Simon Reynolds
Born in London in 1963, Simon Reynolds started out writing about music as a founding member of Monitor, an Oxford-based pop journal, which lasted six issues before expiring in 1986. By then he had joined Melody Maker as a staff writer. Thinkpieces and interviews drawn from his late '80s writing for MM were collected in Blissed Out: The Raptures of Rock (Serpent's Tail, 1990). In October 1990 Reynolds went freelance and started dividing his time between London and New York. Since then he has contributed to The New York Times, Village Voice, Spin, The Guardian, Rolling Stone, The Observer, Artforum, New Statesman, The Wire, Mojo, Uncut, and other magazines. The Sex Revolts: Gender, Rebellion & Rock'n'Roll, co-written with Joy Press, was published in 1995 (Serpent's Tail in the UK and Europe; Harvard University Press in America).
From 1991 onwards Simon became increasingly involved in rave culture and obsessed with electronic music, ultimately resulting in Energy Flash: A Journey Through Rave Music and Dance Culture (Picador, 1998), published in North America as Generation Ecstasy: Into the World of Techno and Rave Culture (Little, Brown). The American version of the book was nominated as a finalist for the 1999 Ralph J. Gleason Music Book Awards.
For the duration of 1998, he worked as a Senior Editor at Spin before quitting to return to freelance life. Subsequent books include Rip It Up and Start Again, a history of postpunk; Retromania: Pop Culture's Addiction to Its own Past; and Shock and Awe, his book about glam rock. Reynolds posts regular commentary on Blissblog. He lives in South Pasadena, California, with his wife Joy Press and their children.
351 articles
List of articles in the library
Shriekback: Funk's Fictional Threat
Essay by Simon Reynolds, Monitor, March 1985
1985, AND A GAGGLE of groups plough a well-furrowed, increasingly barren field. ...
The Redskins: Central Polytechnic, London
Live Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 4 January 1986
THE ONLY soul we got tonight was the pre-gig tape, sublime Seventies slices of Billy Paul, Fontella Bass, Womack... Personally, I was grateful — I ...
Kurtis Blow: America (Mercury)
Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 11 January 1986
BLOWING OUT ...
Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 22 March 1986
LISTENING TO THIS vast, volatile music, up in its power and space, I suddenly realised that these attributes are the precise opposite of the experiences ...
Ivor Cutler: Bloomsbury Theatre, London
Live Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 24 May 1986
FUNNY PECULIAR ...
Lydia Lunch, Sonic Youth: University Of London Union
Live Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 7 June 1986
HUMBLE PIE time. Just when I'd neatly dismissed them from my mind as Grand Funk Railroad with a degree in Modern Art and a copy ...
The Replacements: Dingwalls, London
Live Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 7 June 1986
A SECRET shame, this weakness of mine for The Replacements. Their beery rowdyism and refusal to take nuthin' serious represents everything I abhor and their ...
Fad Gadget, Frank Tovey: Cult Heroics: Frank Tovey
Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 28 June 1986
No longer Fad Gadget, his sights firmly focused on Saturday Superstore, FRANK TOVEY tells a skeptical Simon Reynolds that he’s out to corrupt the youth ...
Essay by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 28 June 1986
All this talk about indiepop, about the death and resurgence of an underground, an alternative to chart pap. But is there really life beyond the ...
Zapp: Hammersmith Odeon, London
Live Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 12 July 1986
ZAPP LIVE were perhaps the most extreme spectacle I have ever witnessed, with both band and audience abandoning inhibitions more extensively than at any rock ...
Essay by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 19 July 1986
Simon Reynolds ventures down hip hop's mean streets and finds something nasty lurking in the shadows — something that guilt-ridden white liberals might prefer to ...
Trouble Funk: Town & Country, London
Live Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 2 August 1986
TROUBLESHOOTERS ...
Material: Secret Life (Jungle)
Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 23 August 1986
STRANGE TIMING for this double album retrospective, considering how totally the alternative scene has renounced the ambitions of 1979-82, all the rhetoric about Eurofunkactivism, Sex, ...
Schoolly D: Schoolly D (Schoolly D Records)
Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 23 August 1986
SCHOOLLY D is from Philadelphia and appears to be some kind of hoodlum, with an unhealthy interest in the status trinkets of high life, drugs ...
Talulah Gosh: Ladybirds & Start-Rite Kids
Report by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 27 September 1986
Is there more to jumble-sale chic than saving precious pennies? Simon Reynolds thinks so and spots an asexual revolution unfolding within the indie scene. So ...
Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 4 October 1986
THIS MORTAL COIL have been called everything from post-punk pioneers to precious studio purists. Simon Reynolds meets IVO, the man behind the whole thing, and ...
Big Audio Dynamite, Schoolly D: Big Audio Dynamite/Schoolly D: Brixton Academy, London
Live Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 22 November 1986
BEAT ROOTS ...
What's Missing: On Pop's Eternal Dilemma
Essay by Simon Reynolds, Monitor, Summer 1986
SOMETHING'S WRONG. Everyone knows this, acknowledges it, but it's still hard to point out, precisely, what's supposed to have slipped into abeyance, eluded us in ...
Nick Cave: Of Misogyny, Murder and Melancholy: Meeting Nick Cave
Interview by Simon Reynolds, National Student , 1987
TALKING TO NICK CAVE is a bit of a trial. He’s not really a proper person. Like many artists, what makes him a genius also ...
The Style Council: The Cost Of Loving (Polydor)
Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 7 February 1987
A REMARKABLE fellow, this Paul Weller. It's a strange journey he's made over the last decade, but stranger still is that he's managed to take ...
Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 14 March 1987
WHEN I THINK of U2, I don't think of America, I don't think of stadia, sweat, pumping fists, auxiliary hair. I think of fresh air, ...
Interview by Frank Owen, Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 28 March 1987
IN THE SECOND REPORT FROM NEW YORK ON HIP-HOP'S LATEST ULTRA-NOW TALENTS, SIMON REYNOLDS SURVEYS THE MONSTROUS AND MIND-BLOWING TALENT OF THE SKINNY BOYS WHILE ...
Curiosity Killed The Cat: Keep Your Distance (Phonogram)
Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 2 May 1987
101 USES FOR A DEAD CAT ...
Happy Mondays: The Rock Garden, London
Live Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 2 May 1987
HAPPY MONDAYS is where the repetition-repetition-repetition of post-Velvets jangle-drone meets the repetition-repetition-repetition of '70s funk. Imagine a cross between the Blue Orchids and Hamilton Bohannon, ...
Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 2 May 1987
WIRE are pure luxury. Here are a bunch of superior sound technicians with an immaculate grasp of the sculptural and architectural possibilities of rock, who ...
Live Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 16 May 1987
SLAM DANCE ...
The Replacements: The Rebel Yell
Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 16 May 1987
Describing their relationship to pop as being like 'a dirt road through an emerald city', The Replacements get Simon Reynolds all hot under the collar ...
Sonic Youth: Sister (Blast First)
Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 30 May 1987
SONIC YOUTH is the itching, striving sound of a literate rock group struggling to assassinate their own intelligence, to unseat the mind's mastery, and achieve ...
The Young Gods: The Young Gods
Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 20 June 1987
ONE OF THE LITTLE MYTHS about Pop 1987 is that "there's nothing happening, is there?" For me, 1987 has consisted of a deluge of brilliance ...
Special Feature by Simon Reynolds, David Stubbs, Melody Maker, 20 June 1987
B-BOYS, Yo-Boys, listen up good, cos a new sound's rappin' up the neighbourhood! Yo, it's the Maker's very own rappin' post-structuralist, the chin-scratchin' semiotician about to ...
Husker Du: Why Aren’t They Massive?
Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 27 June 1987
IN ATLANTA, GEORGIA, the Replacements play me a tape of Husker Du’s live appearance on The Joan Rivers Show. It’s more than a little mindblowing. ...
Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 25 July 1987
EACH WEEK we hurl a batch of New Names at you. Perhaps it's not surprising that you wilt under this constant attrition, cease to believe ...
Live Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 29 August 1987
MATALLIC KO ...
Primal Scream: No More Yesterday
Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 29 August 1987
Primal Scream look back to look forward. Simon Reynolds retracts a few statements but still argues the toss. ...
Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 5 September 1987
ANTHRAX ARE ANTI-VIOLENCE, ANTI-NUKE, ANTI-DESTRUCTION. BUT THEIR MUSIC IS VIOLENT, LOUD, AGGRESSIVE AND BRUTAL. SIMON REYNOLDS ATTEMPTS TO RESOLVE THESE CONTRADITIONS. ...
Trouble Funk: Trouble Over Here (Island)
Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 5 September 1987
GO-GO limps on. Go go has flopped so many times now (the movie was a disaster, the Pepe jeans tie-in a farce) and each time ...
R.E.M.: Hammersmith Odeon, London
Live Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 19 September 1987
A LAPSED believer is born again. ...
Essay by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 26 September 1987
Simon Reynolds, long-time fan of the Smiths, sheds a tear at their sudden demise and examines the successes and failures of one of the most ...
Public Enemy: Strength to Strength
Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 17 October 1987
PUBLIC ENEMY PLAY BRITAIN IN NOVEMBER AND SIMON REYNOLDS TAKES A LONG HARD LOOK AT THE SURVIVALIST PHILOSOPHY BEHIND SOME OF THE TOUGHEST NOISE OF ...
Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 12 December 1987
DINOSAUR ARE AT THE VANGUARD OF THE NEW GUITAR NOISE THREATENING TO RUPTURE THE CONVENTIONAL FABRIC OF ROCK. SIMON REYNOLDS MEETS THE RELUCTANT VOICES BEHIND ...
Eric B. & Rakim, Public Enemy: Public Enemy/Eric B And Rakim: Brixton Academy, London
Live Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 12 December 1987
PUBLIC NUISANCE ...
The Jesus & Mary Chain: The Jesus And Mary Chain: In Never-never Pop Land.
Interview by Simon Reynolds, The Observer, 1988
In their promo videos the Jesus and Mary Chain aim to be as disorientating to the eye as they are to the ear. Look again ...
