Album of the Day: Pavement - Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain
An interesting listen. I liked the way the sounds builds up across each track. It sounds almost orchestral in places. There’s an edge, a rawness. Pavement are clearly decent musicians. I’m not sure about the songs though. I’ve always loved Range Life. But then it drags for the second half of the album. Work in progress.
⭐ ⭐
An early morning appointment with the Gas Man.
Nope - not the Fuck Face Gas Engineer, but a very nice man who can actually be trusted. It was the occasion of the annual boiler service. You don’t want the old girl blowing a gasket on Christmas Day.
She passed the boiler MOT for another year - which is quite a feat, considering the original installation that was signed off by the Fuck Face Gas Engineer.
Idiot.
I caught up with 5Live from the night before and the news of Steve Cooper’s sacking.
“He was under near constant and public scrutiny.”
Not half.
DT published behind The Athletic paywall later in the morning. You get the impression that he’s had this piece saved in drafts for the past three weeks.
I find it interesting that these stories of CHAOS from behind closed doors at the World Famous City Ground only come out after the event. DT has some great sources and is a wonderful writer.
I wish that the leads could be out there in the public domain as soon as the story stacks up. Forest fans deserve this.
Tell It Like It Is, etc.
Album of the Day Extra: Carpenters - Close to You
This is dreamy. The Carpenters were at an early stage where there was no expectation to deliver a conveyor belt of pure pop hits. They had the space to experiment. And woh - Close to You is an album of experimentation.
Reason to Believe is even better than Rod’s version. High praise indeed. Close to You as a song is both slush and lush. Mr. Guder is BONKERS. They don’t make them like this anymore. Nope.
⭐ ⭐ ⭐
I filed for an ebay refund. I’ve been waiting for an item that was suppose to have been sent out on 7th December. There’s only so much Christmas shit postal delays you can factor for.
In better news, The Postman Delivers: the first five albums from The Pogues.
Blimey.
They were sent out as part of a box set.
The Pogues were a band that were always there for me in the background, but I never really took them seriously as artists. An incredibly pissed up performance at Reading in 1990 (!) has stuck with me.
But I found myself finding a new appreciation over the past few weeks. You need to be damn fine musicians to play that loosely, yet still hold it all together.
I picked up some more work for Christmas Day morning.
OK…
Double bubble, innit. Got to pay to play. Or at least buy Pogues box sets.
I was free at lunchtime for a walk. I strolled out over the back fields, back down to the estuary and then along Ferry Marsh.
It was a wise decision to wear wellies. Puddles and mini-lakes made up most of the route along the 6km stretch.
In the AirPods was a blitz of Forest podcast action, all on Steve Cooper: Forest Focus, Garibaldi Red, the BBC’s Shut Up and Show More Football and even a burst of Forever Forest.
You can do overkill on the Cooper sacking tbh.
I liked the point made on one of the recordings - I forget which: it’s rare for a coach to take a team up 28 places from when he was first appointed, yet is still sacked.
I snapped away with the Ricoh point and shoot whilst walking. I was wearing gloves for the first half of the walk. It shows; many of the photos are out of focus.
I warmed up, off came the gloves, and ah - now we have clarity.