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 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

New Music: Gravity

           

The Big Moon have announced their fourth album "Forever", released new single  "Gravity", the forthcoming LP explores what’s left when you’ve already checked off many major milestones, and is tempered by a first-hand understanding of life’s fragility. Discussing the propulsive, synth-y lead single "Gravity", frontwoman Juliette Jackson explained: “At the time I wrote this song, every time I collected my son from nursery he would run and slam into me and give me the biggest hug. Video has been directed by James Ogram

New Music: Going Shopping

           

Originally released two months ago, now The Strokes shared the official video for "Going Shoping" in which the band were inspired to pay homage to the classic video for Paul Simon's "You Can Call Me Al." For Chevy Chase's iconic role in Simon's video, they reached out to Walton Goggins as their ideal/dream long shot. Goggins was on location for a feature film in the Canary Islands but told the band on a call, “Let’s go shopping!” In late May, Casablancas and friends traveled to Tenerife—a Spanish island off the coast of Morocco—to meet up with Walton Goggins on location. Now, here's the results with the release of the music video directed by longtime collaborator Johann Rashid. The band’s seventh studio album, Reality Awaits, is set for release on July 24th via RCA Records. “Going Shopping” was released in April and followed by “Falling out of Love.”

 

New Music: Jealous Lover

           

The Rolling Stones have released their new single, "Jealous Lover," along with an accompanying music video directed by Chris Barrett and Luke Taylor and starring Anya Taylor-Joy and Charles Melton. The song is the latest preview of the band’s upcoming studio album Foreign Tongues, which is scheduled for release on July 10 via Polydor/Universal Music. The release of “Jealous Lover” is accompanied by another new track, “Divine Intervention,” which is one of two songs on Foreign Tongues to feature guest vocals from The Cure frontman Robert Smith. New single leans into a soulful R&B groove led by Mick Jagger’s falsetto vocal performance. The song draws on the band’s rhythm and blues roots while featuring lyrics that see Jagger warning an overly inquisitive lover with humor and attitude. Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood provide the song’s guitar work, while Darryl Jones handles bass and Steve Jordan plays drums and percussion. Longtime collaborator Steve Winwood contributes Rhodes piano and organ.

Rocktrospectiva: The Formidable "Music From The Edge Of Heaven" Turns 40

Released on 21 June 1986 in Japan and 27 June in the USA, "Music From The Edge Of Heaven" was  the third and final studio album by the English pop duo Wham!. The album spawned the singles "Last Christmas", "I'm Your Man", "A Different Corner", "The Edge Of Heaven" & "Where Did Your Heart Go?".

Between 1982 and 1985, the pop duo Wham! had released two studio albums, and enjoyed a string of success, with three of their singles reaching number one on the UK singles chart. With the known desire of George Michael to move into a more adult market, Wham! announced in early 1986 that Michael and his musical partner Andrew Ridgeley would go their separate ways after a farewell single, album, and a concert.

Issued just one day before the duo’s farewell concert at London’s Wembley Stadium, the record arrived at a pivotal moment as one of the biggest pop acts of the 1980s prepared to end its run at the height of its success. Forty years on, Music From The Edge Of Heaven provided a capture of a band in transition, with George Michael already looking beyond the duo towards a more mature solo career. The album featured four tracks recorded specifically for the farewell project: The Edge Of Heaven, Battlestations, Wham! Rap ’86 and Where Did Your Heart Go?. Several of those songs also appeared on The Final, 

A notable inclusions was "A Different Corner," a song credited to George Michael alone and widely regarded as an early indicator of the direction he would pursue as a solo artist. The album version featured an introduction unavailable on most other releases. Another curiosity was a specially edited version of "I'm Your Man," adapted from the Extended Stimulation Mix and featuring a newly recorded spoken bridge.

Another highlight was "Blue (Live In China)," captured during the duo's historic 1985 visit to China. That performance became particularly significant because it represented the only appearance of the recording on CD. Completing the collection was the Pudding Mix version of Last Christmas, a track that has since become one of the most enduring festive recordings in popular music.

Wham! had already achieved extraordinary commercial success. Formed in 1981 the duo emerged from the British pop explosion of the early MTV era and became one of the defining acts of the decade. Their debut album Fantastic topped the UK chart in 1983, while 1984’s Make It Big transformed them into global superstars. Wham! sold more than 30 million records worldwide and became one of the most recognisable British pop exports of the 1980s. The group also made history beyond the charts. In April 1985, Wham! became the first Western pop group to perform in China, an event widely viewed as a significant cultural moment during a period of increasing engagement between China and the West. Material from those performances would later find its way onto Music From The Edge Of Heaven through Blue (Live In China).

