1967 Top 40 8th June # 17 The Hollies

 

The kind of song you visualise comong out of radios and your dearly departed listening to on their transitors as they went about their days. 

It Starts With a Birthstone - 200 Albums for 2026 # 196 Jana Horn - Jana Horn

 

The streets are wet with rain and it feels like we're ready for Spring. Jana Horn's latest album is spinning. Ingenue beauty. Sybille Baier. Vashti Bunyan,, David Lynch. Slightly offkey outsider music. It's all better on the outside. That's the way to the inside. 

Jana is playing at The Cumberland Arms at the beginning of March. I need to get my ticket and see if I can fid myself someone to go with. Donald Trump has decided he has a right to Greenland. Minerals? The world for the time being keeps turning. 

The Soul Searcher - The 50 Greatest Joni Mitchell Songs # 7 Chelsea Morning

 

I always associate Chelsea Morning with Terri Garr. Her role as a rather grim waitress in Afterhours with Rat Traps in her living room. It's not fair to the song itself which is about the act of becoming, Of 'putting on the day.'

Song(s) of the Day # 4,423 Nirvana

 

I'm up early, and I'm listening to Nirvana. No, not that one, though I might give Nevermind a spin later. But the original Nirvana, the Baroque Pop London band from the original Psychedelic dawn. Chamber Pop of the simplest, most innocent and appealing sort. Like finding yourself on the carpet again. In front of Children's hour.

I'm listening to The Story Of Simon Simopath their debut album. It came out on Island Records in 1967. All innocent wonder and the sense that the world is turning from black and white to colour at last. That will do me. I'm ready for whatever the day has to throw at me . 

The Soul Searcher - The 50 Greatest Joni Mitchell Songs # 8 Urge For Going

'I awoke today and found the frost perched on the town.'

You write a song. Create poetry . And art. Then Put it on the B side of a seven inch single. 

 

Charlie Watts

 

Modern Lovers

 

Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 - 1,384 Bill Evans Trio - Waltz For Debby

 

The ideal early evening record. As shadows gather. 

1967 Top 40 8th June # 18 Nancy Sinatra & Frank Sinatra

 

I've always thought there was something wierd and perverse about this song and the the way that a father and daughter sang it to each other. Nobody I've ever mentioned this too has shared my opinion. I guess you call it Show Business.

250 Albums- An Arbitrary Rumble Through My Record Collection # 9 Pixies - Bossanova

 

Watching the World Cup with the volume off. Reading about Lenny Kaye's friendship with Lou Reed and their shared passion for horror comics. Listening to  Pixies'  Bossanova at high volume. True Romance and Rock & Roll are not dead. 

It Starts With a Birthstone - 200 Albums for 2026 # 197 Doug Gillard

 

A quiet work day is a difficult thing for me these days/.I have nothing to do. So why not just enjoy doing nothing. It was something you didn't have the slightest difficulty with as a child. But now you feel you must be doing something. Running up some hill. Worrying about something.

But I'm, not going to. I'm listening to Doug Gilliard's new album Parallel Stride . It's straight as you go. Neat licks and chord changes. Doug sounds like the guy in Urge Overkill and the band sound like a Power Pop band from 1974 or a New Wave Band from 1979. It's a place where men are always playing with the Queen of Hearts.And the Joker ain't the only fool.

Song(s) of the Day # 4,421 Jenny Gillespie Mason

 

This appears to be a Golden Age for diaphonous hazy Folk Albums which recall the earlier Golden Age  for such stuff. The sixties and early seventies. The days of Bashti. Bridget St John and Nicky D. Jenny Gillespie Mason has been in Sis but now she's branching out on her own winding hillside path with In The Safety of the Light. It's all Folky Flutes and autumnal melody. Much of this is inspired and sublime.

500 Greatest Albums of the 2000's # 146 Ween - White Pepper

 

Ween were ahead of the curve in some respect in that offered the whole Nostalgiafest experience before it became De Rigeur. White Pepper could have come out in 1973. It's AOR Radio for those who weren't around for Foghat and Captain & Tenneille.

1967 Top 40 8th June # 19 P P Arnold

 

There's a purity and simplicity to everything about this that is still quite astonishing. Written by Cat Stevens.

It Starts With a Birthstone - 200 Albums for 2026 # 198 Jenny On Holiday - Quicksand Heart

 

Jenny Hollingsworth peels off Let's Eat Grandma for an excursion of her own as Jenny on Holiday and Quicksand Heart a holiday properly in the Pop Sun. Pitchfork detects Replacements Cindi Lauper and Prefab Sprout within its grooves. I'm not sure I can but the record's groovy..

