Here we are again, another Harkive and another excuse to use this blog and pretend that I still update it regularly. If my memory serves me right this is the fourth Harkive I've done (2013 being the first), and whilst I can't promise that anything exciting will happen today or that I'll listen to anything unusual and worth writing about, hopefully there will still be enough tracks to make a decent blogpost and perhaps even a playlist if I feel so inclined.
It's currently just gone midnight, 00:09 to be precise, and I've just gotten back from seeing Dune (dir. David Lynch, 1984) in the cinema. Whilst it isn't commonly regarded as his finest work, this is probably the fifth time I've seen it this year alone, and that must be worthy of some sort of award. Annoyingly, this year's Harkive has come at a point where I'm stuck in a bit of a rut with the music I listen to; I haven't discovered anything new for ages and seem to end up listening to the same ten songs over and over again for hours at a time. Two of these songs are Echo Beach - Martha and The Muffins and I Can't Go For That (No Can Do) - Daryl Hall & John Oates, and they are also the two songs I have listened to so far today. Just a warning - this post may end up looking like the track listing of an 80s hits compilation album by the end of the day.
It's now nearly 12:30 and I'm just about to head into town to run some errands and mope around Selfridges for a while. I intended to go out earlier but spent the two hours after I woke up at 8 listening to Kraftwerk and Jean-Michel Jarre. As I was getting ready I put on Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark's self titled debut album - because if it isn't from the 80s and it doesn't have a synthesiser in it - I'm not interested.
On the bus I listened to The Associates - a band I discovered in a Popular Modernism lecture at uni this past spring, and was frankly horrified that I hadn't ever listened to them before. Sulk has become my go-to album for when I don't know what to listen to, and today is one of those days. I didn't listen to anything whilst I was out and was instead treated to whatever background pop the shops and cafés had playing. Sometimes I'll get lucky and somewhere will be playing a song I love, but I wasn't so fortunate today.
It's almost 20:00 and I should probably put the oven on and cook something for dinner. Instead, I'm halfway through the Kraftwerk 3-D Catalogue that I've listened to almost every single day since I saw them at the Royal Albert Hall last month. It really is a brilliant album.
23:43 and Harkive 2017 is almost over. I watched several episodes of Seinfeld whilst I had dinner, and now I'm currently listening to some Suede to work out how to create a dumb Twin Peaks meme video I just thought up. It worked, and you can watch it on my Twitter here.
And that's a wrap on Harkive 2017! I'm editing this post the day after and I can't remember if I listened to anything else after I spent the best part of ten minutes editing the Suede song He's Dead to a clip from S3 E11 of Twin Peaks. As always, I never know how to finish these apart from with some drivel about how I absolutely 100% will start writing on here again and never do, so, see you in a year.
Showing posts with label Suede. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Suede. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 26
Monday, March 30
New Sounds from Denmark: Harmony - Vinnie Who
After months and months of waiting, it's finally here! Yes, the third album from the wonderful Vinnie Who was released today, March 30th, and what a wonderful album it is. When 'Seven', the first single from 'Harmony' was released back at the end of 2014 I sincerely hoped the rest of the album would stand up to it's brilliance and it wouldn't be the only decent track. It was a fear I had until the second single 'Only Dreaming' was released a few weeks ago, but of course, it was equally as strong as the first single and my fears were diminished. The two singles rapidly became part of my repeat playlist, and the amount of times I've listened to them over the past few weeks is probably ridiculous, but they're just so good it's hard to not get hooked on them.
