Brief 35: ...the music you swore by, it was nothing, it was terrible

 This is one of my favourite lines from one of my favourite songs, 'When the Haar Rolls In' by James Yorkston.

It's kind of grumpy and old-mannish, but there's so much weighted in it. A relationship is by definition meaningful if someone is swearing by the quality of a piece of music to someone. There is hope, expectation and disappointment in the air.

This isn't just throwaway meanness.

We've all been there, on both sides of that, whether it's music, a TV, a film, a joke, a news story ... "Get this, this is really great/hilarious/important" and the underwhelming reaction. 

At our best, we see the positive "oh yeah cool, interesting, I like the drums", or we can't conceal our disappointment but try "right, very good", or sometimes we recognise the tension of the situation and say "I'll have to give it a proper listen later", or sometimes we just can't and we wince and grimace.

It can be a generational thing that goes both way. It can be an older person thinking "that's just noise" or a younger person thinking "that's so boring" (I know, cliched ideas of the old and the young), but it can really happen between any two people trying to find something in common, but, in this case, failing.

Generally, especially as I've got older, I'm anti-cynicism, anti-excessive criticism, especially when it comes to films and books. When people furiously slag off essentially well-made pieces which I myself am fond of, I often think "couldn't you just have ... you know ... chosen to like it a bit more?"

But, with music, that hint of angry cynic still lingers in me. I have very much opened up my taste in music and try to give most things a chance, but, sometimes, I just don't really get it, and the music they swear by, it's nothing, it's terrible.

I am comfortable enough that most people in the world would feel this way about most of the music I love - I wouldn't expect stunned silence and wonder if I play people "Bryte Side" by The Pernice Brothers or, I don't know, 'Jesus Etc' by Wilco.

Anyway, long story short, this is about Prince. I don't like to kick up too much of a fuss, and everyone's entitled to go on revering Prince, and it's my problem honestly, and 'Rolling Stone' had their 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, and I was perfectly expecting Prince to be high up, and I didn't object to seeing 'Purple Rain' at Number 8, because, you know, fine ... it was only at the last paragraph of the write-up:

"The title track was one of several songs recorded live at his hometown club, First Avenue, in Minneapolis (strings and overdubs were added later in the studio). It was inspired by Bob Seger, of all people — when Prince was touring behind 1999 in 1983, Seger was playing many of the same markets. Prince didn’t understand the Midwestern rocker’s appeal, but decided to try a ballad in the Seger mode — the result may be the greatest rock ballad of all time."

that I could take no more and I imagined myself being a curious alien, hearing about this rock music, and asking someone to play me the very best the genre had to offer and if they played me this, nodding along awkwardly, and just thinking 

"the music you swear by, it's nothing, it's terrible".

'Purple Rain' is not the greatest rock ballad of all time. OK?

Brief 34: All, Nothing or Europa

 Being a Spurs fan, I watched the recent 9-part documentary about Tottenham Hotspur's 2019-20 season, ominously titled 'All or Nothing' (while the outcome ended up being , of course, somewhere much closer to nothing but not quite nothing).

It threatened to be a bit interesting for a while but was comfortably 6 episodes too long. The players seemed nice, Harry Kane gave a hint of the clarity of purpose that has carried a young man of seemingly unexceptional talent to being one of the best in the world.

It was all remarkably spick and span - top marks to Spurs' cleaners. that's for sure.

The supposed star is Jose Mourinho - a manager I always loathed, I, like most Spurs fans, have had to find a way to reconcile to him being Spurs manager. He's doing an ok job, maybe 7/10 so far, and has not yet been a dreadful person as some presume he will inevitably be.

In the documentary he comes across fine, though sometimes a bit ridiculous, and there is little hint of the specialness and genius which he must possess, or have possessed, for his achievements in football, particularly with Porto and Inter, are real and impossible to play down.

I think Mourinho in his first incarnation as box office managerial genius was broken by the Eva Carneiro incident - fans, players, journalists, even himself, could no longer look at him and think "he's just pretending to be a scumbag to deflect pressure from the players and as some kind of of master plan".

It was really awful, undercurrents of sexism, unprofessionalism, ruthlessness far beyond the appropriate level.

He did ok (7/10) for a while at Man Utd, I suspect he really has tried to remake his style and brand a bit, but some of the magic is forever lost.

Yet, he'll still be a diligent, smart manager, and that's the fascinating bit. For Spurs, success is set lower than at any of the clubs he's been at. If he can wangle to Spurs to just one Cup in the next couple of season, he will be deemed a success - simple as that. There are three chances of that per season (probably) - the League Cup, the FA Cup, the Europa League - Spurs are probably roughly 20-1 for all of them - so what does that make? About a 1 in 3 chance of him being a success as it stands?

Or maybe less, because the chances it all goes sour before that are solid. Ah well, we'll see.

Brief 33: Mercury Rising

Here I am enjoying making playlists again ...

So, for this one, with the Mercury Prize being awarded to Kiwanuka this week, with me looking at the way American music criticism is by and large completely uninterested in Britain these days, I thought I'd put together a 60-song playlist of 2 tracks from each year of Mercury nominees, which makes 58, and then two bonus tracks from anywhere.

I've only allowed one song per artist, and, that being so, there's necessarily been plenty of fiddling round so there's not necessarily the best song from each artist, if it allows a better song in elsewhere. Some years, there are loads of songs I like; with some, there are pretty slim pickings.

Needless to say, I haven't listened to every album nominated. Needless to say, my own preferences are fairly clear - sadly, no jazz options, not much in the way of electronica. I've tried, though, based on what I like and know, to make it fairly balanced so not too full of indie rock.

Funny thing, the years 2000 and 2001 are so packed with albums and songs I like, I haven't found space for a song from my favourite Mercury-winning album, 'The Hour of Bewilderbeast'.

