Battles: No dross in ‘Dross Glop’
Am I the only person who still likes Battles just as much as when Tyondai Braxton was still a member of the group? Yes, it’s true that the band have yet to reach the gloriously dizzy heights of...
View ArticleThe Field: Yesterday and Today
I was pleasantly surprised to find a copy of ‘Yesterday and Today’ by The Field in an Oxfam shop of all places today. Given that the selection of CDs in charity shops usually consists of records by...
View ArticleMy Top Five Summer Albums
Admittedly, all of these records sound good at any time of year but they always remind me of the summer time 🙂 1) Weezer: The Blue Album (1994) Teenage boy angst at its glorious best. Garage rock is...
View ArticleMercury Prize Shortlist
The Mercury Prize (sorry, Barclaycard Mercury Prize) nominations are out. Here is the shortlist for this year’s prize: Richard Hawley: Standing At The Sky’s Edge Plan B: Ill Manors Alt-J: An Awesome...
View ArticleBedsit Disco Queen by Tracey Thorn
Even though I love music, I rarely seek out autobiographies or biographies about musicians. In fact, I don’t think I have read any books even vaguely related to music since starting this blog over...
View ArticleHay Festival: Helen Macdonald and Tracey Thorn
On Saturday, my final day at the Hay Festival, I went to see Helen Macdonald deliver the Samuel Johnson Prize lecture at the Tata tent about ‘H is for Hawk‘ which has won both the Costa Book of the...
View ArticleNaked at the Albert Hall: The Inside Story of Singing by Tracey Thorn
A couple of years ago, I really enjoyed reading Tracey Thorn’s memoir Bedsit Disco Queen: How I Grew Up and Became a Popstar about her career as a solo singer and one half of Everything But The Girl....
View ArticleThe Noise of Time by Julian Barnes
‘The Noise of Time’ by Julian Barnes is a fictional account of the life of Dmitri Shostakovich, one of the most famous Russian composers of the twentieth century. The novel focuses on three key points...
View ArticleBel Canto by Ann Patchett
Winner of the Orange Prize for Fiction in 2002, ‘Bel Canto’ by Ann Patchett is set during a birthday party for Japanese businessman Katsumi Hosokawa held in his honour at the vice-president’s mansion...
View ArticleDaisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid
‘Daisy Jones & The Six’ by Taylor Jenkins Reid charts the rise to fame of a fictional 1970s rock group based in California and the making of their seminal album ‘Aurora’. Billy Dunne formed The Six...
View ArticleOne Two Three Four: The Beatles in Time by Craig Brown
‘One Two Three Four: The Beatles in Time’ by Craig Brown is not a biography which claims to reveal vast amounts of new information or insight about the most famous rock band of all time. As with his...
View ArticleFour Books About Music
I don’t usually read many books about music in such a short space of time, but I have read some good non-fiction titles on the subject so far this year, which largely conclude that working in the music...
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