#he may as well be experiencing the events of The Divine Comedy I think

[magic-can]

Leon Kennedy saying the dumbest one liner possible while having his 2192nd bad day in a row

[daily-capaldi]

The Big Read – Lewis Capaldi: “I make jokes because I’m comfortable with who I am”

The breakout star of 2019, Lewis Capaldi has the midas touch and the world at his feet – but he still likes talking about his pubes and dreams of meeting a girl who'll break his heart for real. NME Deputy Editor Dan Stubbs meets the cocksure 23-year-old in Dublin for a Buckfast sesh and quickly discovers a legitimately hilarious talent who's far from the “big fucking annoying cunt” he thinks he is.

Lewis Capaldi is miming a range of sporting activities. He bounces an invisible basketball around the stage. He boots an imaginary football into the crowd. And after some minutes of this, he poses with an imaginary dart in his hand. Every time he mimes pulling back to throw it, he changes his mind and walks over to take a sip of Guinness instead – to the delight of the crowd. When he finally throws the thing, they roar with approval, before goading him into downing the rest of his pint. And of course: he does. 

It’s November 21 at the Olympia Theatre, Dublin. So far Capaldi has spent 10 minutes playing three songs and 15 minutes doing what, in the most affectionate terms, can only be described as dicking about. It shouldn’t be this funny to watch, but it really is. And the price of witnessing this spectacle? Depends when you got your tickets. A tout offered to take NME’s off our hands for €500 outside the venue. 

A year ago this may have sounded like madness, a sign that the world was heading to hell in a handcart and we’d be closing out the decade in a post-apocalyptic new reality, eating boot leather and watching jesters for entertainment. But in 2019, Lewis Capaldi has proved, conclusively, that what the world was waiting for was a pasty-faced, pasty-loving, 23-year-old Scot with an act that’s 50 percent heartbroken balladry and 50 percent improv comedy. And it is a worldwide thing – Capaldi is a global hit, a bona fide phenomenon. A superstar whose first encounter with NME is backstage, hurtling along the corridor clutching a handful of items. “Got my passport, my acid reflux tablets and my water – and that’s all I need!” he says, whizzing past. “And now, I’m off for a small pish.”

When listing Capaldi’s many 2019 achievements, they start to lose meaning, like contemplating distances in space, or making sense of the costings in the Labour manifesto. But here are a few: The Brits’ Critics Choice award. A Number One album with ‘Divinely Uninspired To A Hellish Extent’. A Number One single with ‘Someone You Loved’ in much of Europe, the US and the UK, where it spent seven weeks at the top. The hardest touring artist of the year, playing over 250 shows. A scene-stealing Glastonbury appearance.

If you’re to believe the stories in the Scottish tabloid press, Capaldi’s music can practically cure leprosy. He’s even had a beef with Noel Gallagher, once a mark of honour, but now a tussle with adversary so easily shot down it’s a bit like watching the moment someone first beats their dad in an arm wrestle. 

Yesterday brought news that Capaldi been nominated for Best Song at The Grammys, which in early career terms is the equivalent of being up for the Best Actor Oscar for your school production of Macbeth. “I’m up against Billie Eilish, Lady Gaga, Lizzo, H.E.R., Lana Del Rey, Taylor Swift…” he says. So he’s in there representing the men? “Yes, at long last!” he jokes. “At long last, straight white men finally have representation.”

“If I’m being honest, I did think ‘Old Town Road’ would be nominated,” he says, being serious now. “Maybe if I win I’ll Kanye myself. ‘This should have gone to ‘Old Town Road’! (But I am going to keep it)…’”

Capaldi is an expert at shrugging off his achievements. His unfaltering humility is a huge part of his appeal but even he concedes it’s starting to seem a bit forced. “When I read my interviews back, I always think if I wasn’t me I’d think: ‘you’re full of shite’,” he says. “Like, stop saying you can’t believe it. You can believe it! But it is so surreal and it seems like almost quarterly it kicks up a notch. Like, yesterday with the Grammys, yet again all this shit’s getting more and more mental, more beyond belief.”

