Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 - 1,327 Bob Marley & The Wailers - Uprising

 

              Bob Marley & The Wailers were a band with a momentum and energy all of their own.. 

Days # 13 Flying Burrito Brothers

 

500 Greatest Albums of the 2000's # 75 Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavillion

 

Merriweather Post Pavillion is an incredibly self conscious and premeditated title. Like Halcyon Digest, Surrealistic Pillow or many others you might care to mention. It has eyes trained on the stars. Eternity. The record immediately displays  its ambition and scope.Like a peacock opening its tail.

 

Song(s) of the Day # 4,496 Mountain Goats

 

Indie Folk Stalwarts Mountain Goats are nothing if not a set of safe hooves. Active since 1991 they've moved from their base in Calermont, California and are now based in North Carolina. Days is their twenty fourth album.

It works from a familiar foundation . They sing songs about the everyman. Are prone to concepts. Appreciate the funny and difficult ironies of life. Days is like a pair of shoes that you're not sure about when you first put them on in the store but which almost immediately themselves yourself to your contours and you realise that you were made for each other.

The essential characteristic of Days is its sagacity. It's Springsteen without the raised fist. It makes Life feel like a fairly nice idea.They vary the velocity and angle of their gentle approach. There's comfort and love and then Days is done, Life is sweet. 

Songs About People -# 1,429 Layne Staley

 

I'm really warming to The Mountain Goats current album. Days. I'll get back to it. Here's the first track.

Top 100 Records - SublimMedia # 41 Frank Sinatra - In The Wee Small Hours

 

Frank Sinatra carries you to a better place. In this case 1955. He was blue about Ava Gardener. This strikes me as a good way to address the blues. 

It Starts With a Birthstone - 200 Albums for 2026 # 126 Ty Segall - Chrome

 

Ty Segall's album always feel a bit like indulgence projects to me. Albeit highly polished ones. So its apt his latest record is called Chrome. It's polished and highly proficient. Shiny. Straight in like a bullet at # 125.

Days # 12 The Chiffons

 

Song(s) of the Day # 4,495 White Fence

 '                                                        

                                                      'I just had an experience with God.....'

Sunday Morning. White Fence. Tim Presle . Orange. The eighth album under this banner and the first since 2019. Produced as generally by Ty Segall. Orange has a novel and rather enchanting foundation . That of jingle jangle mornings. The Rickenbacker Road and the McGuinn, Clark and Crosby aah...... 

Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 - 1,328 Suede - Coming Up

 

Sueded's slighly unexpected third. When they came when they weren't really expected to. And endured. It's a classy Pop record aimed purely at the Alternative Mainstream.

It Starts With a Birthstone - 200 Albums for 2026 # 127 European Sun - When Britain Was Great

 

The title is deceptive. No  European Sun are not Reform voters or Enoch Powell revivalists. Well they might be but by the sounds of the record I doubt it . Istead they're sweet Indie nostalgists and this is impossibly warm. 

Top 100 Records - SublimMedia # 42 Billie Holliday - Lady Sings The Blues

 

Forty minutes in the company of  Lady Sings The Blues is an experience of insight into  grief. beauty  and pain of a rare kind.

Days # 11 Bill Callahan

 

A switch from Bob Dylan to Bill Callahan is always a fairly straightforward one.

500 Greatest Albums of the 2000's # 76 Bob Dylan: The Bootleg Series Volume 8

 

This is a Hard Call as it has 38 songs of easy going mysticism. Perhaps one to did in and dip out of. But he's always one to take heed of. Ezekiel one moment. Iisah the next. Job come along for the ride, 

Song(s) of the Day # 4,494 Dinosaur Jr

 

'Everybody's coming home for luch these days. Last night there were skinnheads on my lawn.... ' Never fret. Here comes the good news. Dinosaur Jr. albums seem to be coming round a little bit faster these days.Their latest is called There Near. I imagine you can surmise how it goes. 

They're something you can trust in Dinosaur Jr. reecords. They're like the days in the week. Always have the letters D - A and Y in them. Always sound pretty much the same and project a similar approach and way of looking at the world . 'Rain' Always rhymes with 'Insane'

Here's a band that knows their audience's needs. And set our to to satisy them and make them come back the next time. There something rather effortless and lovely about this. But of course they were a band that never looked as if they were trying which was generally the Ace in their hand. .  

It Starts With a Birthstone - 200 Albums for 2026 # 128 Tomora - COME CLOSER

 

A collaboration between AURORA and The Chemical Brothers which synthesises Radiohead, Suicide and Bjork with remarkable results. 

