I’ve said that certain albums have been ‘like a best friend’ in the past. In the absence of physical friends over the past year, that wasn’t just a compliment, it was an entry level requirement. That’s probably why I spent so much time with albums I already knew and loved. I devoured every inch and […]
In the highly competitive battle for attention within my fickle wandering mind, two things have completely overtaken my thoughts this week: The tragic, gruesome and unjust death of a black man, George Floyd, at the knee of a white Minneapolis police officer (and his colleagues by complicity). Solange’s A Seat at the Table, an exquisite […]
if you wanna cut the crap and get straight to the playlist, you’re welcome (Spotify or Apple Music). I love to delay bedtime. Normally for no good reason, only bad ones. So on Wednesday night, I gave myself an incentive at 10pm – you can stay up, if you make a sick ass playlist for […]
Here they are! Hope you find something you like … Podcast links here and the list below. Apple Google Other 21. Empathy – Jean Deaux 20. The Highwomen – the Highwomen 19. Eve – Rapsody 18. When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? – Billie Eilish 17. BUBBA – KAYTRANADA 16. Dedicated – […]
The criteria for my favourite songs exists somewhere, like an unwritten constitution, or probably more like that emoji whose brain is scrambled. It’s a little of how much I played and enjoyed them. It’s a lot about about how many feels and thinks I had about them – and how much I felt compelled to […]
It’s hard to think of a musical act more universally beloved than Roxette. Unlike many of their 80/90s pop contemporaries, this affection doesn’t come from any cheesiness-fuelled irony. Roxette’s music was distinct and consistently stellar. It felt like it was on another level, even if not consciously at the time. In hindsight, it was timeless […]
I am LOVING this new collab between Mark Ronson and some of the strongest female voices to join forces on an album. Here’s my run down on the what and the why. https://anchor.fm/daniel-murphy/episodes/Mark-Ronsons-Late-Night-Feelings-and-all-my-big-time-feelings-about-it-e4fjjn You can also find my podcast on your listening app of choice. Remember to subscribe … and feel free to share
My third time at Primavera Sound music festival in Barcelona was special. It’s been a favourite for years, but this year they committed – and delivered – to having at least 50% of artists be female. They’ve committed to every year from now too. It’s what they call the new normal. I call it god […]
I just went to church (I think)/ watched Beyoncé’s Netflix doco Homecoming. Mind and soul totally blown. Watch it and then listen to my highly emotional take/ a 14 minute stream of consciousness fanboy review. You should (hopefully) be able to find it on your podcast platform of choice here: https://anchor.fm/daniel-murphy
Hola. Here it is … my very first podcast. You can hear me talk through favourite albums using one of the links below. Apple Google Anchor fm You can also find some of the music mentioned in the podcast here: Spotify playlist Apple Music playlist Here is the list of albums. Hope you find something […]
I was like basically pretty much sorta almost ready to go with this before the NY kicked in. Then my holiday companions gave me a straight up grilling for wanting to post these songs in no particular order. So revisit, I have. Ranked them, I did. Torturous, it certainly was. It did give me a […]
Two very big things happened last week in the world of Kacey Musgraves. First, she was announced as a guest judge on next season’s Ru Paul’s Drag Race (All Stars, no less). Later that same week, she was then awarded album of the year at the American Country Music Awards for Golden Hour. I guess […]
After ‘a few’ lengthy delays – leading the Guardian to crown her ‘the queen of the chaotic album campaign’ – and an even longer list of controversies along the way, Nicki Minaj’s fourth album Queen dropped (kinda) a week early on Friday. The sceptic in me wondered if this was to avoid sharing the streaming […]
Last week, Nicki Minaj @’d Tracy Chapman. You read that right. This decade’s most prominent (and spiky) female rapper used the internet’s trolliest communication channel to make a public request to one of the last century’s most-respected and dignified artists. Like everyone, my ‘unexpected news’ threshold is pretty high nowadays, yet this still threw me. […]
Buying music from an actual shop is one of my most favourite past times. Probably my most favourite. It was like a continual rite of passage, ear-marking moments of my life with musical memories to match. I was basically curating my own soundtrack. The film itself is more slow-burning B-grade-dramedy than blockbuster, but the soundtrack […]
A few years ago, when Sunday sessions at the pub were still a core part of me adulterating my weekend (definitely not to be confused with adulting), Big Call Sunday was born. You know the scene. The talk got louder and looser, views became flippantly more extreme and equally more carefree and confident. Some of […]
In honour of Mother’s Day, today I got myself out of bed, I cooked my meals for the week, washed all my clothes and even bathed myself. I now know up to 1 millionth of what an average day was like for my own Ma with five human shaped adult-piglets to raise, clean and cater […]
I heard your feedback – the March playlist was a little too heavy on hardness and hip hop and a little light lush grooves. I’m not saying April completely resolves that (I’m still me, after all) BUT I have aimed to expand through a more eclectic mix of genres and sounds. And in those hip-hop […]
Looking for some new listenings but too lazy to read me? Don’t worry, I got you. I’ve made a playlist of what I’ve been listening to over the last month. I’m gonna ‘try’ to do one at the end of every month. It’s a mix of new and some old. There’s even a version on […]
In 2015, Dr. Dre released the loooooong awaited follow-up to 2001, his classic album from 1999. That’s a whopping 16 years, which in musical fandom world is like a lifetime. The album was Compton, and it was inspired by Straight Outta Compton, the excellent biopic about the trailblazing hip-hop group N.W.A., which Dr Dre was […]
