I know I am being hypocritical in trashing Spotify while using it to provide a shared playlist, but the idealist in me wants it and other platforms to just be better. How about making money without crapping all over the content providers? How about being a force for good rather than a force for enrichment and ultimately, part of the overall enshittification of the interwebs. I read about another unintended consequence of algorithmic streaming this week in the Economist, the struggle to make music festivals financially sustainable. Costs of any event are up post-Covid due to shortages of labor and wage inflation, but only the very largest, like Glastonbury, have enough demand to pass the costs on – 43% up on 2019. Even Coachella struggled this year and didn’t sell out for the first time. I used to hate listening to the radio in the US as it was all so regimented and Spotify’s algorithm has done the same to the streaming audiences, they have been all subdivided into smaller and smaller niches, isolated tribes. The effect is completely compounded by only playing songs, and no-one under the age of 40 listening to a whole album in one sitting. If the average Spotifist is listening to half their own choices and half what the shiny man in the space suit has chosen for her or him, then unsurprisingly the exposure is reduced dramatically to not just new songs but whole swathes of music, as they become off limits and not fitting into the target music as defined by the machine. If you live in the UK you have my sympathy; but you do have the joy of BBC Radio 6 Live which is like a day of programming in the spirit of John Peel. (You also have many other redeeming joys like Fulham FC, great beer, amazing cheese, Shropshire, The Ottolenghi empire, the Ebble and Nadder Valleys and Marmite.) The lack of exposure to music outside of the tribe means a struggle, even for what I lazily term Pop stars. As the Economist noted, Rita Ora struggled at the London Mighty Hoopla festival to get much of the crowd to join in on her songs, as no-one seemed to know the lyrics. At Coachella in April the crowd was unmoved by Blur’s set, “Damon Albarn, scolded them “You’ll never see us again, so you might as well fucking sing in”. Whether the problem was that Blur have not really aged that well or the crowd simply didn’t know who the arrogant prick was if he wasn’t in his Gorillaz costume I am not sure. Anyway, on to the music:
Number 80: Blondie “Blondie” 1976. I saw them on their first tour in ‘77, it’s hard to say they were not hyped but it was before the big hits took a punk band from New York to ridiculous levels of fawning and adulation. They had the incredible Clem Burke on drums who was the new wave drummer of choice for several years on the back of Blondie’s success. “Parallel Lines” had the big hits but the first album, which never really sold in the US gives you more of a sense of what a great pop band they were, matching Beatle bowl haircuts and all. The album is classic new wave, basically redoing 60’s garage rock with a bit more swagger: guitars and organ, upbeat and cheesy harmonies.
https://open.spotify.com/embed/playlist/0e3KUCpRXsrZAGNfyazmKr?utm_source=generator
Number 79: TV Girl “Who Really Cares” 2016 . TV Girl made the list primarily as they have a unique vibe and sound that somehow, they have managed to sustain, or at least the original founder Brad Petering managed to sustain after the other two founding members bailed out. I first heard their second EP “Bennie and the Jets” which is great if not actually being the song that everyone thinks it is. It is super catchy, and I was hooked and even though, by the very nature of their stuff having a unique sound, over 4 albums and an album with Jordana, they all sound similar, similarly charming and fun. They all have an odd harmony, and the lyrics are simple love and relationship stuff, and they mix some fun 60’s sound bites and samples, it has a retro pop sound for sure but cool rather than forced or kitschy. In an odd way, you can tell they are from San Diego, don’t take themselves too seriously, which is the opposite of the LA bands.
Number 78: New Order “Power, Corruption & Lies” 1983. One of the most ridiculous decisions I ever made was choosing James White and the Blacks “Off-White” to buy over Joy Division’s “Unknown Pleasures”, as recommended by the guy in the record store in Stoke in late 1979. A snappy Sax meets Punk & Disco vs. one of the most important albums of the post punk era. I finally got into New Order having missed the glory days of Joy Division and stuck with them over the years, but this album I go back to more than any other. Like everyone at the time I bought “Temptation’ and “Blue Monday’ on 12” single and they were part of the blossoming of Manchester based culture with the Fall, the Smiths and A Certain Ratio, Factory Records and Tony Wilson in his pomp. I like how their sound got fatter over time, and they have taken regular breaks when they decide they cannot stand being around other, but they come back for more, I have not loved some of the later stuff but hold ‘Get Ready’ almost as high in my esteem.
Number 77: Rilo Kily “More Adventurous” 2004. Coming out of the ashes of the Postal Service and the Elected (both of whom’s stuff has aged really badly) Rilo Kiley were Los Angeles in song at the beginning of the millennia. Jenny Lewis was a child star and can be seen in ‘Troop Beverly Hills’ and some regular TV show, Blake Sennett was also in TV so how much more LA can you be? They produced 4 albums, and the sound got tighter and less fey as they went on, the stories got darker and More Adventurous is the perfect balance of being great songs, tight arrangements having played together for 4 years by then, without being overproduced or smoothed out like the last real album “Under the Blacklight” which was their most commercially successful. This album sounds closer to Lewis’s solo stuff with that bit of country twang buried in the alt-rock meets Bacharach and David mix, the lyrics are very much a woman’s voice. Jenny and Sennett went from being lovers to bandmates and that never seems to work for long and the band went into permanent hiatus. I have enjoyed some of Lewis’ solo stuff and odd projects with new partners, but she is just too torch and twang for my taste generally.
