Post Rock Music that functions essentially as classic or official sountracks do.A very beautiful record.
Sunday, September 13, 2026
500 Greatest Albums of the 2000's # 62 Rufus Wainwright - Poses
'One way is Rome. The other way is Meeca. On either side. On either side of our motor bike...'
I have a good friend who rails against Rufus Wainwright at every opportunity. Says he cannot hold a note and is a talentless flibertigibbet who should not be allowed within a mile of a stage.
What does he know dear readers. I think Rufus is fab. Possibly an angel in flight. Poses is triff !!!
Song(s) of the Day # 4,509 Formal Sppeedwear
Stoke On Trent's finest if that's what you were seeking, the oddly named Formal Sppeedwear take Post Punk around the block on debut album Punch Card and do the jerky presposterous affected dance that is the odd privelidge of youth. This on the surface may seem a slightly formulaic record. But it's well worth perservering with
Saturday, September 12, 2026
It Starts With a Birthstone - 200 Albums for 2026 # 116 Ian Prowse - No Names
Ian Prowse is an old school singer songwriter of the Old School. The kind of guitar toting good humoured storytelling, Faces, Costello, Squeeze. that seems to have gone out of fashion. No Names is a timely reminder.
500 Greatest Albums of the 2000's # 63 The Delgados - The Great Eastern
The Delgados are regularly a safe place for me.
Song(s) of the Day # 4,508 Asher White
'There goes a rolling rise. There goes a dull afternoon.....' So opens Love Aggregates, the latest album from Evanston, Illinois cultural and musical phenomenon Asher White . Asher's prolific to say the least and has been releasing music since she was 14.
Love Aggregates, is consistently versatile, lilting and easy on the ear. Occasionally chintzy but with a refined Pop sensibility Imagination in flight. 'We're chasing every pigeon that we see.'
Friday, September 11, 2026
It Starts With a Birthstone - 200 Albums for 2026 # 117 IAN SWEET - Shiverstruck
IAN Sweet continues to make the most fascinating, enigmatic reords on any block. A dollop of Jobriath. A twist of Sufjan. But brave, original and frequently deeply poignant. A match struck in the dark....
500 Greatest Albums of the 2000's # 64 Burial - Untrue
I'm an open minded fello. But the prospect of listening to an album called Untrue by a band called Burial didn't feel me with particular tjoy. I stepped up to the plate. It initially surprised me. It didn't sound like I expected it to. My heart didn't fill with joy.. Boredom really. After seven minutes, I put on something else.
Song(s) of the Day # 4,507 This Is Lorelei
A Friday Morning and a sublime record to greet it. The Singer In My Band the third album from This Is Lorelei from Nate Amos of Water From Your Eyes. It's old school, guitar driven wonder.The great American songbook.'
This is firmly in a tradition, and it's not just an American one. Neil Finn, Jeff Tweedy. Andy Partridge, Roger McGuinn, Alex Chilton. Jangling literary and Folk wonder. But this feels fresh, flowing and pure. The good stuff.
Thursday, September 10, 2026
Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 - 1,319 The Beatles - Let It Be ... Naked
Always one of the uneasy listens in The Beatles catalogue. Because you can sense that they are coming apart.
500 Greatest Albums of the 2000's # 65 The Avalanches - Since I Left You
A repost for the last time I listened to this:
The album that's been on permanent rotation all day. It's my mother's ninety first birthday and I'm also doing a massive spring clean having taught my online classes . This record takes me back . To Katowice, Poland where I first bought it on CD just after it came out.
It's an innovative and celebrated record if course. Given that it's entirely composed of samples. Over 3,500 in all. Allo f which naturally had to be credited, But there's no need to worry yourself with the painful processes behind that anymore than it pays to think of the creative details of Morph or Wallace & Gromit when watching them.
It's poetry in motion frankly. A record that can easily be listened to on loop because it's not like Astral Weeks or Rubber Soul in that it's best surrendered to rather than broken down into individual moments.
It Starts With a Birthstone - 200 Albums for 2026 # 118 Olivia Rodrigo
I make no great claims for this blog as an act of cultural commentary and significance. It's just a way of marking the days. Olivia Rodrigo's you seem pretty sad for a girl in love is an album that's making a global splash and see,s like a pretty likeable Pop Record with vegue pretences of cultural edginess.
Song(s) of the Day # 4,506 Luluc
'It's just gonna be carnage....' 'I wasn't prepared for the intense outpouring of emotion...'
The new Oasis film is in cinemas near you now. Here are two lines from its trailer. One from each of the Gallagher Twins. They're clearly 'living the dream.' Well they have been for as long as I can remember. You could go and watch it. Or you could give Luluc's sixth album Sweet Thief a listen instead.
