Parton, such sweet sorrow ...

The first time I heard the name Dolly Parton was during an art lesson at my junior school, when Miss Clarke, the flamboyant Irish art teacher who bestrode the large art room like it was a separate fiefdom from the rest of the school, remarked that my drawing of mountains was "a bit like Dolly Parton" and when I looked at her dumbfounded, she explained what she meant, to my eternal mortification, though I remained dumbfounded.

My next memory of the name Dolly Parton was the release of the film Steel Magnolias in 1989, when I remember thinking, when I heard Sally Field, Dolly Parton, Daryl Hannah, Shirley MacLaine, Olympia Dukakis (I hadn't even heard of Julia Roberts at that point) that this was surely the greatest cast ever assembled. I suppose the 11-year-old me was a more nuanced creature than I allow myself.

Anyway, Dolly Parton's died. It says something (something everyone is saying) that, after I read the news that Dolly Parton had died while sitting on the sofa downstairs, I went upstairs and my 10-year old daughter was, oblivious to the news, singing 9 to 5 to herself. Just because that was the song a 10 year old girl would be singing to herself in 2026.

My main life association with a Dolly Parton song https://101songs.blogspot.com/2020/03/songs-jolene.html is surreally negative, and certainly not DP or the almighty Jolene's fault, but does slightly contradict my fanciful hypothesis, which I've held for a few years, that Dolly Parton was a protective superhero.

Specifically, my fanciful hypothesis is that Dolly Parton and Debbie Harry are, or have been, America's dual protective superheroes, the main guardians against growing evil.

I first speculated that Debbie Harry was a superhero many years ago, when I heard the (unlikely in reality) story that she'd once escaped from the serial killer Ted Bundy. When I saw someone on twitter describe Dolly Parton as an American hero when it was revealed she'd funded the Moderna covid vaccine, I put two and two together and made one - Dolly Parton and Debbie Harry, Team America.

They were born within months of each other at the end of the War, one in Florida, one in Tennessee. Both had versions of hard childhoods (DH given up for adoption that led her to New Jersey and New York). So one is city, one is country. Both were genre stars (new wave/country), who, in the late 70s, were able to move to the pop mainstream, and had indelible classics.

Both, you may have noticed, were blonde. Blonde as a central part of their identity, moving the concept of American blonde on from the victimhood and tragedy of Marilyn Monroe and the male fantasy of Hitchcock. Somewhere between Monroe and Madonna, but maybe better than both.

Both were boss. Both did not have children, though have been described in maternal terms by their fans. Both were tough as nails. As I remarked before when I read her autobiography, Harry's toughness, her ability to just shrug her shoulders at some really rough and frightening shit, is almost unnerving. Dolly Parton's way was always warmth and humour.

One presented avant-garde, one traditional, one was north, one was south.

Both have been good people. DP stretches beyond "good person" in her active, relentless philanthropy (indeed, I wonder if, when Ethan Hawke described Paul Newman as America's greatest philanthropist in terms of how much he'd raised for good causes relative to his personal wealth, that remains, or was ever true vs Parton). Debbie Harry seems to me a manifestly good person too. You don't hear anything negative, beyond the odd affectionately disgruntled ex-band member. She has always been right right-on, in later years she works regularly for good causes.

Both acted, acted pretty well, in different types of minor classics. From 1980 onwards, DP's fame and place at the centre of cultural life has only grown, whereas DH's has faded a little. But both have played the Glastonbury Legends slot. Both are legends - ego-free ideals of how to be a star and an icon.

Here is a short superhero playlist of all classics:

Heart of Glass

9 to 5

Sunday Girl

Here You Come Again

Rip Her to Shreds

Jolene

Atomic

I Will Always Love You

Picture This

Love is Like a Butterfly

One Way or Another

The Light of a Clear Blue Morning

 

And here is one of the first posts i saw on Bluesky when the news was announced

https://bsky.app/profile/blondieband.bsky.social/post/3mtwmnarn4k2v

100 21st Century Films

There were lots of people putting their lists of 100 favourite films on Bluesky, and I can't resist lists, of course, but I was a bit downhearted, because, honestly, I made a list of favourite films about 10 years ago, and it wouldn't have changed much in an interesting way and wouldn't have all that much true cinephile depth. Real film buffs like older films more than I do, and, although I periodically do try to catch up on classics, I'm not going to pretend I like Tokyo Story more than Role Models or The Searchers more than School of Rock.

