This week I thought I'd pick the Lana Del Rey song, Video Games, off the pending pile but, after some background listening, I've realised that just about any Lana Del Rey song will do. That's the thing with this singer; all her songs are gorgeous but they all sound much the same. So, for my Track of the Week,…Read more Love
Track
Where’s the Revolution?
There has been a sea-change in politics recently: Britain is leaving the EU, right-wing 'populist' parties have been gaining support across Europe and America has an inward-looking, protectionist president. All the economics experts said Britain will be worse off if it leaves the EU but the people feared immigrants were stealing their jobs and destroying the British…Read more Where’s the Revolution?
Cantorum
This is the second instalment in my campaign to introduce a new term into the dictionary of musical styles: orchestral beats. That tag first appeared in my review of the Archipelago album by Hidden Orchestra in November of last year. Then last week's Release Radar included something that sounded very similar: Cantorum by Penguin Café. As far as…Read more Cantorum
What Now My Love?
Rules, they say, are made to be broken. My self-imposed timeline for this blog is supposed to start at 1963 but this week I've chosen to go back a little further. My Track of the Week is a song that caught my attention before I realised that an indelible streak of music flows in my veins. The original was composed and…Read more What Now My Love?
Wild Fire
What would you get if Lou Reed was to take a walk on the wild side with Joni Mitchell? Well, I'll tell you. You'd get something that sounds a lot like Wild Fire, a track from Laura Marling's sixth album Semper Femina, which is due to be released on 10th March. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0EUdZFcq-QE Laura Marling has…Read more Wild Fire
Sasse
A band called Antiloops appeared on the Crotchety Radar recently. I liked what I heard and added Luna from their 2014 Electroshock album to my list of tracks to feature in these pages. Then, two days ago, I played Luna again to refresh my memory of the music and to think what I might say about it.…Read more Sasse
Laiks
Here's a song for all my Latvian readers. Laiks is a track from the Tavs Stāsts album by the Latvian pop-rock band Sound Poets. Judging by the pictures on the band's Facebook page Sound Poets are huge in Latvia and are building a following elsewhere in Europe, too. Reliable information is hard to come by because almost…Read more Laiks
The Fool On The Hill
"We're going away for a few days", said Mrs Crotchety, "for your birthday". The look of anticipation on my face prompted her to continue. "I'm not telling you where we're going, just that we'll be going on the train", she said, enigmatically. So, for several weeks, I wondered where we would go and what we…Read more The Fool On The Hill
Good Vibrations
I think I remember, presumably around the end of 1966, watching The Beach Boys play Good Vibrations on BBC TV's pop music programme, Top of the Pops. I liked the song partly because it was quite unlike any other pop record I'd heard. This wasn't a beat group with two guitars, bass and drums, nor was…Read more Good Vibrations
No Reason
It's a bright, but frosty morning here in the East Midlands region of the UK - a day in which the rising sun should be welcomed by peeping out from the bedclothes with a sleepy smile and snuggling down for another twenty minutes while the central heating chases away the overnight chill. It's Sunday. There's no reason to get up…Read more No Reason
Crotchety Man 