Another favourite from this year that I picked up in the Kops Oshawa sale at the weekend - Courtney Barnett's "Creature of Habit" #NowPlaying #vinyl

This morning's first listen is a new pickup of an old friend - Peggy Sue's "Acrobats". I saw them support First Aid Kit when this album came out (I actually went to see them - that First Aid Kit also happened to be great was a bonus!)

When Grant Smithies was writing his book Soundtrack: 118 Great New Zealand Albums, with guest essays, Sam Neill offered to write one about his favourite Aotearoa album: True Colours by Split Enz. In 1980, Neill had just moved to London... www.audioculture.co.nz/articles/sam...

I thought I had a few things to add to the @bestalbumbrackets.bsky.social master-ish list for 1988, but it turns out it was just one - Schnell Fenster's "The Sound of Trees", AKA "what the other half of Split Enz that wasn't Crowded House did next" open.spotify.com/album/02QrUC...

"Now For Plan A" was the album that came out when I first saw them live, and the title track is just gorgeous, particularly with Sarah Harmer's added vocals 😘👌

Sunday morning listening brought to you by one of my favourite albums from this year - Ratboys "Singin' to an Empty Chair". One of 3 things I picked up yesterday at the closing sale for Kops Records in Oshawa 😢 #NowPlaying #vinyl

GREG DAVIES: seems like a kind of a shit task. Everyone just seems like they're going home normally. ALEX HORNE: well before you say that let's have a look at how Odysseus did. cut to panel of AJAX, MENELAUS, AGAMEMNON, and DIOMEDES who are all staring at ODYSSEUS with his head in his hands

I'm trapped.

I can't really see any new albums out for #NewMusicFriday this week (at least, ones that I'm interested in), so I'm listening to some new old stuff - Yes Live at Roosevelt Stadium, 1976. It's the Relayer lineup, but I'll try not to hold that against it open.spotify.com/album/3xGbSt...

I'm under no illusions about how this one is going to go, but I find that Fennesz album consistently more interesting. The highs on AALIYAH are high indeed, but Fennesz is the more rewarding listen. Fennesz ✅

Tempted to try a Crowded House bracket, but not sure I have the attention span to keep it going...

Damn. There's a Hip best song bracket and I'm only just finding out about it?

Despite everything I had to double-check this was real and, yep, it's gender-affirming care solely for chuds, now brought to you by the Pentagon

I wasn't sure I was going to vote on this one. Silver Jews continue to not connect for me, and Dismemberment Plan starts off with too much whiny-indie-male voice. Then "Change" hits its stride and it's really quite a fabulous album. Dismemberment Plan ✅

Some nostalgic listening this morning with a re-recorded version of Shonen Knife's "Let's Knife". I saw them tour the original album at King Tut's in Glasgow in '92 - one of the most fun gigs I've ever seen. Now I need to dig out my original CDs... open.spotify.com/album/0RwEs3...

I made this because as far as I can see nobody else has?

The polar opposite reactions here to the deaths of Sam Neill and Lindsey Graham are such a reminder that we all have a choice whether to live our lives in a way that brings joy or misery to those around us. I think if you’re remembered fondly as Sam Neill is today, you’ve pretty much won at life.

There's so much more to Dexys than "Come on Eileen"...

I spoke to soon. @adobe.com's Turntable button still shows that animation, even with that option turned off in my preferences. Just another reason why I won't use their crappy genAI (or any genAI). If anyone finds a way to turn it off permanently (aside from rolling back my install version)...

Is this an album or an EP? I'm talking about "1331", the new collection of 13 songs from Sad13, AKA Speedy Ortiz frontperson, Sadie Dupuis. In a break with the "13" motif, it's 1 second shy of 16 minutes long, but it packs a lot in there #NewMusicFriday open.spotify.com/album/5z015d...

It was out earlier this week, but I'm still counting it for #NewMusicFriday (and listening to it for the nth time) - Orla Gartland's soundtrack for the TV show "Trying". The cover image doesn't make me want to watch the show, but I do like the songs quite a lot open.spotify.com/album/0ekvgv...

Rounding up some translations of Count Binface that have been appearing in foreign press 🇷🇴 Romanian: Contele Tomberonez 🇫🇷 French: Comte Tête-de-Poubelle (bin-head, more accurate than bin-face) 🇮🇹 Italian: Conte Faccia-da-Bidone 🇪🇸 Spanish: "un hombre con un cubo de basura en la cabeza" (!) Cont...