But, later in the day, thankfully, things shifted to more people putting lists of their favourite films of this century, which appealed to me more, as I could cut out my obvious, boring perennials like Jaws, Die Hard and The Big Lebowski, and I can at least pretend to a bit of depth when it comes to the last 26 years.

Mainly, where i can't really say if I liked one film I quite liked more than another I quite liked, I've plumped for the slightly less obvious option. Not much point in including No Country for Old Men, The Departed or There Will be Blood, though I sure liked them well enough.

Talking of "no country for old men" and "there will, small mercies, not be blood", I've fuckin dislocated (and slightly fractured) my fuckin shoulder. Fuckin slipping, while hastening off a god damn water slide called the god damn Stick of Rock, at buggering Butlins, in buggering Bognor Regis. Pain, inconvenience and indignity. Got to 48 years without being too hasty in a busy swimming area, thus taking an almighty tumble and relocating my hitherto reliably adjacent right shoulder, but hey, you can't ride your common sense forever, and at least it wasn't the left, and at least a nice doctor put it back in place. But forgive if i resort to lower case at a certain point, as my right limb is mainly out of action.

Anyway, bit of time on my hand ...

At certain points in the 2000s, I've kept a running list of (sometimes even given a score to) the films i've been watching, which is helpful, though I've not done that all the time, so, as i'm trying to make this list, a pretty good film I'd forgotten i'd seen, like A Single Man, Win Win, or In a World, will pop into my head, and I'll think "how many others are there of those, that i watched, liked, got a bit of acclaim but have been mostly forgotten? Oh, Lawless Heart, there's another one."

And I'll try to be honest to "that film gave me a really strong feeling" even if, in retrospect, that response feels a bit embarrassing. Like, in 1997,  Austin Powers was the funniest film i'd ever seen in my life. I've got to accept that. I found Peter Jackson's King Kong thrilling. But, actually, i've said that now, so I'm not going to include it ...

Ok, start from the top.

1. Adventureland

Just the most personally beloved, in terms of ticking all my boxes - a cast doing the best work of their career, perfect music, complex emotions, distinct era nostalgia, i love rides rides rides and games games games (at least i did!) ... a treasure.

2. Aftersun

Before I watched Aftersun, I saw that there were people who were absolutely floored by it and people who thought it was pretty good, but wondered what all the fuss was about, and I wasn't sure which one I'd be. Halfway through, I still wasn't sure, but I turned out to be the former, and remain so. It does seem to me a singular work of art, a channel direct from the director's (direct from the director!) inner being. Somehow, the fact I'd hardly seen Paul Mescal in anything apart from Normal People, where he plays a kid, and now, looking no different, he's playing a father of an 11-year-old, somehow made everything even more moving.

3. Lord of the Rings: the Fellowship of the Ring

A lil fillum you might have heard of ... I just think it's to be treasured, the sense of anticipation fulfilled. Probably the last film I ever watched with a child's wonder, 23 at the time, but allowing myself to wholeheartedly embrace something I'd loved and thought about as a kid a lot (whilst simultaneously scorning the first Harry Potter film that came out at the same time). I could probably include The Two Towers further down the list as well, as I think that one holds up well, and i'll happily watch an hour of it when it's on TV. But I was giddy with joy watching the first one.

4. Portrait of a Lady on Fire

5. Inside Llewyn Davis

And this isn't even the only Dylan film in the list, and if I counted Scorsese's No Direction Home as a film (i first watched it on TV in two parts, though), that would be Top 10, as that's one of the greatest things I've ever seen. I think pretty much all the Coen films, even Hail Caesar and whatnot, are deeper and greater than they first appear. Oscar Isaac here just emerges as a master. And to think his mourned lost singing partner is the Marquis de Mumford.

6. Pride

7. Brick

The modern-day Bugsy Malone!

8. Brokeback Mountain

9. I've Loved You So Long

Kristin Scott Thomas, for all she's had a great career, is maybe still a bit undervalued/underused? Not sure she's ever had a role in English-language cinema like this, one of the greatest performances I've ever seen.

10. Memento

11. Role Models 

If you don't count Adventureland, which really is something a bit different, of all the 1000s of comedies these guys, loosely, made, your Wedding Crashers and your Knocked Up and your 40-Year-Old Virgin etc, this is the one I love.

