Classics Never Go Out Of Style — Issue #1: January

Remember what James Acaster did in 2016? Well, I’ve unconsciously been doing that every year for at least the last 15 of them. I’ve always loved the excitement of new release day; on Monday when I was young, walking into town after school to buy the latest CD from my favourite band. Now on Fridays, and reduced to simply clicking the New Releases button on Spotify; the ritual has simplified but the same anticipation remains.

I know streaming is a nightmare for the artist, which is why when I do find something I really like I buy it on vinyl, buy some merch or go to a gig. But to have unfettered access to an infinite amount of new albums, every single Friday for the monthly price of what it used to cost me to get hold of just one new CD, I can’t help but feel spoiled. I listened to 1 new album released in 2024 for nearly every day of the year, much to the bemusement of my friends. “Surely you don’t get time to actually fall in love with any of them?” they said. But I listen to music while I’m doing absolutely everything; it helps me concentrate.

But one thing that has suffered from this gorging of new music is the time I’ve had spare for music of the past. I was lucky to be brought up by a true musical encyclopaedia of a father who made sure that my education was broad and thorough. But as an adult I find I don’t return much to the old music I loved, and I’m definitely not uncovering anything new to me from times past. Which brings us here! Inspired by my brother BR; who dedicates time each year to discovering new favourites from decades gone by and has encouraged me to do the same, I’m finally going to rewind a bit this year. I’ll report back at the end of each month with my reflections — follow me on this time travelling trip!

A few rules of engagement:

• In order to do this properly, I’m excluding anything released after 2010. I turned 13 in 2004 and that was when I first started going out to buy albums, so there will also be pretty limited coverage of the 00’s too.
• There may be albums on here that I know songs from, but have never properly gotten to know the full record. These may be from artists that I already count myself a fan of as well; but never dived deep enough.
• I’m drawing from a longlist of 150–160 albums which I won’t share because it will spoil the surprise. I put this list together based on both ‘widely accepted Classics’ and records I’ve always meant to check.
• I’m going to challenge myself to listen to around 10 albums a month. I know I can dedicate the time to really sit with 10. Any more might be stretching it, any less will be half-arsing.

Let’s go!

Love — Forever Changes (1967)

This one was recommended to me directly by Ben, the inspiration for this project so I had to start here. One of those albums I knew the name of and immediately recognised the cover but had never knowingly heard a note from the band before. I’ve been playing this on waterlogged motorway drives recently which is the polar opposite of the blissed-out, sun-kissed vibe they’re giving off. Despite this I’ve been really enjoying it. When I say it has a 60’s vibe; it really quintessentially does — it couldn’t be from any other era. I read that Love are considered one of the first racially diverse American rock bands which is amazing — Arthur Lee is an exceptional songwriter and has a gorgeous voice. The arrangements are great too, I really enjoyed the horns in particular; and some of the ‘studio trickery’ like the sounds being reversed on ‘The Good Humour Man..’ had me double-checking the speakers. I’ve come back to this one a lot but I have to say that other discoveries this month eclipsed this first one somewhat.
Favourite track: Probably ‘Maybe The People Would Be The Times..’ although I started out disliking ‘The Red Telephone’ then did a full 180.

Paul McCartney & Wings — Band On The Run (1973)

I almost didn’t include this one because I think I have listened to it before; but looking at the tracklist I didn’t really recognise any other than the first 2 songs so who knows. I’m SO glad that I did though because this album is unbelievable. It’s literally bursting with so many fun ideas and vibrant production; I scrunched my face up so many times at the sounds coming out the speakers. That guitar lick on ‘Let Me Roll It’ in particular is like acupuncture to the pleasure sensors in my brain — good lord. Obviously Paul’s voice is recognisable but it felt so different from a Beatles record to me; they sound like they’re having the most fun ever. When it ended the first time I played it all the way through I just pressed play again from the beginning. I loved the afro-influence on songs like ‘Mrs. Vandebilt’ and ‘Mamunia’ and how there are all the callbacks to earlier songs in ‘Picasso’s Last Words’ Closing the album with ‘Nineteen Hundred And Eighty Five’ is just so epic too; it kind of has the drama of an ABBA song but much cooler — then when those orchestral jabs come in during the final minute it’s just godly. What a record…this is the first album from my classics project that I’ve made sure I have on vinyl.
Favourite track: ‘Let Me Roll It’ — I’ve definitely drunkenly danced and sung along to this at a wedding before without really knowing what it was. Wow.

