May 28 2025
xx
The xx
There's a nightclub, empty, except for some reason all the missing people's drinks are on the tables, and smoke still curls through the air. There are two kids with complicated feelings and precocious pop instincts. The nightclub is about seven miles across and three miles high, the kids are recording their songs about a quarter inch from the mics. The rhythm section is tight and plays only exactly what it needs to.
4
May 29 2025
Odelay
Beck
Almost perfect collage of tight beats, hippie-dippy dreams, and folk-hop-edelica. As the immortal Bard wrote: "Going back to Houston / Do the hot dog dance. / Going back to Houston / To get me some pants."
4
May 30 2025
Music From Big Pink
The Band
Old weird America gut checks the excesses of 60s psychedelia, and though it rocks, all that mournful organ and cracked three part singing are lonesome, strange, and sad. I mean, hard to think of another album that has more tragic opening and closing songs.
5
Jun 02 2025
Green
R.E.M.
No way I can rate this rationally. I was a huge REM devotee and when this came out I listened to it nonstop. Saw them seven times on the Green tour. I stand by my love of this record: pop irony, hard rock grind, delicate beautiful weirdness. It's probably not even in the top 5 REM albums, but it is for me a 5 star classic.
5
Jun 03 2025
The Stone Roses
The Stone Roses
The Monkees or maybe the Byrds, but amped up and fuzzy, with some dance beats and long solos. Plus acid. Even more acid than the Monkees and the Byrds. I know there's a lot of love for this record, but I listened three times today: while there are some huge hooky gems, there is a fair bit of filler. Hate to lose any Anglophilic cred, but I think this album is overrated.
3
Jun 04 2025
They Were Wrong, So We Drowned
Liars
A masterpiece of shamanic ritual urban apocalypse chant that devastates with its chaos of noise and poetry, laying bare the existential wreckage of late capitalism.
JK! This sounds like some bros set out to make a "confrontational" and "off-putting" piece of "art" and having now listened to it in full, I can say this tedious and insipid grind of a record put me off. You did it, guys!
(I actually kind of love Drum's Not Dead, so this was a revelation--and not the good kind)
2
Jun 05 2025
Pretzel Logic
Steely Dan
Super 70s tight musicianship, complex white guy blues/R&B/jazz so perfect it must have taken a whole gang of cocaine to get it all together. I don't love Steely Dan, but there are a few really good, interesting, sonically rich songs on this one, as well as a few mid throwaway wank jobs.
3
Jun 06 2025
Signing Off
UB40
I came prepared to hate this. I have held a grudge against UB40 ever since my high school girlfriend taped the insipid overplayed cheesefest 'Labour of Love' over my tape of 'Rain Dogs'. Unforgivable. I gave this a legit listen and the dub elements, honey smooth voiced lead singer, and insurgent politics made some of it pretty okay. But a lot of too long reggae-lite.
2
Jun 09 2025
Be
Common
Love the sweet soul samples, excellent beats, rich texture, Alvin and the CMs pitched up gospel, and then I realized it's early Kanye before he broke bad. So, now I have mixed feelings. Common sounds great, and while a few of the tracks lack, all in all a good Friday soundtrack.
3
Jun 10 2025
The Suburbs
Arcade Fire
The kids are looking back on when they were kids, and it is still angsty, grandiose, and chock full of the big feels. The songs are complex--at times verging on busy--and the record is a bit too long, but the whole is punchily raw and honest. I can imagine screaming along at a stadium show, at age 55 recalling myself at 27 looking back on being 16.
3
Jun 11 2025
John Prine
John Prine
John fucking Prine. This record is not a greatest hits collection; it just feels that way. Almost every song on this record is a pure classic: he's funny, he's incisive, he tells stories, he is sad as hell. Seriously, this is better songwriting than 99% of anybody. And I used to feel like Prine was overproduced, but this is gorgeously done. Crushingly good. An American treasure.
5
Jun 12 2025
Blonde On Blonde
Bob Dylan
Bob who? Blonde on what? Hmm. Intriguing.
In all seriousness, c'mon, 10 out of 5 stars. One of the best things ever.
5
Jun 13 2025
Pet Sounds
The Beach Boys
Not a big Beach Boys guy, even though I know that heaps of indie hipsters praise their perfect pop symphonies and this record is always in the top 10 all time lists. The album really is sugary but longing and sad, richly overlapping, soaring, baroque. Some hugely great single songs (I really like Sloop John B and Wouldn't It Be Nice), but some very skippable others. It's like a tiramisu: lots of layers, complexly sweet, with a darker underlying bitterness. And like tiramisu, I would not want it everyday, and there are some empty calories.
