Is Any Topic Taboo For A Pop Lyric?

Anybody with any affinity with popular music will have songs whose lyrics are very important to them. They may not look much on the printed page, but coupled with the tune and the memories invoked, they can have an immensely powerful impact on a person’s emotions. This is a very personal thing, but for as [...]

Album: SHINING – Where The Ragged People Go (BP 01011 2001)

One of the things I picked up at the Kelvin Hall Record Fair at the weekend was a copy of Where The Ragged People Go, the debut album by Norwegian prog-jazz-rock monsters Shining. Neither this, nor its follow-up Sweet Shanghai Devil, has been readily available in the UK, and there was a bloke with about [...]

Album: CARTA – The Glass Bottom Boat (Resonant RESCD026 2007)

The line between elegaic beauty and bland muzak is finer than you would think, and Carta straddle it uncomfortably at times on The Glass Bottom Boat. There are too many gentle guitar arpeggios and too many passages of aimless noodling. There are also too many moments when the record’s predictability threatens to bring about a [...]