Sinead O'Connor: Hammersmith Odeon, London
Live Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 2 January 1988
SO, NINA SIMONE'S 'My Baby Just Cares For Me' – the clubland secret, the cult trophy – went High Street provincial, Top Ten Top Shop. ...
The Sugarcubes: Town & Country Club, London
Live Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 2 January 1988
LIKE EVERYONE else. I expressly came to worship, to be defeated, to drench their names in a prolix of hopelessly imprecise euphoria. Unhappily, though, it ...
Lee "Scratch" Perry: Lee 'Scratch' Perry: Dingwalls, London
Live Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 16 January 1988
SOMETIMES there are concerts that leave your mind so thoroughly evacuated, that the only way to galvanise your diminished sense of being is to work ...
The Red Hot Chili Peppers: Red Hot Chilli Peppers: The Clarendon, Hammersmith, London
Live Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 5 March 1988
SO THE Clarendon faces closure, and yes it's a sad day for rock, another step in the drawn-out death of the London gig circuit, and ...
Scritti Politti: Enigma Variation
Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 5 March 1988
Break out the dictionaries and Post-Structuralist text books, pop's most perfect intellect, GREEN GARTSIDE, is back with a new SCRITTI POLITTI single ready for release ...
Morrissey: Songs Of Love And Hate
Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 12 March 1988
I THINK I'VE MET THEM ALL NOW. For me, there are no more heroes left. And no new ones coming along, by the look of ...
Morrissey: Songs of Love and Hate, Part 2
Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 19 March 1988
"Did that swift eclipse torture you?/A star at 18 and then – suddenly gone/down to a few lines in the back page/of a teenage annual/oh ...
The Pixies: Speaking In Tongues
Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 19 March 1988
THE HOLLERING IS ALL. The Pixies are what's left when all the frustrations and absences that once prompted rock'n'roll into being have faded away or ...
Salt 'n' Pepa: Look Ma Top Of The World
Profile and Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 26 March 1988
SALT 'N' PEPA WILL DO ANYTHING TO HAVE EVERYTHING. WITH THEIR NEW SINGLE, 'PUSH IT', ACCELERATING UP THE AMERICAN CHARTS IT LOOKS AS THOUGH THEIR ...
Roger Troutman, Zapp: Roger Troutman: Empires & Dance
Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 14 May 1988
SIMON REYNOLDS WAGS CHINS WITH ROGER TROUTMAN, THE MANDARIN OF SURREAL FUNKSTERS ZAPP, AND DISCOVERS WHY SCRITTI'S GREEN WAS SO DESPERATE TO RECORD WITH THE ...
Band of Susans: Repeat & Frayed
Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 28 May 1988
AT THEIR UTMOST Band of Susans make one of the most spiritual and uplifting rock sounds around. ...
Metallica: ...And Justice For All (Phonogram)
Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 10 September 1988
THE KILLING MACHINE ...
Avo-8, The Darling Buds: The Darling Buds, Avo-8: Fulham Greyhound, London
Live Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 10 September 1988
BLOOMS BURIED ...
Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 17 September 1988
WITH THEIR NEW SINGLE, 'MAKE ME LAUGH', ANTHRAX CONTINUE TO LEAD THE HARDCORE CHARGE AGAINST TRADITIONAL HEAVY METAL. SIMON REYNOLDS HITCHES A RIDE ON THE ...
My Bloody Valentine: Suicide Kisses
Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 15 October 1988
A YEAR AGO, MY BLOODY VALENTINE WERE LINGERING IN SECOND DIVISION INDIE ANONYMITY. THEN THEY RELEASED THEIR EXTRAORDINARY YOU MAKE ME REALISE LP AND SUDDENLY ...
Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 12 November 1988
Loop's free-falling acid rock is now a luring black hole, sucking in a host of trance disciples. Their new single, 'Black Sun', and forthcoming tour ...
Ciccone Youth: The Whitey Album (Blast First)
Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 14 January 1989
NEXT to the brittle plangency and luminous, labyrinthine depths of Daydream Nation, the first (and last?) Ciccone Youth album is an irrelevance. ...
Diamanda Galás: Queen Elizabeth Hall, London
Live Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 14 January 1989
DIAMANDA GALAS' AIDS trilogy Masque Of The Red Death draws a mixed bunch to the Queen Elizabeth Hall on New Year's Day — 50 per ...
Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 21 January 1989
"I HAVE two heads." Kristin Hersh starts Hunkpapa with these words. ...
Interview by Simon Reynolds, The Observer, 22 January 1989
SIMON REYNOLDS on mind-blowing Loop, the most disorienting group of the day ...
Interview by Simon Reynolds, The Observer, 19 February 1989
"NEW YORK IS getting dull," says Suicide's Alan Vega. "The downtown New York of the Seventies has gone. But there's still something here, an electricity, ...
American Music Club: Psycho Thriller
Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 25 March 1989
MARK EITZEL, OF American Music Club, a self proclaimed 'fuckin mess', a man who's spoken before of being 'doomed to sing' and living in terror ...
Cowboy Junkies: Lone Rangers on the Country Landscape
Profile and Interview by Simon Reynolds, The Observer, 26 March 1989
SIMON REYNOLDS rides with the Cowboy Junkies ...
Half Japanese, Moe Tucker: Moe Tucker/Half Japanese: Powerhaus, London
Live Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 8 April 1989
THEY’RE ALL HERE tonight, convened in a spirit of slackwitted sentimentally: Morrissey (summoned, rumour has it, by the "great lady" herself, who admires his work), ...
The Telescopes: The Falcon, London
Live Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 6 May 1989
IN THIS HUMID HELL-HOLE of a venue, snuck bizarrely in the back of the tavern's toilets, my glasses mist up repeatedly, and I'm forced to ...
The Stone Roses: Shooting From The Lip
Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 3 June 1989
THE STONE ROSES are the latest instalment in the resurrection insurrection. ...
Prince, Mavis Staples: Mavis Staples: Time Waits For No One (Paisley Park)
Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 10 June 1989
NINETEEN EIGHTY nine has been a year for bumping into old friends, what with the spate of reissues, relaunched careers, and general rehabilitation. Back in ...
Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, October 1989
IT'S a superb name. Perhaps only Blind Idiot God is more emblematic of the late Eighties state of anti-consciousness. Not so much because of the ...
Charlatans, The (UK): The Charlatans
Interview by Simon Reynolds, Spin, 1990
In the U.K., the last few years have seen the original sequence of '60s rock replayed – in reverse. Nineteen eighty-eight was the year of ...
Interview by Simon Reynolds, The Observer, 1990
From her punk beginnings as style terrorist through her early Eighties reign as godmother of 'Goth' to the almost motherly figure she now presents, Siouxsie's ...
The Pixies: Ditties Of Pixilated Reasoning
Interview by Simon Reynolds, The Observer, 1990
A year ago, the Pixies were considered the last word in rock bacchanalia. The Boston-based band's three albums – Come On Pilgrim, Surfer Rosa and ...
Loop: A Gilded Eternity (Situation Two)
Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 20 January 1990
IT'S CLEAR now that Loop peaked with their magnificent brace of EPs in 1988, Collision/Thief Of Fire and Black Sun/Mother Sky. Last year's Fade Out ...
Interview by Simon Reynolds, The Observer, February 1990
Two years ago, Lloyd Cole folded his band, The Commotions, after six years, a bunch of hit singles and three solidly successful albums (Rattlesnakes, Easy ...
The Associates: Wild and Lonely
Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 24 March 1990
THE FIRST TIME I heard the Associates was when I saw 'Party Fears Two' on Top Of The Pops. It was one of those moments ...
Public Enemy: Fear of A Black Planet
Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 21 April 1990
BACK IN BLACK ...
John Cale, Lou Reed, The Velvet Underground: Velvet Memories of Andy Warhol
Report and Interview by Simon Reynolds, The Observer, 22 April 1990
Simon Reynolds on Lou Reed's reunion with John Cale. ...
Live Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 5 May 1990
THE KNITTING FACTORY is downtown New York's hip crucible of new music, where improvisers like John Zorn and Fred Frith play on the same bill ...
Live Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 26 May 1990
DOGS IN SPACE ...
Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 1 September 1990
MARK MOORE, the man behind chart terrorists S'Express, is a man of mystery, a svengali with scarcely any profile. SIMON REYNOLDS tracks him down to discover ...
Deee-Lite: Accentuating the Positive
Interview by Simon Reynolds, The Observer, 9 September 1990
Simon Reynolds on '90s Zeitgeist with love from NY. ...
Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 22 September 1990
EVERYONE WANTS A PIECE of Adamski's skinny ass right now. So crammed is his schedule, I'm eventually made to feel very lucky indeed to be ...
Adamski: The Adamant Alchemist
Interview by Simon Reynolds, The Observer, 23 September 1990
CHAOS IS a word with special resonance for Adam Tinley, better known as Adamski. He even named his canine companion Dis after Discordia, the goddess ...
Interview by Simon Reynolds, The Observer, 30 September 1990
THIS SUMMER, The Grid released 'Floatation', a single that perfectly captured the New Age mood that has pervaded club culture in 1990. 'Floatation' combined deep ...
Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 10 November 1990
This year, singer, downtrodden writer and all-round wasted boozer PAUL WESTERBERG has given up drinking, abandoned his band and is trying to look on the ...
Butthole Surfers: The Butthole Surfers: Deeper & Down
Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 8 December 1990
AFTER OVER A YEAR OF SILENCE, the Butthole Surfers have re-emerged only to suffer the indignity of being topical. With uncanny punctuality, their cover of ...
Ocean Colour Scene: Fowler’s Mod English Usage
Interview by Simon Reynolds, The Observer, 9 December 1990
If 1989 was the year Manchester proclaimed itself pop capital of Britain, 1990 was when reality caught up with the rhetoric. ...
Charlatans, The (UK): The Charlatans: Glory Days
Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 22 December 1990
1990 could well go down in the rock almanac as the year The Charlatans stole the initiative from The Stone Rose. While the figureheads of ...
