Monday, 29 December 2014

AAA Review Of The Year 2014





Hello dear readers and welcome to what has now become a seasonal tradition at Alan's Album Archives, a farewell to the year filled with all the most brilliant additions (as well as the worst negative subtractions to) the AAA  canon over the past year. What a year it's been dear reader - we now have half a dozen AAA books in the works, another 24 that are being worked on and As I write we're edging closer to the 300,000 hits mark (itself almost double where we were last Christmas) In addition, we now have a fan base that's now probably double compared to the end of last year (a great big hello to all our new readers and a warm festive hug to all our old ones!) and some firm new friends who've been kind enough to contact me over the course of the year (special shout out to Andrew Jackson for some lovely long emails over the course of the past year - and a warm thankyou as ever to Frank Gruber for his kind support, not to mention all those of you kind enough to retweet, favourite or comment on one of our AAA tweets over the past 12 months). Even an unexpected detour away from the internet and the television for eight weeks (sob!) didn't slow us down - erm, the site actually seemed to be at its most popular when we were away from it and not writing as much (actually I can see why now...)  Still, at this rate our joke of Alan's Album Archives taking over the world (or at least the world's internet!) by about 2020 is looking more and more likely! Oh and we're even a big hit in Moldova - who could ask for more?!

Sadly while the AAA has been growing, the AAA groups have been slowing. There have been less new releases by our bands this year than at any time since starting this site in 2008 (although I seem to recall saying that last year too...) and most of what has come out has only been for Christmas at the end of the year, before we've properly got a chance to get to know everything. Even the blitz of box sets and documentaries that padded out the last couple of years and took half my savings seem to have slowed to a drizzle (good for my bank manager, a shame for my ears). Even so there's been plenty to get our teeth into during this issue, which has a new section for this year: AAA books. Yes, technically our three releases came out in the dying weeks of last year but I couldn't afford them then so they're all eligible for entry this year instead! That's in addition to our usual discussions of the top new releases, the best re-issues, documentaries, DVDs and 'Songs of the year', as well as one or two releases that were seriously under-par (we can't be nice all the time - our heads would explode!)

Usually at this point in our yearly review we say 'this year was just like....'After a run of years 'like' 1963 through to 1966 I was hoping that 2014 would be the summer of love all over again. Instead it turned out to be the summer of tough love, as 'grumpiness' seems to be the theme of the year (there's been a definite theme on the last few AAA releases of being old and grumpy - and even the re-issues, like the 1980s 10cc albums, bear this out too). In terms of music CSNY were clearly the winners, with a best-selling box set of their 1974 tour that - finally - put them back in all the music papers where they all belonged, along with Crosby's first solo CD in 21 years, Nash's first book and no less than two new studio albums from Young. Elsewhere Cat Stevens/Yusuf released his first album in a while, Oasis carried on their fine re-issue programme, 10cc finally got round to theirs and Nils Lofgren finally got the career-spanning compilation he deserved (actually a bit more than he deserved at nine discs and a £150 price tag!) The Beach Boys and The Beatles - regulars in this column over the years - were both conspicuous by their absence this year, which no doubt means they're planning something big and expensive for next year...Thankfully there's been no AAA obituaries to write this year (which makes a nice change) but at the same time we've had to wave goodbye to Beady Eye (promising Oasis spin-off band) who announced they were breaking up in October and quite possibly CSN/CSNY, who've vowed never to make any music together ever again (erm just like 1970! And 1974! And 1976! And 1982! etc...) As ever, we'll be reviewing what comes next by all our bands over the course of 2015 and invite you, our dear readers, to carry on sticking by us through the year that comes when we'll be edging ever closer to our goal of having reviews all 500 (and counting) studio albums by our 30-odd AAA bands...(just 108 to go!)  Till then, have a great Christmas, hope you get the better AAA releases from this list in your Christmas stocking and see you in the new year!


THE BEST ALBUMS OF THE YEAR

1) Nils Lofgren "Face The Music"

We spent a long time rabbiting on about how great this set was last week, so here we'll keep to the essentials: Nils Lofgren is long overdue a career respective, his albums have been spread out over so many smaller labels that collecting them all on CD has been hard work (impossible in some cases!) and the chance to finally own some of the greatest music of the 1970s on my handy portable mp3 has been the musical highlight of my year (not just 'Shine Silently' and 'Keith Don't Go' but the stuff nobody plays: 'The Sun Hasn't Set On This Boy Yet' 'Can't Get No Closer' 'I Found Her' 'Beggar's Day etc). Nils has also added a full two discs' worth of unreleased material, most of which is pretty dispensable but the best of which (a killer alternate take of 'Keith Don't Go' with early patron Neil Young on guitar! A lovely pre-fame song by first band Grin, never heard before! The moving 'Miss You C', a recent tribute to Clarence Clemons, fellow member of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band!) are as great as anything with Nils' name attached to it. There are some problems: the ninth disc of DVD footage misses a lot of the important stuff (like the killer show at the Rockapalast in 1979), the later albums are here nearly complete while the better earlier ones aren't (where the heck is the 'finished' 'Keith Don't Go', half the AAA favourite Nils album 'Damaged Goods' from 1995 or one of Nils' greatest tracks 'Sticks and Stones'?!) and the packaging is a bit on the simple side for such an expensive set (£150+!) Then again, this is a special set very much made with fans in mind and currently being hand-signed by Nils. The good news - in a way, if you ignore any possible signature cramp - is that the set is selling well and finally giving Nils some of the high reputation and respect he deserves. (we won't mention that awful cheer-leading album for the Madden American Football league if you won't!)

2) Crosby Stills Nash and Young "CSNY '74"

We covered the whole of this fascinating much-delayed 40-years-in-the-making tale in a full review posted here: http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/crosby-stills-nash-and-young-csny-74.html  In short, though (well, shorter) what a privilege to be able to hear foru of the greatest musicians on the planet on some of their earliest recorded live shows playing to the biggest crowd of people ever assembled in one place outside Woodstock and playing material that's otherwise unreleased to this day. Graham Nash has worked hard on this set, trying to make up for some rather ragged and raw recordings at the time by combining the best tapes from several different shows, although to be honest the raw and ragged bootlegs sound even better. We're not entirely happy with this expensive box set - the booklet has two rather odd essays, a handful of pictures and not much track information, while some key songs are missing (the explanations in the booklet aren't good enough: the bootlegs of certain songs like 'Carry On' sound great to me!) However by and large this set is a powerful reminder of what a powerful band CSNY were with some cracking live versions of some of the world's greatest music and no less than four Neil Young songs exclusive to this set. Recorded the year of Watergate and Nixon's resignation, this is CSNY at their most potent and political outside of 1970, with a job to do but with great fun doing it; suddenly a tour that once got such a bad name for excess and raucous noise seems a whole lot better. One last request though: please put the entire Wembley show from this tour out on DVD (just four songs are used for the DVD with this set): it's one of the greatest things I own, official or otherwise...

3) Neil Young "Storytone"

We've already got our 'full' review of Neil's second album of the year planned, hopefully I'll remember to include it here - if not then, oops, have a look for it on our 'Neil Young' section somewhere around the bottom of the page. A record inspired by the woe and grief of getting divorced after 37 years of marriage, 'Storytone' is a major album for Neil, if not quite up there with his very best. Guilt often brings out the best in Neil and we're right back where we were in the early 1970s, with Neil once more in love 'with an actress' and trying to come to terms with the disruptions in his life. This time of course he has a family to consider and it all seems very complicated. For the first time since 1972 Neil went back to singing with an orchestra and the results were, erm, mixed bordering on schmaltzy (the same goes for the jazz band he brought in on one song). Thankfully Neil also had the novel idea of including his rough demos of the songs on the 'deluxe' version of the album and they're a revelation: stark, honest, powerful, everything we want Neil Young to be. Not every song is great, not every idea works and the consistency of sound on either version gets a little wearing. However this is Neil back talking to us, rather than hiding behind cover songs, tracks about his car or extended moody jamming pieces with Crazy Horse. I'm still not quite sure whether this album beats 'Psychedelic Pill', but that album aside it's his best in a decade, since 'Prairie Wind' (a record with which it bears many simailarities).

