I�ll get the preamble out of the way by saying this: this is easily my favorite producer of the 70s (right now, subject to change, don�t even think of holding me to that statement, etc. etc.).

Einzelganger� Warum, [Einzelganger]

This track/album is part of the reason why. A friend and I have had a few conversations about Moroder and he always seems to come down on the side that Moroder was first, and foremost (and always), a pop producer. For a while I believed him. All of the early work seemed to point towards this idea. �Son of My Father� was a pure pop confection of the highest order. But what I like to imagine (and it�s probably not true) is that by the time this came about Giorgio had fallen on a rough patch. It�d been some time since Chicory had taken him to the top of the charts and he was beginning to feel like he might not get there again, especially after the failure of Donna Summer�s first album�that no one would recognize his genius. So, he releases this. A dip of the toe into avant-garde waters and kraut-rock electronics. It�s shrugged off completely and less than a year later he and Summer record �Love to Love You Baby�. The rest is history. My alternate history sees Einzelganger seized for the gem that it was by hipsters and a small portion of the public�enough to encourage him to continue with it. And then he meets up with other people pursuing the same ideas. Giorgio meet Ralf and Florian, Giorgio meet Michael and/or Klaus. What would that have sounded like?

[buy Einzelganger here]

Donna Summer� Wasted, [A Love Trilogy]

The question was raised a few weeks ago while in a used record shop: what�s worse: finding a record that you�ve been looking for and then seeing that is too scratched to play or not finding it at all? Sub-question: what about finding the sleeve and then finding that the record isn�t in there at all? Every copy of this album on vinyl fit these requirements at one point or another during the day.

My vinyl shopping woes aside, this is the most underrated Summer record of them all. The first side is taken up by �Love to Love You� Part II, which goes through more permutations than its predecessor and does it far better. And then the second side is chock-full of bangers like this one. OK, perhaps you don�t consider her cover of Barry Manilow�s �Could It Be Magic?� which has some very personal significance (the original, that is), which we won�t get into here, a banger. But this song? You can’t deny it.

[buy A Love Trilogy here]

Roberta Kelly� Speak My Mind To His Ear, [Gettin� The Spirit]

Virtually the only information on this record that I�ve been able to find is, oddly enough, a Robert Christgau review. The Dean gave it a B+ and I�d agree, but its rarity makes it much more valuable to me. And this, the last song on the record, makes it something else entirely. Prog disco?

The beginning more resembles Hendrix�s �1983�, in a very good way, showing off some psychedelic qualities that’s hard to find elsewhere in Moroder�s work. It�s my pet theory that Giorgio saved this sort of stuff for Roberta�s records, to try out his more out-there stuff and see how audiences responded, before giving it to Donna, who might have had more to lose with a clunker of a record (this didn’t stop them from releasing The Wanderer, though).

Standard-issue disco otherwise, I can�t stop listening to this one for those moments where things get just a bit weird.

[buy Gettin� The Spirit here]

Please note the slight change in schedule that will go into effect next week.

Menomena burst onto the indie scene last year with the stunning debut album I Am The Fun Blame Monster which caught audiences off-guard. Who WAS this band from Portland and what IS this record label named Muuuhahaha!? Those questions weren�t exactly answered on the album or their website for that matter, but what was clear (at least to Stylus writer Kareem Estefan) was �one of the most enjoyable albums of the year�� going so far as to compare it to Broken Social Scene�s You Forgot It In People. High praise indeed, which is why we asked the band�s drummer, Danny Seim, to pick out three songs that he�s been currently been enjoying. He was more than happy to go into great detail about them. So, without further ado:

I have to admit that my first gut reaction was to pick three of the most obscure songs from three of the most obscure artists in the world, regardless if I was actually listening to them at the moment or not. This decision would certainly establish myself (and my tastes) as a credible source for critical opinion, therefore validating my own artistic statements in the process.

