A new project!

Hi folks,

(Trumpet flourish)

Here's a brief introduction to my latest project of musical appreciation which will be gracing this blog over the next few weeks. Over the last few months I've been writing about the new records that have piqued my interest but jabbering about them almost inevitably leads me back to older shit that I bring back out by way of comparison, which in turn often leads me to revisit said older shit for a spot of modern day appreciation.

All this has given me the urge to write about old stuff but in the absence of any discernible reason for doing so I've simply kept my writing archived.....until now. My interest in musical history (as well as my propensity towards list-based dorkery) prompted me to organise my writing on older albums in some easily accessible style and so I've done this by picking ten records per year for every year of my life, starting from my birth and going right through to the present day. A daunting task you might think but it's actually been a good way of taking stock of the tunes that have soundtracked my existence whilst also revisiting past eras and discovering some stuff I never heard first time round. I've packaged my writing up for each year in question and will begin posting soon, starting with my first year on this planet back in 1979 and moving on from there. I'm probably going to post each year every couple of weeks so keep your eye on the blog for new additions - rest assured normal service will be maintained throughout and you'll still get to read my missives on the new musical thrills and spills surfacing in the here and now.

I've stuck to a couple of guiding principles as I was writing these pieces to keep things tied into a central theme, namely :

1. No recycling the same bands year after year - although some bands feature in more than one year's listing, every effort has been made to keep their repeated presence to a relative minimum in order to keep it varied. I'd have loved to include every Slayer album in here but, like so many things in life, a man has to mix it up a little to keep things interesting.

2. No senseless deference to established 'classic album' staples - if you've read these sort of listings before then you're probably accustomed to flicking through pages and pages of relentless hagiography on the likes of Dylan, Radiohead, Joy Division and other stock favourites of the lazy white boy rock press. Those acts may still feature but I've made an effort to vary things up by including plenty of pop, heavy metal, electronic music and off-kilter choices that may surprise a few but will hopefully keep things interesting instead of just rehashing the whole Pitchfork/Q/Rolling Stone classic album crap that we've all seen a zillion times already.

3. In addition to the ten albums per year I've picked a fashion image to illustrate what was in vogue at the time and also included a 'Tune of the Year', typically a dance tune that would otherwise be overlooked in the album listings and manages to capture the spirit of the times more succinctly than any of the long players I've listed. 

That's pretty much it. This has been a bit of a labour of love but it's been worth it and I've discovered loads of killer stuff whilst researching these articles so I hope it provides you all with a few new treats and gives you a similar urge to delve into the archives of musical history. 1979 will be up shortly and the rest will follow as soon as I've finished them. Hope you enjoy the journey as much as I did :)

John 28/07/12


ps - I've changed the blog layout a bit too. Hope you all like it.