Hamish Imlach - Cod Liver Oil and the Orange Juice

As it is Hogmannay let's have a good old Scottish drinking song. This is more Glaswegian that Scottish to be honest but it's got a wicked sense of humour in it and there's every chance I'll be singing it in my cups tonight so that will do. Oh yes, that will do.

The Aloof - One Night Stand

Many years ago I found a mix cassette on a bus. It had a pink cover and the dot above each "i" was a little star. This was one of the songs on it. There's a nice contrast between the frailness of the voice, and the majesty of the strings. There's also a real sense of the self loathing one can feel after waking up after going too hard, for too long.

Mercury Rev - Goddess on a Highway

There was a brief time, when Mercury Rev seemed plugged into something otherworldly. Deserters songs and Allis dream both carried hints of an oddness that lingered in the mind. There's a episode of the TV show twin peaks which ends with the suggestion that "the owls are not what they seem" before cutting to footage of a huge owl glowering at the screen. It should be absurd but instead it instilled a deep and lasting fear of owls in me. This song evokes similar emotions.

Neko Case - People Gotta Lot of Nerve

Took me a long time to find a way into Neko Case's work, but her most recent album is an excellent primer. And this is the best song on it.

Sparrow and The Workshop - A Horse's Grin

Increasingly it seems Scotland's principal musically export is particularly dark folk music with a bit of a modern twist. The only other famous example off the top of my head os Sons and daughters, but I've seen a lot of it about at a lower level. Like Nick Cave was imprinted on a whole generation of Scottish musicians. Also might have something to do, that as you age, just making a racket is less appealing but you still want to keep a bit of edge, so you end up doing murder ballads. Anyway, this is a fine example, and there's a nice attention to detail and style as well, in the video.

Heart - Alone

This is a cheesy, cheesy song but damn if it doesn't tug at the heart more than a little. Stripped of the eighties overproduction, it's really got something. That's a hell of a note in the middle as well. That is some singing.

York Minster Choir - Good King Wenceslas

A favourite Carol. My favourite bit of it, is the description of the snow as "deep and crisp and even" which always struck me as wonderful. Very evocative. I've always had a soft spot for the King's servant, who I always suspected was not alltogether happy about having to go out in the snow, and likely thought the king had lost his mind.

James Brown - Soulful Christmas

Hey! James Brown loves you and wants you to have a merry Christmas and a happy new year. Who could want for more. I saw him perform in Glasgow a couple of years before he died, and he was mumbly, he was confused, his voice was a little cracked and he was still absolutely fucking amazing. 20 minutes after he left the stage we were still chanting his name in the hope he might return.

Here Comes Fatty Claus - Rudolph and Gang

Here comes fatty, with his sack of shit, and all his stinking reindeer. There's something reassuring about the fact there is no figure so innocuous that someone won't take a shot at him. This song comes from John Water's Christmas album which as you might expect is filled with wonderfully odd selections.

Darlene Love - Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)

Phil Spector is a terrible man, obviously, but by god he had something when it came to production. There's an almost gospel feel to this, the way it builds so euphorically. The music is so upbeat, it provides a great counterpoint to what is actually a pretty plaintive lyric. This is a great version as well, Apparently Love comes on to David Letterman's US chat show to perform the song ever year at Christmas, which is a great tradition. I can't say if the sax playing Santa is involved every time but let's hope so.

The Hives & Cyndi Lauper - A Christmas Duel

Ah the true meaning of Christmas. Giving people you love bitter, bitter abuse. This is a wonderful marriage of a rollicking upbeat tunes and hateful lyrics. As opening lines go "I bought no gifts this year, And I slept with your sister" takes some topping. It also highlights what a great voice Cyndi lauper has. Mad as a box of pipes, but what a singer.

XTC - Stupidly Happy

A lovely late period pop song from xtc this. Not bitter, not spiteful just great. The riff is like a delightful bee, buzzing on with happiness.

Vitalic - La Rock 01

It's a thumper. A ferocious great thumper of a thing. And I, for one, Salute it.

Elton John - Mona Lisas And Mad Hatters

My favourite of old reg's songs. In his early seventies heyday, what a voice he had. Plus this is a great lyric. Bernie Taupin had a hell of a lot of game back then. There's an emotional honesty that reminds me a lot of country music in some of Elton John's best songs. However he also gives a little enigmatic twist. And as a title, "Mona Lisa's and mad hatters" is pretty special.

Jane's Addiction - Just Because

This is a rare example of a comeback song standing up to the quality of the original work. Most of Jane's Addiction older stuff hasn't held up that well, but this is a belter. Dave Navarro and Perry Farrell are a couple of interesting guys, but it's hard not to suspect they are more style than anything else. But the style is pretty great.

Ben Lee - Kids

How sad this song sounds this way. Even though he's performing in a beautiful park, with beautiful dogs bounding past him and the lyrics don't really mean anything. Always the best trick with lyrics that though, have them sound deep and meaningful without really being about anything, and they end up being about everything for everyone.

The Tallest Man On Earth - Where Do My Bluebird Fly

The Tallest Man On Earth appears to be a devilish handsome Swede who has no shortage of talent. I though this video was interesting, as it places him a major urban setting in contrast to his music, which is filled with references to animals and nature. For all his songs are in English, There's something very Nordic about this fellow, the hint of long days and longer nights, a blast from the freezing wilds. And I can heartily recommend.

Pulp - A Little Soul

Jarvis Cocker is a great example of a gent who despite not been gifted with the greatest voice in the world, was able to turn that into a strength. The way his voice cracks on the last line is as good as any 8 octave holler. Lyrically this is Cocker at his bleakest,which helps explain why "This is Hardcore" was something of a commercial flop. Songs about Fathers telling their son to piss off for their own good, tend not to be clasped to the heart of the great British public. Still one of Pulp's best songs though, and one that I suspect all of us who have spent one night too many drowned in regret will long cherish.

