Song(s) of the Day # 4,269 Erika Di Casier

 

The kind of album that Pitchfork dreams about. And if they exist one of their staffwriters would probably have to invent, Lifetime by  Erika Di Casier, Cased in a sleeve of rolling clouds and airbrushed vision of female beauty of the kind that have adorned teenage walls since the Sixties.

As for the music. Gentle, sensuous neo soul. Steam rising from a fragrant bath. 30 minutes and forty seconds of the clock paused. Sweet !

1986 Singles # 49 Jocelyn Brown

Fifer's Lane University Residences Winter and Spring Terms 1985 - 1986 terms. A series of former RAF housing blocks converted for the needs of callow 18, 19 and 20 year olds away from home for an extended stretch for the first time. All projecting an image that's hardly true to what's inside. . Would be lovers, writers, academics. husbands and wives, parents. Feet truly set on the road.

I was in N Block. Far end of the residences across the football fields Through the main doors, Guys downstairs. Girls upstairs,. Down the corridor past the communal kitchen. Turn left . Four doors.  Facing each other. There we lived behind keys to a door. Small, comfortable bedrooms with walls for posters, Plants. A sink. A wardrobe. A bed. None of us had televisions. None of us ever spoke about football. 

Ben , Rod, James and Btuce . Like The Beatles. Like the Bolsheviks. Like capital fodder. Like James Austen male characters. Mr Drake. Mt Waterman. Mr Hipwell. Mr Bax. Eligible. Without top hats or horses. Or country houses But with promise. And good hair. And plenty of books, cassettes and records. And plenty of lip and invective/

And clothes. Collarless shirts.. Levis 601s, DMs, M&S black polo necks. Soul aspirations. Aspirations to soul. Marvin Gaye. Al Green. Aretha. Nina. Next to the Foucault Busts of Lenin. And Foucault. Barthes. Marx. And tunes like this. We can dance if we want to !  

   

Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 - 1,486 Sisters of Mercy - Floodland

 

There are roads you only briefly walk and Goth is one such road for me. I chose and pretty much stuck with The Cure and The Banshees. Sisters of Mercy, The Mission and so forth always struck me as rather daft.

500 Greatest Albums of the 2000's -# 293 Susuma Yokota - Grinning Cat

 

                                Folktronica. A sublime fifty minutes to close off a wonderful day.

Song(s) of the Day # 4,268 Space Jaguar

 

Space Jaguar is a British French supersonic het fighter aircraft. Alternatively its a band formed by London based musician Mark Grassick who released a couple of records of good nature guitar strumming of the sort that might have been released forty or sixty years ago . It ain't broke don't fix it.

I'm listening to Every Room is an Escape Room which improves as it spins, It feels like Paisley Underground. It's open and genial. It sets out on the open road as It Starts With a Birthstone heads out into the open sea. A good start to 2026.  

1986 Singles # 50 The Lucy Show

 

'It was forty years ago today...'

Forty years ago I woke in a large three story terraced house just off the slopes in Brighton. There were many people in the house in different rooms. All of them nursing hangovers or finding themselves with unexpected bedfellows, The house had a telephone, a letter box, a television and that felt like enough. We looked to explore . The world felt like an exciting and fantastic place to discover. The Internet had not yet arrived to drive us inwards. To confuse us with too much information. The tower of babble.

I woke on New Years Day in 1986 on a double bed on the second floor in  the arms of a girl girl called Clare I'd got a bit tired and emotional with the previous evening and probably taken advantage of her feelings for me which were probably stronger than my feelings for her. It's often the way.. I'd known for a while that she liked me and I was a boy so naturally confused and a bit of an opportunist though a well meaning one. So I'd taken advantage of the opportunity as the party had gathered pace and we'd got drunker.

We'd left the student party we were at and wandered into the Brighton night, Then returned to the house  and we'd gone upstairs, stumbled towards a bedroom and tumbled into bed together as you do at that age given the opportunity. I'd been to the Soviet Union on a college politics trip with Clare a bit over a year earlier. I'd fancied her friend Barbara, but knew Clare had fancied me. It probably wasn't the best idea but life moves fast when you're unsure of yourself and other people. Everything lies before you but you don't really realise it. You don't know you're young, You don't know you're foolish

Now on January 1st 2026 I'm waking up in Canterbury. My elderly parents are in neighbouring rooms The pilgrimage has clearly gained momentum. R,E.M. cone later on this countdown. Towards the top I suspect. They're the constant on this blog. The point it started from and I keep returning to forty years and more onwards, .  I'm  looking backwards rather than forward here. 1986 was an eventful year for me. From Brighton to Trostkyism, to love to Interrail to the cusp of genuine and lasting trauma . I'll tell parts of that story here. And spin the tunes of 1986. 

First The Lucy Show. A British band named after an American TV programme  that sounded like an American group. I'd seen them supporting R.E.M. at The Lyceum with my sister in 1984. In 1986 they put out Mania. An album of twisted and literate narratives which gained some traction on American College Radio. They didn't last long but there's bravery and depth here. Mania still sounds great.. Life is the great adventure

 

 

2026

 

Those We Have Lost 2025

1. 
    David Johansen
   
2. Mani
3. Garth Hudson
4. Brian Wilson
5. Sly Stone
6. Sam Moore
7. Marianne Faithfull
8. Rick Bucklet
9. Bill Fay
10. Roberta Flack
11. Jeff Beck
12. Angue Stone
13. Angelo
14. Brian James
15. Clem Burke
16. David Thomas
17. Mick Ralphs
18. Ozzy Osbourne
19. Cleo Layne
20. Danny Thompson

Man of the Year - Bob Dylan

 

I listened to Bob Dylan a lot in 2025. Sometimes in darkness as the sun came up. He made more sense than he ever had before yo me. I was always interested in him. Kidded myself I looked like him when I was 18. Bought and listened to some of his key records in the next few years. I wasn't sure of him then. Wondered why his songs had so many verses and generally no chorus. Put the record back in the box. Got out Echo & The Bunnymen who were more to mu way of thinking back then.

