#THETWEN2IE5 Day 3 A Shot In The Dark | Ghost Cop (2023)

#THETWEN2IE5 Day 2 Ascension | Nightbus (2025)

#THETWEN2IE5 Day 1 (unranked) Gouge Away | Nation of Language (2020)

#TheTwen2ie5 The Ice Spice clause is going to absolutely wreck my putative list 😖

#ALL50RTS Day 50 You Tear The World In Two | Pale Saints The propulsive, euphoric pinnacle of a treasured LP. The subtle extra power at 2:14 as it barnstorms towards the climax is one of those instant, special moments of frisson that few songs can deliver. 1 bonus point youtu.be/L6tH3b36kzE?...

#ALL50RTS Day 49 Catchfire | The Jesus and Mary Chain A swaggering, insouciant but controlled masterclass in how to deploy ear-splitting noise. A tonic for whenever you feel down (I find, at least). youtu.be/JPX0NHkuFFk?...

#ALL50RTS Day 48 Gouge Away | Pixies Everything you could wish for in a Pixies song: the quiet/loud thing, some sex & death, Old Testament brutality, the savage economy of each of the band members, Francis howling like a banshee and blissfully perfect chords to close out. youtu.be/2twLJU_ggGI?...

#ALL50RTS Day 47 Blue Dress | Depeche Mode There's so much going on here. Wilder is dismissive of it (“penultimate track on LP - filler position”) but I love this icy, voyeuristic Gore number with its pulsing, bubbling atmospherics. Dark and seductive. youtu.be/0iOdmbEE3tM?...

#ALL50RTS Day 46 Speed King | Röyksopp Obsessed with them at the moment. This is an epic and exhilarating ride, building and building and then…vocoder. I’m a real sucker for vocoders. A tune of swaggering confidence, a real synth odyssey. youtu.be/ADhyBXyItwg?...

#ALL50RTS Day 45 I Wear Your Ring | Cocteau Twins Beautiful and mesmerising (as so many of theirs are) but this is deluxe. That subtle key change for the outro is a thing to behold. Sadly, it fades out much too quickly, just when you never want it to end youtu.be/EGkBSZgqrQA?...

#ALL50RTS Day 44 Fly On The Windscreen (Final) | Depeche Mode Rescued from obscurity as the B side to their worst single and installed as the essential segue between the title track and A Question of Love on Black Celebration, but with added reverb and brooding menace. youtu.be/h8s5Ll_w28w?...

#ALL50RTS Day 43 Paranoid Man In Cheap Shit Room | The Fall The swirling, demented centrepiece of their most polished, danceable album. Everyone is on top form, MES is at his most spellbindingly gnomic and the sudden techno breakdown is a joy youtu.be/wNKR05rribk?...

#ALL50RTS Day 42 Resigned | Blur I like a sad song, and Blur’s gift for melancholy really delivers here. It rapidly sets a mood and the endless looping motif hammers it home. It’s simply beautiful and I’m resigned to that. youtu.be/_apuVjtl1UU?...

#ALL50RTS Day 41 Skin and Bones | The Sundays Glorious guitar chimes and the enchanting voice of Harriet Wheeler wrapping itself around starkly self-deprecating lyrics. I would listen to her singing the phone book. youtu.be/4gOPrxV5PVI?...

#ALL50RTS Day 40 2:1 | Elastica Nothing can touch the phenomenal Connection (apart from Wire’s lawyers) but 2:1 comes close. Sparse, economical (apart from the squeaky bass strings) and dripping with coy insouciance. They really were something. youtu.be/HHlypG2kJuc?...

#ALL50RTS Day 39 When The Sun Hits | Slowdive You know the bit. When that stately sonic wave crests and crashes over a distant shore - and each time you know it’s coming but it’s still exhilarating. A simply enormous song. youtu.be/MKYY0IlTMw4?...

#ALL50RTS Day 38 Only Shallow | mbv Remember your first listen of Loveless and how the first few seconds punched you in the face? Those four snare hits and the lurching aggression of guitar and bass are incredible, then Bilinda sleepily wafts in from a dream somewhere. Mad youtu.be/FyYMzEplnfU?...

#ALL50RTS Day 37 Skin So Soft | Campag Velocet Their debut album was a kinetic, shouty affair full of Clockwork Orange references yet in the middle of it they dropped a near 9 minute astonishing masterclass in ambient shoegaze. Sladky, as they say in Nadsat. youtu.be/YmCySouUruM?...

