Music, of all kinds, has been my lifeblood. I think you might understand why ...
New! http://www.elidor.freeserve.co.uk/skylarking.htm - XTC's Skylarking.
http://www.elidor.freeserve.co.uk/ultramarine.htm - Ultramarine's United Kingdoms.
(Both the above intended for The Site That Never Was (And Now
Never Will Be): see frontpage).
Also New! http://www.elidor.freeserve.co.uk/jayz-nas.htm - the playa and the collectivist.
http://www.elidor.freeserve.co.uk/haines2.htm. Luke Haines, 2001 model.
http://www.elidor.freeserve.co.uk/sweet.htm - a great pop story, 1971-78.
http://www.elidor.freeserve.co.uk/dollar.htm - pop music living on the cusp of
everything, 1981-82.
http://www.elidor.freeserve.co.uk/timbaland.htm - Timbaland and Magoo's Indecent
Proposal.
http://www.elidor.freeserve.co.uk/brandy.htm - Brandy's Full Moon.
Where the memes born in Maida Vale ended up: http://www.elidor.freeserve.co.uk/rwinfluence.htm. There's also the completion of my epic piece on the Radiophonic Workshop generally here: http://www.elidor.freeserve.co.uk/radiophonic.htm.
UK hip-hop on a national scale, at last: Skitz's Countryman, at http://www.elidor.freeserve.co.uk/skitz.htm
Eve's Scorpion and why I sort-of hate myself: http://www.elidor.freeserve.co.uk/eve.htm.
This started off as a review of Ty's Awkward until I realised that the record is just not interesting enough to hold up an entire review on its own, so instead it takes the form of some thoughts on that album, Skitz's awesome "Cordless Mics @ Twenty Paces", and my motivations in pop: http://www.elidor.freeserve.co.uk/motivation.htm.
The sheer joy of life rediscovered, and I do not exaggerate: The Avalanches' Since I Left You: http://www.elidor.freeserve.co.uk/avalanches.htm.
James Lucas's Reflections On A Past Life: http://www.elidor.freeserve.co.uk/jameslucas.htm.
Yes, at last, reviews return ... Jay-Z's The Dynasty Roc La Familia at http://www.elidor.freeserve.co.uk/jayz.htm, and the Wu-Tang Clan's The W at http://www.elidor.freeserve.co.uk/wutang.htm.
(God I was so wrong about The W. Don't read that review if you have any sense. - RPC, February 2003.)
Max Tundra's Some Best Friend You Turned Out To Be: http://www.elidor.freeserve.co.uk/maxtundra.htm.
I feel better about this piece than I have about anything I've written for this site since my history of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop; I think I'm back at my very best now. This is the review concerned, of Outkast's Stankonia: http://www.elidor.freeserve.co.uk/outkast.htm.
And thankfully it only had to wait a day ... http://www.elidor.freeserve.co.uk/thecoup.htm: a thankfully concise review of The Coup's Steal This Album. I still don't think I'm back to my absolute best, but at least I'm getting there, and at least I'm writing.
At last another full-length review, of Piano Magic's Artists' Rifles. Go to http://www.elidor.freeserve.co.uk/pianomag.htm ...
Go to http://www.elidor.freeserve.co.uk/thoughts.htm for one sentence on every album I've heard this year ...
Oh, the size of it! And, more importantly, the genius: http://www.elidor.freeserve.co.uk/fields.htm
I come to bury the mid-90s, not exhume: http://www.elidor.freeserve.co.uk/britpop.htm
The first Column, On The Other: http://www.elidor.freeserve.co.uk/exotic.htm
The future generation will take him by the hand ... http://www.elidor.freeserve.co.uk/haines.htm
Englishness reborn: http://www.elidor.freeserve.co.uk/english.htm and http://www.elidor.freeserve.co.uk/inglesfield.htm
For Beginner Piano: http://www.elidor.freeserve.co.uk/plone.htm
American archivism: http://www.elidor.freeserve.co.uk/vandyke.htm
Fantasy on a theme of 1961: http://www.elidor.freeserve.co.uk/shannon.htm
Here is a song for you to sing: http://www.elidor.freeserve.co.uk/lawrence.htm
Summer perverted: http://www.elidor.freeserve.co.uk/alessi.htm
Rocking the military: http://www.elidor.freeserve.co.uk/johnny.htm
Articulate fury: http://www.elidor.freeserve.co.uk/pharoahe.htm
A music whose time has arrived: http://www.elidor.freeserve.co.uk/wordlab.htm
And, in some ways, where it all began for this site: http://www.elidor.freeserve.co.uk/momus.htm
The tracks of the year!
Or, at the very least, my favourite 30 tracks of 2000. Everything entirely subjective and personal, of course ...
1. OUTKAST - Bombs Over Baghdad
2. DAFT PUNK - One More Time
3. KELIS - Caught Out There
4. EMINEM - The Real Slim Shady
5. AALIYAH featuring TIMBALAND - Try Again
6. DEAD PREZ - Hip-Hop
7. JAY-Z - Big Pimpin'
8. SLIMM CUTTA CALHOUN - It's OK
9. THE BETA BAND - To You Alone
10. DMX - Party Up
11. SAINT ETIENNE - Heart Failed (In The Back Of A Taxi)
12. BELLE AND SEBASTIAN - There's Too Much Love
13. OUTKAST - Ms. Jackson
14. ALL SAINTS - Black Coffee
15. ROBBIE WILLIAMS - Rock DJ
16. GOLDFRAPP - Lovely Head
17. MAX TUNDRA - Lausanne
18. PIANO MAGIC - No Closure
19. GHOSTFACE KILLAH - We Made It
20. JESSICA SIMPSON - I Think I'm In Love With You
21. DESTINY'S CHILD - Jumpin' Jumpin'
22. THE SIXTHS with DOMINIQUE A - Just Like A Movie Star
23. M.O.P. - Cold As Ice
24. XTC - The Wheel and the Maypole
25. DEAD PREZ - I'm A African
26. MAZARIN - Wheats
27. KERNKRAFT 400 - Zombie Nation
28. MC PAUL BARMAN - Salvation Barmy (Crazy Over Me)
29. BROADCAST - Come On Let's Go
30. BACKSTREET BOYS - Shape Of My Heart
And these are ten songs, not in order, which all define and epitomise their time and style and, more to the point, hold such brilliance that they overshadow very nearly all of their contemporaries. Call them the peaks of the peaks, perhaps.
DUSTY SPRINGFIELD - I Just Don't
Know What To Do With Myself (1964)
LOCOMOTIVE - Mr Armageddon (1969)
ROXY MUSIC - Virginia Plain (1972)
PINK FLOYD - Time (1973)
THE BUZZCOCKS - Orgasm Addict (1976)
DONNA SUMMER - I Feel Love (1977)
THE MONOCHROME SET - Apocalypso (1980)
HEAVEN 17 - Temptation (1983)
PUBLIC ENEMY - Don't Believe The Hype (1988)
TLC - Creep (1994)
And it goes round like this: