Had I been in a more cynical frame of mind I could have summed this album up simply by pointing out that it feels like nothing more than a record company’s opportunistic attempts to foist another Avril Lavigne onto an unsuspecting world and could, quite happily, have left it there. However, I feel duty bound as a reviewer for this fine magazine to furnish the reader with a few more details. And so to work… Girl Next Door is a Continue Reading

Here’s the brief: self-styled painted rock demon, Gene Simmons of Kiss takes on a group of classical music students who attend the Christ’s Hospital School in Horsham, West Sussex and attempts to turn them into wannabe rock stars. Here’s the snag: none of them actually wants to be a rock star. Christ’s Hospital is one of the oldest boarding schools in England, and whilst the school is at pains to stress they are not a posh, public school for the Continue Reading

When Crud reviewed Blondie’s ‘Live By Request’ a couple of weeks ago it broke our hearts to report that for all its occasional flashes of magic it was a pale, pale imitation of their studio albums. And though it would be difficult to describe any kind of Blondie release thesedays as anything BUT a lumbering, predictable cash-in, this is exactly the kind of record we really wanted to account for: wall-to-wall platinum pop heaven. Only a goof-ball or a man Continue Reading

As luck would have it, Elliott Smith went and died before the film or its soundtrack ever came to completion. Needless to say, Thumbsucker director Mike Mills was left in a bit of a quandary; how best to portray the wretched melancholy of adolescence as depicted in the film without succumbing to said melancholy and committing suicide. Solution? Rope in Tim Delaughter of universal sunshine gang The Polyphonic Sprees and his 50-strong ensemble of white-robed misfits. Apocalyptic FBI assisted massacre Continue Reading

Bono: Rock Star 5000!. See all 3 set poses! Staggered hunch, integrated microphone stand, with optional extendable right arm! Pensive stance, arm protectively gathering in the other, head bowed! And all new for this year, the audience interaction model – including disorientated fan-boy seated uncomfortably beside Action Bono up on stage! You can lie him down for added dramatic effect yourself, if required. And you can of course pull a cord and hear some generic shouty motivational drivel too – Continue Reading

Anything an alternative rock magazine is going to report about the new ‘Harry Potter and The Goblet Of Fire’ soundtrack is likely to be monopolised by the inclusion of three new Jarvis Cocker numbers and the performances of Radiohead’s Johnny Greenwood, sticksman, Phil Selway plus Add N t (X)’s Steve Claydon, Pulp’s Steve Mackey and Jason Buckle – a shame given the subtle magical majesty of Patrick Doyle’s score and the affectionate performance of the orchestral crew who mesh all Continue Reading

They’re a thankless, moody bunch those rock stars, aren’t they? Breaking up their amps and guitars when their mothers have worked their nails to the bone paying for them on the old HP month in and month out without so much as a word of thanks from any of them. As long as they’ve got enough pennies to spend down at the local salon come Friday evening for their weekly cut and blow they just don’t give a stuff about Continue Reading

It’s going to split a few people this one. And whilst Christmas is as good a time as any to start an argument (gooder, in my view) there’s really no reason why this impeccable selection of Blue Note originals can’t sit quietly alongside the Jazznova collective’s fashion assisted fusion of hip-hop, funk, breakbeat and soul without poking at one another or pulling out their tongues. Likewise, there’s no reason for Blue Note sophisticates to dismiss this mix record simply because Continue Reading

The Anticon stamp is a fine argument for why labels can still matter in these oh-so-very-modern days of instantaneous identity and product delivery dot com forward slash. It’s a guarantee. It tells you ‘it’s ok, there will be something, maybe many things, that will make you stop for breath on this record’. Imagine that, eh. Creativity is taken for granted and not demanded nearly often enough, and here’s a label that kicks that into touch a little. It’s a hip-hop Continue Reading

For those expecting a new album from the Grammy award winning and jazz savvy hip-hop band the Digable Planets, this could be something of a wind-up. Folks have already queried the misleading moniker – The Creamy Spy Chronicles – when the album amounts to little more than a greatest hits package amassed from a selection of quality B-Sides, tidy remixes and singles. But for a band that can boast no more than two albums proper (1993’s ‘Reachin: A New Refutation of Continue Reading