To my ears this is a preferable option. Sweet Thief is the easiest uneasy listening experience on the block. Soft and gentle with dark interiors and infinite depths. Nico and Simon & Garfunkel are listed on the Spotify bio and that generally works for me . This at the moment is my place of eternal stillness. The weekend beckons !
' Dopamine slot machine. Stole my baby.....' Luluc Dopamine Slot Machine,
'It's Ok to be different. It's OK to want to get free...' Luluc. Wanna Get Free
Wednesday, September 9, 2026
It Starts With a Birthstone - 200 Albums for 2026 # 119 Real Numbers - Was It Always This Way
Mineapolis Jingle Jangle. Anglophile Indie that makes June Brides its Polar Star..
Song(s) of the Day # 4,505 The Womack Sisters
The Womack Sisters eponymous album hits the spot. It's not innovative so much as a confirmation. There's not a sequence or note out of place . It's state of the art Expressway To Your Soul !
500 Greatest Albums of the 2000's # 66 Queens of the Stone Age - Songs For The Deaf
Queens of the Stoneage were a Rock & Roll franchise very much in tune with the age of Tarantino, Wes Anderson and The Coen Brothers with a very refined taste and sense of history and where they wanted to fit within it,
Song(s) of the Day # 4,504 Off Contact
Sioux Falls, South Dakota's finest's latest album Can You, (their third by my reckoning), draws an interesting line in the sand.
There's something quite special here. A sense of genuine engagement. Fervent, questing insurrectionary quality of Jane's Addiction.The Doors, Big Thief and Protomartyr . The way that only an American band at their best can sound and Off Contact sound like they're in line and urgent for their turn. .
I really believe that life matters and it's a test. I get the sense of that in good records and I get it here. Can You has a febrile, insolent quality. Ones to watch.
Tuesday, September 8, 2026
500 Greatest Albums of the 2000's # 67 Eminem - The Eminem Show
Eminem happened during my cd years. I bought a couple of cds but didn't listen to them much. It doesn't tell my story.
Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 - 1,321 Agalloch - The Mantle
Exreme metal band out of Portland Oregon. I wondered how long I would last. It started promisingly with portentious major chords. The first track passed without vocals. I was a bit wary though. The next track was fifteen minutes long and called In The Shadow Of Our Pale Companion . I rode The Spotify advert break. We sailed into The Shadow Of Our Pale Companion . I suspected it was by Styx. The first vocals came in. I was minded of Gollum. I ejected.
It Starts With a Birthstone - 200 Albums for 2026 # 120 Ultra Lights - Pleasure's All Yours
I noticed recently that these days I'm generally listening to young bands from Idaho that sound quite a bit like Pavement. There are worse things to do as you make your way into your sixties. As far as I know it's not an indictable offence. Though you can't be sure of anything these days.
Ultra Lights are the next best thing. They hail from Atlanta, Georgia and sound not unlike Kiwi Jr. Montreal's very own nephews of Pavement whose latest album Blowin' Up I eulogised on Wednesday.
Ultra Lights are definitely too cool for school and cast their net slightly wider. To err Parquet Courts, Teenage Fanclub , The Strokes, Franz Ferdinand and err Pavement on debut Pleasure's All Yours.as with Kiwi Jr' they keep it simple, avoid complications, are catchier than the Plague and have more hooks than Captain Hook. This seems to be a feature of this err Modern Age.
They're firing aces and tying laces for thirty minutes here. It's a formula sure. But pretty much Formula One, Certainly on the podium come the chequered flag. . Another near bullseye from Darren Jones, best friend and first mate of this blog. Many thanks Starbuck.
Song(s) of the Day # 4,503 Reds.Pinks & Blues
Red. Pinks & Blues are one of those bands that you know what their album sounds like before you've heard it. That is precisely their charm and appeal. Or perhaps if you weren't inclined why you wouldn't touch their records with a long bargepole.
I'm in the former rather than the latter category. I listened to their latest record Acknowledge Kindness last night. it's a sound basic principle and the songs adhere to its principles. The songs unroll like a summer afternoon doing nothing in particular in grassy sunlit meadows. Being seeventeen forever, at least at heart There's something effortless about the atmosphere inetrwoven here. It's like staying seventeen forever.
Monday, September 7, 2026
500 Greatest Albums of the 2000's # 68 Low - The Great Destroyer
Low own their sound, which in itself is unusual. And it mutates but in logical and gradual fashion from album to album. The Great Destroyer has an awed metallic thrill about it.
It Starts With a Birthstone - 200 Albums for 2026 # 121 Peking Duk - Paradise
Australians Peking Duk's awaited debut album strikes me as a branch on The Avalanches tree. All bound for Party Town. Many miles and hours away on The Good Ship Paradise !
Song(s) of the Day # 4,502 Dexys Midnight Runners
'The only way to change things is to shoot men who arrange things of...' Dexys Midnight Runners have changed down the years. Ireland To Wolverhampton but dreaming of America. New album Love is rather lovely and unashamedly barmy. An inclusive, expansive dance. Towards the sunset.
