Top Forty by Forty

Los Campesinos! -  Hold On Now, Youngster... Hold On Now, Youngster... was included in a ballot by my friend Steph . These are her words on the record, followed by mine. Steph: The ultimate in quotable quotes and the philosophy of life for the MySpace generation / bookish graduates – I just love how happy this album is, and the noisy, insanely catchy riffs. I also love the very specific lyrics, that you could imagine in the past using as a quote for a status on social media, and the use of xylophones and scratchy strings on top of the music. While I'd loved the singles before, I got more into the album once I started working in a library, as I particularly enjoyed the literary poetic nature of the lyrics, and lines such as "and then we'll maybe drown in Dewey Decimal", and "the second-hand book shop employees / Reading the inscriptions that were never meant for their eyes", (both from Don't Tell Me To Do The Math(s)). Elsewhere, the range of references...

Turnover - Peripheral Vision (2015) Peripheral Vision  was included in a ballot by my sister Rebekah ! These are her words on the record, followed by mine. She's gone for the deep dive approach. “You call my name, and it pulls me in” – Hello Euphoria, track 4, Peripheral Vision. Rebekah: The exact details of how I first discovered Peripheral Vision, the sincerely seminal album of the vaguely-genred Virginian band Turnover, are something of a blur. The haziness of the memory matches the hazy sound of this 40 minute reverie – marked by a liberal use of reverb, which helps leave its sound and themes lingering in your ears. In track 4, Hello Euphoria, the echo of the line “I feel so far away” gives a sense that the minds of the people constructing it were not entirely clear. I was in a similar mind when I first heard it (I think) – late night browsing through the suggested songs presented by the algorithms of the 21st century musical industry, looking for a song to help me sleep...

Mclusky - Mclusky Do Dallas (2002) Do Dallas [let's not argue about whether Mclusky is in the title] was included in a ballot by  Alan Stephen . These are his words on the record, followed by mine. Alan : The reformed mclusky are a joy beyond compare. Their sets are heavy on this album, which isn’t surprising because it’s got their best songs on it and nothing better than the bobbysoxer bop of ‘whoyouknow’ which I always assumed I would play at my wedding until I didn’t. Shamefully, I ignored mclusky while they were going the first time solely because of their name and therefore I assumed sounded like Hefner. (Who I still have never heard for the same prejudiced reason and might turn out to be brilliant after all.) Then I saw them at an ATP where the bassist gaffer taped his glasses to his head to stop them falling off, which would have been a masterplan had he not just wound the tape round and round and taped over the lenses in doing so. They played the Scala a few mont...

The Jesus Lizard -  Goat  (1991) Goat  was included in a ballot by  Alan Stephen . These are his words on the record, followed by mine. Alan: The best recorded performances by the best frontman of our generation. At the brink of a spiral of excess down to college radio fame after a split single with Nirvana, and a fortuitous right-place-right-time major label deal and subsidised touring that ultimately saw four alcoholics stagger off in their own directions (before regrouping as they approached 50 to jump around like teenagers again), the band are on amazing form here and show light and shade in the bastard blues squall they conjured like probably at no other time. As a frontman, Yow remains incredible to this day even when (as last time I saw him) being very, very restrained as the frontman of the 40th Anniversary Flipper. As a counterpoint, I once saw him join the Melvins wearing only a toga and dive into the audience after the first line of the song to eventually...

Chrome -  Half Machine Lip Moves  (1979) Half Machine Lip Moves  was included in a ballot by Alan Stephen . These are his words on the record, followed by mine. Alan: A landmark. I could have picked either this or Alien Soundtracks - not least because there was a twofer cd release which would probably have been higher if eligible. Famous fans like Prong and Celtic Frost might prefer later albums (like 3rd From The Sun in particular) but the fried psych and tortured industrial squalls and percussion on these two set them alone at the time and since. Topped off with an entirely singular production style that obscures more than it reveals, this was such a huge record in Edinburgh that more than one band covered You’ve Been Duplicated (including the immense Varikose Veins) and it was an absolute floor-filler at certain clubs. David Yow thinks they’re his favourite band. You should listen to him.  Joe:  Where have Chrome been all my life? Well, one of their songs t...

It's now August so there's just a month to go before the Top 40 by 40 is published. Ballots are starting to trickle in from friends. Thanks to everyone who has contributed so far. It's already looking interesting. I don't want to give too much away but, just as an example, the Half Man Half Biscuit vote is currently split three ways. Must be a strong back catalogue (I've no idea). And thanks to everyone else who has indicated they'll submit their Top 40 by the end of August. We're into double figures! But of course I'd love for more of you to take part. I'd especially like more women to sign up. Don't make me take this to Facebook. I know some people think they will struggle to come up with 40 records they can call their favourite 40. That's fine! A top 10 or 25 or whatever will do. No more than 40 though, I'll just disregard anything from 41 onwards. I wasn't really sure how this project was going to go when I came up with it during ...