After this, I'm going to do a playlist from the best British albums not to be nominated for the Mercury Prize, with the same rules. See if it's better. Anyway, here's this - the order's fairly random, not year by year:

https://music.apple.com/gb/playlist/mercury-rising/pl.u-11plmhBM0JV

• Get Up - Young Fathers
• Fix Up Look Sharp - Dizzee Rascal
• Dreaming of You - The Coral
• Witness (1 Hope) - Roots Manuva
• Tender - Blur
• Movin' on Up - Primal Scream
• House of Love - East 17
• Juxtapozed with U - Super Furry Animals
• A Design for Life - Manic Street Preachers
• Return of the Mack - Mark Morrison
• Firestarter - Prodigy
• Danny Nedelko - Idles
• Class of Deja - Kano
• Don't Delete the Kisses - Wolf Alice
• No CD - Loyle Carner
• London - Benjamin Clementine
• The Cedar Room - Doves
• Many of Horror - Biffy Clyro
• Waving Flags - British Sea Power
• Love is a Losing Game - Amy Winehouse
• Bats in the Attic - King Creosote and Jon Hopkins
• Wildest Moments - Jessie Ware
• Like the Morning Dew - Laura Mvula
• Buffalo - Gaz Coombes
• So Here We Are - Bloc Party
• See it in a Boy's Eyes - Jamelia
• American Trilogy - The Delgados
• Funky Days are Back Again - Cornershop
• No Surprises - Radiohead
• Glory Box - Portishead
• Slide Away - Oasis
• She Fell into My Arms - Ed Harcourt
• Apparently Nothing - Young Disciples
• One Night in Heaven - M People
• Two Weeks - fka twigs
• Shutdown - Skepta
• 4 out of 5 - Arctic Monkeys
• Venom - Little Simz
• Default - Django Django
• Let England Shake - PJ Harvey
• Paris - Friendly Fires
• Starlings - Elbow
• The Ocean - Richard Hawley
• Each Star We see - Kathryn Williams
• Cobbler's Daughter - Kate Rusby
• Teardrop - Massive Attack
• Shadow of the Sun - Paul Weller
• The Drowners - Suede
• Fistful of Love - Antony and the Johnsons
• Over and Over - Hot Chip
• Piazza New York Catcher - Belle and Sebastian
• Friday Night - The Darkness
• Ice Cream - New Young Pony Club
• Daniel - Bat for Lashes
• Spanish Sahara - Foals
• Black - Dave
• Love and Hate - Michael Kiwanuka
• No One Knows Me Like the Piano in My Mother's Room - Sampha
• Where Are We Now? -David Bowie
• Song for Our Daughter - Laura Marling

Brief 32: The Forgotten Music

'Rolling Stone' magazine published their updated '500 Greatest Albums of All Time' this week. Their previous lists, from 2003 and 2012, have received fair criticism for being old-mannish and lacking diversity, and this is a decent attempt to redress that.

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/best-albums-of-all-time-1062063/

I generally was going through it and going "good album, good album, yup, fine" so can't complain too much.

But there are still some fascinating currents when you look closely.

One area where it leaves itself open to criticism is by not closing the criteria off - by including "some" jazz albums, a few non-English albums, a few instrumental albums, a few Greatest Hits, it basically says "Everything else we have here in the standard Anglo-American rock and hip-hop genres are better than everything else in every other genre and language", thus basically dismissing jazz and world music as only having a few worthwhile relics.

Next, as a music journalist I follow on twitter called Matthew Perpetua points out, the 50s, 60s and 70s classics are still there, and they've been added to by the modern era, in particular by hip-hop and R'n'B (the likes of Frank Ocean, Kanye West, Beyonce, Kendrick Lamar placing right near the top) but what's been squeezed out is the middle, the music of my generation and the one just before. Not squeezed out entirely, of course, but just under-represented. Also squeezed is classic "singer-songwriter" stuff and indie/Americana stuff.

Also ... something I have noticed for a long time is that American music criticism just doesn't properly engage with British music anymore - you've still got the Beatles/Stones/Clash/Floyd etc holding high positions, and the usual other suspects (Winehouse, Radiohead etc) but, in the whole 500 albums, there is very little Britpop and British indie, and almost nothing by non-white British artists (just MIA, Massive Attack, Sade).

If you look at the Mercury Prize winners and nominees, which is purportedly representing the most acclaimed of British for the last 3 decades, and where the winners have, lately, been mainly black artists, almost none of them are represented - 'Screamadelica', 'Dummy', 'Different Class', 'Stories from the City ... '(PJ Harvey), 'Whatever People Say I Am ...' (Arctic Monkeys) are the only Mercury winners included, none particularly high up. No Dave, Stormzy, Roots Manuva, Dizzee Rascal etc to be seen.

I notice this when I look at (the more alternative to 'Rolling Stone') 'Pitchfork''s reviews too - you can pretty much guess the album scores in advance for British albums. Even if the reviewer likes the album and gives it a very positive review, the score is usually in the 7s (out of 10), like British music is marked to a lower scale than the most acclaimed American stuff.

It's funny that, since the 60s and 70s, when British music was both commercially and critically dominant (or at least equal), America has, counterintuitively (or not) become more closed off to it. Or maybe (I've thought this myself at times, but don't at the moment) British music is just worse these day.

Like I say, it's far from a terrible list, you can see that a lot of effort and thought has gone into collating it and getting a representative set of voters, it's just interesting what the new orthodoxy is. 

It's the realisation, for me, that my "sweet spot", the stuff that, as I grew up, felt like the new modern classic stuff, is not going to be seen that way by history - no Nick Cave, no Joanna Newsom, no National, no Dexys (bollocks to that), no SFA (double bollocks to that), no Spiritualized, no Roots Manuva, no Midlake, no Fleet Foxes, no Lambchop or Rilo Kiley, no Animal Collective, no Suede, no Weller, Flaming Lips or Mercury Rev, no Bright Eyes or Manics ... you get the idea. (there's even only one Leonard Cohen, one Tom Waits, one Wilco).

Anyway, it's inspired me to make another playlist, called 'Unappreciated Songs'. It's a dig back into the stuff I was listening to in the early 2000s.

None if it is on the 'Rolling Stone' list, none of it is the "Landfill Indie" of that recent list, none of it was all that successful, and it's not to be much of the stuff I always go on about, my usual suspects (Wilco, National, Marling, Jenny Lewis etc) ... just bits of indie and Americana I loved at the time but had pretty much forgotten about. When I started looking, it was so fun, I've found 100s. Time has passed quickly enough to be nostalgic about this stuff.

I've boiled it down to 60 (to start with) - here it is - there's actually so much great music, I might well make another one in the same vein:

https://music.apple.com/gb/playlist/unappreciated-songs/pl.u-aZMm9tvWEd8

• Go Fuck Yourself/Choochtown - Hamell on Trial
• Charlie Darwin - The Low Anthem
• Zorbing - Stornoway
• Winterlight - Clearlake
• Good Dancers - The Sleepy Jackson
• You Broke My Heart - Lavender Diamond
• New American Language - Dan Bern
• The Sexual Loneliness of Jesus Christ - Jackie Leven
• Chosen One - The Concretes
• The Glare - David McAlmont and Michael Nyman
• Round Eye Blues - Marah
• Everyone I Know is Listening to Crunk - Lightspeed Champion
• Rill Rill - Sleigh Bells
• I Was Made for Sunny Days - The Weepies
• Penny and Jack - The Essex Green
• Let Your Shoulder Fall - Matthew Jay
• When I See Your Eyes I Swear to God That Worlds Collided - Young Republic
• My Secret is My Silence - Roddy Woomble
• Frankie's Gun - The Felice Brothers
• Steady Rollin' - Two Gallants
• The Wound that Never Heals - Jim White
• The Deal - Stephen Duffy
• Lose Yr Frown - Electric Soft Parade
• No Names - Kate Rusby
• My Brittle Heart - Lucky Soul
• What I Meant to Say - Ben and Jason
• Mysteries - Beth Gibbons and Rustin Man
• Language of Fools - Tom McRae
• Now Til 69 - The Shortwave Set
• The Freest Man - Tilly and the Wall
• Place for Us - The Mummers
• We Dug a Hole - Kathryn Williams
• I'm a Broken Heart - The Bird and the Bee
• Anyone Who's Yet to Come - Paddy Casey
• Look Left - Salako
• Sweet Surrender - Bellatrix
• Medication - Damien Jurado
• Ash Wednesday - Elvis Perkins
• Heliopolis by Night - Aberfeldy
• Julie Christie - Spearmint
• Galileo - Declan O'Rourke
• A Matter of Time - The Leisure Society
• Play the Hits - Hal
• The First Big Weekend - Arab Strap
• Put a Penny in the Slot - Fionn Regan
• Easter Parade - Emmy the Parade
• Black Winged Bird - The Cake Sale ft Nina Persson
• Not the Tremblin' Kind - Laura Cantrell
• Peculiar - Mull Historical Society
• Patience - Micah P Hinson
• Gold Day - Sparklehorse
• We Used to Think the Freeway Sounded Like a River - Richmond Fontaine
• All I Ever Really Wanted Was a Good Time - My Computer
• Inside of Love - Nada Surf
• Even Tho - Joseph Arthur
• Not About to Lose - Ron Sexsmith
• Long Time Coming - Delays
• start/stop/synchro - Rose Elinor Dougall
• The Last Good Day of the Year - Cousteau
• You are the Generation That Bought More Shoes and You Get What You Deserve - Johnny Boy

Brief 31: Kaleidoscopop

Think about the covers of 'Revolver' and 'Sgt Pepper's'. And now think about what we'd think about those two albums if you swapped the covers round.

Colours in music are so important. Only when I started thinking about it did I realise how intrinsically I linked some classic albums to their covers. But there's more to it than that.

Sometimes we just hear colours in music, don't we? This is more clearly true, in and of itself, in this era when we don't necessarily always see an album's cover.

I'm nowhere near being synaesthetic, nor have I ever taken hallucinogens, and I'd definitely place myself low down the imagination scale, so I'm pretty confident this isn't just me - some music is in black and white, and some is all the colours of the rainbow.

It is not always the case that the latter is better - 'Revolver' and 'Sgt Pepper's' being a good example of that (if we buy into the notion that the album covers represent the music, which may not be true ...). Bob Dylan is not (hardly ever, maybe in the mid-70s a little) kaleidoscopic, nor are many of the greatest artists of all time - I wouldn't say Marvin Gaye is, or Aretha Franklin, or The Smiths, or The Velvet Underground, or The Ramones, or many others ...

Sure, this is linked to drugs and psychedelia - across genres, most psychedelia is determined to let you know how colourful it is. But it's not just that.

Stevie Wonder is the artist, for me, most intrinsically linked to the kaleidoscopic. Colours burst out of so much of his music. Prince, I know, is someone people would think of in this respect, but I tried, I thought about a Prince song to pick, but I just don't love any Prince songs, I just don't, and there's not much can be done about it.

Here's my attempt at a playlist of my version of Kaleidoscopop:

https://music.apple.com/gb/playlist/kaleidoscopop/pl.u-JPWXPtjqxpe

• Good Vibrations - Beach Boys
• Hey Ya - OutKast
• Good Times - Chic
• Knocks Me Off My Feet - Stevie Wonder
• Drive-in Saturday - David Bowie
• Locked Inside - Janelle Monae
• She Comes in Colors - Love
• Cosmia - Joanna Newsom
• King Harvest (Has Surely Come) - The Band
• The Jungle Line - Joni Mitchell
• Les Fleurs - Minnie Riperton
• Holes - Mercury Rev
• Rainbow - Kacey Musgraves
• Ain't No Mountain High Enough - Diana Ross
• River Deep, Mountain High - Ike and Tina Turner
• Suite: Judy Blue Eyes - Crosby, Still and Nash
• Doo Wop (That Thing) - Lauryn Hill
• Monster - Kanye West etc
• Ball of Confusion - The Temptations
• Stand - Sly and the Family Stone
• Stay Young - Ultrasound
• She's a Rainbow - The Rolling Stones
• Sitting on the Dock of Bay - Otis Redding
• The Return of the Grievous Angel - Gram Parsons
• Time to Pretend - MGMT
• Dreamy Days - Roots Manuva
• Listen, Listen - Sandy Denny
• Move Your Feet - Junior Senior
• We Are Your Friends - Justice Vs Simian
• Oh What a World - Rufus Wainwright
• He's Simple, He's Dumb, He's the Pilot - Grandaddy
• Do You Realize - The Flaming Lips
• Gigantic - The Pixies
• Rapture - Blondie
• Fantasy - Earth Wind and Fire
• There Must Be An Angel (Playing With My Heart) - Eurythmics
• Plan B - Dexys Midnight Runners
• Galang - MIA
• I Saw the Light - Todd Rundgren
• Summer Breeze - The Isley Brothers
• Theme from Shaft - Isaac Hayes
• You Masculine You - Lambchop
• Nutmeg - Ghostface Killah
• Perfect Day - Lou Reed
• Eye Know - De La Soul
• Many Rivers to Cross - Jimmy Cliff
• Unfinished Sympathy - Massive Attack
• Ice Hockey Hair - Super Furry Animals
• Roscoe - Midlake
• Cloudbusting - Kate Bush
• And it Stoned Me - Van Morrison
• All Things Must Pass - George Harrison
• Hazey Jane II - Nick Drake
• Grown Ocean - Fleet Foxes
• Brimful of Asha - Cornershop
• I - Kendrick Lamar
• Everybody Loves the Sunshine - Roy Ayers
• A Day in the Life - The Beatles
• Yes - McAlmont and Butler
• Over The Rainbow - Judy Garland

Brief 30: The Capital Years

Here's a lovingly crafted playlist for you, I'm calling it 'The Capital Years' - it's, roughly speaking, songs I'd hear when I was listening to Capital Radio, to men like Martin Collins, Mick Brown, David "Kid" Jensen and Pat Sharp. This is basically 1989 to 1993, before I had a "taste in music", when I began to realise I wanted to be into something but this wasn't it.

This isn't, as such, the good stuff. There were some major musical movements during that time, including iMadchester, Grunge, Golden Age Hip-Hop, Proto-Britpop, Shoegaze, Acid Jazz. This, mainly, ain't that.

