Blog: The View from Yoorp

Amazon Listmania list, with links to all the books on Amazon , here . 1. Stephen Pinker - The Better Angels of our Nature: The Decline of Violence in History and Its Causes 2. Norman Davies - Europe: A History 3. Brian Switek - Written in Stone: The Hidden Secrets of Fossils and the Story of Life on Earth 4. Ronnie Corbett - And It's Goodnight from Me 5. John le Carré - Our Kind of Traitor 6. Leonard Mlodinow - The Drunkard's Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives 7. Steve Knopper - Appetite for Self-Destruction: The Spectacular [...]

Vol. 40 April 2011 If you need the download link, contact me on Facebook / Twitter / by email / in the comments below. 1 Adele – Rolling in the Deep 2 Elbow – Neat Litle Rows 3 The Young Knives – Love My Name 4 The Duke Spirit – Everybody's Under Your Spell 5 PJ Harvey – Let England Shake 6 Chapel Club - Surfacing 7 Radiohead – Morning Mr Magpie 8 The Strokes – Under Cover of Darkness 9 David Bowie – Hole in the Ground 10 Anna Calvi – Blackout 11 Smashing Pumpkins – Freak [...]

1. Toy Story 3 2. Inception 3. Another Year 4. Animal Kingdom 5. The Town 6. 127 Hours 7. Four Lions 8. Winter's Bone 9. The American 10. Creation 11. Black Swan 12. True Grit 13. The Social Network 14. The Ghost Writer 15. Cemetery Junction Haven't seen The King's Speech, Made in Dagenham, Machete, Enter the Void, Monsters, Scott Pilgrim vs The World, Kick-Ass, Shutter Island, Exit Through the Gift Shop and many others yet. Best film from 2009 seen first in 2010: The Disappearance of Alice Creed Worst film: The Expendables - [...]

Not all of these were published in 2010, that was just when I read them for the first time. 1. Matt Ridley - The Rational Optimist - persuasive arguments about the history and future of human civilisation 2. Derren Brown - Memoirs of a Conjuror - warm mixture of memoir and assorted anecdotes, shot through with unexpected vulnerability. His explanation of his life philosophy brought a tear to my cynical eye 3. Christopher Hitchens - Hitch-22 - written with his usual panache but with added poignancy given the circumstances 4. Bill [...]

1. Gorillaz - Plastic Beach 2. Dreadzone - Eye on the Horizon 3. Klaxons - Surfing the Void 4. Slash - Slash 5. Kula Shaker - Pilgrim's Progress 6. Gogol Bordello - Trans-Continental Hustle 7. Interpol - Interpol 8. Chemical Brothers - Further 9. Alter Bridge - III 10. Grinderman - Grinderman 2 11. Groove Armada - Black Light 12. Iron Maiden - The Final Frontier 13. Dan le Sac vs Scroobius Pip - The Logic of Chance 14. Maximum Balloon - Maximum Balloon 15. Baba Brinkman - The Rap Guide to Human Nature 16. Portugal. The Man - American [...]

Vol. 39 November 2010 Download here (large zipfile). Click on blue Download button then wait for the seconds to count down before clicking on Download File Now. 1 Klaxons – Echoes 2 Interpol - Barricade 3 Arcade Fire – Ready to Start 4 Manic Street Preachers – The Future Has Been Here Forever 5 Tricky – Kingston Logic 6 Gorillaz – Doncamatic (feat. Daley) 7 Biffy Clyro – Mountains 8 Dreadzone – Tomorrow Never Comes 9 Alter Bridge - Isolation 10 Maximum Balloon – Groove Me 11 Underworld – Always Loved a Film 12 Grinderman [...]

Gorillaz - Plastic Beach Gogol Bordello - Trans-Continental Hustle The Chemical Brothers - Further Dan le Sac vs. Scroobius Pip - The Logic of Chance Slash - Slash Dreadzone - Eye on the Horizon Nas & Damian Marley - Distant Relatives Portugal. The Man - American Ghetto UNKLE - Where Did the Night Fall Faithless - The Dance Massive Attack - Heligoland Foals - Total Life Forever The National - High Violet

Vol. 38 June 2010 Download here (large zipfile). Scroll down to the blue DOWNLOAD button, the download should start automatically after 15 seconds. If not, you may have to click on the 'Download 0610.zip' link on the next page. 1 Gogol Bordello –Pala Tute 2 Blur – Fool's Day 3 The Drums – Let's Go Surfing 4 Muse – Neutron Star Collision (Love is Forever) 5 Chemical Brothers – Swoon 6 Smashing Pumpkins – Astral Planes 7 Faithless – Not Going Home 8 Foals – Miami 9 Dan le Sac vs Scroobius Pip [...]

Download here (large zipfile). Scroll down to the blue DOWNLOAD link, the download should start automatically after 15 seconds. If not, you may have to click on the 'Download 0410.zip' link on the next page. Vol. 37 April 2010 1 Slash – By the Sword (feat. Wolfmother) 2 Dan le Sac vs. Scroobius Pip – Get Better 3 The Radio Dept. – Heaven's On Fire 4 The Dead Weather – Die By The Drop 5 Gorillaz – To Binge (feat. Little Dragon) 6 Cults – Go Outside 7 Black Keys – Tighten Up [...]

