RadioSed

🌙 Mercury Rev – Deserter’s Songs (1998) Some albums sound better at night. Others sound as though they were made for it. Mercury Rev’s extraordinary Deserter’s Songs belongs firmly in the latter category.

Fragile vocals, sweeping orchestration, strange little melodies and an atmosphere somewhere between a fading dream and a forgotten film soundtrack. From the beautiful ‘Holes’ through ‘Tonite’, ‘Opus 40’ and ‘Goddes’ to the epic ‘Funny Bird’, it’s a record that demands to be experienced as a whole.

🍂 Bruce Springsteen; Letter to You (2020) Some albums just belong to a particular season, and this one feels made for autumn, a record that looks back on a lifetime of friendships, memories and loss, yet somehow sounds so wonderfully alive.

HOUSE MUSIC ALL NIGHT LONG 🎶 Remember 2020? The world stopped, but the records kept coming. I’ve never bought as much vinyl as I did during lockdown. The anticipation of another delivery, the pleasure of opening a new album, and all those hours spent listening at home.

I’ve kept my annual favourite-album lists on Spotify since 2017, so rather than rewrite history, I’ve revisited my actual top ten from 2020. And in an unprecedented RadioSed move, I’m adding a track from all the tracks in the image to the playlist!

HOUSE MUSIC ALL NIGHT LONG 🎶 Remember 2020? The world stopped, but the records kept coming. I’ve never bought as much vinyl as I did during lockdown. The anticipation of another delivery, the pleasure of opening a new album, and all those hours spent listening at home.

This weekend’s #FifthTimeAround took us from the widescreen majesty of U2 and the electronic beauty of Erasure to Kate Bush’s extraordinary Ninth Wave. Then came the quiet wonder of Talk Talk, the euphoric melancholy of New Order and Radiohead’s glorious unpredictability.

Beautiful songs that refuse to behave conventionally. 🎧 Radiohead’s Amnesiac (2001) is a strange, unpredictable and occasionally unsettling record. But I’ve never thought that makes it particularly inaccessible.They simply don’t always follow the rules we’re accustomed to.

Life in a Glasshouse - What an astonishing piece of music. The brass sounds almost drunken, as though the musicians have wandered into a late-night jazz club and decided to play in several different directions at once. Everything threatens to unravel. And yet, somehow, it doesn’t.

Beautiful songs that refuse to behave conventionally. 🎧 Radiohead’s Amnesiac (2001) is a strange, unpredictable and occasionally unsettling record. But I’ve never thought that makes it particularly inaccessible.They simply don’t always follow the rules we’re accustomed to.

Take Pyramid Song. Every piano chord seems to arrive slightly out of sync, as though the rhythm keeps shifting beneath your feet. Then the drums enter, & you begin to understand what’s going on. It’s genius at work, but underneath that rhythmic uncertainty is a melody of extraordinary beauty.

Some music moves you before you realise it. 🎧 New Order’s Substance was the record that really got me into the band. Those extraordinary singles, the extended mixes, that unmistakable combination of guitars and electronics. But Technique (1989) is their finest studio album for me. No question.

Mr Disco. Vanishing Point. Dream Attack. Three extraordinary tracks that take an already brilliant album to another level. My choice for The Current 50 is Vanishing Point. Those magnificent synthesiser melodies, the relentless rhythm and that unmistakable sadness beneath the surface.

Some music moves you before you realise it. 🎧 New Order’s Substance was the record that really got me into the band. Those extraordinary singles, the extended mixes, that unmistakable combination of guitars and electronics. But Technique (1989) is their finest studio album for me. No question.

It’s a record that somehow makes melancholy feel exhilarating. Guitars shimmer, synthesisers soar, rhythms pull you towards the dancefloor, yet there’s often something beautifully bittersweet beneath it all.

Some music asks you to listen differently. 🎧 I thought Talk Talk’s The Colour of Spring was challenging, in the best possible way. Then came Spirit of Eden. But Laughing Stock (1991) ventures even further into the unknown.

And on this first morning after the clocks have gone back, my choice for The Current 50 feels rather fitting. New Grass. That gently repeating guitar, Mark Hollis’s fragile vocal, the wonderful sense of space.

Some music asks you to listen differently. 🎧 I thought Talk Talk’s The Colour of Spring was challenging, in the best possible way. Then came Spirit of Eden. But Laughing Stock (1991) ventures even further into the unknown.

Songs seem to dissolve into silence. Instruments appear, disappear and return somewhere unexpected. Delicate melodies give way to extraordinary bursts of intensity. It’s abstract, experimental and often difficult to describe.