Articles
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Emma Swift: Blonde On The Tracks
|Australian-born country singer-songwriter Emma Swift’s Blonde On The Tracks is a collection of covers of some of her favourite Bob Dylan songs and it’s perfectly timed. Bob is back with his best album in years, ...read more -
Staying in is the new going out
|One of the first statistics published in January, the country’s main music industry body – the British Phonographic Industry – is keen to tell the world just how many records, CDs, downloads, streamed songs and ...read more -
Music Interview: Jason Brewer, The Explorer's Club
|During the first Covid-19 lockdown, one of the albums that kept me sane was the new, self-titled record by The Explorers Club. Paying homage to the lush orchestrations of Phil Spector and Burt Bacharach, as ...read more -
Music Interview: Dan Penn
|I’m talking to a songwriting legend, although I’m a bit worried that I can’t hear everything he’s saying. Dan Penn, Southern soul singer, songwriter, musician and record producer, is on the phone to me from ...read more -
The Who: Who’s Next (Deluxe Edition) HR
|Anyone who saw the trailer for the movie American Beauty will have been struck by the brilliance of ‘Baba O’Riley’, the track chosen to accompany it and which effectively doubled the impact of the clip. ...read more -
Carly Simon: No Secrets
|The year 2020 may seem like the darkest of times but look back at some old favourite records and they may awaken memories of other very dark times. No Secrets, recorded and released in 1972, ...read more -
Ludwig, a 10-week digital classical music crash course launched by Primephonic
|From the Primephonic press release: Primephonic, the world’s leading classical music streaming service, has today launched From Ludwig, a 10-week digital crash course in the genre for beginners. Adopting a new approach to learning about ...read more -
Malojian: Humm
|Humm, the fifth album by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Stevie Scullion, aka Malojian, wasn’t supposed to be released until September, but the COVID-19 lockdown prompted him to put it out as a digital download from Bandcamp ...read more -
Eyelids: The Accidental Falls
|Eyelids, from Portland, Oregon, could lay claim to being the coolest supergroup ever. They’re made up of US indie-rock royalty who’ve played with Guided By Voices, The Decemberists, Stephen Malkmus and Elliott Smith. The band’s ...read more -
Mark Lanegan: Straight Songs Of Sorrow
|Straight Songs of Sorrow, the twelfth studio album by gravel-voiced grunge survivor Mark Lanegan was never going to be an easy listen. In fact, it’s one of the darkest records he’s ever made, which is ...read more -
Bach: The Well-Tempered Clavier – Book 1 (BWV 846‑869) performed by Trevor Pinnock
|Trevor Pinnock’s first encounter with Book 1 of Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier came in the late 1950s when he was about 12 years old. Now, aged 73, he’s finally taken the plunge and produced a glowingly ...read more -
Bruno Walter: The Complete Columbia Album Edition
|When it comes to big ‘complete editions’, nobody does it quite like Sony. Back in the mid ‘90s, they issued a fairly comprehensive survey of Bruno Walter’s recordings for Columbia (CBS) on CD, and very ...read more -
Stephen J Malkmus: Traditional Techniques [Domino, LP]
|Stephen Malkmus, the J is optional, has been making music with a variety of line ups since his teens but got his commercial break in the early 90s when he formed the band Pavement with ...read more -
Lana del Ray: Norman F***ing Rockwell!
|I am late to the Lana Del Rey party I know but when Hi-Fi Choice alumni Del Gentleman played the first track of last year’s fellow NFR! the combination of fabulous production and potty mouthed ...read more -
Charles Mingus: Mingus Ah Um
|Mingus Ah Um, Mobile Fidelity’s latest Ultradisc One-Step release, like most of the prior One-Steps, the music needs little introduction. If you have any passing interest in jazz music you’ve heard the music countless times. ...read more