Opinion & Essays
Clear-sighted and well informed opinion on the culture of our past, present and future
Anniversary
The Impossibility of Forgetting: Haneke’s Caché at 20
Rory Kiberd looks back at an implacable and unforgiving film that has only become more relevant over the last two decades. Contains spoilers for Caché and plot information from various Haneke films plus The Act Of Killing, Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind and The Zone Of Interest. CW: discussion of suicide and atrocity
Black Sky Thinking
Essays, investigation and opinion on today’s cultural landscape
Black Sky Thinking
25 Years of Infernal Weight: The Destructive Legacy of Electric Wizard’s Dopethrone
Dopethrone, says Dan 'The Doom' Franklin, is the greatest album ever recorded; so great in fact that it splintered the band that created it. But one person was standing in the wings, with resurrection on her mind. Jus Oborn and Liz Buckingham discuss the 25-year legacy of Electric Wizard's most notorious album
Black Sky Thinking
Imagine There’s no Box Sets: John Lennon, Angela Davis & the Gutting of 60s Counterculture
As Universal release an expensive box set celebrating John Lennon and Yoko Ono's "political activism", Samuel Cox argues that it cheapens the legacy of more impactful, radical figures
Black Sky Thinking
Three Album Run: How Emo Never Bettered Jimmy Eat World’s Static Prevails, Clarity and Bleed American
As the world was changing irreversibly, from 1999 to 2001 Jimmy Eat World went from DIY band done good, to powerhouse name, to international phenomenon – the story of emo itself in microcosm. For Emma Garland, their encapsulation of the subculture's multi-generational range is emo's definitive three album run
Black Sky Thinking
25 Years of Infernal Weight: The Destructive Legacy of Electric Wizard’s Dopethrone
Dopethrone, says Dan 'The Doom' Franklin, is the greatest album ever recorded; so great in fact that it splintered the band that created it. But one person was standing in the wings, with resurrection on her mind. Jus Oborn and Liz Buckingham discuss the 25-year legacy of Electric Wizard's most notorious album
Black Sky Thinking
Three Album Run: How Emo Never Bettered Jimmy Eat World’s Static Prevails, Clarity and Bleed American
As the world was changing irreversibly, from 1999 to 2001 Jimmy Eat World went from DIY band done good, to powerhouse name, to international phenomenon – the story of emo itself in microcosm. For Emma Garland, their encapsulation of the subculture's multi-generational range is emo's definitive three album run
Low Culture Essay
Illuminating treasured cultural artefacts
Low Culture Essay
Low Culture Essay: Arusa Qureshi on the Tony Hawk Pro Skater Soundtracks
Arusa Qureshi was never allowed a skateboard, but the soundtracks to Tony Hawk's Pro Skater series of computer games were a vital introduction to music – one that, she argues, was far more effective than today's algorithm-driven discovery mechanisms
Low Culture Essay
Low Culture Essay: Marie Le Conte on Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
When Marie Le Conte moved from Nantes to London she rejected her French identity, along with a teenage infatuation with Phoenix' fourth album. Years later, she reflects on how the "youth and hope and enthusiasm bottled inside ten neat and clean little songs" actually allows her to have a conversation with her past self about life, love and becoming.
Low Culture Essay
Low Culture Essay: Arusa Qureshi on the Tony Hawk Pro Skater Soundtracks
Arusa Qureshi was never allowed a skateboard, but the soundtracks to Tony Hawk's Pro Skater series of computer games were a vital introduction to music – one that, she argues, was far more effective than today's algorithm-driven discovery mechanisms
Low Culture Essay
Low Culture Essay: Marie Le Conte on Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
When Marie Le Conte moved from Nantes to London she rejected her French identity, along with a teenage infatuation with Phoenix' fourth album. Years later, she reflects on how the "youth and hope and enthusiasm bottled inside ten neat and clean little songs" actually allows her to have a conversation with her past self about life, love and becoming.
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Subscribe NowAnniversary
Spotlighting the impact of cultural landmarks
Anniversary
Messing Up The Paintwork: The Fall’s This Nation’s Saving Grace at 40
‘Paintwork’, an album track from This Nation’s Saving Grace, is in some respects the key to the song-writing processes of The Fall. John Doran looks back to 1985 with some help from Mark E. Smith. Originally published in 2010
Anniversary
No Greater Wonder: Kate Bush’s Hounds Of Love, 40 Years On
As Hounds Of Love turns 40, Toby Manning explores how Kate Bush suffused 80s pop with the pastoral and evoked both the allure and the terror of nature, allowing her to both capture the uncanny and make it commercial
Anniversary
Messing Up The Paintwork: The Fall’s This Nation’s Saving Grace at 40
‘Paintwork’, an album track from This Nation’s Saving Grace, is in some respects the key to the song-writing processes of The Fall. John Doran looks back to 1985 with some help from Mark E. Smith. Originally published in 2010
Beyond The Hits
A deeper dive beyond the charts
Beyond The Hits
Stronger Than Pride: Beyond The Hits Of Sade
Sade superfan Alex Macpherson celebrates the release of a career-spanning box set by selecting lesser known gems from their back catalogue
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