By early 1986, plans were already in place for a farewell single, farewell album and farewell concert. Michael later described the split as an effort to leave while the group was still at its commercial peak. That farewell culminated on 28 June 1986 when 72,000 fans attended The Final at Wembley Stadium. Supported by guests including Elton John and Simon Le Bon, the concert closed one of the most successful chapters in British pop history. Just days later, The Final compilation album was released in Europe, while Music From The Edge Of Heaven remained the principal farewell album for North American audiences.

 

Music From The Edge Of Heaven Track List: 

 

Hot Side: 

 

1. The Edge Of Heaven

2. Battlestations

3. I'm Your Man

4. Wham! Rap '86

 

Cool Side

 

5. A Different Corner

6. Blue /Live In China)

7. Where Did Your Heart Go?

8. Last Christmas (Pudding Mix)

New Music: Voyager

           

PJ Harvey is  back and now is sending us a message from deep space. The British singer-songwriter has unveiled new single "Voyager," a sweeping new track inspired by NASA's legendary Voyager probes, which were launched in 1977 and continue their journeys nearly five decades later. Originally conceived during sessions for Harvey's next album – details of which have yet to be announced – "Voyager" took on a new life after physicist Professor Brian Cox invited the musician to contribute a song to his live Emergence stage show, which hits the U.K. later this year. The track was later recorded with a full orchestra at Miraval Studios in Provence, France. Video has been directed by Professor Brian Cox & Nic Stacey

New Music: New Beginnings

           

Yard Act are back and have released "New Beginnings," the second single and video from their forthcoming album You’re Gonna Need A Little Music. The Leeds quartet’s third studio album is due July 17 via Republic Records. "New Beginnings" follows the album's lead single, "Redeemer." In the announcement, frontman and vocalist James Smith described the new song as a lighter counterpoint to the darker tone of the first single, is a bit of light to counteract the dark we led with. The album was recorded between Leeds and Los Angeles with producer Justin Meldal-Johnsen, whose credits include Nine Inch Nails, Beck, and St. Vincent. Smith, bassist Ryan Needham, guitarist Sam Shjipstone, and drummer Jay Russell made the record together in the same room, a first for Yard Act. Smith said the band’s first two records were “both laptop records essentially,” while this album came from five months of uninterrupted writing and recording.

New Music: The Rush

             

Editors have announced their eighth studio album Surface, Echo & Sound, out October 30th and alongside new single "The Rush", accompanied by an official video shot in Tokyo and directed by Henry Ehara. The new album sees the band strip things back to basics, regrouping in summer 2025 in rural Gloucestershire to write together in a room for the first time in years. Guitarist Justin Lockey recorded and produced the record. Frontman Tom Smith describes "The Rush" as an imagined bar scene of two people talking about life, drinking and reflecting on its highs and lows. “That idea of finding comfort in people close to me, friends and loved ones and family, is a theme that comes up all the time,” he says.  "It's a theme that is in everything to a degree."

 

New Music: Emotionally Unavailable

           

Suede have announced an expanded reissue of last year's album ‘Antidepressants’, with the swaggering new song ’Emotionally Unavailable’. As well as ‘Emotionally Unavailable’, the new deluxe version of the album will include the new tracks ‘Medication’, ‘Dirty Looks’, ‘Sharpening Knives’ and ‘Overload’, as well as 11 demo recordings of the songs from the original album.  "Emotionally Unavailable" finds the band channelling their classic sound, with propulsive, glam rock energy and Brett Anderson’s impassioned, soaring vocals. “Whatever she says she wants, well it clearly isn’t true / But you love to catastrophise,” he sings, before launching into the huge chorus.

News/Albums: Suede To Release Antidepressants In Expanded Edition

Suede will next month issue an expanded edition of their 2025 album, Antidepressants. This 3CD set features the album on CD 1 and five bonus tracks on CD 2. 

These comprise the new single "Emotionally Unavailable", the original Japan-only bonus track "Medication" and repetition of the three extra tracks that came with the original CD deluxe edition. A third disc features demos which were previously issued, on vinyl, for this year’s Record Store Day.

The packaging sounds decent: a hardcover slipcase houses the three discs and includes a 36-page booklet. 

Antidepressants Expanded will be released on 10 July 2026, via BMG.

