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Lee Norton

@leenorton_

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Music obsessed miserable bastard, Smiths/Morrissey loving Northerner living in London, mostly vinyl, gigs and music, and sometimes my cat...

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I've loved The Cure for as long as I can remember, so picking a favourite album is basically like asking me to choose which of my children I like best.... 😂

But Disintegration is pretty fucking hard to argue with. It's just enormous. The guitars the keyboards, the whole production, the atmosphere? Robert Smith's voice, those ridiculously beautiful melodies.... everything seems to be turned up to eleven, what I love most is that it never feels like they're trying too hard. It's incredibly emotional music, but it doesn't need to explain itself. You can be completely lost in it without really knowing why. I've listened to this album countless times over the years and I still hear things in it that catch me out. A guitar line, a lyric, a vocal nuance, or some tiny little moment that suddenly makes you stop what you're doing. And this song? Ultra romantic, doomed love, heart breakingingly real and totally crushing, longing for someone who is probably gone for ever?

And yes, it's probably responsible for a fair amount of my own romantic misery over the years.... but I'm not going to blame Robert Smith for that.... 🙂

'Remembering you, fallen into my arms
Crying for the death of your heart
You were stone white, so delicate
Lost in the cold
You were always so lost in the dark
Remembering you, how you used to be
Slow drowned, you were angels
So much more than everything
Hold for the last time then slip away quietly
Open my eyes, but I never see anything
If only I'd thought of the right words
I could have held on to your heart
If only I'd thought of the right words
I wouldn't be breaking apart all my pictures of you...'

🎧 - The Cure - Disintegration (1989)

#thecure #robertsmith
#alternativerock #vinyl #vinylcollector taken in South London by @leenorton_

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a month ago

“You could have done anything, if you wanted...

That line has always felt like a bit of a kick in the teeth to me 🤣
There's a real oddness to Soul Mining that I absolutely love. It's not polished or predictable, it just seems to wander off in whatever direction Matt Johnson feels like taking it. Big dramatic moments, strange little noises, beautiful melodies and lyrics that can suddenly catch you completely off guard.

And then you've got This Is The Day, which is probably one of the most deceptively uplifting songs ever written. It sounds almost ridiculously hopeful until you actually listen to what he's saying, that's the genius of The The for me. Beautiful without being sentimental, dark without being miserable for the sake of it, and occasionally ridiculously hilarious.

I've owned this for years and I'm still finding bits in it that make me think, yeah.... that's exactly it.
Stupidly brilliant... 🖤

'You could have done anything, if you wanted
And all your friends and family think that you're lucky
But the side of you they'll never see
Is when you're left alone with your memories
That hold your life together, like glue....'

🎧 - The The - Soul Mining (1983)

#thethe #mattjohnson #nowspinning #vinyl #vinylcollector taken in South London by @leenorton_

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a month ago

Supermarket Saturday, painfully vacuous and slightly uninteresting. Much like myself..

Have a good Saturday... x

#randomshite #randombollocks #supermarketwanker #shitselfie #selfiewanker #selfie #musicgeek #random #me #music #monochrome #blackandwhitephotography #primary #postpunk #thecure #vinylcommunity #photooftheday taken in South London by @leenorton_

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9 months ago

PJ Harvey has always struck me as a real force of nature. She's one of those rare artists who seems completely driven by her own imagination, never content to repeat herself or take the easy route. Is This Desire? is such a fascinating, unusual record, and one I find ridiculously beautiful.
I completely love the atmosphere she's created here. The strange electronic textures, the sparse arrangements, the unsettling rhythms and those melodies that seem to creep up on you. It's an album that can feel intimate one moment and utterly otherworldly the next. There's a darkness to it, but also a real light and tenderness, and her voice as always is mesmerising throughout.

