scratch in the sky is the name of the cryan' shames
album that came out in 1967 from these chicago soft/sunshine pop masters whom also added an amazing dash of psyche to all there recordings...
"a carol for lorelei" starts the album off with bells and association(ish) harmonies!! brilliant
ignore what allmusic.com said about this album they are fools the song writing is up to par with the beach boys and others.
if you dig the Association and The Millennium and other fine sunshine pop groups with that mellow groove get it now. the japanese import is worth the extra for the original back cover art work that the sundazed version didn't recreate faithfully. i love 'em

the only thing that could make "too" from the left bake any better would to have "walk away renee" and "pretty ballerina" on this album!
this is the best album better then the debut one even though most people don't think so and another thing the left bankes recording of desiree is a billion times better then the montage version!!
anyone who sayes different can not be trusted :)
one of my fav soft/sunshine albums dear god i love 'em :)

awesome (and not exactly mainstream) canadian new wave band. quite an intro. trivia: kevin crompton of skinny puppy fame used to be in this band.
this particular song (music, vocals and lyrics) just makes you nod and say 'that's new wave'

great song. uplifting and catchy. the intro itself is sheer new wave goodness. makes you happy, makes you dance. one perfect 80s tune.

excellent mood. simple music that slowly builds up as the lyrics become more intense.
"this is my favorite sad story,
forget me not or i'll forget myself
i've got quite a few things that i'm afraid of
sometimes i just won't face myself"

Chris Martin is an angel. This track is very special. A very private song about a very public matter. Namely Gweyneth Paltrow's Breakup with Brad Pit and her engagement to Chris Martin. His vow of love to her. Heartfelt & touching. This Album is very inspired!

Live version is best....when Freddie Mercury died, he left his entire fortune to her even though she had broken up with him because of his homosexuality.
When I hear the song, I always wish he could have grown older; lost him too early. Greatest pure "rock" singer in history! I saw them live!

this song is brilliant. lyrics quite catchy and fun and the tune is simply great. a nice combination of a music style you just don't seem to hear anymore with lyrics you could almost laugh at, but don't, because it could happen. simply great.

the song that made me rediscover them. the intro begins and shifts into something else. the lyrics are delivered carefully, almost in hesitation, while the music itself is more forceful. i'm not sure what else i could add.

it may be as you say
i'll admit
but you don't sound convinced
between the surface you and the surface me
you didn't touch me
it may be as well that
i didn't see the point
you didn't touch me
you didn't touch me
you didn't touch me
you didn't touch me

i suppose it's just hollow
no idea--no spark
when i thought that in order to survive
you need to touch me
all of the mes
it may be as well that
i didn't see the point
you didn't touch me
you didn't touch me
you didn't touch me
you didn't touch me
you didn't touch me
you didn't touch me
you didn't touch me
you didn't touch me

one step away from twee pop, or whatever it's called these days. lyrics are interesting enough. vocals are tolerable, music is catchy and uplifting. the whole album is, without it becoming extremely sugary.

a very atmospheric song. a quiet intro that slowly builds up. the vocals are frail and mysterious, they feel frail and light. the whole song seems to fade at the end, one keeps expecting it to stop, but it goes on for over six minutes.
it's no "swamp thing" (the obligatory comparison) but a very nice tune nonetheless.

one of my favourite pink dots song. i suppose because, for me, they always manage to convey a sort of 'it's the end of the world' vibe. and the lyrics are cryptic enough that you can't always tell if the presumed outcome is hopeful or not.

One of the last Carpenters singles from their final studio album. I find this sweet 'n perky song strangely compelling, since it shows Richard and Karen Carpenter awkwardly trying to adjust their wholesome image to an early '80s synth pop template. Karen's voice is so processed and overdubbed that she blends in seamlessly with the synth-heavy backup -- still, the effect isn't cheezy but full and lucious. Knowing that Karen was slowly dying during this time makes this tune odder still.

An excellent cut, with wailing big band brass and cool vibes. The song is quite familiar - musically it is an early draft of the standard 'Black coffee', sounding similar, but slightly sped-up. The percussion is also excellent - lots of bongos. Overall, the sound recalls some of Mancini's best 50s work, but somehow sounds even more vital and brilliant to me. Milt's work on the vibes also seems to have influenced Angelo Badalamenti (his David Lynch soundtrack work, anyway), and the solo work of Barry Adamson.

ok, go out and get whatever jack johnson you can get your hands on now! I first fell in love w/ his first album back before anyone knew him. I will admit though, that my little bro and I came up with some pretty hilarious alternate lyrics for his first big song on the radio. It took me a good while to get used to his second album, now I probably listen to that more, and then again with his third album, again, it took me a while. but he is truly great.
he started out filming pro surfing videos, and you can see where he is coming from. really chill, folksy music. good stuff

'The Events Leading up to the Collapse of Detective Dullight' is not a song but a narrative story, and it’s funny as hell. The off-kilter character voices of the already brilliant stream-of-consciousness plot are cartoonish enough for their own Saturday morning series. When the detectives start their investigation nothing makes sense. There’s Jell-O, serenading butterflies, file cabinets, murder, catacombs, and all the seasonings for a hilarious dream. I am usually brought to tears when Detective Slots reads from his revered exercise in free verse titled ‘The Cause of Gauze’. I will supply you with a sample:
"Oh, the cause of gauze. The Manuels have fondled many memories from my lap though each memory has its own lap and swimmers swim laps. Even swimmers have laps however and while in that condition many require a delicate gauze."
If you hear this without purchasing the actual album, 'Coquelicot Asleep in the Poppies: A Variety of Whimisical Verse,' then you are being cheated. The dreams of this band are as colorful as the illustrations they provide us in their album sleeves. The 'Where's Waldo' pictorial representations enrich the listening experience by engaging us in a journey deep into the frying-pan brains of these madmen. In fact, this is a perfect introduction into a very strange world of psychedelicado. Think the Beach Boy's 'Smile.' The reaction of my friends after hearing this have been harmoniously the same, 'they have to be on drugs.' The truth is Of Montreal are not on drugs, they are drugs.

Possibly one of the greatest pop songs I've heard. A minimal arrangement of synth bells and piano over a distorted & looped drum beat.

A perfect piece of contemporary pop music: uplifting and sunshiny, yet with the right dose of melancholia. The production is excellent, as well as the instrumentation with a very driving rhythm section, warm electric piano, guitars and horns. What makes this really stand out is the terrific string arrangement by Richard Hewson (A protegee of George Martin and quite busy arranging during the 70s) which is very floating, sweeping and lush.

Maybe the best Maiden song ever, everything is pitch perfect on this song.

Despite '2002 - A Hit Song's insistent chorus of "it's gonna be a hit, hit, hit!", by the end you're not convinced, "it's not gonna be a hit is it Free Designers?" "No� I'm afraid not Rum. To be honest it hasn't a hope in hell. Oh yeah we're bitter, of course we are, but, you know, when you're in the idiom of soft rock you can't get away with angst, you've got to maintain this 'pleasing' fa�ade, so that's why we sound so jolly, so 'up' on this song. But yeah, it's hard..." Yes, they may, as they sing, have "sealed it with a kiss" but the cracks show. And it's that that makes this song particularly memorable. It's fascinating to see the rips in their Peter Pan wonderland, a place where they usually spend their time flying kites, blowing bubbles, befriending dolphins. And so this palpable excitement you hear in their heady harmonies is not fuelled by a surefire optimism of success but by an almost delirious desperation, "hit, hit, hit, sure to be a hit, hit, hit, gonna make a hit, hit, hit" they sing, panting, shaking nervously, craving that big fix. The track is a flip-side to the Byrds' 'So You Wanna Be A Rock'N'Roll Star'. Both are bitter recipes for pop success but whereas the Byrds are pissed off that any talentless buffoon can follow their recipe to success get a hit, the Free Design are pissed that "We did all this last time, and it did not work!". I guess you have to suffer for your art, and maybe the Free Design were having too happy a time. Or maybe their hair didn't swing right or their pants weren't tight.

a beautiful, haunting, disturbing song. maynard's voice just does something that twists up my heart every time i hear the song. this is one of the songs i can put on repeat and just completely let swallow me whole. it's perfect for a dark mood.

