In Memoriam: Actor Sam Neill Dies Aged 78

Actor Sam Neil, best known for his starring role in 1993's Jurassic Park, has died aged 78.

In a statement his family say Neill's death was "sudden and unexpected" but that he was "surrounded by family". Neill had previously been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma, but announced earlier this year that he was cancer-free.

Neill was an undeniably versatile and accomplished actor, which was demonstrated no better than in 1993 which saw two of his most outstanding films, he first rose to fame in the 1977 film Sleeping Dogs, before going on to star in My Brilliant Career, Jurassic Park, The Piano, The Dish and Possession among other films.

He was one of a host of actors and directors who achieved international fame after an explosion of Australian films that began in the late 1970s — a list that includes Paul Hogan, Mel Gibson, Geoffrey Rush, Russell Crowe, Jane Campion, Peter Weir and Gillian Armstrong.

Actor Sam Neill might have officially been a Kiwi, but he did some of his best work in Australian film and television. This is his story. In 2023, Neill revealed he had been diagnosed with angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma, a rare type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, in early 2022. He entered remission later that year after a rare anti-cancer drug worked, but needed ongoing infusion treatment. He announced in April he was cancer-free.

The actor was also knighted in 2022, becoming Sir Sam Neill. "I said I didn't want the title for 10 or 12 years," he said in 2023. "Then when I thought I was dying a couple of years ago I thought, 'Oh bugger it, I may as well go out with the title,' so I changed my mind."Neill's range as an actor was remarkable, playing opposite Helena Bonham Carter in the Alan Ayckbourn comedy Sweet Revenge to chopping off Holly Hunter's finger in The Piano to poking his own eyes out in the sci-fi horror Event Horizon.

The actor first came to the attention of international audiences in Armstrong's 1979 film My Brilliant Career, which also introduced Judy Davis. He later appeared in Phillip Noyce's Dead Calm, a classy thriller set at sea and co-starring the then-relatively unknown Nicole Kidman.

Neill twice co-starred with Meryl Streep, in Australian director Fred Schepisi's Plenty and — again for Schepisi — in A Cry in the Dark, a film about the sensationalised aftermath of a dingo killing a baby in the Australian Outback. He earned an Emmy nomination for his performance in the title role of the 1998 mini-series Merlin and another as narrator of 2017's Wild New Zealand.

He perhaps achieved his highest level of fame in Jurassic Park, playing palaeontologist Alan Grant, who is summoned to an island off Costa Rica where a theme park has been built to house herds of cloned dinosaurs. He co-starred alongside Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum and Richard Attenborough in the Steven Spielberg directed hit.

His character was thoughtful and reasonable, a scientist who warned the mastermind of the theme park before the chaos: "Dinosaurs and man, two species separated by 65 million years of evolution have just been suddenly thrown back into the mix together. How can we possibly have the slightest idea what to expect?" Grant survived the harrowing events when the creatures get loose, but didn't return for The Lost World: Jurassic Park II in 1997. He came back for the third episode in 2001 and Jurassic World: Dominion in 2022.

Born in 1947 in Northern Ireland, Neill emigrated to New Zealand at the age of seven. His family settled in Dunedin on the South Island and he was sent to boarding school in Christchurch.

After college, he took the lead in Sleeping Dogs in 1977 — the first feature made in New Zealand in more than a decade. There's no fuss, no entourage and no star ego, writes producer Vanessa Gorman, on filming with Sam Neill. Neill was also a vintner and under his Two Paddocks brand, he produced pinot noir and riesling wines from his winery in the Central Otago region of New Zealand's South Island.

On social media, he often posted images of his farm animals, many of them affectionately named after celebrities and friends, like Laura Dern the chicken, Kylie Minogue the duck and Helena Bonham Carter the cow. His memoir Did I Ever Tell You This? came out in March 2023 and he was awarded a knighthood in recognition of his "outstanding contribution to film" — a title approved by the late Queen Elizabeth II.

"I can't pretend that the last year hasn't had its dark moments," Neill told The Guardian in 2023, referring to his cancer diagnosis and treatment.

In Memoriam: Johnny Hates Jazz Founding Member "Calvin Hayes" Dies Aged 62

Calvin Hayes, a founding member of the British pop band Johnny Hates Jazz, has died aged 63 after collapsing at his home in Washington state. His wife, Kathy, confirmed his death late Friday early on Saturday. 

Hayes' former bandmates Clark Datchler and Mike Nocito shared an emotional tribute celebrating both the musician and the lasting legacy of the music they created together. Hayes co-founded Johnny Hates Jazz with Datchler and Nocito in 1986, helping launch one of the decade's most successful pop acts. 

