Rising carp, Tremble

Rising from the depths
A flash of gold, eager jaws
Water boatman trembles

For That Beautiful Feeling by The Chemical Brothers

Context is everything with some genres of music. I can imagine really enjoying this in a nightclub with lasers and dry ice and thumping bass, but on a rainy Tuesday morning it all falls a bit flat.

This is a new addition to the 2026 edition of the book and I found out today that it displaced Modern Kosmology by Jane Weaver, a recent favourite of mine. This was an odd decision, whilst it’s a nicely mixed sequence of upbeat acid house dance tunes, it doesn’t add anything new compared to the Chemical Brothers work during the 90s.

I could also compare this to the 2023 release Optical Delusion by Orbital who are of a similar vintage as 90s ravers. Where Orbital collaborated with Sleaford Mods on the genuinely banging track Dirty Rat, the Chemical Bros are working with … Beck. Hmmm.

I would have given this three stars, but it’s not an essential listen for me. I suspect that the only chemicals this lot are now taking are statins and sanatogen.

Ripe, Pink

Anticipation
Biting into ripe, pink flesh
Sweet watermelon

Blue by Joni Mitchell

This is an extraordinary album, musically sparse and painfully honest. It was written when Joni Mithcell had just come out of her relationship with Graham Nash and was about to embark on a new one with troubled musician James Taylor. In between she spent time travelling through Europe ending up living in Greece with sand in her hair and tar on her feet.

The songs on this album range from hope to regret to melancholy, with a simple backing of Appalachian dulcimer, guitar and piano, with Mitchell's vocals wavering with emotion in places.

In the title track she sings that songs are like tattoos - permanent reminders of the past, of joy and pain. This is most evident on the song Little Green that she wrote shortly after poverty forced her to give up her baby daughter for adoption. Mother and daughter were reunited in 1997, giving closure to that chapter of her life.

Crisp, Hyacinth

They lost it the day
They pitched hyacinth crisps not
Salt and vinegar

Germ Free Adolescents by X-Ray Spex

The Sex Pistols may have been a cynically manufactured band, but the one thing they did do is inspire a substantial number of people who saw their early shambolic gigs to go out and start their own punk bands. In 1976 Marianne Elliot-Said (better known as Poly Styrene) did exactly that by putting a small ad in the music papers and so X-Ray Spex were formed.

They were an unusual band in many respects, not least for their anti-capitalist and feminist lyrics and probably the only early punk band to feature a saxophone which was the perfect foil for Poly Styrene’s wailing vocal style.

I was slightly too young for the first wave of punk, but hearing songs like Identity and the sessions they did for John Peel certainly left an impression on me as a dorky, germ free adolescent.

Oh-Bondage-Up-Yours-tastic!

Straw , Wisteria

This is the last straw
You promised that you would prune
The wisteria