Now I'm 60, I think the penny has dropped. Watching A Complete Unknown was key. What Dylan does is absolutely central to the human spirit and the principles of dissent and freedom. He questions his own side mire than the government. He will not be put in a box. Not by his own people. Get on your own motorbike. Life is best on the open road. 

That Was The Year That Was - 2025 - A Personal & Musical Journey

 

I had an early love who was incredibly significant to me. We loved each other very deeply but we were also fiercely jealous and insecure about each other because if our youthful vulnerability. We read each other's diaries and it drove us into arguments. Insecurities about other parties. I don't really think it's a good idea to read other people's diaries.

Now we're living in the age of blog. Or perhaps the Golden Times of Blog have actually long gone. I'm often told so. Even as I soldier on. Because actually I like the idea of a blog. They're like a diary which nobody can be bothered to read. Which gives you great license and freedom. To improve your writing skills and attempt to communicate to people. Whether they respond or not . To plot the labyrinthine paths through the mountain ranges of description and imagination. Of dreams.

I've had a magical year in many respects as I delve through my memories of 2025. I did a grand train tour of the UK. I visited my best friend and met up with people I hadn't seen for forty years or more. O went to The Dorchester for afternoon tea  for the first and only time,, With a beautiful woman I'd met in strange circumstances many years earlier., This time she was  accompanied by her beautiful and charming daughter. I went to Dublin and Denmark. And had some fabulous online teaching moments. I look forward to more next year. Life's the road.. 

I attempted. to monetise the blog briefly this year.. But It Starts looked ugly and forlorn and the taps of commerce were clearly not about to gush so I reverted to my original set up. The world meanwhile gets sadder and more desperate with every passing week but there is always plenty to enjoy and celebrate. Music remains great and there's always plenty of catches on its abundant oceans. 

I've found my music taste has changed as I've waited for and turned 60 I'm listening to more Jazz, more Folk and more Country. I still listen to the music I loved when I was 17. I'm consistent with my political beliefs.

When It comes to music I listen to in my flat in Newcastle I prefer.yo listen to things that sound like music of the future or music that reminds me of moments ir of people of my past . Life is ultimately all about the people.  

Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 - 1,487 Willie Nelson - Red Headed Stranger

 

I've never really listened to a Willie Nelson album before. So New Year's Eve is as good a time as any. I don't really like New Years Eve. I've had some really bad ones. You don't really want to hear about them. It will be quiet this one, Still, I have some stories to tell.

Back to Willie. This comes from 1975. Heartbreak and loss. A reedy voice. A good voice. Country Music, Folk and Jazz follows certain rituals. It's always best to follow given rules. Even if your're an outlaw. 

 

500 Greatest Albums of the 2000's -# 294 Lightning Bolt - Hypermagic Mountain

 

My mother is going out for eye tests at the hospital. I wish I were keeping her company. But she says she can manage. So I'm sat at my desk listening to Hypermagic Mountain by  Lightning Bolt. First impressions; it's rather frantic. 

Song(s) of the Day # 4,267 De La Soul

 

The girl next door. Everyone needs a girl next door and I had one of those when I was 17. In my case a girl named Emma Kate. She was the stuff of dreams .She wrote me a letter when I was in Switzerland on my gap year telling me about the ritual of letting the old year into her front door and letting the old one out of the back one.

So let's do this for Emma Kate and close the year with De La Soul's Cabin In The Sky, one of the best records to escape the It Starts With a Birthstone countdown this year, Two it seems, is now the magic number. Despite the appalling loss of Trugoy the Dove it seems they're intent on continuing to rise and they do so magnificently here..

There's a song about loving your mother. References to thinking with your dick. Gender Games. Dues to those who have departed,  those who are still here. Philosophy, grooves.. Vibes . Bananarama related samples. Ring out the old. Ring in the new. With It Starts With a Birthstone. Might as well plug the blog. This is another reason why I continue to do this.

David Blue - A Late Christmas Present to Myself

 I had a long walk in Canterbury this morning. I felt I needed the exercise up to clear my head and set off early doors with a brief shopping list from my mother which acted as an excuse for the walk which served a greater purpose as it proved It was a crisp, clear. December morning and I took the opportunity to walk straight and purposefully for an hour or so

. All the way down the New Dover Road. Along the High Street, the bustling main thoroughfare of the Old City of Canterbury. In the footsteps of Geoffrey Chaucer, Thomas Becket and Robert Wyatt. Through Westgate and on past the station and The Monument a favourite hostelry not yet open  to the doors of Canterbury Rock. 

Inside to greet Jim and a fantastic album nestling in the racks for a very reasonable price. After a chat with Jim I bought it and made my way home.  It's been a good day all round. Such days need a record to trigger your memory every time you play them. I'll play this often and think of this day.. 

Here's something I wrote about David Blue and thus record some time back.

One of the saddest stories of all. David Blue, acolyte and com padre of Dylan and the rest from those early Greenwich Village Coffee House days.

