Mika
Tuesday, February 6th 2007
Isn't Mika the most irritating artist in, oh I don't know how long. The neediness, the obvious desperation to be loved. This boy is trying way way too hard. The ridiculously high vocals that make him sound like Beaker from the Muppets with his balls in a vice. Most irritating of all right now is the stupid 'ker-ching' at the end of the 'Grace Kelly' single. Ugh. The one good thing about him is his love of Harry Nilsson and the fact that he had Jonathon Ross playing 'Without Her' on the radio on Saturday morning.
Let's hope Brian May (see the entry for Feb 5th) isn't reading this.
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January Music
Tuesday, January 16th 2007
January is traditionally a slow month for new releases and good music to listen to. The last couple of years I'm sure it's been March/ April before any worthwhile new albums have been released. This year seems to be a bit different however, lots of good new stuff to listen to. Admittedly, some of them are things that have been hanging around since the tail end of 2006 but January seems particularly rich with good new releases this year.
First the hangovers from 2006 that are tickling my ears right now -
Amy Winehouse - Back To Black This album has certainly had good reviews and in this case they are well deserved. I picked it up off the back of the chorus from the single Rehab being stuck in my head for what seems like weeks. 'They tried to make me go to rehab/ I said no, no, no'. So well have they recreated the sound of 60's soul/Motown records that I had initially thought the tracks were made up of samples but no, there are only 2 samples on the whole album. Having said that it never sounds anything other than modern. Were it just a empty soul pastiche (see Joss Stone) it wouldn't work but Winehouse's songs are so strong melodically and her personality really shines through in the lyrics. All in all a triumph and nary a bad track in sight.
Jarvis Cocker - Jarvis For a while now Jarvis has been writing songs for others (Nancy Sinatra, Charlotte Gainsbourg) or releasing records under pseudonym (Relaxed Muscle) but it's nice to see him back with a proper solo record and it's quite fine too. At first it was the more obvious pop songs at the front of the record that caught my attention but as I'm listening to it more the darker songs on the second side are the ones that are hitting home (I Will Kill Again, From A to I, Fat Children). It's well worth having a look at the video for the single 'Don't Let Him Waste Your Time'
Charlotte Hatherley - Behave EP Very happy this turned up on eMusic, a taster from her next album which I think is due out in February. Her album Fade To Grey was one of my surprise faves of a couple of years ago. The 2 extra tracks didn't grab me but the lead track is quite fine and bodes well for the full release.
The Long Blondes - Someone To Drive You Home YouTube isn't just a great place for watching stuff, it's also a good place to sample music without downloading tracks from iTunes or elsewhere. I read the review of this album on Pitchfork, headed to YouTube to check out some vids and liked their style and their songs. Not really what I was expecting, essentially they are a Britpop band 13 years out of time. Given my age and what I was doing from the early to mid-90's this isn't a problem since I tend to like a lot of music from that time (early Suede, Boo Radleys, Elastica, Pulp, Blur etc). Admittedly The LB's aren't as good as any of the aforementioned bands but this isn't a bad record with some fine singles. Check out Once And Never Again and Weekend Without Makeup
As for Jan releases, most aren't out yet. Still waiting for the new Shins record (out 29th) which is getting good reviews, Damon Albarn's new project The Good, The Bad and The Queen (22nd) and my most anticipated due to the strength of their first album, Field Music's 'Tones Of Town' (22nd). One anticipated release is already out:
Gruff Rhys - Candylion I linked to the video for the title track in one of my prolific postings at the tail end of last year and the album was released last week. Solo albums are always a hit and miss affair and indeed Gruff (lead singer of Super Furry Animals) had mostly a miss with his first solo record (judging that on the fact that I barely listened to it). This however is a lovely collection of off kilter pop songs covering topics as diverse as mythical creatures, archaeology and on the 15 minute long last track Skylon, plane hijackings. Recommended.
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Sandi Thom vs Nelly Furtado. FITE!
Friday, June 9th 2006
It is urgent and key that you go to a shop or alternatively iTunes and you buy the Nelly Furtado single 'Maneater'.
Not only is it worth getting anyway because it's a great Timbaland production with a stick in your head chorus but it will hopefully stop that awful awful Sandi Thom song 'I Wish I Was A Punk Rocker (With Flowers In My Hair) from getting to No.1 again. It really is so bad that a stand needs to be taken. Go on, it'll only cost you 79p.