Last week was quiet for new releases, but things are picking up again this #NewMusicFriday. Suki Waterhouse has a new album out, "Loveless", and it's not straying far from the ingredients that made her last one a repeat play for me—ennui, partying, and pop hooks open.spotify.com/album/3fnrOz...

Seems a good time to remember that most of what sucks about Canada right now is the responsibility of the provinces and most of the provinces are run by Conservatives.

Like many of the albums that I'm discovering for the first time in this tournament, that AWK album is... Nope. NopeNopeNopeNopeNopeNopeNopeNopeNopeNopeNopeNopeNopeNopeNopeNopeNopeNopeNopeNopeNopeNopeNope Purely for not being AWK - Röyksopp ✅

Dune: Part Three (December 18): Official Trailer 🔥 "Set nearly two decades after Paul Atreides seized control of the Imperium. Now a ruthless Emperor, Paul must face the consequences of his reign as old allies return, terrifying new threats emerge, and betrayal lurks in every shadow." Can't wait.

That's not the only Split Enz book headed our way! I just found the listing for a 33 1/3 book on "Mental Notes", out next April! www.bloomsbury.com/us/split-enz...

In an update of probably little importance to most, locating the "Illustrator Cloud Prefs" file, finding "ShowRichToolTips" and changing its value from "1" to "0" has turned it off! And, as an added bonus, the Turntable button is also gone!

Sigh. I've just found a new level of pettiness from @adobe.com. In the latest version of Illustrator, a button for the new(ish) Turntable feature has been dumped in Transform, a control panel that I use a lot. (Why it's in that panel at all I don't know...) 1/

Huh. A "new" B-52's single, a 2026 remaster of "Mesopotamia" just came up on my Spotify. It was always an album I liked more in theory, but I never really warmed to, so I don't know it well enough to say if it's significantly different to the "original" version open.spotify.com/album/7laqyz...

An early start means that I have the office to myself and the new Orla Gartland album on repeat already. open.spotify.com/album/0ekvgv...

The Odyssey! I have read, translated and compressed it into a handy half hour podcast for you. Here’s your quick guide on BBC Sounds. Infidelity and monsters aplenty… www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Keeping it CanCon tonight with Stars' "Up in Our Bedroom After the War". It was the follow-up to their big breakthrough, "Set Yourself on Fire", but I've always preferred this one myself. I have a habit of liking the less popular albums... #NowPlaying

Son Lux release "Want You To Love", the newest single from their upcoming album, Out Into, due on 18 September via City Slang.

I've said it before, but the reverence for Dylan on here is utterly baffling to me, particularly for (as one commenter described it) this "Old Man McGucket" of an album. Voted for the album that sounds like it was recorded in this century. Which also happens to be a banger. Basement Jaxx ✅

Bluesky this morning:

On this day in 1988, Crowded House released 'Temple of Low Men.' Darker and more introspective than its debut, it gave us “Better Be Home Soon” and became an award-winning classic.

belgium, belgium, belgium is the best!

Classic post from @hollyqueenofspayeds.com popping up in the memories today:

Pre-order links are going up for the new Split Enz book (though not in N America that I can see...), giving a little more information. Out at the end of September, hardcover, square (10" or 254mm) format and 184 pages store.warnermusic.com.au/products/spl...

Yow!

Blimey. A random search for Split Enz related news just turned up some pretty big news (to me at least) - percussionist Noel Crombie is writing a new biography of the band! "Split Enz: An Adventure in Music and Design" should be out in October this year. www.booksandpublishing.com.au/articles/202...

Satrine Rainey is a former spy who forges her way into an inspector job to take care of her family. Minox Welling is an untrained mage and an outcast among the inspectors. Together, they work for the Maradaine Constabulary, solving the weird murders no one else can. amzn.to/447puC7

Happy 100th, Mel Brooks.

Doctor Trivago

My abiding memory of this song will always be one of my flatmates in Glasgow, absolutely shitfaced, dancing 'round another flatmate's room. I miss that flat and those people...

Veranix Calbert is The Thorn: Magic student by day, street vigilante by night. He wages his personal war against the drug trade of the Fenmere cartel, while also facing threats from street gangs, assassins, vengeful alchemists and the occasional irritated professor. amzn.to/4vBuACO

Today is the CN Tower's 50th birthday. The @thestar.com has a package celebrating this milestone, including a column by me. It still helps define the city, even as Toronto has radically changed around it & it's no longer the tallest. Old, but still looks like the future.

Welcome to Scottish Summer youtube.com/shorts/iN4DW...