My Top Ten

Thursday, 11 November 2021

Positive Songs For Positive Times #64: Boom Boom Boom

I don't have much to say for myself at the moment. Maybe the cat's got my tongue. Or maybe I can only write the autobiographical side of this blog when things aren't going too well. It's certainly nice to not dread going to work anymore... though I could do without the killer commute. Perhaps I'll devote a few Cnut Songs to road rage and traffic jams...

In the meantime, that's Cosmo above. Longtime readers will remember when he was just a tiny kitten. Now he's a bit of a bruiser, prefers to be out rather than in ("Open this door!", he's saying in that picture), though he wasn't fond of last week's fireworks at all.

I don't know why, but I ended up listening to the first Peter Gabriel solo album a lot recently. I discovered Gabriel with So, so never really checked out any of his earlier long players until now. I wasn't sure about it at first, because musically it's all over the place. But slowly the disparate elements are growing on me. Perhaps my initial disappointment was down to the fact that I wanted ten tracks that sounded just like this one, surely one of the best singles of 1977, and one that never grows old.

Today I don't need a replacement

I'll tell them what the smile on my face meant

My heart going boom boom boom

Wednesday, 10 November 2021

2020 Contenders: The Big Moon

No, I didn't get the date wrong. The Big Moon's latest album was released last year, but I've only just discovered these guys. A 4-piece girl band from London with a contemporary sound that hearkens back to other classic girl groups of the past, yet they're also blessed with a social conscience and some very interesting songs.

They write about growing up with ADHD...

I'll tell you what I think 'cause I was feeling focused

Way before you dosed us up on Ritalin

I know you think you made a scene, but I just saw you shining

Blinding like the sunset's low, low, low

Six P.M. in the spring

Is it really you or is it me or

Is it ADHD? ADHD?

The selfishness of contemporary society...

We’re all just tryin' to get the things we need

We're all just tryin' to get the things we need

There’s always someone out there screwin' somebody

But we only see the things we want to see

And they like to rock out and get totally messed up in their videos...

(When they're not taking the piss out of the Backstreet Boys.)

I may be late to the party as always, but what's not to love?

Tuesday, 9 November 2021

2021 Contenders: Brando

Home Videos, the new album by Lucy Dacus, is an engrossing slice of autobiographical lyricism about growing up in a conservative Christian town while coming to terms with your bisexuality. There are echoes of Aimee Mann, Phoebe Bridgers and even Taylor Swift here, particularly on the stand-out track Brando...

You called me "cerebral"

I didn't know what you meant

But now I do, would it have killed you

To call me pretty instead?

I'm in a second story window

And you're yelling at me, "Stella!"

And I'm laughing 'cause you think you're Brando

But you'll never come close

Plus she chooses her cover versions well.

Monday, 8 November 2021

Mid-Life Crisis Songs #72: Grey

Going grey is a natural part of the aging process and it doesn't bother me in the slightest. There certainly won't be any Just For Men on my shopping list any time soon. I've been pretty lucky that I've kept a full head of hair, rather than losing it on top like many of my peers. I thank my mum for that - I have her hair, not my dad's... if it was his, it'd be half gone by now.

The weird thing about grey hairs is that they creep up on you in a sneaky way. I look at myself in the mirror and generally don't see any grey. Yet when I have a haircut, I always notice the grey clumps on the floor afterwards. I realised why this is the other day (no great revelation here): because it starts at the sides. Specifically, for many people, the temples. And because it's on the side of your head, you don't see that so easily when you look at your reflection straight on. So it's quite a shock when you catch a reflection side-on.

But it's OK, because greying temples are "distinguished", they tell us. Really? Who came up with that idea? I bet he was going grey.

I content myself with the idea that, being a comics fan, I always wanted to look like Reed Richards. He is, after all, Mr. Fantastic!

Ooberman are one of my favourite bands that nobody else gives a monkey's about. (See also The Indelicates.) As such, I like to feature them here whenever I can. Here they are singing about the colour grey...