'Harmony' has a very different sound to the first two albums and I would go as far to say that this is probably the best of the three. It has a overall more sophisticated sound, with more melodic segments and well, more harmonies. It's hard to describe the sound without using a million adjectives, but if 'Then I Met You' is the album for the party, 'Harmony' is the album for the morning after. It's smooth, comforting, and drenched in sunlight. It also manages to have a glorious cinematic quality that I really can't describe. It sounds like when you're awake at four o'clock in the morning in the summer and the sun's just beginning to rise, or when the sun's just beginning to set and you're sat in a garden with your friends drinking a beverage that makes you feel all fuzzy and warm inside. It sounds like warmth and happiness. Especially 'Funtime', the fourth track. The whole album has quite a calming quality to it as well, even the more up-tempo 'Only Dreaming' has the power to send me into such a relaxed state that I could probably fall asleep in the right conditions. Not in a bad way, you understand. If I were to name my least favourite track, it would probably be 'Swimming', not because of any faults in the musicianship, it's a perfectly fine song, but just not my thing really. Maybe it's because I can't swim - I don't know. However, at a mere three minutes and nine seconds, making it the shortest track on the album, it doesn't do much to hinder my enjoyment of the other songs.
Unsurprisingly I give 'Harmony' a solid 10/10 in every category. Would I give it album of the year status? Quite possibly yes, but as we're only three months in it's hard to say what the next nine months will bring. We've already seen very strong works from Sleater-Kinney and Pond, making 2015 an incredibly good year for music. With a new Blur album on the horizon, and a new Suede offering in the works, I have high hopes for the rest of the year. Whether 'Harmony' will stand up to them is a question I'm not willing to ask. I sincerely hope it does though, and I urge everyone to listen to it as soon as possible. I also hope the album gets the recognition it deserves outside of Denmark, and I would really love to see a gig in the UK at some point...*hint hint*.
'Harmony' is released on Fake Diamond Records and is available to listen to on Spotify, purchase in iTunes, and on CD in all Tiger stores worldwide. The vinyl will be available in Tiger stores from April 17th.
'Harmony' has a very different sound to the first two albums and I would go as far to say that this is probably the best of the three. It has a overall more sophisticated sound, with more melodic segments and well, more harmonies. It's hard to describe the sound without using a million adjectives, but if 'Then I Met You' is the album for the party, 'Harmony' is the album for the morning after. It's smooth, comforting, and drenched in sunlight. It also manages to have a glorious cinematic quality that I really can't describe. It sounds like when you're awake at four o'clock in the morning in the summer and the sun's just beginning to rise, or when the sun's just beginning to set and you're sat in a garden with your friends drinking a beverage that makes you feel all fuzzy and warm inside. It sounds like warmth and happiness. Especially 'Funtime', the fourth track. The whole album has quite a calming quality to it as well, even the more up-tempo 'Only Dreaming' has the power to send me into such a relaxed state that I could probably fall asleep in the right conditions. Not in a bad way, you understand. If I were to name my least favourite track, it would probably be 'Swimming', not because of any faults in the musicianship, it's a perfectly fine song, but just not my thing really. Maybe it's because I can't swim - I don't know. However, at a mere three minutes and nine seconds, making it the shortest track on the album, it doesn't do much to hinder my enjoyment of the other songs.
Unsurprisingly I give 'Harmony' a solid 10/10 in every category. Would I give it album of the year status? Quite possibly yes, but as we're only three months in it's hard to say what the next nine months will bring. We've already seen very strong works from Sleater-Kinney and Pond, making 2015 an incredibly good year for music. With a new Blur album on the horizon, and a new Suede offering in the works, I have high hopes for the rest of the year. Whether 'Harmony' will stand up to them is a question I'm not willing to ask. I sincerely hope it does though, and I urge everyone to listen to it as soon as possible. I also hope the album gets the recognition it deserves outside of Denmark, and I would really love to see a gig in the UK at some point...*hint hint*.
'Harmony' is released on Fake Diamond Records and is available to listen to on Spotify, purchase in iTunes, and on CD in all Tiger stores worldwide. The vinyl will be available in Tiger stores from April 17th.
Tuesday, July 9
Harkive 2013
A few days ago I was alerted to a rather interesting project called Harkive. For those unaware of what this is, it's a project that aims to create a unique snapshot of the listening habits of music fans all over the globe (you can find out more at their website here). Since I had nothing planned for the day - 9th July, I thought why not give it a shot, and made a mental note not to listen to any embarrassing early noughties pop hits...