Some of the biggest icons in history have totally rocked the single moniker. Jesus, Bert – and Ernie, Vegemite … to name just a few. Aside from those equally important categories of religion, Sesame Street and breakfast foods, the world of popular music has been the most fertile breeding ground for one-name wonders – they […]
For the first time ever, 2017 was the year that hip-hop reigned supreme and overtook rock (yes, that ageing stalwart is still kicking apparently) as the most popular genre in US music. Take a bow, friends. Or get on board soon to be even friendlier-friends. Some of my favourites have all been late influencers in […]
Although my official language is English, my preferred dialect is actually pop-culture. So, being the Seinfeld-loving, hot-dog and hip-hop enthusiast I am, the first time I stepped foot onto New York’s concrete soil I felt so culturally fluent I wondered if this was the home that life had originally planned for me. Maybe I got […]
It’s Grammy night 2018, y’all. After just landing back in the UK from sunny California, I’m regretting that I didn’t stay in the US another night to watch it live. I mean, where are my priorities at? Unless jet lag wakes me at 3am so I can at least see the best album announced, it […]
Everyone has those pivotal moments in their relationship with music. They might feel totally transformational at the time and you are soaking it all in while acknowledging the big deal taking place. Or it can be more subtle and it’s only when you look back you realise the significance of ‘it’. For me, the Cranberries […]
Most people think the turning point of Justin Timberlake’s career was his solo debut, Justified. That is justified (soz), yet as significant and public as that milestone was, it was the final transformation born of the seeds planted with the making and release of Celebrity, *NSYNC’s third and final album. Celebrity was the moment Justin […]
If you want to hear my inaugural (aka test) of an audio version of this post, you can press play via my Facebook page – click here. If not, read on now. At that pivotal stage of high school that is year 9, we were introduced to a new music teacher. I had a good […]
Were you confused by Taylor Swift’s new song, Look What You Made Me Do? Or maybe this first bite of her new album Reputation left a strange taste in your ears? Don’t worry, you were in good company. Between the release of the song and its accompanying video, I had what can only be described as a deeply superficial […]
There have been two countries that have most impressed and influenced my musical sense and sensibilities over the years. The first, and arguably most significant, is the US of A with all the hip-hop and R&B that my heart desired and ultimately craved into borderline addiction. The other is Sweden, thanks to their gigantic and […]
Growing up in rural Australia, naturally Vegemite was my main spread. Less expectedly however, it was R&B that was my main squeeze. Against all environmental norms this music that originated in black America spoke more than any other to a young white boy in the small-town of Seymour (population: 6,000 people). I think we can […]
Amy. Oh, Amy. Her anniversary is always bittersweet. It’s a time the world-at-large seems to revel in and truly acknowledge all of her talents, just as she deserves. Yet, like other artists remembered after their time, it’s with more respect and kindness from the masses (and media) than she was afforded while she was […]
I SWORE I would never return to Lovebox after last year. A logistical nightmare, where more time was spent queueing to get in, and once in, it was followed by more queueing for toilets and drinks than the consumption of the actual music. It was only marginally better this year too. When I compare to […]
Let’s face it, ‘you-did-me-wrong-you-prick’ songs are fairly commonplace in pop music. Sure, they’re mostly about bad boyfriends but that doesn’t mean they should always be taken with a grain of salt/pinch of glitter. Absolutely not, for there are some epic, brilliant ones. I’ve had very deep and meaningful relationships with some over the years. Dare […]
My relationship with music has always been a sentimental one. And seriously so. Sure, sometimes that means my ‘emotions’ get the better of me. Like the time I became so obsessed with Dixie Chick’s version of Landslide I had to put my headphones in to listen to it … while out at a club with friends. There […]
Guilty pleasure (noun) Something, such as a film, television programme, or piece of music, that one enjoys despite feeling that it is not generally held in high regard. That’s according to everyone’s favourite recyclopaedia, Wikipedia. We’re all bound to have them, if only because perceptions of ‘high regard’ are relative to our own standards and […]
I am quite well known in certain uncertain circles for my love of rap – and my love of rapping. I’m less well known for being loved for my rapping, a struggle that has only made me more determined over the years. I’m word perfect on many a Jay-Z or Q-Tip track. My other party […]
Unless you’re Amish – or embracing a similar radical lifestyle that includes no social media – you no doubt saw the news and read the (face)books. The news that Frank Ocean’s muuuuch looooong awaited second album, Boys Don’t Cry (his first mixtape not technically counted as an album, for reasons I’ll explain another time) was […]
The list of muse-os on my concert bucket list expands annually, not unlike my waistline – I wonder if the two are related? There’s some food for thought in among my thoughts about food. Fiona Apple, Outkast and Aaliyah have each hovered around the top three of that list for more than 10 years now. Sure, […]
By my ear-ssessment, there’s one truly great pop album every year. For full disclosure I actually have about 52 truly favourite albums each year. Still, among that crowd there is always one snap-crackling pop dynamo that stands out as the queen bee among the wanna-bees. In 2013, that queen bee was literally Queen Bey with her self titled gift from above. At […]
my one track mind 