4) Pink Floyd "The Endless River"

In any other year this album would probably be sitting in our 'worst releases' column - it's not very bad, it's just not very good either, a set of unreleased instrumentals from 20 years ago that weren't thought good enough to release at the time and effectively sounding like an hour's edit of 'Marooned' (the six minute track from 'The Division Bell'), but not quite as interesting. The result is cleverly edited from various sessions to sound like the band intended the music to run that way and the pair have even re-recorded a few bits and pieces for the record, but still by and large this is an instrumental record made as a 'warm-up' to a proper LP and however well dressed up it may be, it still sounds like a warm-up for a proper LP. However the fact that David Gilmour and Nick Mason are working together again is great news, the idea of this album as a 'tribute' to dearly departed keyboardist Rick Wright is a lovely notion (he's the record's undoubted star) and the closing song (the only not an instrumental) 'Louder Than Words' is 'almost' the send off Floyd deserve (they're adamant there won't be anything else with their name attached to it now). I can't say I'm disappointed with it because to be honest I expected a lot worse, but in truth 'Endless River' is worth buying only for one song, a few bits of lovely Rick Wright improvisation and to know where the opening instrumental from 'Marooned' had its original home. We certainly won't be treating it as part of the proper 'canon' in another 20 years, but as a sort of glorified bootleg it is at least a chance to hear something we fans thought we never would. If only more of this album had more lyrics attached to it...(Hint: if you want to hear this album the way I hoped it would sound send a tweet to @martink10 and he might just surprise you...) 

5) Cat Stevens/Yusuf "Tell 'Em I'm Gone"

Just about squeezing onto our list - mainly because of the dearth of any albums released this year, good or bad - is Cat Stevens' third album since returning from the musical dead as Yusuf. 'Tell 'Em I'm Gone' is a woeful follow-up to the excellent 'Roadsinger' of five years ago and even lacks the (very) occasional high points of 'An Other Cup', but where this album does succeed is with the return to the R and B music that first inspired Cat to pick a guitar up some 55 years ago and some entertaining cover versions ('You Are My Sunshine' and 'Big Boss Man'). The originals are a very mixed bag: 'I Was Born In Babylon' tries to be brave but ends up patronising, a lament about how the white Christian Empire has crumbled which makes a valid point rather clumsily; 'Editing Floor Blues' is also a little dodgy in the way that Cat tries to defend himself from newspaper criticisms made 30 years ago in some cases and succeeds in sounding bitter rather than heroic. 'The Cat and Dog Trap' is a clever nod of the head to the days a teenage Cat sang 'I Love My Dog', though, and 'Dying To Live' is a rather moving look at old age and frailty, taboo for most lesser artists. At half an hour in the CD age - and after five years of waiting - this is a scandal - yes Cat's 1970s albums were all short too but contained so much emotional weight that didn't seem to matter; this record, however, is only heavy in parts (and not always successfully), with most of it about as heavy as a whiskerfrom a Firecat. Overall Yusuf sounds as confused as he ever has - the lyrics and his voice sound old and weary, but the cover silhouette sets out to make him look young for instance - but the album highlights are worth sitting through the lesser moments for.

THE BEST RE-ISSUES OF THE YEAR

1) 10cc "Ten Out Of Ten" (1981)/"Windows In The Jungle" (1983)

I still can't believe that these two 10cc albums (plus their lesser predecessor 'Look, Hear, Are You Normal?') are here, sitting on my shelves with their 10cc brethren as if owning them was the most natural thing in the world. For both 'Ten Out Of Ten' and 'Windows In The Jungle' are my favourite ever 10cc albums, recorded right at the very end of the band's original run when the records had stopped selling and the hits had stopped coming. Eric Stewart had been badly injured in a car crash in 1979 that effectively put the band on hold and they were back to a core trio of Eric, Graham Gouldmann and drummer Paul Burgess for these two records. More serious and less wacky than usual, but every bit as thoughtful, 'Ten Out Of Ten' is Graham's finest moment within the band and 'Windows' Eric's as both men come to terms with their changing fanbase and a darker, scarier 1980s than the 1970s had been for both of them. The result is a pair of quiet triumphs (after a bit of a mis-step with 'Look Hear'), much ignored by most of their fans that we liked enough to make part of our 'core' 101 album listing (I'm pleased to say that they're now officially the last AAA core albums still missing on CD: it may have taken six years of nagging - and probably had nothing to do with us at all - but we finally did it!) You see, these two albums came out in America on CD briefly some 25 years ago but never did come out in Europe and until the beginning of this year were clocking up prices of £200 secondhand on Amazon. So much love do I have for 'Windows' in particular that I nearly bought that copy myself - instead patience has been rewarded and these CDs cost a grand total of £8 each! And that's with bonus tracks - nothing that juicy, just some lesser B-sides, radio edits and live tracks - and if I was being really critical the packaging isn't up to much either. But....wow, they're actually here; I haven't got this emotion about buying a record before technically hearing it since Dennis Wilson's pair of albums came out seven years ago...

2) Oasis "(What's The Story) Morning Glory?" Deluxe Edition (1995)

Like the album itself, this deluxe re-issue of Oasis' 'Morning Glory' lacks the 'wow' sparkle and energy of the one for 'Definitely Maybe' but once again features more delights and successful pieces of vault-raiding than anything of the same generation. This three CD set includes the whole of the re-mastered album, some ridiculously impressive B-sides (although alas there's less that hadn't already been gathered up on superlative compilation 'Masterplan') and a full disc of unreleased material: demos a plenty, live extracts from legendary Oasis gigs like Knebworth and Earl's Court available officially for the first time, extracts from the MTV Unplugged show (with Noel singing everything), the 'radio one unplugged' cover of The Beatles' 'You've Got To Hide Your Love Away' and the legendary and hard-to-find 'Bonehead's Bank Holiday' intended as the guitarist's 'Ringo' contribution to the album but sung by Noel when Paul Arthurs chickened out! There's nothing quite as spine-tingly as the original unedited take of 'Shakermaker' or the pre-Oasis demos as 'The Rain' included on the 'Definitely Maybe' set. But this is still a handy clue as to why Oasis were the biggest band of their generation - let's hope that the next batch of under-rated albums get similarly deluxe re-issues and the full 'story' of this most fascinating of bands can at last be told.

3) Paul McCartney and Wings "Venus and Mars" Deluxe Edition (1975)

After a tiny gap of 18 months or so, The McCartney Collection deluxe series is back in force, with re-issues of Wings albums four and five ('Wings At The Speed Of Sound' is also out). I've always had a soft spot for 'Venus and Mars', which tends to get overlooked alongside 'Band On The Run', a typically eclectic McCartney mini-masterpiece in which he tries a ridiculous amount of styles and almost all of them work (although the patronising 'Treat Her Gently' is abominable). Like most of these re-issue sets I have to take issue with the expense and the sheer amount of not-that-interesting filler included on these sets (the songs from 'One Hand Clapping' aren't that rare, while '4th Of July' isn't that long) Clips of Wings filming the awful (and thankfully unreleased-till-1986) 'My Carnival' and a TV advert for the album aren't the most interesting DVD extras either. But the chance to own a studio take of 'Soilly' (the finale to live set 'Wings Over America'), an 'early' version of 'Rock Show' and the delightfully dotty outtake 'Hey Diddle' make it all worthwhile. The better unreleased material is actually on 'Wings At The Speed Of Sound' (including demos for album singles 'Silly Love Songs' and 'Let 'Em In', a version of 'Beware My Love' with Led Zeppelin's Jon Bonham filling in for Joe English and Joe's song on that album 'Must Do Something About It' with a vocal by Paul), but 'Venus and Mars' is still a more essential purchase if you don't already own either.


