. It’s unfortunate, though, because he deserves better, even if, to be fair, his vocals are sometimes used, like his humour, to mask the astringent nature of his texts. But if you saw his recent Glastonbury performance…

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SONGS FOR A NERVOUS PLANET CONCORD AS IF CURT AND ROLAND’S FIRST EVER OFFICIAL FULL LIVE ALBUM ISN’T ENOUGH, THERE’S AN ADDITIONAL BONUS EP OF FOUR BRAND NEW SONGS TO INVESTIGATE There were two Tears For Fears live albums before. But Secret World from Paris on 2005’s Everybody Loves A Happy Ending tour was only ever available in South America and France, while the Songs From The Big Chair-era Live At Massey Hall Toronto, Canada/1985 was a limited-edition Record Store Day exclusive in 2021. That RSD release seems to have piqued Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith’s interest: they have come a long way live since 1985, but where’s the proof? As Smith said in Songs For A Nervous Planet’s announcement: “A lot of people don’t know that we’re a good…

COME AHEAD BMG Much has changed in Primal Scream since their previous album Chaosmosis eight years ago. Two-volume singles compilation Maximum Rock’n’Roll and Bobby Gillespie’s acclaimed autobiography Tenement Kid suggested that the band have been ready to start afresh. That reassessment was interrupted by the death in 2022 of keyboardist Martin Duffy, whose son’s public attack on Gillespie and Andrew Innes over Duffy’s treatment in the band has led many to be suspicious about what Primal Scream actually stand for. Gillespie’s many critics will thus doubtless head straight to Settlers Blues, a trudging dirge referencing the Battle of Culloden and “Mercenary Scots who raped and plundered for their English lords.” It lasts nine minutes and feels much longer. Settlers Blues is also a baffling choice of track to end an…

STRAWBERRY HOTEL SMITH HYDE PRODUCTIONS Five years after claiming Drift Series 1 would launch a set of ambient experiments, Underworld have belatedly decided to go back into attack mode. However they’ve landed back here – their full-on London Royal Albert Hall show for Teenage Cancer Trust two years ago is legendary – Karl Hyde and Rick Smith offer up more whiplash techno with glee. “I was more smashed than you were,” Hyde claims on Sweet Lands Experience. Given the rampaging chaos of Lewis In Pomona, that’s easy to believe, even given Hyde’s zen life away from the stage. With its nod to King Of Snake, the brutal King Of Haarlem is vintage head-melting verbiage, while Ottavia’s ping-pong rhythm, as Esme Smith comes adrift, upends her vocals perfectly. There are moments…

PINK CACTUS CAFÉ IGNITION By the time a reissue of their 2008 debut album St Jude finally gave Courteeners their first No.1 last year, they had begun hinting they wanted to shake up their confident anthems. They didn’t want to upend things altogether, but felt fans would trust them to turn left. So it is, seven albums in, for the first time, Courteeners are featuring guest vocalists and, in Bipolar Sunshine, The Coral and Hurts, other musicians also co-write with them. First Name Terms packs the most familiar swaggering chorus, but that’s alt-popper Pixey harmonising with Liam Fray. Rising star Brooke Combe adds extra sunshine to the tropicalia bliss of Sweet Surrender, while fellow anthemicists DMA’s help ensure The Beginning Of The End has a synth-pop bounce. Even when Fray’s…

& EMI A stark contrast to the gleaming electronica of Give Me The Future, Bastille’s fifth LP offers a blend of acoustic and orchestral “story songs” steeped in the classics. Indeed, Dan Smith stakes his claim as amongst pop’s most well-read, referencing John Milton (Eve & Paradise Lost) to Greek mythology (Seasons & Narcissus). &’s ventures into chamber-pop evoke the slightly less highbrow Bridgerton. But its finger-picking ballads, particularly family affair Telegraph Road 1977 & 2024, are often as bewitching as they are booksmart.…

