Words Rule

Ok, my first post here. Hello all, thanks for letting me play. I was excited by this theme, not least because lyrics are essential to me (until I fell in love with Animal Collective, that is). I knew some tracks I immediately wanted to include but I realised as I went on that I was going for a whole narrative, rather than individual lines or rhyme schemes. Also that just concentrating on lyrics meant the whole CD feels a bit like an assault, even though I tried to mix some of the sad ones with more jollier ones.

Words rule…

 

1.      We Don’t Own It / Joan as Police Woman -  I could just listen to her words all day.

2.      In Spite of Ourselves / John Prine and Iris DeMent – I inherited a passion for John Prine from Dan Rhodes – what could be better than the line  ’caught him once sniffing my panties’, but this is strangely sweet. I like strange sweet. Plus I love how you can hear them trying not to laugh as they sing.

3.      I Don’t Want to Get over You / The Magnetic Fields – now these are rhymes I like.

4.      Venice / The Books – this makes me laugh and laugh, that pompous announcer as the ultimate unreliable narrator – he’s going to get back to the studio and swear at the maestro. Eat your heart out Frida.

5.      Divorce Song / Liz Phair – couldn’t stop listening to Guyville when it came out, and I love the internal/external female voice here. Feels painfully honest.

6.      Slow Show / The National – perfect love/longing lyrics.

7.      Nobody Knows You when You’re Down /  Nina Simone – poor bankers.

8.      Compilation Cassette / Darren Hayman and The Secondary Modern – anything from Pram Town could have gone here, but this is so touching, I particularly like how you know he won’t have a first class ticket, and that he knows she doesn’t really like his cassette.

9.      Brompton Oratory / Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds – as a convent school girl, this does it for me everytime.

10.  The Ballad of Lucy Jordan / Marianne Faithfull – makes me want to write a film with this as a soundtrack.

11.  Look at Miss Ohio / Gillian Welch – my ultimate sing-a-long at the moment – and always makes me immediately want to write because of that ‘wants to do right, but not right now’ – so much story potential

12  Where Do You Go To (My lovely) / Peter Starstedt – the original inspiration for Something Beginning With so had to go in here. Have never listened it to anyone without everyone doing that ‘hahahah’ racehorse bit.

13   Oxygen / Willy Mason – always makes me feel positive and hopeful

14   Here Comes That Man Again / Kirsty MacColl – toss up between the stalker one and this, but I like the word jokes here

15   Money Made You Mean / Indigo Girls – another credit crunch one that seems to increase in meaning

16   My Sister / Tindersticks – I put this at the end because it’s so depressing although it makes me laugh a lot every time.

 

leatherdykeuk’s “Songs to be Sung” mix

Balloon Demon

01 Nancy Sinatra – Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)
02  Jewel – Pieces of You
03 Suzanne Vega – Tom’s Diner
04 They Might be Giants – Istanbul (Not Constantinople)
05 Robert Fripp – Chicago
06 Hanne Hukkelberg – break my body
07 The Ditty Bops – Sister Kate
08 Tim Buckley Sefronia – After Asklopiades, After Kafka
09 Tim Buckley Sefronia – The King’s Chain
10 The Puppini Sisters -  In the Mood
11. Nina Simone – Strange Fruit
12 king crimson – book of saturday
13 Vangelis – One More Kiss Dear
14 louis armstrong – dream a little dream of me
15 Kate Bush – Under the Ivy

 

Scott: I’m The Lyrical Jesse James

This was a really easy CD to pull together. I just whizzed through my iTunes library and picked out the songs with my favourite lyrics. I think it kind of hangs together musically reasonably well. Did anyone identify the song my title is taken from? I am sure somebody did.

Cold War Kids – We Used To Vacation. There are some great songs on this album but after a few listens the lyrics really started to jump out at me. My kids know this one by heart and can sing it all the way through, which is a little disconcerting.

The Go-Betweens – Draining The Pool For You. Grant McLennan wrote the catchier songs but Robert Forster had the best lyrics. This is my favourite opening line in popular music.

Martha Wainwright – Bloody Mother Fucking Asshole. In here for the title alone.

