Random Record Review

#1043 Phranc – I Enjoy Being A Girl

#1633 Kathryn Williams – Little Black Numbers

#918 Moondog – Moondog and Suncat Suites

#925 Morrissey – Suedehead: The Best of Morrissey

Having fallen out of favour in recent years, due to being a bit of an arsewipe as an actual human, it may be easy to forget just what an excellent songsmith and lyricist Morrissey was in his heyday. The heyday undoubtedly being his time in The Smiths, but his earlier solo fare is pretty damn hot too. This is Morrissey’s first official ‘greatest hits’ collection, spanning from his first solo…

#976 Nirvana – Nevermind

#1332 The Stone Roses – The Stone Roses

This is the sound of my A levels. Or more specifically, this is the sound of me travelling 20 miles by train every day to the nearest FE College, so I could avoid having to go to the same Sixth Form Centre that my father taught at. I actually wrote about this when reviewing The Smith’s The Queen Is Dead, because it was the same person that I often travelled with who introduced me to both bands.…

#630 Gomez – Liquid Skin

Gomez’s second album, which builds on the foundation of their first by being almost exactly the same. It’s another strong album of indie-blues, appropriated from the American South, with a modern (more commercially-friendly) take on the juju grunge of Dr John or Captain Beefheart. White Men Sing The Blues essentially. But the fact that they achieved significant popular success with this in 1998…

#1347 Suede – Coming Up

#143 Philippe Besombes – Libra, Un Film Du Groupe Pattern

#413 Alela Diane – The Pirate’s Gospel

#1570 The Velvet Underground – Loaded

This is a schizophrenic album, but without any of the raw edginess that this word might suggest. Songs written solely by Lou Reed, but half of them sung by bassist Doug Yule, it’s the band’s last release, coming out three months after Reed’s departure in 1970 and their effective collective demise. Written to suit commercial radio and to be ‘loaded’ with hits, it’s undoubtedly the least of the…

#706 The Human League – Dare

As Pulp were the sound of Sheffield in the 90s, The Human League (I always forget there’s a ‘the’) were the sound of Sheffield in the 80s. Dare was their third album, the one where singer Phil Oakey took over the reins as main songwriter and turned this slightly experimental electronic outfit into a commercial hit-making machine. It’s also from this album onwards that Jo Catherall and Susan…

#404 Lea DeLaria – Double Standards

These days, most people will know Lea DeLaria as playing the butch bulldyke character Big Boo in Orange is the New Black, but she’s far more versatile than that. Credited with being the first openly gay comedian on US television (back in the dark ages of 1993) she is also a great singer, performing in musicals on Broadway and recording her own albums, such as this one. Where this album works so…

#1623 White Lies – To Lose My Life

I don’t know quite how you’d describe this music – goth pop? Post-punk Death Disco? Something like that. Whatever your genre preference, it’s brilliant and I love it. This is their 2009 debut album, and still their best, in my opinion. The LP was a birthday present from my best friend, who knows that an album by a then unknown band singing about death and funerals and suicide ideation to indie…

#77 Bark Psychosis – Independency

#1426 Turin Brakes – Ether Song

#1599 Rick Wakeman – Journey To The Centre Of The Earth

This album is less like putting on a pop record than listening to a Book at Bedtime. Generally a good thing, unless you’re in the mood for dancing. This is English prog rock at its proggiest. A 40-minute orchestral-rock concept album, recorded live at the Royal Festival Hall, telling Jules Verne’s classic early Sci-Fi story, narrated by the actor David Hemmings, he of Blow Up and Barbarella…