The Fall: "You Can't Knock It, Can You?"
Interview by Simon Reynolds, The Observer, 23 December 1990
GIVEN HIS curmudgeonly image, you might expect Mark E. Smith to regard Christmas as a time to endure rather than enjoy. ...
Interview by Simon Reynolds, The Observer, 1991
The story of Primal Scream, whose second hit single entered the charts this week, encapsulates the last 14 years of British rock history. Bobby Gillespie, ...
Cop Shoot Cop: The Falcon, London
Live Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 5 January 1991
BANG TO RIGHTS ...
Interview by Simon Reynolds, The Observer, 6 January 1991
Simon Reynolds finds Soho down in the East End. ...
Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 12 January 1991
After a year of rumours about Dinosaur splitting and retiring from music altogether, J Mascis finally returns with a major label contract, a new single, ...
Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 12 January 1991
ONCE UPON A time (the early '80s), there was something called "new pop". For about a year Morley's pipedream of a chartbusting music that combined ...
Live Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 16 February 1991
THE WILD FRONTIER ...
Cop Shoot Cop: Consumer Revolt
Review by Simon Reynolds, The Village Voice, 19 February 1991
'BURN YOUR BRIDGES' is where Cop Shoot Cop proclaim their oblique intentions most plainly – their "anthem," if you will. "Know what you like/Like what ...
Review by Simon Reynolds, The Village Voice, 2 April 1991
"OH MANCHESTER, so much to answer for..." Contradiction has always been at the heart of Morrissey's mythologization of his hometown: this was nostalgia for a ...
Profile and Interview by Simon Reynolds, The Observer, 7 April 1991
Simon Reynolds profiles the anarchic duo The KLF ...
The Doors: Jim Morrison: The Anatomy Of Madness
Essay by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 13 April 1991
This year's superstar is a bloated, bearded would-be poet who died 20 years ago. SIMON REYNOLDS investigates the dark influence and deep fascination JIM MORRISON ...
Throwing Muses: The Real Ramona
Review by Simon Reynolds, Spin, May 1991
FOR SOME OF US, the Throwing Muses' 1986 debut was one of those records, the kind that leaves you feeling your life has been changed ...
Paul Simon: Simon Reports Back To Base
Interview by Simon Reynolds, The Observer, 5 May 1991
PAUL SIMON'S management company has one client: Paul Simon. Based in Broadway's legendary Brill Building (where Simon and Garfunkel first attempted to sell their songs ...
Happy Mondays, Jane's Addiction: Jane's Addiction/Happy Mondays: Madison Square Garden, NYC
Live Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 11 May 1991
IT MUST HAVE seemed an inspired notion to pair these unabashed champions of drug culture, but inside sources tell me that it's turned out to ...
Paula Abdul's State-of-the-Art Dance Pop
Report by Simon Reynolds, The New York Times, 12 May 1991
JUST AS THERE are those who worry about additive-riddled junk food, so too there's an unofficial "campaign for real music." ...
De La Soul: Malice In Wonderland
Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 25 May 1991
With their new album, De La Soul Is Dead, the founders of the hippy hop movement have turned their back on peace, love and positivity. ...
Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 1 June 1991
BOBBY GILLESPIE reckons that his new single, 'Higher Than The Sun', will revolutionise pop in the Nineties in the same way as the Pistols' 'Anarchy ...
Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 15 June 1991
THIS FOUR-CD mega-anthology reveals that there are actually two James Browns. The first is JB the patrician and patriarch: the disciplinarian who fined his musicians ...
Mercury Rev: Mean Fiddler, London
Live Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 15 June 1991
IT SEEMS LIKE A SMALL ETERNITY since indie America last puked up a truly ear-boggling band. The innovators of the late Eighties have become a ...
David Byrne: From Ur to L.A. and back again
Interview by Simon Reynolds, The Observer, 23 June 1991
In performance, and as the 'compere' in his film True Stories, David Byrne comes across as the epitome of Wasp uptightness, nervy and ill at ...
EMF: E.M.F.: A New Band That's All the Rave
Report and Interview by Simon Reynolds, The New York Times, 30 June 1991
LONDON — The trance-dance rhythms and euphoric aura of acid house music have drastically altered the outlook and aspirations of most British rock groups. ...
The Pixies: Brixton Academy, London
Live Review by Simon Reynolds, The Observer, 30 June 1991
Ungodly and oh so grungy ...
How MTV Plays Around the World
Report and Interview by Simon Reynolds, The New York Times, 7 July 1991
THE FACTS SPEAK for themselves. MTV Europe, the fastest-growing cable and satellite channel on the continent, is available in 24 million households in 27 countries, ...
Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 13 July 1991
CONSOLIDATED ARE the new militants of American rock. Their debut album, The Myth Of Rock, agitated against rock’s regressive impotence, its spurious rebellion and disengagement ...
Manic Street Preachers: Rock'n'Roll Suicide
Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 20 July 1991
CAN YOU FEEL IT? A creeping paralysis accompanying every advance in the obese accumulation of "good music", a seeping slide into the mire of eclecticism. ...
Julian Cope: Blonde on Peggy Suicide Blonde
Interview by Simon Reynolds, Pulse!, August 1991
One of pop's most eccentrically self-important extremists, Julian Cope drops drugs, gets centered and creates his first brilliant album ...
Jane's Addiction: Jane’s Addiction and Lollapalooza: A Woodstock For The Lost Generation
Interview by Simon Reynolds, The New York Times, 4 August 1991
There’s no contest: this summer's biggest tour is the aptly titled Lollapalooza, a mobile rock festival featuring a bill of premier alternative bands – Siouxsie ...
Bomb The Bass: Unknown Territory (Rhythm King)
Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 17 August 1991
WE NEED a new category – something like "progressive dance", or prog funk – to describe the new post-aciieed groups like 808 Slate, Bass-O-Matic and ...
Overview by Simon Reynolds, The New York Times, 18 August 1991
SO VOLATILE is the club scene that few artists have been able to make a career out of dance music, which is released mostly as ...
Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 24 August 1991
MERCURY REV's debut album has been hailed as one of the albums of the year. SIMON REYNOLDS talks to the band in New York about ...
Guns N' Roses: Guns N’ Roses: Danger Lurks Beyond The Doors
Profile by Simon Reynolds, The Observer, 25 August 1991
No other rock band today provokes such polarised opinions as Guns N' Roses. For some, they are 'the most dangerous band in the world', heirs ...
Jane's Addiction: Lollapalooza
Report by Simon Reynolds, The Guardian, 29 August 1991
LOLLAPALOOZA means a bizarre happening. ...
Guns N' Roses: Use Your Illusion I (Geffen)
Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 21 September 1991
THERE'S TWO schools of thought about Guns N'Roses. For some they're "the most dangerous band in the world"; for others, their brand of "danger" is ...
Live Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 21 September 1991
CURRENTLY THE focus of much cultish enthusiasm, Pavement exemplify all that's groovy and all that's grievous about American underground rock right now. ...
The Red Hot Chili Peppers: Red Hot Chili Peppers: Magicians followed but not chaste
Interview by Simon Reynolds, The Observer, 29 September 1991
One of the most hyperactive rock scenes in the United States is a genre called 'funk-metal' or 'funk 'n' roll'. Groups like Faith No More, ...
Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 12 October 1991
What’s the bond between rap and metal? What’s the ‘black holocaust’? Why are Public Enemy angrier than ever? SIMON REYNOLDS meets CHUCK D to discover ...
The House Of Love's Guy Chadwick
Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 19 October 1991
If there was ever any doubt that it’s tough at the top, one need only look at what happened to GUY CHADWICK. Feted, eulogized, deified ...
Saint Etienne: St Etienne: Debut That's Alpha Oscar Kilo
Interview by Simon Reynolds, The Observer, 20 October 1991
ON THEIR delightful debut album, Foxbase Alpha, St Etienne mix contemporary house rhythms with the string-swept melodrama of Sixties pop. Amazingly, the creators of this ...
Review by Simon Reynolds, The New York Times, 27 October 1991
THERE WAS A time when the Boston group the Pixies was the last word in rock-and-roll bacchanalia. ...
Primal Scream: Screamadelica (Sire/Warner Bros.)
Review by Simon Reynolds, Spin, November 1991
WHAT A LONG strange trip it's been for Primal Scream. When the Primals emerged in 1984, their pallid psychopop was draped in the unworldly innocence ...
My Bloody Valentine: Loveless (Creation)
Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 2 November 1991
VALENTINE DAZE ...
Manic Street Preachers: Righteous Hate 4 Real
Interview by Simon Reynolds, The Observer, 10 November 1991
When Malcolm McLaren rewrote the Sex Pistols story as The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle, he invented a new genre – rock bands who come ...
Review by Simon Reynolds, The New York Times, 24 November 1991
NIRVANA'S VERTIGINOUS ascent to stardom has to be the year’s most surprising success story. The single ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ has been in heavy rotation ...
Nirvana: Kilburn National, London
Live Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, December 1991
THE ONLY EXPLANATION is that a lot of people didn't realise how angry and alienated they really were. Once in a blue moon, a group ...
Report and Interview by Simon Reynolds, The New York Times, 1 December 1991
THIS YEAR, THE most popular phenomenon in British alternative rock is a wave of hazy neo-psychedelic guitar groups. ...
Teenage Fanclub: The Glitz And The Grunge
Interview by Simon Reynolds, The Observer, 1 December 1991
WITH THEIR first single, 'Everything Flows', last year, Teenage Fanclub's grinding raunch and bluesy solos announced that here at last was a British group unafraid ...
Teenage Fanclub: Teenage Fan Club: Bandwagonesque (DGC)
Review by Simon Reynolds, The Village Voice, 3 December 1991
AS A BRIT who spends a lot of time in the U.S., I could hardly fail to notice the scathing scepticism of American hipsters when ...
Nirvana: Smells Like A Sensation
Profile by Simon Reynolds, The Observer, 8 December 1991
NIRVANA ARE THE sensation of 1991. Their single ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ shot straight into the UK Top Ten and is now number seven after ...