The lyrical theme of �6060-842� seems pretty mundane for the B-52s. Tina goes to the ladies room, sees a phone number scrawled on the wall, and so decides to ring it. Hmm� doesn�t sound like it�s gonna be a tale the measure of �the time our car was hijacked by the devil� and the like. Still this IS the B-52s, and recognisably so, �if you�d like a very nice time, just give this number a call� reads the unlikely graffiti. So something must happen. The band are optimistic too, bouncing along excitedly on a jumpy new wave rhythm. Tina, we reckon, is much like the band. She lives for wild parties and crazy adventures. This 6060-842 could be just the ticket. �Oh my gawd! I�m gonna give that there number a ring. You see if I don�t!� So she drops a dime in the phone slot and, �prays she gets the line.� She�s biting her lip, stabbing her nails into her finger tips, �come on� come ON!!!�

But pause a moment. Is she really so na�ve? Does she really think a �really nice time� awaits her? In the gnarled and weather beaten hands of a social realist singer-songwriter, the number 6060-842 would lead to abuse, to prostitution, and ultimately, to death. In the hands of the B-52s? I don�t know, you tell me. A debauched toga party in a 1950s vision of the future�? Well, it�s neither. It�s just a brilliant anti-climax. You see Tina and the B-52a might be deranged, but the world they live in is not. It�s bloody typical. She dials 6060-842, and can�t get through! �The number�s been disconnected�� monotones the operator. But Tina won�t accept this, no, and neither will the band. They can�t end the track with Tina accepting the disappointment with a sigh of weary resignation, �ah well, nevermind� maybe next time.� No, no, this anti-climax has worked them up into an angry frenzy. Ricky Wilson vents his frustration with viscious slashes of electric guitar whilst Tina just keeps dialing and dialing, and getting rebuffed and rebuffed, �HELLO!!!� �sorry�� The track probably ends with them all smashing up the phone box. A superb, and much over-looked track.

Meeeeoooow!! Geez... This song is mad-mad-mad! Everone makes a big deal about E.V.A., but for my money, this is the track on the album that makes the most of the MOOG. It's just soo wild! It's like somebody gave The Shadows a couple of Mini Moogs and they just jacked-in with this crazy spy-blues groove! People like Perrey & Gershon Kingsley did more with those instruments in the first few years of their existence than anyone else did in the 30 years following.... Barbaric!!

I was looking up and down the list and wondered "why wasnt there any Todd Rundgren"? This is one of my all-time favorites from him at his creative peak. Although sometimes his ego and additudes about the music business (and fans) gets in the way of me enjoying his music, on this track he keeps his ego in check and uses his melodic (and commercial) smarts to make this one of this greatest ballads.

This is just an wonderful track, along with a amazing Stevie Wonder meets Brian Wilson all synth production. Also check the solo piano version on his "Back to The Bars" 2-CD set.

Being a HUGE Tom Petty fan, I was a little worried when I saw foreverinmotion covered this...but...they didn't butcher it they merely served it up on a different plate ;)

Killer New Orleans r&b with a great piano line supplied by none other than Mac Rebbenack (Dr. John).

I know, one is supposed to defer to the Eno-epoch Roxy Music, (and the first two LPs are the end of the world), but this may well be the band's most serene momment. Bryan Ferry is at the top his game here - his vocals are heavenly, his lyrics are brilliantly/brutally witty. Add the floating layers of "Melody Nelson" damaged strings and the effect is dazzling.

Wanna hear a demented story about a eloping teenage couple that gets eaten by a monster? Sure, I did too. And The Violent Femmes create a funny, charming story that will either leave you with a chuckle or a cringe.

This really is the stand-out track from Ed Motta's 2000 album, "As Segundas Inten��es Do Manual Pr�tico". On this album, and in albums since, Ed seems to span jazz-latin reluctantly with pop. The rest of the album, bar a couple of tracks, is a fairly straight forward pop affair, but the song writing on his albums since have been a lot more adventurous and in this vein, but nothing has matched it since.

After the split of the Young Marble Giants, Alison Statton dreamed herself as Helen Merill and ended up to be the most convincing Astrud Gilberto impersonator of the eighties. A view from her room begins as a bossa and ends in a blast of percussions.
One of the true masterpiece of the first half of this decade ans it's a shame that it is not currently available.

I ended up stealing a 110th sign because of this song.

9 min., 40 sec.- Improvised!!! Herbie came up with basic riff, followed by brilliant improvisation by Bennie Maupin on Saxes and Bill Summers Percussion, Bassist Paul Jackson and Drummer Mike Clark. They only recorded one take! This song is at first very difficult to pick apart, but once you focus on any one instrument you will have a new perscective on the talent of these virtuoso players. Pure genious.

Spawned from the depths of Staten Island, Arthurkill has risen to become one of NYC's best kept little secrets. Personifying modern rock by drawing on influences from U2 and Bruce Springsteen to Rage Against the Machine and Metallica, Arthurkill delivers market-friendly guitar driven songs that carry the torch of rock 'n' roll into the post-alternative era. Arthurkill's latest album "Addiction" is available either online or through Tower records. Arthurkill is currently in the studio recording "Frozen in Time" the eagerly anticipated follow up to 2003's "Addiction".

Cool in the Xxtreme !
Sixties dance jazz funk instumental from harpist Dorothy. Complete with organs, flutes and bongos it is driving classy joyful music .

The album also contains the awesome "Action Line " which is weirdly atmospheric and deeply strange

One of the greatest rock songs ever recorded. Loud, distorted, strangely tuneful and tuneless at the same time. An exhilerating rush of pure energy without being remotely fast.


The superior single version also has the mighty Nick Knox on drums. And I don't think is on the cd. But it is on the LP.

A slow number from Gainsbourg�s classic concept album, �Ah melody� opens with that picked acoustic guitar sound which the group Air have now imitated and made one of their trademark sounds. The arrangement is very bare, with the guitar accompanied by just a vocal, bass, and a spikey, funky drum beat. Later in this short track, strings and Bacharach-style horns slip in and out of the mix, before everything stops abruptly. It�s a great track from what I find otherwise to be a slightly disappointing album.

Very motown- lots of instrumentation. Simplistic but upbeat.

Hell, I could have picked almost anything from the back catalogue of this band. Albatross is the stand-out track of an outstanding 4 track EP (entitled Holding our Breath) from early ’90s shoegazers Slowdive. Bemoaned, decried and hated by Britain’s Britpop-loving press, Slowdive’s beautiful multi-layered sound has latterly found a kindred spirit in much lauded post-rockers Sigur Ros. So maybe they were right after all…

Back to Reading – and there is no stronger example of the Thames Valley sound than Albatross. Layer upon layer of minor chords – almost symphonic in their beauty – Albatross swells to a powerful crescendo of highly processed guitars. Non-believers should check out double A-sides Catch the Breeze and Shine. The fourth track on the rather grand EP is a cover of Syd Barrett's (former lead singer of Pink Floyd) Golden Hair. Utterly remarkable.

This Ian's new band is nothing like Fugazi, it's all acoustic now, there is also a female vocalist (who is also the drummer) and lineup is minimal (Only Ian and
Farina). Ian plays barritone guitar, Farina plays drumms. They both sing. This and "You won't feel a thing" are the best songs from their debut album.

The song is actually a show tune - originally from 'Gypsy'. The only place I know this version exists is off Harry Connick's laser disc - featuring a live performance from '91. Anyway, if you listen to Mel Torme belt out this showtune, it sounds, well, like a showtune. I'm not a big fan. It's kind of dimply cheeked-cheesy. Harry sings it like it's an absolute standard. Slows it down, gets a little soulsy and smooths it out... perfect crooner jazz. Unfortunately there is a good deal of talking and tap dancing breaking up the song.

Heard this track on french radio and discovered that it will be released on 12" sometime in May 2002. Alexander Kowalski, a 23 year old based in Berlin, has created a tech house excursion that is extremely infectious. A great driving tune! My only qualm are the vocals which I must admit are mildly cheesy but they grow on you and many people I have played this to end up liking it after a few listens.