Cowboy Junkies – Sun Comes Up Its Tuesday Morning. Once I had compiled this CD I realised that a lot of the songs told stories. This has always been one of my favourite songs lyrically. It conjours a mood, has a great narrative and it scans wonderfully.

K’s Choice – Breakfast. More storytelling, and a very funny story it is too.

Aimee Mann – 4th Of July. Gives Robert Forster a run for his money in the opening line competition. Poetry.

Arctic Monkeys – Red Light Indicates Doors Are Secured. I could have picked almost any song from either album. I know they are hugely popular with the yoof and the media love them but for me their songs are some of the few in current popular music that can carry the contemporary idiom beautifully. They write it like they speak it and it is more thought provoking and poetic than almost anyone else around.

Billy Bragg – Moving The Goalposts. And I am guessing they owe a great deal to this man. I am willing to bet that Billy, Leonard and Bob will feature heavily on everyone’s CDs this month. None of them can actually sing but Billy is the only one I can really listen to with any pleasure.

Blake Babies – Girl In A Box. I got into this band because of Juliana Hatfield who usually sang lead vocals but John Strohm takes a turn on this one and I like it a lot.

Evan Dando – Stove. A love song to a cooker. And it is entirely believable. I chose this live solo version as it can be hard to pick out the words in the Lemonheads original.

The Flaming Lips – She Don’t Use Jelly. Jokes work in music, they really do.

Frank Sinatra – You Make Me Feel So Young. From the golden age of lyrics. Nothing since has come close to the amazing words written for songs in this era.

Johnny Cash – A Boy Named Sue. No explanation required.

Mary Lou Lord – His Indie World. A long list of obscure indie bands that scans. I am impressed by things like that. She has another song with an even more impressive lyric – ‘all of her ex-boyfriends went and formed a band / to play the kind of music that she could never stand’.

Hailey Wojcik – Fuck You. It is big and it is clever.

Jill Sobule – I Kissed A Girl. Another wonderful storyteller and woefully underrated songwriter.

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – God Is In The House. There was a remarkable performance of this on Jools Holland some years back. Beautifully crafted lyrics.

Nina Simone – Strange Fruit. I actually find this very hard to listen to. Frightening stuff.

Poi Dog Pondering – Spending The Day In The Shirt That You Wore. A bit silly but captures those first days of being in love like very few songs have managed.

Red House Painters – Summer Dress. Perhaps more of a mood piece or tone poem but the picture painted with these words is one I find irresistable.

The Replacements – One Wink At A Time. For the opening verse, excellent writing.

Tom Waits – (Looking For) The Heart Of A Saturday Night. A lesson from the master.

Enjoy wordsmiths.

 

Scott: Gravitational Anomaly

I thought it about time someone posted on here again so here is my tracklist for the February CD. I went for a painfully literal interpretation of the theme just because it amused me to do so but I ended up with some decent songs I think.

Rickie Lee Jones – Prelude To Gravity. I love this instrumental introduction taken from her album The Magazine. It also happens to have the perfect title for this particular theme.

REM – Feeling Gravity’s Pull. Early REM, despite all its influences, still sounds like nothing else on earth.

Red House Painters – I Feel The Rain Fall. A rare jaunty track for RHP.

Maria McKee – Absolutely Barking Stars. Stars can’t bark, which makes these ones an anomaly. The Life Is Sweet album, from which this comes, is one of the great all-time underrated albums. It is an amazing piece of work and should have sold millions.

Erin McKeown – To The Stars. Not sure how well-known Erin is but we love her in our house.

Leona Naess – All The Stars. Someone else who should be huge but isn’t. No idea why. She fits the quirky singer-songwriter mould and she is gorgeous looking. Great songs too.

James – She’s A Star. I hate the idea of James but do rather like quite a number of their songs. This being one.

Blake Babies – Star. Juliana Hatfield. Swoon.

Throwing Muses – Fall Down. I met Kristin Hersh for dinner late last year and whilst we aren’t exactly friends we do correspond occasionally. Getting to know someone whose music you like does make you reassess it a bit. All of her recent solo work can be downloaded for free and is worth checking out.

Sugarcubes – Planet. I remember when I first heard Bjork’s voice. She was singing Birthday in Icelandic on The Chart Show. I didn’t know what to do with myself for hours afterwards.

