North Atlantic Oscillation - Grappling Hooks album review for DiS Mibbe it's just their name, but I can't think about North Atlantic Oscillation's debut album without thinking about water. It's in the depths and swells of their song structures, the...

Damon's Finest Five (link) Blur – Parklife (1994) Britpop's finest hour, the album that launched a thousand magazine trend pieces about Essex lads behaving badly. So, that's mid-90s Britain generalised then, but don't blame the music. "Yes, they're...

albarn hagiography for the skinny sorry, I mean "feature" What is the best shorthand to introduce Damon Albarn now? Is it: "former Blur frontman..."? Too retro. Perhaps it's "Gorillaz mastermind..."? But that forgets his first decade of fame. Is it...

Gorillaz - Plastic Beach (***) album review for the skinny Last year a couple of L.A. producers gathered an all-star cast of guests for an album about peace, love and understanding: N.A.S.A.'s The Spirit of Apollo was an idealistic dream that proved...

blog for Amazon Chordstrike Criticizing an album before anyone's ever heard it would be a bizarre thing to do. Bizarrely, I think I'm going do just that. Y'see, I'm just a little concerned about one of my favorite artists. Joanna Newsom's Ys was one...