In League With Paton

It’s a sad and rare day when I get to write here about a significant figure in British music with a direct and personal influence on my life...

Mountains - Choral (Thrill Jockey, 2009) Lars Horntveth - Kaleidoscopic (Smalltown Supersound, 2009) Joshua Redman - Compass (Nonesuch, 2009...

M Ward - Hold Time (4AD, 2009) Reviewing records is a difficult business sometimes, and as this blog is very much a labour of love, I don’t ...

Various Artists - Dark Was The Night (Red Hot Organisation/4AD, 2009) As the very endearing character JJ from Skins might put it – ‘oh my gi...

Morrissey - Years Of Refusal (Polydor, 2009) Describing a Morrissey album as a bit patchy is a bit like saying a packet of peanuts may conta...

Richard Thompson's 1,000 Years Of Popular Music, The Barbican, 3rd February 2009 I must admit to being something of a latecomer to the w...

Antony and the Johnsons - The Crying Light (Rough Trade, 2009) Reactions to ‘The Crying Light’ so far seem to have hinged upon the degree to...

Bruce Springsteen - Working On A Dream (Columbia, 2009) I’m increasingly wary of hyperbole at the moment (Gary Mulholland’s observation in t...

Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavillion (Domino, 2009) Bon Iver – Blood Bank (Jagjaguwar, 2009) On the surface, you couldn’t find tw...

My good friend and musical associate Oscar Lomas today sent me a personal list of the best albums ever. Actually, rather than being some pho...

I’m compelled to mention that I missed out a key single in my 2008 summary. Pants and Tie are a great band from Toronto, featuring my frien...

People seemed to enjoy my subjective, personal summary of the year last time around, so I’ve decided to do it again. I hope my memory is goo...