8
THE BEST TV/RADIO DOCUMENTARIES OF THE YEAR

1) The Rolling Stones At The BBC (TV, BBC4)

This compilation of rare and not-so-rare Stones clips was rather thrown away on BBC4 and not given the publicity it deserved (and that was before it was taken off once after the sad news about Mick Jagger's girlfriend's suicide and rescheduled a month later). While not quite as jaw-dropping as similar compilations for Pink Floyd and The Kinks (please please please carry on and do some more for The Who, The Hollies and the Solo Beatle Years...) this was another excellent compilation containing footage even the band's biggest fans hadn't seen before (the brief clip of '19th Nervous Breakdown' had only just been returned to the archives, in fact, after popping up in a TV play about a pill-popping parent - yep, they should have used 'Mother's Little Helper'!) There was a nice lot of rarely seen interview footage too, with a notably thoughtful Brian Jones of whom hardly anything exists, while the compilation sensibly stuck mainly to the band's glory years in the 1960s. Perhaps one day the beeb will put all their excellent 'at the...' series out on a special DVD. Till them this is one documentary British readers ought to keep their eyes peeled for (BBC4 have a habit of repeating these things late at night...)

2) Mitch Benn Is The 37th Beatle (Radio, Four Extra)

You don't get many stand-up comedy shows about music - perhaps because your audience has to really know a subject to find it funny - but The Beatles have always been a popular choice for a laugh, woven as they are into the fabric of our times. Liverpudlian Mitch Benn knows all this and uses it to his advantage, claiming that so many other people over the years have claimed to be 'the fifth Beatle' that he may as well throw his hat into the ring. Listing all the candidates available for fifth Beatle (George Martin, Brian Epstein, even Tony Sheridan whose death in 2013 inspired the show) allows for some inspired banter and some Rutles-style songs (including one about a damaged sculpture of The Beatles in Liverpool after Ringo's unkind comments about the city: 'Someone decapitated Ringo, I know that because someone decapitated Ringo, and now he's even shorter than he was!')  I've heard from others who've actually seen the show (I haven't, just heard the Radio Four Extra broadcast of it at the beginning of the year) that it rambles a bit when seen in full but the half hour I heard is the funniest Beatles comedy since Paul McCartney went out with Heather Mills!

3) A Grammy Salute To The Beatles (TV, ITV)

Screened in America in February to mark the - gulp! - 50th anniversary of the fab four's first appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show, we Brits didn't get to see this programme until Easter, when it was parked away late at night (although after gaining some good coverage ITV have already repeated it twice in prime time). I'm still not quite sure what I think about this documentary/concert: it was more moving than I expected to see Paul and Ringo back playing together for the first time in - another gulp! - 12 years (George Harrison's memorial concert). Both seemed to be enjoying themselves and even sat together in the audience to watch the rest of the bill, just like old times (that was the new Mrs Macca Nancy on her first 'official' outing next to Paul, while Barbara Bach was alongside Ringo as ever). The interview snippets with David Letterman (whose show now comes from what was the Ed Sullivan studio) were also moving, the pair of Beatles looking round in awe and picking out things they remembered from the day itself. Alas what could have been the TV event of the year never quite materialised - there were way too many nobody bands trying to do The Beatles (and do them badly; Annie Lennox was about the best and she was merely poor as opposed to unlistenable) and any newcomers to The Beatles (there must be some!) would have been very lost: nowhere were we told just how big the impact of the show was, the exact TV ratings for it (73 million! Back when there was 'only' 174 million Americans around to watch it - and this doesn't include 'guesting' relatives/friends not counted by the TV companies!), how many teenagers started bands immediately afterwards or the fact that this night still has the lowest crime spree of any single night in American records (because all the teenage hoodlums were inside watching the mop tops!) There was no context as to how lucky Ed Sullivan was to hire The Beatles either (his acts were booked months in advance and Sullivan only 'discovered' the band by chance after seeing screaming crowds of Beatle fans at Heathrow when The Beatles were coming back from a European tour!) A bit of a lost opportunity, but a special event all the same. Oh and a bit of history that unbelievably had never ever happened before (and didn't get as much fuss as it should!): while Paul has sung 'Sgt Peppers' live and Ringo 'With A Little Help From My Friends' this is the first time the pair have ever done the medley together (with Ringo making his entrance as 'Billy Shears'!) That alone is enough to tip this TV show into our top three!


THE BEST DVDS OF THE YEAR

1) Freda Kelly - The Beatles' Press Secretary (Documentary)

There have been so many programmes and books made by people who had very little connection with The Beatles down the years that very few of their 'inner circle' are left to talk. The Beatles' liverpool fanclub secretary is one such person, someone who took the band's privacy so seriously that her children barely knew of her 20s spent working for The Beatles and only agreed to do this film with the birth of her grandchild (so he can think her 'cool' when he grows up!) Freda played a major role in the band's story: she was there in the very early years assisting Brian Epstein, she helped confused Beatle mums and dads cope with the mountains of fan letters arriving at their houses each and every day, she wrote a regular column in The Beatles Book magazines and was one of the passengers on the Magical Mystery Tour coach. She has plenty of fine stories to tell, although you get the impression that even now she's reluctant to tell half of them, the interviewer looking on astonished as she brings out one tiny case of souvenirs from her attic and claims 'I honestly haven't looked at these in 40 years - I guess some of them might be worth a bit now!' With an impressively long running time (the BBC4 edit was an hour and a quarter, although I believe that's longer on the DVD), this is a better and more interesting documentary than many assumed, telling more on the lowest of low budgets than major chunks of the high budget 'Beatles Anthology'. As ever with the fab four, the beauty is in the small details - but Freda's largely untold story is a bigger detail than many ever give her credit for. Mitch Benn left her out when discussing the '37th Beatle' - Freda belongs somewhere in the early 20s!

2) Gene Clark - The Byrd Who Flew Away (Documentary)

Gene Clark was the quiet heart of the early Byrds - the line-up that everyone thinks of when they imagine the band. Roger McGuinn may have had the granny specs, David Crosby the cape and Michael Clarke the hair, but Gene had the songs. His solo catalogue - poor selling, largely neglected in his lifetime and still only now slowly slinking out onto CD - has always deserved better, with no less a writer than Bob Dylan calling Gene his 'only competition' (although in truth I'd take Gene's songs over Dylan's any day). While Clark's reputation is now in relatively safe hands (his 1974 album 'No Other' is nowadays regarded as a classic - it isn't quite, but several of his other solo albums genuinely are), one thing he 's always lacked is a decent documentary just about him. Sadly, despite some nice clips of archives film and some nice interview clips with the likes of David Crosby we're still waiting: 'The Byrd Who Flew Away' is one of those documentaries that has a great half hour spread amongst an hour and a half and at times moves slower than a ballad from Gene's 'Two Sides To Every Story' LP (surely the album with the slowest per song running speed of any AAA record!) 'Outsider' fans no doubt scratched their heads wondering what all the fuss was about, seeing as the documentary wasn't able to secure rights to a lot of the music and most of the second half was taken up with the sad tale of self-destruction (the cycle of abstinence, great new material/gigs, the party afterwards to celebrate, the drunken shambles repeated over and over) that made Gene look a mess, not a tortured genius. But the sheer fact that this documentary exists - and managed to be as good as it was during the better documented Byrds years - means it more than fully deserves a place in our yearly listings, a nice try on a difficult subject for which we're thankful they even tried at all. Oh and good on BBC4 for screening it, although as this documentary later came out on DVD (sadly without any extras but with an even longer running time) we've added it to our 'DVDs' list for now (that said, it seems to have gone missing off Amazon - I swear it was there last week when I researched this article though so we'll keep it here in the hope it comes back again!)