500 Greatest Albums of the 2000's # 78 Elbow - Seldom Seen Kid

 

Well before Andy Burnham became King of The North, there was Guy Garvey. This was something different. A little bit precious on occasion but it's earnest and heartfelt.  Ambitious.and with a genuine pride in its sense of place and moment. Its sense that the mundane is extraordinary. 

Days # 10 Ice Cube

 

There are worlds you'll never know. This is one I'll never know.

Top 100 Records - SublimMedia # 43 Roy Harper - Stormcock

 

I've been listening to Roy Harper's Stormcock on repeat for the last week or so. It takes me back unerringly. To a favourite place. A safe one. 1993 -94 in Dortmund, Germany and the best music friend of my lifetime. I used to go to his flat on a Friday afternoon and we;d talk into the evening.and we'd drink beer and smoke dope and talk about life.

Listen to Nick Drake, Tim Buckley, Kevin Coyne and Roy Harper. And Stormcock particularly . Listening to it now takes me back unerringly across the years and the continent like an arow.  I'm sat on his armchair at the window and he's sat on his sofa rolling a joint on the cofee table and we're laughing . Talking about the night ahead. Meeting the others in town.

This is a beautiful record. I need a vinyl copy of my own. It's only got four tracks but they hint at remarkable wisdom and insight. The stuff of the ages. there's incredible weeping and remarkable dignity and majesty.Music does this !

Song(s) of the Day # 4,493 Drug Country

 

Do drugs. Do drugs. Do Drugs in the country ! While you're at it. set the controls for erm, the heart of  Drug Country. Richmond, Virginia's finest. And their latest album erm Country Drugs. They're nothing if not consistent. Dinosaur Jr and Whiskeytown's ragged feral children. They start by purloining the riff from Sweet Jane and riding their charabang out of town and onto the Road to Nowhere.Careering on and off the road. loose and inspired.  Rarely in tune but that's just as it should be. Another cherrypick from Seabuck / Darren Jones and another winner.  

It Starts With a Birthstone - 200 Albums for 2026 # 129 Woo - Whichever Way you Are Going You are Going Wrong

 

A long running project from brothers Clive and Mark Ives. Gently Psychedelic and instrumental. Nothing much happens but its all gently intriguing. 

Top 100 Records - SublimMedia # 44 Allman Brothers - At Fillmore East

 

There's something of the Mythic about a record like this at this distance. Live Double debut albums that start 'Wake up mama. Turn your lamp down low...' and proceed with astonishingly fluid duelling guitars may be worth sticking with.This is an album for lazy days. 

500 Greatest Albums of the 2000's # 78 Grizzly Bear - Vecktamist

 

A record which came out in 2009. I saw the band shortly afterwards. They're a band apart and this is an album apart. It's one that understands light and proportion, understanding and literature. It has a rare poise and beauty.

I started listening to this this afternoon. I found I could not stop even though I know the album well. Sometime you have to pay something its due. 

Song(s) of the Day # 4,492 Shredded Sun

 

Shredded Sun come motoring out of Chicago, Illinois with waterpistols blazing on latest album Never Odd Or Even. They trip through the tulips, unpack their hamper of Indie tricks and picnic in a field. Another suggestion of loveliness from Darren Jones / First Mate Starbuck. Thanks Darren.

One moment the Velvet Underground , (who provide the essence and base ingredients  and moral and artistic compass for projects like these) are chugging in the slowlane. Next C-86 pick up the batons and press down on the accelerator. Never Odd Or Even. strike a good balance and lasts the course.

Days # 9 R.E.M.

 

A song from the album began their great transition. 'Hope despite the times...'

500 Greatest Albums of the 2000's # 79 Drive By Truckers - Decoration Day

 

Drive By Truckers records strike me as a long night out with someone you don't really care for who's intent on paimting the town red and then proceeding at a certain point to itemise exactly what he doesn't like about you.

Top 100 Records - SublimMedia # 45 Neu! - Neu!

 

Neu ! Is an unbeatable concept and record. An album that presents itself as a brand. A name that describes exactly what it want to be. A sound that's is pretty much an intercity speeding between Dussledorf and Cologne. A record that must be climbing the charts. Into the Top Ten !

Days # 8 Nico

 

A song about transition...

Song(s) of the Day # 4,491 Hovvdy

 

Hovvdy are a Texan Independent duo who have popped up intemittently on It Starts with a Birthstone over the years but I've finally found the album I'd nail to my mast with latest release, their sixth in all, Big World.

