Got into a pub conversation with Shaun and Kevin about perfect pop songs the other evening - before Kasey Chambers, actually, which I'll get round to writing about at some point in the course of working through the increasingly massive blog backlog that I've developed - and was then inspired to come up with a list. Twenty-five, because that's where Shaun drew his line (ie, 'the 25 most perfect pop songs'); I think that there are a few different notions of 'perfect pop song' working their way through here, but it's an honest to goodness attempt at it in which I stuck to my guns and valiantly resisted all thoughts of the 'but surely there must be at least one Beatles/Beach Boys/Kinks/Supremes/Elton John/Talking Heads/etc song' variety...the flip side being that some of my preoccupations come through fairly clearly (jangly songs, and anthems-masquerading-as-ballads and vice versa, in particular). Anyway, in more or less chronological order:
I Fall To Pieces - Patsy Cline
Be My Baby – The Ronettes
Like A Rolling Stone – Bob Dylan
Mr Tambourine Man – The Byrds
California Dreamin’ – The Mamas and the Papas
A Whiter Shade Of Pale – Procol Harum
Breakfast In Bed – Dusty Springfield
Perfect Day – Lou Reed
Killing Me Softly With His Song – Roberta Flack
September Gurls – Big Star
Life On Mars? – David Bowie
Alison – Elvis Costello
Love Will Tear Us Apart – Joy Division
Billie Jean – Michael Jackson
There Is A Light That Never Goes Out – The Smiths
Close To Me – The Cure
When Doves Cry – Prince
Don’t Dream It’s Over – Crowded House
Just Like Heaven – The Cure
Debaser – Pixies
Losing My Religion – R.E.M.
You’re In A Bad Way – Saint Etienne
The State I Am In – Belle and Sebastian
Save Me – Aimee Mann
The Way We Get By – Spoon
Monday, April 14, 2008
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Wilco & the Drones @ the Palace, Wednesday 26 March
So yeah, liked I'd expected, the Drones are pretty kick-ass live - bluesier than on record, and equally rockin'...I got pretty into it.
But the main event, natch, was Wilco. Last time round was sit down and faraway - this time, we were in the thick of it and close...far, far better. As shows goes, after a tenuous, country-heavy beginning, it was pretty total - two and a half hours of selections from their whole discography, even including several from A.M., and all good. So many of the songs just made me so happy and light and a little bit giddy ("California Stars", "She's A Jar", "A Shot In The Arm", etc, etc...)...I figured out a while ago that Wilco're one of my favourite bands, and this gig was a reminder about why even though I'd put it in the 'good' rather than 'great' show category.
It also, incidentally, reminded me of how many of the songs on the last couple of albums, and Sky Blue Sky in particular, are really all about the awesome guitar bit which kicks in somewhere near the middle to end. I've thought before that one of the great things about Wilco is the way they make me feel both happy and sad at the same time; to that duality add 'drifty' and 'energised', too, I reckon. Oh, yeah.
(w/ Jon)
But the main event, natch, was Wilco. Last time round was sit down and faraway - this time, we were in the thick of it and close...far, far better. As shows goes, after a tenuous, country-heavy beginning, it was pretty total - two and a half hours of selections from their whole discography, even including several from A.M., and all good. So many of the songs just made me so happy and light and a little bit giddy ("California Stars", "She's A Jar", "A Shot In The Arm", etc, etc...)...I figured out a while ago that Wilco're one of my favourite bands, and this gig was a reminder about why even though I'd put it in the 'good' rather than 'great' show category.
It also, incidentally, reminded me of how many of the songs on the last couple of albums, and Sky Blue Sky in particular, are really all about the awesome guitar bit which kicks in somewhere near the middle to end. I've thought before that one of the great things about Wilco is the way they make me feel both happy and sad at the same time; to that duality add 'drifty' and 'energised', too, I reckon. Oh, yeah.
(w/ Jon)
Manic Street Preachers - Send Away the Tigers
It's not exactly that I'd given up on the Manics, but more that a creeping kind of apathy had overtaken me when it came to the band - I still liked their early to mid period stuff, especially The Holy Bible and Everything Must Go, though more in the abstract than in the actuality of ever really spinning them nowadays, and even Know Your Enemy had its share of moments, but I never got round to Lifeblood and, I guess, disinterest reigned.
But a while back I read an review of Send Away The Tigers, their latest, somewhere on the internets which was all like oh my god the Manic Street Preachers are back in form, so I thought I should listen to it, and guess what - while it's not a patch on those older classics, there's a lot to like here. The album comes across like a glossier Everything Must Go, with a dash of the more riffy hard rock Generation Terrorists, and in "Your Love Alone Is Not Enough" (smashing duet with Nina Persson from the Cardigans - I got totally stuck on this one last Saturday while hanging around at home vefore V festival), "Autumnsong" ("Sweet Child O Mine"-esque guitars!) and "Underdogs" has some quality to it, too.
