Music Review: The World Of Piaf

 This week I'm writing about one of my 12" records.  I'm not certain where I picked up The World Of Piaf - my best guess is that it came from the charity shop that I worked in between University and getting a paid job but I could have bought it elsewhere as it's one of the older records in my collection.  Édith Piaf is a character who I find very interesting; from a very impoverished background, even fame didn't lessen the hardship she continued to face up until her death aged 47.  I don't speak French, at least not to the degree where I can pick out more than the occasional word or phrase in a song, but it's my favourite foreign language to listen to.  

Side A

1. Padam, Padam 🟢
We open with one of the Piaf songs that I'm most familiar with, although I have no idea what it means.  It doesn't sound sad like a lot of her songs - it has a pleasant oompah rhythm with accordion and waltz strings.  After she finishes singing, these instruments finish with a key change and a loud dramatic final note.  I didn't look up translations of the lyrics while I was listening to the album but am doing so as I type up my thoughts.  'Padam, Padam' is onomatopoeic; a tune that's haunted her.

2. Les Trois Cloches 🟢
The album covers around 15 years of Piaf's career and Les Trois Cloches is the oldest song on the record, from 1946.  It sounds it, too - it has a religious air to it.  It's acapella with a lead vocal and a choral backing; Édith sings the verses and goes back and forth with another singer.  The sleeve gives a little information about each song and says that this one tells the life story of one person.  

3. Traque 🟢
There's clearly a story being told in these lyrics and it sounds like it would be compelling if only I were able to understand it.  The sleeve explains that it's about a man literally running from his past which fits in well with the accompaniment.  

4. La Belle Histoire d'Amour 🟢
This has a big dramatic chorus and soft, sweet verses, which is a commonality between a lot of Piaf's works.  There are blasts of brass and timpani during the choruses which are very striking and a little frightening.  The description says that the song is a lament for an ex-lover by quoting some of the lyrics, which it turns out are super sad.

5. Les Amants d'Un Jour 🟢
There's a real wistfulness to this, almost like it's a song from an old Disney movie; Cinderella or Snow White waiting for their prince to come.  I understood it to be about a working woman staying on the sidelines, watching others pass through her hotel as lovers.  However, I've read the lyrics now and in fact the lovers take a room in her hotel in which to die together and she is haunted by their memory, which is even more heart-wrenching.  She performed an English version of the song on tour in the US in the 50s and thankfully there is a recording of it.  The song ends with the sound of her breaking the glass that she's cleaning in the lyrics which is a great touch.

6. Le Diable de la Bastille 🟢
One of Piaf's trademarks is the way that she rolls her Rs and this song exemplifies that trait.  It has a darkness to it which is fit for Le Diable (or the Devil).  She fits in a lot of words in this song so I was intrigued to understand the story of this dramatic dance with the devil.  It appears to be about a young woman being seduced by the devil on Bastille Day - a woman who, of course, turns out to be the narrator.  

7. T'es l'Homme Qu'il Me Faut 🟢
This is very upbeat for Piaf.  It almost sounds a bit Hawaiian in the accompaniment, a sound which was very much in vogue at this time.  It's not a million miles away from something you could imagine Elvis performing, especially with the classic rock-n-roll cadence at the end.  She sounds really happy in this one which makes sense as it's a love song.

8. C'est À Hambourg 🟢
It's about romancing sailors - presumably while working as a prostitute.  She gives us a little English, Spanish and German while naming different ports of the world where she might meet her sailor boy.  Like a lot of her songs it uses the standard jaunty chorus and slowed down verse structure.  There's a sound effect to imitate a ship's horn towards the end, like a sailor coming into (or perhaps sailing out of) port, which is a fun way to end the song.

Side B

1. La Vie En Rose 🔵
We start with one of Piaf's signature songs.  La Vie En Rose sounds beautiful and romantic.  The strings combined with the vocal melody are so luscious.  The image in my head when I hear this song is of two lovers, strolling arm in arm down an avenue lined with cherry blossoms; pink petals raining over their heads and pooling at their feet.  It's a gorgeous love song.  

2. Exodus 🟢
I assumed these lyrics were of a religious nature, given the title, but it's actually about people coming home from a land they'd been cast out of.  It has a choir again and there's a lot of drama in the music along with a mournfulness in her voice.  Alongside the usual string section, there's also a guitar playing chords and arpeggios which lends it a folk quality.  