12. The Ballad of Wallis Island

Awards are silly, because obviously Tim Key should have had all the awards for his performance in this film.

13. Get Out

I don't watch many horror films, so when I get through one, I award both myself and the film an extra badge of honour. (i did not get through Get Out in one sitting)

14. Marriage Story

15. Donnie Darko

16. Y Tu Mama Tambien

17. Adaptation

This one really fried my brain. Also, Cage... hr's really been in a lot of great films.

18. High Fidelity

The Guardian film critic recently did a list of the top Cusack films, and this was quite low down. Not for everyone, and now seen as "problematic". It's funny, though, at the time, both when I read the book (97) and watched the film (early 2000s), I viewed Rob Gordon almost like David Brent, a type of guy I could recognise the worst of myself in but needed not to be like. Just because both get happy endings, it doesn't mean you're meant to admire them. Anyway, putting all that aside, the film is a musical and comic pleasure.

19.United 93

20. Sing

I've seen Sing more than any other film, I'm pretty certain, and I always liked it, or found it tolerable, as just the main thing that was on our telly for a year or two.

21. The Royal Tenenbaums

I like all the Wes Anderson films, really - i don't hold to the notion that there has been a notable drop in quality or imagination or that he needs to change anything. I still found the Phoenician Scheme a hoot. But, yes, if it comes to it, I think it is The Royal Tenenbaums that feels the most apart from the rest in being a great film in every conceivable sense.

22. School of Rock

23. In the Mood for Love

24. Dead Man's Shoes

25. Project Hail Mary

Look, I watched it last week, feeling sorry for myself, and it cheered me right up, so I'm going with this high position. Is Gosling now the world's Number 2 male film star, in terms of prestige/right to pick roles/box office/quality/pure star power and range? Or Number 1 even?

26. Mulholland Drive

27. Rust and Bone

From 2007 to 2014 or so, Marion Cotillard was on a hell of a run.

28. Marty Supreme

All three of the main Oscar-tipped films this year were just great, i thought. Marty Supreme's joyful stunt casting worked at every turn, and this is Chalamet at his best, in his way more spirit of Bob Dylan here than in A Complete Unknown.

29. The Quiet Girl

30. Almost Famous

Although it's actually, in its way, a really sad film, this falls into comfort viewing - a film that's grown on me as the years have passed, that I'd happily watch anytime.

31. Palm Springs

Can't quite remember why i liked this quite as much as i did, but i did.

32. Minari

I have a real fondness also for three films of the "lost" Oscar year of 2020/21 when everything was a bit more lowkey than usual, but Minari, Sound of Metal and Nomadland all shared a sensibility and struck a chord.

33. Before Sunset

Perhaps my favourite in the trilogy. I mean, Ethan Hawke is so annoying in it, but, like, it somehow manages to feel like a thriller, like, come on, the world's going to end in literally minutes unless you end up doing something ... which ends up being nothing.

34. Philomena

Beaut, and I'm going to say, Coogan does some great acting in this.

35. Paterson

36. 500 Days of Summer

Quite an interesting film, really. Left a sour taste when I watched it, and then you realise that's the point. Peak Gordon-Levitt and Deschanel era. Toxic indie boy, manic pixie somewhat indie girl. Quite like that JGL might have been a film star, but basically decided he had better things to do.

37. I'm Not There

38. The White Ribbon

39. Sinners

40. Definitely, Maybe

41. Carol

I noted that I really gave this a high mark whem I saw it. Todd Haynes makes these beautiful melodramatic films about forbidden love, or extremely unconventional films about music icons, or both at the same time.

42.Cloverfield

Again, i applaud myself for sitting through Cloverfield. If The Blair Witch Project had not been late 99, i'm sure i would be rewarding that for my sitting through it.

43. La La Land

I don't care, I think La La Land was great, so there.

44. A History of Violence

45. Two Days and One Night

46. Looking for Eric

Just been reading some American reviews of this ... ha, Americans. They never even try to think about other people.

47. Dunkirk

48. Team America: World Police

So this is what i was talking about earlier with Austin Powers ... just i'd be lying if i didn't say this was the funniest thing i ever saw at the time.

49. Sexy Beast

Yes!

