3 Jan
Over the last few years, I’ve started keeping lists of everything I’ve watched and listened to, interviews I’ve done throughout the year and gigs I’ve seen.
2016 was busy but there’s always room for improvement. I would have liked to get to more gigs, for starters, and this year I will make an effort to get out more for non-work stuff, as well as read a hell of a lot more.
58 interviews, 33 gigs, countless albums, 11 books (pathetic!), 71 films, 17 TV series/documentaries.
Must try harder.
17 Jul
Oh god, not another Morrissey post…
Inspired by this Guardian Music list, and to coincide with Morrissey’s excellent new album, I thought I’d pick ten of his most overlooked tracks to share. Those looking for an Everyday Is Like Sunday or an Irish Blood, English Heart… turn back now.
In no particular order of preference… Continue reading
19 Dec
Yep, it’s that time of year again, and as I mercifully find myself in the rare position of being finished my year’s work early for once (!), I thought I’d list my highlights of the year.
I do love a good list, but not necessarily to rank ‘x’ over ‘y’ – I find that it’s really helpful to read other peoples’ lists and maybe get a good sense of any albums/songs/films that may have bypassed you during the year. It’s so easy to overlook records when you’re listening to so much stuff for work, and it can be difficult to keep up with the sheer volume of stuff being released. Nevertheless… below are my favourites of 2013.
Have a lovely Christmas! Continue reading
10 Sep
The Mercury Prize shortlist will be revealed tomorrow at 5.30pm. Whether you’re a fan of awards ceremonies or not, events like this are usually (usually!) a decent barometer of the year’s mainstream music releases to date (in this case, from September 11th 2012 – September 9th 2013). There’ll undoubtedly be fist-shaking and foot-stomping at the omissions come 5.35pm, but here’s who I think could be nominated…. in many cases, not should, I might add.
Is one of these acts destined to be asked ‘So, how much of an impact did your Mercury Prize win really have on you?’ by every music journalist they speak to for the duration of their careers?
18 May
I’ve found it.
It’s the middle of May and more than a little premature to be making declarations of this sort, but it’s going to take something extremely special to dislodge Wild Beasts‘ new album ‘Smother‘ from its current position at the top of my 2011 pops. Continue reading
4 Jan
So it’s nose to the grindstone for most people today (for me, yesterday – nothing like waking up to an email wondering where a feature that you should have filed a week ago is), but most of my Christmas – the part that wasn’t spent eating too much and drinking too much – was spent in a lovely lazy bubble of film- and TV series-watching. In general, most of my spare time is eaten up by music, so it was good to get some quality screen time in. Continue reading
10 Dec
There’s no way to express this sentiment without sounding slightly cheesy, but really, the power of music never fails to astound me. About a month ago, I, like many other music hacks, was asked to start thinking about my top 10 albums of the year. It’s been an excellent year for music in general, but the problem with that – if you can call it a problem – is trying to decide which excellent album is a little bit more excellent than the others. I hummed-and-hawed for a few weeks about what to make my number one, but even after hours and hours of re-listening, I was struggling to make a decision. Continue reading
5 Nov
THE WORLD WON'T LISTEN 
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