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Diego Basaldu | Posted on April 10, 2019
Design: Cooke Key & Illustration: Steve ShotterFront sleeve of “Making Plans for Nigel”
The Inspiration for Reviewing Albums (& Why the Blog is Called Making Reviews for Nigel)
I have a blog where I review albums that have been recognized as classics, and albums that need to be recognized and appreciated. I cleverly called my review blog Making Reviews for Nigel. You might have wondered, why is it called Making Reviews for Nigel or why I chose to review albums? Those answers will be answered in my new side segment (blog sounded boring to use again), “Garden of Earthly Delights”.
The Inspiration for Reviewing Albums (& Why the Blog is Called Making Reviews for Nigel).
Simplest explanation first. The blog title is a reference to an XTC song called “Making Plans for Nigel”. I chose this song because it was the first one to pop into my head for a title. The title for this new blog series is also an XTC song called (you guessed it correctly) “Garden of Earthly Delights”. SO that’s that.
Now why do I choose to review albums and why in the way/format that I use to blog? Because of my love for reading books that appeal to my interests. In this case, a series of books about albums called the 33 1/3 series. The title for the series comes from the rotation speed for a vinyl record. Each book contains an exploration of an album, but the author is never the same. From the books I’ve read from the series, each one gave me a new perspective of what listening to an album is about, as well as how someone can write about an album. Some follow the album’s tracks for each chapter, some give personal stories of how they discovered the album, and others find a theme hidden within the album (sound familiar?). There are books covering 135 albums (as of the writing of this) with different ranges of music genres. From Pretty Hate Machine to Songs in the Key of Life, or My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy to Pet Sounds. There is bound to be a book about an album for you, or if there isn’t then just keep reading Making Reviews for Nigel and more “Garden of Earthly Delights” blog posts.
This series, “Garden of Earthly Delights”, will be about various topics for the future. There will be playlists, EP and singles reviews, movies, TV shows, explanations, burning my fingers, burning my toes, burning my uncle, burning his shoes, and cooking leather and putting the leather on me (does it fit me or you? It looks tight on you.) Half of those were lyrics to “Third Uncle” and the rest were actual topics I look forward to discussing. Expect the next review for “Nigel” in about a month. Try not to become “Spellbound” while waiting (HINT HINT).
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