Mixtape...blah, blah, nostalgia, blah...

I was about to start with a profound and incisive statement, but that new Bloc Party single really is fucking dreadful, isn't it?

I've spent a thoroughly enjoyable day rearranging bits of the record collection and ripping assorted tracks to the computer in order to refresh the content of my mp3 player and contruct a decent mp3 CD for a long car journey that's coming up. It's wonderful just browsing through the tunes that have, at various times in the last few years, meant rather a lot to me. I did the slightly embarrassing, but hugely popular, swivelling-a-little-bit-in-a-computer-chair dance to Stardust's 'Music Sounds Better With You' earlier and it was hugely satisfying. And what about 'Forever J' by Terry Hall? A beautiful, beautiful song which was sampled on 'Life In Mono' by Mono, which I've also ended up digging out. However, whilst finding out more about it I stumbled upon the Emma Bunton cover version. Eugh. Now, I actually really liked that soul-pastiche album she did a few years back. The one with pink cover. But this is not good. At all. The original is, however, and it would seem you can still buy it via the iTunes empire.

The mp3 player will soon be receiving a number of albums that I can't believe I haven't felt the need to put back on there since reformatting it a few months back. Most of Supergrass' back catalogue is still absent, as are the first two Portishead albums and Thom Yorke's 'The Eraser'. Not for much longer. Also going on will be Madness' wonderful track, 'NW5' that came out as a one-off single a little while back, but which will feature on their forthcoming concept album, 'The Liberty Of Norton Folgate'. If you've not heard it, I would put it up there with pretty much anything else they've ever done. It's great.

And with that cunning link (that's great and so is this) I should probably say a few words about the Jamie Lidell record I was on about the other day. Gilles Peterson has started offering a splendid service via TellJack that allows you to hear albums, in full, before deciding whether or not to purchase. You don't download anything, it's all done via high quality streams, but it's splendid. That's how I got to hear 'Jim', by Jamie Lidell. I keep calling it 'Son of Stevie' because it sounds like that sort of record Stevie Wonder would be making now if he was a) younger and b) as good as he used to be. To me, this album slots in quite neatly alongside 'Innervisions' and 'Talking Book'. High praise, I know, but it really is the best soul album I've heard in yonks. And, I've heard Sharon Jones and the new Al Green. Anyway, there's a track on the newly updated Mux (click on the tape in the right-hand column) along with a chance to hear the Terry Hall track 'Forever J' and the Mono track that sampled it. Plus other stuff. Stuff you'll like, I'd imagine.

I remember now what it was that I was going to talk about when I was going on about mp3 compilations. I was listening to Jeremy Vine's show on Radio 2 yesterday (the outraged voice of middle class Britain©) as he discussed the possible charges for broadband customers in the UK. Apparently, devious downloaders will be receiving angry letters in the near future, explaining that what they're up to is illegal. Assuming, of course, that they are downloading illegally, that is. They wouldn't make any mistakes, would they? Judging by some of the calls to the programme, mistakes have already been made and there will be more on the way. Predictably, one of the 'I ain't paying for it, why should I? I've ten CDs over the last twenty years and they were, like, £16 each, so why should I pay now?' brigade got on air. I've never really had a strong opinion about it one way or another, but with the number of independent record stores dying on their arses and bands failing to keep hold of their record contracts, you do have to wonder. Ok, so it's a symptom of a jaded industry, rather than the cause, but surely nobody who loves their tunes thinks it's a long-term approach? Weirdly, I've just noticed that the good folks at Norman Records are having a similar debate on their blog.

And finally, the nominations for the Mercury Music Prize came out t'other day and I was amazed by just how many I've actually heard and liked. The list is as follows:

Adele - '19'
British Sea Power - 'Do You Like Rock Music?'
Burial - 'Untrue'
Elbow - 'The Seldom Seen Kid'
Estelle - 'Shine'
Laura Marling - 'Alas I Cannot Swim'
Neon Neon - 'Stainless Style'
Portico Quartet - 'Knee-Deep In The North Sea'
Rachel Unthank & The Winterset - 'The Bairns'
Radiohead - 'In Rainbows'
Robert Plant & Alison Krauss - 'Raising Sand'
The Last Shadow Puppets - 'The Age Of The Understatement'

It's only Portico Quartet that I need to do any real research for - and I will, I'm sure. I can't think of a time when I've been so in line with the Mercury choices. It could just be that I've bought far too many records recently, and therefore whatever they'd gone for I'd have been in this position, but I'd like to think not. From my perspective, it's got to be between Elbow, Laura Marling and Radiohead. Radiohead are getting a bit of negativity thrown their way regarding this because of how established they are, but 'In Rainbows' really is one of their best albums and definitely one of the best albums of the last twelve months. Laura Marling is someone that I've raved about on here for almost a year now and I certainly don't intend on stopping. 'Alas I Cannot Swim' will be in my end of the year list and it's a near-perfect folk-pop album. It's an exercise in measured understatement, and it's all the more beautiful because of that. However, I think it should probably go to Elbow. They went off, not in possession of a record deal, and did it all themselves; recording a record that they would want to listen to. It's a wonderful, wonderful collection of songs and 'One Day Like This' could well end up as one of my all time favourite songs.

