I’m going to try to do monthly blog posts this year. Here’s the first – my annual round-up of the best popular music tracks of the year just ended.
You can also check this new list out on Apple Music or Spotify. And, check out the Apoplexy Tiny Letter for a bonus track.
Continue reading Eight Tracks VI
Well, of course apoplectic.me is back for my favourite post of every year – a round-up of the best popular music tracks of 2021. I wonder if the list will reflect the nature of the year…?
![When we thought 2020 was terrible? [John Oliver detonates a huge explosion of the number 2020]](http://www.apoplectic.me/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/giphy-2.gif "When we thought 2020 was terrible? [John Oliver detonates a huge explosion of the number 2020]")
You know, my tracks of 2020 did tend towards the distressingly fey and shoegaze-y. Well, not this year. This year’s better. You can also check this new list out on Apple Music or Spotify.
[Check out the Apoplexy Tiny Letter for a bonus track.]
Continue reading Eight Tracks V
After King Rocker the other week, Mrs Stroke Bloke indulged me by sitting through Creation Stories, a biopic of sorts about Creation Records main man, Alan McGee.
Creation Records plays a big part in my, er, origin story, as indirectly noted by an old school friend.
[The Apoplexy Tiny Letter is hiding the best song associated with Creation Stories]
Continue reading A Personal History Of Creation
After I published the latest apoplectic.me post in August, Paul commented that
the new music in 2020 hasn’t caught my ear yet. Nothing like last years Jaime by Brittany Howard, which I loved. I also fear we are about to get some not very good quarantine inspired music coming our way.
Comments to Under Cover Under Wraps
Amid the huge static roar of distraction that was 2020, perhaps it’s unsurprising that there’s something out of time about my Eight Tracks of the year.
Join me, won’t you, on a journey to a place that isn’t here in a time that isn’t now. It’s gotta be better than this, right? Or, just hit up the Spotify playlist.
[Check out the Apoplexy Tiny Letter for a bonus track.]
Continue reading Eight Tracks IV
I’ve been seeing folks doing calls for – and offering up – playlists to offer some kind of respite from The Lockdown that’s gone into effect here in the nations of Britain and Northern Ireland. So, what better time to belatedly offer up some of my favourite tracks from the happy days of 2019?
As it happens, the apoplectic.me post of my favourite choons of 2018 began by noting that it was the death of David Bowie that had heralded planet Earth’s one-way trip to hell in a hand basket.
So, join me, won’t you, on a trip down memory lane to when things hadn’t yet gotten entirely out of hand? Or if you don’t like wurdz, just hit up the Spotify playlist.
[The Apoplexy Tiny Letter is coming out of hiatus, too. With a bonus track, no doubt.]
Continue reading Eight Tracks III
We’re just over a week into 2018, and already it seems like
2018 : 2017 : : 2017 : 2016
Maybe things look more upbeat in the United States, where instead of Weak And Wobbly Theresa, there’s a VERY STABLE GENIUS!!! in charge.
[Check out the Apoplexy Tiny Letter for bonus Track Nine?!]
Last week’s first five suggestions for a top ten list of musical introductions ended with a plea for help in picking out the balance. And Long-Suffering Readers Of The Blog Prof Paul and Atletico Marcelo didn’t disappoint in the comments.
[How to round out a Top Ten List: read on.] Continue reading Outros
It feels like the subject matter on the blog has been kinda heavy these past weeks, so how about a bit of fun?
Maybe you’ve seen the recent news article to the effect that the average intro time for a pop hit has dropped from more than 20 seconds to five seconds since the mid-1980s. I mean, I don’t know why the BBC are banging on about it now, when Mashable reported on the underlying research in April.
[Who cares? Read on for five of the best intros ever.] Continue reading Introduction
Do you know the way to blue? This guy does.
Like Nick Drake, I’ve got to assume that most people who’ve suffered the effects of a stroke – and their loved ones – are familiar with the blues. And some of them may even look out the Blues as a form of therapy. I can’t locate the exact quote, but someone once said
It’s a sad music that makes you feel happy.
So it was that Mrs Stroke Bloke and I went along with a couple of friends to a show put on by the Edinburgh Blues Club on Friday.
[Extra time to waste on Labor Day (US)? Get more apoplexy here.]
Last week, I promised readers of the Apoplexy Tiny Letter a break from the political stuff, after the recent Democracy trilogy (1, 2, 3). And after last week’s Frankie Goes to Hollywood-mendous post, why not stay in the comforting nostalgic embrace of the ’80s?
I mean, seriously? Kayne, John Mayer, and The Police’s version of Message In a Bottle at 2007’s Live Earth concert to combat climate change made me want the Earth’s surface to be heated to 100,000,000°C. But we spoke about that sort of thing last week. And haemorrhagic stroke survivors are meant to keep their blood pressure down. So. Pleasant thoughts… Continue reading I Hate the ’80s
