Jul 01 2025
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Palo Congo
Sabu
Weirdly, kind of the best place I could have started for this. Would I listen again? No. But what good would it have done me to have started with Is This It? and gone 'Huh, yeah, still think the Strokes are pretty good'?
Driving, percussive - my god, is it percussive - and the sort of thing I'd never have actively sought out. Problem is that I don't really see where this sits. It's not compelling in the way where the emotion is immediately intelligible, even if the words aren't. It's almost too raw in that way. But it's not easy enough to listen to where it can sit in the background.
Highlight Track - Rhapsodia Del Maravilloso.
2
Jul 02 2025
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Heaven Or Las Vegas
Cocteau Twins
5
Jul 03 2025
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Gunfighter Ballads And Trail Songs
Marty Robbins
Yeah it turns out that this simply cannot be rated in any meaningful way, because if you listen to this while smashing through the Lakes as the sun's going down on a train home from Glasgow then there is literally nothing finer to have on.
Best song: Big Iron. But that was the opener during a particularly idyllic stretch. And A Hundred And Sixty Acres is a bit crap, so it benefits in retrospect from that.
4
Jul 04 2025
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The Stone Roses
The Stone Roses
Genuinely mad how many of the tunes on this would be absolutely sensational singles from any other album.
5
Jul 05 2025
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Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not
Arctic Monkeys
Before he started crooning about the milk going off on his spaceship, Alex Turner really was an incredible storyteller.
5
Jul 06 2025
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1984
Van Halen
Man, I think this is the first one where I've gone 'just not for me this'. Jump and Panama are listenable but there's not a single tune elsewhere I'd go back to.
Best song: Jump
2