The Other Side of the Counter

  Why on earth, you may well ask, are you reviewing an Ariana Grande album? Basically, it is the fault of a contributor to a music forum that I belong to, who was frequently exasperated and perplexed by my lack of knowledge of and interest in what he regarded as essential popular culture. (He was outraged, for example, that I had no idea who Molly McAleer or Kobe Bryant were.) But then he posted a review of thank u, next and suggested that I would be too closed-minded to even listen to it. Well, however woefully out of touch with many aspects of popular culture I am (and I really  am), I dislike being thought of as not having an open mind... and this is how I ended up reviewing  thank u, next . I'd never actually heard of Ariana until the Manchester terrorist incident , and leading up to this review, this was the only thing I knew about her. Googling her, I found that she started out in a teen sitcom called Victorious , has sold a shedload of records and has dated several celebrit

  I have been a member of Scopitones , the Wedding Present fan forum, since 2006 (that's me third from the right above, enjoying the company of some of my fellow forumites after a TWP gig).  One of the long-running threads on the forum involves the sharing and review of Spotify playlists, often with a specific theme. My playlists generally get a bit of a hammering, most of my fellow Scopitoners disapproving of my tendency to include lengthy prog / psych / experimental material that is often instrumental. Johnny Mac, for example, once commented: 'No words again. Words are good Stevie baby, they express emotions clearly, oh yeah, I get it now...Emotions Steve, they are these things that normal people feel, they can make you happy or sad and stuff like that, it's too complex for me to go into here, maybe have a read up about them on the internet.' When someone chose the subject 'relationships', this gave me pause for thought. Topics like Covid, numbers and travel c

  I know mutatedpony (who is actually Gavin Laird from Telstar Ponies ) via the Fall Online Forum. He sent me this mix in the summer of 2019. White Heaven - Blind Promise Bursts into life with a squall of nasty, grainy noise-rock. A collision of Neil Young and Dinosaur Jr after they've spent an intoxicated evening listened to VU's I Heard Her Call My Name . Grabs you by the labels and forces you to turn it up to eleven. Walter Wegmüller - Der Herrscher Lovely slice of woozy, trippy bluesy krautrock. Rockaragnarok - Pleasure Centre Of My Mind A bit of a mystery: not to be found online anywhere, and the sound quality is reminiscent of the days when you used to hold your tape deck with built-in mic next to the TV to record Top of the Pops . Nonetheless a intriguing, rather sweet and melodic slice of glam-pop-rock.Put  The Music In The Coffin -  The Shadow Ring Angular, dissonant art-rock. Several playing completely different songs. A mayfly falls to the ground; a waxwork corpse ju

  You can find the multitude of stuff I've written about The Fall at The Fall In Fives , and you can buy my book about them, You Must Get Them All , here . I've also written separate blogs about The Wedding Present and Cinerama . This blog collects together all my other music writing. Album Reviews The Cardiacs - On Land And In The Sea Ariana Grande - thank u, next Nancy Sinatra & Lee Hazlewood -  Nancy & Lee Again Universal Congress Of - Prosperous and Qualified Playlists & Mixtapes A Mixtape From mutatedpony  A Nostalgic Playlist on the Subject of Relationships Twitter: @TheFallinFives Facebook: Steve Pringle email: thefallinfives@mail.com