Category: Music

Kind of an odd week this week, as tunes from my recent Vegas trip dominate the Top 10. And so, from the home office in London, here’s the Top 10 song chart for the week ending April 15, 2012:

1) Elvis Presley – “A Little Less Conversation (JXL remix)”
2) Saint Etienne – “He’s on the Phone (Eurodance Mix)”
3) Alizée – “J’En Ai Marre”
4) Binary Finary – “2000 (Original mix)”
5) The Lonely Island (with Akon) – “I Just Had Sex”
6) The Stranglers – “Golden Brown”
7) Sex Pistols – “God Save The Queen”
8) Blondie – “Dreaming”
9) Kim Carnes – “Bette Davis Eyes”
10) New Order – “Subculture”

As always, from the home office in London, here’s the Top 10 song chart for the week ending March 25, 2012:

1) Bananarama – “No Feelings”
2) Beach House – “Myth”
3) Saint Etienne – “Tonight”
4) Beach House – “Other People”
5) Marsheaux – “Thirteen/True”
6) Beach House – “Lazuli”
7) Marsheaux – “Do You Feel”
8) His Name Is Alive – “Blue Moon”
9) Marsheaux – “Summer”
10) Beach House – “Wild”

It’s going to be a busy springtime for me this year music-wise, as the new Madonna album will be released in a few days, and new discs are expected in the next month or two from Ladyhawke, Saint Etienne, and Marsheaux, among others. But Beach House’s new album, Bloom, has leaked online and it’s bloody brilliant! It’s already well out in front in the early race for album of the year!

Here’s “Myth”, the album’s lead-off track:

Check out the band’s page at Sub Pop here.

As always, from the home office in London… here’s the Top 10 song chart for the week ending March 18, 2012:

1) Marsheaux – “Faith’
2) Marsheaux – “Thirteen/True”
3) The Ultrasonics – “Perfect Girl (Marsheaux Remix)”
4) Marsheaux – “Summer”
5) Marsheaux – “Stand By”
6) Marsheaux – “The Promise”
7) Saint Etienne – “Tonight”
8) Marsheaux – “Ghost”
9) Two Door Cinema Club – “Something Good Can Work”
10) Marsheaux – “Breakthrough”

As always, from the home office in London, here’s the Top 10 song chart for the week ending March 11, 2012:

1) Saint Etienne – “Tonight”
2) Two Door Cinema Club – “Something Good Can Work”
3) Marsheaux – “Thirteen/True”
4) Lynda Kay – “Jack & Coke”
5) David Bowie – “Golden Years”
6) Serge Gainsbourg – “Ballade de Melody Nelson”
7) The Stranglers – “(Get A) Grip (On Yourself)”
8) Bobby Womack – “Across 110th Street”
9) Killing Joke – “Love Like Blood”
10) Cab Calloway – “Minnie the Moocher”

As always, from the home office in London, here’s the Top 10 song chart for the week ending March 4, 2012:

1) Marsheaux – “Thirteen/True”
2) Madonna – “Girl Gone Wild”
3) Saint Etienne – “Tonight”
4) Two Door Cinema Club – “Something Good Can Work”
5) Ashbury Heights – “Smile (Marsheaux Remix)”
6) The Ultrasonics – “Perfect Girl (Marsheaux Remix)”
7) Sleigh Bells – “Crush”
8) Marsheaux – “New Life”
9) Marsheaux – “Summer”
10) Marsheaux – “Stand By”

From the home office in London, here’s the Top 10 song chart for the week ending February 26, 2012:

1) Marsheaux – “Ghost”
2) Marsheaux – “Thirteen/True”
3) The Ting Tings – “Silence”
4) Marsheaux – “Stand By”
5) Teddybears – “Punkrocker (feat. Iggy Pop)”
6) Marsheaux – “The Promise”
7) Two Door Cinema Club – “Something Good Can Work”
8) Marsheaux – “Radial Emotion”
9) Cheap Trick – “Dream Police”
10) Discovery – “Missing”

I was never a Whitney Houston fan. There was just waaaayy to much melisma (“Sounds like a disease? It is a disease, my friend!”) in her music for it to be of any pleasure, as if Whitney were being paid by the syllable. Which kind of makes her the Charles Dickens of American pop music. But I’m not the only one who thinks this way. Check out this blog post, excerpted below:

Thus, her take on Dolly Parton’s “I Will Always Love You”. Take a moment to recite the lyric in your head. Has ever a piece of popular verse been more deserving of the epithet ‘love song’? ‘Love’ as in selfless regard for another, a heartbroken protagonist realising there’ll be more suitable partners for their beloved further down the line, and so exiting stage left to leave the way clear. It is, to say the least, a melancholic state of affairs. And like Nick Cave said in The Secret Life of the Love Song, “Melancholy hates haste and floats in silence. It must be handled with care.” Accordingly, Parton’s reading of the song is dignified, restrained, a handwritten note quietly pushed under the back door.

By contrast, Houston alerts all local news stations of her paramour’s address, lands a gold-plated helicopter on his front lawn, stops and poses for pictures, has a quick “No, don’t talk me out of it, I have to go through with this!” session with a shrink on the driveway, blinks back tears in a to-camera piece about ‘My journey’, briefly consults her full-time mascara assistant, knocks on the door, and hands over a giant factory-written Hallmark card when it opens. Meanwhile, melancholy lies bleeding somewhere in an adjacent block, having crashed to earth when its quiet floating was cut to shreds by rotor blades. Poor bastard. It never stood a chance.

Amen, my brother. Amen.

From the home office in London, here’s the Top 10 song chart for the week ending February 19, 2012:

1) Saint Etienne – “Tonight”
2) Marsheaux – “Thirteen/True”
3) Marsheaux – “Summer”
4) Cocteau Twins – “Lorelei”
5) Two Door Cinema Club – “Something Good Can Work”
6) Marsheaux – “Stand By”
7) Katy Perry – “Hot ‘N Cold (Marsheaux remix)”
8) The Essex Green – “Lazy May”
9) Thermostatic – “Close Your Eyes”
10) Marsheaux – “Play Boy”