I struggle with The Pop Group. Y stretches the limits of my openness to the avant garde. I can see the skill of the playing, the resourcefulness, poetic bravura and artistry. I just don't want to listen to much of it which isn't the case with Josef K, Mission of Burma or Pere Ubu.
The second song in three days on this rundown but this is the one I bonded with. In a large bedroom in a cool student flat in Catania, Sicily in the year it came out where I spent one of the best years and made some of the best friends of my life. I was 35 and came to Sicily to write my novel but mostly to decide what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. Catania in every way was a Golden Dawn.
I listen to Lost Souls a lot during the year. It spoke to me. I was lost in some respects but Catania helped me orient myself and get onto the righteous path. My novel wasn't a disater in many ways. It was something I needed to do.
Above Me's Soften The Blows is a gentle floral, ambient thing. Like a flower opening its petals to the sun in spring or slow motion camera effect.
An act and album that would have been on4 AD or Creation back in the day. Chapterhouse and Cocteau Twins join forces and don't enunciate their words properly or get to the chorus. Why would anyone expect them to.
'Watching all of the silver. No-one will ever spend...'
The second song from Adventure was not disimilar from Venus, the second track on Marquee Moon. But like Adventure it was day to Marquee Moon and Venus' Tight toy night.The traces from this song to the Go Betweens and R.E.M. seem abundantly clear.
Haiver come from the ashes of Frightened Rabbit and plough a similar furrow. Latest album The Ghost Dance is distinctly and immediately Scottish. Anthemic and defiant. It occasionally threatens to topple into the Abyss of Mundanity but makes its way with no little grace to the other end of the wire and the grassy path leading inland..
I've been thinking about days recently. It's my parents 69th Wedding Anniversary today. 25,000 days give or take a few. I'm fortunate enough to be with them. I'll set this ball running with one of the stand out tracks about days and see how long the stone rolls. Endless and sacred.
An album about the emotions inspired by partially crossing the river and coming back to tell the tale. James Ellis Ford who has produced Arctic Monkeys, Blur and Fontaines D.C.underwent hostipal leukemia treatment in 2025 and experienced the 'uncanny valley'.
Now he tells the tale in Lost To Another World. . It's alll starngely Eighties. Burbling synths and drum machines. China Crisis, Blue Nile, Eurythmics and erm OMD come to mind. It's a gentle, nocturnal, burbling kingdom. This album is all warmth, sincerity and quiet achievement,
Huurah Lads ! Darren Jones, first mate of this blog has has shown his face on deck at It Starts With a Birthstone chucked a few tasty mortals on deck and vanished with nary a word. I'm immensely grateful . Off we go into the coming week with Swapmeet's Mount Zero.
Swapmeet hail from Adelaide, Australia which may be fresh territory for It Starts, but probably isn't. They're a spirited looking gang, this is their debut , and it's out on LA Label Winspear and it's named after a mountain range that lies beteen Adelaide and Melbourne.
I could cite potential influences and sources. (Cate Le Bon sounds like a kissing cousin) . But essentially this is wistful, dreaming glass three quarters full meanderings of the best sort, layered, occasionally exploding into contagious emotive melody . Swapping vocals skillfully between three players like a dextrous relay squad and built to last.
Doves always strike me as a band at a certain point of life who have come to the realisation that life is not going to be what it might.
Getdown Services seem to me the kind of act that if they didn't exist, someone would feel obliged to invent them. A pair of unshaply lads with inadvisble hair and worse moustaches prone to taking their tops off and looking bemused in photoshoots. Minehead's finest. No less. They've describes their sound as 'disco and seventies infused groove music.'
That's only half the story,Generally I would run a mile. But I've been listening to latest album Massive Champion quite a bit over the last few days and actually I'm rather taken. It sounds vaguely Glam and Bad Punk, doesn't take itself seriously for a moment and strikes me as Sleaford Mods for those who've become slightly tired of Sleaford Mods and fancy a bit more of the same from a slightly different angle with adjusted point of attack.
