Tied To The 90s: Part 10

10. Bettie Serveert - Palomine

I knew nothing about this band when I bought this from a stall on a makeshift record fair in the student union bar at Coventry Uni, other than the fact that they were on Guernica Records, an offshoot of the usually impeccably cool 4AD.

I can't even pinpoint what made me buy it. I like to think I have some miraculous ability to sort the wheat from the chaff, but obviously it was just pure dumb luck. Or maybe I just liked the nodding dog on the cover.

And dumb luck can be a great thing. In the intervening 20+ years there has barely been a month go by when I haven't reached for this beautiful, orange-sleeved, Dutch wonder.

So many great tunes (including a Sebadoh cover for crying out loud) and so much emotion on this album, an album that isn't afraid to rock, that you surely can't help but love it.

9. Pavement - Brighten The Corners

Right, here's my deal with Pavement. Pavement are "one of my favourite bands", but there are times when I'm not sure why. 

I still don't get Slanted & Enchanted or Wowee Zowee, but their other albums are enough to earn them that accolade. 

The more off-kilter, less tuneful stuff doesn't really do it for me I'm afraid. 

Brighten The Corners is the one though. From the opening squall of Stereo, through to the closing Fin, they don't put a foot wrong. 

Throughout the album Stephen Malkmus' lyrical prowess is at its most memorable. Such couplets as "What about the voice of Geddy Lee? How did it get so high? / I wonder if he speaks like an ordinary guy" (Stereo) and personal favourite "One of us is a cigar stand / And one of us is a lovely blue incandescent guillotine" (Type Slowly) can raise a smile to this day. 

But it's not just the lyrics. They can rock out when required, such as on Stereo and Date With Ikea, but the lovely, almost Hawaiian guitar outro to Shady Lane, and the aforementioned Fin particularly show off their range. 

So this one shades it from Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain, but it's REALLY close. 

8. The Lemonheads - It's A Shame About Ray

From that short period when Evan Dando had the world at his feet, and all the best tunes in his pocket. 

Of course I liked it BEFORE they went and tagged Mrs Robinson on the end. It still feels weird if it doesn't end with Frank Mills. 


7. The Breeders - Pod

This was always going to be a winner. Kim Deal? Tanya Donnelly? Happiness Is A Warm Gun? Tick, tick, TICK! 

We'll come to the genius of Steve Albini again later, but his quiet production here almost feels like it's deliberately trying to make you listen harder. 

Cramming twelve wonderful songs into barely thirty minutes, it's over before you get the chance to over-think it, and sometimes that's just what you need. 

6. The Go-Betweens - 1978-1991

This one is clearly a big fat cheat, but look at my face - I really don't care. 

Right, the top five are below, and I can't really find the words right now to express what they all mean to me. They're pretty much interchangeable in these top five positions from one day to the next. I mean, how can Worst Case Scenario only be at 3?

Maybe one day I'll revisit this and write something about each of them, but today isn't that day. 

5. Sugar - Copper Blue

4. Spiritualized - Lazer Guided Melodies

3. dEUS - Worst Case Scenario 

2. The Wedding Present - Seamonsters

1. Teenage Fanclub - Songs From Northern Britain

Leonard Cohen and my dad

My dad was born in 1943. I was born in 1971.

The amount of times my dad talked about music during my childhood could be counted on the fingers of one finger. That time he heard Eye Of The Tiger on the radio and said “I like that – that’ll be a number one”.

Car journeys were always accompanied by Radio 4. Gardeners’ Question Time, Just A Minute, I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue, that sort of thing. Don’t get me wrong, nothing wrong with Radio 4, but it meant I got through a lot of batteries in my Walkman.

Because it was the seventies & eighties, we obviously had Top Of The Pops on every Thursday night, and had our fingers hovering over the play and record buttons when the Top 40 was on the radio, but I don’t recall my dad showing the slightest interest in either.

