Music / 20/07/2021 What does the cancelling of festivals mean for the future of live music?

2020 brought hardship to all live music venues. Music festivals however, were particularly hard hit, with all scheduled events last year having to be cancelled. Despite promises that festivals would be able to see their stages filled by summer 2021, many organisations feel they have, once again, been left in the dark. Recent cancellations by...

Music / 20/07/2021 How important are lyrics in music?

An interesting question, and one I’m sure many have an immediate answer for.  Are lyrics more important in certain genres rather than others? Do they improve the song? Or are they always necessary?  It’s difficult to know where to begin but I’d argue lyrics have a high degree of importance in music.  Initially, melody is...

Music / 20/07/2021 Muse – Origin of Symmetry Turns Twenty

Earlier in June, Muse’s sophomore album Origin of Symmetry celebrated its twentieth anniversary. This marked twenty years of the futuristic, dystopian project which has not only become a trade mark in Muse’s discography but also cemented itself as a classic in the hard rock genre.  To begin to understand this album, it is important to...

Music / 09/06/2021 Squid bring incredible energy to The Halls with help from Bath Days

Squid are easily one of the most exciting bands in the UK – probably the world – so the chance to see them in such an intimate setting as The Halls is one that has to be leapt on. To make things even more interesting, their performance was for their Fieldworks Tour, a tour in...

Music / 04/06/2021 ALBUM REVIEW: Casino Rockets – Reality Distortion Field

Reality Distortion Field is the debut album from Halifax four-piece Casino Rockets, and it’s been a long time coming. The first single for the album, ‘Black & Red’, was released back in 2018, and since then the band spent a huge amount of time refining each track alongside their day jobs, not to mention the...

Music / 04/06/2021 ALBUM REVIEW: Wolf Alice – Blue Weekend

Wolf Alice’s Blue Weekend isa tightly packed and exquisitely produced album which takes the best of their previous works while managing to create its own identity. The instrumental arrangements are refined and contained, while Ellie Rowsell’s vocals and lyricism are at an all-time high. The album opens with ‘The Beach’, a beautiful arrangement of acoustic...

Music

What do you miss most about live music?
Photo: Unsplash
Music

What do you miss most about live music?

For this issue, we asked three of Venue’s writers what they miss most about live music. Enjoy! There’s nothing that can make you feel more alive than the incredible atmosphere of live music. Of course, there’s the building excitement as you queue outside the venue, waiting to buy a t-shirt of your favourite band’s logo….

SINGLE REVIEW: Within The Outer
Photo: Pixabay
Music

SINGLE REVIEW: Within The Outer

Billy George, lead vocalist and guitarist for the Norwich-based band Sleemo, has recently started a solo project under the name One Man’s Stop Sign. With three singles out so far, One Man’s Stop Sign is also set to release an EP very soon. Here is a quick look at the most recent of the three…

ALBUM REVIEW: Black Honey– Written & Directed
Photo: Unsplash
Music

ALBUM REVIEW: Black Honey– Written & Directed

Written & Directed, Black Honey’s sophomore album, saturates the cinematic tone established in their acclaimed self-titled debut. The suggestive name and cover foreshadow the album’s glamour-and-gore sonic landscape and match the Tarantino-esque music videos Black Honey adore (death, discos and POV shots) – the opening track even references Django Unchained. Throughout the album Black Honey…

The importance of “WAP,” Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion’s unapologetic masterpiece
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
Music

The importance of “WAP,” Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion’s unapologetic masterpiece

Conservative white men certainly needed a bucket and a mop to wipe up their sweat marks as Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion’s “WAP” discomforted and infuriated them last summer. Here came everything they feared: sexually liberated Black women shamelessly voicing their desires, making plentiful use of expletives and reclaimed racial language. Against all odds,…

‘Music makes me present’: Kitty Fitz talks about dissociation, girl gangs, and the positives of quarantine
Photo: Alfredo Guzman
Music

‘Music makes me present’: Kitty Fitz talks about dissociation, girl gangs, and the positives of quarantine

Kitty Fitz is an alternative pop musician based in South East London, currently on her third release. Her Spotify biography describes her as a ‘self-confessed liability’. Kitty’s music blends electronic synth and electric guitar. The production, often done by Kitty herself, is layered with dreamy vocals and poetic lyricism about love, mental health, and loneliness….

SOPHIE: The legacy of the pop pioneer
Photo: Pixabay
Music

SOPHIE: The legacy of the pop pioneer

On the 30th of January, the world lit up in tributes for the pop producer known mononymously as SOPHIE, who died after a tragic fall from a balcony while staying up to watch the full moon in Athens.  The artist is hailed as a visionary in pop music, famously playing an intrinsic role in the…

ALBUM REVIEW: slowthai – TYRON
slowthai at Glastonbury 2019, photo: Edwardx, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Music, Venue

ALBUM REVIEW: slowthai – TYRON

It’s hard to believe that it’s only been a year since slowthai’s meltdown at the 2020 NME awards. If you don’t know, the rapper drunkenly harassed host Katherine Ryan, launched a champagne glass at an audience member and was escorted out of the venue, making the ‘Hero of the Year’ award that NME gave him…


1 2 3 4 5 … 91
Calendar
July 2021
M T W T F S S
 1234
567891011
12131415161718
19202122232425
262728293031  
Latest Comments
About Us

The University of East Anglia’s official student newspaper. Concrete is in print and online.

If you would like to get in touch, email the Editor on Concrete.Editor@uea.ac.uk. Follow us at @ConcreteUEA.

Searching