It's all rather like a helium balloon appearing in the sky on a greyer than grey day. Light as a feather. Not remotely challenging or particularly interesting lyrically but what were you expecting Knut Hamsen's Hunger. ? I imagine Nick Cave will be along with fresh product presently. The third cool new record in three days on It Starts With a Birthstone. January Blues? Not here.

500 Greatest Albums of the 2000's # 147 Silver Jews - Bright Flight

 

Strange things happened in the New Millennium. The Canon adjusted and bent out of shape. Nick Cave and Mark E. Smith became near mythical figures. And David Berman and Bill Callahan and Cat Power  rose to prominence as a Holy Trinity for the Alternative Set.  

Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 - 1,385 Bill Joel - 52nd Street

 

What to say about Billy Joel. A short man who dreamed large. Listening to his records generally made me wonder what New Jersey was like.They never really made me yearn to want to go there.

The Soul Searcher - The 50 Greatest Joni Mitchell Songs # 9 Woodstock

 

Mithchell was unable to appear at Woodstock and was bitterly upset not to do so. So she wrote this Listening to it now it feels like a magical enterprise captured. Cynicism be damned. The dream of avoiding being a cog in something turning. 

Song(s) of the Day # 4,420 The Strawbs

 

I started this blog in 2013 with no clear destination in sight ,because it seemed like a good way to occupy myself, because writing was one of the things which I most liked to do and I wanted to try to get better if I could . I'm still at my desk writing pretty much on a daily basis thirteen years on and haven't run dry quite yet and don't intend to.

A lot has happened to me in terms of my life in the meantime but that's not why I write here. This is not an exercise in emotional bloodletting, angst ot grief or distress. I don't really like that kind of writing or engage in those kind of exercises if I can avoid doing so.

The records I like most are the ones that show you a whole vision, an imaginative universe to inhabit and feed on. Losing yourself for forty minutes or so in an entirely plausible and self sustaining alternate terrain and topography that you'd never have imagined possible. I have one today. 

I've just bought The Strawbs Grave New World on the Newcastle Quayside and now I'm sitting listening to it in my living room on loop as the world turns and the afternoon thickens and drifts ito Sunday evening. Grave New World  beckons you into a world as blessed and magical as the happiest childhood memories. A sylvan grove to pause and billow and spread the quilt for repast in the best imaginable company.  

Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 - 1,386 The Clash - Give Em Enough Rope

 

I've heard a lot of nonsense about The Clash in the last few years. That The Damned were better than them. That they were just a London thing. That they weren't Punk Rock. That they were just about selling trousers. 'Oh I don't like Joe Strummer's voice.' Lots and lots of Pish & Nonsense. 

The band signed to a major. They didn't play Top Of The Pops. They were a mass of contradictions and a fantastic, fantastic thing from start to chaotic end. There's not a band on earth, still, that can hold a candle to them. They offer heroism in spades.

500 Greatest Albums of the 2000's # 148 Maher Shalal Hash Baz -- From a Summer to Another Summer: An Egypt To another Egypt

 

This is what television's were invented for . To play whimsical, joyful albums on. Well done John Logie Baird ! A whi,msical compilation of fine and tender pieces. From the Japanes underground of the early Eighties to the warm embrace of Stephen Pastel.  Get away from the herd. 

It Starts With a Birthstone - 200 Albums for 2026 # 199 Voka Gentle - Domestic Bliss

 

Domestic Bliss? Surely an oxymoron A vain imagining. But in this case it happens to be the latest album from Voka Gentle a band for London who may be in the gutter and poseurs of am expressive dayglo sort but at least they're looking at the stars as they head for the hills as Dr.s Wilde and Bowie would prescribe, Even if the album cover is bad Salvador Dali and no mistake !

This is a bit of a ragbag but isn't lacking in daring or ambition. Even though occasionally I'm reminded of The Thompson Twins. Doctor Doctor !!! It's not running on the spot at least. It might be lacking in shape and substance on occasion but  its decorative, varued  and throws shapes.  I give it 7.5, it's It Starts With a Birthstone's song / album of the day. I salute its bravura. Who precisely is Torpedo Mike and why are Voka Gentle staring back down my telescope ? Your guess is as good as mine. 

250 Albums- An Arbitrary Rumble Through My Record Collection # 10 Elastica - Elastica

 

You gotta pick a pocket or...... I don't really care how Elastica are viewed these days. Strangely enough for such a bunch of brazen arriviste chancers, I think a case could be made that they were actually ahead of their time rather than behind it. As for their belated follow up to this glorious debut when they decide they would actually rather sound like The Fall than Blondie, Wire or The Stranglers. Hmm.....

