T - talking heads, the best of talking heads (2004) and the black keys, attack & release (2008)

i'm ashamed to admit that i found myself uninspired this morning. with one of the widest selections of artists available to me, perhaps i was spoilt for choice. in celebration of the recent big day out announcement, i flirted with the idea of tool, but i wasn't really in a tool kinda mood this morning. so to make up for missing david byrne on 'd', i went with the talking heads.

this is a great album, packed to the brim with hit after hit. if this album doesn't evoke childhood memories then you clearly had a shit childhood, bereft of good music. unlike some 'best ofs' it spans the band's entire back-catalogue from 1977 through to 1988, and does so chronologically which is simple, but i think pretty cool. in fact i don't know why more 'best ofs' don't do it.

the problem is, though, that listening to talking heads because you want a david byrne fix is a bit like listening to the chilis because you want a frusciante fix (see what i did there..) i wanted that esoteric, eclectic thing that david byrne exudes; i wanted a guy who makes buildings sing, and what i got was love being a building on fire. don't get me wrong, talking heads are great. i love them, i love what they do, they just.... didn't quite do it for me this morning.

technically, the black keys are in my ipod under 'b' not 't', but i was frustrated with the restrictions of the experiment, so i listened to them anyway. it was my way of embracing my big day out excitement. and it was so worth it. these guys are most often described as blues, but they are so much more than that as well. they traverse rock, folk and jazz, all with heavily bluesy guitars. they create a huge and detailed sound for two guys, some drums and a guitar. i can't even begin to express how excited i am to see them. very glad i broke the mould and chose to listen to them this morning, they reminded me of the pure, unadulterated joy that good compositions and a guitar can evoke.

can't get this out of my head today....

it's not like i had credibility to spare... but i can't help loving this today:

S - sufjan stevens, the avalanche (2006), and sex pistols, never mind the bollocks here's the sex pistols (1977)

'the avalanche' came about as the spin-off from an unusual concept, namely stevens' intent to write an album for each of the fifty american states. beginning with michigan, he then moved on to illinois, and several songs that didn't make the cut for the illinois album became 'the avalanche'. although it's an album of out-takes and b-sides - and received plenty of unfavourable reviews comparing it to its elder brother 'illinois' - i think it's an excellent album in its own right.

it's definitely quirky. if the enthnomusicologist thought paul mccartney's 'live and let die' sounded like a bad high school orchestra, this album takes that, and raises an epileptic conductor. on speed. but i love his peculiar, eclectic arrangements. i also like the sense that stevens doesn't take himself too seriously - from coining his backing vocalists 'the illinoisemaking band' to the cover promoting the album as being 'shamelessly compiled by sufjan stevens', you get the sense that he's having fun doing this.

i'm enjoying the revival of folk. this album, like most of his work, is notable for its use of the banjo, but also incorporates more wind instruments than a fourth form music class, wild percussion, strings, breathy flutes, glockenspeils, horns and i swear i can hear the occasional sitar hidden in there. it's a cacophony of sound. it puts the 'mental' in instrumental, but it all comes together in an offbeat, multifarious way. contrasting with, and laid over, the instrumental noise is a beautiful, delicate voice, as evidenced in the title track, and on the superb accoustic version of 'chicago'.

for all its unpredictable quirk, i couldn't listen to all 75 minutes of 'the avalanche', and decided to mix it up for my walk to work. so from one extreme to another, i headed over to the sex pistols.

'never mind the bollocks, here's the sex pistols' was one of the first albums i owned. characterised by crude key changes, a bassist who couldn't play bass, and aggressive, in-your-face riffs, this was punk at the pioneering end of the wedge. ranking forty-first on rolling stone's five hundred greatest albums of all time this album changed lives, and the course of musical history.

i have to say there was something deliciously ironic about walking in my pencil skirt, tailored blouse, and high heels to my government job, while listening to 'anarchy in the uk' and 'god save the queen', two songs filled with teen anger at the establishment. rolling stone describes it as an album "packed with disgust, nihilism and raw guitars". and so it is.

