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

Listening Post #19: The Return of Rialto

Louis Eliot's Rialto were one of the great post-Britpop bands, lost in the flood of guitar groups trying to surf a wave that was already breaking. They released two great albums full of dark-night-of-the-soul indie, along with two of my favourite post-Britpop singles. The first feels like a dark sequel to The Day Before You Came, as sung by Scott Walker...

Rialto - Monday Morning, 5.19

While the second is a song I always have to play towards the end of the summer holidays...

Rialto - Summer's Over

(And I've not even mentioned their Top 20 "smash" Untouchable.)

Rialto split up 25 years ago, and since then Eliot's been doing solo work... but guess what?

They're back.

And it's like yesterday all over again...

That's a belter. Looking forward to the album.

Mid-Life Crisis Songs #102: Back To Work

As the summer fades into the distance (despite the forecast this week being better weather than we've had for the past six), I return to work today. Unlike many teachers, I no longer feel the old sense of dread about that, and that makes me even more thankful for my current role.

However... because there's always a but... last night, I received a group Whatsapp message from my line manager, welcoming us back to the fold and hoping we all had a good summer "with plenty of rest".

How can I be the only one of my colleagues going back to work feeling more exhausted than when we broke up back in July?

Every year about this time, I feel like listening to this song by Louis Eliot and Rialto...

Positive Songs For Negative Times #79: Summer's Over

Summer at Fountain's Abbey, near Ripon. 

Photo taken on the 1st of September, 2022.

The Winds of Autumn Teach Us That Decay is the Fate of All Mankind

(from The Guardian, 11^th November, 1840)

There is an "even-tide" in the year - a season when the sun withdraws his propitious light - when the winds arise, and the leaves fall, and nature around us seems to sink into decay. It is said to be the season of melancholy; and if by this word be meant that it is the time of solemn and serious thought, it is undoubtedly the season of melancholy; yet it is a melancholy so soothing, so gentle in its approach, and so prophetic in its influence, that they who have known it feel, as if instinctively, that it is the doing of God.

I like Autumn. I love to watch the leaves turn colour and feel the bite of the colder air, dig out the winter coat (which has far more pockets than the summer jacket: I adore pockets) and the heavier duvet. I can’t deny that the season brings melancholy… then again, I’m a big fan of melancholy. It’s almost as good as pockets. Melancholy is probably my favourite emotion. I mean, Happiness Is Overrated, right? Not to mention, so bloody hard to come by…

Autumn officially began last Friday, according to the Calendar people. For teachers, it probably begins a couple of weeks earlier when the summer holidays end and it’s back to school. I don’t normally start wearing my winter jumpers until October Half Term, clinging onto the short-sleeved summer shirts as long as I can… although this year, with Louise turning the thermostat down to minimise our exposure to the energy bill apocalypse, I’ve already taken to wearing socks in bed.

It’s around this time of year, regular as clockwork, that a particular song starts playing in my mind. A number #60 smash in 1998 (almost a quarter of a decade ago, for those of you not bummed out enough by the Grauniad’s suggestion that “Decay is the Fate of All Mankind”), but in my mind it was a Number One. As for melancholy classics, this one’s right up there…

Kamikaze seagull planes
Fighting over chip shop take-away remains
When you're walking on the cliffs
You can't help thinking of how far down the sea is
And what if it should give

Empty pubs echo with sounds
Jukebox selections that keep going round and round
And maybe rain is all we need
To come and wash the summer rubbish off the beach
Oh, let's just go to sleep
 
I didn't mean to bring you down
Summer's over, seaside town
She says we shouldn't have come so far
This seaside town

Hot 100 #19

This week proved to be most problematic. Normally, I just put a number into the Search Title box on my music player and it gives me a clear list of all songs with that number in the title. When I did that for 19 though, I got thousands of songs - including all the year songs from the 20th Century, from 1901 to 1999, plus any Live recordings that featured a date (Live 1987) or similarly dated remixes (1996 remix). As such, finding songs that featured the number nineteen in the title became an impossible task. I kinda gave up and went by ones I could remember off the top of my head and your suggestions. Luckily, there were some crackers among those.