After an initial single failed to break through, the trio found worldwide success with "Shattered Dreams" in 1987. The song became an even bigger hit in the United States than in the UK, climbing to No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and reaching No. 1 on the Adult Contemporary chart. It was followed by the hits "I Don't Want to Be a Hero," "Turn Back the Clock" and  "Heart of Gold," while the band's debut album, Turn Back the Clock, reached No. 1 in the UK and sold millions of copies worldwide.

In their Instagram statement, Datchler and Nocito said they were “utterly shocked and deeply saddened” by Hayes’ death, explaining that they chose to speak privately with friends and loved ones before making a public statement “to share our memories, express our emotions, and begin to come to terms with such a tragic loss.”

Reflecting on their years together, they wrote, "The three of us were brothers in arms for an extraordinary moment in time, one in which we managed to touch the world with the music we created together."  They added that, despite Hayes no longer being part of the band, they knew he remained incredibly proud that their songs, particularly those from Turn Back the Clock, continue to resonate with so many people nearly 40 years later.

Following the band’s initial success, Datchler departed in 1988 to pursue a solo career, while Hayes and Nocito continued recording with singer Phil Thornalley. That chapter came to an abrupt end after Hayes suffered a devastating car accident that left him hospitalized for an extended period. He later reunited with the original lineup for live performances in 2010 before stepping away from the band once again. Beyond Johnny Hates Jazz, Hayes also performed with other artists, including Kim Wilde, and was the son of legendary producer Mickie Most, whose clients included The Animals, Herman’s Hermits, Suzi Quatro and Hot Chocolate.

Retro: Eclipse Total De Sol 1991

           

It was precisely on this date 30 years ago, that the famous total solar eclipse took place. This phenomenon began in the Pacific Ocean and passed over Hawaii, Mexico, and the rest of Central America, including Guatemala, before ending its path in South America, encompassing Colombia and the Amazon region of Peru and Brazil. 

 

Its duration, according to reports, was 7 minutes and 2 seconds at its peak. In Guatemala, according to the newspaper Prensa Libre, it lasted 6 minutes and 54 seconds. I remember the excitement at the time was unique, as it was the first time such an event would occur in the country. As the date approached, the media emphasized everything that was going to happen and how things might unfold. 

 

This led to a series of fantastical and even fatalistic speculations, with some believing it was a sign of the end of the world. According to my memories, at that time I was in first grade, and I think that thanks to all the speculation and how risky the phenomenon could be, since according to what was said, if one looked directly at the sun one could suffer irreversible damage, but not while it was hidden, and perhaps that is why they sent us straight home. 

 

From the early hours of the morning, there was special coverage on the local channels. For example, the local channel "Canal 3" was showing documentaries such like "The Longest Eclipse in the World," something like that, about a plane following the phenomenon. Their counterpart "Canal 7" joined altotogether and broadcasted how everything was going dark from various points in the country, such as the beaches of the southern coast, other border cities, and from the capital city on the balcony of the Teletenango studios. Other local channels "Canal 11/13" also had their own special coverage.

In Memoriam: Legendary Welsh Pop Singer "Bonnie Tyler" Dies Aged 75

The legendary Welsh pop star and Grammy-nominated "Bonnie Tyler" has died, aged 75. Tyler died unexpectedly in a hospital in Portugal where she was being treated for an illness, her family said Thursday in a statement on her website. She was hospitalized in May in Faro, where she had a home, for emergency intestinal surgery. She had been placed in an induced coma for a period but was reportedly improving last month and expected to make a good recovery.

“Bonnie’s family and team are heartbroken to announce that Bonnie unexpectedly passed away last night in hospital in Portugal as a result of the illness that she was being treated for,” her family said.

Tyler earned three Grammy and in 2013 represented Britain at the Eurovision Song Contest, where she came in 19th. She was honored as a Member of the Order of the British Empire in 2022 for her services to music by Queen Elizabeth II, thanks mainly to "Total Eclipse of the Heart," which has had more than 1 billion streams, boosted by real eclipses in 2017 and 2024.

The song has never really gone away: it was covered by the English singer Nicki French in 1995, and the band Westlife in 2006. Cate Blanchett sang it while hitting Billy Bob Thornton with her car in 2001’s “Bandits,” it appeared in a wedding scene in 2003's "Old School."

Tyler was born — as Gaynor Hopkins — a coal miner's daughter in public housing with an outside toilet in Skewen, Wales. She grew up with three sisters and two brothers. Loved the Beatles and her first album was "A Hard Day's Night." The first song she bought, at 13, was "Hippy Hippy Shake" by the Swinging Blue Jeans and she watched "Top of the Pops" religiously, according to her memoir, "Straight From the Heart."