Vol. 36 March 2010 Download here (large zipfile). Scroll down to the DOWNLOAD link, then on the 'Download 0310.zip' link on the next page. 1 Gorillaz - Stylo 2 Broken Bells – The High Road 3 Crookers - Remedy 4 Jesca Hoop – Feast of the Heart 5 The Besnard Lakes – And This Is What We Call Progress 6 Groove Armada – Paper Romance 7 The Courteeners – You Overdid It Doll 8 New Young Pony Club - Chaos 9 Citadels – The Chemical Song 10 Yeasayer – O.N.E. 11 Gorillaz – [...]

Download here (large zipfile). Scroll down to the grey DOWNLOAD link, then on the blue 'Download 1209.zip' link Personally I think this is an incredibly strong selection of tracks. The Carl Sagan track at the end was originally on YouTube. I got a tear in my eye the first time I saw it, then when I burnt it onto a CD today and listened to it in the car, I teared up all over again! Enjoy, and don't forget to leave a comment! 1 Muse – Undisclosed Desires 2 Yeasayer – Ambling Alp 3 [...]

Well it's that time of the decade again - eek! Ten years ago we were stocking up on tinned food and preparing for society to melt down after Y2K, as well as stocking up on champagne and party poppers ready for the party of the millennium. Sigh! Time, therefore, to take stock of the musical legacy of the decade. And thanks to blogs, filesharing, streaming, Youtube, the Hype Machine and specialist online radio stations, we've never had so much music at our fingertips before. So the job of distilling all these down to a small(ish) chart is by no means [...]

Download here (large zipfile). Scroll down to the blue Download button, which may or may not be sandwiched between two rows of adverts, then on the 'Download 0909.zip' link Vol. 34 September 2009 1 Reverend and the Makers – Silence is Talking 2 Manic Street Preachers – Peeled Apples 3 Arctic Monkeys – Crying Lightning 4 Florence and the Machine – Drumming 5 Ian Brown – Marathon Man 6 The Dead Weather – Hang Me From the Heavens 7 Cornershop – Who Fingered Rock 'n Roll 8 Wolfmother – New Moon Rising 9 [...]

As we near the halfway mark in the year, I thought I'd make a list of my favourite albums of the year so far. 1. The Prodigy - Invaders Must Die - massive return to form 2. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - It's Blitz! 3. Kasabian - West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum 4. Morrissey - Years of Refusal 5. Franz Ferdinand - Tonight 6. White Lies - To Lose My Life 7. The Asteroids Galaxy Tour - Fruit 8. Emiliana Torrini - Me & Armini 9. Jarvis Cocker - Further Complications 10. The Maccabees - Wall of Arms 11. [...]

Vol. 33 July 2009 Download here (large zipfile). Scroll down to the blue Download button, which may or may not be sandwiched between two rows of adverts, then on the 'Download 0709.zip' link 1 Placebo - For What It's Worth 2 Gossip – Heavy Cross 3 Kasabian - Fire 4 Simian Mobile Disco – The Audacity of Huge (feat. Chris Keating) 5 Jarvis Cocker - Angela 6 Doves – The Greatest Denier 7 Little Boots – New in Town 8 The Dead Weather – Treat Me Like Your Mother 9 Hot Chip - [...]

Somehow I forgot to post this here in January. Silly me. So here it is now. AC/DC looks very unlikely at the top of the list, and I must admit it has faded from view in the first 6 months of 2009, but then again what hasn't? With the constant onslaught of new albums to listen to, there are very few that stay in heavy rotation for long. But it definitely did give me the most pleasure of any album last year, and I think it will be remembered as a classic rock album. 1. AC/DC - Black [...]

Vol. 33 July 2009 Download here (large zipfile). Scroll down to the blue Download button, which may or may not be sandwiched between two rows of adverts, then on the 'Download 0709.zip' link 1 Placebo - For What It's Worth 2 Gossip – Heavy Cross 3 Kasabian - Fire 4 Simian Mobile Disco – The Audacity of Huge (feat. Chris Keating) 5 Jarvis Cocker - Angela 6 Doves – The Greatest Denier 7 Little Boots – New in Town 8 The Dead Weather – Treat Me Like Your Mother 9 Hot Chip - [...]

So Jack White thinks vinyl is going to save music, does he? Well as someone who was buying music before he was born (first single: Popcorn by Hot Butter, bought 2nd hand from a market in 1971, first album The Sweet's Biggest Hits) I have plenty of history with vinyl. I spent my college years moving from one shared house to another, carefully packing my precious collection of records and cassettes in crates and lovingly transporting them to each new location. A collection which, with regular investment on an extremely limited budget, slowly grew to be something I was proud [...]

This compilation has somehow slipped into a bi-monthly cycle in the last 6 months, but I think this schedule works ok. Maybe I should change the name to 'This Bi-month I will Mostly be Listening To'... or not, eh. Let me know what you think in the comments - should I make more of an effort to get one out every month like in the past, or are you happy with it like this? And if the latter, does it need a name change? Suggestions? Download it here . 1 Depeche Mode - Wrong 2 [...]

Vol. 31 February 2009 1 Franz Ferdinand - Ulysses 2 The Prodigy - Omen 3 Morrissey – I'm Throwing My Arms Around Paris 4 Sky Larkin - Beeline 5 M.I.A. – Paper Planes 6 U2 – Get on Your Boots 7 Kaiser Chiefs – Good Days Bad Days 8 White Lies – To Lose My Life 9 The Brighton Port Authority – Toe Jam (feat. David Byrne & Dizzee Rascal) 10 Cut Off Your Hands – Oh Girl 11 Nirvana vs Destiny's Child – Smells Like Booty (finally a proper release for this classic Soulwax mashup!) 12 [...]