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Comps
Wednesday, March 8th 2006
Before you ask, here's the tracklistings of those two mix CD's I made.
"SHIMMY SHIMMY SHIMMY"
1.Art Brut - Formed A Band
2.The Strokes - Juicebox
3.The Fall - Clasp Hands
4.The Darkness - English Country Garden
5.Figurines - I Remember
6.Malcolm Middleton - Devestation
7.Linda Perhacs - Paper Mountain Man
8.The Decemberists - The Engine Driver
9.The Left Banke - Dark Is The Bark
10.Os Mutantes - Panis Et Circensis
11.The Tammy's - Egyptian Shumba
12.Handsomeboy Technique - Walk Across The Rooftops
13.Acoustic Ladyland - Iggy
14.Mew - The Zookeeper's Boy
15.Paul McCartney - Jenny Wren
16.Ringo Starr - Early 1970
17.Belle & Sebastian - The Blues Are Still Blue
18.Jamie Lidell - Multiply
19.Polar Bear - To Touch The Red Brick
20.Johnny Boy - You Are The Generation That Bought More Shoes And You Get What You Deserve
21.Nouvelle Vague - Too Drunk To Fuck
"PERFECT IMPERFECT"
1.The Beatles - It's All Too Much (8min alt mix)
2.The Monkees - Girl That I Knew Somewhere (1st Version)
3.The Pipettes - Your Kisses (Radio 1 Session)
4.Vanity 6 - Vibrator (Unreleased Prince song)
5.Barry Gibb - Woman In Love (Demo)
6.The Divine Comedy - Bad Ambassador (Live on French Radio)
7.Bob Dylan - Leopard Skin Pillbox Hat (Liverpool 14.05.66)
8.Arctic Monkeys - Mardy Bum (Live on French Radio)
9.Elvis Costello - I Don't Want To Go To Chelsea (Alt Ver)
10.Prince - Neon Telephone (Unreleased)
11.The Beatles - What You're Doing (Take 11)
12.Slade - Getting Better (Radio 1 Session)
13.Bob Dylan - Quinn The Eskimo (Basement Tapes)
14.David Crosby - Lady Friend (Demo)
15.Stone Roses - She Bangs The Drums (Demo)
16.Pete Townshend - Substitute (Demo)
17.Harry Nilsson - Cuddly Toy (Demo)
18.The Beatles - Can You Take Me Back (Full Version)
19.Talking Heads - Psycho Killer (Demo)
20.Joni Mitchell - Both Sides Now (Live 1968)
21.Nick Drake - Saturday Sun (Take 1)
22.Elvis Costello & Brodsky Quartet - God Only Knows (Live)
23.Brian Wilson - Smart Girls (Unreleased-thankfully)
That last track has to be heard to be believed. Brian Wilson raps as bits of Beach Boys records are badly cut up and placed in the song.
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NO, DK, SE, GO!
Wednesday, January 25th 2006
Looking through my fave songs list of last year it's noticeable that a few of them come from Scandinavia, so visiting Denmark over Christmas and the new year it was nice to experience some of those songs in their natural habitat.
So, The Cardigans were heard soundtracking a mobile phone advert on Swedish TV, Annie was singing in a Copenhagen clothes shop, Junior Senior were performing top tune 'Take My Time' at the Danish equivalent of the Sports Personality of the Year awards and the local radio station where we were staying played both the aforementioned Junior Senior track and Robyn's spiffy 'Be Mine' in the space of an hour.
Truly pop nirvana.
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Funkadelic Revelations
Wednesday, September 21st 2005
I've just had one of those weird moments when you suddenly find out where a particular piece of music is sourced from. It was like the moment when I found out that the closing music from Steve Wright's Radio 1 (now Radio 2) show was in fact the final minute or so of Glen Campbell's version of Wichita Lineman.
Chris Morris (Brass Eye, Day Today etc) used to have a wonderful show on Radio 1 about 1994. He and Peter Baynham used to play lots of great records in between some very funny comedy stuff. Anyway, the music bed that they had underneath them at the start of the show was this repeating keyboard riff played over some wah-wah guitar. I just put on the Funkadelic album 'America Eats It's Young' and what made up the first two or three minutes of the first track 'You Hit The Nail On The Head'. That exact same keyboard riff and wah-wah guitar. Cool.
