lily allen – Spinning Platters

Show Review: Lily Allen with The Dallas Minor Trio at The Masonic, 4/28/26

All Photos (except one very obvious one) by Christina Bryson (@averagecowgirl)

Lily Allen performed for 3,300 guests at the Masonic in San Francisco on May 30, 2026. She had just released one of the most impeccable albums of last year, West End Girl, an epic 44-minute tale of an unraveling psyche inside a high-functioning celebrity marriage marked by serial cheating and gaslighting. The record unveils the person underneath, rebuilding, stripping down, and rewiring. The sound is encased in spans of poised pop, reggaeton, vocoder-soaked torch moments, and EDM. The album’s trajectory feels as tender and surprising as it must have felt to write it, and somewhere in the middle, you find yourself piecing together the affair partners as the only clues to what really happened, until they begin to feel like your counselor. It moves through every stage of grief and lands, finally, in acceptance by the time you reach the last track, “Fruity Loop.” Continue reading “Show Review: Lily Allen with The Dallas Minor Trio at The Masonic, 4/28/26”

Spinning Platters’ Top 15 Records of 2025

I don’t know if it’s because we procrastinate or because we’re simply very thorough, but the editorial team at Spinning Platters has FINALLY settled on our Top 15 albums of 2025. There’s a little something for everyone, including some metal, punk, hardcore, Spanish-language avant-pop, and a whole lot of scorned women on this list, which is my favorite music genre anyways.

Without further ado, here’s the list: Continue reading “Spinning Platters’ Top 15 Records of 2025”

Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts: 10/3/14-10/8/14

Yes, Hardly Strictly Bluegrass is this week. It’s an amazing line up as usual. It’s free, so everyone is there. However, there is more than enough great music happening this week. Enjoy the shows!

Continue reading “Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts: 10/3/14-10/8/14”

From Beck to The Boss, here are 70+ albums to look forward to in 2014

If there was one thing the contributing writers, and staff, of Spinning Platters agreed on during our annual gathering to determine the best albums of the year, it was that 2013 was a bit underwhelming for music. The silver lining in what was mostly a mundane, forgettable time for music was that a lot of women broke through and achieved some well-deserved recognition. Daft Punk and Deltron 3030 returned after a near-decade hiatus and did not disappoint. Still, the fact that Miley’s antics garnered any attention, whatsoever, and were even considered “interesting” didn’t exactly bode well for collective musical output.

It’s time to move forward and hope for a better turnout these next 350-plus days (some of us are still recovering/getting acclimated, thank you). If you’ve noticed a pattern in titles such as “50 must-hear albums coming your way in 2014,” with an emphasis on the staggering figure, from other publications, it’s because, well, there are already that many hotly-anticipated releases to look forward to in the coming year. Of course, there are more to be found here because we’re delightfully (right?) exhaustive (in case you haven’t noticed our other, alternative best-of-2013 round-ups).

This list offers an alternate variation on what has already been published by the likes of SPIN and Consequence of Sound; but if there’s one thing we can all agree on, we’re stoked for the return of Beck. Not included: soundtracks, EPs, reissues, and live recordings. Special thanks goes out to Pause & Play, a wonderful, consistently updated resource for new album releases on the horizon. Without further ado, here are the anticipated links – some with videos, links to singles, and even full album streams. Enjoy.

Continue reading “From Beck to The Boss, here are 70+ albums to look forward to in 2014”