Catwalk ready, David McComb. Photo by Stuart Spence. Here we have the next instalment in What Comes To Mind, an alternative series in the Wind Back Wednesday space, based on the work of the brilliant photographer Stuart Spence. Each time, he will dig out a photo from his archives going back almost 50 years and challenge me to respond with what comes to mind when I look at that image. It might be serious or ridiculous, personal or historical but it will be inspired by a photo

Dapper in every deli. Photo by Chantal Anderson. CURRENTLY A RESIDENT a resident of Connecticut, formerly of Brooklyn and Los Angeles, originally of Cincinnati, Matt Berninger is a dapper chap, a fellow of some style, often in suits, portrayed on the cover of his first solo album, Serpentine Prison, dressed like an American man of letters sojourning in Biarritz in the mid ‘50s. The kind of man of who actually was a successful graphic designer and art director in Madison Avenu

Get 'em young, get 'em hooked, get 'em for life. CLICK HERE TO LISTEN Ride in for more playlists like this - hundreds of 'em! - at Spotify, under my name.

ALDOUS HARDING Train On The Island (4AD) AS SUBLIME AS IT often is, this may not be the album for you, it’s fair to warn. Do you need to understand everything? If you leave a film, a book, a painting or an album in varying degrees of frustration because you don’t think you got the point being made, or indeed if you leave angry because you think the artist deliberately obscured meaning, Aldous Harding is at best a provocation. You can guess at her intentions, but she is not

THE LEMON TWIGS Look For Your Mind! (Civilians) THE LAST TIME the brothers D’Addario – multi-instrumentalist, singing/songwriting duo and occasional musical theatre stars, Brian and Michael – were featured here they were accompanied by a caveat. The album was, as could be said of all their six records to date, an homage/love letter to pop music of a time before. Certainly of a time before them, given they were born at the tail-end of the 1990s and their influences clearly h

In the past week I’ve been digging into music online that gives every indication of being at best machine-tooled but most likely wholly artificial, built to meet logarithmic patterns. It’s sleek, it’s really well constructed, it’s very easy to listen to and even easier to think it’s real. And it comes in every form, every genre, well past the early days of this so-called AI music which focused on instrumental, “mood” tracks that might slip by on ambient-y playlists or tropic

KACEY MUSGRAVES Middle Of Nowhere (Lost Highway) GOLDEN AND GOLDEN HOUR? The synchronicity was not just in the titles and it was hard to miss. A few years ago, Kylie Minogue, not someone who had ever been described as anything but a pop artist, allegedly made a country record – she hadn’t, Gold was just a great pop record that picked up a few Nashville touches, but marketing is marketing - and silly pop media lapped it up more than country radio or fans did. At the same ti

The chill hits, the word goes out. CLICK HERE TO LISTEN Rack up some more goodness like this with hundreds more playlist by me at Spotify.

Precariously perched but unfazed. Photo by Stuart Spence. Here we have the next instalment in What Comes To Mind, an alternative series in the Wind Back Wednesday space, based on the work of the brilliant photographer Stuart Spence. Each time, he will dig out a photo from his archives going back almost 50 years and challenge me to respond with what comes to mind when I look at that image. It might be serious or ridiculous, personal or historical but it will be inspired by a p