THE LAST FLIGHT SO In 1937, pilot Amelia Earhart disappeared flying over the Pacific. It’s a story usually told as tragedy yet, to judge by the stirring music on their studio fifth album, that is not the narrative Public Service Broadcasting want to attach to what happened. Rather, through a mix of Earhart’s words, read by actor Kate Graham, some soaring electronica and insistent guitar riffs, they offer a concept album celebrating the aviation pioneer’s spirit of adventure. Guests include This Is The Kit’s Kate Stables, whose wondrous sense of melody illuminates The South Atlantic.…

THE NIGHT THE ZOMBIES CAME BMG Pixies’ first LP with new Brit bassist Emma Richardson, the ex-Band Of Skulls member excels in keeping up the mayhem on Motoroller and You’re So Impatient. Most of the album keeps Black Francis’ wild-eyed glee and Joey Santiago’s equally vivid guitars at full tilt, making Ernest Evans as hectic as anything in their catalogue. Yet the slower songs lack their usual mystique. In forgetting his reliably sinister ingredients, they merely resemble other rockers of their vintage. An album of contrasts, head straight for its grunge.…

BROTHERHOOD WARNER After leaping ahead for last year’s 4CD edition of 1987’s classic Substance compilation, New Order’s reissue team return to 1986 for the fourth 1LP + 2CD+ 2DVD boxset of their regular albums. The standard gripes surrounding those boxsets apply here, too: some fans don’t want vinyl and CD housed together. Others wish that the standalone singles (Touched By The Hand Of God from this era) to be added to the bonus content, rather than reissued separately on 12". Priced at £80, it’s also pricey, even if the packaging (including a hardback book) is reliably sumptuous. Leaving that tutting aside, what is here admirably revisits New Order’s last album as a regular functioning band. It’s the final time the Peter Hook line-up could be completely relaxed, highlighted by Bernard…

UTAH SAINTS LONDON Did Utah Saints invent 80s nostalgia? No one had got near to treating its music with respect before the Harrogate duo sampled Eurythmics, Kate Bush and The Human League on a run of wildly exciting early-90s hits. Their “U-U-U-Utah Saints” refrain is still a Pavlovian dancefloor call to a generation’s ravers. Bill Drummond declared Utah Saints “The first stadium house band,” an idea that U2 enjoyed so much they took Jez Willis and Tim Garbutt on their Zooropa tour. They were so effective in marrying samples of There Must Be An Angel, Cloudbusting and Love Action into their own grandstanding beats that Annie Lennox had them remix her Little Bird single, while Something Good remains the only sample that Bush has ever licensed. Reissued for National Album…

WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO WITH YOUR LIFE? LONDON After nine years apart, Echo And The Bunnymen’s regrouping for 1997’s seventh album Evergreen sounded like a band who’d put their fractious past behind them. However, that newfound harmony would prove short-lived. On Evergreen’s 1999 follow-up (issued for the first time on vinyl, and in a 2CD set), the Bunnymen’s bassist Les Pattinson would play on just one track and left the band soon after, while Will Sergeant was frozen out of the recording. The result is an album that sounds more like an Ian McCulloch solo effort, more Candleland than Ocean Rain, with guests Fun Lovin’ Criminals making a bigger impression than the Bunnymen’s own guitarist. That said, although Sergeant has maintained that it’s his least favourite Bunnymen album,…

50 YEARS OF MUSIC UMC Phil Manzanera is a musical chameleon of the highest order. Dip into this career-spanning 11CD solo anniversary boxset, which encompasses a selection of solo albums and accompanying rarities, and you’ll hear plenty of Roxy Music-esque artsy rock. (Not least because the set kicks off with Manzanera’s 1975 solo debut Diamond Head, which is crawling with contributions from members of the band.) But you’ll also hear Manzanera’s acumen with Spanish guitar, his forays into prog and jazz, as well as elegiac experiments with sonic manipulations. 50 Years Of Music’s various artist collaborations are an embarrassment of riches. Of particular note is 1978’s K-Scope, with Tim and Neil Finn. The rarities are also a treat, particularly a clutch of gems from the Phil Manzanera/801 era leaning into…

