You've Got To Earn Your Leather In This Part of Town

Lady Gaga - Born This Way - 2011

Lady Gaga certainly earns her leather with her third record Born This Way. It comes in the form of a straitjacket, but then, most geniuses happen to also be total nutters, so you know, no holds barred. Born This Way is perhaps the most eclectic mix of songs since Madonna's greatest hits. The Elton John-esque rock ballad "Yoü and I" started making its rounds last year, you've heard the "Express Yourself"-inspired title track a million times already, and the schizophrenic tug-o-war that was "Judas" caused religious rallies from coast to coast. More recently, Gaga unleashed the power-pop perfection of "The Edge of Glory", which featured Clarence Clemons with a face-melting sax solo. Fashion fans might also remember Gaga's promotion through Nicola Formichetti's Thierry Mugler fashion shows this season, with the Berlin "Scheiße"-show and a remixed "Government Hooker" both featuring in Paris this season. 

Thankfully (or not, depending on how open you are to variety), the remaining tracks on Born This Way are no less consistent in their genres. "Americano" is the update of The Fame Monster's "Alejandro", but perhaps from Alejandro's perspective this time around, featuring Spanish guitars and brass instrumentation, as well as some great harmonizing and gunshots. I could see it fitting in nicely with a modernized rendition of Dirty Dancing. "Bloody Mary" is fittingly named, with the sound of the song indicating a virgin with blood on her hands, clearly going mad, with priests singing in chorus in the background. "Black Jesus + Amen Fashion" is sounding kinda 80s, "Highway Unicorn (Road To Love)" is sounding kinda 90s. Surprisingly, "Heavy Metal Lover" is not a heavy metal song (this role is filled by "Electric Chapel"), but is perhaps the sequel to The Fame Monster's "Dance in the Dark" (My favorite off that record, by the way. "Americano" stole my heart here. And then "Heavy Metal Lover" ate it). Oh, and let's not forget, on the two-disc edition, you also get the country version of "Born This Way".


There are a number of themes threaded through the record, with the strongest ones being no big surprise: religion, love for yourself and others for their individuality. But the religious message is not quite what the American Catholic League seems to be interpreting it as (is that even what they're called? I'm snatching at straws here). Judas isn't actually Judas, Mary isn't actually Mary, and Jesus isn't really Jesus. In fact, they are metaphors (surprise!). So what is the not-so-Virginal Gaga preaching to her loyal following of Little Monsters? In all it's non-sacrilegious, uncontroversial glory: Pop culture as religion.

Kind of anticlimactic, right? Well, at least given all those vehement haters claiming she's an Illuminati who's trying to take over the world with the power of Satan or whatever. I mean, yes, she is taking over the world. But she's promoting love, sax solos, and freaking unicorns. (Regardless of what religion you're following, are you seriously going to mount the claim that God hates unicorns? Ke$ha even had to put a disclaimer in her music video for "Blow" to assure everyone that "No unicorns were harmed in the making of this video". There's like, laws against this shit, they're an endangered species, you know.) Before Gaga, I'd never been religious about anything but the Spice Girls, so perhaps I'm a little biased. But in all honesty, take your holy books, discrimination, and halos. I find the image of an honest nutcase bottle-blond in a meat dress riding a unicorn with a disco stick sceptre and a lobster hat while preaching peace and love way more appealing.

Song order is quite pivotal here as well, I think. You get the sense of an actual journey, whereby Gaga traverses the roads of love and hate, peace and rebellion, failure and success, life and death. It is the final three tracks that bring you the most positive feelings though. In "Heavy Metal Lover", she heartbreakingly sings "I could be your girl girl girl girl girl girl, but would you love me if I ruled the world world world?" questioning whether she can have both true love and true greatness, or if they are mutually exclusive paths. With "The Queen", we see Gaga finally embracing the fame and love that is given to her freely by her fans (not to be confused with the fame she has manufactured for herself), and promising to be for them what they want her to be. "Yoü and I" brings hope for the lonely queen in the castle, and challenges the notion that you can never go home again. This all culminates in "The Edge of Glory", wherein Gaga has reached a point of near self-actualization as it were, achieving her fame, the adoration of her fans, and the individual love that she worried she might never receive. 