Alessi Brothers - Sea Bird

The Alessi Brothers are a cheesy American eighties duo was one and a half hits. However this little known song has a certain something. I've always had a soft spot for songs addressed to animals, and something about the chorus rings true enough.

The End of the World - Skeeter Davis

Ah Skeeter Davis, a voice just sweet enough to be singing such a dark song. Here, the end of an affair is so painful as to be apocalyptic.

Gary Stewart - Drinkin' Thing

This is a glorious slice of self pitying melancholy. Hell of a voice Gary Stewart, hell of a nice little piece of guitar at the start as well. Those wishing to know more about this tragic country fella should look here.

Leftfield - Phat Planet

I want a Guinness now. Stupid easily manipulated Brain!

Andre Williams - Jailbait

Andre Williams has fifty years of sleazy lunatic blues behind him. This, his signature tune, gives you a good feel of his flavour. After spending the eighties homeless and crack addicted, he's made a name for himself playing shady venues all over the world. On this performance, which is only a couple of years ago, but has been artfully aged, he has the backing of a pretty tremendous band.

Blancmange - Living on the Ceiling

I've noted before that the early eighties were a bloody odd time for British music. This song being a prime example. It makes absolutely no sense, but that piano riff is monstrously infectious, The vocal likewise. Time to spent the rest of the day chanting "I'm so tall, I'm so tall" I think.

Meursault - William Henry Miller Pt.1

This is something a wee bit special. Note the handclaps. One day in the distant future when I have the time I will write my opus about why handclaps are at the centre of all great music. There's a bruised quality to the vocal that I love as well. Sufjan Stevens is the comparison that came to mind but there's something very Scottish about this as well, tapping into old Celtic myths of longing. Though that may be down to the pouring rain in the background. Great setting for something of this kind though, someone in the group clearly has an eye for time and place. All of which may be enough to make me overlook my nothing good comes from Edinburgh policy. Troubling times...

Monarchy - Gold in the Fire

Monarchy are apparently a mysterious duo who decline to reveal their identities until the new year. On the basis of this track, they may have little choice, as this batch of eighties downbeat sythnpop is the sort of thing that's so hot right now darling. Still it's pretty great though. And the vocal has a hollow quality that is strangely wonderful.

Daedelus - Fair Weather Friends

This is wonderful. Like something put together by a mildly autistic but creatively inspired robot.

Ben Lee - Catch My Disease

This is infectious pop music in it's purest form. Note the extensive use of handclaps! That said, I can't shake the feeling that Ben Lee looks like someone who would probably benefit from being forced into the military. Look at that stupid hair. Damn hippies. Odd that I love this song, while still harboring a most unfair venom for Mr Lee. Based mainly on the fact I dislike his hair in one picture. Still my minds made up now. Sign him up for six months in Afghanistan, it's the only way to be sure!

Shed Seven - Disco Down

Shed Seven were traditionally portrayed as the lumpen village idiots of Britpop but I fancy history has been rather kind to them. Certainly I'm not the only one recalls them fondly I'll wager. They were the star attraction at my freshers ball. And though memories are hazy I recall a fairly rollicking show, with this being a particular highlight. And It holds up I would argue as a fun wee tune, with a hell of a solid bass line powering it along.
One should also fair careful attention to the video too, as according to one commenter it "captures absolutely perfectly the atmosphere of the post-pub scene in York." And who, in all honesty, could ask for more than that?

Darwin Deez - Constellations

Drawin Deez is a stupid, stupid name for a band, but this song is surprisingly excellent, sounding like the Strokes with an actual human heart. There is really no way that an an indie rock song which incorporates a nursery ryhme, should be this good, but weirdly it is. Nice use of handclaps, which I'm always a sucker for, might well be to blame.

DJ Shadow - Midnight in a Perfect World

Like the previous two days songs this track was apparently inspired by the Doomsday Clock. Which has proved inspirational to a lot of musicans it seems. Though I think these three cuts are the pick of the bunch.
I once saw DJ shadow perform in Glasgow and he scratched together a tune from samples of instructional music videos that still blows my mind just to think about. I lovethe cadence of "The Clock on the wall reads a quarter past midnight" in this. Tremendously spooky.

Wah! Heat - Seven Minutes to Midnight

Back in those crazy days when Steve Lamacq still had a show on national radio, on a Monday night he allowed to stay on air all the way until midnight by his radio one overlords. Monday night not being deemed a suitable place for John Peel for some reason. So every Monday night at Seven minutes to Midnight Lamacq would play this track. And I, a wonky teenager, would attempt to fight off sleep to stay up and listen to it, on a tiny radio next to my bed because I thought it was the bees knees. Which it still is.
Wah! Heat were the outfit of Liverpudlian Pete Whylie, a rather talented songwriter who never received the attention he deserved because he continually changed the name of his band. Wah! Heat, were also known as Wah!, Shambeko! Say Wah!, JF Wah!, The Mighty Wah! and Wah! the Mongrel at various times. Pick a bloody name and stick to it man!

Justice - One Minute to Midnight

For some reason It's taken me quite a while to get into Justice. Becasue I'm old and don't really go to Clubs any more. So fashionably late to the party but what a party it is, I'm especially fond this distorted little beast of a tune.

Neil Young - Birds

Neil Young and Dylan in the same week, oh dear, I've gone all mojo. Still I heard this on the radio yesterday and was struck by just how lovely it is. Neil Young has never been someone I've really been able to get into but I 'm thinking that may have to change.