There is something magic about a song like �All Men Play On Ten� in this post-Spinal Tap Metal world. Such an earnest rock anthem, in such an irony saturated market� You�ve got to have respect for Manowar. Is it a mark of defiance or of ignorance and stupidity? Hard to tell. Maybe both. But then this song is essentially about doing things their own way, and not listening to anybody. So who cares anyway? Well, it�s worth listening to Eric Adams for 4 minutes at least. He has a message for us all. He�s no puritanical, know-it-all, he�s a reformed character preaching a rock�n�roll gospel. Believe it or not brothers, he too has fallen. There was a time when he did it for the money, yes that�s right, he sold his soul to the loud music-hating devil. And the devil said hmmm Mr Adams, for your money I have some things I need you to do for me, adjustments as it were. Eric said, well okay, what do you suggest? The devil demanded that he turn down his amps, �why be proud, don�t play so loud, be like us and get a sound that�s real THIN�. OK, I reckon I could do that, just a bit, said Eric, a little put out. But the demands didn�t end there, Eric was pinched and plucked for his silver dollar, �wear a polyester suit, act happy, look cute, get a haircut and buy small gear.� And inevitably it all got too much. Eric�s no pigeon weaver, and he got real mad, and he turned to the devil and said, �HOLD IT, RIGHT THERE!� And good for him. For this is a great track. Very catchy.

Melancholy jangle tune with sweet, haunting melody; discussed the trials and tribulations of those little bands that slip under our musical radar, however worthy. Reminiscent of garage band struggles, all who picked up a guitar in school in hopes of making it big. For those who make it big, hundreds - no, thousands - of bands are still waiting to be heard.

"And never thought it'd go this far / We never thought that / We'd ever go far / Like all my friends who play guitar / Know who we are? / We never go far / Like all my friends who play guitar"

(btw, I had no idea these guys were Christian; never sounded like any Christian music I heard!)

It doesn't have the electronic elements of some of their songs apart from a DnB drum loop, but it is the only release they have on vinyl. (beautiful 7")
A breathless rush of too fast, too loud guitars, beach boy singing, slaughter and the dogs style riffs and terrible kiddie rock rapping.
Its noisy and fast, but desperatly tuneful.
The B-side "Good Good Girl" is also too fabulous. Catch them live if you can. Too young, too loud, too good. J-Rock!

This is Billie Holiday at her absolute best, or worst, depending on your point of view. I personally consider it her best. She sings this song with a feeling of absolute devotion and love. With only months to live, Billie Holiday made her final recording for MGM records in March 1959. Years of abuse thru drugs and bad relationships had left both her voice and body only shadows of their former selves. However, what she no longer retained vocally, she more than made up for emotionally. Her battered voice and life experience allowed for the feelings to shine thru in a way that she couldn't have possessed in her younger years and for this reason, I fall into the group that prefers her latter recordings over the earlier ones. I am the happy owner of a 10-cd boxset of her complete recordings for the Verve and MGM labels which includes outtakes and incomplete tracks recorded between 1945 and 1959. It's one of the few things I will grab if I have to evacuate my apartment in an emergency...

"as political a song as I got" - says Ben Folds.
a quieter bouncy jazzy song where Ben sings to his son about how fucked up the world is. they point and laugh at the ignorance and consumption of most of the world. two verses and a solo or two, a short song comes together for his EP, Sunny 16. here's hoping he'll revisit it and flesh it out with another verse for the promised album...

a catchy organ riff and some duh duh wailing...it's just one of those fun obscure mid sixties soundtrack songs. sounds like a cheesy party sequence, although i've never seen the film it originates from.
good clean fun. Actually i was surprised when i found out morricone originally wrote this, because some cheap dance/pop bill (can't remember who right now)had a hit wich borrowed heavily from this sometime during the mid-to late nineties... why is it that every time something catchy pops in top 40-music, it turns out to be borrowed from one of the old masters?

the words "i could be in love with almost every one/ and i will be alone again tonight with you" are sung in a very intimate high-register, backed by glorious acoustic guitar plucking and horn bursts. two minutes in, the song erupts into an extended horn solo! probably the most perfectly orchestrated pop song.

For me the best song produced by the Pet Shop Boys for a few years, this mid-tempo number fuses a philosophical yet uplifting lyric with a typically intense, harmonically interesting PSB synth backing. The melody is beautiful and the song and arrangement are considerably more musically daring than much of the contents of their rather disappointing album "Release", which, in its standard single disc form, inexplicably omits this song.

"Always" is available on US limited edition two disc sets of "Release" and on disc one of the "Home and Dry" CD singles.

I'm just reacquainting myself with the entire Low album after buying it on CD (my LP has been out of my reach for a few years). It really is utter genius. If they were in any other context, I don't imagine I would enjoy some of the guitar solos featured in this song. Here, they work brilliantly though. The musical basis of 'always crashing in the same car' is quite simple, but the superb musical performances and odd, otherworldly production give it an incredible richness. Bowie's vocal is mournful, and doesn't dominate the track.

An unusual take on this classic Burt Bacharach tune, more commonly heard sung by Sandie Shaw. This Swedish vocal group adds a musical phrase to the song which adds something to the atmosphere. The incredibly wide vocal range of the group is used to full effect. The result is a very appealing mixture of 60s pop and vocal jazz.

To me this is certainly a pinnacle of pure late 60s sunshine pop. Composed by pop genius Roger Nichols the timeless, idealistic lyrics were written by Tony Asher (who wrote most of the lyrics with Brian Wilson on Pet Sounds) not by his regular partner Paul Williams. Sunshine pop hardly gets any sunnier than on this track: great production, strings galore, Beach Boys-esque vocal harmonies, great bassline & trumpet and catchy as hell with it's uplifting chord progressions throughout. While the album version (recently included on the highly recommended "The Get Easy! Sunshine Pop Collection") is good already, the single version is just crisper, lusher, just perfect.

The lyrics to this song, even though they were written years ago still hold up today. Nothing has changed, which is kind of sad. This song hits you hard with it's political message with very little subtlety, but it doesn't need it because the message is so strong and so frustrated. Bad Religion's best work.

A breezy popsong, produced by Anita Kerr... a grrrrrrrreat slice of uptempo sunshine pop...a tune that makes you feel good... isn't that what music is all about ???

This is one of my favourite tracks on El Kilo, Orishas superb third offering. I love the horns!

To me, this track is a perfect distillation of all that is wonderful about bossa nova and the various hybrids which it inspired. Bossa nova was taken up all over the world after its rise in the late 50s and early 60s, but Italian musicians seem to have done an especially good job of absorbing its charms.

A simple instrumental, this opens with a plucked guitar and simply builds up and down, adding piano and strings and then taking them out so beautifully that it makes you shiver. Alas, the rest of the compilation this is taken from suffers from poor sound quality. If anyone comes across the original Giancarlo Gazzani album, I'd be very keen to hear it, although I fear this track may be an isolated gem.

This is a fabulous, lush, orchestrated ballad sung from the point of view of a woman who is totally in love ... the only unusual thing is that it is very serious and sombre, rather in opposition to the lyrical intent. Vastly superior to her forgettable mid-'70s pop hits like "I've Got The Music In Me". Oh, and a different set of lyrics by somebody named Dahlstrom enabled the wretched Helen Reddy to have another hit named "Emotion" -- same melody, but an absolute piece of rubbish. This just proves that a song's worth comes from the arrangement more than anything else ...

There are a number of CDs available which contain this song.

Basic prog-heavy-rock instrumentation backed up with synth sequencers.
A long track that kind of takes you in a trance.
Perfectly on time and well played instruments and guitar riffs together with the sequencers create a certain kind of "drive" and well constructed drums and genious drum fills keeps it interesting and alive. Steve Wilson's (not so typical for the genre) vocals bring in ghostliness and calm.

A quintessential Scott track, recorded when he was at peak of his abilities. There doesn't seem to be much middle ground over Scott Walker - people seem to either love him or hate him. I don't really understand how anyone could not be charmed by Scott - sure, he's a crooner and the music backing him is often lush and is rarely 'hip'. But the voice! The words! I've never been really big on either vocalists or lyrics, but these really, really get to me. Angelica's verse is dark and melancholic, and the words speak of regret over a neglected lover. The chorus explodes with emotion, and at this point you should be able to figure out one way or the other whether you love Scott or not. n.b. I always thought this song was composed by Scott, but I was mistaken. As well as being a great songwriter, he had superb taste in other material.

Instrumentation is sort of electronic
The song is upbeat

Today on my way out from my favourite store I saw a bargain bin that had the lp 'In and out of Focus' (by Dutch band Focus). Anonymus is the B-side opener with magic interplay between flute and guitar (Jan Akkerman vs Thijs van Leer). Dutch progjazzfunkystuff all the way. For 50cents it's a perfect buy; I never bothered to pick it up along the way during many visiys. Essential listening!

