#118 Beck – Mellow Gold

Beck seems to have invented an entirely new musical language here: gravel-scraping scratchy and funky acoustic guitars, sharp yet muffled beats, growling blues-man vocals with a sound collage of record samples and unusual field recordings thrown into the mix. Listening to the album now (after a long time away from it) it still sounds entirely …

#965 Beth Orton – Pass In Time: The Definitive Collection

I’ve seen Beth Orton twice in concert, both times by accident. A happy accident, I hasten to add. The first time was in 1999 and I was in Barcelona for my girlfriend's 30th birthday. It was the end of September and by chance we were there for La Merce Festival with its famous fire runs, …

#718 King Creosote & Jon Hopkins – Diamond Mine

This is a short and bittersweet album. It’s deep and crisp and even, with brittle haunting melodies and a delicate atmospheric soundtrack to a bygone way of life, that of the traditional Scottish coastal village. It was a Mercury Music Prize nominee in 2011 and the album featured in many best of the year lists. …