I figured there wouldn't be a shortage of songs that mentioned the world-famous, Bradford-born artist... and I wasn't wrong. There's even a song that beat Sting to the punch...
I know I'm unduly harsh on Hamish Hawk, all because I want him to be the new Morrissey, to replace the old no-longer-fit-for-purpose Morrissey.
Wait, hear me out! Don't just stop reading because I used the M-word!
There are some clear comparisons to be made between Hamish and The Artist Formerly Known As My Second Favourite Singer In The World. Vocally, they share many of the same traits. Musically, they plough similar furrows. And lyrically... well, they both know their way around a metaphor, are skilful in the use of puns, and wear their hearts openly on their sleeves.
For some reason though, much as I admire Hamish's songwriting chops, I can't quite embrace them in the same way I once did The Unmentionable One. His songs don't touch a nerve, and I often miss their overall meaning. While I enjoy individual lines, I'm often left scratching my head as to what he's saying en masse. But I feel like I ought to, and this leaves me frustrated.
Despite all that, his latest album is very good. There's clearly some kind of homoerotic kink going on this time round, but that's about as much as I can decipher.
You with all the modesty of Big Tech in boom I tire of you honestly when you swan around a room How I used to like to watch you fixing me a drink 'Til manhandling the crystalware, became your kink You vetoed everyone of my miserabilist movies You bored my friends from out of town with the virtues of shoegaze You've all the upright strength of an infant's neck And yet, and yet, and yet, and yet...
Will you record the sound I make when I die? What the devil will it take for you to look me in the eye? Am I your number one? Or just some other guy? If I axed you for real, would you wise up and die?
11. Amy Rigby - Hang In There With Me
Amy Rigby moved to the UK this year, which should make it much more easy to stalk her. (Don't tell Eric.)
Another artist who can do no wrong in my ears, Amy brings her customary cynical wit to another superior collection of songs involving Bob Dylan, bad haircuts, and burying your husband under the patio. Plus there's a fair bit about growing old too...
Try your whole life to make something that matters Chords chime, words rhyme, paint spatters Get out the camera, take a shot you wanna capture Madness, sadness, sunsets, rapture
Doors won't always open That don't stop you hoping Someday you can grab it Like a cowgirl cattle roping
Selling makes you crazy Giving up is lazy Tough days got to play it Like De Niro and Scorsese
First you get hurt Then you get smart We all wind up in the dirt They say that living is an art Hear the sound of laughter From the Hereafter Is it better to burn out or fall apart?
10. The Bug Club - On the Intricate Inner Workings of the System
My only complaint about the latest album by The Bug Club is that if I want to purchase the CD (which I do) from Bandcamp, it has to be shipped from America, and they appear to want TWENTY-FIVE QUID postage & packing.
The Bug Club are from Wales. Why can't I get a copy from the UK?
This kind of niggle is actually the sort of thing The Bug Club could write a song about. I'm looking forward to their next album, which will hopefully feature a song called Twenty Five Quid, with a chorus that goes...
Twenty-five quid Twenty-five quid Twenty-five quid Twenty-five quid Robbing bastards (But not The Bug Club themselves, who I'm sure are very nice people.)
On the Intricate Inner Workings of the System tackles many more big issues of our time, such as where to find Quality Pints in your town, what happens if you watch too many War Movies, and the undeniable fact that Everybody Thinks They Look A Bit Like James Bond...
I collect Hornbys and commemorative stamps and there's something James Bond about that I am gluten intolerant and there's something James Bond about that I like casinos. Like James. I like tuxedos. Like James. I like women. Like James. I like swimming. Like James. And I love Shirley Bassey. Like James. And I hate the baddies. Like James. And I simply couldn't give a shit about the the consequences of my James Bond wit
There are certain artists whose work I will buy sight unseen. Or do I mean "hear unheard"? They've got a new record out? I must have it now. I know there will be enough in there to tick the boxes on my musical appreciation scale whether the cognoscenti or the reviewers or the zeitgeist agrees with me or not. Of course, they won't all be winners (I point you towards Bruce's soul covers album of last year), but I still want them on the shelf.
Here are the Must Have records I bought Hear Unheard this year...
