Deftones - Adrenaline

This is where it all began - the first Deftones record I heard. You can't ask for a better introduction than that chugging riff on Bored, the way it changes down perfectly for the chorus, and Chino's screams of the simple sentiment "I get bored". I've sung this song to myself a million times and I can hold that note a fraction of the the amount of time Chino can.

I've told this story a bunch of times before, so I'll keep it short: when my sister and I were just getting into music, we'd been on holiday with my parents to America and discovered the wonder of cheap music and a favourable exchange rate. She bought six cds, all of which I eventually bought from her - three Silverchair albums, two Marilyn Manson albums and Adrenaline by Deftones. She was big into Manson at the time, and one of her friends had got her into Silverchair, particularly Neon Ballroom. Quite how Deftones fit into this I don't know - possibly she'd heard one of the two big singles from Around the Fur. For whatever reason she bought Adrenaline, and at some point in the trip, I popped the cd into her Walkman and gave it a listen. Like I said, what an introduction I had. I can remember it quite lividly; it was an important moment.

That was just over 20 years ago, but it was the beginning of a lot of things. The following summer Deftones released White Pony and I rushed out to buy a copy the day it came out (I'd pre-ordered the limited edition with the bonus track). I've bought every Deftones album the week it's come out since and I suspect I'll continue to do so as long as they put them out.

You can't fault Adrenaline as a debut album. As a band they upped their game a huge amount for Around the Fur in terms of writing huge singles, and then White Pony was just another level entirely. Remove those comparison points and you still have a great album - Bored, Lifter (with it's outro of "A part of me gets sick / A part of me gets sore"), every single moment of 7 Words (the first time I saw Deftones they broke into Weezer's Say it Ain't So in the break, which was brilliant), Birthmark and the closing duo of Fireal / Fist are all incredible. Fist was particularly exciting because it was so far from the sound they'd established over the previous 40 minutes - almost post-rock - but is criminally missing from the vinyl pressing.

Right now I'm playing this to my three-week-old daughter (her third album so far). I'm not convinced she's getting as much from it as I did on that first listen, but she's much younger than I was when I first heard it.

Format: 12", insert (not photographed)
Tracks: 11
Cost: £13 new
Bought: Bear Tree Records website
When: 09/04/18
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: none

Public Service Broadcasting - Live at Brixton

Similarly to what I said in my last post about Max Richter, I've also fallen into a trap of mindlessly buying new Public Service Broadcasting records. I loved the first album, albeit less than how impressed I was by seeing them support the Manics in 2013. Since then, I've become increasingly wary of them as they commit even harder to each album having a theme, often at the expense of the album itself. I still enjoy seeing them live, but I do think my record collection probably only needs the actual albums. Even then, I kinda wish I'd started buying them on cd rather than vinyl; I wouldn't feel so bad about being in this trap if I was spending £10 a time instead of £20+.

This live album was recorded after they'd released two albums - it's an early point in a band's career to be releasing a live album, but they'd had a pretty fast rise so I guess that's worth celebrating. On top of that, they were clearly quite pleased with the dancing astronauts they'd taken out on tour and wanted to capture it. I first saw them do that bit at a very crowded show at Greenman festival, and it was a crowd-pleaser for sure. As a result of only having two proper albums, they play most of their songs. The constant change back and forth between the two works against it a bit, as the songs from The Race For Space are so heavily themed that they stand out. But I can see that separating them would feel too forced too. On the plus side, the last side of vinyl contains the highlights from both and ends the set brilliantly (although Tomorrow feels like a strange inclusion, given it doesn't really go anywhere or do anything).

I didn't buy Live at Brixton when it first came out, but did give in to my urges and buy it a few months later after not finding much else I fancied in Truck one day. The part of me that knew I wasn't a massive fan knew I probably didn't need it, but the part of me that remembered how great they were that first time wanted a live album to bring back some of those memories. After a slow start, Signal 30 hits billion times harder than the album version and is exactly what I wanted. The other older songs are just so much more to my liking - heavier guitars, louder drums and a lot more going on in general. But I have come to terms that they're not the band I wanted them to be (that is, early Therapy?) and can enjoy these for what they are.

