Pick a team, any team

Following on from that last post about Harry Kane, I thought I'd pick an England men's XI from the 21st century. I'm not a master tactician, and I tend to just go with 4-4-2. It may not be formationally perfect, but hopefully they'd make it work.

I'll then pick a further 12 players to make up a squad. 

Here goes

Goalkeeper: Jordan Pickford

Seaman was a great keeper in the 90s, less so in in the 2000s, and Pickford, for all his frailties at club level, has mainly been great for England.

Right back: Kyle Walker

To me, an obvious pick. A really superb defender. Will get his dues when he retires.

Centre backs: Rio Ferdinand and Sol Campbell

Well, it's not going to be Ferdinand and Terry, is it? Ferdinand was the best centre-back in the world for a while, he took defending to a different level, was great in two World Cups. Sol was also absolutely world-class from the late 90s through to the early 2000s.

Left back: Ashley Cole

Of course.

Right midfield: David Beckham

A great player who mainly played really well for England.

Central midfield: Jude Bellingham and Declan Rice

These two are both among the best in the world at the moment, and have played their best in major international tournaments

Left midfield: Raheem Sterling

The best player at Euro 2021. Not a guaranteed pick, but adds pace and finishing, at his best.

Forwards: Harry Kane and Wayne Rooney

I think these two would make it work.

Squad:

12 more squad members - 2 goalkeepers, 4 defenders, 4 midfielders, 2 attackers (maybe with some crossover)

Keepers: Seaman, Paul Robinson

I'd go for Robinson over Joe Hart. Robinson was cut off too early for England. Hart given too many chances.

Defenders: John Stones, Gary Neville, Kieran Trippier, Luke Shaw

Some tricky choices here. Of course, there's John Terry, who'd be in on merit, as he was one of the best centre-backs in the world, but I think you've just got to keep him and Ferdinand apart, and Ferdinand was much better, at his best. Terry would be a bad vibe. Another centre-back? Harry Maguire has mainly been good for England, but I'd go for the flexibility Walker and Trippier have, with Neville and Shaw being the next best specialists.

Midfielders: Bukayo Saka, Paul Scholes, Frank Lampard, Jordan Henderson

There's a logic beyond mere provocation in not picking Gerrard. He just didn't work for England. The potential of early Gerrard was like nothing else. I remember feeling his absence from 2002 was the biggest deal of all. But England underperformed and mainly played drab football for most of the Gerrard years. Sterling, Saka, Bellingham, Rashford, Foden, have bought more fluency and joy to an England shirt than Gerrard and Lampard ever did.

Henderson rather than Carrick, Phillips or Barry. Hargreaves might be a good choice. Joe Cole and Hargreaves were England's best players in 2006. 

Lampard, though it's not saying much, strikes me as the most flexible and least egotistical of Gerrard, Scholes and he. Scholes' ego was more like a self-critical perfectionism. Still, a great player ... starting to be unconvinced. Maybe Gerrard is a better swap for Bellingham. Fuck it. I'm going to include both....

so Gerrard (with extreme misgivings that I've doomed the team to a malfunctioning 0-0 and defeat in penalties in the quarters)

no Foden or Rashford

and the only back-up striker (obvs Sterling and Saka are also forwards in a way) is

Ballon d'Or winner

Michael Owen

obviously, though an interesting detail is that, where a host of top-class league goalscorers - Wright, Ferdinand, Cole, Fowler, even Sutton and Le Tissier - never brought their best for England in the 90s, this century, players with merely ok league records - Crouch, Welbeck, Defoe - have really good England goal scoring records. And Daniel Sturridge was maybe the most talented. 

Here's the story of the Harry Kane

You can compare Harry Kane to two other major 21st century English footballers - David Beckham and Steven Gerrard (my next post will be a combined England men's XI and squad of the century, by the way).

The comparisons to Beckham are fairly straightforward - they went to the same school, are solid, good-natured Essex boys with an astonishing gift for ball-striking, an underrated football brain, they became England captain at a young age, stayed in the role for a long time, led by example, were unfairly pilloried for a heartbreaking World Cup exit, stayed at the club they loved for a long time before a big money move to a giant of Europe where they continued to thrive.

They both speak with a slight impediment which brought undue mockery and was misperceived to be the absence of shrewdness. They are both highly excellent, rather than brilliant, footballers. They're not willo-the-wisp magicians, but they produce countless exceptional exciting moments.

The differences are obvious too. Beckham's ridiculous good looks made him something beyond football, a true megastar, brought him into philosophical conflict, at times, with the football world. He sought stardom and still has it on a vast scale. Harry Kane is all football. We don't know much about him beyond football. He's married with kids, half-Irish, likes American football, no one's really ever said anything bad about him as a person (plenty of football fans don't like him, mind, but that's just football ...). He seems wilfully pleasantly boring (on the Spurs Amazon series from a couple of years ago, you could tell he was popular, pleasant, could be sharp-witted).

The other big difference, of course, is that David Beckham had won everything with Man Utd by the time he left, and Harry Kane has not won anything. This is where the comparison to Steven Gerrard comes in. Yes, Gerrard won plenty of cups at Liverpool, including one of enormous personal and team glory, but, playing for Liverpool, and England, Gerrard did not historically improve the performance of the club, and that is, or should be, a major check on the plaudits he receives. They won the league before, they've won the league since, they did not win the league with. They usually finished around 4th. 

Kane did improve Spurs. They had their best league seasons for more than 30 years with him in the team. They reached semi-finals and finals, even the Champions League final. But they didn't win anything, and they started, in the last few years, to move further away from winning anything. I felt they should have sold him a lot earlier than they did. It was clear they had reached the limit of Kane-team potential. He scored 30 goals in a season and they still didn't win the league or anything else. You couldn't expect him to score 40 goals in a season. They needed to reshape the team in a different form, which is what is now happening.

Does it affect Harry Kane's status that he has never won anything? Yes, of course. The point of football is to win matches and then competitions. Liverpool should have won more when Gerrard was playing for them, they're Liverpool for goodness sake, Spurs should have won ... something ... when Kane was playing for them. Spurs do, historically win things, nowhere near as many as Liverpool, but more than West Ham and Leicester. And they had opportunities. The cruel current reality of the magnificent Harry Kane's record-breaking, consistently excellent career is that he has not seized the moment when the moment came. He missed chances in the 2018 World Cup semi, he started well but faded in the 2021 Euro finals, he played excellently but missed a penalty in the 2022 World Cup quarters. He didn't play well in the 2019 Champions League final or the 2021 League Cup final. However much I and others love and admire Kane, that's the stark reality. 

He has gone to Bayern Munich to win things, is breaking all goalscoring records, and yet, it might still not work out. Bayern win the title every year, but this year Bayer Leverkusen also look indomitable. Bayern are one of the best teams in the Champions League, but still, the chances are they won't win it. 

Harry Kane could score 60 goals this season, score a hat-trick in the deciding game of the German league season and the Champions League final, not to mention the Euros, and yet, if he misses a chance in the last minute of each which means Bayern/England don't win, it is still reasonable to see him as a player who doesn't grasp his moment. It seems almost comically fated to go that way.

2023 Albums and Songs

Time for my list. I've held my nerve, seen off the competitors, and am ready to strike - one of the latest, greatest and Phil de Freitest end of year lists.

I, of course, love the lists. I love the professional lists, and everything they get wrong, god damn them, but particularly I love being on twitter and seeming non-professional music lovers' personal lists, where no one can possibly get anything wrong. 

Pouring over other people's recommendations can be a double-edged sword, as it can point you in in the direction of various albums you hadn't paid much attention to throughout the year, and that's great, but also, you can start to doubt the provenance of your own taste, when most of the albums you love were also on other people's lists. Is this what I really think?

Well, yes, it is. Nothing near the top of my list has newly infiltrated. These are 100% legit my favourites throughout the year (there are a few much lower down which are December discoveries, but I can live with that). 

For me, this has been a great year for music. I always make an end-of-year list of some description, but sometimes (like last year), I just, somewhat grudgingly, throw together 10 or 20 in no particular order. This year, I can honestly say, the top 7 albums might well have been Number 1 in their own right if they'd been released in 2022. I've loved them all, and all of them I came close to considering my favourite. 

And, beneath that top tier, there's a whole chunk of more excellent albums I've derived significant enjoyment from. I'm going to list everything I liked at all and I feel I've got some grip on (that does end up being 100 funnily enough). 

Anyway, let's get cracking.

1. The Ballad of Darren - Blur

Considering I've said I like the Top 7 pretty much equally, maybe I could have chosen something cooler than Blur as Number 1. But my stats tell me I listened to this album all the way through way more than anything else, and, yes, it is definitely, right now, my favourite.

It may not contain Blur's greatest ever songs, but it's the first Blur album which has no songs I dislike. I have loved lovable mockney pop scamps Blur for 30 years even though my main taste in music for the last 25 years has been sad-old-man music. Well, this is Blur's sad-old-man album, and they do it right. This is the most singer-songwriterly album Damon's ever done, the most evidently autobiographical, and yet it could be nothing but a Blur album, and it's all of Blur at their best.