3. Les Gens 🟢
After the grand finish of Exodus this sounds smaller and more contained, like something from a theatre musical.  The accordion and piano give this a distinct Frenchness.  Again, it's one where I felt I would benefit more from knowing the words so I've looked them up and it's a love song about les gens (people) noticing how in love she and her partner are while they are in their own world.

4. Les Flons-Flons Du Bal 🟢
This sounds like party music, a song for dancing to at a grand ball.  I wasn't sure what the title meant but have since found out it means "the dance band's music" so that makes a lot of sense.  It's a fun-sounding song with a great beat, which is referenced in the lyrics - it's about hearing a band playing downstairs while Piaf is upstairs grieving the demise of her relationship.

5. Milord 🔵
Milord is one of my favourite Piaf songs.  It's got a jaunty chorus and slow verses like so much of her output; in this one it's especially striking, as if there are 2 distinct sides to her.  You get the mournful storyteller in the verses, almost narrating rather than singing, and then there's the entertainer in the chorus leading everyone in a dance.  After a few verses everything goes quiet, as if we've come to the end, but instead there's a spoken word section, then she vocalises the chorus melody getting louder and faster as the band builds back up... once we're at maximum volume, she slows down, then finally speeds up for a big dramatic ending.  That's my favourite part of the album.

6. A Quoi Ca Sert l'Amour (with Théo Sarapo) 🟢
This is the only credited duet on the album and is performed with her husband.  It's got that showtune cheeriness about it again and doesn't ever slow down, with the two singing back and forth.  Despite the happy tune, the title translates to "What Good Is Love?" so it's a little misleading to us non-native speakers!  It sounds really familiar so it's possible that someone wrote English lyrics to this and had a hit with it, but I can't find any obvious answer to that.

7. L'Homme de Berlin 🟢
The sleeve informs me that this is her final recording, committed to tape at home six months before her death.  Despite the fact that she was mostly bedbound, she still had a great voice.  The song fades out, which is a poignant way to close the book on her life story.

8. Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien 🔵
The most iconic of all of her songs.  It's triumphant, like a national anthem with its swells of brass.  She delivers this song with so much passion, the 'no regrets' message being a powerful one coming from a woman who lived such a colourful life.  The roar of the crowd at the end of this live recording says it all. 

I think if Édith Piaf proves anything to me, it's that while lyrical content isn't everything, an understanding of it is crucial for me to truly love a song, especially one that tells a story like Piaf so often did.  The information on the record sleeve helped a lot and I enjoyed reading the biographical story printed on the back, in the way that records often had back when this was pressed in the sixties - I'd like that style of vinyl to come back.  The World Of Piaf is from EMI's 'Worldwide' series and the sleeve suggests that listening while watching your home movies from holidays in France.  For me, Piaf works perfectly as background music as I like the songs but don't need to stop working to sing along with her.  I don't think we'll ever see a singer like her again.  

Music Review: #63 - October 2012's Forgotten Men

 The purpose of this mix CD was to back up songs I'd downloaded to my new laptop (purchased a month prior) that didn't make it onto my main October 2012 mix.  A lot of it isn't going to be current to 2012 - brace for emo boybands.  (PS, I think there is a Forgotten Women counterpart to this which I'll get to eventually). 

1. All Time Low - Remembering Sunday 🟡
I didn't read the tracklisting to this disc before I pressed play so I went through this whole song thinking it was an acoustic version and not the original song, as it's been so many years since I last heard it.  It has drums and strings and piano which would make it a grand effort for an acoustic version but I remember a lot of bands would tack one or two studio-recorded acoustic versions of the songs to the end of 'deluxe' versions of their albums.  I used to like this song and I still remember most of the words despite it having been so long.  The worst part of this is the feature from Juliet Simms, whose voice I can't stand.  Her vocal sounds heavily processed, which is another reason I didn't think this was the original version of the song - it sounds like her part has been lifted from another recording and sewn into this song in contrast with Alex Gaskarth's much rawer sounding vocal.  It's not a bad song as such but it's not the sort of thing I listen to anymore. 

