Why Does The Sun Go On Shining?
Back to songs celebrating the coming apocalypse, this 1962 pop-country classic from Mary Frances Penick, alias Skeeter Davis, has been covered by everybody from The Carpenters to Imelda May, Sonia to Rivers Cuomo from Weezer. But the original takes some beating…
Can’t Buy Me Love
My Camera Never Lies
What better way to celebrate the New Year by doing the ironing in a cowboy hat with Tracyanne Campbell and Camera Obscura?
I am softer than my face would suggest
At times like these I’m at my lowest ebb
Now I can confide in you
If I cry to set the mood oh please could you cry too
Happy New Year
You are my only vice
Happy New Year
What if we compromised?
Queen of the New Year
Should old acquaintance be forgot…
One of my favourite new bands of 2011 (read my full Top 20 Albums of the Year here) ring out the old and ring in the new…
And let’s get lost in time as they’re counting down the clock
They’ll since Auld Lang Sine as we dance around the Dock
Let common sense ignore us, there’s a whole New Year before us
Come on, come on, yeah, oh, yeah
Tonight we’re gonna have a party!
Happy New Year
Is It Me You’re Looking For…?
…or is it Willy Wonka, William Tell, Salman Rushdie, Kym Mazelle, Tommy Cannon, Bobby Ball, Mork & Mindy, Bryan Hayes, Freddie Flintsone, Fred Astaire… or Andre Previn and the LSO?
Hello Goodbye
Big Gay Heart
Young pirates in love – it could so easily have been a camp piss-take. Somehow though, Cosmo Jarvis turns it into a tender love story. Quite, quite beautiful. No wonder Stephen Fry and John Barrowman tweeted it to death.
This water is too salty,
For me to even drink.
I’d rather walk the dreaded plank
Than stay another week.
But it’s you my love
You’re my land ahoy
And I’m sick of being beaten
And whipped and lashed to death,
I want one night with no gang-rape
But I won’t hold my breath.
But it’s you my love
You’re my land ahoy
Yeah, you’re my boy…
Original Pirate Material
Bittersweet Symphony
Glen Campbell’s final recording comes loaded with a weight of subtext beyond any other album released this year. The lyrics to the title track take on a whole new meaning when we consider the reason for Glen’s retirement. Seeing him live on his final tour was both the fulfilment of a lifelong dream and a bittersweet goodbye. Musically, ‘Ghost On The Canvas’ echoes the swelling strings of my favourite record of all time, while also stealing a hook or two from an old David Soul song. Rather an appropriate choice, given the circumstances…
Don’t Give Up On Us, Baby
When she kissed me it felt like a headbutt…
That’ll teach you for falling in love with a Glasgow lass.
Punk & Poetry
They’re a little bit ska, a little bit punk, a little bit Billy Bragg, a little bit Clash… and a whole lot fantastic.
Boxing’s Been Good To Me…
Fed up of Christmas songs? Try a Boxing Day song… even better, a Boxing Day song you can enjoy all year round. From my favourite Elvis Costello album (though it’s a close run contest), Punch The Clock. Nice horns!
‘Nuff Said
Happy Christmas from the Mixtape!
A Christmas Eulogy
It’s one of my all-time favourite Christmas records, yet this year it’s tinged with sadness. Bruce’s very own Santa is no longer with us…