I'm not sure if one can make the judgement that Gaga isn't already glory manifest, but if she still has doubts, I don't want to abate them. Everytime I hear "The Edge of Glory" this image pops into my head of a dock built many years ago. The wood is old, but not well-worn by any means. Suddenly, you reach a point where the dock clearly ended at one point. Through the mist, you can see a sign that reads "The Edge of Glory". Carved into it are random things like "Elvis was here. Uh huhhhhhh". But the dock continues after this point. It is not well-made anymore, it is rickety, falling apart in places, the roughly cut boards hanging on by single nails. There are massive rocks leaping from the water on either side of your path. You keep following it into the fog, careful not to fall off the crooked, narrow path. Eventually you hear a strange pounding noise. It throbs in your head, faster than your resting heartbeat, and you are urged to "hurry up, Franklin". The mist starts to clear a little, and in the distance you see the source of the noise: a minuscule blonde woman relentlessly sledge hammering a mountain that stands directly in the way of her fragile but determined path. There is a standard tied to her back, flailing in the occasional breath of wind. It is bright red and declares "The Edge of Glory".

Lady Gaga is a perfectionist, which ironically carries with it the fact that she will never see herself as perfect. She may reach the edge of glory time and time again, but in her own mind, this concept of glory will forever be a carrot hanging on a string just beyond her reach. What is great and entertaining for us though, is that despite perfection being unattainable, perfectionists will continue to strive for it, so Lady Gaga will be reaching, and clawing, and stretching for it until the end of her days. Which will make for all manner of ridiculously wonderful things on which to feast our eyes, ears, hearts, and minds ( And other bodily orfices. I mean this seriously. Lady Gaga's bluffing with her muffin no longer. She wants your whiskey mouth all over her blond south.).

If you look at each song individually, it looks almost as if they don't fit together at all. I mean, who in their right mind would put a sax solo on the same record as an industrial Berlin club thumper? What kind of artist makes the cover of their record a picture of themselves melded into a motorcycle? What sane person would writhe about in what looks like a mass of colourful unicorn bogies in a music video? Well, no one. Which strengthens my overarching point here, being that Lady Gaga is a complete mental. But the day this woman goes to see an effective therapist is the day I lose all faith in pop music.

Psychosexual, pseudo-religious brilliance, for the win.

Peace, love, and floating,
Gill Ford

Stand Up Straight At The Foot Of Your Love

Okay my dear not so Swedish friends, here is what you should be listening to. Or what you should have been listening to since May 2010. Lord knows this applies to me as well.

The National - High Violet - 2010

The following is a story about one of the ways Gill Ford discovers new music.

Once upon a time in January, I took my monthly trip to HMV to pick up some more records to add to my extensive collection. Okay, you're right, my trips to HMV are more daily than anything else, but that's not important. When I go on these trips, I always have in mind at least one record that I know for sure I want. I decide on these perhaps because they are classic albums that are necessary additions, or perhaps I know that I like the band. I also have a rule that if I like three or more songs on the record, I am obliged to buy it. On this day, I went arrived with the intention of purchasing for myself the latest Cold War Kids record, Mine Is Yours. As you know, I'm a fan of the Cold War Kids, so I was destined to purchase it under that criterion. 

