Sunday, January 29, 2012

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Song for Sunday


Blue Aeroplanes – Jacket Hangs

With my iTunes Christmas and birthday vouchers I finally purchased a copy of The Blue Aeroplanes classic Beatsongs. The vinyl version is hidden away somewhere and I had never got round to buying the CD or downloading it. However, I can confirm that it is as magnificent as remembered and has been getting plenty of stereo time over the last week. Unfortunately there don't seem to be any high-quality videos of songs from the album (not even Boy in the Bubble!) and so you will have to make do with this track from the earlier Swagger.

Band/artist of the week: Lanterns on the Lake
Song of the week: Suede – Animal Nitrate

Friday, January 13, 2012

2011 music by numbers

According to last year's post my last.fm play count was sitting at 92,378 on the thirteenth day of January 2011. As of today I am up to 137,233 or 44,855 songs played in the last year. Or approximately 863 songs a week or 123 a day. Sounds like quite a lot to me, but given that I tend to have music going all the time at work that I don't have to be in a meeting or on the phone (and often it is on if the meeting isn't in my office) it could be feasible.

Anyway, probably of no interest to anyone but myself, here are the lists for the top 50 artists and songs for 2011.

Artists/bands
1 Mogwai (1,386)
2 The National (1,207)
3 Bruce Springsteen (1,033)
4 British Sea Power (834)
5 Malcolm Middleton (829)
6 R.E.M. (699)
7 Frightened Rabbit (551)
8 Idlewild (541)
9 Sigur Rós (533)
10 Saint Etienne (520)
11 Radiohead (517)
12 Tindersticks (501)
13 All India Radio (453)
14 Glasvegas (438)
15 M83 (428)
16 Big Country (396)
17 The Rural Alberta Advantage (390)
18 U2 (377)
19 Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu (361)
20 Burial (356)
21 Manic Street Preachers (325)
22 Holly Throsby (324)
23 Low (306)
24 Lucinda Williams (304)
25 Arcade Fire (300)
26 Placebo (290)
27 Suede (280)
27 Dead Letter Chorus (280)
29 Belle and Sebastian (276)
30 Trembling Blue Stars (265)
31 Art of Fighting (264)
32 David Bowie (263)
33 Tanya Donelly (253)
34 Moby (252)
35 For a Minor Reflection (246)
36 Zomby (244)
37 Runrig (237)
38 Portishead (224)
38 Marillion (224)
40 Gorillaz (223)
41 Dot Allison (221)
41 The Blue Aeroplanes (221)
43 Camera Obscura (214)
44 The Cure (211)
45 ABBA (206)
45 Girls (206)
47 Billy Bragg (197)
48 The Very Best (194)
49 The Breeders (192)
50 Gersey (191)

Tracks
1 Mogwai – George Square Thatcher Death Party (113)
2 Frightened Rabbit – Heads Roll Off (108)
3 Big Country – Chance (106)
4 Mogwai – How to Be a Werewolf (103)
5 The National – Terrible Love (97)
6 Mogwai – Death Rays (88)
7 Mogwai – Rano Pano (81)
8 The House Of Love – I Don't Know Why I Love You (76)
9 The Rural Alberta Advantage – Stamp (74)
10 On Volcano – Acceleration of Heartbeat (72)
11 Robyn – Be Mine (Ballad Version) (68)
11 British Sea Power – We Are Sound (68)
13 All India Radio – Rippled (66)
14 Bent – So Long Without You (63)
15 Mogwai – Mexican Grand Prix (62)
16 Dot Allison – Message Personnel (56)
17 Phosphorescent – I Don't Care If There's Cursing (54)
18 Frightened Rabbit – Head Rolls Off (52)
18 The Airborne Toxic Event – This Is Nowhere (52)
18 Forest City Lovers – Light You Up (52)
18 British Sea Power – Living Is So Easy (52)
18 Dead Letter Chorus – Yellow House (52)
23 Malcolm Middleton – Choir (51)
23 Frightened Rabbit – Fast Blood (51)
25 Holly Throsby – What I Thought Of You (49)
26 Röyksopp – Someone Like Me (48)
27 Mogwai – White Noise (46)
27 Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx – I’ll Take Care Of U (46)
29 The Concretes – Lovin' Kind (45)
29 Fulton Lights – Healing Waters (45)
29 Wye Oak – Civilian (45)
29 British Sea Power – Who's In Control? (45)
33 Mogwai – 2 Rights Make 1 Wrong (44)
33 Mogwai – Letters to the Metro (44)
35 Malcolm Middleton – A Brighter Beat (42)
35 Glasvegas – Euphoria, Take My Hand (42)
35 Lowtide – Underneath Tonight (42)
38 Mogwai – Cody (41)
38 Malcolm Middleton – Love Comes in Waves (41)
40 MGMT – Time To Pretend (40)
40 British Sea Power – Cleaning Out The Rooms (40)
40 For a Minor Reflection – Recite (40)
43 Burial – Distant Lights (39)
43 Gil Scott-Heron – I'm New Here (39)
43 Cat's Eyes – Not A Friend (39)
46 Beth Orton – Stolen Car (38)
47 Maxïmo Park – Limassol (37)
47 Mogwai – San Pedro (37)
49 Suede – Animal Nitrate (36)
49 Ash – Uncle Pat (36)

Sunday, January 8, 2012

Song for Sunday


Lana Del Rey – Video Games

No band or song of the week because we are hopefully still away camping in the middle of nowhere and completely off-grid, as they say ...

Normal service will be resumed next week.

Sunday, January 1, 2012

Who's in Control (2011 in mixtape form)



As is now traditional, here is the track listing for this year's festive mix-tape:

Dead Letter Chorus – Yellow House
khancoban – Until It Takes You Over
Califone – Funeral Singers
Gil Scott-Heron – I'm New Here
Trembling Blue Stars – Kidney Bingos
All India Radio – Rippled
Radiohead – Codex
M83 – Wait
Mogwai – How to Be a Werewolf
Holly Throsby – What I Thought of You
The Audreys – Don't Change
Isobel Campbell and Mark Lannegan – Trouble
R.E.M. – Oh My Heart
Wild Beasts – Loop the Loop
Glasvegas – The World Is Yours
British Sea Power – Who's In Control
For a Minor Reflection – Recite

Hopefully all copies have arrived at their destinations (apart from one which still needs an up-to-date address) and is being enjoyed worldwide at this very moment. The tracks seemed to sort themselves out pretty quickly, but the sequencing was a bit more troublesome this year and I am still not totally happy with the flow. A few tracks almost made it, but didn't quite fit the overall feel and so got ditched on the way like bizness by the tUnE-yArDs, one of the Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingi tracks, a Bill Wells and Aiden Moffat tune and something off the Zomby album.

The sharp eyed will notice a couple of 2010 tracks and even one each from 2009 and 2008. They were all new to me this year and although they wouldn't normally get included I loved them too much to leave them off.

Looking forward to hearing your favourites and least-liked, and of course let me know if you didn't get a copy and would like one.

Song for Sunday


Thurston Moore – Benediction

Band/artist of the week: The National
Song of the week: How to be a Werewolf – Mogwai