i'm not saying i'm free from blame

I have never heard such unbearably melancholic and intimate lyrics sung by a voice so sweet and direct that it adds a new dimension of laidback intimacy to the whole issue at hand.

Tracyanne Campbell of Camera Obscura does just that, with her wry soprano and tender songwriting layered over the sextet's restrained and gentle playing. Perhaps it is again the quirky beauty in combined incongruity, the whole when opposites attract wonder. But whatever it is, the combination of music, lyrics, melodies, and vocals work in a fresh and interesting way for a topic that is so often carelessly tripped over by mainstream music.

It's a spring like romance. Warm reminiscience. Mellow wistfulness. You might not find heartbreak as enchanting as this anywhere else.

CAMERA OBSCURA - I NEED ALL THE FRIENDS I CAN GET

their site,


Allmusic
and them on myspace

oh, I've never met anyone quite like you before/ oh, it's the last time

Stepping along the way home from the station this song comes on, and hahh yeh if I could dedicate a last song to one particular young lady I think, it just would be this.

Hm to tell the truth I myself was quite surprised a little of the pain is still there. But it is not the same, like a song that has been covered and sang in a different way, what was once a mix of heady confusion and messy intensity had somehow, along the way turned into a swaggering tune that *actually* has a glimmer to it.

Perhaps it is the playful backing uh-woos that reflect the whole absurdity of the mess as seen from hindsight that makes this particular song a dedication to you. Perhaps it is in the way how the same lyrics says something new when simply sung in another way. Perhaps it is the kind of spirit in this song that I can only best explain by offering a comparison to the neighbourhood kid who jumps up on a low wall and with furrowed brows skips on it, concerned only with the next careful step because that really is the only thing that should matter for him now.

Things happens, perspectives change... and perhaps it is simply the way the song captures what I would like say in a way and fashion that is simple and true.

And I shall wish you all the best.

Always.



Oh you've got unforgettable eyes.

COBRA VERDE - TEMPTATION (COVER)

Heaven, a gateway, a hope
Just like a feeling I need, it's no joke
And though it hurts me to see you this way
Betrayed by words, I'd never heard, too hard to say
Up, down, turn around
Please don't let me hit the ground
Tonight I think I'll walk alone
I'll find my soul as I go home.

Each way I turn, I know I'll always try
To break this circle that's been placed around me
From time to time, I find I've lost some need
That was urgent to myself, I do believe
Up, down, turn around
Please don't let me hit the ground
Tonight I think I'll walk alone
I'll find my soul as I go home.

Oh, you've got green eyes
Oh, you've got blue eyes
Oh, you've got gray eyes
Oh, you've got green eyes
Oh, you've got blue eyes
Oh, you've got gray eyes

And I've never seen anyone quite like you before
No, I've never met anyone quite like you before
Thoughts from above hit the people down below
People in this world, we have no place to go

Oh, it's the last time
Oh, I've never met anyone quite like you before

a super non-stop uber-rocking disco party

Screw it, time for a song that's actually all out dancefloor meltdown as compared to the many other typical hands-in-pocket 'indie' kind of songs here.

Remember the Brakes? From their honest to goodness duet with the Pipettes in ' Sometimes Always'? Right here's a tune from the same album of theirs, but very much different. The title of ' All Night Disco Party says it all. It is built around a solid chorus and probably a single guitar riff, a song all stripped down with the sole intention of teaching those indie feet to get up and dance the whole night through.

And man is it good. It never lets go, sweeping you right up and just out for a good night of plain fun. Sometimes artistes get so caught up with capturing epic and momentous emotions in a song that they forget to sprinkle a good dosing from the box labelled ' fun'. Not the Brakes though. Lyrically meaningless actually, but catchy as hell.

What a way to start a night.

BRAKES - ALL NIGHT DISCO PARTY

The video is of a good eskimo led party at the northpole. If I pick up DJing, I would invite seals and penguins to come:

we could stick around and see this night through

It's the bongos I tell you! The bongos!

