An OST for a documentary about the life of Jack Johnson the boxer. Chick Corea, John McLaughlin and Herbie Hancock feature .It's funky as.... and sounds ready to blow at any moment.
Monday, April 20, 2026
1982 Top 40 23rd May # 12 Scotland World Cup Squad
Scotland have a dream . To get knocked out at the group stage apparently. This featured Johm Gordon Sinclair from Gregory's Girl. A film whuch described my life at that point in time pretty well .
Song(s) of the Day # 4,372 Frog
Charm, an almost forgotten art. And evident in spades on For Sale the latest offering from New Rochelle guitar and keyboard duo Frog. it's a gentle syncopated record that takes its time and chooses its byroads.It seems indebted wonderfully to Jonathan Richman and Andrew Gold. Takes its time. As we should all try to do.
Sunday, April 19, 2026
Songs About People # 1,424 Casey Jones
1982 Top 40 23rd May # 14 Blondie
Blondue were not exactly 'washed up' in 1982. But they'd pretty much run out of road and were sensible enough to realise it. The Hunter was the first album you didn't really need to own. Except perhaps. for its wonderful cover. It reached Number Ten in Belgium only. Time perhaps to go..
500 Greatest Albums of the 2000's # 192 Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks - Real Emotional Trash
Another day, another Stephen Malkmus album in the inbox. Can I think of anything new to say ? Probably nit. But here we go....
I've just played This Is It by The Strokes and loved it completely so Malkmus is a logical next stop. Lets face it Stephen Malkmus could have been in The Strokes. He;s good looking, loves himself and his work is deeply referential. This is Post Rock. So clever that you can't hope to keep up. So lay back and enjoy.
250 Albums- An Arbitrary Rumble Through My Record Collection # 34 Genesis - Trespass
I guess the ultimate goal is to term temporary freedom into permanent freedom. With that in mind I left my phone charging in the socket next to my bed a couple of hours ago and left my flat and wandered down to Newcastle Quayside. A ten minute walk downhill from where I live. I found a record stall on the edge if the Tyne that I've frequented over the almost eighteen years I've lived in Newcastle. I had a brief chat with the stall owner; a friendly bearded fellow who remembered me too.
We chatted about this and that and I bought a copy of Trespass by Genesus which seemed reasonably priced. He popped in a splendid purple sleeve which reminded me if the Hazlenut Caramel's from Quality Street. We bade each other farewell and I made my way up Grey Street, called by some the finest street in Europe. It certainly seemed so this afternoon , I felt unencumbered without my phone. Noticed the phenomenal quality of the Georgian architecture. Observed the faces of the people I passed. Speculated on them. The great mystery; other people.
19th April 2026. There's never a bad time to take a new step. Make a new resolution. Some time without my phone on a daily basis if I can. Who knows how far I'll get. As for Trespass, I like it, I care for Gabriel's Genesis more and mire as I make my way into my sixties
Top 100 Records - SublimMedia # 96 Grateful Dead - Workingman's Dead
It's April 2026. It's a Sunday. I've just listened to Matching Mole frim 1972 which still oddly, with all it's quaintness still sounds like the future. And a rather comforting one with all the idiosyncrasy that we cherish in humanity and existence. Let's see how Workingman's Dead from 1970 fares.
First of all it's playing on my television set. How's that for Psychedelics? How far we've come. Or have we ?. I immediately warm to it. It's warm and I sense a campsite fire. A sense of community where you're more than welcome .Always room for one more. So find yourself a seat. I imagine a bowl of broth. This is gentle and loving stuff. A great set of songs
Song(s) of the Day # 4,371 Adrian Younge
It's 2026. And every other record it seems is an imaginary soundtrack. We seem to be being asked to gi and live in some kund of permanent fantasy existence. It's certainly inviting. Well if you can't beat them you might as well join them, So here's today's serving and its another fine record.. Peaches and cream. With breakfast. What are your doctor's orders?
Adrian Younge is an Emmy award winning self taught musician whose work apparently 'defies the digital tide.' If this means his current offering Younge recal Golden Age of Soul classics like Trouble Man and Hot Buttered Soul then I'll have a serving of that !
Saturday, April 18, 2026
500 Greatest Albums of the 2000's # 193 Richmond Fontaine - The Fitzgerald
For those who have immaculately kept bookshelves and know their Cheever from their Coover. Tracing the great American arc. The way any life could go either way.