In 1976 she had to have surgery to remove nodules on her throat, leaving her with that trademark vocal sound. Changing her name to Sherene Davis, she was fronting a soul band when she was discovered by talent scout Roger Bell, who brought her to London for demo sessions. Then she waited for a label until RCA said it was interested.

Under her new RCA-sanctioned name Bonnie Tyler, her debut album "The World Starts Tonight" in 1977 contained her first chart hit, "Lost in France," and she was nominated for a breakthrough artists award at the Brit Awards. She then had a No. 3 hit in 1978 with "It's a Heartache," but soon drifted. She then signed with Sony and saw Meat Loaf perform "Bat Out of Hell" on the BBC. Impressed, she requested to work with Meat Loaf songwriter and producer Jim Steinman.

Steinman introduced her to his song "Total Eclipse of the Heart," which would become the debut single for her fifth studio album, "Faster Than the Speed of Night." He borrowed one of the song's lyrics — "Turn around, bright eyes" — from his 1969 musical "The Dream Engine," written when he was a student at Massachusetts' Amherst College. He told her the song was from a prospective musical version of Nosferatu.

“Jim liked to put down a basic rhythm track, do nine takes of the song, choose the best one and then put the kitchen sink on there, like Phil Spector used to,” Tyler told The Guardian in 2023. “He gave me a cassette to listen to in my hotel and we both preferred take two.”

The video, a staple of early-days MTV, was shot in a frightening gothic former asylum in Surrey, where the guard dogs apparently wouldn't set foot in the rooms downstairs where they used to give people electric shock treatment. The visuals included slow-motion tossed doves, candles, dancing ninjas, dancing greasers, Tyler in frighteningly big shoulder pads, fencers, gymnasts, wind machines and shirtless boys wearing swim goggles being doused with water.

"Faster Than the Speed of Night"  earned a Grammy nomination for best rock vocal performance — losing to Pat Benatar’s “Love Is a Battlefield” — and Tyler got another nod for  "Total Eclipse of the Heart" in the best pop vocal performance category, losing to Irene Cara's Flashdance — What a Feeling.

Tyler never reached such status again but stayed current with such movie soundtrack singles as "Holding Out For a Hero" — from 1984's "Footloose" — and "Here She Comes” from  "Metropolis" also in 1984.

Her 2019 disc “Between the Earth and the Stars” featured duets with Rod Stewart, Cliff Richard and Status Quo’s Francis Rossi, and she ended that year performing a Vatican Christmas concert before Pope Francis.

In 2013, she switched gears to make a country-flavored record in Nashville, "Rocks and Honey,"which included the Vince Gill duet "What You Need From Me" and a little ballad called “Believe in Me,” written by American songwriter Desmond Child and British songwriters Lauren Christy and Christopher Braide.  "Believe in Me" was picked to represent the United Kingdom at that year's Eurovision Song Contest in Sweden.

In 2017, she joined Joe Jonas’ band DNCE for a performance on the cruise ship Oasis of the Seas as part of a "Total Eclipse Cruise." When the moon passed in front of the sun, they played "Total Eclipse of the Heart."

Tyler was married to property developer and former Olympic judo competitor Robert Sullivan.

Rocktrospectiva: The Acoustic Beautiful Set On "Woodface" Turns 35

Originally released on 1st., July in the UK and on 8th., July in Australia, "Woodface" was the 3rd., studio album by Crowded House. It featured five singles: "Chocolate Cake", "Fall at Your Feet", "It's Only Natural", "Weather with You", and "Four Seasons in One Day". The album was a major hit in Australia and New Zealand as well as giving the band their first top ten hit album in the UK.

During a break from Crowded House following the Canadian leg of the tour in support of their second album, Temple of Low Men, band-leader Neil Finn began recording songs with his older brother and former Split Enz bandmate Tim Finn. These songs were originally intended for a Finn Brothers album. Once these sessions were complete, Neil teamed back up with Nick Seymour and Paul Hester to write and record Crowded House's third album. Capitol Records rejected most of the new Crowded House songs, so Neil asked Tim if the band could use some of the new Finn Brothers songs. Tim agreed, on condition that he would join the band, although he has since indicated he meant this as a joke. Whatever the truth of that claim, the group that returned to the studio included Tim as a full band member. 

The album was titled Woodface and was released in July 1991. The cover was designed by Nick Seymour and Tommy Steele. It was co-produced by Mitchell Froom and Neil Finn, and mixed by Bob Clearmountain. Eight tracks were co-written by Neil and Tim Finn and mainly feature the brothers harmonising on lead vocals, although Neil takes the lead on "Four Seasons in One Day" and Tim sings "All I Ask", which later featured in AIDS awareness commercials in Australia.