Nirvana: The indie alternative
Report by Simon Reynolds, The Guardian, 19 December 1991
This year saw groups like Nirvana breaking into the mainstream,. Simon Reynolds reports on the changing face of the charts ...
Elvis Costello and Martin Amis: Prophets of Doom
Essay by Simon Reynolds, Arena, Summer 1991
The highbrow hysteria of Elvis Costello and Martin Amis ...
Lou Reed: Alchemical Engineering
Interview by Simon Reynolds, The Wire, February 1992
Lou Reed is one of the few 60s figures who has kept up any serious exploration of rock's sounds and words. In this exclusive New ...
Interview by Simon Reynolds, Pulse!, February 1992
On Lou Reed's touching elegy to two recently departed friends, Magic and Loss, he grapples with the age-old question: What is the meaning of death? ...
Lush: Hazy Daze For The Scenesters
Profile by Simon Reynolds, The Observer, 2 February 1992
Just about the only thing happening in British indie music last year was a rash of blurry, neo-psychedelic bands known as 'shoegazers' or The Scene ...
Hole: Belting Out That Most Unfeminine Emotion
Interview by Simon Reynolds, The New York Times, 9 February 1992
SUSAN FALUDI, the author of Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women, said recently in a magazine interview that "anger is not something that's an ...
The Nymphs: Nymphs: The Asylum Siren
Report and Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 15 February 1992
When singer Inger Lorre first heard Patti Smith, she knew she had to become a rock'n'roll star. When she heard the Velvet's 'Heroin'. She got ...
Primal Scream: The Ritz, New York NY
Live Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 29 February 1992
Days Of Future Past ...
Laurie Anderson: Clarity’s Angel
Interview by Simon Reynolds, The Wire, March 1992
First, Laurie Anderson chronicled the United States of America. What’s next for the leading performance-person of our day? ...
Babes in Toyland, Daisy Chainsaw, Hole, The Nymphs: Scream with the She-Rebels
Overview by Simon Reynolds, The Observer, 15 March 1992
WHILE ROCK'N'ROLL abounds with angry young men, female rage has always been a scarce commodity. There's been the gleeful anarchy of the Slits, Patti Smith's ...
The Jesus & Mary Chain: The Jesus and Mary Chain: A Spectacle Of Eclectic Rock
Interview by Simon Reynolds, The Observer, 29 March 1992
For a while it looked like The Jesus and Mary Chain had slipped into the ‘where are they now? file. "We’re lazy bastards," says William ...
Lush: Spooky (4AD/Reprise) ***
Review by Simon Reynolds, Rolling Stone, 16 April 1992
FOR THE past few years, British indie rock has been dominated by bands known as shoegazers (because they're shy onstage), purveying a style of music ...
Faith No More: Angel Dust (Slash)
Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 30 May 1992
AND "DUST" IS FOR ALL ...
The Cure: Robert Smith: Dr. Robert Explains It All
Interview by Simon Reynolds, Pulse!, June 1992
In a rare solo interview, Cure leader Robert Smith dissects his cult, defines his own private punk and pursues his Wish. ...
Report by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 6 June 1992
Castlemorton was the site of the biggest illegal rave to date. But, as SIMON REYNOLDS discovered, it was only a prelude to what's to come ...
Faith No More: God, The Devil And All The Rest
Interview by Simon Reynolds, The Observer, 7 June 1992
Despite starting out as an anti-people band, Faith No More's last album, 1989's The Real Thing, has sold millions, even though its baroque, doom-laden fusion ...
Interview by Simon Reynolds, The Observer, 9 June 1992
"WHEN WE STARTED the group, we felt that people were starved for music which allowed them to let themselves go," says Brett Anderson, Suede's 24-year-old ...
Altern-8, Derrick May, Orbital, Spiral Tribe: The Techno Revolution
Report by Simon Reynolds, Details, July 1992
Four years after its invention in a Detroit bedroom, techno is now dominating dance floors from London to L.A. Is it the next musical insurrection ...
Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 5 July 1992
YOU KNOW, MAYBE the Scene wasn’t so bad after all. Sure, it churned out rapture by rote, but grunge has similarly turned rage into a ...
Pavement: Some Enchanted Evenings
Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 18 July 1992
The post-Nirvana deluge of grunge guitar bands is threatening to stifle rock. Only a handful of genuine mavericks and freaks are holding out against the ...
The Verve: Richard Ashcroft: Having The Verve To Become Unashamedly Epic
Interview by Simon Reynolds, The Observer, 26 July 1992
"When you live in a place like Wigan, your senses aren't exactly bombarded with stimuli," says Richard Ashcroft, lead singer of Verve. "So when you ...
Happy Mondays: Yes Please! (Factory)
Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 5 September 1992
NO THANKS ...
The Cure: The Boy Who Won't Grow Up
Interview by Simon Reynolds, The Observer, 15 November 1992
THE CURE are probably the world's biggest cult band. Alone of all the British bands born of punk, they've attained huge success without drastically watering ...
Big Black: Steve Albini: Smoke 'Em If You Got 'Em
Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 21 November 1992
Big Black (1981-1987) were one of the most influential bands of the Eighties. Industrial music, 'skronk' rock, New York noisecore, British indiepop, Nirvana, Ministry, Suede, ...
Medicine, Mercury Rev: Mercury Rev and Medicine: Fuzzy Daydreams Replace the Grimness of Grunge
Report by Simon Reynolds, The New York Times, 22 November 1992
AFTER THE EXPLOSIVE success of Nirvana last year, and the ensuing breakthrough by Pearl Jam and the Red Hot Chili Peppers, alternative rock is now ...
The Cure: Robert Smith's Wish List
Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 19 December 1992
FIFTEEN years on, THE CURE are post-punk's hardy perennial. Of all their peers, they're virtually alone in making it to stadium level without pandering or ...
Dinosaur Jr.: Dinosaur Jr: Where You Been (Blanco Y Negro)
Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 23 January 1993
TYRANNOSAURUS WRECKS ...
Dinosaur Jr: Lazy Doing Something
Profile and Interview by Simon Reynolds, The Observer, 31 January 1993
IN NORTH America, "slackers" have entered mainstream consciousness, with the success of Richard Linklater's Slacker movie, Doug Coupland's book Generation X and, above all, Nirvana's ...
Overview by Simon Reynolds, Details, March 1993
IT'S YEAR two of the post-Nirvana era, and the deluge of Seattle soundalike grunge flows on and on. These days, most hapless record buyers find ...
Donald Fagen: Steely Don is no fly-by-night
Interview by Simon Reynolds, The Observer, 9 May 1993
With their jazz-tinged soft-rock and mordant lyrics, Steely Dan were critics' favourites and a staple of FM radio throughout the Seventies. ...
Report and Interview by Simon Reynolds, Spin, June 1993
Britain’s new white-hot hope brings its liberated sexual stance to the States. Are you ready to get Suede? ...
Suede: The Best New Band In America?
Report and Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 19 June 1993
SUEDE have already proved themselves in the UK, both critically and commercially. The next step is for the fab four to cross the Atlantic and ...
Gallon Drunk, PJ Harvey: PJ Harvey: The Academy, New York NY
Live Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 10 July 1993
FROM GRUNGE'S "castration blues" to the glutinous gloom of Come/Red House Painters/Mazzy Star to tonight's support band Gallon Drunk (with their cliché-encrusted homage to Nick ...
The Fall: The Infotainment Scan (Matador)
Review by Simon Reynolds, The New York Times, 11 July 1993
THE FALL is one of England’s enduring cult bands. Formed in 1976 by the singer and lyricist Mark E. Smith, it evolved into one of ...
Review by Simon Reynolds, The New York Times, 22 August 1993
The singer Björk has gone solo, as some devotees always felt she should. ...
The Auteurs, Morrissey, Suede: British Rockers Trot Out the Flag
Report by Simon Reynolds, The New York Times, 5 September 1993
LONDON — In rock-and-roll just as in politics, the United States and England have a special relationship. Together, they have dominated global pop. Over the decades, ...
Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 11 September 1993
By now, you must all know about Moby, the techno nutter who's a Christian vegan, doesn't drink, smoke or do drugs. And you'll have heard ...
Comment by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 16 October 1993
SIMON REYNOLDS casts a critical eye over MTV and what it stands for and comes to some surprising conclusions ...
PJ Harvey: What Makes Polly Scream?
Interview by Simon Reynolds, i-D, November 1993
PJ Harvey — the singer and the band — is the pop phenomenon of the year. Her emotional, bluesy primal screaming is the most challenging ...
Kate Bush: Heaven’s Kate: Kate Bush
Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 6 November 1993
ENGLAND MY LION HEART KATE BUSH AN ENGLISH original. In 1978, that wavering, starburst voice seemed to come out of nowhere, but only because it's ...
Smashing Pumpkins: Siamese Dream
Review by Simon Reynolds, The New York Times, 14 November 1993
THIS MAJOR-LABEL debut by the Smashing Pumpkins recently shot straight onto the Billboard chart at No. 10, partially justifying the industry hype about the Chicago ...
Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 27 November 1993
Aphex Twin is unusual. He likes tanks. He hates sleeping. And he pours tea on his cereal. SIMON REYNOLDS meets the rave-age Mozart in a ...
Nirvana: The Coliseum, New York City
Live Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 27 November 1993
IF THERE WERE any doubts that Nirvana had truly connected with America's rock heartland, the sight of the crowd tonight dispels them. It's a sea ...
Interview by Simon Reynolds, Pulse!, December 1993
Kate Bush is very... unlikely· A teen prodigy, she rocketed to the pinnacle of the British charts with her 1987 debut, ‘Wuthering Heights’, a very... ...
Comment by Simon Reynolds, The New York Times, 5 December 1993
TODAY'S ALTERNATIVE rock suffers from a strange kind of nostalgia — a yearning for a golden age that one never personally experienced. There's a term ...
