Merry Christmas!
For the 25th year in a row, Darlene Love performed Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) on The Late Show With David Letterman. Extraordinary as usual:
May the Christmas Spirit shine on You 2011!
Casts första singel på tio år
Här är den! Casts comeback See That Girl, och visst levererar det mest 60-tals-inspirerade brittiska bandet av alla 90-talets 60-talsinspirerade brittiska band! En stark och trallvänlig singel, om än kanske inte med samma karisma som bandets största hits.
I februari kommer bandets femte platta Troubled Times. Spännande värre.
Och här klassiska Alright från 1995:
The 22 Best Tracks Of The 00s
Making a little blog comeback here. I thought that it would be suitable to summarize the previous decade, so I decided to list the best songs of the 00s. Ended up with 22 lovely tracks. Enjoy!
1. OASIS – GO LET IT OUT (2000)
7th February 2000: The 90s took one last breathe – in the form of a single that was just as good as Oasis’ best numbers from their golden years. Packed with attitude, Go Let It Out swaggered along until Noel Gallagher’s final guitar solo finished off the track that topped an album (Standing On The Shoulder Of Giants) that rarely reached the same heights as Oasis’ previous works. Remember, “The right time is always now.”
2. KASABIAN – CLUB FOOT (2004)
The best new band of the decade entered the spotlight in style, with this unforgettable club anthem. Oasis meets the Happy Mondays. A substitute for a private army walking in the back of the listener.
3. ARCTIC MONKEYS – BRIANSTORM (2007)
The Arctic Monkeys managed to follow up their successful debut Whatever People Say I Am, I Am Not (2006), with the even better record Favourite Worst Nightmare. This, the first single off the album, was pure rock n roll. A classic.
4. MGMT – TIME TO PRETEND (2008)
The very definition of an Indie anthem, delivered straight from Brooklyn.
5. SUPERGRASS – RUSH HOUR SOUL (2002)
Of all the britpop stars of the 90s, Supergrass have done the best job in keeping their youth intact – and they still exist! During the 00s, they released three splendid albums, including 2002′s Life On Other Planets. The best track on it was this three-minute uptempo party single.
6. OASIS – THE SHOCK OF THE LIGHTNING (2008)
Written by Noel Gallagher, sung by Liam Gallagher: This single headlined the last (?) album (Dig Out Your Soul) involving the two brothers. The Shock Of The Lightning was a definitive statement – Oasis were back, almost as good as in 1995. It was a song crafted through the classic Oasis formula: Nonsense lyrics, loads of attitude, roaring guitars, hooks that you just couldn’t get off your brain; and everything underlined by Liam’s sneering vocals. After perfecting rock n roll music during two decades, Dig Out Your Soul and The Shock Of The Lightning was the perfect way for Oasis to (unintentionally) say goodbye in style.
7. THE KILLERS – WHEN YOU WERE YOUNG (2006)
The Killers’ two first albums were a salvation for American rock music. And their strange blend of Bruce Springsteen and britpop was perfected on this track. A diamond.
8. THE ENEMY – NO TIME FOR TEARS (2009)
It can probably be said that the lads from Coventry, hyped up by British music press after OK debut We’ll Live And Die In These Towns (2007), underachieved with 2009′s Music For The People. But the album contained at least one number that not only aspired to greatness – it was arguably the best song of the whole year. A powerful mid-tempo rocker, groovy and swaggering.
9. KENT – SOCKER (2002)
In terms of music, these Arctic latitudes doesn’t have anything better to offer than Kent. They never sounded more *pop* than on 2002′s album Vapen & Ammunition. This showdown with the celebrity culture and reality TV of the early 00s was the best of the pack.
10. MUSE – STARLIGHT (2006)
I would like to think that Muse is a silly band – but I can’t. Despite their symphonic arrangements and dark, sometimes over-pretentious, lyrics, I like them a lot. They are simply too good to dislike. Starlight is a dreamy number, bombastic and hopeful despite the apparent loneliness of the protagonist.
11. KASABIAN – I.D. (2004)
More attitude from Kasabian’s debut album, a record dubbed the best of the decade by Liam Gallagher.
12. BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN – THE RISING (2002)
Here, the Boss reunited with the E Street Band, for the first time on a studio album since 1984′s Born In The U.S.A. A strong and beautiful song, released in the wake of the 9/11 tragedy.
13. KAISER CHIEFS – OH MY GOD (2005)
The Blur of the noughties proved their quality with this pop masterpiece. Perhaps the britpoppiest moment of the decade? Lovely chorus.
14. PULP – BAD COVER VERSION (2001)
Jarvis Cocker and friends came back three years after the glorious 1998 release This Is Hardcore and proved that britpop in the noughties didn’t have to be a bad cover version of the real deal. Once again amazing lyrics from the Sheffield star.
