When words fail, Vivek Shraya sings. On New Models, the multi-hyphenate artist lets language fall away, and feelings take the lead.

Funny how the 1980s anxiety and angst of Tears For Fears’ Songs from the Big Chair feel uncomfortably familiar for a forty-year-old album. Letting out all my thoughts on THE quintessential album of the 80s. #tearsforfears #songsfromthebigchair

Rec Centre’s Squash and @nationoflanguage.bsky.social's Dance Called Memory trace echoes of the past without getting lost in them.

I wonder what the stats are on the number of people who changed their social media statuses to “afflicted by a terminal uniqueness” today? #eldestdaughter #theLifeOfAShowgirl

The first stop of a reverse reflection on the music of @bobpetesarah.bsky.social / Saint Etienne is 2025’s International, their latest—and last ever—album as a band.

Cleared for takeoff. Air Etienne: INTNL → ALPHA, a reverse reflection on the music of Saint Etienne @bobpetesarah.bsky.social from International (2025) to Foxbase Alpha (1991) is now boarding. [credit: Rob Baker Ashton]

Two albums, two very different moods, one post. Sweat it out with Hidden Cameras' Bronto, then drift away with Winter's Adult Romantix.

Dan Gorman @yckmd.bsky.social of the Discover Tab invited me to share five Canadian crate-digging-worthy records from @raespoon.bsky.social @purelava.bsky.social #VivekShraya #Devours, and #LittleKid.

Antidepressants is alive with urgency, proof that @suedehq.bsky.social aren’t anywhere near taking their last breath. Read the final installment in a retro-flection series that has come full circle from past to present.

No one: Me: Why, yes! I do have 10 favourites from @suedehq.bsky.social's Sci_Fi Lullabies Vol. 2!

@thetragicallyhip.bsky.social has long carried a complicated weight in Canadian culture: symbols of pride and place, yet often embraced in ways that skim the surface of their music’s depth. There’s still so much more to unpack in what their songs say about who we are, and who we pretend to be.

Summer’s almost over, pumpkin spice is plotting world domination, and I’m not ready. Good thing these four new albums from Hand Habits, TOPS, Water From Your Eyes, and Kathleen Edwards are all kinds of blue (the sleeves) and none of them are blue (the music).

With 2022’s Autofiction, @suedehq.bsky.social proved that old geezers can still be punk into their pensioners’ era. Restless, urgent, and unexpectedly intimate, it's an album that punk has no best-before date. The penultimate act in my retro-flection revisit is now live.

What in heavens name is a Labubu?

Includes my favourite New Pornographers song of all time: “The Bleeding Heart Show.” Classic album.

You wanna talk shoegaze? Come at me. But @nojoy.bsky.social’s Bugland is more than just shoegazey, it’s its own living, breathing world. [ @handdrawndracula.bsky.social / @soniccathedral.bsky.social ]

Thanks to everyone who has supported my recent Substack launch. There is now a dedicated instagram account set up for @theactofjustbeingthere where I will be sharing all future posts. Please follow me there: www.instagram.com/theactofjust...

@suedehq.bsky.social’s The Blue Hour felt like a duty to write about more than a joy, but even still, their late-career ambition proves hard to ignore and reminded me why taking risks always wins over playing it safe. #suede #mysuedestory #thebluehour

In 2016, @suedehq.bsky.social released Night Thoughts, a richly orchestrated, late-career album that’s as cohesive as it is ambitious. The latest entry in the retro-flection series revisits its place in their story. #suede #mysuedestory #nightthoughts

🎧 the act of just streaming here 🎧 Yes, it’s a playlist. No, it’s not radical. A lightly haunted jukebox. Some new. Some old. Some weird little in-betweens. The Hidden Cameras, Saint Etienne, Vivek Shraya, Nation of Language + more. open.substack.com/pub/jimdigio...

Bloodsports reconnected @suedehq.bsky.social with the essence that made them vital in the first place. Their 2013 return is a confident, tightly focused album that feels like a reset. #suede #mysuedestory #bloodsports

Congrats to King @vishkhanna.bsky.social on the 1000th episode of Kreative Kontrol! Much deserved love to a national treasure!

Duality is not just the theme of Fortunato Durutti Marinetti’s Bitter Sweet, Sweet Bitter; it shapes the whole record, looping Dan Colussi’s detached delivery with the intimacy of his arrangements, highlighting the absurdity and precision of it all.