R - red hot chili peppers, blood sugar sex magik (1991) and live in hyde park (2004)

for those complaining of a lack of recognisable bands on here, this is for you. but actually it's more for me: i couldn't resist. last night after a few wines i got a little ahead of myself on the ol' listening front, and we ate cake and cranked 'blood sugar sex magik' which, if i had to pick one, is my favourite chilis album.

this morning i could have chosen diversity, but instead i chose more chilis. 'live in hyde park' is one of my favourites - mostly because it really makes the most of my favourite chili pepper (see 'j') and his striking voice. it's also fun cos it's a bit like a 'best of' but with different (better?) songs (tracks from 'bssm', 'californication', 'by the way' - 'one hot minute' and 'mother's milk' omitted due to various frusciante hang ups...) and a number of other little treats thrown in including drum medleys, trumpet solos, and covers, such as this adorable little ditty:


one of my absolute favourites of all time. i tried to find a live in hyde park version, but instead found one from some german rock festival. i would add quick postcript here: does this video maybe illustrate that john is a better singer than anthony? (woah, controversial ren.) either way, this is glorious.

Q - queens of the stone age, songs for the deaf (2002)

one thing i've discovered through this little experiment is how much pleasure i take in the basics; in solid, well-structured songs, in guitar-driven rock, in good old fashioned drumming. just yesterday we were discussing the often quite formulaic nature of metal (in relation to metallica's black album) and although i wouldn't call them 'metal' per se, it rings true with queens of the stone age too - catchy but repetitive riffs, and dependable, clever songs.  but the best songs are often the most straightforward, and in this album's case the basic song structure is complemented by interesting diversions (horns, strings) and if it ain't broke... anyway, at the end of the day, in my mind this is an album for the drums. queens have always been a bit of a rent-a-band with a constantly changing line up, but i think it's the addition of dave grohl on this album that makes it something special.

 

i've seen these guys live, twice as it happens, at big day out 2003 (along with jane's addiction, foo fighters, wilco, damn that was a good year... and for the record no, dave grohl did not make a guest appearance on drums, contrary to all earlier speculation). their first, scheduled, set suffered severe technical faults, fans ranted and yelled, but those smart enough to stick around were treated to a loose, improv, semi-accoustic show dominated by bass and powerful energetic drums. very clever, and not something you get to see every day. they then played a full set (complete with excellent sound) on a much smaller stage, giving fans the full queens of the stone age noise blast, in a more intimate setting. dream result.

 

everyone will know and recognise the two big singles from this album 'know one knows' and 'go with the flow'. excellent songs the both of them, but the album is good beyond its singles. designed as a concept album, it's designed to take the listener through a range of radio stations through southern california. as the album name implies, it's self-referential, and heavily critical of the music industry. last word goes to then-bassist nick oliveri: "a lot of stations play the same thing over and over. we don't get played on the radio, so i figure we should talk shit about them."

Charlie ASH 'Wake Up (You're Not Asleep Now)'

a couple of weeks ago i wrote that i couldn't find a version of charlie ash's "wake up". it is here:

P - paul mccartney, wingspan: hits and history (2001)

lying exhausted on the ethnomusicologist's couch in dunedin's lovely afternoon sun, i insisted that whichever cd he put on start with p. paul mccartney's 'wingspan' was the first one he picked up, and so our afternoon was made. the first couple of tracks were a cute little musical jaunt with that distinctive mccartney voice. said the ethnomusicologist: "how many hits did wings have? i spose it is paul mccartney, he is a bit of a legend." from here, though, we're probably bordering on the sacreligious, but it was a lazy afternoon and our brains weren't really working.

we came to 'live and let die'. after briefly wondering aloud who covered whom (answer: gunners covered wings) we got a little critical - in fact the enthnomusicologist let rip. some of my favourite quotable quotes:

"i'm a little bit worried about this arrangement - it's fucking terrible"
"it's like a circus orchestra, I can imagine a little monkey riding round on a motorbike"
"it sounds like a bad high school orchestra"

(so, uh, it turns out gunners did a much better job)

rather than prolong these circumstances we put on the smashing pumpkins, real loud, and played backyard cricket in the sun. then as the ethnomusicologist dropped me at the airport we listened to metallica's black album, real loud, and out-boganed the most bogany of bogans. it was bloody perfect in every way.