Tracklist: 

 

CD 1

1. Disintegrate

2. Dancing With The Europeans

3. Antidepressants

4. Sweet Kid

5. The Sound And The Summer

6. Somewhere Between An Atom And A Star

7. Broken Music For Broken People

8. Criminal Ways

9. Trance State

10. June Rain

11. Life Is Endless, Life Is A Moment

 

CD 2

1. Emotionally Unavailable

2. Overload

3. Sharpening Knives

4. Dirty Looks

5. Medication

 

CD 3

1. Disintegrate (Demo)

2. Dancing With The Europeans (Demo)

3. Antidepressants (Demo)

4. Sweet Kid (Demo)

5. The Sound And The Summer (Demo)

6. Somewhere Between An Atom And A Star (Demo)

7. Broken Music For Broken People (Demo)

8. Criminal Ways (Demo)

9. Trance State (Demo)

10. June Rain (Demo)

11. Life Is Endless, Life Is A Moment (Demo)

Albums: Pulp Live!

Pulp will celebrate their triumphant comeback with Live!, their first live album, to be released in August.  

"A concert is an event where songs come back to life. That’s why this album is called Live!" says frontman Jarvis Cocker. “It’s both a statement of fact (it’s a recording of a live band) & a challenge (come on! Everyone come alive!).”

Live! was recorded during the band’s two shows at London's O2 Arena on 13 and 14 June 2025 – the week that the band returned to the top of the album charts with their eighth studio album, More. The 18-song set features songs from that chart-topping comeback (‘Spike Island’, ‘Slow Jam’, ‘Famers Market’, ‘Grown Up’, ‘Got To Have Love’ and ‘A Sunset’) alongside indie anthems such as ‘Common People’, ‘Disco 2000’, ‘Do You Remember The First Time?’ and ‘Babies’ and relative obscurity, 1992 single ‘O.U (Gone, Gone)’.

Live! will be available as a 2LP set (limited-edition blue pressing and a standard black vinyl) and as a double CD set. Tracklistings are the same across both formats.

Live! also serves as a soundtrack to the concert film, Pulp: What Do You Do For an Encore?, which will be on streaming service MUBI in Autumn. No plans have yet been announced for a physical or cinema release of the film, which is directed by Garth Jennings, who first worked with the band on the video for 1997 single ‘Help The Aged’ and has since directed films including Son Of Rambow, The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy and Sing. The songs included in the film have yet to be confirmed, though over the two nights at the O2, Pulp played a host of fan favourites not included on Live!, such as ‘Acrylic Afternoons’, ’59 Lyndhurst Grove’ and ‘Party Hard’ for the first time since 2012.

Live! will be released on 28 August 2026 via Rough Trade.

 

CD 1

1. Intro (feat Kelly Macdonald)

2. Spike Island

3. Slow Jam

4. Sorted for E’s & Wizz

5. Disco 2000

6. Help the Aged

7. Farmers Market

8. This is Hardcore

9. Sunrise

 

CD 2

1. Something Changed

2. Grown Ups

3. O.U. (Gone, Gone)

4. Do You Remember the First Time?

5. Mis-Shapes

6. Got to Have Love

7. Babies

8. Common People

9. A Sunset

Rocktrospectiva: The Imaginative "Labyrinth Original Motion Picture Soundtrack" Turns 40

Released on 23 June 1986 "Labyrinth" was a soundtrack album by David Bowie and composer Trevor Jones, released in 1986 for the film Labyrinth. It was the second of three soundtrack releases in which Bowie had a major role, following Christiane F. (1981) and preceding The Buddha of Suburbia (1993). The soundtrack album features Jones' score, which is split into six tracks for the soundtrack: "Into the Labyrinth", "Sarah", "Hallucination", "The Goblin Battle", "Thirteen O'Clock", and "Home at Last".

Director Jim Henson approached Bowie to take part in the film in 1983 during Bowie's Serious Moonlight Tour, when he showed Bowie early designs for the movie and a tape of The Dark Crystal (1982). Bowie had wanted to make music for a children's film and saw this as his chance. Bowie recorded five songs for the film: "Underground", "Magic Dance", "Chilly Down", "As the World Falls Down", and "Within You". The film's theme song, "Underground", features on the soundtrack twice, first in an edited version that was played over the film's opening sequence and secondly in full. The only song Bowie did not perform lead vocals on is "Chilly Down", which was performed by Charles Augins, Richard Bodkin, Kevin Clash, and Danny John-Jules, the actors who voiced the 'Fire Gang' creatures in the film.

The soundtrack album was released on 23 July 1986 to coincide with the film's US premiere. "Underground" was released in various territories as a single in June 1986, and in certain markets was also released in an instrumental version and an extended dance mix. In January 1987 "Magic Dance" was released as a 12" single in limited markets, including the US. "As the World Falls Down" was initially slated for release as a follow-up single to "Underground" at Christmas in 1986, but this plan did not materialize.