Format: Double 12", gatefold sleeve, picture sleeves, dvd
Tracks: 17
Cost: £25 new
Bought: Truck Store, Oxford
When: 17/03/17
Colour: Blue
Etching: none
mp3s: Download code

Various Artists - Behind the Counter with Max Richter

I've fallen into something of trap - I buy Max Richter records without really considering if I really need to. His output is prolific and it is impossible to keep up. His albums themselves are consistently excellent and I'll keep up with them for sure. His soundtrack work is, however, probably where I need to hold back. By the nature of the work, they vary in how exciting they are and I should probably take the film/series into consideration before buying them. But there was a period in which I was trying to keep on top of what he was releasing, and this record came out in that time. It was the first step in the realisation that I should take a more considered approach to his output, solidified by a couple of soundtracks that did little for me. I think I'm now out of the trap, but time will tell.

This record is, undoubtably, a strange one. The first in series that I'm not sure has continued, Max picked a bunch of songs for a compilation. In theory, they were all from records in Rough Trade, but I've never paid enough attention to their classical section to know if it's as deep as this record suggests that it is. The majority of the songs here are what I (a layperson) would call classical, with a spattering of post-rock and electronica thrown in. Based on Max Richter's style of music, this feels like it's probably pretty representative of his record collection.

It's important to remember that I know next to nothing about classical music. Are the classical songs here that Max has picked "good" classical songs? I don't know. If I showed this to my in-laws (big classical music fans) would they find it to be an interesting mix, or look down their noses at it (is it the equivalent of them showing me a Now That's What I Call Music comp and asking my opinion)? Again, I don't know. I suspect Max has reasonable taste in classical music, but there are probably countless sub-genres that I know nothing about. Strip away the classical songs, and you've certainly got a perfectly reasonable ATP line-up, so I can only imagine the classical songs are equally highly-respected. Maybe I will ask my in-laws next time they're here.

Anyway, there were a few reasons I bought this album. One was that it had a Max Richter song that I wasn't familiar with (Mercy); secondly, it came with a bonus 7" of more unreleased Max Richter songs; thirdly, based on the songs I knew, I figured there'd be some interesting discoveries; and finally, I was just buying too many Max Richter records. On the first point, Mercy is an excellent song - powerful violins over a sombre piano. It grabs your attention the best possible way. On the second point, The Young Mariner is a really nice piano-led piece with gently swelling strings but Whale Window Hotel / Farewell Threshold Laudanum is disappointingly unremarkable. These two songs aren't included on the cd or in the download, sadly.

As for discovering music I didn't really know about, Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith and Rachel's were both winners. I'd heard of Rachel's some years ago when one of them played at All Tomorrow's Parties, but never listened to any. Last Things Last is haunting and brilliant and I really need to spend more time with them as a band. As for the songs I know, I like that he picked a Mogwai song from their excellent Atomic soundtrack and Low are a welcome inclusion to literally anything. I love Godspeed as much as the next person, but dedicating an entire side of vinyl to Rockets Fall on Rocket Falls feels a bit lazy (or perhaps a sign of fatigue after curating five sides on vinyl). I imagine most people buying this record are like me - noobs to classical music, and knowledgable of post-rock, etc - but I do like the idea that somewhere there's a classical music fan hearing GYBE for the first time on this album and being blown away by it.

In terms of the classical music itself, I don't feel I'm any more knowledgable or into it than I was before I played this record. Starry Sky Cycle by Urmas Sisask is pretty nice, and the sleeve notes tell me that must be a fairly modern piece. Kronos Quartet provide an interesting and very maximal piece, but they're an easy one for people like me after their work on the incredible soundtrack to Requiem For a Dream with Clint Mansell. I think the biggest realisation is that what I enjoy about "neo-classical" music isn't so much the "classical" part as much as the "neo" part - it's the way it straddles post-rock and electronica that excites me, the fact it's usual classical instruments and ideas to get there is only a part of it. (As a separate side note, I feel that the genre name "neo-classical" is probably going to age as badly as "nu-metal" did). There's a strange vocal harmony piece on the first side of vinyl which really isn't my thing.

As well as three LPs and a 7", there's a download for two continuous mixes (following the tracklisting of the double cd version and featuring a much edited version of the Godspeed song) and a bonus cd of ten songs from the compilation, mostly featuring the newer songs/artists. Every now and again, I play one of these on my computer at work, but all of them feel a bit too sprawling and I never play more than one of the three hours they cover. Overall, it's a fairly lavish release for something that is ultimately the sort of cd you might get free as a sampler or on a magazine. It's nice, but I don't think it was the best way to spend the £31 I spent on it. I couldn't put a number on how much value I've gotten from it, but it's certainly less than £31; the remainder can be chalked up the cost of trying to keep up a collection of an artist who is releasing more records than I can try to remain on top of. I've learnt my lesson now though.