Five other tracks were solo compositions by Neil Finn and the remaining two were written by Paul Hester, including "I'm Still Here", a hidden track. Former Beach Boys drummer Ricky Fataar, and member of the Rutles, is credited on three of the Finn Brothers songs, "All I Ask", "There Goes God" and "Weather With You". The addition of Tim Finn and the inclusion of songs originally written for the Finn Brothers project gave the album a more upbeat and optimistic sound compared to its darkly personal predecessor, representing the joy of reunion and the freedom of a collaborative effort. The Finn Brothers were also dually responsible for two memorable, radio-friendly staples courtesy of “It’s Only Natural” and the ridiculously catchy "Weather With You": the latter of which provided the band with their first UK Top 10 hit. Elsewhere, however, Neil self-penned several of Woodface’s perennials, including the affecting "Fall At Your Feet," the edgy, voyeuristic "Whispers And Moans" and the energized, Squeeze-esque "Fame Is."

Instrumentally, Woodface employed more acoustic guitar and less organ than on previous releases by Crowded House. The album also made heavy use of vocal harmonies. The album's style has been characterized as pop rock, drawing comparisons to the works of John Lennon and Paul McCartney and certain critics considered as "the sound of a band embracing the pop mainstream with bravado, while slyly biting the hand that feeds."

When Woodface was eventually released, in July 1991, it wasn’t hard to hear why Neil had been keen to utilize eight of the mooted Finn Brothers songs, as they were among the most melodic, infectious tunes he’d had a hand in to date. Most of them featured the brothers sharing lead vocals, though Neil sang the elegant, melancholic  "Four Seasons In One Day," while Tim took the lead on the filmic.

Curiously, despite presenting a feast of beautifully crafted, airwave-friendly pop, Woodface received mixed reviews from the critics and, surprisingly, stalled at No.83 on the US Billboard 200. However, this blow was cushioned by Crowded House’s burgeoning popularity in Europe, where the album went Top 30 in half a dozen territories and peaked at No.6 in the UK, The album represented the joy of reunion and the freedom of a collaborative effort. The songs were easily their finest to date, combining flawless melodies and the outstanding harmonies of the brothers' perfectly matched voices.

 

Woodface Track List: 

 

1. Chocolate Cake

2. It's Only Natural

3. Fall At Your Feet 

4. Tall Trees

5. Weather With You

6. Whispers And Moans

7. Four Seasons In One Day

8. There Goes God

9. Fame Is

10. All I Ask

11. As Sure As I Am

12. Italian Plastic

13. She Goes On

14. How Will You Go (includes a hidden excerpt of "I'm Still Here" (Hester, Neil Finn, Seymour)

Rocktrospectiva: The Pleasant "Into The Great Wide Open" Turns 35

Released on 2 July 1991 "Into THe Great Wide Open" was the 8th., studio album by US rock band Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers but ninth overall for Tom Petty, it was the band's last with MCA Records and the last with drummer Stan Lynch who left in 1994. The album was the second that Petty produced with Jeff Lynne. THe album the singles "Learning To Fly", "Into The Great Wide Open" "Kings Highway", "Too Good To Be True", "All Or Nothin", & "You And I Will Meet Again". 

After flying solo on "Full Moon Fever," Tom Petty reunited the Heartbreakers for "Into the Great Wide Open" and propelled them back atop the rock zeitgeist.The winds of change were in the air in 1991. As summer rolled in, few, if any, could have predicted the storm that was coming in the form of a string of seminal albums such as Pearl Jam’s Ten and, a month later, Nirvana’s Nevermind. Amid this changing of the guard, Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers faced perhaps the most pivotal period of their decade-and-a-half career. 

Just two years earlier, Petty showcased his prowess on his solo debut, Full Moon Fever, an album that contained several of his most iconic tracks which remain rock radio staples decades later. The album came in the aftermath of a 1987 fire, in which Petty lost everything when his house was burned down by an arsonist; it offered a new perspective and a sonic lease on his career. When it came time for Petty to reconvene The Heartbreakers, in the early 90s, the singer-songwriter had a wealth of momentum to carry him through. Enlisting Full Moon Fever producer Jeff Lynne, of ELO fame, Petty and Heartbreakers guitarist Mike Campbell helmed the band’s eighth studio effort.