FOREVER! THE BEST OF 40 YEARS WARNER Having given their catalogue the symphonic treatment on 2022’s Eternally Yours, Alphaville revisit memory lane for this retrospective. Unsurprisingly, most of its fan-voted tracklist stems from that mid-80s golden period. Forever Young, which remarkably only reached No.98 here and Big In Japan still sound majestic, while local hits Fools and I Die For You Today suggest the rest of Europe checked out too soon. With three versions of Dance With Me, however, a little more quality control wouldn’t have gone amiss.…

ANGELS WITH DIRTY FACES UMC Finally released on vinyl to mark this year’s National Album Day, Sugababes’ first Heidi Range-era album launched their commercial epoch. Hit singles Freak Like Me and Round Round are, of course, magnificent. But with top producers including Richard X, Xenomania and Bacon & Quarmby battling for space, it’s early Bloodshy & Avant banger Supernatural that wins out. We hope an expanded edition to rival the One Touch reissue is coming. Even more welcome would be a new album. For now, be prepared to wonder how the title track and Switch managed to avoid being singles.…

COLLECTED MUSIC ON VINYL There’s always been more to Kevin Godley and Lol Creme than the luscious Cry and ghostly Under Your Thumb, as this 2LP set proves, salvaging the sensitive 5 O’Clock In The Morning and funky When Things Go Wrong – with Peter Cook! – from 1977’s misguided debut, Consequences. This Sporting Life confirms early eccentricities, and Samson’s reggae their free-wheeling genre-hopping, but there’s no denying An Englishman In New York or Wedding Bells’ nostalgia. Remixes of Snack Attack and Golden Boy add some bite.…

HUXLEY’S NEUE WELT, BERLIN 17 SEPTEMBER ALMOST A QUARTER CENTURY SINCE NAKEDSELF, THEIR LAST ALBUM, THE THE HAVE A NEW TOP 20 RECORD AND ARE BACK TOURING THE WORLD. IT’S ALMOST AS IF THEY NEVER WENT AWAY… Matt Johnson means business. Skull freshly shaven, his face bestubbled, his black shirt’s top buttons undone beneath a pinstriped suit, if he’d only worn a medallion he’d look like the East End gangsters frequenting his father’s pub in the 1970s. But making up for lost time, not organised crime, is tonight’s priority. After struggling for years to write anything aside from instrumental film scores, he’s got so much new music he plays a piece from his latest soundtrack over the PA before arriving on stage to a hero’s welcome. This evening he’ll perform…

MARK BLAKE NINE EIGHT “There were,” Mark Blake writes in the introduction to Dreams, “at least four Fleetwood Macs”, listing the “original blues band of Albatross fame”, “the version that made those folky, progressive records in the early 70s” and various iterations of the group that were either “missing a Stevie, a Christine, a Lindsey or sometimes all three.” It’s to Blake’s credit then that he manages to tell a coherent story out of these sometimes wildly different dynamics, in a narrative that starts in the East End of London and closes in sun-bleached California. Music books can come in all shapes and sizes – straight biographies, critical essays, album-by-album guides… The joy of Dreams is that it’s all of these and more. Every member of the band (the book…

Pet Shop Boys are to release an expanded edition of latest LP Nonetheless on 22 November. Featuring four bonus tracks and demos of the entire album, the new collection will be available to buy as a double CD, in a triple black vinyl set, as well as digitally. Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe’s 15th studio LP, produced by James Ford, was released via x2 and Parlophone back in April and reached No.2 on the UK Albums Chart. The bonus songs include two covers: the David Bowie-penned Mott The Hoople classic All The Young Dudes and 1967 soul song The Dark End Of The Street, as well as classical composition Miserere by Gregorio Allegri and a PSB original titled Adrenaline. The duo originally performed All The Young Dudes with the BBC…

Tito Jackson, founding member of the Jackson 5, has died of a heart attack aged 70 on 15 September. The third of 10 Jackson children, Tito found fame with siblings Jackie, Jermaine, Marlon and Michael, on hits including I Want You Back, ABC and I’ll Be There. “It’s with heavy hearts that we announce that our beloved father, Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Tito Jackson is no longer with us,” said a statement by his sons TJ, Taj and Taryll. “Our father was an incredible man who cared about everyone. “It will forever be ‘Tito Time’ for us. Please remember to do what our father always preached and that is ‘Love One Another’.” It was a sentiment echoed by Jackie, Marlon, Jermaine and Randy, who wrote: “He was selfless,…

