It Starts With a Birthstone...

  Pause for thought. We are as far away from the first couple of Arctic Monkeys albums as The Sex Pistols were from Elvis. I don't have ...

  Neil Diamond seems to occupy the space between Rock & Roll and Showbiz. It's a dirty job but someone  has to do it. Apparently the...

  Memories can be the heavuest things . I alwasy associate Blue with a flat in Dortmund and a friend I visited on Friday's at the end of...

  Occasionally it's best, if you're feeling distracted or anxious to let it go and give a record your complete attention. In the cas...

  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 d...

  In many respects Bug Thief are a band out of time. They often sound as if they'd have graced the bill at Woodstock. But their music is...

  Listening to this countdown, one album a day as spring become summer is an almost unprecedented experience, I don't know many of these...

  Prefan Sprout; The Musical

  For The Rosesis aparticularl favourite of mine. It feels tangled and troubled. As if some are going where they need to go. And others are ...

  Gun Outfit occuply the same emotional territory as Allah Las, Mazzy Star and The Paisley Underground bands and the likes pf the Doors, Lov...

  Great music is frequently an act of escape. An immersion in an alternative and more inviting reality . Such is the case. You are in the pa...

  This is, how should I put it? Monumentally bland !

Whimsical Athletic. Not so much for me this one. Though it has its twists and turns.  

  Young Joni is naturally quite different from middle aged Joni and slightly elderly Joni. It's only natural. But this makes it dufficul...

  Famously the album that either made ir saved Richard Branson. Memory us the strangest thing. For some reason I'm transported back to a...

  Please release Engelbert Humperdinck and his dubuius sudeburns. It's been almost sixty years now,  

  I keep falling hard for new albums. Long may this contunue.This morning... Mildred. No, not  Yootha Joyce. Morrissey acolytes. But Oaklan...

  Sorry Spotify haters ! I understand your argument but I have justifications of my own. I like listening to ludicrously obscure albums on m...

  These late Johnny Cash / Rick Rubin albums are extraordinary. A cast spell with Biblical dimensions.

  Purple Haze still sounds impossible. A visitation.

  Late Eighties Joni and it sounds it . All rather over egged production wise for me. The melody has a more-ish tug

  I have all the time in the world. As good as early retired at 60. With a flat full of light and a high ceiling which creates beautifuk aco...

                                  '                                                                               'Welcome to the Ba...

 

  Glorious kaleidoscopic sound.

 

  I've had an emotionally bisy day. Sometimes circumstance dies this to you and you deal with it as best as you can. Still it's earl...

  Near the start of it all. There's a purity here that's difficult to process.

  A New York vocal  group in the slipstream of The Four Seasons.   

  Italian progressive Rock . 1972. I imagine you own this. It has an irresistible tug. Close your eyes. The years fall away..   

  Deep House. Great to lsten to. Ifid it difficult to write about.

  The Monkees had the best songs. The best writers, The best colour. They had a lot going for them that band. 

  You can use music for many purposes. I'm currently channeling it as something of a restorative. To take me back to times and spaces. P...

  Den Der Hale are playing at The Cimberland Arms this evening.I probably won't go. I have an early start tomorrow and a few classes.to ...

Joni reflects on age. She's by instincts a thoughtful artist with an eye on her place in history. This song was originally on Hejira but...

  I saw Sleater Kinney around this juncture, They were propulsive. Righteous !

 

  We're shifting towards summer. It won't get dark intil half past nine tonight. I've finished my tea and washed up the plates a...

  In some ways this should be a disturbing record to listen to because it's made by a deeply disturbed man who dropped off the radar pre...

  The Walker Brothers could sing the bus tumetable and it would sound divine. Here they sing The Ronettes and it will do. 

  An immediately wonderful grasp om colour, melody and sunniness. Joni sounds impossibly fresh and exuberant here. But there's also a wo...

  Rough Trade are onto this and that's good enough for me. I went across the road just now and mentioned them to Nick the owner of the r...

  'Come out of the cupboard you boys and girls....' It seems like a good time to listen to  London Calling. I hear a lot of people d...

  Bill Callahan is a comforting artist. He goves you the sense that it's stull the Sixties bur with an  added knowing dimension. Some of...

  This makes me think of my childhood. And my beautiful mother who had a great array of summer Sixties dresses. It's all sunlight and yo...

  David Geffen asks Joni for a hit and Joni in tesponse is playful with the form.

  I've surprised myself by falling hard for American Football's self tutled fourth album over the last couple of days. It's spac...

  If you came of age in the Eighties you had a slightly awry perspective on a number of artusts. Elton Jihn, Springsteen, Bowie, Dylan and J...

  The author if this list is Swedush aand naturally has a different perspective. I've never heard of Lucifer's Friend. Pn immediate ...