That's one fantastic album

Anyone remember the old Dizzy games? One of them had a walkman as an object you could pick up and, when you had it, notes would come out of your head. A nice effect.

Anyway... the last few days I've been listening to an album called Missiles by Canadian band, The Dears.

I first found The Dears back when they had their No Cities Left album out. It's a pretty good album that suffers just slightly from the singer trying to do a Morrissey impression. As a result, it sort of loses its own identity. A good album. Not a great one. But I enjoyed it.

The one after that, however, just didn't grab me at all. It seemed utterly bland. Some people called it accessible. I'm not sure how bland equals accessible but that's what some people called it. I figured at that point that they didn't have much to offer beyond that initial Morrissey impression.

But I was wrong.

This new album, Missiles, is entirely different. It's understated, very quiet in parts, buried in minor chords and, in parts, rather brave. Certainly the use of the synth bass and the distortion in the track, Demons, turns it into something much greater than it would have been otherwise. It's the first album this year (and possibly in a couple of years) that I have just had to listen to over and over and over and over again. I just need to hear it.

If I were Dizzy, the notes coming out of my head would be from this album.

Check it out if you're into, like, music and stuff.

Is the week over yet?

I love cover versions. I love searching for different takes on tracks I like and yet hate movie remakes. Is that weird? Hypocritical? I don't know but that's just the way it is.

I find cover versions often lead me to bands I otherwise wouldn't have known. For example, my most recent search has been 'Running Up That Hill' by Kate Bush. Of course most people will know Placebo's version, which I love. But I also found a version by Chromatics, which I really like, and a version by some goth-by-numbers band called Icon and the Black Roses.

And while calling it 'goth-by-numbers' could be seen as an insult, I checked out the album and it's actually really good. There's not a damn thing on it that you wouldn't have heard before but they do it so well it's hard to fault them. And that's how Kate Bush led to me finding an album I otherwise would have missed.

I was going to illustrate this post with a doodle of me as Charlie Brown or something, like a remake. But I had this image in a notebook and, for some reason, went with this instead. It just kind of gets across the current mood yet looks far more cool than the reality. I wish I has an Astro Andy shirt.

And a cup of coffee.

Actually, I think I'll go make a cup of coffee. That would be nice.

Seven songs I like

Andy requested I list seven songs I like at the moment and I loved that he got youtube videos for them all. So here are just seven songs that spring to mind -

Chromeo - Fancy Footwork. One of my favourite songs of the last couple of years. I adore this track.




The Smiths - Asleep. This one is miserable but it's one of my all-time favourite tracks. Not sure what that says about me. "There is a better world. There must be."



65DaysOfStatic - Radio Protector. There's something very cinematic about this and I love the way the tracks build. Actually just about all their tracks build this way but it works and I like it.



Natasha Farrow - Calling To The Night. This one is the main theme from Metal Gear Solid Portable Ops, which I thought was a bit rubbish but the music was great. This has visuals from Twin Snakes, the Gamecube version of MGS.



Army Of The Pharaohs - All Shall Perish. To get away from the girly rubbish of the last track, here's some hip-hop for y'all motherfuckers. No video but a stunning track.



Ozzy Osbourne - Shot In The Dark. Classic Ozzy. This is one of his best.



Mouthmaster Murf and Dj Mayhem - Predator Rap. Fuzzy and Blue from Sesame Street was going to be my final choice but the one on YouTube refuses to be embedded so it gets the boot in favour of this absolutely amazing Predator rap. If you haven't seen this, it will blow you away.





So that's my seven. What do you reckon, Andy? Good choices?

If music be the food of...

Jeaux Janovsky had spotted a Smiths lyric I used as a post title (by the way, Jeaux, I visited your blog and I have to say I absolutely love your work).

I can't imagine it's good for people with depression to listen to the Smiths but I'm interested in just how much music affects my mood. Or is it that I choose to listen to music because of the mood I'm in? Like chicken and egg?

Well, no. Because there's an easy answer to that one - the egg.

I have what could be considered eclectic taste in music. There's barely a genre I haven't got something of. Mostly, it's because I love music and every time I find a new type, or style I missed, I get really into it. Then I move on to the next thing I discover, but never stop loving what I collected along the way. So I have a lot of music. If music be the food of anything, I'm like one of those huge fat people who have to have a crane lift them out of their house to get that stomach stapling operation and die of a heart attack two days later.

Some days, I have to have metal to get me going in the morning. Other days, I'm listening to chilled girly music like Imogen Heap. Some rare days, I listen to old hillbilly stuff. Then Ghostface... and so on.

But I listen to the Smiths a lot. Indulgent teenage crap? Yeah probably. In its day. But, man, I just love it.

Maybe I should do an experiment where I choose what I listen to in advance and see if it has a noticable effect on my mood. By the way, that lyric above isn't a Smiths song but it's one of the most depression tracks I know.

Speaking of food/love and whatever, Valentine's Day is coming up in a couple of days. You wouldn't believe how much I hate Valentine's Day.