Every wise person has occasionally said something foolish, but no person who never offended another ever said a wise thing.

"In one sense, at any rate, it is more valuable to read bad literature than good literature. Good literature may tell us the mind of one man; but bad literature may tell us the mind of many men." - G.K. Chesterton

"Writing about music is like dancing about architecture." So often when I sit down to write a review, I just think, 'to hell with it, let's dance about architecture'.

"Life is an excellent practical joke, but the Gods are serious."
I was at a loss to where I'd picked this up for many years, so many thanks to n1r for alerting me to the fact that I'd misremembered slightly, and that it comes from a book on tarot cards by Jana Riley: "The Magician regards the world as an excellent practical joke, but recognizes that the gods are serious." So basically I'm paraphrasing.

"whenever art... becomes perfect, it becomes a lie". D.H. Lawrence

"Honour thy error as a hidden intention." One Of Brian Eno's and Peter Schmidt's Oblique Strategies.

"You don't need skill, just the interest / You don't need skill, just the desire / The interest and desire to do what you believe in" - The Desperate Bicycles.

"There is a kind of crappiness in English music that's very appealing. It's the punk thing in a way: 'fuck off, in yer face, so what?' Americans don't really have that sense of ridiculousness." - Simon Ratcliffe, Basement Jaxx

No better medium for music has yet been devised than the 7" vinyl single.

Setting out to create art, is the worst possible way to create art.


Looking through my reviews, I seem to have written a fair few negative ones - possibly because I find them both easier and more fun to write. My enthusiasms can be found in concentrated form in my contributions to the RYM Rough Guide to Everything and my ongoing project to list the greatest top 20 hits in the UK of all time.

Since March 2010 I have contributed to [List75343] polls for the following artists:

WITH QUOTE: Pixies, The Smiths, Otis Redding, The Wedding Present, Felt, Hole, Sweet, PJ Harvey, Captain Beefheart, Cliff Richard, Roxy Music, Siouxsie and The Banshees, Half Man Half Biscuit, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, A Flock of Seagulls, A House, The Beautiful South, Crass, Saint Etienne, Gary Numan, Ian Dury, The Hives, The Adverts, The O'Jays, T. Rex, New York Dolls, Joe Jackson, The Soft Boys, The Pretty Things, Public Image Ltd, Arctic Monkeys, The Pop Group

QUOTE SUBMITTED BUT NOT CHOSEN: The Jesus and Mary Chain

JUST VOTE: Dexys Midnight Runners, The Chemical Brothers, The Icicle Works, Tom Verlaine, Steel Pulse, Nirvana, Judas Priest, Sonic Youth, The White Stripes, Killing Joke, Fatboy Slim, Grace Jones, Kajagoogoo, Dave Edmunds, Supergrass, King Tubby, Public Enemy, Kraftwerk, Burning Spear, The Gun Club, Sam Cooke, Asian Dub Foundation

My quest to list the greatest UK top 20 hits of all time is born out of the no doubt unfashionable idea that what sells does matter, and that nothing thrills like that really great brief statement. So far lists have been completed; for 1956-97, 1999-2002, 2004-05, 2007-12. Next up, and dreading it: 2014.


The more negative side of my reviewing is expressed in concentrated form in a series of reviews entitled Iconoclast's Corner. The basic idea behind the series is that once LP's have been established as important, classic, greats, whatever, the more their reputation precedes them, and the less people are inclined to question their status. And so, well, someone has to do it. The albums thus reviewed, in no particular order: #1 The Dark Side of the Moon, #2 Wish You Were Here, #3 Pet Sounds, #4 Animals, #5 Master of Reality, #6 Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo, #7 Lift Yr. Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven!, #8 Ride the Lightning, #9 Exile on Main St., #10 Harvest, #11 Strange Days, #12 The Band, #13 Seasons in the Abyss, #14 Bergtatt: Et eeventyr i 5 capitler, #15 Chrono Trigger: Original Sound Version, #16 XO, #17 Ágætis byrjun, #18 Transatlanticism, #19 Siamese Dream, #20 In Rainbows, #21 Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space.

A companion series, Iconoclast on 45, is devoted to singles, in no particular order: #1 Stand by Me / On the Horizon, #2 California Dreamin' / Somebody Groovy, #3 A Whiter Shade of Pale / Lime Street Blues, #4 (Don't Fear) The Reaper / Tattoo Vampire, #5 Comfortably Numb / Hey You, #6 I Want You Back / Who's Lovin You, #7 Ain't No Mountain High Enough / Give a Little Love, #8 Runaway / Jody, #9 ..., #10 Say It Ain't So, #11 Don't Look Back in Anger, #12 Lucky Man, #13 Juicy / Unbelievable, #14 Bachelorette, #15 Losing My Religion, #16 Rhiannon (Will You Ever Win) / Sugar Daddy, #17 Dancing Queen / That's Me, #18 More Than a Feeling / Smokin', #19 Kid Charlemagne / Green Earrings, #20 Hard Luck Woman / Mr. Speed, #21 Show Me the Way / Shine On, #22 Because the Night / God Speed, #23 All My Friends, #24 September Gurls / Mod Lang, #25 Stairway to Heaven.


A slow push to publish a series of reviews highlighting records that are rated too low/are largely forgotten/just deserve to be highlighted again, numbers 2 to date, under the heading "Resurrection Corner": #1 Never Mind the Bollocks Here's the Sex Pistols, #2 David Bowie, #3 Loos of England, #4 The Wombats Proudly Present... A Guide to Love, Loss and Desperation.