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..

 

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 left for the listener to colour them in,. Can make it easy for the listener. And difficult, 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.

Lazy Days - The British Progressive Pop Sounds of 1975 # 16 Ronnie Lane

 

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.   

Lazy Days - The British Progressive Pop Sounds of 1975 # 15 Alan Hull

 

250 Albums- An Arbitrary Rumble Through My Record Collection # 206 Dory Previn - On My Way To Where

 

A few years back my siter bought me a couple of Dory Previn albums for Christmas. I'm immensly grateful whenever I take one out and play. Previn is an incredible artist, Her life was rather tragic in many repects.Certainly dramatic. But her records offer a thrilling legacy of vivid domestication.

The records indicate an incredible understanding and feel for the past. A  sly and charming sense of humour. A textured, intricate and barique qyalluty quite unlike anyone elses. An ability to land punches when she felt herself wronged. They're altogether marvellous. . 

Searching For Dexys Midnight Runners # 19 Billy Adams

250 Albums- An Arbitrary Rumble Through My Record Collection # 207 Michael Head & The Strands - The Magical World of the Strands

 

Magical is the operative word. Michael Head's considerabe body of work is clearly preducated on a deep love of Forever Changes most obviously. There's nothing wrong with that and this is a magisterual variatuin on that remarkable album. It takes you out to sea, spins uou round the bay and has you back for tea.

101 Essential Rock Records # 74 Carole King - Tapestry

 

There's an essence to Tapestry. A purity that still wants you to let it spin. 

500 Greatest Albums of the 2000's # 486 Fennesz - Endless Summer

 

250 Albums- An Arbitrary Rumble Through My Record Collection # 208 Massive Attack - Mezzanine

 

I found myself ejecting Pulp's More a few tracks in. I wanted the future. So I went to this.Mezzanine was released in 1997. But it still sounds like the future in 2025. As if you're getting armoured up in your spacesuit on the Nostromo or the star ship enterprose . To be blasted into space to teach some fit lady about love. You are Captain Kirk .or if you prefer, Sulu, Czechov or Lieutenant Uhuru. This worms its way deep inside me every time.  

Song(s) of the Day # 4,108 Pulp

 

Pulp are back. With More their first new album for twenty five. Following the passing of Sreve Mackey and without Russell Senior they're down to the core four ; Cocker, Banks, Doyle and Webber, I'm listening to the record as I make my way through my Friday of online lessons and it feels like a slightly odd experience.

There are some great songs which sound instantly like Pulp, an Art Pop experience that will draw the faithful sixty somethings to the enormodomes to relive all our yesterday's. The songs are alright. Good lyrics perky tunes. I'm just not convinced as to what this sound means in 2025. The world has changed. I'm just not sure that Pulp can.

Contrast points are to the marvellous Stereolab album which came out a few weeks back. Ot the Blur record of a couple of years back The Ballad Of Darren.Or The Cure.  More didn't really ring with me, it felt like a retread and I found myself getting impatient and searching for  something by Massive Attack halway through. 

I came back later in the day. It's a nuanced record, a favourite wird of mine. Songs you need to get to know and live inside and allow to blossom within you. It all seems slightly familiar to me as of yet. Well crafted as it is. I'll get back to you. At the moment it's a 7.5.  

Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 - 1,558 Cat Power - Moon Pix

 

Spooked Music. It's important to realise that being alive is an alienating and bizarre experience and revel in the moment. This us a record that provides you the opportinity to do this. 

500 Greatest Albums of the 2000's # 487 Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - The Letting Go

Sparse and delicate. Bonnie 'Prince' Billy tackles the big subjects. Constantly.engages with the here and now but also the unknown. His work is consistently rich and sophisticated, Take this for example.

250 Albums- An Arbitrary Rumble Through My Record Collection # 209 Gorky's Zygotic Mynci - Barfundle

 

Wales is a different country. They do things differently there. A year ago a dear Aunt died. I went to her funeral in Abergaveny with my brother and sister law. It was a beautifully prepared and delivered cermony for a beautiful and special person.

