Out Now, Published by E+T Books


It would be dreadfully easy to have a pop at XFM’s Top 1000 Songs Of All Time book.  First of all, there’s a lot of songs by The Killers in there (eleven to be exact), as well as ten for Kasabian, thirteen for Arctic Monkeys, a dizzying sixteen for Muse.  For anyone that has listened to XFM this will come as little surprise; the sureness of XFM playing predictably one-step-left-of-centre indie is the same as it is that we will all, eventually, go back into the ground.

This immediately put me off this book; the songs, whilst not listed 1-1000 but alphabetically, were voted for by the XFM readers and the assumption can only be made that the stations listeners tastes would reflect that which they are presented with on a daily basis.  Thus it transpires that Mike Walsh, XFM’s Head of Music, shuns not away from this fact in his introduction when he states: ‘this list is brazenly about more about popularity that importance.’  If you can take this point on board and remember it when you are engaged in a futile papercut-inducing search for something, anything, by Bob Dylan, then there is much to enjoy here (though the fact that there is not one entry for Dylan, Holly, Drake, Springsteen or The Beach Boys but two, two, for The Courteeners should bring quiet shame to XFM listeners everywhere).

The hardback book is artfully put together, a vintage coffee-table book for the Fluorescent Adolescent generation , with stories, anecdotes and reflections of each of the individual songs.  Admittedly some of them are ones you’ve we’ve all heard a thousand times before but, at the end of the day, how many different stories can you tell about a relatively short piece of taped music?   It’s not full to burst with new pictures, but then thats not really the point- this is a book to flick from Blitzkrieg Bop, to First Of The Gang To Die, to Last Night, read a hundred words written by a raft of well known music journalists  and XFM bods like John Kennedy, and then flick again.  And its not all completely predictable- I took no little joy in discovering  Another Girl Another Planet, Everybody Here Wants You and A New England in there.

In a nutshell, this might be the ideal Christmas present for any youngster getting into Oasis and just learning the guitar.  Just don’t expect them to discover Elliot Smith through it.

Posted In Features, Oct 22 2010. Words - Jimbo