My Top 25 of 2025 (4)

Welcome back to my favourite 25 records of the year. And please remember, I'm an English teacher, not a Maths teacher...

13 and a half. Otis Gibbs – The Trust of Crows

OK, confession time. I made a list. I narrowed it down to 25 albums, because this is 2025. I started putting them in order and writing the posts.

Otis Gibbs - Ditchweed

And then I realised I’d left someone out. Don’t tell Ernie, you know what a stickler he is for numerical accuracy. Fortunately the Maths teacher doesn’t seem to care. Maybe he’s used to English teachers who can’t count.

Otis Gibbs - Raze

Anyway, Otis Gibbs released a new album this year, and a fine collection of tunes it is too – as expected from Americana wordsmith and youtube rock ‘n’ roll folklore collector, Mr. Gibbs. I wasn’t able to buy the CD this time round because it’s only available from his website, and the cost of postage from the US is now more expensive than the CD itself. I blame Trump, and I’m sure Otis does too.

13. Brian Bilston & The Catenary Wires - Sounds Made By Humans

I’d expected this might end up in a higher position on my year end chart, because when I first heard the collaboration between “The Banksy of Poetry” and the artists formerly known as Talulah Gosh (among other things), I couldn’t stop listening to it. It is, without a shadow of a doubt, the most immediate record of the year, for its winning combination of Bilston’s witty, vaguely misanthropic middle-aged carping and the warm indie magpiery (yes, I said magpiery, I made that word up myself – figure it out) of Rob and Emilia.

Brian Bilston & The Catenary Wires – My Heart Is A Lump Of Rock

Why it didn’t end up Top 10 is perhaps because after a while it started to wear on me, and I began to realise it didn’t have the longevity of comparable discs – say the new album by Half Man Half Biscuit or anything by Simon Armitage’s bands Lyr or the Scaremongers. (Plus, the BB poem/song To Do List… well, it’s a direct steal from our sainted Poet Laureate, and that began to niggle me a bit.)

Brian Bilston & The Catenary Wires - Thou Shalt Not Commit Adulting

Still lots to enjoy here then, but without the longevity I’d expected when I was lauding it earlier in the year.

12. Eric Church - Evangeline vs. The Machine

The latest record from Eric Church continues his move away from his Waylon-esque outlaw roots into far more soulful territory. And I’ve always been a sucker for Country Got Soul. Evangeline vs. The Machine is a concept album, apparently, meaning that the songs all merge into one another and there’s some kind of link going on behind the scenes, but much as I love a good overriding narrative, I’ve yet to grasp the one at work here.

Eric Church – Hands Of Time

Despite that, this is a rollicking good record, one that takes great pleasure in stealing lines and, indeed, whole concepts from the classic country and rock songbook. There are gleeful references to the work of Bob Seger, Tom Petty, ACDC, Johnny Cash and  Paradise By The Dashboard Light (not Eric’s first dalliance with Steinman)… plus a glorious reimagining of The Devil Went Down To Georgia for the 21^st Century, which might well be a subtle dig at the Orange Oligarch,

Snapshots #426: Cat Songs

Hey there, all you cool cats and kittens!

15. Take half a Diazepam and Relax for a year.

Diazepam = Valium. Half would be Vali. Frankie said Relax. A year is Four Seasons.

Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons – Rag Doll

14. Rubbish collecting Eagle and cancelled Sugar.

Dennis Eagle made dustbin wagons. Brown Sugar was cancelled.

Dennis Brown – Wolf & Leopards

13. Are We Okay? In a way.

"We Okay" was an anagram.

Wye Oak – Siamese

12. The very latest in henchmen.

Brand New Heavies - Sphynx

11. Conventionality belongs to yesterday at police high school.

"Conventionality belongs to yesterday" is from Grease, the high school being Rydell High, and this is a Bobby.

Bobby Rydell – The Alley Cat Song

10. Disregard the big ears on those nuns.

Corn has big ears. Disregard = shed.

The Cornshed Sisters - Ocelot Song

9. Boss visits A&E with genital chafing.

Bruce Cockburn – Wondering Where The Lions Are

8. Splits her time between Blur and Culture Club.

Blur and Culture Club.

Lulu - I'm A Tiger

7. Sorrow's native sons…

That's a line from a song by The Smiths. Which song?

Pretty Girls Make Graves – Wildcat 

6. Found in Orlando, Jackson and the biggest town in Wales.

Tony Orlando, Joe Jackson and Barry... White.

Tony Joe White – Jaguar Man

5. They have cube-shaped poo.

Apparently it's a fact.

The Wombats – Cheetah Tongue

4. Revolting peasant found in football pundit.

Shearwater – The Snow Leopard

3. Buffalo goes to Howard’s End.

Buffalo Tom... Howard Jones.