Capaldi watched the Grammy nominations on his laptop, which was resting on his chest with the screen close to his face – a set-up he describes as his “home cinema” – and he admits he did get properly excited at the news. Mostly, though, he tends to find himself reacting to things how he thinks he should. 

“I’ve got a very bad way of being like, So you’re supposed to feel this way in this moment,” he says. Like when someone passes away? “Exactly, yeah. Like, four months after my grandma passed away, I’m like, ‘Fuck, my grandma’s died,’ and I’m in Somerfield or something. I mean, not in Somerfield, because it’s not been open for fucking years.”

Capaldi even plays down the success of ‘Someone You Loved’, the song that scored him the Grammy nod. In his eyes, it’s just “one of my songs that’s doing a little bit better than the rest”, but it’s already become a popular standard to sit alongside Robbie Williams’s ‘Angels’ or Adele’s ‘Someone Like You’, one of those tracks that will be soundtracking marriages and burials for years to come. Which of those would he prefer it be used for? “Burials,” he says, with no hesitation. “Don’t start falling in love to my fucking music, right? See if I see people kissing at my shows, fucking stop that! These are sad songs, you bastards.”

Like Lewis himself, a large part of the charm of ‘Someone You Loved’ is its absolute universality, which is not to say it’s banal, more that everyone who has lost someone at some point in their lives – which is most of us – can identify with it. For Lewis, it was the aforementioned loss of his grandmother that proved the catalyst for the song, but he made it more open to romantic interpretation because it felt “too morbid” to write explicitly about. 

And it didn’t come easily. Where other songwriters boast about dashing off huge hits in barely the time it takes to play them, Capaldi admits to labouring over his compositions. Writing songs, he says, is “a massive pain in the fucking arse sometimes”.

“Growing up I read interviews with people like Paul Weller, Paul McCartney – all the Pauls – and they’d say the best songs just sort of fall in your lap,” he says. “After six months at the piano writing ‘Someone You Loved’ I’m like, ‘You fucking lying bastards, that’s taken me fucking ages.’”

Many of Capaldi’s songs, which he endearingly describes as ranging from “big piano ballads to bigger piano ballads” draw on his first major relationship which – you may have guessed – is no longer a going concern. But it wasn’t a dramatic event. “Adele wrote her album about a relationship breaking up in a bad way, being jilted I think,” he says. “I wrote mine about a relationship that just ended, just fizzled out. I’d love to be jilted by someone, then I could be as successful as Adele.”

I ask if he worries that – at 23 – he doesn’t have a great deal of life experience to draw on. “I spent my entire life writing this first album,” he says, “but the stuff I’ve experienced in the last year has been much more of a growing experience than living in my mum and dad’s house in fucking West Lothian.”

How about the fact that his next girlfriend, whoever she may be, will be on different terms, it being impossible for her not to know she’s dating Lewis Capaldi the world famous pop star? “Well, I don’t know. It’s not like I’m Justin Bieber,” he says. “Today was the first time I’ve ever got out of the car at a venue and someone screamed. Normally people just shout something at me that I’ve said on Instagram about my pubes. I guess, at worst, my next partner would think I’m one way because they’ll hear the songs and think I seem very nice and level headed, but then find out I’m not.”

What’s the reality?

“Big fucking annoying cunt.”

It’s slightly unfair to question the depth of Capaldi’s life experience, because at the age most of us were familiarising ourselves with yo-yos, pogs or fidget spinners (delete as appropriate), Lewis was embarking on his music career. He began performing at 11, largely in pubs and clubs in the conurbation between Glasgow and Edinburgh where he grew up. The experience of having to hold his own in intimidating spaces at such a young age probably explains much about his easiness around people. 

“I found that at 11 it was, ‘Oh he’s quite cute, he came and stood up here and he’s doing very well.’ When I got to 14, 15 and my voice changed and I lost any remnants of cuteness – which as you can tell have not returned to me – that’s when I started to pick up a bit of the patter. You get to know your way about how to speak to people.” 