My day began at about 1AM. I had intended on waiting until the morning, but since I was still wide awake with nothing to do (and no hope of sleeping thanks to this dreadful weather), I decided to stick a record on. Deciding what to play was a no-brainer. Pulp's His 'N' Hers (deluxe edition of course, we all love a b-side or two). This is one of those albums that you can get lost in. All the tracks flow so wonderfully that they seem to merge into one - especially when it's fairly late and you're delirious with the heat. Or maybe I've just played it so many times that I know the track listing off by heart and can tell you the order the songs come in before the needle's even down.... (I must confess, I haven't listened to Pulp much since I saw Suede back in March, something seemed to happen on that night that left me pretty much unable to listen to anything else but them for over three months, but I'm sure there'll be more on that later.) The latter half of the record, that incorporates The Sisters EP and a selection of wonderful b-sides, demos, and BBC sessions is probably my favourite. His 'n' Hers (from the Sisters EP) and Street Lites (b-side to DYRTFT?) are most likely my two favourite Pulp songs, and will forever bring back memories of the train journey up to Sheffield to see them back in December 2012. Sadly neither were played, but it was probably a good thing for the sake of my health...I probably would've died and that's not an exaggeration. By the time the record finished it was almost 3, so I decided to leave and attempt to get some sleep.
After a hard morning of drinking absurd amounts of coffee and online shopping, I returned to my computer to find I'd been asked my opinion on Supergrass. Of course, this meant listening to Caught By The Fuzz and Diamond Hoo Ha Man multiple times. That being said, the piano on St. Petersburg is still one of the most incredible things I've had the pleasure to listen to and has been on my ever growing list of songs to learn for the best part of four years. But then again, I say that about the majority of songs with fantastic piano parts... Natural progression led me to Supertramp at 2:15PM. I realised after several plays of Take The Long Way Home (ooh feel the harmonica) that this wasn't where I wanted to be and decided to return to the world of daytime TV for my lunch. If the Gladstone Brookes advert music was available on iTunes, I swear to God it would be #1 in my top 25 most played songs.
At around 4PM everyone arrived home and I retreated upstairs to escape the obnoxious children's TV themes that make every weekday afternoon so special. Much to my delight, my neighbours had decided to stick Cotton Eye Joe on very loudly; so loudly in fact that it was like it was being performed live in their garden. I fought back with Suede's Dog Man Star. Again, deluxe edition for the fabulous extended Stay Together, the phenomenal Killing of A Flash Boy and Whipsnade, and the original unedited version of The Wild Ones (to this day I have no idea why they cut out the magnificent guitar at the end). However, about half way through Black or Blue I felt the need to play the guitar and spent the rest of the afternoon stumbling through The Lively Ones' Surf Rider and watching surf rock covers on YouTube. A fair amount of ooh-ing and ahh-ing over jazzmasters happened too - I would happily sell all my possessions just to be able to hold one for an hour or so. Especially if it was in seafoam green...or the new aztek gold....(the list of guitars I want is almost as long as the list of songs I want to be able to play on them.) I eventually returned to Suede - the lure of The Asphalt World and the previously mentioned original unedited version of The Wild Ones was too strong, and the glory of the guitar parts made me go weak at the knees. I've listened to them both over 100 times by now and I still don't know how it's possible for a song to be that great. (I would also sell all my possessions for a guitar lesson from Bernard Butler....could you imagine).
At 9PM I was still stuck in the Suede hole, and it didn't look like there was any hope of escaping any time soon. This time it was Coming Up. If I had to pick a favourite Suede album, this'd probably be it. It's hard to describe a band/person you've become infatuated with without sounding extremely soppy and a bit daft, so I'll cut to the chase and say that Suede are fantastic and the best live band you'll ever see. Ever. I don't think a day has passed where I haven't listened to them since I went to see them at Alexandra Palace back in March, and I've not shut up about them either... Every track on Coming Up is magnificent in it's own special way, even the likes of She and Starcrazy, both of which seem to get a lot of stick from the fans. The best tracks on the album are almost definitely Picnic By The Motorway and The Chemistry Between Us. What I wouldn't give to hear them live....perhaps in Birmingham on October 31st?....*hint hint*
(I could end up writing a whole essay dedicated to my love for Suede and this album, but since this is supposed to be about all the music I've listened to today and I think I've already gained a reputation in certain corners of the internet for being "obsessed" (pffftt), I'll move on.)
