hackthis_archive | It's a Music Day! YAYE!

I know the Linderman casting spoiler is out there. I do not want to know. I want to be surprised. Do NOT tell me about it. Do not tease me. Do not dangle it in front of me. I am asking, please.

Now, onward, everyone's ordered their copies of Harry Potter I take it? (First link to the UK Amazon, Second to the US). Lovely. I am theoretically working on something FNL-related for

antheia and

azewewish, but I thought it would be nice to give some music, because I haven't done that in a few weeks, so like

musesfool did

Top 10 Songs for January 2007 (In no particular order)

1. Jeff Buckley 'Dink's Song' – May 29th of 2007 will make the ten year anniversary of Jeff's death. Ten years of fans scrounging for live material, running away from his mom's wrath, praying Brad Pitt will stop trying to make a movie about him, and finally two years we got double legacy CDs released. You would think you couldn't still find new songs to love from someone who's been dead ten years. You would be wrong.

2. Jay-Z '30-something' – Jay-Z really retiring would be like Keith Richards saying he was giving up the drink -- nobody would ever believe it. Which is why Kingdom Come was a surprise to, err, no one. My love for this particular song stems from the realization Jay points out that you do get wiser as you get older. You don't have to impress anybody but yourself -- your 20s are for flossing, the 30s are for style.

3. Explosions in the Sky 'Memorial' – I came across Explosions in the Sky completely by accident as their music was included in a FNL writing zip

oxoniensis created. There are no lyrics. No awe-inspiring guitars. It's just instrumental. It's just fucking brillaint. Music can say volumes without speaking a word -- don't let The Industry try to convince you otherwise.

4. Robin Thicke 'Complicated' – I know, I know, you cannot take the child of the guy from Growing Pains seriously. Whatever. a) He's stupidly hot and b) he can actually sing. Timbertrick wishes he could sound like this. *nods*

5. One year ago this month

literaryll sent me a song called 'Crazy' by these guys called Gnarls Barkley. There was no video. There was no website. There was no plan for the album – if there was even going to be one. It was just two under-rated musicians fucking around in the studio. Most people thought it was just spelling typo about Charles Barkley, and yet, St. Elsewhere was my #1 album of 2006* Featuring this track 'The Last Time'. If you don't dance to this, you must be dead inside.

FYI: St. Elsewhere was followed by Lupe Fiasco's 'Food & Liquor'; Lily Allen's 'Alright, Still'; Lyle Lovett's 'Live in Texas' and Gomez's 'How We Operate.

6. Snow Patrol and I have a rather torrid, acrimonious relationship. I adore them madly. I hate them passionately. They sold out. They didn't sell out. They just wanted to succeed. I take credit for converting at least three readers of this LJ to their music. I'm one of those horrible music snobs (as everyone around me will attest) – what I adore, I adore, when I feel betrayed, you're canned. I will try anything at least twice though, even though I hated Eyes Open when I got my advanced copy. Still do -- there's just something wrong. I loathed that Gary had done a duet with Martha Wainwright. I wanted well -- something else. And then I saw the video for Set Fire to the Third Bar. It's hard to be vexed with something so beautiful.

7. Jet 'Get Me Outta Here' – Rock like it used to be before it was all about payola and MTV rotations. Dirty. Loud. Obnoxious as fuck. Drunk all night and talking shit all day... I'm sacking the man cause the man is a thief. I'm kicking the plan before the plan kicks me. Amen.

8. Rachel Yamagata 'Worn Me Down' – A copy of this CD landed on my desk or my pocket or my wallet when it first came out a couple of years ago. To this day I don't know how I got it, but I got it. I didn't like it very much, too much whinging, so I stuck it in the dark recesses where I keep all my CDs, even the ones I don't like, because you never know when you might change your mind. The CD still hasn't spoken to me, but this song, about being tired of living in someone else's shadow can speak to anyone.

9. Tom McRae ' The Girl Who Falls Down Stairs' – I am fortunate enough to have a pretty regular stream of new music at my disposal: friends, peers, papers and articles, gigs, streaming radio, you guys (you think I'd forget you?). Sometimes things are slower and I investigate everything, sometimes they're more fraught. Tom came to my attention at a time when I was focusing elsewhere, so for a couple years I just kept him in the back of my mind -- until last year when

ethrosdemon was poking me for new singer/songwriters and I sent her of Tom's stuff, not because he was new, but because I'd had it for years and hadn't actually deleted it. I figured another set of ears could tell me why I was on the fence. She laughed. She mocked. And then she promptly fell in love and so I paid some attention. This song -– this song is just fucking beautiful. Also? I confess it made me think of Nathan and Peter –- but pretty much everything does these days. Deal.

10. Pulp 'Disco 2000' –- A song for those of us who remember when Prince's 1999 seemed like it would never happen and the year 2000 was like talking about The Jetsons.

11 & 12. (Because videos obviously don't count)-- The Beatles 'Good Morning, Good Morning' – Yes, it’s the afternoon, whatever, save it for tomorrow. Ben Folds 'Landed' (with strings). I listened to this song eight times yesterday. That's a lot, even by my standards.

Zip here with Xtra materials (like always).

Enjoy!