Associates

 

500 Greatest Albums of the 2000's # 203 Bloc Party - Silent Alarm

 

Silent Alarm always struck me as a pretty great thing. A millennial reapproximation of Joy Division and Gang of Four. Kele Okereke sounds a bit shrill to my ears now. But it's an album that's admirably both shrill and glossy.

 

Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 - 1,413 Taylor Swift - Red

 

It's a Taylor Swift album. Not really my lexicon. But it sounds alright,

Song(s) of the Day # 4,360 Dorea

 

Pop Matters had a tagline which caught my attention yesterday  'Dorea's second album is vulnerable and seaworthy' Like a gullible carp casting its gills around a meaty hook I couldn't help myself. Or alternatively as a Blog writer who enjoys sea metaphors myself. 

It's an altogether enchanting record. I'm very taken by albums that make you feel like you're in a dream and O Que Mais Voce Quer Saber De Mim Has that intent and impact. Sometimes Brazilian records in the Tropicalia tradition do this best. It casts a spell that broadens and stengthens its grip with cunning stealth.

1982 Top 40 23rd May # 25 Paul McCartney & Stevie Wonder

 

It's difficult to know what to say about this. So I won't say amything.

.

250 Albums- An Arbitrary Rumble Through My Record Collection # 36 Warpaint - The Fool

 

Warpaint cast a spell. The best kind of spell. I have their debut album.on. It's so good that you can just keep turning it over . Again and again. All afternoon. It feels like you're making love. And you want to burrow deeper.

Warpaint formed in 2004. They put their debut album The Fool out in 2010. It's the one I'm lost in now. Shortly before I moved into my current flat. The serious one. The one I started to pay a mortgage off on. The grown up one. I saw them round about this time. Before I moved in here. I think I was finding my way from somewhere. To somewhere. I still am.  

Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 - 1,414 Silver Apples - Silver Apples

 

Oh Yeah ! Half an hour with Solver Apples.. They taught the cool the way to cool. Silver Apples were out there before Suicide .Before Television. Before just about anyone. Listening to this feels like going into a portal which takes you into a starring role in an original Star Trek episode. Far out !!!

500 Greatest Albums of the 2000's # 204 Stephen Malkmus - Stephen Malkmus

 

Stephen Malkmus alone was pretty much like Stephen Malkmus was like in Pavement. Just with dofferent musicians. And a damned sight cooler than you !

1982 Top 40 23rd May # 26 England World Cup Squad

 

Reader. They didn't. Get it right that is It started promisingly . Bryan Robson scored a goal. Within about 30 seconds against France. Trever Francis looked wonderful. Even Paul Mariner looked alright, But then they reverted to type. There was a strange second group phase which seemed to confuse everyone. England most of all. Suddenly they couldn't score. And for some reason the only thing that mattered was getting Kevin Keegan on the pitch. As for the single. It was bloody awful !!!  

Song(s) of the Day # 4,359 Sunn O )))

 

Mr Blue Sky ! Mr Blue Sky! Why. Sun is shining in the sky. See how the sun shines brightly. I'm up, and I've taught my lesson of the day. And now I'm listening to the latest, self titled  Sunn O ))) album .We're four minutes in and it's still adjusting itself. It sounds like an elderly gent struggling rather on the lav. There are still 56 minutes left and I'm waiting for a tune, a chorus for anything that make me want to keep living.

Oh this is intolerable. It's quite spoiling my day and we're not even halfway through the first track. I'm afraid I'm not going to get through this, HELP ! HELP! SOMEBODY HELP ME! THERE MUST BE MORE TO LIFE THAN THIS! I WAS QUITE HAPPY BEFORE I STARTED LISTENING TO THIS !

THERE ARE STILL FIVE TRACKS TO GO! PLEASE GOD STOP! MAKE IT STOP ! MUMMY! I'LL BE GOOD! DON'T SEND ME TO MY ROOM ! I'M FRIGHTENED! JUST MAKE IT STOP ! THIS IS TRULY GHASTLY !!!!!!

OK I've had enough of that. I've taken it off and put a Byrds album on instead. They have nice haircuts. And lovely sweaters. I think I'm going to be alright. Maybe the second track of this  Sunn O ))) record is better than the first. I suspect I'll never know !

Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 - 1,415 Bob Dylan - Modern Times

 

Bob Dylan is frankly beyond criticism by now. He just is... Bob Dylan.

500 Greatest Albums of the 2000's # 205 My Chemical Romance -The Black Parade

 

Not my generation so  My Chemical Romance truly never felt like my psychodrama.