'The Dylan Village group was a tight little circle: Victor Maimudes as bodyguard; Phil Ochs, Eric Andersen, Dave Van Ronk and Tom Paxton as sort of anvils off which he could flash his verbal pyrotechnics; Bob Neuwirth and David Blue straddling both roles. Few others could break into their scene … Of the singers and writers on the scene at this time, David Blue appears to have been closest to Dylan...” "He needed a friend," Blue said. "So he started including me in his scene and I got tight with him. 

In an interview published in the British newspaper Zigzag, David said, "Dylan just happened to be there. Maybe he was the symbol of the time, or the spearhead, but we were friends, and at one point he encouraged me. “That”s a great song you wrote‑ here’s a typewriter, take this, and let’s go up to the woods.” And that got me more interest in songwriting.” As Dylan’s fame grew, "I didn’t feel it was Dylan and me, two guys going places. It was him, and I’d go out and get a cab if he needed a cab. Not like a lackey, but just that he couldn’t go out and get a cab. But it was an equal exchange," Scaduto quoted.'

Rumored to be the subject matter of 'It's All Over Now Baby Blue'. If so, it sounds like a put down to me. Blue embarked on a musical career of his own. His 1966 Elektra debut is too obviously dressed up in clothes that Dylan has worn and discarded. 1968's, 23 Days in September, though is a very fine album, much more clearly stamped with Blue's own identity. A melancholy, beautifully orchestrated, leisurely paced record. Not perhaps, of the very top rank. But certainly high in the second division. Play the songs I've posted here and hunt down Ambitious Anna, possibly its finest track which I couldn't find a direct YouTube link to.

It didn't get Blue where he wanted or felt he should be either. To the credit, acclaim, fame and wealth his contemporaries were amassing. Still, he continued to mix in their circles. Blue, the Joni Mitchell song was also reputed to be a tribute. She denies this. They were also thought to be lovers. 

 

Still, there's a sense of thwarted loss about the songs I've posted here. Perhaps it's all retrospect. It's not as if they're any sadder than Leonard Cohen's records of the same period for example. Cohen was Blue's real surname oddly, dropped when he embarked on a musical career as he observed there were too many Cohens in the business already. The sadness is that these records are still almost unnoticed all these years after the event, following Blue's untimely, early death in 1982. He suffered a major heart attack while jogging around Washington Square Park.

Here's Cohen's touching and poetic eulogy to the man and his life:

'He died running, he fell beside the square, to the street where, many years before he had begun to sing, he fell in the fullest expression of vanity and discipline. Many of us, in our songs, had touched on the type of man that he became. Dylan raised up such a ragged hero many times before he turned to solace in the shadow of American Christianity. Joni Mitchell had spoken simply of that constant ambiguous lover, spoken of him over and over, before she entered the beautiful technology of jazz and virtuosity. Kris Kristofferson had described that gambler playing his way from Nashville to Hollywood, where finally the dangers of the game were too coarse for poetry. 

David Blue was the peer of any singer in this country, and he knew it, and he coveted their audiences and their power, he claimed them as his rightful due. And when he could not have them, his disappointment became so dazzling, his greed assumed such purity, his appetite such honesty, and he stretched his arm so wide, that we were all able to recognize ourselves, and we fell in love with him. And as we grew older, as something in the public realm corrupted itself into irrelevance, the integrity of his ambition, the integrity of his failure, became, for those who knew him,increasingly important and appealing, and he moved swiftly, with effortless intimacy into the private life of anyone who recognized him, and our private lives became for him the theaters that no one would book for him, and he sang for us in hotel rooms and kitchens, and he became that poet and that gambler, and he established a defiant style to revive those soiled archetypes. In the last few years, something happened to his voice and his guitar, something very deep and sweet entered, his timing became immaculate and we knew that we were listening to one of the finest, one of the few men singing in America and I was happy then and perhaps happier now to say that I told him that. 

He did not put away his cowboy boots. He did not take a part-time job, he was fully employed in his defiance and his originality and his faithfulness to a ground, a style, an image of which he himself was the last and best champion exponent, a style that many of us had wanted, courted, and had not won.And finally, toward the end of his short and graceful life, he had the grace to recognize the woman to whom he had always been singing, and he courted and married Nesya and because a woman of talent and beauty does not choose lightly, she made manifest for all to plainly see the qualities of love and generosity that he had forced out of his distress. The death of such a man unifies us, and recalls to us how precious we are to one another 

Coming Up on 2026

 

It's always the way that I never know what's going to happen in any musical year. Trends or patterns shift and grow in a less predictable fashion than it seemed to when 'I was a lad'. Anyway, here are the forthcoming albums that seem to stand out from the pack. I know from experience that the ones I'll really love in 2026 I'm more than likely aware of as of yet.

1. Courtney Barnett
2. Bill Callahan
3. Altin Gun
4. Iron & Wine
5. The Lemon Twigs
6. The Cure
7. Hiss Golden Messenger
8. Daisy Rickman
9. Hen Ogledd
10. Lana Del Ray
11. Robyn Hitchcock
12. Dry Cleaning
13. Sebastian Tellier
14. Ulrika Spacek
15. Sleaford Mods
16. Mariachi El Bronx
17. The Wave Pictures
18. The NoTwist
19. The Orielles
20. Bevis Frond
21. Ladytron
22. Bjork

500 Greatest Albums of the 2000's -# 296 Sparks L'il Beethoven

 

Sparks. Staying power. You have to hand it to them. Listening through to too many of their albums beyond the pure core is beyond me sadly much as I love and respect them. But as always with Sparks, just as you're thinking of listening to something else a track comes along and you're stopped in your tracks. With Lil' Beethoven that was How Do I Get To Carnegie Hall

Song(s) of the Day # 4,266 Daniel Knox

 

Yesterday afternoon I chanced upon Daniel Knox's Mercado 48 and listened through at a single sitting as is always the best way with albums or indeed stories of any kind. It's gnarly wizened textures and narratives cast a powerful spell  for the course of its fifty minute span ensnared me.. It suited my mood. It suited the grim, overcast mood of the late December skies. There was something rather magnificent about its almost deathly world worn pallor 

Named after the shop and gallery Knox has lived above since he moved to Portugal, The record has a  splendid lived in quality, Recorded over little more than a couple of days. Knox has a splendid beard and long flowing locks. He's out  of the stable of Tom Waits and Adrian Crowley. This is a record that seeks out its audience rather than parading on the cat walk for the paparazzi . I'm glad it found me. 

Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 - 1,488 Rosalia - El Mal Querer

 

Rosalia has been everywhere this year. But she has glorious previous.

500 Greatest Albums of the 2000's -# 297 The Breeders - Title TK

 

The Breeders tank was always driven  by the fire & the fury, melody and kineticism. This ticks Breeder boxes.

Song(s) of the Day # 4,265 Tobacco City

 

New Year's Resolutions are starting early here on It Starts With a Birthstone. I've been up with the larks and down the gentle slope of The New Dover Road in Canterbury towards the Holy Grail; namely Waitrose armed with a shopping list and a trolley. It's the toughest task in the world, shopping for a ninety year old mother.

Waitrose in Canterbury is a fine place. Shop assistants go out of their way to help you, My mother thinks they are contract bound to do so. To put down what they're doing and take you to the object you're seeking. Anyway I'm back. Having stopped off at the post box on St Augustine's Avenue where my sister in law lives. Where my brother died nine years ago. Ten years next year. 

I put a postcard in the box. To an old friend, who I haven't seen for many years. And an unfinished packet of cigarettes in the bin. I think I've had enough. For this year anyway. And now I'm back. Not bearing Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh but Hollandaise Sauce and yoghurt. And now I'm sitting at my laptop with my headphones on listening to Horses, Not by Patti Smith but by Tobacco City an early Christmas Gift from the much mentioned first mate of It Starts With a Birthstone, Darren Jones AKA Starbuck.

It's a beautiful, old school new school Amerericana C&W treasure trove of tragedy. regret and new resolve. Another fine record Starbuck, Mud in your eye and help yourself to grog as you please. Onwood we sail . To the horizon that can never be reached 

500 Greatest Albums of the 2000's -# 297 And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Our Dead - World's Apart

 

Twelve Years High & Rising - It Starts With a Birthstone - Albums of the Year 2016 - 2025

 

 

I started posting on It Starts With a Birthstone in 2013. Originally as a way of recording my memories, feelings and thoughts about favourite albums from the Eighties, the decade when I first started buying records. Over time this has mutated into something else that's easier to do and more organic. A prompt to encourage me to listen to and write about music that's largely being released now. Or as near to now as I can get..

 Over time the blog has begun to dictate it's own shape and character, A routine has established itself, This is the direction I will continue to take from now on. A song and record every day. Building day by week by month. Eventually to a rundown of my favourite albums of the year. as darkness falls at the end of each year.  All this supplemented by posts on books and compilations that have taken my fancy and anything else that catches my notice and interest and  that I hope might interest others.. No big deal but a nice thing to do and I'll continue in the same manner from here.. 

Three years in, from 2016 I started listing my favourite albums and songs of on an annual basis. Something else to focus me as winter approached. So that year I wrote my first annual list of favourite albums, topped with Bowie's final record and the most recent one Radiohead have released, accompanied in the Top Three by Regina Spector who I fell completely in love with for a few years.. 

Here are my top three records for each year since then. No artist has recorded two entries as of yet. Not deliberate on my part. Just the way it's gone. But something I'm quite pleased with. I try to be reasonably eclectic.

There are some pretty good records here. Perhaps I should give some of them another listen. But then the remit I've given myself here for the most point is to keep moving forward, and that for the most part is what I intend to do. Foot on the accelerator, into 2026....

2016

1. David Bowie - Blackstar

2. Radiohead - Heart-Shaped Pool

3. Regina Spector - Remember Us To Life

2017

1. Protomartyr - Relatives in Descent

2. Les Amazones D'Afrique - Republique Amazone 

3. The Feelies - In Between

2018

1. Janaelle Monae - Dirty Computer

2. The Good, The Bad & The Queen - Merrie Land

3. U.S. Girls - In a Poem Unlimited

2019

1. Bill Callahan - Shepherd in a Sheepskin Vest

2. Sarathy Korwar - More Arriving

3. Vanishing Twin - The Age of Immunity

2020

1, SAULT Untitled (Rise)

2. Sufjan Stevens - Lamentations

3. Billy Nomates - Billy Nomates

2021

1. Greentea Peng - Greentea Peng

2. Little Simz - Sometimes I Might be Introvert

3. Jane Weaver - Flock

2022 

1. Joan Shelley - The Spur

2. Big Thief - Dragon New Mountain I Believe in You

3. Naima Bock - Giant Palm

2023

1. Lankum - False Lankum

2. John Cale - Mercy

3. Craven Faults - Standers

2024 

1 Kamasi Washington - Fearless Movement

2 Mount Eerie - Night Palace

3 Kali Malone - All Life Long

2025

1. Lido Pimienta - La Belleza

2. Juana Molina - DOGA

3. Rosalia - LUX

It Starts With a Birthstone 200 Albums For 2025

 

 

                     

                    1. Lido Pimienta - La Belleza

                    

                     2Juana Molina - DOGA

                   

                    3 Rosalia -LUX.

                   4 Horsegirl - Phonetics On & On 

                   