"Marjorie's wingspan is made up of coke cans, tv dinners and letters she won't send."

condensed, funked up version of the song with a shitload of guest appearences. It all flows together pretty nicely, with fantastic beats and great, ridiculous larger-than-life aggressive tough guy/girl lyrics. Perfect tunage for sweaty parties with a few good friends and foes.

Haunting and magical with fragile, baby-doll vocals. The song describes common sentiments, repeating the phrase "park that car/drop that phone/sleep on the floor/dream about me" with such earnestness that, if you were the object of such affection, it would be nearly impossible not to come back.

This track is recommended for: fans of the Magnetic Fields, Radiohead

A beautiful, soft, sad, fragile piece about a couple breaking up and bursting into tears as they do. Incredible for its intimate feel and sparse instrumentation (voice, organ, harmonica, egg shaker) chilling lyrics 'you close your eyes but there's no paradise, you count the cost of all we've lost and all we've wasted'. It hits the nail bang on the head! Love it to bits.

Dramarama never hit it as big as they should have but they still managed to stay around for more or less twelve years. Anything, Anything is one of those skater songs that gets you pumped. Not just because the song is great but becaus eyou can relate to it. It was well known mostly for its appearence in the movie Nightmare on Elm Street 4. It is on during the part when the kid is doing karate. The song is excellent and if you grew up in the eighties and took a liking to skateboarding and things of that nature then you can definitely appreciate this. The words as well as the music has a certain type of familiar energy that hits the spot in each of us, that is if you like metal.

Apart from their hit songs, I have only recently got into The Smashing Pumpkins and this track stands out for me as brilliant. Great lyrics and a steady pumping beat make this difficult to not listen to over and over again. I think you need to invest time in their songs before you start to like them. That was definately the case with this song, on first listening it didn't really stand out, but now I would put it alongside 'Ava Adore' as one of the best tracks on the album 'Adore'. Also listening to 'Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness' at the moment, another album that grows on you once you put the time in.

Brilliant melancholy synthpop trac. from a bootleg compilation with tracks from the german 80's new wave magazine Flexipop, wich used to come with flexidiscs and tapes.
Been trying to dig up information about the band, without much luck. from the minimalist sound of this song it may even be just one person.

It's a simple song, (complete with a preset 80's synth drumline)
yet it's very effective in conveying a romanticised sense of loss and dread. It's a good song. You can listen to it on sunday afternoons.

This is from "Flying Saucer", which for me is the record of the decade. It's electronic synth-pop w/ 2 female vocalists. There's an youthfulness and innocence about the music that makes me think it'd be a good soundtrack for a manga. There's some grown up melancholy there, too, on some of the songs.

Sir Elton goes phillysoul - disco and guess what ? it´s superb. Along with delfonics/stylistics mastermind Thom Bell Elton John cut an mini album in the mid seventies that is unlike anything else in his song catalogue and where "are you ready for love" is the standout track.
And if you have any chance seek out the wonderful video where you see Elton along with, what i guess is the musicians on the song, handclapping themselves along to a delirious state of mind.

This song has a very tender vocal, which I believe is by either Carl or Dennis, a super-cool reverb-laden piano and sweet handclaps that cue up organ and trumpets. As fully-realized a piece as anything on "Pet Sounds".

If You have a good hi fi system seriously set up with good speaker cable and good interconects and your taste is smooth jazz. this lady is wonderful. Just piano double bass and drums hear. The detail in this CD recording is brilliant. every light touch the drummer makes you can pick it out. the track i have picked is the title its soft haunting and rather special have a listen.

http://www.jazzweek.com/feature/article/7_000432.html

Great use of the Cello and Tim Kasher doing what he knows best : writing a classy emo song that wont ever end up on Hot Topic.
It's a great song and a powerful one. Probably the best Cursive has ever made.

A classic 80s pop song, with New Order trademarks such as a super heavy bassline, strong drums and some frenetic guitar work. The lyrics aren't too bad for Bernard Sumner either - it's a touching (if not entirely coherent) story about lost love. A great song which fills me with nostagia.

Best known for their organ-drenched debut 1967 hit "A Whiter Shade Of Pale", Procol Harum continued for quite a long while and in fact have re-formed in recent years. A lot of their 1970s songs seem to have an odd jerkiness about them, but "As Strong As Samson" is the one in which they put it all together properly, 'cause it's smooth, heavy, and it swings! With organ, piano, and pedal steel guitar all pitching in, surely this is high up somewhere in the 1970s top ten songs.

Produced by Chris Thomas, who later did "Back On The Chain Gang" for the Pretenders and the "Different Class" LP for Pulp, so that's quite a line of quality there.

This song is an interesting case study into the question of 'why do I like this version of the song more than any other'. I have a half-baked theory that for me, I mostly just like the first version of any great song I hear, regardless of whether or not it is the original or 'best' version. But this track is so different to the Rolling Stones's version that I think it would probably divide people pretty clearly. Produced by Lee Hazlewood/Billy Strange, 'as tears go by' is here recast as a crisp pop bossa nova. They even change the chords slightly (adding a new chord as she sings 'by'). To me, this makes the song vastly superior to the original (or any other I've heard). But I'm not sure anyone has ever agreed with me yet on that one...

Emm Gryner is a Canadian woman now resident in Los Angeles.

Her songs tend to be melancholy and confessional and can become a bit much after a while. Nevertheless, I think she is a great talent who will continue to mature.

'Atlas' is more upbeat than most of her work...if you get a chance to see her perform do so, she's very dynamic.

Here is her website: http://www.deaddaisy.com/ - you can order CDs directly from her.

The score for Pasquale Festa Campanile�s mean but effective film "Autostop Rosso Sangue (Hitch Hike)" seems to be a precursor to the score for Oliver Stone�s mean and ineffective "U-Turn." On second thought, not just the score but the entire film. I wonder if Stone had seen this movie before making "U-Turn." At any rate, I�m here to talk about the music, and both films feature absolutely incredible scores by Morricone.

The arrangement here is pretty spare � I�m pretty sure that this track is mostly improvised -- and plays like a toned down spaghetti western theme. Morricone can evoke more feeling from a small group of musicians than most film composers could from an entire orchestra. The twangy banjo sounds great over the plodding bass line, and I love the subtle organ sounds. Ultimately, the real star here is Edda Dell'orso whose wordless vocals meander over it all.

For me, this perhaps the absolute apex of the much-admired Italian 'Easy Tempo' series of compilations (it's on Volume 8). The formula is similar to other tracks I've recommended - a sexy wordless vocal, a light bossa beat, some strings. But that really doesn't tell the story! The chord sequence is extremely catchy and uplifting. This is a truly incredible three minutes.

A perrenial sesonal classic given a veneer of French disco sophistication,its appeal lies in retaining the melancholy of the songs intent whilst infusing the proceedings with something more up beat and Parisienne ,so the song runs at am exhaustive 8 minutes but leads you out of a forboding autumn and takes you nearer the optimism of spring. All achieved through the genius of arrangement and Miss Jones empathy with the song

My obsession with this band continues. From a CD that failed to sell on ebay for 50 cents comes this amazing cut - a beautiful instrumental with prominent guitar and organ. While it's surf influenced, it goes beyond that. I'm kind of lost for words, but it's one of those 'This is the best track ever' tracks. You know what I mean?

Comparing the love of a girl to winning a game of bingo...who'd a-thunk it? A really nice uptempo soul tune. I don't have any info on this guy, and as far as I can tell, this is the only thing he ever recorded. The flipside to the seminal ballad "How Can You Baby-Sit a Man?".

I think this song is possibly Supertramp's best, though I think it could have been better too. The lilting first verse is particularly striking, although as the song builds, the shrillness of Roger Hodgson's voice becomes wearing and there is an excess of repetition. The instrumental breaks in particular show one of the band's more positive characteristics - a jazz-inspired rhythmic urgency, and the sax solos are as excellent as always.

The song is a slow melancholy song with a hint of vengeance building up in the beginning. The song then switches to a breakdown, including screaming "baby" by Robert Plant the singer, gives you goosebumps.

Simmering tune about a bad breakup. Chris pulls off some of his leanest, meanest guitar work here. This was featured in Eyes Wide Shut, Stanley Kubrick's final film.