 After the receptrion I stayed in a fantastic four star hotel and communed with my relatives. Then travelled back to Newcastle the next day across Welsh terraun towards Bristol . The Welsh language on train signs and rail announcements. Almost a call back to innocence and childhood. Oliver Postgate. Submarine.

 Gorky's Zygotic Mynci evoke all this. Homeliness and warmth. Wonder.  Barfundle transports the listener to enchatment and escape. Charm is the operative word. 

Song(s) of the Day # 4,108 Culture Club

 

'Time is like a clock in my heart.'

I have a vinyl copy of Colour By Numbers somewhere in this flat. I wouldm''t mind listening to it but you know, I don't have enough erm ........ to find it so I'll put on a Neil Young album instead to get the day spinning as I work my way towards an online lesson at ten o'clock in Dussledorf.

I consider myself semi retired and very fortunate. Out of the rat race and with luck never having to attend a meeting, sit in a staffroom with stressed and unhappy colleagues or even lovely and well adjuusted ones. Meetings chaired  by bad managers who have no earthly idea of how to run a meeting. I hope I don't need to do this Ever, ever again..You really don't want me to expand trust me.You don't have time and neither do I. please don't take offence. 

We seem to be living in an age where nobody, but nobody has any time. Is this just life or has the pace of  things accelerated and intensified for reasons beyond our ken since I was a teenager. When we did I remember have time. Certainly in my family's case to gather round the TV set after supper on a Thursday evening to watch Top of the Pops together. Boy George and Culture Club miming to Time, a non album single, (an interesting phenomenon in itself) which took its own time and hung around the Top Ten it seemed for months. In 1982. When I was sixteen. 

It got to Number 2.. In the UK and on the US American billboard chart. Was a Top Ten hit everywhere. It has a'gentle funk anchor' apparently and a beautiful melody and lyrics. 'Put your head on my shoulder. Sink me in a river of tears.. This could be the best place yet . But you must overcome your fears.' Nothing changes in thaat arena. Go on sit down at your desk wherever you are. Try to come up with something better. Bet you can't 

101 Essential Rock Records # 73 Cat Stevens - Tea For The Tillerman

 

 

Very little that's more restful than sitting at your desk and the sun going down/ Listening to a Cat Stevens record. Of course for people of ,my age he's an artist who immediately sparks off youthful associations. But more than that he's an artist who just brims with positivity and the spirit of enquiry,

  

Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 - 1,559 Weezer - Weezer

 

Weezer produce Breezy Geeky Pop by Breezy Geeky types for Brezy Geeky Types. As someone said to me once . It's decorative

250 Albums- An Arbitrary Rumble Through My Record Collection # 210 Tim Buckley - Sefronia

 

Tim Buckley I associate with a certain shade of melancholy, Partly because his work is pretty melancholic. That's not a criticism but the highest praise. You can pretty much take any of his albums. They all stand up. Emblematic of the giddy American ride from 1965 to 1975. It's joy and ecstasy. It's sorrow and struggle. Bickley is a seeker. His mysc is like the finest wine.  

500 Greatest Albums of the 2000's # 488 Charlotte Gainsbourg 5:55

 

Sometimes you forget albums. Essentially forget them. Or at least neglect them until something gives you a nudge and you find your way back to them. Let them wash over you like cleansing water. Like finding yourself in a forest clearung positioning yourself under an unexpected waterfall.

 I had this experience with Charlotte Gainsbourg 5:55. U bought it on CD on what I increasingly think of my lost years of music litening between about 1997 and 2011 when I was finally restored to my record player and collection..

I'm listening to  5:55 on my TV set and it's lulling me into a beautiful calm and pleasant repose. Charlotte is Serge Gainsbourg's daughter of course and the record is uttelrly understanding and consitent with his magical legacy.

