Yes is a song in which the lead vocal becomes almost one with the orchestral accompaniment. On this occasion it's the extraordinary sound of David McAlmont, former Thieves lead singer but heard here during his...

Tranquilizer is a song that is given life by its string arrangement: it's a classic example of raising the chorus with strings. Sometimes this can come off a bit clichéd, but here they are a...

The Verve were the Britpop kings of strings, and History was just the first in a long line of string-laden hits that the band would achieve in between their various breakups. By the time of...

The string section has always been with us, and long may it stay. This month I want to explore the full range of stringed beauty: songs with strings; songs with things that sound like strings...

In addition to streaming their latest album on iTunes this week, Real Estate gave fans another chance to experience Atlas before its release next week, playing the album in full for NPR’s first listen live....

Wake Up Boo! wasn’t the only, or indeed first, Boo Radleys song to find the band giving themselves a name-check. In 1992 they put their name to a whole EP, which I found pretty funny...

Consider this a shoegazing playlist bonus: a London band bringing to life the glorious moment when Swervedriver, Dinosaur Jr, My Bloody Valentine, Teenage Fanclub went on a massive pub crawl together and wound up agreeing...

And so the progression from rough and ready fuzzy shoegazing to all-out summer pop is complete for The Pains of Being Pure at Heart. This is about a handclap away from the twee shelf, but...

It’s back solo work for Gruff Rhys, he of Neon Neon and Super Furry Animals. American Interior sees him in pursuit of alleged ancestor John Evans, on a trail of discovery through America.

School of Language is the solo offshoot of Field Music’s David Brewis. Like Field Music, and like The Week That Was (the solo project of his brother and fellow Field Music musician, Peter), School of...

Naive Dream is in the familiar breezy Mary Onettes electro/synth-pop style, albeit not quite as overtly 80s-nostalgia-inducing as much of their earlier work, but some ghostly guitar effects and a tiny pitch wobble add a...

This is psychedelic trippy shoegazing at its finest. Can I coin the term disco-gaze? Glitter-gaze? Whatever, it would have given Saturday Night Fever an altogether different vibe, I know that much. Listening, I wish it...

It’s a curious sensation, reviewing an album I know so well. Normally I find I have to listen about a dozen times to make sure I’ve caught the hooks I want to catch, and heard...

I haven’t seen The Lego Film yet but from the tone of the clips I’ve heard, and from this, I’m already expecting great, wonderful things.

That secret Oasis announcement teased on Facebook yesterday? No, not a reunion, but a reissue of Definitely Maybe to celebrate its 20th anniversary. The new version will be remastered, and available in as many formats...

Taken from the 2013 album Stars Are Our Home, (I Don't Mean To) Wonder is a rousing slice of buzzing, percussive shoegazing - a sort of Jesus & Mary Chain meets everyone who's got reverb....

Even if The Sound of Beating Wings doesn't quite sound shoegazey, it certainly feels shoegazey: it goes loud, it goes quiet; it takes its time to unfold; a beautiful melody rides on the top, bass...

Listening to the new single from Ski Lodge for the first time, I didn't immediately think of The Smiths; the connections just sort of crept up on me, leaving me no choice but to accept...

Is it just me, or does the guitar melody to Summerdreamer slip in and out of 'High' by The Cure at one point?

I’ll make this easy for you: Annie Clark’s fourth solo album recording as St. Vincent has received almost universally good reviews; I’m not about to buck the trend. St. Vincent is her best work yet;...