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LANA DEL REY

Barney Hoskyns — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 11:18:52 +0000

The most remarkable thing about the former Lizzy Grant’s Born To Die album is that it’s so… ordinary. On the basis of ‘Video Games’ I was hoping for music to match the studiedly glacial, almost Lynch-esque persona, smart pop candy for and about the twisted and privileged. In places the material-girl amorality and loveless conniving are semi-compelling, but half a dozen songs could have been plucked from the next album by, jeez, Cheryl Cole. True, there’s something alluring, though hardly sexy, about a voice that veers from smoky to baby-dollish, but the tunes are limp and the arrangements and production mechanical. Flavour of the fashionista moment, methinks, but little more than that.

INTERVIEW WITH THE GREAT THOM BELL

Barney Hoskyns — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 17:44:02 +0000

Chanced on this great recent interview with Thom Bell, Philly soul genius behind the great Delfonics, the Stylistics and other hits… didn’t he blow my mind this time!

SPIN ABANDONS ALBUM REVIEWS…

Barney Hoskyns — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 14:10:09 +0000

Read all about it… Spin now proposing to cover new releases in 140-character Tweet-bites… the end (of critical analysis) is surely nigh.

THE BEST 20 TRACKS I HEARD IN 2011

Barney Hoskyns — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 17:04:42 +0000

My playlist for the year just passed: twenty sublime songs to lift the spirit and heal the soul…

1 “The Glorious Land” by PJ Harvey

Polly Jean becomes the conscience of the nation on this urgent, elegiac lament. Glorious indeed.

2 “The World (Is Going Up in Flames)” by Charles Bradley

More hand-wringing, this time in the form of anguished retro-soul. The ghost of O.V. Wright rises from the inner city…

3 “The Bronx” by Booker T. Jones

… and segues into this superb fusion of Memphis soul and hip hop beats. The best thing Lou Reed appeared on in 2011.

4 “Perth” by Bon Iver

Justin Vernon rewrites alternative rock with the aid of martial beats, mariachi horns and overloaded guitars. An elliptical song of defiant hope.

5 “The Way It Will Be” by Gillian Welch

Taking its melodic cue from Neil Young’s “Cortez the Killer”, this song of muted rage was the standout cut from the mildly underwhelming Harrow and the Harvest.

6 “Caught a Long Wind” by Feist

The Canadian priestess of offbeat melody and arrangement returns with an entrancing song of avian metaphors. Ballad of the year.

7 “Limit to Your Love” by James Blake

Bedsit boy wonder Blake covers Feist’s earlier beauty and fashions a glitchily introverted masterpiece from it.

8 “Wild Man” by Kate Bush

The only really great song from 50 Words for Snow but as good as anything Kate’s given us before – a deep cry of compassion for an innocent primitive.

9 “Bats in the Attic” by King Creosote and Jon Hopkins

Exquisitely sad plaint of regret and reproach born of the interesting collaboration between a Scottish bard and a master of the new electronica.

10 “Pay Me” by Tom Waits

The prettiest, saddest ballad on Bad as Me. Grainy, blunt, heartbreaking.

11 “Lion’s Share” by Wild Beasts

A driving synth pulse motors this wracked mid-tempo ballad. Jimi Somerville fronts Coldplay, but far superior to either.

12 “Midnight City” by M83

The latest edition of ironic French ’80s Americophilia: a ridiculously beautiful and OTT anthem of urban euphoria.

13 “The Plains/Bitter Dancer” by Fleet Foxes

The best track on Helplessness Blues, if only (or mainly) for the central section that kicks in at two minutes. The most sublime close CSN-meets-America harmonies of the year.

14 “Desert Raven” by Jonathan Wilson

America – the band – also haunts this dreamy retro-canyon epic from the otherwise overrated Gentle Spirit. So does the ghost of Gene Clark.

15 “The Bad in Each Other” by Feist

A lurching, unsettling groove and crabbed African guitars launch this horn-blasted song of romantic struggle.

