As soon as I saw "double album" I knew we were in trouble. A double album in the early seventies, what a recipe for disaster. As Emily Bronte once noted about Austen's Pride and Prejudice, "sprawling masterpiece my arse". Who did these hippies think they were? There's something horrible about the whole CSN (and sometimes Y) thing and the reverence that they are afforded. Has anyone taken themselves more seriously than Stephen Stills? I mean rock and roll, in all its guises, is supposed to be fun. Oh dear, each "side" has a "theme", my favourite being "Consider" which is side 3. Let me tell you anyone who makes it to side 3 has a lot to "consider", like what life choices did I make to be listening to Manassas. And poor Chris Hillman, a fine musician cursed to be constantly standing in the background to self obsessed hippies and weirdos. I've listened to the whole thing, and bar one or two tracks it is in the same key and tempo throughout each of his so called "themes". The whole thing just grinds on and on and on. And please, I don't care how good the playing is if the tunes are rubbish and the singing dreadful. Graham Nash tells a great story about he and Stills were given a personal preview by Dylan of the new songs for Blood on the Tracks. Nash walked away stunned by how good they were, Stills could only comment that Dylan was a terrible guitar player. That's cause he wouldn't know what a good song sounds like to save his life. 0/5

I'd argue there are three tranches of Beatles albums (English releases only): the first five are the mania records (PP Me/With The/ A Hard/Sale and Help), the next three are the post mania records (Soul/Revolver/Pepper) and the last three are the post Maharishi adult records (White/Abbey/Let it Be). Please note MM Tour was an EP (American album) and Yellow cobbled together for the film. Context is important here; in 1965 they release Help the film, Help the album, Help the single, Ticket to Ride, Daytripper and We Can Work It Out (as a double A side single..) and Rubber Soul. And they toured the US, the UK and Europe. All in 1965. Now a mere three years earlier they were heading off to their second last stint in Hamburg (still with Pete Best) and arrived at the airport to be met by Astrid with the news that Stu was dead. By 1965 this is important as Lennon is seriously contemplating what has happened to him and to them, we are post Stu but pre Yoko and the nowhere man is stuck in his Surrey mansion musing on how he became a lead player in this global phenomenon. The warning signs were there from Beatles for Sale; I'm a Loser and No Reply, Baby's in Black and I Don't Want to Spoil the Party. In Help we see the same themes, hide your love away, help me if you can, I think I'm going to be sad. For Lennon and Rubber Soul, Stu looms large over this record. Meanwhile McCartney and Harrison are on the move. Paul's 1965 includes dropping Yesterday on Help, and Harrison for the first time has two original songs on that album in I Need You and You Like Me too Much. In amongst all this Lennon and Harrison (but not McCartney....yet) have dropped acid and are now looking at the whole thing through a different prism, with McCartney not joining them in frying his brain until after Rubber Soul. As with all their perfect records the ensemble is working as one unstoppable force. Ringo is tasked with some challenging songs for a 1965 rock drummer, and as always he produces work that is still influencing rock and roll today. His drumming on In My Life is superb, there's no one in that era, not even those jazz cats, coming up with that arrangement. With Michelle and Girl he gives those tunes that distinctive Euro beat, it is so subtle and yet crucial to their feel. Harrison is all over this record, and playing a Strat too for a good part of it, it's George who suggested tracking the guitar and bass lines on Drive My Car, giving it that Otis/Stax feel. George was spending a lot of time listening to Otis and it shows. And of course it's George who brings in the sitar which makes Norwegian Wood what it is. And he has well and truly found his writing feet with his two contributions, especially If I Needed Someone, which has the same chord sequence as Here Comes the Sun (and it is the only George original they played live). And Lennon and McCartney? What can we say other than they are at a very particular creative peak, there are many other incredible heights to be scaled, but here they are lockstep with each other. It could be argued this is their last 50/50 song writing album, their fingerprints are all over each others songs. Back to Stu. The one and only fifth Beatle is a key element in their story, without Stu we simply don't get The Beatles, period. He showed Lennon how to look at the world, how to challenge it, how to interpret it. That then influenced Paul and George. Yoko says that there was hardly a day they were together that John didn't mention Stu. With Michelle, Paul had written it as a French parody song back in the Gambier Terrace days, the flat John shared with Stu. In 65 John, thinking about Stu, suddenly reminds Paul about "that French song", prompting Paul to do that thing he does with a melody, and of course John providing the bridge "I love you, I love you" etc. And in that superb little tune, Paul revolutionises bass playing with the most sublime counterpoint, it is its own melody, stunning. Lennon's contributions are all about loss and sadness, Nowhere Man and Girl and In My Life in particular go to his terrible sense of loves and people lost. In Nowhere he exhorts himself to enjoy having the world at his command, the girl promises the earth to him and he believes her, but after all this time doesn't know why. In My Life is Song for Stu, "and of all these friends and lovers, there is no one who compares with you". Drive My Car, a great 50/50 John and Paul composition, with Paul getting his vocal chops ready for when he rips out Lady Madonna in about 18 months time. McCartney is clearly looking for someone new and different to Jane Asher, she just doesn't know it yet. His two sublime Jane songs, I'm Looking Through You and You Won't See Me are classic Paul, with the latter being a track he could have dropped at anytime in his later career. Lennon's What Goes On gives Ringo his C and W moment, and Wait (recorded for Help but a perfect fit) and The Word are John and Paul doing that thing they do as songwriters and performers. And the vocal work by the Fab Voice Trio is up there with their finest on just about every track. I do find it odd that Run For Your Life is on there, it sounds like a throwback from the Mania albums. Strangely it was the first song recorded, it is surprising that it survived and made the final cut. And yes Lennon was guilty of violence towards women (see Getting Better) but that first line was actually lifted from the old Baby Let's Play House 50's rocker, just in case the cancel culture fascists are out there somewhere thinking of taking it out.. They make this album and then the hard core acid taking takes off. With Revolver Lennon is somewhere else, the themes are darker, his drug dealing doctor, someone (Fonda) telling him what it's like to be dead while tripping, a meditation on sleeping and thinking about turning off your mind. And, as we now know (see the Revolver Super Deluxe reissue), Yellow Submarine was his, "in the town where I was born, no one cared, no one cared". McCartney meanwhile starts his takeover, dominating both Revolver and Pepper. Johnny doesn't get his mojo going again until the arrival of the ocean child Yoko, who finally allows him to move on from Stu. As such Rubber Soul is close to their greatest work of all bar the White Album. As I said earlier, what makes it different from the WB is that that Rubber Soul is the final true Lennon-McCartney collaborative song writing album, while it can be argued that the WB has their finest individual song writing, backed by their finest ensemble performance. This wonderful record is their Girl with a Mandolin, their David Copperfield...their Hamlet. The White Album is my favourite Fab album, but this is a very, very close second.

Apparently Shez has shifted 50 million albums while in comparison Van Gogh's brother took pity on him and bought one of his paintings, his only sale. Go figure huh? And on that, any retail time travel would have to include popping into Arles about 1888, "Vince, I'll take 20 of these my son, how's 20 francs sound"? But I truly digress. Right, I'm feeling massively underwhelmed yet again, what was Dimery smoking with this one? All I Wanna Do is the best song Ricki Lee Jones song Ricki Lee Jones never recorded. It is very cool, great bass line, wonderful arrangement. It's a groove and her voice sounds absolutely nothing like her other tunes, which is why its so good. This is not just about it being the big one hit, it sounds like it came from another artist, another record, another time, another place. And it is superb. The country tinged songs are good, Strong Enough and Can't Cry Anymore, and would have made great Chicks tunes, they'd have really taken them somewhere else. And The Na Na is another lift on the Too Much Monkey Business/Subterranean Homesick/Pump it Up conveyor belt, though Olivia Rodrigo has now done what Sheryl can't do here. The rest, what can I say? Not much. Although I'm sure Aldous Huxley, late of Bloomsbury and Brave New World, would have been utterly bemused to be name checked on this mediocre record. 2 for the Ricki Lee song.

This brings a whole new meaning to the word underwhelmed. I've been reading really shithouse student writing while listening to this and the palookas masquerading as students won out in the interesting stakes. I had to rewind the YouTube tape about three times as I was lost in a lost world of musical heads slowly disappearing up backsides. At least the students were creative in their mediocrity. Wow, a little bit of diddley dee twiddly dee guitar riffing, a bit of B grade Pixies bass mixed up front, some slightly off key warbling and hey presto here's a record that is...well I don't really know what it is. In My Mind is ok...sort of. Is this the late 80's version of prog rock, is this twee fiddling about what brought on grunge? These guys should have gonged it after The Minutemen and opened a nice bar where they could twiddly dee to their hearts content.

Circa 1974-5 every house I walked into to hang out had this album, the tracks are tattooed on my brain. Mick Ronson is the unsung hero of this record, he had a fine ear and knew how to get the best out of Lou. This record made in the US would have been ok, but in the hands of the English session crew bomb squad, Lou's basic tracks are, pardon the pun, transformed. I love the eclectic mix of players, Klaus with his signature Fender bass lines, Herbie scamming an additional studio fee and laying out the best double bass/electric bass lines ever transposed..Lou is in fine voice and Bowie has got him a beautiful sound. I love every part of this album, songs like Satellite of Love, Goodnight Ladies et al are great tunes, and then there is the classics. He never bettered it.

Listening to this I suddenly had an urge to stick celery in cream cheese and have another Manhattan. Can something be too smooth? This is music to clean your kitchen by, give you a little kick on to make sure you sweep the floor properly. This is jazz's version of the Rock and Roll's Bobbies, Darin/Rydell et al, the inoffensive lightweights that came after the fury of the first wave. Interesting that this is a year before Coltrane's masterpiece with Johnny Hartman, which took standards and turned them into starkly emotive pieces, an augur for what was coming from Coltrane and jazz. Stan is working within a very specific paradigm here for a very specific audience (and market), whereas Charlie Byrd is nurdling round like a banjo player who forgot his banjo. I'm sure Don Draper happily used this as the background to his next move on the brunette of his choice but from the lofty heights of the 21st century this is not good, I mean it man.

This came out when I was finishing my HSC and they toured on it in 1981, so it is one of those records which lives in a very specific time and place. As with all good and great bands they always work well when the ensemble itself is a happening thing, and here Gallop/Tolhurst and Hartley are all in sync with Mr Eye Shadow's vision. That said I think Lol must have had his kit taken away from him as he spends a lot of time hitting that snare, the toms and crash cymbals are nary to be heard. I think it holds up pretty well, Robert pretty much plays the same riff and yet in thematically hangs together. Simon Gallop shows what an integral part of the band he is, they suffered when he left and prospered when he returned, there is some great bass work in this. Listening to it as one piece works, Play for Today, M and At Night are fantastic and I've dropped A Reflection in to my Quiet playlist, nice chiming of the guitar and piano. This is a surprisingly good record.

Hmmm, what is this and who is this? Who is David Gray and why is he saying these things? I have to admit I'd only heard We're Not Right before as it popped up on one of those brilliant Q Magazine Best Tracks Of cd's, and I didn't give it much thought then and having just listened to the album I've probably dedicated far too much of my mortal coil allotment on this stuff. It's like the male companion piece to Lisa Stansfield, seriously it's for people who send food back in cafes. And yet....a quick glance on Spotify shows millions of hits, good to know I'm completely out of step with the bourgeois zeitgeist. I know I'm sounding very smug and self satisfied, but I think it was Balzac who put it best when he said "this sucks"..

This is a very fine record, it was a pleasure listening to it for the first time in a while. When I live in Adelaide it was a car cd for our trips to Melbourne, Broken Hill et al as it is a classic open road record, great singalong tunes, strange and wonderful words and some time fine playing. The three players are a top shelf unit and I love any combo that does the instrument swap, it always leads to different sounds. Bill Berry is a standout here in terms of the songwriting, they drifted after he left. Michael is at his absolute best, he knows what to do with the tunes, even if Man on The Moon just reminds me that Andy Kaufman gave me the shits. As a late comer to this process this is the closest I've come to a truly great album.

This album review process is an interesting experience. Listening to this gave me pause as the only Prince records I own are singles: Raspberry Beret (perfection), a 12 inch of Cream and Sexy M-Fucker (which I bought in Melbourne airport while bored..). And yet...I once owned not one but three Supertramp albums, go figure. And so, after that tedious self reflection, what's that all mean for Purple Rain? In 1984 I think I was too busy thinking about Green on Red/Guadacanal Diary et al to get into Prince. Despite the ubiquity of the smash hits emerging from this record I was too cool for the schooling that is the genius of Prince. Jesus/Krishna/Allah what a record, the Wendy and Lisa harmonies give all these tunes that vocal edge, and respect to Apollonia as well. Doves/Let's Go/I Would Die are bona fide classics, providing the template for so much of what has emerged since. Take Me With U is superb, the kick on the snare, the strings, the harmonies, perfect for hurtling down the south coast with the windows down. Alright there's a couple of fillers in there but so what, this is what pop music is all about.

This brings a whole new meaning to the word underwhelmed. I've been reading really shithouse student writing while listening to this and the palookas masquerading as students won out in the interesting stakes. I had to rewind the YouTube tape about three times as I was lost in a lost world of musical heads slowly disappearing up backsides. At least the students were creative in their mediocrity. Wow, a little bit of diddley dee twiddly dee guitar riffing, a bit of B grade Pixies bass mixed up front, some slightly off key warbling and hey presto here's a record that is...well I don't really know what it is. In My Mind is ok...sort of. Is this the late 80's version of prog rock, is this twee fiddling about what brought on grunge? These guys should have gonged it after The Minutemen and opened a nice bar where they could twiddly dee to their hearts content.

The opener is a gospel tinged ballad which belies what's coming, while it drifts along the rest of the double album pretty much explodes, with some exceptions. But then this is a massive double, as only the 70's could deliver (other than The 60's contribution the incomparable White Album) and he uses this broad canvas to traverse so many genres it is astonishing in its scope and scale. Have a Talk is psychedelic, Village Ghetto pure glissando, Confusion sounds like Stanley Clarke's template for School Days, then the first two smash hits. The bassline on I Wish, nothing needs to be said, and while Sir Duke is great and a lot of fun I do think it unleashed Harry Connick jnr, Michael Buble et al, but hey whatareyouguunado...It's great to go back to Pastime Paradise unsullied by Coolio, what a sound! Summer Soft is simply beautiful and would probably garner more attention on another album, ditto Ordinary Pain. Isn't She Lovely, while a little on the American mawkish side (they can't help themselves) is funky as fuck, would have made a cracking Stevie instrumental. That said, smartarse, I bet we all can't get it out of heads...then he hits us with the exquisite If It's Magic, the best bit of pop music harp since She's Leaving Home. Blimey, still six tracks to go...As....I don't have the words to properly express how much that melody moves me...who is this guy! Look enough, this is what we listen to pop music for, the sum of the whole is greater than the parts, Allah Akbar...wallah this record could have this happy atheist convert to Islam as it and the Fabs are evidence of a possible deity...but then I'm reminded of David Gray so there you go..