A Genuine Freakshow - I Can Feel His Heartbeats

Here's some nice shimmery indie that rolls into something larger and thunderous as it goes. The effect is a little Playskool Arcade Fire, but that's by no means a bad thing. It's still a lovely racket. I'm always very impressed by bands that manage to harnass large numbers of induivals and sounds into a coherent whole. Knowing as I do the utter unrelablity and fecklessness of most musicans I tend to believe any band with more than six members constitents something of a minor miracle.
This bunch of up and comers also has the dubious pleasure of being from Reading, a town which has many faults but does boast the finest pieshop in all England. Sweeney and Todd, is it's name and if your ever passing that way I heartly recomend a visit.

Sparks - This Town Ain't Big Enough For The Both Of Us

It's amazing how much the style of the time shapes music. Though the Mael brothers have since proven themselves to be very versatile musicians and songwriters this was originally recorded in 1974, when Prog ruled the Land. Which means hello operatic vocals and solos for every member of the band! Luckily the song is more than strong enough to withstand such ornamentation and perhaps even benefits from it in a slight ludicrous over the top way. This video also showcases a drummer who looks like a middle aged lesbian, always a fine sight to behold.

Rancid - Roots Radical

For all the late nineties California punk boom left us with terrible debris of emo, it did also produce "...And Out come the Wolves" by Rancid which is a tremendous album. What set Rancid aprat was that they had a guenine anger about them, handily married to some rather nifty tunes, This song probably sums it up best, and has left we with a life long appreciation for the "moonstompers".

Fever Ray - Keep the Streets Empty for Me

Another slab of Glacial Swedish electronica. Karin Dreijer Andersson who also works with the knife has a remarkable voice. Here's something primal about it. Listening to this song I can only picture a mad woman, standing at thh entrance to a cave, crooning into a vast blizzard. The comic material that has been paired with it here seems to fit nicely too though.

Bob Dylan - Shelter from the Storm

Bob Dylan - Shelter From The Storm (1976
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I remember being about fifteen and having a basic Bob Dylan best of CD that I listened the hell out of one Summer. I didn't understand a jot of it, but I fragile teenage mind twigged there was something important about it. This was the song that I put on again and again.
Perhaps because everyone can relate to the idea of "Shelter from the Strom". Perhaps because with typical adolescent self absorbence I fancied myself "hunted like a crocodile' though god knows why.
I still love this song and this version is a particularly fine one. I still don't have a clue what it's about, other than that we all need shelter sometimes, but it still sounds important and that's good enough for me.

Martha Wainwright - Bloody Motherfucking Asshole

I've always felt a little sorry for Martha Wainwirght, difficult to forge a niche for yourself when your brother is such a talented attention hog. Still she has a hell of a voice going for her and this is a fantastic bitter number.

The Flying Pickets - Who's That Girl

There's something about this a capella version of the Aurthmyics classic that I find mesmerizing. It also highlights the rather odd and striking lyrics. Ms Lennox certainly has a way with words.

The Go! Team - The Power Is On!

This is a sparkling little number of energetic magic. Fantastically exciting. And the polar negative of the hideous dreich wetaher currently infected my city.

Penguin Prison - Animal Animal

Something very eighties about this, but in a funky overindulgent way that I can get behind. The verse makes me think of Wham! But for the life of me I can’t think why. On more important matters, if I was an animal I think I’d likely be a bear. I saw some footage of a bear ripping open a beehive to get some honey the other night. It was quite tremendous.

Take That - Greatest Day

I bloody love this song. Gary barlow has a fantastic voice, he hits some absolutely massive notes in this. Madly catchy as well, once you heat it you're stuck with it.

The Asteroids Galaxy Tour - Around the Bend

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Danish neo-motown apparently, but one listen of that opening horn blast was enough to convince me there's not enough Scandinavian soul revivalists in my life. Asteroids Galaxy tour is bloody awful name for a music outfit mind. As a bonus this video also features some very cool light projections on buildings.

The Knife - Heartbeats

Lot of the David Lynch, Angelo Badlementi in this, more glacial though, more Scandinavian. Generally though it's just ace.

The Chemical Brothers - Out of Control

I Bloody love this song. Sumner apathetic vocals fit perfectly and when his shimmering guitar solo kicks in it's a thing of absolute wonder.

Blur - Badhead

A Great song from a great album. The whole back end of parklife is winner after winner, but I've always had a particular soft spot for this one. Hard not to love that introductory brass.

Queen - This Thing Called Love

I sang this song with my school choir when I was 13. That's how fucking cool I was. YEAH. Leaving aside that massacre. This is just a classic. Mercury's elvis-esque phrasing fits perfect, and the whole thing swings like nobodies business.

Todd Terry - Weekend

This song sounds like a relic from another age. A darn funky relic mind you. The lyric has a slightly mournful quality to it though, which I think always adds a nice depth to a party track.

Ida Maria - Queen of the World

Ida Maria apparently suffers from hassynesthesia, a neurological phenomenon that causes her to see colors when she hears music. Which sounds like it would be quite cool but would probably end up being an endless source of grief. Imagine if you brain decided to represent the inescapable pop hit of the day as a particularity virulent poo brown. Not pleasant. Unlike this song, which is a perky little joy. "Whiskey please, I need some whiskey please," is most endearing opening line. Too many of today's drunks forget about manners I find....

The Arlenes - Lonely Won't Leave Me Alone

For the longest time this was my favourite song. I'm a little happier now and appreciate joy a little more but it's still in the top three. The lyrics are so sad and full of regret without being mawkish. The main vocal is clear as spring water, and beautifully balanced by the gruff male counterpoint in the chorus. There's a lovely wee guitar solo towards the end the exact opposite of any egowank of a note fest, just a couple of notes put together in a simple way that fits the song perfectly.
Wonderfully, so a song that weeps and bleeds country it was written by a lad from south London.
It is something of a mystery to me why this isn't a standard, as it's so absolutely perfect but I wonder if it would have the resonance to me that it does, if a new version trickled out the radio every few years. As it is I come back to it every six months or so, listen to it on repeat for an hour or two and feel melancholy in the best, most enjoyable way.

