Lost within the hype, attention and brouhaha over the 50th anniversary re-issue of The Beatles “White Album”, is First Collection 2006 – 2009, a retrospective on the early Fleet Foxes recordings.
A rare thing indeed to come across a pop song that addresses the social issues of Singapore but Shannon Luke has done exactly that with his latest single, “The Survey”.
EC fans received a bit of a scare after the singer-songwriter cancelled a clutch of live dates due to ill health. But news of his recovery and the release of Look Now – one of Costello’s best albums of recent times – must have cheered diehard followers!
There is a pleasing new wave of music artists taking the bold step of making ‘real’ music again. The old-fashioned way, so to speak. Like Texas-based singer-songwriter Molly Burch.
In 2018, retro pop rock still has relevance though probably not for millennials and younger generations. But it matters not. I know that the PoP Faithful will enjoy these releases. Good enough!
When Trump became President, there was lots of talk about how resistance to his administration would inspire loads of protest music similar to the 80s with Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. Has not quite panned out that way, so thank goodness for Seattle’s The Refusers!
The moment one gets into Ken Sharp’s latest album, Beauty in the Backseat, one is transported back to the ’70s, where pop-rock was king of the airwaves.
Once again, Bittersweet Machines (a.k.a. Matt Mocharnuk) delivers another potent shot of melodic adrenaline infused with 80s pop-rock sensibilities of the highest order!
THE JAYHAWKSRainy Day Music (Lost Highway/American)
After the greater pop emphasis of Sound of Lies and Smile, the Jayhawks return to the roots rock approach of their earlier albums (especially Hollywood Town Hall and Tomorrow the Green Grass) with this, their first album with the Lost Highway label (also home of that other alt-country standard bearer, Ryan Adams).
If the announcement of a new ELO album, after a 15-year absence, raised eyebrows, then the realisation that Zoom is essentially Jeff Lynne playing everything caused many brows to furrow.
London rockers The Swagger release their new single “Heart ‘N’ Soul” which continues in the vein of their debut EP (2016) i.e. a ballsy amalgam of ’90s Britpop and ’00s garage-punk that deserves our attention!