BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts.

James Aicaster here, comedian and music fan, and in 2017, I had a breakdown. I dealt with that breakdown by buying as much music from 2016 as I possibly could. As a result, I now own over 700 albums that came out in 2016 and I'm convinced

it's the greatest year for music of all time. But it's not enough me being convinced. I also want to

convince each and every single one of you, plus a guest every week. I'm going to send them an album

in advance. They're going to come on the podcast with a talk about that album.

This week, my guest is Di Henwood, and we're talking about the album, The Party, by Andy Schoff.

Andy Schoff.

Andy Schoff is a Canadian singer-songwriter.

The party, this 2016 album, it's a concept album, that follows all the different characters at a house party

and the social awkwardness between them, the little relationships going on, the history

between the characters, the paranoia, stuff that's maybe in their head, stuff that's been

said out loud.

There's a little few themes running through the album as well.

Smoking comes up once or twice and there's a little payoff for that at the end, an actual event that occurs that sets the whole party in a different light.

It's an album that had quite a big cult following in 2016. It's one of the albums actually that I get recommended to me a lot.

When people know I'm looking for albums from 2016,

often people will assume that I haven't heard this album

and will recommend it to me because its fan base is very evangelical, I'd say.

They really want to let people know about this project,

and for good reason.

I think it's very special, but it's hard to sometimes sum up why it's so good. At first glance,

a first listen, you don't really notice anything special about the music. I don't really jump out,

...