Rocktrospectiva: The Underrated "Villains" Turns 30

Released on 26 March 1996 "Villains" was the 3rd., and first major label release by US alternative rock  band the Verve Pipe. The album contained the band's first hit single, "Photograph", which peaked in the top 10 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks. A year after the release of the album, a reformatted version of "The Freshmen" peaked at number 1 on the Modern Rock Tracks chart. The single was also the band's sole appearance in the top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100, where it peaked at number 5. The success of the song helped this album go Platinum.Other singles taken from the album were "Cup Of Tea" & "Villains". The album remains the Verve Pipe's best-selling album. 

The Verve Pipe made their major-label debut under the direction of producer Jerry Harrison with Villains, recasting themselves in the inauspicious mold of a post-grunge act. On an initial listen, the album does little to distinguish itself from the masses, though patient revisiting reveals a band of more depth, with Brian Vander Ark's songwriting improving vastly over previous albums and more subtle aspects, like the tasteful organic keyboard arrangements, actually adding texture and dimension to the sound. The band seemed to acknowledge the misstep by re-recording "The Freshmen" for single release and subsequent pressings, which ultimately earned them their first national hit. With a raw anger in the vocals and melancholy instrumentation, this  easy album was perfect to relax to or sulk in a depressive state. The interesting  song "Villains" was a comment on the negativity and glorification of criminals on the news which represents the album as a whole, covering dark and depressing themes. In particular many songs on the album were heartbreaking and somber. "The Freshmen" one of the most remarkable songs ever written served as a climax of heartbreak, and the closer "Veneer" which was a sort of fading away and slow death, a fanfare with combined voices, everything fades away as the end comes near.

Considered it a very underrated album and one of the most ideal late 90s post-grunge/alternative rock records ever emerged. Unfortunately the band didn't get enough recognition but at least dropped their mark in the alternative music scene post grunge of the end of the 90s

 

Villains Track List:  

 

1. Barely (If At All)

2. Drive You Mild

3. Villains

4. Reverend Girl

5. Cup Of Tea

6. Myself

7. The Freshmen

8. Photograph

9. Ominous Man

10. Real

11. Penny Is Poison

12. Cattle

13. Veneer 

Rocktrospectiva: The Mature And Edgy "Candy Apple Grey" Turns 40

 

Released on 17 March 1986 "Candy Apple Grey" was the 5th., studio album by the US indie rock band Hüsker Dü, released through Warner Bros. Records. It was the band's first major label release, though Warner Bros. had lobbied to release Flip Your Wig until the band decided to let SST Records have it. The album spawned two singles "Don't Want To Know If You Are Lonely" & "Sorry Somehow". 

Candy Apple Grey also marked the completion of the band's transition from hardcore punk to a more well-rounded sonic style which would later come to be known as alternative rock. As usual, Bob Mould and Grant Hart individually wrote tracks on the album. While the band's earlier, more frenetic style is still evident, Another interesting featured was that the band move into a  more introverted, toned-down material, including a relatively large amount of acoustic guitar, although the production was more full-bodied than Spot's razor-thin work. 

Much of Candy Apple Grey chargeed along on the same frenzied beat that propelled New Day Rising and Flip Your Wig, and both Bob Mould and Grant Hart  were in fine form, spinning out fine punk-pop with "Sorry Somehow" and "Don't Want to Know If You Are Lonely." However, the sound was beginning to seem a bit tired, which is what maked Mould's two acoustic numbers, "Too Far Down" and "Hardly Getting Over It," so welcome. The opening track “Crystal” was a mind boggling scream fest by Mould that is one of the more challenging songs the band ever did. However, a lot of the album was indeed more accessible than the Husker Du of old, but it’s a natural progression rather than a forced one. "Eifel Tower High" was equally as successful, and continued Mould’s unique songwriting structure. 

The singles released from this album were "Don't Want to Know If You Are Lonely" and "Sorry Somehow", both written and sung by Hart. The latter was accompanied by a promotional video which earned airtime on MTV. Indeed "Candy Apple Grey" was the first Hüsker Dü album to chart on the Billboard Top 200, but despite receiving exposure on radio as well as MTV, it peaked at No. 140. 

 

Candy Apple Grey Track List:  

 

1. Crystal

2. Don't Want To Know If You Are Lonely

3. I Don't Know For Sure

4. Sorry Somehow

5. Too Far Down

6. Hardly Getting Over It

7. Dead Set On Destruction

8. Eiffel Tower High

9. No Promise Have I Made

10. All This I've Done For You 

New Music: Sliced By A Fingernail

           

Dry Cleaning have released a new single, "Sliced By a Fingernail." The song comes with an unsettling visualizer by Bullyache, where a dancer takes frontperson Florence Shaw's lyrics quite literally—"Do a headspin / When it's a grubby round ball, grubby round ball"—by... spinning their head in circles on top of a basement washing machine?. The track was inspired by illustrator Jooyoung Kim's Welcome to My Life, a humorous picture book about a dog with a long body. "A lot of attention makes them feel sliced up. So they fantasize about being hidden inside a huge flower bud and about being anonymous in a crowd at night,"nt. 

New Music: Wired

            

Basement have been making waves over the past few years. They have toured consistently with fantastic bands on both headline tours and support tours for behemoths like Turnstile, and also headlined the coveted Outbreak festival in 2024. Now Basement have returned with two singles but we are focused on this "Wired" contain not only the essence of their songwriting, snappy and immediate riffs with a foreboding sense of urgency, only amplified by the relentless hardcore adjacent drums that are expertly coupled with the forlorn and scathing lyricism to create a perfect dichotomy of sound, but a distinct evolution in the mixing and general sound. Both of these tracks sound inherently alive, both with individual identities carried by the heartbeat of the group’s creativity. "Wired" is an expertly dialled-in track that hits top speed before the light has changed. Its shrill and speedy chord progression kicks us into overdrive immediately, keeping the intensity sky high as the distinct and biting vocals begin to viciously serenade the rest of the band as they carry through the verses with haste and break into an explosive pre-chorus, rife with lead lines and vicious blasts of the snare drum. This is basement at its best, and if this is the tempo that they continue to carry forward at, this will no doubt be a huge album for the Ipswich five-piece, the video was directed by Ashley Rommelrath

 

Rocktrospectiva: The Massive And Aclaimed "Joyride" Turns 35

Released on 28 March 1991 "Joyride" was the 3rd., studio album by Swedish pop rock duo Roxette, the album was the follow-up to their international breakthrough Look Sharp! (1988), as well as the non-album single "It Must Have Been Love", from the soundtrack to Pretty Woman (1990). The album spawned five singles "Joyride", "Fading Like A Flower (Every Time You Leave)", "The Big L", "Spending My Time" & "Church Of Your Heart". 