15. THE VERVE – LOVE IS NOISE (2008)
It took eleven years for Richard Ashcroft, Nick McCabe and the others to return after their second disbandment (following 1997′s Urban Hymns). Love Is Noise was a quite unusual The Verve single, but the dance rhythms worked like a charm. Not a new Bittersweet Symphony, but better than most of what this decade had in store.
16. KENT – COLUMBUS (2007)
Kent went back to their more introvert roots during the last years of the decade, and released this electronic lowtempo masterpiece. Arctic city melancholy just creeps onto the listener.
17. ASH – POLARIS (2007)
Dramatic single by britpop survivors. Don’t really know why I like this song, but the melody is nice and I guess that the bombastic production hits some nerve inside.
18. SCISSOR SISTERS – DON’T FEEL LIKE DANCING (2006)
Well, I feel like dancing when I hear this song.
19. THE KILLERS -ALL THESE THINGS THAT I’VE DONE (2004)
I got soul, but I’m not a soldier.
20. IAN BROWN – STELLIFY (2009)
Who would’ve thought Ian Brown suddenly would come out with his best work in twenty years? The ex-Stone Roses man delivered the best pop single of the last year of the decade.
21. THE FRATELLIS – LOOK OUT SUNSHINE (2008)
During the latter part of the decade a new wave of more classicist indie rock bands emerged in the UK. The Fratellis was the best of the pack, and this tune is simply irresistible.
22. OASIS – STOP CRYING YOUR HEART OUT (2002)
Had to put this lennonesque ballad on the list. Released 17th June 2002, just in time for England’s World Cup exit vs Brazil. Stop Crying Your Heart Out became, with the help of the BBC, the soundtrack of goalkeeper David Seaman’s misfortunes and the country’s horrible loss. Other than that, it is an absolutely splendid song.
OK, that’s enough.
Let’s All Make Believe
Noel Gallagher has officially left Oasis. Absurd news.
Let’s all make believe, that we’re still friends and we like each other.
Let’s all make believe, in the end we’ll need each other
My Big Mouth
Nu spelar äntligen Oasis låtar från Be Here Now live igen. När bandet i förra veckan drog igång den enorma sommaretappen på sin världsturné (med spelning inför 70000 åskådare i Heaton Park i Manchester), fanns My Big Mouth med på setlisten. Det är grymt.
Supergrass – Diamond Hoo Ha
SUPERGRASS BACK TO FORM
The britpop veterans (Note: singer Gaz Coombes was born as late as 1976) delivered an album that started out as a big sucker punch in the face, continued to provide top class 2000s britpop – but the high class faded a bit towards the end.
Opening track and lead single Diamond Hoo Ha Man featured one of the most exciting bass lines I’ve ever heard, and it was followed by the rough Bad Blood (about a late night out in Reykjavik). Supergrass sounded dirtier than ever before. Tracks #3 and #4, the stomping glam rocking Rebel In You and the exciting and endangering When I Needed You (featuring a rememberable guitar solo), were among the band’s top 10 songs ever. The first six songs on the record (tracks #5 and #6 being 345 and The Return Of Inspiration) were… inspiring and together they constituted a block of songs that can’t be matched by many rock n roll albums in world history.
I wouldn’t like to say that the second half of the album is weak in any way, but certainly they didn’t reach the same astronomous levels as the opening numbers. Some of them (such as Ghost Of A Friend and Rough Knuckles) were, while being decent songs, sounding more Road To Rouen than Life On Other Planets. And that was not positive in my book.
Still, the final parts didn’t make Diamond Hoo Ha a poor record. It was LOUD, glammy and stirring – a great rock n roll album that could have been a classic if it had ended in the same manner as it began.
VERDICT: 8/10
Best tracks: Rebel In You, When I Needed You, Diamond Hoo Ha Man, Return Of Inspiration
Spotify Link
Dodgy – In A Room
Britpop at its best: Dodgy, a quite early britpop act, who used to be supported by Oasis in the early 90s. This clip is from the Phoenix Festival ’96. The song is In A Room, from the fantastic album Free Peace Sweet (1996).
Another sunny afternoon
Snön ligger tung över Lund, det är kallt, men det är också bara veckor tills våren är här. Tills dess kan det som kommer här värma:
Den överlägset bästa live-versionen av Morning Glory, kanske till och med den bästa live-versionen av någon Oasis-låt överhuvudtaget. Framför allt fantastisk basgång. Från The Late Show With David Letterman 1995.
“It’s another sunny afternoon,
I’ve been walking to the sound of my favourite tune”
Heavy Stereo
Har aldrig lyssnat på Heavy Stereo, Oasis-Gems britpopband som släppte sitt enda album 1996 (Déjà Voodoo).
Därför var det jävligt gött när jag hittade den här videon, till singeln Mouse In A Hole. Riktigt bra grejor! Och det märks att Gem är ett Stones-fan.