Under the trio's production stewardship, the Into The Great Wide Open sessions continued where Full Moon Fever left off. Fusing the Laurel Canyon sound with heartland rock, the album was a critical and commercial success, reaching No.13 on the Billboard 200 chart. When it was released, Into the Great Wide Open was praised as a return to form for Petty and The Heartbreakers. In particular,  "Learning To Fly" and the title track were widely seen as logical steps forward from Petty’s previous album. Even with its sparse, four-chord arrangement, the track illustrated how much Petty could do with a seemingly simple song, turning it into a soaring anthem. The Jeff Lynne-produced single was a smashing success, landing at No.28 on the Billboard Hot 100 and earning a Grammy nomination for Best Rock Song. In a career chock-full of hits, it became Petty’s most successful single since 1981. The success of Into The Great Wide Open was very much driven by the title track, a cautionary tale about a young dreamer who comes to Los Angeles and gets taken by the record industry. It’s a familiar tale to all, but with Petty’s evocative lyricism and dark wit, he proves himself to be a master storyteller with just a few words to spare. The track’s success was certainly helped by its star-studded music video, starring Johnny Depp as the rebel without a clue and special cameos by Faye Dunaway, Terence Trent D’Arby, Chynna Phillips, and Matt LeBlanc. Petty even told Rolling Stone that he experienced people coming to me wanting to make it into a movie.

But there was more to Into The Great Wide Open than its breakthrough singles. Petty and the band are in top form, whether it’s on the classic road trip song  "Kings Highway," with its shimmering reverb, or the anti-war track "Two Gunslingers," a jangly single about walking away from a fight no one asked for that was widely interpreted as commentary on the first Gulf War. There’s a niggling sense of wanderlust on the record, from the persistent search for fame on the title track, "Kings Highway"'s invocation of the open road, and an urge to return "You And I Will Meet Again."

Into The Great Wide Open allowed Petty and The Heartbreakers to retain their spot as one of the most consistently brilliant bands in rock. A huge success commercially, with its stylized production and sonic evolution from Full Moon Fever, the album became a vital part of Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers’ catalogue. While Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers first burst onto the music scene as wily upstarts in the 70s and dominated FM radio in the 80s, Into The Great Wide Open propelled them into another decade of relevancy and classic rock-minded dominance. 

They'd have a major hit with "Mary Jane’s Last Dance" on 1993's Greatest Hits package, and 1994's Wildflowers was another career achievement for Petty, but none of that would have been possible without the success of Into The Great Wide Open. Into The Great Wide Open cemented Petty status as master of the pop hook and one of rock’n’roll’s greatest stewards, and of course the pleasant sound of the album was far beyond good, althought some critics compared the sound too much like Petty's solo album "Full Moon Fever". 

 

Into The Great Wide Open Track List: 

 

1. Learning To Fly

2. King's Highway

3. Into The Great Wide Open

4. Two Gunslingers

5. The Dark Of The Sun

6. All Or Nothin

7. All The Wrong Reasons

8. Too Good To Be True

9. Out In The Cold

10. You And I Will Meet Again

11. Makin' Some Noise

12. Built To Last

Albums: Make-Up Is A Lie

Officially released last March, "Make-Up Is A Lie" is Morrissey's 14th., studio album, considered one of the most unispired records on Mozza's carreer, this new album is just a scattered collection of tunes, although you can find some interesting and appealing cuts.

Morrissey announced the tentative production and release of a new album titled Without Music the World Dies on 8 December 2022. The album was recorded in January and February 2023 at La Fabrique Studios in St-Remy, France, and was produced by Joe Chiccarelli, making it his fifth collaboration with the singer. It was produced outside the bounds of a record contract, as Morrissey had parted ways with his former label Capitol Records in December 2022.

The album was initially scheduled to consist of twelve songs, collectively written by Morrissey and members of his band, but this was later reduced to ten songs with returning producer Joe Chiccarelli helping to accommodate a well-textured palette of contributions from players including Jesse Tobias, Alain Whyte, Gustavo Manzur, Camila Grey, Juan Galeano and Carmen Vandenberg.

On the new album's former and opener title track "You're Right, It’s Time,"  Mozza's opening missive is, "I wish to move away from those who stare at screens all day/I want to speak up and to not be trapped by censorship." In certain ways, he’s right and a quite tune to start. Continuing the brutal opening stretch are the songs released as advance singles "Make-up Is A Lie" comes next and tells a story about a poet in Paris who silently tells Morrissey an important message, even after her death.

Roxy Music cover Amazona is here but isn't the best example, suffering from a kind of turgid reverence that lacks both the panache a more daring interpretation might bring and the original's alien strangeness. But the pop idolatry Morrissey continues to admire – and, for some long-haul followers, to some extent embody – is better served elsewhere. The catchy "The Night Pop Dropped" would have made a more persuasive single than Make-Up, whether you read it as a reference to the loss of David Bowie or a non-specific star. Either way, the song's funky keys and new wave-ish jerk bring lively and unexpected twists to the board, a long way from Morrissey's sometimes lumpen chugabilly solo settings. 

