Blue Island by Ravyn Levae is a slightly Old School Dancefloor /Workout. Reminiscent of Janet Jackson and Janelle Monae. A familiar dream. It's undemanding but wholesome.
Wednesday, August 12, 2026
It Starts With a Birthstone - 200 Albums for 2026 # 142 Fake Canadian - Fellow Traveller
Howard Ingerman of Fake Candian asks the question on the lips of all discerning Pop Pickers. Namely was Andy Partridge circa 1978, the most irritating voice in the History of Rock & Roll?
The jury is still out on that one. Fake Canadian's Fellow Traveller spins on in best skinny tie New Wave fashion, if New Wave had happened in the suburbs of San Jose.. Timothy Is In Danger is a Generation Z rewrite of Making Plans For Nigel. This is confused hormonal joy for badege collectors.
The marmite factor kicks in pretty quickly on . Andy Partridge They Might Be Giants, Howard Ingerman. Timothy is in dange
500 Greatest Albums of the 2000's # 95 Simian - Chemistry is What We Are
Protean and slightly worthy. But more-ish ! Feels like being on a Mission to Mars on a shuttle crewed by vegans.
Tuesday, August 11, 2026
500 Greatest Albums of the 2000's # 95 Robert Wyatt - Cuckooland
There's a wan melancholy about Robert Wyatt record's that is very distinctive. And very English.
Song(s) of the Day # 4,476 True Green
True Green's Hail Disaster is that rare thing. A dappled and consistently revealingmodern album that presents fresh territory to explore at every turn without having inhibiting influential sources . Minneapolis novelist and musician Dan Hornsby works melodic guitar, drum bass and keyboard as his basic ingredients, the human condition as his terrain but sets forth from there with ceaseless invention, curiosity and wit.
Hornsby owes something to the likes of David Berman, Neil Young and Jeff Tweedy. But he marks out fresh territory that is fresh and rewarding listening His songs are mournful and world weary occasionally. Most of all he loves language and the sacred lanes that can be plotted through the forest.
It Starts With a Birthstone - 200 Albums for 2026 # 143 Liam Hayes
'Wearing canvas sneakers in the freezing snow....'
Being happy to remain a cult is never a bad idea. A hidden secret to those in the know. Liam Hayes, the Chicago artist formerly known as Plush seems happy with what he is and what he does. Latest album Dancing Backwards is a good case in the argument that if it ain't broken why change things.Just change gear, Into the smooth lane.
Why indeed. This by turns is soulful, chintzy culty cool Smoochy cruise lounge music for the Indie set. Lush and indeed Plush. Charm personified. 'He's dancing backwards, heading for that iceberg; I'll drink to that !...
Monday, August 10, 2026
Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 - 1,337 Nico - The Marble Index
Nico is an artist you grow into. Not unlike the embrace of the grave. You're not born with awreness of mortality but it's something you learn to respect given the passing of time. A voice and presence that feels alien and offputting when you're young actually feels like great company with the passing years.
Song(s) of the Day # 4,475 Bellows
Bellows 'Que Bellow!' Brooklyn Twee Pop in the Sufjan Stevens School of doing things is charm and rapture and melody personified. It takes Sufjan's innoavtions to their logical conclusion. To a point where everything, absolutely everything is turning in on itself leading to a riotous eruption of colour, motion and invention wherever you look.
In quick turn. One track after another. Call and response Baroque intriacy. Orchestral ambition and exmination of beauty at every turn.
This is incredibly indulgent stuff but more admirable for each turn, It's so hook laden that it feels like you're gorging on marshmallow but makes you keep coming back for more. A record that stalks continents. Tell your friends. Spread the word !
500 Greatest Albums of the 2000's # 96 Johnny Cash - American III; Solitary Man
Johnny Cash takes ordinary and extraordinary songs,. Gives his twist on them and they have another dimension.
Sunday, August 9, 2026
It Starts With a Birthstone - 200 Albums for 2026 # 144 C.O.L.A - Cost Of Living Adjustment
Drinking a Cola, listening to C.O.L.A.'s latest; Cost Of Living Adhustment. Aren't I just the Post Punk, Punk. It's a cool album. Cure meet Wire in Toronto at a Surrealist Exhibition.
Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 - 1,338 Yes - Relayer
I'm constantly urged to listen to Yes. Then I'm faced immediately by 21 minute tracks which commence with everybody soloing. I feel my will to live ebbing . And then the voacals kick in. Meh!
500 Greatest Albums of the 2000's # 97 Aaliyah - Aaliyah
Aaliyah's an artists I wasn't aware of until ten minutes ago. This album came out a quarter of a century ago and she was gone shortly afterwards. It's a sinuous, wonderful album that hasn't dated an ounce.
Song(s) of the Day # 4,474 Nirosta Steel
This is a cooler than thou Song of the Day. One for the art set. For those who stroke their chins and like to listen to Arthur Russell and Laurie Anderson rarities before doing some coke and going for cocktails in downtown Manhattan. Wish I was there !
Long time Arthur Russell collaborator Nirosta Steel has finally released his debut album My Skyscraper decades down the line and Pitchfork are so delighted about it they've published the kind of review you'd expect focusing on the concept of play as a tagline.
My Skyscraper is certainly a whole new shade of fun. Funky, elusive, full of in jokes and fretless bass. Light as souffle and not an ounce on the waist. Waiter !!!
Saturday, August 8, 2026
Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 - 1,339 XTC - Drum & Wires
At secondary school, XTC were approachable. They were not that much older than us and from all appearances not much more mature, they snapped into the hormonal mindset.
500 Greatest Albums of the 2000's # 98 Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
An early indication from the Arcade Camp that 'messianic' can also equate with 'ludicrously egotistical and narcississtic ' and 'rather humourless'. This has its moments but I prefer to go to Funeral or The Suburbs. They're Arcade Fire albums peeps.
It Starts With a Birthstone - 200 Albums for 2026 # 145 Alice Costelloe - Move On With The Year
Move on with the year? Well that's certainly the plan. Onto March and Spring and the lengthening days and the Easter season. Today we have precisely that Move On With The Year the debut album from Alice Costelloe and a veritable peach. Thanks once more to Darren Jones for directing me here.
Reading through the accompanying blurb there seems to be a certain heft and marketing expectation behind the release of the record . It struck me as a very 2026 sounding record. Innocence, awe. Wide eyed millennial wonder. It reminded me of Aldous Harding who will be along before long with her new album on May 8th. In the meantime this will more than do.
Song(s) of the Day # 4,473 Wendy Eisenberg
A record I've been listening to on and off for a couple of weeks. Wendy Eisenberg by Wendy Eisenberg on Joyful Noise Recordings. Strangely her eigth album in all. Post Millennial ennui and positivity. Rather Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind in tone. Laurel Canyon autumnal vibes swinging lightlly off its axis. and really rather poetic and entrancing.
Friday, August 7, 2026
Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 - 1,340 St Vincent - Actor
Another day, another shot at Actor and St. Vincent. I try with st Vincent, I really do. Perhaps it's uncharitable of me but I never feel that I'll ever try quite as hard as she does herself. Her music is erm.... artful and kitsch in turns. She's rather like a Wes Anderson character. A little cluttered for my tastes.
500 Greatest Albums of the 2000's # 97 Richmond Fontaine - Post To Wire
Richmond Fontaine are the kind of seasoned Americana contenders that Uncut Magazine grinds its bones to make their bred upon. I find it's not generally what i'm looking for first thing but it tends to grow on me as the sun completes its climb in the heavens.
Bands like this and Wilco could easily have been writers or journalists in another age but during the Rock & Roll years have chosen to make their living on the circuit. From one town to the next from one record to the next. Chronicling the life of the midwest journeyman.
It Starts With a Birthstone - 200 Albums for 2026 # 146 The Sleeves - The Sleeves
The list of Great Rock & Roll band names yet untaken shortens once again. We've had The Shirts. We've had The Shoes and The Sneakers. Now we have The Sleeves . Jack Cooper is behind this and they have a debut album out which is glacial and cool. Made up of sparse minimal Post Rock tunes.