All their ingredients and influences seem to have fallen into place this time round and no mistake. Breathy laid back relaxed ballads and mid tempo chuggers that assimilate and triangulate The Shins, Elliot Smith and Alex G. 

But the key spirit of this , at least to my ears, is that of Simon & Garfunkel. An interesting essay could be rewritten on these mavens of melody. As important in many respects as Beatles, Velvets, Love, and Byrds for the post millennial independent sound. 

It Starts With a Birthstone - 200 Albums for 2026 # 130 Brother Wallace

 

I just dig this kind of record. One that doesn't really make the slightest effort to be modern or contemporary or clever because it's got a sound and attitute to burrow into for firty minutes or so.

500 Greatest Albums of the 2000's # 80 Dixie Chicks - Home

 

This is the album that Uncut takes very seriously and I can't really because I was brought up in Europe. It's nice I s'pose.

Top 100 Records - SublimMedia # 46 Elvis Costello & The Attractions - Blood & Chocolate

 

This is a particularly personal choice for the author of this list. It's i,portant to me to in terms of my personal life narrative. I was supposed to be seeing Elvis Costello & The Attractions during my second year . I was supposed to be going to see them at the LCR university venue with a friend I was not getting on with as well as I'd have liked. The band pulled the gig and I've still never seen them or him. A great regret.

As to the record. It covers a lot of bases. You can't help thinking Dylan, There's plenty of invective. Plenty of pain. Plenty of barely checked aggression and rage . Confusion. Wordplay. But lots of wordplay anditwisted nvective. A very good innings and everyone concerned carry their bats back to the pavilion.  

Days # 7 The Beatles

 

'Got a good reason....' No good reason is required for a riff and momentum that would have done any Stax Atlantic artist proud. Well plenty of them went on to cover this....

Song(s) of the Day # 4,490 Lambchop

 

You have to wonder or maybe you don't whether a laconic Alternative C&W album released in 2026 called Punching the Clown is alluding to anyone in particular. Every American artistic statement has to be these days. 

Lambchop's latest is a set of riddles within riddles,almost fifty minutes of sly, wisecracking epiphanies. Sporadic bursts of military cadences and Russian Orthodox choir routines. Every track offers fresh pleasures. It wiles away an afternoon and early evening like a favourite Coen brothers film. So I've put it on again this morning as I'm preparing for my day.

 We're on our way to the pearly gates. Heaven. The place where something always happens. This record is genuinely cinematic and quite as good as it gets ! Another great advert for the vinyl format if further evidence is needed.

Top 100 Records - SublimMedia # 47 Deep Purple - Shades Of Deep Purple

 

Not the Deep Purple album you might expect in a rundown of greatest ever albums but this aligns to its author's taste more than their best known and celebrated records. This is limbs flying night on the town ago go.

500 Greatest Albums of the 2000's # 81 Anthony & The Johnsons - I Am A Bird Now

 

Lonely is a place on earth.

It Starts With a Birthstone - 200 Albums for 2026 # 131 Seu Jorge - The Other Side

 

Knockout Ned . The most honorable man in the Favela. A beautiful, dreaming jazzy album that has wings. We are sailing down to Rio.

Days # 6 The Dream Syndicate

 

A song about riotous unhinged debauchery that shares its name with a deeply desperate film about alcoholism. Trying somehow to remember them. 

Song(s) of the Day # 4,489 Twisted Teens

 

Florida Water Blues by Twisted Teens like most records thee days is another one which reminds me of way back when. Quite a lot reminds me of the first few terms of University in Autumn 1985 when I was harvesting experience with no little appetite.

Twisted Teens are certainly twisted, possibly not teens, but seem to be at least sligtly akin to American bands of these days in that they have a tangible craving for life that's highly memorable. They have a songwriter and vocalist who basks under the name of Caspian Holywell.

They hail from New Orleans which is even better and their sound is somewhere between Death of Samantha, Pixies and Gun Club. They're depraved and possibly cursed. I couldn't recommend them more highly. 

Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 - 1,329 Dr. John - Gris Gris

 

Best listened to as night falls. Preferably on a Swamp. Speaks of a world that most of us will never know. This is an album that flows seamlessly as a voodoo suite.

It Starts With a Birthstone - 200 Albums for 2026 # 132 Labrador - The Rosy Red World

 

Philadelphia's Labrador's first album for four years The Rosy Red World has a wonderful sleeve. An image of unwashed plates and cups in a sink. The scene that greets most of us at some point every day. Also a wonderful opening song 'It's mine all mine.' The resounding sound of clanging chords. Crazy Horse reborn. 

