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@thevidsarealright
There's still time to get your votes in for the tracks of the year! Closing date is 23.59pm GMT - send us up to 20 tracks and we'll count down the top 40 in January. (Pete is also running a Film & TV poll! I have already voted for Gardeners World.)
KIMBRA - EVERYBODY KNOWS [6.14] The New Zealand singer-songwriter hangs in thereâŠ
Kat Stevens: Itâs been a good two months since the 2017 World Athletics Championships, during which BBC Sport were using Jean Michel Jarreâs âEquinox Vâ as bed music while displaying the schedule graphic. In any right-thinking universe this would have triggered a worldwide Euro-electronica/arpeggiation revival, but in our sad excuse for a reality it seems only Kimbra got the memo. In the meantime I can console myself by rewatching the incredible Equinox V video, which is the vision of the future millennials want (JMJ inspecting skyscrapers then trying not to corpse while twiddling the knobs of a giant synthesiser in a field). [6]
Nortey Dowuona: Limp drums, echoing, glassy synths, mild bass, removed marimba â wait! nope, just slightly better, pedestrian drums. Kimbra sings coolly in the middle of towering glass synths, and her echoes run through filters. Cool, I guess. [5]
Alex Clifton: Iâve wanted to like Kimbra for so long, but Iâve never been able to figure out why her fanbase is so dedicated. Two and a half minutes into this song, I suddenly got it: layers upon layers of sound create a gorgeous, trippy soundscape, where Kimbraâs voice swims in and out like a dream. The problem is that it took more than halfway through the song to get there in the first place. Iâm still more underwhelmed than I want to be, but I see where the magic comes from. [5]
Will Adams: In the years since the middling The Golden Echo, Kimbraâs been dabbling in OWSLA collabs. Itâs a good fit: the soul simulacra sheâd been doing had begun to turn stale, and the weirdness OWSLAâs sound has been trending toward suits her voice well. âEverybody Knowsâ continues this new turn. Itâs the traditional slow-building template, Kimbraâs voice a murmur at first, but the ensuing release is less cathartic and more agitated, static flooding the track as the heat of anger floods Kimbraâs vision. At the end, she returns to where she started, having completed the process. [7]
Alfred Soto: I thought the New Zealander had essayed a Leonard Cohen cover, which would not have been charmless. The way in which Kimbra syncopates her melancholy to the synth rhythm gives âEverybody Knowsâ its mild tension. [5]
Rebecca A. Gowns: A song about the entertainment industry, fame (or semi-fame) and all the trappings. Weâve heard it hundreds of times before, but the timing feels especially prescient. The song isnât original in its message, nor really in its sound, but itâs got a hypnotizing allure, and Kimbra sings with a wounded-but-guarded urgency. [7]
Katherine St Asaph: If youâre keeping track at home alongside my inner editor, this is the third Jukebox track Iâve likened to Mandalayâs âAll My Sins.â Here, the likeness is clear: a glassy, polished intro barely holding back a buzzy, arpeggiated squall, where every time you think youâve gotten the trick more layers break forth. Itâs an apt metaphor for the misdeeds of the unnamed, finally shamed creep in the lyric â a lyric that reads particularly bitter this month. (Several people have independently come up with âpustulesâ to describe these folks: after the first burst of misdeeds, more and more crap comes out.) Could do without the cod-soul vocal affectation, but otherwise, this is the sort of alt-pop I wish got traction. [8]
[Read, comment and vote on The Singles Jukebox ]
Back on the Jukebox tip.
