all I have left is my memories of yesterday...

>>>>> ST's ALPHABETICON - P <<<<<

Previously in the Alphabeticon: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, singles, N, O

So after a brief break for us all to better enjoy the festive period without distraction, the weekly trawl through my dusty CD shelves is now able to resume it's slow crawl towards the still-distant finishing line. It's not an exhaustive run-down of all of the albums in my collection, or even of all of the CDs in my collection (I know for a fact I've got "Open Up And Say Ahhhh!" on CD hidden somewhere, for starters)... it's just a run through one particular set of shelves in the house. It's not meant to be a serious catalogue. It's just for fun, kids. Well, it's fun for me, anyway.....

Now where were we?

Ah yes. "P".

335. Pulp – We Love Life
336. Pulp – His ‘n’ Hers
337. Pulp – This is Hardcore
338. Pulp – Different Class
339. Pulp - Intro

Good band, Pulp. It certainly took them a long time to make it though: the first of their 8 Peel Sessions was in 1981, their second wasn't until 1993....their first three albums failed to chart entirely, but their next four were all in the top 10, including two number ones. I think I first heard of them around the time that "Do You Remember the First Time?" came out (in fact, I think that the band made a short film to accompany the single release... people talking about losing their virginity). I saw them live for the first time at the Reading Festival in 1994. During their set, they played a couple of amazing songs, and a friend of mine spent the best part of the next twelve months trawling through record shops to see if he could find out what they were.... and then "Different Class" came out, and it became abundantly clear that he had been looking for "Underwear" and "Common People". Oh well. I saw them several other times afterwards, and even when they were in their final throes and touring "We Love Life" (produced by Scott Walker, no less!), they were still brilliant. That's a much underrated album and they were a much underrated band. Having said that, I'm still not sure about "This Is Hardcore".

340. Candie Payne – I Wish I Could Have Loved You More

You might say that Candie Payne has got musical pedigree: her brother Howie was the frontman in the Stands and her other brother Sean is the drummer in the Zutons. Hmmm. Then again maybe you wouldn't go quite that far. Anyway. She's a bit of a throwback, and has been compared with no less a figure than Dusty Springfield. Well, I wouldn't go that far, but she does have a good voice, and she uses it to good effect on 1960s style pop - the title track in particular is a great track. Mind you, I saw her on telly the other day with Mark Ronson singing the Lily Allen part on "Oh My God", and I couldn't help but think that Lily did it better. It's a good album though. Honestly.

341. Pixies – Doolittle
342. Pixies – Surfer Rosa & Come On Pilgrim
343. Pixies – Death to the Pixies

Ah, the band that taught Kurt Cobain everything he knew about loud-quiet-loud. They're really very good you know. Nihilistic shrieking is brilliant, isn't it?

344. Panic! At The Disco – A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out

Now, before you judge me, let me explain: I'm not normally the kind of guy to pop out and queue up with the kids to buy a bit of emo (and perhaps some Maybelline), but there is something magical about "I Write Sins, Not Tragedies". I can't get enough of it. The rest of the album is alright, I suppose, but there's nothing anywhere near as good as that. Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant song.

345. Pet Shop Boys – Discography

Thanks to a couple of generous friends, I have an awful lot of Pet Shop Boys on my iPod. Thanks to one of those friends too, I was lucky enough to see them playing live in the BBC Radio theatre a couple of years ago. Bloody good band. I'm sure they've done better, but for some reason I have a massive soft-spot for "I Wouldn't Normally Do This Kind of Thing". Perhaps it's the pointy hats.

346. Elvis Presley – 30 Number 1 Hits

The King!

347. Gene Pitney – Greatest Hits

I have a feeling that this is one of those albums where a classic artist who sadly no longer has control over the publishing rights for his most famous songs re-records them. It's alright, but it's just not magical. Luckily, it only cost me 99p.

348. Pavement – Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain

For indie kids of a certain age, this album will always have a special place. Sadly for me, I was too lost in my heavy metal years to pay it any attention until fairly recently. It's good, but is it really as good as "Angel Dust" by Faith No More?

349. Public Enemy – It Takes a Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back

Look, I know this looks bad. I'm sure I must have another rap album in my collection somewhere.

[rummages around for a bit]

Hmm. Maybe not.

"Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos" is a fantastic record by anyone's standards though, surely?

350. Pearl Jam – Ten
351. Pearl Jam – Vs

Apparently Pearl Jam are still going?

352. Portishead – Dummy

Is it me, or has this album not dated at all? It was released back in 1994, and it still sounds fantastic today. It's a bit Massive Attack, I suppose, but Beth Gibbons has a wonderful, distinctive voice. No 419 in the Rolling Stone Magazine 500 Greatest Albums of all time (in 2003) and they KNOW about these things.

