In League With Paton

Emmylou Harris, London Hammersmith Apollo, 14th September 2008 It’s taken me a while to get round to writing up my thoughts on my first Emmy...

Yet another legend has passed away this week - Motown producer and songwriter Norman Whitfield. Although Whitfield is less well known than S...

There's always a lot of fuss about a 'new' Bob Dylan release, however much it scrapes the barrel for previously unreleased recor...

Stevie Wonder, London O2 Arena, 11th September 2008 On one level, it seems completely churlish to complain about Stevie Wonder’s performance...

Kurt Wagner, Cate Le Bon, James Blackshaw - The Borderline, London 10th September 2008 Every so often London blesses us with a club night th...

Calexico - Carried to Dust (City Slang, 2008) Lambchop - OH(Ohio) (City Slang, 2008) If I see the words ‘return to form’ used in reference t...

R.E.M., Twickenham Stadium, 30th August 2008 When REM announced that the UK leg of their tour to promote ‘Accelerate’ would feature stadiums...

Bloc Party - Intimacy In this weekend’s Observer, Kitty Empire suggested that ‘Intimacy’ might eventually be remembered as the classic Bloc ...

School of Language – Sea From Shore The Week That Was – The Week That Was (Memphis Industries, 2008) It would be tremendously gratifying if ...

David Byrne and Brian Eno – Everything That Happens Will Happen Today (Download Only from http://www.everythingthathappens.com 2008) A new c...

Okkervil River - The Stand-Ins (Jagjaguwar, 2008) Sometimes I associate particular bands or specific albums with times and places. Okkervil ...

Noah and The Whale - Peaceful, the World Lays Me Down (Mercury, 2008) ‘Peaceful, The World Lays Me Down’ is not exactly the kind of enthusia...

Had Isaac Hayes’ career extended only as far as being a session musician and songwriter for the Stax/Volt/Atlantic labels (with writing part...

She & Him – Volume One (Double Six/Domino, 2008) This seems to be one of those years for film stars venturing into song. Were it not for...

Some Thoughts On Carlos Reygadas Somewhere on these pages, I apparently once dubbed innovative Dogme film-maker Lars Von Trier a ‘ludicrous ...

Polar Bear – Polar Bear (Tin Angel, 2008) In the rather sweet liner notes and acknowledgements that accompany this third Polar Bear album, S...

The Bug – London Zoo (Ninja Tunes, 2008) It’s tempting to caricature Kevin Martin as something of a musical chancer, given the length of his...

Leila – Blood, Looms and Blooms (Warp, 2008) As well as being a sometime keyboard player for Bjork, Leila Arab has been responsible for one ...