                   5 Ethel Cain - Willloughby Tucker, I'll Always Love You - & Pervert

                  

                   6 Ichiko Aoba - Luminescent Creatures

                  7 Richard Dawson -  End of the Middle  

                 

                 8 Stereolab -  Instant Holograms on Metal Film

                 

                  9 FKA Twigs EUSEXUA 

                 

                10 Big Thief -  Double Infinity

               

                11 Baxter Dury - Albarone

               

                12 Snocaps - Snocaps

                13 Parastatic - Concrete Reborn

               14 Dean Wareham - The Price of Loving Me

               15 Slow Motion Cowboys - Wolf of St Elmo

              16 Car Seat Headrest - The Scholars

               17 Alan Sparhawk - Trampled With Turtles

              18. Fortunato Durutti Marinetti - Bittersweet Bitter

             

             19 Sharon Van Etten    & The Attachment Theory - Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory

               

              20  The Loft - Everything Changes - Everything Stays the same

              21 Wednesday - Bleeds

             22. Alex G - Headlights

               23 Park Jiha - All Living Things

              24 Warrington-Runcorn New Town Development Plan

              

              25 Belair Lip Bombs - Again

              26, Lavender Flu - Tracing The Sand By the People

              27. Daily Toll - A Profound Non-Event

              28 Imaginary Family - Builders, Believers 

           

            29 Japanese Breakfast  - For Melancholy Brunettes         

            30 Geese - Getting Killed

           31 Joan Shelley - Real Warmth

           32 Lorde - Man Of The Year

          33 Emma Pollock's Begging The Night To Take Hold

         34 Westmoreland -  I Got The Feeling In Bakersfield 

         35 Adrian Crowley - Measure of Time

         36 Hand Habits - Blue Reminder

         37 Blackxwash - Only Dust Remains

        38 Case Oats - Last Missouri Exit

       39 Bon Iver p

      40 OK Cool - Chit Chat

      

       41 Emma- Jean Thackray - 

      42 Index For Working Music -  Which Direction Goes The Beam

      43 Benjamin Booker - LOWER

      44 Gwenno - Utopia

     45 Golomb - The Beat Goes On

     46 Racing Mount Pleasant. - Racing Mount Pleasant

     47 US Girls -  Scratch It

    48 Sofie Birch & Antonina Nowacka - Hiraeth

   49  Sueno Purpura -Souvenir

   50 Edwyn Collins -  Every Nation Shall Speak Unto Nation

It Starts With a Birthstone - Albums of the Year 2024

 

 

So here we go. It's Christmas Day. Here's It Starts With a Birthstone's rundown of favourite records for 2024. I've had an incredible year personally, cutting free from a job and way of life that were suffocating me and spending most of my time in my flat in Newcastle. Teaching wonderful German students online, learning more than I was required to teach. A little bit of occasional guidance and direction. Mostly a journey of discovery for myself. Meanwhile, listening to music. Documenting my impressions here.

As for the list. It's not really intended as a ranked rundown except in the most basic sense. I could easily rearrange the Top 75 right now. Jessica Pratt, to name just one might easily scoot up fifty places in a heartbeat or cabinet reshuffle  if I'd listened to it a bit more I imagine. . That's a spectral, magnificent album. It's only # 61 on a whim. You can't rank music really and shouldn't try to I'd say. That's not what it's there for.

I write these as an act of recommendations

 primarily. Also because I just like writing. There's so much wonderful music on the list below and I like to think my taste is reasonably diverse. I'm an Indie guy first and foremost mind. When I used to go to the All Tomorrow's Parties at Minehead fifteen years or so back. With the best music friend and witness of my lifetime, Andy, I would watch the crowds wandering into the venue along the beach like gathering tribes and think to myself 'these are my people' . 

I don't come across that much modern Hip Hop, R&B or Dance Music that takes my fancy. I'm too old and probably at heart slightly too serious, too earnest to really listen through to that much New Pop. I leave that to The Guardian. And the Kids.

As for Kamasi. Fearless Movement was precisely that. A record apart from a man with a blistering and brilliant vision, Mount Eeerie and Kali Malone struck out at me also. Slightly more unsettling records. But let's face it, we're living in a world and an epoch that is nothing if not unsettling. Elsehwere, I could write multitudes about many of the records. I made a playlist last night which I'll post next. The roll call of recommendations will probably suffice. 

