I do not belong in Rihanna's constituency.
Friday, June 13, 2025
500 Greatest Albums of the 2000's # 479 Songs Ohia ; Didn't It Rain
Jason Molina. Minimal. Atmospheric Frequently beautiful.
It Starts With a Birthstone 200 Albums For 2025 # 199 Gumshoes - Bugs Forever
What is it with Gumshoes. They seem to be men with a mission. And a very fine one at that. To release an album at the dawn of each year and drag us forom Post Christmas ennui as we sail forth with no little trepidation. I like the cut of their gib.
And I like Bugs Forever, their latest addition to their slim portfolio. Driven forward out of Birmingham by singer songwriter Sam Sparkes on jolly, well constructed Indie tunes I like their homespun humility amd love their earnest intent.
The first post of actual new music on It Starts this year. A concept album apparently. With each song exploring the persepctive of life as it appears to a different bug. A Bug's Life. As the man would say. Tremendous. .
It Starts With a Birthstone 200 Albums For 2025 # 200 Samantha Crain - Gumshoe
Yes, It's that time again. The countown to Christmas begins of albums I've liked and reviewed in 2025. This has no real order, I like all of these to a lesser or greater degree. Here we go !
Waking in a fabulous stone Cornish cottage belonging to the guy who I lived in a corridor opposite forty years vback. Ready for the lessons and then the long journey back to Newcastle. Headphones on at my laptop.
Samantha Crain's Gumshoe makes a sturdy soundtrack.Somewhere between Sharon V and Big Thief . Fragility and resonance in the voice. Solid walls of etherl sound. That'll do. Time for my shower.
250 Albums- An Arbitrary Rumble Through My Record Collection # 197 Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band - Safe As Milk
I'm based for most of the week now within the confines of my flat teaching online classes. My number of classes are expanding pleasingly and so is the required paperwork. This means I'm at my desk at my laptop most of the week from 9 to 5.
I like this. I like my classes and I don't even mind the paperwork now I have a clear understanding of what is required. But I need a soundtrack to fend off cabin fever. And increasingly I like to lusten to the same record on repeat for most of the day. Today Safe as Milk.
I'm very taken by thus record. It's not Captain in the woods or in the cave. Much of it is quite approachable. Tuneful, weird, but kind of cuddly and relatable and several tracks of dumbstruck psychedelic wonder and mystery and thrilled ecstatic accelereation. Primitive bur kind of cute. I'm stoll not entirely sure you'd take either the Captain ir any of any of his Magic Band home to meet your mother.
Song(s) of the Day # 4,115 WITCH
Coming towards the end of a week of music loss and looking for something to empower me uo for a day of full online teaching . This jumped out immediately. The return of WITCH. The Zambian Seventies psychedelic visionaries. The African Can.
And yes, SOGOLO their new record us immediately fantabulous. Slightly scrambled for this early in the morning but completely unapologetic and refreshing. It's a time machine. Wicked witch !!!!
Thursday, June 12, 2025
Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 - 1,552 Morrissey - You Are The Quarry
Oh Morrissey. He's a poor little lamb who has lost hi way. Except this time he's armed.
500 Greatest Albums of the 2000's # 482 This Morning Jacket - Evil Urges
Southern Psychedelic yearning, Not afraid to chime and funk. To emite and reflect. Plenty here that deserves revisiting. Get The Point stood out.
Song(s) of the Day # 4,114 The Mostar Diving Club
Beautiful Forever a charming slice of homespun warmth and cosiness not a million miles from British Seapower B&S, Beirut or Badly Drawn Boy expanded into a quartet.And theremin is woven in if you're not instantly besotted.
Guided by Damon Katkhuda who has been working this seam for twenty years and more here. It's incredibly satisfying to unearth suchcrafted toil and humility. The songs are exquisite and the songwriting impeccable . Exquisite. A small pearl.
Wednesday, June 11, 2025
Brian Wilson
'I wish that every kiss was never ending...'
You have to take a deep intake of breath when the great ones go. You'd better getter used to it because I suspect we ain't seen nothing yet. But Sly Stone and then Brian Wilson in a couple of days, feels like a bit of a sucker punch ! California Weepin' . Time to pause and put a record on. Then another record. Think about mortality. for a moment. Call up your loved ones . Ask if they're listening to Pet Sounds. Theres A Riot Going On? Thinking about the times they soundtracked and have transcended.' Like waves crashimg on the beach...'