O - odessa, the prize (2007)

this weekend has been an exercise in nostalgia - a mini reunion tour of a band i spent many a fun year with, including one particularly wonderful summer. it was a beautiful carefree time and, as we observed this weekend, i wore a lot of flowy dresses then (less so the skinny jeans and biker boots).




flowy, happy ren. summer 2006/7

around the same time, odessa were touring their first album, 'oak park avenue', and i recall seeing their infectiously foot-tapping brand of funk live a few times in dunedin. a little later, they released 'the prize' and played a couple of shows with the band with whom i had spent the previous summer. 'the prize', as i recall, didn't receive critical acclaim, but i loved it then and i love it now. critical acclaim or otherwise, one thing these bands had in common was the ability to fill a dancefloor - with a high-energy, hardworking frontman, odessa groove, and they groove hard. funky tunes complemented by the soppier 'all your tears' and 'be patient with me' which are sweet at the best of times, but particularly at a time of happy reminscing.

odessa as we know them have sadly broken up, but their albums are still available for purchase, and they are excellent.

N - the naked and famous, this machine (2008) and no light (2008)

let me be clear from the outset. my mission here is not to bag new zealand artists, especially emerging new zealand bands. so here are the reasons i really like the naked and famous: i own and regularly listen to both e.ps, 'no light' and 'this machine'. they're both really good e.ps. i once almost put myself in the dogbox by going to see n&f live instead of a certain other band (see 'k'.) they're good musicians, who play a great live show. the two early e.ps demonstrate an exciting sound, dominated by throbbing baselines and interesting synth hooks. they're catchy, well-executed, interesting songs - vocally light, but musically interesting. i'm a fan, always have been.

here is why i will not be buying the naked and famous' new album 'passive me, aggresive you': i just don't think 'young blood' is a very good song. yea yea i know they just won the silver scroll... but to me the song is bland, it's whiney, it's completely self-indulgent, it's uninteresting, and it doesn't go anywhere. if we're completely honest, n&f have never had much vocal depth, but it's never mattered because it's been complemented by a rich and multi-faceted instrumental sound. i don't even get that from 'young blood'. it's timid. it's meek. it's boring and it's (yep, i'm going there...) a sell-out.

so, i can hate a single and not let that put me off a band, right? sure. i'm just disturbed at the lengths n&f are going to to publicly disassociate the rest of their album from 'young blood'. it's like an admission that 'yb' is a (bad) diversion from their otherwise excellent sound. it feels like an apology to their fans and a "please still buy our album cos we still sound like ourselves really". it probably does still sound like them. i'll probably love the album. but my question is this: why make the shit song that doesn't sound like you the first single off your album? especially when you then have to publicly justify it, by continually stating that the album will sound different?? perhaps i'm too cynical but it seems like a bit of a ploy to me. and it's obviously paid off because i'm apparently the only person in the whole world who hates this song (or at least is brave enough to admit it.)

M - the mint chicks, f**k the golden youth (2005)

wikipedia tells me that the mint chicks refer to their style of music as 'troublegum'. cute! they were a loud fast face full of noise this morning, and while it took me a while to get back into them, their first full-length album was actually a bloody good listen. for some reason i was convinced this morning that the very pop-end of pop-punk tune 'i don't want to grow old' was a cover. treacherous whench indeed, turns out it's an original. but i think it was used in an ad campaign which makes it seem altogether too familiar.

 

i deliberately chose their earliest album as the roughest and readiest, and it didn't disappoint. reminiscent of the music i grew up on - the deconstructed mildly agressive sounds of the ramones, the sex pistols, the buzzcocks, the dead kennedys: that glorious, harsh noise.  released on the flying nun label, it's little wonder this album made me nostalgic for loud hard nights on cheap crap beer in dunedin.

L - lucinda williams, self-titled (1988)

i only have three full albums on my ipod by artists beginning with l - lada gaga, ladyhawke, and lucinda williams. i listen to the other two... umm... fairly regularly... so in the interests of diversity i went with lucinda this morning. the opening track 'i just wanted to see you so bad' (see below, live in austin, texas) is the kind of upbeat country music i like. unfortunately i find the rest of this album falls into something of a whiney love-lost-heartbreak kind of mire. she's collaborated, toured with, and received critical acclaim from a number of heavy hitters in the folk / country world (incl bob dylan, steve earle, elvis costello, emmylou harris) and i'm not sure what it was about the album that irritated me this morning - although on reflection i realise i've never been able to listen to more than seven or eight tracks in a row, and that's why i didn't see her live when she toured here last year. i usually reserve this album for sunday afternoon listening; perhaps i need something a bit more energising for wednesday mornings.



meanwhile i've just read this review of metallica live in christchurch last night.... severely tempted to release my inner bogan again for 'm' tomorrow....