3) CSNY '74 (Concert)

Another quick mention of the CSNY box set of their 1974 tour. The box set includes a DVD of eight songs recorded at two separate shows. All eight songs are fabulous, especially the Wembley material, and had both concerts been released in full this set would be sitting at the top of our 'greatest release of the decade' review, not just the yearly one. But alas teasing us with a mere 40 minutes worth of great material when we could be seeing - gulp - eight odd hours is tantamount to torture! And oh boy is it fit to use; the material released here is amongst the weakest footage out there...



THE MOST DISAPPOINTING RELEASES OF THE YEAR

1) The Hollies "More Live Hits"

I love The Hollies in all their many incarnations down the years: with Graham Nash, Terry Sylvester, Allan Clarke, Mickael Rickfors, even the Carl Wayne years were ok...but now down to two original members (Tony Hicks and Bobby Elliott) and with a paucity of new songs (the last two Hollies studio albums have been truly dreadful, amongst the worst in my collection) and it's clear that something has gone badly wrong. Vocalist Peter Howarth tries so hard to take charge, but he's a musicals-style vocalist, not the leader of a pop band; the rhythm section try hard but the years are slowing them down; keyboardist Ian Parker is a little gem but his best work belongs to the 1980s not in the 21st century where his beloved keyboards sound dates; only the guitar work really comes to life and even then Tony seems to be having an off day by his standards. The modern day Hollies finally make only their second live LP some 47 years after their first but the differences between them are between day and night: the 1977 Hollies were a tight outfit that played plenty of hits but still had plenty to prove, with great new songs and modernised arrangements of old ones. The modern Hollies sound trapped in a permanent hell where Carrie Anne and Jennifer Eccles haunt them every single bloody night, while the presence of members past has never been more keenly felt. Yes there are highlights - Tony's autobiographical  'Dolphin Days' is the one decent Hollies song of the 21st century, there's a lovely slow folky reading of 'Look Through Any Window' and a sitar/banjo hybrid version of rarity 'The Baby' is a welcome revival for a much-loved song. But my goodness, the rest of it...what's happened to Soldier's Song? Purple Rain? Shine Silently? We're Through? Number one hit I'm Alive?!? (all of which sounded majestic even a few years ago). The Hollies' standing was never higher than with the release of the superlative 'Clarke-Hicks-Nash' set a couple of years ago, but with this release they've thrown it all away. Again. Bah!

2) Neil Young  "A Letter Home"

Suddenly the past ten years all make sense: Neil really was 'hiding' something from us all these years he's been giving us non-albums and passing off weird ideas and off-centre spin-offs as bona fide Neil Young albums (just like the 1980s all over again!) 'A Letter Home' is one of the worst of the bunch so far, a deliberately poorly recorded covers album of all the acoustic songs that first inspired Neil, recorded in a replica of a mono 'soundbooth' and given added 'aged' effects. Coming on the back of the launch date for Neil's new gadget 'Pono' (his response to what the guitarist considers ridiculously low levels of quality on mp3), it seemed like a joke that got out of hand - an 'Everybody's Rockin' for the modern era (only not quite as blessedly short and without the hilarious cover of Neil as a 1950s pink suited rocker). The song choices are boring, the performances lack fire and the whole project is worth owning for just one song: Neil's tribute to fellow AAA star Bert Jansch (of Pentangle) who died in 2011 with a recording of his 'Needle Of Death' (although even this isn't a patch on the original). Must try harder, See me after class. Leave that mono sound-booth at home and stop tinkering at the back there, Neil!

3) David Crosby "Croz"

The world seemed to go crazy for David Crosby's first solo album in 21 years (although really it's the third CPR album without P!) Crosby's greatest since the 1970s, a fine return, Crosby at the top of his game...I couldn't wait to get hold of this album, not least after hearing of the horrendous money issues making it (Crosby spent most of his time making it lying on his son James Raymond's -the  'R' in CPR - couch). Our website is here to support artists through thick and thin and do what it can when an artist is brave and bold and clearly has something they need to say desperately bad. And yet...this album didn't really say anything at all, well not by Crosby's high standards. Some bland songs with bland productions that lacked the fire of Crosby from even ten years ago, the only major addition to Croz' canon was a song already premiered on a live LP. What a pity - there I was all prepared to buy ten copies to help Crosby out...

4) Pink Floyd "The Division Bell"

Before we heard news of 'The Endless River', rumour amongst Pink Floyd fans was ripe. Their official site promised the exciting news: big event coming soon. Fans held parties on the night in question sure that the band were a) touring b) had a 'proper' album in the works or c) Syd Barrett had somehow come back from the dead with his third solo LP dictated by a Pink Floyd roadie. Sadly none of these were true: their last album 'The Division Bell' was getting an expensive re-mastering and we were all asked to buy it. That was all. No bonus tracks, no unreleased material, no new cover artwork or packaging, not even a coaster (like the expensive sets of 2011). In these days that's not enough to tantalise fans so much, especially as the last time The Division Bell was re-mastered was...let me see...two thousand and flipping eleven as well!!! (Honestly what technology changed so much in three short years to warrant this?!) Of course we all know now why the band were studying these album sessions so hard, but that doesn't prevent poor 'Division Bell' from a place on our list...

5) George Harrison "The Apple Years"

We'd been asking for a decent CD re-issue of some of George's rarer albums for years: the great and under-rated 'Wonderwall Music', the mixed 'Dark Horse', the rather odd 'Extra Texture', the downright bonkers 'Electronic Sound'...it's always seemed criminal to me that records by one of the members of the most famous band on the planet should be so hard to get hold of, even if they aren't Harrison at his best. However when I asked for them, I meant individually, at affordable prices - not in some mega-expensive (£80! I was expecting £40...) box set that comes with absolutely no previously unreleased extras whatsoever, complete with an album like 'All Things Must Pass' that's been out half a dozen times on CD by now. The best you get for collectors with this set is a booklet with lots of padding and a DVD that - like the one for the 'Dark Horse' box set of a decade back - is very good for what it is but contains not quite half of everything that could have been on it. Chances are Apple are inevitably going to milk this set for all they're worth and re-release these discs separately so our advice is to wait till then and perhaps this Apple goodie won't taste quite so rotten...

THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR

1) Graham Nash "Wild Tales"

The most meticulous of the three CSNY autobiographies to date (Stills is the only one not to have written a book so far!), Nash's autobiography starts with the poignant part of his life that divides the book in two: should he get on a plane to tour with The Hollies, the band he's been with for the past seven odd years and one of whom he's known since the age of five? Or should he leave for a new life in America with two buffoons he's just met called Crosby and Stills? Most of the book seems to be examining whether Nash made the right decision (a cautious yes for the most part, with some definite 'nos' during Crosby's darkest drugged up period in the 1980s), although curiously Nash doesn't spend much time on the Hollies part of the book (the lesser known half of the story). Nash's keen eye and witty observations make for a delightful companion on a busy story and Graham's well known love of photography results in some of the greatest photos in any AAA autobiography. More detail on the songs would have been welcome, but by and large this is an excellent book - one that manages to be both honest and supportive (he gets Crosby's egotism and lovable innocence spot on!)

