James’ Shamelessly Nostalgic A-Z Of Albums That He Liked To Listen To When He Was Younger – Part 18: Red

Day 18 of the 2021 A-Z challenge and time to reflect on where we are. And where we are is ‘R’.

R is for Red

For one reason or another I felt I was getting a little out of touch with popular music circa 2008. I suspect the fact that I was in the midst of training to be a teacher might have had something to do with it. I just felt a bit old. It’s a feeling you do eventually shake off but I think it is symptomatic of joining that particular profession. I’m clearly much older now and very much have delusions of youth in spite of the evidence that greets me when I look in the mirror each morning.

Anyway, whether true or not, it had been a while since I felt like I’d heard any new bands so when my birthday came around (which was, in fact my 29th birthday, which really should enforce how ridiculous it was that I felt ‘old’) I asked my younger sister to get me some new music. And she obliged with two albums, which coincidentally will form the basis of today’s post and tomorrow’s post.

Today we’ll focus on Red by Guillemots. Which I did really like when I stuck it in my CD player for the first time. I played it a lot in the months that followed my birthday, though I’ll confess it’s been a while since I last listened to it. It’s not actually the best album by the band, who rather seem to have underachieved following a Mercury Prize nomination for their 2006 debut Through the Windowpane (and arguably frontman Fyfe Dangerfield is best known for his cover of a Billy Joel song which featured on a John Lewis advert). If their first album was very much the darling of the critics, then Red was an unashamed assault on the charts and it remains their biggest commercial success even if it did receive mixed reviews.

It’s less sophisticated than their other albums, and there is probably a reason I played it a lot at the beginning and then quickly forgot about it.

But when I’m trying to find music to motivate me when I go for one of my longer runs, then tracks like Get Over It will always hit the spot.