On the other hand, I could choose my favorite songs from the current crop of top-40 hits, making an ironic gesture to thumb my nose at the indie-hipster elite. Ashlee Simpson! Hoobastank! Ludacris! Interpol! Wait… Scratch that last one.

In the end, I’ve decided to honestly come clean with my ACTUAL (No irony! No pretentiousness! Hopefully!) three current favorite songs in the entire world of recorded music (or at least the relatively tiny cross-section of music that I’ve been exposed to recently). Here goes:

Jay-Z� 99 Problems, [The Black Album]

My wife Holly is a lot better with music than I am. Not because she exclusively listens to early-80s Pere Ubu imports on 180 gram vinyl or anything (thank God), but because she can listen to music without any concern about the artist’s cultural integrity, social responsibility or critical credibility. She prefers music that she can dance to… Music that can affect her mood… Music that she can sing along to without worrying that the performer in question once licensed a song for a McDonald’s commercial. I seriously envy that mindset. Occasionally, I’ll buy a CD by an artist that would normally be found in HER collection. Jay-Z’s “The Black Album” is one of these.

The track “99 Problems” is my favorite song on the album. Not only is the beat bigger than anything John Bonham ever played (or wait, IS that a Bonham sample?), but the distorted hook is catchy enough to get stuck in my head without being annoyingly catchy. That’s a hard balance to achieve. Jay-Z’s lyrics are also powerful enough to stand on their own, regardless of the musical backdrop (see The Grey Album, The Slack Album, or The Black and Blue Album). This feat alone is quite an achievement in any genre of music.

But best of all, I can play “99 Problems” at full volume in my Honda Civic without feeling like I’m compromising anything because after all, the song was produced by CREDIBLE studio guru RICK RUBIN! Not only that, but the video has a cameo by CREDIBLE actor/director/artist VINCENT GALLO! Thank you, Jay-Z! Thank you, Holly! And no, you can’t have your Justin Timberlake CD back just yet…

[visit Rocafella�s website here, buy The Black Album here, read Scott McKeating�s Stylus review here]

Dizzee Rascal� Stand Up Tall, [Showtime]

I bought the first Dizzee Rascal album Boy In Da Corner shortly after illegally downloading the single “Fix Up, Look Sharp”. I hadn’t ever heard anything like that guy’s voice before. It made me realize for the first time how important it is for me to be sucked into one certain aspect of a song before I decide if I like the entire piece or not. On “Fix Up, Look Sharp” (and in most of Dizzee’s music), the “one certain aspect” is the vocals, more specifically the line “…flushing MC’s down the loo / If you don’t believe me bring your posse, bring your crew”. Now I’m no hip-hop historian, but I’m pretty sure this instance is the first time the words “loo” and “crew” have ever been rhymed together in a song. Awesome!

So three days ago, I bought Dizzee’s new release Showtime. Upon the first few listens, the album is really, really good… Possibly even better than his debut, though only time will tell (more on that concept in my 3rd selection). The second track on the album is entitled “Stand Up Tall” and I absolutely love it! It makes me want to drive my Honda Civic fast while drumming relentlessly on my steering wheel, which is always a good sign. Unless you happen to be in the bicycle lane next to me.

Again though, it all starts for me with the lyrics. Check out this gem, “…can�t run the marathon without training / Or stretch the arse hole without straining”. Well, at least I HOPE that is what’s being said. Dizzee never includes lyrics with his albums, so his thick accent is left up to the nerdy listener to decipher. Unlike the minimalist “Fix Up, Look Sharp”, the background instrumentation of “Stand Up Tall” deserves as much of a spotlight as Dizzee’s vocals. The only musical comparison I can immediately think of is Erasure, and with me, that’s always a good sign.