2) Ray Davies "Americana"

As we said last week, not the book I was expecting. Ray's subtitle for his third book  is 'The Kinks, Americana and Searching For The Perfect Riff' - instead it should be called 'Me Alone, With My Thoughts, In a Gloomy New Orleans Hospital, Musing About The Bastard Who Shot Me'. Ray's darker side comes through as he recounts what he thought would be the last chapter of his life: dying from a mugger's bullet wounds in a hospital where no one believes he's a real rock star and who no one expects will last the night. Thankfully that wasn't the case and Ray recovers enough to reminisce about The Kinks' struggles cracking America (they were famously booted off a plane for some old-fashioned hi-jinks in 1965 and banned from the country until 1970), his feelings for his brother and his burgeoning solo career (all about to kick-off when the mugger got involved). However again and again Ray keeps returning to the fact that nobody comes to visit, that he's burned all his bridges chasing a silly American dream he's not sure he ever believed in and his fear that he'll end up a hermit, like his friend Alex Chilton (of The Box Tops and Big Star). This is a sad, lonely book from a dark and lonely time in Ray's life and by contrast makes the first two books 'X-Ray' (an 'unauthorised autobiography' - how I love that phrase!) and 'Waterloo Sunset' (a collection of short stories based on Kinks songs) look like a 'Sunny Afternoon'. You wonder why Ray released it now (well - at the tail end of 2013 when I was too poor to afford it!) Tough going and serious as it is, though, 'Americana' is a book worthy of Ray's musical talents and a fascinating glimpse into a tortured soul at its most tortured.

3) Neil Young "Waging Heavy Peace"

Neil's book is predictably weirder than the above pair. Like the musician it tends to ramble, leaping from subject to subject and dancing through the decades to tell a single story as if the past is as alive as the present. By the end of the book you've learnt almost nothing, with the 'real' Neil cleverly hidden by typical wordplay and subterfuge, but like the records where this happens (especially the 'Geffen' years in the 1980s) somehow it's all so in keeping in character you don't mind. I'd have hated for Neil's books to tell me all his darkest secrets - he's not that sort of a writer - and given the events of this year it seems likely that Neil was simply too emotionally 'used up' to release albums like clockwork the way he always has (but still didn't want fans to guess anything was wrong). Usefully the book seems to have kick-started his creative juices ('Psychedelic Pill' is like a distillation of this book, good and bad) and is great company while listening to various Neil Young albums; less usefully there's no index, no chance of looking anything up and that scary picture of Neil on the front cover's eyes do tend to follow you around the room...



THE BEST SONGS OF THE YEAR

1) Keith Don't Go (Alternate Version) (Nils Lofgren with Neil Young, 'Face The Music' Box Set)

Fast and furious, this early take of what many consider to be Nils Lofgren's greatest rocker (not quite me: it's second to 'Moon Tears') is a revelation, not least for the fact that this song from the sessions for last Grin album 'Gone Crazy' features a certain rather famous guitarist. We fans are used to hearing Neil Young and Nils battle it out on the former's home territory: their work on the 'Tonight's The Night' and 'Trans' album are among the greatest in Neil's back catalogue, even without Nils coping with being thrown in at the deep end made to play piano (an instrument he' never touched!) for the 'After The Goldrush' sessions. Here's the return compliment - as far as we know the only time Neil turned up to a Lofgren session - and what's fascinating is how easily Neil slips in as 'one of the boys'. Neil really gets into the spirit of doubling Nils' playing on a grungy rhythm part (not unlike what Danny Whitten used to do for him) and both men do a fine job at aping The Rolling Stones (for those who don't know, this song was inspired by rumours of Keith Richards' demise and heavy drug use in the mid-1970s; Lofgren came very close to being a Rolling Stone instead of Ronnie Wood but was dropped simply for being 'American' - that band's history over the past 40 odd years could and should have been so different). The pair sound rather good on harmonies too. Overall I think I'd still take the re-recording, but this faster even angrier take (Lofgren sounds like his vocals have been sandpapered!) is a fine extra and great to hear after all these years, the highlight of the Lofgren box set 'Face The Music's impressive 40 unreleased tracks.

2) Pushed It Over The End (Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, CSNY '74)

A favourite of bootleggers since the first time CSNY performed it on their 'stadium tour' of 1974, we've waited 40 years for one of Neil Young's greatest from a whole collection of unreleased songs to see the light of day. A bonkers fiery take on feminism, this ragged-but-right song might feature some very questionable lyrics ('Good looking Millie's got a gun in her hand, but she doesn't know how to use it!') but the music is a delight, tearing this way and that as if to throw off a movement too strong to back down. The 'falling down' refrain, where Neil physically keeps moving down the keys, long past the point where it's comfortable, is one of the highlights of the CSNY '74 set (even if it's still not the best version of the  song doing the rounds). A shoe-in for the 'Human Highway' reunion album CSNY never quite got round to making, 'Pushed It Over The End' is testament to how powerful the quartet's music together could be at its best and can now at last be judged properly alongside it's brothers and sisters (except in Italy, incidentally, where a record company 'accidentally' leaked this song on an official release - the source of many a bootleg...)

3) Louder Than Words (Pink Floyd, The Endless River)

The one actual 'song' as opposed to not-good-enough-to-release-at-the-time-noodling on Pink Floyd's 'Endless River' album has become a major talking point with fans. It's not quite as good as it thinks it is - like a lot of 'The Division Bell' and David Gilmour's solo LPs his wife Polly Samson only partly 'gets' the band and what they stand for. No lyric could ever sum up 47 years of Floyd-dom in one go and Roger Waters is probably laughing his socks off at lines like 'world weary growth' and the rhymes of 'fire' and 'desire'. But for all that, when the chorus kicks in with all its glory, talking about Pink Floyd as a band hopeless at communicating with each other in anyway except music, and Rick Wright's much-missed organ swells up from 20 years previously like a ghost and Gilmour's guitar begins to glide and the beautiful chord changes pull at your heartstrings...somehow it works. The band are adamant that this is really it this time and after two whole decades since the last bona fide release under that name they're probably right. This isn't quite the perfect farewell that 'High Hopes' was in 1994 but it's still powerful stuff, another reminder of how expressive and telepathic their music was is and always will be. You just wish that they'd taken their own advice and left this one as pure music...


Once again we leave you with our own personal greatest moments of the year as voted for by....one of you. Again. Oh dear (perhaps we haven't done as well this year as we'd thought!) Never mind though - we agree, so here are the five most un-missable moments form our menagerie of music and madness, starting - inevitably enough - with our April Fool's Day column (which seems to get more popular - and weirder - every year!)

1) Max The Singing Dog's Scrapbook: 2099

(Published April 1st 2014: http://www.alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/max-dogs-picture-book-news-views-and.html and http://www.alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/max-dogs-picture-book-part-two-news.html)

By the year 2099 Max is a great-great-grandoggy himself (see various Youtube videos...) and content to share with readers of a 'special' #176761 edition of 'News, Views and Music' his happiest memories. He gets out his photo-album (i didn't even know he had a camera!) and proceeds to tell you all the story of how Alan's Album Archives grew to become a film franchise, release a charity single, a hit musical about the history of the AAA ('Max-A-Mama-Mia!') and organise our own spin-off version of Alphabet Soup before Max retired from a scandal-filled life full of a cane addiction to become a vicar...The bits that seemed to go down especially well were the scripts from Max's personal appearances promoting the show: he got around did our mascot dog appearing on all the greats: Graham Norton, Jonathan Ross, Question Time, Top Gear, Just A Minute, The Archers... Oh and it must all be true - we even guessed that Dr Who villain The Master would become a woman (although we were a bit out with our guess of former companion Bonnie Langford...)

2) AAA Granamas - Whoops, AAA Anagrams

(http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/aaa-anagrams-news-views-and-music-issue.html)

Next up, some anagram unf, sorry fun, with a whole bunch of anagrams based not only on all the best AAA bands but also your humble website! Here are two to get you started: 'The Rolling Stones' = 'Get No Shrill Notes' and 'Alan's Album Archives' = 'Am An Ear's Lavish Club'!

3) Hilariously Misheard AAA Album Titles/Lyrics

(http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/top-thirty-hilariously-misheard-aaa.html)

Wigs at the speed of sound! Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Tim! Sitting on the back of a duck, wasting time!...yes it's an AAA top thirty 'funniest misheard song titles'/ 'funniest misquoted lyrics', a laughaminute finale to our regular 'top ten' section!

