This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish.Accept
Privacy Overview
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
Given the lack of creativity displayed on his former bandmate's long overdue
Tour De France Soundtracks, the debut solo offering from ex-Kraftwerk boffin
Karl Bartos should be more than welcomed by fans of the pioneering synth
wizards. Communication, released through Sony last week with very little fanfare, at
least resembles a Kraftwerk album. Everything, from the minimalistic artwork
to the songtitles and the vocodered slices of melodic techno pop themselves,
has their distinctive imprint. Whereas his estranged comrades singularly
failed to muster a solitary new tune on Tour De France Soundtracks, Bartos has them
to spare.
Opening salvo The Camera is utterly contemporary yet simultaneously
familiar, a modern take on the classic 70s Kraftwerk template, albeit without
the visionary genius that once set them so far apart from their peers. All
that Communication really lacks to be considered a bona fide Kraftwerk album is
the group's name on its sleeve.
MORE PLEASE THANK YOU
Ladies and Gentlemen, the prodigal rockstar returns. Yes, the mouthy and
misunderstood Kevin Rowland is back. Nearly 20 years after Don't
Stand Me Down's hostile reception effectively pulled the curtain down on
the band's brief but memorable reign as one of the most noteworthy acts of
their era, Rowland has made peace with the demons from his past and assembled
a slimmed-down "Dexy's" for a comeback tour.
Furthermore, a proper retrospective (as opposed to the
irredeemably naff TV-advertised 1991 Very Best Of) is released this week.
Let's Make This Precious reaffirms the widely held view that DMR, and
Rowland especially, were responsible for some of the most invigorating and
evocative music of the early 1980s.
The recent re-evaluation of Don’t Stand Me Down, aided by its
1997 and 2002 re-issues, has seen Rowland's reputation as a wayward genius
enhanced, paving the way for this timely homecoming. Best of all, however, are
the brace of new recordings on Let's Make It Precious which stand as testament
to his renewed focus and belief in himself. One of these tracks, Manhood, is
earmarked for single release in October.
HEADING NORTH
Few artists have been as prolific over the past 25 years as Elvis Costello,
and true to form The Man has returned with another new studio album just 18
months after When I Was Cruel. Never one to pander to the expectations of others
(be they critics or his slowly-dwindling fanbase), Costello continues to
please himself on North, out as a standard single CD as well as the now
almost-obligatory CD-plus-bonus-DVD edition. Through a combination of personal upheavals
and a desire to explore the flipside of When I Was Cruel's acidic tendencies,
North is anything but Costello on autopilot; lush arrangements grace some of
the most emotionally direct and romantic compositions of his career.
One-eyed hacks have already lambasted the album for a perceived absence of bite, and
criticised Costello himself for somehow betraying his muse, as if they should
decide the kind of records he ought to be making. At a time when so many iconic
acts are content to simply regurgitate their trademark sound, or at best find
fresh ways to serve up the same old shtick, surely Elvis Costello's continued
quest to explore a variety of styles is something to applaud rather than
chastise.
GONE WITH THE WIND
On Monday 8th September, maverick singer-songwriter Warren Zevon shrugged off
this mortal coil, having been diagnosed with inoperable cancer last year. He
very nearly stuck around long enough to see the release of his intended
posthumous album The Wind. Purveyor of the very blackest humour through a catalogue
of wilfully skewed records from his debut in 1969 right through to last year's
acclaimed My Ride's Here, Zevon never compromised his acerbic take on the
human condition, however beguiling the musical accompaniment to his lyrics
sometimes were.
Best known on both sides of the Atlantic for his 1978 US hit
Werewolves Of London, despite the single never reaching the charts in this country,
Zevon quietly ensured a reputation for his gift for intelligent and often raw
songwriting, an ability to poke a spiked skewer into the American Dream
mythology unrivalled by anyone of his generation except perhaps Randy Newman. The
Wind, taking into account the bleak circumstances under which it was written and
performed, is unsurprisingly frank in its gallows humour, but impending
mortality added an extra dimension to the album’s more personal material. For once,
the barriers are lowered, the barbs are cast aside, and what emerges is
unquestionably, uncomfortably, from the heart.
FUTURE SOUNDS
The best music on the horizon:
BLONDIE - THE CURSE OF BLONDIE:
Strangely-titled follow up to 1999's No Exit. Trailed by the single
Good Boys, which attempts to recapture the
electrodisco heyday of Heart Of Glass. Well, sort of. Maria proved a surprise UK #1 more
than four years ago, but the absence of another decent hit from No Exit rather
scuppered that comeback so it might be prudent to lower any expectations this
time around. An almost unrecognisably garish Deborah Harry in the somewhat
odd video for Good Boys might not help matters.
BILLY BRAGG - MUST I PAINT YOU A PICTURE?... THE ESSENTIAL BILLY BRAGG:
Sir William Bloke, Barking’s most famous son (apart from Trevor Brooking, maybe)
gets the full-on retrospective treatment. And, it has to be said, not before
time. It's been 20 years - twenty years! - since the days of Life's A Riot and
those other Cooking Vinyl budget-priced double albums that brought the defiantly
Socialist and fiercely intelligent singer-songwriter to our attention.
But there's a lot more to Bragg than socio-political tirades and
sparsely-accompanied arrangements, as the tracklisting for this superb 2CD set confirms. New
England to Take Down The Union Jack, with 38 other gems inbetween. Plenty of
laughter, tears and romance. Plus, this not being merely a singles collection, there's
room for the epic Cindy Of A 1000 Lives. Hurrah.
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish.Accept
Privacy Overview
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
