In These Shoes? I Don't Think So (Top 10 Albums)

Member Name: Aspen

Product:	Top 10 Albums
Date:	28/07/01 (401 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Very personal

Disadvantages: Also very personal

I’m a mug.

I’ve just cut my potential reads dramatically, by writing two opinions in the space of a few hours. Because we all know, that generally, only the latest one gets read.

So I’ll just have to play the system, and “update” one or the other from time to time.

Thing is, I have never written a music review in my life. And the reason is, my taste is so eccentric (some may say dated), that in consumer terms I always felt that I could write nothing which would be damn-all use to anyone.

But I must confess, I am tempted by this top ten category.

If for no other reason than to prove that a boring old (Scottish) fart can be a boring old (Scottish) fart, and still be proud of it.

And as you work down this list, in ascending order, do not be surprised that Scottish artists appear towards the finale. If, of course, you persevere that long.

So here goes -


10. Del Amitri – Change Everything.

Justin Currie is a cut above. If I were to analyse, or even list, every track on every album in this list, I would not be bored. In fact I would enjoy every moment – it is my top ten after all. But you, unless you are my soul mate, would be well p*ssed off by the time we get to number eight – if not before. So with the odd exception, I will pick only a couple of tracks from each.

Be My Downfall is for me the second best Del Amitri track ever. Classic love triangle stuff, but with the twist of doing the wrong, weak-willed, and very human thing.
“I look at you and fall under your spell,
I know I should be thinking of her lying there herself.”

And the ultimate “The Last to Know”. Just listen to/read the lyrics. I mean, it’s a damn good tune, if all you want is music. But listen to the lyrics. Every failed relationship, every participant, will empathise. “When your winter comes, I’ll be the
last to know.”

9. Roxy Music – Heart Still Beating.

I’m going to skip superficially over this. Not because it means nothing to me. Quite the reverse. If I wanted to be really self indulgent, I could do a top ten which contained nothing but Bryan Ferry and Roxy Music. And it didn’t have to be Heart Still Beating. As long as it contained Avalon.

I think Avalon may actually be my Desert Island Disc.

8. Mike Scott and the Waterboys – The Whole of the Moon.

It seems incredible that the title track is, for most people, the only Waterboys track ever heard of.. Why? This whole bloody album is special from start to finish. Why were they only ever, at best, obscure?

7. Neil Young – Freedom.

It starts with Rockin’ in the Free World. It ends with Rockin’ in the Free World. It is packed with good sh*t in between. I can hardly believe that the earliest of these track was written in 1962. I was only seven, for God’s sake!! Neil’s an ugly beggar – even he wouldn’t deny it. But he has written from the heart for more years than many of us have lived. Yes, and I’m almost old enough to remember the Crazy Horse days, not to mention Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young.

6. Big Country – Through a Big Country.

Well, you either loved them or hated them. If you have no heart, no soul, no passion, you never bought anything by Big Country. I hesitate to say it, but if you appreciated music, you probably never bought anything by Big Country. But if you had fire in your belly, passion in your heart, and several pints of lager down your neck, there are few tracks more rousing than Fields of Fire or Look Away.

5. Hooters – One Way Home

Now, I like Satellite, and several other tracks., although Washington’s Day is a dirge, and I always skip Graveyard Waltz. The Hooters for me are chalk and cheese. They’v
e produced some awful rubbish, but lurking here and there are one or two gems. Apart from Satellite, if the Hooters had recorded nothing else in their career apart from Karla With a K, they would have made it into my top ten for that track alone. This is a special track for me. It signifies so much, it makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. It’s just me, and my history. But then that’s what personal top tens are about.

(Excuse me, I think I’ll go and shove it on while I think about the rest of this.)

4. James Taylor – Classic Songs.

If you’re familiar with James Taylor, anything I say is superfluous. If you’ve never heard of James Taylor, anything I say is equally superfluous.

But winter, spring, summer or fall, all you gotta do is call, and I’ll be there.

You gotta friend.

I have a friend like that, and this is our song. ‘Nuff said.

3. Capercaillie – The Blood is Strong.

Now I appreciate that the Gaelic may be a turn-off for many reading this, but it’s not all in the Gaelic.

But a lot of it is, so I’ll not go through it blow by blow.

Suffice it to say Karen Mathieson and the band have taken the best of traditional Scottish folk music and transformed it into such an evocative, haunting album, a tear would form in a glass eye. Definitely one for a quiet night in with a loved one, or a quiet night in with a bottle of Glen Ord.

2. Runrig – Long Distance

Runrig’s just not the same without Donnie – no offence, guys.

I think I possess every Runrig album ever produced. Why did I choose Long Distance? Many of my favourites are missing.

But Long Distance offers a cross-section of Runrig, from the early Gaelic days, to the one or two tracks which believe it or not hit the national airwaves. Runrig are big in Scotland. They are huge in Europe. They pack ven
ues in Germany, for example, like few other British groups. They are loved in the far east. They are adored in America. In fact, the only country in the world in which Runrig are not a household name is England. (Sorry, did I say country – I meant region (of the British Isles). I will not even begin to speculate as to why that should be.

There is not one track on this album which I do not adore.

But head and shoulders above them all is Flower of the West.

I don’t plan to die in the near future, but when I do, I want Flower of the West played at my funeral.


1. The Late, Great Kirsty McColl – The Best Of.

Ewan McColl would never have described himself as a great performer. (Though he was ,in his own way.) He was a collector of folk songs, and as such, maintained a heritage and tradition, which would have been lost without him and his ilk.

His daughter, however, was a great performer. She was also an immensely talented songwriter.

I loved Kirsty McColl, and I am not in the least ashamed to admit, I cried the day I heard of her death on the radio.

Her music had a versatility all of her own. She unashamedly nicked her folksy roots from her old man, but combined these with her own love of Latin-American music and rhythms. And still found time to collaborate with the drunken genius that was and still is Sean McGowan. Fairytale of New York is a timeless Christmas classic, which leaves Noddy Holder and Slade on a par with Mike Batt and the Wombles. And believe me, that’s no disrespect to Messrs Holder or Batt. Her cover of Billy Bragg’s New England is a legend.

Actually, I could list every track on this album, even finding Elvis in the local chippie, and lust over each and every one.

But I don’t want to go over the top.

I loved Kirsty, and I loved her music.

She’s my No 1.

‘Nuff said.


Now the
truth - If I were allowed only one artist(s), it would be the Eagles. Why do they not appear in my top ten? Simple. They would occupy slots 10 - 1, and no-one, except Kirsty, would get a look in. Didn't seem fair, really.



(And for my fellow Scots who say, what about Wolfstone, what about the Battlefield Band, what about the famous but never recorded Sharny Peat? – Well, in another time and another place, maybe I’ll get the opportunity to do a Scottish top ten. But I promise you now, it won’t include Fran and Anna!)




The mandadory analysis is not applicable to this topic, as you will all already know, and many of you will have complained about, and of course nothing will ever be done about it. Please ignore.

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