Although the mainstream record industry is forever bemoaning it’s certain death due to imagined foes (radio in the 1920’s, cassette tape in the 70’s and 80’s, pirates always, downloading circa now…whatever) the fact remains that the record industry has done more to harm itself than anyone else has. The sheer amount of utterly useless crap that has been pumped out upon the public is nearly unforgivable. That said, I have a confession: They still occasionally get it right.

Case in point are two albums from last year which have nothing at all to do with the underground, punk rock or anything else I talk about on here. I don’t care how many punk points I lose for saying this but those albums by Adele and Duffy are both great and merit repeated listens often.