Song(s) of the Day # 4,419 Jalen N'Gonda

 

Music isn't always particularly in 2026 I must say. Take Jalen N'Gonda's latest album Doctrine of Love. It's Neo Soul of the coolest stripe. They follow the Motown template to the tee. All the T's crossed and the I's dotted. But you wonder why to listen to this rather than a classic which came out in 1972.  I'm not entirely sure how to answer you. 

The Soul Searcher - The 50 Greatest Joni Mitchell Songs # 10 Help Me.

 

Joni's only Top Ten US Singleshit. About the act of falling in love. Not an easy thing. Joni was somewhat dismissive of this but said it 'sounded good on the radio.' I'd say she's selling a thing of great beauty somewhat short. 

It Starts With a Birthstone - 200 Albums for 2026 # 200 Thee Marloes - Di Hotel Malibu

 Well we'd better get going on this. I know very well that we're not yet halfway through July. But these things don't write themselves and it strikes me as time to get going as we make our way to December . This is a lovely way to kick off our countdown.

'Love is the strangest thing,,,,' Scrub love for life. I've been working since eight on a screen. Almost five hours in all. Teaching, or more accurately in my case, trying to learn from students in Dussledorf, Amsterdam and Hamburg. I learned a lot. I hope they did. 

Then I nipped down to my local library to seek some supplementary information. More leads. Diversification, never a bad idea. The case is never closed regardless of what Tom Verlaine thought, The one thing I know is I'm happy behind my desk. I never really plan to do anything else. Never back at an office. Back on the chain gang. 

On the way back I nipped into the record shop acriss the road. A record sleeve grabbed my attention. That's what record shops are for. Surabaya. Indonesian outfit Thee Marloes second album Di Hotel Malibu.  A reminder which is always welcome that the world is impossible exotic, and mystical.

I'm back at my desk now, The album is on and it's enchanting fare. Sultry, stuff to lure you onto the dancefloor and into a Seventies dream

Song(s) of the Day # 4,418 Fruit Bats

 

'Look at that mama spider crawling on the bouganvillea'

Day Two of the World Cup. And while I eagerly await witnessing the best football team Canada have ever produced at 8 o'clock according to reports. In the meantime,  I'm listening to The Landfill Fruit Bats twelth album. It's a comforting record. Distinctly old school. As if Dylan and Van the Man and Harry Nilsson are still in their prime and putting out excellent product. The same record forever. Not the worst idea.

Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 - 1,387 Stereolab - Transient, Random Noise Bursts With Announcements

 

The 2026 World Cup is due to start in twenty minutes. Mexico versus South Africa. I will watch it. But first I will listen to this. I have changed when it comes to football. I am closer to Stereolab's way of thinking than Ian Wight's these days though doubtless it will feature on my radar over the coming month. 

Transient, Random Noise Bursts With Announcements is a blurred magnificent European statement. There's a band that know and have achieved so much. This is a magical start on golden reins. The metal veins.  A poignant, magnificent and sustained vision. Let the games begin. 

500 Greatest Albums of the 2000's # 149 Fall Out Boy - From Under The Cork Tree

 

A whole era of expression I'm completely deaf too I'm afraid. Blink 142 and you'll miss it. 

The Soul Searcher - The 50 Greatest Joni Mitchell Songs # 11 Free Man In Paris

 

This is beginning to feel like Hopscotch between Court & Spark, Blue, Ladies of the Canon and Hejira..  Free Man In Paris is about watching Joni watching David Geffen on the move. 'Stoking the star maker machine, behind the popular song.'

Song(s) of the Day # 4,417 Death Cab For Cutie

 

I Built You a Tower, the eleventh studio from Seattle's Death Cab For Cutie is a sweet and tender record. By contrast with the Modest Mouse alum which confused and repelled me rather, a few days ago I'm finding this amenable and skipping back to the start. It's like an inviting eiderdown you return to rather than doing something more profitable with your day.

Of course you're always resigned to records at this distance into a band's journey being consumed to some degree by grief and resignation and that's the case here. In  this case reconnecting with Emo . Bands like to rediscover their origins and speculate on the nature of their first acts of departure. This is neatly done. The abiding impression of the record is warmth.

The Soul Searcher - The 50 Greatest Joni Mitchell Songs # 12 California

 

An incredible portrait of the times. A dream seems over .