Song(s) of the Day # 4,359 Captain Wilberforce

 

 Captain Wilberforce is at the wheel of The Peqod this Easter Monday as we voyage onward..Fresh waters and the distant horizon. They're a Leeds band, Not a naval Captain from Manchester Another World, Another Time, Another Place  is their sixth album and it favours traditional brushstrokes. Costello and Squeeze and back to the time when they were just lads. Back to the future. Sounds good to me !

1982 Top 40 23rd May # 27 Tottenham, Tottenham

 

'They won't give it up ! They're going to bring the Cup.. Back home to White Hart Lane!'

Football songs. What can you say? Downhill since Nice One Cyril. Anyhow. Let's Have Another One ! Oh It's Spurs again. It's 1982 and Cyril Knowles is long departed. But Ossie Ardiles and Ricardo Villa. And Glenn Hoddle are entertaining the White Hart Lane devoted.

And now they've got Chas & Dave to power them up the charts as Cup Final approaches. The songs a shocker. But it gets them on Top of the Pops . Come on you Spurs !!!

250 Albums- An Arbitrary Rumble Through My Record Collection # 37 Violent Femmes - Violent Femmes

 

I'm up late on Eater Monday and I've got The Violent Femmes eponymous debut on as my bath runs. I bought it the year it came out, way back in 1983 when I was on the cusp of the grown,  because The NME told me to , It's always a good idea to do what the NME tells you what t do I find. Listening to it now ut sounds like pretty much the most teenage album ever made. There are other contenders; The Undertones, The Modern Lovers . Let's not bring Morrissey into it. Morrissey is pretty much a teenage state all of his own.

But Violent Femmes pick at that scab to the degree that you wonder whether it will ever heal. Sure it's fun. Poetic. Restless, Profound/ The other big American underground album of 1983 was R.E,M.'s Murmur and I attached myself to that rather than Violent Femmes, though I loved both just as I attached myself to R.E.M. rather than The Smiths initially. This position changed. Their's was a centrifugal tug for my kind and disposition.

But I was essentially a happy teen just as now I feel I'm essentially a 'Happy Sixty'. I like a good mope but I also long for the state to pass and allow me to exit the valley of doom and enter the sunlit glade. . Life's a matter of choice essentially. We may forget it but I consider myself very fortunate and try never to forget that we have an almost unlimited range of choices should we but choose to access them. Right I'll exercise that choice now. I'll turn over Violent Femmes to Side B bathe and breakfast and  make my way properly into the new day. 'What have I got to do. To prove my love to you...'  

The Zombies

 

Song(s) of the Day # 4,358 Bevis Frond

 

Bevis Frond have become an Indie standby over the last few decades. Something to check your watch by. A speaking clock with lilting power chords and wistfulness Latest album Horrorful Heights which is Nick Faloman and pals 30th or so and counting is more of the same.and no one is likely to complain because he's damned good. Neil Young if he'd hailed from Walthamstow not Winnipeg and been born a bit later. 

500 Greatest Albums of the 2000's # 206 Lady Gaga - The Fame Monster

 

I don't really know Lady Gaga. Perhaps I need to firm an opinion about her. Let's listen to The Fame Monster to see if a worthwhile standpoint evolves. I know Bad Romance and never cared for that..A good friend of mine always insisted she was loads better than Madonna but this does not bode well.  Oh no it's complete tripe. I have to do something else with my day. 

Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 - 1,416 Jon Hopkins - Immunity

 

This is long. So I can't give it my full consideration. It's clearly a good headset record. Hypnosis. 

1982 Top 40 23rd May # 28 Funboy Three

 

There was so much going on with bands in 1982. The name of the group. Their look. There was so much in a song. And they got played on Radio One. By charmless DJs who would never understand. Their charm, insight and wit.

250 Albums- An Arbitrary Rumble Through My Record Collection # 38 Big Star - Sister Lovers

 

Confused.Com? Whatever you do brother, don't look on the Internet. It's only going to muddy your waters further. I don't have any Muddy Waters in my record collection but I do have Billy Holiday. And I do have Big Star.

 I took off Billy and I put on Sister Lovers and I've had a bath and now I'm listening to Femme Fatale from said record. I'm going to breakfast, shave and go to church. See if that helps my confusion. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Sister Lovers is a messy, fractured, damaged, beautiful record. If you want to be cool or if you're young, or if you're old but young at heart you'd probably say it's your favourite Big Star record. Maybe your favourite record of all. Of all. Of all time. Ever in the history of the universe !!!

I wouldn't go that far. The record has skipped from Femme Fatale and passed Stroke It Noel. Onto Holocaust and that's cast a pallor over my lving room . 'Everybody goes, leaving those, who fall behind.' You're a wasted space, you're a sad eyed lie. Your a holocaust.' Frankly I'm missing Billie. 