Vaguely paranoid. Slightly schizophrenic with plenty of offbeat humour and drunken shouting to boot. This is unapolegetic alternative entertainment of a sort that the British have a long and distinguished tradition. Happy, Flowered Up, Mods.
'I'm a zero. I'm a hero. I'm a struggling superhero.'
Stay in your lane. One of the current adages which describes our culture. The Menzingers were sixteen once but they never will be again. No one's coming to save them so they head out on the road with best intent from their base in Scranton, Pennsylavania.
On latest album Everything I Ever Saw they resolutely stay in their lane. The one paved for them by the likes of Killers, Hold Steady, Japandroids. over previous decades most obviously going back to The Boss. Much more Bruce than Patti.
This is all good stuff to plug into if you're heading out on the road this weekend. There's no pretension or restraint, It is what it appears to be. Cultural comments is scattered like so much confetti from the window as the car speeds onwards into the day, Nothing really sticks or jars.
Young love. Exetre's finest. The spirit of Dolly Mixtures meet Billy Bragg sign up to Tapete Records and settle down in the West Country and live happily ever after !
When The Coral came out in 2002 I was in Poland I wondered whether I was missing anything . I was aware of where they were coming from Forever Changes . Piper At The Gates of Dawn. Kilimanjaro. Crocodiles.Listening to The Coral now I wish I'd spent more time with it. It has the Baroque Charm of youthful misadventure and wideyed wonder. Tales of yore and imagined yesterdays and tomorrows. But it's not a loss that pains me.
Waiting for the Encore. It's Friday morning. The sun is rising in the heavens. What better to do than absorb yourself in someone else's melancholia? So to Phoebe Bridgers first solo album for six years; Lost Weekend. Well it's almost the weekend. Why not ?
And what's the first thing you get? Vocoder. And drift. Thirty Something drift. Weightlessness and reference to loss and despair. References to her deceased Dad and relationship severance and sadness. Being killed by being alive.
Wan Indie melodies. Paul Simon for modern times. But with less philospophical weight or direction. This is aural wallpaper for an age where the central condition seems to be a sense of dislocation.
So this is all rather glum but it's relatable glumness. Song titles such as 'Lost Boys', 'The Outside' Kill Me.' It's relentlessly self absorbed but aren't we all . 'Why am I here?' 'Why indeed?'
This is relatable easy listening. It all strikes me as rather akin to the last words of Waiting For Godot. ' Lets go.' 'We can't' Why not' 'We're waiting for Godot.' I quite like it
In 2001 I went to New York City with a good friend with a half baked view to living there. We went to see Walkmen play with Interpol. It was the times. I was very taken with Walkmen. Lees so with Interpol who reminded me of .... Bows + Arrows still sounds like a realised bohemian dream.
What more could you want on a Friday morning than More Songs About The Sun. Just on cue here come Pye Corner Audio with just that. Feelgood electro throbbing chugging into clear waters and heading for the distant horizon. It seems clear we have the wind in our sails !
Reasons to be cheerful, Part erm..... well four thousand four hundred and seventy eight. And counting.... The Hobknobs and their debut a;bum Helmets Off takes the biscuit frankly !
From the Dutch Lou & Mo school of Indie strum. No lack of ennui and boho poetry. Every one's a monochrome winner baby !
Dutch masters Graps of Grain's fourth A Muted Hey embraces a rustic palette and moves into a field of its own . A beautiful set of songs that hark back to Darryl Anne, Bette Serveert and The Nits.
Some quite extraordinary albums came out on 4 AD Records during the Eighties. Not least of them the ones by Dead Can Dance. They were a band who made every effort to live up to the spectral potential of their name. A lot of this seems incredibly ahead of its time.
Blue Island by Ravyn Levae is a slightly Old School Dancefloor /Workout. Reminiscent of Janet Jackson and Janelle Monae. A familiar dream. It's undemanding but wholesome.