50. Killers of the Flower Moon

51. The Power of the Dog

You know, it's funny, that year at the Oscars, Will Smith won and slapped, CODA won Best Picture, Dune won the technical awards, and Power of the Dog only won Best Director for Jane Campion. And, it's actually, clearly, against that competition, a film that should have cleaned up. Smith was really good as Richard Williams, but Cumberbatch really did something pretty transformative in that role, went so far beyond the cliche of what he's known for doing. I'd somewhat forgotten this film, but think it stands up.

52. A Real Pain

53. The Worst Person in the World

54. Billy Elliot

55. Oldboy

56. Boyhood

57. Sideways

Giamatti, of course, being the Number 1 film star.

58. Queen & Slim

A beautiful film - a classic American tale with a twist, and two Londoners as the title characters.

59. One Battle After Another

60. Foxcatcher

Feels quite prophetic - weird rich guy tries to be popular and in on the joke, and when it turns sour, he kills. Well, indeed. Great performances all round.

 ... well now I've got a list of about 110 more films I could choose from, and though, of course, that includes Parasite, The Social Network etc I'll try to make the last 40 some of the less widely acclaimed of that 100.

61. Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Ha! does this count?

62. Sightseers

63. Talk to Her

64. The Martian

Of the major directors, I'm really not much of a fan of Ridley Scott, and nothing told me I would like The Martian, but I did like it a lot. I liked it a lot more than Interstellar.

65. Fire in Babylon

Oh well, of course there's a documentary about West Indies fast bowlers.

66. O Brother Where Art Thou

67. Sicario

This is another one I found I'd given a very high score to on first viewing. A tight, gripping film.

68. Caché

69. Me and You and Everyone We Know

70. Gosford Park

I think Emily Watson is one of my favourite actresses, but there are a few films she's in just missing out on the list. But anyway, Gosford Park is for the Bob Balaban stans. I remember someone i knew saying they didn't get why everyone liked it, it was boring and they'd fallen asleep, and then revealing they'd had three pints before watching it. Important lesson there.

71.Scott Pilgrim Vs the World

Ultimately, just too cool 4 school. At the time I was so sure Cera films would be good I also watched Youth in Revolt, Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist and Paper Heart. Just for the poster, there should be a film with Peter Kay, Michael Cera and Peter Serafinowicz.

72. 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days

73. Slumdog Millionaire

Quizzes, cricket, excrement, Paper Planes, what's not to love? I saw a US list of the least deserving best pic winners this century and it was quite high up and I hmpphed quite strongly.

74. Lovers Rock

I'm a big fan of Little Ealing's Steve McQueen and was actually close to including Widows, but thought I'd cheat with one of the Small Axe films - the first two, this and Mangrove, are both magnificent, so I'll go with this.

75. Pan's Labyrinth

76. Slow West

Well, good to have a film directed by a member of the Beta Band.

77. We Need to Talk about Kevin

Obviously, a lot of bad vibes connected with this now. Like, i generally remember thinking "i wonder if the kid actor will be damaged by this" and "i wonder what the writer's like". So there we go. A good film.

78. The Lives of Others

79. Lady Bird

80. Dolemite is My Name

81. Catherine, Called Birdy

Not even the sudden and unwelcome appearance of Russell Brand could ruin this.

82. Spider-Man

The thing about MCU, right, is I watched Iron Man, Thor, The Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy and Black Panther - that's about £50 and about 12 hours on the world, and, without watching more, I remain entirely outside it, I'd have had to watch so much more to have any sense of fulfilment or inclusion. They were all perfectly enjoyable, but I'll go with the 2002 Tobey Maguire, which was great and fun, and (though i did watch the sequel) enouigh in itself.

83. Summer of Soul

I've actually watched so many music documentaries, and i can't say for sure it's my favourite, but I remember it well, and it's got quality Mavis Staples, so it's good enough for me.

84. Enchanted

I even enjoyed this before parenthood, so it must be good. Watched a lot in the end, All round good fun. Amy Adams another great actor who had a great run, which just ... stopped.

85. The Guard

A lot of great Gleeson films, could easily have gone for In Bruges or Banshees.

86. Girlhood

87. 17 Again

88. Synecdoche, New York

"The comedy hit of the summer" as I saw it advertised once. It is not that. It's one of the all time saddest films.

89. Edge of Tomorrow

90. Collateral

Cruise, he does good work.

91. The Way Way Back

For lovers of Adventureland.

