Ah, Christmas: the season of travel disruptions, disappointing presents and violent stomach cramp. Not to mention being bombarded by the same bloody songs over and over again. If you’ve ever quietly gritted your teeth in murderous rage at Noddy Holder screeching “It’s CHRIIIIIIISTMAAAAS” for the 50th time in a week, we feel your pain. To provide a soothing remedy for what ails you, we’ve made a playlist of ten weird and wonderful seasonal
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All 25 Oasis singles, ranked from worst to best.
2015 has been our first year of operation under our new name The Student Playlist, and it’s been a year of steady expansion. There are now five of us, with a view to adding yet more talented, passionate writers in the new year as we continue in our quest to point out the best new music, rediscover old albums, both stone-cold classics and hidden treasures, and cause lively debate with
by Ed Biggs A Head Full Of Dreams arrives a mere 18 months after Coldplay’s last effort, no time at all in the grand scheme of major label acts’ recording, release and touring schedules. Posited as the yang to Ghost Stories’ yin, the bright, optimistic dawn of a new day following the dark night of the soul of its heartbroken predecessor, it’s also rumoured to be the band’s final album,
by Ed Biggs 1965 proved to be the making of The Beatles as a long-term artistic force. In an era where careers could be over within months, never mind years, the band had enjoyed a dazzling run of creativity and bagged a shedload of hit singles in the first three years of their career, but by 1965 were at risk of being outflanked by newcomers. The Who and The Rolling Stones
by Matthew Langham Released way back in September, Julia Holter’s fourth studio album has been merited as one of the most significant albums of 2015. While the L.A. musician may not have received much commercial attention from her three previous records, Holter is an artist who is continually shapeshifting through different soundscapes. Have You In My Wilderness sees Holter take on a seasonal soundscape; highlighting the light and dark between autumn
by Ed Biggs Transforming from awkward underdogs to the biggest indie band in the country in the space of just two years, Happy Mondays’ third LP Pills ‘n’ Thrills and Bellyaches encapsulates the short-lived media obsession with ‘Madchester’ at the start of the ‘90s more than any other album. While it brought the shenanigans of their colourful lead singer Shaun Ryder and maracas player / backup dancer / lucky mascot Bez
by Ed Biggs Venezuelan-born production wizkid Alejandro Ghersi dropped Xen, his much-hyped studio album as Arca, at almost exactly this point last year, and it was obvious immediately why the likes of Kanye West, Björk and FKA twigs had approached him to harness the fluid, futuristic post-R&B sound that has become his trademark. Here was somebody painting a startling, imaginative way forward for electronic music at a prodigiously young age, able
by Ed Biggs Please, please, please can we let Kurt Cobain rest in peace now? Surely, everything that could possibly be seen, heard, bought and pored over has been exhumed, so can we now get back to admiring a fine body of work without adding increasingly watered-down material to it? Okay? Brett Morgen’s documentary movie Montage Of Heck, released in April, was an unqualified success and one that really should have
by Ed Biggs Roughly a decade ago, when the internet started producing stars, everybody thought that the revolution would lead to artists bypassing the normal music industry model of finding success. Artists would attract fans to their own platforms, therefore making the A&R departments of the labels redundant. However, after a brief flurry in 2006 of artists of artists of who have lasted (Arctic Monkeys) and many others who haven’t (Sandi
