flyingnelly has written the following articles:
If you fell down the disco rabbit hole into a synth-funk dominated Wonderland.»
DiS' Krystina Nellis got 20 minutes to chat with half of Phoenix, right at the start of the whirlwind of mayhem that is their campaign for Bankrupt!, aka. The Follow-Up To DiS' Album of 2009 Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix. Except it's probably not going to feel anything like that when you hear it - at least, not if the band themselves have anything to do with it. »
It's only when you've got as internalised a knowledge of how pop music works as Phoenix do that you can make an album as frequently barking as this and not fly away completely.»
So awards season has come and gone for another year, culminating in Adele winning at Oscar. (I am biased, but those lights tho?) And Jennifer Lawrence winning whatever Adele left over, between doing what I guarantee we would all do if our name was calle»
Just in case you missed the news - in which case we can only assume you've been off colonising Messier 83 so, you know, well done you but still - Phoenix made their big comeback this week. The French über-stars responsible for DiS's favourite album of 2009 Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix announced new album, Bankrupt!, last week, followed on Monday with the world premiere of lead single 'Entertainment'.»
News comes, via French newspaper La Parisien and confirmed by The Hollywood Reporter, that Daft Punk have left long-time label Virgin/EMI and signed to Columbia/Sony for their upcoming release.»
Pushing the boundaries in this way is exactly what pop music, in all its genre-thieving, structure-hijacking glory, should be doing. It's undeniably batshit insane, but Warrior is never dull, always fun, and frequently a thrillingly unpredictable ride.»
The past couple of weeks I've been mostly holed up in cinemas, watching a load of films ahead of their UK releases. The good, the bad and the ugly. All so you don't have to. »
If only Savoir Adore had dared to venture out beyond the hipster curtain and fully embraced their pop side, instead of trying to minimise it.»
It's an interesting time to be a member of Pnau. The Australian dance act, made up of Nick Littlemore and Peter Mayes, have until recently been relatively unknown. Yet, as we speak, the duo are number 1 in the album charts with Good Morning To The Night, a reinterpretation of Elton John's 1970s back catalogue. »
Musical storytelling in its purest form, demanding several listens and uncovering itself as perhaps one of the more individual takes on the great American dream.»
Good Morning To The Night is not going to reinvent the wheel, provide breathtaking new revelations on Elton John's back catalogue or shine new light on Pnau's songwriting abilities. But for all of that, toes will tap. »
A few weeks back DiS' Krystina Nellis set up home in the O2 for three days, in the name of Sundance London, the new branch of US indie cinema's annual pilgrimage to Utah. »
Keane are capable of making genuinely interesting pop music, more than many of the contemporaries they get lumped in with, yet here they've taken several steps backwards.»
Shut Up and Play The Hits is Will Lovelace and Dylan Southern's attempt to chronicle the melange of mayhem that was the last 48 hours of LCD Soundsystem. Maybe not that big a band, maybe not that big a gig, just another night in New York. And yet, somehow, Madison Square Garden on April 2nd 2011, dominated by our generation's answer to David Byrne, became a strange musical Mecca for the web 2.0 generation.»
Weighed down by too much pseudo intellect and, crucially, not enough amazing pop songs, this is one tightrope act that was always going to end more with a whimper than a great flourish. »
There's a problem with Pop As Serious Business though, whatever form it takes, and it's this: it runs the risk of being utterly without joy. And so it is here.»
When it's good, it's almost blinding. The rest of the time, it's very good at making you think it's giving you songs, when all it’s actually giving is hooks and ideas that often don't go anywhere, like 'Bombastic's half-baked nouveau blues. And vocals drowned in reverb like on 'Cyan'. And sax. Please dear God, can we agree an amnesty on the ridiculous overuse of sax now?»
It's to James Mercer's credit that Port of Morrow, which could have so easily veered off into soulless corporatism or self-indulgence, manages to remain nothing less than both a universal and personal joy to listen to.»
Keane, more than a lot of bands, have made a running theme of the homecoming gig. Even as far back as 2004 they were playing 'locals only' gigs in Battle. Of course with such fervent fans as Keane are lucky enough to enjoy, Friday's comeback gig at Bexhill-on-Sea's De La Warr Pavilion saw audiences from as far away as Argentina; a fact cheerily flagged up by Tom Chaplin when he started pointing out all the familiar faces. Local gig it may have been, but Strangeland's public debut couldn't have been more international if Keane had set up their own special branch of the UN.»
Fortunately for us, Fanfarlo seem to have resisted all the pressure of Reservoir’s success and potential to become a banjo-wielding clone, and given us Rooms Filled With Light instead.»
Whatever she ends up being, she seems fun, this Lana Del Rey. A lot more fun than you'd think to look at her.»
Essentially a younger version of Pet Shop Boys, but with not as much of the wit and knowing winks.»
God bless the year 2000. The internet was still in its infancy, people still bought whole albums, and word spread at a rate that meant trends could catch on but not implode before a band even released its first single. If it weren't for those three particular circumstances, it's possible Phoenix might never have caught on; if United appeared for the first time today, we'd maybe write it off much too soon as too laid-back, not flash-bang enough, not instant enough...»
Whereas once the effort would have gone on making a great overall album and the singles would have been almost incidental, on Mylo Xyloto there is a distinct feeling of effort having gone into making big singles, rather than a great album.»
There is a lot to like about Gauntlet Hair - they've just made it that bit too difficult to get at it.»
Is Nicola Roberts good in her own right, or just better than her peers? Fortunately, on the evidence of this, there’s every chance she’s both.»
It feels almost like an academic exploration of the schism between the wants of the head and the needs of the heart, rather than a personal one.»
It is next to impossible to imagine Beirut ever sounding like anybody other than completely themselves.»
If there's one thing to quibble about, it's the desire to see more original material - if only to demonstrate what brilliant pop Alex Metric is capable of.»
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