Curtis Mayfield and The Impressions – The Girl I find

There has probably been a Soul Music deficit on the blog recently. It is my first musical love and while I continue to get distracted by the shiny new things that I encounter I find myself returning to it over and over again.

What better way to redress this than with Curtis Mayfield and The Impressions. Curtis is a massive hero of mine and I started this blogging journey all those months ago with the incomparable Move On Up, which remains my favourite track of all time.

The reason I have been thinking of this song in particular, which is taken from the 1969 album The Young Mods’ Forgotten Story, is that it was sampled by Oddisee in his track The Carter Barron which was one of my favourites of 2012. I only managed to place this a couple of weeks ago after randomly stumbling across it on YouTube.

Curtis Mayfield and The Impressions – The Young Mods’ Forgotten Story:

Impressions

/RjK

John Maus* – Keep Pushing On

Don’t let anyone tell you John Maus is good live. He’s not. His abject, anguished karaoke routine is down there with the worst live acts I have ever seen. But his 2011 album, We Must Become the Pitiless Censors of Ourselves, is worthy of your attention. Its dark, vaguely deranged, yet joyful sound turns a half-hour commute into a seaside ghost train, and leaves you better than it found you.

This video, for one of its floatier moments – Keep Pushing On, might hurt your eyes. Full-screen it to be sure.

John Maus:

John Maus/jusk

*Artist #613

Hanson* – MMMBop | (GPF)

This is a pure guilty pleasure! I heard it on the radio the other day and I couldn’t help but smile. It was like I was back in 1997 all over again. Happy times. It actually hasn’t aged too badly as pure radio fodder pop songs go. It is 4 minutes of pure sunny positivity.

Also, subsequent Googling lead me to a recent picture of the still performing (who knew!) Hanson. The contrast to their 90’s heyday is rather stark!

Hanson – 1997:

Hanson97

Hanson – Present:

Hanson2013

/RjK

*Artist #612

Foxygen* – San Francisco | (NAT)

I have to give it up to fellow bloggers Far from Cyan for this discovery. The track is so fresh and infectious. It has been playing on a loop in my head for the past week or two.

Foxygen are a Californian duo who make 60’s influenced indie pop. They sound like they were meant for a different era. This is taken from their recently released We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace and Magic album which was released on the JAGAJGUWAR label.

The fact that the song is ostensibly about my favourite city in the world does it no harm but there is more to it than that. I love the retro, somewhat irreverent sound.

I left my love in San Francisco. 

That’s okay, I was bored anyway…

Foxygen:

Foxygen

Foxygen

/RjK

*Artist #611

Mazzy Star* – Fade Into You

I have been meaning to feature this track, from Californian band Mazzy Star, for ages. It’s the song I have listened to most so far in 2013. And it’s not even that close. When I come to think about it I’m not sure how I haven’t managed to post it sooner.

I have to confess that I hadn’t heard until coming across it in a “Best of the 90’s” mix on Spotify at the end of December. I guess its 1994 release (on So Tonight  That I Might See) was just before my time.

I have subsequently been completely hooked by it’s wistful, languid style. The lyrics and dreamy, aching delivery have been playing over and over in my mind. It’s been a while since I have been so stuck on a song for such a long period of time.

Mazzy Star:

Mazzy Star

/RjK

*Artist #610

Common – The 6th Sense featuring Bilal

This track, from Chicago rapper and actor Common, is taken from his excellent 2000 album Like Water for Chocolate.

It is an oldie but it has been on my mind for a while now. It came on my MP3 player while on shuffle and a couple of the lyrics really stuck with me. I liked them because they were profound, which is a rarity when it comes to rap. I like plenty of rhymes that are boisterous or funny but very few that are deep:

I start thinking, how many souls hip-hop has affected? How many dead folks this art resurrected? How many nations this culture connected?…

It also helps that the beat is amazing, with production from the legendary DJ Premier.

Common – Like Water for Chocolate:

Like Water for Chocolate

/RjK

The Crystals* – He Hit Me (And It Felt Like A Kiss)

Guest blogger Rory McD takes us forward by taking us back

It felt right to add to the new site with a return to the past. And there are few who do it better than Harvey Phillip Spector. His brilliance as a producer was always tempered by the fact that he was a complete loon. I buried myself in his biography some year’s back as it traced his course from trembling dropout to maniacal studio whizz.
I like this song because it hangs somewhere in the balance between the two sides of his personality. The most delicate and innocent arrangement cushions some truly sinister lyrics. An unnerving reveal of the artists personality, in three minutes of pure honey.

Phil Spector back in the day:

Phil Spector

/RMcD

*Artist #609

Fleetwood Mac – Never going back again

Fleetwood Mac have been on my mind for a couple of reasons recently. Firstly, as I was getting a haircut the other day the barber mentioned that he had tickets to see them in Las Vegas on their 2013 world tour.  I was pretty jealous and might just try and see if I can score some tickets when they come to Ireland. The price will probably make my eyes water though.

Secondly, a colleague and I were talking about the death of the album in work this week. I was saying that albums are pretty much meaningless to me at this stage and how it makes me rather sad.

This got me to thinking about Rumours (which along with probably Astral Weeks, Highway 61 Revisited, Grace and only very few others) and how it is one of the few albums I still think of in that way rather than just a collection of songs that sporadically pop onto my MP3 player.

My colleague was suggesting although Astral Weeks was pretty good (!!) it wasn’t a patch on In the Aeroplane Over the Sea by Neutral Milk Hotel. You might say I disagreed with this idea but that is another story.

Rumours:

Rumours

/RjK

Blur – Under the Westway

While gorging myself on 90’s music over recent weeks Blur were that a band I came back to over and over.

During the heyday of Britpop the big question was – Blur or Oasis? I have to confess at the time I came down on the side of Oasis and their more substantial sound.

However, as time’s gone by I can’t help but admire Blur’s evolution. They have gone from the cheeky scallywags who made the pop classic Girls and Boys to opera writing, cheese-making middle-aged purveyors of high culture.

This track was one of my favourites of 2012 and I really like the more mature, almost wistful sound.

Blur – Under the Westway:

Under the Westway

/RjK

Toploader* – Dancing in the moonlight | (GPF)

Five points if you can remember when this was released. It’s a real blast from the past for me anyway. I have been meaning to post it since revisiting Pumping on Your Stereo a few Fridays ago. They both evoke memories of carefree school days and generally make me smile which aren’t bad traits for a song.

For those of you playing at home Dancing in the Moonlight was released in 1999 and is taken from the uniquely titled Onka’s Big Moka (extra points if you remembered the name of the album).

My suspicion was that Toploader where a one hit wonder but according to Wikipedia they reformed a few years ago so maybe there’s still hope…

Toploader:

Toploader/RjK

*Artist #608