I’ve decided to start keeping a monthly music diary, more for my own purposes than anything else, so I can remember what has been going on in my musical world. It’ll include a playlist of the songs I’ve been enjoying this month, as well as my reflections on my, and the wider, musical world.

Shortest ever musical diary this month, as August meant not only the school holidays, but also moving house, so very little time for music listening. I’ve not even put a playlist together as I have discovered essentially no new music during the month.

As is tradition, the first album I listened to when we moved in was Radiohead’s Kid A. I always do this when I’m in a new place, or have some new audio equipment, because the introduction to Everythin In Its Right Place, is one of my favourite pieces of music, and serves to put me at ease.

I did, however, get to some live music this month, for the first time in a while. I went to Manchester Psych Fest with some old friends, which is one of those multi-venue city festivals where logistics plays a big part in what bands you end up seeing. I covered the gamut from aging 1970s hippy groups (Gong) to bands playing their first ever gig (Twin Flames) to poetry in a tiny back room of a pub (Antony Szmierek). By far the highlight was Joseph Idehen, part poet, part preacher, part rave MC. I was familiar with his track ‘Mum Does The Washing’ which, honestly, I’d not enjoyed all that much. Live was a completely different proposition though, a joyous, communal experience that you really need to see. It was one of the periodic affirmations of the joy of live music that I really needed after seeing a few full fairly dull bands, and feeling old and tired.

Music discourse was very focused on AI, which I have zero interest in writing about, but also weirdly for a couple of days about the song ‘Home’ by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes. I first heard that song on a Rough Trade compilation at a time when my wife and I had just met and were in a long distance relationship, so the ‘home is wherever I’m with you’ refrain had particular meaning for us. I thought of it as a fairly obscure song at the time, although I recognised it had cropped up on some adverts and occasionally on the radio so must be better known than I thought. I was still very surprised though, when it was declared the worst song in history 15 years later and compared tp bands who I really don’t like, such as Mumford and Suns and The Lumineers.

The thing is that, I kind of get it. It’s extremely hokey and there are plenty of good reasons not to like it, it’s just goes to show how much your feelings about a song depend on the context in which you first hear it.

One of the few songs I did discover in August was Anna Erhard’s Botanical Garden, the kind of funny, melodic indie-pop that reminds me that there is some life left in guitar based music yet. Hope you enjoy, and have a great September.