Author: Michael

Posted in Album Reviews

Manic Street Preachers – Critical Thinking (2025)

Posted on by Michael

Unlike some of their 90s peers, Welsh legends Manic Street Preachers have continuously been putting out music this century.  Their latest, Critical Thinking, sees the band to continue working with longtime co-producer David Eringa. Bassist Nicky Wire takes over the lead vocals on three tracks including the single, “Hiding In Plain Sight” that adds female vocals on the chorus, with Wire singing “I wanna be in love/With the man I used to be/In a decade I felt free”. He also handles the vocals on the opening title track with talk/sing style that matches the driving bass and drums combo.

Singer/guitarist James Dean Bradfield contributes lyrics to three songs including the chiming guitars on “Brushstrokes Of A Reunion” about his deceased Mother. The band is at it’s peak when it settles into the usual force of the band’s music with Wire’s lyrics and Bradfield singing.  This includes the letter to Morrissey on “Dear Stephen” with a plea not to destroy his legacy with his political leanings with a reminder that “it’s so easy to hate/It takes guts to be kind/To paraphrase one of your heartbreak lines”.

“People Ruin Paintings” namechecks several greats including Rothko and Pollock on a song that is not about protestors destroying works of art though it is hard not to get that imagery out of your head while listening to the track. “Decline and Fall” is the highlight of the album.  The band Squeeze get a co-writing credit due to partial use of their song “Cool For Cats”.  It’s tuneful driving song, tailor made for BBC radio adult alternative stations about the tiny joys that can still be found even as the world declines. On their 15th album, Manic Street Preachers continue to put out thought provoking songs that are thrilling to hear.

8/10

Posted in Paper Chase

George R. R. Martin – A Dance With Dragons

Posted on by Michael

The last to be published in the A Song Of Ice and Fire series, George R. R. Martin’s fifth book of the series, A Dance With Dragons was a best seller upon release in 2011. At over 1,000 pages, the book is a brick and picks up the stories of Jon Snow at the wall, Dany Targaryen and her dragons, Tyrion Lannister travelling to reach her, Ramsay Bolton continuing his diabolically evil ways, and Stannis Baratheon marching south to try and claim the kingdom.…. Among several other plotlines.  

It’s a dense book with much detail.  It’s another awe-inspiring display of fantasy writing that creates not just one new world but several.  With many plotlines going at ones, the book changes focus with every chapter.  Like the other books, readers can lose track of one storyline while visiting several others. This was particularly true when reading about Jon Snow and his seemingly endless cast of characters.

When the book is good, it’s amazing particularly the clever words of Tyrion and the far too short supply of Arya Stark moments, a favourite character. Fans still await the last two books in the series to close out the characters that have thrilled both book and TV audiences.

8/10

Posted in Album Reviews

The Clash – The Clash UK (1977)

Posted on by Michael

1977 is the year that punk broke. One of the bands at the forefront of the London scene was The Clash led by singers/guitarists Joe Strummer and Mick Jones along with bassist Paul Simonon and initially Terry Chimes on drums.  The rush of excitement for this new sound was immediate on their self titled debut with first track “Janie Jones”, driven by the sped up drums and rumbling bass on a song about a female brothel keeper who went to jail in the UK in the early 70s.  “I’m So Bored With The USA” was a shot across the bow on the negative aspects of American culture and it’s effects on the UK.

Strummer sings that “London’s burning with boredom now” about the boredom of living in the capital where fun was had driving around the Westway motor way. “Career Opportunities” is a revved up complaint on the lack of opportunities for young people to get meaningful jobs outside of “making tea at the BBC” especially when the punk attitude of Strummer sings “I hate the army and I hate the RAF”.  Incendiary first single, “White Riot” is a call to arms for the youth to fight against police brutality and oppression based on the Notting Hill Riots of 1976.

Towards the end of the album, the band changes gears with the six minute cover of Junior Murvin’s reggae hit, “Police & Thieves”. More bass riffs from Simonon stand out on the track that once again talks to the violence of the police + gang wars. To close things out, a punk anthem emerges on “Garageland” that the band wrote after a bad review in the NME that tells them to go back to the garage and stay there. Strummer takes that theme to announce that they in fact do come from the garage and will always be a garage band regardless of signing to a major label. As one of the biggest voices in the emergence of British punk music, The Clash is a breathtaking new sound that mixes rock music, the grit of the streets, searing social commentary, with a menacing snarl. 

10/10

Posted in Album Reviews

Saint Etienne – The Night (2024)

Posted on by Michael

Saint Etienne’s twelfth studio album, The Night, is a zen like album that could play in the background at the spa.  Pop ambient that occasionally breaks through the smoky condensation like on “Nightingale” where Sarah Cracknell sings that “Love is leaving/leaving space to breathe”. “When We Were Young” is a wisp of a song that blows through like the wind over nature sounds that blends into the instrumental “No Rush”.

“Celestial” sounds like the warm glow of an orchestra on an old radio before “Preflyte” that includes the intriguing lyrics – “Closing of the day/Draw the curtains, stars coming out to play”.  The music on The Night creates an ambient space, one that is meant to wash over the listener.  Saint Etienne with producer Augustin Bousfield have crafted a set of music that the listener can float away on while dreaming of the clouds, sun, ocean, and sky.

6/10