I've tasted life and I'm ready....

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>>>>>ST's ALPHABETICON - Part vii: G<<<<<

Previously in the Alphabeticon: A, B, C, D, E, F

Right. You know the deal: this is not a definitive list of my music collection. This is a walkthrough a particular set of shelves that hold many (but not all) of my CDs. Blah, blah, blah. You remember CDs, right? They're the things that you can cover in marmalade and put in your freezer and they still play perfectly. Remember now? A bit like an iPod, only with a lot less music on it (although apparently a lot better at scaring birds off your vegetable patch when hung on a piece of string. If you have a vegetable patch, obviously).

Anyway. Where were we?

192. Guns n’ Roses – Appetite For Destruction
193. Guns n’ Roses – Use Your Illusions I
194. Guns n’ Roses – Use Your Illusions II

I'm not sure one record has ever dominated my stereo for such a such a long period of time as "Appetite for Destruction". For a long stretch between late 1987 and the first half of 1988, I barely listened to anything else (well, I think I might have alternated it with "Seventh Son of a Seventh Son" for some of that time). 20 years later, it still sounds absolutely brilliant. Nobody has produced a rock album quite like this one since.... certainly not Guns n' Roses, anyway. I saw them play Wembley Stadium shortly before the release of the "Use Your Illusion" albums, and although they were pretty good, I think the writing was already on the wall. Izzy Stradlin left the band for good immediately after the gig (to join the beautifully named Ju-Ju Hounds) and it was downhill from there. There's some good stuff spread across those albums, but for every "You Could Be Mine" there was a "Shotgun Blues" or a "Get In The Ring" (Bob Guccioni Jr at Spin magazine must love that song, or do you think he's really pissed off that his dad gets more pussy than him?!). We're still waiting for "Chinese Democracy", aren't we? I'm not expecting a dramatic improvement, to be honest, and I stopped holding my breath nearly a decade ago.

195. Gorillaz – Demon Days
196. Gorillaz – Gorillaz

It sounds like such a bad idea on paper: the bloke from Blur and the guy who created Tank Girl form an imaginary band using cartoons. Madly enough, it works. They're not albums that I can listen to all day long, but they are both pretty interesting and listeneable. "Demon Days" in particular has some fantastic tracks on it, and I'm never very far away from having "Kids with Guns" stuck on my internal jukebox. It's good stuff, and the resurrection of Shaun Ryder for "DARE" was an inspired move. I always used to think of Damon Albarn as being "a bit of a cock", but he's made me change my mind.

197. The Good, The Bad & The Queen - The Good, The Bad & The Queen

Here's another good album that Damon Albarn's been involved with. This is a bit of a slow burner and definitely works best when heard all in one go - there aren't really any obvious singles and all of the tracks sound as though they are meant to be played in order. It's great though. Melancholy and somehow very English. What the hell happened to Paul Simonon though? His bass lines are instantly recognisable, of course, but he used to be such a good looking fella. The years have not been kind.

198. Serge Gainsbourg – de Gainsbourg a Gainsbarre

A French collection of the archetypal Gallic dirty old man's finest work. It's a bit hit and miss (and I'm no fan of "Lemon Incest" or of some of his ill-advised forays into reggae), but you can't argue with songs like "Je t'aime" or "Bonnie and Clyde", can you?

199. Gomez – Bring it On

A Mercury prize winner, of course, but "Whipping Piccadilly" aside, this leaves me cold.

200. Goldfrapp – Felt Mountain

This is the one with "Lovely Head" on it, a.k.a the music from that old One2One advert, and I think this was also nominated for the Mercury Prize. This was before Alison Goldfrapp became the sauce pot that we all know and love.

201. Gene – Olympian
202. Gene – Drawn to the Deep End
203. Gene – To See The Lights
204. Gene – Revelations
205. Gene – Libertine

What can I say? I like Gene and I always have. In their early days, they were rather dogged by the accusation that they were nothing more than a Smiths tribute band...(I remember the NME giving them a particularly hard time about it and a 3/10 review for "Olympian") and although there's little denying that the early albums do have that feel to them, there has always been something different about Gene. Martin Rossiter has a very different voice to Morrissey for starters, and by "Libertine" he's singing in the most soulful croon. They were one of those bands who never really made it as big as they might have done if they'd perhaps been a bit luckier. They were never fashionable, apart from the brief period when they had a run of hit singles off "Drawn to the Deep End", including the fantastic "Fighting Fit", and in the end they were more or less funding themselves. I saw them play a half-full Rock City to promote "Libertine", their final album, and they were magnificent - a band at the peak of their power. Sadly it was all pearls before swine, and they packed it in soon afterwards.

206. Green Day – American Idiot

Is it me, or is this album unbelievably overrated? It's alright, and it has a couple of decent songs on it, but is it really all that? They've certainly done better.

207. Girl Talk – Night Ripper

This is a sporadically entertaining mix album, in the 2ManyDJs mould, but with more sweary rap on it and not quite as good.

208. Grandaddy – The Sophtware Slump

Beardy people. Moderately interesting indie.

209. Gnarls Barkley - St. Elsewhere

Most famous for "Crazy" of course, but actually this is a pretty good effort.

Missing in action somewhere in iTunes: Grand Funk Railroad, Gun, Groove Armada, Gossip, Gorki's Zycotic Mynci, Goldie Lookin' Chain, Go! Team, Girls Aloud, Ghosts, Garbage.....

Next time: H !
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Shuffleathon 2007 update.

Okay, UK postal strike over, so hopefully the CDs will start to trickle through now. I've even managed to get mine burnt now and I've been very slack.... so if you haven't got your CD done yet, now would be a good time to start pulling your fingers out.

We've only had one review so far, but a few CDs have been plopping onto doormats in the last couple of days, so hopefully we're not far away from a few more. I'll be putting my review of Mike's CD up in the next couple of days... perhaps after a few more listens (although I think it's already fair to say that I've never received such a well paced compilation...). I've also received a bonus CD all the way from Canada this morning, which I'm very much looking forward to giving a listen... so thanks for that asta.

So, where are we? How many CDs intercepted and examined by customs? (just the one so far, and they were at least good enough to send it on)

Shuffler	Posted	Received
1. Tina	yes
2. Sarah
3. Cody Bones	yes
4. Mark	yes
5. Michael
6. Hen	yes
7. Cat	yes	yes
8. bedshaped	yes
9. Pynchon	yes	review
10. J		"examined by customs"
11. The Great Grape Ape	yes
12. Ian	yes
13. Martin
14. Monogodo
15. Threelight	yes	yes
16. Paul	yes	review
17. Charlie
18. LB	yes
19. Katyola		yes
20. Lisa	yes	yes
21. Graham
22. Del
23. Spins
24. Ben
25. Dragon	yes	yes
26. Adem	yes
27. Mike	yes	review
28. JoeInVegas	yes	yes
29. Wombat
30. Max Bob	yes
31. Stevious		review
32. Asta	yes
33. Alan
34. Russ L
35. E.
36. Mike T-D	yes
37. JamieS
38. Briskate	yes
38. Me	ready to go!	yes

It's all starting to warm up nicely, I think.