Nothing Rhymed – Gilbert O’Sullivan – One of those thoroughly depressing songs nobody does better than GOS. The “Alone Again (Naturally)” hid his strange temperament in proto-glam plus orchestration.
Keep The Car Running – Arcade Fire – I loved this song more before I realised the band were creeps. The way you feel about a band shouldn’t effect the music but it can. Their masterpiece of paranoia as big sound plus driving strings.
I’ve Been Loving You Too Long (To Stop Now) – Cat Power – Born to be a cover artist, Cat Power reaches deep not into a voice the way a natural song singer would but with a tone filled with a strange sadness.
Target Practise – Asian Dub House – It opens with Bongos and an English accent before taking its rub a dub, punk, tech sound to the ede.
Yellow Ledbetter – Pearl Jam – About a boy watching an army representative coming to the door to tell the father, the boys brother is dead. “Am I the boxer or the bag?” Vedder wonders aloud.
Sleepy Tigers – Her Space Holiday – A kids song for smart adults, all tambourine and handclaps. “I miss you so very much, so much in fact I’ve got to call you up, it’s not that I have news to bring, I just want to make your telephone ring”.
Hungry Eyes – Eric Carmen – Back to the eighties. The synth is all fizzle and pop.
Best Of Times – Glenn Tilbrook and the Fluffers – On the way to hospital with his his wife about to deliver in this joyous song about the wonders of love and domesticity. Two subjects I know fuck all about.