I'm not sure 'class' or 'act' are the first words that would come to mind when describing Abba, but that's just me.


Mindless Self Indulgence - F*ggot
Aphex Twin - Windowlicker
Supertramp - Take The Long Way Home
Led Zeppelin - Immigrant Song
The Smiths - A Rush and a Push

Well, as entitled to your opinion as you are, it's my right to ignore it completely

Thursday morning, bored, need some stimulation. The coffee is working, so now let's get some choonage on the go...

Cocteau Twins - Lazy Calm. A more appropriately named song you will not find. There's no hint of anything to the contrary. Listening to this whilst looking out of the window at my leaf-carpeted back garden, and I'm overcome with a sort of serenity normally reserved for those at peace with themselves.

Following that six and a half minutes of tranquility, the next song up would of course be something to mess it all up. Enter Fear Factory - No-one. Not quite up there with the thrash metal best, it's a bit too nu-metal for my liking. But it's completely buggered up the pleasantry and I'm now narked that I've got a garden full of leaves that need raking up.

Jet - Move On. One of the problems with *cough* borrowing *cough* someone else's hard drive full of MP3s is that, unless you have a care to *cough* listen *cough* to the ones you want, rather than just *cough* playing the whole damn lot *cough*, you end up with stuff you don't want. To listen to, I mean *cough*. Pass the Benylin, Hudson, I appear to have a rather nasty cough...

Tom Jones & The Cardigans - Burning Down The House. Oh, for heaven's sake... there go the final shreds of my credibility. Bye, guys /waves

The Wonder Stuff - 38 Line Poem. Very meh. The Stuffies had gone right off the boil around the time they recorded the "Never Loved Elvis" album. I'm certain, in a beautifully mutual way, that Elvis never loved it either.

Well, that was a rather wasted journey through my music collection. I really ought to get rid of some of this stuff...

A further fiveage, this time with one word reviews:

The Others - How I Nearly Lost You. Passable.
Marilyn Manson - 1996. Noisy.
Daniel Powter - Bad Day. Whiny.
Abba - Hasta Mañana. Spanish.
The Cure - Fascination Street. Marvellous.

On a side note, I used to think that the reason "Disintegration" sounded so rough was because I had the picture disc. In order to preserve it in something closely approximating mint condition, I stored it away and bought the CD to play. And then I discovered the horrible truth: It's been produced really badly! Mind, given Robert Smith was producing and he was in a bad mood because The Cure were commercially successful, it's not surprising. Damn fine album, though. And I still have the picture disc. Must be worth a few quid by now...

Leo, you now have Around The World stuck in my head now, just from reading the title. Now there's an album I haven't listened to in a while.

These are a mix of On My Way Home and being Sat At Home...

Hoppípolla- Sigur Rós A song about jumping in puddles. How can it not be amazing to walk down the street, path covered in leaves and puddles and listen to?
Bad Boyfriend- Guillemots It seems like the Guillemots go like this: EP [amazing!], album [a bit weak], EP [amazing!], album [crap]. And luckily, Bad Boyfriend is off their second EP entitled Of The Night. Along with She's Evil, Rising Tide and By The Water, it is a beautifully dark track from a usually upbeat band. Yum
Gospel With No Lord- Camille clap clapclap clap clapclap
Alles Neu- Peter Fox Usually with his band Seeed, this is a solo effort and man is it amazing. A mixture of drumline, a very catchy violin refrain and, if you can understand the German, very clever and interesting lyrics. The opening line being "I burn down my studio and snort the ashes like coke".
Not A Permanent Goodbye- Chihiro three years and a bit on since I saw them at their second ever gig in Norwich, and I still love the CD I bought. It has been played so many times, that I usually only listen to the ripped copy I made so I don't damage it anymore!

Hey, it happens Daria. It's the sheer power of my influence

Another five, before I decide I might have to do some work:

Cocteau Twins - Ella Megalast Burls Forever. Some say that Liz Fraser's lyrics get weirder when she's pregnant (which she happened to be during the writing and recording "Blue Bell Knoll"). All we know is this is a lovely song with a gloriously abstract title.

Scissor Sisters - Better Luck. Given the effort these guys put into some of their songs, this one's a bit lazy and formulaic.

The Killers - For Reasons Unknown. Arguably the best song on the "Sam's Town" album. Which, on the whole, isn't as good as their first, "Hot Fuss".

