It's the September/October edition of tunes, or the bimonthly roundup of the music playing in my head.

Welcome to the music playing inside my head. It won't necessarily play to everyone's taste, and that's as it should be. It's my damned blog, and I'll do with it as I please.

In 2018, I've resolved to offer a musical recap every two months. For those just tuning in, note that I no longer can carry a tune across the street without breaking both legs, but music's still playing in my head every waking moment.

I'm completely convinced that when the music stops playing, death will be near.

In addition, I'm the quintessential old fogey's stogie when it comes to music; no iTunes or playlists for me. Perversely, no vinyl, either; my albums are stacked over at the Public House, and I don't own a turntable.

As with books, each year I research and buy those CDs that seem best suited to my tastes. They're usually augmented with impulse buys and random excursions, and of course I listen to snippets of radio, YouTube and the like.

Before proceeding, here is another vicious and deadly accurate assessment of my deteriorating condition. Still talkin' 'bout my generation? That's nice, but my generation is utterly irrelevant insofar as its album-oriented preferences are concerned.

The Album Is in Deep Trouble – and the Music Business Probably Can’t Save it, by Tim Ingham (Rolling Stone)

Sales are plummeting, and the music industry is returning to the era of track-led consumption. Is the LP doomed?

Make no mistake, the album is fighting for its life.

Sales of music’s most beloved format are in free fall in the United States this year. According to figures published by the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America), the value of total stateside album sales in the first half of 2018 (across download, CD and vinyl) plummeted by 25.8 percent when compared with the first half of 2017.

If that percentage decline holds for the full year, and there’s every indication it will, annual U.S. album sales in 2018 will end up at half the size of what they were as recently as 2015. To put it more plainly, U.S. consumers will spend around half a billion dollars less on albums this year than they did in 2017.

The CD album is, predictably, bearing the brunt of this damage. After a comfortable 6.5 percent drop in sales in 2017, in the first half of 2018, revenues generated by the CD album in the USA were slashed nearly in half – down 41.5 percent, to $246 million ...

Broadly speaking, these selections are listed in order of impact, but there are bits of value in them all. Links are to reviews with which I agree, except for Bill Champlin's album; it seems to have been reviewed nowhere.

Suede … The Blue Hour

Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever … Hope Downs

Sleaford Mods (EP)

The Coral … Move Through the Dawn

Paul Weller … True Meanings

Paul McCartney … Egypt Station

Blossoms … Cool Like You

Bill Champlin & WunderGround … Bleeding Secrets

Neil and Liam Finn … Lightsleeper

Ray Davies … Our Country: Americana Act II

Finally, a belated catch from 2016, which would be near the top if this list were not intended to reflect new releases.

The Courteeners … Mapping the Rendezvous (2016)

Roger’s Year in Music 2015 (Part 4): My Top Twenty Albums, 20 - 16.

I'm running a bit behind, eh?

20. Gaz Coombes … Matador
Coombes was the musical brains behind the late, lamented Supergrass, and this is his second solo album. It's more oblique than his work with the band, but the strong songwriting happily remains intact.

19. Crushed Beaks … Scatter
An youthful indie trio from London. Not yet fully formed, though with a sound that pleases.

18.Titus Andronicus … The Most Lamentable Tragedy
The only reason this album doesn't rank more highly is because a 29-track rock opera about mental illness takes a very long time to digest. I'll be listening to this for months to come. The band itself is beyond easy classification; the review quoted below mentions the Clash, Billy Joel, the Pogues and the E Street Band, and yes, they're all here, somewhere.

The Most Lamentable Tragedy is a story told in five acts that follows the Hero, an unnamed man (who's someone like Patrick Stickles) in an unnamed city (which is somewhere like New York) grappling with his neuroses. He's confronted by his doppelgänger—an alternate self that seems to have everything figured out, and pushes him to find solace outside of sin. It’s a protracted allegory for manic depression, which Stickles has publicly struggled with since the band first came to attention.

17. The Libertines … Anthems for Doomed Youth
An above average British pop band gets back together, and contributes a paean to Jeff Gahan's New Albany: "We're going nowhere ... but nowhere's on our way."

16. Paul Weller … Saturn’s Pattern
Famously of the Jam and Style Council, Paul Weller has become one of those veteran musicians who cannot not be tasteful and compelling in everything he does. This release is (perhaps) jazzier than Weller's recent output. Note to baffled local drivers: See how easily Weller navigates the roundabout at 0:53 of the video?

Previously:

Roger’s Year in Music 2015 (Part 4): My Top Twenty Albums, 20 - 16.

Roger’s Year in Music 2015 (Part 5): A few album odds and ends.

Roger's Year in Music 2015 (Part 6): Five musical news items not classifiable by album release.

Roger's Year in Music 2015 (Part 7): The band Lynched, and New Albany's perpetual drone.

Roger’s Year in Music 2015 (Part 8): How did I die? A WWI lamentation.

Roger’s Year in Music 2015 (Part 9): Kamasi Washington and his Epic.

Roger’s Year in Music 2015 (Part 10): But first, some 2014 leftovers.

1 - For New Albany's troglodytes, it's still a "Town Called Malice."

How we made: Paul Weller and Bruce Foxton on Town Called Malice ... 'It's partly about Woking where I grew up. I don't think the swinging 60s ever hit there' (Interviews by Dave Simpson, The Guardian)

"Town Called Malice"

Better stop dreaming of the quiet life
'Cos it's the one we'll never know
And quit running for that runaway bus
'Cos those rosey days are few
And...stop apologising for the things you've never done
'Cos time is short and life is cruel
But it's up to us to change
This town called Malice

Rows and rows of disused milk floats
Stand dying in the dairy yard
And a hundred lonely housewives
Clutch empty milk bottles to their hearts
Hanging out their old love letters on the line to dry
It's enough to make you stop believing
When tears come fast and furious
In a town called Malice

Struggle after struggle, year after year
The atmosphere's a fine blend of ice
I'm almost stone cold dead
In a town called Malice

A whole street's belief in Sunday's roast beef
Gets dashed against the co-op
To either cut down on beer or the kids' new gear
It's a big decision in a town called Malice

The ghost of a steam train echoes down my track
It's at the moment bound for nowhere
Just going 'round and 'round
Playground kids and creaking swings
Lost laughter in the breeze
I could go on for hours and I probably will
But I'd sooner put some joy back
In this town called Malice