SOMETHING OLD: ‘Brick’ – Ben Folds Five

A heart-breaking song about abortion, no political stance, just the raw emotions and the effects on a relationship. That may sound a bit hard-going for a Monday, not the usual upbeat number I go for, but in this case it’s a beautiful yet equally heart-wrenching song and still one of my favourites.

Not as literal as singing directly about the topic, however once you know what it’s about then the lyrics do feel that much deeper and it invites you to listen that much harder.
Lead singer Ben Folds has such a great voice which can adapt to the more light-hearted songs like ‘Rockin’ The Suburbs’ for example, to this, a much more personal song. Sadness with a hint of anger during the middle eight, not at the situation but at the frustration he clearly feels his girlfriend is going through.

The production is, as with all the best songs in my opinion, very simple - the continuing piano melody which really grabs the attention initially. An emotive, brave and honest pop song.

From the album ‘Whatever and Ever Amen’ (1997) / @BenFolds

SOMETHING NEW: ‘Ritual Union’ – Little Dragon

Swedish electronic band Little Dragon have been around for a number of years, but this track is an absolute beaut and needs to be heard and enjoyed if you don’t know of them already.

A sexy late night number you could equally listen to on a long drive into the night or getting ready to go out. Lead singer Yukimi Nagano encompasses such a laid back vibe, that normal spiel about music being able to take you away and forget your problems for 3 minutes never seemed truer than when listening to her voice.

Everything about the song is effortless, I can just about manage a shuffle or even a shoulder shimmy before I close my eyes and think of driving in the sun with the roof down, alternatively on a beach plenty of miles away and degrees hotter than where we currently are here on the border of November!

Melt, float, ‘Ritual Union’ keeps inviting you back for more, and you won’t regret it.

From the album ‘Ritual Origin’ (2011) / @LittleDragon

SOMETHING OLD: ‘I Wish’ – Skee-Lo

Ah come on, a classic in every sense of the word. I’m not ashamed to say I have, for the most part, been slightly inebriated with cheap spirits most times I’ve heard this song – making it all the more enjoyable trying to sing along to the chorus. But for the majority, everyone knows at least one line. If not, get your listening gear round this one.

Utilising the most funky of funky basslines in the sample of Bernard Wright’s ‘Spinnin’ and the brass note we instantly recognise when hearing ‘I Wish’, Skee-Lo tell us his tale of wishing he could be more like his crush’s boyfriend who was indeed taller and a baller.
In quite an opposite extreme to today’s hip hop when the majority is spent rapping about all the things they have and the glamorous lifestyles they live, here we relate to the real life situations of things we can’t have – a nod to unrequited love if you want to see it that way.

It screams summer time to me and up against the bling encrusted tracks of today, Skee-Lo ‘keeps it real’ in a song hard to believe is almost 16 years old. Download, enjoy, you’re welcome.

From the album ‘I Wish’ (1995) / @Skeelo_MusiK 

SOMETHING NEW: ‘Kissing Gates' – Crowns

Now you know by now I like to promote a bit of local produce, with the Westcountry scene looking particularly fruitful at current, here’s the exciting sound of Cornish band Crowns.
Self-styled punk-folk, debut single ‘Kissing Gates’ mixes just that – a jig with an edge sharper than freshly pressed cider (NB don’t worry that’s the only Cornish-based pun I’ll be using in this piece) a shanty for the modern day fisherman or in this case, more likely, the crowd surfer.

Sounding like nothing else out there at the moment, it seems most fitting that they’ve been added as the support act for The King Blues next month – an equally enjoyable band especially live, anyone attending these gigs is in for a double treat.
High energy with one of those irresistible hook and drum-beat combos, inject a bit of Cornish sunshine into the dreary October days drawing in.

Raise your glasses, kick your legs and look forward to the EP coming up in the New Year. Crowns hereby stand at the top of my ‘bands I want to see live’ list. In Cornish we’d say peidgy ry thebm mouy – please give me more! 