The soundtrack was advertised in music trade papers such as Billboard. Steve Barron produced promotional music videos for "Underground" and "As the World Falls Down". The music video for "Underground" features Bowie as a nightclub singer who stumbles upon the world of the Labyrinth, encountering many of the creatures seen in the film. The video for "As the World Falls Down" integrates clips from the film, using them alongside black-and-white shots of Bowie performing the song in an elegant room accompanied by the character Hoggle.

Though Bowie was not heavily involved in promoting Labyrinth, Jim Henson was nonetheless grateful that he had made the promotional music videos, saying, "I think it's the best thing he could have done for the film." Barron's videos for "As the World Falls Down" and "Underground" so impressed Henson that he recruited Barron to direct his television series The StoryTeller.

Upon release in 1986, Labyrinth reached #68 on the Billboard 200 chart in the United States and #38 on the United Kingdom's Official Albums Chart. The album re-entered the Official Albums Chart in 2017, peaking at #58. According to biographer David Buckley in 2015, the Labyrinth soundtrack was Bowie's third-best selling iTunes album in the United Kingdom.

Reviews were positive and described Bowie's five songs as spirited and imaginative ... presenting satisfying melodies and singalong choruses" such as that of "Magic Dance". However, while writing that the songs work well within the context of the film, "echoing its plotline and themes such as imagination, fun and fantasy", the five songs Bowie wrote for the film are as confoundingly diverse as the rest of his career and due this, the soundtrack has been called absolutely stellar, so far The Labyrinth soundtrack has been included on lists of the top 50 movie soundtracks

Labyrinth Original Motion Picture Soundtrack Track List:

 

1. Opening Titles Including Underground 

2. Into The Labyrinth

3. Magic Dance

4. Sarah

5. Chilly Down

6. Hallucination

7. As The World Falls Down

8. The Goblin Battle

9. Within You

10. Thirteen O'Clock

11. Home At Last

12. Underground

The Reissue/Compilations: Fleetwood Mac Greatest Hits

Warner's 1988 Fleetwood Mac Greatest Hits compilation, which was released at the time to capitalise on the success of Tango in the Night, is now being reissued as a deluxe edition, on CD and vinyl, next month.

Originally, this was a 13-track compilation on vinyl, but the CD format delivered 17 tracks in a slightly re-jigged running order.

This new deluxe edition offers 23 tracks in total, although spreads these out across two discs. So CD 1 offers the original 13-track vinyl running order from 1988 and moves four tracks to CD 2 with six further bonus tracks.

Greatest Hits deluxe is released on 31 July 2026 via Rhino for US and Canada only. Rest of the World gets it on 28 August.

2CD Track List:

 

CD 1

1. Rhiannon

2. Don’t Stop

3. Go Your Own Way

4. Hold Me

5. Everywhere

6. Gypsy

7. As Long As You Follow

8. Say You Love Me

9. Dreams

10. Little Lies

11. Sara

12. Tusk

13. No Questions Asked

 

CD 2

1. Landslide

2. Big Love

3. Over My Head

4. Oh Diane

5. You Make Loving Fun

6. The Chain

7. Think About Me

8. Seven Wonders

9. Never Going Back Again

10. Silver Springs (Live)

New Music: Easy

           

Graham Norton, legendary Blur's guitarist released "Castle Park" his 9th., studio album and also shares the single "Easy", an adorable tune in which Coxon has been shot wandering typical English streets while playing their guitars, the akbym was recorded during the "A+E" sessions but then Coxon return to Blur and began to touring, after that, another two great projects, the WAEVE band alongside his partner Rose Elinor, so that's the reason behing this album finally saw the lights nearly 15 years after it was recorded. 

New Music: Spin

           

Johnny Marr has shared "Spin" the first single taken from his forthcoming and 5th., album "The Age Of Everything" due out October 2. Marr describes the 10 songs as the most cathartic of his entire career, written in London a developped live during his tour across USA, then recorded in Manchester to capture the joy, energy and tensions of the city, "There is a pressure in today's culture due technology, but seeing it from another perspetiva also could be a sort of possibility, the tune is pretty intense with certain reminds of Electronic. 

Rocktrospectiva: The Influential "JuJu" Turns 45

Released on 19 June 1981 "Juju" was the 4th., studio album by the British rock band Siouxsie and the Banshees. It was recorded at Surrey Sound studio with Nigel Gray as co-producer, and was released on 19 June 1981 by Polydor Records. Two singles were released from Juju: "Spellbound" and "Arabian Knights".

