Simon Smith
@simonsmith.bsky.social
Journalist. Ex-Trinity Mirror, Manchester Evening News, etc. ‘I don’t know the sort of people who know the date’
MDANT in Madrid. Pop music mainly.
MDANT in Madrid. Pop music mainly.
#TheTwen2ie5
Day 35. black midi - Sugar/Tzu (UK 2022)
What I love about them is that underneath the jazz and math-rock skronking, there’s the ghost of a pop sensibility. This is an insanely good album.
youtu.be/O7KpCOY7iok?...
Day 35. black midi - Sugar/Tzu (UK 2022)
What I love about them is that underneath the jazz and math-rock skronking, there’s the ghost of a pop sensibility. This is an insanely good album.
youtu.be/O7KpCOY7iok?...
November 10, 2025 at 11:01 AM
#TheTwen2ie5
Day 35. black midi - Sugar/Tzu (UK 2022)
What I love about them is that underneath the jazz and math-rock skronking, there’s the ghost of a pop sensibility. This is an insanely good album.
youtu.be/O7KpCOY7iok?...
Day 35. black midi - Sugar/Tzu (UK 2022)
What I love about them is that underneath the jazz and math-rock skronking, there’s the ghost of a pop sensibility. This is an insanely good album.
youtu.be/O7KpCOY7iok?...
#TheTwen2ie5
Day 34. Central Cee - Doja (UK 2022)
Kicks off with the most simultaneously right-on AND offensive couplet. Then just gets even more entertaining. British rap doesn’t get enough - if you’ll pardon a 56-year-old man using this word - ‘respect’.
youtu.be/_VuJA-VQRcY?...
Day 34. Central Cee - Doja (UK 2022)
Kicks off with the most simultaneously right-on AND offensive couplet. Then just gets even more entertaining. British rap doesn’t get enough - if you’ll pardon a 56-year-old man using this word - ‘respect’.
youtu.be/_VuJA-VQRcY?...
November 9, 2025 at 7:20 PM
#TheTwen2ie5
Day 34. Central Cee - Doja (UK 2022)
Kicks off with the most simultaneously right-on AND offensive couplet. Then just gets even more entertaining. British rap doesn’t get enough - if you’ll pardon a 56-year-old man using this word - ‘respect’.
youtu.be/_VuJA-VQRcY?...
Day 34. Central Cee - Doja (UK 2022)
Kicks off with the most simultaneously right-on AND offensive couplet. Then just gets even more entertaining. British rap doesn’t get enough - if you’ll pardon a 56-year-old man using this word - ‘respect’.
youtu.be/_VuJA-VQRcY?...
Connections
Puzzle #882
Calling bullshit on purple.
🟨🟩🟨🟨
🟨🟩🟨🟨
🟨🟩🟨🟨
🟨🟨🟨🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟦🟦🟦🟦
🟪🟪🟪🟪
Puzzle #882
Calling bullshit on purple.
🟨🟩🟨🟨
🟨🟩🟨🟨
🟨🟩🟨🟨
🟨🟨🟨🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟦🟦🟦🟦
🟪🟪🟪🟪
November 9, 2025 at 3:36 PM
Connections
Puzzle #882
Calling bullshit on purple.
🟨🟩🟨🟨
🟨🟩🟨🟨
🟨🟩🟨🟨
🟨🟨🟨🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟦🟦🟦🟦
🟪🟪🟪🟪
Puzzle #882
Calling bullshit on purple.
🟨🟩🟨🟨
🟨🟩🟨🟨
🟨🟩🟨🟨
🟨🟨🟨🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟦🟦🟦🟦
🟪🟪🟪🟪
Anyone got any idea why this is - by some distance - the most-streamed Railway Children song? Is it an American TV thing or something?
youtu.be/i4v6XRFveKc?...
youtu.be/i4v6XRFveKc?...
The Railway Children - Something So Good (HQ)
YouTube video by The Railway Children
youtu.be
November 9, 2025 at 12:14 AM
Anyone got any idea why this is - by some distance - the most-streamed Railway Children song? Is it an American TV thing or something?
youtu.be/i4v6XRFveKc?...
youtu.be/i4v6XRFveKc?...
Just when you couldn’t love Prince more.
So cool! Prince *loved* libraries. For example, this is one donation he made from his charity a few days after 9/11 to save the Louisville Free Public Library, the first library in the community to serve African Americans.
