Some, But By No Means All, Of What I've Been Listening To Lately

It's well past time for another "What I've Been Listening To Lately" post. I know it is because I have more than thirty tracks bookmarked for possible inclusion and that's about three times as many as I need. 

It would be more if I wasn't in the habit of using Dark Firefox or whatever it's called when I'm web-browsing on my Kindle Fire late at night. I started using it because it has all kinds of ad-blocking built in and I was fed up of adverts interrupting everything I watched on YouTube when I used Chrome but also too lazy to install the relevant add-ons to stop them.

Dark Firefox (If that's not what it's called it obviously should be...) is perfect for clean, clear viewing but it's also obsessed with leaving no trace behind, so when I wake up next day and try to remember what I watched and find I can't, there's no way to check. I did try sending myself emails with the links but none of them ever arrived. If it was in the daytime I'm sure I'd figure it out but the whole point of the thing is I'm using it right before I fall asleep so...

Anyway, it's not like I need any more suggestions. I mean, I have three or four times as many as I can use already. It's just that something I saw last night might have been even better. You'd think that would mean I'd remember it but oh no, that's not how this works.

We're four paragraphs in and we haven't had a tune yet. Let's see what's in the pot. 

Okay, some of these I can put to one side for a couple of other music posts I've been planning. (Hah! "Planning"! It is to laugh!). Could even make that three posts - I have nearly enough new covers.... 

Don't mind me. Just thinking aloud here...

Okay. Off we go. Shall we begin with something safe and familiar? 

She Smoked In The House - Brandy Clark

Ways it's familiar:

1. Syp already shared. I said in his comments I was going to use it too and now I have.
2. That opening pizzicatto riff. Isn't it "Every Breath You Take", speeded up?
3. All those downhome refs. (Am I using "Downhome" right?).
4. Smoking. Remember that?

A little story: Over the winter, before the evenings got lighter, Mrs Bhagpuss and I got into the habit of walking Beryl around some streets on a housing estate nearby. We'd stop at a discontinued bus shelter to sit and feed her from a plastic purse (It's an insight into our lives you weren't expecting, I'm sure. See? All of you who skip these music posts are really missing out... Oh, wait...) 

While we were there, pretty much every time, someone would come out of one of the houses, close the front door and start smoking a cigarette, in the dark, sometimes in the rain, right outside their own house. I had no idea smoking inside the house was no longer allowed. Especially when it's your own house.

Fuckboys - NENAS

I think this is what they call "Counterprogramming". John Peel made an entire career out of it. No-one would like both these tracks, would they? Actually, this is surprisingly soft and soothing. It doesn't really match the threat of the title. I'm guessing "Fuckboys" has a different nuance in Spanish. Not that I'm claiming I'm 100% sure what it means in English...

Ruby Off The Rails - Sarah And The Safe Word

I bet you were expecting something a lot more like that, right? The lyrics are in the description on YouTube and if you can't make them out when you listen, I highly recommend reading them. The song's not about what you'd think. Unless you're H.P. Lovecraft, in which case it probably is.

Since I managed to keep my commentary in check on the last two, I think we might just have time for a little interlude. As I'm sure everyone whose still reading will know, I've been having a little trouble coming up with a name for this series and I definitely need one, now it's clearly become a regular feature. So I asked a couple of AIs for some ideas. 

That's Bard on the left and ChatGPT on the right. Bard's suggestions are bad but conceivably could be tweaked to be useable. I could probably make something out of "The Best New Music You've Never Heard Of". I'm not going to but I could. 

ChatGPT's ideas are just bad. Really, very bad. Horrible, awful, terrible bad. I hope it just completely ignored my stipulation for something "amusing, wry or witty" and those aren't its attempts to be any of those things. If so, god help us all.

The more I think about it, the more I'm inclined to stick with "What I've Been Listening To Lately" for the feature title. It's crisp, clean and has a rhythm to it. Also, for once, it's declarative. We could probably do with a bit more of that around here.