4) An AAA Guide To The Beatles' Cartoons

(http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/an-aaa-guide-to-beatles-cartoons.html)

No one else but Alan's Album Archives could write 10,000 words on a cartoon series that has never been made commercially available and wasn't officially sanctioned by the band anyway. But we had fun writing this one and offering 'plot' summaries and bits of trivia to 'remind' people of some very cherished memories, our guide to 40 episodes (ie 80 individual cartoons and another 80 singalongs!) that range from the delightful to the diabolical, often within the same episode!



5) The Beatles "Sgt Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band"

( http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/the-beatles-sgt-peppers-lonely-hearts.html)

Finally, something serious! Interestingly the album review that's gained me most nice comments and general back-slapping to date isn't an album I love, or an obscure record that was one of the reasons I created this site (to plug albums other people might not know). Instead it's one of the best selling of all AAA albums and one of the most famous albums on the planet, over which everyone has already had their two cents' worth to say. I did feel on good form the night I wrote it though so who knows -perhaps Sgt Peppers really will become my favourite Beatles album after all and I just haven't caught up with my sub-consciousness yet?...


And that, as they say, is that. Not just for this article but for this year. Thankyou for supporting this site over the past 12 months! It's been a hectic and confusing but nicely productive year and I couldn't have made it without you all - here's to better health, better music and being that bit closer to our goal of having reviewed every AAA release under the sun by this time next year! Till then from the Alan's Archives team (erm, Max The Singing Dog and me!) a very happy cheery chappy not at all snappy or flappy or clap trappy Spice Girls in a nappy 2015 and see you in the new year!

A NOW COMPLETE List Of Top Five/Top Ten/TOP TWENTY  Entries 2008-2019
1) Chronic Fatigue songs http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/08/news-views-and-music-issue-1-top-five.html

2) Songs For The Face Of Bo
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/09/news-views-and-music-issue-2-top-five.html

3) Credit Crunch Songs
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/09/news-views-and-music-issue-3-top-five.html

4) Songs For The Autumn
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/09/news-views-and-music-issue-4-top-five.html

5) National Wombat Week
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/09/news-views-and-music-top-five-national.html

6) AAA Box Sets
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/09/news-views-and-music-issue-6-top-five.html

7) Virus Songs
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/10/news-views-and-music-issue-7-top-five.html

8) Worst AAA-Related DVDs
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/10/news-views-and-music-issu-8-top-five.html

9) Self-Punctuating Superstar Classics
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/10/news-views-and-music-issue-9-top-five.html

10) Ways To Know You Have Turned Into A Collector
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/10/news-views-and-music-issue-9-top-five.html

11) Political Songs
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/11/news-views-and-music-issue-11-top-five.html

12) Totally Bonkers Concept Albums
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/11/news-views-and-music-top-five-totally.html

13) Celebrating 40 Years Of The Beatles' White Album
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/11/top-five-issue-13-40-years-of-beatles.html

14) Still Celebrating 40 Years Of The Beatles' White Album
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/12/news-views-and-music-issue-14-top-five.html

15) AAA Existential Questions
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/12/news-views-and-music-issue-15-top-five.html

16) Releases Of The Year 2008
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/12/news-views-and-music-issue-16-top-five.html

17) Top AAA Xmas Songs
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/12/news-views-and-music-issue-17-top-five.html

18) Notable AAA Gigs
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/01/news-views-and-music-issue-19-top-five.html

19) All things '20' related for our 20th issue
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/02/news-views-and-music-issue-20-aaa-songs.html

20) Romantic odes for Valentine's Day
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/02/news-views-and-music-issue-22-top-five.html

21) Hollies B sides
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/03/news-views-and-music-issue-23-top-five.html

22) 'Other' BBC Session Albums
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/03/news-views-and-music-issue-24-top-five.html

23) Beach Boys Rarities Still Not Available On CD
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/03/news-views-and-music-issue-25-top-five.html

24) Songs John, Paul and George wrote for Ringo's solo albums
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/03/news-views-and-music-issue-26-top-five.html

25) 5 of the Best Rock 'n' Roll Tracks From The Pre-Beatles Era
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/04/news-views-and-music-issue-27-top-five.html

26) AAA Autobiographies
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/04/news-views-and-music-issue-28-top-five.html

27) Rolling Stones B-sides
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/04/news-views-and-music-issue-29-top-five.html

28) Beatles B-Sides
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/05/news-views-and-music-issue-30-top-five.html

29) The lllloooonnngggeesssttt AAA songs of all time
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/05/news-views-and-music-issue-31-top-five.html

30) Kinks B-Sides
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/05/news-views-and-music-issue-32-top-five.html

31) Abandoned CSNY projects 'wasted on the way'
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/05/news-views-and-music-issue-33-top-five.html

32) Best AAA Rarities and Outtakes Sets
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/06/news-views-and-music-issue-34-top-five.html

33) News We've Missed While We've Been Away
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/07/news-views-and-music-issue-35-top-five.html

34) Birthday Songs for our 1st Anniversary
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/07/news-views-and-music-issue-37-top-five.html

35) Brightest Album Covers
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/07/news-views-and-music-issue-37-top-five.html

36) Biggest Recorded Arguments
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/07/news-views-and-music-issue-38-top-five.html

37) Songs About Superheroes
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/08/news-views-and-music-issue-39-top-five.html

38) AAA TV Networks That Should Exist
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/08/news-views-and-music-issue-40-top-five.html

39) AAA Woodtsock Moments
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/08/news-views-and-music-issue-41-top-five.html

40) Top Moments Of The Past Year As Voted For By Readers
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/08/news-views-and-music-issue-42-top-five.html

41) Music Segues
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/09/news-views-and-music-issue-43-top-five.html

42) AAA Foreign Language Songs
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/09/news-views-and-music-issue-44-top-five.html

43) 'Other' Groups In Need Of Re-Mastering
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/10/news-views-and-music-issue-45-top-five.html

44) The Kinks Preservation Rock Opera - Was It Really About The Forthcoming UK General Election?
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/11/news-views-and-music-issue-46-top-five.html

45) Mono and Stereo Mixes - Biggest Differences
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/11/news-views-and-music-issue-47-top-five.html

46) Weirdest Things To Do When A Band Member Leaves
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/11/nerws-views-and-music-issue-48-top-five.html

47) Video Clips Exclusive To Youtube (#1)
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/11/news-views-and-music-issue-49-top-five.html

48) Top AAA Releases Of 2009
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/12/news-views-and-music-issue-50-top-five.html

49) Songs About Trains
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/01/news-views-and-music-issue-51-top-five.html

50) Songs about Winter
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/01/news-views-and-music-issue-52-top-five.html

51) Songs about astrology plus horoscopes for selected AAA members
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/02/news-views-and-music-issue-53-top-five.html

52) The Worst Five Groups Ever!
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/02/news-views-and-music-issue-54-top-five.html

53) The Most Over-Rated AAA Albums
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/03/news-views-and-music-issue-56-top-five.html

54) Top AAA Rarities Exclusive To EPs
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/03/news-views-and-music-issue-57-top-five.html

55) Random Recent Purchases (#1)
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/04/news-views-and-music-issue-58-top-five.html

56) AAA Party Political Slogans
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/05/news-views-and-music-issue-60-top-five.html

57) Songs To Celebrate 'Rock Sunday'
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/05/news-views-and-music-issue-61-top-five_21.html

58) Strange But True (?) AAA Ghost Stories
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/05/news-views-and-music-issue-61-top-five.html

59) AAA Artists In Song
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/06/news-views-and-music-issue-63-top-five.html

60) Songs About Dogs
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/06/news-views-and-music-issue-65-top-five.html

61) Sunshiney Songs
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/07/news-views-and-music-issue-67-top-five.html

62) The AAA Staff Play Their Own Version Of Monoploy/Mornington Crescent!
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/07/news-views-and-music-issue-68-top-forty.html

63) What 'Other' British Invasion DVDs We'd Like To See
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/07/news-views-and-music-issue-69-top-five.html