Pursuit Of Happiness – When The Sky Comes Falling Down. Obscure Canadian band who had a big MTV hit in the 80s with She’s So Young.

Great Lake Swimmers – Falling Into The Sky. Also Canadian, I believe.

Laura Viers – Where Gravity Is Dead. My girlfriend once had  wee in the cubicle next to Laura.

Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova – Falling Slowly. The only Oscar-winning song on here.

Jolie Holland – Black Stars. I like the sounds she makes.

Rickie Lee Jones – Falling Up. I couldn’t tease you with an instrumental and not put some of her vocals on here.

Stina Nordenstam – On Falling. And you thought you’d got through a whole compilation from me without a song from Stina.

Beth Orton – Stars All Seem To Weep. I haven’t really enjoyed much of her recent stuff but the first couple of albums are still great to listen to.

Plague Monkeys – Star Country. They should have been huge. Instead we had The Cranberries.

Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong – Stars Fell On Alabama. Ending with a bit of real class.

So, there you go. Do let me know what you think.

 

Rachel’s December Mix

More ‘winter’ than ‘Christmas’ so I hope you liked it.

01. tim buckley – song to the siren
02. Mark Knopfler – You Don’t Know You’re     Born
03. nelly furtado – childhood dreams
04. Michelle Shocked – Winter Wheat
05. Baby It’s Cold Outside – Jones, Tom & Cerys   Matthews
06. Neko Case – Deep Red Bells
07. portishead – Waiting for the Night
08. Kate Bush – December Will Be Magic Again
09. Tom Waits – Christmas Card From A Hooker In Minneapolis
10. Rachel Unthank & The Winterset – Newcastle Lullaby
11. Sarah McLachlan – Song For A Winter’s Night
12. this mortal coil – song to the siren

 

Anthony: Free Floating & Christmas

Well, the free float was literally what I listened to earlier today, so a mixed bag and no universal theme running thru it (which I’m sure comes as a major surprise).

The Xmas one, I was going to go with my Midlander roots and fill it with Slade, Roy Wood and the rest, but as I don’t listen to them I instead went with what I actually do on a Christmas morning…namely, a mouth full of Black Bush

(or any other irish whiskey that may be to hand)

a plate of soda farls, tatty bread and wheaten bread (tastes better than I spell), and then a mixed bag of Irish music…

Which of course means that if the CDs turn up post-xmas, you can still listen to them…

Free Floating:

1.  Red Army Blues – The Waterboys
Rather sadly I copied the words out to this and got emotional about the whole thing at the age of 15

2. Your Day Will Come – Cousteau
Two from these and quite melodic

3. Its Yer Money – The Wonderstuff
Oh for red hair and dreadlocks. Actually, any hair would be a bonus these days. They used to play in the pub up the road from us, but I rarely bothered going as they were from Wolverhampton and a bit ruff.

4. Won’t Get Fooled Again – The Who
Don’t know why I like this but I do somehow

(Think my iPod might have got randomly stuck on the ‘W’s at this point)

5. Sugar Never Tasted So Good – The White Stripes
Possibly has a different meaing that has passed me by

6. Tiger Mountain Peasent Song – Fleet Foxes
Hang on, this is from this century…bugger. The perfect record, gone gone gone

7. In Love With A Feeling – Babyshambles
See The Who

8. Don’t Believe The Hype – Public Enemy
I have a long boring story that is too long, and I don’t want to bore you any more than normal

9. November Spawned A Monster – Morrissey
Oddly, I think one of his best solo songs

10. Hey Jack Kerouac – 10,000 Maniacs
Think i might have used this before, but it is a smiley song and she is barking

11. The Last Good Day of the Year – Cousteau
Still quite wintery and pretty. What ever happened to..

12. The Asphalt World – Suede
Overblown, but I think their finest moment, certainly the point where Suede blew up methinks. Does that matter? No, didn’t reckon so.

13. Sunday Morning – Velvet Underground
After the bombast, something to clear the taste buds

Xmas:
No notes for these, as I just listen to these and a couple of dozen more off an old tape somebody gave me for xmas once (took me bleeding ages to find them as MP3s though, and probably not the original versions etc.)