Bandwise, it proved similarly tricky. The 1975, 1990s and 1910 Fruitgum Company were all disqualified for having their 19 in the wrong place, and the only caveat I allowed for a dated 19 was that I would allow the year 1919. Fortunately, there was a postpunk band from Bradford with just that name...

1919 - Cry Wolf

(Not the a-ha song, in case you were wondering.)

Points also to The Swede for finding a song that referenced that particular year...

John Cale - Paris 1919

That's a belter too.

While The Swede's here... what else does he have for us this week?

Ronnie Hawkins & The Hawks - Nineteen Years Old

Can - Nineteen Century Man

I had money on you suggesting that last one, Swede.

Speaking of songs about being 19 years old, here's another one from Lynchie...

Muddy Waters - She's Nineteen Years Old

Probably not acceptable these days.

And, of course, there's this contrasting pair which featured here a few months back...

Joe Jackson - Nineteen Forever

The Courteeners - Not Nineteen Forever

Thanks to Rigid Digit, Brian and Martin for suggesting those two; the latter was in serious contention for this week's top spot.

Martin also suggested this...

Tom Waits - 2:19

...and something else, which we'll return to a little later.

Before we get onto the really obvious suggestions, here's a few less obvious ones.

Charity Chic offered...

Dave Schramm - Number Nineteen

(Link courtesy of JC, from a recent Schramms ICA over at The Vinyl Villain.)

Jim In Dubai suggested...

A dreadful song and a brilliant song this week, will let you figure out which is which :-)

The Commentators - N-N-Nineteen Not Out

(I think this may have been Rory Bremner if my memory serves me right)

I'm guessing that was your dreadful suggestion. Although it's not quite as bad as Snooker Loopy.

Christmas Island - Nineteen

That's much better.

Finally, here's John Medd, who offers...

Girl -19

Sadly, John, I couldn't find that anywhere on the internet, since putting the words "girl" and "19" into
a search engine led me nowhere. The only info I have is what you gave me...

I used to love this when I was, er, 19. It was their riposte to Alice Cooper's 18. Speaking of which...

Hold your horses, John, we'll get to next week soon enough.

OK, still before we get to the obvious choices, here's the few leftovers I managed to scrape from my hard-drive before the exercise became too futile...

Zolar X - Jet Star 19

Piano Magic - Me At 19

Eagles of Death Metal - I Got A Feeling (Just Nineteen)

(Which is almost as bad as Muddy Waters - although they have far less excuse.)

Smog - Nineteen

Finally then, the obvious ones, starting with Charity Chic, who presumed he was on for a hat-trick this week...

The Rolling Stones - 19th Nervous Breakdown

And then, there was this, which Lynchie thought HAD to be this week's winner...

Steely Dan - Hey, Nineteen

(I also had a version of that by The Atlanta Rhythm Section.)

Both were fine tunes, although the one I considered most obvious was this one, as nodded to by Alyson, Martin and Lynchie...

Paul Hardcastle - Nineteen

To be honest, all three of those were in contention this week... along with the above-mentioned belter by The Courteeners... but it's Martin who takes the prize this week for recalling one of my favourite minor hits from the post-Britpop era, although lyrically it owes a debt to 70s singer songwriters such as Rupert Holmes... and a splash of Scott Walker to boot.



Next week we become adults at last... or do we? Your 18 suggestions are welcomed... and yes, I will allow the 18th Century to get a look in, as I'm hoping there are far fewer songs with dates in from that century than this one... and not many 18th century remixes or live recordings either.

Saturday Snapshots #109 - The Answers

Nananana nananana nananana nananana... Answers!

10. Jimmy Nail loses a dollar to Elvis's bear on the lawn. And it all goes dark.

Jimmy Nail was Spender. Removed a $ and you get Pender... on the lawn makes Pender-grass.

Elvis sang Teddy Bear.

Teddy Pendergrass - Turn Off The Lights

Rub me down with some hot oils, babe...

