Gordon Campbell on the best music of 2019
In a year where so many of the highlights came from female musicians, there was one standout album…
Complicatist
Best Music of 2019… So Far
This mid-point, as we’re heading into the cold… it seems like an ideal time to list a few albums and tracks to keep the wolves of winter at bay.
Gordon Campbell on the best music tracks of 2018
Oliver Godji, who records as Octavian, is a French/British/Angolan rapper based in London. As someone born in Lille, France, he didn’t qualify for welfare in Britain…
Best new music of 2017
Among other things, a year of great break-up albums by female artists…
Raymond Scott : The man who heard the future
Two decades after his death, electronic music pioneer Raymond Scott’s influence is still apparent.
Gordon Campbell on Chuck Berry
A 30-ish black r&b musician from a middle class family in St Louis managed to recreate the world of white teenagers, at a time when the very notion of a “teenager” had just been invented.
Frightened Rabbit: On Liking Music That Harms You
Society teaches people that admitting to bad behaviour means accepting punishment and giving up support, which is why most people will try deny it.
The best albums of 2016
I’m not even going to try and rationalise this surrender to a ‘best of’ listicle.
Gordon Campbell on Leonard Cohen
If Bob Dylan owned the 1960s, Leonard Cohen was an inescapable presence during the early 1970s.
Music Criticism As A Dating Metaphor
It’s getting harder to make a commitment…
The Complicatist : Japanese Music
Japanese hip-hop, noise music, J-Pop, and a whole lot more besides….
The Complicatist : Hip Hop’s Vanishing Sense of Community
A collective music based on allegiance to the ‘hood now belongs to remote and isolated solo stars
The Complicatist : Frankie Cosmos, and other sounds of whiteness
Some musical journeys in the worlds of white people….
The Complicatist: Bradford Cox of Deerhunter
Stayin’ alive, stayin’ alive
The Complicatist Pt 2: Galesburg, Revisited
Holding aloft a flickering torch for John Darnielle’s older stuff
The Complicatist : London O’Connor, and others…
Songs of innocence, regret, anxiety, failure and punishing ennui…
The Complicatist : Loving the Songs of the Vulgar Boatmen
Good lyric writing can be a thing of wonder
The Complicatist : Sufjan Stevens
The Carrie and Lowell album is about trying to survive your family’s impact on you
The Complicatist : Willie Nelson
Looking back at 50 years of Nashville’s black sheep boy
The Complicatist : Arthur Russell
A tribute to the recently re-discovered innovator
The Complicatist : Bob Dylan himself, and by others
Some Dylan obscurities and cover versions to mark the release of the expanded Basement Tapes…
The Complicatist : Blue Eyed & Soulful
From the Righteous Brothers to Yelawolf and beyond…
The Complicatist : Three Feet High & Rising
Celebrating 25 years of hip hop’s best-loved album
The Complicatist : Jackson C. Frank, Mark Kozelek
The love songs of the middle-aged mope
The Complicatist : Angel Olsen, William Tyler
Are you lonely too? Hi Five! So am I!
The Complicatist : Laneway, 2014
Likely highlights from the best on offer at Silo Park
The Complicatist : Deafheaven and Sunbather
This black metal / shoegaze hybrid is (almost) everyone’s pick as album of the year
The Complicatist : Listening To Breaking Bad
The use of music in Vince Gilligan’s great series
The Complicatist : Miley Cyrus, and Dancing About Architecture
Feet don’t fail my words
The Complicatist : Bobby Bland R.I.P., Laura Marling
Eagles may be high and free, but they’re also birds of prey