"History repeats the old conceits...the quick replies the same repeats", this album is tattooed on my brain..."so teddy bear tender and tragically hip", I love this record. This was his third album after his first early period of signature tunes. Trust was a fine lo fi album, then his country covers the wonderful Almost Blue and then this, and let me say his version of Almost Blue on this album wiped the floor with Chet Baker's sodden sulk. EC had been working up to this record, it is truly about the songs and he'd finally got the Attractions where he wanted them. Kid About It (the chorus vocal lines..."say you wouldn't", Beyond Belief, the epic Man Out of Time, Tears Before Bedtime, the Chris Difford penned and superb Boy With A Problem, this is EC in his lyrical and musical pomp, album that is played with monotonous regularity in our house her indoors also rates it highly. For the post new wave punk EC I'd start here.

The track Inspiration Information, is it the template for Hall and Oates? I don't mean that as a pejorative rather that they must have spent a lot of time listening to Shuggie. This is a nice record and again that's not meant as an insult. If someone put this on I'd happily listen to it again but I'd never consciously go back to it. The instrumentals feel like fillers and I did go back to the Johnson Brothers version of Strawberry Letter just to see why theirs worked better (the energy they bring to it maybe). Aht Uh Mi is a fine track and probably the standout after the opening son. I dont know much about Shuggie but wonder if he's time could have been better spent song writing and producing?

I'd never heard of The Roots, probably because I'm 59 and a whole swathe of pop music has passed me by in the tsunami that has flowed out in the last 25 years. That said, I am alert to enough to know some of the formulas at work in this post sampling digital age. Firstly they make sure an at least an element of the Funky Drummer sound is present, then overlay that with a low fi riff, in this case these guys go to the keyboard with monotonous regularity for said riff. Then a minor key verse (apparently Eb minor is a favourite) with a lyric that sets a theme, then a shift to a harder "hip hop" rap, a guest vocalist, return to the low fi riff and get that Funky Drummer thang happening again, repeat and fade. Now all pop music is working within formulas I know, but it is those that break free of form and make it something special, however packaged, is what makes it goooood...I don't dislike this record, as in it doesn't leave me cold nor give me the shits but, a little like Basement Jaxx, the musical architecture is just too obvious. We see too much of the lab work at work. That a track like The Seed (awful lyrics) has 114,0000 hits is simply astounding. I'm really missing what is so good about that song, it is completely blink and you miss it. After listening to this I went back to De La Soul to get my head back into what works within this genre, and what leapt out with De La, as opposed to this, is that the songs are songs, not sounds joined up on a pc. And the melodies man...I think that is what is missing here.

I'm going to start with Pete Seeger. Bruce made a Seeger tribute album in 2006 and it is fantastic, his rework of Seeger's songs is astounding considering how wooden and uninspiring Seeger's work is (see Michael Gray's entry on him in the Dylan encyclopaedia). I note that Seeger record as everything swung into Bruce's favour, his limited voice and sometimes grating hokey enthusiasm all clicked. And, importantly, he didn't write any of the tunes. I don't know what to think when it comes to Bruce. While on one level I get it, on another I find his mega popularity unfathomable. I wonder about the way mass media guides us towards pluralist ignorance, is this a 20th/21st century phenomenon? Je ne sais quoi my arse Bruce. I love Born to Run, love it to death but I was 12 in 1975 so it's part of my rites of passage soundtrack. Darkness, good record, Nebraska has some great moments and then there's this. He toured this record in 85 and I saw him at the Ent Cent and was massively underwhelmed by the whole thing. I think there are two problems; firstly he's backed by a very unimaginative bar band, they are good but they are and will always be the kind of guys who played as Chuck Berry's pick up band. Secondly, bar a few absolute gems, Bruce is not a very good songwriter. I reminded of Roy and HG's joke about David Williamson, he had six great plays in him, the problem is he wrote 20. Ditto Bruce, he had one maybe two shots in the locker, and he fired a thousand. Most of these songs are awful, and I mean awful, as follows: Born in the USA/Cover Me/Darlington/Working on the Highway/No Surrender/Bobby Jean (I mean seriously, fuck off Bruce)/I'm Going Down/ Glory Days (see Bobby Jean)/Dancing in the Dark ("I get up in the evening and I ain't got nothing to say, I go to bed feeling the same way" thanks for sharing Bruce, we're kind of tired and bored with you too) . He's lamenting boring stories of glory days when his most of career is telling the same boring stories, oy vey! Downbound Train has a good riff, and you can hear the drums, but again those lyrics...you stink Bruce. My Hometown, ah c'mon enough already with the corn, corn dog. I'm on Fire is a fine song, here he shows what he is sometimes capable of, fine words, a great atmosphere and...good grief...an interesting arrangement. This record is shithouse, really, really shithouse. It gets a point for I'm on Fire.

Just how old is Jackson Browne? Was he signed by Columbia when he was 4? How is it that These Days pops up on an album made in 1967, about 6 years before he recorded it? This odd record has so many cultural intersections, The Velvets and Jackson writing most of the songs and poor Tom Wilson having to do the impossible and "produce" this. To think he went from Highway 61 Revisited to Nico. Andy Warhol wreaked havoc on popular culture, and for Nico alone he stands condemned. If the climate change activists really want to make their case they should throw Campbell's soup over his Campbell's Soup paintings and then stick Nico album covers all over the soup, what a fitting finale that would be. Nico, dead on arrival. She'd be the Schrodinger's Cat of popular music, except Andy opened the box. Imagine wandering into a New York coffeehouse and sitting down to Nico in 1967, what price a cup of joe? The Wikipedia notes on this are hilarious, that she cried because Tom put strings and a flute on this record and denied her drums. I can't begin to contemplate what he was trying to do to cover up her appalling drone. There are some fine arrangements here in a desperate search for someone who can actually sing. I will never forgive her for the rendition of These Days (ditto I'll Keep it with Mine). I had to immediately play Glen Campbell's (oh aye, there's a Campbell's theme here) brilliant 2008 version, where, with the onset of Alzheimer's looming large, he so perfectly captured the pain of a four year old Jackson Browne lamenting day of yore. Nico needs to be deleted, thrown into the dustbin of history.

I'm pleasantly surprised by this. The notes on the players and song writing are fascinating, as with Chelsea Girl there are a number of pop music crossovers happening. There's the main Wrecking Crew players (James Burton..far out man), Slyde Clyde on the trombone (light years away from Donna Summer!) and crazy Jim Gordon on the drums (only a couple of years away from ripping off Rita Coolidge for the coda to Layla). The two covers are quite incredible, country all the way, their take on Merle Travis's Nine Pound Hammer is great as is their take on Newman's lesser Old Kentucky Home. A band in transition, a little bit psychedelic, a little bit country, a little mid period Small Faces (Tell Me Have You Ever Seen Me etc.). They should have hung in there with the country psycho twist, Sweet Heart of the Rodeo and The Flying Burrito Brothers were just around the corner. This is a good record, well worth another listen. The Wolf and Magic Hollow are really good tracks as is Are You Happy, good stuff.

I love this record, it's the sort of album Beavis and Butthead would argue "kicks ass" and they would be right. They toured these tunes and then worked on them as a collective and it shows. It's a bit creepy, its a wonderful expression of the American dysfunction emerging in the early nineties, this is all free trade agreements, towns closing, work going off shore. The thing that is exceptional is how exceptionally dark things were getting, a portend for where they are are now as a country. I love Cornell's voice, Cameron's drum sound kicks and kicks hard. The two guitars crunch, no doubt Dan Auerbach spent a lot of time listening to this record. The biggies are deservedly big and don't need me to explain their greatness. Mailman, My Wave are brilliant, Head Down is psychedelic as fuck. A brilliant band album, they are all in there swinging and swinging hard.

This is a really good record on so many levels. A nice follow up to Superunknown, here is the soundtrack to the reality of the decline of American exceptionalism, Soundgarden were warning of what was to come, Marshall tells us here it is. This is like a concept album, not quite War of the Worlds, but there is a narrative playing out as he covers pretty much every aspect of his life in the American underclass. He ticks every box: violence, family dysfunction, poverty, death and suicide; this record gets it all out there. 8 Mile helps us to understand what his world was about, and how a 20 something child of this type of socio-economic dysfunction would express himself. As such, can we really decry what he has to say, despite whatever discomfort some of those themes bring? Put it this way: I'd much rather he expressed himself as an artist and got the reaction, than not at all, which is where we are at right now with the identity politics fascism prevalent today. I'd match this up with Fear of A Black Planet in calling it for what it is, the tracks are relentless, in your face, angry and funny. It goes without saying that the beats are good, and Dre knows how to get everything out of this white guy. Brain Damage is easily the best take I've heard on bullying, Role Model calls out the so called hero worship, he knows where he's from and why it's not worthy. Great rhymes sustain the misery of poverty in Rock Bottom and the whole thing hangs together brilliantly. The thing I really love about these album reviews is getting to peek behind the curtains as to how they've been made and I'd reckon Chas and Dave playing on the Labi Siffre sample has made my year...my name is..my name is..there ain't no pleasing you.

Whoa, first thing to say...and this probably old news, but I've just realised that Are You Gonna Be My Girl by Jet is pretty close to a straight lift from Lust For Life, bless them. And having just got over the fact that Chas and Dave appear on Slim Shady, I discover that the rhythm section here are brothers and the sons of Soupy Sales a comedian who was all over the sixties and seventies. First thing, straight up the drumming on this record is pretty damn good: great drumming maketh the great rock and roll record. Second thing is, he's got a shirt on the cover, not an good augur for what's to come, a beshirted Iggy won't come out howling. The two big tracks are classics, enough said. Tonight and Turn Blue could come off any 70's Bowie record, Sixteen wants to bust out but you get the feeling Iggy is being held back, you just want him to take his shirt off and shout some shit.

I started playing this record again about five years ago after reading Viv's terrific first memoir. It's is the result of sheer talent, idiosyncratic band members and some great punk DIY energy. I love Ari's singing, she in effect invented a whole singing style and I think old mate Bjork spent a lot of time listening to this record. Viv's guitar playing is brilliant and ditto Budgie jumping in after Palmolive split. Another interesting aspect to this record is the vocals. I'm not sure how much is Tessa and Viv, or if it is all Neneh Cherry. They are not backing vocals but a whole other vocal line that pushes up against Ari's lines, being both discordant and complementary. This record gets played in our house.

This is the first time I've listened to Biggie, somehow it all passed me by. Now all things good and bad lead to the Fabs, somehow, somewhere. Listening to this my mind turned to Revolution No.9, that it is the first real sampling record and my mind turned to what would JL have thought of hip hop living in NY in the 80's. I'd think he and Yoko would have leapt right in. Anyway...number 9...motherfucker..number 9...cocksucker...number 9... Look, like Eminem I get what Biggie is coming from, which explains the hardcore themes and images, but unlike Mr Mathers a lot of these rhymes are kindergarten and silly, man if you going to use the phrase "clean penis" make it work ok motherfucker...cocksucker..? This is an entirely humourless record, its all about Biggie fool and not much reflection beyond that. Respect to Big Poppa though, me and the other 688,0000 likes. My biggest gripe though is the tempo. Please, please some variation in the tempo would go a long way, mate you've got the sampler at your finger tips and yet it's the same beat, I cracked by track 7. It is so constant in its pacing you could use the first half of this for one of those sleep tracks, like sounds from a British pub, it would be drifting off to the sounds of a motherfucker.

1962, an interesting time. The Godfather is treading water, he's got the r n b circuit show down pat, tight band, great energy and passion, it's a killer and floor filler but we know there's so much more coming. Let's say James carked it screaming one time too many in 62 and never went on to his next and greatest incarnation. Would we view this as a bona fide classic? I'd reckon yes. All the elements are there, Lost Someone is a great example of where he's heading, he's reaching for it, he's so close..."say it a little bit louder!" I saw him in 88 at the Hordern Pav and it was brilliant, but I'd love to sent back in time for this. He's not shouting "Fred!" or "Maceo!" or "hit me!" yet, but he's thinking about it.

In his late sixties revival period the King goes off to Chips Moman’s American Sound Studios in Memphis and records his last great run of tunes which includes the stunning Suspicious Minds as an associated single to this album. American Sound Studios was a run down little joint, Chips knew it had the vibe, when the King went for his first visit his verdict was "funky". To get a sense of just how bad things were for Elvis, Reggie Young from the house band recounted how they were really intrigued to be working with Elvis but nowhere near as excited as when they were working with Neil Diamond! Chip's knew the best way to get Elvis into it was to treat him as he would any artist and make him work for it, and it shows. A couple of quibbles, Elvis never let go of the banks of backing singers, who were redundant from the get go. And the Nashville strings are similarly unnecessary, I'd love to hear a clean version of In The Ghetto (I'm sure it's out there, send me a fax if you know). His take on Gentle on My Mind is very Elvis doing Elvis, and it works. When you know Glen Campbell set the benchmark for covers of that song, the King had quite a challenge, but he met it. It's an extraordinary song (apparently John Hartman wrote it after watching Dr Zhivago, no doubt stunned and inspired by Julie Christie...or was it Omar Sharif?) and Elvis gets how to take us through that journey to the cupped hands round the tin can, he makes it his song, beautiful. The country twang fits, I'm Moving On nicely shows Chips handy work with his Memphis cats, who can match the Nashville kind. This is an "album" in the true sense of the word and as much Chips Moman's as EP's.

Things moved fast in the 60's and this is one of those records where a good band is completely caught in a transition period, with the wrong personnel. You can hear elements of Sweetheart of the Rodeo (Gram is on the way, but not quite there), the mid sixties trippy psychedelia, some pretty ordinary B grade Rubber Soul knockoffs (I see you I See You), and some strange covers. What's wrong here? No Gene Clark is what's wrong, and it is no coincidence that he wrote and sang the absolute standout Eight Miles High. Gene was the star of this band, the songwriter and I'd think easily the best singer. Crosby, in all his various combos, is vastly overrated and it was no coincidence that McGuinn ditched him. McGuinn got it right booting old Davo, but blew it with Gene. It's that creative dysfunction that's influenced this record for the worst. Two stars for Eight Miles High.