Mum was slightly better, having Wogan on at breakfast time before school (and therefore educating me in The Beatles, Roy Orbison, The Everly Brothers, Joe Dolce etc), listening to music whilst doing housework, actually owning records… Mum had two record collections: the good stuff, and the stuff she would play. We often heard Perry Como, Tell Me On A Sunday, Tony Christie, Super Trouper; occasionally got Glenn Campbell, American Pie; but sadly never got anything from her stack of 60s 7” singles, Elvis’ Golden Records or A Hard Day’s Night.

Despite (or maybe because of) this, music played a great big part in my life, with Mum occasionally expressing an interest in what I was listening to while I was holed up in my room, but with Dad still seemingly oblivious.

I went off to university, I came back. I moved out, I moved back. I moved out again, and got married. I was in my thirties and in over three decades my dad had only liked the theme from Rocky 3.

Then, one day in 2004, I got a phone call from the old man asking “Matthew, do you have any Leonard Cohen records?”

To say I was surprised would be an understatement.

My folks had been on holiday to Spain, and in the bar they had frequented the barmaid had been playing some music which Dad liked. It turned out to be the new Leonard Cohen album Dear Heather.

Now, I didn’t own any Leonard Cohen at all at that point. In fact all I really knew of him was Jeff Buckley’s version of Hallelujah, and the I’m Your Fan covers compilation from the early 90s. That was a great CD, with contributions from favourites of mine such as Pixies, R.E.M., The House Of Love, and The Lilac Time, but I had never investigated Laughing Len’s originals.

So I put mp3s of Dear Heather on Dad’s laptop, along with some earlier albums I found for him, and left him to it. Before I knew it, Mum was complaining that Dad was “listening to that miserable nonsense” non-stop. Over the coming years I tried to introduce other music into Dad’s life which I thought might be a natural progression from Cohen’s work – those Johnny Cash American Recordings albums for example – but nothing else seemed to interest him.

In recent years he’s found an internet radio station that plays non-stop 50s hits which he’s added to his listening habits, and had progressed from Radio 4 to Radio Wales, but there’s always Leonard Cohen.

The other week I sent him a link to a preview stream of Cohen’s new, and as it turns out final, album You Want It Darker. He didn’t like it – it was TOO Len. Too dark for Dad to enjoy. Having listened to Dear Heather and You Want It Darker whist writing this, I can see that the difference is rather stark. Obviously Cohen was an old man when this latest one was recorded, and (I suppose much like Bowie’s Black Star) the album can now be seen as a goodbye of sorts. A man in his eighties facing up to his own mortality - as he says in the title track “I’m ready lord”. In light of yesterday’s events, I wonder whether Dad will go back and listen to it again. I hope he does – it sounds like a really good album to me – but then I’m 45, and Dad is 73. Maybe I’m further removed from the subject matter.

I hope that discovering Dear Heather in that Spanish bar has led Dad to appreciate what music means to me, and to so many other people. Maybe he’s known all along, but it’s good to know he found a way into it himself.

Don't go changing...

Let me tell you a story about the complicated 3-way relationship that exists between myself, the lovely MrsJ, and music.

Now music has been a big thing in my life for a very long time. From buying Madness' "One Step Beyond"  and recording bits of the Top 40 as a nipper, to joining strangers on Twitter to chat about a simultaneous playback of "What's Going On" for this month's @LPGrp session, it's been a lifelong companion.

MrsJ came along 14 years ago armed with a box full of indie and metal CDs that she'd acquired from a previous relationship (which she had no interest in - the CDs nor the  relationship) and a taste in music that stretched all the way from Bros to power ballads to Kylie and back to Bros. Undaunted by the challenge I faced I took her to see Radiohead and Clinic in a tent in Warrington. After that she STILL agreed to marry me, although the only other gig I've persuaded her to attend with me was a-ha.

Today she asked me what the music playing on the stereo in the kitchen was. My stock response to this question is to turn it off. It's usually asked when I've got a CD on in the car, where I usually try to choose the most accessible things from the selection on offer as I try to appease all the other members of the household.

