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T Bone Burnett Finds The Other Side

he blues element flavors all the songs on The Other Side, sometimes subtly, sometimes obviously.
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WILLIE NELSON AND HIS GUITAR

Willie Nelson’s talent as a genre-bending musical artist is undeniably special
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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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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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OPPENHEIMER wins big at Oscars

The 2024 Oscars undoubtedly felt less exciting than some previous years. After all there were no big shockers like the Moonlight mishap, no major underdog vindications like the culmination of last year’s Everything  Everywhere   campaign.
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MARY CHAPIN CARPENTER

MARY CHAPIN CARPENTER Musical Constant Companion on any Norman Warwick playlist I think it was in nineteen ninety that I first met Mary Chapin Carpenter (left) when she was a new star in the annual country and western firmament…
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YOU’RE LOOKIN’ AT COUNTRY

“You’re Lookin’ at Country” was an ode to the pastoral imagery Loretta Lynn passed on the open road while touring and her affirmation of being all-country
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GEORGE ORWELL & Stephen Fry

I would say to Alice that a performance of 1984 at The Royal Exchange Theatre fifteen years ago was perhaps the most harrowing night I have ever spent in a theatre. It was loud in voice and scaring in depiction with some scenes of a violent and sexual nature, in this small theatre in the round.