Its critical and commercial impact led me to briefly hope that this was it for good now, that Blur were back as a full-time concern, but of course, Damo's knocked it on the head again, as he does. Probably for the best, both for sanity and career management. Blur manage to manufacture genuine excitement every time they return. I do worry about where they can go from here, though. How can they top this when they're in their 60s? Maybe they'll make an album of songs that sound like Country House ... really commit to the Country House vibe ... or the Crazy Beat vibe ...

2. Black Rainbows - Corinne Bailey Rae

Of all the albums that I don't reckon have had their just desserts in the year-end lists, this one stands out. It had top-notch reviews when it came out, but has been slept on in the end, even though it is a brilliant, bold album. 

This album is especially impressive when you consider Corinne Bailey Rae seemed for ever earmarked as "nice, easy listening, inoffensive" even though her interviews suggested there was scope for a lot more. And then she went and did it. It's a clever, funny, surprising, moving, wide-ranging album, but always listenable. The most punk soul album of the year.

3. Javelin - Sufjan Stevens

It might have been tricky to judge this album on its merits, so overwhelming was the tragedy surrounding it, if it wasn't so obviously brilliant. Also, and this is going to sound dumb as shit, Sufjan is, at last, for me, not the States guy. Remember how after 'Illinois' it genuinely seemed possible and desirable that he would do an album for every state and, for a long time after that, every album he put out was, disappointingly, not another state. 'Carrie and Lowell' evened the score, but now, with 'Javelin', he has released more masterpieces that are not about a state than masterpieces that are about a state. That is, unless you think Michigan is a masterpiece, which would be fair enough, but I don't. So Sufjan is no longer the States guy, he's the "three perfect albums" guy.

4. Multitudes - Feist

I have a funny feeling this will be the one I will still be listening to regularly in a couple of years. 

5. Blomi - Susanne Sundfor

This album is weird and wild but also contains several obviously beautiful songs. Old-fashioned beautiful songs.

6. Heavy Heavy - Young Fathers

Irresistible, joyous music. I mean, I resisted Young Fathers for quite a while, but not this one.

7. why does the earth give us people to love - Kara Jackson

I think the only reason this is as low as 7 is because the title track is my Number 1 song of the year, and so that slightly, slightly unbalances the album, and has made me, at times, want to skip a couple to get to that song. The song 'why does the earth give us people to love' starts like a dirge, then gently moves through various stages of memory and grief, yet as it becomes more spritely, becomes yet more devastatingly sad. 

The whole album is great, her voice is hopefully going to be around for years, but that song, phewee.

8. sundial - noname

Look, I don't approve of lower case, but there's been some really strong lower case works this year. This album keeps your attention all the way through.

9. The Answer is Always Yes - Alex Lahey

I'd really recommend this for lowkey tuneful, no frills, guitar pop. Courtney Barnetty but more tuney.

10. Cousin - Wilco

Wilco are probably my all time favourite band, and this is my favourite album of theirs for 15 years or so. It's not an all-time classic, and it's not like the other Wilco albums in the meantime have not been good, but this one I just immediately felt attuned to, could pick out the tunes, enjoy the details etc. It's tricky for bands who keep on and don't take a break, I imagine. Far easier, in a way, to do what Blur do and dip in and out. The National are another band I loved almost as much as I loved Wilco, but this year's two National releases suggested to me that they had no more tricks that would grab my attention. So, this excellent album, their 13th, by Wilco deserves some real praise.

11. My Back is a Bridge For You to Cross - Anohni and the Johnsons

I still feel like I haven't fully unlocked this album. It's got some real dark power.

12. Desire I Want to Turn Into You - Caroline Polachek

13. Everything Harmony - Lemon Twigs

If you haven't heard Lemon Twigs and you like classic 70s soft rock, check em out.

14. Weathervanes - Jason Isbell

I really love all these. I can imagine this being my favourite album of a bad year. Seriously. This album is tight, has no bad songs and several memorable ones.

15. The Great White Sea Eagle - James Yorkston, Nina Persson and the Second Hand Orchestra

Fence forever! No bad Yorkston albums. Nina Persson is a great twist on the theme. I listened to this yesterday (it came out near the beginning of the year) and thought it should be higher, but never mind.

16. Rat Saw God - Wednesday

17. Lucky for You - Bully

I had the Wednesday and the Bully album back-to-back on my playlist for a few months, so I can't separate them really. Rat Saw God has slightly better pop tunes.

18. the record - boygenius

aah, you know it is good. not strong enough is definitely strong enough. i think i thought i'd like it more than i did initially but then have ended up liking it more in the end that i thought i had. i really think the last song Letter to an Old Poet is bad, though, and put me off the album for a while. unless it's a joke, a quasi-AI version of self-referential lyrical and vocal tropes, and i can't understand why it would be that. this has topped the aggregated critics' list. i place it a somewhat churlish 18th.

19. Chaos for the Fly - Grian Chatten

This is a beautiful album. I like Fontaines DC but I prefer this actually. He really does justice to his own voice here.

20. Time Ain't Accidental - Jess Williamson

21. Joy'all - Jenny Lewis

The previous Jenny Lewis album, On the Line, was, for me, a career high, and this didn't quite top it, but it's still a really enjoyable album which I've listened to more than most. Each Jenny Lewis album, you wonder if it will be one that make her a star, a big star, but, of course, none of them ever quite do. 

22. Jaguar II - Victoria Monet

Tunes. This ones got some tunes on it.

23. The Last Rotation of Earth - BC Camplight

24. Heaven - Cleo Sol

25. Nothing Lasts Forever - Teenage Fanclub

Can't go wrong with Teenage Fanclub. Even so, I have found myself loving this one pretty much more than any of theirs since Grand Prix

26. I DES - King Creosote

27. Albion - Harp

This guy, who is Tim Smith formerly of Midlake, who authored one of the greatest albums of all time, I only wish all the best things in the world for. This album only came out a couple of weeks ago, so still not sure. It's woozy, odd and beautiful  and has songs named after places in Sussex.

28. The Greater Wings - Julie Byrne

29. Irish Rock N Roll - The Mary Wallopers

An album that didn't quite land for me, for some reason, was False Lankum by Lankum, despite all its acclaim. This album's not subtle, but it's got a lot of oomph, and I preferred it.

30. Seven Psalms - Paul Simon

Good, this guy. You should check him out.

31. Shadow Kingdom - Bob Dylan

And this one. Not really an album, and not really from this year, but Shadow Kingdom has such a distinct character and tone, it kind of felt like a studio album when it was released. Also, when he first performed it, not a single one of the tracks on Shadow Kingdom was among my 50 favourite Bob Dylan songs. Genuinely. So it really did feel like listening to something new and uncovering some fresh magic. Throughout his career, when you think you know what the great ones are, he nudges you to say "and these ones, these are great ones too, if you hear them a bit differently".

32. Fountain Baby - Amaarae

33. ROACH - Miya Folick

34. Strays - Margo Price

35. Folkocracy - Rufus Wainwright

This is a covers album, but it's a really interesting selection under the broad banner of "folk", it's a very well-crafted album, and Rufus enlists all manner of surprising famous friends to make something that is really rather grand.

36. Valley of Heart's Delight - Margo Cilker

37. Keeping Secrets Will Destroy You - Bonnie Prince Billy

38. The Age of Pleasure - Janelle Monae

I don't know, Janelle Monae's done a lot of amazing things in the meantime, but The ArchAndroid made you think she might be the new Stevie Wonder, and it's not quite turned out that way. But there are some fun songs on this.

39. Jenny from Thebes - Mountain Goats

40. Let There Be Music - Bonny Doon

Bonny Doon are the band that accompanied Waxahatchee on my favourite album of the century, St Cloud, and this has musical echoes of that, and it's really very up my street. Can't wait for the next Waxahatchee album, too.

41. Cracker Island - Gorillaz

All those gorillaz must be cross that Blur came along and stole their thunder, because this is one of the best Gorillaz albums going.

42. Sundown - Eddie Chacon

Perhaps Eddie will look with some rancour at the sales and acclaim that inferior albums have received, but I expect he says to himself "jealous minds (jealous minds) never satisfy ..."

43. The Window - Ratboys

44. That. Feels. Good! - Jessie Ware

I think my expectations for this album were a bit high. It's good but I'm not sure it soars.

45. Angels & Queens Pt 2 - Gabriels

46. GUTS - Olivia Rodrigo

Upper case less of a scourge than lower case. This album is really good. It is for kids though. And I'm 45. I genuinely don't believe the middle-aged male critics making it one of their favourite albums of the year. 

47. Kassi Valazza Knows Nothing - Kassi Valazza

48. The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We - Mitski 

God strike me down for being such a dick, but Mitski is the most 7/10 artist in history. All her songs are 7/10 on all her 7/10 albums. 7/10 is a good score. I enjoyed this album somewhat, but I do not really agree with the fact that Mitski, in an era when most indie singer-songwriters can't break even, broke out.

49. Tim - The Replacements

Don't know why I've included this, or put it 49. It's an excellent remastering of a classic 80s album. I listened to it a lot. It sounds great. Perfect. 49.

50. I've Got Me - Joanna Sternberg

51. Happy Ending - Hifi Sean and David McAlmont

This is great. Easy to forget, whenever David Mc releases anything new, that you've the chance to listen to one of the greatest pop singers there's ever been. Every note a treasure.

52. Live at Bush Hall - Black Country New Road

Found this quite moving. Good luck to them.

