Random Generator: Feb 08

If my utter blogging and podcasting heroines at Pandagon insist, I'll oblige:

1) Gronlandic Edit - Of Montreal. The vocals remind me of Clor, in turn of things along the Buggles lines, but the bassline is much funkier and dancetastic (that's a word, isn't it?). The vocals could veer Hot Chip-ish, with which I would have real problems... I don't know quite why I loathe Hot Chip so, everyone tells me they're awesome, but I remain unconvinced. But it's one of those arch songs, with clever harmonies, that lots of people like and I can take in small doses - the bass definitely saves it. I could dance to this in the right mood. And there's no higher praise than me shaking my tail.

2) Newme - Jamie Lidell. Can I tell you just how overfricking excited I am about Jim, Jamie Lidell's new album? I may burst. A few days ago he announced the first single (which I will listen to as soon as my ten songs are up). He's playing in May & June over here - dates not yet finalised - and I may burst again. This is actually possibly one of my least favourite songs on the album, but live sounds awesome - his habits of looping and pissing around with the songs means that things like this, The City, they just make more sense.

3) Born in the U.S.A. - Bruce Springsteen. I love the Boss. Not much else to say. A mate of mine had a seminar with Bruce Springsteen once, where Bruce had done the reading, and had to raise his hand to answer questions and put forward his viewpoint like the students. I was quite drunk when she told me this, and I thought it was appropriate to keep yelling "The Boss does not have to raise his hand when he wants to speak." Yep, I did. I also jumped on a booth and sang Roxanne to the bar. It was one of those nights.

4) Jacqueline - Franz Ferdinand. I've been listening to the second album a bit more, and I really like it; I'd forgotten it took me a while to like this one. But the second one is really clever, pretty and interesting. This song reminds me of driving through France to Spain when TOH and I had to collect all my stuff from Barcelona to move home. We borrowed a car from a family member, took the ferry to France (Dieppe? Le Havre? I can't remember!). Then we drove out, and once we were on the road with directions safely followed, we decided to put this cd on the radio, and it really was the start of the journey. We listened to the album going across this utterly beautiful, enormous suspension bridge in the middle of nowhere. This should go on those driving albums - along with Layla, Born to Be Wild, that sort of thing.

5) Chaos - U.N.K.L.E. Remember when James Lavelle could do no wrong? Now look at him! (click on artists, and he's the guy with the stringy long hair.) What happened? I hate it when my teenage crushes start to... well, have hair like that. This album wasn't that good, and this was not one of the best songs on it. I wonder why I even have it.

6) Demarre Le Chauve - Pepe Bradock. This comes from a wicked collection, Beats & Pieces, put together (I think) by L'il Louis Vega. I still haven't been to his sets at Cielo. I suck. Maybe later this semester...

7) Run - Air. I've not listened to Talkie Walkie much, but I think I should, and just try and approach it differently from Moon Safari. The comparisons are unfair, because they're just not trying to do the same thing here, so I think I've not been mentally with it to give it a fair go.

8) Diamonds and Pearls - Prince. I, like the rest of the US, went through a Prince renaissance after the Super Bowl performance last year. Because it was AWESOME and I had forgotten how much I loved him. This is such a ridiculous song - the middle 8 with the very late 80s / early 90s guitar solo. But it works, basically because it's Prince.

9) The Blast - Talib Kweli. I love this tune. The beat, the gentleness of it, the old school feel, the way it seems to shimmer. The Gil Scott-Heron bit at the end doesn't harm it, either. Kweli is consistently excellent. Love it.

10) I Wanna Grow up to Be a Politician - Utterly perfect timing what with the primaries... brilliant to end on!

Cross-posted to Last.Fm.