Sparks have announced their 28th album, called "MAD!," the follow-up to 2023’s The Girl Is Crying In Her Latte. The iconical Brothers Ron and Russell Mael have made the move from Island to Transgressive records with so much style, and they’re now sharing the confident lead single "Do Things My Own Way." The band's mantra since 1972 but amplified in 2025.
Iconical singer and actress Marianne Faithfull has died at the age of 78, her spokesperson has said. Marianne passed away peacefully in London today, in the company of her loving family," a statement from her spokesperson said. "She will be dearly missed."
The singer had previously suffered multiple health problems, including bulimia, breast cancer and emphysema caused by decades of smoking. Back in 2020, she contracted Covid-19 and was hospitalised for 22 days. Doctors said they did not expect her to survive - but she pulled through, releasing her 21st album, "She Walks In Beauty," a year later.
Born in Hampstead in December 1946, she was known for hits like "As Tears Go By," which reached the UK top 10 in 1964, and for starring roles in films such the icoinic 1968's "The Girl On A Motorcycle."
She was also famously the girlfriend of Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger in the 1960s, inspiring songs such as "Wild Horses" and "You Can't Always Get What You Want." After a period of heroin addiction in the 70s, she resurrected her career with the classic album "Broken English."
Her story is a remarkable portrait of the rock and roll era. She was a doe-eyed poster girl of the 1960s, plucked from obscurity by the Rolling Stones' manager at the age of 16 and given "As Tears Go By," the first song ever written by Jagger and Keith Richards. An international hit, her version was light and breathy, delivered in a folk-pop style that was to become her trademark during the swinging 60s.
With her eponymous debut album and 1966's North Country Maid, she became part of the "British Invasion" of the US pop charts. Meanwhile, and unfortunately for her, the affair with Jagger turned her into a tabloid lightning rod. After they split she fell into drug addiction - at one point living homeless on the streets of Soho. She re-emerged tentatively with the 1976 album "Dreamin' My Dreams" but really hit her stride with 1979's New Wave-influenced "Broken English," on which she showcased the ashen voice and hard-won wisdom that would define the second act of her career. The album was nominated for a Grammy Award.
In recent years, she teamed up with songwriters like PJ Harvey and Nick Cave, who each cited her as an inspiration. Other collaborators over the years included David Bowie, Lou Reed, Jarvis Cocker, Damon Albarn, Emmylou Harris and Metallica, whose drummer Lars Ulrich thanked Faithfull for her "incredible and unique contribution to our music, and for always being so willing to join us in performing it".
Her acting career ran in parallel to music. On stage, she appeared alongside Glenda Jackson in Chekhov's Three Sisters; and played Ophelia in Hamlet – later admitting her nightly descent into madness had been chemically enhanced. She also played God in two episodes of the sitcom Absolutely Fabulous, and the devil in William Burroughs' and Tom Waits' musical, The Black Rider.
But music was where her heart lay. Her penultimate album, 2018's "Negative Capabilty," was a meditation on ageing, loneliness and grief – inspired partly by the death of her old friend, and fellow Rolling Stones' paramour Anita Pallenberg; and partly by the terror attacks on the Bataclan nightclub in her adopted home of Paris.
Taking her full circle, the album included a raw and emotional re-recording of As Tears Go By that reduced everyone in the studio to tears, according to producer Rob Ellis. Faithfull received the World Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2009 Women's World Awards, and was made a commandeur of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the government of France.
Faithfull's long-time friend, the BBC Radio 2 presenter Bob Harris, called her an "encapsulation of the sixties". He said while she initially was known for being Mick Jagger's girlfriend, through her "people began to see her as an artist, as a creator".
The singer married and divorced three times - to artist John Dunbar in 1965, Ben Brierly of punk band the Vibrators in 1979, and actor Giorgio Della Terza in 1988. She is survived by her son, Nicholas Dunbar.
Released on 29 January 1990, "Cloudcuckooland" was the debut album by Ian Broudie band The Lightning Seeds, the album peaked at 50 in the UK and No. 46 on Billboard 200, the album spawned three singles "Pure", "Joy" & "All I Want", and "Pure was the band's first hit in the United Kingdom, and their only top 40 entry in the United States.
A 12-track album of nerd-pop with tthreads of imagery about shooting stars, crystal lights, butterflies and sleeping giants, it's the stuff of easy access imagination, earnest lyricism that conflates love poetry with moony sentimentalism.
The Lightning Seeds was originally a solo project for Ian Broudie, pictured on the album cover with spectacles and a bowl cut, captured in a moment of wistful confusion. Broudie was an institution long-before this release, he was a fixture on the Liverpool scene as a member of Big in Japan, Original Mirrors and Care, and more notably as a producer, collaborating with Echo & the Bunnymen on their early albums, so the guy really knows how to play.