Eminem feat. Dr. Dre - Guilty Conscience. Ordinarily I can take or leave this genre, but I really, really like this song.

Lostprophets - A Town Called Hypocrisy. Not a big fan of this band, to be honest, but I like this one.

Friday morning fivesome, before I make an effort to do more important things...

Joy Division - Decades. Ah, just what I need, a bit of post-punk Manc dirge! Nah, just kidding, I like them really. Amazing it came up, as Still is the only album I have on the server, the remainder of my collection still being firmly encased in vinyl.

Röyksopp - Alpha Male. Ooh, someone's been listening to Jean Michel Jarre, haven't they?

REM - Drive. Blimey, I've not heard this for years! In fact, I'd forgotten I had this album on the server...

Kirsty MacColl - In These Shoes? Kirsty's back catalogue is wide and varied. This song has a marimba feel to it, but with a sultry lyrical style, more spoken than sung, like that I'd associate with Jazz. Way back in 2003, this song was used for an Adidas advert. I like my trivia, me

Bauhaus - Kick In The Eye. Ah, those gods of post-punk darkwave. Except this sounds more like Heaven 17, but with Pete Murphy singing instead of the nasally Martyn Ware.

Sometimes, darlingest syuu, I think you protest a little too much at the mention of ABBA. I suspect now that you are, in fact, harbouring a secret love of the joyous pop foursome. It's such a shame that you feel the need to deny it still. However...



...all is forgiven.

Five for the dropping:

Zombie Eaters - Faith No More. Great title. Song, not quite so good, but still touched by the FNM greatness.
You Will. You? Will. You? Will. You? Will - Bright Eyes. I love this song, but the title does make me think a little of Father Ted...
Freakalude - Basement Jaxx. Bless the Jaxx and their little album filler nuggets...
Cautioners - Jimmy Eat World. Emo is not my usual habitat, but 'Bleed American' is a stunning album in my estimation.
Baudelaire - ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead. Can't help loving this band. This is, for my money, the best track off 'Source Tags & Codes' - perfect balance of thrashing guitar and melody.

Yeah, I'm pretty happy with that lot.

I've got a clear ten minuted before my shift starts, so here's some joy:

Wig 12 - Odd Nosdam. o_O Track from an Anticon sampler, about which I have no worthwhile comment to make
Assassin - Muse
Silent Heaven - Akira Yamaoka. From the Silent Hill 2 soundtrack - the sound of being trapped in a giant clock of evil
Sweet Substitute - Karen Dalton. Acoustic blues from one of the overlooked masters of the art - just gorgeous
Platform Blues - Pavement. "I've got the right to sit on that face" - more lyrical genius from Malkmus and the boys

I honestly don't think I could have deliberately chosen a more eclectic selection without looking twatty and pretentious. Marvellous!

I think you've hit on something there, Inks. It's a rare person who doesn't enjoy the even a modicum of the collective works of the Lancashire clog-dancing trio of Arthur, Boris, Betty and Angela. Especially considering Nevada is perhaps one of the most cheesy places in existence (come on - Las Vegas? Blackpool on steroids, but with no coastline).

Anyway, my Monday Mash:

Trivium - Entrance Of The Conflagration. Ah, jangled nerves soothed not a jot by a bit of thrash. And the title includes one of my favourite words, too.

Eurythmics - It's Alright (Baby's Coming Back). I wonder what a thrash version of this would sound like? I reckon it'd sound brilliant. Oh, to have a modicum of musical talent

Bruce Springsteen - Happy. You happy, Bruce? Well, sound it then! I can hear Annie Lennox doing a cover of this song, it's right up her street.

Sigur Rós - Mistur. Hmmm. A lot of bashing of various percussive instruments. Very avant-garde, chaps.

Madness - House Of Fun. Widely regarded (by me) to be the last good song that Madness ever wrote.

'Entrance'? Dirty boy...

Props to a spot of 'Von', sir. Probably Sigur Rós' most wilfull moment, but with some instances of utter genius. I'm rather fond of 'Myrkur', myself...

Heavens to betsy, Inks, only you could find the word "Entrance" of some mildly inappropriate connotation. I bet you're the sort of person who, on approaching Asda*, sees the sign above the door and sniggers at the prospect of a "Main Entrance". I bet you're in hysterics for hours over the term "Tradesman's Entrance" as well. And I bet it amuses you to hear the term "Back Doors" as well. Honestly

Neneh Cherry - Manchild. Rather appropriately, the first tune in my next selection. I love this tune. In fact, I like pretty much everything she did. I wonder what happened to her?

