Review of Keane, Cause and Effect (2019)
October 5, 2019
This restrained return for the princes of piano pop is easy to like but harder to love. … More Review of Keane, Cause and Effect (2019)
Tag: Music
Review of Alphaville: Live at the Whisky a Go Go. From Hollywood with Love (2018)
February 23, 2019
Alphaville’s two-night extravanganza at the Whisky a Go Go makes a late but compelling case that they are much more than a synth-pop band. … More Review of Alphaville: Live at the Whisky a Go Go. From Hollywood with Love (2018)
Arrows of Peace: An Epilogue, 2017
January 28, 2018
2017 had a bit of everything – old, new, borrowed and blue. In the end, it left me in a much better place. … More Arrows of Peace: An Epilogue, 2017
Tom Chaplin, Royal Festival Hall, 12 December
December 16, 2017
Keane frontman Tom Chaplin provides a warm and thought-provoking approach to Christmas. … More Tom Chaplin, Royal Festival Hall, 12 December
Review of Alphaville, Strange Attractor (2017)
April 11, 2017
“A committed attempt to add something different to the pop landscape.” A review of Alphaville’s latest album, Strange Attractor (Universal, 2017). … More Review of Alphaville, Strange Attractor (2017)
The Early Modern Career
May 24, 2014
A review of the British Academy sponsored Early Modern Career event at the University of Birmingham on 2nd May 2014. … More The Early Modern Career
An Eye to Every Storm: An Epilogue, 2012
January 3, 2013
These end-of-year epilogues have become invariably sad affairs. Of course, I would prefer that it was different, but I still believe that they help me channel energies in a better way. Last year – in what I still believe to be my best ever contribution here – I said that structural positives had been offset by surface negatives. Now, the poles have changed. … More An Eye to Every Storm: An Epilogue, 2012
Mortal Longing
June 26, 2012
More people than ever are still looking for a philosophy on life that offers any comfort. During the New Year, a time when we deliberately parse our minds for retrospection and hope, I thought about the paradox of interconnectedness: how, by superficially feeling closer together than ever before, we might never feel further apart. … More Mortal Longing
Sovereign Lights: Keane’s Strangeland
May 13, 2012
Should Keane top the charts with Strangeland later today, they will swiftly follow Coldplay (and another of my dear charges, Erasure) into an exclusive list of British bands to have achieved a fifth consecutive number one album. … More Sovereign Lights: Keane’s Strangeland
Shadow Seasons: An Epilogue, 2011
January 9, 2012
2011 was a story I don’t know how to tell. Perhaps it’s best defined by what others have said. … More Shadow Seasons: An Epilogue, 2011
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