Don’t Look Back - Boston (1978) Production is immaculate, guitars are glorious, vocals soar, but it is a bit too smooth. I know that’s unfair and it only seems formulaic to me now because Boston defined the formula, but I guess my modern ears want more than technical mastery. #nowspinning #vinyl

Los Lobos - How will the Wolf Survive? (1984) For some reason, this sounded very familiar to me. Halfway through side one, it clicked. Steady 4/4 beat, accordion, fiddle? This is Irish Country & Western. You could two-step to it in any rural hall in Roscommon. Small world. #nowspinning #vinyl

Mazey Fade - Secret Watchers Built the World (1994) Bought this without any idea what it was. Turns out it’s Noise Rock from early 90s Liverpool. No hummable hooks. No uplifting choruses. Just the sound of something being noisily taken apart. Quite the antidote to Britpop. #nowspinning #vinyl

Have you checked Lexx?

Can't wait!

Guess you'd call this the... Wok Of Shame.

The more classic films I watch the more references I can see in other films and by the time I am old I will be very knowledgeable and also completely insufferable

I was gonna make a list of movies that were my top ten but then I deadass forgot every movie I saw this year besides Sinners so I guess imagine I made a list and number one is Sinners

Our Beloved Revolutionary Sweetheart - Camper Van Beethoven (1988) Jangly surf guitars, surging folk violin, and sardonic punk lyrics which skewer American mythmaking, revolutionary posturing, and suburban malaise with a deadpan delivery that makes the jokes land harder. #nowspinning #vinyl

Are You Experienced - The Jimi Hendrix Experience (1967) This is a German pressing of the U.K. version which doesn’t include “Purple Haze”, “Hey Joe” or “The Wind Cries Mary”. Hard to imagine what this sounded like at the time, hearing feedback & fuzz used deliberately. #nowspinning #vinyl

A Charlie Brown Christmas - Vince Guaraldi Trio (1965) What’s remarkable is how little this album dates. It is a perfect album. Not just the best Christmas jazz record, but one of the great mood pieces in modern music - gentle, introspective, and endlessly replayable. #nowspinning #vinyl

Completely coincidental, unplanned, apropos of nothing Zoltar juxtaposition.

Cold Chisel - East (1980) Cold Chisel are uniquely Australian cultural icons, up there with The Castle & democracy sausages as the best the country has to offer. “East” was their commercial breakthrough - tough, tender & utterly Australian, it made them a national institution. #nowspinning #vinyl

Linda Ronstadt - Simple Dreams (1977) This isn’t radical but it is the sound of a singer fully in command, making the most of classic songwriting. She reframes covers of Warren Zevon, Roy Orbison and Buddy Holly, warmly, confidently, and quietly devastating when she wants to be. #nowspinning #vinyl

Inside Star Trek (1976) Odd mix of soundtrack, radio drama & interview which came out 7 years after the original series ended, but before the movies revived it, so it’s an interesting time capsule from the wilderness years. Even Shatner is surprisingly thoughtful & sincere. #nowspinning #vinyl

The Undertones - 16 Live Humdingers (2024) Bought at the gig in Shepherds Bush Empire. I was supporting the Frank & Walters and my interest in the Undertones was largely as historical artefact. That said, they were surprisingly fresh given their material is over 40 years old. #nowspinning #vinyl

Happy today! www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4Iu...

Star Trek The Motion Picture (1979) Not my favourite of the Star Trek films but, right from the main theme, Jerry Goldsmith’s music expresses the wonder and mystery that the script tried but failed to reach. It’s a rare case of the soundtrack being simply better than the film. #nowspinning #vinyl

it's 2024 where is the technology to add my vinyl and cd plays to spotify wrapped

John Lennon - Imagine (1971) Always thought of McCartney as the commercial one so surprised me that Lennon did this two years before “Band on the Run”. The bitterness is still there on “How Do You Sleep?” but now it sits with timeless ballads like “Imagine” and “Jealous Guy”. #nowspinning #vinyl

Arlo Guthrie - Alice’s Restaurant (1967) Hadn’t intended to do a Thanksgiving theme but somehow never noticed before that the title track is about Thanksgiving dinner (as well littering, bureaucracy, and the Vietnam draft.) Warm witty songwriting, delivered with real charm. #nowspinning #vinyl

If an Irish writer of Stoppard's stature died today, our president (and probably our Taoiseach too) would've issued a statement by now.

Tom Paxton - Ramblin’ Boy (1964) The melodies are simple, the guitar is crisp, and the focus stays on his voice and its message that ordinary people can and should do better by one another. “The Last Thing on My Mind” is the quiet confession that masterfully anchors the album. #nowspinning #vinyl

The movie listed at #1 is so incredibly misplaced that it calls into question the veracity of the entire list. It belongs on the list, yes, but SO MUCH further down. An absolute, credibility-wrecking flub. Boo, @variety.com! Boo! variety.com/lists/best-c...

