A break from the tyranny of the alphabet for a bit, and a look at more recent purchases. This is an album I've intended to pick up at...

The Imagined Village is a folk music project founded by Simon Emmerson of Afro Celt Sound System, with a cavalcade of stars, including...

I came to Hüsker Dü via Bob Mould's solo work, first hearing his debut album Workbook a couple of years after release. Since then, I've...

Picked up for the exchange of coins rather than notes, on the basis that I ought to hear John Lee Hooker, I have little idea if this 1991...

1976 and 1977 were all about punk as any documentary maker knows, yet where did I first hear this album? Was it Prog Time with Greg Lake?...

I suspect the reason I rescued this album from a charity shop, for exchange of a single coin, was my impression of Holmes as a pop...

This is a classic purchase of mine - "I must have some Billie Holiday (or insert other great) to see what all the fuss is about." So, for...

I first encountered Holdsworth on Gong's Gazeuse! album, then later playing with Bill Bruford's band. In fact, he seemed to be the go-to...

As ever, late to the party, I picked this up in a charity shop for a quid about ten years after release, more out of boredom than any...

I'm not sure how this escaped my attention at the time, but I wasn't aware of this album until after Hillage's second album, L, was out....

There's an unwritten rule (except I'm writing it now) that compilation albums won't be eligible for the coveted 5* status. But if there's...

As a teenager, I was an avid consumer of anything put out by the fledgling Virgin label. Keen not to pay out any of the Tubular Bells...

In 1977, I'd just started university and my ears were opened to this new noisy punk rock, and the punkiest thing from across the Atlantic...

I was lent this album by a school friend about two years after its release, and was immediately hooked. Totally unlike anything I'd heard...

During my one year at Sheffield University I helped out on the Entertainments Group, basically swapping days of setting up for events for...

I suspect I borrowed this album from Deal Library soon after it was nominated for the Mercury Music Award, then some years later saw it...

Possibly better known for his later jazz-funk albums, Hancock was an accomplished jazz pianist in the 1960s, coming to attention as part...

Some celebrity deaths resonate more than others, that's only natural. Joe Strummer's passing hurt me, but I wasn't prepared for just how...

How many Bad Seeds does it take to make the Bad Seeds? Obviously more than three, since this album featuring Nick Cave alongside Warren...

I first heard Grid on Real World's A Week In The Real World and really enjoyed what I heard, so felt comfortable taking a punt on seeing...