There’s a lot that I’ve been grateful for this year, and I am happy to report that 2019 has been a pretty solid year for yours-truly (if not the world at large). I took up running, which meant I took up heavy music again, and I got slightly better at speaking Chinese, even if I… Read More My Favourite Albums of 2019
I told myself I wasn’t going to write an AOTY list for 2018. Then I read everyone else’s AOTY list, and I decided I would. Here’s an AOTY list for 2018. By no means am I saying, definitively, that these are the best records of 2018 – I’m just saying they’re my favourites. I’ve included… Read More My Favourite Albums of 2018 (Another AOTY List)
I don’t know how other to start this post than with the line: I went for a drink with a woman once. It wasn’t by definition a date, and I’m not entirely sure that we knew each other well enough at the time to even qualify as friends, but we went for a drink and,… Read More Answering the Question, Fourteen Months Late (On toe and My Favourite Song)
You’re probably reading this on a mobile phone; this probably means that the majority of your close family and friends are only a few seconds and several dial tones away. The entire world is resting in the palm of your hand, easily accessible regardless of the distance between yourself and those confined within. But, there… Read More [Bullet Music] The Wonder Years – Sister Cities (Album Review)
Featuring: Kacey Musgraves / Listener / Manchester Orchestra / Household / THE FEVER 333 / George Ezra / Hot Mulligan / Hayley Williams / Julien Baker / William Fitzsimmons / Macseal / Marietta / Wil Wagner / The Streets / Wolf Alice / Now, Now / Kasabian / Noah Gundersen / Black Foxxes / Gender Roles… Read More The CRM Monday Mix #4
Featuring: Franz Nicolay / Ben Marwood / The xx / Catfish and the Bottlemen / Broken Social Scene / Joseph / Fleet Foxes / Emily Yacina / The Menzingers / Owen / Trophy Eyes / Perma / The Smiths / Jessica Pratt / The Hotelier / Hot Mulligan / Stars Hollow / Grimes / Foxx… Read More The CRM Monday Mix #3
Featuring: awakebutstillinbed / Muncie Girls / itoldyouiwouldeatyou / Phoebe Bridgers / Looming / Free Throw / The Bronx / Every Time I Die / Nervous Dater / Harmony Woods / Noname / The Written Years / Hovvdy / Nirvana / The Smith Street Band / Conjurer / Slingshot Dakota / Casey / Animal Flag /… Read More The CRM Monday Mix #2
This afternoon I sat down to write a poem inspired by Kayo Chingonyi’s recent collection Kumukanda. It’s a wonderful debut collection, rooted heavily in a childhood spent immersed in music. It finds him laboring over mixtapes and old cassette players, spacing the seconds between songs to ensure smooth transitions and optimal exposure. I read it… Read More The CRM Monday Mix #1 (Something New)
50) Vagabon – Fear & Force 49) Lucy Rose – Floral Dresses (feat. The Staves) 48) Moses Sumney – Doomed 47) Smidley – Pink Gallo 46) Vasudeva – Take Away 45) Mount Eerie – Ravens 44) Glassjaw – shira 43) Eisley – Defeatist 42) Have Mercy – Drive 41) Adult Mom – Patience 40) At… Read More My Favourite Songs of 2017 (With Playlist)
It’s that time of year again. I went all the way back to January to pick out the one-hundred records that have made my 2017. Give it a read:… Read More My Favourite Records of 2017 (100-1)
It’s been eight years, and I’m still not entirely sure how much I actually like this record. I do like it, it I remember going into it expecting it to be disappointing, and never really found enough within to chance the preconception. When Homesick dropped, British magazine Kerrang! gave Homesick a pretty damning 2/5, and part… Read More Record of the Day #25 – A Day To Remember, Homesick
How about this one for a throwback? Back when I didn’t have much of a fashion sense (not that I do now) and so only wore Nike trainers, tracksuit bottoms, and baggy hoodies, Original Pirate Material was my kind of record. I think of my rundown hometown in the early 2000s when kids used to walk around… Read More Record of the Day #24 – The Streets, Original Pirate Material
Here it is, the first record I ever owned. Even before I had a record player, I had Moose Blood’s debut 7″ Moving Home. Even just looking at these pictures gets me nice and nostalgic. This was where it all started, and what follows is four years of money I’ll never get back, but was spent… Read More Record of the Day #23 – Moose Blood, Moving Home
Yesterday I had a lot of writing to do – emails, stories, reviews, lesson plans, the list goes on. It was a day spent in front of the computer (aside from a trip to uni for a swim), hammering the keyboard for hours on end until the to-do list I’d started the day with was… Read More Record of the Day #20 – Sigur Ros, Valtari
I don’t normally pick up soundtracks, mostly because I don’t assign them the same value as my other records. I find it a lot harder to invest the time or develop an emotional connection with a soundtrack, especially when the tracklist exists as fragments or snippets of a movie. I find that with most soundtracks… Read More Record of the Day #18 – Whiplash OST
I have a lot of love for Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin. Maybe it’s because their name makes me think of Jim Carrey films. It’s more the case that their music is really good, and I rate this Springfield indie-pop outfit pretty highly. I was introduced to them back in 2011 upon hearing their… Read More Record of the Day #16 – Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin, The High Country
I’ve worked a few jobs across my twenty-two years of living, and my first and favorite role was a relatively straightforward one. Between the ages of thirteen and seventeen, I delivered papers around the neighborhood in which I lived, putting in a shift six days a week so that I could afford music magazines and CDs… Read More Record of the Day #15 – Trash Talk, Eyes & Nines
There was probably a time when I would’ve had a hard time admitting just how much I like this album. That time is in the past, and Brand New Eyes is a great record, finding Paramore more mature, better songwriters, and frontman Williams an increasingly formidable force. It stands as by far my favorite Paramore record, and I… Read More Record of the Day #14 – Paramore, Brand New Eyes
I woke up this morning and ventured outside to find Norwich decidedly wintry. Granted, it’s normally pretty cold here anyway, but today it felt cold. Maybe that’s what I get for deciding to do a food shop at eight in the morning. I was shivering like it was December, but maybe that’s also what I get for… Read More Record of the Day #13 – Seahaven, Winter Forever
Melbourne’s The Smith Street Band are great, and you’re missing out if you’re presently unaware of them. I suggest you go and look up some of their songs instead of reading this glowing endorsement of their fourth record. You could also read this interview I did with frontman Wil Wagner back in June (if you… Read More Record of the Day #12 – The Smith Street Band, More Scared Of You Than You Are Of Me