Around that time, Capaldi actively worked on changing his vocal style to something more like the wolfy howl we hear today. What was once a ”high and smooth” voice had broken. Inspired by Paolo Nutini and Joe Cocker, Capaldi added some gravel. “I thought it would be a good idea to put a bit of rasp in, to make it sound even more terrible,” he says.

For years we’ve been force-fed sensitive young men-next-door with beanie hats, beards or lumberjack shirts singing to us about their problems. In a quest for authenticity, they’ve presented themselves as troubled, serious souls. Capaldi, meanwhile, has given us the sensitive songs with a side order of toilet humour and the kind of prolific, creative swearing worthy of The Thick Of It‘s Malcolm Tucker, as played by his distant cousin Peter Capaldi. 

Stand-up comedians often make a point of referring to the most funny-looking thing about themselves as an icebreaker with the audience, a way of getting them on side. Capaldi has the same trick – there’s not a single thing about his looks or his music you could say that he hasn’t beaten you to. Try and come up something better than saying he looks like “a melting hippo”, we dare you. 

He has zero pretence – he’s a guy who can literally piss himself on stage and laugh it off. “That only happened once,” he says. “And I’ve always been like that, even back in school. If I was meeting someone for the first time I’d be like, ‘Hello, how are you? I’ve got diarrhoea and I could spew or I could blow at any moment. It puts me at ease, being honest.’”

“People think I make jokes because I’m uncomfortable,” he adds. “Actually, it’s the opposite – I make jokes because I’m comfortable with who I am. I say that I’m a chubby bastard because I am a chubby bastard.”

I put it to him that, possibly, he may be the first body-positive male icon – an important thing given Capaldi is part of a generation of young men who feel under enormous pressure to have an Insta-chiselled body. “I don’t know if I can accept that, because I probably don’t use the correct vernacular,” he says. “It’s probably not good to call yourself a chubby cunt, but it’s never been something that’s bothered me. I’ve been a very slim man, I’ve been a man who’s gone to the gym, but even when I’ve done that someone calls you fat anyway, whether it’s your ma, your da, your best pal.”

Capaldi hasn’t, as of yet, had any sort of pop star makeover. He still looks like a kid who’s moved out of home for the first time and is stacking up the washing to take to mum’s. He does, however, have a personal trainer on tour and has been exercising every day. “It’s more of a mental health thing,” he says. “It gives me energy and keeps me happy. I mean, when I’m actually doing it I fucking hate it so much, but it feels better after.”

I ask how his mental health is bearing up to his new everyday reality, an extraordinary experience for anyone to process. “That’s what I think about taking the piss out of things,” he says. “I take the piss out of doing things on stage and how mental it is because you have to, because it stops you getting caught up in it. Summer last year I started having massive panic attacks. I was supposed to do Austin City Limits but I had to cancel because I was just having panic attack after panic attack, and I thought I had something seriously wrong with me, because I’m a bit of a hypochondriac. And I went and got a fucking MRI scan. But they said I was just anxious, just recalibrating to this new fucking lifestyle. So I said, right, cancel everything for three weeks, and no one gave me any shit for it.”

At showtime, the atmosphere at tonight’s gig offers a glimpse of the bubble Capaldi is living in these days. The Olympia is a grand old theatre and Capaldi could probably have sold it out 50 times over; the reaction from the crowd is something like Lewmania. 

Afterwards, we head backstage again, where I’m ushered into a room containing about a dozen members of Capaldi’s family. I’m plonked on a chair right in the middle, handed a massive wine glass full of Buckfast by his cousin and grilled by his dad, a fishmonger and the very driest of wits, about my intentions for this article. He’s seriously proud of his boy, having supported him since the very beginning, even playing the supportive parent role when Lewis auditioned for Britain’s Got Talent aged 12. 

The afterparty moves to a private room at a nearby pub. Lewis’s hulking great cousin – the one who brought the Buckfast – is getting the shots in. His auntie is looking on, concerned, as two girls chat him up at the same time. “He’s only a wee one,” she mutters. While his friends and family enjoy the party and a certain NME journalist accidentally smashes the first of a series of glasses, feeling the effects of downing that Buckfast in an ill-advised attempt to curry favour with the family, Lewis makes his final rounds then politely excuses himself, looking a bit hangdog about it. He has another big show tomorrow. Sad to leave your own party, you imagine.

