Every new year, my oldest friend and I exchange best of year music lists. This is based purely on how much we’ve enjoyed stuff, no attempts to be cool or comprehensive (well, OK, I do try to listen to everything, must have heard over a hundred new albums this year, some of which have yet to sink in). The positions freeze at midnight so maybe I’ve put Kanye too low and the Eels should have slipped in rather than The Fall, but it’s too late to change. Here’s my top twenty. 1 The National – High Violet 2 Arcade Fire – The Suburbs 3 John Grant – Queen Of Denmark 4 Spoon – Transference 5 Vampire Weekend – Contra 6 Robyn – Body Talk 7 …
For the rest of the year, I’ll be devoting this blog to the sleeve notes to our best of year compilation, now in its 22nd year with, for the first time, downloads of the songs featured (unless copyright holders object, these tracks are presented for promotional purposes and will be removed if yada yada). So, on with the show. This year’s cover photo is taken from a brief unscheduled stop made by the massive train The Canadian, on which we took a wonderful four day journey from Toronto to Vancouver back in August, passing through The Prairies that you see in the background. 1. Robyn – Dancing On My Own The pop highlight of the year, without a shadow of a doubt, has been Robyn’s…
Christian Marclay’s ‘The Clock’ shows on weekdays from 10a.m. until 7p.m. (Saturdays, 10-5, closed Sundays) at Nottingham New Art Exchange as part of the British Art Show (the image above is from the White Cube showing, which has now finished, Nottingham was much less formal – two benches, two sofas and, last night only, six bean bags). Yesterday and today saw the only 24 hour showing of this masterpiece of installation art. Sue and I had already seen most of the hours between 10 and 7.30, so we had to take in as much as we could. We got there at 8.40p.m. and, to my surprise, the place wasn’t full. There were 21 people in a space that holds forty or fifty. As we arrived,…
I bought a ticket for Billy Bragg last night, the umpteenth time I’ve seen him. Then the Nottingham Post’s reviewer was snowbound, so I agreed to step in at the last minute. Would I have enjoyed the show more had I not agreed to review it? I doubt it. This was by far the worst Bragg show I’ve been to, indeed, the only under par Bragg show I’ve been to. Anyway, here’s the extended web version of the review, and a download of the song that was the highlight of the show. Billy Bragg, Rock City, December 2, 2010 Billy Bragg first visited Nottingham with an unforgettable, seven encore show at the Garage, 26 years ago. His greatest triumph at Rock City was on the…
This week’s song is a couple of days late, as I was in Venice on Sunday. I did work out what song to put up while I was walking across the duck boards in a flooded St Mark’s square. I was trying to remember whether Warren Zevon’s ‘Ain’t That Pretty At All’ mentions Venice. Perhaps it was something to do with the advertising hoardings that currently surround the Bridge of Sighs and dominate the approach to St Mark’s Square, both pictured above. Anyway, I was annoyed to find that the song wasn’t on my iPod. But now it is, and I won’t spoil the song for you by revealing the answer. Venice remained magical, despite the hoardings, despite the rain. I devoured Dyer’s Jeff in…