Difficult questions

Josienne Clarke has a vocal style. Some of its appurtenances, such as its precise diction, its half-rounded vowels, its purity … More

More than its parts

Neither One Of Us was the last album Gladys Knight & The Pips recorded for Motown, released after they’d left … More

When I was young, reggae was a central part of pop-music—everyone had heard it, and although it wasn’t the most … More

The Beastie Boys landed in the public consciousness with Licensed to Ill, an album of spoof hip-hop over cartoon metal … More

This album was a gift from a friend, who I imagine had it recommended to him for its prog connections, … More

It was the 1980s. We all had glossy hair, wore shoulder pads, and made music with the same three models … More

As a librarian, as a lover of history and the literature that constitutes it, as a custodian and celebrant of … More

Lots of regional music scenes have come and gone. Some we’ve heard of. We know that there were interesting things … More

Slayer’s fourth album, South of Heaven was released when their sound and status were well-established, and it was conceived as … More

People whose names appear on albums are often not ‘professional musicians’ in the sense of someone who has honed their … More

A rich, deep evocation of… Well, it’s something of a cliché to say ‘the movement of the earth’, or ‘geology’, … More

Darkness, an absence of light, is an obvious, unavoidable presence in the visual realm. We live in a world of … More

So what happens when you take one of the most distinctive and stylish rhythm sections of the post-punk era and … More

Herbie Hancock was right at the beginning of his career as a sideman when he made his debut recording as … More