At points in the interview, Capaldi had been making a short, forced coughing noise, which he shrugged off as nothing. But the next week, he cancels a number of shows on health grounds, having been warned by his doctor that he risks losing his voice altogether if he doesn’t take action. In the end, he plays just four more gigs of the UK leg of the tour – in London, Edinburgh and twice in Glasgow for the homecoming finale. All further activities are cancelled by management, including a follow-up NME interview, but he is sent to complete the year’s touring commitments in the States before heading home for a well-earned few days celebrating Christmas with his family, which he says typically involves plenty of booze and lots of piss-taking. If you think you’re feeling ready for the break today, spare a thought for Lewis.

Next year looks to be just as busy as this one. He is, right now, just about the most in-demand young man in the world. At some point, he’ll have to start thinking about his next album too. “I don’t know what the fuck it’s going to sound like, I don’t know what the fuck it’s going to be,” he says. “Ballads, havin’-it tunes, I don’t know. I’ve got voice notes, melodies, stuff like that, but that’s just me and an acoustic guitar.” 

Considering what he said about his hypochondria, it’s likely the idea of losing his voice is weighing heavily on Capaldi’s mind. But he’s already decided there’s a backlash coming anyway. “You do get warned, as you’re coming up: ‘By the way, everyone’s gonna turn on you pretty soon’,” he says. “I guess I’m always just kind of waiting for it. I’m very doomsday. Like, if it’s not happened yet, it’s gonna come. And I can’t wait for the downfall!”

He might be surprised. People have plenty of different reactions to Capaldi’s music, but it’s pretty much impossible to find someone who doesn’t think he seems like a bloody great bloke.

And besides – if he ever finds he can’t sing, he’d make a killing at The Fringe as a physical comic. 

The extended edition of ‘Divinely Uninspired To A Hellish Extent’ is out now

[harusha]

I just saw your post about PJ and I'm wondering, do you have any book recs?

On mythology specifically or overall? I’m gonna do both since I’m not sure. Also sorry for the relatively late reply, I had to think about this, and I just got back from dinner.

The Count of Monte Cristo- Fantastic page turner, and a genuinely good “revenge” tale. It’s actually one of the first of that kind (or at the very least, one of the most popular ones). It’s also a book that a lot of people cite as the one that changes their mind on classics as “boring.”

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn- Somewhat of a controversial pick (both because of its subject matter and because it’s often “required high school reading,” ie “boring” to a lot of people.)

Huck Finn is an exceedingly complex character, and his friendship with Jim is really good. Pay attention to what Huck Finn does and says; he’s an unreliable narrator due to how he was brought up, his age, and his illiteracy. There’s also a lot of symbolism and other literary devices at play in his character (ex. notice his fixation with death and how it colors how Twain writes him). It’s very much a book I recommend if you want to study the unreliable narrator as a trope, the  Naïf version of it.

As a side note, it’s very poignant because of how Huck learns to condemn his racism. One of the messages you can get from this book is “If this uneducated poor white boy can learn to overcome his prejudices, so too can someone who has been educated, has money, etc.” It is a brutal condemnation of racism (though you do have to consider the time period, the “lens” of which you have to view through.)

Lolita- Another controversial pick, and one I’ll upright say as a lot of trigger warnings attached (google the summary, and you’ll see what I mean).

Beautiful prose (some of my favorite in literature actually) and a monster of a protagonist. When you read this, remember how Humbert Humbert is framing it. He is telling his tale to a court; he is unreliable and will frame events to make himself appear sympathetic. One notable factor of the author’s skill is how often Humbert gains the readers’ sympathy despite the atrocious subject matter. I personally felt viscerally uncomfortable reading his thoughts, and this is one of the few books that has ever made me feel that way. I didn’t fall into the sympathy trap, but look at any discussion of the book, and you’ll see what I mean.

I also recommend this author’s (Vladimir Nabokov) other works.