I'm listening to Pet Sounds. It's coming to the end of Side A now, But I'll drag the needle back to the start again and listen again. These people made these records to be listened to. So do yourselves a favour. Really listen to them. Both Brian Wilson and Sly Stone lived lives that were frequently messy and conflicted. The ugly behaviour of both has been very well documented. California Dreaming. But also California Shaking and Quaking. But both produced remarkable art. Poetry in motion. All life is in their records
250 Albums- An Arbitrary Rumble Through My Record Collection # 198 Hugo Largo - Mettle
A record I've been playing repeatedly for a couple of days. Released on January 1st 1989 on Brian Eno's Opal label. Huga Largo were made up of two bassists' a violinist and a vocalist named Mimi Goese. Mettle was their last record before they split.
I try to listen through to an album in its entirity these days. Mettle I find myself dragging the cartridge back to the start of the side because I feel that I've missed something. Sinuous is an adjective I would use to describe it. It seems subaqeous and this makes for an incredibly liberating listening experience
Brian Wilson 1942 - 2025
Neu Klang -The Definitive History of Krautrock # 3 The Shadows
Being a longhair. How looking like a Hippie was a rebellious act in Germany in the 1960s.
Song(s) of the Day # 4,113 Caamp
Ohio boys making beautiful noise. Copper Changes Colour. A album of raw and tender guitar songs that struck a chord between 6 and 7. Slightly reminiscent of early Kings of Leon but on slighty wiser shoulders.Songs that yearn and emote but are also deeply sincere and heartfelt.
Tuesday, June 10, 2025
250 Albums- An Arbitrary Rumble Through My Record Collection # 199 Sly & The Family Stone - Greatest Hits
This seems to be a record worth listening to a couple of times the day after Sly died. A huge talent that it's difficult to document in words. Miles hung out with him jealously and vicariously.Prince owes him an incredible amount. The later years are best pushed to one side and remember him as he was. When he and The Family Stone seemed to invent a new rainbow.
Neu Klang -The Definitive History of Krautrock # 2 Miles Davis
Post War Germany seems predominantly a difficult place for the key Krautrock players to breath fresh air. In Irmin Schmidt's words 'Making music has helped me to deal with a certain amount of gief and anger.' Jazz became free jazz and gave a direction to follow. .
101 Essential Rock Records # 78 Genesis - Nursery Cryme
I have a lot of time for Gabriel's Genesis. Playing any of their album's seems to carry me back decades to the halls of childhood.It's baroque and excessive often but I'm still drawn.
Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 - 1,554 The Thelonious Monk Quartet - Monks Dream
Does anybody still read sleevenotes anymore. It's a lost art. I just read the sleevenotes to this. Monk's Dream. While a pan of hot water was heating up on my stove and the record was playing on my record player.
It tells of a world gone by. Life lived at a different pace.Things that are still there. The Five Spot Cafe where Monk and his ensemble punched this out wuth gentle assured vitaity.Authority. Playing for the moment but with eternity surely in mind. 'Eternity said Frankie Lee.' No that was some other cat.'
500 Greatest Albums of the 2000's # 482 Keane- Under The Iron Sea
Keane have a new record out called Live In Mexico . The thoughtbdoes not appeal to me. There's something rather glum about Keane. Like the Radiohead that was left on the runway unable to take flight and soar above the clouds and eventually towed off to sit bereft for all etenity in a nearby hanger. They make me feel sad. So I didn't last long with Under The Iron Sea
Song(s) of the Day # 4,112 Suzi Ungerleider
'All of is that came of age. Around that Johnny Thunders stage.'
Wake up little Suzi. I'm waking upon a world that's a poorer place. One that doesn't have Sly Stone in it. That's a big chunk of history ro process..
I've listened to Sly. Now Im listeing to Suzi Ungerleider's Among The Evergreens on the way to my half eight in Dussledorf. It's not Sly Stone . But it is quietly Rock & Roll. Among The Evergreens had me in the palm of its hand within about thirty seconds.. This is exacttly what I go to music for. Characterful Storytelling.
Divided into' Then' and'Now' which let's face it all our lives are, it sketches out its American narratives of departure, passage and arrival with easeful grace.It's a record to pull up a chair to and appreciate. Ungerleider' has a layered voice and she has a way with melody, attitude and soul.
Drifting between Americana, Folk and the classic Amerucan short story. This is rich and veined reflection and experience in the Suzanne Vega, Ron Sexsmith and Anne Proulx tradition. Like having a meal inwonderful company. Splendid stuff !