You only need to listen to Sister Lovers to understand why R.E.M. made it and Big Star didn't. Because R.E.M. wanted to make it and survive and they did so by planning. And learning. By sitting down and discussing important stuff before they set out on the road. And most of all by staying friends.

Everyone loved Big Star. The Replacements, dBs, Lemonheads,R.E.M. Of course!  But some learned the wrong lessons and fell for the wasted myth. Chilton himself knew that. He had been in The Box Tops and crossed paths with Manson before he wrote Thirteen and September Gurls, Went on to wash dishes. Play dives. Sister Lovers is an incredible record but it's nothing to aspire too. Go tidy your room.  

500 Greatest Albums of the 2000's # 207 Grizzly Bear - Yellow House

 

Grizzly Bear are artists. That is the ultimate aim I'd say. At least for It Starts With a Birthstone approved acts,. Not to start just wanting to make a row about putting out some noise or daytime radio confection..

Yellow House has ambition and aims for appreciation. It's akin to walking around a gallery with a friend or loved one and taking your time because you realise you have time. and you'll get the most out of this experience if you make it last. 

1982 Top 40 23rd May # 29 UB40

 

I had a friend who liked and likes UB40 and I liked and like them too. We would take the short walk to each others houses. Near to Kew Gardens Station and close to Richmond Station during those important years when the bonds you make with people can be  permanent ones . And talk. And eat cake . And play chess. And most of all laugh. And take the piss out of each other. And spend time with each other and with each others families. Love is all is alright!

Song(s) of the Day # 4,357 Donny Osmond

 

Generally my default position for these posts on It Starts With a Birthstone is 'forward'. Onward ever onward. Devil take the hindmost . So on and so forth. But it's Easter Saturday and a special anniversary for me. So I'm feeling a trifle nostalgic.

I've got a Pickwick singles collection on and it's spinning and spinning.The Sounds of 1972 Melanie. The Bee Gees. Slade. The Chelsea Football Team. And err. Donny Osmond and Puppy Love. It takes me back. To Nottingham

My family came back from Zimbabwe where I'd been born in 1972. We settled in Nottingham on a beautiful road called Private Road and my parents did their best with a set of five kids. It must have felt like The Brady Bunch.

I went to Primary School and fell in love. Well. With a couple of girls actually. Katie Shopland. Who had lustrous silver hair as I recall. And whose brother Nick is still on Facebook and still in Nottingham. I wonder if he still remembers me.

Then there was Rachel Brown. The cutest freckles. The.cutest curls. I went to my first party at Rachel's house. Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. Rachel's parents weren't dumb. Rachel as snow white and her favourite seven boys from her primary school class. Who was I? Dopey probably.

Who are the seven dwarves. This stuff's important. Doc, Happy, Sneezy, Grumpy, Sleepy, Bashful, Dopey. Whistle while you work ?!? Work ? That's another story. Another day. 

So back to Donny and his puppy love. This is not a puppy love. No it's not. That stuff lasts !.

 

500 Greatest Albums of the 2000's # 208 Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - B.R.M.C.

 

Every few months a Rock & Roll Band comes up the pike. This is a basic rule of existence and will continue being so until the end of time. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club do what they do phenomenally well on B.R.M.C, their only essential album. Put your leather jacket and shades on and make that it's 1967 or 1976 again. It's always 1967 or 1976 if you want it to be.

Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 - 1,417 Bon Iver - i,i

 

A fractured album where Justin Vernin decides that he no longer wants to be a bearded, heartbroken  man in a hut in the woods but wishes to bring self pity to the hood. A rather odd career move. It's a very irritating record,

1982 Top 40 23rd May # 30 Charlene

 

Truly atrocious .Terry Wogan had many things going for him but a book could be published on atrocious things he's inflicted on the nation. This would get a chapter.

 

Song(s) of the Day # 4,356 Iron & Wine

 

Belatedly. For Good Friday . Iron & Wine's latest, Hen's Teeth. A bit of context; a bit of Elton. A bit of Father John Misty . And a bit of what you would expect from a new Iron & Wine record. A nice album to listen to once the kids are in bed and the bottle is uncorked. 

Song(s) of the Day # 4,355 El Michels Affair

 

El Michels Affair seems to be becoming something of a conveyor belt of hip globalism. Thumbs up from It Starts with a Birthstone. Keep them coming !!!

Latest offering is 24 Hr Sports. (Instrumentals) which aren't all actually instrumentals and feature Clairo , Norah Jones and other hip types, Un te words of Tenpole Tudor. Wunderbar !. Wunderbar !Wunderbar ! Wunderbar !