53. Water Made Us - Jamila Woods

54. The Price of Progress - The Hold Steady

Still holding steady. Still writes long wordy lines better than almost anyone else.

55. Bless This Mess - U.S. Girls

U.S. Girls has released her last three albums at the start of the year, and they tend not to be the year's critical round-ups, even through they're really pretty good, so I would advise U.S. Girls to release her next album in October.

56. Turn the Car Around - Gaz Coombes

57. maps - billy woods and Kenny Segal

I did also quite enjoy Armand Hammer's We Buy Diabetic Test Strips. That will have seemed like a non-sequitur, but is not.

58. Cat Power Sings Dylan: The 1966 Albert Hall Concert - Cat Power

This is pretty brilliant, especially the first half.

59. Infinite Spring - Superviolet

A late discovery. Really up my street.

60. I Am Not There Anymore - The Clientele

61. Crying, Laughing, Waving, Smiling - Slaughter Beach, Dog

62. Wait Til I Get Over - Durand Jones

63. My 21st Century Blues - Raye

Still in the territory of albums I really enjoyed, and the numbering still doesn't feel completely random. 

64. Theatre of the Absurd Presents C'est la Vie - Madness

Bien.

65. Joan of All - Sarabeth Tucek

66. Race the Night - Ash

67. All of This Will End - Indigo de Souza

68. You're the One - Rhiannon Giddens

69. i/o - Peter Gabriel

70. I Inside the Old Year Dying - PJ Harvey

71. Late Developers - Belle and Sebastian

Still B and S, after all ... a really excellent Belle and Sebastian still feels within reach, but this isn't it.

72. Zach Bryan - Zach Bryan

When I was really into it, I used to consider whatever line there was between alt-country (super cool) and country (lame as fuck) and not always be sure I knew the difference. This extremely successful Zach Bryan album is country, though it sounds quite alt-country, but there's something in the homespun wisdom and the school of hard knocks and the lack of irony, I guess, which tells you where the line is.

73. Lahai - Sampha

74. Sea of Mirrors - The Coral

75. When Horses Would Run - Being Dead

76. Lankum - False Lankum

77. First Two Pages of Frankenstein - The National

78. All of This is Chance - Lisa O'Neill

79. Cartwheel - Hotline TNT

A lot - a lot - of the indie these days is kinda fuzzy, shoegazy, which is never quite my thing. However, I will say to this one's credit, I listened to it directly following on from Teenage Fanclub, coincidentally, and there were similarities, and that is never a bad thing.

80. Yard - Slow Pulp

81. In My Mind There's a Room - Mull Historical Society

82. Dead Meat - The Tubs

83. Hackney Diamonds - The Rolling Stones

84. THE WAEVE - THE WAEVE

Of course, Blur and the Pipettes is good. Of course.

85. Fuse - Everything But the Girl

86. Natural Disasters - Bethany Cosentino

87. Intimism - Nicky Wire

Nicky's singing much better than he used to, and this has some pretty affecting bits.

88. DK1 - Das Koolies

There are some pretty cool bits, but they are not the Super Furry Animals.

89. Paranoia, Angels, True Love - Christine and the Queens

This album's 96 minutes long. I think that was a mistake.

90. 10000 gecs - 100 gecs

Probably a lot of fun to make. Wouldn't be surprised if these two become massively successful doing something slightly different to this.

91. Paint My Bedroom Black - Holly Humberstone

92. Look Over the Wall, See the Sky - John Francis Flynn

93. I Killed Your Dog - L'Rain

94. Oh Me Oh My - Lonnie Holley

95. She Brings Me Back to the Land of the Living - Cian Nugent

96. Mercy - John Cale

97. We Use Diabetic Test Strips - Armand Hammer

98. Radio Songs - Dave Rowntree

99. Messy - Olivia Dean

100. Laugh Track - The National

And, on my least favourite album ...

I didn't like the Lana Del Rey album with the interminable title and the interminable running time. I've listened to Lana Del Rey a fair amount down the years, but have realised, with significant self-reproach, that was wasted time. Lana Del Rey is like WWE to me - something where there is a conceit, and, while others are able to see through the conceit to something they assure me is meaningful, noble, entertaining and beautiful, I can only see the conceit. No doubt it's how lots of people feel about that other auteur of stylised Americana, Wes Anderson. I love Wes Anderson, though, and his films are not 4 hours long. 

Every artist has a long album in them, and every artist should be forgiven one hour-plus album every five or so. But all of LDR's recent albums are well over an hour, apart from Chemtrails Over the Country Club, which was the only one I was close to liking. 

It's always worth giving an artist a chance, but not too much of a chance...

I'm just going to name 10 songs. Harder to pick out songs, for some reason.

1. why does the earth give us people to love - Kara Jackson

2. alyosha - Susanne Sundfor

3. The Narcissist - Blur

4. Will Anybody Ever Love Me? - Sufjan Stevens

5. not strong enough - boygenius

6. Younger and Dumber - Indigo de Souza

7. Now and Then - The Beatles

8. The Greater Wings - Julie Byrne

9. Last Rotation of Earth - BC Camplight

10. Nothing Matters - The Last Dinner Party

I went to three big outdoor shows, and will treasure in particular

Thunder Road 

Under the Westway

That's Entertainment

The Rat

Maps

These were the music videos on youtube I watched many times:

The Only Living Boy ... (isn't that the most poignant thing ...)

Fairytale ...

Get Back

The Weight (70s)

The Weight (2010s)

Isis

(oh yeah, classic rock for me ...)

Next year will hopefully see new albums by Nick Cave, Gruff Rhys, Vampire Weekend, Joanna Newsom, Paul Weller, Waxahatchee, Laura Marling and, who knows, maybe Dylan, Tom Waits and the Walkmen. Joni Mitchell? Why not ...

My favourite books I read this year were (no order):

The Heat of the Day - Elizabeth Bowen

The Ballad of Peckham Rye - Muriel Spark

Small Things Like These - Claire Keegan

A Different Drummer - William Melvin Kelley

Pledging My Time: Conversations with Bob Dylan Band Members - Ray Padgett

Old God's Time - Sebastian Barry

The Wren, The Wren - Anne Enright

Harlem Shuffle - Colson Whitehead 

Western Lane - Chetna Maroo 

and Fantastic Mr Fox. Still perfect. While Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator is a mad bag of bad nonsense.

Favourite films watched (no order):

Aftersun

Decision to Leave

The Quiet Girl

Women Talking

Oppenheimer

Flora and Son

Killers of the Flower Moon

May December

Asteroid City

Rye Lane

And actually, I just watched Maestro yesterday, and it was much better than i thought it would be. People have been a bit funny about it. It's a beautifully made and acted film.

The Bear was the best TV, Tom Waits and Iggy Pop on 6Music the best radio. 

There. Finished.

The Measure

As kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame;

As tumbled over rim in roundy wells

Stones ring; like each tucked string tells, each hung bell's

Bow swung finds tongue to fling out broad its name;

Each mortal thing does one thing and the same:

Deals out that being indoors each one dwells;

Selves — goes itself; myself it speaks and spells,

Crying Whát I dó is me: for that I came.

Gerard Manley Hopkins

I could have been someone

Shane MacGowan

It may be that this blog is drawing to a close, though I've thought that a few times before. Since the last post, it's been a few months, I've had a few ideas, but just not been bothered to take the time to inadequately express something small. So, maybe this is something of a last hurrah. Probably not, but maybe.

I am drawn back to write about Shane MacGowan, inevitably. I've written a few times about Shane MacGowan before, particularly in December 2020. This will expand on some of those thoughts and will become self-indulgent. There's been a huge outpouring of warmth at his death, as you'd have expected. He meant a lot to many people. He meant a lot to me.

I knew a little about the Pogues in the 80s. I think they were well-liked by one or more of my siblings, or my cousins. Then MacGowan became a figure of some dark tabloid fascination in the 90s, without my really diving deep into his music. I liked That Woman's Got Me Drinking by The Popes and paid some attention to Haunted, his duet with Sinead O'Connor. Of course, there was always Fairytale of New York, I perhaps knew one or two others, not much else. He was in the gossip pages of the NME fairly often, for good or bad.

In around 2000, I started to investigate the Pogues further, and was bowled over in particular by Rainy Night in Soho. I also became fascinated by Haunted (originally a Pogues song, then rerecorded in the 90s). I think it is one of the most personally significant songs I've ever listened to, in fact. It is the most blatant example of the juxtaposition of the conventionally (if you can ever describe Sinead O'Connor as conventional) beautiful with the apparently ugly, for the purpose of creating a greater beauty. It really defines that idea. It told me a lot, in a very clear way, about what music I loved and why I loved it. 

It just seems to be something in music some of us love, and some of us don't. Some fly from the first sign of ugliness, some have no choice but to embrace it, I listened to it over and over again, waiting to be thrilled by the moment when Shane bursts in ..."you got a way of walking..." Both of them are utterly angelic, in their different ways, on that song.

And over the last 20-odd years, I've listened to the Pogues more and more - to songs which seem to me to be obvious classics - like Springsteen, or Dylan. Sally McLennane, Sick Bed of Cuchulainn, Streams of Whiskey, Body of an American, If I Should Fall from Grace With God, Fiesta, A Pair of Brown Eyes, Summer in Siam, The Old Main Drag, London Girl etc. I'd sing gleefully, raucously along to them when I was working down in the shed and had lost any sense of inhibition, during lockdown. I can sing them well, actually.