Top 50 only

1 Kamasi Washington - Fearless Movement

2 Mount Eerie - Night Palace

3 Kali Malone - All Life Long 

 4 The Clearwater Swimmers - The Clearwater Swimmers

5 Shovel Dance Collective - The Shovel Dance

6 MJ Lendemann - Manning Fireworks

7 Grandaddy - Blue Wav

 8 Beth Gibbons - Lives Outgrown

 9 The Cure - Songs Of a Lost World 

 10. Kim Deal - Nobody Loves You More

11 Jennifer Castle - Camelot

12 Arooj Aftab - Night Reign

13 Roge - Curryman II

14. Marlin's Dreaming -Marlin's Dreaming

15 The Innocence Mission - Midwater Swimmers

16 Waxahatchee - Tiger's Blood

17 2nd Grade -  Scheduled Explosions

 18 The Smile - Wall Of Eyes

19 Hurray For The Riff Raff - The Past Is Still Alive

20 Bill Ryder Jones - Iechyd Da

 21 Cassandra Jenkins - My Light, My Destroyer

22 Tapir ! The Pigrim Their God & the King of My  Decrepit Mountain

 23 Adrianne Lenker - Bright Future

24 Nilufer Yanya - My Method Actor

25 Father John Misty - Mahashmahashna

26 Phosphorescent - Revelator

 27 Mary Halvorson - Cloudward

28 DUNUMS - I wasn't that though

 29 Naima Bock - Below a Massive Dark Land

30 Bats - Good Game Baby

 31 Peter Perrett -  The Cleansing

 32 Mabe Fratti -  Sentir Que No Sabes

 33 Dialup Ghost - May You Live Forever in Cowboy Heaven'

 34 Linda Thompson - Proxy Music

35 Warrington- Runcorn New Town Development Plan - Your Community Hub

36 Amelia Coburn - Between The Moon & The Milkman

 37 Joan As Police Woman - Lemons, Limes & Orchids

38. Jake Xerxes Fussell - When I'm Called

39 Fievel Is Glauque - Rong Wieicknes

40 Laura Marling - Patterns in Repeat  

41 Bananagun - Why is the Colour of the Sky?

42 The Goalie's Anxiety of the Penalty Kick - The Illiad & The Odyssey  & The Goalie's Anxiety of the Penalty Kick 

43 Michael Head & The Red Elastic Band - Loophole

44 Ducks Ltd - Harms Way

45 BMX Bandits - Dreamers On The Run

46 Hard Quartet - Hard Quartet

47 R. E. Seraphin - Fool's Mate

48 Jesus & Mary Chain - Glasgow Eyes

49 John Grant - The Art Of The Lie

50 Jane Weaver -  In Constant Spectacle.

It Starts With a Birthstone - Albums of the Year 2023

 

This is an odd and drawn out list. It's the longest I've made since I started these things ten years back. For the last few years on It Starts there have been 50 selections. Then things grew to 100. 150 is as far as I can possibly go and I might have to shrink to something more manageable again next time round. Every indication right now says that I won't have as much time to write next year and will do well to repeat 2023's tally of records, 150 - each with an attached review. We'll see how we go.

In the meantime. my list for 2023. There are a great number of the usual suspects who feature in the upper reaches of  other magazines and sites rundowns..It's notable actually how the lists this year seem to be largely the same records in different orders. A general consensus has established itself this time round.  Simply put, False Lankum then the rest. That's the story here too. 

I imagine there are any number of selections that are less familiar below though,  and Darren Jones my faithful first mate here, and I found our own way to plotting pretty much our own course.I think it rubbishes the notion that the best stuff has already been done, that there's always  plenty of great music around if you seek it out and you don't have to stick solely to the paths mapped out by Mojo, The Guardian and the like. .

This is not really a list where the order matters. All 150 choices here have something to recommend them. Or certainly something that drew me to them and them to me.  I'd only really stand by the first four in terms of their order. Lankum, Cale, Craven Faults, Paul Simon.  The four albums that really stood out to me and I kept coming back to as 'Outstanding' in a sea of 'Excellent'. These four all have a spiritual quaity that first drew me to them and still does. Wells to keep drawing at. Elsewhere it's just a great selection of varied albums you might care to dip into. My reviews can be tracked down in the search. I think there's a lot to investigate here. 

If you cut me in half to see what I was made of; like Pinkie in Brighton Rock; In terms of music, and probably in other ways too I'd probably say 'Indie'. The kind of person who makes playlists of favourite Pavement songs and has an unhealthily robust knowledge of the C-86 scene. I'm not hearing that many Rap, Hip Hop and R&B albums that speak that loudly to me these days.The Lil Yachty is there in the Top Ten but there's not much there apart from that. I guess you can't cover all bases.

There are actually no end of other albums that could easily be here. The Golden Apples record Bananasugarfire has attached itself to me like a limpet in recent weeks. A deep search of what I've been listening to through the year would probably unearth  twenty more great records I'd like to pass on. Vanishing Twin? Sagittaire? I forgot about them momentarily when it came to writing this down. Oh and the Peter Gabriel album which arrived late in the year is great. Many favourites have fallen by the wayside and not made this list. These things become like The Grand National the longer they get. Fancied runners fall and you forget you had a fiver on them. It doesn't really matter. Onward. Ten years of doing this on a daily basis has established a routine and momentum if nothing else.

Over the next few days I'll post some other 2023 rundowns. Mojo. Best Ever Albums and the like. Then on New Year's Eve a List of Lists. Please don't put your lives on hold. It's a dirty job but someone's got to do it.... Oh, Merry Christmas!

Only the Top 50

1. Lankum - False Lankum 
2. John Cale - Mercy
3. Craven Faults - Standers.
4. Paul Simon - Seven Psalms
5. Yo La Tengo - This Stupid Year
6. Paper Bee - Thaw, Freeze, Thaw
7. Blur - The Ballad of Darren
8.  Lil Yachty - Let's Start Here
9. Lisa O'Neill - All Of This Is Chance
10. Sufjan Stevens - Javelin
11. The Finks - Birthdays at Solo Pasta
12. En Attendant Ana - Principia
13. Feist -  Multitudes
14. Joanna Sternberg - I've Got Me
15. PJ Harvey - Inside The Old Year Dying
16. Baxter Dury - I Thought I Was Better Than You
17. Meg Baird - Furling
18. Loney Holley - Oh Me Oh My
19. Protomartyr - Formal Growth in the Desert
20. Index For Working Musik - Dragging the Needlework for the Kids at Uphole
21. The WAEVE - The WAEVE 
22. Robert Forster - The Candle & The Flame
23. Ulrika Spacek - Compact Trauma
24. Warrington- Runcorn New Town Development Plan - The Nation's Most Central Location
25. Wilco - Cousin
26. Califone - Villagers
27. Wednesday - Rat Saw God
28. Anohni & The Johnsons - My Back Was a Bridge For You To Cross
29. Ora Cogan - Formless
30.  Dignan Porch - Electric Threads
31.  Lael Neale - Star Eaters Delight 
32. Bonnie Prince Billy - Keeping Secrets Will Destroy Me
33. Fog Lake - Midnight Society
34. Radiator Hospital - Can't Make any Promises
35. Water From Your Eyes - Everyone's Crushed 
36. Amy Mae Ellis - Over Ling & Bell
37. U.S.Girls - Bless This Mess
38. Sunny War - Anarchist Gospel
39.  maya ongaku - Approach to Anima
40.  The Murder Capital - Gigi's Recovery
41. Mega Bog - End Of Everything
42. Shirley Collins - Archangel Hill
43. Isolated Gate - Universe in Reverse
44. Kara Jackson - Why Does The World Give Us People To Love.
45. Nabihah Iqbal - DREAMER
46. Holiday Ghosts - Absolute Reality
47. Modern Kosmology - What Will You Grow Now
48. Alasdair Roberts - Grief in the Kitchen & Mirth in the Hall
49. Being Dead - When Horses Would Run 
50.  Tinariwen - Amatssou