The songs are less frantic and worked on than those of the early days . Searching For the Young Soul Rebels or Too Rye Aye. More akin to the slower pace the band have favoured since. But you get the sense that Kevin is more comfortable in his skin and wardrobe than he ever was.
There's very little here that is essential but it's all rather lovely and easy on the ear. Kevin has become a crooner. Everything has a race grace. ragged unashamed poise and beauty.For those who like a bit of ham with their ham. 'See you on the other side. '
Sunday, September 6, 2026
Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 - 1,322 Gillian Welch - Time (The Revelator)
Unwinds like a hot afternoon on the porch with a pitcher of Pims between old friends down South.
It Starts With a Birthstone - 200 Albums for 2026 # 122 Tricky - Different When It's Silent
Tricky is hardly a man with anything to prove. All these years on he works his way up and down his own uneasy slope in darkness. This is rewarding, challenging music and the man deserves respect.
500 Greatest Albums of the 2000's # 69 The National - Alligator
The National always seem to talk to me about the move to suburbia. With all that implies.You get the feeling listening to Alligator that Life Is Elsewhere.
Song(s) of the Day # 4,501 Paris Paloma
I went to UEA in the Mid Eighties . Looking back I was in the right place at the right time. I started as a History Student using the common judgement of youth of my A Level Results but switched majors in the second term to Literature. It was the right thing to do.
The American & Literature faculty at U.E.A. at the time was unfeasibly strong. Critics, writers. Authorities on the subject. A strong Feminist reputation. Lorna Sage, Angela Carter. gossiping in the bar over cigarettes and shots. As good as it got. In a memorable lectore I attended a fresh faced young woman hasd the temerity to ask Carter if she was a feminist. The response was shrivelling and embarassing to witness.Carter cut her down. I wonder whether the girl concerned has ever forgotten it. We were all so young. Impressionable. Green.
Forty years down the line I'm listening to Paris Paloma's awaited second album, The Fatal Flaw and it's an incredible record. Most certainly Feminist and with an immpressive inventory of melodies and narrative. By turns celebratory and introspective. Joyous and defiant. They're songs which tackle issues.
Occasionally it's slightly pleased with itself and you wonder whether issues are being ticked off but that's not without reason or rhyme. These are the times. She's a brave artist who stands tall and makes artistic statements which are worthy of scrutiny. It's actually the stuff of master's theses which you wonder a little about.
But I grew up in an earnest age too. I just think with that without smartphones we were a little more carefree.Not needing to check the way we were feeling with The Internet prognosis on a constant basis. That's no real criticism of The Fatal Flaw. It's an incredible record I'll keep coming back to.
Saturday, September 5, 2026
Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 - 1,323 Sinead O'Connor - The Lion & The Cobra
Sinead O'Connor was not like anyone else. An astonishing talent. She was raw on The Lion & The Cobra and more amenable for the pop market than she ever was therefter.
It Starts With a Birthstone - 200 Albums for 2026 # 123 Margaret Glaspy - I Am Both
Margaret Glaspy is in Michigan and it's colder than she'd like. So she's here to sing you some songs. They're plucked, guitar songs of reflection and emotion. Of heartbreak and heartache. Like sitting down of an afternoon with a great novel. Recommended.
500 Greatest Albums of the 2000's # 70 Panic At The Disco ! A Fever You Can't Sweat Out
Panic At The Disco ! A group speaking a language that was never mine. Frantic and rather discordant.
Song(s) of the Day # 4,500 Allah Las
I like milestones and we're heading towards a notable summit on It Starts with a Birthstone.The arrival of an Allah Las album is always notable and worthy of recognition. But Sirenas, their sixth is different. It's a series of spaced and spooky instrumentals, and is really rather beautiful.
Reviews suggest it explores modern preoccupations, Liminal Spaces and the like. I leave discussion of such matters to others. It's certainlyplayful and elusive. You can hear the sound of lapping waves and imagine that they are Californian ones. That's where the quartet hail for. There's plenty of sunshine here and no little joy !
Friday, September 4, 2026
It Starts With a Birthstone - 200 Albums for 2026 # 124 Cleo Sol - Gentlewoman
Cleo Sol's Gentlewoman is classic and rather lovely Soul of the loveliest stripe.
500 Greatest Albums of the 2000's # 71 Panda Bear - Person Pitch
Endless invention from the Animal Collective / Beach Boys stable.
Song(s) of the Day # 4,499 Black Marble
Black Marble's Life In Small Places an album of Synth Pop inflected tunes by a man named Chris Stewart sporting a moustache Peter Hook left on the shelf in 1980. Not lacking in garvitas. melody or shameful dancefloor moves.
Thursday, September 3, 2026
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