After the slightly electronic bent of their previous album, 1980's Kaleidoscope, Siouxsie and the Banshees returned to a guitar-based sound for Juju, due to the presence of now-official guitarist McGeoch. The album also prominently featured the intricate percussion work of band member Budgie. According to Steven Severin: "Juju was the first time we'd made a "concept" album that drew on darker elements. It wasn't pre-planned, but, as we were writing, we saw a definite thread running through the songs; almost a narrative to the album as a whole".

The album was recorded at co-producer Gray's Surrey Sound studio. There, McGeoch experimented with a rarely used guitar effects device called the Gizmo for the album track "Into the Light". Attached to the guitar's bridge, the Gizmo used keyed wheels to press the strings, giving a McGeoch's guitar the sound of a classical string instrument. For "Arabian Knights", McGeoch transformed a tune by Siouxsie, initially in waltz rhythm, that she had composed on a Vox Teardrop guitar. For "Sin in My Heart", McGeoch used an EBow while playing guitar.

Juju was a post-punk & art rock album, however, Juju has also been cited by certain critics as gothic rock, though the band dispute such categorisation.

Critics praised the album, by observing that Siouxsie's voice "seems to have acquired a new fullness of melody" with "a rich, dark smoothness", others considered that "Juju, might be considered their second best and it remains a critical favourite and is seen as a landmark album of post-punk until now.

 

Juju Track List:  

 

1. Spellbound

2. Into The Light

3. Arabian Knights

4. Halloween

5. Monitor

6. Night Shift

7. Sin In My Heart

8. Head Cut

9. Voodoo Dolly

Released on 18 June 1996 "Odelay" was the 5th., studio album by US musician Beck, The album featured several successful singles, including "Where It's At", "Devils Haircut", and "The New Pollution", and peaked at number sixteen on the Billboard 200. Odelay has been Beck's most successful album to date.  

In 1996, the grunge era was coming to an end. Beck was a small young man with strange hats, who a couple of years earlier had emerged from obscurity with his album "Mellow Gold" and that anthem of the underdogs conceived in the mecca of the invincible, "Loser," defied all the rules of the market with a unique album that would become a fundamentally important and influential piece for everything that followed. 

 

This time, Beck Hansen had a set of melancholic and rather sad folk songs inspired by the death of his grandfather, which were intended to form the fifth studio album of the multi-instrumentalist musician from Los Angeles, California. However, the choice of the Dust Brothers as producers would transform "Odelay" into a completely different album. Like a postmodern collage heralding the end of a millennium or the birth of a new era, 

 

Odelay presents itself to the world as a seemingly nihilistic canvas, yet it is in reality a meticulously detailed and elaborate work, conceived by one of the most brilliant creative minds in the music world of that time. Styles like folk, hip hop, country, lounge, punk, grunge, garage, disco, and noise, along with beatboxing and sampling (ranging from MC5's "I Can Only Give You Everything" to Pretty Purdie's "Song for Aretha," and including tracks by musicians like Mike Milius, Edgar Winter, Joe Thomas, and groups like Them, Sly and The Family Stone, and The Frogs), blend together to create songs like "Devils Haircut," "Hotwax," "Lord Only Knows," "The New Pollution," "Minus," and "Sissyneck" forming an album that, thanks to the constant rotation of its first single, "Where It's At," and its unique and classic video, would sell over 2 million copies, garner mainstream critical acclaim, and turn a guy like Beck into a star in just a few months. 

 

Anecdotes abound, such as the origin of its name: some say the original was "Órale" in honor of his Mexican friends, while others believe it stems from the delay in finishing the album and a play on words, something like "oh… delay." Another story revolves around the cover art: a photo of Beck's girlfriend at the time. Given the musician's apparent disinterest in defining the album's artwork, upon receiving the photo, he simply decided that the image of a Komondor dog (a Hungarian breed with a strange, almost dreadlock-like coat) jumping a baton would be the cover art for his new work, while the printed typography would be chosen by a record label employee.  

 

The album received almost unanimous critical acclaim, some observed that, like Mellow Gold, Odelay incorporated elements from various genres, including folk and country, grungy garage rock, stiff-boned electro, louche exotica, old-school rap and noise rock and also punk rock, bossa nova, Latin soul and mainstream R&B as additional influences.

 

Odelay Track List: 

 

1. Devil's Haircut

2. Hotwax

3. Lord Only Knows

4. The New Pollution

5. Derelict

6. Novacane

7. Jack-Ass

8. Where It's At

9. Minus

10. Sissyneck

11. Readymade

12. High 5 (Rock The Catskills)

13. Ramshackle

Books: Still In A Dream "Shoegaze, Slackers And The Reinvention Of Rock 1984-1994"

The definitive story of the slackers and shoegazers who reinvented rock. Twenty years after his acclaimed postpunk best-seller, Rip It Up and Start Again, Simon Reynolds tells the tale of what happened next: the underground explosion of noisepop, shoegaze, slacker rock and grunge that reverberated through the mid-Eighties into the early Nineties.