Gillian Welch - Elvis Presley Blues

A great song about Elvis. Elvis is great not just for his music but because he inspired so much amazing stuff. This song being a prime example. Just the other day I was thinking about Elvis and the Fool's Gold Loaf. That kind of behaviour is commitment to becoming someone people write songs about.

Chuck Prophet - You Did

Chuck Prophet, formerly of alt country pioneers Green on Red has spent most of the last 20 years trying to merge country and hip hop. A Lonely furrow to plow, but he succeeds here. It doesn't sound like anything like country or hip hop mind, but it's good. Got Atmosphere.

Black Eyed Peas - I Gotta Feeling

This is a straight up party jam. Sure, BEP have the critical kudos of David Hasselhoff at this point. Doesn't matter. This is a belter. End of.

The Passions - I'm in Love with a German Film Star

The Musical ancestors of current flavour of the month the XX, perhaps? In any case this is a wonderful, etheral piece of early eighties wierdness. Apparently it was written about a roadie for the Clash who had several bit parts in German films but that seems all too proasic for this splendid little oddity.

Nellie McKay - The Dog Song

I love Dogs. Nothing like a bit of unconditional love to get you out of a slump.

Harry Belafonte - Angelina

Harry Belafonte has the most incredible warnth to his voice. He can make a song sound welcoming like no one else. "Hey, come on in, help yourself to drink, this is just getting started" says Harry. "No Problem" says I.

Chris Isaac - Wicked Game

The eeriest goddamn song you ever will hear.

Clearlake - Wonder if the snow will settle

It's would be nice to have a proper winter again. Snow seems to be receeding into my unconscious, a myth, a dream. Real snow a foot deep doesn't seem to come by anymore.

St Vincent - Marrow

I wasn't too sure about this, little bit too ethereal I thought. too many strings not enough guts. Then, Boom, a squelching great mess of a chorus and I'm happy as a big in shit. There is something I find rather off putting about St Vincent, I feel as if she is the sort of woman who I might be chatting to quite happily in a kitchen at a party, only for to suddenly stab me with a butter knife because I harbored unacceptable views on the linguistic roots of the the germanic languages. Still this song is the just the right kind of bonkers so as I stay away from the butter knifes I think it'll be fine.

Marques Toliver - White Sails (Andante)

This chap is very good indeed. Both his vioce or his violin playing would mark him out as a major talent, to have both, at the same time, is little short of extraordinary. He also used to make 80 dollars in a morning busking in Central park, playing his own material, no one makes money busking their own material, it's aganist the buskers code! Anyone who can do that, well I wouldn't be surprised to see him do just about anything.

Lynyrd Skynyrd - That Smell

I once saw a Skynyrd tribute act, featuring a guy who had been their singer for five minutes in the nineties. There have been probably been enough members of Skynyrd to populate a small nation over the years. In any case, that gig was amazing, at least in part because we were absolutely blasted. For all they have a rep as a party bandm this song is actually a warning about the dangers of over indulgence. It's still god a great rolling groove to it though.

Screaming Jay Hawkins - I Put a Spell on You.

I'm going to drop some knowledge on you. Are you ready? During WW2 Mr Hawkins fought for the US army in the Pacific theatre. On one operation he was captured and tortured. When he was rescued he stuck a grenade in his chief antagonists head and blew his head clean off. Clean fucking off. Watching this video that makes a lot more sense. A man who'll do that, will do Goddamn anything. I also have to comment on the saxophonist hair cut which is truly a thing of wonder.

The Concretes - You Can't Hurry Love

I'd forgotten how great a song this is. Even though it shares nothing musically with the Supremes song of the same title, there's a certain thematic similarity I think. Both are joyful, but with a sad weight dragging them down, grounding them. Beneath all the "Ohs" and the trumpets there's actually a very chunky little guitar riff pulling the song as well.

Tegan and Sara Vs Mylo - Walking with a Ghost in Paris

This folk rock number by idenitcal twin sisters Tegan and Sara is much improved by the addition of a bit of mylo. The mash up job, was I believe done by a gent called "Party Ben" who may or may not be a bear. Also worth noting that The White Stripes do an awesome version of the Tegan and Sara song.

Mazzy Star - Ride It On

Mazzy Star are a band I've deliberately attempted to know as little as possible about. Something about their music seems to lend itself to a bit of mystery. This is one of their lovelier songs that seems to hint at all sort of thing, without, perhaps meaning any of them.

Gary Allen - Learning to Bend

This is some real mainstream commercial Nashville country. And it is awesome. As I've written One of the things I find pretty fascinating about country music is the level of emotional sophistication it demands from it's practitioners. Certainly a male rock performer would never get away with a song like this, with references to " being a lover and a friend" and "Learning how to bend." Now because it's country this is admittedly relentlessly over egged to beyond mawkishness and the strings aren't really necessary. But the falsetto on the chorus is exactly the right amount of too much.

Public Image Limited - Rise

"Could be wrong, I couldd be right," Best song Lydon was ever involved in for my money. Though I also fucking love the little guitar figure which is a thing of wonder.

Pomplamoose - My Favourite Things

This is a pretty darn interesting version of the Rodgers and Hammerstein classic. It's a little twee but redeemed by the beautiful vocals. I've always had a soft spot for this song actually, the line "the dog bites and the bee stings" always resonated for some reason.

Nick Drake - Black Eyed Dog

As I'm feeling lousy today, you get this devasting number. One of his last songs before his untimely death, his voice is cracking and lacking in confidence. just makes it sadder unlikely as that seems.

