Friday Night Music Club Vol 34

It’s Friday. I’ve done you some tunes. What more do you want me to say? Nobody ever reads this bit anyway, do they?

Oh, go on, then. If I must.

This week we kick off with a clutch of brilliant B-sides (or extra tracks on a CD single, if you prefer), we have some furry animals behaving badly, Prince being reliably filthy, one of those records which will make you wonder “Whatever happened to this lot and why weren’t they huge?”, a record by a man the President of the United States of America (and not the dumb, soon to be in prison (fingers crossed!) one) once mistook a previous Chancellor of the Exchequer for, and includes – I feel I should make sure you’re ready for this relevation; are you sitting down? – two tunes which were released in the last 12 months (or so): both by female British artists, one of whom attracts one of these for what will become fairly obvious reasons:

Enough, already. Here’s the thirty-fourth volume of your Friday Night fun:

Friday Night Music Club Vol 34

Suppose you want to know what’s on it, don’t you? Fair enough. Here you go:

1. Suede – My Insatiable One
2. The Sundays – Don’t Tell Mother
3. The Wedding Present – Corduroy (Three Songs EP version)
4. Shane MacGowan & The Popes – The Church of the Holy Spook
5. XTC – Sgt. Rock (Is Going to Help Me)
6. Shed 7 – She Left Me On Friday
7. Super Furry Animals – Bad Behaviour
8. Two Door Cinema Club – Undercover Martyn
9. Self Esteem – Fucking Wizardry (Block Them Edit)
10. Jessie Ware – That! Feels Good!
11. Prince & The New Power Generation – Cream
12. Jeffrey Osborne – Stay With Me Tonight
13. The Crusaders feat. Randy Crawford – Street Life
14. LCD Soundsystem – Time To Get Away
15. Mason vs Princess Superstar – Perfect (Exceeder)
16. Delphic – Counterpoint

Til next week folks!

(More soon.)

50 Ways to Prove I’m Rubbish #6

Today’s choice, as with the next one, and probably the one after that, would make an ex-girlfriend of mine really laugh.

We met at Uni, when I was DJ’ing and she came to ask me to play something. Yeh, I know, a totally irresponsible abuse of my power.

The record she asked me to play that night will feature soon enough; for now though, I think it’s fair to say that when we first got together our musical tastes were polar opposites; not just at completely different ends of the spectrum, but without a single cross-over point. It would have made the dullest Venn diagram ever.

It’s odd, because now, musical taste is probably the highest thing on my list of things I look for in a potential partner, if I could be bothered looking at all.

Despite this, we stayed together for seven years, and never once in that time could I bring myself to admit to her that I quite liked some of the records I owned.

She, on the other hand, being a girl and therefore much more grown-up than I was at the time, was quite happy to tell me she liked a record I did. Which is how she ended up being bought an I, Ludicrous vinyl 10″ as a Christmas present once.

Our split, when it came, was amicable. Over the next few years, we would occasionally bump into each other in pubs and bars around Cardiff. We were always civil, and I was always pleased to see her, and if she wasn’t pleased to see me too then she gave a good impression of someone who was.

I didn’t end up buying this until she was a just a dot in the rear-view mirror, a safe distance away that I had accepted she would never breeze into my bedroom again, flick through my CD collection, and hold this triumphantly aloft. Not that she would have done that anyway, she’d probably have just said: “Luther Vandross…?” *knowing look* “I see…”

So, anyway, this is bloody great:

Luther Vandross – Never Too Much

More soon.

Footnote 1: If ever you are compiling a playlist, and feel the urge to include the above tune, can I recommend you pop this tune in next to it? They sound just perfect sitting next to each other.

The Crusaders feat. Randy Crawford – Street Life

Footnote 2: I’ve always considered this to be a record by Randy Crawford, but in researching this post – yes, I know, it’s staggering, but I do occasionally do research – I can’t find anything to suggest that Miss Randy Crawford ever released this as a single, she *just* features on The Crusaders tracks, and as far as I can glean even they didn’t have the courtesy to credit her.

I’m open to correction on this point, of course.

More soon.