7. Radio Kings: Money Road (1998): The Blues Is Alive (Part 2)

One of the best things about popular music from a fan's viewpoint is its abundance. Just when you thought you knew most of the names worth to know, somebody comes along and widens your horizon. Today this is easy - just lean back and browse Spotify - but back in the good old days my favourite way of finding something new was to go to the library and pick up something I didn't know.

That's how I found Radio Kings - an American white boy blues band, who apparently have recorded at least one more album alongside this one, but who never quite made the big time as far as I know. Their relative obscurity cannot be explained by a lack of quality - this album has all the most inportant traits to make it into a favourite. A good singer, adequate players as far as I can judge, good and varying tunes (which isn't a given thing in the world of contemporary blues) and a nice, lively and breathing sound palate.

Three of the songs have a special place in my heart; the slow blues "My Day Of Reckoning (Has Finally Come)", which combines a forceful vocal with quite fresh chord and melody lines, the rolling midtempo starter "I Can't Win", which is another tour de force for singer/harpist Brian Templeton - a man with a blues voice and presence in the Kim Wilson/Sugar Ray Norcia mode, and "The Shelf"; another slow blues, perhaps a bit more conventional, but which has well written and eloquent lyrics on the theme of being cast aside.

That doesn't mean that the rest is filler. As I write this, I'm listening to "Money In Her Pocket", an easy-rolling midtempo number built on Templeton's voice and harp - all ingredients are traditional, but the mix is fresh. The overall feeling of this album is that it by and large avoids the clichés of the genre, the band has a pleasantly warm yet firm sound, the solos are kept in moderate fashion, and the tunes are great examples of how the blues is so much more than twelve bars of whining about lost love and opportunities.

On the other hand, as the world looks today, it's no wonder that the blues is alive and well...

6. Robert Cray: Shame + A Sin (1993): The Blues Is Alive And It's Got A Lot Of Soul

I like the blues, its' minor keys and the feeling of cleansing when listening to it or singing it. And I like soul, its' beat and passion. And when these two are combined and performed in a suitably modern yet timeless fashion, respecting the tradition but trusting your own vision, it makes for some of the best music I know.

And for the past thirty or so years, one of the beacons of this kind of music has been Robert Cray. He did not invent the genre, but time after time he has come up with some of the most compelling blue sounds of their time. He has evidently been able to gain a recognition and following that many of his peers were denied. And he has made a pile of great records, among which this one is my biggest favourite.

"Shame + A Sin" highlights all of his strengths. He is a great singer - partly because he knows his limits and stays within them, but mostly because his voice is both warm and expressive within its understated delivery. He is one of my favourite guitarists, both because of his appealing tone and becuase he also knows when not to play. And he and his bandmates write great songs, combining lyrics that often deal with traditional themes of the blues with a contemporary twist and tunes that don't let the boundaries of traditional blues constrain them - and these elements meet in arrangements that are both light and tight, suited for both sunlight and darkness.

There are many tunes I love on this record. The ominous "Leave Well Enough Alone" with its distinctive bassline, the classic slow "Passing By", the Waitsily rolling "Stay Go", the atmospheric "I Shiver", the driving "Some Pain, Some Shame" - in fact every song on this album has some quirk or detail of its own that makes it stand out in some sense. And even though the tempos are varied, and the arrangements feature tasteful keys and touches of horns added to the traditional trio, the album makes for a distinct entity as well.

And when the last sounds of the quietly dramatic closer "Up And Down" fade away, you can choose either to press the replay button for some more of that sweet sound - or to pick another of his great albums, from "Bad Influence" and "Strong Persuader" from the 80s, the follow-up to this album "Some Rainy Morning" from the 90s, the slightly modernized "Time Will Tell" from the oughties, or the rejuvenated "Nothin' But Love" from a few years back. Or any other one of his albums, if truth be told; blues that's very much alive and full of soul.

PS. This album isn't on Spotify - hence I can only offer a teaser, I Shiver, from his Definitive Collection. All the more reason, then, to secure a copy of the album :)

5. The Beatles: Rubber Soul (1965): Not A Track Too Much

My first eight albums were made by the Beatles - and the first one I ever bought was "Rubber Soul". This happened in December, 1978, so my romance with this LP has been going on for 40 years - and I still count it as one of the best pop albums ever made. It was recorded at a stage when the four young men from Liverpool had perfected the art of the two-and-a-half-minute pop song, but not yet succumbed to the lure of gurus and such, so in a way it represents the pinnacle of their career for me, and it is the most timeless of their albums.

In 1965, albums weren't thought of as artistic entities; rather, they were put out when there was enough stuff to fill the sides, and questions such as choice and sequencing of tracks were less important. The Beatles had good songs in abundance; they released more than 30 tracks in 1965 alone, a good number of which were self-penned originals to boot. Against this background "Rubber Soul" stands out even more - in my opinion it is one of the most brilliant collections of pop ever released.

There are the hits, of course - the romantic "Michelle", the Greek-flavoured "Girl", the feast of well-synchronised vocals that is "Nowhere Man", the Sharp "Drive My Car" and the atmospheric "Norwegian Wood". Each one of these songs is a classic in its own right, but they don't stand out on the album. In my ears, there are just as many album tracks worth mentioning: The ominously driving "Run For Your Life" - whose lyrics sound quite off today, so not all of the album has aged brilliantly - the soulful "The Word", the early Harrison-penned gem of "Think For Yourself", the majestically flowing "You Won't See Me".

The true crown of the record, though, is "Wait". This song has many of the hallmarks of a Beatles classic - the great melody, the well-arranged and -sounding vocals, the small hooks like the tambourine in the breaks, and the dynamic - in short, it's a song that many a group would have given an arm and a guitarist for, but the Fab Four could hide it somewhere on the flipside.

All over the record there are small pleasures like unusual instruments - starting from the sitar, but so far only in a supporting role, and Paul's lovely basslines, the vocals, of course - and the undisputed fact that there's a new, good song every three minutes, all different from each other but still parts of an unmistakable entity; the Beatles managed, at this stage, to sound personal and varied yet distinct. That, for me, is the formula for the perfect pop album; there's not a track too much - something that some of their later albums didn't match, great though they were.

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