The Five Blobs - The Blob

Beware of the Blob!
It creeps and leaps and glides and slides across the floor
Right through the door and all around the wall ,
A splotch , a blotch ,
Be careful of the Blob!

This classic theme was written by Burt Bacharach and Mack David and makes it very easy to imagine you're in a funky sixties cocktail party. Until the blob shows up and you're forced to sacrifice the women and children to it's blubbery demands before somehow managing to kill it with a gas boiler you've jerry rigged to explode. You'll never forget the hideous slobbering touch of the blob though, and years later you'll wake in terror certain you can feel it oozing up your leg.

Booth and the Bad Angel - Dance of the Bad Angels

Tim Booth, Bernard Butler and Angelo Badalamenti collaborating on a quirky mid nineties album that sounds a bit like Chris Rea? It happened! This is a strangely engrossing cut from said album. Butler's little riff is recognisably him and undeniably excellent. Badalamenti, we can assume, helped ensure the atmospherics where suitably engaging. Though The lyrics aren't the greatest, Booth certainly shows of his fine, fine voice. The overall effect is a little dated but pleasing. Tim booth is an interesting figure, he clearly has something about him that makes others want to collaborate with him, even if it's not immediately apparent to the distant observer. If nothing else he is the only mid nineties British pop star to appear in Batman Begins, and for that we salute him.

Barcelona - Please Don't Go

I am a sucker for a sad piano melody and a soft trembling voice. Makes me well up like a goddamn child. This song provides the above in spades. Voice reminds me a little of Tom McCrae, The atmospherics of Sigur Ros, but the whole is pretty wonderful. The band are from Seattle as well, which always makes me perk up a little. Strange how Cobain's been dead all these years, and I still think 'huh must be something in the water up there. In addition the song has been set to this amazing footage of one of the world's largest aquariums so you really should put aside four and a half minutes to watch this. If it doen'st sooth your soul just a little I'll be amazed.

Elvis Presley - Thats Allright Mama

What's great about this clip is that it shows you Elvis as a guy who really digs his music. Elvis has beome this bizzarie cultural behemoth with endless trailing streams of baggage, that it's easy to forget he was really on point with the musical stuff. He looks cool as all hell here as well.

Jimmy Ruffin - What becomes of the Broken Hearted

A Classic, one of the best. If you don't feel just a little bit listening to his...well there's no hope for you. Sadly it's universaily has lead to it being absolutely murdered on numerous occasions. I would recommend you particulry avoid the vonda shepard, Paul young and boy george versions. Interestingly My Ruffin was always more popular in the UK than his native land. He moved here in the 80's and apparently had a talk show here for a while.

Grum - Heartbeats

Now the oil is running out and the financial markets have collapsed Scotland's economic future rests entirely on bedroom dance music creators like Grum. Following the footsteps of Mylo and Calvin Harris, the Linlithgow born Grum looks set for similar success if this track is anything to go by. It's catchy as hell and I particularly like the little electro hook that maintains the song when everything else drops out. The one thing that might stop him, is the name. As Grum sounds like something particularly horrible.

1 Giant Leap feat. Horace Andy - Racing Away

1 Giant Leap was a rather odd project which involved Jamie Catto and Duncan Bridgeman traveling around the world recording lots of local musicians doing their thing and then building it into an album. The resulting album was more than a little woolly around the edges but I have a lot of affection for this track. There's something exceptionally soothing about it, it's 'chill-out' in the best possible sense. As you would expect Horace Andy turns in a suitably charismatic vocal but what really makes it for me is the snippet of dialogue from Kurt Vonnegut explaining just why television is so dangerously seductive.

Therapy? - Screamager

Anyone who was a mildly disillusioned mid nineties teenager will recognise this one. For a supposedly metal outfit, Therapy? had a very keen ear for a pop hook. You don't get much better on the teenage angst front than "I've got nothing to do, but hang around and get screwed up on you". There's an interesting strand running through Northern Irish music, where you have bands taking hard aggressive rock music and presenting it in melodic, commercial ways. Obviously Therapy? are an example if this but you could also apply it to Ash and the Undertones.

The Raveonettes - Bang!

The Raveonettes obviously sound like a Phil Specktor girl group with a dash of Jesus and Mary Chain mixed in. Every review I've ever seen of their stuff says this, because you can't get away from it. Wearing your influences so blatantly isn't, of itself, a bad thing though and this is a poppin' wee number.
What I'm really interested in though, is the fact they sound very much like their singing "Kids wanna fuck out in the street". Now apparently the actually lyric is "bop out in the street", but as I've heard Britney Spears records I know what's going here. In fact it handily gets to the heart of my problem with Raveonettes. While I generally react positively to the music, I can't help but be a little irked at how hard they try to be dangerous. You might call it Primal Scream Syndrome. The fact they go on about it all the time, does rather lessen the effect and become a bit tedious. Also do kids really want to fuck out in the street? I can, just about, remember being a kid and i don't recall that being to appealing. Too many dirty old men leering away in the cold cold rain would rather spoil the fun I suspect.

The Avalanches - Frontier Psychiatrist

This song is now nearly a decade old but it still sounds as bizarrely wonderful as it ever did. "Some Birds are funny when they talk". It's a fact, it's an unquestionable fact! A second Avalanches album is apparently close to completion, but as they've been saying that for nigh on five years I think it best just to continue enjoying the sample heaped lunacy of this.

