Intro

I will start by acknowledging that this one owes much to being a keen follower of Tom Ewing's Popular blog on the number one singles and, more hesitantly, Marcello Carlin's Then Play Long on the number one albums. I say hesitantly because the latter often irritates the hell out of me with his Danny Baker-esque intimidation-by-allusion style, right-on politics and most of all the rarity of his acknowledging that anyone else (bar his wife) has anything worthwhile to contribute. On the other side of the coin he's undoubtedly well read, has a fabulous memory and as a signer for avenues of further exploration he's unbeatable.

I'm only going to cover the albums I own in the order I bought them although this will get very approximate as time goes on. I should warn that I like a bargain so rarely buy albums when they first come out and therefore the order will defy any logic and keep you guessing what's coming next. For anyone familiar with Then Play Long my posts will be much shorter primarily because I have only a rudimentary knowledge of musical theory so you won't find any mention of diminished chords, modality or syncopation here outside the comments section. But also I am genuinely keen to hear other opinions and want to leave space for that.

OK - I'll sign off and go and dig out the first one which I haven't played for years....