Format: triple 12", 7", cd, gatefold sleeve
Tracks: 45
Cost: £31 new
Bought: Rough Trade website
When: 08/06/17
Colour: Transparent green (LPs) and black (7")
Etching: none
mp3s: download code

Mogwai - Come On Die Young

Some years ago I was explaining to a friend why I can never move away from having an iPod Classic (or another equally large capacity mp3 player, but I don't think there are any of note). The argument I gave was that there are days when you just really want to listen to some obscure Mogwai b-side, and that's exactly the music that wouldn't make the cut if you were worrying about capacity. At the time, I had The Hawk is Howling and the double cd re-release of Young Team, and it was precisely those bonus tracks I was thinking about. I got Young Team just before I started my PhD and those years were heavily soundtracked by post-rock on my trusty iPod in whatever library I found myself working in.

With that in mind, I was very keen to pick up this fancy boxset re-issue of Mogwai's second album Come On Die Young when it came out; 17 bonus songs was right up my alley. I ordered it from Norman Records because they offered free postage on orders over £50 - before that point I'd never heard of them, but I've since spent more money with them than I care to mention - as I've often said before, they cover almost everything I'm after outside of the Banquet Records and Truck Store remit (in fact, I'd say they're more in line with my musical tastes in terms of what they stock than either of the other two are, but these things always change in subtle ways). It's a lovely boxset, as can be seen in the pictures below, and well worth the money.

As for Come On Die Young itself, it wasn't an album I instantly loved. One entirely unnecessary anecdote first though - at some point in my early twenties I was in Cambridge with my friend Tom and his friends Caz, Jim and Luch. Luch was studying there and for some reason I'd gone up with Tom to get drunk there one night. I have absolutely no idea why we'd gone out in Cambridge - it wasn't easy to get to and I don't think I had any other business there at the time. I can't even remember how we got up there, or where I'd come from (Winchester, Cardiff?). It definitely did happen though, and I remember more about the drunken night that followed than the days around it, it seems. Anyway, Luch was a Mogwai fan and had a poster of the cover of CODY on the wall. As we were drinking, he was getting routined harassed with the line "Come on Luch, die young". I will never be able to think about this album without thinking about his close friends telling him to die young.

About a year after getting Young Team, I bought a cheap, second-hand copy of CODY on cd in one of the records stores on Berwick Street in London. I was excited to hear it since I'd heard that it was considered one of their best albums. I didn't get it straight away, like I had with the other two albums I owned, and it took a long time for me to give it another chance (I also bought Funcrusher Plus that day, and that got a lot of play). If it wasn't that I knew it was so highly regarded, I might have disregarded it entirely.

To me, CODY is a very strangely sequenced album. Despite being sandwiched between two perfect bookends (Punk Rock and Punk Rock/Puff Daddy/Antichrist), it feels a bit like it's on shuffle for the most part. What is certainly true is that the best songs, and the most traditionally Mogwai songs are all at the end. It's rare that "classic" albums are so back-heavy, with most being the opposite (meaning people often forget to notice that the back-half is a bit weak). In this case though, it works against the album - there's about half an hour of music before you get to a song that sounds like what I want from a Mogwai song (May Nothing But Happiness Come Through Your Door). Ex-Cowboy is the first really incredible song on the album, and that's track nine. It's important to note though that Ex-Cowboy is really incredible. Of course, Christmas Steps is the real highlight, with it's slow start and bass-lead build up. It's almost as scary as the haunting face on the cover, and you want Mogwai to be scary, really.

At the other extreme, at the very start you have the title-track (of sorts) Cody which does nothing for me at all and couldn't be further from what I was expecting (which, I strongly suspect, is intentional). Sung vocals with an actual chorus and no big crescendos or heavy guitars. You can't help but believe they wanted that to feel a bit antagonistic. After the success of Young Team I imagine they took some pleasure in starting the album that way.

The third and fourth discs cover the 17 bonus tracks and we get a good mixture of demos, session and live tracks, as well as the Travels in Constants EP (from Temporary Residence Records excellent series of releases) and two rare songs, Nick Drake and Hugh Dallas. Of particular note are the shortened version of Christmas Steps, 7-25 with the fuzzed-out guitar thrashing, their cover of Papa M's Arundel (which took me ages to work out why it was familiar when I finally got a copy of Live From a Shark Cage), Spoon Test and Hugh Dallas which is pure Slint, but great for it. As expected, the bonus disc has had a good amount of play.