This is the first step of my music-buying process. The second is to find album number two (or three, or four, or whatever, dependent upon how impulsive I am planning to be on the day). This album is always a blind item. Criteria for selection as a blind item include: never having heard the band before; never having heard OF the band before; having heard good things about the band from other people; or a simple appreciation of aesthetic (cover art, title, song list, band name, etc.). I don't believe I had ever heard The National before, but I had heard this was a swell record. It had an interesting cover, and the title High Violet had me thinking of a certain exquisite brand of LSD. (Not that we at Not So Swedish condone the use of drugs. Stay in school, kids.) So one thing led to another, and before you could say "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds," High Violet was officially the property of one Gill Ford. 

I returned to my humble abode, and listened through my new purchases. Lone behold, High Violet turned out to be totes brill (thanks to Nat for that rad descriptor). I actually mean it. Let's talk about tracks. That's another term for "songs" by the way. Turn your highbeams off, you filthy crackerjacks. I'm only reviewing a couple of songs on the record, because I don't want to ruin it completely, but I'm serious, this is one that you really ought to buy.

Tracks To Check Out:

1. "Terrible Love"
Oh alcoholism. Such a destructive and depressing subject, and yet, one hell of a moneymaker in the music world. For the people who capitalize on it, anyway. I suppose it's because we all love that sort of cathartic feeling we get when we realize that we are not suffering. Or at least, not as much as the character in the song. Take "Terrible Love," for example. This guy has begun drinking to deal with the death of his alcoholic best friend ("It takes an ocean not to break"). He is not yet caught in a web of addiction ("It's a terrible love and I'm walking with spiders"), but aside from his bottle, he is alone in his depression because he doesn't want to talk to anybody about what he's feeling ("It's quiet company"). He goes to the funeral, and, being vividly reminded of what the addiction has done to his friend, he resolves that they would not have wanted the same thing for him, though this had been his original plan ("But I won't follow you into the rabbit hole, I said I would, but then I saw your shivered bones: they didn't want me to"). So, we hear this, and we think "good job laddie, you're climbing out of it!", but then he reiterates the part about "walking with spiders" and it taking "an ocean not to break," and it now sounds like painful denial of the fact that he's already halfway down that rabbit hole.

2. "Anyone's Ghost"
Let's see how many birds we can hit with this stone of an album... "Anyone's Ghost" is about that stalker-esque obsession One gets for One's Unobtainable Lover. In this case, the Lover is very insecure, and has incredible difficulty letting people in, preferring to spend time alone. This has caused Lover's past relationships to last little more than a month, because no one can handle the issues of being submersed in all the issues. Key lines in the song for me we "You said it was not in my heart, it was; You said it should tear a kid apart, it does." Lover has difficulty believing the love of One because it is not obviously visible, but One is desperately in love, such that his entire identity and existence is at war with itself, fighting over a refusal to sacrifice independence and his obsession for Lover. He fears that if he gives in to the love he feels, his life will revolve around his Lover's, and he will cease to be little more than a ghost.

3. "Little Faith"
Still counting? Add adultery to the list of alcoholism and adoration. Well, maybe not actual adultery, but the suspicion of. I thought about this one for a while actually, fitting the verses to what seemed appropriate. The biggest clues were the use of the name Anna, and the fact that another song on the album was originally named after Dostoevsky's Brothers Karamazov. The connection to Tolstoy's Anna Karenina was thus uncovered in all it's tragic, tear-jerking glory. We have the story of a modern day Anna and Vronsky in the song "Little Faith;" Vronsky, a young and handsome army man, and Anna, a beautiful but aging Russian royal. After a long affair, Anna has divorced her husband (Karenin) and eloped with Vronsky, but as time has passed, they have come to find that their relationship is no longer as fulfilling as it once was. Anna feels Vronsky is growing apart from her and suspects he is cheating. She swings between phases of anger at his perceived distance from her (starting fights to get some sense of feeling), and depression over this and the pain and ostracism she has earned for herself by cheating on Karenin (which Vronsky tries to cure with jokes and outings that she used to enjoy). Much of the song is from Anna's perspective, though we also get Vronsky's, where he indicates that he is aware of her suspicions, and sarcastically remarks that she won't be satisfied with his dedication to her until all the beautiful women in the world are gone, and she won't be able to trust her own love until the world has forgiven her for cheating on her husband. All the while, he feels guilty for having tempted her, because had he not done so, she would not be experiencing the pain she is now, and Karenin (who was actually a pretty upstanding fellow prior to all this love nonsense) would not have been left so damaged. Until they can both forgive themselves for their sins, they are playing at being nuns and priests. Oh, in the book, Anna develops an addiction to opiates, and both she and Vronsky experience incidences of suicide ideation, attempt, and completion. Hooray for consistent themes!

