Cool as ice water
Sweet, juicy and delicious
Grape expectations
Monday, August 31, 2026
Sunday, August 30, 2026
Dolly Parton: Here I Am
I have a great affection for Dolly Parton and genuinely cried when I heard the news of her passing this week. Listening to all of her albums with a friend on Twitter got me through the dreadful year that was 2020 and confirmed that she was one of the greatest songwriters of all time, with over 3000 original songs to her credit and fifty or more studio albums.
At ninety minutes, this 2019 documentary can't really do much more than skim the surface but it was nicely done with some good interviews and archive clips, and well chosen bits of music. I was particularly moved by the bit on her bluegrass albums from the early 2000s. They were critically acclaimed but commercially not very successful, but she thought that they were some of her best work. The Grass is Blue is not just my favourite Dolly album but one of my all time faviourites.
808:90 by 808 State
The late 80s and early 90s were a period of wild experimentation for the UK dance scene, both with drugs and technology. In the case of 808 State they took the Roland 808 drum machine and pushed it to the limits of what it could do, programming complex beats and patterns to craft pieces that were perfectly suited for getting smashed and dancing in a warehouse somewhere.
Listening back to this now, nearly 40 years later is a slightly odd experience. The sound is very much of its time and much of it doesn’t work outside of the original context, but the transcendent saxophone line on Pacific 202 (an unlikely breakthrough hit on the UK pop charts) still has its hooks somewhere deep in my subconscious.
Big fish, little fish, cardboard box-tastic!
Saturday, August 29, 2026
700 down!
Apparently I've just hit 700 albums with another 389 to go!
https://1001albumsgenerator.com/album-wall/6598252c28f2106678f4231d
Penance Soiree by Icarus Line
Judging by the opening title track name I was expecting a hardcore punk thrash album, but it didn’t quite turn out like that. What should have been a two minute banger plods on for 4 and half minutes without going anywhere and the lyrics come over as self consciously edgy.
The album doesn’t really improve much from that point. Even though there were moments of inspired weirdness there was just too much generic indie style noodling around and the overall effect didn’t grab me. Yawnsome rather than awesome.
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