Angelene is devastatingly beautiful, A Perfect Day Elise has that incredible intensity, and the title track draws me into its strange, shadowy world every time. Then there's The Wind, which has such a haunting, almost ghostly quality. I could happily spend hours with this album.
What I love most about Polly is her originality. She always follows her instincts, takes risks aurally and makes music that sounds unmistakably like her, even when she ventures into often unfamiliar territory. There's nobody quite like her around in modern music I feel, and this album is a big part of why I feel that way.

A truly unique artist, and a beautiful, endlessly fascinating record.... 🖤🤍

🎧 - PJ Harvey - Is This Desire? (1998)

#pjharvey #alternativerock #vinyl #vinylcollector #vinylcollection taken in South London by @leenorton_

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18 hours ago

Some bands make guitar music that sounds almost too angular to be this catchy. Silverbacks are a case in point. The guitars on their second album Archive Material are gloriously jagged, all clipped post punk riffs and unexpected turns, yet the melodies have a way of lodging themselves in your head. It's a combination I absolutely love.

Daniel O'Kelly's wonderful lyrics are another reason I keep coming back to this sort of music. There's a dry wit to his observations, a genuine knack for spotting the absurdity in ordinary life without hammering the point home. The words have their own personality, and they're really worth paying attention to.

There's a definite Television and Talking Heads feel to some of the music with those interlocking, angular lines darting around each other while the jittery drums and pulsing bass keep everything moving. It's got that wiry, slightly nervy quality that I absolutely love, where the rhythm seems to be constantly shifting beneath you, but the melodies are strong enough to pull it all together.

I love that Silverbacks don't smooth out the rough edges to make the songs more palatable. The guitars retain their bite, but there's real melodic instinct underneath, and the songwriting never feels like an exercise in showing off. Emma Hanlon's vocals add another colour to the mix, too.
It's a record with plenty of character, and one that reminds me how much fun inventive guitar music can be when the songs are every bit as good as the playing....

A stupidly underrated but very special band....

🎧 - Silverbacks - Archive Material (2022)

#silverbacks #postpunk #vinyl #vinylcollection #vinylcollector taken in South London by @leenorton_

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19 hours ago

Love is the fucking point of this record. For a band who've built so much of their sound around confrontation, tension and explosive, almost physical intensity, TANGK feels like a different kind of release. The noise is still there, the guitars still snarl, but there's a surprising amount of warmth and vulnerability running through it.
Joe Talbot sounds like a man trying to make sense of the world through love, anger, doubt and the occasional moment of pure joy. Meanwhile, the production brings electronics, strange unfamiliar textures and pulsing rhythms into the mix, giving the songs a different kind of movement without sanding down those abrasive Idles edges.

Dancer is ridiculously exciting, with James Murphy's unmistakable presence adding an irresistible dance-floor pulse. Gift Horse is all swagger and momentum, while Grace and A Gospel reveal a more tender, searching side to the band. And the title track itself is a beautiful expression of the record's central idea: love as something powerful, messy and transformative.

I get a massive kick out of bands who refuse to stand still musically especially when they're prepared to let a little light into the noise. IDLES haven't lost their huge intensity; they've found another way to use it.
A fierce, strange, occasionally euphoric record with a beating heart at its centre....

Stupidly great.... 🖤🧡

🎧 - Idles - Tangk (2024)

#idles #vinyl #vinylcollection #vinylcollector #nowplaying taken in South London by @leenorton_

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a day ago

Hailing from the seaside city of Busan in South Korea, Say Sue Me make the sort of beautiful indie pop that gets right under your skin without making too big a fuss about it. Surf-rock is a big part of their sound, but there's a sharper edge here, too, with buzz-saw guitars cutting through those stupidly irresistible melodies.

Sumi Choi's English-language vocals have a lovely understated quality, never overworked or overly polished. Her voice brings a gentle, easy melancholy to the songs, while the occasional dream-pop detours give the guitars room to drift somewhere more hazy and introspective.

What pleases me is how effortlessly they balance all this. While the playing can be occasionally noisy and scrappy, the hooks are pure indie-pop bliss, and there's a warmth running through the record that makes it difficult not to smile. Nothing feels forced; they just seem to understand exactly how much a great melody can do. No over complicating things for the sake of it, letting the music do it's own thing.