4. "Afraid Of Everyone"
Mental illness, check. Legitimately, the poor fellow is so psychologically instable, there are no drugs capable of sorting it out. Well, speaking as a student of this field, that is the case with many things in psychopharmacology. But hey, two thumbs up for that placebo effect huh?

5. "Bloodbuzz Ohio"
Aaaand we have apathy! This guy borrows money from everyone, not just friends, but his family. Which becomes a massive problem when it's the only reason you keep them around. He "never [thinks] about love when [he thinks] about home". Why? Because home is where the hoard is. But let's rewind a little bit. Why does he need this money? The girlfriend. Who he loves dearly, so it's not like he's an antisocial jackass to everyone; he's perfectly capable of feeling love. Just only for her. When she finds out about how he's draining everyone dry, he denies it, claiming to be a totally upstanding guy. He fails to convince her, and ends up throwing himself on her windshield in a mad attempt to stop her from driving away.

Official Site
MySpace
Facebook

Again, not condoning the use of drugs. But you have to admit, it makes for fucking great music.

Peace, love, and floating,
Gill Ford

When I Rolled, I Rolled Deep

Okay, so I've finally gotten around to the second edition of What You Should Be Listening To... and let me tell you, these are some fucking great albums. Fucking great as in, if you don't have them in your collection... I was going to say we couldn't be BFFs. But most of my mates don't have these, so that threat is emptier than the tin of Quality Street chocolates I bought this morning in anticipation of the Christmas holidays. Whatever.

1. Pete Yorn & Scarlett Johansson - Break Up - 2009

I'll forgive you for rereading the artist names. I'll even forgive you Wikiing whether I meant the Scarlett Johansson, of Lost in Translation and The Other Boleyn Girl fame. Yes, the New Yorker can actually sing. And Pete Yorn's not that bad either. On the contrary, he's excellent. Yorn wrote and composed eight of the nine tracks himself ('I Am The Cosmos' being a Chris Bell song written back in the 70s). 


Apparently, Yorn was inspired to endeavour on this venture by Serge Gainsbourg's duets with Bridgitte Bardot in the late sixties. He wanted to get some Hollywood starlet to feature on his album, just for the hell of it. His brother happened to be Johansson's agent, so she was brought on in and recorded her parts in two days. Lone behold, she had a voice, which was more than Mr. Yorn had expected (more than anyone had expected really). After all, fame does not talent make, and Bardot really wasn't anything special on those duets back in the day.


Break Up is a classic collection of great original songs. In fact, I'd even go so far as to say it's one of my favorite albums of 2009. It didn't move anywhere near as many copies as The Fame Monster or the one where Beyonce thinks she's Sasha P., but then the really good shit rarely does (Having said that, yes, I bought Fame Monster. Twice, actually, cos I wanted both covers. And you can bet your rancid meat dress that I got the super deluxe limited edition for Christmas too. That would be copy #491 of 10000. Fucking right.). In particular, I really love 'Relator', 'Wear And Tear', 'Shampoo', and 'Someday'. But you know, at 28.9 minutes total, listen to the lot and thank me later. 


