Asha Bhosle 1933 - 2026

 

Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 - 1,408 Genesis - Trespass

 

Gabriel's Genesis increasingly take me to a place where I'm happy to go,

500 Greatest Albums of the 2000's # 198 TV On The Radio - Dear Science

 

I took time out of new music largely between about 2004 and 2014 when I felt I should start paying attention a little bit more given that I started writing this blog. This strikes me as one of the best albums I mussed during that fallow period.

Song(s) of the Day # 4,365 Julianna Barwick & Mary Lattimore

 

A rather wonderful record from earlier on this year that I haven't written about yet. Tragic Magic. Folk Dreaming from Julianna Barwick & Mary Lattimore. It sounds pretty much like the first album you put on when you get to the jukebox heaven . Whatever or wherever that is . 

1982 Top 40 23rd May # 20 Rocky Sharp & The Replays

 

A strange anomaly of my youth. There was all of this Rock & Roll crap in the charts. Not like the originals. Reliving the late Fifties, and indeed the early Sixties would have been great. But dreadful covers or songs that sounded like they were with anachronistic, clothing haircuts and dancing. Knock yourself out Rocky Sharp & The Replays. 

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Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 - 1,409 Battles - Mirrored

 

Battles. are the kind of band that I started making an effort with when I first arrived back in England in 2008 and settled in Newcastle and thought I at least needed to make an effort with to attempt to organise myself and catch up with to some degree.

 It was sometimes.. err 'a battle' This is frantic, frenetic but not unpleasant clutter and change. Up and down the scales. Happy percussive turbulence.

500 Greatest Albums of the 2000's # 199 Solomon Burke - Don't Give Up On Me

 

Soul 'Legends' became an endangered species in the new millennium for hipsters to hang their hat and pretensions of authenticity on. That doesn't take anything away from the attention to detail and loving care evident in late career, records like this.

1982 Top 40 23rd May # 21 Genesis

 

Genesis were struggling for relevance. A few years make a lot of difference at that age. They were surrounded by young beautiful things, .Gabriel was long gone and this sounds tired tired, ZZZZZZZ !

Song(s) of the Day # 4,364 Pictish Trail

 

The sun is up, But today it rises in a Canterbury sky for me at least. A friend is on Mount Everest. Another is dealing with he death of his father, Another is in Baghdad, Bombs and rockets are exploding a mile away frim where he us waking up. Pictish Trail's new album Life Slime is spinning on headphones as I sit at my deskin he box room of my parents house.

It's rather magical. Spacey. Dancey, Rising up from earth's orbit and into space. We live in the moment and time where we are and myst make the most if it, This will more than do me for today.

Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 - 1,410 Queens of the Stone Age - Queens of the Stone Age

 

1998 ! It feels like a long time ago. Everything feels like a long time ago ! Queens of the Stone Age sounds like Grunge for people who like Punk but also have a few Metal records in their collectuin. And they make that sound like not such a bad thing. Listening to this also feels like a portal to a Seventies childhood.

500 Greatest Albums of the 2000's # 200 Nagasi Ni Te - Feel

 

    Japanese Psych Folk, Narcoleptic. Full of Wonder ! A good friend's father died a couple of days ago. A sad day? A normal day in the history of the world. Which keeps on spinning. Something we oftentimes don't realise and acknowledge fully. This a good way to spend an hour,

1982 Top 40 23rd May # 22 Simple Minds

                                                             

                                                             'Belief is a beauty thing.'

Simple Minds were a big thing for me in 1982. I'm essentially a dreamer. And Simple Minds. Associates and Echo & The Bunnymen were essentially the forerunners for R.E.M's magnificent dreaming. 

Song(s) of the Day # 4,363 Bella Litsa

'Is she really going out with him?'

Bella's Litsa's Dramaticism a new album from Brooklyn, New York. The latest example of the new sadness, Lana Del Ray, Weyes Blood. Britney Speaks. Remember her? Nowadays more refined classicism is in vogue. Carpenters meets Laura Nyro in Central Park. And the consequence is, refined classicism of the most tasteful kind..

