New (To Me) Music - February
- Gayle Ramage
- Feb 25
- 6 min read
Well, time has certainly flown by since January's new (to me) music post. In fact, I couldn't wait until the beginning of February, to discover more music I'd not heard before. Thirteen albums have entertained my ears and nourished my brain these past few weeks. Not to overwhelm you too much with the awesomeness of tunes, I’ll only highlight specific albums, and give an honorary mention to the rest, at the end of the post. The highlighted songs below are from that first listen of each album. Chances are, when I go to listen to them again I'll appreciate more tracks.
Chris Difford - South East Side Story (2006)
“But Gayle, you’ve been a fan of Chris/Squeeze since early 2023. What do you mean you’re only now hearing this album?”
Well, dear imaginary reader asking the question, I’ll tell you the reason why: up until a couple of weeks ago, I was using Spotify, and despite Spotify having many many more tracks than Tidal, it didn’t have this album. And Tidal does.
“Yeah, but there’s this cool thing you can do. You can buy a physical copy of an album. I think it’ll catch on.”
True, but whether it’s to have an air of mystique, or for more realistic and mundane reasons, trying to find physical copies of Chris Difford’s studio albums is not as easy as you think, unless you go onto eBay, which is all very well but it doesn’t help support the actual artist directly.
These takes on Squeeze songs, for which co-founder Chris Difford serves as wordsmith and rhythm guitarist, are more acoustic/country-orientated, and here he shares lead vocals on all tracks with singer, Dorie Jackson, who he worked with on his debut album, 2002's I Didn't Get Where I Am. While I’m more a fan of the original pop-rock versions, these are still enjoyable. Listening to Cool For Cats, in this incarnation, evokes the image of the narrator, no longer a young delinquent, wistfully thinking back on his youth.
Highlights: Slap And Tickle - Take Me I’m Yours - Black Coffee In Bed
The Jam - The Gift (1982)
I’d never listened to The Jam outside of hearing some of their most popular hits, but with some of those hits being absolute crackers, I was already predisposed to discovering more of their music. I picked The Gift solely down to the colourful cover. Out of all the songs in the album, Ghosts has become one of my new earworms - it’s such a gorgeous track. While looking through Tidal, I noticed the Deluxe Edition and Super Deluxe Editions were available to listen to, but I chose the original 1982 release. However, I see that Beat Surrender was on those editions, and since I love that song, I’m cheating a little bit by adding it to my highlights.
Highlights: Ghosts - Carnation - A Town Called Malice - Beat Surrender
(I listened to the album weeks before the sad news about ex-Jam drummer, Rick Buckler. I knew from my local music venue that he was due to appear there as part of a tour he was embarking on, and I did consider getting a ticket if I listened to more Jam tracks and liked what I heard. Sadly that choice was ultimately not mine to make. I saw the outpouring of love for Rick on social media when news broke of his passing. I’m just sorry I just started discovering his work so late in the day.)
Madonna - Ray of Light (1998)
Up to this point, the only Madonna album I’d ever heard was 1990’s The Immaculate Collection. I think the cassette album belonged to one of my sisters but I’d nick it and listen to it a lot back in my teens. Despite enjoying a lot of the music on The Immaculate Collection, Madonna was never an artist whose studio albums I sought out. Perhaps part of it was laziness as I don’t think my sisters owned any other Madonna album that I could nick. I decided to start with Ray of Light as I remember it being quite a celebrated album at the time, and I already really liked the singles released from it.
Highlights: Ray of Light - Candy Perfume Girl - Skin - Nothing Really Matters - Frozen - The Power of Goodbye - To Have And Not To Hold - Little Star
Roxy Music - Roxy Music (1972)
Roxy Music is yet another band whose music I’ve enjoyed in terms of hearing some of their singles (Virginia Plain, Same Old Scene, Love Is The Drug), but this is the first time I’ve ventured into their work properly. I chose their debut album because sometimes that’s the best place to start. It was such an engaging listen, and a nice variety of styles - Bitter Ends is delightfully quirky - and reminds me a little of the Bonzo Dog Band - while Sea Breezes is a stand-out.
