Location: set your location

Music and Pop

Sorted by date / most viewed. Showing 25, 50, 100 per page.

Steve Strange and the Detroit Starrzz, Citrus Club, Edinburgh, Fri 3 Feb 2012

Steve Strange and the Detroit Starrzz - Citrus Club, Edinburgh, Fri 3 Feb 2012

Disappointing gig from the New Romantic

(2 stars)8 Feb 2012

When 80s tribute band, and tonight's support act Party Fears Three dedicate their bombastically unsubtle cover of David Bowie's 'Ashes To Ashes' to Steve Strange,…

Lana Del Rey - Born to Die

Lana Del Rey - Born to Die

The starlet's debut album outshines the blogocentric hype

(4 stars)8 Feb 2012

(Polydor) Amid the conspiracy theories, the double-standards, the cosmetic surgery obsessions, the questions of authenticity (or lack thereof – like pop was ever without a scheme); amid the histrionic revelations (how dare she have tried before!…

Still Corners, Captain’s Rest, Sat 4 Feb

Still Corners, Captain’s Rest, Sat 4 Feb

Dreamy shoegaze five-piece tour recent album

(4 stars)8 Feb 2012

Still Corners had one heck of a 2011, playing SXSW, touring Europe and the US and releasing their debut LP, Creatures of an Hour, and the little basement of the Captain’s is full of people wondering if they can be as lovely live as they are on record.

Madonna announces Scottish date for July 2012

Madonna announces Scottish date for 2012

The Queen of Pop will visit Edinburgh's Murrayfield Stadium on Sat 21 July

7 Feb 2012

Pop empress Madonna has just announced a world tour which will call in at Murrayfield Stadium in Edinburgh on Saturday 21 July. The 'Sticky & Sweet Tour' comes off the back of a busy period for Madge: she's just directed period/contemporary romance W.E.

Hazy Recollections – O2 ABC2, Glasgow, Sun 22 Jan

Hazy Recollections – O2 ABC2, Glasgow, Sun 22 Jan

Electro-folk and French lullabies bring weepie and comedy moments

(4 stars)3 Feb 2012

Celtic Connections’ Hazy Recollections sessions are great for two main reasons. Firstly, they provide a gathering place for the legion of those with beards and plaid shirts. Secondly, you get to see just how far the festival’s remit of ‘folk, roots and…

M83 - The Arches, Thu 19 Jan

M83 - The Arches, Thu 19 Jan

Revered French electro act let down by bad sound

(2 stars)3 Feb 2012

The problem with eagerly anticipating a show for any great length of time is that you always leave yourself open to disappointment if things don’t live up to your expectations, such is the way with live music. Sold out weeks in advance, M83’s…

Ed Sheeran, Tue 10 Jan, HMV Picture House, Edinburgh

Ed Sheeran - Tue 10 Jan 2012, HMV Picture House, Edinburgh

Unlikely chart-topping teen idol performs angsty ballads

(3 stars)3 Feb 2012

‘I have some news’, Ed Sheeran casually mentions amidst the screaming adoration, after a nice loop-pedal driven cover of 'Wayfaring Stranger'. ‘My album’s just gone triple platinum’. (More screams). Quite impressive, really, for the unlikely teen idol…

Wild Flag, Oran Mor, Mon 30 Jan

Wild Flag, Oran Mor, Mon 30 Jan

Indie-rock supergroup prove more than the sum of their parts

(4 stars)3 Feb 2012

The word ‘supergroup’ often sets alarm bells ringing. What if the weight of previous successes is too much pressure? What if this new project isn’t as good? Hell, what if it’s downright rubbish (see exhibit A: Velvet Revolver)? Wild Flag are of…

Paul McCartney - Kisses on the Bottom

Paul McCartney - Kisses on the Bottom

Macca covers 1920s and 1930s standards, with vanilla results

(3 stars)3 Feb 2012

Paul McCartney has the weirdest back catalogue of any Beatle. This is an album of the 20s and 30s standards his dad used to play and it's less weird than perplexing, thanks to the unfortunate choice of Tommy 'Mainstream' LiPuma as producer. After his…

The Banana Sessions - Mixtape

The Banana Sessions - Mixtape

Long-awaited debut album from the folksy Edinburgh fivesome

(3 stars)3 Feb 2012

Waiting four years before releasing debut album Mixtape, Edinburgh five-piece The Banana Sessions certainly can't be accused of rushing in to anything. Exhibiting an eclectic combination of styles Mixtape opens with 'Two Seasons' a well crafted folk…

Exposure: Still Corners

Exposure: Still Corners

Cinematic dream-pop with a Lynchian vibe

1 Feb 2012

The whispery female vocal, the unsettling tone, the shoegazey guitars... There’s a very cinematic, 1990s David Lynch feel to the heavenly dream-pop of London-based Still Corners. The List finds singer Tessa Murray and songwriter Greg Hughes drinking…

Azari & III - Azari & III

Azari & III - Azari & III

Credit due delivering a straightforward house music manifesto with compelling four-to-the-floor forc

(4 stars)1 Feb 2012

(Island) This self-titled debut is actually a major label re-release of an album that, until recently, was widely available as an import – including on Spotify. It’s getting a reboot in the UK in CD form (you remember CDs right?) though really the…

Palace - Domino reissue several albums from Will Oldham project

Palace - Domino reissue several albums from Will Oldham project

There is No-one What Will Take Care Of You/ Days In The Wake/ Hope/ Viva Last Blues/ Lost Blues And

(5 stars)1 Feb 2012

(Domino) Before he cast himself as Bonnie Prince Billy, Kentuckian alt-folk heartbreaker Will Oldham recorded several exquisite, distinguished long-players under the Palace moniker. After aeons in the hard-to-find wilderness, they will be…

Space rock pioneer Silver Apples set for Glasgow Music and Film Festival.