Song(s) of the Day # 4,264 Alphaville

 

I have a dear friend who passed coming up tp ten years back. He was a collector. a hoarder like me. Big record collection. Books. Bric a brac. Things collected from garage sales. Bric a brac markets.

Our music tastes were similar. Sixties. Singer songwriters. Hip Hop. But it was where they differed that things sometimes got interesting. Matt liked kitsch and this song. Now when I listen to it it makes me think of him and the question the lyric ponders. 

500 Greatest Albums of the 2000's -# 298 Late of the Pier - Fantasy Black Channel

 

Castle Donnington Dance Poppers apparently. Your guess is as good as mine. I'm afraid I didn't last long. It felt messy and incoherent .

It Starts With a Birthstone - Albums of the Year 2022

 

 

 

 Records I liked this year. By no means definitive. I only came up with a Number One that seemed right a few days ago, so was shuffling and changing right to the end, chucking out records that I loved along the way. I guess this describes my musical year fairly well though. I was a little bit 'Indie' for the most part in 2022. Perfectly happy with that. It also shows that female artists are generally the spine of my taste these days. There might be something in here you'd like to investigate further. Here's my favourite music related photo of me this year. That's me with Richard Dawson, a local hero where I live. I happened to bump into him in a quiet Saturday evening at my local in Newcastle and he was the most delightful of people. Giving a lot of his time incredibly generously and allowing me this fabulous photo too. Wonderful man. 

1. Joan Shelley - The Spur
2. Big Thief - Dragon New Mountain I Believe in You
3. Naima Bock - Giant Palm
4. The Smile - A Light For Attracting Attention
5. Danger Mouse & Black Thought - Cheat Codes
6. Aldous Harding - Warm Chris
7. Bill Callahan - YTILAER
8. Fortunato Durrutti Marinetti - Memory's Fool
9. Horsegirl - Versions of Modern Performance
10. Nilufer Yanya - PAINLESS
11. Kikagaku Moyu - Kumoyu Island
12. Santigold - Spirituals
13. Weyes Blood - And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow
14. Kevin Morby - This is a Photograph
15. Katy J Pearson - Sound of the Morning
16. Say Sue Me - The Last Thing Left
17. Gwenno - Tresor
18. Wilco - Cruel Country
19. Lady Wray - Piece of Me
20. The Stroppies - Levity 
21. Jake Xerxes Fussell - Good & Green Again
22. Beach House - Once Twice Melody
23. Green / Blue - Offering
24. Michael Head & The Red Elastic Band - Dear Scott
25. Hurray For The Riff Raff - LIFE ON EARTH 
26. Belle & Sebastian - A Bit of Previous
27. Sessa - Estrella Acesa
28. Ezra Furman - All Of Us Flames
29. Hannah Peel & Paraorchestra - The Unfolding
30. Park Jiha - The Gleam
31. Laura Jean - Amateurs
32. Kiwi Jr. - Chopper
33. Mattiel - Georgia Gothic
34.  Dry Cleaning - Stumpwork
35. String Machine - Halleujah Hell Yeah
36. Smidley - Here Comes The Devil
37. Jesca Hoop - Order of Romance
38.  Elvis Costello & The Imposters - The Boy Named It
39. Jonathan Personne - Jonathan Personne
40. Silvana Estrada - Marchita
41. Vinyl Williams - Cosmopolis
42. Seapower - Everything Was Forever
43. Aoife Nessa Frances - Protector 
44. Erin Rae - Lighten Up
45.  Father John Misty - Chloe & the Next 20th Century
46. Young Guv - Guv IV
47. C. Duncan - Alluvium
48. Papercuts - Past Life Regression
49. Daniel Rossen - You Belong Here
50. Moor Mother - Jazz Codes

It Starts With a Birthstone - Albums of the Year 2021

 

Now onwards into 2021.