Top 100 Records - SublimMedia # 97 Iggy & The Stooges - Raw Power
A malevolent, dark record im every way . Reflecting the journey The Stooges were going through and the times. Incredibly wired and frantic. Ar tunes deeply aggressive. At others deeply confused. Not easy listening. You probably have a good idea if what you think about this already. Not one for the cowering masses. Or for those who like being told what to do.....
Song(s) of the Day # 4,370 Badfinger
Saturday. The Day for Fun according to my father. Still in slumber in the bedroom above the living room where I'm writing this. I've got a trip across country from my parent's hpme to my own In Newcastle. Meaning I'll miss Record Store Day in all probability. A day that means very little to me personally. I'm not that kind of collector.
I looked through the list yeaterday evening and there was just one record whuch piqued my interest and I might ask after early next week when I do the rounds of the Newcastle record stores I frequent. Badfinge'rs third album. On Apple. No Dice.
Badfinger are like The Raspberries and Big Star. Teenage Fanclub, Super Furry Animals and Belle & Sebastian. Forever in The Beatles and their contemporaries slipstream but with a flow well worth following for its own twists and turns..Fir its own magic. No Dice has much to recommend it. I'd like a copy and the original vinyl release is pitched too prohibitively in terms of cost. North of four hundred pounds.
But it's something to covet, It has a great cover. A great set of songs. Wonderful playing. Vocals and harmonies and song structures than genuinely emote and ache. Bring back the times. Only records can do that for me. 'No Matter What you are.....'
Friday, April 17, 2026
500 Greatest Albums of the 2000's # 194 The For Carnation - The For Carnation
Brooding Post Slint manuevers.Incredibly tatseful. Like waiting for something to happen. When you're not entirely sure anything ever will.
Top 100 Records - SublimMedia # 98 The Louvin Brothers - Satan is Real
The classic collecter's item. A real opportunity to invite your pals round and strpke your chins as it spins. As for letting satan in your life. It's probably slightly inadvisable.Now dosy do your partner. Atmosphere aplenty.
1982 Top 40 23rd May # 16 Soft Cell
Everybidy things that their tumes were the best. I'm no different but would say that this Top 40 from my times, just as I was preparing for O Levels and the exit to the wider world is a persuasive case for 1982.'See her eyes they are bright tonight, See the stars coming out tonight. See the moon looking down tonight. Ss how they light your way tonight. '
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Song(s) of the Day # 4,369 Woo
A leisurely wind down to the weekend. Woo, Clive and Mark Ives phenomenal Whichever Way You Are Going, You Are Goung Wrong an extraordinary slice of New Age whimsy and drift that feels like you're falling into a blissful space.
The Ives Brothers have been creating music since the 1970's apparently but if this is your entre to theit music then you may want to seek out more. In the meantime this collage is a drop of pure and constantly surprising beauty
Thursday, April 16, 2026
Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 - 1,407 Danger Mouse & Black Thought - Cheat Codes
An old skool collaboration in many respects. With the rapping rhythms and tone of early NAS and the vague gangster dread of those times but leavened by cool samples, melodic flourishes, tight beats and the constant ability to surprise.
I don't really listen to much that might be labelled Hip Hop these days so am in no position to judge whether it's in rude health or not really.Very few records seem to appear that really grab my attention and make me think I must play, them but this one certainly did.
Producer Danger Mouse and rapper Black Thought are neither of them actually new kids on the block. Far from it. Black Thought made his name as MC of The Roots who have been putting out records since the early Nineties, while Danger Mouse has been a producer of note for a broad range of artisits from Jay Z to Beck and Damon Albarn. No spring chickens then.
But on latest collaboration Cheat Codes they make Hip Hop's broad legacy work for them. This is something of an instant classic. Put it on and it will give you the instant shivers in the way that Illmatic, De La Soul is Dead or Liquid Swords might do.
One of the albums off the year then. One of the best records of this type I've heard for some time. A lyrical free wheeling treasure that improves on every listen.
500 Greatest Albums of the 2000's # 195 Peter Hammill - Thin Air
The main Van Der Graaf Genrator guy with a late slice of melodrama which makes you realise why John Lydon rated him so highly. Not easy listening..
