Barts 2018 - Monteath

Best Album

Best Song

The stuff I have gone back to and listened to again most often is:

The Orielles, Suede, TVAM, Hannah Peel, Loma

Best Musical Re-discovery

Gruff Rhys’ back catalogue

Best Middle-Aged Man/Men Doing Excellent – If Hardly Ground-breaking – Stuff

Suede, Johnny Marr

Best Book

The Line of Beauty

Best Gig/Event

Kendall Calling generally, Shed Seven specifically. Great combo of it stopping raining, being half-cut, neither child moaning, and the band savouring every moment

Best TV Programme

Inside No 9 followed closely by Killing Eve

Best Radio Programme (That I Haven’t Previously Nominated)

Alkerpop’s “Unclassified” (it’s on Radio 3, Steve)

Best Sporting Moment

Rich pickings here, but both mah Fitba’ and Cricket teams being champions (by a distance) is a nicely unexpected thing.

Revelation

Really enjoyed Neneh Cherry’s stuff, really enjoyed some out and out rock in Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs

Worst Purchase / Disappointment

A lack of any real breakthrough/”wow” music – I’ll just have to search harder this year (between 10.30 and 1)

Best Child-Related Thing

Yet to bear full fruit, but the camper van should be a gift that keeps giving.

Best Lifestyle Change

Running. I was dabbling this time last year, now I’m committed, building up distance and hills and thoroughly enjoying.

Sort

I will watch any programme featuring Keeley Hawes

Person, People or Thing You’d Most Like to See Set Upon By a Pack of Wolves

Pretty much the entire political class. No leaders, no ideas, no vision – when there’s a massive gaping hole to be filled.

The Winning Thing You’d Most Recommend Your Fellow Judges to Own/Have/Consume/Do

Listen to The Blue Hour

Barts 2018 - Kelly

Best Album

Villagers: The Art of Pretending to Swim

Elvis Costello: Look Now

Lump: Lump

Best Song

Janelle Monae: The Way You Make me Feel

Marianne Faithfull: My Gypsy Faerie Queen

Unknown Mortal Orchestra: American Guilt

Thom Yorke: Suspirium

Best Musical Re-discovery

The Cure: Disintegration

Best Middle-Aged Man/Men Doing Excellent – If Hardly Ground-breaking – Stuff

The Elvis Costello album

Best Film

Beast

You Were Never Really Here

Three Billboards…

Best Book

Neil Gaiman: Norse Mythology

Best Gig/Event

Ash @ The Trades Club

Best TV Programme

Patrick Melrose

Killing Eve

Best Radio Programme

Radconie

Best website

https://www.compare-school-performance.service.gov.uk/

Best Sporting Moment

Hughies’s hat-trick against Warley Town

Revelation

Liverpool FC

Worst Purchase / Disappointment

The new John Grant album

Best Child-Related Thing

Amateur drama: good for them and gets them out of the house regularly for a long time

Best Lifestyle Change

Work has been somewhat all consuming this year. I need to work on this category for next year.

Sort

My wife

Person, People or Thing You’d Most Like to See Set Upon By a Pack of Wolves

The numerous audience members on Question Time who say anything relating to “taking back control” or “we did fine by ourselves before”

The Winning Thing You’d Most Recommend Your Fellow Judges to Own/Have/Consume/Do

On the basis that I think not many of you have … seek out Patrick Melrose

Barts 2018: Darby

Best Album 
Suede - The Blue Hour
Orbital – Montsers Exist
Interpol – Marauder
Matt Berry – TV Themes

Best Song 
The Fernweh – Next Time Around
Jon Hopkins – Emerald Rush
Beirut - Gallipoli
Thom Yorke – Suspirium
Orbital – Tiny Foldable Cities Best

Musical Re-discovery 
Gorillaz – Demon Days

Best Middle-Aged Man/Men Doing Excellent – If Hardly Ground-breaking – Stuff 
I think it’s breaking some ground and excellent, the Suede album.

Best Film 
Get Out, Three Billboards etc etc, The Martian Best Book Jonathan Coe – Middle England.

Best Gig/Event 
League of Gentlemen live show

Best TV Programme 
Inside No 9, Mad Men Series 1-6, The Good Place A Very English Scandal, Killing Eve, Handmaid’s Tale S2 (the last two were great with awful endings)

Best Radio Programme
Going to have to be RadMac given it’s been shafted out of the daytime slot 

Best Website 
Twitter

Best Sporting Moment
*sigh* slim pickings here. England winning an overseas test series 3-0 in Asia for the first time in forever.

Revelation – n/a

Worst Purchase / Disappointment 
Dunkirk. I know the current trend is to show a big story via a load of personal little stories but this didn’t do the former. When it ended I had to mansplain what happened at Dunkirk. And the personal little stories were boring.

Best Child-Related Thing More music related stuff, the Demon Days comes from George taking an interest in this based on hearing lots of Blur in the car then finding out there was a cartoon spin-off version.

Best Lifestyle Change
Becoming employed again. Employer pension contributions in, tax returns out. Sorts Alison Brie (Trudy Campbell/Ruth from Glow) and Kristin Bell

Person, People or Thing You’d Most Like to See Set Upon By a Pack of Wolves 
Most right-wing politicians and, currently, a sizeable chunk of left-wing ones too

The Winning Thing You’d Most Recommend Your Fellow Judges to Own/Have/Consume/Do Listen to The Blue Hour

It's the time of year...

...when a middle-aged man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts about end of year music polls and reckonings.

Here's the 6music run-down and it's fair to say whilst several of these artists have been in the suburbs of my conscious, this has been a year when new stuff has mostly passed me by. I think I'll be strong on 45s and almost non-existent on 33s this year.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/5b2YkzSbF7wfvDxL0SR9fdS/6-music-recommends-albums-of-the-year-2018

Beirut - Gallipoli

This is terrific.

Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs - GNT

I'm enjoying this. Where does "hard rock" live on the radio these days anyway?

Thom Yorke - Suspirium

I think this is rather lovely. Unusually for a Thom Yorke song I'm not sure I could pick out a single lyric after hearing it but it doesn't seem to matter. Who can tell me what the solo instrument is around the 2.20 mark?

Old Faithful...

Has anyone heard this yet? It's great