Ep 92: James Acaster

would have launched by now. It's been a little bit delayed, but it is coming now on the twenty fourth of April, James Acaster's Perfect Sounds. It is a podcast version of his book that you might be aware of, which was called Perfect Sound Whatever, and that was a book of his favorite albums from the year twenty sixteen. There's a whole story about why twenty six which we get into a little bit in this podcast to fill you in

on that. James had a really terrible twenty seventeen, which happened from the very beginning of the year when in January he was dumped by his girlfriend. So to get over this heartbreak and there were some other things going on in his career. I believe he went and listened to all the new music that he could find on those end of year lists that were still floating around from twenty sixteen, and he became completely obsessed by the

music on these lists. He has bought now to day, at this point in time, he has bought over six hundred albums from the year twenty sixteen, and he's written the book about it, and now he's making this podcast about it, which, as I say, starts on the twenty fourth of April on the BBC Sounds app. I'm sure you know loads of James's work. He's got incredible Netflix special. If you've not seen that, I'd really recommend it Parter. It's incredible. It's very clever, very smart stand up comedy.

And he has his own podcast as well as this new one which he hosts with Ed Gamble, the comedian Ed Gamble, which is where we start the conversation. I put a load of links in the description of this podcast because there's a hell of a lot of music that he talks about, loads of stuff, loads of obscure things, and just include a few of those that's all you need to know. Thank you for downloading, Thank you for sticking with Midnight Chats during these strange times. Hopefully it's

keeping you company. There's plenty there if you've not listened to all of them. Some of them are better than others, that's for sure. I feel like we've got better as time goes on. There'll be another one next week and then we'll see how it goes. Hopefully we'll get some more together soon. But in the meantime, if you do want to support us in any way, the best way to do that is to just give a donation at loudon quiet dot com forward slash subscribe. It can be

for any amount. If that is. If now is a bad time for that, that's completely fine. Just to ignore that enjoy this podcast. But that is the way that you can support us if you would like to. In the meantime. This is James Acaster on Midnight Chat number ninety two. You would have been told this fact today, I'm sure, but we're currently in the we're in the basement of a restaurant. But this used to be the live lounge.

the greatest year for music of all time. And I decide that because I've become obsessed with it, because in twenty seventeen, I have a bad personal year, and I deal with that by obsessively buying music from the previous year twenty sixteen, And I now own over six hundred albums that came out that year, and so I can't deny it's the greatest year.

history where I have that many albums that I love. Yeah, And like you know, there's like all the albums I've bought, I like them, but then there's you know, hundreds that I love within that, and so you can't then go, now, that's not that Nah, I'm going to say that nineteen seventy one is because everyone else says that, and so I don't want to look stupid, so I'm going to agree with everyone and say, no, yeah, it's not in seventy one, because all those albums come out when really

I don't listen to those albums. The albums that I love and that I'm most obsessed with that all came out in one year are the twenty sixteen Once. So I think that the big message to all music fans, I would say, is stop worrying about other music fans thinking you're cool, because those are not the people who really love music. They don't matter. Ignore those people. They're being on the message boards, they're having a great time

on there. Meanwhile, none of them are connecting to anything proper and actually enjoying themselves and getting what you're meant to get out of music, which is a strong personal connection to it. And there's the social connection as well to music, which is great. Being in a room full of people who all like the same band, watching that band live and singing along together feels like church. It's great,

and I appreciate that as well. But the dream is the crossover the two you've listened to an album, you've connected with it, you've obsessed over it. You go and see that band. Everyone's like minded and the same wen you all sing along, not academically, just going around the internet going on what's the best year of music? Okay? Yeah? Is that one actually saying that with each other? No? No, no, you got the best? Is subjective?

decade bothered. No, for about a decade, I'd mainly just you know, got into I'd get into new albums, but there were albums from way back when people were recommending me, going oh, yeah, have you heard you know whatever this album from the seventies or some really obscure, weird album. I'll buy those and get into that. But I wrote off modern music. I thought nothing goods getting made now, and every now and again, i'd you know, buy something that was current, but it'd have to be really heavily

recommended to me. And in twenty sixteen, you know, the year kicked off in January with David Bowie dying Black Star coming out, and suddenly everyone paid attention to that album and was like, oh my god, this is album's amazing. He's talking about death and about being dead, but also musically he really was pushing himself right to the end. It's a really avn't gard jazz rock album, and it wasn't like stuff he had done in the past, So

this is incredible. And like so I remember, like people talking about that, I think, okay, that sounds cool, but in my cynical brain going like, just because he died Star, yeah, that's the only reason you guys are saying it, so I could have ignored it. And then Lemonade came out later on in the year, and it wasn't just hardcore Beyonce fans that were loving that. It was like music snobs were going, no, actually, this is this is a really properly good album. She's not just done a few singles.