1. The Fields of Athenry – Chu Chalin Folk Group

2. Reevy’s Reel – O’Malley’s Folk Music

3. Only a Woman’s Heart – Eleanor McEvoy

4. Molly Malone – The Dubliners

5. As I Roved Out – Planxty

6. Triad – Enya (Sorry Scott)

7. Reels – O’Malleys

8. Celtic Fire – Irish Symphomia

9. No Frontiers – Mary Black

10. Reels – O’Malleys

11. The Galway Girl – Sharon Shannon

12. A Soldier’s Song – Basically a piss up somewhere I think

13. You’ll Never Beat The Irish – Wolfetones

14. Dirty Old Town – The Dubliners

15. Whiskey In A Jar – The Clancy Brothers

 

Alex: Christmas and things I just like Mix

1. Britten: A Ceremony Of Carols, Wolcum Yole!  New London Children’s Choir  – A little welcome from Benny and the kids

2. The Boy Friend: Perfect Young Ladies  – One of Sandy Wilson’s superduper musical showstoppers

3. Vaughan Williams: On Christmas Night – Roger De Coverley  – part of Ralph’s A Christmas Carol Masque, a particularly jolly bit (see how jolly my selection is Scott?),

4. Put It There Pal: Bob Hope and Bing Crosby – “You’ve got that something in your voice so right for selling cheese”. Best lyric ever? Extra points if you can identify which Road To… film it comes from

5. A Christmas Carol by  Tom Lehrer – Classic stuff from TL

6. Slow Train by  Flanders & Swann – one of their loveliest songs

7. Los Peces En El Rio  – a traditional Spanish carol

8.  Harvest Home  with Lucie Skeaping and The Broadside Band – A rousing one to sing with your children at any time of the year

9. Bethlehem Down by Peter Warlock – something a little more modern for the festive season

10. The foggy, foggy Dew – more   Benjy Britten. You may not want your children to listen to this one because of the explicit lyric content

11. Venite, Ascendemus ad montem Domini byJacobus Gallus – Merry Christmas from Slovenia

12. Incidental music to… – name that tune in three? Music by Alain Romans

13. He’s Frank (Slight Return)  by  The Monochrome Set  – always loved TMS at school and now the main guitar chappie is married to my best friend from university. It’s a small world

14. Manhattan Serenade – Last Christmas quiz question – which Tom & Jerry classic cartoon uses this as a soundtrack?
15. Two Little Bluebirds/Goodnight Vienna/It’s Not You/There’s Always Tomorrow with the very debonair  Jack Buchanan

 

Scott: Now That’s What I Call Christmas

I had great fun putting together what might be the most miserable and depressing collection of Christmas songs in recent times.

I make no apologies for pretty much randomly selecting tracks with vague links to the festive season. The only link is that I like them all, and that is good enough for me.

Leona Naess – Christmas

Low – Just Like Christmas. The Low Christmas album is the one we usually have playing while the kids open their presents.

Pixies – Winterlong

Bobby Baby – Bye Bye Snow. I find her vocals heartbreaking. More tears to come from her later.

K’s Choice – Winter

Grant McLennan – Ice In Heaven

The Ramones – Merry Christmas (I Don’t Want To Fight Tonight)

JJ72 – Snow. I like the main lyric to this, it amuses me.

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Fifteen Feet Of Pure White Snow

Stina Nordenstam – Winter Killing. One to cheer you up on a cold and frosty morning.

Dot Allison – In Winter Still

Tori Amos – Winter. I think people seem to forget what a refreshing change she was when she first appeared.

Claude Debussy – The Snow Is Dancing

Kate Bush – Under Ice

Cocteau Twins – Iceblink Luck. Liz Fraser had an affair with Jeff Buckley, can you imagine what their offspring might have sounded like in years from now?

Mel Torme – The Christmas Song. Gotta have a bit of crooning.

Vashti Bunyan – Winter Is Blues. Just in case the crooning was cheering you up at all.

Stina Nordenstam – Soon After Christmas. The saddest song I have ever heard.

Bobby Baby – Santa Claus Is Coming To Town

Merry Christmas one and all.