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ALL SHALL FEAR ME AND DESPAIRÂ
Songs of hope⊠Well, my most listened-to Spotify playlist in 2016 was called All Shall Fear Me And Despair, which doesnât immediately seem ripe fodder for this theme. Stick with me.Â
The title paraphrases Galadrielâs temptation by the One Ring: she foresees herself as a supreme ruler, if she can only tap into this source of dangerous power - a power that is probably too much for her to handle. Unfortunately thanks to the usual #EverydaySexism, we never get to find out whether Galadriel would have managed to wield that power Just Fine Actually, Thank You. If Eowyn can stab up the Witch King of Angmar with no ill-effects then I donât see the problem? Those films could have been a LOT shorter.Â
ANYWAY I called my playlist this because I wanted to listen to songs that *did* tap into that inhuman power, and that triumphed as a result. Songs by women, meddling with Deeper Magic from Before the Dawn of Time, stood atop their gothic ice palaces, calling upon the power of the ancestors and the ancients to drag the helpless oppressor into Hades, tentacles and all. These women want fear, not love! Psycho-geographical midsummer goddesses, leading the islanders in a ritual chant as the sacrifice burns inside a giant goat, while deep in the forest, the owls are not what they seem. Once humankind has annihilated itself and/or drowned under melting ice caps, Mother Nature and the cockroaches will surely rise again, stronger than any puny human force. If I survive, Iâll worship the moon. Am I the only one who finds all this quite reassuring? It honestly helps me deal with my morning commute.Â
The songs on this list have certainly given me strength and determination to keep a positive mindset during this often-shitty year. But itâs only part of the picture. Hopes and dreams are essential, but to turn that dream into reality, you donât want an ice sorceress. You want someone who gets shit done in the real world. You want Beyonce. Thatâs a whole different playlist.Â
â Kat Stevens
Kat previously wrote for OWOB about The Fall and Elastica.
What I've been listening to this year.
2016 Midpoint
Here are some songs I've been enjoying so far this year: Jessy Lanza - It Means I Love You https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C216ZRVOM5A A great example of how to make something out of nothing! This sparse track feels both lonely and intimate at once, but the reverb means it's never claustrophobic. Jessy twists and manipulates her voice, becoming a malfunctioning android professing its love, only breaking out of its loop when the verse kicks in after 3 minutes. St Lucia - Rescue Me https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gG-evMqyWyE Kenny Loggins joins a-Ha to do a soundtrack for a movie that will only ever be shown on 5USA. Shameless synth washes, lyrics that are meaningless to the point of absurdity, fighter jets tearing across the sky etc. I love it. Kero Kero Bonito - Lipslap https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4aQBkCrpWOg A brightly coloured rubber keyring of a song, the sort you'd get from an end-of-pier grabby machine. If nu-rave had sounded like this then we probably could have avoided the 2008 financial crisis. Erasmus - Ti Recordi Di Me https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBq3jgATkZY I just googled this lot and it turns out to be Soulwax! All hail the return of our Belgian electroclash overlords, whom I think may have been listening to Buraka Som Sistema. Truce - Be There (not on Youtube but it is on Spotify) Super-minimal banger that wouldn't be out of place on a Magda mix. Though tbh I have kind of lost touch with ubercoolische techno these days so it may well be on a Magda mix already. DNCE - Cake By The Ocean https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWaRiD5ym74 Nonsensical drunken terrace chant that sounds a bit like Maroon 5. I have no regrets. Major Lazer ft Nyla & Fuse ODG - Light It Up https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDcFryDXQ7U I will always have a soft spot for Major Lazer, being as they are responsible for all recorded music in history. Fuse's amazing/terrible 'animals went in two by two hurrah' bits are nearly as good as his 'lighters aaaaap' wailing and the marimba doesn't outstay its welcome. Christine & The Queens - iT https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9XeN3MSbyk They were playing this in Pret this morning! You couldn't call it a banger, but the hook is pretty damn striking. LindstrĂžm - Closing Shot https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5kbHnkAnJU Cheerful disco in the Inspector Norse vein (i.e. more like horses galloping in the sunshine than intergalactic battle cruisers). Cassius, Cat Power & Mike D - Action https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wA0z0b7tNLg Decent attempt at a Curtis Mayfield cocktail party jam which goes on