I was too young to properly experience the Pogues in their prime (oddly, the only time I saw Shane in the flesh was when he strolled out to do Dirty Old Town with Babyshambles, of all people, at Benicassim in 2006). How thrilling and life-enhancing they must have been for the London Irish and for everyone they struck a chord with. Especially as it was the 80s, and so much or rock music was so clueless and misguided in the 80s. To be one of the very few bands, like the Replacements on the other side of the Atlantic, that figured it out and set the template for the decade to come - how to take the best from punk and also from their own traditional forms, to make something fierce and beautiful and timeless. The Pogues are a paragon. I love the fact that they were the biggest influence on the Walkmen. You wouldn't think to hear it. But it's true, pure rock'n'roll. 

Like Dylan's, the songs sound like redrawings of fundamentals, they borrow from what already exists, yet still manufacture something unique, something which seems obvious yet no one had ever thought of before.

And then there's MacGowan the man. A man not separate from his music. A music not separate from its man. 

I suppose my interest was piqued by his incongruities and the superficial similarities of our biography. The name. The ears. The ... departure from conventional beauty norms. The London public schoolboy. Loving The Jam. The Irishness, of course, the London Irishness. 

But I'm not like Shane McGowan. I'm not brilliant or wild. The two famous people who I've identified with most strongly, actually the only two I've felt I'm made of the same fundamental stuff as, are Shane McGowan and Wayne Rooney. But they're both brilliant and wild.

When Wayne Rooney emerged, I wished he'd been 8 years older than me, rather than vice versa, as I'd have known how to play football as well as I could if I'd had his example, his physical template, to follow. I'd have played like him (obviously much worse, but like him ...)

But I'd never really have wanted to be like Shane MacGowan, I suppose. The forces against living like that were too strong, too formative.

Alcoholic is one word. Addict is another. People like to use those words these days, to denote the illness, the tragedy. To visualise a different, better person not trapped in the cycle of abuse. Still, there is a place for a word like "drinker". A more dignifying, romantic, word. There remains a place for that.

Some people are drinkers. Maybe there was some point in time when that wasn't what they were, but that time is too far gone to be relevant. Shane MacGowan, a drinker, made it 65. My father, Paddy McGaughey, a drinker, made it to 70. Decent efforts under the circumstances, in both cases.

I thought about MacGowan a fair bit in my dad's final years. I certainly, cliche though it is, thought about him as the protagonist in Fairytale from New York. I was having a drink with him on Christmas Eve 2009 and I think we were both thinking "won't see another one".

I drank with him a lot between 1996 and 2010 because that was the thing to do, and I got to understand him (and, by extension, people like him) pretty well. It was always cordial, but not always smooth.

Was he like Shane MacGowan? In some ways, perhaps. MacGowan was clearly brilliant as a boy from the Irish countryside who won writing competitions and won a scholarship to a leading English public school. I suspect he had sucked up most of the lore and literature that fed into his greatest songs while he was still in his teens. Perhaps his brilliance was not entirely gone too soon, who knows, but certainly he was unproductive, compared to his promise, after the age of 30. 

My father was also, by accounts including his own (!), brilliant as a child and a young man from the rural edge of an Irish city who took himself to England at 18. Those meetings in Paddington pubs we shared in my early adulthood featured plenty of regrets and disappointments (on both sides) but also plenty of signs that what gifts had once been abundant was still there, just in a reduced form.

It is, needless to say, complex. I never wished or considered that my father would stop drinking, nor that he would seek to extend his life beyond the natural course such a lifestyle took him. It was a luxury I had to think that way, I suppose. I was a peripheral, pretty undamaged part of what wreckage there was. I could afford to respect his attempts to hold on to dignity, to not seek pity, to, really and truly, enjoy the drink and the barstool and the chat, to be true to himself, and accept the consequences.

Sometimes. Sometimes it was irritating. On my own behalf, "irritating" on my mother's behalf and his later partner/carer's, on my older siblings' behalf, on anyone's behalf who was was caught in the crossfire. Irritating to assume the role of confidante and forgiver. I remember sitting in the McDonald's at Marble Arch in 1996 (so probably one of the first adult-to-adult drinks we'd had), thoroughly vexed and saddened. I can't remember exactly what it was. Just disappointment mainly. I got over that moment. I never really felt that bad about the whole business again. I always protected myself and was my mother's son, above all.

In the end, all the mayhem and pain gets mostly forgotten, even forgiven. MacGowan's bandmates, who had to kick him out of their magnificent band, love and honour him. The church was packed for my father's funeral and the revelling went into the night. It sticks in the craw of some, I suppose. They say, don't romanticize the disease, the ruin.

But these are great songs and these are drinking songs, nearly every one. Funny, ruinous, pathetic, beautiful. There is no separation.

If I was to choose 12 Shane MacGowan/Pogues songs for each day of Christmas, I'd go with with ...

A Rainy Night in Soho (a perfect song, a song that should be Number 1 for 20 weeks)

Sally MacLennane

Summer in Siam

Haunted (with Sinead O'Connor)

The Sick Bed of Cuchulainn

Turkish Song of the Damned

The Body of an American

Pair of Brown Eyes

The Broad Majestic Shannon

Streams of Whiskey

Fairytale of New York

The Parting Glass

But really, almost all the early Pogues songs are good to great. There was something bulletproof about that sound, that voice and that pen for a few years

Farewell Shane MacGowan, you figurehead (hero is definitely the wrong word) for us somewhat Irish people, us London people, us people who love rock'n'roll and history, who love lines that scan like magic and make you laugh, us unconventional-looking men, us unconventional singers, us fans of The Jam and of Murder Ballads, us McGs, for people who drink and people who know people who drink and still see the beauty in it. Maybe it could have been different. Maybe better. Maybe not.

My Favourite Albums of the 21st Century

This isn't the first, or second, or even third, time I've made a similar list, but I feel like updating it with urgency, I'm not entirely sure why.

I have had a surge of affection for the concept of albums in general, for the fact that there are still great albums coming out every year, despite everything.

The album is very much my main format again. That's the funny thing. That's what streaming has done for me, though I know that's not what it's done for most people. When I was on iTunes and iPods, I listened mainly to playlists of my own construction, usually having rapidly sifted the best tracks from albums. Sometimes I've listened to the radio more, sometimes I've used shuffle more.

But I find, with the slightly clunky mechanisms of Sonos and Apple Music, I just want to put on an album, then another album, then another, through my working day. I am very lucky to work with the music I choose on in the background all day.

Often I listen to new albums, usually two or three new ones a week, sometimes more, rarely fewer, usually at least two or three times each, more if I like them, of course. Sometimes I listen to old favourites which catch my memory. Sometimes I go chronologically through the whole, or a large part, of the career of someone major, be it Joni Mitchell or REM or Nick Drake or whoever.

I've noticed that, throughout my life, my primary mode of listening has changed at quite regular intervals. For the first years, it was mainly records in our house, then from about 1988 I mainly listened to cassettes up until about 1998, when it was CDs until around 2006 when downloads took over, up to 2014 when I started streaming. Something new should be coming along anytime! Or maybe I'll go back to records ... unlikely, so expensive. We have a few, but I'm sadly stuck on streaming. Not Spotify, to alleviate my conscience a little.

I started with Top 100 nut have ended up around 200 albums, which covers pretty well the albums since 2000 that I love. I didn't want to leave out anything that I have at any point really loved. I think I've managed a pretty honest list, where I haven't second guessed myself or tried to appear to have more eclectic taste than I do. I am more eclectic in my initial listening than in my loves. if you see what I mean. I revert to the mean, after all. 

Talking of which, a few thoughts about artists who, for various reasons, don't appear on the list.

There are people who have made lots of songs I love this century, like Yeah Yeah Yeahs, the Maccabees, Girls Aloud, but there just isn't quite an album I've lived with and loved.

And there are people who have created great albums I've enjoyed, but I've not quite felt like they were mine. Foremost among those ... Taylor Swift, Arctic Monkeys, Radiohead. I like all the Radiohead albums this century, but the only Radiohead albums I love are The Bends and OK Computer. Too many other people love 21st century Radiohead for reasons I struggle with. Actually, there's a fantastic recent interview with Thom Yorke, which is in a forthcoming book called The Singers Talk, which really helped me understand why 21st century Radiohead are not quite my thing. 

He talks about how much he loves Blood on the Tracks and how Dylan goes - and i think these are pretty much his exact words - all the way with the songwriter thing, whereas he himself can't quite go all the way with the songwriter thing, because he treats song creation too much like painting, and is too interested in the weird sounds. 

And really, that's what I feel about a lot of 21st century music, I want people to go all the way with the songwriter thing. There are artists who don't, like Radiohead, but you know that if they did it would be brilliant, but there are a lot of artists who actually couldn't, and i think they do other stuff to get away with the fact they're not actually great songwriters.

A couple of other interesting things from the Thom Yorke interview, while I'm on the subject - seems obvious, but he had classical singing lessons when he was at school, he learnt where to sing from and where to sing to. Also obvious, he takes incredibly good care of his voice, and knows every nuance and every warning sign. Anyway, still, no Radiohead on this list. Not even In Rainbows, not even A Moon Shaped Pool. They are a good band, though. You should check them out.