Apparently Shez has shifted 50 million albums while in comparison Van Gogh's brother took pity on him and bought one of his paintings, his only sale. Go figure huh? And on that, any retail time travel would have to include popping into Arles about 1888, "Vince, I'll take 20 of these my son, how's 20 francs sound"? But I truly digress. Right, I'm feeling massively underwhelmed yet again, what was Dimery smoking with this one? All I Wanna Do is the best song Ricki Lee Jones song Ricki Lee Jones never recorded. It is very cool, great bass line, wonderful arrangement. It's a groove and her voice sounds absolutely nothing like her other tunes, which is why its so good. This is not just about it being the big one hit, it sounds like it came from another artist, another record, another time, another place. And it is superb. The country tinged songs are good, Strong Enough and Can't Cry Anymore, and would have made great Chicks tunes, they'd have really taken them somewhere else. And The Na Na is another lift on the Too Much Monkey Business/Subterranean Homesick/Pump it Up conveyor belt, though Olivia Rodrigo has now done what Sheryl can't do here. The rest, what can I say? Not much. Although I'm sure Aldous Huxley, late of Bloomsbury and Brave New World, would have been utterly bemused to be name checked on this mediocre record. 2 for the Ricki Lee song.

As soon as I saw "double album" I knew we were in trouble. A double album in the early seventies, what a recipe for disaster. As Emily Bronte once noted about Austen's Pride and Prejudice, "sprawling masterpiece my arse". Who did these hippies think they were? There's something horrible about the whole CSN (and sometimes Y) thing and the reverence that they are afforded. Has anyone taken themselves more seriously than Stephen Stills? I mean rock and roll, in all its guises, is supposed to be fun. Oh dear, each "side" has a "theme", my favourite being "Consider" which is side 3. Let me tell you anyone who makes it to side 3 has a lot to "consider", like what life choices did I make to be listening to Manassas. And poor Chris Hillman, a fine musician cursed to be constantly standing in the background to self obsessed hippies and weirdos. I've listened to the whole thing, and bar one or two tracks it is in the same key and tempo throughout each of his so called "themes". The whole thing just grinds on and on and on. And please, I don't care how good the playing is if the tunes are rubbish and the singing dreadful. Graham Nash tells a great story about he and Stills were given a personal preview by Dylan of the new songs for Blood on the Tracks. Nash walked away stunned by how good they were, Stills could only comment that Dylan was a terrible guitar player. That's cause he wouldn't know what a good song sounds like to save his life. 0/5

Right, so they've done something quite original has young Radiohead. This record is in effect one song tweaked, extraordinary. It sounds like the studio rehearsals of that one song. What utter rubbish.

I'd argue there are three tranches of Beatles albums (English releases only): the first five are the mania records (PP Me/With The/ A Hard/Sale and Help), the next three are the post mania records (Soul/Revolver/Pepper) and the last three are the post Maharishi adult records (White/Abbey/Let it Be). Please note MM Tour was an EP (American album) and Yellow cobbled together for the film. Context is important here; in 1965 they release Help the film, Help the album, Help the single, Ticket to Ride, Daytripper and We Can Work It Out (as a double A side single..) and Rubber Soul. And they toured the US, the UK and Europe. All in 1965. Now a mere three years earlier they were heading off to their second last stint in Hamburg (still with Pete Best) and arrived at the airport to be met by Astrid with the news that Stu was dead. By 1965 this is important as Lennon is seriously contemplating what has happened to him and to them, we are post Stu but pre Yoko and the nowhere man is stuck in his Surrey mansion musing on how he became a lead player in this global phenomenon. The warning signs were there from Beatles for Sale; I'm a Loser and No Reply, Baby's in Black and I Don't Want to Spoil the Party. In Help we see the same themes, hide your love away, help me if you can, I think I'm going to be sad. For Lennon and Rubber Soul, Stu looms large over this record. Meanwhile McCartney and Harrison are on the move. Paul's 1965 includes dropping Yesterday on Help, and Harrison for the first time has two original songs on that album in I Need You and You Like Me too Much. In amongst all this Lennon and Harrison (but not McCartney....yet) have dropped acid and are now looking at the whole thing through a different prism, with McCartney not joining them in frying his brain until after Rubber Soul. As with all their perfect records the ensemble is working as one unstoppable force. Ringo is tasked with some challenging songs for a 1965 rock drummer, and as always he produces work that is still influencing rock and roll today. His drumming on In My Life is superb, there's no one in that era, not even those jazz cats, coming up with that arrangement. With Michelle and Girl he gives those tunes that distinctive Euro beat, it is so subtle and yet crucial to their feel. Harrison is all over this record, and playing a Strat too for a good part of it, it's George who suggested tracking the guitar and bass lines on Drive My Car, giving it that Otis/Stax feel. George was spending a lot of time listening to Otis and it shows. And of course it's George who brings in the sitar which makes Norwegian Wood what it is. And he has well and truly found his writing feet with his two contributions, especially If I Needed Someone, which has the same chord sequence as Here Comes the Sun (and it is the only George original they played live). And Lennon and McCartney? What can we say other than they are at a very particular creative peak, there are many other incredible heights to be scaled, but here they are lockstep with each other. It could be argued this is their last 50/50 song writing album, their fingerprints are all over each others songs. Back to Stu. The one and only fifth Beatle is a key element in their story, without Stu we simply don't get The Beatles, period. He showed Lennon how to look at the world, how to challenge it, how to interpret it. That then influenced Paul and George. Yoko says that there was hardly a day they were together that John didn't mention Stu. With Michelle, Paul had written it as a French parody song back in the Gambier Terrace days, the flat John shared with Stu. In 65 John, thinking about Stu, suddenly reminds Paul about "that French song", prompting Paul to do that thing he does with a melody, and of course John providing the bridge "I love you, I love you" etc. And in that superb little tune, Paul revolutionises bass playing with the most sublime counterpoint, it is its own melody, stunning. Lennon's contributions are all about loss and sadness, Nowhere Man and Girl and In My Life in particular go to his terrible sense of loves and people lost. In Nowhere he exhorts himself to enjoy having the world at his command, the girl promises the earth to him and he believes her, but after all this time doesn't know why. In My Life is Song for Stu, "and of all these friends and lovers, there is no one who compares with you". Drive My Car, a great 50/50 John and Paul composition, with Paul getting his vocal chops ready for when he rips out Lady Madonna in about 18 months time. McCartney is clearly looking for someone new and different to Jane Asher, she just doesn't know it yet. His two sublime Jane songs, I'm Looking Through You and You Won't See Me are classic Paul, with the latter being a track he could have dropped at anytime in his later career. Lennon's What Goes On gives Ringo his C and W moment, and Wait (recorded for Help but a perfect fit) and The Word are John and Paul doing that thing they do as songwriters and performers. And the vocal work by the Fab Voice Trio is up there with their finest on just about every track. I do find it odd that Run For Your Life is on there, it sounds like a throwback from the Mania albums. Strangely it was the first song recorded, it is surprising that it survived and made the final cut. And yes Lennon was guilty of violence towards women (see Getting Better) but that first line was actually lifted from the old Baby Let's Play House 50's rocker, just in case the cancel culture fascists are out there somewhere thinking of taking it out.. They make this album and then the hard core acid taking takes off. With Revolver Lennon is somewhere else, the themes are darker, his drug dealing doctor, someone (Fonda) telling him what it's like to be dead while tripping, a meditation on sleeping and thinking about turning off your mind. And, as we now know (see the Revolver Super Deluxe reissue), Yellow Submarine was his, "in the town where I was born, no one cared, no one cared". McCartney meanwhile starts his takeover, dominating both Revolver and Pepper. Johnny doesn't get his mojo going again until the arrival of the ocean child Yoko, who finally allows him to move on from Stu. As such Rubber Soul is close to their greatest work of all bar the White Album. As I said earlier, what makes it different from the WB is that that Rubber Soul is the final true Lennon-McCartney collaborative song writing album, while it can be argued that the WB has their finest individual song writing, backed by their finest ensemble performance. This wonderful record is their Girl with a Mandolin, their David Copperfield...their Hamlet. The White Album is my favourite Fab album, but this is a very, very close second.

When Keith kicks a riff it's like nothing else in rock and roll. You can feel it through to the soles of your feet, and he and Charlie (and Jimmy) kick it on this record. And the colour and light is Mick Taylor, he gives these tunes that extra layer that make them great. Most of the narrative goes to Keith smacked out of his head in Nellcote with Gram Parsons showing him country tunes, but I reckon this is one of Mick's finest efforts, his vocal range and lyrics are up there with Beggars and Let it Bleed. This is a good album with a lot of great tracks, the first six are a run like no other. Tumbling Dice just rolls, what a feel, timeless, country and yet a total groove. The Stones are a great covers band too, and Shake Your Hips is up there with Love in Vain and Route 66. It doesn't quite hold the quality across the four sides, but so what, what is good is just superb.

Circa 1974-5 every house I walked into to hang out had this album, the tracks are tattooed on my brain. Mick Ronson is the unsung hero of this record, he had a fine ear and knew how to get the best out of Lou. This record made in the US would have been ok, but in the hands of the English session crew bomb squad, Lou's basic tracks are, pardon the pun, transformed. I love the eclectic mix of players, Klaus with his signature Fender bass lines, Herbie scamming an additional studio fee and laying out the best double bass/electric bass lines ever transposed..Lou is in fine voice and Bowie has got him a beautiful sound. I love every part of this album, songs like Satellite of Love, Goodnight Ladies et al are great tunes, and then there is the classics. He never bettered it.

Captain Beefheart, bathtubs and tubas. Crazy linking tracks, scary tunes and fantastic song writing. I discovered Tom with this album and Swordfishtrombones and was massively disappointed when I went back to his earlier lounge stuff, heresy for Tom fans I know. That said, I reckon Tom knew he had to get out of tenor sax solos and moody introspection before he turned into a B grade Billy Joel. And here is where Captain Beefheart comes in. Rain Dogs is a straight lift on the Clear Spot template, and that is no criticism. Beefheart's stunningly beautiful My Head is My Only House Unless it Rains informs so much of Tom's new found voice and by jingoes it works. Wait's is rightly lauded for his sound, but I think his songwriting gets missed, he is a great writer of lyric and melody, Cole Porter would have got it. Clap Hands is alluringly freaky, drags me in every time, Big Black Maria is rolling thunder, Downtown Train worthy of a Roddy Stewart cover and Hang Down Your Head is a bona fide pop classic. Blind Love is in my country and western playlist and let me say whenever someone at work is giving me the shits, I instantly start humming Walking Spanish (no doubt they are thinking and humming the same thing). Love this record, the apotheosis of mid 80's pop.

Someone stop all this nonsense.

Tim Rogers once wrote (You've Been Good to Me so Far) "I was doing all those things that I used to hate the worst, I was listening to Joni Mitchell and tucking in my shirt", which pretty well sums up mine and a parliament of middle aged blokes relationship to Joni. There was a time in the early 80's where every single woman I was interested in was a Joni fan, and yes they all had Blue and yes I had to listen to Mingus as well. So coming back to a bit of Joni a little older and kinda wiser, I'm well pleased to discover that it is a cracking good record. She's an eclectic performer and writer, she's not a folk singer she's a genre unto herself. The chords are weird, I'm not a proper musician so I'm not quite sure what's she's doing but it works. The lyrics are fascinating, there's some very interesting takes on the human condition here and they all work except for Raised on Robbery (which I just don't get). Help Me is extraordinary. The album flows, beautiful songs and fantastic arrangements. Stephen Stills could have benefited from listening to this, it might have helped him understand what a song is. Her voice is exquisite, she takes you places does Joni, the first 8 tracks are brilliant. The choice of Annie Ross' Twisted was a bit twisted, but other than that and Raised on Robbery this is a fine record.

Stephen Stills and Dave Mustaine should be tied to chairs and made to listen to this record to understand that rock and roll is fun. Kick arse fun, hard fun, weird fun, but fun! I've not listened to The Cramps in years and I'd completely forgotten that I went to see them circa 85/86, pissed out of my head, at Selinas Coogee. It blew me away to such an extent that I forgot about it, well there you go. I love a great three piece with a singer. The Who, Rage Against (not U2..) ,three pieces with a great guitarist who creates the whole vibe. Poison Ivy is the star of this band, her sound, the way she creates those 50's riffs around those Gretsch chords, rock and roll heaven. This record rolls, Lux does his thing and the whole things swings. I love Garbageman, the way Poison builds up Sunglasses After Dark, Strychnine is a brilliant Sonics tribute and of course their take on Fever is simply the greatest. Final comment, Tear It Up is the soundtrack to what would have played in Elvis's worst nightmare, and I love it. And I love knowing how much Stephen Stills would hate this record, schadenfreude.

Jede menge müll! Vielleicht höre ich lieber Stephen Stills? Nein!

As old JL once pithily put it, avant-garde is French for bullshit. Having listened to this I refuse to engage with it.

Walked into Anthem Records in 1982 and asked them for something new and they chucked me this. A lot of this early 80's electronica got lost in the whole Flock of Sausages type stuff, this record (and this band) had some good moments, and the highlights on this record are really good. Maid of Orleans, Joan of Arc and Georgia are delightful and Souvenir is a pretty timeless melody which will resonate in any era. I'd forgotten about New Stone Age, its sets a very different tone from the rest of the record, but it works. As a Fab fan I love a bit of mellotron work, and I think a lot of the vocal work is more than a nod to I'm Not in Love by 10CC. About as far away from Stephen Stills as you can get, which makes it a good record.

I love Phil, and it is intriguing to hear the Gold Star wall of sound brought to bear on a Chrissie album. Sleigh Ride kinda works, but no this is not good.

So firstly hats off to Damon for going down this path, a 21st century Archies is a pretty clever idea, even if it was only to get away from Graham Coxon's drinking. In my mind no one's quite done a Weller when he busted out of The Jam to start honeymooning down by the Seine with Mick Talbot, but this comes close. Does it hold up, writing and producing with a cartoonist? Not really, it has some fine moments but it tends to drag on, about half way through I realised I was thinking about how long it would take me to sort the Xmas box recycling. 5/4 is great, but it is a Blur song song that would have walked straight into their eponymous 1997 album. Sadly it is just a bit boring.

Well that Xmas recycling is not going to sort itself, I'd better get a crack on. For some reason our yellow bin cycle doesn't really align with Xmas, so it's a bit of struggle, what with two weeks of normal recycling and then all the Xmas boxes and stuff, but then that's Canterbury Bankstown council for you. Sorry did someone say something about Country Joe and the Fish, sorry, I didn't catch that..on a par with Stephen Stills? I can't hear you over the sound of boxes being scrunched.

