#925 Morrissey – Suedehead: The Best of Morrissey

Having fallen out of favour in recent years, due to being a bit of an arsewipe as an actual human, it may be easy to forget just what an excellent songsmith and lyricist Morrissey was in his heyday. The heyday undoubtedly being his time in The Smiths, but his earlier solo fare is pretty damn …

#1332 The Stone Roses – The Stone Roses

This is the sound of my A levels. Or more specifically, this is the sound of me travelling 20 miles by train every day to the nearest FE College, so I could avoid having to go to the same Sixth Form Centre that my father taught at. I actually wrote about this when reviewing The …

#1347 Suede – Coming Up

This album swaggers and struts, even more so than their debut. They’ve replaced grit with glamour, dirt with sheer decadence, and are absolutely loving it. This is Suede’s third album (and my third favourite in the same order) and ramps up the glam. Where their debut was full of seedy bedsit sex and pills, this …

#706 The Human League – Dare

As Pulp were the sound of Sheffield in the 90s, The Human League (I always forget there’s a ‘the’) were the sound of Sheffield in the 80s. Dare was their third album, the one where singer Phil Oakey took over the reins as main songwriter and turned this slightly experimental electronic outfit into a commercial …

#1426 Turin Brakes – Ether Song

I’ve not listened to this album for an age, and I’d forgotten just how good it is. It’s Ollie Knights’ voice really that make this band so distinguishable amongst a crowded scene of indie acoustic-ish guitar-led early noughties British pop (but definitely not Brit Pop). This is the follow up to their stunning debut The …

#1644 Stevie Wonder – Songs In The Key Of Life

Stevie’s Magnum Opus. This is the pop music equivalent to Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew, it’s proto-progressive R&B. A generously filled double album that has no padding, each track brilliantly crafted with jazz-funk numbers, ballads, innovative exploratory jam-like pieces as well as storming hit singles. It’s a masterpiece and Wonder is clearly a genius. Featuring the …

#1253 Shakespears Sister – Hormonally Yours

This album reminds me of my first girlfriend, my first proper relationship in fact. There’s such a warm rush of nostalgia on hearing it, I could be time-travelling back to the early 90s. Ah, that simple time, before public internet, when mobile phones were the size of a three-door hatchback, and when watching Neighbours in …

#988 Ooberman – The Magic Treehouse

Hands up who remembers Ooberman! Ah, just me and Mark Radcliffe then? That’s a shame as they really were rather good, offering a surreal and lightly psychedelic perspective on Brit Pop. Think The Coral or Belle and Sebastian, just not as successful. Though they should have been, this is a great debut, full of great …

#492 Eurythmics – Ultimate Collection

I can only assume that the person who decided to start this otherwise not-far-off-perfect ‘greatest hits’ compilation with a new song that no one had ever heard of and you’ll forget as soon as it’s over, must be called either Annie or Dave. That said, the video for it is pretty cool, and was clearly …

#381 Danny Wilson – Sweet Danny Wilson

I feel like the randometer threw up Danny Wilson’s debut album only yesterday. It was May 2019. That was effectively ‘yesterday’ given the strange old year we’ve just had, but I think this feeling of familiarity is due to two things: they wrote really well-crafted classic songs, and they were the songs of my youth …