Authors: Dean O Hillis
“The Love Gets Higher …” Erasure’s “The Violet Flame” Reviewed
I take it as a positive portent that the day I received the new Erasure album promo to review, I was on an obsessive cycle of listening to its first single, the anthemic “Elevation.” … read more
For Whom The (Violet) Bell Tolls: In Conversation with Erasure’s...
With Erasure presently on an increasingly sold-out international tour, I had the humbling pleasure of speaking to Bell before their highly anticipated return to the Capitol Theatre on Wednesday, Oct. 29. … read more
Rapture and Fascination: Erasure @ Capitol Theatre 10.29
Bell truly sounds magnificent and it is something watching him perform in person. One of our generation’s best blue-eyed soul singers, his technical voice is a marvel. Taking another unexpected curve, Clarke starts up the dark engines of Tomorrow’s World’s bitchy “I Lose Myself,” and Bell looks like he’s having a blast singing it. … read more
A Melody – A Chord – A Lyric: A Conversation...
When I think of the music of Suzanne Vega, my brain conjures up vivid images of characters, time both past and present, destinations traveled, dreams dreamt and sometimes, those yet to be experienced. … read more
Review: Tori Amos – Little Earthquakes & Under The Pink...
I must be a record company marketer’s wet dream: I always buy into the concept of the remaster and, more often than not, the “deluxe” part—which is usually b-sides or remixes that had previously only been released on vinyl, and sometimes previously unreleased material. … read more
Sarah Cracknell: Flying Kites in Sylvan Skies
Sarah Cracknell, the glamorous chanteuse of the iconic British indie band Saint Etienne, has always possessed one of pop’s most incandescent and shimmering voices, capable of eliciting euphoria against a synth-driven beat; heartbreak over a strummed guitar; melancholia and longing over the varied electronic and stripped down sounds the band—now in its astounding 25th year—has experimented with over the years; but, above all else, a simple charm. … read more