The hit from Cloudcuckooland, was definitely "Pure", a fanciful sparkler of a love song that charted both in the UK Top 20 and on the US Billboard Top 40. Demure horn chirps accented by low-high guitar string plucks make this prelude sound like a dawning, as gentle strumming seeps into the background and three note synth arpeggios advance and reverse like a proud, pretty birdsong, but the album had other hidden gems, "All I Want" the follow-up single, embraces the same qualities as "Pure", the track introduces a choppy toy harpsichord voice in the bridge, leading into a final stanza emboldened by swaying, long-bowed string phrases. The instrumentation is synth-sourced it seems, so the grandness it’s going for actually sounds quaint in its artificiality, back in the day the singles like "Pure" and "All I Want", drew comparisons to a less burlesque Pet Shop Boys or a Matthew Sweet synth tribute band, also "All I Want" was covered by Susanna Hoffs, formerly of the Bangles, on her 1996 album Susanna Hoffs. Which was a minor US hit and a UK hit at No. 33 for two weeks.
Other worth track are "Control the Flame” is the jazzy expression of Broudie’s inner horndog (“Can’t control/ Control desire/ But who the hell’d want to calm this fever”), On this song the intent is to give voice to the beast within, the mid-tempo prayer for action "Bound in a Nutshell," digging deep in the euphemistically titled "Love Explosion" the extreme contrast between the low-tone swampiness and Broudie’s own fluttery vocals settles in as cartoonishness. Some other experiments resound more favorably.
The other single "Joy" recalls a processed beat of George Michael's "Careless Whisper" vibe, and of course "Frenzy" pops off with a scritchy-scratch and lathers up into a hooky synth-pop party song.
Recorded at AYR Studios in Scotland, the album's title refers to the album's primary lyrical concept of fear and "searching for the thrill of being human via fears", as described by band frontman Alex Kapranos, also states that the album touches upon certain types of specific fear, including "fear of social isolation, fear of leaving an institution, and fear of leaving or staying in a relationship".
The band just arrived after the released a greatest hits album in 2022, so by now the time was right to prioritizing new material indeed they've never released an irredeemably bad album, never chased trends, even if in recent years their studio output has slowed to a trickle. Their brand new album came five years after their 2018's disco-colored "Always Ascending", and this new one sounds a lot like that album.
The album opens with the pleasant and intense "Audacious", a sort of power pop track that involves the listener and set the mood for the danceable "Everydaydreamer", "The Doctor" comes next, a tale about Kapranos playing a hospital patient who refuses to go home: "I have nurses I can talk to and thermometers to hold" pretty curious indeed, next is "Hooked", a sort of electroclash tune, with "Build It Up", one of the several songs co-written by keyboardist Julian Corrie, the band sets a funky tune with a chorus that packs enough momentum for festival stages, and then "Night And Day" one of the preceded singles that sounds great, and then the smooth with a piano-movie intro "Tell Me I Should Stay" that moves into a reggae-pop swing sound, and then, the introspective "Cats" that reminds me a little bit like "Dark Of The Matinee" of their debut album released 20 years ago.
Yes, we have a lot of indie nostalgia confirming for the "Just Like Heaven" festival this Saturday 10th., May, for the event, the iconic band Rilo Kiley confirmed they are reuniting according a news leaked on Billboard couple of weeks ago.
But there are plenty more to come, the headliners Vampire Weekend and plenty more indie nostalgia including Empire Of The Sun, Bloc Party, TV On The Radio, and a "very special guest" the shoegaze icons "Slowdive."
Considering Just Like Heaven's home is Pasadena, festival organizers are also taking initiatives this year to benefit those affected by the Southern California wildfires. They’ve donated $250,000 to the Eaton Fire Relief & Recovery Fund, and they're also offering first responders up to two complimentary GA passes.
For everyone else, tickets go on sale this Friday, Jan. 31, and you can register for access Here
Just Like Heaven 2025 Line Up:
Beach Fossils
Bloc Party
Chris Cruse
Courtney Barnett
Empire Of The Sun
GROUPLOVE
Hercules & Love Affair (Live)
Panda Bear
Perfume Genius
Peter Bjorn And John
Ra Ra Riot
Rilo Kiley
Slowdive
The Drums
The Sounds
Them Jeans
Toro Y Moi
TV On The Radio
Unknown Mortal Orchestra
Vampire Weekend
Wild Nothing
Following the release of the Charlatans' 11th studio album Who We Touch, drummer Jon Brookes was diagnosed with brain cancer while on tour in the United States; he was temporarily replaced by the Verve member Pete Salisbury, at the recommendation. Brookes later re-joined the band towards the end of the year. In February 2011, the band held a discussion for their next album, which they were aiming to release at some point in 2012. Later in 2011, vocalist Tim Burgess started his own record label O Genesis; him and guitarist Mark Collins went on an acoustic tour; and Burgess worked on a solo album. In mid-2012, Brookes suffered from a relapse in September that same year.