Format: 4x 12" boxset, double gatefold sleeves, inserts, poster, dvd
Tracks: 29
Cost: £54.50 new
Bought: Norman Records website
When: 06/08/14
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: dvd included

Manic Street Preachers - International Blue

To get a copy of this 7", I had to buy a copy of the white vinyl pressing of Resistance is Futile from an independent record shop. I'm all for spending money with independent record shops, but did have some trouble finding a shop with enough stock - it seemed to run out as soon as shops said they had stock and some shops had certain rules, like only over-the-counter orders. In the end I got it from Jumbo Records in Leeds, who I may have visited in the past, but can't say for sure. Looking at Discogs now, it wouldn't have been too hard to pick one up after the fact, but I wanted to make sure I got a copy.

I'd already ordered the "collectors" package for the new Manics album the day they announced it, which included the album on black and red vinyl (that's one on black vinyl, and another copy on red vinyl, not "black and red" vinyl), as well as the album on double cd, regular cd and cassette. I probably would have bought all the variants over time, so it's just easier to buy them all up front. What is one extra copy after all those (I sincerely hope they got to count that as five separate album sales)? Some might say it's strange to have a copy released that isn't in the "collectors" bundle, but after buying nearly 200 different Manics releases I really can't be bothered splitting hairs about this.

Anyway, I was pleased to have a 7" of the only single from the album that got a physical release. Digital-only singles are basically pointless, except from a streaming-sales-on-chart-position point of view. But the bigger concern is the lack of b-sides, which is most of the reason I have a Manics collection in the first place. There exists one b-side from Resistance is Futile, which is a terrible shame (there are some Japanese bonus tracks I'm yet to get, so I guess they count). That b-side is called Holding Patterns. It's a nice song, Christmassy somehow with an unexpected guitar solo. It would have been a fine song on the album, but not essential.

The a-side however is worth dwelling on. International Blue is an instant classic with a huge riff and a great reminder of why they're such a good band - the fact that they can drop a song like this after 30 years and it just does everything you want a Manics song to do is really incredible. Comparing it to Motorcycle Emptiness, as they did when it came is a bit of stretch but only a bit, which says a lot (I can see why they made the comparison too). It is soaring and triumphant, and makes me so happy to be a fan.

Format: 7"
Tracks: 2
Cost: £5 new
Bought: Jumbo Records website
When: 13/03/18
Colour: Transparent blue
Etching: none
mp3s: none

Manic Street Preachers - Roses in the Hospital

This was an eBay purchase late last year - I'd gotten back into eBay in a big way and was spending far too much. I probably could have found this record cheaper, but it was in good condition (at least, the sleeve is) and I wanted to fill a gap in my collection, so I put in a bid and won. The record itself sounds like shit - not in a charming "isn't vinyl nice and warm and crackly" way, but more in a "I wonder what damage this is doing to my needle" way. Luckily I have the songs on the cd, so I don't need to play it to hear any of these songs.

Roses in the Hospital is, of course, a standout on Gold Against the Soul (although I love the whole album). The slow drum-and-vocals bit before the outro is a nice precursor to the perfect ending of A Design For Life and the "forever delayed" lines at the very end are (forever) brilliant. The line "We don't want your fucking love" has been replaced with "Roses in the hospital" (just about works if you say each syllable slowly enough) for the 7" version and the fade out is shortened considerably.

Us Against You has a Generation Terrorists b-side feel to it - dirty and punky. I like it. It's at odds with the polished sound of GATS in the best possible way; you wonder how it might have sounded if it'd had the same treatment as the album tracks. James' vocals in the chorus are impossible to understand, and could maybe stand to be a little cleaner. The other b-side here is Donkeys. There are a bunch of slower Manics b-sides that all sound great, and could be a fascinating album in themselves - Donkeys is one such song. Maybe I should make that as a mixtape for the car.

Format: 7"
Tracks: 3
Cost: £8.45 second hand
Bought: eBay
When: 15/10/18
Colour: Transparent red
Etching: none
mp3s: none

MewithoutYou - Ten Stories

This week MewithoutYou announced that they were splitting up, which was sad news. I took far too long to get into them properly and have only seen them play festival/support sets. I got their first two albums in 2007 when I first heard them and then neglected them entirely for five years until I found their fourth album in Banquet one afternoon. I can't blame anyone but myself for that; I imagine I missed out on seeing them play some incredible shows in the UK in the years between. Still, I can be pleased I did get to see them, that I had such a great time the two times I did see them, and that I can go back to their back-catalogue whenever I please.

