Blue Genius

Christmas is coming early with this Blue Lines 21st anniversary box set arriving in a few days.

All great music takes you back to the first time you heard it, how it got absorbed into your bloodstream and stayed forever. I was living in London when Blue Lines came out and to my ears, it totally captured the temper of the times and was big favourite with bunch of friends living in Pimlico.

I brought it as part of a three-album purchase - along with Nirvana's Nevermind and Prince's Diamonds and Pearls. Nevermind got played once (I hate Nirvana); Diamonds and Pearls quite often, and Blue Lines every day. I loved the albums diversity and brilliant fusion of sounds and influences - dub, reggae, hip-hop beats, rhymes, epic soundtrack influences and stunning vocals from Shara Nelson and Horace Andy. And it sounded uniquely British - their sound (don't get me started on trip-hop) couldn't have come from anywhere else.

And every track is a stone cold-classic - I remember walking down Tokyo's Ginza a few years back with Five Man Army booming through the headphones, grinning like a Cheshire cat when I heard these lines...

Tokyo city's one place that we toured

Four technic plus two mixer board

Sharper than a Wilkinson razor sword

Anyways, my new purchase got me thinking about all things blue (musically) and how many bands, songs, and album titles - with blue in it - are brilliant - here's my blue list of brilliance....

• Kind of Blue - one of Miles Davis' masterworks and regularly named as best jazz album ever
• Blue - Joni Mitchell's critically acclaimed opus
• Blue Monday - best selling 12 inch single ever
• Blue Suede Shoes & Blue Moon - big Elvis hits
• Blue Nile - lazy-ass, genius Scot-synth band
• Mr Blue Sky - ELO's pop genius moment - a song that pops up regularly in TV ads and movies
• Tangled Up in Blue & It's All Over Now Baby Blue - great Dylan track
• Blue Bayou - Big O's contribution to the blue cannon
• Blue Velvet - Bobby Vinton's classic immortalised/terrorised by David Lynch

Feel free to add more...

And here are some great Blue Lines write ups here, here and here.

Fearless Frank

God bless Frank Ocean.

Just as I was on the brink of giving up on albums forever, up pops Frank with the most coherent, relevant, socially-aware, honest, groovy, and soulful record (Channel Orange) in many a year.

Such is his poise, talent, and all-round game, it's hard to believe he's only 24.

Yes, the production is slick and smooth, but Frank's songs, to my ears anyways, share the same spirit, fire, and vision as Stevie Wonder, Prince, Marvin Gaye and Donny Hatthaway at their respective peaks.

Above all else, Frank is an incredible story teller and Super Rich Kids, Sweet Life and Pyramids are terrific examples of this. Nobody else in the R&B world is telling it like it is in 2012 like Frank and it's fantastic that he has found a sizable audience and long list of celebrity admirers.

You know a song/s are great when they keep popping up in your head, day and night, and this has been the case for me since I brought Channel Orange two weeks ago.

And judging by this video, he's smart, grounded and ready, willing, and capable of delivering much more - god bless you Frank and look forward to more audio greatness in the near future.