I expect it was always thus. Youth has always been drawn to melodrama. Going back to Cassandra of Troy and The Lady of Shallot . There's a track here called Never Ending Movie. You said it Bella. Sergeant Troy and Fanny Robin go to different churches on their wedding day and heartbreak ensues,  Dramaticism is just the latest tasteful psychodrama up the pike. It doesn't sound new exactly, far from it frankly. Bur every hair is in place, 

Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 - 1,411 Green Day - Nimrod

 

                It's Green Day. You know what you're getting. Dickies meet Ramones. Twenty years on. 

500 Greatest Albums of the 2000's # 201 Sparks - Hello Young Lovers

 

'All I do now is stick around...'

Sparks cope with growing older and not want to appear to do so, Clearly a Sparks record..I felt myself coming up for air. 

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1982 Top 40 23rd May # 23 Bananarama with Fun Boy Three

 

A scenario of youth. If it happens later in life it's considered staking I imagine The Velvelettes. It soundsed fresh with Banarama who were new on the block in 1982. It was a cool juxtaposition to have lads doing the backing vocals. Does memory play tricks? I tend to think mune does. This seems to stay in the charts for the longest imaginable time. . 

Song(s) of the Day # 4,362 Robber Robber

 

Every day it seems brings fresh drama . I feel I'm at the best time and this is really living. the world is in flames and it feels great to be alive and await what each new dawn brings. I'm travelling South but first must find listening fate to take me from one class to the next. Today Robber, Robber's Two Wheel's Move the Soul.

Desperate frantic, noise. Somewhere between the poles of My Bloody Valentine and Deerhunter. Claustrophobic, Clawing for the daylight. Plenty of .space for melody. Robber, Robber hail from Vermont . Two Wheel's Move the Soul is fine, fresh  product. It makes being in a band sound like the 'best idea' That's enough. Onto the next, . 

Dave, Dee, Dozy Beaky, Mick & Titch

 

The Action

 

The Beatles

 

250 Albums- An Arbitrary Rumble Through My Record Collection # 35 Curved Air - The Second Album

 

In terms of listening fare it seemed increasingly I'm looking for the stuff of dreams wherever I can find them these days. I was just browsing in the record shop across the road from me and I found the second album from Curved Air going for a fiver and now I'm listening to it in my living room and I'm pretty much enraptured.

I don't know much about Curved Air except that they are Prog by disposition, had a big hit in Back Street Luv. Have a singer called Sonja Kristina who starred in the original production of Hair and Steward Copeland served some time on the drum stool before his time in The Police.

I'm clearly uninformed. This is greatly to my liking. First of all it has a wondrous inner sleeve which immediately takes you back almost fifty years to a world you don't know but wish you had. It's a little bit Proggy. But Poppy, with Jazz, Folk and Classical leanings  too and definitely glass half full which is mandatory for me these days. And more Drama than an evening with Ibsen. Certainly worth every penny of the fiver I spent on it

Song(s) of the Day # 4,361 Wendy Eisenberg

 

Welcome to enchantment. This may be the first Song(s) of the Day in this history of almost 4,500 to be written in wet socks. What do you want I hear you ask? A medal? I shall spare you the story. In brief dear reader, I spilled a cup of tea just before teaching an online lesson. Never mind. I'm still in said socks and will switch to the matter at hand . Namely Wendy Eisenberg's current album; also Wendy Eisenberg.

It's rather lovely. A talented artist with a number of records under her belt. This is Folk nominally. In the tradition of John Prine and Nick Drake. But also Willie Nelson and Richard Dawson. We're talking the The golden path people. This is lush, gorgeous stuff.  Time to change my socks.  

Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 - 1,412 Yo La Tengo -Painful

 

If I'd have been born in a different time and place I might have been a Yo La Tengo completist. I go for their cool veneer. Their relaxed and collected air. Painful comes from 1993. It walks the streets of New York City with a spring in its step.. Not a bad thing to do. It howls in a rather polite Indie way. Into the day !

500 Greatest Albums of the 2000's # 202 Gossip - Music For Men

 

From Japan to Gossip. Genre hopping . Sharp as a very sharp knife.

1982 Top 40 23rd May # 24 Japan

 

It's important to live in the times. To live in the moment. But it's also great to be taken back. Swept away ! It's great to be swept back by Japan. Swept away by their imaginations and artistry to China and the Long March ! That's something. To be able to do that for people. Achievement.