Eric B. & Rakim — Paid In Full (1987)

It was important to me that during this journey I also take the opportunity to explore the roots of hip hop. The ‘80s are definitely an era where I know next to nothing about the genre but I’d seen this album referenced a lot; and much said about how Rakim is a legend in the game. Did you know ASAP Rocky’s real name is Rakim and he was named after the MC? I was excited to check it out. Unfortunately I didn’t gel with this one at all. Maybe it’s because I first fell in love with the genre in the post-2010 second golden age, when experimental, futuristic production began to really take centre stage — but this sounded quite basic to my ears. I know it was probably really ahead of its time but it sounds extremely dated and rudimentary to me now. And I couldn’t help thinking about that Will Smith bit in Family Guy when listening to Rakim’s flow. It was cool to hear him rap the line “If I wasn’t, then why would I say I am?” which Eminem interpolated for The Way I Am but outside of 1 or 2 other moments I was happy to move on from this one. Maybe one to revisit in a different headspace!
Favourite track: ‘As The Rhyme Goes On’ just for the lineage-tracing I mentioned above. Otherwise there weren’t really standouts for me.

The Magnetic Fields — 69 Love Songs (1999)

Yo dawg we heard you like Magnetic Fields so we fitted your album with 69 Magnetic Fields songs etc. My last.fm profile — which next year will have been running continuously for 20 years!? — tells me ‘Nothing Matters When We’re Dancing’ from this album is in my Top 150 most played songs of all time. This felt like a good reason to have checked out some more music from the band which until now I’d never done. It was an amazing experience to listen to an album this long. My first playthrough was in the office so it took all day with all the stops and starts — but walking around Brighton in the freezing January sunshine on my lunch was the perfect setting. As you can imagine with a triple album that spans almost 3 hours in length; it’s a mixed bag. I definitely enjoyed the traditionally sweet and folky love songs most — particularly the lyrics which frequently knocked me off my feet. Take ‘Asleep And Dreaming’ for example, which states simply “I don’t know if you’re beautiful / Because I love you too much” — just one moment where they find a way to express something so pure in a way I’d never heard before. There are some moments which are too twee for me (‘King of the Boudoir’); and I didn’t like the songs where Stephin Merritt cedes vocals to other band members nearly as much. But I’d say I love over half the songs here; which out of 69 is pretty nice.
Favourite track: Near impossible to choose here but today I’ll go with ‘Time Enough For Rocking When We’re Old’ which tells you everything you need in the title.

Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark — Architecture & Morality (1981)

This band were not in my original longlist until I heard a song from it on the radio. I started a new job at the beginning of the month and I’m loving being in an office environment again 3 days a week. I was very happy to discover Radio 6Music is the soundtrack of choice there, and I have Craig Charles to thank for this one. He played ‘The New Stone Age’ one afternoon and it immediately blew me away. Hearing those chaotic jangly guitars and dystopian synth-blares I thought “wow, some new post-punk act have really nailed that UK 80’s darkwave reference” until I looked it up and realised it was the real thing. The way singer Andy McCluskey sings “Oh my god what have we done this time?” is so empassioned and contagious. He sounds like a more distressed Robert Smith and I can hear so many people influenced by his style in the decades since. It’s crazy to think I only knew OMD from their smash hit ‘Enola Gay’ and probably would’ve never listened to their other work based on just that. I love that this album came after that song’s success — there’s so many interesting things going on here. ‘Souvenir’ is a gorgeous, dreamy synth-pop song like a romantic scene from Stranger Things while ‘Joan of Arc’ and ‘Maid of Orleans’ form a two-song, 8 minute epic about the french heroine. The album is experimental and unrushed, but totally immersive. What a find.
Favourite track: Obviously it’s ‘The New Stone Age’ and I’m pretty comfortable saying it’s my favourite song from any of these albums in Jan.

Squarepusher — Go Plastic (2001)

Another musical adventure I have 6Music to thank for this month! I heard ‘My Red Hot Car’ on Nemon’s morning show and was immediately intrigued. I assumed it was a new track based on the laid-back vocals mixed with the jungle-samples being quite popular currently; I couldn’t believe it when I discovered it was nearly 25 years old. His sound definitely called Aphex Twin to mind (although that’s another act that probably should appear in my journey this year) so I wasn’t surprised to find that he’d actually signed Squarepusher early on in his career. Electronic music in all its forms has long been a favourite genre for me so it was great to trace back the work of one of UK IDM’s originators. There are loads of different sounds on this record though, from D’n’B, breakbeat, acid house, jazz fusion and ambient. It reminded me in tone of Caribou’s first album (then under the moniker Manitoba) Start Breaking My Heart which came out 3 months before Go Plastic. However, this is actually Squarepusher’s 5th album; so clearly his influence had already travelled across the pond. I’m definitely interested in going back and trying out his debut album next Feed Me Weird Things.
Favourite track: ‘My Red Hot Car’ but I loved ‘The Exploding Psychology’ too for how its chaos gives way to slow, spooky organ in the second half.