[visit XL�s website here, buy Showtime here, read Gavin Mueller�s Stylus review here]

Steve Winwood� The Finer Things, [Back in the High Life]

In 1987 I was stealing those little pink M.U.S.C.L.E. figures from the local drugstore, collecting baseball cards, skateboarding, and listening to Stryper exclusively by direct order from my parents. So why am I mentioning “The Finer Things” here instead of “To Hell With the Devil”? Because through the wonderful world of illegal music downloading (stealing those toys as a 10 year old was obviously just the beginning of my slippery slope into the life of high crime), I’ve recently discovered a new nostalgic love for all the music I subconsciously digested throughout my childhood. Steve Winwood is at the top of the pile.

I laughed along with “The Finer Things” immediately after inserting the shiny CDR into my car’s (make and model unimportant) player. The synthesizer solos were just as corny as I remembered them to be, if not cornier. Steve Winwood’s voice still has that slightly froggish quality to it that always made it simultaneously unique and mostly annoying, but not quite as annoying as the amphibian strains of Randy Newman. But upon the third, fourth, and fifth listens, I found myself moved to tears. I’m not joking here.

The first line of the song carries the most emotional impact, “While there is time / Let’s go out and feel everything”. Ok, maybe that sounds trite and possibly even cliche, but to me it is beautiful. Winwood is acknowledging the finite structure of human life and relationships, and he is resolving himself to live and function to the fullest extent within those celestial constraints. From there, the song could possibly work as a slow, emotional ballad (such as Cyndi Lauper’s “Time After Time”- same era, no nostalgic attachment for me) but without warning, it kicks in to the first dramatic chorus. The mood is instantly lifted, and the listener is hooked for the duration of the song. This listener, at least.

Admittedly, I have a sinking feeling that in a few more years I’ll be expressing these same sentiments about Tom Cochrane’s “Life is a Highway”. But alas, for now I must realize that “…time is a river rolling into nowhere” and that we truly MUST “…live while we can / And we’ll drink our cup of laughter”. Thank you Steve. Amen.

[visit Winwood�s website here, buy Back in the High Life here]

Glenn McDonald was the author of The War Against Silence, a weekly online column about the records that were moving him. He published it for twelve years, finishing his 500th column and calling it quits (tentatively) this past August. He can currently be found writing in furialog, but be warned, Glenn says it �may or may not be of any substantive interest to readers, but if it consumes little of my time it will demand even less of yours.� Stylus brought him out of music writing retirement to curate the Stypod for a day. Enjoy.

The Sounds� Fire, [Living In America]

I grew up on New Wave, and every new band touted as its reincarnation sends a shiver of plaintive hope through me, which is almost always followed by a shudder of wearying disappointment when I actually hear them. I don’t want smug pastichists congratulating themselves for stealing the right remastered box sets, I want new bands that can still sound enthralled by new sounds, even if some of us who are older know that their new sounds aren’t entirely new. I want bands that sound like they discarded their punk reductionism because they remembered that rebellion was supposed to be fun. I want to feel excited, not just nostalgic. I want more bands like Sweden’s The Sounds, who cheerfully mash Missing Persons, Berlin and Blondie together with second-hand shards of X Ray Spex and environmental traces of Roxette, and aren’t so post-modernly glum that they leave out the critical ebullient melodies or shimmery major-scale synthesizer hooks that made New Wave the play to punk’s fight. Living in America, their happily edgy debut, has three or four world-class sugar-high singles, but I love it most when they slow down just a few beats and reveal senses not just of brashness and speed but also of drama and poise and resonance.

[visit The Sounds� website here, buy Living In America here]

Fake?� Pristine, [The Art of Losing Touch]

I grew up on metal even before I grew up on New Wave, and these days now ought to be a golden age, in which every week brings ten new minor variations on metal’s defining pounding roar. But I’m not as grim and shouty as I was back before I understood what I’m really alienated from. I’m too happy in general, too specific in my discontents and generic surliness has come to sound no more responsive to me than bubblegum inanity, and maybe no different in substance. I want my stentorian vehemence sparked with thrill, my power laced with discovery and joy instead of merely satisfaction and menace. Japanese duo Fake?’s exuberant animation of metallic surge with sampler-chopped guitars, swirling synth textures and scritchy old-old-school turntablist exclamations embodies my euphoria as selflessly as anything, maybe best on this bounding, crashing, headlong song from their third album, The Art of Losing Touch.

