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 consecutive no 1 UK albums. I hadn't really noticed them until Out Of Time , their UK breakthrough and the first in that no 1 run, and remember being somewhat ambivalent about them. I liked a lot of the songs, but found Michael Stipe rather too earnest and annoying for my liking. Twenty seven years on, I find this album in a box just unpacked

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...

In 1977, listening to John Martyn albums would have been very low on my to-do list, and it would be many years before I heard anything by him. But after hearing Solid Air and a couple of other bits, it became apparent that Martyn was worth checking out. I've no recollection of buying this CD, nor of listening to it before this exercise. I'm on my third listen now, with some idea what to expect. Opening with the upbeat, even funky Dealer, heavy with reverb, Martyn's trademar

One of my favourite jazz albums, yet to be reviewed is Miles Davis' In A Silent Way. A young guitarist from Doncaster, John McLaughlin...

Nick Lowe is most definitely a 'good thing'. Erstwhile bassist and songwriter with Brinsley Schwarz, go-to producer to get top tunes down...

Arto Lindsay is an American musician, who grew up in Brazil, and much of his music shows these dual influences. I've mentioned how I...

By 1980 The Jam had conquered all before them, and seemed to churn out great hit singles for fun. Following two absolute classic albums,...

I've just counted and I own 16 Neil Young CDs. Now I quite like a lot of Young's music but I'm no megafan and can only put this down to...