I’m pretty obsessed with Tyler Ballgame right now. I’m always a sucker for a sob story, but not always a sob story sung by a falsetto voice.

I first saw Tyler on Later. With so little live music available on the telly these days, Later has become something of saviour when showcasing old and new.

And Tyler is a bit of both.

He makes no secret in drawing upon Roy Orbison in style. Plus there’s some low key funk riffs going off, bringing it all back up to date.

A little online digging, and Tyler Ballgame is an alter ego for Tyler Perry. He carries it well, self-referencing the character in his own songs.

Got a New Car is the stand out song so far. The vocals are high up on the scale, and so is the light touch Americana backing band.

He’s a man not afraid to refer back to the old craft of songwriting; he’s a man not afraid to to wear double denim - or even triple on a good day.

Signed to Rough Trade in the UK, there’s an album out soon-ish. I cant find a release date.

The sound of a man waving his willy in the air, and not giving it a shit.

We should all try this more often.

It’s relentless, from start to finish. The bass and drums pulsate with no let up. Iggy never was one for ballads.

⭐ ⭐ ⭐

Neil Young’s On The Beach.

Nice.

I wasn’t aware of this 1972 release until it was flagged up earlier this month on the 1,001 Albums list.

My broad rule of thumb with Neil Young is that you can’t go wrong, whatever the period.

Sure,, you’re going to get a change in styles over the decades, but at the base of it all, you’ll still find old Shakey, still looking for answers, and still giving shit to The Man.

On the Beach is part of Young’s ‘ditch’ period, apparently. The modern interweb tells me that he deliberately headed for the ditch, following the huge success of Heart of Gold.

Talk about a career car crash, etc.

The metaphor is even extended on the album front cover itself: Young is on the beach, on vacation and his Mustang is crashed into the sand.

DO YOU GET THIS?

But like I said - you can’t go wrong with Neil Young. He may have been trying go under the radar with On The Beach, but it’s more or less impossible for him to write a duff song.

Gosh, he’s very, very good, and over a considerable period of time as well.

There’s more to Slade than the singles suggest. Much of this album is good old boogie bar room riffs, with an English sense of humour. It’s bloody great fun.

But it’s not all one great big knees up. There’s a darkness to Slade, something that is rarely explored outside of the mainstream narrative.

The guitars get a little too heavy for my liking in areas. It almost strays deep into Led Zep territory. But what do you expect? It’s Slade, innit.

⭐ ⭐ ⭐

There was a most unexpected and welcome surprise for the four-fer with Robert Elms on Saturday: Flowered Up’s It’s On.

CHOON!

The subject for the four-fer was youth club anthems. This is going to be ACE, I thought. Memories of early 80’s, with a wide palette of pent up teenage frustration to choose from.

Wrong.

It turns out that I am about a decade or so older than the average demographic of Elms listeners.

Instead we have early 70’s ska and bubblegum soul. It was all fine, but it wasn’t the racket of a youth club four-fer that I was expecting.

And then some fella called in and suggested Flowered Up.

OH MY DAYS.

Disclaimer: the 1991 release date was WAY BEYOND my own youth club experiences. I should have been selecting The Specials' Nite Club, or something similar.

Flowered Up were more of an undergrad sound for me. Weekender was a constant favourite at the SU Friday night discos.

Gosh, they were heady times. And a little fucked up as well.

And then around ten years later, I think I saw them in London around the turn of the Century.

This was when all things Madchester still had something of a bad name.The guns and drugs had taken over a few years earlier. The Stone Roses imploded spectacularly,

But around 2000 - 2001, there was a feeling in some of the circles that I moved in around the time that Madchester wasn’t dead; or it at least deserved a reappraisal.

The trouble was that all the original bands had long since cleared off.

I remember going to a club at Embankment one Friday night for a Madchester revival. I’ve no idea what the club was called.

In the back of my mind, Flowered Up were booked in to play a reunion gig - their first together in years.

This was a very messy scene. I can’t remember the exact details, but I don’t think Flowered Up actually played.

It might have been that some of the band turned up, but not the full outfit. It may even have been a cringe PA mime set that followed.

I was pretty fucked up tbh…

The fella on the four-fer described the Herberts perfectly: Youth Club Rave. I like that genre, but can’t pin anyone else down to it.

So yeah / no, I did / didn’t see Flowered Up.

I most deffo didn’t see Paris Angels whilst an undergrad. They split up en route to a gig at Colchester Arts Centre.

Musicians: messy.

The new album from Tortoise is very, very good. They’re a band that hasn’t really troubled me. But each time I hear about them, I only hear good things.

