NOT JUST ANY OLD RUNDOWN…..

On Sunday 18 June 2023, I turn 60 years of age.

On that day, I’ll reveal what I’ve decided is my favourite album of all time.  It probably won’t be too big a surprise.  Between now and then, I’m going to have an almost daily rundown of my 60 favourite albums as compiled at the end of February 2023.  I reckon that if the list had been compiled a month or so previously, there may have been a few variations.

In fact, I know it would have been different, as all sorts of factors and distractions played their part as I worked tirelessly to get things down to a final 60.

There were rules set in advance, There have to be, otherwise anarchy would prevail.

No singer or band would be allowed more than one entry. But, in saying that, an individual may appear on more than one occasion.  I’m not saying anyone actually does, but the longlist saw Arab Strap, Aidan Moffat and Malcolm Middleton all came into consideration, as did Edwyn Collins/Orange Juice, Roddy Frame/Aztec Camera and Bjork/Sugarcubes to offer a few illustrations.

All of the albums had to have been bought at or around the time of their original release, either on vinyl or CD, which meant any record I belatedly discovered and fell heavily for more than a couple of years after the event was ruled out prior to any longlist.

I had intended not to include any compilation/best of efforts, but in the end there were some that just were too good and played far too often not to be included.

The initial long list had 198 releases for consideration.  The first cull took this down to a more manageable 96.   Some of those who missed out at that stage included some that I thought had actually stood a great chance of making the Top 60 – The Auteurs, British Sea Power, The Cure, David Bowie, Everything But The Girl, Franz Ferdinand, Gorillaz, Happy Mondays, Iggy Pop, Joe Jackson, Kirsty MacColl, Leonard Cohen, M.I.A., Neil Young, The Organ, PJ Harvey, Roxy Music, The Specials, Talking Heads, The Vaselines. Wire and Yazoo is almost an A-Z set of omissions on their own (but don’t automatically think any singer or bands with Q, U, X or Z are shoo-ins!).

There will be one album per day on Mondays – Fridays, with the final two being on the weekend of 17/18 June.   Don’t worry…..there will be all sorts of additional postings appearing over the period in question, such as ICAs, Dirk’s regular contributions, and the look back at 1983, as well as anything else that might come in via guest contributions, or I feel I want to say. Indeed, the next ICA is scheduled for tomorrow, later on in the day after the #60 in the rundown is revealed.

In the meantime, here’s something from one of the albums that made the initial cut down to 96 but didn’t make the Top 60.  I’m not saying it was #61 as I stopped when I got to #60, but let’s just say it would have come in somewhere between 61 and 96.

mp3: The Bends – Radiohead

The title track from the 1995 album, the second in what has proven to be a long and highly successful career for Radiohead.  It’s the album which changed everything for the band.  No longer would they be in any danger of being labelled one-hit wonders.  It did lead to a lot of poor imitation angst-ridden alt.rock acts in the UK in the immediate years, which is perhaps Radiohead, after the even bigger success of OK Computer (1997), were always striving to do something different.

A few years ago, The Bends would easily have made it quite high up into any albums listing I might have happened to pull together, but it’s placing outside the Top 60 in 2023 reflects that I am listening to them a lot less than I used to, and unlike other bands who will feature over the coming weeks, they do not have the same sort of emotional pull.

JC