Insider Monthly #4: Birthday Edition
It’s No Ripcord’s 27th birthday! In a special edition of Insider Monthly, we reflect on what that means, discuss April’s highs and lows, and talk Beck, Whipping Boy, and Into Paradise.
Hello everyone!
Welcome to April’s Insider Monthly—our supporters-only newsletter where we step behind the No Ripcord curtain and talk honestly about what we’ve been listening to, arguing about, and thinking through each month.
🎧 Our favourite album of the month
💔 Our biggest disappointment
🔜 The album we’re most excited for next
💿 A classic record we can’t stop playing
📝 Plus some personal notes and behind-the-scenes reflections from running the site
The opening section is free to read — supporters receive the full edition each month.
So, if you enjoy this preview, please consider becoming a supporter for just $20 per year. Your support helps keep No Ripcord independent, ad-free, and fiercely opinionated—your home of honest music criticism.
📝 Behind The Scenes
April is always a special month for us, because our birthday falls on 26 April. This year, we’ll be celebrating 27 years of music criticism, which feels like a remarkably long time. We’ll resist the urge to inflict a grandiose memoir on you, but it feels important to celebrate and reflect on these milestones when they come around, because just being here—writing regularly about music, without adverts or a paywall—feels like an achievement, especially when you consider how many of our contemporaries have fallen by the wayside.
Incidentally, I was just listening to Churchtown by the underrated/overlooked Irish band Into Paradise, which was produced by Adrian Borland of post-punk pioneers The Sound. Reading about the record, I realised that Borland died by suicide on the very same day that No Ripcord launched—26 April 1999. I don’t think I’d even heard of The Sound at the time, but learning this served as a reminder of the many artists we’ve said goodbye to over the last 27 years, including several we’ve interviewed or seen live in our capacity as critics.
We’ve also lost a handful of writers along the way, and as heartening as it is to celebrate our birthday, it also prompts reflection. We are grateful to everyone who has helped shape No Ripcord over the years and we keep the memories of those who are no longer with us close at this time of year.
– David & Juan
