"joined up Thinking"

In one sense, it’s easy for artists—songwriters, specifically—to express their feelings in their work. After all, that’s what the lyrics are for! But it’s much harder to convey emotional energy in how you play, slash at the guitar, and the structure of the music itself. That’s precisely why Girl and Girl’s Sub Pop debut, Call A Doctor, feels like such a vital, electrifying shock to the senses. Not since the early work of Car Seat Headrest or Conor Oberst’s widescreen emotional brutality as Bright Eyes has indie rock managed to come across as this intimate and grandiose, as the Australian quartet led by Kai James lay a lifetime’s worth of woes—mental health, the human race’s planned obsolescence if you’ve been living on this cursed rock you know what we’re getting at—across a canvas of indie rock that feels both timeless and in-the-moment.

Before lockdown halted their tour in early 2020, singer Stuart Staples was already nurturing seeds for a different kind of Tindersticks album. If 2019’s No Treasure but Hope saw these mavens of intimate, expansive mood song rediscovering themselves as a unit, the follow-up reconfigures that unit so that everything familiar about Tindersticks sounds fresh again. Released through City Slang on February 19th, Distractions is an album of subtle realignments and connections from a restless, intuitive band: rich in texture and atmosphere, it lives between its open spaces and filigree details, always finding new ways to connect with a song.

Throughout the 80s a smooth dancefloor friendly genre developed that saw beats slowing down and basslines being cranked up. Hit after hit saw clubs up and down the country packed out as Jocelyn Brown, Mantronix, Maze, Simply Red, Mica Paris, Loose Ends, Soul II Soul, Neneh Cherry and many more produced classic after classic, many of them on this fantastic compilation. It was one of the most funky and feel-good periods of club music, supported by the rise of the music video and the birth of MTV which broadened musical styles and tastes and brought club soul to the mainstream. This soulful side to the 80s was heavily influenced by American soul artists of the time such as Luther Vandross, Alexander O’Neal, Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross and Chaka Khan as well as the new rap stars like Grandmaster Flash and Eric B and Rakim. Even Debbie Harry joined in with a rap on the acclaimed Rapture.

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BBC Master DAT is a 20xx bootleg CD by British progressive rock band Genesis. That is, when they were a progressive rock band. This comes from two different sessions they did with the BBC. The actual release date and label are unlisted.