I’ve had little more time this week to listen to new music. Ive finally cleared the Gilles Peterson backlog of downloads that were sitting on my phone.

Much love, as always, to GP.

Plus the stupid international break has led to less Forest podcast action.

And so instead, Tortoise’s new Touch album has been on the online turntable.

It reminds me a lot of Ozric Tentacles - without the tie dye.

I’m increasingly drawn towards instrumental albums these days. It’s far from background music, but it’s what I need whilst I’m working away.

Touch isn’t exactly a… light touch. It’s incredibly unsettling in places. The distorted and out of sync drums add to the sense of confusion.

Post-rock - whatever that means these days - has become a feature for me in recent weeks. Bark Psychosis, Tortoise, and even some Clinic.

None of these are going to be pushing for that Christmas number one.

Robert Elms had another ACE Cover to Cover on BBC Radio London this morning. Up for consideration was Tainted Love - Gloria Jones Vs, well, you know what.

As ever with Cover to Cover, the original was played first. I always thought the Soft Cell cover was the original until relatively recently.

The Gloria Jones Northern Soul stomp was first released in 1964. The Soft Cell version followed seventeen years later.

It’s not a major lapse of time in the chronology of popular music. But they sound worlds apart. One is huff and puff Northern Soul, the other is the future.

SHOUT OUT to erm, Ed Cobb who originally wrote the song. Plus Glenn Campbell weirdly plays guitar on the Gloria Jones version.

I found the original to be lacking in any hook. That synth double beat riff which defines the Soft Cell version is so underplayed. The song is pretty much over before it’s started.

Soft Cell meanwhile is a youth club classic for me. The highlight of each month for me was dancing away to the 12" at the youth club disco as Tainted Love morphs into Where Did I Love Go?

It’s a killer drop, especially the segue, which still has me dancing more than four decades later.

The reason for Elms selecting Tainted Love was of course the passing of Dave Ball. His production and synth arrangement here is magical. It sounds like seedy Soho of the time.

As soon as the opening seconds of the synth whip kick in, you know you’re there.

No surprises that Soft Cell won.

An album that all the nerds at schools use to have wet dreams over. I was too busy with 2Tone and girls. Time to see if the nerds won the long game?

tl;dr nerds never win.

At the end of Oxygène 1 I was ready to bail. Wait. There’s five more servings of this shit sandwich to come?

It sounds more like the annoying soundtrack for an early 80’s video game console. It’s got a crap cover as well.

UP YOURS, nerds.

⭐

Here’s some geezer music for you: I bring you Good Health Good Wealth.

This time next year we will be millionaires, etc.

Which also happens to be the title of their debut album, out on Friday.

I first caught the duo on BBC Introducing for London. It’s a cheeky chappy mix of Streets style stories, with some tight beats brought up to date.

They look the bollocks as well.

Some of the tracks get a little dark. GWGH are not afraid to explore their own feelings, all behind the uplifting beats.

They’re also giving Sleaford fucking Mods a run for their money in the profanity stakes.

Well this is a wonderful oddity from Little Stevie - a double CD as well, something that I’m always in favour of.

Journey Through the Secret Life of Plants is WAY OUT of the usual Stevie narrative around this time. Released in 1979, it’s the polar opposite of that glorious run of five albums, starting with Music of My Mind in 1972, and closing with Songs in the Key of Life four years later.

That’s not to say that Plants is crap. It’s just different. VERY different.

I had no understanding or even knowledge of this album until recently. Apologies, Stevie obsessives.

It got name checked by Gawd knows who in a podcast I heard, or an interview I read. I get through so much online content these days that I can’t keep track of where all the heads up come from.

But something must have pricked my interest to add it to the ebay Watch List.

Daily CD’s were served up - £10 to £15. Which sounds about right for a double album release.

And then last week this copy landed at £4.

Blimey. BUY NOW etc.

ChatGPT tells me:

“Journey Through the Secret Life of Plants was an experimental, mostly instrumental album intended to accompany the visuals of a nature documentary exploring the idea that plants are sentient and can respond to human emotion.”

Which is all very King Charles.

First play, first impressions: it’s a soulful companion piece for Brian Eno releases around this time. It’s still Stevie, with the harmonica dropping across different tracks.

I still love the idea of taking a punt on the unknown. Sure, I could have streamed this. But for a £4 gamble, I’ve now got a new double album that keeps me going for the next month or so.

We need more environmental music btw. What’s Going On, World Party’s Goodbye Jumbo, and now Journey Through the Life of Plants.

I hope over time, Stevie gets the same high esteem from me as the other two albums on this list.