Franz Kafka’s literary works- Kafka is one of my favorite authors because he really showcases the isolation (both due to WWI, technological advancement, and the “beginnings” of modern capitalism) of the beginning of the 1900s, and he’s one of modernism’s premier authors. His works often deal with the themes of isolation, judgement, and outcasts. 

In particular, I’m fond of “The Metamorphosis” (cliche pick I know) and “In the Penal Colony.” The former is a short story so quick read if you just wanna try his writing style + it’s very influential (See Part 1 of Tokyo Ghoul for one example).

Also know that Kafka had a very strained relationship with his father and a conflicted relationship with his religion. I recommend reading “Letter to his Father” first to get an understanding of Kafka’s psyche to truly get pass the “nonsensical” nature of his works. It, like the title says, is a letter he wrote to his father, but his mother never delivered it.

If you want even more info on Kafka to understand his works, I recommend Kafka: Judaism, Politics, and Literature which covers a lot more (and in more succinct words) than I can on his works and life. As a fun fact, Vladimir Nabokov also placed him as one of the greatest writers of the 20th century. On Kafka himself, he thought he was a failure of a human being and writer, and now look at him. He’s up there in the Western Canon with Shakespeare.

Paradise Lost + Paradise Regained- If you’re interested in Lucifer (or Samael if you subscribe to that theory), this is a must-read. Beautiful, haunting, and with a very charismatic figure in Lucifer. Alongside the obvious Divine Comedy, this work has influenced the portrayal of Lucifer and Hell quite a bit imo. Namely, the “sympathetic” portrayal you find in works such as Supernatural. It’s also an epic poem so it’s best listened to imo rather than read.

No Longer Human- Osamu Dazai’s work if you’re into that one show. An incredibly depressing book that’s often thought to be semi-autobiographical. It’s a haunting book that I don’t recommend for prose, but for the mood it evokes. I don’t recommend this unless you’re in a decent state of mind.

The Catcher in the Rye- Mildly controversial pick in that you either hate Holden or love him. It’s a book where you have to be in the “right” state of mind to appreciate Holden. For example, the period of moving away from home for college  This work deals with societal isolation and human loneliness and features an unreliable narrator.

It’s just a very particular feeling you have to be experiencing to appreciate Holden. I think anyway.

The Epic of Gilgamesh- Not super fancy or a reinterpretation of whatever. Just the oldest known written work of mankind. I like it a lot, but I like Sumerian myth so YMMV. It’s still missing a few tablets last I checked, but still a good read.

Also the related Enuma Elish, you get the creation myth.

Vampire Chronicles- I recommend the first three or four so books honestly. Afterwards, Anne Rice just goes off the rails. Prose is pretty, and Lestat is a terrible person but fascinating to read about. I am partial to Armand though tbh.

Dracula- I think this is another page-turner. I certainly enjoyed it. I don’t think it’s as scary as it would be in its’ published time period, but it is a classic Gothic horror. The unabridged version may look intimidating, but like Monte Cristo, you’ll sweep through it rather quickly.

“A Rose for Emily”- One of William Faulkner’s short stories. I think it’s a lovely piece and showcases the Southern Gothic (crumbling house, decaying and failing tradition and the southern nobility, etc.) There’s a theme of decay and time passing throughout this work.

As a side note, I actually enjoy Faulkner a lot, but he’s a difficult author imo. It’s not as apparent in this work, but more so in Intruder in the Dust (the first racial thriller) and especially The Sound and The Fury.

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof- A play that deals with repressed homosexuality (maybe, it depends on how you interpret Brick’s dialogue and actions), loss, and denial. I quite like it a lot, and Tennessee Williams actually was gay (was because he’s dead and all). I read it, but tbh I feel like it would be better watched if you can find a performance on Youtube.

The Picture of Dorian Gray- Oscar Wilde’s most well known work imo. I enjoy the prose and the themes of corruption and indulgence present throughout the novel. There’s also a lot of allusions to Faust in it if you’re interested in that.

Peter Darling-a more modern choice but it features a trans and gay protagonist. Part of what I enjoy is how it’s not browbeaten into you that the protagonist is trans. It’s interwoven into the character where it’s an important part of him, but to where it doesn’t overwhelm his entire character. However, this is a novel where I feel the beginning and ending are great, but the middle is so-so. It’s a retelling of Peter Pan.