9. A minor, candy coloured clown.

"A minor" is a chord.

The suffix "ette" means "relatively small size"... which would also related to a minor.

Roy Orbison sang about a candy coloured clown they call the Sandman who tiptoes to his room each night.

The Chordettes - Mr. Sandman

8. Elf with midlife gender change? That's preposterous!

Elf changes from L(ady) to M(an)? Unbelievable!

EMF - Unbelievable

7. Lost? Trust the window screen.

A window screen would be a blind.

Blind Faith - Can't Find My Way Home

6. Octogenarians die laughing.

Killing Joke - Eighties

5. The week starts early in central Venice.

Rialto is in central Venice.

Rialto - Monday Morning, 5.19

4. Occasionally breaking the Hammer rule, Benny's kung fu rating.

Benny Hill.

Dan is the ranking system used in martial arts.

MC Hammer said U Can't Touch This.

Dan Hill - Sometimes When We Touch

There is no such thing as a guilty pleasure.

3. No, it's Britain. For the time being, anyway. I'd avoid web & eat nymphet.

I'd avoid web & eat nymphet are anagrams.

David Bowie & The Pat Metheny Group - This Is Not America

(I loved Chris's idea that "I'd avoid web" suggested this wasn't from Spiders-era Bowie. I wish I could claim to have been smart enough to come up with that myself.)

2. Dick & Spencer - 2 blokes in a Lambo.

Dick & Spencer Tracy are 2 blokes - a chap and a man.

A Lambo goes very fast.

Tracy Chapman - Fast Car

1. Les quits top pop band after catching his reflection in the Gents.

If Les quit The Beatles, all you'd have left is The Beat.



More Snapshots next week - same Snap-time, same Snap-channel.

My Top Ten 5am Songs

So there I was, just a few weeks back, complaining about having to get up at 6am. I should have remembered that in the summer, when the wood pigeon outside my bedroom window gets up at 5 o'clock in the morning, 6am is a lie in...

Here's ten bleary-eyed tunes to celebrate the light mornings.



10. Blur - Tracy Jacks

As with much of Parklife-era Blur, I loved Tracy Jacks at the time... but I find Damon's barking gets on my nerves these days. Still, for the good old days, it's worth pointing out that Tracy left home at 5 o'clock in the morning. And the bits where Damon sings rather than shouting are still quite nice.

From the same era (but aging slight better), I also offer Kenickie - 5 a.m.

9. The Village People - Five O'Clock In The Morning

In the early 80s, even The Village People had to accept that disco was dead. Their new wave change of direction (minus their signature costumes and camp) was greeted by derision (yeah, I know the idea of The Village People being treated with derision is hard to grasp) with one critic commenting the album was "simply an embarrassment that never should have seen the light of day." I've not heard the rest of the record, but I do like this song. Which only goes to prove that critics are... and I am... The video is brilliant.

8. Charlotte Gainsbourg - 5:55

You'd never guess that Charlotte was Serge and Jane's daughter. Not from watching this video, anyway. No siree. Maybe there was a mix-up on the maternity ward.

Sarcasm aside, you can pretty much imagine what she gets up to at 5:55. She's not doing the ironing.

Where do the French get their energy from? That's what I want to know.

7. Aphrodite's Child - Five O'Clock

Greek prog with Demis Roussos. I'll play this one for The Swede. Imagine A Whiter Shade Of Pale sung by the Go Compare man. And yet, I love it.

6. Mark Knopfler - 5.15 a.m.

Mark goes back to his Geordie roots. He will mostly be remembered as an axe-man. His lyrics deserve more attention.

The one armed bandit man Came north to fill his boots Came up from cockneyland
E-type jags and flashy suits Put your money in
Pull the levers Watch them spin Cash cows in all the pubs But he preferred the new nightclubs

5. Michelle Shocked - 5 am In Amsterdam

How does Michelle tell the time in the Netherlands? Listen to find out.