I finally found my way out of the Suede hole and collapsed into the arms of Donna Summer at around 10:30. If there's one thing I love more than britpop, it's disco "and other funky things". I can frequently be found weeping over Funkadelic's Maggot Brain and wishing I was able to replicate the awe-inspiring bass lines of Chic songs. I'm also partial to a bit of ABBA, especially the long version of Eagle (ooh the synths). After Donna had finished doing her thing, I switched to Boney M. I'm determined to open a discotheque one day just so I can dance around and sing Sunny without getting funny looks from people (and dress up in shiny clothes and spandex (oops)). Next year I'll be studying the history of Russia, and I can guarantee all my lessons will be spent humming Rasputin and trying to quietly tap my feet under the table. Boney M naturally became Chic and suddenly it was like Studio 54 in my bedroom. Anyone who watched their performance at Glastonbury this year, either live or televised, is aware of how great they are and how much of a legend Nile Rodgers is. The amount of foot-tapping and chair-dancing that happened that night left me sore the next morning, and the amount of jealousy I felt for the lucky bastards who got to go up on stage with them at the end has never been felt before. As the day drew to a close, Chic were still playing and I didn't want to interrupt the funk. So, I decided at 11:30 that that was it and decided call it a day. Everybody Dance seemed like the perfect thing to finish on, especially as I'd always imagined it being used in the closing credits of a film...
So that's it! Doing this was much harder than I had anticipated; I never usually put much thought into what I listen to or why, but today it seemed I was making a conscious effort to listen to certain things and think about why I'd chosen them. One thing's for certain though, I probably listened to more spotify adverts than I did actual songs...
My day began at about 1AM. I had intended on waiting until the morning, but since I was still wide awake with nothing to do (and no hope of sleeping thanks to this dreadful weather), I decided to stick a record on. Deciding what to play was a no-brainer. Pulp's His 'N' Hers (deluxe edition of course, we all love a b-side or two). This is one of those albums that you can get lost in. All the tracks flow so wonderfully that they seem to merge into one - especially when it's fairly late and you're delirious with the heat. Or maybe I've just played it so many times that I know the track listing off by heart and can tell you the order the songs come in before the needle's even down.... (I must confess, I haven't listened to Pulp much since I saw Suede back in March, something seemed to happen on that night that left me pretty much unable to listen to anything else but them for over three months, but I'm sure there'll be more on that later.) The latter half of the record, that incorporates The Sisters EP and a selection of wonderful b-sides, demos, and BBC sessions is probably my favourite. His 'n' Hers (from the Sisters EP) and Street Lites (b-side to DYRTFT?) are most likely my two favourite Pulp songs, and will forever bring back memories of the train journey up to Sheffield to see them back in December 2012. Sadly neither were played, but it was probably a good thing for the sake of my health...I probably would've died and that's not an exaggeration. By the time the record finished it was almost 3, so I decided to leave and attempt to get some sleep.
After a hard morning of drinking absurd amounts of coffee and online shopping, I returned to my computer to find I'd been asked my opinion on Supergrass. Of course, this meant listening to Caught By The Fuzz and Diamond Hoo Ha Man multiple times. That being said, the piano on St. Petersburg is still one of the most incredible things I've had the pleasure to listen to and has been on my ever growing list of songs to learn for the best part of four years. But then again, I say that about the majority of songs with fantastic piano parts... Natural progression led me to Supertramp at 2:15PM. I realised after several plays of Take The Long Way Home (ooh feel the harmonica) that this wasn't where I wanted to be and decided to return to the world of daytime TV for my lunch. If the Gladstone Brookes advert music was available on iTunes, I swear to God it would be #1 in my top 25 most played songs.