Howard Ingerman of Fake Candian asks the question on the lips of all discerning Pop Pickers. Namely was Andy Partridge circa 1978, the most irritating voice in the History of Rock & Roll?
The jury is still out on that one. Fake Canadian's Fellow Traveller spins on in best skinny tie New Wave fashion, if New Wave had happened in the suburbs of San Jose.. Timothy Is In Danger is a Generation Z rewrite of Making Plans For Nigel. This is confused hormonal joy for badege collectors.
The marmite factor kicks in pretty quickly on . Andy Partridge They Might Be Giants, Howard Ingerman. Timothy is in dange
True Green's Hail Disaster is that rare thing. A dappled and consistently revealingmodern album that presents fresh territory to explore at every turn without having inhibiting influential sources . Minneapolis novelist and musician Dan Hornsby works melodic guitar, drum bass and keyboard as his basic ingredients, the human condition as his terrain but sets forth from there with ceaseless invention, curiosity and wit.
Hornsby owes something to the likes of David Berman, Neil Young and Jeff Tweedy. But he marks out fresh territory that is fresh and rewarding listening His songs are mournful and world weary occasionally. Most of all he loves language and the sacred lanes that can be plotted through the forest.
Being happy to remain a cult is never a bad idea. A hidden secret to those in the know. Liam Hayes, the Chicago artist formerly known as Plush seems happy with what he is and what he does. Latest album Dancing Backwards is a good case in the argument that if it ain't broken why change things.Just change gear, Into the smooth lane.
Why indeed. This by turns is soulful, chintzy culty cool Smoochy cruise lounge music for the Indie set. Lush and indeed Plush. Charm personified. 'He's dancing backwards, heading for that iceberg; I'll drink to that !...
Nico is an artist you grow into. Not unlike the embrace of the grave. You're not born with awreness of mortality but it's something you learn to respect given the passing of time. A voice and presence that feels alien and offputting when you're young actually feels like great company with the passing years.
Bellows 'Que Bellow!' Brooklyn Twee Pop in the Sufjan Stevens School of doing things is charm and rapture and melody personified. It takes Sufjan's innoavtions to their logical conclusion. To a point where everything, absolutely everything is turning in on itself leading to a riotous eruption of colour, motion and invention wherever you look.
In quick turn. One track after another. Call and response Baroque intriacy. Orchestral ambition and exmination of beauty at every turn.
This is incredibly indulgent stuff but more admirable for each turn, It's so hook laden that it feels like you're gorging on marshmallow but makes you keep coming back for more. A record that stalks continents. Tell your friends. Spread the word !
Drinking a Cola, listening to C.O.L.A.'s latest; Cost Of Living Adhustment. Aren't I just the Post Punk, Punk. It's a cool album. Cure meet Wire in Toronto at a Surrealist Exhibition.
This is a cooler than thou Song of the Day. One for the art set. For those who stroke their chins and like to listen to Arthur Russell and Laurie Anderson rarities before doing some coke and going for cocktails in downtown Manhattan. Wish I was there !
Long time Arthur Russell collaborator Nirosta Steel has finally released his debut album My Skyscraper decades down the line and Pitchfork are so delighted about it they've published the kind of review you'd expect focusing on the concept of play as a tagline.
My Skyscraper is certainly a whole new shade of fun. Funky, elusive, full of in jokes and fretless bass. Light as souffle and not an ounce on the waist. Waiter !!!
At secondary school, XTC were approachable. They were not that much older than us and from all appearances not much more mature, they snapped into the hormonal mindset.
An early indication from the Arcade Camp that 'messianic' can also equate with 'ludicrously egotistical and narcississtic ' and 'rather humourless'. This has its moments but I prefer to go to Funeral or The Suburbs. They're Arcade Fire albums peeps.
Move on with the year? Well that's certainly the plan. Onto March and Spring and the lengthening days and the Easter season. Today we have precisely that Move On With The Year the debut album from Alice Costelloe and a veritable peach. Thanks once more to Darren Jones for directing me here.
