Rock's Backpages: Search Results

Plan B: Who Needs Actions When You Got Words 

Review by Pete Paphides, The Times, 16 June 2006

AS EUREKA moments go, Ben Drew's was so obvious it seems perverse that he didn't think of it before. ...

Review by Carol Cooper, Village Voice, 26 February 2008

SURE, MADONNA repeatedly toyed with BDSM in her videos, but she never publicly admitted to breast and genital piercings like Miss Jackson did. So, in ...

Last Shadow Puppets, The: The Last Shadow Puppets: The Age Of The Understatement

Review by Paul Moody, Uncut, May 2008

NOW IT ALL makes sense. Anyone who, on hearing Arctic Monkeys Favourite Worst Nightmare, wondered where Alex Turner had mislaid his melodies now has their ...

Housemartins, The: The Housemartins: London 0 Hull 4

Review by Terry Staunton, Record Collector, 24 May 2009

LIKE THE all-conquering Madness during the first half of the '80s, the Housemartins pulled off the admirable trick of shoehorning well-considered social comment into the ...

Sam Cooke: Portrait Of A Legend 1951-1964 (ABKCO Records)

Review by Gary Pig Gold, Rock's Backpages, February 2011

MOST EVERY single time the 20th century's greatest singer-songwriters find themselves getting lionized or even litanized, it seems one towering figure is strangely, sorrowfully AWOL. ...

George Russell: The Complete Remastered Recordings On Black Saint & Soul Note

Review by Rob Young, The Wire, May 2011

THE LYDIAN Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organisation is seldom invoked these days, but jazz composer George Russell's theoretical attempt to lift jazz up and away ...

Lady Gaga: Born This Way (Polydor) ***

Review by Andy Gill, The Independent, 20 May 2011

FIRST THINGS FIRST: that cover is simply awful, its adolescent heavy-metal imagery — "ride me, wild one!" — effectively destroying in a single stroke Lady ...

Paul Weller: Sonik Kicks

Review by Jude Rogers, bbc.co.uk, 19 March 2012

An emotional, experimental ride, Weller’s 11th solo LP is brilliant stuff. ...

Paul Weller: Sonik Kicks

Review by Laura Barton, The Word, April 2012

Paul Weller's unchanging image limits our view of him. His third "experimental" record fizzes with aural innovation. ...

Alabama Shakes: Boys & Girls

Review by Martin Aston, bbc.co.uk, 10 April 2012

This Alabama outfit might be the feel-good hit of the summer festival circuit. ...

My Bloody Valentine: m b v

Review by Andy Gill, The Independent, 8 February 2013

MY BLOODY VALENTINE'S reputation for tardiness is well earned. I dimly remember rushing off to interview them around the release of their second album, Loveless, ...

My Bloody Valentine: m b v

Review by Rob Young, Uncut, April 2013

ARRIVING IN THE week the skeleton of Richard III was identified, receiving m b v is similarly akin to coming face to face with history. ...

Disclosure: Settle

Review by Ian Gittins, Virgin Media Music, 3 June 2013

CLUBLAND HAS been polarised between two dispiriting extremes for close on a decade now. If the DJ isn't playing twitchy, edgy, introspective grime or dubstep, ...

Rodney Crowell: Close Ties

Review by Holly Gleason, Paste, 27 March 2017

FOR A SONG CYCLE that turns around death and mortality, Rodney Crowell's Close Ties is a decidedly jubilant affair. Co-produced by Kim Buie and Jordan ...

Rhythm & Reaction: The Age of Jazz in Britain: Two Temple Place, London

Review by John L. Walters, Eye, 25 February 2018

Rhythm & Reaction gets under the skin of a British love affair with American jazz 27 January — 22 April 2018 ...

Dave Alvin: From An Old Guitar – Rare and Unreleased Recordings

Review by Wayne Robins, Copper, 14 January 2020

YOU'RE DRIVING through the New Mexico desert in the dark. Your teeth are grinding, though the buzz of the blue meth or whatever you were ...

1975, The: The 1975: Notes on a Conditional Form

Review by Nick Hasted, The Arts Desk, 21 May 2020

The band's fourth album lunges for meaning with its monologue by Greta Thunberg and foresees social isolation. ...

Yvette Janine Jackson: Freedom (Fridman Gallery)

Review by John Lewis, The Guardian, 15 January 2021

The composer’s two new works, exploring slavery and homophobia, are like immersive non-visual films ...