Official Website (album)
Official Website (Pete Yorn)
MySpace (album)
MySpace (Pete Yorn)
Facebook (Pete Yorn)

2. The Black Keys - Attack & Release - 2008

Featuring for the second time on my music rundowns, The Black Keys and their fifth album, Attack & Release. While I am and perhaps always will be most partial to the afore covered Thickfreakness, A & R continues what is an impressive discography from the blues-rock duo from Ohio. I don't think enough good things can be said about these lads, they've taken over my playlists. A & R has all the great distorted riffs that we love from Thickfreakness, but has a more modern and finished feel to it (probably the result of it not being produced and recorded in Pat Carney's homemade studio). It's also interesting to note that the instrumentation has grown enormously between the two albums: Thickfreakness featured only a guitar and drums, while A & R has the added strength of everything from synthesizers to clarinets. Not that most of you even give a flying shit what the instruments are. The point is that The Black Keys are fucking awesome, and Ke$ha almost definitely finds Dan Auerbach's beard swoon-worthy. 


Tracks To Check Out:
1. 'I Got Mine'
Rolling Stone put it at #23 on it's Top 100 Songs of 2008 list. It would have been higher on my list though. The fact that 'Lollipop' by Lil Wayne was #5 is a strong indication that the list maker was obviously retarded. 'I Got Mine' is classic epicism. The sort of thing you'd want playing while robbing a casino in Vegas or something. It's the business. It's "Rock and roll hustle, all the time". 'Lollipop'? Is about sucking a penis. Forgive me for not proclaiming it as the epitome of awesomeness and originality. 


2. 'All You Ever Wanted'
Presently a favorite of yours truly. 'All You Ever Wanted' is - for me - about a girl who was in an abusive relationship. She's incapable of escaping the influence of the man, even though he's no longer around. She feels he is always watching her, and the shame of the whole ordeal has caused her to withdraw and avoid making connections with others in the future. The narrator comments on the sad irony of this lasting effect, because "All [she] ever wanted was someone to treat [her] nice and kind". He goes on to promise that he can be that someone for her, be a friend that protects her while she heals, and help her remember how to love. 


3. 'Psychotic Girl'
Pretty simple. Actually, it's a little similar to 'Hang Me Up To Dry' by the Cold War Kids in it's concept. Laddie gets involved with a lassie notorious for jerking guys about. He does so knowing about this reputation, confident he won't get sucked in to the same tricks. Of course, then she rocks his world, and he wonders if perhaps he's tamed her. But then she drops the other shoe, and he's left trying to think of a snappy comeback to save some of his diminished pride. And he comes up with is "You're just a psychotic girl." 


4. 'So He Won't Break'
"He" got dumped by the wayside (by a psychotic girl, perhaps?) and now he'd heartbroken. He's refusing to give in to the feeling though, holding his head up and looking for the love he needs to fix himself up again. All the other people suffering the same trauma are resorting to drugs and the like to fill the void, but he knows that this is only a temporary fix, and that love is what makes the real difference to a broken heart. And before I reduce myself to a sappy sighing teenager, the solo on this one is a piece of work. Santana inspired. 


5. 'Oceans And Streams'
Follow your dreams kids, you'll hate yourselves and everyone else otherwise. Do you want to be a Future Sailor? Fucking do it. You've got a bloody neon compass, ain't nothing as can blow you off course. 

3. Oasis - (What's The Story) Morning Glory? - 1995

Self explanatory, really. Oasis are one of the most successful British bands since the Beatles. (What's The Story) Morning Glory? is their most successful album. How successful? Well, it's third on the list of biggest selling albums in the UK ever. Seeing as it's beat out by Queen's Greatest Hits (damn you, Freddie Mercury, for being so amazing) and the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, that deserves one hell of a pat on the back. That means people bought it more times than any of the Beatles' other 56 million albums, not to mention they outsold every Madonna, ABBA, and Michael Jackson album to date. You can bet the Gallaghers took this shit to the bank. They nearly ended each others' respective existences on the way, but that's neither here nor there. 