at least 2 minutes too long, but saved by Cat Power's despair at the lack of progress in gender politics transferring to her sulky delivery: "you'll never get called / a bitch on a song..." Breakbot - Back For More https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZi-5tSZH34 We appear to be having an early 2000s French house revival and that is fine by me. I have a Fred Falke track on my rolling 2016 Spotify list fer chrissakes. SMOK ft Anuka - Walking Through The Fire https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COx-apSurNA Essentially a Duke Dumont clone. I see no problem with this at all. Essaie Pais - Retox https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SbQPDMrZ48 Hilariously po-faced French-Canadian electroclash. Yes, more electroclash. I can imagine seeing this lot on a Sunday lunchtime at Glastonbury and them getting really annoyed that everyone is too knackered/stoned to dance 'properly'. Drake ft Wizkid & Kyla - One Dance https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQBcrPWRVf8 You know what, if this ends up toppling Bryan Adams' record I won't be overly distressed. I had no idea until last week that a) this song was by Drake b) it had already managed 12 weeks at #1 c) it was actually a separate song from the Kyla/Crazy Cousinz original ("oh it's nice that they're playing that old UK funky tune on the radio"). Well done everyone. Fifth Harmony ft Ty Dolla Sign - Work From Home https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GL9JoH4Sws I miss the Pussycat Dolls but in the absence of Nicole And Some Women Who Put Their Leg In The Air, this will do nicely. NB I haven't watched any videos for the above apart from Kero Kero Bonito (verdict: overstimulating), which is of course in keeping with this blog's theme of failing to write properly about music videos for the last however many years it's been. I haven't even clicked through on the links to see if they work or not! Ha!
i know thereâs a new rihanna album and i am going to get to it, i swear, but NEW MASSIVE ATTACK WITH TRICKY AND 3D!!!!!!!!!!!! i mean, really. itâs a fucking miracle.
Rihanna is good and so is this
Auto-reblog any video taking place in an empty swimming pool. This is back to the Massive Attack that makes me feel like a teenager again, not just the black and white tiled drunken chlorine nightmares but the feeling of solitude mixed with both ambition and anxiety - will I ever be good enough at anything that people will sit up and take notice?
Started this thing in Meridian / Now manâs in Viridian
Just putting together my EOY list for the Freaky Trigger poll.
You too can vote in this poll! Details here, closing date is 31st Dec 23.59 GMT (or probably a bit later because I will be drunk at that time).
Cappella - U Got 2 Let The Music (1993) Here at TVAA Towers we now have the ability to watch music videos through our telly, so of course the first thing we put on was 'The Real Thing' by 2 Unlimited, a classic bosh-up in an abandoned warehouse, with plenty of dancers in uncomfortable-looking spandex and spiky shoulder pads. The second thing we put on, because it turned up in 'related videos' (we understand this is called 'automated content curation') was Cappella's #2 hit up there. What a video! TVAA is a bit out of practice regards writing about non-Eurovision stuff so here's a bullet point list of what is happening: - Blonde Cappella Lass* and Cappella Rapping Dude gamely miming to samples - every person in the video dramatically flings open a set of doors - then marches down a corridor - decor of which makes good use of colour blocking, very Changing Rooms - the candle holders are actually arms sticking through the corridor walls - Cappella Rapping Dude* on a throne made out of a giant mutant strawberry - Blonde Cappella Lass wearing a lovely warm coat (it's chilly out) - Jamiroquai-style over-sized hats for everyone - And also Egyptian god heads?? - TAROT CARDS (none more 1993) describing what's actually happening - Some dude waving an orrery (ornate windmill? perpetual motion machine?) around - Blonde Cappella Lass punching Cappella Rapping Dude for no reason at the end! Well done everyone. *Apparently she was a dancer for SL2! You have Wikipedia** to thank for that fact nugget. **This crucial info is much harder to find when you keep spelling 'Cappella' with one P.
Sony, not SBS, footed the bill for Guy Sebastian to compete in Vienna, says SBS managing director.
Sony Germany covered Guy Sebastian, not the Australian broadcaster. Of course SBS will have itâs usual costs from covering ESC (just as it had for thirty-odd years), but the extra cost for Sebastian? Revenue neutral baby! So the question is,⊠who will sony Germany enter next year, and under which flag?
Interesting! What's to stop Sony doing this for EVERY country? Also this nugget adds another dimension of 'hmm' to this argument against Australia's rule-bending, post-colonially problematic participation.
