pop music
Thomas H. Green
Kooky ladies are very much of the moment, an ongoing moment, actually - the last couple of years, to be precise - but they seem to be with us to stay which is surely a good thing, especially in the playground. Better them than unreconstructed pole-dancing, as promulgated by the Pussycat Dolls et al. Then there’s Gaga, of course, who’s a lot of both. Now the kook generation, from Ellie Goulding to Paloma Faith, have to decide (once they've steered clear of wannabe-Mariah X Factor tedium) what ratio of gay club 3am hard house stomp to inject into their cod-Kate Bush freakery.Marina Diamandis Read more ...
Thomas H. Green
Santigold – Philadelphia singer Santi White - does not neatly fit into any stereotype of the modern female pop star. In fashion photographer Jason Schmidt’s multiple cover images she is both an Amazonian warrior guard and a waistcoat clad masculine business overlord, and on record she adopts many more personas, but none of them are submissive or porno-chic sexual. Instead, Santigold makes stomping proud, shout-pop, chanty anthems that sit midway between early Eighties chart-toppers and utterly modern post-R&B US dance, of the Beyoncé ilk.With a production team that includes DJs such Boyz Read more ...
Thomas H. Green
Love is a four letter word. So is “shit”. But I decided not to travel the punk bile road on this one. Too easy. Still, I couldn’t imagine a worse fit for me than Jason Mraz, a relentlessly positive clean-living vegan Californian grinner. He’s not actually Californian, he’s from Virginia, but he might as well be since holistic sunshine bleeds from every note of his fourth album, like an acoustic Deepak Chopra ear enema. He appears to be the antithesis of everything likeable about popular music - so let’s give him a fair chance as there’s little lamer than a pre-estimated critique.The first Read more ...
Ismene Brown
The Queen's given everyone an extra bank holiday, so while you rest up over the Easter holidays, start planning your next downtime with theartsdesk's definitive clickable festival guide for the summer. We have headline listings and links for all the UK festivals this year, from rock by the lochs to DJs in London parks, and catching classical and opera on the way. Due to the London Olympics' snatch on Britain's stocks of portable toilets and police, as well as the economic downturn, some festivals have been suspended this year, including Sonisphere Knebworth and Glastonbury (but registration Read more ...
Nick Levine
Last year, Kylie Minogue's Aphrodite World Tour took in 77 shows across five continents and grossed over $50m. It was a typically lavish production featuring a bespoke mechanical stage, costumes designed by Dolce & Gabbana and high-impact jets requiring 25,000 litres of recycled water; gig-goers in the designated "Splash Zone" were even given towels and ponchos with their tickets.Tonight's show at Hammersmith Apollo is a little bit different. It's the last of three UK dates on the singer's so-called Anti Tour, which is billed as "small, intimate and unexpected, featuring a stripped back Read more ...
philip radcliffe
The world premiere here of Monkee Business the Musical was planned long before the untimely death in February of Davy Jones, the Manchester-born member of the manufactured band that outsold The Beatles and the Rolling Stones half a century ago. The coincidence lends a poignancy to the event and the Manchester run has been dedicated to his memory. The little jockey did well, reluctantly giving up horse-racing as a teenager, at his dad’s insistence, to star as the Artful Dodger in Oliver! in the West End and Broadway before being signed up by NBC Television for the Monkees Read more ...
Marina Vaizey
The V&A has played a blinder. This extraordinary, exciting and unexpected exhibition provides endless trips down memory lane for many and will be a revelation for others. Ignore the clunky title, moving us from the postwar Olympics of 1948 to Olympic year 2012, and just go.The anthology ranges from the Apple Mac – British-born designer Jonathan Ive – to the Mini (main picture), launched in 1959 by Smyrna-born Sir Alex Issigonis. And these symbolise the story that is implicit in the narrative, which is the vanishing act of industry, of actually making things: Apple Macs made in the Read more ...
bruce.dessau
Not sure about the title. Is it inspired by the place Graham Coxon used to finish up in each night during his drinking years? Not sure about the cover. Who wants to see a scabby knee? But there are no quibbles about the music. While Damon Albarn continues to scour the global undergrowth for inspiration like a musicological David Bellamy, Graham Coxon goes back to scratchy alt-punk, lobbing in some alto sax jazz noodling for good measure.Things kick off briskly, with the itchy "Advice" reflecting on boredom past: ”I wrote a new song while I was touring/ Man it was no fun, totally boring”. Read more ...
Natalie Shaw
The X Factor has made it far easier for fans to connect with artists from the get-go - as far as the viewer is concerned, the life story of each auditionee starts at episode one. Following JLS from that first audition to a third sold-out arena tour in the space of just four years has instilled a sense of pride in even the youngest of fans. Unusually for the television talent contest, JLS arrived pre-formed - they stood before Simon, Cheryl, Dannii and Louis with matching outfits unprompted, four savvy members seemingly set on becoming the next Boyz II Men. In spite of their strengths, Read more ...
Thomas H. Green
Everyone wants their own Madonna. Some want the mischievous, tinny, Eighties, New York club chick; some want the sexadelic, Shep Pettibone-produced art-nudie; some want the gently euphoric Ray of Light trance angel; some want the house-tinted fashionista “Vogue” queen, and so on, and so on – but what does Madonna want?I’d hazard a guess she stopped knowing shortly after her last great single, the ABBA-sampling Stuart Price-produced floor-slayer “Hung Up”. Since then she’s been flailing about more than usual, and misfired into R&B with 2008’s Hard Candy album. Finding new producers is Read more ...
Thomas H Green and Joe Muggs
After a nine-month absence, during which Joe Muggs explored the world's largest natural bassbin in the Amazonian rain forest and Thomas H Green waited to receive his passport back from the Bolivian government, Singles & Downloads returns to celebrate the best in new music. From the ambient to the danceable, the glorious to the outright embarassing, we present the juiciest possible representative cross section of modern popular music.Rebecca Ferguson, Too Good to Lose (Simco/Sony)X Factor runner-up and fabulously husky purrer Rebecca Ferguson's album is based on the sort of wholesome Adele Read more ...