your voice is soft like summer rain....

Earworms of the Week

"Walk Me to the Bridge" - Manic Street Preachers

It seems to have had something of a mixed reception amongst the fans, but I really liked "Rewind the Film", the last album by the Manics.  Sure, it's a long way from the fire and fury of their earliest albums, but they're not the band they used to be, and instead, the discerning listener was treated to an elegiac album by mature elder statesmen at the top of their game.  I was quite surprised to hear that they have a new album in the pipeline already, "Futurology", due to be released in July.  This is the lead-off single, and it sounds like a return to slightly edgier material, seemingly referencing the supposed suicide of Richie Edwards.  It's stuck in my head and I will certainly be going to see them on the Other Stage at Glastonbury next weekend, before wandering over to the Pyramid to watch Metallica on the Pyramid.  Excellent band.  They might not bother to have a toilet backstage exclusively for their own use these days, but you never know, eh?

"Let's Get Ready to Rhumble" - PJ & Duncan AKA
"Everybody Get Up" - Five

We were singing these in the office at work the other day, and both were on my wedding playlist, if I remember correctly.  We did a thing where you got to nominate a couple of songs for the disco on your RSVP, and both of these were on the list and may well have been played, along with "You Came" by Kim Wilde and, famously, "Kung Fu Fighting" (which saw a waitress having her nose broken as one of my friends threw shapes on the dancefloor).  Ah, great days.  Both marvellous songs too, clearly.  The Five one perhaps surprisingly so.  It really is, though.

"Since I've Been Loving You" - Led Zeppelin

Not the balls-to-the-floor, pedal-to-the-metal rocker that I might have chosen from the band's canon, but you can't choose what gets stuck in your head, can you?  Brilliant, soulful guitar and vocals on this one, too.

"Milkman of Human Kindness" - Billy Bragg

Billy Bragg posted a few pictures of the Leftfield tent as it went up at the Glastonbury festival this week, commenting how much bigger they had become since their debut at the 2002 festival, when they had a small white marquee with a stage about 2ft off the floor.  I remember it well.  The comments underneath his photos reflect rather badly on a certain kind of person: some were moaning about Bragg's politics (which seems a very odd thing to do on his facebook feed); some were moaning about how they hadn't got or couldn't afford tickets and that Glastonbury was now a middle-class festival to be avoided; others were complaining that Metallica should be boycotted because James Hetfield hunts and has narrated a documentary on bear hunting.  Spare us.  It's pathetic.  If you don't like Metallica, don't watch them.  Have you combed the rest of the bill for acts to be offended by?  Ugh.  Morons.  Great record though.  He partially clashes with Elbow, but I reckon I'll make my way over there for the second half of the great man's set.

"Orion" - Rodrigo Y Gabriela

An acoustic cover of the classic Metallica instrumental from "Master of Puppets".  They always play it, but this year it will have a special relevance.  You can't beat duelling acoustic guitars on the main stage at lunchtime, eh?

"It Will Not Be Forgotten" - The Pierces

I haven't listened to it in a while, but this is a splendid record, isn't it? I've no idea how much of a commercial success it was, but listening to it again now, it's really held up and sounds great.  Still, whoever said the music industry was a meritocracy?

"I Believe I Can Fly" - R. Kelly

There's a lovely girl in our team called Kelly.  She's from Liverpool and revealed the other day that her family refer to her as "Our Kelly".  The rest is simple.  She also revealed that scousers no longer really say "la" at the end of a sentence any more.  Apparently they've replaced it with "lid".  They're a musical people, aren't they, these Liverpudlians?

"Jolene" - Dolly Parton
"Jolene" - The White Stripes

I was singing this the other day, under my breath at my desk.  As you do. It was soon picked up by our Kelly, and before long, the only way we could exorcise the damn thing was to play it.  I mentioned the White Stripes version, and she'd never heard it, so I put that on too.
"It sounds like he's having a shit"
Yeah, that pretty much sums up Jack White's singing style, doesn't it?
Who knows what the Miley Cyrus version sounds like, eh? Shit, I'm guessing.

I'm off down to the Festival on Tuesday afternoon next week and I can't wait.  I hope the sun shines for us, but I'll be taking the same stuff as I take every year, so it doesn't really matter what happens.  Game on!  Have a good weekend, y'all.  Relax and enjoy the football now that we're no longer in it.  I plan to.