Monday, June 9, 2025
Neu Klang -The Definitive History of Krautrock # 1
An intriguing scene which is now having its stiry told, again and again. Here is an Oral histiry which starts where it has to; with the oddly degrading an insulting name. Then the Nazi legacy from which thuse fabulous and quite distinctive bands emerged and which they came into being to separate themselves from. .No particylar piece of music is mentioned in the furst 25 pages.
Among the players. Memebrs of Can, Amon Duul, Kraftwerk, Neu! Cluster, Tangerine Dream. And all the others
101 Essential Rock Records # 77 Joni Mitchell - Blue
';a programme that consists mostly of downbeat, wholly frank admissions about romantic entanglements that didn't work out.'
Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 - 1,555 Silver Jews - American Water
Listening to a record is inevitably dictated by it's context. David Berman is a tricky one. American Water is self effacing, wry. Self depreciating. Droll. But there's a tragedy at it's heart and you can feel the man's pain. It's also just a great Indie record. But ultimately you'd file it next to Joy Division, Nick Drake, Big Star and Elliot.
500 Greatest Albums of the 2000's # 483 2 Many DJS - As Heard on Radio Soulwax Part 2
I went to see Soulwax with a friend at the turn of the millenium . He was really into them and I confessed they passed me by largely. And stull does though its an interesting pointer to tracks.It all sounds rather a long time ago this mindset.
Song(s) of the Day # 4,111 Bon Iver
Bon Iver's latest album the curiously titles album SABLE fABLE seems a return to familiar territory. Deep voiced emotive yelps across a snowy prairie for couples who met and bonded over For Emma all those years ago to strare into each other's eyes as the little ones drift into slumber
There's an interview in last month's Uncut where this, Justin Vernon's fifth album under the Bon Iver moniker is described as upbeat. Frankly it doesn't particularly sound so to me. It sounds like same old, same old, but in an impressibve way.It's a powerful record.
Mournful, melancholy, miserble and other synonyms beginning with m. It's never a bad idea to stuck to what you're good at frankly. Vernon's very good at this. Cheer up mate ! It might never happen ! ,
Sunday, June 8, 2025
250 Albums- An Arbitrary Rumble Through My Record Collection # 200 Aldous Harding - Warm Chris
Records trigger associations. Of a time. A place. A person. A moment. With Aldous Harding it wull always be iof seeing her in 2019 . At Cluny 2. A snug, intimate venue. If me smoking a tab and seeing her walking towards me. A phenomenally attractive woman. Quite startlingly so. But also clearly, judging by the inviluntary flunch she made as she met my eye, an astonishingly shy one.
Our interactuin was brief. I said I hoped she had a wonderful evening. She thanked me twice. Ut will stuck wuth me. As for her records. There's no one like her. They create a world of their own. All you can ask of an artist.
250 Albums- An Arbitrary Rumble Through My Record Collection # 201 U2 -Boy
Everybody has something to offer. To bring to the table. Even Bono. I begrudgingly admit. I just decuded to put on Boy the only U2 vinyl record in my collection. Why? Because I felt like listening to it. It's a record I like.
Halfway through the intro to I Will Follow something strange happened to me . I had an Uncontrollable Urge. My left arm surged skywards. Involuntarily. The kind of thing which happened to unsuspecting, perfectly decent Germans in large crowds in the Nineteen Thirties.Sometimes surrender is the only response.
I like Boy. It's a record that captures a certain moment in adolesnce and that was exactly what U2 were going back. Think back. I can remmber my first cigarettes, The way they burned across my lungs. The strange hair sprouting.
Boy charts this territiry.Quite knowingly. The strangeness of those years. The pain. the freedom. I think it's a wonderful record. It's just slightly regrettable what came next
Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 - 1,556 Ray Charles - Ray Charles
Ponder for a moment the miracle of Ray Charles. Then listen to this record.The songs have a clockwork certainty. The band can turn the pace of things up. Turn them down again. Then connsuder the racial factor.
250 Albums- An Arbitrary Rumble Through My Record Collection # 203 Vanishing Twin -The Age of Immunology
Today seems to be shaping out to be an Avant Garde day. Lifeguard. Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza. Now Vanishing Twin's The Age of Immunology which I've actually been spinning merrily for the last few days on and off. It's the kind of thing I'm into at the moment,
There are dufferent ways of organising your music collection. Alphabetically seems the sensible option. But this again is problematic . Where should you put Van Morrison. Under V or M. Where should you put Lou Reed L or R?
There are alternatives.By language ? By Genre. But Genres are slippery. By year? I'm sorry. That would take me weeks. And would be so bewildering I'm not even going there.