1 KINKY AFRO A blissed-out opening, with silky strings that instantly evoke a throwback Northern Soul 45, before those trademark baggy beats kick in, and swiftly pull it in another direction. From here, it revolves around a rudimentary two-chord riff. As with much of the Mondays, it’s a solid framework on which to hang other embellishments. From Shaun Ryder’s cracking opening line onwards, it’s just sheer fun. Light fingers at the ready, Ryder commandeers a catchphrase from the movie Die Hard, and sets it to the hook of Lady Marmalade – a move so brazen only he could get away with. Some stellar guitar work from Mark Day pre-empts the rock and roll swagger of Oasis on Definitely Maybe, though the groovy bassline from Paul Ryder is not something you’d…

When Gary Jules’ spectral version of Mad World appeared on the cult 2001 movie Donnie Darko, Tears For Fears couldn’t have guessed what an impact it would have. The track introduced the duo to a whole new fanbase, before younger artists such as Lorde and The 1975 began to cite them as an influence. Their audiences, says Smith, “definitely got younger” as a result. And now they’ve been introduced to an additional generation, as 1985’s Everybody Wants To Rule The World is featured in Despicable Me 4, this year’s kids’ cartoon about reformed supervillain Gru and his wacky yellow pals, the Minions. It came about because Curt Smith is friends with the “head of music at Universal Film”, who asked if they could include the track: “I didn’t know how…

WHAT IS IT? Fuelled by the music of bands such as The Who and the Small Faces and also the sounds coming out of Motor City in the US, mods were one of the 60s best-dressed and musically literate subcultures. By the end of the decade, the movement had largely died out, but in the late 70s it enjoyed a punk-assisted comeback. The Jam may have emerged from the punk movement, but they were too soused in musical culture to really belong to the Johnny Rotten club, and most of that inspiration was the mod music Paul Weller had grown up with – The Pretty Things, The Yardbirds, Geno Washington & The Ram Jam Band, as well as Motown and Stax. Then in 1979, the Quadrophenia movie landed. The Who’s nostalgia-driven…

THE MIGHTY SEVERAL EMI Paul Heaton has previously released four solo studio albums. You’d be forgiven for not knowing this, as none reached the Top 40. The most recent, 2012’s The 8th, failed to chart at all. Yet album five is almost certain to fly. Jacqui Abbott’s personal circumstances meant that she was unable to tour 2022’s N.K-Pop. The nation was finally happy to accept Paul Heaton as a solo turn on its shows. The line “We’re fuckwits, we’re idiots” in new romp Quicksand could be about how long it’s taken to appreciate one of our finest songwriters in his own right. Not that Heaton is particularly fussed. Opener National Treasure is a distillation of his ethos: casually funny lyrics about everyday heroes, with a tune you’ll be familiar with…

GODSPEED FFRR Long established as a remixer for Dua Lipa, Robyn and Ariana Grande, The Blessed Madonna – aka Marea Stamper from Kentucky – has also featured on Fred Again’s single Marea (We’ve Lost Dancing) and hosts her own 6 Music dance show. Having broken into the mainstream in her own right with last year’s celebratory Top 20 single Happier, the surprise is that it’s taken so long for Stamper to release her debut album. Featuring a bewildering array of famous and underground collaborations and a tracklisting running to a total of 24 songs, Godspeed initially looks forbidding to newcomers. You can instantly dismiss the eight interludes. Of the big-name guests, you may well have heard Kylie on Edge Of Saturday Night, a positively filthy parade of intense bass and…

VIVA LONE JUSTICE FIRE Nearly four decades after their previous sole outing together, the original Lone Justice band members – Maria McKee, Marvin Etzioni, Ryan Hedgecock and Don Heffington – return with a brand new album, though one sadly completed in the wake of Heffington’s tragic death from leukemia in 2021. For the most part, Viva Lone Justice eschews the cowpunk rock of their self-titled 1985 debut in favour of more authentic excursions into country (Nothing Can Stop My Loving You), gospel (Wade In The Water) and hillbilly (Alabama Baby) But the band’s roots in L.A.’s alternative/rockabilly scene show through on a surprisingly faithful cover of The Undertones’ Teenage Kicks, while MC5’s Sister Anne is given a rollicking barrelhouse piano makeover. McKee’s voice remains an instrument of wonder, but opener…