Nirvana, Pearl Jam: Pearl Jam Versus Nirvana: The Final Countdown
Essay by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 25 December 1993
IF NUMBERS COUNT for anything, Pearl Jam wiped the floor with Nirvana. In its first week of release, Vs sold five times as many copies ...
Morrissey: Vauxhall and I (Sire)
Review by Simon Reynolds, The New York Times, 1994
IF TWO WORDS come close to encapsulating Morrissey's sensibility, they are isolation and insularity. ...
Robert Wyatt: Going Back A Bit - A Little History of Robert Wyatt (Virgin)
Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 1994
AT LAST, a long-overdue anthology of stuff and nonsense by one of the great eccentrics of English art-rock, Robert Wyatt. A miscellany of bits and ...
Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 1994
The Stooges (Elektra)Fun House (Elektra) FUN HOUSE is, no contest, the greatest rock'n'roll album of all time. And its prequel, The Stooges, is the tremor ...
Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 1994
Pink Flag (Harvest/EMI)Chairs Missing (Harvest/EMI)154 (Harvest/EMI) ...
Overview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 22 January 1994
What is JUNGLE? And where does it fit into the new dance scheme? SIMON REYNOLDS reports ...
Kristin Hersh: Hips and Makers
Review by Simon Reynolds, Spin, February 1994
THROWING MUSES' last album, Red Heaven, was a murky, tired- sounding affair, and it bombed. For her first solo record. Kristin Hersh sheds the rockist ...
Aphex Twin: Selected Ambient Works Part II (Sire/Warner Bros.)
Review by Simon Reynolds, Spin, March 1994
BY NOW YOU may have heard of Richard James, the British techno whiz-kid who sleeps two hours a night and who is so prolific he ...
Review by Simon Reynolds, MOJO, March 1994
THESE DAYS, ALTERNATIVE = ANTIQUATED. Almost all alternative rockers pay homage to a bygone golden age (although they disagree about which is the genre that ...
The Beastie Boys: Cult of the Beasties
Interview by Simon Reynolds, i-D, March 1994
The Beastie Boys have gone from pop stardom to obscurity to being the biggest cult band in the world. Their last LP sold a million ...
Aphex Twin: Selected Ambient Works Volume II (Warp)
Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 5 March 1994
The prodigious, prolific and increasingly eccentric Richard James brings us two and a half hours of his unique muse. SIMON REYNOLDS is bewitched on our ...
Aphex Twin: Techno Wars: A House Divided Over Beats
Report and Interview by Simon Reynolds, The New York Times, 13 March 1994
ONLY A FEW years ago, it was easy to define techno as a fast-paced dance music based on electronic textures. ...
Primal Scream’s Bobby Gillespie: Prophet Or Dead Loss?
Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 2 April 1994
Primal Scream’s new LP, Give Out But Don’t Give Up, has split the voters. Some think it’s retro-rockist rubbish, others believe it’s the ultimate good-time ...
Report and Interview by Carl Loben, Simon Reynolds, Ngaire Ruth, Melody Maker, 30 April 1994
For decades, squatting, free festivals and illegal parties have played a vital role in alternative pop culture. The Criminal Justice Bill — which has been ...
Review by Simon Reynolds, Spin, June 1994
WHATEVER happened to "dream pop"? Well, the smartest of those bands have turned on to techno, and are mixing their lustrous guitar stuff with sampled ...
Stereolab: Separation Terrorists
Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 16 July 1994
Subversive MOR may sound like a contradiction in terms, but it’s the best available description of Stereolab’s new single, ‘Ping Pong’, the most brilliant example ...
The Prodigy: Touched By The Hand Of Prod
Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 16 July 1994
"So I've decided to take my work back underground... to stop it falling into the wrong hands." ...
Seal: A Conjurer Of Lush Grooves
Interview by Simon Reynolds, The New York Times, 14 August 1994
What to call Seal’s blend of symphonic dance music and mystical lyrics? New Age funk? Progressive disco? Seal belongs to that strain of maverick, slightly ...
Massive Attack, Portishead: Trip Hop Don't Stop: Massive Attack and Portishead
Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 17 September 1994
Imagine a cross between ambient and hip-hop. Imagine a Brit version of Cypress Hill or Gravediggaz's spooky Gothic Hop. Imagine the sound of 'bombs exploding ...
Profile and Interview by Simon Reynolds, The Observer, 18 September 1994
Muzak is hip: Simon Reynolds meets Stereolab, easy-listening revolutionaries ...
A Guy Called Gerald: Jungle Heritage
Profile and Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 8 October 1994
SIMON REYNOLDS reports on the cyber-black world of A GUY CALLED GERALD. ...
Overview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 15 October 1994
Ask yer proverbial suburban kid on the street, and chances are they won't be into Blur, Suede, Nirvana or Oasis — they'll be hardcore JUNGLE ...
Goldie: Tales From The Dark Side
Profile and Interview by Simon Reynolds, The Observer, 23 October 1994
Simon Reynolds meets Goldie, pioneering king of ambient jungle ...
Suede: The London Suede: Dog Man Star
Review by Simon Reynolds, The New York Times, 27 November 1994
A SUPERGROUP IN Britain, Suede failed to sway America last year with its heady blend of raunch guitar and flamboyant androgyny. ...
Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 1995
SOME THINGS you should know about Flying Saucer Attack. They're the Bristol based duo of David Pearce and Rachel Brook, and their records are released ...
Joe Meek: Various Artists: It's Hard to Believe It - the Amazing World of Joe Meek (Razor & Tie)
Review by Simon Reynolds, Spin, 1995
WHO WAS Joe Meek? A cut-price Spector crafting pocket symphonies in his North London studio for a stable of dodgy pre-Beatles combos? Yes, but the ...
Meat Puppets: When Kurt Met Curt: Meat Puppets
Report and Interview by Simon Reynolds, MOJO, January 1995
IF YOU WANT TO know why Meat Puppets touched Kurt Cobain so deeply that he covered not one but three of their songs for Unplugged ...
Combustible Edison, Esquivel, Stereolab: Incredibly Strange Music: The Revenge of the Un-Hip
Report and Interview by Simon Reynolds, The New York Times, 5 February 1995
IT'S OFFICIAL: IT'S HIP TO BE square. Collectors are paying top dollar for original albums from such '50s and '60s easy-listening fare as LP's designed ...
A Guy Called Gerald: Black Secret Technology (Juke Box JB2 13tks/70mins/FP)
Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 18 February 1995
Freaked out by the photocopier? Frightened of the fax machine? Fascinated by both? Don't worry, our relationship with technology is necessarily double-edged – and it's ...
Interview by Simon Reynolds, MOJO, March 1995
Chicago’s infamous Royal Trux have finally made the major-label album of "low-down Sticky-Fingered raunch ‘n’ roll" they’ve always threatened to. Does the big time beckon? ...
Review by Simon Reynolds, Vibe, March 1995
AFTER YEARS of lamely aping U.S. rap, Britain has finally come up with not one but two responses to hip hop. There's trip hop, also ...
Retrospective by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 4 March 1995
IF ANYONE remembers Fleetwood Mac's Tusk at all, it's as the surprise flop sequel to 1977 Rumours. A soft-rock masterpiece (gorgeous melodicism charged with the ...
Foul Play, Goldie, My Bloody Valentine, Omni Trio: Goldie et al: Jungle Boogie
Report by Simon Reynolds, Rolling Stone, 23 March 1995
Get down, get down: The U.K. moves to underground groove ...
A Guy Called Gerald: Wicked Guy!
Profile and Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 25 March 1995
A GUY CALLED GERALD is at the forefront of junglist innovation and future-shock technological experimentation. A guy called SIMON REYNOLDS joins him in virtual space. ...
Elastica: Twang Twang, You're Cred!
Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 25 March 1995
This week, ELASTICA’s debut album has achieved the greatest double whammy of critical and commercial success since Parklife and Definitely Maybe, final proof that Britpop’s ...
The Stone Roses: The Morning After
Retrospective and Interview by Simon Reynolds, Spin, May 1995
"I guess you had to be there – probably Manchester, definitely England – to understand how the Stone Roses came to matter so much in ...
Massive Attack, Portishead, Tricky: Trip Hop: Another City, Another New Sound
Report by Simon Reynolds, The New York Times, 28 May 1995
POP GROUPS hate being identified as part of a scene centred on a city. But if there's one thing bands resent even more, it is ...
The Auteurs, µ-ziq: μ-Ziq: μ-Ziq vs. the Auteurs (AstralWerks/Caroline)
Review by Simon Reynolds, Spin, June 1995
WITH ITS jungle rhythms and uncouth passion, rock'n'roll used to be the enemy of civilization and refinement. So I'm amused that it is rock fans ...
Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 24 June 1995
"I had this psychic drawing done," says Tricky, sucking greedily on the first of the four joints he's to consume in the next hour. Behind ...
Report by Simon Reynolds, The New York Times, 6 August 1995
JUNGLE – A FRENETIC, fiercely percussive dance sound made using samples and computers – is the most exciting musical movement to emerge from Britain since ...
Stephin Merritt: The Pocket Symphonist: Stephin Merritt
Interview by Simon Reynolds, MOJO, September 1995
Stephin Merritt is the standard-bearer for a new pop aesthetic. "Music isn’t about performing out your soul," he avers. "It’s about making pretty objects you ...
Review by Simon Reynolds, Spin, October 1995
SAMPLER-WIELDING CYBER-STOOGES, The Young Gods have been the world's first 21st Century rock band for nearly a decade now. But being ahead of your time ...
My Bloody Valentine: When You Wake You're Still In A Nightmare: My Bloody Valentine
Interview by Simon Reynolds, Alternative Press, October 1995
In 1991 My Bloody Valentine released Loveless, one of rock's most innovative albums. Then... silence What on earth have they been doing the last four ...
Blur, Oasis: Battle of the Bands — Old Turf, New Combatants
Overview by Simon Reynolds, The New York Times, 22 October 1995
RIGHT NOW, the British music scene is convulsed with patriotic fervor. For the first time in over a decade, young British guitar bands are penetrating ...
