I have no particularly strong feelings about Lana Del Rey. I’ve heard a couple of songs and like them well enough. I couldn’t care less about what her ‘real’ story is in terms of whether or not I enjoy her music. However, this piece, and particularly its adoption today as some kind of rallying cry for pop, infuriates me.

I’ve written a few times ( Read more... )

So, back in the day I would do massive top 40 countdowns of my favourite albums and songs of the year. They were MASSIVELY POPULAR in Scotland. Kids would herald their arrival as a sign that Christmas was nigh. Now I’m older, fatter, wiser, lazier and more laid back about these things. So without much fanfare, here are two Spotify playlists ( Read more... )

At the Protests, the Message Lacks a Melody

Another article about the lack of overt political messages, or even a political context, in today’s popular music (this time from an American perspective). Yesterday I mentioned Marilyn Manson’s statement that he ‘preferred’ Republican Presidents as people raged against them and aspects of that sentiment ( Read more... )

I enjoyed The Guardian’s ‘Favourite Album’ series a great deal and, now that it has ended, I thought I’d chip in with my own contribution. As tends to be the case with these things, it’s hugely difficult to pick one album as my ‘favourite’. There are many which would have a strong claim on the title and, perhaps in a different context, I would find ( Read more... )

The Faith Machine

This touches on something which I’ve been thinking about a lot recently - namely the reaffirming of liberal identity by the world around you. A few weeks ago I read a review of a play called ‘The Faith Machine’. It sounded like a subtle, complex piece which took standard liberal themes (such as the wickedness of religion and the ( Read more... )

Don't let the gay club scene fall silentI ‘like’ how this piece rushes over the suggestion that many LGBT people feel less and less that they can only socialise in ‘gay’ venues, as if it’s simply too absurd to countenance. In both Glasgow and London, I’ve noticed a hardcore ‘gay social scene’ full of people who are deeply conservative in their ( Read more... )

Liking Is for Cowards. Go for What HurtsA related phenomenon is the transformation, courtesy of Facebook, of the verb “to like” from a state of mind to an action that you perform with your computer mouse, from a feeling to an assertion of consumer choice. And liking, in general, is commercial culture’s substitute for loving. The striking thing ( Read more... )

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Sister, I won't ask for forgiveness, my sins are all I have.

Happy birthday, Bruce. A giant of a man and musician.

So with two episodes left of this season, we are still waiting to find out:

• Who said ‘Silence will fall’ as the TARDIS was blowing up and trapped River inside it. Or indeed took River back to Amy Pond’s house.
• What the deal with the Silence is anyway and why they’ve been mentioned since Prisoner Zero.
• Why River was at Amy/Rory’s wedding.
• For that ( Read more... )

By far the most depressing aspect of the whole Johann Hari thing was the realisation of how far many people see the world in a binary ‘right/left/bad/good’ way. It sounds ridiculous to say now but it somehow had not properly occurred to me. I of course knew that this happened in party politics - that there were Labour people who were uncritical ( Read more... )