GFF 2012 - Silver Apples set for Glasgow Music and Film Festival

Live set from the cult 60s space rock pioneers

27 Jan 2012

When Simeon Coxe III took a 1940s vintage oscillator onstage with him to liven up the psych-rock band he fronted, sparks flew to the extent that half the band left, and, with only drummer Danny Taylor in tow, Silver Apples were born. With their name…

Django Django - Django Django

Django Django - Django Django

Dense and often surprising debut spitting up bursts of bold, spaced-out texture

(4 stars)27 Jan 2012

(Because) Django Django’s debut has a lot of strings to its bow. It benefits from being the result of prolonged and measured tinkering by three Edinburgh art school grads over the space of a couple of years in a London bedroom. These efforts have…

The high energy, high concept dance-rock of Justice is French through-and-through

The high energy, high concept dance-rock of Justice is French through-and-through

To these new gods of French electronic music, we say Salut!

27 Jan 2012

The hair; the crotch-hugging denim; the ‘tude - everything about Justice’s demeanour screams metal. And with good reason. The band, comprising Xavier de Rosnay (monobrow, flaired nostrils) and Gaspard Augé (hair of Robert Plant, moustache of a Deep…

Trailer Trash Tracys - Captain’s Rest, Glasgow, Sun 15 Jan 2012

Trailer Trash Tracys - Captain’s Rest, Glasgow, Sun 15 Jan 2012

Effects-laden shoegaze fog heavy on the exquisite melodrama

(3 stars)27 Jan 2012

Not, as you might have expected from the name, a clan of bad-mouthin’, whisky-swillin’ Midwestern girls battering badly-tuned guitars and trying to resurrect the lost souls of L7 or The Distillers, Trailer Trash Tracys are instead three guys and a girl…

Real Estate set for UK tour

Real Estate set for UK tour

New Jersey trio take one of the best albums of 2011 on the road

27 Jan 2012

Let England Shake may have topped most of the critics’ lists, but for many it was word-of-mouth, you have to hear this, slow-burner Days by Real Estate that became their hands down musical highlight of 2011. This much-lauded record was an Ariel Pink…

The Twilight Sad set for UK tour

The Twilight Sad set for UK tour

Kilsyth trio take third album No One Can Ever Know on tour

27 Jan 2012

With their third album No One Can Ever Know, masters of the dark side anthem The Twilight Sad add impressively to a catalogue that includes one of the finest Scottish debuts of recent years. It’s a bit of a surprise then to discover that the Kilsyth…

Howler - America Give Up

Howler - America Give Up

The kind of easily-digestible festival fodder that could hit the spot live, but is dull on record

(2 stars)27 Jan 2012

(Rough Trade) You think we would all have learned by now that it is frankly unproductive to call anything the ‘new this’, the ‘next that’, or, god forbid, ‘the hottest thing you’ll hear all year’. Sadly, whether they’re aware of it or not, young US…

Pulp - It/Freaks/Separations

Pulp - It/Freaks/Separations

Reissue of first three albums from 1980s originally released on Fire

(3 stars)27 Jan 2012

(Fire) Testament to the 80s’capacity to incubate provincial bands until they’re ready for megastardom, Pulp’s first three albums on Fire were a career’s worth in themselves, although hardly anyone remembers. Containing, as all three of these reissues…

Partikel - Cohesion

Partikel - Cohesion

Trio’s flexible, responsive interplay maintains interest in material a little samey at times

(3 stars)27 Jan 2012

(Whirlwind Recordings) From the same label, Partikel are a London-based saxophone trio led by Duncan Eagles, with Max Luthert on bass and Eric Ford on drums. Sonny Rollins probably remains the most famous exemplar of the challenges and rewards of the…

Emili Sande - Our Version Of Events

Emeli Sande - Our Version Of Events

Powerful, sophisticated and smart mix of stripped down, acoustic songs

(4 stars)24 Jan 2012

(Virgin) Just imagine it, Adele and Emeli Sandé down the pub, putting the world to rights over copious pints. Men? Screw ’em. Hype? Whatever. But the main reason they’d make great gal pals is because they’ve both worked out ways to channel their…

School of Seven Bells - Ghostory

School of Seven Bells - Ghostory

Third album from New York electro-phantoms, now a duo

(3 stars)24 Jan 2012

(Full Time Hobby) Ghostory – geddit? It’s the way in which our histories are colonised by ghosts. It’s the way in which persons come to haunt our tales of yore. It’s the third album from New York electro-phantoms SVIIB. At best, it is euphoric – all…

The Ting Tings - Sounds From Nowheresville

The Ting Tings - Sounds From Nowheresville

Second album a mixed bag containing glimpses of what makes them fun

(3 stars)23 Jan 2012

(Columbia) Pity the poor Ting Tings. After selling millions of records, the Mancunian electro-pop duo got stressed, scrapped a whole album and hid from their record label. Allegedly. You can see why the pair might worry about following We Started…

1,396 articles.

Sorted by date / most viewed. Showing 25, 50, 100 per page.

RSS feed