Tag Archive for 2000’s

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The Knife* – Heartbeats

I heard this song over and over when I was at university and came to really like it. It has a slightly quirky sound that grew on me.

The Knife are a Swedish band and came into my mind tangentially after I went to see The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo last week. I enjoyed the movie but was a little taken aback at it’s jarring darkness. I had never read the books or seen the Swedish language version so was totally unprepared. Story of my life. The scenery kind of made me want to take a train to northern Sweden though. 

RjK

*Artist #368

1st January 2012

Kate Bush – A Coral Room

Hello 2012!!

I hope everyone had an enjoyable holiday and has recovered from last night’s festivities. I am back to London, feeling refreshed and ready for a big year (and for some great music).

This was probably my favourite song of the final months of 2011. It is taken from Aerial, Kate Bush’s staggeringly good 2005 album which I happily revisited over the autumn. It had slipped my mind when I posted her earlier in the year. Cloudbusting is pretty good too. 

Put your hand over the side of the boat and what do you feel?…

I am currently working on my top tunes of 2011, look out for that tomorrow. It is proving quite challenging to whittle it down to a sensible number. 

RjK

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Kano – Nobody don’t dance no more

This is a favourite from my university days. It is languid and funky and I think the hip hop meets garage flavour is interesting. 

RjK

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Razorlight – To the sea

Big night last night. Big night. Good fun though. I will keep this brief as all the carousing has left me feeling a little jaded!

This song has one of my all time favourite intros, jangly and relentless, it is the perfect beginning to a guitar pop song. Not a massive fan of Razorlight otherwise but this is great.

RjK

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Fleet Foxes – Blue Ridge Mountains

This seems a fitting song today as it was relentless freezing from the moment I stepped out the door on my way to work this morning into driving sleet and snow until now as I strive to maintain feeling in my fingers as I write this before bed. I am unsure why but I associate these guys with cold weather.

This is my favourite track from their eponymous 2008 debut album. It has an expansive, echoing sound and makes me think of a stoic, frozen expanse. They seem to have blazed a trail as I have heard quite a bit of similar sounding so-called ‘chamber pop’ music of late, most notably Loch Lomond and Dark, Dark, Dark.

RjK

10th December

The Futureheads – Hounds of love

I have been listening to lots of Kate Bush recently, particularly her spectacular 2005 Album Aerial. Having already posted her this year I am unable to highlight anything from it on here until January at least. In light of that fact I thought this would be the next best thing.

It is one of my favourite cover versions and I listened to it endlessly when I was at university. It is an interesting take – clever, energetic and fun.

RjK

Mundy – July


This probably isn’t a very apt song to post on a freezing, grey December day. However, the reason it has been on mind recently is that I was out for dinner a couple of weeks ago with a few Irish kids. As the conversation turned to music and home Tom Dunne came up. He used to present a show called Pet Sounds on Today FM that we all used to listen to religiously. This blast of welcome nostalgia got me thinking about all the music that I used to listen to as a naive teenager. Watch out for a few more tracks of this ilk before the year is out.

/RjK

Josh Ritter – Thin blue flame


I was out for dinner tonight in the company of several fellow Irishman. During the course of the meal I was reminded about this guy, who was prominent in Ireland when we we all at school. I had largely forgotten about him recently but I always really liked this song. It has a mysterious intensity which speaks to me.

/RjK

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Foy Vance – Shed a little light

This is a favourite from Northern Irish singer Foy Vance. He was a favourite from university after I saw him play a few times in Belfast and very much enjoyed it.

There is something real about his style (musical, not too sure about the dodgy fedora) and delivery that I can’t help but respond to, particularly in the the live setting.

Shed a little light so I can find you…

RjK

17th November

K-Os – Crucial

This is taken from Canadian rapper K-Os’ album Joyful Rebellion, which was one of my favourite hip hop albums of (relatively) recent times along with The Gift of Gab’s 4th dimensional rocket ships going up and Common’s Be. They are all clever, conscious and funky and this is a perfect example.

I don’t want to change the world, I only wanna stop pretending…

RjK