K - knives at noon, glitter guts e.p (2010)

i totally cheated this morning. the whole aim of this exercise is to listen to albums i sometimes overlook, but this morning i listened to a favourite. there's no way i can write anything objective about this band, and i can't stand bullshit groupie drivel or sycophantic fan reviews. suffice it to say that over the years i have been both
their harshest critic and their biggest fan, and i intend to remain so for a very long time. i am really proud of them for this piece of work, having seen the songs grow through the various stages of their development to their pioneering doom pop glory.

these are four supremely talented individuals who work really hard and who just write great songs. my favourite track on this album changes every time i listen to it. i can't wait for a full-length album, (and a tour to wellington please...) and i'm already looking forward to settling in for the long haul to watch some of my favourite people achieve a heap more success. meanwhile, you can and should buy their e.p here

an interlude on sunshine

i subscribe to the inimitable paul o'connell's 'poem of the day'. the below was poem of the day on may 12 this year. i saved it because it struck a chord with me. today reminded me of it, because sunshine is just so awesome. wellington is rocking the spring sunshine today, complete with equinoxial winds of course. 

  

 The Word

Down near the bottom

of the crossed-out list

of things you have to do today,

between "green thread"

and "broccoli" you find

that you have penciled "sunlight."

Resting on the page, the word

is as beautiful, it touches you

as if you had a friend

and sunlight were a present

he had sent you from some place distant

as this morning -- to cheer you up,

and to remind you that,

among your duties, pleasure

is a thing,

that also needs accomplishing

Do you remember?

that time and light are kinds

of love, and love

is no less practical

than a coffee grinder

or a safe spare tire?

Tomorrow you may be utterly

without a clue

but today you get a telegram,

from the heart in exile

proclaiming that the kingdom

still exists,

the king and queen alive,

still speaking to their children,

- to any one among them

who can find the time,

to sit out in the sun and listen.

-- Tony Hoagland

J - john frusciante, to record only water for ten days (2001)

so, when i said i'm a sucker for a guy with a guitar, i should have said i am a sucker for a tortured soul with a guitar. recorded after a month-long stint in rehab, kind-of-reformed-but-still-messed-up sometime-heroin-addict frusciante uses this album, like all of his solo work, as an outward expression of some of the crazy stuff going on in his head. that said, this album is actually the most accessible of his stuff that i've heard. he draws on a range of new wave sounds including synth-pop and electronica, to complement his often dark, experimental style.

as seems to be becoming a theme with me, this album is remarkable in its entirety as a journey, and tracks don't necessarily jump out to me individually. i almost always listen to it as a whole, and the only track i have ever listened to in isolation is the final, 'moments have you', a song to which i am mildly attached for various reasons.

part of the beauty of this album is its flaws. there are moments of not-quite-in-tune guitars and vocal imperfections. but john frusciante really can sing. evidence of this is offered in his backing vocals on a number of chilis albums. his haunting, striking voice is employed to full effect on 'to record only water for ten days'.

as you'd expect, this album is driven by a range of guitar techniques, but is also notable for his experiementation with synthesisers, mostly to good effect. as a guitarist, this guy is mesmerising. i saw him with the red hot chili peppers in 2007, and could not tear my eyes away from him. ranked eighteenth in rolling stone's hundred greatest guitarists of all time (2003), he is incredibly deft and technically talented, yet at the same time an understated anti-hero. he commands attention precisely because of his awkwardness, his need not to be in the limelight. watch him here, nonchalantly playing one of the world's most instantly-recognised songs. i love this video. shit he is beautiful.

 i'd love to see him live with an accoustic. below he covers bowie's 'modern love'.