"Play Freebird!" The 13-14 year old me would love to review this album, and he's fighting hard to be heard against the sad cynicism of the late 50's me. Growing up in Maroubra in the 70's meant bands like Skin Nerd really cut through, nothing quite like finding out the meaning of unrequited while nursing a bottle of Southern Comfort and singing along to Tuesday's Gone (and then spewing up, was it the Comfort or the song...or the girl?). So how's it holding up to these tired old ears? This is a well rehearsed garage band meets The Allman Brothers (no coincidence Freebird was dedicated to Duane). I Ain't the One, Gimme 3 Steps, Things Going On, Poison Whiskey all roll and would be fantastic in a bar on a Friday night; hats off to Mississippi Kid, but the long weepies are turgid. And just who is Al Kooper? How is it he keeps popping up in the strangest corners of the rock and roll universe? And on that I highly recommend his rock and roll memoir, one of the best. And what about Freebird? 14 year old me is fighting hard to say despite all its ridiculous pomposity, the length, the lyrics, the arrangement, the guitar solo(s).....it still works! If you really want to nerd out on Skin Nerd look up the Walker mix of Freebird. Play Freebird!

Oh Captain my Captain! The thing that really annoys me about Trout Mask is that is completely overshadows the rest of his his exceptional output. Lennon loved this record and for two good reasons: great song writing and a great performance by the band. He sets the template for so much pop music to come, he's got a fine ear for melody does Don, but he also know how to create the right feel through the performance. We often think about the context in which these 60's records appear, and this must have sounded amazing to 1967 ears. So much of what he's doing with each and every genre on this record has now become part of the modern soundscape, but back then, oy vey! Ry Cooder is Al Kooper's music doppelganger, whenever he pops up, he does to great effect. I don't think he's ever been on a bad record, what a player. And who has been listening to this record in their sheds eh? I'd count young Tommy Waits and those two kids from Akron Ohio known as the Black Keys as dedicated fans of this album amongst many others. And I wonder if Georgie Harrison started thinking about doing his thing on the slide after listening to this (might be why he asked Delaney to show him how to do it). Each song is splendid, a truly great record.

Whatever this purports to be, I want nothing to do with it.

Firstly, is there any significant record from the 50's/60's/70's Big Jim Sullivan didn't play on? He pops even more than Al Kooper and Ry Cooder, though he appears to have had the good sense to steer clear of Stephen Stills. Secondly I'm surprised this record hasn't been sampled, or has it? Send me a fax if you know. The soundtrack is fantastic, this would be brilliant as an instrumental record. I like Serge, but then I've always liked all that Johnny Halladay/France Gall/Francoise Hardy (sigh...) stuff from the 60's/70's. There is no doubt not being conversant with French beyond the Foux de Fa Fa song (supermarche!) you don't have to dwell on the Uncle Pervy elements of him chasing down a 15 year old, mais il est français donc... This is a beautifully crafted record, gorgeous production and wonderful arrangements.

Well that was short and painful. What exactly is the problem here, to paraphrase the great Brando line, I don't see what they are rebelling against. The Wiki notes seems to tell a story of self indulgent drug addled art students, this is about as punk as my Breville coffee machine.

I just feel really old listening to this, I'm not even motivated to be snarky about it. Even the ropey words don't give me the shits, I'm just bored by it. I think this process really needs a cracking record and soon..

Down with the PE, needed that. I do like the story from Hank about how they lost their "data", shows what a painstaking process it was for the Bomb Squad in creating these tunes. This is a big Flav album too, he's all over it, which can be a good and bad thing. That said PE need the Flav as the foil, and he's having a good one on this record. Chuck is in fine voice, Arizona, Shut Em Down et al all hit, love that Isaac's epic By The Time I Get to Phoenix led to this. Chuck's politics hold up, he's been consistent in his position all the way through his career even allowing for the creepy influence of Griff who'd been expunged by this stage. Garvey/Du Bois/Ellison/Ridenhour. Fear of a Black Planet is my go to PE album, but this is a close second.

What I don't get with all this is two things: they are not very good at whatever it is they think they are doing, they don't play with imagination nor verve and they don't give you a good feeling about it. Now I'm not talking about Brotherhood of Man type "good feeling", I mean they don't evoke a good feeling through having something to say. I saw Bob Mould a couple of year's back and it was heavy, the loudest thing I've ever heard, and he didn't let up for hours. And I came away invigorated, high on the performance. With this they have nothing to say and they say it badly. That said, Super Unison has some ok moments, you can see what this might have been if they........

Seth MacFarlane is a borderline 21st century genius. Peter Griffin is up there with Frank Costanza as one of the greatest of comic characters. Where am I going with this? We have a nice little riff going in our house where upon hearing a particular type of song, we nominate it as a Peter Griffin type song, one that he'd funk out to with Cleveland etc. Listening to this took me to Kiss Alive and Rock and Roll Allnite, comfy bedfellows the Lizz and the boys in face paint, and they are purveyors of Peter Griffin type rocking out madness par excellence. Here we are post Cream/Yes/Deep Purple et al and the riffing in unison style of stuff (much beloved by Spinal Tap) but pre hair metal and all that palaver. The thing with these bands is that they could play, were tight, well rehearsed and had played in every gin joint and bar she'd ever avoided walking into. Clearly this record shows that a gig with Phil and boys was always going to be a good night out, even if towards the end you started hanging out at the bar, going the chat with the one with the nice blue eye shadow and Farrah Fawcett hair. What's the problem then pop fans? Firstly no good songs bar Jailbreak, their cover of Rosalie and of course The Boys Are Back. They were limited songwriters period. Secondly, they clearly got stuck in with a particular sound and arrangements and just could not bust out, or didn't have the ability to bust out.

And now, the end is near And so I face the final curtain My friends, I'll say it clear I'll state my case, of which I'm certain That life is too short for this shit, I've pulled the curtain Regrets I've had a few Napalm Death and Stills among them But more , much more than that This stinks as much as they do...

It insists upon itself.

One of the things I like about this process is being able to rummage around in the rock and roll basement (in the basement..down in the basement) and find out who is playing/writing/producing on these records. When I saw who it was I went looking for Gilberto Gil and sure enough there he is co writing some of these tracks. I saw Gilberto about 10 years ago at the Opera House, one of the most extraordinary nights of my life. We got there about 30 minutes before the start and the place was heaving, they were singing and dancing BEFORE the gig, they had their own party happening just in preparation for the great man. Then the gig started, hooley dooley. I'm starting to think Dimery is just ticking boxes for the list. This is ok, it drifts along and has some interesting moments and some nice moments, Clarice is lovely. But would I ever listen to this again? No.

To quote Maxwell Smart, "The old patented Mutt Lange big anthemic chorus trick". He's a bit of pop genius the old Mutt (wouldn't you love to go through life known as"Mutt") everything from AccaDacca to Shania Twain! I love the Def, they were up for it, knew their audience and gave them what they wanted. I knew a guy who saw them at an outdoor gig in the early 90's, maybe BDO, and he said it was a brilliant show. I watched a couple of the videos while listening to this, all soft focus 80's and lots of stud belts/guitar straps, they were like a Pommy lads take on Van Halen. This is pretty good stuff, not my cup of rock but so what; good song writing, some very good twin guitar attack and a whole lot of fun. I loved the story on Phil Lynnott from the Lizz, he knew the Def could do what they could not, this record shows that.

Dimery has his moments, four REM albums in the list but not Reckoning/Fables of the ReconstructionRecontruction of the Fable/Life's Rich Pageant? Document is treading water, so much of this could have appeared in the earlier stuff, you can tell they are bored. Oddfellows and Welcome to the Occupation are wonderful, REM at their best, but the rest is paint by numbers stuff. And no I don't like the biggies, The One I Love and The End of the World, in fact the latter gives me the shits. This is not their finest hour.

Right, first thing have a listen to the verse in Stand, then put Jack and Jill by Raydio into your cassette player and I think you will find that perhaps Ray Parker Jnr has listened a little too closely to Stand...Second thing...I think Rocky Mountain High enjoys a cosey relationship with Sex Machine (and maybe a bit of Frampton's Do You Feel Like We Do)...but what do I know...anyway...I think a LOT of musicians were listening very closely to this album back in the day. This album represents what I thought the 1001 was going to be all about; amazing music, great song writing and brilliant musicians. Jesus Mary and Joseph this is a phenomenal record, every track. Melody and rhythm flows out of every fibre of Sly's being, he's pulled together every Black music tradition and fused it with the best elements of White music to create something unique and special. What a band, what an ensemble, all are players and all can sing, the blend of voices, Rose, Fred, Cynthia, just sublime. And what can we say about Greg Errico, not many points of reference around for what Sly wanted but he got it, pretty fly for a white guy. And I think it would be worth getting Don't Call Me Nigger Whitey played more, it will greatly help the maturity of the discourse out there right now, he got that one absolutely right. And I wonder what Gene Allison thought of Sly's take on You Can Make It, we are a long way from 1957 Toto.. Easily one of the greatest records of all time.

An exceptional record. I'm impressed at so many levels, the arrangements and her impressive vocal range in particular. I'm never really comfortable with "concept" albums, but here it doesn't get in the way of just enjoying the tunes. When I saw the album cover my immediate thoughts turned to the possibility of calling occupants of interstellar craft, but no it was ok on that front, phew... Younger son made the very good point that Neon Gumbo has echoes of Revolution No.9, Oh Maker is beautiful, like a 21st century Sandie Shaw. Come Alive could walk off any serious rock album with that bass riff and I really like her work with Of Montreal on Make the Bus. I've gone back to listening this straight away as it has so much, in fact I reckon old Serge G would have loved this record. Brilliant stuff.

Alright, I have to admit I didn't listen to the whole thing., I just could not do it. And this is no aging arsehole being smug thing, I could not cop it back in the day. This is literally, and I mean literally, Spinal Tap. As I dropped the Youtube clip onto the first track I immediately started thinking about the Tap scene with the lowering of the tiny Stonehenge sarsen onto the stage, and I'll leave you with that thought.

I read "hardcore" and thought "on no haven't we suffered enough...". But gee willikers its just a good rock and roll album, thank Lennon for that. Sydney indie scene throwback; this reminded me of Drop Bears and early Spy v Spy v, if anyone is out there floating through the cyberspace and gets those references. Solid rhythm section, good vocalist who uses his range to good effect, and a great guitarist, not quite Gang of Four but worthy. There's nothing "punk" or whatever about this, they are just a good solid rock combo, what's not to like? Good tracks: House of Suffering/Re-Ignition/I Against I/Sacred Love. Good stuff.

Much underrated Primal, they are the epitome of eclecticism, they never played it safe and went into some very interesting musical corners and came out the better for it. I'm a Bobby fan period, love his style and range, Shaun get's all the plaudits from this era, but aye Bobby is the man for me. I saw them in Adelaide at the 2000 BDO and it was a fantastic show, they were touring XTRMNTR but they gave a pretty good broad based show of their stuff. I love the soul influences and the way it blends with the house sounds, a great production. Like all good records they capture the zeitgeist perfectly,(think Trainspotting), Don't Fight It Feel It is out of this world and funky as fuck, as is Loaded. They are the whole pre Britpop vibe, a great era for British pop music. Love this record.

I decided to go into this with open ears. Some Kind of Monster out Spinal Tapped Spinal Tap so it makes it very hard to just sit back and listen to Metallica for what it is worth. As with Megadeth and N#$#$%$ D#$#%* I just don't get the point, in this instance it is mainly just funny as opposed to boring or a crime against humanity. I mean...EVERY SONG HAS A SLOW BEGINNING BEFORE THE GUITAR KICKS IN! EVERY SONG! The same er er er guitar chord sound...er er er...the same ponderous, ridiculous drumming, drumming that is trying so hard to be "like heavy dude" that it seriously sounds like the 15 year old kid next door who has stumbled onto one way to play and is going for it every Thursday afternoon in the garage. Non-existent bass, why have a bass player? Lyrics that again would be written by the high school band getting ready for the end of year talent quest. And maybe that is what is going on here, maybe the genius of this is that literally any 15 year boy from Potsdam to Panania figures they could do this, not that they can sound like Metallica, but that Metallica sounds like them!

What am I missing? Am I having some sort of existential crisis around my inability to understand or appreciate why this is in anyway noteworthy? Seriously, what am I missing? Ok, I've pondered this some more, went back in for another go. So. Every track starts with a sample, a scratch and a beat, between two and four bars. Then in comes that soporific rapping, so low key as to be comatose. Then a scratch, repeat sampled riff. "Listen, listen listen, I'll tell ya, my rhymes are like shelter" Really, gee thanks for that. Like....heavy man....word... What in the name of Allah is supposed to be good about this? Here's a trick, let them get in about 1 minute, then go back 15 seconds etc and discover...it is the same thing over and over and over and over and over and over and over....again. "The meaning of the name Gang Starr, well I tell you, it means my mind can excel to", ah fuck off!

A work on progress. You can hear how they are working through developing the sound they will become famous for. I've always been a big Lover is Stranger fan, a superb track and of course the mind blowing Wagga Wagga influenced Sweet Dreams. The rest is just unremarkable, none of the song resonated nor caused me to go back and re listen etc. Still a testament to a band on the move to great things.

Risa Above has a cracking good riff and Room 13 work well within the theme. No More is different and again works well with the lyrics. The rest? Meh. Boy, we need a good record.

I listened to all of this record. This is an important album in the history of popular music as it is this stuff that hastened the emergence of punk rock. Perhaps this process should be renamed 1001 Albums That Will Hasten Your Demise. Stephen Stills is suddenly looking good.

A good record, one I had and liked back in the day, not sure I needed to listen to it again before I die, but there you go. Roland knows the value of a big chorus and interestingly doesn't need a strict verse/chorus model to get his ear worms happening. I'd forgotten about the wall of sound production, it's very interesting the depth of the sound, the drums in particular. The hits are superb, joyous even in their angst. Head Over Heels is just pop perfection, a timeless song that has lent itself to some lovely covers, always the mark of a great song.

It's The Cylinder with a squeeze box, I mean seriously. No soup for you..NEXT!

I've got a hunch that the protagonist in American Psycho would have been a huge Sade fan. If AI was asked to produce a stereotypically 80's album they'd pop this out. Man it leaves me cold, everything about it is devoid of any feel, its detached air is in itself detached from the idea of music moving you. And where's my filofax when I need it? What time is Miami Vice? Hawkie still Prime Minister? And how's about those tenor sax solos? That said, Smooth Operator and Hang Onto Your Love, I'd think Grace Jones would have been slightly and rightly peeved as to what was going on there. Oh hang on, here comes the opening sax solo on Frankie's First Affair, it's got me rolling up the sleeves on my suit jacket. And I really despise what she did to Timmy Thomas's classic, ruined it. The only thing this is missing is a duet with Stephen Stills or a Brian May lyric. Minus 10 to the max. Now to go and turn on my Amstrad green screen.

George is just off his face, whacked out, seriously strange, and don't we love him for it. This is beyond definition or appraisal, joyous, wonderful music, you are surfing a rainbow of love listening to this. Fred! Maceo! Bootsy! Man, what a sound, what a groove. Just play it!