In 2016 Big Scary Monsters put out this lovely reissue of their fifth album from 2012 and I picked it up in amongst a fairly large order of other albums I'd been meaning to pick up for a while. I didn't play it straight away, but I was into it as soon as I did - throughout there are highlights, like February, 1878, Cardiff Giant and Fox's Dream of the Log Flume (a song that could easily fit on their first two albums), but it was the closer, All Circles, that really stood out on the first play, and became the reason I played it a lot in the following weeks - I love the simple repeating lyric: "All circles presuppose they'll end up where they begin / but only in their leaving can they come back round". The brass instruments in the outro of Nine Stories is an inspired choice too. In the three years that have passed since then, it's probably become the MWY album I turn to most often, although they all get a good amount of play.

Format: 12", picture sleeve, booklet
Tracks: 11
Cost: £15 new
Bought: Big Scary Monsters website
When: 07/03/16
Colour: Blue splatter
Etching: none
mp3s: Download code

Braid - Frame & Canvas

I've noticed a few things in recent years: that there are a lot of emo albums that people consider to be absolutely classic, essential albums; that different people often have entirely different sets of albums that have such accolades; and finally that if you didn't hear those albums at the right point in your life, you can't understand why people hold them in such high regard.

I love Texas is the Reason and Miracle of 86, but I've played those albums to people who should, in theory, also love them and watched them be thoroughly underwhelmed. Frame & Canvas is a perfect example of this in the other direction.

In 2013, Banquet announced that Braid were going to Frame & Canvas in Kingston, and people got extremely excited. A lot of these people were ones whose opinions I hold in high regard, so I thought I should get tickets and see what all the fuss was about. A few weeks before the show, I picked up this copy of the album, so I'd at least have a reasonable idea of the songs. I enjoyed the album, and had fun at the show, but definitely never felt I really got why everyone was so excited. I watched them again at Fest that year and still wasn't really that into it. Eventually I had the series of observations in the first paragraph and concluded it was a time-and-place thing, and I was in neither when I heard Braid.

All that sounds a bit negative. Frame & Canvas is a perfectly fine record. In fact, it's quite enjoyable in places, but I don't consider it essential in the slightest. They hit up a lot of things I enjoy - layered vocals, odd shouts, generally interesting music. They're not so big on memorable choruses, which doesn't help crack into the album. Consolation Prizefighter is pretty good, but it's late in the album to finally have such a thought. I've probably just not given it all enough time, but it's had a good number of plays over the years and after a while you just have to accept that sometimes you're not going to get an album. I've decided Frame & Canvas is one such album. Ask me again in another six years and maybe I'll have finally got it.

Format: 12", insert
Tracks: 12
Cost: £15 new
Bought: Banquet Records
When: 18/07/13
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: Download code

The Murder City Devils - In Name and Blood

It's 2019 and The Murder City Devils remain in the list of occasionally active bands I'd love to see but still haven't (along with Snapcase, Hum and The Blood Brothers - the list hasn't changed in years, despite all four playing shows in US in recent years. One day I'll see them and I'll hopefully have a great time).

In Name and Blood was the last of the original Murder City Devils albums I got (The White Ghost... hadn't been released and they were very much broken up when I was getting into them). I got Thelema, Empty Bottles and the live album, R.I.P., in 2005/2006 and loved them. A while later I found the self-titled album and it became a stable in the kitchen of our house in Cardiff - that album acted as a little revival of the band for me and I was very pleased to find this album in Spillers one day early in 2009. The albums had been reissued on coloured vinyl and I was very pleased to add it to my collection.

I knew a bunch of the songs from R.I.P., but there are some great songs that weren't played at that last show - Bunkhouse with it's excellent chorus ("If you don't think that cowboys cry / Then you ain't never heard a cowboy's song"), Someone Else's Baby and Fields of Fire. Of course, Press Gang, Idle Hands and Rum to Whiskey were all highlights from the live album, particularly the last one, so I knew them well. There's also a couple of covers thrown in - Neil Diamond's I'll Come Running (for some reason) and two much-more on-brand Misfits covers - Hybrid Moments and She, although the latter is not listed on the sleeve. Goes without saying that MCD's organ-heavy sound and The Misfits make quite a pairing.

The band had a slight stylistic shift over the years, so much so they considered the Thelema EP part of the reason they broke up, but it's a very gradual change - in my mind (and ears), the self-titled album and Thelema are the extreme ends, but Empty Bottles and In Name and Blood are quite similar and a very strong pair of albums. All that said, if you like any of their music, I can't see you not liking the rest.