2. Coyote Shivers - Sugarhigh 🎀
YES!  I love the movie Empire Records, which this song soundtracks, and the Sugarhigh scene is one of my favourites.  It's a shame they didn't put the movie version on the soundtrack so we don't get to hear Renée Zellweger supplementing the choruses and singing the final verse, but the song is still 90s pop punk perfection.  Coyote Shivers has a weird voice and he doesn't hold back with lyrics like "I feel so funny deep inside when I lick between your thighs" which is censored out of the movie version.  It's a slacker anthem for couples whose dream date is to make out in front of the TV.  I followed Coyote on Twitter for a while but he turned out to be a Trump supporter so I cut him off. 

3. The Everly Brothers - All I Have To Do Is Dream 💜
A very different vibe - these two are more 'walk in the park' than 'drunk in front of the TV' for date night.  I listened to this song a lot around this time for some reason and I find it very sweet and relaxing.  Their melodies and harmonies are so pretty and coupled with the lyrics about the girl who only exists in their dreams, it has a mournfulness about it.

4. U2 & Green Day - The Saints Are Coming 🟢
I wasn't sure that this is what the song was at first because I didn't realise that it opened with Billie Joe singing the intro to House Of The Rising Sun, but eventually I tied together "there is a house in New Orleans" with the Hurricane Katrina charity single.  As I said a couple of weeks ago I don't like U2, so I'm mad at Green Day for making me endure Bono as part of this song.  Covering The Skids is obviously a cool and credible move but aside from the huge chorus, there's not really much to this song.  I was meant to see The Skids opening for Green Day a few summers ago but ironically it got called off by bad weather (a Glasgow drizzle though, not a hurricane).  

5. Misfits - Astro Zombies 🔵
I love this combination of vintage rock-n-roll sounds with horror lyrics.  Danzig has a great voice which suits their image so well.  This song is super fun and snappy with the beat and the scuzzy guitars and the lo-fi cheap sound of the recording as a whole.  It's weird that I didn't get more into the Misfits as I've loved so many bands who were influenced by them. 

6. All Time Low - True Colors 🟡
As a teen I was all for punk covers of pop songs but as an adult, I don't care for them at all.  Lets face it, All Time Low aren't Cyndi Lauper.  Even though I know they're not that kind of band, I've been conditioned by Punk Goes Pop albums to expect a big heavy chorus and as much as I'm glad there's no screamo breakdown, it does mean this lacks the punch of other covers in this vein.  This record would be acceptable if All Time Low were playing the prom band in a high school movie that wishes it had ben directed by John Hughes.  Maybe as a charity single to support LGBT teenagers.  Otherwise, there's no point in this song.

7. Placebo - Running Up That Hill 💜
OK, so I love Kate Bush.  Normally covers of her work are really poor but this one is excellent.  Placebo have gone for that slow, electronic, dark atmospheric mood, and they get it so right here.  Brian Molko doesn't try to sound like Kate which is a blessing as she's a one-off.  This cover is used as the soundtrack to creepy, dark trailers a lot and every time I hear it, I pay attention, even if it's for some really shitty looking horror movie.  No cover of a Kate Bush song can outshine the original bt this comes close to equalling her.  I should probably buy the Placebo covers album. 

8. Alkaline Trio - Goodbye Forever 💜
I loved this band in around 2005 and this is one of my favourite songs of theirs - definitely one of my favourites from their 90s records.  Matt Skiba's voice always sounds like it's on the verge of disappearing completely (and when I saw them live at that time, he had lost his voice and couldn't sing).  It's a standard morbid punk song, which is what they do best, and it's great. 

9. The Smiths - I Know It's Over 🎀

Alkaline Trio were morbid, but this is on another level. One of the saddest songs I know and my favourite to mope around to.  There are so many lyrics in this song that break my heart: "sad veiled bride, please be happy, handsome groom give her room; loud, loutish lover, treat her kindly, for she needs you more than she loves you", "if you're so funny/clever/good looking/entertaining, then why are you on your own tonight", "it's so easy to hate, it takes guts to be gentle & kind"... It's the kind of song I listen to when I'm feeling down even though there's a 100% chance that I'll feel worse afterwards.  'It takes guts to be gentle and kind' though man, I think about that line all the time, with every social media pile-on.  I'm eternally upset that Morrissey is such a repulsive person because occasionally he'll write a lyric like that which is so profoundly affecting that it tries to help me be a better person. 

