Been a little while, hasn't it? More or less eleven months since season eight of That Music List finished, but here at last after a 2017 of unprecedented personal changes (including, but not limited to, marriage and a house move) is the start of season nine.
I've genuinely no idea how long this one will go on for - a few weeks or all of 2018, or some point in between.
Either way, the hiatus has allowed me to frontload the first few Lists back with some of my absolute highlights of 2017, starting with my favourite single of the entire year.
What a joy it was to see Alvvays when they took in the Sheffield Leadmill as part of the tour accompanying the release of the tremendous Antisocialites album; hopefully our advice to Molly Rankin on all matters from what's in Glossop to the difference between trousers and pants was appreciated.
Alasdair Roberts at Regather, again in Sheffield, in November was an altogether different delight - delicate, masterful folk plucking and a fabulous showcase of his original songwriting as well as his gifts of interpretation. Scarce of Fishing, written for a refugee benefit album in 2016, is included here; there'll be more from him in the coming weeks.
Older fare from my big pile of unplayed stuff has also been belatedly attended to since last we spoke. I must be the last music fan on the planet to get round to listening to some Faust, and hence notice the similarities between the opening track of second album So Far and a particular Stereolab track - I get there in the end. Check them out at the end of this List and see what you think.
It's also a pleasure to include some prime Vini Reilly thirty years on, plus a towering, snotty single from Killing Joke from five years before even that. Some of you will be familiar with the Top of the Pops appearance promoting Empire Song, one in which Jaz Coleman - hiding in Iceland at the time in an attempt to survive the impending Apocalypse - was replaced on stage by someone in a beekeeper's outfit miming his keyboard parts. But of course.
J xx
ALVVAYS - In Undertow (2017)
REAL ESTATE – Darling (2017)
THE DURUTTI COLUMN - What Is It To Me (Woman) (1987)
SUNFLOWER BEAN – I Was a Fool (2017)
VERSUS – Shangri-La (2000)
ALASDAIR ROBERTS - Scarce of Fishing (2016)
ROSE ELINOR DOUGALL – Stellular (2017)
KILLING JOKE – Empire Song (1982)
THEN AND NOW: Saint Etienne
SAINT ETIENNE – Magpie Eyes (2017)
SAINT ETIENNE – Saturday (Fugu Mix) (1999)
ENDERBY’S ROOM – Lakeside (2016)
THE OTHER TWO – The Greatest Thing (1993)
THE JUST JOANS - No Longer Young Enough (2017)
DRAHLA - Silk Spirit (2017)
ECHO & THE BUNNYMEN – Nocturnal Me (1984)
JANE WEAVER – Slow Motion (2017)
STEREOLAB – Anémie (Peel Session) (1993)
FAUST – It’s a Rainy Day (Sunshine Girl) (1972)
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