November 9, 2025 at 12:01 AM
Just when you couldn’t love Prince more.
#TheTwen2ie5
Day 33.
Black Country, New Road - Up Song (UK 2023)
Always room in my heart for great songs about ‘being in a band’. Especially when the circumstances mean they are so celebratory and supportive.
youtu.be/xd9vkH-dnFc?...
Day 33.
Black Country, New Road - Up Song (UK 2023)
Always room in my heart for great songs about ‘being in a band’. Especially when the circumstances mean they are so celebratory and supportive.
youtu.be/xd9vkH-dnFc?...
November 8, 2025 at 11:54 AM
#TheTwen2ie5
Day 33.
Black Country, New Road - Up Song (UK 2023)
Always room in my heart for great songs about ‘being in a band’. Especially when the circumstances mean they are so celebratory and supportive.
youtu.be/xd9vkH-dnFc?...
Day 33.
Black Country, New Road - Up Song (UK 2023)
Always room in my heart for great songs about ‘being in a band’. Especially when the circumstances mean they are so celebratory and supportive.
youtu.be/xd9vkH-dnFc?...
The new Rosalia album is - with apologies to people who haven’t changed their ‘rude’ setting - fucking excellent.
Switches from Wagner to Four Tet to Rufus Wainwright to flamenco to TikTok pop on a dime. Or, I suppose, a cent.
Switches from Wagner to Four Tet to Rufus Wainwright to flamenco to TikTok pop on a dime. Or, I suppose, a cent.
November 7, 2025 at 8:33 PM
The new Rosalia album is - with apologies to people who haven’t changed their ‘rude’ setting - fucking excellent.
Switches from Wagner to Four Tet to Rufus Wainwright to flamenco to TikTok pop on a dime. Or, I suppose, a cent.
Switches from Wagner to Four Tet to Rufus Wainwright to flamenco to TikTok pop on a dime. Or, I suppose, a cent.
I really wish Marina Hyde (and others) would stop referring to non-celebrities as ‘civilians’. Drives me mad.
November 7, 2025 at 2:20 PM
I really wish Marina Hyde (and others) would stop referring to non-celebrities as ‘civilians’. Drives me mad.
#TheTwen2ie5
Day 32.
Yard Act - 100% Endurance (UK 2022)
If it’s good enough for Elton. And what a video.
youtu.be/phSkbBZelCw?...
Day 32.
Yard Act - 100% Endurance (UK 2022)
If it’s good enough for Elton. And what a video.
youtu.be/phSkbBZelCw?...
November 7, 2025 at 10:46 AM
#TheTwen2ie5
Day 32.
Yard Act - 100% Endurance (UK 2022)
If it’s good enough for Elton. And what a video.
youtu.be/phSkbBZelCw?...
Day 32.
Yard Act - 100% Endurance (UK 2022)
If it’s good enough for Elton. And what a video.
youtu.be/phSkbBZelCw?...
Was the bus ‘involved in a collision’ with his shop?
November 6, 2025 at 10:27 PM
Was the bus ‘involved in a collision’ with his shop?
#TheTwen2ie5
Day 31.
Floating Points & Pharaoh Sanders - Promises (Movement 6) (UK/US 2021)
This is beautiful. Happy to ditch my 3-minute pop song preference once in a while.
youtu.be/WP7_DwTuOM4?...
Day 31.
Floating Points & Pharaoh Sanders - Promises (Movement 6) (UK/US 2021)
This is beautiful. Happy to ditch my 3-minute pop song preference once in a while.
youtu.be/WP7_DwTuOM4?...
November 6, 2025 at 2:50 PM
#TheTwen2ie5
Day 31.
Floating Points & Pharaoh Sanders - Promises (Movement 6) (UK/US 2021)
This is beautiful. Happy to ditch my 3-minute pop song preference once in a while.
youtu.be/WP7_DwTuOM4?...
Day 31.
Floating Points & Pharaoh Sanders - Promises (Movement 6) (UK/US 2021)
This is beautiful. Happy to ditch my 3-minute pop song preference once in a while.
youtu.be/WP7_DwTuOM4?...
Is it cynical to suggest there might be people in the prison service actively trying to undermine a Labour government?
David Lammy under pressure as two more prisoners mistakenly freed
Algerian sex offender and a fraudster released by Wandsworth jail, days after new checks brought in
www.theguardian.com
November 5, 2025 at 10:37 PM
Is it cynical to suggest there might be people in the prison service actively trying to undermine a Labour government?