So expecting to reach for the "Stop" button, I explain that it's the debut album by US indie rock group Madder Rose, only to receive the response "Hmmm, I like it".

Let me point something out: this (almost) never happens. Other than the both of us falling for "I Bet That You Look Good On The Dancefloor" the first time we saw the video on the TV, it's rare that we share any music taste.

Take earlier today. I went to retrieve my CD of "What's Going On" for tonight's tweet-along and MrsJ asked what it was. I explained it was a Motown classic and she told me that she "[doesn't] really like Motown". I pointed out that she's a big fan of Stevie Wonder and she quite rightly pointed out that "Stevie is Stevie - he's different". I ran through some other acts for her to pass judgement over: Smokey, The Supremes, The Temptations... None of these raised so much as a vaguely interested shrug.

It was the next exchange that prompted this post.

"What about Slade?" she asked "Is that Motown?"

Of course I put on my best sarcastic tone and say "Yes dear, Slade. Slade were on Motown".

"Wait, not Slade. Not Slade... SADE! That's it, Sade. Is Sade Motown?"

I love that woman. 

We interrupt your irregular list...with another list

I WILL get back to those 90s album posts eventually, but in the meantime here's a Top 50 Debut Albums list from Twitter. Plenty of other tweeters have been doing theirs too and the best place to check the others out is probably here. Be sure to check them out - there are some great lists and it's being updated all the time.

As usual with these things, it's just the tweets copied into here.

OK, here goes. My hastily assembled, shoddily organised, 90s indie heavy, missing all the "classics", list of my fav debut LPs.

And I will reiterate that "favourite" as I'm sure there are plenty of "better" debut LPs, but if so I'm yet to hear them.

50. The Auteurs - New Wave. Imagine - I consider 49 debut albums to be better than this. I must be crazy.

49. Arcade Fire - Funeral. A great debut that they failed to match. I can take them or leave them since this.

48. Rage Against The Machine - Rage Against The Machine. Blimey. There's a band who knew how to make a statement of intent.

47. Frazier Chorus - Sue. I loved this band, but I doubt they'll make any more of these lists (unless @eifion does one).

46. Morrissey - Viva Hate. Maybe I was swayed by Vini Reilly's guitar, but it's still my favourite Moz album.

45. Nirvana - Bleach. "Nah, I don't want a copy of that - too metal for my tastes" (Me, summer '91) Shows 

you should ignore me.

44. Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not. Nowt more than kids really, but with such great tunes.

43. Carter USM - 101 Damnations. When I did my 50 fav LPs list it was touch & go whether this or 30 Something was in.

42. The Sugarcubes - Life's Too Good. If I had space in 140 characters I'd just tweet a tracklist & then you'd just smile & nod

41. Soul II Soul - Club Classics Volume 1. First time I heard Keep On Moving was in the pool room in The Bull in Abergele.

40. The Stone Roses - The Stone Roses. You know all about this. Much loved, but I listen to Second Coming more these days.

39. Neneh Cherry - Raw Like Sushi. I hear people tell how they wore out a tape. If I ever came close it was with this.

38. The Orb - The Orb's Adventures Beyond The Ultraworld. Ambulent gubbins par excellence.

37. Portishead - Dummy. Beth Gibbons is up there with Hope Sandoval as a voice I could listen to all day.

36. Lauryn Hill - The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill. Even if it's just for Ex-Factor.

35. Madder Rose - Bring It Down. After hearing the irresistible Swim on the radio I dashed out to get this. Not disappointed.

34. Ride - Nowhere. Just about as shoegaze as I can take. Just the right side of "afraid to rock".

33. REM - Murmur. I think my fav REM LP is New Adventures..., or Up, or Green, or maybe this one. Who knows. All so great.