Highlights: Ladytron - If There Is Something - Virginina Plain - 2HB - Chance Meeting - Sea Breezes - Bitter Ends
Elton John - Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (1973)
When I was a kid, Elton John was this wee guy who sang about sacrifices, lions, and whose albums my eldest sister had. Since there was six years between my sister and I, I often dismissed her taste in music as “boring” (Michael Bolton, Celine Dion, soundtracks to Tom Cruise movies, and Elton John) and so never felt the urge to nick any of her albums to listen to - actually, I did “borrow” a Kylie Minogue album, but that’s another story. Thankfully, I’m not that daft child any longer and have grown to appreciate a wide range of music and artists. Having become familiar with many of his hits over the years, I selected what I think I’m right in saying is one of his most critically-acclaimed albums, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road to start with. There’s such a good mix on this - Your Sister Can’t Twist is such a fast-paced, ‘50s-inspired delight.
Highlights: Bennie And The Jets - Goodbye Yellow Brick Road - This Song Has No Title - Grey Seal - Sweet Painted Lady - Dirty Little Girl - All The Girls Love Alice - Your Sister Can’t Twist (But She Can Rock And Roll) - Saturday Night’s Alright (For Fighting)
Manic Street Preachers - Critical Thinking (2025)
Manic Street Preachers were one of the first guitar bands I got into when I became tired of bubblegum pop boybands as a young teenager in the mid 1990s. I think my second-eldest sister had Everything Must Go on CD, and with there only being 19 months between us, I was very much prone to listening to her music. I like what I heard on that album so thanks to some great second-hand music shops, I started collecting their back catalogue up until that point, swapped posters of Boyzone for posters of Nicky Wire and Richey Edwards glammed up in leopard print shirts and make-up, and even started learning some of their songs on the guitar (I’m pleased that despite not having played it for a good decade or more, I was still able to play the opening riff to No Surface All Feeling without looking at any tabs, a few years ago when I took up guitar-playing again).
The last Manics album I properly listened to was This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours, the follow-up to Everthing Must Go. I realise there are quite a few albums I’ve missed, and I’ll get round to hearing those in due course. But knowing the release of their fifteenth studio album, Critical Thinking, was imminent (the album was released on 14 February), I thought this would be a good chance to listen to a brand-new album. James Dean Bradfield’s voice is still strong, and regardless of what people’s thoughts are on Nicky Wire’s singing, I do enjoy it when bands change up lead vocals now and again.
Highlights: Late Day Peaks - People Ruin Paintings - Hiding In Plain Sight - Brushstrokes of Reunion - Decline & Fall - Critical Thinking
They Might Be Giants - Flood (1990)
A couple of years back I briefly tried my hand at creating reaction videos on YouTube, and fell down a bit of a TMBG rabbit-hole with suggestions of songs from their various albums, so I did hear songs such as Ana Ng, She’s An Angel, Doctor Worm (which I absolutely adore) and one or two versions of (She Was A) Hotel Inspector. Prior to that, the amount of TMBG songs I knew could be counted on three fingers. With two of those songs being from the same album, I decided to listen to that very album, 1990’s Flood. “Quirky” is the word that comes to mind when listening to this album, which isn’t a surprise considering their songs I already knew.
Highlights: Birdhouse in Your Soul - Lucky Ball and Chain - Istanbul (Not Constantinople) - Particle Man - Twisting - Someone Keeps Moving My Chair - Letterbox - Whistling in the Dark - Women & Men - Sapphire Bullets of Pure Love
This month I also listened to: The Bad Fire (Mogwai, 2025), Even In Exile (James Dean Bradfield, 2020), Franz Ferdinand (Franz Ferdinand, 2004), Business As Usual (Men At Work, 1981), A Different Class (Pulp, 1995), Raise A Glass - EP (Andy Mort, 2023)
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