S - sufjan stevens, the avalanche (2006), and sex pistols, never mind the bollocks here's the sex pistols (1977)

'the avalanche' came about as the spin-off from an unusual concept, namely stevens' intent to write an album for each of the fifty american states. beginning with michigan, he then moved on to illinois, and several songs that didn't make the cut for the illinois album became 'the avalanche'. although it's an album of out-takes and b-sides - and received plenty of unfavourable reviews comparing it to its elder brother 'illinois' - i think it's an excellent album in its own right.

it's definitely quirky. if the enthnomusicologist thought paul mccartney's 'live and let die' sounded like a bad high school orchestra, this album takes that, and raises an epileptic conductor. on speed. but i love his peculiar, eclectic arrangements. i also like the sense that stevens doesn't take himself too seriously - from coining his backing vocalists 'the illinoisemaking band' to the cover promoting the album as being 'shamelessly compiled by sufjan stevens', you get the sense that he's having fun doing this.

i'm enjoying the revival of folk. this album, like most of his work, is notable for its use of the banjo, but also incorporates more wind instruments than a fourth form music class, wild percussion, strings, breathy flutes, glockenspeils, horns and i swear i can hear the occasional sitar hidden in there. it's a cacophony of sound. it puts the 'mental' in instrumental, but it all comes together in an offbeat, multifarious way. contrasting with, and laid over, the instrumental noise is a beautiful, delicate voice, as evidenced in the title track, and on the superb accoustic version of 'chicago'.

for all its unpredictable quirk, i couldn't listen to all 75 minutes of 'the avalanche', and decided to mix it up for my walk to work. so from one extreme to another, i headed over to the sex pistols.

'never mind the bollocks, here's the sex pistols' was one of the first albums i owned. characterised by crude key changes, a bassist who couldn't play bass, and aggressive, in-your-face riffs, this was punk at the pioneering end of the wedge. ranking forty-first on rolling stone's five hundred greatest albums of all time this album changed lives, and the course of musical history.

i have to say there was something deliciously ironic about walking in my pencil skirt, tailored blouse, and high heels to my government job, while listening to 'anarchy in the uk' and 'god save the queen', two songs filled with teen anger at the establishment. rolling stone describes it as an album "packed with disgust, nihilism and raw guitars". and so it is.