We lost a lot of good musicians
this year. But that isn’t to say 2016 has been an awful year for music. In
terms of albums, there have been some impressive releases this year that show
we can all still look forward to the future with optimism. Here are my personal
favourites.
“A collection of profound and epic album reviews and musical articles by former astronaut and brain surgeon, Alasdair Kennedy. Reaching levels of poetry that rival Keats and Blake, the following reviews affirm Alasdair to be a prodigy, a genius and a god whose opinion is always objectively right. He is also without a doubt the most modest man in the universe.” - Alasdair Kennedy
Tuesday 27 December 2016
Friday 23 December 2016
BEST AND WORST NEW TRACKS OF THE WEEK 23/12/2016: Pool Art, Daniel Caeser, Mick Jenkins and more...
I wasn’t going to do any more 'tracks of the week' segments this year, but I’ve been getting some good stuff
sent my way in the last fortnight and just had to share it. This may well be
the last post of 2016, so Merry Christmas and a happy a new year! Wait, where’s
my card and present?
Wednesday 21 December 2016
Tuesday 13 December 2016
My Top 20 Favourite Tracks Of 2016
It’s time for my favourite tracks
of the year, having already given you my worst (there’s a pun here that will
become clear by the end).
Indie rock with a Cure vibe that
feels as bouncy as it does forlorn. ‘It
tastes bittersweet/ beneath the lemon trees’.
19. ‘The Big Big Beat’ – Azealia Banks
This nostalgic house banger has
all the ingredients of a good Azealia anthem – glitzy singing, tongue-twister
rapping and a big big beat!
Saturday 10 December 2016
The 10 Worst Songs of 2016
Forget my worst songs lists of 2014 and 2015 - this year’s
list makes those freak shows look like beauty pageants. Whilst there have been
some extreme musical highs this year, there have also been many extreme musical
lows – some of which I haven’t been able to free from my mind, so I thought I’d
share them with you, being the sick person I am. I warn you now - these songs are an
advertisement for deafness. They’re enough to make the sadist behind Crazy Frog
wince. It is rumoured ISIS considered using these songs for military purposes,
but concluded to do so would be against even their moral code. Proceed at your own risk…
Friday 9 December 2016
BEST AND WORST NEW TRACKS OF THE WEEK 09/12/2016 (CHRISTMAS EDITION): The Melvins, Kelsea Ballerini, Trey Songz and more...
This week is a Christmas special!
I’ve rounded up the best and worst new Yuletide jams of 2016. Keep it current
this Christmas – play these songs as you cruise back home Christmas Eve in your driverless car
that you bought with your Leicester City bet winnings, or play in the kitchen
as you cook this year’s roast in that Smart oven you bought with that grand you
earnt from selling that AK47 plastic fiver.
Wednesday 7 December 2016
Review of 'Hardwired ... To Self-Destruct' by Metallica
Saturday 3 December 2016
Friday 2 December 2016
BEST AND WORST NEW TRACKS OF THE WEEK 02/12/2016: Run the Jewels, Little Death Machine, Mr. Twin Sister and more...
It’s December, which means you can
now put up your Christmas decorations and year-end lists, although a lot of you
impatient fuckers already did that back in September. For those who aren’t
currently buying Easter eggs already and planning their 2017 favourite albums
list, here are some songs from the last week to remind you what the here and
now looks like!
Tuesday 29 November 2016
Review of 'Splendor & Misery' by clipping.
Blunt, rapey lyrics aren’t usually
my thing. I put up with them on this noise-hop trio's latest EP Wriggle (released earlier this year) because
the infectiousness made up for it, although I couldn’t help but feel frontman
Daveed Diggs was discouragingly dumbing himself down. Where was the vivid and
gritty storytelling of previous albums?
Friday 25 November 2016
Friday 18 November 2016
Thursday 17 November 2016
Monday 14 November 2016
Review of 'Angelic 2 the Core: Angelic Funkadelic/Angelic Rockadelic' by Corey Feldman
How did we allow this to happen? No, I don't mean Brexit or Trump or even the
new Toblerone. I’m talking about 2016’s biggest atrocity - Corey Feldman’s new
album.
Friday 11 November 2016
BEST AND WORST NEW TRACKS OF THE WEEK 11/11/2016: Bruno Mars, Run the Jewels, Seprona and more...
This week I bring you some tracks
to listen to whilst you dig out your nuclear bunker as we all prepare for the
next four years of global tension followed by Kanye West’s inevitable
presidency. THE FUTURE IS BRIGHT!
Thursday 10 November 2016
Monday 7 November 2016
Review of 'Atrocity Exhibition' by Danny Brown
The first time I drank beer I didn’t like it. Similarly, the first time
I heard Danny Brown’s pterodactyl-like squawking I almost did a Van Gogh and
hacked my own ear off.
Saturday 5 November 2016
Review of 'Take Control' by Slaves
What kind of punk band collaborates with Chase and Status? Bloody
sellouts! What next – trap beats and a Nicki Minaj feature?
Friday 4 November 2016
BEST AND WORST NEW TRACKS OF THE WEEK 04/11/2016: clipping., Big Sean, Skepta and more...
Halloween’s over now. We can all
look forward to next week’s scary event – Election Day! In the meantime, check
out these terrifying tunes
Sunday 30 October 2016
Friday 28 October 2016
BEST AND WORST NEW TRACKS OF THE MONTH 28/10/2016: Idles, D.R.A.M., Robbie Williams and more...
Music Related Junk is back! I've been away for a month, travelling the galaxy, but now I've returned. You can put your 'welcome home' banners away. To make up for all the ‘tracks of
the week’ sections I’ve missed during my absence from this blog, I’ve decided
to do a special 'tracks of the month' segment. Lots of fun music to get through. Are
you sitting comfortably?
