Reviews
The Sex Pistols - Never Mind The Bollocks... Here's The Sex Pistols
History plays funny tricks, but for anyone who was around in the Summer of ’77 it seemed like this album was always there. In fact Never Mind The Bollocks…was released in October of that year due to label wrangles that had seen the band jump from A&M to EMI and thence Virgin, as manager, Malcolm McLaren wheedled yet larger amounts of cash from the fiasco...
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The Move - Anthology 1960-1970
Anyone who ever wondered whether the flower punk sounds of Brum beat's finest exponents: The Move, are really worth investing in - other than the plentiful (and cheap) hits collections - has been spoiled for choice in recent years. With all of their albums remastered and reissued and the aforementioned collections allowing the dilettantish listener to experience the joys of their rough 'n' ready psych it now just remains for Anthology to really set the seal on their place in pop history...
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Billy Bragg & Wilco - Mermaid Avenue: The Complete Sessions
Thirty years after his death, Woody Guthrie was a distant memory when Mermaid Avenue came out in 1998. But he’s never been far away. You can hear the original Depression troubadour in the dustbowl romanticism and blue-collar unrest of every alt-country band that’s picked up a guitar – and the recession of a new century seems a good time to be remembering that...
Jet - Shaka Rock
Like a lot of hugely enjoyable music, Australian rock band Jet are entirely ludicrous. With a cartoon-like devotion to rock and roll that makes Angus Young look like Thom Yorke, they offend those who believe music should be simultaneously serious and ironical. But Jet have no time for such self-loathing. They have one mission, which is to write loud, daft and instantly familiar songs that shout “Look at me! Look at me! I’m doing a band!” at the listener, and to keep on doing it until they have filled up an album...
Primal Scream - Beautiful Future
For a band that has released not one but two decade-defining albums (1991's Screamadelica and 2000's XTRMNTR) Primal Scream really deserve a lot more love and respect than they get. Sure, there have been moments when they've musically shot themselves in the foot and even the most ardent fan would find it hard to defend some of Bobby Gillespie's more, um, memorable lyrics, but for sheer enthusiasm, energy and belief in the power of rock 'n' roll, along with being the best live band in Britain, they cannot be beaten...
Pantera - Cowboys From Hell
When an album sounds as vital and vibrant 20 years on as it did on the day of its release, you know you’ve got a cast-iron classic on your hands. Pantera’s major label debut doesn’t contain a single dud track and remains one of the defining moments in modern heavy metal...
Dr. Feelgood - All Through The City
It used to be hard to judge the impact of Dr. Feelgood in the mid-1970s, because they’d been such an influence yet had also been so transcended. But now things are boring again, just like they used to be, we can compare and contrast properly...
The Damned - Damned Damned Damned
Currently (unfairly) regarded as either cartoon punks or proto-Goths (due to their lead singer’s preference for dressing like Dracula), The Damned were, for a short while in 1976, well ahead of the game. Formed from the ashes of South London’s Masters Of The Backside, these weren’t just snotty teens with attitude, but taste-makers supreme...
Pearl Jam - Ten: Deluxe Edition
There are several reasons why people disliked Pearl Jam. Some of theses reasons may not have quite the potency they did: mainly they were seen as a far more corporated rock proposition compared to the cooler, 'no sell out' purism of Nirvana (though Kurt Cobain not liking Pearl Jam probably did them more favours in the long run); oh, and let's not forget their responsibility in popularising the ghastly long shorts that blighted men’s fashion during that period...
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Summer 2011
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