45. PRINCE – “Alphabet St” (1988)

In the pop polls, Prince was nominated well over 30 times, something no other artist came near. He won one poll – LP closers, with “Purple Rain” – and came second in Soundtracks (�[…]

Se Dice Bisonte, No Bùfalo shares many similarities with A Manual Dexterity: Soundtrack Volume I in that both are atmospheric, mostly instrumental filmic albums. However, unlike the latter, Se Dice isn’t technically a soundtrack; the liner notes a[…]

48. MOBB DEEP – “Shook Ones Pt II” (1995)

The UncoolTwo50 challenge period covers the time – roughly speaking, 1989 to 1996 – when I took a lot of my cues about music and its quality from the weekly music press.[…]

49. QUAD CITY DJ’S – “C’mon N’ Ride It (The Train)” (1996)

There was a bit of chat the other day when Pitchfork released its list of Top Tracks Of The 2020s So Far; as is often the way it was sparked by th[…]

50. THE AUTEURS – “The Rubettes” (1999)

This song is now as old as “Sugar Baby Love” by The Rubettes was when Luke Haines borrowed its hook for “The Rubettes”. It’s been squatting in my head for those 25 years; it[…]

A third instalment of tracks which didn’t make my #UncoolTwo50 list – which starts TOMORROW; there is still time to enter, all you need is a list of 50 singles from 1977-1999. In fact what you could do is take the 30 I’ve put up so […]

A second set of songs from the #UncoolTwo50 project, launching on Monday night/Tuesday on Bluesky – have you finalised your 50 tracks yet? This set is still in the “nearly-made-it” category, though we’re starting to see things[…]

The #UncoolTwo50 is a simple exercise of daunting scope. Pick your 50 favourite singles from 1977 to 1999 (and then list them as part of the public challenge, which is happening on Bluesky from October 1st). I don’t know if these are the best ever […]

This is the final entry in Season 1 of Discourse 2000, a story-by-story look at 2000AD. Contains spoilers!

WHICH THRILL? The surviving cast of Harlem Heroes return, forming a team to compete in the new, even more violent sport of Inferno.

The f[…]

This is part of Discourse 2000, a story-by-story (in this case lots of little stories) exploration of 2000AD. Contains spoilers for every Future Shock!

WHICH THRILL? Future Shocks are short (1-4 page usually) science fiction stories which pad out […]