It's the chart stuff, the stuff that has not fed into what I've been into ever since, but it's, from within that unpromising idea, the songs that, if I hear them now, give me a warm glow and a relief that I haven't stayed a music snob forever.

It's across various styles, and I guess a few of them are not that far from "cool", but never quite there.

Of all of them, I think 'Would I Lie To You' is my favourite. I've a sneaking suspicion it may actually be one of the best pop songs of all time. Oh yeah!

https://music.apple.com/gb/playlist/the-capital-years/pl.u-aZJdvFvWEd8

• These Are the Days of Our Lives - Queen
• Back to Life - Soul II Soul
• Oh Carolina - Shaggy
• Two Princes - The Spin Doctors
• Sweet Child Of Mine - Guns N' Roses
• Unbelievable - EMF
• Here Comes the Hotstepper - Ini Kamoze
• Whatta Man - Salt N Pepa featuring N Vogue
• Too Many Walls - Cathy Dennis
• Sweetness - Michelle Gayle
• Under the Bridge - Red Hot Chili Peppers
• Summertime - Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince
• Deeper and Deeper - Madonna
• River of Dreams - Billy Joel
• My Definition of a Boombastic Jazz Style - Dream Warriors
• Out of Space - The Prodigy
• Size of a Cow - The Wonder Stuff
• I'm Too Sexy - Right Side Fred
• Tease Me - Chaka Demus & Pliers
• Pump Up the Jam - Technotronic
• Promise Me - Beverley Craven
• Would I Lie To You? - Charles and Eddie
• Runaway Train - Soul Asylum
• Sleeping Satellite - Tamsin Archer
• Don't Know Much - Aaron Neville and Linda Ronstadt
• It's Alright - East 17
• Babe - Take That
• I Wonder Why - Curtis Stigers
• Dub Be Good to Me - Beats International
• Goodnight Girl - Wet Wet Wet
• Too Young to Die - Jamiroquai
• Ride on Time - Black Box
• Fall at Your Feet - Crowded House
• Jump Around - House of Pain
• That's The Way Love Goes - Janet Jackson
• Doin' the Do - Betty Boo
• Always - Bon Jovi
• Birdhouse in your Soul - They Might Be Giants
• Jump   - Kris Kross
• Boom Shack-a-Lak - Apache Indian
• What Is Love - Haddaway
• Ain't No Love (Ain't No Use) - Sub Sub
• Can I Kick It? - A Tribe Called Quest
• Good Morning Britain - Aztec Camera
• Right Here - SWV
• Sit Down - James
• Don't Be a Stranger - Dina Carroll
• People Everyday - Arrested Development
• All Around the World - Lisa Stansfield
• Nothing Ever Happens - Del Amitri
• Manchild - Nena Cherry
• Set Adrift on Memory Bliss - PM Dawn
• Informer - Snow
• Ebenezer Goode - The Shamen
• Friday I'm in Love - The Cure
• Step It Up - Stereo MCs
• Stay - Shakespears Sister
• Too Blind To See It - Kym Sims
• No Rain - Blind Melon
• My Brave Face - Paul McCartney

Brief 29: Hardy? Hardly

 Look, I don't give a fuck about James Bond. I am not part of that discourse. It's like the royal family - it's just there, I don't hate it, it's part of my childhood, but it's not lovable or interesting.

But, with rumours that the next Bond will be Tom Hardy, I must say - really? That sounds like a really wrong-headed decision.

If there's one thing Tom Hardy can't play it's what he is, an upper-class Englishman. His speaking voice is the apotheosis of the West London private school boy early 90s, don't quite know where to put it, dropped consonant, hip hop faux everything -  I heard 'em all (including, for shame, my own, for a wee while) but most find their way back to, or through to, a default speaking voice that makes some sense, but Hardy, for all the lives he's lived and voices he's inhabited (and a little like Christian Bale though Bale seems to finally have got back to something solid), Hardy's never quite worked out how to get back to a natural speaking voice.

For me, Hardy is jarringly not-good in the likes of 'Inception' and 'Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy', as he was in the NT restoration comedy 'The Man of Mode', when he was meant to be the charismatic, roistering hero Dorimant. 

He is excellent playing extremes, putting on a show - 'Legend' as the Krays, 'Mad Max', 'Bronson', Alfie Solomons in 'Peaky Blinders' - all great fun. He is also very good at putting on an accent and playing quiet, inconspicuous men with secrets - 'The Drop', and his best ever performance, on screen, driving a car, throughout the film in 'Locke'. He is really excellent in that. If he plays Bond as a quiet and unassuming Welshman, maybe they're on to something.

I'm actually coming round to thinking it might be good. He must know, they must know, what he's good at. They must have an idea for a completely different Bond. If it's just more brooding sensitive tough Daniel Craig stuff, or anything like suave Moore/Brosnan stuff, I really think he'll be dreadful at it.

Brief 28: Help, the aged

They've put the War Child 'Help' album, recorded (by and large) on one day 25 years ago, on streaming services.

It was a big deal at the time and a somewhat excellent thing, albeit it's been jarring seeing the NME's cover stars from its edition of the time being brothers in harm Ian Brown and Noel Gallagher.

I listened to it all the way through last week, for the first time in years. It is, as I remembered, ok. It now seems rather nice that it was all recorded in a day - it does seem like a moment in time, a scrappy moment in time - that's the up side. The down side is that there are very few great recordings of great songs on it.

Oasis begin it with the decent b-side 'Fade Away' - I hate Noel Gallagher's voice, but this song quite suits it. Johnny Depp and Kate Moss appear on it, in a way which just feels very naff.

There are ok throwaway songs by the likes of the Boo Radleys, Terrorvision and The Charlatans. Blur's song is one of their thanks-for-coming pieces of muzak.

The supergroup that did 'Come Together' was Pauls McCartney & Weller, Noel Gallagher, Carleen Anderson, members of Ocean Colour Scene - I don't know if that sounds grim or great but anyway, it's meh.

What else? Nice bits from Portishead and Massive Attack, a few boring bits - the highlights are as I remembered them. Very nice covers of standards from Suede (Shipbuilding), Sinead O'Connor (Ode to Billie Joe) and the Manics', whose 'Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head' is a significant moment in their history, being their first recording as a three-piece. I found it wonderful at the time, and still do. 

But the most notable track on the album by far, by a flickin' mile, is by Radiohead. It feels a little like they were the only ones to take it truly seriously. I wonder if when they recorded 'Lucky', one of their best ever songs, two years before it would be heard anywhere else, they looked at what everyone else had submitted and felt a bit like the school swots who'd spent the whole weekend on their homework project only for everyone else to have tossed it off in a few minutes.

It made a lot of money, which is the main thing. But ...I'm a big advocate for the Britpop years being a lot richer and more varied than people remember, but this isn't really great evidence for that.