I had a big Band phase about 20 years ago, must admit I've not gone near them in a long time. The Brown album was a particular favourite over Big PInk, but I bookended both of them. Sad to say it doesn't really hold up. There are some fine moments, Tears of Rage etc, but surprisingly a lot of the vocals are variable at best. The songwriting is all over the place and I think reflects a lot of the nurdling around that went on with the basement tapes. I'm genuinely surprised by how ordinary it is, odd. But let's leaven this critique with a concessive; what's good about it is really good.

Tempora mutantur, this is one of those records and moments that changed everything. My next door neighbour left school early and went and got a job in a record bar, as you did in those far off 70's days. I went to visit her during Thursday night shopping (another life changing innovation) on my way to Maroubra Junction library and she said "buy this, it will change your life". And she was right, I listened to this in 78 and everything changed (I'd missed the first album and thought this was their first). The Pistols had scared me (they were scary..) and as much as I loved EC from the get go, I knew the traditions he was drawing on. But this, bloody hell. Even though I didn't know it at the time, as a riposte to the dreaded CSNY (hope you are well Stephen) I indeed went and cut my hair. I also gleefully frisbeed Supertramp's Even in The Quietest Moments into the clothesline, felt I was pretty rad and punk for doing it too (no doubt that fucking record is probably going to pop up in this process, Rick Davies revenge..). Just the album cover alone was an inspiration, I went and knicked my mum's polaroid camera and wasted a hell of lot of shots finding out how hard it was to assemble a shot of your head! I think the beauty of it is the creative tension between Byrne/Eno and Frantz/Weymouth, with Jerry happily looking on and providing so much of the pad to all of these great songs. Take I'm Not In Love, the riff, the rhythm section, the spoken word and the stops, tension tension tension, perfect. Artists Only, all the Byrne themes are there, offset nicely by the bass harmonics, and then Harrison's superb organ riffing..it leads us into the funky mind fuck that is David thinking whatever it is he's thinking about as a songwriter. The lightness leads to dark, while his little meditation on getting his stuff out of his head unfolds. Ditto Warning Signs, glissando bass line perfectly complementing David's musings and Frantz's funky drumming. A truly great record.

This is like Moby has abducted Claudine Longet, gave her acid, and made her sing over this loopy loops of synthetic music. Blimey ,enough already. NEXT!

The chorus on Epic is great, lovely shift in tempo and feel, the faux rapping in the verses is awful and did not/does not hold up. This is trying to be a lot of things to a lot of different audiences and as result is just an out and out mishmash, and is sometimes just plain silly. It's all so forced, take the long, and I mean long, slow intro to Zombie Eaters, go get yourself a coffee and some vegemite toast while you are waiting for the inevitable Metallica style guitar riff, er er er, to come hurtling in, whoa man phew! Who knew that was coming... cooooooooolllllllll....I'll give it a numeric mention for the nice work on Epic.

There's a lot to consider with Lady Soul: the production, the studio, the players, the producer and the song writing. Jerry Wexler did the world a favour when he recognised what needed to happen with Aretha, without him she would have gone down as a minor gospel singer, like a b grade Jean Wells. First thing he does is get her to play the piano and sing, smart move. Then he gets her to New York and Muscle Shoals, and that brings her into the world of Spooner et al, match made in heaven. And then there's the tunes, the songwriters. Don Covay, James, Curtis, Eddie and Felix from the Rascals, and of course the perfect meeting of Aretha and Gerry and Carole, I'd argue as close to perfect until she decided to take on Hal and Burt's I Say a Little Prayer. Wexler has the vision and the chutzpah to pull it all together and bring together all the right elements for a another critical stage in the evolution of pop music. You simply can't imagine a pop music world without Aretha from Lady Soul on, she's out there in our pop music DNA. A beautiful record.

Best leaning on a shovel getting paid for not a whole lot gig in pop music? Bass player for U2. And wait there's more, you get song writing royalties to go with it. What a boring band, seriously boring. They are so boring it was actually interesting to listen across this entire record just to see the boring depths to which they could plunge. Here they are so self consciously trying to uncouple themselves from being U2 they do a U2 and produce an album that sounds like U2 trying not to be U2. I love how the guitarist is constantly fighting to not play his signature one and only style of playing, but then about a minute and half in he rips it out regardless. This is the pop music equivalent of wallpaper. If there was a Pop Music Hall of Boring not only would they be one of the first inductees, they'd be the first Immortals.

My oldest son is a fan of this record and I think that's where it hits, it would be hard to be an 18 year old who is into rock and roll and not get this album. I'm not sure why Stinson could not play the solo on I Will Dare but he rips out his best Ace Frehley on Black Diamond. And on that, sorry but there is nothing cute nor interesting about doing a Kiss cover in the style of Kiss. Westerberg gets kudos for the prescience of Androgynous, lyrically clever and well thought through, tells a story that needed to be told. So for him to even feel the need to write it is brilliant, he's a fine human being. That said, the stand out track is Unsatisfied, that's the one I've just played a few times this morning, a beautiful melody and screaming out for a cover by a great female voice, wonderful song. The rest, c'mon let's be honest there's not much happening there, but then that's kinda ok too, it is one of those records.

Was there any Greenwich Village cafe basket house artist who didn't play House of the Rising Sun? If only Van Ronk had claimed the arrangement he might have retired earlier and done us all a favour. But no it took the evil cunning of Alan Price and Michael Jeffrey to pull that scam. There's nothing going on here of any note. She had a fascinating life I'll give her that.

What I'd like to say to these two is: How can you expect to be taken seriously when you are so busy being boring. This must be the place I've waited years to avoid as it is so hard listening to this it feels like the end of the world. 49 minutes worth of this appalling drivel, come back Stephen Stills all is forgiven (not!). They should be locked in a room with Napalm Death and made to play each others record. Listen Dimery, if you are out there, I'm 60 man, I can't waste 49 precious minutes on something like this, I want to see my boys have children. Please, please please, I said pet ,I said love, I said pet, please can we have a good record? I'll take a boy band album, as long as its upbeat, what about those guys that did that Billy Joel cover, whoever they were? Or what about that Chumbawumba ? Joe Dolce? Just no more of this stuff.

Crikey, from the drivel to the Sturm und Drang in one album.....LEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMYYYYYYYYYYYYYY! I wonder if the people sitting in the Tracy Island 1001 Albums command centre are watching our reactions and playing with our minds, "Sooo Pet Shop Boys has disturbed your equilibrium...here have a cleansing dose of Motorhead.".. This is one tight well rehearsed battle tested hard touring band. Who else would write a cracking tune about their road crew? Phil and Lemmy swing, great rhythm section, it takes a damn fine bass player to make the Rickenbacker rock and he absolutely kills it. Fast Eddie is just a sonic boom, I'd have killed to see Motorhead, what an experience that must have been. As Beavis once eloquently put it "Lemmy rules". They were on the Young Ones for a reason. 10/10.

I've not listened to Elliott before, interesting how much Bob Evans sounds like him. This is pretty good, some nice melodies but it is all pretty much the same, very one dimensional approach to singing and arrangements. So not in anyway offensive but musically a bit of a glass of water.

See Pyromania.

Missed this one, always like an opportunity to call out Mark E. I've not gotten The Fall and never will, strange the status they are afforded. The best summation of Mark is that Frank Sidebottom's take on Hit the North was vastly superior to The Fall's version. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiduNJG-Ltk&ab_channel=dwscih

This music was dropped by Martians in search of the Creature From the Black Lagoon. Ed Wood produced it and Jayne Mansfield was on her way to sing back up when she lost her head. This is just doesn't belong on the planet, 1965 and all that. Who the fuck were these aliens? They swooped up a few Raquel Welch clones, returned to their planet and then came back with two hybrid babies and dropped them into Akron Ohio and said "you will become the Black Keys".

Poor Travis, they got caught up in the horror that is the Coldplay world, the image and plaintive tone of Fran Healy being lost amidst the bizarre popularity of that music. Coldplay's greatest claim to fame being that they made Ed Sheeran possible, there go and chew on that. There are some good moments here, Fran's got one way of writing, and it's all here, very personal lyrics, floating verses with a slight half step shift for the chorus. The opener sets the template, ditto As You Are. Driftwood is quite a song, the imagery and symbolism nicely sustained to the key refrain, drifting, likes to drift does Fran. Which leads to being rained on. If you do that thing and imagine you've never heard it before, c'mon it works. My brother in law was at Glastonbury when they played it in their pomp and he said it was just the perfect Pommy singalong, as only they can, he said the entire audience was just swept up with it, the chorus is perfect. Good record.

Alright at one level heard one Fats tune you've heard them all. He's got his r n b thing happening, with many a nod to Big Joe, Fats Waller and Cab Calloway. Those early rhythm and blues records had two schools, the Big Boy Crudup et al early electric guitar sound and the big band swinging honkin horns and the boogie woogie shuffle roll style that Fats appropriated. This is the type of record I played for my kids when they were little, who needs The Wiggles when you can play this. It's fun, out and out good time. Blue Monday is superb and the whole album has a fat sounding good time roll feel. I love the horns, honking man honking. Blueberry Hill, though has been kinda ruined by Richie....eeeehhhhh.. Anyway, I've referred this to the sensitivity checkers and the album is now This is Pleasantly Plump Domino just in case anyone out there floating in a tin can gets miffed by the constant references to Fats...and the Fat Man Hop is now the Slightly Larger Person Dance..

This is lightening in a bottle. All the stars aligned for this one. Rock and roll is and should always be a progressive movement, awop bob a loo mop a lop bam boom, break free of form and tell the world something's going to change. Now of course there will always be the reactionaries, the Stills/Queen revisionism etc. But yeah great rock and roll is always social democratic in nature, looking to have fun and making things better. Gang of Four perfectly marry their insightful prescient politics with kick arse rock and roll. Tick it off, Hugo swings in that Phil Rudd way, holds it together with a powerhouse backbeat, while Dave roams as all good bass players do, a brilliant rhythm section. Jon has the vocal shops to carry the heaviness of the lyrics, he's got something to say and by jingoes he says it. And Andy is the perfect hard edged, asymmetrical, jagged guitar player, he took on the whole rock guitar thing and stood it on its head, what a player. That said, a nod to Wilko who was worthy too. I don't like the punk/post punk blah blah around this band, they are just a great rock and roll band and this record is perfect.

Ok, this is silly. The worthy pre Pet Sounds album is Summer Days with California Girls etc etc. This is the epitome of the K Tel type of cobbled together type of record they put out back then, not worthy of consideration as a record. I'm not impressed.

A tad formulaic, tendency to get Kim to lead off with a low key riff and then "we all join in". Surprising how piss weak the rhythm section is, terrible drumming. Blackie has some good moments here, I love Waves of Mutilation, a great song that points to what they could do, Here Comes is a nice pop song. I think I like Kim more, that's my problem with the Pixies, The Breeders are just much better, she found herself there, maybe needed the twin to make it all happen. I dont think the Pixies hold up, at all.

This was a real pleasure to go back to. I've not listened in a long time and it is fantastic. The genius of Syd writ large, Lucifer Sam, The Scarecrow and of course Bike, one of my all time favourites. A fascinating record and a real treat to go and explore. "I've got a bike..."

Made by people on drugs for people on drugs. Shaun can't sing, period. Lazy Itis is only interesting for the Fab lift. Brain dead indeed, unbelievably boring. Can I be serious for a moment and point out this is what drugs can do to people's critical faculties.

The 90's had some great rock and roll moments, and Elastica is up there with the best. I've always loved a rockin Tele/Strat combo and they have a great rhythm section, especially the drummer. Waking Up, yes I know they were a bit naughty, has always been my favourite and Connection would be in the top ten of 90's zeitgeist moments. Straight out great rock and roll record, loved going back to it.

First time listener. I just don't know what to think, clearly judging from the number of plays he's huge but I don't get it. Take In Da Club what is so good about that? It is a ye standard hip hop track, utterly predictable and ordinary lyrics, a little bit of rhythm and yet its huge. Why? What's going on here, this is so, so seriously ordinary. I mean it's not bad, it's not rubbish on a Stephen Stills level of rubbish, it just is. It's there. Nothing, and I mean nothing, made me want to put it back on, no need to rewind. Don't believe the hype.

Dramatically pedestrian. Awful off key singing, its jarring, flat and tuneless. The tunes are borderline The Fall, its that bad. Geez they've gotten away with a lot of rubbish this lot, I know Goo has some good moments but this is dreadful. There's a whole lot of noise covering up their lack of any discernible talent. I made it to Hey Joni and cracked.

Life's too short. A weird hybrid of Jesus and the Mary Chain and The Cure. Seriously, out of all of the gazzilions of pop records released since the 1940's, I needed to listen to this before I cark it?

Nigel Gray did a lot of fantastic work in the late 70's/early 80's and this is part of that considerable body of work. She's some talent that Siouxsie, if she'd emerged say five years later than that crazy late 70's era I'd think she'd have a greater reputation as both a performer and songwriter. A few things jar a little, the "big" 80's drum sound is probably dated, but then that was one of Nigel's signature moves. Ditto some of McGeoch's Andy Summers style guitar work. But so what, overall it is a fine record. Spellbound never ceases to amaze me, Halloween and Monitor kick, perhaps Voodoo Dolly drags though I'm sure it would have been a great part of their live show.

I'd forgotten that his take on Everyday I have the Blues owed more to Count Basie than Slim Harpo, interesting opener as it sounds like by 1964 he was already bored with it but had to play it. You Upsets Me Baby is straight out swing and Help the Poor is a Latin beat, very interesting. You can tell he's toured the bejesus out of these songs, chitlin circuit, Chicago, west coast done it all to death. His stage patter is a bit meta, he's already across what they want and what he's got to play, fascinating. Did BB ever play a chord, could he have played Smoke on the Water if asked? How many copies of Lucille did he have, as he must have worn out the tenth fret top three strings playing that same riff over and over and over again. This smacks of a record label filler, a cash in on a guy still touring hard, and his audience is still African American, I dont think the white college students have clocked him yet. Great voice, It's My Own Fault is superb and sums up everything good about BB, best track on the album. You Done Lost Your Good Thing points to the settled sound he was moving towards, especially for the white audience that was coming. This is album is a curio, representing an artist who was good at what he did, working within his limitations.

More than a hint of Pet Sounds in the vocal arrangements, that said I'm a big Colin Blunstone fan, love his voice and his solo work in particular. In so many ways wholly derivative of a range of other albums at the time, plaintive, "English", rustic and well "lovely". Lots of images of young women blooming (they all seemed to love Emily, who was Emily she must have been the Claudia Karvan of her day, big call I know...). It's all somehow so twee, so fey, a bit too much weed and not enough acid? I mean...ahem...a lilting flute line to open Changes? It's like an Austin Powers pisstake... yeah baby... Ok Time of the Season, superb, though I'd strongly suggest heavily influenced by the Spencer Davis Group (I'm a Man intro...). Sounds nothing like the rest of the record as it is a fine piece of songwriting, which Rod could not sustain.