With "Lester Bangs" he pays tribute to the rock journo almost touchingly, depicting how a life of squalor is ameliorated almost mystically when Bangs writes and "3,000 miles away, this nerd hangs on your word". If there’s mileage left in Morrissey’s revisits to Wilde's gutter-and-stars equation, this cheering valentine to a transatlantic writer/reader bond finds it.

"Zoom Zoom The Litle Boy" offers another yearning reflection on youthful dreams, refreshing Morrissey's flair for careless pop as it provides the record’s requisite animal rights song. The record requires a revisit to life-is-rubbish territory, meanwhile, is "Headache," which wryly re-purposes marital vows in the service of a commitment to terminal anguish. If life was a pigsty, basically, now it's a migraine. But the song’s tinkly keys and liquid guitars bring some small succour at the altar of Morrissey's melancholy. "Boulevard" is another mid-album lamentation, replacing the elegant, Rome-combing yearning of Dear God Please Help Me with an almost defeated-sounding sense of despair: "Oh, the state I’m in." Morrissey croons here in superior parallel piece is "Many Icebergs Ago," which recounts a series of sexual or romantic misadventures across a series of pubs (Ten Bells, Sebright Arms) over moodily evocative backdrops, all now lost to murky memory as its narrator begins “to grow old”.

Still, age has not wholly sapped Morrissey's humour, much less his self-generated pique at sundry irritants. "Kerching Kerching" leavens a diatribe about the corrupting influence of fame’s pursuit with the nicely measured couplet, "You don’t joke enough/Because you just do not take coke enough." Infectious and gracefully arranged, "The Monsters Of Pig Alley" returns to the music business with a reflection on addictive fame and the industry’s “star-makers… leg-breakers”, those who might ask an ageing singer, “Why don’t you pack it in and come back home?” As if Morrissey would concur with any such advice. Sometimes predictably frustrating, sometimes pleasingly fresh, Make-up Is A Lie is a reminder that Morrissey probably couldn’t stop at this stage of the game, much less change.

 

Make-Up Is A Lie Track List:

 

1. You're Right, It's Time

2. Make-Up Is A Lie

3. Notre-Dame

4. Amazona

5. Headache

6. Boulevard 

7. Zoom Zoom The Little Boy

8. The night Pop Dropped

9. Kerching Kerching

10. Lester Bangs

11. Many Icebers Ago

12. The Monsters Of Pig Alley

New Music: Every Single Weekend

           

The Avalanches have shared their second single since launching a stealthy teaser campaign earlier this year. the Aussie trio has reunited with Jamie xx for "Every Single Weekend," as well as with video director Jonathan Zawada. His short tells the story of a hopeful model trying out for an ad for the fictional El Dorado drink that has been a motif of this current Avalanches rollout. 

Rocktrospectiva: The Massive And Best Selling "True Blue" Turns 40

Released on 30 June 1986 "True Blue" was the third studio album by US singer and songwriter Madonna. The album spawned five succesful singles "Live To Tell", "Papa Don't Preach", "True Blue", "Open Your Heart" & "La Isla Bonita."

Madonna recorded the album between 1985 and 1986, collaborating with Patrick Leonard and Stephen Bray on its writing and production. She had previously worked with the latter on her second studio album, Like a Virgin (1984). For the first time in her career, Madonna co-wrote and co-produced all of the tracks on True Blue. Its themes—primarily love, romance, marriage, and devotion—draw in part on her personal life and her marriage to actor Sean Penn. Musically, True Blue was a pop and dance-pop album with a soundscape characterized by synthesizers, guitars, drum machines, and backing vocal arrangements, influenced by the Motown sound, girl groups, and Latin pop.

True Blue was promoted with the Who's That Girl World Tour, the second highest-grossing female concert tour of 1987. Five singles supported the album: the US Billboard Hot 100 number-ones "Live to Tell", "Papa Don't Preach", and "Open Your Heart", as well as the top-five entries "True Blue" and "La Isla Bonita". An immediate global success, True Blue topped the music charts in a record-breaking twenty-eight countries worldwide and received multi-platinum certifications across the Americas, Europe, and the Asia–Pacific region. 

After Madonna met actor Sean Penn on the set of the music video for "Material Girl", the two began dating in February 1985. She mentioned that Penn was someone whose work she admired, and she believed he felt the same. Madonna said they had "so much in common" and that "he [was] almost like my brother". After dating casually for six months, the pair married on Madonna's twenty-seventh birthday on August 16, 1985. Soon after, the newlyweds co-starred in the adventure comedy film Shanghai Surprise (1986), which was a critical and commercial failure. During her Virgin Tour in 1985, Madonna met producer Patrick Leonard, who was hired as the tour's musical director. 