The whole album's great, and there's a visual album to go with it, and she's really thought about thematically. The whole thing ties together, and like, you know, all my social media was are washed with people going nuts for it, and I was like, I haven't seen this happen in a while, with like a really mainstream pop artist and everyone going crazy about an album they've done. And then Frank Coshan released Blonde in August, and you know, I

remember this. I was hearing that nish Kuma, a friend of mine and comedian, was playing it around the flat we were living in at the time, and I assumed, you know that it was playing Ivy, the second track on the album. As for what an amazing song, and surely this has just passed me by. It's probably a song from way back when, and I'm old and I'm out of touch and whatever. And I said to Nisch, what's this? He said, it was released today. It's by

Frank Oshin. It's his new album, and the album's amazing. And then seeing everyone evangelizing about that album online, I was like, maybe I've been wrong about current music and I should engage with it a bit more. So I started to read those ends of year lists when you know, November on woulds they start kind of like slowly December,

there's loads of them. And then in January twenty seventeen, where my relationship broke up, I instantly retreated to the most recent thing that had brought me comfort, which was listening to these albums, which is reading those lists, buy a new music and listening to those albums. And so I continue to do that until I you know, the plan was just like just every time you feel sad,

just do that. Pretty much all that year I felt sad, So every single night it was obsessively by an albums, six or seven albums a night sometimes, and you know, finding the time to listen to them, going back to some more than others, and that kind of you know, it's gradually got less and less as time has gone on and the reason for doing it has become different. I'm not going on it every time I feel sad. Now. If I do do it, i'm doing it out of

curiosity because someone's recommended me something. But it just kind of continued even past twenty seventeen.

electronic you know, little horrible keyboard noise. So yeah, I had to buy it.

my favorites of all time. And uh yeah, twenty sixteen, there's like hundreds of those. But like, I still think that's that's more than I was finding each year before. You know, But before I did this project, at the end of every year, it wasn't like I've got a new album that came out this year that is now gonna stay with me for hrases and become one of my favorite albums. That wasn't happening. So I wasn't looking for anything. And now that I am engaged more, you know.

In twenty seventeen, I found Hope by Shemir, amazing album. It's one of my favorite albums ever. In twenty eighteen, I was listening to Everything's Fine by Geene Gray and Kuile Cris. That's one of my favorite albums ever, you know, And like twenty nineteen, I'm trying to think about what the album was that I would have said was my

favorite one of last year. I mean, I know there was a lot, so it's really, this is really gonna annoy me and I'm gonna cut and I come away from this and go, why didn't you just say that album which is clearly your favorite? But there was a lot last year. There was the Clipping album that came out last year was.

and they have a relationship together. I think It's amazing that they released that album and incorporated like spirituals and stuff into the album as well. There's a lot of great hooks in it. Dabby Diggs was an amazing rapper, so that was what got me into that band. Was so through that got into a whole band and continue to follow their career, which is again something I wasn't doing before doing this project. I wasn't following bands careers

as they happen and evolve. I was going back and finding dead bands and finding what they were up to. Now I can anticipate albums, which is a great feeling.

I started learning drums when I was seven. I remember like first into music was like, you know, all the big popular songs that everyone knows and that are funny as well, Like music had to be slightly funny. So like down Under, that down Under song by men at Work, I just found it hilarious and so I loved it. I loved rocking all over the world because the idea of rocking all over the world was mad, Like there's the thing, what that would be high host silver lining?

I loved it, you know, and songs like that. Obviously, I loved in the Jungle, the Mighty Jungle. I'm not made of stone, so like, you know, stuff like that all the time. And then like kind of starting in primary school, I was loving this pop music. I really loved whatever was in the charts, you know. I was Aquard Dr Jones and Barbie Girl, who not many people would leave with Doctor Jones, but that was my favorite one of the two.