The Tain- Focuses on Cu Cuchulain and his cycle.

Poetic Edda- A must read if you’re interested in exploring Norse myths outside of Marvel. It’s basically a collection of tales.

Arabian Nights- Scheherazade is one of my favorite female figures from literature. She’s daring, clever, and particularly resourceful. It’s a frame narrative sort of tale so you technically won’t be seeing her as much since she’s telling each story, but it’s a lovely piece and perfect for a bedtime read because of its collection of tales. A lot of them have been referenced in media and related as well.

The Book Thief- Classic YA novel rec. It’s set in WWII and one of the novels that really showcases what YA could be. Basically a classic gem in the rough pile.

John Keats- He’s a poet, but I love his poetry because of how haunting and dark it can get; he often deals with themes of mortality.. Ode to Nightingale is particularly good.

China’s Four Great Classical Novels (Journey to the West, Dreams of the Red Chamber, Water Margin, Romance of the Three Kingdoms)- I decided to clump them here since this is already super long. Each one is incredibly well-known in Asia (and obviously China), and you can find allusions everywhere to these four novels. Each novel is rather long and expensive though (I paid like 40 USD for each set). Journey to the West follows Sun Wukong, unarguably one of the most well-known figures in literature (at least in the East; he’s super influential, but somewhat less so in the West; keyword somewhat). Dreams of the Red Chamber has some very pretty poems, but it’s often thought to be the semi autobiographical work of the author (it deals with the rise and fall of his family and the dynasty).

Daiyu’s flower poem is one of the most memorable for example.

The blossoms fade, the blossoms fly,  the blossoms fill the sky. Their crimson fades, their scent dies out,  and who is there to pity?  Drifting threads gently twist together  and float past the springtime lodge;  Falling willow floss lightly sticks  and strikes the lady’s window drapes.

Water Margin is a bit “bawdier” than the other ones imo, but it’s a good tale and has many notable figures and scenes. On Three Kingdoms, it’s the one I’d recommend to start with if you’re interested in military intrigue and battles.

I also have a Goodreads where I organize everything by shelf if you prefer to look at that. I do need to update it though tbh.

https://www.goodreads.com/Mahariel

[intoabrownstudy]

Sonic Review of 2017 (so far):

I listen to a lot of stuff. I devour audio content. Be it new music, podcasts, radio, bird song. Quality is the only prerequisite. I have been meaning to start commenting on what I listen to and so David requesting that I submit something in print has been the stimulus to sit down and collate. The idea for future weeks is to present audio highlights on a week-to-week basis, but this submission is a summation of the best bits of sound so far this year. I’ll be covering the podcasts and radio programmes, the albums and individual tracks, and the live shows that I have made an impression on me so far this year.

So here goes. The descriptions will be fairly brief this time around, as I’m going to cover six whole months, but here’s what I have enjoyed sonically so far in 2017, starting with my favourite albums so far this year:

There are 11 here; these are albums that have made an impression on me and that I have continued to listen to. I’ll say a few words about what to expect from each them, as well as a little bit about why I have chosen them:

San Fermin; Belong

My favourite. From soup to nuts, a consistently wondrous collection of tunes that hop from genre to genre effortlessly. Beautifully arranged and performed.

Highlight: the emotional-charged title track, Belong.

Fleet Foxes; Crack Up

New music from Fleet Foxes that’s not a minute too soon. Essentially, it is more of the same acoustic sound and the divine close harmonies we have come to expect from the Seattleites. There is definitely more chances taken in the way the album is produced, so there is enough to distinguish this album from their others. Gorgeous.

Highlight: Third Of May/Odaigahara

Cigarettes After Sex; Cigarettes After Sex

This album travels at it’s own glacial pace. Majestic, with definite nods to New Order.

Highlight: Apocalypse. No K. No Apocalypse. No K.

