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Well, time slips away and leaves you with nothing, mister, but boring stories of… mid week spins

/ Tony / 3 Comments

Yeah, they’ll pass you by…

Been a while, again. Life, health, work, marking another year around the sun… things get busy.

Still, ahead of ploughing into a coupe of post series it feels like getting a good toe back in the water by going for another recap of recent acquisitions and spins. In anticipation of the one of those series, let’s start with Mr Springsteen…

Bruce Springsteen – Losin’ Kind

What a year to be a Springsteen fan – Tracks II: The Lost Albums, confirmation that Tracks 3 is on the way and, now, we get Nebraska ’82: Expanded Edition. Seemingly released to tie in with ‘Deliver Me From Nowhere’ hitting the screen, this is the one that’s been waited for as hungrily as the fabled ‘loops’ album as it contains ‘Electric Nebraska‘. As powerful as the E Street ‘power trio’ takes on ‘Atlantic City’ and ‘Born In The USA’ are, and subtly tasteful the renditions of ‘Nebraska’ and ‘Reason to Believe’ may be, the decision to can in favour of the original’s stark beauty isn’t questioned by these. Just as worth the price of admission though is the disc of ‘Nebraska Outtakes’. Songs like ‘Losin’ Kind’, ‘Gun In Every Home’ and ‘On The Prowl’ rank among his finest and, as with Tracks – raise a lot of ‘how the hell did this end up on the floor?’ style questions.

Elliott – Carry On

Mazzy Star – Bells Ring

There’s a surprising number of records sat in front of my shelves that are new purchases still awaiting to be filed away – which itself is always a bit of High Fidelity style fun.* Amongst which are lot of recent reissues that have meant some long-time favourites are now in rotation including two albums from Elliott which were barely out of my cd player back in the day. Once pigeon-holed as ’emo’ there’s a lot more to their atmospheric and sweeping tunes that make me think of them more as an ‘ambient Sunny Day Real Estate’.

Mazzy Star’s sumptuous sophomore album, So Tonight That I May See, was propelled along by the surprise dominance of ‘Fade Into You’. Beyond that opening track’s hypnotic charms though are the album’s real beauty and strengths.

Air – Playground Love (with Gordon Tracks)

While I spent a bit of time last summer hunting around Lyon’s record shops and scooping up the first three Air albums it’s only now that I’ve been able to get hold of their soundtrack – and, apparently, second album, The Virgin Suicides – in this instance the ‘Redux’ version. I’ve got no memory of the film, the book is on the shelves though, yet while this doesn’t really work as a second album in the truest sense it’s a lot closer to Moon Safari than 10,000 Hz Legend was and I’ve always got time for an Air album. I just wish they’d rerelease Pocket Symphony and Love 2.

BORIS – Korosu

Turnstile – Never Enough

We were in Third Man Records up in London a week or so back and walked in to the always-welcome thunderous delight of BORIS’ fourth album Heavy Rocks being played out at sufficiently high volume.

Turnstile’s Never Enough album caught me be surprise earlier in the year and has been on frequent rotation since, I can genuinely get behind all the plaudits its been getting. Easily one of the year’s finest albums. Which brings me to Mogwai…

Mogwai – Lion Rumpus

Having been given the recent ‘If The Stars Had a Sound’ Mogwai doc I’ve been hungrily absorbing it when I’m able to get sufficient time with the TV to do so. I forget how many years I’ve fucking loved this band but watching the documentary it’s a wonderfully warm feeling to see just how much love there is for them and to revisit the strange period in time (face masks, social distancing etc) when their The Love Continues album hit number one in the charts and the sense of jubilation it created. As they have a knack for releasing their albums early in the year these days it’s easy to forget that they dropped The Bad Fire in January but it’s been a regular play for me and another of those highlights of 2025’s albums. 

*strictly alphabetical by artist for the main with separate Post-Rock and Soundtracks/Comps sections if you’re curious.

Weekend spins, or what I did on my summer holidays…

/ Tony / 3 Comments

Here we are slap in the middle of La Rentrée and with the chaos and confusion it triggers subsiding somewhat and the rain lashing down like a cow pissing on a rock outside to signify that summer is well and truly in the rearview, it feels like it’s finally time to crack my knuckles, blow the proverbial dust off my keyboard and get back to this and talk about what’s been filling my ears.