4
Jun 16 2025
Led Zeppelin III
Led Zeppelin
Throughout high school, Zeppelin was constantly on. Non-stop, and not played by me--in cars, on radio, everywhere. So it is hard to hear these songs anew, but I tried. I think III is my favourite Zeppelin album, but I will say, what I used to think was trippy acoustic art, now I think the last two songs are meh. But some killers on here.
4
Jun 17 2025
In Rainbows
Radiohead
I have to confess: I have never heard this record before. After OK Computer I was kind of just out on Radiohead. Dips into the subsequent records never grabbed me. And this one didn't really either, though I admire many of its textures, sounds, and ideas. And there are some killer songs, the second one especially. But not grabbed.
3
Jun 18 2025
Connected
Stereo MC's
I am at the borders of offended, maybe just checking into the hotel of irked, that they made me listen to this. The same drum machine beat, with really bad filler lyrics, between an occasionally okay hook on a few of the songs: super formulaic, dumb as a box of hair (and not in a good way), mediocre at best.
1
Jun 19 2025
The Slim Shady LP
Eminem
Never have really listened to Eminem, beyond the singles that proliferated on the radio late 90s early 00s. Conceptually wild: self-loathing, hateful, mean-spirited, witty. He so deliberately straddles the line between game and earnest. He's a troll in the pre-troll era. Of its so-muchness, I found it compelling on poverty. The cluttered production has its moments. But I'm not going to buy the album, or probably ever listen to it again. Maybe his misogyny, homophobia, cruelty is ironic, but in this day and age, that might be lost on listeners.
3
Jun 20 2025
Hard Again
Muddy Waters
Loved this. Muddy and the whole band sound all loose, reckless, in to it. Mannish Boy is a jam, but tons of the other songs were kicking it. The drummer is an assassin and everybody sounds awesome. Fun one.
4
Jun 23 2025
At Mister Kelly's
Sarah Vaughan
I kinda just want to be in that nightclub with a stiff drink in a non-Trumpian era, listening to Vaughan kill it with that spare jazz ensemble. She sounds excellent.
3
Jun 24 2025
If I Should Fall From Grace With God
The Pogues
Hurtling chaotic traditional Irish songs with gorgeous writing and ripping energy. And I love Shane's voice. This is a stone cold classic.
5
Jun 25 2025
Funeral
Arcade Fire
Just quickly: I am with EJR here: 20 albums (for me) so far and only one woman in that run, but we are getting a second Arcade Fire record. Admittedly, it is an incredible record: aching, longing, mourning, aging, feeling (a lot). Reminder that songs aren't nouns but verbs.
But meanwhile Aretha, Joni, Madonna, Lucinda, Diana, Stevie, Billie, Nina, Chrissie, Tina and so many more need some space in the algorithm.
4
Jun 26 2025
Reggatta De Blanc
The Police
I love this record. Copeland's drums, some great songs (ignore the cringey "Any Other Day"), early edgy Police sliding into their heyday. And I have always loved 'Walking on the Moon'. Plus, funny story (so you can ignore): after years of not having a turntable, my kid bought me a vinyl LP of this, because he thought we had a record player. Instead of returning it, I bought a turntable. And many records since. And I love it. So 5 stars to the Police.
4
Jun 27 2025
Californication
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Occasionally enjoyable hard funk(ish) that sounds like 90s alternative radio to me. Pretty monotonous. A few things: I find the lead singer insufferable in terms of his croony affect and his often dumb ass lyrics. Also, these 90s records often really drag and I wonder if they would have benefited from being released in the vinyl era. CDs can hold too much, and the 45ish max minutes of an LP might have helped them edit. Pass.
2
Jun 30 2025
Bridge Over Troubled Water
Simon & Garfunkel
Almost all classics. I am not big into S&G but some of my faves on here. Only Living Boy in NY!
4
Jul 01 2025
Parklife
Blur
Never been wowed by BritPop, even though I was living there in its heyday--maybe that's why: it was on the radio nonstop. So this one feels pretty overrated to me. I know it's blur's masterpiece and all, but even the hits are kind of a drag. I kind of liked "This is the Low" at the end, but quite a few I wanted to fast forward. I'm not Cool Britannia enough to get it
2
Jul 02 2025
Calenture
The Triffids
Truly never have even heard of this, which kind of made it fun to figure out as I listened: big bang 80s drums, relentlessly earnest 80s lyrics, and some real easy cheesy listening arrangements, mixed in with flashes of country, synth, drama, and Jeebus. I can't say I liked it, but kind an entertaining experience. Why it's one of the 1001 records remains a puzzle. I guess 1001 is a lot.
