The “old” Future Islands album Singles, was – in my humble opinion – massively underrated. Now, they have a “new” album called The Far Field and it promises great things.
Ran, an intense, desperate tale lamenting a lost love, is the first single off the album. I love it.
The album came out last Friday, and should I have managed to procure a copy in time, may well be providing the soundtrack to this holiday – if I can manage to take any music in a kayak down the Orange River.
No, not some secret LCHF cult or anything. This single from the massively underrated Brummie Indie-Rock geniuses, Ocean Colour Scene. I just heard it on BBC 6 Music and had to share.
That riff. Wow.
This was the third Top 10 song from the 1996 Moseley Shoals album. The height of Britpop and weren’t they all about it?
As part of the 90s revival, they’re doing a world tour which includes dates in the UK, the Middle East, Australia and New Zealand, but which comprehensively fails – once again – to include SA.
My iPod is full. Yes, I still have an iPod. I realise that having an iPod is horrendously old-fashioned, but I still have an iPod.
Also, it’s a big iPod. So it’s even more uncool.
But being uncool is not what this post is about. This post is about the fact that my iPod is full. And with so much good music coming out recently and soon (Depeche Mode, Future Islands, Slowdive to name but a few), I need some more space.
It’s either a new iPod or some culling. And because I’m still poor after buying my Mavic (and will be so for the next several years), I’m going to have to lose some music. But what should go, because I love all 11,000 songs on there, otherwise they wouldn’t be on there, right?
Right?
Well, I have started a random playlist on my journeys to and from work. And when a track comes on that’s obviously bilge, I check who is performing it, and I decide whether they get culled later. Not everything will go based on one song. Everyone has their off moments. But it will put them in the firing line.
So far? Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley (who were really only ever on there for a roadtrip with the mother-in-law), Train (saw them at Glastonbury 2003: one good song, otherwise trash), Robbie Williams (through it all, he offered me protection), Kylie Minogue (probably bought for a party in 2012), and Lana del Rey.
That last one raised an interesting question though, namely:
What the f… (ishcake) is Lana del Rey doing on my iPod?
Is this some sort of illegal land grab on my iPod’s hard drive? Do I need an interim court order to get it removed? (spoiler: no, I just click delete). The most worrying bit about this is that I don’t ever remember putting her stuff on there.
And we’re only one day in.
It’s left me very worried about what else I’m likely to discover on there.
But the premise is good: concentrating more on quality rather than quantity. Just like I don’t do on this blog.
In these turbulent political times, it’s the number one question being asked all over the world (aside from Cape Town, where it’s “Where’s The Rain?” and Barcelona where it’s “How on earth did the referee give that penalty?”).
It’s also the title of Depeche Mode’s new song:
The video, directed by Anton Corbijn, is waist-deep in symbolism and snapshots of recreated political history, Dave Gahan is the impassioned pseudo-dictator, wheeling his mighty soapbox around a monochromatic, dystopian, urban space and imploring his non-existent audience to rise up.
It’s powerful imagery.
On the actual music, much has been made of the production by James Ford of Simian Mobile Disco fame, but he’s sensibly not tinkered too much with the traditional Depeche Mode sound. In fact, it sounds like they’ve hardly moved on from 1990’s Violator, but since that was a near perfect offering, there’s no problem with that.
The new album – Spirit – is out next week.
I have waxed lyrical about Bergen several many times on here. And here we go again.
Remember Faded by (Bergen-based producer) Alan Walker? Well, then came the “acoustic version” of that track, documented here.
After that came the follow up, Alone. It featured here, not just because of the jaunty EDM beats within, but also because everyone was on their way to Bergen. Now, there’s an acoustic version of Alone, too.
It’s called Alone (Restrung):
Once again, there is a mad rush with everyone trying to get to Bergen, but this time there’s a FPV shot of some of those individuals (having arrived bang on time, I’ll bet) leaving the local railway station.
And that’s significant in that there’s one of those round, poster billboard things (they must have a real name, but I don’t know what it is) in shot across the road.
That round, poster billboard things is the very one that my partner in crime and I – fuelled by expensive beer, cocktails and whale meat – may have liberated an a-ha concert poster from on our final night in the city.
You’ll want to run through to 2:29 to see it. Or you could just look at this helpfully annotated screenshot below:
Oh, the memories! Such a carefree time of alleged poster borrowing and general liberty. (Sadly, we were cruelly reminded of the crushing reality of our return to South Africa the following morning when we passed a beagle while walking down Kaigaten moments later, but that’s beside the point.)