David Emery Online
Sue me by Audrey Hobert
It’s always embarrassing when you discover a new artist, really like the music, think you’re onto something fresh, then discover that they’re already in the top 40 charts in both the UK and US.
But hey, there’s no prizes for being an artist’s only fan.
For fans of Taylor Swift and total bangers.
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Easy Street by Queens of the Stone Age
Josh Homme is taller than you might think. Sure, he has a reputation for being a big guy, but somehow in person he manages to be greater than his actual height. It’s as though the rest of the world has been shrunk around him. I met him a handful of times several lifetimes ago when Queens of the Stone Age put out their first record on Matador, and his presence in a room was never anything less than significant.
Even in the presence of other luminaries he somehow always managed to steal the spotlight. I was once having a conversation with Josh in the hallways of Later… with Jools Holland, when Jimmy Page strode over and joined us. Whilst I was midway through having an out of body experience — a common occurrence if you knock around the music industry for as long as I have — I noticed that as other people filed past us, no one was paying attention to Jimmy. All eyes were on Josh.
Josh Homme isn’t just tall, though. He has range.
This new Queens track — still on Matador — is quite unlike almost everything in their back catalogue that proceeds it. It’s not heavy, but it is quite beautiful. I’ll be honest, it’s been quite a while since I’ve been excited by a new Queens record, but it’s a nice feeling to revisit.
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the cure by Olivia Rodrigo
Confusingly not about The Cure, even though Olivia Rodrigo has history with the lovable lipstick goths. I once traded emails with Robert Smith when working on a compilation of Paul McCartney covers which he was a part of, and unlike all of the other artists who both a) had managers to deal with the multitude of tedious questions I needed answered for b) clearly didn’t care one jot about the project, Robert was utterly friendly and gracious throughout. Olivia brought out Robert to do ‘Just Like Heaven’ and ‘Friday I’m In Love’ at Glastonbury, and it was a highlight in a set full of highlights.
Her new album is shaping up very nicely, and this second track sounds a bit like Everlong by Foo Fighters, which is not a bad thing to take a melody or two from, is it?
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Heart Has To Work So Hard by Blondshell
My experience so far with Blondshell is one of slow and gradual appreciation — both 2023’s self-titled debut and last year’s ‘If You Asked For A Picture’ ended up being played on repeat.
I wasn’t expecting a new album so soon — one is apparently coming later this year — but this first taste picks up right where the last record left off.
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Terms of Estrangement by Maya Hawke
I am unsure which is a bigger obstacle to overcome in the quest for music credibility; having famous parents, or being a breakout actor. And yet Maya Hawke has both, and seems utterly unperturbed by the whole deal.
She’s being making great lo-fi singer songwriter stuff for a while now, but this new album is a step up, and ‘Terms of Estrangement’ is my favourite so far (although both ‘Devil You Know’ and ‘Bring Home My Man’ run it close).
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Frame of preference
Turns out, the Mac settings have lived a far more fascinating life than I imagined, have been redesigned many times, and can tell us a lot about the early history and the troubled upbringing of this interesting machine.
Join me on a journey through the first twenty years of Mac’s control panels.
This would be a wonderful trip down memory lane just by itself — and I say this as someone who remembers well everything from about 1991 onwards, which is far too long a go to consider.
But! You realise after a moment that the computer screens throughout aren’t static images, they’re fully working emulators of the damn Macs. The whole thing, Finder, ancient versions of iTunes, Control Strip — history in a bottle, through the narrative of system settings.
Sometimes I struggle a little with everything that the internet has become, but then every once in a while something like this comes along, a piece of art that could only be born on the web, like a pearl in a river of sludge. It’s not all bad.
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