16 “No One Is (As I Are Be)” by Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks

The Beck-helmed Mirror Traffic made no Best Albums lists but should have. This laconic acoustic piece channeled Bobbie Gentry magnificently.

17 “It’s Him!” by White Denim

I thought indie rock was dead till I heard White Denim’s D. A combustion of diverse influences – the La’s on this, the album’s first track – the Austin band blaze on into the next decade.

18 “Written on the Forehead” by PJ Harvey

A harrowing song of war and devastation and the second best song on Let England Shake.

19 “Rolling in the Deep” by Adele

I detested Adele at 19 but am quietly impressed by her at 21. This holy-rolling gospel-rocker made for a great pop record.

20 “Satisfied” by Tom Waits

The obverse of “Pay Me”, this is Tom in full-on Stones-jones mode, all but challenging “Mr Jagger and Mr Richards” to step back up to the Exile plate – with Keef cranking away behind him. So you can get satisfaction.

YOU CAN HEAR MY BEST TRACKS OF 2011 on #Spotify at open.spotify.com/user/barneyh/p…

A Dissenting Voice on Hitchens

Barney Hoskyns — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 13:06:54 +0000

At least someone had the balls to say it: the excellent Frances Stonor Saunders on the cult of Christopher’s personality in today’s Guardian…

MANNY FINKELMANN EXPLAINS THE INNER WORKINGS OF THE GRAMMIES

Barney Hoskyns — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 11:41:16 +0000

Manny Finkelmann, who bears an eerie resemblance to John Mendelsohn (aka The Founding Father Of Rock Criticism), provides a withering exposé of what goes on behind the scenes at the Grammy Awards…

ABOUT BLEEDIN’ TIME! NYRO FINALLY IN THE HoF!!

Barney Hoskyns — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 11:59:52 +0000

It’s finally happened! Along with Guns N’ Roses (groan), the Red Hot Chili Peppers (semi-groan), the Beastie Boys (grin), the Small Faces (broad smile) and Donovan (enigmatic expression), the great – the very great – Laura Nyro (inspiration to all from Joni and Todd to Rickie Lee J) will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at the 27th annual US ceremony in April. Me very happy.

NICK KENT WINS OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT GONG AT RECORD OF THE DAY AWARDS

Barney Hoskyns — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 12:35:55 +0000

Herewith the great Mr. Kent, with presenter and arch-fan Bobby Gillespie to his immediate left, receiving the RBP-sponsored Outstanding Achievement in Music Journalism award at last week’s highly-enjoyable Record Of The Day Awards in London’s painfully groovy Shoreditch…

IS THE KATE BUSH ALBUM REALLY THAT GOOD?

Barney Hoskyns — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 17:17:42 +0000

As a staunch and loyal fan of Dame Katherine, I have to confess to some surprise at the plethora of 5-star reviews elicited by 50 TYPES OF SNOW. I’ve spent a week with the album and cannot discern what is so great about it. Even if you don’t miss the wild pop genius of the ’80s and love the mature piano melancholia of middle-aged Bush, she did the latter a lot better on AERIAL (e.g. “Sunset”, “A Coral Room”). Only on “Wild Man” does she pull off the kind of haunting pop classic we remember from THE DREAMING, HOUNDS OF LOVE, THE SENSUAL WORLD and even THE RED SHOES. Or am I missing something?

FIVE OVERLOOKED GUITAR SOLOS OF UNDERSTATED SPLENDOUR

Barney Hoskyns — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 10:03:02 +0000

No idea why I started thinking about this, but if you listen to these solos and get the same huge pleasure I do from them, then it was worth wasting half a minute of your life:

1 Jeff Beck on Stevie Wonder’s “Looking for Another Pure Love” (Talking Book)
2 Robbie Robertson on The Band’s live Rock Of Ages version of “Unfaithful Servant”
3 Todd Rundgren on “I Think You Know” (Todd)
4 Gary Louris on the Jayhawks’ “Nothing Left to Borrow” (Tomorrow the Green Grass)
5 Amos Garrett on “Gee Baby, Ain’t I Good To You” (Geoff Muldaur is Having a Wonderful Time)