When you realize that your design sense at 15 was sharper

than it would ever be again. A 'row' in my iTunes Library (Albums view):

A watershed for The 1975

The 1975's third album sees them take a few chances, improve their writing, & broaden their appeal. The key song and vid, 'Love it if we made it', is a bit of a stunner:

'It's Not Living (If It's Not With You)' is as charming an addiction bop as Third Eye Blind ever managed, & really a reminder of The 1975's rare, Beatles-like ability to be 'sweet', to sing love songs and pseudo-love songs like they mean it, like they're still adolescents:

And album-closer, 'I Always Wanna Die Sometimes' is a pretty gorgeous essay in Mansun/Suede/Bends-iana:

Because the '90s aren't going to bring back themselves: Death Valley Girls

My introduction to Death Valley Girls was their 'What's in My Bag' episode:

Totally the sort of band I dug the hell out of in the '90s. Checking them out further, DVGs are just fun fun fun as far as I can see:

Awesome vibe. Great fun.

Tove Styrke - A sunnier Lorde is ready for her close-up

And here's Lorde 'passing the torch':

A Soundtrack for Mamma Mia 3 - Dance (While the music still goes on)

18 great Abba songs that are in neither MM nor MM2:

1. Eagle
   
2. Ring, Ring
   
3. That's Me
   
4. Disillusion
   
5. On And On And On
   
6. Cassandra
   
7. Under Attack
   
8. If It Wasn't For The Nights
   
9. As Good As New
   
10. Bang-A-Boomerang
    
11. Gonna Sing You My Love Song
    
12. Happy New Year
    
13. Dance (While The Music Still Goes On)
    
14. I Am The City
    
15. Rock Me
    
16. Summer Night City
    
17. The Way Old Friends Do
    
18. So Long [as the credits roll, Abba's best thumping rocker - all the movies' women can sing it and do Abba's own delightfully dippy choreography]
    

and on spotify.
I envisage MM3 taking place in Sydney, Australia and as fusing elements of MM and Muriel's Wedding. The climax is a performance by a reunited Abba where thousands of dancers whirl and co-sing around Circular Quay and The Rocks and the Opera House and even on the Harbour Bridge to, among other tunes, an extended/rearranged version of Dance (While The Music Still Goes On). The first 5 or so songs after Eagle on the Soundtrack are set in various locales around the world as characters deal with the frustrations and dissatisfactions in their lives before heading to Aus. for the big reunion. In principle I'd also support MM3 becoming a slightly more general salute to Swedish pop genius, e.g., include a couple of Robyn songs, say, With Every Heartbeat and Hang With Me.

McCartney plays Auckland

Paul McCartney played a wonderful, crowd-pleasing, 40-song show at Mt Smart in Auckland last night. To appreciate just how deep McCartney's catalogue is, however, consider that the list of songs he played the last time he was in Auckland (in 1993) that he didn't play last night includes:

Drive My Car
Coming Up
Another Day
We Can Work It Out
Michelle
Here, There And Everywhere
My Love
Magical Mystery Tour
The Long And Winding Road
Paperback Writer
Fixing A Hole
Penny Lane
I Saw Her Standing There

A show consisting of just these 13 songs would contain more landmarks than almost any other rock show you'll ever see. All Hail Sir Paul!

Update: And consider these songs that McCartney (solely or mostly wrote but) omitted both times:

She's Leaving Home
I'm Looking Through You
She Loves You (a super-close co-write w. Lennon)
I Want To Hold Your Hand (another super-close co-write w. Lennon)
Fool On The Hill
With a Little Help From My Friends
Let Him In
For No One
Got to Get You Into My Life
Eight Days a Week
Hello Goodbye
Martha My Dear
Wonderful Christmas Time
Step Inside Love
When I'm 64
You Won't See Me
No More Lonely Nights

It's hard not to conclude that McCartney could play a show consisting just of songs that he never or very rarely plays that would still probably be the most monumental show (short perhaps of an Abba or Smiths reunion, or a Bowie or Prince resurrection) that you could ever hope to see.