2015 Semifinal 2: Semifinal Boogaloo! MĂžrland & Debrah Scarlett - A Monster Like Me (NORWAY) I wasn't sold on this creepy duet at all at first, but it's grown on me. No thanks to the baffling dinner party horror video ft bonus squid and a dog? Perhaps it's because it feels less skeezy next to the Estonian duet? Or could it be because MĂžrland is fit? Watch for yourself above! Amber - Warrior (MALTA) This is where would I make a 'Warrior 2' yoga joke but this Tedder-ballad really isn't worth the trouble and neither is the video (she's in a creepy old house in the dark). Go watch Georgia's Warrior 1 instead! Michele Perniola & Anita Simoncini - Chain of Lights (SAN MARINO) I don't really understand this video, which includes such San Marinese pasttimes as ballet, going to the chemists to pick up a packet of 3, looking at your phone and lighting candles with magic. However I am too distracted by the fact that it sounds like they're saying 'Chain of FARTS'. Sorry San Marino. Marta Jandova & Vaclav Noid Barta - Hope Never Dies (CZECH REPUBLIC) So glad they're back! Marta and Vaclav are by all accounts hilarious in person, which is not reflected at all in this v serious duet: black and white to start off with when they're apart, then Wizard-of-Ozzing it up once they find each other, aww. Not a chance in hell of qualifying but do stick with it, Czech Republic! John Karayiannis - One Thing I Should Have Done (CYPRUS) They're also back!Back!BACK! after a year of financial getting-their-breath-back. And... oof, it's not particularly galvanising, with a basic video and a gentle acoustic tune. I think it'd be fair to say this is 2015's Malta, i.e. I have put a fiver on it to surprise everyone and place in the top 4. Nadav Guedj - Golden Boy (ISRAEL) Starts off slow but I'm totally won over by the end. I'd say Nadav's dancing is more enthusiastic than slick, but it's infectious. Before you leave, let me show you Tel Aviv! AND HE DOES. Love it. Maria Olafs - Unbroken (ICELAND) Iceland going for the inadequate-footwear Teardrops vibe here - some good backing dancer choreography but I really worry for their ballet slippers on that mucky warehouse floor. There's probably loose nails and bits of wire lying around. Steel-toe-capped boots are your friend! Monika KuszyĆska - In The Name Of Love (POLAND) Monika looks through a bunch of boring old photos of herself in a grand old stately home, becoming more like Lady Edith from Downton Abbey with every shot. Underwhelming really compared to last year's churning milkmaid onslaught; this is trying to be classier although you can still see a lot of thigh. I'd have expected something like this from Italy or Spain (who have BROUGHT IT this year video-wise - I'll be getting to them, don't worry) but not Poland. Molly Sterling - Playing With Numbers (IRELAND) Molly is basically Ella Henderson from X Factor, sat at a piano in a dark warehouse. Footwear status unknown. Unenthralling and apparently a bit wobbly in rehearsals too - she'll have to do something special to qualify. Maraaya - Here For You (SLOVENIA) Down down low BUDGET do you see. Maraaya starts off shivering away in the cold and dark, wearing nothing but a pair of headphones! You wouldn't catch me in the buff watching fake snow fall on a piano, it's bad enough when my co-workers crank up the air conditioning in the office. She does put some clobber on later but nothing that would keep the chill out. Anyway the music's a bit too jolly for the moody video (and lyrics) really. Elnur HĂŒseynov - Hour of the Wolf (AZERBAIJAN) The grillionth epic ballad of this year's contest. Elnur is by no means an ugly dude though so there's still plenty to enjoy here; the video consists of him sat in an expensive Baku flat, emoting heavily. MĂ©lanie RenĂ© - Time To Shine (SWITZERLAND) Possibly the first Eurovision entry to feature the lyric "no more mucking around", MĂ©lanie wanders through a pleasant Alpine forest in a number of terrible outfits. She looks very angry but there's a horse halfway through. Aminata - Love Injected (LATVIA) A srs bsns video for a srs bsns song! It starts off with FKA Twiglet Aminata as Britters in I'm A Slave 4 U but with SMOKING instead of dancing! With a side-order of self-immolation! Bits of this would probably get censored out before 9pm! Most importantly, there is a PIANO ON FIRE at one