Queen - Fun It. I've no idea what Brian May means when he refers to "It", or how exactly we apply "Fun" to whatever "It" happens to be. I'm fairly confident, however, that Inky can come up with some suggestions. Probably involving points of ingress.

And before anyone dares to point out that Freddie Mercury was Queen's singist: Yes, I know that. I'm old enough to recall the tache and the spandex bodysuits, thanks. Brian May did get to sing the odd tune now and again and this is one of them.

The Wombats - Little Miss Pipedream. The Womats' debut album starts off really well. The front half of the album has some great songs on it. Unfortunately, the latter half descends into singing about unrequited love for women whose professions are firmly rooted in the sex industry.

Mata, I notice that one of the members is called Dan Haggis. Any relation?

Will Smith - Girls Ain't Nothing But Trouble. Oh dear...

Ofra Haza - Im Nin'Alu. A song made famous by being sampled by Eric B and Rakim, back when fluorescent leg warmers were first fashionable.

* Other supermarkets are available

I could deny all accusations, but why bother? I am exactly as puerile as described...

More!

Born Secular - Jenny Lewis with The Watson Twins. According to an online survey, J-Lew is my ideal indie girlfriend. Sorry, Meg White, but it looks like we were never meant to be...
Psyche - Nouvelle Vague. Terrifying Killing Joke cover - mellow but weird
Always Too Late - Annie. My great pop love. She's not a very talented singer, but the tunes are just brilliant in that unique Scandipop way
Rustic Raver - Squarepusher. Mmm, early 'pusher. I prefer this era of his work, to be honest.
Sixtyten - Boards Of Canada. Keeping it in the Warp family, eh? Can't go wrong with Boards.

Precisely. To deny it would be the classic definition of an exercise in futility.

And another batch:

Bowling For Soup - High School Never Ends. I don't care how this looks on me, I blimmin' love this song! And I still have the same three friends I had from high school

Barenaked Ladies - Humour Of The Situation. Not a bare naked lady in sight, sadly. Instead some decent choonage, this one being one of them.

Jimi Hendrix - Little Wing.

Peter Gabriel & Kate Bush - Don't Give Up. I'm starting to think that I've too much eighties stuff. Oddball ex-Genesis frontman teams up with eclectic post-punk wailer to produce this... dirge. Sorry, but this song is bobbins.

T'Pau - Island. One of a very small number of reasonable songs on their second album. Compared to their first album, though, this isn't all that good.

Last five for today.

Seahorses - Love Is The Law. The inspiration for the Mark and Lard creation, 'Shirehorses'. This song, covered by the 'Horse, was called (Now) I Know (Where I'm Going) Our Kid. And just like every other song on the first Shirehorses album, I can no longer listen to the originals. It's poisoned a whole section of guitar music from the turn of the millennium. Right now, I'm listening to this song but hearing the Shirehorses.

Bow Wow Wow - Go Wild In The Country. I'm sure this one has come out before. over sixteen thousand tracks and I get this one twice. Annbella Lwin not naked blah blah...

Cyndi Lauper - Girls Just Wanna Have Fun. A fine song which is firmly rooted into 80's folklore and will forever be a party classic. However, if it's going to stay there then someone needs to clean up the production. I was in The Birdcage in Manchester a couple of Saturdays ago and, whilst the loud music wasn't initially an issue, they played this. Due to the horrible post-production, it distorted like mad and completely ragged my poor old eardrums. From that point on, the music was too loud. Nice

Marilyn Manson - Diary Of A Dope Fiend. Weird early Mazz. Back in the time when his weirdness was restrained to raggy capes and tall hats.

Front 242 - Never Stop! A band from my most formative years musically, it was dabbling with these guys and Nitzer Ebb that led me onto Ministry and then NIN. Still have a soft spot for nineties Industrial. Although given a choice I'd pick "Headhunter" instead.