I wanted to include albums I loved for a time, even if I don't love them anymore. e.g. I wasn't going to include Wilco by Wilco, but I remember how high it figured in my iTunes Most Listened for a few years, and how in the months after it came out, i told people i thought it was a perfect album, but then it just all of a sudden seemed a bit like Wilco-by-numbers. But I did love it, and it's good.

Likewise with Seldom Seen Kid by Elbow, 22 Dreams by Weller. I listened to them a lot for a while. I also remember the album by Monsters of Folk got a lot of iTunes listens, but I can't remember a single song from it, so I have left that off.

I have also left on some albums by some bad guys, discredited, unpleasant guys. There we go. They were albums I loved at a time.

It was going to be 100, then 150, but it's a bit more than 200 in the end. I'm sure there are albums, particularly from the early to mid 2000s, where listening wasn't tracked, either by me or by Apple, quite so well, which should be here, little gems I loved for a few months. So really, the precise number of albums on the list is irrelevant. I should imagine I've listened, all the way through, to approaching 2000 new albums since 2000. This is a good selection.

There are a few interesting trends, though more interesting to me than anyone else, so I won't dwell on them. I'll only mention the albums are pretty evenly distributed, apart from 2011, 2012 and 2013, which have hardly any. I can think of three of four different but linked reasons why which relate to my own listening habits, but, above all,  I just genuinely think that is not a great time for albums, or rather, for the kind of albums I like.

But they recovered with a vengeance. Or maybe, perhaps more interestingly, that was the time (mid-30s) I was meant to stop being into new music, like happens to most people, but I stuck it out and got a second wind. Very pleased I did.

So, anyway, I think I've written before about what makes me love an album or think an album is great. It's not that deep. But I do really like a strong second half.

Having relaxed the criteria a little towards the end of the process, I will probably think of a few more ... and think, well obviously I love Radiohead's In Rainbows as much as I like Run the Jewels 2. Who am I kidding? But, anyway, here's my nice list.

