The new current issue of SONGLINES has a 50-page feature of the best 60 albums from 2025. Here are the top albums from each category

«I’ve never heard of Herr Boa and I suspect I am not alone…» Phillip Boa has been making great albums since the early 1980s. A lot of his work was produced and overseen by Krautrock legend and sound wiz […]

And not forgetting the fabulous Marty Stuart:

The fabulous Sean Shibe was one of the top favourites in my 2021 (or 2022??) year-end list, and he’s put out some amazing albums since. My current fave is his 2023 album where he played acoustic guitar with a […]

»Goodness! I forgot about Pink Floyd.« T-Shirt!

»Welcome to the rehearsal!« 😉

You surely have been waiting for my usual nit-picking, and the Lennon camp doesn’t disappoint here. For all that talk about »archival research«, years of preparation and documentation, it’s still impressive t […]

These reel-to-reels are fascinating – they’ve been popping up in those elusive HiFi shops where they sell you »Sound stones« for »relaxing the atmosphere in your room«. Here’s one from Yello: https […]

Exactly – and the cassette versions of both (»Pleasuredome« and »Secret Wish«) also had different track listings (and unlisted bonus tracks)… ZTT repeated this with »Slave To The Rhythm« where LP and CD were […]

When »A Secret Wish« came out, ZTT/Island hadn’t entered the CD age – they only issued those new-fangled compact discs a year later. Steve Lipson used this delay to fiddle with the album mixes and the track lis […]

It’s not about actually listening, it’s about HAVING these tracks, obviously. 😉

There’s a whole disc of outtakes in the box set, including various sessions and jams with Jeff Beck and Harvey Mandel.

A very nice set, all in all, and of course these »Era« boxes are a fabulous series – and I’m relieved that the label is sticking to the format for once. But, does the Estate Of Bowie really believe that »Bla […]

If it’s a climbdown, it’s only the announcement. They must’ve planned a separate edition all along, otherwise it wouldn’t be available in November – waiting time at vinyl manufacturers currently is 6 months ( […]

During the late 1980s/early 1990s Laswell made a couple of great albums – »Third Power« is one of them. »Seven Souls« and »Hallucination Engine« were released as Material at the time, and he also made a »solo« […]

According to Marc Almond, »some parts of the album« were recorded in mono, not the whole album.

British band tours West Germany under the heading »Bravo Beatles Blitz Tournee«. Don’t mention the war, indeed. 😉

Have we covered Okinawa yet? Here’s the legendary Shoukichi Kina at the Great Music Experience concert in 1994, with Ry Cooder, Jim Keltner and a couple of Chieftains (and Bob Dylan watching from the wings). Wait […]

»Woman is the Person Of Colour Of The World« Surely they could have fixed his vocal with AI…? But seriously – the song was always meant as a provocation, and everyone who spends 200 bucks on a box set wou […]