Song(s) of the Day # 4,107 Charlie Rich

 

Music has incredible qualities. It can send you spinning back helpless to where you first heard it and how it made you feel. Take this. Charlie Rich's Most Beautiful Girl In The World.. First of all the title. It's a very relative thing of course. Most beautiful. Best. But that's the best way of descrbing how we feel when we look at someone fundamental to us, are with them or think about them.

I remember hearing this on the radio when it came out and I was just a little boy.It made me feel really strange. The way you do when you're a child and you don't really understand what is happening around you, I didn't understand the emotions of adult love. Perhaps I still don't. 

But I like the vulnerability of the song. It's like an open wound. It has genuine longing and is sung by a master who unhabits its emotions. and shakes them senseless. Music is often the best way for expressing and experiencing your deepest feelings and articulating them for you in a way that you just can't. 

101 Essential Rock Records # 72 David Bowie - The Man Who Sold The World

Searching For Dexys Midnight Runners # 18 Bob Noble - The Occasional Flicker

 

250 Albums- An Arbitrary Rumble Through My Record Collection # 211 The Jam - All Mod Cons

The incredible thing about Paul Weller in The Jam was just how acute and sharp he was. Far sharper than a lot of the people around him. Many Jam songs are Buldungsroman principles realised in three minute Pop songs. Elvis Costello and Joe Strummer wre doing somular things at the same time. But they were quiye a lot older than Weller and every sux minths matters a lot at that age. 

For me he allowed himself to be defined too much by the things that he loved in later years..His talent had much mre going for it than The Mod Revival. But listen to All Mod Cons and it will make you feel like ou are fifteen again.

250 Albums- An Arbitrary Rumble Through My Record Collection # 212 Jethro Tull - Heavy Horses

 

It's funny how time can mellow perceptions and runde prejudice. As a youngster something instinctively warned me that Jethro Tull were not for me. The facial hair. Hopping around on one foot playing the flute. The general bizarre lyrical meandering. It seemed like the playground of the criminally insane. Music for older people

Now I'm sitting thoroughly enjoying Heavy Horses as it ruts and dives and I prepare to tuck into jacket potatoes warming gently in my oven. Things have fallen unto place. I guess it's called getting older !!!

250 Albums- An Arbitrary Rumble Through My Record Collection # 213 South Pacific OST

 

I like musicals. They remind me of my mother. A real staple indercurrent of my life. A musical on in the living room to take her away from the daily grind and the problems of the  world and into a world of escape and dream where goodness prevails and good tunes are all that matter.

But also wonderful  narratives amd turbulence to fix on and ponder. A truly great musical like South Pacific tells you that nothing ever really changes. That the battlefield locations for love and war might shift but the underlying essentials of the struggle are fixed and immutable..    

Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 - 1,560 Doves - Lost Souls

 

I bought a copy of Lost Souls when it came out and listened to it while I was in Catania, Sicily. It was a wonderful, immersive place but my mood was not sunny. I was struggling with what I wanted to do next. Where I wanted to be. Lost Souls struck a chord within me and I'm still grateful to it. It seemed to say, no it's not easy. But stick to the road, don't break your stride. Others are struggling and we will prevail. 

500 Greatest Albums of the 2000's # 489 Okkervil River -- Black Sheep Boy

 

A Tim Hardin song, the lead off track here.Tim Hardin seems like quite a Post Millennial artist in some respects. Introverted. Withdrawn. This record follows its lead. It seems rather like a cry for help. After a a few minutes of relentless wailing I decide to it on something a little less self pitying and maudlin, (desspite the record's clear merits) because I feel like enjoying the sun on a sunny day..

 

Song(s) of the Day # 4,106 Hudson Freeman

 

Hudson Freeman is a Folk Artist apparently . I at least that's the name of the latest album. He has a ring on his face, a ring on his nose and a slightly unconcing moustache. But the record is absolutely the real deal and I'm listening to it on my TV set as I make my way from Lesson One to Lesson Two on a Tuesday morning in early June. 