It’s certainly been a while. In many ways it’s been the Summer of Springsteen* with both the release of Tracks II: The Lost Albums, the promise of Tracks III and the approaching drop of Nebraska ’82. But we’ll get to that later. I spent, as is often the case, a large part of my summer in France. Booked before the results of a DNA test revealed a large part of ‘me’ heralds from the exact region we visited, I spent a pleasurable couple of weeks driving around Brittany and Normandy with the occasional stop for a bit of record shopping thrown in amongst sampling the local cider and IPA. I’m gonna start the ball rolling with a track from Beach House – a band that I’d been listening to increasingly on that streaming service beginning with S for some time so when I found Once Twice Melody on sale for €15 I wasn’t going to say ‘non, merci.’

Beach House – New Romance

Mew – Am I Wry? No

Beach House sit in that category ‘dream pop’ category that serves as a catch all for those songs with pop melodies wrapped in atmosphere and sonic textures and feels like a lush, blanketed bridge to shoegaze. Mew are one of those bands who, like Beach House, appear so often in such playlists.

MC Solaar – Caroline

I had the pleasure of catching up with Geoff Stephen over at The 1002nd Album Club recently and, while discussing something that’ll appear soon, he mentioned that MC Solaar’s debut – Qui sème le vent récolte le tempo – was listed in ‘1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.’ It’s a brilliant album and MC Solaar, with his ridiculously smooth flow and delivery, combination of hip-hop, acid jazz and soul proved that French music wasn’t all derivative Johnny Halliday slop.

George Harrison / The Beatles – All Things Must Pass (Demo)

In amongst the hype about the upcoming reissues of the first three Anthology volumes and the ‘new’ fourth instalment, I was flicking through Anthology 3 and stumbled on this little gem. Having spent time with Dylan and the Band at the end of ’68, Harrison found is interest in the guitar and his approach to songwriting revitalised – only for songs like this, and others, to receive little interest from Lennon and McCartney. This early demo – from Feb ’69 – and included on Anthology 3 (hence the dual artist attribution) is a beautiful sign of just what a magnificent songwriter he’d become.

Chappell Roan – Good Luck, Babe!

Eddie Vedder – Room at the Top

Listening to the radio while driving through France has become something of a tradition over the last few years that we’ve been doing so. Unfortunately, I think it’s time to find a new station as RTL2 seem to have gotten stuck with only a handful of songs that get played on each DJ’s show. So, in amongst daily blasts of the new Indochine song and uncensored versions of Nirvana’s ‘Rape Me’ it became clear that the French are currently obsessed with Lola Young’s – admittedly brilliant – ‘Messy’ and Chappel Roan’s also brilliant ‘Good Luck, Babe!’ It’s a gloriously well-crafted song and, as Graham over at Aphoristic pointed out, she’s got Dan Nigro in her songwriting corner and they’re just pushing out gold. Makes me think of that glorious period of Madonna’s collaboration with Patrick Leonard.

I mentioned a while back how I’d been enjoying ‘Bad Monkey’ and its soundtrack of Tom Petty covers. Eddie Vedder’s take on Room at the Top (accompanied by his Earthlings band rather than his previous solo acoustic take) is an absolute blast of the great stuff.

And, finally….

Bruce Springsteen – Born In The USA (Electric Nebraska)

Strap yourself in, here we go: it’s Springsteen time. I mean: holy fuck. Aside from having given us SEVEN previously unreleased albums earlier this year (although really you can only apply that to two of the discs properly), Bruce recently dropped the bombshell we thought we’d never get: Electric Nebraska. Long rumoured and shrouded in myth – Springsteen, fresh from writing and recording with a home four (or eight) track, took said songs to the studio to, as always intended, work up with the E Street Band. Some of them worked, some didn’t, some evolved down the line and ten of them simply sounded perfect they way they were on that beat-up cassette in his back pocket and were released on the stark, beautiful Nebraska. Now, as we near release of ‘Deliver Me From Nowhere’ – the film of the book documenting that period – the fabled Electric Nebraska has been found in the vault, presumably right at the back along with the material coming on Tracks III, and will be released as part of a larger package next month.

To whet our appetite we get the Electric Nebraska version of Born In The USA. It’s rare that a song floors me but this, along with the news of the box, did that. Of the three versions we now have of the song – the other two being the famed Rambo Bruce version the ’82 demo, acoustic blues take on Tracks (and revisited on the reunion tour documenting Live in New York City – this is easily the best take on it. Like the Boss says in the video trailer, it sounds nothing like any of this other electric songs.

