Not much mucking about today before I get into this week’s selection. But can I quickly plug Club Uncut tonight? Now that the Hold Steady tour has been cancelled, their support band War On Drugs will be joining Ladyhawk and The Dudes on the bill. A few dubious entries in the list this week, but...
Not much mucking about today before I get into this week’s selection. But can I quickly plug Club Uncut tonight? Now that the Hold Steady tour has been cancelled, their support band War On Drugs will be joining Ladyhawk and The Dudes on the bill.
A few dubious entries in the list this week, but our energies have also been taken up with The Bad Plus’ inadvertently hilarious version of “Lithium” by Nirvana, part of the band’s latest and generally woeful set of jazz covers, which features a selection of challengingly abstract piano breaks which our Reviews Ed – a big fan of free jazz, we should note – describes as sounding like Les Dawson playing the Pizza Express. I imagine that my responses to it – helpless laughter, chronic irritation, a sense of men trying so hard to be awkward – are how people who don’t like jazz react when they hear any jazz record. So perhaps I’ve learned something.
1 Robert Wyatt – Shleep (Domino)
2 Belle And Sebastian – The BBC Sessions (Jeepster)
3 Headless Heroes – The Silence Of Love (Names)
4 Brightblack Morning Light – Motion To Rejoin (Matador)
5 Chairlift – Does You Inspire You? (Kanine)
6 Ultravox – Systems Of Romance (Antilles)
7 Scott Walker – The Moviegoer (Contour)
8 Kieran Hebden & Steve Reid – NYC (Domino)
9 Amadou & Mariam – Welcome To Mali (Because)
10 Greg Weeks – The Hive (Wichita)
11 The Smiths – The Sound Of The Smiths (Rhino)
12 Ryan Adams – Cardinology (Lost Highway)
13 Threatmantics – Upbeat Love (Double Six)
14 Anne Briggs – Anne Briggs (Water)
15 Little Joy – Little Joy (Rough Trade)
16 Tagaq – Auk/Blood (Jericho Beach)