Format: 12", gatefold sleeve
Tracks: 13
Cost: £11 new
Bought: Banquet Records
When: 18/03/09
Colour: White and red splatter
Etching: Side A: "Look upon your city, enjoy the sight..." Side B: "For it will soon be rubble and bleached bones"
mp3s: Download code

The Computers - Love Triangles Hate Squares

What happened to The Computers? They seemed to be on the edge of breaking through to being quite huge, and then just vanished into thin air. The last time I saw them they were supporting Rocket From the Crypt and the time before that they had every person in McClusky's getting into their thing; the album they released after this one was produced (or recorded?) by John Reis, which is a pretty deal by most people's standards. (That said, I didn't buy that album, so maybe I'm part of the problem.) There was a whole load of hype about that album, then they went quiet almost as soon as it came out. There was no "the band is over" message, just a fade into oblivion.

There was an argument from the very beginning that they were style over substance, but it worked - wearing matching red shirts and trousers, or these swanky suits or whatever followed certainly got them noticed. And live you couldn't help but buy into Alex's conviction; I never saw them play a bad show. These songs sound nothing like the band that I got into on the first EP, but as I mentioned before, I'm ok with that. Love Triangles Hate Squares is a million times catchier than the punk-rock songs they used to write and you could play this album in most situations and people would be ok with that - You Can't Hide From The Computers doesn't go down so well on the hifi when you've got your wife's friends over for dinner as this one does.

I definitely like these songs (except for C.R.U.E.L. which has a very annoying chorus) - they're too catchy to not like - but I feel like I shouldn't. It's a strange one. I wonder what I'd have made of them if I hadn't been introduced to them as a punk rock band (I met them before I saw them - they were friends with Rez from The Cut Ups and were staying at his house in Cardiff one evening when we were round there). The cynic in me suspects (/knows) I would have written them off as a gimmick. I like to think I'm better than needing bands to have proper punk-rock credentials to be enjoyable, but it turns out I'm not. I definitely wouldn't have given them the time of day if I'd been introduced to them through this album. I'm a bad person, I know that. I'm ok with that.

Format: 12", picture sleeve, poster, numbered (#1731)
Tracks: 11
Cost: £12 new
Bought: Banquet Records, Kingston
When: 18/07/13
Colour: Red
Etching: none
mp3s: Download code

Max Richter - Three Worlds: Music from Woolf Works

I have fond memories attached to this album - not long after it was released, Max Richter played it live for the first time at Blenheim Palace, a place that had become our "garden" (we had a tiny garden, but were a short distance from Blenheim with annual passes, so we'd go there whenever we wanted to be in a nice, spacious garden). I love going to shows in strange places, and have been thoroughly impressed by Max Richter on a number of occasions. As well as premiering Three Worlds, he played his Vivaldi Recomposed piece and On the Nature of Daylight, a song from The Blue Notebooks that had been experiencing some increased attention from it being on the soundtrack to a movie (although I forget which one). It was shaping up to be a nice night.

I dragged my wife along, knowing she'd probably not hate it, but also knowing that since it was seated she might actually enjoy it. At this point she was about halfway through the pregnancy of our first child, who was just beginning to kick. During the concert, our little foetus got quite into the music and really started going for it; it was nice to see her reacting to it. We've played it a few times to her since she's been born, but the reactions are more subdued these days. The sun was shining and the Blenheim concert was lovely - it was a great evening. We were letting out our spare room on Airbnb at the time and our guests were also at the concert, having planned a trip around the UK from Canada mostly around the concert. It was nice to chat with them about it the morning afterwards too.

I'd bought Three Worlds when it came a few months earlier, but didn't really know what to expect. I had a bunch of Max Richter albums at the time, but they were beginning to fall into two camps (and have continued to do so): very strongly themed albums (Recomposed, Sleep, this one) or his relentless soundtrack work - albums as collections of songs seemed to be a thing of the past, Infra possibly being a turning point. Similarly to that album, this one is based around a series of ballets, this time based on Virginia Woolf writings, of which I know nothing.

The three sections of the album are fundamentally very distinct from each other - Mrs Dalloway being a handful of shorter related pieces at the start, The Waves comprising one piece (Tuesday) at the end, and two sides of very electronic music in the middle for Orlando. Spreading the Orlando suite across two different LPs seems strange, when perhaps it would have been easier to pair Mrs Dalloway and The Waves, but maybe that would have hammered the separation home too hard - one LP being the more traditional classical music, the other the out-there electronic stuff. Even with the running order as it is, it's hard not to make that distinction.

