The vocalization of a persistent daydream delivered with a truly ethereal sound. I find this song hauntingly beautiful. I was also lucky enough to come across a promotional-only CD single that features two great house mixes by Jonathan Peters although sadly, they are both edits that clock in around 4 minutes each.
30 Oct 02 ·delicado: Yes, a superb song. Simple, but beautiful. The tune reminds me of 'The Shadow of your smile'. The singer's voice echoes that of Claudine Longet nicely, and they appropriate some elements of classic film music in order to create a compelling backdrop. I have the US-issue CD single, which also includes 4 mixes and an instrumental version. None really match the elegance of the original though. 12 Nov 02 ·yonderboy: This track got a lot of exposure as part of the "Great Expectations" soundtrack. The entire cd is quite good as well. Formica Blues was Mono's only full length effort, though there are several cd singles available. A wonderfully successful example of how trip-hip and jazz/lounge styles work well together. Reminds me of Love Spirals Downwards' recent cds Temporal and Flux. Mono's vocalis Siobhan de Mar moved on to do work with Cocteau Twins frontman Robin Guthrie. Their band, Violet Indiana is on Guthrie's Bella Union label. 01 Nov 06 ·Mike: It's very appealing but I also find it almost comically artifical and that I tire of it very easily.
It makes me want to dance. The instrumentation is pretty simple, but it works.
from Confessions on a dance floor
03 Jan 06 ·delicado: the instrumentation is by abba! I have nothing against madonna, but I was surprised when I found out this track was by her. 04 Jan 06 ·metrino: i know it's from abba, but overall it's fairly repetitive. 05 Jan 06 ·nighteye: I wonder how much they had to pay to clear that sample. It's from "Gimme Gimme Gimme" by Abba, a classic hit from the late 70s. And yeah, I'm from Sweden so I 'oughta know. 15 Nov 06 ·delicado: I guess all I was saying here is that it seems bizarre to me that someone who has produced as many great songs as Madonna should feel the need to take a riff from a really famous song and do a kind of 'la la la ' over the top of it. To anyone who is familiar with 'Gimme gimme gimme', the song surely sounds a bit ridiculous? I have absolutely nothing against sampling, but when it's sampling from SUCH a famous song I just find it a bit distracting. A few years ago Danni Minogue did a song that was just like this except the song it sampled was Madonna's 'Into the Groove'. I thought that was pretty ridiculous as well! But like you say Metrino, it makes you wanna dance, which is totally cool and I guess answers my question about why she did it. 17 Nov 06 ·Mike: I actually don't mind what Madonna and her producers have done with this song, which is to take the most interesting elements from the Abba song, repeat them, and overlay them with a catchy melody of (I presume) her/their own. The long opening with the filtering-in works, too. I think I find it less than bizarre as to my mind, most of Madonna's better records rely particularly heavily on writing input from people other than herself...Mirwais, Orbit, and Rogers come to mind.
It's a song about a suicide pact gone wrong. Amazing falsetto (and non-falsetto) vocals. Great glam production. Fantastic guitar solo at 1:40.
It's hard to choose just one track to recommend by this group, but I've settled for this one for now. 'Thank God it isn't Christmas' was a close runner up.
(weirdly, there are a few tracks by them that I would really rather never hear again in my life. Like 'Get in the swing'. Have you heard this track? I have serious trouble with it!)
18 Nov 06 ·Mike: Sparks have indeed produced some good and some extremely bad material. I may still own - somewhere - this LP, though the most-played track on it was always "This town ain't big enough..."
1974 - yes, an incredible year which also brought us such marvels as the Glitter Band's "Angel Face". 18 Nov 09 ·geezer: only Sparks could be comfortable with such subject matter there is humour in everything they do like Tryouts for the Human Race a song for sperm everywhere
Slow and haunting music, accompanied by lyrics that really hit the heart. I like it so much because of what I see when I hear it, I can just see the song in picture format in my head. That sort of thing doesn�t happen often. And who doesn�t connect to unrequited love?
from Aqualung
11 Aug 07 ·Mike: Matt Hales is a very good artist indeed. I'm sure that he's British rather than American, though! 20 Oct 07 ·thiagofreitas89: It's a great song, it gave me chills when I first heard it on The OC!
03 Nov 07 ·Mike: I love a song by Midlake called "Around", but I can't find what it was originally released on or how to get it. 06 Nov 07 ·carl: Great song, sounds a lot like Thom Yorke. The song was available on the Soulseek network, but it seems like it is not to be found elsewhere. Discogs has no information about it either. Hm... 07 Nov 07 ·Mike: Yes, it is very Radiohead-sounding. Hopefully I can turn it up sometime. Cheers!