Lloyd Cole - On Pain
I wrote about Lloyd's new album after seeing him play live for the umpteenth time at the end of October. I don't have much to add to that review. It is still on rotation and most of the songs have wormed their way into my good graces, but I'd still prefer it if he got over this 80s electronica phase and went back to making nice safe guitar music. Lyrically though, he's still got it. As the album's opening lines ably demonstrate...
I can't be trusted with your money Look what I did Every time that you gave it to me I can't be trusted with your secrets Look what I did Every time that you gave them to me
Brett and Rennie Sparks returned with their first album of Gothic Americana in seven years. It's not as immediate as their earlier stuff - age brings a kind of contemplative wisdom to their songwriting, I guess - but it rewards the effort if you're willing to give it time.
Another band I've been following faithfully since the early noughties is Craig Finn's The Hold Steady. Finn has a pretty steady work ethic at the moment, alternating Hold Steady releases with his solo albums... although I have to confess, I'm starting to prefer the latter. The Price Of Progress is the band's ninth album, and it's a good listen, but not quite as good as A Legacy of Rentals, last year's Top 3 offering from Finn on his own.
Lukas Nelson & The Promise Of The Real - Sticks & Stones
One artist who's only entered my Reliable Purchase list over the last couple of years is Willie's boy, Lukas Nelson. He's incredibly prolific - this is his 8th album in 13 years - and pretty much sticks to a formula of hard luck, heartbroken country with much time spent drowning his sorrows in booze, but if you like that kind of thing, he rarely puts a foot wrong.
A late entry, but one I've no doubt I'll be listening to well into the New Year. Following on from her excellent Olivia Newton John covers record of 2018, Juliana picks another top 70s/80s artist to reinvent. (We'll skip over her Police covers record, for reasons to do with the manufacturing of silk purses from bovine ears.) Actually, "reinvent" is probably taking it a bit far, as these are pretty faithful to the originals, but she doesn't choose the obvious tracks (apart from Don't Bring Me Down) and the result is the best kind of aural comfort food.
It takes quite an effort to become an Old Faithful after only one album, but Hamish Hawk went to the top of the class following his 2021 LP Heavy Elevator. I've been salivating with expectation for the follow-up, and it may well be that I set my expectations too high (something I'll discuss again in this year's Top Ten). Angel Numbers is a great album despite my unrealistic hopes of stadium-conquering crossover glory... but there's still time, Hamish.
Wherе's my limelight? If I'm to nurse the fеver I carry inside I'll starve, I will not stifle my appetite
It's nigh-on high time I can barely make out the mountain no-one taught me to climb And frightened allies take swipes at my sides
That's my old car, photographed on the day we said goodbye. I shed a tear, but I cry at most things to be honest.
Although I'll miss that old girl now that she's gone to find her new travelling companion, I won't entirely miss her rather selective taste in music.
I mentioned yesterday how I keep Sam's music on CDs in the car, with my own current album selections on a separate memory stick, so I can toggle between the two. Over the past few months though, I'd begun to notice a rather unusual thing... the car would refuse to play certain tracks on the memory stick. For example, from the latest Billy Bragg record, the final track, Ten Mysterious Photos That Can't Be Explained, would never play. The mp3 was in the folder when I checked it on my pc, and would play fine in the house, but the car ignored it completely.
Similarly, I didn't even know that the first track on the new Half Man Half Biscuit album was I'm Getting Buried In The Morning, since I've only ever listened to that record in the car, and the old car always started the album at track 2.
There are other examples (and I'm left wondering how many albums over the past six years I've not actually listened to in their entirety), but the most egregious omission was the old car's refusal to play The Mauritian Badminton Doubles Champion, 1973, by Hamish Hawk, arguably the best track on last year's album Heavy Elevator. I eventually fooled the car into playing that by re-recording the song as a separate mp3 and inserting it as an additional file into the folder. But that was a lot of hard work to get around my car's musical prejudices.
Thinking that the problem might lie in a faulty memory stick, I even bought a new one and copied all my current music onto that... only to find the very same tracks left on the hard shoulder. I'd just about convinced myself it must be a problem with the ripping process, and that certain tracks just weren't being ripped well enough for the car's USB to read...