But a while back I read an review of Send Away The Tigers, their latest, somewhere on the internets which was all like oh my god the Manic Street Preachers are back in form, so I thought I should listen to it, and guess what - while it's not a patch on those older classics, there's a lot to like here. The album comes across like a glossier Everything Must Go, with a dash of the more riffy hard rock Generation Terrorists, and in "Your Love Alone Is Not Enough" (smashing duet with Nina Persson from the Cardigans - I got totally stuck on this one last Saturday while hanging around at home vefore V festival), "Autumnsong" ("Sweet Child O Mine"-esque guitars!) and "Underdogs" has some quality to it, too.
Wednesday, April 09, 2008
"Sidney Nolan" @ NGV Australia
It's easy to slip into accustomed ways of experiencing things - definitely something to which I'm prone - and in the spirit of avoiding that kind of laziness of the imagination, I went into the Nolan exhibition determined to open myself to whatever it might hold.
One thing that was striking about the exhibition is the extent to which it highlights the relationship between Nolan's travels and the art he produced, with dramatics shifts in not only subject matter but also style seemingly closely correlated to the particular places through which he was passing or had recently passed at the times of their creation; my favourites, as far as I can remember (it was a couple of weeks ago now), were the deep, craggy central Australia rockscapes and the second series of Ned Kellys (the later, messianic ones as opposed to the more famous earlier ones) which if I remember correctly were inspired by his exposure to sacred art in Italy. Also striking were the colours he used, particularly the vivid azures (which always strike a chord) - those, and some other aspects, put me a bit in mind of James Gleeson's stuff. And some cool tricks with perspective, too, including a recurring trope of things appearing too large or 'foregrounded' in a scene relative to everything else.
Overall, though, it wasn't especially my thing. I liked bits, but nothing really spoke to me - some engaged me viscerally but fleetingly, others tugged at more critical/analytical/experience-of-experiential parts of me but similarly didn't really lodge...well, we like what we like, and increasingly so, I suppose.
(w/ Jade T)
One thing that was striking about the exhibition is the extent to which it highlights the relationship between Nolan's travels and the art he produced, with dramatics shifts in not only subject matter but also style seemingly closely correlated to the particular places through which he was passing or had recently passed at the times of their creation; my favourites, as far as I can remember (it was a couple of weeks ago now), were the deep, craggy central Australia rockscapes and the second series of Ned Kellys (the later, messianic ones as opposed to the more famous earlier ones) which if I remember correctly were inspired by his exposure to sacred art in Italy. Also striking were the colours he used, particularly the vivid azures (which always strike a chord) - those, and some other aspects, put me a bit in mind of James Gleeson's stuff. And some cool tricks with perspective, too, including a recurring trope of things appearing too large or 'foregrounded' in a scene relative to everything else.
Overall, though, it wasn't especially my thing. I liked bits, but nothing really spoke to me - some engaged me viscerally but fleetingly, others tugged at more critical/analytical/experience-of-experiential parts of me but similarly didn't really lodge...well, we like what we like, and increasingly so, I suppose.
(w/ Jade T)
Three things to anticipate
Very exciting...new Philip Pullman, newish but I hadn't heard about it before Nellie McKay (oh Nellie McKay, how I do love her), new Kathleen Edwards...
"Love Gone Bad" (IMP February 2008)
Any mix cd that throws in "Reno Dakota" (as in the Magnetic Fields) and "Torn" (as in Natalie Imbruglia) back to back gets major points in my books. Extra props for a pair of very nice jangly alt-country weepies in the Drive-By Truckers' "Goddamn Lonely Love" (the title says it all) and Steve Earle's "I Thought You Should Know" (which, oddly - and I'm pretty sure I'm not just making this up - cops some girl group licks). And bonus points for ending with a "Pink Triangle"/"Hate It Here" split.
A couple of other familiar songs - Ben Folds Five's still grin-inducing "Song for the Dumped" and Elvis C's rather saccharine (if not all bad) "A Good Year For The Roses" - and a few other fun/good ones (Jay-Z's "Song Cry" and Ween's "Piss Up A Rope" particularly fitting both parts of that compound phrase)...all up pretty good.
(from Bruce in Chapel Hill, NC)
A couple of other familiar songs - Ben Folds Five's still grin-inducing "Song for the Dumped" and Elvis C's rather saccharine (if not all bad) "A Good Year For The Roses" - and a few other fun/good ones (Jay-Z's "Song Cry" and Ween's "Piss Up A Rope" particularly fitting both parts of that compound phrase)...all up pretty good.
(from Bruce in Chapel Hill, NC)
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