Pop
A very odd two hours: Sting and Shaggy reviewed
Many is the pop star who has craved gravitas. Only Sting, however, has pursued it by covering John Dowland on…
A Saturday-night variety show: Take That at the O2 reviewed
Being old is big business in live music nowadays, in a way it wasn’t even 25 years ago. When Take…
At her best Robyn is magical – but her contribution to pop is hardly unique
Last autumn, anyone who a) has an interest in pop music, and b) reads the weightier end of the press,…
An undervalued songwriter and decent man: Bryan Adams at Wembley reviewed
On 29 June 1991, a record called ‘(Everything I Do) I Do It For You’ by Bryan Adams entered the…
As so often, teenage girls called this one right: The 1975 reviewed
The teenage girls are often right. They were right about Sinatra and they were right about Elvis. They were right…
Why David Byrne deserves every penny he makes from his tour
Let’s get the ‘was-it-good?’ stuff out of the way first. Yes, it was good. It was better than good. It…
No one would want this gig to be the final memory of them: Soft Cell at the O2 reviewed
When Soft Cell first appeared on Top of the Pops in summer 1981, miming along to their version of Gloria…
Thank god for the return of the generation gap in pop
In June, a 20-year-old man called Jahseh Onfroy was murdered after leaving a motorcycle dealership in Deerfield Beach, Florida. Onfroy…
St Vincent’s Masseduction is my album of year (in that I don’t actually hate it yet)
This has not been an appalling year for pop music — it was better than 1984, for example, and 1961.…
One of the most compelling pop singers right now is a gender-fluid observant Jew
The most compelling pop singers in music right now — at least in the branch where pop singers still play…
Prince bored me rigid
I saw Prince play once. I was bored rigid but couldn’t mention this to the girls I’d gone with: as…
Bowie realised there was more to life than art
The DJ and sage Mark Radcliffe once said that he didn’t think he could ever like anyone who didn’t love…
In praise of cheap box sets
This column does like a bargain. Indeed, it not only esteems and relishes a bargain, it has also worked long…
Four of the best albums to write books by
I have been writing a book this summer, in the usual mad tearing hurry. (Much as I admire those who…
Why do we always beat up on drummers?
It’s rare that I see a piece about music that makes me want to cheer from the rafters and shake…
