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

 

500 Greatest Albums of the 2000's # 212 Leonard Cohen - Ten New Songs

 

Ten New Leonard Cohen sings, Frim 2001. I sat down and listened. It's one for the ages. Conflicted. Resigned. Secretive. Resigned. Caught between Heaven and Hell. Trying to fund rest. Leonard knew. Difficult to fund. But we keep searching. .Keep straining towards the light.  

1982 Top 40 23rd May # 36 Altered Images

 

One spot above Siouxsie & The Banshees, their younger Scottish cousins. Gorging themselves on pop and cake and jellybeans and squirting party streamers at one another.

  

Song(s) of the Day # 4,350 Snail Mail

 

Slow wins the race. April is almost here. Ricochet, the third album by Ellicott City, Maryland's finest Snail Mail is on the doormat, I've got a large beaker of tea, Off we go. 

It's a very 2026 sounding album. Marie Osmond was a little bit Country and a little bit Rock & Roll.. This is a little bit Indie with a healthy dollop of winsome, self ennui for dressing.

It's a trifle bland tbh. But sounds fine on a Saturday morning. I wonder about the lack of ambition of youthful product  sometimes. Linsey Erin Jordon (for Snail Mail is she), is 26 and has three albums under her belt. Joni Mitchell had five at the same age. Including Blue and For the Roses .

There's nothing on  Ricochet which would merit a starting slot on either but these are different times and there's plenty that you might like to add to a playlist. Fair to middling.  

Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 - 1,420 Gil Scott Heron - Pieces of a Man

 

Came out on Flying Dutchman in 1971. Captures a seeker. And a moment of phenomenal flux and pressures of activism and resistance. It questions everything. 

500 Greatest Albums of the 2000's # 213 Joni Mitchell - Travelogue

 

A 22 track album from 2002. The Mitchell voice doesn't sound like what it was, Lyrically she's still sharp. This is incredibly rich and literary as you'd expect .It's hungry and broad.  I always feel with Joni that she writes like a painter.

1982 Top 40 23rd May # 37 Siouxsie & The Banshees

 

I remember this time. Fireworks and Back of Love were in the charts together and Siouxsie & The Banshees and the Bunnymen filled my imagination. They seemed impossibly grown up. I craved that adulthood.

 

Song(s) of the Day # 4,349 Courtney Barnett

 

'Put on my favourite t shirt...Please be patient....' 

I've been stood up on Friday morning. I've just sat outside a virtual classroom for 45 minutes and not been admitted. Never mind. I've used up at my tissues. There are more seriouser issues. I have an hour and forty five minutes to kick my heels and listen to Courtney Barnett's latest record Creature Of Habit a couple of times and share my thoughts with you here. Life gets worse.

Courtney has been an old friend of this blog in its thirteen years and counting. One of it's consistents. I love Courtney. I'm not ashamed to say so. I've been in he same room with her a few times and it was always a pleasure. Creature Of Habit  finds her doing what we've come to expect of her. Share some wry and sharp witticism and her latest portfolio. Her latest favourite things.

It's a workable record without immediately appearing to be a classic. I suspect it needs to be worn in like a pair of shoes, and that's what I plan to do over the coming weeks. Get to know the songs. Just like it takes a few weeks to get to now your new students when you get a new class. This feels good. It won't be an irksome task.

Courtney has a particular gift. It feels like she's talking to to you. And as a listener I have too say that feels really nice. That's a rare gift. I'll fix some breakfast and keep listening. On first hearing, last track Another Beautiful Day sounds like the standout. This might change. I expect the songs to grow.. Chutes in a pot.   

Go Betweens

 

Green Shirt

 

Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 - 1,421 Gram Parsons - Grievious Angel

 

'Out went the truckers and the kickers and the cowboy angels...'

Gram Parsons is one of those people you're probably going to grapple with and explore the myth if you have any pretentions to building a record collection to accompany you through your lifetime as seems too have been one of my main missions of mine.Grievious Angel is an album that never fails to put you in a mood and keep you there. 

500 Greatest Albums of the 2000's # 214 The Japanese Popstars - We Just Are

 

That's a Rock & Roll band name if they ever was one. And this is a Modern Rock & Roll band. Not one I was familiar with before just now. I get the impression Sophia Coppola would like this. I certainly do. This glows. 

1982 Top 40 23rd May # 38 Monsoon

 

Sheila Chandra from Monsoon was in Grange Hill. Ever So Lonely stayed in the charts for nine weeks following a re-release. It was also big in Ireland, Holland and Australia. It was kind of a one off. But a rather splendid one.

Song(s) of the Day # 4,348 True Green

 

True Green's Hail Disaster is true gold for true believers in an ancient faith. Guitars in harmony with The Turtles and The Byrds Mr Tambourine Man. Flamin' Groovies, Bug Star and R.E.M. The Only Ones and Power Pop. Pavement and Silver Jews. You, know. The good stuff.

I listened through to Hail Disaster in a single sitting. It's happy sad, wry, like much of my record collection. People will always like records like these and there will always be people around who appreciate the qualities of good writing and playing nd will want to provide it for them.. 

Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 - 1,422 Jackson C, Frank - Jackson C, Frank

 

The model apparently for Llewyn Davis. An incredibly evocative and magical record. 

500 Greatest Albums of the 2000's # 215 Vic Chesnutt - At The Cut

 

There's a rare pained poetic  beauty in the music of Vic Chesnutt. This is gnarled and tortured but claws at the light, This is the kind of albums that hipster types wax lyrical about. With justification.

1982 Top 40 23rd May # 39 Prelude

 

Originally a hit in 1974. A take on Neil Young's rare and special song from the album of the same name. A song of rare wonder. 

Song(s) of the Day # 4,347 Dagmar Zuniga

 

 Dagmar Zuniga's In Filth Your Mystery is Kingdom/ Far Smile Peasant in Yellow Music is rare poetry. Weird Outsider Folk which originally came out last year but I'm claiming for 2026 because I like it so much. Cindy Lee , Anastasia Coope and other cooler than thou types come to mind. As do Vashti Bunyan, Bridget St John, Linda Perhacs and any number of Sixties and Seventies Folk Nuggets. Cooler than thou will ever be !  

500 Greatest Albums of the 2000's # 216 Engineers - Engineers

 

I found this rather beautiful. Engineers meet The Clientele on Gideon Coe's show, And the consequence was; Indie Bliss,