...until I got my new car and inserted the same memory, only to discover that every track now plays fine.
The Billy Bragg song mentioned above is all about the dangers of wasting your life on internet rabbit holes. Ironically I've just dug another one and, if you've read this far, your time has probably been wasted too. So why not waste a little more and listen to the song...?
(For some reason, I can only get All 4 on the kitchen TV, not the one in the lounge.)
Is there a chair or do you stand to watch it?
It's the kitchen. There is a dining table and chairs. Although, as a family, we spend more time playing Ticket To Ride there than eating.
Europe or America?
Europe. Wild West. 1812 expansion pack. France. London. New York is in the cupboard, but we haven't played that yet.
I think New York is my favourite as it's only a 15 minute game.
Use it as more of a warm up game before something with a lot of depth.
So is London, but I prefer the games to go on. I'd rather have an unlimited supply of trains and just keep building more and more routes. It's preferable to actual adult responsibilities and stuff.
(Bit obvious that, I know.)
Louise is going out tonight, so I was looking forward to having the big TV to myself...
Only now we've had a power cut.
And since you're no longer at The Bad Place, you don't want to just sit in the dark crying?
Saturday night crying in the dark... reminds me of my 20s.
Do you have six dice?
Farkle could be something a bit different.
Or if you have two dice and 12 paperclips or other small objects, you can play Pickup.
Both quick games. Farkle is a point scoring game, Pickup is chance.
Though not discussing the game itself, these articles clearly indicate the qualities of the game Blind Man's Buff as a stand in for more serious issues that are mirrored in the gameplay.
That sentence made no sense at all. You're just trying to bamboozle me with words now.
Also, I note that it took you quite some time in between replies. Long enough to write a couple more website articles to back up your fallacies.
Sage has an average of 8 months before an article is accepted for review, more if they want any changes or amendments. If not, it's still three more months until it goes online.
I'm not sure about Wiley as I've not sent anything through them.
Presumably that's powered by ACME.
If I had done such a quick turnaround, then it most definitely wouldn't have been cited in at least 7 other papers which also need to go through a similar process.
Now you're just trying to blind me with academia.
Me, I found only one song that referenced Blind Man's Buff...
Whereas I found loads that reference Blind Man's Bluff, including Depeche Mode, Aerosmith, Rush, The Inspiral Carpets, Del Amitri, The Blue Osyter Cult... and this:
I know who I believe.
I didn't realise that being a successful musician meant you had to have knowledge of the history of children's games.
And anyone that can be grouped with the Inspiral Carpets is a group I would go to great pains to distance myself from.
The Typhoo Tea of Britpop.
Clint Boon was a god.
I'd rather take advice on children's games from him than Robert Plant.
Also, they were way before Britpop.
They're older than you!
I have no respect for a band that does a reunion show once a week at The Leadmill.
Either write some new music or commit to a tour that's not also full of washed up bands.
This Is How It Feels is an anthem of my late teenage years.
Meant a lot to me, that song.
I thought you were in your late thirties when that came out.
I was 18.
They were the equivalent of The Rakes to my generation.
I prefer Boon's quirky solo stuff though.
White No Sugar was great.
Power still off.
Keeping ourselves entertained though... Sam has created his own version of Ticket To Ride. Geography is a bit suspect.
Meanwhile, I'm currently lighting a bonfire out of CD inlays in the back garden to cook a dead rat on.
24 hours and you've already resorted to savagery.
Is it at least CDs from Uncut?
I'm starting with the Morrissey CDs.
Taking them out of circulation rather than donating. Smart.
It's kind of the opposite of burning a KKK cross.
This is my Morrissey substitute these days. It's like Morrissey Methadone...
Has the power returned to the house or are you even more feral?
Louise was just about to saw off my leg when the electric came back on.
Apparently one of the first signs of male pattern baldness is kinks in the hair.
There was almost a very big clue in the photo, which I had to edit out before posting this yesterday. (Check the drumkit.)
Abba featured last week, so it was Ray had to take the top spot. (Also, this song is actually about the station, rather than the place where Napoleon fell.)
The Kinks - Waterloo Sunset
I won't be Cruella... Snapshots will be back next Saturday.
