Dan Michaelson is not a particularly prolific Tweeter, but between musing about IKEA hotdogs and the time he DJed in Topshop (playing John Tavener, Laurie Anderson and ESG back-to-back) he found time to re-Tweet a backhanded compliment from a thoughtful soul called @recordshopbloke. “I do like Dan Michaelson's records,” said the bloke, “but sometimes it’s a bit like a mate on the phone going on endlessly about his tragic life.”
Yesterday, after I posted this list of my favourite albums of 2014, I received a few messages complaining that there were too many Youtube and Soundcloud clips embedded here, preventing the page from loading properly. Forgive the repetition, then, but I thought it worth reposting the list as three separate blogs; hopefully it’ll work better this time…
Always a bit of a gamble doing this, to be honest but, since it’s June, I’ve tried to put together a list of my favourite albums of 2014 thus far. Many caveats forthcoming, not least that my slightly ad hoc way of trying to remember what I’ve liked means I’ve almost certainly missed a few things.
One of the books I’ve enjoyed most in the past couple of years is “Pulphead”, a collection of John Jeremiah Sullivan’s longform, creative and not always entirely reliable journalism.
Lots to get stuck into this week, though I think it’s worth drawing special attention to the superb William Tyler EP and, in the week the Pixies announce a newish album, a pointedly excellent Kim Deal track with Morgan Nagler.
After a very long wait, the second album on Matthew E White’s Spacebomb label has turned up… and it may not be quite what most of you would have envisaged…
Arctic Monkeys ride tractors in the black and white video for new single 'One For The Road'
The song, which features on the band's latest album 'AM', is accompanied by a new video shot by Focus Creeps, who also made the videos for 'R U Mine?' and 'Why'd You Only Call Me When You're High?'
The video starts with guitarist Jamie Cook riding a tractor slowly through an empty field before joining his bandmates for a performance of the song, surrounded by models and fireworks exploding in the background.
Yesterday afternoon, I did something that I should probably, as a curious and more or less responsible music journalist, have done weeks ago: I listened to the debut album by Haim, “Days Are Gone”.