Tom Jones – What’s New, Pussycat?

2. Hannah dies as a result of mix-up.

"Hannah dies" was an anagram.

Nadine Shah - Club Cougar

1.  Horniest city looks in need of illumination.

"Horniest city" was an anagram. Illumination would come from an All Seeing I.

Tony Christie & The All Seeing I - Walk Like A Panther 

Join us for more of this twaddle next Saturday morning. It's more enjoyable than cleaning out the cat's litter tray.

Saturday Snapshots #426

Time for some more Dangerous Liaisons of the Snapshots variety. Can your Dangerous Minds solve the mysteries below?

Who are they and how are their songs connected?

15. Take half a Diazepam and Relax for a year.

14. Rubbish collecting Eagle and cancelled Sugar.

13. Are We Okay? In a way.

12. The very latest in henchmen.

11. Conventionality belongs to yesterday at police high school.

10. Disregard the big ears on those nuns.

9. Boss visits A&E with genital chafing.

8. Splits her time between Blur and Culture Club.

7. Sorrow's native sons…

6. Found in Orlando, Jackson and the biggest town in Wales.

5. They have cube-shaped poo.

4. Revolting peasant found in football pundit.

3. Buffalo goes to Howard’s End.

2. Hannah dies as a result of mix-up.

1.  Horniest city looks in need of illumination.

Answers tomorrow!

My Top 25 of 2025 (3)

And we're back in the room of gloom...

16. Rialto – Neon & Ghost Signs

Louis Eliot’s Rialto were a particular favourite of mine in the late 90s post-Britpop landscape, mixing Suede’s urban glamour with more personal, storytelling songs like Monday Morning 5:19 and Summer’s Over. Although they didn’t really make it in the UK, apparently they were very big in Southeast Asia, where they even managed to knock Celine Dion off the top of the album chart. They split up in 2004 when Louis went solo… so I figured there was as much chance of a new Rialto record this year as there was of Pulp getting back together.

Rialto – Neon & Ghost Signs

Guess what?

Neon & Ghost Signs picks up where they left off, as though the last 21 years never happened. It was never going to win them an army of new fans, but for anyone who remembers them from the first time round, it does the job. Although the lead single clearly owes a huge debt to Kylie… but there’s nothing wrong with that.

15. Todd Snider – High, Lonesome & Then Some

And so we say farewell to Todd Snider, an Americana hero of mine since the moment I first heard Talkin' Seattle Grunge Rock Blues when it cropped up on an Uncut CD back in the early 90s.

Todd Snider – The Temptation To Exist

Todd’s final album, written and recorded while he struggled with chronic pain due to spinal stenosis, is a rambling, bluesy, low key affair which I wouldn’t recommend to anyone who’s not sampled his work before. Start with Songs for the Daily Planet, East Nashville Skyline or 2021’s First Agnostic Church of Hope and Wonder. For those of us who’ve been with Todd for the long ride though, it’s his last hurrah, and just as worthy of our time as anything he’s ever recorded.

14. Kathleen Edwards – Billionaire

Some artists keep reinventing themselves, striving for the new sound, trying to keep ahead of the crowd. Others take the Tom Petty template and refuse to tamper with a successful sound, just continue giving the people what they want. Kathleen Edwards is from the latter camp – the songs on her 6^th album, Billionaire, wouldn’t sound out of place on her 2002 debut record, Failer. (And if half a dozen albums doesn’t sound much for 23 years, bear in mind that she took 8 years off to run a coffee shop in the middle of last decade.) If you liked any of her previous records, chances are you’ll find much to enjoy here.

Kathleen Edwards – Other People’s Bands

Celebrity Jukebox #64 – Raul Malo

Another week, another big loss to the world of music. When I messaged Ben that Raul Malo was dead, I didn’t think it’d mean much to a 30-something hipster. But he replied instantly about how Dance The Night Away was the soundtrack to his childhood summer holidays… which only goes to prove how powerful music is in cementing those pesky neural pathways in our memory banks. 

The Mavericks – Dance The Night Away

Mavericks lead singer Raul Francisco Martínez-Malo Jr. died on Monday night after 18 months fighting cancer. He was 60. I’ve got to admit that back in 1998, at the time of their biggest hit, the Mavericks rather passed me by. I only came to appreciate them much later, and Raul was the one who got me to listen again when I heard him deputising for Ricky Ross on the Another Country radio show a few years back. Malo came across as a warm, intelligent man with a passion for music, and I found this more and more evident when I started digging into his back catalogue.

The Mavericks – All You Ever Do Is Bring Me Down

Last year’s Mavericks album Moon & Stars showed us a band at the peak of their powers… all the more tragic then that we lost Raul Malo so young.