Canterbury Bankstown, home of the manoush and the K Mart fool. Mix of different people, quietly going about their lives fool. Down with being down with it, fool they catch a bus or a train, sometimes walk..fool. But hey motherfucker, you are a fool, see fool..(queue the machine gun) fool. No machine guns in Campsie fool, so what's up G? Fool. Fool. Motherfucker. Fool. Fool. Fool. Fool. Fool. Fool. Did I mention to say......fool. Fool. Hit the trip wire, Canterbury Kebabs. Fool. Fool. That's right.....fool. Still here? Fool. Gangsta fool. Fool.

For me Germ Free is the sound of Double J in the late 70's, timeless, wonderful song, quite a songwriter was Poly. Good use of horns a la The Saints, and young Jak could play an awesome punk guitar. I reckon the intro to Day Glo inspired quite a few bedroom guitarists to get out and to their thing. The other thing to say is Falcon pulled off a great sound here, sounds amazing for the era, the mix of guitars and sax is brilliant, Art I Ficial is huge. Good gosh a mighty, this is a great record, goes beyond the genre and the times, love it.

Dreadful, like a z grade Beyonce. Speaking of which where is the greatest artists of the last 20 years in this process? Back to Jazmine, is her voice autotuned? Or is it just the sound they use these days in terms of how they are producing voices? Lazy, boring arrangements which just don't pass muster, truly soporific and uninspired. This 21st century flatlining pop music is an absolute blight, I think we've lost the plot. And those spoken word sections, truly an ill thought through idea that no decent producer would have allowed to go through, really,really annoying. Is this here for other reasons that have nothing to do with great records?

I struggle with the seriousness and portentousness of this type of pop music. The most cringeworthy element is when they do a "ballad" like The Unforgiven. It's all so "heavy", so serious in its intent as to be laughable. So when they er er er the guitars at least you get that this "metal" music has a kind of purpose which is to be loud and aggressive, and that's it. But here's the thing, it's completely one dimensional, there is no variation on the theme other than the portentous slow ones. Ok, so having said that Sandman is the apotheosis of this type of pop music, all the elements that have some appeal come together and it works. I remember at one point Channel 9 used it as the theme for State of Origin, it was perfect. My other point goes to the rhythm sections of this type of pop music. With the roots of rock and roll being black music, a good rocking band needs a great rhythm section, it's what moves us emotionally and makes the connection to the feel of the thing, in any of the genres. Take AC/DC, Phil Rudd swings and both the Mark bass players hold down those 16th notes in lock step with Phil, it's what makes the groove over which Angus and Malcolm do their thing. With Metallica there is no bass player period and Lars is an awful awful drummer, I have no sense of what it is he thinks he is doing, it is completely fucked and makes for an especially jarring listening experience. This process is really challenging, having to listen to so much awful music, interspersed with the occasional great record.

Why does it take 17 people to write each of these quite ordinary pop songs? Are they onto some song publishing scam? I'm surprised my name wasn't there, that I'd contributed a word to a song and jagged a song writing credit, maybe I did...maybe I didn't...there that's a C Lo lyric. The songs are ok, his voice the very definition of "limited" and its a hard listen over a whole album. This Bruno Mars universe, interesting. They've worked out a sound and a formula and they've plundered it to very good effect, hats off to them. Again, is this really something that needs to be listened to before I slip off this mortal coil? Oh, oh, oh, oh..shit... C Lo lyric (took 48 people to write that too). Where's Lemonade, when do we get to talk about that?

Now, unlike Metallica et al, Accadacca have never taken themselves too seriously. Even in death, the death of their beloved front man, they still produce an album which gives a nod to shuffling off while also celebrating all the important things: sex and drinking. They've always got a sly grin their face the boys from Burwood, while they hammer out the rock and roll. They've never pretended to be anything other than a guitar band and this along with Powerage is them at their rockin best. And they rock out like there is no tomorrow, as much as Brian is not Bon he still hits the right notes throughout and Phil swings, you cannot underestimate his crucial role in making this band what they are, he is the epitome of the great rock and roll drummer. Then there's Malcolm and his hard hitting left hand, hitting those chords, laying down the platform for the headbanging and making sure Angus can go where he needs to go. Angus, what can you say? He's the best there is and he has a whale of a time here. This album is just straight out fun, you'd be brain dead not to get it for what it is.

Yeah ok, interesting at a number of levels. The rhythms are great, he's bowerbirded a range of influences to very good effect, including listening to a lot of JB. It's sounds like a great night out, if a bit samey. I didn't get to listen to the Ginger 16 minute drum solo bonus track, but I can just imagine... It was worth a listen.

Nina was never afraid to go to the dark corners and see what was unleashed. My favourite of hers is Nina Sings the Blues and the brilliant co write with Langston Hughes Backlash Blues, powerful stuff. Four Women takes a different path but is equally powerful. As a musician you get a sense of her struggle to work across genres and keep it simple, when she could of course go anywhere her astonishing talent called for. I love the provenance of Lilac Wine, Elke Brooks must have got it from Nina, who of course got it from Eartha...but where did Jeff pick it up from? Anyway, the way she plays those chords, so simple yet so perfect, letting that voice fly with just the right sense of restraint, where so many would have let rip. A beautiful record.

Look, I get the context is came out of and why that was important. These guys really cut through to a generation that are looking for a voice. Teenage boys of multicultural backgrounds all check this, Biggie and Tupac, those records speak to them, ours is not to reason why. Every now and then I get a laugh in class when I drop a "Ahmed is his name and he's coming straight out of Lakemba", gets them everytime... So does that make it worthy, no. It's a hard listen, ruthless, motherfucker, I don't give a fuck etc and having listened to so many of these drecky Dimery hip hop records I don't ever want to hear the sound of a machine gun again. I love the PE, same era, different coast and context I know, but those records have the universality we look for in all art, that does not apply here.

I saw her about five years ago at Womad and it was pleasant enough, the wife nodded off and I think I went with one of the boys to get a tofu burger so you know...She did a lovely cover of Neil's Harvest Moon I do remember that. This somniferous snoozefest, this languid lounge music, who needs sleeping pills or podcasts about precipitation when you can pop Bebel on to set you adrift on memories bliss of days long gone, the days before you were stuck listening to records like this. zzzzzzzzzzzzz When I woke back up after a lovely little snooze, she was still singing so I went and read her Wiki notes and they reckon she's sold 2.5 million records. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

As a huge EC fan I find this a strange choice of a strange record. The very definition of treading water, it sounds like someone trying to make a record that sounds like Elvis Costello. Why did he go back to making an album with the Attractions at this time? It sounds like the rejected demos from Blood and Chocolate, there is not one track that sounds any different to anything he'd been doing since Imperial Bedroom. Dimery and his cronies have this massive body of work to choose from with EC and they pick this, unfathomable. The next album was a covers record, then one more with the Attractions before he re found his voice with the brilliant When I Was Cruel in 2002. We should be reviewing Cruel or his 1998 masterpiece with Burt Bacharach Painted From Memory.

I had this on cassette, I think it died in the Strathfield Car Radios cassette player I had hanging onto the dashboard of the LC Torana. Every now and then it would kick back into life and play another strangled bit of Soul Welfare. This holds up really well, considering Ian and Martyn's background with Human League, it is funky as fuck, Penthouse and Pavement is an absolute stand out. I wonder if this album just suffered due to the overwhelming focus on Dare? One of the best, of many, lines in the Young Ones episode Interesting is when Rick comes bounding in and says "anyone for Human League", I'm still laughing. I think Glenn Gregory must have had a huge influence on the direction they took to great effect. Play to Win, Soul Warfare, The Height of fighting, crikey its a dance album. Worthy entry by Dimery and his minions.

Encore une fois, je ne sais pas pourquoi c'est l'un des 1000 meilleurs disques ? Entièrement dérivé, été là fait cela. Que fumait Dimery ?

I wanted to run screaming from the room as soon as I saw that drum kit in the first film clip in the snow bunny chalet (perfect setting for all the wrong reasons). If anyone is out there and has seen Freaks and Geeks you'll know what I mean, just think Nick's kit. But I blundered on, my oldest son actually came out to ask what I was listening to, he was utterly bemused. The singer's voice is easily one of the worst I've heard in a long time, and that includes Shaun Ryder. Take a deep breath here, cause I'm wondering again if I've been if I've been too harsh on Stephen Stills....yeah nah! A bass solo, whoa. What about the song that I think is about a red car, big not big? I do have an inkling that the guitarist has some good chops and would probably be ok in another outfit. Seriously, where does this stuff come from, it's like one of those East German bands put together by the Young Pioneers so that they can be wie groovig! And what about the 11 minute epic, I mean I had to listen to it all the way through to fully appreciate just how awful it is, just when you think they might have the balls to put out an 11 minute instrumental that awful singing comes in. And why are these drop kicks writing about burning witches? What sort of rock and roll conversation are they having in the ski bunny chalet to produce that, and the film clip of the fair damsel being burned, heavy man, heavy. Maybe, just maybe, there are you know...witches man... And just while I'm having a conversation with myself, no no no, it is not that I am an aging arsehole who just hates everything, I just know my 22 year old self that hated everything would have hated this as well. Strewth this is shit.

Fred could have chucked it in after co writing Roy's Candy Man, but fortunately for us he kept at it and produced Dolphins and Everybody's Talkin. As a performer he's good, no doubt he honed his skills endlessly playing coffee houses and that baritone is just superb, a great voice. He reminds me a lot of Jake Holmes in terms of song writing, and he has a good sense of melody. Dolphins is both a beautiful melody and a lovely lyrical metaphor. And like House of the Rising they all did Green Rocky Road, and I absolutely love Fred's arrangement here, just what that song needed. This is a good record with a couple of absolutely brilliant highlights. Harry N is the ultimate interpreter of other peoples work, Fred and Tom Evans and Pete Ham in particular. That said I've always love Fred's version, the lyrics are incredibly moving, there is a poignancy and a pathos there that really cuts through. One of my old fart laments is that nobody writes great lyrics anymore, has anyone written anything as powerful as this in the 21st century, I don't think so. He references some old folk tune with the line about his clothes suiting the weather (and the times), but the rest is truly original, his meditation on wanting to be somewhere else, something we all want at various times in this rich pageant, it is deeply emotional.

Stephen Sholes, an unsung hero in the history of rock and roll. Signs the King for $35,000 and cops it between the eyes from his RCA betters for wasting their moment on a fad. The recordings start off so badly that Sholes even rings Sam Phillips, who rightly assured him that no, it's ok you've signed the right guy. The other unsung heroes on this seminal (yes we can use that descriptor here..) are Floyd Cramer and his piano work and DJ providing that crucial back beat. With the mix of Sun stuff and the Nashville tunes it's the making of an "album" when that was still emerging as an idea in this nascent thing called rock and roll, probably Frank and the jazz guys were the only ones properly doing "albums". To paraphrase Jerry Leiber, there is an element of it being too nervous too white, but that of course is coming from a perspective that is shaped by what came afterwards. But if we grab our time travel parachute and land back in late 54/55 this would have sounded unbelievable. I think Scotty once said even his name sounded like it was from outer space, and this would have sounded, especially to white ear, extra-terrestrial. Does it meet the frenzy of the best tracks here meet the first Sun singles, yes they do. Blue Moon is like a template for The Cramps, the Fabs did I'm Going to Sit Right Down in Hamburg (Lennon sang it) no greater compliment and there are some fine,fine rockabilly moments. I'm not sure Tutti Frutti really works, even back then, I mean why would you bother, not even the King can touch Richard. If you've not heard it, you need to have a a good listen to be a true rock and roll nerd.

Worth a listen, Empty Room is pretty damn good. I cooked a curry while listening to this and other than Empty nothing stood out, I didn't get hooked as it were. The words are interesting, but as with so much 21st century pop music it flatlines, there's no vertical movement across the stave, it's all horizontal. So an ok album which is not doing anything special.

I've always had a soft spot for James, Bigger and Deffer being my all time favourite, but this is a good record. It's a time capsule, you can hear that first wave of rapping flowing through the braggadocio, but unlike so much of what came later he can laugh at himself, there's a really good sense of irony to so much of this. At the same time, by 1990 his thing was was on the wane, sadly, but that is ok. 6 Minutes, Boomin, all great stuff, this is worth a listen.

Ouch, one of the worst opening songs I've heard, forced and desperate. Hooley dooley, its full on white boy cock rock, at which point dear reader (whoever you are) I should note I've never listened to an Aerosmith album. It veers between a bit of Led Zep riffing, to the full on overblown Bon Jovi BIG sound on the chorus. The Wiki notes are helpful as they clearly needed a hit and just went for it on the MTV production.. .whoah! No thanks.

Funny this comes straight after Aerosmith, cut of the same cloth, ploughing the same ground, two peas in a pod, bookends, maybe I'm trying to say that in a way they are the same thing. I loathe Sweet Child O Mine with a passion, hated it at the time and would not go back for a listen if Dimery paid me. Still, I got to hear "loaded like a freight train, flyin like an aeroplane, speeding like a space brain, eye,eye eye eyeeeeyeyeyeyeyyeyyeyyeyyeyeyeyey".. What's not to like?

The late 60's period where the main British pop songwriters started turning their minds to more "serious" work is a whole genre unto itself. I love those early seventies films That'll Be The Day and Stardust, with David Essex playing prototypical British 60's popstar who then becomes a bit of a legend in his own lunchtime and gets all conceptual etc. Sports fans if you've not seen those films they are well worth checking out. I don't think it is any coincidence that Pete's going down the Pinball Wizard/Quadrophenia path and Ray pops out Village. Serious artists they are by gum. Now in Pete's case I lurrvve Quadro, and as big a Ray (and Dave) fan as I am Village just doesn't cut it for me. I was told to listen to back in the day, in one of those Pet Sounds moments we've all had, but despite repeated listens it just doesn't do it for me. The master melody maker spent a little too much time on the concepts and forgot about the melodies, now that I think about it I don't think he ever really got the magic back, bar a couple of super moments later. The problem dear brethren is that it is just straight out boring. I saw Ray at the Enmore about 10 years ago, great show, not a whole lot of Village in the set let me tell you..

Imagine taking yourself this seriously. Dimery, mate come on, enough already with the Metallica.