353. Primal Scream – Screamadelica
354. Primal Scream – Vanishing Point

I fucking loathe Primal Scream. Sadly, I can't call them entirely talentless because "Screamadelica" is far too good for that. The gits. Or should I just give all of the credit to Andy Weatherall for turning a ropey rock band into acid rock legends? "Vanishing Point" is a completely different kettle of fish - much, much darker and much, much harder to listen to. "Kowalski" is genius though. Bobby Gillespie is still a tosser though.

355.The Pogues – Rum, Sodomy & The Lash
356. The Pogues – Very Best of

Has Irish punk crossover music sung by people with awful teeth ever sounded better? He drinks pints of Martini, you know....

357. Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers – Greatest Hits

Well, it says it's a greatest hits album, and I'm sure there are lots of songs on here that made the charts... but to be honest, it's all about "Runnin' Down A Dream", "Learning To Fly", "Into the Great Wide Open" and -- of course -- "Free Fallin'". Forget Jerry McGuire and Petty's terrible hair though, these are proper good songs. Widescreen , even. Does he really love Veruca Salt though, or were Terrorvision just totally lying to us?

358.Primus –Frizzle Fry
359. Primus – Sailing the Seas of Cheese
360. Primus – Pork Soda

Les Claypool is an absolute legend and his bass-led psychedelic polka is one of the wonders of the modern age.

"When the going gets tough
And the stomach acids flow
The cold wind of conformity
Is nipping at your nose
When some trendy new atrocity
Has brought you to your knees
Come with us we'll sail the
Seas of Cheese"

What more needs to be said?

361. Pink Floyd – Dark Side of the Moon
362. Pink Floyd – Wish You Were Here
363. Pink Floyd – Echoes

Well. I'm a fan of po-faced guitar music. What can I say? I also have "The Wall" on cassette somewhere, and I listen to it when I'm feeling especially complex and misunderstood.

364. Prodigy – the Fat of the Land

In theory this is a really good album featuring some all time classic singles like "Firestarter" and "Breathe". Sadly though, this album has been ruined for me by dint of it coming out at a time when I worked for HMV and was thus forced to listen to it about one hundred times a day. Every day. For a month. That's probably more than enough to kill the enjoyment in even the very best albums (the same treatment nearly ruined "OK Computer" for me too). Light relief came whenever the album looped round to "Smack my Bitch Up", and whoever was closest to the stereo had to vault over the counter and skip on to the next track lest we offended any customers. I let this go on for a few days before I pointed out to the manager that it was possible to do such a thing as programme the CD player....

Lost somewhere in iTunes.... The Pigeon Detectives, Poison, Probot, Propellerheads, Peeping Tom, Polyphonic Spree, Powderfinger....

Next time: Q (which frankly won't hold us up for long).

--

Shuffleathon 2007 Update

This has been going on for ages, and to be honest, I'm getting a bit bored of it....as I'm sure is anyone who is still hanging on for their CD to turn up or for the CD they sent ages ago to be reviewed.

Or is just bored of seeing this stupid table.

Anyway.

Here's what I'm going to do... I'm going to make CDs myself for anyone who hasn't yet received their CD and has pretty much given up hope. Wombat and JamieS are first on the list, and I'll make up their CDs in the next couple of weeks, but anyone else want one?

Unless of course anyone who hasn't done their review / sent their CD is feeling sufficiently guilty or motivated to pull their finger out?

Yeah, yeah. Whatever.

Yawn.

Shuffler	Posted	Received
1. Tina	yes	review
2. Sarah	yes
3. Cody Bones	yes	review
4. Mark	yes	review
5. Michael	yes	review
6. Hen	yes	off the hook
7. Cat	yes	review
8. bedshaped	yes	review
9. Pynchon	yes	review
10. J	yes	review
11. The Great Grape Ape	yes	review
12. Ian	yes	review
13. Martin
14. Monogodo	yes	yes
15. Threelight	yes	review
16. Paul	yes	review
17. Charlie	yes	review
18. LB	yes	review
19. Katyola	yes	review
20. Lisa	yes	review
21. Graham	yes?
22. Del	yes	review
23. Spins	yes
24. Ben	yes	review
25. Dragon	yes	yes
26. Adem	yes	review
27. Mike	yes	review
28. JoeInVegas	yes	yes
29. Wombat	yes
30. Max Bob	yes	review
31. Stevious	yes	review
32. Asta	yes	review
33. Alan	yes	review
34. Russ L	yes	review
35. E.	yes
36. Mike T-D	yes	review
37. JamieS	yes
38. Briskate	yes	review
38. Me	yes	review

From an original idea by lovely YokoSpungeon....