The album was recorded over an 11-month period in Sweden. The duo experienced considerable pressure from their record label to deliver a successful follow-up album, and resisted pressure to relocate to Los Angeles and work with experienced American producers.Fortunately for the duo, the album was a critical and commercial success upon release.

Roxette's primary songwriter, Per Gessle, began work on the album in February 1990 at the Tits & Ass recording studio in Halmstad—which he co-founded in 1984 with his then-Gyllene Tider bandmate, lead guitarist Mats "MP" Persson. The pair recorded rough demo versions of ten songs over a three-week period, after which they were joined by vocalist Marie Fredriksson, who then provided input on re-arranging some of the material. By the end of April, the three had completed work on over twenty-five demos.

Work was transferred to EMI Studios in Stockholm in May, where Gessle and Fredriksson were joined by producer Clarence Öfwerman. With the success of previous album Look Sharp! (1988) and its singles, as well as the non-album single "It Must Have Been Love", the duo resisted pressure from record company EMI to relocate to Los Angeles and work with American producers and musicians, opting instead to "develop our own sound" with the Swedish musicians they had worked with previously. 

Gessle has described the pressure to deliver a successful follow-up album as "intense", with EMI investing almost US$2 million on pre-release promotion for Joyride. Gessle later said that he wrote the album with the intention of it sounding "like a greatest hits record. ... It was never a given that Joyride was gonna be a major success just because Look Sharp! sold millions. We were lucky that the Pretty Woman movie happened in between those albums, so the world never got the chance to forget about us! I knew that Joyride had to be really focused with lots of single 'wannabes', so I think I wrote about 30 songs to make it happen. It was fun. All of us were very motivated.

All of the lyrics on the album were written by Gessle, who also composed the majority of its music—with the exception of "Spending My Time", "(Do You Get) Excited?" and "Perfect Day", which were co-composed with Persson; Fredriksson co-wrote the music to one of the album's louder rock songs, "Hotblooded", and is the sole composer of ballad "Watercolors in the Rain". She composed its music using lyrics which were written several years prior by Gessle, who expressed interest in the pair composing this way more regularly on future material, saying: "When it's happening like that [me writing lyrics and Marie composing music], it makes Roxette even better because it widens up what we can do, what kind of music we can make, even more. So I think she should write more." Her limited input in the songwriting of Roxette material stemmed from difficulty with writing English lyrics: she has said that it "feels very strange to write in another language." The song is more folk-orientated than any material previously recorded by the duo, and is indicative of Fredriksson's Swedish-language solo work. 

The title track was released as the album's first single. It became one of Roxette's biggest ever hits, and was one of the most successful singles of 1991. It was the duo's first number one single in their home country, and topped the charts in numerous other territories. The song spent eight weeks at number one in Germany, "Fading Like a Flower (Every Time You Leave)" was released as the second single. It also became a hit, particularly in North America, where it peaked at number two in both Canada and on the US Billboard Hot 100—held off the top spot in both countries by Bryan Adams' "(Everything I Do) I Do It for You". "The Big L." was released as the third single outside of North America in August, peaking within the top twenty of numerous territories.

The end of 1991 saw the merger of the SBK, Chrysalis and EMI record labels to form EMI Records Group North America. The merger resulted in the new company firing over a hundred members of staff, and saw Roxette receiving little support from their new label. Subsequent singles from the album, "Spending My Time" and "Church of Your Heart", peaked at numbers thirty-two and thirty-six, respectively, on the Billboard Hot 100—in stark contrast to the duo's previous five singles which all peaked within the top two of the chart.

The album received generally positive reviews from music critics, by calling the record the work of "two pop artists at the top of their game", and praised the album's consistency, others compared the band to ABBA, calling them "worthy successors to the tradition of air-headed catchiness set down by their fellow Swedish pop tarts", and complimented the album for an abundance of hooks, by emphasizing its sense of personality, Roxette delivered more than just well-constructed hooks; this music had heart, something that made even the catchiest melody more appealing."

 

Joyride Track List: 

 

1. Joyride

2. Hotblooded

3. Fading Like A Flower (Every Time You Leave)

4. Knockin' On Every Door

5. Spending My Time

6. I Remember You

7. Watercolours In The Rain

8. The Big L.

9. Soul Deep

10. (Do You Get) Excited?

11. Church Of Your Heart

12. Small Talk

13. Physical Fascination

14. Things Will Never Be The Same

15. Perfect Day&

Rocktrospectiva: The Vigorous And Innovatie "Discovery" Turns 25

Released on 12 March 2001 "Discovery" was the 2nd., studio album by the French electronic music duo Daft Punk. It marked a shift from the Chicago house style of their first album, Homework, to a house style more heavily inspired by disco, post-disco, garage house, and R&B. Thomas Bangalter of Daft Punk described Discovery as an exploration of song structures, musical forms and childhood nostalgia, compared to the "raw" electronic music of Homework.

Discovery was recorded at Bangalter's home in Paris between 1998 and 2000. It features extensive sampling; some samples are from older records, while others were created by Daft Punk. The electronic musicians Romanthony, Todd Edwards, and DJ Sneak collaborated on some tracks. For the music videos, Daft Punk developed a concept involving the merging of science fiction with the entertainment industry. Inspired by their childhood love for Japanese anime, the duo collaborated with Leiji Matsumoto to produce Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem, an anime film with Discovery as the soundtrack. The album produced six singles: "One More Time" was the most successful and became a club hit, and also "Aerodynamic", "Digital Love", "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger", "Face To Face", & "Something About Us".

