Its really hard to get excited about a band who sings in a different language (though ‘Patea Maori Club’ was an exception) and while AKFG are novel, I still found it hard to get into. Sounding somewhere between Weezer and Steriogram, AKFG are a indie/emo group from Japan who sing their songs, funnily enough, in [...]

Obviously, I wasn’t around for the peak of Steely Dan’s career, but I am aware of their works. ‘Peg’, ‘Reelin’ In The Years’ and ‘FM’ have always been favourites of mine, but again, they have always been only sampled through ‘best of’ compilations. Steely Dan, in the late 70′s become neurotic about the quality of [...]

I thought that I had heard the best Beatles album in ‘Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts’ – and while it still ranks up there as one of my favourite all times, Revolver is the critics choice for the pick of the Beatles catalogue. At a first listen it seems a little unfounded. But after a few, [...]

I’m a real sucker for remastered albums. When I saw this one, the cover with the tight as jeans and tough as jacket, I had to get it. I can’t say I’ve ever been a Billy Joel fan, but if I had to pick one era of his work to listen to, it would be [...]

There’s a reason why the image for this cover is so huge…but I will get to that in a minute. What I really want to start with is James Blunt. Although I am sure he is a nice guy, and there is nothing I hold against him personally, he represents to me everything that is [...]

I go through periods of liking Bjork and periods where I just can’t be bothered. I’m picking I’m a bit of a rarity, because generally people are polarized about her music. You either love it or hate it…there is generally no grey area. I guess my reason for not liking her is less to do [...]

Remember when The Verve’s ‘Urban Hymns’ was released and ‘Bitter Sweet Symphony’ was the song? That moment was Richard Ashcroft’s defining musical moment -at least outside of Britain, where he is championed as a musical genius. After listening to this album, I think ‘genius’ is a little much. The album is pretty good, and there [...]

I think I may have mentioned somewhere on my blog that I saw Sonic Youth in 1996 and didn’t think much of them. You could tell they had ‘it’ though. Though in 1996 I only had the opinion that 14 minutes of feedback live was not ‘it’. Fast forward 10 years (holy shit!) and I [...]