Tears For Fears - The Tipping Point ⅘ It's difficult to imagine what a 21st century Tears For Fear album would sound like, you may feel you’ve put the wrong record on when opener ‘No Small Thing’ begins. A folk-pop number more closely aligned with the likes of Eddi Reader not the huge synth kings of old, or even the Beatles bating later 80’s version of ‘Sowing the Seeds of Love’, Don’t be misled though, it sets a false tone for the album soon enough we hear the old magic again particularly on tracks like ‘Break the Man’ or  the ‘Woman in Chainsesque’ ‘Rivers of Mercy’. This is a rather mature Tears for Fears. The vocals deeper, less shouting more whispering for this album. ‘The Tipping Point’ is a warm and deeply personal album, ‘Please Be Happy’ feels like a confessional set to stirring music while ‘Master Plan’ is an unfolding biography carried along by an epic wave of orchestral sweeps and chirping keyboards. If you really need a blast of eighties then ‘End of Night’ is t...

  A Midsummer Night’s Dream Scottish Opera Glasgow – 22 February 2022  Kelvin Holdsworth  Scottish Opera’s covid-delayed production of Britten’s   A Midsummer Night’s Dream   is full of fun. Good singing and powerful stage magic make for an entertaining evening.  As the curtain rises, we are faced with a proscenium arch within a proscenium arch – presumably a nod to the play within a play that concludes the   Dream . We are drawn straight into director Dominic Hill’s comfort zone –a big open stage with wide open wings. Above and beyond the stage, large beds float in the air which will become part of the business later on and the inner arch forms the frame for a hall of mirrors – mirrors which were to become problematic as the evening unfolded.  Benjamin Britten’s version of Shakespeare’s play puts the territory of a fairies firmly at the centre of the action. The piece opens, not with Theseus and Hippolyta but with Oberon and Titania. It is thus s...

February Issue

Scene Alba top 20 albums of the year 2021 Scene Alba top 20 albums of the year 2021 20. Paul Weller - Fat Pop Weller re-connected with his pop sensibilities and brought us his most enjoyable album in years, Unashamed giant pop tunes but never without that trademark sardonic viewpoint, we needed it badly. 19. Saint Etienne - I’ve Been Trying To Tell You Indie’s pop champions returned with an ambient affair, coldly cool and sunburn hot. It was a soothing journey through loops and samples all presided over by the thrilling vocals of Dame Sarah Cracknell. Still perfect after all these years. 18. Low - Hey What Low were in the mood to fuck about and find out. An album of sonically challenging songs ‘Hey What’ showed that that three decades in they’re still up to rip up the rule book and re-write everything at a moment’s notice. 17. Admiral Fallow - Tiny Rewards Another band ripping up the rule books, Admiral Fallow took everything that is great about them and reshaped it into this fantastic...

December Issue

Bob Mould - Blue Hearts ⅘ ‘Blue Hearts’ was devised by Bob Mould as a sister record to last year’s rather cheerful and rambunctious ‘Sunshine Rock’ this record however is both angry and bitter. Mould has always made ferocious indie rock but with strong melodic content even when raging at the world like he does here. Opener ‘Heart On My Sleeve’ is a sorrowful acoustic number just to wrong foot you for when ‘Next Generation’ kicks down the door and barges into your earspace. It is very recognisably Mould, serrated edged guitars rasp away whilst the rhythm section race each other and it continues straight into the third track, ‘American Crisis’ there’s almost no room for breathing which is a perfect sonic analogy of the rage and distortion in modern America at this moment. In fact there’s almost no let up throughout the album, even the acoustic driven ‘Forecast of Rain’ gallops at an incredible speed, in fact with the exception of the opening track and record closer ‘The Ocean’ this is...

we had a chat with Lynnie Carson about her new album Everything In Between which is out now  What are the themes of the new album? Thematically this is quite dark for me. I have previously shied away from revealing anything too personal in my work, but John Grant said that when writing if it felt like something he shouldn't be talking about then it absolutely should go into a song. So I wrote these songs in the wake of a break-up, getting married and then my brand new, lovely wife suffering a cancer diagnosis. The songs were cathartic and I wrote them without thinking anyone would hear them so there is a freedom in that. There's also songs that cover addiction too, I'm not judging anybody in them, these are just what came out of me feeling that so many people from my past never reached their potential because of drink or drugs. It seems like such a waste and I felt I had to write about it.   How did lockdown affect the recording? We started recording 3 summers ago so lockdo...

What do you do when all your dreams have come true? This is the question that haunts A Hero's Death, the 2nd album from Dublin post-punks Fontaines D.C.  On Dogrel, their debut, released a mere 15 months ago, they presented themselves as a band out of time; young men besotted by romantic poetry, and sickened by the inauthenticity of modernity that has swept their home town. Praised for its grounded and authenticity and anthemic songwriting, Dogrel was showered with accolades. Second time out though, having achieved success, the "Big" that frontman Grian Chatten once sang about, the quintet seem less sure of what they want, the classic sophomore conundrum. Taught and tense with a paranoid edge, the album is the guitar-band equivalent of a late-night bus ride, the record presenting a rootless expanse. You can picture members staring out a rain-soaked window at the endless stretch before them. Fittingly, A Hero's Death was at least partly inspired by escapist art made by...