Available for free download from www.kazoofunk.co.uk/music.html along with the rest of the album 'Midnight Finger Painter'...

Beautiful summery easy-bossa arrangement of this Villa-Lobos orchestral piece. The tempo floats along at a lazy pace, augmented by gorgeous piano and flute solos, then comes to an abrupt end with a very cool bass riff. Apparently, Schifrin recorded another version of this song in 1996 on the "Gillespiana" album, and that features Karlheinz Stockhausen's son Markus playing trumpet!

unreleased master on RCA Canada. would have been this beatle type bands equal to "she loves you"

This chap Mick Thomas is extremely sentimental, and if you want to get into him, you have to expect to have your heart strings tugged pretty regular. However, if your make up is unashamedly sentimental as mine is, you can really get into this very plain, open and beautiful style of singing.

This one is one of Mick's best - I haven't quite worked out the genders on it (some people think he is singing as a woman in this one) but he certainly takes the place of a rather downtrodden, unconfident person. The chorus is very delicately judged:
I'd have baked a cake
if I knew you were coming
but now that you're here
it's time we did some talking
who'm I trying to kid?
I knew you'd be coming around

The backing is slow, but expressive hawaiian guitars subordinated to the lyrics. Mick's voice itself is incredibly expressive - he's a big old chap, and his voice has a lot of power but also it seems to have the sound of experience behind it. He also has a brilliant range -I've tried to sing this many a time and it's very hard.

Ricky Fitzpatrick's song "Ballad of Billy the Kid" is a 3 minute class in songwriting.

A compelling story filled with unexpected references, internal rhymes, interesting characters...not to mention his beautiful voice. His single acoustic guitar is the perfect backdrop for this tragic and beautiful story. A couple of four-letter words, but nothing that doesn't fit appropriately into the song as a whole.

Ricky's comment on the mystery of the song has always been "Never judge a man til you've walked a mile in his shoes".

I am a fan and always will be. I suggest checking Ricky out while he's still available as a "local" artist at www.rickyfitzpatrick.com.

Try to find this 1971 electro-gem and let your feet do the rest...A German group called Senor Coconut released a couple of albums on 2000 and 2001 remixing Kraftwerk tunes over a latin flavoured electro setting--pretty far-fetching stuff according to critics. Just listen to this one and you'll find out that Perrey have already done this all this time ago! Party synthesizer music!

Ok. This one came outa the closet for a little spin. Love this... One of the few records in the Creation catalog that no one talks about, let alone knows of. I think it slipped under the radar for a few reasons. For one, it sounds like almost nothing else on the label at the time. To me it sounds like a cross between Shellyan Orphan & New Order... Maybe with a little Housemartins at times. Super smooth symphonic electro with boy-girl vocals, and maudlin lyrics with super-anglo underpinnings (with a japanese spoken word bit as well!). To me it seems like the whole thing should have come out on Factory Records in like 84', then it would have been noticed a bit more. Even the cover makes it look like a Durutti Column release.

If you are a fan of the aforementioned seek out a copy before they are all gone.

Nothing can truly prepare you for your first listen to Os Mutantes. All the hype in the world can only pique your interest...of all the countless reviews I've read, none have ever captured the essence of the band, and I'm not about to attempt it here. Any song from their first album could be my choice here...the psychotic carnie music of "Panis et Circensis", the drugged-out doo-wop of "Baby", the Ray Davies-informed songcraft of "Senhor F" or the Donovan meets Alistair Crowley creepiness of "Trem Fantasma". So I chose this, their best-known freakout. Go find out for yourself.

�sound and instrumentation:Slightly garage-sounding psych rock with Portuguese lyric- creative use of 1960s sound processing methods to give a somewhat spacy aspect. This is one of the more commercially rocking tracks from a very creative and groundbreaking psychedelic rock group.

Ex toadies lead singer Todd (Vaden) Lewis, one of the best voices in rock today. Don't know if you get this goodness yet outside of texas, but the tour is upcoming, and I actually heard it on the radio (gasp) something the Toadies 2nd album didn't even get (a great sophmore release from a platinum selling band... hmmmm) anyway its uplifting and real, but does has a little of that Tv sheen on it that instills hope in you, even if life is never really as good as it promises.

If you haven't heard of this band, they're a ska band that's been around for a little while. This song is incredibly energetic and well written. It makes me happy every time i listen to it!

An addictive and perfect track, which fuses several of my obsessions (vocal groups, Ennio Morricone-style chord sequences, Brazilian pop) with incredible power. The song is a Brazilian standard, written by Baden Powell, but this version is very different to any other I've heard. This recording opens feverishly with brass and strings, maintaining a doomy and very serious mood throughout. All the same, it manages to be extremely groovy, with rock drums and a twangy guitar accompanying the strings and harmonizing vocals. The arrangement is quite brilliant and never sounds crowded, with a stark feel produced by the different parts dropping in and out. The part of the track which to me is pure genius is the instrumental break in the middle, which sounds like it's excerpted from one of the coolest of Morricone's late 60s B-movie soundtracks - honey smooth strings, blended with some excellent drums and a cool trumpet part. The vocals are also rather gripping - always very serious sounding, and often wordlessly chanting the melody.

This is a very beautiful track.

Very 'West Coast' late-60's sound. Quite reminiscent of Jefferson Airplane.

Very sweet, very melodic/melancholic.

Strings. Strong female lead vocal.

I originally heard it many years ago on a vinyl album by a group called 'Mojo' which is what The Mojo Men were apparently calling themselves in 1969.

I searched for the song for years, confused by the change of name & eventually found it on their CD compilation.

It's another one of those songs that should have been very succesful, but was just stuck in the middle of a flop album

An irresistible blend of Bach, Pet Shop Boys, Abba, and maybe Momus and ELO.

Not on the excellent "Bang Goes the Knighthood" album, instead supposedly only available as an i-tunes download with that album. How bonkers is that?

First of all, the tap dancing? genius. Tilly and the Wall are a great band and this song even though it's supposed to be sad, it sounds so lighthearted at the same time. Simple and clean: a great tune.

From the 1986 concept album "The Formula" by Rupert Hine, this is an excellent mid-eighties dnace number which received no radio or MTV rotataion but deserved to. Highly dancable, cool, European and memorable. Rupert Hine is famous as a producer for badns such as The Fixx, Howard Jones, Tina Turner, Eight Seconds, Rush, Stevie Nicks and more...
Don;t let that throw you off though. His solo material is ofetntimes very dark, futuristic, apocolyptic and just plain catchy.

Many may already be aware of this samba due to Walter Wanderly's space-age tinged organ instrumental version, but Elis's original vocal version is far more powerful with relentless horn blasts. It also demonstrates her range of emotions put into the performance as she goes from delicate to belting.

An even funkier hit single than "Sledgehammer" ? which had an epic groove but was too slow to actually dance to ? "Big Time" is a sardonic response to yuppie materialism with the funniest lyrics of Peter Gabriel's entire career. (The ending of the song, stopping just before the obvious punch line to all this discussion of how preternaturally huge everything in Gabriel's charmed life is, is a small moment of brilliance.) But the brilliance of the song is in the way it ties all that Gabriel had been learning about African percussion and Middle Eastern melodies ever since the days of his third solo album and ties them all into the service of a walloping great groove, making plain the connections between North Africa and Stax-Volt once and for all. The combination of talking drum and wah-wah guitar owes as much to Booker T and the MGs as it does to King Sunny Ade, which is both the key to "Big Time" and a clue as to why Gabriel's later, more explicitly world music focused albums just aren't as much fun.
(AMG)

Big Town Boy is the title track of this new in 2004 version, a rocking update that pays respect to the original. Website: www.dannym.com

A superb song from Cale's first solo LP after leaving the Velvet Underground. Very melodic, lushly orchestrated and sophisticated, an absolutely impeccably-crafted pop song. I really love the echo effect on the whole thing, coupled with Cale's ultra-fluid viola playing. A great album from start to finish, actually.

