The groaning noise behind me is coming from shelves that have recently started to buckle from the almost daily addition to them of new music books, the majority of them typified by their common bulk, a shared enormity of pages, as if no band’s career can be documented in less pages than might otherwise be devoted to the history of mankind itself, from the beginning, with footnotes, anecdotal asides and a brief biography of everyone who’s ever lived.
Up to our necks in it here, finishing the first Uncut Ultimate Music Guide of 2012. Hopefully a good few of you will have now seen our relaunched new issue with Bowie on the cover: please let me know what you think, either in the Facebook Comments below or via Twitter - www.twitter.com/JohnRMulvey.
One of those mornings walking to work when, in spite of 18,000 or whatever songs on my iPod, I couldn’t figure out what to play. It’s at that point I realised Joni Mitchell’s “Hejira” had become my last resort record; not my favourite, exactly (although I could make a stern case for it, for sure), but the one I can always rely on, whatever my mood or the circumstances.
Highlights this week: Thee Oh Sees; a 30-minute live version of “Spoon” on the repackage of “Tago Mago”; and prolonged, intimate exposure to “Wolfroy Goes To Town”.
Some good things here, and a couple of stinkers. Beyond this, though, I’m onto one of my seasonal Dead jags: their early ‘70s stuff has been perfect for long, bright, early walks these past few mornings.
It occurred to me yesterday that I’m pretty bad at covering singles here, having neglected one of my favourite tracks of the year – Radiohead’s “Supercollider” – as a consequence, and also having passed over a bunch of rather good Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy one-offs (the latest in that sequence, “There Is No God”, arrived at the end of last week).