Reading through the accompanying blurb there seems to be a certain heft and marketing expectation behind the release of the record . It struck me as a very 2026 sounding record. Innocence, awe. Wide eyed millennial wonder. It reminded me of Aldous Harding who will be along before long with her new album on May 8th. In the meantime this will more than do.
A record I've been listening to on and off for a couple of weeks. Wendy Eisenberg by Wendy Eisenberg on Joyful Noise Recordings. Strangely her eigth album in all. Post Millennial ennui and positivity. Rather Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind in tone. Laurel Canyon autumnal vibes swinging lightlly off its axis. and really rather poetic and entrancing.
Another day, another shot at Actor and St. Vincent. I try with st Vincent, I really do. Perhaps it's uncharitable of me but I never feel that I'll ever try quite as hard as she does herself. Her music is erm.... artful and kitsch in turns. She's rather like a Wes Anderson character. A little cluttered for my tastes.
Richmond Fontaine are the kind of seasoned Americana contenders that Uncut Magazine grinds its bones to make their bred upon. I find it's not generally what i'm looking for first thing but it tends to grow on me as the sun completes its climb in the heavens.
Bands like this and Wilco could easily have been writers or journalists in another age but during the Rock & Roll years have chosen to make their living on the circuit. From one town to the next from one record to the next. Chronicling the life of the midwest journeyman.
The list of Great Rock & Roll band names yet untaken shortens once again. We've had The Shirts. We've had The Shoes and The Sneakers. Now we have The Sleeves . Jack Cooper is behind this and they have a debut album out which is glacial and cool. Made up of sparse minimal Post Rock tunes.
Great start to my Sunday morning. Low, Slint, Wire and Codeine spring to mined. Going back to the third Velvet Underground album. The well of this remarkable Spring.
Howard Ingerman of Fake Candian asks the question on the lips of all discerning Pop Pickers. Namely was Andy Partridge circa 1978, the most irritating voice in the History of Rock & Roll?
The jury is still out on that one. Fake Canadian's Fellow Traveller spins on in best skinny tie New Wave fashion, if New Wave had happened in the suburbs of San Jose.. Timothy Is In Danger is a Generation Z rewrite of Making Plans For Nigel. This is confused hormonal joy for badege collectors.
The marmite factor kicks in pretty quickly on . Andy Partridge They Might Be Giants, Howard Ingerman. Timothy is in danger.
I confess I sometimes struggle with Jack White and wonder whether I should be listening to a record he likes instead.
I try not to be a music snob though in some ways I realise I am. Music has been my major experience over the course of life really. There are other strands but music strikes me as the most important channel and source.
I'm not a competist as far as Radiohead go. I don't know all their records intimately. But frankly I'd say they dwarf most other bands in terms of their scope and ingenuity
I love music that seems to come at you from another time and that seems to be a characteristic of music of these times. Gentle Brontosaurus hail from Madison Wisconsin and their vibe parks its tent midway between Alvvays and Belle & Sebastian.
But Three Hares their latest album takes me back further still. To the early to mid Eighties and the set of the more wholesome and tuneful bands of the American Alternative Invasion; the sweeter side of R.E.M., True West 10,000 Maniacs, Let's Active et al. Three Hares is at once and act of reclamation and rediscovery. It's sweet as American Ppie
'Start spreading the news....' Where shall we start with CS Cleaners. Art Punk New York ingenues and their debut album What's This? . So What's This? Is This It? I wonder . It may as well be . I've been driven back 25 years already today as my sister has been posting wonderful pictures of her Wedding Day on her 25th Wedding Anniversary and dragging me back to that day. Sometimes you need to be dragged back in order to be dragged into a new space . Life is funny like that.
What's This? may not be Is This It? . But it exists in a not disimilar, unapolagetic space. It's uncomfortable in its own skin and that's contagious. It has quite the worst / best album cover you'll see this year. A mangey, mishappen but deeply loveable panther that's highly artistically improbable but deeply desirable at one and the same time. The record makes you feel like you're back in CBGB's or the Knitting Factory having one of the best nights of your life. Apple Art ! Cor !!!!
