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…
James’ Shamelessly Nostalgic A-Z Of Albums That He Liked To Listen To When He Was Younger – Part 17: The Good, the Bad and the Queen
‘Q’ is always one of the most challenging letters in an A-Z challenge. Most years I’ve had to expand the parameters a little in order to crowbar something in and this year I’ve had to outright cheat. But it was all in a good cause, because the album in question is definitely worth revisiting. Q…
James’ Shamelessly Nostalgic A-Z Of Albums That He Liked To Listen To When He Was Younger – Part 16: Permission to Land
Long time and particularly dedicated readers who definitely do exist outside of my unrealistic aspirations will be familiar with me persistently referencing 1980s quiz show Blockbusters whenever I get to the letter ‘P’ in an A-Z challenge. Because it is impossible to do the letter ‘P’ without channelling the immortal joke associated with that show.…
James’ Shamelessly Nostalgic A-Z Of Albums That He Liked To Listen To When He Was Younger – Part 15: Origins of Symmetry
And so we get around to ‘O’. Which is OK. Well part of OK. Did I make that joke for ‘K’? Yes. Yes I did. Do I apologise for making it a second time. No. No I don’t. O is for Origins of Symmetry I went to the Glastonbury festival in the year 2000. I…
James’ Shamelessly Nostalgic A-Z Of Albums That He Liked To Listen To When He Was Younger – Part 14: Neon Bible
Welcome to the beginning of the second half of the 2021 A-Z Blogging Challenge, in which I attempt to catalogue an alphabetised list of albums I liked in the noughties for no particular reason. N is for Neon Bible Arcade Fire’s debut album Funeral is a regular participant in futile lists attempting to identify the…
James’ Shamelessly Nostalgic A-Z Of Albums That He Liked To Listen To When He Was Younger – Part 13: Make Believe
It’s always a grim realisation when I get to ‘M’ in any A-Z challenge that I’m actually only half way there. But after today we are closer to the end than the beginning, which may be of some consolation as I complete this arbitrary and entirely unnecessary retrospective of albums that I listened to in…
James’ Shamelessly Nostalgic A-Z Of Albums That He Liked To Listen To When He Was Younger – Part 12: Love Kraft
Day 12 of my A-Z of noughties music and today we’re all going to ‘L’. L is for Love Kraft Super Furry Animals were one of my favourite bands of the 90s, but I lost track of them for the early part of the noughties. Which is a shame, because they continued to produce some…
James’ Shamelessly Nostalgic A-Z Of Albums That He Liked To Listen To When He Was Younger – Part 11: Kasabian
Today is the turn of the letter ‘K’ in my A-Z retrospective of albums from the noughties. And that’s OK. Well part of OK anyway. And, like so many debut albums of the noughties, it’s another eponymous one. K is for Kasabian When Kasabian released their debut album in 2004, they were often touted as…
James’ Shamelessly Nostalgic A-Z Of Albums That He Liked To Listen To When He Was Younger – Part 10: Jarvis
It’s time for ‘J’ in my A-Z of albums I liked from the noughties. I struggled with this letter for last year’s 90s retrospective but there were no such problems this year. Indeed I had a couple of potential choices but one album from 2006 had selected itself before I even started compiling my list.…
James’ Shamelessly Nostalgic A-Z Of Albums That He Liked To Listen To When He Was Younger – Part 9: Is This It
It is time for ‘I’ in the 2021 A-Z Challenge. The letter ‘I’ often tends to lead to an intro full of pronoun fun when I do an A-Z Challenge. But I will not do that today. And neither will ‘I’. I is for Is This It The debut release from The Strokes was the…
James’ Shamelessly Nostalgic A-Z Of Albums That He Liked To Listen To When He Was Younger – Part 8: Hot Fuss
Day 8 of the 2021 A-Z Challenge and it already feels like this has been going on for far too long. I’m very much enjoying the ‘listening to music’ bit of the challenge, but the writing about it has become a tad repetitive and frankly I get better blogging stats for my stupid haikus. But…
James’ Shamelessly Nostalgic A-Z Of Albums That He Liked To Listen To When He Was Younger – Part 7: The Great Western
I have often wondered where we would be without the seventh letter of the alphabet. It wouldn’t be a good state of affairs. It might well be an ood state of affairs though. Who can say? But now it’s time to find out which album from the noughties made the cut for ‘G’. G is…
James’ Shamelessly Nostalgic A-Z Of Albums That He Liked To Listen To When He Was Younger – Part 6: Franz Ferdinand
It’s time for ‘F’ in the James’ Shamelessly Nostalgic A-Z Of Albums That He Liked To Listen To When He Was Younger. And there is no time to ‘F’ around, so let’s get on with it. F is for Franz Ferdinand The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand Carl Ludwig Joseph Maria of Austria triggered a…
James’ Shamelessly Nostalgic A-Z Of Albums That He Liked To Listen To When He Was Younger – Part 5: Elephant
It’s day 5 of ‘James’ Shamelessly Nostalgic A-Z Of Albums That He Liked To Listen To When He Was Younger’ and it’s time to address the elephant in the room. Which is that in last year’s A-Z I had a distinctly British bias and managed to overlook most of the great US bands of the…