point, #Romania2010Never4Get Monika Linkyte & Vaidas Baumila - This Time (LITHUANIA) A jolly duet! These two have plenty of chemistry but I'm not sold. No video here either - where is all the tourist board promo cash this year? Leonor Andrade - HĂĄ Um Mar Que Nos Separa (PORTUGAL) Poor old Portugal. My best mate from school has got Portugal in her work sweepstake - that's a fiver she won't see again. No video but there's some serious eyeliner and feathery shoulder pads going on here - wonder if she's challenged the Georgia lass to an arm wrestle backstage yet? Knez - Adio (MONTENEGRO) FINALLY some decent tourism shots! Interspersed with... a blank studio. SIGH. At least those mountains look nice. Let's hope their violin player can mime better than that Belarus lass... MĂ„ns Zelmerlöw - Heroes (SWEDEN) Amazing tune, with a killer hook and a great stage show judging from Melodifestivalen (the lyric video is linked above) - has to be a favourite to win. Sweden don't always bother with videos until their song has won so I'll let them off this time... QUALIFYING PREDICTIONS - Sweden (fave song in this half) - Lithuania - Israel - Latvia (fave performance in this half) - Switzerland - Norway (most OTT video in this half) - Cyprus - Azerbaijan - Ireland - Montenegro I am determined to do the auto-qualifiers this year because I cannot let Spain's video go by without comment. Watch this space!
Itâs that time of year again!
Join us at 21:00 CEST (8pm GMT/3pm EST) for our annual coverage of the Eurovision Song Contest. Several of our writers will be there, tossing in their two cents of snark, amazement, and hand-waving freakoutery (âąKatherine), and you can also join the conversation by submitting your comments to our live-blog, which will be embedded on the linked page shortly.
See you soon!
Once again I will be doing this! Join us!
It's that time again! Here's my run down of the videos for Eurovision 2015 Semi-Final 1: Eduard Romanyuta - I Want Your Love (MOLDOVA) A decent bit of Liberty X/Gaga dance pop. Eduard plays a escaped convict being chased by sexy cops. There's one CGI explosion and plenty of dangerous driving. Genealogy - Face The Shadow (ARMENIA) An utterly bonkers 6-part mess of an arrangement by singers who apparently barely know each other! Let's accompany this with a family photo, some cross stitch and a wintry maze. I like how the cross stitch action speeds up as the song gets more intense and the balalaika/opera comes out. Genuinely jaw-dropping. LoĂŻc Nottet - Rhythm Inside (BELGIUM) LoĂŻc is a trendy young dude with Popjustice hair and a complexion that would make Edward Cullen give up and reach for the fake tan. I love the song but the video is a very weird mix of steampunk, hypothermia and Hi We Are Subverting Gender Roles. Bojana Stamenov - Beauty Never Lies (SERBIA) SO GLAD Serbia are back, and with a proper diva bosh-up as well (even if it takes a while to get going). Nothing special in the video - lots of everyday Serbs singing Bojana's lines from their bedrooms on webcams - but her stage show totally makes up for it. Also I think I prefer the Serbian version to the English one? Nina Sublatti - Warrior (GEORGIA) Definitely the better of the two 'Warrior' songs, not just because it has dogs in the video (and a snake, and a... kestrel?), but thanks to plenty of moody/terrifying slow motion shots of angry women metaphorically kicking arse in traditional dress/modern make up. Kind of awesome - bet Malta's glad they're in the other semi. Daniel Kajmoakoski - Autumn Leaves (FYROM) Serious electro-ballad accompanied by Tony Hart style speeded-up pen and paper drawings. The chorus is a mix of Teardrops/Children Of The Universe but less catchy. Trijntje Oosterhuis - Walk Along (NETHERLANDS) Another Anouk-written song. Less goth but WAY more annoying than 'Birds'. The video is very boring but Trijntje does wear a big hat at one point. Anti Social Media - The Way You Are (DENMARK) Bless - jangly McBusted japes that could the the theme to a sitcom starring James Corden. Straightforward mock-Beatles-at-Ed-Sullivan video. Elina Born & Stig Rasta - Goodbye to Yesterday (ESTONIA) The song is an unfortunate hark back to Richard Ashcroft with his top off humming along badly to his own song. The video looks more like a moody French film shown at 11.15pm on BBC4 but ALSO features the dude staring at himself over the