I bookend this with This Year's Model, these are his Rubber Soul and Revolver. Armed Forces is a brilliant ensemble piece with The Attractions as well as being a song writing tour de force on his part. As you can see cyber world I'm a huge fan. So let us deal with white nigger up front so that we can properly appraise this fabulous record. A lot happened while he was touring in 77/78, Pump it Up written on the backstairs of a venue etc. As a Liverpool lad with Catholic roots he knows the world of sectarianism, the patois etc. Touring NI in 78 and observing those young British army lads being told to live in no man's land, risk their lives and keep the order would have been quite shocking. And so, a brilliant meditation on the consequences of British imperialism and the metaphor of Cromwell's 1649 invasion is married to a delightful, hooky pop song. As McCartney said about criticism of Mull of Kintyre, you try and write a bagpipe song! Here in his late 70's song writing frenzy he pulls off what so many have tried to do and failed; a great pop song with meaning about something other than love. The sheer stupidity of the 21st century that makes his use of a Unionist slur offensive is just incomprehensible. Ditto Lennon's Woman is the Nigger of the World, sorry sports fans but all of this is just the artist at work and to couch the use of that term in its original context as a racial epithet in intent is not only absurd but dangerous, really, really dangerous. And if you struggle with that, if you want your books, songs, films, paintings to all reflect your current sensibilities, then draw the curtains and turn the power off. Damn fine song Oliver's Army, leave it alone. This is the second album with the Attractions and the hard touring has paid off in spades with a brilliant performance by all three sidemen, from memory in amongst all this they recorded their own album. What leaps out in this era is EC's astonishing lyric writing, the word play, the use of imagery and symbolism is sustained throughout, smart young women on light blue screens, not knowing where to begin as love doesn't wait forever., only so many fish in the sea that rise up in the sweat and smoke. Thinking about Hal David/Chris Difford, EC could have just made his name as a lyricist and found a musical partner, but no he's also a writer of great tunes, fabulous melodies and the hookiest of hooks. And he's covering a lot of themes, working in a smoke filled 70's offices, little Britain racism, the rise of fascism, even the ubiquitous Bebe Buell gets a guernsey in Party Girl. Here's the ultimate meditation on the sudden impact of fame, "they can't touch me now...starts like fascination, ends up like a trance. EC has discovered that the woman he once desired from afar are now in his orbit, give you anything, anything but time. He returns to the same theme with Two Little Hitlers, "dial me a valentine she’s a smooth operator it’s all so calculated, she’s got a calculator, she’s my soft touch typewriter, and I’m the great dictator.." A brilliant record, go and do yourself a favour.

I need to declare a conflict of interest here. Yes, the listing of EC's Armed Forces being immediately followed up with a Fabs record is the result of my paying thousands in bribes to Dimery and his minions. I thought I was good to go with $100,000 but then he pushed me into a corner threatening a run of Stills/Metallica/Iron Maiden/Pet Shop Boys and Napalm Death if I didn't double the tariff. Ok, so I've compromised my children's future, but it was worth it. 1963 and all that. I recently read a book titled The Beatles 1963 A Year in the life, where the author Daffyd Rees covers what they did every single day of that year. Forgetting for a moment all the unbelievable social phenomena that was occurring, what they achieved musically is jaw dropping. The year starts with playing in front of 20 people in Scotland and ends with the mania verging on going global. They record four ridiculously brilliant singles in Please Please Me, From Me to You, She Loves You and I Want to Hold Your Hand, phew. Even if you are not a fan you have to marvel at their ability to tour literally everyday and somehow find the time to write and record those singles and two albums. With the Beatles comes out in November and it reeks of the year that has just occurred. A strange mishmash of songs they love and played live, a must have McCartney show tune (by way of follow up to A Taste of Honey) and what originals they could construct on the road that had not appeared on the 45's. The covers are hit and miss, Till There Was You a curio, Devil in Her Heart, meh, and then the quite brilliant in Roll Over Beethoven, You've Really Got, Mr Postman and Money. Some of those covers are now definitive versions. Strangely Paul is quiet, only two Macca originals and three lead vocals. But hey, when you drop All My Loving as an album track, you've really got something to write home about. Conversely, George is all over it, his first original composition and two covers for three lead vocal tracks, something he doesn't equal until Revolver. Lennon meanwhile drops four great tracks including the stunning All I've Got To Do, something they never played live sadly, though since it's been covered to death. There are a lot of reasons to listen to this if you've not done so and that track is an absolute standout. Looking around the tail end of 1963 everything in pop music, and so much of the psycho-social place that is British culture has been stood on its head and the Fabs are at the epicentre of the cultural revolution. So yes, Dimery is right, if you've not listened to it, you should take in the magnificence of With the Beatles before you die.

Good grief, what was that? To call it muzak would be an insult to George Squier.

That was fun, very cool song writing drawing on every corner of the pop music world, fantastic guitar sounds dropping in and out, some brilliant rolling drumming and great vocal lines. I knew Deceptacon as I was vaguely alive in 1999, but I'd not clocked the rest of this, which is superb. I thought about the sixties white girl groups and then The Slits, et al, all that kind of landed in Le Tigre's lap and they twisted it again to great effect. Dimery was right on this one Michael Chabon fans, well worth a listen as they wheel you into the first day at the nursing home, it will help you kid yourself it is going to be ok...

Dimery, all is forgiven man, well kind of, I'm still up for a Manassas bonfire. If anyone out there wants to join me, send me a telex. An EC album followed by two Fab albums, la dolce vita. And Thomas Paine fans, what an absolute cracker it is. This is easily in my top 5 mop top albums of all time, and after many,many listens it often gives my all time fav the White Album a nudge. So, height of Fabdom, endless, endless and I mean endless touring. Hey time to make a movie - as one does- while we are blowing up the western world. They have chart topping singles everywhere and yet out they pop out an album of 13 originals (an astonishingly rare feat in 1963), some of which are tattooed onto the zeitgeist, as omnipresent as a Hamlet soliloquy. So yes Dimery and his gang of henchmen are right, you need to listen to this if you want to properly prepare yourself for the endless nothingness that is death. And wouldn't it be nice to shuffle off the coil listening to Lennon sing the last track on this record, I'll Be Back? And speaking of the dead, boy this is a Lennon record, 10 of the 13 tracks are mainly his, including songs that are forever chiselled into our collective memory such as the title track, If I Fell, I Should have Known Better et al. The B side includes many a lament as to the realities of life on the road, When I Get Home, Anytime at All and one of this pretend writer's favourite all time mopster tunes the aforementioned I'll Be Back. Paul is still quiet on the writing front with only three tunes mainly penned by him, but great gosh a mighty they are all absolute crackers, Cant' Buy Me Love, And I Love Her and one of his all time classics in Things We Said Today. Meanwhile the band deliver a brilliant performance, man they are tight and yet the tunes are redolent of all their many influences, shoved through the George Martin "Beatle" sound, a sound they pretty well keep up until Help. Harrison is at his creative best here, and his use of the 12 string Rickenbacker, well you all know the rest. With the ubiquity of so many of the Hard Day's Night moments, it is hard to fully appreciate its magnificence, as both a brilliant pop record and a crucial marker in the development of 20th (and 21st...) century culture. Yet another step towards changing the way we viewed ourselves. And it is a hell of a lot of fun. They made the world a happier place.

So, would you accept one Test for Australia knowing that you'd take no wickets and score no runs? One Grand Final for Easts playing alongside Arthur knowing you only get to run on with a minute to go? Only having enough time to give Claudia Karvan a party pash before you leave the party? Of course it is a resounding yes to all those things (well..maybe not the one with Claudia..) and its the same with the one hit wonder. For all your artistic angst, passion and desires, if you were told by a time travelling Claudia Karvan that you'd only have one hit would you say yes before you tried to do more than party pash her? I think Nietzsche best summed up this dilemma when he stated "shit yeah"! Poor Pete Perrett. What makes Another Planet so good is completely missing from the rest of this record. My mind turned to Lee Mavers and The La's, another amazing one hit wonder with an absolute cracker of a one hit. It's not all shit, City of Fun swings and his voice works well where in other places it is terrible. The playing is uninspired, pedestrian, forgettable. This sounds a little like a garage band's demos where no one is brave enough to tell the songwriter he can't sing. And so George Saunders fans I really can't recommend this album as good listening while you chase the dragon to your death, though you might want to slip the one hit onto a last songs to hear before you die playlist. 2 for Another Planet.

Steely Dan. I just don't know Formula 1 fans. I know they get mixed reactions, with me one of my all time favourite records is Aja, yet none of their other work moves me. What is it? Too formulaic, too try hardy "we are serious musicians"? So is this worthy of being played while they slip you the novocaine for your soul? East St Louis is just plain weird, what the fuck? All the guitar nurdling like on Parker's Band, awful., With a Gun, que? And I hate it when non groovy bands try to get groovy and funky like with Monkey in Your Soul. Rikki and Pretzel are great, fantastic pop tunes where the very best of this band comes out, which points to why Aja is so good. Dimery death freaks, just slide those two tunes into a playlist and ignore the rest.

The second chapter, after Beggars, in their brilliant four album run that made them "The Stones". We are a long way from Their Satanic Majesties Toto. The introduction of Mick Taylor give them the blues flourish they needed post 1968, and that is no disrespect to Brian either, after he's brilliant work on Beggars. But Taylor does the things Keith needs and sound is forever changed as a result. They are a great covers band, and Love in Vain is fantastic, I'll bet Eric was jealous. Gimme Shelter just howls, Mick in his pomp with a vicious hard slinging performance, and with Merry Clayton screaming her way to a miscarriage (literally). Ditto Midnight Rambler, this is a mean dark record. Country Honk is superb and I prefer it over the single and I love You've Got the Silver (nice bit of autoharp by Brian before he Dimeryed) although the subsequent release of the version sung by Mick has diminished Keith's slurred version a tad. If we were trying to explain the phenomena that is the Stones to a first time listener I'd go with this album, it is that good.

Good scheduling by the Dimery Tracey Island Command Post with this coming on the slightly cooled heels of our consideration of A Hard Day's Night. The jingle jangle sound of Jim McGuinn's Rickenbacker 12 string being influenced by his viewing of the film and young Georgie Harrison's guitar work, from the famous opening chord onwards. A lot of myths and shibboleths about The Byrds and the Wrecking Crew, most of the band did play on the early records, bar a few exceptions. The Dylan covers are well known and understood for the sound, if you've missed them somehow in the last millennium then they are a key feature of why this is a good album. David Crosby. Never liked him as a musician or a hippy. Massively overrated and a bad influence on the evolution of this band, as he got in the way of Gene Clark becoming the fully fledged artist his talent deserved. Gene should have been singing lead on all the tunes, and his songwriting is the real strength of this record, with I Feel a Whole Lot/Here Without You and I Knew I'd Want you being the standout tracks. A lot of this is a bit naff, but what is good is really good and worth a listen.

I love this album and the whole Lee Mavers thing. Firstly great pop songs, not a bad tune on it and secondly the band play it straight which makes for a great listen, with the melodies to the fore at all times. So listen Dimery death freaks and Jennifer Egan fans, pop this one on in the car for a decent road trip and let the whole thing just wash over you. As the 21st century would say, its like, you know, like, awesome. The thing I love about Lee is that he knew he had one shot in the locker, fired it, and checked his weapon. Of the other stuff, Open Your Heart is fabulous, but the rest is pretty basic, this album is the one that works. Lee did it all, went weird in the studio, wanted 1960's dust in his eight track, all that batshit crazy pop songwriter stuff we love, and then retired to live on his There She Goes royalties (About 4,000 pound a month if you are interested synchronized swimming fans). Great pop record.

Right, ok then, that took a fair while, could have crocheted a jumper if I'd thought of it. Anyone out there at zero hour 9:00AM, thanks for reading. First thing to say before you take that last breath: don't bother with this. There's this second division of pop artists who get a lot of attention just for being a little serious, a little eclectic and young Jeffrey is one of them. Firstly, ditch the band sport and just be the solo artist you want to be, you wanna be Tom Petty you. The band, cor blimey guvnor how many times have we heard this type of stuff, Green on Red have a lot to answer for (sorry Yankee Dan if you are out there somewhere waiting for touchdown). Jeff, he's not the man he thinks he is. The country tunes are nice and the lyrics work well within the expectations of that format, not quite losing your dog and wife to the whiskey, but he gets what he has to do. So Jasper FForde fans if you have to listen to some of this then Far Far Away Forget the Flowers What's the World got in Store Say and You Miss Me are ok. But really why bother, go and have a whiskey and stare at pictures of your dog instead. Now, I can hear the faint tap tap tap of the distant flutterverse going into meltdown cause I've bagged Wilco, but before I end up being cancelled (maybe I already am) I do like the stuff they did with B.Bragg, but that's cause of two great talents in the Bard from Barking and of course Woody..

When I was 9 to 10 years old I truly thought the world was populated by swarthy dark haired moustachioed men; Dennis Lillee/Jim Croce/Elliot Gould et al. It was a popular cultural look which I think morphed into porn star, c'est la vie. Shame really, for a while there is was happening thing and perhaps the last time swarthy moustachioed men felt cool, we were only a couple of years away from Ian Curtis. Cat was one of those swarthy dudes looking back at me on album covers and cinema screens as I started my musical journey and he was a key part of that huge 70's surge of male singer songwriters. An important difference being that he was British and had come up through the touring ranks of the 60's, pretty sure he played with Hendrix, and he'd learned his songwriting and performing chops on the road. This is an absolutely brilliant record, you marvel at the quality of the songwriting, an astonishing meditation on the human condition by a very young man. Fantastic lyrics, he has something to say Cat, and it's universal. He's got a great sense of justice and being working class, he's thinking about fine feathered friends who he knows are going to walk away if he takes a fall. And as with all great pop music, be it Cole Porter or whoever, these lyrics are sustained by superb melodies. I've not listened to this properly since I had my last glass of Tang, but the songs just came flying at me like a Proustian rush (and no I'm not wearing Proustian Rush by Chanel, but thanks Woody, I hope you are ok out there somewhere..) just magnificent. Yes Robert Caro fans this holds up and would be a great soundtrack to your last moments before you slip off into the eternal nothingness that is the end of your conscious being.

I was doing ok about 30 minutes ago, now I'm feeling so well.

Well, here it is Robert deciding that everything was giving him the shits, and Lol deciding to go and get pissed. And it shows, I bought this back in the day and it was the one that killed it for me as it was the proverbial dog returning to its vomit. There's nothing wrong with it, there are some quite good tunes but seriously they were standing still. Sorry death freaks, if you are looking for something while they hook the horse up to your arm to see you out and you want a bit of gothy doom, go and get 17 Seconds and give this the flick.

Alright, I'll happily admit that Slint came to me via my oldest son Morris Gleitzman fans, he raved about, bought the vinyl, got the t shirt and told me to stop listening to 1965 for a day and get into this. It is forty minutes of pop music perfection, great, great guitar sound, fine songwriting and some very creative drumming. The whole piece stands as one, shuffle off the mortal coil to this one if you about to rage against the dying light..love it.