Brief 27: it's a cracker, isn't it

I was remembering 'Cracker' and its most famous episode.

As well as watching 'Cracker' at the time (more than 25 years ago), I watched some episodes a few years ago. Even then, I was struck by how dated it was, since, when it aired, it was seen as at the front rank of gritty, groundbreaking modern TV.

The first series was in 1993, good timing for me as it was just when I was starting to regularly watch "grown-up" television. 'Cracker' was acclaimed from the start, for its acting, and its shock factor storylines.

I think if people were to revisit some of those storylines and the ersatz psychology behind them, they'd be pretty shocked and appalled, not just in an outraged of Tunbridge Wells way, but in a "that's a very trite treatment of race/sexual violence etc ..." way.

Still, it were good at the time.

Robbie Coltrane was the titular star, but it also made stars of two other actors, who shared but one, truly memorable, scene together (about 38 minutes in)

Robert Carlyle, as family everyman racist killer Liverpool fan Albie Kinsella, was stunning in 'Cracker' - maybe even better than the show deserved. In the famous scene to which I'm referring, he stabs DI Bilborough, played by Christopher Eccleston. Both were, at that stage, pretty much unknowns. Both would, for quite a while, be seen as amongst the most promising young actors in Britain.

They have both had very strong careers, but somehow, not quite the transatlantic fame of eg Ewan McGregor, Gary Oldman, even James McAvoy. 

After a few more years of more excellent roles (including Eccleston in my favourite TV show of all time 'Our Friends in the North'), they both played watered-down psychos in bad Hollywood films (Carlyle in 'The World is Not Enough', Eccleston in the execrable 'Gone in Sixty Seconds') and from that point, I've often thought, when watching either of them "they could be in better than this, this is not quite the right part for them" ... i don't know, maybe it's just me.

But, rewatching that scene, that's still incredible television, and I think, the storyline on which 'Cracker''s high reputation primarily hangs.

Brief 26: the stars of track and field are interesting people

Of all sports, athletics is, ounce for ounce, inch by inch, my favourite to watch. Not my favourite as a sport in toto, that's cricket, but as a watching experience, it's athletics that I am gripped by, that I cannot turn away from. Literally. If I'm sat down to watch a session of Championship athletics, my eyes do not leave the screen.

It combines two things I love a great deal - lots of stories, and lots of numbers. Unlike a cricket or football match, where you'll see 22-30 people, in a session of athletics, you see 100s of competitors, all with their own achievements and ambitions.

So, all that in mind, I've tried to make a list of the most poignant sights in athletics.

1. The sprinter from a small nation lining up for his 100m heat on the first morning of the Games who false starts. Nothing tops that for sheer pathos. I'd give up my life for this poor unfortunate in that moment.

2. The runner in an 800m who takes the lead with about 170 metres to go and is leading and going all out and you can just see they're at their edge, but as far as they know, everyone else might be at their edge, but as a viewer you can see, everyone else isn't at their edge, and you know they're doomed and will come 7th and will look like they're going backwards for the last 70m, but at that moment, they're still holding a tiny hope they might win.

3. The 400m runner or 400m hurdler pulling a hamstring. Of course, Derek Redmond is the ultimate example, but it doesn't have to go full Derek Redmond to rip those heartstrings.

4. The javelin thrower who's 4th and has one more throw to try to get into the medal positions and they let the throw go and, though the commentator's excited, the thrower knows instantly they haven't caught it, and they step over the line to void the pointless measurement.

5. The 10,000m runner who leads from about 4000 metres, and drives the race on and is good enough to get nearly everyone off his/her tail but three hang on, and they inevitably go past him/her on the last lap. and they go home empty-handed. This is pure late 90s Radcliffe/mid 2000s Pavey.

6. The two 4x100m runners for USA or Jamaica who are brought in for the heats to save the legs of the superstars for the finals and who drop the baton. They look at each other and they've got nowhere to hide.

7. The long jumper who does a monster leap but they've set off 25cm behind the board and they're off the gold by 15cm.

8. The 110m hurdler who's leading from the start and hurdling beautifully but just clips the second last hurdle, imperceptibly, and, tired, that makes the clip the last a bit harder, they don't exactly stumble but their momentum's gone, and they come 5th.

9. The 1500m runner who's good enough for a medal, and believes they can win gold even though bronze is more realistic and they go with the surge at 600m to go and they get swallowed up with 50m to go by those who ran more conservatively.

10. The 200m runner who is leading their heat from a centre lane and eases off, not seeing a couple of runners in outside lanes, tearing  past them in the last 10 metres, meaning they don't qualify.

Brief 25: The Best Non-Scoring Strikers

When I was renewing my list of Greatest Premier League Players

 https://takingsporttooseriously.blogspot.com/2020/09/100-greatest-premier-league-players-v3.html

recently, I got to pouring over the stats, and remembering a certain breed of footballer, which is the striker for whom the stats don't tell the whole story.

You'd think that strikers are the easiest footballers to measure with cold hard stats - the more often they score goals, the better, basically.

But I took to thinking very sympathetically of a few forwards who could hardly, in the scheme of things, be called prolific.

Since I've been watching them, England have had three notable non-scoring forwards - Peter Beardsley, Teddy Sheringham and Emile Heskey. They were all supporting strikers, for Lineker, Shearer and Owen respectively. Beardsley and Sheringham, in club football, have very good scoring records, but Big Emile is a perfect example of a striker who was worth more than his weight in goals, for all that didn't spare him the brickbats of England (and sometimes Liverpool) supporters. His career record was 164 goals in 786 appearances. But people loved to play with him. He was strong, smart, skilful and worked very hard.

One thing about Heskey, and several others on the list, is that they did not seem to be born non-scorers, which is perhaps where the frustration came from. When he scored 22 goals in the 2000-01 season, he gave a tantalising glimpse of a player he maybe could have been but wasn't really.

So it is with some of the others - Peter Crouch, Niall Quinn, Bobby Zamora, indeed Mark Hughes. Hughes is an interesting one - the striker for the champion team, but his scoring record, though not on the Heskey level of scarcity, is not stunning. We remember him being an excellent player, we remember him scoring great goals, but, especially in the second half of his career, he was a long, long way from prolific.

Of course, some of the non-scoring strikers were just not terribly good strikers, that's all. They played near the bottom of the division and stayed there and didn't generally score enough to get themselves, or their team, to a better place.

But there are a certain few who were really terrific and beloved players - who were a constant menace, who had skill and poise and power, and you made plenty of space and goals for other team members.

