I now own the latest Cornershop album, Cornershop and the Double O Groove Of. I wasn’t necessarily planning on buying it until an unexpected intervention.
I’d listened to the album a couple of times on Spotify and thought it really rather lovely. I Tweeted my thoughts on the album and made a mental note to possibly purchase a copy if I saw it for a decent price.
A few hours later, I had a retweet from Tjinder Singh from Cornershop, along with a quick thank you.
One night this week I, for some reason unknown, thought it’d be a good idea to make a playlist of one song off every album that I own.
That’s a lot of music, by the way.
So, a couple of hours later and this Spotify playlist is the result.
You’ll probably have noticed that I’ve got a slight preference for noodling electronica and female singer-songwriters, with an added dash of blokes with guitars thrown in for good measure. It’s nothing if not varied.
A few points to note though:
Damn those French. Lolly clearly knows I can’t resist the opportunity to make a playlist, so tagged me in a Valentine’s Day playlist meme using the We7 site.
Now, let’s get one thing clear from the start here. I’m not a particularly big fan of Valentine’s Day. Usually I try and ignore it or, failing that, despise it. If I’m feeling particularly perky, I’ll head out and play singleton’s bingo.
The Pogues’ Fairytale of New York is the best Christmas song ever. That can never be disputed. But what of the second-best?
There’s been some Christmas classics over the years but it’s hard not to wish they (whoever THEY may be) would add a few different tracks to the annual Christmas compilation albums. There’s only so many times you can hear Slade before it starts to get a tad grating.
So, I’d like to humbly suggest a revival of this Christmas-related classic from the wonderful Saint Etienne featuring Tim Burgess: I Was Born On Christmas Day
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKm_zrxL0p0&hl=en&fs=1]
Out of the many strange habits that have developed during my office-based working life is to dive onto YouTube at various points in the day to have a quick blast of music. Usually it’s out of a desire to hear a specific track or a specific band that isn’t on my iPod. It’s quick, easy and generally satisfies any urge I may have to listen to Hoddle and Waddle’s Diamond Lights [1].
Like Homer Simpson squeezing juice out of an orange by pressing it against his forehead, I’ve always suspected there’s probably an easier way to satisfy my arbitrary musical cravings. Certainly Muzu looks like it does the job a lot better. Largely because it’s nothing but music on there.
Newspapers, we’re constantly told, are changing, a dying breed according to the more gloomy. That conversation has been repeated ad infinitum and is still ongoing. But what about radio? The conversation around where to turn your Web 2.0 dial is a lot less loud, and a lot less straightforward. Nonetheless, like all traditional media, it’s a medium that has to adapt or feel the squeeze.
Times are perhaps never better and never worse for audio lovers. On one hand you have GCap laying off up to 100 staff. On the other hand there are more local radio licences being granted [1], while internet listenership has gone up.