Roger Waters; Is This The Life We Want

Not being the most ardent fan of Pink Floyd, I hadn’t been in too much of a hurry to listen to this album. But I am so glad to have got round to it. Roge ain’t happy with how things are just now, and he’s going to tell you about it. I was just as riled by the end. It’s also an old-fashioned album in the sense that this tells a story with each tune morphing into the next.

Highlight: Picture That

Kendrick Lamar; DAMN.

Goodness. Where do you start? After I had seen Old Country For Old Men, my immediate impression was that I knew it was brilliant, but I wasn’t sure how I’ll be able to prepare myself to see it again. I had exactly that same thought after listening to this utterly overwhelming piece of documentary. Mesmerising. 

Highlight: DUCKWORTH.

Public Service Broadcasting; Every Valley

Continuing with their M.O. of sampling old public information announcements; this time focusing on the fate of the Welsh Coal mining industry. This may not sound too exciting or indeed, to some, even interesting, but somehow, again they are able to tug at the heart strings with tape recordings, empty spaces and fine musicianship.

Highlight: Progress

Father John Misty; Pure Comedy

Lyrics so dry, I was on a drip by the end.

Highlight: Total Entertainment Forever

Com Truise; Iteration

The slightly 80s-tinged instrumental EDM is making a bit of a comeback following the Stranger Things soundtrack. this is some of the best electronica so far this year.

Highlight: Memory

London Grammar; Truth Is A Beautiful Thing

The vocals are the main event here, ably supported by the stark production surrounding them.

Highlight: Routing For You

Run The Jewels; Run The Jewels 3

Certainly gets the heart pumping. Lyrically charged ebullience.

Highlight: Legend Has It

The xx; I See You

Somewhere between the minimalist production of The xx’s previous releases and the more poppy output of Jamie xx, this album offers very judiciously-deployed samples of Hall & Oates and stonking vocal performances.

Highlight: On Hold

-o-

One of my favourite things to do is to collate new tracks that I hear from my various sources into quarterly playlists on Spotify. I am phutch1977 on Spotify so feel free to follow. Below is a link to what individual tracks I have enjoyed between January 1 and June 30 this year. I’m going to pick out a couple of my favourites:

https://open.spotify.com/user/phutch1977/playlist/4HDLGq11dknFaTLwBIJQ2v

UNKLE (feat. Mark Lanegan and ESKA); Looking For The Rain

Thumping beats with swooping orchestrations and one of my favourite baritones. Ticks a great many boxes for me does that.

Young Fathers; Only God Knows

Off the new T2: Trainspotting soundtrack, which incidentally is a thoroughly captivating watch, it highlights the changing of the guard of what is current within the British music scene. See also, Slow Slippy, Underworld’s remix of their classic, Born Slippy, that became so synonymous with the first movie.  

The War On Drugs; Holding On

An exciting amuse-bouche for what is to come from their new album released later this year. Sounds like more of the same, which gets two thumbs up from this reviewer.

-o-

These are the podcast that I have gone back to consistently and those that I look forward have a new episode showing up each week: 

Revisionist History; http://revisionisthistory.com/

This is the second series of Malcolm Gladwell’s attempt to revisit and/or reinterpret an event, a person or an idea from the past that he feels has been overlooked or misunderstood. At time of writing, there are 4 episodes of the new series available, but so far he has covered topics as diverse as terrorism, civil rights and rich folks addiction to golf. I like how he picks out something relatable to the present day. The first series is also worth digging out.

S-Town; https://stownpodcast.org/

This is produced by the same team that created the Serial podcast. I didn’t actually fully embrace Serial, however this series did I great job of hooking me in. The focus of S-Town shifts continuously throughout the series, and just when you think it has run out of puff, there is a new revelation that makes you do whatever the equivalent of page-turning is with a podcast. All of the episodes were released at the same time, so you could genuinely binge-listen to this story. Brilliantly put together and extremely poignant right now, S-Town is fantastic.

30 for 30 Podcasts; https://30for30podcasts.com/

Short and sweet. If you’ve seen the supreme sports documentaries on ESPN, well now there are some for your ears.