Any thoughts? Perhaps the blog will get spammed again by the vinyl collectors of Idaho. (See comments for previous post) I'm with Neil Hannon on Idaho.

Like I said, have a listen to the Muxtape.

So, in conclusion, don't read this...

I love Steve Lamacq. Not like that. Obviously. Although, I guess I could pretend if I could get near his record collection. He was the aural comfort blanket on the nineties and I adored listening every evening to the Session. Jo Whiley's subsequent media whoredom has ensured that I've written her out of history and I just remember Steve's grand work. These days he's on Radio 1, Radio 2 and the afternoon host on BBC 6 Music, also home to the beloved Gideon Coe. His shows remain a delight, but he's gone back to his roots and you can read his musings on music in blog form. And, perhaps unsurprisingly, he's still as bloody great as he was back in his pre-radio days.

Go here for a number of witty, eloquent and downright entertaining blog posts.

Why do I bother?

A few, minor things

Christ, the coverage of T in the Park was dreadful. I mean truly awful. For a start, it was hosted by that bloody Bowman individual, along with 'Grimmy' (lovably cutesy nickname always means wanker - he doesn't disappoint) and Jeff Leach (whoever the fuck he is.) On top of this, the choice of songs offered up was piss poor. For example, when Primal Scream were shown, was it a late nineties/early noughties electronic beast? No. It was fucking 'Rocks'. What a surprise. R.E.M. headling, eh? Ah, well, headlines get a good few songs don't they? What can we look forward to? 'What's The Frequency, Kenneth?' and 'Man On The Moon'. That was it. Two songs!

"But, the Sunday night highlights package was 135 minutes long," I hear you cry. Indeed, but after the first hour, it consisted of The Fratellis, KT Tunstall and Amy MacDonald. Presumably, as I can't think of any musical reasons for showing them, because they're Scottish and it's a Scottish music festival. Just as the Glastonbury highlights were only based on English bands, of course. Numpties.

So, if I can recommend just one thing to do with T, it's to not bother even watching bits via the BBC website. Waste of time.

Secondly, I finally browsed through the photos and artwork found on CD2 in the 'In Rainbows' boxset earlier and was pleasantly surprised. There's some lovely stuff on there, such as this one, which is now my wallpaper. Not sure why I'm telling you this as if you've not got the discbox it's sold out and if you've got it, you're probably not as tardy as my good self. If you are, however, then go and have a look now. I remain of the belief that 'In Rainbows' is a truly great album, by the way.

The Jamie Lidell album, 'Jim', is fantastic, but I'll write about that next time.

I love a good pop tune. I tend to only think about this at the weekend. This coincides with chunks of time spent flitting about between all of the music video channels. Obviously, most of what I end up catching is shite. But, in amongst the seemingly endless supply of Girls Aloud (hey, who's complaining?) can be found some wonderful tunes. The track 'Love Song' by Sara Bareilles (two attempts) has been all over the radio for weeks now and I remember some of the pre-release interest was centred around the fact that her label told her to write some love songs for her album if she wanted to be a success, so she wrote a song about that and cunningly titled it in a way to confuse said suited buffoons. I hadn't really taken in how good the song is until I caught the rather twee video. Now, I can't deny that my interest was piqued in a different way than radio play can manage, but the song is wonderful pop. Well-produced, piano and vocals to the fore, splendid little melody and doesn't outstay its welcome. One of the singles of the year thus far.

Another song I was surprised to find myself liking was will.i.am's 'Heartbreaker', which should really be disqualified from the off because off his bloody stupid name. However, it's a quality bit of throwaway pop. Slightly cheesy, repetitive chorus? Check. Random famous female vocalist? Check. (Cheryl Cole) Mid-song swearing to catch out shit local radio DJs? Check. The video is crap, mind, but the song's very good indeed.

The Bareilles (first time!) team appear to disagree with YouTube video embedding. So, you'll have to click on the words 'Love Song' to hear that one.

will.i.am.a.man.with.a.silly.name is available below.

What the cocking hell are Bloc Party doing?

I'm not one to make a big fuss of not-especially-legit interweb downloadage - mainly because I love record shops and adore the sound quality of well made discs, rather than any issues with morality - but, without much hunting you should be able to track down the new Bloc Party single, 'Mercury'. It leaked earlier after the tech boffins at Radio 1 put their BP exclusive online 90 minutes early. Anyway, if you've not found it, I imagine Zane Lowe's homepage has probably got it by the time you read this.

Anyway, it's very, very odd. Now, I loved 'Flux', their last single, which pissed off an awful lot of fans. I've seen this described as a cross between 'The Prayer' and 'Flux' on one message board and I can kind of take the point. That said, 'The Prayer' had a cracking and thumping drum track and 'Flux' was a serious band after too many Skittles and cheap cola. This is just...bad.

I'm actually quite offended by the repeated bit: "My mercury's in retrograde", looped and twisted and just fucking annoying. I've just had my third listen, just to ensure it's a bad as I first thought it was.

If you'd like to tell me why this isn't a hugely disappointing release from a band who have, at times, promised such great things, then please do. 'Flux' convinced me that they were back on the right path after the mushy sound of their last album, but this is awful. Apologies for not being more eloquent about this, but why search for twenty words when 'crap' will do?

On the plus side, the new Beck album is ace.