So, here are 20 great non-scoring strikers

• Peter Crouch
• Mark Hughes
• Emile Heskey
• Duncan Ferguson
• Kevin Campbell
• Andy Carroll
• Niall Quinn
• Kevin Davies
• Gabriel Agbonlahor
• Dirk Kuyt
• Shane Long
• Darius Vassell
• Danny Welbeck
• Jon Walters
• Jason Roberts
• Michail Antonio
• Steffen Iversen
• Shola Ameobi
• Kevin Doyle
• Carlton Cole

Honourable mention: Dion Dublin - he was all sorts of things, a reasonably prolific striker in his time who then started moving further and further back the pitch.

I've probably missed a few, and perhaps some are misrepresented here, but this is a decent selection.

Brief 24: Tender

It's sometimes forgotten that Blur had not one but two major chart battles, and it's arguable that the second, less well remembered one, is more important than the first.

Everyone remembers Blur and Oasis in August 1995 and Blur's half-decent fun song beating Oasis' terrible song, and then that being a false harbinger, or a hare and tortoise or whatever.

But in February 1999, Blur went all out for glory again, and came up short.

'Tender' wasn't their first Number 2. 'Song 2' (1997) was also a Number 2, losing out to R Kelly's 'I Believe I Can Fly to Prison', but, if I recall correctly, that was more seen as a delightful triumph, a supposedly uncommercial song suddenly revealing itself to be a monster hit (it was the second single from 'Blur' and second singles didn't go to Number 1 all that often).

But 'Tender', which was, in 1999, the first single from '13', was given the big push. It was the comeback, the epic tearjerker, bold, unusual but destined for glory.

The plan all worked but for an unforeseen obstacle, which was the sudden emergence of one of the biggest pop songs of all time - 'Baby One More Time'. In this case, Blur didn't go head to head. 'Tender' was released a week after Britney Spears' debut single, and considering how many songs then stayed Number 1 for just 1 week, they might reasonably have expected the same would happen here. Big sales for 'One More Time' for one week, but then enough of a drop for 'Tender' to overtake.

But 'One More Time' was a phenomenon, and, though it was close, held on for that extra week, leaving 'Tender' at Number 2.

I remember being genuinely gutted, and I've always had slightly complex feelings about 'Tender'. I'm not sure I ever loved it, deep down, as much as I hoped I would, and what with its not achieving its stated aim, always saw it as a bit of a failure and the beginning of the end of Blur's pre-eminence.

There is some truth in that - they've only had one Top 5 single since then. But, when you look at the numbers, and what's more, the way 'Tender' was the emotional heart of their beautiful comeback in 2009, the idea of it as a failure looks ridiculous. It sold more than 100,000 copies in that first week, and more than 400,000 in total in the UK - extraordinary numbers for an indie band.

Nevertheless, I still see that as the end of something, rightly or wrongly. I still can't bring myself to accept 'One More Time' is a great pop song, it's the last bastion of my anti-pop snobbery. Perhaps that week was the dawning of the Max Martin era which has dominated pop music for more than two decades, and the last moment for great Britpop-era successful chart music - of course the likes of Coldplay, Franz Ferdinand, Arctic Monkeys were all hugely successful singles acts, but to me, they're all a different era.

'Tender' was, in a way, Britpop's last hurrah.

Brief 22: From how far away is it ok to watch people dying?

I remember, at school, being shown Pathé footage of Sir Donald Campbell's Bluebird crashing on Coniston Water. It seemed odd to me at the time that we were being shown a man's death, but we were, at least, more than 20 years, 300 miles, a camera and a chassis away. We didn't see Donald Campbell dying, we saw Bluebird crashing, and Donald Campbell was long dead, long mourned, long celebrated.

Still, I thought it odd to be shown it.

It's possible to watch a lot of people dying these days, if one's so inclined, either from a distance or close up. When Saddam Hussein was executed in late-2006, it was still seen as shocking that people were able to, and chose to, watch footage of it online. It seemed an aberration.

Now, as one scrolls through twitter or facebook, or sometimes even on the mainstream news (with a warning attached), people will share death, and people will watch death.

I've found I don't want to watch death. I don't click on those videos. I don't particularly think that makes me better or wiser than other people. When the video of George Floyd's arrest and murder was widely circulating, it was seen in some quarters as almost a worthy ordeal to watch it, to confront that terrible reality, not to look away.

But I find I have no wish to watch death close-up, either the event itself, what precedes it or goes after it. No doubt, some people do get some kind of "thrill" from it - I'm not using the word in a fully pejorative sense. I watch a lot of boxing, so I am not immune to getting to the complexity of getting a thrill from violence and potential danger. I have, in the last few years, started to be very uncomfortable if a fight started to show the danger signs (long, attritional, close fought battles).

The question in my title is semi-serious and has no real answer. Death is freely available now in a way that it didn't used to be. There are some events, like 9-11, which normalised the widespread death from a distance. Different people will draw the line of what they are prepared to watch at a different point. 

Footage of disasters like the Beirut explosion, the California fires, will make the mainstream news, perhaps because our brains are capable of severing the direct connection with death. There are still many of us who turn away in horror when the camera gets a little closer, whereas some hold their gaze even more intently.

I don't think there is a straightforward moral position to be taken on it, apart from "don't judge other people's line and don't be a hypocrite" ... which is the most universal and most difficult position to maintain.

Brief 23: Rough and Rowdy

 It's been almost three months since Dylan's 'Rough and Rowdy Ways' was released, so the dust has settled enough to jot down a few thoughts. I kept on thinking I'd write some big review of it, but thankfully, didn't get round to it.

Some people have said it's his best album since 'Blood on the Tracks'. Is it? Maybe. It's in the front row of "old man" Dylan albums, along with 'Oh Mercy', 'Time out of Mind', Love and Theft' and 'Modern Times', and after that, it's whatever's your preference.

One great thing about it is the consistency, and variety, of the songs. I'm not sure any of them will make it into my Top 10 Dylan songs, but I think all of them may make it into my Top 100. If I was seeing him live, and he played any of these, I wouldn't be disappointed. There are three "blues jams" ('False Prophet', 'Goodbye Jimmy Reed' and 'Crossing the Rubicon') and often (going all the way back to 'Bringing it All Back Home'), those are the Dylan tracks I switch off on a little, but these three all have fresh life, flair and some killer lines.

That's really the main point - there are so many great lines on this album. The fact that this man has, in his late 70s, taken the time and effort to piece together 100s and 100s of sharp and notable couplets is the great wonder of it. The things it reminds me of 1. a rapper 2. a stand-up comedian 3. a quizmaster. So many brutal two-line put-downs, so many set ups of jokes, pause, delivery of jokes, so many facts and references. Films and songs and battles and generals and Romans and Greeks and presidents and criminals and rivers and coastlines and books - you can imagine being tested on it by Dylan at a pub quiz.

Alongside that, there is some real musical variety, and he deploys his voice as well as he's done in decades, bringing different styles and moods, tender, combat, wry, as the song fits. While his live show in 2019 was very piano-led, that's in the background here.