New Radiohead

Grab your best headphones and crank it up. There's a bit of the Thorn remix of Siouxsie's 'Overground' in this, maybe also a touch of 'Once There Was A Hushpuppy' from the Beasts of The Southern Wild soundtrack. At any rate, me like (a mood-changer after a strange week of being in a post-Prince funk albeit with lots of good funk).

Strange how witches and witchcraft  are so much in the air right now after the near-triumph of The VVitch (2015).

Update: OK Computer was released in 1997 (the year of 'Bittersweet Symphony', 'Barbie Girl', Spice World, Homogenic, and also Titanic, LA Confidential, Boogie Nights, My Best Friend's Wedding, Starship Troopers), which is as far away from Now as Sgt Pepper and The Graduate and Belle de Jour were from 1986 (the year of Master of Puppets, Reign In Blood, True Blue, So, Graceland, The Queen Is Dead, Prince's Parade, and also Aliens, The Fly, Ferris Bueller, Platoon, Blue Velvet). IIRC, 1967 felt like eons ago in 1986. Does 1997 feel that far away to anyone now?

The Way That Madness Lies

U2's career highlight, Achtung Baby (1991) was a single CD with 12 tracks.

The 20th Anniversary Deluxe Edition comprises 2 CDs with 26 tracks total.

The Super Deluxe Edition comprises 6 CDs (with 72 tracks), 4 DVDs, a 92 page hardback book and 16 art prints in a wallet.

The limited, numbered Uber Deluxe Edition is a magnetic puzzle tiled box containing 6 CDs, 4 DVDs, an Achtung Baby double vinyl album plus 5 clear 7" vinyl singles in their original sleeves, an 84-page hardback book (8 pages missing!), 16 art prints in a wallet, a copy of Propaganda magazine, 4 badges, a sticker sheet, and a pair of Bono’s trademark 'The Fly' sunglasses.


Update: James Cameron Edition (April 14, 2016)
Cameron announces that now there will be four Avatar sequels.

All Saints - Pure Shores (Pier Laurenzi "Spaced" Mix)

What Does Pop Music Want? (Lessons from my iTunes)

I Wanna Be Adored
I Wanna Be Around
I Wanna Be Black
I Wanna Be Darth Vader
I Wanna Be Free
I Wanna Be Happy
I Wanna Be Loved By You
I Wanna Be The Only One
I Wanna Be Where You Are
I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend
I Wanna Be Your Dog
I Wanna Be Your Hero
I Wanna Be Your Man
I Wanna Dance With Somebody
I Wanna Get Next To You
I Wanna Get That Feelin' Again
I Wanna Go
I Wanna Go Home
I Wanna Go Where The People Go
I Wanna Grow Up To Be A Politician
I Wanna Know If It's Good to You?
I Wanna Learn
I Wanna Let You In
I Wanna Make You Happy
I Wanna Melt With U
I Wanna Rock
I Wanna Rock You
I Wanna Rule The World
I Wanna Sex You Up
I Wanna Stay Alive With You

I Want A Dog
I Want A Little Sugar In My Bowl
I Want A Lover
I Want A Pair Of Cowboy Boots
I Want Candy
I Want It That Way
I Want It To Be Real
I Want None Of This
I Want Precious Things
I Want Stacy's Mom
I Want To
I Want To Be A Machine
I Want To Be Free
I Want to Be Happy
I Want to Break Free
I Want To Burn Again
I Want To Fall In Love
I Want To Hold Your Hand
I Want To Know What Love Is
I Want to Live
I Want to Take You Higher
I Want To Tell You
I Want to Wake Up
I Want You
I Want You Back
I Want You Now And Always
I Want You To Want Me
I Want You, I Need You, I Love You
I Want Your Body
I Want Your Love
I Want Your Love Tonight
I Want'a Do Something Freaky to You
I Wanted This To Be Your Song

I Wanted To Tell Her
It's What I Want
Money (That's What I Want)
Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want
Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'
Yes I Really Want to Hurt You

Egregious Omissions from Pitchfork's '200 Greatest Songs of the 1980s' List

Lists such as Pitchfork's 200 Greatest Songs of the 1980s are inherently problematic but the following seem to me to be 15 very egregious omissions:

1.  The Winner Takes It All (Abba)
2.  Don't Dream It's Over (Crowded House - or Better Be Home Soon or Into Temptation)
3.  Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes (Paul Simon - or any of the other big Graceland hits really)
4. Tinsel Town In The Rain (The Blue Nile - or Walk Across The Rooftops or Stay)
5. Song From Under the Floorboards (Magazine - hipster city, seriously, how did Pitchfork miss this one?)
6.  Two Tribes (Frankie Goes To Hollywood - or Relax)
7.  Just Be Good To Me (SOS Band)
8.  Come On Eileen (Dexys)
9.  Ashes to Ashes (Bowie)
10.  Luka (Suzanne Vega)
11.  Going Underground (The Jam - or That's Entertainment)
12.  Greetings for the New Brunette (Billy Bragg - or Levi Stubbs' Tears or God Save The Youth)
13.  Cattle & Cane (The Go-Betweens - or Bye Bye Pride or Rock and Roll Friend)
14.  Some epic power ballad cheesefest like Keep on Loving You, Living on A Prayer, Alone, Don't Stop Believing, Total Eclipse of the Heart, Photograph, Here I Go Again (some people would say all should be on any top 200 list but sure as hell at least one of them should be!)
15.  Some more synthpop: Love Action, Fade To Grey, Vienna, To Cut A Long Story Short, I Travel, Only You, Enola Gay, Freedom of Choice, Tainted Love, Say Hello Wave Goodbye, Love Plus One, Mabuse, All of My Heart, Time (Clock of the Heart), Victims, XOYO, Love My Way, Ghosts, Visions of China, Planet Earth, Fascist Groove Thang, Get The Balance Right, October Love Song, Perfect Way, The Flat Earth, Take On Me are obvious standouts; surely one or more of them should have made it?

Big Deal may live up to their name.

And there are lots of other good tracks on their Soundcloud page. I should add that in 2013 Soundcloud has supplanted both Radio and Youtube as the place where I discover new music.

'Gypsy' Songs

Many Gaga fans love 'Gypsy' from Artpop:

It does nothing for me: more 'loud', space-filing, but strangely unexpressive vocals, more wretched lyrics, more ghastly rock bombast, more pieced-together song structure, and so on. (The only songs I like from Artpop are Artpop, Sexxx Dreams, Fashion!, Manicure, Mary Jane Holland, and Do What U Want, i.e., 6 out of 15 tracks)

Anyhow, Gaga's 'Gypsy' got me thinking about other, better tracks with 'Gypsy' in their title. Roughly in order of preference then

1. Cher's 'Gypsies, Tramps, and Thieves'

2. Suzanne Vega's 'Gypsy'

3. Fleetwood Mac's 'Gypsy'

4. Santana's 'Black Magic woman/Gypsy Queen'

5. Uriah Heep's 'Gypsy'

6. Tony Orlando & Dawn's 'My Sweet Gypsy Rose'

7. Milton Henry's 'Gypsy Woman'

8. Black Sabbath's 'Gypsy'

And that's about it: Shakira's 'Gypsy' is almost certainly worse than Gaga's. Have I missed anyone (especially anyone good)?

Versions of 'Everybody Wants To Rule The World'

Tears for Fears' original was, of course, one of the best #1s of the 1980s.

Its 10 minute, extended version is worth listening to at least once just to hear all the synth layers separately.

The Bad Plus's jazz trio arrangement is lovely (I'm not sure why these guys get sneered at).

Clare & The Reasons' chamber pop/torch reworking (live on The Culture Show) is pure seduction.

Lorde's grim reimagining (which sounds like it's a good fit for The Hunger Games Part 2) initially struck me as too mannered, but has grown on me these past few days.

Glee, as is its wont, used the song as an anthem of perseverance and (gay) self-affirmation. Anything I've missed?