Tom Waits - Blue Skies

This is very early Waits demo from well before he released his debut album. It's amazing on several levels. Firstly it's just a great simple song, for all Waits has spent much of his later career doing the weird and wonderful. You have be a master of the basics of song writing to make all that complicated stuff work successfully and here, at a sickeningly young age, he shows he had that down. Also interesting to hear Wait's voice as a youngster, not so scuffed up. Easy to assume years of cigarettes and whiskey were responsible for that but I'm not so sure. Waits has always been one for swerving away from the mainstream and it's certainly likely that cultivating a gruffer more aggressive timbre was part of a move to be that little bit hipper and less easily accessible. Because the voice thats singing this song.... maybe it doesn't win the X factor...but it's not a million miles away. I'm sure there's some very early recordings of Dylan where his voice sounds different as well. Though I think that's probably common to all young singers who are struggling to find their voice and control it properly.

The Crystals - He Hit Me (And It Felt Like A Kiss)

This is the saddest of all the sad sad songs written by Carole King. Written when she and her husband discovered her babysitter, little Eva, was being beaten by her boyfriend, and Eva's of him. It's a complicated, devastating song. However while doing my usual desultory internet research I discovered the following.

In 2007, Los Angeles electronic power ballad collective Shank God recorded a song, "She Pissed On Me (And It Felt Like a Shit)" which references the title of the song, even though the song itself has no lyrics.


A fact which has so throughly blown my mind I have nothing further to add at this time.

First Aid Kit - Hard Believer

This is song, from teenage swedish sisters,Johanna and Klara Söderberg, is a gentle breeze of folky loveliness. Apparently there is a genetic reason why sibling's voices often compliment each other so well which certainly works well here. The sisters Söderberg were in born 1990 and 1993, which is just sickening. But not as sickening as the video for this tune, which I found profoundly unsettling.

Beck - Timebomb

Beck is obviously a musical chameleon that flits between different styles as easily as he changes clothes. I’m not even sure in what genre to place this, but it’s bloody great. A single only release from 2007 it’s one of the best things he’s done in ages. It’s got that great “so stupid it’s brilliant” thing going on that distinguishes a lot of fantastic pop songs. The Bam-Bam-Bam backing vocals really power it home too.

Green Velvet - La La Land

Despite apparently being a warning aganist the dangers of overindulging in pills, this still sounds phenomenally debauched to me.I think it’s the squelchiness of the synth, that just sounds….depraved. A commanding vocal from Curtis Jones as well, who captures the increasing disintegration of a spectacularly messy night on the tiles. The video is also increasingly disturbing, combing medicine and madness to worryingly grotesque effect. Surprisingly enough Green Velvet revealed in 2006 he had not been following his own warnings and had become a born again Christian after a serious overdose of a mixture of Magic Mushrooms, Marijuana and GHB.
Makes this son,g recorded a good five years earlier even more interesting. He was obviously aware overuse of drugs was bound to go wrong for him at some point but ultimately couldn’t do anything about it.

The Duke and The King - If You Ever Get Famous

The Duke and the King are lead by Simone Felice, formerly of the Felice Brothers. There is a hint listening to this that, it's a pean to his brothers in that band not to forget him. Not to leave him behind because he's chosen a different path. Those emotions are underscored by the beautiful harmonies that dominate it. Simone Felice is also a twice published novelists and there's a real love of words here, that informs the lyrics. "If you ever get famous, I say a prayer for your heart" has a real true ring to it. The Duke and The King seem an outfit with real promise as you can read here.
On another note, given my constant use of Later with Jools Holland clips, it's nice to see their studio in a state of disarray as they prepare for a show. Small pleasures....

Mission of Burma - That's when I reach for my Revolver

A strong contender for greatest song title of all time. A reference to a quote loosely attributed to Herman Goring, which goes something like "Wenn ich Kultur höre ... entsichere ich meinen Browning!". This translates as: "Whenever I hear [the word] 'culture'... I remove the safety from my Browning!". Though "That's when I remove the Safety from my Browning!" is a little bit wordy it's still pretty good.
Suitably enough there's a real air of menace to this song, underscored by the rapidly shifting time signatures. I was recently surprised that Mission of Burma where originally Bostonian, as I had always assumed them to be a British post-punk band of the very early eighties. The music is not massively similar to what was going on in Britain at the time, but there's an air of disaffection and rejection about their music which is very present in a lot of british music of the time.
The Early eighties where clearly a bloody miserable time for those on either side of the atlantic who considered themselves of an artistic alternative bent.
A much overlooked bit of Domestic British history it seems to me is 1980-82. Doesn't fit into the popular narratives about the seventies of the eighties. But you've got mass unemployment, race riots, a very unpopular government and the still ever present threat of nuclear holocaust. Popular history gives you a wee bit about the Falklands and that's it. Domestically it seems a bloody awful time in Britain. Likely why it's been glossed over.

Brandi Carlile - The Story

Having a few techinical hitches today, so I will stick this up with little fanfare. It is an impressive indie/county number, tha'ts both angry and sad in that way Lesbian singer songwriters are so often good at.

Billy Paul - Am I Black Enough For You?

The follow up to Paul's monster hit, 'Me and Mrs Jones' this song was radical enough to seriously damage his career. There's a great documentry about that, also called, Am I Black Enough For You, that underlines what an influenial figure Paul actually is. Anyway this is a great song, pulsing and funky.

R.E.M. - Driver 8

The thing about early R.E.M. is that on first glance Stipe's lyrics have a wierd dylan-esque quality that hints at profound truths. However on repeated listens they do appear to be about fairly straight forward things. Like train drivers. The thing is, though, that a train driver is a pretty profound topic for a song. Steering a mighty machine across the land, hundreds of people's stories dependant on you. Clever guy, Mr. Stipe. This has one of my favourite of Peter Buck's early riffs as well. Always fun to see Stipe with hair as well.