Capturing the musical exhilaration of the era along with the alienation of youth during a period of ascendant conservative politics and glitzy mainstream pop, Still in a Dream celebrates a golden age of guitar reinvention, a second psychedelia of mind-blowing sounds pioneered by bands like My Bloody Valentine and Sonic Youth. In Britain, groups like Cocteau Twins and Slowdive escaped into shimmering dreamworlds while American underground rockers like Dinosaur Jr. and Pavement blended apathy and urgency into thrilling noise.

A propulsive and personal account from a journalist who covered this music in real time from the frontlines, Still in a Dream vividly recreates a period that was the last blast for the analogue culture of vinyl records and music papers, before the Internet changed everything. 

 

Title: Still In A Dream: Shoegaze, Slackers And The Reinvention Of Rock 1984-1994

Pages: 464

Author: Simon Reynolds

Publisher: White Rabbit

Format: Hardcover 

 
 

New Music: Whippings And Apologies (Live)

          

Sparks have announced their first full concert LP, Live on the Moon, recorded, they say, during a one-off performance at the Taruntius Crater near Mare Fecunditatis - on the moon. The 20-track album arrives 14 August via Transgressive Records, with Cate Blanchett providing intro and outro as lunar emcee. The album's first taster, "Whippings and Apologies (Live on the Moon)" – taken from their 1972 record A Woofer In Tweeter’s Clothing – is out now. According to the band – Ron and Russell Mael – the lunar concert followed an invitation after their 2025 world tour. They don't specify who invited them. We can guess NASA, or aliens. “Honoured to be the first band to perform on the moon, let alone at the beautiful Taruntius Crater. We couldn’t have imagined the lunar fan interest, with all tickets being grabbed up within an hour, Coordinated Lunar Time (CLT),” the brothers said in a statement. “Thank you, Moon!”

Rocktrospectiva: Placebo's Remarkable Self-Titled Debut Album Turns 30

Released on 17 June 1996 "Placebo" was the self-titled debut studio album by English alternative rock band Placebo. It was the only album recorded with drummer Robert Schultzberg before his departure from the group. The album was a commercial success in the UK, reaching number 5 in the UK Albums Chart. It spawned five singles, "Come Home", "35 Degrees", "Teenage Angst", "Nancy Boy" and "Bruise Pristine". 

Placebo were formed in 1994 with the partnering of Brian Molko (vocals, guitar) and Stefan Olsdal (guitar, bass). At the time, Olsdal was taking guitar lessons and was on his way home when he met Molko at the South Kensington tube station. Molko, observing that Olsdal had a guitar strapped to his back, invited Olsdal to watch him perform at a local bar. On the strength of Molko's performance, Olsdal decided that the two of them should start a band.

The two initially formed Ashtray Heart, a lo-fi duo, playing mostly on children's toy instruments. The duo needed a drummer, and although Steve Hewitt―who would play later with Placebo―was their first choice, he was working with London-based band Breed at the time. This led Robert Schultzberg to assume the position of drummer. Schultzberg had known Olsdal from boarding school in Sigtuna, Sweden where they had played together in a band. 

The newly formed band released the single "Come Home" on Deceptive Records in February 1996. This led to signing a contract with Hut Records and the band began to work on their debut album. Placebo was recorded over two months in 1996 in Dublin and London and was produced by Brad Wood. 

After an argument in August 1996 shortly before their first television appearance, Molko decided that it would be best for the band if Schultzberg left. However, Schultzberg suggested playing together until they finished the promotion for the album, which the rest of band accepted. Before going on stage for their first show in the state of New York, Olsdal informed Schultzberg that he would not perform on the tour in Germany that was following the US tour. Schultzberg played two more shows with the band in Paris after the US tour, the last of which was a performance at "Nulle Part Aillleurs". Molko has said that he was "tired of being the focus of Robert's rages against the world".Schultzberg left the band in September 1996 and was replaced by Hewitt.

Many of the songs on Placebo were written in 1995. Regarding the album's opening track "Come Home", Molko called it "punk pop for postponed suicides", "Teenage Angst" is about the emotions you feel as a teenager and want to have everything kept to yourself and create your own world, while Molko says "Bionic" is "about a robot fuck".

