Category: pop
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the velvet underground – loaded (1970)
Of all the terms I read when scanning the mixed user reviews for Loaded, ‘lukewarm’ struck me the most. This was the Velvet Underground record that intended to leave the warehouse and make love to the radio (almost literally on Rock & Roll). The blueprint foretold breezy, warm, and painless tracks, where the droning sonic […]
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fievel is glauque – flaming swords
We never entirely trust the ostensible positivity of Flaming Swords. It’s a disarming album of very smooth jazz, which it then cuts up into unpredictable, coltish motions. The septet have an infectious sense of play that – forgive the middle-class dad analysis – the French do very well. Fievel is Glauque succeed less in producing […]
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weyes blood – and in the darkness, hearts aglow
Weyes Blood began life as a DIY, acoustic venture, where Natalie Mering’s voice fluttered above a sound collage of tape recorders, saws, bells, and whistles. This is Natalie’s fifth album performing under the moniker. The opener could be on a spacier version of Bowie’s Station to Station: it’s not just that well-produced, it’s that sweeping. […]
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taylor swift – midnights
Midnights is centred around late-night contemplation. It ends up with the lucidity of Taylor bolting up at night to frantically scribe her thoughts, only to realise in the morning that she had actually written “sometimes I feel like everybody is a sexy baby”. Yes, that line made the cut—it is one of the many strained […]
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alvvays – blue rev
Yes, I’m aware it’s obvious, but the change we have collectively experienced post-1999 really is extraordinary. That said, since The Strokes released Is This It? and published a timeless recipe for guitar-heavy goodness, quality indie-pop has remained on its path like an arrow in a sandstorm. Alvvays know the formula so intimately that the colourful […]
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