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#159 – The Best of & The Rest of British Psychedelia – Various Artists

by stegzy

The Best of & The Rest of British Psychedelia – Various Artists

It was obvious from the out set that the compiler of this compilation thinks that psychedelia has to either sound like Village Green Preservation Society by the Kinks or like it should be played in some new town like Reading or Milton Keynes with lots of young people expressing themselves through dress and dance.

It seems also that to pass as psychedelia, both the lyrics and the band name has to be slightly odd and quirky. This compilation has the following:

1 Morning Morgan Town – Jude
2 Keep Hold of What You’ve Got – The Shots
3 Shirley – Cliff Wade
4 House of Many Windows – Motherlight (sounds a bit like Genesis meets Marillion)
5 Peru – Chimera (Should be a theme tune for some Youthwave devil worship film from 1970, possibly starring Beryl Reid)
6 Saga of a Wrinkled Man – Fortes Mentum
7 Baby You’ve Gotta Stay – Angel Pavement
(Track 8 is Missing)
9 Laura’s Garden – Orange Bicycle
10 It Never Stays The Same – Bob Grimm
11 All Of My Life – Pussy
12 Green Mello Hill – Magic Worms
13 Leilla – Chiitra Neogy
14 Look At Me I’ve Fallen Into A Teapot – Cliff Wade

Never heard of any of them. Nice as non-distracting background music…

Various Artists

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#158 – Best of – Radiohead

by stegzy

Best of – Radiohead

I came late to the Radiohead party. I think my invite was lost in the post. The buffet had been demolished, the DJ was playing the slowies and desperate singletons sat sobbing at their ability to scare off any potential mate. Probably a good thing really.

There are a number of Radiohead tracks that I like, but I think by the time I had got into Radiohead, the days of listening to albums in their entirety had long passed.

So, in an effort to discover more hidden gems, I obtained a copy of their Best of . All but one of my favourite Radiohead songs appear in this compilation. That one would be released on a much later album. But this album/compilation is a good showcase. Not my cup of tea mind. But enough to convince me that I need not worry about obtaining their back catalogue.

Radiohead

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#157 – Best of – The Offspring

by stegzy

Best of – The Offspring

Some time in the late nineties and early noughties, I must have liked this band for some reason. This is clear from how I appear to have quite a lot of their albums. I’m buggered if I can remember what the song I liked was though.

Or why.

The Best of has a slightly familiar song but I’m not sure if that is the one I like. It is possible that this is a band that the ex-wife liked or it is possible that someone asked me to get it for them. Either way, I don’t like it.

Offspring (The)

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#156 – Best of – Nouvelle Vague

by stegzy

Best of – Nouvelle Vague

Sexy twee core covers of popular songs by those Frenchies.

Nice for those moments when seductive versions of popular songs are an absolute must.

I don’t know what it is about Nouvelle Vague. They always make me feel sleezy and unclean. Like I should be walking around semi dressed listening to them in my old town French apartment overlooking a market square, smoking Gitanes and looking moody while a sultry dark haired French type wearing one of my shirts and nothing much else drapes herself seductively over the furniture.

best of Nouvelle Vague

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#155 – The Best of – The Beach Boys

by stegzy

The Best of the Beach Boys The Best of – The Beach Boys

Don’t know how this got into my collection.

I have a snooty contempt for the Beach Boys. Sure they’re a product of their time. That hazy clean living pseudo-America that only seemed to have happened in films or imaginations. But to me they have sinister overtones. That might just be me though.

There’s just something a little creepy about some of their songs. It makes me think of some tripped up psycho-hippie carving up bodies.I’m sure psychologists in the future will debate that statement for many years.

Beach Boys

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#154 – The Best Indie Anthems – Various Artists

by stegzy

The Best Indie Anthems – Various Artists

This compilation starts off well. Opening with Radiohead’s High and Dry, Catatonia’s Road Rage and the odd gem from atypical nineties/noughties inde bands.

But then about the twentieth track, it appears that the compiler has given up and opted just to put twenty songs that happened to be on the radio as he or she was compiling the album. The theme to the box office flop Lost in Space for example. Hardly indie.

It’s like when you go into a pub and ask for a pint of real ale. The landlord or barman fetches you a pint of something like Greene King or something from Shepherds Neame or Adnams. Yes, way back in the dusty mists of time when our pubs had mainstream beers like Tetley, John Smiths and Trophy, such treats might have seemed like real ale. But in today’s environment this is not the case. Greene King et al are now just as bad as the Tetleys and Scottish Newcastles of the day.