Ridiculously beautiful, fuzzy, sun-kissed guitar music from a band who deserve far more love.... 🩵💙

🎧 - Say Sue Me - We've Sobered Up (2014)

#saysueme #surfrock #indie #vinyl #vinylcollector taken in South London by @leenorton_

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By the time The Charlatans had released their self-titled fourth album, they'd travelled a long way from the Manchester scene that had first brought them to prominence. The sound had become slightly darker, more serious and more reflective, but those swirling keyboards, chiming guitars and hypnotic grooves were still unmistakably theirs.
Rob Collins was such an effortlessly beautiful keyboard player. His Hammond organ wasn't simply sitting behind the guitars; it was there right at the heart of the music, giving the songs their movement, colour and unmistakable character. He's one of my all time favourite keyboard players, and listening to this record is a reminder of just how much he brought to the band. The interplay between his keyboards and the guitars is gorgeous, while the rhythm section keeps everything locked into that wonderfully loose, rolling groove.

Just When You're Thinkin' Things Over is a particular highlight, with its bittersweet melody and irresistible groove, while Crashin' In has that familiar swagger. Tim Burgess has a very distinctive voice, too — slightly detached and laconic at times, but capable of conveying real vulnerability without ever overdoing it.
I've really got a lot of affection for this period of The Charlatans. They were developing beyond the expectations that came with their early success, but they never lost those qualities that made them so special in the first place. The songs have an immediate appeal, yet the arrangements reward proper long term listening.

Rob's keyboards are a massive part of that. What a fucking player he was.... 🖤💛

🎧 - The Charlatans - The Charlatans (1995)

#thecharlatans #indie #vinyl #vinylcollection #vinylcollector taken in South London by @leenorton_

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2 days ago

Few bands have ever taken a bigger risk with their own identity than U2 did with Achtung Baby. Recorded in Berlin and Dublin during a period of uncertainty and creative tension, this was a band prepared to pull apart everything people thought they knew about them and start again. The result is in my worthless opinion one of the most extraordinary reinventions in popular music.
The guitars are more distorted, the electronics are often hypnotic and abrasive, and there's a darker, more sensual atmosphere running throughout the whole record. Industrial textures, dance-floor rhythms and shimmering guitar lines sit alongside some of Bono's most vulnerable writing. It's a long way from the widescreen earnestness of their earlier work, and all the more compelling for it.

Zoo Station announces the transformation immediately, while The Fly is gloriously twisted, swaggering and full of attitude. Until the End of the World is an exhilarating rush, and Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses is a beautifully bruised piece of songwriting. The sounds are adventurous, but underneath all that experimentation are melodies and emotions that stay with you.
And then there's One. An absolutely devastating song about connection, conflict, forgiveness and the difficulty of loving another person when things fall apart. Its beauty lies in the fact that it offers no easy answers. The music feels almost inevitable, but the emotions are complicated, messy and painfully human.

What makes Achtung Baby so special for me is that U2 didn't abandon their ability to write great songs; they just found entirely new ways to express it. Bold, restless, occasionally uncomfortable and utterly captivating.
A masterpiece of reinvention, and a record that still sounds stupidly magnificent all these years on...

🎧 - U2 - Achtung Baby (1991)

#u2 #bono #vinyl #vinylcollection
#vinylcollector by @leenorton_

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2 days ago

So happy to see so many of you getting your copies of Dopamine Chamber today. Mine arrives tomorrow, and I’m ridiculously excited to finally get my hands on it.
Tonight, though, I’m spending some time with A Hero’s Death, and what a beautiful, intense second album this is. There’s a real balletic quality to the music, the way the instruments circle around one another, shifting between restless energy and moments of almost haunting beauty. Grian’s writing is extraordinary, full of striking imagery and poetry that can feel both deeply personal and strangely elusive.