There has to be something in the Swedish air that subtly lead the people to create such amazing music inspite of their dark 30 day long nights ( thanks Frostbite, for that bit of knowledge). Here's Peter, Bjorn and John, joined by Victoria Bergman of The Concretes fame in a duet that sings of that fuzzy wordless happiness that can only come during that dazed first period of a relationship. When you’ve just met and only want to be with each other, whilst at the same time worrying about how much you want to show your true self to the other person so as not to scare them.

" Its lyrics capture the first mad rush of new love (and the strange calmness and certainty that can exist at the centre of its storm) with heartbreaking beauty." so say The Times in their review, and I can not agree more.

Her voice is a big draw, but it's the whole thing that eventually counts. Those crazy bongos ( the background hand-drummed pongpongpong-pongs that start about a minute and a half in... ) anywhere else would sound utterly insane, and the whistling is simply summer lovely. The slinky bassline that thumps itself happily away under your nose as you take in the pretenseless lyrics never tires you out, and before long you know you are listening to one of the best tunes of 06.

Edgy pop. Alternative folk. It does not really matter what you call it, for sometimes, you discover something so especially unique that you can never again find the same in another.

If I told you things I did before, told you how I used to be/
would you go along with someone like me?

That's cute.

Peter, Bjorn and John with Victoria Bergsman - Young Folks

Below for a link to PBJ's myspace site, where you can find a video of the song.

Yep that's Victoria. She recently split from the Concretes and gone solo. Her voice has always been around this blog, just listen to the first song on the radio blog above. Just for the record, iTunes shows that the playcount for Say Something New is 65 since sept 1 of last year.

but he stayed in the city/ and kept on changing clothes

I don't know about you but sometimes, there comes a point when it is easy to simply feel *tired*. Tired not from being physically pushed ( which the Army trains everyone well and isnt really anything special contary to what typical army guys would like you to believe), but more so tired from being just *drained*. Of what naturally it is different for everyone, for some it may be spiritually, or the mundanity of daily work, or it may even be something like maintaining a relationship and the like, but I never thought I would have to experience the kind of ****ing worried sickness so soon that comes when family and the prospect of death sit in the same room. The ICU in this case. If simply because although I know that such things happen, even know that my grandfather died of it, it did not really cross my mind ( more likely it was my mind not wanting to not think like this) that it would strike someone close just like that.

Neh but enough of that, I shall uphold my promise of keeping this blog soley on music, so here is today's post all done up and here for your enjoyment.

Quirky and melancholic may seem like an odd combination to many out there, heh but look it's stuff I like. 'Superman Song' is the whole package, like those moments that hit you at those times when you take a double take on things that happen around you and perspectives change. Possessing the same folksy lilt like other mid 90s college favourites like the Barenaked Ladies, 10 000 Maniacs and the Indigo Girls, the Crash Test Dummies from Canada sing a gentle yet bitingly sharp song about Superman's death. Yeh supe's dead and it is his eulogy. The song's a little dark, a little good natured, a little mildly laid back and a little smugly self conscious all bundled together. But before you think this song is a joke based simply on its premise, here's the lyrics:

Crash Test Dummies - Superman Song

Tarzan wasn't a ladies' man

He'd just come along and scoop 'em up under his arm

Like that, quick as a cat in the jungle

But Clark Kent, now there was a real gent

He would not be caught sittin' around in no

Junglescape, dumb as an ape doing nothing

[CHORUS]

Superman never made any money

For saving the world from Solomon Grundy

And sometimes I despair the world will never see

Another man like him

Hey Bob, Supe had a straight job

Even though he could have smashed through any bank

In the United States, he had the strength, but he would now

Folks said his family were all dead.

Their planet crumbled but Superman, he forced himself

To carry on, forget Krypton, and keep going

Tarzan was king of the jungle and Lord over all the apes

But he could hardly string together four words: "I Tarzan, You Jane."

Sometimes when Supe was stopping crimes

I'll bet that he was tempted to just quit and turn his back

On man, join Tarzan in the forest

But he stayed in the city, and kept on changing clothes

In dirty old phonebooths till his work was through

And nothing to do but go on home

here's the video too, which I think captures the whole song perfectly. Listen and watch it here rather than on radioblog.

" makes me feel all puzzled and mixed up" so says Xijie.