Sleaford Mods have dropped a ‘dark version’ of their video for The Good Life.

It is Halloween, after all.

Christ, this was bloody awful. The oh so enthusiastic handclaps ten seconds in should have served as a warning sign. This isn’t really a live album, is it?

I could have tolerated the post-production feel if the songs stood up. But they were shit. I bailed on track five - quite an achievement.

⭐

Blimey - Adrian Sherwood has been busy once again with another new release: The Collapse of Everything.

He’s one of those artists that I never know where to really start. The back catalogue is so vast and diverse. Sometimes it’s just best to dive in at random.

The Collapse of Everything is a little more structured. Tango Dub would be a clumsy, yet accurate, description.

Yer man certainly knows how to build up and sequence a track. It reminded me very much of the ACE Ozrics in places.

It sounds like a full on orchestra has been hired at Abbey Road as part of the production. Betcha it was more like a home bedroom DIY effort.

I’d love to see a film that has The Collapse of Everything as the soundtrack.

Maybe just turn on the news and mute the telly?

Another changing of the seasons, another selection of new music from Cleaners from Venus.

Hurrah!

Mr Mule has dropped on Bandcamp the Neverland for Now EP - four tracks, all with a a DIY ethos as you would expect.

Start your own revolution and cut out the middle man, etc.

Mule has been particularly prolific in recent years. Did someone say LEGACY? As long as he’s coming up with the goods, I don’t really mind.

The lead track from the EP is a dreamy affair, complete with Mule’s signature backwards vocals bolted on at the end. The unmistakable jingle jangle chords carry the song.

There’s a breezy summer feel - unlike the Lilli Bolero summer album, that sounded more like autumn.

Mule World is always a little mixed up.

Elsewhere across the release and there are local references ahoy. Track 4 is even called Return to Wivenhoe, a subject we all find hard to address.

“When the tide is high, and the mist is low, I will return to Wivenhoe.”

Expect a Christmas drop soon.

For once a foreign language album I can appreciate. The tightness of the beats and the production elevate above the lyrics. I bailed at the end of the album, rather than continue with all the mixes. The strength of the originals was enough to satisfy me. A decent working soundtrack.

⭐ ⭐ ⭐

I streamed Bark Psychosis' Hex album this afternoon. There was a cheapo copy going on ebay for £6. Anything between £15-£20 is the usual asking price.

The idea was to give it a play through to see if it was as outstanding as I once remembered. It was, and it wasn’t.

It’s an exceptional piece of music of which the term post-rock - whatever that might mean - was made for. What makes it all the more remarkable is that this was very much an unknown musical direction back in 1994.

The disappointment wasn’t in the music, but in me. I must have rinsed this on a home recording cassette for six months or so around 1994. Yet I didn’t recognise one single piece of music throughout the playback this afternoon.

I’m not sure if this is a good or bad thing.

Hex has clearly left a memory on me as being something of interest. I wouldn’t have set up an ebay search otherwise.

But it fails to pass the Old Grey Whistle Test. You won’t get too many window cleaners whistling along to some of the dark passages that unfold as the album stretches out in front of you.

Three tracks in and I had decided that this was worth £6. It’s probably worth £10 tbh.

And then BLOODY HELL. I clicked through on ebay, only to find that the CD had been sold.

Buy now, ask later, etc.

I wasn’t really in the mood for this, first thing. But I persisted and gave it a spin. It’s all very familiar. The beats build up, the bass kicks in, you go apeshit crazy.

It’s not exactly a home listening album. You need to be mashed off your head and stumbling into a ditch to really appreciate. Sadly those days are long behind me.

⭐ ⭐ ⭐

I struggled to get my head around this. It’s more rock than punk, even taking a few unwelcome steps towards goth.

What a racket from a bunch of young Herberts. It’s a sludge of an album that sounds as though it’s stuck in time.

I’ve never got on with Gary Gilmore’s Eye. Sixth form humour at best.

⭐ ⭐

An album that makes you want to BOOZE and reflect in equal measures. The transition from Stay with Me to Debris captures this perfectly. An extra star for only being thirty six minutes long - the ideal time for any rock ‘n’ roll album.

⭐ ⭐ ⭐

I gave Weller’s 22 Dreams another play first thing this morning. It all came about after a particularly vivid dream.

Hey! I know. Let’s play 22 Dreams at 5am to get me through the first work shift of the day. Job’s a good ‘un, etc.

I absolutely rinsed this album when it was first released at the start of the summer of 2008. It pretty much defined that period for me. I had to force myself to stop listening to this and nothing else as the year drew to a close.

Seventeen years have somehow passed between then and now. 22 Dreams is still an outstanding, mixed up album.

There’s so many disparate parts that somehow all hang together around the theme of a dream; Northern Soul, psychedelia, Krautrock. It really shouldn’t work, but it does.

It reminded me of listening to the White Album from start to finish on the punishing sound system at the Colchester Arts Centre last week. So many different styles, what a racket. But a bloody glorious racket at that.

22 Dreams started the resurgence period for Weller. Every other album since then has been outstanding. No bad feat, considering he delivers pretty much each and every summer.

The album carries itself, rewarding you when you reach the end. It sounds like a chore, but it really isn’t. It’s like coming to the season close of a boxset that you’ve binged. You’re left wanting more.

A lot of crap is written about Weller. Erm, just read the above.

But time and time again, he comes up with the goods. His back catalogue is now looking pretty much unrivalled in terms of UK artists. He’ll leave quite a legacy.