Following the tour's conclusion, Madonna asked Leonard if he wanted to work with her. They met at a barbecue at his home, during which he presented her with a song he had composed in his studio, titled "Love Makes the World Go Round". Madonna performed it at the Live Aid benefit concert in Philadelphia in July 1985.

Madonna and her collaborators, Patrick Leonard and Stephen Bray, began recording True Blue in December 1985. For the first time in her career, Madonna co-wrote and co-produced every track on the album. She was greatly in control of the album's development and, according to Bray, was "very much in love" while recording. Madonna collaborated separately with Leonard and Bray, with all three working together collectively on only one occasion. With Leonard, the recording process was informal: he would typically develop a musical idea on piano, after which Madonna would "write a lyric, she'd sing it, and the next day we would do another song", often completing one per day. In contrast, Bray focused on "shap[ing] things and [...] creat[ing] arrangements to show off the song[s] better".

The ballad "Live to Tell" was conceived by Leonard as an instrumental for the score of Paramount's film Fire with Fire (1986). After Paramount rejected the track, he asked Madonna to write the lyrics. Pleased with the results of "Live to Tell", she kept Leonard on the project and enlisted former boyfriend, Bray, whom she had worked with on Like a Virgin. Madonna felt that he could help her create "up-tempo songs with a classic Top 40 sensibility". 

The first song selected for True Blue was "Open Your Heart", it was originally titled "Follow Your Heart" and conceived as a rock track. The song was intended for singer Cyndi Lauper, although she passed it on. The Temptations were also offered the song but declined after hearing that Madonna was interested. "Follow Your Heart" was submitted to Madonna's team for True Blue; Madonna and Leonard added a bassline, turning it into a dance-pop composition. Madonna also revised the lyrics, which allowed her to get a songwriting credit, and retitled it "Open Your Heart".

"Papa Don't Preach" was written by Brian Elliot with the intention that it be performed by a singer named Christina Dent. A demo was presented to Warner Bros. executive Michael Ostin, who played it to Madonna during the recording of True Blue. Elliot had been working with Dent for six months and was initially reluctant to offer the song to another artist, but ultimately agreed, later describing the prospect of Madonna recording it as "hard to resist". The singer expressed immediate interest and acquired the song. "La Isla Bonita" was initially composed as an instrumental demo by Leonard and Bruce Gaitsch for Michael Jackson, who rejected the track.

"Where's the Party" was the only track on True Blue co-written by Madonna, Bray, and Leonard. Curtis Hudson—who co-wrote Madonna's 1983 breakthrough single "Holiday"—and Bray composed "Spotlight" for the album; although it was recorded, it was ultimately excluded from the final track list.

True Blue has been regarded as Madonna's first significant musical reinvention, departing from the bubblegum pop-oriented sound of her earlier works. It was a pop and dance-pop album with songs that take influences from Latin pop, girl groups, Motown sound, and Cuban music. 

Described by Madonna as her "most personal" work at the time, True Blue aimed to reach a broader, more mature audience. Love, romance, commitment, and fidelity constitute the album's main themes. Songs such as "True Blue" and "Open Your Heart" explore romantic devotion and emotional intimacy. The title track in particular expresses devotion and loyalty to a romantic partner. Biographer Andrew Morton wrote that it is the only song on the album that was a "direct tribute to her husband [Penn]", though the entire album was "inspired by her feelings for him at this time". Similarly, author Lucy O'Brien wrote that her love for Penn "seep[s] into every song". "Papa Don't Preach" addresses teenage pregnancy, "Love Makes the World Go Round" promotes themes of anti-war and anti-poverty, and "Live to Tell" deals with deceit, mistrust, and trauma. Escapism is depicted through the idyllic portrayal of an imaginary tropical paradise in "La Isla Bonita" and the pursuit of enjoyment in "Where's the Party".

True Blue was favorably reviewed by music critics; Madonna's maturity as a vocalist, producer, and songwriter was particularly acclaimed amongst reviewers. While True Blue was not revolutionary, Madonna's voice had matured, and was so finely tailored that she actually extends the punch and appeal of the production touches". Although True Blue was generally acclaimed, some reviewers were more critical in their assessments. Dismissing the record as "warmed over Go-Gos material" 

In the years following its release, True Blue has continued to garner acclaim from music critics cause the album experimented with "different sounds that are well executed as singles, with "more vocal range and lyrical complexities" than Madonna's first two albums. Even thought, the album has been one of the great dance-pop albums. 

