reinvention

Elbow have subtly reinvented themselves so many times that they’re now journeying far from their rocky guitar roots. Their 10th album features bubbling synths, playful orchestrations, African-inspired rhythms and what vocalist Guy Garvey has called “seedy, gnarly grooves”. The particularly innovative Lovers’ Leap races through samba-style percussion, darting strings and a rolling bass line, before an electronic glam stomp leads into a gorgeously Beatles-y coda. The lyrics, meanwhile, are a darkly humorous rumination on…

Jane Weaver turns up to our interview in a Stockport restaurant carrying a plastic bag stuffed with albums. They are all old, the worse for wear – she’s taking them to be professionally cleaned later – and obscure: the closest the bag’s contents comes to mainstream is a compilation of soundtrack music from the 80s films of nouvelle vague director Eric Rohmer. “The music from the scenes set in discos or parties,” she nods. “Really good. Eighties, French, synthesisers. Some of it sounds a bit like Air.”This all seems very…

E3, what was once the biggest video game expo, is officially dead. The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) confirmed the news on Twitter, thanking the fans and developers who attended and supported the in-person show for over two decades. Its closure was only a matter of time, slyly signalled in March, when the 2023 edition got cancelled due to a lack of interest from several publishers including the big three — PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo — all of which pulled out. Add to that pandemic-era disruption which…

The increasingly rotten trend of turning classic Disney animations into wretched live-action, or photorealistic, remakes looks set to reach its nadir with next month’s release of The Little Mermaid, already a viral nightmare for its horrifying confirmation that adding lips to both a crab and a fish is indeed a crime against humanity. Its looming ugliness does at least help to make this month’s far more hushed release of the inoffensively fine Peter Pan & Wendy seem dreamy in comparison.It almost seems foolish at this…

via 20th Century Fox It’s remarkable that the Predator franchise remains as popular as it does when you consider just how many stops, starts, sequels, prequels, reboots, refreshes, reinventions, and crossovers the sci-fi saga has been through since John McTiernan and Arnold Schwarzenegger conspired to deliver an all-time action classic more than 35 years ago. The drastically underrated Predator 2 is the only direct continuation of the bunch, with 20th Century Fox then spending decades throwing everything at the…

Kevin Williamson has expressed glowing praise for the upcoming Scream VI, with him remarking that it doesn’t feel like a sixth film in a twenty-seven year-old franchise. Scream is very much the thinking man’s horror franchise. Knowingly meta with it serving as a reaction to twenty years of slashers coming before it, Scream has somehow managed to survive as one continuous canon. Since 1996’s Scream there have been four sequels, with a fifth on its way – albeit without series staple Neve…

via EON Productions If there was any iteration of James Bond who didn’t stick around for long enough to truly put their stamp on the character and cement an everlasting legacy, it was Timothy Dalton. The actor only had two appearances as 007, and while that was more than enough to secure the “most underrated” tag for eternity, the world may not have been ready for The Living Daylights. The end of the Roger Moore era had descended into high camp farce territory, and with the creaking star finally hanging up the…

CEO of Starbucks Howard Schultz in New York City.Steven Ferdman | Getty ImagesStarbucks is expected to unveil a reinvention plan Tuesday as the coffee giant grapples with changing consumer behavior, outdated store designs and a union push in the U.S.The strategy is the brainchild of outgoing interim CEO Howard Schultz, who returned to the top job in the spring after Kevin Johnson's retirement. Schultz will cede the reins to incoming CEO Laxman Narasimhan in April but will stick around to help implement the plan.Starbucks…

Starbucks Chief Operating Officer John Culver is departing the company after two decades with the coffee chain, as part of a restructuring that will eliminate his role.His exit comes in the middle of a broader executive reshuffling at Starbucks. Former CEO Kevin Johnson retired earlier this year, leading Howard Schultz to return to the helm of the company as interim chief executive until long-term successor is named.Effective Oct. 3, Culver will step down from his current role and become an executive advisor until he…

There’s a limited idea that Olivia Newton-John’s career, whether in cinema or pop, ran solely from “virginal girl-next-door” to “spandex-clad vixen”, as one rather snotty obituary put it. While that transformation may apply to her most famous role as Sandy in the musical Grease, it does a disservice to how ably – and convincingly – the chameleonic British-Australian musician shape-shifted between genres and rode the changing moods of pop to become one of the biggest hit-makers of her era and an enduring cult…