Look back in anger - The Guardian, July 23, 2005

Justin Quirk wishes bands took a broader view of the past

Excerpt:

The bands just copying the past are particularly pointless because they way that they do it is so one-dimensional. Nostalgia doesn't just mean aping the past, but refers to a yearning for your home - ie one that you actually remember, rather than some strange idea you have of a time before you were born. It also has nothing to do with a quasi-nationalistic, idealised history. The few songwriters who get it right have grasped that your memories of a time and place are as bound up with the bad as the good, and that looking back is not necessarily a happy experience. This ambiguity was captured perfectly on odd occasions by Ray Davies (on Dead End Street, for example), Willy Mason's Live It Up and by much of Morrissey's output until he declined into being a passable Morrissey tribute act. Since his decline, the spirit of old England has been most consistently evoked by Luke Haines.

related:

Cool for copy cats - The Guardian, July 22, 2005

Dave Simpson on why now is such a fertile time for the 'surrogate band'