The band attempted to make an album, at the insistence of Brookes, however the effort was fruitless. In July 2013, keyboardist Tony Rogers said the band were anticipating going into the studio to work on new songs. In spite of Brookes receiving surgery that same month, Burgess announced Brookes' death in August. A benefit show was held for him two months later. Burgess and guitarist Mark Collins held a writing session Hastings, which resulted in several songs. The band congregated at a beach house in Rye where the recorded ideas using a portable studio and drums courtesy of a mobile app.
The band reconvened in early 2014 at their own studio Big Mushroom, and spurred on by the memories of Brookes, the band began recording in January that year. The members intentionally wanted to make an uplifting record; some songs were worked on between Burgess and Collins, bassist Mark Blunt and Rogers, or the whole band. Jim Spencer, who worked with them previously on their 2001–2008 albums, co-produced the proceedings. Drummers from different bands participated in the recording sessions: Salisbury, New Order member Stephen Morris, and Factory Floor member Gabriel Gurnsey. Morris and Gurnsey went into the studio to see how the band was progressing, only then to be asked to play on the recordings. Burgess expected the sessions to last three months, when in reality, they lasted seven.
Musically, the sound of Modern Nature has been described as pop, with elements of disco, funk, and soul. Discussing the title, Burgess said he was visiting the band Grumbling Fur as they were recording song. They were in the middle of song when a book fell of a shelf and hit Burgess on the head. The book turned out to be Derek Jarman's diaries, entitled Modern Nature. Up to this point, they had already planned on calling it Nature as they had several songs with that as the working title. Some of the upbeat songs, such as "So Oh" and "Let the Good Times Be Never Ending", were reminiscent of the pop nature of the band's seventh studio album Wonderland (2001).
Similarly, "So Oh" and "Come Home Baby" channel the band's early Madchester sound. The High Llamas frontman Sean O'Hagan contributed orchestration throughout the album, alongside gospel vocal harmonies from Melanie Marshall and Sandra Marvin. O'Hagan previously worked with Burgess for his solo album; Burgess made a mental note that if the Charlatans required strings, to ask O'Hagan.
The opening track "Talking in Tones" initially begins as a soundscape of glitch and electronica percussion loops, before shifting into 1960s beat music, with its chorus section being reminiscent of I'm a Man" (1967) by the Spencer Davis Group. It was the result of a jam session between Collins, who was playing drums, and Burgess, who was playing guitar. Collins said "So Oh" was influenced by a Barry White song, while its bassline recalled the band's stand-alone single "The Only One I Know" (1990).
"Come Home Baby" utilizes a gospel choir. Rogers had the verse music for it for sometime, until Burgess had a melody part for it, which he dubbed "Baby Huey" after the person of the same name.The soul track "Keep Enough" talks about mourning for an absent friend. It was the first song the band wrote after becoming a four-piece."In the Tall Grass", alongside "Let the Good Times Be Never Ending", saw the band move into disco territory. The keyboard parts in the former were compared to those played by the Doors member Ray Manzarek.
"Let the Good Times Be Never Ending" is a cross between the music of the Doors and the 5th Dimension, with brass parts from Dexys Midnight Runners member Jim Paterson. The song was influenced by Little Anthony and the Imperials, and was initially scrapped on three occasions. The first idea for the song was a six-minute-long bass part that Rogers turned into two iterations, one with a Rhodes piano, and the second with a Hammond organ. Burgess, Collins and Blunt liked both versions that Rogers made. The final version was made after six months' worth of attempts, with a variety of additional instrumentation, such as drum machines and Chic-esque guitar playing. "I Need You to Know", alongside "Lean In", use an organ sound in the style of Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds. "Lean In" features jangly guitarwork backing vocal harmonies recalled those hard in "Strawberry Wine" (1987) by My Bloody Valentine. It was the last song written for the album, with Burgess, Collins and Blunt working on the guitar parts of it until the early hours of the morning.
