just because you were right before, doesn't mean you're right

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Earworms of the Week

10. "My Girl" - The Temptations / "In the Morning" - The Coral

You might remember that the guy who sits next to me at work - Gareth - is extremely susceptible to earworms. Yesterday he started singing the opening bars to a song, over and over again. After a couple of minutes, this became a little annoying, so I asked him what the song was. He couldn't remember. A couple of minutes later and I had picked up the song and was singing it down to the chorus - "My Girl" by The Temptations. It's a great record. It wasn't what Gareth had in mind, but we agreed it was probably a far better song anyway and that it would do.... Until a couple of minutes later, when Gareth was back to singing his original couple of bars. This time I caught it properly and my earworm radar detected the Coral.

I was right. The Temptations are better.

9. "I'm Only Sleeping" - The Beatles

I haven't listened to the Beatles in a long time, but this song dropped into my head this morning. It feels dreamy, as if you were floating downstream with the lyric.

8. "Cecilia Ann" - The Pixies

Kick-arse instrumental - no nihilistic shrieking to be heard on this one. Makes me want to bounce.

7. "Late Night Maudlin Street" - Morrissey

I seem to have lots of Morrissey in these lists, but this one came up on shuffle this afternoon and I've always had a bit of a soft spot for it. It's long for a Morrissey song and it has a distinctly otherworldy feel to it. His new album's out on Monday (Mark's review of it is here) and by all accounts it's pretty good, so I'm looking forward to that. Mind you, I'm still smarting from having those tickets for his tour in May snatched away from me by those ever incompetent nincoompoops at SeeTickets. £150 for a pair on Ebay though.

Grrr.

6. "'Til I Die" - The Beach Boys

My favourite Beach Boys song bar none. People bang on about "Pet Sounds" and "Smile", but for my money you can't go wrong with "Surf's Up" (happily available together with the also magnificent "Sunflower" for less than £6 here). If you are only familiar with their "California Girls" and "Little Deuce Coup" type stuff, then you should definitely check this stuff out. Very few people have made music as beautiful as this.

5. "Nature's Law" - Embrace

I find myself liking Embrace a little reluctantly. In the main, I think that Danny honks like a sealion and would struggle to carry a tune in a bucket... but.... I quite liked their last album (and not just the Coldplay song on it either), and this song - their current single - has really grown on me.

Mind you, if this lot are the best that England can do, then we really are destined for mid-table mediocrity. I can only assume that James Blunt was busy... (that was a joke, by the way).

4. "Hoppipolla" - Sigur Ros

This is being used as the background music for the trailers for the magnificent BBC wildlife programme "Planet Earth" (which week after week is turning out some of the most staggering wildlife photography I have ever seen: the polar bears, the sharks, the snow leopard.... breathtaking).

Sigur Ros are the perfect soundtrack.

3. "No Surprises" - Radiohead

Don't ask me why, but I was watching VH2 after midnight the other day when this record popped up. It's a gorgeous song anyway, but I'd forgotten about the video.... the one where Thom Yorke is wearing some sort of helmet that slowly fills up with water. Amazing.

Watch it here.

2. "Every Rose Has Its Thorn" - Poison

Ridiculous. Utterly ridiculous. I can't hear this without thinking of Bill & Ted.

"They melvined me..."

1. "Gleaming Auction" - Snow Patrol

I think this initally popped into my head this week when I read the review for their new album.... this is the third track in on "Final Straw" (£3.96 in Amazon? really?), and it's as good as the rest of them. I've had this album in my car for about 2 years solid now, and I can't bring myself to take it out. I was listening to it on the way home today.

The new album's supposed to be good, too. I do hope he's had his haircut though.

Have a good weekend y'all. C is away on business, so I'll mostly be moping. Well, either that or watching TV and playing Football Manager anyway....