Sunday Swoon. September 30th

Salty beer, magicians, batshit ice skaters and dancing my socks off…

1. This has felt like one of this years eagerly anticipated albums for me personally. From the moment I heard the heartbreak in Scar “remember how lovely we were” sang like a sigh, choking back that lump in your throat when you’re trying to be brave. Lucy Rose, Like I Used To is another contender for album of the year.

2. Another book devoured in record-breaking reading time. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern was easy to get utterly lost in. What is a simple and magical fairytale is elevated to something wondrous and that’s all down to the authors intricate imagination and way with words.

3. Adore this video by Emily Kai Bock for Yet Again by Grizzly Bear released this week. Who doesn’t want to see an ice skater go batshit  to the soundtrack of a brilliant song.

4. I’m not sure why I’ve never put Wahaca on this blog before, I think I perhaps take them for granted as I probably eat here the most in London. Everything tastes like it’s been plucked fresh straight from the ground seconds before it reaches your plate, the chillies a good balance of smoky hot and Modelo Negra beer served chelada style (fresh lime juice with a salt rim on the glass) is a refreshing kick.

5. So last night I danced my socks off to Hot Chip at the Roundhouse with my friend Lucy and we ended up being responsible adults for two young girls down there who chanced it and didn’t know who Hot Chip were. I vaguely recall giving them a stern lecture about liking Chris Brown but having faith in their future when they burst into song during their nifty cover of Fleetwood Mac’s Everywhere. Anyway, in the words of one of the girls “I like the beats”

The Letter ‘L’ Mixtape.

A letter L mixtape for any of you that are, like me, slumped at their desk feeling a hundred years old after Olympic disillusions of being a sudden athlete. My sister asked me last night on the phone if I’m enjoying 10K training. My answer was an anguished, blood curdling NO! My back aches and that wasn’t even from the running or swimming. I managed to tweak something reaching for the shampoo in the shower. All that aside I love it really. Truly. If I don’t make Rio I want to become a LCD Soundsystem panda (see below video).

1. LOVE – Alone Again Or
2. Lykke Li – Sadness Is A Blessing
3. Lucy Rose – Lines
4. The Last Shadow Puppets – My Mistakes Were Made For You
5. Longpigs – She Said
6. Luther Vandross – Never Too Much
7. Little Richard – Rip It Up
8. LCD Soundsystem – Drunk Girls
9. Le Tigre – Deceptacon
10. Little Dragon – Ritual Union

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

There’s also a new video out from Lucy Rose this week for Bikes which I’ve included below for those that haven’t seen it.

Sunday Swoon. July 22nd

Pelicans, Mist and Sausages…

1. Finally got my chops around a Big Apple Hot Dog on Friday. Smoky, Chunky and Juicy. Anyone suspicious of exactly what meat usually goes into hot dogs will have their faith restored by this local London business. 94 – 98% meat content accompanied by pickles, every mustard you can think of, freshly baked buns. Track down their whereabouts on their website.

2. The debut book by Erick Setiawan, Of Bees And Mist, has a touch of Neil Gaiman about it in the element of magic and the fantastical. Centred around three strong and proud women tied together by family is saddening, life affirming and deals with the tough choices women have to make on a daily basis wrapped up in a fairytale. All from a young, male author.

3. The third single from Lucy Rose was released this week. Adore the unexpected pace change in Lines, around 40 seconds in. Her debut album is released in September and if the strength of her releases so far are the level to prejudge then it could be a contender for my album of the year.

4. Had a very merry (and by merry I mean very drunk) night at Zoo Lates on Friday. Such a fantastic idea, that us adults get to be as giddy as the children but with a pint in our hand. I have a new-found love for Pelicans, by far the most entertaining. Such a comic way of preening, dancing and parading. Now The Maccabees song has a new memory attached to it. You can book on London Zoo’s website.

5. BBC’s The Hollow Crown came to its conclusion with Henry V last night. I am not brave enough to put into words just how brilliant the adaptations have been. All actors involved, and those that made it possible, produced something to be truly proud about. Of course it wouldn’t exist had it not been for Shakespeare. A man we have so much to be grateful for. Catch it while it’s on iPlayer, I urge you. I was utterly blown away by it.

“We few, we happy few, we band of brothers; For he today that sheds his blood with me shall be my brother” 

– William Shakespeare, Henry V

July 10th Mixtape – 2012 Challenge

Around this time last year Marc listed his top 25 tracks of the year so far and challenged me to do the same. This year we’ve only bloody well done it again, and below are the tracks that have very much floated my boat during the first half of 2012, a smattering of them the same as his list produced. You’ll probably guess from the running order that they’re in no particular order, given Sharon Van Etten follows on from Azealia Banks being one good example of my inability to pick a favourite.

Beach House @ Village Underground

At the end of the year I compiled my top 50 tracks and will look to do the same this year if I’m still whittling on and boring you via this blog. One thing I am utterly certain of (and I seem to be uncertain of so much these days) is Beach House will still be there come December, this album captured every single cell in my body.

