Coolness, Butterfly

Wings flap far away
Unexpectedly cool day
Butterfly effect

Queen of Denmark by John Grant

This album really grabbed me in a way that I wasn’t quite expecting. John Grant certainly has a knack for a catchy lyric and after listening to this three times today I find myself singing along with lines like “I feel just Sigourney Weaver when she had to kill those aliens” and “I wanted to change the world but I could not even change my underwear”

There are lots of deeply personal insights here about John Grant’s experience of growing up as a gay man in the midwest and songs like the title track and “JC Hates Faggots” are devastating in their brutal honesty.

The music is mostly simple piano and synth accompaniments with some arrangements reminding me of Scissor Sisters in places. The only thing that I wasn’t sure about was a hard turn into some discordant Kraftwerk style euro-pop on the last couple of tracks with a cod German accent.

Other than that, this is definitely going into my favourites list.

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