[visit Fake?�s website here, buy The Art of Losing Touch here]

Canvas Solaris� Cosmopolysyndeton, [Sublimation]

In the pre-iTunes era, I wouldn’t have given Canvas Solaris a second’s chance. My adult tastes in serious metal have become heavily dependent on individual vocal styles, and even in my most obsessive youth I had limited tolerance for endless mathematical complexity for its own sake, and still less tolerance for dubious application of abstract theory in the absence of any literal text. Instrumental progressive metal is the terminal confluent quagmire of these impulses and antipathies, so in the old world there would be no chance that I’d countenance, much less tolerate, the witheringly involuted South Carolinian instrumental progressive metal trio Canvas Solaris. But here in the new world, where you can just click and hear and decide and buy, advance countenancing is a superfluous distraction. Sublimation, their second album, came up on the iTMS new-release list, and I skipped through the tracks in serenely contextless ignorance. An hour later, I went back and skipped through them again. Click. Apparently I have developed an unanticipated weakness for wordless math, after all. Don’t ask me to tell the individual songs apart even now, this one is merely the first and shortest. But per-track pricing is the curious budget progressive-metal fan’s godsend, and $6.93 for the whole album is good math in both directions.

[visit Canvas Solaris� website and buy their CD�s here]

A couple of years back the UK�s obsession with TV talent Pop Idol contests hit its peak and we were swamped with aspiring vocalists and songwriters who longed for instant fame and a huge pop career. Amongst the many chunks of flash in the pan crap and failed dreams came a couple of handfuls of great songs�here are three.

Liberty X� Thinking it Over, [Thinking it Over]

Nicknamed the Flopstars after coming second place to the Popstars winners Hear�say, Liberty X (then called Liberty) were always the safer bet as sustaining interest. Aside from the fact that they were better looking than the victors, they also didn�t have to worry about staying Kids TV saccharine in order to appeal to the broadest possible audience. This, their debut single, was co-produced by Pete Devereux (the brains behind the Artful Dodger releases) and was just in time to coast along on the early stages of commercial garage�s sweep into the mainstream.

[visit Liberty X�s website here, buy Thinking It Over here]

Will Young� Lovestruck, [From Now On]

From Pop Idol winner Will Young�s overlooked superb debut LP, this is amongst the very best Bacharach and David impressions that I�ve ever come across, especially considering it�s a co-write between Cathy Dennis and Young. Capturing those first flushes of love that can paint the whole world sky blue, this song is a mile wide grin, candy floss and heart shaped balloons. The soft strummed guitars, counter melody strings and jangling triangle provide a perfect bed for Young�s warbling; this is a �get that girl/boy� summer mix-tape classic.

[visit Will Young�s website here, buy From Now On here]

Darius� Incredible, [Dive In]

His original appearances on Pop Idol were the stuff of UK TV history (find his infamous accapella of �Hit Me Baby One More Time�). He acted like an utter muppet the whole show. His return as a clean cut pop crooner on the follow-up series paved the way for a �comeback� of sorts and some classic pop. The third single from his debut, Incredible is pretty much perfect pop with its handclaps, peaks, big strings, guitar i.e. a series of rushes and a lyric you can either view as smart (Darius� realisations of self deceit) or as throwaway rhymes. Genius.

[visit Darius� website here, buy Dive In here]

I get the feeling that it just takes the right song, more than anything else. �Getting� genres and getting into them is tons easier when you have someone feeding you the right songs, telling you to buy things and recommending areas of inquiry that you might want to take up. It was that way for Italo Disco and me. With the right guide, I started to buy up everything that I could find. And soon found that, as with any genre, there was a lot of junk to wade through. Here are the three songs that helped convert me, though. Hopefully they�ll have some of the same effect on you.

