I was in Bordeaux recently, staying in a temporarily vacant flat owned by a drummer who had a great record collection and a weird bathroom-and-bedroom-in-the-same-room scenario (is that a French thing?). Anyway, when I awoke to the smell of coffee and croissants (it was a pretty idyllic morning), the drummer plus band had returned and were waiting to practice upstairs. Despite the record collection and good taste in furniture, my expectation was that, like 95 percent of the music out there, it would be a bit shit. It wasn’t.