It is above all a cohesive album, it feels like it was lovingly planned, recorded, sequenced even publicised. The most talked-about song has been 'Murder Most Foul' the 17 minute, slow-build history lesson/musical playlist. When that was the "first single" I admit I was a bit puzzled, and more so when I heard 'I Contain Multitudes' next, which, for me, on its own, was a far better song and less subject to qualms that Dylan had "lost it". But he was right. The world took to 'Murder most Foul', its peculiarity brought a real buzz to the album's release. As a song, it makes much more sense to me as an album closer, but he clearly had enough confidence in it to put it out there and say "this is what I've got for you, I'm still here".

I'm currently wondering what Dylan's been doing in lockdown. Writing another album? 'Chronicles 2'? Let's see ...

Brief 21: Of Mics and Men

 I watched the perfectly titled Wu-Tang Clan documentary series ‘Of Mics and Men’ a month or so ago. Theirs remains a puzzling, powerful and pretty much unique tale – a balancing act of egos which has survived almost intact for 3 decades. Of course, other acts last that long intact* (and longer), but something with 10 members, all of whom are “frontmen”/solo artists, that’s the part that's striking.

It’s not that there is no leader - the RZA is clearly the leader, and this documentary is very good on his drive, discipline and his nous(as well as revealing the role of his brother Divine in the background), very good on how, despite clashes, disputes, tragedy, legal wrangles, he has managed to hold it all together, keep the friendships and the professional relationships going.

I try and explain to myself what I love particularly about Wu-Tang Clan – I think it was first and foremost the moment where I went from hearing hip-hop as something I was vaguely interested in but was not really my thing to something that was completely my thing, that I heard entirely itself – their first album like a kung-fu film, a sketch show, a stand-up show, a gangster film, a documentary and a soul revue – every part of the detail put into it.

The documentary revealed the different personalities and talents of each member – there is pathos, realism and camaraderie amidst the bravado and cartoonery. My favourite member of the group has always been Ghostface Killah, whose ‘Supreme Clientele’ is considered one of the best Wu-Tang solo albums, and whose half-comic/half-menace, high-speed-wild-control rapping brings every track he’s on to life – there is particularly poignancy in his description of his childhood helping look after two disabled brothers, and the escape the band gave him. But the most intriguing character for me, is GZA, whose ‘Liquid Swords’ is one of the most acclaimed hip-hop records of all time, and who, clearly, from the start, was held in the highest esteem as a thinker and MC by his colleagues. Nowadays, he seems - even while they all come across relatively calm and reflective compared to their youthful personas - gentle and withdrawn, like he’s barely part of it anymore, yet still seems to take pleasure in the reunions.

Anyway, it’s worth a watch … it fits in plenty of social history and some classic stories (including, of course, the endlessly baffling ‘Once Upon a Time in Shaolin’ saga). Wu-Tang is, of its essence, endless self-mythologising, but, amongst all that, this is a sober and true document of an enduring cultural icon.

*Wu-Tang being intact apart from the death of Ol’ Dirty Bastard in 2004.

Brief 20: 50 Favourite Albums

Here's a quick list of what I'd say are my 50 Favourite Albums... can change a bit, but these are the one right now.

1. Yankee Hotel Foxtrot - Wilco
2. Blue - Joni Mitchell
3. Searching for the Young Soul Rebels - Dexys Midnight Runners
4. Astral Weeks - Van Morrison
5. Blood on the Tracks - Bob Dylan
6. The Trials of Van Occupanther - Midlake
7. The Hour of Bewilderbeast - Badly Drawn Boy
8. More Adventurous - Rilo Kiley
9. Nixon - Lambchop
10. Pink Moon - Nick Drake
11. St Cloud - Waxahatchee
12. Have One on Me - Joanna Newsom
13. The World Won't End - Pernice Brothers
14. Lemonade - Beyonce
15. The Times They Are a Changin' - Bob Dylan
16. Want One - Rufus Wainwright
17. Melodrama - Lorde
18. London Calling - The Clash
19. Grace - Jeff Buckley
20. Lapalco - Brendan Benson
21. No More Shall We Part - Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
22. What's Going On - Marvin Gaye
23. Skeleton Tree - Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
24. 1972 - Josh Rouse
25. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy - Kanye West
26. Summerteeth - Wilco
27. The Midnight Organ Fight - Frightened Rabbit
28. Radiator - Super Furry Animals
29. Wild Wood - Paul Weller
30. Innervisions - Stevie Wonder
31. A Ghost is Born - Wilco
32. Song for Our Daughter - Laura Marling
33. Sunflower - Beach Boys
34. Automatic for the People - REM
35. The ArchAndroid - Janelle Monae
36. Funeral - Arcade Fire
37. The Soft Bulletin - Flaming Lips
38. The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill - Lauryn Hill
39. Blonde on Blonde - Bob Dylan
40. Hejira - Joni Mitchell
41. Blur - Blur
42. Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers ) - Wu-Tang Clan
43. Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space - Spiritualized
44. Purple Mountains - Purple Mountains
45. I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning - Bright Eyes
46. Revolver - The Beatles
47. The Holy Bible - Manic Street Preachers
48. Bryter Layter - Nick Drake
49. I Am Shelby Lynne - Shelby Lynne
50. Phantom Power - Super Furry Animals

And here's another list I do intermittently on my sport blog: 

https://takingsporttooseriously.blogspot.com/2020/09/100-greatest-premier-league-players-v3.html

Brief 19: Therefore, send not to know for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for Bell.

 My favourite cricketer has announced his retirement. Or at least, he was my favourite cricketer for quite a while – probably from about 2009 to 2017 or so. I first saw Ian Bell play when he was about 10, on a tour to the Midlands when he played for a team called Kenilworth Wardens, and followed his career closely all the way. His first test match was in 2004, his last in 2015.

He never quite convinced some people – throughout his career he was accused of mental fragility, of being a fairweather player, a supporting player, not being dominant enough … for those who like their sports stars puffing their chest out and staring the opposition down, his quiet manner and timidity were anathema. He was often the one people were calling to be dropped, and even when he was scoring centuries, there’d be suggestions that these were cheap runs, or questions as to why he didn’t do this more often.

Of course, some of us warm to that fragility, real or imagined. Bell’s test career had peaks and troughs – it ended with a disappointing decline which means that, on statistics alone, he won’t quite be seen as a great of the highest order. Yet, it’s good enough. He made 22 test centuries, more than the likes of David Gower, Graeme Gooch, Len Hutton.

Some will say, with his exquisitely elegant technique, with how good he was when he was at his best, it’s a shame it couldn’t be 10,000 test runs at an average of 47, not 7,700 at 43. But there are so many constituent parts that make up a test batsman, and the established narratives don’t tell the whole story. A decent comparison for Bell is Amir Khan – he was both mentally tougher and technically more flawed than is the general impression.