10. Bright Eyes - First Day Of My Life 💜
This is another one that I find quite profound but in an uplifting way; it's a love song.  I learned the chords to this as a teen and recently rediscovered them and found that it still sounds just as lovely played high up the neck of the guitar.  Conor Oberst has such an emotive voice that sometimes wavers like he's holding back tears, which happens once or twice here.  I love the line "I'd rather be working for a paycheck than waiting to win the lottery" - definitely one that I used as an MSN screenname and another one to live by.

11. Jerry Lee Lewis - Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On 🔵
A classic.  It's so tame sounding to modern ears but it must have been riotous seeing him work the piano the way he did back in the 50s.  He married his 13 year old cousin, which is gross and I do not condone that sort of behaviour, but this song is good fun and laid a foundation for the next 50 years.  

12. My Chemical Romance - Tomorrow's Money 🟢
This is what Jerry Lee Lewis wishes he could have sounded like.  I have very little knowledge about MCR's music from this period in their career. I know this is from Conventional Weapons which I never got into; looking back, the drip-fed singles approach was ahead of its time, but not being able to go out and buy it as an album meant it passed me by.  I wasn't able to name this song without looking at the tracklisting I wrote on the disc.  Tomorrow's Money isn't up there with MCR's greatest hits - it's real b-side material.  However, their sound is so distinctive and cool that I still rate this relatively highly for a song that I don't know at all.

13. New Found Glory - Hit Or Miss 💜
It's impossible not to smile when you hear this.  Hit Or Miss is one of those classic millennial pop punk songs that sounds like sunshine and makes me want to be at Slam Dunk festival or something.  I can't fault it at all, it is made up of pure joy.

14. The Starting Line - Island 🔵
Another pop punk sunshine song released a few years later.  The singer is using that Tom Delonge over-pronunciation style of singing that was popular in the mid-late 00s (which isn't so prominent on their earlier material, that I can recall).  It sounds like a lot of the music of its genre that came out in 2007, but it's a good example of that sound.

15. Taking Back Sunday - The Ballad Of Sal Villanueva 💙
Tell All Your Friends is one of the best emo records ever released and eventually I'll write about it but today I'm covering the song that was released as a bonus track on it. The production on this is first class, which might be why they named the song after the album's producer; I love the vocal that sounds like it was recorded in a big empty room.  It has all the classic TBS hallmarks, from cursing-your-ex lyrics to double vocals courtesy of the two singers.  They're legendary. 

16. Oasis - Wonderwall 💜
Anyway, here's Wonderwall.  I did not expect this song to appear on this CD, so this has taken me completely by surprise.  As I've said before, I'm a fan of Britpop, but Oasis kind of ruined the whole movement.  Their lyrics border on nonsensical and the Gallagher brothers are a horrible pair of human beings but it's undeniable that this is a well-constructed song.  Listening to it right now, a year into the pandemic, is making me yearn for 2am in a nightclub when the DJ sticks an Oasis song on and everyone sings along with their mates and gets all sappy.

17. Big Fun - Teenage Suicide (Don't Do It) 🟢
Heathers is one of my all-time favourite movies.  Unlike most of my favourites, music isn't a big part of it, aside from this joke record that shows up midway through and describes the situation the characters find themselves in.  It's deliberately cheese and tasteless in both musical and lyrical content, a mess of late-80s motifs, more of a jingle than an actual song.  I rate it well not so much as a song but as a device employed as part of a great movie.  Oh, and it's got nothing to do with the UK boyband who were also called Big Fun. 

18. All Time Low - The Irony Of Choking On A Lifesaver 🟡
Very standard early-10s pop punk from All Time Low; this mix really is going in hard on the C-list ATL songs.  I don't even know this song at all because I'd moved on from listening to them by this point although clearly I wasn't aware of that since I was still downloaded new songs of their when they leaked.  There's nothing wrong with this, I just have no attachment to it at all which is why it won't matter if I never hear it again. 

19. My Chemical Romance - Boy Division 🟢

The other side of the first Conventional Weapons release, and the one with a more memorable title (not that I could have told you what it sounded like).  I recognise its chorus - this one doesn't sound like a b-side, it's much catchier.  I'm not a fan of the breakdown part but the chorus makes up for it.  It sounds like it would be a fun song to hear played live but I think MCR had played their last show by the time this came out.  