The meaning of the album's fourth song "36 Degrees", either sexual preference or death, caused debate among fans. Molko has stated the title is a play on words regarding the expression "cold blooded", as the average human body temperature is 37 °C (99 °F). Molko has stated the song's inspiration came from his fascination with skin texture and the warmth of other human bodies; moreover, he originally intended to call the album Body Politic. "Hang on to Your IQ" wa about self-deprecation regarding intelligence. Molko has stated it is the most "story-like" song on the album: "The person [in the song] is having a breakdown about every physical and emotional thing they could feel." "Nancy Boy" differed from previous songs' themes about drugs, sex, gender confusion and bisexuality.

The track "Lady of the Flowers" was influenced by Jean Genet's debut novel Our Lady of the Flowers which Genet wrote for his own entertainment whilst in prison. Molko states the song "Swallow" was inspired by an acid trip Molko and Olsdal had, saying it was never written in a state of reality. Initial pressings of the CD included "H.K. Farewell" as a hidden track which began playing approximately 10 minutes after the end of "Swallow". 

On 23 June 2012, it emerged that the boy photographed for the album cover, David Fox (shown wearing a red jumper and pulling his face downward), was threatening to sue the band for "ruining" his life. His cousin Saul Fletcher had taken the photo. Fox claims he was quite popular at the time and that when the album came out everyone bullied him.

The inserts for the album feature another picture of the boy on the cover and a very small picture of the band. The rest of it is green or blue paper, with no lyrics. The reason for this is that Molko did not want people to focus on the liner, but rather the music itself.

The album has been called  "dangerous, mysterious and utterly addictive" and established the trio as a strong contender in the Britpop scene." Others considered the album as a melting pot of various influences – the epic, noisy 'Chicago sound", late-'70s prog rock and late-'80s 'college rock'.

 

Placebo Track List:  

 

1. Come Home

2. Teenage Angst

3. Bionic

4. 36 Degrees

5. Hang On To Your IQ

6. Nancy Boy

7. I Know

8. Bruise Pristine

9. Lady Of The Flowers

10. Swallow (ends at 4:54; hidden track "H. K. Farewell" starts at 14:51)

New Music: Concept Of Love

           

The London collective Ibibio Sound Machine has made a dizzy, cross-cultural form of party music, rooted both in disco and in the Afrobeat that frontwoman Eno Williams grew up with. Now, the collective are ready to announce Chopping Mountain, a new album that's coming later this summer. Ibibio Sound Machine recorded the follow-up to 2024's Pull The Rope at their own South London studios. After they worked with outside collaborators on their last couple of LPs, this one sees band member Max Grunhard once again acting as producer, a role he last occupied on 2019's Doko Mien. Their new single "Concept Of Love" is a dizzy, joyous, robo-funk celebration in which Eno Williams switches back and forth between the English and Ibibio languages. She says that the song "went through many different stages and ended with a soulful, electronic Afro-disco feel. 

Primicia: Otherside (live)

           

Beth Orton has shared her new song "Otherside". The acclaimed songwriter's new album "The Ground Above" represents Beth Orton's first full length endeavour in a number of years, and it's a very special release. Previewing the material at an intimate UK tour – including London’s St Pancras Old Church – Beth Orton served signal of her intent. With "Otherside," what began as a not so simple tale of sleeplessness went on to have me turning over bigger themes, those of resilience in the face of loss, what freedom means to the individual and the collective; the ability to start again and make beautiful a life when it has been torn apart. An embodiment of what it feels like to implore a loved one home, to make it through the night, or to make it through a day, to make good what we dare to dream.” the track comes with a performance clip video directed by Iain and Jane Pollard & Joseph Lynn introducing her live band in the process.

Rocktrospectiva: The Acclaimed Masterpiece "The Queen Is Dead" Turns 40

Released on 16 June 1986 "The Queen Is Dead" was the 3rd., studio album by the English rock band The Smiths, the album was produced by Morrissey and Marr, with engineering by Stephen Street; its music blends indie rock and post-punk. Recording for the album took place between July 1985 and December of that year, with sessions held at RAK Studios in London, Jacobs Studios in Farnham and Drone Studios in Manchester. The album spanwed three singles "The Boy With The Thorn In His Side", "Bigmouth Strikes Again", & "There Is A Light That Never Goes Out."

The Queen Is Dead spent 22 weeks on the UK Albums Chart, peaking at number two. It reached number 70 on the US Billboard Top Pop Albums chart. The album received widespread critical acclaim, praised for Marr's guitar work and Morrissey's witty and emotional lyricism. It has been included in multiple lists of the greatest albums of all time.