The piano-driven baggy song "Trouble Understanding" features several different dynamics and mood changes throughout it. Halfway through the song, a guitar line is heard, which builds towards a choral section. It was initially titled "Nature #1", and was written by Burgess with Lou Reed in mind. The closing track "Lot to Say" also evoked their Madchester sound, while incorporating elements of Motown. Burgess purposely wanted to end the album with a quiet track; he wrote it after moving to Norfolk when his son was born. "Walk with Me" was written by Brookes while laying in a hospital bed; it incorporates a back choir, which consisted of children from that that Brookes used to teach at Brookes had dictated the song's lyrics three weeks prior to his death. "Honesty" is an acoustic instrumental rendition of "Emilie", with a string section, while "Marauder" is a drum and keyboard-based instrumental.
The album was promoted with appearances on various radio stations, and performances at record stores. "Come Home Baby" was released as a single on 2 February 2015, and featured a Simon Fisher Turner remix of the same song.
The magnificent UK's trio "Stock Aitken & Waterman" have been awarded a blue plaque from the Southwark Heritage Association to honour the team’s contribution to UK music.
Recording primarily recorded at Hansa Studios in Berlin where the duo have written "most of their music over the last ten years", with the exception of "Burning the Heather", which was recorded at RAK Studios in London. The album features Bernard Butler played guitar on the track.
The duo's website dubbed it the last of a trilogy of albums produced by Stuart Price, beginning with Electric in 2013. The duo achived to be on the main line again, reiventing themselves just like they did over the last three decades, also the current tendence back then helped the duo a lot, reinforced this successfully association between Tennant and Lowe.
The album focuses on their fortress, to sound charming and fascinanting at the very same time, no changes but vibrant and nice tunes all over the ten tracks on the set, the usual fancy and elegant synth pop. The opener, "Will O The Wisp" retunr the classic sound, probing the original is the best, then moves with the beautiful "You Are The One", to move with the catchy and danceable "Happy People" keeping the same effort but this time under the collaboration of Years & Years on "Dreamland", then the band moves into something more funky with "Monkey Business", the other tracks "Hoping For A Miracle", "Only The Dark, and "Burning The Heather" are brilliante and perfectly crafted tunes in a very introspective style, "I Don't Wanna" is nice, and finally moves into this curious closer "Wedding In Berlin" that served to finish a very accurate album.
Talk Talk's compilation "The Very Best Of Talk Talk" is to be reissued as a newly re-ordered and now career-spanning compilation. Changes to the original 1997 release puts the band's greatest hits in chronological order, with a new inclusion from their final album, "Laughing Stock." The reissue will be available on black gatefold 2LP and CD on 14 March.
Talk Talk formed in 1981 by Mark Hollis, Lee Harris and Paul Webb. Starting as a synth-pop group, their first two albums The Party’s Over and It’s My Life reached the Top 40 in the UK charts and produced global hits Today, It’s My Life and Such A Shame.
In 1986, they released The Colour Of Spring which was followed by Spirit Of Eden, the album that shifted their sound towards experimental post-rock. In 1991, Talk Talk released their last album Laughing Stock, from which the single New Grass was picked.
The band’s long-lasting legacy has manifested in many ways. Oftenly credited with inventing post-rock, cited as influences to an array of artists such as Kate Bush, Tears For Fears and Radiohead with others covering a host of Talk Talk repertoire.
The Very Best Of Talk Talk Track List:
LP One
Side A
1. Talk Talk
2. Today (Single Version)
3. Have You Heard The News?
4. It’s My Life
5. Such A Shame (Original Version)
Side B
1. Dum Dum Girl
2. Life’s What You Make It
3. Living In Another World
4. Give It Up
LP Two
Side A
1. April 5th
2. Time It’s Time
3. I Believe In You (Single Version)
Side B
1. Eden (Edit)
2. Wealth
3. New Grass
CD
1. Talk Talk
2. Today (Single Version)
3. Have You Heard The News?
4. It’s My Life
5. Such A Shame (Original Version)
6. Dum Dum Girl
7. Life’s What You Make It
8. Living In Another World
9. Give It Up
10. April 5th
11. Time It’s Time
12. I Believe In You (Single Version)
13. Eden (Edit)
14. Wealth
15. New Grass
Released on 23 January 1990, "Stick It To Ya" was the debut studio album by American band Slaughter, it sold over 2 million copies and became one of the biggest albums of 1990. "Up All Night" (No. 27), "Fly to the Angels" (No. 19), and "Spend My Life" (No. 39) all charted in the Top 40 on Billboard's Hot 100 and their videos were in solid rotations on the music television outlets. The album was also nominated for a best metal album of the year at the 1991 American Music Awards show.