That’s it, for now. As I finish working my way through the Tracks II: The Lost Albums to restart the ‘Least and Most’ series, I’ll leave you with another Springsteen song and a highlight from that mammoth collection that shares the same vintage.

*fuck Oasis.

Monday Tunes: Scorchio

/ Tony / 6 Comments

Boy it’s a hot one – 32 degrees and more to come. While I try desperately to limit the typical ‘hot enough for you?’ comments and moaning about it being too hot that usually pervades conversation in this country (I fucking love it, any weather that means my thermostat isn’t kicking in and letting the electric company bend me over and shaft me like I’m in prison is a boon), I figured it time to ask, once again, to borrow your ears and mutter about that which has been filling mine of late.

PJ Harvey – The Glorious Land

I went back and forth with PJ Harvey’s Let England Shake album but recently something about it clicked, perhaps it was hearing this song afresh, perhaps it was feeling a similarly scathing view of the country, perhaps it was just one of those things where your ears are just ‘open’ to something at the right time. Either way, I’ve been enjoying ‘The Glorious Land’ a fair bit recently.

Regina Spektor – Better

Lola Young – Messy

Picking up the recent repress of Regina Spektor’s Begin to Hope felt like an ‘orange flame’ time machine back to hearing it for the first time in 2006 and seeing her shortly thereafter in a venue since torn-down for London’s Crossrail project.

Lola Young’s ‘Messy’ is one of those that kept popping up lately in the background – probably because she played that big festival that everyone talks about this time of year. It’s another one of those where I’m forever saying ‘ohh, what’s that song?’ because I’m enjoying it. Although I’m reliably informed I’m a year out of date with this, probably even more so with those I’ve been hearing by Chappell Roan, but at least I’m still managing not to shut myself off to new music.

Omertà – Kremer & Bergeret

Stereolab – Lo Boob Oscillator

Not the South Italian mafia’s code of silence… but an underground French band that manage to combine a two-bass-driven funk groove with post-rock like keyboards for a psychedelic vibe that ticks all my boxes and, for reasons I can’t explain, feels like a natural fit next to the recently-reunited Stereolab tune from 1993. Despite being on a compilation of tunes rather than an album proper, it’s probably their best-known song.

Bruce Springsteen – Maybe I Don’t Know You

It was inevitable that, since Friday, most of my listening has been Springsteen-flavoured. The release of Tracks II: The Lost Albums is as big a drop of new music from Bruce as there’s ever been. Most of my attention, though, was reserved for The Streets of Philadelphia Sessions – the lost album from the early ’90s that had long been rumoured. It feels like a missing link has been found for me, like a favourite album that I’d been waiting to hear. It’s a brooding, bruised but gorgeous vibe with just the right sound mixing. The balance between the synths and loops and the occasional piercing guitar is just spot-on. That he’s been sitting on this for more than 30 years is shocking. Was it the tepid response to Human Touch / Lucky Town? Was it still not being sure of his own ‘solo’ voice? Was it that he thought another relationships album would be one too many right then? Who knows, I’m just glad we finally have it.

Monday tunes: forgotten password mode

/ Tony / 4 Comments

For reasons various, I realise it’s been another month plus since I ventured toward the ‘Add Post’ button. Without going into too much of the detail, it’s been a strange few weeks – lots of venturing up and down the country and I’m pretty sure Record Store Day was in there too. Once again I sit here in a sort of recovery mode, this time thanks to the volley of anti-allergy stuff I had to take before and after tackling some intense gardening work of the machete through the undergrowth variety.

As such, I hope you’ll indulge me as I sit coffee in hand and take a walk through some of the musical stuff that I’ve been adoring of late, and I’m going to ease into it with one of my favourite songs.. with a little RSD-style twist.

Air – All I Need (feat Beth Hirsch) Vegyn Mix

I did certainly get up at silly o’clock in the morning again on Record Store Day but it was later in the day that we popped into a record store to have a ‘normal’ poke about that my wife saw the intriguing Blue Moon Safari album perched between the RSD boxes. Having had another Air record on my morning’s haul I’d completely forgotten about it – glorious in its presentation and sound, Vegyn’s remix of Air’s unimpeachable Moon Safari is more of a gentle re-imagining than a remix, a subtle tweak there and slight key change here and it’s a beautiful listen that’s already had a lot of turntable time.

