Jonn Penney on Ned’s Atomic Dustbin’s Pulse-Pounding Mad-sterpiece at 30
It’s difficult to describe the adrenal-gland rush Ned’s Atomic Dustbin’s Are You Normal? still provides 30 years later – like a WWII fighter strafing helpless civilians below.
It’s difficult to describe the adrenal-gland rush Ned’s Atomic Dustbin’s Are You Normal? still provides 30 years later – like a WWII fighter strafing helpless civilians below.
Hard to find and largely overlooked, Mary Jean & 9 Others‘ romantic pop innocence outshines some of Marshall Crenshaw’s best-known work. Crenshaw discusses the record.
Thus Love began as a fuzzy, overly goth-influenced band, but they have since polished their messy sound to a confident post-punk sheen on Memorial.
The Reptilian Government possess a rhythmic 1970s funk sensibility more suited to Kool and the Gang than EDM – if Kool featured intricate solos and curated prog-rock aspirations.
dada’s Puzzle remains as intricate and rewarding today as it was then: a universally appealing, type-O album that adults, MTV teens, and rockers could all get behind.
Goon’s Hour of Green Evening is seductive, willowy music with a surreal edge, like Skygreen Leopards’ hallucinatory indie folk, but without the shrill chord changes.
The Shore’s Light Years boasts a seductive intimacy typically reserved for baroque pop, while still flexing its arena-rock Britpop swagger. Too bad nobody ever heard it.
Astragal reincarnate what made 1980s post-punk so compulsively listenable, helping them stand out in a fascinating genre with precious little competition.
Only five songs into his Las Vegas set, shouts of “PLAY MORE SMITHS!” began ringing out. Unfortunately for Morrissey, it was a commonly shared sentiment.
The Lickerish Quartet’s Threesome trilogy suffers from all the genre’s shortcomings, but the devoted bubblegum/power-pop demographic will absolutely eat these records up.
Compared to March’s golden Guv III by Young Guv, the tandem release Guv IV abandons Ben Cook’s Byrdsian roots and represents a squandered opportunity.
Fish-era Marillion’s swan-song masterpiece Clutching at Straws is a hung-over eulogy to the twin nightmares of stardom and addiction.