92.Young Adam

In the 90s, i thought Ewan McGregor was great, and then I suddenly decided he was borderline unwatchable, and, somehow, in that period, i watched Young Adam, where he's excellent, but somehow in such a way where I thought he could never be that good again. Also, this film has the mighty Peter Mullan, who, like almost no other, plays characters of unutterable evil and profound kindly gentleness only a tiny bit different.

93. Bowling for Columbine

Sure this ages horribly, and would look crass and loose as hell, but, still, really made the necessary point.

94. All of Us Strangers

95. Garden State

96. Sin City

97. American Splendor

Pina colada.

98. Challengers

99. The Order

A very good film with Jude Law and Nicholas Hoult playing extremely American men.

100. Before the Devil Knows You're Dead

Because, ultimately, the 2000s were all about watching Philip Seymour Hoffman, or Ethan Hawke, or both.

The main obvious thing in my list is how central music is to many of the films I love. 

Nolan, swollen

I got round to seeing The Odyssey. I won't go into great detail, as I don't like falling into the trap of my opinion on a film being influenced by prior knowledge of the source material, and there's been plenty of that already - but I will say I didn't loooove it.

More than in any previous case, I felt, while watching, that it was a bit overly Nolany in a way that was too distracting to ignore. I would say, in its favour, that I preferred the pacing in this film to some of his previous films, in that the third third was the most enjoyable and gripping.

Ultimately, it's still three hours of good, enjoyable, impressive cinema, so I won't gripe too much about outis and nausicaa and all that jazz, that would just be a lack of euDamonia ...

Nolan is a true phenomenon - the Radiohead of filmmaking, if Radiohead were still out there turning out increasingly ambitious, successful albums. There is no one else now who combines such critical acclaim with such commercial success, whose films are such an event. He is now the third highest grossing film maker of all time (unadjusted for inflation, of course) behind only Spielberg and Cameron.

I have seen most of his films - not Following, the debut, and not Insomnia, and, most to my chagrin, not The Prestige, which I think I would like a lot and I have often had lined up to watch, but just not got round to. Everything else, I've seen.

My favourite is still Memento. Even after all the murdering that go on. That was (at the cinema, i think) a film that made me go wow. Wow, this director has made a film under two hours! In the future, presumably, he will be incapable of doing that! I watched it two or three times and though, presumably, it doesn't make sense when you think about it, it did the job for me. I wonder why Guy Pearce never got the call again (presumably because he's not a film star, but still. Aah, here it is https://www.theguardian.com/film/2024/dec/16/guy-pearce-says-he-was-blocked-from-working-with-christopher-nolan-by-warner-bros). One can imagine Guy Pearce doing a great job as lead, or main support, in most Nolan films.

Of his imperial phase, I'd say my favourite is Dunkirk (interestingly the most "British" of his films) where the time conceit is simple and effective, the performances are affecting, the unsettling soundtrack really works (please use a different composer next film, though ...). Perhaps it's his least Nolany film. I watched it at the cinema, I think it may have been the first big film I saw at the big screen after Rosa was born, and I was very moved by it. and I've seen it since on the TV, and still liked it.

Everything else, all these smart blockbusters, I have enjoyed but have a certain ambivalence about. I think they're all too long. I don't think all long films are too long, but I think all the long Nolan ones are, by somewhere between 10 minutes and an hour. Some (Inception and Interstellar, say) have too much promise early on, too much sense they're going to be masterpieces, that the endgame is inevitably frustrating. Tenet is just too much hard work that even though it does come together to some extent, you ask yourself if it was worth it. Oppenheimer was very good, but I'm not sure I found Downey's character as interesting as I might have done. The Batman films wander a bit ...

Also, just comparing him to Spielberg - Spielberg made some real brave flops. There's really all sorts of films in there. Making Jurassic Park and Schindler's List in the same couple of years was really an incredible move. I'd like to see Nolan make a romcom, or, failing that, a pure pulsating action thriller. His subject matters are pretty different, but they are nearly all about arms and a man.

Anyway, many more people have written many more interesting things about Nolan, but, you know, good for him that we've all got an opinion.

Here is my ranking:

• Memento
• Dunkirk
• Oppenheimer
• The Dark Knight
• Batman Begins
• Inception
• Tenet
• The Dark Knight Rises
• The Odyssey
• Interstellar

It means nothing ...

Ok, i have now seen The Prestige. Bit of fun. But probably below Tenet.

