John Shand Posts

April 11, 2018 / Album Reviews - Archive

BLOOD & BONE (joannawallfisch.com) 7/10 Joanna Wallfisch often puts a gloss upon her songs: a shiny surface on which the listener my safely glide over the lyrics’ emotional barbs and snags. The result is that much of her (admittedly uneven) work could easily be dismissed as merely pleasant, when in…

April 9, 2018 / Concert Reviews - Archive

Concert Hall, March 28 7/10 Youssou Ndour promised a party and most members of the audience would probably say he delivered. It’s just that aiming for a party may have been to set the bar too low when another level was possible: a plane on which exuberance and joy sometimes…

April 6, 2018 / Album Reviews - Archive

BOTH SIDES OF THE SKY (Legacy) 9/10 Jimi Hendrix snuck up on the blues from behind, popped a hallucinogen in its mouth, clamped shut its jaws and waited for the gulp. Where his contemporaries Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck (all born within 28 months of each other) aspired to some…