#ALL50RTS Day 36 Ninety Degrees | Ladytron The soundtrack to an imaginary sci-fi film, playing over lingering panoramic shots of sunrise over a deserted planet and abandoned, slowly pirouetting spacecraft. Helen Marnie never sounded more heavenly than this. 1 bonus point youtu.be/LqPuYuVgMks?...

#ALL50RTS Day 35 Cool Your Boots | Ride Filthy, abrasive opening chords usher in a trippy, circular riff backed by distant tremolo. The extended outro, swirling guitars punctuated by Loz's giddy tempo shifts make this a hurtling white knuckle, er, ride. youtu.be/3aFh4oTmIio?...

#ALL50RTS Day 34 Peach | Blur Gentle, barely-there, languid experimentation (my preferred Blur mode) with wonderfully mournful scribbles from Graham Coxon. youtu.be/m1KEvDfNh1A?...

#ALL50RTS Day 33 Blood Outta Stone | The Fall One of many Fall B sides that was better than its A side. BOS motors along at a jaunty pace, the band is as tight as hell and we are treated to some classic yelping from MES. “Getting stuff outta youse” is just 👌 youtu.be/6EiAr3IAUZU?...

#ALL50RTS Day 32 Walking In The Dark | Throwing Muses Unusually piano-led and utterly captivating, this is for me their best work. Impeccably crafted by a genius. youtu.be/aIxUTAGOOyw?...

#ALL50RTS Day 31 All The Way | Ladytron The soaring, delicate, crystalline closer to Witching Hour. I could listen to Helen Marnie sing forever. "They heard the sound of the snow falling". You really can. youtu.be/Ho9XsaGI11s?...

#ALL50RTS Day 30 Honey Power | mbv The sound of a million kazoos suddenly gaining sentience and threatening life as we know it. Meanwhile, Bilinda coos, unpeturbed. youtu.be/lc8Ygwo6kc0?...

#ALL50RTS Hashtag fail yesterday…

# ALL50RTS Day 29 Collapse In Slow Motion | Velvet Condom French art provocateurs with a dreadful name manage to hit the sweet spot of my musical taste with a perfect distillation of shoegaze sensibilities and arch synth pop. youtu.be/NTswhI8jUAY?...

#ALL50RTS Day 28 Sex Dwarf | Soft Cell A brilliantly tongue-in-cheek riot of seediness, punishingly dark chords, an insistent, quizzical lead synth, electronic screams, sound effects and that filthy laugh at the end. Utterly incredible stuff youtu.be/wGfZhkBgR9Q?...

#ALL50RTS Day 27 Style It Takes | John Cale and Lou Reed The old sparring partners set aside their differences and reunited for a delightful Warhol tribute. Intensely personal, achingly sentimental and utterly beautiful. youtu.be/kZ1NI2IMTV8?...

#ALL50RTS Day 26 The Twilight Hour | The The A claustrophobic, anguished portrayal of self-obsession within a relationship. It simply drips with atmosphere. Verging on embarrassing to listen to it now with the benefit of hindsight and see how accurate it is... youtu.be/8n3bHNMToLE?...

#ALL50RTS HM 5 Tame | Pixies Black Francis at his most demented - terrifying and wonderful. The sinister whispers of the verses are the perfect counterpoint to the one word screech of the chorus. youtu.be/2Yn3Ls5jZ4g?...

#ALL50RTS HM4 Polar Bear | Ride If you are going to borrow from Marr, you best do it well. The fizzing tremolo clings to every surface and dovetails with the drone-like lead, while the late gear change adds a delicious twist to the hypnotic swirl. youtu.be/DVxifRwvQ30?...

#ALL50RTS HM3 The Yo Yo Man | Echo and the Bunnymen Perhaps their weirdest song, a melange of Spanish guitar, brushed drums, sudden, violent spasms of strings, morbid lyrics, something resembling a music box and it sounds like it was recorded in a cave. It’s fantastic. youtu.be/T1gxp2xTeag?...

#ALL50RTS HM 2 Out Of The Blue (Into The Fire) Nobody can accuse Matt Johnson of sugarcoating his subject matter. This is visceral, raw and bleak but the strings that swirl in add an impossible beauty amid the seediness. youtu.be/HyIVQEZqkVk?...

#ALL50RTS HM 1 Atari Baby | Sigue Sigue Sputnik Have to include them somehow. Atari Baby eschews the rifftastic bombast for something a little more sensual and emphasises just how ludicrously brilliant and brilliantly ludicrous SSS were. Moroder’s dabs clearly all over it youtu.be/TP-liSOq758?...