Great start to my Sunday morning. Low, Slint, Wire and Codeine spring to mined. Going back to the third Velvet Underground album. The well of this remarkable Spring.
Song(s) of the Day # 4,473 Fake Canadian
Howard Ingerman of Fake Candian asks the question on the lips of all discerning Pop Pickers. Namely was Andy Partridge circa 1978, the most irritating voice in the History of Rock & Roll?
The jury is still out on that one. Fake Canadian's Fellow Traveller spins on in best skinny tie New Wave fashion, if New Wave had happened in the suburbs of San Jose.. Timothy Is In Danger is a Generation Z rewrite of Making Plans For Nigel. This is confused hormonal joy for badege collectors.
The marmite factor kicks in pretty quickly on . Andy Partridge They Might Be Giants, Howard Ingerman. Timothy is in danger.
Thursday, August 6, 2026
Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 - 1,341 White Stripes - Icky Thump
I confess I sometimes struggle with Jack White and wonder whether I should be listening to a record he likes instead.
500 Greatest Albums of the 2000's # 98 Radiohead - Amnesiac
I try not to be a music snob though in some ways I realise I am. Music has been my major experience over the course of life really. There are other strands but music strikes me as the most important channel and source.
I'm not a competist as far as Radiohead go. I don't know all their records intimately. But frankly I'd say they dwarf most other bands in terms of their scope and ingenuity
Song(s) of the Day # 4,472 Gentle Brontosaurus
I love music that seems to come at you from another time and that seems to be a characteristic of music of these times. Gentle Brontosaurus hail from Madison Wisconsin and their vibe parks its tent midway between Alvvays and Belle & Sebastian.
But Three Hares their latest album takes me back further still. To the early to mid Eighties and the set of the more wholesome and tuneful bands of the American Alternative Invasion; the sweeter side of R.E.M., True West 10,000 Maniacs, Let's Active et al. Three Hares is at once and act of reclamation and rediscovery. It's sweet as American Ppie
It Starts With a Birthstone - 200 Albums for 2026 # 147 CS Cleaners
'Start spreading the news....' Where shall we start with CS Cleaners. Art Punk New York ingenues and their debut album What's This? . So What's This? Is This It? I wonder . It may as well be . I've been driven back 25 years already today as my sister has been posting wonderful pictures of her Wedding Day on her 25th Wedding Anniversary and dragging me back to that day. Sometimes you need to be dragged back in order to be dragged into a new space . Life is funny like that.
What's This? may not be Is This It? . But it exists in a not disimilar, unapolagetic space. It's uncomfortable in its own skin and that's contagious. It has quite the worst / best album cover you'll see this year. A mangey, mishappen but deeply loveable panther that's highly artistically improbable but deeply desirable at one and the same time. The record makes you feel like you're back in CBGB's or the Knitting Factory having one of the best nights of your life. Apple Art ! Cor !!!!
1967 Top 40 8th June # 8 Jimi Hendrix Experience
;The traffic lights they turn blue tomorrow.'
To live in a moment when a song like this was im the Top Ten.
Wednesday, August 5, 2026
Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 - 1,342 Led Zeppelin - Presence
Led Zep weree winding down but you wouldn't really have known it.
1967 Top 40 8th June # 9 Arthur Conley
120 seconds. A roll call. Some dances you might like to matser. No chorus to talk of but no real need for one.
It Starts With a Birthstone - 200 Albums for 2026 # 148 Drained Aeroplanes - Childish
The kind of record I'm immediately drawn to. An Australian band called Drained Aeroplanes. A name to conjur with. Childish. The title distils the essence of the record. Dreaming Sydney Indie. Short and sweet. Awkward and imprecise. Feels like as good a way to spend your youth as any.
500 Greatest Albums of the 2000's # 99 Goldfrapp - Seventh Tree
Song(s) of the Day # 4,471 Fazed On A Pony
There are times on It Starts when it feels like I'm on a hitting streak. Like a midwest hitter rounding the bases with the ball long gone. I've got a few more up my sleeve for the coming days. Today Fazed On A Pony's swan. Out of Auckland and in the best Flying Nun traditions.