20. Ron Pope - A Drop In The Ocean 🟡
This sounds so MySpace - the kind of thing you'd put as your profile song after the singer added you or commented on your page, so that you'd look like a hipster and get bragging rights when they became mainstream famous.  He has a pretty good, soulful voice which I could imagine fitting in on the cast of Glee.  A Drop In The Ocean is a piano ballad which he presumably recorded himself at home but I could imagine it as a radio hit with a string section added to it.  I looked Ron Pope up to find out what happened to him - Wikipedia calls this song an 'internet hit' that he did record properly as a single but it seems to have been a one-hit viral wonder of its age rather than something he was able to build a career off.  The good news is that he's still performing, but he never became Ed Sheeran or anything like that.  The end of the CD had one of those little jingles from a video-making program that people used to use to upload their own lyric videos to YouTube.  How very mp3-era.  

There are some gems on here but, given this CD was made as a Part 2 to vacuum up anything I hadn't already backed up, it was never going to be made up of wall-to-wall favourites.  

Music Review: #166 - Autumn/Winter 2015

 Today's mix CD comes from 5 years ago.  This was a good time for me, personally - I started my job after 18 months of post-degree malaise and I loved being thrown together with a whole office full of other young people, going out after work and having this fun new social life that I hadn't had before.  Musically, my memories of this time are of good pop music (this is the period where I downloaded Spotify and started drifting away from mp3s) and also of listening to my iPod on my commute home with the blue neon lights that turned on inside the bus after dark.  Lets press play.

1. Drake - Hotline Bling 💜
Hotline Bling is one of my favourite pop songs of the 2010s.  It's a bit sexist - in the lyric, Drake is upset that his ex girlfriend has moved on and he's acting possessive and trying to dictate what she does next - but I still love it.  Drake is a master of crafting phrases that become cultural moments: he popularised 'YOLO' in 2011 and here he describes his phone ringing as a more memorable 'hotline bling'.  I also love the aesthetic associated with this song via the music video and artwork.  it's Drake dad-dancing in cosy jumpers in pastel-neon lit boxes and it's the millennial pink 1-800-HOTLINEBLING single cover that is the back-patch on my otherwise punk/alt themed denim jacket.  It's not a complex song but there's something about it that is irresistible to me.

2. The Sundays - Here's Where The Story Ends 🎀

The album that this song comes from, 'Reading, Writing & Arithmetic' is one of the most underrated gems of all time so prepare for a glowing review of that some day.  Growing up, I was familiar with the late 90s Tin Tin Out cover of this song but the original version was new to me in 2015 when I made this mix.  Like Hotline Bling, this is a break-up song but it's more introspective.  I love the Smiths-y guitar and Harriet Wheeler's voice coupled with her biting lyrics like "I never should have said the books that you read were all I loved you for".  The sweet and sour combination is one of my favourite things about this band and I don't understand why this song isn't as revered as, say, I Wanna Be Adored.  This is one of a number of songs on this mix that remind me of specific points in the road on my commute - this one is a diversion along winding streets that the bus was taking around this time.  

3. Justin Bieber - What Do You Mean? 💜

This is is the song I got Spotify for.  I played it on loop and it was my most-played song of all time on the application for years.  What Do You Mean? is the crown jewel in a fantastic run of Justin Bieber singles from this time even though it has what sounds like a ticking clock and electronic panpipes forming the palette of sounds.  It's super catchy and he looked really hot in the video, which I remember having that same pastel-neon vibe that Drake was using too.

4. The Weeknd - Can't Feel My Face 💜

The best Weeknd songs mix his edgy, alternative RnB style with 80s sounds and this is one of them.  His high voice is reminiscent of Michael Jackson but he never wrote pop songs about sex and drugs.  I must have watched a lot of music TV around this time as I can visualise its video too, with Abel catching fire.  I don't have much to say about the song itself, it's a flawless pop song and I appreciate it.  My main association tying it to this time in my life is that it was one of the songs that my friend and I rewrote at work to make it about our job. 

5. The 1975 - Love Me 💜

I've written about Love Me before so I won't go into detail about the song itself again but I remember coming across this on Spotify and again on Saturday Night Live and being so impressed with it - it's the final piece of the 1975 puzzle that got me hooked on them.  This song is one of the cornerstones of my identity and what I saw as a new era/aesthetic for myself at this time; it was bright pink and pop and leather jacket and ripped jeans and having fun.  It really is one of those records that I look back on and see as a huge turning point for me.  