I feel obliged to give it some five on my lunch break. Here we go:

Vanishing - Lhooq. Despite the fact that I own Lhooq's album, this track, which is not from said platter and instead features on the compliation 'Volume 15', is the only one that ever comes up on random. Pleasant trip-hoppy tomfoolery
All I Want Is Everything - Jellyfish. Glamrocknonsense! Great
Children Of The Hydra's Teeth - ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead. Hard to know what to say to a song- and band-name combo like that
3 Lil' Putos - Cypress Hill. The gentleman of a certain lifestyle choice re: recreational drug use during the 90s was somewhat obliged to have a copy of 'Black Sunday' about their person. I got my copy late, and it was about time
I Can Hear The Grass Grow - The Fall. How appropriate. Good to have Mr E Smith back in my ears

Lunch? At quarter past three? Wow, I'd hate to work at your place, I'd have passed out by then

Tuesday fiveness. Then I will attempt to combat boredom.

Transvision Vamp - Baby I Don't Care. I used to have a poster of Wendy James on the wall of my room as a student. As I recall, she wasn't hugely fanciable, but she was pretty scantily dressed. Yes, I was once that shallow Not a bad song, though.

Weezer - My Best Friend. Emo bollards. NEXT!

Doofergrass - Feel Like Shite. Unlike Inky, my preference for ex-Fall members is firmly in the Marc Riley camp. Utterly ridiculous and ruins my listening of "Alright" by Supergrass. But I'm not going to hold that against it.

Breathe - Hands To Heaven. On the basis that there's nobody here of a significant age to remember this song, I'm going to tell you that this is a moody gothic tune which is hauntingly melodic. Bloody brilliant! Unless you know the song, in which case you know it's a pile of wispy eighties tosh. Damn my back catalogue...

Mud - Lonely This Christmas. Aha. Ha. Haha. Erm...

More randomage. And then someone please make me do something constructive!

Kings Of Leon - Milk. Suddenly the darlings of the pop charts, I note. This won't have you up and throwing shapes like "Sex on Fire" will, but a good tune nonetheless.

Morrissey - I Have Forgiven Jesus. Aww, poor Mozza. He really fell from favour a while back. But his self-financed comeback album "You Are The Quarry" is as vitriolic and potent as he's done as a solo artist. This track is, frankly, bloody marvellous. Syuu, you need this album in your life, assuming it's not already in there.

Sigur Rós - Dauðalagið. AKA "Track 7". Dark, moody, melodic, powerful. It weighs in at a massive 13 minutes but it never feels like it's that long.

The Fratellis - Milk And Honey. Hmmm, another track with a lactic reference. Not bad, but not one of the better songs from the Chelsea Daggers.

The Smiths - Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me. And more Mozza. Dark, brooding, self-deprecating; just as we'd expect him to be.

I second this. Perhaps his best work, post Smiths. Though I can tell you, leo, that syuu at the very least has the poster for the album in her bedroom. Don't ask me how I know this, as the truth is quite mundane and nowhere near as salacious as the answer I'd give you.

Five for the once-again-late lunchbreak:

Lisa Riley - Kings Have Long Arms. English readers will be wondering, and I can happily confirm that, yes, this song is indeed about the lass who used to be in Emmerdale, and later started presenting You've Been Framed (before they got Harry Hill in and it became instantly more watchable). A very foolish and enjoyable song, complete with mock West Country accents.
M1 A1 - Gorillaz
Neighborhood #2 (Laika) - Arcade Fire. Goddamn, I keep forgetting how good this tune is.
Backstabber - Dresden Dolls
Dumb - Garbage. Garbage went steadily downhill from their inception in my opinion, but things were still damn good around this era. Their Bond theme was the watershed moment I reckon - everything after that was a little bit bum.

Bored in Maths and the teacher is blind 5:

Smoke 2 Joints - Sublime
Rotting - Green Day
Canon Rock - JerryC
Shades of Truth - Bad Religion
Baba O' reiley - The Who

Poison - Alice Cooper
Friends - Joe Satriani
Civil War - Guns N' Roses
Rosalie - Thin Lizzy
No More Mr. Nice Guy - Alice Cooper

That being ten. Perhaps you should be paying a little more attention in that class, Izzy...

... There's a space?

... 5:

Hallowed By Thy Name - Iron Maiden
Blitzkrieg - Yngwie Malmsteen
Man on the Edge - Iron Maiden
Exlipse - Pink Floyd
Been There Lately - Slash's Snakepit

Oh, the irony.

Five more. I dislike my job...

Vangelis - L'Enfant. My favourite of Vangelis' themes, with the possible exception of "Chariots of Fire". Although then again possibly not.

The Pigeon Detectives - I Found Out. I love this song. 'nuff said.