At around 4PM everyone arrived home and I retreated upstairs to escape the obnoxious children's TV themes that make every weekday afternoon so special. Much to my delight, my neighbours had decided to stick Cotton Eye Joe on very loudly; so loudly in fact that it was like it was being performed live in their garden. I fought back with Suede's Dog Man Star. Again, deluxe edition for the fabulous extended Stay Together, the phenomenal Killing of A Flash Boy and Whipsnade, and the original unedited version of The Wild Ones (to this day I have no idea why they cut out the magnificent guitar at the end). However, about half way through Black or Blue I felt the need to play the guitar and spent the rest of the afternoon stumbling through The Lively Ones' Surf Rider and watching surf rock covers on YouTube. A fair amount of ooh-ing and ahh-ing over jazzmasters happened too - I would happily sell all my possessions just to be able to hold one for an hour or so. Especially if it was in seafoam green...or the new aztek gold....(the list of guitars I want is almost as long as the list of songs I want to be able to play on them.) I eventually returned to Suede - the lure of The Asphalt World and the previously mentioned original unedited version of The Wild Ones was too strong, and the glory of the guitar parts made me go weak at the knees. I've listened to them both over 100 times by now and I still don't know how it's possible for a song to be that great. (I would also sell all my possessions for a guitar lesson from Bernard Butler....could you imagine).
At 9PM I was still stuck in the Suede hole, and it didn't look like there was any hope of escaping any time soon. This time it was Coming Up. If I had to pick a favourite Suede album, this'd probably be it. It's hard to describe a band/person you've become infatuated with without sounding extremely soppy and a bit daft, so I'll cut to the chase and say that Suede are fantastic and the best live band you'll ever see. Ever. I don't think a day has passed where I haven't listened to them since I went to see them at Alexandra Palace back in March, and I've not shut up about them either... Every track on Coming Up is magnificent in it's own special way, even the likes of She and Starcrazy, both of which seem to get a lot of stick from the fans. The best tracks on the album are almost definitely Picnic By The Motorway and The Chemistry Between Us. What I wouldn't give to hear them live....perhaps in Birmingham on October 31st?....*hint hint*
(I could end up writing a whole essay dedicated to my love for Suede and this album, but since this is supposed to be about all the music I've listened to today and I think I've already gained a reputation in certain corners of the internet for being "obsessed" (pffftt), I'll move on.)
I finally found my way out of the Suede hole and collapsed into the arms of Donna Summer at around 10:30. If there's one thing I love more than britpop, it's disco "and other funky things". I can frequently be found weeping over Funkadelic's Maggot Brain and wishing I was able to replicate the awe-inspiring bass lines of Chic songs. I'm also partial to a bit of ABBA, especially the long version of Eagle (ooh the synths). After Donna had finished doing her thing, I switched to Boney M. I'm determined to open a discotheque one day just so I can dance around and sing Sunny without getting funny looks from people (and dress up in shiny clothes and spandex (oops)). Next year I'll be studying the history of Russia, and I can guarantee all my lessons will be spent humming Rasputin and trying to quietly tap my feet under the table. Boney M naturally became Chic and suddenly it was like Studio 54 in my bedroom. Anyone who watched their performance at Glastonbury this year, either live or televised, is aware of how great they are and how much of a legend Nile Rodgers is. The amount of foot-tapping and chair-dancing that happened that night left me sore the next morning, and the amount of jealousy I felt for the lucky bastards who got to go up on stage with them at the end has never been felt before. As the day drew to a close, Chic were still playing and I didn't want to interrupt the funk. So, I decided at 11:30 that that was it and decided call it a day. Everybody Dance seemed like the perfect thing to finish on, especially as I'd always imagined it being used in the closing credits of a film...
So that's it! Doing this was much harder than I had anticipated; I never usually put much thought into what I listen to or why, but today it seemed I was making a conscious effort to listen to certain things and think about why I'd chosen them. One thing's for certain though, I probably listened to more spotify adverts than I did actual songs...
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