1. St Cloud - Waxahatchee (2020) - bit of recency bias, but this is my favourite. I've been listening to it solidly since it came out. I just think it's perfect and a joy and a marvel.
2. The Trials of Van Occupanther (2006) - Midlake
3. Purple Mountains - Purple Mountains (2019) - lyrically, I really think the best album I've ever heard. Line after line, horrible, funny, mathematical, human.
4. Yankee Hotel Foxtrot - Wilco (2002) - was my favourite album of all time for a while, but has quietly been overtaken.
5. More Adventurous - Rilo Kiley (2004)
6. Nixon - Lambchop (2000)
7. Melodrama - Lorde (2017)
8. Have One On Me - Joanna Newsom (2010) -  Most albums should have between 9 and 13 songs, be between 33 and 51 minutes. But some get to be different.
9. Skeleton Tree - Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds (2016)
10. The Sophtware Slump - Grandaddy (2000)
11. Illinois - Sufjan Stevens (2005)
12. Song for Our Daughter - Laura Marling (2020)
13. The World Won't End - The Pernice Brothers (2001)
14. Lapalco - Brendan Benson (2002)
15. Busy Guy - Stephen Fretwell (2021)
16. A Ghost is Born - Wilco (2004)
17. No More Shall We Part - Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds (2000) - it's funny, really, I almost ended up putting only two Cave albums on this list. See what I said about Radiohead for how I feel about Push the Sky Away, even Ghosteen. This is my favourite Cave - rambling, biblical, almost conventional.
18. Free All Angels - Ash (2001)
19. The Hour of Bewilderbeast - Badly Drawn Boy (2000). Free All Angels and Bewilderbeast. Like decades haven't happened.
20. Alligator - The National (2005)
21. The Midnight Organ Fight - Frightened Rabbit (2008)
22. Phantom Power - Super Furry Animals (2003) - the best SFA album, I think.
23. Want One - Rufus Wainwright (2003)
24. 1972 - Josh Rouse (2003)
25. Chutes Too Narrow - The Shins (2003)
26. Run Come Save Me - Roots Manuva (2001)
27. Carrie and Lowell - Sufjan Stevens (2015)
28. Blackstar- David Bowie (2016)
29. Lemonade - Beyonce (2016) - just, most of the albums I love aren't part of the zeitgeist, and I think I have an active problem if albums belong to too many other people, but Lemonade was really like a cinematic event everyone was invited to, and it lived up to it
30. On the Line - Jenny Lewis (2019)
31. Hate - The Delgados (2004) Masterpiece of misanthropy
32. Ys - Joanna Newsom (2006)
33. Nashville - Josh Rouse (2005)
34. Modern Times - Bob Dylan (2006)
35. Sky Blue Sky - Wilco (2007)
36. Lisbon - The Walkmen (2010)
37. American Interior - Gruff Rhys (2014)
38. Little Black Numbers - Kathryn Williams (2000)
39. Funeral - Arcade Fire (2004) In the grisly, creepy end, their only good album.
40. Why Does the Earth Give Us People to Love - Kara Jackson (2023) This is the highest album from 2023. The title track is such a lovely tune.
41. I'm Wide Awake It's Morning - Bright Eyes (2005)
42. Strangers - Ed Harcourt (2005)
43. Heartbreaker - Ryan Adams (2000)
44. The ArchAndroid - Janelle Monae (2010)
45. The Ballad of Darren - Blur (2023) I think it's fine to love an album because we're just glad it exists. No doubt this album will fade a little in time, but, right now, I'm so pleased with it.
46. Moving Up Country, Roaring the Gospel - James Yorkston and the Athletes (2002)
47. Beautiful Collision - Bic Runga (2002)
48. The Execution of All Things - Rilo Kiley (2002)
49. High Violet - The National (2010)
50. Meriweather Post Pavilion - Animal Collective (2009)
51. Is This It - The Strokes (2001) Turns out, though I moan about it, I like this album a lot.
52. Here Be Monsters - Ed Harcourt (2001)
53. The Dreaming Room - Laura Mvula (2016)
54. Heaven - The Walkmen (2012)
55. O - Damien Rice (2002) Feels pretty discredited, and I've hardly listened to it in 15+ years, but when I did, I realised it was still very good.
56. Holes in the Wall - Electric Soft Parade (2002)
57. Micah P Hinson and the Gospel of Progress (2004)
58. Rough and Rowdy Ways - Bob Dylan (2020)
59. Benji - Sun Kil Moon (2014) A great, humane, album which doesn't really hint (although maybe it does at times) at all the bad stuff thart would come out about its maker
60. Dear Catastrophe Waitress - Belle and Sebastian (2003)
61. Real Life - Joan as Police Woman (2006)
62. Cease to Begin - Band of Horses (2007)
63. Challengers - New Pornographers (2007) I should like Destroyer more, considering how much I loved the Dan Bejar songs on this.  Have never quite loved anything else by either him  or the New Porongraphers as much as this one, though.
64. To Pimp a Butterfly - Kendrick Lamar (2015)
65. 22 Dreams - Paul Weller (2008)
66. When the Haar Rolls In - James Yorkston (2008)
67. Lifted … - Bright Eyes (2002)
68. Asleep in the Back - Elbow (2001) This was 2001 pre-Strokes, my friend John copied me five "new acoustic" albums onto tape - this, Matthew Jay, Turin Brakes, Kings of Convenience, I am Kloot. It was all meant to be the next big thing. I still like Elbow a lot. I think they really tried to sound different from themselves, but were never quite able to.
69. Blómi - Suzanne Sundfor (2023) This is from this year, and has some of the most straightforwardly pretty songs I've heard for a long time.
70. Back to Black - Amy Winehouse (2006)
71. I Speak Because I Can - Laura Marling (2010)
72. Divers - Joanna Newsom (2015)
73. Awfully Deep - Roots Manuva (2005)
74. So Jealous - Tegan and Sara (2004)
75. Sometimes I Might be Introvert - Little Simz (2021)
76. St Vincent - St Vincent (2014)
77. Picaresque - The Decemberists (2005)
78. Draw - Matthew Jay (2001)
79. The Crane Wife - Decemberists (2006)
80. Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes (2008)
81. Natalie Prass - Natalie Prass (2015)
82. Golden Hour - Kacey Musgraves (2018)
83. Gold - Ryan Adams  (2001) I still have a weird affection for this album, despite everything and everything else
84. Fifth Column - UNPOC (2003)
85. I am a Bird Now - Antony and the Johnsons (2005) Also, Anohni and the Johnsons did a great album this year, My Back Was a Bridge for You to Cross, the best work since I Am a Bird Now, in my opinion, which could easily be on the list, but I just left out.
86. American III: Solitary Man - Johnny Cash (2000)
87. A Different Lifetime - Spearmint (2001)
88. Give Blood - Brakes (2005) Fun as fuck. Probably the best festival band I ever saw.
89. Masseduction - St Vincent (2017)
90. The Navigator - Hurray for the Riff-Raff (2017)
91. Fetch the Boltcutters - Fiona Apple (2020)
92. The Worse Things Get, The Harder I Fight, the Harder I Fight, the More I Love You - Neko Case (2013)
93. Legacy! Legacy! - Jamila Woods (2019)
94. It Still Moves - My Morning Jacket (2003) The start of this album is one of my all-time favourites. What a sound.
95. My Maudlin Career - Camera Obscura (2009)
96. Sound of Silver - LCD Soundsystem (2007) In this case, I have probably, unlike in some cases, put an album on because I love some songs in it so much. It's not an album I've enjoyed that much all the way through. That's true of all their albums really.
97. The Last Broadcast - Doves (2002)
98. Cassadaga - Bright Eyes (2007)
99. The Shepherd's Dog - Iron and Wine (2007)
100. The Magic Whip - Blur (2014)
101. Supreme Clientele - Ghostface Killah (2000)
102. Surf - Roddy Frame (2002)
103. True Meanings - Paul Weller (2018)
104. May Your Kindness Remain - Courtney Marie Andrews (2018)
105. Love and Theft - Bob Dylan (2001)
106. Psychodrama - Dave (2019)
107. Up the Bracket - The Libertines (2002)
108. Rings Around the World - Super Furry Animals (2001)
109. Popular Problems - Leonard Cohen (2014)
110. American IV: The Man Comes Around - Johnny Cash (2002)
111. Arular - MIA (2005)
112. Final Straw - Snow Patrol (2003)
113. World Without Tears - Lucinda Williams (2003)
114. Open Season - Sea Power (2005)
115. Helplessness Blues - Fleet Foxes (2011)
116. SOS - SZA (2022) This is such an impressive album, and, though a bit long, such an enjoyable listen. To meet, even surpass, expectation when there's hype, to make something so commercial but rich in songs. To me, this album reminds me of Back to Black.
117. All is Dream - Mercury Rev (2001) If the list started a year or two earlier, Deserter's Songs would be Top 20. As would The Soft Bulletin. Those are the main two which feel like they belong to, and set a template for, this century but I can't include.
118. Tom McRae - Tom McRae (2000)
119. Modern Vampires of the City - Vampire Weekend (2012). Mixed feelings about Vampire Weekend, very similar to Franz Ferdinand - super-fun indie crossover bands, both of which I've seen, and hugely enjoyed, twice (in fact, the Franz Ferdinand Benicassim set may be the best festival headliner I've ever seen) but, though I like all their albums, just, they're not quite mine. But I think this is their best.
120. Semper Femina - Laura Marling (2017) All her albums are great. This one, which I thought merely decent at the time, has really stayed witth me.
121. Autofiction - Suede (2022) It's so good, last year's Suede album. Honestly. So much oomph.
122. Vulnerabilia - My Computer (2002) Strange outlier from the early 2000s. If this had really taken hold, my taste would be completely different by now.
123. Hoodies All Summer - Kano (2019)
124. A Certain Trigger - Maximo Park (2005)
125. Kids in Philly - Marah (2000) I remember what a big album this was for me - American barroom rock, or whatever you call it. The song Round Eye Blues, honestly, I think it's one of the best songs ever, as good as anything Springsteen has ever done. "I still sense the circling danger of those invisible bastards on a piss-hot day". I love that line.
126. First Love - Emmy the Great (2009)
127. The Seldom Seen Kid - Elbow (2008)
128. Pre Pleasure - Julia Jacklin (2022)
129. Wilco - Wilco (2009)
130. Metals - Feist (2011)
131. Anniemal - Annie (2004)
132. Stay Gold - First Aid Kit (2014)
133. A Seat at the Table - Solange Knowles (2016)
134. Two Ribbons - Let's Eat Grandma (2022) This band should rename themselves. This album is so sad.
135. Fold Your Hands, Child, You Walk Like a Peasant - Belle and Sebastian (2000)
136. Big Time - Angel Olsen (2022)
137. The Order of Time - Valerie June (2017)
138. The Great Eastern - The Delgados (2000)
139. Stereo/Mono - Paul Westerberg (2002)
140. From Every Sphere - Ed Harcourt (2003) I loved this for a year or two much more than its placing suggests.
141. KC Rules OK - King Creosote (2005)
142. Out of Season - Beth Gibbons and Rustin Man (2002)
143. Original Pirate Material - The Streets (2002)
144. Rewind the Film/Futurology - Manic Street Preachers (2013) This is two albums released in the same year - it was the point that really strengthened my love of the Manics. How much they still cared, this far into their career.
145. I Never Learn - Lykke Li (2014)
146. Think Tank - Blur (2003) I am a big Think Tank apologist. Has one of the best moods of all Blur albums. Actually prefer it to 13.
147. Are We There - Sharon van Etten (2014)
148. All Days are Nights - Rufus Wainwright (2010)
149. The Tipping Point - Tears for Fears (2022)
150. Old Ideas - Leonard Cohen (2012)
151. Push the Sky Away - Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds (2013)
152. Wincing the Night Away - The Shins (2006)
153. 4.44 - Jay-Z (2017)
154. Vulnicura - Bjork (2015)
155. I Love you Jennifer B - Jockstrap (2022)
156. The Cellardyke Recording and Wassailing Society (2014) James Yorkston. Yorkston and Marling are the two best British singer-songwriters this century, for me.
157. Let it Come Down - Spiritualized (2001) This was the first Spiritualized album after  Ladies and Gentlemen, and revealed their relative feet of clay, but it's still got some lovely songs.
158. Franz Ferdinand - Franz Ferdinand (2004)
159. Someone to Drive You Home - The Long Blondes (2006)
160. The King is Dead - The Decemberists (2011)
161. Boy in Da Corner - Dizzee Rascal (2003)
162. Stories from the City,  Stories from the Sea - PJ Harvey (2000)
163. Cast of Thousand - Elbow (2003) This is a good example of something. I added this at the last minute. I'd really forgotten that I listened to it a lot. I had condensed it to a couple of songs (Fugitive motel and Switching Off) but actually, I used to love the whole album. Elbow have a long tail of 7.5 albums, but their first 4 are 8.5s.
164. Hotel Shampoo - Gruff Rhys (2011)
165. No Cities to Love - Sleater-Kinney (2015)
166. Is a Woman - Lambchop (2002)
167. Mid Air - Paul Buchanan (2012)
168. I Walked With You a Ways - Plains (2022)
169. Through the Windowpane - Guillemots (2006) The Guillemots were quickly swallowed by hype and became part of the landfill indie story, but I really really love a few of the songs on this album.
170. Silent Alarm - Bloc Party (2005)
171. Magpie - Stephen Fretwell (2004)
172. From Scotland with Love - King Creosote (2014)
173. The New Abnormal - The Strokes (2020)
174. The Good, The Bad and the Queen (2007) I wasn't going to include this or any Gorillaz, because I always listen to them and wish it was Blur. But I listened to this album a lot. Albarn may have released more good/very good albums than anyone else this century.
175. Renaissance - Beyonce (2022)
176. Lost Souls - Doves (2000)
177. 100 Broken Windows - Idlewild (2000)
178. Loss - Mull Historical Society (2001)
179. Master and Everyone - Bonnie "Prince" Billy (2003)
180. The Sunset Trees - Mountain Goats (2005)
181. LP1 - FKA Twigs (2014)
182. Journal for Plague Lovers - Manic Street Preachers (2009)
183. Boys Outside - Steve Mason. One of the best uses of his sad and lovely voice (2010)
184. You Could Have It So Much Better with Franz Ferdinand - Franz Ferdinand. The first two FF albums are both supernice, now I think about it (2005)
185. Relationship of Command - At the Drive-In (2000)
186. Yeezus - Kanye West. Don't know, really. Kanye West is one of the worst people of the century, and I couldn't contemplate listening to his stupid voice now, but this album felt like a shock of brilliance for a while (2013)
187. Red Dirt Girl - Emmylou Harris (2000)
188. The End of History - Fionn Regan (2006)
189. The Greatest - Cat Power (2006)
190. Rips - Ex Hex (2014)
191. Any Other City -Life without Buildings (2001)
192. Waterslide, Diving Board, Ladder to the Sky - Porridge Radio (2022)
193. The Liberty of Norton Folgate - Madness (2009)
194. Love & Hate - Michael Kiwanuka. This wasn't the one that won the Mercury, but I think this is the best Kiwanuka album. Such a rich sound (2016)
195. Weathervanes - Jason Isbell (2023)
196. Scissor Sisters - Scissor Sisters. Definitely liked the Scissor Sisters until everyone else liked them (2014)
197. American Band - Drive-By Truckers (2016)
198. The Glare - David McAlmont and Michael Nyman. This is a brilliant, one-off album. McAlmont writes and songs about news stories (2009)
199. This is Hope - Mull Historical Society (2004)
200. I Know You're Married But I've Got Feelings Too - Martha Wainwright (2008)
201. Rabbit Fur Coat - Jenny Lewis (2006)
202. The Whole Love - Wilco. Even at this stage, Wilco were making really good albums (2011)
203. Queen of Denmark - John Grant (2010)
204. Ease Down the Road - Bonnie "Prince" Billy (2001)
205. Night Falls Over Kortedala - Jens Lekman (2007)
206. Do You Like Rock Music? - Sea Power (2008)
207. Hot Shots II - The Beta Band (2001) The last two Beta Band albums were both really good. Not as good as the three Eps, but really good.
208. The Reminder - Feist (2007)
209. Razorlight - Razorlight (2006) Razorlight became the biggest joke, but their first album was a sharp shock of sweet powerpop.
210. Run the Jewels 2 - Run the Jewels (2014)
211. Nothing is Wrong - Dawes (2011)
212. The Blueprint - Jay-Z (2001)
213. Humanz - Gorillaz (2017)
214. United by Fate - Rival Schools (2001)

Going live

I'll reflect on the three concerts I went to this summer - Springsteen at Hyde Park, Blur at Wembley, The Strokes at All Points East.