The Ordinary Boys - I Luv U. On hearing this song, it's hardly surprising that Preston ended up getting a divorce. Moron

Cocteau Twins - Garlands. Title track off the album. I adore the whole album, it's a dark and moody ethereal. Brilliant. Beg, steal or borrow a copy right now!

Labi Siffre - (Something Inside) So Strong. I really, really like this song too. Sticks a defiant two fingers up at the establishment.

Thursday Three, plus two more for good measure.

Phil Collins - In The Air Tonight. Phil's defining musical moment. This is the vastly superior original version from "Face Value". I hate the remixed one with the extra drum machine faffing, it detracts from the crescendo and spoils the mood of the quieter bits. And it pisses the gorilla off as well, which might explain why he's defected to Bonnie Tyler...

Gipsy Kings - Bem, Bem, Maria. Sangria. Paella. Mariachi bands. Benidorm. Lager with wedges of lime in it. Salsa dancing. Ladies in bright frocks with castanets. Oily locals chatting up your good lady while you're at the bar. Blistering, sweaty, drunken blokes starting fights in nightclubs. How we all love Spain

Lily Allen - LDN. Famous for being Keith Allen's offspring. And this. Actually, it's not a bad song, considering she's not that great a singer.

Human League - Human Wonky haired trio from Sheffield, who were bloody marvellous throughout the early 80's, by the time they hit 1986 they were reduced to this tosh. Boring. Phil Oakey, incidentally, has a much better haircut these days

Sisters of Mercy - Adrenochrome. Very early sisters, before they discovered things like production values or decent amplifiers or how to program their drum machine (hilariously named Doktor Avalanche) properly. Raw, clangy, edgy. And much, much better than anything off of "Vision Thing".

And another five, just because.

Barry White - It's Ecstacy When You Lay Down Next To Me. Ah, the old love walrus, may god rest his soul. A big fan of long song titles, too.

New Model Army - Lust For Power.

Kosheen - Let Go. Not one of their better ones, to be honest.

Deep Purple - Black Night. One of the most famous guitar riffs in the history of the universe. Naaa na na naaa na na naaa na na nananana na na. Na na. Class

Gnarls Barkley - Go Go Gadget Gospel. The sort of thing you'd expect Inspector Gadget to shout in the unlikely event that gospel music would be the key to solving some knotty criminal investigation. Of course, on shouting that the helicopter would emerge from his hat instead, the distraction caused by said allowing Penny and Brian to sneak in and finish the job. Can't help but wonder if "Family Guy" got the idea for calling their dog Brian from here? What, the tune? Weirder than Tori Spelling's face.

The next track up is Half Man Half Biscuit's rendition of "Busy Little Market Town", being which was the theme tune for "Trumpton" if memory serves me.

A quick five to celebrate the fact that I'm openly skiving at work, and no-one gives a good god damn:

Pagan Poetry - Bjork
Lonsome Words - Gruff Rhys
You Look So Fine - Garbage
Plastic Man, You're The Devil - Pink Mountaintops
Somebody Put Something In My Drink - The Ramones

I'd write some quasi-amusing quips next to those, but people are starting to suspect that I'm not working to the fullest of my ability. nyuk nyuk nyuk...

...aaaaaand back round again for five before I start my shift:

Acid Food - Mogwai. I neeeed more Mogwai...
Cinderland - Grandaddy. I have exactly enough Grandaddy, this track being from what is probably my favourite of their releases, the recorded-in-a-rush EP 'Excerpts From The Diary Of Todd Zilla'
Jam Kids - Pavement
04/16/05 - Fantomas. From the disturbing-as-clowns 'Suspended Animation' album, which offers a track for each day of April 2005. It's music, Jim, but not as we know it...
You Were The Last High (Xfm Session) - The Dandy Warhols. A very pretty acoustic rendition.

You want more? Huh? Do ya? Well, you're getting some anyway...

Chemo Limo - Regina Spektor. What a tune! What a gal!
omgyjya-switch - Aphex Twin
Melt 14.6 - Squarepusher. Nice Warp double-header. This is from the 3" CD 'Square Window' that was given away free on a limited basis with 'Ultravisitor'. I nicked mine from work. Yeeeah, judge me later...
Beautiful Freak - Eels
Rhode Island Freakout - Kinski

Your Life - Hydrogyn - I just bought this album, not sure what I think of it yet, sounding good so far though.
Warwick Avenue - Duffy
Red Sky At Night - Dave Gilmour
Blowin' In The Wind - Jools Holland
Smoke Gets In Your Eyes - The Platters

I Want To Be In Husker Du - Let's Wrestle. Charming and clattery. Fun!
Era Vulgaris - Queens Of The Stone Age
Bottle Of Humans - Sole. Anticon lo-fi hip-hop of weirdness. Me likey
Little Bit Of Rain - Karen Dalton. One of the most gorgeous voices ever - a skinny white Billie Holiday, to be glib about it, but also with a real identity of her own
To Be Myself Completely - Belle & Sebastian. Hooray for schmindie!