Elbow – Gentle Storm

S.G Goodman – Snapping Turtle

Who remembers the amazing ‘Cry’ video from Godley & Creme? It was a real game-changer of a vid from the ex-10cc duo who’re probably remembered more for the videos they made than their own musical work after that band. I was reading a piece about the making of the song and its vid and it mentioned how Elbow’s Guy Garvey was so blown away by it he asked them to recreate it for his band’s song ‘Gentle Storm.’ Now it had been many a year since I listened to Elbow but this track got me very much back into the work of their’s I’d missed since 2008 and I’be been really blown away. They’ve made some brilliant music, Guy Garvey very much a talented wordsmith.

Also a very talented wordsmith – S.G Goodman’s ‘Snapping Turtles’ is one that I found on this month’s Uncut magazine’s CD (ever the champion of physical formats) and had to restart a number of times in order to soak in the song’s vibe and lyrics. Brilliant stuff.

Public Service Broadcasting – The South Atlantic (ft. This Is The Kit)

Public Service Broadcasting’s concept album about Amelia Earhart’s fateful last flight has had many a spin since its release last year, including one last night. There’s something fascinating about the tragic journey and, unlike their previous works, it doesn’t hide from the terror of the dawning knowledge that things very much went wrong. 

Israel Kamakawiwo’ole – Over The Rainbow

Buffalo Tom – Roman Cars

Yeah… we’ve all no doubt hear Israel ‘Iz’ Kamakawiwo’ole’s take on ‘Over The Rainbow’ more times than we can count since every tv/film producer thinks they need to sneak onto a soundtrack but it remains a wonderful thing and up on the list of ‘things I can’t get enough of’ is the way Iz pronounces ‘chim-a-nee’.

Another entry on that list is the vocal harmonies of Buffalo Tom’s Chris Colbourn and Bill Janovitz. As Bill tends to be the principal songwriter and singer in the group those songs tend to be lower in count but have historically been strong – think ‘Postcard’, ‘Rachel’ and ‘Wiser’ – while ‘Roman Cars’ was initially one of those I’d not paid attention to from their supremely underrated 2018 album Quiet and Peace, I’ve been enjoying it a lot lately as it also features Bill’s delicious guitar tone.

Momma – I Want You (Fever)

Blondshell – What’s Fair

Couple of new albums that I’ve been enjoying lately. Momma’s Welcome to My Blue Sky is a very enjoyable blast of hook-laden, ’90s inspired alt-rock that’s got plenty of catchy tunes on it. Meanwhile the second album from Sabrina Teitelbaum’s Blondshell project is a real step-forward from her 2023 self-titled debut and definitely worth a bit of your time.

Anywho. I’ll leave you with one from Martha Wainwright who’s debut has just received a 20th Anniversary press and a song with a title that serves as an example of how not to get a great tune any radio airplay and hopefully get around to writing the last two of my Least and Most series.

Monday tunes: recovery mode

/ Tony / 1 Comment

It’s been a weird old couple of weeks. A long drive down to Cornwall – which I think is only ever a short drive from somewhere else in Cornwall – and back for work followed very quickly by the switch to BST knocked me a little for six.

As I sit here recovered and with a week to spare before I put myself through a similarly taxing schedule, albeit for pleasure this time , I thought I’d ease myself back into this (and before tackling the final two instalments of the Springsteen Least and Most series) and ask you to lend me your ears for a few tracks while I share a sampling of those tunes that have aided my return to sanity as much as the copious amounts of caffeine I’ve been mainlining.

Tess Parks – Somedays

Margaret Glaspy – Act Natural

There’s something satisfying about a good needle-drop in a film when the song is one you love and that’s the case with Tess Parks’ ‘Somedays’ which I was pleasantly surprised to hear pop up in ‘Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.’ It’s such a beautiful stroll feel of a tune. Margaret Glaspy’s 2023 album Echo the Diamond is definitely worth checking out – the New York based singer-songwriter came to my ears on a Wilco playlist somewhere or other as she’d previously toured with them. Speaking of Wilco..

Wilco – Handshake Drugs

The Beta Band – She’s the One

I’ve been on a real Wilco rediscovery kick lately, reabsorbing favourite albums – like the recently reissued A Ghost Is Born from which ‘Handshake Drugs’ hails – and spending time with those that I’ve missed. It’s been, and continues to be, a real pleasure especially as my son seems to be keen on them too helped by the fact that they wear their Fab Four influence on their sleeve.

