Simon Cowell: uncharitable thoughts on a charity record
It’s not bad enough that Simon Cowell ruined Leonard Cohen’s ‘Hallelujah’. Now he’s going to trample all over REM’s ‘Everybody Hurts’. And you can’t even complain, cause its for charity. Quick,...
View ArticleWhy REM's lyrics are better misheard
According to a new poll, REM’s The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonight is the most misheard song lyric. Apparently the line "Call me when you try to wake her" was widely thought to be "Calling Jamaica". Which is...
View ArticleAmerica's worst places to live, according to rock songs
From my postbag today, I plucked Spin: Greatest Hits – 25 Years Of Heretics, Heroes & The New Rock And Roll. It’s a collection of articles from American rock magazine Spin. Most rock journalism...
View ArticleHave The National made the album of the year?
Last week, Q magazine readers anointed The National’s High Violet the best album of the year. Even given that there are still a couple of months to go, I am minded to concur, though I am finding it...
View ArticleREM RIP
REM have broken up, after 31 years and 15 albums. They have been one of the all time great rock bands yet it is strangely hard to mourn their passing. The dignified way in which they called it a day,...
View ArticleIs it time for U2 to call it a day?
There has been a lot of internet chatter about whether U2 are breaking up, following comments from Bono in Rolling Stone. He has been talking a lot recently about U2 having been “on the edge of...
View ArticleLeonard Cohen is a rare thing: a pop grandfather who just gets better with age
Leonard Cohen – Darkness by leonardcohen It's easy to forget that Leonard Cohen is pushing 80. Well, he's 77. Today he dropped a new track called Darkness on his website and Soundcloud. You can listen...
View ArticleWhat do you listen to when you're sad?
Yesterday was a brilliant day for music (Jack White's new song, M.I.A's brilliantly reworked Bad Girls and Neil Young's Crazy Horse jam spring to mind). Today, however, the agenda leads with the news...
View ArticleWhat is the happiest song of all time?
A rather spurious poll has declared REM’s Everybody Hurts “the saddest song of all time”. Given that there were only twenty songs to choose from, none of which were by Elliot Smith, I’m not sure how...
View ArticleMisery loves company, but sad songs are subjective
Yesterday’s poll about “the saddest song of all time” left me distinctly unimpressed, yet craving that bittersweet fix of the truly sad song. So much so that I spent the night trawling my music...
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