Tracks of the month – The art of protest…
The first two albums I have reviewed this month look at America from completely different musical and political perspectives.
US presidential elections – the street art wars
One of the most endearing images of the 2008 US presidential election was the poster of Obama with the word “hope”, “change” or “progress” below. They were created by the street artist Shepard Fairey. Over 300,000 posters were produced during the presidential campaign.
Tracks of the month: Serge Gainsbourg – an unlikely revolutionary
You know there is a drought of good music when swathes of the music press tell you Marks to Prove It, by the Maccabees, is the album of the summer. So in the never-ending search for new and exciting music, I have spent the last month buying reissues and crate digging.
Tracks of the month, June 2015: The ghosts of Ferguson haunt US music
The protest song is back and its return can be dated precisely to 9 August 2014. On that day a police officer shot and murdered an 18 year old black man, Michael Brown. Since then, we have seen a number of artists produce songs of rage, lament and protest.
Nobody like Nina Simone
There has been nobody like Nina Simone. But too few realise today what a towering artistic figure she was in her lifetime and what an inspiration she can still be.