Labrador are an American Bar Band im excelsis. You can hear the sound of the left of the dial AOR Alternative Classics echoing in every song . Creedence. Sir Douglas Quintet , Replacements, Reigning Sound. Labrador keep it simple. And bring home the bacon for breakfast.  

500 Greatest Albums of the 2000's # 82 Bright Eyes - I'm Awake It's Morning

 

I like Bright Eyes. I like their ambition and their sense of history and the conviction that now is the time to make our own history.Even though inevitably it often feels like a Sixties dream.

  

Top 100 Records - SublimMedia # 48 Funkadelic - Maggot Brain

 

Worth listening to the commentary for this, The guitar of Eddie Hazel. George Clinton told him to play the guitar solo in this when his mother died. It's quite a solo. In general quite an extraordinary statement. It eases you into a mindset and headspace that is sly, inventive and funky as any record you will ever hear. It comes from and angle you never knew existed. 

Days # 5 The The

 

This song ages like a fine wine. It strikes me as a fine way of looking at days. Good days. Bad days. On to the next. 

Song(s) of the Day # 4,488 Wild Pink

 

                                             'I lost my mind like a brick in the weeds'

Wild Pink are a band from the districts of Brooklyn and Queens. I suspect they wish were The Band. They're not really. Who could be. But they have a gently rolling and quietly majestic sound which talks about the wear and tear of life and how it wizens us but how we get back up and return to the office or the bar or the road.

Still Coming Down is their sixth album. But it sounds like their sixteenth. They sing of Sirhan Sirhan shooting Robert Kennedy in a hotel kitchen. Jack Ruby killing a patsy. They tell of the lies we're told and keep on being told and will surely always be told and how we grit our teeth and wake and ride to each day determined to make the best of it.

This is a well worn furrow but it needs to be ploughed and Wild Pink are more than up to the task. Nine songs without a chorus to speak of but a dogged, earnest engaging spirit. Thick with energy, memory, nostalgia  and widescreen but somehow modest Americana 'melodrama,

Top 100 Records - SublimMedia # 49 The Thirteenth Floor Elevators - The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators

 

A record you can listen to sixty years on and more and feel we're still catching up. This came out when I was one and I bought it when I was 24 because it was one of those records I felt I ought to buy. It's a damaged and frantic record. Incredibly exciting but also slightly frightening. The music is only half the message. You need to read the sleevenotes and visualise the times and their tenor. As with all great albums of this era this is a matter of choice. The imaginations and energy which fuel it are genuinely inspiring. It's a pleasurable album but the dread, pleading and craving in its grooves are genuinely palpable..

 

It Starts With a Birthstone - 200 Albums for 2026 # 133 Johanna Samuels

 

Johanna Samuels has a safe pair of hands. Sorry Kids, is another assured set of stories and arrangements. There are always stories to me told. There are guitar breaks and choirs which drag you back to the Seventies and wonder if George Harrison is playing in the band.

Song(s) of the Day # 4,487 Elanor Moss

 

The Knife, The Needle the debut album by Elanor Moss on Merge Records is the kind of Retro Folk record that is becoming more common and more frequent. And more welcome. It takes you back to 1972 whether you were there or you just wish you were. The land of Nick Drake and Bridget St John, Of knitted pullovers and open fires and the modern world a distant dream.

It's lyrical and sweet. Memorable. Played by musicians who make every effort to listen to one another first and foremost Domestic drams are relayed in sensitive tones. The best trick a record can pull is slow down the hands of the clock to a measured tread

Top 100 Records - SublimMedia # 50 Talking Heads - Remain In Light

 

'Changing my shape. I feel like an accident....'

The author of this countdown has been on a crisis enforced sabbatical since early June but he's back. And I'm back with him to document the second half of his descent from 50 to 1. He starts again with a record I listen to a lot . Remain in Light. It's an extraordinary document from an extraordinary band of musicians and their assembled cast. This is an impossibly rhythmic, lyrical and ambitious record. It ranges over continents. 

I was struggling to write bout what makes it so special. What makes Talking Heads so special and this album extra-special. So I looked to the Pitchfork review of the album for inspiration. The opening paragraph helped things to click into place immediately. Remain In Light makes artistic activity visceral and danceable. Listening to the record is one of the best ways I know to circumnavigate the globe without moving from the armchair in your living room.

It Starts With a Birthstone - 200 Albums for 2026 # 134 Victoryland - My Heart Is a Land With No Music In It

 Kitchen sink art rock debut from Brooklyn's Julian McCamman. No holds barred. The Cure trapped                                                           within a clocks ticking inner mechanisms.