4. The Persuaders - A Thin Line Between Love & Hate

A soul classic which is also a hilarious tale of hell having no fury like a woman scorned. When he gets home at five, his lady is all sweetness and light, even offering to make him some toast. Cut to the next verse...

Here  am in the hospital
Bandaged from fee to head
In a state of shock
Just that much from being dead
Didn't think my woman would do something like this
Didn't think my girl had the nerve
Well, here I am
I guess actions speak louder than words...

Hitchcock would be happy with that twist.

3. Lily Allen - Who'd Have Known?

And this is why Lily Allen deserves to be mentioned in the same sentence as Kirsty MacColl.

My Top Ten: proud to have been irking the musos since before 2012.

2. Billy Bragg & Cara Tivey - She's Leaving Home

Apparently this was originally recorded by some obscure 60s combo: sadly I'm not enough of a muso to be familiar with their outfit and obviously their version couldn't have been as good as Billy and Cara's because it didn't even make the chart, unlike this smash hit Number One from 1988.

I'm sorry... Wet Wet Who?

1. Rialto - Monday Morning, 5.19

One of a clutch of classic Rialto singles from the Britpop era which has aged far better than Tracy Jacks. Heartbreaking too.




Which one sounds better than a 5am wood pigeon?

January #8 - The Best Summer's Over Song In The World Ever*

(*It's all subjective, of course. I'm sure you can think of a better one.)

8. Rialto - Summer's Over

One post leads to another. That Tindersticks song couldn't help but remind me of this, Rialto's finest hour, from the post-Britpop wasteland that produced some gloriously under-appreciated pop songs. There's obviously a touch of Jarvis Cocker to Louis Eliot's songwriting, but also a big, sweeping Scott Walker melancholia, perfect for this wonderfully evocative track.

When I was a kid, we often didn't have a "summer" holiday. My parents weren't big on crowds (neither am I). We'd go away once in maybe late March or April, then again in early October. This explains why, in the photo below, I'm the only one on the beach at Reighton Gap (between Filey and Scarborough). I also think I had a pebble in my shoe.

Anyway, my experience of seaside towns was either in the pre-Summer season or after the end of the season, and so even then, in the late 70s and early 80s, these places felt like they were way past their prime. Faded Seaside Glamour... remind me of another song for another time.

Kamikaze seagull planes
Fighting over chip shop take-away remains
When you're walking on the cliffs
You can't help thinking of how far down the sea is
And what if it should give...

I didn't mean to bring you down
Summer's over, seaside town
She says we shouldn't have come so far
This seaside town, summer's over

True melancholy can be a weirdly happy thing, I've always found. Sometimes it's nice to feel a wisftul sadness over something that's passed, that never really achieved its true potential, or that you'll never feel again. I look back on those non-summer holidays with great fondness, thinking of my parents when they were younger people (weirdly, only a few years older than I am now), wondering if they had the same hopes and fears I'm experiencing about aging, and the state of the world. Wow, this is getting deep. You only came here for a song. Better play it and bugger off...

My Top Ten Songs About Driving At Night

When songwriters can't sleep... they go for a drive.



10. Rialto - Drive

A noirish tale from the much-missed Britpop band, always a cut above many of their contemporaries.

9. Tom Petty - Night Driver

Tom's drifting home with headlines in his eyes, fighting sleep... WAKE UP, TOM! Phew. Nearly left the road there for a second. How about pulling over at the next rest stop, buddy?

8. The Cars - Drive

Who's gonna drive you home tonight?

The Cars' biggest hit (twice) comes loaded with so much extra meaning, it's hard to just listen to it as a song anymore. Plus, it was played to death on the radio when I was a teenager and I think I OD'ed on it. Good song, but Rick Ocasek & co. made far more exciting records.

7. Dion - Drive All Night

From Mr. DiMucci's late 80s comeback album, this keeps the hand-clapping doo-wop feel of his earlier hits filtered through more contemporary production courtesy of Dave Edmunds and Bryan Adams.

Well, when I say "contemporary", I mean "contemporary: 25 years ago". Sigh.