Deep Cuts

I recently read a novel called 'Deep Cuts', being a sucker for a will they-won't they romance centred on music. It can be compared to yer Ones Days and yr Normals Peoples but - crucial difference! - is set in the US of A. Anyway, I liked it.

It's being made into a film - initially there were fairly big stars attached, and now the stars are smaller, but hopefully it will be good - the director has done some well-reviewed films.

After all, why shouldn't there be another will-they won't they romance covering several years in which music plays a significant role? This is a good type of book/film that people like.

What I liked most about Deep Cuts, by Hollie Brickley, is that it really is about the music, man. If nothing else, there are some pretty solid pieces of music writing in it. And, even more so, the music that it's about is the music I treasure. So it starts in around 2000 and goes up to, I think, 2009, and we cover the likes of the Shins, LCD Soundsystem, Joanna Newsom, OutKast, amongst many older classics. There is even a brief section relating to US hipsters in the 2000s going nuts to Britpop which really nails why Britpop was actually great pop music - I'm often very sniffy about Americans writing on British music and culture, but, in this case, the distance, the absence of self-loathing cultural hang-ups about flags, misogyny, race, guitars, politics etc, just means you get a couple of great sentences about why it was/is great pop by Brits.

The narrator is a young woman and her paramour is a singer-songwriter she meets at college. I certainly appreciated that she is someone who is utterly obsessed with songs who is not themselves musical (though the nub of the story is their songwriting collaboration). The romance is often quite secondary - indeed I've have been more than happy if it had petered out and we'd ended up at somewhere else more interesting - the relationship between her and the songwriter's original girlfriend is maybe the most well-drawn thing in the book.

I also appreciated that she describes herself as obnoxious and is, yes, obnoxious enough, but not too obnoxious.

Probably the most memorable piece of music writing within it (by the main character as aspiring music writer) is a scathing takedown of Lenny's Chelsea Hotel #2 and indeed Nash's Our House and all that kind of jazz. Also, the bit on Newsom was great - just reminded me, now it's been 11 years since she did an album and that may well be all we're going to get, how lucky I was to see this miraculous artist perform four times, that I was in the right place at the right time enough.

I'm glad, also, that it resisted the temptation to push the characters further into the next decade and beyond - the characters are very online, as not everyone was in the 2000s, and as the changes in technology multiplied and darkened in the 2010s and 2020s, that might have got a bit unbearable. As someone who is myself quite online, but online as a "stuck in online 2008" way, I found the cultural history quite nostalgic.

So, yeah, it's a nice book. This is the playlist of songs specifically discussed within it https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6ZN7YF1Kn24S2kaEGF5JOz

100s of 10s

In about 2009, on iTunes, I made a playlist in which I included 10 songs by 100 acts, so 1000 songs in total. It's one of those playlists that didn't survive a change of hardware at some point, so I can't find what was on it, but I do remember that it began, I guess alphabetically, with Band of Horses and also I remember thinking "hmm, well it's not that eclectic, there's a lot of country and indie rock there". Of course.

And, to be fair (in a way), it being on iTunes, rather than streaming, it was made up of music that I owned, so I couldn't just go "would be nice to have a bit more variety here" without paying for it, as I can now.

But also, I suppose, in 2009, indie-rock etc was still, kind of, within the peak of its critical powers, and I might not have felt the massive urge not to have all that stuff on my list, for the guitar music did contain almost all the multitudes.

Anyway, I thought I'd do the same again (always looking for different ways to listen to the same songs), which, though it is very easy to make now on Apple Music, has been pleasantly time-consuming for the last few weeks. Though, in fact, once I'd made one "101x10" list, I remembered lots of other acts who were ideal for the treatment, so did another one, then another. So I've made three 1010 song playlists.

There's a slight discrepancy between "fun to put on list" and "fun to listen to". It's more fun not to reduce my usual suspects to 10 songs, as I've probably made lots of lists of them all before, whereas an ideal act might be one where I know I like 5 or 6 of their songs, then find there are a couple more I'd forgotten about, and then use a bit of guesswork to choose two more (it's all done pretty quickly and without doing too much research). Equally, when it comes to actually listening to the playlists, which I'm starting to do (though I know I'll never get through them all), I'll be glad to have old favourites on them.

I definitely am just more into pop music than I was in 2009, notwithstanding any deliberate attempts to have a diverse roster. I do not listen to the same music I was listening to when I was younger, and there has not been as much memorable music in the same genres to replace it.