I - incubus, a crow left of the murder (2004)

this is the only incubus album i own, not being a huge fan. i tend to find their version of alt-rock a little generic and almost predictable. but i listened to this album religiously after its release in 2004, and got a definite blast of nostalgia from it again today. there's some good tracks on here - 'megalomaniac' is an energetic opener, and 'talkshows on mute' is a decent song. i fell for 'southern girl' back in the day as well. they seem more willing to mix it up musically in this album, with more instrumentals and experimenting with different sounds. or perhaps i just haven't listened to their other albums with enough attention to notice the detail. either way, this was a blast from the past and a surprisingly enjoyable one.

H - the hardhearted heartbreakers, the winter e.p (2009)

a little jaunt away for the weekend saw me fall slightly behind on my experiment. interestingly, neither the friend i was staying with (whose musical taste i respect more than most) nor i had anything on our ipods that thrilled us for 'h'. a quick trip to the library this afternoon rectified that, however, and i picked up the hardhearted heartbreakers' e.p - another one i have been meaning to try for some time. sweet folky country tunes - nothing too grunty, just a casual, gentle strum, but cute and honest and delightful. combined with a coffee and croissant in the sun on sunday afternoon, this made for a soundtrack of lazy contentedness. will definitely look out for these guys live.

G - glasvegas, self-titled (2008) and guns n roses, greatest hits (2004)

i am a sucker for two things: a glaswegian accent, and a guy with a guitar. little wonder i fell for this:

i then pulled on my tight black jeans, my studded boots and my biker jacket, and unleashed my inner bogan (she's not that far below the surface, y'know) with some good old fashioned gunners. 'november rain' is just such a good song.

F - faithless, reverence (1995)

f gives me musical fomo. i feel like i'm cheating on a faithful lover by not choosing feist. i'm missing a party by overlooking the foo fighters. florence and her sidekick machine probably won't talk to me again after this snubbing. franz ferdinand are begging me for some attention. and then there's fleetwood mac. (i'm sorry stevie. i'm so sorry.)  but if i've cheated on feist, at least i've done so with my high-school sweetheart and my first true love, faithless.  this album envelops me in that warm glow of familiarity, the senses that you'd forgotten existed until that one person (or band) brings them allllll flooding back. i love faithless. until this morning, i'd forgotten just how much.

it's probably been at least five years since i played this album. yet somehow without knowing it i find myself singing along to every single word of the title track. the soulful ballad 'don't leave' is an unlikely choice for track two, but it works. 'flowerstand man' (feat. dido, whose older brother, rollo armstrong, is one of the faithless spearheads) is another yearning, wistful love song - with an irreverant political twist that really appeals to me - slotted in between the funky hip-hop brixton-inspired social commentary of 'baseball cap' and 'dirty old man'.  (as an aside, urban legend has it that the then-unknown dido was paid with a curry meal for her contribution to faithless' first album.) 'salva mea' and dance-anthem 'insomnia' are tracks that no longer do it for me, apart from some kind of anachronistic cheese-factor, but i sure loved them as a hyped-up kid. and make no mistake: faithless don't just do electronica. they do funk, they do soul, they do hip-hop, they do rock... my god they are good. for a band that covers such a diverse range of sounds, and that often tours with fourteen or fifteen members, faithless somehow manage to create a unified sound and tell a story throughout an album. and they still rate as one of the best live acts i have ever seen - stunning keys (sister bliss being a classically trained pianist as well as club dj, go figure) blazing guitars, and more percussion than you can, uh... shake a stick at. and then there's the frontman: maxi jazz.

i had a serious thing for maxi jazz once. he must be nearly sixty by now, but it doesn't stop me loving him all over again as soon as i hear him. his voice ranges from the intense to the ambivalent, his songs from the spiritual to the political to the overtly sexual, such as the in-your-face 'if lovin' you is wrong'. the second time i saw faithless live was mere months after maxi had shattered his pelvis in a car-racing accident. even that setback as a forty-something year old could not suppress the energy, the raw, passionate vitality of this man. his stage presence is like no other performer i have ever encountered. i could write an entire thesis on the motif of faith in maxi's music - indeed the sharp contrast between the album title and the band name suggests a certain playful irony. 'reverence' refers to "g.o.d: the grand oral disseminator", a phrase interestingly brought back in the 1998 single 'god is a dj' (from sunday 8pm, another excellent album.) and his contribution to faithless co-founder jamie catto's side-project, '1 giant leap', a collaboration with robbie williams, explores cultures, faiths and identity worldwide. (see yesterday's rant for my take on world music.)

faithless are like a former lover you haven't seen for five years: your lives might've taken different paths, but when you catch up over a beer it's familiar and comfortable, like nothing has changed. bless.

