Archive for month: August, 2013

Tales of Us • Goldfrapp

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44:42 min • Mute • September 9, 2013
Tales Of Us is Goldfrapp showing their lush, dreamy slowed-down side, and the concessions to pop on previous albums are entirely absent.

“The songwriting in particular is supremely confident and intricate and has reached the point where instead of lining up their influences for all to hear, Goldfrapp are finally sounding like themselves.”

Flush the Fashion • Alice Cooper

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Released April 28, 1980
With Flush the Fashion, Alice Cooper reinvented himself and his music, embracing a punk and electronic edge.

“The use of electronic sounds is being used to explore the themes of duplicating people, the dangers of emerging technology for society. This hidden dark edge is pure Alice and while the public may have been thrown off by the slick sound of this single, the blackness was still there.”

I Will Be There • Katie Melua

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Released September 16, 2013
This tender and heart-warming ballad, underpinned by Melua’s compassionate vibrato and an orchestral arrangement, is a stunning tribute to the Queen.

“The first single from her sixth studio album Ketevan has the trademark soft and layered vocal, but showcases a more mature sound that featured on her last opus Secret Symphony.”

F***ing and Sho**ing

August 28, 2013

What Gay Men Really Want. Polari Safari cartoon by David Shenton.

Striving For Perfection • An Interview with The Horn The Hunt

Chasing Wild Horses.

Clare Carter of The Horn The Hunt talks about the band’s unique sound, and how the upcoming third album promises a big creative leap.

“I can’t say too much about it. It has a title but I want to keep it under wraps for the moment. We’ve only just finished it and we’re not 100% sure when it’s going to be released or who’s releasing it. All I can say is that it’s like the description we started this interview with”

Another Gay Movie

[rating=4]
Cert: 18 • US: 94 min • TLA Releasing • April 28, 2006

Another Gay Movie, because sometimes queer audiences need a break to have a good laugh.

“What’s the moral of the story? Andy puts it bluntly, “Real men take it up the ass” as they toast to the coming sequel, breaking the fourth wall.”

Loud City Song • Julia Holter

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44:42 min • Domino • August 19, 2013
Julia Holter keeps moving forward at a tireless, restless place and on Loud City Song she had made something that is intimate, warm and more than ever before, relatable.

Loud City Song is certainly Julia Holter’s most musical album to date and is structured in a way that, more than anything, is typical of a musical play, much like its references. It is simultaneously very old fashioned in its use of instruments and arrangements and modern in the way it stops short of any clear categorisation”

The Trinity Session • Cowboy Junkies

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Released November 15, 1988
The Trinity Session, the Cowboy Junkies’ second album, launched the band into the mainstream and ushered in the alternative country movement.

“The sound was raw, according to the band, no mixing, no editing, no overdubbing was used, what you hear is what you get. In single takes and in a few short days, they created one of the iconic albums of a new alt sound.”

Spheksappeal

August 21, 2013

An argument over what it means to be a mated queen… Polari Safari cartoon by David Shenton.

No Pity, But Equality

There’s More To Politics Than Looks.

Is life easier if you can “pass” for straight. And if you do, does that mean you don’t know really know what discrimination feels like? Emphatically not, argues Walter Beck.

“We started to shun and shame our brothers and sisters who didn’t fit that mold. Our Pride Colors, instead of showing the bright diversity of our community, began to turn into merely shades of gray.”