Happy 70th Birthday Stevie Wonder!!

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Looking back at 2023 - for the record

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A music critic could look at 2023 through the same prism as the years 1973, '83, '93, 2003 and 2013 - years that let's be honest did not set the world on fire. But unlike those years which were very much on a journey as music continually evolved, 2023 was driven not by exciting new genres or even artists but my new challenges that haven't impacted any of those years above, namely climate change and technological change, principally AI. And Taylor Swift... This was the first year that AI created the possibility we could be listening to artificially created music and possibly an artist's work being  mimicked . Climate change is now far better understood than ten years ago but such inspiration appears largely lost in today's musical artists. Russia continued their assault on Ukraine whilst Israel-Palestine conflict became brutally and sadly physical. My song of the year is a beautiful and timely reminder on how beautiful music can be: Saint Levant's From Gaza, ...
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Best of the year

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      It's been a strange year but the music has come thick and fast, despite the limitations of the pandemic which cancelled pretty much all touring and live music. Artists either completed planned recording sessions in time or worked around these limitations to produce a really wide variety of work. The following are my favourite ten albums and singles of the year. Enjoy.. Album of the Year 1   Fetch The Bolt Cutters         Fiona Apple         Arriving a matter of weeks after the  start of the first worldwide lockdown, this wild and brilliant album, Apple's 5th, took a direct wrecking ball to any doubts that the music industry was not involved in #MeToo.  Apple sang powerfully about assault, abuse of power and coercion, over complex  and unusual arrangements.  The opening piano led one two of I Want You To Love Me and lead single Shameika recalled Tori Amos, whilst th e title cut that followed payed...
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THE 100 GREATEST B-SIDES EVER

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Little Labours of Love - The 100 Greatest B-Sides Like the English electric lightning that's features above on Suede's excellent B-side compilation Sci-Fi Lullabies , the B-side is a humble relic from a bygone era.  L eaving both a mountain of aural rubbish and a small but largely untold legacy of great music when artists dared to experiment, dared to take risks, dared to push themselves. B-sides were tracks that accompanied singles - or A-sides - and were their literal flipside, on vinyl or cassette that could be turned or flipped over. In the fifties and early sixties two songs could be recorded and radio would choose their preferred song to play and these became the single. So for example Bill Wither's Ain't No Sunshine was originally a B-side to the single Harlem before Radio DJs saw the obvious error and played the B-side instead. Examples such as these were purely down to chance however.  The idea that a B-side could be worthy of being taken seriously was perhaps ...
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