On the night at Blenheim, the second movement felt far more out of place than it does on the record - the electronic section clearly not landing so well with the Blenheim audience as it might have in a less fancy venue (it's funny to consider The Barbican a "less fancy" venue, but that is where my mind goes to, being the first place I saw him play Recomposed). People were clearly struggling with that part more than the others. Virginia Woolf's suicide note at the start of Tuesday is a little hard to take too.

It's a good album, but has somehow never found it's way into being a Max Richter album I turn to very often, probably because of the slightly jarring middle section. The strange thing is, before that show at Blenheim I hadn't even really clocked that the middle was so heavy on the electronics, which is a worrying sign that I probably hadn't really listened to it all that well in the two months between.

Format: Double 12", gatefold sleeve
Tracks: 16
Cost: £27 new
Bought: Truck Store, Oxford
When: 07/04/16
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: Download code

Jawbox - For Your Own Special Sweetheart

I think I've finally learnt which band is Jawbox and which one is Jawbreaker - Jawbox are the one I have a couple of albums by and quite enjoy, Jawbreaker are the ones I watched a documentary about on Amazon Prime thinking they were Jawbox (it was reassuring that even Steve Albini couldn't remember which was which). The Jawbreaker documentary was interesting and I stuck with it, partly because they seemed to really hate each other, but partly because people really love them and, it turns out, I've never listened to them despite them being the sort of band I feel like someone would have played to me. But enough about Jawbreaker.

Like a lot of people (I suspect), I was introduced to Jawbox because Deftones covered Savory and their recording ended up on their 2005 B-Sides and Rarities compilation (as well as on the 2011 Covers LP). That recording also features most of the guys from Far, and I also had a recording of Jonah covering Savory on his The Three Sketchys compilation, so it's safe to say the song hit hard amongst that group of friends. I liked the song and made a mental note to check the band out; over the years I heard about For Your Own Special Sweetheart being a classic and landmark album.

In 2010 I finally stumbled across a copy - this is the 2009 reissue and Spillers had it in stock when I was back in town for some reason (it wasn't for a gig, so I'm not sure why I was in Cardiff that weekend in particular). I still hadn't actually heard Jawbox when I first played the record, but the covers of Savory and the general fanfare was enough to draw me in. Plus, it was on Discord, so it really couldn't go too wrong. Jawbox have a lot in common with Albini-related bands from Chicago but they have a far greater ear for a melody and throw in some incredibly catchy choruses; it's a far easier listen than anything Big Black recorded, which I see as a plus. It's still pretty abrasive (my wife made some strange faces at the start of FF=66 just now and left the room before the chorus kicked in). Of course, Savory is a great song, but so are Breathe, Motorist, Jackpot Plus! and U-Trau, mostly because of their soaring choruses. Reel feels quite different from the rest of the album, but is a nice moment.

Many years later I found a second-hand copy of My Scrapbook of Fatal Accidents on cd in Oxfam and that reminded me that I really should have bought more Jawbox records by now. It's no surprise that the only blocker has been that I never ever see their albums in shops and forget to seek them out online. I've bought both Jawbox releases that I've ever seen, so that's a reasonable effort I suppose. I should try harder; I like their music and could happily listen to more of it.

Format: 12", insert
Tracks: 13
Cost: £11 new
Bought: Spillers Records, Cardiff
When: 17/04/10
Colour: Black
Etching: Side A: "This is not a psychotic episode" Side B: "This is a cleansing moment of clarity"
mp3s: Download code

Graveyard - Innocence & Decadence

I should have bought this album on cd, but I got excited and carried away and bought the vinyl instead. It's worth going back a few steps though: one morning I clicked on a review on Pitchfork of this album, despite having never heard of Graveyard before. I was really craving some metal at the time, saw that magical word "metal" in the summary and decided to read on (Pitchfork rarely covers music I enjoy anymore, but somehow I can't stop opening the site every day). I listened to a song, enjoyed their shameless Led Zeppelin stylings and listened to a bunch more. I was in a Skype chat group with a bunch of colleagues who liked metal (although the intersections of the varieties of metal we liked was minimal at best - the only band that all six or seven people in the group ever collectively agreed upon was Clutch), and shared it around; people liked it, and I enjoyed my moment of being a taste-maker. I hastily ordered the LP.

