"The Cutter" – a cracking Echo and the Bunnymen classic to get things started. So much energy and youthful arrogance. What a song!
"Fighter Pilot" – not such a cracking John Cale track, from his 1981 album Honi Soit. Lots of incongruous female backing vocals and a rock band that doesn’t seem suited to Cale’s paranoid ramblings about the military. Really not one of JC’s finest moments.
"Remote Viewing" – the final track on Tangerine Dream’s Exit, and very good it is too. The opening, flute-y synth is very like the excellent music that Paddy Kingsland did for The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy and a number of Doctor Who’s in 1981 and 1982. Then it turns into a more familiar gently rhythmic Tang piece. Good stuff.
"Deform To Form A Star" – from Steven Wilson’s monumental Grace For Drowning. It’s mellotrons ahoy on this truly beautiful ballad, the kind that Wilson does so very well. One of my favourite tracks of last year.
"Alice In Blunderland" – a great title for this Captain Beefheart instrumental from the 1972 album Clear Spot. Unusually it’s a quite a straightforward tune, and it allows the guitarist play a pretty straightforward solo too. Perhaps this is why I really like this one…
"Loaded" – arguably Primal Scream’s finest moment, though listening to it today I was surprised at how slow it is. I remembered it being more overtly ‘dancey’ but it’s terribly laid back - slightly disappointing to be honest.
Yay!!! It’s only "Fish Heads" by Barnes And Barnes!!!! What can I say? They don’t play baseball, you know? If you've never heard "Fish Heads" then you need to - right now!
"Public Image" – by, guess who..? John Lydon at his sneery best over nasty scratchy guitars and a stomping beat. Brilliant.
Then it was the theme from the original sixties series of Star Trek. I’ve got a weird selection of stuff on this here pod…
"I’m In Love With A German Filmstar" by the Passions. One hit wonders... but what a hit. The video was all arc lamps and cameras and European glamour which perfectly matched the New Romantic synthy pretentious nonsense sung by an ice queen vocalist wrapped in a fur coat wearing uber bright lipstick. How much more 1981 can you get!!
"Manifesto" – one of the truly great but almost always overlooked Roxy Music songs. That long and slightly dissonant intro is fabulous, all swirly and mysterious, then Ferry steps up with his declamatory vocal. There's no other song like it.
"In This World" – one of Charley’s recent songs and a darned fine one it is too. A strange see-sawing guitar riff, which to my ears sounds slightly Crimson, gives way to a very strong verse and an even better chorus. It's tough when you’re nearly 13 – sample lyric ‘you don’t understand me, I’m the only one who does…’ It’s almost absurdly catchy too, and I’ve been humming this for weeks as it’s really stuck inside my brain now, and today’s burst will just reinforce that even more. I love it!
Anything after that would be a disappointment though Jona Lewie’s "You’ll Always Find Me In The Kitchen At Parties" did it’s best. Lugubrious is the best word for this song.
"Baal’s Hymn" is no-one’s favourite Bowie song, but it has much to recommend. The vocals are brilliant for a start, sung in a leery, boozy voice, midway between Bowie’s best mockney and his commanding "Wild Is The Wind" style croon. Recorded at Hansa in late 1981 (the last time DB worked there) with Tony Visconti at the controls (the last time DB and TV worked together until 1999) it’s deliberately old fashioned to fit with the 1920s setting of Brecht’s play. Bowie was excellent in this BBCtv production, but for some reason it’s never been repeated, nor is it available on DVD.
"Sister Midnight" – Blondie recorded live in 1979 with guest guitarist Robert Fripp. Interesting, but not altogether successful cover. Fripp doesn’t really join in, instead he simply plays his own thing which only occasionally corresponds with the tune. Most of what he plays seems to be the majestic rising lines from his own "Sailor’s Tale" while Blondie don’t appear to have rehearsed "Sister Midnight" terribly well. Debbie Harry is unsure of most of the words and the band seems rather unsure of how to stop the piece. You probably had to be there.
"The Devil And The Deep Blue Sea" – one the stand out tracks from Brendan Perry’s 2010 album Ark. The whole album is excellent, but this one is superb. It throbs and pulses and the percussion effects drift from side to side. BP is on fine form vocally.
"The Midwife’s Dilemma" from Jan Bang’s excellent And Poppies From Kandahar. This is an album that has really grown on me. I liked it initially, but didn’t return to it for a while, but when I did I really loved it. Great moods and atmospheres.
And finally – "Panic" – perhaps The Smiths finest two and a bit minutes – the wonderfully acerbic chorus of ‘hang the DJ, hang the DJ’ always used to make me laugh as we danced to this at University discos, all arms outstretched and shirts unbuttoned like Morrissey... We generally avoided the gladioli stuffed in the back pocket of our jeans however… I was never a huge Smiths fan but this is such a wonderful song (along with the pretty much unbeatable "Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now").
Another day and the shuffling iPod would play something entirely different. We'll see...
No comments:
Post a Comment