Sunday 27 July 2008

"you know you're gonna lose more than you've found"

Joe writes: There's that cover of Beggin' by Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons that's about to be a hit but personally I'm all Beggined out.

I do think someone will have a hit with a cover of The Night before long, although no-one could better the original.

a load of new music I'm excited about with MySpace links

I've been meaning to post this stuff for ages

Dead Confederate - listen to The Rat

La Roux - Elly Jackson and Ben Langmaid - their MySpace seems to have been deleted

Tinashé - listen to any of the tracks - there is no such thing as a weak Tinashé track

Mybe - listen to Walk Away

I Blame Coco - her best track Strangers isn't on her MySpace. Go and see her live instead - she is so cool.



VV Brown - listen to Crying Blood, although the proper version isn't up on her MySpace at the time of writing, just the demo and some remixes, so maybe listen to Monster Mash instead. Vanessa also has a really good song called Better

Aushua - excellent vocalist - listen to Stained Glass Blues

Thomas Western - listen to Your Front Door

"I'm gonna feel this way till I'm six feet underground, crazy as it sounds, I need you around"

Joe writes: Smoking Popes are back with a new album. I know this thanks to YuppiePunk.

They sound exactly the same as ever, but they've aged rather well judging by If You Don't Care.

Their classic track is of course Need You Around - just perfect.



It always reminds me of what is possibly my favourite Smiths song, Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want, not least because they're both so concise.

Thursday 24 July 2008

Wedding Songs

The news yesterday that Lonestar's 'Amazed' is the U.K.'s most popular first track at wedding receptions prompts me to post it, though presumably most people must have heard it - at other people's weddings, if not their own. Still, there must be people who don't know it as, apparantly, it didn't make the top 20 over here. It's a powerful song.

At our wedding, we were allowed one CD track and it was specified that it couldn't be anything religious apparently on the grounds that it was a civil ceremony. We wouldn't have chosen anything religious ourselves but if someone chose, say, a gospel tinged soul number, why couldn't they have it? Presumably there's a historical reason which no-one has seriously questioned. We chose Eva Cassidy's haunting version of 'Fields of Gold'. I think it's one of those instances where a cover surpasses the original, though I really liked the sound of Sting's lute version which featured in an episode of 'Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip'.

Lonestar - Amazed (iTunes)
Eva Cassidy - Fields of Gold (iTunes)
Sting - Fields of Gold (Studio 60):

Friday 18 July 2008

Seriously

Last night I went to see Tinashé's first ever gig with a full band at Proud Galleries in London. He was great but I'd better not post any of his demos yet.

Just beforehand, Collapsing Cities were playing. I only caught the last song but the atmosphere was great and the song is something of an anthem called Seriously.

Collapsing Cities - Seriously (not on iTunes yet)

Thursday 17 July 2008

Dion + Spector = A true classic

Phil writes: Yet another singer I was reintroduced to by my son. He played me this enjoyable and very unusual track a few years ago. From there I discovered the classic album it comes from, 'Born To Be With You' and then a number of lesser but still very good albums Dion has made over the years. I like his voice a lot, and there are standout tracks on all the albums. Apparently he didn't really approve of what Spector did with him, but many critics have disagreed with him about this, and it may be that one reason why he hasn't really been consistently successful is a lack of judgement about his material and the sounds producers achieve for him.

Dion - Make The Woman Love Me (not on iTunes so Amazon link for album)

Wednesday 9 July 2008

a cover of Somewhere In My Heart

Joe writes: Another blog has just posted a pretty straight and decent cover of Somewhere In My Heart by Mystery Jets, and as I'm now officially a Mystery Jets fan (or a Young Love fan anyway), it seems only right to post it here.

Soon I will do a post about the three Aztec Camera albums everyone should own.

Mystery Jets - Somewhere In My Heart (iTunes)

Saturday 5 July 2008

Two tracks that never pall

These were on tapes that my sons made when they were just discovering stuff for themselves and were played endlessly on the van stereo when we were on one of our summer trips. 'The Whole of the Moon' is an exceptional track - chock full of vivid imagery and imaginative leaps. I believe that it's actually about Roddy Frame which kind of surprised me when I heard it as for me there's no question that Mike Scott is a far more talented musician and songwriter. Still, 'Somewhere In My Heart' is one of those near-perfect pop songs which every singer songwriter must dream of producing.

The Waterboys - The Whole Of The Moon (iTunes)
Aztec Camera -
Somewhere In My Heart (iTunes)