Ryan Paris� Dolce Vita, [Dolce Vita 12�]

There�s a sub-set of hip-hop fans that only listen first to the production. If it�s weird or interesting then possibly they�ll listen enough times to start deciphering the lyrics. This is the production-first track on the list, where the synthesizer sounds are tweaked to sweet oblivious weirdness. Listen to that bridge near the beginning of the second minute. Echo, delay, pitch-shfting; they pulled out all the stops on this one. Obviously inspired by the movie, this weird and wonderful instrumental breakdown made me sit up and take notice.

[visit Ryan Paris� website here, buy Ryan Paris vinyl here]

Amin Peck� Coda, [The Best of Italo Disco, Volume One]

For as long as I can remember I�ve been intensely interested in Steve Reich and Philip Glass. Driving to high school with Einstein on the Beach rocking at high volume didn�t win me many friends in the parking lot, but it did clue me in to the amazing visceral power of repetition. Everyone that bothered to talk to me about it seemed to have an opinion on it. In any case, Amin Peck�s �Coda� seems a tad more indebted to the masters of minimalism than most Italo Disco and won me heart over for that very reason. The beginning synth loops running on overdrive and crashing into one another are sonic bliss to me, which isn�t to take anything from the very dissimilar second-half of the song which even features a bit of guitar playing. Definitely a weird one.

[buy The Best of Italo Disco, Volume One here]

Junior Byron� Dance To The Music, [Vanguard Dance Classics, Part I]

Dan Selzer, the hyper knowledgeable owner of Acute Records and amazing DJ, tipped me off to this one by playing this track on a recent WFMU broadcast. He played a rather fantastic short set of tunes, but each were spot-on. This is the one that definitely stuck out, however, what with its Chipmunk voices near the end and the ultra-funky bassline that melds perfectly with the melody. If you don�t like this one just a bit, I think Italo might not be for you after all.

[buy Vanguard Dance Classics, Part I here]

Check back tomorrow for Scott McKeating’s “Songs Born of UK TV Pop Talent Shows”…

But then again, maybe this was the best label of the 80s. It�s hard to understate their influence on the current dance-punk scene, at the very least. But unlike that dead end genre that hasn�t produced a truly defining album yet, ZE produced a number of them with their secret weapon: diversity. Check these three tracks for proof�

Was (Not Was)� Out Come The Freaks, [Was (Not Was)]

Let�s start off easy. Was (Not Was) was exactly what you might�ve expected from ZE Records. Funky, sometimes horn-driven, disco. You can, of course, hear the difference from the beginning, though, from normal disco production methods. But it�s at nearly the five minute mark that it becomes obvious that something strange and wonderful is going on here. The breakdown uses a ton of echo, sending the track into a weird dub territory for a moment, before regaining its balance and heading off into the already subversive groove that it had set out for itself. Unstoppable.

[visit ZE Records� website here, buy Was (Not Was) here]

Cristina� Ticket to the Tropics, [Sleep It Off]

This one was produced by Don Was. And it couldn�t be further from the track up above. Instead of the stomping disco beat, we have a standard rock backbeat and (gasp) driving guitars, luckily he makes himself known on the keyboard solo during the bridge (phew). Released as the first single from Cristina�s gorgeous Sleep It Off, it seemed like it�d be destined for success. Nothing could be more of its time, right? Cristina double-tracked almost sounds like the Go-Go�s! Alas, it bombed and Cristina subsequently quit the business. Rumor has it, though, that Gwen Stefani was offered the track to re-record for her forthcoming solo album. One can only hope�

[buy Sleep It Off here, read Stylus� review of Doll In A Box/Sleep It Off here]

Lizzy Mercier Descloux� Room Mate, [Mambo Nassau]

Inspired by world music, Descloux departed for Nassau to record her second album, the aptly titled Mambo Nassau. It was a radical departure from her debut in sound, but was clearly the work of the inventive and curious mind of Descloux who experimented much in the same manner of the Talking Heads in creating a funky world music hybrid made out of a traditional rock instrumentation. The bass is the key here, wriggling around while locking the whole track easily into place. But don�t discount Descloux�s vocals, which express the sheer joy of being in Nassau. With the beginning of winter not far off, I can see why she�s so happy.

