16:00 Time to get the weekend up and running with a fine porter from Co. Tipperary. Mind you it really started with that amazing gig last night by Stereolab. Of course Mrs. B always comments that my life is one long weekend. Not necessarily disagreeing 😊

@robertusrex.bsky.social & @marseline.bsky.social Is it OK if we start TKI at fifteen minutes past the hour? Just home, and frankly somewhat happily inebriated, but so looking forward to listening with both of you 😊

Show us the last four albums you listened to #last4albums (Lykke Li dark valentine edition 🖤)

Our first new album in 38 years on digital and 180gr black vinyl with a printed inner sleeve. Recorded and mixed by Jessica Corcoran. Produced by Cypress, Mine! in Perryvale Studios, London. Available now on Bandcamp cypressmine.bandcamp.com/album/pullin...

Yasmine Hamdan 🇱🇧 London Town 12.02.2026 Quite extraordinary. Words can't quite express it, but safe to say a dream come through and one of my best live experiencess. Grá ❤️

Downloads of my debut album 'Answers On A Postcard' from last year are now free until the end of February (well, 'name your price', but you can enter zero in there). Enjoy! 🔗 skypatterns.bandcamp.com/album/answer...

Show us the last four albums you listened to #last4albums (great to have our Nantes musical correspondent back on the block edition 😎)

Show us the last four albums you listened to #last4albums (Friday night home alone edition 😎)

#NP Sky Patterns | Night Call @plc69.bsky.social (aka @skypatterns.bsky.social ) has surpassed all expectations on sophomore album Night Call. One spin in and I can tell that I'm really looking forward to getting to know this album in detail. Mint ▶️ 👇 👇 👇 skypatterns.bandcamp.com/album/night-...

Show us the last four albums you listened to #last4albums (chilled Sunday evening edition 😎)

#NP Jessica Pratt | Here In The Pitch Second of two great speculative purchases from Plug'd Records yesterday. For some strange reason I never got around to listening to Jessica's fourth from 2024. Two spins in and it's outstanding, absolutely top notch songwriting. A truly superb record 👌

#NP Hildur Guðnadóttir | Where To From The first of two speculative purchases from the wonderfully curated selection at Plug'd Records. Another album from 2025 that I missed out on. Sparse, but beautifully so, evocative, and filled with, to these ears, calm and tranquility. Superb 👌 🎶 🙏

#NP The Style Council | Café Bleu & Introducing The Style Council. Time for a reacquaintance in advance of next weekend's reissue. Both of these cover all the bases, but to my mind they really found their flow with the singles. Definitely looking forward to hearing what next Friday brings 😎

Show us the last four albums you listened to #last4albums (hoping for a dry weekend edition ☂️ ☂️ ☂️ 😊)

Post an album you bought based on the artwork before hearing a note of it . (full report tomorrow edition 😂)

Share what you consider to be a goddess tier album

Happy Release Day to @skypatterns.bsky.social and his fabulous new single Night Call. Thinking Republic era New Order here, but belive it or not I could also see Duran Duran covering it. The instrumental cut is also fabulous. Welcome to the weekend 😎 skypatterns.bandcamp.com/album/night-...

Show us the last four albums you listened to #last4albums (easing into the weekend edition 😎)

#NP Julie Tzuke | Now Or Never Delighted to see my vinyl copy of Judie's latest album arriving today. One of my favourites from 2025, it sounds staggering good on vinyl, this pressing bringing it to a new level imo. 20+ studio albums at this stage, quite amazing 👌 🎶 🙏

Top 10 all-time favourite vocalists? Off the top of my head: David Sylvian Kate Bush Patti Smith David Bowie Judie Tzuke Bryan Ferry Brett Anderson Joan Wasser Tom Petty James Dean Bradfield (or as Mrs. B would say 'the old reliables 😎)

#NP Hilary Woods | Acts Of Light Hilary's Night CRIÚ was one of my favourite albums last year, but somewhat inexplicably I never got around to listening to her third album Acts Of Light. Brooding, quiet but intense, evocative and definitely one for long winter nights: dark and hypnotic 👌 🎶 👍

#NP Chris Cordoba | Paternity Delighted to find my CD edition of the 15th anniversary edition of Chris' first solo / instrumental album waiting for me at home today. It's definitely a nighttime listen to these ears and feels far more expansive that it's humble four-track origins. Monday's sorted 👌

#NP Anna Von Hausswolff | Iconoclasts Old cloth ears misses out again: I bought Iconoclasts before Christmas, but am only playing now, gobsmacked that I wasn't able to mention it in my favourite albums of 2025. A truly stunning album. Those live shows must be very special indeed 👌 🎶 👍

Belated opening of these two rather fine birthday & Christmas gifts from Mrs. B. This is the perfect day, although I'm at a bit of a loss as to where to start. Re:Call 6 most probably and then chronologically. To be repeated twice, at least 😎

#NP Philip Lynott | The Philip Lynott Album. It could only be Philip's second solo album to sign off on tonight. If ever there was a musical road map for a new way forward, this was one. We still have our dreams after all this time. Peerless 🙏 🎶 👌

#NP Paul Weller | 22 Dreams I was delighted to find a reasonably priced copy of Paul Weller's great album from 2008 (reissue) over the weekend. Mrs. B not too impressed with an early return to record buying, but needs must and she's a PW fan so the year is off to a good start 😊

6 / 7 (for the older head: 'at six o' clock or seven there's a little bit of heaven...........) Wishing you all a most convivial 2026. It's certainly off to a great start 😊

#NP Ten Favourites 2025 - 1 Gwenno I Utopia Utopia is the best of Gwenno's four (solo) albums to date imo. It's rarely left the turntable at home since release. Semi-autobiographical, melodically (and linguistically) rich, and wonderfully recorded. It's a constant joy to listen to.

