Mixtapes for Hookers

or:  End, Workday, End!!

Tiffany, Could’ve Been
Oh, Christ.  I banned this.

The Lucksmiths, ?
I’ve loved the Lucksmiths since the tape-trading days of my millennial teenage years.  Don’t actually have any of their albums, though, for some reason, though their Staring At The Sea 10″ is one of my most cherished records (and one of maybe 4 10″s that I actually own.)

The Softies, Something From Holidays In Rhode Island
I’ve always been opposed to the Softies for suggesting that Rhode Island is a boring and dreary place.  However, it’s very boring and dreary in Rhode Island today, so I’m not minding this, even though it is kinda wimpy.

Paul Young, Everytime You Go Away
Really, last.fm?  Although I think it’s funny that now I’m the person in the office that’s listening to jarringly dull adult contemporary standards, rather than the one that just complains about them.  (Also, he’s touring Israel soon.  Good luck with that, Paul Young!)

Edwyn Collins, One Is A Lonely Number
Ooh, good one!  I don’t know this song.  It’s on Home Again, which I really ought to get one of these days.  Although I’m not sure how I feel about the music; it doesn’t seem totally relevent to the songs, from the couple of tracks I’ve heard… Sort of samey, like it’s not doing enough to support the lyrics.  Nice, though.
Estelle, 1980
I just called Estelle one of my people of the year so, you know, I like her.  This track, rappier than her American hits, is so-so; for some reason people rapping about their childhoods always bugs me.  Unless it’s Ms. Dynamite, but that was like a million years ago.

Susanna, Viento del sur
I think this is a mistake.  It’s a goopy, Spanish-language ballad from the nineties, but I think last.fm thinks it’s by the other Susanna, she of the Magical Orchestra.  I don’t really have much patience for goopy Spanish-manguage ballads, so this isn’t what I’d call up my alley.  (I wonder what the opposite of up one’s alley is.  Down one’s ball return?  Up one’s gutter?)

Lucky Soul, Add Your Light To Mine Baby
This is nice, although I feel like it’s all froth and no substance.  Swingy pop with a strong British accent; the vocals aren’t exactly wowing me, though.  I can see them having other, better songs though.  They’re on a Heineken tour of Thailand right now.

Dressy Bessy, Automatic
Ooh, Dressy Bessy!  I remember the first time I heard them, back when I was a college freshman with Rivers Cuomo glasses and jeans that I ironed cuffs into.  I wish I still put that much effort into looking good, but a lot of the time I just can’t be bothered.  I didn’t know Dressy Bessy shared a guitarist with Apples In Stereo, although now that I know that of course they sound very similar.

Boy Kill Boy, Back Again
This is very unremarkable to me, except that it sounds like every British band to come out in the past seven years that I’ve sorta liked but not really.  Like with Lucky Soul, I wish the singer would put some more oomph into it.  Maybe they should go home and listen to more old Manic Street Preachers, or something, because the chorus is nice.

The Monochrome Set, He’s Frank (Slight Return)
I like this!  A lot!  I don’t think I’ve ever heard of this group before, but last.fm is telling me they’re similar to Orange Juice and the Au Pairs, which is very exciting indeed.  I’ll have to look into them when I’m home.  (Or not home, since I don’t have the internet at home, but somewhere that’s not work, anyway.)

Robots In Disguise, La Nuit
Ooh, this is catchy.  A little Le Tigre meets Stereo Total, maybe?  They’re another name I don’t recognize.  Overall this experiment’s going better today than it was yesterday.  Like the best Le Tigre songs, this makes me want to get over my fear of rollerskating.

Kate Nash, We Get On
Not to say that there can’t be two Lily Allens, because I love Lily Allen and actually wouldn’t mind if there were nine of her.  But Kate Nash just doesn’t get it, I feel like.  It’s like her producers told her to sound disaffected and talky, and she was like “But I just want to sing!  Something from Evita, preferably!” and this was their dreary compromise.

The Eurythmics, Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)
I’m glad that the ‘Recommended For You’ playlist includes songs like this, which somehow never made it into my itunes.  Good song.  Better than ‘I Ran,’ too, which they played yesterday.

The Submarines, Brighter Discontent
There was a time when I was really into music like this, and bands nobody ever heard of like Julie Plug and Manifold Splendor.  But, I think my time of cute female-fronted indie-pop are more or less over unless it’s something really extraordinary (ie. The Innocence Mission).  Not bad, just not my thing.

I Think I Missed One
I might have blacked out for a second after my RSS feed blew up with stories about Chris Evans having a gay brother and me trying reeeeeeeeeeeally hard to remember who the hell Chris Evans is.

Clem Snide, I Love The Unknown
Off one of my favorite albums of the decade (get ready for some decade-long listmaking in eleven months!)  I first saw Clem Snide when they opened up for the Throwing Muses reunion, and I was immediately smitten with Eef Barzelay’s hilarious lyrics and handsome glasses.  Unrelatedly, he also did one of my favorite episodes of Phoning It In.

The Twilight Sad, Last Year’s Rain Didn’t Fall Quite So Hard
I hate their name!  But I like this song, with its slow build to nowhere.  And songs about rain are a propos right now, since I’m still chilled from a damp lunch excursion two hours ago.

Sean Lennon, Headlights
This is nice.  I didn’t really ever give Lennon a chance, though I liked him quite a bit when I saw him live with Cibo Matto back in the day.  This is very Aimee Mann-ish.  I like it.

Paul Young, Love of the Common People
Paul Young again?!?!  Jeez.  You’d think all I did was listen to Howard Jones and Ace all day.  This song is very silly, like Paul Simon’s Graceland album but for children.

Kenickie, Punka
Now we’re talking!  “The best new band in Britain by ooh, about a million miles!” according to NME, via the sticker that’s still on my copy of this CD.  This was, if you’ve forgotten, on my five-disc collection of my favorite songs ever, which I made last February.

Ashanti, Breakup 2 Makeup
OK, time to stop now.  I should’ve ended with Kenickie.