E - an emerald city, self-titled e.p (2008)

my flatmate emerged this morning and said "it sounds like the snakes are about to arrive". which was a fairly accurate reflection of an emerald city's experimental, world-influenced sound. as the name would imply, an emerald city dabbles in the psychedelic, with a mixed but largely successful result. a friend of mine saw them play live a while back, and subsequently dubbed them 'an emerald shitty'. i do confess this is not the kind of band i would enjoy seeing live, but i think the moniker (albeit playfully intended) was unjustified. in fact my only major criticism would be that occasionally - such as in the final track 'a question' - this experimentation slips into being slightly obvious.

this same world-inspired sound is shared, albeit much more subtly, by a number of other artists i enjoy, including fleet foxes and david byrne. about this time last year, i distinctly remember lying in the sun drinking rosé and heatedly discussing - with the same friend - the line between being influenced by world music, borrowing from world music, and blatantly stealing other cultures' sounds. the discussion could equally apply here. my sparring partner (nearly) has a phd in ethnomusicology, and i am an occasional audience of mildly interesting music, so i really had no grounds to argue with him... but i did anyway. to my mind, most music is influenced by a varying array of sounds, and the success or otherwise lies in how an artist manipulates its influences to create a unique, new sound. to me an emerald city falls into the category of 'borrowing from' world music, and blends familiar middle eastern, south asian and eastern european sounds to create a challenging, if not always subtle, effect. it's not for everyday listening for me, but a fascinating and confronting wednesday morning listen.

D - death cab for cutie, various and the decemberists, picaresque (2005) and her majesty the decemberists (2003)

this morning was the first time that this experiment got really difficult. dolly parton... the decemberists... dave matthews... david byrne.. so many favourites, so impossible to choose. energised from an excellent workout (my roundhouse kick really is coming on very nicely) i decided to take experimentation one step further, and listen to a band i have meaning to try out for aaaaages but who i don't have on my ipod. so off i went to death cab for cutie's myspace page.

firstly, can i say: what is with this vampire stuff taking over everything? the first track listed was from the twilight soundtrack, which really put me off. to me the track was reminiscent of our lady peace, in that same emo alt-rock kinda way. like all good teenagers of the nineties, i grew up on olp, but i really hated this song. whinge. luckily, things picked up from there. the upbeat, feel-good 'little bribes' (from the open door e.p) had me at hello, a quirky, cute song. 'grapevine fires' (narrow stairs, 2008) to me embodies that easygoing west coast vibe, but with a liberal dose of wistfulness. gibbons' vox in 'cath' (from the same album) reminded me more than a little of brian molko of placebo. 'crooked teeth' (plans, 2005) made me desperately long for the comfort of wilco. perhaps it is these throwbacks to bands i grew up with that left me with a delightful feeling of nostalgia. i'm glad i tried these guys out, and will seek out more of their stuff.

i'm not gonna lie, before i went to work i quickly snuck in 'sixteen military wives' and 'billy liar' by the decemberists. i couldn't resist the jiggy, sea-shanty-esque folk-pop that epitomises their earlier work. interestingly, wikipedia tells me they list death cab for cutie as one of their influences.

well whaddaya know.

C - charlie ash, can can e.p. (2006) and cake, fashion nugget (1996)

monday morning called for something effervescent and upbeat, and the can can e.p. is nothing if not that. i adored this band in their heyday, and i adore this e.p. i've recently been reminded of just how fun it is by its numerous appearances in seasons three to five of outrageous fortune, where they really hammered 'o'baby'. charlie ash have recently rebranded as CASH, and moved to london to record a full length album. they're great girls, who really know how to party (a quality i admire) and i wish them the best of luck. their new musical direction doesn't do it for me as much though. i do enjoy 'come back lover' (see it here) and 'wake up' (which sadly i can't find now) both of which make the most of rosie's lovely voice and indicate a more mature sound, but i was a little sad to hear the once-brilliant 'electro-sexual' reduced to its current form in 'heterosexual'. the can can e.p. is, in my mind, charlie ash at their best. i love these girls; they're very talented and huge fun. so i'm confident they'll surprise me again (this gives me hope, flick to pages 90-91) but for now i prefer to remember them in the heady days of 2007-9; vibrant, energetic, and every so slightly kooky.