Tony Soprano happily singing along to Dirty Work is an abiding memory, said it all. As much as I love that song, in terms of poking Beelzebub in the burning ribs, I'd have to say to those about to cark it, go and listen to something else. David Palmer's weird presence on this record does give us Dirty Work, and the two smasheroo singles are great, but the rest is just more nurdling about like that last one I listened to, can't even remember its name. Death freaks and lacrosse fans; you've got better things to listen to as you turn off the night light.

What a strange experience that was, first time listener to Hawkwind and I don't think I'll be going back anytime soon. What has this got to do with pop music, oy vey. Still if you are going to do it you might as well kick off your Hawkwind debut with a double live album, as only the 70's could deliver. Yes you read it right Paul Auster fans...a double live album from the early 1970's, it should have a health warning on the front. But wait there's more....the remastered edition goes for 132 minutes, if you wanted your enemies to spill state secrets you'd just wave the cover in their face, "that's right...the extended version..talk!" I've got a funny feeling a hell of a lot of Camberwell carrots went into the planning for this, and I'd strongly suggest that if you listen to this enough times, the wafting stench of a couple of thousand Camberwells will eventually come through. Having said that, thinking about the purpose of this exercise, maybe sparking up a Camberwell while listening to this just might be the right way to push up the daisies. Clearly this drove the Lemster to getting on with doing some serious arse kicking. Other than that can I say: fucking hippies.

Well death freaks here's an interesting question: who spawned whom, BST or Chicago? Who came up with this model, with the horns and all the pseudo jazz shit? So if you are going to listen to this album before you get the intravenous drip ready, just be prepared for a very strange experience. The covers are odd. From Traffic to Brenda Holloway and everything in between. Was Laura Nyro a four old playmate of Jackson Browne? How was it that he was writing These Days as a toddler while Laura penned And When I Die? With both Laura's tune and Brenda's You Made Me so Very Happy, go and listen to the originals and you won't need this. The best track is the one of two originals, Spinning, David Clayton Thomas's finest moment, and the template for The Commitments. That's it really, it has aged badly...and I mean badly. Not worth wasting that illicit horse your family went and scored for you before you drop off the perch. Put A Hard Day's Night on instead...

Right straight up, if you want to die Dimery devotees, pop this on and end your days listening to Veterans Day Poppy, then truly you'd appreciate in those last nanoseconds that there is no god, (not God). In Exodus the god of that story proclaims "I am an angry and jealous god", well yeah you got the angry part right brother when you bestowed upon the world this self indulgent hippy bullshit. Let me say, all of us who have suffered through being told that this is genius have a responsibility to warn off future generations. It is that bad (coming from a fan of Safe as Milk and Clear Spot).

A good beginning my arse. Steer well clear.

Stevie and the Fender Rhodes, what a sound. Like George's slide guitar work, it is unique, as soon as you hear it you know it's Stevie. Too High is a very mid seventies Stevie sound, delightful. As is Visions, a beautiful lyric and the tune the very definition of nostalgia, the ache in the theme and the music. Then he brings all that together in Living for the City, a low key undercurrent sustained by a straining vocal line, you can feel the power and the anger of the man. Three tracks in and I'm blown away Dimery death freaks. The refrain, as he la de das his way into the next chapter, sure enough. Fuck me no one writes like this anymore, no one. And Kanye is a genius apparently, not a whole lot of sampling to create the vibe going on here, just brilliant song writing and musicianship. The slow build to Golden Lady points to another direction, how many paths can this guy go down in one album? And that gorgeous tune slides into Higher Ground, say what? Ok that's enough, you get the mortician's drift, as the formaldehyde is arraigned before your soon to be corpse, ask them to keep you compos mentis long enough to hear this astonishing record before they turn you add you into Lenin's Tomb..

I think the Blues Brothers dealt with Bill fairly early on. For those of about to drop don't bother listening to this, just watch the scene in BB where Murph (of the Murftones) says "we'll be right back, don't you go changing"...adult oriented rock is a blight on humanity, lest we forget that the man who made the Stranger was building up to It's Still Rock and Roll to Me This something a tad stagey, structured, Off Broadway about Bill's adult oriented pop songs. Take the big smasheroo Piano Man. In a fantastic podcast with Alec Baldwin he explains how the song is a limerick (You ready, just sing it like an 8 year old "John at the bar is a friend of mine/He gets me my drinks for free/He's quick with a joke/And a light up your smoke/But there's some place he'd rather be", now tell me that wasn't fun?) A bottle of red, a bottle of white, you are instantly transported to one of those Stephen Sondheim things, I fucking hate that song. I want you Just the Way You Are...yeah bullshit you do until you catch a glimpse of Christie Brinkley's arse. She's More Than Woman to Me, no she's not, she was good for that first difficult part of your career and then... Now here's the kicker cyberspace death freaks: I saw Billy Joel in 1978 at the Hordern Pavilion. The support act was Jon English, who was absolutely brilliant. And Bill you ask? When he started up Big Shot, Eggy said "good time to have a joint" and we never made it back... For those about to pop off, look this will certainly hasten your demise, but really do you want to go listening to this schlocky schlockmeister.

For those about to drop, I have mixed feelings about whether to recommend this for your death list. While I prefer the Brown over the Pink, a lot of this has not aged well and it goes to Robbie taking over the song writing. Two things: one he never could write an album's worth of material and two, the other band members were clocking out for a range of reasons, drugs, booze and I think a sense that Robbie and Albert Grossman were pulling a scam on the publishing (they were right). Robbie himself admits that so many of his songs were completed with the other band members, Garth in particular telling him where to next on chords etc. What is good is great: the three lead vocalists and the harmonies, just brilliant. I'm not a big fan of Richard's lead, but Rick and Levon are amazing and do some of their best work with these tunes. Rockin Chair and Rag Mama are straight out white boy Americana and Cripple Creek is almost biblical in its tone and tenor, Robbie's finest lyric. The Night They Drove, is an interesting take on the demise of the slave autocracy, a white boy's lament on the death of his brother and what he knew, written by a Canadian through the eyes of an Arkansan son of the post Reconstruction South. Knowing the poverty that Levon grew up in, this is more a meditation on how it is that the disadvantage do the fighting, and Virgil wondering what that was all about, except for a reverence for that old slaver Lee. Fundamentally anti war, reflecting yet again the futility of Vietnam. Lyrically interesting, but a dirge like tune that has not aged well, and is of course sullied by Baez's out right weird cover, makes me ill just thinking about it.

He always had a good ear for covers did old mate Mick. That's about it really, this type of mid 80's pop music really stinks, Sade, Phil C#### et al, incredible to think this was a less than a decade after punk. As they say, for every revolution there is a counter revolution. And I've always been dubious about this white boy "soul" singer business, what does that mean exactly? That he sounds like Solomon Burke? For those of you who just got the x rays back and the news is bad, I did listen to it all, and found the whole thing underwhelming. And funnily enough, for all the raves he gets about his pipes, it is not a good listen across a whole album, soul singer my arse. Give it a wide berth and put Rain Dogs on instead.

Mid west America in the 70's, spawned a lot of good stuff, Wayne's World, Freaks and Geeks, Kiss and Rick Neilsen and the boys in Cheap Trick. What a strange tale this is, completely stiffing in the US, but their singles getting picked up by Japanese youth, for whom these records had something to say. I don't want to spend too long thinking about that, you've just got to let it happen. I found the album that has the original version of I Want You to Want Me in a cruddy market about ten years ago and the difference between that version and the live version is astounding, which again makes me wonder what those Japanese kiddies...no stop don't think about it. Another double live album from the seventies, I'd be pulling the chain of the terminally ill if I said here put this on before you cark it, it is pretty mediocre across the board, Bun E always had a lung buster in his chops as to be frank he didn't have a lot to do. What leaps out of this are the moments Rick has something to say. All great tunes demand and sustain covers and Dwight Yoakam's cover of I Want You to Want Me stands testament to the brilliance of the song. Surrender speaks to all the disillusioned and scared, great shift to the chorus this is a song with a dynamic that was made to be played in front of an adoring crowd. Rick goes on to pen a couple more classics, in particular his homage to While My Guitar Gently Weeps, the brilliant If You Want My Love You Got It. But this curio? Not worthy of death bed experience.

I got to KD, and her song writing partner Ben Mink, via Shadowland (produced by Owen Bradley) and Absolute Torch and Twang, both of which I cherish to this day, wonderful times and a lovely part of the late eighties, a corner of pop music that was still ok. For some reason I struggled with Ingenue, it was pretty low fi, one dimensional. I remember giving it away to someone who expressed an interest, something I never do as a rule. I think it is her vocal style, I'd heard her through those two earlier albums and this just didn't add to that experience, possibly unfair I know. She has a bit where she goes to the higher register and it becomes very formulaic. So, listen to this before you slip off to the never never? I dunno. Wash My Soul is beautiful, a great performance with a great tune. Constant Craving is a fine pop song, again her sometimes striving vocal delivery grates a tad. That said the strength of the tune itself is brilliant, as exemplified by Glen Matlock's cracking cover version.

In the classic Australian indie movie Dogs in Space there's a hippy guy who lives in the house and he's always scoring with the opposite sex and one of his weapons of mass dysfunction is to play the same Brian Eno album, it might be the album Cluster and Eno. I'm not a big fan of Eno, so my badly damaged sub conscious was in effect screaming at me to take this shit off. I think they have three singers all of whom are equally shithouse. One of them sounds like Kate Bush getting an enema. And the "music"? Spare me. Maybe there is some form of an afterlife and I'm in it now. DJ Dante is in the house at the Level 7 Disco Inferno and he's playing this "music" on a perpetual loop to those of us stuck forever in purgatory.

Til I Die is a bona fide pop classic. The fact that Mike Love hated it only affirms its greatness. It pops up at exactly the right time in Love and Mercy, when the John Cusack Brian is on the bed contemplating all that has gone down, it nicely morphs into a Space Odyssey old man to a baby moment. It is a beautiful song which speaks to Brian's illness and his struggles as an artist, he was indeed a cork in the ocean, bobbing aimlessly, never making it to the shore of his song writing potential. You can't recommend this record to anyone lining up their final playlist, we need to stop pretending these post Pet records are worthy or "lost gems", they are not. The band is a very ordinary set of song writers and players, accepting that any Carl Wilson vocal is a great moment. Long Promised Road is lovely, interesting that he only has two leads on this unremarkable boring record. Without Brian these guys are forever The Pendletones, not even a footnote to early 60's California pop. How do we get to Surf's Up and Holland and Love and all that guff? Brian's illness and the lack of a decent collaborator and producer leaves him floundering. All the pop genius bullshit meant when he clocked out, anything he was working towards remained unchecked by a partner who would say no. And not having a decent producer, who would guide and shape what he wanted. Take Roy Halee's role with Paul Simon, he was crucial to the development of those songs, indeed as was Art Garfunkel. Brian ended up with Mike Love and Van Dyke Parks, a fascist and a hippy. Which is why something like the track Surf's Up doesn't work; you can feel the massive potential for it to be realised as a great song, but there was no one who could help him produce what was in his head. I find these records quite sad, they are not to be enjoyed. And I'm really tired of them turning up on these lists as being great, they are not. They are a very average collection of b grade tracks by a bunch of b grade carnival outriders, clinging onto the hem of their crazy freakshow, who is propped up to keep the circus going long after they've let the horses go to pasture. Til I Die is just wonderful and if anyone out there is cyberspace is reading this, stop listening to this album and go and drop Til I Die into your Brian Wilson playlist, that's all you need.

This is all the usual cliches played out, I'm grateful there wasn't a song about snot. Completely unimaginative and straight out boring, there is nothing to do with greatness on this thing and I'm tired of these ridiculous entries to this process. There is a great Sopranos episode where Adriana talks Chris into managing and recording an awful band called Visiting Day. They have a song called Defiler, with lyrics such as "get out of our way, and dont be so gay, we're coming to defile, defile you". Listen Elizabeth Strout fans, if I was given a choice on the purgatory loop jukebox between that and whatever this utter rubbish is supposed to be, I'm going for "we're coming to defile, defile you"..

The musical zeitgeist is a fascinating thing. Having just been listening to Baxter Dury up pops Ian, and crikey did we need a decent record after the recent dreck Dimery's been serving up. What's not to like? Truly, if you can't enjoy this you'd boo Santa Claus. He draws on every English musical tradition does Ian in crafting his sound, it rocks, its fun and the words are rooted in music hall tradition. This was late 70's ubiquity, nascent punks, dickhead Maroubra surfers, Sydney Uni student wankers like me, everyone had it. No one has ever had the honesty to write about the start of the day with the one you love the way he does in Wake Up, a smooth almost Barry White style groove over which he croons his lust and how it is reciprocated, just brilliant. Clever Trever, he ain't too clever, again brilliant. Sex and Drugs, said it all. His homage to Gene spoke for so many British rockers across all the generations from Lennon to Steve Jones. My Old Man, another super smooth groove and funny as fuck, the band swings. Dickie is straight out music hall, oy! And rude as only Ian could be, knew what he was doing did Ian, he was doing very well. This truly comes from another time and place, as it is just sheer honest joy in a way the hung up 21st century never is. There's a lot of loving life coming from a guy who could have easily crawled up in a ball and let the world pass him by. A true artist, this is a timeless brilliant, funny as fuck groovin pop record. Boy we could do with Ian right now.

Wow a great record, who'd have thunk it possible? I've always loved Van, Domino from the next album His Band blah blah is my favourite all time Vanster tune, but hey Caravan started his whole "on the rayyydio" schtick, and to this day I can't get enough of Van singing "raydio...raydio...on the raydio". Caravan is a deadset highlight of The Last Waltz, Van high kicking his way off stage in purple spangled seventies suit.. ( turn up that raydio...raydio...)Dimery people out there, if you want to understand Van and his place in the world watch Branagh's Belfast, where Van's tunes are the soundtrack. Tells you so much about where he's from and where he's at as a Northern Irish protestant boy making his way in the world. Been kicked and ripped off has Van, just ask him how he feels about Brown Eyed Girl to get a sense of how he sees things artistically. He had to go through the hippy drippy bizo of Astral Weeks to get to Moondance, but aren't we glad he did. These songs, just unbelievable. The opening five to six tracks are simply unbeatable as a sequence, probably the best I've heard in this weirdo process, they are that good. Like the last great record a few weeks ago now, Stevie W, Van is writing and producing tunes for the ages, what was in the water back then, no one can do this today. And it Stoned Me, Into the Mystic, just sublime, beautiful pop music. This was so good to go back to and listen anew. I'm sure the next record is going to an Anthrax live triple album.