Day 3. The playlist is up early. I actually struggled with this one. Dave”™s playlist was fantastic yesterday. I had already put a playlist together today earlier in the week, and another one as backup. However neither really stood up to yesterdays so I tried to bastardise the two. It didn”™t work. I tried to salvage what I could and put something together and I think the playlist suffered as a result, but hey. I”™ll put it out there.
With this one, I”™ve decided to get most of the “heavier” stuff out the way first with the intent to finish on the atmospheric and textured tracks. Doesn”™t quite blend, due to numerous amendments, but hell – after listening to it I can confirm that I love every track on here.
03 Spotisfaction Wednesday (24 Feb) – TLavelle
- Started Out With Nothing – Seasick Steve
- The Age Of The Understatement – The Last Shadow Puppets
- Hearts On Fire – Clor
- This Love Is Fucking Right – The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart
- Everything”™s Explodin”™ – The Flaming Lips
- Here Comes The Summer – The Fiery Furnaces
- Mental – Eels
- You! Me! Dancing! – Los Campesinos!
- Summer Away – Aloha
- The Movers And The Shakers – Herbert
- Id Engager – Of Montreal
- Light & Day – The Polyphonic Spree
- Tokyo – The Books
- Lord Leopard – Caribou
- Desert Eagle – Ratatat
- The Upwards March – Bell Orchestre
- From Off To On – The Knife
- Gone To Earth – The American Analog Set
- The Outer Banks – The Album Leaf
- Leviathan, Bound – Shearwater
- Knife – Grizzly Bear
- Everything In Its Right Place – Radiohead
- Black Swan – Thom Yorke
- The Weight Of My Words (Four Tet Remix) – Kings Of Convenience
- You Are The Worst Thing In The World – Telefon Tel Aviv
- Floating Points – Ellen Allien
- Leaving You Behind – Herrmann + Kleine
- On A White Lake, Near A Green Mountain – M83
- Allt varð hljótt – Ólafur Arnalds
Today”™s highlights: Forgive me, it”™s been a long morning and I”™m pretty tired. There are too many words to be written today”¦
When I saw Seasick Steve live I was humbled by his raw honesty and passion. “I Started Out With Nothing” and it”™s driving blues progression is a fitting track for the start of a day.
Further on in the playlist you”™ll find something to compliment the Ringo Deathstarr I had on my Monday Spotisfaction. Been going through a bit of a shoe gaze thing for a while. I got a chance to see The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart recently with The Depreciation Guild and was amazed. “This Love Is Fucking Right” is saccharin noise pop bathed in distorted guitars and upbeat melodies. Or something. Anyway, watch out for The Depreciation Guild too, as I will no doubt be featuring them shortly.
I haven”™t got anything clever or interesting to say about The Fiery Furnaces – “Here Comes The Summer” but I wanted to give it a mention because it is a fantastic track.
Going back a few years courtesy of the long suffering Mark Everett of Eels fame with the well crafted “Mental”. Verse-chorus-verse formula dripping with emotional angst, complete with a fantastically surreal almost surf-esq breakdown.
The intro to “You! Me! Dancing!” by Los Campesinos!, especially after the last track in the playlist, really tugs at your soul before unleashing a frenzied torrent of modern indie rock with a light smattering of Patrick Moore-like percussions. Oh my, I”™ve given myself images of “The Gamesmaster” playing Xylophone with Los Campesinos! I”™d pay to see that. I”™d pay to see Patrick Moore playing with any modern band though, to be fair.
Herbert”™s “The Movers and the Shakers” starts out meek enough with simple beats and an organ loop to get you hooked, laying on the vox, the beat and the crazy before the horns signify that it is time to start dancing. Yes, dancing. It”™s a warm and fantastically well topped slice of dance pizza pie. It probably has pineapple on. Although given Herbet”™s outlook on life and the subversive tone on the album, the pizza is likely to contain traces of chewed up aluminium.
“Tokyo” by The Books serves as an interlude. A fantastic interlude, mind, with the first of two Japanese transport soundbytes in (the second being “Leaving You Behind” by Herrmann + Kleine later in the playlist).
I”™m sorry Caribou. I think you”™re fantastic but I was only able to squeeze you in this time with the sublime but short “Lord Leopard”. To me, this song is akin to walking up a flight of stairs, only you have three knees in each leg, the stairs are synths and there is a drummer following you up on one of those Stannah stairlifts.
Ratatat”™s “Desert Eagle” continues from the Caribou stairway. You reach the top only to find more stairs, some lava and 50% more apocalypse. The distorted guitar riff here really emulates the feeling I get walking up apocalyptic staircases surrounded by lava that I encounter on a daily basis. Oh also, in this analogy, the drummer in the stairlift has fallen into the lave and been replaced with a sequencer.
The Knife – “From Off to On” makes me want to commit Enocide. Simple as that.
“Everything In It”™s Right Place” by the mighty Radiohead, then. I don”™t think I have to say anything about this track. As soon as I hear the opening; I”™m smiling. The tune is going to stay in my head all day, for sure. I followed this up with “Black Swan” by the man himself, Thom Yorke. As his solo stuff is still nothing short of excellent. As I said to David – big name bands can be good too, they just have more to prove, which is something Thom Yorke and Radiohead have been doing for quite some time now.
I picked the Four Tet reworking of the Kings Of Convenience classic “The Weight Of My Words” from the album Verses because Four Tet managed to add so much more to an already fantastic and sincere track. None of the haunting sadness of this song has been lost in translation.
The next few tracks are just fantastic, I haven”™t the vocabulary to express their brilliance so I will just shut up and let you listen.
Rounding this playlist off however, is Ólafur Arnalds. From what I can tell, this guy is a genuine god damn talent. Not content with drumming for hardcore/metal bands but he also appears to be gifted in the languages of guitar, piano and banjo. He is such a nice chap he even did string arrangements for 65daysofstatic. “Allt varð hljótt” is taken from his latest release “Found Music” and I urge you to give it a listen in it”™s entirety.
Give the playlist a listen and let me know what you think. I”™m thinking of doing a bit of a radical change of style for my next time (Which is likely to be Monday again). We”™ll see what develops.
[Thom]