The Grandpa meme from the Simpsons. He is speaking into a microphone and says "Elbow are not dull. They may be slow, pensive, dull. But they are not boring!"

I say this with love. Vote Elbow.

This Mercury Rev album is decent but certainly thinner than before. Nice they could show that Deserter's Songs wasn't a fluke, but shame they continued to squeeze this sound dry for the rest of their career

Dare I say Les Savy Fav only have one good album (and it's not this)? It'd be unfair to say Pulp have gotten in on name recognition, but I think this is a justifiably overlooked album from their catalogue - the odd song aside (Sunrise is a titan, and reminds me a lot of New Order's Sunrise)

Thank you Alan, I just wish I had a better phone at the time!

A kingfisher hanging out next to a JCB #birdoftheday #bird #jklmnop #theme

This was a question in a pub quiz once and it was the same time that Julian Assange was in the news for doing something weird so you can guess what I vehemently put down for the answer

A player R. Astley has been sent off for Dundee

That Dundee player has done all the things in his song he vowed not to do

Such a weird artwork for the single - makes me think it's an airport novel or the opening credits of a low budget 80s soap

GB, hence why I'm well familiar with Ash! They had almost 20 hits!

Two mild surprises. 1) Star Me Kitten is outnumbered by an instrumental. 2) Most are closing tracks, or really buried on side 2, apart from The Wrong Child (which is to me, the worst of the mandolin songs)

Soft spot for Ash, their singles are great and the rest is pretty serviceable, but it's an album of its time and unlikely to win any new fans today. As for Gillian Welch, I've listened and it's fine, but #8 seed for someone I've never heard of before? That's impressive - what gives?

I feel like Ben Folds laughs at me for taking his joke songs seriously, and condemns me for laughing at his serious songs. Can never win. Langley is sweet, a nice relic that does make you reconsider old songs - how can they make Good Vibrations sound so sad?

Yet it's interesting that Travis predate Coldplay, and Chris Martin called himself a "poor man's Fran Healy" back in the day. I would have DCed Travis's The Man Who, but I don't think "Well, the singles are good and there's a nice album track" cuts the mustard for The Invisible Band

Wonderful station, truly is a place that time forgot. Also the answer to the great pub quiz question: what is the only underground station that's not on the Underground?

KoC have better albums, and in fact, more interesting remixes on the Versus album than Quiet. However, it's aged pleasantly whereas Rufus Wainwright feels all too indulgent and maudlin today

A television on a wall. The TV's brand is ISIS

Huh, I didn't realise they branched out into TVs

Alternative alt-post: what if Kylie Minogue was in the Everlong music video

A Top Trump card for Kylie Minogue's Fever, where she appears to be teasing a spoonful of spaghetti into her mouth

Incidentally, for an album club I am in I have drawn Top Trumps for their ratings and stats etc - I wish I could say this was drawn from memory, rather than scrutinising it as I scrawled. There's over 300 of these

71, or whichever unclaimed number is closest to that

Something about the Cars leaves me a little cold, like the songwriting is too formulaic - I love nothing more than curveball record, but is this an interesting album broadly, or only for automobile fans?

A speckled-black brown dunnock, in a bare thorny bush

A lunchtime dunnock's tea cake #birb

Lovely song - how strange this was their biggest UK hit (at the modest position of #58)

A red-breasted robin, perching on a branch, head tilted slightly as if to say "Well, are you going to take my photo?"

The same robin as before, now staring to the side

A chonky blue tit perches right up a branch. Bright yellow

An unspecified bird. Big and grey, with a big bushy tail and clinging to a branch while it monches on some berries with its hands

A robin came and sang me a song #bird

Speaking of, @bestalbumbrackets.bsky.social how many votes did Echo Park get for 2001? I don't think that or Free All Angels have aged especially well but they're still fun throwbacks

I've only seen them once, as it stands at their final ever gig! This year will change that, I'm unintentionally seeing them twice - they're great

I'd say Rings was their commercial and reach peak, nothing after this is considered to be bad but they certainly lost quasi-mainstream interest during their next album. Maybe Love Kraft was more *nsync with what was popular in the US around the time, compared to this or say Radiator

Is this take an American one? In the UK I wouldn't say Love Kraft is all that fancied but I've heard many Americans speak of Love Kraft as if it's their peak

Emma-Jean Thackray - Weirdo: A heavy, deadpan hour with nooks of joy amidst its troubles

Nuovo Testamento - Trouble: Brisk, unambiguous joy that needs not complicate pleasure

Say Sue Me - Time Is Not Yours: Sleepy shoreline sounds are eschewed in favour of a vigour and urgency previously unexplored