 

True Blue Track List: 

 

1. Papa Don't Preach

2. Open Your Heart

3. White Heat

4. Live To Tell

5. Where's The Party

6. True Blue

7. La Isla Bonita

8. Jimmy Jimmy

9. Love Makes The World Go Round

Rocktrospectiva: The Listenable And Joyful "True Confessions" Turns 40

Released on 30 June 1986, "True Confessions" was the 3rd., studio album by the English group Bananarama. The majority of the album was produced by Tony Swain and Steve Jolley (who produced Bananarama's eponymous second album), with the exception of "Venus" and "More Than Physical". The latter, given a garage remix for its single version, was Bananarama's first songwriting collaboration with the Stock Aitken Waterman (SAW) production team, who also produced "Venus", which became the group's most commercially successful single to date, peaking at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States. True Confessions reached number 46 on the UK Albums Chart and number 15 on the US Billboard 200, becoming the group's highest-charting album on the latter chart.

The fourth single, "A Trick of the Night" was written by Jolley and Swain and re-recorded and remixed by SAW for release in the UK.

In contrast to the two dance-oriented songs produced by SAW, the majority of the songs produced by Jolley and Swain tend towards rock-based, serious-minded pop. The lyrical content addresses overcoming obstacles in relationships ("Ready or Not", "Promised Land") and tackles social issues, such as the anti-drug stance on "Hooked on Love". Two ballads are included: the aforementioned "A Trick of the Night", which is a cautionary ballad about a male friend trying to survive on city streets, and the jazzy, sophisto-pop track "Dance With a Stranger

TThe album opened with the electric-styled synths and dramatic drum fills of titular track "True Confessions" this continue harder beat and funky slap bass arrived with it’s a full 70 seconds until the ‘Nanas arrive on the microphones, and they’re in perfect harmony. However, they do sound a little secondary to this 80’s pop-rock. It’s a slightly muted started to the album. Then it was "Ready Or Not, " and this seemed to be charged with a little more energy, and an air of catchiness. The ladies’ vocals were better used here, with Sara, Keren, and Siobhan allowing to shine in the vocal harmonies and the occasional high notes (sorry, I don’t know who delivers that).

That leads on to "Trick Of The Night" – the album’s fourth and final UK single. This track gaves us a healthy dose of the Bananarama, the adies were perfectly in harmony with each others, and they did a nice split in the build up to the chorus. Following that is "Dance With A Stranger,"  a nice up-beat tempo and tinkling piano tune met with breathy vocals and what sounds like a double bass, resulting in some kind of jazzy late night lounge – complete with a saxophone solo. I

Up next was "In A Perfect World" with stadium beats, soft ‘ooh la la laaa’ vocals, and guitar riffs for almost 2 minutes until the ladies started to sing the first verse. This was another slow pop-rock song, and it was quite nice and relaxing. The huge hit, and cover version, Venus" gave the trio a #8 UK hit, although they’ve recorded and re-released versions of it many times since, and it has become synonymous with the group's name. 

Then we're on to lead single "Do Not Disturb", and it was pretty catchy chorus here, complete with vocal samples and tons of drum machines and synths. At times, I get vocal echoes of Robert De Niro’s Waiting from their previous album. That led on to "A Cut Above The Rest" which gives us some guitars and plodding (and slightly sinister) bass line. "Promised Land," had some lovely sounding 80’s synths duelling with a funky bass. The track was a cheerful and bouncy pop track, with some nice little growling electric guitar riffs, fills, and synths.

"More Than Physical" followed that, and stood as the album’s third single. Once again it was fairly clear that Stock, Aitken, Waterman have got their hands on this track, as whilst the vocals are pretty soft and breathy in anticipation, the track bounces along wonderfully. The album closed with "Hooked On Love," and this gave a really nice closing track.

Critics were mixed but some praised the album for being undeniably, convincingly listenable" and "a proper pop 'album'", adding that Bananarama "make 'intriguing' pop – and can even sustain the charm across an entire LP. There was no doubt that the album was massively overshadowed by that huge hit cover version that is synonymous with the Bananarama brand, and frequently remixed and re-released by them too – it’s a cash cow… but this album doesn’t follow suit. As you can see, the highlights were aside from Venus and Do Not Disturb, A Trick Of The Night, More Than Physical and Dance With A Stranger are strong too but they’re slower songs. 

 

True Confessions Track List:  

 

1. True Confessions

2. Ready Or Not

3. A Trick Of The Night

4. Dance With A Stranger

5. In A Perfect World

6. Venus

7. Do Not Disturb

8. A Cut Above The Rest

9. Promised Land

10. More Than Physical

11. Hooked On Love