3AM (LA LA LA) I OH YOU Although inspired by moving from Brisbane to East London, the Australian festival favourites’ third album is a love letter to the original rave scene. For younger fans, it’ll chime with anyone into the more vintage tones of Charli XCX’s Brat, but original ravers will relish the authenticity of Reggie Goodchild’s production. Although they’re friends with U2 and Noel Gallagher, the trio shun big names here, with the only guest Aswad/Scritti Politti associate Sweetie Irie making Real Move Touch feel even more 1991 with some bellowing hypeman toasting. Sugar Bones’ breathy vocals on the six-minute Sicko are the closest anyone has come to reviving The Beloved, Breakbeat feels like it’s about to burst into SL2’s On A Ragga Tip at any minute, I Can’t…

PLANET NOWHERE COOKING VINYL How better to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Up All Night than finally making a new album sharing its scrappy, eccentric spirit? Razorlight’s classic line-up back after 16 years, the lilting April Ends and Dirty Luck show Johnny Borrell has mastered love songs in their absence. But the rowdy F.O.B.F. and Empire Service best remind how Razorlight became festival headliners: rabidly infectious, yet with an urgency for Borrell’s manic delivery to take flight. Youth’s production is just as ferocious, enabling them to flourish. It’s a heartwarming reunion, yet far from cosy.…

GREEN GINGER JIVE WRECKING BALL Billed as a glam jamboree, and a love letter to his youth, founding Sisters Of Mercy guitarist Gary Marx’s first album in 15 years is a daft riot of glittery originals harking back to the golden age of the turns who inspired Marx to pick up a guitar. It sees Marx reuniting with ex-Sisters chum Wayne Hussey for the first time in almost 40 years, with Miles Hunt and John Robb also present on stomping spanglers and gritty dazzlers such as Second Hand Boogie and Here Comes Seventeen. A whole lotta fun.…

FEVER LONGING STILL COOKING VINYL It’s easy to take Paul Kelly for granted. After all, the Australian singer-songwriter has released a staggering number of albums since debuting with The Dots. Fever Longing Still, his 29th album, is another gem, full of his signature observant lyrics and rich music. Standout track Hello Melancholy, Hello Joy bursts with brassy horns and keening backing vocals. Meanwhile, sharp relationship tale Let’s Work It Out In Bed is a string-swept mod throwback and Taught By Experts is the kind of buoyant jangle-pop Kelly does so well. A worthy spin.…

DANSE MACABRE DE LUXE BMG 2023’s Danse Macabre was a gothic fantasia, mixing re-dos of Duran Duran back catalogue gems with covers, featuring Andy Taylor and Warren Cuccurullo. As well as another spook-themed gig at Madison Square Garden, this year’s Halloween is a good excuse to revisit the LP. The main version of the De Luxe reissue features three bonus tracks, led by an atmospheric new opening instrumental, Masque Of The Pink Death. Synth-heavy with sprinkles of evil circus whimsy, it sounds like The Chauffeur descending into the pits of hell. In contrast, an upbeat cover of ELO’s Evil Woman is one of the most disco-inspired songs Duran have done in years. Best of the lot is New Moon (Dark Phase), a dynamic remake of New Moon On Monday with…

INTO THE GAP BMG FOR ITS 40TH BIRTHDAY, THOMPSON TWINS’ BIGGEST COMMERCIAL MOMENT RECEIVES A THOROUGH 3CD SET FILLING IN ALL THE GAPS OF A BAND RELISHING THE SPOTLIGHT The more you look at Thompson Twins, the more remarkable their success appears. That they were able to be so mainstream is testament to how early 80s pop kids were far more open to outsiders than British and US governments would wish. Tom Bailey’s move from being at the centre of a trippy anarcho collective to crafting pop bangers to order is a volte-face worthy of Adam Ant’s transition from punk to king of the wild frontier. Doing it with a black percussionist and a woman whose lyrics inhabited the trio’s feelings was unique, even in the forward-thinking pop eccentrics of…