500 Greatest Albums of the 2000's # 209 Jakob Ullmann - A Catalogue of Sounds 1995 -1997

 

The Yardbirds

 

1982 Top 40 23rd May # 31 Candy Staton

 

This is such a well know classic. Such a classic conundrum. A classic tune. A classic lyric. A classic situation. Here is the lovely Candy Staton with her take on this problematic issue. Get on the dancefloor why don't you.

Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 - 1,418 Florence + The Machine - How Big How Blue How Beautiful

 

                              Florence + The Machine throw big Pop shapes that leave me completely cold.

Song(s) of the Day # 4,354 Momoko Gill

 

Momoko Gill's debut album Momoko is clearly Jazz inflected but se herself is resistant to labels and it's an album that flirts with plenty of pigeon holes and genres. It's feather lite and cool and that will more than do for me.

500 Greatest Albums of the 2000's # 210 Kanye West - College Dropout

 

There are things that I have missed. Lady Gaga is one such thing . Kanye West another. What to do? I could listen to them and adopt another ir I could jus say I'm not an authority, In this respect I am not an authority.

April

 

Siouxsie

 

1982 Top 40 23rd May # 32 Echo & The Bunnymen

 

I was intrigued by Echo & The Bunnymen. Everything about them. Their hair, their names, the way they looked and carried themselves. They seemed to offer a path to adulthood and I was damned if I wasn't going to follow it.

Song(s) of the Day # 4,353 The Pretty Flowers

 

Los Angeles The Pretty Flowers third album Never Felt Bitter finds a warm nostalgic place to park itself and display its wares. Guitar driven emotional melodicism.

250 Albums- An Arbitrary Rumble Through My Record Collection # 39 Blondie - Autoamerican

 

My default album of the day appears to be  Blondie's Autoamerican. I'll listen to it as the sun waxes and wanes... It's my kind of record. Like Blondie in general it takes risks and plays to the front row, the backrow and everything in between.

The albums that I love are the ones that still sound like the future. This sounds like The Past, The Present and The Future. What more could you possibly want.  loves Pop.  Autoamerican loves romance and fun.  Putting your heart into everything and doing it with style and panache. God bless them all !.

1982 Top 40 23rd May # 33 Toyah

 

I shared a staffroom for many, many years with someone who thought Toyah was great. And told me so in no uncertain terms at the end of a long day as I was getting ready to leave one afrernoon. Longing for hearth and home. I would like to say to her now that I don't share her high opinion of Toyah.

 I don't imagine she follows It Starts With a Birthstone on a regular basis. Perhaps she prefers to stay in of an evening and play her Toyah albums. I'm not really familiar with Brave New World. I don't recall it all. I played it just now. It's not as good as the novel.

1982 Top 40 23rd May # 34 New Order

 

                                                     Temptation still has a cold, minimal, unclad beauty. 

Song(s) of the Day # 4,352 Maria BC

 

Monday afternoon. A good time for a Marathon. The latest album from Maria BC. Threadbare folk songs from Oakland, California; exhaustion, resignation and uncommon beauty It's a record that yearns and emotes as the earth turns

500 Greatest Albums of the 2000's # 211 Sufjan Stevens - Michigan

 

An hour in Sufjan's company is an invitation to a marmite feast. Personally I'm highly prone to marmite.. He's an artist highly prone to ennui and what might be regarded as self pity. But essentially the music to me is an act of immersion, historical enquiry and celebration.

Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 - 1,419 Cat Stevens - Teaser & The Firecat

 

As for many people I imagine Cat Stevens is a portal back to childhood. Older sister's record collections..

1982 Top 40 23rd May # 35 Kid Creole & The Coconuts

 

Kid Creole & The Coconuts broke through big in 1982 with Tropical Gangsters and they were greay to see. A fully fleshed out, lurid technicolor narrative.

Song(s) of the Day # 4,351 Flea

 The much heralded Honora, the debut album by Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea is here. It's a cool platter versed in Blue Note Jazz, collaborations with contemporary greats and tasteful restraint and resistance to the populist tide.

I like the record a lot. It doesn't so much preach as pray and it has all the chops and attitude and breeding you could possibly want for . Stretch out with the Sunday supplements and embrace the afternoon.  

250 Albums- An Arbitrary Rumble Through My Record Collection # 40 The Go Betweens - Liberty Bell & The Black Diamond Express

 

Listening to this record for at least the thousandth time it strikes me as a misshapen but utterly sincere Act of Love. A marriage that may have not been built to last but remarkably has. Two songwriters, their partners and a bassist with a Brian Jones haircut . Singles which should have been but weren't hits,

I saw the band at the time when this came out. Almost exactly 40 years ago. At Kingston  Polytechnic for a pound. The band did their soundcheck in full and startling lights before the gig. A month later I started going out with one of the enduring loves of my life. This is another one. Some emotions, and songs, are built to last. 

Armed Forces

 

George Harrison