32. Dexy's Midnight Runners - Searching For The Young Soul Rebels. You've all got this, right?

31. Weezer - Weezer. Great fun, great tunes

30 The La's - The La's. Torn as to whether to include this. Does an only album count as a debut? Who cares.

29. Turin Brakes - The Optimist LP. I think I'm going to put this on tonight. Maybe not cool, but i'm not cool.

28. Belle & Sebastian - Tigermilk. I had a bootleg from a market in Liverpool before it got reissued. Loved it.

...and who knew you could get hooky CDs from a market. And in Liverpool of all places.

27. Tindersticks - Tindersticks. Dark, brooding & full of great, great tunes.

26. Throwing Muses - Throwing Muses. If you know me at all you knew this would be in there somewhere. SO great, as ever.

25. Aphex Twin - Selected Ambient Works 85-92. This was really like nothing I'd ever heard before. And probably since too.

24. Bonnie "Prince" Billy - I See A Darkness. I was never a Palace fan so Will Oldham really started here for me.

23. The Beta Band - The 3 EPs. Screw you and your "rules" man! You're not the boss of me! I don't class it as a compilation!

22. Björk - Debut. Who knew that this would be what came after The Sugarcubes? Genius at work.

21. The Velvet Underground & Nico - The Velvet Underground & Nico. Sold a few 1000 but everyone who bought made a debuts list.

20. Sparklehorse - Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot. The bane of indie folk on Twitter, eating as it does into your 140 chara

19. Belly - Star. One of the best things about being a Throwing Muses fan is that you get KH solo, 50ft Wave, TD solo & Belly.

18. The Sundays - Reading, Writing & Arithmetic. *Harriet Wheeler swoon*

17. P J Harvey - Dry. I went without food for almost a week in Germany to have the money to buy this. No regrets. #FileUnderP

16. The Bluetones - Expecting To Fly. Punching above its weight really, but I love it dearly & that's what this list is about.

15. Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend. Most recent thing on the list I reckon. 1st thing I got The Girl into was "A-A-A Song"

14. Kristin Hersh - Hips & Makers. The only thing better than KH solo is KH doing Muses songs solo. Well, not the ONLY thing...

13. Beth Orton Trailer Park. I love this album so much. Heartbreaking at times.

12. Underworld - Dubnobasswithmyheadman. Really the first dance music album I owned. Apart from S'Express Original Soundtracks.

11. Air - Moon Safari. Obviously. May even be a little low now I come to think about it.

10. The Wedding Present - George Best. Can't see anyone disagreeing with this surely.

9. Bettie Serveert - Palomine. Almost the best album out of the low countries. Will play this tomorrow.

8. The Lilac Time - The Lilac Time. The best band ever managed by Alan McGee. Stephen Duffy is a great songwriter.

7. De La Soul - 3 Feet High & Rising. Funny, clever & cool. Before this all I knew of rap was "A Salt With A Deadly Pepa".

6. The Breeders - Pod. Another Muses tie-in. Prefer this to Last Splash by some distance.

5. Spiritualized - Lazer Guided Melodies. The start of the love affair. The soundtrack to many a lonely night in Germany in 92.

4. The Streets - Original Pirate Material. An album I have no business liking, never mind loving this much.

3. Tricky - Maxinquaye. Like the Streets one, here's an album I literally COULD NOT WAIT to be released. An all time favourite.

2. Sugar - Copper Blue. You may have thought this would be higher, and on another day you may have been right.

1. dEUS - Worst Case Scenario. dEUS are one of those bands I just stood in awe of the 1st time I saw them live. A perfect debut. dEUS make me happy to be a music fan. So much going on in this album. spoti.fi/X5yiC0

Tied To The 90s: Part 9

Finally shamed into posting this. I can't believe it's taken me this long to get around to it.

These albums are now all at a stage where I don't feel like my writing skills, such as they are, can do them justice.

15. Air - Moon Safari

Having fallen in love with Sexy Boy with its heavy airplay I couldn't wait to get my hands on Moon Safari.

I had a voucher from the paper which gave me £1 off in Woolies and bought it on a day trip to Liverpool.