Back in the day when "Fly To The Angels" played all over, and if you don't like it, you were nothing, maybe because it was a nearly perfet rock power ballad back then, I think the album just came in time to enjoy huge success, attached to the last shimmering of commercial succes of that hard rock/glam metal era, "Up All Night" was another smasher, it was the first slice of success this album had back then, intense and powerful just like the genre demanded, "Spend My Life," was another outstanding track in which Mark Slaughter sang about wanting to spend the rest of his life with a particular paramour.
Talking about how this album has aged, some songs are now simply too pop, such as “You Are The One”"and "Spend My Life". However, mercifully, there’s only one ballad! "Fly To The Angels" it has a little more atmosphere than the average and of course lyrically it had integrity. Some songs, such as "Up All Night" and "Eye To Eye" have some groove. If only the production was a little heavier, these would be bonafide classics.
There’s also some 80’s style fast and speedy numbers such as "Loaded Gun" (with some just awful lyrics). Also awful in the lyrical department were "She Wants More" and possibly "Burning Bridges", it must be remembered, was a cutting attack on former bandmate Vinnie Vincent,
It was the band's groundbreaking album, King of Rock, Run-D.M.C. expanded their musical palette. The album's title itself was equal parts warning, statement of purpose, and legitimate boast. The album signified the group's intentions to pull hip-hop out of the periphery and onto center stage. It was a golden era in the evolution of contemporary music; a time and place in which hip-hop was called "rap".
The music on the album was created by Larry Smith's group Orange Krush using the drum machine Oberheim DMX and Jam Master Jay's scratches mixed in a guitar riff. D.M.C. once commented on this fact: "People forget about Larry Smith, but Larry Smith owned hip-hop and rap. He produced our first two albums, and he produced Whodini. The rock-rap sound was Larry Smith's vision, not Rick Rubin's. Rick changed the story, but Larry was there first. A curious fact on that, because actually, Smith and Run were against the guitar."
The name for the album came up with Corey Robbins, co-owner of Profile Records. He said: "I don't take any credit for the song title, but I did come up with the idea of calling the album that, based on the song title, and keeping it singular. It was so outrageous then-that rappers would call themselves kings of rock, instead of kings of rap. That would've been the obvious title, because they were the kings of rap. They certainly weren't considered rock – yet. Which is why it turned out to be such a cool title: it turned out to be true. They did become rock and roll, in a way; they did get played on rock radio. King of Rap or Kings of Rap would have done nothing for them. King Of Rock was outrageous.
"Slow and Low" was recorded as a demo during the sessions for this album, Beastie Boys had the demo on a tape and decided to record a version after learning it wasn't going to be on King of Rock. Included on the Beastie Boys Album Licensed to Ill (1986). Run-D.M.C.'s version was not officially released until 2005, as an inclusion in the Deluxe edition of King of Rock.
Split Enz found their place in new wave with True Colours, shedding the eccentricities and excesses of their past in favor of bright, highly memorable, Beatlesque pop. The album also marked Neil Finn's emergence as a great songcraftsman, on his infectious "I Got You" helped to push the album and the band to international success. Both the single and the album stand as high points of the new wave era. As part of its marketing, the album was released in several different-colored covers with laser-etched vinyl.
According to Tim Finn: We had been playing so many shows, so the band were very tight. It was like everything was starting to line up to make a really powerful record. Also, Crombie added, "We'd had a rough time up to that in England, and I think we're really just raring to go. We came back to Melbourne and recorded the album and it just felt it was a new beginning. The Producer David Tickle was supremely confident, almost arrogant, but he gave us something to bounce off. Half the time we didn't even like him.
About the singles, originally, the band thought "Missing Person" to be the album's standout track, not realizing "I Got You" would become the hit. "I Hope I Never" was mixed differently for the Australian single release, with strengthened percussion. "Nobody Takes Me Seriously", "What's the Matter with You" and "Poor Boy" were released as singles in the northern hemisphere. Also a synthesizer melody played in "I Wouldn't Dream of It" was first introduced in an early Split Enz recording, aptly titled "The Instrumental".
The album cover had certain curiosities, it was initially released in four colour combinations – yellow and blue, red and green, purple and yellow, and blue and orange – but would ultimately be given another four makeovers with releases in lime green and pink, hot purple and burnt orange, gold and platinum (to mark its sales milestones), and finally yellow, blue and red.
Crombie later said, "There was a lot of resistance initially. For some reason they thought people would get confused. It was just playing with it really. Why not? In the end there were 11 covers. The rarest one is the black and white one that got sent out to the press. There's about 100 of them, with Textas to colour your own. The album was the first to ever use this technique, originally designed to discourage the creation of counterfeit copies.