Number 76: Pulp “Different Class” 1995. Sheffield’s own Leonard Cohen is Richard Hawley but Jarvis Cocker is the city’s Springsteen. He writes about quotidian English life in the dour northern towns where the steel mills are closing and it’s all gone a bit grey. Jarvis is funny and yet serious at the same time, he famously angrily pointed out the irony in Michael Jackson singing at the Brits Awards, surrounded by young children and pretending to be the Messiah, Cocker crashed the stage and waving his ass at the camera and derailed the whole thing. He has released great solo stuff over the last few years, but there were three great albums as Pulp, this is their classic with 4 bonafide hits as well as minor classics ‘The Bed’ and ‘Underwear’. But also check out the peak darkness of “This is Hardcore” (listen to ‘Glory Days’) and the earth friendly groove of “Trees” (‘The Night Minnie Timperley Died’ but the whole album is impressive.) He has successfully avoided becoming a national treasure and after splitting in 2002 the original members have come together occasionally over the years as Pulp since and there is some noise about them recording something new currently.
Number 75: Velvet Underground “White Light/White Heat” 1968. Arguably one of the most influential albums from one of the oddest gathering of people to be such a major influence over 60 years since they emerged strumming and drumming so hard from some basement club on the Lower East Side of New York City. When you listen to the frantic noise of the title song or anything on it and it is so unlike everything else being made at the time, there are no harmonies like CS&N, no plinky plonky Grateful Dead, the Zep/Cream blues boom is from a different planet. It’s only 6 songs and just over 40 minutes long, and the 8 minutes of ‘The Gift’ is a spooky spoken word spiel by John Cale. Side two is ‘I Heard Her Call My Name’ which is shouty and then 18 minutes of the crazed ‘Sister Ray’. The glorious noise is made by just 4 of them, as well as the export from Wales, Cale on bass and keys, the drumming is Mo Tucker and Lou Reed and Sterling Morrison on guitars. The first album featured the German model Nico, a part of Warhol’s retinue on strange ‘femme fatale’ vocals, the band was Warhol’s house band at the Factory in certain respects and he encouraged their collision of avant-garde and rock. Reed went on to his solo stuff and Cale is still making music today utilizing his deep Welsh baritone. The list of bands influenced by this lot would go for two pages.
Number 74: Madeline Kenney “Perfect Shapes” 2018. Maddy Kenney is a young artist based in Oakland, CA who over the last 7 years has produced really strong personal material that goes beyond simple singer-songwriter stuff. Her songwriting skills have grown and got better with every release. She has had help from fellow Oaklandite Toro y Moi but also having become friends with Jenn Wasner of Wye Oak and supported Flock of Dimes her last album featured her on bass on tour and she did the production for this album. There are a ton of single female artists in the alt-rock and surrounding space, but Madeline stands out through great song structures and a desire for clever arrangements over simple and poppy. She is on Substack here and has announced she is recording her 5th album now.
Number 73: Portishead “Portishead” 1997. My parents lived in Portishead, I never lived there but visited enough to appreciate the irony in a band having the name. Beth Gibbons has one of those voices that having heard it you cannot be failed to be moved, I am not a fan of the diva blasting and that is an accusation you would never level at Beth. Quiet yet indomitable, her voice dances over the most trip-hop mix of loops and instrumentation. They had a whole film-noir feel to their music and this album is probably peak Jazz club meets the Mysterons. Bristol had its moment in the sun with Massive Attack, Portishead and Blue Aeroplanes with Geoff Barrow and Beth the last people looking to be pop stars. I probably think ‘The Rip’ from “Third” is the best individual song they wrote, but everything on this album is gorgeous, it cries out to be played late at night with a glass of good whisky that you don’t really need. They technically are still a band and played in 2022, we were lucky to catch Gibbons’ solo tour this year and she sang ‘Humming’ from this album as an encore.
Number 72: Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks “Pig Lib” 2003. When we lived in London again 2004-2008 we had a friend of a friend who worked for Matador Records and every few weeks we would get a pile of CDs, including the fully expanded versions of “Brighten the Corners” and “Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain”. So, I had a belated but deep dive into Pavement and this was also in the pile one month and it was interesting to see Malkmus move into melody and more structured songs, yet without losing that edge. It was like the equivalent of watching Robin Williams go from crazed stream of consciousness stand-up impressions to becoming a serious comedian. He famously played the complete CAN album “Ege Bamyasu” at a festival in Berlin, which made him even more of a star in my book, spoiler alert! Malkmus is a stunningly talented guitarist and writes fun songs, still does to this day. I was lucky to be in SF 10 years later and saw him live at Slim’s, Boz Scagg’s club.
Number 71: Sault “11” 2020. I always had a soft spot for well produced ‘soul music’ as it was called before it split into funk, R’n’B and got completely steamrollered by rap and slipped into irrelevance, other than almost tribute versions of acts doing Vegas shows featuring a tiny share of original members, Harold Melvin and the Bluenotes, The Three Degrees, Delfonics. Prince was the last serious proponent of truly black dance music and he died alone. In London however, a candle burns brightly. The presence of truly great jazz players and the melting pot of West Africa, the Caribean and Britain has produced some prodigious talents like Kokoroko, Sampha, Ezra Colective and the daddy of them all Sault. The project helmed by Dean Cover ‘Inflo’ and usually featuring incredible vocals from Cleo Sol, Kid Sister and Chronixx is ridiculously productive, as a functioning cooperative should be. They started with two albums in 2019 “5” and ”7”, two in 2020, then a whole bunch given away in 2021 and this in 2022. They have released 11 albums since 2019, that’s Gizzard Lizard levels of output! It’s a fun upbeat, drum driven journey interspersed with spoken voice pieces usually on a theme.
Anecdotes and Antidotes in Burgundy 