  Carla J Easton - Weirdo 5/5 I’m not going to hide it, we adore Carla J Easton. She’s such a tiny superstar, I’m almost willing Smash Hits back to life just to see her joshing about on the front cover where she belongs. ‘Weirdo’ is her third solo album after ‘Homemade Lemonade’ and 2018’s spectacular ‘Impossible Stuff’ this record finds her turning to keyboards and electronica and it's a wise move. Miss Easton has a unique voice at times it can be a youthful squeak and then it can be soaring above the clouds, sometimes both within the line of a song. ‘Weirdo’ is a bit of a journey, at times playful (‘Get Lost’) or energetic (‘Over You’) sometimes brooding (‘Coming Up Daisies’) but always inventive, the new sound is a perfect match for Carla’s writing. It compliments her slight oddness, not that we’d ever call our Carla a weirdo but she just has that nice left of centredness that sets her apart from her contemporaries. Wisely the album opens with the frankly magnificent ‘Get Lost’ ...

  ERASURE  (Andy Bell and Vince Clarke) have shared the fabulous new video for their latest single, ‘ Nerves of Steel ’. Featuring over  20 LGBTQIA+ stars , including several best known for their appearance on  RuPaul’s Drag Race , the video shines a suitably neon light on the single’s pop gleam. Andy Bell has said,  “This is my favourite track from the album, I am truly honoured that all our LGBTQIA+ friends were so creative during lockdown and helped us with this joyful video. Thanks for creating such a lovely piece of art!” Talking about the track, one of the video’s stars  Manila Luzon  said,  “Nerves of Steel evokes the butterfly feelings I remember when first falling in love and nothing else in the world mattered — pure excitement and electricity!”  while  Detox  explains,  “Erasure has been an integral part of my queer soundtrack from early on and it was a tremendous honor to be included in their new work!” 

Total Freedom by Kathleen Edwards   4 Stars Singer-songwriter  Kathleen Edwards  has such a steep career trajectory that she fell into that unenviable category of artists where producers, industry types and others were telling her how she should sound, and what she should be doing next. It all became too heavy a burden to bear so she dropped out, choosing to run her successful small coffee shop, bar, and café aptly named Quitters in her hometown of Stittsville, ON Canada. So, like her business, this album title,  Total Freedom , is also aptly named – she’s put aside all the so-called expectations and delivered an album the way she wanted to after her period of self-reflection.  The themes are essentially about resilience and newfound optimism. This is her fifth studio album and first since her 2012 Voyageur. Edwards had huge success with that record and is a five-time Juno Award nominee and winner of the SOCAN Songwriting Prize for Voyageur track ...

Cornershop - England Is A Garden ⅘ It's a shame that for the most of the nation Cornershop are those blokes that did ‘Brimful of Asha’ which while being a magnificent pop song is only one tune in a dazzling catalogue of excellent music and ‘England Is A Garden’ joins those ranks easily. Tjinder Singh has always been experimental in his songwriting and production and this new album is no different. Treated vocals on songs like ‘Slingshot’ make it almost impossible to hear what he’s singing whilst a psychedelic swirl of music floats prettily around him while ‘One Uncareful Lady Owner’ goes full on sixties with a rocking sitar blasting it's way throughout. Interestingly enough, and particularly for these trying political times, ‘England Is A Garden’ is a hugely upbeat and positive record and God knows we need it. In fact single ‘St Marie Under Canon’ is one of the band’s finest singles to date. Huge thumping Roy Orbison drums sliced through with scattershot fills and a big h...

Luke Haines & Peter Buck - Beat Poetry For Survivalists 3/5 There’s something about pairing the super-English Luke Haines with the very American Peter Buck that somehow makes him even more English. Ever since Haines appeared in the form of The Auteurs back in ‘93 he’s been a constant music maker in several guises. This album of his cast of oddball characters has all the hallmarks of Haines’ previous works. The cool, nervy feel of anxiety with pretty music and xylophones. Peter Buck lends his gnarly R.E.M. style guitars to bolster and frame Haines’ collection of tall tales although the music stays very much in Luke Haines’ area of stiff upper lip alt-rock/pop. There are diversions into bhangra like on ‘Last Of The Legendary Bigfoot Hunters’ and full glittery attacks on glam rock (one of Luke’s favourite musical styles) with ‘French Man Glam Gang’ which is scuzzy and languid, in a good way of course. Possibly the closest we come into the area of R.E.M. is on ‘Bobby’...

Paul Heaton & Jacqui Abbott - Manchester Calling 3/5 At 16, (yes 16!) tracks long there’s a lot of music on the new Heaton/Abbott album, this seems to be a purple patch for the two former Beautiful South singers, obviously, they bounce off each other within the songs and it must spill into the songwriting process but does it need to be such a long album? It has all the hallmarks of his collaboration with Abbott, the swaggering faster songs, the shuffling midtempo songs and the wistful slower tunes. Ditties like ‘The Only Exercise I Get Is You’ and ‘So Happy’ have that trademark northern wit while country gets to influence the music on ‘You & Me (Were Meant To Be Together)’ but the general feel of the album is so familiar that you keep thinking you’ve heard these songs before and that may be a flaw in Heaton (and songwriting partner Johnny Lexus’) process that there are no real surprises which is pretty much the reason the Beautiful South split up so it's odd...