Tracks To Check Out:
1. 'Cast No Shadow'
A personal favorite, 'Cast No Shadow' is a song about life. Okay, so most songs are, but that really is the nutshell of it. It's about the travails of love and life; you'll be bound by the weight of what you say to others (guilt for lies, potentially causing harm with the truth); sometimes, you'll have to put your own needs aside for someone else, even though you mightn't want to. Most importantly, the only way you can head forward in life is to keep hold of your humble beginnings that you've left behind: you need to remember them fondly, not try to hide them, because it will hinder you later in life, making you arrogant and vain. 


2. 'Champagne Supernova'
So yeah... I've never really had any fucking clue what 'Champagne Supernova' is about. It means different things if you're happy, sad, sleepy, or high beyond reckoning. But I'll tell you what I do know: it's a fucking good record. 

3. 'Morning Glory'

The song that plays when Gill Ford gets off a plane in foreign lands on adventures of epic proportions... (But seriously though, I've never spoken truer words.) Basically, 'Morning Glory' is about all the awesome, over-the-top dreams one dreams when snorting coke (In case anyone was looking for a recent example, allow me to refer you to Lady Gaga, who had a wee habit during her Lower East Side adventures prior to The Fame. Just so happens period has inspired much of her music, etc. Gives a whole other meaning to 'Bad Romance' there dunnit?). However, as we know, coke heads have an unfortunate tendency to die, or just be generally useless when under the influence. So take a little time to wake up. You could be the next Peter Doherty with all those fucked up dreams and ideas you got while you were high. 

4. 'Don't Look Back In Anger'

One of the things this album is noted for is its sampling of musical cues from prominent songs of other artists. 'Don't Look Back In Anger' borrows from John Lennon's classic 'Imagine'. Due to Noel Gallagher being under the influence of various substances at the time of writing the record, even he doesn't know what the song's on about, but for me, it's always seemed to hit on dealing with mental illness, perhaps bipolar disorder? Sally's in love with a guy who is all caught up in his own head; he shifts between episodes of depression, where he is completely consumed with his own thoughts, and mania, where he comes up with grandiose ideas for changing the world. He can see that she is frustrated with his illness, and is asking her to leave him for her own sake. He pleads for her to not remember him for his illness and the pain it caused her, but to remember that he loved her enough to make her leave. 

5. 'Wonderwall'

Definitely the most overplayed of the band's songs, but also the most well loved if we're speaking generally. 'Wonderwall' is about a girl - perhaps a celebrity of some sort - who everyone knows and loves. The praise that is heaped upon her isn't anything she thinks much of because it is so constant that it has lost much of the its significance. She knows everyone loves her. Why should one more person make any big difference? The song is from the perspective of someone close to her, who has known her all through the rise to fame and has come to love her over that time. He is struggling to find a way to express this love in a way that will actually mean something to a girl who has long since written off the possibility of being loved for herself as opposed to her persona.

Official Website

MySpace

Facebook

Peace, love, and floating,

Gill Ford

My Name is Geraldine, I'm Your Social Worker

What You Should Be Listening To...

1. The xx - XX - 2009

You should be listening to the XX. I don't care who you are, this is an amazing record. Why do I love the XX? The music is simple, but more than anything, the chemistry of Romy Madley Croft and Oliver Sim is beyond. BEYOND, PEOPLE. They're two shy kids from London who went to school together and started writing songs together. But get this, they were never together when they were writing: they would email lyrics back and forth because they were too self-conscious to share while they were in each other's presence. Is that not the sweetest thing?


There is something about the way they sing, they really get a vibe across that they are deeply in love with each other (even though they're not, apparently) and it's rare that you find a duo who do that so perfectly and consistently. And you know something is good when Karl Lagerfeld uses it on the runway ('VCR' featured for his A/W 2010 collection the past March... props). Buy this album and you will be far from disappointed. Indie music at its very best.