‘Kissing Gates’ the single is out on November 14 / @crownsband

SOMETHING OLD: ‘Forgiven’ – Alanis Morissette

My original ‘Jagged Little Pill’ CD just about plays, skipping on a few tracks due to the scratches where it has been played so much over the years. One of my favourite albums ever, makes this a hard choice to recommend just one of its tracks. But right now, it’s ‘Forgiven’ and brace yourself cos this one gets real deep.

Producer Glen Ballard, who has worked with such an impressively diverse catalogue of artists before and after working on ‘Jagged Little Pill’ (Katy Perry to The Corrs, No Doubt and Annie Lennox to yes, Curtis Stigers!) creates such a haunting sound to what is so obviously a fragile topic for Morissette.

Alanis’ vocals are incredibly menacing, if ever you wanted to hear someone sing with such pure (and in this case) almost venomous and raw emotion, this is such an example. The winding, twisting barbed wire of a bridge builds to the epic chorus where those famous powerful lungs kick in – right in your stomach.

And as for the middle eight...wow. I don’t think comparisons, clichés or descriptions could even do it justice. Just listen.

Alanis Morissette, how I miss you so.

From the album ‘Jagged Little Pill’ (1995) / @morissette

SOMETHING NEW: ‘By Your Hand’ – Los Campesinos!

With an 80s computer game melody loop which tempts you like a cheeky peek at a Super Mario cheat book, similarity you can’t help but delve into the wonders it then continues to bring.  Group sing-along, this band originally formed at Cardiff Uni, mix a combination of Arcade Fire and Vampire Weekend – this is a good thing.

A seven-piece band provides the chorus’ with enough of a vocal wall to encourage steering wheel finger tapping in this perfect driving song.
What seems to be a preferably forgettable memory from school/college, it tells the tale of perhaps unrequited love and how in a perfect moment it could only come together – until she vomits on his rental tux. I’d like to say we’ve all been there; my friend met her now husband by throwing up on his shoes, I kind of hoped it was just some strange Plymothian mating call. Los Campesinos prove me wrong.

Layers of speech and hand-claps greet the final chorus until the cheery loop returns to guide you to the end. A wondrous song which poses a great amount of anticipation for the November album release. 

From the forthcoming album ‘Hello Sadness’ (2011) / @loscampesinos

SOMETHING OLD: ‘Concrete Schoolyard’ – Jurassic 5

All this crazy sunny October weather has caught everyone off guard, particularly with clothing but for me also with music. For a few days at least, I’ve been getting the most out of the summertime tracks before they go into hibernation. ‘Concrete Schoolyard’ being one of them.

Featuring a number of samples from Ike Turner, Ramsey Lewis and Don Sebesky, you probably think you’ve heard bits of it before, but the raps are unique to the band and all that was great and good about them back in the day.

A lazy piano mixed with your more traditional hip hop beats basks this track in sunshine. If my Clio were in fact a Cadillac, I’d so be cruising with my arm hanging out  (as best I could even TRY to make that look good on me!) Each member puts their own spin on their rap section, moving the lyric round the bouncy beat to different rhythms and skips from offbeat to gaps there inbetween with pure finesse.

And who’s going to deny a song with a kazoo instrumental? Gen-i-us.

From the album 'Jurassic 5' (1998) / www.interscope.com/jurassic5

SOMETHING NEW: ‘Beloved’ – April Smith & The Great Picture Show

With a voice sounding like it’s from the 1950s, April Smith’s classic/vintage vocals are pure and sweet and make a pleasant alternative to the ‘powerhouse’ female vocalists popular at the moment, and the note-defying gymnastics that often come with them.

An incredibly sad song when you stop and listen to the lyrics, again her slightly fragile tone conveys this beautifully. Losing a lover, either at the end of a relationship or at the definite end, heart-breaking. ‘This thing that beats is the one thing that keeps us apart’.

Building slowly, it reaches its peak in the classic way in the middle eight, when the voice becomes a mountain. Not too overpowering, the tone instantly returns to the simple and innocent, as if not to get ahead of herself.

In a unique venture, the album this song is taken from was in fact funded by fans of the band via Kickstarter. If such a way of doing things present more sublime songs and artists like this, then long may it continue and prosper because ‘Beloved’ is absolutely gorgeous in every way.

From the album ‘Songs For A Sinking Ship’ (2010) / www.aprilsmithmusic.com