The Political Party with Matt Forde; https://soundcloud.com/thepoliticalparty

I have a bit of a crush on Matt Forde. In this podcast, he does a few minutes of super-topical (and super-funny, which doesn’t always happen concurrently) stand-up and then interviews a prominent political figure from either side of the aisle. Matt Forde, a stand-up by trade, is able to really humanise his guests with his very disarming style and focus on a side of their personality that doesn’t usually shine through in more formal interviews. He even managed to show that even William Hague is a right craic. Really good fun.

Special mentions:

The Adam Buxton Podcast; https://soundcloud.com/adam-buxton (especially The Steve Coogan episode)

Song Exploder; http://songexploder.net/ (especially the Fleet Foxes episode)

This next section are still podcasts but are based on actual live radio shows:

James O’Brien’s Mystery Hour; http://lbc.audioagain.com/presenters/6-james-obrien/368-the-mystery-hour-free

This is the pure sharing of knowledge. It’s the audio equivalent of when you used to have to write into a newspaper, before Google, if you had a question you wanted the answer to, and wait two weeks for it to be answered. This show rewards and celebrates acquired knowledge. The minutiae of life attempted to be explained.

Russell Brand on Radio X Podcast; http://www.radiox.co.uk/radio/podcasts/download-the-russell-brand-on-radio-x-podcast/

Russell Brand reminds me so much of Peter Cook. Previous forays into cinema might show that it may not his medium, but radio may very well be. He is just allowed to explode for a couple of hours on a Sunday, riffing on everything and nothing. Sublime stuff.

Johnny Vaughn on Radio X Podcast; http://www.radiox.co.uk/radio/johnny-vaughan/highlights/download-johnny-vaughan-on-radio-x-podcast/

Again, Johnny Vaughn is just so good on the wireless. Lightning quick. And there is a more sport-focussed show at the weekends called The Kickabout which is also hilarious.

Loose Ends; http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qjym/episodes/downloads

So happy that the BBC made the decision to start podcasting this live show with its wide ranging guests from film, stage, literature, comedy and all parts in between with excellent musical guests who perform live in the studio. Everyone is encouraged to contribute and interject throughout the show, even if the focus isn’t particularly on them at that time. Clive Anderson is the perfect host for this kind of format.

Friday Night Comedy from BBC Radio 4 Podcast; http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02pc9pj/episodes/downloads (especially the Dead Ringers episodes; not so much The Now Show)

A lot of the time, the comedy writing doesn’t match the performances when it comes to impressionist shows. For Dead Ringers, they are definitely on a par with each other. Highlights are Jeremy Vine and Andrew Neill’s exasperated utterances of “Diane Abbott..?!?!”

All Songs Considered Podcast; http://www.npr.org/podcasts/510019/all-songs-considered

Bob Boilen has my job. That is all. Great new music in a handy hour-long package.

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And finally… I have been lucky enough to get to see a good number of live shows so far this year. Here are a few of my highlights:

Kate Tempest @ The Casbah

She performed her second album, Let Them Eat Chaos, in its entirety, from track #1 to track #last. Performed from the heart, you could hear a PBR tallboy drop such was the respect for performance. Amazing. Amazing.

San Fermin @ The Casbah

The sound created by this very talented bunch will live long in the memory. They simply crushed it. And there is a horn section. Even the sax solo was well done. Highly recommended.

Timber Timbre @ Soda Bar

Obviously there to push their new album, Sincerely Future Pollution, but I would have liked for them to have played more off their eponymous first album. Lively, intimate show.

Blossoms @ The Casbah

Stockport’s own. I felt very old watching these fresh-faced whippersnappers. Great set and went down a storm.

I’m excited that I have more shows lined up for the rest of the year. Public Service Broadcasting play the Soda Bar. I’ve managed to secure a ticket to see Fleet Foxes at The Observatory in September, as well as an outdoor show with Future Islands & Explosions In The Sky on the same bill. And the great Elbow are in SoCal in November, so I’m going to see them in Santa Ana. All very thrilling.

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Hope you find something interesting out of all this. Going forward, this will be hopefully a little more concise, listing a few highlights of what I’ve enjoyed listening to week by week. I’d also be very interested in your own suggestions, be that podcasts, radio shows, albums, tracks or live performances.

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