The Pharcyde — Bizarre Ride II the Pharcyde (1992)

After the dissapointment of Eric B. & Rakim I was determined not to be put off older rap music so moved on to the debut album from The Pharcyde, released in 1992. What immediately struck me was just how far production had come along in the 5 years since Paid In Full — this sonically stands up to a lot of the ‘vintage-sounding’ hip hop music coming out today. There were 2 reasons I chose this record: one being that they’re from LA. The West Coast is having a huge resurgence right now thanks largely to Kendrick Lamar gifting his city Drake’s head on a plate and using it to herald the victory as one not just for himself but the whole coast. Also I already loved the group’s song ‘Runnin’ (which I think is sampled in Bas & J Cole’s ‘Tribe’) but wanted to start with their first record. As well as loving all the instrumentals I was consistently thrilled by the flows of all 4 MCs in the group. Their fast, nimble raps intertwining with each others’ really buoy the tracks whenever the beats don’t so much. But if you’re a fan of bombastic, jazzy hip hop with clean drum loops you’ll love this. I went back to this album loads whenever I just wanted to chuck something on in the mornings and it reignited my excitment to dig deeper into Rap’s original Golden Age.
Favourite track: ‘Passin’ Me By’ for the killer hook in the chorus which breaks everything up so well. Loved all the songs though.

Funkadelic — Maggot Brain (1971)

You might recognise George Clinton’s immortally haunting “Mother Earth is pregnant for the third time” intro to this album from the first track off Travis Scott’s last album. But he isn’t the biggest disciple of Maggot Brain… no, that accolade comfortably to Childish Gambino. I remember back in 2016 lots of people saying how clearly influenced he was by Funkadelic, Parliament and others on ‘Awaken My Love’ but putting this album on for the first time was uncanny. They both open with a long, atmospheric track, followed by track 2 on both albums ‘Can You Get To That’ and ‘Have Some Love’ having the exact same romping group vocals as each other. Track 3 on both ‘Hit It And Quit It’ and ‘Boogieman’ share an identical ‘doo-doo-doo-doo’ vocal hook. Fortunately they do start to deviate slightly after that but honestly, I came away from this listen now seeing one of my favourite albums simply as Funkadelic cosplay, or a covers record. But hey — this is one of the reasons I’m doing this project; to better understand the roots of many of the present day artists that I love. And thank god Funkadelic laid such incredible seeds because this kind of psychadelic funk rock/soul is absolutely right up my street. It would be flawless if it wasn’t for the rumbling wet fart sounds in the album closer but hey no-one’s perfect — still my favourite album of this month.
Favourite track: Genuinely impossible to choose one as there’s only 7 and they’re all essential.

Scott Walker — Scott (1967)

Finished off the month by finally diving into the world of Scott Walker. This is a man who I have long known has influenced most of my favourite songwriters and I was so excited to give his debut an overdue listen. Among many others, I heard a lot of latter-day Alex Turner here (also Last Of The Shadow Puppets too) It was amazing to hear an album nearly 60 years old sound so timelessly cool. Listening to this feels like driving along the coastline of Montenegro in a tiny convertible with someone devastatingly beautiful in the passenger seat. Yes, in this scenario I’m wearing a linen suit, no tie. It’s just so classic sounding and grand — the orchestral arrangements force you to use words like ‘sumptuous’ to describe how rich they are. I used to live off Montpelier Terrace so enjoyed ‘Montague Terrace’ very much for the memories it evoked. ‘My Death’ really took me off guard as it’s a really mature rumination on mortality from an artist just 24 years old at the time. And annoyingly, as soon as ‘When Joanna Loved Me’ started I knew I’d heard it before; particularly the lyrics referenced elsewhere but I still haven’t found out where. I’d really like to get this on vinyl but might wait to listen to the other albums in the Scott series before picking a favourite.
Favourite track: ‘Amsterdam’ — a perfect closer.

Back To The Future:

The picks of music released this month
Just to keep one foot in the present (and for those who come to me for new music recommendations) my favourite albums that came out in January are, in chronological order, as follows:

• Murder During Drug Traffic and Pemanent Ink by Boldy James
• DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS by Bad Bunny
• Perverts by Ethel Cain
• Full Moon by Moonchild Sanelly
• Balloonerism by Mac Miller
• Airbag Woke Me Up by Jeshi
• Eusexua by FKA twigs
• Asphodels by The Veils
• BLACK’!ANTIQUE by Pink Siifu
• ☆ Hurry Up Tomorrow by The Weeknd ☆

Join me this time next month to see what I dive into next. And PLEASE — if you have any recommendations comment them down below!