Top Ten Quarantine Listens

seeing as nobody asked me, i thought i'd share my top ten listens over this past year or so of the indoors. it's not exactly the top ten in any definitive sense - certainly not a favorite ten albums ever or anything like that - but albums that i am aware of having taken more real-estate time on the air within my home's walls this year - some of the records that just keep spinning back around:

- lucie thorne - everything sings tonight, the album to which i listen as i write.

- sonic youth - goo, a gift during lockdown from friend chris (see thumb in fig. 1), and has been on regular duty since!

- frederic chopin - piano concertos, alot of classical music, actually: serge prokofiev, clara schumann, johann sebastian bach and all the cool kidz!

- villagers - darling arithmic, with that beautiful dave hedderman artwork... many friends albums have been played - it reminds me of seeing them, jamming with them, meeting them on tour... they are a talented bunch: the new sailing stones record, polymnia is great, for example, or lisa o'neill's same cloth or not, ivan tirtiaux and river into lake have been making great vibes...

- katell keineg - at the mermaid parade, my katell keineg addiction needs a new album!

- talk talk - spirit of eden, i mean, y'know - i could have chosen any of their last three albums, mark hollis' solo album or the beth gibbons and rustin man album to put here - usually one goes on the others follow!

- nick drake - five leaves left, most people appear to have been going upwards with their music, i've mostly been sinking back into a cushion of warm chill!!

though there have been bouts of:

- roni size - new form, because yes!

- fleetwood mac - rumours, or i could have said prince's purple rain or cyndi lauper's she's so unusual, as long as i know all the words and can sing it loudly!

- pearl jam - vs, same goes for this or neutral milk hotel... sing... loud... !

not to leave without mentioning the music that doesn't spin yet; the music that occupies the majority of my mind: landers' kaos cassettes; rory grub's, nina hynes', sam vance law's and more recently wallis bird's new records, which are among the music that i have been playing on and mixing bits and pieces for - keeping me sane during the lockdown... then of course, my own bands: lord altmont, which is currently more about the words and less about the music, and floatinghome, which often seems difficult to find time for, yet remains my favorite project - new album nearly ready for 2022! the happy gang even pops back up from time to time, and i'm waiting with bated breath for some new kevin ryan and herons! stuff to get my teeth stuck into :)

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upon rereading, i realise that i didn't include any jazz or blues records, how odd - i suppose there has been alot of it but not necessarily an album more that the others, so we'll leave that section of my collection silenced! or if we were to make it a baker's teen, i may include:

- art tatum - xtra!

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upon rerereading, there appear also to be no live albums there, which makes absolutely no sense - they are mostly my favorite sort of album... sure let's count a nice round dozen and throw in:

- jacques brel - olympia concert album, take your pick '61, '64 or '66 - all are wonderful. yesterday i listened to 1961!

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the photo is taken by christopher colm morrin while i was flicking through my records, through the viewfinder of an old kodak duaflex camera offered to me by andy early, featuring christopher colm morrin's thumb!