The Beta Band are, hopefully, poised to enjoy a resurgence as they’ve rallied together again after their initial gentle collapse in 2004. Back with tour dates booked and a reissue campaign ready to go included their The Three E.P’s – yes, as referenced in ‘High Fidelity’.

Buffalo Tom – one of Boston’s many fine musical acts – are also in the process of reissuing many of their ’90s albums and, judging by their social media posts, it looks like Sleepy Eyed is about to be next as it hits its 30th anniversary this year.

Buffalo Tom – Sunday Night

Bruce Cockburn – Lovers in a Dangerous Time

It’s funny where you discover music isn’t it? ‘Lovers in a Dangerous Time’ came up as track one some ‘heardl’ challenge or another. I hadn’t heard it before, so I failed that one. But I did love the tune and have since been enjoying his 1984 album Stealing Fire of which a bulk of the material is inspired by his travels in Central America.

Something a little more up to date…

Lissie – Into The Great Wide Open

I don’t spend a lot of time watching television – well, streaming that it, that is. There are couple of other shows that aren’t called ‘Reacher’ that I’ve enjoyed recently and ‘Bad Monkey’ was pretty solid. Its soundtrack of Tom Petty covers (as it’s based in Florida) was an added bonus. ‘Into The Great Wide Open’ has never been one of my favourites yet Lissie – who also appeared in my other recent binge, ‘Loudermilk’ – does a great job of turning it into a regular spin.

Matt Berninger – Bonnet of Pins

The National’s front-man has a new solo album on the horizon and I’ve been pretty taken with ‘Bonney of Pins’, really enjoy the way this one builds into a frenzy (well, by the self-proclaimed ‘Sad Dads’ standard, at least) of sorts.

Thanks for sticking around, hope you found something to enjoy.

Looking forward… another new music fix

/ Tony / 2 Comments

Taking a momentary pause in Springsteen-focused posts to look ahead a little. While I haven’t really waded into the ‘that was the year that was’ waters yet there’s plenty already on the horizon for the coming months to look forward to by way of new music and my pre-order pile is already shaping up to the point that I need to reconsider my record storage setup. Again.

Mogwai – Fanzine Made of Flesh

There are some things that are so reliable as to provide comfort. One is that Mogwai will be delivering new music on a regular basis – usually with a soundtrack album in between studio offerings. The others are that these albums are likely to be strong blasts of the good stuff and that they will always contain the strangest of track titles.

With The Bad Fire set to drop in a little over a week, the next track released as a prequel ticks both the quality and the name boxes.

Lucy Dacus – Ankles

Lucy Dacus’ two previous albums – Historian and Home Video – provided some absolutely glorious moments that I still enjoy as often as possible. So with the announcement of Forever Is A Feeling yesterday and the release of ‘Ankles’ and ‘Limerence’ hinting that it’s going to be just as wonderful I jumped on the pre-order button quicker than a MAGA supporter on a link containing flat-earth proof.

Drop Nineteens – Daymom

Drop Nineteens made two brilliant albums in the early ’90s that merged the shoegaze vibe with the then burgeoning alt-rock before packing away their instruments. That they have another new album – after reforming for 2023’s Hard Light – is only good news for me.

Blondshell – T&A

I thoroughly enjoyed the debut from Blondshell – Sabrina Teitelbaum’s recording project – and am keen to get more via her upcoming If You Asked For A Picture. ‘T&A’ takes its title from a line – “tits and ass” – in the Rolling Stone’s song ‘Little T&A.’

My Morning Jacket – Time Waited

It feels like it’s been a while since My Morning Jacket worked with an outside produce but, then again, there was only the one self-titled studio album released during that time. For the up-coming is they’ve worked with Brendan O’Brien whose name you may know from the back of albums by Pearl Jam, Stone Temple Pilots, Rage Against The Machine or Bruce Springsteen’s early ’00s comeback records. While I’m always up for a new My Morning Jacket record I’m very curious as to how O’Brien’s style has worked with the bands. I’ll have to wait until March for the full thing but I’m sure we’ll get more than ‘Time Waited’ ahead of then.

Tuesday afternoon, I’m just beginning to see… Tuesday tunes

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Another temporary interruption in Springsteen posting bought to you by the urge to share other things that have been worming into my ears lately.