Top 100 Records - SublimMedia # 99 Joni Mitchell - Blue
'One of the most emotional records ever made.' apparently. It's certainly pretty damned good one I'd say.It's sometimes difficult to articulate to any degree to a record that you listen to a lot and appreciate and understand the cultural significance of when they don't particular have a visceral tug for you personally. Some of Joni's do. This always puts me in a restful state whuch is more than enough. Different songs and lines stand out on different hearings,.The vulnerability and candidness are astonishing.
Song(s) of the Day # 4,368 Squarepusher
The best way to be drawn unto a new record I find is to hear it first time in a record shop.Yesterday I wandered into Canterbury after a long day teaching. I made my way down St Margarey's Lane and poppped in at Vinylstore Jr to see my pal Nick making last minute preparations for Record Store Day. He had the new Squarepusher album Kammerkonzert on his turntable.
It sounded great and now it sounds great again as I'm listening to it in my parent's living room as the evening draws to a close.. Punchy, Jazzy exercises that might surprise those who associate Tim Jenkinson with more obviously 'Street' exercises from way back when . This is a thrilling record
1982 Top 40 23rd May # 17 Associates
Associates were hysterical genius. Like overdosing on helium. It was incredible at the time to have songs like this in the charts. Sometimes it takes forty years to begin to realise just how remarkable they actually were.,
Wednesday, April 15, 2026
Top 100 Records - SublimMedia # 100 Shuggie Otis - Freedom Flight
A slightly geeky but highly eloquent Swedish man named Jonas Samuelsson starts a YouTube countdown of his favourite records and I'll hitch a ride which will take us to summer. He's incredibly eclectic and this should be a proper education. What I like about him most is that he doesn't talk about himself but focises his energy entirely upin the record he is focusing on. . Almost no Soul, Metal or Funk apparently but we start with something fairly Soulful and certainly visionary.. He says this is primarily about the envronment it creates.
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Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 - 1,408 Big Black - Atomizer
Big Black were pretty confrontational and aggressive. They require certain level of endurance and determination. I lasted a couple of tracks. Until it sounded like someone drilling in my head.
500 Greatest Albums of the 2000's # 196 Lindstrom - Where You Go I Go Too
Space. The final frontier. You can put this on and cast yourself in a Science fiction film of your choosing and drift into oblivion in the best way imaginable.
Song(s) of the Day # 4,367 Dead Finks
Influencers? Are you hip to this.. Dead Finks fourth New Plastic Abyss strident agitation of the most vigorous kind. A coat of many colours. The Scars meet Rats On Rafts. Wumderbar !!! Hysteria is back in vogue. See them in Leipzig, Berlin, Prague and Munich in April and May. New Favourite Band Number Blah, blah, blah.
1982 Top 40 23rd May # 18 Spandau Ballet
'Steal a cake to eat the moon!'
Spandau Ballet. Cheeky chappies! The Kemp Brothers actually played for Melchester Rovers for a while in the Eighties in one of the more remarkable twists of the modern football narrative. I wondered whether Instinction was the Spandau single I actually quite liked until I listened to it again yesterday and everything that really irritated me about the band came back.. Like a dose of something ghastly contract in Tunisia..
The funkiness. The hats. The wardrobes in general. The lyrics. The obligatory sax solo in every song because they had a sax player. The relentless narcissism. The drumming.. The videos. Tony Hadley. Spandau Ballet were truly the pits !!!!
Tuesday, April 14, 2026
Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 - 1,409 Aerosmith - Pump
I'll never know what Aerosmith felt like in the mid Seventies. I was too young and they were too ... American. Listening to Pump now, which I was aware of when it came out and relatively grown up it sounds like an attempt to cash in. Fair enough but I've never like guitar solos which make you screw up your face as an involuntarily gesture. Straight to MTV . That band were always on MTV..
1982 Top 40 23rd May # 19 Iron Maiden
I'm sorry but this is patently ridiculous and all of the stuff that I like is really good.!That's why I have written a blog for so long. I won't be persuaded.
500 Greatest Albums of the 2000's # 197 Shellac - 1,000 Hurts
And if that particular itch still needs scratching. Here you go.
Song(s) of the Day # 4,366 Black Beach
If in doubt, go down to the underground. Black Beach reignite the conflagration first lit in the early Eighties by the likes of Minor Threat, Mission of Burma, Black Flag, et al in the early eighties on Mail Thief. It's all incredibly authentic.
Monday, April 13, 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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Sunday, April 12, 2026
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.
Saturday, April 11, 2026
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,
Friday, April 10, 2026
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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