Start Your iPods | ok-cleek

Special FYWP edition!

Shuffle-up five tunes, list em, describe em. I'll go first:

Talking Heads - Making Flippy Floppy. In which the Heads get their 80's Prince-style electro dance club groove on. I like it now, but I don't know what I'd make of this if I knew it when it came out. Never been a fan of mid-80s dance music. Love the bass line in the first verse, though - that little half-step slide always gets me.
Liz Phair - Thrax. One her 'Girlysound' demos. It's not a great tune one its own, but it contains the seeds of greatness: one verse ended up in Whip-Smart's "Jealousy" and some other bits ended up in Exile's "Soap Star Joe".
Neil Young - When You Dance.... Linked to the Live Rust version, which I prefer because, as always, his live guitar sound is so huge and angry and he slams the notes out of his amp. The studio versions always sound tame by comparison.
Stan Getz & Charlie Byrd - Samba Dees Days. Would prefer to hear more of Byrd's guitar - it's barely audible over the sax and percussion, most of the time. Still, a nice little samba. Getz always brings the mellow - even when he's going fast, it's smooth and light. Rum-scented.
St Vincent - The Bed. A pretty and dreamy tune, though as with most St Vincent songs, this is ever-shifting and complexly arranged - it may be pretty, but it ain't simple. Can't wait for her next record (Sept!).

Let's see what you got...

11 thoughts on “Start Your iPods”

Cris June 20, 2011 at 11:45 am

Shuffle gods smile upon us.

Värttinä – Vot Vot Ja Niin Niin [mp3 link]
The Oi Dai album has several forays into the “Nordic Roots” cross-genre, but this track finds the Finnish furies still deep in traditional folk territory. I really enjoy the group’s early albums when they had, what, eight vocalists? singing in unison. It does hop, though I recognize that this timbre can be an acquired taste.

Belle & Sebastian – Lord Anthony
I’m a huge B&S fan, but I’ll be the first to acknowledge that they have a formula and they stick to it. Start out with a bare voice-and-guitar verse, gradually add more instruments and voices (and syllables per line). Lyrics about school and angst and alienation. Works for me, though this is certainly neither one of their strongest songs nor one of their best albums.

Richard Thompson – I Misunderstood
I love Richard Thompson’s robust brogue under any conditions, but this track also stands up pretty well for the production. I don’t know what you call that jangly guitar sound on the choruses, but it’s really tastefully done.

Patsy Cline – Back in Baby’s Arms
Any time I start to despair about the phony crap that gets labeled “Country” music nowadays, I remind myself that the crossover has existed as long as Country-and-Western itself. The thing about giants like Patsy Cline and Willie Nelson and Roy Clark and even Hank Freaking Williams is that I don’t think they saw themselves as Country musicians; they saw themselves as musicians. And they were happy to reach an audience, whether that audience was “Hee Haw” or “Sing Along With Mitch.”

Obsessive-compulsive genre classification means Cline usually shows up on classic country playlists, but what about this track sounds country? This might very well be the Nelson Riddle Orchestra backing her. With none of the stereotypical C&W textures (slide guitar, fiddle) and not a hint of twang, I’d put it more with Rosemary Clooney than with Buck Owens.

Ludwig van Beethoven – Missa solemnis in D major: Sanctus (Adagio, mit Andacht)
John Eliot Gardiner / English Baroque Soloists / Monteverdi Choir
I don’t have the words for this. A sublime work, strangely underplayed (it’s expansive and exacting, but then so is the Ninth Symphony), the Sanctus movement has one of the most otherworldly passages in the Classical-Romantic repertoire: a solo violin soaring to the heavens and falling back down light as snow, gathering the rest of the orchestra as it touches down; then repeating the journey with the full choir floating with it. The youtube link starts right at that part (which occurs about five minutes into the too-long-for-YouTube 15-minute movement) — the sound quality is bunk but the performance is gorgeous.

Cris June 20, 2011 at 12:54 pm

St. Vincent is gorgeous (musically, but yeah the other thing too) — what album should I buy first?

Rob Caldecott June 20, 2011 at 1:10 pm

I rooted my HTC Desire at the weekend and installed a custom ROM running the latest version of Android. Goodbye HTC Sense, hello drastically increased battery life. Know idea why I decided to share that here. Today has been a pretty good day so let’s see if my shuffle matches my mood.

Hurricane #1 – Chain Reaction
Great start – this is a very good indie track from a band containing one of Oxford’s finest – Andy Bell, formerly of Ride and now playing with Oasis (who are now called Beady Eye since Noel Gallagher left.) This is from their self-titled 1997 album and which I used to play incessantly. Lush guitar sound. Their follow-up album was terrible and they split soon after.

The Boo Radleys – Blue Room In Archway
The Boos are a very underrated band and people only seem to know them for the overplayed ‘Wake Up Boo!’ song that was constantly playing on UK radio in the mid-90s. This track is from their fabulous 1998 album ‘Kingsize’ and deserves 4m 29s of your time. It takes a while to kick in but when it does you’ll love it. Trust me.

Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark – Enola Gay
Probably their biggest hit, released in 1980 and with an infectious keyboard riff that still holds its own. Probably appears on every 80s compilation every released. I liked it then and I like it now. Can’t ask for more than that. The video is terrible but hey, it was 19-bloody-80.

The Magic Numbers – Don’t Give Up The Fight
Gentle and harmonic little number from a band that sound like they were catapulted in from 1967. Inoffensive and the whole album is like this – a summer of love kind of vibe. The heroically walked out of Top Of The Pops when the presenter made a cheap joke at one of the band member’s weight.

Talking Heads – This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody)
Brings me close to tears every time I hear it. Not even sure why any more but it’s simply beautiful. I spent times listening to this song on repeat when I was at a more impressionable age. I’d probably been dumped or something. Also used in the original Wall Street movie fact fans.

I’m just an animal looking for a home
Share the same space for a minute or two
And you love me till my heart stops
Love me till I’m dead
Eyes that light up, eyes look through you
Cover up the blank spots
Hit me on the head

Oh, and was on the album ‘Speaking In Tongues’ of which The Mighty Cleek himself sampled today. Synchronicity!

So lap it up you gorgeous and anonymous beauties.

Rob Caldecott June 20, 2011 at 1:11 pm

Apologies for my shitty grammar. “Know idea”? FFS. Long day!! Honest!! I need to proof read shit I post on the Internet before someone waves it back in my face in a job interview.