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  • The Stooges by The Stooges

    The Stooges by The Stooges

    The debut album from The Stooges.

    Not a favourite of mine but it’s still worth a listen every now and again.

    It’s one of those “formative” albums I think — being described as “proto-punk” on wikipedia.

    The short run-time (about 34 minutes) works great for me as a short-sharp punch of energetic music.

    488/500

  • Back to Mono (1958–1969) by Phil Spector

    Back to Mono (1958–1969) by Phil Spector

    A large collection of songs produced by Phil Spector between 1958 and 1969.

    A lot of them I recognised from their covers by other artists over the years, along with the many that have since been used / lifted for adverts.

    I absolutely loved this whole collection. I enjoyed delving into the late 50s and 60s vibes.

    The whole thing gave me feelings of “late 50s haunted hollywood” — mainly due to a scene in David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive.

    There’s just something about the music of this era that just pulls you in.

    Favourite Songs:

    • Under the moon of love — Curtis Lee
    • Anything by The Ronettes
      • Be my baby
    • He’s sure the boy I love — The Crystals
    • (Today I met) The boy I’m gonna marry — Darlene Love
    • A Love Like Yours (Don’t Come Knocking Everyday) — Ike and Tina Turner

    489/500

  • Heart Like A Wheel by Linda Ronstadt

    Heart Like A Wheel by Linda Ronstadt

    A breath of fresh air after the previous album in the top 500 list.

    490/500

  • Harry’s House by Harry Styles

    Harry’s House by Harry Styles

    well.

    I made it to the end.

    Honestly didn’t care for most of it. But the last song “Love of my Life” wasn’t too bad.

    491/500

  • How I share videos on my website

    The standard way nowadays, to share a video online, is to post an embed link to youtube.

    This then displays that video in what’s called an iframe — an embedded website within the website you are on.

    What this allows youtube and parent company alphabet (read: google) to do, is to track you whilst on that website.

    I want my website to be a bastion of the once-person-centric web. When people would share things on their own websites because they enjoyed it and wanted to share it with other humans.

    Self-hosting videos myself

    So to ensure that I don’t subject my visitors to any tracking, I choose to download any videos I wish to share and then manually upload them to my own site.

    When you watch a video on my website, it actually is from my own website.

    A novel idea I know.

    It’s how it used to be, and it’s how it should be.

    Mind your bandwidth

    I am also putting a note beneath each video to show what size the video is in megabytes (mb).

    My site shouldn’t preload the video — it will only start downloading it once you press the play button.

    I recommend just waiting till you’re on a wifi connection. Nothing I’m sharing can’t wait till later.

    Enjoy the fresh air whilst you’re out.

    Disclaimer

    I may still have some very old posts in my archive that have historic youtube links in them. Yes, I did it once too.

    But I am endeavouring to get rid of those and replace them with self-hosted versions where possible.

  • Carole King – It’s too late video (BBC In Concert, February 10, 1971)

    Video Size: ~37mb – Watch out if you’re not on wifi.

    A great performance of the song.

  • Nick of Time by Bonnie Raitt

    Nick of Time by Bonnie Raitt

    Somewhere, on a desert road in U.S.A, is a dusty drinks bar about to erupt into a fight. This album playing on the jukebox.

    I got vibes of my distant memories of the film Road House. No sure how accurate that is.

    Favourite Songs:

    • Love Letter
    • Real Man
    • The Road’s my middle name

    492/500

  • Presenting the Fabulous Ronettes featuring Veronica

    Presenting the Fabulous Ronettes featuring Veronica

    Nice, wholesome 60s music.

    Featuring a bunch of songs I, and no doubt most people, have heard throughout their lives.

    Favourites:

    • (The Best Part Of) Breakin’ Up

    494/500

  • Nightflight to Venus by Boney M

    Nightflight to Venus by Boney M

    Funky as f*ck.

    I took a sidestep from my top 500 album countdown with this absolute banger of an album (maybe it appears higher on that list)

    Every song is golden.

    I can’t believe ive been enjoying the song Rasputin all these years without hearing it in the context of the album.

    The opening song “Nightflight to Venus” is to “Rasputin” as “Sirius” is to “Eye in the Sky”.

  • II by Boyz II Men

    II by Boyz II Men

    495/500

    Hot on the heels of Shakira’s album earlier, comes Boyz II Men’s II album.

    Pretty chill this one. It seemed to melt into the background as I was working.

    All in all pretty relaxing. Would recommend.

  • Donde Estan Los Ladrones by Shakira

    Donde Estan Los Ladrones by Shakira

    496/500

    If you’d have told me, a week ago, that I’d be listening to a Shakira album I’d have laughed at you.

    However, as this is in position 496 of the Top 500 Albums as decided by Rolling Stone magazine, it has entered my ears.

    And you know what? Even though I don’t understand a word (it being in Spanish) it’s actually been an enjoyable listen.

    I guess when an artist has an annoying pop song hit (as Shikira did with Wherever, whenever) it’s easy to disgard their entire career.

    Not a bad listen though.

    Favourite Songs:

    • Moscas en la Casa
    • Que Vuelvas
    • Dónde Están los Ladrones