This one feels like it's been a long, and very interesting year music wise. Here is a list of albums that I've gone for. I actually started way back in September at # 100, but here is the Top 50. From ones that I've loved to ones that I've liked. No attempt at academic distance and judgement. Just records that have bought me joy. The photo here is one of me, a long, long time ago:

1. Greentea Peng - Man Made

2. Little Simz - Sometimes I Might Be Introvert

3. Jane Weaver - Flock

4. Parquet Courts - Plant Life

5. The Weather Station - Ignorance

6.  St. Lennox - Ten Songs of Worship and Praise For These Tumultuous Times

7. Dark Tea - Dark Tea

8. Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders & The London Symphony Orchestra - Promises

9. Fievel Is Glauque - God's Trashmen Sent to Right The Mess

10.  Dean Wareham - I Have Nothing To say To The Mayor Of LA

11. Low - Hey What

12. Cool Ghouls - At George's Zoo

13. Goat Girl - On All Fours

14. Japanese Breakfast - Jubilee

15. Bendigo Fletcher - Fits of Laughter

16. Drug Store Romeos - The world within our bedrooms

17. Courtney Barnett - Things Take Time, Take Time

18. John Grant - Boy From Michigan

19. Astral Swans - Astral Swans

20. The Goon Sax - Mirror II

21. The God Fahim & Your Old Droog - The Wolf on Wall Street

22. Mdou Moctar - Afrique Victim

23. Lost Girls, Jenny Hval & Havard Volden - Menneskekollektivet

24. The Besnard Lakes - The Besnard Lakes are the Last of the Great Thunderstorm Warnings

25. Adrian Crowley - The Watchful Eye of The Stars

26. Tronco - Nainoia

27. Fog Lake - Tragedy Reel

28. TEKE::TEKE - Shirushi

29. Elephant Micah - Vague Tidings

30. James Yorkston & The Second Hand Orchestra - The Wide, Wide River

31. Cassandra Jenkins - An Overview of Phenomenal Nature

32. ABBA - Voyage

33. Vanishing Twin - Ooki Gekkou

34. Pye Corner Audio - The Spectral Corridor 

35. The Telephone Numbers - The Ballad of Doug

36. Hannah Peel - Fir Wave

37. El Michels Affair - Yeti Season

38. Black Twig - Was Not Looking For Magic

39. SPIRIT OF THE BEEHIVE - ENTERTAINMENT OF DEATH

40. The Killers - Pressure Machine

41. Orla Gartland - Women on The Internet

42. Dusted - III

43. Fruit Bats - The Pet Parade

44. Mega Bog - Life, And Another

45.  Valerie June - The Moon And Stars: Prescriptions For Dreamers

46. Floatie - Voyage Out

47. Saint Etienne - I've Been Trying To Tell You

48. Durand Jones & The Indications - Private Space

49. Albertine Sages - The Sticky Fingers

50. POSTDATA - Twin Flames

It Starts With a Birthstone - Albums of the Year 2020

 

 

At the end of a year that none of us have ever seen the like of, here's It Starts With a Birthstone's countdown of my favourite fifty albums of the year. I like my list not unnaturally. I think it's eclectic, varied and reflects a lot of the things I've enjoyed and listened to during 2020.

1. SAULT - Untitled (Rise)

2. Sufjan Stevens - Lamentations

3. Billy Nomates - Billy Nomates

4. CHOPCHOP - Everything Looks So Real

5. Shabaka & The Ancestors - We Are Sent Here By History

6. Cornershop - England Is a Garden

7. Protomartyr - Ultimate Success Today

8. Bananagun - The True Story of Bananagun

9. East Man - Prole Art Threat

10. Fontaines D.C. - A Heroes Death

11. The Mountain Goats - Getting Into Knives

12. Saint Savior - Tomorrow Again

13. Brona McVittie - The Man in the Mountain

14. Rufus Wainwright - Unfollow The Rules

15. Bo Ningen - Sudden Fictions

16. Fiona Apple - Fetch The Boltcutters

17. Lawn - Johnny

18. Nathalie Shah - Kitchen Sink

19. Arbor Labor Union - New Petal Instincts

20. Ora Cogan - Bells In The Ruins

21. Wire - Mind Hive

22. Isobel Campbell - There is no Other

23. The Homesick - The Big Exercise

24. Daniel Romano - How Ill Thy World is Ordered

25. Jeremy Tuplin - Violet Waves

26. Coriky - Coriky

27. Grimm Grimm - Ginormous

28. Kevin Krauter - Full Hand

29. I Break Horses - Warnings

30. Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever - Sideways To New Italy

31. The Innocence Mission - See You Tomorrow

32. U.S. Girls - Heavy Light

33. Perfume Genius - Set My Heart On Fire Immediately

34. En Attendant Ana - Juillet

35. The Cool Greenhouse - The Cool Greenhouse

36. Latitude - Mystic Hotline

37. This Is The Kit- Off On On

38. Emma Kupa - It Will Come Easier

39. Drab City - Good Songs For Bad People

40. James Elkington - Ever-Roving Eye

41. No Age - Goons Be Gone

42. X - ALPHABETLAND

43. Aoife Nessa Frances - Land of No Junction

44. Jenny O. - New Truth

45. The Strokes - The New Abnormal

46. Kelly Lee Owens - Inner Song

47. Galore - Galore

48. Arbouretum - Let It All In

49. El Goodo - Zombie

50. Death Valley Girls - Under the Spell of J

Song(s) of the Day # 4,263 Home Is Where

 

Hunting Season. The Third album from Home is Where. Tales of an Elvis Impersonator. The great American song. Journeys of discovery and fresh departure. Rough and ready. Thanks once more to Darren Jones. First mate and best friend of It Starts With a Birthstone for guiding me here. Tales of desperation and reckless joy. Onward ever onward Seabuck towards the horizon and the  new year  

Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 - 1,489 Cocteau Twins - Head Over Heels

 

The opening track here is When Mother is Moth and this was the act of emerging from the cocoon.

500 Greatest Albums of the 2000's -# 299 Arthur Russell - First Thought Best Thought

 

Arthur Russell. A name to drop. And here are sixteen outstanding examples of space and drift.