Two Thoughts on (the rise and fall of) Female Pop Stars

Two years ago, at the height of Born This Way furore, I identified the problem with Lady Gaga's pop trajectory: after Bad Romance Gaga took as her model the more conceptual, overexposing 1989-1992 Madonna, the Madonna whose music feels secondary to exhibitionism, cultural provocation and domination for its own sake. That was a problem for Gaga because Madonna had all the cultural political capital gained from her first three albums to spend down during that period, while Gaga's obnoxious and exhausting phase had to be 'funded' out of only the handful of broadly appealing singles up to Bad Romance.
Fast-forward two years and Gaga's OK-ish (and certainly better than BTW) next album, Artpop, arrives together with all sorts of extra-musical, antic and excessive promotional stunts, but only the hard core of fans are paying any sort of positive attention: Gaga's selling a few hundred thousand records not millions. The sort of good will you need to have to get the casual fan to buy your stuff no longer exists for Gaga - it's all been spent. Maybe Gaga will enjoy being a more cult figure, albeit one's that's possibly about as big as Bowie was for much of the 1970s:

"As of June 1983, Bowie’s total global album sales were as follows (according to Zanetta/Edwards’ Stardust, figures rounded up/down):
Three top sellers: Ziggy Stardust (1.38 million units moved), ChangesOneBowie (1.33 million), Young Americans (923,000). A few gold records: Diamond Dogs (745,000), David Live (598,000), Station to Station (552,800), Aladdin Sane (533,000); a few mid-list sellers: Space Oddity (455,600), Hunky Dory (445,600), Pin Ups (421,250), Scary Monsters (347,400). With the “Berlin” records, a complete cratering: “Heroes” (279,000), Low (265,900), Lodger (153,360), Stage (127,350). Between 1977 and 1983, one of every two new Bowie LPs was returned unsold by retailers. By contrast, Michael Jackson sold over a million copies of Off the Wall between August and December 1979 alone." (Pushing After The Dame)

Here's hoping she can come up with some 'Berlin'-worthy music once she realizes her new status.
2013 has seen the rise of the exciting, brilliantly precocious Lorde. This was a genuinely unexpected development; 2013 was supposed to be the year of the 'Baby Robyns': Frida Sundemo, Faye, MØ, and the like:



I'm not sure that it quite makes sense for all these Scandi-gals to sell nothing while Lorde sells millions! Indeed Robyn herself has never had quite the global success (esp. in North America) that Lorde is having. Thus, while Lorde is a fantastic development for the charts, the flukiness and winner-take-all-ness of pop chart success remains troubling. Incredible luck is involved in becoming a 'chosen one'. Lorde shows signs of understanding this, and of appreciating her good fortune more generally. Let's hope she never forgets the point (it's probably one of the keys, along with staying a little bit 'alternative' to the mainstream, to Lorde's preserving good will and having a long career).

holychild's Playboy Girl

I could love this. The video's 'ironic burlesque' thing is confusing but sort of brilliant. Is this LA duo the next XX or The Knife or Passion Pit? Or does the 'Madonna Studies' influence trump all? Who knows at this point? But holychild definitely seem worth following. Several more tracks are perusable (a couple are freely downloadable) here.

Rachel's Reflective Surfaces (2003)

Go to 2m 50s in. (There's some recent problem with youtube coding for start-times of embedded videos that prevents this from happening automatically.)

Doris Day's There's A Rising Moon (For Every Falling Star)

Doris Day killing it as she always does. (Memo to self: track down Young At Heart (1954).)

And, God damn it Academy, get this woman her Honorary Oscar stat (she's 91)!

Caitlin Rose's 'The Stand-In'

This is one terrific, very accessible album. It'll be interesting to see whether its Stone Poneys/Gram Parsons-y/generally West Coasty sound will allow The Stand-In to blow up to be as big as, say, Rabbit Fur Coat was in the mid '00s.

Rose has certainly opened the door to being discovered by the Mainstream, not least by punching the U2/Coldplay button hard on the lovely 'Everywhere I go':

Slight touches of everything from The Motels to The Travelling Wilburys to Fleetwood Mac to Natalie Merchant peek through the standard gamut of Lynn, Cline, and Carter Family influences, so almost every track on the album could be a gateway drug for somebody, and, rest assured, The Stand-In is intoxicating.

A Fun Opening Scene/Credits Sequence