6. Tove Lo ft Hippie Sabotage - Stay High (Habits Remix) 💙

This is one of the songs that Spotify recommended to me early on that I fell in love with.  It has heavy bass and a melancholic tone and it's a supreme remix.  It sounds like night time and I remember hearing it on the radio on a dark night when I was getting a lift home from work so again it's tied to a specific point in the road at a specific time.  Tove Lo sounds pleading and desperate and the vocal effect put on this is so good that I have no desire to hear the original version of the song out of fear that it won't live up to this.

7. Disclosure ft Lorde - Magnets 💙

The third song that I hear and am immediately able to pinpoint to an intersection on my commute.  It's a good dance song and Lorde is so cool, it's nice to hear her doing something like this.  There's one line in it, "pretty girls don't know the things that I know" which is so teenage and in that 'not like other girls' mindset on its surface but on a deeper level I think it circles back to being true nevertheless and that's something I often ponder.  

8. Calvin Harris ft Disciples - How Deep Is Your Love 💙

Another dance song and I was really pleased when it was a big hit - I thought it was a number 1 but I just checked and it got stuck at number 2.  I picture the video for this again, with Gigi Hadid in a green-lit club which reminds me of the millennium.  The song also reminds me of that sort of era, in terms of the vocals and the beat it bears a resemblance to the likes of Lasgo and Ian Van Dahl.

9. The Weeknd - The Hills 💜

This song is sinister-sounding, from the heavy industrial intro stabs to the intimate, promiscuous vocals.  The Weeknd has a unique sexuality that runs through all of his best music that you don't really get with other artists of his status so I'm glad that songs like this are able to become chart hits.

10. Justin Bieber - Sorry 💜

Another banger from Jbae, as we used to call him.  Sorry has a tropical beat courtesy of Skrillex and a killer vocal line provided by Justin.  Apology songs aren't usually this upbeat and catchy so this one really stands out and I can see how this song converted his naysayers (of which I've never been one).  The video for this is also burned into my brain and was definitely a fixture of the music channel for months.

11. Diplo - Be Right There 💙

This has a kind of retro dance vibe but at the same time the build-and-drop construction is very much 2015.  I'm not sure why I was listening to so many dance tracks at this time as at this point I wasn't going to clubs, but I think this is probably another that I'd hear on Spotify's chats and got hooked in by.

12. Die Antwoord - Sex 🟠

We're at the tail-end of my interest in Die Antwoord by the end of 2015 - it was a brief but intense affair that started 12 months prior.  It's also the point where the quality of their music tailed off; this is the only song from their 4th album that I thought was any good.  Yolandi's rap is okay but nothing new and the chorus is fine but not enough to give the song a pass.  There's a middle section where Yolandi is doing sexual moans and that doesn't do anything for me either - she's no Donna Summer.  Usually if I listen to this CD, I skip this track.

13. The Smiths - Frankly, Mr Shankly 💙

We come to something old and the change of pace is jarring, I don't know what I was thinking when I sequenced this.  It's very out of place with what's gone before, with its oompah rhythm and real instruments.  However, it is one of my favourite Smiths songs lyrically.  The entire thing is quotable and it's witty and disparaging without succumbing fully to Morrissey's woe-is-me self-deprecation.  The line about how his job 'corrodes his soul' was one that applied to my working life - the colleagues I worked with may have been a joy but the customers were still a chore to cope with.  

14. Ariana Grande - Focus 💙

Ariana is one of my favourite modern pop stars.  This song isn't a game-changer like some of her other lead tracks are - it sounds too much like Problem - but it's still a solid pop hit.  I loved the silver and lilac aesthetic of the video and the use of peak 2015 slang 'bae' in the lyrics.  It's modern but gives a wink to classic RnB with the horn section - I loved that juxtaposition between the 2010s and the 1960s that she put into her earlier albums and it's undeniable that she's a very talented lady.

15. Strawberry Switchblade - Sunday Morning 💙

Super sweet, like a strawberry creme chocolate.  I like the Velvet Underground's original of this song and I also like this breathy 80s Scottish cover.  It's twee but comforting and charming and if I'd been a teen when Strawberry Switchblade's album came out, I would have been totally obsessed with them.

16. CHVRCHES - Leave A Trace 💙

Sticking with the Scottish theme, this is one of my favourite CHVRCHES singles.  They crafted great indie-synthpop songs at this time including this one, but I've not been into their more recent work.  Leave A Trace sounds glitzy and poppy but still edgy and cool, and it's hard to fault this.

