Monday Long Song

Driving home from work at quarter to five on a crisp, cloudless Thursday evening, the sun, which set a full 45 minutes earlier, had left a glowing orange residue low in the sky, while off the road to my right a dense mist enveloped the Waveney Valley. It was all too beautiful. My in-car soundtrack was one of a selection of old self-made compilation CDrs rediscovered during the recent house move. I had no way of knowing what tunes it contained, but this one started to play as I drove towards that dimming orange horizon and I thought to myself, right at this moment, there's nothing I'd rather be listening to.  

Lambchop - The Hustle

Tim Burgess

If you'd have told me, at the beginning of 2012, that twelve months later one of my favourite albums of the year would be a solo effort by Tim Burgess.....well, quite frankly I wouldn't have believed you. Not that I have anything against Mr Burgess, a man of impeccable musical taste, as demonstrated on his DJ stint on 6music, or The Charlatans, a band I was a fan of until I lost track of them at the turn of the century. It's just that Tim & Co had been off my musical radar for quite some time and his debut solo LP, 2003's 'I Believe', came and went without me even registering it. One chance hearing of 'A Case For Vinyl', however, changed all that.

'Oh No I Love You' finds Burgess in inspired collaboration with Lambchop genius Kurt Wagner and, in addition to Wagner's bandmates, features members of My Morning Jacket and Clem Snide alongside Tim favourite, R.Stevie Moore. It's a rich, understated album, that is one of the surprises of the year for me and highly recommended.

Lambchop - Gone Tomorrow

On heavy rotation around these parts. Unsettling as ever and accompanied by an equally odd clip.

Stick around for the sublime instrumental coda.