But you sold loads and people said it was so that's not that's not because I thought that they were listening to it and there was a cloud hanging over us because of the death of Princess Diana, and then we couldn't enjoy We couldn't enjoy it, you know, do you know what I mean? So like it was, it was more that it was just wasn't as musically dense and rich, and the melodies weren't as memorable as the first Those first two albums, God, it's like everything about

them is. Yeah, it is great that there's the rawness of the first album, and the second album, which is the one that I connected to the most at that age, has just got so many memorable songs and hooks on there and it's executed perfectly, and that third one is just not as much to it. You could of get the it's all surface layer, and then the next listening has nothing really more to it than the initial hook that was on there. Okay, so you know that was it?

That was it, guys. It wasn't die, It wasn't business.

of songs. By the time I started writing music in the band, we were doing like new metal for our sins and it was like all kind of But we had two guitarists who were very good guitarists, one of which was like a you know, a child prodigy who should have gone somewhere, but you know, no one ever really nurtured his talent when they should have. But this kid was like, amazing.

anyone else is at any subject in his year. So we need to nurture that, not just write off music and go no, well, that's not a proper thing. It is a proper thing. People do it for a living, so like you can easily make it his job and you're not bothering because at the end of the day, you're not actually very good at your jobs. So awful stuff, you know. I really hope he has found a way of making that work, but I haven't heard from him.

But he was just like, we do new metal songs and then suddenly there's this Joe Saturani style solo just midway through and everyone will be like, wow, that's different, and that was like.

as well. He had a floral dress and he would put that on, which he hadn't run that bias either, but we didn't care as much because who cares, But like it was like, okay, that's cool, Like you know, enjoyed a bit of a performance there and you've got a stage outfit, but then just screaming, and it's like, I love screaming as much as the next person in music, as long as it suits the songs. Really didn't, It really didn't at all.

to it. I'm going to load it in the car, go back to London, unpack it in the studio, not tune it, and after having not practiced drums in twelve years, I'm going to record drums all day for two days, and with an out of tune drum kit with absolutely the rustiest I've ever been.

I never hear these songs. All these bands are broken up now. So in twenty sixteen, I got everyone kind of back together almost into the studio. I played drums, but I only got things like I got each song right once, you know, like everything else was so rusty. I can't even play standard drum beats anymore. But we recorded them all again as like indie grunge songs and released this album. So that's the last bit of drumming i've done.

so much. I really loved making that album to a point where I didn't think I was I was. I was surprised at how much. I thought I was doing it to get it out my system. I'm the kind of person who, once I've got an idea to do something, if I don't do it, it's going to really bug me. So I was just doing it to get it out my system. It and I really loved being in the studio with my friends and recorded music and it being a fun thing that, you know, had no basis in

my career. There wasn't any kind of like, you know, path to be taken off and any goal with it. It was just doing it for the love of it and doing it with my friends. And so I went to do something else like that, but I was like, well, I don't know, you know, anything else that I do musically, I'd have to start from square one, you know, I'd have to start like writing original songs, and I'm not good enough to do that. I haven't played drums in ages. My drum is going to be absolutely shit. I can't

do that. And so I thought, well, I'll make that the basis of the album then, and I'll I'll make the facts that I'm completely out of practice and completely I've neglected my I used to, you know, teach the drums. I was properly. I played for hours a day, and I taught kids the drums as a job, you know,

So like I'm and now in comparison, I'm awful. You know, I've neglected this talent completely, and I want to do an album that's essentially about that, so that contrasts what happens when you completely neglect something and when you nurture it. So I'm doing, you know, two days of awful, well of my best. I'm gonna try my best. I'm gonna try and do it for a joke sounding shit, but I'm going to deliberately do it on an out of tune drum kit, trying to play the best that I

possibly can just drums, just drums. Cut that into tracks, and then the next week we're getting a professional drummer in who is one of my heroes, who's going to come in and he's going to tune the drum kit, same drum kit, and then play over the stuff that I've played and do either accompaniment to what I've done or better versions of what I've done, like proper versions of it, and then we're going to mix it in a way that that kind of showcases both of them

and contrast them both, and then there's some other musicians have got lined up who are gonna do stuff over the top of that afterwards. But the imediate stuff that's happening next week is me and this other drummer.