120 seconds. A roll call. Some dances you might like to matser. No chorus to talk of but no real need for one.
The kind of record I'm immediately drawn to. An Australian band called Drained Aeroplanes. A name to conjur with. Childish. The title distils the essence of the record. Dreaming Sydney Indie. Short and sweet. Awkward and imprecise. Feels like as good a way to spend your youth as any.
There are times on It Starts when it feels like I'm on a hitting streak. Like a midwest hitter rounding the bases with the ball long gone. I've got a few more up my sleeve for the coming days. Today Fazed On A Pony's swan. Out of Auckland and in the best Flying Nun traditions.
This one skims across the lake like a perfectly judged pebble.VBut it's a verstile pebble. arying its delivery and intent with each suceeding track. It's a record that makes you glad to be alive which is all you can really ask of any album. Wire meet The Chills.
I'm listening to Richard Thompson and thinking about Kevin Morby today. Jose Gonzalez' Against The Dying Of the Light has been chiming with that. Plugging into that primal Folk energy. Revving up the motor and presseing your bootheels on the accelerator and bombing down the woodland road until dawn.
There's some Nick Drake inspired poetics and picking and that's always welcome. This is some record. It has plenty of company in 2026.. 'Do not go gentle until that night.; You heard what the man says.
There are records I think are slightly affected and I struggle while listening to them as to whether I like them or not. There's a line between ambitious and pretentious which can be akin to tightrope walking.
Shearwter's The New World is such a record. The band have two decades and seven albums behind them A long established artistic pedigree so it's probably a bit late in the day to take pot shot at them so I let it spin instead and it won me over presently and utterly. Orchestral Art Rock. But that's not always a bad thing. Daydream unbelievers.
The National came to prominence at a time when I wasn't paying much attention to music. I've tried to catch up but suspect I never will. I confess I find this rather bloodless. I like the drumming but that's not in itself enough.
I was in two minds for today's Song(s) and Album(s) of the day because it's generally the latter these days on It Starts With a Birthstone. Should I share my thoughts on Make Up Is a Lie, The latest chapter in Morrissey's increasingly unhinged, slightly unpleasant and ridiculously self indulgent musical and personal narrative. He has opinions and he will not be silenced it seems.
That can wait I decided, for another day. Instead I decided Michael Ian Cummings, another suggestion from the ever reliable Darren Jones. An Art Rock album called Godzilla from the ashes of New York band Skaters. that's much to my liking.
There's a certain sadness here. A sense of life and experience receding in the rear view mirror but something exciting appearing round the next bend. Keep your foot pressed on the pedal. This is rather lovely. We're into the day
Texture. One of the distinctive qualities of the 4AD record label. Such an important ones to the likes of myself. Texture is there in abundance on Mallory Hawk's debut album Chinook. Light and shade. It's a record that's been a while in terms of its gestation and appearance but it's clearly worthy of the wait. Frankly this is a a special and magical record indeed.
Albums like these stand or fall on the investment and emotional stake cultivated in the listener for the musician or musicians behond it In this case I'd suggest that Hawk scores highly. I was won over in three songs.
This reminds me of Throwing Muse, Breeders and This Mortal Coil records, Willing to shift gear and move into space of one moment, then become more ruminative the next. Chinook is a pure state of being. Exceptional.
Of Montreal's latest album aethermead is from the off driven by an arthouse persona driven conviction which has been worked on and refined for years. Athens, Georgia band always goes down well on It Starts With a Birthstone. Particular one with no obvious resemblance or DNA of their obvious antecedents B52s, R.E.M., Pylom amd so on and so forth,
This has a more particular set of reference points. The Wainwrights, Southern Literature and Films. A glass of wine from a good year. The finer things in life. This is gossamer light and deft. A rewarding as a rich meal in the company of cultivated company.