Anyway, not sure any of this is particularly interesting. Here are the three playlists - I think I forgot to include the Beatles and the Beach Boys in the end, so heyhey, maybe there'll be a fourth ...

https://music.apple.com/gb/playlist/100x10/pl.u-JP6NGFjqxpe

https://music.apple.com/gb/playlist/101x10part2/pl.u-aZd90CvWEd8

https://music.apple.com/gb/playlist/101x10part2/pl.u-aZd90CvWEd8

If you're feeling sinister

I have had something of a turn-of-the-century summer, something of a classic-indie-EPs-of-the-late-90s summer. I have seen many musicians in their 50s,  in various states of preservation, playing songs from the late 90s and early 2000s, and why, goddammit, wouldn't I, when there are so few simple pleasures left? I've seen SFA (twice), Beta Band, Badly Drawn Boy, Rilo Kiley, St Etienne, Belle and Sebastian. The Maccabees, in their 40s, were a rare dip into yoof culture.

I could write something about any of them, about time moving forward and standing still, about stardom and the lack of it, about the certain lengthy moment most of them represent, that era when you could make marvellous, imaginative and tuneful, unkempt and magical, fairly but not very successful guitar music for a good long time and no one expected any more or less.

I could write about how many Top 10 hits they actually had between them, all these excellent and, in their way, iconic acts (somewhere between 1 and 3, and none, exactly, proper Top 10 hits).

But I've ended up thinking the most about 'If You're Feeling Sinister', the album released 30 years ago, and played in full by Belle and Sebastian at Dreamland, Margate, last Friday night.

'If You're Feeling Sinister' was at 25 on US publication Pitchfork's most recent list of the top albums of the 1990s. It crossed the Atlantic and it lasted. Hearing it at an ecstatic Dreamland on the summer Friday night before my 48th birthday was marvellous. But also, it was weird, when you think about what 'If You're Feeling Sinister' actually is. What it felt like at the time.

Well, actually, no, I can't really say what it felt like to anyone but me. Which was like a dream. Which is not what most things feel like to me. 

I'm not the hippest on this. I didn't buy 'If You're Feeling Sinister' on the day it came out. In fact, I've a feeling I didn't buy it all. I think it was copied for me in around 2000, by which time I already knew it inside out.

By chance, or why not, fate, I'd heard the B&S BBC session in the summer of 96. I hadn't sought it out, I rarely listened to Radio 1, certainly not late at night. My tastes were basic Britpop, Beatles, Dylan, Blondie, Bowie still - nothing wrong with that. I just happened to have the radio on that night. I remember Stuart's singing was so ropey, the playing was ropey. But it was The State I Am In, and by the end it was magical. It may also have been Like Dylan in the Movies. He sounded like a little boy, or girl - I pictured what he, or she, looked like, and I was completely wrong (I'll get to that). Stuart M was, I could somewhat tell then, and it turned out, more like me, or a certain aspect of me, than all the Britpoppers.

But, still, though I now had the name Belle and Sebastian in my head, that was all I had for a while, and I don't think I tried to change that. 

But gradually it changed. Those first three years that I listened to Tigermilk, If You're Feeling Sinister (by far the most), the EPs, and Boy with the Arab Strap, it wasn't me that put them on the stereo. I guess it was nearly always my friend/flatmate John. So, they just kind of drifted into my consciousness, quietly, persistently. I think I did actually buy the reissued Tigermilk at a certain point, so I have a more precise relationship with that, but 'Sinister', it still has this weird insidious place inside me. 

And, of course, at that point, it really is true that we hardly knew anything about Belle and Sebastian. I didn't know what Stuart M looked like, didn't know the history, none of it. They started to creep out of the woodwork around the turn of the century. The NME barely mentioned them, and when they did, it was often with loathing. One journalist in particular, the renowned Steven Wells, who could be very entertaining when you agreed with him, loathed everything about them - but I remember one very funny piece he wrote where he described his shock that Stuart was not at all as you'd think, that he was a really nice late-20s guy who was excellent at football (rather than, I guess, a vampiric shrinking manchild) and that was making it harder to hate them, but he was sticking to his guns.

Belle and Sebastian looked great on Friday night - all of them, really, are aging elegantly. Stuart Murdoch was always older than he looked, and he certainly does not look 58 now. He looks about 31. He still looks, maybe a couple of months post-fighting peak, like a featherweight boxer, or a gymnast, or a scrum-half, or a 1500m runner. He chats a lot on stage, maybe a tiny bit too much. 

