You’re forgiven for forgetting that Chris Connor, one of the premier cool-jazz vocalists, took a quick detour into popular music in the mid-1960s. You May Also Like: Eliane Elias Confidently Expanded Her Main Influences on ‘Bossa Nova Stories’ Gentle Giant – ‘Free Hand [Steven Wilson Mix]’ (1975; 2021 reissue) GentleRead More

Kate Bush didn’t make much of a stateside splash, despite achieving fame 25 years ago in Britain. So remakes like this one from Johanna and the Dusty Floor, brilliant though they may be, likely resonate with most listeners as if they were brand new. You May Also Like: ElectroBluesSociety feat.Read More

The best pop songs are about more than their surface allures — the hook, the voice, maybe the lyric. The best pop songs are bound up both in simplicity and mystery, bringing you over a ridge to these stunning emotional vistas, even as you are still trying to get theRead More

by Tom Johnson Leaving aside the goofy name, Pugwash was that weird bastard child we music writers like to talk about — you know, the “this meets that”: They sounded like latter day XTC meets Jellyfish. In one album, in addition to Pugwash’s own Thomas Walsh, we find friends fromRead More

The Tom Fuller Band doesn’t hide its influences. In fact, they strut around in them, like bell-bottomed 1970s throwbacks. You May Also Like: MicroCorgi – ‘MicroCosmos’ (2020) ‘Guitar Man’ Shows Why You Shouldn’t Keep Dismissing Bread

Oh, what this could have been … and yet it’s still a pleasing piece of work. My hopes were high when it was announced that the Finn brothers Neil and Tim (both ex- of Crowded House and Split Enz) new album would come out, so I was a little disappointedRead More

There are these moments, throughout the fiery emotional aftermath of “Ashes Ashes,” where Katie Costello gives herself over to the lyric, and the sound is like a hot wind rushing past and out into the world. You May Also Like: No related posts.

by Tom Johnson Sarah McLachlan’s angelic voice is reason enough to check out this new album. It’s certainly not to hear anything particularly new: Afterglow was just more of what Sarah does so well. The most powerful segments of the album arrived early on, with the more up-tempo material providingRead More

With Happy Daze, singer/songwriter Steve Macfarlane whisks us back to the lushly sophisticated melodies of Burt Bacharach and Neil Sedaka, perhaps his clearest inspiration. It’s a tricky thing, since both so often risked sounding mushy or maudlin You May Also Like: The Rainy Daze, “That Acapulco Gold” (1967): One TrackRead More

by Tom Johnson Do we need another Radiohead cover? Hasn’t everything been said about Radiohead by artists from every corner of the music world? You May Also Like: Richard Turgeon, “Better With You” (2022): One Track Mind Richard Turgeon, “Learning to Fly” (2020): One Track Mind