The Letter ‘Z’ Mixtape.

The amount of time it’s taken me to get round to the final letter of this self-imposed alphabet playlist challenge is living proof that I have found myself in a job where I have a severe, and saddening, lack of time to fart around on the internet. Oh to be a grown up.

But finally it is here. The letter Z. From Zoe to Zola Jesus, and Zulu Winter to ZZ Top. It has been a pleasure trotting through the alphabet musically for you all. I hope you’ve enjoyed at least some of the tunes.

Now onto the next mixtape challenge… coming soon.

You can play my letter Z mixtape on Spotify or YouTube. ♥

1. Zulu Winter – Silver Tongue
2. Zebra – Right Here, Right Now
3. The Zutons – You Will You Won’t
4. ZZ Top – Gimme All Your Lovin’
5. The Zombies – She’s Not There
6. Zola Jesus – Night
7. Zoe – Sunshine On A Rainy Day
8. Zero 7 – Destiny

The Letter ‘Y’ Mixtape.

The penultimate letter of my alphabet playlists features one of my favourite bands, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. I had to resist the temptation to only list tracks of theirs. From French electro pop to sixties legends. Part of me wishes this alphabetical challenge was ending here as Yazoo feels like one of those songs you walk away to, or from, if your life was a film.

You can play my letter Y mixtape on Spotify or YouTube. ♥

1. Yes – I’ve Seen All Good People
2. The Young Knives – Weekends and Bleak Days
3. Young Rebel Set – Red Bricks
4. The Yardbirds – For Your Love
5. Yo La Tengo – Is That Enough
6. Yeasayer – O.N.E
7. Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Pin
8. You Say Party! We Say Die!
9. Yelle  – Que Veux-Tu (Madeon Remix)
10. Yazoo – Only You

The Letter ‘X’ Mixtape.

With the best intentions I thought I’d get through the entire alphabet in playlists last year but I failed with only three letters to go. Frankly, I’ve run out of steam and enlisted the help of Gareth and Matthew as X and Z are proving tricky. Thanks to them I am pushing on to finally complete this.

If you listen to the entire playlist IOU some sweets and/or booze. I can’t stand X-Press 2 but I was determined to get to 10 tracks and was willing to select this based on David Byrne featuring on it. Likewise I’ve never found my way in to The XX but I loved Angels from last year.

You can play my letter X mixtape on Spotify or YouTube. ♥

1. The XX – Angels
2. XTC – Making Plans For Nigel
3. Xpansions – Move Your Body
4. X-Ray Spex – Germ Free Adolescents
5. XXXY – Ordinary Things
6. Xiu Xiu – Dear God, I Hate Myself
7. The Xcerts – Aberdeen 1987
8. X – Soul Kitchen
9. Xzibit and Snoop Dogg – Bitch Please
10. X-Press 2 feat. David Byrne – Lazy

The Letter ‘W’ Mixtape.

The Letter W Mixtape whittled down to 10 without too much thought because I seem to have found myself in a situation where I have to work my socks off and I think I’ve gone into shock over it.

My cousin was telling me about a friend who is a drummer the other day with the surname Moon. He is fanatical about The Who and when his firstborn arrived he was delighted it was boy, a chance to call him Keith Moon. His partner refused. They didn’t stay together, although I doubt the cause of the separation was the missed opportunity to raise Moon the loon Part Deux.

You can play my letter W mixtape on Spotify or YouTube. ♥

1. The Waitresses – I Know What Boys Like
2. Womack & Womack – Teardrops
3. Wade Ray – Idaho Red
4. The Who – I Can See For Miles
5. Warren Zevon – Werewolves Of London
6. The White Stripes – Hotel Yorba
7. Wild Beasts – All The King’s Men
8. Willy Mason – Oxygen
9. Wye Oak – Civillian
10. Warpaint – Undertow

 

The Letter ‘V’ Mixtape.

The Letter V Mixtape….

Last week I got told off  by an Ugly Kid Joe fan for not including them in the letter U, the main issue being that apparently I needed to “diversify”. I’d argue that from The Unthanks to Utah Saints ticks that box but you can’t win them all.

Which is the whole point. I am never going to please everyone and I never set out to do that otherwise this would be a full-time task. What music I put up here is, on the main, based on my record collection. At the best I hope I to introduce someone to a new band, at the worst I may accidentally offend lovers of American rock bands. For that I apologise/stick two fingers up depending on what sort of email you send.

Hopefully swooning over Vanessa Paradis this week will make up for any offence caused the previous one.

You can play my letter V mixtape on Spotify or YouTube. ♥

1. Villagers – Waves
2. Veronica Falls – Bad Feeling
3. Violent Femmes – Blister In The Sun
4. Vanessa Paradis – Be My Baby
5. Velvet Underground – Sunday Morning
6. Van Morrisson – Moondance
7. Vampire Weekend – Cousins
8. The Viscounts – Who Put The Bomp
9. The Vapors – News At Ten
10. The Verve – History

 

The Letter ‘U’ Mixtape.

The Letter U Mixtape. A blemin’ tricky letter…

…And I shall hush you before you start. I don’t care how awful you think Bono is, Joshua Tree was an album of its time. Sometimes nineties naff dance music hits the spot which is why Ultra Nate made the list. Finally, UB40 instantly take me back to being a ridiculous teenager wearing crushed velour bodies and putting my hair in velcro rollers (I still do one of these things).

Lastly, I just couldn’t bring myself to listen to Underworld last night as I was compiling this. I literally overdosed on Irvine Welsh when Trainspotting came out and as a result that song leaves me a bit vacant nowadays. I’m OK if it takes me by surprise on the radio, but taking the conscious decision to listen to it is beyond me.

