Still less than a decade after his debut with My Aim Is True, Costello released his 11th (yes, eleventh!) studio album Blood & Chocolate...

I got this CD out of the library on a whim in the 1990s, and bought it as soon as I saw it reasonably priced. Possibly something of a...

I'd heard of Pat Metheny as a great guitarist, and was interested in hearing more modern jazz, so on seeing this for a quid in a charity...

The so-called folk-punk genre, arguably invented by the Pogues, had its moment in the mid-eighties, and some great music emerged. Among...

The Members were one of those punk bands that hit the public consciousness for a year or so, before vanishing back into the ether....

Happy New Year, everyone. The first post of 2024 is the only CD I received for Christmas, a 2022 reissue of Robert Fripp's noodling in...

Ever since the early singles in the 1980s, Depeche Mode are a band I felt I ought to investigate further, so when a donation of a number...

I first heard this album when I was at primary school, and was visiting a friend's house when he put this on, telling me this lot were...

This is an album I'd frequently heard snippets and odd songs from, and I was familiar with Chicago, there being enough there to convince...

This one was a recent charity shop purchase, for not very much at all, but was a firm favourite when first released and I bought it on...

My associations for this album are an afternoon in late 1979 spent visiting Newcastle with a new 'friend'. We'd been seeing one another...

Tribute albums with a variety of bands doing covers of old favourites. I've been thinking, what makes some good and some awful. I've come...

In the mid-1990s, R.E.M. were arguably the biggest pop sensation on the planet, and this album, their tenth, was the fourth in a run of...

Back after a bit of an absence while we moved house and we start with a recent purchase. Mick Jones' first work after quitting The Clash...

Shane McGowan died yesterday. Given his lifestyle, it might surprise many that he reached 65, but a sad loss, nevertheless. From the very...

I bought this album at the time, and while I enjoyed it, I found subsequent albums more satisfying. I'm not sure the raw, jagged songs on...

Is this the first punk album? it's certainly an argument I've tried to make in the past, usually incoherently after a drink has been...

Now here's an admission. Echo and the Bunnymen were alright. They weren't the best thing Liverpool had produced since the Beatles, and in...

Bought on a whim for a quid in a charity shop, I was pleasantly surprised by this Newcastle band and played the album a few times when I...

Back at the time, Bristol's trip-hop first team were all the rage, and this album was a firm favourite. I suspect I might have been drawn...