Friday 24 March 2017

Sade - When Am I Going To Make A Living (Official Music Video)



My friend and former colleague, Holly Combe, was the person to introduce me to this song. I was aware of Sade before that, of course, but I hadn't heard this particular song before.

Back in the summer of 2012, when Holly and I were the two Music Review Editors at the F-Word, we ran a Song Of The Day blog series where we posted a different song every day for about two months. 'When Am I Going To Make A Living' was one of Holly's choices and, as she wrote at the time, it has a special resonance to those of us trying to scratch a living in the creative industries.

It's at once a very 80s song and, at the same time, also feels very contemporary in it's subject matter. I am taking a lot of solace from it at the moment.

Thursday 23 March 2017

Everything But The Girl - Driving (Acoustic Live)





This has been living in my musical brain as a particularly friendly ear worm for most of the past year, on and off.

Wednesday 22 March 2017

LAURA NYRO gibsom st





To harrow your soul...

Much as I have been having a Ceremonials phase lately, as opposed to a Lungs or How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful phase, I've also been having a New York Tendaberry phase as opposed to an Eli and the Thirteenth Confession phase.




Monday 20 March 2017

Halsey - I Walk The Line (Audio)





Doing to Johnny Cash what Grace Mitchell did to Hall & Oates with 'Maneater', basically. Weirdly hypnotic.

Saturday 18 March 2017

This Face This Name





This song has been good to me these last few years.

Melanie Garside is someone who has been there, done it, and got the proverbial t-shirt.

Back in the mid 1990s she was in Tabitha Zu, later just Zu, and possessed of a mop of multi coloured hair braids. She turned up later playing bass in Queen Adreena, and was in the Mediaeval Baebes for a bit, appearing on their Miribilis album.

'This Face This Name' is the closing track on her second album Home, from 2008, a melange of folk and indie rock.

Maple Bee was the name she used as a Mediaeval Baebe, and she's still out there, both as Maple Bee and Melanie Garside.

Friday 17 March 2017

Florence + The Machine - Lover To Lover



Florence Welch in soul girl mode.

This was Florence's second time working with director Vincent Haycock, who would later go on to direct the series of videos made to complement the How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful album that would come to be known as The Odyssey.

It is tempting to view 'Lover To Lover' as foreshadowing The Odyssey thematically as well as in a cinematography sense, but I think that's too simplistic.

It was the last single from the Ceremonials album though so, in that sense, it does provide a sort of link on.


Saturday 11 March 2017

Noga Erez - Toy





Like Overcoats, this girl is going to be big this year, and has a great album on the way in a few months time. Can't wait.

Friday 3 March 2017

Nighttime Hunger (Official Audio)




Oh yeah, Overcoats are totally fulfilling their promise alright!

Can't wait for the album in April.