I paid near enough to £100 for each of them. I'd say they were all worth it, in as much as the feeling you occasionally get from live music is precious and priceless, and I experienced one or more of those moments on each of those days.

The acts I saw:

Frank Turner and the Sleeping Souls, The Chicks, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band

Steve Davis (DJ), The Selecter, Paul Weller, Blur

The Lazy Eyes, Brigitte Calls Me Baby, Be Your Own Pet, The Walkmen, Angel Olsen, Amyl and the Sniffers, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Strokes.

Frank Turner, an artist who I'm not a big fan of and have not enjoyed live before, I really enjoyed this time. His bonhomie and enthusiasm carried the day. During The Chicks set I was stressing about phone reception and meeting my friend so they seemed good but I'm afraid they didn't get my full attention.

Springsteen and the E Street Band are one of the major musical forces in history and they didn't disappoint. It is a thing to marvel at - men in their 70s going full whack for 3 hours. Despite it being a finely honed machine, it still feels raw and reel. Real sounds, real sweat, real emotions.

He played Badlands then Thunder Road then Born in the USA then Born to Run. You just couldn't top it. Singing every word of Thunder Road at the top of my lungs, unembarrassed, 1000s of people doing the same. Pure joy.

Blur were only three days later, a tough act to follow. I was conscious that this was the second show they booked, that the hardest of hardcore Blur fans would have booked for the first one, the day before. I knew Wembley on Day 2 wasn't 100% full, and I could see it, I knew that the first time I saw Blur, in 2009, was untoppable, and I was setting myself up to be a tiny bit disappointed.

The Selecter were good, got a decent number of people dancing. Weller, the British Springsteen, if you will, was good, almost great - he played everything you'd hope but then finished with Start and Peacock Suit, rather than, say, Town Called Malice and Broken Stones, which would have been 100 times better, but that's just personal.

And Blur ... who I've now seen playing to huge crowds three times. I wonder at how emotional their music is now. I'm not sure that's what would have been predicted 30 years ago. I also wonder at how vast their ballads have become. To The End, This is a Low, Tender, The Universal, those songs have grown and grown with time. There's something about Damon Albarn's voice, what it aspires to, which is so surprisingly perfect for stadium gigs. 

Even Parklife was great. Under the Westway came into its own. They played two songs from the new album, which hadn't come out yet. Knowing how good the album would be, they showed some restraint not playing more of it. What a great band they are. I was not disappointed.

I've also now seen The Strokes three times at massive outdoor gigs (Benicassim, Hyde Park, Victoria Park), without them really ever being the reason I was there. They're a puzzle, those Strokes. I didn't enjoy them this time. I was worn out, I was alone, the sound was muddy. I left halfway through, correctly calculating that I would hear the rest of the set just as well as I walked back, out and round through Vic Park, and indeed that they would get to Hard to Explain just as I was walking parallel with the stage outside the fence.

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, who'd played just before on the other stage, were great, and I thought to myself while Julian mumbled away, "surely the Yeah Yeah Yeahs are the bigger band now", "are the Strokes still fit to headline anything?" but, when you look up the stats, the Strokes are still massive, the streaming numbers on songs from their (excellent) last album are great, and so, fair play. And indeed, I don't think, when I concentrated, they were doing anything wrong that night. Just the sound was bad. And he mumbles. And they don't surprise. And if a band's been going for over 20 years, and they're headlining not for the first time, then I think the sound being bad is kind of their responsibility.

Anyway, i was there for the Walkmen. I wasn't going to go initially. Then the Walkmen were added to the bill late on. The Walkmen, one of the finest rock bands of the century, returned from their extreme hiatus this year, and wouldn't you know it, their London shows were in the week I was on holiday.

So, when The Walkmen were added to The Strokes/Yeah Yeah Yeahs APE bill late on, I decided it was worth £90 to hear 10 songs by them in an afternoon,  and if i couldn't find anyone, I'd go on my own.

Indeed, I persuaded myself when talking to a couple of people on the tube on the way back from Blur. as, when they said they were going and they hadn't heard of the Walkmen, I told them they were better than the Strokes. Which they are. But there we go. The Strokes are The Strokes. 

The Walkmen played at 5.30. They went down well, the drummer drummed like a motherfucker, Hamilton Leithauser sang like a demon, gave great chat. It was worth the money to be there and hear them and watch them. All the Hands and the Cook. We've Been Had. The Rat. Angela Surf City. Heaven. I wondered not for the first time how come the Strokes still carried so much weight and the Walkmen were a beloved little footnote. Hard to explain. 

The Leader of the Band

I watched 'Carny' before I ever listened to The Band. It may even be that I watched 'Carny' before I even listened in great depth to Bob Dylan. 

It was on Moviedrome where it had a long, enthusiastic introduction from Alex Cox. I remember that it's an odd, unsettling film, where Gary Busey does Gary Busey things, Jodie Foster holds the centre, and Robbie Robertson, who also co-wrote and produced it, looks like a certain kind of movie star. He never became a movie star, or acted much again, which slightly surprises me. He certainly had presence.

But I guess my point is, Robbie was with me a long time, and not as a background figure. He was a constant protagonist in my cultural education, not quite on a level with Dylan, but not far off.

Not long after watching 'Carny', I read 'Easy Riders, Raging Bulls'. He's a key figure in that too. If you're a bore like me and you consider Dylan and Scorsese the two great figures of American popular art, you know the common factor.

Scorsese's tribute https://pitchfork.com/news/martin-scorsese-remembers-the-bands-robbie-robertson-i-could-always-go-to-him-as-a-confidante/ came out within a few hours of Robertson's death, is full and beautiful.

Dylan, so reclusive and hard to get a word out of these days, might have said nothing, but said this https://pitchfork.com/news/bob-dylan-pays-tribute-to-former-bandmate-robbie-robertson/

Simple, but equally moving.

A few things about Robbie Robertson: he had an incredible life - he was the son of a native American women who married a Canadian serviceman, but he found out in his teens that his dad was actually a Jewish gangster who'd been murdered. He was a working musician from his mid-teens. He changed the course of popular music, he was a superb songwriter, he was one of the best electric guitar players who ever lived, and, at the time of The Last Waltz, it is fair to see he is one of the most handsome devils you'll ever see.

He probably had an odd relationship with the idea of being a "star". At the heart of the criticisms of him is his self-regard, which is perfectly in evidence in The Last Waltz, and in his writings and interviews. Equally, one of his greatest songs is called Stage Fright, and he did indeed suffer debilitating stage fright, and hardly ever played live again after The Last Waltz. He was actually a pretty good singer, but knew well enough that there were three better singers than him in The Band, so very rarely sang, and wrote songs specifically for other people's voices.

The Band were really just so incredible. They had five secret weapons. You can watch or listen to them and concentrate on one member each time. 

Robertson was the writer and lead guitarist. He took centre stage and preened a little. 

Garth Hudson was a musical virtuoso, in some ways the one that took them miles above all the other bands. He never sang or wrote songs as such, but arranged and played organ/keyboard, sax or anything else, taught the others in the early days. Even though the Band's whole thing was going back to roots, Hudson's incredible innovative organ playing makes them sound ahead of their time. When you watch them play, he seems to find the whole act of creating music blissful. He's the oldest, and the last one alive. He almost certainly took a lot less of everything than everyone else.

Richard Manuel wrote I Shall Be Released with Bob Dylan. He had two beautiful voices and played piano or anything else. Early on, people felt he might be the biggest star. His life was desperate.

Rick Danko was a great bassist, but also a fantastic singer, not just as a lead on the likes of It Makes No Difference, but one of the best singers of harmonies and backing vocals you'll ever hear. His life turned real dark too.

And Levon Helm, the drummer, is probably the biggest star. The greatest singing drummer who ever lived. A beloved figure across music. Died in 2012. Robertson and him were best friends but Helm ended up bitterly loathing Robertson, saying he cheated him out of songwriting royalties. It doesn't ring that true to me. Hard to say.

There's so much story in the Band. Robertson is the one that got rich, went to Hollywood, the one that looked like the company guy. Probably, he was just the one with the work ethic.

Anyway, I loved him. I'm really sad about his death, not least because he's just been a guy on twitter, tweeting out memories and pleasantries. There was no inkling he was ill. He tweeted out a picture of him and Garth with a cat in Woodstock in the late 60s the day before he died. You felt his version of events would outlast all else.

 The songs I've been listening to most this week are ...

Acadian Driftwood

It Makes No Difference

Chest Fever

The Shape I'm In

Up on Cripple Creek

King Harvest (Has Surely Come)

The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down

Somewhere Down the Crazy River

Stage Fright

The Weight

Once Were Brothers

To Kingdom Come

Out of the Blue

I Shall Be Released

Birthday Number 1s: 2023 - Sprinter (and the rest)

So, we come to the song that is, as of today, the UK Number 1 single, was on my 45th birthday, and has been for an impressive 8 weeks so far (by end of day, 9)

Sprinter - Dave & Central Cee

How fitting, since I went to great lengths not to be called Dave, since the name David McGaughey has, I suppose, a c at or near its centre, and since I have unquestionably, in my younger days, sprinted.