The band are absolute pros, entirely suited to Friday night in a seaside town, in front of the rollercoaster. But still, 'If You're Feeling Sinister' remains an album written by a chronically ill, unsuccessful, church-tending, bus-riding small young man with a wavering, quiet voice. Its big singalong that got everyone dancing is called Get Me Away from Here, I'm Dying.

Still, the reason it's a canonical transcontinental classic and people around the world go out and get merry to it 30 years later is because the songs are brilliant, of course. As Stevie Jackson said, he simply could not believe what he was hearing when he first heard Murdoch's songs. He says it was like hearing Paul Simon or Bob Dylan. 

People have different favourites - even back then, sitting in our shared living room on Baker Lane, for me it was the central section of Dylan in the Movies, Fox in the Snow, Get Me Away, If You're Feeling Sinister which drew me in the deepest. But there are, as they say, no skips. On Friday, I was reminded how great The Boy Done Wrong Again is, and, just generally, how great all the little flair moments are, those little extras in the arrangements.

There's a case for Tigermilk being just as good. I don't think there's really a case for any other B&S album being quite as good, though I might just say I'm a Cuckoo is my favourite pop song of theirs, certainly when played live. Such wish fulfilment.

And though they've been "this" Belle and Sebastian for over 20 years, the live, all-singing, all-dancing, poptastic B&S, and though there's always some gap between recorded and live music, one does still sometimes stop to consider quite what a journey the songs of If You're Feeling Sinister have been on.

Rein Me In

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3triLkS0nq4&list=RD3triLkS0nq4&start_radio=1

What to make of this song, that has now been UK Number 1 for, all told, a record-breaking 19 weeks? I have seen some talk that its vast success is baffling, and exemplifies how little crossover there is between chart success and universal recognition these days, but I'm not sure that's true.

Firstly, I like the song. It's easier, obviously, to understand why something is popular if you yourself like it. When Drake's One Dance was Number 1 for 15 weeks a decade ago, there was no part of me that could understand that, even though I knew Drake was, at that point, the most popular artist in the world, known for his gift for a hook. But it sounded like drab shit to me, so my bafflement remained.

But, even if I didn't like it, the massive UK success of Rein Me In makes, to me, a very specific, and heartwarming, sense - a happy accident of timing and the culmination of certain trends in recent chart music.

At least, something of an accident, in that the collaboration was mooted before Dean's second album went massive - far more massive than anyone could have anticipated. At the time, Sam Fender was the bigger star, with three hit albums behind him. 

I'm not a huge Sam Fender fan - he happened to play early in the afternoon when Bob Dylan and Neil Young played Hyde Park in 2019, and I was impressed but not exactly enamoured. His sound is big, his voice is exceptionally strong. In the past, he'd have been positioned as the frontman of an indie band - not one I'd have loved - but bands don't have hits these days. Even before Olivia Dean's contribution, Rein Me In was one of his better songs. He seems pretty nice, and that certainly is part of his appeal.

They both come from somewhat "indie" or "authentic" backgrounds - indie soul and indie rock, while both are now pop stars. Dean is a very adaptable singer, I think - I don't imagine there's many markets, age-groups, that will feel too embarrassed about liking her. They're both pretty easily charming, lowkey, endearingly English - one North Shields, one South London - the viral success of Rein Me In seems to have been solidified by big gigs in Fender's team's football stadium, St James' Park, and Dean's, the London Stadium. That's where it seems like a bit of a masterplan. Two readybaked fanbases, some sense of a united, groundroots England. The England that gets behind the football, that sings the same song.

I've heard the song around a lot - of course, not as much as one used to hear Wannabe or Wonderwall, but enough, in different contexts, without seeking it out at all. And it just makes sense that this nice song by two nice, different but similar English artists, this nostalgic duet of a love song, has become quietly massive. Most of the big pop songs these days are nice to listen to - more in the tradition of classic AOR than youth-orientated dance music. I suspect that's the long tail of the Taylor Swift effect. Punks and contrarians would call these songs bland as hell, but I'm not a punk, and I much prefer them to the litany of awful cack that was topping the charts in the 2000s and 2010s.

So, anyway, there it is, Number 1 forever and a nice little song. What's not to like.