It's amazing what people find to sing about. Who'd have thought that Bob Mould's hugely underrated band would be the focus of some obscure song? Thinking about it, I wouldn't have minded being in Hüsker Dü myself. They were pretty cool. I've still got a copy of "Candy Apple Grey" somewhere. All good stuff.

Reet then, it's Monday and it's cold, but the sun is shining and all is well with the world, so let's have a quintet of choonage from Leo's personal stash...

Eurythmics - Angel. Not quite the hard-rocking start I'd hoped for. However, it's never a bad thing to hear the dulcet tones of the erstwhile and occasionally bonkers Ms. Lennox. Or, at least, it's not in my opinion.

Joy Division - Disorder. Now we're heading in the direction of Rocksville. First stop, Salford Crescent...

The Jam - Funeral Pyre. One of their lesser known works but it's a damn fine choon.

Everything But The Girl - 25th December. Not one you'd find on the average Crimbo compilation album, so I don't think Noddy Holder or Roy Wood are in any danger of losing their pension plans. Barely recognisable as EBTG because Tracey Horn doesn't do the lead vocal.

Smashing Pumpkins - Daydream. Smashing!

It's Tuesday, I feel as rough as a rough thing after being roughed up some, and it's time for chooooooonz!

Dandy Warhols - Bohemian Like You. Good song, but the spectre of advertising turned it into a populist choice and ruined it forever. The swines

Clan of Xymox - Lorretine. Very mellow and ethereal, which is a bit of a far cry from the Goth norm.

Barry Manilow - Bandstand Boogie. I blame the wife for this one.

Nina Simone - I Loves You Porgy. Not one of her better known tracks. In fact, I suspect most people who've ever heard of Nina Simone can't get past "My Baby Just Cares For Me", if asked to list her songs. And that, sadly, includes me; this album is normally reserved for background music as it's just so peaceful.

Catherine Wheel - Delicious. Not bad, but not great.

What an odd mix...

Sitting-in-my-room-like-a-sauna-whilst-my-carpet-dries-out-after-the-idiot-across-the-corridor-flooded-the-entire-flat five:

Buddy Holly & The Crickets - Listen To Me
Niamh Kavanagh - Do Right Woman, Do Right Man - not one of the better tracks I own
The Rolling Stones - Tumbling Dice
Harry J Allstars - Liquidator
Blondie - Hanging On The Telephone

Sitting in my home office (ie. the dining table) wanting a break from being a spreadsheet jockey for a little while fivesome:

Curve - Frozen. Back in the early 90's, during the reign of "Leopold the Shoegazer", I struck up a musical relationship with Curve. Rolling, dark basslines overlaid with the airy vocal of Toni Halliday, sort of goth meets shoegazing. All good stuff. Plus it never hurt that Ms. Halliday was quite gorgeous at the time as well. Saw them at the Leadmill, and she waved when I took her picture. This is my favourite track of theirs, incidentally.

Bomfunk MC's - 1,2,3,4. An album I acquired purely on the strength of "Freestyler", which on the whole is pretty good. Harks back to the late 80's hip-hop scene, which at the time I quite enjoyed on the sly...

Lou Reed - Magic And Loss: The Summation. Not exactly what you'd expect from ole' Lou, really. Very stripped down songs usually require either a fantastic or a distinctive vocalist. Whilst Lou's vocal is certainly distinctive, I'm not convinced it works. Hmmm...

Steeleye Span - Gaudete. The band made famous with "All Around My Hat", amazingly have another song which people might know: This one! In my opinion it's erroneously labelled a Christmas song. It also appears to have been sung in Latin.

Wedding Present - Don't Talk, Just Kiss. I like the Weddoes, me. One off the "Bizarro" album, which is during their most commercial phase, but is none the worse for it.