A few weeks later I found two other Graveyard album on cd in Fopp for a fiver each and couldn't resist that price. I knew I wasn't going to find those album on vinyl easily, and it seemed better to just have the music to listen to than to try to wait until I found the vinyl (I'd still be waiting). With that moment, Graveyard became a "cd band" rather than a "vinyl band", leaving this album sitting alone in my record collection. More frustratingly, the LP didn't come with a download code, so Hisingen Blues and Lights Out have had far more plays than this album; it doesn't help that the first of those has The Siren on it, which is surely their finest moment and worth a listen if you've not heard it.

As I mentioned, Graveyard take a huge amount of inspiration from Led Zeppelin. This is totally fine - many, many bands have done the same, but very few end up in my collection. I think that morning I was just in the exact right mood for a band like this, and had someone put any Led Zeppelin album under my nose I strongly suspect that might have done the trick instead. They commit to the style well and have some great songs - The Apple & the Tree is huge and has stayed in my mind much better than I'd have expected for a song that I've really not played that much; Exit 97 is a great way to follow and From a Hole in the Wall starts the second side well; Far Too Close has another unusually memorable hook. It's a good album, although I'd almost certainly have appreciated it more if I'd bought the cd rather than the vinyl. But then I wouldn't have got to write about it on here.

Format: 12", gatefold sleeve
Tracks: 11
Cost: £12 new
Bought: Norman Records website
When: 23/10/15
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no

Drive Like Jehu - Drive Like Jehu

I got a copy of Yank Crime on cd in 2006 and it blew me away. Drive Like Jehu sounded like nothing else I was listening to at the time and I've found too few bands since who take inspiration from them. Along with Black Eyes, they're at the top of the list of bands that I wish new bands were completely ripping off, because I'd definitely go to see such a band.

For the usual reasons (not finding the album in shops, apathy and laziness), two years passed before I got their self-titled debut album. Some years later I remarked to someone that I nearly enjoyed it as much as Yank Crime and they responded "well, of course" - in their mind the two were entirely equal, but the self-titled album had been a much slower burn for me. It didn't help that I didn't (and still don't) have mp3s of this album, so it's had a fraction of the plays that Yank Crime has had, not to mention the two year head-start. These days I'd consider Yank Crime amongst my favourite albums of all time (not top ten, but top 50 for sure) but I still don't feel I know this one well enough. Maybe that's sign I don't actually enjoy it as much; I enjoy it, just less so.

It's got some great songs, but nothing that hit as hard as Luau or Do You Compute. I almost wish I'd got this one first so it wouldn't have to be compared to it's younger sibling so much. I'm certain it still would have blown me away, but there's definitely the possibility that it'd have been longer before getting their other album. Step on Chameleon, O Pencil Sharp and If It Kills You are all huge songs. Maybe I'm just friends with the wrong people, but I feel like everyone should be constantly talking about how great these two albums are.

Of course, it's now impossible to think about Drive Like Jehu without the associated disappointment of the cancelled ATP festival - partly because I've still never seen DLJ but also because it marked the very final and, let's be honest, somewhat overdue demise of ATP. I'd been to a bunch of All Tomorrow's Parties festivals over the years and discovered more incredible bands than I care to think of - they defined my twenties more than any other musical institution, and I wish I'd started going even sooner. But by the end the cracks were substantial - I forgave them for the Jabberwocky catastrophe; I'd joked beforehand that I'd pay £35 to see any two of the bands on that bill and, lo and behold, in the end I paid £35 to see two precisely of those bands play a last minute make-up show (Neutral Milk Hotel and The Ex, so a great pair. It was the best of the four times I saw NMH because the crowd was largely not a "London crowd"; that is, people actually showed some emotion and got into it). I commented at the time that I really didn't expect them to call my bluff like that, the bastards (what were they thinking with the Dyson Airblade comments!?).

When the DLJ festival came around, I couldn't resist temptation and gave ATP another chance. We booked tickets and a week beforehand I booked my train ticket. The next day the other weekend ATP had organised (ha!) had started and talk of the bands not getting paid spread. A few days later, the whole thing went tits up and the festival was no more. We got our ticket money back, but not the train fare. I have no issue with Drive Like Jehu about this - if I knew I was going to get paid I definitely wouldn't get on an 11-hour flight and they were right to cancel. But I came so close to seeing them live and it still stings that I haven't. Funnily enough, they're also at the top of that list - the list of bands I've not had the chance to see and really, really wish I could (along with Black Eyes, again, and Hum and The Murder City Devils). One day, I really hope one day I will get to see them. I'm sure it will be incredible.

Format: 12"
Tracks: 9
Cost: £6.50 new
Bought: Generation Records, New York
When: 11/04/08
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no