From the country that gave us Walt Whitman, George Gershwin, Robert Frost, Hart Crane, Frank Lloyd Wright and Lou Reed. Dear god.
[P] Found a higher-quality photo; IT *IS* TAPED UP SHEETS OF PAPER!
November 5, 2025 at 10:24 PM
From the country that gave us Walt Whitman, George Gershwin, Robert Frost, Hart Crane, Frank Lloyd Wright and Lou Reed. Dear god.
#TheTwen2ie5
Day 30.
Dave & Central Cee - Sprinter (UK 2023)
I mean, it’s definitely an ‘entertaining’ take on sexual politics from young men who’ve suddenly got very rich. ‘Entertaining’ is always a plus with pop music. And that bass…
youtu.be/pSY3i5XHHXo?...
Day 30.
Dave & Central Cee - Sprinter (UK 2023)
I mean, it’s definitely an ‘entertaining’ take on sexual politics from young men who’ve suddenly got very rich. ‘Entertaining’ is always a plus with pop music. And that bass…
youtu.be/pSY3i5XHHXo?...
November 5, 2025 at 12:49 PM
#TheTwen2ie5
Day 30.
Dave & Central Cee - Sprinter (UK 2023)
I mean, it’s definitely an ‘entertaining’ take on sexual politics from young men who’ve suddenly got very rich. ‘Entertaining’ is always a plus with pop music. And that bass…
youtu.be/pSY3i5XHHXo?...
Day 30.
Dave & Central Cee - Sprinter (UK 2023)
I mean, it’s definitely an ‘entertaining’ take on sexual politics from young men who’ve suddenly got very rich. ‘Entertaining’ is always a plus with pop music. And that bass…
youtu.be/pSY3i5XHHXo?...
#TheTwen2ie5
Day 29.
Olivia Rodrigo - drivers license (US 2021)
Seems to be momentum behind pop-punk Olivia here. But. But… this is top class emo stuff, no? And you’ve got to love her love of an F-bomb.
youtu.be/ZmDBbnmKpqQ?...
Day 29.
Olivia Rodrigo - drivers license (US 2021)
Seems to be momentum behind pop-punk Olivia here. But. But… this is top class emo stuff, no? And you’ve got to love her love of an F-bomb.
youtu.be/ZmDBbnmKpqQ?...
November 4, 2025 at 12:12 PM
#TheTwen2ie5
Day 29.
Olivia Rodrigo - drivers license (US 2021)
Seems to be momentum behind pop-punk Olivia here. But. But… this is top class emo stuff, no? And you’ve got to love her love of an F-bomb.
youtu.be/ZmDBbnmKpqQ?...
Day 29.
Olivia Rodrigo - drivers license (US 2021)
Seems to be momentum behind pop-punk Olivia here. But. But… this is top class emo stuff, no? And you’ve got to love her love of an F-bomb.
youtu.be/ZmDBbnmKpqQ?...
Gloriously disinterested in actually selling records. The best kind of band.
November 3, 2025 at 3:03 PM
Gloriously disinterested in actually selling records. The best kind of band.
#TheTwen2ie5
Day 28.
Fiona Apple - I Want You To Love Me (2020)
Even dragged away from the extraordinary circumstances of 2020 this is still a masterpiece album. But I do get a Proustian rush to the smell of making pizza after finally finding some flour for sale.
youtu.be/Bpm1AeTVgWk?...
Day 28.
Fiona Apple - I Want You To Love Me (2020)
Even dragged away from the extraordinary circumstances of 2020 this is still a masterpiece album. But I do get a Proustian rush to the smell of making pizza after finally finding some flour for sale.
youtu.be/Bpm1AeTVgWk?...
November 3, 2025 at 12:00 PM
#TheTwen2ie5
Day 28.
Fiona Apple - I Want You To Love Me (2020)
Even dragged away from the extraordinary circumstances of 2020 this is still a masterpiece album. But I do get a Proustian rush to the smell of making pizza after finally finding some flour for sale.
youtu.be/Bpm1AeTVgWk?...
Day 28.
Fiona Apple - I Want You To Love Me (2020)
Even dragged away from the extraordinary circumstances of 2020 this is still a masterpiece album. But I do get a Proustian rush to the smell of making pizza after finally finding some flour for sale.
youtu.be/Bpm1AeTVgWk?...
Day 27.
