Quite a good one, this week: I think I can be more or less positive about everything here, actually, with the vague exception of the Yellow Swans live comp, which is a bit too industrial for me (John Cale, as it happens, described them thus: “The Swans’ sound grates on your nerves - like you’ve put your head in a jet engine.” Thumbs up!).
A startling amount of responsible journalism behind this week’s playlist: we’ve had a bit of a session getting up to speed on a bunch of mainstream 2010 tips; discovered Lil Wayne should’ve probably stuck to hip hop; tried again to stay awake through the Midlake album and generally done our jobs more or less properly, I suppose.
Quickly this morning, a bunch of new things we’ve been playing, as the February and March promos start arriving. A lot of comps, it seems, and a couple I don’t like at all.
“Uncut never ceases to find ways to analyze music by dumping on anything American,” notes a correspondent on the still-entertaining Bob Dylan Christmas thread, which isn’t one of the more typical criticisms we hear levelled at the magazine. He also accuses me of using the word “Americana” “as if it’s a swear”. Wow.
Another week, and I really can’t believe that we played the Robbie Williams all the way through. Not the only sub-par album in this list, to be honest; you might notice slightly desperate recourse to Chris Bell at one point.
A bit late posting this today, as deadlines have meant that my ongoing fascination with the Big Star box set finally had to be transformed into a review for the next issue of Uncut.
