Amidst enforced solitude and Westminster weaselry, Tim Burgess has single-handedly transformed Twitter, 40-or-so minutes at a time, from infamous internet hellpit to place of love, unity and shared musical enthusiasm. He has used the streaming spikes generated by his hugely popular Twitter Listening Parties to lobby Spotify to pay artists better; he has also, somehow, found the time to gun for independent record shops, becoming an ambassador for the #LoveRecordStores campaign, which endeavours to support the existence of these vulnerable small businesses through the current global crisis.
When I picked up the phone to chat through the following 13 albums with Tim, it became clear that a thoughtful and all-encompassing relationship with music has been the preoccupation of a lifetime. Alongside albums first encountered on tour with The Charlatans, or in a warehouse space shared with this very publication, sit those discovered through enthusiastic childhood viewing of Top Of The Pops or over the soundsystem of his father’s youth club. There are records that taught him the bass, converted him to vegetarianism, and healed fractious relationships within his band as a tour bus carted them around the United States.
The influence of many of these records can, unsurprisingly, be heard on Burgess’s beautiful new album I Love The New Sky – in some instances as plain as day: “(What’s your favourite Cure LP? I like Pornography,” he sings on ‘Only Took a Year’) and othertimes in the form of a gentle nod – be that a Holteresque harpsichord flourish, a Zappa-inspired drag on a helium balloon, or the jab of a Too-Rye-Ay string.
The evidence is irrefutable: here is a man who cares truly, madly, deeply and innately about music. To be able to share in his enthusiasm – here as on Twitter – is a merciful distraction, as well as a true delight.
Tim Burgess’ new album I Love The New Sky is out now on Bella Union. Click the pic of Tim below to begin reading his Baker’s Dozen choices
