WOEBOT

1) Richard Hawley "Cole's Corner". This is really nice in a Jake Thackery wordy Northern gloom, delated Morissey, Chris Isaac at the end of the pier kinda fashion.

2) Lily Allen. This is actually half OK. There must have been lots of Reggae in their household. It compares quite favorably in spirit to The Slits and unlike MIA who conjured up roughly the same mirage with a load of bullshit attached, is quite palatable. I wouldn't buy it, but I'd wrap it up nicely and give it to Tom Ewing for Christmas or if my baby girl was seven and I was one of those kinda self-consciously stylish Dad's I'd slip it under her door.

3) Some of the comments here amongst the most inane ever committed in the name of music journalism.

On Yossou N'Dour's "Immigres":

"Without this ... N'Dour wouldn't have met Peter Gabriel, there'd have been no African presence at Live 8. In fact, 'world music' would not exist as a section in Western collections."

N'Dour would never have met Peter Gabriel? And? Yes? Your point here precisely?

Who gives half a flying fuck about the African presence at Live 8? Musically speaking I was quite glad there was almost no African presence at Live 8, because if there had been it would have compromised the event's utter shiteness. I'd have had to taken the whole thing seriously, rather than just outta hand dismissing it like I did. The first time I saw any footage was this year, and boy was I glad for the 365 day buffer. If I'd been able to watch it on Pluto that'd have been slightly more agreeable.

World music existing as a "section" in Western music collections? Clearly fatuous and wrong-headed. I don't know if this makes me detest the Observer's relentlessly middle-brow aesthetic or just people in general.

On Massive Attack's "Blue Lines"

"Without this ... no Roots Manuva, no Dizzee. In fact, there would be no British urban music scene to speak of."

Jesus wept. The very idea of one LP having anything whatsoever to do....actually I give up with this one. Possibly thee most stupid thing I have ever read.

4) Quite a lot of this amounts to Observer bashing, and I thought I'd leaven it with a few words about Paul Morley. When I went to see Chris Bohn at The Wire to try and talk him into running my NDW Primer (back in the day when I gave a toss), he told me I referenced too much other music in my reviews. I always really liked it when you read a review and the reviewer said "like such'n'such rare interesting thing". Sometimes I thought that that was the only good thing about reviews, that and being told whether the record was worth investigating. To be told this was a bad thing, well it went right over my head to be honest. Bohn also seemed to think that this was me copying Paul Morley. Again I was totally baffled because I've never seen anything Morley has written. I've read one very recent piece he wrote about Brian Eno's music being used for a commercial, how we should applaud that, and that is it. I never read the NME back in the day, I was playing with my chemistry set.

I know what Bohn is referring to though because, "Words and Music" (which again I haven't read) is famous for its lists. For eventually dissolving into lists. Also I suppose the rhizome-like thing about references, who knows maybe that passed into the body of Rock Crit via Morley's influence? Maybe I've been unwittingly influenced? Nothing to be ashamed of at all in that, I suppose I may have picked it up as a habit secondhand via Simon Reynolds (who I copped practically everything off I didn't copy from Lester Bangs).

But just for the record, even though I pretty much despise the Observer and Guardian's music coverage I'd like to say that I think Paul is a righteous dude. Frankie was a supremely insane intervention and (the meat of this ramble) he has excellent taste as is visible here in this list, which Tim Finney at ilx amused me by saying was very like my own, if just a shade more middlebrow. I got some cool things out of Paul's list. I found a copy of Kevin Ayer's "Shooting At The Moon" and also Fairport Convention's "Unhalfbricking" which is indispensable. Though Neutral Milk Hotel, which I also picked up on his recommendation, was I dunno, really gruesome and Middle-American in the most banal way. And he was great on Simon's RIUASA panel. And you can see him on the telly.