I actually met him through doing this BBC podcast. We did an episode about the John bapp album where now when the drum drumming on that is incredible and the whole album started off with drums and then everything was built around it. So I wanted to get drummers in to talk about it. I've got Adam Betts, who's an amazing drummer with square pusher and acts like that, to come in a solo artist in his own rights and an entirely drum solo album that came out in twenty sixteen,

which is incredible called Colossal Squid. And Seib Rockford came in and did that episode as well, and there was like two drum kits set up with those two, and I talked to him about the drumming on this album and how much we love it. It's like a bonus episode for the podcast. It's like a longer deep dive into We've got these bonus episodes that are longer and investigate albums a lot more. And I met him through that. You know, he did the episode of the podcast and

just played those different styles of drumming on it. I tried to show him one of my drug meats that I used to put. The production team forced me to show him a thing I had done, and to my surprise, he really liked it and sent me a very nice email about about it because I've been thinking about that drum beat you did a lot, and I just then confessed to him in the moment, I wrote that drum beat when I was in a band and obsessed with his drumming, and it's the beat is me copying him.

The probably way you like it, because it's me just trying to sound like you when I was seventeen. And then, you know, I just seized it. I already had the idea for this album in my head, and I thought, I'll just I'll ask him if he wants to do it. And I was astounded that he would have been my first choice anyway. I never thought I would have got him. And yeah, I can't believe he's gonna do it.

all time. And so you know that gives the you know, the listener, if it's an obscure album you've never heard before, you don't need to worry about not knowing what on about because the other person I've got on as a guest, they've only just heard. So we're it's it's someone who loves something told us someone who is a novice to it, new to it.

It's like I was saying earlier about that album we talked about, I can't say I know everything about I'm like I know more about the musical twenty sixteen than anyone else, and yet I didn't buy the Ned Flanders metal out like you kind of have to own it. Yeah, so like there was album's not that was like, well just without even listening to it, I have to own

this album. And it's a really interesting experience that album because sometimes it comes on on shuffle and I'm like this is good, Well who's this and then I go over like oh no it locally docally, I mean join them at face value, like it's a weird one because it's like the kind of the very concept of it stops you've engaging with it on the normal level.

came out that year and that it was something. You know, ultimately, when you're talking to people about the albums that came out in one year without playing, you know, there's some albums that are like really great indie albums that had to grow on me for a bit. And now I've got some of my favorites and I love them. But

it's hard to like sell that to people. Yeah and go, oh, there's this band and it's just really good guitar songs, but so like but it's much easy to go Okay, there's this one album, and throughout the whole album is a sound of an active bee hive for the whole thing, and it's this constant droning noise of all the bees. And over the top of it, a cellist has figured out that the bees are humming in the key of C, so they're playing in the key of C the cello

over the top of it. And then there's like, by the way, I'm talking about the album b by one right now, which was originally an art installation, and it's the guys from Spiritualized did it, and like it's there's more to talk about. Yeah, well you got go on about those albums, and not necessarily your favorite ones, but they're really interesting albums that are worth listening to, and again emphasizes the fact that you know, we can casting aside to the kind of just fun little convincing people.

Twenty six SEMs the Greatest year of for musical time, which is just a bit of a laugh really like trying to convince people that it's a fun little game. But really the whole point is there is so much great music being made today, and so much interesting music and inventive music, and you know, for example, people are doing this stuff. People are harmonizing with Bees, you know, There's like a lot of stuff going on. People are

still pushing things and being weird. It's not just all throw away, disposable stuff.

rock music, and I find it boring. But a lot of the time it's not because of the music itself. It's because the production is always pretty predictable and just straightforward and inspired production, and the vocalists are often you know, just sound. You can't pick them out of a lineup, just classic vocalists. And whereas actually if the production was a bit more interesting and the vocalist was a bit more you know, unique, then I'd probably love it, you know.

So it's not the genre, it's the way that people do them. And for so much of it as well, it's just the production. Like so much, I didn't care about production before this, and now I realized that actually there are certain styles of music, like rock music or folk music, where the more clean and glossy the production is, the more I don't like it. Yeah, and actually I really like to just hear. I'd hear people properly creating

and performing something. And although you know, I like loads of electronic music as well, samples and stuff, but you can still it comes through. Yeah, even if I hear someone playing something live, it comes through how much they genuinely exploring a genre and care about him.