The Afterword

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Bingo’s Best of 2021

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It’s that time of the year again!

Or rather, it’s a couple of weeks before that time of the year again. A particularly busy Christmas period in prospect has lead me to conclude that it would be a good idea to go early with the Best of the Year playlist, now traditionally released to the eager response of an audience of narcoleptic crickets. Plus, this has the added bonus of avoiding the single greatest risk to any end of year playlist (per Sewer Robot’s recent post): reading other people’s lists, hearing some great new music and reflexively adding stuff you’ve only heard a handful of times because you’re still in the first flush of love, before bitterly regretting said inclusions in years to come.

As the blog’s hopelessly witless advocate for new music, I’m here to tell you that 2021 has been a tremendous year, each and every month sending forth fresh treats to enchant and delight. There are numerous tracks I was convinced would be mainstays of this list which have fallen away in the final reckoning (how on earth did Like I Used To not make the grade? It seemed such a gimme).

Regrettably, I have » Continue Reading.

Afterword dinner party – the knock out stages

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Thanks to all who posted an inspired selection of ideal dinner party guests. Now is time to whittle the lists down to a commonly-agreed final six. Of the 190+ guests suggested (130 m, 66 f), the following 16 were nominated twice, so I’ve decided they go through to the next round:

Adam Buxton, Becky Unthank, Billy Bragg, Boudicca, Brian Eno, Carrie Fisher, Christopher Hitchens, David Bowie, Groucho Marx, Jane Austen, Lemmy, Martin Amis, Noel Gallagher, Sam Neill, Shakespeare, Tina Fay, Virginia Woolf

If you’d care to indulge this extended flight of whimsy, I’d suggest you select contrasting pairs from the above – one you’d promote, one you’d deselect, up to a maximum of six pairs. In this way, we would winnow it down to the cream of the cream of AW favourites (or the lowest common denominators, of course).

Three guests were nominated three times – Dorothy Parker, Kathy Burke & Victoria Coren-Mitchell. So they get automatic seats at the table – and make for inspired hosts, I’d say.

Mini and Lodestone were mentioned twice, so they get to be our representatives at the feast. Maybe they’ll post their views on the final selection?

Tally ho!

Bingo’s Best of 2017

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As has become custom, it’s time for me to cast adrift my end of year “Best Of” playlist into a harsh sea of bemusement, indifference and outright contempt.

This time round, I thought I’d do things a little differently. In addition to posting below the unspeakable horrors of the playlist itself, I’m going to give a run down of my top 10 new musical “moments” of the year, in descending order of excellence.

There were quite a few other contenders that didn’t make the list (“Des…..pa…..cito”, Desiigner’s howling on “Outlet”, the chorus from Bad and Boujee), but these were the ones that made me really glad I listened to music in 2017.

10. Battered At A Scramble – Mogwai

I love Mogwai. They’re probably my favourite band. But they don’t rock out enough. The early records really hammered the quiet/loud dynamic, and because I’m a simple soul that remains a primary part of what I want from them.

Sure, give me a lovely, delicate record of twinkling guitar pieces to soundtrack some movie or TV show, but for goodness sake don’t spare the roaring guitars when it comes to the albums proper.

Battered At A Scramble felt like the » Continue Reading.