The intensity and freshness of The Church’s 2017 album ‘Man Woman Life Death Infinity’ proved that the Australian band is in no way stuck in the past. But they have also been happy to celebrate their musical history, with such projects as their current US tour celebrating the 30th anniversary of their breakout album “Starfish.”
With his new solo album, “Science Fiction,” former Thompson Twins member Tom Bailey has made a welcome return to pop music. After Thompson Twins ended in the early 1990s, Bailey remained active with such projects as Babble and International Observer, but his music had shifted into more experimental and varied directions. But after starting to perform Thompson Twins material live again, he founds his love for pop music re-ignited.
ZANTi is a new project from Anni Hogan and Derek Forbes. Hogan is known for her solo career work and collaborations with Marc Almond, Nick Cave, Barry Adamson & Wolfgang Flur, among others. Forbes was a long-time member of Simple Minds and has also been part of bands such as Propaganda and Big Country. After 18 months of work, they completed their cinematically inspired eight-song debut album “Broken Hearted City.”
Midge Ure is no stranger to radically re-working music from his past. On his 2015 “Fragile Troubadour” tour, he proved that even such Ultravox classics as “Vienna” and “Reap the Wild Wind” could maintain their power when stripped down to just guitar and voice. On his new album, “Orchestrated,” Ure goes to the other extreme, re-imaging solo and Ultravox material with the accompaniment of an orchestra.
Dave Wakeling has been touring as The English Beat for many years, but until now had not released any new material. But the recently released “Here We Go Love,” is well worth the wait. The album captures the essence of classic English Beat without trying to recreate the past.
Best known for his new wave synth pop hit “Cars,” Gary Numan’s greatest success in decades was his 2013 “Splinter (Songs from a Broken Mind)” album. Having felt pressure to follow it up, it was actually Donald Trump that provided the creative spark behind his new “Savage (Songs from a Broken World).”
While Jay Aston’s Gene Loves Jezebel have regularly regrouped to perform together, “Dance Underwater” is their first new album in 14 years.
Long before laptop-based live music became a possibility, Howard Jones was lugging a much larger arsenal of gear on stage for his pioneering ‘one man band’ performances. Jones has evolved with the technology, and now live performance is as important as ever.
After her time with legendary 80’s synth-pop duo Yazoo, Allison Moyet embarked on a highly acclaimed and varied solo career. She returned to fully embracing electronic music with her 2013 album “The Minutes,” and continues in that direction with her new release, “Other.”
Having worked together in Bauhaus, Tones on Tail and Love & Rockets, Daniel Ash and Kevin Haskins are now going on the road to perform material from all those bands. In the case of Tones on Tail, it is music that hasn’t been played live since 1983.