A key track from Julian Cope's fragmentary second solo album, 1984's Fried, "Bill Drummond Said" is the only song on the album that resembles the swirling psych-pop of his old band the Teardrop Explodes. This is no doubt intentional, as the lyrics take aim at the group's former manager, Bill Drummond (later half of the Timelords, the KLF, and the JAMS), albeit in a typically vague way. The lyrics are skeletal enough that several interpretations might be brought to them, but they seem to recount a dream in which Cope witnesses his former manager in the act of strangling an unidentified woman to death. In contrast to the vaguely unpleasant lyrics, this is by far the catchiest and sweetest tune on Fried, with a dreamy folk-rock sound to its ringing 12-string guitar riffs and breathy harmonies. Coming between more disjointed and edgy tracks like the bizarre fairy tale "Reynard the Fox" and the Syd Barrett-like ramble "Laughing Boy," "Bill Drummond Said" sounds downright bubblegummy. Unsurprisingly, the always combative Drummond got in the last word with his answer song, "Julian Cope Is Dead," a sarcastically folky acoustic tune from his odd 1986 solo album The Man in which Drummond claims that in the waning days of the Teardrop Explodes, he had suggested that Cope commit suicide to make the band famous and laments that the singer didn't take him up on it.
(AMG)

Acker's trad-jazz stuff leaves me cold, but this groovy instrumental picks up a musical theme (from the 1963 movie version of the Keith Waterhouse classic) and runs with it.

For someone like me, the strangest thing about getting really into Roxy Music is the overt rockiness of a lot of their material. Even on this track, which is one more of their slower, more mournful numbers, there are a lot of very heavy rocky moments. They work pretty well though, and I'm certainly not complaining.

The atmospheric opening is breathtaking, and Bryan Ferry's vocal as he sings 'I've opened up my heart' is incredibly beautiful. The words and music seem to meld together in a very pretty way, but then before long the track mutates into a stomping, carnival like passage that clearly influenced Nick Cave to a considerable extent. Throughout the song there's this interchange between delicate, melodic verses and the rowdy, discordant section. Like another favorite Roxy track, 'Just like you', this song finishes with a clever chord change.

I'm sure many people would find 'Bitter-Sweet' much too dramatic and serious - perhaps some days I would too - but it does have an incredible elegance and style that makes me keep on listening.

The title track from Goldfrapp�s second LP is everything pop music should be � sexy, glamorous, smart and weird - but rarely is these days. If their debut album was all about, in the duo�s own words, �Ennio Morricone and disco�, then the follow-up is all about disco and�Ennio Morricone � only wrapped in a shimmering gown early 1980�s inspired electronic textures. Electro-clash with heart and soul, a Madonna song with 170 I.Q., a tune for Milva to sing on Moonbase Alpha � I could go on and on�

In order to fully examine the minds of torment and depression, one would need to be familiar with Nick Drake's 'Black Eyed Dog.' With his transcendant ability to translate his demons into song, Nick Drake accounts a supernatural phantasm chasing him through the darkness of his own neurosis. 'Black eyed dog he claws at my door' - sung in his upper register, with the use of heavey falcetto, sounds like he is straining to survive a nightmare. His performance, despite the sparse production of acoustic guitar and vocal, is expansive. Use of harmonics and finger roll on this song proves the mastery of his instrument, as an amateur guitarist I am baffled by the sound he can create. The singular pulse of the guitar string rings-out with a delicate harmonic while the layering of other voices continue subtly underneath. And the result is the tragic embrace of his own psychological deterioration; a horror unlike the Macabre style of the French, it stands as its own haunting style, that of 'Drakesque.'

As we know his depression did finally catch up to him, and as a revisionist I would say that Nick knew it would all along, sooner or later. One would only need to hear this song and some of the pieces are put into place.

I love how this scottish girl spice up her pop songs with a little blues. This song gives me a lot of energy. Makes me dance in the streets!!

totally amazing, swinging piece of japanese vocal-centered 60's big band sound. i�m especially fond of the tarzan-esque way her voice bends at about 2:54, and the uh! ah! sounds of the backup singers. this needs to get its own movie scene ala the big dance number in sabu's "monday", if anyone's seen that.

An AMAZING rearrangement of "Eleanor Rigby". Earland kills on organ, and he's backed up by the incredible Melvin Sparks on guitar and Houston Person on tenor sax. An absolute classic of Hammond jazz.

The very mysterious DJ Black Lodge, from Manchester. This is a person who played his cards so close to his chest that his first couple of singles didn't even name the tracks.

Blood / Brass combines the music from Dumbo (that 'Pink Elephants' tune) and some heavy dub. And, if that doesn't sound genius to you, well, I do despair.

A pendant's note: this track actually apears on two singles, his first on Acupuncture (where it appeared untitled and without so much dub content), and the remixed version that I am recommending here, a limited-edition release on an unknown label through the Rough Trade shop.

From the godfather of filthfy rap comes this FUNKY,slamming tune. It tells the story of trucker with a CB radio(timewarp) who is, in his mind anyway, the baddest bastard around. On his journey he picks up a transvestite hooker, masterbates, has a fight with the Grand Dragon of the klu klux klan, claims to be related to Mohammed Ali, and drinks a bottle of wine. The killer rhyme is "We got to the room, pulled off her clothes, and the funk from her p***y started f**king with my nose." If you don't mind that sort of talk, you'll love this cut.

A Northern soul classic. I don't go a great bundle on northern usually, a bit stiff and strict tempo for me. This however sweats and creaks like the best Nashville Teens song you never heard with three PP Arnolds on vocals and a vibrato laden farfisa. Best lyrics ever as well, natch.

Just a perfect, perfect pop song. Makes you wanna dance and groove along, but at the same time it's soo unbelievably sweet and a just a liitle melancholy. It starts with a drum beat, and then there's this bass-and-drums groove for a few seconds. Then a little sweet electric piano line enters, just before the voice begins singing the melody: "I'm drinking stars up in the sky, you know where you are / I'm driving cars around your house, it seems so fun". When it's time for the chorus ("So listen to my bubble go pop / I'm coming in, I'm coming over the top"), the main voice sings over a backing vocal doing an "ooh" harmony, and then there's absolute genius backing vocal, where the word "pop" becomes "papapapa". After that, a little guitar riff/solo, along with a very cool electric piano line. Then it just repeats everything all over again one more time, for infinite happiness. The time for a middle break has arrived. A new funky bass groove with lots of different "papapa"s harmonizing together. Now, go back to the first bass-and-drums groove, with a jazzy, relaxed guitar solo, and then it's just grooves and grooves and heavenly harmonies, "Blowin' bubbles".

Considering how much I like this track, I'm surpised I didn't recommend it earlier. To me this is the standout from the band's seminal 1991 album 'Loveless'. To MBV fans, this track might seem an obvious one to recommend, but I think it sums up their appeal very well, with its beautiful ambient noises and simple but catchy melody. MBV's trademark use of weird echoey effects on the vocals and guitars is in full effect, and it's quite beautiful.

Not usually a great folk lover but this has such a beauty to it. In terms of texture its flawless, swinging between the fluctuating notes of Dobson and two guitars. A very pure sound darkened in a positive way by Dobson's lyrical treatments.

Certainly one to put on if you wake up in the middle of the night.

From a career supplying funky/hunky, cheezy/sleazy grooves to a series of late Sixties/early Seventies German soft-core flicks, Gert recently apeared on "Eurotrash"...perfect music for when you're feeling a little "saucy", in the European parlance.

Come on! how come nobody's recommended this yet?
great repetitive, driving string backing, fantastic hiccup-monkey-like vocal hooks, faboulous performance.
essential.
(stereolab has an absolutely fantastic slow twangy version of this on the album spacey double spiral. very, very highly recommended.)

My experience of Boogaloo, a style to which I'm quite new, has been varied. In short, I love some of it and don't quite get the rest. The key to me seems to be the right instrumental and percussive blend, and vocals that don't dominate too much.

Although it sounds quite generic, this track manages to satisfy me on the criteria above. From a very lucky thrift store find (this album is up there with James Brown's 'Black Caesar' among my top bargains ever), this opens with a nice solid groove, featuring saxophone, brass and layered, relentless percussion. The vocals seem pretty much off-the-cuff - the main 'Boogaloo baby - baby baby do the boogaloo' is joined by a mixture of muttered Spanish and screaming. The attraction of this song is really the texture - it can't really claim any musical or lyrical sophistication. But the instrumentation and groove are really first rate.