bathroom sink D: #AshcroftProblems Boggie - Wars For Nothing (HUNGARY) Serious bsns nearly-acapella singing in a public square the middle of (Budapest?). They look cold! The lack of apostrophe in the title troubled me greatly at first but I can confirm that they are talking about wars plural. Uzari & Maimuna - Time (BELARUS) So much dry ice! The violin playing lass (Maimuna, presumably) is stuck in a Dorothy Gale style giant hourglass (complete with another SNAKE! argh!) and looks genuinely scared at the beginning (possibly thinking what all that sand's going to do to her lovely hair). Uzari races to save her from peril on a flamethrower treadmill while wearing elf ears made of wire. Ridiculous. Voltaj - De la capÄt (ROMANIA) Finally we get some tourist board action! And a small boy (perhaps with 'Titanium' powers) waiting for his Dad to come back from the Navy (???). Apparently this is about Romanian kids left behind as their parents diasporise and the stage show is a bit more braek haerts, but stops short of Blue Peter Appeal sobbing. Elhaida Dani - I'm Alive (ALBANIA) I saw a live performance of this and wasn't super impressed with Elhaida's ability to hit the high notes :( She's better on record but the video is dull, featuring lots of Serious Women Doing Jobs But At What Cost. Not convinced, personally. Polina Gagarina - A Million Voices (RUSSIA) Oh those Russians etc. Bumping up the contrast for a United Colours of Benetton video so everyone looks super white. Soz Russia but cute children sicken me. SICKEN ME I TELL YOU. Will probably make the top 10. Maria-Elena Kyriakou - One Last Breath (GREECE) Dullllll. Maria-Elena is in a basement car park, singing a ballad in a terrible dress. The piano is neither covered in snow nor is it on fire (this will become important later). Pertti Kurikan NimipĂ€ivĂ€t - Aina mun pitÀÀ (FINLAND) RAWK should serve Finland well again this year even if the drumming is a bit ropey on the record - they're much better live. Docu-style video that's probably been filmed in a Shoreditch basement? QUALIFYING PREDICTIONS: - Belgium (my fave tune from this semi) - Finland - Romania - Georgia - Serbia (my fave performance from this semi) - Hungary - Russia - Moldova - Belarus (stupidest video from this semi) - Denmark Semi-final 2 coming up soon (hopefully)...
Daphne & Celeste - You And I Alone They're back! The song is great (it references Infinite Jest AND Educating Marmalade) and the video was clearly made for under ÂŁ50 including the hat budget. I am delighted.
THE DARKNESS - BARBARIAN [4.60] Thereâs an elf in front of youâŠ
Mark Sinker: In which Nogbad the Bad meets THIS (never forget) as the mumblecore Queen draw back the curtain on the pre-Anglian gap years aka THE DARK AGES, long before the United Kingdom was United. Ivar the Boneless is unexpectedly historical: a Berserker, he possibly suffered from osteogenesis imperfecta and was carried into battle on the back of a shield. He also (possibly) ordered the assassination of Edmund the Martyr, who thus became patron saint of All England for a long while. Who these guys should look at next is HARALD HARDRADA, who sailed to the edge of the world and possibly America, definitely worked as a mercenary in Russia and an imperial guardsman in Byzantium, and very nearly combined Norway Denmark and Britain into a single Viking entity kingdom (and thus clearly TOP NATION) just days before the Battle of Hastings (you know how that turned out). Also Haraldâs son was known as Olaf the Flashy. All of which is way funnier than The Darkness, especially Nogbad the Bad, and also more interesting. [5]
Kat Stevens: In Asterix and the Great Crossing the Gauls are rescued from North America by a troop of Vikings with names like Herendethelessen and SteptÞÄnssen. Their dog HuntingseĂ„ssen (a Great Dane, of course) makes friends with Dogmatix! âBarbarianâ is to âImmigrant Songâ as HuntingseĂ„ssen is to Scooby Doo, i.e. a delightful piss-take that is funnier and more enjoyable than the original. If the video contains looping gifs of kittens Iâll upgrade it to a [10]. [9]
[Read, comment and vote on The Singles Jukebox ]
No-one liked this as much as I did BUT after just watching the video now, I feel validated that the animation is very similar in tone to Weebl & Bob if not the Viking Kittens themselves. Also #NOTALLVIKINGS - well done dudes.