Indeed such logic can be applied to the Indie genre of music. The majority of artists that try to pass themselves off as Indie are as mainstream as Sony and Virgin Records and have no true claim to the indie crown. Blur for example. They’re so mainstream they’re akin to the M1.

Shame really. I had high hopes for this album.

best of Divine Comedy Various Artists

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#153 – The Best Damn Thing – Avril Lavigne

by stegzy

The Best Damn Thing – Avril Lavigne

Those that know me know about my problems with Ms Lavigne.

It has been widely documented (elsewhere) that Ms Lavigne has, for some time now, been communicating with me via the medium of song. From Skater Boi (about me and her) to Complicated (also about her and me), Avril Lavigne has seeded her songs with coded messages about her infatuation with me.

Indeed, it was only when a friend told me about her song Girlfriend that I became even more convinced. This is clearly a coded message aimed at me from Ms Lavigne and the only reason why I have any of her albums in my collection. Especially this one. The Best Damn Thing is a direct communication from her aimed at changes in my own life and her unwillingness to accept her attention is unrequited.

My legal team have been working on the issue for sometime. I am awaiting a restraining order.

Avril Lavigne

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#152 – The Best Anthems in the World…Ever – Various Artists

by stegzy

The Best Anthems in the World...Ever - Various Artists The Best Anthems in the World…Ever – Various Artists

This compilation does for Indie and the noughties what The Best Air Guitar Album in the World did for rock. Here we find songs and bands from the late nineties and early noughties which became the soundtrack to New Labour Britain.

Some of the artists, Chumbawumba for example, are one hit wonders while others such as Blur and Reef stride the boundaries of indie and rock like Duran Duran and Simple Minds connect us to the eighties.

However, after the first 10 songs or so we enter into forgettable tracks. It’s almost as if the compiler has struggled to fill the 41 track compilation with similarly rememberable songsmiths. Still, it’s good car music, for those long journeys where arguments over what should be played are rife.

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best of Pulp Various Artists

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#151 – The Best Air Guitar Album in the World…Ever – Various Artists

by stegzy

The Best Air Guitar Album in the World…Ever – Various Artists

This is every Dad’s favourite compilation from the nineties and noughties. Glove boxes throughout the UK had a copy of this album in it and jukeboxes in dodgy pubs were required by law to have this album also.

As much a part of pre-MP3 music culture as Tubular Bells, Jeff Wayne’s War of the Worlds and other coffee table albums, The Best Air Guitar Album in the World…Ever is one of those compilations that seem to be in every collection. It’s not hard to see why. All the traditionally popular bands are here; Queen, Def Leppard, Skynyrd and Blur but there are also bands and songs that are missing – Stiltskin’s Inside and Mountain’s Nantucket Sleighride for example, surely two of the most prolific air guitar riffs ever? Also there are some bands whose inclusion seems to only be to hook the younger generation in, Blur and Robbie Williams for example.

Still as compilations go, this is one of the better more agreeable ones.

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Various Artists

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#150 – Berlin – Barclay James Harvest

by stegzy

Berlin - Barclay James Harvest Berlin – Barclay James Harvest

This album is a live concert that I downloaded purely as an attempt to see what other Barclay James Harvest songs sounded like.

Having had Mockingbird regularly played to me by the crusty old DJs of BBC Radio 2 and also finding it featured on disk 2 of The Best Prog Rock Album in the World… Ever! I thought it was an omen.

Wrong.

Barclay James Harvest, like so many other bands that feature in this music project, only really had one hit and one song that was any good. For Barclay James Harvest, that song is Mockingbird.

Barclay James Harvest

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#149 – Ben Folds Five – Ben Folds Five

by stegzy

Ben Folds Five – Ben Folds Five

I was never part of the whole Ben Folds hipster movement. There was a time when all those people who had a modicum of coolness seemed to be enamoured with Mr Folds and his musical buddies. I could never really see why.

Later in life, Mr Folds worked with the distinguished Mr Shatner and I forgave his impertinence but still to this day, I have no idea what the fuss about Mr Folds is. Dateable piano rock from the mid nineties.

Ben Folds Five

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#148 – Beltaine – Jennifer van der Harten

by stegzy

Beltaine – Jennifer van der Harten

Jennifer van der Harten is the cute hurdy gurdy playing harpist from Omnia.