Dave (David Omoregie) has been a star of UK hip-hop for a few years. When he emerged, one might have thought he would be an early Dylan/Chuck D-like figure, a voice of seriousness, clarity and truth in a trivial world.

To a certain extent, that has applied to his albums. Acclaimed, Mercury-winning, Brit-winning, they cover heavy issues like generational trauma, mental health, abuse, racism, sometimes heavy-handedly, sometimes brilliantly. 

What's interesting, and was less predictable, is that alongside the righteous, powerful, acclaimed albums, he has also become a massive singles artists, with singles that are much more glib, hedonistic, braggadocious, than his initial persona suggested. 

Sprinter is spare, elegant, laid-back, arrogant. empty - Central Cee and Dave trade verses with barely a change of temperature. I can't quite detect what it has that has made it Number 1 for 8 weeks and the UK's best selling ever hip-hop track, but it's pretty good.

It's the third song to dominate the charts this year, after Flowers by Miley Cyrus, and Miracle by our old friend Calvin Harris and Ellie Goulding. 

I've paid closer attention to the charts this years than some years - there have been some fairly interesting hits, as, I guess, there always are.

One thing about Dave, which I think tells you everything you need to know about how far the pop charts are from being a universal, generational, family topic these days - we put "Dave song titles" as an answer in an OC wall last series. This was at a time when he'd won the Mercury, won the Brit, his single was at time of filming UK Number 1. It wasn't just that it wasn't got. The team was a very good team, in fact the team that would go on to win the series - they had good music knowledge, the might have got it, they were a bit disappointed not to, and I could have made the category one notch easier with an easier song title.

It was how much doubt there was about putting it in the wall, whether it was fair game. When it was literally one of the most popular artists in the UK right now. Now, of course, that says something about OC and its teams - one year, a team got "women in Velvet Underground song titles" but another team didn't get "Mariah Carey albums". But still.

So ... the fun bit. I've, of course I have, ranked them from favourite to least favourite.

In general, I feel I could have had a better bunch. A few classics, but quite a lot where I much preferred the Number 1 from a month earlier or later. There's very little "rock music" let alone indie rock. A few, like Florence, Sheeran, The Streets, who came vaguely from that world, but from the time of the hits, were resolutely in the pop world.

There are quite a few with a Latin feel, quite a few which were Number 1 for a very long time - like people couldn't be bothered to buy anything else over the summer.

When it comes to my favourite three, they're all top notch and they could really be in any order. My least favourite is out on its own, though fair to say We Will Rock You by 5ive ft Queen is truly a terrible record, but I'm quite fond of both acts, so it misses the bottom spot. I still hate Wannabe, even though I know that makes me a bad person.

So, here goes.

1. Umbrella - Rihanna ft Jay-Z (2007)
2. There Must Be an Angel (Playing with My Heart) - Eurythmics (1985)
3. Crazy in Love - Beyonce ft Jay-Z (2003)
4. I Don't Like Mondays - Boomtown Rats (1979)
5. Fame - Irene Cara (1982)
6. Black Magic - Little Mix (2015)
7. (Everything I Do) I Do it for You - Bryan Adams (1991)
8. La Bamba - Los Lobos (1987)
9. Dry Your Eyes - The Streets (2004)
10. Wake Me Up - Avicii (2013)
11. Livin' La Vida Loca - Ricky Martin (1999)
12. Papa Don't Preach - Madonna (1986)
13. Pray - Take That (1993)
14. Wherever I Lay My Hat - Paul Young (1983)
15. You're the One that I Want - John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John (1978)
16. Beautiful People - Ed Sheeran ft Khalid (2019)
17. Ain't No Doubt - Jimmy Nail (1992)
18. Use it Up and Wear it Out - Odyssey (1980)
19. Sprinter - Dave and Central Cee (2023)
20. Eternity/The Road to Mandalay - Robbie Williams (2001)
21. Afraid to Feel - LF System (2022)
22. Spectrum (Say My Name) - Florence and the Machine (2012)
23. Deeper Underground - Jamiroquai (1998)
24. We No Speak Americano - Yolanda B Cool and DCUP (2010)
25. Wild Thoughts - DJ Khaled ft Rihanna and Bryson Tiller (2017)
26. You're Beautiful - James Blunt (2005)
27. Turtle Power - Partners in Kryme (1990)
28. Me and My Broken Heart - Rixton (2014)
29. Anyone of Us (Stupid Mistake) - Gareth Gates (2002)
30. Head & Heart - Joel Corry ft MNEK (2020)
31. Green Door - Shakin' Stevens (1981)
32. Beat Again - JLS (2009)
33. Boom Boom Boom - Outhere Brothers (1995)
34. Glad You Came - The Wanted (2011)
35. Dance wiv Me - Dizzee Rascal ft Calvin Harris and Chrome (2008)
36. You'll Never Stop Me Loving You - Sonia (1989)
37. Two Tribes - Frankie Goes to Hollywood (1984)
38. Nothing's Gonna Change My Love for You - Glenn Medeiros (1988)
39. I'll Be Missing You - Puff Daddy ft Faith Evans and 112 (1997)
40. Bad Habits - Ed Sheeran (2021)
41. Love is All Around - Wet Wet Wet (1994)
42. Don't Stop Me Now/Please Please - McFly (2006)
43. In My Feelings - Drake (2018)
44. Wannabe - The Spice Girls (1996)
45. We Will Rock You - 5ive ft Queen (2000)
46. One Dance - Drake (2016)

Birthday Number 1s: 2022 - Afraid to Feel

Afraid to Feel - LF System

This is just one of those odd ones. Quite heartwarming really. It was Number 1 for 7 weeks in the summer of 2022 - I could have had We Don't talk About Bruno, Starlight by Dave, As It Was, the reissue of Running Up That Hill, B.O.T.A. which are all more characterful records, but I'm ok with this.

It just sounds like an excerpt from a fairly high quality, slightly middle-aged, club night. There's nothing wrong with that. LF System are two basically unknown Scottish DJs who put this together, based on the obscure Philadelphia soul track I Can't Stop (Turning You On) by soul band Silk, with sped up and slowed down vocals, and it's surprisingly pleasant and classy, but pretty difficult to understand what took it to the top of the charts in 2022 for seven weeks.

Still, good for them - breaking up the parade of stars, two blokes from Scotland who used to to be a roofer and a petrol station worker. Hopefully they made some good money from it, and maybe they'll make some magic again.

In recent years, the charts have fallen into something of a pattern, it seems to be, where at Christmas we have LadBaby, Mariah Carey and Wham, then, throughout the year, there are usually three or four massive records which take up about 30 weeks in total, with a few smaller hits dotted in between, including a couple of oddities (Wellerman) or revivals (Kate Bush).

A lot of the time, when I look through the Top 100 singles, it's quite dispiriting - there's certainly no place for indie and rock music in the way that there used to be, nowhere at all, a lot of songs just hang around the lower reaches clogging up space. But, saying all that, if you delve into the biggest hits of any given year, there are usually a fair few that are good, or interesting, or both.

Anyway, we are almost done. In the summer of 2022, the Lionesses triumphed, we went camping, we went to Dumfries and Galloway, and there was that proper long frightening heatwave that turned the grass white and made the leaves fall of the trees.

One more to go...

Birthday Number 1s: 2021 - Bad Habits

It's that guy again, with

Bad Habits - Ed Sheeran

which was Number 1 for 11 whole weeks in the summer of 2021, only to be replaced at Number 1 by a song called Shivers by a little feller called ... Ed Sheeran. What about competition?

I don't like this song really. It's thematically similar to Ed's previous entry, Beautiful People - he's ill at ease and regretting the social whirl he's found himself in. He needs to get back to who he really is. But this time I don't care.

Clearly this song was more of a hit and struck more of a chord, and I can't really explain why I warmed to the other and not this.

Obviously, I noticed I don't write with particularly insight about the actual music of music, and try to avoid it if necessary, almost as a matter of principal. It is interesting to me the way, even as musically uneducated people, we can make our minds up about two similar in some ways but different in other ways songs almost instantly. We have a collection of triggers and preferences we can barely, or not at all, put words to. That's really the part of pop music I love.

I can try to explain why, unlike almost everyone else, I was always completely indifferent or antagonistic to Purple Rain, when it sounds so much like the style of music I like, but, really it's a matter of mystery.

So it is here. I don't really like this song, There it is. I mean, comparing it to Beautiful People, it's like, realistically, that's about my 35,000th favourite song of all time and this is about the 85,000th, so it's not some huge dividing line, but still.

Summer of 2021 was still strange, but less strange than 2020. I had my second vaccine, we went on holiday, still masked up in public, but the fear was slightly easing.

They held the Euros, which felt like too much congregating, they held (though almost didn't) the Olympics behind closed doors in Tokyo. It was still very much the age of Covid.

Massive in 2021 were Olivia Rodrigo, Lil Nas X's 'Montero', Adele's Easy on Me, and Elton John had three Number 1s, unbelievably. He just really got the hang of the modern world.

Elton, Ed and LadBaby was Christmas Number 1. Glad my birthday's not at Christmas.