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Build A Playlist #09 Michael McCluskey


Photo - Connor Vettas Young

Hello, I’m Michael from Teesside band NICE GUY. I try to write observational and critical music about subjects like love, society and human nature. I’ve always found the creative aspect of writing music as a form of personal catharsis, and the act of listening to it a form of escapism. These are some of the albums I like to escape to...


Lionel Richie - Back To Front

Track For Playlist : Running With The Night

There’s nothing I can say about Sir Lionel that hasn’t already been said. I remember my Mam & Dad used to take my brother and I to a caravan in Crimdon Deane for a holiday. I’d just gotten a Walkman that I cherished and I had this album.


The caravan park was practically just a field. Sure, there was a death-trap tarzy that I didn’t have the guts to try, and a dilapidated chippy that sold a humongous portion of incinerated chips for 50p, but other than that there wasn’t much else to do. So I sat and watched the sunset on that field listening to Back To Front on my Walkman and thinking... life is pretty fucking good.


Ren Harvieu - Through The Night

Track: Open Up Your Arms

If you like big brassy numbers and a voice that could melt butter, this is the one for you. I was in a really bad relationship in which I wasn’t an innocent party.


After another fight, I found myself alone in London for the evening so I headed to Camden and looked for any live music I could find.

I remember stood watching Ren thinking I’d never heard a voice that powerful in my life, it was just captivating.


The whole album echoes this. It’s just beautiful music, Open Up Your Arms especially being one that you belt out at the top of your lungs.


Nas - Illmatic

Track: Life’s A Bitch

In my opinion, the greatest rapper to have ever walked the earth. Back in school, I remember the cycle of popular music being fixed firmly on rap/r&b and there wasn’t too much I could get away with.


Yet, I loved this. Especially the simplicity of the music juxtaposed with the complexity of his lyrics. Some of them were just pure poetry.


‘I switched my motto,

Instead of saying fuck tomorrow,

That buck that bought a bottle,

Coulda struck the lotto’


He was 20 when he wrote it and there’s a lot that I didn’t understand because it was from a world that I didn’t know and that I was so far removed from. So once you started listening and understanding what he was saying, you realise just how high he set the bar with it.


Young Rebel Set - Curse Our Love.

Track: If I Was

If you’re from Teesside you surely know this one and it doesn’t really need a description from me. I remember seeing YRS back when they were named Billy The Kid and they blew me away. They made me want to be stood the other side of the barrier in KuBar and it was just incredible that a band from my town were able to play to all these people and release an album. That didn’t happen did it?


If I Was is the most beautiful song written by any Teessider, with any justice it should be sung aloud in Stockton for years to come.


Paul Molloy - The Fifth Dandelion

Track For Playlist: Dungaree Day

If you’ve seen The Coral live in the last few years, you’ve probably seen Paul Molloy soloing in his hat. When he’s not doing that he’s crafting remarkable albums like this. If you’re into your psychedelica then this one is for you. Rich in melody and brilliant lyricism, he’s used every bit of his experience in this.


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