For many years, the majority of my musical purchases came from indie/alternative guitar bands. This started in the early Britpop era and lasted well into the 21st Century. Over the last ten years or so, however, my tastes have changed. I've found it harder to engage with the kind of guitar bands that used to excite me, and drawn more to the storytelling of singer-songwriters and Americana. That's not to say I don't still enjoy my indie tunes... just that I'm rarely captivated by a whole album, more the odd track here and there.
Has the world changed or have I changed?
Who knows? Anyway, here are ten top tunes from my old flame that proved it can still flicker quite brightly when it wants to...
I still love James. They produced some of my favourite songs of the 90s. I do struggle a bit with their recent output though. It's unmistakably James, and yet... not quite.
Couldn't get into the latest Courtney Barnett record in the same way I've connected with her previous offerings, but there's no denying the power of the feminist statement (adapted from Margaret Atwood) she makes on Nameless Faceless.
Confounding those who would easily label him once again, Morrissey played The Grand Ol' Opry this year... and covered The Pretenders. For those who want to bury him, he just gave them two more rusty nails to hammer into his coffin. For the dwindling few who remain (semi-)faithful... well, we apologetically squeeze him into our year end reviews with as little fanfare as possible.
Slaves are a band I like a lot... yet they don't half make me feel old. Maybe that's a good thing. Angry guitar pop shouldn't really be aimed at 46 year old fathers. Their latest record was great in places... and way too loud in others. The title track though... wow.
Of all the guitar bands of my youth, the Manics are probably the ones who still manage to deliver more than anyone else, due to the winning combination of Nicky Wire's Slash-style guitar riffs and James Dean Bradfield's voice - easily the best of the Britpop era. Their latest album, Resistance Is Futile, came close to making my end of year list... but in the end, it was a little too derivative, gleefully stealing its best tunes from The Vapors, The Coasters, Boney M, Elton John, Springsteen et al.... more about that here.
1. Idles - Danny Ndelko
Like Slaves & Shame, Idles are intellectual yobs. Occasionally too loud for my aged eardrums, but catchy as hell when they put their mind to it... and they definitely have something to say about the state of their nation. Here's their two-fingered salute to gammon Brexiters...
It seems nobody will mourn the NME, and all those whose careers were ravaged in its pages will have the last laugh at what it became - a free supermarket ad-sheet they couldn't even give away. Two album reviews a week and they still had the nerve to call it the New Musical Express! Yes, it had its moments, and yes, it brought fame to bands that might otherwise never have crawled out of their parents' basements, but it also wallowed in the pathetic press culture of "build 'em up then knock 'em down" and groomed journalistic egos that were bigger than many rock stars'. As a magazine, it should have been put out of its misery years ago - long before far more worthy music papers breathed their last.
Its legacy? It'll always live on in these fine songs...
Julie Burchill and Tony Parsons, during their tenure at the NME, wrote a rather vicious little book about the music industry which Pete took offence to...
Not Moz's finest hour... but then, neither was his various run-ins with the NME. Yes, they had it in for him... yet they also knew they wouldn't have kept going as long as they did without him. The greatest abusive relationship in the history of pop music?
Here's a tip, Morrissey... if you stick your hand into a crocodile's mouth and it bites off your finger, how about not sticking your hand back in there over and over again and getting upset when the same thing keeps happening to you?
In which Robert Smith takes umbrage at Paul Morley's review of Three Imaginary Boys and rips into him in a BBC session... while quoting much of the very review that caused him so much ire.
But I haven’t told the others, ‘cos they’d mess around and burp,
And tell the truth and laugh at me for drinking a classic red bottled by a medal-winning estate on the banks of the Garonne...
In which Nigel Blackwell plays the part of a pretentious arsehole musician getting interviewed by the NME...
So then Ben, it seems every track on the EP involves death, drunkenness, desperate poverty, diabolical dealings, incest, murder and abandonment. Does this reflect your current state of mind?
Eddie Argos wrote my favourite song about the NME...
Haven't read the NME in so long
Don't know what genre we belong
Popular culture, no longer applies to me
How much do you feel that last line? I'm thinking of making that the strapline for this blog too.
Yes, that was my favourite NME song. But this had to be Number One... 1. Sex Pistols - Anarchy In The UK
How many ways to get what you want
I use the best, I use the rest
I use the N.M.E.
I use anarchy!
Or did the NME use them? Symbiosis defined.
Apologies if there were any typos in this post... I threw it together rather quickly before it fell out of fashion. And I'm sure I'll have missed loads of songs as a result... your suggestions welcome.
