A few years ago, They Might Be Giants toured Australia, doing a “full album” set in which they played the whole “Flood” album… in reverse track order. They kindly gave away a live recording as a downloa […]

I confess, they only really came onto my radar when my wife’s best friend from school days married Rob Lloyd (a good few years ago, now). Caught up with their later stuff pretty sharpish after that.

The Nightingales. Long history (second only to The Fall in number of Peel sessions), but reinvigorated in their current incarnation with Robert Lloyd’s lyrics as acidly topical as ever, ably supported by former m […]

You beat me to it! Totally agree, and Hammill continuing to restlessly explore new territory with every release, refusing to slip complacently into the musical equivalent of a comfortable old chair, pipe and slippers.

The biggest crime of the Citizen box was losing the lovely, mysterious bass-solo intro to “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number”.

As “artists” per se, a disregard for their back-catalogue is entirely appropriate – art is about the doing of the art here and now, not what you did years ago. However, touring and album-releasing is all about ped […]

I’m with you, Barge. Halfway through now,and it’s prime Mitchell. It was a long wait, after Slade House, but well worth waiting. Wonderful to see the mind-hopping theme from several of his novels emerging once aga […]

Since you enjoyed The Bone Clocks, I think you’d enjoy Slade House, too – it’s effectively a side-shoot of The Bone Clocks. A terrific short self-contained novel, too.

See above. And lockdown has played havoc with my Kindle backlog, as I only use it when I’m away from home (no more suitcase half-filled with books for holiday reading!) last time I looked, my Kindle “to rea […]

Black Swan Green is excellent, and probably the “easiest” read of all Mitchell’s books – though to be honest, his style is always highly readable, and never self-consciously “literary”. It’s a terrific coming-of-a […]

The Canterbury lot seemed to have an ongoing contest for silly titles, from Soft Machine’s “Esther’s Nose Job” to Caravan’s “The Dog, The Dog, He’s At It Again”. And the Hatfields, of course, as already noted.

As far as Hatfield and the North titles go, I’ll go with “Fitter Stoke Has a Bath”.

OK, here we go. Once again, it’s been a great year for music, and once again my listening has largely swerved the usual suspects, so, with little hope of many of these making your cut:

1. Lost Crowns – Every […]

Saw Dylan Howe fronting his own jazz quintet several times, and they were terrific. Since then, of course, he’s been a fixture with The Blockheads.

His doubts about the wisdom of splitting the songs across Apple Venus and Wasp Star raise an interesting thought. What would the best song sequence be for a Wasp Apple Venus Star hybrid album? Anybody fancy trying […]

Eh?

For me, there’s too much filler on the album – half the tracks are pretty dreary… BUT: The opening “School” is an absolute stunner, with “Bloody Well Right” completing a terrific opening one-two salvo. Further […]

Great review, Carl. I’d go along with just about all of your comments, particularly those about Dave Lawson’s vocals. They were a frustrating band, on album; even on their purely instrumental tracks there were […]

In retrospect, the lunar landing module looks almost as rickety as… a bicycle!

Oh yes, that “does anyone remember laughter?” is an enthusiasm-killer, right enough. And *ALL* call-and-response makes me feel a gig has suddenly turned into a kiddies’ birthday party. Infantile, crappy padding.