You can play this mixtape on Spotify or YouTube. Enjoy! ♥

1. Savages – Husbands
2. Beach House – New Year
3. Kindness – House
4. Santigold – Disparate Youth
5. Grimes – Oblivion
6. The Maccabees – Feel To Follow
7. Hot Chip – Motion Sickness
8. Sleigh Bells – Comeback Kid
9. Crybaby – We’re Supposed To Be In Love
10. Kwes – Bashful
11. Twin Shadow – Five Seconds
12. Azealia Banks – 212
13. Sharon Van Etten – Leonard
14. Mary Epworth – Black Doe
15. Friends – Mind Control
16. Polica – Dark Star
17. Lucy Rose – Red Face
18. Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs – Garden
19. Two Wounded Birds – To Be Young
20. Chromatics – Kill For Love
21. Zulu Winter – Silver Tongue
22. Julia Holter – In The Same Room
23. Alabama Shakes – I Found You
24. Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zero’s – Man On Fire
25. Lianne La Havas – Lost & Found

October 10th Mixtape – Dedicated To Great Men

Had someone told the 11-year-old me that as an adult I would not have to spend ninety minutes putting together a mixtape, that I could drag MP3 files onto a tiny machine in mere seconds and not be restrained by the length of a TDK90 I would have, quite frankly, thought someone was spinning me a sci-fi yarn. I would have paused a moment to look at just how deranged their eyes were and then gone back to puzzling if I could fit one more track on to Side A, hand hovering over play + record. Gone back to cutting out a new inlay for the cassette box to write the tracklist on, tearing pages from an exercise book. Gone back to sneaking around the house, borrowing from my families music collection.

I have a first generation iPod, I have been plugged into it and in love with it since I purchased it in 2001. It has never broken or ran out of battery half way through a long train journey. I still marvel that I am carrying  the majority of my music collection around with me. Steve Jobs, you helped make a little girls sci-fi dreams come true.

As for music, those first records I used to listen to. All those artists were inspired by Bert Jansch. Johnny Marr, Neil Young, Jimmy Page, Graham Coxon and Paul Simon all sit on my iPod. These talented men looked to quiet, unassuming Bert, wanted to emanate him, be at his level. He not only led the British folk revival in the 60’s with Pentangle, he was an inspiration to ground-breaking guitarists.

Both men will be sadly missed in this world.

My choices this week as usual reflect what I’ve been listening to most. The songs I’ve discovered, songs that have come on shuffle at just the right moment, songs that have been brought to me by friends, songs that came on the jukebox and made me sing a long in pubs, songs I think everyone should listen to.

The tracks have not been chosen as a tribute as such, my words above hopefully  serve that purpose.

If you’re a Spotify user click here to play the mixtape. ♥

1. Foals – This Orient (This album was hands down my album of 2010 and it remains close to my heart this year. I was dragging my feet walking along this week when I unexpectedly found myself suddenly on a canal path, this came on shuffle. I smiled to myself the whole way through).

2. Theme Park – A Mountain We Love (I like the messiness of this track, so many noises happening behind the vocals “tell me nothings wrong, tell me nothings right”. It’s like a bloody great headache. Play it loud, roll up your sleeves and pretend you’re on a dance floor).

3. Zulu Winter – Let’s Move Back To Front  (I am lucky enough to have a very cool friend who is equally obsessed with music as I am. She is called Priyam, I miss her as she’s buggered off to Australia. Across oceans she gave me this song this week. Cowbells unite us across the miles).

4. Metronomy – Corinne (Regular readers of this blog are probably shouting “we get it, you love Metronomy”. Yet I still persist on adding their tracks every few weeks. The sped up live version is an epically brilliant challenge for your feet. Ten months in to 2011 and this is still firmly my favourite album this year).

5. Yeasayer – O.N.E (Love how such an upbeat song can have such sad lyrics. Yeasayer are, in my eyes, the indie girls version of a boy band).

6. Lucy Rose – Scar (Talented, pretty Lucy Rose. I think she’ll be one to keep an eye out for. This song is really close to my heart at the moment, the lovely Lolita sent it to me. It makes me well up every time I hear it, but in a lovely sad way.. yes, there’s such a thing).

7. Lanterns on the Lake – If I’ve been unkind (This album came to me thanks to Rough Trade alerting me to it. I played it three times in a row as soon as I heard it and booked tickets to see them immediately. Sometimes an album just grabs you, sends shivers and sighs through your body. I lay on my bed with headphones on, I felt like it was my soundtrack. It’s just stunning).

8. Joni Mitchell – This Flight Tonight (With this weeks passing of Bert Jansch its no surprise I’ve been revisiting a lot of folk albums I loved as a teenager. Blue is such a stunning piece of work, it stirs up the teenage poet in me).

9. Bert Jansch – October Song  (For a great man who inspired so many people. When Lauren Laverne played this on 6 Music this week I cried at my desk and let the tears plop onto my keyboard).

10. Gordon Lightfoot – If You Could Read My Mind (This is one of the most heart breaking songs ever penned, I can’t listen to it without welling up. It’s just beautifully sad. It felt fitting to end on this).

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