Daft Punk recorded Discovery in their studio, Daft House, in Bangalter's home in Paris. Work started in 1998 and lasted two years. Bangalter and Homem-Christo made music together and separately, in a similar process to Homework. Rather than rely on the drum machines typical for house music, the Roland TR-808 and the TR-909, Daft Punk used an Oberheim DMX, a LinnDrum and a Sequential Circuits Drumtraks. They used samplers including the Akai MPC and E-mu SP-1200, Fender Rhodes and Wurlitzer electric pianos, vocoders including a Roland SVC-350 and a DigiTech Vocalist, and various phaser effects. They used the pitch-correcting software Auto-Tune on vocals "in a way it wasn't designed to work". Bangalter said: "We're interested in making things sound like something other than what they are. There are guitars that sound like synthesizers, and there are synthesizers that sound like guitars."

Described as a concept album, "Discovery" relates strongly to Daft Punk's childhood memories, incorporating their love of cinema and character. Bangalter said it deals with the duo's experiences growing up in the decade between 1975 and 1985, rather than it just being a tribute to the music of that period. The record was designed to reflect a playful, honest and open-minded attitude toward listening to music. Bangalter compared it to the state of childhood when one does not judge or analyse music. Bangalter noted the stylistic approach was in contrast to that of their previous effort. "Homework [...] was a way to say to the rock kids, like, 'Electronic music is cool'. Discovery was the opposite, of saying to the electronic kids, 'Rock is cool, you know? You can like that.'" He elaborated that Homework had been "a rough and raw thing" focused on sound production and texture; in contrast, the goal of Discovery was to explore song structures and new musical forms, which was inspired by Aphex Twin's "Windowlicker".

The opening track, "One More Time", featured heavily Auto-Tuned and compressed vocals from Romanthony. "Aerodynamic" had a funk groove, an electric guitar solo, and ends with a separate "spacier" electronic segment. The arpeggiated solo was compared to Yngwie Malmsteen, "Digital Love" contains a solo performed on Wurlitzer piano, vintage synthesisers and sequencers; it incorporates elements of pop, new wave, jazz, funk and disco. "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" was an electro song. It is followed by "Crescendolls", an instrumental. "Nightvision" was an ambient track. "Superheroes" leaned toward the "acid minimalism" of Homework. It begins with a drum roll and includes arpeggios that are said to resemble those in the soundtrack to the 1980 film Flash Gordon. "High Life" was built over a "gibberish" vocal sample and contains an organ-like section."Something About Us" was a downtempo song, with digitally processed vocals and lounge rhythms.

"Voyager" had guitar riffs, harp-like 80s synths, and a funky bassline. "Veridis Quo" was a "faux-orchestral" synthesiser baroque song; according to Angus Harrison, its title is a pun on the words "very disco". "Short Circuit" was an electro-R&B song with breakbeats and programmed drum patterns. "Face to Face" was a dance-pop song featuring vocals from Todd Edwards and was more pop-oriented than the other tracks on Discovery. "Too Long", the final track, was a ten-minute-long electro-R&B song.

Discovery used a number of samples. The liner notes credit samples from "I Love You More" by George Duke on "Digital Love", "Cola Bottle Baby" by Edwin Birdsong on "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger", "Can You Imagine" by The Imperials on "Crescendolls", and "Who's Been Sleeping In My Bed" by Barry Manilow on "Superheroes". "One More Time" contains a sample of the 1979 disco song "More Spell on You" by Eddie Johns. Daft Punk pay royalties to the publishing company that owns the rights, but Johns has never been located; as of 2021, he was owed an estimated "six-to-seven-figure sum" based on streams. Edwards recalled that he and Daft Punk curated 70 samples each to incorporate into "Face to Face".

The ideas for music videos formed during the early Discovery recording sessions. The album was originally intended to be accompanied by "a live-action film with each song being a part of the film", according to Todd Edwards. Daft Punk decided instead to concentrate on an anime production. Their concept involved the merging of science fiction with entertainment industry culture. The duo recalled watching Japanese anime as children, including favourites such as Captain Harlock, Grendizer, and Candy Candy. Daft Punk brought the album and the completed story to Tokyo in the hope of creating the film with their childhood hero, Leiji Matsumoto, who had created Captain Harlock. After Matsumoto joined the team as visual supervisor, Shinji Shimizu had been contacted to produce the animation and Kazuhisa Takenouchi to direct the film. With the translation coordination of Tamiyuki "Spike" Sugiyama, production began in October 2000 and ended in April 2003. The result of the collaboration was an anime film, Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem, which features the entirety of Discovery as the soundtrack. 

Discovery has continued to accumulate praise since, being widely regarded as among the greatest albums of all time, and is credited for its influence on electronic and pop production over subsequent decades.

 

Discovery Track List: 

 

1. One More Time

2. Aerodynamic

3. Digital Love

4. Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger

5. Crescendolls

6. Nightvision

7. Superheroes

8. High Life

9. Something About Us

10. Voyager

11. Veridis Quo

12. Short Circuit

13. Face To Face

14. Too Long

Rocktrospectiva: The Notable And Commercially Succesful "Strange Free World" Turns 35

Released on 19 February 1991 "Strange Free World" was the 2nd., studio album by British alternative rock band Kitchens of Distinction. It was the follow-up to their 1989 debut Love Is Hell. Noted producer Hugh Jones, who worked with Echo & the Bunnymen helped the band to sound more at ease in the studio. The album spawned two singles "Quick As Rainbows" & "Drive That Fast".

With the help of noted producer Hugh Jones, the Kitchens sounded and felt more comfortable with the studio and just plain bigger. The amazing opener, "Railwayed," started with a sweet, echoed guitar riff aiming for the heavens above a brisk rhythm exchange then kicks into a catchy chorus. Following that, the re-recording of their early single "Quick as Rainbows" turned out even better, combining a great lyric melody, reflecting on a person's inability to find love, delivered with Fitzgerald's trademark dry yet emotional voice -- with ripping music, building higher and higher as the song goes until Swales' guitar beautifully explodes over everything down to the final angry lyric. 

Fitzgerald's gay-themed lyrics seemed almost more urgent and in many ways more powerful as on the forceful declaration of "Gorgeous Love" in the face of homophobia and in the sad, angry reflection on the past captured only in "Polaroids."  Musically, the tunes were quite ambitious in many ways, often steering away from conventional verse-chorus-verse formulas; "Aspray" was a fine example, ending with a repeated chant of "Beach/Burned/Nausea!" while guitars crashed like waves. World ends excellently, with the band's best tune, "Drive that Fast"(a hymn to escape and self-determination that charges forward and takes no prisoners, leading into the love-drunk "Within the Daze of Passion" and the slower-paced but still big-sounding "Under the Sky, Inside the Sea," with trumpets by Kick Horns member Roddy Lorimar. 

Considered one of the best 50 shoegaze album of all time, the album was an excellent effort at the time for the band and due of this, the record was  considered one of the group's best works, as well as possibly its most popular and commercially successful, peaking at number 45 on the UK Albums Chart. The album also includes their first UK charting single "Drive That Fast," which peaked at number 93 on the UK singles chart. 

 

Strange Free World Track List:  

 

1. Railwayed

2. Quick As Rainbows

3. Hypnogogic

4. He Holds Her, He Needs Her

5. Polaroids

6. Gorgeous Love

7. Aspray

8. Drive That Fast

9. Within The Daze Of Passion

10. Under The Sky, Inside The Sea

New Music: Automatic

           

Jessie Ware shares new single, the smooth "Automatic" taken from the artist forthcoming new album "Superbloom". This the third single taken from Jessie Ware’s hotly anticipated sixth studio album, Featuring the dulcet tones of Euphoria actor Colman Domingo, ‘Automatic’ was co-written with Kamille, Karma Kid and Baz and leans into the soulful '70s disco sound Ware has made her own in recent years. Explaning how the collaboration with Domingo came about, Ware says, “‘Automatic’ was the first song where I really felt like I was bringing the dance and soul world together for this album. I wrote it with Kamille, Karma Kid and Baz. Karma had this amazing sample and groove, and it all clicked instantly. Kamille and I couldn't stop writing; it just flowed really naturally. That's probably what I love most about it, it feels effortless and like it can exist in any setting. It's a celebration of romance and connection. 

Rocktrospectiva: The Influential Masterpiece "Black Celebration" Turns 40

Released on 17 March 1986 "Black Celebration" was the 5th., studio album by the English electronic music band Depeche Mode, it was produced by Depeche Mode, Daniel Miller and Gareth Jones. At the prompting of Miller, the band recorded the album using the "live the album" ethos inspired by the film director Werner Herzog, which led to considerable tension between the band and both Miller and Jones, resulting in neither being involved in the production of subsequent Depeche Mode albums.

The album was promoted by the singles "Stripped", "A Question of Lust", and "A Question of Time". In the US, "But Not Tonight" was released as a single instead of "Stripped". In support of the album, Depeche Mode embarked on the five-month-long Black Celebration Tour across Europe, North America, and Japan, which ran from early to mid-1986.

After touring through July 1985 in support of their previous album Some Great Reward (1984). Depeche Mode released two compilation albums in late 1985, The Singles 81→85 in the UK in October, and Catching Up with Depeche Mode in the US in November. Both albums included two new tracks which were both issued as singles, "Shake the Disease" (single released April 1985) and "It's Called a Heart" (single released September 1985). On a personal level, singer Dave Gahan married his partner Jo Fox, songwriter Martin Gore was still living in West Berlin with his girlfriend Christina Friedrich, and Andy Fletcher and Alan Wilder had moved in with their girlfriends, Grainne Mullen and Jeri Young, respectively, in London. However, after their exhausting year of touring and recording, the band found themselves at odds when they reunited. Tensions within the band and their producer Daniel Miller had already come up during recording sessions earlier that year for "Shake the Disease".

Said Gahan, "If we were ever going to split up the band it was at the end of 1985. We were really in a state of turmoil. Constant arguing. Very intense. We weren't really sure where to go [musically] after Some Great Reward, so we decided to slow things down. But it left us with too much time on our hands. So we spent most of our time arguing. Sometimes, it seems incredible that we came out of that period with the band and our sanity intact." The inter-personal conflict within what was normally a tight-knit group led Gore to hide away with a friend at a farm for a week, with Gore later saying "I freaked out. I had to go away for a few days." Ultimately, the band agreed to reconvene in London in November to try to record their new material.

Depeche Mode entered Westside Studios in London in the first week of November 1985 to start recording their new album. In starting to work on the new album, producer Miller said that he "was a bit frustrated because [he] couldn't get the guys to think about working in different ways," and to that end, Miller asked the band to attend the studio every day to work on the production to "live the album", wanting "a kind of intensity". Miller was inspired by the history of German film director Werner Herzog, saying that Herzog had made historical films "and [the people involved in production of the movies] really lived the films, and it was a very intense way of working." The band agreed to this approach, and Gore moved back to London from West Germany, where he had been living since the Some Great Reward recording sessions of 1983–84.

Typical of Depeche Mode's previous few albums, Gore arrived at the sessions with demos of new songs for the album, and, determined to make their new album "a lot heavier, harder and darker [than their previous album]", brought in demos that were less structured and formal than he had in the past. Miller and the band's label, Mute Records, upon hearing the demos, were concerned about the morbid, slow demos, and worried that they lacked any radio-friendly singles. After a week-long standoff, Miller and the label relented, allowing the band to "make the record you want to make." This stand-off preceded a tense 120 days in the studio, with the band and producers working 14 hours a day to complete the album, with few days off. Adding to the tension was that both Miller and Gareth Jones returned in their production roles from the band's previous album, but alongside them was now Alan Wilder, who had grown into production responsibilities for their music over the past few years. With three co-producers sharing space at the production desk, Miller said "Alan [Wilder] was becoming very adept in that studio-bod role which I'd filled before. That left my own position less defined but I still had a very strong point of view. I think that created a lot of tension." 

In addition, the entire group worked under tight timelines, intending to finish recording and mixing all their material, as well as completing all artwork for their album and singles, by Christmas 1985, although they missed this deadline and ended up working into the first few months of 1986. Years later, Miller remembered that the Black Celebration sessions "turned in a nightmare ... There was definitely tension in the studio" as a result of the "live the album" ethos of recording. Alan Wilder said that the way the album was made, combined with Miller's brooding and Gore's dark songs, resulted in an "underlying darkness" in the material they created. In an attempt to cope with the stress of the album's production, the band and production crew smoked a lot of marijuana while recording the album, and this instilled a feeling of paranoia in the sessions.

The band continued to use new, bespoke sampled sounds while recording Black Celebration, fed into the Synclavier the band had used on their previous two albums. Andy Fletcher said "we had this theory at the time that every sound must be different and you must never use the same sound twice."

