Found myself in a strange town...

After listening back to my favorite and most played albums of the past 10 years, I finally came up with my top 20 favorite albums of the 2010’s. Coming up with this list is much harder than I thought as 20 is too small a number for all the great records that have been produced in this past decade. I am not a music critic (hate that term actually) so I am not saying these are the best records of the decade (although I am pretty sure they are lol 😂 ), but these are my favorite records: 1-. Stone Foundation – Street Rituals: One of my all time favorite albums and without a doubt my album of the decade. My love for this band has been well documented, if we talk about current acts (by that I mean still active), Paul Weller is my favorite solo artist and Stone Foundation is my favorite band... and this album in my opinion sums up everything I love about SF: soulful, uplifting, makes you want to dance at times while at moments it will get you teary eyed...and t

In a year full of great new music, here's a look back at my favorite albums of the year. I am doing this a bit earlier than usual as I am now revisiting my favorite albums from the decade (and will hopefully come up with that list in a couple of weeks). Here are my top 15 albums of 2019: 1. Ian Prowse - Here I Lie 2. Michael Kiwanuka - Kiwanuka 3. The Pearlfishers - Love & Other Hopeless Things 4. Durand Jones & The Indications - American Love Call 5. Black Pumas - Black Pumas 6. Steve Mason - About The Light 7. Kelly Finnigan - The Tales People Tell 8. Elbow - Giants Of All Sizes 9. Yola - Walk Through Fire 10. Liam Gallagher - Why Me? Why Not. 11. Van Morrison - Three Chords & The Truth 12. Bruce Springsteen - Western Stars 13. Lee Fields & The Expressions - It Rains Love 14. Richard Hawley - Further 15. Raymons Meade - Episodes Of Mania *Bonus: Paul Weller - Other Aspects: Live At The Royal Festival Hall The top spot belongs to my mu

  For the third act in this series of ten (in no particular order), we have our favorite troubadour, Mr. Steve Pilgrim. Most of you know Steve as the drummer in Paul Weller’s band and I must confess that’s how I knew him at first too. It was Ben Gordelier who recommended I check out Steve’s albums and boy am I thankful he did. While I am a big fan of acoustic singer-songwriters, at our house Steve is the king in that genre. Keep Falling Down is one of those songs that can’t be absent from any playlist we make and my kids will sing it despite not speaking English yet. It's such a contrast to see Steve bang the drums like the wildest of rock drummers and then to hear him singing these lovely lullabies with the sweetest of voices. But it’s not just that he’s a great singer and superbly talented multi-instrumentalist that does the trick for him, it’s the fact that he’s such a fantastic songwriter that makes him the complete package. He’s released 4 albums/1 li

The Rifles have been one of my favorite bands ever since I stumbled upon the video for Local Boy online around the time their superb debut album No Love Lost was released. I remember hearing Local Boy for the first time and feeling an urgency to get their album, a feeling I could only compare to the same urgency I felt the first time I heard The Jam or The Clash. Most of my favorite artists and bands back then had been around for a while and I’ve gotten into them with (at least) a few albums already under their belt. That’s what made The Rifles so special for me, they (along with Arctic Monkeys) were the first new bands I discovered that I still listen to regularly today. I have waited anxiously for each of their releases and bought each of them on their release date. The Rifles’ biggest strength for me lies in the fact that their entire catalog is strong. They have no weak tracks, there’s no album of theirs where I want to skip a single track. It’s all gre

I’ve decided to post about 10 of my favorite acts which we love and play constantly at home. In no particular order I will post one per week, some of them will be pretty obvious to my friends, but maybe (just maybe) some will be new to you and you can discover some great new music (it’s like a public service announcement 😉 ) I’ve always loved Soul music but it’s been in the last decade that I really got into it. While my favorite female singers are all from this genre (Aretha, Amy Winehouse and Sharon Jones) and I have my trio of fav male soul singers as well (Otis, Marvin and Sam), something clicked with me when I discovered Stone Foundation. I remember reading about them (probably someone recommending them) after To Find The Spirit was released. Being on another continent (pre Spotify) didn’t make it easy for me to discover new music, so I ordered TFTS on cd and became an instant fan. But it was when I first heard Beverly that I knew this was one of “my

50 years, how can that be possible? Still sounds amazing… it always will. Let’s get one thing out of the way, yes this is my personal favorite Beatles album but no, I don’t think this is their best one. That title goes in my opinion to Revolver, just like (IMHO) Sgt. Peppers is their most influential one. But Abbey Road always had a special place in my heart. It’s hard to explain, but in honor of its big 5-0, here’s a quick breakdown of why I love this album so much: THE COVER Recently the great Neil Sheasby of Stone Foundation wrote a fascinating series of posts about albums he bought based on how much he liked the cover. Well album covers don’t get much better than this. I am sure that no one bought this album based on the cover, but it’s so iconic that as a kid I remember this image came to my mind when the Beatles were mentioned even before I knew what songs were theirs. I love how you can see this album cover next to their debut Please Please Me and you