Been a long, long time since I went to see live music and almost as long since I worked a schedule that gave weekends much meaning. Post-pandemic, my work week has literally been weekends on, weekdays off. I ought to do these on a Sunday and a Monday by that reckoning.
Yeah, but that'd just be weird, wouldn't it? Sunday might be good for a lazy, kickback playlist but Monday? Who puts up music on a Monday?
So, Friday it is. And it's been a while since the last time. A little over a month. In fact, once a month seems to be the self-regulating cadence right now. Seems reasonable, although I notice, even when I'm not putting the time in to search out new stuff specifically for posting, I'm still ending up with more good tunes than I can fit in each time. Could be a month is a tad too long.
Want numbers? I got numbers. Bookmarked for possible inclusion since last time: fifteen new songs by what you could call regulars plus a dozen either by people I'd never heard of until now or acts that don't generally turn up here. Plus a bunch of curios and covers and live performances that I saved mostly for my own interest.
That's more than double what I can fit into a post without going so long no-one's going to get to the finish. Speaking of which, I should probably just get on with it and stop yakking.
First Light - Lana del Rey
Well, that's a gimme. Not just a new song from our queen but the theme tune for a video game. Can't get much more on point than that, not for this blog.
The game is 007 First Light, a James Bond joint due out towards the end of May. I was not aware of it although I certainly should have been because Ula picked it for the TAGN Fantasy Critic League. If I'd known Lana was doing the theme song, I might have bid on it but I'm not a fan of the Bond franchise so it never occurred to me.
Lana may or may not be a Bond fan but she's certainly had it in mind for a while that she'd like to sing the theme to a Bond movie some day. This sounds like she's delivering her calling card to whoever's handling the production duties now it's not the Broccolis. (I just looked it up and it's Amazon.). It could hardly be any more Bond-Thematic.
Of course, Lana has a history with video games. Her breakthrough song, the one that made her a star, was literally called Video Games. I've never been sure whether the lyric is entirely complimentary about the form, either. It's so hard to tell with Lana, something that's caused her no end of trouble over the years.
She's woven some video game textures into the arrangement and the lyrics here and I'm not entirely sure it works. But it's Lana, so of course it works.
Elizabeth Taylor (So Glamorous Cabaret Version)
Taylor Swift
Been a while since I really liked a Taylor Swift tune. Probably the long version of All Too Well and that was... blimey! 2021! Really? Well that's disturbing...
And even though I'm a sucker for songs named after famous people in general and movie stars like Elizabeth Taylor in particular (Cf Elizabeth Taylor by Clare Maguire. I bought a whole album by her off the back of that one.) I don't especially like the original album version of this, either. It's harder and brasher but most importantly it doesn't sound like Taylor doing her best Lana del Rey impression.
This version does. And she does a good one, too.
Something To Give - Witch Post
Is Witch Post my favorite new band or is it Sunday (1994)? Is it any co-incidence they sound a little bit alike? Do they sound a little bit alike or is that just in my head?
You decide.
Shame - Sunday (1994)
Now that's a disturbing video to go with a disturbing lyric. Is it less or more disturbing if you know the song was inspired by Peter Jackson's first film, Heavenly Creatures? Maybe I'd be able to tell, if I'd seen the movie.
It's surprising I haven't seen it in a way. It looks like the sort of thing I would have gone to see, back in the day when I went to the cinema. But I can tell you why I didn't, I think.
Heavenly Creatures came out in 1994. Know what else came out in 1994? Fun. Heavenly Creatures is a movie about two teenage girls who kill an older woman. Fun is a movie about two teenage girls who kill an older woman.
I did go to see Fun at the cinema. It was a tough watch, as I recall. And for once I do recall. Once seen, never forgotten. I also recall reading about Heavenly Creatures in Empire Magazine and thinking "Y'know what? I think one movie like that's probably enough for now."
I never got around to watching the second one. Maybe now I will.
Quiet Light - Postinternetfame
Let's have someone we don't know, shall we? Also something that doesn't sound like it was made ten, twenty, thirty years ago. Great lyric on this one although it's hard to pick out through the hyperwall. Full transcript in the YouTube description but here's a highlight:
God I love you we could have 10 kids
And move wherever you
want
I’ll get another job I’ll change my name
I’ll do
anything that I need to do
To get you to stay
Say that
you’ll stay.
The standard for lyrics is higher now than it's ever been. It just is. I don't know why but it makes me happy. I mean I know why it makes me happy. I just don't know why it's happening.
Mike Johnson Is A Mechanic - PARKiNG
Titles, too, amirite? This is like that Joyce Manor song I shared a while back, I Know Where Mark Chen Lives. Not that it sounds anything like it, although Joyce Manor did used to sound a bit like this. No, I mean the title just makes you want to hear the song. Well, it does me.
Going Shopping - The Strokes
Have I ever shared a Strokes song before? Not sure I have. They're a big gap in my timeline. I missed their whole ascendancy. I always like them when I hear them but this is really fun. Great title, great seventies groove and that autotune!
God, I love autotune. Why doesn't everyone use it all the time?
Okay, maybe that would be a bit much.
Better Angels - sadie
Yeah... but would it, though?
I Go Up, You Go Down - My Precious Bunny
Or maybe you prefer your vocal distortion a little more old school? Lily has you covered. That's Lily Wolter, who made the extremely sensible decision to go out under the name My Precious Bunny. Not there's anything wrong with Lily Wolter as a name but I wouldn't have clicked on a link to find out what Lily Wolter sounded like.
My Precious Bunny, though? I mean, you have to know, don't you?
Names matter so much.
Another Time - Zoh Amba
Want an irrefutable counter-argument against that really dumb idea I had just now? You remember it. The one about how everyone ought to fuck around with their vocals all the time?
There you go.
Radio - Junior Varsity
Then again...
Okay, I'll stop now.
Black Cherry Liqueur - Silver Gore
Does anyone actually like liqueurs? To me, they're always those sickly-sweet things you end up drinking at three in the morning, when everything else has run out. Or they're the garish bottles you bring back to give to people to show you went somewhere exotic, always knowing no-one is going to drink them, that they'll just stay in the back of the cabinet until years later, when someone's having a clear-out and throws them away.
Okay, just one more and it's a doozy, as no-one's said unironically since about 1972.
Boots On The Ground
Massive Attack/Tom Waits
Tom Waits is someone else who never really features here as much as he might. I suppose the same could be said of Massive Attack. I'd have to say this sounds 90% Tom, too. If it hadn't said otherwise I'd have thought it was all him.
Tom Waits is one of those artists who's so consistent there comes a point where you think to yourself "Y'know, I think I may have enough of these now." Then something like this comes along and you realize how it's kind of short-sighted position you've taken.
And that about wraps it up for today. I'll try to make it a bit sooner next time but no promises.
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