Following the completion of Meat Is Murder in December 1984, guitarist Johnny Marr began developing new ideas for the Smiths' next album. In early 1985, the band returned to Greater Manchester, with Morrissey settling in Hale and Marr purchasing a home in Bowdon; the latter served as a writing base for the band. Marr described this period as an attempt to "shut out the outside world" and focus creatively, distancing themselves from the pressures of London and their record label. 

The Queen Is Dead was developed over a period of more than eighteen months, from its earliest musical sketches to its release. The album was produced by Morrissey and Marr, working predominantly with engineer Stephen Street, who had engineered the band's 1985 album Meat Is Murder. The three shared a strong bond in the studio, helped by their similar ages and interests, which created a relaxed atmosphere. At the time the band was having difficulty with its record label Rough Trade Records. However, according to Street, "this didn't get in the way of recording because the atmosphere in the studio was very, very constructive". The first song from the album to be completed, "The Boy with the Thorn in His Side", was recorded at Drone Studios in Manchester in July 1985. Marr later recalled composing the song's melody while riding a bus during the Meat Is Murder tour. "Frankly, Mr. Shankly", "I Know It's Over" and "There Is a Light That Never Goes Out" were written by Morrissey and Marr in a "marathon" writing session in the late summer of 1985 at Marr's home in Bowdon.

In August 1985, "Bigmouth Strikes Again" and "Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others" were recorded at RAK Studios in London, along with the B-sides to "The Boy with the Thorn in His Side"; "Asleep" and "Rubber Ring". Kirsty MacColl sang a backing vocal for "Bigmouth Strikes Again" but her take was deemed to be "really weird" by Marr, and was replaced with a sped-up vocal by Morrissey in the final mix, processed by Street who ran his voice through a harmoniser. The same vocal manipulation was performed for "The Queen Is Dead", and both were attributed to "Ann Coates" on the record sleeve (Ancoats is a district in Manchester, just north-east of the city centre). Morrissey liked to experiment with effects on his voice, but he rarely used backing vocals or harmonies aside from the harmoniser, though he enjoyed experimenting during sessions. "Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others" has an opening which fades in, out, and back again. This effect was devised by Street, who aimed to create a mix that sounded similar to a door closing and opening again.

During the same session, a first version of "Never Had No One Ever" was recorded. The said track, completed in August 1985, was based on an instrumental demo which Marr had recorded in December 1984. Marr described the track's atmosphere as representative of the album's overall mood and recording experience. According to Marr, "Cemetry Gates" originated during an informal writing session in his kitchen with Morrissey. Marr recalled that he was uncertain about the song and had considered discarding it, but Morrissey responded enthusiastically. Marr described the creative process as coming together "effortlessly and easy". "The Boy with the Thorn in His Side", "Bigmouth Strikes Again" and "Frankly, Mr. Shankly" were debuted live during a tour of Scotland in September and October 1985, while "The Queen Is Dead" and "There Is a Light That Never Goes Out" were played during a soundcheck. 

The bulk of the album was recorded in the winter of 1985 at Jacobs Studios in Farnham, under the working title "Margaret on the Guillotine", which was later used for Morrissey's song about Margaret Thatcher from his 1988 album Viva Hate. "Frankly, Mr. Shankly" was an attempt to recreate the "vibe" of Sandie Shaw's "Puppet on a String", although "it didn't quite work out that way", according to Marr. Linda McCartney was asked to play piano on the track, but declined, and a first take featuring a trumpeter was scrapped.

The album title is taken from American writer Hubert Selby Jr.'s 1964 novel, Last Exit to Brooklyn. The cover of The Queen Is Dead features a still of French actor Alain Delon from the 1964 film The Unvanquished. Delon granted permission for the image's use, though according to Morrissey's Autobiography, the actor mentioned that his parents were dismayed by the album's title.

Music critics have categorised The Queen Is Dead as an indie rock, jangle pop and post-punk recording. Marr was heavily influenced by the Stooges and the Rolling Stones while crafting the album. A central thematic tension in the album is the interplay between melancholy and other emotions. Humour, anger and joy are also notable concepts throughout the album. Morrissey's lyrics were praised for their wit and sensitivity, noting his ability to craft both humorous and genuinely moving lines. The album has been considered an acclaimed masterpiece and one of the best and finest albums in music history. 

 

The Queen Is Dead Track List: 

 

1. The Queen Is Dead (includes Take Me Back To Dear Old Blighty (medley)

2. Frankly, Mr. Shankly

3. I Know It's Over

4. Never Had No One Ever

5. Cemetry Gates

6. Bigmouth Strikes Again

7. The Boy With The Thorn In His Side

8. Vicar In A Tutu

9. There Is A Lifht That Never Goes Out

10. Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others