TUESDAY

0745-0925

Danger Mouse & Daniele Luppi: Rome
Keren Ann: 101
Laki Mera: The Proximity Effect (first half)

Because I have lots of urgent albums to review, I decide to start with one that I don’t need to worry about for a few weeks. Danger Mouse and Daniele Luppi, on first listen, have made entirely the album you’d expect, Burton’s dusty vinyl grime over Luppi’s string canvas. Norah Jones sounds good on ‘Black’. Then there’s Keren Ann, whose 101 I need to write about quick-smart. It’s making me think Charlotte Gainsbourg, so I’m really earning my money there. Hmmm, Paris-tinged chanteuses.

Laki Mera’s album comes out on my birthday, nearly two months away. Listening to it now therefore makes me feel like Henry DeTamble in The Time Traveler’s Wife. This could also be because I am reading The Time Traveler’s Wife while I listen to it.

1059

Simon & Garfunkel: America

It’s in my head. Does that count? Only one refrain as well.

1123-1143

Rihanna feat. Drake: What’s My Name?
Guillemots: Walk The River

I have a playlist called BACKLOG. It is recently added stuff on my iPod, but because I never clear it out it has 700-odd tracks from the last few months. These two are next to each other. Rihanna and Fyfe, up a tree.

Of Montreal: Expecting To Fly
Casiokids: London Zoo

A AA-side for Record Store Day (16 April: I’ll be nowhere near any record stores, but EVERY day’s a record store day). Of Montreal cover Buffalo Springfield as if they were Rufus Wainwright. Casiokids are space-age like it’s 1981.

1222-1317

Toddla T: Take It Back

Whatever happened to Shola Ama? Oh. She got sent back to 1993. Well, look here, a new TV On The Radio album.

TV On The Radio: Nine Types of Light

This is even more pop than Dear Science, and I think I mean that goodly. Well. Nicely. In a good way.

1458-1629

Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti: Round And Round

Some Spotify fidgeting. I’m amazed this was Pitchfork’s track of the year – I mean, it’s great and everything (I loved ‘Fergus Sings The Blues’ after all), but sort of unassuming. Buckles under accolades.

Fleetwood Mac: Rumours

As I advance through my 30s, the ‘Mac loom ever larger.

Kate Bush: Deeper Understanding ’11

I tend to return to the obvious ones – the title track, This Woman’s Work – when dipping into The Sensual World, so it’s been a long time since I heard the original of this. Whichever way you slice it, this is exciting stuff. It’s also helping me come to terms with all the metadata errors in this latest ingest of content.

1815-1930

Prefuse 73: The Only She Chapters
Cocteau Twins: Frou-Frou Foxes In Midsummer Fires
Guillemots: Trains To Brazil
Public Enemy: Who Stole The Soul?
Diana Ross: I’m Still Waiting
Pharrell: Keep It Playa

As ever, when I’m working in a proper, real office with proper, real people, I do most of my listening on the commute. On the way home, I checked out another cracking Prefuse 73 album then spun through some disjointed tracks. That Cocteau Twins song is Heaven Or Las Vegas’s closer; it’s an album that I come to again and again. The Pharrell one is as disappointing as most of his solo set, but sometimes I just have to confirm it. Ross, PE, Guillemots, all great naturally.

Came back home in time to read Junior her bedtime story and then slump in front of the football. Might listen to something else when I do the washing-up. Rock’n’roll. I mean, I might listen to rock’n’roll.

2205-2244

A bit of Later with Jools to accompany the washing-up. The unstoppable jazz fellows put some zip in my scrubbing and I liked The Tallest Man On Earth. Missed Beady Eye, which is a pity because I enjoy watching Liam even if the tunes are mud-caked. Can’t get it out of my head that Elbow are writing deliberate, wet-eyed anthems.

Then pop Radio 1 on for some reassuringly pretty Fleet Foxes, some crunky Nicki Minaj and some barrelling Black Keys. And Nick Grimshaw all genial and enthusiastic. R1’s good in this form, dotting about like my iPod.

The Music Diary Project: Day 1