This one skims across the lake like a perfectly judged pebble.VBut it's a verstile pebble. arying its delivery and intent with each suceeding track. It's a record that makes you glad to be alive which is all you can really ask of any album. Wire meet The Chills.
Tuesday, August 4, 2026
Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 - 1,343 Pearl Jam - Yield
I had my moments with Pearl Jam. An important friendship. Earnestness was the band's essential quality, but hey. I can be earnest myself. They also cannot resist drawing a metaphorical line in the metaphorical sand. Wuth them a song on every album comes along and my reaction is 'Yes'. There were actual several such moments on Yield.
500 Greatest Albums of the 2000's # 100 Jim O'Rourke - Insignificance
You feel like you are in safe hands here. A verteran of Wilco and Sonic Youth.. A craftsman. This draws on Harry Nilsson and is all the more weathered and inscrutable for that.
1967 Top 40 8th June # 10 The Who
Remarkable given what this was surely about that it was allowed to reach the Top Ten without excessive comment,
It Starts With a Birthstone - 200 Albums for 2026 # 149 Jose Gonzalez
I'm listening to Richard Thompson and thinking about Kevin Morby today. Jose Gonzalez' Against The Dying Of the Light has been chiming with that. Plugging into that primal Folk energy. Revving up the motor and presseing your bootheels on the accelerator and bombing down the woodland road until dawn.
There's some Nick Drake inspired poetics and picking and that's always welcome. This is some record. It has plenty of company in 2026.. 'Do not go gentle until that night.; You heard what the man says.
Song(s) of the Day # 4,470 Shearwater
There are records I think are slightly affected and I struggle while listening to them as to whether I like them or not. There's a line between ambitious and pretentious which can be akin to tightrope walking.
Shearwter's The New World is such a record. The band have two decades and seven albums behind them A long established artistic pedigree so it's probably a bit late in the day to take pot shot at them so I let it spin instead and it won me over presently and utterly. Orchestral Art Rock. But that's not always a bad thing. Daydream unbelievers.
Monday, August 3, 2026
Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 - 1,344 Eno - Take Tiger Mountain
I suspect I should have more Brian Eno albums.
500 Greatest Albums of the 2000's # 101 The National - Boxer
The National came to prominence at a time when I wasn't paying much attention to music. I've tried to catch up but suspect I never will. I confess I find this rather bloodless. I like the drumming but that's not in itself enough.
It Starts With a Birthstone - 200 Albums for 2026 # 150 Michael Ian Cummings - Godzilla
I was in two minds for today's Song(s) and Album(s) of the day because it's generally the latter these days on It Starts With a Birthstone. Should I share my thoughts on Make Up Is a Lie, The latest chapter in Morrissey's increasingly unhinged, slightly unpleasant and ridiculously self indulgent musical and personal narrative. He has opinions and he will not be silenced it seems.
That can wait I decided, for another day. Instead I decided Michael Ian Cummings, another suggestion from the ever reliable Darren Jones. An Art Rock album called Godzilla from the ashes of New York band Skaters. that's much to my liking.
There's a certain sadness here. A sense of life and experience receding in the rear view mirror but something exciting appearing round the next bend. Keep your foot pressed on the pedal. This is rather lovely. We're into the day
Song(s) of the Day # 4,469 Mallory Hawk
Texture. One of the distinctive qualities of the 4AD record label. Such an important ones to the likes of myself. Texture is there in abundance on Mallory Hawk's debut album Chinook. Light and shade. It's a record that's been a while in terms of its gestation and appearance but it's clearly worthy of the wait. Frankly this is a a special and magical record indeed.
Albums like these stand or fall on the investment and emotional stake cultivated in the listener for the musician or musicians behond it In this case I'd suggest that Hawk scores highly. I was won over in three songs.
This reminds me of Throwing Muse, Breeders and This Mortal Coil records, Willing to shift gear and move into space of one moment, then become more ruminative the next. Chinook is a pure state of being. Exceptional.
Sunday, August 2, 2026
Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 - 1,345 The Beach Boys - Smiley Smile
I think what I love about the great Rock & Roll stories is that there always seems to be pretty much everything at stake. 'Oceans fall and mountains drift.'
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