1987 - A Year in Music

It seems like my choices for the best of 1987 are split fairly evenly between the things I was actually listening to at the time, and that year's offerings I would come to discover later in life. Two 'later' discoveries, Tom Waits and Los Lobos, are still around. Los Lobos particularly have had a long and varied career, and continue to put out good records. Tom Waits, an acquired taste, tends to bounce from borderline genius to borderline unlistenable. Scratch that, just unlistenable.

Echo and the Bunnymen were one of those mainstream 'alternative' bands I was so keen to like in the late to mid 80's. They didn't really float my boat in the way that The Cult did, but they scratched a certain itch. 'Love Removal Machine' on the other hand, blew my head off. I bought it on a Saturday afternoon in Birmingham and couldn't wait to get home and play it. It doesn't seem to have completely stood the test of time with my taste buds that well, if that makes sense, but hats off to even calling a song Love Removal Machine. It was quite so apparent to me at the time quite how much Ian Asbury wanted to be Jim Morrison.

The final track, listed on YouTube as 'Bono-Sweet Fire of Love', is actually from the first Robbie Robertson (of The Band) solo album, notable for the appearance of Peter Gabriel, Garth Hudson and Rick Danko, Maria McKee and others. Daniel Lanois was the dots that joined it all together. The album spawned the hit 'Somewhere Down the Crazy River'.

The Best Albums of the Noughties

This morning I received an email from a chap (once) called Fog, who sent me a link to the NME's Best Albums of the Noughties, as mentioned in The Guardian. I forwarded this on to co-blogger Peter, who, in his own words, pounced upon it 'like a fat boy at a buffet' (see his post below). Now, being a fat boy myself, and fond of a good buffet (preferably an Argentinian breakfast buffet) this seemed like an opportunity I couldn't pass up. Of course the NME's list is for skinny white boys with stylishly feathered locks, not a chubby baldy man like myself (or Peter - no offence). So, from the fat perspective, here are my 00's best albums. It looks like Neil Young hasn't made a decent album in ten years and I aint got the blues no more .....

2001
Rufus Wainwright - Poses


2002
Foo Fighters – One by One
Audioslave – Audioslave
Johnny Cash - American IV: The Man Comes Around
Maná - Revolución de Amor
Los Lobos - Good Morning Aztlán


2003
Molotov - Dance and Dense Denso
The Frames – Set List


2004
Loretta Lynn – Van Lear Rose
Ray LaMontagne – Trouble
Green Day – American Idiot
The Soundtrack of Our Lives – Origin Vo1. 1


2005
The Boxer Rebellion – Exits

2006
Bruce Springsteen - We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions
Jerry Lee Lewis – Last Man Standing

2007
Mavis Staples – We’ll Never Turn Back
Robert Plant & Alison Krauss – Raising Sand

2008
Fleet Foxes – Fleet Foxes

2009
Mumford & Sons – Sigh No More