Thursday 27 October 2016
Friday 23 September 2016
BEST AND WORST NEW TRACKS OF THE WEEK 23/09/2016: Danny Brown, The Weeknd, Pool Art and more...
Whilst you’ve been busy sobbing about the Brangelina breakup,
I’ve been doing more productive things. Like sobbing over my existence. And discovering
new music on the internet. Here are my findings.
Tuesday 20 September 2016
Double Review: 'Blank Face' by Schoolboy Q and 'The Sun's Tirade' by Isaiah Rashad
Kendrick season is over. You can stop doing naughty things to your hard copy of To Pimp A Butterfly. Instead, Top Dawg Entertainment has two new albums you should be getting stupidly
excited about, Schoolboy Q’s Blank Face
and Isaiah Rashad’s The Sun’s Tirade.
Monday 19 September 2016
Friday 16 September 2016
BEST AND WORST NEW TRACKS OF THE WEEK 16/09/2016: Creature from Dell Pond, Teksti-TV 666, Valborg and more...
Lots of noisy guitars this week. If you don’t like noisy guitars
then y̶o̶u̶’̶r̶e̶ ̶a̶ ̶p̶u̶s̶s̶y̶ this week’s audial assortment may not be for you…
Saturday 10 September 2016
Monday 5 September 2016
Thursday 1 September 2016
BEST AND WORST NEW TRACKS OF THE WEEK 02/09/2016: Mick Jenkins, Sleigh Bells, Sampha and more...
Going back to school this September? Why not impress your buddies with these new tracks and be remembered forever as the second coolest kid that ever lived (me being the first coolest, obviously)...
Sunday 28 August 2016
Review of 'Freetown Sound' by Blood Orange
Dev Hynes is the kind of guy who likes to keep changing up his style. Metaphorically speaking, he’s the kind of guy who never wears the same dress twice. Literally speaking, he’s the kind of guy who’d probably never wear a dress in the first place. But let’s not get ourselves sidetracked with cross-dressing analogies…
Friday 26 August 2016
Sunday 21 August 2016
Review of 'How To Ruin Other People's Futures' by Losers
How To Ruin Other People’s Futures
is an album that’s as unfriendly as its title – which is good because after hearing
industrial banger ‘This is a War’ (recently featured in my best tracks of the week) I would have been pretty disappointed had the rest of the album been
meditative ambient music.
Friday 19 August 2016
BEST AND WORST NEW TRACKS OF THE WEEK 19/08/2016: Stormzy, PWR BTTM, Ehiorobo and more...
My cat went to heaven this week, so I've been feeling pretty down. But I've been coping, focusing on life's little improvements. Team GB are looking very promising medal-wise in Rio and the pool is looking a lot less green. Plus things have been looking very exciting on the musical front. For one Frank Ocean has finally released an album, with rumours of another one on the way. And some of the singles released this week haven't been too shabby either...
Monday 15 August 2016
Thursday 11 August 2016
BEST AND WORST NEW TRACKS OF THE WEEK 12/08/2016: Flex, Swet Shop Boys, Gypsy & The Cat and more...
Flex? The Swet Shop Boys? Gypsy & The Cat? Never heard of any of them. What a load of hipster twaddle. What kind of pretentious asshole writes this blog, anyhow? I'm unsubscribing...
Saturday 6 August 2016
Thursday 4 August 2016
Saturday 30 July 2016
Review of 'IV' by BADBADNOTGOOD
Toronto jazz act BADBADNOTGOOD have abandoned the spooky
melodies and pig masks and decided to put on their bow ties and get classy.
Friday 29 July 2016
Friday 22 July 2016
BEST AND WORST NEW TRACKS OF THE WEEK 22/07/2016: Duke Dumont, Jagwar Ma, Rich Chigga and more...
Whilst you’ve been busy hunting down last-minute holiday
deals and Pokémon, I’ve been busy hunting down awesome new music – on top of last
minute holiday deals and Pokémon. This week, I talk fanny-packs, corrugated
roofs and vomit.
Tuesday 19 July 2016
Friday 15 July 2016
BEST AND WORST NEW TRACKS OF THE WEEK 15/07/2016: Jaden Smith, Crystal Castles, De La Soul and more...
I never know what to write in these introductory segments, so I'll just leave you with this inspirational quote from topical artist of the day Jaden Smith: 'How Can Mirrors Be Real If Our Eyes Aren't Real'
Thursday 14 July 2016
Review of 'The Getaway' by The Red Hot Chili Peppers
The once wild Californian
funk-rockers have slowly got more sleepy and tame over the years – once a pack
of jumping leg-humping Jack Russells, now a mass of somnolent salivating senior
St Bernards. What a sickening amount of alliteration I just used there.
Sunday 10 July 2016
Review of 'Wriggle' by clipping.
Clipping (stylised ‘clipping.’
but for punctuation’s sake we’ll call them Clipping) continue to make music out
of the most unmusical ideas conceivable, this time centreing their creepy lyrics
around sex. The result is Wriggle -
an EP that will either get you wriggling uncomfortably in your seat or
wriggling with masochistic joy.
Thursday 7 July 2016
Saturday 2 July 2016
BEST AND WORST NEW TRACKS OF THE WEEK 02/07/2016: Arc Iris, Trim, Fallout Boy and more...
I had a smashing time in Ibiza… thanks for asking. A lot has happened
since my last Tracks of the Week instalment, although not much musically,
unless you count that little festival in Glastonbury. And oh yeah, an
underground rapper named Kanye released a music video. But I’m not going to
talk about any of that, so let’s move on…
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