By the end of their recording sessions, the band and producers Jones and Miller had moved back to Hansa Studios in West Berlin. Despite all the tension, Wilder later said that "the album's claustrophobic feel was probably down to the tension. I think it did add a chemistry to the sound of the record, more than any others we have done. It's one of my favourite records we have ever made."

One of the first songs the band recorded was "Stripped", which, according to Wilder, was one of the few songs that was "easy" to record for the album. "Stripped" incorporated the sound of Gahan's idling Porsche 911 and of a bottle rocket,

Wilder spoke about the way they approached sampling for the album, using the track "It Doesn't Matter Two" as an example: "There are a lot of choir samples on that. It would have been very easy to take just one sample and play it back polyphonically. But instead, we took a different sample for each choir note, so each note is slightly out from the others. It gives it a very realistic feel. We spent a long time getting that to work, so that it sounded human. That goes for all the stuff we do, not just that one track." Lyrically, Gore summarized "It Doesn't Matter Two" as a "very desperate [song]. Very very morbid." Of "Sometimes", he described it as "about someone who questions their surroundings and ends up becoming tiring and embarrassing and over apologetic." "Fly on the Windscreen", which was the b-side to Depeche Mode's previous single, "It's Called a Heart", was deemed by the band to be "too good" to remain just a b-side, so it was re-mixed and included on the album. Title song "Black Celebration" started with Miller's distorted voice saying the phrase "A brief period of rejoicing", taken from Winston Churchill's 8 May 1945 speech after the surrender of Germany to end World War II in Europe.

By 19 November 1985, the band was recording "A Question of Lust", one of four Gore-sung songs on the record, an all-time high for any Depeche Mode album to date. Alongside "Lust", Gore sang lead vocals on "Sometimes", "It Doesn't Matter Two" and "World Full of Nothing", saying "we've noticed that my voice is more suited to the softer and slower songs than Dave's [Gahan]". After a single day off for New Year's Day 1986, the band returned to the studio, and on 14 January 1986 they had mixed the album track "World Full of Nothing" as well as recorded and mixed one of the album's B-sides. 

The album continued to be a transition album for Wilder, whose final songwriting credit with the band was the instrumental B-side "Christmas Island"; after Black Celebration Wilder continued to transition to spend more time arranging and performing songs and producing and engineering the band's sound. Years later, Wilder said he stopped songwriting for the band because it didn't come naturally to him, and he struggled with the lyrics, saying "My interest is more about atmosphere and production and editing and all the other things."

The title "Black Celebration" was not a reference to Black mass or rituals of the Occult, but rather, it was meant to "[describe] the daily boredom of a dreary life without climaxes or hope for improvement." Said Gore, "Our songs from Black Celebration capture the idea: Make the most of what you have, and find consolation whereever you can." Gahan elaborated, "it's a common thing: at the end of a working day you go out and drown your sorrows no matter how shitty you feel or how bleak your future looks."

Reviews for Black Celebration in the British press were mixed. Some found Gore's lyrics "adolescent" and the record's overall mood "dark yet faintly ridiculous", conceded that "within their own parameters, Depeche Mode created a resonant, if undemonstrative techno-pop tapestry" with "a rich textured sheen that is not without a certain depth." He added, "When the songs address topics other than the composer's state of mind, others were impressed by the album's "weirder" approach of mixing "dark, mysterious percussive" songs and "sweet, fragile and rather sinister ballads". In the years to come Black Celebration has since been reappraised in retrospective reviews, some considered it a transitional work for Depeche Mode, moving away from their earlier "industrial-pop" sound and towards "a path that in many ways defined their sound to the present: emotionally extreme lyrics matched with amped-up tunes, as much anthemic rock as they are compelling dance, along with stark, low-key ballads." 

 

Black Celebration Track List:  

 

1. Black Celebration

2. Fly On The Windscreen - Final

3. A Question Of Lust

4. Sometimes

5. It Doesn't Matter Two

6. A Question Of Time

7. Stripped

8. Here Is The House

9. World Full Of Nothing

10. Dressed In Black

11. New Dress

12. Breathing In Fumes

13. But Not Tonight 

14. Black Day

News: Erasure/Blancmange Project Doublespeak To Release Debut Album

Doublespeak – a new collaboration between Erasure's Vince Clarke, Blancmange's Neil Arthur and electronic producer-writer Benge – will release their self-titled debut album in May.

Arthur and Clarke first worked together back in the '80s, when the Blancmange man contributed an unused song to Clarke's short-lived project The Assembly. In 2017, Arthur approached Clarke with the idea for Doublespeak, pitching a collection of covers of artists including Young Marble Giants, ABBA, The Carpenters and David Essex using analogue electronics. Bengle – producer of the last six Blancmange albums and Fader – got on board, completing the three-piece.

"I knew so little about some of these songs that they were like demos to me," says Clarke. "They felt like brilliant new songs that you want to get your hands on. I’ve had people do cover versions of my songs and honestly there’s no better tribute. So that’s what we wanted to do here."

"What’s really stood out for us on this journey is how good these songs are," adds Arthur. "It's from doing your own version that you realise what incredible pieces of work they are."

Doublespeak is out 29 May 2026

 

Doublespeak Track List:  

 

1. Back To Nature (originally by Fad Gadget)

2. Brand – New – Life (Young Marble Giants)

3. The Visitors (ABBA)

4. I Can’t Escape Myself (The Sound)

5. Goodbye To Love (The Carpenters)

6. Rock On (David Essex)

7. Smoke And Mirrors (The Magnetic Fields)

8. Day Breaks, Night Heals (Thomas Leer and Robert Rental)

9. Gentle On My Mind (John Hartford)

10. Richard! (Ed Dowie)

11. End Credits (Laptop)

Rocktrospectiva: The Groundbreaking Masterpiece "Out Of Time" Turns 35

Released on 12 March 1991 "Out Of Time" was the 7th., studio album by US alternative rock band R.E.M. With Out of Time, R.E.M.'s status grew from that of a cult band to a massive international act. The record topped the album sales charts in both the United States and the United Kingdom, spending 109 weeks on U.S. album charts, with two separate spells at the top, and spending 183 weeks on the British charts, including one week at the top. The album spawned four singles "Losing My Religion", "Shinning Happy People", "Near Wild Heaven", & "Radio Song".

Out of Time combined elements of pop, folk and classical music heard on the band's previous album, Green, with a new concentration on country elements that would continue on 1992's Automatic for the People. It featured guest appearances by KRS-One and Kate Pierson from The B-52's.