Here she plucks and sings her way through several traditional folk tunes on the harp with the same grace and haunting of Ordo Equitum Solis but without the dark creepiness.

This appears to be van der Harten’s first foray into solo work and it makes an excellent aural accompaniment to any day filled with peace, joss sticks and dyed voile curtains.

Jennifer van der Harten Omnia

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#147 – Bells of Doom – Therion

by stegzy

Bells of Doom – Therion

We’ve met Therion before in this project. This is yet another early pre-choral backed death growly waste of bollocks.

The Bells of Doom toll for this album as it wings its way into the recycle bin….

Therion

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#146 – Bell Boots & Shambles – Spirogyra

by stegzy

Bell Boots & Shambles – Spirogyra

The most influential prog folk band of their time and yet few people have heard of them. Spirogyra were formed at the height of the Canterbury scene and comprised of Martin Cockerham, Mark Francism Barbara Gaskin, Julian Cusack and Steve Borrill.

Angry progressive folk with political overtones. Just what today’s folk lacks. Significantly. Show of Hands doesn’t count.

Spirogyra

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#145 – Belbury Tales – Belbury Poly

by stegzy

Belbury Tales – Belbury Poly

There was a time before 24hr TV when BBC programme schedulers did a poor job. People would turn their televisions off after watching their programme and return to strangling the mop or smoking a pipe in the parlour until the next programme they had selected came on.

Around this time, BBC schedulers were not focussed on things finishing on time. It was often the case that TV programmes would over or under run, leaving the station with the problem of finding something to fill the gap. Of course this is in the days before TV self promotion and when people could be arsed to turn off their telly.

But during those heady days of fill-in’s, viewers would often be subjected to educational shorts such as films about a potter’s wheel or a machine making pencils or trains going into tunnels. The soundtrack to these films would normally sound like Belbury Poly.

If you took a large drop of acid or a hallucinogen of your choice you could quite easily listen to this album and find yourself educated while your mind plays educational fill-ins like: Potters wheel, Telephone Exchange or Industrial Processes 1954-1974.

Belbury Poly

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#144 – Beginnings – Happy the Man

by stegzy

Beginnings – Happy the Man

This is yet another example of why it is never a good idea to get an album because you like one track. Happy the Man are a prog band that appear on The Best Prog Album in the World…Ever compilation. Originally an American prog band Happy the Man have had many line up changes over the years in true prog fashion.

I thought I’d take a punt. Bit too jazzy for me.

Guess I’m just not that into them.

Happy the Man

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#143 – Begin to Hope – Regina Spektor

by stegzy

Begin to Hope – Regina Spektor Screen Shot 2014-09-21 at 13.24.02
I had high hopes when I first heard Regina Spektor. Sadly they fell to earth with a smack after I heard this album.

One or two songs on here are ok. The rest….well I guess I’d need to be a bigger fan. She is kind of cute looking but yeah….that’s not a reason to buy an album really is it.

Regina Spektor

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#142 – Before the Flood – Bob Dylan

by stegzy

Screen Shot 2014-09-21 at 13.23.53 Before the Flood – Bob Dylan

Those that know me will already be aware of my feelings about Bob “Low powered moped” Dylan.

So it’s probably best that I don’t talk about him any more in this project.

I’m not a fan.

Bob Dylan

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#141 – Before the Dream Faded – The Misunderstood

by stegzy

Before the Dream Faded – The Misunderstood

John Peel once called I Can Take You To The Sun the best popular song ever written. The Misunderstood were the original performers of that song.

I got this album following the death of John Peel and the release of the John Peel memorial album on which Take You to the Sun featured. The Misunderstood are one of those bands that were very influential on others but nobody seems to have heard of them.

A bit like Randy California’s Spirit.

Still, this isn’t bad. There are a number of tracks that seem a bit out of place but as the band didn’t actually release a full studio album (this album released in 1982 long after the artists had disbanded) this is not surprising.

Misunderstood (The)

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#140 – Bedside Manners are Extra – Greenslade

by stegzy

Screen Shot 2014-09-21 at 13.23.39 Bedside Manners are Extra – Greenslade

Proggy keyboard twiddling from Dave Greenslade et al on their second “difficult” album.