6. Roy Orbison - I Drove All Night

Fun fact - although everyone thinks Cyndi Lauper recorded this first (she made the charts with it before Roy), The Big O actually recorded it two years before Cyndi. It wasn't released as a single (with a little help from Jeff Lynne) until after his death in 1992. Anyway, much as I love Cyndi's sultry take on the tune, there's only one Roy O. Plus, although Cyndi's video features a car projected onto her naked body (not as exciting as that might sound), Roy's video guest stars a young Jennifer Connelly (and Jason Priestley, ladies). Ah, you decide. (Just don't suggest the Celion Dion version.)

5. Hamell On Trial - The Long Drive

Ed Hamell's Chandler-esque tale begins with a long drive in which his private detective hero leaves at midnight... worth a listen for any Philip Marlowe fans out there.

4. C.W. McCall - Convoy

Doubtless if I ever get round to compiling a Top Ten Trucking Songs, this'll be Number One. Although McCall's convoy (the inspiration for Sam Peckinpah's movie starring Kris Kristofferson, Ali McGraw and Ernest Borgnine) trucks on through both day and night, it nudges its way into this chart because of the hour it begins:

It was the dark of the moon
On the 6th of June...

3. Tom Robinson Band - 2-4-6-8 Motorway

Having already hurtled to the top of My Top Ten Motorway Songs, it was tempting to give Tom's trucker anthem a miss in favour of his other night driving anthem (a European retelling of the quintessentially English 2-4-6-8,) Drive All Night. But although that's a very fine song - and its title suggests it deserves a place here more than its more famous sibling - I just can't bring myself to choose it over 2-4-6-8. Plus, iffypedia informs me that the chorus of 2-4-6-8 is pilfered from a Gay Lib chant "2,4,6,8, Gay is twice as good as straight... 3,5,7,9, Lesbians are mighty fine". Brilliant!

2. Golden Earring - Radar Love

I can't think of many Dutch rock bands, and I can only think of one other record by this bunch... but this song is good enough to have been covered by everyone from REM to Def Leppard to U2... and none of them came close to matching the original. Close your eyes and this could be Led Zep. It begins with some amazing power chords before the chugging drum rhythm kicks in and then Frans Krassenburg's Robert Plant-esque voice chimes in with those masterful opening lines.

I've been driving all night
My hands wet on the wheel

By the time Brenda Lee starts coming on strong on the radio, I've almost driven through the central reservation. Just one fantastic rock record. Apparently Golden Earring had over 30 top ten hits in Holland. I might just have to splash out on a best of compilation...

1. Bruce Springsteen - Drive All Night / State Trooper

Although I feature Bruce a lot on this blog, I'm always wary of giving him the Number One because it reeks of favouritism. (Strange, I know - after all, it's my blog, I can do what I want. And it's not as though anyone's reading...) Here though is a double bill of two of his finest songs, both involving driving at night, albeit from completely different perspectives.

Simply put, Drive All Night is one of the greatest love songs ever written. I'd rate it just a step below Wichita Lineman, and there's no finer compliment in my book.

I swear I'll drive all night again
Just to buy you some shoes
And to taste your tender charms

The simplest of gestures, yet it speaks of true love in my book... and I'm sorry if that's perpetuating the "all women like shoes" stereotype... but Louise's wardrobe is one step away from Imelda Marcos's, and she's not the only woman I know like that. (Not that I'd ever dare buy her some shoes... I'm totally clueless in that department... as so many others. I'm no Bruce.)



State Trooper, on the other hand, is a much darker proposition. From the epically lo-fi Nebraska album (famously recorded on a 4 track cassette deck in Bruce's back bedroom), it's a tale of late night desperation. A man on a long, lonely drive across the states begs a policeman not to pull him over. It's creepy, brooding and compellingly tragic.

New Jersey Turnpike, ridin' on a wet night 
'Neath the refinery's glow, 
Out where the great black rivers flow
License, registration, I ain't got none, 
But I got a clear conscience
'Bout the things that I done
Mister state trooper please don't stop me...

Which one would you flash your headlights at?