Kim Deal – Nobody Loves You More

Kim Deal’s debut solo album – which is a pretty weird thing to be typing given the length of her career – continues to be a source of delight. There’s a wonderful sense of freeness to the songs that’s beautifully infections.

Smashing Pumpkins – Pentagrams

Also a weird thing to be typing in 2024… the new Smashing Pumpkins album has proven a regular spinner since the physical version arrived a few weeks back. While it’s not going to sit up there with them in terms of quality, it’s nice to hear the band creating guitar-heavy tunes in the style of their stellar ’90s output.

Wilco – Impossible Germany

Sky Blue Sky really is a wonderful album, isn’t it? I love how this song develops and takes flight.

Momma – Ohio All The Time

There’s something deliciously late ’90s / early ’00s soundtrack vibe about this that I adore. I caught this a while back and it’s gotten me hooked on the band since.

George Harrison – Isn’t It A Pity

Of all the things John Lennon regretted saying, “Is that a gun in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?” is probably not on the list. But I’d hope he regretted having consistently vetoed Harrison’s ‘Isn’t It A Pity’ after George put it forward in 1966. It’s that time of the year when I slowly rewatch ‘Get Back’ and each time it’s more a surprise that George didn’t leave sooner given how crappily Heroin John reacted to the songs he was bringing to the fold. Anyway, there’s not much better than this.

Wednesday morning papers didn’t come…. Mid-week Spins

/ Tony / 5 Comments

This temporary interruption in Springsteen-focused posts is bought to you by a smattering of tunes that I’ve been enjoying recently in one form or another and feel fitting for a mid-week posting.

The Cure – And Nothing Is Forever

It had only been sixteen years since their last studio album but The Cure dropped a clear contender for Album of the Year at the start of the month. Thankfully this isn’t a Chinese Democracy situation. It’s a gorgeous album from a band that I’ve become increasingly in love with in the years since their last album.

Eric Serra, Arthur Simms – It’s Only Mystery

One of the surprising changes that I picked up on returning to Paris after five years away recently was the loss of a great shop – Boulinier’s larger location on Saint-Michel if you’re curious – in which I spent many a happy hour rummaging their stock of used books / dvds and records. Anyway, last time I was there back in ’19 I decided not to pick up a record, the soundtrack for the 1985 Luc Besson film Subway… and then regretted it. So it was a no-brainer for me when my local record shop got it in.

Half-Man-Half-Biscuit – National Shite Day

This delightful moan about the miseries of British life must have been written on a dreary November morn, it occurred to me as I sat in a line of traffic after someone with the IQ of a cornflake had decided to take a lorry down a country road it couldn’t fail to get stuck in and cause everybody else to be late. It can never do anything but raise a chuckle with its references to “fat kids with sausage rolls, poor sods conducting polls” or someone careening “out of Boots without due care or attention.” Long live Stringy Bob.

B-52’s – Roam

On such a grim morning I can’t help but want to ‘roam around the world’. I saw recently that Mr O’Neal complained that he can’t sign his emails ‘love, Shaq’ because the B-52’s ruined that for him. While I’ve always had an issue with their apostrophe misuse there’s no denying the joy of this tune.

Mdou Moctar – Imajighen (Injustice Version)

Mdou Moctar’s Funeral for Justice is an absolute fucking ripper. So they’ve decided that if that album is ‘rage’ then to give the ‘grief’ they’ve completely re-recorded and rearranged it for acoustic and traditional instruments for the Teasrs of Injustice album due to drop early next year. Loving it.

Pearl Jam – Seven O’Clock

Anyway, here’s Pearl Jam again, “then you got Sitting Bullshit as our sitting President.” Things are going to get grim and dark next year for sure… Gigaton has aged really well. Listening to it again recently I feel that while it isn’t as consistently punchy, it offers a lot more depth / warmth of sound than Dark Matter

Catch-up spins

/ Tony / 3 Comments

It’s been a while since I was ‘here’ having pretty much taken most of summer off. It feels like a fitting way to get back up to speed with a review of what’s been going on in my ears over the past few months.

Air – Radio # 1

I spent a good chunk of time in France, again, this summer. Arriving in time to watch the Olympics’ closing ceremony from a hotel bed and marvel at – after hours of more pointless faff that rivalled the opening ceremony for fuckery – how wasted Air were. It did mean that I spent time in a number of Lyon record shops hunting for Air albums though and came home with their first trio. Following up the faultless Moon Safari was never going to be easy and while 10,000 Hz Legend wasn’t as successful or well-recieved I’ve always had a soft-spot for its willingness to experiment.