James’ Shamelessly Nostalgic A-Z Of Albums That He Liked To Listen To When He Was Younger – Part 4: Dig Out Your Soul
Due to the traditional omission of Sundays from the April A-Z Blogging challenge, we’re now out of synch between the date and the numerical position of the letter du jour. Today is, of course, the 5th day of April but we are only on the fourth letter of the alphabet. I’m sure we’ll all cope.…
A Post Designed To Encourage You To Wish Me Happy Birthday
Happy Easter everyone! Also Happy Birthday, if it is also your birthday. It is my birthday. So Happy Birthday to me! Having a birthday which falls on Easter Sunday is not like having a birthday which falls on Christmas. Mainly because it doesn’t happen every year, but also because people don’t conflate Easter eggs and…
James’ Shamelessly Nostalgic A-Z Of Albums That He Liked To Listen To When He Was Younger – Part 3: Costello Music
It’s day 3 of the 2021 A-Z challenge and I can see the ‘C’. Because that is the third letter of the alphabet. So let’s ‘C’ what album of the 00’s is on offer today. C is for Costello Music 2006 was a bit of strange year in many respects. It was the year that…
James’ Shamelessly Nostalgic A-Z Of Albums That He Liked To Listen To When He Was Younger – Part 2: The Back Room
It’s the second day of April and not a fool is in sight. But the A-Z Blogging Challenge continues and so we must move on to ‘B’. And the band behind today’s album of choice, if they live up to their name, might also be able to help me improve the content of my blog.…
James’ Shamelessly Nostalgic A-Z Of Albums That He Liked To Listen To When He Was Younger – Part 1: Amnesiac
It’s April! A month best known worldwide for being the one which hosts my birthday. It’s also a month which enjoys a dubious association with fools. Although really only for a half a day. Mainly though it is a month synonymous with alphabetical blogging, as April also plays host to the A-Z Blogging Challenge, an…
A Redundant Post To Announce My Return To Blogging After An All Too Brief Hiatus
Hello dear readers. After announcing that I would be having a break from blogging just over a week ago, I’m now announcing my return. This does presuppose that anyone cares, which is, perhaps, too great an assumption all things considered. On the other hand, if I didn’t announce my return then how would anyone know…
Ten Important Things I Have Learned After Blogging Every Day For A Year
Today marks my 365th post in 365 days. I have managed to write a post every single day for an entire year. That I accomplished this by writing a lot of syllable-based poetry should not detract from the fact that it is, none-the-less, a stellar achievement. I deserve all the plaudits I’m inevitably going to…
A Sort Of Penultimate Post
Yesterday I posted a haiku that, as with all my haikus, failed to meet most of the criteria to qualify as a haiku, and might, instead, be more accurately described as a senryu. Indeed it might be even more accurate to describe it as a small collection of words. Irrespective of its credentials, however, the…
A Haiku To Announce A Temporary (Though Worryingly Non-Specific) Cessation Of Haikus On This Blog
I confirm today A welcome period of Haiku amnesty
A Post That Might Be About Something But Probably Isn’t
Sometimes on my way to work I go for breakfast at a place the kids tend to call a ‘Drive Through’ and the really cool kids call a ‘Drive Thru’. Although the specific fast-food chain is irrelevant, I live in the UK, and as far as I am aware there is only one company, the…
A Haiku That Is Not Entirely Sure What Day It Is
Written yesterday In anticipation of Posting tomorrow
A Haiku That Fully Embraces Its Mediocrity
This haiku is ok For all it could be better It could still be worse
A Haiku That Regrets It Is Not A Better Haiku
The noble haiku Can be truly elegant When done properly
The Key Ingredients To A Good Blog Post
James Proclaims is made with the finest selection of high-quality verbs and suffixes, punctuated by a delicate array of commas, colons and apostrophes. We don’t use any artificial adjectives in any of our posts and all of our exclamations are free-range. James Proclaims can be enjoyed as part of a balanced reading diet but is…
An Exclusive Offer From James Proclaims
With the end of lockdown in sight it’s time to start making plans and at James Proclaims, we would like to help you to to make the most of the New Normal, with exclusive access to our new outdoor blogging club. Take advantage of our pre-opening offer and get your first month free and no joining…
The James Proclaims Brand Guarantee
RETURN POLICYLast updated March 14, 2021 Thank you for choosing to read this post. We are very proud of our posts here at James Proclaims and hope you are happy with your choice of reading material. However, if you are not completely satisfied with your purchase for any reason, you may return it to us for a…
A Formal Apology From James Proclaims
We at James Proclaims fully recognise our role in the continuing propagation of low-quality, ill-informed content that continues to plague the blogosphere. In particular, we cannot ignore our contribution to the unhelpful trend of publishing mediocre, and occasionally very bad poetry. Our continuing barbarism of the once elegant Haiku form is particularly troubling and does…
James Proclaims! 