Electric Light Orchestra - Alright
Shaggy - Hot Shot
The Mavericks - Hope You Want Me Too
The Beatles - Strawberry Fields Forever
Donovan - Catch The Wind

Nothing especially noteworthy there

Trying to overwrite all the songs stuck in my head from a drunken weekend 80's karaoke session:

All the Trees of the Fields Will Clap Their Hands- Sufjan Stevens
Friend is a Four Letter Word- Cake
Don't Dance- Hot Chip
Dance Tonight- Paul McCartney (but Hot Chip just told me not to, Paul!)
Cheap and Cheerful- The Kills

Methinks iTunes is being cheeky with me...

Sitting in my empty apartment waiting for my roommates to vueven a la casa, waiting to leave for NY tomorrow, waiting for any interest in studying for my massive french final tomorrow. High tension here. Time for a five.
Sound of da Police - KRS-ONE
Meaningless - the Magnetic Fields
Desaparecido - Manu Chao Mmm, happy jingly Mexican pop.
Wandering Arms - Scissors for Lefty
Eyepennies - PJ Harvey

Just worked my bottom off this morning, trying to get stuff done. Need a five!

Elvis Presley - I Got A Woman. Good for you, buddy

Boards of Canada - Corsair. Ah, the Boards... always good to chill to, though this one is a bit more of an interlude than a track in it's own right, IMHO.

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - Howl. I'm sure that if there were such a thing as the Black Rebels, and assuming they'd have a motorcycle club, and on the basis they'd have their own band, they wouldn't use a flippin' electronic organ!! Like Keane, only not as good, frankly.

Stereophonics - Dakota. I've yet to figure out why "Dakota", to be honest. Since Kelly Jones belts out the line "I don't know where we are going now", this could've been any state in the US. Oregon, Louisiana, Illinois... take your pick. In fact, it could be Rotterdam or anywhere. And isn't Dakota divided into North and South anyway?? Maybe I should just not think about it.

Good Charlotte - Boys And Girls. Apparently, girls don't like boys, they like cars and money. So glad that someone half my age has filled me in on that little nugget of info

Hmmm... a largely pants selection there. Maybe I'll just go out instead...

Five more before more mad panic running aboutage...

Ultraviolence - Death Of A Child. Like musical marmite. On a hardcore slice of toast.

The Pigeon Detectives - Making Up Numbers. 43. 876. 26946476. It's what I do for a living, oddly

Amii Stewart - Friends. Blast from 80s past. This one is part of my old cassette collection which I recently digified.

Radiohead - Hunting Bears. An activity I can't imagine Thom with an H to ever perform. He doesn't look strong enough to survive the recoil of the rifle for a start.

Wedding Present - Kennedy. Lost your love of life? Too much apple pie? No, mate. You must be thinking of someone else. Top tune.

Friday fivesome:

Placebo - Bionic. I've heard better Placebo songs.

Supertramp - Another Man's Woman. This is the live version off "Retrospectacle" and, like all live prog rock performances, is waaaaaay too self-indulgent. All that noodling in the middle. Just play the damn song already!

Sandie Shaw - (There's) Always Something There To Remind Me. Sixties classic. Anyone who thinks that that Diana Vickers is being all avant-garde by doing X-Factor in bare feet, well, sorry, but our Sandie beat her to it by, ooh, 40 years

The Datsuns - Harmonic Generator. Passable copycat of decent seventies rock group T-Rex, from a band named after a dreadful 70s car manufacturer. Marc Bolan wrapped his mini round a tree and Datsun became Nissan. So that possibly goes some way to explaining why these guys haven't been around in a while.

Whitney Houston - I Will Always Love You. Matazone's favourite cheap-like-crack megastar with what was simultaneously her most famous and most annoying recording. At the number one slot for what seemed like an eternity (ie. at least as long as Rihanna last year) as a result of the film "The Bodyguard", she cooed and warbled her way through the song, holding notes for much, much longer than was strictly necessary. Originally a love song written and recorded by Dolly Parton for her then-beau Burt Reynolds. He loved the song so much he dumped Parton for Loni Anderson, a much younger blonde with equally impressive breasts. Only Loni turned out to be a gold-digger; once Reynolds' career hit the skids, she divorced him and took all his money. And he got no sympathy because he'd been a plonker. The moral of the story is, if someone writes you a love song, don't dump her for a younger model. Or is it, if you write a love song, don't let Whitney Houston massacre it.

Funnily, the server knows I hate this song and ditched it out after about 40 seconds. It's been playing much better songs whilst I've been spitting bile at the nefarious warbly smacked-up one.

Monday morning snowday quintet:

Kanye West - Gold Digger. When she leave yo' ass, she's gonna leave with half.

Korn - Freak On A Leash. I've not heard this one in ages! Forgotten how good it is.

Deacon Blue - I Was Right And You Were Wrong. One thing I find odd about singles collections is that you get even the most tentative single releases on there. Like this one, which could've been released as a single in Liechtenstein and nowhere else for all I know.

Clan of Xymox - Abysmal Thoughts. Imagine The Cure in their early days, but replace Robert Smith with Andrew Eldritch. Got that? You're about there.

Steve Arrington - Feel So Real. Lordy, 80s disco pop. Guilty pleasure of mine, I like this one.

More fiveness, before I brave the snow...

Hayley Westenra - Ave Maria

The Kooks - I Want You

Thunder - Hand In A Glove. Did I hear someone shout "Big hair 80s rock band"? Thought so.

Kanye West - Diamonds From Sierra Leone

Danielle Dax - Bad Miss 'M'. Right, where to start. Okay, so imagine Dolly Parton doing a cover of, ooh, I dunno, "Lucretia My Reflection", say. Now picture the absolute reverse of that. Yep, goth lass does country. Just... wrong. Although in an odd way I can picture La Parton doing "Lucretia" and it actually works.

It's been a few days, so here goes:

After It All - Cat Power
She Makes My Nose Bleed - Mansun
Who Do You Think You Are - Saint Etienne
Prickly Thorn, But Sweetly Worn - White Stripes
Brooklyn Navy Yard, 1950 - The Last Town Chorus

No time for frivolous comments today, but I'm generally happy with that. Especially the Mansun/Etienne combo. Lovely.

On the land, snow is glistening. I kid you not, I had to dig the car out this morning. And I got stuck in traffic. Anyways, fivenessabounds:

Eurythmics - I've Tried Everything
Underworld - Born Slippy. Lager, lager, lager...
Manic Street Preachers - Australia
The Streets - Don't Mug Yourself
Tears For Fears - Everybody Wants To Rule The World

Hmmm, not a bad chunk of musicage there...

Also snow here! Pretty.

Help! - The Beatles
My Heart Is An Apple - Arcade Fire
Jenny - Heaven & Earth
Fine Line - Oh Laura
Another Love Song - Queens Of The Stone Age

Fair enough. Some nice mellow obscurity halfway through there. I'll settle for that lot.

Snow here too! Time for some Nordic goodies in the form of Library Tapes and maybe a bit further West for some Sigur Rós.

Five more, to ease the pain of being mithered...

Klaxons - As Above, So Below
Texas - In Our Lifetime
Robbie Williams - Better Man
Queen - Breakthru
The White Stripes - Hypnotize

Intriguing mix there. Been a long time since I heard that Queen track as well, just had to sing along to it!

gwarek2 - Aphex Twin
The Birds In Your Garden - Pulp
Alone, Jealous And Stoned - Secret Machines. Another one of those 'I keep forgetting how good it is' songs.
Lisa Riley - Kings Have Long Arms. Again?
It Makes The Room Look Bigger - Half Man Half Biscuit. Top comedy twosome, there.

Wednesday quintet to alleviate the fun of prolonged web conferences...

Hüsker Dü - Crystal
Doves - Ambition
ABBA - I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do. Dedicated to Syuu, cos I know how much she loves them
The Cure - Before Three
New Fast Automatic Daffodils - Big

Yep. That'll do it.

Further tune droppage - though I doubt I can match that supreme ABBA insertion:

Pieces Of String - Alela Diane
The National Anthem - Radiohead. 'Kid A' - better than 'OK Computer' in my opinion. I await a drubbing...
Four Points - Friska Viljor. Nice and spiky, in a modern indie way
Meet Me In The Bathroom (Home Recording) - The Strokes. From a freebie CD that I don't remember getting, but certainly own
Deep Red Bells - Neko Case. Gorgeous, gothic alt-country - I need more of this woman's stuff, given that I only have the two tracks...

I think I can still hold my head high after that lot...

I know. An ABBA insertion is always a joyous occasion. Always. Are you getting this, Syuu?

Five more before I pack up for the night.

Gazebo - Lardy Boy
Wire Daisies - Clearly Now
Velvet Revolver - Headspace
Amy Winehouse - Back To Black
The Jags - Back Of My Hand

Start with a spoof, end on a seventies classic. Always a good course