This post was originally published on the Mumubl.com Newsletter. For updates and recommendations direct to your inbox don’t forget to subscribe.
Hi – It’s Dave here at Mumubl.com, welcome to our recommendation email where I give you some tips on what’s great to listen to and watch in the world of music.
It seems there are new albums popping up all over the place recently, some good, some – well – some maybe less so. Away from that there is plenty of good stuff to be getting into music wise and as always here are a few recommendations for you to sink your teeth into.
As always – tell all your friends – every little share helps
Currently checking out – “Burn the Empire” by The Snuts, “Sometimes I might be introvert” by Little Simz and yes I have been trying to get a handle on “The Car” by Arctic Monkeys.
In this edition
Exit Stage Left / The Mercury Music Prize / Vergecast Future of Music / Switched on Pop / The Art of Longevity / MUMUBL.COM
Exit Stage Left: The curious afterlife of pop stars
This is a fantastic book from Nick Duerden, a simple premise of what happens to pop stars after they move away from the limelight. With no major through narrative the book is a loosely grouped collection of stories moving from star to star as we look at their lives further down the line.
The tales are intriguing, poignant and amusing following all sorts of paths, from those still plying their trade in music and those who have moved away from it. The expected tales of drugs and excess and bust as well as more wholesome and often unusual stories.
There is a host of artists as well from across the rock and pop spectrum offering cautionary “careful what you wish for” tales as well as thanks and curses for the former lives in the spotlight.
The Mercury Music Prize
The Mercury Music prize is a funny beast, a prestigious award with a basic tenant of awarding the best album of the year from the UK and Irish music. A simple idea that often falls foul of not being able to please everyone, sometimes seemingly awarded to fashionably offbeat or quirky albums and sometimes, for some, picking obvious crowd pleasing choices – like I say you can’t please everyone.
The short list is often where the interest is for me, a collection of solid albums with something for everyone, you can discount the odd one that doesn’t suit your taste if you wish. The BBC broadcast of the show featuring a performances from all 12 of the short list artists was well worth a watch, useful fuel for any of those who claim good music is only in the past, and if somehow you’ve managed to avoid the winner I won’t spoil it for you, but it’s one I can’t argue with.
The Vergecast : Future of music
Tech podcast “The Vergecast” took on a three part “Future of music” series looking at various parts of the music ecosystem in the future and asking the grandiose question of what music will be in the coming years.
Starting with “Will the future of music sound a lot like the past” which discusses sampling, repurposing. interpolation and general covers. The series then follows up “The complicated relationship between musicians and formats” and finished with “What does music feel like in the metaverse”. As someone who hasn’t really embraced TikTok and certainly never “attended” a virtual concert in Fortnite or any other online world the last episode was a really interesting look at that stuff.
You can catch all the episodes in the Vergecast podcast feed in your favourite podcast app.
Switched on pop – the pain of releasing an album
After stepping off the usual album writing and release band wagon during the pandemic Amelia Meath of Sylvan Esso got thinking about the process and joined Switched on pop to chat about the emotionality of the release cycle. How it can feel like a break up.
Rather than just chat to Switched on Pop though Meath takes time to have a chat with various other artists including Jeff Tweedy of Wilco and Katie Gavin from Muna. It’s a great piece with some interesting through and introspection from the artists.
The Art of Longevity
A return to my semi regular shout out for “The Art of Longevity” which has just wrapped up it’s fifth season. Having taken inspiration from a quote by Brett Anderson of Suede the series finishes chatting with Brett Anderson of Suede.
Personal favourites from the latest series include Everything Everything and Embrace but if you haven’t listened before it’s well worth a delve into the back catalogue of fantastic artist interviews.
From Mumubl.com
As ever some great posts landing on the site, if you have a look back you’ll also find takes on Mercury nominees Little Simz and Sam Fender – check them out at mumubl.com/posts/
This post was originally published on the Mumubl.com Newsletter. For updates and recommendations direct to your inbox don’t forget to subscribe.