Pulp: Working-Class Heroes: Pulp: Different Class (Island)
Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 28 October 1995
Jarvis Cocker, sexual outlaw, professional eccentric, godlike television personality and master of idiosyncratic dance steps you already know and adore. SIMON REYNOLDS heralds the entrance ...
Interview by Simon Reynolds, Rolling Stone, 16 November 1995
THE SEA and Cake are crammed into a van parked on a busy side street in Manhattan's Lower East Side. They're here as opposed to ...
Grateful Dead, John Oswald: John Oswald: Rites of the Living Dead
Profile and Interview by Simon Reynolds, The Wire, December 1995
Following the death of Jerry Garcia, John Oswald's Grayfolded, a digital reworking of the Grateful Dead's 'Dark Star', has assumed new, ghostly qualities. ...
Julian Cope: Krautrocksampler: One Head’s Guide To The Great Kosmiche Musik - 1968 Onwards
Review by Simon Reynolds, MOJO, December 1995
Since it deals with that most fetishised of genres, Krautrocksampler is appropriately enough an intensely fetishisable object. Purportedly the first of a whole line of ...
Profile and Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, Fall 1995
THE SETTING is spot on — a pretty Putney park near the Thames, on a gorgeously sunny day in almost-September. White clouds scud across oceans ...
Joe Carducci's Rock and the Pop Narcotic
Retrospective by Simon Reynolds, Artforum, February 1996
WHEN Rock And The Pop Narcotic was first published in 1990, it incited a fair bit of controversy, startling many by the sheer aggression with ...
Profile and Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 3 February 1996
The new TORTOISE album, with its radical approach to rock, dub, trip hop and avant-Techno, will blow your mind. SIMON REYNOLDS heralds the future ...
Interview by Simon Reynolds, Rolling Stone, 4 April 1996
"Repetition in the music and we're never gonna lose it," sang Mark E. Smith of the English post-punk legends the Fall in the aptly titled ...
The Prodigy: Prodigy: The Fat of the Land
Review by Simon Reynolds, The Village Voice, 8 July 1997
SOME SAY the Prodigy have betrayed the bright promise of the "electronica revolution", resulting in a techno-rock hybrid that's not so much kick-ass as half-assed. ...
Review by Simon Reynolds, The Village Voice, 18 November 1997
Damn and blast the Verve. I'd sworn never to fall again for that classic-rock godstar-savior-shaman shtick, that it was gonna be dance music's desiring-machines and ...
Review by Simon Reynolds, Uncut, December 1997
I remember very clearly the first time I heard Cut – it was the summer of '79, I was staying at my aunt's in the ...
Report by Simon Reynolds, Spin, May 1998
Speed garage, a hybrid of house and jungle, has conquered British clubland. ...
Paul Oakenfold, Paul van Dyk: Trance: New Invader on the Dance Floor
Report by Simon Reynolds, The New York Times, 29 November 1998
THE ESPERANTO of electronic dance music, trance is probably the most popular rave sound in the world. Although this kinetic, hypnotic music has maintained a ...
Paul Oakenfold, Paul van Dyk: Trance: New Invader on the Dance Floor
Report by Simon Reynolds, The New York Times, 29 November 1998
THE ESPERANTO of electronic dance music, trance is probably the most popular rave sound in the world. Although this kinetic, hypnotic music has maintained a ...
Fatboy Slim: You've Come A Long Way, Baby
Review by Simon Reynolds, Uncut, December 1998
Former Housemartin turns Big Beat pioneer ...
Timbaland: Tim's Bio – Life from da Bassment (Blackground)
Review by Simon Reynolds, Spin, January 1999
MAYBE YOU'VE heard of the Jamaican tradition of "version" albums: a dozen or so tracks all built on top of the same bass-and-drum undercarriage. Different ...
Fatboy Slim, Lo Fidelity Allstars: Big Beat: Dance Music From England With a Dark Side
Report by Simon Reynolds, The New York Times, 7 March 1999
BIG BEAT, a boisterous hybrid of hip-hop and house music, is currently the most popular dance style in Britain. ...
Basement Jaxx: House That Jaxx Built
Interview by Simon Reynolds, The Wire, May 1999
WITHOUT FANFARE, House has crept forward to become the leading edge of dance culture again — just like it was over a decade ago. It's ...
The Prodigy: Prodigy: Smack My Mix Up
Interview by Simon Reynolds, Spin, May 1999
EVER SINCE 'Firestarter' and 'Breathe' transformed Prodigy into rave'n'roll superstars, Liam Howlett, the band's leader and musical brain, has taken pains to distance Prodigy from ...
Fatboy Slim: Electronica Goes Straight To Ubiquity
Report and Interview by Simon Reynolds, The New York Times, 6 June 1999
THE USUAL trajectory for a new form of pop music is from underground sound to mainstream omnipresence, followed by eventual banalization as the style filters ...
The Chemical Brothers: Back To The Lab
Interview by Simon Reynolds, Spin, July 1999
WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN THE BLOCK-ROCKIN' SOUND YOU INVENTED HAS BECOME THE SOUNDTRACK TO LAME TEEN FLICKS AND TAMPON COMMERCIALS? IF YOU'RE THE CHEMICAL ...
Missy Elliott, Timbaland: Timbaland and Missy Elliott: Partners in the Engine Room of Rap
Comment by Simon Reynolds, The New York Times, 1 August 1999
POP-MUSIC history tends to focus on glamorous vocalists and visionary songwriters, but the evolution of black pop is another story: it's as much about changes ...
Roxy Music: Roxy Music/For Your Pleasure/Stranded/Country Life/Siren
Review by Simon Reynolds, Uncut, September 1999
Their first five LPs lovingly remastered for your pleasure In 1969's Awopbopaloobop Alopbamboorn, Nik Cohn simultaneously celebrated and mourned the mythic era of "Superpop, the ...
Armand Van Helden: 2 Future 4 U (Armed)
Review by Simon Reynolds, Spin, October 1999
A YEAR AGO, Armand Van Helden was signed to Ruffhouse/Columbia. Now the DJ/producer is releasing 2 Future 4 U through Armed, his own fledgling indie ...
Interview by Simon Reynolds, Spin, October 1999
COMING OUT OF THE ART-ROCK CLOSET, DEATH IN VEGAS SHED DANCE BEATS FOR SINISTER, TRIPPED-OUT PSYCHEDELIA. BUT THEIR SNEAKERS REMAIN THE SAME ...
Dot Allison, One Dove: Dot Allison: When Doves Sigh
Profile and Interview by Simon Reynolds, Spin, October 1999
FORMER ONE DOVE SINGER DOT ALLISON MAKES HER SOLO DEBUT ...
Puff Daddy: It Isn't Easy Being a Superman
Comment by Simon Reynolds, The New York Times, 10 October 1999
A FEW SONGS into Forever, the recently released second album by the rapper-producer-entrepreneur Puff Daddy, there is a skit about people phoning the Player-Haters Anonymous ...
Goodie Mob: World Party (Laface/Orista)
Review by Simon Reynolds, Spin, January 2000
WHEN A BAND with something to say wants to communicate to the largest number of people, it generally resorts to what's known as "sweetening the ...
DMX, Eve: Family Values in the Rap Business: Ruff Ryders, Cash Money and co.
Report by Simon Reynolds, The New York Times, 12 March 2000
WHEN THE RAPPER DMX accepted a trophy for best R&B album at the Billboard Music Awards last year, he took the stage flanked by a ...
DMX, Jay Z, Juvenile, The Lox: Jay-Z, DMX, Juvenile and The Lox Albums
Review by Simon Reynolds, Uncut, May 2000
Huge over there, ignored over here – the state of the rap art, US-style: Jay-Z: Volume 3...Life And Times Of S Carter; ...
Ian Dury: The Life and Rhymes of Ian Dury 1942 — 2000
Obituary by Simon Reynolds, Uncut, June 2000
At the peak of his late '70s success, Ian Dury was one of this country’s most beloved entertainers. He kept busy in his post-stardom years ...
Jimi Hendrix: Black Secret Technology
Retrospective by Simon Reynolds, Uncut, July 2000
Hendrix wasn't just the original firestarter, all flash and dazzle. He was a scientist of sound. ...
Retrospective by Simon Reynolds, Uncut, July 2000
Driven to despair by commercial neglect, his visionary genius unrecognised, TIM BUCKLEY died of a heroin overdose at the age of 28. On the 25th ...
Beenie Man: Bennie Man: Art & Life
Review by Simon Reynolds, Uncut, August 2000
Flava floods out of dancehall ubermensch ...
Garage: Pure Garage: Mixed Live By E-Z; Underground Explosion: The Real Garage Mix
Review by Simon Reynolds, Uncut, August 2000
Garage — the sound of the UK underground goes mainstream ...
Review by Simon Reynolds, Uncut, August 2000
Legendary Scottish duo — featuring late, great Billy MacKenzie — issue best work and pre-fame material ...
The Clash, King Tubby, Bob Marley & the Wailers, Lee "Scratch" Perry: Reggae: Back to the Roots
Essay by Simon Reynolds, The Wire, September 2000
According to the remixologists' gospel, the dub virus was so successful, it took out the word and eradicated its reggae song hosts. Simon Reynolds rediscovers ...
Radiohead's Kid A: Revolution In The Head
Essay by Simon Reynolds, Uncut, November 2000
WHAT IS WRONG WITH THE STATE OF BRITISH ROCK, AND HOW COME RADIOHEAD'S KID A HAS GOT IT SO RIGHT? ...
Roni Size and Reprazent: Roni Size & Reprazent: In The Mode
Review by Simon Reynolds, Uncut, November 2000
FOLLOW-UP to 1997's New Forms ...
Fatboy Slim: Halfway Between the Gutter and the Stars
Review by Simon Reynolds, The Village Voice, 15 November 2000
FEATURING SAMPLES from a bootleg album of the Lizard King's poetry, Fatboy Slim's new single 'Sunset (Bird of Prey)' isn't the first time Jim Morrison's ...