Song(s) of the Day # 4,416 Liz Lawrence

 

Liz Lawrence has got the look and the modern sound. The new solemnity. On current album, Vespers she sounds like Phoebe, Aldous and erm Liz Lawrence. There's plenty of atmosphere and ennui. It's a damned good album that's accompanied me through a Stormy Wednesday.

Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 - 1,388 Japandroids - Celebration Rock

 

The kind of thing Uncut Magazine get unfeasibly excited about . I listen and generally feel slightly underwhelmed and go back to my Echo & The Bunnymen records. I supect tonight might be a case in point.

500 Greatest Albums of the 2000's # 150 The Cardigans - Long Gone Before Daylight

 

The Cardigans is a great name for a band. The Cardigans are a great band. This is an album from 2003. The term 'mature' probably applies. But the songwriting and arrangements are pure class. 

The Soul Searcher - The 50 Greatest Joni Mitchell Songs # 13 Hejira

 

Where Joni stands in relation Jazz is better left to those who know more about jazz than I do/ This features Jaco Pastorious and is resplendent.

Song(s) of the Day # 4,415 The Delgados

 

I woke up early. I listened to a record by The Delgados on my stereo while I had my breakfast. Now I'm listening to another on my television while I prepare for work.

'Hate is all you need apparently' According to the song I'm listening to. The Delgados are anything but Hateful. Quite the contrary. They're novelistic. Detailed. A Scottish Indie band from the Nineties and the early part of the Millennium who never quite got their due.

 But those for the likes of me are the important  ones. Love, The Velvet Underground. The Modern Lovers, Telvevision, Subway Sect, Wire, Cornershop, Stereolab, My tribe. The bands that could easily have been authors. Now there's a good name for a band. I imagine it's been taken. 

There are moments on Hate where the emotional horizons expand.  Where the flowers bloom and the trees burst into blossom. Where the sheer accumulation of  attention to detail bears small harvests and d youmomentarily feel like you're listening to the best record ever made and you want to tell the world even if you suspect that nobody might be listening. So you continue with your day. That's what art is for/  

The Soul Searcher - The 50 Greatest Joni Mitchell Songs # 14 The Circle Game

 

This feels impossible lapsarian. It takes you back to your mother's arms.

500 Greatest Albums of the 2000's # 151 Smog - A River Ain't Too Much To Love

 

Life remains a mystery. But it pays to explore its terrains. Its valleys and ravines. 'Slide, slide, slide. Down River....' What better companion than a Bill Callahan record. This gathers giddy momentum and post modernist resonance and you lose yourself.

Song(s) of the Day # 4,414 Provinz

 

I'm done for the day. I've just finishe teaching a charming young German woman called Sarah. She talked about visiting an LGBT Trade Fair in Berlin. How it was important to work for a company that reflected her own principles and ideals. We talked about the work she did and the English she needs. Had a great time together and I hope a useful time for her.

At the end of the hour I happened to ask her what kind of music she liked . She mentioned Provinz and I'm listening to them now. They're from Ravensberg in Baden Wurtemburg. I'm listening to Pazifik their album from last year now. It's much to my liking.

It exists in the same genral ballpark as Coldplay. But I don't mind Coldplay. Pazifik is a record that billows and gathers with tangible gusto. Its epiphanies are not inconsiderable  .  

Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 - 1,389 Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Live Rust

 

An incredible way to make your break from the pack once and for all. Also a wonderful Sunday night record.

 

500 Greatest Albums of the 2000's # 152 Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Dig Lazarus Dig !!!

 

Let's face it. The precedent for Nick Cave & The bad Seeds are - The Doors. Dark, sexy, literary. sly. I've just finished listening to Morrison Hotel. Now I'm listening to Dig Lazarus Dig !!! I find it much harder work. But that always happens !

The Soul Searcher - The 50 Greatest Joni Mitchell Songs # 15 In France They Kiss On Main Street

 

Teenage Romance alchemised into thirty-something artistic genius.

250 Albums- An Arbitrary Rumble Through My Record Collection # 10 Sarah Vaughan - Cool Baby

 

Music is something you can lose yourself in. Like writing. Life is essentially about escape. That's why we were given imaginations. Escape. Into a memory. Into a vanished imagined world. Into yourself. A time you may not have actually experienced yourself. A relationship you may not actually have had yourself. But one which chimes with the ones you have. Or are having. Escape. Into nuance.

