Music
The rise of genre fluidity: Is this the death of genre as we know it?
My favourite genre of music: a question I’ve found becoming increasingly difficult to answer over the years, and it’s only now that I’m discovering why. Whilst we may not...
Cherwell Introduces: Menu3
Joining me this week, are four members of Menu3: Nicole 2nd year biochemist/lead singer,...
American Odyssey- The world building of Lana del Rey’s music
"The past decade of Lana del Rey’s music has ventured from the deserts and neon-lights of Las Vegas to the streets of New York, Hollywood, and eventually rural California."
‘Spectacular throughout’: OUO at the Sheldonian- review
"The Sheldonian Theatre was treated on Saturday of 4th week to a display by some of the University’s best musical talent."
Five Songs for the Fifth Week Blues
"I believe that music makes a lot of things in life better. Fifth week at Oxford is no exception."
‘Irishness existing in England’: the brilliance of Skinty Fia
I first came across Irish post-punk band Fontaines D.C. when my brother brought me their debut album on vinyl for Christmas, back in 2019....
Oxford’s rock and roll: a very short introduction
"Rock and roll and academia has never been the most compatible pairing."
Music for the end of the world: a Plastic Beach retrospective
"Plastic Beach serves as a poetic, wonderfully produced and musically brilliant reminder that the world is slowly ending, everything is artificial and no one seems to be doing very much about it at all."
Following the money: the meaning of “selling out”
‘I love selling out’ declared Charli XCX when speaking to NPR about Crash, released in March, a project which sees her lean into mainstream pop, ironically playing the part of an industry ‘sell-out’.
Defying Gravity: In conversation with Stephen Schwartz
“I tend to be attracted to stories about outsiders,” Schwartz tells me at the beginning of our call, “about people who feel themselves not part of the culture or not part of the mainstream if you will, and are trying to figure out how to fit in, and what the cost is of doing so.”
Father John Misty’s “new world of old characters”
"In Chloë and the Next 20th Century, Tillman succeeds spectacularly at creating a new world out of old characters."
‘Stirred to breathless heights’: Wolf Alice Concert Review
"This was the second of three successive sold-out nights for the four-piece at the London venue, and it proved one for us and the remaining five thousand people in attendance to remember."
Remembering SOPHIE
"SOHPIE’s tragically early passing froze music in time. What stands, crowned by Oil of Every Pearl’s Un-Insides, is an impressive but truncated body of work. While we lament SOPHIE’s untimely death, we can also enjoy the music and celebrate the legacy left behind. SOPHIE continues to inspire – both as a person and as a musician – and stands as someone we all can look up to."
‘Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You’, Big Thief Album Review
In the midst of the pandemic, Adrianne Lenker (Big Thief’s lead singer) ventured into the wilderness, fresh from heartbreak, and released two new solo...
‘It leaves you in awe’, Ants From Up There – Black Country, New Road Album Review
Ants From Up There is the sophomore album from acclaimed experimental rock outfit Black Country, New Road – equal parts anthemic and introspective, the...
Reclaiming Taylor Swift’s Songwriting Genius
On Tuesday 25th of January 2022, Blur and Gorillaz frontman Damon Albarn woke up and chose violence – or at the very least, a...
Oxford Goes Underground: In Conversation with Komuna
Artwork: Gala Hills
Laurel Hell review: Unapologetically unresolved
“I will neglect everything else, including me as a person, just to get to keep making music. And even if it actually sometimes hurts,...
Pythagoras’ Nightmare: Reincarnation, Coldplay and the Music of the Spheres
Don’t get me wrong. The album is upbeat, cheerful, maddeningly optimistic and, at least intermittently, catchy for most of us mortals. But something tells me it’s not quite the empyreal sound Pythagoras would have had in mind.