You can play my letter U mixtape on Spotify or YouTube. ♥

1. Unit 4 + 2 – Concrete and Clay
2. UB40 – Red Red Wine
3. Ultra Nate – Free
4. Utah Saints – What Can You Do For Me
5. Ultravox – Dancing With Tears In My Eyes
6. The Undertones – My Perfect Cousin
7. U2 – Bullet The Blue Sky
8. UNKLE Feat. Ian Brown – Be There
9. The Unthanks – Shipbuilding

 

The Letter ‘T’ Mixtape.

The Letter T Mixtape. Be thankful I decided to drop TLC’s Ain’t Too Proud To Beg from the final 10 as it’s been an ear worm since the weekend, except I’ve been singing ‘ain’t no time to blog’. 

I am frantically packing away an entire office as well as cramming in a handover for my new job that starts on Monday. Did I mention the woman I’m replacing has TWENTY pictures of Jason Statham on her desk. I counted them all. All shaven headed, defiant jawed brute of a picture.

The Letter T has proved to be an oral delight and is currently drowning out the drills and traffic of Victoria (I will not miss working in this drab and dross little corner of London. Why the Queen chooses to live round the corner I’ll never understand). From Talking Heads to Tom Vek, TV on the Radio to Talk Talk. The video to Toy’s Lose My Way is also a thing of beauty for the eyes. It’s what I’d like to see behind my eyelids when I got to sleep.

You can play my letter T mixtape on Spotify or YouTube. ♥

1. They Might Be Giants – Birdhouse In Your Soul
2. Talking Heads – Slippery People
3. The Teardrop Explodes – Treason
4. This Many Boyfriends – Number One
5. Toy – Lose My Way
6. TV On The Radio – Wolf Like Me
7. Talk Talk – Talk Talk
8. Tom Tom Club – Genius Of Love
9. Tom Vek – I Ain’t Saying My Goodbyes
10. Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs – Your Love

The Letter ‘S’ Mixtape.

The Letter S Mixtape.

I am having a brief respite on a day bookended by two job interviews, done all on a mild to middling hangover and a wonky fringe trim. Music will get me through it. Every indie boys ultimate girl crush St Vincent to a band named after a vibrator. From Sharon Van Etten (possibly my album of the year and my own personal girl crush) to the most perfect love song from Suede.

“Cos on you my tattoo will be bleeding and the name will stain”

You can play my letter S mixtape on Spotify or YouTube. ♥

1. Shout Out Louds – The Comeback
2. Supertramp – Goodbye Stranger
3. Sleigh Bells – Rill Rill
4. Steely Dan – Reelin’ In The Years
5. SBTRKT – Trials Of The Past
6. St Vincent – Cruel
7. Siouxsie And The Banshees – Happy House
8. The Smiths – Cemetery Gates
9. Sharon Van Etten – Serpents
10. Suede – The Wild Ones

The Letter ‘R’ Mixtape.

The Letter R Mixtape.

Looking at the final ten I have so many memories of seeing these artists live. If rumours are to be believed then I may well be adding The Rolling Stones to that list at Glastonbury next year, a life’s dream achieved.

Roxy Music with a bunch of Mods at Isle of Wight Festival, R.E.M under the stars (honestly, that night is rather hazy, I know it ended with fireworks). Rufus Wainwright at Kenwood House, surrounded my middle-class picnics while we swigged cans of red stripe grinning at Helena Bonham-Carter. The Rakes at the 100 Club, ending in a very odd conversation with lead singer Alan Donohoe that still puzzles me to this day.

This was a tough one, aside from having to pick one track from some of the artists back catalogues featured I had a long list. Some of the artists I painfully left out including Randy Newman, The Raveonettes, Rod Stewart, Rebel MC and Rilo kiley.

You can play my letter R mixtape on Spotify or YouTube. Also, if you haven’t seen the Sam Taylor-Wood directed video to R.E.M’s Uberlin do click play below. It’s a thing of beauty. ♥

1. The Rakes – We Are All Animals
2. Richard Hawley – Down In The Woods
3. The Rolling Stones – Miss You
4. Roisin Murphy – Let Me Know
5. Roxy Music – Oh Yeah
6. R. Dean Taylor – There’s A Ghost In My House
7. Rodriguez – Sugar Man
8. Radiohead – High And Dry
9. R.E.M. – Uberlin
10. Rufus Wainwright – Cigarettes And Chocolate Milk

The Letter ‘Q’ Mixtape.

And they said it couldn’t be done. Well, I thought it couldn’t be done. Ten tracks from the letter Q seemed like a failed mission but thanks to a couple of clever clog friends I got there in the end (thanks Gareth and Matt). It wasn’t easy and some of the tracks you’ll deign to be a bit naff I am sure but there’s ten of them. Which is part of my self-imposed rules, and it starts with one of my all time favourite songs.

For all Queen fanatics out there I know it hardly seems fair having one track of theirs on this list so here’s the link to a dedicated mixtape I made last year.

I am officially over the hump until I get to the letter U.

You can play my letter Q mixtape on Spotify or YouTube. ♥

1. Q Lazarus – Goodbye Horses
2. Q Tip – Breathe And Stop
3. Quantic & Alice Russell – Look Around The Corner
4. Quannum Project – Storm Warning
5. The Qemists – Hurt Less
6. Queen Latifah – Just Another Day
7. Quincy Jones -The Dude
8. Quasi – It’s Hard To Turn Me On
9. Queens Of The Stone Age – Go With The Flow
10. Queen – Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy