Hi! Thanks for visiting Unreality Music! If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed for regular updates.

It’s been a week of reunions and reunion rumours, but one story seems to be a dead cert - the return of the Spice Girls. Apparently the formerly fab five have done the press conference thing and launched a new era of darkness upon an unsuspecting world.

OK, maybe that was a bit melodramatic. But seriously, does the world need a Spice Girls reunion? Can the ‘girls’ carry off a reunion and bring back those heady Girl Power days? Let’s look at the line-up:

Read more & comment »

This is the new homepage of the Carnival of Music. In case you’re wondering, it’s a blog carnival that pulls together interesting posts on music from around the web.

Since we’re new to blog carnivals, the topic is wide open for anyone to submit to. Here’s some suggestions of possible posts for the carnival:

• Singles and album reviews
• Opinion pieces about popular artists
• Posts highlighting great unsigned artists
• Gig reviews

Upcoming Carnivals

Current Carnival: I’ve set the deadline for submissions for Thursday 5th July. The carnival will be posted the following day. Submissions can be made through the Blog Carnivals Submission Form. The carnival will be posted here.

Promoting The Carnival

I’m hoping that the Carnival of Music will help to raise the profiles of other music bloggers (myself included!) and to highlight great writing. So, while it’s not a requirement, I’d be much obliged if participants in the carnival link back to this page or the individual carnival page they’re featured on.

Also, get out there and comment on some of the featured blogs!

Thanks for participating!

Gerard

Following on from the news of the potential Zep reunion yesterday, we’ve heard that The Verve have reunited and have just finished recording sessions for a new album. It’s like the 90’s are back, man…..

I’ll admit to being a bandwagon hopper and knowing The Verve mostly through Urban Hymns. I had high expectations for Richard Ashcroft’s solo work after they split, but unfortunately he never enjoyed the same level of solo success.

Read more & comment »

Julian Carax is an intriguing character. There’s very little information about him on his MySpace page or anywhere else for that matter.What I can tell you is that Julian is currently resident in Paris (yes, the one in France) but he’s headed for Canada at some point in the future. He’s also a rather talented musician. Like many of the other artists I find via MySpace/Virb/etc, Julian plays most of the instruments on his EP, Turnpike.

Read more & comment »

OK. Sit down. Breathe. According to the rumours, Led Zeppelin have agreed to reform, possibly for a tour. This year.

According to the Mojo blog, they “have spent the last few weeks in dialogue about reforming the band and have rehearsed with drummer Jason Bonham“. Jason is the de facto stand-in for his father John, the original Led Zeppelin rhythm machine.

Read more & comment »

Scary man haters rejoice! Kelly Clarkson’s new single Never Again is designed to terrify men everywhere. Just what has she got against blokes?

Yes, possessed by the ghost of Alanis herself, Kelly launches another anti-male missile. Yes, very much in the same vein as You Oughta Know, as the opening line will attest:

I hope the ring you gave to her turns her finger green
I hope when you’re in bed with her, you think of me

Read more & comment »

It’s hard to believe Snoop’s been on the scene for so long. Somehow he manages to stay ahead of trends and he makes it look effortless.

He doesn’t seem to release too much of his own music these days, preferring to do little cameos here and there. But when I decided to review Drop It Like It’s Hot, I assumed that it was more recent than 2004. It’s had a bit of a renaissance recently on our music channels, so naturally I assumed it was a re-release.

Anyway, in the style of great hip-hop tracks, Snoop teamed up with Pharell Williams for this one. Pharell, at the time being hot property (pardon the pun). The tune is deliberately light on instrumentation, relying on a sparse beat from a drum machine and a little bit of synth. Oh, and an innovative backing of tongue clicks. I’m not joking - listen to the track.

Snoop ..er… drops it in his laid back, distinctive drawl, while Pharell is slightly surplus to requirements. The lyrics aren’t much out of the ordinary, but sometimes with hip-hop it’s more about the beats than getting Shakespearian quality couplets, isn’t it? That’s the strength of the track - simple beats, clever use of synth and no-brainer repetitive lyrics that get wedged in your head.

Carlton has never gained much exposure in the UK outside of her one hit single, A Thousand Miles. That was a classic track, wasn’t it?

Fast forward a couple of years and Vanessa hit hard times. A lack of label support for her second album Harmonium led to poor sales and a change of record label. She returns this year with a new label, new album Heroes And Thieves and a new single in Nolita Fairytale.

Read more & comment »

Wow. Good to see Sum 41 back on the scene with their new single Underclass Hero. I caught the video on YouTube earlier and the first thing I noticed was Dave Baksh was missing.

Despite being down a founder member, Sum 41 are sounding as fresh and energetic as ever. The only hint that they’re recording veterans with five albums to their name is in the sophistication of the songwriting. Underclass Hero is classic anti-establishment punk: fiery, explosive and very loud.

Read more & comment »

While I’ve never particularly thought of Ash as rock trailblazers, there’s an interesting post on Mojo Blog about their decision to stop releasing traditional format albums.

“Marketing music in the traditional sense is becoming increasingly less financially viable,” say Ash, “It is now time to fully embrace the digital future of the music industry”. They claim their current album, Twilight Of The Innocents, will be the last of the old school – though they admit they envisage releasing ‘compilations’ of net-released tracks on the CD format.

Despite the fact that “fully embrace the digital future” sounds like a load of old toss, Wheeler and the lads have a point. I’d only buy an album these days if it was a classic. Or perhaps if somebody sent me a freebie.

Read more & comment »