64) What We Want To Place In Our AAA Time Capsule
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/08/news-views-and-music-issue-70-top-five.html

65) AAA Conspiracy Theroies
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/08/news-views-and-music-issue-72-top-ten.html

66) Weirdest Things To Do Before - And After - Becoming A Star
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/08/news-views-and-music-top-ten-aaa-stars.html

67) Songs To Tweet To
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/09/news-views-and-music-issue-74-top-five.html

68) Greatest Ever AAA Solos
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/09/news-views-and-music-issue-75-top-ten.html

69) John Lennon Musical Tributes
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/10/news-views-and-music-issue-77-top-five.html

70) Songs For Halloween
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/10/news-views-and-music-issue-78-top-five.html

71) Earliest Examples Of Psychedelia
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/11/news-views-and-music-issue-79-top-five.html

72) Purely Instrumental Albums
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/11/news-views-and-music-issue-81-top-five.html

73) AAA Utopias

74) AAA Imaginary Bands
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/11/news-views-and-music-issue-82-top-five.html

75) Unexpected AAA Cover Versions
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/12/news-views-and-music-issue-83-top-five.html

76) Top Releases of 2010
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/12/news-views-and-music-issue-84-top-five.html

77) Songs About Snow
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/12/news-views-and-music-issue-85-top-five.html

78) Predictions For 2011
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011_01_02_archive.html

79) AAA Fugitives

80) AAA Home Towns
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/01/news-views-and-music-issue-88-home.html

81) The Biggest Non-Musical Influences On The 1960s
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/01/news-views-and-music-issue-89-top-five.html

82) AAA Groups Covering Other AAA Groups
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/02/news-views-and-music-issue-90-top.html

83) Strange Censorship Decisions
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/02/news-views-and-music-issue-91-top-ten.html

84) AAA Albums Still Unreleased on CD
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/02/news-views-and-music-issue-92-top-five.html

85) Random Recent Purchases (#2)
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/03/news-views-and-music-issue-93-top-ten.html

86) Top AAA Music Videos
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/04/news-views-and-music-issue-94-top-ten.html

87) 30 Day Facebook Music Challenge
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/04/news-views-and-music-issue-95-top.html

88) AAA Documentaries
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/04/news-views-and-music-top-five-aaa.html

89) Unfinished and 'Lost' AAA Albums
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/04/news-views-and-music-issue-97-top-ten.html

90) Strangest AAA Album Covers
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/05/newsa-views-and-music-issue-98-top-ten.html

91) AAA Performers Live From Mars (!)
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/05/news-views-and-music-issue-99-top-ten.html

92) Songs Including The Number '100' for our 100th Issue
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/05/news-views-and-music-issue-100-top-five.html

93) Most Songs Recorded In A Single Day
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/05/news-views-and-music-issue-101-top-five.html

94) Most Revealing AAA Interviews
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/06/news-views-and-music-issue-102-top-five.html

95) Top 10 Pre-Fame Recordings
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/06/news-views-and-music-issue-103-top-ten.html

96) The Shortest And Longest AAA Albums
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/07/news-views-and-music-issue-104-top-ten.html


97) The AAA Allstars Ultimate Band Line-Up
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/07/news-views-and-music-issue-105-top.html

98) Top Songs About Sports
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/07/news-views-and-music-issue-106-top-ten.html

99) AAA Conversations With God
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/07/news-views-and-music-issue-107-top-ten.html

100) AAA Managers: The Good, The Bad and the Financially Ugly
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/08/news-views-and-music-issue-108-top-ten.html

101) Unexpected AAA Cameos
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/08/news-views-and-music-issue-109-top-ten.html

102) AAA Words You can Type Into A Caluclator
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/08/news-views-and-music-issue-110-top-five.html

103) AAA Court Cases
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/09/news-views-and-music-issue-111-top-five.html

104) Postmodern Songs About Songwriting
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/09/news-views-and-music-issue-112-top-five.html

105) Biggest Stylistic Leaps Between Albums
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/09/news-views-and-music-issue-113-top-ten.html

106) 20 Reasons Why Cameron Should Go!
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/09/news-views-and-music-issue-114-top.html

107) The AAA Pun-Filled Cookbook
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/news-views-and-music-issue-115-top-five.html

108) Classic Debut Releases
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/news-views-and-music-issue-116-top-five.html

109) Five Uses Of Bird Sound Effects
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/news-views-and-music-issue-118-top-five.html

110) AAA Classic Youtube Clips Part #1
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/news-views-and-music-issue-119-top.html

111) Part #2
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/news-views-and-music-issue-120-top.html

112) Part #3
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/news-views-and-music-issue-121-top.html

113) AAA Facts You Might Not Know
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/news-views-and-music-issue-122-top-ten.html

114) The 20 Rarest AAA Records
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/news-views-and-music-issue-123-top.html

115) AAA Instrumental Songs
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011_12_04_archive.html

116) Musical Tarot
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/12/news-views-and-music-issue-125-top-23-i.html

117) Christmas Carols
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011_12_18_archive.html

118) Top AAA Releases Of 2011
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011_12_25_archive.html

119) AAA Bands In The Beano/The Dandy
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/news-views-and-music-issue-128-top-five.html

120) Top 20 Guitarists #1
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/news-views-and-music-issue-129-top-ten.html

121) #2
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012_01_15_archive.html

122) 'Shorty' Nomination Award Questionairre
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012_01_22_archive.html

123) Top Best-Selling AAA Albums
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012_01_29_archive.html

124) AAA Songs Featuring Bagpipes

125) A (Hopefully) Complete List Of AAA Musicians On Twitter
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012_02_19_archive.html

126) Beatles Albums That Might Have Been 1970-74 and 1980
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012_02_26_archive.html

127) DVD/Computer Games We've Just Invented
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012_03_11_archive.html

128) The AAA Albums With The Most Weeks At #1 in the UK
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012_03_18_archive.html

129) The AAA Singles With The Most Weeks At #1 in the UK
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012_03_25_archive.html

130) Lyric Competition (Questions)
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012_04_15_archive.html

131) Top Crooning Classics
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012_04_22_archive.html

132) Funeral Songs
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/news-views-and-music-issue-142-top-five.html

133) AAA Songs For When Your Phone Is On Hold
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/news-views-and-music-issue-143-top-five.html

134) Random Recent Purchases (#3)
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/news-views-and-music-issue-144-top-five.html

135) Lyric Competition (Answers)
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/news-views-and-music-issue-146-top.html
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/news-views-and-music-issue-145-top-five.html

136) Bee Gees Songs/AAA Goes Disco!
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/news-views-and-music-issue-147-top-five.html

137) The Best AAA Sleevenotes (And Worst)
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/news-views-and-music-issue-148-top-ten.html

138) A Short Precise Of The Years 1962-70
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/news-views-and-music-149-top-eight.html

139) More Wacky AAA-Related Films And Their Soundtracks
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/top-five-for-news-views-and-music-150.html

140) AAA Appearances On Desert Island Discs
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/top-eight-aaa-desert-island-discs.html

141) Songs Exclusive To Live Albums
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/news-views-and-music-issue-153-top-10.html

142) More AAA Songs About Armageddon
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/aaa-armageddon-songsalbums-top-5-for.html

What difference does a name make? Arguably not much if you’re already a collector of a certain group, for whom the names on the album sleeves just...

This week’s top ten honours the humble motor car. The death trap on wheels, the metaphor for freedom, the put-down of capitalism, a source of...

This week we’re going to have a look at the 10 AAA singles that spent the most weeks at number on the American chart ‘Billboard’ – and it makes for...

Following on from last issue’s study of the American Billboard charts, here’s a look at which AAA albums spent the most weeks on the chart. The...

There are many dying arts in our modern world: incorruptible politicians, faith that things are going to get better and the ability to make decent...

This week we’ve decided to dedicate our top ten to those unsung heroes of music, the session musicians, whose playing often brings AAA artists (and...

