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ONLY GOD WAS ABOVE US

Vampire Weekend also riffs on their own past cleverly with "Mary Boone," an update on their choral ballads named for the influential gallery owner imprisoned for offenses connected to tax fraud, and "The Surfer," which continues the legacy of Modern Vampires of the City's "Hudson" with its mournful allusions to famous waters (in this case, the Water Tunnel 3 project). The band balances all of this looking back with a significant step forward: making peace with the existential questions they raised on their previous albums. Nowhere is this move towards acceptance more apparent than on the closing track "Hope." Steady where the rest of the album is volatile, its eight-minute litany would be crushing if it wasn't for the liberation Koenig finds in admitting "Our enemy's invincible/I had to let it go." Similarly, the ease with which the band raises the bar is equally impressive and appealing. Only God Was Above Us isn't just a great album in its own right -- it's one that enriches the understanding of Vampire Weekend's entire history.
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GRATEFUL DEAD influencing the living

Norman Warwick learns from Paste mail-in: GRATEFUL DEAD influencing the living “I remember the sound of his laugh and the mixture of smoke and whatever aftershave,” says Sam Grisman, recalling Jerry Garcia in his living room.…
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BRASS BANDING up North

Thom Bamford, in a written essay in a recent I Love Manchester  newsletter, says that Brass Banding is a rich and deep tradition across the north of England and a huge deal across parts of Greater Manchester.
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HALF A CENTURY AGO:

when Paste published its review of the albums of fifty years ago and announced they had selected thirty great albums I was somewhat sceptical. I couldn´t believe that what I consider to have been a year in the musical wilderness could have produced that number of great albums.
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WHEN STARS LOSE THEIR SPARKLE

How do you resist the industry’s pressure to stick to a proven formula? And if you do shift to a more mature music, what music is that? Artists such as Taylor Swift, Bruno Mars, Maren Morris and their fellow thirty-somethings are wrestling with those issues now.
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(AUTO)  BIOGRAPHIES & SONGS

There was a time when the song Pearl´s A Singer was thought to have been written about Janis Joplin. That might not be an actual fact, but the song somehow seems to link the two singers Elkie Brooks and Janis Joplin.
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JANIS JOPLIN; Her Pain And Her Pride

She You’ll find a blueprint for boisterous female rock leads like Liz Phair, the Wilson sisters, Cat Power, Fiona Apple (right) and so on. Janis Joplin’s staying power will never fade away and, at the end of the day, she was just a girl trying to find herself in a world that couldn’t quite hold her style. Little did she know, she was in the right place all along.
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DON´T PASS BY POKEY !

An understanding that with all we have, we have more than we deserve so we rejoice and sing in gratitude,”
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CAN A SONG ENHANCE A FILM?

There is nothing more enjoyable for me than to listen to, or read, experts speaking enthusiastically about their subject.