Following the annual barrage of complaints from the Shepherd's Bush area regarding my end-of-year compilation, I have renamed the mp3 files, retagged them to enable ease of use, and provided the following exhaustive and fascinating multimedia sleevenotes (mp3 download link below):
01) MORRISSEY - SOMETHING IS SQUEEZING MY SKULL
Like a New York Dolls track, only about depression. Curiously uplifting. I don't think it made much of an impression on the wider world. I wonder if Morrissey really is on any kind of medication. It would explain his girth and also his willingness to settle for producing less than brilliant work, such as most of the rest of the album this is taken from.
02) DEPECHE MODE - WRONG
Another song about depression. This and the Morrissey song would make a great double A-side. Again, it screams so loud it becomes kind of life-affirming. This on Later was perhaps the TV appearance of the year. The album is not much good.
03) DENNIS COFFEY - BLACK BELT JONES
From the compilation Can You Dig It? which explores the Blaxploitation mini-genre of soul. I knew about half the tracks already, but even so it is quite revelatory, that there such be such a solid heavy little slab of this stuff, a lawlessness unto itself.
04) WORLD OF TWIST - SONS OF THE STAGE (RADIO EDIT)
Rediscovered via the wonderful world of music blogs. So much better than most of the Madchester stuff it was lumped in with, and it has really stood the test of time. I had a tape with this on, it followed Emerson Lake and Palmer doing Stravinsky, which seems ideal.
05) GOD HELP THE GIRL - HOWARD JONES IS MY MOZART
06) GOD HELP THE GIRL - STILLS
I just think these two are brilliant. The first one is a B-side; the second is an EP track.
07) BLONDIE - RAPTURE (SPECIAL DISCO MIX)
From a Blondie singles compilation, this version goes on for ages, but never flags.
08) LITTLE BOOTS - STUCK ON REPEAT
Not much to say about this, except I like it a lot. Some people call it Coronation Street in space, but I call it Giorgio Moroder on Pukka Pies.
(Speaking of food, if you go to the catering tent featured herein later on in the day, the only thing left is cake. Mountains and mountains of cake.)
09) THE BEACH BOYS - FALLIN' IN LOVE
First official release, apparently. I think the introduction has been added. Just a beautiful song, although now it reminds me of David Walliams.
10) JK AND TRU-SKOOL - JHOOTEH LAAREH
From Derby. I suppose one of the advantages of the download era is you can hear something on the radio and then just look for it and buy it, which is what I did when this was played by one of the northern puddings that populate the radio waves of an evening. I think it may have been Marc Riley. I hope it was.
11) PET SHOP BOYS - LOVE ETC
Up there with Left to My Own Devices. Again, the album is not very good. But the video is.
12) YOKO ONO PLASTIC ONO BAND - THE SUN IS DOWN!
The new Yoko Ono album is full of haunting melodies and poetry that is simple to the point of dumbass, yet no less effective for that. I think (and hope) it will be around for years to come. This is probably the most disco track. I saw her in concert and it was... OK.
13) THE DEAD WEATHER - HANG YOU FROM THE HEAVENS
Blues explosion.
14) THE HORRORS - SEA WITHIN A SEA
This reminds me of The Psychedelic Furs. The album is quite My Bloody Valentine-ish, guitars that have lost their voices, only with these blunderbuss vocals. The video is very rock'n'roll, and rather beautiful.
15) JOYCE - CLAREANA
I have never bathed in molasses, in fact I don't think I have ever even seen molasses, but I imagine bathing in them is a bit like listening to this.
16) TINKERBELL'S FAIRYDUST - (YOU KEEP ME) HANGIN' ON
This is what happens when you think you've heard it all - you end up buying obscure UK psych albums by beat groups trying their hand at the new thing, except by the time it gets released the new thing is no longer the new thing and nobody buys the resulting record. It turns out you really have heard it all before, but it's still quite good fun. In my opinion, the definitive version remains the snippet at the end of Time Buckley's live performance of Pleasant Street on the Dream Letter album.
17) THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA - LOVE SONG FOR THE DEAD CHÉ
Drifting, drifting...
18) THE CLIENTELE - HARVEST TIME
The live version of this by Amor de dias at the Hangover Lounge was one of the highlights of the year.
19) RODRIGUEZ - SUGAR MAN
Second appearance by Dennis Coffey, who produced this. If ever a record sounded like it knew it wasn't going to be a hit, this is it. Very popular in the South African army, apparently. I wonder what their Cuban counterparts were listening to during the Angolan war. Here's hoping for a themed compilation.
20) HERON - SMILING LADIES
From Maidenhead. This is your acid folk, which I got deeper into when my considerable skills and experience, obtained and honed over many years of hard work, were required to subtitle a 70s nudie film featuring incidental music by Comus.
21) LENNY BRUCE - TESTING THE SONY MICROPHONE
I am slowly learning to love Lenny Bruce. Not sure I have anything useful or interesting to say yet.
22) SEYFU YOHANNES - MELA MELA
Ethiopian. I think I actually wanted another, quieter track, but I couldn't find it. This one is fairly indicative though. One could lose oneself in Ethiopian music, and one day that is what I intend to do.
23) SARAH WEBSTER FABIO - GLIMPSES
From Fly Girls, a 2CD history of women in rap featuring all your favourites and a few more besides. Jazz meets poetry, I suppose. It is very beguiling.
24) FUCK BUTTONS - SURF SOLAR (7" EDIT)
The other side of the Little Boots coin, I think. Album of the year? Possibly. There is Weatherall involvement. The video features penguins underwater. I don't think I would have taken much notice if this if it hadn't been for the penguins in the video, so that is conclusive proof that videos are a necessary promotional tool in the music industry.
25) DAVE GRUSIN - ASCENSION TO VIRGINITY (CANDY OST)
I watched this film Candy, which is basically a load of very dodgy rape fantasies with an air of mysticism and flag waving, but the music is fantastic. There is also a Byrds song. Well, two Byrds songs, but one wasn't used, apparently because McGuinn's co-writer wasn't well-known enough. This is Captain Useless Information, signing off.
Download 25 from 2009 (164 MB):
http://www.zshare.net/download/70928813b904cd62/
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