17. The Cramps - Sheena's In A Goth Gang 💜

Sheena's In A Goth Gang is another cornerstone of my aesthetic at this point in time.  It's tongue-in-cheek and humorous without being sarcastic like another well-known 'goth girl' song, Black No. 1 by Type O Negative. The Cramps are undeniably one of the coolest bands to ever walk the Earth so everything about this is executed perfectly, from Poison Ivy's surfgoth guitar part to Lux Interior's sneer.  

18. The 1975 - Girls 💙

When I first fell for The 1975 I had 8 songs of theirs that I played on rotation and Girls' inclusion on this disc suggests it must be the 8th one that I'd forgotten about (along with Love Me, Sex, Menswear, Me, Only You, Sorry and an acoustic version of Sex).  It's so sunny and sharp and fun - I hate the intro and the length of the outro but everything in between is an absolute joy.  The lyrics are witty and could have lapsed into sexism if Matty wasn't so clever, telling the tale of a teenage girl running with the grown-up boys who he gets embroiled with.  Girls is probably the 1975 song that fits in best with Lad Indie but thank god the band made this then moved on.  Top 3 lyrics from this one, in no particular order: "I'm not your typical stoned 18 year old", "she's so Southern so she feels the cold" and "I know you're looking for salvation in a secular age but, girl, I'm not your saviour".  

19. She Wants Revenge - Tear You Apart 🎀

Musically this is Bauhaus with a drum machine - that muted guitar is so Bela Lugosi's Dead - but lyrically it has the same sinister sexuality that The Weeknd plays with, all delivered with the most deadpan vocal.  I am obsessed with this song.  The story.  The music.  It's so hot.  Everything about it says 'danger' and I am completely taken in by it.  

20. Fetty Wap - Trap Queen 🟢

It takes almost a minute for the beat to drop in this song, which feels like forever.  It's one of those one-hit-wonder rap songs that we'll look back on in a "hey, remember this guy?" way - it sounds dated to me now while the other pop songs I've already covered are still pretty fresh.  It's a fun song but it falls off its tracks at the end when he starts giving props to his crew and just yelling stuff out.  

21. Mr Vegas - Heads High 🔵

Speaking of one-hit-wonder rap songs.  This is from that point in the late-90s when dancehall-inspired rap and dance music was big so it sounds like that time but I still love the rhythms.  He sings in Jamaican Patois so it's not easy for me to understand what's going on but apparently it's an anti-oral sex anthem which is a thing in dancehall.  If that's true it's a weird song to become a hit.  Either way, it's still fun but I suspect The Weeknd would disapprove of his message.

It's interesting to me how much of my listening at this time was made up of chart hits.  I think the turning point was downloading Spotify and listening to the popular tracks before its algorithm figured me out, so I was connected to the culture in a way that I don't think I have been since, musically at least.  I'm not sure whether that's due to where I was at personally, or whether it was just a golden time for pop music; possibly a bit of both.  Like I said at the start, this time of my life was full of change and new beginnings for me and perhaps looking forward in my listening habits was part of that.  That said, I've rated a lot of the songs highly but the two that I adore most came out in 1990 and 2005 respectively. 

Music Review: 7" #421-425

 This looks like an interesting mix of the different directions taken by bands in the post-punk early 80s.  I know all of these artists but none of these songs, so lets explore.

#421.  XTC - Senses Working Overtime 🟡

There's something about this sleeve that gives me an indication that this is a nerd-rock single but I can't put my finger on what it is.  The photo of the band on the reverse side is funny - there's one member at the front (who I presume is the singer) holding a cat, and one at the back in a shirt and suit jacket looking like their dad. 
Having played this record I realise I know the chorus.  My assumption from the sleeve was correct, they do sound like a bunch of nerds - it's a flavour of post-punk that I'm not really into.  The song is very bass/drum heavy although that could just be my busted speakers.  The song is okay but I don't think it's a classic.  The chorus is catchy - obvious, given it has a counting bit - but that's all it really has going for it.

b/w Blame The Weather 🟠

This is another song that has a catchy chorus and not much else.  That's not much of a review but it's all I had to say for it.

Tissue Tigers (The Arguers) 🟡

This is more interesting musically.  It's reminiscent of Adam Ant but not as good as what he put out.  XTC have managed to fit 2 full length b-sides on this 7" which would be great if they were good songs, but one of these would have been plenty.

