Belinda Carlisle embodies the dreamy-eyed optimism that permeates her music at Sony Hall in New York City
In his video titled “Why Old Music Is Killing New Music” youtuber and former music producer Rick Beato calls to attention the limited cultural relevance of new music. Some of this can be attributed to the slow but steady disappearance of mass pop culture as it applies...
Netflix’s Wham! is a treasure trove of stories chronicling the meteoric ascent of two boys to global megastardom
“The music community took the piss. I mean, how can they look like that and make music like this? How can the country be in love with these two idiots?” – said the late international British popstar George Michael as he assessed the response of UK music critics and...
HANA just might be Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s magnum opus
By guest blogger Kaushik Chakravarthy British singer-songwriter, Sophie Ellis-Bextor has been known to wildly oscillate from one side of the sonic spectrum to another on her albums. Her rich and diverse catalogue spans a wide spectrum encompassing everything from...
Seal enthralls at Beacon Theatre in New York City
It is baffling to think that British popstar and Grammy-winning singer and songwriter Seal, whose signature single is a ballad (i.e. the timeless classic “Kiss from a Rose”) and a modern pop standard, initially rode the coat-tails of the early 90s burgeoning rave...
Peter Cox of Go West showcases swagger and soul on “Seaglass”
In the American musical mainstream of yesteryear, the hits of some bands enjoy far more name recognition than the bands themselves do – especially if these music acts only had two or three singles that cracked the Billboard Top 40 singles chart. One noteworthy example...
“Kismet” intervenes gloriously to expand the Belinda Carlisle story
Conventional wisdom in the music industry suggests that songwriters are far more in control of their creative and commercial trajectories than are singers that leverage a team of stellar songwriters to provide the sonic foundation for their musical careers. This might...
Everything But the Girl Remain Creatively Vital on Unexpected Comeback “Fuse”
By guest blogger Joel Blechinger For diehard Everything But the Girl fans (Everything But the Girlies?), the mere existence of their eleventh studio LP, Fuse, is a wonder. This is because it arrives nearly 24 years after their last album, "Temperamental", and it...
Dancing with the big boys: David Bowie’s “Let’s Dance” at 40
By UK-based guest blogger Eric Generic "Bring me the Disco King" was a song on David Bowie's 2003 album Reality, but it could just as easily apply to the manifesto behind his decision to hook up with Nile Rodgers two decades previously. Having laid Major Tom to rest...
Darren Hayes brings his sanctuary of escapism to Town Hall in New York City
Date: April 13, 2023 Venue: Town Hall (New York City) Tour: Do You Remember? For the longest time, it appeared that the name Darren Hayes had been one that was associated exclusively with yesteryear. Darren‘s return to the limelight after a hiatus of over a decade was...
Depeche Mode explores the darkness of death on “Memento Mori”
By guest blogger Ethan Guddal Depeche Mode as a band has now been in existence for over 40 years old and just released their fifteenth album titled “Memento Mori” - meaning 'remember that you [have to] die,' – a concept that undoubtedly permeates throughout the album....
Belinda Carlisle blends optimism with innocence on “Big Big Love”
“I mean, I have new material out. It was just because my son ran into Dianne Warren. I was planning on retiring – and then she said come to the studio, I have some songs for you and I can’t say no because they’re so good” – said global pop star Belinda Carlisle in a...
Veteran artists returning with new music in 2023
We are almost three weeks late with this post. We typically try to publish this annual post around the 1st of the year. My sincere apologies for the delay. 2022 started off with the dark cloud of the Omicron Covid-19 variant making us all collectively question whether...