It's worth searching online for those Radio 1 shows which should be readily available for download. If you don't want a full show look for Chris Morris's Pixies parody or REM and their hitherto unknown Japanese advert for whale meat. As spot on as the 'Uzi Lover' segment from the Day Today.
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Singles +
Wednesday, August 31st 2005
While I'm recommending tracks, there seems to be a rich vein of singles or new tracks that I'm particularly enjoying at the moment.
Kelly Clarkson's newest Since U Been Gone is a big slab of pop rock fun. No Pop Idol winner on either side of the Atlantic has released a record as good (well, Will Young may have. Nah maybe not though he did cover Tim Christensen on his last album so brownie points for that). The kind of thing that Avril Lavigne might have recorded (but not sung as well) if she hadn't started on the rubbishy ballads.
The new Franz Ferdinand 'Do You Want To' starts off fairly unimpressively and then morphs into a big pop song with a great riff and cheeky lyrics, 'well I blew him before you' indeed. Interesting to see them take such an overtly pop direction and it bodes well for the album. Wonder if this is representative? It'll be huge. Not sure I liked the video though which all seemed to be rather too ironic. They were playing at being pop stars rather than just being straight about it. At least that's what I felt on one viewing anyway.
KT Tunstall is from just up the coast in Anstruther and as such I feel I owe her some support. Which is why I got her album from the library rather than buy it. Ahem. Actually annoyingly I bought her new single 'Suddenly I See' from iTunes for 79p and then went to the library in the afternoon and found the album which cost me 60p to get out. Hmmm. Still worth the 79p though. Not sure there's much depth there but it breezes by pleasantly.
Mark Owen! Yes, that one - Take That, Celebrity Big Brother and thoroughly nice chap. Turns out he released his third album in March. Who knew. He also released a new single last week. It's called 'Believe In The Boogie' unfortunately but hey it's actually really rather fine. A big hit at #57 in the chart on Sunday. In fact there was a clip of Take That on TOTP on Sunday night and they had a wee blurb at the bottom about what Gary and Robbie were up to now and no mention of the ex-member who actually released a single that same week. Shows how much off the radar he is. Apparently he funded the album himself and the cream of the LA session crew play on it including one Roger Joseph Manning Jr. on keys!
There's a track leaked from the new Cardigans record called 'I Need Some Fine Wine And You, You Need To Be Nicer'. Which is a long title. I've seen the cover of the LP and it's the cover of a pop record and not an alt-country record so the thought would be that they had moved their sound again and away from the sound of Long Gone Before Daylight. On the evidence of this song that isn't quite the case. The instrumental sound of a rock band playing together is still there but this is maybe a bit rockier than anything on the previous record. I like it and again I'm looking forward to this album.
Finally there's a new Paul McCartney album out in a couple of weeks and I have to take an interest in that. He's certainly been talking a good game in interviews giving kudos to Nigel Godrich for editing him in the studio and telling him when stuff was crap and suggesting different ways of arranging things. This must be novel for McCartney who is largely used to producing himself. Apparently he plays most of the instruments on the record himself. Jason Falkner had been involved on some of these sessions but I've heard nothing yet to indicate that anything he contributed made it onto the record.
The snippets of tracks that were played the other night as McCartney appeared on Radio 4's Front Row sounded not bad although I'm a bit worried by early reports that the songs are more freeform melodically rather than concentrating on big strong choruses. Sadly, from the songs he was playing live on the program it's clear he's lost a lot of the power from his voice, he spent the whole time straining to hit the notes. A sign of his age no doubt but sad to hear this from someone who has always had such an expressive and adaptable voice. It remains to be seen whether I listen to this more than the two listens that the last record Driving Rain was given. Maybe it's worth going back for another listen to that.
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Junior Senior - Take My Time
Wednesday, August 31st 2005
Remember these guys? Loved D-D-Don't Don't Stop The Beat. They're back with a new album in a couple of weeks at least in Denmark anyway. Fluxblog have posted a new track from it here (probably a few posts down by now) and I've got to say it's ace.
Check it out.
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Roxy Music - She Sells
Friday, August 5th 2005
I have to admire any song that melodically brings to mind simultaneously Stevie Wonder's 'Don't You Worry 'Bout A Thing' and Ben Folds Five's 'Underground'.
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