AMERICAN IDIOT WARNER Although George W. Bush would come to look quaint compared to Donald Trump, the state of American democracy under his presidency focused Green Day into their best and most successful work. Previous albums Nimrod and Warning had the trio seemingly heading towards cult punk status, but the four years spent planning American Idiot paid off handsomely. Its 4CD/8LP 20th anniversary boxset shows just how careful Green Day were in figuring out how to assemble the album’s mix of punk, epic ballads and Broadway musical homages: the demos disc only shows just how fully formed these songs arrived, not varying much from the finished results. The B-sides disc also proves how few offcuts there were, just four non-album tracks nestling next to 10 live songs. The audio highlight…

QUIXOTIC CRAFT Although nominated for the Mercury Prize, Martina Topley-Bird’s debut album didn’t get nearly enough love on its release in 2003. Maybe the public had tired of the Bristolian scene. Perhaps Topley-Bird’s association with Tricky – she featured on her former partner’s first three albums – meant she wasn’t trusted enough in her own right. Either way, it’s a scandal Quixotic only reached No.70, and that its incendiary first single, Need One, missed the Top 75 altogether. Finally released for the first time on vinyl, 21 years on, Quixotic deserves far more than being seen as a trip-hop curio. The propulsive mood of Need One is topped by I Wanna Be There, whose atavistic desire finds a dizzying punk mood to match. Tricky’s sole appearance, on Ragga, also results…

LEGEND BMG Forget Bryan Adams, Robin Hood’s defining musical moment remains Clannad’s soundtrack to his heroic venture into Saturday teatime TV. Produced by Pól Brennan, this 40th anniversary edition remasters the BAFTA-nominated original, including the theme tune’s haunting cries of “Robin”. It also boasts the holy grail for Robin Of Sherwood fans and Celtic New Age alike: 11 previously unreleased songs presumed to have been lost in the ITV vaults. The medieval folktronica of A Royal Procession and ambience of Herne The Mystic prove the rescue mission was worth it.…

EVERYTHING AND NOTHING UMC Having chased musical stardom, David Sylvian didn’t much seem to like the reality of fronting Japan. He’s since retreated from the mainstream, becoming a spectral presence even as he creates richly detailed music that, paradoxically, conveys being in the moment. First issued on CD in 2000, this 3LP edition of the only compilation celebrating both Japan and what Sylvian did next covers the Virgin years. From the extraordinary Ghosts through solo material, Rain Tree Crow and collaborations, it’s a near-flawless introduction to Sylvian’s world.…

LOVED MUSIC ON VINYL By 1994, Cranes had left behind their 1991 debut Wings Of Joy’s eerie fairytales, with 1993’s Forever scraping the charts and Jewel a hit single. Loved followed these towards the mainstream at times: opener Shining Road and Pale Blue Sky are almost anthemic, while Paris And Rome’s mallets lend it a welcome glow. But old habits die hard, with Alison Shaw’s babytalk vocal unmistakable, so Rêverie’s tension and the skeletal Are You Gone? explain the lack of further hits. Lilies, meanwhile, is a clanging horror-show, and Bewildered a slow-burning fright-fest.…

SIMON RAYMONDE NINE EIGHT It’s a detail that says much about why Cocteau Twins’ music seemed so other-worldly. When she was adding vocals to tracks laid down by Robin Guthrie and Simon Raymonde, Elizabeth Fraser would create “vocal melodies by feeling, not by form”. Never mind where her bandmates thought the chorus should come in, “It began where she felt it should.” There are parallels with Raymonde’s approach in writing this memoir. While it mostly covers his childhood, work as a musician and the years heading up the Bella Union label in chronological order, he’s never wedded to this structure. In particular, a section devoted to the career of Simon’s arranger and songwriter father, Ivor Raymonde, who co-penned I Only Want To Be With You for Dusty Springfield, turns up…