Naturally we hold our AAA bands in high esteem in these articles: after all, without their good taste, intelligence and humanity we’d have nothing to...

What do you do when you’ve left a multi-million selling band and yet you still feel the pull of the road and the tours and the playing to audiences...

‘The ATOS Song’ (You’re Not Fit To Live)’ (Mini-Review) Dear readers, we don’t often feature reviews of singles over albums or musicians who aren’t...

In honour of this week’s review of an album released to cash in on a movie soundtrack (only one of these songs actually appears in ‘Easy Rider’...and...

Hic! Everyone raise a glass to the rock stars of the past and to this week’s feature...songs about alcolholic beverages! Yes that’s right, everything...

154) The human singing voice carries with it a vast array of emotions, thoughts that cannot be expressed in any other way except opening the lungs and...

Everyone has a spiritual home, even if they don’t actually live there. Mine is in a windy, rainy city where the weather is always awful but the...

Having a family does funny things to some musicians, as we’ve already seen in this week’s review (surely the only AAA album actually written around...

Some artists just have no idea what their best work really is. One thing that amazes me as a collector is how consistently excellent many of the...

159) A (Not That) Short Guide To The 15 Best Non-AAA Bands http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/a-not-that-short-guide-to-15-of-best.html%20%0d160


160) The Greatest AAA Drum Solos (Or Near Solos!) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/the-greatest-aaa-drum-solos-or-near.html%20%0d161


161) AAA Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall Of Fame Acceptance Speeches http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/aaa-rock-and-roll-hall-of-fame.html%20%0d162


162) AAA Re-Recordings Of Past Songs http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/aaa-re-recordings-of-past-songs-news.html%20%0d163


163) A Coalition Christmas (A Fairy Tale) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/a-coalition-christmas-news-views-and.html%20%0d164


164) AAA Songs About Islands http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/aaa-songs-about-islands-news-views-and.html%20%0d165


165) The AAA Review Of The Year 2012 http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/the-aaa-review-of-year-2012-news-views.html



166) The Best AAA Concerts I Attended
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/the-best-aaa-concerts-i-attended-news.html


167) Tributes To The 10 AAA Stars Who Died The Youngest http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/tributes-to-10-aaa-stars-who-died.html



168) The First 10 AAA Songs Listed Alphabetically
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/the-first-10-aaa-songs-if-listed.html


171) The 10 Best Songs From The Psychedelia Box-Sets ‘Nuggets’ and ‘Nuggets Two’ http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/the-best-of-two-nuggets-psychedelia.html%20%0d172

172) The 20 Most Common Girl’s Names In AAA Song Titles (With Definitions) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/girls-names-in-aaa-song-titles-from.html 








180) First Recordings By Future AAA Stars http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/first-





185) A Tribute To Storm Thorgerson Via The Five AAA Bands He Worked With http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/a-tribute-to-hipgnosis-via-five-aaa.html



188) Surprise! Celebrating 300 Album Reviews With The Biggest 'Surprises' Of The Past Five Years Of Alan's Album Archives! http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/celebrating-300-album-reviews-10.html


190) Comparatively Obscure First Compositions By AAA Stars http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/comparatively-obscure-debut.html



193) Evolution Of A Band: Comparing First Lyric With Last Lyric: http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/evolution-of-band-comparing-1st-lyric.html







200) The Monkees In Relation To Postmodernism (University Dissertation) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/university-dissertation-monkees-in.html


202) Carly Simon's 'You're So Vain': Was It About One Of The AAA Crew? http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/carly-simons-youre-so-vain-was-it-about.html















217) AAA 'Christmas Presents' we'd most like to have next year http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/aaa-christmas-presents-wed-most-like-to.html




221) Dr Who and the AAA (Five Musical Links) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2014/01/dr-who-and-five-musical-links-to-alans.html

222) Five Random Recent Purchases http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2014/01/five-random-recent-purchases-news-views.html

223) AAA Grammy Nominees http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2014/02/aaa-grammy-nominees-top-twelve-news.html

224) Ten AAA songs that are better heard unedited and in full http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2014/02/ten-aaa-songs-that-are-better-unedited.html

225) The shortest gaps between AAA albums http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2014/01/the-shortest-gaps-between-aaa-albums.html

226) The longest gaps between AAA albums http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2014/02/the-longest-gaps-between-aaa-albums.html

227) Top ten AAA drummers http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2014/03/top-ten-aaa-drummers-news-views-and.html

228) Top Ten AAA Singles (In Terms of 'A' and 'B' Sides) http://www.alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/top-ten-aaa-singles-and-b-sides-news.html

229) The Stories Behind Six AAA Logos http://www.alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/the-stories-behind-six-aaa-logos.html

230) AAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!! The Best Ten AAA Screams http://www.alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/the-best-aaa-screams-top-ten-news-views.html

231) An AAA Pack Of Horses http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/aaa-songs-about-horses-top-ten-news.html

232) AAA Granamas - Sorry, Anagrams! http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/aaa-anagrams-news-views-and-music-issue.html

233) AAA Surnames and Their Meanings http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/aaa-surnames-and-their-meanings-news.html

234) 20 Erroneous AAA Album Titles http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/twenty-erroneous-aaa-album-titles-news.html

235) The Best AAA Orchestral Arrangements http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/fifteen-great-aaa-string-parts-news.html

236) Top 30 Hilariously Misheard Album Titles/Lyrics http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/top-thirty-hilariously-misheard-aaa.html

237) Ten controversial AAA sackings - and whether they were right http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/ten-controversial-aaa-sackings-news.html

238) A Critique On Critiquing - In Response To Brian Wilson http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/a-critique-on-critiquing-in-response-to.html

239) The Ten MusicianS Who've Played On The Most AAA Albums http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/the-ten-musicians-whove-played-on-most.html

240) Thoughts on #CameronMustGo http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/thoughts-on-cameronmustgo.html

241) Random Recent Purchases (Kinks/Grateful Dead/Nils Lofgren/Rolling Stones/Hollies) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/six-random-recent-purchases-kinksg.html 

242) AAA Christmas Number Ones http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/aaa-christmas-number-ones.html 

243) AAA Review Of The Year 2014 (Top Releases/Re-issues/Documentaries/DVDs/Books/Songs/ Articles  plus worst releases of the year) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/aaa-review-of-year-2014.html

244) Me/CFS Awareness Week 2015 http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/mecfs-awareness-week-at-alans-album.html

245) Why The Tory 2015 Victory Seems A Little...Suspicious http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/why-tory-victory-seems-deeply.html

246) A Plea For Peace and Tolerance After The Attacks on Paris - and Syria http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/a-plea-for-peace-and-toleration.html

247) AAA Review Of The Year 2015 http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/the-aaa-review-of-year-2015.html

248) The Fifty Most Read AAA Articles (as of December 31st 2015) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/the-fifty-most-read-aaa-posts-2008-2015.html

249) The Revised AAA Crossword! http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2016_07_10_archive.html


251) Half-A-Dozen Berries Plus One (An AAA Tribute To Chuck Berry) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/an-aaa-covers-tribute-to-chuck-berry.html

252) Guest Post: ‘The Skids – Joy’ (1981) by Kenny Brown  https://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2017/06/guest-post-skids-joy-1981.html


254) Guest Post: ‘Supertramp – Some Things Never Change’ by Kenny Brown https://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2018/06/guest-review-supertramp-some-things.html

255) AAA Review Of The Year 2018 https://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2018/12/the-aaa-review-of-year-2018.html

256) AAA Review Of The Year 2019 plus Review Of The Decade 2010-2019 https://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2019/12/the-alans-album-archives-review-of-year.html


257) Tiermaker https://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2019/06/alans-album-archives-on-tiermaker.html

258) #Coronastock https://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2020/04/coronastock.html

259) #Coronadocstock https://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2020/05/coronadocstock.html

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