[buy Mambo Nassau here, read a short article on Lizzy here]

Jamie Stewart is the main force behind the project known as Xiu Xiu. In the past two years, they have released three full-lengths and an EP. Their latest album is Fabulous Muscles, which Stylus writer Akiva Gottlieb called their �most fully realized album to date�. For more Xiu Xiu information, you can visit their Kill Rock Stars website here.

Giya Kancheli� Psalm 23, [Exil]

The music here is performed by soprano vocals, bass flute and a string quartet and according to the liner notes reflects the pace of population growth and its effects on, particularly, the people of East Africa. More generally it�s about the loss of home and the destruction of community. Kancheli is from the former Soviet Republic of Georgia, so he�s most likely eminently qualified to write convincingly about this subject. As you might expect, the sound is tense, slow and grieving, building up to a shocking fury during its 18-minute length. There is no hurry to make you feel how much terror there is in the idea of this music. By the time it is over, the idea of listening to the other 4 works on this record makes you need a drink.

[read a biography of Kancheli here, buy Exil here]

Oxbow� The Snake &…The Stick, [An Evil Heat]

Oxbow played last week with just vocals and acoustic guitar and if you have ever seen or heard them that might seem almost impossible. Instead, it ruled. Not to detract in any way from how crushingly heavy, creative and intense the instruments are on this song, but it�s the three short backing vocal sections that make you feel like you are never going to see anything good again and that you will live in this dank, jar-filled, stinking cellar for the rest of your short life. You can hear it reflecting off the walls in the recording, �MAN DOES NOT LIVE BY FLESH ALONE BUT IT�S A FUCKING START!�

[visit Oxbow�s website here, buy An Evil Heat here]

???� Eastern Music Station, [The Conet Project]

This whole thing is summed up in the title, but the implications of what these signals were used for make them chilling, bizarre and somehow funny. Basically they are messages sent to spies from just about any agency you can think of (CIA, SIS, BND, MOSSAD, StB, DIE, MfS, UDBA, and the formerly named KGB). They consist of repeated codes in a bewildering array of voices. Sometimes you�ll hear a young Russian girl repeating numbers over and over followed by a bed of vibraphone tones, sometimes it�s �ACHTUNG!� repeated for 5 minutes and sometimes it�s just distorted, short sections of well-known musical standards. All of these are commands or signals to these agents on how to act. So, if you think about it some of these are probably orders to assassinate someone or blow something up. It is a) really strange to be able to hear but not understand a death sentence and b) really strange that these waves flow though you all the time. Taken out of context they are obviously hypnotic and cool sound pieces and when you listen to them it is easy to forget what they mean, but invariably you are jarred back into their intent constantly while they are on.

[visit the Iridial Record�s website here, download more of the Conet Project here]

David Day works for Forced Exposure, DJs and is a freelance writer. He also has pretty much the best music taste in the world. But you don’t have to take my word for it…

Before production was digitized, remixes and reedits were literally in the hands of engineers. Magnetic tape was the medium of the day, and post-disco R&B wrapped itself in it. The multi-track sound of the 80s lent itself best to the soul-funk dance music, but quickly that style ate up the Top 40 charts. Cold edits and cut-up vocals put everyone from Cyndi Lauper to Hall and Oates atop pop countdowns. But much of this edit technique traces back to the Freestyle of the early 80s, a genre begging for a revival. Freestyle was the culture of the edit on a ropeline between the South Bronx and Miami Beach, and it produced unabashed pop dance confection.