I think it's sheer foolishness to say they don't make them like they used to. To live in an imagined past. To allow the ghosts of your past to consume you. Eat away at your soul. But I'm glad I grew up when and where I grew up ! 

Associates

 

500 Greatest Albums of the 2000's # 203 Bloc Party - Silent Alarm

 

Silent Alarm always struck me as a pretty great thing. A millennial reapproximation of Joy Division and Gang of Four. Kele Okereke sounds a bit shrill to my ears now. But it's an album that's admirably both shrill and glossy.

 

Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 - 1,413 Taylor Swift - Red

 

It's a Taylor Swift album. Not really my lexicon. But it sounds alright,

Song(s) of the Day # 4,360 Dorea

 

Pop Matters had a tagline which caught my attention yesterday  'Dorea's second album is vulnerable and seaworthy' Like a gullible carp casting its gills around a meaty hook I couldn't help myself. Or alternatively as a Blog writer who enjoys sea metaphors myself. 

It's an altogether enchanting record. I'm very taken by albums that make you feel like you're in a dream and O Que Mais Voce Quer Saber De Mim Has that intent and impact. Sometimes Brazilian records in the Tropicalia tradition do this best. It casts a spell that broadens and stengthens its grip with cunning stealth.

1982 Top 40 23rd May # 25 Paul McCartney & Stevie Wonder

 

It's difficult to know what to say about this. So I won't say amything.

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250 Albums- An Arbitrary Rumble Through My Record Collection # 36 Warpaint - The Fool

 

Warpaint cast a spell. The best kind of spell. I have their debut album.on. It's so good that you can just keep turning it over . Again and again. All afternoon. It feels like you're making love. And you want to burrow deeper.

Warpaint formed in 2004. They put their debut album The Fool out in 2010. It's the one I'm lost in now. Shortly before I moved into my current flat. The serious one. The one I started to pay a mortgage off on. The grown up one. I saw them round about this time. Before I moved in here. I think I was finding my way from somewhere. To somewhere. I still am.  

Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 - 1,414 Silver Apples - Silver Apples

 

Oh Yeah ! Half an hour with Solver Apples.. They taught the cool the way to cool. Silver Apples were out there before Suicide .Before Television. Before just about anyone. Listening to this feels like going into a portal which takes you into a starring role in an original Star Trek episode. Far out !!!

500 Greatest Albums of the 2000's # 204 Stephen Malkmus - Stephen Malkmus

 

Stephen Malkmus alone was pretty much like Stephen Malkmus was like in Pavement. Just with dofferent musicians. And a damned sight cooler than you !

1982 Top 40 23rd May # 26 England World Cup Squad

 

Reader. They didn't. Get it right that is It started promisingly . Bryan Robson scored a goal. Within about 30 seconds against France. Trever Francis looked wonderful. Even Paul Mariner looked alright, But then they reverted to type. There was a strange second group phase which seemed to confuse everyone. England most of all. Suddenly they couldn't score. And for some reason the only thing that mattered was getting Kevin Keegan on the pitch. As for the single. It was bloody awful !!!  

Song(s) of the Day # 4,359 Sunn O )))

 

Mr Blue Sky ! Mr Blue Sky! Why. Sun is shining in the sky. See how the sun shines brightly. I'm up, and I've taught my lesson of the day. And now I'm listening to the latest, self titled  Sunn O ))) album .We're four minutes in and it's still adjusting itself. It sounds like an elderly gent struggling rather on the lav. There are still 56 minutes left and I'm waiting for a tune, a chorus for anything that make me want to keep living.

Oh this is intolerable. It's quite spoiling my day and we're not even halfway through the first track. I'm afraid I'm not going to get through this, HELP ! HELP! SOMEBODY HELP ME! THERE MUST BE MORE TO LIFE THAN THIS! I WAS QUITE HAPPY BEFORE I STARTED LISTENING TO THIS !

THERE ARE STILL FIVE TRACKS TO GO! PLEASE GOD STOP! MAKE IT STOP ! MUMMY! I'LL BE GOOD! DON'T SEND ME TO MY ROOM ! I'M FRIGHTENED! JUST MAKE IT STOP ! THIS IS TRULY GHASTLY !!!!!!

OK I've had enough of that. I've taken it off and put a Byrds album on instead. They have nice haircuts. And lovely sweaters. I think I'm going to be alright. Maybe the second track of this  Sunn O ))) record is better than the first. I suspect I'll never know !

Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 - 1,415 Bob Dylan - Modern Times

 

Bob Dylan is frankly beyond criticism by now. He just is... Bob Dylan.

500 Greatest Albums of the 2000's # 205 My Chemical Romance -The Black Parade

 

Not my generation so  My Chemical Romance truly never felt like my psychodrama.

Song(s) of the Day # 4,359 Captain Wilberforce

 

 Captain Wilberforce is at the wheel of The Peqod this Easter Monday as we voyage onward..Fresh waters and the distant horizon. They're a Leeds band, Not a naval Captain from Manchester Another World, Another Time, Another Place  is their sixth album and it favours traditional brushstrokes. Costello and Squeeze and back to the time when they were just lads. Back to the future. Sounds good to me !

1982 Top 40 23rd May # 27 Tottenham, Tottenham

 

'They won't give it up ! They're going to bring the Cup.. Back home to White Hart Lane!'

Football songs. What can you say? Downhill since Nice One Cyril. Anyhow. Let's Have Another One ! Oh It's Spurs again. It's 1982 and Cyril Knowles is long departed. But Ossie Ardiles and Ricardo Villa. And Glenn Hoddle are entertaining the White Hart Lane devoted.

And now they've got Chas & Dave to power them up the charts as Cup Final approaches. The songs a shocker. But it gets them on Top of the Pops . Come on you Spurs !!!

250 Albums- An Arbitrary Rumble Through My Record Collection # 37 Violent Femmes - Violent Femmes

 

I'm up late on Eater Monday and I've got The Violent Femmes eponymous debut on as my bath runs. I bought it the year it came out, way back in 1983 when I was on the cusp of the grown,  because The NME told me to , It's always a good idea to do what the NME tells you what t do I find. Listening to it now ut sounds like pretty much the most teenage album ever made. There are other contenders; The Undertones, The Modern Lovers . Let's not bring Morrissey into it. Morrissey is pretty much a teenage state all of his own.

But Violent Femmes pick at that scab to the degree that you wonder whether it will ever heal. Sure it's fun. Poetic. Restless, Profound/ The other big American underground album of 1983 was R.E,M.'s Murmur and I attached myself to that rather than Violent Femmes, though I loved both just as I attached myself to R.E.M. rather than The Smiths initially. This position changed. Their's was a centrifugal tug for my kind and disposition.

But I was essentially a happy teen just as now I feel I'm essentially a 'Happy Sixty'. I like a good mope but I also long for the state to pass and allow me to exit the valley of doom and enter the sunlit glade. . Life's a matter of choice essentially. We may forget it but I consider myself very fortunate and try never to forget that we have an almost unlimited range of choices should we but choose to access them. Right I'll exercise that choice now. I'll turn over Violent Femmes to Side B bathe and breakfast and  make my way properly into the new day. 'What have I got to do. To prove my love to you...'  

The Zombies

 

Song(s) of the Day # 4,358 Bevis Frond

 

Bevis Frond have become an Indie standby over the last few decades. Something to check your watch by. A speaking clock with lilting power chords and wistfulness Latest album Horrorful Heights which is Nick Faloman and pals 30th or so and counting is more of the same.and no one is likely to complain because he's damned good. Neil Young if he'd hailed from Walthamstow not Winnipeg and been born a bit later. 

500 Greatest Albums of the 2000's # 206 Lady Gaga - The Fame Monster

 

I don't really know Lady Gaga. Perhaps I need to firm an opinion about her. Let's listen to The Fame Monster to see if a worthwhile standpoint evolves. I know Bad Romance and never cared for that..A good friend of mine always insisted she was loads better than Madonna but this does not bode well.  Oh no it's complete tripe. I have to do something else with my day. 

Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 - 1,416 Jon Hopkins - Immunity

 

This is long. So I can't give it my full consideration. It's clearly a good headset record. Hypnosis. 

1982 Top 40 23rd May # 28 Funboy Three

 

There was so much going on with bands in 1982. The name of the group. Their look. There was so much in a song. And they got played on Radio One. By charmless DJs who would never understand. Their charm, insight and wit.