The release of the album was preceded by the release of "Losing My Religion", which became R.E.M.'s biggest U.S. hit, Out of Time gave them their first U.S. and UK No. 1 album. The band did not tour to support the release, although they did make occasional appearances on television or at festivals. 

The album first part called Time Side opened with "Radio Song" featuring KRS-One which begans with a spoken-word introduction by KRS-One of Boogie Down Productions, rather than with instrumentation or vocals from the band. This marked a departure from the group's typical introductions, which often feature Bill Berry's drumming, Peter Buck's guitar, Mike Mills' bass, or Michael Stipe's vocals. The inclusion of KRS-One, who expanded his contribution beyond what was originally requested, is cited by members of the band as a significant factor in the track's development. Berry noted that the song, while built on a strong groove, lacked impact prior to the addition of KRS-One's performance. The song's lyrics addressed radio programming practices, specifically the repetition of formulaic content. Although the tone of the lyrics includes critique, Stipe later stated that the intent was partly humorous and self-referential. Then the massive worldwide hit "Losing My Religion" emerged from an initial idea by Buck. He experimented with a mandolin while drinking beer and watching a baseball game, recording the result on a boom box. During rehearsals, the band worked on this initial idea, with Berry initially playing bass before switching to drums. The song developed into a full band arrangement, with Buck on mandolin and electric octave guitar, Mills on bass and keyboard strings, Berry on drums and percussion, and Holsapple on acoustic guitar. The strings, arranged by Bingham and Mills, were performed by members of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra at Soundscape Studios in Atlanta, Georgia, in October 1990.

Despite its title, the song does not reference religion in a literal sense. According to Stipe, the phrase "losing my religion" is a Southern expression meaning to be at the end of one's patience or composure. Stipe described the song as secular and categorized it as an "obsession song". The origins of the phrase were initially met with skepticism by Buck, who considered it potentially a fabrication.  "Low" was characterized by a subdued and somber tone. The composition centers on Mills' organ part, described as reminiscent of a funeral parlor, which serves as the song's primary melodic and atmospheric foundation. The recording features contributions from all members of the band: Berry played congas, Buck handled guitar, and Holsapple provided the bass part. The arrangement is augmented by a bass clarinet performance from Jordan and another string arrangement conducted by Bingham. Lyrically, "Low" includes a critique of conventional love songs. Stipe expressed a longstanding aversion to love songs, describing them as "horrible and manipulative". 

Near Wild Heaven" featured Mills as the primary vocalist, one of only two such instances on the album. According to Buck, the track functions as a duet between Mills and Stipe, with both contributing to the lyrics. The song exhibited a strong influence from the Beach Boys. Buck cited the release of Capitol Records' Beach Boys reissues during the Out of Time recording sessions, specifically the Smiley Smile and Wild Honey editions, as a factor in shaping the track's direction. "Endgame" was an instrumental composition characterized by orchestral textures and minimal vocal elements. Although the piece includes "la la la" vocalizations by Stipe, it does not contain lyrics. According to Buck, the track was originally conceived as "End Title Sequence," intended to evoke the feeling of a film's closing credits. Stipe described the mental imagery associated with the piece as that of Buck seated on a large stage, surrounded by classically trained musicians, with his guitar playing integrated into a broader orchestral context. 

The Time side opened with "Shiny Happy People" marked R.E.M.'s first collaboration with Kate Pierson of the B-52s. The song, which featured Pierson on guest vocals, was described by Stipe as an "abortion", while Mills characterized working with Pierson as a highlight. According to Mills, although the band was familiar with Pierson and her work, they had not collaborated with her prior to this recording. Stipe also expressed admiration for her, referring to her as "probably my favorite female singer". Stipe, offered a contrasting interpretation, at one point describing "Shiny Happy People" as a sincere composition and "the happiest song" he had written. He cited its lyrical sounds, particularly the abundance of "E" vowels, as contributing to its upbeat tone. "Belong" drawed structural and stylistic influence from the earlier R.E.M. recording "Voice of Harold", a reinterpretation of "7 Chinese Bros" featuring Stipe reading gospel liner notes in place of the original lyrics. While "Voice of Harold" was conceived as a humorous outtake, "Belong" employs a similar spoken-word vocal approach in a more serious context. Stipe's vocals in the song were not recorded in a professional studio but rather on a Walkman in a garage. Unsatisfied with the clarity of the initial studio recordings, he opted for a more ambient approach. "It was too clear, it was too studio", he said during a Rockline interview. Borrowing producer Litt's Walkman, Stipe recorded his vocal part in the garage of a rental home. He described the acoustics of the three-car garage, where he noted the presence of a large tank of unidentified gas, as providing the ideal reverberation for the track. The song's arrangement prominently features background vocals by Mills and Berry. 

"Half a World Away" continued the album's "bittersweet tone". The composition features a blend of organ, acoustic guitar, and mandolin, with Stipe beginning the song with the line, "This could be the saddest dusk I've ever seen." In live performances, Stipe has introduced the song by stating, "This may well be the saddest song ever written." The musical arrangement reflects influences drawn from Buck's experiences outside of R.E.M. at the time. Although the lyrics appear to express longing, Stipe has stated that the narrative of the song is entirely fictional. "Texarkana" featured a notable shift in vocal duties within R.E.M., with Mills performing lead vocals while Stipe provides background vocals. The title of the song references Texarkana, a city straddling the border between Texas and Arkansas with separate municipal governments in each state. However, the lyrics of the song make no reference to the city, and the content is unrelated to its name. According to Buck, Stipe initially began writing a song that included the name Texarkana in its working title but was unable to complete it. 