#422. U2 - Gloria 🟠

The sleeve makes it clear that U2 are from the Joy Division school of post-punk bands.  I don't like U2 but my dad was into them so unfortunately they're going to crop up often.  The guitar part reminds me of The Cure crossed with the big indie bands of the 2000s.  The song could be good if they had a powerful singer but Bono is not it.  They're trying to sound like a big arena rock band but they aren't ready to fill that position yet (and I'm not sure that sort of music existed yet anyway). 

b/w I Will Follow (Live Version) 🟠

Bono speaks at the beginning of this - the last song in their set as he's saying his thanks to the audience - and he doesn't have an Irish accent, which is weird.  I'm not particularly impressed by this song either.  It doesn't say anywhere on the sleeve where this live version was recorded - Wikipedia says it's the 900-seater Paradise Rock Club in Boston - which again struck me as odd.  U2 aren't that different to other band of this era/genre who I love, but for some reason I just can't bring myself to like them.  

#423. Bill Wyman - (Si Si) Je Suis Un Rock Star 🟠

New Wave colour blocks and squiggles on the sleeve to make this look modern, but Bill Wyman put this out at age 45.  I know there's something sketchy about this guy and possibly this song but I'm not sure what it is.  It's got a Heart Of Glass produced by Malcolm McLaren timbre but dear god, he cannot sing at all.  He's talk-singing in a Cockney accent and it is horrid - it makes sense that Wikipedia says he wrote this for Ian Dury who turned it down.  It's a shame because if you took the vocal off this song and put something else on top of the accompaniment it could be quite good.  Alarm bells started ringing at the lyric "they'll think I'm your dad and you're my daughter"... how old is the girl he's chatting up in this song?!  And with that, I've uncovered the sketchy thing: a couple of years after this, Bill Wyman started dating a girl who was 14.  That is fucking unacceptable.  She was 11 when this came out.  Disgusting.  It misses out on a red rating for the accompaniment and nothing else.

b/w Rio de Janeiro 🟠

He's not doing the Ian Dury thing on this song as much as on the a-side but unfortunately the music isn't as good on this one.  The lyrics are also terrible - it's about the city of Rio but very much at surface level, referencing coffee, beaches, women and football.  It reads like a primary school project about the city.  Maybe his girlfriend wrote it.

#424. A Flock Of Seagulls - Space Age Love Song 🟢

The airbrushed, heavily made-up eye and glossy red lips alongside retro-futurist space imagery and lurid colours mean one thing - it's New Romantic time, baby!  The big drums and soaring guitars sound so John Hughes, and it has laserbeam synths.  The vocals aren't quite right though; I can't decide whether it's the way they've been mixed or the singer's ability or a bit of both.  The song could do with a massive chorus but that's not A Flock Of Seagulls' style so they've not written one.  It's still pretty good though. 

b/w Windows 🟡

This sounds like the way that the future was supposed to sound from the point of view of the 80s - the sonic palette is rad.  Neither of the songs on this picture disc are particularly good as songs but they have interesting sounds and sometimes that's good enough. 

#425.  The Boomtown Rats - House On Fire 🟠

Bob Geldof is another 80s figure who I do not like so it's great to have to cover him and U2 in the same week.  This has a boring sleeve, it looks more like the 1987 batch I covered previously but with some Bauhaus imagery thrown in to keep it current.  The song has a reggae groove and I'm not sure I want to hear Bob Geldof's interpretation of reggae.  It sounds like they're trying to go 2-Tone, as if they saw the gap left by The Specials and decided they could be the ones to fill it.  It sounds embarrassing though - I'd maybe accept it as a cover version but it's a Geldof original.  Super cringey and ill-advised. 

b/w Europe Looked Ugly 🟠

Before I played this, I had to find out immediately what Geldof's stance was on Brexit.  It turns out he's pro-EU and has done battle with N*gel F*rage so at least he's got one good thing going for him.  Anyway, this song is a bit Human League.  It appears that The Boomtown Rats were having a serious identity crisis in 1981 and I can't tell whether they were trying to parody or emulate the popular movements of the day.  I love listening to a man realising he's become irrelevant in real time. 

Not a good batch here, which is disappointing.  Journalist Simon Price always says that 1981 was one of the best years for pop music of all time but not if these 5 singles are anything to go by.