Singles Round Up Jan 2024

Singles Round Up 2024 – Part 1 – January

A new year for music and (eventually) the first round up of 2024, and what a bumper crop already for January. A massive 62 songs (OK, so some might be from the end of 2023 as I posted end of year posts early…). Anyway, we’re certainly out of the traps and off running at speed, with this list containing some well-kent names, some new kids on the block, as well as the return of some legends. All told providing a wheen of top quality tunes which succeeded in lifting the January blues. If that was January, this is set to be another cracking year for music…

The hazard of deciding to do a monthly singles round up means also trying to find the time to write up the blog… I seem to be caught in a vicious circle of promising myself I’ll spend more time on writing, then disappearing in a world of work, or spending hours overthinking things and getting fuck all done…

I’ve therefore had to make an executive decision.… Read the rest

Review of the Year

Review of the the Year – The Best of 2021

Yet another bumper year for new releases by new artists, classic re-issues and comebacks from some old favourites.

Despite what the salivating broadcasters and media will have you believe, there was so much more to the year than a new album by A****e, the banality of which didn’t even register on the gingerquiff seismograph such was its insignificance in the shadow of so much in the way of superb and exciting music that moved me. (Yes, I know she has a great voice, but oh so dull).

Anyway, no more focussing on negatives, There were so many remarkable albums this year that, once again, I can’t narrow them down to my ten favourites, so before I run down my Top 10 albums of the year, here are those…

In 11th Place (in no particular order)…

It was so hard to leave anyone out this year, I have loved records by so many wonderful and diverse bands and artists.… Read the rest

Broken Chanter/wojtek the bear – Live – CCA Glasgow

Friday finally arrived in a week when I felt entirely discombobulated. On a daily basis I had no clue what day of the week or what time of the day it was. All I did know was that was desperate for the weekend to arrive and for it to start with another Last Night From Glasgow launch night in the impressive surroundings of Glasgow’s Centre for Contemporary Arts.

This time around it was a double whammy, with wojtek the bear’s album heaven by the back door released on the label’s Hive imprint earlier in the year (review here), and headliners, Broken Chanter new album Catastrophe Hits seeing the light of day just the the other week (review here).… Read the rest