I poison every room in the house....

Earworms of the Week

“Amsterdam” – Scott Walker

Well, no prizes for guessing how this one got in my head when I’ve just got back from a trip to Holland that involved a few hours spent in Amsterdam. I have to say, I think that my experience of the city is somewhat different to that of Jacques Brel.

In the Port of Amsterdam
There's a sailor who drinks
And he drinks and he drinks
And he drinks once again
He drinks to the health
Of the whores of Amsterdam
Who have promised their love
To a thousand other men
They've bargained their bodies
And their virtue long gone
For a few dirty coins
And when he can't go on
He plants his nose in the sky
And he wipes it up above
And he pisses like I cry
For an unfaithful love

Oh, maybe not that different….

“Born to Die” – Lana Del Rey

Like everyone else, I loved “Video Games” and bought the album pretty soon after it came out. To be honest, for lots of reasons, I haven’t really listened to it very much. I did hear this playing in the gym the other day though, and not for the first time, it made me think that I should give her a fair crack of the whip. Maybe next week, huh?

“Jet” ('one hand clapping' version) – Wings

I don’t like all of the “Band on the Run” album that I received for my birthday (it was released in the year I was born), but it does contain some cast iron classics, including this one. I actually like some of the alternative versions included on the remastered album too. Goes to show that, when the basic tune is this good, it’s pretty hard to ruin.

“Default” - Django Django

I know I’m pretty late onto this, but I really like Django Django…. I just can’t quite get past how much they sound like the Beta Band. Not this song, particularly, and it’s definitely not a bad thing, but it’s certainly a thing. Sounds good though, I was sad when the Beta Band called it a day, and I really like Steve Mason’s last album too, so it’s all golden (and thanks, Sarah!)

“You’re Not Pretty But You Got It Going On” – Band of Skulls

Love this band and you’ve got to love the sentiment in that lyric, haven’t you?

“Whole Lotta Rosie” – AC/DC

A song about shagging a fat bird from Tasmania. Makes me smile every time I hear it… and also helps me pick up the pace when I’ve been out running. A friend was asking about good running songs to put onto her playlist for the London Marathon next week, and I had to suggest this one. This, “Knights of Cydonia” and anything by Metallica, although particularly “Broken, Beat and Scarred” and anything else off Death Magnetic. When I listen to Metallica when I’m running, I run like I’m being chased by the hounds of hell….

“Lazy Sunday Afternoon” – Small Faces

How's your Bert’s lumbago? Do we even have neighbours like this any more? Do we even have lumbago?

“Life is Life” – Noah and the Whale

Still love this album. Had it on almost by mistake the other day after not listening to it for a while (inspired by using a lyric as a post-header here, actually), and it still sounded magnificent.

“Faster” – Manic Street Preachers
“From Despair to Where” – Manic Street Preachers
“Your Love Alone Is Not Enough” – Manic Street Preachers

This week has been all about the Manics for me. We go way back, of course, but I’ve rediscovered them with a vengeance, starting with the “Holy Bible” when I was angry and at work the other day, and culminating with me digging out an old playlist featuring things like “the theme from MASH” and other classics from all their albums / singles. I tend to imagine that “The Holy Bible” was their peak (and it’s hard to get a much more righteous lyric than this from “Faster”

I am stronger than Mensa, Miller and Mailer
I spat out Plath and Pinter
I am all the things that you regret
A truth that washes that learnt how to spell

Mind you, as opening lines go, how about this from the same song?

I am an architect,
They call me a butcher)

…but then I listened to “Your Love Alone Is Not Enough” (a Richey phrase, apparently), and remembered what a brilliant song that is, and how much later they actually recorded it – the two songs are ten years apart. Ten years! So much for breaking up after recording one, epoch defining record, huh? Still, I can’t be the only person who’s glad that they never quite got around to following up on that threat. They’re national treasures now, innit? Listening to them again this week has helped me appreciate quite what a good guitarist James Dean Bradfield is, quite how good their lyrics often are, and quite how brilliant a job Bradfield and Sean Moore do shoe-horning those wordy lyrics into a tune. “From Despair to Where” . Damn, another fine tune. I might have to listen to the whole lot, album by album. Lana del Rey might have to wait a bit longer. Oh well.

Have a good weekend, y’all.