One of the most nonsensical song title ever, yes, I know and much derided for that reason, but to quote Otis Redding when told his lyrics didn't make any sense, "I'm gonna worry about settin' the groove. I get that groove going, they don't care what I say." Boogie Oogie2 has got groove to spare, with a jazzy intro (similar to Boogie Nights by Heatwave) before that bass line drops in shakes the floorboards. Just like all the dance craze songs of the 60s, the disco era about vocals were mostly used as a counterpoint to the rhythm section. The Mizell brothers add a touch of sophistication to this female-led band (Hazel Payne and Janice Marie Johnson on bass and guitar - they're the ones on the awesome album cover) which is a step further in the commercial direction after their work with Jazz Funk kings like Donald Byrd, Gary Bartz and Johnny Hammond. This song is up there with G.Q.'s "Disco Nights (Rock Freak)" and anything by Chic in the sophisticated disco category.

This scratchy track sounds like an old record, which is what I like about it. Although the lyrics are muddled and sped up, it doesn't detract from the song's appeal.

Close Up And Reak is a lovely album but this is my favourite track. It's a bittersweet tale of a person's (possibly Jane's), gradual loss in humankind. The song opens with a wailing violin which then introduces a soft, acoustic blanket of intsrumentation topped with Jane's wistful vocals.

There have never been drums with as much texture
and style ever recorded as in this song. Nor has
there ever been a song that has capture an energy
like this. Screw INC, Hives, and any talk of garage
rock revival. Eat this. Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
meets Prince and the New Power Generation.

*3:00*
Svenonious' perfect screaming that sets off the
battle between Michelle Mae's bass versus James
Canty's dirty little guitar riff. Oh so perfect.

This is part of the De Wolfe library collection. A good library collection has just been reissued in Japan that includes some of the better selections that this catalog has to offer. Now that most of the great music libraries have found snug homes, this CD is an easy way to avoid the price gouging and hassle of scoring a song you just want to listen to. I like this song because it has a unique cool and light tone, while being somewhere in between bossa and uptempo dancefloor jazz. Something to listen to in the shade at the beach. It only clocks in at 1:41, but you couldn't ask for more or less.

Really suprised to see this one in a thrift store recently. I was taken back by the bad cover photo of some blue cheese in tin foil with saltines and a bottle of wine.(?) Anyway, the music is fantastic, much in the vein of Jobim's CTI work from the same period. This piece grooves almost more in a Deodato way, with a nice funky nocturnal jazz bite. Nice to see the gap close on the years between his Bossa Rio stint and the records he did for Discovery.

Strangely enough it was recorded in Minneapolis MN while he was living there. On the RCA subsidary Daybreak.

Teardrop Explodes� second single, "Bouncing Babies", was released in July 1979, following the departure of organist Paul Simpson and the arrival of his replacement Gerald Quinn. With those changes, the group's sound, too, would alter dramatically, as Quinn took the band into the crypt-like depths of proto-Goth; in true Phantom of the Opera style, his organ haunts the grooves, while Gary Dwyer pounds his drums like a man who�s just discovered he's been buried alive, and Michael Finkler reenacts the Texas Chainsaw Massacre with his buzzsaw guitar.

Ecstatic reviews greeted the single, but its lifespan was short � before long, �Bouncing Babies� was so hard to find that the Freshies came close to scoring a hit simply by bemoaning that difficulty � their &"I Can't Get (Bouncing Babies by the Teardrop xplodes)" itself ranks alongside its namesake among the most memorable of the age.
(AMG)

I'm a complete sucker for jangly guitar, and thus The Wedding Present's back catalogue is a treasure trove for me. A great breakup song from a band with more than their fair share, "Brassneck" is available in two versions on the reissue of _Bizarro_ - the LP version and the single version (the latter of which was recorded by Steve Albini and is many people's favourite, but not mine). It isn't their fastest song, but the speedy, tendonitis-inducing guitar strum still leaves me slack-jawed.

I can never get tired of this song! The overlapping vocal harmonies are wonderful. A good example of Brian Wilson's genius at creating a crafty, intricate production supported by a simple melody. Why this wasn't a huge hit I don't know (I believe it was their last single at Capitol and wasn't promoted very well).

a couple of great spy jazz tracks from the movie "si j'etais un espion" by my favourite old pervert..funky guitar/strings combination followed by a morricone-like piano part. (this entire soundtrack seems to be quite inspired by some of morricone�s work...) there's a really nice repetetive bass line that pops up a couple of times during the track.

Super groovy percussive Hammond work-out on the mod-pop Page One label. (The B-side to Puppet On A String.) I got pretty tired of listening to wimp-out Hammond slop, but this is a dancefloor-filling boomer. Costs an arm and a leg on a 7" - anyone know if it's on a compilation?

Beautiful and atmospheric music, superbly recorded. Intensely poetic lyrics. What an incredible advance this represents from his work with the band Japan! Superb synth voices from longtime collaborator Ruichi Sakamoto sound a searching chord sequence over which a gorgeous, heavily treated trumpet solo comes in and out. Sylvian's voice is richly expressive.

From a time when soul was shaking hands with disco,on this beautiful midtempo ballad the two genres are happy to live in a harmony.This is a track that is allowed to build upon a soft disco beat layer by layer ,a deceptive melody allows optimism to drip drip then flood your senses,leaving you feeling good about life and for once a song that is as long as you want it to be.A song that somehow takes you high without leaving its musical ground .

Sunshine Pop in the same vein as "Up, Up and Away" by The 5th Dimension of "The Rain, The Park, and Other Things" by The Cowsills...but Bubbles has a smidgen of funk in the drums and bassline. This track was also covered recently on the 'Powerpuff Girls' soundtrack.

Chad does country rock. The album is Songs To Fix Angels, which should go down as one of the best records ever to come out of our local scene(Kansas City, MO). The songs on it sound like stuff you grew up hearing on the radio. Build A Rocket is fast & upbeat, kinda punky.

Hard rock with a hint of blues, this song features ZZ Top guitarist and vocalist Billy Gibbons. I think the song's brilliant and definitely would recommend it to anyone who enjoys rock.

This is the record that pretty much kicked off the whole 'bastard pop' genre - where a clever bootlegger would fuse the vocal track of one song with the backing of another. Here we have Public Enemy and Herb Alpert (Bittersweet Samba, from Whipped Cream...).

The reason this record (unlike most of the other mash-ups) works so well is that it sounds like a genuine collaboration - the parps of the Tijuana Brass and Chuck D's rap spits meld perfectly. It's a smart-arse idea that becomes a work of art.

great piece of whiskey-soaked break up pop from our friend lee, here. it's basically driven by guitar and harpsichord, but a warbling hammond organ pops up in the end. really dig the balance between lee's weary voice and the backup singers' purring wordless hums here.

Great loungey beat that's dying to be sampled. This is early Brigitte Fontaine and it reminds the folks at Dusty Groove of early Serge Gainsbourg. I agree. Cool upbeat jazzy beat with emotive singing. Wish I spoke French. The only problem with this song is that it's too short.

One of the best song intro's ever! Lot of strings and Marlena Shaw's voice at it's most powerful
Fabby supersoulful run-on-the-dancefloor song.

This is the title track from Stephen McCarthy's debut album. It features Piano, Bass, Drums and Sax with Stephen providing the vocals.

It shows the upbeat version of Stephen McCarthy's voice ... he also does some really slow mournful tracks on this album as well.

One of the reasons I like it so much is because Stephen made the album independently of any label.

Dutch R&Bsters lay down their finest Spencer Davis Group imitation on this Rufus Thomas classic. From their '66 LP "Emotion", which also features the Nederbeat classic "Don't You Leave".

A superb, achingly beautiful song which, to my knowledge, never appeared on a Beach Boys album, and was merely a studio outtake. The track opens with an incredible dense wall of harmonized vocals, and emotive lyrics ("I miss you darlin, I miss you so hard"). Later, the rhythm changes, and it becomes (to my taste) slightly cheesily rocky, but not so much as to ruin the song, which still rates as one of the Beach Boys' finest.

This song is haunting. The lyrics are about loss and are bouyed by a simple arrangement of guitar and organ.

I like this album more with each listen.

'You Were Here' is the first solo album from Ms. Harmer who is also one of the principle members of a Canadian folk/pop group called 'Weeping Tile'.