U2: All That You Can't Leave Behind
Review by Simon Reynolds, Uncut, December 2000
Corn without authenticity. Bono and Co rediscover the importance of being earnest ...
Big Youth: Natty Universal Dread; and, Various Aritists: A Jamaican Story
Review by Simon Reynolds, Uncut, May 2001
IN JAMAICA, the DJ isn't the guy who spins the records (that's the selector), it's the bloke who chats over the music. As misnomers go, ...
Matmos: A Chance to Cut is a Chance to Cure (Matador)
Review by Simon Reynolds, Spin, May 2001
MATMOS' FOURTH ALBUM sheds new light on the notion of body music. This San Francisco glitch-techno duo-Drew Daniel and Martin Schmidt — have made a ...
Review by Simon Reynolds, Uncut, May 2001
Krautrock revisited and remastered: Bowie, Eno, Thorn Yorke, Damon Albarn, Stereolab and Sonic Youth pay sleevenote homage to the Lennon And McCartney of Teutonic boogaloo ...
The Avalanches: Since I Left You
Review by Simon Reynolds, Uncut, May 2001
YOU SHOULD HEAR the things people say about The Avalanches: "Basement Jaxx meets The Beta Band," "Stardust crossed with Stereolab," sample-based music with the freshness ...
Scritti Politti: Epiphanies: Scritti Politti
Retrospective by Simon Reynolds, The Wire, June 2001
Simon Reynolds swoons to the sound of Scritti Politti's seditious soul music ...
Review by Simon Reynolds, Uncut, June 2001
IN A RECENT diatribe, American theorist Joe Carducci blamed digital studio techniques for extinguishing rock's vital spark. And he lambasted contemporary black music, "an 'R&B' ...
Radiohead: Walking on Thin Ice
Interview by Simon Reynolds, The Wire, July 2001
Radiohead may be one of the biggest groups on the planet, but their dissenting voice and exploratory studio techniques conflict with the commercial pressure to ...
Review by Simon Reynolds, Uncut, August 2001
Hot from the States: hip hop meets electronica ...
Review by Simon Reynolds, Uncut, August 2001
Two blasts of future freak-funk ...
Readers' Letters by Simon Reynolds, Uncut, August 2001
Both Barrels Blazing - Follow-up to 1999's notoriously disowned eponymous debut ...
N.E.R.D.: N*E*R*D": In Search Of...
Review by Simon Reynolds, Uncut, September 2001
R&B production team turn out politically-infused black rock'n'soul album ...
Interview by Simon Reynolds, Uncut, October 2001
SHE'S NOT A bit how you'd think she'd be. From the public persona of song and video, you might reasonably expect effervescence, an explosive extravagance ...
The Avalanches: Since I Left You
Review by Simon Reynolds, Spin, October 2001
IN MUSIC, misery's got a monopoly on credibility — just ask Thom and Trent. A furrowed brow and a tormented soul are essential if you ...
Review by Simon Reynolds, Uncut, October 2001
Golden Wonders: Latest instalment in renowned mid-Sixties rock anthology incorporates long-lost Brits ...
Cannibal Ox: The Anti-Bling Kings: Cannibal Ox
Profile by Simon Reynolds, The Village Voice, 2 October 2001
Wormholed futurism with a mouthful of parables ...
23 Skidoo: Seven Songs, Urban Gamelan
Review by Simon Reynolds, Uncut, November 2001
Audacious avant-funksters re-released ...
Pulp: We Love Life (Island) *****
Review by Simon Reynolds, Uncut, November 2001
After scrapped sessions and a delayed release date, Cocker & Co follow up 1998's This Is Hardcore, with Scott Walker at the controls ...
Black Sabbath: The Complete '70s Replica CD Collection 1970-78
Review by Simon Reynolds, Uncut, December 2001
THE MYSTERY OF THE RIFF – so crucial to rock, so oddly neglected by critics. ...
Cabaret Voltaire: Various Compilations
Review by Simon Reynolds, Uncut, December 2001
From post-punk to dance crossover: Sheffield pioneers' mid-Eighties revisited The Original Sound Of Sheffield — The Best Of The Virgin/EMI Years Conform To Deform — The Virgin/EMI ...
Review by Simon Reynolds, Spin, December 2001
HOOD MAKE mope rock for the laptop era. This British quartet are survivors of a brief early-'90s moment of mingling between U.K. indie rock and ...
Jay Z: Jay-Z: The Blueprint (Roc-A-Fella)
Review by Simon Reynolds, Uncut, December 2001
Sixth album from Brooklyn rap don ...
Retrospective by Simon Reynolds, Uncut, December 2001
FORGET ABOUT THE NOSTALGIA-MONGERING AND KITSCH REVIVALISM – THE POST-PUNK PERIOD OF 1979-81 WAS AN ASTONISHINGLY FERTILE TIME FOR BRITISH MUSIC, WHEN INDIE LABELS FLOURISHED ...
So Solid Crew: They Don't Know (Independiente/Relentless)****
Review by Simon Reynolds, Uncut, January 2002
Distinctive debut from UKG crew with colourful personal lives ...
The Chemical Brothers: Come With Us (Astralwerks)
Review by Simon Reynolds, Spin, February 2002
No surrender: With dance music in a funk, the Chemical Brothers return to Big Beats ...
Boards Of Canada, Takagi Masakatsu: Boards Of Canada: Geogaddi/Takagi Masakatsu: Pia
Review by Simon Reynolds, Spin, May 2002
GENREPHOBES HAVE had it easy lately. It's been a while since electronica coughed up any New Sounds of note. ...
Review by Simon Reynolds, Uncut, May 2002
Digitally remastered and enhanced with two videos per disc, the Sound Of Young Coventry before The Streets ...
Adult, Fischerspooner: The '70s are so '90's: The '80s are the thing now
Report and Interview by Simon Reynolds, The New York Times, 5 May 2002
AND NOW, the '80s. It was probably inevitable. The pop music and fashion industries depend on recycling their own history, and the retro styles of ...
Liars: They Threw Us All In A Trench And Stuck A Monument On Top
Review by Simon Reynolds, Uncut, September 2002
Sweet deceivers ...
Ms Dynamite, So Solid Crew, The Streets: The Streets: The British Can't Rap, Haven't You Heard?
Overview by Simon Reynolds, The New York Times, 20 October 2002
THE BRITISH have always had a flair for taking black American music, giving it a twist and then exporting it back, stylishly repackaged. Blues, R&B, ...
More Fire Crew: More Fire Crew C.V.
Review and Interview by Simon Reynolds, Uncut, April 2003
SOMEONE'S GOTTA COIN a snappy name for the genre represented by So Solid and the hordes of MC crews who came in their wake. UK ...
Dizzee Rascal: Street Smarts: Dizzee Rascal: Boy In Da Corner (Dirtee Stank/XL) *****
Review by Simon Reynolds, Uncut, September 2003
Eighteen-year-old London MC — and recovering victim of a recent stabbing incident in Ayia Napa — forges the freshest urban sound of 2003 ...
Arthur Russell: The World of Arthur Russell (Soul Jazz) *****
Review by Simon Reynolds, Uncut, February 2004
IT'S AN UNLIKELY STORY: avant-garde cellist sees the light in a disco glitterball at New York gay club The Gallery and decides disco is the ...
Report by Simon Reynolds, The New York Times, 23 January 2005
IN THE FIRST months of 2005, two of electronic dance music's biggest bands will release what are generally referred to as long-awaited albums. ...
Scritti Politti: The Sweetest Boy
Retrospective and Interview by Simon Reynolds, Uncut, April 2005
From the post-punk squat-crusties to pristine '80s pop-funkers, Scritti Politti underwent one of the most radical transformations in rock history. Uncut meets the band's mastermind, ...
Patti Smith: 'Even As A Child, I Felt Like An Alien'
Profile and Interview by Simon Reynolds, Observer Music Monthly, 22 May 2005
PATTI SMITH today looks as striking as the 28-year-old instant icon who defiantly out-stared the viewer from the cover of Horses. With her strong nose ...
Animal Collective, Ariel Pink: Animal Collective and Ariel Pink: Faun fables
Profile and Interview by Simon Reynolds, The Wire, July 2005
Drawing on psychedelia's childlike bliss and Techno's electronic transmutations, Animal Collective have developed a uniquely woozy soundworld, winning over audiences with their shamanistic live presence. ...
Kanye West: Street Smarts: Kanye West: Late Registration (Roc-A-Fella) ****
Review by Simon Reynolds, Uncut, August 2005
Second enthralling album from hip hop's new multi-faceted main man ...
Fire Engines: Codex Teenage Premonition
Review and Interview by Simon Reynolds, Uncut, October 2005
Unreleased treasure trove from Sound Of Young Scotland's prickly outriders. ...
Scritti Politti: Hearts and Flowers: Scritti Politti
Profile and Interview by Simon Reynolds, The Guardian, 26 May 2006
It's seven years since Green from Scritti Politti released an album – time spent boozing away in self-doubt. So what brought him back to his ...
Review by Simon Reynolds, The Observer, 18 June 2006
Dubstep has finally thrown up an album that will work in your living room. Simon Reynolds soaks up the ambience. ...
Retrospective by Simon Reynolds, Time Out, 23 October 2006
Dig out your grandad cardigans, your old-school anoraks and your infant-school plimsolls — the shambling indie scene that was C86 is back. Simon Reynolds, who ...
Jarvis Cocker: Jarvis (Rough Trade) ***
Review by Simon Reynolds, Uncut, December 2006
Everyone's favourite Britpop idol returns with uneven, ultimately transcendent solo debut ...
Young Marble Giants: Colossal Youth/Collected Works
Sleeve notes by Simon Reynolds, Domino Records, 2007
POSTPUNK AND "perfection" rarely went together. This was an era of experimental over-reach, of bands catalysed by the punk do-it-yourself principle attempting to expand the ...
Nico: From the Velvets to the void
Retrospective by Simon Reynolds, The Guardian, 16 March 2007
Nico was the original model/actor/singer. Unlike her successors she was absurdly talented, but she was also a violent racist, with an awful darkness at her ...
