Today I got an email from the Rough Trade shop for the top albums of the year (so far, I suppose). So I started listening to try and understand. Although I couldn’t see it with Nation of Language or Caroline Polachek – I did see it with Wednesday whose album Rat Saw God I liked, and also Lankum’s album False Lankum, quite different records. I already had Sufjan Stevens‘ Javelin, boygenius‘ The Record, Baxter Dury‘s I Thought I Was Better Than You, Daughter‘s Stereo Mind Game, Durand Jones‘ Wait Til I Get Over, Everything but the Girl‘s Fuse, Julie Byrne‘s The Greater Wings, Slowdive‘s Everything is Alive, Queens of the Stone Age‘s In Times New Roman…, Fever Ray‘s Radical Romantics, Emma Anderson‘s Pearlies, PJ Harvey‘s I Inside the Old Year Dying, Dream Wife‘s Social Lubrication, The Clientele‘s I Am Not There Anymore, Ben Folds‘ What Matters Most, and Lucinda Williams‘ Stories From a Rock n Roll Heart. So that’s 16 of 100 I have, but it didn’t stop me from buying another copy of King Crimson‘s In the Court of the Crimson King today from 1969, yes, I went back there and bought it new.

The love-hate relationship with the internet and digital is positive when you can listen to Wednesday and Lankum and discover them. Remember the days of listening booths? You have to be pretty old to remember that, pretty and old. One thing though, I always had a relationship with my local record shop and used to rely heavily on what the person behind the counter made me aware of. I still listen to Jorge, José and Rui at Tubitek, and rely on them to make me aware of something great that I might have missed.

After picking up the records from Chico today, Sarah and I went and had that amazing deal in the supermarket café – double decaf espresso in a large cup, pastel de nata x2 – €2.78. Welcome to Portugal. In the supermarket, we ran into Tirion and Jamie, who works at Kellys Records in Cardiff. He commented on my Electric Warrior T-shirt and he asked me about record stores, so he friended me on FB and I sent him some tips.

Olivia had been to yoga, Olivia and Sarah had painted the floor today in one of the rooms, but tonight it was rehearsal. We went through the whole set, torturing the fingers and challenging the memory. I’d had an earlyish morning, a sesh with Bob in Boston, but I was ready to do it. It was a short break and into NJ Brian’s final tweaks on the Valley of Salt album as well as Brooklyn John P’s mastering. Tomorrow we get into a project that doesn’t exist – and the mixes.

Music today has been Wednesday – Rat Saw God (2023). Noisy at times, screaming too but at other times it has that ingredient that makes the difference, just listen, but don’t stop listening halfway through the second track, listen on, it’s not all screaming.

Music Of The Daze