Kinetic. Volatile. Unstable. Noble. Revisiting Here Come the Tears, the one-off album from former @suedehq.bsky.social collaborators Brett Anderson and Bernard Butler, that quietly did everything it needed to.

Big voice. Big heart. Big neon cowgirl energy. @tamineilson.bsky.social’s latest album is born from grit, grace, and a little bit of neon magic. Get your glow on.

Not every album deserves a second chance. But sometimes, revisiting one reveals more than you expect. A New Morning was @suedehq.bsky.social's lowest point—and mine, as a fan. Revisiting it over 20 years later gave me something I didn’t anticipate. #suede #anewmorning #thisisalow

Sounds awesome!

Quinton Barnes doesn’t play by the rules—and refuses to be silenced by the rulers. Dense, dissonant, and devastatingly honest, Black Noise (@wtetn.bsky.social) is a 33-minute reckoning. Messy. Brilliant. Necessary.

Synths, spirals, and self-destruction. @suedehq.bsky.social's Head Music is the sound of a band unravelling—and somehow still making it to the other side. My deep dive into one of their most divisive albums is now up. #suede #headmusic

This isn’t a rebrand. It’s a reckoning. Bite Down, the debut from Ribbon Skirt, is a post-punk exorcism of expectations. I wrote about identity, reinvention, and the power of being hard to ignore. #ribbonskirt #bitedown

. @suedehq.bsky.social B-sides are not just fillers. They are fully realized songs that often rivalled or even surpassed their A-side counterparts. These are my 10 favourites from the 1997 compilation, Sci-Fi Lullabies. What's your favourite Suede B-side? #suede #scifilullabies

You do know I have a Substack now, right? It would be swell if all you out there would subscribe.

Devours’ Sports Car Era is what happens when you hit 40, hit the gas, and hit every emotional speed bump with a glitter cannon. I wrote about fat otters, midlife crises, and why this album is the queerest way to end Pride Month. 🌈 (also: we need to get Devours on Bluesky.)

2025 @polarismusicprize.bsky.social‬ Long List musings about who made it (@backxwash.bsky.social‬, Quinton Barnes, Ribbon Skirt) and who's missing (Devours, Ghostkeeper, @michaelcduguay.bsky.social‬).

In 1994, every music journalist was busy trying to suss out which up-and-coming band would claim @suedehq.bsky.social‬’s throne; no one had any idea it would be Suede themselves.

Wobbly Yonder from @michaelcduguay.bsky.social is a force of nature whose effects on your soul and psyche are impossible to describe with mere words. To appreciate its full impact, immerse yourself in Wobby Yonder and let its specialness wash over you. And then do it again and again and again.

Taking a small intermission from my deep dive on @suedehq.bsky.social to highlight some of Bernard Butler's best work. What's your favourite?

“In a musical landscape where their contemporaries were more focused on competing in the singles charts, @suedehq.bsky.social set about creating a fully realized concept album that went so far against the prevailing trends that it remains timeless and peerless. ”

“Suede understood what it felt like to be hiding in plain sight, how the fear of violence, rejection, and disdain can lead someone to suppress their desires...” @suedehq.bsky.social's debut album turned on the lights for many. Tell me your favourite track from it.

What I’m trying to say [now]…

“My Insatiable One” is the sound of someone teetering on stacked heels for the first time, confidently marching into a crowd of gawking onlookers and leaving them slack-jawed and in awe. A PRELUDE to my multi-part re-immersion into @suedehq.bsky.social

Here's the (next? new?) thing: jimdigioia.substack.com/p/what-im-tr...

When he sang “Let Me Entertain You” in 1997 I did not anticipate eagerly wanting to see Robbie Williams played by a CGI monkey in 2024, but here we are.

What if there was zero thought behind a gift? Does it still count?

My PRESENT: happy tinsel and snow daze to you and yours 🪜⤵️🎄

Spending the afternoon gift wrapping while listening to classic sounds of the season like this

Music as medicine in 2024 Pt. 4 The Reds, Pinks, and Purples / @glenndonaldson.bsky.social - Inner Richmond (2023)

It's one of those contact-lenses-sticking-to-the-undersides-of-my-eyelids kind of days. Trying very hard not to read too much into that.

Music as medicine in 2024 Pt. 3 @actualylt.bsky.social - The Sounds of the Sounds of Science (2002)

Wait: METZ broke up?? I have been out of touch.