But it proved that the editing of a song, or reediting as the case may be, set up the sound of success. Vocals were cut off or doubled up, drum fills dropped through trap doors and synthesizers magnified to dissapear. Throughout the 80s, pop embraced this technology, and for years we had synthesized pop splendour. These days, it seems the only thing synthesized in pop music is credibility.

Tha Rayne� Didn�t You Know (Yam Who Reedit)

Cowbells and candy rolled out lengthwise and taken for a stroll. A long-forgotten Arista twelve with a baby Beyonce on vocals, dissasembled and stacked backed together with deliberate slowness by the mighty Yam Who. (If I was L.A. Reid, I’d have this dude on speed dial). Tha Rayne, meanwhile, has the kind of vocal delivery Freestyle loved, straightforward and almost flat, like a palm. The mix goes: bare bones Kool and the Gang horn stabs give way to swooning strings, drop it out and bring Tha Rayne, introduce Hammond, re-edit to the finish. All in a little over 8 minutes.

[visit the Discogs page for this release here, buy the ringtone for �Didn�t You Know� here]

The Knife� Heartbeats (Rex the Dog Remix)

Rex the Dog has been tearing up studios and buzzbins for a few months, but pair him with a Swedish duo bent on synthesized pop and it’s like the 90s never happened. Granted, the technology has been updated, and the edits harsher and more pronounced, but this sounds like it could follow Denise Williams on the Footloose soundtrack. The tracked-out fist-pumping chorus only appears twice, but it’s all you need. The rest is strictly modernized, yet still manages to sound like it was edited with a razor blade. The vocals are further co-opted by the rhythm, and by the end, Rex the Dog makes like a modern “Jellybean” Benitez.

[buy �Heartbeats� here, visit The Knife�s site at Rabid Records here]

Freeez� Southern Freez

While not strictly a reedit, “Southern Freeez” does break in all the right places. British post-disco funk just warmer than it is cold. The pop-lockin breakbeat coasts like a bride on wheels. The instinctive handclap drops your trunk. The sci-fi synths slide right over the top. There are two warpdrive edits in this track wherein the DJ would likely cut the midrange and drop the bass, and then set the club off. Beggars Banquet, in fact, put out four records by this UK mob, and their sound parallelled that of Freestyle: it sounded clean because it was polished. Don’t forget the polish.

[buy Freeez records here, visit Freeez�s discogs site here]

Remember to check back tomorrow for three tracks from Xiu Xiu…

I�ve never really been able to fully appreciate the Blues the way I feel that I should, at least not the John Lee Hooker/Robert Johnson/BB King-type Blues. Maybe it�s my middle class upbringing in the Midwest that did it, maybe it�s a musical thing, I don�t know. Don�t get me wrong�I love many blues records dearly and totally appreciate the art and craft of them. I�ve just never been able to really �feel� them, you know? I can�t turn to them or identify with them for solace in my darkest hours as I know many others can, despite the fact that we share some common sources of angst (money, love, etc.). So instead, I�ve mostly turned to mopey white guys whose lives mirror mine a bit more closely. Here are a few examples:

Prefab Sprout � Cruel, [Swoon]

�There is no Chicago urban blues more heartfelt than my lament for you�. That�s exactly what I was getting at, Paddy. You know you�re a jealous bastard (�Don�t call me possessive, but God if he�s smooching with you��) and don�t exactly feel proud of it (�It�s hard to defend�), and yet it�s there, regardless of bias (�My heart is aligned, it couldn�t be neutral��) or faulty logic (�The world should be free, but don�t you go following suit�). A complex portrait of a confused and troubled heart, contradictory and unable to help itself, stuck in a cruel middle ground. If you�ve been there, you know.