People dwell on the weakness, but, in the end, there is far more triumph than failure. He came back from knocks and doubts, better than ever, more than once. He, famously, scored 3 centuries in a series against one of the best Australian attacks going, in the 2013 Ashes.

One thing I noticed, in a TV interview he gave yesterday, the supposedly timid eyes were noticeably steely. I suspect he’s one of those guys people never saw as “leadership material” but who will make an excellent coach.

I recently watched a documentary, ‘The Edge’, about the rise and fall of the Strauss-era England side. It was good, but focused a bit too much for my liking on the obvious tales, the ones that had made the news, and had less from the quieter, less ostentatious guys like Bell. He remains, in that sense, pretty unknowable, but hopefully will achieve the full acclaim now he rarely received during his career.

Brief 18: The Last Dance

 I watched the Netflix documentary series 'The Last Dance', about Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls of the 1990s. Of all major sporting stories of my lifetime, this was probably the one I'd been most deliberately indifferent to, so it was rare and interesting to enjoy it not just for the character and the nuance but for the actual frontline story. I knew only the bare bones.

I didn't like basketball when I was young. I played it a bit but never took to it - where I usually took immediately to ball-and-run sports, basketball somewhat eluded me.The rules seemed arcane and contrived. I was not tall. Kids would sometimes be playing basketball in the sports hall when we wanted to play 5-a-side football.

I resented the Dream Team at the 1992 Olympics- resented that we were meant to care more about these sportsmen I'd barely heard of than all the other great sportspeople there that I had heard of. They won easily. Who cared about that? In a sense, fascinatingly, as this documentary revealed, my suspicions were accurate. The "Dream Team" was one of the great marketing coups of all time - not that they weren't great sportspeople and the best basketball players, but in America telling the rest of the world "these are the most famous sportspeople", something not true became true. Basketball's value exploded and increased exponentially. It became a global game in a way it had never been before.

I did come to enjoy and understand basketball in about 2013 - I was poorly for a length of time, up in the middle of the night after night, and the only live sport on was the NBA Finals, so I appreciated and studied them as never before. I came to realise that the notion that it's just "one team scores, the other team scores" for the duration is way off. The ebbs and flows are fascinating - how a team can be 15 points down, then get a couple of unanswered baskets and then there momentum is inevitable, how the other team, who had previously been scoring seemingly unchallenged now had to struggle for every point. I found the like of LeBron James, Kevin Durant and Stephen Curry compelling and admirable.

Yet still I avoided Jordan - steered clear of the idea he was the world's most famous sportsman and didn't get to know the nature of his greatness. 

Brief takeaways 1. he was amazing. He always won 2. He's the definite alpha male/bully 3. His ability to reflect but not regret seemed pretty honourable. 

What made the show excellent was the supporting cast, though, the likes of Scott Pippen, coach Phil Jackson and (current Goldens State Warriors coach) Steve Kerr, not to mention a parade of sports journalists and luminaries such as Barack Obama.

Jordan was a pretty unflawed sportsman - though there were some interesting detours, there was not much in the way of palpable failure. I think I probably like my sportspeople to fail a bit more, but I appreciated that this doc didn't try to shoehorn failure in when there was none.

Brief 17: All Possibilities

I was idly wondering about what was the “Best Year” in my lifetime, as in, the year the world was most stable and full of hope, when the most good things and the fewest bad things happened. Quickly realising how impossible that would be to come to without various forms of subjectivity taking over, I was drawn back to a concept that has occupied me for a long time, that of possibility.

Putting aside notions of predetermination for now, I wonder if there is a point in history when we switched from a world of infinite possibility to a world of dwindling possibility? In a way, that reflects our own life – though, in reality, we’re moving to death from the second we’re born, I think we usually perceive as growing up to a certain point, of burgeoning possibility, until there may come a single point, or a series of events, from which we realise we are growing old. (I realise this is a simplification to an extent).

For me, the personal and the global coincided closely enough for the two to be inextricably linked. Putting aside that my hair started receding when I was barely out of university (an early helpful hint about the inevitability of decline for some young men) it was really when I had my first DVT in 2007 that I grasped mortality and knew I’d never be truly young again. This was, initially and a for a long time, overwhelmingly positive for me. Days and details became important, I just found myself enjoying life a great deal more.

My revelation about humanity’s mortality had come a few years earlier, but was still burgeoning at that point. I think it’s been since about 2004 that I’ve seen possibility as somehow reducing rather than growing. Again, there is, initially at least, a freedom to a such a realisation.

I wonder if that’s a fairly accurate date or if it’s a long time earlier. I wonder at what point we relinquished any control of our destiny and of the world we’d be living through and leaving behind.

There is, of course, no answer to this, there are just billions of different experiences. There is only delusion in an idea like “till 2010, there was still hope and infinite possibility”, but anyway, heyho, something to think about…

Brief 16: folklore

 I listened to the Taylor Swift album ‘folklore’ when it came out, and it provided a very clear example to me of something very important (albeit obvious), which is to always, always, if you intend to form any opinion or pass any judgement on a song or album, listen to it at least twice.

I’d listened to the last three Taylor Swift albums in a kind of paying-attention-to-where-the-kids-are-at type way. While I’d long acknowledged that there were some fine songs, from ‘Love Story’ to ‘Shake it Off’, I’d found each of the albums, as a whole, naggingly knowing, trying, self-conscious, something like that.  I try to be fair-minded to well-regarded popular music, but the rockist prejudices of my youth can sometimes makes that difficult

Even though this one, ‘folklore’ was touted as the “indie” one, the natural one, the artifice-free one, my first listen, on a Friday afternoon, left me in the same bad mood. No, she was trying too hard to act natural, what right does she have to step on the indie-rock toes etc. It was only towards the end of the listen that I noticed the sun was in my eyes all the time I was listening.

The weekend passed, during which I read a nice little review of the album which set some of the songs in context. It is good to read well-written reviews of albums.

Anyway, I listened to it again on Monday and, one way or another, I enjoyed it a lot. I had none of the same hang-ups as I’d had three days before. It’s not, you know, a classic, but that Monday I was able to listen to it fairly. And I liked it. I’ve listened to it several times since – it really strikes a nice balance of pop star/earnest singer-songwriter and allows her skills to shine.

Everything we listen to, every time, we’re carrying our own ideas and prejudices into it, of course we are. Any kind of fair response requires balancing out two different listening experiences. What mainly happens is that the second listen will confirm the prejudices we carried into the first listen, and if our antipathy keeps getting stronger, then it’s probably not worth bothering much more, but, saying that it is a nice experience, occasionally, to be turned 180 degrees by a second listen.