There aren't many albums that are as chilled out as this one. Over the years it's become a staple for bedtime so I will have heard the first half of the album a hell of a lot more than the second half, which is a shame really. As I type this I'm listening to You Make It Easy and remembering what a great song it is.

As you'll be aware if you saw my top 100 tracks list, All I Need is on my top ten tracks of all time, and is probably the closest MrsJ & I have to a "song". And it would certainly have been my choice for the first dance at our wedding, rather than Starship's Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now (a song that's almost as impossible to dance to as Welcome To The Cheap Seats).

With the exception of the The Virgin Suicides soundtrack, subsequent Air albums haven't really done it for me, so I'm just grateful that they have this one masterpiece.


14. The Lilac Time - Astronauts

Ah, Stephen Duffy.

Like most people of my age I was aware of the intelligent pop of Kiss Me and Icing On The Cake from his 80s "Tin Tin" period but my interest and knowledge of his work didn't really extend much beyond that.

But Return To Yesterday by The Lilac Time was on The Chart Show one week and Eifion went out and bought it. And then, as he has a habit of doing, bought everything else they released too.

The self-titled debut was released (on vinyl only?) by Birmingham's Swordfish Records before being reissued in a slightly tweaked form once TLT signed to Fontana. I remember finding the Swordfish version of the album on CD in the shop of the same name on one of my day trips to Birmingham from Coventry and being over the moon.

When Eifion & I went to see them play 2 shows in Manchester one day, they were moved along by the park police whilst setting up in Piccadilly Gardens so their manager came over to us to apologise and told us to go and see him after the show that evening and he'd sort us out with a free t-shirt.

Lovely bloke that Alan McGee.

Stephen Duffy is one of those people that can't really do much wrong in my book. His solo albums, whether collaborating with Nigel Kennedy on Music In Colours, or going "a bit Britpop" on Duffy, there's always great songwriting and tunes.

Sadly he's never had the hits that he had in the 80s so it's unsurprising that when celebrity fan Robbie Williams came calling asking him to write songs for his Intensive Care album Duffy took the money and ran with it.

Astronauts is, in my humble opinion, the best thing he's ever produced. Their only release on Creation Records, it's full of great love songs and tales of English country life, as well as a brief foray into almost-trip-hop on the single Dreaming. It's another album I'd be hard-pushed to find a weak song on - a measure of Duffy's supreme songwriting skills.

I bought it in what was basically a newsagent/bookshop in Germany. Kind of a WH Schmidt's I guess.

13. Afghan Whigs - Gentlemen

Purchased on a whim from Rhyl Our Price, probably based on a glowing NME review, the Afghan Whig's more soulful take on what the kids were all calling "grunge" was a hit with me from first listen. Unfairly bundled into the grunge scene mostly by virtue of initially being on Sub Pop, Greg Dulli's band were far better than that.

The barely concealed emotion of songs like Debonair and Fountain And Fairfax shows Dulli's voice off at its best, but the whole album is full of great songs and great vocal performances.

Subsequent albums Black Love and 1965 are also right up there, but this is the one for me.

12. The Boo Radleys - Giant Steps

I listened to this the other day for the first time in a long while and it's lost none of its charm. 

A classic example of an act who I discover a couple of albums into their career and buy all their subsequent releases but never show an interest in their back catalogue.

My good friend Paul was the one who went for the early EPs and I think his reputation for being the one who was into shoegaze put me off a lot of things he liked. 

Thankfully by the time Giant Steps was released I'd become slightly more receptive and the Boos had become a bit more... well... fun. 

With the tunes here like Lazarus, Wish I Was Skinny, I Hang Suspended etc you can't go wrong. It was hands down my favourite album of that year and I remember being really chuffed that Select made it their album of the year. This 

11. Buffalo Tom - Let Me Come Over

I've told you all already what Buffalo Tom mean to me. They're easily in my top ten favourite acts of all time. And this album, bought in Germany (like so many others), is them at their finest. There aren't any weak BT albums truth be told but this and Smitten are the ones I go back to the most.