Soccer Mommy – Driver

It sounds like the upcoming new album from Soccer Mommy is a bit of a retreat from the production of 2022’s brilliant Sometimes, Forever to a more organic sound and I’m all on board for it.

The Cure – Alone

It seems strange that as we near the end of 2024 I’m still enjoying a new Pearl Jam record, I have pre-orders in place for new records by Smashing Pumpkins, Pixies and The Cure. On the one hand it’s akin to Pink Floyd and The Rolling Stones releasing new albums in 1994 which would’ve been pretty much unnoticed by the younger ears of the time, on the other hand I’m bloody loving the fact that so many of my favourites artists are still dropping records and that so many of them are hitting at the same moment. The wait for a new Cure album has been ridiculous but Song Of A Lost World is shaping up strong based on the two songs dropped thus far.

Girls In Hawaii – Flavor

Another album fittingly purchased while in France – the 20th Anniversary edition of Girls In Hawaii’s From Here to There, an album my wife and I listened to on repeat on our first holiday together some 16 years prior and soundtracked plenty of our driving around France at the time. While I’ve enjoyed some of their subsequent albums more, this Belgian band’s upbeat indie vibe is always a fun spin.

Kim Deal – A Good Time Pushed

In some ways it feels mad that we’re only getting a Kim Deal solo album in 2024 but given how many wonderful Pixies, The Breeders, Amps albums we’ve had it’s not like she’s been shirking. Given that she walked from working on new Pixies material it’s not too surprising just how sonically wide-reaching the sound of the songs released ahead of the album are.

Crowded House – Together Alone

I’ve been trying to listen to whole albums at a time again on my commute. Together Alone, the final of Crowded House’s first run of albums and still their finest, has popped up a couple of times. I adore this album’s sound and vibe especially the Maori choir and log drummers on this track.

Pearl Jam – Other Side

Anywho, here’s more Pearl Jam. As much as I’ve been enjoying Dark Matter since its release, I’ve been listening to tunes from their ‘lost’ era – Binaural and Riot Act – lately and Other Side, the other side to ‘Save You’, is a great tune that should’ve made the cut.

More midweek spinnage

/ Tony / 3 Comments

Here we are once again at the midway point of the week with the scale starting to tip toward the weekend and, for me, the beginning of holiday season.

With that in mind, here’s what’s been going in the ears this week.

Smashing Pumpkins – Goeth The Fall

I don’t think I’ve enjoyed a new Smashing Pumpkins album in the way I have Aghori Mhori Mei in years. Released last week and heralded as one that’ll please the fans of the ’90s stuff and a ‘rock’ record, I’ve gotta say that’s about right. It’s not that good but I’ve been surprised how much I’ve been listening to it and enjoyed to the point of pre-ordering the vinyl.

Air – Kelly Watch The Stars (Edit Version)

While I’m not usually one for picture discs (especially overpriced RSD ones), when this one appeared in my local store’s sale it was an easy decision. Moon Safari is unimpeachable but getting this meant getting hold of the version that was played on MTV back in the day.

The Orb – Little Fluffy Clouds

With the exception of Smashing Pumpkins there seems to be a much more mellow edge to everything here. Maybe it’s the build up of CBD but that’s where I’m at lately. I actually caught this one on the radio this weekend and it’s gained a few spins since. I’ve also just discovered that it’s Rickie Lee Jones talking about clouds – the lads in The Orb heard her trippy response to “So what were the skies like when you were young?” in an interview (who the fuck asks that without smoking something first?) and sampled it. After paying her $5,000 for its use first.

Ben Howard – Time Is Dancing

Oh man I played this album so much when it came out I was surprised that the CD still held up when I chucked it in the car this week. It’s coming up for its tenth anniversary – with the prerequisite re-release in special colours / clear / etc – and for me marks the perfect point in Ben Howard’s sound; moving away from the ‘only love’ festival-pleasing acoustic work and embracing the more experimental elements that would enthuse the later albums while still retaining a focus song structure.

Pearl Jam – Force of Nature

Anyway, here’s some more Pearl Jam and another favourite deep(ish) cut from recent times. Backspacer is the only album I’m missing on my record shelves (for some reason it’s not as widely available as other albums) and while not my favourite it has some wonderful tunes on it and I love the shift in this song’s vibe.