Bette Midler - Hello in there

This was orginally a country number by John Prine. Country as we know is pretty mush the most meldramatic music there is. You don't get much more melodramatic than Bette Midler but somehow this doesn't seemed overplayed at all. Just sad. There is a sadness about Midler I think, a real jewish sadness. Funny as hell but in part as wall paper, to cover up old wounds. She really gets the song here and brings out all the fear of aging and lonliness in a wonderful way.

Alison Krauss - Down to the River to Pray

There's something very old about this song. It doesn't belong in a world of mobile phones and skyscrapers. It's from a slower time, that seems increasingly far way but still exists away from the cities I suspect.

Stornoway - Zorbing

Though sadly nothing to do with practice of strapping yourself into a huge sphere and going careering down hills this is still lovely. It's starts off as rather serene folk but picks up pace as it goes, before a well timed blast of trumpets propels on, on and up to better things. The band do have the look of punchable English poshos, but the song is pretty enough to forgive that.

Modest Mouse - Float on

This bounces along in a rather wonderful way. I like it. The band take their name from the following Virginia Woolf quote.
"I wish I could hit upon a pleasant track of thought, a track indirectly reflecting credit upon myself, for those are the pleasantest thoughts, and very frequent even in the minds of modest, mouse-coloured people, who believe genuinely that they dislike to hear their own praises."
Is that interesting? I suspect not but it's been a long day.

Jamie Lidell - Multiply

Jamie Lidell's 2005 album Multiply now looks like a bit of a watershed, as it opened the door for geeky white guys to pretend to be black seventies soul singers. That said it's a fine piece of work, and Lidell is an excellent if idosyncratic performer and songwriter. This performance shows him at his most commercial, and he gives a commanding go of it ably backed by Jools holland on the piano. I feel like I've read innummerable articles criticsing Mr Holland for incorporating boogie woogie piano into his guest's performances on Later but I've always quite enjoyed it. Certainly it's rarely worked better than it does here.

William Bell - I Forgot To Be Your Lover

A sad song for a Sunday. It occurs to that a lot of the best songs are confessional in nature. What really lifts this song is Bell's vocal, which on the chorus is just sensational. There's a real wrench to it, which is heartbreaking. My favourite part however is "I've working for you doing all I can, but work all the time didn't make me a man." I'm a real sucker for moments of self awareness in music and you get the impression here of a real hard earned realisation, gained after too many fights over too long a time.
In the here and now it's good to know William Bell is still going strong with his own label and his own rather snazzy shoes for sale.

Spiller feat. Sophie Ellis Bextor - Groovejet (If this ain't Love)

Amazingly this was the first song ever to be played on an ipod. There's some useless trivia for you. As the nights draw into to another bitter Scottish winter, this is a little slice of sunshine. I associate it very strongly with Summer and sunshine, It seems like the year of it's relase 2000 was the last time we had a decent Scottish summer. Sophie Ellis Bextor does a great job on the vocals, her sultry tones elevating it to the status of a minor pop classic. It also, I've just noticed, repeatedly features a noise that sounds like a plane flying overheard, so it possibly subconsciously suggests holidays to make the listener associate it with good times.

Meatloaf - Midnight at the Lost and Found

This largely forgotten Meatloaf song as one of the few the Meat, as I affectionately call him, wrote himself. Meatloaf has been quite dismissive about his songwriting skills but I have a real spot spot for this number. As befitting someone who came from theatre, and has such a theatrical persona, this sounds like it belongs in a Broadway show. Meatloaf is not someone you go to for restraint, but his throw everything at the wall and see what sticks approach is adopted so enthusiastically it's hard not to go with it and overlook the bits that don't work.
I have a very clear memory of listening to this song for the first time as a callow youth and finding the A Capella chorus towards the end absolutely thrilling. I then played the song on repeat for about three hours to try and recapture that feeling. I suspect because the rest of the songs is so overblown, that when everything save the voices and handclaps drops out it's very effective. Or maybe I just really felt I was a "Lost soul in the hunting ground." It's one of the amazing, if occasionally frustrating, things about music that it's very difficult to pin down with it affects you the way it does. Our species seems wired to respond to it in a way that is entirely separate from rational thought.
It occurs to me this may well be why the best music is often about things that are also not rational, like Love or God. Now it's may also that these are the just the most interesting things to create any kind of art about, but I think music does mesh particularly well with with non rational themes.

Wild Beasts - All the King's Men

It's an amazing thing, that despite vast multitude of noises you can extract from say, an electric guitar, it can't come close to the range of the human voice. This song from Leeds art rockers Wild Beasts wouldn't be that special I suspect, if it wasn't for the strange and wonderful noises their voices combine to make.

KT Tunstall - Black Horse and The Cherry Tree

This is the performance that launched Ms Tunstall's career and it's a minor epic. It takes phenomenal concentration to keep looping and playing as she here and she does it flawlessly. It helps that this is probably the best song she's written. The title alone is particularly good, hinting at the darkness beneath all the best folk music. Although she has undoubtedly taken a turn towards the Middle of the Road in her career, I think there's always been more of an edge to Tunstall than her critics might like to admit. She just happens to write nice melodies a lot of people enjoy. Certainly I defy anyone to watch this and not believe she's a woman of significant gifts.

Ian Brown - Stellify

Stel´li`fy
v. t. 1. To turn into a star; to cause to appear like a star; to place among the stars, or in heaven.

