LTW newsletter 84

Welcome warriors!

Vote for President Louder!

Against the backdrop of the US election, which we are all nervously looking at from the other side of the Atlantic, as its result in a weird way, may affect us more than our own election. We are hiding under the covers with our phones cranking up the music on streaming platforms run by greedy lunatics and wondering how we ended up in this strange place and wondering if it was pop culture that actually got us here.

As much as music is our lives we wonder if the way that it has turned the world into a pop culture playground has actually been a good thing or turned the world into a billionaire backstage where they run tax free amok over our lives. A place where the musky elons create pretend personas for themselves as ‘great inventors’ or ‘big thinkers’ which is ok in the Ziggy world of pop but frankly quite scary in the grown up world of apocalypse and bedlam!

It’s far better to let the myth become reality in the confined madness of pop culture which we celebrate another week of here…

It’s all been about the Cure this week, and the much loved British post-punk band released their first album for 16 years, which is already being embraced as one of their best. Not many bands get four plus decades in and release one of their best works. Songs Of A Lost World explores the darker emotional side of the band and is a cross between the beautiful melancholic soundscapes of their Disintegration period and the darker inspection of the Pornography album but with a new 21st century twist…it is really a magnificent work.

The Cure also played a launch party for the album at the Troxy in London and of course Louder Than War had to be there. The gig was three hours of magnificence and a celebration of the new album and the band’s much loved back catalogue - it was immersive, emotional and quite brilliant. It went from from the dark trip Cure to the lysergic pop hits and it all made sense in one long Robert in Wonderland set.

Chrissie Hynde has always spoken her mind and she doesn’t care if you agree or not. The renegade hip swinging hipster is just over 70 and is still in fine form as her recent gig with The Pretenders at the Bridgewater hall in Manchester showcased. Visceral rock n’ roll punctuated by classic pop, great musicianship, a singer still at the peak of her powers and an audience struggling to escape their comfy armchairs.

Much loved Mancunian band Doves have retuned after a long break with a new album and single.

Soft Play celebrated their recent Heavy Jelly album with a huge sold out show at Brixton Academy. The noisy duo, who were part of that renaissance in noisier bands along with IDLES and Sleaford Mods, were quite brilliant with their powerful punky take on drums and guitar. They also dressed as medieval clowns complete with ruffs…you don't see enough ruffs in rock music…perhaps it’s time for a revival.

At the other end of the scale Public Service Broadcasting played the Roundhouse with a tight and clinically executed gig to showcase the new album The Last Flight.

Elvis Costello won’t be suing Olivia Rodrigo over ‘Brutal’

We love that Olivia Rodrigo’s new song, Brutal’ which is built around a riff that sounds like Elvis Costello’s ‘Pump It Up’. We also love the way Elvis doesn’t care and won’t sue and wisely points out that all pop music is somehow beg, stolen or borrowed and reshaped and moved on…

The surviving members of The Fall are trying to get to grips with their sprawling back catalogue which has been rereleased by all manner of bootleggers and semi legit labels with the band not getting their rightful royalties. Forming their own label, Marc Riley, Craig Scanlon, and the Hanleys are going through their catalogue and re-releasing albums with live versions of the tracks in an attempt to make sense of THEIR own legacy, which they explain to John Robb in this interview here.

The Cult remain in peak form as their recent UK tour underlined. The band have never sounded better but also never felt better - maybe it was those Death Cult shows they played recently that reminded them of the post-punk twist to their big rock and the combination of the two that created something quite different and unique.

Amyl and the Sniffers new album Cartoon Darkness is a magnificent shot of adrenaline from the band, who combine that classic Aus scuzzy pub rock and the fireworks of punk rock with the charismatron raw power of the vocals.

When Billie Eilish met Charli XCX there were the expected fireworks on this cheeky, sexy and lewd track guaranteed to freak out the prudes like all classic pop always has done. Both acts push the parameters of pop by somehow including noise and even industrial flavours into their pounding dancefloor pop - they also make the personal public and are right at the heartbeat of contemporary pop culture. Its been Charli XCX’s year and a long way from when LTW saw her play to ten people in a pub in Camden supported by the Young Fathers.

When Billie met Charli there were the expected sonic and lyrical fireworks on this cheeky, sexy and lewd track guaranteed to freak out the prudes like all classic pop always has done.