One of the far too few originals on this great underrated LP.The duo has a familiar west coast pop-jazz sound,much like their labelmates Bud Shank & Joe Pass.Except where as those two have way too much generally lackluster output,this duo has tons of talent packed into one exciting session! Ken plays an icy alto & soprano not unlike Paul Desmond and Beverly sings with all the grace and soul of ladies like Lena Horne and Dinah Shore. In this track, one of the most energetic on the LP,the group swings in a brisk 5/4,with Ken blowing a soulful line and alternating into creshendos with Beverly paralelling in a sassy vocalese. Wonderfully breezy,and just the kind of peppy bossa-like lounge tune you'll listen to over & over & over...They also do great versions of"A Man & A Woman"(with Ken adding some tasteful vocals himself)and "Eleanor Rigby"! A tough record to find, and no compiled tracks are anywhere to be found.... sad.

Mind-blowing late-60s girl-group sound with very odd lyrics...words really can't describe it. Suffice to say, it's a strange song. This group started out as a very typical girl group of the early 60s mold, but kept plugging away long after those groups had gone out of style. This cut from '68 is very psych-y and "groovy", as was the fashion at the time. They eventually transformed into Barry Manilow's backup singers, but please don't hold that against them.

Glad to see all of the Nick DeCaro recommendations here. I'm going to jump on the bandwagon and recommend my favorite DeCaro recording.

DeCaro interprets the "Pet Sounds" classic in a jazz style which recalls Chet Baker more readily than Brian Wilson.

A suprisingly emotional track which stands on its own.

Good Beach Boys covers seem to be a rare thing. This is easily the best I've heard. Any recommendations?

John Lodge's "Natural Avenue" was overall the best of the Moody Blues' solo ventures of the mid-1970s, being almost up there with the "Blue Jays" effort on which he collaborated with the band's guitarist Justin Hayward (whose own solo LP "Songwriter" was the biggest disappointment of the lot). This track has a wonderfully exotic feel to it, what with lyrics like "Show me your island of a thousand names" as well as orchestration including strings, oboe and bassoon, and some kind of bubbling thingy which may be a synthesizer. On a darker note, some of the other lyrics seem to indicate the alleviation of an addiction to certain substances, e.g. "Paint all the clouds the colour of 'No'" and "Gone is the white horse that carried us home", but hell, every band was addicted to stuff back then and I'm happy that 99% of them seem to have survived intact. Anyway, it's a lovely exotic song that if you haven't heard it, it's about time you did!

up beat irish rock

This is a rather ridiculous but super–catchy take on this theme to the 1967 spoof Bond movie. Performed by German session musicians, it ends up being a rather groovy mix, with viola d’amore, flute, female wordless vocals, harpsichord, and that other staple of the Baroque era, funky drums. It’s short and sweet and really very cool. The late sixties were cool for many reasons, but one of them is that they could accomodate TWO albums called 'Bacharach Baroque' - this one, and the other great Snuff Garrett-produced one by 'The Renaissance'. Both are superb.

Well it bugs me beyond words that I can never find out which album this song came from but I love it nonetheless. It's the first C&C song I heard and one I loved the first time I heard it.

It's probably one of the most atmospheric songs I've heard that conjures up images of an autumn landscape, of someone wandering in a wood, feeling lost and staring at the sky. I don't know why the music makes me think of these things but it just does. The song is quite slow and calm to begin with, then picks up and crescendoes at the chorus/bridge and the guitar playing goes through some changes. It's a really unusual song and definitely recommended!

Great summertime song

This song is simply unreal. It starts out in a kind of 4/4 samba groove with a highly prominent cuica and a funky strummed acoustic guitar chord progression before the super-catchy pizzicato-violins riff comes in, and Abilio's mellow voice singing the melody. It's sunshiney and catchy, with a bit of a haunting aftertaste, very Brazilian. I can never hear this song enough times!! Abilio Manoel is a Sao Paulo-based singer-songwriter from the late-60s-70s (still active) who wrote a few moderate hits without attaining even a Marcos Valle level of popularity. Good for Marcos, since Abilio's work would have caused me a few sleepless nights if I were him. And both on the same label, too! Abilio's stuff is hard to find, but very worth the effort.....I've already given Dusty Groove the heads-up about the CD....

Instrumental song, that wakes you up and takes you for a fantastic trip, surrounded by glorious sounds of slow and genuine timing.
Excellent for listening as hi as you can, or after a good old fashion session of Tantric sex.
Its by far the most comforting song I have ever heard.

The finest moment of a legendary 80s UK indie label which fused a post-punk spirit with the best elements of 60s pop style - bossa nova, light psychedelia, girl groups. And pre-empted the lounge/easy listening revival by about 10 years. The Would Be-Goods were two sisters, Jessica and Miranda, who couldn�t sing and did so beautifully. The �l catalogue is being re-issued on CD by Cherry Red Records. Well worth checking out.

The recording may be raw, but this song reeks of pure insane genius. 60's-inspired organ-fueled sleaze. The band boasts the former organist of "The Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black". This is one of many instrumental numbers consisting of guitar, organ, shakers and what sounds like an old drum machine. Shamelessly derivitive, lo-fi and spooky. It's one part surf and equal parts garage and swing. Henry Mancini-meets-The Mummies-meets-The Stray Cats.

This is my favorite Serge Gainsbourg song after Ballade De Melody Nelson

Lush, with strings, mid 70's sweet soul group ballad...Lyrically about the proverbial lunch box/hard hat guy on the job singin' 'bout the love he's gonna bring home to his gyrrrrl

Just Beautiful.

One of the better known Blind Melon songs of of their self-titled debut, yet still fairly unknown. This song is a personal favorite of mine and preceeds No Rain on the album tracklist. Lead singer Shannon Hoon's voice plays off the acoustic guitar beautifully and his simple message is clear, change is okay. My favorite lines in the song plead with us clear and simply that,

"When you feel your life ain't worth living you've got to stand up and take a look around you then a look way up to the sky.
And when your deepest thoughts are broken,
keep on dreaming boy, cause when you stop dreamin' it's time to die. "

Some may not like this song, but others will fall in love with it. I've grown up listening to this song and i have continued to love it.

Fun Fact:

Lead singer Shannon Hoon donned a question mark on his head and performed this song live on The late show with David Letterman shortly after Kurt Cobain's suicide, in his own way dedicating the song to him.

You might be familiar with Francoise's incredible 1971 album La Question, a track from which was recommended by another user almost four years ago (Oui, je dis adieu). I managed to get a friend to copy the album for me at the time, and I recall being very taken by 'Viens', the first song. I put this track on a compilation but somehow never really savoured the album as a whole.

Recently I found I could get the album on CD, so picked it up (along with another interesting Francoise album, 'If you listen').

The difference for me now I have the CD is vast, and I'm now able to appreciate the album in all its glory. The clincher for me is the blend of percussive Brazilian guitar, beautiful strings, and the Melody Nelson-style sparseness of the arrangements.

I chose this track to recommend because of the bizarre extra dimension brought by the fact that Francoise is just scatting - there are no words - and the intermittent moments of complete silence, which are surprising and really hold the attention. Parts of the chord sequence remind me of Henry Mancini (in particular, a track called 'Softly' from the Mr Lucky soundtrack), while the overall effect of the sexy echoey vocal naturally brings to mind Ennio Morricone's work with Edda Dell'Orso.

Genre: Grunge/Hard Rock/Art Rock

Recommended for anyone interested in getting into Sonic Youth.

"I'm gonna put on an iron shirt/
An' chase Satan out of Earth.
I'm gonna put on an iron shirt/
And chase the Devil out of Earth.
I'm gonna send him to outer space/
To find another race.
I'm gonna send him to outer space/
To find another race.

Satan is the evilest man/
But him can choke sit on a man.
So when I check him my life's in hand/
And if him flip I gone with him hand.

I'm gonna put on an iron shirt/
An' chase Satan out of Earth.
I'm gonna put on an iron shirt/
And chase the Devil out of Earth.
I'm gonna send him to outer space/
To find another race.
I'm gonna send him to outer space/
To find another race.

Him have to drop him fork and run/
Him can't stand up to Jah Jah's son.
Him have to left here with him gun/
Take off with him bomb."

gotta love a bit of max romeo. great trippy reggae song. wonderful production by lee "scratch" perry, too.

Bahaha! I had to put this song up. This is the most ridiculous, cheesy, terrible country song possible, but I love it. The music video features Alan waterskiing wearing his cowboy hat and cowboy boots, and tubing while playing his guitar. Then they all have a ho-down. He is an ultimate cowboy.

Good song for barbequeing.