"Country Feedback" was developed in a spontaneous and informal manner during early recording sessions. According to Buck, the song originated without a predetermined structure. Buck entered the studio with a four-chord progression, which he recorded while Berry played bass.  Stipe's lyrical approach to "Country Feedback" involved a stream-of-consciousness technique that he described as "projectile vomiting". Buck recalled that Stipe arrived the following day and delivered the vocal part without written lyrics, using only two small drawings as reference—an Indian head and an arrow. The vocal delivery was largely improvised, and the band offered limited input or revision. The lyrics convey a sense of emotional turmoil, and Stipe characterized the song as a desperate expression focused on the end of a relationship. He referred to it as a love song told from what he described as the "uglier side." Buck, reflecting on Stipe's performance, considered the lyrics to be authentic to Stipe's mindset at the time of recording. "Me in Honey" originated from a minimal musical idea built around a single chord. According to Buck, the foundation of the song was a one-chord riff that Mills played once. Buck added a guitar line over it, and Berry contributed a drum pattern. The initial idea, which was approximately 30 seconds long, was placed at the end of a cassette containing five other tracks. Stipe then developed the lyrics by writing and revising lines on paper. Buck expressed surprise at the lyrical depth Stipe derived from a single-chord idea. Thematically, Stipe has described "Me in Honey" as a response to 10,000 Maniacs' "Eat For Two", written by his friend Natalie Merchant. He characterized the song as presenting a male perspective on pregnancy, involving conflicting emotions. 

The album received mostly positive reviews on release. Critics offered varied perspectives on the album, highlighting its experimentation and emotional depth. Some described the album as "a song cycle of love songs that sound intimate even in the wide open spaces of the arrangements". Others agreed, highlighting Stipe's vocals and the harmony singing while describing the album as a "brooding departure [that] offers them at their most reflective, challenging and intriguing". Out of Time was one of R.E.M.'s more successful albums in terms of awards and nominations. It was their only album to win a Grammy Award, for Best Alternative Music Album. It also won the Q Award for Best Album of 1991. 

 

Out Of Time Track List:  

 

Time Side 

1. Radio Song

2. Losing My Religion

3. Low

4. Near Wild Heaven

5. Endgame

 

Memory Side

1. Shiny Happy Peope

2. Belong

3. Half A World Away

4. Texarkana

5. Country Feedback

6. Me In Honey

Albums: Strange Life

 

The first full-length release from Australian indie rock trio Howling Bells since 2014's Heartstrings was produced by Ben Hillier, and a welcome return for an underrated band such as this.

"Strange Life" marks a triumphant return for Howling Bells, some 12 years after their last album. And amid distorted, squalling guitars, thunderous riffs and swooning harmonies, the Australian indie-rock trio contemplate past regrets and their lives as working musicians. Full of sweeping, psychedelic melodrama and dark romance, the album’s quieter moments also deliver an abrasive update to the ‘60s girl group sound.

The band, who found success in the UK in 2004, reconnected first via a tour to celebrate the 15th anniversary of their debut release before quickly starting work on new material. Solo projects and parenthood during a decade of seismic global political and societal changes have left vocalist-guitarist Juanita Stein, her brother, guitarist Joel Stein, and drummer Glenn Moule older and wiser but still possessing the fire and spirit of their early years. 

The album's title references not just that changed world but celebrates what they call the power and alchemic magic between the trio and a “constant drive to want to take it further. That theme of being lost in the dream of making it as a musician is explored in the opening track and lead single "Unbroken", while the defiant, grungy "Heavy Lifting" acknowledges years of tireless hard work, paying your dues and the resilience and confidence you gain. The explosive anti-war song "Sacred Land" is considered the album's most political moment, confronting Australia's dark past and the tragic plight of its indigenous people. There are some dreamier moments such as "Angel",  "Looking Glass" and "Dreamer" are equally effective too, while the shimmering and brilliant "Chimera" is particularly beautiful and your host personal favourite.

There is the bittersweet '90s pop song "Melbourne", reminiscent of The Sundays that marks the album's key moment. It finds Juanita returning to Australia on a solo tour, missing the smell of Eucalyptus trees, but discovering the city she knew has changed now that everyone's moved away. It was here she took a call to say her father's health had deteriorated. Weighed down both with grief and an unused suitcase full of tour merch, she attempts to book an emergency flight back to London, uncertain whether she will ever return. The penultimate track, "Sweet Relief", represent the album's weakest moment, a plodding glam rock number.

 

Strange Life Track List:  

 

1. Unbroken

2. Heavy Lifting

3. Angel

4. Looking Glass

5. Sacred Land

6. Halfway Home

7. Melbourne

8. Dreamer

9. Chimera

10. Sweet Relief

11. Light Touch

New Music: For You

           

The new single from the French artist Requin Chagrin "For You" is arriving now, taken from the bands forthcoming album "Décollage" available here https://requinchagrin.lnk.to/Decollage , the video has been directed by Simon Noizat.

New Music: Island Of One

           

Miki Berenyi Trio's new song "Island Of One" is trippy and hypnotic, and it reminds more of Stereolab than Lush. Along with the studio recording, they've shared a video where they play a longer version of the track live in studio. Benreyi said: "Island Of One" took shape because I became quite obsessed with the track "Just A Western" by Nilüfer Yanya last year, and the Latin-y beat got me inspired. But I wanted a lively, catchy song to add to our live set, so it ended up less laidback and more 60s-breezy with some driving, scratchy guitars — once all three MB3 members pile in on the embellishments, a song ends up a fair distance from where it started! As ever, recording and production took place in our various home-studio set-ups, and the song was mixed by our brilliant Bella Union labelmate, Paul Gregory... the video was directed by Sébastien Faits-Divers

New Music: Winter Sky

           

Big Country’s co-founder and longest-serving band member, Bruce Watson, has announced that as of 1st January 2026 the band will move forward under the name Big Country Redux. 2026 marks the 25th anniversary of the passing of songwriter, frontman, and co-founder Stuart Adamson. Now there's a new single off "Winter Sky" taken from the forthcoming album Eastworld releasing Sept 2026. The track FeaturesMick McNeill of Simple Minds on accordion.

New Music: Stop

           

Embrace are approaching their 30-year milestone with a startling sense of clarity. Their upcoming album, Avalanche, marks a departure from the self-imposed pressures of their arena-filling past, leaning instead into a raw and uncomfortable honesty. Band's new single "Stop" is the heartbeat of this shift; born from a realisation of life’s fragility, the band views the fleeting nature of existence not as a tragedy, but as a liberating reason to drop the act and actually live in the moment. Of the single, vocalist Danny McNara comments: The track "Stop" pretty much says it all. It’s the clearest statement of where my head was at when we started this record. I was thinking a lot about scale, the fact that we’re on a rock spinning through space at a million miles an hour, heading into absolute nothing, with almost no control over the big picture. One day everyone and everything we’ve ever known will just be a fine layer of calcium, and there’s nothing we can do to change that. Oddly, I don’t find that depressing. I find it freeing. If none of this is permanent, then the pressure we put on ourselves, to be better, bigger, fixed, sorted, is kind of absurd. That song is a demand, to myself as much as anyone, to stop, look around, and actually live in the moment.

