I do not have a hatred for The Manic Street Preachers ,in fact i quite like their first four albums . and have them in my collection well three of them that i can recall but this album i have little time for . It is alternative music for NEXT shoppers ,yes i am sure that if you shop in NEXT  and are mooching around for your briefs you would no doubt have heard this album playing at around the time it was released .in fact if you tolerate this you probably buy your briefs at Next. They in fact missed a trick they could have a tie in with the Manic’s stocking Manic Balaclavas  and mayb ..read more

Oh 1984 it took me a longtime to decide so many wonderful albums so many memories i must have relistened to over 70 albums over the last week .1984 was an important year in my life i was 17/18 bought my first electric guitar , met my first serious girlfriend ,got my first job ,as short lived as it was six glorious months working in a record shop . so relistening to these albums brought so much back and i am sure memories and nostalgia had a great deal in deciding my top ten . At the start of this relistening to 1984 i was sure some lps would defiantly made it in the 10 i was pretty sure the Oc ..read more

983 was a great year for music and i had as ever had a lot of trouble narrowing it down to the 10 .but i had great fun relistening  to all these wonderful albums . Some that just missed out were Daniel Johnston “Hi How Are you” and the Kinks with their last album  i really like “State Of confusion” if it was not for the awful 80’s production it could well have done. there are some great Ray Davies songs on there and also that tour was the first time i saw the kinks live and still one of my favourite ever gigs . The ABC “Beauty Stab” album also nearly scraped in the top ten for i am o ..read more

1982 what can i say ,obviously another strong year but not as strong as the previous two years of the 80’s .The number one album was never in doubt i spent many along hour [especially for my parents] playing along to Orange Juice with my first electric guitar [A cheap Kay guitar bought from Hesseys in Liverpool for £39 brand new .] so the Wonderful sparkling guitar pop of Edwyn and the boys had to be number one. my number two is actually my third favourite Elvis Costello album i can remember buying it as a 15 year old and just marveling at all the lyrics in the inner sleeve, a huge moment and ..read more

1981 i had trouble deciding what my number one would be it was between the top three in fact if i was to do a list of my top 100 albums i expect all three to be in there . At 14/15 i loved the Stray Cats and still do ,in fact their second lp “Gonna Ball” also released this year nearly made the top 10  their first three albums are all gems. Squeeze just edged out with their second album of pop genius songwriting ,Their first two albums were great in patches, but Argybargy and Eastside Story are very special indeed. i will have to see if “Sweets From A Stranger” their next lp makes the 1982 ..read more

1979 was the most difficult yet to decide on obviously my love of The Fall would feature in this year and i expect them to pop up in the next 10 or so years as well . They released two fine lps in 79 and only stopped having numbers one and two by the beautifully shambolic “Like Flies On Sherbert”by the wonderful Alex Chilton .The Yachts debut lp also makes an apperance a lp that i have always thought sounded what The Teardrop Explodes and early Wah would have sounded like if they had merged. So many great and good albums did not make my list way too many to mention . My least favourite Elvis C ..read more

1978 once again a hard year to narrow it down to 10 ,a tough decision for number one between my fave Big Star lp and my 2nd favourite Elvis Costello lp . If this was a list of the best first sides of a album The walker Brothers “Nite flites” lp would have walked it to number one on the list as the first side of that is pure genius but sadly the 2nd side is a shit as the first side is genius why oh why did Scott Walker not write all ten tracks instead of just the first four ,to be fare the two Gary Walker tracks are quite good but the other four by John Walker are really dire which m ..read more

1977 what a year this has been the hardest year yet ,such an exciting time for music ,which shows in the number of debut lps in the top 10, 5 in fact. It was very hard to leave out the Dennis Wilson “Pacific Ocean Blue “album which is a bit of a dark masterpiece , or the pure joy that is “Rock n Roll with Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers” album or the debut lps by The Damned and Television or the first two Jam albums and David Bowies “Heroes” or Iggy’s “Lust For Life” two genius albums that would have probably strolled into my top ten nearly any other year.  The lps that made it are ..read more

1976 what a strange musical year, the year punk broke and also Disco went mainstream .and the charts were full of great singles and the radio was full of fluffy nonsense in a good way .and i had my transistor radio constantly glued to my ear i was 9/10 and obsessed with the charts and pop music in general it was a great year pop wise . The Modern Lovers quite easily made number one this year in my list as it is one of my favourite ever albums . The Ramones made two with not my favourite Ramones album, that is coming next year . The Oscar Peterson and Joe Pass album is a gem that does not get m ..read more

1975 for me was probably the weakest of years up till now to choose my top ten .not that it is weak by any means the 10 albums chosen are all brilliant and the ones not making it are also pretty great . My favourite Black Sabbath album “Sabotage” why that is my fave i do not know i think it may the cover they are cracking pants and did not make it maybe if it was the best trousers on a lp sleeve it would have, and the first year in a few that Bowie has not made my top ten but “Young Americans” is my least favourite Bowie album of the seventies. As i have previously mentioned my love for sevent ..read more