the beauty of picking an e.p first up is that it leaves enough time for another album afterwards. i was severely tempted to continue this energised mood with calvin harris' 'i created disco'. in the spirit of musical diversity, however, i instead went with cake's 'fashion nugget'. a more downbeat choice, but nonetheless a good one. the main benefit is that instead of having sickly-synth-pop 'acceptable in the 80s' in my head all day (trust me, that gets old fast) i had the exceptional 'stickshifts and safetybelts'. cake create a fusion of different styles, predominantly the alt-rock of the era but infused with funk, jazz, and other influences to create a sound that is somehow unique and classic at the same time. 'stickshifts and safetybelts' draws heavily on a country influence to create an upbeat yet understated and unlikely love song. cake's offbeat style is excellently showcased in the two covers on this album (gloria gaynor's 1978 hit 'i will survive' and doris day's 'perhaps perhaps perhaps', 1964). with a number of singles which i just this morning realised share the common theme of cars ('the distance', 'race car ya-yas') and others such as 'italian leather sofa' and 'friend is a four letter word' this is just as much an album that speaks of a male mid-life crisis as it does of the teen angst that i read into it when it was first released. an old favourite, very gratefully rediscovered.

B - badly drawn boy, about a boy soundtrack (2002)

b. obviously the natural instinct is to go for blondie, but my head (which is pounding) screamed for something slightly gentler. i had forgotten how much i love this eccentric, lilting album. i remember an ex-boyfriend playing 'something to talk about' on accoustc guitar, and the song - and whole album - always reminds me of sunny mornings overlooking dunedin. breathy, lyrical 'silent sigh' is another favourite but the genius is the full story of the album. whether you like the movie or not (and i do) the album stands alone as a beautiful piece of work. delightful melodic folk-pop for a sunday morning.

A - alan jackson, drive (2002)

full of enthusiasm for my new-found aural exploration, 'a' was not a difficult choice. saturday morning required some good old fashioned country music. i briefly flirted with the idea of playing anji sami's excellent el dorado e.p, but in the end decided alan was the guy for me. (i'm secretly hoping that by the time i get to 's' there might be a sami sisters album....)

i first heard of alan jackson when i saw him play live at the country stampede festival near manhattan, kansas in 2007. at the time i wasn't convinced country music was for me, but it definitely was for the 120,000 kansans cheering around me. this morning was a perfect country music morning - some good old fashioned upbeat guitar-driven tunes, complemented by that pensive 'dog died, fence is broken, woe is me' mood. perfect after a long week.

'drive' itself is an excellent song, and i also particularly enjoy the raucous 'that'd be alright' and 'work in progress'. it wasn't until i got to track six that i realised i'd completely inadvertently chosen the album containing 'where were you (when the world stopped turning)', jackson's tribute to 9/11. fitting, for today's date. the song itself is not musically my cup of tea, and while i don't seek to detract from the magnitude of 9/11 i've never been convinced by the song. in particular, the lyrics "i'm just a singer of simple songs/i'm not a real political man/i watch cnn but i'm not sure i could tell you/the difference in iraq and iran" really wind me up. controversial, in my mind. not, apparently, in the minds of those surrounding me at country stampede; that song, in that surrounding, at that time, was a total culture shock, and a memory that's stayed with me. i felt a bit bad, but this morning i skipped the track.

thought provoking song, one of my favourite go-to albums for some rough and ready country, and an excellent choice first up, even if i say so myself. and i do.

bemused ramblings

it occurred to me recently that i'm losing my sense of musical adventure. for months now i've been stuck in a musical groove, so to speak. so i've decided to set myself a challenge of listening to a different album every day, and just for shits and giggles, to do it alphabetically. whether this challenge will last for twenty-six days remains to be seen. i also figured that i'm an opinionated little beast and rather than bore my friends with my opinions on music, i'd blog them. self-indulgent? totes. thats why i love it.