there's a car park where the palais used to stand....

Earworms of the Week

“Drive in Saturday” – David Bowie

Pete over at Uborka is working his way through David Bowie's albums in chronological order.  We've just had the enormous twin high water marks of Hunky Dory and Ziggy Stardust, and we've reached Aladdin Sane.  There are some brilliant tracks on here - not least this one, which was one of the very first Bowie songs that I really loved - but the overall feeling is that he's peaked somewhat.  Still, a slightly-past-peak Bowie is still a lot better than most.

"Sex on Fire" - Kings of Leon

I used to love the Kings of Leon.  Those first two albums remain pretty much untoucheable... and then at some point they became the Eagles.  This brought them enormous success, and they're still an admirable band in lots of ways, but they've cut their hair, shaved and they haven't sounded the same since.  This was a massive hit, obviously, but the magic has gone for me.  Catchy, to be fair.  There's no denying that.... but it's a shitter retread of "Pistol of Fire", isn't it?

"Son of a Preacher Man" - Dusty Springfield

Ah.  Dusty.  Take a deep breath. Everything will be fine now.

“NASA is on Your Side” - Everything Everything

I discovered Everything Everything through the sublime "Kemosabe".  So good is their second album, that in spite of downloading it on the same day, I haven't given their debut all that much attention.  Well, I've been rectifying that mistake over the last week.  Excellent.  They're properly good, this lot.  Listening to this album more has also made me reconsider the gig we went to at Rock City the other week too.  They played a lot of this album, and looking back, they were even better than I thought they were at the time.... when they played this song in particular, it was electrifying... which I sort of appreciate more now for knowing the song better.  If you know what I mean.

"I Will Kill Again" - Jarvis Cocker

You know, "Jarvis" came out in 2006.  Every time I listen to it, it just seems to be getting better and better.  "Running the World" is the attention-grabbing track, of course, but there's so much to like on here.  I'm a big fan of Pulp, but actually being stripped of a full-on backing band seems to suit Jarvis, and the songs here benefit from being a little bit simpler.  This song is beautiful because of the slightly surprising juxtaposition of beautiful ballad and lyrical content about a killer.  Lovely.

“Surfing on a Rocket” - Air

For once, I got home from work fairly early yesterday and just sat myself down, grabbed my book and just listened to some music.  Perhaps for alphabetical reasons, I settled on Air, and listened to both "Talkie Walkie" and "10,000 Hz Legend".  Excellent band, and just the kind of soft, background music that I was looking for to accompany my reading.

“Nightrain” – Guns n’Roses

.... well, for a bit, anyway.  After listening to Air for 90 minutes or so, I was ready for a proper bit of honest-to-goodness rock music.  Guns n'Roses seemed to fit the bill nicely.  I loved this album so much that I listened to it for almost an entire year when I was fourteen to the exclusion of pretty much anything else except "Pump" by Aerosmith.  It sounded amazing then and it sounds amazing now.  What an incredible album.  Genre-defining.  Still sounds as good today as it did back in 1988.

“Summertime” – Ella Fitzgerald

I went running at lunchtime today.  Given that I cycled to work on frosty paths, it was perhaps something of a miracle that the run was actually quite warm and bathed in dazzling late Autumn sunshine.  It was an absolutely lovely day.  I've been lucky recently, actually.  As I mostly cycle to work these days, I get to see quite a lot of weather, and even when it's been raining, it's actually been quite nice to be out and about a bit more often.  The last couple of Tuesday morning, I've also been up and out for the 7am run with running club... and both mornings, the sun has come up as we've been looping around the Embankment.  Glorious.  It's getting colder, but Autumn is definitely still here with all her glorious colours.  Quite why this all puts a song called "Summertime" in my head is perhaps anyone's guess.

“Year 3000” - Busted

McBusted failed to make all that much of an impression on me as they performed mostly silently on the big tv screens as I took calls on the Children in Need call centre last week.  To be truthful, neither McFly nor Busted made all that big an impression on me.  In fact, I'm not sure I could name a single song by McFly.  I'm sure they were better than most and certainly less dull than Westlife, but they're just not really my cup of tea.  This is a great record though, isn't it?  Judging by what's been going around my head today, it's certainly a catchy one.

“Come Dancing” – The Kinks

Not my favourite of Ray Davies' songs, but any means.... and I don't even bloody well like dancing, either.  But here it is.  I've not listened to the Kinks in a while, actually, and by this point they were probably comfortably past their peak.... release in 1982....but it's a great record, isn't it?  I actually remember this one when it came out, and perhaps I saw them on top of the pops, even if it was before the years when I used to sit, poised with my cassette and the record button on my dad's stereo when they counted down the charts.  Great days.  I seem to remember that I was very attached to the recording of "Star Trekking" that I made.  I'm not sure my music taste has come all that far since then, to be honest.

That's your lot.  Have a good weekend, y'all.  It's casserole weather, isn't it?  I think I'll get myself some shin beef at the farmer's market tomorrow and settle down to cook some proper comfort food.  Mmmm.