This album screams prog.The title song Bedside Manners are Extra even appears on the compilation album The Best Prog Rock Album in the World..Ever; the cover was designed by Roger Dean and there are songs longer than 3 minutes.

Not an album for Prog0phobes.

Greenslade

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#139 – Becoming X – Sneaker Pimps

by stegzy

Becoming X - Sneaker Pimps Becoming X – Sneaker Pimps
There is a certain sound of the 90s. Songs and artists that just scream 1990s at the listener. Sneaker Pimps are one of those bands and their first album, Becoming X is a fine example of the sound.

Like Eels, Portishead and other bands of the time, music these artists featured regularly on contemporary dramas (This Life, Game On, X Files etc) and are still able to set the scene for any new dramas set during those times.

Becoming X is one of the first albums I managed to obtain on MP3. Deliciously haunting and wistful tunes invoking post recession memories of unemployment and youth. The embarkation of adulthood. The vague optimism of a pre-internet age full of empty post industrial promises with no foresight.

Sneaker Pimps

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#138 – Beautysleep & Lovesongs (Demo Versions) – Tanya Donelly

by stegzy

Beautysleep & Lovesongs (Demo Versions) – Tanya Donelly

No specific album cover for this compilation of demo versions of songs from Tanya’s first and second albums.

As a fan, I was overjoyed at managing to source this nice little compilation with which you can actually hear how songs develop over time.

Tanya Donelly

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#138 – Beautysleep – Tanya Donelly

by stegzy

Beautysleep – Tanya Donelly

Tanya, the former Belly leadsinger, and her second solo album. As a fan of both Belly and early Tanya Donelly, you can hear the maturity in this album. Quirky has gone out of the window and has uncovered, by its absence, songs and music of a different, more mature woman.

You can still hear the Belly influence but this is definitely the difficult second album.

Belly Tanya Donelly

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#137 – Beauty – Vargo

by stegzy

Beauty by Vargo

Sometimes you just want to chill. Sometimes you want some nice make out music. Sometimes you want some music to make lurve to. Sometimes you want to all the above.

This is an album you probably wouldn’t want to listen to when carving up families in the back garden or for those awkward moments between genocidal massacre and slaughtering kittens. Unless of course you’re a bit strange.

Vargo, it appears, are a European chill out artist. I’ve go no idea how I ended up with this album though. Completely off the scale of my music tastes. But it’s an ok soundtrack for a bit of romantic hows yer father..

Chill out Vargo

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#136 – Beautiful Freak – Eels

by stegzy

Screen Shot 2014-09-07 at 09.15.26 Beautiful Freak – Eels

Just like Blur and Oasis were the sound of the 90s in the UK, Eels, to me, were the sound of the 90s and noughties for the grungy gritty indie yoof types. Ne’er a film or a television programme about teens or early 20 somethings would be broadcast or shown without some Eels writhing about on the soundtrack.

I like this album. There are a number of good tracks that automatically whisk me back to the midwest of America of the time that I never visited due to my opposition to the dictatorship of George Bush.

Eels

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Stegzy's Music Project

A commentary on Stegzy's album collection

#159 – The Best of & The Rest of British Psychedelia – Various Artists

#158 – Best of – Radiohead

#157 – Best of – The Offspring

#156 – Best of – Nouvelle Vague

#155 – The Best of – The Beach Boys

#154 – The Best Indie Anthems – Various Artists

#153 – The Best Damn Thing – Avril Lavigne

#152 – The Best Anthems in the World…Ever – Various Artists

#151 – The Best Air Guitar Album in the World…Ever – Various Artists

#150 – Berlin – Barclay James Harvest

#149 – Ben Folds Five – Ben Folds Five

#148 – Beltaine – Jennifer van der Harten

#147 – Bells of Doom – Therion

#146 – Bell Boots & Shambles – Spirogyra

#145 – Belbury Tales – Belbury Poly

#144 – Beginnings – Happy the Man

#143 – Begin to Hope – Regina Spektor

#142 – Before the Flood – Bob Dylan

#141 – Before the Dream Faded – The Misunderstood

#140 – Bedside Manners are Extra – Greenslade

#139 – Becoming X – Sneaker Pimps

#138 – Beautysleep & Lovesongs (Demo Versions) – Tanya Donelly

#138 – Beautysleep – Tanya Donelly

#137 – Beauty – Vargo

#136 – Beautiful Freak – Eels

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A commentary on Stegzy's album collection

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