#TheTwen2ie5
Bad Bunny - NuevaYoL (Puerto Rico 2025)
The brilliance of Debi Tirar Más Fotos once again dragging me back to 2025. It’s a great year for global pop. F*ck Trump.
youtu.be/KU5V5WZVcVE?...
#TheTwen2ie5
Bad Bunny - NuevaYoL (Puerto Rico 2025)
The brilliance of Debi Tirar Más Fotos once again dragging me back to 2025. It’s a great year for global pop. F*ck Trump.
youtu.be/KU5V5WZVcVE?...
November 2, 2025 at 9:30 AM
Day 27.
#TheTwen2ie5
Bad Bunny - NuevaYoL (Puerto Rico 2025)
The brilliance of Debi Tirar Más Fotos once again dragging me back to 2025. It’s a great year for global pop. F*ck Trump.
youtu.be/KU5V5WZVcVE?...
#TheTwen2ie5
Bad Bunny - NuevaYoL (Puerto Rico 2025)
The brilliance of Debi Tirar Más Fotos once again dragging me back to 2025. It’s a great year for global pop. F*ck Trump.
youtu.be/KU5V5WZVcVE?...
#TheTwen2ie5
Day 26.
Kendrick Lamar - Squabble Up (US 2024)
Just pips TV Off as my GNX pick for pretty obvious ‘big pop’ reasons. He is great.
youtu.be/fuV4yQWdn_4?...
Day 26.
Kendrick Lamar - Squabble Up (US 2024)
Just pips TV Off as my GNX pick for pretty obvious ‘big pop’ reasons. He is great.
youtu.be/fuV4yQWdn_4?...
November 1, 2025 at 8:04 AM
#TheTwen2ie5
Day 26.
Kendrick Lamar - Squabble Up (US 2024)
Just pips TV Off as my GNX pick for pretty obvious ‘big pop’ reasons. He is great.
youtu.be/fuV4yQWdn_4?...
Day 26.
Kendrick Lamar - Squabble Up (US 2024)
Just pips TV Off as my GNX pick for pretty obvious ‘big pop’ reasons. He is great.
youtu.be/fuV4yQWdn_4?...
Played Lou Reed’s New York today and found this very moving. We’d just had Transformer in the car - the fact that this song is about some of the people from then is one thing. But then, I’m further from New York than Lou was from Transforner when he did New York. Gulp.
youtu.be/Pb_r-IwB8t8?...
youtu.be/Pb_r-IwB8t8?...
Lou Reed - Halloween Parade - New York Album
YouTube video by Brian Eno
youtu.be
October 31, 2025 at 10:27 PM
Played Lou Reed’s New York today and found this very moving. We’d just had Transformer in the car - the fact that this song is about some of the people from then is one thing. But then, I’m further from New York than Lou was from Transforner when he did New York. Gulp.
youtu.be/Pb_r-IwB8t8?...
youtu.be/Pb_r-IwB8t8?...
‘This ain't no technological breakdown
Oh no, this is the road to hell’
I like this song. I also think it’s a useful slight corrective to the idea that white Gen-X men are all fucking idiots.
Oh no, this is the road to hell’
I like this song. I also think it’s a useful slight corrective to the idea that white Gen-X men are all fucking idiots.
October 29, 2025 at 11:56 PM
‘This ain't no technological breakdown
Oh no, this is the road to hell’
I like this song. I also think it’s a useful slight corrective to the idea that white Gen-X men are all fucking idiots.
Oh no, this is the road to hell’
I like this song. I also think it’s a useful slight corrective to the idea that white Gen-X men are all fucking idiots.
Connections
Puzzle #870
Suspect a lot of ‘purple first’ today.
🟪🟪🟪🟪
🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟨🟨🟨🟨
🟦🟦🟦🟦
Puzzle #870
Suspect a lot of ‘purple first’ today.
🟪🟪🟪🟪
🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟨🟨🟨🟨
🟦🟦🟦🟦
October 28, 2025 at 8:19 AM
Connections
Puzzle #870
Suspect a lot of ‘purple first’ today.
🟪🟪🟪🟪
🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟨🟨🟨🟨
🟦🟦🟦🟦
Puzzle #870
Suspect a lot of ‘purple first’ today.
🟪🟪🟪🟪
🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟨🟨🟨🟨
🟦🟦🟦🟦
To be fair, this is quite funny. By American standards.
October 27, 2025 at 12:01 AM
To be fair, this is quite funny. By American standards.