


Liza Minnelli – So Sorry, I Said
It's 1989 and Liza Minnelli issues an apology.

The Divine Comedy – Our Mutual Friend
We've all woken up in a stranger's bed with a sense of deep shame. Only The Divine Comedy would dare set that to an orchestra.

Erasure – Yahoo!
A spot of religious ecstasy from a band whose fondness for exclamation marks is rivalled only by Shania Twain.

Liza Minnelli – Don’t Drop Bombs
"I'd rather not have to hear about your other girls on your expense account."

Stéphanie – Irresistible
You might think that to be successful in pop you need to be able to carry a tune. But as any backing singer will tell you – probably through gritted teeth – […]

Dusty Springfield – Occupy Your Mind
Come 1990, Dusty Springfield was in the curious position of being popular again. She had basically ruled much of the 1960s, leading a female invasion of the charts that sometimes gets overlooked by the one […]

Pet Shop Boys feat. Example – Thursday
Let’s return to the notion of the Imperial Phase, that period of invincibility where everything you do is huge and deemed better than everyone else simply by virtue of your own […]

Yello featuring Shirley Bassey – The Rhythm Divine
In the mid to late eighties there was a bizarre sort of supermarket trolley dash by male pop stars seemingly hell-bent on scooping up every past-their-sell-by-date-but-still-safe-to-consume female diva from the sixties […]

Cicero with Sylvia Mason-James – Live for Today
In America there is something called the Mason-Dixon line, which essentially marks the cultural border between the North and the South. In Britain – in pop terms – we have […]

Prefab Sprout – Hey Manhattan!
Prefab Sprout – the perennial bridesmaids of the British music scene. Despite being eminently loveable, and with a sizeable dowry of ace tunes, they never quite made it to pop’s altar to […]

Talk Talk – Living in Another World
No-one could ever accuse Talk Talk of selling out for short-term gain. More than any other band of their time they appeared to be on a very specific journey, one that […]