they wobbled menacingly....

Earworms of the Week

The Bare Necessities

Aw look.  This is one of those songs, isn't it?  Laura was singing it all day on Friday.  Rich was singing it all day on Saturday, and then it was in everyone else's heads for the rest of the weekend.  Damn, but Baloo was one cool bear.  1967 and as fresh sounding today as ever.

“You Got The Style” - Athlete

For me, Athlete's first album is their best.  I know LB will probably disagree with that assessment, and "Tourist" is probably a more accomplished record, but I liked them best then they were a little bit quirky.  "Vehicles and Animals" is a bit rougher and a bit less Coldplay than much of what came afterwards, and I like it for that.  This is my favourite song on the album.  This was actually in my head after it popped up on shuffle as I drove to work one morning, but perhaps the iPod was trying to tell me something?

"I've seen
The tension on the high street growing lately
It seems that you have to be careful who you look at
Sometimes
I can't see things the way you see them
But this is our home"

“Iron Man” – Black Sabbath

I've put this song on my new running playlist, and in spite of the fact that there are hundreds of songs on there, every time I go out running, shuffle seems to select this one.  It's not a particularly clever or subtle song, but sometimes a basic riff is all you need.

"Porcelain" - Moby

I think I must have picked up a snippet of this on the gym PA system as I raced in for my swimming lesson.  Actually, it might not even have been this song... but whatever it was, it prompted this song to pop up on repeat in my internal jukebox.  Given that I'm usually prone to a bit rock music in my earworms and was busy playing air guitar at several points on my 10 mile run on Thursday night, something a little calmer was actually very welcome.  Good song.  I haven't heard it for a while, and it sounds better for being less over-exposed than it was back in the day.  Lovely video too.

“Waiting for my Chance to Come” – Noah and the Whale

Still my favourite album of the year so far, albeit one I haven't listened to in a few weeks.  This isn't my favourite song on the record, but it spontaneously popped into my head and was most welcome.

“Tank Park Salute” – Billy Bragg

My iPod was in a Billy Bragg mood this morning.... on a playlist of several hundred songs, it played 3 Bragg songs within 4 songs.  Nice way to start the day, I thought.  This is a lovely record, and unlike "New England" and "Sexuality", I haven't listened to it hundreds of times, which made it all the more welcome.   Lovely record.  "Daddy is it true that we all have to die?" "You were so tall, how could you fall?"  What a tribute to his father.  To anyone's father.

“The Village Green Preservation Society” – The Kinks

Bought this album for £2 the other week, and can't get enough of the title track.  It irks me slightly each time he mentions Donald Duck, as I hardly see him as quintessentially English, but the lyrics are aces... as you'd expect from Ray Davies.  How could you not love a line like "We are the custard pie appreciation consortium"??

“After the Goldrush” – Neil Young

Another triumph for shuffle.  C. finds Neil Young tedious in the extreme, I fear, but I love that querulous, reedy voice... used to magnificent effect on this beautiful song.  His version of "Rocking the Free World" could have gone on forever at Glastonbury the other year... and if it had, I'd still be there watching him playing it.

“Police and Thieves” – The Clash

Well, the back catlalogue  of The Clash could almost have been made for the events of the last week, but this is the song that lodged itself into my head and wouldn't let go as our cities burned.  I was childishly pleased with myself for managing to insert lyrics from "Panic", "Anarchy in the UK" and "White Riot" into my weekly report at work today too.....  I'm deliberately avoiding the Kaiser Chiefs too: they might have predicted a riot back in 2004, but what did they do about it, eh?  Joe Strummer was a genius though, eh?  Check out the lyrics to "White Riot":

White riot - I wanna riot
White riot - a riot of my own
White riot - I wanna riot
White riot - a riot of my own

Black people gotta lot a problems
But they don't mind throwing a brick
White people go to school
Where they teach you how to be thick

An' everybody's doing
Just what they're told to
An' nobody wants
To go to jail!

White riot - I wanna riot
White riot - a riot of my own
White riot - I wanna riot
White riot - a riot of my own

All the power's in the hands
Of people rich enough to buy it
While we walk the street
Too chicken to even try it

Everybody's doing
Just what they're told to
Nobody wants
To go to jail!

White riot - I wanna riot
White riot - a riot of my own
White riot - I wanna riot
White riot - a riot of my own

Are you taking over
or are you taking orders?
Are you going backwards
Or are you going forwards?

He knew all about urban tensions, eh?

“Fat Children” - Jarvis

There are some songs, that when they pop up on your iPod when you're running, seem to put a real spring into your step.  These "power songs" seem to give you enough of a lift to help you pick up your pace at a point when you're really starting to flag.  I don't have a particular power song, but on long runs especially, there is usually something that comes along and picks me up when I most leave it.  In the past this has been songs as diverse as "Knights of Cydonia" by Muse or "Meeting Mr. Miandad" by the Duckworth Lewis Method.  As I was labouring my way to the 6 or 7 mile point of my long run on Thursday evening, I was given a welcome boost by this Jarvis song about being mugged and killed by fat children in Tottenham.  Topical too, eh? ("...the police force was elsewhere, putting bullets in some guys head for no particular reason") They were after his smartphone.  Maggots without the sense to become flies.  Nicely put, Jarvis.

That's it.  Have a good weekend y'all.  I'm going to try and forget about exercise until Sunday evening at the earliest.  My poor legs....