Sturgill Simpson - Metamodern Sounds in Country Music (2014) The metamodern tag had me expecting country-tinged rock but this is real traditional outlaw - drawl, grit, and steel guitar - until you listen closely, and then you realise how subtly the boundaries are being pushed. #nowspinning #vinyl

Life Is Grand - Camper Van Beethoven (1988) Had time to kill on my way to the Albert Hall so detoured to Music & Video Exchange in Notting Hill and picked this up. Don’t know CvB but based on this three-minute blast of jangly guitars and sardonic humour, that may soon change. #nowspinning #vinyl

Bookends - Simon & Garfunkel (1968) I hadn’t realised how short the album is. Nothing wasted, just 29 minutes of distilled melancholy and melody. Side 1 unfolds like a miniature film, each piece flowing into the next, while Side 2 is built around songs that have become iconic. #nowspinning #vinyl

Paul Simon (1972) The sound of someone rediscovering music on his own terms, trying out new rhythms, genres and instruments. I’m not entirely sold on the panpipes but, with hindsight, it’s easy to see that the same restless, melodic, curious striving is leading to Graceland. #nowspinning #vinyl

Firedove - Anna Lapwood (2025) I’m a fan of Anna’s video clips on social media so when I saw she had an album out, thought I should buy it as a way of supporting her. Recorded in Nidaros Cathedral, her recording of Hans Zimmer’s “Time” is monumental without being bombastic. #nowspinning #vinyl

#doctorwho Heaven Sent is one of the best episodes of all time. Hell Bent has one moment that gets me every time. 😭

I could be staring at my hand locking my front door, and I still won’t feel 100% sure my front door was locked

XTC - Skylarking (1986) Another English band with a song cycle bathed in a warm, pastoral glow: hazy strings, shimmering guitars, even literal birdsong. It’s widely regarded as XTC’s masterpiece, and the craft is undeniable, but I prefer the spikier edge of the earlier records. #nowspinning #vinyl

Cathy Davey - Live at Dublin Unitarian Church (2018) What’s in a name? I expected a folk singer a la Sandy Denny. To be sure, her singing has a light, airy quality but beneath that softness the melodies twist in unexpected directions, backed by quirky percussion and pop charm. #nowspinning #vinyl

Kaught at the Kampus (1980) I was Sir Henry’s generation, so never went to the Arcadia, but the gigs were legendary. Less a great live album than a cultural artefact that captures the genesis of three extraordinary front men: Cathal Couglan, Mick Lynch and Finbarr Donnelly. #nowspinning #vinyl

Freddie White - Live (1979) I’ve seen Freddie live many times over 30 years, from Cork to Cronulla, and his covers introduced me to Randy Newman and John Hiatt. He has a unique ability to get to the heart of a song; so much so that I often prefer his version to the original. #nowspinning #vinyl

Was in Dublin for the rugby so went to Freebird Records and picked up three Irish albums that I have not been able to find anywhere in the UK (and XTC because I guess I’m an XTC fan now).

happy Partially Muscled Skeleton Stands by the Perimeter Fence and Screams for Thirty Seconds Before Vanishing day

Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Yanqui U.X.O. (2002) The album unfolds in long, deliberate waves of music that build slowly, collapse and reform with a grim, hypnotic intensity. There are no vocals, just the cycle of tension and release, creating an atmosphere of mounting unease. #nowspinning #vinyl

The Kinks - State of Confusion (1983) The Kinks meet MTV. The result is uneven, weighed down by sterile early-80s production. But it’s redeemed by “Come Dancing”, a tender tribute to Ray’s sister and a vanished world of dance halls and innocence. The last great Kinks track. #nowspinning #vinyl

Dan Hicks & His Hot Licks - Striking It Rich! (1972) How to describe this? Imagine Django Reinhardt wandered into a honky-tonk saloon & joined the band. The production is superb, silky vocals & clear strings, with a bona-fide masterpiece, “I Scare Myself”, at its center. #nowspinning #vinyl

Purple Reign.

Tom Waits - Franks Wild Years (1987) Not quite a concept album, this reworks songs from the play he wrote with Kathleen Brennan and drifts between drunken cabaret, feverish gospel, and cracked lullaby, as we follow Frank’s surreal fall from small-town dreamer to broken drifter. #nowspinning #vinyl

Paul McCartney - Ram (1971) It’s McCartney, so there are flashes of melodic genius, but also plenty of art-school experimentation. The production is uneven, and the lyrics drift from whimsy to outright weirdness. Brilliant in places, but messy and self-indulgent overall. #nowspinning #vinyl

Power of Dreams - Ausländer” “Immigrants, Emigrants and Me” was about identity, displacement, naïveté & hope - my favourite album of 1990. Three decades later, “Ausländer” is about exile, alienation, middle age & the persistence of hope. It’s like they grew up with me. #nowspinning #vinyl

apologies in advance to my children, whose bedrooms I will reappropriate as Lego display rooms the second they are out of the house

The Police - Ghost in the Machine (1981) Very early 80s - gated drums, analog synths, lyrics about information overload. The dystopian themes can feel dated but then “Every Little Thing She Does” bursts through like sunlight as the Police forget the concept and simply connect. #nowspinning #vinyl

Mike Oldfield - Ommadawn (1975) Tubular Bells astonished me when I first heard it, the sheer audacity of one man building a symphony out of overdubs, but Ommadawn may be Oldfield’s real masterpiece. Less mechanical, more pastoral; each theme unfolding naturally from the last. #nowspinning #vinyl

Mike Oldfield - Crises (1983) Blatant compromise between artistic genius and a hit-hungry label. On one side, the sprawling 20 minute title suite; on the other, 4 polished pop songs including the sublime “Moonlight Shadow”. It’s like they stuck two different albums together. #nowspinning #vinyl