Playlist -- January 16th, 2008

As the echoing strains of Guy Garvey's voice fade from the airwaves, I'm posting this playlist. How's that for immediacy?

Buzzcocks -- Ever Fallen In Love (STarry Eyes)
Franz Ferdinand -- Tell Her TOnight (Franz Ferdinand)
Libertines -- Can't STand Me Now (Libertines)
Pulp -- Common People (Different Class)
Gorky's Zygotic Mynci -- Spanish Dance Troupe (Spanish Dance Troupe)
Belle & Sebastian -- Jonathan David (Push Barman to Open Old Wounds)
Stars -- Ageless Beauty (Set Yourself on Fire)
Carina Round -- Take the Money (Slow MOtion Addict)
Divine Comedy -- Tonight We Fly (Promenade)
Richard Hawley -- Tonight the STreets Are Our (Lady's Bridge)
Amy Winehouse -- Tears Dry on Their Own (Back to Black)
Goldfrapp -- Number 1 (Supernature)
St. Etinenne -- Like a Motorway (Tiger Bay)
Black Box Recorder -- The English Motorway System (Facts of Life)
Hot Chip -- The Warning (The Warning)
Streets -- The Irony of It All (Original Pirate Material)
Kate Nash -- Foundations (Single)
MIA -- Paper PLanes (Kala)
The Go! Team -- Do It Right (Proof of Youth)
Mabuses -- Seasider (Mabused!)
Fields -- Skulls and Flesh and More (Everything Last Winter)
Caribou -- Sundialing (ANdorra)
MAps -- Elouise (How We Create)
Maximio Park -- Signal and SIgn (A Certain Trigger)
Ned's Atomic Dustbin -- Grey Cells Green (God Fodder)
Editors -- Smokers OUtside the Hospital Doors (An End Has A Start)
Elbow -- Switching Off (Cast of Thousands)

Morsemusic

A music-obsessed friend of mine named Chris has started his own music blog, called MorseMusic, on which he will be spouting off on matters musical and giving you all kinds of bands and CDs to get excited about (in general, the kind of thing I meant to do with this blog but have only been able to find time to do intermittently...) His music tastes, while being a tad Prince-centric, are impeccable, and he is a damn fine writer and all-round good egg.

Check him out. You could do a hell of a lot worse. (How's that for a ringing endorsement!)

Best of 2007 Show Playlist

It's far from comprehensive, as many of my favourite albums or tracks of the year were from bands based outside the UK (and also I just realized that I didn't play Badly Drawn Boy's "Degrees of Separation," which just might be the loveliest song of the year...) Nevertheless, here's what I played to wrap up the year.

KT Tunstall -- Little Favours (Drastic Fantastic)
Bat for Lashes -- Tahiti (Fur and Gold)
Manic Street Preachers -- Autumnsong (Send Away The Tigers)
Fratellis -- Flathead (Costello Music)
Mabuses -- Mirth (Mabused!)
Tunng -- Bullets (Good Arrows)
Hard Fi -- Suburban Knights (Once Upon a Time in the West)
Klaxons -- Golden Skans (Myths of the Near Future)
Radiohead -- Jigsaw Falling Into Place (In Rainbows)
Caribou -- Melody Day (Andorra)
The Go! Team -- Do It Right (Proof of Youth)
MIA -- Jimmy (Kala)
Kate Nash -- Foundations (Foundations)
Carina Round -- Stolen Car (Slow Motion Addict)
Amy Winehouse -- Rehab (Back to Black)
Annie Lennox -- Ghosts In My Machine (Songs of Mass Destruction)
Jens Lekman -- The Opposite of Hallelujah (Night Falls Over Kortedala)
Richard Hawley -- Tonight the Streets Are Ours (Lady's Bridge)
Sondre Lerche -- She's Fantastic (Phantom Punch)
Babyshambles -- Delivery (Shotters Nation)
Bjork -- Innocence (Volta)
PJ Harvey -- The Piano (White Chalk)
Camera Obscura -- Let's Get Out of This Country (Let's Get Out of This Country)
Magic Numbers -- Take a Chance (Those the Brokes)
Editors -- Smokers Outside the Hospital Doors (An End Has A Start)
Bloc Party -- I Still Remember (Weekend in the City)
Arcade Fire -- Keep the Car Running (Neon Bible)

Long Time No Write...

I'll be posting the playlist from my Best of 2007 Show in a wee while (the Spice Girls reunion notably absent...) but as a placeholder, here is the greatest animated Christmas film ever made, in its entirety (until it gets taken down) -- have a hankie handy for Raymond Briggs' "The Snowman"

Viewer's guide:

1) Skip the live-action opening (1 minute or so)
2) Pardon themiddling quality of the recording itself
3) Imagine me, aged 5 (or 6, or 7, or 8...) sitting curled up in front of the TV on Xmas eve with a mug of hot cocoa.
4) Dig that irrepressibly downbeat ending...