Song(s) of the Day # 4,413 Modest Mouse

 

 I am listening to Modest Mouse's new album An Eraser & A Maze. It's not a particularly enjoyable experience but I shall persist. Modest Mouse are apparrently Pacific Nothwest legends. That's news to me . My idea of a Pacific Nothwest legend is The Sonics. Or Jimi Hendrix. 

An Eraser & A Maze is the band's eighth album. A key member has just died which of course is regrettable and apparently the lyrical themes circle and come back to grief. The band are currently intoning 'Life's a dream...' from my TV set. All I can say is if it is, if that's true, I hope the dream's a bit better than this album.

I keep listening because I think I must be missing something but nothing seems to stick. It seems very clever. But not remotely tuneful. Everything is clever these days. It all sounds  like the audio equivalent of  a shelf of tasteful paperbacks in a house in the suburbs. Vigiania Woolf, Pynchon and Carver, toni Morrison, Cheever and David Foster Wallace. But actually it all feels more like a cry of desperation .From a whisper to a squeak !

Damon Albarn

 

Top 100 Records - SublimMedia # 51 Captain Beefheart - Trout Mask Replica

 

We pause for breath here. The author is taking a hiatus. But first Trout Mask Replica. A record I've never listened to before. It's relentless eternal motion. For many a sacred text. I surprised myelf and was smitten.

I've always been reistant to this album for some reason even though I love the Good Captain. But today I just sat at my desk , Put on my headphone. Listened to the album in its entirety . It's like leaping into a highly polluted river and flowing downstream with the debris. And I found the experience highly thrilling.  

250 Albums- An Arbitrary Rumble Through My Record Collection # 11 Ultravox - Rage In Eden

 

I need a record store converstion every few days. To feed in to what I write here and generally to feed my soul or what I like to think passes for one. So today, I chatted to Nick. He went to see Midge Ure last night and apparently Midge was fab. So now I'm listening to Rage In Eden and the vox lads are going through their Mittel Europa motions. I fancy a beer. In a pint glass. The way the Czechs pour them.

I confess I find the angular cheeks and vivid sidies rather preposterous, but I'm pleased Nick had a great time. I know Midge  has been there and done it all. But Rage in Eden still sounds all pose and little meat on the bone to my ears. An approximation of Robert Musil in cartoon form

The Soul Searcher - The 50 Greatest Joni Mitchell Songs # 17 I Don't Know Where I Stand

 

Being in between. Hearing crickets call. The insecurity of not knowing what the response might be. But also the artistic permanence of the statement. And the peace.

Song(s) of the Day # 4,412 Heron

 

I'm sitting in my living room listening to Heron's second album Twice as Nice & Half the Price. It's a double. It came out in 1972 on Decca Reccords.. It's the definition of Pastoral charm and carried me back to my own childhood in the Seventies.Visits to Grandparents in Dorset and Sussex.

My Grandmother on my mother's side retired to a Cul De Sac bungalow in Eastbourne in the early Seventies. . My grandfather had died just before she moved there and she went on with life as well as she could for twenty years before she herself passed in the early nineties. .Though she must have been terribly lonely sometimes. My mother called her every day. I keep the tradition alive and call mum daily to see how she is keeping. Half five on the dot.

I have special memories of visiting my grandmother. Her succession of labrador companions. We used to walk them in the neighbouring avenues. Drive them up to the Sussex downs early in the morning with rabbits scuttling across the road into the ditches at our approach with the labrador bounding up and straining and frothing against the window.

 Penguin Chocolate Biscuits. The different colours . My Uncle's model cars and aeroplanes, kept in the back bedroom in the cupboards. A memorial sabre sword displayed above the mantelpiece. The Moscow Olympics which we watched together. Steve Ovett. Sebastian Coe. Athletes from the Eastern Bloc trailing in their wake. The arrival of my Uncle Malcolm and Aunt Linda and their bounding red setters and their newborn arrival Alexander.

My mother held Alexander in her arms and I asked her 'Would you swap places.'She said 'Yes I would.' But almost fify years on I wouldn't. I wouldn't swop places with anybody. I think it's important to be happy with where you are and who you are. What you are.

Records like Twice as Nice & Half the Price help me feel this way. It's an ordinary record. Ram light. But it's its ordinariness is extraordinary. Comforting

It's the lead review in the current issue of Idler magazine. There's a picture of John Lennon and Paul McCartney from their Beatles peak on the cover. Idler is a magazine for people like me. Of a certain age and disposition..

That's exactly what Twice as Nice & Half the Price is. Music for people like me. People who want to live in the moment and enjoy their day. This was recorded at a farm in Devon.. Listening to this you feel like you are there. Transported to exist in the moment.