Veronica Lake - Sparks

I was underwhelmed by the eponymous first single off the new Sparks album, The Girl Is Crying In Her Latte when I first heard it, although now I watch the Cate-Blanchett-fronted video again, I have no idea why. Like the second single, Veronica Lake, it's excellent. 

It'd be very hard indeed to come up with another rock act that's still manages to be as innovative and unusual with every release as the Mael brothers. They're older than I am ffs and I'm old! I feel pretty pleased with myself for still listening to and enjoying new sounds; those guys are still coming up with them. 

Albeit, in this case, with lyrics about someone even older than they are. Do people still know Veronica Lake? She was out of fashion before I was born! Maybe she's back again. It wouldn't be the first time.

Nurse - Bar Italia

Second to people throwing food at each other, my most-hated music video trope has to be people doing things backwards while the tape rolls forwards. Which must say something about how much I like this track, to have stuck with it anyway. 

It helped that it was the second video for a Bar Italia song I watched, the first being Punkt. And I'm not sure even now which of the two I prefer. Good thing about music, isn't it? That it's not exclusive. You don't have to choose. Except sometimes you do. Particularly when you're putting a blog post together.

Go Outside - Eliza Elliott

There's a new single from Alex Lahey's album that just came out. We could have had it but we're having this instead. I think that was where I found it, in a sidebar link. Not sure. If not there, then I have no idea. I really should keep notes.

They do sound a little alike but Eliza sounds more like Traceyanne Campbell to me. But then, doesn't everyone? Or is it just everyone good? Boy, she's an influence, that one.

Très Jolie - Pony

Anyone feeling nostalgic for 1986? 1994? 2002? Last summer? Pony have you covered. 

And it's another one for the Pony Files. 

For anyone that just came in, I have a long-standing theory that any band or song with the word "pony" in it is going to be worth hearing. I've tested it rigorously and, while there are exceptions, it's stood up pretty well. You can't get more pony than calling your band Pony, I guess. Unless you called it Ponypony. No-one seems to have done that, although Pony Pony Run Run came close. I'll take dibs on Ponypony, then.

Renaissance Affair - Shallowhalo

That last tune had a French title but didn't sound French. This one has an English name but the strongest French vibe. Can a song sound French? This one can. Is it something about the synthdrums? A certain, indefinable, gallic breathiness to the vocals? A generalised, continental swirl? Hard to say but it's unmistakeable.

I wasn't even going to slot Shallowhalo in just there but the track I was going to use had such a horrific copyright warning next to it I balked, even though, thanks to that Tom Scott video Shintar linked me, I'm 99.9% sure that linking directly to YouTube via Blogger's innate command covers all the legalities. Luckily, since I have so many tunes to share, I can skip the ones that feel in any way problematic.

The Gaping Mouth - Lowertown

Speaking of problematic, that's a disturbing video. Especially towards the end. At least you're getting a warning. I didn't. I've just been to the optician for the first time in a long time, too. I'm glad I went before I watched this. 

I think Lowertown are probably the most interesting new-to-me band in this batch. By rights. they probably oughtn't to be in this post. I should have held them back for one of those other posts I have in mind. Both, in fact. Doesn't matter. I have three more tracks by them bookmarked for that.

Fairlies - Grian Chatten

Let's end with someone famous. Well, more famous than the last few, at least. Grian Chatten is the lead singer of Fontaines D.C., a band whose star has been rising for a while. Thus far, I've found myself relatively immune to their charms. Not to say I don't like them. I do like them. I just don't hear a lot I don't hear elsewhere.

This, though, is the business. The loping rhythm that calls up the ghost of the Violent Femmes, the strident chorus that could be any number of midfield Britpop runners, the smooth crooning of the verses... it's a melange that settles into sense right away. I can even hear Morrissey in there, somewhere, god help us all, once more.

And that's ten, which is enough for anyone to assimilate in a feeding. In the background as I was putting this all together I was also helpfully able to dispose of several more I won't be bothering with after all, so the decks are somewhat cleared. Maybe just two or three to go forward, all the rest being accounted for by the aforesaid posts-in-planning, should they ever materialize.

Hold your breaths on that. Or maybe best don't.