I'm still not upgrading to a [10] though as I misheard what I thought was a Lordi shout-out in 'we are the sons of Ragna-ROCK'. Close but no cigar.
Alan Braxe & Fred Falke - Rubicon I'd not seen this video before today - it has a great last 5 seconds. Eurovision videos may or may not happen this year, we'll see. I've already stuck a fiver on Belgium though.
Westlife - My Love (Watch on Youtube)
To ease us into the meat and bones of Coast To Coast, itâs another Cheiron Productions song, threaded with hints of previous Wezza hits: the acoustic guitar intro from âIf I Let You Goâ, the jumping chorus melody from âFool Againâ, lack of harmonies from, well, everything....
Tom is catching me up fast on Popular so I thought it was about time Wezza #1 single no. 6 got the treatment.
Pulp â Mile End
And now weâre living in the sky
Iâd never thought Iâd live so high
Just like heaven if it didnât look like hell
â
This song is my future.
When I tell people this I think they either think Iâm kidding or Iâm being flippant. Error, humanoid, Iâm neither that into irony or particularly capable of being funny. (Which, however many posts into this, you are probably well aware of by now.) I donât think you should glamorise having a life thatâs really pretty rubbish, not least cos itâs how late capitalism gets away with so much of its shit, but itâs now a solid characteristic of post-recession Britain to try and silence most artistic representations of working class life by claiming that itâs âglamourisingâ. I always LAUGH BITTERLY at this, cos working class people are the most glamorous people I know. Few things shocked me as much, coming down South, as how little effort middle class people put into going out. You know that people are going to SEE YOU, right? PEOPLE THAT YOU KNOW? You people have no standards, and not just when it comes to clothes. Itâs easy to make your house look nice (and dull, oh, God, how dull) when youâve got money to fill it with nice things. When you live in a shithole and itâs just you and your imagination and a very very very limited pool of resources itâs something of a different story. Middle class art isnât just shit cos itâs a gentrified puddle of self-important piss, itâs shit cos it doesnât have to push any real boundaries, not really. Itâs easy to make your house look nice the same way itâs easy to write a song about a beautiful house on a quiet road. Itâs harder to write a love poem to your council flat. But Jarvis Cocker did.
All my life Iâve wanted a council flat. Iâve never in a sense understood the need to own property, have never felt the drive, although this is probably because if you cut me I bleed workerâs red and believe somewhere not even that deep down that all property is theft. But Thatcher happened, aspirational bollocks happened, we moved on from utopia projects and there is no such thing as society, apparently, which is an assertion I struggle to even find insulting to this day because itâs so obviously completely fucking stupid. The sad thing about this song is that it is a reflection of a world that is already fading. You could chop your arm off and wave the bleeding stump at people and still not get a council house. The days of artists on the dole arenât even numbered, theyâre just gone. The grant you used to get, just enough to live on, if you were trying to break into something creative isnât even a distant memory. Get rich or die trying, and trying, and trying.
Iâm on the dole. I donât know if Iâve mentioned that yet.
â
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Good old Mile End - I'm glad I lived there for a number of reasons and I don't miss it for a second. I am also massively enjoying this week's OWOB on Pulp, a band I'm otherwise ambivalent about.