Arctic Monkeys: Favourite Worst Nightmare (Domino) ****
Review by Simon Reynolds, Uncut, May 2007
Whatever you think they are... They're better! The triumphant, funky return of Alex Turner's troupe ...
Joy Division: Music to Brood by, Desolate and Stark
Retrospective by Simon Reynolds, The New York Times, 7 October 2007
THE MYSTIQUE surrounding Joy Division has always been way out of proportion to its record sales. Far bigger bands, like the Clash and Pink Floyd, ...
Kevin Ayers, Robert Wyatt: Kevin Ayers and Robert Wyatt
Retrospective and Interview by Simon Reynolds, The Guardian, 24 October 2007
"I COULD HARDLY recognise him at first," says Kevin Ayers. "But there, under that great beard, was Robert and he hadn't changed a bit." The ...
Public Image Ltd: PiL: Heavy Metal
Retrospective by Simon Reynolds, Frieze, November 2007
As a new book on Public Image Ltd shows, the influence of their 1979 album Metal Box stretches far and wide ...
The Good Bad & The Queen: The Good, the Bad & The Queen: The Good, the Bad & The Queen
Comment by Simon Reynolds, Observer Music Monthly, 9 December 2007
Observer Music Monthly's album of the year 2007 IN RECENT YEARS, Damon Albarn has cut a David Byrne-like figure. With his own label that excavates worthy ...
My Bloody Valentine: "It's The Opposite Of Rock 'N' Roll"
Retrospective by Simon Reynolds, Spin, August 2008
In 1991, My Bloody Valentine released one of modern rock's most influential albums, then mysteriously imploded trying to surpass it. On the eve of their ...
How The Fanzine Refused To Die
Report and Interview by Simon Reynolds, The Guardian, 2 February 2009
Blogs are the cheapest, fastest and easiest way to get your music writing out there — but that hasn't stopped a new generation of writers picking ...
Island Records: The Secret Of Its Success
Comment by Simon Reynolds, The Guardian, 23 March 2009
The legendary label, which celebrates its 50th birthday in May, managed in its heyday to achieve that rare feat: combining commercial success with artistic integrity ...
Depeche Mode, Gary Numan, Ultravox: One Nation Under a Moog: How Britain Went Synthpop
Retrospective by Simon Reynolds, The Guardian, 10 October 2009
As new BBC4 documentary Synth Britannia shows, the synthesizer first dehumanised then re-humanised British pop, fulfilled the DIY promise of punk, and changed how bands ...
Simon Reynolds's Notes On The Noughties: Clearing Up The Indie Landfill
Comment by Simon Reynolds, The Guardian, 4 January 2010
At the start of the noughties, indie was seen as the rubbish dump of contemporary music. But by the end of the decade, it had ...
Oneohtrix Point Never: Brooklyn's Noise Scene Catches Up to Oneohtrix Point Never
Interview by Simon Reynolds, The Village Voice, 6 July 2010
DANIEL LOPATIN, the young man behind the spacey and spacious mindscapes of Oneohtrix Point Never, operates out of a cramped bedroom in Bushwick, mostly taken ...
Toro y Moi: Underneath The Pine (Carpark)
Review by Simon Reynolds, The Wire, February 2011
HAVE YOU noticed? Pop music sounds shit these days. ...
Black Eyed Peas, Taio Cruz: Never Mind The Balearics: The Ibiza-ification Of Pop
Comment by Simon Reynolds, The Guardian, 14 April 2011
From Black Eyed Peas to Taio Cruz, much recent pop looks to Ibiza for inspiration. And yet for all the hands-in-the-air moments, this music is ...
Not Not Fun label: New Age Outlaws
Profile and Interview by Simon Reynolds, The Wire, May 2011
Britt and Amanda Brown are the husband and wife team behind LA's Not Not Fun label, focal point of a networked international underground that includes ...
Björk: Is Björk the last great pop innovator?
Comment by Simon Reynolds, The Guardian, 4 July 2011
EARLIER THIS YEAR I interviewed Amanda Brown of cult band LA Vampires and was surprised when she announced that "every day I wake up and ...
The Songs of Now Sound a Lot Like Then
Comment by Simon Reynolds, The New York Times, 15 July 2011
ONCE POP MUSIC was something by which you could tell the decade, or even the year. But listening to the radio nowadays is disorienting, if ...
Comment by Simon Reynolds, The New York Times, 12 August 2011
1: 'NOW' POP WILL REPEAT ITSELF Museums, Reunions, Rock Docs, Re-enactments ...
Grimes, Laurel Halo, Maria Minerva, Stellar OM Source: Breaking Through the Synth Barrier
Report and Interview by Simon Reynolds, The New York Times, 7 October 2011
SUDDENLY IT SEEMS there are a lot more women twiddling those knobs than ever before. ...
Essay by Simon Reynolds, Pitchfork, 6 December 2011
Electronic music's evolution toward the thrilling excess of digital maximalism. ...
Greil Marcus: A Life In Writing
Profile and Interview by Simon Reynolds, The Guardian, 17 February 2012
GREIL MARCUS lives in a newly built, cedar-shingled house on the border between Oakland and Berkeley. ...
Deadmau5, Skrillex: EDM: How Rave Music Conquered America
Profile by Simon Reynolds, The Guardian, 2 August 2012
After 20 years, electronic dance music has made it big in the US. And big means big. With Las Vegas's Electric Daisy Carnival grossing $40m, ...
Ke$ha: Dancing Up a Storm but Dying to Rock
Profile and Interview by Simon Reynolds, The New York Times, 23 November 2012
LOS ANGELES – At the Third Encore rehearsal studio in North Hollywood, there's a wall decorated with photographs of clients who've prepared there for tours, ...
Laurie Spiegel: Resident Visitor: Laurie Spiegel's Machine Music
Retrospective and Interview by Simon Reynolds, Pitchfork, 6 December 2012
The experimental pioneer's groundbreaking work with computers in the '70s and '80s helped lay the foundation for many of today's electronic noise makers. ...
David Bowie: The Singer Who Fell to Earth
Retrospective and Interview by Simon Reynolds, The New York Times, 6 March 2013
ON 'THE STARS (ARE OUT TONIGHT)', the new single from David Bowie's comeback album, The Next Day, one line jumps out: "We will never be ...
Interview by Simon Reynolds, The New York Times, 19 May 2013
THOMAS BANGALTER, half of the influential French dance-music act Daft Punk, has a house high in the Hollywood Hills here. He and his musical partner, ...
Worth Their Wait: The UK Music Press in the late '70s/early '80s
Retrospective by Simon Reynolds, Pitchfork, 2 September 2014
Originally published in the first edition of our print quarterly The Pitchfork Review last winter, this story finds author Simon Reynolds looking back on his ...
Kanye West: The Life Of Pablo (GOOD Music/Def Jam)
Review by Simon Reynolds, The Wire, April 2016
The seventh album by Kanye West dismantles the traditional concept of the album while laying bare its author's inner conflicts. ...
Prince: How Prince's Androgynous Genius Changed the Way We Think About Music and Gender
Essay by Simon Reynolds, Pitchfork, 22 April 2016
His clothes, songwriting, and production prowess all played a part in breaking through any and every type of convention. ...
Drake: How Drake became the all-pervading master of hyper-reality rap
Comment by Simon Reynolds, The Guardian, 28 April 2016
The Canadian artist's success at spreading both his sound and self far and wide owes much to his desire to be everything to everybody – ...
Various Artists: Close To the Noise Floor – Formative UK Electronica 1975–1984
Review by Simon Reynolds, Pitchfork, 3 May 2016
THIS 4XCD BOX draws on electro-punk, industrial, synthpop, dark ambient, and more, including key early tracks from the Human League, Throbbing Gristle, and Orchestral Manoeuvres in ...
Alan Vega: Infinity Punk: A Career-Spanning Interview With Suicide's Alan Vega
Interview by Simon Reynolds, Pitchfork, 19 July 2016
Following the musical iconoclast's death at age 78 – an in-depth conversation from 2002 that includes tales of dangerous old New York, what it meant ...
Essay by Simon Reynolds, Pitchfork, 19 October 2016
From the Residents' freakish Beatles sendups, to Spinal Tap's meta-metal escapades, to the gastronomic goofs of "Weird Al", a chronicle of those who have turned ...
Retrospective by Simon Reynolds, Pitchfork, 1 November 2016
PIL'S SECOND ALBUM, Metal Box, is a near-perfect record that reinvents and renews rock in a manner that fulfilled post-punk's promise(s) to a degree rivalled only ...
Retrospective and Interview by Simon Reynolds, Pitchfork, 29 June 2017
Forty years after its release, the ingenious studio gurus behind the robot-funk masterpiece talk about how it came to be. ...
Morrissey, The Smiths: The Smiths: The Queen is Dead
Review by Simon Reynolds, Pitchfork, 22 October 2017
Newly reissued as a boxed set, the Smiths' 1986 masterpiece still stands as an enduring testament to England in the '80s, the complex relationship between ...
Burial: Why Burial's Untrue Is the Most Important Electronic Album of the Century So Far
Retrospective by Simon Reynolds, Pitchfork, 26 October 2017
Delving into the politics, emotion, and musical history behind the disquieting masterwork a decade after its release. ...
Essay by Simon Reynolds, Pitchfork, 3 April 2018
Unlocking the mysteries behind the Scottish electronic duo's hallucinatory classic, which turns 20 this month ...
Essay by Simon Reynolds, Pitchfork, 17 September 2018
An in-depth history of the most important pop innovation of the last 20 years, from Cher's 'Believe' to Kanye West to Migos ...
Iggy Pop, The Stooges: Between Fun House & 'Funtime': Iggy Pop in the '70s
Retrospective by Simon Reynolds, TIDAL, 7 July 2020
Brilliantly out of step, the rock provocateur architected revolutionary sounds with the Stooges and Bowie. ...
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