#NP Ten Favourites 2025 - 2 Manic Street Preachers I Critical Thinking On what is perhaps their least conceptual album the Manics still land on one of the central questions of our time, over what to these ears is a very euphoric, melodic and engaging record, which also sounded superb live.

#NP Robert Plant | Suzy Dian | Saving Grace Time to slip in one last record before Mrs. B gets home from work. Another first spin here and this is an absolute keeper. Lucky to have caught the band twice live, and the record wholly lives up to the promise of those excellent shows. Superb 👌

#NP Saint Etienne | International It had to happen: my Top 30 for 2025 has to go back to the drawing board. I love when this happens (honestly). Saint Etienne on top form on this one, which will be spun a lot over the coming days. A perfect holiday record ⏺️ 🎧 🎶

#NP Ten Favourites 2025 - 3 Marissa Nadler I New Radiations Marissa paints a beautiful melancholic haze framed in an ever inventive low key mix of alt rock, country and psych. It keeps pulling the listener back as it's a slow reveal. Also boasts my favourite song of the year in the title track.

#NP Ten Favourites 2025 - 4 Miki Berenyi Trio | Tripla I'm minded to think that this album is as good as any album that Miki has been on, which is saying something. It's a wonderfully melodic affair and perfectly sequenced. Miki's vocals are brilliant throughout, plus the cover art is mint.

Agreed, it's not everyone's idea of Christmas shopping, but I'm well sorted for Christmas dinner come Thursday 😊

Delighted to see my copy of Agnes Haus' Inexorable Ascent arriving in the post this morning (evading customs even 😁). These Nite Hive cassettes are really a thing of beauty, as is the wonderfully curated music. And yes I will be giving this one an analogue spin on a tape deck later 👌 🎶 🙏

#NP Ten Favourites 2025 - 5 Sevdaliza I Heroina The shift to pop on Sevdaliza's third album was well flagged with the Raving Dahlia EP and the singles. It would have benefited from the inclusion of Torture, but that's a minor quibble for what is likely to be my summer '26 soundtrack. Fabulous 💎

#NP Ten Favourites 2025 - 6 Wolf Alice | The Clearing Guess that I'm on the lucky side of polarity on this superb records. It's been rarely off the turntable since release and has turned into a total musical comfort blanket. Taken on its own terms it's a runaway success imo. Others beg to differ 😊

#NP Ten Favourites 2025 - 7 Yasmine Hamdan | I Remember I Forget I honestly thought that February's release of Hon was a once off, but no, Yasmine went on to release her first album in an age and somewhat unsurprisingly it's superb. Live shows incoming in 2026. Even Mrs. B is beside herself 😊

#NP Ten Favourites 2025 - 8 bdrmm | Microtonic I'm not too concerned with past glories when the present is so glorious. Polarising perhaps, but this is a beautifully realised album. Fabulous pacing and dynamics, and an intoxicating mix of pop, electronica and psychedelia. Rewind operator.... 😎

#NP Ten Favourites 2025 - 9 Jim Ghedi | Wasteland Such a truly singular voice, drawing deep from the well of English folk music, but with a wholly contemporary outlook. Jim's musical vision knows no bounds on this quite superb record. An absolute legend in the making here folks.

#NP Ten Favourites 2025 - 10 Penelope Trappes | A Requiem | Æternum Haunting, sparse, at times desolate but quietly beautiful, full of life and so engaging. I think both records need to be included as they are very much intertwined. A real winter soundtrack, prefacing the coming spring.

Going to dip my toes in the ever shifting waters of EOY/AOTY 2025. This is my alphabetical shortlist of 25 personal favourites, which works really well for me. Going to try a 10 to 1 over the coming days, but it's a moving target that invites inevitable failure 😎

#NP The Dream Syndicate | Medicine Show Took delivery of the recent four CD expanded reissue today, but for moment it's back to my original 1984 vinyl edition. A steadfast companies of four decades and counting. Timeless rock'n'roll and a personal favourite. Still playing perfectly 😎

#NP Yann Tiersen I Palestine Recently acquired twelve inch from Yann's 2010 album Dust Lane. A very simple lyrical construct, but no less potent for that. All four additional remixes only reinforcing the sentiment of the original track, as unfortunately has time 😢

#NP QUINQUIS I Eor Remixes | Gwenno | Utopia Remixes Two fabulous digital EPs from two of 2025's best albums. I love the way if you play the Eor remixes first you get a lovely crossover of Gwenno's remix of Morwreg flowing effortlessly into QUINQUIS' remix of Hireth. It's a magical moment 👌

#NP Poor Creature | All Smiles Tonight First few spins of what I am sure is going to become a firm favourite, pulling and stretching traditional forms into new and wonderful places. Quite exceptional, and I really should have been listening before now. Better late than never 😊

Wrapping up a creative year. Took all my music off Spotify. Bandcamp sales raised €1000 for Brain Tumour Ireland in memory of Niall Crumlish. And €585 went yesterday to DEPAUL IRELAND. Released 2 Arrivalists albums, connected with so many beautiful souls yet again along the road . Grateful x .

Latest nine on Bandcamp 😎 (better than any EOY list I could come up with, but sure there'll be one of those as well 😂)