250 Albums- An Arbitrary Rumble Through My Record Collection # 38 Big Star - Sister Lovers

 

Confused.Com? Whatever you do brother, don't look on the Internet. It's only going to muddy your waters further. I don't have any Muddy Waters in my record collection but I do have Billy Holiday. And I do have Big Star.

 I took off Billy and I put on Sister Lovers and I've had a bath and now I'm listening to Femme Fatale from said record. I'm going to breakfast, shave and go to church. See if that helps my confusion. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Sister Lovers is a messy, fractured, damaged, beautiful record. If you want to be cool or if you're young, or if you're old but young at heart you'd probably say it's your favourite Big Star record. Maybe your favourite record of all. Of all. Of all time. Ever in the history of the universe !!!

I wouldn't go that far. The record has skipped from Femme Fatale and passed Stroke It Noel. Onto Holocaust and that's cast a pallor over my lving room . 'Everybody goes, leaving those, who fall behind.' You're a wasted space, you're a sad eyed lie. Your a holocaust.' Frankly I'm missing Billie. 

You only need to listen to Sister Lovers to understand why R.E.M. made it and Big Star didn't. Because R.E.M. wanted to make it and survive and they did so by planning. And learning. By sitting down and discussing important stuff before they set out on the road. And most of all by staying friends.

Everyone loved Big Star. The Replacements, dBs, Lemonheads,R.E.M. Of course!  But some learned the wrong lessons and fell for the wasted myth. Chilton himself knew that. He had been in The Box Tops and crossed paths with Manson before he wrote Thirteen and September Gurls, Went on to wash dishes. Play dives. Sister Lovers is an incredible record but it's nothing to aspire too. Go tidy your room.  

500 Greatest Albums of the 2000's # 207 Grizzly Bear - Yellow House

 

Grizzly Bear are artists. That is the ultimate aim I'd say. At least for It Starts With a Birthstone approved acts,. Not to start just wanting to make a row about putting out some noise or daytime radio confection..

Yellow House has ambition and aims for appreciation. It's akin to walking around a gallery with a friend or loved one and taking your time because you realise you have time. and you'll get the most out of this experience if you make it last. 

1982 Top 40 23rd May # 29 UB40

 

I had a friend who liked and likes UB40 and I liked and like them too. We would take the short walk to each others houses. Near to Kew Gardens Station and close to Richmond Station during those important years when the bonds you make with people can be  permanent ones . And talk. And eat cake . And play chess. And most of all laugh. And take the piss out of each other. And spend time with each other and with each others families. Love is all is alright!

Song(s) of the Day # 4,357 Donny Osmond

 

Generally my default position for these posts on It Starts With a Birthstone is 'forward'. Onward ever onward. Devil take the hindmost . So on and so forth. But it's Easter Saturday and a special anniversary for me. So I'm feeling a trifle nostalgic.

I've got a Pickwick singles collection on and it's spinning and spinning.The Sounds of 1972 Melanie. The Bee Gees. Slade. The Chelsea Football Team. And err. Donny Osmond and Puppy Love. It takes me back. To Nottingham

My family came back from Zimbabwe where I'd been born in 1972. We settled in Nottingham on a beautiful road called Private Road and my parents did their best with a set of five kids. It must have felt like The Brady Bunch.

I went to Primary School and fell in love. Well. With a couple of girls actually. Katie Shopland. Who had lustrous silver hair as I recall. And whose brother Nick is still on Facebook and still in Nottingham. I wonder if he still remembers me.

Then there was Rachel Brown. The cutest freckles. The.cutest curls. I went to my first party at Rachel's house. Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. Rachel's parents weren't dumb. Rachel as snow white and her favourite seven boys from her primary school class. Who was I? Dopey probably.

Who are the seven dwarves. This stuff's important. Doc, Happy, Sneezy, Grumpy, Sleepy, Bashful, Dopey. Whistle while you work ?!? Work ? That's another story. Another day. 

So back to Donny and his puppy love. This is not a puppy love. No it's not. That stuff lasts !.

 

500 Greatest Albums of the 2000's # 208 Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - B.R.M.C.

 

Every few months a Rock & Roll Band comes up the pike. This is a basic rule of existence and will continue being so until the end of time. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club do what they do phenomenally well on B.R.M.C, their only essential album. Put your leather jacket and shades on and make that it's 1967 or 1976 again. It's always 1967 or 1976 if you want it to be.