 Hudson Freeman is a Folk Artist doesn't really sound like a Folk Album, but that's a catch all these days.This sounds to me like a Bedroom Pop album if you wish to apply a label. It's a thoughtful .intiiverterted album. Warm and thoughtful. Anither Darren Jones suggestion. Once more I'm indebted. Anither great record Darren ! 

250 Albums- An Arbitrary Rumble Through My Record Collection # 214 Al Stewart - Past, Present & Future

 

An old world. One where brass bands parp amd Al Stewart reflects on time and values past but most of all on how nothing really changes. On how we're all given an allotted time and it's ehoven to us to enjoy it as best we can,  live in the moment and most of all to look around us. ,

There stands Al at his mantelpiece. In 1973 we must resume. With a questionable hairdo and an ill fitting suit. Each song has a historical focus and his manner is gentle and probing. A steel band is utilised at a certain point .

Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 - 1,561 Adrianne Lenker - Songs

 

Heartfelt echoey songs,

Lazy Days - The British Progressive Pop Sounds of 1975 # 14 Electric Light Orchestra

 

Evil woman breaks heart of man with shades and poodle hair.

250 Albums- An Arbitrary Rumble Through My Record Collection # 215 Lovin' Spoonful - Daydream

 

I listened to this album all day.In between lessons. As I was doing my paperwork. Now I'm listening to it again. It starts with one of Lovin' Spoonful's best known songs, Daydream. An elliptical compression of everything that seemed so great about the Sixtues before disillusionment set in..

They're clearly having a ball. Crazed. Possessed by giddy youth. At a moment in time when having long hair seemed like a revolutionary act. Energy. It still sounds like positive energy..

500 Greatest Albums of the 2000's # 490 Deerhunter - Cryptograms

 

A band that explore Psyche. To marvellous effect....

101 Essential Rock Records # 71 Emerson, Lake & Palmer - Emerson, Lake & Palmer

 

Song(s) of the Day # 4,105 Florry

 

It's the second of June and I've had a full day. Four online  lessons in all to Germans . Quarter Past  Eight until just now actually. Gosh how happy I am not to be in an office with unhappy colleagues. Time for some Rock & Roll.

Florry tick that box and all number of other on their latest Sounds Like.... Slightly wasted . In the way that The Stones were when they holed out in a French mansion to lay down Exile On Main Street. Or Kings of Leon when they were young. And good. 

Florry are from Philly Vermont and call themselves an Alt Country band. But really labels are spurious Siynd like good old fashioned Rock & Rill to me. Of the best kund. Thanks Darrem.

Lazy Days - The British Progressive Pop Sounds of 1975 # 13 10 CC

 

10CC pretty much were 1975. This is quite easeful.

250 Albums- An Arbitrary Rumble Through My Record Collection # 216 Talking Heads.- Fear of Music

 

The last sixty years has been a very strange emotional journey for us all. It's difficult to describe quite how the world has changed. In terms of the way we live,. The way we interact. The way we work. The way we think.. 

It's always interesting to listen to Talking Heads with this in mind. They were a band who highlighted the strange, Alienation. Take Fear Of Music. It has eleven songs which focus on how life is essentially a strange passage of experience. 

It has incredible perspectives of existence, staggering production values and incredible lyrics and playing. It's not a record that sounds dated in any respect. In fact quite the eopposite. All of the best music is written about the future 

Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 - 1,562 Kasabian - Velociraptor !

 

Leicester's response to The verve and Oasis. Slightly lumpen for my tastse but they had their moments.

500 Greatest Albums of the 2000's # 491 Fever Ray - Fever Ray

 

Interesting Gloom Space. Big on atmospherics.

Song of the Day # 4,108 Watchhouse.

 

Mellow. They called Donovan mellow yellow. Quite right too. Mellow is a good path to choose. In life and love. North Carolina's Watchhouse choose the mellow path on latest album Rituals. It puts its feet up on the porch as the Hickory Wind. It'sa lovely recird frnkly a reminder of a firgitten world. Tht's what mysuc dies best

June