#ALL50RTS Day 25 29 | Lloyd Cole and the Commotions 3 entries for Lloyd in my 50! 29 aches in the most maudlin, hopeless, beautiful way. Tender desperation from a master of his craft. youtu.be/YbMEp9qrsIU?...

#ALL50RTS Day 24 Don’t Ever Change | The Jesus and Mary Chain The Mary Chain at their most plaintive. I've loved this forever. And an *outtake* (Darklands), incredibly. Before CD reissues with extra tracks, thank goodness for Barbed Wire Kisses youtu.be/Vdfm8Pyl83Y?...

#ALL50RTS Day 23 Love Your Wife | Lloyd Cole and the Commotions A real deep cut, buried away on the From The Hip EP. Deserved much, much better, a classic, wry Cole observation of domestic disharmony with Neil Clark given Forest Fire licence to thrill. youtu.be/8X_Pp6v-ocQ?...

#ALL50RTS Day 22 Something To Do | Depeche Mode Channeling Einstürzende Neubauten with a punishing rhythm track and sampled metal bashing underneath. Loved it from the first moment I heard it. youtu.be/COxJpVW9P3Q?...

#ALL50RTS Day 21 (sorry it’s late) Love In A Car | The House of Love Terry Bickers here, my goodness. Painting dappled light in his own little universe while Chadwick dials up the intensity. youtu.be/kAGOLEngrjg?...

#ALL50RTS Day 20 Four Flights Up | Lloyd Cole and the Commotions Oh, must you tell me all your secrets when it’s hard enough to love you knowing nothing? Perhaps my favourite line in any song. youtu.be/wehpHLPojBk?...

#ALL50RTS Day 19 Turquoise Days | Echo and the Bunnymen This masterfully economical slow burner threatens to explode - but they control the tension so perfectly that you only realise it didn’t far too late. The aural version of the album sleeve youtu.be/yIfotXG-tc0?...

#ALL50RTS Day 18 Lights | The Sisters of Mercy Track 2 of the incredible Reptile House EP which finds Eldritch doom-croaking over slabs of dolourous noise. It’s as sombre as it gets (which works for me) and is the single best song about a traffic light ever recorded. youtu.be/giMSrtFTbuI?...

#ALL50RTS Day 17 Aloysius | Cocteau Twins From the impossibly beautiful Treasure. Gossamer fragility at odds with the thumping drum machine, the sweetest of melodies and the wonderfully trilled “ohs” youtu.be/-La6T7-8VJw?...

#ALL50RTS Day 16 Cries and Whispers | New Order On the flipside of the Everything’s Gone Green 12” and unjustly omitted from the otherwise perfect FACTUS 8 compilation. Huge love for the oscillating, flanging, boinging synth throughout and Hooky's triumphant bassline youtu.be/sdfaJtSSIKw?...

#ALL50RTS Day 15 Sound of Thunder | Duran Duran Their debut is their best work and the best tunes weren’t the singles, excellent though they were. Sound of Thunder is a wonderful mood piece (even with clunky lyrics) and owes a significant debt to Roxy (but so much does) youtu.be/KKrNCTT2aEY?...

#ALL50RTS Day 14 Cold | The Cure Pornography’s most beautiful track but it is tortured beauty - shallow graves, embryos and frozen eyes. Decayed magnificence from the heart of a ruined gothic cathedral youtu.be/hdAAQqb1WgU?...

#ALL50RTS Day 13 The Figurehead | The Cure A masterpiece of emptiness, worthlessness and despair, it bludgeons you relentlessly yet wholly invigorates at the same time. My heart of Cure darkness. TWO BONUS POINTS youtu.be/oA4Zdpw5MN0?...

#ALL50RTS Day 12 Wax and Wane | Cocteau Twins Early Twins: Guthrie’s guitar shrieks where it would later shimmer while Heggie’s bass is sonorous and aggressive in contrast to the lolloping embrace Simon Raymonde would reliably provide. Liz is Liz. youtu.be/Kv8Nbz2HMRg?...

#ALL50RTS Day 11 The Him | New Order The essential, fragile beauty they perfected at that time gives way to a storm of aggressive martial rhythms and furious riffing while eerie whistles and howls swirl in the background. Magnificent ONE BONUS POINT youtu.be/H60Nf7GaqOI?...