Tracks To Check Out:
All of them. Seriously, I started making a list for you, and realized it had every song on the album. In total, it's not even forty minutes long though, so you can literally go through the whole thing while you're getting ready in the morning. Or heading to bed. Whatever. Just listen to it.


Official Website
Myspace
Facebook

2. Glasvegas - Glasvegas - 2008

I discovered Glasvegas thanks to a tip from the Lady herself -- Gaga, that is -- and immediately fell for these Scottish boys. Alternative rock, thick Scottish accent, fantastic sound. One thing they did very well was make sure all the songs flowed seamlessly together on the album. You lose sense of where one track ends and the next begins when you listen the whole way through. I get chills everytime I give it a listen. There's a lot of sadness on the album, there's violence, there's people dying and parents leaving and cheating on your lover and whatnot. But somehow I don't feel sad when I'm listening. Mostly, I just feel like I'm listening to great music.


Tracks To Check Out:
1. 'Flowers and Football Tops'
This record was written about the murder of Kriss Donald in Glasgow apparently. It's a beautiful song, and currently one of my favorites of all time. Keep your ears open for when James Allen sings 'You Are My Sunshine' at the very end. It just breaks my heart.


2. 'Geraldine'
This one is great too, it's about the lead singer's 'social worker' who is always trying to make sure he's taken care of. You get a sense of how Allen is always trying to break away from this person, not wanting to trust them, but they keep reeling him back in, assuring him that he's safe with them no matter what. Lyrically, I just love it, with lines like what I've useed for the title of this post, and "when you say that I'm no good and you feel like walking, I need to make sure you know that's just the prescription talking".


3. 'It's My Own Cheating Heart That Makes Me Cry'
Boy cheats on girl. Boy feels guilty. Boy becomes suspicious that girl is cheating on him. Boy realizes this is just a manifestation of his own guilt. Excellent song.


4. 'Daddy's Gone'
Again, incredibly sad, but you love it anyway. Basically, a boy's father leaves him and his mum, and the song is the kid learning to cope with the loss of his dad. You get the sense that he might never really accept the fact, despite his constant repetitions of it. Served over distinctly British musicality.


Official Website
Myspace
Facebook

3. The Stone Roses - The Stone Roses - 1989

The third record you ought to be listening to is another from the UK, but it's a bit older than the others. The Stone Roses' debut album is critically acclaimed, as a matter of fact, it is considered one of the greatest British albums ever released. In case you forgot, bands like the Beatles and the Rolling Stones are also British. So if it's in contention for best in Britain, it's in contention for best in the world by extension. The Stone Roses were also leaders of the infamous Madchester movement along with the Happy Mondays. Unfortunately, the band broke up back in 1996, but hey, the music lives on. Impeccable compliation of songs that everyone ought to own.


Tracks To Check Out:
1. 'Waterfall'
This is my driving song. Seriously, it's perfect for roadtrips. The lead guitar part is excellent; it's fun and summer-y, makes you think of just being excited to go somewhere you've never been before.


2. 'Don't Stop'
Worth checking this one out simply because the entire instrumental track is that of 'Waterfall' played backwards. Because 'Waterfall' is just that good. So good that it can be played backwards and still be an amazing.


3. 'Fools Gold'
This song is just cool. No other descriptors present. Wicked guitar riff, just a classic, no contest. "The Marquis de Sade don't wear no boots like these". Damn straight.


Official Site


Peace, love, and floating,
Gill Ford

Que Soundtrack

To the left of your screen, you will find various bits and bobs. Two of the items are the 'What I'm Listening To...' and 'What You Should be Listening To...' features. I don't know how often these are going to change (I tend to listen to the same album over and over again for weeks or months), but I'll try to keep it updated at least every month with the tunes on my daily rotation. New additions will also earn a little profile on the blog to give you a little idea of why I'm so infatuated. Comments are welcomed as always, and I'd love to hear what you are listening to, or what you think I should be listening to :)


Peace, love, and floating,
Gill Ford