And now you know. I think this is wonderful, there's a real sweetness to the lyrics. Brown's fondness for slightly odd words can come across as trying too hard on occasion but it's endearing here.
For a man remembered primarily for an album that came out 20 years ago Brown has released a lot of decent singles as a solo artist. F.E.A.R., Dolphins Were Monkeys and Corpses In Their Mouths all spring to mind as very handy tracks. Never held it together over a full album but for a singer who can't really sing that well he's done some seriously good work. He's also evolved a fair bit in terms of his influences, this is certainly a long way from Fool's Gold.
Anyway this effort stands up with the best of his solo output. Mainly because it's got a fantastic brass interlude two thirds of the way in that he shows great restraint in not introducing at the top and it's all the better for it.
The video is also rather good, though Brown looks increasingly like a ghost of himself. The hair is still, somewhat suspiciously, a lustrous brown but his face is increasingly grey, grizzled and haggard. Watching this video one can't help but suspect at any moment he may simply turn and walk away into the ether, pausing only to give a little disembodied wave over his shoulder.

Harvey Danger - Flagpole Sitta

Most Brits likely know this as the Peep Show sound track. Which incidentally made a triumphant return to our screens at the weekend. However to a few lucky souls, including myself, it will always be associated with the truly special film Disturbing Behaviour. That said the first time I heard it was on a compilation of Jo Whiley's favourite music. Now retailing for 39 of your English pence music fans.
I feel I'm revealing a little too much of my self here, so I will only say this is something of an nineties indie classic. Shades of a rocked up Ben Folds and for something that reeks so heavily of pop punk it's got a rather enjoyable psychedelic jam section in the middle.

The Main Ingredient - Everybody Plays the Fool

This is a super soul number but because I'm pushed for time I'm gonna hand over to the rather smart comedian Patton Oswalt, who had this to say about it.

"It's got a message for people, and I wish they had more song ideas, because most R&B now is all about, "I am the king and I fucking rule, and you can't fucking step to me." And this is back when they were like, "You know you're going to fuck up, and you're going to get over it, and you're going to move on." It's a very hopeful song. Hell yeah, she doesn't love you. Don't worry, the world's still going, you're not dead. Basically, Al Swearengen says the same thing in season two of Deadwood, where he's consoling the newspaper editor who's had his place vandalized. "You've got more beatings and humiliations in store for you, stand like a man and give some back."

Wise words.

Laura Nyro - And When I Die

I Love the way the tempp of this picks up at the beginning of the first verse. Big slow intro and all of a sudden it up sticks and starts rattle along. Great brass all the way through as well.

Sammy Davis Jr. - Music of the Night

This article, by the incomparable Nathan Rabin, makes the great point that Sammy Davis Jr is mainly known to people of my generation as the butt of jokes in the Simpsons. Which is a shame as there are few more interesting entertainers in the post war era. As the article above suggests his autobiography as a storming read.
Like so may great entertainers he had a need to be liked, and to be the centre of attention that was almost suffocating, and that came close to crowding out his many other gifts. Here he shows that he couldn't half sing.
The above performance was recorded just before he was diagnosed with cancer and he still absolutely nails it. Sure he hams it up, but it's musical theatre, that is kind of the point. I will also say I've always had a soft spot for this number, there is something wonderfully creepy about it. It's like a high class stalkers manifesto.

The Drums - Let's Go Surfing

I was very prepared to hate this song. From a glance at the video, New York based Florida four piece, The Drums have the look of the worst sort of hipster. And the revelation their main influence was hyper obscure Glasgow indie miserablists the Wake, is the kind of thing designed to set my teeth of edge. I always feel like beating up and coming bands who name check barely known musicians until they confess they secretly want to be Hall and Oates. Everyone wants to be Hall and Oates deep down.
Anyway once I got over all that, I discovered, to my delight that this is a little cracker. It's got a great Bass line, that powers the song along. It's got some very catchy whistling, always a winner. And the vocals have a child like sense of wonder shared with some of the early White Stripes songs that Megs sings. All very good things in my book.
This piece also flags up, the influence of legendary producer Martin Gannet, and it is a very well put together song, has a big sound without being in any way overpowering. I would not be surprised if there's big things in the future for them. If you like what you hear, you should read this, as it's an amazingly in depth feature on a band at this stage in their career.

The Saints - This Perfect Day

According to Mojo, this is the most ferocious single ever to grace the Top 40. They've got a point, it's a relentlessly negative gutpunch of a number, in the best possible way. Anyway this little known but inspirational Aussie punk band could use all the acclaim they can get. They were doing this sort of thing well before everyone else save the Ramones but because they were from out in the colonies, they've never got the credit they deserved. Shame really as this is a sneery little cracker of the first order.

Kanye West - Heartless

Mr West has being getting a lot of negative publicity the last few days and rightfully so. Though this is a great take on why despite his unrivaled ability to behave like a dick, he's one of the most important artists of his generation. For my money, if your talking about people who have combined commercial success with a willingness to push artistic boundaries over the last decade you've got Jack White, Kanye West and that's pretty much it.
This song is just fucking amazing. That whole album is mental, but here's where it all comes together. He takes autotune, which is reviled for sucking the emotion out of singers voices and over uses it to the point it starts to make a desperate sort of sense. One thing you can never accuse the man of is a lack of emotion. This song also highlights that for all Kanye's monstrous self obsession, it is undercut with an unflinching honesty.
'Heartless' is all about how he cannot believe that this woman would treat him badly, cause, you know he's Kanye. But he still manages to fess up in the song that he fooled around on her. He may well be self obsessed to the point of delusion but the fact he can't conceal anything makes him strangely endearing.

Lambchop - Up with People

An old favourite this. There's a warmth to it I find irresistible. Just from the start the guitar and the hand claps compliment the relaxed nature of Kurt Wagner's voice wonderfully to make you think everything is gonna be all right. I suspect there's quite a lot to be said about how Wagner fuses together soul and country styles. However time is short so instead I'll just luxuriate in a truly wonderful piece of music. This is also a pretty interesting video as well, using old footage of old tricky Dick Nixon. He's got an expression on his face at 1.14, that on any other human being I'd assume had been digitally manipulated, but with Nixon you can never be sure.