2
Jul 03 2025
25
Adele
She has an amazing voice--obviously--and some of the songs swing for the fences, but I found the album pretty meh. All same tempo, by and large the same kind of big voiced a.m. radio ballads, all of them about lost love long ago, and nary a whisper of wit, humour, complexity--a lot of general platitudinous stuff. Blah. Great vocalist but I wonder if she's a great singer. That said, I mean, if you are coming to Adele, you are coming for amazing vocals about lost love long ago, so....
3
Jul 04 2025
No Other
Gene Clark
Wake up in a wooden panelled bungalow in southern California. Headache, blurry vision, mouth full of sand. Cigarette ashes in the shag carpet. The din of Watergate hearings, Bob Dylan covers, and the bitter end of the summer of love rings in your head. Crisped, brittle, tired of it all. Walk to the porch. Sun is glorious, sky crystalline blue, a cool rush of ocean wind. Stare out there until things are clear, ramshackle, epiphanic.
4
Jul 07 2025
One Nation Under A Groove
Funkadelic
Q: How much cocaine does it take to fly the cosmofunkin Afronauts to utopian galaxy of grooves?
A: Funkadelic
I love this album: long jams, Hendrixy guitar, deep soulful bounce, and door (and wall) blowing songs that are about political, sexual, rocktacular freedom.
4
Jul 08 2025
Urban Hymns
The Verve
More BritPop! This is fine: grandiose, symphonic, dramatic. And some huge hits. And who hasn't listened to 'Bittersweet Symphony' ten thousand times?
3
Jul 09 2025
New York Dolls
New York Dolls
After hearing about this band for years--like reading Rolling Stone articles in the 80s--I think this is the first time I ever listened to the record. Aggro old school rock and roll Chuck Berry style, souped up and made frenetic. A little dramarama. Loved the energy and the vibe.
4
Jul 10 2025
The Gilded Palace Of Sin
The Flying Burrito Brothers
Messy, weird, but it works. It's cool to think of this fusion of hippie and country the same year as Woodstock, but the slide guitar guy is great, Gram can sing, and the songs are amazing.
4
Jul 11 2025
#1 Record
Big Star
OMG. Sweet sugar rush of power hooks and amazingly made pop songs. Harmonies, jangle, big chords. Excellent tight record and almost every song is a win.
5
Jul 14 2025
Out Of The Blue
Electric Light Orchestra
Ceaseless string section fills
Robo-space voice
Beatles wannabe songs
Rococo excessive production
E.L. Hell, No
1
Jul 15 2025
Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
Neil Young & Crazy Horse
Love this record. Neil is all ornery and ragged and the band locks in, and you might think a 4 minute two note guitar solo is not a good idea, but here it is. Neil and Crazy Horse rock on this like scrappy aggro minimalists.
5
Jul 16 2025
Violent Femmes
Violent Femmes
In 1983, when my cousins from Wisconsin visited and let me have their dubbed tape of this record, it was like this strange funny angsty world opened up. Acoustic punk plus teenage romanticism and naivety caving in to sex and death and drugs and rage--but in a good way. Wore the tape out. Bought my own. And I still love the violin solo on Good Feeling.
4
Jul 17 2025
Shaka Zulu
Ladysmith Black Mambazo
A very pretty record; their voices are so rich, sometimes raspy achey, sometimes soaring, plus the interlocking parts of many of the songs are kind of amazing. Really good, if not great.
3
Jul 18 2025
Raw Like Sushi
Neneh Cherry
Listening, I thought this was so 90s, but maybe that's because it was ahead of its time. Synthy, wild, pop/r&b. I don't love this record--except Buffalo Stance of course--but I respect it.
3
Jul 21 2025
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin
Look, I have my issues with Led Zeppelin. They are personal, aesthetic, political, and more. But for this one, driving for hours in the BC mountains, I just let this sort of happen (and did not focus on the lyrics--never focus on Led Zeppelin lyrics), and holy motherfucking fuck. This is their *first* record? Some of these songs are really pretty awesome.
4
Jul 22 2025
At Newport 1960
Muddy Waters
I love the cover photo. Muddy looks tight. A famous blues recording historically, because of riots I think, and the band sounds great, Muddy is on, and I like "Mojo Working" a lot. I feel like I need to add the dumb white guy "I just don't get the blues" proviso: the genre has such strict formalisms, and I know the sophisticated subtleties and play within the strict forms are part of the brilliance and pleasure of the genre, so it's on me to learn to hear that, but usually for me it's work with diminishing returns. How deep do I need to dive to 'get' it? Nothing against Waters' kickassery.
3