Steve Whitney

The Conjuring: Last Rites (2025)

Possession (1981)

Hell House LLC (2015)

Bring Her Back (2025)

On the night we elect his successor, this man, this artist, is in my thoughts.
What service he has given us.
Not only as President but as our first Minister for the Arts. This photo I took on Inis Oirr in 2021 is one of my most treasured. Go raibh maith aige. #Aras25

First canna lilly flower in 5 years

Mark Lanegan - Field Songs (1999) and Bubblegum (2004) were a staple around that time. I find some of his better received albums quite dull but the lesser liked like Scraps at Midnight (1998) quite good 🎶

Mark Ronson - you can’t really like Mark, can you? I can still listen to Here Comes the Fuzz (2003) and Version (2007), although the latter hasn’t aged very well. ➖

Mercury Rev - they’re not good, stop saying they are ❌

The Phoenician Scheme (2025)

Perfect Days (2023)

Peonies and a surprise iris

Also, that condescending Christmas song 🤢 smack of u2 off them

Manic Street Preachers - as much as I liked Everything Must Go (1996) and This is My Truth (1998) early grungey/punk stuff is better. Loved to have heard more with Traci Lords (later Nina Presson). Hard to like once you realise vocals are just crooning the title over and over➖

Calendulas, geums, alstromeria and acquilegias

The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Three More (2024)

Lou Reed - I used to enjoy listening to Lou Reed. Until Spotify mixed him into every generated playlist or radio I listened to. Now I can barely tolerate him. The Boston Strangler (1976) contains good and different enough live versions of songs that I can listen to, especially towards the end ➖

French Connection II (1975)

But I’m definitely a sucker for hanging onto music that’s critically ”good“ that I don’t actually like. Maybe I thought it’d broaden my horizons, maybe I’m just a poser.

In fairness, maybe I’m missing some 60s/70s context that would make me understand the high regard. Like the beetles, I’ve no interest but apparently they were revolutionary for the time.

Leonard Cohen - for some reason I have his entire discography. No idea why, I dislike most of it. Songs of Leonard Cohen (1969) is pretty good, and The Future (1992) is decent. 10 year ago me probably kept it because he’s a legend, freeing myself from this drear from today ❌

The 🤮 emoji doesn’t do it justice. This is a zoomed in pic of chorizo, chocolate milkshake and kebab vomit, from a bad case of unrelenting diarrhoea posing as a TD

Lenny Kravitz - only ever had a compilation but the early albums are better than I give him credit for, but each one of them has 2 or 3 tracks that are just cheesy and unlistenable ➖

The Cremator (1969)

Hyacinths, the rest of the daffodils and scilla, which is new

Nosferatu (2024)

Cape Fear (1962)

Led Zeppelin - From the first two bwom bwoms of Good Times Bad Times (1969) to the crashing drums of The Ocean (1973) these are it. Never gotten sick of them, not a single track, not for a second. There’s enough good on Physical Graffiti (1975) and In Through the out Door (1979) for a lesser band 🎶

Conclave (2024)