My latest train of thought is actually Music of the Past, Music of the Present. Music of the Future. I'm increasingly drawn to music that feels like it sounds right in 2025 and I think I'll want to be listening to in 2030 if 'm still here. This is a strange world we're living in now. I'm not sure it pays to 'do the Ostrich.'
Vanishing Twun would be anong the Vs of Die Zukunft. Between Vampire Weekend and The Velvet Underground. I don't have any Randy Vanwarmer albums and I'm not sure he doesn't belong in the Vergangenheit.
But Vanishing Twin are clearly firward thunking. Positively lunar in terms of their approach and mindset. My vinyl copy of The Age of Immunology has one side that is a black and white spiral and one that is a whte and black spiral. This means that I'm never sure whether i am playing Side A or Side B. This is initially a disorientating sensation but eventually a comforting one. What does it matter. The music is enchantment on vinyl.
I've always wanted to experience a Flotation Tank. The Age of Immunology feels like you are suspended in a floatation tank. Forever. Its a memirising listening experience.
500 Greatest Albums of the 2000's # 484 Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza - Azioni
An exercise in oneupmanship. This goes on for hours, isn't even a millenium record. But a hipper than thou Sixties Italian collectuve that suind like they're shaking and ringing everything that comes to hand in a sound lab. It's quite diverting. Hypnotic. But don't hold your breath waiting for the chorus After about twenty minutes I went off and made some breakfast.
Song(s) of the Day # 4,110 Lifeguard
'they're so they're so goddamed young'.
It's Sunday and the sky is firm in Newcastle's heavens. I am listening to Chicago pup's Lifeguard's debut album. Ripped and Torn. What do we have here Horsegirl Junior? Hansen. If they'd listened to Sonic Youth rather than Jackson 5. Deodorant?
It's a bristling listening and they would be truly an excitinglive proposition. Their songs fizz and ring. They have dissonance. They know their Stev reich from ther Glen Branca. Their Philip Glass. Their Band of Susans. Swans.Arthur Russell.
At a certain point I think i hear Kim Gordon shrieking out of the mix. But I realise it's Lifeguard channelling Kim Gordon. It's all very bracing I must say..
Saturday, June 7, 2025
250 Albums- An Arbitrary Rumble Through My Record Collection # 204 Can - Future Days
I have time on Saturday morning for Future Days. Can are the most enveloping, encapsulating band. They beckon the listener into a trance state. Develop patterns and ryhthms and build up atmospheres that other bands cower and tremor in awe and terror before. Rabbits in the headlights of an oncoming juggernaut.
But there's more than power here. There are incredible imaginations at work. Landscapes are plotted out and here. Can make it easy for the listener. Listening to them erm.... can be an incredibly transformative experience taking you across continents. Propelling you to the stars.
101 Essential Rock Records # 75 Can - Tago Mago
'I saw the mushroom head. I was born and I was dead.'
Even by progressive rock standards a song whose lyrics largely consist of that phrase repeated thirty times in four minutes might constitute a challenge for listeners. A double album that ranks as one of the gere's most liberating and avant-garde.
250 Albums- An Arbitrary Rumble Through My Record Collection # 205 Joan Armatrading - Walk Under Ladders
'The world loves a winner...'
Increasingly I find these days. 'No drag the needle back to the start of the album. I have time to listen to the whole thing..' Such was the case with this recor just nowd. It always makes me thingk of a pivital teenage gathering. Halfway up Richmond Hill. I was 16. Tangled bodies. Passed joints. Sitting under a large speaker playing this.My best friend ranting bout the Argentinian invasion of the Falkland Islands. I was bemused.I still remind him of it.
' Hey when I get it right. Will you tell me please....'
Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 - 1,557 Drive Like Jehu - Yank Crime
The evolutuion of hardcore punk into emo. Is this a journey you wish to take.
500 Greatest Albums of the 2000's # 485 Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
'Talking Heads twirling away into indiepop ether.'
Song(s) of the Day # 4,109 Matt Berringer
The National are a strange one. Slightly depressed sountracks for suburban couples. Middle managers. Matt Berninger continues the Sisyphus motions on latest album Get Sunk.
I've found it a strangely winning soundtrack for the past couple of days. Joy Division managing the rigours of nine to five as a face at the back of the open plan. Berninger has a way with words, the emotionless face in the corner desk of the open plan at work.Stimach churning. Counting the days down to a holiday in a caravan and tent park. Om a beach.
The songs make their way up gradual slopes and set off with soft vaguely dusfunctional explosions.. It's functional and strangley removed, almost neuteured. Like an afternoon in an IKEA showroom. I liked it.
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