From the driving urgency of Televised Mind to the aching beauty of I Don’t Belong and the title track, there’s so much going on beneath the surface. The music can be abrasive and unsettling, but there’s an elegance to it all, too. That contrast is part of what makes this album so compelling.

And then there’s You Said. That song means an enormous amount to me, for several different reasons that are too difficult to put into words. There’s something about the way it builds, the emotion in the delivery and the sheer beauty of it that gets right under my skin. It’s one of those songs that carries more personal meaning than I could ever properly explain in a caption, and I wouldn’t want to try to reduce it to a few neat sentences. A Hero’s Death is a truly special second album from a band who were already proving they had so much more to give. Darker, edgier, more mature, possibly more inward looking than the debut?

Tonight, I’m more than happy to let this one play, sit with the songs and appreciate just how much they mean to me.
Tomorrow, Dopamine Chamber. I can’t fucking wait... 💙

🎧 - Fontaines DC - A Hero's Death (2020)

#fontainesdc #postpunk #vinyl #vinylcollection #vinylcollector taken in South London by @leenorton_

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By the time New Order made Technique, they'd found a way to bring their love of electronic dance music together with the guitars and melancholy that had always been a part of their sound. Recorded partly in Ibiza, the album has that unmistakable Balearic influence running through it, but there's far more to it than simply heading for the dancefloor.
The dance beats and electronics on Fine Time and Round & Round are gloriously infectious, all pulsing basslines, crisp rhythms and shimmering synths, with a warmth that feels made for long summer nights. But the guitars and seminal bass of Peter Hook are just as important. There's a beautiful fluidity to the playing, those chiming, sometimes almost jangling lines cutting through the electronics and giving the songs a character that's unmistakably New Order.

Vanishing Point is a particular favourite, with its hypnotic groove and restless energy, while Run and Dream Attack bring a more wistful, melodic quality. That balance between euphoria and melancholy is what makes this album so special. Even when the music feels weightless, there's always a hint of something more reflective underneath.

Technique captures a band completely at ease with their own identity, taking in Balearic rhythms, acid house, indie guitars and beautifully bittersweet songwriting without ever sounding like they're chasing a trend. The production is immaculate, but the music never feels cold or mechanical. There's warmth, movement and a real sense of freedom running through it.
New Order at their most adventurous, with their heads in the clouds and their feet firmly on the dancefloor. An absolutely beautiful album.... 🖤

🎧 - New Order - Technique (1989)

#neworder #indie #vinyl #vinylcollection #vinylcollector taken in South London by @leenorton_

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3 days ago

'This mortal coil, you'll understand
I shed a tear, gave all I can
Now silence enfolds
A monument to cowardice
A decade lost, a fatal kiss
Now I should know better, love....' 💙

There's a noticeably more sombre mood to 91 Days in Isolation than much of The Slow Readers Club's other work. Written against the backdrop of COVID and the uncertainty of lockdown in 2020, it captures much of the anxiety, loneliness and disconnection that so many people were living through at the time.

The music has that familiar Slow Readers Club combination of atmospheric synths, gorgeous guitars, driving rhythms and emotionally charged vocals, but there's a different weight to it here. The mood feels more introspective, the melodies tinged with sadness, reflecting a world that had suddenly become a much smaller and more uncertain place.

I isolated for medical reasons during that period and was off work for 12 months over two spells, so those days weren't just something happening in the background. It was a strange, difficult time, with so much uncertainty about what came next. Music became an important companion through it all, and records like this carry a particular significance because of the memories attached to them.

Looking back now, 91 Days in Isolation feels like a document of a very specific moment in time. Not necessarily an easy listen emotionally, but a beautiful honest one. There's a real poignancy to hearing music that reflects a period none of us could quite make sense of while we were living through it. A stupidly great album....💙

🎧 - The Slow Readers Club - 91 Days in Isolation (2020)

#theslowreadersclub
#covid #postpunk
#vinyl #vinylcollector taken in South London by @leenorton_

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