News: Pink Floyd/LiveFrom Los Angeles Sports Arena Soon To Come Out

Pink Floyd’s 1975 concert at the Los Angeles Sports Arena was first released on blu-ray last year on the Wish You Were Here 50th anniversary reissue. It's soon to come out on vinyl, via the previously announced 4LP set for Record Store Day but is now confirmed as a 2CD set in late April.

The performance was never professionally recorded so the origins of this recording is via the late bootlegger Mike "Mike the Mic" Millard, whose tapes from concerts across Los Angeles in the 1970s became renowned for their surprisingly clear sound quality. To conceal his recording equipment from venue security, Millard would often pretend to be disabled and arrive to concerts in a wheelchair.

The performance opened with early versions of songs initially titled as "Raving and Drooling" and "You've Got To Be Crazy", which later evolved into "Sheep" and "Dogs" which ended up on Animals.  "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" in its two parts bookended another new composition, "Have A Cigar". Following these new compositions, the band performed The Dark Side of The Moon in full, with "Echoes" as an encore.

Meticulously restored and remastered by Steven Wilson, this is as good as it’s going to get in terms of a live recording of Pink Floyd’s 1975 tour.

The 4LP clear vinyl edition is released on Record Store Day on 18 April, and the 2CD edition is released six days later on 24 April 2026.

Live from the Los Angeles Sports Arena - 2CD/4LP set Track List: 

 

1. Raving and Drooling (Live bootleg – Los Angeles Sports Arena, 1975)

2. You’ve Got To Be Crazy (Live bootleg – Los Angeles Sports Arena, 1975)

3. Shine On You Crazy Diamond (1-5) (Live bootleg – Los Angeles Sports Arena, 1975 )

4. Have a Cigar (Live bootleg – Los Angeles Sports Arena, 1975)

5. Shine on You Crazy Diamond (6-9) (Live bootleg – Los Angeles Sports Arena, 1975)

6. Speak to Me (Live from the Los Angeles Sports Arena, 1975)

7. Breathe (In The Air) (Live from the Los Angeles Sports Arena, 1975)

8. On the Run (Live from the Los Angeles Sports Arena, 1975)

9. Time (Live from the Los Angeles Sports Arena, 1975)

10. The Great Gig in the Sky (Live from the Los Angeles Sports Arena, 1975)

11. Money (Live from the Los Angeles Sports Arena, 1975)

12. Us and Them (Live from the Los Angeles Sports Arena, 1975)

13. Any Colour You Like (Live from the Los Angeles Sports Arena, 1975)

14. Brain Damage (Live from the Los Angeles Sports Arena, 1975)

15. Eclipse (Live from the Los Angeles Sports Arena, 1975)

16. Echoes (Live from the Los Angeles Sports Arena, 1975)

In Memoriam: Iconic And Veteran Actor "James Tolkan" Dies At 94

James Tolkan, the veteran character actor best known for his stern authority roles in "Back to the Future" and "Top Gun," has died at the age of 94.  James Tolkan, known for his roles as an authoritarian figure in the Back to the Future and Top Gun films, has died. He was 94.

Tolkan died Thursday in Lake Placid, New York, where he lived, his booking agent, John Alcantar, said Saturday. A brief obituary published on the Back to the Future website said Tolkan died "peacefully", but no cause of death was given.

In Back to the Future, Tolkan portrayed the bow tie-wearing vice-principal Gerald Strickland, who eyeballed students for trouble in the halls of the fictitious Hill Valley high school – in particular Marty McFly, played by Michael J Fox. "You got a real attitude problem, McFly," Tolkan's character says in the 1985 film.  "You're a slacker. You remind me of your father when he went here. He was a slacker, too."

Tolkan also appeared in Top Gun as commanding officer Tom "Stinger" Jardian. Near the end of the film, when Jardian asks Tom Cruise’s character, Capt Pete "Maverick"  Mitchell, about his choice for future duty, Mitchell replies that he wants to be a Top Gun instructor. "God help us," Tolkan's character replies, laughing. Tolkan's big-screen résumé also included The Friends of Eddie Coyle, The Amityville Horror, Wolfen, WarGames, Masters of the Universe, True Blood and Opportunity Knocks.

Born on June 20, 1931, in Calumet, Michigan, James Stewart Tolkan cycled through Chicago after his parents divorced and wound up in Tucson, Arizona, where he graduated from Amphitheater High School in 1949. After a stint in the U.S. Navy, he attended Coe College and the University of Iowa, came to New York with $75 in his pocket and studied with Stella Adler and Lee Strasberg at The Actors Studio, where Beatty was a classmate in 1956.

He made his onscreen debut in 1960 on an episode of ABC's Naked City, and in 1966 he understudied for Robert Duvall before replacing him as bad guy Harry Roat in the original Broadway production of Wait Until Dark, starring Lee Remick. 

Later, Tolkan played insurance investigator Norman Keyes on five episodes of NBC’s Remington Steele and several characters over 21 installments of A&E’s A Nero Wolfe Mystery (he directed a couple of episodes as well). He also guest-starred on Miami Vice, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, The Wonder Years, Leverage and many other shows.

Survivors include his wife, Parmelee, who worked at the American Place Theater as a costumes and scenery painter. They met on the set of the 1971 off-Broadway play Pinkville when he was acting in it and she was a prop girl, and they married that year in Lake Placid. Donations in his memory can be made to your local animal shelter, animal rescue organization or Humane Society chapter.

Tolkan also played Napoleon and his look-alike in Woody Allen’s Love and Death and was the crooked accountant known as Numbers who works for Big Boy Caprice (Al Pacino) in Warren Beatty’s Dick Tracy.He appeared in three movies directed by Sidney Lumet: as a cop in the Pacino-starring Serpico, as a determined D.A. in Prince of the City and as a judge in Family Business.On Broadway, Tolkan portrayed salesman Dave Moss in the original 1984-85 production of David Mamet’s Glengarry Glen Ross. (Ed Harris played the character in the 1992 movie adaptation.)

Tolkan is survived by his wife of 54 years, Parmelee Welles.