Blog: On The Trail Of The Great

2005 saw Michael Penn release his fifth album, Mr Hollywood Jr, 1947, although to make such a comment in Britain would understandably be met with a shrug. A shame, as it contained some of his finest songs to date, opener Walter Reed possibly standing out as his finest pop melody to date. Something about the album - littering it with throwaway instrumentals perhaps - suggests he didn't really have one eye on the kind of success that would return him to the mainstream audience he enjoyed with his classic No Myth single, but the songs are generally pretty damn good. [...]

• the breakups - Mary Lynn

Hmm. Inaugural post. What to talk about....? Well, I've just started taking piano lessons, which are going very well. Years of shunning musical theory (I taught myself to play guitar by ear) have come back to bite me as I now immerse myself in crotchets, quavers and semi-tones. Currently learning to play a mean version of When The Saints Go Marching In at college, while at the same time trying my hand at some rather more tasty test pieces at home - Flint by Sufjan Stevens and the jaw-dropping Chemo Limo by Regina Spektor. The Sufjan track is [...]