Music

Why ‘No Bad Memories’ is my album of the year

I didn't expect how perfectly my personal happiness would fit an album so preoccupied with the sounds of old advertisements and obsolete electronics, filled with the relentless optimism of a world that believed the future could only get better. 

CUSP’s Dan Stock on the memories behind ‘English Country’

On Friday, CUSP, a Milton Keynes-based indie rock band, released their debut album, English...

The rise of the pop girlie: Marketing mediocrity or feminism in action?  

“GIRLS INVENTED PUNK ROCK, NOT ENGLAND”: so reads the iconic green T-shirt of Sonic Youth legend Kim Gordon. The slogan stands in defiance of an unfortunate truth in the music industry: femininity and credibility often exist in contention with one another.

World music after ‘world music’

On the face of it, the term ‘world music’ is perhaps one of the...

Interview: Rai Kah Mercury’s Nathan De Giorgi

Rai Kah Mercury are set to break into the Oxford scene with an atmospheric gig in Hertford College Chapel on 3rd March. Known for...

‘Years in the Making’ – Arkells

The name of Arkells’ newest single, ‘Years in the Making’, is somewhat appropriate considering that this is their first new release since 2018’s Rally Cry....

If music be the food of love, prey on

There are two types of Korean faces that generally appear in the Western media. One is thin, chiselled, and attached to a K-pop star;...

Review: ‘The Slow Rush’, Tame Impala

At last, after a five-year wait, we’ve finally got a new album from Tame Impala. The Australian one-man band have just released their...

Lose Yourself: A Sign of the Times

If you want to feel the sensation of your skin crawling, watching Eminem’s unexpected performance of ‘Lose Yourself’ at the Oscars should certainly do...

Review: Billie Eilish’s ‘No Time to Die’

After taking the international music scene by storm, eighteen year old Billie Eilish can now add writing and producing the new Bond theme song,...

An Ode to Trixie Mattel

If someone were to bring up ‘drag music’, the likelihood is that your first thought would sound a little something like 2:30am on a...

Tegan & Sara’s ‘Hey, I’m Just Like You’: a Queer Coming of Age

When Tegan and Sara Quin signed with Neil Young’s Vapor Records in 1999, they were a novelty on the male-dominated indie scene. The identical...

Review: Taylor Swift’s ‘Miss Americana’

Taylor Swift’s last album, Reputation, was an unapologetically  aggressive response to the ‘drama’ that she had endured during nearly a decade in the...

Marika Hackman and queer sexuality in music

Bolshy, brazen and unapologetically sexual – in Oxford, the first group of people to spring to mind from this description is likely to be...

From Kampala With Love

At its Southern extremities, the River Nile flows from Lake Victoria into the plains of Uganda as the Victoria Nile. The city of Jinja...

Review: Wire’s ‘Mind Hive’

Wire are a band that don’t like nostalgia, unlike most mainstream cultural figures. So much so, that they have been known to take...

The music of Little Women

For the characters in Greta Gerwig’s recent film adaptation of Little Women (2019), music is an essential part of their lives. Beth (the third...

Review: Frank Turner’s ‘Love, Ire & Song’

Frank Turner is an interesting character. Somehow famous enough to play Wembley and the Olympic opening ceremony, but not quite famous enough that...

Songs for the Sadgirl

Whether it’s due to a lack of sunlight that no SAD lamp can remedy, the post-December comedown, or the onslaught of Hilary term...

In conversation: Ross McNae, Twin Atlantic

In the heart of the Glaswegian alternative music scene circa 2006, Sam McTrusty, Ross McNae, Craig Kneale and Barry McKenna formed the rock outfit...

BRITs come in last place for gender equality

The 40th edition of the BRIT Awards is fast approaching, and with it, concerns over the lack of female nominees in mixed-gender categories are...

Review: Dustin Lynch’s Tullahoma

After an initial scan through the track-list for Tennessee-born country artist Dustin Lynch’s Tullahoma, you could be forgiven for presuming this is going...

Sung Sikyung: an ode to the Korean balladist

I often get asked whether I listen to K-pop. Although I answer “yes,'' I hate getting this question. In part this is because people...

Kate Tempest: the protest voice of a generation

“The whole thing’s becoming/Such a bumbling farce/Was that a pivotal historical moment/We just went stumbling past?” Not enough people have heard of Kate Tempest. These...

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