What goes up must come down:

The Beatles ‘Rubber Soul’ - gotta be the mono version: punchy and catchy as Covid. They never bettered this. Beep beep yeah;

10cc ‘Sheet Music’ - too clever for their own good? I’ve read that many times, but whatever: 10cc were a class act making unique, finely crafted music that still stands up;

Julian Cope ‘Citizen Cain’d’ - that it took me twenty years to hear this in full is beyond regretful. That it still sounds as fresh as ‘Friar Tuck’ is more than a consolation;

John Martyn ‘Piece By Piece’ - that rare thing: a mid-80s album that hasn’t been (too) overproduced. It’s a bit AOR in places but it has some real highs, not least the awesome ‘John Wayne’;

Loop ‘Wolf/Flow’ - Loop aren’t the only band whose Peel sessions supersede their released output, fine though that is. If I could own only one example of their sublimely repetitive art, it’d be this;

Rough Diamond S/T - the somewhat tragic David Byron could never better his Uriah Heep days, and by the time this saw the light of day (1977) the world had moved on. A shame, because there’s some quality performances on here, especially from Clem Clempson;

Led Zeppelin S/T and ‘II’ - I’m still basking in the glow of the new Zep movie and the light it sheds on these two wondrous records. If they’d never made another album we’d still be lauding ‘em as legends;

Bob Dylan ‘Blonde On Blonde’ - still sounding resplendent in its mono form, and to have a separate CD for each disc makes it that bit more true to its roots. Everybody must get stoned;

Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers ‘Rock & Roll With The Modern Lovers’ - pioneering low-fi pop perfection from nearly half a century ago. Still charms my face off;

Megadeth ‘Rust In Peace’ - the only Megadeth LP that’s ever registered with me. And I love it loads;

Discharge ‘Why’ EP and ‘Hear Nothing, Say Nothing, Say Nothing’ - punk in extremis, primal and blisteringly powerful. In fact, I’d take the latter to my desert island for the rush it gives me still;

Blood, Sweat & Tears S/T - their second and best album. Sounds much fresher than its 1968 date suggests. And what a fine singer David Clayton-Thomas was;

KC and the Sunshine Band ‘Greatest Hits’ - uncool, but so what. Effin’ marvellous. There, I said it. We’re all allowed our guilty pleasures, and I won’t get arrested for mine;

Seals & Crofts ‘Diamond Girl’ - another guilty pleasure. So what. Life’s for living;

Van Morrison ‘Poetic Champions Compose’ - in the Eighties, Van was artistically more consistent than any of his contemporaries. None of his eight studio efforts from that sorry decade clunk, even when bordering easy listening ground as here. Just wallow in these fine arrangements and that (still in tune) vocal that sounds like no-one else;

Bob Dylan ‘Blood On The Tracks’ - no comment necessary. If Unsung reviews were still a thing, I’d do one for this… if only because it’s so NOT unsung it’s taken for granted, much like most of the greatest art;

OM ‘It’s About Time’ - OM’s first studio album in forty years is as controlled and chaotic as their previous one. And as weirdly wonderful;

The Dave Brubeck Quartet ‘Gone With The Wind’ & ‘Southern Scene’ - it never ceases to amaze me how good Bru’s classic Quartet’s records still sound. These takes on spirituals and folk songs are right up there with their best work. Which may be

The Dave Brubeck Quartet ‘At Carnegie Hall’ - double album of a 1963 concert that was - and remains - off the scale for quality and class. The greatest live album EVER and yes, I’m including ‘Made In Japan’ and ‘Live At Leeds’ in that reckoning. Just listen to it before you argue;

Haydn: String Quartet in F, Op.74 no.2 (Endellion Quartet) - slightly characterless but beautifully played;

Beethoven: Symphonies 4 & 8 (Leipzig Gewandhaus/Herbert Blomstedt) - Blomstedt is - amazingly - still conducting at 97. These 2014/17 performances have a spirit and vitality quite at odds with his old age. Rock on, Herbert;

Beethoven: Symphony no.7 & Prometheus Overture (VPO/Claudio Abbado) - for the most part, I prefer the younger Abbado to his older self. IMHO he never bettered this first of three Beethoven Sevenths from 1968, and the coupled overture is a gas;

Beethoven: Violin Concerto (Henryk Szeryng/Concertgebouw/Bernard Haitink) - measured but honey sweet rendering of one of Beethoven’s mid-period masterpieces;

Beethoven: Lieder with opus numbers (Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Hermann Prey a.o.) - Beethoven has rarely been given his due as a songwriter but some of his loveliest music is hidden therein;

Brahms: Piano Quartet no.3 in C minor, Op.60 (Beaux Arts Trio & Walter Trampler) - the second version of this glorious work I played this week, alongside the new Krystian Zimerman-led version on DG. Can’t decide which I prefer. The music’s superb in both;

Elgar: In The South (BBC SO) & Choral Songs (BBC Chorus/Sir Adrian Boult) - immensely satisfying fillers for Boult’s marvellous 1963 recording of Elgar’s Second Symphony, recently reissued as ‘Boult’s Elgar - The Forgotten Recordings’;

Wagner: Parsifal (VPO/Sir Georg Solti) - well, it WAS Easter. Not the most spiritual of readings but my, the singing’s superb. And the music… well, we’re not worthy - even if the composer was a grasping, anti-semitic, homophobic bastard. Hey, if I confined my record collection to the righteous, I’d have a pretty small record collection.

Give me my rapture today.

Sunny vibes to all

Dave x