[visit a Prefab Sprout website here, buy Swoon here, read Todd�s Stylus review of Two Wheels Good here]

Nick Lowe� Lately I�ve Let Things Slide, [The Convincer]

As a new bachelor living alone for the first time in many years, the lackadaisical sad-sack behavior described by Ol� Basher here hits perhaps a bit too close to home: casually picked-up old bad habits; mysterious and unexplained bumps and bruises; digging for the cleanest shirt among a bunch of not-really clean items; leaving the front door wide open, oblivious to the fact that there is no longer someone else around to close it behind you. It isn�t a full-blown collapse, just a whole mess of little ones. As Nick says, �I�m just about holding on�.� Surely apathy figures into the Blues somewhere, right?

[visit Nick Lowe�s website here, buy The Convincer here, read Todd�s Stylus review of Rockpile�s Seconds of Pleasure here]

Lovin� Spoonful� On The Road Again, [Do You Believe in Magic]

Not to be confused with the white hippie Blues classic by Canned Heat (read that with maximum irony, please). Those only familiar with the Spoonful through their wispy Summer Of Love tunes like �Do You Believe In Magic?� and �You Didn�t Have To Be So Nice� might be a little taken aback by this healthy bit of �chooglin�� (the definitive white hippie Blues term if ever there was one). But really, the sentiment of this tune fits that free-love sort of a vibe pretty well� �I would love to settle down here with you, babe, but I gotta follow the open road and be free and give my love to all the other chicks out there!� Best part of this song�outside of the obvious fact that the Lovin� Spoonful have their amps cranked to 11 here, something I find quite hilarious and still somewhat authentically crunchy�is the totally flying-off-the-rails guitar solo that positively screams out of the speakers and hardly stays in time at all. Brilliant!

[visit the Lovin� Spoonful�s website here, buy Do You Believe in Magic here]

As a fan of pop and dance, one truism I’ve come back to over and over again is that music about dancing is usually awful. Successes usually come where the songs deal with the stories tangential to going out, and they strike close to the heart of why we dance�to forget, to celebrate, to escape, to be with friends and lovers�or to get away from them.

Le Mans� Countach (Now I�m Dancing), [Countach (Now I�m Dancing)]

A slippery kiss-off, pure and simple. Singer Kris Le Mans (of �Nostalgia Locomotive� almost-fame, through no fault of my own or Matthew Perpetua, mind) criticises her lover, deriding his “lack of heart” and then insinuating that he has no skills on the floor to boot: “Now I’m dancing / While you stumble and fall / I don’t mind at all / I won’t catch you when you fall”. Finding her superiority on the floor, as in life, she also sounds a bit like Lene Nystrom. Don’t take that as a bad thing, and even if it was, there’s still a nice riff to pay attention to.

[visit Le Mans� website here]

Universal Poplab� Brilliant Creatures, [Casanova Fall]

Something of an afterthought, appearing on the B-side of Universal Poplab’s debut single Casanova Fall in mid-2003 and not revived for their album, this is an uptempo, ever-so-slightly rejigged version of a lesser-known Marc Almond track from the 90s. A few lyrical changes have been made and the song has been given a sense of giddy abandon that is somewhat beyond Almond’s repertoire, particularly on the key line, “I’ll cry tomorrow, but tonight I’m gonna dance my tears away”. The tears are for a fleeting meeting in the first verse, and a lover gone away in the second, and the remedy is propulsive Swedish dance pop of either the best or worst kind depending on your taste.

[visit Universal Poplab�s website here, buy the Casanova Fall single here]

Loto� The Club, [The Club]

This is the title track from Portugese group Loto’s sadly unsung album of this year. It’s an expert blend of weary nostalgia, especially in its 80s house-influenced beats�New Order would be an obvious reference point. Mixing an uplifting, optimistic chorus (�Whenever I’m feeling down / Take me where there’s simple sound�) with a slight lament in the repeated verse, the narrator details all the styles of music they used to listen to. Whether rock’n'roll, disco shows, Afro beats and acid jazz have been replaced by “the simple sound” or are that which the phrase refers to I can’t ascertain, but I find Loto’s brand of ESL dance-pop endlessly and somewhat strangely uplifting on both their upbeat and downbeat songs.

[read Matthew Perpetua�s take on another Loto song here]