 

Scott: Free Swim

I basically just went for a bunch of songs or artists that I am listening to at the moment. Winging it really.

Valgeir Sigurdsson – Before Nine. My other half gave me this CD for my birthday. He is best known as a producer and worked on some of Bjork’s albums, particularly Verspetine. It is a strange mix of classical, vocal and electronica with some beautiful tracks. This one reminds me of Gorecki’s 3rd Symphony.

Yasmin Levy – La Alegria. She is an Israeli singer with Spanish heritage so you get a hypnotic mix of fado, flamenco and ladino.

Amy LaVere – Pointless Drinking. I am a sucker for a woman with an upright bass.

Bill Evans – When You Wish Upon A Star. I am not a massive jazz fan but give me a bit of Evans, Coltrane or Davis and I am more than happy.

Stafraenn Hakon – Rjupa. Icelandic soundscapes.

Erik Satie – 3 Sarabandes: #1. I read a story about Satie at an art exhibition. He had composed the music for it and had intended for it to go unnoticed by the visitors and became quite frustrated that they were actually listening to it so he ran around telling them all to stop listening and look at the paintings instead.

Rachmaninov – Hymn Of The Cherubim. Shameless namedrop, this was put on a compilation for me by David Mitchell (the author, not the comedian) so I confess I don’t know the performers. Lovely piece though.

Stina Nordenstam – Little Star: Celestial Mix. Obligatory Stina track, this is a lovely ambient remix.

The Killers – Human. We step things up a bit here, just to make sure you don’t drop off. Ethan, my son, went out to buy this album on the day it came out and it has been a constant on the kitchen CD player ever since.

Anja Garbarek – The Last Trick. Daughter of Jan and weirdly wonderful.

Kristin Hersh – Slippershell. Much of her music of the past few years has been available as free downloads, this is one and it is a real grower. Play loud.

Leona Naess – Heavy Like Sunday. I think she is one of the most consistently interesting singer-songwriters out there but hardly anyone has ever heard of her.

Martha Wainwright – You Cheated Me. The best track on her recent album.

Sequentia – O Quam Mirabilis Est (Antiphona). Some Hildegard von Bingen always chills things out.

Valgeir Sigurdsson – Lungs, For Merrilee. Bookending the selection with some more noodling.

We have been playing this mix quite a lot ourselves, mainly at night while reading. It isn’t really intended to showcase individual tracks, although I hope there are some that are new to you that you enjoy, but more as a mood piece to play in the background – Satie style.

 

Alex: Lights out

I found it hard to get to grips with this one as I don’t really have any serial killerish music which I play in the dark so I’ve gone for things which are atmospherically nightlike and also which I have played loud at nighttime and sung along to loudly. Anyway…

1. Rain Under A Brolly, recorded by David Pickvance for the Cloud Appreciation Society (composer is God according to the import which made me smile). It comes from the CAS’s CD of rain recordings from around the world. If it’s night time, then surely it’s raining?

2. Philip Glass, Violin concerto, Movement 1 with Takuo Yuasa and the Ulster Orchestra: like Scott’s Pårt selection, I think Glass fits well into a kind of Kafkaesque interminable long dark night of the soul CD
3. Timeless Narnia, with and by Marisa Robles (harp), Christopher Hyde-Smith (flute) and the Marisa Robles Harp Ensemble. To be honest I’m not a big Narnia fan (I’m much more of a Tolkienist) but I love this. Good Hallowe’en music

4. Um Mitternacht, with Christianne Stotlijn on voice – one of Gustav Mahler’s various miserablish songs best listened to at midnight

5. flor di nha esperanca, Cape Verde late dinner smooth jazz vibes with Cesaria Evora.

6. Flos regalis virginalis,  Stella Maris with their early music voices in fine form
7. Reel Around The Fountain by Steven and the Smiths – I could have chosen pretty much anything but this feels like a late night one rather than a jumpy up and down one

8. This Is The One – I used to sing this Stone Roses one loud and long at college bops

9. Bitter Sweet Symphony – see above

10.The Sun Rising  – it’s nice to finish on a positive note so here are The Beloved seeing the sun come up (with a little early music thrown in – extra points for naming the singer)